Hi-Tech

HP Envy 14

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 08:00:35 PDT

The good: Less expensive than last year's Envy models; highly configurable; solid design and construction.
The bad: Heavy; ATI switchable graphics not as seamless as Nvidia's; funky volume controls don't play well with games.
The bottom line: HP's updated Envy 14 is a well-built high-end laptop with impressive components and a surprisingly reasonable price.
Review:

HP's high-end Envy line of laptops is one of the few bright spots for laptop design in an industry currently filled with midprice plastic boxes. With a solidly built (but slightly too heavy) aluminum and magnesium chassis and a capable collection of components, we liked the original 13- and 15-inch versions of the Envy, but they were priced out of reach for most.The new 14-inch Envy 14 (we always love logical product names) adds discrete graphics to last year's 13-inch Envy 13, while dropping the starting price by about one third to $999. That gets you an Intel Core i3 CPU, but upgrading to a more powerful Core i5, as in our review unit, only bumps the price up to $1,049 (Core i7 and quad-core options are also available, at prices up to $1,600).The Envy 14 looks great and generally runs great, but there are also a handful of minor frustrating issues that seem out of place on a high-end laptop. Using the volume control buttons automatically brings up an on-screen volume bar that bumps you out of full-screen games; the multitouch touch pad still has trouble with its two-finger scroll functions; and this laptop had occasional trouble waking up out of a sleep state--more so than we've seen in a Windows 7 laptop in some time.

Price as reviewed / Starting price	$1,049/$999
Processor	2.4GHz Intel Core i5 M450
Memory	4GB, 1333MHz DDR3
Hard drive	500GB 7,200rpm
Chipset	Intel HM55
Graphics	ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 (switchable)
Operating System	Windows 7 Home Premium
Dimensions (WD)	14.4 x 9.3 inches
Height	1.0-1.1 inches
Screen size (diagonal)	14.5 inches
System weight / Weight with AC adapter	5.3/6.4 pounds
Category	Midsize

Like last year's Envy 13, the new HP Envy 14 is made of aluminum and magnesium, and comes in basic gunmetal gray. The same subtle pattern of imprinted squares covers the wrist rest and back of the lid, making the two systems hard to tell apart, aside from the slight size increase to accommodate the 14-inch display.
The Envy 14, like its Envy predecessors, feels solid and rugged, but is also dense and heavy compared with other laptops of a similar size. At 5.3 pounds, it's not exactly something you'd want to carry in a shoulder bag during a daily commute (and a 14-inch laptop is already just over the line of what we'd consider truly portable), but we could see it working for semiregular trips to the office or coffee shop.
The interior consists of a slightly sunken keyboard tray, with a keyboard made up of widely spaced, flat-topped keys and a single power button. Though there are no quick-launch or media control keys, the row of Function keys has their media control and other attributes as the primary mapping, with the actual tasks of F4, F5, etc. requiring you to hold down the Fn key at the same time (a setup HP and others are using more frequently). One big advantage the Envy 14 has over the older Envy 13 is that the new keyboard is backlit, which is one of our must-have features in any high-end laptop.
As previously mentioned, the volume controls have the unfortunate side effect of jumping to the onscreen volume indicator when you hit the volume down, up, or mute buttons (F7, F8, and F9, respectively). So if you try to use them while playing a game or watching certain kinds of full-screen video, you'll be kicked out of the full-screen mode or even back to the desktop--which is an incredibly frustrating experience.
The Envy's oversize touch pad is now common on many HP laptops. The look and feel are great, and it rivals Apple for sheer size. But having the left and right mouse buttons built right in at the lower corners of the touch pad (clicking down when pressed) cuts down on the actual usable space.
Unfortunately, every HP laptop with this new touch pad we've tried has the same problem: the multitouch gesture controls don't work consistently, especially the all-important two-finger scrolling move. Scrolling down long documents or Web pages with your index and middle fingers almost never works, as one rarely holds those two fingers evenly enough on the horizontal plane to activate the scroll function. We had better luck with our middle and ring fingers. The touch pad also lacks the inertial scrolling that helps MacBooks (and iPhones, iPads, etc.) feel so natural.
The 14.5-inch wide-screen LED display (notable, as most 14-inch laptop screens measure only 14.0-inches diagonally) offers a 1,600x900-pixel native resolution, which is better than the almost universal 1,366x768 pixels found on most laptops with screens from 11 to 15 inches. The screen had impressive brightness and excellent off-axis viewing angles, and audio was also a high point. HP has teamed with Beats Audio to include special bass-boosting software and hardware that purportedly works especially well with Beats-branded headphones, but certainly also sounds clear and hefty with other headphones or through the system speakers.

	HP Envy 14	Average for category [mainstream]
Video	HDMI, mini-Display Port	VGA plus HDMI or DisplayPort
Audio	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks
Data	3 USB 2.0 (1 USB/eSATA), SD card reader	4 USB 2.0, SD card reader, eSATA
Expansion	None	ExpressCard/54
Networking	Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth	Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, optional mobile broadband
Optical drive	DVD burner	DVD burner

The HP Envy 14 has a much better selection of ports and connections than the Envy 13. This time around, you get three USB ports, including one USB/eSATA port, both HDMI and DisplayPort, plus a slot-loading optical drive--a feature conspicuously missing from the 13-inch version.
The $999 base model has an Intel Core i3 CPU, and a variety of Core i5 and Core i7 upgrades are available, adding anywhere from $50 to more than $500 to the price. We tested a version with the most basic upgrade, to a Core i5-450m, which seems like a very worthwhile investment. As one would rightly expect from the current Core i5 laptop, the HP Envy 14 performed well in our benchmark tests, but slightly slower than systems with the more common and slightly faster version of the Core i5, the i5-520M (which is available as a $150 option). Still, for all but the most heavy multitasking or gaming, the Envy 14 is more than capable.
The included ATI Radeon HD5650 is a midrange graphics card suitable for mainstream gaming. Playing Unreal Tournament III at 1,600x900-pixel resolution, we got 57.8 frames per second. In Street Fighter IV, at the same resolution, the system ran at 29.6 frames per second.
The Envy also features switchable graphics, which means the ATI card can be turned off to save battery power when not needed, instead running the default Intel HD graphics. It's a nice option to have, but unlike Nvidia's Optimus solution for laptops running Nvidia GPUs, you have to manually switch the graphics here by clicking an onscreen button, which frankly feels archaic at this point (although you can configure the system to automatically jump to the integrated graphics when using the battery).

Juice box
Mainstream (Avg watts/hour)
Off (60%)	0.68
Sleep (10%)	1.09
Idle (25%)	13.99
Load (05%)	53.64
Raw kWh Number	58.66
Annual Energy Cost	$6.66

Annual energy consumption cost

HP Pavilion dm4-1003

4.75

Dell Inspiron 14R

5.05

HP Envy 14

6.66

Lenovo Ideapad Y460

6.94

The HP Envy 14 ran for 3 hours and 20 minutes on our video playback battery drain test, using the included 8-cell battery. That's good for a midsize laptop, and note that we kept the switchable discrete graphics card engaged, as many casual users would. Remembering to switch them off would lead to improved battery life.
HP includes an industry-standard, one-year, parts-and-labor warranty with the system. Upgrading to a three-year plan starts at $399, but includes accidental damage protection and on-site service. Support is accessible through a 24-7 toll-free phone line, and a well-maintained online knowledge base and driver downloads.

Multimedia multitasking test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

HP Pavilion dm4-1003

680

HP Envy 14

681

Lenovo Ideapad Y460

695

Dell Inspiron 14R

793

Adobe Photoshop CS3 image-processing test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Lenovo Ideapad Y460

107

HP Envy 14

110

HP Pavilion dm4-1003

126

Dell Inspiron 14R

131

Apple iTunes encoding test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Lenovo Ideapad Y460

140

HP Pavilion dm4-1003

140

HP Envy 14

143

Dell Inspiron 14R

173

Video playback battery drain test (in minutes)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

HP Pavilion dm4-1003

261

HP Envy 14

200

Dell Inspiron 14R

178

Lenovo Ideapad Y460

132

Sony Vaio Z series VPC-Z116GX/S

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 20:11:01 PDT

The good: Light and sturdy design; large SSD hard drive; switchable discrete graphics; excellent performance.
The bad: Expensive; switchable graphics options can be confusing.
The bottom line: Sony's top-of-the-line 13-inch Vaio VPCZ116GX/S has a speedy Core i5 CPU, discrete graphics, a huge 256GB SSD, and a sky-high price to match.
Review:

Though most laptop shoppers may be laser-focused on value, snapping up $300 Netbooks and $600 ULV systems, there's always a little room at the top of the heap for a high-priced, full-featured showpeice. In the 13-inch category, HP has the Envy 13, Dell has the Adamo XPS, and Sony has the Vaio Z series. In this latest refresh, the Vaio Z has a very fast Intel Core i5 processor, an Nvidia GT 330M GPU, which can be switched off to save battery life, a DVD drive (something missing from those other high-end 13-inch laptops), and a huge 256GB SSD hard drive, which is no doubt a big part of the $2,299 price (although it's not yet available for sale at the time of this review). Price aside, the Vaio Z may be our new 13-inch laptop of choice, as it breezed by many other recent 13-inch systems we've tested, which all use older Intel CPUs (or slower low-voltage ones). The trade-off is in battery life, even with the system automatically changing power profiles as needed with its Dynamic Hybrid Graphics System (which is a fancy name for the integrated/discrete graphics switch).Unfortunately, the Vaio Z116 priced out of range for most consumers, but if you get an opportunity to test-drive one, we highly recommend it.

Price as reviewed	$2,299
Processor	2.4GHz Intel Core i5 M520
Memory	4GB, 1066MHz DDR3
Hard drive	256GB SSD
Chipset	Intel HM55
Graphics	Nvidia GeForce GT 330M / Intel GMA 4500MHD (switchable)
Operating System	Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
Dimensions (WD)	12.4 x 8.3 inches
Height	1.3 inches
Screen size (diagonal)	13.3 inches
System weight / Weight with AC adapter	3.0/3.9 pounds
Category	Thin and Light

Compared with the ubiquitous 13-inch MacBook Pro, the Sony Vaio Z is not quite as thin, but it's definitely lighter. Despite the full-power processor, its body feels more like a ULV system, which generally trade horsepower for size and energy efficiency. The chassis is a mix of brushed metal and magnesium, making for an end product that feels airy but sturdy at the same time.That said, the design tilts a little industrial, with black keys against a silver finish, a two-tone base, a blocky raised wrist rest panel, and a bulky metal slider for the switchable graphics. It feels like it belongs in a '90s industrial art space/coffee house. It's not unpleasant to look at in any way, but our tastes have moved toward devices that emphasize unibody construction (or at least try to simulate that look).Sony's typical raised-island-style keyboard is here, although in this 13-inch design the key faces feel just a little too small and too widely spaced for our fingers. Important keys such as Shift and Tab are generously sized and we found no major problems with the logic of the keyboard layout. We'd award bonus points for the backlit keys, always a feature we appreciate, but for $2,000 it had better be a standard feature. The Vaio Z's touch pad is likewise excellent, offering plenty of space and small, but effective, left and right mouse buttons separated by a fingerprint reader.For years we've dinged Sony for its bloatware and adware-filled systems, but the company has toned its act down of late. The Vaio Z shoves only a handful of marketing come-ons at you, including one labeled "Secure your Vaio rewards," which in our case was an offer to buy a one-year license for Norton security and LoJack for laptops software for $99.Three quick-launch buttons sit above the keyboard. One launches a built-in suite of Sony support resources and troubleshooting apps and easy access to tech support contact info. The second is user assignable, and the third launches Sony's Media Gallery software, which is a perfectly fine collection of media organizing and playback tools, but does require you to learn a new piece of software if you're already familiar with popular products such as iTunes or Windows Media Player.Above the keyboard on the left side is a three-way switch that controls power profiles and principally turns the Nvidia GeForce 330 graphics on or off. The settings are labeled "speed" and "stamina," and it can be confusing as to what the switch actually does if you're not familiar with the concept of switchable graphics. There's also a third position, named "auto," that turns the GPU off when you unplug the laptop.Of course, the entire point is largely moot, as Nvidia's new Optimus technology finally allows your laptop to turn its discrete GPU on and off on the fly, without making the screen blink off for a second, or requiring you to quit any apps. In our recent hands-on tests, it was completely seamless, and makes every other method for switching between graphics chips outdated. Though this model doesn't offer Nvidia Optimus technology, we don't see any reason it couldn't be included on a near-future refresh.The 13.3-inch wide-screen LED display has a 1,600x900-pixel native resolution.That's what we'd expect in an upscale 13-inch laptop; less-expensive 13-inch systems often have 1,280x800-pixel or 1,366x768-pixel displays. The higher resolution makes it good for 720p video, and gives you plenty of desktop real estate.

	Sony Vaio VPCZ116GX/S	Average for category [thin-and-light]
Video	VGA-out, HDMI	VGA plus HDMI or DisplayPort
Audio	Stereo speakers, single headphone/microphone jack	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks
Data	3 USB 2.0, SD card reader, Memory Stick reader	3 USB 2.0, SD card reader
Expansion	ExpressCard/34	ExpressCard/54
Networking	Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth	Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, optional mobile broadband
Optical drive	DVD burner	DVD burner

The Vaio Z116 has a standard set of ports and connections for a 13-inch laptop, although for $2,300, we'd expect a Blu-ray drive. Still, it's impressive the system manages to fit in an optical drive at all; it's a feature missing from HP's 13-inch Envy, Dell's 13-inch Adamo XPS, and even Toshiba's T-135.We've seen a handful of laptops with Intel's Core i5 mainstream CPU, and so far have been very impressed with its performance. The Vaio Z116 is no exception, and the 2.4GHz Intel Core i5 M520 ran our multitasking test around twice as fast as the HP Envy 13 we reviewed back in September 2009, which had a 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SL9600. We checked HP's Web site to see if the Core i5 had been added as a configuration option for the Envy, but it hadn't.Also rare in a 13-inch laptop are discrete graphics. In this case, turning on the switchable Nvidia GeForce GT 330M GPU gave us 57.2 frames per second in Unreal Tournament 3 at 1,440x900 pixels. This isn't a PC gaming powerhouse, but it can certainly handle any current game at middle-of-the-road resolutions and quality settings.
n anecdotal use, we found the Vaio Z116 to be probably the fastest 13-inch laptop we've used, and great for effortless multitasking, aided no doubt by the 256GB solid-state hard drive. Then again, for a $2,000-plus laptop, we'd expect nothing less.

Juice box
Sony Vaio VPC-Z116GX/S	Avg watts/hour
Off (60%)	0.5
Sleep (10%)	1.2
Idle (25%)	16.52
Load (05%)	48.12
Raw kWh Number	60.93
Annual power consumption cost	$6.92

Annual power consumption cost

Lenovo Thinkpad Edge

$3.39

HP Pavilion dm3-1002

$3.76

Toshiba Satellite T135D-1324

$3.96

HP Envy 13

$5.34

Sony Vaio VPC-Z116GX/S

$6.92

Though we were impressed with the Intel Core i5's performance, you're going to pay a price in battery life over a low-voltage laptop. The Sony Vaio Z116 ran for 3 hours and 30 minutes in our video playback battery drain test, but many ULV 13-inch laptops can beat that by 90 minutes or more.Sony includes an industry-standard one-year parts and labor warranty with the system, which smartly includes onsite service. Support is accessible through a 24-7 toll-free phone line, as well as an online knowledge base and driver downloads. The included support software, accessed via quick-launch button on the keyboard tray, connects you directly to diagnostic tools, online resources, and troubleshooting tips.

Multimedia multitasking test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Sony Vaio VPC-Z116GX/S

675

HP Envy 13

1,378

Lenovo Thinkpad Edge

1,810

HP Pavilion dm3-1002

1,852

Toshiba Satellite T135D-1324

2,188

Adobe Photoshop CS3 image-processing test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Sony Vaio VPC-Z116GX/S

109

HP Envy 13

162

Lenovo Thinkpad Edge

276

Toshiba Satellite T135D-1324

277

HP Pavilion dm3-1002

280

Apple iTunes encoding test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Sony Vaio VPC-Z116GX/S

140

HP Envy 13

179

HP Pavilion dm3-1002

300

Lenovo Thinkpad Edge

301

Toshiba Satellite T135D-1324

379

Video playback battery drain test (in minutes)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

HP Pavilion dm3-1002

430

Toshiba Satellite T135D-1324

359

Lenovo Thinkpad Edge

320

HP Envy 13

239

Sony Vaio VPC-Z116GX/S

210

Apple MacBook Spring 2010 (Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD)

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:38:23 PDT

The good: Faster processor; improved graphics; better battery life.
The bad: Still no SD card slot; might be time for Apple to switch to 16:9 aspect ratio displays.
The bottom line: Apple slightly revamps its basic MacBook with improvements under the hood, but keeps the design and price the same, which makes the new MacBook tough to beat as a back-to-school laptop.
Review:

Incredibly popular on college campuses and in coffee shops, Apple's MacBook laptops are arguably one of the most flexible and useful laptop lines ever designed, thanks to the company's overarching hardware and software ecosystem--and anchored by our favorite track pad ever.The Pro line may be Apple's flagship laptop, but the basic white polycarbonate $999 MacBook hits the sweet spot between price and performance; especially now that the Apple's latest updates have added a slightly faster Intel Core 2 Duo processor, improved Nvidia graphics, and even given its battery life a modest boost.While the practical impact on users is probably modest, Apple still hasn't moved to Intel's newer Core-series CPUs in its 13-inch models, and the lack of an SD card slot in any laptop these days seems like a glaring omission. We expect some changes in these areas when Apple gives its MacBook line its next big refresh, else things may start to feel a bit dated. While we're compiling a wish list, we'd love to see Apple make the switch and give the MacBook screen a 16:9 aspect ratio with higher resolutions.That said, if you're shopping for a back-to-school laptop--and it's certainly getting to be that time of the year--the 13-inch MacBook is very likely near the top of your list, and with good reason.

Price as reviewed / Starting price	$999
Processor	2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory	2GB, 1,066MHz DDR2
Hard drive	320GB 5,400rpm
Chipset	Intel NM10
Graphics	Nvidia GeForce 320M
Operating System	OS X 10.6.3 Snow Leopard
Dimensions (WD)	13.0x9.12 inches
Height	1.08 inches
Screen size (diagonal)	13.3 inches
System weight / Weight with AC adapter	4.5/5.0 pounds
Category	13-inch

From the outside, this new version of the MacBook looks identical to the one released in the fall of 2009. It uses the same polycarbonate "unibody" construction-- although the bottom panel is a separate piece--found in the last few generations of the aluminum MacBook Pro line, and only comes in white; we still find people who miss the black MacBook.The MacBook is not the thinnest 13-inch laptop we've seen, but the gently sloped edges on the glossy white lid make it look nice and slim. As before, the bottom panel has a darker off-white color and a matte feel than the glossy lid and keyboard tray.Seeing other PC makers implement their own versions of a multitouch track pad just makes us appreciate the Apple version even more. The MacBook has the same large glass multitouch track pad the MacBook Pros have had for some time, as well as the one on the non-Pro MacBook since last fall.The entire track pad presses as a giant left mouse button, but tapping to click can be turned on in the settings menu--it really should be on by default, and every time we use a new MacBook, it takes us a minute to figure out why we can't click on anything. The large surface area and the multitouch gestures--including four fingers to minimize every open window and the two-finger tap to simulate a right mouse click--are so intuitive and useful that it takes a few minutes to adjust to using any other kind of track pad.This 13.3-inch display still has the same 1,280x800-pixel native resolution as its previous versions had. Once that resolution was extremely common; however, these days laptops from 11- to 15-inch screen size generally have a 16:9 aspect ratio, 1,366x768-pixel resolution display, rather than the 16:10 aspect ratio found here. Many premium-priced laptops go even further, with display resolutions hitting 1,600x900 pixels or higher. It's not a deal breaker, but for viewing HD video content, it's not perfect. If you're spending $1,000 or more on a laptop, having a 12x8 aspect ratio display is starting to look a little long in the tooth.

	Apple MacBook spring 2010	Average for category [13-inch]
Video	Mini-DisplayPort	VGA plus HDMI or DisplayPort
Audio	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks
Data	2 USB 2.0	3 USB 2.0, SD card reader
Expansion	None	None
Networking	Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth	Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, optional mobile broadband
Optical drive	DVD burner	DVD burner

The ports and connections on this new MacBook are exactly the same as the previous model, which is no surprise. You'll need to adapt the mini-DisplayPort video output to match your preferred external monitor, and its lack of an SD card slot is still a major inconvenience. At the same time, the Magsafe power adapter connection, which pops harmlessly off if yanked, should be an industry standard across the board.The standard MacBook comes in only a single configuration with a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU. You can increase the RAM from 2GB to 4GB for $100, or upgrade the hard drive to 320GB ($50) or 500GB ($150), but that's it as far as you can upgrade the hardware. Considering the 13-inch MacBook Pro is only $200 more--and $100 of that goes to the RAM upgrade--you could spend the extra $100 and get the metal construction, backlit keyboard, and an SD card slot.Performancewise, you're getting essentially the same experience as with the more expensive 13-inch MacBook Pro in our benchmark tests, although even the older fall 2010 MacBook wasn't far behind. In fact, the Core 2 Duo MacBooks were significantly faster than a recent 13-inch Asus U30Jc with an Intel Core i3 CPU, although in our single-app tests, a Core i5 Sony Z116 was faster.The biggest under-the-hood change to the MacBook is that it now has Nvidia's GeForce 320M graphics chip. It's technically still an integrated GPU, and a close relative to the previous MacBook's GeForce 9400M chip. However, just as we loved the 9400, the new 320M is even better, providing decent 3D graphics and HD video playback without the need for a discrete GPU. In Call of Duty 4, we got 28.9 frames per second at the system's 1,280x800-pixel native resolution with 4x anti-aliasing turned on, and 48.3 frames per second at lower graphics settings without the anti-aliasing. In comparison, the current 15-inch MacBook Pro, with a discrete Nvidia GeForce GT 330M running at 1,440x900-pixel resolution gets 34.9fps and 59fps on the same tests.
With the introduction of Steam for Macs, there's never been a better time to be a Mac gamer. While it may not be perfect for hardcore gamers, mainstream users will find they can use the non-Pro MacBook for most current and upcoming games (provided the game publishers release an OSX version).

Juice box
Apple MacBook spring 2010	Average watts per hour
Off	0.26
Sleep	0.88
Idle	8.72
Load	33.83
Raw kWh	36.05
Annual power consumption cost	$4.09

Annual power consumption costs
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Apple MacBook - fall 2009 - Core 2 Duo 13.3 inch - 2.26GHz

$3.88

Apple MacBook - spring 2010 - Core 2 Duo 13.3-inch - 2.4GHz

$4.09

Asus U30Jc

$4.20

Apple MacBook Pro - Core 2 Duo 13.3-inch - 2.4GHz (Silver)

$4.26

Sony Vaio VPC-Z116GX/S

$6.92

Apple continues to dominate in our battery life tests. Thanks to a modest change in the chemistry of the sealed-in MacBook battery, the current 13-inch MacBook and MacBook Pro both last significantly longer than their predecessors did. This model ran for 6 hours and 27 minutes on our video playback battery drain test, while the fall 2009 MacBook ran for only 5 hours and 14 minutes. Outside of low-voltage Netbooks--and then even just a handful of those--it's nearly impossible to get a longer workday out of a laptop. The trade-off is that the sealed battery compartment means that you can't swap in a second battery, or replace an old battery yourself. Apple still includes a one-year parts-and-labor warranty, but only 90 days of telephone support. Upgrading to a full three-year plan under AppleCare will cost an extra $249 and is pretty much a must-buy, considering the proprietary nature of Apple products. Support is also accessible through an online knowledge base, video tutorials, and e-mail with customer service, or through in-person visits to Apple's retail store Genius Bars, which in our experience have always been fairly frustration-free encounters.

Multimedia multitasking test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Apple MacBook - spring 2010 - Core 2 Duo 13.3-inch - 2.4GHz

436

Apple MacBook Pro - Core 2 Duo 13.3-inch - 2.4GHz (Silver)

437

Apple MacBook - fall 2009 - Core 2 Duo 13.3 inch - 2.26GHz

547

Sony Vaio VPC-Z116GX/S

675

Asus U30Jc

786

Adobe Photoshop CS3 image-processing test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Sony Vaio VPC-Z116GX/S

109

Apple MacBook - fall 2009 - Core 2 Duo 13.3 inch - 2.26GHz

126

Apple MacBook Pro - Core 2 Duo 13.3-inch - 2.4GHz (Silver)

126

Apple MacBook - spring 2010 - Core 2 Duo 13.3-inch - 2.4GHz

128

Asus U30Jc

130

Apple iTunes encoding test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Sony Vaio VPC-Z116GX/S

140

Apple MacBook Pro - Core 2 Duo 13.3-inch - 2.4GHz (Silver)

154

Apple MacBook - spring 2010 - Core 2 Duo 13.3-inch - 2.4GHz

157

Apple MacBook - fall 2009 - Core 2 Duo 13.3 inch - 2.26GHz

164

Asus U30Jc

172

Video playback battery drain test (in minutes)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Apple MacBook - spring 2010 - Core 2 Duo 13.3-inch - 2.4GHz

387

Apple MacBook Pro - Core 2 Duo 13.3-inch - 2.4GHz (Silver)

360

Apple MacBook - fall 2009 - Core 2 Duo 13.3 inch - 2.26GHz

314

Asus U30Jc

240

Sony Vaio VPC-Z116GX/S

210

Toshiba Satellite A505-S6025

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:00:56 PDT

The good: Solid combination of Core i3 processor and dedicated graphics; good battery life; better-than-average speakers.
The bad: Tremendous size and bulky battery; priced higher than other Core i3 laptops.
The bottom line: While the Toshiba Satellite A505-6025 has a rock-solid combination of computing power, graphics, and battery life, its price and bulk may be hard to swallow.

Review:
In the previous holiday retail roundup of laptops, our favorite budget notebook ended up being the Toshiba Satellite A505-6980. At $629, its package of a Core 2 Duo processor, long battery life, bright 16-inch screen, and great speakers made it a heavy, rather unportable, but good-valued general computer.
The A505-S6025 falls into our mainstream category, not budget, chiefly because the price--$799--and increased feature set elevate it. Gone is the low-end Core 2 Duo processor, replaced with an Intel Core i3 CPU. Instead of integrated graphics, the A505-S6025 has Nvidia GeForce 310M dedicated graphics.
Otherwise, the screen size, speakers, and bulky battery--a 12-cell--remain largely the same. We can't say that this is the most affordable Core i3; however: in fact, it's one of the more expensive. And, unfortunately, it's as large as a tank. With Core i3 laptops becoming so incredibly affordable, the A505 lost whatever cache it once had last year and has become just another laptop. For just $629, you could get the Asus U50F instead and have a similar computing experience, minus the dedicated gaming graphics and longer battery life. The Satellite A505-S6025 is a well-constructed, gaming-capable laptop, yes, but also a large one--and for only a hundred more, you could easily enter the realm of higher-end machines. So, despite some decent specs and performance, the system's awkward in-between price works slightly against it.

Price as reviewed	$799
Processor	2.1 GHz Intel Core i3 M330
Memory	4GB, 1066 MHz DDR3
Hard drive	500GB 5,400rpm
Chipset	Intel HM55
Graphics	Nvidia GeForce 310M
Operating system	Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Dimensions (WD)	15.1 x 10.2 inches
Height	1.6-2.0 inches
Screen size (diagonal)	16 inches
System weight / Weight with AC adapter	7.2 / 8.2 pounds
Category	Mainstream

The Satellite A505-S6025 is one seriously thick laptop. With its chunky battery attached, it's even thicker than the 1.6 inches we measured--more like over 2 inches. At more than 8 pounds with its AC adapter, this is a computer that will need a reinforced bag and some good shoulder strength to carry.
It's not unattractive, however, on the inside. With a glossy black body and a dull silver trim around the edges, the A505 looks like a premium multimedia laptop with its lid open. Harman Kardon speakers flank both sides of an LED touch-key media control strip above the keyboard, and the edge-to-edge keyboard includes a full-size number pad.
The glossy black finish, etched with a spread of varying gray pinstripes that Toshiba calls "quantum black," is much like many other Satellites: curved and flashy, but awfully eager to show off smudges and prints. We liked the interior better, which is fortunate, since the A505 seems destined for a life seated on a desk, sedentary and unlikely to ever move into a backpack or bag.
The 16-inch glossy LED-backlit screen on the Satellite A505-6025 has a native resolution of 1,366x768 pixels, which is a standard size for 16x9 screens in general, but a little low for screens in the 16-inch and larger range. Having a full HD 1,900x1,080 display would have been preferred (although they're rare under 17 or 18 inches), or at least 1,600x900.
Still, our display looked good both when computing and playing back videos and games, although to its credit, the Asus U50F, at only $649, looked equally good to our eyes. As always, Toshiba's speakers are decidedly better than average. The stereo Harman Kardon speakers on the A505--6025 are louder than nearly any other laptop we've recently reviewed and have well-defined bass, a rarity. We won't give this laptop a pass thanks to its speakers alone, but they help justify the relatively higher price.

	Toshiba Satellite A505-6025	Average for category [Mainstream]
Video	VGA-out, HDMI	VGA and HDMI or DisplayPort
Audio	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks
Data	2 USB 2.0, 1 USB 2.0/eSATA sleep-and-charge port, SD card reader, mini-Firewire	4 USB 2.0, SD card reader
Expansion	ExpressCard/54	ExpressCard/54
Networking	Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi	Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, optional WWAN
Optical drive	DVD burner	DVD burner

With a laptop this huge, we would at least expect an extensive selection of ports, and the A505-6025 delivers on that front. USB 2.0, a combo eSATA and sleep-and-charge port, HDMI, FireWire and an ExpressCard slot round out a nearly complete set of options, with only Bluetooth omitted. The included 500GB hard drive and 4GB of RAM are nice touches, but hardly noteworthy anymore: in fact, they are fast becoming standards in the mainstream category, based on our recent reviews.
Running the show inside the A505-6025 is a new Intel Core i3 M330 CPU, a processor that has already impressed us with its speed and overall multitasking performance, especially for the price of the laptops it's being dropped into. Unfortunately, the A505-6025 performs nearly identically to other Core i3 M330 laptops. We say "unfortunately" because the Asus U50F-RBBAG05, also reviewed in this roundup, only costs $649. The Satellite A505-6025 is an extra $150, placing it at the upper end of Core i3 laptops.
The A505-6025 does have its advantages, however: first and foremost is its discrete graphics, thanks to an Nvidia GeForce 310M included inside. This is a good GPU, especially for a general mainstream user--our gaming benchmark had Unreal Tournament III running at 36 fps in 1,440x900 mode downscaled to native resolution, and it can play most mainstream games. That's an admitted plus for this Toshiba Satellite--many of the other Core i3s we reviewed only had integrated graphics. The question is: do you feel like paying $150 for that privilege?

Multimedia multitasking test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Toshiba Satellite E205-S1904

717

Dell Studio s15z-2249CPN

743

Asus U50F-RBBAG05

832

HP Pavilion dv4-2155dx

832

Toshiba Satellite A505-S6025

840

HP Pavilion dv4-2165dx

845

Dell Inspiron i1564-6980CRD

886

Asus UL50VT-RBBBK05

1,097

HP Pavilion dv7-3165dx

1,179

Toshiba Satellite P505D-S8007

1,201

Adobe Photoshop CS3 image-processing test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Toshiba Satellite E205-S1904

117

Dell Studio s15z-2249CPN

121

Asus U50F-RBBAG05

138

HP Pavilion dv4-2155dx

139

Dell Inspiron i1564-6980CRD

139

Toshiba Satellite A505-S6025

140

HP Pavilion dv4-2165dx

140

HP Pavilion dv7-3165dx

151

Toshiba Satellite P505D-S8007

164

Asus UL50VT-RBBBK05

180

Apple iTunes encoding test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Toshiba Satellite E205-S1904

154

Dell Studio s15z-2249CPN

160

Toshiba Satellite A505-S6025

184

HP Pavilion dv4-2165dx

185

HP Pavilion dv4-2155dx

185

Asus U50F-RBBAG05

187

Dell Inspiron i1564-6980CRD

190

HP Pavilion dv7-3165dx

191

Toshiba Satellite P505D-S8007

214

Asus UL50VT-RBBBK05

231

Video playback battery drain test (in minutes)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

HP Pavilion dv4-2165dx

334

Asus UL50VT-RBBBK05

284

Toshiba Satellite A505-S6025

268

Toshiba Satellite E205-S1904

267

Dell Studio s15z-2249CPN

220

HP Pavilion dv7-3165dx

178

Asus U50F-RBBAG05

161

Dell Inspiron i1564-6980CRD

142

HP Pavilion dv4-2155dx

127

Toshiba Satellite P505D-S8007

103

Juice box
Toshiba Satellite A505-S6025	Average watts per hour
Off (60 percent)	0.53
Sleep (10 percent)	0.98
Idle (25 percent)	12.61
Load (5 percent)	52.98
Raw kWh	54.47
Annual energy cost	$6.18

Annual energy consumption cost

Asus UL50VT-RBBBK05

$4.81

Asus U50F-RBBAG05

$4.93

HP Pavilion dv4-2165dx

$5.23

HP Pavilion dv4-2155dx

$5.56

Dell Studio s15z-2249CPN

$5.73

Dell Inspiron i1564-6980CRD

$5.85

Toshiba Satellite E205-S1904

$6.06

Toshiba Satellite A505-S6025

$6.18

HP Pavilion dv7-3165dx

$7.45

Toshiba Satellite P505D-S8007

$7.51

The Toshiba Satellite A505-S6025 ran for 4 hours and 28 minutes on our video playback battery drain test, using the included 12-cell battery. Admittedly, that's also with dedicated graphics running, but with a gigantic battery like the one grafted to the back of the A505-S6025, we'd have expected even more. That's still better than other Core i3 laptops we covered in this price range, so perhaps adding significant bulk is a worthy trade-off for the added juice. As for us, we'd rather carry a thinner laptop and a charger and live dangerously.
The Toshiba Satellite A505-S6025 is backed by an industry-standard, one-year warranty. Support is accessible 24-7 via a toll-free phone line, an online knowledge base, and a Web site with driver downloads. While retail shops are happy to sell you an in-store extended warranty, they are often expensive and hard to use, so we don't recommend them.

Nikon Coolpix S8000 (black)

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 22:31:01 PDT

The good: Great LCD; stereo mic; 10x zoom in an attractive compact body.
The bad: Poor low-light photo quality; no optical zoom while recording movies; mixed shooting performance; no semimanual, manual modes.
The bottom line: A nice design and a couple extra features keep the Nikon Coolpix S8000 from being an also-ran compact megazoom.

Review: A year ago, the Nikon Coolpix S8000 would've been impressive: a slim, compact 14-megapixel camera with a wide-angle zoom lens, a high-resolution LCD, and a 720p HD movie mode with a built-in stereo mic and HDMI output for less than $300. And frankly, those features are still enough to grab attention from competing models. On the other hand, the users who would appreciate these features might also want more or better shooting options; the S8000 is for the most part an automatic camera. They'd probably also want better indoor/low-light photo quality, too. But, if you don't care about any of that and don't do a lot of cropping of your shots or printing them larger than 4x6 inches, the S8000 is an above average compact megazoom.

Key specs	Nikon Coolpix S8000
Price (MSRP)	$299.99
Dimensions (WHD)	4.1 x 2.3 x 1.1 inches
Weight (with battery and media)	6.5 ounces
Megapixels, image sensor size, type	14 megapixels, 1/2.3-inch CCD
LCD size, resolution/viewfinder	3-inch LCD, 921K dots/None
Lens (zoom, aperture, focal length)	10x, f3.5-5.6, 30-300mm (35mm equivalent)
File format (still/video)	JPEG/MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 (.MOV)
Highest resolution size (still/video)	4,320x3,240 pixels/1,280x720 at 30fps
Image stabilization type	Optical and digital
Battery type, CIPA rated life	Li-ion rechargeable, 210 shots
Battery charged in camera	Yes; by computer or wall adapter
Storage media	SD/SDHC memory cards
Bundled software	Software Suite for Coolpix (Windows/Mac)

Available in black, red, silver, and bronze, the S8000 is compact for having a 10x zoom lens, and it's one of the slimmest in its class. That's likely because of the smoothly flared lens surround, which is somewhat out-of-step with the camera's otherwise boxy design. It's attractive, though, and will fit easily in a pants pocket or small handbag. The metal casing makes it feel high-quality and despite it being completely flat, the right side has a textured finish that improves your grip slightly. If there is one problem with the design it's the flash. It pops up from the left side, so it's easily blocked by fingers when it rises and then leaves you little room to grip the camera once it's up. Fortunately, it only pops up when needed.
The controls and menu system are fairly uncomplicated, so out-of-the-box shooting shouldn't be much a problem. The menu system is broken into three tabs: Shooting, Movie, and Setup. The layout keeps you from doing too much hunting through settings. And thanks to the high-resolution screen, menus are nice-looking, sharp, and easy to read. The LCD gets reasonably bright as well, so you shouldn't struggle too much when framing shots in bright direct light. It's great for playback to boot.
Controls are pretty straightforward. Squeezed between the large thumb rest and the screen, is a record button for movies. Below that is a shooting mode button labeled "Scene" with a playback button to its right; a four-way control pad/wheel with an OK button in its center (Nikon calls it a Rotary Multi Selector); and then Menu and Delete buttons at the very bottom. The control pad is used for menu and image navigation as well as setting self-timer, adjusting flash and exposure compensation, and turning on macro focus. Should you want to move faster through menus or images and videos, you can spin the wheel instead of doing single presses with underlying control pad. Although it moves easily, you can feel stops. All in all, it's a pretty standard digital camera arrangement, but everything could be more responsive.
The S8000 is powered by a lithium ion rechargeable pack that is rated for a measly 210 shots; this was supported in testing, though it was a mix of stills and movies. The battery is charged in the camera by connecting via USB to a computer or the included wall adapter. The battery and card compartment are on the bottom behind a locking door. Next to it is a Mini-USB/AV port. A covered Mini-HDMI port is on the right side of the camera for connecting to an HDTV or monitor; you'll need to buy a cable, though.

General shooting options	Nikon Coolpix S8000
ISO sensitivity (full resolution)	Auto, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1,600, 3,200
White balance	Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Manual, Flash
Recording modes	Auto, Scene Auto Selector, Scene, Smart Portrait, Subject Tracking, Movie
Focus modes	Multi AF, Center AF, Face Priority, Selectable Area AF, Macro
Metering modes	Multi, Center-weighted average
Color effects	Brightness, Vividness, Hue
Burst mode shot limit (full resolution)	10

There are two Auto modes on this camera. One is Nikon's Scene Auto Selector, which is the first option in the camera's Scene mode. It adjusts settings appropriately based on six common scene types. If the scene doesn't match any of those, it defaults to a general-use Auto. Then there is an Auto mode, which is like the program AE modes on other point-and-shoots. You can change ISO, white balance, and exposure compensation as well as light metering, autofocus area and mode, and continuous shooting modes. For the S8000, Nikon adds some extra control over hue (color tone) and vividness (saturation), too, with adjustable sliders. They're not revolutionary, but if you like to experiment they'll be welcomed. (Then again, so would semimanual or manual controls.) The slider settings get stored in the camera's memory for the Auto mode, so they stay even if you power the camera off.
If you're able to decipher the type of scene you're shooting, it may correspond to one of the camera's 14 selectable scene modes. All of the scenes are standards like Portrait and Landscape, and there is a Panorama Assist for lining up a series of shots that can be stitched together with the bundled software.
Nikon's Smart Portrait System gets its own spot in the shooting-mode menu. Basically, it combines blink detection, smile-activated shutter release, red-eye fix, skin softening, and Face Priority AF features into one mode. The System works well (though the red-eye reduction failed most times and there's no option to use it in playback mode), in particular for self-portraits, allowing you to take pictures without pressing the shutter release or setting a timer. The blink detection will fire off a second shot if the camera thinks someone blinked (though squinting had the same effect) and skin softening helps smooth out skin tones and can be set to low, normal, or high. Plus, the smile and blink detection and skin softening can be shut off entirely.
The last of the shooting modes is Subject Tracking, and the name pretty much says it all. Place the focus area box at the center of the frame on your subject, hit OK, and the camera will move the box with the subject. If the subject moves out of frame, the camera will do its best to pick up the subject when it reenters the frame. The camera can be set to focus once or continuously and it can prioritize tracking faces, but otherwise everything else is handled automatically. The mode mostly works as promised, but it should really just be an AF area option instead of a whole mode.
If you like to shoot close-ups, the S8000 has a few ways to enter Macro mode. It will automatically switch to it if you're using the Scene Auto Selector mode. You can also select a Close-up mode from the camera's Scene options. And if you're in Auto mode, you can switch to macro focus via the control pad. You can focus as close as 0.4 inch from your subject.
There is no Movie mode to select since video capture is activated with the dedicated record button. Press it and a couple seconds later the camera starts recording; resolutions can be set up to 720p HD quality at 30 frames per second. There is no use of the optical zoom while recording, but a stepped digital zoom is available and there is a continuous AF option.
Nikon claims the S8000 has ultrafast start-up, autofocus, and shooting and that's true, at least partially. The camera starts up and shoots very fast at 0.8 second, but that's if you're ready to shoot as soon as the camera comes on and your timing is good. If you wait for everything to get loaded up and ready, though, it is more like 4 or 5 seconds from off to first shot. Shot-to-shot times are good for its class at 1.7 seconds without the flash and 2.1 seconds with it on. Shutter lag---how quickly a camera captures an image after the shutter-release button is pressed--is average for its class at 0.5 second in bright lighting and 0.9 seconds in dim conditions. The S8000 has a couple continuous shooting options; we test with its full-resolution continuous setting, which shoots at about 1.2 frames per second. There is a faster Sport Continuous option for capturing up to 45 photos at approximately 3 frames per second. In order to do this, the maximum resolution is reduced to 3 megapixels; the focus, exposure, and white balance are fixed at the first picture in the series; and the ISO is set to a range of 400-3,200. These things aren't unusual for burst modes on compact cameras, and it does allow you to capture something. However, you won't be able to do much with them beyond Web sharing and 4x6-inch prints, which is probably enough for most people.

Sample photos:
Nikon Coolpix S8000

For being one of Nikon's highest end Coolpix cameras, the S8000's photo quality is pretty average. Photos taken at ISO 400 and below are good with low noise and decent fine detail, so light cropping and enlarging are possible, resulting in good prints up to 8x10 inches. With no cropping, you can probably go slightly larger without seeing soft, smeary details. Above ISO 400, images look more like watercolor paintings than photos. At ISO 800 they're still usable for small prints and Web use, but go any higher and you end up with soft, smeary subjects and blotches of yellow and blue color noise.
In Auto mode, you have a choice of two fixed range auto settings for ISO: ISO 100-400 and 100-800. When possible, use the former. If you're using the full 10x zoom range, you're indoors, or in low-light conditions, switch to the latter.
Nikon for the most part controls lens distortion, but there is very slight barrel distortion at the wide end and pincushion distortion when the lens is fully extended. Center sharpness is OK, but gets visibly softer in the corners. Fringing is average to above average in high contrast areas of photos. In the center of the frame it's not as bad. However, subjects off to the sides have more severe fringing making it harder to edit out.
Color performance is very good--bright, vibrant, and accurate; only blues were a bit off, looking slightly pale. Exposure and white balance are good, too, though the auto white balance is slightly green under fluorescent lighting. However, it performed fine when switched to the fluorescent preset or with a manual reading.
Movie quality is on par with a pocket video camera; it's good but jittery when the shooter or subject is moving. On top is a stereo mic, and it works well, too. If you want to hear your clips in stereo directly from the camera, though, you'll have to invest in a Mini-HDMI cable.
The Nikon Coolpix S8000 is a strange camera, mostly because I'm not sure who the target user is. Is a person who would appreciate paying extra for a 921K-dot LCD and stereo mic the same one who would be satisfied with mainly snapshot shooting modes, no use of the optical zoom while recording movies, and poor high ISO photo quality? The addition of slider controls for brightness, saturation, and color tone and the use of the Rotary Multi Selector seem to suggest the S8000 may at one time have had semimanual and/or manual controls in its feature set. Maybe next time around, Nikon can take the design and key features, pop in a better sensor, and add more control over results to make this a more attractive package. As it stands, it's just an above average compact megazoom.

Shooting speed
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Time to first shot

Typical shot-to-shot time (flash)

Typical shot-to-shot time

Shutter lag (dim)

Shutter lag (typical)

Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZR1

2.5

0.6

0.4

Fujifilm FinePix JZ500

2.7

2.8

0.6

0.4

Canon PowerShot SX120 IS

2.5

6.1

2.6

0.7

0.6

Nikon Coolpix S8000

0.8

2.1

1.7

0.9

0.5

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W370

2.3

4.2

1.9

1.6

0.8

Typical continuous-shooting speed
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZR1

1.9

Fujifilm FinePix JZ500

1.4

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W370

1.3

Nikon Coolpix S8000

1.2

Canon PowerShot SX120 IS

0.8

JVC Everio GZ-HM320

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 22:15:13 PDT

The good: Relatively intelligent autofocus system; compact.
The bad: Poor video quality; no optical image stabilization.
The bottom line: The four sibling models--the JVC Everio GZ-HM300, HM320, HM340, and HD500--deliver subpar video for even their dirt-cheap prices.

With some of the worst video quality I've seen in an HD camcorder of late, the best I can say about JVC's entry-level HD Everio camcorder models is that they're small and cheap. Though they're $60 to $100 less than HD competitors, they're defined by a tiny, insufficient-resolution-for-HD sensor, a 20x zoom lens with no optical image stabilization (only electronic), and the lowest-resolution LCD display in their class.Perhaps JVC's goal is to upsell customers: the company offers 10 HD models for less than $800, with these four nearly identical versions that list between $400 and $550 alone. Three are flash models that differ only by built-in memory, and the fourth is an 80GB hard-disk-based model, which takes microSD cards instead of regular SDHC/SDXC cards. It bears pointing out that in JVC's confusing lineup and unlike every other manufacturer out there, the similarly named HD300 and HD320 are not sibling products to the HM300 and HM320; they have bigger, higher-resolution sensors and their flash-based sibling is the HM200.

	JVC Everio GZ-HM300/HM320/HM340	JVC Everio GZ-HD500	JVC Everio GZ-HM200	JVC Everio GZ-HD300/HD320	JVC Everio GZ-HD620
Sensor	1.37-megapixel CMOS	1.37-megapixel CMOS	3.1-megapixel CMOS	3.1-megapixel CMOS	3.3-megapixel BIS CMOS
Sensor	1/5.8 inch	1/5.8 inch	1/4.1 inch	1/4.1 inch	1/4 inch
Lens	20x f1.8-3.5 46.4 to 928mm	20x f1.8-3.5 46.4 to 928mm	20x f1.9-3.2 41.4 - 828mm	20x f1.9-3.2 41.4 - 828mm	30x f1.8-4.7 43.7 - 1411mm
Optical image stabilization	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Min illumination (lux)	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
EVF	No	No	No	No	No
LCD	2.7-inch 123,000-dot	2.7-inch 123,000-dot	2.7-inch 123,000-dot	2.7-inch 123,000-dot	2.7-inch 123,000-dot
Primary media	0GB/8GB/16GB flash; SDHC	80GB hard disk; microSD	0GB flash; SDHC	60GB/120GB hard disk; microSD	120GB hard disk; microSD
HD recording	AVCHD: 1080/60i @ 24, 17, 12, 5 Mbps (all video interpolated up from less than 1,440x1,080 pixels; actual dimensions n/a)	AVCHD: 1080/60i @ 24, 17, 12, 5 Mbps (all video interpolated up from less than 1,440x1,080 pixels; actual dimensions n/a)	AVCHD: 1080/60i @ 24, 17, 12, 5 Mbps	AVCHD: 1080/60i @ 24, 17, 12, 5 Mbps	AVCHD: 1080/60i @ 24, 17, 12, 5 Mbps
Manual shutter speed and iris	No	No	No	No	Yes
Accessory shoe	No	No	No	No	No
Audio	2 channels	2 channels	2 channels	2 channels, headphone	2 channels
Body dimensions (WHD, inches)	2.1 x 2.4 x 4.4	2.1 x 2.5 x 4.6	2.2 x 2.6 x 4.4	2.1 x 2.7 x 4.5	2.1 x 2.5 x 4.6
Operating weight (ounces)	8.5	10.7 (est)	11 (est)	12.8 (est)	11 (est)
Mfr. Price	$399.95/$449.95/$499.95	$549.95	$579.95	$699.95/$799.95	$649.95
Ship date	February 2010	March 2010	March 2010	March 2010	April 2010

One thing the entry-level JVC models do have going for them is size: they're the lightest and smallest models in their class. The length of the body of the flash models is about the width of a large man's palm; the hard-drive version is slightly longer and wider, which might make for more comfortable shooting for large-handed people. Though made of shiny plastic, the camcorder feels reasonably well constructed.Beneath a door on the bottom right sits a pair of SDHC card slots; the models with built-in memory only have a single slot. I like this card location better than in most of the other designs I've seen; it's out of the way and the thin grip strap doesn't block it. I also like the location of the USB connector, which shares a spot above the battery with the DC input.
Toward the front of the camcorder is the grip strap release lever, which turns it into a wrist strap. The top controls consist of the zoom switch and photo shutter button.
The LCD recess houses the playback and recording controls, Upload (to YouTube, via computer), and a power button that also cycles through three different information screens. I'm not a big fan of the multiple-duty power button; to me, it's a surefire way to end up turning off the camcorder accidentally. The component, AV, and Mini-HDMI out connectors also occupy the recess.
Of the touch-sensitive buttons on the LCD bezel, only OK and Menu are fixed; the other three are context sensitive. You navigate the menus via a slider strip on the left side, which lights up as you use it. It probably demos well in retail and gives you something pretty to look at while the camcorder boots, but it's only modestly effective as a navigation technique--it's too imprecise for that or for manual focus, leading to accidental slide-bys past your desired options.

	Canon HF R100/ 10 / 11	JVC Everio GZ-HM300/HM320/HM340	Panasonic HDC-SD60/ TM55 / TM60	Sony Handycam HDR-CX110/CX150
Sensor	2.4-megapixel CMOS	1.37-megapixel CMOS	3-megapixel CMOS	3-megapixel Exmor R CMOS
Sensor	1/5.5 inch	1/5.8 inch	1/4.1 inch	1/4 inch
Lens	20x f1.8-3.6 40 - 800mm (16:9)	20x f1.8-3.5 46.4 to 928mm (n/a)	25x f1.8-3.3 35.7-893mm (16:9)	25x f1.8-2.6 37 - 1075mm (16:9)
Optical image stabilization	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Min illumination (lux)	standard: 5.5 low light: 0.4	n/a	recommended:1400 low light: 4 night: 1	standard: 11 low light: 3
EVF	No	No	No	No
LCD	2.7-inch 211,000-dot	2.7-inch 123,000-dot	2.7-inch 230,400 dot touch screen	2.7-inch 230,000-dot touch screen
Primary media	0GB/8GB/32GB flash; SDHC	0GB/8GB/16GB flash; SDHC	0GB/8GB/16GB built-in; SDXC	0GB/16GB built-in; SDHC
HD recording	MPEG-4: 1080/60i @ 24 Mbps; 1,440x1,080/60i @ 12, 7, 5 Mbps (all video interpolated up from 1,664 x 936)	AVCHD: 1080/60i @ 24, 17, 12, 5 Mbps (all video interpolated up from less than 1440x1080; actual dimensions n/a)	AVCHD: 1080/60i @ 17, 13, 9; 1,440x1,080/60i @ 5 Mbps	AVCHD: 1080/60i @ 24, 17Mbps; 1,440x1,080/60i @ 9,5 Mbps
Manual shutter speed and iris	No	No	Yes	No
Accessory shoe	No	No	No	No
Audio	2 channels; mic, headphone jacks	2 channels	2 channels	2 channels
Body dimensions (WHD, inches)	2.4 x 2.5 x 4.9	2.1 x 2.4 x 4.4	2.0 x 2.6 x 4.4	2.0 x 2.3 x 4.3
Operating weight (ounces)	10.9 (est)	8.5	10.5	9.3
Mfr. Price	$499.99/$549.99/$699.99	$399.95/$449.95/$499.95	$499.95/$529.95/$499	$499.99/$549.99
Ship date	March 2010	February 2010	March 2010	February 2010

The feature set is pretty typical. Most notably, there's face-priority AE/AF, video categorizing, interesting time-lapse video, and a faux motion-sensor mode that records when it detects changes in brightness.
Unfortunately, none of these makes up for the lack of optical image stabilization. JVC fails to distinguish between optical and electronic stabilization (EIS) on its Web site, referring to both as the "Advanced Image Stabilizer," but the HM300/320 manual refers to it as the "digital image stabilizer." Unfortunately, EIS can degrade video quality, and the camcorder simply doesn't have the extra pixels to spare for the EIS to work well.
On the upside, the autofocus works pretty intelligently, and seems to make accurate distinctions between subject and background without notable delays. And the 1,400mAh battery last a reasonably long time, somewhere between 60 and 90 minutes.
Which brings me to video quality. Though I don't expect much for $300, I admit I'm probably dinging JVC just a little harder for marketing this as an HD camcorder when it's adhering to the letter but not the spirit of the definition of HD (Canon plays the same game with its HF R series). The sensor is tiny and its native resolution is somewhat mysterious. It varies with the zoom, which is yet another trick that annoys me; it's a now-common method for gaming the zoom ranges on camcorder lenses, but it's only potentially acceptable as long as the effective number of pixels is still above the minimum needed to get a native HD capture, about 2.1 megapixels. But the HM300/320/340 and HD500's effective resolution ranges from 1.1 megapixels down to 750,000 pixels, which the camcorders then interpolate up to 1920x1080 HD.
If you're going to be playing the video at small sizes--say, 50 percent or less--it should look fine and sharp. At actual size, though, the subject is soft, and both edges and out-of-focus areas look quite smeary and processed. You can get the same results out of a cheaper standard-definition model. That's coupled with a lens that produces uncommonly bad fringing; my videos contained not just rampant purple, but yellow, cyan, and magenta variations.
However, the colors are pleasing and saturated, if not accurate, and like most low-end camcorders, the highlights tend to blow out. The sound is just OK; the mics seem oddly omnidirectional given their placement beneath the lens, and I suspect that location makes them a bit more susceptible to wind noise, the digital wind filter notwithstanding. Still, the sound is clear, if tinny.
The low-light video looks surprisingly decent, as long as you play it back scaled down. At full size it's pretty soft and noisy.
Though $300 sounds cheap for an HD camcorder, if by choice or budgetary necessity you're willing to sacrifice video quality, you might as well spend even less for a decent standard-definition model. Otherwise, I suggest you spend a little more for a true HD model like the Panasonic HDC-SD60. Of the four JVC options, only whichever is cheapest at the moment is even worth considering, and the HD500 is simply overpriced.

Samsung Acclaim (U.S. Cellular)

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 22:02:33 PDT

The good: The Samsung Acclaim has a great 3.2-inch HVGA touch-screen display, a responsive optical sensor, and it comes with Android 2.1. We also like that it has a 3.5mm headset jack, and it's affordable as well.
The bad: The Samsung Acclaim doesn't have a great physical keyboard, and call quality could be improved.
The bottom line: The Samsung Acclaim is a pretty good Android phone for those on a budget, but we were disappointed with the keyboard and call quality.

Review: Though the big four national carriers have enjoyed multiple Android phones for some time now, smaller regional carriers have been missing out. That ends with the Samsung Acclaim, the first-ever Android handset available for U.S. Cellular. Surprisingly, the Acclaim is no second-rate smartphone, though; it comes with OS 2.1 out of the gate and we found its performance to be speedy and reliable. The Samsung Acclaim is available for around $100, which we think is affordable.
Design
Compared with the recent Samsung Galaxy S models, the Acclaim might seem rather dowdy. On its own, however, the Acclaim has a simple down-to-earth appeal. It measures 4.49 inches long by 2.32 inches wide by 0.6 inch thick, and it has curved corners and a rounded chin area with silver adorning its sides; its look is not unlike other Samsung touch-screen handsets. The Acclaim is wrapped in a hard glossy plastic shell, and weighs a comfortable 4.59 ounces.

The Samsung Acclaim has a great 3.2-inch HVGA TFT display.

By far the star of the show when it comes to the Acclaim's design is its 3.2-inch HVGA display. It's not as vibrant as the AMOLED displays we've seen, but for a $100 phone, it looks fantastic. Thanks to its capacitive screen, we found the display to be very responsive, plus there's pinch-to-zoom support. You can also toggle the accelerometer to kick in whenever you hold the phone sideways, which is useful for applications like the browser. The Acclaim also has a proximity sensor.As an alternative to the touch screen, the Acclaim also has a square select key that doubles as an optical trackpad underneath the display. It provides a nice way to scroll through Web pages without having to drag your finger across the screen. Surrounding the optical pad are the usual Android hot keys to the pop-up menu, home, back, and search. The controls are laid out in a square rather than the more typical single line. It felt roomier, which led to fewer accidental presses.

The Samsung Acclaim has a full QWERTY keyboard.

When you slide the phone's display to the right, you'll find a full QWERTY keyboard. The sliding mechanism is quite smooth and locks securely into place. The keyboard is spacious enough, but we felt the keys were a bit too flat, with not enough delineation between them. Still, the keys had a decent feel when pushed, and we managed to type out text with few mistakes. The Acclaim also provides an onscreen keyboard if you would rather not use the physical one.

The Samsung Acclaim has a 3-megapixel camera and LED flash on the back.

On the left spine are the volume rocker and a microSD card slot; the charger jack and camera key are on the right. On the top is the screen lock key and a 3.5mm headset jack, and there's a camera lens and LED flash on the back.
Features

The Samsung Acclaim ships with Android 2.1, which is a step behind the latest 2.2 release. Still, we remain optimistic that it'll be upgradable to 2.2 since the phone is relatively new. Since the phone has 2.1 that means you have the option for live wallpaper, five home screens instead of three, voice-to-text capabilities, and Google Maps Navigation. The Acclaim is free from Samsung's proprietary TouchWiz interface and instead uses Android's stock user interface.You get the usual Android staples, like Gmail, Google Talk, YouTube, Quick Office, and access to the Android Market. The Acclaim also comes with U.S. Cellular apps like City ID, My Contacts Backup, Your Navigator Deluxe (U.S. Cellular's navigation app), and Tone Room Deluxe. Other apps thrown in for good measure include Evernote, Facebook, The Weather Channel, and Twidroid. Supported e-mail protocols include POP3, IMAP, and Exchange. It combines them all into one unified in-box, and setting your e-mail up is as easy as going through a step-by-step wizard. Do note that this e-mail in-box is separate from your Gmail in-box. With Exchange, you can sync up your work calendar and contacts as well.Other phone staples include a speakerphone, speed dial, voice commands, text and multimedia messaging with threaded view, stereo Bluetooth, 3G, GPS, and Wi-Fi. The Acclaim also supports U.S. Cellular's EV-DO network. It comes with Google's WebKit browser, which has been updated to offer Flash Lite in addition to pinch-to-zoom. The music player on the Acclaim is the same as on other Android phones, and you can purchase and download music via the Amazon MP3 Store, or you can upload your own to the microSD card. In fact, the Acclaim ships with a 4GB card to help get you started. The phone supports up to 16GB cards if you want more storage.

The Samsung Acclaim took decent photos, if a little dull.

The Acclaim comes with a 3-megapixel camera with an LED flash. We wouldn't recommend the use of flash for most pictures, as it results in a blown-out image, but it could be useful in especially dark environments. Otherwise, the picture quality was decent for the most part. Colors look a little duller than we would like, but images were sharp with hardly any blur. You can record video with the camera as well.Performance

We tested the Samsung Acclaim in San Francisco using U.S. Cellular's roaming network partners, as U.S. Cellular isn't offered here. Call quality was mediocre, and the speakerphone quality in particular was disappointing.
On our end, we heard our callers pretty clearly, but we detected a lot of static and hiss. Callers also reported static and hiss, in addition to the occasional voice crackle. Voice quality on the whole sounded very indicative of a cell phone call: harsh and machine-like. Speakerphone calls were pretty horrid. The crackling increased tenfold and there was quite a bit of echo as well.We weren't able to access EV-DO here in San Francisco, but even without it the network's data speeds were pretty good. We managed to download CNET's mobile site is just 15 seconds, whereas BBC's full site took only 25 seconds. YouTube clips had little to no buffering, and we had no problems with sound and picture synchronization.Even though some might bemoan the Acclaim's 800Mhz processor as slower than the 1Ghz Snapdragon on the more popular Android phones, we found it zippy enough for our needs. We experienced zero lag time when flipping through menus, and the accelerometer kicked in with very little delay.The Acclaim has a 1,500mAh lithium ion battery, and it has a rated battery life of 8 hours talk time and 18.8 days standby time. According to the FCC, it has a digital SAR of 0.29 watt per kilogram.

Toshiba Portege M780-S7230

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 20:37:29 PDT

The good: Responsive touch controls; fast Core i5 processor; lightweight for its size.
The bad: Has an unattractive bulky, old-fashioned design; battery life falls short; no multitouch in tablet mode; Windows 7 touch environment still leaves much to be desired.
The bottom line: In a post-iPad era, Toshiba's expensive and needlessly bulky Portege M780 is a convertible tablet notebook that feels like a design relic from five years ago.

Four years ago, CNET reviewed the Toshiba Portege M400, a convertible tablet laptop that was the first of its kind with a Core 2 Duo processor. Imagine our surprise in 2010 when we received the Portege M780, a Core i5 convertible laptop/tablet with pretty much exactly the same design.
For the princely sum of $1,699, the Portege M780 gives you a sturdy, medium-weight 12.1-inch computer with a firmly locking, capacitive-touch swiveling screen. However, you can get its Core i5 processor and medium-range specs for half the price with non-touch-screen laptops, and the M780's battery life is ... Expand full review

Price as reviewed	$1,699
Processor	2.4 GHz Intel Core i5 M520
Memory	3GB DDR3 RAM, 1,066MHz
Hard drive	250GB 5,400rpm
Chipset	Intel HM55
Graphics	Intel Media Accelerator HD
Operating System	Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
Dimensions (WD)	12.0x9.4 inches
Height	1.5 inches
Screen size (diagonal)	12.1 inches
System weight / Weight with AC adapter	4.4/5.4 pounds
Category	Ultraportable

In 2006, we said the extremely similar-looking Portege M400 laptop had a retro, boxy feel. Four years later, we now say that same look has an "absurdly thick, did-you-pull-this-laptop-out-of-your-basement" feel. Its design is a dull gray silver plastic with black matte plastic highlights around the square screen and keyboard that reeks of a half-decade ago, and the bottom half of this keyboard is far chunkier than any recent "ultraportable" laptop we've seen.
Clearly, this Portege is going after a more industrial corporate crowd akin to Panasonic's Toughbook market. The design and semirugged feel match the look of a Toughbook, but its lightweight plastic heft and slight flex we found on parts of the chassis suggest it has a less-than-rugged construction.
The Portege M780 favors physical buttons and wheels over function-key combos--there's a volume wheel on the front edge, but it has no max/min cut-offs and will spin infinitely until the on-board volume maxes. A row of confusing and small identical buttons below the convertible swivel-screen control power, screen orientation, and even includes an odd mini joystick for repositioning and minimizing open windows. It would have made more sense to convert this stick into a trackpoint.
To its credit, however, the old-fashioned and spill-resistant tapered keyboard on the M780 was one of the more comfortable typing experiences among recent laptops. Its key presses were slightly soft, but the key shape and positioning was generous and spacious. The small touch pad feels awkwardly designed; we wondered why Toshiba didn't simply make it bigger to use more of the available palm-rest space.
The Portege's matte-finish 12.1-inch screen has 1,280x800-pixel native resolution, making it one of the few modern laptop screens doesn't have a 16:9 aspect ratio. We like having a nonreflective screen surface over the highly-glossy glass displays we're often subjected to; however, the heavy touch-screen overlay on the Portege M780 gives images and Web pages a slightly cloudy, occluded look.
We really like the M780s touch-screen responsiveness. Using both direct-touch and the included pen-thick stylus, navigating with touch was both quick and accurate. Unfortunately, a Windows-based computing environment doesn't have icons or other interface elements suited for touch screen, making some controls difficult to use. The capacitive type of touch display the M780 uses creates a small focusing dot wherever your finger goes, which helps you pretrack your touch gesture a little. With the stylus, the dot focuses when the stylus is a few millimeters off the screen, allowing some prenavigation before pressing down and making contact. By pressing a small side button on the stylus, a right-click action can be initiated. However, the Portege doesn't support multitouch, so it could be jarring to anyone expecting easy pinch-to-zoom or two-finger scrolling. Flick-based scrolls seem to initiate preset scroll movements that act with a slight delay and don't feel organic.
The stereo speakers, located above the keyboard, were louder than we needed during video playback, and leaned towards treble-heavy, but they were better than average. The Webcam above the keyboard works in both laptop and tablet modes, and had resolution quality similar to other Toshiba Satellite laptops we've recently reviewed--fine for Web conferencing, passable for pictures.
v class="u2" style="width: 389px; text-align: left; padding-bottom: 3px;">

	Toshiba Portege M780-S7230	Average for category [ultraportable]
Video	VGA	VGA plus HDMI or DisplayPort
Audio	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks
Data	3 USB 2.0 (1 with eSATA/sleep-and-charge), SD card reader, mini-Firewire	3 USB 2.0, SD card reader
Expansion	ExpressCard/54, docking connector	None
Networking	Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth	Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, optional mobile broadband
Optical drive	DVD burner	None

Toshiba packs a professional and wide array of into the Portege M780, including mini-FireWire, an e-SATA combo USB port, and a full-size ExpressCard slot. Toshiba didn't include an HDMI port, which makes sense as this is more of a small business machine, but with its speedy Core i5 processor, this M780 could have interfaced with an HDTV for video and streaming shows easily. Ports flank all four sides of the M780's thick base, which can make locating a desired port a bit of a head-scratcher. An included fingerprint reader could be an attractive add for business security.
The 3GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive are a little less than we'd expect for a $1,700 laptop--Toshiba could have bumped the hard drive to 500GB and the memory to 4GB. On the other hand, this Portege comes with 64-bit Windows 7 Professional.
On its Web site, Toshiba offers M780 configurations ranging from a Core i3 up to a Core i7 processor, and prices from $1,279 to $1,799. Our configuration is a fixed ordering option that's near the top of the pack.
The Core i5 processor at the heart of the M780 felt fast and responsive, and offers plenty of computing power for small businesses or even medium-to-heavy media users. Multitasking is a strength of Intel's new Core i-series processors, and we even found the touch interface to be one of the snappier ones we've tested. On the other hand, as we said, Windows 7 simply isn't designed with the icons or an interface that is ideal touch-screen experience.

Multimedia multitasking test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Sony Vaio VPC-Z116GX/S

675

HP Pavilion dm4-1003

680

Lenovo Ideapad Y460

695

Toshiba Portege M780-S7230

726

Adobe Photoshop CS3 image-processing test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Lenovo Ideapad Y460

107

Sony Vaio VPC-Z116GX/S

109

Toshiba Portege M780-S7230

122

HP Pavilion dm4-1003

126

Apple iTunes encoding test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Toshiba Portege M780-S7230

139

Sony Vaio VPC-Z116GX/S

140

Lenovo Ideapad Y460

140

HP Pavilion dm4-1003

140

Video playback battery drain test (in minutes)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

HP Pavilion dm4-1003

261

Toshiba Portege M780-S7230

232

Sony Vaio VPC-Z116GX/S

210

Lenovo Ideapad Y460

132

Compared with the touch-organic iOS environment on an iPad, we found ourselves floundering at closing windows and scrolling through documents, and resorting to flipping back to keyboard access in laptop mode. A thick stylus tucks into the side of the Portege and works nicely, but there is no multitouch--actions such as scrolling are accomplished with awkward flick-gestures that worked intermittently. Considering this is probably at least half of how a potential buyer would intend to use their Portege M780-S7230, it makes for a compromised performance experience.

Juice box
Toshiba Portege M780-S7230	Average watts per hour
Off	0.74
Sleep	0.96
Idle	10.82
Load	46.11
Raw kWh	48.62
Annual power consumption cost	$5.52

Annual power consumption cost

HP Pavilion dm4-1003

$4.75

Toshiba Portege M780-S7230

$5.52

Sony Vaio VPC-Z116GX/S

$6.92

Lenovo Ideapad Y460

$6.94

The Toshiba Portege M780-S7230 lasted 3 hours and 52 minutes on our video-playback battery drain test using its included six-cell battery. Battery performance less than three hours is usually our cut-off point for acceptability, so the M780 does edge up to a reasonable number; however, other ultraportables (to say nothing of the iPad) run laps around the Portege batterywise. An iPad is far from a fair comparison to a Core i5 laptop, but the gauntlet has been thrown: people want long battery life in touch-screen portables, and increasingly are going to expect it. Batteries that last less than 4 hours inevitably disappoints us. For business use environments such as warehouses or fulfillment centers, we could see this lack of all-day battery life becoming a hindrance.
The Toshiba Portege M780-S7230 is backed by an industry-standard, one-year warranty. Support is accessible 24-7 via a toll-free phone line, an online knowledge base, and a Web site with driver downloads.

HP Compaq Presario CQ60-615DX

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 20:40:41 PDT

The good: Rock-bottom price; attractive design; good build quality; offers enough performance for basic tasks and some multitasking; roomy display; comfortable keyboard; Wireless-N Wi-Fi.
The bad: Single-core processor limits performance; no Webcam; no media card reader; stiff mouse buttons.
The bottom line: The Compaq Presario CQ60-615DX covers the basics, and that's really all you can ask for from a $349 laptop.

Editors' note: This review is part of our spring 2010 retail laptop and desktop roundup, which covers specific fixed configurations of popular systems found in retail stores.The Compaq Presario CQ60-615DX follows the tried-and-true budget laptop formula, supplying an Intel Celeron processor, 2GB of RAM, integrated Intel graphics, a 250GB hard drive, and a 15.6-inch display for a bargain basement price. In fact, this $349 laptop features the same core specs as the Toshiba Satellite L455-S5975, which sold for $330 when we reviewed it last fall. We're not thrilled with paying more for basically the same laptop three ... Expand full review This review is part of our spring 2010 retail laptop and desktop roundup, which covers specific fixed configurations of popular systems found in retail stores. The Compaq Presario CQ60-615DX follows the tried-and-true budget laptop formula, supplying an Intel Celeron processor, 2GB of RAM, integrated Intel graphics, a 250GB hard drive, and a 15.6-inch display for a bargain basement price. In fact, this $349 laptop features the same core specs as the Toshiba Satellite L455-S5975, which sold for $330 when we reviewed it last fall. We're not thrilled with paying more for basically the same laptop three months later, but we still think this Presario is a good value, in large part for its solid construction, comfortable keyboard, and roomy display. We recommend it more than the much slower and slightly cheaper Acer Aspire AS5532-5535.If the cramped keyboards and small screens have kept you from picking up an inexpensive Netbook , then you should give the Compaq Presario CQ60-615DX a look. Like Netbooks, the Presario CQ60-615DX uses a single-core processor, which limits application performance, particularly when multitasking. However, for basic tasks it offers smooth performance. Note that laptops with dual-core CPUs, including the Asus K60I-RBBBR05, the Dell Inspiron i1545-4266iBU, or the Toshiba Satellite L505-ES5018, cost $150 to $170 more and offer significantly better performance.

Price	$349
Processor	2.2GHz Intel Celeron 900
Memory	2GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz
Hard drive	250GB, 7,200rpm

Graphics	Intel GMA 4500M
Operating System	Windows 7 Home Premium
Dimensions (WDH)	14.9x9.9x1.7 inches
Screen size (diagonal)	15.6 inches
System weight / Weight with AC adapter	6.2 / 7.2 pounds
Category	Mainstream

The Compaq Presario CQ60-615DX doesn't look or feel like a low-end laptop. It has an overall polished look with a glossy lid with a simple Q logo in its middle, a matte black screen bezel, and a silver wrist rest. A long, sturdy hinge runs nearly the width of the laptop to hold the display in place without much wobble. The keyboard feels spacious, even with a dedicated number pad to its right. The keys have a matte finish and have just the right amount of travel. The recessed touchpad has the same glossy finish as the rest of the wrist rest, but it's not the high-gloss finish common to HP's Pavilion laptops, so your mousing finger doesn't experience the same annoying drag on the glimmering Pavilion models. The Presario's mouse buttons, however, are a tad on the stiff side.
The laptop weighs 6.2 pounds, slightly heavy for a 15.6-inch laptop. Most laptops of this size weigh between 5.5 and 6 pounds. The 15.6-inch display has a 16:9 aspect ratio, 1,366x768-pixel native resolution. The screen is bright and crisp. With its resolution, the screen can display 720p video. Its Intel GMA 4500M graphics were able to deliver a smooth video experience.The Presario CQ60-615DX features Altec Lansing stereo speakers, and we were mildly impressed with their output. They are loud and clear enough at max volume to hear movie dialog, but like nearly every laptop speaker set, they lack the depth to deliver satisfying music playback. Still, they are clearly superior to the tinny speakers of the Acer Aspire AS5532-5535.

	Compaq Presario CQ60-615DX	Average for category [mainstream]
Video	VGA	VGA plus HDMI or DisplayPort
Audio	Stereo speakers, headphone/ microphone jacks	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks
Data	3 USB 2.0	4 USB 2.0, SD card reader, eSATA
Expansion	None	ExpressCard/54
Networking	Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi	Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, optional mobile broadband
Optical drive	DVD burner	DVD burner

Not surprisingly, the Presario CQ60-615DX lacks higher-end--though increasingly common--connections such as HDMI, eSATA ports, and an ExpressCard slot. We were surprised to find a media card reader absent, too; the cheaper Acer Aspire AS5532-5535 features this convenient slot. However, neither system have a Webcam. The Presario does supply an always-appreciated Wi-Fi on/off button, along with another that disables the touch pad. Lastly, some entry-level laptops cut a corner by using 802.11g Wi-Fi, but the CQ60-615DX has wireless N support.
The Compaq Presario CQ60-615DX is based on the single-core Intel Celeron 900 processor clocked at 2.2GHz. That speed helped it outpace the Acer Aspire AS5532-5535, which uses a single-core AMD Athlon 64 QL-62 processor clocked at 1.6GHz. Also in the Celeron's favor is its 1MB of L2 cache; the Athlon 64 QL-62 has only 512KB. The Acer Aspire does feature 3GB of DDR2 memory to the Presario's 2GB, but the extra gigabyte of memory didn't help the Acer's cause in our tests. The Presario completed CNET Labs' multitasking test in nearly half the time the Acer Aspire took, and it was 32 percent and 47 percent faster than the Acer on our Photoshop and iTunes benchmarks, respectively.Looking the other way, the dual-core Toshiba Satellite L505-ES5018 costs $150 more than the Compaq Presario CQ60-615DX and was 58 percent faster than the Presario on the multitasking test, 41 percent faster with Photoshop, and 22 percent faster with iTunes. In anecdotal testing, we found that the Presario CQ60-615DX provided acceptable performance when writing this review in Word while researching the budget laptop playing field in Firefox. Generally, when running basic apps in Windows 7, the system feels peppy and responsive. It's only when you begin running more intensive, multithreaded software like Photoshop that you notice some sluggishness.

Juice box
Compaq Presario CQ60-615DX	Average watts per hour
Off	0.6
Sleep	0.7
Idle	11.7
Load	33.4
Raw kWh number	43.7
Annual power consumption cost	$4.96

Annual power consumption cost

Dell Inspiron i1545-4266iBU

$4.47

Acer AS5532-5535

$4.50

Asus K60I-RBBBR05

$4.66

Compaq Presario CQ60-615DX

$4.96

Toshiba Satellite L505-ES5018

$5.08

Gateway NV7915u

$5.17

HP Pavilion dv4-2145dx

$7.16

The Compaq Presario CQ60-615DX uses a standard six-cell battery, which powered it for 2 hours 45 minutes on CNET Labs' demanding video playback battery drain test. That's about average for this size pack. In anecdotal testing, we didn't get much more than that; the laptop failed to top the 3-hour mark when running applications in Windows 7 and with the screen brightness turned all the way up.HP backs the Presario CQ60-615DX with an industry-standard, one-year warranty. Toll-free telephone support is available 24-7 during your warranty period, and the HP support Web site includes real-time chat with a technical support representative. If you want to troubleshoot problems yourself, you can search through the site's thorough FAQ database. While retail shops are happy to sell you an in-store extended warranty, they are often expensive and hard to use, so we don't recommend them.

Multimedia multitasking test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Gateway NV7915u

825

Dell Inspiron i1545-4266iBU

1,178

HP Pavilion dv4-2145dx

1,186

Asus K60I-RBBBR05

1,201

Toshiba Satellite L505-ES5018

1,217

Compaq Presario CQ60-615DX

2,902

Acer AS5532-5535

5,715

Adobe Photoshop CS3 image-processing test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Gateway NV7915u

142

Asus K60I-RBBBR05

156

Dell Inspiron i1545-4266iBU

161

Toshiba Satellite L505-ES5018

162

HP Pavilion dv4-2145dx

166

Compaq Presario CQ60-615DX

274

Acer AS5532-5535

400

Apple iTunes encoding test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Gateway NV7915u

187

Toshiba Satellite L505-ES5018

190

Dell Inspiron i1545-4266iBU

195

Asus K60I-RBBBR05

196

HP Pavilion dv4-2145dx

219

Compaq Presario CQ60-615DX

243

Acer AS5532-5535

462

Video playback battery drain test (in minutes)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Acer AS5532-5535

127

Gateway NV7915u

147

HP Pavilion dv4-2145dx

150

Compaq Presario CQ60-615DX

165

Dell Inspiron i1545-4266iBU

174

Toshiba Satellite L505-ES5018

191

Asus K60I-RBBBR05

205

Toshiba Satellite E205-S1904 bundle

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 01:06:05 PDT

At this year's CES, one of the technologies that captured our interest was Intel's Wireless Display technology, or WiDi. Presented as a simple plug-and-play way of transmitting a laptop's video signal to any TV with the help of a small Netgear-made box, WiDi presents a tempting solution to the often messy methods currently available to those who want to get their Hulu on the big screen. (For more on Intel's Wireless Display, check out our hands-on report and video.)
WiDi, however, needs to be built into a compatible laptop. One of the first notebook computers to include WiDi at retail is the $899 Toshiba Satellite E205-S1904, a model that's exclusive to Best Buy. Though having WiDi included makes the E205-S1904 intriguing enough, we're also excited because the last Best Buy exclusive design that Toshiba made, the E105-S1802, was one of our favorite Satellite laptops. We particularly liked it for incorporating a more comfortable keyboard and touch pad than are available in most mainstream Satellite models.

The new E205 changes the look of the E105 considerably. Gone is the boxy but clean look, replaced with a sleek curved blue design. A new Intel Core i5 processor replaces the previous Core 2 Duo, offering some performance upgrades and power-management advantages. A slot-loading DVD/CD drive is also included. The keyboard is still backlit, and speaker volume is improved over the E105. At a price of $899, it's only $50 more than last year's E105 Blue Label offering. For the improved CPU and wireless display functionality alone, however, it's arguably worth it.

Price as reviewed	$899
Processor	2.26 GHz Intel Core i5 M430
Memory	4GB, 1066 MHz DDR3
Hard drive	500GB 5,400rpm
Chipset	Intel HM55
Graphics	Intel Media Accelerator HD
Operating system	Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Dimensions (WD)	13.7 x 9.6 inches
Height	1.2 inches
Screen size (diagonal)	14 inches
System weight / Weight with AC adapter	5.8/5.1 pounds
Category	Mainstream

One of the biggest changes to the Toshiba Satellite E205 is cosmetic: whereas the E105 series had a clean, somewhat boring gray chassis and a solid, tapered keyboard, the E205 adopts a totally new look with a dark blue plastic finish (called Fusion Finish in metallic blue), rounded edges, and a slot-loading DVD drive. The laptop feels more plasticky and slightly less rugged than the E105, but it also looks trimmer, too. The E205 looks thin, but a lot of that is a visual effect produced by the extremely tapered edges along the sides and front. Still, the Satellite E205 is thinner than many full-size laptops at only 1.2 inches. A larger-than-normal rear hinge enables the 14-inch screen to open up at an angle that "floats" a little more off the keyboard than standard lids. The lid also opens up at a very wide angle.
Toshiba's move to a flat backlit keyboard instead of the very comfortable tapered keyboard on the E105 is frustrating: it's a return to the keyboard lineup available on most Satellites, and frankly, the flat keys leave something to be desired. Though the E205's flat keyboard seemed to respond a little better than the keyboards on other Satellites we've reviewed, the main part of the keyboard still flexes too much for our taste. The multitouch touch pad beneath is smaller than the stiff-clicking buttons beneath, which is awkward--but the flush matte touch pad surface worked fine for us as we used the E205. A row of dedicated media touch-keys run down the right side of the keyboard, controlling audio, basic play functions, an Eco power utility, and backlighting.
The Toshiba Satellite E205-S1904's 14-inch LED screen has a resolution of 1,366x768 pixels, which is standard for mainstream HD laptops. With a 16x9 display and reasonably bright backlighting, the screen looked great when playing DVDs or streaming Hulu videos, although the glossy screen offered up a considerable amount of glare in an office environment. The big disappointment on the Satellite E205-S1904 is its stereo speakers: embedded in the front-facing underside of the laptop, they sounded middling and soft even at maximum volume. Toshiba laptops usually have strong speaker quality, and for a Blue Label product sold at Best Buy, we expected more.

	Toshiba Satellite E205-S1904	Average for category [Mainstream]
Video	VGA-out, HDMI	VGA and HDMI or DisplayPort
Audio	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks
Data	2 USB 2.0, 1 USB 2.0/eSATA/sleep and charge, SD card reader	4 USB 2.0, SD card reader
Expansion	None	ExpressCard/54
Networking	Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi	Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, optional WWAN
Optical drive	DVD/CD burner	DVD burner

The Satellite E205-S1904 lacks a few features available on mainstream-or-better machines, most notably Bluetooth, but its inclusion of a high-speed eSATA port and a USB sleep-and-charge port make up for the loss. The 4GB of included RAM can be expanded up to 8GB, and the 500GB hard drive is plenty generous for most people.
The included Intel Core i5 processor was a pleasure to use in our anecdotal testing, feeling snappier and better at multitasking than most mainstream Core 2 Duo processors. That was reflected in the benchmark results: though the Core i5 is an improvement over the E105-S1802's Core 2 Duo processor in iTunes and Photoshop tests, it's a huge leap forward in our multitasking test.Loading videos in Flash and performing media tasks was a snap, especially with the built-in Intel HD Media Accelerator. Unfortunately, like its predecessor, the E205-S1904 has no dedicated gaming graphics. The E205 can't play mainstream games, therefore limiting this device to those looking for very solid media and video playback. Still, this E205-S1904 has great bang for the buck on most mainstream computing needs.
The E205's most notable feature, one we've profiled in great detail, is its Intel Wireless Display capability, or WiDi. The E205 can, with the assistance of a simple Toshiba software tool, send its video display to any TV with RCA or HDMI input jacks, courtesy of the included Netgear Push 2 TV box. The WiDi connection is akin to that of a Wi-Fi bridge, but has surprisingly decent clarity and can be initiated at the push of a button. Our initial tests worked well and at a far range, although a few subsequent tests had connection difficulties.The playback works at resolutions up to 720p (although you can run 1080p files as well, they'll just display at the lower resolution), but DVDs and Blu-ray-formatted Discs are locked out for DRM reasons, limiting WiDi users to streamed Web programs or downloaded video files. The included Netgear box will eventually sell for $99 when this technology spreads to other laptops; if you consider that an included value, then the price of the Satellite E205-S1904 becomes even more reasonable. We also love that WiDi includes the transmission of sound, making it a complete cord-free solution for home users. We were very impressed with the results, but running WiDi will slow down your computer a good deal, which isn't going to be a problem, since the E205 mirrors whatever's on the screen to your television, and if you're streaming video, you likely won't be working on other projects.

Juice box
Toshiba Satellite E205-S1904	Average watts per hour
Off (60%)	0.45
Sleep (10%)	0.74
Idle (25%)	11.86
Load (05%)	55.78
Raw kWh Number	53.42
Annual power consumption cost	$6.06

Annual power consumption cost

HP ProBook 5310m

$4.88

Toshiba Satellite E105-S1802

$4.97

Sony Vaio VPC-EB1JFX/B

$5.23

Toshiba Satellite E205-S1904

$6.06

Dell Inspiron 1564

$13.15

The Toshiba Satellite E205-S1904 ran for 4 hours and 46 minutes on our video playback battery drain test, using the included six-cell battery. Though that's a solid amount of battery life for a mainstream laptop, it's only a few minutes different than the life of the Satellite E105-S1802. Our battery drain test is especially tough, so you can expect longer life from casual Web surfing and office use, but it's pretty spot on for video playback, which is what this system may spend a lot of time doing. Though thin-and-light laptops with ULV processors get longer battery life, this is a solid yet unspectacular number for a mainstream machine in a small body.

Multimedia multitasking test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Dell Inspiron 1564

678

Toshiba Satellite E205-S1904

717

Sony Vaio VPC-EB1JFX/B

834

HP ProBook 5310m

1180

Toshiba Satellite E105-S1802

1286

Adobe Photoshop CS3 image-processing test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Dell Inspiron 1564

109

Toshiba Satellite E205-S1904

117

Sony Vaio VPC-EB1JFX/B

139

Toshiba Satellite E105-S1802

145

HP ProBook 5310m

171

Apple iTunes encoding test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Dell Inspiron 1564

141

Toshiba Satellite E205-S1904

154

HP ProBook 5310m

171

Toshiba Satellite E105-S1802

183

Sony Vaio VPC-EB1JFX/B

185

Video playback battery drain test (in minutes)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Toshiba Satellite E205-S1904

286

Toshiba Satellite E105-S1802

272

HP ProBook 5310m

204

Sony Vaio VPC-EB1JFX/B

197

Dell Inspiron 1564

169

As part of Best Buy's Blue Label program, the Satellite E205-S1904 gets 30 days of Geek Squad customer service support, plus an extended two-year warranty from Toshiba. A toll-free phone number is available 24-7, and additional support and drivers can be found on Toshiba's Web site.

Canon Vixia HG20

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 00:46:05 PDT

The Canon Vixia HG20 is an excellent HD camcorder that's reasonably easy to operate out of the box and looks good, too. It's almost identical to the company's Vixia HF11, but rather than recording mainly to internal flash memory, it records to a hard drive. As for performance, it's as good if not better than the Sony Handycam HDR-SR11. So in the end, it comes down to a preference for flash memory or hard-disk drive as your storage medium of choice. And if it's for flash, your willingness to pay extra for it.

In addition to the price differential--which varies quite a bit on the Web, so it pays to shop around--there's only a few spec variations between the flash-based HF11 and the HG20. The obvious is the HG20's 60GB hard drive versus the HF11's 32GB internal memory. In recording time, it's 5 hours and 30 minutes to 2 hours and 55 minutes at 24Mbps (and both can be supplemented with SDHC cards). Ironically, there's more differentiation between HG20 and its brother, the HG21: in addition to a larger 120GB hard drive, the HG21 offers an eye-level viewfinder.
Aside from capacity, it's really just a matter of size and weight separating the HG20 and HF11; the HF11 is smaller and lighter at 2.9 inches wide by 2.5 inches high by 5.1 inches deep and 15.1 ounces to the HG20's dimensions of 3.1 inches wide by 3 inches high by 5.4 inches deep and 17.6 ounces. Positions for controls and I/O jacks are slightly altered between the two as well. Most notably the dial to switch from video/still record to video/still playback is on the back for the HG20, on the side for the HF11. However, regardless of the model, the controls are large and easy to operate.
A five-way joystick and Function button--which navigates frequently needed shooting settings--live on the bezel of the camcorder's smallish 2.7-inch LCD. Putting the controls out on the LCD instead of under the thumb can make it difficult to simultaneously change settings and keep the camcorder steady. In addition, manually focusing with the joystick can be a pain, regardless of the zoom-view focus assist.
The HG20 records AVCHD video at a maximum bit rate of 24Mbps, and can hold up to 22 hours 55 minutes of video at the lowest bit rate of 5Mbps. (There are five quality settings in all, which I find excessive.) That higher bit rate goes to support the full 1,920x1,080 capture, the norm for most of this year's new models, compared with 1,440x1,080 for older AVCHD camcorders, which required only a 12Mbps maximum bit rate. You can record best-quality movies to SDHC cards as long as it's a Class 4 or better (Class 6 is currently fastest).
Its optically stabilized f1.8-3.0 12x zoom lens has a longer reach than the typical 10x lens available in this class, but the rest of its features are pretty common in Canon's prosumer models. For video, these include aperture- and shutter-priority exposure modes, 3 fixed/1 variable zoom speed options, a video light, Instant AF, and a wind-screen filter. You can also record in progressive 30 or 24 frames per second modes, as well as 60i. For still photos, metering, flash, and burst and exposure bracketing, options become available as well. The camcorder also supplies a complete set of ports and connectors: component or mini-HDMI out for direct-to-TV playback, mini headphone and mic jacks, and USB for downloading to computer.
The lens performs surprisingly well. Not only does the SuperRange optical image stabilization system work satisfactorily all the way out to the end, but the lens focuses quickly and holds the lock in both dim and bright conditions. Images look sharp, too. On the downside, high-contrast edges show more fringing than usual. The stereo microphone sits beneath the lens and generally delivers good audio quality. However, in recent models, Canon changed the wind-filter option from a forced-on to automatic, and ever since we've found it far less effective. The microphone attenuation (zoom mic) works pretty well, too.
Video overall looks quite good despite the use of a small, 1/3.2-inch 3.3-megapixel CMOS sensor. Recordings were properly exposed, nicely saturated, and sharp. As expected, in low light the video displays a good deal of noise and a somewhat compressed tonal range, but retains a significant amount of detail and fares above average compared with the rest of its class.
For the most part, the 24Mbps video is indistinguishable from the 17Mbps except in low light; when viewed on a large-screen plasma TV, the higher bit-rate video displayed significantly more luminance noise than the lower bit rate. The lower bit-rate video looked slightly softer, however. The difference between the two was still noticeable, but not as pronounced, when viewed on my calibrated CRT display. Even when extracting individual frames, I didn't really see any fewer artifacts that would affect video editing. On the upside, there were no software incompatibility issues with the 24Mbps files.
An excellent choice for hard-disk-based HD recording, the HG20 gives the Sony HDR-SR11 a close run for the money and is a clear champion if you don't like the Sony's touch-screen interface. However, the real question is do you want more storage at a lower price or give up some storage space and extra cash for the smaller, lighter HF11. The HG20 gets my vote in that scenario.

LG Sentio (T-Mobile)

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 00:32:33 PDT

As strange as it may seem, LG has never had a phone on T-Mobile, at least until the summer of 2010. Indeed, the Sentio marks LG's first handset in T-Mobile's stable. Aside from that accolade, don't expect anything groundbreaking--the Sentio is strictly in midrange feature-phone territory. However, we like its smooth and svelte design, and its multimedia features work well--for the most part. Perhaps the most attractive part of the phone is that it's very affordable-- it's only $69.99 with new two-year contract with T-Mobile.

Design
The LG Sentio is remarkably slim and stylish. Measuring only 4.2 inches long by 2.1 inches wide by 0.5 inch thick, the Sentio is one of the thinnest touch-screen phones we've seen. At 3.3 ounces, it's definitely one of the lightest phones as well. It doesn't use steel or glass, but it is wrapped in a smooth and soft slate gray plastic that grips well. Its gently curved corners and edges add to the overall ergonomic feel of the phone.

The LG Sentio has a 3.0-inch resistive touch screen

Smack dab on the front of the phone is the 3.0-inch touch-screen display. According to LG, the Sentio's display supports 262,000 colors, and it shows-its images look nice and colorful, and we can appreciate the subtle shading of the menu icons as well. However, it's quite as vibrant as some of the glass displays that we've seen on more advanced smartphones are. You can adjust the font size and the backlight time.
The Sentio's home screen is customizable with widgets or application shortcuts. By simply tapping on the arrow on the right side of the screen, you can drag and drop widgets from the slide-out tray to the home screen. You can make any feature or function of the phone into a widget shortcut icon. At the bottom row of the home screen are four additional shortcuts to the phone dialer, the contacts list, the Web browser, and the main menu. Its menu interface is similar to that of other LG phones, such as the LG Vu Plus--and its main menu is divided up into four pages: Phone, Media, Organizer, and Settings.The Sentio's screen is resistive, so it's not quite as responsive as that of a capacitive touch screen--such as those used on the iPhone. We found that we needed to push a little harder to get the phone to respond. However, the Sentio has a vibration feedback to increase the feeling of responsiveness and you can adjust the type and intensity of the vibration.To dial a number, you need to use the virtual number keypad on the phone dialer application. Thankfully, the keys are large, and the number input area is quite roomy as well. The phone dialer has shortcuts to Recent Calls history plus the Contacts list. For text messages, you can enter in letters either via T9 predictive text on the nine-key keypad, or a virtual QWERTY keyboard. To trigger the keyboard, you need to rotate the phone ninety degrees to the right for the accelerometer to kick in. We certainly prefer to use the QWERTY keyboard for text input as it is a lot faster to type on, and we like that the keyboard is quite spacious as well. However, that means the text input area is relatively small in comparison when the onscreen keyboard is displayed. You can toggle the auto word correction on or off.

The virtual QWERTY keyboard on the LG Sentio is spacious enough, but that led to a rather small text input area.

Underneath the display are three physical keys: Send, Back, and the End/Power key. All three keys are circular and have a nice domed surface, and are easy to press as well. The left spine is home to the volume rocker, the task menu key, and the headset/charger jack, while the camera key is on the right. The screen lock key is on the top, and the camera lens is on the back. The microSD card slot is located behind the battery cover.
Features
The LG Sentio's phone book has the capacity to hold 1,000 contacts with room in each entry for five numbers, three e-mail addresses, three instant-messenger IDs, a Web address, a company name, three street addresses, a birthday, an anniversary date, and a memo. Its basic features include a vibrate mode, a speakerphone, text and multimedia messaging, an alarm clock, a calendar, a notepad, a world clock, a tasks list, a calculator, a stopwatch, a unit converter, and a tip calculator. You also get voice command, instant messenger, e-mail, a HTML Web browser, Bluetooth, and GPS with Telenav Navigator support. For social networking fans, LG includes Social Buzz, an app for managing your various social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, on the Sentio.As for entertainment options, the Sentio has a YouTube app and there's a music player. To load songs on the player, you'll have to do so via the included USB cable. You can also load songs to the microSD card for additional storage. Its player interface is simple, you can create and edit playlists on the go, and you get the typical player settings like repeat and shuffle. We found it the player easy and intuitive to use.

The LG Sentio has a 3.0-megapixel camera lens on the back.

The 3.0-megapixel camera on the Sentio can take pictures in five resolutions and three quality settings. You can also adjust the white balance, the ISO, the shot mode (continuous, normal, or frame shot), color effects, and turn night mode on or off. Other settings include brightness, a self-timer, and the choice of three shutter tones plus a silent option. The Sentio camera's photo quality was quite good, surprisingly. Its night mode does a decent job in low-light situations, and the images overall white balance is OK. It also had good color accuracy as well.You can personalize the LG Sentio with graphics and sounds, as well as games and apps--the phone comes with Guitar Hero 5 Mobile (demo), Millionaire 2010 (demo), Need for Speed Shift (demo), Pac-Man, and Photobucket Mobile. You can download full versions of the games and more options from the T-Mobile Web store.
Performance
We tested the LG Sentio in San Francisco on T-Mobile. We were pleased with the call quality overall. We heard our callers clearly without a lot of distortion, and volume was good as well. However, we did occasionally detect a bit of hiss.Our callers said they could hear us loud and clear with little to no background noise. However, calls in its speakerphone mode did result in a lot more echo and hiss, and callers said that we sounded a bit more muffled than usual. For us, they sounded about the same, albeit with more of a hollow and tinny sound quality, but that's to be expected with most speakerphones. Similarly, the Sentio's audio quality over the speakers wasn't the best. It sounded rather bland and flat. As always, a headset is your best bet with the music.The LG blesses the Sentio with support for 7.2Mbps 3G networks, and we were suitably impressed by it. We experienced almost no buffering when streaming YouTube videos and loading CNET's front page only took around 20 seconds.The LG Sentio has a rated battery life of 6 hours talk time and 13 days standby time. According to FCC radiation tests, the Sentio has a digital SAR of 1.26 watts per kilogram.

HP Pavilion dm4

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 02:18:00 PDT

The middle-of-the-road multimedia laptops that come out of HP have always been excellent examples of the style. They typically bring some upscale design buzz--but not too much in the way of extra features or components--while keeping prices down.
Our configuration of the HP Pavilion dm4 worked out to cost $979 (that is with a temporary price break from $1,079). For $1,050, the Lenovo IdeaPad Y460 offers similar specs, but includes an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650. A similar part (a 1GB ATI Radeon 5450) is available for the customizable dm4, but it'll add an extra $200 to the price. That said, the default hard-drive speed is 7,200rpm for the HP and only 5,400rpm for the Lenovo. A better all-around deal may be the 15-inch Samsung R580, which has both upgraded graphics and a Blu-ray drive for $829.

HP Pavilion dm4"title="
HP Pavilion dm4"id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482178649302880514" />

HP Pavilion dm4"title="
HP Pavilion dm4"id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482178645802185346" />

HP Pavilion dm4"title="
HP Pavilion dm4"id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482178640862813714" />

HP Pavilion dm4"title="
HP Pavilion dm4"id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482178630026352994" />

Of those three, however, the HP dm4 has the slickest look, taking design elements, including a large multitouch touch pad, from the more expensive HP Envy series.

Price as reviewed / Starting price	$979 / $729
Processor	2.4GHz Intel Core i5 M520
Memory	4GB, 800MHz DDR2
Hard drive	320GB 7,200rpm
Chipset	Intel HM55
Graphics	Intel Media Accelerator HD (integrated)
Operating System	Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Dimensions (WD)	13.4 x 9.0 inches
Height	1.0-1.3 inches
Screen size (diagonal)	14.0 inches
System weight / Weight with AC adapter	4.3 / 5.2 pounds
Category	Midsize

Price as reviewed / Starting price $979 / $729
Processor 2.4GHz Intel Core i5 M520
Memory 4GB, 800MHz DDR2
Hard drive 320GB 7,200rpm
Chipset Intel HM55
Graphics Intel Media Accelerator HD (integrated)
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Dimensions (WD) 13.4 x 9.0 inches
Height 1.0-1.3 inches
Screen size (diagonal) 14.0 inches
System weight / Weight with AC adapter 4.3 / 5.2 pounds
Category Midsize
As a close cousin of the 13-inch HP dm3, the new dm4 shares a similar metallic body. But, rather than the brushed-metal look of the dm3, this model has an etched pattern of angular lines--almost like Nazca lines--along the wrist rest and back of the lid. The gently rounded corners give the dm4 a soft, consumer-friendly look. The corners of the keyboard tray (and the four keys that sit closest to the corners) are similarly rounded, as is the oversized touch pad.The keyboard is similar to the flat-topped, widely spaced keys we've seen on recent HP systems such as the Pavilion dm3, although the larger 14-inch chassis allows for a better layout, including full-size arrow keys. Lacking any kind of dedicated media control buttons, all your media and alternate key functions are mapped to the row of Fn keys, although the assignments are reversed; using the traditional F4, F5, etc. functions requires holding down the Fn button.The touch pad is similar to what we've seen on HP's high-end Envy systems. It's larger than usual, and the matte black surface is infinitely superior to the sticky mirrored pads we've seen on the past several generations of Pavilions. The touch pad, like Apple's, eschews separate left and right mouse buttons, instead cordoning off two click zones in the lower left and right corners.It's a better touch pad than on the vast majority of non-MacBook laptops we've reviewed, but our main complaint is that some of the multitouch gestures are hard to use. Case in point, scrolling up and down pages using the two-finger method is hit or miss, unless your fingers are perfectly lined up on the horizontal plane. We noted that very same problem last year on the original HP Envy 13.Like Dell, Asus, and other PC makers, HP includes a software dock along the top edge of the screen, presenting handy links to software and services in one place. The dock is user customizable, but its default settings are heavy on advertising come-ons from Snapfish, Norton, the HP Download Store, and others. Rhapsody link, yes; Web browser link, no.The 14-inch wide-screen display offers a 1,366x768-pixel native resolution, which is standard for a screen this size. Though overly glossy, the display was clear and bright, with realistic color reproduction.

	HP Pavilion dm4	Average for category [mainstream]
Video	VGA, HDMI	VGA plus HDMI or DisplayPort
Audio	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks
Data	3 USB 2.0 (one USB/eSATA), SD card reader	4 USB 2.0, SD card reader, eSATA
Expansion	None	ExpressCard/54
Networking	Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, optional mobile broadband	Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, optional mobile broadband
Optical drive	DVD burner	DVD burner

HP Pavilion dm4 Average for category [mainstream]
Video VGA, HDMI VGA plus HDMI or DisplayPort
Audio Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks
Data 3 USB 2.0 (one USB/eSATA), SD card reader 4 USB 2.0, SD card reader, eSATA
Expansion None ExpressCard/54 Networking Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, optional mobile broadband Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, optional mobile broadband
Optical drive DVD burner DVD burner Though the graphics card can be upgraded on the dm4 (for either $100 or $200), there's no Blu-ray option, which is something that's becoming increasingly common on 14- and 15-inch laptops. You can, however, add mobile broadband from Verizon Wireless, AT&T, or Sprint for $125.The processor options range from Intel's Core i5 to Core i7, and we had the middle-of-the-road 2.4GHz Intel Core i5 M520 in our review unit. That should be more than enough power for all but the most demanding users, and we were able to surf Web sites, play media files, and edit photos in Photoshop simultaneously with no stuttering or slowdown.
With only integrated Intel graphics capabilities, you're not going to be doing any gaming beyond FarmVille on this system, unless you add one of the optional discrete ATI graphics cards (which our system lacked).

Juice box
Mainstream (Avg watts/hour)
Off (60%)	0.6
Sleep (10%)	1.01
Idle (25%)	8.28
Load (05%)	45.02
Raw kWh Number	41.89
Annual Energy Cost	$4.75

Annual energy consumption cost

HP Pavilion dm4-1003

$4.75

Samsung NP-R580-JSB1US

$6.45

Sony Vaio VPC-Z116GX/S

$6.92

Lenovo Ideapad Y460

$6.94

The HP Pavilion dm4 ran for 4 hours and 21 minutes on our video playback battery drain test, using the included 6-cell battery. That's excellent for a 14-inch laptop, especially as we've seen some disappointing battery performances from midsize laptops lately. As it's slim and light enough to be an occasional (but not everyday) road machine, the long battery life is especially appreciated.HP includes an industry-standard one-year mail-in parts-and-labor warranty with the system. Upgrading to a three-year plan will cost an extra $259, which includes on-site service, with additional upgrade levels available for "accidental damage." Support is accessible through a 24-7 toll-free phone line, an online knowledge base, and driver downloads.

Multimedia multitasking test
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Sony Vaio VPC-Z116GX/S

675

HP Pavilion dm4-1003

680

Lenovo Ideapad Y460

695

Samsung NP-R580-JSB1US

733

Adobe Photoshop CS3 image-processing test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Sony Vaio VPC-Z116GX/S

109

Lenovo Ideapad Y460

110

Samsung NP-R580-JSB1US

117

HP Pavilion dm4-1003

126

Apple iTunes encoding test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Sony Vaio VPC-Z116GX/S

140

Lenovo Ideapad Y460

140

HP Pavilion dm4-1003

140

Samsung NP-R580-JSB1US

155

Video playback battery drain test (in minutes)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

HP Pavilion dm4-1003

261

Sony Vaio VPC-Z116GX/S

210

Samsung NP-R580-JSB1US

151

Lenovo Ideapad Y460

132

Dell Vostro 3300 Laptop Computer (Intel CORE I3 350M 250GB/2GB)

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 01:48:28 PDT

Positioned between the business-targeted Latitude and the mainstream consumer Inspiron lines, Dell's Vostro has always been the type of computer that's half-meant for personal use, half for business: it's casual professional. The Vostro 3300, part of a revamped line from Dell, is a 13-inch laptop with a somewhat thick frame and a standard-voltage Core i3, i5, or i7 processor. It's not as slick as the more expensive Vostro V13, which takes much of its design ideas from the high-end Dell Adamo (the original model, not the newer XPS version), but it still has a bit of the Adamo magic in its looks and metal outer casing. More importantly, the 3300's price--starting at $599 for a Core i3 processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 250GB hard drive--makes it very affordable.The Vostro 3300 isn't going to turn heads, but it is one of the best, most affordable and lightweight small business 13-inchers we've seen, with its only significant drawback being battery life. It's so nice that we wonder why Dell hasn't offered this little guy up to mainstream consumers more eagerly.

Dell Vostro 3300 Laptop Computer (Intel CORE I3 350M 250GB/2GB)"title="
Dell Vostro 3300 Laptop Computer (Intel CORE I3 350M 250GB/2GB)"id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482173924791382818" />

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Dell Vostro 3300 Laptop Computer (Intel CORE I3 350M 250GB/2GB)"id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482173925581661682" />

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Dell Vostro 3300 Laptop Computer (Intel CORE I3 350M 250GB/2GB)"id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482173908805768610" />

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Dell Vostro 3300 Laptop Computer (Intel CORE I3 350M 250GB/2GB)"id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482173902903254914" />

Price as reviewed / starting price	$868 / 599
Processor	2.26 GHz Intel Core i5 M430
Memory	3GB, 1066MHz DDR3
Hard drive	320GB 7,200rpm
Chipset	Intel HM57
Graphics	Intel Media Accelerator HD
Operating System	Windows 7 Professional (32-bit)
Dimensions (WD)	12.8 x 9.0 inches
Height	0.8-1.1 inches
Screen size (diagonal)	13.3 inches
System weight / Weight with AC adapter	4.3/5.0 pounds
Category	Mainstream

The Vostro is meant to glide somewhere between personal and business, and that's exactly what the design of the 3300 suggests: metal and black define the outside, with squared-off edges on the front and back, and slightly rounded sides. The Vostro 3300 comes standard in Aberdeen Silver (which is what we had) in Core i3 configurations, with the option of adding Lucerne Red or Brisbane Bronze color schemes in the Core i5 configuration for an extra $40. Overall, the design lies somewhere between the trendy Adamo and the more utilitarian Latitude.Plain, ThinkPad-esque matte-black defines the interior of this minimalist Dell, from the keyboard deck up to the material surrounding the above-screen Webcam. A few backlit media-control keys and a backlit power button above the keyboard are the only flashy touches. Because this Vostro has a slightly thick and squared bottom half, there's room to fit audio in/out jacks, an SD card slot, and a Wi-Fi toggle button on the front edge, although they're a little tightly packed together in the center below the track pad.The keyboard on the Dell Vostro 3300 is similar to ones we've seen on other recent Dell laptops: it could be best described as a flat keyboard with individually raised keys. Though there's no number pad, it's easy to type and feels comfortable during extended writing sessions, and the keyboard goes edge-to-edge, maximizing the laptop's compact dimensions. The keyboard on our model wasn't backlit and that isn't available as an upgrade option on this exact model, but there is a Dell Vostro 3300 that includes a backlit keyboard on Dell's Web site starting at $708.Above the keyboard, a small backlit touch-controlled media bar has basic play/pause and volume functions. It's useful, but not overly so for a business-focused machine. These might have been better spent on videoconferencing and other productivity-related toggles. To the right of these are a few LED indicators for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and battery status.The track pad is wider and responds better than that of some brands we've seen. The plain discrete buttons below are nothing remarkable and could be slightly larger, but at least they're not overdesigned. A 13.3-inch LED-backlit display on the Dell Vostro 3300 has a 16x9 aspect ratio and a native resolution of 1,366x768 pixels, which is standard for most laptops up to 15 inches. These screens also come standard with antiglare, which is far rarer. The experience we had was excellent--the screen has the glare-free quality of a matte display, with the crispness found in a glossy coating. Text and video were easy to watch in any lighting.The included 2-megapixel Webcam had better clarity, sound-recording and light sensitivity than most Webcams we've come across, making it perfect for video conferencing. A small LED light also indicates the camera's in record mode. Though the camera's professional, Dell's selection of cartoonish effect overlays in its included camera software can only be described as cheese-ball. There's only one speaker on the Vostro 3300. It's located on the front left edge of the laptop's bottom half, and though it sounds loud and clear, its off-center position makes it a weak choice for movie playback. Should you choose to take a break with a DVD, you might want to pack some good headphones.

	Dell Vostro 3300	Average for category [Mainstream]
Video	VGA	VGA plus HDMI or DisplayPort
Audio	Mono speaker, headphone/microphone jacks	Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks
Data	2 USB 2.0, 1 USB 2.0/eSATA combo, SD card reader	4 USB 2.0, SD card reader, eSATA
Expansion	None	ExpressCard/54
Networking	Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, modem, Bluetooth	Ethernet, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, optional mobile broadband
Optical drive	DVD burner	DVD burner

The Dell Vostro 3300 doesn't have a huge selection of ports, but it does have eSATA. It's lacking HDMI-out, however, which is a feature that's becoming nearly universal on all laptops (excluding Macs). Thankfully, at least there's Bluetooth. Configuration options abound on the Vostro 3300, as is often the case with Dell laptops. Customization on Dell's Web site offers either a Core i3 or i5 processor, along with RAM configurations from 2GB to 4GB and hard drives from 250GB to 500, all at 7,200rpm. RAM can be expanded up to 8GB. Despite Core i3 and i5 processors being 64-bit-ready, Dell chose to make 32-bit Windows Home Premium the default OS. Upgrading to 32-bit Professional or 64-bit Home Premium costs an extra $70; 64-bit Professional, an extra $120.Depending on the support software, memory and other options chosen, the Vostro 3300's price can climb above $1,000, where it no longer seems like a great bargain. We'd advise you keep software services to a minimum and focus on basic needs. Our configuration, at over $800, just straddles the border of what we'd consider paying before looking elsewhere.
Intel's Core i3 and i5 processors are both more than enough for any user's multimedia-viewing and multitasking needs. The i5 processor is notably faster, but we wouldn't be opposed to downgrading to a Core i3 based on our previous experience with the CPU, although our benchmarks on the Vostro 3300 are limited to the Core i5 configuration. It's excellent for most business needs, including PowerPoint, but our system did tend to run a bit noisily and warm after a few minutes of dedicated Hulu streaming.As far as graphics go, there aren't any to speak of except for Intel's integrated HD GPU. This machine is perfect at handling video playback, but it can't handle games beyond casual or browser-based ones. Dell does offer discrete graphics--an Nvidia GeForce 310M GPU--on its highest-end Vostro 3300 configuration.

Juice box
Mainstream (Avg watts/hour)
Off (60%)	0.67
Sleep (10%)	0.91
Idle (25%)	11.4
Load (05%)	50.54
Raw kWh Number	51.42
Annual Energy Cost	$5.84

Annual energy consumption cost

Lenovo Thinkpad Edge

$3.39

HP Pavilion dm4-1003

$4.75

HP ProBook 5310m

$4.88

Dell Vostro 3300

$5.84

The Dell Vostro 3300 ran for 2 hours and 5 minutes on our video playback battery drain test, using the included 4-cell battery. Anything under 3 hours on a mainstream laptop is disappointing, and although the Vostro uses a lower-capacity 4-cell battery, it's a mar on an otherwise strong design. Yes, this is a budget laptop, but few business customers would want to risk such a brief amount of battery life when traveling. Upgrading to an 8-cell extended-life battery ($99) is a must.
Dell includes an industry-standard, one-year warranty with the Vostro 3300, including on-site service. Extended warranty options can be selected when purchasing the Vostro--an extra year for $50 or two years for $90--or a more expensive but comprehensive Business Class Service Plan for about $70 extra per year. Support is accessible via chat, e-mail, or toll-free phone. An online knowledge base and driver downloads are relatively easy to find.

Multimedia multitasking test (in seconds
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

HP ProBook 5310m

506

HP Pavilion dm4-1003

680

Dell Vostro 3300

743

Lenovo Thinkpad Edge

1810

Adobe Photoshop CS3 image-processing test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

HP Pavilion dm4-1003

126

Dell Vostro 3300

148

HP ProBook 5310m

171

Lenovo Thinkpad Edge

276

Apple iTunes encoding test (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

HP Pavilion dm4-1003

140

Dell Vostro 3300

152

HP ProBook 5310m

160

Lenovo Thinkpad Edge

301

Video playback battery drain test (in minutes)
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Lenovo Thinkpad Edge

320

HP Pavilion dm4-1003

261

HP ProBook 5310m

204

Dell Vostro 3300

125

Dell Vostro 3300
Windows 7 Professional (32-bit); 2.26GHz Intel Core i5 M430; 4096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz;
64MB (Dedicated)/1275MB (Total) Intel MHD; 320GB Seagate 7200rpm HP Pavilion dm4-1003
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit); 2.4GHz Intel Core i5 M520;
4096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz;
64MB (Dedicated)/1695MB (Total) Intel MHD; 320GB Toshiba 7200rpm HP ProBook 5310m
Windows 7 Professional (64bit) 2.26Ghz; Intel Core 2 Duo,
2048MB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz, 64MB Intel GMA 4500MHD, 320GB Seagate 7200rpmLenovo Thinkpad Edge
Windows 7 Professional; 1.3Hz Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 ULV;
4096MB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz; 128MB Mobile Intel GMA 4500MHD;
320GB Seagate 5400rpm

Samsung Messager Touch SCH-R630 - light blue

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 01:01:01 PDT

Samsung often makes a line of phones specific to smaller carriers such as U.S. Cellular and MetroPCS, and the Samsung Messager line is an example of that. Both the Messager and the Messager II are pretty basic and have a design similar to that of the Samsung Rant--with an external number keypad coupled with a sliding QWERTY keyboard. However, the Messager Touch changes that. As its name suggests, it now has touch screen along with Samsung's TouchWiz interface plus a full sliding keyboard, and looks much sleeker than its predecessors. While we're not thrilled with the odd spelling of the phone's name (There's no such word as "messager"), we admit that the phone is a decent multimedia-messaging phone for U.S. Cellular customers. It's available for $49.99 with a mail-in rebate, and a two-year service agreement.
Design
The Samsung Messager Touch looks similar to most other Samsung touch screen feature phones, such as the Samsung Seek for example. Measuring 4.13 inches long by 2.12 inches wide by 0.59 inch thick, the Messager Touch has simple and slender silhouette. The rounded corners and the curved contours on the back let the phone cradle comfortably in the hand. Both the side bumper and the back plate of the phone are clad in a soft touch plastic that adds to the overall comfort of holding the phone.

The Samsung Messager Touch has a 2.6-inch touch-screen display.

Its 2.6-inch QVGA touch-screen display on the front is certainly not the largest we've seen, but it serves well on a relatively simple phone such as this. It looks crisp and colorful, thanks its support of 262,000 colors and its 240x320-pixel resolution. You can adjust the backlight time, the dial font size, and the color of the lock screen font. You can also change the key that will unlock the screen, and toggle the transition effect between page changes.
As with most resistive touch-screen displays, you do need to apply a bit more pressure to finger taps. Still, we found it to usable and not quite as laggy as we expected. For additional accuracy, you can go through the calibration wizard on the phone, and if you want, you can add both vibration and sound effects to your finger taps to act as feedback.
The Messager Touch has three home screens along with Samsung's TouchWiz interface--you tap the gear icon on the upper left to reveal the TouchWiz tray on the bottom. You can then customize each home screen by adding a widget from the TouchWiz tray. The widgets consist of different tools like the alarm clock and the calculator, and you're limited to the ones Samsung provides.
Along the bottom row of the home screen are shortcuts to the phone dialer, the contacts list, the shortcuts list, and the main menu. The phone dialer houses a large virtual number keypad along with quick shortcuts to a new text message and to save the number to the address book. The aforementioned shortcuts list lets you add and remove your favorite application shortcuts along with a list of speed dial numbers. As for entering text, you don't get the option of a virtual keyboard, but we don't mind that since we would prefer to use the physical keyboard anyway.

The Samsung Messager Touch has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

Speaking of that, you can reveal the QWERTY keyboard by sliding the display to the right. The sliding mechanism felt smooth and solid. The four-row keyboard is quite roomy, and we like that there are navigation arrow keys on the right side. The keys are raised enough for us to text and dial by feel, but we did wish they were just a bit bigger--we had to use our fingernails to type most of the time. The number keys are highlighted in blue.On the left side are the volume rocker and microSD card slot while the screen lock key, charger jack, and camera key are on the right. On top of the phone is a 3.5mm headset jack and the camera lens is on the back.Features
The Samsung Messager Touch has a 1,000-entry phone book, and each entry has room for five numbers, an e-mail address, a note, and a photo for caller ID. You can also customize each entry with a ring tone--the phone comes with 17 polyphonic ring tones, or you can use your own. Its basic features include a vibrate mode, a speakerphone, a calculator, a tip calculator, a unit converter, a notepad, a calendar, an alarm clock, a stop watch, a sketchpad, a timer, and a world clock.
Supporting text and multimedia messaging is a given, and we like that the phone supports threaded conversations. You also get instant messaging, mobile e-mail, voice command, voice recording, stereo Bluetooth, GPS, and an HTML Web browser. You don't get quick access buttons to your e-mail or Web browser--you have to go through the EasyEdge application first. The HTML Web browser is easy enough to use, but you have to use the magnifying glass to zoom in and out, which can get rather cumbersome. Also, since the screen is so small, there's quite a bit of scrolling about.The music player on the Messager Touch is simple and not unlike other Samsung phones. You have to insert a microSD card in order for it to work. The songs are categorized into genre, artist, and album, and you can set the player to repeat or shuffle. The Messager Touch only has 100MB internal storage, but it supports up to 16GB microSD cards.

The Samsung Messager Touch has a 2.0-megapixel camera on the back.

The 2.0-megapixel camera on the Messager Touch can take pictures in four resolutions and three quality settings. Other camera settings include four shooting modes, a self-timer, brightness, white balance, color effects, metering, a night mode, and three shutter sounds plus a silent option. It's Photo quality was mediocre. Its images looked sharp enough, but image colors seem muted and a little overcast. Also, it has a built-in camcorder that can record in 176x144-pixel resolution.

The Samsung Messager Touch takes mediocre photos.

You are free to customize and personalize your phone with graphics for wallpaper and sounds for ring tones or alerts. You can download more options via the U.S. Cellular EasyEdge store. The phone comes with Namco's Pac-Man game, and you're free to download more via the EasyEdge store as well.
Performance

We tested the Samsung Messager Touch in San Francisco using U.S. Cellular's roaming network partners. Its call quality was pretty good overall. We heard our callers clearly for the most part, with natural sounding voices to boot.On their end, our callers said they encountered a bit more distortion. They said it sounded like distant crackling, but it was quite faint and didn't happen too often. Its speakerphone calls quality is rather mediocre. Voices came through loud enough, albeit sounding tinny. Callers said we sounded rather muffled and reported quite a strong echo effect as well.
Its audio quality for music playback was decent. However, its mono external speaker emitted rather hollow sound, so we would suggest the use of a headset for better performance.We weren't able to test the Messager Touch under ideal EV-DO Rev. 0 conditions, since San Francisco only supports the 1xRTT network for U.S. Cellular. However, we still enjoyed decent download speeds. We were able to load the full CNET front page in just 35 seconds, for example.
The Samsung Messager Touch has a rated battery life of 5 hours talk time and 12 days standby time. According to the FCC radiation tests, it has a digital SAR of 0.95 watt per kilogram.

iPhone 5: 20 most-wanted features

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 00:52:07 PDT

The day the iPhone 3GS launched, I wrote a column entitled "364 days and counting to iPhone 4G."
Well, to keep the tradition rolling, I was all set to write "364 days and counting until the iPhone 5," but at the last minute I decided against it. Instead, I thought it would be more useful to put together a list of all the things I'd like to see in the fifth-generation iPhone, which should be unveiled a year from now.Some of you will undoubtedly say, "Wow, David, the iPhone 4 has barely been released and you're already talking about No. 5." My answer: Why not? For a guy like me, who already owns an iPhone 3GS and won't be buying the iPhone 4 (as great as it may be, it's missing some features I want), I've already moved on and I'm looking ahead.
The end result of my iPhone 5 fantasies is a list of 20 items ordered from least to most important in a reverse countdown. I've also included what we think are the odds of Apple actually implementing each request. As always, feel free to agree or disagree with me and make your own suggestions (and to post your own ordered wish list). I will update the list after the comments start rolling--so get your two cents in. Perhaps Apple's listening.

iPhone 4, iPad ushering in sea change in gaming

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 02:15:43 PDT

One of the clear winners to emerge from Steve Jobs' formal unveiling of the iPhone 4 Monday was the game development community. With major new features like a gyroscope, a better screen, a better antenna and a better camera, developers have a slew of new tools to use in making their games.
Yet at the same time, the release of the iPad has also opened up what amounts to a major new platform for games. Many people are using it more like a computer than an iPhone and that means that developers can take advantage of users' longer sessions with it. And that means more money.

One company seemingly very well poised to leverage these new dynamics is Ngmoco, one of the largest makers of iPhone and iPad games, and the developer of hit titles like Rolando, Word Fu, and Topple.
At Ngmoco's helm is Neil Young, the former head of Electronic Arts' Los Angeles studio. Young left EA in 2008 to form Ngmoco and quickly hauled in $40 million in funding from A-list VCs including Kleiner Perkins Caufied & Byers.
On Tuesday, with the dust from Jobs' keynote still settling, Young sat down for a 45 Minutes on IM interview and talked about what Apple's hot new device means for the industry and for companies like his, and what he sees happening to the larger iOS platform over the next year or so.
Q: Welcome to 45 minutes on IM. Let's start with the obvious question: What's your take on the iPhone 4? I know it's a broad question, but I'm hopeful you have a strong opinion.
Neil Young: I do have a strong opinion. I think that Apple took a big leap forward with the iPhone 4 over the 3GS.
How so?
Young: If you think about the iPhone lineup, it's really been pretty incremental structurally. This feels like the third major revision (2G, 3G, and 4). It has a new chipset, a new screen. A new antenna. And a new camera. All are meaningful upgrades.
Do you see that as linear advancement, or as a more exponential change.
Young: I see it as being a foundational change that will look incremental on the surface but is a new platform that they can scale on top of.
If the platform scales like you're imagining, what would be some directions it might go?
Young: Well, that would be speculation on my part, but I think that a gyroscope-enabled, touch-sensitive device with a screen would make a wonderful interface for television and gaming on television. It wasn't called the iPhone 4G either. Just the iPhone 4.
What does that distinction say to you?
Young: Steve Jobs was at pains in his keynote to point out that the device is capable of downstream and upstream rates higher than the current network can deliver. I bet they tack the G on at some point. When the network is ready. Now imagine video calling over a 4G network. On the "all new" iPhone 4G.
I think that the antenna tech is also exceptionally cool and smart. They've radically changed the size of the antenna
Again, just your speculation, but are you also suggesting here that maybe this is Apple stealing the thunder a little bit from motion controllers Microsoft's Project Natal, Sony's Move, etc.?
Young: No, I think that's a ways off. But as a fan of Apple TV, I can't wait for them to do something that lets my company's apps run on the TV and gives me a control interface that's not just movement based, but is also touch based.
Clearly, bandwidth is going to be a bigger and bigger issue. What's your thought on AT&T's decision to stop offering unlimited data usage with new contracts? And how do you see that playing out for Ngmoco and your competitors?
Young: Ultimately, access becomes a commodity and should be able to fall to free with the subsidy coming from what people do on the network. In the short term, I don't think it really hurts the business, but it creates an opportunity for AT&T's competitors to differentiate themselves. I don't think it has a big impact in the short term. For us, 75 percent of our users play while connected to Wi-Fi.
Do you think that number will change much in the next year or so?
Young: I would expect Wi-Fi usage to grow as a percentage as more Wi-Fi hotspots and civic hotspots appear. There will always be a 3G component for sure.
What have you seen in terms of iPad adoption?
Young: It's growing fast. And the customers who play our games on iPad play for fewer, but longer sessions per day and tend to spend more.
Why do you think?
Young: I think that they spend more time, because people are using their iPad at home and the paradigm for interaction is much more like a computer than a phone. As for spending more, it's hard to tell how much of that is early adopter behavior vs. sustainable consumer change.
I really think the iPad opens up so many more dimensions to gaming that it's a totally different platform. What's your thought on that?
Young: I think it's a different platform, but because of the user behavior and the screen predominantly. Humans react to what they see, what they hear and what they touch. The iPad takes two of those things and radically changes it over the iPhone and iPod Touch: a bigger screen and more of it to interact with. It's almost like "Minority Report." And with multitasking in iOS4 for iPad, it'll be even more like that.
Again, I see a much more exponential change than the linear, incremental change than you might expect because of pure percentage growth in screen real estate with the iPad. Because it's so much bigger, it opens up whole new realms of behavior and design opportunity. Do you agree with that?
Young: I do. With the iPhone 4, I think that the gyroscope is going to really open up augmented reality gaming. Overlaying the real world with game data that is accurately rendered because the position and orientation of the phone is accurately understood will finally usher in that age of AR. For the iPad, I think it's going to be much more about touch.
That and time spent are the fundamental differentiators. So building games that can support longer play cycles that are more rewarding when tactile interaction is involved will be the imperative there.
Any examples you can give of ways that that will manifest in games?
Young: No specific examples that wouldn't hint too strongly at some things we're working on.
Talk a little bit about multitasking in iOS. How much of a game-changer is that for Ngmoco and for the platform itself.
Young: I think that multitasking done right is the last functional requirement of making interacting with the apps on the phone a flawless experience. Switching contexts on the device is important and the current loop is sub-optimal; 1) Find App; 2) Launch App; 3) Engage in App; 4) Hit Home button; 5) Find next App; 6) Launch next app; 7) Engage; 8) Hit Home button. Go to 1. I think for the types of games we make, it's going to work well. It'll allow users to drop in and out of play experiences and likely increase engagement, which is really a proxy for monetization: Engaged users tend to spend more time and spending more time=spending more money.
What's your thought on Apple re-branding the iPhone OS as iOS?
Young: That makes sense. It's an OS that's across multiple devices and would seem like a good set up for future devices running iOS. A TV or TV box running iPhone OS doesn't make as much sense as one running iOS.
I always end my 45 minutes on IM interviews with this: Instant message is a great medium for being thoughtful and articulate and also for getting a great transcript. But it's also good for multi-tasking. So, tell me: What else have you been doing while we've been doing this interview?
Young: Let's see. I signed some documents for our legal team. I spoke with my co-founder Alan Yu about two developers that he's talking with. I spoke to my co-founder Bob Stevenson and our executive producer Chris Plummer about two of our upcoming games. I did email. I looked at stats from the server infrastructure and I talked about an offer we're making to a new employee in our New York office. So, yes, it's good for multitasking.

iPhone 4 First Take

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 22:51:48 PDT

Apple CEO Steve Jobs opened the 2010 Worldwide Developers Conference today by announcing the latest iPhone incarnation, the iPhone 4. As expected, the latest handset features a high-resolution display, a faster processor, and video calling, but it also sports unexpected additions like a new antenna and a gyroscope. It will be available exclusively with AT&T starting June 24. The price with service is fair--$199 for the 16GB phone or $299 for the 32GB device--and both models come in white and black versions. No, we did not hear a peep about the elusive Verizon iPhone, but we didn't anticipate any news on that front.
Even from the outside, you'll see that the iPhone 4 marks the biggest upgrade since the iPhone 3G (the 3GS didn't add much beyond a compass). The profile is thinner and you'll notice a new front-facing camera (more on that later). The iPhone 4 also serves as the debut device for the newly named iOS 4 operating system, which brings such much-needed features as multitasking, a unified e-mail in-box, and app folders for the home screen.
On the whole, this iPhone 4 has us more excited than we were last year when the the 3GS was born. The new features, particularly those in the new operating system, are long overdue and we welcome any efforts to improve call quality (remember that it is a phone, after all). There were a few things that we were hoping for that we didn't get--a 64GB model, among them--but we look forward to reviewing this model.
Design
The new iPhone's design is a sharp departure from the previous iPhone models. The front and back sides are glass, both surfaces are flat, and a stainless steel border circles the entire phone. Indeed, it looks very much like the photos that appeared on Gizmodo after an Apple engineer allegedly lost it in a Redwood City, Calif., bar back in April. Other new design elements include the aforementioned front-facing camera, split volume controls, two noise-cancellation microphones, and a new LED flash with the main camera lens. The iPhone 4 also switches to a Micro-SIM format, just like the iPad.
We welcome the new design elements on a couple of levels. The flat backside means that the iPhone will no longer wobble when it's resting on a table. Also, even though the overall effect is a tad boxy, the handset has a clean and unmistakeably Apple look. At 0.37 inch (9.3mm), the iPhone 4 also is 25 percent thinner than its predecessors. Jobs called it the thinnest smartphone around, but since that race changes daily, it may not hold the title for long.
We haven't had an opportunity to test noise-cancellation microphones, though we expect that they can only do good. The camera flash also is a win, and we're hoping that the front-facing camera can be used for self-portraits in addition to the new FaceTime feature. The split volume buttons are fine, even though we never had a problem with the previous control.
That said, we have a couple of concerns with the new design. It's clear that Apple is pushing the Micro-SIM format, though we're not exactly sure why. On a superficial level, it saves plastic, but a Micro-SIM doesn't offer any functional benefits over the standard SIM. Is Apple starting a new format war or is this merely a barrier (albeit, not a very high one) to iPhone jailbreakers? We'll have to wait and see the answer, but in the meantime we hope that you'll be able to use the same Micro-SIM between on an iPhone 4 and an iPad 3G.
We also have a small concern about all that glass. It is shiny and beautiful, but the glass attracts smudges by the ton and durability remains a concern. Jobs said that glass better resists scratches, but we hope that the iPhone 4 will take a few drops to the floor without cracking. On the upside, it feels solid in the hand.
Antenna
The stainless steel border is more than just decorative; it doubles as a new antenna that circles the entire phone. Though Jobs did not promise that it would improve call quality or Wi-Fi reception, its very mention is an indirect admission that data and voice reception is not perfect. Though current iPhone users largely blame AT&T for connectivity problems, remember that both a carrier's network and a phone's antenna play a part in reception.
Whatever the reason for its development, the redesigned antenna should be good news for iPhone users. And if it improves call quality while looking good at the same time, that's even better.
Display
Apple has a unique talent for making us want something we never knew we wanted. The iPhone 4 features a 940x640-pixel (or 300 pixels per square inch) "Retina Display," which is four times the resolution of previous iPhone models. What's more, it uses the same IPS display that's found on the iPad with an 800:1 contrast ratio. Though we've always thought highly of the current iPhone displays, perhaps Apple wanted to respond to the gorgeous screens we've seen on phones like the HTC Evo 4G.
In our brief hands-on, the display is clearer than crystal clear (Brian Tong's words). Since it renders all text the same, we had no problems reading screens from a variety of sources. Photos looked especially lovely, particularly when you compare the same image between an iPhone 4G and an iPhone 3GS.
Processor and battery life
Just as we thought, the iPhone 4 will feature the same A4 chip that's found in the iPad. The result is a faster processor (always nice), plus improved battery life (even better) given the A4's efficient power management. Add in a bigger battery and we get a promise of 7 hours of talk time now, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of Wi-Fi browsing, and 300 hours of standby. Bravo on all counts.
Camera changes
The iPhone's camera has always been decent, but it's lacked features found on many basic phones. That's why we applaud the 5-megapixel resolution, the new LED flash, and the 5x digital zoom. The iPhone 4 also has a new back-side illuminated sensor, which requires a more-detailed explanation. Check out my colleague Stephen Shankland's blog for a detailed look at the technology.
Though the new handset isn't called the "iPhone HD" (one of its rumored names), it records 720p high-definition video at a constant 30 frames per second. The demo looks great, even if the iPhone isn't the first cell phone to offer this capability. We can't wait to try it.
iOS 4
As mentioned, the iPhone 4 has all the goodies that come with the latest iPhone operating system that Apple announced last April. Jobs said that the OS will now be called iOS 4 rather than iPhone OS 4. That's a nod to the fact that the OS runs on both the iPhone and the iPad.
Gyroscope
The iPhone 3Gs gave us a compass, but the iPhone 4 raises the bar by offering a three-axis gyroscope. Like on an airplane, you'll get pitch, roll, and yaw, and it's tied with the accelerometer to provide six-axis motion sensing. Though by all means it will be useful to app and game developers, it also just looks like a lot of fun.
FaceTime
Jobs' "One more thing" concerned FaceTime, a new video-calling feature that will be exclusive to the iPhone 4. You'll be able to use FaceTime in both portrait and landscape modes, and it uses both the front and rear cameras. We also like that it requires no setup, it's based on open standards, and that you won't have to download an additional app. As Jobs said, it uses software that you won't even notice. The demo looked great in all respects.
For 2010, FaceTime will work only on Wi-Fi, but we don't think that's a bad thing. Video chat uses a ton of data so we're sure the experience would be better on Wi-Fi than on AT&T's strained network. Jobs said Apple is working with iPhone carriers to carry the feature (cue speculation on possible new carriers), but he didn't offer other details. Jobs also promised that Apple would ship "tens of millions of FaceTime devices this year," which leads us to wonder whether we'll see the feature on non-iPhone devices in the future. But then again, maybe we're just reading into things too much.
Though it's not a feature that we were burning for, we're more than happy to see FaceTime get its day. Apple has another talent for repackaging existing technology and attracting wide consumer interest. Outside of other VoIP services like the Skype app, carriers have been unsuccessful at making video-calling services useful. For example, AT&T's Video Share application is only on a limited number of phones, it isn't available everywhere, and it won't blow you away.
iMovie and iBooks
iMovie brings movie-editing capabilities to the iPhone. You'll pay $4.99 for the app, but it's a nice touch. iBooks also adds some nifty new features. You can make notes on pages of books, view PDF files, and sync purchases between your iPhone and iPad.
That's it for the highlights. We'll have a full review of the iPhone on or around the June 24 release date. That's a Thursday, by the way, which is a break from Apple's usual Friday iPhone release day. Until then, tell us what you think of Apple's newest baby.

LG EnV Touch (Verizon Wireless)

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 11:24:45 PDT

The LG EnV Touch was a surprise to us. We thought all of the EnV line of phones would be in the style of the LG EnV VX9900, the LG EnV2 , and the more recent LG EnV3.Those phones had numeric keypads on the front, with QWERTY keyboards behind their flip designs. But it appears that the LG EnV Touch is actually a successor to the Voyager VX10000, due to its full touch screen-interface. Perhaps Verizon and LG are going back to the EnV name to reinforce its association with high-end messaging phones. We gave the LG Voyager VX10000 an Editors' Choice award when it first launched, but it has been almost two years since then, so it's about time for an upgrade. The LG enV Touch definitely offers better design and features. Both the touch-screen and internal displays are bigger, the keyboard has a better layout, the 3.2-megapixel camera has more advanced settings, the 3.5mm headset jack accommodates your own headphones, EV-DO Rev. A offers faster Web browsing, and more. The EnV Touch doesn't have V Cast Mobile TV like the Voyager did, but that's about the only thing missing with this upgrade. Perhaps our only complaints were that the touch-screen interface and Web browsing could use some refinements, and the lack of Wi-Fi was disappointing. The LG EnV Touch is available for $149.99 with a $70 mail-in rebate and a two-year service agreement, which isn't too expensive for what you're getting.

Design
When the LG Voyager came out two years ago, touch-screen phones were still relatively new. The market is now flooded with them, and the EnV Touch doesn't seem so unique now. However, that doesn't take away from the EnV Touch's design appeal. Measuring 4.52 inches long by 2.16 inches wide by 0.66 inch thick, the EnV Touch is slimmer than the Voyager, though at 4.92 ounces, it's a bit heavier. It has a sleek and stylish look similar to that of the LG Dare and the LG Versa, with a solid feel in the hand and a sturdy hinge construction.

The LG EnV Touch has a large, 3-inch touch screen on the front.

Like the Voyager, the EnV Touch has a large touch-screen display dominating its entire front surface, except for three physical keys at the bottom; the Send, Clear, and End/Power keys. The Clear key doubles as the voice command key (with a short press) and the voice recorder key (with a long press). The touch screen is really stunning, measuring 3 inches diagonally, which is a hair larger than the 2.81-inch display on the Voyager. The display supports a whopping 1.6 million colors and is bright, sharp, and vibrant. You can adjust the screen's backlight time, the charging screen, (what shows on the display when the phone is charging), the menu fonts, and the dial fonts. Along the bottom of the home screen are five shortcut icons that lead to the messaging menu, the virtual dial pad, the main menu, the phone book, and a Favorites page, where you can list your favorite contacts or group. You'll also find a small arrow to the far right of the display. Tap that, and you'll reveal a pull-out menu of application shortcuts and shortcuts to media files in the My Media library (Media files include photos, browser bookmarks, and videos). You can then drag and drop those shortcut icons directly to the home screen, which is similar to what you can do on the LG Dare. Some of the application shortcuts will just appear as simple icons, like the browser for example. For certain applications, like the calendar and the clock, they will appear as full-on widgets on the home screen. If you want to add a shortcut that's not listed on the pull-out menu, you can tap the Add button on the bottom right to select from your entire library of applications and media files. If you wish to remove the shortcut from your home screen, simple drag and drop the icon to the small arrow on the right. On the whole, we found the touch-screen interface to be quite responsive. There's a touch calibration wizard that you can go through to help with your precision and sensitivity, and the haptic feedback makes the phone vibrate whenever your touch registers. You can even adjust the length and intensity of the vibration. Also helpful is a sound effect whenever your touch registers on the screen. Aside from just tapping, you can also scroll through menus and long Web pages by dragging your finger across the screen. Despite all this, the touch-screen interface takes some acclimation. This is especially true with the Web browser, where you need to tap a particular icon just right for it to register. We had to tap links several times before it got through, for example. Also, when scrolling through menus, we would sometimes launch an application accidentally. We got used to it after awhile, but it was frustrating at first.

The LG enV Touch has a virtual dial pad on the touch-screen interface.

Instead of having to open up the phone to dial or text, you can do both via the touch-screen interface. We liked the virtual dial pad's large digits. Underneath the keypad are shortcuts to voice dialing, the recent calls list, and the contacts list. As for messaging, you can choose a few ways to enter text: handwriting recognition, multitap or T9 via an alphanumeric keypad, or via a landscape QWERTY keyboard. The EnV Touch has an internal accelerometer, so you can activate the QWERTY keyboard by rotating the phone horizontally. When using the QWERTY keyboard, each key magnifies as you touch it to show that you selected it, much like the keyboard on the iPhone. All of these text entry methods work fine as far as touch-screen interfaces go, but we would definitely choose to use the actual physical keyboard over the touch screen for faster typing. On the left spine of the EnV Touch are the dedicated camera key, the volume rocker, and the screen lock key. The charger jack is on the bottom, while the microSD card slot and 3.5 millimeter headset jack are on the right side. We're especially glad to see the 3.5 millimeter headset jack, as it's always good to have the option of using your existing headphones. On the back are the 3.2-megapixel camera lens and an LED flash. The 3-inch internal display is just as large as the external display and just as attractive, with the same color support and pixel resolution. You can adjust the backlight time separately from the external display. You can also change the menu style interface. Do note that you need to open the phone all the way to 180 degrees to access the controls on the left spine.

The LG EnV Touch has a full QWERTY keyboard.

There are stereo speakers on either side of the display, while two soft keys rest right underneath. Below that is the full QWERTY keyboard. Even though it looks similar to the one on the Voyager, there are a few important differences. There's now a Favorites button that leads to your favorite contacts page, a dedicated text-messaging button, plus the usual Shift and Symbol keys. The biggest change is that the space bar is now located in the middle of the keyboard instead of to the sides. This is a welcome change, as it is far more natural to have the space bar in the middle. Thankfully, the QWERTY keyboard on the EnV Touch is just as easy to use as on the Voyager. The keyboard is spacious, with keys that are raised above the surface and have a nice give when pressed. The 2, Q, W, E, and S keys are grayed out to indicate game pad controls. To the right of the QWERTY arrangement is the navigation array. It consists of the Send and End/Power keys, a square navigation toggle with middle OK key, the Clear key, and the Speakerphone key. The up, left, and down directions on the toggle can be mapped to three user-defined shortcuts, while the right leads to the My Shortcuts menu, which can also be customized with up to four shortcuts.
You can also customize the QWERTY keyboard shortcut, which lets you initiate a contacts search, a new text message, or a new note, simply by pressing any key on the QWERTY keyboard.
Features
If you thought the LG EnV Touch's design was impressive, wait until you hear about its features. Almost all of its offerings are updated from the Voyager, even the basics. The one thing missing from the EnV Touch is V Cast Mobile TV, which is Verizon's live-TV-streaming service. The EnV Touch holds a generous 1,500-entry phonebook, with room in each entry for five numbers, two e-mail addresses, and a street address. You can then organize the contacts into caller groups, pair them with a photo for caller ID, or any of 26 polyphonic ring tones. Other basics include a vibrate mode, a speakerphone (which you can activate prior to a call), text and multimedia messaging, voice messaging, a calendar, an alarm clock, a world clock, a stopwatch, a notepad, and even a drawing pad, which you can use with the touch-screen interface. After you finish doodling something, you can send it off to your friends via MMS if you want. More advanced users will appreciate USB mass storage and voice command dialing. Supported Bluetooth profiles include hands-free, dial-up networking, A2DP or stereo, phonebook access, basic printing, basic imaging, object push for vCard and vCalendar, and file transfer. You can also use the EnV Touch as a wireless modem for your laptop or computer, but you'll have to get the Mobile Broadband Connect plan for $60 a month for a 5GB data cap. The EnV Touch also comes with a document viewer, which will let you read Microsoft Office documents from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, plus Adobe Acrobat .pdf files. To read them, you need to load them onto a microSD card in the "my_document" folder. Other advanced features include mobile instant messenger (AIM, Windows Live, and Yahoo), GPS with VZ Navigator support, e-mail, and visual voice mail. Do note that the Verizon visual voice mail service will cost you $3 a month. As for e-mail, there are three options; mobile e-mail, with which you can get e-mail from a variety of services (like Yahoo, AOL, and Windows Live) directly into your in-box; mobile corporate e-mail courtesy of RemoSync, which lets you sync your work e-mail and calendar; and mobile Web e-mail, which gives you shortcut access to a variety of Web e-mail services like Windows Live, AOL Mail, and Yahoo Mail--this latter option opens up the Web browser. Do note that the mobile e-mail application costs $5, and in order to get corporate e-mail you'll have to sign up for a $9.99 monthly subscription to RemoSync. The corporate e-mail option works with Microsoft ActiveSync, so you need to know your company's mail Exchange server address. The EnV Touch has a full HTML Web browser like its predecessor did, and, unfortunately, it seems to have the same clunky issues with the touch screen. Don't get us wrong; we love that you can surf and browse full Web pages. We also like that you can zoom in and out of pages, view a page in full-screen mode, add bookmarks, and search through a page. The EnV Touch also features tabbed browsing (with up to three tabs, or pages, open), which we liked. But using the Web browser via the touch-screen interface is an exercise in frustration. As we said earlier, it can take several taps in order for a link to register, especially on a crowded page. Also, whenever we bring up the browser navigation array, they only appear for a second before disappearing again. There doesn't seem to be a way to adjust this in the settings. Also, using the toggle to view full screen pages can be tedious, and is nowhere as smooth as the multitouch pinch-to-zoom interface on the iPhone. Still, at least now we can use the volume rocker to zoom in and out of Web pages, which makes things easier. The LG EnV Touch comes with EV-DO Rev. A, which is a touch faster than the EV-DO on the LG Voyager. It doesn't come with Wi-Fi, however, which is a bit of a letdown on such a full-featured phone. Along with EV-DO, the EnV Touch also has access to Verizon's array of broadband services like V Cast Video, where you can download or stream video clips from providers like CBS and CNN, and V Cast Music with Rhapsody, which lets you purchase and download songs over the air. Each song costs $1.99, and includes a download to your PC. As for the music player itself, the interface is pretty simple, with the album art displayed next to the artist and album name along with the track title. You can mute the player, create and edit playlists, set the songs on repeat or shuffle, or add one of six preset equalizer settings. There's also a Music Only mode that shuts off the phone's cellular signal so you can keep listening to tunes when you're on an airplane. Other than downloading a song from V Cast Music, you can also sync up songs from your PC with a USB cable using the V Cast Music with Rhapsody software. If you have a Rhapsody subscription, you can also sync up your subscribed tracks. Supported music files include MP3, WMA, unprotected AAC and AAC+ formats. The EnV Touch supports up to 16GB of removable memory via a microSD card in case you want additional storage.

The LG enV Touch has a 3.2-megapixel camera lens and an LED flash.

The EnV Touch has a 3.2-megapixel camera, which is an upgrade over the Voyager's 2-megapixel lens. You can take pictures in six different resolutions (2,048x1,536, 1,600x1,200, 1,280x960, 640x480, and 320x240 pixels), five white balance presets, and five color effects. It also has three focusing modes: autofocus, macro mode, or manual mode, the last of which lets you pick one of seven points on the screen to focus in on. You can toggle the flash on or off, adjust a self timer if you want, or select one of three shutter sounds (there's also a silent option). The camera also has a few special shot modes: Smile shot, which automatically takes a picture when a person smiles; Panorama, which stitches together three photos shot from left to right; Intelligent shot, which automatically adjusts the white balance and color saturation based on the surrounding environment; and Facial Makeover mode, which removes all blemishes and unsightly marks from a person's face. There's also a name card reader mode that is specially tuned to take pictures of business cards so that the words are legible. This way you don't have to carry a lot of business cards around with you; just store the images in your phone.

The LG EnV Touch takes good photos.

Photo quality is very good for the most part. Images look sharp, without a lot of blurriness, and colors looked bright, as well. Do note that you can't use the external touch screen as a self-portrait viewfinder. There's also a built-in camcorder, which can record in two resolutions (320x240 and 176x144) in two lengths--short 30-second clips for multimedia messages, or clips of up to an hour or so for saving. Video quality was pretty good for a camera phone, without a lot of blur. It won't replace a real video camera, but it's good enough for sharing short video clips with friends.You have plenty of personalization options with the EnV Touch. You can adjust the wallpaper, display themes, and alert tones. You can purchase more themes and tons via Verizon's online store. The EnV Touch also comes with a few games, like Need for Speed Undercover, Resident Evil: Degeneration, and Tetris. You can find more games at via the Verizon store, as well.
Performance
We tested the dual-band (CDMA 800/1900; EV-DO) LG EnV Touch in San Francisco using Verizon Wireless. We were impressed with the call quality. Callers heard us without any static or interference, and we could hear them loud and clear. They said our voices sounded natural, almost as though we were speaking on a landline phone. Even when we activated the speakerphone, they couldn't tell the difference. On our end, the speakerphone had plenty of volume, though it sounded just a tad tinny, which is to be expected. The audio quality of songs from the LG EnV Touch's stereo speakers was average. It's loud enough, but the bass was lacking, and the vocals seemed weak. We would recommend using a wired or stereo Bluetooth headset for better music quality. The EnV Touch's EV-DO Rev. A is supposed to be faster than just regular EV-DO, and indeed it is. V Cast videos took around a second to load with little buffering time, and loading a full and complex Web page like CNET's front page took around 15 seconds. Downloading a 1.5MB song took around 30 seconds. We were also surprised that the video quality on V Cast videos was quite good. Usually we complain about the pixelation on the video, but not with the EnV Touch--perhaps because of the 1,600,000-color support and EV-DO Rev. A. It's definitely not HD quality or anything, but for streaming video, it was sharp and clear, without a lot of pixelation or blurriness. The LG EnV Touch has a rated battery life of 4.3 hours talk time and 17 days standby time. We only managed to get a talk time of 3 hours and 13 minutes in our tests. According to FCC radiation tests, the EnV Touch has a digital SAR rating of 0.932 watts per kilogram.

Pantech Pursuit (AT&T)

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 10:44:34 PDT

Despite the growing trend of smartphones in the country, AT&T has maintained its commitment to the messaging handset market, claiming that there's a huge market for so-called "smartphone lite" devices. As part of this, AT&T has launched a number of what it calls "quick messaging phones," one of which is the Pantech Pursuit. It's Pantech's first-ever touch-screen phone with a sliding keyboard, and we have to say, we're impressed. Despite its toylike appearance, the Pursuit is quite sleek, with unique features like shake and gesture controls in addition to a solid set of multimedia offerings. The Pursuit is available for a very affordable $49.99 with a two-year service agreement, and we think it would make a great phone for a teenager or young adult.

Design

At first glance, the Pantech Pursuit looks a little bit like a Fisher-Price toy, or perhaps a grown-up version of the LG MiGo. Indeed, measuring 3.6 inches long by 2.5 inches wide by 0.6 inch thick, the Pursuit has an adorably chubby and compact design. Yet, the textured casing on the front bezel and the back cover makes the Pursuit feel a tad more grown up than that. It also feels nice and sturdy in the hand. The front surface is very reflective and shiny, so much so that you can use it as a mirror when the phone is on standby.

The Pantech Pursuit has a cute playful design.

The front of the Pursuit is dominated by a 2.8-inch touch-screen display. The size of the screen is certainly smaller than most other touch-screen handsets, but we found it surprisingly usable. We absolutely love how colorful and crisp the screen looks, thanks to the 262,000-color support and the 320x240-pixel resolution. We like the clean and well-rendered text, and the choice of graphic icons and fonts is commendable. You can adjust the backlight time, the brightness, the menu theme, and the font style.
Like a lot of other touch-screen phones, you get three different home screens that you can flip through by swiping your finger to the left or right. Two of the Pursuit's home screens are customizable--one for your favorite application shortcuts, and one for your favorite contacts. Along the bottom row of each of the Pursuit's home screens are shortcuts to the phone dialer, the contacts list, the message in-box, and the main menu. The menu interface is quite extensive, with three pages of applications and functions by default.
The Pursuit has a resistive display, so you do need to apply a bit more pressure in order for your touch to register. Still, we found it surprisingly responsive--it takes less than a second for the screen to react. You can also go through a touch calibration wizard to improve your accuracy, and the Pursuit offers haptic vibration feedback as well.
The phone dialer is as you might expect--it offers a large virtual keypad with big digits that are easy enough to press. As for text-messaging, you can opt for either a virtual keyboard or Graffiti handwriting recognition, but we would rather use the physical keyboard for faster typing. The Pursuit also has a Drawing Commander application that will let you launch certain applications or functions based on certain Graffiti-like finger gestures. For example, you can map "a" for the Address book and "m" for the music player. We didn't find this that helpful, but your mileage may vary.
Aside from the touch screen, the Pursuit also has an accelerometer and a unique "shake" control that you can configure for a number of different functions. You trigger it by pressing a multitasking button on the side and then shaking the phone once, twice, or three times--the number of shakes corresponds to a user-defined function. For example, you can map one shake to launch the music player, and two shakes to launch the browser. We admit it's a little gimmicky, but we do think it has genuine practical use. We especially like it for snoozing the alarm clock, for example.
Underneath the display are touch-sensitive keys for the Send, Clear, and End keys. We generally prefer physical keys when it comes to these oft-used buttons, especially since there's a danger of accidentally making or ending a call. On the left spine are the microSD card slot and the volume rocker while the headset/charger jack, the aforementioned multitasking key, power/screen lock key, and dedicated camera key are on the right. If you hold down the multitasking key, you'll be presented with a pop-up box of open applications plus a task manager. The camera lens is on the back.

The Pantech Pursuit has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

The display slides to the right to reveal a full four-row QWERTY keyboard. The sliding mechanism feels smooth and locks securely into place. The keyboard seems deceptively diminutive at first glance, but it's actually quite spacious thanks to the large keys. The keys are distinctly delineated from each other, and the raised bubblelike feel of the keys make it easy to quickly type out a message. Indeed, the keyboard on the Pursuit is possibly one of our favorites of the year.
Features

The Pantech Pursuit has a 600-entry phone book with room in each entry for six numbers, three e-mail addresses, a company name, a messenger user name, a Web address, three street addresses, a birthdate, an anniversary date, and a note. You can also add a photo for caller ID, assign a contact to a caller group, configure a speed-dial number, and pair him or her with a custom ringtone--you have eight default ringtones and eight alert tones to choose from.
Basic features include vibrate mode, a speakerphone, an alarm clock, a calendar, a world clock, a calculator, a tip calculator, a unit converter, a stopwatch, and a timer. You also get voice command, a voice memo recorder, a sketchpad, Bluetooth, and GPS with AT&T Navigator support. As we hinted above, the Pursuit also has the ability to multitask among open apps. However, you can have only up to three open apps at any one time.
As with the Pantech Link, the Pursuit is blessed with the att.net HTML browser, which is based on Opera. You can indeed view full HTML pages with the browser, but the small screen size does mean you won't get a true Web experience. You can read more about this browser in our review of the Pantech Reveal.
The Pursuit also offers support for AT&T's new cloud services like AT&T Address Book, which lets you store messages and contacts in the cloud, and AT&T Online Locker, where you can store photos and videos in the cloud as well. You can also transfer them to popular online photo sharing sites like Photobucket via AT&T's MobileShare. Note that you only get 250MB of online storage, and the file transfer isn't free--it's around 35 cents per transfer, or $10 for 50 transfers. There's a 10MB file size cap as well.
AT&T is clearly thinking of the Pursuit as a youth-friendly device, as they also introduced several social networking features in the phone. There's AT&T SocialNet, which acts as a hub for all the popular social networks like Facebook and Twitter. If you're a Facebook or MySpace fan, however, you might want to opt for the dedicated apps for those two services also available on the Pursuit.
The Pursuit is billed as a messaging phone, so you'll get the whole range of messaging features like text and multimedia messaging, instant messaging, and mobile e-mail. To get mobile e-mail, you need to launch a Web-connected app, and after that you can configure it to get email from several web mail providers like Yahoo and Windows Live, in addition to your own POP or IMAP servers.
Since the Pursuit has 3G, this gives it access to AT&T's array of broadband services. They include Mobile Video and Mobile Music. The latter acts as a music one-stop-shop with features like XM Radio Mobile, a song ID app called Shazam, a ringtone creator, music videos, and access to music fan sites. You can also purchase and download music over the air from Napster or eMusic for around $1 per song. The music player on the Pursuit is decent--you get the typical playlist creation tool as well as repeat and shuffle mode. You can store music via a microSD card--the Pursuit supports up to 16GB cards.

The Pantech Pursuit has a 2.0-megapixel camera on the back.

The 2.0-megapixel camera on the Pursuit can take pictures in three resolutions, and three quality settings. Other camera settings include a self-timer, color effects, white balance, geotagging, plus timer and shutter sounds. The camera also has six special-effect modes--normal, smile detection, self-portrait mode (it'll beep once it detects your face), blink detection, face detection, and panorama stitching. Photo quality is actually surprisingly good for a 2.0-megapixel camera. The images look crisp overall and though the colors are a little blue for our liking, it's still quite good. The Pursuit has a built-in camcorder as well, which can shoot in either 176x144- or 320x240-pixel resolution, and you can also stream live one-way video via AT&T's Video Share.

The Pantech Pursuit takes pretty good pictures.

Thanks to the AT&T AppCenter, you can easily customize the Pursuit with a variety of graphics, ringtones, games, and apps. The phone comes with a few by default--YPMobile (Yellow Pages), Where, AT&T FamilyMap locator, MobiTV, AllSport GPS, My-Cast Weather, Mobile Banking, FunScreenz, PicDial, Hip Hop Official, Movies Powered by IMDB, Tetris, Diner Dash Flo, Bubble Bash 2, TextTwist 2, and Rolling with Katamari Damacy.
Performance

We tested the Pantech Pursuit in San Francisco using the AT&T Wireless. Call quality was above average, but nothing spectacular. On our end, we heard our callers very clearly, but the experience was slightly marred by the occasional static blip and hiss.
On their end, callers said they could hear us loud and clear--unfortunately they could hear a lot of background noise as well. They reported quite a lot of echo, even in a relatively quiet office environment. Voice quality sounded harsh as well. Fortunately, speakerphone quality wasn't too bad--they said it was similar to when we were not on the speakerphone.
Music playback quality over the phone's tinny speakers isn't the best, but it's loud enough for occasional use. We tested it with the MotoRokr S9 HD stereo Bluetooth headphones, which sounded a lot better.
We experienced pretty good 3G speeds with the Pursuit. We downloaded a 1.6 MB song in 40 seconds and loaded CNET's mobile page in around 24 seconds. Streaming video didn't take too much buffering either.
We don't yet know the battery life and SAR for the Pursuit, but we'll update this review with that information shortly.

iPhone triples Android in mobile market share

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 10:33:02 PDT

The battle between Apple and Google in the mobile space has been heating up lately, but new market share numbers from research firm Nielsen show the race isn't even close.
According to a report released late Friday that compares the fourth quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010, Apple's

iPhone OS has more than triple the market share Google's Android operating system has. Nielsen puts the iPhone OS market share at 28 percent, while Android's is at 9 percent.
The numbers put Apple in second place behind BlackBerry maker Research In Motion, which has a 35 percent share. In third place is Microsoft Windows Mobile with 19 percent, followed by Google, Palm (4 percent), Linux (3 percent), and Symbian (2 percent).
Apple and Google both moved up by 2 percent in the first quarter of 2010. In the same period, RIM and Microsoft both lost 2 percent market share.

The study also shows that iPhone and Android users are very loyal to their brands. Nielsen says 80 percent of iPhone users want their next device to run the iPhone OS and 70 percent of Android users want another Android phone. Those numbers drop to 47 percent and 34 percent for RIM and Windows Mobile, respectively.

Overall, Nielsen says the smartphone market has grown considerably. In the second quarter of 2009 smartphones accounted for 16 percent of the total mobile phone market, while in the first quarter of 2010 they accounted for 23 percent of the market.

LG Ally (Verizon Wireless)

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 06:37:56 PDT

Though LG has made Android phones for a while, they were always for the European and Asian markets. The LG Ally, however, marks the first LG Android phone to hit U.S. shores. There's nothing too new with the Ally, but we think LG did a great job here. The display is very nice, we love the slide-out keyboard, and the performance is great. We also really appreciate that it comes with the latest Android OS build, Android 2.1, right out of the gate. The LG Ally has a very impressive price tag of $99.99 as long as you sign up for a new two-year agreement with

Design
Verizon Wireless. DesignAt first glance, the LG Ally's design reminds us a lot of LG feature phones like the LG EnV Touch. Like the EnV Touch, the Ally is blocky and rectangular and is wrapped in a black and silver casing. It measures 4.56 inches long by 2.22 inches wide by 0.62 inch thick, and has ergonomic curves and angles along its sides, so it feels comfortable in the hand. At 5.57 ounces, the Ally is no lightweight, but it's still lighter than both the Motorola Devour and the Motorola Droid. The weight also contributes to the Ally's sturdy feel.

This is the LG Ally next to the Motorola Droid.

We have no complaints about the Ally's stunning 3.2-inch touch-screen display. Made out of tempered glass, the TFT display has 262,000 colors plus an 800x480-pixel resolution, resulting in really crisp and vibrant images. It looks great under bright sunlight as well.
We found the capacitive display to be very responsive. You have the option of adding haptic feedback as well, which makes the phone vibrate as confirmation that your touch has registered. Other options include a backlight timer, brightness, and the wallpaper. You can even have "live" animated wallpaper if you wish. There's also an accelerometer and a proximity sensor.
The interface on the LG Ally is that of the standard Android UI; there's no custom interface here like you would expect from HTC or Samsung. Like with the Nexus One , it's pretty easy and intuitive; you get up to five home screens that you can customize with widgets and shortcuts, and the main menu is laid out in a simple cascading grid. The phone dialer is easy to use, and if you don't want to use the physical keyboard, you are free to use the Android virtual keyboard, too.
Underneath the display are two touch-sensor keys for the Back and the Search functions. Below those are four physical keys--the Call, Home, menu pop-up, and End/Power keys--laid out in a slight curve. The volume rocker and charger jack are on the left spine, and the right is home to the microSD card slot and dedicated camera button. A 3.5mm headset jack sits on the top with the camera lens and LED flash on the back.

The LG Ally has a full QWERTY keyboard.

When you slide the display to the right, you'll reveal a four-row QWERTY keyboard. The screen automatically adjusts from portrait to landscape mode when that happens. We're really big fans of the keyboard, much more so than the keyboard on the Droid. It's roomy, there's a dedicated number row, and the keys are a good size. They're raised above the surface and are separate and distinct from each other, resulting in a super tactile feel that allowed us to type with speed. Also on the right of keyboard is a square navigation toggle, which is a nice alternative to just using the touch screen. Features
If you've used other Android 2.1 devices before, you'll be very familiar with what the LG Ally offers. Of course you get seamless integration with Google applications like Gmail, Google Talk, Google Search, Google Maps with Google Maps Navigation, and YouTube. Other features include text and multimedia messaging, visual voice mail, speech-to-text recognition, voice commands, Wi-Fi, A-GPS, and stereo Bluetooth. You also get the standard Android browser, which we love. You can double tap to zoom in and out, but there's no pinch to zoom like on the iPhone. Of course, as this is an Android phone, we would be remiss if we didn't mention the Android Marketplace, where you can download many more apps and games.If you're a fan of social networking, the LG Ally also comes with the LG Socialite app. It essentially syncs your Twitter and Facebook contacts with your Google contacts, and provides easy access to both services via a custom user interface that lets you easily check the latest updates and messages from either service. Business users will be happy with the LG Ally. We were able to set up a variety of e-mail accounts on here, including a Gmail, one of course, and we could sync to our corporate Exchange server, which allows us to sync our Outlook calendar and contacts as well. For document editing and reading, Microsoft QuickOffice comes standard with the Ally.
If you want a bit of fun with your phone, the Ally won't disappoint you there either. It comes with a music player that's similar to the one on other Android phones. You can create and edit playlists, plus there are the usual repeat and shuffle modes. You can easily purchase and download new songs via the Amazon MP3 Store. The Ally has 512MB of internal memory, but it accepts up to 16GB of removable storage via a microSD card. Even though the LG Ally is a Verizon device, we didn't see any apps for V Cast streaming video or V Cast Music with Rhapsody. To be honest, we didn't really miss them since we can use the browser for simple Flash Lite videos and we can get music from the Amazon MP3 Store anyway. Still, it would've been nice to have.

The LG Ally has a 3.2-megapixel camera and flash LED on the back.
We were quite pleased with the LG Ally's 3.2-megapixel camera. It can take pictures in five resolutions and three quality settings. Other options include five scene modes, five white-balance presets, eight color effects, a self-timer, four shutter sounds plus a silent option, and five special shot modes that include Panorama Shot and Smile Shot, which automatically detects smiles. There's also zoom, flash, and a macro focus mode.

The LG Ally takes OK but not great pictures.

With all this customization, we wished the photo quality would be better. Image quality was decent, but not great. Colors looked good but images just didn't look as crisp as we would like. After taking photos, you can geotag them and upload them to a variety of photo-sharing sites like Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, and more. There's also a built-in video recorder that can record in three resolutions (640x480 pixels, 320x240 pixels, and 176x144 pixels) with similar settings to the still camera. MMS storage is capped at a minute long, whereas the normal mode lets you shoot for as much as available memory holds.
Performance
We tested the dual-band (CDMA 800/1900 Mhz) LG Ally in San Francisco using Verizon Wireless. Call quality was good for the most part, though we did have a few minor issues. On our end, we heard our callers loud and clear without any static or distortion. We enjoyed good signal strength, too. However, their voice quality was rather hollow, as if they were calling from inside a tunnel.
Callers reported the same thing from their end. They said we sounded perfectly fine with good volume, but it was as if we were talking from inside a tin can. When we turned on the speakerphone, callers reported a bit more echo and the voice quality was more muffled as well. On our end, the speakerphone quality was fine, but the tinny quality persisted.
Music quality was average. The external speaker provided tinny yet loud audio quality. We would definitely recommend a headset for better quality, especially since the Ally has a 3.5mm headset jack so you can use your own headset.
The LG Ally has a 600Mhz processor, and we found it to be good enough for our needs. There was very little lag time even when we were running multiple applications. The EV-DO Rev A. speed was impressive as well. The CNET home page loaded in around 20 seconds; we downloaded a song from Amazon in just 40 seconds. Though some of the Flash video we watched looked rather choppy, there was little to no buffering time. The Ally has a rated battery life of 7.5 hours talk time and 20.8 days standby time. According to the FCC, it has a digital SAR of 1.36 watts per kilogram.

Sony Handycam DCR-SR68 (silver)

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 06:15:40 PDT

The Handycam DCR-SR68 is Sony's entry-level hard-drive-based standard-definition camcorder. The main attractions are its small size, large storage capacity, and megazoom lens, all at a sub-$350 price. It's also fairly easy to use out of the box; despite what is seemingly a never-ending menu system, there aren't a lot of shooting options. However, as with most camcorders in its class, the video results are mediocre--especially if you're watching them full screen on a large HDTV or are used to the detail of high-definition content.
If you're not terribly concerned with video quality and want a reasonably priced camcorder that's easy to use, has a megazoom lens, and can fit in a coat pocket, this Sony is worth checking out. If 80GB of storage isn't enough for you, spend $50 more on the DCR-SR88, which is identical to the SR68, but has a 120GB hard drive.

Key specs	Sony Handycam DCR-SR68/SR88
Price (MSRP)	SR68, $349.99; SR88, $399.99
Dimensions (HWD)	2.2x2.6x4.1 inches
Weight (with battery and media)	11 ounces
Storage capacity, type	SR68, 80GB hard drive; SR88, 120GB hard drive; Memory Stick Pro Duo, SD/SDHC cards
Resolution, sensor size, type	680K pixels, 1/8-inch CCD
LCD size, resolution	2.7-inch LCD, 230K pixels (touch screen)
Lens (zoom, aperture, focal length)	60x, f1.8-6.0, 39-2,340mm (16:9), 44-2,640mm (4:3) (35mm equivalent)
Minimum illumination	3 lux (1/30-second shutter speed)
File format (video, audio)	MPEG-2 (.MPG), Dolby Digital 2-channel stereo
Resolution (video/photo)	720x480 (9Mbps)/640x480
Recording time at highest quality	20 hours and 33 minutes
Image stabilization type	Electronic
Battery type, rated life (typical)	Li ion rechargeable, 45 minutes
Included software	Sony Picture Motion Browser (Windows only)

Available in blue, silver, and red versions, the SR68/SR88 (the SR88 is silver only) is an attractive little camcorder. Its physical controls are textbook camcorder design with a start/stop button at the back and zoom rocker up top in front of a shutter release for snapshots in Photo mode. The whole package is roughly the size of a soda can. The hand strap is comfortable if a little low and because hard drives have become so small and light, there's barely a bump encasing it, making the body mostly lens. On the top left of the hard drive is a small door hiding a power input. The battery gets charged while attached to the camcorder.
The battery juts from the back; above it is a button for switching between photo and video modes. Below the battery on the bottom of the camcorder is a card slot that supports both Memory Stick Pro Duo and SD/SDHC cards. Up front below the lens is a small door hiding a proprietary AV output; a composite cable is included, but an S-Video cable is available. A slider on the right side of the lens opens and closes the lens cover; using it once your hand is under the strap is awkward.
Flip open the touch-screen display (there is no viewfinder), and you'll find two rows of buttons in the body cavity for power; backlight compensation; direct-to-DVD recording using Sony's $149 VRD-P1 DVDirect DVD burner; turning on and off an LED lamp under the lens; and changing over to Playback mode. The last of the I/O ports are in this cavity, too: an uncovered Mini-USB port.
The touch screen is nice and sharp compared to other models in its class. On the left edge of the screen there are virtual buttons for controlling the zoom lens and starting and stopping recordings; very helpful if you're shooting at a low angle or on a tripod. The touch-based menu system is good for those who don't make a lot of changes. In other words, it's responsive, but because all of the options are in one long row, it can feel like the list goes on forever. At least Sony lets you configure an opening menu screen with six items you frequently adjust.
For those of you attracted to the megazoom lens, be warned: the camcorder is very difficult to hold still when shooting one-handed. To get the best results, it really needs to be on a tripod or some other stable support. Also, Sony went with electronic image stabilization, which is better than nothing, but won't come close to keeping your movies from being a shaky mess with the lens extended.

Features	Sony Handycam DCR-SR68/SR88
Inputs/Outputs	DC in/Mini-USB, AV
White balance	Auto, Outdoor, Indoor, Manual
Scene modes	Auto, Twilight, Candle, Sunrise & Sunset, Fireworks, Landscape, Portrait, Spotlight, Sports, Beach, Snow
Focus	Auto, Manual, Spot AF, Tele Macro
Color effects	None
Lens cover (auto or manual)	Manual
Video light/flash	LED video light/no
Accessory shoe	No

This camcorder was designed for hassle-free recording and as such doesn't have a lot of extra shooting options. A majority of my field testing was done with the SR68/SR88 set to Auto for white balance, scene selection, and focus and it performed satisfactorily. There are more scene options if you chose to get specific and the same goes for white balance. Also, should you want to be more hands-on with focus and exposure, you can control both by touching the spot onscreen you'd like the camcorder to draw its information from.
For its low-end status, the SR68/SR88 performs reasonably well. It has an instant-on option that gets the camcorder powered up and ready to record very fast simply by opening the LCD (not an uncommon feature, but nice nonetheless). The autofocus is responsive, but when zoomed out it does hunt trying to focus, particularly in low-light conditions. The rated battery life for the included pack is 100 minutes of continuous shooting; expect less if you're frequently turning it on and off and reviewing clips. Extended-life batteries are available, one of which Sony claims has a life of up to 13 hours of continuous shooting.
Video quality overall is very soft; the only time a somewhat sharp picture was obtained was in Tele Macro mode. Clips also display quite a bit of noise and digital artifacts until you scale down to YouTube-size dimensions. There's a distinct pattern to the noise, too, which is distracting. There's noticeable purple fringing around subjects as well. If you still live completely in a low-resolution world, recordings are destined for video-sharing Web sites, or simply want to capture the moment no matter how it looks, the SR68/SR88 will suffice. Colors look OK but are cooler than they should be. Low-light video is loaded with grainy noise and yellow blotches. The LED lamp can help a bit if your subject is close to the lens, but it does little to improve the video quality and of course won't brighten distant subjects. Lastly, though the camcorder does take still shots, you'll likely get better photos out of a camera phone, and they can't be captured if you're recording video.
It's true you can get much better video from an HD camcorder that costs $100 to $200 more. However, standard-definition video is less demanding to play and edit on an average desktop or laptop, and SD camcorders are less expensive. With the Sony Handycam DCR-SR68/SR88 you're trading off video quality for a lot of storage and a 60x zoom lens. Of course, it's small, lightweight, and easy to use, too. Just don't expect HD when you're paying for SD.javascript:void(0)

What to expect from the new iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (makemoneyonline) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 05:27:22 PDT

Just as it has done for the past three years, a new iPhone should play a major role at Apple's Worlwide Developers Conference next week. And when CEO Steve Jobs takes the stage on Monday to give his keynote address, I'll be there, along with CNET reporter Erica Ogg, to bring you all the details.
Until that time, I'm happy to speculate on what the new iPhone will offer. Although this year has been a little different because of a well-publicized leak of an iPhone prototype in April, few details about new devices emerge form Apple's labs before a formal unveiling. But that won't stop us from putting together the various clues to make our own guesses.
What we won't see
4G or not 4G? First off, an important clarification is in order. Though some have called the new handset the "iPhone 4G"--and we refer to it as such in informal conversations around the CNET office--we do not expect it to run on a 4G network. It will be the fourth-generation iPhone model, but because it should operate solely on AT&T's network (more on that later), its fastest data speeds will continue to be 3G. AT&T will begin testing its 4G LTE network later this year, but commercial deployment won't begin until 2011 at least. So check back then for a faster iPhone.
Verizon: I also have to repeat what we've said already. There will not be a Verizon iPhone this year. And if you don't believe us, just consider that Verizon spokesman John Johnson told Beet.TV on Wednesday that the carrier has no plans to carry the phone in the "immediate future."
Yes, it's a carefully worded statement, which means that it's very possible that we'll see a Verizon iPhone at some point in the future. Yet, when that will happen--if happens at all--is unclear. This fall has been suggested as a likely time frame, but I think that's unlikely. I predict that Apple will wait until Verizon rolls out its own 4G LTE network, which should begin later this year. There's also the matter that AT&T's exclusivity contract won't end until 2012, but that could change at any time.
Design
Pictures of the new iPhone have been all over the blogsphere since Gizmodo paid $5,000 for a prototype of the new iPhone that an Apple engineer allegedly lost.
From what we can tell from the pictures, the device will be marginally heavier with a flat back, sharper corners, a smaller and brighter display, and an aluminum border around the edge. Indeed, that's a break from the iPhone 3G and 3GS, which have a curved back and wobble slightly when resting on a table.
I'll save my opinions until I see the actual handset and get it in my hands, but a boxier shape would put it more in line with the iPad and some Google Android devices, such as the HTC Incredible. According to Gizmodo, the new iPhone also should have a flash for the main camera, split volume buttons, a micro-SIM card slot (like the iPad), and a possible noise cancellation microphone.
We'll reportedly see a front-facing video camera, as well, though I'm not convinced that it will be used for video calling. AT&T offers its Video Share application on a limited number of phones, but the service isn't available everywhere, and the carrier hasn't promoted it aggressively. The new iPhone might mark a change in strategy for AT&T, but then again, the new camera could just be for self-portraits.
Features
Tethering: AT&T's recent announcement that it was revamping its smartphone data plans brought welcome news about tethering. We've waited more than a year for the capability, since Apple executives first mentioned it during the iPhone OS 3 announcement in March 2009. It's worth noting that tethering is available on the iPhone in other countries, which means that AT&T has been the holdup, so we're glad that it's finally here.
Horsepower: The new iPhone could have a faster processor similar to the iPad's A4 chip. We'd welcome any added zip to the handset's performance, particularly since we'll get multitasking with iPhone OS 4.
Battery: Of course, a faster processor would mean improved battery life. Indeed, any change for the better would be more than welcome. I also wouldn't worry about the effects of a more vibrant display on performance. Even with twice the resolution, it would still be smaller than the iPad, and it wouldn't have to push as many pixels.
In the cloud: The adoption of a cloud-based music service is another popular Apple rumor. Music industry sources told CNET in March that such a service won't be ready until the third quarter of this year, which is a likely time frame, given that Apple usually reveals music announcements in September.
iPhone OS 4
Of course, the new iPhone will debut with all the new features of iPhone OS 4, including multitasking, home screen folders, a unified e-mail in-box, and a 5x digital zoom in the camera. During the keynote speech, we should hear more about the new mobile operating system and when it will roll out to the iPhone 3GS.
What else?
We have a standing list of features the iPhone still lacks. Nicole Lee wrapped them up nicely, following the OS 4 announcement, so I'll refer you to her blog post for the full story. Some items--such as compatibility with Adobe Systems Flash and a removable battery--we're pretty sure we'll never get, but others--such as audio profiles and a multiple-notifications bar--may indeed come. Whether the new iPhone will have them, however, is a mystery until Monday.
Release date
Speculation abounds over when the new iPhone will hit stores, and AT&T has reportedly blocked employees from taking vacations in June. I've heard that Monday, June 21, is a possible release date, whereas another rumor says it could hit stores as early as Monday. Both dates would break from Apple's tradition of Friday iPhone releases, but Apple always can surprise us. I'm guessing that we will see it during the second or third week of this month. I'm not inclined to believe rumors of a July release.
Be sure to tune in Monday to get the full scoop. And before you go, please tell us what you expect and what you want from the new iPhone.