Today I received a device that could really be a make-or-break product for a company that has been stagnate for quite some time. The Palm Treo Pro really needs to be successful for Palm, as their current line-up leaves a lot to be desired.

First off I’ll start with the packaging. Like the box the HTC Touch Diamond comes in, the Treo Pro packaging has a corner lopped off. Why? No idea. It is quite nicely presented though, with the device on display as soon as you take the top off.

Included in the sales package is the Treo Pro, a microUSB cable (seems to becoming popular), USB AC adaptor, stereo earphones (3.5mm, woohoo!) and a few manuals and guides. Like HTC, Palm has cheaped out by including a USB AC Adaptor that you plug the USB cable into. With a miniUSB cable that’s not so bad, they are everywhere and can extras can easily be purchased, but the microUSB isn’t overly common yet, so many buyers will find themselves swapping the cable between their computer and AC adaptor. If you find yourself needing an extra one, the microUSB cables that you get for the latest Nokia’s will do the trick.

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I saw a report on The Boy Genius stating that the E71-2 has a “horrible signal problem”, and I wanted to reinforce my experience. I’ve been using my E71-1 for about a month and in that time I haven’t had any troubles with my signal strength. My previous phone was the N95 8GB, the best phone I have ever used when it comes to signal, and the E71 shows the same amount of bars as it did. The signal bars certainly aren’t a scientific measure, heck the Nokia battery meter is pretty much a joke, but I can safely say it holds it’s signal well, and coasts along when other phones drop out.

TBG’s device may be faulty, or maybe there is some other difference between the E71-1 and E71-2 other than available bands, but my E71-1 is working great on HSDPA. For those interested my E71-1 has the 100.07.76 firmware, dated June 8th, 2008.

EDIT: After reading petesonline’s comment, I ran a 1MB speed test of my own and this was the result:

That is one of the fastest speed tests I’ve had on one of my phones, if not the fastest. AT&T’s network mustn’t be as good as Three here in Australia.

[Note: Pictures pending, I need to retake them]

A few months ago I bought an unlocked Samsung BlackJack II on eBay, and shortly after receiving it I was ready to dump it. In a word, it was crap. It was awfully slow, had a painfully laggy keyboard, didn’t have very good battery life and it picked up fingerprints like nothing else. It was genuinely hopeless, and after a month it made it’s way back onto eBay and out of my life forever.

I went back to my trusty N95 8GB, which had served me faithfully for several months, perfect for me in every way except one: the keyboard. It had an excellent number pad, but I despise using T9, I’m not terribly good at it. I like to have a key for every letter, that’s how I roll. I wanted a smartphone with a thumboard again, but nothing on the market suited. Windows Mobile seems to have lost the plot somewhere, Sony Ericsson’s UIQ devices are old and outdated, and the only Nokia available in a similar form-factor to the BJII was the E61i, which is too wide, ugly and old. Was is the operative word in that sentence, because the phone that I have wanted since I first read about it has been released, and I have since passed the N95 8GB onto my sister as I won’t be needing it anymore.

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This is one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time, and I just had to share it.

[Adfreak.com via Slashdot]

I’ve noticed quite a common theme between Nokia’s cameraphones: they all undersaturate. Take this image I took with my Nokia E71, which has a 3.2MP autofocus camera (alas no 5MP Carl Zeiss, oh well). It’s quite sharp but is decidedly undersaturated and washy.

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I may be alone on this one, but I like to be able to play my videos with the screen off. If I’m at work and want to listen to a video on my iPod, normally you’d have to have the screen on, wasting battery. Sure I could drop the screen brightness (and I do), but I found a way to turn the screen off and keep the video audio playing. You don’t need to hack anything, just your regular, unhacked iPod Touch will do.

If this isn’t new and has been mentioned somewhere before, please tell me, but I didn’t find this anywhere.

Note: Sorry about the quality, was captured with an N95 is not the best lighting. Get’s the point across though.

Nokia’s latest model for the mid-range market looks to be a cut-priced N95. While it misses out on the larger screen and WiFi radio, it holds onto the 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss camera, HSDPA radio and built-in GPS, at around half the price of the N95. The recommened retail for the 6220 is $689, but as is often the way with these things it will likely be cheaper in-store. I’ve been using one as my main phone for the last week, and I am very impressed…almost.

Unlike the N95 the 6220c is a regular candy-bar phone, no funny business there. The display is a 2.2″ QVGA affair, with a fabulous 16 million colours for applications to choose from. It’s noticably smaller than the 2.8″ display I’ve become accustomed to on the N95 8GB, but it does look a lot nicer, thanks to it’s higher DPI. The resolution is the identical meaning the same amount information is displayed on screen, so it’s not much of an adjustment.

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I haven’t got an iPhone 3G, instead I bought an Nokia E71 (review pending) and I couldn’t be happier. I did however update my iPod Touch to the latest 2.0 firmware, and have downloaded a few apps which are pretty cool. With my Touch I get all of the benefits of the iPhone, except for the ability to surf the web and make calls while out and about. Or can I?

Some of you may have heard of Joiku, but for those who haven’t it’s a small application that you load onto a Nokia phone that instantly turns it into a mobile hotspot. That’s right, you can hookup your laptop, or in this case iPod, to your phone over WiFi, no messy Bluetooth or cable connections necessary. I downloaded it to my E71 (right on the phone), and gave it a whirl today, and I have to say it works, very very well.

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This evening I gave the new Pwnage utility a try on my freshly 2.0ed iPod Touch, and I thought I’d post the screenshots I took of the process, for those you you who like to know what should be happening when you do it

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There is no shortage of widescreen LCDs available these days. 19″ Widescreens have become the norm, and 22″ Widescreens are not much more. Manufacturers need to do something to differenciate themselves from the others, be it with available connections, built-in card readers and USB hubs, contrast ratios, viewing angles, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

AOC have decided to do something a little bit different. Their latest model, the 22″ 2230Fm, makes it possible to do away with the PC altogether, and brings new meaning to “Digital Photoframe”.

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