Articles by Judie Lipsett Stanford

Nokia and Microsoft Get in Bed Together to Produce Prettier and Presumably Smarter Babies

This is so good, it’s almost hard to believe: Microsoft and Nokia have just formally announced their “Broad Strategic Partnership” as they “combine assets and develop innovative mobile products on an unprecedented scale.” The joint press conference occurred at 2:00 a.m. PST/5:00 a.m. EST, and unfortunately (or is it fortunately?) I was still awake trying to catch up on things when the news came out. From a post titled “Open Letter from CEO Stephen Elop, Nokia and CEO Steve Ballmer, Microsoft” on the Official Microsoft Blog, here is a summary of what the two companies hope to achieve. (Note that…

News

Roman Catholic Church Sanctioned Confession App Leaves Me Scratching My Head

I’m not a Catholic, however I can’t help but be fascinated by the church’s ~2000 year history. I’ve even attended a midnight mass or two on Christmas Eve with friends over the years, and I’ve got to tell you — for sheer pageantry, tradition and eye-candy, it is hard to beat a Roman Catholic service performed in a beautifully decorated cathedral complete with full portions spoken or sung in Latin; it’s really impressive. However there are rites and procedures expected by those practicing Catholicism that I don’t fully understand, and one of them is confession. From what I have observed…

Reviews

SCOTTEVEST Women’s Trench Review

When done correctly, a woman’s trench coat is the perfect jacket. A trench keeps its wearer warm, but it isn’t too heavy; trench coats are belted, so the woman wearing one gains an instant hourglass figure — whether she has one or not! The right trench coat can add instant sophistication to even the most basic outfit; but best of all, a well-cut trench coat can hide a multitude of figure flaws while taking an outfit from day to night. Scott Jordan let us know last October that SCOTTEVEST would be coming out with a women’s trench coat, and the…

News

Star Wars: Frames for the True Fans

Possibly just in time for Valentine’s day, but definitely in time for graduation or late spring and summer birthdays, comes the ultimate gift for any Star Wars aficionado: Star Wars: Frames. Imagine if you will, George Lucas sitting in his office with every Star Wars movie at his disposal. Imagine him sorting through millions of individual frames as he picks and chooses his favorites; every battle, every character’s emotion, every iconic scene laid out in front of him. The result of his selection process would ultimately become Star Wars: Frames, an 1,138 copies limited edition. Each set comes in an…

eBooks, Gear Bits

Anne Frank’s Life As a Graphic Novel? Yes, Please

all photos courtesy of Smithsonian Magazine When I was growing up, one of my most beloved books was a translation of Anne Frank‘s Diary. Then and now, the story of her life before her family went into hiding and what happened after they were betrayed evoked feelings that are impossible to describe. In 2007, my daughter Sarah and I visited the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam. If you are ever in Amsterdam, you must go … simply must. Ernie Colón and Sid Jacobson, the duo behind The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation, again teamed together and accepted the “challenge of…

Editorials

Posts We Loved and Want to Share Again

photo credit: taivasalla As we brace for yet another winter storm here in the northeast (two actually but who’s counting) we can at least take some measure of comfort in knowing that January is finally over. [Now we just have to get through February and the first part of March and maybe, just maybe by then the snow will be gone.] January was a busy month for us. It began with CES 2011 and just kept right on going. At last count we had over 100 CES-related posts and dozens and dozens of other Gear Diary content. January saw the…

Reviews

The Wilson Electronics SignalBoost DB Pro Cell Phone Signal Amplifier Review

I live in a rural area which is fantastic for wide open spaces and natural beauty … yet not so great for timely FedEx deliveries or wireless service. We have much better GSM (AT&T & T-Mobile) coverage than CDMA (Sprint & Verizon); 3G is not here yet, so we must be content with EDGE. The nearest tower is several miles away from our home, and our area is hilly, so although we do get a cellular signal, it can be weak.

Gear Bits

Incipio’s Bespoke Cases

While at CES, Dan gave me a code he had picked up at Incipio’s booth to create one of their “Bespoke Cases” for free. Curious about the product and the resulting case, I decided to give it a try with a picture I’d been holding onto for a while. Granted, the picture wasn’t as high resolution as I might have liked, but I thought it would be cool to see it on a case. After downloading the Incipio Bespoke App, I went through the customization process and added my picture. Although the option was present in the app to “move…

Gear Bits, Reviews

Checking out the ASUS Eee PC 1008P Seashell Karim Rashid Collection Netbook

I was selected to be one of a group of bloggers who’ll get the use of an ASUS Eee PC 1008 netbook for a year. This isn’t quite the typical netbook though, as this is a “Seashell Karim Rashid Edition” … and before you ask, no — I had never heard of Karim Rashid until I saw his name attached to this netbook. With that said, this is easily one of the most intriguing case designs I’ve ever seen. The entire surface of the netbook is covered in Karim Rashid’s soft-touch “Techno-chic Digi-wave design”, and instead of being the type…

Editorials

Philanthroper Offers a New Twist on Giving

There is an old story about an illiterate man who was walking along when he saw a rock with a perfect hole drilled right through it. Amazed, the man stopped and looked a bit closer. Upon examination he realized that every few minutes a drop of water fell from the top of a cliff far above and landed on the exact spot where the hole was. It was then that he realized what had happened. One drop of water had little impact on something as hard as the rock, but one drop of water, followed by another and then by…

Gear Bits, Reviews

The BulletTrain Express Keyboard Platform; Thankfully Someone Was Listening

I have been using a Mac laptop of some kind for a relatively short amount of time — only since March 2008, but since then there has always been a MacBook nearby, whether it was the 15″ MacBook Pro, a first generation MacBook Air, a second generation MacBook Air, a 17″ MacBook Pro, or more recently an 11″ MacBook Air. I’ve been pretty vocal stating my opinion that Mac makes some of the best hardware available, even if I am pretty agnostic about whether their operating system is better than Windows or not. Beyond the all metal bodies and slimmer…

Reviews

iPhone 4 Accessory Review: Tekkeon myPower Extended Battery Case

There are plenty of companies that make extended batteries for iPhones; after all the iPhone’s battery life is notoriously bad, especially when running WiFi, Bluetooth and 3G at the same time. Everyone who owns an iPhone becomes a master of battery management by necessity, and after their first bad experience of having a low battery at a critical time, many will invest in at least one extended battery or extra charging cable. One of the most unobtrusive ways to maintain a charge is to keep the iPhone in an extended battery case, and while there are plenty of extended battery…

Events

CES: Meeting with Timbuk2

At CES we met with one of our favorite gadget bag companies, Timbuk2. While with them, we got to see some of the bags and accessories they’ll be introducing this year. Not surprisingly, we were impressed with the continuing evolution and utility of their designs. We have reviewed several of Timbuk2’s bags over the years, and we were impressed anew by the design and quality of the bags being shown. Among the bags they will have coming out this year is the upcoming Command ($130, shown above). The Command won a CES Innovation award, and it is TSA-compliant so that…

Events, News

CES: SanDisk Meeting

By now you have likely seen that at CES, SanDisk announced their amazing new 128GB Compact Flash Card, a size that still boggles my mind. Available later this quarter for a MSRP of $1499.99, this card isn’t for the feint-hearted. But when you consider that it wasn’t too long ago that a 5GB PCMCIA card retailed for $500 plus, the realization is staggering that this amount of memory is available in something so small. While meeting with SanDisk, I had the opportunity to take a look at their new CRUZER Slider which along with other features also has “error-proof insertion”,…

Gear Bits

IoSafe Has Got My Back; Do They Have Yours?

Freshly arrived back from CES, I found waiting for me an IoSafe 1TB fireproof, waterproof, and — as has been demonstrated multiple times by this site (and many others) — a virtually indestructible SoloPRO Desktop External Hard Drive. I’m looking forward to setting up this beast and putting it to work protecting my data. Knowing that any files, pictures, movies and music stored on it will be kept safe — even if something unimaginable and catastrophic should happen to Kev’s and my home — gives me a peace of mind that is hard to describe. Check out the IoSafe site,…

Events

CES: VIZIO

VIZIO is moving toward all connected televisions. VIZIO is introducing a universal wireless HD video and audio kit sub $200. Can put about 20 Myers away from TV and it will stream the content. They have introduced their first dual band router for video and computer wireless access. 7 and 9″ portable LCD TVs. For Mobile and auto applications. Their new Cinematic Experience id available in 50, 58 & 71″ (240Hz) sizes starting in June. Connect with Skype to any VIA HDTV for video chat. Head to head video gaming on one screen, by using versus lenses. Each set has…

Events

CES: T-Mobile Press Event and their Newest Tablets

Very exciting tablet details coming from T-Mobile at CES! Phillip Humm, T-Mobile CEO & president and CEO and Dr. JS Park, president and CEO of LG introduced the G-Slate from LG & T-Mobile. T-Mobile has fastest data in top 10 markets according to Nielsen. 900K 4G devices sold. T-Mobile is focused on affordable smartphones and tablets, aggressive plans and pricing, and rich and compelling services. Aggressive 4G data plans starting at $10/month. Data traffic on their network doubles every 12 months. Neville Ray, T-Mobile CTO, said that their network is 160% larger than Verizon’s new 4G, and 40% more major…

Reviews

iPhone Accessory Review: XCEL Case

It would be no exaggeration to say that after I placed the ElementCase Vapor 4 on my iPhone 4, no other case felt quite right. I loved the heft that my iPhone got with that ring of aluminum around it (because yes, I am weird like that), and the colors available made the iPhone unmistakably mine. Unfortunately, that ring of aluminum also managed to nearly kill my iPhone’s reception, and at the end of the review process the Vapor 4 had to come off. Since then I have tried quite a few cases — wooden, plastic as well as some…

Reviews

Mobile Phone Accessory Review: the Oberon Design Cell Phone Sleeve

It’s not very often that I can get excited about a universally fitting mobile phone sleeve, mainly because most of the ones I’ve reviewed in the past were pretty utilitarian. But when I received an email from Oberon Design, the company responsible for some of my favorite Kindle2, Kindle DX and iPad cases ever, asking if I’d like to review their new cell phone sleeve, I was happy to oblige. Our cell phone sleeve is offered in twelve cropped versions of our most popular designs and accommodates many different smart phones and regular cell phones. As in the past, the…

News

Did You Catch Last Night’s Lunar Eclipse?

Last night Kevin and I watched the lunar eclipse. It was cold but clear outside as we watched the earth’s shadow pass over the moon, and I was able to snap a few photos with my Canon G11. I didn’t have a special lens attachment, I wasn’t using a tripod, these aren’t going to win any awards, and I sure wish that I had planned ahead and got a camera mount for our telescope … but even so, we had a lot of fun watching our fully moonlit yard go dramatically black. How about you? Did you catch the eclipse?…

Gear Bits

Spice Up Your New Year with Fyre TV’s FyreBoXXX

Are you one of those people who orders adult movies when you stay in hotel rooms? Oh, don’t worry … I’m not here to judge you! But if adult entertainment is your thing, and you hate getting raised eyebrows from nosy hotel staff, then you might want to take a look at Fyre TV’s new FyreBoXXX.

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