Tuxtops

ASUS propose in Asia and around the world, PDA, Smartphone and Phones running MS OS or not, and let's start with the MyPal A639 a GPS Pocket PC with 1GB of memory, SiRF Star III GPS, Wifi B/G bluetooth 2.0 EDR. The P525 a Pocket PC Phone Quad-Band (YESSSSS) with a 2Mpix Camera, Wifi & Bluetooth, the Smartphone M310, 2Mpix Camera, Mp3/4 player, 35MB of memory, microSD amd Bluetooth. The J208, 2Mpix Camera, Mp3/4 player, 64MB of memory and finally the J206 the iPOD like phone, with a Touch Wheel and which can support Mp3, AAC, WAV en Mpeg4.

Geeks.com send us over the Samsung Bluetooth Wireless Headset WEP150. Read on for a quick review of the product.

The WEP150 is a Bluetooth 1.1 headset and supports both the handsfree (HFP) and headset (HSP) profiles. It has a small size, it's solid and it has three buttons: an on/off button and a volume-up and volume-down rocker button. You can very easily adjust the headset to be worn on either the left or right ear. We found the WEP150 to be grabbing the ear well and be very steady when moving around. Not once the headest fell off.

It comes with a wall charger (which has a very small size so you can easily have it with you when travelling) and a starter guide. Charging the headest for the first time it will take about 2 hours to do so. Then, pairing it with either a cellphone or a Windows PC that supports these profiles is an easy job: you keep pressing the power button for more than 5 seconds and then the device goes automatically to "pairing mode".

When used with a cellphone that supports the handsfree profile you get extra features: call reject, last number dialed, call waiting, put on hold. In addition to hungup/receive you can also do voice dial.

The device has a flash indicator when you are close to run out of battery: the color gets red and you get a beep every 5 seconds. We found the battery life extremely good: it managed over 7 hours of talk and about 170 hours of standby. As good was also its (mono) sound quality and our voice sent over via the built-in microphone. As for reception, it was within the acceptable borders of 7 meters (with no walls in between).

Overall, we found this product to worth its price, we have no major complaints except maybe that it would be nice to also include a USB charging cable.

Rating: 9.5/10

The Geeks.com folks were very generous to send us over three SONY PSP accessories: a travel case, an LCD screen guard and a 2 GB memory stick Pro Duo. We tested these products and here is what we found.

Super Travel Case for PSP (Black)

The PSP already comes with a case, but it only fits the PSP alone and is not able to protect it from water or rain. This is where the "super travel case" for PSP comes in. It has a rubber exterior and it secures with a two-way zipper. Internally, it has two compartments: the back part fits the PSP and secures via a clip on an additional layer. On the back of that layer there is space for 4 Memory Stick Duos and 2 UMDs. On the other side of the travel case you will find one compartment that fits four more UMDs.

Inside the case you can also find a metal bag clip (carabiner) which attaches at the edge of the case and at your trousers/belt. If you don't want to use the carabiner method, there is also a proper belt "hole" on the back of the case which will secure the case horizontally on your belt. The case is really hard, you can drop it from 2 meters high and the PSP will still be safe in it. More over, while not water-proof, it has some good protection against rain or coffee/tea spills. If you care about your PSP's wellfare, get one of these amazing travel cases, they only cost $7 each!

Rating: 10/10

LCD Professional Screen Guard for PSP

Another kind of protection you can offer to your PSP is an LCD protection. PSP's LCD is big and well-exposed to scratches, so protection is a must. Geeks.com's LCD screen guard only costs $2, so price is not a reason to turn this product down. We found very easy to place the screen guard on to the PSP's screen, and we had almost no air-bubbles after using the included cleaning cloth and the "hard card". We found that -- especially under the sun -- we had no major reflections or glare anymore.

Rating: 10/10

SanDisk 2GB Memory Stick Pro Duo Card

The PSP is a great multimedia device. But to store multimedia files you need lots of storage. This is where the new Sandisk 2 GB Memory Stick Pro Duo flash card comes in. It fits and works perfectly with the PSP, although we had to find a Memory Stick adapter in order to carry out our speed tests under Windows, as this product doesn't come with an adapter. One great thing about this product is that it is transparent and you can see how it's built. You will notice that there is no PCB anymore (memory is connected directly to the pins) and there is enough empty space around the card for a future 4 GB product! Sandisk obviously has the right technology for it!

Regarding speed, the card managed about 9 MBs/sec of "read" times, which places the product among the good Memory Stick Pro Duo cards today in the market. Definitely a good buy, not only for the PSP, but also for Sony cameras and some Sony Ericsson phones.

Rating: 9/10

Mobile-review posted a nice review of the new Symbian S60 browser which is based on Safari/KHTML.

More information about the T-Mobile Sidekick 3 (AKA Danger HipTop) has been posted by the FCC. It was approved by the FCC back in April. The hotly anticipated handset is expected to launch later this month. The Sidekick II debuted in September 2004, making the need for an update quite apparent.

You got an iPod? Congratulations! Now, your No1 accessory you should get is a Bluetooth audio gatway and wireless headphones built specifically for your iPod. This is what Ever-E's newest product will do for you (their web site best viewed with IE).

The box came with several goodies in it: the T902s Bluetooth stereo headphones, the A372 Bluetooth iPod audio gateway, a USB recharging cable that can charge both devices at the same time, an AC/DC adapter that will also recharge both devices at the same time, a transclucent plastic case for the headphones (handy for travelling), four ear-cushions for the headphones (2 are extras), and a user guide.

After we charged both devices (took about 2 hours for the initial charging), we plugged the audio gateway to our iPod Mini. This audio gateway only works with iPods (excluding the Shuffle) and it docks on their feature connector at the bottom of each iPod. To turn on both devices you press their on/off button and if you keep pressing for 5 seconds they will both go into "pairing" mode where they will pair themselves. Using the same technique we also paired the headphones with our Nokia E61 cellphone. The audio gateway works as an A2DP/AVRCP transmitter, while the headphones work as A2DP/AVRCP/HFP/HSP (so they can deliver both stereo music and carry out cellphone communication).

The neckband headphones (that can also fold in order to fit on their plastic case for ease when travelling) have several buttons on the right ear: a middle button that it's used for on/off/pairing/stop/pause/answer/hangup, a previous song and a next song button, and a volume-up and volume-down buttons. I found it extremely easy to find the correct button while wearing the headphones. The buttons are big enough and their arrangement makes sense. Here we should note that the headphones have more features when used in their handsfree mode: redialing last number, voice dialing and call reject. We found the voice quality received via the HFP/HSP profiles very good and the microphone's quality on our end (built-in on the headphones) proved good too. When listening to music and you happen to receive a call, the headphones will immediately switch to handsfree mode and then back to music automatically after the end of the call. Great convenience for users!

Regarding the stereo music part, we stepped on only two difficulties: at first, the AVRCP functions wouldn't work, but upon re-pairing the two devices AVRCP worked from then on with our iPod Mini. The second problem is that the dongle's connector (that docks on the iPod) is not centered on the device. This makes the dongle look very ugly and not in perfect shape with our iPod. The connector should have been exactly in the center of the device. This doesn't have an impact on the actual usage of course, just only on the overall shape created and aesthetics and ease of holding the iPod.

The headphones deliver pretty good stereo sound quality. Sound quality is not as good as some other headphones, but they are defininitely better than most in the market. It makes music-listening via an iPod really pleasurable as you don't have to carry it around or its wires. And the AVRCP controls will let you skip a song or two without having to look at the iPod's screen or use its clickwheel. We had very good reception with these Class-2 products, maxing out reception at around 6-7 meters. Battery could have been better though: both devices didn't deliver over 5 hours of playback in our tests, while the iPods can go on for over 15 hours. I have found the same problem with older Ever-E Bluetooth products too: not great battery life.

In conclusion, this is a good product. With a bit more careful industrial design (for the dongle) and Bluetooth optimizations (for better battery life) it could be even better though.

Pros:

* Good compatibility

* Foldable headphones

* Good looking headphones

* Greatly-positioned controls

* Good-enough stereo quality

Cons:

* Audio Dongle's connector position not ideal

* Low battery life

Rating: 8/10

Everyone loves gadgets. And useful gadgets are especially welcome in the tech community. Bluetake recently released a small-factor Bluetooth wireless mouse, the BT500+, that seems to be perfect when travelling with your laptop on your side.

The box came with the mouse, 2 Ni-MH AAA rechargeable batteries, a USB charging cable, a nice fabrics pouch, a quick setup guide and a utility CD. The first thing the user has to do is place the two rechargable batteries in the mouse (by removing the protective sleeve), and then start recharging the batteries using a USB port. There is no AC/DC adapter for the mouse, as it's mainly supposed to be used with a laptop on the go. The USB cable is only used for charging, the mouse won't work as a USB mouse.

The mouse itself is using Bluetooth 1.2, it is 800 dpi and it has an optical sensor. On the top you will find two buttons and a scroll wheel that is also a button. Below it, there is an ON/OFF switch and a pairing button. We successfully paired this mouse with both Windows and Mac OS X (using their HID profiles). It worked flawlessly and default tracking speed was very satisfying. This device really made the usage of a laptop on the go much easier and faster.

Regarding battery life, it of course depends on how much you use a mouse with a computer, but you should get by a few days before your mouse needs a recharge. The AAA batteries are offering plenty of power.

The best feature of this product is its small size (look picture). It's perfect for travelling (hence the bundled pouch) and its conventional means of power means that even if you forgot your USB charging cable somewhere, you will be able to find AAA batteries anywhere in the world. The device does not have disantvantages, but if we were to mention something, that would be its loud "click-click" sound when you press its buttons. My other mice don't make such loud click sound when their buttons are pressed. Regardless, overall this is one of the best products Bluetake ever released.

Overall Rating: 9/10

Resco is a company known to have produced some of the most good-looking and functional applications for PocketPC so far. Their latest PocketPC application, Resco Pocket Radio, was released about a year ago and has already become a classic. We take a quick look at its features below

The .cab file is about 1.2 MBs, so make sure you have enough space on your PDA to install it. It installed and loaded perfectly for us on both WM5 and WM2003 devices. The user is presented with 10 pre-defined radio stations and you can play them back by clicking on their big buttons. At the bottom of the screen there is a status display, showing the current song playing, a circular control widget with previous/back, vol-up/vol-down and play/pause buttons. From that screen you can also turn off the backlight in order to save battery or start recording. Resco Radio supports mp3, ogg and AAC/+ via an additional plugin.

If the user wants to check another radio station than the 10 pre-defined ones, he/she can easily do so by clicking the "open" menu. There, Resco has under 15 different categories, over 100 radio stations for you to check out (which are all editable in case a server changed an address). You can also import a .pls or an .m3u playlist file, or manually enter a radio server address and add your own radio station. You can also create new categories and mark some of the stations as "Favorites".

Other features of the Resco Pocket Radio include: a recording scheduler, an auto-sleep function and skins. On its Settings panel you can setup the speed of your connection, length prebuffering, location of recording storage, how and when to turn off the backlight and PDA button remap.

We have not experienced any problems with the Resco Radio 1.51. Except the fact that most people will use it with WiFi and that would reduce considerably your PDA's battery life, there are no drawbacks. This is one of the best applications ever released for the PocketPC.

Overall: 10/10

Hard to believe there was a first and second Pepper Pad (wait, there weren't two, unless you count that Pepper Pad Plus, which we don't), but it looks like with the recent upgrade to the Pepper Platform 3 comes the Pepper Pad 3 as well. Users can look forward to 50 percent longer battery life (supposedly), faster WiFi (802.11g this time, we presume), an integrated webcam, UPnP support, and a new AMD Geode LX 800 0.9 watt processor (instead of Intel's 624MHz Xscale PXA270), Engadget reports.

Linux remains the most popular embedded OS, according to data from a recent CMP survey of electronics trade journal readers and Embedded Systems Conference attendees. However, a comparison of 2005 and 2006 survey data shows "open-source enthusiasm waning," Embedded Systems Design (ESD) editor-in-chief Jim Turley suggests.