teens

It's clearly an emoji world out there, which is why we were so glad when the diverse emoji hit our smart phones. And now, some love for our curly-haired friends from the smart folks at Dove. Available free on iTunes and Google Play, the …

One thing we've always loved about littleBits' magnetic electronic building blocks is that kids can snap them together in any way they want, while learning about circuitry and electronics in an open-ended and fun way. More ambitious kids…

Okay all ye mothers who felt guilty about not getting those baby books filled with photos representing every little milestone: You are no longer alone! Because now, you don't even have to have kids to feel the pressure of owning a photo …

Last year we fell in love with the Anki Drive app-controlled racers, calling it one of our top tech toys of 2014 . Earlier this year at Toy Fair, we got a look (and a very fun if brief test drive) of the brand new Anki OVERDRIVE and as o…

There seems to be no shortage of websites or online games that will help teach our kids coding so they can be ready to head out into this increasingly technical world. And as much as I love that there are so many online options, sometime…

Trying to manage my three kids' time spent and content viewed on all of the various devices we have in this house is one of the most thankless, naggy job out there. They don't fully understand why I say "no" to the newest app, or why You…

When I finally broke down and got my daughter an email account ( all my friends have one! actually does work sometimes) we had the long, requisite discussions about safety, etiquette, and responsibility. But wow, it turns out there's so …

If you want to combine what's satisfying about manual dSLR shooting, with what's fun about an instant film experience, then add in the unlimited creativity of lomography, you've got the new LOMO'INSTANT which is like my new favorite thin…

Just in time for Mother's Day, I was absolutely thrilled to discover Zazzy , a new platform that allows you to design 3D jewelry , only they take out all the time-consuming stuff...like downloading sometimes complicated software, figurin…

I'm not even kidding that when I heard the the word Meerkat being tossed around for the past couple of weeks, I thought to myself, Is that Meerkat Manor show back on TV again? But then, when the Periscope live streaming app for Twitter l…

Finding cool geeky jewelry used to be such a rarity for me, but these days, there are so many fun, affordable options (whoo!), like these few I discovered while perusing one of my favorite online shops, ModCloth. Plus they're all under $…

Remember when we had to buy magazines like Tiger Beat to get the scoop on our teen crushes? These days, tweens can get up-to-the-minute details on their favorite Instagram and Vine stars, right on their smartphones. ( Niall, Harry, Liam,…

With Apple Pay now available, we are avidly watching to see how it will take off as people get more used to ditching their wallets and using their phones to pay for purchases. But for those of you not about to lay down the cash for a shi…

When emojis first started popping up in random social media spots, I thought, "Eh, they won't last." But then I starting using the funny little graphics myself in iMessages and on Instagram comments, and suddenly emojis sort of became my…

We've talked a lot about solutions to the texting and driving issue, from apps to hands-free devices you install in your car. And now ATT is doing more on the third anniversary of their popular It Can Wait campaign, by asking for more li…

Junior high was the only time I used my school-appointed locker and half the time I could never even remember my padlock combination to get to my Trapper Keeper and magnetic mirror. Oh right, and my textbooks. If I only I had a digital p…

I do not play Candy Crush. Hear that, Facebook friends who keep sending me invites? Not going to happen. But that doesn't mean I'm against playing games on smartphones. In fact, just last week I was playing something fun on my husband's …

By now, texting acronyms like LOL and OMG are pretty pervasive in pop culture; my daughter knew them in preschool, you hear them from the least hip anchors on TV morning shows, and heck, your own parents probably have texted you an LOL a…

With our smartphones able to do so many fun things now, it can feel like we're walking around with a party in our purses. Well, AR for Her decided to make that quite literal with this Clutch Bluetooth Speaker . As in, yes, it's designed …

My kids are just two weeks into summer break, and they're so happy to have their days to just play outside and swim and you know, not do math. But since I don't want them to lose everything they've learned in just a few months, I've put …

With the amount of time I spend in my car driving kids to their various activities, a driving assistant sounds awfully nice. While technology hasn't yet come up with a virtual driver to take over carpooling responsibilities, a system lik…

We've covered the Snapchat app extensively since its launch, and it's grown to be extremely popular with tweens and teens, and now even brands are jumping into the app, finding new ways to promote to users there. Now that Snapchat has an…

T his is the first in a new series of posts about apps that kids are using, that parents should be aware of. And there are lots. Hope it helps. Last week brought the announcement the new Facebook Nearby Friends feature in the Facebook mo…

Just a few weeks ago, we featured four apps kids are using that parents should know about , and noted that SnapChat was decreasing in popularity--which gives us a small sigh of relief. But with a brand new app release this week, we're th…