Gadget Review

Razer’s TRON Keyboard & Mouse Get Priced

2010-07-25T16:39:00.001-07:00

Razer’s TRON Keyboard & Mouse Wireless

Razer’s TRON Keyboard & Mouse Wireless Review has moved to
http://www.toponbuy.com/2010/computer/razer%E2%80%99s-tron-keyboard-mouse-get-priced/

HTC Desire gets Android 2.2 Froyo Unofficially

2010-07-10T17:29:00.000-07:00

The HTC Desire Android 2.2 update is a few months away yet. However, if you are willing to root your HTC Desire now, you can grab the unofficial update that has just been launched.

The good news with the HTC Desire Android 2.2 update is that it works very well according to those at XDA Developers with only a small amount of bugs. These bugs include no wallpapers, geolocalization not always working well and sometimes a reboot for unknown reasons. Although the last could be a problem, it seems like it isn't that often to cause worry and it would get you Android 2.2 on your Desire now.

Details of the Desire Android update include...

* Android 2.2 Froyo (FRF-85B)
* Kernel 2.6.32.15
* New Radio 32.41.00.32U_5.08.00.04
* New Base v2.04
* 720p Video recorder
* Native APP2SD
* App Sharing
* Car Panel
* Plurk
* Torcia
* Wi-Fi Hotspot
* ..and much more!

If you plan on installing the update then make sure you follow the instructions found over here that give a warning on occasion to watch out for certain things such as not touching the phone during part of the update even though the phone reboots several times.

Let us know if you manage to install the update and if it works better than Android 2.1.

Android Gaining Popularity

2010-07-10T17:05:00.000-07:00

The OS from Google [GOOG] called Android is making quite an impact in the smartphone arena.

Numbers indicated that the Android platform grew 44 percent between February and May. The three months prior to that saw Android taking about 9 percent share of the US smartphone market. With the Android OS growing 44 percent the three months after that, the market share jumped up to 13 percent.

Thirteen percent isn't a huge number, but at the same time the four percent increase over a quarter shows the rate at which Android is moving. If the growth rate keeps up, which it can due to the sheer number of high end handsets being launched, then this time next year will show Android with a larger market share.

The main reason the iPhone isn't growing at the same rate is due to the restrictions in the US. Right now it's only available on AT&T [T] and is likely to stay on that network for another two years or so which gets rid of a potential 10 million or more users that Verizon [VZ] for example could bring. Also the iPhone is just a single handset (well, four in the series) whereas Android gets installed on many varieties of handsets from various manufacturers.

PCWorld has a more comprehensive look at how Android is growing and the iPhone staying the same. But one thing to remember is that Apple is by no means doing poor in the smartphone area.

Samsung Galaxy S2 to get 2GHz CPU – Rumour

2010-07-05T15:48:00.000-07:00

The Samsung Galaxy S is a fantastic device that has not long been out. We now are starting to hear rumours of a new next-gen version of the smartphone that will be called the Samsung Galaxy S2. The Galaxy S2 is said to have a 2GHz processor. We hear the S2 will also have a 720p HD display that can display an impressive 1280 x 720 pixels. The screen will measure 4.3 inches.

We also hear that the Galaxy S2 will have 1GB of RAM and 4GB of ROM along with 32GB of storage space built in. More can be added by using a microSD if needed.

On the back is rumoured to be an 8 megapixel camera. Back on to the 2GHz processor. It is unclear at the moment if it will be two 1GHz chips or a single 2GHz processor. Either way, it sounds powerful and should add more kick to the already fast Galaxy S.

For connectivity the rumoured smartphone is said to have Bluetooth 3.0 and Wifi b/g/n. Sensors include a GPS, accelerometer and a gyroscope.

When launched it is said to run the next version of Android believed to be 3.0 and codenamed Gingerbread.

I'm not fully convinced the rumours are true at the moment as the retina display style PPI seems to be just an estimate based on the phone rendering above. Also the 2GHz CPU seems like a bit of a step up from the 1GHz devices we are seeing at the moment. Perhaps a 1.2GHz or 1.5GHz early next year, but 2GHz seems to be pushing it at the moment.

What are your thoughts? Will Samsung launch the Galaxy S2 with the above specs?

Wow! Mouseless – An Invisible Mouse

2010-07-05T15:40:00.000-07:00

The computer mouse has advanced over the years by trimming down a little, becoming optical, becoming more responsive and becoming wireless to name a few advances. The next step is to get rid of the mouse altogether and have an invisible mouse, also known as Mouseless.

The concept was created by Pranav Mistry along with Patti Maes and Liyan Chang and basically gets rid of the mouse completely.

By using an IR sensor with some custom software, the movements of a hand on a desk can be interpreted in to mouse and finger movement allowing users to simple glide their hand on a desk and tap the desk with their finger.

The IR sensor sits on the back of a laptop and detects movement to the side of the laptop. By skimming the IR beam across the desk the software can pick up where the signal is cut off and calculate where your hand is and move the mouse pointer appropriately.

The system costs just $20 to build which is interesting and would allow laptop users to more comfortably work as well as carry less around when out and about.

The video below shows a demonstration of how the software works and how accurate it is. It's fairly impressive stuff and would be good for companies to adopt in the future.

Sony NEX-3 and NEX-5 3D Panorama Firmware Update

2010-07-01T16:16:00.000-07:00

Sony has released a firmware update for both the Sony NEX-3 and the Sony NEX-5 digital camera. The firmware brings a new 3D sweep panorama mode to the cameras allowing several pictures to be taken and then stitched together ready for a 3DTV to display the shots.

Full details haven't been provided just yet on how exactly it will work, but from what we hear the camera, when put in 3D panorama mode, can be used to sweep around a scene with Sony's firmware converting those captured images to 3D.

The cameras themselves were only just recently launched and are about the size of a Cybershot point and shoot camera with a large DSLR lens attached on the front. Inside a 14.2 megapixel sensor can be found and each camera uses the Sony E-Mount lens system. To use other Alpha lenses you can buy an adapter to convert them over.

When we get some samples or details of exactly how 3D panoramas will work on the Sony NEX-X cameras, we'll provide an update.

iPhone 4 Vapor4 Case Looks Amazing

2010-07-01T16:04:00.000-07:00

The iPhone 4 bumper case is simply a bit or plastic or rubber that stretches around the outer edges of the phone and protects the glass from touching surfaces as well as protecting the edges of the phone.

The Vapor4 is exactly the same in that it covers the edges of the iPhone 4 and protects it... but the difference here is that the Vapor4 actually looks amazingly nice.

As well as looking good, it will also fix the antenna issues with the iPhone 4 when in bad signal areas. It achieves this by lining the insides of the aluminium casing with a material that prevents the antenna from touching the casing, thus your hand cant break the signal. In tests the company found no interference.

The case has all the right sections cut out allowing you to attach the dock connector, power it on and off and access volume etc... Overall it's very impressive.

The downside is that the Vapor4 isn't the cheapest case around. It actually makes the expensive iPhone 4 bumper from Apple [AAPL] look cheap in that this model costs $80 for the enclosure and for an extra $20 you get the V4Carbon back to insert on the back of your iPhone 4 to give it a different look and protect the back glass.

HP TouchSmart 600 Multi-Touch Tablet Launched

2010-06-24T16:17:00.000-07:00

HP has launched the TouchSmart 600 multi-touch tablet PC. The HP TouchSmart 600 runs Windows 7 Home Premium, has a 23 inch 1080p Full HD display and runs Intel Core 2 Duo Processors (or Core i3 and i5).

For connectivity it has WiFi built in as well as a BlueTooth connection.

To make use of the large screen as a TV, an optional TV card can be purchased with the TouchSmart 600 allowing you to tune in to TV channels as well as record them if needed.

Overall it appears to be quite an impressive package. With the added touchscreen it allows (in some cases) easier navigation around the PC and adds an extra layer of control.

Prices for the HP TouchSmart 600 start at £1000 for the basic model with the lowest RAM and processor and go up higher when you add the optional extras on. Full details can be found on the HP site.

Horizon MiniPak Pocket-Sized Fuel Cell Charger

2010-06-16T18:09:00.000-07:00

The Horizon MiniPak is a portable fuel-cell charger that can be used to power mobile phones and other similar devices while on the move.

The device costs $100 and provides enough power to keep devices charged. The unit accepts fuel cells and once inserted in to the charging unit, power is instant. The power generated it output through a standard USB port built in to the device and this USB port is used to connect devices such as an iPhone, BlackBerry and other devices including tablet.

With the device using fuel-cell technology the device can generate power as soon as the fuel cartridge is topped up or replaced. There is no need to wait around to use the charger as power is instant the moment fuel is inserted in the cartridge.

The MiniPak is capable of providing 1.5 to 2W of continuous power and the fuel cell's used can produce 12Wh of energy.

The MiniPak uses a combination of Horizon’s mass-produced PEM fuel cells and a new low-cost metal hydride storage solution, which is able to store hydrogen safely as a dry, non-toxic and non-pressurized material. The fuel cartridge contains a metallic sponge that is able to absorb hydrogen and turn it into a solid hydride. It is then able to release it back to the fuel cell when needed. The PEM fuel cell combines oxygen from the air with the stored hydrogen - electricity via its USB port and trace amounts of water vapor.

The Horizon MiniPak is available now with full details available over here on the official site.

Robot Plays Pool and Pockets Shots

2010-06-16T18:02:00.000-07:00

Check out the PR2 robot that has been hacked to play pool. The "Poolshark" team who are working on the project have been busy for a week and have now managed to get the PR2 to pocket shots on the table. This includes long shots and awkward angle shots too.

To achieve this the team chose the PR2 robot and modified it to be able to hold the cue along with a special grip and bridge.

Cameras mounted on the robot are capable of capturing images which are fed to a computer to detect the edges of the table as well as the location of each ball on the table. By using software the team managed to program the robot and adjust the system so it is capable of playing a game of Pool.

A big thanks goes to Alon Altman for his open-source FastFiz billiards library. FastFiz is a physics and rules engine for billiards that the Poolshark team used to select which shots the PR2 should take. The Poolshark team has released its own code in the billiards stack.

Check out more details of the project in the video below, or visit Willowgarage for more details.

Nokia N8 Photography Capabilities Demonstrated on Video

2010-06-08T21:12:00.000-07:00

Nokia [NOK] will be launching the Nokia N8 in August. The Nokia Conversations YouTube channel has a few videos uploaded with one of them detailing the Nokia N8 photo editing along with the video editing functions of the device.

The video shows a few examples of how to browse through photos and although not the most exciting of things to watch, it does move on to the video editing functions of the phone where transitions can be made between clips that have been combined together. The application actually looks very good and seems that with the mix of a high resolution camera and some nice transition features it could be a good selling point for the Nokia N8.

Check out the video to see how video editing works and what can be done with it...

Notion Ink Adam Could Land Quarter 3

2010-06-08T21:07:00.000-07:00

We've seen a number of tablets get announced and often delayed. Most of them don't look that good, but one that falls in to this "delayed" category is the Notion Ink Adam. The difference with the Adam is that it looks fantastic and is one we are waiting for.

However, recent rumours indicated that we might not actually see the Notion Ink Adam till almost the end of this year in November. Reasons cited for the delays this time around revolve around the investors who want the Notion Ink Adam to hit the market near Thanksgiving rather than earlier. The quote spotted on a few websites was actually quoted with a bit missing. SlashGear managed to get some details from the guys at Notion Ink to see what they had to say about it.

The November launch date is for a few countries rather than all countries although Notion Ink didn't indicate what regions would launch in November and which ones wouldn't. However, they did indicate that an update about a launch was coming soon. It does seem that a Q3 launch is still likely which SlashGear point out, gives Apple [AAPL] another quarter to get even further ahead in the game.

Hopefully we get information soon about the Notion Ink Adam as when things drag on so long, it's easy to move on and find something else newer.

Apple iPad UK microSIM Adapter

2010-06-01T18:19:00.000-07:00

The Apple iPad UK launch happened a few days ago and from what we hear, the iPad 3G models were the more popular of the two in terms of queue sizes in the London Apple store on Regent Street.

For those who want an iPad 3G in the UK but don't want to start up another subscription to the four big microSIM providers, those being Three, Orange, O2 and Vodafone, a handy microSIM adapter has been created that allows you to convert your microSIM back in to a regular SIM for use in a mobile phone.

The adapter is relatively cheap at €4.50 and has a regular size SIM card with a hole cut out for a microSIM to sit in. Of course when you get a microSIM in the UK you do get the full housing that can be used in a mobile phone although the microSIM punches out of the larger SIM making the larger part possibly unusable although if carefully held you might get the two back together and in to an iPhone.

From what we see on the adapter, it has sections in each corner of the cutout that prevent the microSIM from being pushed all the way through the adapter making it easier to use.

It's one option that does cost to buy, but can save you a month to month subscription cost if you only need 3G from time to time.

Sony PSP GO Deals for June

2010-06-01T18:16:00.000-07:00

Sony has introduced a few deals that start today for both the PSP-3000 model and the PSPgo systems. The first deal is a new Favourites software line where games cost $9.99. New games in the Favourite series include...

* Ape Escape: On the Loose
* Buzz! Master Quiz
* Hot Shots Golf Open Tee
* LocoRoco 2
* Patapon 2
* PixelJunk Monster Deluxe
* SOCOM: Fireteam Bravo
* Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow
* Twisted Metal: Head On

As well as the Favourite line of games another range has been created called the "Greatest Hits" collection. Games in this section include the following which are priced at $19.99.

* Gran Turismo
* LittleBigPlanet (PSP system)
* Resistance: Retribution
* Secret Agent Clank

Also a deal on the PSPgo is being made that will go on till next March 31 2011. When purchasing the PSPgo you'll get an email where you can use a voucher to get three games for free.

The full details of all the offers as well as a few other games coming soon to each new category can be found over at the PlayStation Blog.

USB Flash Drive Cufflinks

2010-05-26T17:45:00.000-07:00

Flash drives often come in a number of shapes and sizes. We have seen burger flash drives in the past along with other various items being used.

The latest I came across today are USB Flash Drive Cufflinks that allow you to hold a shirt cuff together as well as easily carry your data around with you.

Now introducing the perfect pair of cufflinks for work. 2GB USB Flash Drive Cufflinks (2 GB each, total 4 GB) are not only engravable, but feature functional USB drives making it possible for you to keep all of your must-have presentations and important documents with you wherever you go. Never be without functional fashion again.

The cufflink flash drives cost $195 for the pair and each cuff link in the set has 2GB allowing for 4GB of storage to be carried around with you.

i-Got-Control iPhone Universal Remote Control

2010-05-26T17:44:00.000-07:00

i-Got-Control is a universal remote control designed for the Apple iPhone. Apple [AAPL] recently allowed the dock connector to be used by 3rd party applications and in doing this, it allowed the iPhone remote control to be built.

The i-Got-Control is a device that plugs in to the dock connector on the iPhone and allows users to control their TV, DVD, BluRay player and many other gadgets from the screen of their iPhone.

The application that is used with the dock connector comes with many devices programmed in. If yours isn't one of them then a few simple taps on the screen and button pushes on the other remote control allows the software to quickly learn how to communicate with your HDTV for example.

iphone universal remote screens embed i Got Control iPhone Universal Remote Control
iPhone Remote Control Product Features

* Turn your iPhone into a color touchscreen universal remote
* Simply download the free app and plug in the included IR adapter
* Codes for thousands of different devices built in
* Create your own codes by "teaching" them from your original remote
* Store all your favorite devices and switch between them easily
* No batteries required

Anybots: Robotic Teleconferencing on Wheels

2010-05-20T15:58:00.000-07:00

Silicon Valley startup Anybots sees robots in the future of your workplace. It’s debuting a two-wheeled mobile robot named “QB” that is equipped with a camera and interactive touch display in an effort to one-up the concept of static teleconferencing.

The website promises “one-click commuting” thanks to a web browser interface that allows a remote user to control QB’s movements. The premise is to get much closer to “real” virtual telepresence by allowing the user to roam around and initiate spontaneous conversations as if actually there in the flesh. The QB bot also features a speaker, laser pointer and a telescoping neck that lends it an appearance not unlike your friendly living room halogen floor lamp.

Slated to be released this fall for a $15,000 sticker price, the bot actually compares favorably to the cost of high-end teleconferencing systems from HP, Cisco and other manufacturers. With the still-lagging economy finding businesses wanting to cut down on travel costs, telepresence could be an attractive “next best thing” type of option. Yet it remains to be seen if the marketplace will value the mobility afforded by something like a QB bot over a more traditional conference room setup — so it may be too early to proclaim an imminent takeover from our robotic overlords just yet.

Check out a demo video of the QB bot below as well as an interview with Anybots COO Bob Christopher, featuring more video of QB tooling around. Let us know what you think of robotic telepresence: Could it be the next big thing for distributed workforces or perhaps a novel trend in office entertainment?

Dell Inspiron M301z Laptop

2010-05-17T18:06:00.000-07:00

Dell has launched a new thin and light laptop in the Inspiron range called the Dell Inspiron M301z. The new laptop features an AMD low-voltage processor. It measures less than an inch thick and weighs less than 1KG. The graphics chipset is the ATI Mobility Radeon.

When purchasing the Inspiron M301z there are two options available for the processor which include an AMD Nile Dual Core Athlon II Neo K325 running at 1.3GHz and the Neo K625 running slightly faster at 1.5GHz. Memory wise the laptop can hold up to 4GB of DDR3 running at 1333Mhz. For storage the M301z comes standard with a 320GB hard drive spinning at 7200RPM.

The screen on the M301z measures 13.3 inches and is in a widescreen aspect ratio capable of HD.

There are two choices for the operating system which are both Windows 7 with a choice between the 64-bit Home Premium or the 64-bit Home Basic.

Other features include an integrated 1.3 megapixel webcam, wireless connectivity for 802.11b/g networks and Bluetooth 2.1. Connectivity for physical ports includes two USB 2.0, 1 X E-SATA/USB 2.0, HDMI and an integrated 10/100 LAN. Also a mic in / line out and a 7 in 1 card reader is also included.

Various models are available now from Dell with the cheapest model starting at $999. Full details can be found over at Dell.

HTC Wildfire Announced

2010-05-17T17:59:00.000-07:00

HTC has announced the launch of a new Android based phone called the HTC Wildfire. The first and last time we heard of the Wildfire was when HTC ran a poll on a Facebook page to let users choose the name of the device.

“Today’s social networks provide an essential forum for friendship with more than 400 million users – many of whom are young adults – actively sharing their lives with their friends through Facebook,” said Florian Seiche, Vice President, HTC EMEA. “HTC Wildfire makes the HTC Sense experience available to young mobile users for the first time. It brings all your communications into one place, whether it’s through Facebook, Twitter, text messages, images or email, ensuring that you are never far away from the conversation and always close to your friends.”

The HTC Wildfire has a 3.2 inch QVGA screen. The screen is capacitive touch as we normally expect on this class of smartphone. A 5 megapixel camera is found on the back and all the usual connectivity is thrown in there such as WiFi, Bluetooth as well as GPS for tracking your current location.

The OS running on the HTC Wildfire is Android 2.1 from Google [GOOG] and HTC has installed Sense UI on this device. The processor running on the smartphone is the Qualcomm MSM7225 running at 525MHz.

It is expected that the HTC Wildfire will launch in Q3 2010 across European and Asian markets.

Fit-U Wireless Mouse Review

2010-05-03T19:58:00.000-07:00

We received a Fit-U Wireless Mouse for review a few weeks back and have had the chance to test to see what it is, how it works and if it’s any good.

The Fit-U Mouse has a name that describes it quite well in that it is designed to Fit-U. What this means it that it comes with a selection of two mouse covers with one being larger than the other. These mouse covers can snap on and off to fit a larger or smaller size as needed. As well as the two supplied black covers you can also change the look of your mouse by purchasing extra covers as pictured below

The mouse it’s self is wireless and comes with a tiny USB adapter that you plug in to your computer. When inserted the adapter only sticks out a few mm making it small and out of the way.

The mouse is powered by two supplied AAA batteries which are easily inserted by sliding the bottom of the mouse out and lifting it up. Once inserted the power switch found underneath can be flicked on ready for use.

I tested the Fit-U mouse on a Windows 7 laptop and after inserting the USB adapter the mouse started to function within seconds with no software installation. This made set up very quick and simple. With the USB adapter being so small it is also safe to leave it in your laptop when your laptop is stored in a case as it is small enough to not get in the way.

The mouse I found was comfortable to use both in medium and large modes although the larger version was a little more comfortable due to it being slightly larger under the palm providing support to the hand and wrist. Reasons other than comfort also include the ability to pack the smaller cover away should you be travelling with the mouse and using the larger cover at home on the desktop computer.

Accuracy of the mouse was also good and although I didn’t particularly do any scientific tests, it worked just as I needed allowing me to navigate around Windows and various software without any problems. I have however read some reports of people having issues with their mouse with stutter from the mouse pointer and clicks. I didn’t experience any of that my self on the wireless laser version that I used though.

The mouse comes with 6 programmable buttons allowing you to control various aspects of the operating system. With them being programmable you can set it to fit the functions you use most such as double clicks, change tabs and other various options.

The laser accuracy can also be modified from 800dpi to 1600dpi with the push of a button making it also another handy feature.

The mouse we reviewed was the wireless laser version. Other versions of the Fit-U include a laser wired, optical wirless and a laser bluetooth version.

Although it’s just another mouse, it does work very well, is comfortable to hold, seems accurate for daily usage and is customisable.

Wicked Lasers Evolution Pro Review

2010-05-03T19:49:00.001-07:00

Wicked Lasers have sent us a 130mW Evolution Pro Green laser pen for review to check out what it is, how it compares to other laser pens we have reviewed and hopefully to figure out why you actually need one. Before we start looking the green laser pen over, we thought we’d mention that they can be dangerous and should NEVER be pointed towards anybody or any object such as a plane or car. Use common sense when using a laser pen and also check out laws in your country to ensure they are legal to buy/use etc…

Evolution Pro Laser Pen Review

When taking the Evolution Pro out of the box for review the first thing noticeable is that it’s larger than a lot of other laser pens. It also is built to be more rugged. The laser pen it’s self is wider than previous laser pens we have reviewed. Part of the reason for that (if not all of the reason) is that this green laser pen uses AA batteries unlike the other review units we have looked at that use AAA batteries. The barrel of the laser pen is also textured allowing you to get a firm grip whilst using it.

The technical specs show the Evolution Pro to measure 20.2×182mm. It weighs 82g and is made of aircraft grade aluminium. Output power on this laser pen is rated at 130mW although several variants of this laser pen range from 20mW up to 130mW each stepping up in price (prices can be found on the Wicked Lasers site).

The laser pen as mentioned above uses AA batteries of which the laser pen will get power for about 30 minutes of usage. One thing to note with this particular laser pen is that it can be used continually for that 30 minute duration. This is a change from other laser pens we have reviewed that can be used for about 1 minute at a time before having to switch it off for a set amount of time to avoid problems.

As can be expected with any laser pen in the 130mW range of power, a very intense green beam of light can be seen… even in daylight (although very feint). At night the beam is VERY clear to see and cuts right through the air in front of you shining a very bright dot on anything it is pointed at. Range isn’t mentioned in the technical specs of this laser, but previous lasers we have tested have been rated at being in to the miles (somewhere around the 25 mile mark). I have yet to test this, or find a suitable safe location to measure this, but from looking at the beam intensity and the divergence rating it certainly wouldn’t surprise me.

So, what are they for? I really haven’t grasped the full benefit of having a laser pen this powerful (far too bright for a Power Point presentation), but what it is good at is pointing out stars, objects in the distance in daylight… perhaps on a building site where you need to point out something from a distance to someone… it would be certainly be bright enough for you to do that.

Control your Pioneer Blu-Ray player via your iPhone

2010-04-20T22:56:00.000-07:00

Control your Pioneer Blu-Ray player via your iPhone

Pioneer released in Japan 2 new Blu-Ray players with the entry level BDP-330 and the High-end BDP-LX53. Technically similar, both models feature PQLS (Precision Quartz Lock System), Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD… as well as BD-Live, Basic networking with support of RSS and YouTube Video and even the possibility of accessing certain files via USB.

While only the BDP-LX53 has enhanced audio system, both models come with iControlAV which via the comfort of your iPhone or iPod acting as enhanced remote allows you full access to and control of your Blu-Ray player.

You are here: Home » Camera Gadgets » Leica V-LUX 20 Compact Camera gets HD and Geo-Tagging Leica V-LUX 20 Compact Camera gets HD and Geo-Tagging

2010-04-20T22:31:00.000-07:00

The Leica V-LUX 20 has been officially announced. Features included in the camera include a 12.1 megapixel sensor, 12 times zoom and GPS tagging. The camera is also able to capture video in a HD resolution of 720p. The 12x zoom is optical that is provided by the 4.1-49.2mm f/3.3-4.9 lens. 4x optical zoom is also available on the camera.

The V-LUX 20 is Leica’s first camera that uses GPS tagging and allows for GPS co-ordinates to be captured and stored in the image EXIF data file allowing you to map where pictures were taken. As well as capturing and saving the GPS coordinates the camera also stores the local time that the images were captured.

500,000 points of interest are to be found in the camera that covers 73 countries allowing you to find something nearby while travelling.

If the camera is connected up to the web to transfer pics, services like Google Maps, Google Earth and others can be used to tag where images were taken on a map and if required, they can be shared around friends.

A three inch display can be found on the device. The screen is LCD and can show 460,000 pixels and is said to be extremely bright showing sharp colours. The Leica V-LUX 20 will go on sale in the UK in May this year and will have a suggested retail price of £495.

iA5: App-Enhanced Alarm Clock Speaker System for iPhone and iPod

2010-04-14T00:38:00.000-07:00

Description

Charge | Sleep | Wake | Interact

iHome’s first ‘app-enhanced’ speaker dock for the iPhone OS that combines an interactive app with a dedicated bedside alarm clock, providing users the most connected and engaging sleep experience available.
Hardware Features

Works with free iHome+Sleep app for iPhone and iPod touch
Wake and sleep to your iPhone/iPod music or movies
iHome+Sleep app enables custom configuration and up to 18 software alarms
Sure-alarm: never worry about a missed alarm due to phone call or app interruption
Dock & charge your iPhone/iPod
Dedicated alarm clock for the bedside for when your iPod and iPhone is on the go
Gradually wake & sleep to iPhone/iPod
Reson8® speaker chamber technology for true audio with depth, clarity and power
Bass + treble EQ
Time sync button to sync unit time with iPhone/iPod clock
Programmable snooze (1 - 29 minutes)
Line-in jack for other audio devices

App Features (free download from App Store)

Adjust iA5 clock and alarm settings via easy to use iPhone/iPod touch screen interface
Up to 18 additional software alarms and nap alarms
Local weather information
Adjust snooze, sleep and wake events, including custom 7.5.2 alarm settings (weekdays, work days, weekends)
Adjust EQ settings
Connect and share social media wake up and bedtime status updates with your Facebook and Twitter friends
Sleep statistics

ihomeaudio.com/apps

Technical Specs

Dimensions: 9.34" W x 5.83" H x 3.9" D
Power: Universal SPS Voltage Adapter
Battery Requirements: 3 AAA batteries for clock back-up

The TuneBug Vibe Turns Any Surface Into a Speaker

2010-04-14T00:36:00.000-07:00

Just under 2.5" in diameter, this stone shaped audio accessory supposedly converts a variety of surfaces into a large speaker using vibrational dispersion. Compatible with your mobile phone, mp3 player, laptop, or anything with a 3.5" audio out connection, the Vibe was designed for times when lugging a set of speakers isn't an option, and you don't want the tinny-tiny sounds from a laptop or mobile device.

One should definitely not expect audio performance anywhere near the neighborhood of discrete audio speakers...even compared with the cheapest models. But for its size, the $69.95 TuneBug Vibe might be a decent portable solution, especially for public presentations. We're not going to pass judgment until we get our hands on one, but we're relatively comfortable depending upon a good set of headphones for on the go, with real speakers for home use for now.

Canon Legria FS307 SD Camcorder Review

2010-04-14T00:25:00.000-07:00

Thin and ultra-portable taken to extremes

Canon Legria FS307 SD Camcorder Review has moved to
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OpenPeak’s OpenTablet to Taste AT&T Connectivity

2010-03-25T17:57:00.000-07:00

Wireless carrier AT&T and OpenPeak Inc, leading provider of multimedia touch-screen devices, recently announced the launch of a new powerful, multipurpose computing tablet device boasting support for AT&T's mobile broadband wireless service, based on the ultra-sleek OpenTablet. According to the pair, the upcoming device is expected to deliver communications, entertainment and home management capabilities, and should become available for purchase later during the ongoing year.

The tablet will come with AT&T wireless connectivity, while also sporting 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities, and will be based on Intel’s next generation handheld platform, codenamed “Moorestown.” The device is set to prove a great option for social networking activities, Internet browsing, music, video and photo sharing, or instant messaging.

At the same time, the OpenTablet includes the OpenPeak Device Management Services, as well as the OpenPeak App Shop, its maker notes. Users will enjoy the possibility to remotely provision, monitor and update the tablet via the device management solution, while the app portal will offer access to a series of multimedia and home management software solutions from third-party developers.

“OpenTablet is an exciting multipurpose device with all the benefits and flexibility of a wirelessly connected personal computing and entertainment device,” said Glenn Lurie, president, emerging devices, resale and partnerships, AT&T<. “When you combine the capabilities of OpenTablet with AT&T’s 3G mobile broadband service and AT&T Wi-Fi service, we’re able to provide consumers wireless access to content they most desire, right at their fingertips.”

The tablet is powered by an Intel Atom chipset, comes with a high-resolution 7-inch multi-touch TFT LCD screen, and sports an HDMI output, USB interface and MicroSD slot for additional storage space to be added into the equation. The device measures 9 inches by 5 inches, and is only 0.59 inches thick, while weighing in at 1.15 pounds. Users will enjoy a wide range of features on the device, especially with the connectivity with AT&T’s 3G mobile broadband network it will include.

“We strongly believe that people are ready for a thin, easy to use device that brings together virtually every entertainment, communications and management function anyone could want,” said Dan Gittleman, CEO of OpenPeak. “Our agreement with AT&T unites a number of powerful technologies, resulting in a product that will provide a variety of exciting uses, for many different types of consumers.”

Playstation Move Bitch, Get Out The Way

2010-03-12T01:33:00.000-08:00

Sony Computer Entertainment has just announced that its motion controlling scenario titled Move is scheduled for a fall 2010 release. Looking to give Microsoft’s Project Natal a run for its motion sensing money, Move will require you to also purchase the PlayStation Eye Camera for full compatibility.

Additionally, the motion controller, which looks like some sort of Killer Clowns From Outer Space device, will also come with a sub-controller similar to the Wii Nunchuk to help you navigate the 3rd dimension. Using all 3 peripherals together will create a tight and precise representation in 3D space allowing for the gamer to be fully immersed while playing themselves in the game. Bring it on Lawnmower Man!

The Playstation Move utilizes some advanced motion sensors that include: a three-axis gyroscope, a three-axis accelerometer, and a terrestrial magnetic field sensor. These words might not mean much to the gamer right now, but once people start busting a “Move” they could easily become everyday jargon.

The PlayStation Move motion controller employs action buttons, an analog trigger, force feed back, and visual feedback via the color changing sphere. The Eye Camera will also detect the player’s voice and image for further immersion and augmentation.

Both controllers act like normal PS3 Gamepads that have lithium-ion rechargeable batteries and BlueTooth. No price has been set as multiple packages are likely to emerge, but word has it that over 36 publishers have stated their support and there should be over 20 games at launch time this fall.

Pioneer’s DJM-2000

2010-03-12T01:30:00.000-08:00

DJ Mixer Busts A Serious Move With A Multitouch 5.8-inch Touchscreen (video)

I'm so sorry, the review of DJ Mixer review has been removed to this page http://www.toponbuy.com/2010/electronics/dj-mixer-review-pioneer%E2%80%99s-djm-2000/

Soner Vivaz

2010-02-19T21:11:00.000-08:00

Introduction

Sony Ericsson is an alliance of two tech giants and with phones like the Vivaz it shows. It’s a gadget all the way, one that will galvanize geeks and charm the regular user.

Sony Ericsson Vivaz official photos

A whole bunch of point-and-shoot cameras today boast 720p video recording, but are they not an endangered species feeling enormous pressure on both sides? For one, there are compact video recording DSLRs pushing down with competitive price tags, and then cameraphones are eating into compact camera territory with comparable still image resolution and video capture.

Eight megapixel still images and 720p video with continuous auto focus make the Sony Ericsson Vivaz a predator of point-and-shoot cameras. The Vivaz is not just a cameraphone though, it’s a smartphone as well – a tricked out Symbian running on a 720MHz CPU with a 3.2” nHD display to show it all off. That’s all in a package more compact than any combination of a stand-alone camera and a phone you can think of.

High-end smartphones have a long history of trading compact size for cramming in one feature more than the competition. The Sony Ericsson Vivaz strikes a perfect balance between being compact and feature-full – great news for anyone who doesn’t appreciate the recent craze of smartphones the size of a table… umm… tablet.

Key features

3.2" 16M-color resistive touchscreen of 640 x 360 pixel resolution
8 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, face and smile detection, geotagging and touch focus
HD 720p video recording @ 24fps with continuous auto focus
Symbian OS 9.4 S60 5th, topped with a custom-brewed homescreen and media menu
720 MHz CPU, PowerVR SGX dedicated graphics accelerator
Quad-band GSM support
3G with HSDPA 10.2Mbps and HSUPA 2Mbps support
Wi-Fi and GPS with A-GPS
microSD card slot (up to 16GB, 8GB card in the box)
Built-in accelerometer
Turn-to-mute
TV out
Stereo FM Radio
microUSB and stereo Bluetooth v2.0
Web browser has full Flash support
Preinstalled Wisepilot navigation software
Office document viewer
Decent audio quality

Main disadvantages

No camera lens protection
No auto mode for the flash/video light
LED flash not powerful enough
The S60 5th edition UI isn't to the best in class standards
No proximity sensor sensor to lock the screen during a call
No DivX or XviD support out-of-the-box
No smart or voice dialing
No office document editing (without a paid upgrade)
No stereo speakers
No digital compass (magnetometer)
Videocalling uses only the main camera (no secondary one)

The feature list leaves very little to complain about, so is it time retire your old compact camera and make the jump the Vivaz? That’s what we’ll try to find out. As for its performance as a smartphone the list of key features suggests smooth sailing most of the way.

How the Sony Ericsson Vivaz stacks up against he competition

Hold on to your hats folks, we’re jumping into the hardware part of this review.

Soner Xperia X2 Review

2010-02-19T21:05:00.000-08:00

Introduction

It was back in February 2008 that the XPERIA lineup was born and it took Sony Ericsson almost two years to bring about the XPERIA X1 successor. The long waiting is over now and the XPERIA X2 is keen to prove to us all it was worth it.

Both devices obviously have lots of features in common (it's the same amount of memory - both RAM and ROM, and the same CPU) but there are - possibly - enough improvements to make the XPERIA X2 a strong successor and a valuable upgrade. And by telling you that, we don't only mean the more recent version of WinMo. 6.5 was never officially compatible with the original.

Anyway, the upgraded imaging is the greatest asset of the XPERIA X2 hardware and we're about to see how much it works in its favor.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X2 official images

Before we kick off though, a bit of family tree stuff. The XPERIA X2 is only the second PocketPC in the series after the X1. The X10 runs Android and so does the rumored Robyn, while the Pureness isn't even a smartphone. The XPERIA lineup comes in different shapes and sizes but it all started with Windows Mobile. The X2 is perfectly aware of that and comes to offer some all-round PocketPC skills and the aggressive styling of its forerunner.

Key features:

Quad-band GSM support
Tri-band 3G with HSDPA 7.2Mbps and HSUPA 2Mbps
Four-row slide-and-tilt QWERTY keyboard
Landscape and portrait virtual QWERTY keyboards
Handwriting recognition
3.2" 65K-color TFT LCD resistive touchscreen (480 x 800 pixels)
Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional
XPERIA panels user interface
Accelerometer sensor
Qualcomm MSM 7200 528 MHz CPU, 256 MB of RAM memory
8.1 megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash
WVGA video recording at 30fps
Support for DivX/XviD files out of the box
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, DLNA
Built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS support
Bluetooth and USB (standard microUSB connector) v2.0
3.5mm standard audio jack
Stereo speakers
Flash video support
TV out port, TV out cable supplied in the retail box

Main disadvantages:

Outdated hardware
Sluggish interface
Display still on the small side, inadequate touch sensitivity and sunlight legibility
Almost no screen auto-rotation throughout the UI
Disappointing video recording
Basic music player
No FM radio (should be enabled with upcoming firmware update)
No video calling (should be enabled with upcoming firmware update)

As we said in the preview a few months back, there aren't many groundbreaking features to see, but the XPERIA X2 is definitely worth a look to check what it can actually do.

Well, if you're looking for Snapdragon speed, you won't find it here. There's no capacitive touchscreen either. And the X2 also skips an FM radio and its camera has no Xenon flash. But you get all the business benefits you would expect in a phone in this class, with some nice media too.

The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X2 packs the full range of connectivity options, hopefully a capable enough CPU, a comfy slide-and-tilt QWERTY keyboard, promising autofocus camera and, like its predecessor, it has a 3.5mm audio jack on board. The trackpad is also there (even if it's been redesigned).

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X2 live shots

While the XPERIA X1 came with a 3" display, the X2's screen measures 3.2 inches, but keeps the same 800 x 480 resolution. Among the most important novelties brought by the X2 is the latest firmware version: Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional. The revamped touch-optimized X-panels interface has been promoted to a full featured system for handling various animated and interactive homescreens.

Unlike the early version of the X2 which we had for a spin and a short preview, this one comes off the shelves so no excuses this time! After the jump a 360 degree spin awaits, along with our say on design and construction. But first things first - next up: unboxing.

Nokia N900 Review

2010-01-26T05:30:00.002-08:00

Nokia N900 is the final product which opens up a new path for the Finnish smartphone producer. After Google, which launched its new open source operating system for mobile phones, Nokia raised the stakes a few months later with its own vision, which is called Maemo. Android OS, as well as Maemo are both based on the well-known Linux platform, but they are pretty much different because they are the results of two different working teams. Before getting into more in-depth information, do not overlook the fact that we will be reviewing an Internet tablet, with some limited phone capabilities.

So, be aware that some of the features that you'll probably be expecting from such a device might be missing. Also, bear in mind that Nokia might, or might not, add some new basic features or new complex ones in the future firmware updates, but do not rely on that. In the end, to quote one of the Nokia's officials: "N900 has become the high-end line-up of smartphones for Nokia and all other Maemo devices that will be launched will have specific high-end features". So, expect high prices for the next Maemo devices, but on the other hand, the Nseries prices might drop.

Nokia N900 has been announced in August 2009 and made available on the market in November same year. The device is only available in Black and can be acquired for about $700 USD.

Design

The first time I saw Nokia N900, I was afraid its too bulky and ugly for my tastes. Automatically, I have compared it in my mind with the new Android smartphones and saw the N900 losing on all aspects. Fortunately, things are not as it seems at first glance, and Nokia N900 is really a very nice and stylish device. Yes, the device is pocketsizable and yes, it's big and heavy (110.9x59.8x18mm and 181g including battery), but it looks much better than HTC Touch Pro or any other bulky Pocket PC. It feels nice to the touch thanks to the matte plastic on the back, which also helps users have a good grip over the device.

The only drawback that I found is the shiny material that covers the front part of the device, which is a fingerprint magnet. Still, the rest of the device is looking very good and, for me at least, it seemed ergonomic enough to be able to handle it with ease. Once you get used to its look and to its buttons layout, everything should work smoothly. In fact, besides the QWERTY keyboard the device doesn't really have too many external buttons. If you keep the N900 in portrait mode, you'll be able to notice on the right side a volume key near the top, a small power on/off button at the middle and a dedicated camera key near the bottom. On top of the smartphone, there's a microUSB port, as well as one of the two stereo speakers. The other stereo speaker can be found on the bottom of the phone, together with a 3.5mm port jack and a small sliding key which locks/unlocks the touchscreen.

There's also a plastic stylus placed on the bottom left corner of the device, but I haven't used it too much. Above the generous touchscreen, there's a secondary videocall camera, as well as a small ambient light sensor and the in-call speaker. The backside of the smartphone features a nice 5 megapixels camera, which is protected by a sliding cover. When opened, it will also reveal a dual LED flash and Carl Zeiss optics.

The camera is surrounded by a thin plastic strip, which can help users watch movies in a more relaxed position without the need of keeping the phone in hand. When the device is slided, it will reveal a full QWERTY keyboard that features 38 small keys. While the layout is good, I still had the feeling that the buttons are too small and a little bit too crowded. Still, that doesn't makes a bad impression and texters will be happy to find that the keyboard is actually very nice to the touch and responsive enough to be able to text without mistakes. The backlighting of the keyboard is good and very nice, with a bluish light that shows all the keys.

Overall, Nokia N900's finishes are exquisite and puts it in front of many other (ex)high-end Nokia devices, in terms of design and ergonomics. The rounded shapes of the device also recommend it as an easy-to-carry smartphone and really good-looking business tool.

Display and Camera

Nokia N900 features a large 3.5-inch TFT resistive touchscreen, which supports 16 million colors and 800x480 pixels resolution. It also includes features like proximity sensor for auto turn-off and accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate. Perfectly visible in the sunlight, the display is also surprisingly responsive for a resistive touchscreen. In fact, first time I used the device, I tought that Nokia finally made its first capacitive touchscreen, but is seems that I was mistaken. The display is still resistive, but very well crafted, so you will barely feel the difference when it comes to responsiveness. Of course, you won't be able to take advantage of features like multi-touch, but I'd say this is a pretty good display. It is also well-protected against scratches, which is a big advantage as the device doesn't feature a leather case or something close to that.

Of course, you could buy one, but the fact remains that you won't have any troubles with scratches unless you are fool enough to keep it in the same pocket with your keys, which I doubt it, as the device is pretty big to not fit in the pocket with anything else. Moreover, Nokia N900 includes a dedicated PowerVR SGX graphics CPU with OpenGL ES 2.0 support that enhances multimedia experience, which implies running games or movies on the screen. I only noticed a small drawback and that is the fact that you won't be able to use the phone in portrait mode unless you set the device to turn to dial mode as soon as you unlock the screen. Otherwise, you will be stuck to the landscape view. Further, the transgression to portrait mode doesn't function well enough, and you might end up clicking on the Phone icon on one of the additional homescreens.

N900 also includes a 5-megapixels camera, but this is not just a usual camera. Nokia has put in some effort into this and managed to embed a nice camera with autofocus, dual LED flash and Carl Zeiss optics. You can take snapshots either in 5-megapixel high resolution or use the more unsual, but very cool 3.5-megapixel wide resolution. I had some doubts before actually using the camera to take pictures, knowing the level of technology that Nokia usually puts into its smartphones. Enough said, these doubts fade away once I started to take some snapshots. I was amazed by the accuracy of the camera, especially when using the 3.5-megapixel wide resolution.

The pictures are simply excellent, even when you don't benefit from the best light. The night pictures are also pretty decent, but you will need to be somewhat close to the subject that you intend to capture as the dual LED flash has its limit. The interface of the camera is pretty standard for such a camera and easy to use. Users will be able to change resolution, White balance, ISO sensitivity and Exposure. Camera mode can be set on Automatic (default) or you can choose one of these options: Macro, Landscape, Portrait, Action.

Camera also includes the geo-tagging feature video light. For those of you that are interested in video capturing, I'll have to say that Nokia N900 excels to that too. It can record clips in WVGA(848 x 480)@25fps, which is pretty nice. Check out the samples below to get an idea of what this high-end device can do with its camera.

Menu and Software

Maemo 5 is the first open source operating system coming from Nokia, and a new one coming from the Finnish giant for a long time. As its base stays in the Linux OS, you will probably notice lots of similitudes with Google's Android, which has about the same roots. First of all, Nokia N900 runs Maemo 5, version 1.2009.42-11, which will probably receive upgrades in the future. Anyway, the main thing that I noticed is the "lack" of freezes or errors. I haven't gotten any of the usual lock-ups that Symbian smartphones have from time to time and that made me really happy.

Secondly, I noticed that the device runs pretty smooth without slacking at all, even when more applications are running in the background. Yes, you can run multiple apps and can go back to whichever app you were running previously, as long as it has been alt-tabbed in the background. The operating system keeps them resident in memory and you can go back to it from the homescreen.

Basically, it works like a task manager with all the minimized apps showing on the homescreen like small windows, which can be easily clicked. Just like the first Android version, Maemo 5 features 4 different homescreens, which can be browsed by swiping your finger to the left or to the right of the screen. These can be customized with new shortcuts, widgets, bookmarks and many more. By default the homescreens contain: Calendar, contacts, phone, email; Ovi Store and Maemo store; Weather widget; Twitter, Facebook and Google widgets, as well as shortcuts to Ovi account, Ovi maps, Gallery, Ovi gallery and Email. To each and everyone of these homescreens can be added more shortcuts, contacts, widgets or they can be emptied.

The interface is even simpler than Symbian's, but it can also become more complex if you are into the homescreen customization. Clicking the upper left corner icon will get you into the main menu of the device, which presents you with 15 icons, simetrically arranged: Web, Media player, Calendar, Photos, Contacts, Phone, Maps, Camera, E-mail, Conversations, Clock, Calculator, Store, Settings and More ...

Clicking the latter will open up the second window of the main menu, which contains even more functions and apps: Notes, PDF Reader, File manager, RSS, Sketch, App manager, Backup, Get started (demo movie), X Terminal, Amazon, AP News, Facebook, ForecaWeather, Documents To Go, and some games (Blocks, Chess, Mahjong and Marbles). As the device doesn't really feature a Back key, you can click either on top or at the bottom of every menu to go back one step (click on empty space and not on any of the icons). Another interesting feature that I found is the fact that you can quickly access Profiles, Clock & Alarms, Bluetooth and Internet connection by clicking clock or the battery icon that appears on top left of any of the homescreens.

Nokia N900 is not a phone, but an Internet tablet and that really shows when it comes to phone features. It's even funny as you won't have access to a dialer pad unless you make a shortcut on one of the homescreens that will get you into the phone functions of the device. There's also another option that enables users to get right into dialer pad or call history, as soon as they unlock the touchscreen and keep the device in portrait mode, but that doesn't always responds, so you will need to click on the shortcut from time to time.

Anyway, the place where Nokia N900 really excels is the web browsing experience. There is simply no other device that can reach to this level of accuracy in redering web pages, as well as speed of loading. Moreover, the Mozilla-based browser features Adobe Flash 9.4 and not the "weakly" Flash Lite, which is common to most high-end devices as of lately. If you usually visit webpages rich in Flash content, this is the right device for you.

Zooming in and out can be easily done by double tapping on the spot you want to zoom or by simply making a spiral gesture on the screen. I personally recommend the first option as it works flawless and is very fast. The panning and adjustings of the pages are excellent, which makes N900 the best Internet tablet there is on the market at the moment.

Unfortunately, Nokia N900 is not compatible with any Symbian or Java applications, but I think the Maemo store has some good third-party apps if you want more customization for your device.

Communication

Nokia N900 features all the possible connectivity techs that are available: HSDPA (10 Mbps) and HSUPA (2 Mbps), GPRS and EDGE class 32 High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data (57.6 kbps) and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, DLNA, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP support, microUSB 2.0 and Infrared.

When connecting the USB cable, you'll be able to choose among two modes: PC Suite, Mass storage. Both are intuitive and easy to use, so there's nothing more to add here. The process of synching is very fast, browsing and transfers are made very quickly between phone and PC and the device is also charghing when is synched with the PC.

The built-in GPS receiver supports A-GPS function and works flawlessly together with the newly renamed Ovi Maps.

In terms of messaging, the device offers standard SMS messaging solutions, accepting all available message types, but lacks MMS support. The message client works with POP3, SMTP, and IMAP4 protocols, and supports more than one e-mail account. Additionally, it can download headers and supports attachments. Nokia N900 also benefits from Skype and GoogleTalk VoIP integration, which might come in handy whenever you have it available as it cuts short the bills.

N900 is quad-band GSM (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) compatible, but also supports HSDPA 900 /1700 / 2100 GSM networks. I didn't have any problems with the GSM signal and the sound at both ends was excellent. Video-calls are also not available for Nokia N900.

Processor and Memory

Nokia N900 is powered by a single TI OMAP 3430 ARM Cortex-A8 family processor running at speeds of up to 600 Mhz. Further, the device also benefits from a dedicated graphics processor PowerVR SGX with OpenGL ES 2.0 support for better graphics rendering. Suffice it to say that I haven't encountered any lags or freezes, while the movies that I watched and the games I played really worked flawlessly.

The smartphone embeds 32 GB user free internal storage memory, 256 MB SDRAM memory and 768 MB NAND Memory. If that storage space is not enough for you (which I doubt), you will be able to add up to 16GB through the hot-swappable microSD slot card. The latter can be found after removing the back hood of the device.

Multimedia

Even though it has been tagged as an Internet Tablet, Nokia N900 includes decent multimedia features. The included music player supports audio formats such as: AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, M4A, MP3, WAV and WMA. Sound is impressive, but doesn't reach any of Sony Ericsson's Walkman series standards. Another drawback might be the fact that it lacks any Equalizer options, so you will be stuck with the raw sound of the song.

Thanks to the 3.5mm jack port users will be able to plug-in their own headphone, if they're not satissfied by the earphones in the sales package (WH-205), which by the way sound pretty nice.

Nokia N900 also features an Internet radio and and FM Transmitter. Stereo FM Radio is only available via third party software. The thing that amazed me is the quality of the movie playback. The video player included uses its 3.5-inch screen at its full potential and can now read DivX and Xvid files, besides 3GPP formats (H.263), AVI, Flash Video, H.264/AVC, MPEG-4, WMV. Even if it's only for the movie playback, I could say that this device is worth a try even for those that aren't looking for a business phone.

Battery

The 1320 mAh Li-Ion (BL-5J) battery has an officially stated life expectancy of about 9 hours in talk time mode (5 hours for 3G). Also, Nokia didn't state any standby time as it thinks that the device will always be online and have an active connection. Basically, it has been designed to last about 1-day of continous usage. While I wasn't able to achieve the 5-hour talk time promised, our test unit made it for about 2 days with medium use. Unfortunately, I found the battery autonomy a little bit poor, even though I have expected it. Maybe one of the future firmwares will improve these numbers.

Impressions

I found the N900 one of the best Internet tablets on the market, even though there are only a few. Moreover, adding phone functions and a new operating system was very good idea, as it now stands for an excellent business phone also. Stuffed with lots of Web-browsing abilities, multimedia features, a user-friendly interface and a pretty decent camera, Nokia N900 really worths to be put into Nokia's new high-end class series.

The Good

Maemo operating system is really a hit, even though not that complex and developed as Android, it really shows potential. Add to that the excellent Web-browsing capabilities, HSDPA connectivity, excellent touchscreen, as well as decent camera and you got yourself a really good smartphone. The QWERTY keyboard is also a nice addition to the features of the phone, as well as the Wi-Fi connectivity.

The Bad

I think the only drawback of the phone is the low life autonomy of the battery, and the high price as well, which could be a setback for those that have a limited budget. Also, limited number of third-party software is an important disadvantage, if we are to compare it with Android.

Sales Package

Nokia N900 Internet Tablet
Nokia Battery 1320 mAh (BL-5J)
Nokia High Efficiency Charger (AC-10)
Nokia Stereo Headset (WH-205)
Video out cable (CA-75U)
Nokia charger adaptor (CA-146C)
Cleaning cloth

Boost the sound quality with JVC XS-SR3 iPod speaker system

2010-01-11T20:25:00.000-08:00

Nearly each new day comes with new amazing gadget. This time it is new JVC XS-SR3 iPod speaker system. This design is impossible to mix with anything else. New JVC gadget is sleek and glossy, very unusually shaped. Looks like curved tube, wrapped around iPod holder. It was created to capture entire iPod line that is available on market: mini, video and photo, classic and newest touch technology devices. Unfortunately is not compatible with iPhone. Gadget is available in black or white color.

The iPod holder is located in the middle of this construction and can be rotated in different directions for best viewing. Specially designed four clips will hold inserted gadget vertically or horizontally. Vertical hold is good for music listening, and horizontal is ideal to watch widescreen video. Two-cradle 2.5W tubular speaker system is created to simulate an illusion of surround sound, and it really works.

New JVC device is armed with Dolby Virtual Surround support, remote control is included, two audio inputs (digital optical and analog), power output is 5 watts. Additional point to JVC XS-SR3 is that it also can be used as PC speaker system, with portable DVD players, different gaming systems or with portable TVs. This gadget with boosted audio quality that comes with many fine features is made in Japan and will be available soon.

No disappointments with Casio Pathfinder Triple Sensor Multi-functional Digital Watch PAG40-7

2010-01-11T20:24:00.000-08:00

These days each store has all kinds of watches offers. Casio authentic quality watch on affordable price can be a dream but also a reality. Now in the season of winter holidays and discounts it is best time for hunting. So what shall we get if our trophy will be Casio Pathfinder Triple Sensor Multi-Functional Digital Watch?

It is rather difficult to find a man without general idea about Casio quality, thus I will skip it. First of all I would like to mention that design and style is definitely sportive. Impossible not to see that it is really big size watches (case diameter 51mm, thickness 17.5mm, bind width 27.7mm). It is just perfect for big watches amateurs. If your wrist is not that big, it could be a problem. Now about Casio Pathfinder Triple Sensor watch main functions. It has 2 LCDs of different colors (green is for functions, blue for compass). This watch is very easy to adjust, comes with pretty many features: few alarms, compass, barometer, altitude indicator, and of course big readable time numbers. Background light is very good for reading, adjusting or even auxiliary needs as to find keyholes. Though I am not big fan of resin bands, but this one is very comfortable for wear and looks durable enough. Case is also made from resin. Calendar mode: day-date-and-month, movement - Japanese quartz, water resistant (330 Feet depth).

Summary: This Casio gadget is a really nice piece - very functional, quality and mode how it works is above expectations. Big in size and precise to the second. If somebody got no idea about Christmas gift - this one from Casio can be pretty, worthy and affordable.

Samsung Touts the 'Potential of bada'

2010-01-11T20:23:00.000-08:00

Samsung says bada has potential in today's smartphone market

South Korean mobile phone maker Samsung announced not to long ago the launch of its own operating system aimed at mobile phones, namely bada, which is expected to arrive on a wide range of the company's handsets in 2010. The handset vendor already unveiled a series of details regarding the platform, and now some more details on it have been brought to light, in an attempt to demonstrate that this is an operating system which has the potential of attracting users on its side.

According to Samsung, it will pre-load bada mainly on a series of touchscreen-enabled mobile phones during the ongoing year. The company aims at releasing more touch phones in 2010 when compared to the number of such devices it launched last year, and it expects to see even higher sales volumes than it already did. Around 40 million of the total of more than 200 million handsets Samsung sold last year were touchscreen devices, and the company says that this shows that its “touch screen handset has come to meet the requirements of main stream consumers.”

What appeals most to users at a touchscreen device is the intuitive user interface, says Samsung, adding that this is the main area where the bada team focused. “We, the bada team, have focused on more innovative user interface, service oriented features and extensible core functions. We also have full support plans for developers such as the developer challenge, the developer’s day and the developer site, to win together. With bada’s specialized components and support system, developers can easily create values for customers and opportunities for themselves,” a recent post on the bada blog notes.

The smartphone market is getting more crowded each day, especially with popular operating systems out there being pre-loaded on more and more new handsets. When launched on the market, bada will face great competition from other touch-oriented platforms, such as Android, Windows Mobile or the Symbian OS. Even so, Samsung's position in the mobile industry, and the fast take up of touchscreen devices should offer bada a nice start base, and this is why Samsung says that “it is sure that bada devices will successfully make enough market size for the smartphone ecosystem.”

Ultra small Agent HD Video Recording Camera

2010-01-11T20:11:00.000-08:00

Ultra small, unique and delicately designed - this way we can characterize this gadget. Agent Cam HD Video Recording camera is a useful gadget in many situation when is necessary to have some memories recorded. Any records could be made and saved. Time with family, business meetings, sport events, outdoor activity, evidence collector, security aim - only are few useful clues where Agent Cam HD will be useful. This small high resolution DVR cam allows to record up to 6 hours of video.

Micro Mini DVR cam is a universal miniaturized piece to carry it anywhere. Reliable construction made from metal and glass, with USB port and Led indicator. Plug and play option for Windows or later editions. Micro Mini Cam is compatible with Windows 98SE / ME / 2000 / Vista / XP. Gadget dimension: 50mm x 50mm x 15mm (LxWxD).

Specification:

- Model name: HS-WDVR01 Watch DVR
- Memory: 2 GB MicroSD in included
- Format: AVI (640*480), 15ÀÇÑ
- MIC: built-in
- Power source: integrated battery that is recharged directly via USB port or with charger.
- Display mode: Analog 12 hours (hour, minute, second)

This Micro Mini DVR cam is a universal miniaturized piece to carry it anywhere. Reliable construction made from metal and glass, with USB port and Led indicator. Comes with all necessary set of functions to record video.

Spracht Aura Headset Might Just Be Coolest Ever

2010-01-05T13:21:00.000-08:00

The Spracht Aura, ladies and gentlemen, may sound like a total kludge in terms of naming conventions, but I can assure you that anyone who calls this the coolest Bluetooth headset ever is not speaking out of turn, but is rather arguably correct.

Sure, any time you introduce value judgments like anything involving the suffix “-est”, you have a grey area in terms of accuracy, but this one is definitely a competitor, if nothing else. It has a PAIR of microphones implanted in it to ensure that your side of the conversation WILL be heard by the other party. It’s also got a six-band equalizer to make sure YOU get THEIR end. How about the volume control that you activate by just SLIDING YOUR FINGER along the base of the earpiece? It’s capacitive!

And as if all that weren’t good enough for you, I give you one last thing to consider–when these come out in March, you’ll be able to get one for just eighty bucks.

Bluetooth Handheld Keyboard and Touchpad

2010-01-05T13:11:00.000-08:00

If you’re not feeling Lenovo’s Bluetooth Trackball Keyboard setup then checkout Brando’s offering, the iPazzPort Bluetooth Handheld Keyboard and Touchpad. Instead of a trackball or mouse, it incorporates a trackpad complimented by a backlit keyboard. Connectivity comes by way of Bluetooth making it widely compatible with most home theater PCs and includes a rechargeable battery, all for $62.

The Bluetooth Handheld Keyboard and Touchpad is a palm-sized keyboard which consist of 48 key + touchpad. Its portable and tiny design can be used for travel, school, or any other working environment. It is especially suitable for HTPC.

Introduction
# Features: Bluetooth remote controls of your computer with distance about 10M
# Bluetooth Standard: Bluetooth V.2.0; HID V1.0
# 48 keys handheld style keyboard with Touchpad
# Backlight keyboard for convenient operation in darkness
# Built-in rechargeable battery
# On/Off button
# Support Window 7 / Vista / XP / 2000, Mac, Linux, PS3
# Dimension: 82 x 125 x 8mm (approx.)
# Weight: 73g

Colors:
# Black
# White

Package Contents:
# Bluetooth Handheld Keyboard and Touchpad
# USB Charging Cable
# User's Manual

Google Phone, Nexus One, Now Available

2010-01-05T12:02:00.000-08:00

I’m really not all that excited about the prospect of a Google phone, but I’m sure there are more than enough of you out there. Today the search giant finally made the Google Nexus phone official. In fact, you can purchase it right now. Unlocked it will cost you $529, or you can opt for a 2-year contract which will knock it down to $179 after carrier discounts. If you’re not pleased with any of those options than just hold out a bit longer since Google has made it abundantly clear that the Nexus phone will hit Verizon Sprint 2010. And if you can’t wait that long for either you can always opt for the DROID, which Google has happily placed a link to on the Nexus One product page – looks like they’re trying to make nice with Verizon.

Specs breakdown like this:

* 3.7-inch AMOLED touchscreen display (800×480)
* 5 megapixel camera with LED flash
* AGPS
* 720 video capture at 20 fps
* 1400 mAH battery
* 1Ghz Qualcomm QSD 8250 processor
* Android Mobile Technology Platform 2.1 (Eclair)
* microSD card slot expandable up to 32GB (includes 4GB card)
* WiFi
* Bluetooth 2.1+EDR

HIS Radeon HD 5970 Review

2010-01-04T09:31:00.000-08:00

About three months ago, Sunnyvale, California-based Advanced Micro Devices officially unveiled its latest series of desktop graphics cards, namely the Radeon HD 58xx family of GPUs. Launched at a time when a considerable number of reports were indicating that both AMD and NVIDIA had problems with TSMC's 40nm manufacturing technology, the series came with a list of new features that were mainly meant to enhance the visual experience of desktop PC users. In addition, the series was outed at a time when NVIDIA wasn't expected to immediately come up with something that would compete with the fresh Radeon GPUs.

The first series of 40nm-based, DirectX 11-compatible GPUs was launched back in late September, with the chip maker introducing two new cards, the 5850 and its fresh flagship, the Radeon HD 5870. Both cards were said to be capable of delivering an impressive performance, thanks to their powerful GPUs and the unique list of features. However, the HD 5870 stayed on top only for some time, as AMD had bigger plans. The chip maker later released the dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970, a high-end graphics card somewhat different from the previous dual-GPU Radeon cards.

The HD 5970 was released back in November, following a series of leaked details that further increased anticipation around the new card. When it was officially introduced, the card's specifications were nothing short of impressive, packing a total processing power of 4.64 TeraFLOPS, making AMD's flagship Radeon card the king of desktop graphics.

However, the high processing power of the chip maker's latest release came at a cost and one that is still considered as rather exclusive. Aside from its performance capabilities, the Radeon HD 5970 was accompanied by a series of minimum requirements that would dig a considerable hole in the user's budget. Nevertheless, this was a card for the enthusiast market, something that AMD made very clear since the official debut of the gadget.

On that note, we were presented with the opportunity of testing AMD's flagship card, a dual-GPU behemoth that comes with its own list of demands. We put the card through its paces and even had time to play a couple of games, using one of the new features that AMD introduced with the launch of its new generation of Radeon graphics cards. We will try to cover as many key points as possible, with our review of the Radeon HD 5970, including the performance aspects, but also details about the company, its products and the overall market. Without further ado, we'll be taking you on a very nice journey.
Some time has passed since the world's second largest chip maker officially announced the debut of its latest graphics monster, the Radeon HD 5970. However, we were thrilled at the idea of getting to test the world's fastest card, which is why we decided to do some planning, before the card arrived in our labs. We built a new rig, with some of the latest components out there and patiently waited the arrival of the dual-GPU Radeon HD 5970 monster.

The card came from HIS, featuring a reference design, cooler and clock frequencies. That was all fine by us, as we did want to take a look at what AMD's reference board is capable of, without any interference from the graphics card vendor, specifically regarding the card's cooler, clock speed or other settings. Now, we should take a look at what the numbers that make up the Radeon HD 5970 are.

Manufacturer's technical specifications:

Engine clock speed: 725 MHz
Processing power (single precision): 4.64 TeraFLOPS
Processing power (double precision): 928 GigaFLOPS
Polygon throughput: 1.45 billion polygons/sec
Data fetch rate (32-bit): 464 billion fetches/sec
Texel fill rate (bilinear filtered): 116 Gigatexels/sec
Pixel fill rate: 46.4 Gigapixels/sec
Anti-aliased pixel fill rate: 185.6 Gigasamples/sec
Memory clock speed: 1.0 GHz
Memory data rate: 4.0 Gbps
Memory bandwidth: 256.0 GB/sec
Maximum board power: 294 Watts
Idle board power: 51 Watts.

The Radeon HD 5970 features a design similar to some of the other dual-GPU cards that AMD previously released. More specifically, this card couples two Cypress GPUs on a single PCB, paired together by a PLX bridge chip, which are cooled down by a massive vapor chamber that AMD claims to be capable of supporting up to 400W of thermal dissipation. We will get into more of these details later on, as for now, we will concentrate on the other features that have been made available with the new card.

As with all of AMD's latest generation of Radeon graphics cards, the HD 5970 will provide users with support for the new ATI Eyefinity technology, a solution that allows customers to connect up to three monitors for a wider visual experience. That's not all, the card also offers support for CrossFireX multi-GPU technology, which will enable high-end enthusiasts to connect two of these cards on a compatible motherboard, increasing performance and ultimately providing users with a high computing power.

Another of the innovations enabled by AMD's high-end card is the support for DirectX 11 graphics, as well as the OpenGL 3.0 support. In addition, as you have seen from the list of specifications, the card comes with an impressive idle board power, for a card in its class. The 51 watts specifications can be achieved by a feature that disables one of the card's GPUs, when the card is in idle and doesn't require the same level of performance to run applications.

Aside from being the fastest graphics card on the planet, the Radeon HD 5970 also manages to be the world's longest card, a design feature that you'll immediately notice when picking it up. The dual-slot cooling solution is featured with a back plate that is designed to keep the PCB cool, even when the card is overclocked

Another thing you will notice about the Radeon, as we did the first time we had it in our test labs, is that this is a card that will require some modifications, as far as your desktop chassis is concerned. The dual-GPU HD 5970 is a monster by all definitions. This card comes with a list of minimum requirements that you'll most likely find it challenging to accomplish. But we will get into to that later on, as we move to the part where we talk about the tests we have put this card through.

Now, before we get into the details about our experience with the card and its performance, we should talk a little about our platform and the testing methodology. As we said in the beginning of the article, we went through some trouble to get prepared for the arrival of this dual-GPU monster, which basically implies that we built a test rig for the new card and those to come.

With Intel having recently updated its entire line of mainstream desktop components, we decided to build a new platform on the fresh P55 chipset and the latest LGA 1156-compatible processors. The Gigabyte board we chose was designed to provide support for both NVIDIA SLI and ATI CrossFireX multi-GPU technologies, while the support for USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0 connectivity will enable us to work with future devices and storage solutions. In addition, we went for the Lynnfield-based Core i7 860 quad-core processor running at 2.8GHz, coupled with 4GB of DDR3 memory from Kingston. A 750W Corsair power supply was there to help us run the high-end rig and deliver the necessary juice to power AMD's dual-GPU monster.

Aside from that setup, we also took advantage of a couple of applications that are typically used for benchmarking and recording the performance of graphics cards and other computer hardware. This includes the famous 3DMark Vantage application, but also a couple of games. We need to note that, for these tests, we used the special Radeon HD 5970 graphics driver that is available through the company's driver support page. We also took advantage of no less than three 24-inch monitors, that we used to get a sense of what the company's ATI Eyefinity technology can provide, in terms of gameplay.

Test System:

Intel Core i7 860 2.8GHz processor
Gigabyte P55A-UD4 motherboard
Radeon HD 5970
4GB Kingston DDR3-1333MHz memory
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATA hard drive
Integrated Audio and Network
Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit Operating system
ATI Catalyst 9.11 and special Catalyst driver for Radeon HD 5970
3DMark Vantage v1.0.1
Dirt 2
Crysis.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 Review

2009-11-09T21:12:00.000-08:00

With the X10 Sony Ericsson have gone from zero to hundred in a split second. While they may know their way around high-end devices, pulling off an undertaking such as the XPERIA X10 must have been a special challenge. And they have yet to get to the finish.

The thing is that Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 is the first Android smartphone by Sony Ericsson. It's also a Snapdragon first for the company, and they've even come up with a first of its kind proprietary Android UI. Making the X10 a reality seems like a long way full of potential pitfalls for a company that hasn't still recovered from its financial woes.

But the XPERIA X10 or Rachael, or X3, or whatever it has been called in the long months of development, seems like a device that's worth all the hard work.

Even more so, X10 will not be a solitary device but more of a high-flying start for a full-blown platform of Android devices with their own distinct interface and user experience. That kinda sounds familiar. A year and a half ago, we were again there listening to Sony Ericsson presenting the XPERIA X1 in much the similar words. Well, let's hope they'll have better luck with starting off and developing this new part of their portfolio this time.

We had the pleasure of attending a very limited press event held in London, at which Sony Ericsson presented their latest and greatest before they showcase it for the general public. Much like attending a press-only movie screener we had the opportunity to gather some first-hand impressions of what is probably going to be the Sony Ericsson flagship next year. But before making our first go at the XPERIA X10, let's recap its features.
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 at a glance:

* General: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz, UMTS 900/1900/2100 MHz, HSDPA, HSUPA
* Form factor: Touchscreen bar phone
* Dimensions: 119 x 63 x 13 mm, 135 g
* Display: 4" 262K-color TFT capacitive touchscreen, 854 x 480 pixels
* Platform: Qualcomm QSD8250 Snapdragon 1 GHz processor
* OS: Android 1.6 (Donut)
* Memory: 1GB storage, 256MB RAM, microSD card slot, 8GB card included in the retail box
* Camera: 8 megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash and face detection
* Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, standard microUSB port, GPS receiver with A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack
* Misc: Sony Ericsson custom social networking and media UI, built-in accelerometer

There have been numerous leaks about the XPERIA X10 so chances are you already know most of those specs well enough. As to the few new ones, let us assure you that some of those came as a surprise to us as well.

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 unveiled Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 unveiled Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 unveiled Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 unveiled
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 presentation for the press

Take the Android OS version, for instance. Despite all the hopes for getting the latest and greatest of the Android crop, Sony Ericsson are serving a cold meal to all the gadget lovers out there. They refused to comment any further on the matter but perhaps all is not lost. Our best guess is they'll have some hard time adjusting their proprietary UI for Android 2.0 (Eclair) so they prefer to stick to 1.6 for the time being in an effort to get the XPERIA X10 out in the market as soon as possible.

And the current plans for the X10 availability say Q1 2010. Yup, missing the holiday season and shipping the handset during the tight-pocketed January and February is certainly the last thing they'd like to do, but proper product development obviously demands it.

Speaking of which, the Sony Ericsson X10 units presented at the event were devilishly fast in all Android tasks and applications, but the proprietary UI by Sony Ericsson clearly needed a lot more work.

But let's not waste any more time and jump into the physical details of the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10.

Kingston SSDNow V 40GB Review, Forget about HDDs as your OS partition

2009-10-27T23:40:00.000-07:00

The market for Flash-based Solid State Drives has matured significantly over the course of the last years, as new technologies have enabled increased performance and capacity as well as better pricing policies and reliability, when compared to some of the initial models. SSDs are becoming more and more an alternative for computer users looking to boost their system's performance, taking advantage of the read and write specifications of these compact and energy-efficient storage solutions. On that note, there are a number of SSD products out there and more to come along the way, providing users with new alternatives for boosting their system's performance.

Such is the case with one of Kingston's latest products, a new SSD that has just been launched as part of the company's SSDNow V series, specifically designed for mainstream users looking for a way to improve boot times and application startup. Featuring a capacity of only 40GB, the new SSD from Kingston is said to have been designed as a choice for desktop PC users looking for a high-performance drive that can be used for installing the operating system and some of the most accessed applications.

Kingston, as you might already know, is one of the most recognizable brands in the market for Flash-based storage solutions and a leading provider of memory solutions. The company debuted on the growing market for Solid State Drives with the adoption of a co-branded series of Intel SSDs. Having learned from that experience and looking to further expand its presence in the market, the company later announced the debut of its own series of SSDs, with the launch of the new V-series.

The model that we will be testing today has been specifically designed to host just 40GB of capacity, making for an ideal choice for a desktop computer's first partition. The performance specifications of this storage solution clearly indicate that it hasn't been designed to replace a PC's hard drive, but rather the OS partition, enabling users to increase their system's overall performance with faster boot times and speedier applications.

Now, without further ado, we shall proceed to the technical part of our review, providing you with more detailed specifications on what this SSD has to offer. We will go through the manufacturer's specifications and claimed performance stats, compare them with our results and then try to draw a conclusion on what this new SSDNow V solution has to offer.

Manufacturer's technical specifications:

Sequential Speed: up to 170MB/sec.
read 40MB/sec. write
Performance: enhances productivity; makes users more efficient
Innovative: 2.5-inch form factor; uses NAND Flash memory components
Silent: runs silent and cool with no moving parts
Reliable: less likely to fail than a standard hard drive
Shock Resistant: no moving parts; handles rougher conditions than a hard drive
Supports S.M.A.R.T.: Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology
Guaranteed: three-year Kingston warranty, 24/7 tech support
Capacity1: 40GB
Storage temperatures: -40° C to 85° C
Operating temperatures: 0° C to 70° C
Vibration operating: 2.17G (7-800Hz)
Vibration non-operating: 20G (20-2000Hz)
Power specs: Active: 0.15W (TYP); Sleep: 0.06W
Life expectancy: 1 million hours MTBF

The Kingston SSDNow V 40GB Solid State Drive is the second such solution from the company we were presented with the chance to benchmark and put through its paces. However, this is truly our first review of a Kingston-made SSD, which is why we were interested to see what the manufacturer has managed to achieve without the help of the Santa Clara, California-based chip maker, the world's leading vendor of high-performance processors, Intel.

Before we head on and talk about the testing platform and the applications we used to benchmark the performance of Kingston's new SSD, we do have to mention a couple of things. As you'll see on the cover of the SSD, this product is clearly intended for use as a desktop storage solution, more specifically, as a replacement for the system's OS partition. The 40GB SSD is accompanied by a desktop upgrade kit and looks to provide consumers with faster boot times and increased application responsiveness. Although you can use it in some of those high-end notebook PCs, with dual storage drives, Kingston clearly indicates this product as a solution for desktop PC users, who can take advantage of the system's other HDDs for storing less important applications and other digital content.

The platform, for the various benchmarks we went through with the new SSDNow V drive, was a Dell Optiplex 740 desktop PC, featuring an NVIDIA GeForce 6150 chipset, coupled with an nForce 410/430 MCP and an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ processor, running at 2.2GHz and coupled with 1,5GB of DDR2 memory and an 80GB Western Digital, 7200RPM 3.5-inch hard drive. As Microsoft's much-anticipated Windows 7 operating system has just received its official market debut, we wanted to see how the new SSD took advantage of the optimizations enabled by Microsoft's much-anticipated OS.

With that in mind, we proceeded to testing the drive's performance using some of the most popular benchmark applications, currently available. We used the HDD Test Suite in PCMark Vantage, HD Tune, the suite of HDD tests available in Lavaly's Everest application, as well as the increasingly popular ATTO Disk Benchmark.

The SSDNow V 40GB drive from Kingston is essentially a 2.5-inch SATA-enabled storage solution that has been specifically designed for use in today's mainstream and high-end computer systems. It comes with a rather useful bundle, which includes a desktop upgrade kit, namely the necessary 3.5-inch brackets and mounting screws and the SATA power and data cables. That, alongside the small SSD, will enable users to install the drive inside their desktop PC, much in the same way as any other traditional 3.5-inch hard drive.

The bundle includes everything you need to set up the drive inside your desktop PC chassis. With a regular Phillips screwdriver you will easily mount the provided 3.5-inch brackets on the back side of the SSD, while the additional mounting screws will enable you to install the drive inside the 3.5-inch internal bay. The SATA power and data cable sure come in handy, especially for those users that have to make do with the cables that are available in the chassis and which are usually taken by the available hardware.

As it is featured with a traditional SATA interface, the drive will immediately be recognized by the operating system and the system's BIOS. Initializing the drive is as easy as on any other traditional hard drive, so theoretically you shouldn't have any issues with the installation process of the new part.

Talking about performance, as you can see in the screenshots below, the drive is capable of delivering the promised read and write speeds, so you'll pretty much get what you paid for. In HD Tune, it managed to deliver an average read speed of 197.4MB/s. Things were pretty good in the ATTO Disk benchmark as well, while in PC Mark Vantage's HDD Test Suite, the low-capacity SSD managed to score an impressive 30271 points.

We wanted to test the boot times and the drive's performance when dealing with some of the most widely used applications, but we had little time to do a fresh install of Microsoft's brand-new Windows 7 operating system. We will, however, update the article as soon as we have the stats, once we will have the performance details.

One more thing that we liked about the new SSDNow 40GB storage solution was that Kingston will provide users with a rather useful bundle, which includes the aforementioned 3.5-inch brackets and mounting screws and the SATA power and data cables, but also a rather useful hard drive cloning software, available on the installation CD.

The Good

Kingston's SSDNow V 40GB does provide an interesting choice for consumers, which are being prompted to consider it as a solution for their desktop PC, more specifically as a replacement for their main OS partition. While there are many low-capacity or low-priced storage solutions already available on the market, the performance specifications and speed of the new Kingston SSD do make it a noteworthy alternative. Performance is everything you'd expect it to be, that is if you don't plan on using the drive as the main storage solution for a small, portable computer system The bundle is what you should go for with the drive, as the price difference isn't that significant to give up on the aforementioned software and tools.

The Bad

We haven't talked much about the pricing of the new drive, but this is basically where we've got our mixed feelings. It will go on sale for an MSRP of US$123 with the included bundle, while the standalone offering is US$117. That said, the Kingston SSDNow V-series 64GB MLC-based SSD with desktop bundle is currently available at Newegg for US$158.99 and will provide you with increased storage capacity but with a lower read speed of 100MB/s and write speed of 80MB/s. The bundle is pretty much the same for both drives, but the 64GB model appears to provide a better alternative.

It's up to you to choose between a higher-capacity SSD for approximately US$30 more and a 40GB model that offers an impressive read speed, optimized to become your new OS partition. The choice would be easier if the price tag for the 40GB went a bit lower, somewhere in the US$100 range.

Overall impressions

Kingston's new SSD does look to provide computer enthusiasts with a rather interesting choice when looking for a desktop storage solution. The drive's overall performance is impressive, but it's certainly not a choice for those looking to expand their system's storage capacity with a faster drive. Pricing isn't really that bad, but with the 64GB costing nearly as much as the 40GB model, the choice is rather difficult.

Sales package:

Kingston SSDNow 40GB SSD
3.5-Inch brackets and mounting screws
SATA power and cable
Hard drive cloning software
Installation Guide (CD)

Nokia 5730 XpressMusic Review

2009-10-21T20:21:00.000-07:00

Nokia's XpressMusic series adds another device to its portfolio, Nokia 5730 XpressMusic, a smartphone that combines business and multimedia features. While the phone may look like an ordinary bar handset, the surprise comes from the fact that it comes with a full QWERTY keyboard. More goodies included are two game-dedicated keys placed above the display. Nokia 5730 XpressMusic is a mid-budget device stuffed with lots of features that will surely meet any user's demands. Either it's music that you wanna listen or games that you wish to play, Nokia 5730 has it all and even more. Other highlights of the smartphone include Wi-Fi, GPS receiver, N-Gage support, 3.5mm audio jack port, 3.2 Megapixel camera, FM radio with RDS support and many more.

Nokia 5730 XpressMusic was announced in March 2009 and was available on the market starting June 2009. The device can be acquired in any of the available colors – Red, Monochrome, Blue or Pink – for a very good price, of only $340 USD.

Design

Nokia 5730 XpressMusic doesn't stand out from the crowd through its design, as it rather looks cheap, since the manufacturer chose a cheap plastic, which is common to mid-budget handsets. You might think that this hurts the phone's design, but in the end it's the user who decides if he or she likes it or not. The candybar form is also specific to XpressMusic series, but this is somewhat contradicted by the full QWERTY keyboard attached, which can transform the handset into an authentic slider.

The rounded shape of the phone gives him some ergonomic value, but this is where it stops. Nokia 5730 XpressMusic measures 112 x 51 x 15.4 mm and weighs 135g (including battery). The front plastic used for manufacture is shiny and very well polished, while the one on the back is rather mat. This means that the front part of the handset will be covered with fingerprints and grease as soon as you start using it. There's no solution to this, so you will just have to live with it. Anyway, the handset features a 2.4-inch TFT display, which is not protected in any way.

Just above the screen there's a secondary videocall camera, which can also be used to take snapshots. Opposite to the secondary camera there's a small ambient light sensor, while in between there are two controllers used for N-Gage games. The small keypad below the display is easy to text with, except for the contextual keys, which are difficult to use. The specific Symbian and the C (Delete) keys are very small and very hard to press. The same goes for the two soft keys, which are also somewhat hard to work with. The big D-pad button can also be used as Enter key to control the various menus of the phone.

The full QWERTY keyboard can be used when the phone is slid. It features 39 very flat keys with a very good backlighting. The first row near the sliding mechanism is a little bit harder to access if you have bigger thumbs, but that isn't such a big disadvantage. The keyboard is very nice to the touch and the keys are responsive, but its flatness makes the texting experience somewhat weird.

On top of the slider there's a 3.5mm audio jack, while on the bottom there's a small charger port. The right side of the handset features a dual-volume key and a dedicated camera key. The left side features a small microSD slot card and a microUSB port, both covered by a plastic stripe. One of the main traits of the handset, which defines it as belonging to the XpressMusic series, is the 3-dedicated music keys, which have been placed along the left side of the display. These are meant to control the music player without the need of browsing deep into the phone's menu.

The back side of the phone includes a 3.2 Megapixel camera with flash and autofocus. There's no protection for the camera module, so scratches are possible. All in all, Nokia 5730 XpressMusic is a mid-budget device that can be very easily used as a candybar or slider, if need be.

Display and Camera

Nokia 5730 features a 2.4-inch TFT display, supporting 16 Million colors and 240x320 pixel resolution. Besides its medium size, the screen is pretty good, in accordance with Nokia's standards. It's readable in the sunlight and features good brightness and nice colors, but it is not protected against scratches in any way. For more in-depth info regarding performance, check out the benchmarks below.

The 3.2 Megapixel camera features LED flash, auto-focus capabilities and Carl Zeiss optics. Unfortunately, the camera module lacks any protection, so scratches might appear after one month of use, but hopefully this won't drag down the picture quality. The maximum resolution that users can set to take pictures is that of 2048x1536 pixels. Movies can be recorded in VGA resolution at 30fps, while clips can be saved in MPEG4 file format.

The interface is pretty much straightforward and limited in choices, with settings like Scene modes, Sequence mode, Color tones, and White balance. An interesting fact is the possibility to customize the Settings bar on the right with shortcuts that will give you quick access to various settings of the camera.

As you can see from the samples, the camera is decent and takes good pictures. Not bad, but not very good either. I think decent is the word that can define pictures taken with 5730's camera. There is little noise in taking the snapshots, contrast is very good, and color rendering is accurate enough thanks to the processing software of the camera.

Menu and Software

Nokia 5730 runs Symbian 9.3 operating system, with S60 3rd Edition and Feature Pack 2 interface. Besides the usual improvements added by FP1, you'll now be able to add your favorite contacts on the new Contacts bar that appears on top of the screen. Each contact is represented by a small avatar (thumbnail) chosen from the Gallery or by taking a picture with the camera. Clicking on any of the contacts added will bring up a list with various options that will enable you to edit the contact, send a message, call or add feed.

The last one means that you'll be able to add feeds instead of contacts, so you can quick access it from the Homescreen. The screen is more populated with a bar that usually shows your emails, as soon as you set up your mail account. The last row of shortcuts contains by default: Music player, N-Gage, Message, Gallery, Web browser and Facebook. These shortcuts are fully customizable, as more others can be added instead of the default ones. Another new feature that has been introduced by FP2 is the availability of animation when browsing the menus.

The Search utility has been improved with a new function called 'Say and Play.' Basically, you can pronounce any artist or song name by using the built-in speaker, and the phone will start playing the correct file, if the respective word is included in the song's metadata. The device only recognizes English language or English pronunciation, in case you thought of other language names. Nice features, but they didn't work too well. Furthermore, you have quick access to the task manager, as the function appears now at the top of every pop-up menu. The phone also supports the latest version of Adobe's Flash Lite 1.5, the interoperable platform that enables the accelerated development and delivery of rich graphical mobile content, and includes audio file playback and streaming capabilities that provide audio and music enhancements to both mobile gaming and multimedia experience.

The handset also includes some useful applications, such as Search, Alarm clock, Calendar, To-do list, Notes, Calculator, Countdown timer, World Clock, and Stopwatch. The menu is fully customizable and you can designate any MP3, MIDI or AAC file as ringtone. Moreover, Nokia's integrated browser has not changed, but it offers a great Web navigation experience. There's also a payment application called 'we:offset' and the usual AcuWeather. The phonebook can store an unlimited number of contacts, as long as you have enough storage memory left. The fonts can be customized, though only those displayed when opening Contacts, Web browser and messaging sections.

If you are looking for games, Nokia 5730 XpressMusic doesn't contain any, but you can download some trial games by using the N-Gage platform integrated. The phone is compatible with Java MIDP 2.1 applications, but also with any Symbian S60 3rd Edition software.

Communication

Nokia 5730 XpressMusic is a quad-band GSM (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) handset, HSDPA (3.6 Mbps) compatible, which features GPRS class 32 (100 kbps), EDGE 32 class (296 kbps), High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data (57.6 kbps) and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, UPnP technology. Tested on the EDGE and 3G networks, the handset performed a little bit above average, as you can also see in the screenshots.

When connecting the USB cable, you'll be able to choose among five modes: PC Suite, Mass storage, Media transfer, Image transfer and Connect PC to web. All five of them are intuitive and easy to use, so there's nothing more to add here. The process of synching is very fast, browsing and transfers are made very quickly between phone and PC.

Other connectivity tools include Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and EDR support, and microUSB 2.0 for PC synchronization (charging). The Bluetooth connection reaches easily almost 135 KB/s, so you'll be able to transfer data fast. The built-in GPS receiver supports A-GPS function and works flawlessly together with the newly renamed Ovi Maps.

In terms of messaging, the phone offers standard SMS and MMS messaging solutions, accepting all available message types. The device also includes an audio message editor and e-mail support. The message client works with POP3, SMTP, and IMAP4 protocols, and supports more than one e-mail account. Additionally, it can download headers and supports attachments.

Processor and Memory

Nokia 5730 is powered by a single ARM11 family processor running at speeds of up to 369 Mhz. Compared to the latest Nokia handsets, which include more powerful CPUs (600 Mhz), 5730 might seem a little bit undergeared. Still, it acts smoothly while browsing menus, even when the music player is started. But don't try to open more than 2 applications as the device is not really meant for such a high level of multitasking.

The handset embeds 100 MB user free internal storage memory, 128 MB SDRAM memory. Bear in mind that just 85 MB are free executable RAM memory. Anyway, storage space can be expanded up to 16GB through the hot-swappable microSD slot card. The sales package also contains an 8GB microSD card.

Multimedia

Instead of being a complete multimedia solution for those looking for the perfect music phone, Nokia 5730 XpressMusic only offers a glimpse of how such a phone might be. The product comes with new wired stereo headset (HS-83) and remote control plug AD-54 with music controls, but better headphones can be added thanks to the 3.5mm audio jack.

The music player interface looks exactly like in previous XpressMusic series music players and supports an impressive number of file types (including MP3, WMA and eAAC+). Without impressing too much through its sound quality, Nokia 5730 could be a decent choice for those looking for a music phone with high-battery autonomy. The music player features an Equalizer that includes a Bass-booster setting, Stereo widening, Loudness and Balance.

The FM radio has a standard interface, and can automatically scan and save the available stations. It features RDS support and Visual radio. The Visual radio application can download all the local stations and save them to the handset with their names. Both functions, radio and music player, respectively, can be run in the background with no problems.

Nokia 5730 also includes Real player for playing video clips. The video player can be displayed in both normal and fullscreen modes. Unfortunately, the medium sized screen makes the whole experience rather frustrating.

Battery

The 1000 mAh Li-Ion (BL-4U) battery has an officially stated life expectancy of 300 hours in standby (270 hours for 3G) and of about 5 hours in talk time mode (4 hours for 3G). Also, Nokia states a music autonomy of almost 1 day (25 hours). While I wasn't able to achieve the 5-hour talk time promised, our test unit made it for about 3 days with medium use. This is a decent autonomy, a little bit better than other XpressMusic handsets and this is probably thanks to the bigger capacity battery.

Impressions

Nokia 5730 XpressMusic looks like an ordinary bar handset, until you discover its QWERTY keyboard. I would say that the phone might be a good choice for those youngsters who use their phones to text and listen to music a lot. A little bit sensible to the environment because of the cheap plastic, Nokia 5730 requires some level of protection from the user.

The Good

The slider is a very good solution for music phone fans, especially since it features goodies like Wi-Fi, GPS receiver and QWERTY keyboard. Nokia 5730 is good value for money and boasts a wide range of features, which makes it such a versatile device. A good music quality sound as well as a decent camera are also some of the qualities of the handset.

The Bad

Perhaps the 'ordinary' construction of the phone is what hurts it the most, as the technical features are up to the standards. Also I didn't like the cheap feeling of the plastic that was used to manufacture the 5730 handset. Otherwise, the device is a simple mid-ranged phone, but with lots of features.

Sales Package

Nokia 5730 XpressMusic handset
Battery BL-4U (1000mAh)
Wired stereo headset (HS-83) and remote control plug AD-54 with music controls
Micro USB cable CA-101D
8 GB MicroSD memory card (inside phone)
Travel Charger AC-8
Short User Guide
Mini DVD

Sony Ericsson Xperia x1 review

2009-10-21T20:05:00.000-07:00

Now that we’ve had some time to spend with the XPERIA X1, we’re going to break down the various features and give you our in-depth review. We’ll continue to update this post as we use the device more, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand what’s at hand — a brand new Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1! Full review is after the jump. Pictures will be added shortly.

Screen:

With a 800×480 VGA screen, you can’t really go wrong right? Right. We’ve got to say off the top that this is the best-looking screen we’ve ever seen on a Windows Mobile device. It puts all the others to shame. It’s not just that the screen has an amazing resolution, it’s that the screen is vibrant and clear as day. If your vision isn’t top notch you might have to increase the font size in settings because it gets a little small with that super high-res. Sunlight couldn’t phase it either as we had no problem using it on the go outside.

Audio quality

We didn’t put the speakers through our normal tests just yet to be honest. We tried a couple MP3s and they sounded good, not great. The speaker volume in general could have been a little louder and the sound could have sounded a little fuller. Speakerphone was the same. We’ll report back with more detailed findings.

Notification lights

If you’ve seen the Sidekick LX, you’ll know what we’re talking about. There are 4 independant notification lights on the four corners of the X1. These are LED lights that change through various colors. Unlike the Sidekick, you have complete control over the notification settings. Only want people to think you’ve got a UFO in your pocket when you’re getting a text message? No problem. There’s a lot to choose from to suit your own needs. The lights offer a nice touch and weren’t too over-powering and bright which we were afraid of. The kids will love it.

Call quality

Calls came in and out with crystal clear quality. The ear speaker was plently loud and the party on the other end said we sounded like we were on a land line.

Data Connectivity

Name something you’d like to see in a mobile device… HSDPA? Wi-Fi? GPS? The X1 has all of it. T-Mobile USA lovers will also be overjoyed at the fact that an AWS 1700MHz version is coming. Our unit had the 850MHz/1900MHz US 3G bands so we were rockin’ over HSDPA just fine. In fact, web browsing was abnormally fast. We didn’t find much of a difference between browsing over Wi-Fi or HSDPA. That’s probably due to the bottleneck of the phone in general, but it was a pleasant surprise.

Build quality

Another winner for Sony Ericsson. While the device isn’t the lightest phone on the market, we think it’s build quality is almost second-to-none. Maybe even iPhone status. It’s just so sturdy and well put together. We have to give HTC some mad props on this one. Could you please try and incorporate some of this newfound metal addition into some of your devices HTC? Please. The sliding mechanism was fantastic even though the device isn’t a normal “flat” slider. Major points for build quality.

Usability factor

This could be subjective depending on your view of Windows Mobile, but we found the X1 to be on par or better than any Windows Mobile device we’ve used. Baring the keyboard issue, (see below) there wasn’t anything that hindered us from taking full advantage of the device. When closed, the device gives you access to all necessary shortcuts on the bottom front of the unit. Slide it open and you’ve got access to everything you could want. People have wrote us and asked about how it is to use the phone when the QWERTY keyboard doesn’t have directional keys, but they’ve overlooked something — the optical joystick. This works wonderfully well and doesn’t have a learning curve. It’s a natural extension of what we’ve been forced to use in the past. There was a “cursor” menu in settings but no cursor showed up on the screen. You also have full control over the sensitivity of the optical joystick. Making phone calls was comfortable and we didn’t have any issues with people hearing us or us hearing them.

Keyboard

The keyboard is a sensitive area for many people. Anyone who follows us know we take it very seriously — we put them all through the ringer! So, it pains us to report, that at least with our particular unit, the keyboard wasn’t great. It didn’t take time to get used to it, it just didnt perform like the way we had hoped. The reason is because the keys almost are completely flush with the case and don’t give good tactile feedback when pressed. Odly enough, the spacebar was actually ok. It faired the best out of all of them. We understand why there really is no travel in the keys — there is a huge sliding mechanism right over them — but we would have liked to see a little more feedback when typing. They have this triangular pattern on top which does make it easy to feel them, but you don’t get a good response when actually pressing them down. The backlight on the QWERTY ‘board successfully helped us find the keys when it was nightime, but that still didn’t help when typing. We said this before, but if we had to compare the keyboard to anything, it would be Sony’s UX-series computers. It’s the same exact thing.

Nokia 5630 xpressmusic Review

2009-10-06T16:37:00.000-07:00

We believe contemporary, music smart phones need to deliver proper audio quality, be powerful performers, measure compact size and offer great Internet connectivity. Apparently, quite many people feel the same way, so Nokia has decided to give them joy releasing the 5630 XpressMusic. It runs Symbian S60 3rd Edition with Feature Pack 2 and sports 600 MHz ARM11 processor. It’s slim and compact and features N-Gage support. Sounds quite promising, isn’t it?

In the box you will also find a wall charger, phone purse (made of fabric), 4GB microSD card, pair of earphones, audio player wired remote, microUSB cable (too short), software mini DVD and user guide. We also happen to have great news for all fans of the nature – box itself is made from recycled materials only and the charger is of highest energy efficiency class.

Design:

On the outside, the Nokia 5630 XpressMusic looks like a blend of the two devices in the same lineup that we like best – the 5320 and 5310. The 5630 is only 2 mm thicker than the latter or in other words is really thin, especially for a smart phone.

Nokia 5630 XpressMusic Nokia 5630 XpressMusic Nokia 5630 XpressMusic
The Nokia 5630 XpressMusic is really thin

You can compare the Nokia 5630 XpressMusic with many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.

All buttons on the front of Nokia 5630 XpressMusic feel very comfy
We would have liked it far better if the screen was a bit larger, but we will have to make do with the current one that measures 2.2 inches and delivers QVGA resolution. Still, it comes with 16 mln colors and remains totally usable in direct sunlight, despite the fact screen gets slightly dim.

All buttons on the front side feel very comfy. The navigational ones are a bit small, but are prominent and make up for the size with enough travel. The keyboard sports large keys, aligned in distinct rows that are easy to feel with your fingers. Those on either side of the phone, volume rocker and camera shutter on the right and audio player controls on the left are all somewhat hard to press, because their travel is not pronounced enough. The microSD card slot is well hidden under a small flap and is also on the right hand side of the phone, while both microUSB and 3.5 mm jack are on the top.

The back side of the Nokia 5630 XpressMusic features a rugged pattern that feels like rubber to your touch and feels quite pleasing. The 3.2-megapixel, double LED flash camera is here as well. Just like most makes in the same lineup, the phone looks youthful, but not flighty and light as both the 5320 and 5220. Aside from the red and black variety that you see in the pictures, the phone also comes with grey or blue trim.

As we mentioned at the beginning, the Nokia 5630 XpressMusic is a smart phone powered by Symbian S60 3rd Edition with Feature Pack 2. We can think of at least a dozen other phones running the same operating system, but it’s the first time we have seen a new home screen, aside from the standard vertical and horizontal icon rows. It’s called “contact bar” and looks quite similar to the one on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic that runs Symbian S60 5th Edition. As its name suggests, up to 20 contacts can be visualized on the screen and appear there with their assigned pictures. Selecting any turns call history and any messages you may have exchanged on screen. The same function is used to follow RSS broadcasts. Say, you create an entry, name it phoneArena then you can assign it a web-feed so as to see news updates right away.

There is an info field below the contacts that, by default, notifies you of new emails. A shortcut to the Ovi chat service that you can, logically, get on through your Ovi account is to be found right below. You can replace the latter with a Wi-Fi scanner or a function that shows timeslots of your daily schedule, provided you have filled in your Calendar. Unfortunately, all three cannot be visualized at the same time. There is the option to place a row of icons at the bottom to gain quick access to audio player, radio, internet browser, Internet searches, N-Gage web portal and phone gallery.

As you can see, most of the apps on the home screen are to do with the Internet. This is pretty normal, given the Nokia 5630 XpressMusic is much more than a music device. A quick look at the menus should be enough to convince you this is a device that can be easily used on social networks plus you will be able to feast your eyes on the new, pleasing icons, much in character of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. Shortcuts to Facebook, MySpace and Hi5 in the phone are located in the internet menu along with options to share files through YouTube and Ovi Share. You can connect to the Web via 3G (HSDPA 10.2Mbit/s) or Wi-Fi. The Symbian browser is really good and opens even heavy pages without any issues but it cannot play general Flash content, despite the fact YouTube videos are supported.

The browser of Nokia 5630 XpressMusic opens even heavy pages without issues

If you can’t find anything amusing enough on the Internet, you can always chance your luck on the N-Gage portal. Games are purchased and downloaded from there and you can share your best scores with other players.

HTC Touch2 Review

2009-09-15T00:29:00.000-07:00

One of the first smartphones to feature the latest version of Microsoft's operating system for mobile devices, Windows Mobile 6.5 – HTC Touch2 is a mid-budget Pocket PC that targets the mass market. The device had been rumored since the beginning of the year, when the whole HTC line of devices for 2009 was leaked on the Internet.

Codenamed HTC Mega, the smartphone will be officially launched this fall under the name of HTC Touch2. Announced as a Windows Mobile device for the masses, Touch2 features a nice design that follows the same lines as its older predecessor, HTC Touch. We have received a test sample of the device that features an earlier Windows Mobile build, so we will mostly center upon the new features of the OS and less on its functionality.

Announced in September 2009, HTC Touch2 should be available on the market in October. HTC Touch2 is available in three different colors: Black, Brown and Silver. While we don't have any information regarding its price, I believe that 250 USD should be the right one for this mid-budget smartphone.

Design

HTC Touch2 looks small and slim at a first glance, the kind of phone that fits into any pocket. Its compact form makes it also resistant to soft drops, but don't think of it as a very durable device, as it's just a mid-budget phone. The whole front part of the phone is seized by the 2.8-inch touchscreen, while the back of the phone only features a 3-megapixel camera. Under the screen, there is a short set of keys that improves users' interaction with the phone's interface. Starting from left to right, these are: Accept calls, Home, Menu and Back, Reject calls. At the base of the screen, between the display and the key-set mentioned above, there's a grading scale that is used to zoom in/out when you open the camera interface.

HTC Touch2 features a resistive touchscreen, so you'll be needing a stylus, which has been placed to the right corner, on the bottom of the smartphone. There's also a miniUSB port near the stylus slot and a 3.5mm jack port on top of it. The left side of the device features a microSD slot and a long volume dual key. The camera on the back of the phone doesn't have any flash capabilities, but seems to be well protected with a metallic plate that has been embedded around it. There's also a small loudspeaker near this plate that protects the camera module.

The exact measures of the smartphone are 104 x 55 x 12.9 mm, while the weight of the phone including battery is of 110g. The plastic used for manufacturing doesn't look cheap at all, on the contrary. Still, the smartphone is surrounded by a silvery, plastic band, which will definitely peel off after intensive use. This will make the phone look somewhat bad when you will keep it in your hand. Anyway, HTC Touch2 features a simple, yet stylish, design, which will most likely appeal to the majority of customers.

Display and Camera

HTC Touch2 features a 2.8-inch TFT resistive touchscreen that supports 65K colors and a 240x320-pixel resolution. Being a resistive display has some disadvantages, like a low sensibility to touch, a low thumb-control functionality, a low visibility under strong sunlight, and the lack of the multi-touch feature. Still, this kind of display lowers the price of the phone, making it cheaper overall. That comes with more missing features, though. HTC Touch2 doesn't have the accelerometer function, so users won't be able to rotate the phone's image to landscape or portrait modes. Furthermore, the quality of the image displayed is a little bit on the mediocre side, as the contrast is not that good and the colors are a little bit washed.

The 3-megapixel camera is simple to use, as it doesn't have any complex features. Basically, you will only need to point and shoot what you want. There's no dedicated button for the camera, but you'll be able to use the touch button that appears on the display. You can zoom in/out by swiping your fingers on the grade scale at the base of the display.

The camera interface is simple and straightforward, as you can see from the screenshots. The maximum resolution that you can use for the pictures is of 2048x1536 pixels. Clips can be recorded in CIF mode at a 352x288-pixel resolution at maximum.

Unfortunately, there's no autofocus, flash or other standard capabilities, only basic settings such as: White balance, ISO, Brightness and Effects. Pictures are decent, but don't expect more than average quality. The pictures below show that Touch2 only features a mediocre camera, just as its price suggests.

Menu and Software

HTC Touch2 runs the new Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional operating system, featuring the second version of the TouchFLO interface. The latter has been stripped by any animation effects for transitions to messaging, email, photos, music, weather, and more. The test-sample device that we received features an older version of the operating system – build 21839, which has been improved and has already reached version 23047. The same innovative, touch-sensitive control for interacting with the device that was introduced with Touch Pro is also present with the Touch HD device.

While the TouchFLO 2.0 enables finger-swipe navigation through menus, the lack of an accelerometer sensor limits its functionality. You will only be able to use the swipe navigation when scrolling and less when browsing through the menu. Instead, you are presented with a new way of menu browsing. The small icons at the base of the Homescreen will help you reach the desired application or function very fast. Keep your finger pressed on any of those icons and then gently swipe to the left or to the right until you reach the window menu that you need.

The main menu of Windows Mobile 6.5 didn't impress me too much, but at least the white, boring background from the menu has been removed. Instead, you are now presented with three rows of settings, applications and functions, which have been placed in a serpentine, just like in the screenshots. Odd, at first glance, but I didn't find any real advantage, nor disadvantage. There's an aesthetic side to this, but as tastes differ, you might like it or not.

The navigation can be easily done without the need of a stylus, by using only the finger and swiping to the right or to the left on the Home screen, just as I have described above. The Start menu will not get you directly to the main menu of the smartphone and will not list the most used programs. To facilitate the writing method and to come to the aid of those who are used with various inputting methods, HTC has introduced three types of keypad layouts: Phone keypad, Compact QWERTY, and Full QWERTY. For business people, HTC has included the Office Mobile package, which now also comprises the OneNote Mobile application, besides the usual Excel, PowerPoint and Word Mobile programs.

The Notes application cannot be accessed when talking on the phone, unless you click the additional Menu button on the screen and choose the Create-note command. The touchscreen offers you a couple of nice functions, like zooming in and out when browsing the Internet or when viewing pictures. The zooming can be done by double-tapping on the screen. The Internet Explorer browser has been gifted with Adobe Flash Lite 9.0, but I have encountered some problems with various websites. I think that the newest builds have corrected the errors that I got when browsing some sites that were heavily animated.

The rest of the pieces of software included are pretty much standard for a Windows Mobile device, with several exceptions. The Touch2 includes the standard productivity tools: Notes, Tasks and Calendar; the Office Mobile suite with Word, Excel and PowerPoint; Adobe Reader (version 2.5) for viewing PDF documents; Voice Recorder; and the same, boring games, Bubble Breaker and Solitaire.

Internet-related programs include a Streaming Media application, which does exactly what the name suggests and is designed to be easily used with the finger; Windows Live Messenger and Live Search; Internet Explorer for Web navigation; MSN Money, Market and Microsoft MyPhone. The last two new features have been the highlights of the announcement that made the 6.5 version of the operation system official. Market, as the name suggests, is the place where you will be able to download applications compatible with Windows Mobile. Unfortunately, the function is not ready yet, so I cannot tell you anything about it. Check out the screenshots to see what's the degree of the development. The Microsoft MyPhone service enables you to synchronize and save your Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Text Messages, Photos, Videos, Music and Documents with your MyPhone account on the PC. Basically, you have access to everything that I mentioned above from your PC, and you'll be able to add new contacts, events and the likes on the PC and then synchronize it with your Pocket PC later.

For the multimedia part, the HTC Touch offers the Windows Media Player for audio and video playback, and Pictures & Video for browsing photos and video files and for modifying images.

Regarding the communications, the device includes Internet Sharing, which allows the smartphone to be used as a modem; the Comm Manager for enabling/disabling and changing various communications settings; Bluetooth Explorer for managing Bluetooth connections.

Then, there are a File Manager, a search tool, a ZIP utility, a tool for encrypting files on the memory card, Clear Storage for restoring all settings to their default values, an application for configuring the connection with the internal GPS unit, the JBlend Java emulator and the very useful Task Manager, which can be used to switch between or close running tasks and also to change the behavior of the "x" button, to make it really remove applications from the memory, instead of sending them in the background.

Communication

HTC Touch2 features quad-band support for 850/900/1800/1900 Mhz frequency bands. For wireless Internet connectivity, the HTC Touch2 offers both GPRS and the faster EDGE. In our tests, EDGE managed to attain a transfer rate of 184 Kbit/s for download and of 83 Kbit/s for upload, while the 3G+ band only reached speeds of up to 1,836 Kbit/s for download and of 307 Kbit/s for upload. Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g can also be used at available hotspots to speed up things and reduce data-plan costs.

For wireless data transfer between mobiles, the HTC Touch2 uses the latest Bluetooth 2.1 standard, while, for data synchronization with the PC, the device offers USB 2.0.

The smartphone also includes a built-in GPS receiver, which surprisingly works with the GoogleMaps application. To be able to take advantage of the voice-guide navigation, users will need to install the CoPilot Mobile Navigation software and download the necessary map. The localization works smoothly and the pin-point is made very fast, even if one is indoors.

HTC Touch2 is compatible with all email clients and protocols (POP3, IMAP) and can be synchronized with the PC. The device is also compatible with SMS, EMS, and MMS text features. Instant-messaging options include Windows Live Messenger, but other IMs can also be installed. The interface is pretty straightforward and user-friendly.

The in-call sound quality is above average, as I've seen better. The GSM signal is also good, as long as you don't keep the device set on the 3G band, as the reception is only average.

Processor and Memory

HTC Touch2 is powered by a Qualcomm MSM7225 ARM11 family processor, running at speeds of up to 528 Mhz. Overall, I haven't experienced any lock-downs, crashes, or lags. As the phone doesn't have any animations or transition effects, you won't have any problems when browsing the menus or running multiple applications.

The smartphone embeds a 256 MB RAM and 512 MB ROM memory. The storage space can be expanded up to 16GB through the hot-swappable microSD slot card.

Multimedia

In general, Pocket PCs haven't paid much attention to the multimedia capabilities, but the HTC Touch2 makes an exception, or at least it tries. First of all, HTC is now including an 3.5mm jack port, which says something. Secondly, the default application used for audio and video playback is more advanced, compared with older HTC devices, as it features a sound equalizer and a very nice user interface. The music player supports MP3, WAV, eAAC+, and WMA format files.

The music sound is very good, actually, especially that you have access to a wide range of equalizer modes, but you can also make your own settings. The Windows Media Player version 10 supports MP4, WMV, H.263, and H.264 video files.

The smarpthone also features the Radio FM function, which can auto-scan and memorize up to 20 base stations. The radio can be run in the background and listened to in the loudspeaker. There's also a YouTube client embedded, if you like to watch short movies. Overall, I had a good experience with Touch2's multimedia part, and I think the gap between smartphones and music phones is slowly coming to a close.

Battery

The HTC Touch2 is powered by a 1100 mAh Li-Ion battery, which, according to the official specifications, gives the device an autonomy of up to five hours and 30 minutes of talk time (six hours and ten minutes for 3G) and 500 hours in standby mode (370 hours for 3G).

In our tests, the battery depleted after four hours and 43 minutes of standard usage, with the backlight set to the maximum. Even though it is far from the official numbers, I would say that the battery's autonomy is satisfying.

Impressions

I've been pleasantly surprised by the new, mid-budget device in terms of design, but a little bit disappointed about the new version of the operating system. While, visually, there are some changes, I still think that Windows Mobile is far from Android and the iPhone in terms of performance, functionality and look. Still, HTC Touch2 is a good smartphone, but only if it sells for a cheap price, otherwise I think people will look for more advanced solutions and Android is so much better for now.

The Good

I would enlist here the ergonomic design of the device, the powerful CPU, which has been included into a phone that is meant for the mass market. Also, I was surprised by the high quality of the music sound, which is really something new for a Windows Mobile device. Adding a 3.5mm jack port is definitely an excellent choice and it offers users the possibility to put in their own headphones. I would also like to add that the new services offered by Windows Mobile 6.5, Microsoft MyPhone and Marketplace are a good idea, but the latter comes a little bit too late.

The Bad

Well, there aren't too many bad things that I feel I should mention here. Maybe a better camera would've raised the phone's desirability. While it's not that bad, the new operating system still doesn't make me want to buy the phone.

Sales Package

HTC Touch2 Pocket PC;
1100 mAh Li-ion battery;
Stylus;
User Guide;
Charger;
Mini-USB data cable.

Olympus E-620 DSLR Camera,

2009-08-19T19:52:00.000-07:00

Just the thing to get if you're rather new to the field of digital photography

I don't know just how many of you still remember our world before the advent of digital photography, but I'm pretty sure that most people from the younger generation wouldn't really know what to do if faced with a roll of film and a classic camera. Indeed, most of the world has gone completely digital nowadays, and the same happened with the big names in optics and photography, such as Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Pentax and Sony. Of course, they're not the only digital camera manufacturers out there, but, without a doubt, they are the most famous.

Quite recently, we had the chance to take for a quick test one of Olympus' latest and most impressive offerings in the DSLR department, namely the E-620 model, which was officially introduced in early 2009 and established itself as an important contender on the entry-level segment, providing both a multitude of functions and features, a very slim body, an advanced Image Stabilization system (world's smallest DSLR with an IS system at the time of its launch), as well as fairly good image quality. In fact, as far as the specs are concerned, one might say that the body of the E-620 is close to semi-pro grade than entry level, but that's not the segment targeted by Olympus with this model.

Of course, given the particular segment it targets, the DSLR from Olympus is pretty good, although some of its features are a bit mainstream for the digital single-lens reflex community (for instance, the art filters, which should appeal more to the mainstream crowd rather than professional photographers). Naturally, the DSLR also has some shortcomings (which we'll be sure to detail over the course of this review), but there's no product out there that doesn't have at least a couple of features or characteristics worth criticizing.

Before going any deeper into this review, we'll have to issue somewhat of a warning. While you'll find quite a lot of technical information on the E-620, as well as some things on just what to expect when working with this DSLR, we've tried to talk more about the user experience and the quality of the photos rather that comparing this particular model with others available. It's not really a shopping guide, but rather a very honest “short walk-through” regarding exactly what you can expect from this DSLR.

Mobile Action i-gotU GT-120 USB GPS Travel Logger

2009-08-16T12:32:00.000-07:00

Without a doubt, the GPS system is one of the best things that mankind has ever developed, primarily due to the fact that it allows people to navigate a lot easier than before. I mean, since the appearance of GPS-enabled navigators, drivers find it a lot easier to reach their desired destinations, the most advanced products of this type available on the market also providing ways for them to route around traffic jams, accident sites, etc.

However, PNDs or personal navigation devices are by no means the only type of GPS devices out there. No, in fact, the GPS system can be used for tracking any object in motion, as long as it's located outside (is able to tap into the signals transmitted by the GPS satellites), or for taking geo-tagged photos, name digital pictures to which a set of precise geographical coordinates have been associated.

The two functions mentioned above represent the area of expertise of the device we've recently had the chance of testing, namely the i-gotU GT-120 USB GPS Travel Logger, developed by Mobile Action, a tiny device that looks quite innocent at a first sight, but which is actually able to carry out a lot of functions, with the help of the very interesting associate software application.

Hence, one can employ this GPS travel logger for recording their journeys and then display them onto Google Maps or Google Earth (since the software provides seamless integration with the aforementioned applications), create a blog of their journeys and even compliment the displayed roadmap with some photos, via the special geo-tagging feature. Of course, the device can be used for other purposes as well, such as property tracking, plus for surveillance activities (such as keeping tabs on one's kids/spouse, etc.).

And all of this can be done in a fast and easy manner, by simply connecting the device to one's USB port and then running the tripPC application developed by Mobile Action.

Motorola ROKR U9 , Excellent clamshell design

2009-08-16T12:26:00.000-07:00

Even if it has reduced its personnel to the lowest numbers in all the history of the company, the mobile division of Motorola still lives, and another phone faces the light of day. Motorola U9 is a mid-budget clamshell that targets those people that remained faithful fans of the brand. Small, sleek, but above all incredibly aerodynamic, Motorola U9 was launched in an effort to limit the disastrous financial results registered last year.

Thanks to PureMobile, we had the pleasure to receive the phone, thus we can offer you an extended review of the clamshell.

Announced in October 2007, Motorola U9 clamshell was effectively launched on the market in February 2008. The handset was released in a few nice colors such as grey, red, pink and gold. Motorola ROKR U9 can be bought for around 120 USD, depending on the location and plan.

Design

Motorola ROKR U9 shines on so many levels when it comes to design. At first glance, the aerodynamic form of the device will catch your eye. The second trait that will get your attention is the shiny plastic used for manufacturing it. While the front part of the clamhsell, which features the secondary external display, is fully covered by this shiny, rich looking plastic, the back of the phone is made from a rubber-like material that feels great when you keep the gadget in your hand. The right side of the phone features a small Voice Recording key, which enables user to dial numbers by simply saying the name of the contact. On the left side of the clamshell, there's a dedicated camera button and a dual volume key.

The proprietary microUSB port has been placed on the bottom side of the device. The 2-megapixel camera on the front part of the clamshell is covered by a thin colorless plastic, which protects it against possible scratches. Also, you'll be able to use the touch sensitive music keys placed right under the small external display, but only when the music player is playing. The keypad of the phone looks standard and has pretty large keys. They have medium responsiveness, which means you must press them a little bit harder; otherwise, they offer a nice texting experience.

Control of the menu is done easily with the big D-pad button and the two soft keys. Besides the usual Back (Delete) key, Motorola also included a special multimedia key that opens up the music player when it's pressed. Right above the keypad, on the upper left corner, there's a small ambient light sensor.

The backlighting of the phone is great, so using it in dark areas won't create users any problems. The 2-inch main display doesn't touch the keypad thanks to the small rubber placed at the bottom of the keys. Motorola U9 measures 90 x 48.6 x 16.4 mm and weighs exactly 87.5g (including battery).

The clamshell mechanism is pretty sturdy, which makes the phone look solid. Even if it's a little bit harder, users will still be able to open the clamshell with only one hand. Overall, Motorola U9 seems to please through its nice form factor and lines, but let's see what's underneath this beautiful clothing.

Display and Camera

Motorola ROKR U9 embeds a very nice TFT (240 x 320 pixels) display, which supports 262K colors. The quality of the image is way above average, colors are very well defined making the contrast extremely vivid. When exposed under strong sunlight, the display performs very well, which means that you'll be able to use it outdoors too. The secondary OLED display supports 65K colors and 128x160 pixel resolution and can also be seen under the sunlight.

The 2-megapixel camera found on the front part of the clamshell doesn't have any features except for 8x digital zoom. The camera can be started by simply pressing the Camera button found on the left side of the clamshell. You can also set one of the shortcuts from the D-pad to open the camera interface. The preview of the picture cannot be seen in full screen. There are no additional settings for the camera, so as soon as you open up the module, you'll be able to shoot pictures. Saving snapshots takes little time, but requires extra handling of the menu.

As seen in the sample pictures, quality is above average, especially considering that this is a 2-megapixel camera. It seems to be highly dependent on light conditions and tends to lack sharpness and sometimes it will blur the objective.

Menu and Software

Motorola ROKR U9 doesn't have an operating system and features a very basic user interface. It seems to be a graphically updated Synergy GUI, which has been stripped of most of the advanced features. This makes the learning curve of the interface very short, as it has a very high accessability. The Phonebook can take up to 1,000 contacts, which have more fields that users can fill in: Email, URL, ringer ID, Picture or Birthday. The Recent calls category simply presents the calls history and it's very easy to navigate through Dialed calls, Received calls, Missing calls or Frequent calls with the big D-pad button. Messages category enables you to use a wide range of messaging solutions like SMS, EMS, MMS and Emails.

There's also an iTap dictionary that helps users type their messages faster that, of course, can be deactivated. The Office Tools category contains the network operator services, a simple calculator (which includes a currency converter), a task list, a rudimentary alarm clock, dialing services, notepad, calendar, file manager, Email, world clock, download manager and MotoSycn.

Games category only has Java software such as Sudoku, Motorola Text, Motorola Setup and Backup. The WebAccess category, just like its name says, gives users access to the Internet through different access points that can be set in advance or installed by the network operator. You can choose which access point to be used by default when you want to connect to the Internet through the Web Session option.

The integrated browser (Symphony 1.1) is rather mediocre and can be replaced with Opera mini if you want a better experience. The Multimedia category will give you access to the media Finder, Camera, Video Camera, Voice Recorder and Google. Connection offers users four connectivity options: Bluetooth link, USB Settings, Voice Networks and Data Connections. The last of the nine main categories, Settings, is the largest and you can do most of the important stuff from here. There are seven subcategories: Profiles, Themes, Home Screen, Call Settings, Phone Settings, Security and Network.

Motorola U9 includes Java MIDP 2.0 CLDC 1.1, with 900 KB free memory. That will enable users to install third-party Java applications in that small memory limit.

Communication

As a mid-budget device, Motorola U9 only features EDGE and GPRS class 10 technologies, which are more than enough for its price. Tests revealed a medium speed in data transfer speed: 120 Kbit/s download and 70 Kbit/s upload for EDGE.

The integrated Symphony browser can format the page of any site across the width of the screen, but can also display the image in full screen. Users will be able to save any website to favorites (directly in the phone's memory), switch off the image displaying or the Java scripts. The clamshell features Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support.

In terms of messaging, the phone accepts standard text messages, MMS, flash and sound messages, as well as emails. The message client supports the usual POP3, SMTP and IMAP4 protocols.

The quad-band (GSM 850 / GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900) network compatible clamshell has good GSM signal reception. The sound's clarity is pretty low and muffled during call conversations. The vibration is somewhat mediocre in intensity and cannot be set to higher levels. That will surely make you miss a lot of calls if you set the phone on Silent.

Processor and Memory

The clamshell is most likely powered by an ARM9 family processor running at speed of up to 201 Mhz. Even though it's a medium power CPU, I have noticed that the phone is a little bit sluggish, especially when running more that one application.

Motorola U9 includes 34.5 MB internal memory, but only 25 MB are available to the user. The space storage can be extended to 4GB thanks to the microSD slot card, which has been placed near the SIM slot, under the battery.

Multimedia

The integrated music player supports a wide range of formats such as: MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, OGG and AMR. It can be minimized and run in the background while you access other applications or functions of the phone. There are few settings that can be used: Equalizer, Spatial Audio, Shuffle, Auto-Repeat and Bass Boost. The music player can also be controlled using the touch sensitive music keys found under the external display, on the front part of the clamshell.

The sound quality is average, just like the music player interface. Moreover, it doesn't come with headphones in the sales package, or features a 3.5mm or 2.5mm jack port. I have also noticed that the phone will lag when the music player is run in the background and you try to browse the menu or open another application.

Battery

The 740 mAh Li-Ion battery is a little bit disappointing. Even if it has an officially stated life expectancy of 350 hours in standby and seven hours in talk time mode, it failed to attain more than two hours of continuous talk. Basically, a heavy user will need to recharge it everyday or at least once in two days.

Impressions

I have been pleasantly surprised by the clamshell's look, but not at all impressed by what it has to offer in terms of features. Even though it's just a mid-budget handset, I expected more than what it presently offers. I just hope that design will be more important for Motorola fans than the actual features.

The Good

I have praised the phone's design, which is a little bit unusual. Another positive trait of the phone could be the low price. I would also enlist here the presence of a microSD slot and the very nice OLED external display.

The Bad

I was disappointed by the battery's life expectancy and the very poor sales package, which doesn't contain anything but the phone. Also, I have noticed that sluggishness of the device, even when not running any applications at all.

Sales Package

Motorola ROKR U9 handset
Motorola Battery Li-Ion 740 mAh
Home Charger
User's Manual (English).

Nokia N85, The N series lives on

2009-07-19T08:36:00.000-07:00

One of the most acclaimed handset lineups, the Nseries from Nokia, got a new high-end device that strongly resembles the older Nokia N81. The fresh N85 kept the same slider form and keypad layout as its N81 predecessor, but this time, Nokia made an effort to get some stylish look into the handset. Also, the new Nseries device will be available on the market at a much lower price, even though it is stuffed with all the "goodies" of a usual high-end mobile phone. One of the best choices for those that are looking for a Nokia slider, the N85 is a much better pick than N81 as it lacks most of the latter's negative points.

Announced in August 2008, Nokia N85 was made available on the market in October 2008. The slider can be bought for around USD 500, but you can get it for less in case you opt for a certain plan. There are two colors available for users to choose from: Copper and Black.

Design

The Nokia N85 smartphone features a stylish slider form, but misses the 'wow' factor so needed for the latest phone to be able to have some success on the market. While most Nokia slider phones are not that appealing in terms of design, compared with other brands, users’ interest for quality is still more powerful. I think that Nokia N81 can be considered a failure in terms of design and functionality, thus I didn't expect to see another Nokia handheld with almost the same design. I was pretty reluctant at first, but after spending a few minutes with N85, I could notice the improvements Nokia did compared with previous sliders.

First of all, the feeling of cheap merchandise is gone now, as the new material used for manufacturing it is very shiny and well polished. This also has a bad side as it still catches fingerprints, like his predecessor did. Slimmer than N81, the new N85 smartphone measures 103 x 50 x 16 mm and weighs 128g (including battery). The big 2.6-inch display makes a good impression at first glance and is well protected against scratches. Above the screen, there's a secondary videocall camera, the earphone speaker, and a very small light ambient sensor. Below the display, Nokia kept almost the same layout of the keys as N81. Unfortunately, this doesn't go well in terms of ergonomics. The Accept and Reject calls key have been placed on the edge of both sides of the phone and are somewhat tricky to use.

The Navi-wheel has been improved and can now be used to browse the menu much easier. Still, this cannot be compared with the Android's or BlackBerry's roller-ball that turns the browsing experience into a real pleasure. The Shortcut key has been placed to the right of the Navi-wheel, while the Symbian menu key can be found to the left. The latter is only visible when backlighting is on, together with the two softkeys and the C (Backspace). The numeric keypad is revealed when you slide up the device. The keypad is not that impressive and can only be used with the tip of your fingers. Nokia N85 is a dual slider introduced by Nokia when launching Nokia N95 on the market. When it's slid down, it reveals four music dedicated keys that can also be used for playing various N-Gage games.

The right side of the phone features two stereo speakers, a dedicated camera key, a dual volume key and a Lock/Unlock key. The left side of the smartphone only includes a small microSD memory slot for storage space expansion. On top of the phone, there's a Power on/off button, a 3.5mm jack port and a small microUSB port that is used for charging or synchronizing the phone. The 5-megapixel camera on the back of the phone features dual led flash and Carl Zeiss optics. I have noticed that the phone lacks the usual charging port, so you'll have to use the microUSB port to charge the phone, either through the PC or you can use the charger that comes in the sales package. Overall, Nokia N85 will probably not attract people that are interested in design, but visual improvement compared with N81 is clearly one step forward for Nokia.

Display and Camera

Nokia N85 features an AMOLED screen that measures 2.6", supports 16 million colors and a 240x320 pixel resolution. The AMOLED screen features an accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate, but as with all AMOLED screens, it doesn't have eligibility under sunlight. Even if it can barely be used outdoors, the large display performs very well when the phone is used for Web browsing, movie watching, or gaming.

The screen seems to be somewhat protected against scratches by a thin plastic; still, you should be careful where you keep it. In terms of image quality displayed, it is excellent. Overall, the performance during various tests has been more than satisfactory.

The 5-megapixel camera embedded in this Nseries device seems to be much better than N96's, but also much lower in quality than N82's. Featuring Carl Zeiss lenses, auto-focus and dual LED flash, the module camera appears to be a little bit smaller than that of N95 (5.45, compared with 5.6). While not the best 5-megapixel camera on the market, compared with N96 camera, you can actually take decent pictures with N85.

The camera features geotagging and protection for the lenses. The user interface boasts extensive settings, much like Nokia's N95 8GB camera interface, but you can now choose what settings you want to be displayed on the toolbar. Camera activates pretty fast when you slide down the lid covering the lenses. The maximum resolution supported is of 2582x1944 pixels, while users can choose to shoot in five modes, as seen in the pictures.

There are no specially created functions for this camera, but, as you can see from the screenshots, all of them remain very easy to use. The same goes for the video camera, which can capture VGA (30fps) clips in MP4 format or 3GPP, depending on the quality you choose.

Menu and Software

Nokia N85 runs the Symbian 9.3 operating system, with an S60 3rd Edition and Feature Pack 2 interface. Feature Pack 2 brings both visual and performance improvements, which otherwise wouldn't be available for devices that only run Feature Pack 1, unless they're updated. This does not mean that you can get all the features of the FP2 on FP1 devices, as there are still exclusive ones that you can only take advantage of on an FP2 handset, such as Nokia N85 or N96. Besides the amazing Gallery with the geotagging feature, you'll get a new kind of Active standby layout. The latter enables users to bring up on the Home screen a lot more shortcuts than usual, such as game, application and link shortcuts. The new Task manager is also a specific FP2 improvement, and gives quick access to any applications running in the background. The Task manager now appears on top of every menu option that the user opens. Moreover, some cosmetic changes have been included, such as better menu transition effects and stylish icons.

The main menu can be accessed by pressing the left key, right next to the Navi-wheel controller. In addition to the usual options and applications that we find in almost all Symbian-powered handsets, Nokia N85 features Search and Maps utilities. Maps is used together with the GPS receiver and enables owners to use Nokia maps, localization and directions when they're on the go. Lots of maps can be downloaded from Nokia's website and then used to pick the shortest route from one point to another. Under the Office category, we find QuickOffice applications, used for reading Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. Users won't be able to edit any files without upgrading the application, which, of course, costs money. There's also a PDF reader, a notepad, a Zip archivator, and a currency converter.

You can now find the Calculator under the Applications submenu, while the voice recorder has been moved to the Media one. The Video center connects the phone to a bigger screen (projector, monitor, or TV) through the TV-out cable, in order to get a better view of the videos. The phone features a wide range of 3D games (trial versions) when the N-Gage menu is accessed.

The most thrilling feature of the device is the Motion sensor that grants it the Automatic rotation ability. This means that, every time you want to use your phone's screen in landscape mode, you'll only need to turn its upper left side down, and the interface will automatically reshape in landscape mode. Compared with N95, the accelerometer now works with all menus and applications compatible with this feature, which is a great asset.

The phone includes everything a user may need on the road or in the office, pre-installed on the handset: email, web, calendar, organizer, IM, office tools, messaging, applications manager, connectivity wizard, synchronization tools, GPS navigator, themes, profiles, and even more. Nokia N85 seems to be what its predecessor N81 should have been.

Communications

Nokia N85 is a quad band GSM (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) handset, HSDPA compatible, which features GPRS class 32 (107 kbps), EDGE 32 class (296 kbps), High-Speed Circuit-Switched Data (57.6 kbps) and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g. Tested on the EDGE and 3G networks, the phone has performed pretty good, as you can see from the screenshots.

The WLAN wizard helps you search and define your WLAN network connection settings. Should you want to connect to the Internet, you must first define an Access point (EDGE, WLAN or 3G). You can do that by going to the Main menu / Tools / Settings / Connection / Access points, and define which access point to be used whenever a network connection is required (Main menu / Home network / Settings).

Other connectivity tools include Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support, and microUSB for PC synchronization (charging included). The Bluetooth connection has reached speeds of up to 122 KB/s when sending, and 154 KB/s when receiving. When connecting the USB cable, you'll be able to choose from four modes: PC Suite, Mass storage, Image transfer and Media transfer. All of them are intuitive and easy to use, so there's nothing more to add here.

In terms of messaging, the phone accepts all available message types, but, given the not-so-friendly keypad, it will be hard to enjoy texting. Anyway, the handset includes no less than four message editors, one for each type: SMS, MMS, audio message and e-mail. The message client works with POP3, SMTP, and IMAP4 protocols, and supports more than one email account. Also, it can download headers and allows for attachments.

The quad-band (GSM 850 / GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900) network compatible slider has a very good GSM signal reception. UMTS signal reception is likewise excellent. The sound is outstanding at both ends, and loud enough. The vibration alert is also above average in intensity.

Processor and Memory

Nokia N85 is powered by a dual ARM11 family processor running at speeds of up to 369 Mhz. It's the usual CPU mainly used for Nseries handsets. I have noticed some lags and hiccups during games. This is definitely not a snappy device, but if you have had a Symbian phone before, it won't be noticed.

The handset embeds an 85 MB user free internal memory and 128 MB SDRAM memory. The storage space can be expanded up to another 8GB through the hot-swappable microSD slot card.

Furthermore, the device comes with an 8GB microSD card in the sales package, so there's no need for supplementary expenses.

Multimedia

Nokia N85 is a multimedia device, thus the 3.5mm jack port doesn't come as a surprise. The jack port enables users to attach any compatible headphone, which will improve their experience. The integrated music player looks very cool, and supports almost any type of music file you can think of: MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, WMA, M4A, as well as playlists. Files are automatically sorted by artist, genre, and albums, or by using the PC Suite.

The music player can be easily controlled with the Navi-wheel, but you can also take advantage of the four music keys, which are revealed when the phone is slid down. The included HS-45 Stereo Headsets do not make for a good addition to the sales package, that's why I encourage you to use different headphones. There's also the option to take advantage of the Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support, which will enable users to listen music wirelessly.

The music player features all kinds of options and settings: Equalizer, Visualisation, Balance, Loudness, Stereo Widening, or Shuffle. Some of these are also available for the included FM Radio, which can memorize up to 50 base stations and features RDS and Visual radio capabilities.

The reception is excellent, and the quality of the sound likewise. Nokia N85 delivers one of the best music quality sounds, much better than its N81 and N96 predecessors, especially if you change the mediocre headset provided in the sales package.

Furthermore, videos can be played with the help of the integrated Real Player application. The video player is fully compatible with both orientations, namely landscape and portrait, and can run movies in full screen.

Battery

The 1200 mAh Li-Ion (BL-5K) battery has an officially stated life expectancy of 363 hours in standby (360 hours for 3G) and of about 6 hours and 50 minutes in talk-time mode (4 hours and 30 minutes for 3G). What we have got has been 4 days of use: approx. 2 hours of calls and 10MB of overall data transfer. While this might seem low at first glance, there are other Nokia devices that are doing much worse than this.

Impressions

Nokia N85 seems to be a good choice for slider fans, especially as it includes so many features at a decent price. While the offer on the market is quite rich, N85 will probably go unnoticed, as it doesn't have such an astonishing design. I would recommend the N85 as one of the best value for money options for a high-end device, in case you're not getting the new touchscreen smartphones from Nokia.

The Good

Everything stuffed into this smartphone works pretty much above average, except maybe the screen, which is low consuming (AMOLED), but can barely be readable outdoors. Nokia N85 is solid built and offered at a decent price, which should attract more people than the actual design. I should enlist almost all the technical features that the phone includes, but also the quality of music sound.

The Bad

I think the layout of the external keys, the Navi-wheel, which is still hard to control, as well as the AMOLED screen are the only letdowns of the device. Also, I was surprised to find that Nokia dropped the usual charging port and chose the microUSB port as the only method of charging. I don't understand this choice, as you will still need to carry two cables with you in case you cannot attach it to a PC.

Sales package

Nokia N85 handset
Nokia Battery (BL-5K)
Nokia Travel Charger (AC-10)
Nokia Video Connectivity Cable (CA-75U)
Nokia Connectivity Cable (CA-101)
Nokia Music Headset (HS-45, AD-54)
Nokia 8 GB microSD card (MU-43)
User Guide
Quick Start Guide.

Nokia 5130 XpressMusic, Excellent value for money music phone

2009-07-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

Nokia's XpressMusic series adds another device to its portfolio, which targets young music lovers with not-so-high budgets. The new Nokia 5130 XpressMusic is one of the latest mass-market mobile phones and it offers a complete music solution to those who are fans of the series. Before going into more details, I have to point out the fact that we will be seeing this device more like a music phone and we will not be so harsh regarding the other features that might interest users, such as: camera, GPS, memory, operating system, emailing and more. While including some of these features into the phone is a good idea, do not expect too high a quality from any of these, as the handset simply concentrates on the music aspect.

Announced at the beginning of November 2008, Nokia 5130 XpressMusic was made available on the market in February 2009. The candybar can be acquired for around

Design

In case you are familiar with Nokia's music phones, you'll definitely recognize the 5130 as belonging to the XpressMusic series. Even though it very much looks like its 5320 predecessor, the handset is made from a more stylish plastic that eliminates the idea of a cheap phone. The rounded shapes contribute even more to the nice feeling that you get when you keep the device in your hand. The aerodynamic shape will probably make you believe that it's smaller and slimmer than its 5320 brother, but the truth is that both devices are nearly the same in size. Nokia 5130 XpressMusic measures 107.5 x 46.7 x 14.8 mm and weighs around 88g (including battery). The shiny plastic that covers the insides of the phone, even though it makes it a fingerprint magnet, looks much better than the usual opaque plastic that is largely used for manufacturing the cheap handsets of the company.

The 2-inch display, while not the biggest, does its job well under almost any circumstances. The layout of the keypad is pretty relaxed, the keys being spacious enough and very responsive. I haven't noticed any controlling problems with the big D-pad in the middle; on the contrary. Around the main controller you'll be able to notice two available soft keys and the usual Accept and Reject ones. On both sides, in the upper part, the phone features a grid pattern that looks like two loudspeakers. In reality, only the left side sports some red LEDs that highlight the dedicated music keys when you start playing music. These lights are somewhat synchronized with the music sound, as they shine to the rhythm of the music.

The dedicated music keys have been placed right under these LEDs, on the left side of the device: Forward, Play/Pause, Back. On the right side there's a small microSD slot card and two volume keys. The 3.5mm jack port together with the microUSB and charging ports have been placed on top of the phone. The 2 Megapixel camera on the back doesn't feature any flash or autofocus capabilities, but that's understandable if we think about the target of the handset. The camera lens is somewhat protected by a metallic frame, but I don't think that it will be used too often anyway.

Nokia 5130 XpressMusic is definitely a win in terms of design. Much more attractive than most of its series predecessors, the phone will definitely bring the Finnish giant a big chunk of profits on the medium-to-low music phone market.

Display and Camera

Nokia 5130 features a 2 inch-TFT display, supporting 262 million colors and a 240x320 pixel resolution. Besides its small size, the screen is pretty good, in accordance with Nokia's standards, but performs a little bit lower compared with 16 million color displays. Its eligibility in the sunlight is pretty good, but forget about trying to distinguish any colors on the screen.

The 2 Megapixel camera lacks any advanced features, which makes it somewhat useless, as quality of the pictures is very low. No autofocus, no flash and very low video recording don't really recommend this phone for its camera.

The maximum resolution that users can set to take pictures is that of 1600x1200 pixels. The maximum one that can be used for movie recording is of 176x144 pixels (QCIF at 15fps). The basic interface of the camera only includes standard features that don't really change the quality aspects of the pictures. Moreover, the camera seems to be a little bit more sluggish than I anticipated. You can try to make some adjustments to your pictures by using some of the camera's settings: White balance and Effects.

Check out the samples below for a more accurate opinion about the quality of the photo snapper. I do not recommend getting this phone for its camera, but neither do I suggest that this is a negative point of the candybar.

Enlarge picture

Menu and Software

Nokia 5130 XpressMusic runs on an S40 5th Edition interface with Feature Pack 1, which is the latest user-interface coming from the manufacturer. If you owned a Nokia handset before and it didn't have a Symbian OS, then this candybar will probably feel the same. One of the most user-friendly interfaces on the market, the S40 seems unchanged on the surface, and offers the Nokia 5130 XpressMusic user an excellent experience. The phone's firmware include Flash 3.0, animated menus, submenus and icons.

Nokia's Series 40 5th Edition UI allows you to experience streaming videos, image rendering, mobile 3D graphics and scalable 2D Vector graphics. The Series 40 5th Edition also supports the latest version of Adobe's Flash Lite 2.1, the interoperable platform that enables the accelerated development and delivery of rich graphical mobile content, and includes audio file playback and streaming capabilities that provide audio and music enhancements to mobile gaming and the multimedia experience.

The handset also includes some useful applications, such as Search, Alarm clock, Calendar, To-do list, Notes, Calculator, Countdown timer, World Clock and Stopwatch. The menu is fully customizable and you can designate any MP3, MIDI or AAC file as ringtone. The candybar comes with Opera Mini browser installed by default, so the experience will be smooth.

The phonebook can store up to 2,000 contacts, and each can be filled with up to six different phone numbers. The fonts can be customized, but only those displayed when opening Contacts, Web browser and messaging sections.

Also, some Java games come preinstalled – Bounce Tales, Rally 3D and Snake III. The handset is compatible with Java MIDP 2.1 applications, but there is a limit to the size of any app that you might want to install on the phone, and that's the usual 1MB. This might be the case for most Java-compatible applications, but I noticed that I could run some files that were around 1.5MB in size. Nevertheless, not all Java apps will work on this mid-end device, so you might want to try that out for yourselves.

Communications

Nokia 5130 XpressMusic is fully compatible with GPRS and EDGE Class 32 but, as benchmarks revealed, it attained average scores in terms of data transfer speed (EDGE only 165 Kbit/s download and 63 Kbit/s upload); however, that may greatly vary depending on location and carrier.

The phone also features Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and EDR for faster data transfers. Synchronization with PC is possible through the proprietary microUSB port, but charging through USB cable is not available.

In terms of messaging, the device accepts standard text messages, MMS (300 KB attachments), as well as emails. The message client works with POP3, SMTP, and IMAP4 protocols, and supports more than one email account.

The quad-band (GSM 850 / GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900) network-compatible candybar has a good GSM signal reception. The sound is above average in quality at both ends, and pretty loud.

Processor and Memory

Nokia 5130 XpressMusic is most likely powered by an ARM9 family processor running at speeds of up to 220 MHz. While not the fastest phone on the market, it won't lag more than its class competitors when browsing through the menus.

The candybar embeds 30MB of user free internal memory, which can be expanded as the phone features a microSD slot card. The handset comes with a 1GB microSD memory card in the sales package, and Nokia says that users can expand the memory up to 2GB, though I have tested it with an 8GB card.

While it really takes longer to read all the information on the memory card, it has been proved that it works with higher-capacity memory cards. Still, I experienced freezes when I tried to start the phone's camera, which had been set to store pictures on the memory card. I do not suggest using microSD cards higher than 2GB, but if you really want to do it, try to set the camera to store pictures on the phone's memory.

Multimedia

As a music device, Nokia 5130 XpressMusic should include advanced multimedia features to please target customers – music lovers. Seeing as how the company is already known for the fact that its XpressMusic-series phones include a dedicated audio chip for decoding MP3 files, there's no reason why we shouldn't have high hopes with 5130 model, even though it's only a mid-budget handset.

Battery

The 1020 mAh Li-Ion (BL-5C) battery has an officially stated life expectancy of 288 hours in standby and of about 6 in talk time mode. Also, Nokia states a music autonomy of almost 1 day (22 hours). Our test unit managed to play music continuously for around 19 hours. Moreover, talk time was pretty decent, as we only needed to charge the unit every 3 days, but after extensive usage.

Impressions

After getting a little bit bored by the XpressMusic series, I'm finally glad that I gave 5130 model a chance. I was impressed by the quality of its sonic experience, as well as its stylish design. Nokia managed to throw on the market a more-than-decent device at a very good price. I just hope that youngsters are not still disappointed by some older XpressMusic devices and give 5130 a chance, since they will be thrilled.

The Good

The first things I would like to mention here are the nice finishes, the easy-to-handle music controls, excellent music sound, and good shiny plastic that improves the usual XpressMusic design. Also, one of the most important things, Nokia 5130 XpressMusic can be bought for a decent price, while it offers excellent features.

The Bad

I would've liked to see a more decent camera and the possibility to add a better memory card. Even though some higher-capacity cards might work with the device, it doesn't officially offer support for these. I also think that the short microUSB cable that comes with the phone is a joke, as you can only use it while keeping your handset near the USB port.

Sales package

Nokia 5130 XpressMusic handset
Nokia Battery 1020 mAh (BL-5C)
Nokia Charger (AC-3)
Nokia Headset (WH-102)
Nokia 1 GB microSD card (MU-22)
Nokia Connectivity Cable (CA-101D)
Compact User Guide

Acer Aspire Revo Nettop, NVIDIA Ion performance for budget-minded consumers

2009-06-26T21:41:00.000-07:00

Late last year, NVIDIA surprised everybody with the launch of its Ion platform, a concept that was to forever bind an energy-efficient GeForce motherboard GPU with one of Intel's most successful products to date, the Atom processor. Although the platform was appreciated by leading industry players like Microsoft and Google, system vendors were late to announce a product that would take advantage of the features made available by NVIDIA's new pride and joy. However, after months of anticipation, the first NVIDIA Ion-based product made its official debut, with Acer being the first system vendor to announce one.

Although it was initially rumored as the Acer Hornet, the first NVIDIA Ion product was launched as the Aspire Revo, a small-sized nettop capable of providing users with a true home entertainment solution. The desktop computer system featured a design similar to that of Nintendo's much-hyped Wii gaming console, while providing the end user with a choice for a low-power PC, capable of delivering support for some gaming applications, Microsoft Windows Vista and 7 operating systems, as well as 1080p video.

Even if Acer initially outed the product back in early April, the nettop had some difficulties becoming available to the market. Reviews came in late, as they were published towards the end of April. Still, after a few months with Aspire Revo out in the open, Acer can now observe how the collaboration with NVIDIA will provide it with an increased market share in the nettop segment.

On that note, we had our first chance at putting the Ion-based Aspire Revo through its paces earlier this month, an event we waited for with great anticipation. Some of us here at Softpedia were already thinking of our next computer purchase, setting our eyes one some of these new low-power PCs that could provide for an excellent second PC solution. Now, without further ado, we should head on the review itself, pointing some of the pluses and minuses of the low-power PC

Samsung A867 Eternity Review

2009-06-21T05:06:00.000-07:00

Developed together with the well-known US network operator AT&T, the new Samsung A867 Eternity will be exclusively sold under the carrier's brand. The handset comes to fill in a niche of buyers that are looking for a cheaper version of Omnia. Even though Samsung Eternity is not a business phone and doesn't carry an operating system, it looks almost the same in terms of design. Samsung Eternity is mostly sold in the States, but unlocked versions of the device can also be bought from Europe, Asia or any other continent, as the phone is quad-band. PureMobile was kind enough to borrow us a brand new final version of the bar phone, so we're now able to test and review it.

Samsung A867 Eternity was announced in November 2008 and made it on shelves the next year, in January 2009. AT&T began to sell the phone for $149.99 after contract and rebate, but the unlocked version can be acquired for around 400USD.

Design

While it may look the same up-front compared to Samsung's Omnia smartphone, Eternity is much lighter and a little bit smaller. The bar form of the touchscreen phone has become a standard for all the latest Samsung phones that are running the famous TouchWiz interface. Pocketsized and with good ergonomics, Samsung Eternity is sure to stand out from the crowd. It measures 109 x 56 x 13 mm and weighs 110g (including battery), which brings it so close to Omnia (112 x 56.9 x 12.5 mm).

The reason that Eternity is so light is the fact that it has been entirely manufactured from plastic. Even the silver stripe that surrounds the phone is also pure plastic, specially painted, so it gives you the impression of metal. The same applies to the back cover of the phone. The front part of the phone is covered by a shiny plastic with good finishes that will be full of fingerprints in no time. The 3.2-inch touchscreen makes up almost the whole front part of the device. You'll notice above it, a little bit on the right of the in-call speaker, an ambient light sensor. The right side of the phone features a dedicated camera button and a shortcut key (Dial pad, Music player, Main menu, MediaNet, Messaging), but also a 3.5mm jack port.

On the left side of the handset, there's a dual volume key, as well as the proprietary Samsung port that can be used to attach headphones, the USB cable or charger. On top of the phone there's a special Hold key that will lock the touchscreen or will wake up the phone if it's in stand-by. There are three available keys displayed under the big screen: the Accept and Reject calls keys, but also a Back one. The latter opens the Calendar function by default, but can be set to open almost any function of the phone. The back of the phone features a 3.2-Megapixel camera with no other improvements. The back cover can be easily removed by sliding it down. Overall, Samsung Eternity seems to be pretty sturdy, but it has some parts, which are somewhat unprotected: the display, the camera, and the plastic casing.

Display and Camera

Samsung Eternity embeds a 3.2-inch TFT resistive touchscreen, supporting 262k colors and featuring an accelerometer sensor. The colors displayed on the screen are well-balanced, the contrast is good and the brightness can be set to any desired level. The visibility in the sunlight is medium, which means that you'll be able to use it when outdoors. The touchscreen features the haptic technology, so the feedback when using the display is cool to experience. Furthermore, the usual lag when the accelerometer sensor is activated and the screen is turned in landscape mode disappeared and you won't notice anything.

The 3.2-Megapixel camera doesn't feature any other improvements like flash, autofocus, or self-portrait mirror. It's been left unprotected, so you should take care not to scratch it when you're not using the phone and keep it in your pocket. Consequently, don't bother to make night pictures and don't expect too much quality. The camera freezed my phone once, but I couldn't detect the cause.

The maximum resolution of the pictures is of 2048 x 1536 pixels, while movies can be recorded using a maximum resolution of 320x240 pixels. The camera interface looks much the same as Pixon's, but lacks many settings. It is user-friendly, as you are always one or two clicks on the touchscreen away from any setting or function. While the phone lacks auto-focus, it still takes some average quality pictures. The shots included below reveal some good pictures, but don't think of it as a camera phone, because you'll be disappointed. The pictures are saved in about three seconds, so it doesn't lag too much, but as I have already mentioned above, I think that sometimes it freezes your phone. Pictures can be taken in portrait or in landscape mode. The phone can record QVGA movies at 15fps with no problem, but the quality is much lower than expected.

Overall, I believe that Samsung Eternity wasn't destined to be a camera phone, but I was surprised to find that it snapped pretty well, even though it lacked any kind of features.

Menu and Software

Samsung Eternity features the so-praised TouchWiz interface that works very well with the latest Samsung touchscreen devices that lack an operating system. The shaking control and the accelerometer sensor are very functional, and make the device more appealing and user-friendly. The Home screen has a menu bar on the left side that works just like a Windows Taskbar. Samsung's taskbar is hidden, and can be displayed after touching it. You can add or delete any programs or functions you want, by simply dragging them in or out of the bar. The phone has full customization features and can be set to look exactly as you want it to. The control is easy and can be done in two ways: touch and swipe.

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The latter will certainly remind you of Apple's iPhone, which is controlled mostly through swipes on the touchscreen. Eternity features lots of AT&T dedicated programs such as AT&T Music, TV, CV, AT&T GPS, MEdia Mall, MEdia Net and Yellowpages. In terms of productivity tools, the device includes: Memo, Task, World clock, Calculator, Convertor, Music player, Photo browser, Voice recorder, Timer, Stopwatch, RSS reader, Games, and many more.

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Of course, The Widget is also present and fully customizable. The phone also features a Java emulator, which supports almost any Java application and game. The phonebook accepts up to 1,000 entries and around 500 SMS messages.

The phonebook features an innovative way to search the name of the contact. By simply touching the small magnifying glass that appears in its upper left part and dragging in it down or up, you'll be able to scroll between the alphabet letters.

Communications

Samsung Eternity features the HSDPA (3.6 Mbps) technology, besides the usual EDGE (Class 10, 236.8 kbps). Although the NetFront Internet browser has been updated to version 3.5, it still lacks the speed of a Nokia phone. Depending on how much information needs to load, the pages are loaded fast enough with this updated browser, and users can take advantage of the large screen, landscape mode or the mini-map function, which can be controlled with the zooming buttons on the right side of the phone.

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Other connectivity solutions include USB 2.0 and Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support. The phone can also be used as a modem with a PC in case you need one. Unfortunately, the phone doesn't come with any cable for PC synching, so you'll need to buy one.

If you're not an AT&T subscriber and not living in the US, the GPS receiver is somewhat useless, as it only works with the AT&T Navigator application, which is Java-based.

Besides the basic message support (SMS, EMS and MMS), the email client is compatible with POP or IMAP accounts. Furthermore, you'll be able to set the email client to check for new messages whenever you feel like. There are also three IM services available: AIM, Windows Live and Yahoo!.

The quadband (GSM 850 / GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900) -network compatible device has a very good GSM signal reception, even when using the UMTS network. The sound is mediocre, pretty clear, but somewhat low. I haven't experienced any drops in signal reception, or missed a call while talking on the phone. The vibration is pretty intense, so you'll have a low percentage of missed calls even when the Silent profile is activated.

Processor and Memory

My guess is that Samsung Eternity features a medium-powered ARM11 family processor that runs at speeds up to 220 MHz. The CPU is enough to run multiple applications in the background with no problems whatsoever. The interface is pretty snappy and much faster than that of LG phones. The embedded Java emulator can handle any compatible large-size files, so 3rd-party applications can be installed with ease.

The phone comes with 200 MB of internal memory, but features a microSD memory card slot to expand the storage space up to 8GB. Unfortunately, the card slot is placed under the back hood near the SIM card, which means that it's not hot-swappable.

Multimedia

Samsung Pixon features a touch-compatible music player that supports MP3, eAAC+, WMA, AMR files, but also an FM radio with an RDS function. Both can be run in the background, or you can set their shortcuts on the taskbar in the home screen.

The phone includes no headphones in the sales package, but at least it features a 3.5mm port, which enables the option to connect the headphones there.

The sound quality of the music player is average to low. In fact, I didn't like it at all. The music player features an equalizer: Rock, Pop, Dance, Jazz, Classic, Wide, Dynamic and Surround. The last one proves to be an innovation, as the phone can be attached to a 5.1 channel sound system through a 3.5mm jack. The XM Radio included doesn't work unless you're an AT&T subscriber.

The Battery

Samsung Eternity features a 1330 mAh Li-Ion battery with a stated time of 250 hours in standby mode, and five hours in talk-time mode. For a heavy user that spends two-three hours a day talking on the phone, it needs to be recharged once every two-three days, but a soft user should do just fine with one recharge at every four days. Overall, this is a high-capacity battery of small dimensions that barely adds to the weight of the phone.

Impressions

After testing the device for one week, I still think that Samsung launched the Eternity on the market too fast. The look and design of the phone are nice and appealing, but it seems to be full of bugs and not up to standard features. The targets of the phone are definitely the AT&T subscribers, as there are many productivity tools and functions included in the phone that don't work otherwise. Overall, Eternity is a nice phone, but fails on so many other levels.

The Good

I guess the most attractive features of the device are the huge 3.2 TFT touchscreen with haptic feedback and the HSDPA technology. Another positive feature is the high-energy battery, which was much better than I expected in the first place. The TouchWiz interface, as well as the 3.5mm jack port and microSD card slot are also worth mentioning.

The Bad

Just about everything else, starting with the camera, music player and the sales package. There are some software bugs that need to be corrected, as the phone might freeze, especially when using the module camera. The lack of a USB cable and headphones is a real setback for users that choose to buy this phone.

Sales package

Samsung A867 Eternity handset;
1330 mAh Li-Ion battery;
Samsung travel charger;
Manual.

Sony Ericsson W902 Review

2009-06-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

One of the nicest surprises coming from Sony Ericsson last summer was its top-of-the-line Walkman-series handset – W902. Even though the Walkman series focuses on multimedia features, the W902 includes some Cyber-shot traits such as 5 Megapixel camera with geo-tagging, autofocus, LED flash and image stabilization. Moreover, the quality of the module camera seems to be on par with high-end Cyber-shot-series handsets, which makes it the first mobile phone that can be tagged both as music device and a camera phone. Add to that the exceptional headset included in the package and the 8GB M2 memory card and you have one of the most promising handsets coming from the Swedish-Japanese company.

Announced in July 2008, Sony Ericsson W902 was made available on the market in October the same year, and even if it seems to have been discontinued it can still be bought for around 450USD unlocked and free of plan, but that depends on the location. Users can choose one of the three available colors, namely Volcanic Black, Wine Red and Earth Green.

Design

This is one of the main problems that the Swedish-Japanese joint venture had in the past with its handsets – boring and obsolete designs. Well, that hasn't stopped its fans from buying its product, which finally propelled the company on a meritorious third place before the economic crisis crash. Nevertheless, since then SE sales have gone down and something new and innovative had to be quickly found and exploited. Today, design is one of the most important features for a new phone. Unfortunately, Sony Ericsson seems to have started to care about that only lately and the W902 is one of the first to take advantage of this change in the company's views. Even though the phone still resembles its Walkman-series predecessors, it approaches a new form that is supposed to make it stand out from the crowd.

Medium sized (110 x 49 x 11.7 mm) and weighing a little bit under 100g (99.8g including battery), Sony Ericsson W902 distinguishes itself through its external music controls that can be found all over the right side of the device. To be sure that these can be used even with the phone kept in a pocket, Sony Ericsson preferred to add 1mm to the size and make the controls bulging from the main body of the handset. Starting from the top, you'll be able to easily find the dual volume keys, Forward, Play/Pause and Previous music keys and a dedicated camera key. The left side only features the universal proprietary Sony Ericsson port for charge and PC synchronization. On top of the handset you can notice another dedicated music button that opens the music player. It looks just like a power off/on that is usually found on Nokia devices, but this one features an inscribed Walkman icon.

On the bottom of the handset there's a small-sized gap where the mic has been placed. Above the 2.2-inch display there's a secondary videocall camera and a small light ambient sensor. The keypad layout doesn't come up with anything new, except for the fact that you can now click every key with ease. The only thing I found a little bit annoying were the controls around the small joystick. There are three available keys crowded on each side of the joystick: 2 soft keys, Accept and Reject calls keys, Shortcut key and C (Delete) key. Otherwise, the keys are a little bit hard to press, but you will get used to it pretty fast. On the back side of the phone Sony Ericsson included a 5 Megapixel camera, and the only protection against scratches seems to be the fact that it has been embedded a little bit lower into the body of the case. Above the camera there is a LED flash, while on the bottom left of the back hood there is a nice loudspeaker. Unfortunately, I think Sony Ericsson could do much better in terms of material used for manufacture, which is a thin plastic. A little bit of metallic material would've made it more desirable.

Still, Sony Ericsson W902 is a step forward in terms of design and ergonomics. While, the candybar hasn't been too solidly built, it feels pretty compact in hand, with the exception of the back cover, which seems rather flimsy.

Display and Camera

The only disappointment regarding the W902's display is its rather small size, at only 2.2 inches. Coated in mineral glass, which makes it more resistant to scratches, the screen supports 262K colors and a 240x320 pixel resolution. Contrast and brightness are exceptionally good, but the main attraction is the fact that it is perfectly visible in the sunlight. For more in-depth info regarding performance, check out the benchmarks below.

The 5 Megapixels camera of the candybar is definitely one of the best features of the phone. It seems the camera module is the same that its Cyber-shot predecessor, C902, has included. It features auto-focus, PowerLED (also available as video light when recording clips in darker areas), image stabilization, geo-tagging, BestPic, macro mode and video recording capabilities.

The geotagging function (“the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as photographs and videos” – Wikipedia) only works based on Cell-ID triangulation as the phone doesn't feature a built-in GPS receiver. Still, the results are pretty much precise, so you can choose to view the pictures displayed on a map in accordance with the place you took them in.

The interface of the camera is pretty complex, but user-friendly. Even though it misses the Face recognition feature, it still has the rest of the Cyber-shot functions including the camera interface layout, which looks the same. The maximum resolution of the pictures is of 2592 x 1944 pixels, while the size varies between 1-1.3 MB. Thanks to the accelerometer, you can easily take pictures in portrait or landscape mode.

The quality of the photos is much better than in any other Walkman series handset and comes near those excellent Cyber-shot camera phones. The noise effect is kept within limits, the contrast is pretty good, the level of detail is above average. There are still two downsides that I found while studying the results of the shootings: the “purple effect” is still present and most of the pictures are oversharpened. In terms of video recording, the device captures movies in the QVGA resolution at 30fps in MPEG4 file format. It records movies with stereo sound, but the quality is lower than expected.

Overall, Sony Ericsson W902 is the best solution for those looking for a music phone, but who don't want to make any compromises regarding the camera phone abilities.

Menu and Software

Sony Ericsson W902 features the company's proprietary GUI, which has become known over the course of time. There are some updates in terms of device personalization and looks, but basically there's nothing really new. The same Media center introduced together with the K850i model has also been added to W902, including the auto-rotate feature. There's also support for Flash Lite 2.0, so users can now take advantage of various animated themes, but also of some other Flash-based entertainment utilities. They get to choose from five different themes, each with its own specific abilities.

The main menu layout can be changed in accordance to the theme, or by choosing one of these options: grid, rotating and single icon. Wallpaper, startup screen and screen saver can also be personalized according to the user’s need. Also, there are seven profiles to choose from, more specifically Normal, Meeting, In car, Outdoors, Handsfree, Home and Office. Besides these, W902 also includes a Flight mode, in case users don't want to use the GSM function of the handset.

There are a few productivity tools that can be employed, such as Alarms (limited to 5), Tasks, Notes, Calendar, Timer, Stopwatch, Calculator, Light, AccuWeather, Music Quiz, Standby World, WalkMate, Code memo and a basic File manager. Besides these the candybar features a dedicated Java YouTube client, which enables users to watch and upload clips. The Internet icon, as the name suggests, gives access to basic Web browsing. Sony Ericsson W902 features the latest Access NetFront HTML browser 3.4, which seems to open any webpage, no matter how elaborated it is. I have noticed that it takes forever to open a webpage when using the EDGE connection, so I suggest using the 3G network when browsing the Internet, as speeds are much better.

The Radio only works when the wired earphones are inserted. Location Services is the place where you can find the Google Maps application. Because the device lacks a built-in GPS receiver you do not get the Wayfinder software. The Entertainment sub-folder contains a few functions more or less specific to the Walkman-series devices, namely TrackID, MusicDJ, PhotoDJ, VideoDJ, Record sound, Remote control and Games (FMX III, Need for Speed ProStreet and Jewel Quest2).

The Gallery can be found through the File manager in the folder called Camera Album, or in the Media center, and can also be accessed through the camera interface menu. The Java emulator works with just about any compatible application, like games or productivity software. Let's not forget the new service available from Sony Ericsson, Play Now, which offers maximum entertainment. Overall, SE's W902 user-interface puts to your disposal quite a number of features and high functionality, but still remains old.

Communication

Sony Ericsson W902 Walkman features the basic connectivity tools, but has also been gifted with the HSDPA 3.6Mbps technology, which greatly improves data transfers. When benchmarked, the phone attained outstanding speeds: 1,316 Kbit/s download and 195 Kbit/s upload in 3G network. EDGE data transfers have been a little bit lower than expected, but still reached speeds of 189 Kbit/s for download and 67 Kbit/s for upload services.

The handset is also compatible with Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP technology and features USB 2.0 connectivity. I experienced data transfer speeds of up to 105 KB/s when sending files, and of 138 KB/s when receiving them through Bluetooth connectivity, which is a little bit above the average.

Applications like Google Maps have no real use until you get an external GPS receiver, but you will also need something like Wayfinder Navigator 7, so your device will really come in handy with localizations.

Messaging capabilities have been improved and now offer a wider range of options. All messages share the same Inbox, except for emails, which have a separate one. You can now manage and categorize them the way you want, or you can simply use the pre-installed categories: Business, Favorites, Follow Up, Fun, Holiday and Important. The email service is fully compatible with the POP3 and SMTP clients.

The quad-band (GSM 850 / 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900) network-compatible handset has a good GSM signal reception. Unfortunately, while the level of clarity is outstanding when talking on the phone, the sound is a little bit lower than I previously expected. Furthermore, the vibration is good in intensity.

Processor and Memory

The W902 Walkman bar phone features a medium-power ARM9 family processor that runs at speeds of up to 208 Mhz. The phone doesn't seem to be too snappy; in fact, compared to S40 Nokias, it lags big time. I think that the animated themes take their tolls on the phone's CPU.

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The handset comes with a 25MB internal memory, but features a micro M2 memory slot card to expand the storage space up to 8 GB. It has been placed under the back cover of the phone, but it can be inserted without the need of powering off the phone (hot-swappable). Moreover, the phone comes with an 8GB M2 memory card and an M2 USB adapter in the sales package.

Multimedia

Sony Ericsson W902 belongs to the Walkman series, which makes it excel in multimedia features. After all, the best music phones are Sony Ericsson's Walkman-series devices, and W902 is not too far from the top. Boasting the famous Walkman 3.0 music player, the sound quality is impressive. Users can take advantage of a wide range of equalizers, which have been gifted with full visualization art this time. It supports almost all possible music file formats available on the market: MP3, AAC, AAC+, E-AAC+, WAV, WMA, M4A and MIDI. Furthermore, the music player is compatible with Album art function and, thanks to the integrated accelerometer, it takes advantage of the Shake control feature.

The latter enables users to go one track forward or backward by pressing the Walkman button (on top of the phone) and shake the phone forward or backward. It is also possible to shuffle the playlist by simply shaking the phone both ways twice, while pressing the same Walkman button. Another new feature introduced by Sony Ericsson is called SensMe, which enables users to make their playlists according to their mood by simply selecting "Happy" or "Sad." The only drawback of the service is the fact that only the songs that are tagged by Sony Ericsson's Media Manager will be taken into consideration. If you want to use this feature a lot, you will need to transfer all your files through the Sony Ericsson Media Manager application, which could take a while. The stereo earphones (HPM-77) that are coming in the sales package are more than decent and include a 3.5mm adapter, which means that you can even attach your own headphones in case you're not satisfied by these.

The candybar also includes an FM radio function with RDS, which can memorize up to 20 base stations. The reception and sound are also exceptional. Both, music player and radio can be run in the background.

The integrated video player can run movies in full screen, in landscape or portrait mode, thanks to the accelerometer. You can also save certain frames from a movie if you like, in the form of screenshots. Overall, Sony Ericsson W902 has one of the highest sound quality levels in all the Walkman-series devices that have been launched on the market.

Battery

Sony Ericsson W902 features a 930 mAh Li-Polymer battery that has an official lifetime of approximately 380 hours (360 hours for 3G) in standby mode and 9 hours (4 hours for 3G) in talk-time mode. After using the phone for at least 1 month I have decided that the battery's life is only half of what the official numbers show. Still, that is a very good autonomy for a medium-energy battery. If you are a heavy user you'll most likely need to charge it every 2-3 days, but a soft user will have no trouble keeping it for a week at least. The music playback time is of nearly 18 hours with the display in standby mode.

The Good

Surprisingly for a Walkman phone, W902 also distinguishes itself through its camera quality. Gathering capabilities of both well-known series manufactured by Sony Ericsson, Cyber-shot and Walkman, W902 becomes the first hybrid phone available for SE fans. Even if the price is still high, all the features included are up to the highest standards: camera, music sound, battery, data transfer speeds.

The Bad

I believe that a much better CPU would've been required for an animated GUI. Also, I think that the phone still lacks originality in terms of design. While it may seem to be compact and ergonomic, after using it for more than a month I think the construction of the handset is not up to the standards of the rest of the features.

Sales package

Sony Ericsson W902 Handset
8GB M2 memory card
930 mAh Li-Polymer Battery
Data Cable
Stereo HPM-77 headset
Travel Charger
CD-Rom
User Manual
M2 USB adapter.

BlackBerry Bold 9000 Review

2009-06-02T03:05:00.000-07:00

Menu and Software

Blackberry Bold 9000 runs Blackberry 4.6.0 operating system, platform 4.0.0. This is one of the latest OSes from Blackberry, but if you have an older one, it's usually better to update it to the latest version. The interface of the smartphone hasn't changed and if you already own one of RIM's devices this won't come up with anything new in terms of productivity tools.

The only improvement that you cannot miss is the look of the interface, which is more eye-candy than its previous versions. Colors of the icons you'll find in the main menu are softly lighted in contrast with the dark background, and make a very good impression on the user. The usual Office package, called Documents To Go, developed by DataViz, is also included in Bold's operating system. Unfortunately, as you can see from the screenshots, you can only read or edit Word docs, Excel docs, and PowerPoint presentations, but need to pay if you want to make new documents.

Instead of getting more new features that might not come in handy at all, RIM preferred to keep all the old stuff and give everything a shiny look. Not too bad, as Blackberry's all productivity tools are pretty solid. The phonebook can store an unlimited number of contacts, as long as your available memory allows it. Each contact can be filled with multiple numbers, e-mail addresses, birthday and anniversary information, a picture and a slot for both work and home addresses.

There are also some games that you can play when you're bored: BrickBreaker, WordMole, Texas Hold'em King 2, Sudoku, Klondike. Of course, there's always the possibility to add more software, Blackberry or Java compatible.

Communications

Finally, one of RIM's few devices that include the whole connectivity package: HSDPA 3.6 Mbps, Wi-Fi, EDGE and GPRS class 10. Fans of the brand can now benefit from any of the above-mentioned connections when needed. Although the integrated browser is not that good, as rich-in-graphics pages are loading pretty slowly, you can easily change it for the MiniOpera browser, which is perfectly compatible.

Tested on EDGE and HSDPA networks, the device's results were pretty good: 120 Kbit/s download and 79 Kbit/s upload (EDGE), 1117 Kbit/s download and 321 Kbit/s upload (HSDPA).

In terms of messaging Bold 900 features the standard Blackberry package. Should you either want multiple emails or instant messaging, this smartphone has it all. Unfortunately, you will be limited to BlackBerry Internet Service email accounts on the Storm. The same goes for the instant messaging application, which only features a proprietary BlackBerry service. Furthermore, to fully integrate the BlackBerry into a company's system, the installation of BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) is required. Synchronizing the smartphone with the PC can be made very easily with the Blackberry Desktop Manager. The transfer is very fast, should you either be syncing emails and messages or simply filling your smartphone with music files.

If that is still not enough for you, then note that Bold 9000 also features a built-in GPS receiver with A-GPS support and BlackBerry Maps. The GPS module works perfectly and completes the technical features of a smartphone that has all the BB fans wanted included in a single device.

Blackberry Bold 9000 is a quad-band GSM (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900) and tri-band HSDPA (850 / 1900 / 2100) smartphone, which features GPRS, EDGE, and HSDPA. Other connectivity tools include the Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and the miniUSB for PC synchronization (including charging). The call quality is exceptionally good, almost impressive. You'll thus be able to talk on the phone even in more crowded areas. The GSM signal is also very good on the EDGE network, as well as on WCDMA.

Processor and Memory

Blackberry Bold 9000 is powered by a single Intel XScale 624MHz CPU, which makes it one of the fastest BlackBerries up to date. While modern Blackberries incorporate ARM9-family processors, there are some that are added ARM7 CPUs, which are a little bit slower. Unfortunately, this is showing especially when browsing the menu, using multiple applications and especially when 3G connectivity is used. I have experienced some lockdowns when I have tried to open multiple apps within the device's menu. Overall there are some hiccups that could've been avoided if a more powerful CPU had been embedded.

The smartphone embeds 1GB user free internal storage memory and 128 MB Flash memory, which makes data processing much faster. Storage space can be expanded up to 8GB through the hot-swappable microSD slot card. The sales package also contains a 1GB microSD card, depending on the location.

Multimedia

There's not much to tell about the multimedia just that it bears the same conservative and business-like look, which is quite understandable as it comes from a business smartphone. The built-in music player supports album art features, but lacks any Equalizers. It supports MP3/WMA/AAC+ music files, which can be sorted by Artist, Albums and Genre. Users will be able to make their own playlists within seconds. Furthermore, even if these are only basic features, I was surprised to find out that the quality of the sound was pretty high, especially when using your own headphones. Thanks to the 3.5mm port you can now change the included headphones, which are not that bad though. One more drawback that I noticed was the missing Repeat feature, which was present in previous models.

The music player can be minimized to the background and listening to music through the stereo Bluetooth feature is also possible. The external speaker is very loud and pretty clear, but the lack of an Equalizer makes the music sound pretty much the same, regardless of the song played. Overall, multimedia features are surprisingly good for a business phone, and especially for a Blackberry device.

Battery

The 1500 mAh Li-Ion battery has an officially stated life expectancy of 310 hours in standby, and of about 5 hours in talk-time mode. Our test unit made it for about 4 days at medium use. Heavy users will need daily charging or 2-3 charges per week. The autonomy is pretty acceptable for a Blackberry owner that only uses the specific Blackberry services, namely messaging capabilities.

Impressions

BlackBerry Bold 9000 is one of the most appealing smartphones coming from RIM in terms of design. Even though it's not one of the smallest devices, the Bold (like its name says) is definitely one of those phones that have the 'wow factor'. Better seen as a business device, I would recommend the Bold 9000 before any other Blackberry smartphone, not just because it looks good, but also because it is one of the few that include all the features a businessman needs nowadays.

The Good

Having all the latest technologies embedded into a BlackBerry device might seem awkward, as RIM is recognized for its conservative thinking (see Apple). HSDPA and Wi-Fi included in the same smartphone is one great feature. The 1500 mAh is also one of the best features in a BB device and it shows, as the handset will just continue to work for days and days. The multimedia experience, while on a basic level, shows great potential. Last, but not least, the QWERTY keyboard and the excellent finishes make BlackBerry Bold 9000 one of the best smartphones ever manufactured by RIM.

The Bad

The only thing I was really concerned about was the sturdiness of the device, which is nowhere near its predecessors'. The somewhat high price could also become an obstacle to the phone's possible success in the market, but that could be explained by the fact that it targets a supposedly rich class – businessmen.

Sales package
Blackberry 9000 Bold smartphone
Standard battery 1500 mAh Li-Ion
Blackberry Premium 3.5mm Stereo Headset
AC Travel charger
USB data cable
Leather case
1GB microSD memory card
User manual
Sync software CD-ROM

Altec Lansing inMotion iM7 BLK, a Speaker System for iPod from Apple

2009-05-12T17:02:00.001-07:00

One of the factors that have managed to push Apple to the place it occupies right now on the CE market in general and that of portable entertainment products in particular is the huge success that its iPod player has recorded over the years, the various incarnations of this product becoming somewhat of an icon of portable music for the entire world.

Given this situation, it was to be expected for other big names in the industry to come up with an assortment of peripherals and devices to accompany the iPod and enhance some of its various functions, the most common type of such third-party accessories being represented by either earphones or speaker systems.

And a set of speakers is exactly the product we'll talk about as follows, namely the inMotion iM7 BLK from Altec Lansing, which was actually a very pleasant surprise, due to the high quality of the sound it generates, its looks, and some of its other features on the side.

The inMotion iM7 and its all-black version, the iM7 BLK, are not exactly new products, since they've been around for quite some time now. However, they manage to provide some features a lot of users will certainly find interesting, whether we're talking about the design, the level of mobility they provide, or, last, but certainly not least, they are now quite affordable, compared with some of the newer models to arrive on the market.

We won't go into specific details regarding the design, the power or the level of versatility Altec Lansing's iPod-dedicated speaker can provide, because we'll detail each of these issues in the forthcoming chapters. We'll just say that this thing should really appeal to anyone, especially if we're talking about iPod owners who can't afford one high-end, latest-gen speaker system, at the same time looking for clear and powerful sound, good bass and a high level of portability.

Overall design features

Without a doubt, Altec Lansing's iM7-BLK speaker system is one attractive product, starting from the form factor itself and ending with the quality of the finishing. Hence, the speaker system has a very rounded shape, looking like one large tube equipped with an iPod universal connector and a couple of control options right in the middle. However, this unusual rounded shape is a lot more attractive than the “squarer” form factors displayed by most other similar devices.

Color-wise, as you've guessed right from the name itself, the iM7-BLK is an all-black device, which, grants it certain elegance (further enhanced by the form factor). Pretty much every component of the speaker system is painted in black, the only exception being the Composite interface on the back and the white writing on the front (including here the lines that point out the position of the control buttons).

The quality of the plastic is also very impressive, the device feeling great to the touch and looking even better, especially when in the right lighting. To make a long story short, this thing looks a lot better than we would expect, given the price point.

Size and portability

Theoretically, the iM7-BLK from Altec Lansing is a portable system, but the truth of the matter is that a lot of users might have some problems carrying this thing around. And that's because the gadget measures a good 16.75 inches (42.5 cm) in length and about 6.5 inches (16.5 cm) in diameter, at a weight of around 10 pounds (4.53 kilos) with no batteries installed.

In other words, it's a pretty big thing, which will certainly occupy a fairly large amount of space anywhere you might place it, and it's not really ideal for taking along when going on a trip where luggage space is limited.

Button and slot placement

It's quite interesting to note that the designers and engineers from Altec Lansing have placed a fairly small amount of buttons on the speaker system itself, leaving most of the control options for the remote control.

So, practically, the only buttons we can encounter on the top side of the iM7-BLK are the power switch and the volume adjustment buttons, the latter providing a fairly good level of sensitivity when pressed. In the immediate vicinity of the power switch, there's also a blue activity LED, which informs the user whether the device is powered or not.

One relatively bothering thing was the fact that you can't really “feel” or “hear” the subtle differences of adjusting the volume, since there are no “clicking” sounds. Guess that you'll just have to keep pressing the buttons until the audio level reaches a comfortable level, since there are no visual indicators of the values you're adjusting.

The device sports two “slots,” if we can call them that, which have the purpose of housing the 8 D-size batteries used for powering the iM7-BLK when not connected to the mains. Both slots are placed on the rear side, on the left and right extremities, respectively.

Connectivity options

As expected, the most important interface of the iM7-BLK is represented by the iPod universal connector, which is placed right on the front side, in the center of the speaker system. However, the gadget from Altec Lansing delivers other connectivity options, all of which are placed on the rear side, underneath the rubber grip used for carrying the speaker system around.

So, users can also make good us of the Composite and S-Video interfaces in order to hook up the system to a TV set, while the Line-in audio interface is very useful for connecting an audio player/MP3 player/PMP to the system (other than the iPod, of course).

Remote control

As mentioned above, the remote control offers a lot more options than the main body of the speaker system. So, besides a secondary set of Power and Volume controls, the remote can control the specific amounts of Bass and Treble the speaker system outputs, as well as certain playback options, including Play/Pause, Fast Forward and Rewind.

Unfortunately, the remote has two major flaws. First of all, despite being quite slim and thin, it's also rather ugly, not really fitting the attractive external design of the iM7-BLK. Second, its functioning range is absolutely appalling, namely just around 10 feet (or 3 meters), which is far from being of any use, especially if you've installed the audio system in a larger room.

LG KP501 Cookie, Sleek and affordable touchscreen phone

2009-05-04T16:51:00.000-07:00

One of the cheapest touchscreen phones on the market, the new LG KP501, also known as Cookie, should not be considered a low-budget one. Slim and lightweight, the handheld uses the same proprietary LG flash UI, which has been improved lately. The affordable touchscreen phone was introduced by Orange into its network distribution line thanks to the huge success that the previously black Cookie (LG KP500) had since its launch in November 2008. Simple and elegant, LG KP501 promises great value for money, but also more colors available for customers.

Following the overwhelming market success of LG KP500, dubbed Cookie, LG decided to launch a sequel in partnership with Orange. Announced in January 2009, the new LG 501 Cookie was made available the next month, in February, and can be acquired for around 150 USD, free of plan, but can also go as low as 20 USD with a 24-month contract with Orange. The phone is available in a wide range of colors: Anodizing Silver, Capri Green, Pink and Black.

Design

One of the simplest phones I have ever seen, LG KP501 is no different in design compared to its KP500 Cookie predecessor. In fact, I only noticed a minor difference between the two, regarding the two buttons on the front, which are bigger for the KP500 model. Sleeker and lighter than any other touchscreen phones on the market, KP501 Cookie seems to be the peek of ergonomic design coming from the Korean company. The candybar measures 106.5 x 55.4 x 11.9mm and weighs exactly 89g (including battery). It features a nice polished plastic that makes it look rich and attractive, especially if you own the silver or black version. The front part of the phone is almost entirely seized by the huge 3-inch touchscreen. Below the display, there are three buttons: Accept calls, Reject calls and Shortcut key (middle).

The first two are metallic, which should prevent the paint from wearing off. The in-call speaker is hard to be noticed just above the screen. The right side of the phone features a dedicated camera button, a lock/unlock key and a microSD card slot. The left side of the device includes a dual volume key and the proprietary LG port, where one can insert a charger, a Stereo headset or a USB cable. The stylus has been moved from its usual position, on the bottom right corner of the phone and can now be pulled out from horizontal. On the back of the phone, LG included a simple 3.2-megapixel camera, which lacks flash and is not protected by a lens cover.

Stylish and pocket-friendly, this phone seems to have something for everyone. This handset also fits trendy people. The LG KP501 Cookie is not look like any other typical LG phone but it does have one LG quality - the superior finish. The form of the gadget is incredibly sleek. Furthermore, LG KP501 Cookie resembles the Prada fashion phone, but this time, the design has been greatly improved to make it look much smarter. This handheld can be best labeled as an "entertainment phone" but it can also be a great asset for business persons too, as the email facilities and the on-screen QWERTY keyboard are commendable.

In my opinion, LG KP501 Cookie is one of the best good-looking touchscreen phones that are now available on the market. Add to that the excellent ergonomics and you might have another huge market success handset.

Display and Camera

One of the main drawbacks of the candybar is the 3-inch TFT resistive touchscreen display that supports 262K colors and QVGA 240 x 400 pixel resolution. It's very clear that LG doesn't have the technology needed to develop a touchscreen that could be eligible for use outdoors, in strong light. In fact, if you plan to use it in sunlight, don't expect to see anything on the screen. You can barely distinguish anything on the screen, and what you can see are not phone numbers, which are the hardest to notice.

This is pretty much the same problem that almost all LG handsets suffer from. The sales package contains a protective foil, which prevents the touchscreen from getting soft scratches. We still get some nice features for the screen, such as: accelerometer for auto-rotate, handwriting recognition and haptic feedback.

The 3.2-megapixel camera doesn't feature any flash capabilities, auto-focus or any other complex features like geotagging or ISO. I was surprised to find a good camera on such a low-priced phone, but LG preferred to include a 3.2-megapixel camera, without adding any advanced capabilities.

Thus, you won't find the Schneider-Kreuznach optics, flash or auto-focus capabilities. Still, if you check the samples below, you'll notice that pictures taken with Cookie have little to no noise. Even though pictures are a little bit low on details, this is barely visible unless you zoom in the images.

The intuitive user interface of the camera doesn't have any new option compared with its predecessors. Users can take pictures with a maximum resolution of 2048x1536 pixels. Clips can be recorded in QVGA resolution (320x240 pixels) at 12fps. Thanks to the dedicated camera button, taking pictures is a smooth experience.

Menu and Software

LG KP501 Cookie features an improved version of the highly acclaimed Flash UI and can be controlled only with the finger. The first thing I noticed is the fact that it's not fully customizable anymore, like Prada. Moreover, the UI has been mixed with Orange's functions, so you will have specific menus that have been completely introduced only for this handset. The number of animations has been kept at a high level. While the layout of the menus has not changed at all, there are some tweaks that improve the usability. Besides the fact that you get more options for everything (like widgets), you have now two Home screens available that can be accessed by simply sweeping your finger to the left or right when in Home screen mode.

The phone also features a Document viewer application, which supports Word documents, Excel files and PDF files. There's still no YouTube client, but I did not expect that anyway. You will still be able to get to the mobile web version and watch clips.

The phonebook of the device looks standard and accepts 1000 contacts. You will be able to separately see contacts stored on the device's memory and the SIM ones, according to the choice you make. The Main menu has been organized into four parts accessible from the tabs placed on the right side of the screen. The first one on the top will give you access to the phone and messaging functions, while the second represents the multimedia and entertainment area included in the handset’s firmware. Productivity tools (Calendar, Calculator, Unit converter, Organizer, Drawing Panel) are available by tapping the third tab. For Settings, check the last tab.

I noticed a slight improvement in terms of speed when browsing the phone's menus. This is great news indeed and it's probably due to the improved ARM processor that has been included. The Java emulator 2.0 MIDP works with all Java-compatible software, but has a file size limit that cannot be exceeded.

Communications

LG KP501 supports the GPRS and EDGE connectivity, both class 10, but no UMTS/HSDPA technology or Wi-Fi. Data transfer speeds are average, but the integrated browser and the large screen definitely enhance the browsing experience. Tested on the EDGE, the phone definitely underperformed, as you can see from the screenshots.

Other connectivity tools include the Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP support and the USB 2.0 for PC synchronization (with charging). When connecting the USB cable, you'll be able to choose from five modes: PC Internet, Mass storage, PC Suite, Music sync and iSync. All of them are intuitive and easy to use, so there's nothing more to add here.

In terms of messaging, the slider is compatible with a wide range of type messages: SMS (300), MMS, EMS, email (no SSL support), and Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP. Moreover, thanks to the on-screen QWERTY keypad, you'll have no problems typing fast.

The quadband (GSM 850 / GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900) network-compatible slider has a good GSM signal reception. The in-call sound quality is very good, but it seems that this has become common for the latest LG mobile phones.

Processor and Memory

LG KP501 Cookie features a medium power ARM9 family processor, which runs at speeds of up to 201 Mhz. This could have been better, especially since LG has included an improved Flash UI that asks for a better CPU than those usually embedded in mid-budget handsets. Nevertheless, I haven't noticed important lags when browsing the menus. In fact, I was surprised by the fact that Cookie seems to be snappier than other high-end LG phones, such as LG Renoir or Prada 2.

The handheld comes with 48 MB of internal memory, which can be upgraded through the microSD slot card up to 16GB. We tested it with an 8GB microSD card and everything worked smoothly. The memory is hot-swappable.

Multimedia

LG KP501 Cookie features exactly the same music player that Prada 2 fashion phone has also embedded. Users will be able to filter their music by artist, album, and genre, or make their own playlists. The music player now features an Equalizer setting with five predefined modes, but no possibility for customization. The sound is good, but could be much better if a 3.5mm had been included in the handset, so users can attach better headphones.

The FM Radio features RDS, can only store up to 50 base stations and can be played through the loudspeaker. Both radio and music player can be run in the background and accessed on the Home screen through their correspondent widgets.

Battery

LG KP501 Cookie features a 950 mAh Li-Ion battery, which depletes very fast if you set your screen brightness to 100%. The official numbers stated by LG – 350 hours in standby mode and three hours and a half of talking – are low, as it stands to reason. Fortunately, with some tweaks, such as setting brightness screen to 40% and locking screen to 10 seconds, we managed to obtain around four days of use, with two hours of talking. It’s more than acceptable if we think that we're talking about an LG phone, which doesn't excel when it comes to battery.

Impressions

Officially one of the cheapest touchscreen phones on the market, LG KP501 Cookie is an amazing device for those trendsetters. Even though it hasn't been tagged as fashion phone and can successfully serve businessmen, the sleek device is meant to greatly appeal the masses with its look and price. Thanks to the Orange distribution, the phone will probably become a hit in sales for the Korean company.

The Good

The most attractive features of the phone are definitely the cheap price and the exceptional look and finishes. These seem to be the most important features that a buyer is looking for when acquiring a phone. I would like to enlist here the improvement regarding the Flash UI, which is much snappier than previous phones that included this kind of interface. Camera and battery are also nice additions to the great looking phone.

The Bad

I guess the most important drawback of the phone is the fact that it cannot be used outdoors in sunlight. Also, browsing the Internet is a nightmare, as the EDGE data transfer performs poorly. I think that a more generous sales package would've been nice, as it doesn't even include a USB cable.

Sales package

LG KP501 Cookie
Embedded Stylus
LG Stereo Handsfree kit
LG Travel Charger
Software CD
Manual.

click more review

Kingston 32/64GB DataTraveler 150 USB Flash Drive

2009-05-04T16:47:00.003-07:00

As you probably already know, Kingston Technology is one of the leading makers of memory products in the world, ranging from system-specific memory to flash and solid state drives.

The DataTraveler USB Flash Drive series is one of its most important products, being praised by users around the world for its high speeds and reliability. Well, we recently had the chance to put two of the latest DataTraveler models under our microscope: the 64GB DataTraveler 150 and its smaller in storage size brother, the 32GB DataTraveler 150.

Having made its appearance in November 2008, the DataTraveler 150 series quickly became a user's favorite portable storage choice thanks to its great price and above average quality that basically brought an elite high speed, high capacity flash drive to a public that could not afford one up until the DataTraveler's release.

Although we are not strangers to the DataTraveler series USB flash drives, our professional meeting with the two devices did reveal pretty interesting facts that an eventual buyer will want to take into account when choosing one of the two. But we'll be tackling those parts in the next pages of the review. Whereas testing is concerned, we tried to do professional testing, as well as the usual stress-testing a normal user would normally submit his/her flash drive to.

The results were quite unexpected in that both the 32 and 64GB DataTraveler 150 versions exceeded our hopes in a lot of areas. These devices have clearly been made to be used in a lot of different environments and by different types of people. How they fare after extreme wear and tear from a user that wants to squeeze as much as he/she can from his/her Flash Drive? Extremely well, as you will see but not without some glitches.

Mio Moov 500, a GPS Personal Navigation Device

2009-04-17T06:46:00.000-07:00

Without a doubt, the economic crisis is affecting pretty much everyone, but it's taken a huge toll on the automotive industry, whether we're talking about car makers or the manufacturers of various automotive accessories. And while some companies are simply overwhelmed by these events, others are trying to come up with products designed specifically to meet the demands of “crisis customers,” and that's also the case with Mio, whose solution (or, at least, one of the solutions) for keeping sales up, as far as possible, is the Moov 500 model.

As some of you might remember, a while ago (namely, back in May 2008), we had the chance to attend a very interesting event organized by Mio (well, Mitac would be better said, since they're the owners of Mio Technology, but in order to keep things simple, we'll just call them Mio from now on), during which they presented their new Moov line.

Soon after, we spent a little more time with one of the most interesting and advanced PNDs from the Moov line, the 330 model, which left us with a pretty pleasurable feeling about Mio, as well as the C725 (not a Moov).

And now, it's time to go back to the Moov line, with the company's new 500 model, which was initially announced back in October 2008, but arrived mostly in the first half of 2009 in several markets around the world.

This gadget takes the PND concept back to basics, providing just driving instructions... and that's it. No multimedia, no Bluetooth, nothing. In other words, it's a product designed mostly for those people who weren't using the aforementioned extras, anyway, and, more importantly, comes at a very good price point (just around 160 Euro or 210 US dollars for the Regional version, which comes pre-loaded with maps for a single region – the exact model we've tested)

Overall design features

Since it's a part of the Moov series, the Moov 500 shares the same attractive design with the other various models from this series. While “sleek” and “elegant” are the first two things that come to mind, some might view them as rather cliche, so we'll just say that the Moov 500 looks a lot better than most other PNDs retailing for the same price.

In fact, before opening the box, we were wondering just what Mio had to do in order to cut costs to such a level, but whatever it did, it had nothing to do with the design or the materials used within the Moov 500. Hence, the quality of the finishing and of the plastic is a very good one, and the same goes for all the accessories included in the sales package.

Size and portability

Another major surprise we encountered when first holding up the Moov 500 was related to just how lightweight this thing is. Of course, as far as the dimensions are concerned, there weren't any major surprises (after all, we're talking about a device equipped with a 4.7-inch display), the PND measuring 139 x 83.8 x 17.7 mm.

However, much to the surprise of every person who held it, the Moov 500 is extremely lightweight, weighing just less than 200 grams, battery included. This is indeed an impressive achievement, but it's most likely caused by the fact that Mio has kept the hardware configuration at a very basic level, so there are no additional components to increase the overall weight.

In other words, if you're tired of driving and you want to move around a bit using nothing but your feet, you can easily take the Moov 500 along with you, without really feeling the extra “burden.”

Button and slot placement

Like most other PNDs that rely mainly on their touchscreen display for control purposes, the Mio Moov 500 doesn't have that many buttons. In fact, there's just one main button, the Power switch, which is located right on top of the GPS navigator. And yes, there's also the reset button, but that's more of a slot than anything else.

The device sports an SD/MMC card slot, located on the top side (near the power button), plus a mini-USB power connector (also used for hooking up the navigator to a computer), which can be found on the bottom side of the PND. There's a “groove” on the rear side, which is in fact used for sliding the Moov 500 onto the windshield mount.

Connectivity options

Not much to talk about here. Aside from the SD/MMC card slot and USB interfaces (which we've already mentioned above), there's not much to add. The Mio Moov 500 doesn't have any audio or video outputs, and absolutely no hidden connectivity interfaces – apart from the internal antenna used for “tapping” into the satellite's signal.

iPhone 3G Review

2009-04-06T11:11:00.000-07:00

Following the huge success of the first iPhone, Apple decided to raise the stakes a little bit and upgrade its flagship smartphone. In fact, the decision was more of a 'must', as the old iPhone was falling behind technologically. Rivals such as Nokia and HTC already had most of their high-end devices with full HSDPA support, which is one of the most important features that a smartphone should include these days. Besides, another image boost couldn't hurt the Cupertino-based company. Faithful to its conservative ways, but also determined to keep the interest of the market up high, Apple decided to keep the name of the old but successful smartphone, but add a small abbreviation – 3G. This is how the new iPhone 3G was born, in a moment when Apple's sales for the EDGE version of the iPhone were still high. Thanks to the guys over at PureMobile, we had the chance to test iPhone 3G and see how much the basic version of the smartphone had been improved. Announced in June 2008, iPhone 3G was made available on the market one month later, in July 2008. The smartphone can be acquired for about US$700, but pricing can vary, depending on location or plan. There are two colors available on the market: Black and White.

Design

Little has been changed in terms of design compared to the iPhone 2G. The iPhone 3G has grown a little bit in size, about 1mm (115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3mm), but that's barely perceptible. Even though it's a little bit bigger, the 3G version is 2g lighter than its predecessor (133g including battery). I think this is because of the back cover of the phone, which is now made of light plastic. The same metallic frame encircles the smartphone's huge display. The rounded edges and the aerodynamic shape of the phone feel great to the touch. The back hood is made of a very well-polished plastic that is a real fingerprint magnet. Still, if you own the White version of the phone, that won't be noticed too much. The front part is almost entirely seized by the incredible 3.5-inch TFT touchscreen.

The screen is protected against scratches by a durable glass, which is barely noticeable. Above the display there's a silver grilled earphone speaker, while below you'll notice the 'famous' Home button. The left side of the phone features a dual-volume key and a special slide key that turns the device on Silent profile or General. On the bottom, I have noticed the two new screws that will probably give Apple's support people faster access to the insides of the smartphone. Otherwise it's all the same; the specific proprietary iPhone port set between the loudspeaker, to the left, and the mouthspeaker, on the right. On top of the handset, from right to left: Power button, SIM card tray and 3.5mm jack port. The SIM card tray can now be easily opened, as the sales package contains a special metallic SIM removal. The right side of the iPhone 3G has been left free. The 2-megapixel camera on the back of the phone lacks any flash or video capabilities, but it seems to be well protected by a special glass. Of course, the phone cannot be opened, unless you want to lose the warranty, which is not advisable.

iPhone 3G seems to be one very sturdy smartphone, even though it doesn't use so many metallic compounds in its construction. The stylish plastic on the back assures somewhat a much better grip than in the case of its predecessor. Still, I have found one of the flaws that people have been complaining about since the launch of the first version of the iPhone. Even though some imply that it may be a software problem, I still think that it's a hardware-related one. The issue I have encountered is that my testing iPhone 3G has remained stuck in Headphones mode. That could have occurred for various reasons such as: spilled water, use of other headphones than the proprietary ones that come in the sales package or simply ... fate. I have searched the Internet for a solution to this flaw and found a couple that worked for most of those who have encountered the same problem. But first things first, so let's see how this could happen.

Well, Apple's iPhone 3G features a small switch in the deep 3.5mm port jack, which actually detects when headphones are plugged in. The moment you got dirt into the port, the switch can remain blocked, thus rendering you the impossibility to talk on the phone unless you use the headphones or the speaker. Basically, you won't hear the phone's sounds, iPod music and so on. People who have experienced the problem managed to solve it by Resetting the phone's settings or by simply Rebooting it. Others had to plug the headphones into the jack port numerous times, until the switch unblocked itself. Still, the best way to solve this is to clean the 3.5mm port from the debris by blowing some air into the socket. You can also use a cotton swap to do that, but if you use any kind of fluid you might void your warranty.

For me none of the above solutions worked, except for the latter. With the help of a cotton swap I cleaned the socket very easily and everything came back to normal, like nothing had happened. I consider myself pretty lucky, as I have heard that many other users usually have to go to an Apple Store and replace their iPhone 3G. The good thing is that Apple already knows about this flaw and is willing to replace your unit fast, if none of the above solutions work. What I think it should help a bit would be a setting that would enable users to manually deactivate the Headphones mode. While this won't actually unblock the sensor switch in the port, it could make your iPhone work normally until you take it to an Apple support centre.

Display and Camera
iPhone 3G embeds an amazing 3.5-inch HVGA capacitative touchscreen that supports 16 Million colors and a resolution of 320x480 pixels, and which features lots of functions such as: multi-touch input method, accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate, proximity sensor for auto turn-off and scratch-resistant surface. As expected, the quality of the display is not lower than its predecessor’s, which means that Apple has launched another device that features the best mobile display on the market. The screen offers marvelous-quality viewing and perfect outdoor eligibility. Thanks to the eye-candy interface, iPhone 3G is second to none in terms of the level of sophistication. The only drawback I have noticed is the fact that the accelerometer function works only with a few applications: Internet browser, Youtube player, iPod).

Faithful to its obsession for low power consumption policy, Apple introduced safety precautions that would limit the energy power consumption of the battery. The first one is the proximity sensor, which shuts off the display and touchscreen when the iPhone is brought near the face during a call. This is also done to prevent inadvertent inputs from the user's face and ears. The second precaution consists of an ambient light sensor, which adjusts the display brightness. The last one comes in the form of a hardware piece, namely A-GPS, which is used for faster localization, thus limiting the time that the GPS receiver takes to pinpoint your location.

The first-generation iPhone wasn't recognized for its competitive camera, as it seems this hasn't been one of the Apple's priorities. I wasn't expecting too many improvements in the 3G version, but I was expecting SOME. Well, I haven't found any except that the quality of the pictures is a little bit better now. The 2-megapixel camera still doesn't feature any autofocus, flash or video capabilities. It doesn't even have an interface or some settings that you can take advantage of. You just activate it and click the on-screen key to capture the pictures, which are saved pretty fast in the Photo gallery and can also be accessed from the camera preview window. Otherwise, there's noting really to discuss about the camera, but check out the samples below to make an impression of its capabilities.

Menu and Software
The iPhone 3G runs on the so called 'iPhone OS', which relies on a basic variant of Mac OS X. The iPhone OS includes the software component "Core Animation" from Mac OS X v10.5, which, together with the PowerVR MBX 3D hardware, is responsible for the interface's smooth animations. The operating system fills in little under 1 GB of the device's storage space, which is quite a bit of information. The handset can be managed with iTunes version 7.3 or later, which is compatible with Mac OS X version 10.4.10 or later, and 32-bit or 64-bit Windows XP or Vista. Apple provides free updates to the iPhone's operating system through iTunes, in a similar fashion to the way that iPods are updated. Security patches, as well as new and improved features, are released this way.

The interface of the iPhone 3G hasn't changed too much in terms of looks, compared to its EDGE predecessor. By default, the Homescreen of the smartphone contains 15 icons and 1 free slot for a third-party application. These icons are opening various functions of the phone: SMS, Calendar, Photos, Camera, YouTube, Stocks, Maps, Weather, Clock, Calculator, Notes, Settings, iTunes, AppStore and Contacts. At the base of the Homescreen there's a locked toolbar that features four icons: Phone, Mail, Safari (browser) and iPod.

Still, there are some new features that have been introduced lately and which come in handy for users who like to customize their mobile desktop. iPhone 3G's Homescreen can be configured the way you want, but default icons cannot be changed, only moved between themselves. The interface now features 9 additional desktops that can be filled the way you see fit, and which are accessible by swiping the Homescreen to the left or right. In fact, the whole interface of the smartphone is based on gesture interaction. Swipe, pinch, scroll, touch, multi-touch are gestures that have become common thanks to Apple's innovative user-interface.

Another newly introduced feature is the possibility of deleting the third-party applications that you have previously installed directly from the Homescreen. You only need to keep the specific icon pressed for 3-4 seconds and an X will appear in the left upper corner, which will allow you remove it. The phone function supports conference, call merger, call waiting, caller ID. The phonebook contacts can now be selected in bulk, and the search function works perfectly. There are also some things that are missing, some of them being absolutely necessary for smartphone users. iPhone 3G doesn't feature an office document editor, copy/paste function, Java emulator, and the Safari browser doesn't support Flash. Additional applications can be installed through the famous App Store, but the big letdown is the fact that apps that are not free don't have demo or trial versions. Basically, you have to pay for an application that you might not like afterwards.

All in all, even with all that's missing, iPhone's 3G interface and operating system are the most snappy and eye-candy. Only HTC's TouchFLO 3D can be compared to iPhone's interface in terms of looks, but the Taiwanese manufacturer has big issues when it comes to performance.

Communications
iPhone 3G takes advantage of the HSDPA 3.6 Mbps technology, which is one of the main reasons Apple decided to upgrade its first-generation iPhone. Unfortunately, this cannot be compared with HTC's latest devices that mostly feature HSDPA 7.2Mbps and HSUPA. Besides HSDPA technology, as a much cheaper choice, one can opt for EDGE Class 10 connectivity, but data transfer speeds will be considerably lower.

You can see the tests on 3G network, as well as EDGE and GPRS: 1593 Kbit/s download and 320 Kbit/s upload for HSDPA; 777 Kbit/s download and 296 Kbit/s upload for EDGE; 738 Kbit/s download and 317 Kbit/s upload for GPRS. That might be almost unbelievable, but the speed is way above most of HTC's devices, only Nokia offering comparable performance or better.

Furthermore, the device features Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g technology, Bluetooth v2.0, but no A2DP or data transfer support, and miniUSB 2.0. iPhone 3G also includes a GPS receiver with A-GPS support, but lacks the software for it, so you'll be stuck with Google Maps. Either way, the device includes a wide range of connectivity options, most of these being wireless (Wi-Fi, HSDPA, aGPS).

Safari is the iPhone's native web browser, and it displays pages similar to its Mac OS X counterpart. Web pages may be viewed in portrait or landscape mode and the handset supports automatic zooming by using the pinch gesture or by double-tapping text or images. It also supports SVG, CSS, HTML Canvas, and Bonjour.

In terms of messaging the smartphone continues to NOT support MMS. User will be able to successfully use SMS texting and email. Multiple email accounts can be set and, as something new, Apple introduced Push email, which is now perfectly compatible with the iPhone. Again, bulk selection is possible in case you want to delete more messages from the Inbox. Messaging works pretty good and the interface is simple and user friendly.

In terms of telephony, iPhone 3G (GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900; HSDPA 850 / 1900 / 2100) is definitely one of the best phones on the market. In-call sound is perfectly clear and very loud, so you won't have any problems talking in crowded areas.

Processor and Memory
iPhone 3G is powered by a Samsung 620 MHz chipset, which seems to have been underclocked to 412 Mhz. The device also features a dedicated graphics chip (6 PowerVR MBX Lite 3D). While, I have been impressed by the speed of the phone compared to its main Nokia, HTC and Google rivals, it is still not the perfect handset in terms of power. You will still experience slight lags while browsing the Internet or the menus. The things that are working flawlessly are games, movies and music.

The smartphone features 16GB of flash memory and 128MB DRAM. Obviously, there's no slot for memory card and we probably won't even see such a thing embedded into an Apple-made device, as long as the company doesn't come up with a proprietary memory card.

Multimedia
The multimedia part of the iPhone 3G is handled pretty much like the iPod's. The interface is very simple and offers users the possibility of sorting their music files by songs, artists, albums, videos, playlists, genres, composers, podcasts, audiobooks, and compilations.

The music player can be used in landscape mode and features an Equalizer, which is accessible from the Settings menu. The phone can play movies in wide-screen mode, as well as in full screen (double-tap to change between modes). The sales package contains stereo wired headsets, which are pretty good.

Sound quality is exceptional, regardless of the headphones you use. The only drawback I have to mention is the lack of Radio FM and stereo Bluetooth headset compatibility.

Battery
iPhone 3G is powered by a 1400 mAh Li-Polymer, which is rechargeable, but not replaceable. If the battery dies or is simply defective you'll have to get your iPhone replaced at the nearest Apple Store. The iPhone 3G's battery is stated to be capable of providing up to 7 hours of video, 6 hours of web browsing on Wi-Fi or 5 on 3G, 10 hours of 2G talk time, or 5 on 3G, 24 hours of music, or 300 hours of standby. What I got was 4 days and 6 hours of use, with 1 hour of talk time, 30 MB of data traffic and 3 hours of music and video playback, as well as gameplay. This is quite a 'generous' result, which places Apple's iPhone almost on top of the low energy consumer smartphones.

Impressions
Apple managed to successfully update their first-generation smartphone and increase their income in the handset market. I was pleasantly surprised by the iPhone 3G and would definitely use one as a secondary phone. It looks and feels like the perfect phone, even though it misses some features that even common handsets include.

The Good
The most 'entertaining' trait of the smartphone is definitely the eye-candy interface and multitouch-gesture control system that it comes with. HSDPA connectivity is also another good addition to the phone, together with the high-quality battery and design finishes. Even though it's been a while since the first iPhone has been launched, no other handset manufacturer managed to come so close to the 'perfect phone' like Apple did with its device.

The Bad
There are some issues with the phone that cannot be missed, such as: no support for A2DP Bluetooth and data transfer, no support for video-calls, 3.5mm jack port issues, lack of Java and Flash for Safari browser, no office document editor, as well as low-quality camera. Still, I believe that all these missing features or hardware issues can be easily solved, if not for Apple's conservative attitude.

Sales package
iPhone 3G 16GB handset
Small folding AC adapter with USB input
USB charging cable
Earbuds / microphone
Polishing cloth
SIM removal clip
Apple stickers
Warranty info
User guide

Nokia 3610 fold Review, Mid-budget clamshell with classy look

2009-03-30T03:09:00.000-07:00

Nokia 3610 fold is a mid-end handset that has almost the same features as the Supernova-series 7210 phone. While the design of these mobile phones is totally different, there are lots of similarities regarding their features: display, internal memory, EDGE class 32 connectivity, microUSB 2.0. Still, if you are into clamshell phones and don't have a high budget, Nokia 3610 fold is the phone that can satisfy most users’ needs. I consider Nokia 3610 fold a much better bargain, as it features a substantially better battery, better keypad and 2 displays. If you like the layout and design of the clamshell, but still want something better in terms of features, I strongly recommend checking out Nokia 6555, which seems to be the enhanced version of 3610.

Announced in August 2008, Nokia 3610 fold was made available on the market in November the same year. The clamshell can be acquired for no more than US$165, without any plan. Prices may vary depending on location and carrier, so chances are high that you'll be able to get it for under US$165. The phone is available in a wide range of colors: Blue, Red, Green, Rose.

Design

I was surprised to find the new design that Nokia clamshells have adopted. I was pretty bored with the usual stuff that the Finnish giant didn't bother changing in years, but checking some pictures that leaked on the Internet with the 3610 fold handset, I thought I saw some innovation. Even so, I wasn't expecting too much from the phone, as it's only a mid-budget device after all. Basically, what I could notice at first glance was its low width and its smooth finishes. The only thing I didn't like about it was the fact that it was way too long when unfolded. I myself, felt somewhat ridiculous when talking on the phone outdoors.

Also, I think that the phone should've been a little bit sleeker when closed, as it barely fits in a normal pocket. Nokia 3610 fold measures 99.6 x 44.3 x 19.6mm and weighs only 97g (including battery). When it is closed you can see the rounded folding mechanism, which is quite annoying. Still, this one disappears when you unfold the clamshell and you can only remark its fine finishes. The phone looks really sleek when you keep it open, but, as I have mentioned above, it seems a little bit oversized. The right side features two very small ports for headset and charger, whereas the left side sports a volume key, a dedicated camera key, but also a small microUSB port.

The front part of the clamshell features a low-end 1.3 Megapixel camera, a secondary TFT external display (1.36 inches), but also a considerably large loudspeaker. Opening the phone reveals a very generous keypad with a simple layout. The D-pad controller is also large and easy to handle. On each of the four corners of the D-pad there are 4 contextual keys: Accept and Reject call keys and 2 soft keys. The main display can be considered of medium size at exactly 2 inches. You will probably wonder if this phone has a microSD slot card. Well, it does, but this one has been placed under the back cover, and also under the battery, which makes it non hot-swappable.

Another drawback of the clamshell is the plastic used, which might give the impression of cheap, but that depends on what color version you opt for. Otherwise, Nokia 361 fold is one of the goodies in its mid-budget class, with excellent value for money and pretty nice design. While the clamshell is still far from anything attractive, it's still one of the pleasant surprises from Nokia.

Display and Camera

Nokia 3610 fold features a medium sized 2-inch TFT main display, supporting 262k color and 240x320 pixel resolution. This might seem a little bit small for those who are using their phone to surf the Internet or watch movies, but this is a mid-budget phone and browsing on EDGE connectivity might not be such a good idea anyway. The screen is visible enough when outdoors in strong sunlight. The quality of the image displayed is pretty good, bright and with excellent color contrast. Likewise, the secondary TFT display is visible enough and displays time and also the number that is calling you. It has 1.36 inches, it supports 262k colors and features 128x160 pixel resolution.

The 1.3 Megapixel camera lacks auto-focus and flash capabilities, but at least it can record videos. The maximum resolution available is 1024x1280 pixels for pictures and 176x144 pixels for movies (15 fps). The camera interface doesn't come up with anything new; it's pretty standard and straightforward, with the usual settings, such as Effects (False colors, Sepia, Greyscale, Negative, Solarise), White Balance (Daylight, Tungsten, Fluorescent), Self-timer, Sounds.

The camera lens is not that well protected, but for such a low-value module I don't even think it matters. As the phone features a dedicated camera button, you'll be able to use the camera to take self-portraits, even when the phone is folded. Otherwise, you can use the big D-pad to easily capture pictures, when the phone is opened.

The camera takes good pictures, but I have noticed that it takes a little more time than usual to save them. Even though it's only 1.3 Megapixels I believe that it makes for a good addition to the phone and pretty much satisfies the needs of a medium user. The camera can also record movies and save them in 3gpp format, but the resolution is so low that it's not really worth it. Check out the samples below for a better understanding.

Menu and Software

Nokia 3610 fold runs on an S40 5th Edition interface, which is one of the latest user interfaces coming from Nokia. If you owned a Nokia handset before and it didn't have a Symbian OS, then this clamshell will probably feel the same. One of the most user-friendly interfaces on the market, the S40 seems unchanged on the surface, and offers the Nokia 3610 fold user an excellent experience. The phone's firmware includes Flash 3.0, animated menus, submenus and icons.

Nokia's Series 40 5th Edition UI allows users to experience streaming videos, image rendering, mobile 3D graphics and scalable 2D Vector graphics. The Series 40 5th Edition also supports the latest version of Adobe's Flash Lite 2.1, the interoperable platform that enables the accelerated development and delivery of rich graphical mobile content, and includes audio file playback and streaming capabilities that provide audio and music enhancements to mobile gaming and multimedia experience.

The handset also includes some useful applications, such as Search, Alarm clock, Calendar, To-do list, Notes, Calculator, Countdown timer, World Clock and Stopwatch. The menu is fully customizable and you can designate any MP3, MIDI or AAC file as ringtone. Nokia's integrated browser has trouble opening websites with rich image content, so I suggest using Opera Mini.

The phonebook can store up to 2,000 contacts, and each can be filled with up to five different phone numbers. The fonts can be customized, but only those displayed when opening Contacts, Web browser and messaging sections.

Also, a wide range of Java games come preinstalled – City Bloxx, Golf Tour, Poppin' Panda, Rally 3D, Soccer 3D, Seasweeper, Sudoku and Snake III. The phone is compatible with Java MIDP 2.1 applications, but there is a limit to the size of any application that you might want to install on the phone, and that's the usual 1MB. This might be the case for most Java-compatible applications, but I noticed that I could run some files that were around 1.5MB in size. Nevertheless, not all Java applications will work on this mid-end device, so you might want to try that out for yourselves.

Communications

Nokia 3610 fold is fully compatible with GPRS and EDGE Class 32, but, as benchmarks revealed, the device attained average scores in terms of data transfer speed (EDGE only 146 Kbit/s download and 70 Kbit/s upload), but that may greatly vary depending on location and carrier.

The phone also features Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and EDR for faster data transfers. Synchronization with PC is possible through the proprietary microUSB port, but charging through USB cable is not available.

The quad-band (GSM 850/ GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900) network-compatible clamshell has a good GSM signal reception. The sound is average in quality at both ends, but a little bit muffled. The vibration alert is very good.

Processor and Memory

Nokia 3610 fold isn't compatible with JBenchmark Pro, so I was forced to use the obsolete JBenchmark 1.0, 2.0, 3D and HD. Even if current devices are over-optimized against many of these old tests, I say that the results are pretty relevant if compared with other handsets in its range.

Nokia 3610 fold is most likely powered by an ARM9 family processor running at speeds of up to 220 MHz. While not the fastest phone on the market, Nokia 3610 won't lag more than its class competitors when browsing through the menus. I have noticed that it opens folders a little bit hard if they're heavily populated.

The Nokia 3610 clamshell embeds 30MB user free internal memory, which can be expanded up to 4GB storage capacity. The memory is not hot-swappable and you must pull out the battery to replace the memory card.

Multimedia

Nokia 3610 fold features a 2.5mm jack port and comes with Stereo WH-101 wired headset that sounds pretty good. Unfortunately, there's no 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter included in the sales package, so you won't be able to change the headphones, unless you get one.

The clamshell features a cool integrated MP3 player, compatible with MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ and WMA formats. The interface of the music player looks nice and supports album animations, as well as some basic settings such as Equalizer, Stereo widening, Shuffle and Repeat. Equalizer can be customized, or you can use the predefined settings: Normal, Pop, Rock, Jazz and Classical.

The lack of music-dedicated external keys can be replaced by a Bluetooth headset, as the phone supports the A2DP profile. The loudspeaker sound is average in intensity, but clearly lacks any sort of bass. There's no FM radio function, so I guess you'll have to stick with the music player. Don't expect too much multimedia quality from a mid-budget phone, instead appreciate the features that it offers.

Battery

The 1020 mAh Li-Ion (BL-5C) battery has an officially stated life expectancy of 19 days in standby mode and about 4.5 hours in talk-time mode. This should do even for a heavy phone-talker. It will need two-day charging for the latter, but can easily last 5 to 6 days if you're only using it 10-15 minutes per day. Nokia 3610 fold seems to be one of the few mid-budget handsets to get such a good-capacity battery, which recommends it even more for medium users.

Impressions

In case you're into clamshell phones and don't want to spend more than $200 USD on a handset, Nokia 3610 fold is definitely one of the best choices. Design and price should help the sales of this device more than its features after all. Overall, Nokia 3610 fold is a good piece and one of the few good clamshells coming from Nokia.

The Good

Besides its design and price, I'd like to mention the above average camera, which takes unexpectedly good pictures. Other than that, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP function, microSD card and friendly user interface are some of the best features of this mid-budget clamshell.

The Bad

There are only a few other things that I would've wanted from Nokia 3610 fold: Radio FM function and hot-swappable memory card. Otherwise, there's nothing really bad about this handset, which might seem weird, but that's a fact.

Sales package

Nokia 3610 fold
Nokia Battery BL-5C (1020 Mhz)
Nokia Stereo Headset WH-101
Nokia Charger AC-3
User Guide

LG GM630 TV Phone Surfaces

2009-03-30T03:08:00.001-07:00

According to the latest news on the Web, mobile phone users in North America will soon be able to enjoy yet another handset that is able to offer something more than most of the crowd would do. We're talking about the new LG GM630, a mobile phone that is able to provide users with TV while they are on the go.

The new LG GM630 TV phone is reported to actually come to the market as an updated version of a device that can already be spotted on the shelves in Europe, namely the older LG HB620T. However, the good news for users in America is that the LG GM630 is said to have been approved by FCC, and that there are some pictures of the handset already available.

The new TV mobile phone comes in a flip form factor, resembling its predecessor, the HB620T, and sports a QVGA internal display, complemented by a smaller external screen and a 2-megapixel photo snapper, as well as Bluetooth connectivity, FM radio and a MicroSD memory card slot offering users additional storage space options.

The photos that are available with the device also show that it includes a dedicated Mobile TV button. One could argue that the display of the new mobile phone might be rather small for a handset that allows users to view TV programs on it, yet it should do for now, given the fact that there are not too many similar devices available on the market.

For the time being, there aren’t that many details on the exact availability of the new LG GM630, but, from what we've heard, the handset might soon get launched in both North and South Americas. No info on its pricing surfaced either, but it should become available in the near future, so stay tuned to learn the news.

LG KF750, Stylish slider with excellent camera

2009-02-26T06:22:00.003-08:00

The third handset that adds to the LG Black Series, KF750, continues the tradition of its Chocolate and Shine predecessors, featuring an exquisite design that seems to target fashionistas. Stage named Secret, the slider combines stylish looks with smart technology and increased functionality. Some of its highlights include: 5 Megapixel camera, carbon fiber compound used as materials, anti-scratch glass that protects the display, Neon touch navigation and Touch media function. One of the most expected handsets in 2008, KF750 impresses thorough its high-quality camera that manages to capture crystal clear DVD-like movies (DivX format). Another attraction of the device, the eye-candy user interface, has been improved and now offers smoother transition effects in menus and more stability.

Announced in April 2008, LG KF750 Secret has been released on the market in June same year. The sleek slider can be bought for about 270 USD, free of contract. Fans of the brand have a wide array of colors available to choose from: Black, Ruby Violet and Titan Gold.

Design

LG Secret, as a premium device, features a stylish design that will stir your interest without a doubt. Thanks to the glossy surface on the front of the slider, it offers more style than most of its fashionista predecessors. In fact, it is well-known that high-end LG phones have an elegant design that projects a premium look and feel. LG KF750 features an amazing stylish design with its sleek slider form and perfectly balanced weight. The phone measures 102.8 x 50.8mm, only 11.8 mm in thickness, and weighs 116g (including battery). The entire front of the handset is completely covered by a strong glass that protects the screen from possible scratches.

Below the screen the slider features four touch controls that can only be seen when the phone is in active mode. These controls are highlighted by bluish lights when you touch them and feature haptic feedback. There's also another set of two contextual keys that aren't highlighted in any way, so you will just have to believe me. The long middle button is mostly used as a confirmation key. At the bottom of these controls you can notice from the pictures 3 common keys: Accept calls, C (Delete) key and Reject calls. Above the display there's a secondary camera used for video-calls and a small ambient light sensor, which can be turned off. The left side of the slider features the universal LG port and a small eyelet where you can put in the small screen wiper that comes in the sales package (see pictures).

On the right side there's the usual dual volume key, touch media key, shortcut menu key and a dedicated camera button. The media key is used to turn on/off the touch sensitivity of the screen. The back cover of the phone is made of carbon fiber, which features a chess pattern. It really looks shiny and great, but I have noticed that after heavy use it peels off and becomes mat. The upper part on the back of the phone is made from a leather-like plastic that looks very cool. The 5 Megapixel camera on the back also features LED flash and a small auto-focus assist light. When slid upward, it reveals a generous keypad, which seems to be responsive enough. Backlighting is strong and even for all keys, so you won't have problems typing in darker areas.

Overall, I believe LG Secret is one of the most appealing LG handsets in terms of looks. Featuring exquisite and stylish materials and a perfectly balanced slider form factor, LG Secret will definitely impress those favoring looks over performance.

Display and Camera

Clearly, LG KF750 features a marvelous TFT touchscreen display that supports 262K colors and QVGA 240 x 320 pixel resolution. Pity that it is only 2.4 inches wide, otherwise it would have been perfect. One major drawback of the screen is the inability to use it in the sunlight. This is pretty much the same problem that almost all LG handsets are suffering from. The anti-scratch surface protects it from soft scratches, but don't throw it off, as it won't stand a chance.

The small display features accelerometer sensor for auto-rotate and limited touchscreen functionality. Basically, you'll only be able to use the touchscreen with just 5 functions of the phone: music player, gallery, document reader, M-Toy (games) and FM radio. These can be easily accessed via the Touch media key on the right side of the phone.

The 5 Megapixel camera doesn't feature the worthy Schneider-Kreuznach optics, but that doesn't seem to affect the quality of the pictures. If I were to compare it with Viewty, which also had a 5 Megapixel camera with the above mentioned optics, I can definitely say that LG Secret takes a little bit better pictures. If you check the samples below you'll notice that pictures taken with Secret have little to no noise. This might seem a good thing at first glance, but then you see that the decoding software also misses lots of details. Depending on what you value most, you can consider LG Secret's camera over Viewty's or the other way around.

Users can take pictures with a maximum resolution of 2592x1944 pixels. The interface of the camera is much more complex than in any other LG phone, and can be compared with top-notch camera phones like SE's K850i and Nokia's N95 8GB. Starting with the full preview of the pictures, red-eye reduction and ISO function, LG KF750 features one of the best module cameras on the market. Users can also take advantage of a wide array of scene modes (Auto, Portrait, Landscape, Night, Beach, Sports, and Party) and shooting modes (continuous shot, panorama and frames). The usual White balance and Colour tone settings are also available and can be used whenever necessary. The camera interface can be easily controlled using the touch panel, as the touchscreen sensitivity isn't active for this feature.

Those who are expecting to shoot high-quality clips won't be disappointed by LG Secret's recording camera capabilities. The maximum resolution that can be used is 640x480 pixels, but all movies are saved in AVI format and feature DivX encoding. The camera supports movie capturing in VGA resolution at 30fps or QVGA at 120fps. Overall, LG Secret's camera exceeds all expectations and rivals with latest 5 Megapixel dedicated camera phones like Sony Ericsson's Cyber-shot series.

Menu and Software

The LG firmware is continuously improving from handset to handset. The LG KF00 slider offers a wide range of customization options such as flash themes, wallpapers and screensavers, also with support for flash animations, which can make the device more attractive. There aren't too many applications and productivity tools included in the phone, but we're not really missing out on anything here, given that the slider's target is fashionistas. Having a Flash UI (user-interface) really makes a difference, especially if it is backed by such a high-quality touchscreen display. Still, keep in mind that the layout of the menus did not change too much and if you owned one of the latest LG handsets, you will get used to this one pretty fast. I was pretty excited when I discovered the touchscreen sensitivity function, but then I was immediately disappointed to find out that the feature was limited to only 5 functions of the phone. Still, the handset offers a glimpse of Viewty with hints of KF600, so it's all good in the end if you're not looking for a full touchscreen display.

There's an Organiser containing 5 utilities: Calendar, Memo, To do, Secret Memo and Date finder. In terms of productivity tools, owners will find only the basic versions of the most used applications: Alarm clock, Calculator, Stopwatch, Unit converter, and World clock. The file manager tagged as "My stuff" is one of the improvements offered by the firmware. It can now list the folders made by users on the phone's memory, thus they will be able to copy their music in their own folder, other than the usual Sounds folder made by default. For those looking for some entertainment, the slider also embeds 2 Java-compatible games: Grand Golf and Sudoku Puzzle. If you choose to use the Touch interface you'll be able to access another set of 6 games from the M-Toy menu (Dart, Magic Ball, Maze, Homerun Derby, Hammer, and Fishing), which are taking advantage of the embedded accelerometer. From the same Touch interface you'll able to read any document or .PDF file. The slider also comes with a Google package that includes: Google Search, Gmail, Google Map, Youtube, Blogger.

The phonebook of the slider looks standard and holds 1,000 contacts. Users will be able to see contacts by Name only, Name & number or only those with picture. The all-time famous "clock delay" bug has also been corrected, which marks a second improvement of the updated firmware. Overall, the user interface is not far from what LG has already gotten us used to – plus some welcomed eye-candy improvements that should add to its functionality.

Another drawback of the firmware is the inability to use the GSM capabilities while the phone is synchronized with a PC.

Communications

LG KF750 supports GPRS and EDGE connectivity, both class 10, but also HSDPA 3.6 Mbps. Data transfer speeds are average, but it is clear that this handset has not been made for browsing because of the small screen and low data speed connectivity.

In terms of messaging, the slider is compatible with a wide range of message types: SMS (500 max.), MMS, EMS, email (no SSL support), and Bluetooth (2.0) messaging.

The triband (GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900) network-compatible slider has a good GSM signal reception. Sound is pretty loud and clear, thanks to the Voice Clarity technology embedded, so this is another good point scored for LG's KF750.

Processor and Memory

LG KF750 features one of the lowest ARM7 family processors, which runs at speeds of up to 70 Mhz. This could have been better, especially since LG included a Flash UI that asks for a better CPU than those usually embedded in low-end handsets. Perhaps the problem of powering a much better processor scared the Korean company, which is not reckoned for its batteries.

Basically, it's less speed for longer battery life. I say it's a good choice, as the CPU manages all the basic operations with no problems. The phone comes with 100 MB of internal memory, but can be upgraded through the microSD slot card, up to 4GB. Still, I have tested the device with an 8GB microSD card and it worked flawlessly.

Unfortunately, the memory card has been placed under the battery cover, so you'll need to take it off every time you need to pull it out.

Multimedia

LG KF750 targets fashionistas and could not lack in rich multimedia capabilities. Besides Camera and Video camera, the Multimedia category also includes an MP3 player, a Video player, an FM radio and a Voice recorder. The earphones that come with the phone have been changed and will easily fit into your ears. Also, this time the headset comes with a 3.5mm adapter, which means that you can attach your own headphones.

In terms of sound quality LG KF750 scores as one of the best LG music phones. You could easily compare it with the famous iPod, as this baby sounds astonishing. Unfortunately, you will not be able to create other settings for the Equalizer and choices are limited to 10 predefined modes. Music can mostly be stored on the external memory because the phone is low on internal storage space. The MP3 player is compatible with MP3, WMA, AAC and AAC+ file formats.

The FM radio lacks a RDS function, but features autoscan ability, which automatically memorizes any base stations in range. Reception is very good and sound is pretty loud. Music player and radio can both be run in the background if you want to use other applications. Overall, LG KF750 is definitely the best multimedia-oriented product that comes from the Korean company.

Battery

LG KF750 features an 800 mAh Li-Ion battery, which depletes faster only if you use the camera. The official numbers stated by LG are 260 hours in standby mode and 4 hours of talking. I kept the phone for about 5 days and used it for calls around 20 minutes, after which I made 4 pictures and the battery discharged completely. It might take longer, around 7-8 days if you only use it for 1-2 short calls per day.

Impressions

LG KF750 is the place where technology meets style, transforming the phone into a fashion icon of LG's Black Label series. Combining limited touchscreen functions with standard handling, Flash UI and eye-candy customization, KF750 seats on top of LG's handset lineup in terms of design and performance.

The Good

This is definitely one of the best good looking sliders on the market, but also one of the best feature packed phones coming from LG. Camera-related features and easy control of the interface are among the best traits of the handset.

The Bad

The only thing I found weird was the felling that the phone hasn't been finished, because of the limited touchscreen usability. Also a better battery and an up-to-date CPU (at least ARM9) would've made the phone's interface much faster.

Sales package

LG KF750 Secret handset
800 mAh Li-ion Battery
USB Sync Cable
Phone Strap
Stereo Hansfree Headset with adapter
Software CD
Home Charger
User Manual

HTC Touch Pro, More powerful than Touch Diamond, but much bulkier as well

2008-11-30T23:30:00.000-08:00

In an attempt to meet the expectations of more smartphone users, the Taiwanese company HTC decided to improve its HTC Touch Diamond Windows Mobile device, by endowing it with a generous QWERTY keyboard. Those that were frustrated by the lack of a full QWERTY in the previous Touch Diamond model will be happy to find that HTC Touch Pro meets this requirement, and adds countless other stuff. Users won't find many changes in design, except for the thickness of the new Touch Pro, which is beyond any expectations. HTC Touch Pro doesn't come with anything innovative save that it adds more power and functionality to the previous Touch Diamond Pocket PC.

Announced in June 2008, HTC Touch Pro was made available on the market in August 2008. The slider smartphone from HTC can be acquired for about US$750, but pricing can vary, and depends on location or plan.

Design

If you are familiar with the HTC Touch Diamond design, then you won't notice too many differences compared with the Touch Pro device. Both come in the same size (102 x 51mm), but the thickness varies: 11.5mm for Touch Diamond, while Touch Pro has 18.1mm. The difference is huge also when it comes to their weight: 110g compared with Touch Pro's 165g (including battery). So, basically, you have the front of the Diamond, but the back of the phone has been completely reshaped. While HTC has kept the same diamond pattern on the battery cover of the device, the compound is mat plastic, and is something similar to the rubber-like material that has been used for so many other handsets as well – still, it is not quite the same. Actually, this is a good move on part of HTC, as the Touch Diamond had issues with the back cover, in that it was peeling off after heavy use.

The layout of ports and keys is much the same as on the previous Touch Diamond model. The middle D-pad button acts like a touchpad as well (much like a wheel), especially when zooming pictures in the Album area, browsing the Internet or when using the music player. There are two volume keys on the left side of the phone, and the miniUSB port on the bottom side, where you can insert the charger, a miniUSB cable for PC synchronization, or the headset that comes in the sales package. The Power button is placed, as usual, on the top side of the phone, and it can also be used to activate the phone when in standby mode. A very small ambient light sensor, the in-call earpiece, and a secondary VGA camera that can be used for video-calls have been placed above the 2.8'' display.

Below the screen, there are only four keys that can be used to control the menu of the phone, in case you don't want to touch and grease your device. The magnetic stylus can be pulled out from the bottom right part of the phone. The 3.2 Megapixel camera on the back doesn't have any protective lense, but it's placed a little bit behind a slim metallic plate, so it's not that easy to cause damage to it. A LED flash and a loudspeaker are also near the module camera.

Overall, I wasn't impressed by the new HTC Touch Pro device, and I noticed only a few differences compared with Diamond, but more similarities. Still, it is these differences that are important, as they make the smartphone seem appealing even to those who already own a Diamond right now.

Display and Camera

HTC Touch Pro embeds a large 2.8'' VGA touchscreen that supports 262k colors, but only displays 65k colors. The device supports a better resolution than most of the existing Pocket PCs on the market - 480x640 pixels.

Together with the new TouchFLO 3D interface, the screen offers marvelous quality viewing, which greatly improves Internet browsing and viewing of pictures. Just like with its Diamond predecessor, HTC literally outdid itself when developing such an incredible level of touch and view interaction. Thanks to the innovative TouchFLO 3D interface, HTC Touch Pro is very much comparable with the iPhone in terms of the level of sophistication of the interface.

The screen is very responsive to the touch, and pretty much readable even when exposed to strong sunlight.

HTC Touch Pro's 3.2 Megapixel camera features autofocus and flash capabilities. As is the case with Diamond users as well, you don't have a dedicated camera key so, in order to be able to take pictures, you'll have to use the large D-pad. Still, there's a trick that you might like and that's the "Touch and press" function. Basically, you can take advantage of the autofocus function by touching the D-pad. After the camera is focused, pressing the button will actually take the picture.

Even if the fact that the device lacks a camera button placed on either of the two sides is a bit annoying, the innovation introduced by HTC, back when the Diamond smartphone was available on the market, makes it a worthy change. In terms of quality, HTC Touch Pro is a considerable improvement over its Diamond “brother.” The plastic placed on the lenses of the Diamond, which was also the reason why pictures were sub-mediocre, has been eliminated. In fact, as you can notice form the sample pictures, the camera does way above-average snapshots. The 3.2 Megapixel camera of Touch Pro can be considered one of the best ever embedded in an HTC smartphone. The interface of the camera is rich in settings, with functions such as Brightness, White Balance, and Effect. Macro mode can also be used with ease, without the need of actually selecting the macro mode available.

Movies can be recorded in MPEG4 formats, but you will only get CIF mode recording at 30fps (352x288 pixels). You can even use the secondary camera placed on the front of the phone to take pictures of yourself. Overall, the camera is one of the pleasant surprises offered by HTC to its fans. Now, if only it also featured the geotagging function, it would have been perfect. Nevertheless, I believe that the Taiwanese company is taking into consideration all the feedback it receives from users, and further improves its devices.

Nokia 7310 Supernova Review: Cheap mid-tier handset with good features

2008-11-30T23:23:00.000-08:00

Starting 2008, Nokia launched a new series, mostly targeting emerging markets, but also fans that could not afford the Eseries, or the more expensive Nseries devices. The new Supernova series of mobile phones is also a remake of the older devices that “amazed” Nokia fans thanks to their exchangeable covers. Almost all Supernova mobile phones are offered now with various exchangeable covers, which are meant to keep the owners interested for much longer. Even if based on mid-tech features, Supernova series devices are offered at lower prices, to attract as many potential buyers as possible. Nokia 7310 has been included in the first wave of Supernova devices, which were meant to test the handset market. Today, Nokia has 5 Supernova series mobile phones available on the market, which means that Nokia 7310 has had a certain amount of success since its debut.

Announced in June 2008, Nokia 7310 Supernova was made available on the market at the same time. The handset can be acquired for no more than US$180, without any plan. Prices may vary by location and carrier, so chances are high that you'll be able to get it for under US$150.

Design

The candy-bar form factor is the one with the highest longevity through Nokia handsets, and the Finnish giant seems to have learned the secret recipe for its successful bar devices. For those interested in “history,” there are 2 candy-bar Supernovas, 2 sliders and 1 clamshell. Nokia 7310 Supernova can be easily included in the “classic” category in terms of design, as it doesn't stand out from the crowd because of its forms. The handset features the same “old school” bar form that Nokia took to the highest level of art. Still, without impressing too much at first glance, Nokia 7310 will eventually catch your eye only if you manage to stay with it a little longer. The device measures 106.5 x 45.4 x 12mm, and weighs 83g (including battery).

It feels good and fits perfectly in hand, while the construction is very balanced, even if it's made from cheap plastic. Users who aren't too careful with their phones may probably break it a few times, but, fortunately this one comes with an exchangeable cover. Nevertheless, the thing is that the supplementary cover is pink and, naturally, if you're not a girl, you'll surely dislike the color. Either way, let's get down to business and see what this phone has to offer in terms of design. Being a mid to low-end device has its advantages, so Nokia 7310 Supernova includes only a few external keys. Therefore, you'll only notice the dual-volume keys on the right side of the phone.

There's also a 2.5mm jack port on the top of the phone, together with a micro-USB port, whereas the charger port has been placed on the left part. The back cover of the phone is pretty thin, and made from a cheap plastic, as I have already noted above. Three loudspeakers are placed near the bottom of the back cover, and a 2 Megapixel camera on the upper part. However, this device also comes with some disadvantages, such as the lack of a dedicated camera button, and the hard to find memory card slot. The latter can be found under the back cover, so getting to it if you’re in a hurry can be a little bit hard. You can either power off the phone and pull out the back cover, or you can simply carefully take it out, so you won't move the battery.

The main attraction of the phone is undoubtedly the mirror effect of the display. Basically, the screen has been covered with a special plastic that mimics the mirror effect, pretty much like LG Shine and Sony Ericsson Z555i. The keypad has been also covered with the same plastic that simulates the mirror effect, but what's more important is that it’s not really a fingerprint magnet. Of course, it will be soiled and fingerprints will stand out, but only to a small degree. Otherwise, Nokia 7310 looks like an ordinary Nokia bar, neither too bad, nor all that great. The innovation comes in the form of exchangeable covers and the mirror effect of the small display.

Display and Camera

Besides the mirror-like effect, the 2-inch TFT screen supports 16 Million colors (24 bit color depth) and 240x320 pixel resolution. I wasn't too pleased with the quality of the imaging, but thankfully, it's readable under strong sunlight. As long as the phone is in standby mode, you'll only be able to see yourself reflected in the screen, as only after pushing a key, the display will actually be ready for use.

Menu and Software

Nokia 7310 Supernova classic runs on a S40 5th Edition interface with Feature Pack 1, which is the latest user-interface coming from Nokia. If you have owned a Nokia handset before and it didn't have a Symbian OS, then this candy-bar will probably feel the same. One of the most user-friendly interfaces on the market, the S40 seems unchanged on the surface, and offers the Nokia 7310 Supernova user an excellent experience. Nothing has really changed and you'll notice the same menus, submenus and icons, even the same animation.

Nokia's Series 40 5th Edition UI allows users to experience streaming videos, image rendering, mobile 3D graphics and scalable 2D Vector graphics. The Series 40 5th Edition also supports the latest version of Adobe's Flash Lite 2.1, the interoperable platform that enables the accelerated development and delivery of rich graphical mobile content, and includes audio file playback and streaming capabilities that provide audio and music enhancements to both mobile gaming and multimedia experience.

The handset also includes some useful applications, such as Search, Alarm clock, Calendar, To-do list, Notes, Calculator, Countdown timer, World Clock and Stopwatch. The menu is fully customizable and you can designate any MP3, MIDI or AAC file as ringtone. Nokia's integrated browser also did not change, but you might want to use Opera Mini for faster and smoother browsing.

The phonebook can store up to 2,000 contacts, and each one can be filled with up to five different phone numbers. The fonts can be customized, but only those displayed when opening Contacts, Web browser and messaging sections.

Also, some Java games come preinstalled – Sudoku, Snake III and Backgammon. The phone is compatible with Java MIDP 2.1 applications, but there is a limit to the size of any application that you might want to install on the phone, and that's the usual 1MB. This might be the case for most Java compatible applications, but I noticed that I could run some files that were around 1.5MB in size. Nevertheless, not all Java applications will work on this mid-end device, so you might want to try that out for yourself.

Communications

Nokia 7310 Supernova is fully compatible with GPRS Class 32 (88 kbps), HSCSD (57.6 kbps) EDGE Class 32 (296 / 177.6 kbps), but as benchmarks revealed, the device attained average scores in terms of data transfer speed (EDGE only 82 Kbit/s download and 49 Kbit/s upload), but that may greatly vary depending on the location and carrier.

The phone also features Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP and EDR for faster data transfers. Synchronization with PC is possible through the proprietary microUSB port, but don't forget to install the software that comes with the phone before.

Sony Ericsson G502 Review: A cheap device offering fast Internet browsing

2008-11-30T22:59:00.000-08:00

Released back in summer, the G502 mobile phone can be considered one of the few pleasant surprises coming from Sony Ericsson this year. There's no point in denying that Xperia X1 has been the most expected Sony Ericsson device in 2008, but G502 has its advantages and targets a different market than X1. In fact, Sony Ericsson G502 is among few other mid-tier mobile phones to feature HSDPA technology. It seems that its K660 predecessor had some success on the market, which made the Swedish-Japanese joint company launch another version, even cheaper – G502. The main attractions of the device are definitely the new integrated web browser and HSDPA connectivity capabilities.

Announced in April 2008, Sony Ericsson G502 was made available on the market in June 2008. To increase its appeal, SE launched the phone in three color versions: Champagne Black, Brilliant Hazel and Celerity Red. The phone can be acquired for about USD 180$, but the price may vary depending on location and plan.

Design

Sony Ericsson G502 features a stylish candy-bar form factor, but lacks any improvement from the previous Sony Ericsson bar handsets. It's like you've seen one, you've seen them all. Without being ugly, G502 doesn't impress in terms of design, but that is not what it's meant for. G502 is a small (103 x 46 x 13.5 mm) and light (83g, including battery) mobile phone made from polished plastic, which eliminates the feeling of owning something cheap.

Even if it doesn't stand out from the crowd, I'm still impressed by the fact that SE was very careful to avoid the standard look of its devices. Moreover, users won't have any problem with the phone catching fingerprints, as the material used keeps it clean. Instead, the screen could become soiled after each phone talk, in case you're putting it to your ear, and that will be visible more than it should. Another drawback that I have noticed is the fact that its paint peels off after heavy use, especially the silver paint on the back of the phone, near the camera. The joystick paint might also peel off if you're not careful with it. Well, that's about all the negative aspects I have noticed, so let's start checking the rest of the device.

The G502 bar handset features the proprietary Sony Ericsson port used for USB synchronization, charging or headset. It has been placed on the bottom side of the phone, together with a small eyelet. On the right side of the device, one can see the dual volume key and a dedicated camera key (thumbs up). There is nothing on top or on the left side, except for a small icon on the left side that indicates the fact that the phone features a micro M2 slot card under the back cover. It can be easily pulled out, which makes the process of replacing the memory card pretty easy. The 2 Megapixel camera on the back has been placed on a large silvery prominence, but lacks protective lenses, so it might be susceptible to damage. You can also find a very small loudspeaker, near the left side of the camera, exactly where a flash should've been.

The 2 inch display has been covered by protective plastic so it won't get damaged. Above it, there's only a large in-call speaker and no secondary camera for video-calls. The keypad below has been shaped to emulate a “ripple” effect. There are six keys above the standard keypad: two contextual keys, Accept and Reject call keys, Activity Menu key and a Clear key (Power off/on). The keypad is very easy to use on texting, very responsive and nice to the touch. Still, I have found that using the D-pad joystick might be a little tricky, even annoying sometimes. I didn't like the control of the six keys mentioned above or the D-pad. Otherwise, those using the phone for heavy texting will be more than pleased with the performance of the keypad. Backlighting is stronger on the upper part of the keypad, but overall you won't have too much trouble texting in the dark.

Sony Ericsson G502 may look pretty solid, but it is a little bit unbalanced, especially because it's too light for its size. Otherwise, it makes a fine addition to Sony Ericsson's portfolio of mid-level handsets.

Palm Treo Pro Available Through Vodafone New Zealand

2008-11-07T18:53:00.000-08:00

In an attempt to save its smartphone sales, the US-based company Palm announced that it would launch its latest high-end device, Palm Treo Pro, in New Zealand. The smartphone is available through Vodafone New Zealand for a recommended retail price of $760 USD or $1,300 NZD. Treo Pro is the first Pocket PC developed by Palm that runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional version, after Treo 500v offered the 6.0 Standard Edition of Microsoft's operating system.

Announced in August 2008, it took Palm only two months to make Treo Pro available on the market. I believe that the collaboration with Vodafone offers Palm some sales backup, as the device will be advertised on the carrier’s expenses and will most certainly be a good choice for those that are looking for a cheaper high-end smartphone. Therefore, according to the plan you choose, Palm Treo Pro could be worth it.

"The Treo Pro smartphone with Windows Mobile 6.1 brings a powerful personal computer experience to the small screen, improving how people do business on the go on a single device," said Ben Green, Windows Business Group Lead, Microsoft New Zealand. "Windows Mobile 6.1 also comes with a new Getting Started Centre, which helps the new owner with the typical tasks the phone is used for in the first 10 days when setting up the device. This is just one of the many enhancements that come with the Treo Pro and Windows Mobile 6.1."

Some of Treo Pro's highlights include: full QWERTY keyboard, 2.5 inch touchscreen (65k colors support), HSDPA and Wi-Fi connectivities, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support, 100MB built-in user available memory, 128MB RAM, Qualcomm MSM7201 400MHz processor, microUSB port, 3.5mm stereo headset jack, built-in GPS and a 2 Megapixel camera.

Samsung M8800 Pixon Preview, Touch(y) high-end camera phone

2008-10-28T22:28:00.000-07:00

After throwing on the market one of the first 8 Megapixel camera phones, Samsung iNNOV8, the Korean company didn't relent in its race to conquer the market, and announced its successor or, better said, its rival – Samsung M8800 aka Pixon. We had the chance to try one of the samples that are making the rounds before the release of the final product, and managed to make a preview of the latest 8 Megapixel camera phone. Before reading it, however, bear in mind that the version of the device we have received is just a sample product distributed only for testing purposes, so obviously, the final product will be much better.

Samsung Pixon was announced in September 2008, and will most likely become available at the end of October or at the beginning of November the latest. I'd say just in time for Christmas, for those that are in the habit of making “technological” gifts. Unfortunately, we couldn't learn the actual price of Pixon, but we estimate that one should pay between 400-500 Euros for it.

Design

At first glance, Samsung Pixon strongly resembles LG's Viewty and Prada, but one look closer and you'll immediately notice some major differences. Pixon is much slimmer than Viewty, and has a more generous display. In fact, Samsung Pixon is the slimmest mobile phone to feature an 8 Megapixel camera, at only 13.8mm. You would expect it to be rather big and heavy with such a large display and camera, but its measures (107.9 x 54.6mm) and weight (121g, including battery) make Pixon the “90x60x90” standard for 8 Megapixel camera phones.

The phone has a few external buttons and only 2 ports. Besides the camera key, there are also 2 keys controlling the volume and the zooming level when accessing the camera interface, and a dedicated Gallery key, all placed on the right side of the phone. The left side includes the microSD port, Shortcuts key (opens a small menu with most accessed functions) and the Hold key (locks/unlocks the touchscreen). On the bottom right of the phone, there's an eyelet that should help users keep the stylus that comes with the device. On top of the handset, you'll notice the well-known Samsung universal proprietary port.

There are only three keys below the large screen: the Accept/Reject call keys and a rounded button that functions as a Back (not Home) key. Above the display, there's a small secondary camera for video-calls, an ambient light sensor and the earpiece.

I was thrilled when I discovered that the phone featured a metallic finish but, at the same time, I was disappointed by the fact that it's a fingerprint magnet. Moreover, the large screen is very easy to soil, while the back cover, which is very well polished and shines, will be dirty most of the time. Anyway, every cloud has a silver lining, and the large screen, which occupies most of the front part of the device, doesn't catch fingerprints so easily. However, you must wipe it after every call if it touches your ear.

The back of the phone features the 8 Megapixel camera with flash and a small loudspeaker. I noticed that the metallic back cover was pulling out somewhat too easily, and you risk losing it if you're an active person. All in all, I've been positively impressed by Pixon's compact construction. I enjoyed the fact that it offered such a high-end camera and a large screen in such a pocket-sized form.

Display and Camera

Samsung Pixon embeds a 3.2-inch TFT touchscreen, supporting 262k colors and featuring accelerometer sensor. The colors displayed on the screen are well-balanced, contrast is very good and brightness can be set to any desired level. Moreover, it's perfectly visible in the sunlight, which is a wonder for a Samsung device, but we're talking about a high-end phone after all, so it should have been pretty obvious. I was very happy to find that the phone featured the Haptic technology, so the feedback when using the touchscreen is cool to experience.

Furthermore, the haptic feedback is very responsive and realistic, so touching a key displayed on the screen is like actually pressing it. The haptic feedback can be turned off/on from the Settings menu. The only drawback I noticed was a little lag when the accelerometer sensor is activated and the screen is turned in landscape mode, but I'm sure this will be corrected in the final version.

The 8 Megapixel camera features flash, autofocus, anti-shake digital image stabilization and geotagging support. It has some protective lens cover that opens when the camera button is pressed. I was disappointed by the LED flash, as I expected Samsung to include a Xenon flash. Consequently, don't bother to make night pictures, unless you are really close to the subject.

The maximum resolution of the pictures is 3264 x 2448 pixels, while movies can be recorded using a maximum resolution of 720x480 pixels. Camera interface is like nothing you are used to, and more user-friendly than with any other Samsung device. You are always 1 or 2 clicks on the touchscreen away from any setting or function of it. Even if it's just a sample version of the product, quality of the pictures is exceptionally good. The shots included below reveal astonishing pictures that cannot be compared with those taken with any other phone on the market that has less than an 8 Megapixel camera. The module camera doesn't lag, while the phone saves pictures extremely fast, even when the maximum resolution is used. You can easily take pictures in portrait or in landscape mode.

The phone can record QVGA movies at 30fps with no problem, and is one of the best clip recorders on the market. Another cool option is the Slow motion function, which enables the device to capture QVGA slow motion movies at 120fps. Unfortunately, this function doesn't work well with this sample device, but it's a very nice addition to the camera.

Overall, I believe Samsung's Pixon 8 Megapixel camera is one of the best on the market (can't really say for certain until I have tested all 8 MP camera phones available so far), setting a new standard for any company that targets the camera phone market with its products.

Menu and Software

Samsung Pixon features an especially created firmware that works very well with the device. Shaking control and the accelerometer sensor are very functional, and make the device more appealing and user-friendly. The Home screen has a menu bar on the left side that works just like a Windows Taskbar.

Samsung's taskbar is hidden, and can be displayed after touching it. You can add or delete any programs or functions you want, by simply dragging them in or out of the bar. The phone has full customization features and can be set to look exactly as you want it. Control is easy and can be done in two ways: touch and swipe.

The latter will certainly remind you of Apple's iPhone, which is controlled mostly through swipes on the touchscreen. In terms of productivity tools, Pixon features programs such as: File Manager, Calendar, Alarm (10), Memo, Task, World clock, Calculator, Convertor, Music player, Photo browser, Google Search, Google Mail, Google Maps, Access browser, Live pix, Video editor, Voice recorder, Timer, Stopwatch, RSS reader, Games, and many more.

Of course, The Widget is also present and fully customizable. The phone also features a Java emulator, which supports almost any Java application and game. Phonebook accepts up to 2,000 entries and around 500 SMS messages.

The phonebook can be displayed according to the user's choice, contacts found on the phone's memory only, or from both the phone and SIM memory.

Communications

Samsung Pixon features HSDPA (7.2 Mbps) technology, besides the usual EDGE (Class 10, 236.8 kbps). Although the NetFront 3.4 Internet browser works like a charm, EDGE speed is lower than expected. Pages are loaded pretty fast with this updated browser, and users can take advantage of the large screen, landscape mode or the mini-map function, which can be controlled with the zooming buttons on the right side of the phone.

Other connectivity solutions include USB 2.0 and Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support. The phone can also be used as a modem with a PC in case you need one.

I could only use the built-in GPS receiver with the geotagging function of the camera. It’s a pity, but the Google maps localization doesn't offer too much.

Besides the basic message support (SMS, EMS and MMS), the email client is compatible with POP or IMAP accounts. Furthermore, you'll be able to set the email client to check for new messages whenever you feel like it. There's also a dedicated Gmail application that can be found in Google menu.

The quadband (GSM 850 / GSM 900 / GSM 1800 / GSM 1900) network compatible device has very good GSM signal reception, but mediocre when using the UMTS network. The sound is excellent, very clear and very loud when set to maximum volume. I haven't experienced any drops in signal reception, or missed a call while talking on the phone. Vibration is pretty intense, so you'll have a low percentage of missed calls even when the Silent profile is activated.

Processor and Memory

My guess is that Samsung Pixon features a powerful ARM11 family processor that runs at speeds up to 369 MHz.

The CPU is the strongest embedded into a Samsung mobile phone, so you can run multiple applications in the background with no problems whatsoever. The embedded Java emulator can handle any compatible large-size files, so 3rd party applications can be installed with ease.

The phone comes with 200 MB internal memory, but features a microSD memory slot card to expand the storage space up to 8GB.

The slot is placed on the left side of the phone, and a microSD card can be inserted without the need of powering off the phone (hot-swappable).

Multimedia

Samsung Pixon features a touch compatible music player that supports MP3, eAAC+, WMA, AMR files, but also an FM radio with RDS function. Both can be run in the background, or you can set their shortcuts on the taskbar in the home screen.

The phone comes with excellent earphones (made in China), but also with an adapter that enables users to attach any 3.5mm headphones.

The sound quality of the music player is way above average. In fact, you could expect such high quality only from those Walkman series devices made by Sony Ericsson. The music player features an equalizer: Rock, Pop, Jazz, Classic, Dynamic and Surround. The last one proves to be an innovation as the phone can be attached to a 5.1 channel sound system through a 3.5mm jack.

Battery

Pixon comes with a 1000 mAh Li-Polymer battery, which has an official lifetime of approximately 290 hours in standby mode, and 3 hours and 40 minutes in talk-time mode. For a heavy user that spends 2-3 hours a day talking on the phone, it needs to be recharged daily, but a soft user should do just fine with one recharge at 3-4 days. Overall, this is a high capacity battery of small dimensions that barely adds to the weight of the phone. Alas, this is also available for its autonomy.

BlackBerry Pearl 8220

2008-08-08T21:27:00.000-07:00

The first RIM smartphone to come with a flip design, known until now as BlackBerry KickStart, will in fact be released under the official name of BlackBerry Pearl 8220. Therefore, the upcoming clamshell smartphone will be the fifth device from the Pearl series, which is currently comprised of the following models: BlackBerry 8100, BlackBerry 8110, BlackBerry 8120 and BlackBerry 8130.

Research In Motion has not yet fully presented the new Pearl but, according to CrackBerry, the new smarpthone will be on sale in Canada starting mid-September, offered by Rogers. The price of the ex-KickStart is currently not known, but its' rumored to be of around $50 with a contract agreement. This would make the Pearl 8220 one of the most affordable smartphones ever, even more affordable than Palm's Centro, which has been sold until now in over 2 million units.

If we're to believe a leaked fact sheet with the BlackBerry Pearl 8220, its target is represented by the following categories of users: "young urbanites", "multi-tasking women" and "mobile men". As for the features of the flip smartphone, these are not too different from the ones found in the other Pearl handsets.

Of course, being a clamshell, the new 8220 brings an external display, said to have 160 x 128 pixels and to quickly show incoming calls, messages and so on. Other than that, the handset should pack a 240 x 320 pixels internal display, a SureType QWERTY keyboard, quad-band GSM connectivity (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz) with GPRS and EDGE, Wi-Fi, a 2 Megapixel camera with flash and video recording, Media player, Bluetooth (probably 2.0 with A2DP), a 3.5mm headset jack, HTML browser, advanced email capabilities, embedded games and 80MB of internal memory, expandable via a microSD or microSDHC card.

Besides being launched in Canada, the Pearl 8220 will also get a US release, at about the same time, via T-Mobile.

LG KC550 was launched

2008-07-03T06:55:00.000-07:00

LG KC550, the latest 5 Megapixel handset unveiled by the South Korean manufacturer, was released today in Romania. The new KC550 is a slider that targets users in need of a mobile phone that can also act as a professional photo camera. Of course, the handset won't actually allow you to take photos at a quality that can beat the one real cameras can offer, but it's still a good "photo tool". The 5 Megapixel camera packed by LG in the KC550 features Schneider-Kreuznach lens, flash, image stabilizer, ISO 800 and video recording (30fps at a 720 x 480 maximum resolution). This camera is quite similar to the one of LG Viewty, a handset well-known for its photographic capabilities.

The rest of the specs the new LG comes with include: a 2.4 inch TFT display with 256K colors, tri-band GSM connectivity, accelerometer and motion sensor (M-toy), Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP, Music and Video players, FM radio, TV out, email and Web capabilities, 6 pre-installed games and USB. LG KC550 weighs a bit over 100 grams and, when not slid, it measures 96 x 51.4 x 14.3 millimeters. Its battery should be able to keep it going for up to 6 hours in talk-time mode and up to 450 hours in stand-by mode.

With the KC550, LG has equaled Sonny Ericsson when it comes to the number of 5 (or more) Megapixel handsets. The new slider is the fourth LG to have such a camera, after the KG920 (released back in 2006), the Viewty (released in 2007) and the more recent Secret. Coming as one of the lowest-priced 5 Megapixel mobile phones, the new LG KC550 is available as of now in lots of retail stores across Romania. The slider can be bought for prices starting at 850 RON (the equivalent of about $370 or 235 Euros).

Epoq ESP WP98B, the first watch phone on Windows Mobile

2008-04-18T22:17:00.000-07:00

Although wrist-watch a mobile phone is too small to run on Windows Mobile, which was wrong. Epoq ESP WP98B produced by Epoq Multimedia, appears to be the first device of this type. WM His version is 5.0,
And despite the fact that they can not run on it as a normal telephone or Pocket PC, which runs somehow. Otherwise ESP WP98B producer not have said his tiny phone comes with the operating system, right?

In addition to the unusual interface, the new phone clock also offers some features that we can not find in many gadgets this type. Epoq ESP WP98B is powered by a 266 MHz processor ARM926 and offers 128 MB of RAM and a memory card of 512 MB that can be replaced by a 1GB. In addition, the device offers quad-band GSM connectivity (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz) with GPRS, a 1.45-inch screen with handwriting recognition, Wi-Fi (although in this small screen of the navigation can not be too cool), Bluetooth, media player with support for MP3, MP4, WMV, AVI and 3GP, plus a 1.3 megapixel camera photo. The phone can come see two types of bracelets, a customer's choice: a stainless steel or leather.

Epoq ESP WP98B supports MSN and Skype, as well as 10 languages: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, turkish, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese and Arabic.

ESP WP98B dimensions and weight were not announced, but is clearly the device is very small when compared with a simple cell phone.

If you are going to buy Epoq ESP WP98 what can be found on several online retailers (here, for example), the prices of at least $ 600. The only strange phone will be available beginning April 25, so we will have to wait a bit to get their hands on it.

Umbrella Sports Built-in Screen, GPS, Wi-Fi and More

2008-04-13T20:01:00.000-07:00

Imagine being stuck in a downpour, your destination still miles away - and you have nothing other than an umbrella to protect yourself. You resign to a dull, wet journey, right? Not if the umbrella happens to be the Pileus WiFi Camera umbrella.

The Pileus umbrella seems like it came straight out of a sci-fi movie – it has a built-in camera that you can use to shoot pictures in the rain, plus other add-ons too. That includes a GPS system (wow) and in the future, a video camera as well. Though I choose to be skeptical about the picture quality you'l get out of the camera under such weather conditions, I have to concede that the concept is definitely unique. The Pileus also has integration with Flickr! With a wireless Internet connection in place, the photos you click can be uploaded to Flickr at the touch of a button on the handle! Or you can browse photos from Flickr on the umbrella’s webbed innards just by “a snap of your wrist.”

I think the reasons behind the creation of this umbrella would be as interesting as the features themselves. There's no word yet on the release or detailed specs, but expect to see it selling soon on Sharp Edge.

Sony CMT-BX50i and CMT-BX20i iPod Audio Systems

2008-04-12T11:06:00.000-07:00

With the growing popularity of the iPod, Sony has recently launched a line of sound systems that will enhance the pleasure of listening to iPod users. Sony has developed with the CMT-CMT BX50i and BX20i micro-shelf audio systems specifically for use with various iPod models. These new micro audio shelf systems provide a range of features that allow its users with a more enhanced listening to the music through their habits of the iPod.

The CMT-BX50i and CMT-BX20i allow iPod users experience more powerful and richer sound in a HiFi system built specifically for the iPod. These audio shelf systems allow users to charge the game and control popular MP3 gadget through the audio system. The remote control is also available for music lovers, allowing for a more comfortable enjoyment of their favorite songs anywhere in the house they may be in.

Not only, the CMT-BX50i and CMT-BX20i is also equipped with a front loading CD player can read CD-R, CD-RW and MP3 discs. It is also equipped with an FM tuner integrated to allow users to enjoy music FM if they wish. The CMT-BX50i has all the characteristics of CMT-BX20i audio system, but has Stereo Bluetooth technology which allows users to wirelessly stream CD quality music to other Bluetooth devices helped as stereo headphones, digital music players and mobile phones.

iPhone/iPod Touch to Interact with Blu-Ray Players through BD Touch

2008-04-11T23:05:00.001-07:00

NetBlender has announced BD touch, a new technology which will allow iPod and iPhone touch users to control their Blu-ray players. Denny Breitenfeld, the CTO of NetBlender, gizmodo.com said that what they offer is far more than just a standalone app, but for a package that includes a professional Blu-Ray creative complete with an iPhone SDK for developers. They alleged that the users will be able to interact directly with movies, see additional information in the iPhone and evidently iTunes based on markets and on advertising film content.

"It is a technology that is built into our professional
Blu-Ray tool that will allow studios and independent film companies to allow BD Touch characteristics. These characteristics send data in both directions from the Disc to Iphone and vice versa. Video, sound, text and commands player can be sent"

said Breitenfeld Gizmodo.

Here comes the good part: "Well, now it seems that everyone likes the" remote control "idea" Breitenfeld continued.

"However, the player can control the IPhone as well. Another idea is to pull up automatically IMBD of the film you are watching right Iphone or send the movie in a movie information database on your phone. Ideas are limited only to what people want and will use ",

he argues.

NetBlender released a SDK for the iPhone community project (estimated at 100k) ", so that it can take advantage of its capabilities BD Touch build applications that can easily work with all types of securities, the company of CTO added.

NetBlender argues that the final iPhone app using tactile BD technology will be able to interact directly with movies, showing additional information in the iPhone, maintaining a database your movie collection, and even copies of digital film inside the Blu-ray Disc . The same source notes that there may have to be ported to iPod and iPhone touch playback.

The only problem we see with BD Touch is the piece that gave to MacWorld UK:

MacWorld UK also scored an interview with Denny Breitenfeld. Also, I received some additional information from NetBlender of CTO:

"The sophisticated user interface of the iPhone allows greater user interaction, and the power to leverage the iPhone's existing network,"

said Breitenfeld.

"Search, e-commerce and features that are associated with advertising content abound when film imagines a real-time communication between the iPhone and the content displayed now at a Blu-ray player."

He has hinted that users will be able to buy standalone content (such as a soundtrack of the film), while Blu-ray movie run

Nokia Bluetooth Display Car Kit CK-15W

2008-04-11T20:39:00.000-07:00

The Nokia CK-15 W Display Bluetooth Car Kit allows drivers to easily create and calls in style, while on the road. This novel car kit consists of a 2.2-inch bright, clear display screen where you can view different phone menus of your car dashboard.

The 200 x 170 pixel screen allows for a clearer picture of the phone menu that makes it easy to read while driving. The big screen offers the driver a good overview of the most important functions that call even more useful when driving a car. The car kit display the background and themes can also be adjusted and personalised with the automotive interiors and personal preference.

The Bluetooth wireless connection linking your phone to the car kit makes it possible for directors with a view to the road to browse through the phone menu even with the actual phone in their pocket. Handsfree communication is even easier with a separate input device that is installed in the car, usually close to the user's hand. The sound quality of the car kit is also quite possible to make a clear voice of the other line when making or taking calls.

The first low-cost Ferrari cell phone

2008-04-11T20:00:00.000-07:00

Then came with Motorola MotoRAZR Maxx Ferrari V6 Limited Edition, a Ferrari phone is not a new thing to see. But the V6 Maxx looks just like a phone, not like a car. Assuming that the world needed a phone that actually like a Ferrari, an anonymous producer came with such a handset. And I am not sure whether I should welcome this news with joy, or simply with a smile tendentious.

The handset we talk is simply "F1" and it was spotted on special phones - a dealer sells that devices manufactured in China, South Korea, Japan, China, China and China (with more than a mention of China is intentional, of course, because most of the phones sold through these dealers come from there).

The F1 Ferrari looks like a toy car, but in fact hiding under his red body, a functional mobile presented, which, if the "car" upside down. In relation to the functions, the F1 provides dual-band GSM connection, a 2.2-inch display (touchscreen apparently) with a 176 x 220 pixel resolution and 260k Colors, MP3 player, video player (3GP and MP4), WAP browser and embedded games. The phone weighs 82 grams, measures 120 x 42 x 25 mm (ouch, that's thick - 1 inch), and also has a 1.3-megapixel camera, integrated into the car windscreen. Pure genius.

The F1 can be bought from special phones for $ 190 (120 euros) plus shipping charges, without a contract and without any guarantee that they are working properly.

Anyway, I wonder what the actual Ferrari has to say about this. Not about the "work" part, but on the whole thing. I suppose, you know, Ferrari branded goods a lot of non-car-related products, including fragrances, eyewear, or pencils, but the F1 phone is not safe, following an agreement with the Italian company.

Cool G108 the Watch Phone in a Clamshell Body

2008-04-10T03:09:00.000-07:00

Cool G108 is one of the latest devices to come from China, and while you probably expect it to be a copy of an already existing product, as many Chinese gadgets are, the G108 is
a pretty original creation. The device combines a cell phone and a watch into a small case – which is not actually a new idea, but this is not important. The important thing is that, overall, G108 looks quite OK. For a phone-watch, of course.

Without its wristband, Cool G108 measures 51 x 51 x 20 millimeters (2.0 x 2.0 x 0.78 inches) and weighs 65 grams (2.29 ounces), hence it's almost like a normal watch. Given this small size, we can't expect the device to pack too many features, but its producer somehow found a way to squeeze in "things" like a 1.3 Megapixel camera, quad-band GSM connectivity (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz), GPRS, Music player, Bluetooth (so you can talk without needing to approach your hand to your mouth), SMS & MMS capability and USB connection.

Moreover, Cool G108 can be opened like a clamshell phone, unveiling a round keypad and an internal 1.5 inch display with 256k colors support and a 128 x 160 pixels resolution. There's also an external LED display that shows you info like the battery status, signal reception and the current time (we're talking about a watch, after all). The internal memory of Cool G108 is only a 0.5MB one, but you can increase it via the memory card slot included in the device.

Cool G108's availability is not known for the moment, and nor is its price. Anyway, it's good to see China producing original stuff too, because copycatting is not really a thing to be proud of, and Cool G108 will be probably seen as cool, indeed, by gadget freaks.

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2008-04-09T23:17:00.000-07:00

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Firt Review

2008-04-09T23:09:00.000-07:00

just a test