For this article I will be focusing on the 3G set-up and my initial thoughts about the HP Mini 1000.

Stalking the HP Mini 1000

I have been watching the netbook market with some varied interest over the past year.  I had only a few criteria for purchasing a netbook; it had to comfortably run Windows OS software, weigh less than 2 1/2 pounds, have internal 3G, and a semi competent keyboard.

The HP Mini 1000 seemed to fit all of my needs out of the box. After watching the HP site for the last couple of months I decided to take advantage of their $100 3G upgrade offer and order a custom unit. To the basic configuration I added Bluetooth, the 3G upgrade offer, 1 GB ram upgrade offer. This brought me to just under $550 shipped with a coupon.

With my order placed my next question was how to get the 3G activated. The HP site said I could use Verizon or AT&T. OK, great except they never asked me which one I wanted; in the past I would have had to pick one or the other. I saw no place to select an EVDO 3G card or a HSDPA/UMTS 3G card on my order. I kept expecting HP to call or email me asking what card to install into the HP Mini 1000. About a week and half later a curiously small box arrived from Asia; the HP Mini 1000 had arrived.

Continue reading: HP Mini 1000 3G Set-up and Initial Impressions

Here is a brief round-up of the vendors we saw at this year’s Lunch@Piero’s event during CES 2009.

VIA Technologies showcased their latest in ultra mobile and small form factor computing featuring the VIA Nano processor and the VIA C7-M ultra mobile processor. More info at http://www.via.com.tw

VIA Embedded showcased their new ARTiGO A2000 barebone storage system and innovative home server set-up using the touch-screen VIPRO. http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/embedded/

Graphics will demonstrated the latest HD video and image applications using the all-new Chrome 500 series graphics cards running on a VIA Nano processor-based board. http://www.s3graphics.com
Blendtec, famous for their “Will it Blend” videos in which they blended an iPhone in their kitchen blender, was on hand to talk about their highly successful viral youtube campaigns. Blendtec CEO Tom Dickson and VP George Wright was on hand throughout Lunch@Piero’s to blend a phone, a garden rake.  http://www.blendtec.com

Developing and organizing your thoughts isn’t always a straightforward linear process, especially in groups. Comappings “mind-mapping” tool helps you make sense of even the most complex topics and projects with its innovative approach to formulating, developing, and organizing ideas. http://www.comapping.com

Continue reading: Round-up of the vendors we saw at this years Lunch@Piero’s event during CES 2009.

While at ShowStoppers during CES 2009 I was able to spend some time with a Plastic Logic e-reader prototype. What an amazing product for an early prototype, it felt and operated like a product ready to ship and use. I was told early samples will trickle out in mid to late 2009 with shipping units in early 2010.

The screen contrast seemed to be on par with my Sony 505, however I did not have it on hand to compare side by side. The page response was quick as you can tell from the video I took.  The device looks like it will support many if not most formats including DRM material when it ships. I did not discover what DRM formats are planned.

Their e-reader interface runs on top of a version of Microsoft WinCE, measures a thin 7mm weighing in at less than 16 oz, with a form factor of 8.5” x 11”. Basically it is the size of a typical magazine.  The touch screen was also quick and responsive and featured a soft keyboard.

I am enthusiastically waiting to make one of these units my new daily e-reader.

http://www.plasticlogic.com/

More pics and videos after the break!

Ok, you’ve made the leap to buy that little gem of technology - the iPhone.  Some may argue about whether or not the iPhone is really the best phone under the sun, however, chances are if you bought one you love it.  But, now that you’ve dropped $200-300 on your new phone dark thoughts start to enter your mind that make your blood run cold.  What if you scratch it or worse drop it?  What if you dropped it face down in gravel? Yikes!  Time to start thinking about cases.  Proporta offers several options to put your mind to rest.  Below is a summary of several current offerings I have taken for a real world test: 

Continue Reading: Proporta 3G iPhone Case and Screen Protector Reviews

Santa was a busy elf this year. I try to keep a simple uncluttered media center in my living room. To that end I have had the Xbox 360 Pro since launch and a Yamaha YSP surround sound bar. This worked great until 1080p and serious up-scaling came onto the scene a couple of years back.  I added an Oppo 1080p DVD player about 2 years ago and recently I replaced my non 1080p LCD for a Samsung 1080p A650 LCD.

Here is where the dilemma came in; all this shiny new 1080p HDMI gear and an old Xbox 360. I have been waiting for a Jasper unit for some time and finally decided the wait was not worth it. I really wanted HDMI and the larger hard drive as I use Xbox Live Marketplace to buy TV shows and such. I ditched cable TV last month once Netflix and Playon was on the scene in full force.
From what I have been reading only the Xbox 360 Arcade units have been coming as Jasper revisions. The Falcon revisions have been performing well, and I was tired of waiting and was ready to make the purchase. As luck would have it the wait was actually worth it this time.

Continue reading Amazon shipping Jasper Xbox 360 Pro Consoles…

In less than a decade, mobile devices have undergone a radical transformation. Originally designed just as telephones, mobile devices are now morphing into highly personalized, multi-purpose computers that may soon be more central to our lives than the desktop PC. What is driving this rapid evolution?

Clearly, recent advances in mobile technology are part of the answer. Today’s mobile devices have more computing power, more bandwidth, more storage capacity and many more services available than cell phones did just a few years ago. As a result, users can now download video content, watch streaming television broadcasts, and store thousands of songs and hundreds of movies on their mobile devices.

Read More: Mobile Voice Search: Maximizing the Potential of Mobile Devices

The Kensington SX300R is one of a host of products now on the market designed to help music lovers take tunes from their iPods into their homes. What sets the SX300R apart is its sleek, stylishly simple, one-piece design with a flat panel speaker on one side and a universal iPod dock on the other. The SX300R’s sound, while not as full-bodied as some, nevertheless has a feeling of quality perfectly suited for a smaller space, and performs better than expected given that the speaker itself is only three quarters of an inch wide.

In keeping with iPod’s updated black look, the new SX300R comes in a black plastic shell, as opposed to Kensington’s previous SX200, which was white. The SX300R is compatible with all iPods with 30-pin dock connectors, including iPod nano, and can be connected to non-docking iPods such as iPod shuffle, as well as, other MP3 players with an accessory adapter or a 3.5mm headphone cable (not included). The unit including base is 16 by 7.25 inches high, and at only 4 inches deep, it’s an easy fit for a desktop or even a window sill.

Read our full review of Kensington’s SX 3000R Speakers with FM Radio for iPod…

Remember the PDA, the “personal digital assistant” that was literally held out as the ultimate in portable technology? Even as PDA’s fade from the technology horizon, another currently hot “P” device - the PND, or “personal navigation device” - may soon follow, says an MIT Sloan School of Management expert on business strategy, technology, and innovation.

PND products, such as Tom Tom and Garmin, may remain popular for a few years, “but life is getting tough very quickly” for PND makers, according to MIT Sloan Senior Lecturer Michael A. M. Davies. PND’s face a growing challenge not only from cell phones, which are increasingly equipped with high-end navigation programs, but from a less obvious competitor: automobile makers. As software expands the capabilities of PND’s, car manufacturers are in a unique position to make their use both practical and safe, he says.

MIT Prof says three-way battle looms over navigation wars CONTUNUED…

I think most everyone has a love/hate relationship with business cards.  They represent a quick and easy way to trade contact information, to make a good impression and to show off your style and taste.  They also are small and easy to lose, a pain to organize and convert to electronic contacts, and take up a surprising amount of space. The obvious answer is a simple method of scanning and automatically recognizing the information in the cards, and a number of companies have made hardware/software solutions.  I recently had the opportunity to try out one solution, the CardScan 800c.

Inside of the deceptively large box you’ll find a folder with the software, packaged cards for cleaning and calibrating the device, some advertising materials, a generously long USB cable, and the scanner.  The scanner itself is small enough to pack anywhere a paperback would fit or to fit on even the most cluttered desk.  It’s styled to look good on your desk; the CardScan has no buttons or switches to ruin the smooth lines, just a triangle-shaped blue light to show it’s on and to indicate where to insert cards.

Read our full review of the Cardscan Executive 800c…

If you have an Apple iPod, and who doesn’t these days, you will eventually want to improve it’s functionality by adding an accessory.  As the leading portable digital audio player on the market, there are an incredible number of accessories available for the Apple iPod and JBL is one of the leading companies in the iPod speaker and general consumer audio market.  Let’s take a look at a few of the products available from JBL.

Read our complete review of all three JBL speakers

Paper scanners are great peripherals for the modern computer.  They let us bring papers, documents, and photos from the real, physical world into the virtual, digital one.  However they are usually big, bulky devices that require a lot of space or, in the case of most portable models, time to set up.  And the typical scanner still needs a computer or notebook to operate.  So what if you could have a portable scanner that did not need a computer, could be easily carried anywhere, and can make a scan of any document, photo, magazine, or book.  Well now you can with the Planon DocuPen RC800.

The RC800 is a full color, 24-bit scanner in a compact, lightweight form that provides a convenient way to scan full page documents on-the-go.  With the included 128 MB memory card, the RC800 can store many pages into memory with each page only taking a few seconds to scan.  Using the on-board controls, you can select B&W/Color/24-Bit Color and 100 / 400 dpi resolution. 

Read our full review of the Planon DocuPen Portable Color Scanner

With everyone making MP3 players, including most of the companies that manufacture the flash memory players depend on, it is not surprising that Kingston has finally produced their own MP3/MP4 portable player.  Kingston is one of the world leading manufacturers of RAM and Flash memory and their new K-PEX 100 (Kingston Personal Entertainment Experience) is a solid entry into the 1GB/2GB Media Player market.

Read our full review of the Kingston K-PEX 100 Personal Media Player

The Samsung BlackJack is simply the best Windows Mobile Smartphone I have ever used.

The Backjack sold by Cingular Wireless now the new at&t brings UMTS/HSDPA to the table…basically DSL/Broadband speeds to you and me. What I have found is that I really don’t use my laptop as much since the BackJack has live push mail, large display, and a QWERTY keyboard. I tossed in a 2 Gig MicroSD Card and sync up my music and TV shows from my Media Center so I can take them with me. Even the 2MP camera gets some use and with all this heavy lifting the BlackJack maintains its sleek super model-esque profile.

What really makes the unit shine is the thoughtful list of applications Samsung and Cingular Wireless now the new at&t included with the BackJack. They didn’t opt for the regular Microsoft Mobile Smartphone app load, they went much further and included a slew of productive tools that really rounds out the phone with just about everything you could ever need.

—Bill Landon

It’s been quite a while since we did the last Vaja case review. The last one from a few years ago detailed some cases for the very popular, yet now near forgotten, iPAQ 3800 series.

Back then, we were doing a lot of case reviews, and the Vaja offering was definitely at the top of the heap. Excellent fit and finish, great usability, never bulky, and always classy.

The new lines do not deviate at all from this standard of quality.

Recently they sent me four new cases, as well as the new clip mechanism to check out. I received two cases for the iPod video and two for the iPod Mini.

Click to read our full review of the Vaja iPod cases…

In today’s work environment it has become increasingly necessary to bring work typically done at the office out into the field. More and more technology has been brought to the fields of construction, surveying, manufacturing, telecom, etc. This brings an interesting issue to light; how do you work in an unfriendly and potentially harsh environment while not burning through laptops and PDA’s weekly? There are a couple of industrial grade ruggedized laptops available, however they approach close to $4000 fully equipped and may simply be overkill and too bulky to be practical.

Enter the ruggedized PDA. They are small, lightweight and efficient compared their laptop cousins, not to mention they have a longer battery life and are cute as a bug’s ear. We have looked at a rugged PDA in the past from TDS (Tripod Data Systems) Recon 400. That device proved to be a formidable challenger to the elements and stood up well to the abuse we threw at it. TDS has brought out their follow up to the Recon 400 in the form of the new Recon X-Series.

Read our full review of the TDS Recon X-Series Rugged PDA