Editorial Review

Early Adopters Pick: November 2002. World's first dynamically stabilized Human Transporter; forward and backward maneuvering guided by rider's natural motions.

The Segway Human Transporter (HT) is a truly 21st-century idea. A two-wheeled electric vehicle that's practical, efficient, slightly miraculous, and an undeniably fun way of getting around, it's as different from a bicycle or motorcycle as the original personal computers were from their lumbering, mainframe predecessors.

Control
In our tests, we rode the Segway HT in a variety of indoor and outdoor environments. Zipping along on the little platform was so steady and comfortable, we quickly forgot how much technology was at work to keep us balanced. The Segway HT moves forward with cues from your body language--the subtle leaning you use to balance yourself while walking or running. When you lean forward, the Segway HT goes forward. A walking lean produces a walking rate, a steeper running lean can bring the machine to its top speed of 12.5 mph. The Segway HT stops when you right yourself again.

Steering is controlled separately with a small twist-grip on the left handlebar. The Segway HT's two-wheeled design makes it quite agile--it can do sharp turns and turn completely in place. Sharper turns require slight leaning into the turns, as you'd expect, but the Segway HT helps by actively regulating turn responsiveness based on your speed. One small complaint: using a throttle-like control for turns instead of acceleration did take some getting used to, but the inconvenience was minor and went away over time.

Overall, we were surprised how quickly we were able to get comfortable on the Segway HT. A novice can be underway in seconds (with supervision) and ascending ramps and turning figure eights in minutes. After training and a few hours of use, a rider should feel comfortable with a wide range of activities.

Riding
The Segway HT moves briskly along on both paved and rough terrain, taking ruts and potholes bumpily but with no loss of control, even for the beginner. Modest hills were ascended with ease and without much discernable effort. All things told, the Segway HT seemed rugged enough to provide reliable transportation in pedestrian environments ranging from rural trails to the sidewalks of a congested city. And utility aside, it's worth stating that the element of machine-assisted balance was a continuous delight. We simply had more control over our movements than we previously could have imagined possible. This was particularly true on downhill rides, where our body language had a degree of command over gravity so unusual that it produced a dreamy, floating feeling.

The Segway HT is not a medical device; if you can't easily stand upright or endure some jostling on varied terrain, it will not solve these problems for you. But while the Segway HT cannot provide balance that the rider doesn't already have, its responsiveness brings a subtle beauty to the rider's movements. We watched more experienced riders start, stop, swoop, and turn as gracefully as figure skaters. In fact, the machine's ease of use could create some overconfidence. The Segway HT has not suspended the laws of physics--its wheels need traction. While the machine will keep itself level under almost any situation we could imagine, a careless rider who drops a wheel over a curb, or tries to turn too quickly on a slippery surface, certainly could take a tumble. Segway advises that riders wear a safety helmet (like a bicycle helmet) and start out in the Beginner mode before moving on to the faster settings.

User-Friendly Design
The Segway HT's controls are simple. A single round display on the handlebars shows either a smiley face (meaning "get on") or a frown face ("get off"). A graphic surrounding the face indicates the battery level. The Segway has no brakes--slowing down involves the same process as acceleration--and its gentle rate precludes any need for a speedometer. We timed its startup speed from the off position to ready to ride: pressing an encrypted "key" to the key port (the key looks like a large watch battery on a plastic fob), hitting the start button, and waiting for the smiley face to come up took a little more than one second.

This machine is clearly designed for close interaction with pedestrians. Its footprint is only a bit wider than a large man, so we were able to do things like ride comfortably in an elevator with another Segway HT rider and a pedestrian, with an almost disappointing lack of bustle or incident. The machine can haul 75 pounds of cargo and still support a 250-pound person, though you'll need touse the HT's soon-to-come mounted accessory bags for any serious buying trip.

Usability
Having ridden a Segway HT, we think almost anyone would be delighted to try this machine. Inevitably, however, one must ask about how usable it is. Clearly, it isn't a car: it won't carry multiple passengers or much luggage, go long distances, or protect you from the elements. Still, we thought of many circumstances where the Segway HT could be a fun and practical alternative to other modes of transportation. We can see potential users as regular folks traveling to and from work each day, students and professors in college towns, city dwellers who take many short trips, retirees in Sunbelt resort communities, vacationers traveling with RVs, and people with easy access to nature trails and walkways.

Well-Built Construction
We had the opportunity to look into the guts of the Segway HT in its pre-assembled state. Inside it was clean and simple, and the few moving parts, such as the gears, struck us as rugged and well made. There are no cooling fans; the circuits and engine are cooled through their contact with the platform's heat-drawing aluminum casing. Each finished HT is tested both at the software level and for quality riding on an obstacle course in the assembly plant. See the technical specifications for more information.

Conclusion
We're convinced that anyone who tries a Segway HT will be smiling in minutes. The other advantage is that early purchasers will certainly be the first on their blocks to have one. But for how long? We think we'll all be seeing much more of the Segway HT in the future. --Erik Hammen

Pros:

• Very high build quality
• Environmentally friendly, extremely energy efficient
• Requires little storage space
• Newness factor--you've never ridden anything like this before
• Fun to ride, and looks cool

Cons:

• Purchase price may be prohibitive for many potential users, though the cost is partially offset long term by nominal upkeep
• Laws regarding legal riding areas (sidewalk versus street) vary from state to state
• Minor inconvenience: rubber plug-in protectors on the machines seemed a bit loose, flopping around a bit on the more rigorously used machines, inconsistent with generally excellent build standards
• Accessories, like carrying bags and lights, will not be available until spring 2003

From the Manufacturer
The Segway Human Transporter is the first transportation product to stand, balance, and move in the same way we do. It harnesses a unique technology called "dynamic stabilization"--the result of more than a decade of research, development and testing, and tens of thousands of hours in field trials--to constantly monitor and balance the Segway HT and rider.

The Segway HT allows riders to travel short distances in dense environments that would be prohibitive to other transportation devices. An amazingly elegant design makes the Segway HT a part of you, sensing subtle changes in your balance and responding immediately. The Segway HT has a level of maneuverability never before seen on wheels--it can balance in place, move forwards and backwards, and turn in place.

Purchase of a Segway HT includes a training session on its operation and features, in order to properly prepare a new rider for safe and enjoyable operation of this new technology.

See Segway HT Advantages.

Features

• The first Pocket PC with a built-in mini keyboard
• Color display with 65,536 colors (240x320 pixels)
• Features large touchscreen for easy usability
• Built-in swivel camera always you to take pictures
• Operating system: Pocket PC Phone Edition (400 MHz Intel Xscale Processor / 32 MB RAM)

Reviews (15)

So far...NOT so good...
I've had this thing for 3 days so far, & spent most of today at the SPRINT PCS service center trying to get this monster working properly! I wish I would've read some of these reviews first! After going through 3 Handspring Treo 600's in 9 months,(No joke! 2 broken ear speakers & 1 bad OS) I thought that this would be a Godsend. After spending the better part of today at the service center, I was told that they would have to send me another phone! I immediately asked if it would be a reconditioned phone, & was told "YES"...but it will still have a SIX month warrantee. My 3 day old phone came with a ONE YEAR WARRANTEE! I said absolutely not!
After much back & forth, I got them to agree to provide with a brand new unit of any manufacturer & price of MY choice when the new line of phones came out this fall. ...& yes, I got it in writting! Dealing with them, or ANY carrier for that matter is at very best difficult. If you can keep your cool, & keep "pressing in", you'll eventually come across someone who has the ability to say "YES", when all others have said no. Keep in mind that you don't need to take "NO" from anyone who can't tell you "YES". Good luck! (& wish me luck too! LOL!)

this phone is ok but sprint really sucks
i love the hitachi g1000 but it still has problems like every other phone, it is really difficult to get new ringers because the plan that i am on doesnt support it and it lasts only a day but it still is a kickass phone i wouldnt get the trio and i would go with this phone i had to call sprint tech support a bunch of times first it was about the internet and then i called about the msn messenger thing and that was a pain in the ass they kept on sending me to retards that didnt know anything and the pethedic part about it is that is sprints best phone and when you talk on it you look really dumb

Editorial Review

Sporting a large, 4,096-color display screen and an unconventional, rotary-style keypad, we found the sturdy, feature-rich Nokia 3650 cell phone one of the best designed phones on the market, with excellent ease-of-use, crystal-clear reception, and a camera, video camera, and Internet access.

Take and share pictures with the 3650. (See detail)

In our tests, we found that the comfortable rounded base of this 5-inch phone rested easily our palm, and the clever retro button display took only a moment of getting used to. The buttons and disc navigation felt quite durable, with a nice, solid action. Menu navigation involves two thin buttons on the top left and right that allowed us to move in and out of menus; then the standard 4-point clickable disc provided more detailed selection. There's a separate button for the main menu prominently below the disc, and the faux-rotary layout of the number buttons helped keep the navigation buttons out of the way during dialing. The requisite call and hang-up buttons are intuitively marked, and a futuristic-looking blue light shines through the numbers on all the buttons for easy keying in low-light areas.

The 3560 delivered consistent, excellent reception in a variety of testing environments, including a basement-level room that typically causes trouble with similar phones. The default ring tones were a bit too gentle for their own good; they were hard to hear in busy outdoor environments. The tones that we created using the composing feature, however, were quite audible, even in the midst of lots of noise. The vibrate alert was also quite effective and hard to miss. Nokia has also preloaded a variety of other polyphonic ring tones for alternate use, as well as a voice-dialing feature, which stores 25 numbers and was easy to use.

In Calendar, you can keep track of your appointments, meetings, birthdays, anniversaries, and other events. You can also set a calendar alarm to remind you of upcoming events. (See detail)	With the video recorder you can record video clips, and play video clips stored on your phone or on a memory card. Also, the video recorder is integrated with the messaging features allowing you to easily send created clips. (See detail)	Nokia 3650 provides various functions, in an-easy-to use interface, such as Camera, Video recorder, Messaging, e-mail, Clock, alarm clock, Calculator, and Calendar. (See detail)

Thanks to high-speed GPRS connection, users can access a variety of Web content, such as news, travel information, and entertainment specifically designed for mobile phones via an XHTML browser, which supports pages written in both HTML and WML (Wireless Markup Language). The 3650's calendar, phone book, and to-do list can all be synchronized with a PC using Nokia 3650 PC Suite software. This phone also supports Java for downloading business applications, and built-in Bluetooth and infrared connections empower users to send photos and text in either e-mail or MMS format to a PC or to another compatible wireless device. Some of the downloadable Java and Symbian applications provided by Nokia through their website include Merriam-Webster Word Search, and games like Racing Fever, Avant Go, and Terminator.

The phone's digital VGA camera is cleverly built in to the back of phone, and can store up to 1,000 photos at 640 x 480 megapixel resolution on its (upgradeable) 16 MB memory card. Also, the Nokia 3650's photo capability is immediately accessible from the top-level display menu, so unlike other phones it was easy to snap a photo at a moment's notice. The camera records images in standard, portrait, and a nighttime mode.

With the same basic set of controls, RealOne software lets the video recording function capture short, low-fidelity sound and video clips for immediate MP4 video playback on the generous screen or for sending to another Web-enabled user. The 15-frames-per-second video recording rate delivers stuttering, delayed images that look sort of like Neil Armstrong's transmissions from the Moon. We found this all very entertaining, and potentially useful for transmitting small bits of information, but hard to take seriously as a true video recording device.

Among the scores of additional features on this phone are text messaging templates, where you create a basic message (like "Let's eat at --- ") then fill in the blank as you wish; a foreign currency and units converter for the jet set crowd, and a "favorites" folder to store Web shortcuts and links. For hearing-impaired customers, Nokia even provides TTY/TDD (Telecommunication Device for the Deaf) compatibility. The headset included with this phone is functional, and Li-Ion battery comes rated for up to 4 hours of digital talk and 200 hours of digital standby time. The phone comes with a refreshingly well-written manual. While decorative faceplates and other accessories are available, we found that even without them, the Nokia 3650 is one of the most coolest phones we've ever laid our hands on. --Erik Hammen

Pros:

• Great reception
• Excellent, intuitive user interface
• Feature-rich
• Solid build and large display screen
• Fun camera and video features

Cons:

• Large phone size to accommodate large display screen
• Default ring tones a bit quiet.

How We Tested Battery Talk/Standby Time

When reading our reviews, you should view the test results of mobile-phonebattery talk time and standby time as relative information only. Many variables,including carrier signal strength at your location, signal consistency(including incoming and outgoing calls), display and ringer settings, andbattery charging methods and history, will affect performance. When handsetmanufacturers and mobile phone carriers list talk-time and standby-time ratings,they usually include disclaimers about variable performance and often refer tothe times they publish as maximum times. Some quote expected battery liferanges, and in this case you're probably safe to assume you'll experience atleast the minimum rated range. Note that manufacturers of dual-mode digital andanalog handsets publish battery-life rates for both digital and analog modes, asanalog mode consumes much more power than digital mode.

Our Tests: We tested digital-mode talk and standby times with each phone.Prior to each test, we fully charged the phone's battery according to themanufacturer's directions. To test digital-phone talk time, we turned the phoneon, established a digital carrier signal, dialed a number in our test lab, and,when the call rang through, took the receiving phone's handset off the hook.When all went well, we didn't do anything else except record the time when thephone died. In a couple of cases, the phones lost the signal and dropped thecalls. If we were right there and could redial, we did so immediately andcontinued running the test. Otherwise, we halted the test, recharged thebattery, and started the test over. Assuming consistent carrier-signal strength,this test should represent best-case talk time. And it's worth noting thatseveral phones' talk-time performance significantly exceeded the manufacturers'ratings.

To test digital-phone standby time, we turned the phone on, established acarrier signal, and left the phone in standby mode. We checked the phone everyfew hours (for what was often days on end) until the phone finally cut out.Since no outgoing or incoming calls occurred during testing and because thephone was not moved, this method should represent best-case standby time, againassuming consistent carrier signal strength.

Features

• Headset works with all Bluetooth-equipped phones
• Extremely lightweight design with flexible wraparound style
• Hands free, cord free headset works up to 30 feet away from phone
• An answer/end button supports voice activation
• Includes headset, power cord, and extra ear fittings

Reviews (36)

Jabra ROCK!
I bought this BT200 for my Nokia 3660...the reason being i'm fed-up with nokia's HDW-2...3hr talk time promised,but didn't come up to the promise.PERIOD
Then i was tempted to changed to the HDW-3(with 5 hrs talktime)..but it blew me off with the price...
Then bump into this so called renown Jabra for the PERFECT earpiece...it took me awhile to think about it...so i bought it...it was really great...i could talk through walls....it was even more than 10 meters that i had talked once...but one sad day...i bumped into my friend and it fell,it was making attitudes(getting soft on the volume,frequent dropped calls) to me after that...i went back to jabra...told them some grandpa&tales stories and they changed it for me(2nd headset)....but the second set was a failure...it was static all the way...dropped calls and it kept asking for my password...then i went again....got another one changed fer me again(3th headset).....this time everythings perfect except that its having high levels of static with my 3660....
Disappointed..i went back again(4th headset)...this time they gave me a PERFECT ONE....no Cons at all!

It took me to changed it 3 times before i got to the PERFECT one...so in total,i tested 4 headset fer JABRA.....

I gave a 5 star for the services that Jabra Personnel gave me...
And 5 stars for the last PERFECT Bluetooth headset they gave me....

Overall i'm satisfied...No battery problems fer me....i charge it everyday....Sound quality is V.GOOD,rare static case,good reception fer my voice fer the other party to hear...and you can wear it and forget about it!Till i nearly wore it in my helmet!

Thanks Jabra!I love it!Juz improve on the software/battery and it will work WONDERS as a PERFECT BLUETOOTH HEADSET EVER!!

Smooth!
Cellphone give me headaches, I talk allot, this thing, sits in your ear, and when you do it right, it puts no pressure on any parts of you ear. one time i was talking with this girl in the handsfree in my bed, i talked for like3/4 hours, eventually i hung up, and forgot to take it off before i went to sleep, thats how comfy it is. anwyay, long story short, i wear this thing in my car, and at home, but not in public, its too futuristic and i think anybody standing next to me yakking away on this thing is a jerk, and i dont want to be a hypocrit ;)

battery life is great, as long as you don't leave it for long periods turned on, turn it off because else it will roam and waste battery

Editorial Review

The miniaturized, wrist-worn Wherify GPS Locator combines global position ing system (GPS) and digital wireless technologies to offer a proven safety solution that gives you the ability to locate your children 24 hours a day. Parents, whether at work, home, or traveling, can use the Internet or telephone to identify their children's location to within several feet in about a minute. In the event of an emergency, either the child or parent can contact emergency services and local police will be dispatched.

When you request a "locate," Wherify's Location Service Center sends a wireless transmission to the device. It zeroes in on the optimal GPS satellites and determines its latitude and longitude. With those coordinates, your child's position is pinpointed with advanced mapping software, providing you an approximate street address (if available). You can choose between two formats when using the Internet: a standard street map or a custom aerial photo.

The locator operates on a nationwide PCS (CDMA) wireless network, and it must be operated within the coverage footprint for communication to occur. See the Wherify Web site, www.wherify.com, for coverage information.

Editorial Review

It's a great idea, and, for the most part a great product: a watch that keeps time with atomic clock accuracy and displays useful, timely information. The Smart Watch gives you stock prices, news, and weather, and personal messages, all right on your watch face. You get all that stuff on your cell phone already, right? But the idea of the Smart Watch though is that it offers this information in glanceable form, and on a device that is always at hand. Simplicity and unobtrusiveness are key--you can rapidly navigate through all the different types of information quickly, and immediately read your text messages the moment they arrive with a discreet little beep.

MSN Direct is the subscription service that broadcasts data to the Smart Watch via an FM signal. The first thing you have to do when you get your watch is set up an account and customize your information channels. It's a fairly quick process, though you have to jump through a few Microsoft hoops (like getting a .NET Passport). Immediate gratification junkies should be warned, however, that you most likely won't start getting any data until about 12 or more hours after set up. Also, the channels are very much a work in progress--the news I was getting initially had a random quality to it, but more recently the watch's timeliness has compared favorably with CNN.com in breaking major stories.

Information delivered to your watch includes:

	Stock quotes: Get updates on the stocks you care about, as well as information on the major high-volume stocks and indices.		News: Get headlines and the full text of local, national, international, business, entertainment, sports, health, and travel news stories.
	Time: Wrist Net watches display the current time, automatically updated for different time zones, and include a chronometer, an alarm, and a timer. You can choose from a wide variety of watch faces for just the right look.		Weather: Get the latest reports for cities all over the world. Local city weather information includes current conditions, a three-day forecast, sunrise and sunset information, humidity, barometric pressure, and ultraviolet (UV) index.
	Text messages: Receive messages from friends and family through MSN Messenger version 6.0 or later.		Sports: Continuous sports updates keep consumers current on game times, scores, pre- and post-game stories, and standings for their favorite collegiate and professional sports teams.
	Daily Diversions: Currently, consumers can select from Word of the Day, Quote of the Day, Born on This Day, and This Day in History.		Horoscope: Consumers can receive a personalized horoscope based on their specific time and place of birth.

The need to recharge frequently--a single charge will last two to seven days, depending on usage--has some users unhappy, but for me it is a non-issue. You charge the watch by simply placing it on its cradle, so if you set the cradle up wherever you stash the watch at night, the watch will always be charged.

There are a few real drawbacks, however, most prominent (literally) being the size of the watch, which is on the humongous side of fashionably chunky. Another downer is the strap which is hard to close and, since it contains the watch's antenna, tends to spring open. The most serious complaint however is that reception can be sporadic--there were entire days that I got no new data at all. When MSN Direct improves service--and it has shown signs of doing so since the watch launched--they will have a truly revolutionary product on their hands (and the nation's wrists). --David Stoesz

Pros

• Geek factor is through the roof
• Intuitive navigation
• Recharging is a snap

Cons

• It's HUGE
• Coverage can be sporadic
• Strap is unwieldy

Editorial Review

This is the world's first wrist PDA, delivering all the advanced features of the PALM OS. As the brain of most handheld devices and smart phones, PALM OS has enabled the mobile-minded to extend their life well beyond the desktop. Now, with the new Wrist PDA, you can take that life even further: The Wrist PDA represents the ultimate in personal data portability, delivering the power and functionality of the familiar PALM OS in a compact, stylish package. Also available in metal.

Features include:

• PALM OS 4.1
• Touch screen input, with a stylus integrated into the watch band for easy Graffiti input.
• 2 MB of flash memory for OS.
• Additional 2 MB for storing data and applications
• Customizable watch face: You can configure the time display of your choice when not in PDA mode.
• Intelligently designed buttons for easy navigation.
• Motorola DragonballVZ 33-MHz processor.
• An infrared port for beaming data.
• Compact, sporty, stylish design.
• 160 x 160, 1.4-inch diagonal, backlit, 16-level grayscale display.

What's in the box

• Wrist PDA
• HotSync Pod
• USB cable
• AC adapter
• Extra stylus
• Installation CD
• Getting Started Guide

Reviews (5)

Deschooling Society by Creating Learning Communites.
Illich's goal was society not schools.He saw schools as perpetuating the status quo.This, and his other books, promotied living a convivial life.This is, one in harmonious collaboation with other people.Schooling, whether state, free, or home schooling, removes young peole from their families, their community, society and nature.Illich was for living convivially and simply in the "vernacular."That is withfriends, community and the actual world that surrounds you and with the natural abilities with which you are endowed.
That is the kind of life promoted today by the book "Creating Learning Communities," Ron Miller, ed.

When Very Few of the Powers-that-Be Agree With You....
....and the 'Important People' of the world refuse to listen to you, you *must* be telling the truth.

Illich died this month. Maybe someone will come along and champion some of his many ideas and causes. But some of the things he has been talking about--the structuring of education in this world is ineffective for actual learning, but is designed for the maintaining of class strata, and that the rich gets the best schooling because they pay for it (not saying that they are exceptionally talented or intellectual or anything more than mediocre) has been debated for years and will be debated for years. Subtexted to his arguments is that the rich needs the poor to help define themselves. And any time 'the institution'
gets fired up about improving the conditions for the mass culture, it end up achieving the opposite effect, as the reviewer below noted. To me, this is reminescent of those two dystopia novels we were forced to read in high school, "1984" and "Brave New World" (somewhere there's a great irony in my feeling this way).

Anyway, Illich, even though he was an academician, became a great human rights advocate and champion of the poor and downtrodden all around the world. This great work of his should be read by anyone who believes in truth and freedom.

These 120 pages will alter your perceptions
I read this book 10 years ago and still find myself thinking about it.

If you're looking for material that will justify your worst suspicions as to the actual effectiveness of modern schooling while inspiring in you adesire for change, you're on the right track.But be warned.This book isfar more than an essay on the failings of our educational system.

Education is merely the author's proving ground for one simple premise:it is the nature of the institution to produce the opposite of itself. This basic paradigm may be applied to any institutionalized need.You'llfind yourself analyzing the role of healthcare in well-being, financialservices in prosperity, the food industry in nutrition, and so on...

Reviews (2)

How People Learn
Do you remember what they taught you at school? Me neither. I learned to read very early on, mostly at home, and I still remember some math, but only because I balance my checkbook and know when I'm getting correct change at the market. All those years, isolated from the real world in the artificial environment of school, sitting at a desk all day with 30 of my same age peers, how was I to learn about what an actual life in the world is like, or about what I wanted to do with mine? I remember learning to take tests. Now I never take them. A lot of it was pleasant enough, some of it was not, most of it was boring, and somehow I never noticed that I was mostly wasting my time.

Now I know better having read John Holt, a sweet, caring man and a wonderful writer. He's radical, but he never rants. He persuades, gently, eloquently. He learns through years of careful, loving observation and by trial and error and he shares that with you in a way that makes it seem as though he's one of your oldest, most comfortable friends. He reminds you of what you went through in school. He makes sense. He's fun to read. And you know he's right as you read him, because we have all gone to school.

Editorial Review

Patch Adams raises two schools of thought: There are those whoare inspired by the true story of a troubled man who finds happiness in helping others--a man set on changing the world and who may well accomplish the task. And then there are those who feel manipulated by this feel-good story, who want to smack the young medical student every time he begins his silly antics.

Features

• Full Adjustable Headband
• Folding design
• Retractable Cord system
• 36mm Driver
• 75% Noise reduction

Reviews (21)

Disappointing performance
Maybe my expectation was too high. I wasn't impressed at all by its noise reduction performance during the flight from Boston to Denver on B-737.

I'll try a brand new set of battery on the next flight.

Not the Bose...
....these are actually a good value!!
I've had these for a couple weeks now and finally got to test in a variety of conditions on a variety of equipment.I never got around to testing them on my main stereo system, but I figure its unlikely anyone is buying these for there main system anyway so here it is:
Equipment tested with:
Systemax pc with integrated sound card
old systemax with an Audigy card
variety of laptops including acer and compac
Ilo mp3 player
1st gen sony car discman
I have to say many of the reviews on here must have been by people who took them out of the box put them on for 5 minutes and decided the world should hear what they have to say regardless of accuracy.My first listen was in a room with 3 servers and 3 pcs running, they did a nice job of canceling out the noise but the bass was thin and the upper ends sounded pinched off.The phone started ringing so I set them down and left the music on to break em in a bit.After about 5 hours I put them on and gave a serious listen, the bass sounded much better and the higher end much more natural.
On the plane they reduced the noise quite a bit, but it was still audible, Really not a problem, I believe they perform as advertised. Contrary to many reviews, JVC says noise is reduced by 12 db at 300hz, not 90% of the audio spectrum.It really makes the flight much more enjoyable, I picked a seat in the back of the plane since that tends to be noisiest on the little commuter jets and they passed my test, which is my ears arent ringing.I'm not a good judge of haedphone comfort because I tend to hate all phones, but these are ok.I can wear em for 30 minutes or so without readjusting.the top band could use a little pad but that should be easily fixed.
They do introduce noise if you turn them on in a quiet room, but that begs the ?, why are you turning them on?With background noise overall sound is reduced and thats the point.They perform quite nicely without the NC on.They are incredibly easy to drive, my ilo player (which the biggest complaint is lack of volume if you read reviews) drives them easily, and I'm currently listening to them on my discman on the "min" volume setting.Do not plug them into anything without turning the volume down, unless of course you like pain.
If your never going to listen to anything besides 128 kbs mp3's these provide all the sound quality you need to be happy.They are good enough for the critical ear to enjoy them, and to appreciate better sources without being so detailed that bad/low res recordings are annoying.
The cord does feel flimsy but snags should be minimal since you only pull out what you need.Mine have about 10 hours so far on the battery and its still kicking, and they seem to get more comfy as the foam in the pads wears in.I really havent noticed the differential in sides, I would send em back if you experiance that and try a different pair.
These are a really good buy, but if you have to spend more get the sennheisers, at least they dont need separate eq'ing to sound good unlike another brand commonly mentioned.If you gotta have the best and have 299 to blow then get some noisebuster's for the plane and a pair of Grado's for home/hotel, and still have enough leftover for 8-9 cds!!!

Editorial Review

Early Adopters Pick: November 2003. The world's first portable DVD player with a 12-inch LCD screen.

Pushing the limits of portability, Samsung's widescreen DVD-L1200 DVD player manages to pack a laptop-rivaling 12-inch TFT LCD screen into a chassis standing a mere inch high when folded. Enjoy the best of your movies, music, and digital photography through the player's multiformat playback abilities, including MP3 and JPEG image CD-Rs and CD-RWs as well as standard DVD-Videos, DVD-Rs, and commercial CDs.

The whole family can listen, too, through either the unit's inline stereo speakers or its generous three .125-inch headphone jacks. Spatializer virtual surround simulates enveloping sound effects through two channels, and motion zoom allows extreme magnification of selected screen areas, without distortion, even while a movie is playing.

The screen displays discs using 480p progressive scanning (named for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image), creating a high-resolution picture with sharper images and fewer motion artifacts than conventional portables.

Other great features include screen inversion, which flips the widescreen picture vertically so you can mount the player upside down, as in a kitchen or an RV, and Samsung's Smart Screen Brightness Control, which monitors ambient light and adjusts the LCD's backlight accordingly to improve clarity and contrast and extended your battery life. The unit's rugged disc bay ensures that the show goes on no matter how you position the player.

Composite- and S-video outputs let you hook the player up with your home television, while its coaxial digital-audio output will channel discrete, 5.1-channel Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound to a range of audio/video receivers and surround speaker setups. For extra convenience, the AV output doubles as a switchable AV input, letting you hook up a camcorder or gaming device for portable big-screen viewing.

Features

• Includes 512MB SD memory card and remote control
• Rechargable battery provides up to an hour of video recording time
• Pocket-sized MPEG-2/MPEG-4 SD video camera and 2-megapixel still camera--weighs just .34 pounds
• 10:1 optical zoom lens with 25x digital zoom and super image stabilizer
• 2.5-inch LCD rotates a full, 270 degrees

Reviews (19)

So do SanDisk cards work or not?
I just purchased my SVAV100 and am looking forward to using it. Obviously it would be nice to have greater storage than the 512 MB card that is included.Previous reviews are contradictory. One person says the SanDisk Ultra II (with 10 mb speed) works fine for MPEG 2 recording while another says the SanDisk Extreme III (with 20 mb speed) does not work. Before I spend the money for a 2 GB SanDisk card, it would be nice to know if it really will work for MPEG 2 recording on the SVAV100.Can anyone confirm?Thanks.

Great Little Camcorder
I have 2 other MPEG4 camcorders but the SVAV100 beats them in MPEG4 recording.In MPEG2 recording, nothing comes close. This unit is really amazing. I could not believe the quality of the video!I bought this camera after reading all the posts in JackBrown's forum which, incidentally has been down for over a week now -- I started a website forum of my own at http://forums.merinotv.com to help those who may be thinking of purchasing this item.Please feel free to post anything like comments, help, etc.I did not find any difficulty other people have claimed regarding not being able to play the MPEG2 video.In fact I tested it in my 2 PC's, 2 laptops andPC tablet, never did I have to rename the .mod file to .mpg. MS Video Player, Elecard and QuickTime as well as other players were able to play the video.For editing, I only use Sony's Vegas and did not have any problems editing. So all you people who have been holding purchasing this product, you can now get the SVAV100 at very good discounts.I got mine for $499.00 plus tax with free shipping.

I am just adding this to my review.I just purchased a Sandisk Ultra II 2GB SD and I am able to get 45 minutes of recording in MPEG2.That is enough recording time for most.I heard 4GB SD's will be coming out too but will be in the $400-$500 range. You can find 2GB SD's priced between $179-$199.

Features

• Listen to MP3 music
• Transfer files to your computer via USB 2.0 or 1.1 interface
• Transfer digital pictures from CompactFlash, IBM Microdrive, and other flash media formats via separately sold adapter
• Store and watch video with audio soundtrack
• View pictures on integrated 3.5 color LCD, or on the nearest NTSC or PAL TV with included video cable and infrared remote control

Reviews (3)

I was very disappointed in this unit.
I was very disappointed in this unit. I was going to take it on two-week trip, where the eight of us could save all of our pictures, and review them in the hotel during the trip, and burn a DVD for all at the end, but after discovering the following deficiencies, I threw it in a drawer instead: (1) power brick and cables were almost as large and as heavy as the unit itself, (2) the unit took 5-7 seconds just to display the next picture - making quick review very frustrating, and (3) the video cable for displaying on a TV did not work, or just barely worked if one jiggled it and held it out 1/16th of an inch and applied pressure - either a defective or poorly designed cable/plug.I'd expect this from a $5 pair of cheap headphones, but this unit cost me almost 600 dollars.

Very good allrounder
I had the need for a product that could be used for: 1. playing MP3, 2. dumping photos 3.Viewing photos and 4. Portable data storage. Along with the Archos products this was the only device which can do it all. I selected this because I prefer the "gameboy" design since it protects the screen well. In fact, I was so impressed with the specs that I was prepared to pay about $170 shipping(to south africa) and run the risk of losing it since there is no support outside US/Europe at all. It all paid off(so far). Fortunately it arrived intact and I have had the device now for 3 problem free months.

It plays music with exceptional quality and photo dumping from all card formats are a breeze with the very flexible optional adapter. TV connection also works well. The video only supports Motion JPEG - MJPEG.AVI files. I have been able to look at .avi videos taken with a Canon camera successfully. However with a downloadeable translation tool from their web site, many other formats can be translated and it works. The translated video takes up a bit more space after translation. Since the device firmware can be upgraded, one hopes that they will come out with more video codecs. The only glitch i found is that the operating system can be very slow when you have large directories. With 80GB of dispace available, a directory can become too large very quickly. That requires a lot of organizing if you have lots of music to store. I also requested from the support people to confirm (before I ordered)whether I would be able to read a Memorystick Duo (with supplied adapter) but there was no satisfactory answer. Battery life is not great, about 3 hours when playing music only, but that should be expected for a device such as this. When only using it for dumping photos, it lasts for days.

A nice feature is that it can read .M3U playlists created on our PC and you can create playlists on the device itself.

An all in all impressive product which have given me countless hours of joy(so far) and I would recommend it for sure. In fact, I have not seen a device on the market yet for the price that can beat it.

Features

• Built-in QWERTY-layout wide-pitch keyboard with backlight
• What's in the box: Clie handheld, Charger Cradle, USB HotSync Cable, Retractable Stylus, AC Adapter,Hand Strap, Installation CD-ROM, Instruction manuals
• A new concept in handhelds: an extremely portable personal entertainment communicator
• 6 oz. with stylus
• Integrated wireless LAN (802.11b) and Bluetooth interface

Reviews (30)

Very nice and beautiful clamshell look but some cons
PROS
1. It is a very nice look .
2. has very good features like a camera and can also rotate.
3. It also has both bluetooth and WIFI that is a good for people on the
go.
4. It now has a low price than 2 years ago.
5. will atract and impress many people

CONS
1. bad battery life (can buy extra battery . 3X longer also sold at amazon
very cheap.
2. limited applications

I think this is a very good p.e.o. and you shoud buy it if you like attention or really need it

Love mine, but there are some problems
I bought my UX-50 off eBay for about half the going rate of a refurbished new unit. Since I paid so little, I really don't have much to complain about. However, if I had paid $500 for a new-refurbished unit - or $800 for a brand-new unit when the UX-50s were first released - I probably would not have given a 4-star review.

Here are the positives:
- I don't understand why so many people complain about the UX-50 only having a "landscape" screen option. I got used to using the landscape screen in no time. There are third-party programs you can download to convert some applications to portrait mode if you want, but I really didn't feel the need. Granted, the landscape screen means there's a lot of wasted space on the touchscreen, but I didn't have any problems using the screen as-is. I also think the screen size is AWESOME considering the features packed into this little gadget.
- The functionality is, without a doubt, amazing. The UX-50 can replace your keychain digital camera, digital voice recorder, PDA, MP3 player AND you can check your e-mail with it! They managed to pack a lot of features into this little PDA.
- Sound on the MP3 player is great. I have a Sony VAIO laptop that has a built-in Memory Stick port so it's really easy for me to put a ton of music onto my 512 MB stick and have music wherever I go. I have a Nomad MP3 player but I rarely use it because the UX-50's MP3 player is so easy to use.
- The camera is great and takes good pictures in enough light. The zoom feature is neat.
- The PDA functionality is exactly what you'd expect - it works well. The UX-50 has enough internal memory for you to load lots of programs into it.

Negatives:
- It took me a lot of tinkering and research to get the 802.11B wireless feature to work. Apparently there was some kind of problem with the wireless connection software in most UX-50s, and if yours has the problem you have to download a special program, called Mobile Manager, to get it to work correctly. Not that Sony tells you this - I had to research it for myself on user bulletin boards. After a LOT of tweaking my wireless works - sometimes. The mobile browser, NetFront, won't load graphics-heavy pages and is quick to give "insufficient memory" and timeout errors. Unfortunately there's no way to upgrade NetFront 3.0, which came with the UX-50, to NetFront 3.1.
- Battery life truly does suck. I solved this by purchasing a third-party manufactured case and car kit off of eBay - the case has a USB port integrated, so now I can plug the USB sync cable into the case's port and charge my Clie. The car kit consists of a USB cable and an adapter that fits my car's cigarette lighter. Now I can charge wherever I go, which helps greatly with the battery life issue. And I don't have to use the stupid "charging sled" to do it. Which brings me to my next point...
- I would really like to know why Sony made a PDA that you can't charge with a USB cable. It seems ridiculous to me. Before I found the USB-port case I had to lug the stupid charger and sled around with me. The charger is bulky and the sled makes the UX-50 too thick to fit in a pocket or small purse. As it is, now I can't plug the UX-50 in and let it charge while I sync it throughout my workday, which is always what I've done with other PDAs. This was a really dumb design idea.
- The only other negative thing is that some parts of the UX-50 feel flimsy - I often feel like I am going to break the screen off rotating it back and forth, and the USB sync port has a small cover that feels like it could rip off at any time.

Overall, though, this is a great productivity tool and very nifty to carry around. It has a considerable "cool factor" and there's great functionality to boot. The negatives are bummers, but this thing is basically a mini laptop computer with a camera built in, so I don't expect everything to be perfect. I'm just bummed Sony's no longer going to be selling PDAs in the U.S. - hopefully they will change their minds before my UX-50 dies or becomes obsolete.

Editorial Review

The Palm-powered PEG-NX70V Clié handheld comes equipped with a built-in digital camera (310,000 effective pixels) for taking digital pictures and video. The camera resolution has been improved to 640 x 480 pixels (VGA) with an option to save the images on Memory Stick media in JPEG format. Furthermore, the PEG-NX70V will record and play back video (MPEG-4) and store it on Memory Stick media.

The PEG-NX70V is equipped with a wireless communication slot for adding an optional wireless LAN (802.11b) card. Browse the Web, check e-mails, and synchronize data wirelessly with your PC via wireless local area network (LAN access point sold separately and Internet service provider required).

Display
The PEG-NX70V features high resolution on its 320 x 480 pixel backlit color display, which can display over 65,000 colors.

Operating System
The Sony Clié PEG-NX70V is powered by Palm OS 5.0 for more processing power, multimedia features, wireless connectivity, and higher security than OS 4.1.

Extra Software
The PEG-NX70V comes with the following Sony software: Audio Player, Clié Album, Clié Camera, Clié Mail, Clié Memo, Clié Remote Commander, Clié Viewer, Flash Player 5, Image Converter 2 1.0 (for PC), Memory Stick Backup, Memory Stick Export 1.1 (for PC), Memory Stick Files, Memory Stick Import, Movie Player, Movie Recorder, PictureGear Studio (for PC), PhotoStand, Photo Editor, SonicStage LE 1.5 (for PC), Sound Converter 1.0 (for PC), Sound Utility, Voice Recorder, and World Alarm Clock

Compatibility
The Sony Clié PEG-NX70V is compatible with Windows 98 SE, 2000 Professional, Me, XP Home, and XP Professional editions.