Digital Technology News, Camera, Camcorder and Cool Gadget Reviews

The Archos 32 is compact and highly portable.  Measuring just 9mm thick and weighing only 72g, it’s barely noticeable in a shirt pocket.

Poor screen resolution is evident from the start.  The 240×400-pixel display is passable for viewing photos and video, or paging through album covers. But with text – especially in the menus, where text is white on black – it can be harsh. Dots are large and text is blurred.

Although it takes Android 2.2, the device lacks pinch-zooming.  It supports Flash 10.1  according to Archos.

The lithium-polymer battery is rated for eight hours of web use,  six hrs of video or 24 of music.  Media handling is the one area where it passes muster. Audio playback is excellent. Read the rest of this entry »

Research In Motion (RIM) announced their latest offering, the Blackberry PlayBook. The tablet which RIM CEO, Mike Lazaridis described as “the first professional tablet” has a 7 inch, 1024 x 600 multi-touch screen, a dual-core 1GHz processor, 1GB RAM and either 16GB or 32GB onboard storage capacity.

The PlayBook sports a 3MP front facing camera and a 5MP rear camera. It has got a microUSB jack, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and an HDMI port. No word on when it will be available and at how much, but it looks quite promising.

Now this particular Bluetooth headset is more than just a headset. You can listen to email and incoming messages without a PC, and at extra cost you can reply and have the unit convert your speech to text.

You can use it to listen to news, sports or weather updates from sources such as CNN and Yahoo (PC Tech coming soon) with a smartphone app.

Then you can answer or reject calls without touching it: Just say “answer” or “ignore” as a call comes in.

The Apollo has an LCD screen of 240X400 resolution instead of AMOLED display and runs Android 2.1.

Snaps from the 3 megapixel camera are average for a phone but the lack of a flash dooms low-light shot.

Video can only be captured at 320X240, which is barely good enough for posting to YouTube.

Battery life is good, although it’s highly dependent on your use of WiFi, 3G data and GPS. Apollo I5801 supports up to 7.2 hours of talk-time.
Read the rest of this entry »

The Navigon 40 Premium was hands down the best GPS device from Navigon according to tests done this year.

This 4.3″ device sports the updated One Click Menu while and Point of Interest (POI) interface also impressed, with interactive POI’s strewn across the display, showing the names and addresses of POI’s with the tap of a finger.

The device is also equipped with Bluetooth technology for hands-free calling, supporting up to two phones and storing phonebook entries on the device itself.

The MOTOROKR S9 is Motorola’s current generation of Bluetooth stereo buds.

Their small, lightweight form factor makes them easy to wear for longer periods of time and are especially well suited for running, bicycling, and similar activities.

However, the control buttons on the headset were a little too small to make this a practical choice for me.

I love using Apple’s compact Wireless Keyboard with the iPad and iPhone.

But if you’re looking for something even smaller, Macally’s BTKeyMini Bluetooth keyboard might fit the bill.

At just 8.7 inches wide, 4.1 inches deep, and 0.6 inch thick, and weighing just 7.5 ounces, the BTKeyMini fits into even the smallest iPad or laptop bag without adding much to your load.

An included hard-shell cover (which adds a bit of width, depth, and weight) doubles as a stand for your tablet. Of course, the ultraportability of the keyboard means that it has smaller keys and a  nonstandard key layout. But it still beats trying to use the on-screen keyboard to type for long periods of time.

At its heart, iHome’s iA100 is an alarm clock with a dock for your iPhone, iPod, or iPad. But it’s not just  another iPod clock.

Download the iHome+Sleep app, and you can customize multiple alarms and nap settings, and even track your sleep stats.

The iA100 can sync its clock with your Apple device; it has a programmable snooze time; it offers gradual wake and sleep options; and it has built-in  Bluetooth for streaming music, controlling and syncing the iPhone app, and enabling the clock to act as a speakerphone.

The HTC Tattoo is an Android phone that’s available free on a contract for £20 per month. Despite its budget price, it has all the features you’d expect on a smartphone, including GPS, an FM radio, Bluetooth and WiFi.

It may not be as sleek as HTC’s other Android phones, but the curved chin and large, round central button give it character. The controls are located on the phone’s chin, with only a volume controller on the side, A 3,5mm headphone socket is located on the top edge, while a mini-USB port, for charging and data transfer, is on the bottom. Read the rest of this entry »

Acer Aspire TimelineX 1830T is affordable for an ultraportable. It offers nice performance, has excellent highdef video playback, and runs for over 6 hours on a battery charge. But it also has some ergonomic quirks.

The laptop comes equipped with an Intel Core i5430um CPU, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, and a 500GB 5400rpm HDD. Gaming frame rates from the Intel HD Graphics (measured in frames per second) were unplayable, landing in the teens.
Read the rest of this entry »