Articles by Judie Lipsett Stanford

Oberon Design Laptop Messenger Bag 13″ Review – One Leather and Canvas Bag to Rule Them All

I have long admired the exquisite leather offerings by Oberon Design; their embossed journal covers, Kindle and iPad cases, and their smartphone sleeves are handcrafted, gorgeous, functional and protective. Even so, I’ll admit that I was a bit skeptical when I read that they were going to offer a laptop bag. Plenty of other high-end accessory companies have tried to make this leap, and plenty of them have left me feeling unimpressed. I needn’t have worried. Like everything else they have made, the Oberon Design Laptop Messenger Bag is handmade by artisans, and it is composed of quality materials; it…

News

Wirelessly Charge Your Samsung Galaxy S 4 Android Phone

I’ve been spending the last week testing out the Samsung Galaxy S 4; it truly is one of the most capable and feature-filled smartphones available, but there is one trick it can’t do — inductive charging. But as of today, that is no longer the case. Galaxy S 4 owners can now purchase a Samsung Wireless Charging Pad and Wireless Charging Battery Cover, which will allow them to conveniently charge their smartphones without fumbling for cables or plugs. In case you read the last sentence quickly, let me make sure that you caught the fact that this isn’t a case,…

News

Seagate Slim Portable External Drive Second Look

Dan reviewed the Seagate Slim back in April of 2011. He liked it at the time, and two years later it is still going strong. Dan tells me it is one of the mainstays in his gear bag, and he depends on it so much that when making a list of the gear he will bring when he is traveling, he doesn’t even need to make note of it — it is simply there — ready to go when he needs the extra space. We recently included one of the drives in our huge giveaway with Technabob and The Awesomer. Seagate also sent…

Editorials

An Open Letter to Google and Matt Cutts: Panda and Penguin Are Broken, Please Fix Them!

Here is something I never thought I would be doing, posting an open letter to Google and to Matt Cutts that essentially begs them to look at what is happening to Gear Diary as a direct result of their Panda and Penguin algorithms; and yet, here we are. If it is happening to us, then I know it is happening to others; even though I am mortified about airing our private business in public, I respectfully submit: Hello Google, We have been battling Panda since November. My site is not a scraper or spam site; we are a legitimate producer of…

Crowdfunding

Goji Smart Lock Makes Other Locks Look Stupid

We already use our home network to control our Nest thermostat from our smartphones, but this similarly styled smart deadbolt system might be something Kev and I should next consider. The Goji Smart Lock uses your home WiFi network to send real-time picture alerts to your smartphone when someone activates the lock. You can also use its smartphone app to remotely allow access to your home when an out-of-town friend or relative shows up and you are running late.

How to Do It Yourself!

How To Fix the Ugly MIME Headers When Using Gmail on a Windows Phone

If you have a Windows Phone and you use Gmail, then whether you realize it or not, you have sent at least one email that was received looking like this:

Reviews

The Gtech AirRAM Cordless Vacuum Cleaner Review

In our home we have a Welsh Pembroke Corgi, three girls with shoulder-length or longer hair, and three mohair rugs; there are days when I am not sure who or what sheds worse. We have a conventional upright vacuum cleaner, and although it works well enough, it is a pain to have to get it out. As you likely know, in order to use a traditional upright vacuum cleaner, you generally have to get it out of a storage closet, unwind the cord, plug it in, and move it about as needed; I’m not sure about your upright vacuum, but…

Gear Bits, Health and Fitness

Why I Don’t Run First Thing in the Morning

Yesterday afternoon we had a surprise softball game for Kev’s youngest at 5:30. We made it to dinner at 7, and we were home by 8. Since I hadn’t yet had time to get my run in, I thought I would go ahead and do it before it got too dark. I was almost to our back gate, a little over two miles into the run, and it was getting pretty dark. I saw a rattlesnake about 15 feet away, stretched out across the middle of the crushed limestone road. There was just enough daylight left that I felt safe getting…

Gear Bits

World Tarot Week? World Tarot Day? What?!

Best I can tell, the people who use tarot cards are those who want to believe in the idea of pre-destiny, or that there is some mystical “if I do this, then that will occur” order to the universe — beyond simple cause and effect. It’s kind of sad, really, to imagine someone thinking that by spending time with a deck of decorated cards, they’d be able to figure out what makes them or their loved ones tick. Even sadder is that in most cases people will pay someone else good money in order to have these “insights” given to…

News

Zinio Introduces Z-Pass – 3 Digital Magazines Per Month for $5

If you haven’t already discovered how awesome it can be to have all of your magazine subscriptions delivered to your iPad or mobile phone digitally via Zinio, then perhaps this is the deal that will convince you to give it a try: Zinio has just opened up their new Z-Pass service, where customers can choose three magazines for just $5 a month from over 200 of Zinio’s most popular titles. All you have to do is make your selection and provide a credit card, and then each month your magazines will automatically be added to your Zinio library. If you…

Events, Travel, Vehicles & Gear

2014 Kia Cadenza Stylishly Conquers the Pacific Coast

Last week I was invited to test drive the 2014 Kia Cadenza along with a small group of other bloggers and auto journalists. The location Kia chose couldn’t have been more beautiful; we arrived in San Diego on Wednesday afternoon and took a short ride 20 miles north to Del Mar, an oceanside resort town. We stayed at the L’Auberge Del Mar, a 120 room boutique hotel on a hill overlooking the ocean. Our views were spectacular. I heard repeated apologies from Southern Californians for the “May Gray” (overcast skies) we were experiencing, which made me laugh; I was steps from…

News

Mophie Juice Pack Plus for iPhone 5 Packs a Bigger Whallop

If you have an iPhone 5, then you already know that there are times when the battery can be just a little bit lacking. Mophie has long been one of our preferred ways to keep our iPhones going, and with this latest addition to their power arsenal — the mophie juice pack plus — things just got a little bit better for us iPhone users. How so? It packs enough juice to double the iPhone 5’s battery life with one charge, and there is no need to slip your phone in and out of its case to charge, because the mophie juice…

Photo by cottonbro studio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-hands-love-people-5701251/

Editorials

Breast Cancer and Elective Mastectomies – If You Knew You Had a Faulty Gene, Would You Delete It?

I am 46, and I have been getting a yearly mammogram every year since I turned 40; six mammograms, and so far each one has been normal. Breast cancer doesn’t run in my family, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling apprehensive every time I have to step up to the machine, and it doesn’t keep me from worrying during the “manual examination” when I go in for a yearly checkup with my gynecologist. Cancer is scary; cancer that attacks your lady parts seems even more so. I can’t imagine what it would be like to watch my mother suffer…

Reviews

Orbino Pantera Cinque iPhone 5 Case Review – Luxurious Leather for Your Personal Communicator

I got into a funk not too long ago; because I had dropped my iPhone and managed to ding it up a bit, I knew I needed to change my device carry habits. I already knew that I wouldn’t be interested in a rubber or plastic iPhone case, and while the right wooden case might have appealed to me, I was ready to try something different. I was going for leather, and as I had on my iPad mini, I was going for handmade. So at the same time I placed the order for my Orbino iPad miniPadova case, I…

Reviews

BlackBerry Z10 Review – Too Little Too Late? Or the Long Overdue Update of the Original Business Smartphone?

For some time it seemed that if you wanted to be taken seriously as a business person, you had to have a BlackBerry device. Research In Motion — or RIM as the company was commonly called — built smartphones that were solid, had excellent QWERTY keyboards, they were secure, and they were the first devices to have PUSH email. Side note: PUSH email may be something many of us take for granted now, but there was a time when if you wanted it, you had to own a BlackBerry. Those of us on Pocket PC phones, Treos, or other phones…

Outdoors

FRODO Brings Home Automation to Camper Trailers and Other Mobile Homes

You probably have a certain level of automation that you enjoy in your home already; perhaps you use a smart thermostat, or maybe you have a home alarm. The cool thing about home monitoring and automation is that it doesn’t matter how old your home is, there are products that can be added at any time which will modernize it, making it as self-regulating and automatic as you want it to be. People who own travel trailers and campers don’t necessarily have the same options. Sure, you could drop $500K on a new top of the line travel bus with…

News

Hublot and Monster Announce Inspiration Hublot, a Luxury Headphones Collaboration

As if the Monster Inspiration headphones I reviewed last fall (and still use regularly) weren’t already something special, the new collaboration between Hublot and Monster promises to blow them out of the water. Hublot, the luxury watchmaker, has teamed with Monster to “combine the very best in high fidelity audio with the finest watchmaking craftsmanship and materials” to create Inspiration Hublot — a luxury noise cancelling headphone that offers an “unprecedented music listening and lifestyle experience.” The new Inspiration Hublot over-ear headphones will have a brushed aluminum finish, a premium rubber headband, a leather headband, and carbon fiber earcups with leather…

Gear Bits

The Invisiplug 6 Outlet Power Strip Hides an Otherwise Ugly Necessity

I dislike the way the typical power strip will stick out like from under or behind my furnishings like a sore thumb. Even worse, I dislike the way power strips look when lying in plain site on top of an area rug. Because most power strips are a stark ugly white or boring beige, unless they are camouflaged by matching carpet, kept completely hidden, or their owner just becomes immune to noticing them anymore, they can be a bit of an eyesore. Maybe they don’t bother you that much, but if you agree with me, I might have found a…

Gear Bits, How to Do It Yourself!

Lifehacker’s ‘Top 10 Awesome MacGyver Tricks that Speak for Themselves’ Is Awesome

I love to find tips and tricks that make my life easier, and that’s why a recent post on Lifehacker caught my eye … the title might have had something to do with it, too, as I do love MacGuyer-esque fixes. 😉 Three of my favorites include how you can: Make Perfect Pancakes with a Squeeze Bottle Yes, this one is pretty self-explanatory! Whip up the pancake mix, use a funnel to put it in a large squeeze-bottle, and then make perfectly round pancakes. The best part is that if you don’t use all of the mix, the container can…

News

Gtech AirRAM Vacuum Cleaner Is Light, Clean, Cordless, and Longer Lasting

Yesterday I wandered the aisles at the San Angelo Sam’s Club, and I couldn’t help but stop in front of the Dyson vacuum cleaner display. I really hate our current vacuum cleaner — a traditional heavy upright with hose that must weigh at least 25 pounds. The least expensive Dyson was around $359, but it was a low to the ground canister model. I prefer uprights, and the one I was particularly interested in was the Dyson Animal Upright. It’s a 7 pounds cordless model that is supposed to have excellent sucking power for cleaning both carpets and floors. I…

News

HTC First Puts Facebook First with Their Facebook Centric Android Phone

How much do you love Facebook? As we used to say when I was in elementary school, “do you LOVE IT love it? Or do you just love it?” Well, for those of you who LOVE IT love it, HTC has just announced the First, which is “the first and only smartphone built to feature Facebook Home.” The HTC First is also the first (and only) phone to come with Instagram pre-loaded, but that’s a little less exciting when you consider that it’s a free download that should only take seconds to do, anyway … unless they mean that it is integrated more…

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