I have a confession to make: I am a iPod owner who dislikes his iPod. I don’t hate the iPod; quite the contrary, I really like it but am frustrated by it’s caretaker, Apple. For everything Apple has done right, there’s lots of things that it has done wrong. For example, if you look at the files on the iPod itself you’ll see undecipherable file names for each of your music files. Plus there’s Apple’s Love/Hate relationship with DRM. Then there’s codec limitations. You can listen to MP3, AAC,Protected AAC, Apple Lossless, Audible, WAV and AIFF, but what about open codecs like Ogg Vorbis?? To Apple, there’s no such thing.

So I went in search of something more and thought I found it with the Insignia Pilot, and it’s mostly true. Come along with me as we explore Best Buy’s Insignia Pilot 8GB MP3 Player…

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Something strange is happening to me. I was having lunch with a friend last week when he suddenly looked up from his plate and said, “I just realized that you drove up to meet me at a vegetarian restaurant driving your new hybrid car with your bicycle on a trunk rack on the back. Who are you and what have you done with my beer-drinking buddy, Chris?!”

Sure, part of my attitude change has come from the upward spiral of fuel costs. I just couldn’t afford to drive a Tahoe anymore so I traded it in on a Camry. I really think that the Greening of America is getting to me. I’m not a fanatic about it, and I don’t know what my carbon footprint is. But when I encounter a choice between doing something that is more socially responsible than the same old, same old, it’s becoming more natural (no pun intended) to take the greener option.

The folks at CREDO Mobile are trying to make it easier to go green with regard to your telecommunications. So if you’re a lazy environmentalist like me, take a look at their latest developments along with an update to my review of the CREDO Solio Charger after the jump.

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Mwave.com brings you this Jabra BT3030 Bluetooth Dog Tag. Plug your old wireless headset in and enjoy the benefits of Bluetooth while maintaining your playboy image. I didn’t check closely but the WifeBeater shirt shown in the advertisement doesn’t appear to be included. On sale now for only $52.

Link: Jabra BT3030: An Adapter Tony Manero would be proud to call his own.

Q.: Judie,

Hope this note finds you well. I need some gadget advice, if you have the time.  I have a birthday coming up in two weeks, and my wife wants a suggestion from me for a present. I am thinking about a new phone.  I have a Samsung Blackjack for work which runs Mobile 5.0 and I like it a lot.  Works very well with our Outlook Exchange server.  I also have a Motorola RAZR2 for weekends, which I also like, but I’d like a weekend phone that has a little more functionality.

I have looked at the N95, but if I am going to put that kind of dent in my wallet, I wanted to see if you have a favorite fun phone that you like and would recommend for a GSM system (I am AT&T).  Anything that really makes you smile?

Thanks for your time!!

Bill

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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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As the owner of a Tapwave Zodiac, I’m pretty far behind the curve (or way ahead, depending on how you look at it) with regard to PDA/handheld/UMPC/convergent device development. I love these gadgets, mind you, but the last time I went to buy one I found such a dearth of Palm OS devices (you can have a LifeDrive, or a Treo, or, um, a different Treo, or, um . . .) that I got depressed and kind of gave up.

So anyway, I didn’t hear about the whole Origami thing until someone on Tapland mentioned it in passing, as it were. (Us Zodiac folks are always on the lookout for handheld devices with decent graphics, you see.) That, combined with a need to get my wife a new cell phone, sent me out looking at the market for convergent devices, SmartPhones, UMPCs, and the like.

As everyone reading this blog probably knows–hey, I said I was behind the curve–there’s an awful lot of overlap in these devices. There are smartphones with 4″, full VGA screens that run Windows Mobile 5; there are PDAs that have Bluetooth and WiFi built-in, but don’t have cell phone capability; there are UMPCs that (it seems to me) might as well be really expensive PDAs with slide-out keyboards. Or even without slide-out keyboards. And on and on.

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Many of you by now will recognize the name HTC as the abbreviation for the Taiwanese based company High Tech Computer. They are the world’s largest manufacturer of Pocket PC and Smartphone OS based PDAs, and as such they are responsible for many of the more recognizable devices which are rebranded by companies including Hewlett Packard, i-mate, Audiovox, and Dopod - to name a few.

The device we’ll be looking at today is known by several names including the O2 XDA Trion, the MDA Vario II, Orange SPV M3100, and the Dopod 838Pro. This review will specifically cover the HTC Hermes branded as the Dopod 838Pro; while some of its included software may differ from other branded versions, the general hardware specifications should be about the same.

Similar to the HTC Apache / Sprint PPC-6700 which I reviewed last year, the Hermes features a compact touch-screen PDA form factor with a left-sliding keyboard which only appears when needed. The Hermes is intended to function not only as the user’s mobile phone, but also as a fully functional PDA, an email and text messaging center, and a compact means to wirelessly surf the internet.

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Added 10/10/06: This contest is now closed; the winner is Warthog. Congrats, and thanks for playing!!

I was chatting with Alison the other day, and we soon realized that we - two geeky girls - shared the same guilty pleasure of enjoying gossip blogs. Since that conversation took place, it has been revealed that Jenneth also shares this affliction. Armed with this secret information, I have decided that I will not only blow the whistle on our guilty pleasure, but find a way to revel in it!

So how can I make it relevant to this site? Easy! We are going to play a game…

The first person that can most correctly identify the devices held in the following stars’ hands will win the recently reviewed RoadWired Pod. To up the ante, Jenneth is donating a Motorola H500 Bluetooth headset!

Where possible I have included links that will show larger or more pictures.

I honestly don’t expect anyone to get them all right - they are tricky! But if someone does get them all, then I will be incredibly impressed!

I’ll leave this contest open until 3:30 US Central Standard Time on Tuesday October 10th; at that time I will select the winner that has the most correct guesses.

Ready?

1. Eva Longoria gives directions while holding her _____.

(source - Egotastic)

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Doug Moran reminded me last night that I have been severely slacking in my DualCor cPC updates since returning from San Francisco over a month ago. Wow time has flown, and he is absolutely right!

He said and I quote: “So anyway, aside from the stuff below, and my interest in how you’re doing with the Hermes, I’m also interested in how you’re doing with the cPC, which you haven’t written about since you got back from San Francisco. Ahem. Not that I’m eager to find out what you think of it. No, nope, not me.”

Well, regardless of the fact that neither of the screen protector vendors I’ve talked to (and taken detailed measurements for) have yet sent me a protector for the device, and I have therefore had to continue using a piteously small JasJar protector which makes the cPC look cheap and ugly, here is the device in question…

(shown next to a Treo)

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