Tuxtops

A month behind schedule, Nokia starts shipping its Linux-powered 770 Internet Tablet in Europe, sporting a 4-inch 800x480 display, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 1.2, Opera 8.02 browser and more.

Danish company NextLink sent us in their latest product, the Bluetooth-based headset, Bluespoon AX2. What hits you immediately when taking a first glimpse of the AX2 is its tiny size. Read more for our experience with the gadget!

The Bluespoon AX2 is possibly the second smallest Bluetooth headset on the market today. The smallest one, the 5G, was also created by the same company, NextLink.

The AX2 measures at 42x25x27 mm and weighs just 10 grams. Instead of using a plastic hanger that goes over the ear to stabilize in the user's ear, it is using a small, soft spring that stabilizes in the user's ear canal. This is a very interesting approach on the way you wear the handset and I admit I was never felt that it was possible. But it is, and the headset sticks in your ear and doesn't fall off. In the beginning it would require a bit of rehearsal to fit the soft spring on your ear canal, but after a few hit and misses, you "get it". My ear is a bit small, so I had to cut about 1cm of the soft spring in order to fit in my ear's canal.

The AX2 supports both the Headset and Handsfree Bluetooth profiles. Not all phones support both profiles. Both the phones I tried with the AX2 (E680i and K700i) only supported the older Headset profile, but they worked perfectly with the AX2. There is a simple 3-button interface in the AX2: press and hold to activate. Continue to hold to go into "pairing" mode, and press and hold again to turn it off.

The box the AX2 came with also included a USB cable that it's used to charge the device (so if you are on the go, you would need a laptop with you in order to charge your Bluetooth headset, or a USB-out battery pack). Included there is also a neck strap, and a second soft spring, of a different size. The included manual is written in 4 languages.

Performance of the headset was very good. When the volume was set 2-3 notches below maximum, echo cancelation and sound quality was at its best. We were able to use the headset up to 8 meters away and between walls. Battery life is exceptionally good, it yield about 8 hours of talk time which is amazing for a Bluetooth headset, let alone for such a small device. The battery used in the AX2 is user replaceable, there is a compartment that you can pull out and replace it.

Overall, this is the most impressive Bluetooth handset on the market today. Not only because of its great battery life and performance, but also it's unintrusive size and comfortable wear. It sells online between $80 and $100.

Overall: 9/10

It seems that the user headaches trying to navigate long & complex web pages on a small screen device are over. Nokia unveiled today a new web browser based on KHTML. Except the innovative zoomable interface, the browser also supports pop-up blocking, visual history, find-as-you-type, integrated RSS support, DHTML with AJAX support and Netscape-style plug-ins for Flash Lite, SVG-tiny and audio. The new web browser is available to all new Nokia phones using the 'S60 3rd Edition' version of Symbian.

Geeks.com were very kind to send us over some of their best multi-platform gadgets that encompass quality and low prices. We get to review a cool VoIP USB phone, an IrDA USB adapter, a PCMCIA USB+Firewire card, a tiny USB sound card and a Bluetooth v2.0 dongle.

- USB SE-U1K VoIP LCD Memory Phone w/128MB Flash Memory ($44)

From the bunch, this is my favorite gadget. I am using Skype, IM voice and SIP/Gizmo very regularly, and so this USB headset has saved the day. You see, when using normal speakers and external microphone on a voice chat, there is a lot of echo generated from the speakers. Using this headset is eliminating the problem. The headset rings and has a keypad to dial VoIP numbers in it, but unfortunately that part only works with Windows as it requires a special driver. However, the basic operation of the headset, worked with Linux without any problems (using the CornfedSIP client). On Mac OS X the OS was able to load the right driver for the headset's internal sound card, and you could use it as external headphone, but the microphone part didn't work (I used my Powerbook's internal microphone instead). Except the echo cancellation there is noise reduction and full duplex support. Under Windows only is a selection of ringer styles, a caller ID function of VoIP calls and memory for 199 incoming calls and 199 dialed numbers. But there is one more amazing feature on this product. It includes a 128 MB internal flash storage space, so you can use the phone as a... USB stick to transfer data! If you are into VoIP, this is the phone to get. The only thing missing from this USB phone are the Line-In and Line-Out jacks.

- 2-Port USB 2.0 and 2-Port FireWire CardBus Adapter ($20)

This PCMCIA TypeII adapter includes a 2-Port USB 2.0 (full size usb ports) and 2-Port FireWire (one full size port and one small size). The 480 Mbps USB ports are fully backwards compatible with USB 1.1 and support up to 127 devices though the usage of hubs. The IEEE 1394 Firewire ports support up to 400 Mbps data transfer rate (1394A, OCHI 1.0 Rev 2.1) and you can connect up to 63 devices though the usage of hubs. The package includes a driver CD for Windows. The card worked perfectly also with our Linux laptop. Linux automatically identified the card and Hotplug loaded automatically the right drivers for it. Apparently the card is using the VIA chipsets internally, which are supported well by Linux, FreeBSD and Windows, but not by Mac OS X. As a conclusion, if you have an old x86 laptop that has very few high-speed ports, this PCMCIA card is a steal for just $20.

- USB to IrDA Adapter ($13)

This is a great little USB 2.0 to IrDA adapter. It supports both MIR and SIR speeds (up to 100 KB/sec or so when in MIR mode). You can use the adapter to send and receive information with PDAs, phones, printers and more. I successfully used the product with Linux, Mac OS and Windows. Under Linux, I was even able to use the stir4200 module to make the Sony Ericsson K300i dial out and route the connection back to the Linux laptop. The little box it comes with also includes a usb extension cable, a small manual and a driver CD. If you need infrared functionality and you need a usb to irda adapter that works with many operating systems, this is the one to get. Most IrDA adapters out there are not very compatible with OSX or Linux, so this offering is a good buy for multi-OS geeks.

- USB 2.0 to Audio Adapter w/Microphone Jack ($12)

This is a plug-and-play USB 2.0 sound card. It is using the C-Media chipset internally and it supports stereo 5.1-channel sound effects. The miniature sound card has a speaker/headphone jack and a microphone jack. Looking at the small size of the card I kept thinking that if the original Sound Blaster engineers had a glimpse of this 15 years ago, they would start crying. That's how small this sound card is! Sound quality is very good and again, the card is fully supported by Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and Mac OS X. The only minor problem we found with it is the fact that there is no Line-In jack.

- Bluetooth Class 1 V2.0 USB Adapter ($19)

Yet another multi-operating system workable piece of hardware. This Bluetooth USB Adapter is Bluetooth V2.0 compliant (v1.1 and v1.2 backwards compatible) and it is in fact one of the very few dongles that is v2.0. V2.0 brings faster speeds to Bluetooth file exchange and a few new HID profiles. Also, this is a Class 1 dongle, which means that it can send and receive information up to 100 meters away! I used this dongle with Windows, Linux and Mac OS X and it was supported without problems by all operating systems. There are certainly other, Bluetooth dongles in the market, but not Class 1 and version 2.0 and at this low price.

With support for the UPnP protocol and Wi-Fi 802.11g, the Nokia N80 squares its sights on the digital home. Also on board: a 3 MP camera, music player 3G and more. Sporting a 2.8-inch display, the Nokia N92 smartphone opens sideways to let users catch TV on the go courtesy of its DVB-H digital receiver - also sporting a myriad of other features. A 2.4-inch display and music player join a 2 MP camera and 3G, the N71.

Nokia rebranded its 'Series 60' platform as simply S60. They also released an overview of the 3rd edition Feature Pack 1 of the Nokia UI for the Symbian-based S60. Elsewhere, Palm's CEO says that Palm won't use Symbian because "Nokia owns Symbian", while he claimed that the Palmsource spin off from Palm was a mistake.

Today RIM has announced their latest device, the BlackBerry 8700c. The 8700c is their first effort to include EDGE and will run on the Cingular network. It will also feature an Intel processor, another BlackBerry first. The 8700c will be available on November 21st for $299 with a 2-year contract.

It's not so long ago that Palm launched the LifeDrive, the first PDA to include a hard drive, and Palm set itself up with a tough act to follow. Review here.

It runs the Palm OS, it's a PDA, it's a phone, but it's NOT a Treo. The Qool QDA-700 is a compelling PDA feature phone for those who want flexibility in a small and easy to use package.

Japan's largest mobile carrier last week announced six new phones with support for PTT (push-to-talk), multiple numbers, and other advanced features. NTT/DoCoMo's 902i-series phones includes Linux-based models from NEC and Panasonic, as well as Symbian-based models from Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, Sharp, and Sony/Ericsson.