While the digital art frame idea seems interesting, I found it to be incredibly unattractive. To put it simply, the photo frames apply filters commonly found in photo editing programs like Adobe Photoshop to photos. The result is less than impressive; it looks like a computer-processed drawing and far from the hand-drawn look Casio was aiming for. As if the gaudy pictures weren’t enough, Homlish introduced another feature – animated overlays. That means you can put animated pictures, for example a flying butterfly, on top of your “art”.

The new Casio Exilim Camera series combines high speed motion capture and high power zoom in a compact camera body.  John Homlish, Executive Vice President of Casio’s marketing department, explained that Exilim will allow consumers to take advantage of features boasted by top-of-the-line DSLR cameras without the hassle of a carrying around a large camera. The results were quite astounding. I found it hard to believe that a camera of that size produced the obligatory ultra slow-motion balloon pop.

Casio also introduced a new series of compact, environmentally friendly projectors. These projectors are 1.5 inches thick and the size of a standard sheet of letter-sized paper, and weigh less than 5 pounds. Through the use of hybrid laser/led projection technology, the projector puts out up to 3000 lumens with improved clarity and color. What makes it environmentally friendly is the lack of a compressed mercury bulb. On top of that, the projector takes less power to run and without the need to replace a bulb or filter. The laser/led hybrid technology has an extended life; over 20,000 hours. That’s 7 years if you run the projector for 8 hours everyday. A pocket-sized projector featuring the same technology is also in development and may be available later this year.

The Setup
Just plug the card into your computer using the included USB card reader or your own. There’s a small application you’ll have to install on either your Macintosh or Windows machine. The program will take you through a quick setup process to configure your card for WiFi networks. Although the card will automatically connect to unsecured networks, you’ll have to plug it into a computer each time you want to configure it for secured ones. The card also automatically connects to Wayport public hotspots for free for an year with this model. (There are about 10,000 Wayport locations, e.g. McDonalds)

Online Management
It’s easy to customize the way your media is handled. Unlike the WiFi setup, where you need to physically insert it into a computer, most of the other settings are managed through Eye-Fi’s website. The web interface allows you to view media, enable geo-tagging, view geographical locations of photos on a map, and set upload notifications. It’s easy to enable uploading to photo sharing services such as Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, and a few more. There’s support for blogging platforms including Movable Type, TypePad, and VOX. For auto-uploads to printing services, Eye-Fi supports Costco, ShutterFly, SnapFish, and Walmart. And that’s not it, there’s plenty more. If you’re a bit of a geek, the Eye-Fi supports dropping image files straight into an FTP server and offers RSS feeds. It also downloads a copy to your computer if it has the Eye-Fi Manager installed.

Geotagging
The Eye-Fi embeds geotags into all your images. Many tools such as Flickr and Google Picasa offer viewing your images on maps. Unfortunately it doesn’t work as you might expect. As expected, it’s probably not possible to fit a real GPS module into a SD card. Therefore, the Eye-Fi uses WPS (Wi-Fi Positioning System) to find your location using nearby Wi-Fi networks. It works, but it’s not always entirely accurate. The company has partnered with Skyhook Wireless which has mapped out 70% of the United States with over 100 million wireless access points so the geotagging feature will work even without being connected to a wireless hotspot. As long as you are in range of a mapped wireless access point WPS should be able to get 20-30 meter accuracy of your location. From my own testing, I found that it was actually quite accurate. It was literally spot on.

Wireless Connectivity
The card worked great, but there are some issues that need to be mentioned. Since the WiFi chip inside is so small and very low powered, it doesn’t do so well when it comes to picking signal. While photos transferred rapidly when near an access point, it wouldn’t work as far away as other WiFi enabled devices did. For example, my laptop and mobile phone were able to connect to my access point, but the Eye-Fi card in my camera wasn’t able to get signal from the same spot. Another issue I faced was in regards to convenience. If you want to connect to a new secured access point, you’ll need to have a computer with you. Since it’s simply an SD card, your camera won’t have an interface to customize those settings. If you primarily use it in one location or happen to visit those compatible hotspots quite often, then it won’t be an issue.

Uploading and Notifications
As I mentioned before, there’s no interface on the camera to manage the Eye-Fi. The camera will only handle the image files. Therefore, there’s no indicator to let you know the status of upload progress. That means you won’t know when to turn your camera off. If you do turn it off during an upload, it will get interrupted, but will resume uploads once turned on. To slightly solve that issue, Eye-Fi provides the ability to receive Email notifications and SMS alerts for when uploads begin, get interrupted, resumes, or finishes. You can also opt-in to receive Twitter Direct Message notifications for the same actions. The only other way to view a live progress bar of uploads is if you are in front of your computer screen while snapping photos.

The Bottom Line
For the most part, the Eye-Fi can minimize the hassle of sharing and saving media. But it’s still a proprietary technology even though it uses a standardized WiFi network. It’s especially great for those who take a lot of photos in only a few locations. However keep in mind, you’ll likely find yourself coming back home to upload photos on your own network after a party since there’s no way to configure a secured network elsewhere without a computer. While it might sound like a niche market, that’s going to soon be changing. Devices such as Sony’s Cyber-shot DSC-G3 have built-in WiFi and supports uploading to a similar variety of online uploading services. If other manufacturers start following that trend, which we might see this year at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, it’s hard to tell what it would mean for Eye-Fi since there wouldn’t be a need for their WiFi SD card. However, the fact remains, not everyone is going to go buy a new WiFi camera immediately and there’s no other way to enable WiFi for an existing camera with a gizmo such as the Eye-Fi.

While I reviewed the Explore Video model, there’s also 7 other offerings. Prices start at $50 for the lowest end version that can only upload photos to your own computer and has just 2GB of storage. Their best offering is the Pro version ($119) that offers all the same features that the Explore Video does, but adds extra support for RAW file uploads and Ad Hoc networks for professional photographers. If you have a decent camera, take a lot of photos, and don’t plan on upgrading anytime soon, the Eye-Fi will definitely go a long way to add a new refreshing feel to your current device.

Buy: Eye-Fi Explore Video for $92
Links: Eye.fi | Model Comparison Chart

DVD’s, Books, and Games
Google Goggles picked up results for Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii), Caddyshack (DVD), and The Color Purple by Alice Walker (Book) with ease.

Business Cards
Though the format of the business card I used may have been an issue, I wasn’t able to pull up as much contact information as the example on the app’s website. It found the name and company, but not the phone number or email address, even after a couple of tries.

Logos
In general, logos work really well. The first thing I did when I installed Goggles was take pictures of the numerous empty bottles on my desk; every one of them was found successfully. However, the logo on my sweatshirt did not work, which is pretty disappointing considering the reputation of UC Davis.

Places
Goggles also allows you to identify nearby places using your phone’s GPS and compass. The app displays the names of businesses in the direction you point the camera at the bottom of the screen. In areas where I had good GPS signal, this feature was fairly accurate. This would be really handy for exploring new places, though I imagine you would look pretty silly using this to find the nearest Starbucks.

Conclusion
I had my doubts with this application; it’s not everyday someone invents a Pokédex. The verdict: it works almost as well as advertised and faster than you would expect. After you snap a photo, the analysis generally takes less than ten seconds. If you have a phone with Android 1.6 or later, head to the Android Market on your phone and try out this app. PC World reports that Goggles will reach other platforms, but if you have an iPhone or Blackberry you are out of luck for now.

Links: Google Goggles

Samsung Rogue SCH-U960 Specifications:

• Provider: Verizon Wireless (1.9 GHz /850 MHz CDMA)
• Displays: 3.1-inch 800 x 480 pixels & 18 bit colors
• Camera: 3.0 Megapixel Camera w/ Autofocus, Flash & Image Editor
• Music: MP3, M4A, WMA, AAC/eAAC/eAAC+
• Memory: 512Mb (internal) / 16GB microSD (external)
• Dimensions: 4.29″ L x 2.17″ W x .65″ D
• Battery: 280 Minutes Talk Time & 300 Hours Standby
• Other: Bluetooth 2.1 | 3.5 mm Audio Jack

The Body: 4/5 stars
The Samsung Rogue shares the same form factor as the Samsung Glyde, a sliding keyboard under a touch screen, but it has a new look. Although this phone is taller than the Glyde, it is thinner and has a more streamlined finish. The face of the phone is very simple. Underneath the 3.1″ touch screen, there are three “brushed metal” buttons: send, clear, and end. The back of the phone has a rough bronze-colored texture, which offers a decent grip. The speaker, a 3.0 megapixel camera, the flash, and a tiny mirror for self portraits are on the back. The position of the camera causes one small issue. Each time I picked up the phone, I had a tendency to place my index finger directly on the camera lens. I found this to be annoying since it was a pain to continually have to clean the lens, but then again, this might be an issue only for me. The volume controls and the USB connector, used for both charging and data transfer, are on the left side of the phone. On the right side there’s a screen lock, voice command, a zoom in/out button for the camera, and a camera capture button.  The lower portion of the right side features the 3.5mm headphones jack and the microSD expansion slot.

The Keyboard: 2/5 stars
Verizon Wireless advertises the Samsung Rogue as great phone for texting. Therefore, I expected it to have a great keyboard, unfortunately, it was a big disappointment. There are four lines of keys instead of having a additional symbol function. This makes things easier to find and faster to type. The keys are not small or cluttered, but are neatly spaced out. Unfortunately the problems begin with the layout of the keys. Some buttons are too far off to the left and others are properly centered. Even though the keys feel great to type on, their locations don’t feel natural. They feel as though they are a bit jumbled and not placed in traditional keyboard format.

The Display: 5/5 stars
I was impressed with the 800 x 480 pixel (AMOLED) touch screen display. With a higher resolution than Apple iPhone’s 480 x 320 pixels, the Samsung Rogue’s display looked beautiful and had rich colors. Even with a mid-range brightness setting, the display was fairly visible even in direct sunlight. The Rogue also has haptic feedback. Every click results with a small vibrating pulse in addition to audible feedback. A built in accelerometer changes the orientation of the display automatically from portrait to landscape and vice versa. A proximity sensor automatically turns of the display when the phone is held up to your ear to save battery life.

User Interface: 4.5/5 stars
To lock the phone, there’s a physical side button. To unlock it, just press any button so the display turns on, then click the on-screen unlock button. The home screen is quite customizable, you can change the brightness, the banner, change the text font, the wallpaper, and even the clock format. There is a collapsible side bar that holds all the supported widgets. You can easily drag the ones you use the most on to the home screen by simply dragging them over. There’s an analog and  digital clock available as a widget as well.  On the bottom of screen, there are two rows for actions. The first row is for notifications for missed calls, voicemails, text messages, calendar, alarm clocks, and more. The second row contains four buttons for the phone dialer, contacts, messaging (text, picture, email, etc.), and  the full menu. These two rows are static and can’t be customized. It would be a great idea if they offered the ability to dock other programs such as the web browser or media player to that menu. In general, the user interface is clean, simple, well designed, and works!

Call Quality & Features: 4/5
The call quality was excellent, plus there were a few extra unique features added in. For example if you are in a library or a lecture hall and have to whisper, there’s a mode for that! Just click the “Whisper Button”  and it amplifies your voice so it sounds almost normal for the person on the other end. For the most part, the regular voice quality was excellent on both ends, no complains. The only reason the phone didn’t live up to a five star rating was because of the speaker phone. The speaker wasn’t loud enough or clear enough. It works fine if you are in a truly silent room, but it’s quite difficult to hear when in a car. If you normally use a Bluetooth headset, you won’t need to worry about this.

Messaging: 4/5
Just like most phones today, the Rogue supports text, picture, video, and voice messages. Text conversation history is saved to keep track of everything that’s been said. You can compose a message with either the pull out QWERTY keyboard or the on-screen digital keyboard. The digital keyboard isn’t in a QWERTY layout, but a normal alpha-numeric keypad.

Voice To Text: 1/5 stars
This was a feature I was truly excited for. It theoretically allows you to say a phrase to your phone, which should automatically be converted into text. Unfortunately this feature barely worked. Even after training my voice, I only had successful results about 25% of the time. The rest of the time, the program types in something completely incorrect. For it to work, you’ll have to speak very slowly and clearly, emphasizing each word. For example, I said “This is a cell phone review” and the program typed in “This is itself under view”. It doesn’t accept slang too well either. Another example, I said “Let’s go see Zombieland at 10 o’clock” and it typed in “Left to see some reliant@koch”. To wrap it up, this feature is a great idea, but needs a lot of work. For now it’s not worth using; it’s faster to type the message yourself.

Camera & Camcorder: 4/5 stars
The camera on the Rogue has all the standard features you would expect: zoom, flash, and focus. There are alternate image options such as mosaic, frame, panoramic, and multishot. Image resolution and brightness are also modifiable. After you take a picture, you can edit it with some fairly cool effects. In addition to the standard effects such as sepia and black & white, some other effects such as sketch, emboss, soft-elegant, and fright are thrown in. For the most part, the camera takes excellent photos. The only issue I faced was a small lag from when you click the capture button to when it actually takes the image. If you make any sudden movements, it looses focus. That results in blurry image quality.

The camcorder mode can record video only limited by the available space on the memory card. However you can only MMS clips that are a max of 30 seconds. It records at a 640 x 480 pixel resolution. There are five recording effects, similar to the ones for the camera. Quality looks fairly good for a phone, but gets choppy at times. It obviously isn’t comparable to a decent camcorder or even a Mino Flip.

Music Player: 3.5/5
The Samsung Rogue was designed to be a full MP3 player with a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. The media player has a search function and lets you browse your library by Artists, Genres, and Albums. During playback, the album art isn’t shown on the full screen, but rather as a thumbnail. Other than that, the interface is quite nice. Controlling playback, such as play/pause, next track, and so on, are easy to use and work without any problems. The media player has a shuffle and repeat mode. The audio quality with headphones was great and it didn’t cackle when turned up too high. The speaker on the other hand was an issue. They just weren’t loud enough and wasn’t clear. Another major issue is the lack of multitasking. You can’t do anything else while playing back music. Phones such as the LG enV Touch allow browsing the web, texting, and doing other things while the music player runs in the background. This is a major drawback and needs to be addressed.

Other Features: 4.5/5
There are a lot of other features that this phone offers. Some built-in tools include a calculator, a tip calculator, and a unit converter. The Rogue also syncs to your computer with the included USB cable to transfer music and data. The media player also supports playing video files, however quality isn’t too great and supported file formats are limited. The web browser was impressive. It still isn’t on par with a browser such as the one found on smart phones such as the iPhone. But for the most part it has all the essential features such as navigation, favorites, and zoom. It rendered most pages fairly quickly as well. The VZ Navigator works really well. The GPS module tracked my location very precisely. I do feel that the navigation interface could use a bit of a face lift. The program also offers voice turn-by-turn directions, but once again the poor speaker quality was an issue. Another truly unique feature is the business card reader. All you have to do is take a close up image of a business card in a fairly well lit location. It automatically scans the card and creates an entry in your address book with all the information from the card. It worked really well with just about every card I tested it on. The final feature I’d like to note is the document viewer. It supports viewing Microsoft Office files (Word, Excel, and Power Point) and PDFs. The interface allows scrolling and zooming for all files. To get files onto the device you can simply copy them onto a pre-created folder on the microSD card or sync them over using the data cable.

Conclusion:
After spending a little over a week with this phone, I was fairly satisfied. I was impressed with some of the rather unique features such as the voice-to-text and the business card scanner. The largest drawbacks were probably the odd layout of the slide-out QWERTY keyboard and the quality of the speakerphone. Other than that, the phone performed quite well. The home screen is one of the best parts of the user interface experience. The phone excelled in the most import aspect, call quality. I suggest going into a Verizon Wireless store to handle the phone before buying it over the phone or online. If you are ready to buy it, the Samsung Rogue is available online for price of $99.99, with a 2 year contract.

Buy: Samsung Rogue for $99
Links: VerizonWireless.com Samsung Rogue

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.

Display – 5/5 Stars
In reference to the brightness, contrast, and color representation, the display was top notch. Probably one of the better displays I’ve seen in a while. The Dare’s three inch screen can display images at a max of 240×400 resolution which seemed to fit the needs of the phone just fine. The ambient light sensor is a great addition as it automatically dims the screen when in darker situations and brightens it up in broad daylight. The phone also has a neat sensor which automatically turns of the display during a call when the phone is held up to your face. It immediately turns back on when it gets further away. These two features assist heavily in conserving more battery life whenever possible.

http://skattertech.com/media/2008/07/lg-dare-interface.mp4

User Interface – 5/5 Stars
The LG Dare’s user interface is quite intuitive. The interface seems to have LG Voyager ancestry, however much has improved since then. The sensitivity is just right, however it can be adjusted. The phone’s screen is quite responsive without delay and all transitions are smooth and everything flows smoothly. The home screen features a clock, the date, and two notifications bar. Five items will always available on the bottom of the home screen: messaging, dial pad, menu, address book, and favorites. Although, this quick access bar cannot be modified, shortcuts can be added to the home screen from the shortcut menu. This shortcut menu can be accessed by clicking on the arrow on the main screen. The eleven default items can be customized to show any of the over fifty items in the phone including downloaded applications. The Main Menu displays the standard nine items found on any Verizon Wireless phone: Contacts, Messaging, Recent Calls, My Music, Media Center, Browser, VZ Navigator, V Cast Video, and Settings & Tools. Navigating through just about any part of the phone was simple and self-explanatory. The LG Dare also addresses the issue plaguing many touch screen devices which is the lack of tactile feedback. This phone solves that issue by releasing small vibrations below the screen each time something is clicked. Sound effects can also be enabled to indicate that a command has been accepted. The Dare also automatically locks itself after a certain period of inactivity. The screen can be activated by pressing the unlock key on the side or pressing the unlock button on the screen.

Messaging (Email, IM, & Text) – 5/5 Stars
Text messaging addicts will not be disappointed by this phone as it supports text, picture, and video messaging. Since the phone has tactile feedback it is much easier to type on this phone than I had expected. The keyboard also turns into a QWERTY layout when the phone is turned sideways thanks to the accelerometer. The keyboard was also quite accurate and the predictive text also helps speed things up. Although nothing beats a real keyboard, this wasn’t as bad as other phones I’ve used. The LG Dare also features Verizon’s Mobile Email client which has built in support for Yahoo! Mail, Windows Live Hotmail, AOL/AIM Mail, and Verizon.net. If you use other services the phone also allows configuring your own POP3/IMAP servers for incoming mail and SMTP for outgoing. (SSL Security Supported!) The phone can automatically check and notify you when immediately when a message reaches your inbox. The client isn’t too great for reading messages with graphics; however is plenty for reading text in emails. Finally the LG Dare also has a built-in instant messaging client that supports the AIM, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger clients. You can log into all three at once and view your full contact lists. Overall the phone has not forgotten about the messaging side of things even while the emphasis of the phone might be the touch screen.

Web Browser – 5/5 stars
The built in HTML web browser excels just as most other components of this phone has. It begins on the Verizon Wireless Portal offering quick links to news, weather, movies, and more. The homepage can be customized to a site of your choosing. To visit a webpage, just press the WWW button and enter a URL to navigate to any webpage. Just as the keyboard did previously, the entire browser switches over into landscape mode when the phone is rotated. The volume toggle can then be used to zoom into or out of a page. A Full Screen option is available in the menu to allow the webpage to take up the entirety of the screen leaving no wasted space. The back/forward, refresh, home, and other keys will only appear as overlay when in the full screen mode. The major drawback would be the lack of flash, however most simple JavaScript works. And since most people will probably have this question, YouTube does work perfectly. The bookmarks are also a thankful to have feature saving having to retype URL. The only other issue I faced was that links were sometimes hard to click and I would have to zoom in to get to them. Large web pages sometimes are slow to move around, however I would still have to say this is the best browser found on a Verizon Wireless phone.

MicroSD + Syncing – 4/5 stars
The LG Dare supports up to 8GB microSD cards, which is great for those planning to use it as their music playback device. 8GB cards have also come down in price and can be purchased for as low as $30 through some major online retailers. When you connect your phone to your machine using the included microUSB to USB cable, you can enter the data or sync music mode. The data mode will turn the microSD card into a mass storage device so you can add or remove content directly onto it. The sync music mode will allow syncing media with Windows Media Player 11. Unfortunately Vista users will have no choice but to install the horrid VCast Music Manager to get the phone working with WMP11. If files are placed directly into the music folder, the phone will manually re-index them the next time the music player is started. So to put all of that together, the phone can be synced as a media player device, a mass storage device, or by using a microSD card reader.

Speakers + Headphones – 4/5 stars
The LG Dare’s speaker is fairly decent. It isn’t as loud as I hoped when being used as a speakerphone. It does sound decent for music, but I wouldn’t recommend it. It might have been better if they had been able to stuff a set of stereo speakers into the phone. Fortunately one of the big pros of this phone is the fact that it has a standard 3.5mm headphone jack. Those who plan to use this as their music device will have the opportunity to use their standard headphones without having to deal with using messy adapters. The headphones quality is plentiful for most consumers, audiophiles not so much.

Media Playback – 4.5/5 Stars
The LG Dare supports playback of MP3, WMA, AAC, and AAC+. Verizon recently made a deal with Rhapsody, so music purchased there is completely compatible as well. Controls are fairly intuitive to use. The touch screen makes navigating through songs quite simple. The library can be browsed by a full song list, custom playlists, artists, genres, or albums. The phone also contains preset equalizers. Album art is displayed while playing back music. LG has hilariously included a cover flow type of view when the phone is turned sideways. It doesn’t look too good or function too well, so I would just stick with the standard view. The best part of the Music Playback component is probably the fact that player can be turned into a background process. This way you can begin to browse the web, email, chat, or even send messages while listening to music. Overall this is probably the best music player I have seen on a Verizon Wireless phone to date. As for video playback, although I didn’t have a chance to test it, according to the specifications it supports playback of WMV, MP4, 3GP, and 3G2.

Digital Camera & Camcorder – 4/5 stars
The LG Dare has a Kreuznach 3.2 mega pixel camera which also doubles as a camcorder. Photos can be captured at a maximum resolution of 2048×1536 pixels, while videos can be recorded at a maximum resolution of 640×480. The camera allows for many different options such as a self timer, white balance, face detection, multi-shot, panorama, slit, and frame shot types, and a variety of scene modes. LG has also implemented face detection to focus on people in a shot. The camera allows manually setting the ISO, for those who are interested. The camera also launches within a second unlike most other phones that take a while to startup the application. The Dare’s camera is quite a strong point of the phone as it even includes built-in flash and auto focus. The camcorder offers plenty of neat features including a high frame rate option which will record video in slow motion.

Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR – 5/5 stars
Bluetooth pairing is unbelievably easy; the phone gives instructions as to how you need to go about pairing the phone. The instructions are simple and easy enough for any person to understand how to do it. It automatically pairs itself with the Bluetooth headset once you have completed the steps, no need to enter a password or anything, very convenient. The Dare fully supports use of stereo Bluetooth headsets, which is welcome addition that the iPhone lacks. The phone also supports sharing calendar events, contacts, or printing photos to a printer, although most probably won’t ever use them.

GPS VZ Navigator – 5/5 Stars
The VZ Navigator has become the strongest point of Verizon Wireless phones in recent times and is also a strong point of this phone. The software allows getting voice turn-by-turn directions and even is aware of traffic congestion. It now also has an improved local search that can find movie timings, gas stations, local events and much more. Just like the browser, the app runs in landscape mode when the phone is turned sideways. The GPS was accurately able to find my location just about anytime I tested it.

Extras – 5/5 stars
One small feature which I loved was the power supply that was included with the phone. Instead of providing an addition data cable, the power supply is actually a USB cable in disguise. The cable can be unplugged from the head and can be plugged into a USB port to charge or sync data. No other hardware is included with the phone. As for the software the Dare has voice commands, a basic calculator, tip calculator, a powerful calendar, alarm clock, stopwatch, world clock, notepad, voice recorder, and a drawing pad. I also wanted to mention that the Notifications bar is an actual menu on this phone instead of just being meaningless indicators. When clicked on, information about missed calls, messages, and events will be displayed. The extra components were also though through carefully.

Conclusions
The LG Dare is the best Verizon Wireless phone I have yet to review. I would have to highly recommend this phone for those interested in a new device. It has been well throughout and is a very worthy competitor to the iPhone. Although it may lack the huge application store that Apple offers, there’s still plenty to keep you busy. Everything from the large touch screen display, the camera, the browser, and music player are all solid. The reception was one of the better ones I have seen as well. The phone is available for purchase already through Verizon Wireless stores and online. The LG Dare will cost $200 with a new two year contract. Those of you who are eligible for upgrade should be able to get an addition $50-100 knocked off the price based off your current calling plan.

Links: Verizon Wireless – LG Dare
Buy Now: LG Dare for $137 with New 2-YR Contract (via Amazon)

Nokia N95 8GB Specifications:

• Type: WCDMA 850/1900 + WiFi
• Display: 2.8-inch with 320×240 resolution
• Form Factor: Two-Way Slider
• Battery Life: 5 hours talk & 12 days standby
• Main Camera: 5 megapixel w/ flash & auto-focus
• Storage: Built-in 8GB Flash Memory
• Special: WiFi, GPS, 2nd Camera, Home Network
• Other: Bluetooth and Standard Headphone Jack
• Dimensions: 3.9″H x 2.09″W x 0.83″D
• Price: $550 – $650 for an Unlocked Version

The Body – 4/5 stars
From looking at the images, you’ve probably realized that this isn’t exactly the best looking phone. It’s a bit bulky and definitely doesn’t look attractive. Keep in mind the reason you are probably purchasing this phone is for it’s features. On the front of the phone you’ll find the large 2.8-inch display with four-way controls, send/end buttons, the left/right soft keys, and a couple other short cuts. Above the screen is the secondary camera with its flash for video conferencing and self-portraits. Sliding the screen up will reveal a numeric keypad while sliding it in the opposite direction will reveal multimedia controls. The power button can be found on the top of the phone while the mini-USB and charging connections are on the bottom. A standard 3.5mm headphone jack can be found on the left side of the phone besides an infrared transmitter. A volume toggle, media button, and camera key are all on the right side. The 5 mega pixel camera is on the back above the battery compartment which also holds the SIM card.

The Screen – 5/5 stars
The N95’s 2.8-inch screen can only display at a maximum of 320×240 pixels, but is extremely bright and sharp. Just about anything displayed on the screen such as the menus, photos, or videos all look wonderful. The screen also looks great out doors and glare isn’t as bad as it is on other phones. And for those of you wondering if the screen is touch capable, it isn’t. Although I felt it would have been neat for such a large, the control system is fairly easy to use once you get a hang of them.

User Interface – 5/5 stars
For a first-time user of the Symbian OS it took a little bit of time figuring out how everything in the phone work. But once you learn the general stuff, everything becomes quite easy. Just about every place you want to go in the phone such as the phone book, email, or browser are all individual applications. You can open them up and close them when you are done. Running too many at once can slow down or possibly crash the phone. Most of the apps have a similar layout. The left soft key just about always brings up a context menu of options to perform including quitting. The four-way pad is to browse through the menus and the center button is usually the ‘Enter’ key. The home screen is also quite informative as it displays shortcuts to the phone book, email, web browser, clocks, and camera. It also will show alerts, upcoming calendar events, connected access points, the time, signal strength, and battery life. Overall I loved it a whole lot more than the Windows Mobile OS which I dreaded to use on the HTC XV6800.

Office Suite – 5/5 stars
I also discovered that the Nokia N95 had a built in Office Suite with support for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDFs. I was able to quickly transfer a couple of documents onto the internal storage device with a USB cable then view them on the phone. Although the formatting on some them got distorted and others were slow to load, it would indeed be quite need to have these document views on a phone. To create new documents or modify current ones, you’ll have to buy the full $70 QuickOffice Suite. As for email, the phone supports the IMAP, POP3, and SMTP protocols. The interface is neat and easy to use. Push email is also supported by using the widely popular corporate Microsoft Exchange Server.

Digital Cameras – 5/5 stars
The Nokia N95 8GB has a 5 megapixel camera, which is the most powerful camera I have used on a phone. I only wish it had some optical zoom, which it didn’t. It does have a digital zoom, however this means quality is lost the further you zoom in. The phone takes photos quite instantly, however I noticed some lag when it tries to auto-focus and when saving the photos to the memory. The built-in LED flash is also quite bright and can easily make photos taken in under lit places a whole lot better. The quality of the photos themselves were pretty darn good. The colors looked natural in outdoor situations while the images were well focused and sharp. I was shocked to see how many options the camera settings offered. There were 6 scene modes including an Auto and a Custom option. The Flash can be turned off, always on, or set to reduce red-eye. There’s a self timer to take group photos. A burst mode to continuously take photos is available in addition to an option to take photos at a set time interval until the space runs out. The color tone, white balance, sharpness, contrast, and ISO can all be customized as well. Moving on to the .3 mega pixel camera on the front, it is plentiful for video conferencing since too much bandwidth can’t be transfered anyways. The quality is incomparable to the camera on the back and barley any customization settings are offered for the secondary camera.

Multimedia Playback – 5/5 stars
Once again, the N95 beat my expectations regarding music, video, and photo management. Starting with music, I was able to immediately start syncing my DRM-Free Mp3s in Windows Media Player 11 with the Nokia N95 without any additional software. I was also able to manually drop music onto the phone’s mass storage device and the files were also automatically recognized if placed in the right folders. The phone supports playback of AAC, MP3, and WMA files. I loved the music player interface as it was quite powerful and allowed me to browse by Songs, Artists, Albums, Genres, and Composers. Browsing through was quick and smooth without any hiccups. And with a 3.5mm headphone jack I was able to use my own Shure SE210 earphones. The built in FM radio was also a neat addition in case you get bored listening to your 8GB of music! To make things even better the phone also has a built in podcasting client. I was quickly able to download and start listening to the latest episode of TWiT through my WiFi network. (Can also use 3G data network!) Moving onto Video, the phone runs Real Player which has an excellent 3GP and MP4 decoder turn it into a great portable media player. I was also able to playback iPod Formated movie trailers and even DiggNation episodes without needing to re-encode the content into a special format. Everything worked as it things should without any horrible twists.

Speakers & Headphones – 5/5 stars
The Nokia N95 has a set of stereo speakers which was the best that I had seen on a mobile phone. The quality was clear and crisp. Even with the volume turned up to the max, it remained clear without beginning to crack like most phones do. The audio playback quality through the headphones was excellent. I wasn’t able to tell apart it apart from when playing the same song on my iPod Nano.

N-Gage Games – 4/5 stars
I had a chance to play some demo games available on the phone and the quality was quite impressive. The graphics was much better than I had expected a mobile phone to have the power to handle. The games are by no means as good as those on the Sony PlayStation Portable, but are much better than games available for most mobile phones. The games seemed a bit pricey, but it’s still a plus that they are available for purchase and that the phone can handle and support playing them.

Phone Functions – 5/5 stars
The phone comes with all the standard functions of most phones on the market. These features include an excellent phone book with pretty much no capacity limit, speaker phone, conference calling, bluetooth headset with stereo support, speed dial, voice commands, text messaging, email, calendar, calculator, notepad, voice recorder, and more! With a 3G Network, Bluetooth 2.0, GPS, and WiFi (b/g) the phone is almost always connected to something. Despite this it has a impressively powerful battery and manages it’s power saving quite well with the ambient light sensor. The phone had better signal in most locations versus the phone I usually carry. Call quality was pretty clear and crisp. WiFi signal strength was quite strong as well. The Bluetooth in the phone supports more profiles than any phone I have ever used meaning that it should connect to just about any device you can think of. The phone also supports the new DLNA media sharing protocol so once I connected my phone to my home network, I was able to access music, photos, and videos on the phone from my laptop and even my Sony PlayStation 3.

Web Browser – 5/5 stars
The N95 features an impressively powerful web browser. Sometimes web pages took a bit long to render, but in general they rendered a whole lot better than on most phones I have seen. I still feel the iPhone’s Safari browser is superior to this one in most aspects. However the N95 topples the iPhone’s browser in some aspects such as supports for the Flash player. This means YouTube and a whole slew of other streaming videos can be viewed from within the browser. The browser works by accessing either a WiFi access point or using the Cell Phone network, both of which functioned well.

GPS and Maps – 5/5 stars
The phone has a built in GPS which can be utilized for many different purposes. The N95 allows locating yourself on a map, getting directions, looking for points of interest near by, and much more. I didn’t have a chance to test the turn-by-turn directions, but I would expect it to work as advertised. The phone also has a cool feature to tracking your jogging and it takes it to a whole new level by recording pace, distance, time, altitude, speed, and steps taken. (Displays pretty-looking data graphs too!)

Included Items – 5/5 stars
The Nokia N95 comes with a couple accessories in addition to the power supply. Nokia includes a USB cable for data transfer and syncing media. A pair of headphones and a small wired controller to control music playback. The phone is also capable of video output using the included composite cables. Other than that Nokia provides a CD with some software, a couple of manuals, and a quick start guide. For the price that this phone goes for, I wish they would have also thrown in a case.

Conclusion
Overall the Nokia N95 is now one of my personal favorite phones. It is definitely not for everyone and most people will probably never get to using even half the features it offers. But for those who are looking for a high end smart phone, the N95 8GB will not be a disappointment. The only thing I felt that this phone lacked and that I should mention is the fact that it lacks a microSD expansion. Although it has 8GB of on board flash storage, it would have still been a nice addition. The phone offers more battery life talk time than most phones. With a powerful office tools and media playback tools the phone covers just about all grounds. The only downside might just be the high price of $600. The phone is currently not available through any service providers in the United States. However that doesn’t mean it won’t work here. You can just go ahead and purchase the North American version from a site such as Amazon. And for service, you can sign up to a calling and data plan from AT&T and insert the SIM card you receive.

Links: Nokia N95 8GB (nokia.com)
Purchase: Unlocked Nokia N95 8GB (US) – $580

“Sony was the first to introduce a travel-sized camcorder with 8 mm technology in the 1980’s, and it revolutionized the travel and electronics industries,” said Kelly Davis, director of camcorder marketing at Sony Electronics. “This new model is a great example of our expertise in miniaturization, as well as advanced imaging technologies with features like face detection.”

The compact HDR-TG1 HD camcorder will become available next month (May 2008). The current manufacturer’s suggested retail price is set at $900. When it becomes available it can be purchased on SonyStyle.com. in Sony Retail Stores, or through authorized dealers. Pre-orders begin on April 4th.

Links: SonyStyle.com

“We know the texting audience wants a mobile device that is compact enough to slide easily into pant pockets and handbags without compromising the integrity of the phone’s features. The slimmed-down enV(2) offers everything consumers loved about the enV with the added benefit of a larger, more spacious internal screen with large easy-to-text keys.” said Ehtisham Rabbani, LG.

The enV also has a built in Email Client and a Instant Messenger Client (AIM, MSN, & YAHOO). It is a fully functioning MP3 player and can support holding up to 8GB on a microSD. The enV2 is about .4 ounces lighter and about .10 inches thinner than the LG enV. The front of the enV2 is reminiscent of the Samsung UpStage, which was partially a disappointment. Overall the enV2 has a entirely new look compared to the enV, however it doesn’t seem to have any new features. The phone will be available next month for $130 after a $50 mail-in-rebate and a two-year contract.

Links: Verizon Wireless

UPDATE: Full VX9100 enV2 Review Here!

The phone everyone’s been waiting for is finally here. The LG Voyager, which is also known as the LG VX10000, is an upgrade to the popular LG enV (VX9900), which we reviewed around this time last year. Skatter Tech was lucky enough to get a hold of this unit, courtesy of Verizon Wireless, and I’ve been putting it to the test since I got it last week. Just for a quick overview, the Voyager features a touch-screen display plus an internal wide-screen, a full HTML browser, a QWERTY keyboard, Mobile TV, and a ton of other new features. Although LG seems to be taking their communicator series in a whole new direction, I would still say that Voyager is definitely a worthy upgrade to the enV.

LG VX10000 Specifications:

• Provider: Verizon Wireless (1.9GHz / 800MHz CMDA)
• Form Factor: Laptop-like w/ QWERTY keyboard
• Dimensions: 4.64H x 2.12W x 0.71D (inches)
• Battery Life: 240 mins talk time & 480 hours standby
• Screens: 480 x 240 pixel TFT external & internal
• Digital Camera: 2 megapixel camera and camcorder
• Storage: ~185MB internal + microSD (8GB max)
• Special: external touch screen and mobile tv
• Others: Bluetooth 1.2 + Stereo Speakerphone
• Price: $299 with a new 2-year contract

LG Voyager Body: – 5/5 stars
The VX10000 is a bit larger than your average phone, but no one should be complaining once they see what it has to offer. The phone stands 4.64-inches tall, is .71-inches thick, and 2.12-inches wide. The Voyager retains the same height as it’s processor, the enV, but is slightly wider and thinner as well. The phone should fit into most pockets, but might be a bit of a stretch for tight jeans. On the front of the phone, you’ll find the large touch screen display followed by the SEND, CLR, and END hard-keys lined up at the bottom. On the left of the phone, there’s a camera button, a spring-loaded hold key, and a toggle volume control. The microSD card expansion and the 2.5mm headset jack are the left side, while the charging port, which doubles as the USB connector, is on the bottom. You can charge your phone via USB as well! Other than that, there’s a two mega pixel Camera centered at the top on the back and a battery pack right below it. One the inside of the phone, there’s another display located between two speakers on the top portion and the illuminated QWERTY keyboard on the bottom. The keys are well spaced out are are large enough to type quickly, making it possibly the best keyboard I have seen on a phone to date. Also, unlike the enV, the Voyager actually sits flat on a surface, so no wobbling!

The Two Screens: – 5/5 stars
The biggest disappointment in the LG enV was the extremely small external display. All that has now changed since the LG Voyager’s 2.81-inch touch screen display takes over the entirety of the front and even replaces the numeric keypad. The phone’s internal display is also 2.81-inches diagonal, but isn’t a touch screen. Both the screens have a resolution of 400 by 240 pixels and a color depth of 262K. The quality of both displays were excellent. They were bright and clear enough to view in direct sunlight. The accuracy and responsiveness of the touch screen display was great, but some buttons and items were too small and hard to reach, so interface could use a bit of work.

Music Player: – 4/5 stars
I had a great experience with the Music Player on the enV and was hoping for a big upgrade, but it seems as though there hasn’t been any chances. The main complain would be that the interface for the player is completely different on the external and internal displays. The interface for the outside portion has been designed for use with the touch screen and works fairly well. It actually looks quite neat and allows browsing by Songs, Albums, Artists, or Genres. You’ll have the ability to purchase music from the mobile store, shuffle your music, and search your library. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for the internal interface. The music player on the internal display is still using the standard theme found on the enV and a plenty of other Verizon Wireless phones. In addition the developers have managed to make such as simple program actually look worse and just for starters it doesn’t even utilize the full display. Instead the program has been cropped to a 320 by 240 pixel frame with black borders. Despite this, the playback functions work quite smoothly and the player didn’t have any other major flaws. For supported formats, the Voyager can playback unprotected MP3, WMA, and AAC files in addition to songs purchased through the phone. (Will work with Amazon MP3 & iTunes Plus!) Overall the player is functional and even displays Album Artwork for a nice touch, but it could have been better.

Speakers & Headphones: – 3.5/5 stars
One reason I liked the enV and its predecessor the LG VX9800 (aka “The V”) was the fact that they all had built-in stereo speakers. The LG Voyager carries on that tradition, but there’s a problem. The speakers in the LG Voyager sounded quite horrible and began to crack terribly even before we got close to reaching full volume. (No bass as well.) I would have expected for an even better experience, but these speakers prove otherwise. Since the LG Voyager is also a music phone, I would have also expected them to implement a standard 3.5mm headset connector. Instead, the Voyager maintains a 2.5mm headset jack meaning that you’ll need to purchase an adapter for use with your regular headphones. As Bluetooth headsets are becoming so cheap and barely anyone uses wired headsets anymore, I wonder how long it will take for manufacturers to phase out 2.5mm jacks and replace them with 3.5mm ones. Fortunately, listening to music with headphones on the VX10000 was a much better experience than with the speakers, but quality was still no where as good as on the VX9900.

Digital Camera & Camcorder: – 3.5/5 stars
The LG Voyager features a 2.0 megapixel camera, which also functions as a camcorder. Photos can be taken at a maximum resolution of 1600 by 1200 pixels, while videos can be recorded at a max of 320 by 240 pixels. No improvement for either of those functions have been made since, as those were also the maximums on the enV. The camera and camcorder allow setting the white balance and choosing color effects for captured content. The external display can be used to take self portraits when the phone is flipped open. The camcorder can record up to 1-hour videos, however only clips under 30-seconds can be emailed. On the other hand, images of any size can be emailed. The camera also has an auto focus function, which drastically improves the quality of your photos. The part that was quite disappointing was the fact that LG has removed the retractable cover, which protected the lens, and the built in flash, which was quite handy in low-lighted situations. Overall, the image quality seems to have actually degraded.

microSD + Syncing: – 4.5/5 stars
LG has taken a big jump with microSD technology, now supporting 8GB cards. That’s a fairly good increase considering that the enV was limited to 2GB microSD cards. Although 8GB cards might be a bit pricey at this point, you should be able to purchase a 4GB microSD card online for under $40. As for syncing music, it was as simple as it could get. Your computer will recognize the Voyager as portable media player (mass storage device), so no additional drivers were required. You will, however, need to pop in the CD and install the drivers if you do wish to use your phone as a data modem. Once the device was recognized I was able to use Windows Media Player to transfer the music onto the Voyager. If you prefer to directly copy files onto the phone using the file explorer, that works smoothly as well. Mac OS X users, unfortunately, will have to use an SD card adapter to copy their music onto the microSD card since USB drivers are not yet available. Even Windows users will also end up having use a SD card reader/write occasionally, since it isn’t possible to access your photos and videos when using USB.

Bluetooth: – 4/5 stars
There hasn’t been exactly too much improvement with Bluetooth technology either. The LG Voyager continues to use Bluetooth v1.2, which the enV already had. Most new phones including the LG Muziq, which we reviewed a few months ago, and the Apple iPhone now boast a Bluetooth v2.0 platform with Enhanced Data Rate. Despite this, the LG Voyager was still able to work perfectly with my Samsung WEP200 headset, which uses Bluetooth v2.0. The VX10000 also supports using Bluetooth for use as a dial-up modem, with wireless stereo headsets, for transfering phonebook/calendar entries, and sending images to your computer. So it should still be able to do just about everything important.

HTML Browser: – 5/5 stars
First off, let me say that this is in no way comparable to the Safari browser on the iPhone and iPod Touch, which is amazing. This is, however, a HUGE improvement over the standard BREW browser found on most Verizon Wireless phones, which could only handle WAP pages. The browser is simple, easy-to-use, and works with both the external touch screen and the internal display. Even large web pages (ex. digg.com) loaded eventually, but using it was not practical since it took too long to load or navigate. The browser doesn’t support flash or ajax, but was sufficient enough for viewing text, images, and links. Most of the websites we tested it with worked surprisingly well. When using the external display you’ll be able to drag the page around with a finger, otherwise you’ll have to use the four-way navigation pad. Additional “screen optimized” and “text only” views are available along with the zoom function. The Voyager also delivers the web content over a 3G network which is faster than the iPhone’s 2G.

The Interface: 4.5/5 stars
The LG Voyager external interface is probably the most attractive interface I’ve seen on a phone from Verizon. To use the screen, you’ll have unlock it first by either clicking on the un-lock key on the screen or by pressing the hold key on the left spine. At the bottom there are four quick access buttons: Messages, Dial Pad, Menu, and Phone book. Clicking anywhere else on the screen will bring up a shortcut menu with even more icons to different apps. Just about all the phone’s features including the music player, navigator, web browser, V Cast Videos, camera, and text messaging is use able through the external screen. There are some applications including Mobile Email and Get It Now programs that can’t be used through the external display, so you’ll have flip open the phone. Another neat hardware feature implemented into the Voyager is tactile feedback. When something on the touch screen is clicked, the phone emits a vibrating impulse indicating that an action has been detected. The internal interface has received a clean makeover, but will remain very familiar to enV owners. The enV’s “Email Key” has now been replaced another shortcut menu, offering easy access to plenty of functions. Although the interface wasn’t perfect, it looks good, was usable, and was quite impressive.

GPS Navigator: – 5/5 stars
One feature I did truly did enjoy was the built-in GPS Navigator. The program, which costs $9.99 per month, gives subscribers access to maps, turn-by-turn directions, and local searches. The part that I like the most was that the voice narration actually read out street and highway names instead of simply stating “Turn left ahead” or “Make a right turn”. For example, actually reads out “Turn left onto Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road,” “Exit freeway on the right for San Francisco,” and “Keep right on Mission Blvd.” Most navigators I’ve used including those built into Lexus/BMW cars and portable Garmin/Magellan, couldn’t do this. The one’s I’m talking about were over an year old, so I’m sure new ones can read out names and do much more. Purchasing a decent navigator can cost a few hundred dollars, so spending $120 for a year of subscription isn’t too bad. In addition, if you don’t want subscribe and don’t use your navigator that often, you can pay a one-time fee of $2.99 for 24-hour access. Overall navigation tool was well polished, worked on both screens, and will come in handy if you’re ever lost.

Messaging: – 5/5 stars
In addition to text, picture, and video messaging, the VX10000 also has an easy-to-use email client which will work instantly with your Yahoo! Mail, Live Mail, AOL/AIM, or Verizon accounts. If you do happen to have your own server or use another mail service such as Gmail, you can even enter in your own POP3/IMAP and SMTP servers. The only downside was that the functionality was quite basic and didn’t even allow opening links in messages. Despite this, it remains a good way of getting a sneak peak of your inbox, replying to messages, and composing new ones when you’re away from your computer. The phone also has a built in Instant Messaging client which will work with AOL, Windows Live, and Yahoo! protocols. The program runs smoothly on both screens, allows viewing your buddy lists, and participating in multiple conversations at once. Both the Mobile Email and Mobile IM clients have the ability to run in the background and display notifications when new content reaches your phone.

Other Goodies: – 5/5 stars
The LG VX1000 comes with a bunch of extra tools including a calculator, calendar/date-book, alarm clocks (3), stopwatch, world clock, notepad, tip calculator, and a voice recorder (1 hour max). The address book can hold one thousand entries with five numbers and two emails per contact. Unique ringtones and photos can be set for each contact as well. The voice dialing feature allows making calls by reading out names in your address book or dictating numbers to dial. The final extra feature we’d like to touch on is Mobile TV. We would have reviewed this feature, but there was one problem. What’s the problem? There was no coverage in our area. The service only works in three cities in California and a total of 25 cities through the entire United States.

Despite my minute complains over speaker/headphones quality, the music player, and camera, the LG VX10000 is still probably the best phone offered by Verizon Wireless. In my opinion this will be a big seller for the holiday season and will probably be difficult to get a hold of. I strongly recommend this phone if you plan to actually use the features it offers, otherwise going with a more compact phone will suffice. Verizon Wireless has even been kind enough to throw in a USB cable so you don’t have to purchase a Music Essentials Kit to sync your music. If you plan to purchase this phone it will be available online and in stores on November 21st, 2007. You should also be able to pre-order the phone by calling Verizon Wireless or visiting their website. The LG Voyager will run you nearly $299 after signing a new 2-year contract and submitting a $50 mail-in-rebate. If you are eligible for upgrade, you should be able to get another $50 or $100 kicked off price based on your current calling plan. Overall the phone will take a bit getting used and even though it’s a bit on the pricey end, you are bound to enjoy what it has to offer.

Deal Alert: LG Voyager for $199! (with new 2-year contract)
Links: Verizon Wireless | Voyager Data Sheet (.pdf)
Related: LG enV VX9900 Review | Voyager Video Walkthrough

Just about every new laptop purchased today is bundled with a built-in web cam. It’s a great accessory for video conferencing, but there are also plenty of other useful things to do with them. This tutorial will demonstrate how to turn just about any web camera into a security camera which will capture any movement it sees using motion technology. No extra components or tools required!

What’s Needed:

• Windows XP or Vista Computer
• A USB or built-in Camera
• Java Runtime Environment 6 +
• Windows Media Player 9 +

Quick Install Process:
1) Download yawcam.zip and unzip it
2) Click on yawcam.exe and install it
3) Start Menu -> Start up Yawcam

Note: If you have a USB camera, plug it in before starting up yawcam. If yawcam says “No Device Selected”, go to Settings -> Device -> Change to -> [select your camera]. If you are able to view your camera in the Yawcam Preview window, proceed to the next step.

Setup Motion Detection:
1) Go to Window -> Motion Detection (a new window should appear)
2) Blue lines should appear when you move your hand past the camera.
3) Click on the Actions tab and un-check Play Sound.
4) Select Settings… for Save file and Activate Image array.
5) Finally hit the enable button to begin monitoring!

Note: If you see a lot of static or in the motion detection window, go to the Motion Detection window -> Settings Tab -> Detection Level -> Select Auto detect. Step away from the camera and make sure nothing in it’s line of view is moving while it is adjusting.

At this point any movement past the camera should be captured and will be displayed under the Motion Events list. A date & time stamp along with the percentage of movement detected will be provided with each captured frame. If you would like to save higher quality images into a folder, enable the Save file option found under the Action tab in the Motion Detection window. Optionally, you can ask Yawcam to automatically upload each captured image to an FTP server or email it to yourself.

Yawcam unfortunately can not capture video clips at this time. There are however some paid applications which support that feature. This isn’t exactly the BEST security camera technology, but it is definitely a good start. It is also neat to actually make use of your web cam if your laptop has one built in. The best part of all of this may just the fact that Yawcam is completely free and that it only takes a few minutes to setup. Yawcam does support plenty of advance features, however we will not go through setting those up. Just for example, you can quite easily broadcast and stream your camera to any computer with an internet connection or even play scary sounds when your machine detects motion. Anyways if you know of any better apps or have questions, please reply in the comments or visit our forums.

Download: yawcam.zip
Links: YawCam.com

Yesterday LG Electronics announced the availability of their new phone titled “Rumor” for Sprint customers. The LG Rumor sports a full QWERTY keyboard, email access, and instant messaging services (AIM, MSN, & Yahoo!). The phone also boasts access to social news websites such as Facebook. The unit is available in white with silver or black with blue.

“We are excited to introduce Rumor by LG because it is great-looking, easy-to-use and very affordable,” said Danny Bowman, Sprint VP of Product Development

The LG Rumor will also support Sprint’s new messaging services which allows sending texts to landlines phones. (recipient hears the text in audio) Other neat features include a built-in fully functioning GPS navigation system with on screen turn-by-turn directions. As for now standard features it includes a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, microSD (4GB), MP3 player, and access to Sprint’s music store.

The Rumor by LG will be available later this month for $79.99 after a 2-year-contract and a $50 mail-in rebate. It’s going to be interesting to see how this stands up to LG’s enV which we reviewed last year. LG is also releasing an iPhone competitor, the Voyager, which is being launched on Verizon’s network and will be easily over double the price of the Rumor. We’ll try to get a hold of one of these so check back!

Links: LG Rumor FactSheet | Sprint.com
Related: Sprint LG Muziq (Review)

Sony has launched yet another two portable Cyber-Shot cameras, just about 5 months after launching their 2007 lineup. This year’s goal for Sony seems to be placing the largest and brightest LCD display humanly possible. Both models include the new features that were implemented into their lineup earlier this including: face tracking and output to 1080p HDTV sets.

The DSC-T200 features a 8-megapixel camera, 3.5-inch LCD touch screen, and a 5x optical zoom, while the cheaper DSC-T70 sports a 8-megapixel camera, 3-inch LCD touch screen, and a 3x optical zoom. (T200 will be available in silver/black/red and the T70 in silver/black/white/pink) The set-up procedure and all options/settings are performed through the new touch screen. Other than the power and playback button, the only hard-keys remaining are the capture button and the zoom controls. Although it may seem neat to have such a large touch screen, it will for sure be very difficult to maintain as the display begins to collect dust and fingerprints.

One of the best features implemented is face tracking, which automatically track faces and focuses the lens to right distance, when snapping an image. In addition Sony has added another technology called “smile shutter,” which automatically detects and captures an image as soon as everyone in the photo smiles! Although I haven’t yet tried the smile technology, I can testify that Sony’s face detection does indeed work amazingly well especially after taking a few hundred photos all of which were clear & crisp.

These features are great for average consumers who want to quickly and easily snap photos without hassling through settings. If you do however want to take much higher quality images, you should consider purchasing a higher-end camera with manual settings. Anyways the DSC-T200 and DSC-T70 are available next month (September 07) with a price tag of $400 and $300, respectively. If you’re eager to get either camera as soon as it becomes available, Amazon is now taking pre-orders.

Pre-Order: DSC-T200 | DSC-T70
Links: SonyStyle.com | Retail
Related: Sony’s 2007 Cameras LineUp

Last week Sprint announced the availability of LG Muziq (LX-570), the successor to last year’s Fusic. To begin with, the main feature that sets this phone apart from others is the built-in FM transmitter, which allows broadcasting music muziq to your car stereo wirelessly! We’ve been messing with the phone for about a week and we have been pleased with its overall performance.

LG LX-570 Specifications:

• Provider: Sprint (1.9GHz/800MHz CDMA)
• Form Factor: Flip Phone w/ external controls
• Dimensions: 3.80H x 1.94W x 0.61D (inches)
• Weight / Battery: 3.14 oz / 4hrs talk-time
• Screens: Internal 176×220 | External 128×160
• Camera: 1.3 mega pixel camera w/ flash
• Storage: microSD up to 4GB (64MB included)
• Others: Bluetooth v1.1 | Multitasking Capable
• Special: FM Transmitter (88.1-107.9 MHz)
• Price: $80 via Sprint w/ New Plan

LG Muziq Body: 3.5/5 stars
The Muziq is a major improvement, when compared to its bulky predecessor the Fusic. The LX-570 is slim, compact, easy to hold, shiny, and lightweight. The Muziq shares a similar appearance with the LG VX8600 Chocolate flip-phone. Now for the drawback, the phone’s glossy finish attracts TONs of fingerprints and dust. The keypad’s buttons are nice and large for easy typing, however since they are flat typing without looking at the device becomes difficult. We also hated the fact that the volume toggle and camera buttons (side keys) were awkwardly placed on the upper portion of the phone, besides the screen, making them hard to reach. Finally the power port (also the data port) can be found on the left, while the microSD slot and the 2.5mm headphone jack are on the right.

Music Playback: 4/5 stars
You’d expect a phone called the “Muziq” to have a set of stereo speakers, but for some reason it doesn’t. After formatting the microSD card and loading about a 100 songs, the phone was able to get right into playing songs within a few seconds. The external display didn’t display album art, but showed the song name and artist. The main problem we found was that the UI for browsing through your songs was not exactly well developed. All songs are lined up in one long alphabetical list. (no search function) Since I had a 100 songs, it would take a 100 clicks to get to the last one. Although the phone allows sorting by albums, it’s still a mess. Sprint seriously needs to develop a new UI which is something like the ones available on most Verizon phones today. This means a decent search function as well as the ability to browse by albums, artists, genres, and songs neatly. The online music store has a large selection of music and songs can be purchased over the air for just $.99!

Displays: 4/5 stars
Both the inner and outer displays are decent. The inner screen’s resolution (176×220 pixels) could have been higher, but doesn’t look bad. The outer screen is excellent mainly because it is much larger than the external displays found on most flip-phones. One thing we didn’t like was that we couldn’t find a way to reduce or increase the screen’s brightness.

Speakers: 3/5 stars
Once again for a phone that’s called the Muziq, you’d expect it to have a set of built-in stereo speakers (it doesn’t) . The quality is decent, however it begins to crack at loud levels. The speaker preformed pretty well during voice calls. The speakers aren’t the greatest for music, but if you use a set of bluetooth stereo headsets or even a wired one using the included stereo headset adapter, quality isn’t a problem.

Digital Camera: 4/5 stars
Although most phones will have a 2.0 megapixel camera by the end of this year, the Muziq still has a 1.3MP one. The photo quality was mediocre since the image was a bit blurry and colors were washed out. The camcorder allows recording clips of unlimited length (limited by the storage space), however only clips under 20 second can be mailed. The phone also has a neat little LED light which can be enabled while recording video clips. (same light flashes for photos) The camera and camcorder have a set common set of light filters, color tones. Self portraits can be taken via the external screen.

Interface: 5/5 stars
Ignoring the music playback portion of the UI, the rest works smoothly. Although the original “Sprint” theme enabled when the phone is first turned on looks horrendously ugly, the included “LG” theme is a lifesaver. The colors, fonts, text size, and icons all look great. The menus load up smoothly and quickly without any delay. The interfaces for the browser, call history, messaging, contacts, and settings are neatly laid out as well.

MicroSD and Sync: 5/5 stars
The microSD storage works like a charm and access to the card is easy. In addition as a BONUS the LX-570 supports the use of 4GB microSD cards, while most phones on the market still are limited to 2GB. When the included USB data cable is plugged in a menu pops up on the Muziq prompting to either Sync Music, become a Mass Storage device (a thumbdrive!), or function as a Modem. Sprint also bundles a CD with some software and drivers for Windows in case the phone isn’t recognized by your computer when connected. Syncing music with Windows Media Player 11 worked perfectly. Mac OS X users will need to directly transfer music to the microSD card using a SD card reader. Deals: 2GB microSD just $20

Bluetooth: 3/5 stars
While most phones being released today are now using Bluetooth v2.0, the Muziq is still using v1.1. (not even v1.2) Despite this it successfully paired with the Samsung WEP200, a Lexus IS250’s built-in handsfree system, and a HP dv6500t laptop. In addition it also supports the use of wireless stereo headsets. The only problem we had was that getting the devices to pair was a bit confusing. Unlike normal bluetooth phones and devices the Muziq first requires adding a found device to a “trusted list.” Then only after this can the two devices be paired by entering a pin.

FM Transmitter: 4/5 stars
To clarify for those who didn’t read the “FM” portion, the LG Muziq has a FM transmitter not a FM tuner. This means that you can broadcast the music on your phone to radios, however you will NOT have the ability to tune into your favorite stations. The most common use of this feature is to play your phone’s music through your car’s stereo. If you plan to do this a lot, you should probably purchase a car charger since battery life will drop drastically. The transmission feature works as advertised. Only annoyance we found was trying to find a clear frequency to broadcast on because it required us to go through multiple menus to try each station. (Once it’s set there won’t be any more hassle.) Transmission quality was clear and it worked best when within 5ft range of the radio.

External Controls: 5/5 stars
The touch sensitive buttons work as well. To activate the controls the keypad lock must be deactivated by holding down the camera button. Once activated, when a touch-sensitive button is pressed the phone vibrates providing feedback to the user. When playing music The red backlight is bright and the buttons are clearly visible. Only problem is that it takes a bit of getting used to since you keep hitting the wrong button when trying to navigate.

Email Client: 5/5 stars
We added this new category because this was one of the first phones we’ve seen of this price range to include a built-in push email client. Setup is extremely easy for average users since the phone already knows all the mail servers for AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo!, and Gmail, therefore only requiring a username and password. POP and IMAP users may enter their server information and login. The simple email client loads only a small amount of text/links. You will still need to get to a computer to view any images or other media. Accounts can be setup to push new messages to your phone as they reach your inbox or to be manually checked. The client also supports replying and sending new messages consisting of only plain text.

Other Info:
Sprint bundles a good amount of accessories along with the phone and the charger. They include a USB data cable for syncing music and other files, A adapter with a microphone for use with standard headsets, and a 64MB microSD card and SD adapter. The phone’s signal strength was also impressive and was one of the better ones we’ve had in a while (It maintained at least 2 bars in places where we usually get disconnected). The phone has a contact backup feature which is now becoming quite common for new phones. We were instantly able to retrieve all the contacts from a previous Sprint phone we had instantly from their network (Only downside is the $2/month). Another bonus with this phone is the ability to use J2ME apps. This allows access to a ton of free applications such as Google Earth, Gmail, GPS Navigators, Pandora, and thousands more!

Overall in a sentence this phone is pretty good for the price you pay, but isn’t exactly the best music player. Even cheaper phones from other service providers like Verizon have better playback interfaces. Also unless you really need a phone that’s got a built in FM transmitter, there are plenty of better phones available. I’d personally purchase a better phone and then buy a cheap FM transmitter to go along with it. This phone is now available from Sprint.com for $79 with a new 2 year contract and after a $50 Mail in Rebate. It’s a good deal considering the included a microSD card, USB cable, and headset adapter.

DEAL ALERT: LG Muziq for FREE! (w/ new Sprint Contract)
Links: Sprint.com | LG LX-570 Fact Card
Offical Product Shot: Front Side | Flipped Open
Help & Support: fourms.skattertech.com

Sony DSC-G1

Sony’s first WiFi-enabled camera allows wirelessly sharing photos with other cameras and computers. The cyber-shot features a high-res 3.5″ LCD display, 6 megapixels, 3x optical / 6x digital zoom, and a new interface. The unit accepts Memory Stick Pro Duo media, but has 2GB of memory built in. (~600 full resolution pix) The G1 will begin to Ship in April 2007 for $600.

Sony DSC-T100 / T20

The T100 features a 5x optical zoom and a 3-inch LCD while the T20 has 3x optical zoom and a 2.5-inch LCD. Both cameras are 8 megapixels and support outputting the images to HDTVs via component cables. Both cameras have a new “face tracking” technology to allow detecting faces and automatically adjusting multiple settings for a “perfect” image. The T100 will be available this month for $400 and the T20 in April for $330.

Sony DSC-W200 / W90 / W80

The W200 has a whopping 12.1 megapixels, a 3x optical zoom, and 2.5 LCD display while remaining under an inch thick. Both the W90 and W80 have the same features except they are 8 and 7.2 megapixels, respectively. All 3 support 1080p HDTV output, face tracking, and auto focus. The “alpha” SLR technology allows photos to be taken in 1sec intervals. The W90/W80 are available now for $300/$250. The W200 will be available in May for $400.

Pre-order: DSC-G1 | DSC-T100 | DSC-W200

The long wait is finally over. The LG VX9900 (aka LG enV), an upgrade to the popular VX9800, has finally arrived. Skatter Tech readers are in luck since Verizon Wireless was kind enough to send us a unit a few days before the launch. With a ton of new features, a new body, new interface, and a reasonable price tag, the phone has definitely met our expectations.

The phone looked quite big at first since we recently spent time reviewing the Motorola KRZR and LG VX8600, but according to the specs is actually much sleeker and shorter than the original “The V” phone. In terms of basic features, the LG enV (pronounced “envy”) features an impressive 2MP camera w/ flash, microSD expansion, stereo speakers, bluetooth, a full QWERTY keyboard, and standard V Cast Music/Video functions. This phone might just be Verizon’s “best phone of the year”.

LG VX9900 Specifications:

• Provider: Verizon Wireless (1.9GHz CMDA)
• Form Factor: Laptop-like w/ QWERTY keyboard
• Dimensions: 4.64H x 2.08W x 0.78D (inches)
• Weight / Battery: 4.6oz / 4hrs 30mins talktime
• Screens: External 128×160 & Internal 240×320
• Digital Camera: 2 megapixel camera and camcorder
• Storage: ~50MB internal + microSD (2GB max)
• Others: Bluetooth 1.2 + Stereo Speakerphone
• Price: $150 with a new 2-year contract

LG enV Body: 4/5 stars
Although the VX9900 is larger and very block-like compared to most flip phones, it’s still more compact than the VX9800. The phone can not be placed upright since all sides are rounded or even placed down on its back properly since the camera bulges out. The inside of the phone is designed quite well and everything is where it should be. The keyboard keys are backlit and spreadout. Overall the phone is a bit bulky for average users and isn’t the best looking phone, but size and looks can be thrown out considering the features it has packed inside.

Displays: 4.5/5 stars
The outside display (65K 128×160 px) is a way too small, but luckily the enlarged interface allows access to most required functions. The internal display (262K 240×320 px) is pretty bright and the colors are just stunning. It’s one of the best displays we’ve seen in a while.

Music Playback: 5/5 stars
The VX9900 support playback of unprotected MP3 and WMA files plus purchased V Cast Music. Music can be browsed by Artists, Albums, Genre, or Songs, similar to iPods. A neat addition is “Music Only Mode” which disables incoming/outgoing calls limiting the phone to just a Mp3 player to save battery life. Although the music player takes a few seconds to load, with the right setup music can be started in just 2 clicks.

Speakers: 4.5/5 stars
The enV has dual speakers for stereo surround, which makes music sound a whole lot better. Even when the volume is loud, the sound is still clear. The phone also utilizes the same speakers for calls, making it probably the best speaker phone we’ve used. The only downside is that, since the speakers are on the inside, they only sound good when the phone is open.

Digital Camera: 5/5 stars
The enV features a 2 megapixel camera which can snap shots up to 1600×1200 px. The images are bright, clear, and crisp, which is pretty good for a camera phone. (click to enlarge sample) The camcorder can record up to 1 hour clips at 320×240 px, but only 15 second clips can be mailed. Photos can be taken with the phone closed and held sideways like a traditional camera, but can also be taken using the larger internal display when open. Since the cam is on the back, the outside display turns on for self-portraits when flipped open. Other than that the phone also has a mechanical lens cover, flash, night shot, self-timer, and some extra effects.

Interface: 5/5 stars
We have to congratulate VZW for finally giving the interface a huge make over. The ugly red bars and menus are gone! The new “communicator” style has a new layour, soothing blue colors, and some animated items. However the important internal menus are still organized the same way as regular VZW phones. Some items in the main menu seem misplaced, but it isn’t a big issue. VZW has also included another style which is very similar to the classic theme, but with new icons/colors.

MicroSD: 4/5 stars
Music can be transfered to the phone using the “Sync” feature, however we were unable to do so since Verizon hasn’t released the USB cables or drivers yet. (check back for that) We instead directly copied the music onto the microSD card using an extra card reader/writer. Card access is easy, it is right under a flap on the right-side. Update: We got our Music Essentials Kit, but there are still some bugs. When syncing with Windows Media Player 11, the software keeps detecting the phone as a new device each time it’s plugged in. (auto-sync won’t work) We were also unable to get the Album Art to display on the phone, which worked perfectly with the KRZR. Card Reader/Writer Users: Format the card in your phone first. Folders for music, flix, and pics will be created. Finally just place the proper files into the correct folders.

Bluetooth: 5/5 stars
The Bluetooth (v1.2) on the enV now supports many new profiles, which include: headset (mono), hands free (ex. car), data modem, stereo speakers, image printing, contact cards, file transfer, and wireless keyboard. Supports saving up to 20 different device “pairings”.

Overall we would recommend this phone for people who take a lot of photos, heavy email users, music listeners, and “computer geeks”. If you usually only use your phone for making calls I’d suggest finding a smaller phone, which you will definitely appreciate more. If you do plan to get it, it will be available in stores and online starting Monday, November 27, 2006. If you are a current Verizon customer and are eligible for the every two year upgrade, the phone can be yours for as low as $50 + tax. However it will cost new customers signing up for a 2 year contract $150. New customers can get the phone for FREE after a Mail in Rebate online. (link below) For the features this phone has its an extremely good deal.

DEAL ALERT: FREE LG enV w/ New Plan (via Amazon)
Links: Verizon Wireless – LG VX9900
Related: LG VX9900 Data Sheet (.pdf)
Recent Reviews: Motorola KRZR Review

The following is the Offical list of games, as published by SCEA, that will be released for the Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) in North America for November 2006. Note: This was the accurate list of games as of 11.01.06, games may be removed and new ones may be added later.

Our Picks:

• SOCOM U.S. Navy Seals Bravo 2 – SCEA
• Sonic Rivals – Sega
• NFL Street 3 – EA
• Superman Returns: The Videogame - EA
• Metal Slug Anthology – SNK
• Tony Hawk’s Project 8 – Activision

view full list

Sony also plans to release a pink, silver, and blue PSPs by Christmas along with the camera and GPS modules. Skatter Tech will also be getting a hold of some of these games early so check back for some reviews and more PSP updates. On another note, still PlayStation-related, Sony still plans to launch the PlayStation 3 on November 17, 2006 as originally planned.

Links: PlayStation Portable Upcoming Games
Related: Upcoming PSP Games: October | Killzone Liberation Review

Full List:
Activision Hits Remixed – Activision
Bubble Bobble Evolution
EA Replay – EA
Eragon: Dragon Rider – Vivendi Games
Every Extended Extra – Buena Vista
Gitaroo-Man Lives! – Koei
Gunpey – Namco Bandai Games
Hard Rock Casino – Crave Entertainment
Justice League Heroes – Warner Bros Interactive
LUXOR: Wrath of Set – MumboJumbo
Online Chess Kingdoms – Konami
Over the Hedge: Hammy Goes Nuts – Activision
Platypus – MumboJumbo
Pocket Racers – Konami
Sega Genesis Collection – Sega
Shrek Smash and Crash – Activision
The Sims 2: Pets – EA
Thrillville – LucasArts
Warhammer Warcry: Battle for Atluma – Namco Bandai Games
WWE Smackdown! vs. Raw 2007 – THQ
Xiaolin Showdown – Konami
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX Tag Force – Konami

Today, Motorola announced the Motorola Q, a PDA Smartphone to compete with the Palm Treo and RIM Blackberry. The phone is powered by Windows Mobile 5.0 and supports the high-speed EV-DO network. The phone will be available starting next week (May 31, 2006) through Verizon Wireless. The Moto Q also includes a full QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth, 1 mega pixel camera, miniSD expansion slot, and speakerphone. This phone will be especially useful for people that exchange many emails continuously since it supports synchronizing up to 8 Microsoft Outlook Accounts at once. The phone is quite expensive, and will run you $199.99 even after signing up to Verizon’s Voice/Data Plan and signing a 2-year contract. Although Motorola didn’t state when they would release this phone for other carriers, they probably will do so soon.

“On Verizon Wireless’s broadband EV-DO network, the Moto Q brings together all of the converged solutions you need to work, stay in touch or have fun.” – Ed Zander, Motorola CEO

This phone has not been officaly reviewed by anyone at this time, but the specs speak for themselves. The phone seems to be promising, however this such as the short 4-hour talk time may just not cut it for everyone.

Links: Motorola Q (demo) | Verizon Wireless (info)
Related: Offical HQ Images | PhoneScoop Specs

Although there was plenty of coverage on the 2006 PlayStation Business Briefing on March 19th, it seems as though almost everyone missed one very important slide. The slide, screenshot above, was Sony’s Schedule for the PlayStation Portable (PSP). This slide outlined when and what SCEA plans to release for the unit throughout this year.

According to the chart Macromedia Flash support, downloadable audio through the RSS Channel, Chinese Fonts, and Libraries for the Camera/GPS should all be available in Spring 2006. SCEA then plans to release another update that includes a RSS Channel with Video and expand UMD video profiles by the end of Summer. Sony has already set September 6th as the launch date of the PSP Camera and October 6th for the PSP GPS module. Finally, one more update which allows Booting PSone games from Memory Sticks and having VoIP support should be released by the end of the year.

Lets hope that SCEA sticks to this schedule and release new firmware that open up the PSP to more content than restricting it like they have done in the past. Check back soon for more information and PSP news.

Related Links: PlayStation Business Briefing 2006
Other: Griffin iTunes PSP and iFM PSP