tips and tricks

New year, new you. Of course, we've all heard (and probably said) this catchy line each time January 1 rolls around. But instead of promising to completely overhaul our lives with major changes, we're starting small and smart with this r…

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,…

If you're like me, you pretty much can't live without iMessage. And now that you can sync it between your iPhone or iPad and your MacBook, well, it's like a communication dream come true. Except when you need to turn it off. The buzzes a…

It's no secret that not getting enough sleep can seriously affect our health and overall well-being, so it's at the top of my list of resolutions for 2015 to get better sleep. And hopefully, more of it. If you're on the same mission, che…

We can't start the new year without first taking a quick look back at the 2014 posts that were most popular of the year. If you're interested in what caught the attention of our readers for the past 12 months, here are the top ten of the…

Over the course of this year, we've put together lots of helpful tech tips and tricks, so many of them from your own questions to us. (We love answering reader questions!) Here, 11 of our very favorite tech tips of the year (including lo…

Last year, Nicole put together this wonderfully helpful post on how to take better holiday pictures of the family, and it's definitely worth another look today. At least if you think you might come across, oh, one or two photo opps of th…

I am always amazed by some of the creative holiday photo cards that come my way in the mail each year. I have some creative friends and family, I guess! I love them all of course, but there are always a few shots that take my breath away…

I have become a total battery power junkie, never leaving home without at least two portable chargers. Well, that's including my charging case, to be fair. Partly it's the dreaded iPhone battery drain that I've experienced more than I'd …

If you're like me, you'll be printing your fair share of printables and more over the holiday season, which as we all know, often means those dreaded last-minute trips to the office store for more printer ink. Always at the most inconven…

The holidays are coming—as in, fast —and that means company. While we're always thinking about organization tips like cleaning off the china or straightening the bookshelves, it's easy to forget about what a presence tech is in our homes…

I'm looking for a child tracking app to secretly put on my 17-year-old's iPhone to track his whereabouts. My wife's "spidey senses" are telling her that he's going places and doing things without permission. I know I could Google but I'd…

In addition to fun-sized everything, one of the best parts of Halloween is seeing all of the adorable ( adoraboo ?) photos of people's kids in costume . Some of you are so clever with these costume ideas you dream up for your kids! We wa…

With Instagram having officially passed Twitter in mobile users this past spring, it's not surprising that the other social networks are trying to take a page from what's successful about Instagram. I've always loved all the great apps f…

I cannot tell you how many times I call a fellow iPhone user with FaceTime Audio and they're all, What is this? followed by Wow, why don't I ever use it? It seems that a ton of people, at least in my wide circle of friends and family, ar…

I have to be honest: Siri and I aren't all that close. I usually only call on her, well, when I need to call someone else. Call home . Call The Folks . Call Yvette, mobile . But this thin rapport is not iPhone's fancy personal assistant'…

It's hard to believe that when our first children were born, capturing them on video meant getting out a clunky camera, hoping the batteries were good and that the card still had some memory left, then finding the right cords to connect …

As someone who gets literally hundreds and hundreds of emails a day ( note to everyone I know: sorry I haven't gotten back to you yet ), I have been going absolutely nuts figuring out if there was some sort of Gmail shortcut to allow me …

There are three things you need to know about the productivity app IFTTT : 1) It's an acronym that stands for If This, Then That. 2) It's pronounced like the 'ift' in the word gift. 3) It's out here saving lives. Okay, that's a bit drama…

As fans of the planet--and yeah, humanity in general--we're always looking for ways to live more sustainably and to help our kids be more aware of it too. And as we've all discovered over the years, it doesn't have to be about massive li…

I'm often asked for tips for teaching kids photography, because as my friends know, it's one of my favorite things in the world. Whenever my son asks to use my camera to take a photo, I do whatever I can to maintain my chill. Meanwhile, …

I have used a funky purple keyboard cover (specifically, one of these iSkin covers) for the past few years but was recently told by the technician at the Apple Genius Bar that it's not always safe to use a keyboard cover on a computer. I…

My kids are way deep into a Minecraft obsession. They ask for Minecraft playdates, they've built full-size characters out of cardboard boxes, and my 9-year-old daughter talks about marrying the Enderman. She calls him Endy. They're close…

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…