Enjoy natural conversations at your desk with the easiest way to enjoy internet calling. Experience the best of online communication with a quality mouse and keyboard, plus a built-in speakerphone.

The Samsung YP-U3 is the successor to the company's YP-U2, their 1GB flash unit. Like the YP-U2 the YP-U3 offers a 1" OLED display, but capacity has increased. The unit is available with 1GB, 2GB and 4GB of storage, handles Ogg tracks as well as MP3, WMA and ASF and comes with a voice recorder and an FM tuner that is Radio Data System (RDS) capable. RDS is a standard that some US and many European radio stations use to deliver track and station information to the displays of enabled radios. Samsung claims the battery gets 15 hours to the charge.

The smartphone meets the phonecam. Hitachi's G1000 features a 180-degree rotating camera that can snap photos at regular, 2X, and 4X magnifications. Check out your shots on the mobile's 3.5-inch, 16-bit color display. If you get into a snag, the internal GPS chip enables 911 services. At 5.75 x 3.25 inches and 8.4 ounces, the G1000 is heftier than other phones, but it delivers more: voice dialing, photo caller ID, speakerphone, text messaging, jog wheel, Secure Digital/MultiMediaCard expansion port, and custom ring tones (which can be any WAV file). It's worth the weight.

The SONY NAS-CZ1s an easy way to listen to music stored on a home PC. To allow users to play their favourite music across their home, the NAS-CZ1 has multi-room capability where users can connect multiple numbers of NAS-CZ1s to one PC. The system can also be connected to any network using standard CAT5 network cable or via a wireless connection using one of the many 3rd party wireless LAN adapters widely available.

Take your movies, TV shows, video, music and pictures with you wherever you go with the ARCHOS 404 30 GB Portable Media Player. Featuring up to 30 GB hard drive, this recorder lets you store up to 130 hours of videos, up to 85 movies, up to 15,000 songs or up to 300,000 photos. You can play your movies on the built-in 3.5" LCD color screen or playback on TV in high resolution up to 720x576 (DVD quality) with the DVR station (sold separately). With the built-in USB host connection, you can transfer photos directly from your digital camera or from another mass storage device. The ARCHOS 404 Media Player comes bundled with a headphone, DVR Station Adapter and a pouch.

The AOC 22LVWK 22" widescreen monitor represents the ultimate performance in the widescreen product category. It is packed with features that will increase your productivity. It has a slim bezel design optimized for multi-display setups.It also enables viewing of more columns when working with tables or spreadsheets. Its built-in powerful 3 watt stereo speakers complete the 22LVWK feature set. Whether you're a top industry professional or just want the best price/performance in a monitor, the 22LVWK is your choice.

The Sound Blaster® Audigy® 2ZS is an excellent value upgrade to 7.1 surround sound on the PC. Featuring high quality audio specifications including 24-bit/96kHz recording and playback with 100dB signal to noise ratio and digital output, it's the ideal partner for surround music and movie playback. For realistic gaming, EAX® ADVANCED HD™¹ 3.0 support delivers acoustic effects and detailed 7.1 3D surround sound in gaming. The included Creative MediaSource™ software is a comprehensive tool for creating MP3s, managing a music collection, adding effects and burning custom CD compilations.

At first glance the memory looks pretty much like every other DDR DIMM on the market, but upon closer inspection we can clearly see the LED's on top and near the pins. The ones on the bottom glow a nice blue on both sides, the LEDs on the top alternate red and green in colour.Let's face it, as gamers and case modders, and general geeks, we are drawn to lights. The brighter the colours, and the faster they blink the better too.... Plus it's just plain good memory!

Sony has just announced their new Vaio UX Micro PC, which seems more akin to an OQO device than a UMPC. For starters, this unit obviously has a hardware keyboard, which doesn't seem that bad of decision given the difficulty of using current-gen UMPC keyboards. The UX is also powered by a full on Core Solo processor (don't ask us how they got it in there), and runs Windows XP Professional. The device also includes Bluetooth, WiFi, WWAN (EDGE connectivity) and a fingerprint reader. Along with the front camera for video conferencing, there is a camera in the rear for snapping pics, and the UX also can plug into a VGA adapter for powering an external monitor. The 4.5-inch screen is capable of a 800 x 600 resolution and accepts stylus input. We're not sure if the UX has another pointer device, but the unit can be docked to allow for desktop use, including VGA, Ethernet, IEEE-1394, three USB 2.0 ports and AV out, so you can use a regular mouse in those situations.

Create a spontaneous dance party with this boombox that features a built-in dock connector for your iPod as well as a CD player and an AM/FM tuner for flexible listening options.  Plus the little remote is super cool!

AC or 8 D cell powered - good for home or on the go. Nice.

• 18W peak power
• 2.1-channel sound with front-firing stereo speakers
• Dual side-firing subwoofers
  

This specialty point-and-shoot is pricey for an ultracompact, but it lets you take pictures in places where few other cameras can go: underwater. The Olympus Stylus 770 SW is submersible to a depth of 33 feet and will withstand temperatures as low as 14 degrees Fahrenheit. It's pretty rugged, too: The camera can be dropped from a height of 5 feet, which I confirmed in my testing, and is designed to shrug off 220 pounds of direct force.

The BlackBerry Pearl 8100 smartphone is one of the world's smallest smartphones and packs all of the power of BlackBerry. It comes complete with digital camera, multimedia capabilities and expandable memory. And it offers users everything else they would expect from a BlackBerry device - including phone, email, web browser, text messaging (SMS and MMS), instant messaging, organizer applications and more. The BlackBerry Pearl provides Quad-Band network support on 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS and EDGE networks to allow for international roaming between North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

Web-programmable, universal learning remote; activity-based programming and usage; DVR-friendly button layout; backlit keys and color LCD; compatible with Windows and Macintosh machines; rechargeable battery and docking station included.

You want to build a powerful PC. And the budget's tight. Here's our solution. The ASUS P5GZ Intel Socket 775 motherboard, built in to the Ultra Blue MicroFly MicroATX case. A high-performance dual-core ready platform. Plus one of the hottest new portable cases in the business, complete with front media ports, and a 400-watt V-Series power supply.

Stylish in design, easy to use and with no installation requirements, the new BlueAnt Supertooth Light offers the latest in sun-visor mounted handsfree speakerphone technology. The BlueAnt Supertooth Light uses real-time audio to process any echo or background noise resulting in the improvement of the sound quality of the user's voice regardless of whether the car is stationery or travelling at high speed. It also adjusts sound levels to compensate for loud engine noise or external noise created when the windows are wound down. Easily mounted on the car's sun-visor, the BlueAnt Supertooth Light can be paired with up to five devices, supports voice dial activation, redial and call reject and also has a retractable sliding microphone.

 

 

Features: Supports Digital TV for ATSC & Analog TV for NTSC Watch free Digital HDTV on PC Supports up to 1920 x 1080i (HDTV) Digital Personal Video Recording Supports Electronic Program Guide (EPG) Supports Time-Shifting

It's a nice product. It does what it states. I haven't had a chance to try out the HDTV on it because I don't get any HDTV signals, but standard TV looks fine.

The PEG-UX40 Personal Entertainment Communicator features built-in Bluetooth technology in a compact and light weight design. Powered by Palm OS 5, the UX40 is powerful, portable, and easy to use!

 

The sound that comes from this small speaker is amazing! It is enough to fill a large room, and there is plenty of bass, unusual in small sound sources such as this. The bass is not heavy or punchy like that from a sub-woofer; nonetheless it’s an amazing thing to hear so much well-defined bass coming from such a small unit.  I highly recommed them.

About the size of a mini cereal box, this standup device completely encloses your iPod nano with a protective covering. The opening at the top of the iHM1 lets you drop your player into a compartment where an audio plug easily slides into the nano's base headphone outlet. A switch on the bottom of the device will move that plug to accommodate a first- or second-generation iPod nano, and a release button located on the right side propels your iPod out of the compartment and into your hands. Pressing the On/Off button on the right side of the device turns on the battery-powered speaker system and illuminates a red button on the front.

My verdict: barely worth it. Sound and "bass" sucks!

 

 

 

 

Tired of tangled headphone wires going to work, on the subway? I am. One solution: the Motorola S9 Stereo Bluetooth Headset. Stylish, comfortable and engineered with cutting-edge Bluetooth wireless technology, the Motorola S9 helps provide wireless access to music and voice calls – while on the go. Compatible with Bluetooth-enabled stereo music phones (like our TREOs!) and with iPod players equipped with the TEN Technology naviPlay™ Bluetooth Stereo Adapter for iPod (sold separately)¹, the Motorola S9 is perfect for delivering favorite tunes and connecting you to calls wirelessly with lightweight design.

 

    

This high-end business email device is Nokia's first direct shot at the BlackBerry. Key features include a slim profile, full QWERTY keyboard, S60 smartphone platform, EDGE high-speed data, Bluetooth, and a miniSD card slot. Other features include quad-band GSM, speakerphone, full HTML web browser, speaker-independent voice dialing, and music player.

Display
•Active matrix display
•Supports up to 16M colors within 320 x 240 pixels
•Adjustable display brightness and contrast control
•Ambient light sensor for keypad display lighting control
Navigation
•Two soft keys with five-way joystick, power key can be used as profile key
•Configurable right and left soft keys
•Input method: full keyboard
•Active standby enables user to configure 5 applications for fast access
•Symbian operating system OS 9.1
•S60 software on Symbian OS
Multimedia messaging (MMS)
•Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS, ver. 1.2) for text, voice clips, video clips and still images receiving, editing and sending
•Distribution list

The Garmin(r) 10.4-in diagonal screen GPSMAP(r) 3010C is a sunlight readable color chartplotter that boasts quick map redraws using a high-speed RISC processor, a full alphanumeric keypad and dual micro data card ports for large coverage areas. With a GPS 17 WAAS-enabled sensor, it provides accuracy to lees than 3 meters when receiving WAAS corrections. It's completely waterproof and communicates with the Garmin Marine Network.

I've always been an advocate of Secure Digital (SD) cards for their size, speed, durability, and cross device usage.

I've always been an advocate of Secure Digital (SD) cards for their size, speed, durability, and cross device usage.

I use them in my Treo, MP3 players, video cameras, as transfer media, and more.  I've field tested many by putting these stamp sized cards (full of all kinds of important info and files in my wallet), washing them in a washer, and taping them to the back of the above named devices with gaffer's tape for convenient piggy-backs.

They're truly great and my chip media of choice. Glad to see they've become a standard across many facets. A little background:

SD cards are based on the older Multi Media Card (MMC) format, but have a number of differences:

• The SD card is asymmetrically shaped so that it cannot be inserted upside down, whereas an MMC will go in most of the way but not make contact if inverted.
• Most SD cards are physically thicker than MMCs. SD cards generally measure 32 mm × 24 mm × 2.1 mm, but can be as thin as 1.4 mm, just like MMCs (see below).
• The contacts are recessed beneath the surface of the card, protecting the contacts from contact with the fingers
• SD cards typically have higher data transfer rates, but this is always changing, particularly in light of recent improvements to the MMC standard.

All's you need is a device or reader to use these great tools. ..and capacity and price just keep getting better.

ENJOY!

There are many ways, reasons, and levels of resetting a Treo.  They range from button combinations when turning on the device to applications to battery removal.

I've done all kinds in my 650's life for various reasons. And thankfully they all have been useful. 

The following one is a "hard" reset - it will wipe the Treo clean of all previous entries, applications and other data; only leaving the onboard firmware.  I've done it once only. And it was my only salvation for its restoration.

Mobile TV - conceptualize for a moment. You cant haul your TV around when going camping, boating, or when, lets say your on call at work with nothing to do.  But anywhere you have a PC or especially a laptop, this is a great and I believe, a rather little know USB device. I just ordered one so I havent field tested it yet. (Stay tuned!) But my hopes for a decent gadget are uncharacteristically high.You can now receive and watch free HD and standard TV signals directly on your computer screen with this thing. The DVB-T TV standard sends digital signals (TV and RADIO) - this device picks them up. The one here by Freecom lets you decode, watch and record digital TV and radio on your laptop or desktop. It also schedules and allows you to easily record television on your PC so you can watch shows when you want to.I cant wait to try this thing out. Watching the game with the gang, cold beverages, on the boat - with a laptop that can also be an entertainment system with MP3's and DVD's - should be a nice compliment.

usb dvb-t

The Ugly Truth in a Beautiful (looking) Music Player

Its was an unexpected Birthday gift (and a bit over the top if you ask me as one) but the iPod 4GB Nano was my first encounter with these NON-mp3 playing machines that everyone seems to have in one form or another.

Excited to try it out, I plugged it into my PC (after driver/software install) and did a Drag n Drop of my favorite mp3's into the Music folder.  As it took its time moving the files, I went to bed; ready to hit the subway for work with my new jet black, ultra slim, palm sized music machine.

When I awoke and headed out I saw the "no music found" mesage.  Thus began my still rather unpleasant relationship with this HIGHLY proprietary machine.

After only half way figuring out the half-wit designed interface of iTunes,  a message on my PC popped up asking me if I would like iTunes to randomly select mp3's from my music, turn them in to an iPod only format, take over an analogous size part of my hard drive to support and house these conversions, then load my Nano with its own selection.  Seething with frustration, I could only click, "YES". 

 

While the songs picked were OK, the sound was and is incredible - rivaling the Pocket Tunes on my Treo.  And now with In-the-ear earplugs by Sony, it's even better. BUT the cons totally outweigh the the few albeit strong pros. You cant delete songs on the fly, you NEED the proprietary cable to do anything, battery life has never been great, (I've got a cheap Tawain Phillips RUSH that runs one AAA 3 to 4 times as long!), no drag-n-drop of mp3's, propietary management with iTunes, AND when the thing went criple on me - flashing "CONTACT iTunes" in 5 languages, the ONLY solution was to hook it back up to the ORIGINAL PC I had configured the thing on. 

Good lord!  Glad i wasnt in another city, state, or country and had forgot my cable if no Apple store wasnt around to whore out their wares.  What is this Stalinistic regime?!  "...use our stuff so we can track you and market you better! Mmmwaaahahahah!..."  No thanks.  As soon as I find a way to crack this thing so I can drag my mp3's on it, life will be better.  Until then, I'll use my Treo's Pocket Tunes - highly intuitive, customizable, and super user friendly; another example of smart, realistic people behind that player anyway.

Stay tuned for more updates on iPods, Treo, and all the other crazy gadgets out there!

The 'P' stands for PALM!

Palm takes great steps to improve upon its Treo predesesors and the 750P is the best yet.  While it still is the familiar Treo we all know, love, and secretly are relieved smart people are behind the production of a fine piece of machinery.

The advances are all there: better camera, better communication, loads of new featrues without neglecting the time tested ones. And getting rid of the useless antenna and making it thinner...mmmwwuuaa!  Well played, indeed.

The two cons that still seems so easy to reslove is the lack of wifi and the fact the Treo takes a proprietary power/data cord. Both easy to modified.  Hell, Palm, put me on your R & D team, if you need help. I, along with other die hard Treophiles will keep our 650's until you figure it out...

 

This video would have come in super handy when I had to disassemble, fix, and reasemble my 650 Palm. While looking it up on line and reading directions and pics were helpful (and the challenge kinda fun), this video is a good walk-through for us home repair/mechanics.

PS - TAKE YOUR TIME and label every part. It is easier that way.

This video would have come in super handy when I had to disassemble, fix, and reasemble my 650 Palm. While looking it up on line and reading directions and pics were helpful (and the challenge kinda fun), this video is a good walk-through for us home repair/mechanics.

PS - TAKE YOUR TIME and label every part. It is easier that way.

 

Take the wheel of the world's greatest and fastest rally cars. The Subaru WRX, Puegoet 206, Lanica Stratos, and the venerable Toyota Celica GT are just a few.  Race in an exciting and authentic rally driving environment as you experience the race in exotic locations such as Greece and Indonesia.