Articles by Judie Lipsett Stanford

Knomo’s iPad mini Folio Looks Lovely

Knomo, makers of some of the more sophisticated laptop bags I’ve seen, has just introduced their newest accessory, the iPad mini Folio. Available in black, cognac, and red (or rather — teaberry), the iPad mini Folio is composed of “full-grain leather and tough moulded plastic”. Some of its features, beyond being slim and protective, are that it “can be used in 3 ways: to protect your iPad on the move, opened into upright position for viewing movies, folded into raised position for typing.” The form-fitted rubberized case provides easy access to the iPad mini’s headphone jack and speaker, as well as…

Travel

Amazing Aruba!

Aruban Iguanas are everywhere! Dan and I just got back from a week in Aruba. This was our second year to enjoy a shared vacation there with our spouses; Dan and Elana have a Divi Village timeshare in Oranjestad, and they have been visiting the island for 20 years. This was Kev’s and my second time, so we are still learning about all that Aruba has to offer; we were really looking forward to exploring more of the island, enjoying the beaches, and trying some of the local tours. If you have ever considered visiting Aruba, then you might enjoy…

News & Features

Element Case Releases the Ronin FE for the iPhone 5

This is easily the most beautiful iPhone 5 case I’ve seen, and you know how I have a softness for wood. Element Case has just released their new limited edition Ronin, which uses a combination of aluminum and Zircote wood. They’ve based the design on the “clean lines of the “Katana,” or Samurai sword. The Ronin 5 sets new heights in iPhone case technology and style with never before seen details like proprietary micro machined volume/mute mechanism, and near impossible CNC machined details in exotic wood.” If you’ve never heard of Zircote wood, you’re not alone; I hadn’t, either….

Reviews

Oberon Design Large Smartphone Sleeve Review

It wasn’t so long ago that I reviewed the Oberon Design cellphone sleeve, and while that case was perfect for the iPhone and other similarly sized mobile devices, it isn’t quite big enough for all of the larger-screened mobile devices that are now so popular. I’ve got the new Nokia Lumia 920, which has a 4.5″ screen and measures 5.13″ tall x 2.79″ wide x 0.42″ thick; it is simply too large for the original sleeve. Luckily, I was soon to receive the new Oberon Design Large Smartphone Sleeve. This larger sleeve measures 6.25″ tall x 4″ wide; these measurements…

News & Features

Happy Thanksgiving from Gear Diary!

We all have so much to be thankful for; it’s good to take a day off to remind ourselves about what — and who — is most important to us. We wish everyone a day that is full of love, good memories, and a stress-free time spent with family and friends. Happy Thanksgiving!

Reviews

AT&T HTC 8X Windows Phone Review

Earlier this year, Dan and I gave Windows Phone 7 a solid try. We put our iPhones away, and for the next two months we used only the HTC Titans that we had received at a CES event. You can read about our entire experience here, here, here, and here. As much as we both liked the Windows Phone OS and the Titan’s hardware, we each ultimately went back to our iPhones. Probably the biggest reason I couldn’t make things work with my Titan (or the Lumia 900 that I later bought in April) was that I missed the efficient app…

News & Features

Verizon Snags the HTC DROID DNA

Just in case you had any illusions that phones weren’t headed solidly into phablet territory, here comes the latest fully loaded 5″ device to challenge your phone-carrying pockets. note the spiffy red racing strip on the DNA’s side Today the DROID DNA by HTC was announced, and it will be available before the end of the month. The DROID DNA by HTC features a vibrant 5-inch Full HD 1080p super LCD 3 screen that rivals traditional HDTV’s. At 440 PPI, the screen packs the highest pixel density available on a smartphone. Powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core 1.5GHz processor…

News & Features

AT&T Will Have the Nokia Lumia 920 for $99.00 and the 820 for $49.99; Preorders Begin November 7th

After attending the Windows Phone launch event last Monday, I came away with an idea of which new devices I would most enjoy using, and my first choice was the Nokia Lumia 920. I’ve got an HTC 8X in hand (review coming soon), and now we have solid availability information from AT&T. Today, Nokia has announced that the “highly anticipated Lumia 920 flagship Windows Phone 8 smartphone will be available exclusively through AT&T at a price of $99.99 with a new two-year contract, available on November 9th with preorders beginning November 7th. For a limited time and while supplies last, AT&T…

News & Features

Orbino Will Wrap Your iPhone 5 and iPad mini in Sumptuous Leather

Yeah … gaze on that amazing piece of leather art for just a moment. I’ll wait … One of the many reasons that I enjoy using iOS devices is because Apple’s hardware is so elegant; if that wasn’t reason enough to stay loyal, add in the fact that accessory manufacturers seem to love designing their goods for Apple products. And if there is one thing that you all should know about me by now, it’s that I do so love a good accessory. miniPadova in Pecan Dan and I have been pretty vocal about how much we love Orbino’s Padova line of…

News & Features

How We Can Help the Victims of Hurricane Sandy

We knew for at least a few days before Hurricane Sandy hit that it was going to be bad, but knowing something will be bad and living through it are two completely different things. On October 29th, at about 8pm ET, Hurricane Sandy made landfall on the southern coast of New Jersey. Before hitting the shore, Sandy had already whipped and bruised a wide swatch of communities with brutal rains and winds as far away as Ohio. It wasn’t enough that people were holed up suffering from the effects of a late August style hurricane, they also had to deal…

Gear Bits

How Bodyguardz Saved My iPhone 5

Ugh! So aggravating! I took my iPhone out of its case while traveling (I know, I know) because it was so bulky. At least I had purchased and installed a Bodyguardz skin on my phone last week; because of that, my iPhone 5 survived a horrific flying drop and slide at the airport. The only damage is my slightly smooshed upper right corner, which is way way better than the cracked screen I expected to see when I picked the phone up from the hard tile floor. If (like me) you prefer to not have a case on your device…

Events

Windows Phone 8 Launch Event

I’m at the Windows Phone 8 launch event this morning in San Francisco, waiting in the lobby of the Bill Graham Civic Center with roughly 150 other members of the media. There are probably fewer in attendance than originally intended, due to Hurricane Sandy’s grip on the Eastern states, but the mood here is upbeat and we are looking forward to seeing how Microsoft will (hopefully) wow us this morning. I’ll have more soon, we still have 15 minutes before the doors open … And we’re in and seated. Joe Belfiore is on the stage, welcoming us and saying that…

News & Features

Epson’s Expression® Photo XP-850 Small-in-One™ Printer Introduced Today

It’s great to have today’s digital cameras, isn’t it? It used to be that we’d take pictures using film, and we’d have to hope that through a magical combination of our equipment’s quality and our picture-taking ability, the results would be worthwhile, because we were going to pay the same price for the good shots as we would for the bad. If you wanted copies of your photos, you had to pay a photo processing company to do them; the price for this could add up quickly! Now we can take all the pictures we want with our phones, digital cameras…

News & Features, Vehicles & Gear

Here’s Your Justification for Buying the 2014 Corvette

Have you been trying to justify the purchase of a new Corvette, but just couldn’t make it far past the “because I want one” stage? Here’s an argument that might hold a little bit more weight with your spouse: It will get 26+ miles to the gallon! While you might think that in order to get nearly 30 mpg, sacrifices would have to be made to engine size and performance, that doesn’t appear to be an issue. When the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette arrives late next year, it will be powered by a technologically advanced, race-proven, 6.2L V-8 that will deliver…

You Dropped Your Food on the Floor. Do You Eat It?

Gear Bits, Health and Fitness

The Five-Second Rule Can Make You Sick

I’d be the first to admit that for years I have used a shorter variant of the five-second rule, which at my house we called the three-second rule. When Sarah was growing up, if she dropped something hard and dry on the kitchen floor, at least one person would gleefully shout out “three-second rule!” and the item would be picked up and consumed. For (what should be) obvious reasons, this rule did not apply to wet or sticky items, but it did apply to adults as well as children. Hey … parenting is all about compromises and on the spot decision…

Events, Yum Log

Craft Brews, Pairings, & Inspiration at the Great American Beer Festival

125 members of the media along with a score of craft-brewers and homebrewing elite met at noon Friday, inside Denver’s Grand Hyatt Pinnacle Club Peak Ballroom on the 38th floor for a Great American Beer Festival working media luncheon consisting of a five-course pairing luncheon and briefing. The theme was “homebrewing and its connection to the craft brewing community”, and the idea was to “highlight a few commercial beers that were inspired by their homebrewing roots.” Are you a homebrewer who has ever considered going pro? This luncheon was all about people like you! all photos by Kevin Stanford It’s easy…

Reviews

id America Cushi Dot Soft Foam Pad for iPhone 5 Review

all photos by Kevin Stanford What if I told you that you could stick a piece of 3D foam on the back of your iPhone, and that by doing so you could both protect your phone and make it a little bit more fun? Would you be interested? I was. Id America makes protective 3D skins for the iPhone 4, 4S and 5 called Cushi; they are available with colorful stripes, polka-dots, or an assortment of retro, cartoonish, and other graphic designs. I was sent one of the “Original” collection, a design appropriately called, Owl. I happen to like owls,…

Gear Bits

This Week’s Entertainment Weekly Has Tina Fey and a Free Phone

Grab the latest Entertainment Weekly edition (the one with the lovely Tina Fey doing her best Audrey Hepburn on the cover), and you’ll also get a bonus inside. An active LCD screen which when freed from the magazine reveals … a working phone? Check out this video where Christina and Lance, from Mashable, tear apart the October 5th Entertainment Weekly to reveal what powers the CW advertisement inside. “It’s a phone! It’s a phone! It’s a PHONE!” Priceless. If you want to get your own free “fully working Android [skeleton] phone” — one that would make MacGyver’s head swim with possibilities —…

Reviews

Monster Inspiration Active Noise-Canceling Headphones Review

What would it take to get you to spend $350 on a set of headphones? I’ve been asking myself that very question over the last two weeks, and I think I may finally have an answer. The question wouldn’t have even come up if I hadn’t been sent Monster’s newest Inspiration headphones, which — as you may have guessed — retail for that exact amount. all photos by Kevin Stanford I approached the package unwrapping with some trepidation … what if I liked them? Granted, these were sent to me as a review sample that I would be allowed to…

Reviews

Liquid-Armor Invisible Nano-Coating Tech Screen Protector for Tablets and eReaders Review

all photos by Kevin Stanford Like many who ordered an iPhone 5 when they were first available, I didn’t have any kind of case, screen protector, or protective skin on hand when mine arrived. I did have a review sample of Dynaflo’s Liquid-Armor, however. Nano-coating tech? What’s that all about? I was ready to find out! Included in the package are one 0.33 ounce bottle of Liquid-Armor fluid, an 8″ x 8″ microfiber cloth, and a second, smaller (bonus) microfiber cloth The Dynaflo site says that the Liquid-Armor system – Provides scratch-resistant surface for normal wear and tear. – Screen…

Reviews

The Verizon HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE Review

all photos by Kevin Stanford It’s hard not to get excited when a new phone shows up for review, especially when one boasts all of the bells and whistles found in the HTC Droid Incredible 4G LTE. This particular Droid model was announced earlier this year at CTIA, and I have been using it off and on for the past month. What I’ve learned during this time is that while the Incredible has a slightly smaller build than most of the higher-end Android phones we’ve seen lately, you won’t be compromising too much with this device, and there’s much to…

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