Palm Treo 700w review

Palm and Windows Mobile? Say it ain't so! The EV-DO-equipped Treo 700w politely disagrees, and Larry Garfield takes a look and finds there are benefits to playing both sides.

Nikon discontinues analog cameras

Nikon UK has dropped the other shoe and announced that Nikon is going digital-only. They discontinued most of their analog cameras. The film is dying. Fast.

Synaptics Announces New Interface for Samsung SPH-V6800 Mobile Phone

Synaptics Incorporated, a leading developer of interface solutions for mobile computing, communications, and entertainment devices, today announced the launch of a MobileTouch interface solution for Samsung's SPH-V6800 mobile phone. Check the impressive flash demo from the menu here.

Samsung Prepares Linux Phones

Samsung developed a new UI on top of Linux for their new line of touchscreen-based high-end phones. The SCH-i819 (CDMA 1x 800MHz/GSM 900/1900MHz)and the SGH-i858 (GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900MHz)are meant mostly for the Asian markets. The phones sport QVGA touchscreens, Bluetooth, 2 MP camera, microSD storage and... TV-out. There is no 3G, FM radio, video call support, DVB-H reception, UPnP or WiFi (which are Nokia's standard features lately). You can read the FCC user manual and pictures here for the i858 or check an article on the i819 here.

REVIEW: Bluetooth Stereo Headset i-Phono Mini BT450Rx-C

Bluetake sent us in their latest wonder for a review, the i-Phono Mini Bluetooth v1.2 Stereo headphones, which is used both for voice and stereo music. This headset supports four Bluetooth profiles: A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution), AVRCP (Audio Video Remote Control), HSP (Headset) and HFP (Hands-free). Read more for our detailed review.

The product comes in three flavors, the standard package, the combo package (which is what we will be reviewing today) and the Lite package. The standard package and Lite package are the same, but one includes a wall plug charger and the Lite one includes a USB charging cable (with is a proprietary connector on the headset's end). The combo package includes the Standard package, plus the i-Phono mini Bluetooth Stereo Transmitter (BT450Tx) which enables your iPod and any other audio device to transmit wirelessly its audio. In my opinion, there shouldn't have been both a Standard and Lite package because both wall plug and USB charging are equally important for a modern mobile user who also carries a laptop half the time. To make things worse, there doesn't seem to be an option to buy the USB cable as an accessory for the i-Phono Mini headset.

On the box we also found a very well documented manual which was easy to follow and understand. The manual includes step-by-step instructions how to pair the i-Phono Mini with PDAs, Windows, mobile phones and its transmitter (usually called "audio gateway" in tech talk). The wall plug charger includes a splitter that allows to charge both the Transmitter and the i-Phono Mini at the same time, which is very convenient. Another nice touch is the included pouch which can help you carry around your i-Phono Mini easier. The i-Phono Mini carries out all its actions via two buttons, the Power On/Off button and the Volume -/+ volume. Depending how long you press these buttons, or which profile you use them with, they carry different actions. For example, keep pressing Vol+ it would carry out the AVRCP command to load the next track. When pressing both the On/Off and Vol buttons, the device goes to pairing mode. When you press the On/Off button after a cellphone or VoIP/IM call, it will answer the call or hang up.

i-phono combo pack

Until now there were two kinds of designs used for Bluetooth stereo headphones: over-the-head and neckbands. The i-Phono Mini takes an innovative approach to Bluetooth stereo headsets and introduces the "ear hook" design. The two speakerphones are joined by a 40cm cable. Around each of the circular speakers there is a plastic hook-like shape that you hook around your ear to secure your speakers to your ears. I found this design very comfortable for everyday use (it does not hurt the back of the ear as neckbands do), but there were a number of times during my tests where the speakers wouldn't sit tightly to my ears and they would either move too much while I was walking, or even fall off. This ear-hook design is not recommended for use with sports and definitely not for these moments when no one is looking and you just want to... dance.

The i-Phono Mini supports all devices that can output using the four bluetooth profiles listed above. Bluetake were very kind to also send us their latest Class 1 USB Bluetooth 2.0+EDR dongle so we can test the headset with Windows XP as well as with other devices. From what I know so far, Bluetake's USB dongles and Bluetooth stack are the only ones that support AVRCP, A2DP and headset profiles for the Windows desktop. Pairing is pretty easy with the i-Phono Mini for Windows XP and the manual has step-by-step instructions how to make the device work with your IM voice conversations or with VoIP, or simply listening to music. Unfortunately Mac OS X 10.4.3 does not support any of the four profiles the device does so you can't use the headset with your Mac (this is Apple's fault primarily).

I liked a lot the careful design of the Transmitter. Depending which model iPod you have, the feature connector on the Transmitter can be relocated so it fits nicely on top of your iPod. The Transmitter is using the feature connector of the iPod to enable remote control capabilities to the iPod (AVRC profile supports Vol -/+, Next/Previous, Play/Stop) in addition to the A2DP ones. The Transmitter also has a special cable extension that allows to transmit wirelessly audio with any device that can output on a 3.5mm jack: HiFi systems, Sony PSP, sound cards, PDAs, phones without Bluetooth or A2DP support, other mp3 players etc.

I specifically also tested the i-Phono Mini with my A2DP-capable Motorola phone (the Linux-based E680i) and my HP iPaq PDA (with Widcomm's A2DP profile installed as provided by HP). Both devices paired without headaches and I was able to listen to all sounds via the headset. The phone capabilities worked as advertised and the headset's microphone made voice clear on the othr side of the line. When I got called the headset stopped transmitting music and switched to its hands-free profile, all automatically. After the end of the call, it continued played music. This is a great convenience and truly practical. And speaking about music, this headset has the best stereo quality I have heard off any other Bluetooth stereo headset. There is some static heard via the headset, especially in between music or when on a hands-free standby mode, which is pretty annoying, but when you playback music you don't tend to notice it.

i-phono mini headset

However, not everything is rosy with this product. The biggest problem is the mediocre reception I encountered with this Class 2 device (Class 2 devices are supposed to have a range up to 10 meters). No matter if you use the headset with a Class 1 dongle, a phone, a PDA or its own Trasmitter, you should not expect more than 4-6 meters of uninterrupted playback (in open space with no WiFi or other strong wireless signals around you). When behind a thin wooden wall, the connection was interrupted even if when I was physically just 2 meters away from the transmitter! When refitting the headset on my ears by placing my hands around the speakers, I would get choppy playback (with the Trasnmitter just CENTIMETERS away)! This is a very disappointing low reception performance (even for a Class-2 device) and I hope it is eventually fixed by Bluetake's engineers on future models. I have reviewed over 5 Bluetooth headsets last year and this model is the weakest of all in reception performance. Which is a shame, because it has the best audio quality of all.

The second problem is its so-so battery life. The device sports a 3.7V, 300 mAh Lithium battery which in our tests managed just about 6 hours of audio playback (as expected according to the manual). The similarly equipped (300 mAh) Anycom bluetooth stereo headset we reviewed last month yielded 10+ hours of battery life! Again, hopefully the Bluetake engineers will optimize their firmware to achieve better battery life. There is room for software improvements there, no doubt.

Overall, this is a good product, well-thought design-wise, good-looking and extremely compatible! And audio quality is near perfect for such a wireless headset. But its reception problems and mediocre battery life is a problem. If you plan to use this headset with an mp3 player, PDA or phone that will always be in your pocket or bag in close proximity to your headset, get this product. If you instead need more freedom away from the source audio device and you move around your office or house a lot, you better look elsewhere or you might lose important phone calls using it.

Pros:

- Excellent sound quality

- Exceptional compatibility

- Sexy-looking and comfortable

- Good manual, pairing usability

- Convenient and well-thought iPod/audio Trasmitter

Cons:

- Terrible reception

- Mediocre battery life

- Profound static sound

- Headset falls off ears too easily

- No USB charging cable on all retail boxes

Overall Rating: 7/10

Next-gen DVD format war frustrates retailers

Consumers, confused over the brewing battle between next-generation DVD technologies, are not alone: top U.S. electronics retailers at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas called the war "nightmarishly unfriendly" and "stupid."

REVIEW: Sandisk Sansa m240 1GB MP3 Player

A few months ago I had the pleasure of reviewing Sandisk's second generation mp3 player, the e130. The third generation player ftom Sandisk, the m240 1 GB player, was released a few weeks ago and we have it with us today to give it a whirl.

The m240 features 1 GB of flash-based storage and it adheres to the USB 2.0 mass storage standard. The player comes in four capacity flavors, from 512 MBs to 4 GBs. Copying songs is as easy as dragging-n-dropping for those who don't want to use Windows Media Player. The player supports both the mp3 and WMA formats and also supports Microsoft's PlaysForSure DRM'ed downloads and subscriptions. OGG is still not supported though. I was pleasantly surprised by the great sound quality found on this model and with the volume now being loud enough for... my random "dancy moments". Additionally, playing WMA songs at 64kbps yielded no distinct hearing differences than playing the same song at 128kbps. Mp3 tag attribute information was precise and much better than in the previous model. The user can create playlists too, while you can also play music sorted by artist or song.

Sansa and its accessories

The m240 US model features an FM tuner allowing the user to preset 20 stations while voice recording with a built-in microphone is also present. Quality of both the FM tuner (in stereo or mono modes) and voice recording were very good. Unfortunately, there is no support for FM recording (which is present on the brand new, unreleased yet, models though). FM reception is so-so. When I touch the player with my hand a lot of static is added to the playback stream, even for "strong" local radio stations.

The look of the mp3 player has changed over the e130 but it is still a recognisable Sansa. The same LCD screen is now placed next to the main buttons instead of above. The "Menu" and "Volume" buttons are situated above the (kinda dark in my opinion) LCD screen and I had a bit of a problem changing the volume using only one hand, as I have small hands. Overall, the size of the player has decreased compared to the e-series and it's very easy to fit on any pocket (the SD card slot the e-series used to carry is now removed). The product comes with an armband by default, which is great, 'cause it means that you don't have to buy extra accessories for your mp3 player. Additionally, there are some trial coupons to try out Audible books and the Rhapsody music service.

By pressing the "menu" button the user is presented with the main menu of the player. On the "Settings" menu one can adjust preferences for repeat/shuffle, equalizer settings (presets and custom EQ are supported), power settings (auto-off/sleep), contrast and backlight, language (choose from 8 languages), the FM presets/region and stereo-mono tongle support. The overall user interface might take a few minutes to learn, but overall is easy and intuitive.

Size comparison

One of my gripes from the previous model was the slow "Next Song" feature. This problem is completely resolved in this new model. By keep pressing the >> button it will go very fast to the next song, without delays! The other great thing is battery life. Sandisk has managed to increase battery life by two hours, it achieved 17 hours in our tests, on a single AAA battery!

One thing that could be done better though is the firmware upgrade. While it's nice to have firmware that can be upgraded, having all your files deleted in the process is not ideal.

Overall, this is an amazing, affordable, player. It does all the basic things one would expect from an mp3 player of this class, and it does them well. Could it be even better? Sure it could. But overall this is a great product and worth every dime.

Rating: 9.5/10

New Sony Ericsson phone, leaked pics

A new SE phone is leaked to the press today, which uses the new UI SonyEricsson is working on the past few months. It has a QVGA screen, EDGE, a 3.2 MP camera. There is also a PSP button on the phone, which might mean that the phone has WiFi to talk to a Sony PSP.

Nokia N71 review

Nokia N71, a member of the Nseries line, is the first Symbian OS 9.1 Series 60 3rd Edition smartphone I had pleasure to test so far. As this is still a proto build (the phone is scheduled for release by the end of March 2006, depending on country and region), no information about stability or performance will be posted at this time, only general look and feel impressions.

Video feature: ROKR E2 hands-on

The Engadget CES army hit up CES Unveiled and got our chance to cop a feel on the ROKR E2. Fortunately, you get to be the peeping tom, thanks to the addition of the Engadget Video Gnome. While we weren't crazy about the E1 for sure, the E2 did get rid of some of our previous ROKR pet peeves. Check the vid for the full review. Update: Pictures here.

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