gadget news and reviews

LG Dare (VX-9700) – Verizon Wireless 23

Ever since Apple released the “revolutionary” iPhone, competitors have been trying to imitate and create a better phone. LG has been fairly successful so far. They released the LG Voyager through Verizon Wireless last year, which we reviewed but weren’t too happy with. Fortunately their latest phone, the LG Dare, has surpassed our expectations and can truly be considered an iPhone competitor especially at its price point. It also has plenty of unique features that impressed us.

LG VX9700 Specifications:

• Provider: Verizon Wireless (CDMA 850MHz / 1.9 GHz)
• Form Factor: Full Touch Screen Candy-Bar
• Display: 3 inch, 240×400 pixels, & 262k colors
• Media: MP3, WMA, & AAC(+)
• Imaging: 3.2 mega pixel camera with flash & auto focus
• Connectivity: Bluetooth, GPS, & microUSB
• Others: microSD, ambient light, & accelerometer
• Size / Weight: 4.1″ H x 2.2″ W x 0.5″ D (inches) / 3.8 oz
• Battery Life: 4.7 hours talk time & 360 hours standby
• Price: $200 with a new 2 year agreement

The Body – 5/5 stars
The LG Dare is quite compact and can fit into even a tight pocket. It is actually about 16% smaller in volume than the iPhone 3G. The phone looks quite sleek with a silver trim on the front and a black colored back. Unfortunately since it is a touch screen, it is also prone to attracting finger prints. The front of the phone contains the send, clear, and end buttons in addition to the display. Although not too visible, when looking carefully at certain angles the ambient light sensor can be seen at the top blank portion above the screen. The left side of the phone contains the screen lock button, the microSD card slot, speaker phone key, and the microUSB charger/data port. The volume increase and decrease toggle and the camera/camcorder capture button can be found on the right side. The backside of the phone merely contains the digital camera with flash, the speaker, and a battery cover lid. Finally the 3.5mm standard headphone jack can be found at the top of the phone. Overall the entire design is a success.

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SanDisk Cruzer Contour Review 10

The flash drive market today has been infiltrated by cheaply manufactured devices which offer large amounts of storage space, however most of these are not reliable for storing important data. As a result brand name companies such as SanDisk still produce high end flash drives that have high quality memory and offer fast read and write speeds. The SanDisk Cruzer Contour, which I would like to thank SanDisk for providing for review, is a great example of one of these premium drives. The Cruzer Contour supports AES hardware encryption, has a sliding USB mechanism (see video demo), is Windows Vista ReadyBoost verified, and includes a selection of pre-installed U3 Smart Apps.

The Cruzer Contour is a bit heavier than most flash drives, but this is due to the aluminum encased back-side. The top front was made of glossy plastic, which unfortunately had a “cheap” feel to it. To open the drive, you’ll have to slide it backwards then forwards. To close it, you’ll have to slide the top forward then back. Overall the build quality was superb. It isn’t an IronKey, but it is more than enough for the average consumer. I also personally felt that this looks much better than most flash drives I’ve seen. The only other physical caveat I had was that the “cheap” plastic on top kept creaking when opening and closing the flash drive. I also appreciated the fact that SanDisk threw in a leather protective case with a key chain loop along with the flash drive. The whole package looks “executive” enough for me. Read More

Proporta Ted Baker Portable Battery 6

If you happen to be someone who travels or commutes a lot, this gizmo might just become one of your favorites. Proporta was kind enough to provide us with a demo unit of the Ted Baker Charging Kit, which includes a variety of components. The entire set is centered around the battery pack, pictured above, which can be used to charge many different portable devices. Proporta provides plenty of methods to charge the battery pack and offers even more ways to disperse the energy to your portable gadgets.

The Battery Pack – 5/5 stars
The Proporta Rechargeable Battery Back seems to be an excellent idea all around. The unit is fairly small (about the size of a iPod Classic), quite robust, lightweight (4.2 oz) and fairly good looking. There is only one button on the device which also contains an LED indicator inside. The indicator turns red while charging and goes green when complete. You’ll have to click the button to begin charging a connected device and the light remains green until it completes charging. The front side has a mini-USB input to charge the battery pack and a standard USB port to output power to your gadgets. The battery contained inside has 3400 mAH of storage and can output energy at 5v (700mA). I was able to fully recharge a completely depleted Creative Zen and a Apple iPod Nano without having to recharge.

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LG Decoy (VX-8610) – Verizon +

If you live in California, you are most likely aware of the new law requiring everyone over the age of 18 to use a hands free device to talk while driving. There’s a huge market of people looking to purchase a Bluetooth headset to accompany their mobile phones. To curb the tensions of looking for a compatible device, Verizon Wireless has released the LG Decoy which features a built-in pre-paired Bluetooth headset. I personally felt the idea was quite interesting, however there are plenty of pros and cons to discuss. This phone may be suitable for some, but definitely isn’t for everyone.

LG VX-8610 Specifications:

• Service Provider: Verizon Wireless (CDMA 800/1900MHz)
• Form Factor: Slider with attached Bluetooth headset
• Display: 2.2″ 262k Color QVGA TFT, 320×240 pixel resolution
• Imaging: 2 Megapixel camera and camcorder
• Media: MP3, WMA, AAC, and AAC+
• Other: Bluetooth 2.1 & microSD (8GB max)
• Dimensions: 4″ H x 2″ W x 0.7″ D (inches)
• Battery Life: 3.8 hours talk time & 330 hours standby
• Price: $180 with a new 2 year agreement

Body: 3/5 Stars
The LG Decoy looks sleek, with only four buttons (two programmable buttons, a “Speaker” button and a “Clear” button) and a joystick on the front. The back of the phone houses the Bluetooth headset, which makes a bulge, and to the right of the headset is the 2MP camera. The right side of the phone has a camera button, microSD slot, and a 2.5mm headset jack. I have no idea why they added a 2.5mm headset jack considering that one would purchase this phone to use with the Bluetooth headset. A 3.5mm jack for standard headphones would have been a better choice. The left side has two volume control buttons and a microUSB port. The only other folly might be that it is difficult to slid open the phone to access the keypad. There is no way easy way to slide the phone open without touching the joystick in the middle or touching the screen, unless you want to get more fingerprints all over it.

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Replace Vista’s Ugly Shortcut Icon 6

If you use Windows Vista, you might also hate the large and ugly shortcut icon overlays the operating system uses. They seem to cover up almost a fourth of the area of each icon on your desktop. I had found some solutions on some forums, however changing the icon easily and safely without additional applications wasn’t an option. To make things easier I have included a tiny REG file for Windows Vista users which will allow them to change their shortcut icon quickly.

Modifying Vista’s Shortcut Icon Overlay:

1. Download ‘shortcut-icon-changer.zip‘ and Extract it
2. Close all unnecessary applications except this page
3. Copy ‘Arrow.ico’ into the ‘C:\Windows\’ folder
4. Double-click on ’shortcut-icon-changer.reg’
5. Say ‘Yes’ to accept the changes being made

The setup is now complete, to see the new icon in action you can either reboot your machine or end and restart the “explorer.exe” process in the Windows Task Manager. If you wish to use another ‘.ico’ icon overlay instead of the one provided, just rename it to Arrow.ico and place it in the ‘C:\Windows\’ folder.

Download: shortcut-icon-changer.zip

Notice: Keep in mind that we only provide tweaks that are safe. If something provided here was to result in damaging your machine, we are not responsible. If you need help or have any questions, just leave us a comment below. We’d be glad to help!

Creative Launches The ZEN X-FI +

After a couple of weeks of leaks and rumors, Creative offically announced the ZEN X-Fi and the ZEN X-Fi With Wireless LAN. And as implied by the title of the second product, owners of the X-Fi w/ WiFi will have the ability to Stream and Download music, photos, and videos from their home networked computers. The Zen X-Fi looks quite similar to the ZEN, which we reviewed last year, but it now has tons of new features and hopfully has resolved all the shortcomings of it’s predecessor.

“We’re very excited to achieve this breakthrough of adding our X-Fi audio technology to a ZEN player, setting the highest standard in audio quality for portable music players,” said Craig McHugh, president and COO of Creative

In addition to the new WiFi hardware component, the Zen X-Fi now has built-in speakers, a SD card reader, built-in FM radio, and a microphone for voice recordings. With a 2.5-inch TFT display with the ability to playback WMV, AVI, MJPEG, MPEG4-SP, DivX 4 and 5 and XviD, the player should satisfy the needs of most customers. As for audio, the unit supports playback of unprotected MP3, WMA and AAC audio formats. Creative also bundles in a set of high quality EP-830 in-ear earphones, which are much better than the standard sets of headphones that usually come with most digital media players.

The ZEN X-FI with Wireless LAN 32GB and 16GB models are now available for $279.99 and $199.99, respectively. They are now available for purchase through online retailers including Amazon.com, Buy.com, Creative.com, Fry’s.com and Newegg.com. The standard ZEN X-FI 8GB (without WiFi) will become available later this month for $149.99.

Links: Creative.com ZEN X-FI
Buy Now: Zen X-Fi 32GB $280 | Zen X-Fi 16GB $200
Related: Creative ZEN Review

Dymo DiscPainter Review 1

A couple of weeks ago we got a hold of the Dymo DiscPainter which allows prints directly onto optical media. Before I even tested the unit, I had some things in mind. First, I was looking forward to it since I expected it to print high quality labels accurately without having to worry about the label falling off. But I soon realized another problem, I would have to purchase special media which would allow printing directly onto the disc. Both my initial observations proved to be correct which is both a good and bad thing, but setting those aside I am going to continue with the review.

The Setup – 4/5 stars
Getting it ready to go was easy. I just had to insert the ink cartridge and plug in the power supply. I decided to use my Apple iMac running OS X Leopard instead of my Windows Vista laptop for a chance since the box claimed that it supported both platforms. For some reason installation failed the first time around. After uninstalling everything and reinstalling the software, it seemed to work just fine. I don’t know whether it was just a random glitch on my end or if there’s a real underlying problem. But other than that once it was setup everything looked and ran quite well. The program seems to be a bit outdated for OS X Leopard, however it still worked and got the job done.

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WordPress 2.6 Released 1

WordPress 2.6 was just released a couple of hours ago and it packed with plenty of new features. I had a chance to upgrade Skatter Tech, previously running version 2.5.1, and the entire process went through quite smoothly without any issues. I have included the official video demonstration of WordPress 2.6 above, however I will also go over some of the notable features below.

Post Revisions
This implementation will be a savior to authors who write and edit articles in the WordPress editor. Each time a post is modified a revision is saved. (Like Wikipedia.) Authors can switch back to previous editions or compare two different revisions. This is probably the next best addition to the editor since auto save. The editor also received a few other new goodies including a Word Counter and a improved uploader.

Press This! Bookmarklet
For those who blog content as they browse the web, this is going to be very handy. The new Press This! bookmarklet acts quite like Tumblr. When you launch the bookmarklet, a popup window appears offering options to blog the page you are currently viewing and choose whether it should be considered a Text, Photo, Quote, or Video post. Although I may not use this to blog right away, it is quite neat to be able to save drafts with some info so I can come back to it later.

SSL-Encrypted Admin Panel
Security is a big issue for those who have large blogs. Previously with no SSL support, hackers monitoring a network could theoretically capture passwords and data being published to your blog. There have been a couple of WP Plugins to address this issue, however I personally never found any to function as required. Authors now can login using the HTTPS protocol to encrypt the data being related between their machine and their server for protection. And it’s been working great, for me, so far!

Other Stuff
There are a couple other notable features added, one of which is the Gears add-on. The add-on has to be installed to your computer’s browser and intelligently caches Javascript and CSS files to your machine to allow a much faster and smoother work flow. WordPress now also allows bloggers who are re-designing their themes to now preview it before making it visible to their readers. This would have been quite handy when I was in the process of designing my theme!

There are plenty of other things that have been included in the update and if you wish to find out more about them, visit Word Press 2.6 Announcement Post. If you are using WordPress I personally recommend you upgrade to 2.6. There are many new features you will truly appreciate!

Links: WordPress.org
Download: WordPress 2.6

LG Chocolate 3 – Now Available +

Verizon Wireless has just made the LG Chocolate 3 available after only being announced late last week. The Chocolate 3 is the third generation model, not including the spin-offs, of the “LG Chocolate” series. What makes this phone stand out from rest is the inclusion of the Rhapsody Subscription Service through the V Cast Music. This is wonderful for music fanatics since they will now have unlimited wireless access to over 5 million songs high quality full length songs available in the Rhapsody library. And just like the LG Muziq, the Chocolate 3 sports a FM-transmitter to broadcast the music on your phone to your car’s stereo. In addition with a multitasking-supported back end, you’ll never have to stop listening to music when you wish to read/send messages, browse your contacts/web, or do most other tasks. Just like most phones on the market, excluding the iPhone, the Chocolate 3 doesn’t have any built in flash-memory storage, however it supports the use of up to 8GB microSD cards.

“We are proud of the success and popularity of the Chocolate series of handsets, and are excited about the upgrades made with this new edition,” said Mr. Ehtisham Rabbani, vice president of product strategy and marketing for LG Mobile Phones. “The LG Chocolate 3 helps Verizon Wireless customers minimize the number of electronic devices they need to carry at one time, allowing for a large capacity of music storage and connection to a car stereo without any wires.”

Asides from the music components, the LG VX-8560 (“the real name”) also remains quite a robust phone. It sports Bluetooth v2.1, V Cast Navigator, 2.0 mega-pixel camera/camcorder, Mobile Web/Email/IM, Speakerphone, Voice Commands, and many more features. Although battery life with playback hasn’t yet been officially benchmarked, they do advertise 4.5 hours of talk time. The LG Chocolate 3 is now available for purchase on VerizonWireless.com and in Verizon Wireless Stores. The phone will cost new customers $129.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and require a new two-year contract.

Links: VerizonWireless.com

P.S. – (07/15/08) – We just got a hold of the Chocolate 3, so expect an in-depth review soon! And a special thanks to the Verizon Wireless PR folks who have been extremely helpful!

Day Pack Reviews: Camelbak Urban Assault & XL 5

Camelbak is company not short on innovation. Bringing to market a line of very handy and convenient hydration systems has benfitted us all. We got a first look at two brand new packs from Camelbak, the Urban Assault and Urban Assault XL. The Urban Assault packs at first looks like an intimidating, menacing, ready to kick some butt pack. Loaded with features and hidden surprises, the Urban Assault is prepared for your day.

The Camelbak Urban Assault packs are constructed of a middle-ground 500D Cordura. As stated before, Cordura is pretty much the best material you can use, and at 500D the Urban Assault combines a good balance of strength to weight ratio. The zippers are genuine YKK and surrounding them is a rubbery flange meant to help keep water out. Camelbak had the right idea when they made their zipper pulls as well. The zipper pulls are made of cord with a plastic tube around them. This offers the flexibilty and silence you need, while offering the rigidity and strength required to open/close the zipper. Located on the back is a very intimidating, yet comfortable looking design. Three large foamy pads are arranged in an ergonomic design and allow for ventilation. The organization of the pads keeps the weight off of your spine and moves it to the sides and lower parts of your back. On the shoulder straps is some dense 15mm EVA foam. All of the side release buckles on this pack were made by ITW Nexus which is an industry leader in tough buckles. Read More