Well, even though my sample Skooba Skreener didn’t come before my business trip last November, it did come in time for the various holiday nonsense, so I was able to give it a good workout.

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I am continually surprised at the lack of external portable speaker gizmos for the iPhone. Plenty of them out there for the various iPods, of course, but the iPhone? There’s kind of a shortage.

DLO thinks they have the answer with their new portable iPhone speakers.

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Speaking of winning an iPhone, whether I win one or not, I’m going to get one when they come out, and do my durndest to have a a review in here for you Gear Diary folks.

Okay, yes, I’m jumping the guy a bit. And yes, I’m obsessed, I admit it. Forgive me. But I’m sick of Widows Mobile, I’m weary of the lack of development in the Palm hardware arena, and my birthday’s this month and I want a new toy, durn it!

So in anticipation of spending waaaay too much money and getting an iPhone, I’ve been creating a list of questions to ask Apple (if I get get hold of anyone there!) and things to review on the iPhone for Gear Diary readers. But it occurred to me (as I was suffering from yet another bout of insomnia) that maybe you folks might be able to help by providing me with some questions of your own.

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So I installed these games in Windows Mobile that I wanted to try out, see? And they didn’t work quite right, so I wanted to delete them. So first, I went into ActiveSync on my desktop, clicked the check-box, and clicked okay. They didn’t get deleted.

So next, I selected them in ActiveSync and clicked the “Remove” button. They still didn’t get deleted. Next I went into my Start menu in Windows and deleted them from there. Now there were deleted as far as ActiveSync was concerned, but there were still there on my O2.

So okay, I went onto my O2 and used the “Remove Programs” tool. It told me, “I couldn’t remove everything,” and though the icons for the programs were removed, they still showed up in the list of games (although nothing launched now, of course), only with the “generic” icon. So I searched through the folders on the device to find all the files associated with the apps so that I could delete them by hand, and did so.

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I’m just waiting on an iPhone.  (With apologies to Mick, Keith, and the boys.)

Okay, I’m a gadget junkie; I admit it.  That’s why I’m a contributor on this here Web ‘zine.  I bought the PalmPilot 1000.  I have spent hours and hours pouring over specs for PDAs, and personal media players, and “Origami” devices, and tested eBooks and convergent devices (like the O2 XDA Exec device-of-a-thousand-names).  So bear that in mind.  But I am not–not Not NOT–an Apple acolyte.  I like their products, and I admire them, but I’ve never owned them.  Never.  So bear that in mind, too.

But I’m waiting on an iPhone.  And I have gadget lust bad.

For one thing, I need a new cell phone.  I’m limping along on a Motorola v180.  It’s okay; I like flip phones, personally, and it’s small, and light, and pretty battle-hardened, but it’s showing its age.  It’s time for an upgrade.  And now here comes the iPhone, just in time for ol’ Doug to upgrade.

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Rounding off my list of the three personal media players (PMPs) that I plan to review–I’ve already done the Cowon A2 and the Creative Zen Vision W–it’s time for the Archos 604 WiFi. (I didn’t do an unboxing on this one, kids; sorry, I’ve just been too durn busy with “real” work.)

The Archos has specs very similar to that of the Zen Vision and the Cowon A2:

• 10.23 oz (290g)
• 4.3″, 480×272 screen
• 133mm (wide) x 78mm (high) x 18mm (thick)
• 30 GB hard disk space
• 5 hours rated of battery time
• built-in mic
• built-in external speaker
• A/V port
• standard 3.5mm stereo headphone jack
• WiFi (802.11g) connection

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Soon I will be lucky enough to review Sony’s Reader, an eBook reader by Sony.� But before I do and give y’all a review, I thought it might be nice to give folks a brief overview of eBooks, both on devoted devices and PDAs.

I’ve been in the online documentation game for a long time.� A long time.� I was writing online doc back in 1991, before the Web even got going, back when Acrobat wasn’t even a twinkle in Adobe’s eye.� So I have some pretty (ahem) strong views on online doc, eBooks, eBook readers, and what makes for a happy online reading experience.� And before I foist my opinions of the Sony Reader on you (and hopefully other eReaders, like the upcoming WordsGear, by Panasonic–sorry; Panasonic doesn’t have an English version out yet), I thought you might like a brief overview of the whole eBook/eReader deal.

Or maybe not.� In which case, move along!
I love eBooks. For one thing, while I don’t do a lot of travelling, I do enough so that it’s nice to have a big ol’ library of books handy on a pocketable gizmo that’s the size of (or smaller than) a paperback that I can take on a plane. If it can double as a game platform and/or a PDA, hey, so much the better. For another thing, being able to read in bed without having to juggle a booklight is a wonderful thing.

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Computer busted, and you don’t know what to do? Need to transfer 10GB of data to your new computer from your old one, and that external hard disk isn’t being recognized by your old system any more? Support contract expired and you need help? Hey, no problem! Call the Geek Squad!

Yeah, yeah, I know; I sound like a commercial. Sorry about that.

But seriously; I had exactly one of the problems I just described: I had a shiny new desktop system, and wanted to move all my old data over from my old system before it died completely. (And from the noises it was making, that wasn’t going to be long.) I had been making regular backups on my old system on an external Fantom hard disk, but now my old system wasn’t recognizing the Fantom drive. I hadn’t backed-up all my email files yet, and believe me, I had a lot of email to move over. So it was either burn a dozen CD ROMs, or figure out a different scenario.

That different scenario turned out to be calling the Geek Squad.

Gateway tech support was unable to help me. (And before anyone grouses, I have generally had good luck with Gateway tech support.) I was hoping, since I’m moving data from an old to a new Gateway system, that they would have some magic for me. As an old system administrator myself, I should have know better. What they did have was the phone number of the Geek Squad. One phone call later, I had an appointment for one of their service techs to come over and help.

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After my recent, somewhat disappointing experience with the Cowon A2 –and yup, I did in fact return the device–it was time to move on and try another of the available personal media players (PMPs) out on the market. This time, it’s the Creative Zen Vision W. (If you’re into unboxings, take a look at my unboxing on the Vision W.)

I’ve been very much looking forward to trying out the Vision W, as in addition to having the standard movie/music/document viewer software, the underlying OS is based on Windows (rather than, say, the modified and proprietary version of Linux that Archos uses for their PMPs). This allows Creative to provide you with the capability to have some personal information management (PIM) capability on the device, in addition to playing media. “Could be cool,” thought I. Is it? Well, I’ve been playing with it for a couple of weeks now, so read on.

NOTE: For reasons I explain later, I only tested two of the major pieces of the Zen Vision functionality: the movie viewer, and the PIM management.

Here’s the Vision W all by his lonesome:

The Zen Vision, like the Cowon A2, has a very clean design. I like it better than the A2, honestly, because I’m a geek, and a guy, and it’s flat black. Guys like flat black; what can I say? The buttons and switches are well laid-out and intuitive; there are not too many buttons cluttering the face of the device; it’s a nice job all around, design-wise. Good job by the Creative team.

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After my disappointing experience with the Cowon A2 –and yup, I did return it–but still determined to see if a personal media player (PMP) can be a good thing to have around, I decided to give the Creative Zen Vision W a try (I’m still on the waiting).

Once again, the basic specs of the device are intriguing:

• Creative Zen Vision W (the widescreen version), available at various places for around $300 (30GB) or $375 (60GB)
• 9.7oz/276g (30GB); 10.5oz/297g (60GB)
• 4.3″, 480×272 pixel TFT screen (landscape mode, ‘natch)
• built-in FM radio
• personal info management (PIM) capability–according to the web site, “Store and view all the information that’s important to you – daily tasks, contact lists and even a calendar – that you sync with Microsoft Outlook, or edit with Creative Media Explorer.”

I will get into all the other spec details in my full review in a couple of weeks.

So here’s the original package.

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This has been a very, very difficult review for me to write. Most gadgets, I find I either like them, or dislike them, or just feel kind of “eh” about them. The Cowon A2, on the other hand, arouses some pretty powerful conflicting feelings in me. I’ll try to give you all a full idea why throughout the review, but the bottom line for me with this device is, I’m totally conflicted, and there is no bottom line. So read on, and decide for yourself.

I’ve been playing with the Cowon A2 personal media player (PMP) for a few weeks now, and am ready to give y’all my thoughts and impressions. First, if you’re interested, take a look at the unboxing. I thought the packaging was pretty durn well-done.

Here’s the A2 all by his lonesome:

And yes, it’s pretty much as brick-like as it looks. This is not a very sexy device; definitely a form-follows-function kind of deal. Also, being a guy, I’m disappointed that it’s not flat-black. Your milage may vary, as the saying goes.

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I recently got a “Thanks for all your good work!” bonus from one of my contracts as I was eased out the door, and couldn’t wait to spend it on something. So, being a gadget fiend, I had to spend some of it on a gadget, of course.

As folks who read here regularly may know, I’m a totally obsessed fanatic about viewing movies on portable devices–Windows Mobile devices, Palm devices, what have you. Recently, there has been a lot of development in the portable media player (PMP) area, where the devices are getting more and more sophisticated, and there’s a lot of movement towards PDA functionality. For example, the Creative Zen Vision W is supposedly just a PMP, but it also has personal information management (PIM) capability. The Archos 604 WiFi is a PMP, but it has wifi built-in, and comes with the Opera browser pre-installed, so you can web surf and–if you’ve converted them to HTML or text–read your eBooks on it. (I am on “the list” for an evaluation unit of the Archos, but I probably won’t see it very soon.)

I may be alone in the world on this, but I’m getting a little excited by these devices. All of them–and I’m looking at about four or five right now–retail for between $250 and $500, provide 20-60GB of hard disk space, some kind of basic (hacked, usually) operating system such as Linux or Windows XP, and some expansion slots. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to look at the Archos 604 wifi and think of it with PIM added, giving you a very nice convergent device with a lot of memory for a lot less money than the UMPC currently being marketed under the Origami umbrella.

Anyway, in the meantime, I decided to pick up the Cowon. Here are the basic specs:

• Cowon A2, retailing for about $325 on Amazon.com
• 10.5 oz (298 g)
• 4.3″, 480×272 pixel TFT screen (portrait mode, ‘natch)
• built-in FM radio

I will get into all the other spec details in my full review in a couple of weeks.

(Note: I find it very interesting that for PDAs and phones, manufacturers totally brag on CPU speed, onboard RAM, and the like, but getting information like that on these PMPs is like trying to pull energy committee meeting minutes out of the Bush Administration. But I digress.)

So here’s the original package.

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Fairly recently, I bought an HTC Universal (the O2 XDA Exec version–see the unboxing here. I fluctuate pretty wildly on whether I love this device (”God, this screen is nice!” “I love surfing the internet from my PDA!”) or hate it (”F($%& Windows Mobile!” “D#@*$ slow download speed!”), but one thing I continue to enjoy is surfing the web.

However, I have found that surfing on a PDA can sometimes be a pretty frustrating experience, given that all web sites don’t have versions for mobile users, and not all web pages are clever enough to detect that you’re browsing on a small screen. I’ve also noticed that the fonts on some web pages can be frustratingly small, no matter how much you bump them up in your browser. What to do, what to do?

Well, what I did was research RSS and aggregators, in the hopes that this would help solve the problem, at least a little. (And the quick answer is, it does! Some, anyway.) This is a brief comparison of two popular aggregators for the WM platform: SPB’s Insight, and Ilium Software’s NewsBreak.

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I recently received a catalog from Mobile Planet the other day, from whom I purchased my first Tapwave Zodiac.  I love Mobile Planet catalogs, and this issue is devoted to “The Latest in Windows Mobile Powered Devices,” supposedly containing “An amazing variety of Windows Mobile devices.” 

So I opened it eagerly to see what it had, because I love convergent devices.  Here’s the list:

i-mate JAQ:  200MHz, 64MB RAM, 128MB ROM, 2.8″ 240×320 screen, QWERTY keypad
Fujitsu Siemns LOOX T830:  416MHz, 64MB RAM, 128MB ROM, 2.4″ 240×240 screen, QWERTY keypad
BenQ-Siemens P51:  416MHz, 128MB RAM, 128MB ROM, 2.83″ 240×320 screen, QWERTY keypad
MIO A710:  520MHz, 64MB RAM, 128MB ROM, 2.7″ 320×240 screen (no keypad!  shocker!)
E-Ten G500+:  400MHz, 64MB RAM, 256MB ROM, 2.8″ 240×320 screen (no keypad)
i-mate SPL:  200MHz, 64MB RAM, 128MB ROM, 2.2″ 240×320 screen, phone keypad
i-mate Smartflip:  200MHz, 64MB RAM, 128MB ROM, 2.2″ 240×320 screen, phone keypad (but it’s a flip phone!  call AP!)
Samsung SGH-i320:  416MHz, 120MB “User memory”, 2.2″ 240×320 screen, QWERTY keypad
i-mate JAM:  416 MHz, 64MB RAM, 64MB ROM, 2.2″ 240×320 screen (no keypad)
i-mate JAM 128:   416 MHz, 64MB RAM, 128MB ROM, 2.2″ 240×320 screen (no keypad)

Yesiree bob!  An *amazing* variety of Windows Mobile devices!  They are all sooooooooo different!  You can get 240×240!  Or 240×320!  Or be a rebel, and get 320×240, and with no keypad!  Yowza! 

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The HTC Universal is the device-of-a-thousand-names: i-mate JasJar, O2 XDA Exec, QTek 9000, SPV M5000, and HAL 9000 for all I know. It’s a hefty (10.2 oz/290 g), big (5.2″ x 3.1″ x 0.93″), hi-res (640×480 VGA), versatile (3G/GRPS, wifi, bluetooth, 1.3 Mp camera, Window Mobile 5), expensive ($1000 retail–go to eBay!) SmartPhone/PDA/convergent device with a clamshell design that hides a decent-sized keyboard and an interesting open, spin, and fold screen that converts it from a sort of micro-laptop form factor to that of a regular PDA.

Judie has already reviewed the Universal at The Gadgeteer, but poor Judie got the i-Mate version, which apparently has one of the world’s most boring unboxing experiences.  

I scored an O2 Exec on eBay, and whatever else these O2 folks do–and I’ve heard some bad stories from folks in the UK, alas–they sure made one cool package for this device.

First, understand that I’ve had the device for a couple of months now, so this is not a “fresh” unboxing, but rather a “recreated” unboxing. But that caveat aside, I think you will enjoy it.

Here’s the box as it comes shipped–a blue rectangular solid:

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