Articles by Judie Lipsett Stanford

The Ectaco jetBook Universal Portable Reading Device Review

With all of the hullabaloo over the Amazon Kindle 2‘s recent release, one might think that there were no other eBook readers on the market; not so! Those who eschew DRM protection and who can do without the convenience of an online content store (I’m thinking of Amazon‘s and Sony‘s, specifically) should pay particular attention to the Ectaco jetBook, a reading device capable of handling .txt, .pdf, .fb2, .jpg, .gif, .png, .bmp, and MP3 file formats. According to the literature I picked up at CES, the EPUB format is expected in Q1 2009*.


The HTC Touch HD One Month Later

[Ed. note – This is a joint review between Mitchell Oke and myself. My comments will be in black, and Mitchell’s will be in blue italics. Before reading this, you might want to first read Mitchell’s article “HTC Touch HD = Stands for Hot Damn!!” and my “HTC Touch HD Walk-Around and First Impressions” and “A Quick Tease: the HTC Touch HD and Nokia N85″] It seems like it’s been ages since there was a Windows Mobile phone with a nearly 4″ screen. The last one I can remember was my much loved HTC Universal, and that was back in…early…


The Nokia N85’s Killer App

There are many reasons to like the Nokia N85, but the one thing that has blown my hair back and made me truly appreciate this talented little device is something I had never before seen in a mobile phone…an FM transmitter*. And not just any weak wannabe transmitter, I’m talking about one that is just as strong – and allows the music to sound just as rich – as the dedicated transmitter on my Sirius box does.


The Amazing Hubble Space Telescope in Action

According to astronomer Lyman Spitzer’s 1946 paper “Astronomical advantages of an extraterrestrial observatory”, there were two main advantages that a space-based observatory would have over ground-based telescopes. The first advantage was that “the angular resolution (smallest separation at which objects can be clearly distinguished) would be limited only by diffraction, rather than by the turbulence in the atmosphere, which causes stars to twinkle and is known to astronomers as seeing.” The second advantage was that “a space-based telescope could observe infrared and ultraviolet light, which are strongly absorbed by the atmosphere.” The United Kingdom launched the first orbiting solar telescope…


Unboxing the Amazon Kindle 2

I was starting to feel like I was one of the last people to get theirs, especially after enviously reading Dan’s emails and Doug‘s post about their Kindle 2s, but today my Amazon Kindle 2 finally showed up. I also got the Cole Haan Brown pebbly leather cover to go with it, since Amazon neglected to include even a cheap plastic one. The big box is the leather cover, and the smaller box is the Kindle 2; go figure. I opened everything with an expectant, yet slightly wary eye; I had dropped serious coin on this gear, and if it…


What If Your Town Got Nuked? A Ground Zero Project

Fresh from last night’s viewing of Religulous, which ends with a disturbing cacophony of nuclear explosions, I found this in my RSS feed today… CarlosLabs has posted a bit of Javascript which uses Google Maps to show the effects of various catastrophic disasters; manmade and otherwise. According to DVICE’s Charlie White, “The deep red color means total destruction, dark red would be third degree burns, light red signifies second degree burns, and yellow means you’d get a pretty nasty sunburn.” You can get a more specific interpretation of distance related damage represented by the colored rings, here.


The Rivet Clip System Review

It’s an issue that has been around since people first started carrying mobile devices: What’s the best way to carry your phone or MP3 player so that it will be easily accessible, less likely to be stolen, and less likely to be forgotten? An obvious answer might be to keep the device inside a case that attaches to the wearer’s belt, but some don’t want the hassle of a bulky case; they need something that offers a little bit more flexibility. With that in mind, say hello to the Rivet Clip System, specifically the Kingpin, Shift and GoClip.


Fashion Week with HP and Vivienne Tam

On February 18th and 19th, I was part of a group of mostly female bloggers who were brought to New York to meet Vivienne Tam and learn more about the HP / Vivienne Tam Mini Note collaboration. Our first day consisted of a whirlwind New York City tour… That night we were invited to the Vivienne Tam fashion show and cocktail party, where her Fall 2009 collection was revealed. Since I am new to the behind-the-scenes world of high fashion, I was a little bit surprised that what we were being shown was for Fall 2009 instead of Spring. I…


Koala’s Bucket

No, it’s not a new computer game, but the cuteness overload while checking out this koala’s bucket was so great that I had to share. I’m unsure this email’s original source, but mom just passed it on to me. You might want some coffee to go with this sweet… It has been so hot in South Australia for over a week…40+ degrees Celsius (104 degree Fahrenheit) everyday, very dry also. A guy at work lives at Maude. His wife sent him these photos of a little Koala which just walked into the back porch looking for a bit of heat…


The NewerTech Voyager Q Review

Not long after Kevin and I began dating, his ancient Dell started wheezing. Rather quickly, he realized that his desktop was about to give up the ghost, and our main concern became getting data off the hard drives. Because neither of us had an easy way to access the information on those two internal 80GB drives, we ended up taking his box to a computer tech in San Angelo. We brought along an external hard drive (my Seagate 400GB), and instructed the tech to transfer the data to it if the computer could not be saved. Two weeks later, we…


Logitech Squeezebox Boom Review

Back when Judie was a fixture The Gadgeteer, she and I would occasionally write dually reviews. This was a term we coined that basically consisted of a review where we would chat back and forth about the product in question. Today we’re going to revive that fun format, with a review of the Squeezebox Boom Network Music Player from Logitech. My comments will be in regular Black text, while Judie’s will be in Blue italics. I have a bit of experience with the Squeezebox as I had the opportunity to review the previous two versions of this device. The first…


Nokia N85 Walk-Around and First Impressions

This has got to be one of the most agonizing weeks I have ever spent with any two devices. Why? Because I have had to struggle over which PDA phone I would carry each day – and which would get left behind. Such has been the daily dilemma while acquainting myself with both the HTC Touch HD and the Nokia N85. I know; you don’t feel a bit sorry for me, and it’s okay because I wouldn’t either…



Segway iBOT Wheelchair Spotted in the Wild!

One of the cooler things that we’ve spotted while here in Vegas was Michael Kaplan and his Segway iBOT. I’ve seen plenty of  “regular” Segways, but until yesterday had never seen the wheelchair version – other than in blog posts. After talking to Michael for just a bit, I was impressed by how positively the Segway iBOT has affected his life. How so? On top of being able to climb stairs with ease, he can also raise the seat to the height he was before – 5’8″ and look people in the eye…something I regularly take for granted from my…


The HP Mini 1140NR Vivienne Tam Edition Is Here!

This smoking hot little red laptop showed up today, and I figured I ought to share some photos before I got prints from my eager fingers all over it. Have a look at the HP Mini (1140NR) Vivienne Tam edition; possibly the most fashionable netbook ever…


The Altec Lansing moondance GLOW Review

Like many of you, my days are structured around a general time by which I try to be in bed and a specific time at which I prefer to awaken. In order to get up in a timely manner, I have to use an alarm. I haven’t ever really given much thought to whether my bedside alarm clock could fulfill functions other than simply making sure that I was jolted out of bed when I needed to be, but the new Altec Lansing moondance GLOW has caused me to realize that there might be more to a bedside device that…


The Altec Lansing inMotion MAX Portable Speaker for iPhone and iPod Review

I’ve covered iPod stereo docks in the past, but this is one of the first I’ve seen that claims to combine a clear and powerful speaker system with a rechargeable battery for true portability. I went into this review with a bit of skepticism; I guess I just wasn’t expecting much from a battery driven speaker system. It would be up to the Altec Lansing inMotion MAX Portable Speaker for iPhone and iPod to either impress me or prove that my skepticism was warranted; read on to see what happened… Wander around the house, and take your music with you….


SCOTTEVEST Signature System Review

Last night, my friend Joel emailed to say that he thought I would be a perfect candidate for an upcoming geek/techie makeover edition of the Maury Show; I didn’t know whether to laugh or be insulted since he mentioned that I might get a new wardrobe out of the experience. I don’t think that I need a makeover (does anyone ever think that?), but I do know what the perfect wardrobe option should be for any stylish geek or techie – especially now that cold weather is fast approaching. Fellow geeks and techies, I present to you the new SCOTTEVEST…


The Ford Rouge Factory Tour: Featuring the 2009 F-150

Last week I had the opportunity to not only take the all new 2009 F-150 for several grueling test drives, I also got to see its creation from the frame up. Grinding Gears editor David Goodspeed and I met with other journalists at the Ford Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan. Our day started at the Henry Ford Rouge Factory Tour…


The Jabra JX20 PURA Titanium Edition Bluetooth Headset Review

You know how there can be certain products that you see people using all of the time, or that maybe you’ve even used yourself for a while, but you just don’t really “get” them? Well, that’s been my relationship with Bluetooth headsets, or “ear roaches” as Kerry calls them. Sure, I have used and reviewed many of the best models available, and some of them worked so well, fit so comfortably, filtered out background noise so wondrously, or looked so tiny that I thought I might have actually found one I could live with. But in the end, I have…


The Sprint HTC Touch Diamond Review

You might remember that when I attended the Seattle Mobius in May, I was given the European version of the HTC Touch Diamond, which for network reasons I opted to have sent to Mitchell in Australia. The Diamond version he received and reviewed was at first glance nearly identical to the Sprint version I’ll be covering today, with the exception of their back sides. During his testing period, Mitchell found that he liked the small size of the device, the multitude of radios packed in that small package (HSDPA, WiFi, BT, GPS and FM), the sharpness of the 2.8″ VGA…