4th Dimension Thinking

Samsung Galaxy Player 4.0 Review.

2011-10-18T16:55:00.001-05:00

Samsung 4.0 WiFi Player

I have to admit that this media player has me conflicted. It may be a great device, but it should have been in my hands 4 months ago. I found one at my local BestBuy, and I've been running it through its paces to see what shakes loose.

Included Headphones with Mic

In the box:

Nice set of in-ear-monitors (IEMs) that include a microphone on the cord.
Micro USB cable.
AC power adapter.
User Guide.
Health & Safety and Warranty Guides.
1200mAh Battery: 36hrs Music play with WiFi and screen off. 5hrs video. Replacement batteries with greater capacity are supposedly available.

AC to USB Adapter

Hardware:

4.0" 800x480 Super Clear LCD
Front Camera: VGA 640 x 480
Rear Camera: 3.2 Megapixel
FM Radio
GPS
Haptic (vibration) feedback
Bluetooth® 3.0 (added speed and power savings)
Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n/a)
Stereo Speakers
MicroSD card slot (under back cover)
Volume Rocker
Power/Lock button
Microphone
USB port (under sliding cover)
Headphone Jack

Back Off. Removable battery and MicroSD Slot

Media capability:

Music: The Music app is excellent with easy access to volume control, shuttle controls, shuffle/repeat, lyrics (if available), EQ settings (presets and 2 user settings), full-screen album art (when available), song info including artist, album, song name and track number, song position and length, etc.. There is also a LIST icon to tap to go back to the songs list. The menu icon will bring up several more options including Add to Quick List, Share Music Via, Add to Playlist, Via Bluetooth/Speakers, Set as Alarm Tone, and More. Tap "More" and you'll get a Settings and Details option. Settings include Samsung's SoundAlive, Choices for how the music is sorted, and the option for choosing a graphic to show when no Album Art is available. The Music app claims WAV, MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA (v9), WMA Lossless, and Ogg formats will play. The player also played M4A and FLAC files with no trouble. The was no left/right balance setting. The largest negative I can find is that there is no gapless playback. I'm giving music playback an A though. Just not an A+.

Music: Now Playing

FM Radio: The radio app is also well done. The first time I opened it the app started searching for stations. When done there were no active frequencies in range of me that were left out, and no frequencies logged that were nothing but static or noise. You can have it output through the headphone (required for antenna) or the onboard speakers. You can turn it OFF within the app or leave it playing in the background after leaving the app. Volume levels are separate for speakers and headphones. No RDS that I noticed. No FM output via Bluetooth. No Radio recording. That leaves Radio with a B+.
Video: Video support is great, supporting any WMV, AVI or MP4 up to 720p that I've tried. The specs claim H.263, H.264, MPEG4, 3GP, WMV (v9), Xvid, and DivX ® formats. The Video app remembers your position in the file when you return to it. Besides the normal shuttle controls, the Menu button brings up Share Video, Details, Via Bluetooth/Speakers, Play Speed, Subtitles, and Settings options. The Settings option includes Repeat, Brightness, Colour tone, and Outdoor visibility. You can resize/stretch video to fill the screen. There is also a toggle for 5.1ch audio although I'm not sure why given the player only has stereo out. Video deserves an A+.

Video Player

Photos: The larger screens get, the better they are for photo display. This is true for the 4.0" Samsung compared to my previous 3" P2, P3, and M1 players from Samsung. The Gallery app supports JPG, PNG, GIF, and BMP files. Photos are vivid. Sliding between them is fluid. The included samples look great. You have Slideshow options, Share options, and Editing options including Crop and Rotate left or right. You can also delete photos from within the Gallery app. Photos get an A thanks to the great screen.
Cameras: The front facing camera is worthless for anything other than video chat. Photos taken with it are low resolution (640 x 480) and grainy. The rear camera does a little better, but at 3.2mp isn't up to the images you'll get from most 5mp or 8mp phones these days. The lens is much better than that on the front, so with good light you can take some decent images. There are several settings and options in the Camera app. You have Shooting Mode choices of Single Shot, Smile Shot, Continuous, Panorama, Add me, and Action Shot. You have Scene choices of Landscape, Portrait, Sports, Night, Party/Indoor, Beach/Snow, Sunset, Dawn, Fall Colour, Firework, Text, Candlelight, and Backlight. You can adjust Exposure Value from -2 to +2 in .5 steps. There is also a long list of Camera settings you might find on Samsung's best consumer cameras. Finally you have tools, which include Guidlines, Review, GPS, Shutter Sound, Storage, and Reset. You may want to check out a few photography books for information on how to use all these features. The Rear camera's highest resolution is 2048 x 1536. There is no flash. I'm giving the Camera app an A though. They don't usually come as full-featured as this one.

UI: The user interface is Typical Android Phone. I'm guessing that if you own a Samsung android phone you'll be right at home. Samsung's TouchWiz additions are nothing more than useful. They include a dock bar that hold 4 apps and is always there no matter which home page you are on. Power shortcuts (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, Sound, and Auto Rotation) also were added to the dropdown notifications list. A long press on the menu icon brings up Search, and a long press on the Home icon brings up a window showing recently used apps and a shortcut to the Task Manager. There are 7 home screens, but Edit in the home screen menu options will let you delete ones you don't use. You can add them back using the same Edit option. The UI doesn't rotate as the device rotates. For few improvements over their phone UIs, I'll give the UI an Android average C+. Yes there are widgets and animations and such. Nothing surprising though.

Apps: In addition to the Google Android Market, this player also comes with the Samsung Apps application. You can also add the Amazon App Store with relative ease. No need to root or hack this player to gain access to all of Google's apps. Some unique apps added by Samsung include AllShare, Samsung App(store), and Thinkfree Office. Several typical android apps (usually social or media related) also appear to have been altered (improved) by Samsung.

Android Market

Impressions: Light weight. Well built. Beautiful screen. Great media support. Good headphones included. The removable battery implies this player could be the last player you'll ever need. Batteries have a limited number of charge cycles, and as such will wear out eventually. Any player without a removable battery will only last as long as that battery. This player is comfortable to hold although a little slippery. This is an "everything device" you can carry in your pocket. Cameras, Radio, GPS, Skype and Google Talk phone services, in addition to the great media capabilities make this a wonderful alternative to a phone if you don't want to pay that monthly phone service fee.

Conclusions: Samsung has built a great player here. At $229 for 8gb it is higher but more capable than the $199 8gb iPod Touch. GPS, FM radio, and a larger screen may be worth the $30 difference. There are other more subtle differences that should help justify that cost. I'm rating the Samsung Galaxy 4.0 a Great Buy. Consider that 9.5 out of 10, with .5 for hoping the price drops to $199.

4D

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HTC Flyer Review. Is this the best 7" tablet available?

2011-10-08T16:00:00.005-05:00

HTC Flyer Lock Screen

The latest generation of tablets and phones have dual-core processors, typically running at 1Ghz. HTC's Flyer has a 1.5Ghz single-core Qualcomm processor. Now that its price has come down to Earth and you can get one for $299 this 7" tablet may well be the best performing tablet in it's price range. The Flyer isn't just an ordinary Android tablet. On top of the regular hardware features most tablets have, HTC has added their Scribe Technology™. You need their normally $79 Pen to take advantage of it, but the Pen can be had for $50 if you shop around. The 1.5Ghz processor is also unusual, and suffers only to make the Flyer fly. Boot-up time is delightfully brief. Screen reaction is fluid, and apps open quickly.

Inside the box:

HTC Flyer
USB cable
AC Power adapter
Quick guide
Safety and regulatory guide
Call center card (hotline card)
Warranty card

Hardware:

7-inch 1024x600 TFT capacitive touch screen.
16GB internal memory, with microSD slot.
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n 2.4GHz.
G-sensor, GPS/aGPS, digital compass, ambient light sensor.
Rear (5MP) and Front (1.3MP) cameras.
Bluetooth 3.0 with A2DP for stereo headsets.
MHL port (HDMI-out) and DLNA capability.
SRS WOW HD™ surround sound over the dual speakers or headphones.

Dimensions: 7.6875 x 4.8125 x 0.5625 inches. Weight: 14.7oz (418g). A little lighter and narrower than the BlackBerry Playbook.

Music: Now Playing

Media Support: I was able to play WMV (540 x 360 ; 960 x 720), MP4 (1280 x 720), and AVI (640 x 480) video files with no problem or dropped frames. I couldn't find any info on what the resolution limits are or what specific audio and video codec combinations play or won't play. Among the audio files I could test and would play were WMA, WMA lossless, MP3, AAC, M4A, and WAV. FLAC files wouldn't open. I had no problems with .JPG photos.

Multi-Page View

User Interface (UI): is typical HTC sense, and almost identical to the Sense UI you'll find on HTC Phones. I have the HTC Evo 3D, and first boot-up of this Flyer tablet was deja vu. Rumors are that there is a Honeycomb 3.* update in the works for the Flyer, but for now the UI is very phone-like. It WILL switch from portrait to landscape when the screen is rotated though. Screen response is quick. A light touch is all that is needed to get a reaction from the screen. Graphics flow smoothly. Photos zoom in and out with no delay or sluggishness. If you pull down the notifications bar at the top of the screen there is a tab for Quick Settings. It include check boxes for Auto Brightness, Auto Rotation, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a link to All Settings. Very handy. The bottom of the screen has a row of icons that stay there no matter which home page you are on. They can be swapped out for any app or shortcut or web bookmark. A hold of the Home button brings up your 10 most recently used apps to choose from. A quick double-tap of the Home button (when on the 1st page) brings up an array of all the Home pages. Tap any one to jump immediately there. In landscape (horizontal) position the Home pages display in a 3D carousel view. Nice effect.

Pen Tools

Share your Pen Scribble

Pen: I ordered the Pen that goes with the Flyer from Amazon.com Saved roughly $30 over (OK, under)BestBuy's asking price. The first time you use the pen the tablet will bring up some quick lessons on how to use it. In use a tap on the pen on the screen takes a snapshot of what is displayed, then lets you draw over that image using any of several pens/pencils/brushes and colors. This capability alone makes the Flyer a very useful tool if you need to annotate a drawing or sign a document on the Flyer. I'm a design educator and students often email design sketches (as JPG images) to me. This feature will allow me to draw/comment on the images then "Share Via" them back to the student. The pen is far more accurate for drawing than any capacitive stylus, but it doesn't work as a stylus. It is only a drawing and high-lighting tool. Still a great feature that only THIS tablet has as far as I know.

Notices Drop-Down

Google News

Reader Widget

Rear Camera and Speaker Slots

Weather Widget

Conclusions: This is a fantastic tablet (at $299). Even with no Android 3.? update it is quickly becoming my most productive device. I can print straight to my Canon WiFi printer from within any app where it makes sense to. Anything on my screen can be captured then drawn on using the Pen. Essentially screen capture with annotation rolled into one. You could make a pictorial tutorial about any topic that can be displayed on the screen, complete with commentary and notes, then quickly post them all to email or Facebook or even send them via bluetooth to your PC or friend's phone/tablet. Every other feature is first rate as well. Boot up time is incredibly fast. The cameras work better than most tablet cameras. WiFi can be set to turn off when the screen times out, for a tremendous boost in battery duration. I get a giddy feeling when I hold this one. At $299 it is a steal. You want one. Go get it!

4D

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Amazon's Kindle Fire. Is it Worth $199?

2011-10-03T08:44:00.002-05:00

Kindle Fire

It's official. Amazon has a few new Kindles, and one is the color Android-based Kindle Fire. The press was stunned when the Fire's $199 price was announced. The hardware specs are competitive but missing a few standard components. Some estimate 5 million or so will be sold before the end of this year. The Fire isn't the first 7" tablet out there, and it isn't even the cheapest one. Walmart.com has a half dozen 7" tablets available for under $200. You can buy the Maylong 7" tablet for as little as $97.

Here are a few:

Maylong M-250 7", $97
E-Fun Nextbook 8.4", $168
Kaser's Net'sGo 7", $138
Boss Electronics 2182 7", $124
Velocity Micro Cruz T301 7", $178
Pandigital Planet 7", $178
Naxa Core 7", $132,
Coby Kryos 7", $148, Front camera 1.3mp

So what magic makes the press think Amazon's Fire will sell better than any of these? Sure, most of these have worse specs than the Fire. Yet many also have hardware features (Cameras, HDMI-out) the Fire doesn't include. All have WiFi. All are touchscreen Android tablets. All run apps including all of Amazon's apps. Lined up spec for spec the Fire doesn't glow for what it can do.  It blushes for what it doesn't do.

So what is the secret?   I'm blaming it on Respect. Amazon, like Apple, has built up a reputation for treating customers well. They have both simplified the process of buying media and products from them. We respect Apple and we respect Amazon. They are both American originals. We surrender our beliefs to Apple in exchange for designful and productive devices we didn't know we needed. The press and Amazon fans have done the same concerning the Fire. I've pre-ordered mine out of the same respect.

Let's do a reality check though. The Fire is a first generation device. Remember the first wedge Kindle?   Original, but far from evolved. The second and later generations were better in every way. My experience repeatedly demonstrates that 1st generation devices are poor investments. This is more often true for ground-breakers, and Amazon is a ground-breaker. Late comers/Followers can learn from the mistakes made by others. I expect the second generation Fire to be thinner, faster, and have a few more features than this first gen Fire. It may also be less expensive. Previous Kindles have gotten cheaper each year since the first one came out at around $400.

So is the Kindle Fire a good investment? I'm going to rate it a tentative "yes". From what I can tell the hardware is similar to the Blackberry Playbook. Made by the same manufacturer I'm expecting the Fire to be similarly well-made. The dimensions are a little different, but the details are very similar. Each specification the Fire lists is equal to or better than the competition. A 1024 x 600 screen when many have 800 x 480 screens. Capacitive multi-touch when many have resistive single-touch input. A dual core processor when many have single core chips. The Fire will have a liquid user interface (UI) and shouldn't stutter or pixelate displaying movies or photos. The screen will react instantly to your touch, and using it should become a mere extension of your thoughts.   I expect Amazon to do it right. The Fire should delight the user. Should it not you can certainly expect the 2nd generation to.

Yes,  I believe the new Kindle Fire is worth $199.   The Blackberry Playbook and HTC Flyer are more capable tablets, and at $299 they are also priced proportionally correct given their additional features. If you think you might want a Fire, don't wait. Reviews will be out before new orders are shipped and you can always cancel should you change your mind.

Comments are welcome. Feel free to contribute.
4D

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BlackBerry Playbook Review. Finally a Realistic Price!

2011-10-02T09:30:00.000-05:00

BlackBerry PlayBook

With most 10" tablets hovering around the $500 price point it never made sense to me why the major vendors thought they could ask the same for their 7" tablets. HTC's 7" Flyer is $499. (edit: Oct 1st BestBuy lowered the price of the HTC Flyer to $299). RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook was $499 until a few days ago when they dropped the price to $299. The PlayBook finally offers a compelling set of specs and an innovative OS/UI at what is now a reasonable price.

Headphone Jack, Volume and Play, and Power. Rear Camera on Back.

Hardware:
- Dimensions: 7.6" x 5.1" x .4" thick. Weighs 0.9 lbs/425g.
- Cameras: 3mp front. 5mp rear.
- Touch-Sensitive bezel.
- Bluetooth DUN, HID, SPP. A Bluetooth mouse worked, but I failed with Bluetooth keyboards.
- WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
- Front-facing Stereo Speakers
- Two Microphones. Voice Notes sound excellent.
- Notification LED
- External Volume rocker
- External Play/Pause button.
- Headphone jack.
- Mini HDMI port. Full mirroring of the UI on your HDTV.
- Micro USB port.

Bottom Edge: microHDMI, microUSB, and Dock Port.

With more features than the upcoming Kindle Fire, the $299 price may be right on track to help RIM sell a few million more of these. They'll still need more apps in their apps store. Adding the ability to run Android apps will be a step in the right direction even if there are limits on what apps will run. Updating the Playbook with Email, Contacts, and Calendar app will also go a long way to bring this tablet into the mainstream.

The Playbook is well built and comfortable to hold. It doesn't feel flimsy or squeaky, and the matte-finish rear is both fingerprint-shy and non-slippery. Tapping on the back only finds a small hollow right in the middle where the logo is, with the rest of the area sounding solid. I greatly appreciate the play/pause button between the volume + and - buttons on the top edge. The front facing speakers are loud and efficient. The included soft slip-on cover was a nice touch too.

Cons: No dedicated email app. No dedicated contacts app. Limited app store compared to Android. The power button is also hard to press when you want to turn the Playbook ON. Very slow to boot up from the OFF state.

Music App

Media: Codec support is decent. AVI, WMV, and MP4 videos play just fine with the stock Video app. An MKV sample I had would not play. MP3s, WMAs (+ WMA lossless), AAC and M4A audio files would play. FLAC files wouldn't. The Music app allows sorting by Songs, Artists, Albums, and Genres. You can shuffle or play sequentially though a list. There is an on-screen volume slider, progress bar, and full play controls within the app. You also have a dynamic Search function. No Bookmark or Playlist options I could find though. The video app takes advantage of the Touchscreen capabilities and lets you stretch your video with two-fingers to enlarge or shrink them, as well as pan around the moving video as if it was just a photo. No bookmarking in the video app either, and it won't remember where you left off when you return to a video either.

Video Scene

UI: I'll give RIM some credit here. The Playbook's User Interface is original, practical, easy to understand, and fascinating to use. Far more clever than any iOS or Android device has implemented to date. I have to believe it was only the high price and missing apps that kept the Playbook from catching on faster. The price has been corrected now. Hopefully an Apps update will show up soon.

Multi-Tasking

Summary: This is a very capable tablet. The $299 price is fair for what you get and what it can do. Screen reaction is fluid. Media playback is beautiful though not fully-featured. The OS is refreshing compared to Android and iOS, but the missing email app and android app support is a wound that needs repair before I'll recommend this to anyone. Are you listening, RIM? I'm parking mine until that update shows up. The HTC Flyer is also $299 now, and it's an Android 7" tablet with some useful enhancements.

4D

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Asus Slider Review. Clever, but Practical?

2011-09-28T23:15:00.010-05:00

My Slider arrived via UPS on 9/29/2011. I bought it from CircuitCity.com as they had it in stock ready for shipping. The box was typical Asus with the tablet in a plastic tray and included accessories stored beneath it. All the glossy surfaces had clear plastic to protect them that you'll get to peel off. It came with an AC/USB Power Supply, USB cable, warranty card and a User's Manual. "Inspiring Innovation Persistent Perfection" printed on the last two to put you in a good mood.

The Slider came with Android 3.1 installed, but started downloading the 3.2 update as soon as I had it connected to my wifi router. 20 minutes later or so 3.2 was installed. Out of the box and unpeeled the Slider is a thing of beauty. The front, of course, is mostly a big piece of glass. The setting for this glass is a wide bezel that bows out on the ends with a brushed metal edging on the sides and top. A spin around the edge discovers the power button, volume rocker, and microSD slot on the left end. Asus's docking port and a mini-HDMI port are along the top. The headphone jack and USB port are nicely articulated on the right end.

That metal edging wraps around to the back where it widens to a 1.375" band across the bottom. A chrome strip seperates the brushed metal from a bronze field with the camera lens centered near the top. The top center edge has a raised lip at the seam between the front and back, with an arrow hinting something will happen if you pull here. Indeed, with a slight lift the front half rotates up to park itself above the newly exposed keyboard. The screen comes on and confronts you. The screen's resting angle is roughly 38 degrees above horizontal and not further adjustable.

The keyboard keys are smaller than usual, but have a good action and nice feel to them in action. There are a few android-specific keys. They have included the number keys along the top row. The One and Six have a bright circle around them to provide a visual location aid. It appears as if it is carved from a bronze ingot, but is likely a high density plastic. Not the best keyboard for android tablet use, but it is certainly handy. Folding under the screen as it does leaves the screen exposed. I'll definitely need a case for this tablet.

Dimensions: 10.75 x 7.1 x .72 inches. 2.21 lbs. Not light. Not thin.

Hardware:
- Screen: 10.1" IPS, 10 point multitouch, 1280 x 800, Gorilla Glass Screen.
- Processor: NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual core mobile processor 1Ghz.
- Battery: 25W/h Li-Polymer. Estimated 8hrs between charges.
- Cameras: 1.2MP front. 5MP rear
- WLAN: 802.11 b/g/n@2.4GHz
- Bluetooth: V2.1+EDR
- Memory: 1GB,
- Storage: 16GB/32GB + MicroSD card reader (up to 32GB). 12.63GB available when new.
- Ports: mini-HDMI port, Full size USB 2.0.
- Single (mono) speaker.
- Microphone.
- G-Sensor
- Light Sensor
- Gyroscope
- E-Compass
- GPS
- Volume +/- rocker
- Headphone/Mic jack.
- Keyboard: Android-specific keys include Home, Back, Search, and Menu. You also have Brightness up/down, and Wifi & Bluetooth toggles.

Build Quality: Impressive. When folded the top and bottom are a graceful compliment to each other. The front edge chamfers down then tapers to round over the back edge. The body is a composite of brushed metal, bronze (paint), and a little chrome. Cable connections are nicely articulated from the bottom edge. Buttons are inset yet project just enough to exhibit their function and permit their use. Reset is a button rather than a hole on this tablet. Speakers are a bit muffled when the tablet is closed, but perk up when you lift the screen to reveal two columns of slots as speaker grills. Strong magnets hold the screen down and up. The user manual warns against leaving your credit cards too close to the Slider. The lift mechanism is an offset parallelogram. The exposed face of this brace is a mirror polished rectangle with "ASUS" etched into it. The IPS screen is easy to see from any practical angle.

Media capabilities: AAC, MP3, MIDI, OGG, and WAV music codecs are all listed as supported in the User's Manual. I was also able to play WMA and WMA lossless files, along with FLAC files with no problem straight from the file browser and in the Music app. H.263/H.264 MPEG4 is the only video codec listed as supported. I was able to play MP4 videos with no trouble. AVIs played but with pixilation. MWV movies wouldn't open. There are apps available in the Market that will play just about any video though so don't let the limited initial video support disturb you.

Audio output from what sounds like a mono speaker source is limited to middle and upper frequencies. Audio levels only dropped a little with the keyboard closed tablet down. Quality out the headphone jack to good headphones is a pleasure though. Their "Supreme SRS Sound with max bass response" is a step or two better than the typical android tablet sound quality with no enhancements. I'll warn you to turn the sound down if you've been listening to the onboard speaker when you switch to headphone or you're in for an ear-busting surprise. This tablet can easily get loud enough to drive the most demanding headphones I have.

Asus applications: ASUS Launcher, MyLibrary, MyNet, MyCloud, ASUS Sync, Asus @Vibe
Other Include Apps: File manager, Kindle books, Zinio Magazine, PressReader, Polaris Office
Google Apps: GMail, Google Maps, Google Places, Google Navigate, Google Latitude, Android Market, Google Music, Google Videos, Google Books, ...

In use it is a heavy tablet but as capable as any of the competitors out there. Unless you'll always have a horizontal surface to open the keyboard up on, the extra weight is a bit of a penalty to have to carry. Yet if you plan to use the Slider as a laptop/notebook replacement it may be the perfect solution. The included Polaris Office app (word/spreadsheet/presentation) and that keyboard will let you get some serious work done. When folded away you have tablet simplicity behind a beautiful touchscreen to entertain yourself with. This tablet also has bluetooth and a USB port on the side. It is easy to add a full-sized keyboard and mouse if you really want to get serious. HDMI-out lets you mirror the android UI onto any HDTV or computer monitor with an HDMI port. Don't buy it if you only want to check email and play a game of Angry Birds. Consider it if you were considering a netbook to shrink your travel load. This has a nicer screen and broader array of uses than any netbook, and you can still get your work done on it for half the carry-on weight. It'll fit perfectly on that seat-back table too.

Conclusions? I've spent the last few days with my Slider. It is easier to lug around than my Asus Transformer and it's keyboard dock. Far easier to tote than my notebook PC. It connected quickly and reliably to my home and work WiFi networks. It allowed me to check and reply to my email. I could browse the web when I needed to. I passed the boring moments playing Soduko or Angry Birds on it. That clever keyboard let me work on this review with relative ease. The screen is great. The Build is great. The engineering is clever. With nothing bad to say and only the size and weight to pick on I have to give the Asus EEE Slider an A+ Great Buy. It's unique features require a unique user though. If you fit that description then this is the tablet for you. Don't buy it if you want thin and light.

4D

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Cradle for Sony Tablet S. My Review.

2011-09-23T09:46:00.000-05:00

Sony's S Tablet includes the Chumby app, an alarm clock app, as well as a great TruBlack screen for movie and photo viewing. When you put your tablet on the dock it pops up the choice of Desk Clock, Chumby app, or Gallery. Laying flat on a table isn't the best position for taking advantage of these features, so Sony has now released a dock to hold the S upright and charge it at the same time. My dock arrived the Sept. 20. I've had a chance to use it a few days now.

Desk Clock/Alarm

It doesn't come with an AC adapter of its own. You have to commit the one that came with your tablet or purchase a spare from Sony. A shame, really, as I had intended to keep the dock at home and take my charger to work so I could top my S off when I wasn't using it.

high angle

low angle

The dock also allows two slightly different support angles. One best for passive viewing functions and the second a better angle if you'll need to tap on the screen repeatedly. Made of a stiff plastic and all black except for the rear support, it does a fine job of holding up the tablet in landscape with the thin edge down. The tablet's charge port aligns with the connection on the dock. You plug your adapter into the bottom. There is no way to use this cradle with the tablet in portait (vertical) mode. There are no other ports or outputs.

Bottom cable jack.

For $39 this cradle/dock is a useful accessory and fairly priced compared to docks I have purchased for other tablets. I wish it had been more capable (HDMI-out perhaps?) and had come with its own power supply. If you need a cradle for the Sony Tablet S though this is your only choice at the moment, and it is considerably better than a picture stand.

My recommendation? If you need it get it. It works as advertised. Best recommended for your bedside table. A great alternative and improvement over the standard alarm clock.

4D

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Sony Tablet S gets Updated to Android 3.2!

2011-09-18T21:47:00.001-05:00

That's right. The S has only been out for a day or two, but mine is downloading an update to Android 3.2. No indication if there is are any Sony enhancements on top of what 3.2 brings, but you have to give Sony props for getting this tablet updated so quickly.

The update is 183.1mb, and will take awhile to download. Mine looks like it'll finish after 20 minutes or so. It will warn you to plug in the AC charger before continuing. Once ready the tablet reboots to install the update.

OK, now all updated. No new apps I can see. Looks like all we get is the few new features Android 3.2 brings.

For my full review scroll down or hit this LINK. Thanks for visiting!

4D

Sony Tablet S. My Review.

2011-09-17T07:55:00.004-05:00

Sony took their time entering the Android tablet race. At first glance their patience was not wasted. This Sony S Wi-Fi Tablet (16GB) has some clever features and an original look that makes it stand out from the pack.

Mine arrived the 14th of September. Well packaged. The box includes a Quick Start Guide, A pictoral guide to the power switch, unlocking the screen, calling up the onscreen keyboard, signing in for the first time, and swiping between home pages. The AC adapter appears straight from one of Sony's laptops with a long AC cord, a power brick, and a long cord from the brick to the proprietary charge point on the bottom edge of the S. I'm not a fan of the dock connection used, as it is snaps in and is a challenge to get out. You also get a wrist lanyard, but there was no USB/syncing cable in the box. Lastly there was all the usual boilerplate of warnings, licenses, and disclaimers.

Hardware features:
- Universal IR remote/transmitter
- Battery Type : Li-Ion 5000mAh
+ Battery Life when browsing web with Wi-Fi - 6.2 hours
+ Battery charge time - 5.0 hours.
- Camera : Front – 0.3 Megapixel Rear – 5.0 Megapixel
- Bluetooth version 2.1 +
- Wi-Fi : IEEE802.11b/g/n
- Full-size SD Card slot
- TruBlack 1280 x 800 9.4" screen.
- Internal, Monaural microphone
- Internal, Stereo speakers
- Dimensions: 9.5" x 6.87" x 0.82" (thick end), and 1.29375 lbs (by my scale, no SD card inserted).
- User manual available here: PDF Link

Left Edge

Right Edge

SDHC & microUSB port

A bit smaller than the 10.1 tablets out there, it looks like Sony didn't want to have to compete for 10.1 inch screens in case this tablet was a hit. Their 9.4" screen is still 16:10 wide screen rather than 4:3 like the iPad. It is better for movie playback and any other wide-screen media (like PlayStation games). I personally like the size. Lighter than the iPad2 and Samsung Galaxy 10.1 tablet I have, the weight plus the shape makes it almost delightful to hold. Sony also looks to have considered ergonomics in their design, and I'm very appreciative. None of the large tablets I've reviewed so far have been easy to hold up long enough to watch a movie or read a book. They tend to cramp the hand that holds them by the edge. It's not natural or comfortable. I've suggested adding a handle mount to the center back. Sony may have a better solution though, and it comes from a simple redistribution of weight. I have the thick end at about 55% of the weight and the thin end 45%. The wedge shape makes it obvious how to hold the S for best results as well. The back also has a texture and a friction coating to eliminate any slipperyness.

Video Frame

Media capability seems to be thorough. The TruBlack screen is beautiful. Mine has played WMV, MP4, M4V, 3GP video files with no problem. Other formats/codecs are playable with downloadable apps. MP3, WMA (including WMA lossless), FLAC, OGG, WAV, MID, XMF music files played with no trouble. Sony has also thrown in access to it's own Entertainment Network. There are apps for Video Unlimited and Music Unlimited. Plus the Crackle app where you can view full-length Hollywood movies and TV series for free and on demand. Finish it off with the Reader™ Store from Sony for ebooks galore.

YouTube App

Camera: The 5.0 megapixel rear camera doesn't include a flash. It takes sunlight or photo lights indoors to coax a good picture from it, but it can be done. Like all my other tablets with cameras you shouldn't consider the cameras on the S a replacement for even an inexpensive pocket camera. The S's cameras are better than those on my iPad2, but about the same as what came on any of my other tablets. Below are samples from my yard taken with the rear camera. The front camera is best used for video chat.

Build quality is typical Sony. This tablet is light but solid. No flex or squeaks in use. The rear surface has a texture to it that is less slippery than most. Ports and buttons hide inside the crease on the sides, and visually keep the look clean. They are a bit more challenging to press or plug into though, although not enough to be an ongoing challenge. The screen appears to roll right around to the back surface. A nice affect. The edge is undercut and gives the appearance that this tablet is thinner than an iPad from the front. Under a flap on the left edge there is a micro-USB and full-sized SDHC card slot. You'll also find the headphone jack on the left. There are speaker vents on both edges. There is also a reset hole, which I've had to stick a paper clip into once so far.

Applications Screen

Apps: The included app assortment is impressive. Most of my android tablets have had less than one page worth of apps to start with. There looks to be 45 or so apps on the S. You can sort them newest first, A-Z, or a custom way. The downside? The remaining memory space is only about 9gb. So much for thinking I could get six or seven 2gb movies on board. There were a few music, photo, and video samples included though. Roughly 430mb's worth. When you get tired of those you can move them to your PC to clear up some of that used storage space.

AC Charger Connection Point

Problems? Sony's Music and Video stores aren't ready at the time of this post. The screen won't rotate with the thick (heavier) end down. I've also had off and on WiFi connectability problems. The AC charger is a lump to deal with. No USB cable included. Crash Bandicoot keeps dying on me (OK, my fault not the S's), and yet I'm spending more time than usual enjoying this tablet.

Crash Bandicoot

Conclusions? At the same prices as the WiFi iPad gen2s, Sony's Tablet S is the best shot I've tested yet to directly steal some sales from Apple. It has a great screen, clever physical design, great media support, Built-in DLNA capability, and a great size/weight. Add PlayStation game playing as well. Easier to hang on to than any of my other tablets too. Battery life is a little short compared to most of the 10.1s and the iPad. It's a first generation tablet though, and probably compares better to the iPad-1. With that iPad selling for $399 or less, Sony has this tablet just a little too highly priced. I saved 10% on mine with a coupon code (now expired) and thought $450 was a fair price for it. Look for discounts. If you can save anything off the current MSRP then get one. I'm keeping mine.

4D

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Logitech Tablet Keyboard (for Android 3.0+) Review.

2011-09-11T11:51:00.001-05:00

The most obvious feature of Logitech's Tablet Keyboard for Android is not the keyboard itself. Logitech was smart to realize tablets go portable in briefcases or satchels or purses, and if a useful keyboard goes along it needs to be protected when inside that briefcase. This keyboard comes with a hard shell slip-case. Better yet, the case pops open and re-configures to become an adjustable stand for just about any tablet with Bluetooth.

The clamshell case stays closed with magnets. It will protect the keyboard keys but doesn't grip the keyboard in any way to prevent it from sliding out. Once hinged open, a fold-out flange reconnects to form a triangular stand. That flange will extend another 1.5 inches to allow adjusting the angle the tablet sits at by a few degrees.

The keyboard runs on two AAA batteries that were included. There is an On/Off slide on the top right, and a Connect button on the back. The bottom has rubber feet on each corner to keep it from sliding about.

Beside the normal alphabet and numerals, the keyboard has extra functions for android. They include Volume up and down, Play/Pause, Forward/Previous, and shortcuts to Calendar, Browser, Music, and Email apps. There are also specific Home, Back, and Menu, and Search keys. The Caps Lock key has an LED to remind you when it is ON. Keys are normal size and spaced the same as the keys on my full-sized desktop keyboard. The direction keys are the only keys that are smaller than usual. Shift, Enter, Backspace, CapsLock, and Tab are all wider than a single letter key.

This keyboard even works with a PC. Not all function keys work as expected, but it'll do if you need a lighweight and wireless keyboard to get back from your PC a bit. I connect mine with my PC and have typed this review using it. Media and volume keys work. The Home button will take you to your Home page if you have a web browser open. Back works like a browser's Back button. Search opens a search window, and the direction keys move your cursor in the expected direction.

Logitech also makes a Tablet Keyboard for iPad. This Android version does pair and connect to my iPad, but not all the Android-specific keys have a function in iOS.

All in all this is a great package. The mostly plastic keyboard is well made with a matte black finish and has a nice action to the keys. It paired easily with both my Galaxy Tab and PC, and iPad2 (not at the same time), and had no problem maintaining the connection with either. The case/stand is very useful and cleverly functional. I paid $60 for mine, and that's the same or less than you'll pay for any Bluetooth android keyboard that doesn't include a case/stand. If you're interested in a keyboard for your Bluetooth enabled Android 3.0+ tablet, I highly recommend this one.

4D

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Acer Iconia Tab A100 Review.

2011-09-05T17:37:00.003-05:00

This may be the best 7" Tablet available right now!

I picked up my 8GB Acer Iconia Tab A100 7-inch Tablet on the first day they were available at my local Walmart. Well packaged, and at that time for sale at $328 with an included $50 Walmart Gift Card. Still haven't spent that gift card, but I am really enjoying the tablet. Far more portable that any of the 10" tablets I've tried. It came with Android Honeycomb 3.2 installed, and a few custom apps from Acer in addition to the typical android apps normally included with Honeycomb.

Inside the box was an Acer AC Power Supply for charging it up, a USB cable for syncing it with your PC, a large folded Getting Started Guide, and a shrink-wrapped assortment of warranties and safety disclaimers. No headphones were included. You can download the User Guide in PDF format HERE.

Hardware: The A100 comes with a micro HDMI output, micro USB port, docking port, 2mp front and 5mp rear cameras, LED flash with the rear camera, a headphone jack, microphone, microSD and SIM card slots, stereo speakers, external volume rocker, and a screen rotation lock slider. It also works with the A500 Docking Station with Remote sold for it's larger brother the Acer A500 Iconia Tab.

Display: The capacitive multitouch screen shows 1024 x 600 Pixels with 262K color support. Better than most 7" tablets I've seen. The screen is almost too sensitive using a stylus. My favorite capacitive stylus is read too quickly half the time, detected as a tap instead of the beginning of a slide or swipe. Using my fingers the screen accuracy is nearly perfect though. Movies and photos look great. View angles aren't wide. There is some color shift when off-center, but the view is fine for personal use.

Apps: The A100 came with the android market app, and as such has access to the entire collection available there. You can also side-load apps from 3rd part sources, and install the Amazon AppStore app easily. I haven't come across any apps that won't run on the A100. It is not a phone though, so don't expect apps made to use phone-specific hardware to work. I'm enjoying the Planner app that was pre-installed. The Angry Birds game collection plays great. Graphics are smooth, even in levels that have bogged down some of the other devices I've tested.

Battery life is the most disappointing feature of this tablet, although mine does live up to the 5 hours estimated by Acer. With a battery only half the size of what comes in most 10.1" tablets I'm not surprised duration on a charge isn't longer. I'll suggest turning wifi and the screen off between uses, and that should get you through 8 hours of off and on use.

Android 3.2 comes pre-installed on the A100 and is a significant improvement over earlier versions. It includes a compatibility zoom mode that gives users a new way to view fixed-sized apps on larger devices. Small phone apps are easily enlarged to fill the screen. These graphics capabilities are a big step for App makers and will mean updated apps are more likely to run on any android device no matter the screen size.

Build: My A100 is solidly built, with no creaking or flexing of the body. All edges are rounded over and it is easy to hold. Like most tablets the glass front and plastic body are fingerprint magnets. I suggest keeping a microfiber cleaning cloth handy. This tablet doesn't look much different than any of my other 7" tablets until you turn it on, at which point the high-res capacitive screen show off.

Media: I had no trouble playing assorted MP4, WMV, and AVI video files. MOV and FLV files wouldn't play with the stock player, but played fine using the Mobiplayer app downloadable from the Android Market. The video apps weren't the best at stretching videos to fill the screen, but all videos played with no dropped frames. MP3, WMA (and WMA lossless), FLAC, WAV, and AAC audio files all played fine using the Google Music app. I couldn't find an OGG file to test. Sound quality from the built-in speakers is tinny. Not bad for spoken audio, but missing any low end for music. Audio through my nicest over-ear headphones (Sennheiser HD-595) was static-free and generally delightful.

Conclusions: This tablet is a keeper. Yes, they could have used a better screen. Yes, it would benefit from a larger battery (assuming one would fit inside). Everything else considered and the Acer Iconia A100 stands out as the best 7" android tablet I've tried so far. Screen response is fluid. Web browsing is quick and complete, with the browser having no obvious trouble rendering FLASH on web sites. My A100 had no trouble multitasking between my email, the web browser, a game of Angry Birds, and the Astro File Manager (downloaded from the Market). At $328 it is fairly priced against the less-capable NOOK Color eBook Tablet and the thinner HTC Flyer . Those are the only other 7" tablets I've seen with 1024 x 600 screens. Watch the ads, because if Walmart was able to offer a $50 gift card with one then there is some room in the price for nice sale-price reductions. I'll say it again: This tablet is a keeper!

Comments and Questions welcomed!
4D

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Cowon C2 Review

2011-08-16T11:37:00.003-05:00

Cowon's latest offering is a little hard to figure out. The C2 looks like a smaller thinner version of their D2. A throwback (after their Android D3) to the basics perhaps. Something new to buy for those wanting Cowon's great playback quality but at a far more reasonable cost than the Android based D3. The C2 is compact and well built. Mine arrived 7/21/2011 and opening up the package felt a little like Christmas in July. In the (reusable cardboard drawer) box I found:

Cowon C2-16BS 16 GB Video Player, Black with Silver
Earphones
User Manual
USB cable (proprietary)
An e-Music offer for free songs
An Audible offer for a free audio book.

Optional accessories (available at jetmall.net and amazon.com) include:

Hardware Features:

MicroSD expansion slot (for up to 32gb cards).
2.6" Clear Color LCD touchscreen (240x320)
FM Radio and radio recording (but with no RDS).
Speaker.
Microphone.
55 hour battery for music). 10 hours for video.
Metal back.
External Volume +/-, Menu, and Power/Hold buttons.

UI: You have two choices. One uses icons that you may have seen on the Cowon D3. The other is a simpler text-based set of icons that will take a bit to get used to.

Music: File formats supported include MP3/2, WMA, OGG, FLAC, APE, and WAV. I can verify that the C2 will play WMA lossless, which is a challenge for most media players. The only format I haven't tested is APE. All other play fine and sound great. The now playing screen doesn't sit still. Instead it puts your cover art on an LP and spins it around to keep you entertained visually.

Music's Now-Playing features are a little more cryptic to find than they were on the J3, and they required an extensive examination to figure out. You can find Favorites and Bookmarks, but not easily. There is an alphabetic search option (limited to 12 characters) as well. You have the typical playback shuffle and repeat, speed and pitch controls. You can also access extensive EQ/JetEffect settings including 4 User configurations, Normal, and 34 unique presets. The music app is full featured, but far from intuitive to use if you really want to master it.

Videos:  File formats supported include AVI, WMV, ASF (and MP4 unofficially). The video app is also fairly complete, but given the small screen perhaps not the best excuse for getting a Cowon C2.

The settings in the video app are nearly the same as on Cowon's other players, but again a little bit of a mystery as to where to find. A single tap on the screen brings up the play controls. Those include Prev/Rewind, Play, and Next/Fast_Forward. There is a slider to let you move to any position in the video, as well as Position (time) and Length (time) info. You can tap the lower corners to for "next" or "prev" pages which will take you to more video settings including Subtitle, Display, Playback, and Speed (to the right), with Loop, Brightness, Capture, and JetEffect (EQ) settings (to the left).

Back to that first tap on the Now Playing screen: To the right after that first tap is an Open icon which when tapped will bring up a list of the available videos. From that list a tap on the tiny "next" icon moves you to Video Favorites if you've marked any, and one more tap gets you to Video Bookmarks. A tap on "Prev" brings you to an alphabetic search page.

Pictures: JPGs appear to be the only picture format supported. You get all the basic features with the Pictures app including incremental and double-tap to Zoom, Pan, SlideShow (with transitions), and Rotate.

Documents: You can view .TXT files on the C2 with the Documents app. You can also hand write notes to yourself with the included NotePad app. Lastly, you can type notes with the Typist app. Both would be fine for making notes to yourself. The NotePad app is limited to 30 pages, and of course there is no printing from the C2. The Typist app has 60 available pages. I highly recommend using a stylus with these apps on the C2. Any PDA stylus should work, and you don't need an expensive capacitive stylus with the resistive screen.

Radio: You'll need to have the earphones plugged in to serve as antenna for the radio. All the expected features are there. A panel to the left (tap ) include region and stereo/mono options. The upper left corner of each panel has a speaker icon you can tap to silence the radio.

Games: Flash games are supported on the C2. No samples came with it, and I didn't have any examples to try.

Clock: There is a timer and alarm in the Settings>Time app, with a Stopwatch (or Countdown timer) as a separate StopWatch app. Very handy. You can also use it as a simple clock.  It would make a great travel companion. Add a simple stand for greatest convenience. The default theme has it's first page as a clock with inspirational sayings. Tap on the upper right corner of this page to cycle through them. I find the clock and related features to be one of the best excuses for a C2.

Summary: For codec support and audio output quality, the C2 gets an A+. The User Interface and app options are something you'll need to study awhile to get used to. All the features are there, just hard to find. I'm enjoying my C2 for its small size, light weight, and great sound. I'm not using the included earbuds though. Find a great set of headphones for the C2 and you'll be in audio heaven.

4D

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Latte Ice Smart Review.

2011-08-15T18:33:00.002-05:00

Latte Ice Smart

LatteZone has released an Android-based media player with a 5" screen.  It has been impossible to find Samsung's 5" Android player in the U.S. and the specs on the Latte ICE Smart look impressive on the surface. I decided to give one a look.

The basics include a 5" LCD TFT dual-touch resistive screen showing 800x480 pixels, an 800mHz CPU with 3D accelerator, speaker and microphone, and 8gb of internal memory. There is a microSD slot for up to 32gb more of add-on storage. There is no camera or GPS or Bluetooth or FM radio. The Smart weighs 0.8lbs, and is 5.2x3.4 inches and roughly 1/2" thick. Pretty hefty and a (big) handful. The battery is rated at 5.0 hours of use on a charge. Not very impressive for a media player, but should get you through a movie or two. The HDMI-output will mirror anything on the Smart's screen to your HDTV. It comes with a (proprietary) 5v AC charger. It also appears to recharge when plugged into a powered USB port despite the official LatteZone claim that it won't.

Apps: This tank of a player comes with both the Google Android Market and the Amazon AppStore. You also have both the Gmail email app and the standard Android email app. Nothing unusual among the included applications. Of the android apps I've tried only the Google Music beta app and a Mahjong game (for tablets) didn't play perfectly. The Music Beta app wouldn't stream my own music over wifi from the web, although I was able to associate it with the account and see my music. All I got was a spinning circle. The Mahjong game wouldn't display text properly, showing only blank white boxes where text prompts should have been. Angry Birds in all versions plays, but I couldn't get the advertised two-finger zoom to work in those games.

Media capabilities are a mixed bag.  One disappointing flaw was in the gallery app, where some of my photos would show up poorly on the screen. It was almost as if the app wasn't fully decoding the JPG files.   JPG, BMP, PNG, and TIFF files are all supported. Although the two-finger zoom worked, it worked slowly and was not as efficient as a double-tap or tapping on the (-) or (+) icons. Music playback was on par with any other android device. No gapless playback, but that can be remedied with a download of the rockbox app for android. Several music codecs/formats are supported including WAV, WMA, ASF, FLAC, and MP3.   Audio quality from the single speaker is weak, but depending on the headphones you use Music playback should be satisfactory to most. Only 4 preset EQ profiles in settings and user EQ options. No sort by Genre in the stock music app either. Video playback is a strong feature. I had no trouble playing AVI, MP4, WMV, MKV, RMVB, and FLV video files. No MPG support out-of-the-box though. Video playback stands out as a good excuse for owning this player. With HDMI-out you can play the videos on the Smart through your HDTV.

Cons: The firmware appears as if was taken right from a phone. There are mobile data connection options (Data enabled, Data roaming, Use only 2G networks, etc.) in settings, and one of the largest drains on the battery is Cell Standby. There is also the possibility it is missing some standard android fonts, which may explain why text didn't show up in my favorite Mahjong game. One of the advertised capabilities is the use of wireless keyboard and mouse, but with no Bluetooth and only mini and micro USB ports on board that would only be possible with at least one USB OnTheGo adapter ($5+ shipping) and the wireless USB dongle from a keyboard/mouse combo.   Lastly, the Back/Menu/Home/Search buttons are afixed to one right-biased spot on the bezel. They don't rotate with you when you rotate the device.

Conclusion?   At $190 (8gb) this is a bit pricy for the included capabilities. It works as advertised though. If you can live without the few android apps that don't work well, and don't mind paying for it, then it'll satisfy your media, PDA, and game needs fine. I'm personally hoping they'll upgrade it to remove the android phone features, but not confident LatteZone will ever get around to that. There is no firmware update option in the settings.

4D

HTC Evo 3D. Love it!

2011-06-27T18:03:00.002-05:00

Dual 5mp Cameras with Flash.

I previously wielded the HTC Hero Android phone, and although it worked fine it was so un-inspiring that I usually left it at home.
Friday I swapped it for the HTC EVO 3D and won't let it out of my sight. Here are a few key reasons why anyone looking for a new smart phone should seriously consider this phone:

It is big. The 4.3" inch Super LCD 540x960 QHD resolution 3D display is crisp and beautiful too.
It prints to WiFi printers. No special apps needed. It found my Canon WiFi printer and now prints wireless from email, photos, contacts, calendar, browser, and many other apps. Many Canon, Epson, and HP WiFi printers identified as supported so far.
It is blazing fast. The 1.2 GHz Dual Core processor moves the UI from "a little hesitant" to "fluidly natural". Nearly intuitive. It boots fast, plays 1080p videos, and handles 3D games with aplomb.
FM Radio including RDS. Local channels. No need to miss local news, sports, weather alerts, or school closings. Headphone required as antenna.
It has 3D capabilities. Photos taken and viewed, Videos recorded and viewed, Games played.
Sense 3.0.
Customize Live Lock Screen. One glance to check the time, temperature and conditions, and quick access to phone, email, messages, and the camera. Or configure it how ever you want it.

Lock Screen

The charge port is a microUSB jack on the left side. It may also be a MHL port (outputs via HDMI to HDTVs) although I haven't verified that yet. The right side has a volume rocker and dedicated camera button. The headphone jack and power button are on the top edge.

Mini USB charge port on left edge.

Camera, 2D-3D switch, and volume rocker.

Headphone jack and Power button.

You also don't have to worry about access to your music from your phone. Just sign up for Google Music Beta. All my music has been uploaded to Google's servers, and with the Music app I can access it on any Android device or even iOS devices using their web browsers.

Google.Music.Beta

The large screen is delightful for photos and videos. 2D or 3D. Several examples came with the Evo 3D, and the cameras can take 3D photos or video as well. There are also several 3D videos on YouTube which you can enjoy with no glasses on this phone.

Sample Photo

Conclusion: This is an amazing phone. The specs alone allow it to perform. Add Sense 3.0 for a delightful experience. Enjoy your favorite Android apps or flash-based web games. For those wondering if it is better than the iPhone, you should know that after seeing mine my Wife traded in one of her two iPhones for her own Evo 3D.

4D

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Google Music vs Apple's iCloud. Showdown!

2011-06-23T11:30:00.003-05:00

I'm fortunate to have been invited to join Google's Music Beta program, and at the same time have several iOS devices from Apple that will soon be updated to iOS 5 and have access to Apple's iCloud for access to my music anytime those devices have a web connection.
Both services are free (to start).

Google: Required uploading all my music to its servers. Free. In my case the upload of 2000ish songs took three days of background uploading. I could still use my PC with no apparent slowdown of web access during that time. Google has a limit of 20,000 songs for each user.

Apple: Past and new music purchases from iTunes will be available on all your iOS devices from the iCloud. Free. Other music of yours (not originally from iTunes) will only require the uploading of songs Apple doesn't have a match for in the vast iTunes database. Songs in your collection it knows about will be available from that collection without any physical upload from you. For just $24.99 a year. Apple calls this iTunes Match. Limit of 25,000 songs. Your songs will be available in (your) iTunes on your PC or Mac, and on any iPad1 or iPad2 or iPhone (3GS, 4), or iPod touch (3rd and 4th generation) registered to the same iTunes account.

Basically, both services are offering to make your music available to you no matter where you are or what device you are using.

Apple puts a few restrictions on that though:

You have to be using (your) iTunes (so much for the Post-PC era) if you are at a PC,
Older iPhone and iPod Touches won't have access.
No accessing your music on a friend's computer,
No using any work computer you aren't allowed to install iTunes on.
No Linux PCs either.
Songs Apple provides will all be limited to 256kb

This is where Google Music gets the win:

I can access my music on ANY WEB BROWSER, simply by going to Google.Music.Beta and logging into my account.
There is also the Google Music app for Android devices which runs on anything running Android 2.1 or higher.
Android devices running anything lower can still access the music via their web browsers.
It works via Safari on both iPads, all iPhones, and every generation of iPod Touch.
It even works using the web browser on my Zune HD.

Conclusion? It should be obvious by now. Google Music Beta is by far the best way to enjoy your music wherever you have a data connection.

4D

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iPad Keyboard Dock Review: The Good and The Bad.

2011-06-14T19:39:00.001-05:00

If you've read my short review of the ASUS Transformer then you know its standout feature is the symbiotic keyboard dock for it. I'm in the process of writing an Asus/Acer/Apple tablet showdown. To be fair I need to point out that the iPad 2 also has a keyboard dock designed and produced specifically for it. Click on any of the following pictures to enlarge them.

Apple's Keyboard Dock for the iPad and iPad2

This keyboard is well built. Surrounding the large keys is nicely finished aluminum. The tablet support is a hefty extension of the plastic bottom. That support receives your iPad dock port, meaning it will only mount vertically (portrait) in use.

Dock with iPad in Portrait.

Beside the normal QWERTY layout of keys, there is a top row of iPad-specific function keys. They include Home, Search, dim (the backlight), brighten, Picture Frame Mode, On-screen keyboard, (blank), Prev, Play/Pause, Next, Mute, Vol-, Vol-, and Lock (sleep).

Rear Tablet Support. Fixed Angle. Doesn't detach.

The rear tablet support does its job well, but is the unfortunate downside of an otherwise great keyboard. Why? It doesn't come off or fold down. This keyboard will stay on your desk as that lump of a rear support makes it impossible to slip into a case with your model-thin iPad.

Line-Out and Dock Passthrough.

A redeeming feature is the Line-Out jack on the back. Using an 1/8" stereo miniplug to RCA L/R cable (left) you can pipe the audio from your iPad directly to your Home Stereo's Aux line-in jacks.

Conclusion: This keyboard dock is easy to use and well built. The one fixed angle of tilt is reasonable, but having a little range in angle to deal with glare and reflection would be better. They (Apple) should have spent a little more time to get it folding flat, as this dock won't be going easily with you in its current form.

If you have a lot of typing to do on your iPad, and don't mind the iPad in portrait view, this is a good solution. For more versatility in positioning you can consider any of the great cases and bluetooth keyboards out there for the iPad. I bought my Keyboard Dock at Target for $69.99 (+ tax).

4D

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Acer Iconia Tablet Details (With Photos).

2011-06-08T15:25:00.001-05:00

1280 x 800. Plenty of room!

Acer's 10.1" Honeycomb tablet weighs a bit more than most competitors. For that small weight penalty you get a tank of a tablet with more features than most. I've had my A500 for a few weeks now (Target.com) , and am greatly appreciating the included full-sized USB port, 5mp Camera (with flash), and solid construction. You can find more information about it at Acer.com.

Brushed Aluminum Back. Stereo Speaker.

Audio output is surprisingly good with the two built-in speakers. Not the best for music as there is no low frequency output, but fine for podcasts, audio books, and even movies. There is a standard headphone jack on the left end. The A500 also sports an LED flash next to the 5mp rear camera!

MicroSD slot under the top-edge flap. Future 3G SIM slot on the right.

You get a volume rocker and screen rotation lock on the top edge, left. The power button and headphone jack are on the left end near the top. That is a Micro HDMI jack near the bottom of the left end (below).

Power, Headphone jack, and HDMI jack.

The right end holds the rest of the goodies. The AC power jack is near the top, with microUSB and standard USB ports near the bottom (below).

USB, microUSB, Reset, and Power jack.

You can enjoy ALL of the web with Adobe Flash support and full sized web pages on the large screen. Angry birds is a joy to play on the 10.1" screen, and even more to watch on your HDTV via the HDMI out port. The USB port supports USB keyboards, USB mice, removable storage devices, and (when android 3.1 arrives) USB joysticks and game controllers.

Google. Not their Mobile version.

Angry Birds Rio!

Music and Video are well served by this Iconia. The 16:10 screen is far better than any 4:3 screen on a tablet for wide screen movies. The Google Music app works great! Photos look wonderful in portrait or landscape view.

A scene from Mulan fills the screen.

Google Music app. Now-Playing portrait view.

Photo of a Rocking Hammock. Designed by Lydia Palma.

Conclusion: Acer's Iconia A500 is a winner here. At $449 for the 16gb version it is $50 less expensive than a comparable Apple iPad 2 yet far more capable. You can easily expand its memory with up to a 32GB microSDHC Memory Card. Access media or documents off a connected USB thumb drive or external USB hard drive. You'll find thousands of Android apps certified to work with Honeycomb (Android 3.0/3.1). I was able to find parallels of every critical app I have on my iPad2. The dual-core Tegra 2 processor inside will play any game on the android market with ease. Plug in a USB keyboard and get some work done with the included Document to Go programs. Put your inner artist to work with Autodesk's Sketchbook or any of a dozen other drawing programs for Android. Send your sketch over Bluetooth or in an email to your friend's phone or tablet. If you are looking for a great tablet, this is a serious contender. Acer has promised an update to Android 3.1 before the end of June (2011).

I'm keeping mine!
4D

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Asus Transformer Keyboard Dock. With Photos.

2011-06-07T13:15:00.000-05:00

One of the nicest features of ASUS' Eee Pad Transformer is the Keyboard/Docking Station. For $150 (MSRP) you get a nice keyboard, two full sized USB ports, a full sized SD-HC slot, a second battery for your tablet, and a trackpad. The dock is as well made as the tablet. When connected you have a nice touchscreen netbook that shuts off when folded closed. The hinge is stiff enough to hold the tablet at any angle, with the weight of the battery in the dock keeping it from tipping backwards.

Together they make a perfect pair.

Good friction in the tablet hinge.

Top row includes Android, media, and utility keys.

Special top row keys include (left to right)

Back
WiFi
Bluetooth
Trackpad on/off
Backlight dim
Backlight bright
Backlight Auto
Screenshot capture
Web Browser
Settings
Previous Track
Play/Pause
Next Track
Mute/Unmute
Volume down
Volume up
Lock/Unlock (sleep/wakeup if no lock is set)

Left side features cable jack, reset, and USB port (under flap)

When docked, the tablet's charger and cable connect to the dock instead. It will charge both the dock's battery and the tablet when connected. Also notice the slight lift of the keyboard's back edge by the tablet bracket when rotated up.

The right side features an SD-HC slot and another USB port (under flap).

One of the nicest features the Dock brings to the tablet it the SD slot. It reads cards up to 32gb, and is the perfect way to import photos from your digital camera. Simply take the card from your camera and slide it into the side of the keyboard. A notification will show up on the tablet which you can tap on to bring up options to display the card content (folders and files) or eject it safely. You also have two USB ports for accessories or external storage. Android 3.1 supports an array of keyboards, mice and game controllers. That should make the ASUS Eee Transformer the best device for Android game players out there.

Conclusion: If you own the Transformer, you need this keyboard/dock. Well built. Feature rich. A great value. Be warned though, as any price over $150 is from a scalper. Demand is high for this dock, and people are taking advantage by buying them up at MSRP and reselling them for more. Mine came from Newegg.com

4D.

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Asus Transformer Details (with Photos).

2011-06-05T15:42:00.001-05:00

Plastic Back. Not gloss black boring though.

One thing I hear often when there is a debate between iPad fans and competing tablets is that no one make devices as well as Apple. Tech pundits who generally are also Apple fans dismiss the clever Asus Transformer as cheaply built. Here are a few photos I took of my Asus Transformer. You decide for yourself.

Headphone, USB, HDMI, Speaker on right edge.

Volume and Power, Speaker along the left edge.

Dock and Latch slots on bottom edge

YouTube App Cylindrical View

This is just the tablet. Click on most pictures to see an enlarged view. Monday I'll be getting the keyboard dock that includes another battery to power the Transformer. Stay tuned. I also have a showdown between the iPad2, Acer Iconia Tablet, and the Asus Transformer in the works.

Amazon.com Links:
Apple iPad 2 MC979LL/A Tablet (16GB, Wifi, White) NEWEST MODEL
Acer Iconia Tab A500-10S16u 10.1-Inch Tablet Computer (Aluminum Metallic)
Asus Transformer

4D

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Creative's Zen Touch 2 gets an Upgrade to Android 2.2!

2011-04-26T09:30:00.001-05:00

It didn't take them long. Creative appears to be serious about the android tablet market. Their 7" and 10" Ziio tablets have recently received update to android 2.2. It came with additional features that make them better values than they were when first releases. The Touch 2 is a pocket player. It comes in three versions. I reviewed the one with GPS a few weeks ago.

Enhancements:

Upgrades the OS from Android 2.1 (Eclair) to Android 2.2 (Froyo).
Adds the Audible application (for selected regions only).

So how much is the UI improved?

No apparent improvements to the Music app. No EQ to be found.
The Power Widget is buggy. After three reboots it "almost" works right again.
Powered down while plugged into USB shows a nice battery status display with backlight dimmed.
5 Home pages now, an improvement over the three available in the last version of the firmware.
On-screen dots to indicate the current page as well as allow a tap to move to other pages.
The BestTube (YouTube) app runs but crashes trying to preview videos and freezes trying to download videos.

As I come across any new or broken features I'll add them here. Leave a comment if you have one. Not sure if anyone but me has bothered.

4D

Archos' Gen8 Tablets Updated. Minor Fixes and Major New Features!

2011-04-15T16:31:00.001-05:00

NEW!

On April 21, 2011 Archos release version 2.3.26 firmware for its generation 8 tablets. The Changes include:

Wi-Fi: fix cannot scan on an access point above channel 11 regression
Phone tethering: fix TCP/IP header compression setting crash
System stability: avoid Android reboot in case of missing audio
Media library: fix media libray not updated on hard drive based A70
Notification: decrease low battery notification volume
Application: attempt to solve Pandora application not able to switch songs
Application: solve music lag in applications using OGG format
Bluetooth GPS: increase compatibility with 3rd party applications
Display: avoid white/black screen happening sometimes when switching back the display on.

Download page.

On April 13, 2011 Archos released version 2.3.20 firmware for its generation 8 tablets. The Changes include:
Version 2.3.20:

Application: a new Archos remote service and universal Android application to control your Archos device remotely using Wi-Fi. It is intended to operate your Archos using any Android phone/device for instance when the Archos is connected to the TV. The "Archos Remote Control" application is available on Android Market and on Appslib
Application: a new Archos YouTube application to easily view and play YouTube videos
Network shares: samba network share transfer speed has been enhanced to support HD streaming
Network shares: password protected shares are now discoverable
Media library: improve indexing behavior and robustness
Media info scraper: more robust poster and information retrieval process for TV and movie shows
Media library cleaning: all multimedia information (movie/tv shows posters and indexation data) can be cleared through settings->repair/formatting/reset multimedia library entry
Contacts: fix importation and exportation of Vcards
Applications: fix sound muted when initiating a call with Fring
Screen snapshot: fix capture for all screens and TV
Camera: increase quality of 720P H264 recording (decrease blockiness effect)
Multimedia: improve UPNP stability preventing hangs when Wi-Fi connection stops
Multimedia: for shoutcast network streams display url, station, genre on MusicPlayer
Multimedia: fix next playing video being paused at start in folder play mode
Multimedia: MMS playback support has been fixed
Multimedia: MIDI playback support has been fixed
Multimedia: fix compatibility with Rhapsody player application
Audio: fixed alarm volume when headphone are plugged (was lowered)
Video: fix some MPEG2 files not playing correctly on A28
Video: fix seeking in AVI with layer2 VBR sound
MusicPlayer: display track number (like "3/10") for A43/A70/A101
Videoplayer: fix folder play mode with HD video
Subtitles: auto detect UTF8 codepage
Storage: remove disk damage notification happening sometimes even after a successful file system check
Peripherals: display a notification when plugging a USB device that requires more than 100mA current for A28/A32/A70 to provide feedback that it is not supported (e.g. some USB keys)
Battery: improve prediction of wake up time to shutdown the product when battery is low
Proxy: http proxy support has been fixed
Phone tethering: increase compatibility with Blackberry phones (introduction of a setting to enable TCP/IP header compression)

You can find the firmware here: LINK

One new feature I'm delighted to see is the remote control application. It allows any Android 2.1 device to control your Archos gen8 device while it is hooked up to your TV. It means you can sit back on the couch and interact with android on your HDTV with no cable between your phone and the Archos device. You can download the Archos Remote APK here: LINK

I'm delighted to see Archos providing continued support for their gen8 tablets. They've made mine even better than it was when I bought them.

4D

Sansa Fuze+ Review.

2011-03-25T10:40:00.003-05:00

The Sansa Fuze+ MP3 Player (Black)is the successor to Sansa's original and legendary Fuze. This model eliminated mechanical controls for the hopefully more reliable touch sensitive alternative. The gloss black plastic body is nicely sculpted, but aggressively attracts fingerprints. In general it is a fine MP3 player. It will also play videos, shows photos, and has FM radio for your entertainment. Use it to record a voice memo as well. I found it a decent player, although the UI takes a little time to get used to and there is no easy way to scroll through a long number of songs. Mine came from my local Target store. Sansa players are available almost everywhere you can find an iPod for sale.

Specifications: 2.4” QVGA LCD(320x240) screen. Capacitive touch control pad. The rechargeable battery lasts for up to 24 hours of audio playback or 5 hours of video playback. Your results will vary (downward) depending on your usage habits and the properties of the content consumed. External controls include Volume +/- and Power/Hold. The control pad has Play/Pause, Back, and a 4-way direction pad with center Enter/Select. MicroSD-HC slot holds cards up to 32gb. The firmware version on the Fuze+ reviewed here is 2.36.03A.

Dimensions: 3.8" tall x 2" wide x 7/16" thick, and weighs 2.26oz(64g). You can find the Fuze+ in 4gb, 8gb, and 16gb versions. It has a microSD card slot with support for up to another 32gb. Color choices depend on which version you get. The 16gb version is only available in black.

UI: Getting around the Fuze+ is a little confusing. At the upper level you have the main media apps side-by-side, and can slide to each with a left/right slide or tap. Tap the center of the direction pad to make a selection. Once you enter into the music app you can slide/tap left or right to move from Artist to Album to Song to Genre and so on. On each sort option the list will rebuild using the selected ID3 tag. Scroll up/down to make your selection from the items listed. I often get the Back button confused with the Left button. Once in the Now Playing screen of any media app you'll need to tap or hold Back to go back to your content list. The Power button on the top edge will lock/unlock the controls with a quick press, but turn OFF the Fuse+ if you linger just a little longer on the button. I strongly recommend reading the User Manual, as there are several functions that use a double-tap or long press on a control button.

Music: Formats supported include MP3, WMA, secure WMA, FLAC, AAC/M4A, (DRM-free iTunes® music files), WAV, and OGG-Vorbis. In addition, the device supports Audible and audiobook formats. You can sort your music by Artist, Album, Song Title, Genre, or Playlists. If you have a few thousand or so songs expect it to take several dozen swipes to find a specific song. No textual search, and no alpha-numeric shortcuts. Sound quality is good. Not the best I've listened to but up near the top. One pleasant surprise was gapless playback. No break in the audio between consecutive songs in a live album where applause or prattle carries across tracks. Delightful! Music gets an A from me. If there had been a quicker way to scroll/search/locate songs it would have been an A+.

Video: The Fuze+ plays H.264, MPEG4, and WMV file types (320 x 240). Additional file formats including 3gp/3gpp2, ASF, AVI, DAT, DivX(ver 6.0), DVR-MS, MOV, MP4, MPEG 1, MPEG 2, MJPEG, FLV, and Flip® file formats can be added to the player easily using the optional free downloadable Sansa Media Converter (SMC). The 320 x 240 resolution limits the value of the Fuze+ as a Video player. Yes, it plays them. Odds are that you'll need SMC and lots of patience just to get playable videos installed on the + though. Don't buy it as a video player. I'll give videos a C+. Average for other devices with the same screen.

Photos: The Fuse+ will display JPG and BMP images. The screen isn't the best I've seen. The low resolution also reduces its value as a photo wallet. You do get a slideshow option. You can add any photo as background. You can reorient them. You can also select music for your slideshow, and also delete any photo.You start with a thumbnail array of the photos on board, then can swipe or tap to move from one to another. I'll give photos a C+. No zoom capability and the small screen suggests you don't buy the Fuze+ for its photo capability.

Radio: RDS support. Swipe left or tap right for Presets list. Hold center to Add or Delete current frequency from presets list. Double-Tap center to bring up options listed below. With RDS and recording capability, as well as great sound, I'll give radio an A.

Add or Delete Preset status of current frequency.
Record Radio
Play Recordings
Auto-Scan for Presets
Seek Mode On/Off
Delete all Presets
Delete all Radio Recordings

Podcast: Podcasts play just like any music on the Fuse+. No special features like bookmarking I could find. You do get fast or slow playback as an options, but I can't tell how MUCH it speeds up/down the playback. You can also delete a podcast from the Podcast player. With no bookmarking I have to give podcast playback a C.

Voice (Recorder): The voice recorder does a good job of recording from within a foot or two of the Fuze+. Notably clear when played back with no static or buzz. You can Pause and Resume, or STOP and save the recording easily. The recordings are 44kHz Stereo WAV files. MUCH better than most players that use 128kbps mono MP3 format. You can play them back with a right tap or left swipe to the playback side of the Voice app. Double-tap the center of the pad to bring up an option to delete the recording if you wish.

Card: Media on an inserted microSD card is combined with onboard media in the music/photo/video apps. If for some reason you need to seperately access content on any inserted microSD card you can choose the CARD option. It will give limited options for card content. Music by Artist Search only. Videos, Photos, and Books if there are any on the card.

Settings: You get reasonable control over the capabilities of the Fuse+ in Settings. Here is a summary:

Music: Repeat and Shuffle toggles.

Video: Brightness and Orientation.
Photo: Slide show timing, Shuffle and Repeat toggles, Music choice, and Orientation.
Podcast and Book: Playback Speed and Chapter Skip On/Off.
Radio: Set Region, Mono/Stereo, or Delete Presets.
Background: Use one of three patterns or any on-board image.
Backlight: 15 to 90 seconds.
Brightness:
Power Saver: None, or from 5 to 120 Minutes
Sleep: 10, 20, 30, 45, 60, 90, or 120 minutes.
Customize Menu: Allows turning OFF or ON any media feature from showing in the main menu cycle.
Equalizer

Normal,
Rock, Pop, Jazz, Classical, Funk, Hip Hop, Dance,
Full Bass, Full Treble
Custom EQ (5 bar)

Replay Gain
Volume Level Limit
Language
USB Mode: Auto Detect, MTP, or MSC.
Date:
Time
Format
Restore
info

Summary: If all you need is an affordable and easy to find MP3 player, then the Fuze+ is a good option. Music playback was stellar and gapless. Easy to add music to it. No iTunes or Zune software required. You can drag and drop or use Windows Media Player to sync music to it. You can download Sansa's Media Converter for free if you want videos on your Fuze and need them converted to work. I prefer touchscreen rather than touchpad UIs, but you won't find a decent touchscreen player at the prices you can find the Fuze+ at. Amazon.com's prices: Sansa Fuze+ 8gb

4D.

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iOS 4.3 Home Sharing. The Good and the Bad.

2011-03-10T12:33:00.004-06:00

My Archos devices have been able to stream media from my home network for more than a year now. Apple finally saw the writing on the wall and added that capability to their latest iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPads. So how did they do?

To start, Apple doesn't just copy a feature they like. I give them credit for trying to add some value and capability when a feature finally shows up on their iDevices. My iPod Touch 4th generation received iOS firmware 4.3 yesterday. Today I've been running the streaming capability through its paces.

To start, I had to enable it on both my desktop iTunes software as well as in Music Settings on the Touch. The setting is under Advanced in iTunes. On the Touch I had to input my Apple ID and Password under Settings>Music>Home Sharing. None of these options will show up unless WiFi is ON and connected.

What I like? My Touch is the 8gb version. I bumped into the limited storage the first time I synced it with iTunes. My music collect is over 20gb, and finding a 6gb or so subset of that to fit on the Touch came with compromises. Now as long as I'm home I can access, search through, and play any song in my collection. Once you select your library it will take some time to populate the Touch with album art and other database info about the songs. In the image below no art has yet been added from my local library.

Inconveniences? The PC has to be on. You need to have WiFi ON on your Touch or iPad or iPhone. Even if your content is on a network shared external drive. iTunes has to be running. If you try to close iTunes it will warn you that closing it will disconnect anyone who is sharing your music at the time.

What else will it do? You can share videos so long as your iTunes library knows about them. I had one 720p sample that played fine. Anything with lower resolution also played fine.

There was no sharing option in the Photo app though. Rather disappointed. Videos playing over WiFi play fine, but the few I tried could not be resized or stretched to fit the screen.

How does it compare to home streaming on the latest Archos devices? To start, you don't need iTunes. My 43 found and could play Music, Video, and Photos in any shared folder on my PC. It would also find and play my shared media on my network drive when my PC was OFF. Win there. Unfortunately you can't access shared content in the media apps. Media is easily found using the file browser though. Any you find will play when tapped on. Videos were a better fit on my 43's screen, and would re-size with a simple press on the screen. Win there. Apple's strategy makes it easier to sort and search through songs so long as you don't mind having iTunes running when sharing. Win there.

Conclusion? iOS 4.3 is a worthy update. If for no other reason than Home Sharing. Well done.

4D

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Creative Zen Touch 2 with GPS. My Review.

2011-03-06T13:22:00.005-06:00

Creative is now making an Android-based Zen media player. I'm delighted to see more companies jumping on the android bandwagon. When the Zen Touch 2 (I'll referred to it as the T2) with GPS became available on their web site (you can also order them on Amazon.com) I ordered one. Mine arrived 2/28/2011, and since then I've been going through it in detail, hoping to find what special touches Creative could add to Android, if any. As of now, I'm not sure they did anything beyond putting their name on this device.

Aesthetically the only interesting detail Creative added to an otherwise boring T2 is a faceted back derived from their Zen Mosaic. Don't consider this player if you want to impress your friends with your stylish choices. The nicest software touch they added was a quick graphic on boot-up advising you to "Touch the Sound of Perfection". After that you get another annoying slide-to-unlock screen then a typical Android UI.

What's in the Box? In addition to the 8gb (only 4.1gb available) Zen Touch 2 you get:

A mini USB cable, although I hope you have a USB port on the front of your PC as it is only 4" long.
In-Ear headphones. Better than what usually comes with MP3 players.
Warranty sheet (one year).
Quick Start Guide.
An ad for Creative accessories.
$10 EMusic card.
One free Audiobook offer.
and advice on protecting your hearing.

Dimensions:

120mm x 69mm x 13mm, 122g.
4.72" x 2.72" x .5", 4.3oz
For comparison:

The Cowon D3 is 116.4mm x 64.2mm x 11.8mm, 120g.
The Archos 43 is 135.0mm x 65.0mm x 9.00 mm, 132g

OS: Android 2.1, with hints (no promises) that it may eventually be updated to 2.2.

Controls and Ports (held horizontally with the Home button on the right):

Power button (left end). Hold in to power the T2 on or off. Tap to toggle just the screen off/on.
Volume +/- (top edge)
Search, Back, and Menu/List buttons (touch sensitive, to the right of the LCD screen)
HOME button (oddly a mechanical push button on the front face)
Speaker port (5/16" x 1/16" slot on back)
Camera Lens (on back)
Mini USB port (right end)
Headphone jack (right end)
Video output (Composite, uses headphone jack and custom cable)
MicroSD slot (bottom edge under a rubber pull tab)
Microphone (small hole on bottom edge, labeled by white microphone icon)

This Zen's media apps:

Music: The T2 will play music in these formats: MP3, AAC, WMA9, FLAC, OGG, ADPCM, MIDI, WAV, and Audible. I was shocked to discover there is no Equalizer. No Presets. No user settings. I had to dig out my ancient Zen 4gb to see if this was Creative's pattern or not (it is NOT). The audio output was powerful enough to easily drive my large Sennheiser HD595 headphones. No gapless playback though. Just the basics it seems. On the Now Playing screen you get a small album art view. Controls are all visible and active including List, Shuffle and Repeat buttons, as well as the typical Prev(Rewind when held)/Play(pause)/Next(Fast Forward when held) buttons. Info displayed includes a song length/position slider bar, artist, album, and song title. A long press on the last three brings up a Music/Browser Search window to find all songs or web info that matches the item touched. The Now Playing screen simply rearranges the same info for landscape or portrait view. A tap on the T2's menu icon will bring up options for Party Shuffle, Add to Playlist, Delete, and Library. With no Equalizer though the Music app gets a B.

Gallery (used for video and photos): Both Video formats supported include H.264, MPEG4, WMV9, and AVI video. Photo types include JPG, BMP, and PNG. My Touch 2 played WMV, AVI, and MP4 video files fine, although those that weren't the same width/height ratio as the screen had no way to be stretched to fit the screen. All you get when playing videos is the standard video Rew/Play/Ffwd and a length/position slider bar. No info, no submenu options, nothing. Don't buy the Touch 2 for videos. Video gets a C- from me. The Photo capabilities are only a little more useful. No swipe to the next photo. You have to tap on the screen to get a next or previous triangle to tap on. You also get a zoom (magnifying) in/out bar, a share icon, and a delete icon. Tap Share to bring up options for Bluetooth Object Push and Email. You can also double-tap on the screen for one step of zooming in. Once zoomed in it is easy to pan around the photo. Using the magnifying bar there are 13 steps of zoom, which does a fine job of bringing up the tiniest details in a photo. Tap the T2's menu button for a few more options including Rotate, Delete, Crop, Details, and More. More adds Show on Maps, Slideshow, Settings (for slideshow), and another Push Image by Bluetooth choice. Slideshow Settings are more complete than usual. Where both Videos and Photo suffer is from the poor screen quality. Photos get a B- from me for leaving out the easiest way to see the next photo.
FM Radio with RDS! You need headphones plugged in to use the radio. The Radio app will warn you to plug them in if they are not, and although the radio app will open it won't turn on without the headphones. The app is fairly complete. You get a station slider bar, Off/On button, scan forward and back buttons, frequency up and down (in .05 steps) buttons, an add-to- presets (+) button, and a Presets List button which includes the AutoTune choice. If the station tuned to includes RDS info it will display above the frequency displayed. No HD-Radio reception. No option to delete a preset from the list that I could find. No recording of Radio that I could find. Radio will play in the background while you run other apps that don't have their own audio. To turn it off you need to tap the power icon in the app, or run another program with its own audio (like Music). With no recording or preset delete I have to give FM Radio a B.

Other hardware features include:

Bluetooth - 2.1 EDR: So far I've found it supports file transfer, stereo audio to headphone or speakers. My bluetooth keyboards would pair but not connect. Audio quality over bluetooth to my Sony BT50s is on the better side of typical. All controls over media play worked both from the headset and the player.
WiFi - IEEE 802.11 b/g/n: No problems connecting to my Dlink n-capable router. Signal strength is as good as on any other 802.11n device I've reviewed, no matter where in my house I wandered to.
GPS: I'll need to find a GPS enabled app to give this a test. Stay tuned.
Compass: Seems to work. Found north just fine using a compass app. Not sure how useful it will be, but am optimistic it will eventually come in handy.
Accelerometer: The UI and direction-sensitive apps react quickly when the T2 is rotated. Nothing else to test it with. Another "stay tuned".
Camera: The camera will take still photos at 1600 x 1200 (2mp) or 640 x 480 as JPGs. Video taken is MP4 (H.264) at 21fps and 360kbps, 640 x 480 pixels. Video doesn't play back very smooth. The camera app is pretty complete, with white balance, quality, GPS (location) tagging, effects settings, crop and delete, etc.. No zoom to speak of. No flash. The lens is fixed-focus and cheap. It is also easily blocked by your finger when holding the T2 naturally.

Web Browser: Works best with mobile web pages. The low resolution hinders usefulness on classic web pages. A double tap works as expected, stretching columns to fit the screen width. Panning and scrolling is responsive and smooth. I recommend using a stylus if you expect to be accurate tapping on tiny links. Settings include options to Add a bookmark, Find on Page, Select Text, Page Info, Share Page, Downloads, and page content settings. You can choose from Text Size, Default Zoom, Text Encoding, Open Pages in overview, Block Pop-up windows, Load images, Landscape only, Enable Javascript, Enable Plug-ins, Open in Background, and Set Home Page. In addition there are privacy settings to Clear cache, Clear History, Accept cookies, Clear all cookie data, Remember form data, Clear form data, Enable location, Clear location access, Remember passwords, Clear passwords, Show security settings, and even more advanced options. With exceptions for the low-res screen The Web Browser is very complete. Almost a joy to use on the Touch 2. Web Browser earns an A.

UI: The android UI will turn horizontal or vertical depending on how you hold the T2, but only 90 degrees one way. The screen is sensitive and very responsive, but graphics do not instantly react like those on an iPod Touch. There are only three home page screens. This will prove limiting after you start adding apps. You get just 4 widgets including an analog clock, bluetooth control (PureAndroidAudio), Power Control, and Search. You can add Widgets, Shortcuts, or Folders to any or all home screens. You can also choose the wallpaper (background) from 10 included photos, your own photos, or 4 different colors. You can adjust the brightness of the screen from Settings-Display or the Power Widget. Viewing angles are decent in one axis and limited in the other, typical for the inexpensive LCD screen used. Other than for the poor choice of screen the UI response is as good as any other android device I've reviewed. Limited pages and included apps/widgets lead me to giving UI a B-.

Conclusion: For a device with so many hardware features it is a shame Creative went with such a poor screen. The Touch 2 is almost as large as my Archos 43, but the 3.2" 480 x 320 screen is significantly smaller and less than half the resolution. Poor video playback and no audio equalizer round out the flaws. There appears to be plenty of processing power. Audio output is strong. Bluetooth is great and FM radio with RDS is appreciated. Is it worth $199? The 8g Archos 43 is also $199 but comes with a better screen, better UI, more functional WiFi and Bluetooth features and remains my favorite device for now. So NO. The Touch-2 with GPS is NOT a good value at its current price.

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Cowon D3 Plenue: The Missing User Manual.

2011-02-27T07:24:00.004-06:00

Cowon's D3, their first Android PMP, is getting better with each new firmware update. With your D3 you should have a CD with a Product Guide on it or you can view it on Cowon's web site. What they haven't produced (so far) is a detailed owners manual with insight into the fine details of their custom UI and media apps.

This blog post is where I'll post those details. I'll update it as more becomes known about the D3. All details here pertain to firmware versions 1.29, 2.29, 3.29, and 4.29.

1. The Bottom Bar: Visible no matter which home page you are on.

Successive taps on the left rectangular area will toggle between a view of the Day/Date, Free Space in MB and %, as well as the number of running applications.
Touch and hold the left area of the bar to bring up an array view of the different home pages. Then tap on any page to go directly to it.
Tap or slide (to the left) the APPS square to switch to an array view of all the apps installed on your D3. That page is scrollable if there is more than one page worth of apps installed on your D3. Tap (or slide left) HOME to switch back to the home page view.
Below the bottom bar is a short white line segment. It shows the relative position left and right within the many home pages you are currently viewing.

2. The Clock Widget:

In orange letters below the time numbers and above the day text there is a "time" word. Tap anywhere on the widget to toggle randomly between EnjoyTime, PartyTime, BreakTime, and HappyTime.

3. Nine (9) Home screens.

From the Home screen tap the Settings icon, then tap Home Settings. You can then pick the number of visible screens from 1 to 9. A reboot is required to implement the change.
You can also select the default screen (the screen the D3 returns to when you tap the HOME icon) from among the visible screens. This feature might come in handy when you have a selection of apps for Home, one for Work, or for any other unique purpose. Switch to make your Work page the default when at work.

4. Other widgets:

Analog Clock: A simple contemporary analog clock face. Hands only with no numbers displayed. No hidden features I could find.
Design Clock: An analog clock with each quarter of the face displaying a different color and word. The words include partying, relaxing, chilling, and enjoying. Tap the face to change.
Sports Clock: Also an analog clock, although the face graphics are sports balls. Tap to change from Basketball, Soccer, and Baseball. An android robot sits on top and wears a different sports jersey relating to the visible sport. Lakers for basketball, Dodgers for Baseball, and a red jersey for Soccer I don't recognize. The soccer droid is randomly animated with a quick lean to the right.
Day & Time: A digital display displaying the time, day, and date. You can set different scenes behind it that will change with your specific locale seasons.
Calendar: A simply flipcard widget that displays the weekday and date, as well as any current or upcoming events you may have added to the calendar. A tap in the widget takes you to the android calendar app.
Music Widget: Representing a CD player, it displays the current song title and album name, as well as the cover art as if printed on a CD. You get simply play controls including a play/pause button, and fwd/rev-prev/next buttons. Tap on the CD and it takes you to the Now Playing page of the music app.
Picture Frame: Looks like a stack of Polaroid prints. Prev and Next controls on the bottom. The current photo is displayed. Tap on the Photo to be taken to the pictures app.
Power Control: A bar of four control icons. They include WiFi, Bluetooth, and Sync on-off toggles, as well as a screen brightness 3-way toggle. Very handy.
Google Search: Basically a shortcut to Google web search. In Settings there are also options to search from among your apps and your contacts as well. Open Settings, then Search.
Videos: A simple shortcut to the Video app. It displays a snapshot from the last video played, as well as the filename and position % within that video last where you last left it. It also shows the time and date that video was last viewed. Tap on the overlaying PLAY icon to open the Video app at that position.

6. Video app details:

Opening the Video app leaves you on the Now Playing screen. To see a list of the onboard videos you'll need to tap the big arrow in the upper right corner.
Once in the video list view, you may or may not see your videos listed there. Videos should be saved in the Media/Videos folder. You can move up and down the directory folder structure with taps on the top line items.
You can search by Folders, Thumbnails, or Bookmarks.
If a playing video doesn't fill the whole screen, a long press on the center for a second or two will cycle through stretch-to-fit options.
Two-finger spread can stretch a video to fill the screen area, regardless of original side bars or aspect ratio.
Tap the D3's Settings icon for Details, AV Out control, Adding a bookmark, Screen capture, and more Settings.
Those additional settings include lengthy Subtitle options, Pan & Scan with Pinch-to-Zoom, Aspect ratio, a separate Pan & Scan option, AV out setting, Audio track choice, JetEffect (EQ) setting, Repeat, and Skip Interval.
Touchscreen devices really point out the interface flaw if you enjoy watching videos without looking through a smear of fingerprints. A great feature of the D3 is the external control buttons (top edge when playing video). Press the PLAY button to start or pause the video playing. The Next/Prev buttons will Fast Forward or Rewind your video when held down. Use the Skip Interval Setting mentioned above to set the fixed length you want a single press on those buttons to skip forward or back in the video. The power button (bottom edge when watching video) will also lock the touchscreen with a single press but leave the external buttons active. A great way to prevent accidental interruption of your video.

7. Music app details:

Opening the Music app leaves you on the Now Playing screen. To see a list of the onboard songs you'll need to tap the big arrow in the upper right corner.
While on the Now playing screen, a tap on the album art will display lyrics if any are associated with the current song.
Tap on the song title and it will take you to that song's alphabetic position in the main song list.
Tap on the Album name and it will take to the a list of all the songs in that album
Tap on the artist, and it will create a list including all the songs by that artist.
The song position bar near the bottom can be tapped to move directly to that relative position in the song, or you can slide your finger along the bar slowly to hear the song change as you find the new position.
For Music access or control when you are NOT in the music app, you have several choices:

External buttons on the right side of the D3. Next/FFWD, Play/Pause, and Prev/REW. To fast forward or reverse, hold down the next or previous button respectively.
The Music widget. Place it on any home page, or all of them if you wish. Obvious Next, Play/Pause, and Prev buttons, and a tap on the cover art will take you to the Music Now Playing page.
The alert bar (top edge of the screen). When music is playing the play icon [>] will appear there. Slide down that alert bar to reveal ongoing info including the Title, Album, and Artist currently playing. Tap on it to be taken into the Music app.

8. Pictures app details:

Opening the Pictures app leaves you on the Picture view screen. To see a list of the onboard photos you'll need to tap the big arrow in the upper right corner.
The Photo view screen has basic controls visible. From left to right across the bottom they are Rotate, Play, and Set as. At the top is displayed the number of photos in the current folder as well as the current image's position among them.

Tap Rotate to temporarily rotate the current image 90 degrees clockwise.
Tap Play (>) to begin a slideshow of the images in the current folder.
Tap the center of the screen to turn on and off the on-screen controls.
Tap Set-as to pop up a window with options to set the current image as an icon for one of your contacts, or background wallpaper for the home screen. Pick Contact and you'll be taken to a list of your contacts. You can even create a new contact at that time which the selected photo will become the icon for. Use the D3's Back button to back out of any selection.

Tap the D3's Menu button while in the pictures app to bring up List, Details, Share. Crop, Add-to-favorites, and additional Settings.

List takes you to the pictures file listing. You can then sort by Folders/Files, Thumbnails, or Favorites.
Details brings up a window with File size, Resolution, and Date taken for the current image.
Share pops up a window with Bluetooth and Email options to send the current photo through.
Crop will overlay the current image with a green outline. Use one or two fingers to stretch the outline around the area you want cropped in the photo. Pan the outline around with a single finger in the middle of it. Tap the X to cancel the crop. Tap the storage icon to create a new picture file of just the area within the green outline. This does NOT overwrite the original file.
Add to Favorites will add individual images to a list you can then choose to view separately from your big selection. Images in the favorites list will play back in the order they were added. Something to consider if you are putting together a specific slide show.
Settings is where you'll find slideshow options. You can set both the interval (2, 3, or 4 seconds) and the transition (Fade in & out, Slide left-right, and Slide up-down).

You can double-tap (to zoom in steps) or use two fingers to spread or pinch (zoom in or out). Use a single finger to pan around any image you have zoomed in on.
If you like music during your slide shows, press the external PLAY button to begin playing the last song that was played.

9. Task Manager: Probably the most useful utility on the D3. Tap on it to open up a list of the running apps. Tap any app in the list to finish (stop) it. You can also tap the top bar to Finish All. Use the D3's BACK button to exit the Task Manager.

10. Internet, the web browser. The D3's high resolution screen means it works great as a web browser. The capacitive screen reacts to a light tap. It will also zoom in on any web page with a two-finger spread, and zoom out with a pinch of two fingers. A double-tap will also zoom in on any column or photo. Options are three layers deep. This web browser will do just about every setting your desktop browser would have. There is no Flash support (yet). This will be your one frustration.

With the browser open, tap the android menu button to bring up options including:

New window. Tap to open a new copy of your home page.
Bookmarks. Tap to see an array view of bookmarked pages you've created, as well as several included standards. Pick from all bookmarks, Most Visited, or History.
Windows. Tap to bring up a list of all open web pages and a New Window option.
Refresh. Tap to reload the current page.
Forward. Compliment to the D3's Back button.
and More. Tap More to bring up:

Add bookmark
Find on page
Select text
Page info
Share page
Downloads
and Settings. Tap Settings to bring up:

Text size (tiny to huge in 5 steps)
Default zoom (Far, Medium, or Close)
Open pages in overview (checkmark)
Text encoding (Latin, Unicode, and three Japanese options)
Block pop-up windows (checkmark)
Load images (checkmark)
Auto-fit pages (checkmark)
Landscape-only display (checkmark)
Enable JavaScript (checkmark)
Enable plug-ins (checkmark)
Open in background (checkmark)
Set home page (text input pop-up)
Clear cache
Clear history
Accept cookies (checkmark)
Clear all cookie data
Remember form data (checkmark)
Clear form data
Remember passwords (checkmark)
Clear passwords
Show security warnings (checkmark)
Website settings (advanced for individual websites)
Reset to default.

11. Installing Applications

There is no app store on the D3. Once hooked up to your PC and mounted though, you can access the folders on its storage space. One is APK. Any android program file (*.apk) you can find on the web can be copied to this folder. Once the D3 is safely disconnected from your PC it will notice and then offer to install any programs it finds in that folder.
The D3 is NOT a pure android device. Cowon has altered it somewhat, and so not every android program you might find will run perfectly. Proceed with caution.

That's all for now. The D3 comes with several other apps, but how many will be used will vary with each owner. You can read more about them at Cowon.com. My inital review of the D3 can be found HERE.

4D

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Cowon D3 Review. Getting Better Daily.

2011-02-03T13:15:00.009-06:00

My Cowon D3 arrived straight from Korea on Monday 1/31/2011. The D3 is the first device from Cowon running Android. At the moment it is running Android 2.1 (I think), although I'm hoping they'll upgrade it to 2.2 (or higher) eventually. I've actually seen no proof anywhere of what version Android is on the D3. To distinguish their android devices Cowon has adopted Plenue for the class name. According to them it means "Create Pleasure".

Cowon is known for their media players, and the D3 has benefited from their media experience. The standard Android media apps have been replaced by Cowon versions. Nearly every available codec is supported, and so little or no transcoding will be needed to play your music and video files.

Hardware:
- Capacitive AMOLED 3.7" screen with 800 x 480 pixel resolution.
- WiFi 802.11 b/g support.
- FM radio, along with recording from FM.
- Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, A2DP/AVRCP/OPP
- Speaker
- Microphone for audio recording.
- G-Sensor
- Multiple touch sensing.
- Touch (haptic) feedback.
- MicroSD-HC expansion slot.

- Dimensions: 64.2mm x 116.4 x 11.8mm, 120g. or 2.53" x 4.58" x .465" thick, 4.233 ounces.

Include in the plain brown box was a proprietary USB sync cable, a Korean AC 220v Power supply, Cowon typical earbuds, and a quick guide (in Korean). According to Cowons website a manual CD should have been included. It was not.

Right Edge

Bottom End

The D3 is capable of both HDMI and Composite video output, but it appears those will require separate custom cables from Cowon. I have not yet found a source for them.

Charging will take 7 hours over USB (with the screen OFF) and 3.5 hours with an AC Adapter. You'll get an average of 21 hours music play or 10 hours video play on one battery charge.

Music: The D3 supports MP3/2/1, WMA, OGG, WAV, ASF, FLAC, APE, and M4A file formats. If you have lyrics in LDB format they can also be displayed. There are 35 JetEffect 3.0 EQ presets and 4 User configurable EQ settings available. As with other Cowon players, a tap on the music icon takes you into the Now Playing screen. There is a big arrow in the upper right corner you can tap to take you back to the list of songs, which can be sorted by Album, Artist, Song, Folder, and Genre. The now playing screen itself has icon access to EQ presets, Shuffle and Repeat toggles, a Play ALL/1/Folder toggle, a playback speed setting that will speed up or slow down playback in 10% steps from 150% to 50% of normal speed. Pitch doesn't change which is nice.

You also have the typical Play/Pause, Next Track/FFwd and Previous Track/Rew buttons. Throw in a track position bar with total time and position time visible in fine print on the high resolution screen. Songs that include the information will display their Title, Album, and Artist right below the album art. Tap on the album art to reveal Lyrics if any exist for the current song. Press down on the title, album, or artist, and after a few seconds the D3 has sorted through the entire song list for songs that match that item.

Lastly, When you tip the D3 on its side the display changes to a 3D-ish cover art arc. On this display you'll see the title of the current song, and your position number among the total number of albums. Tap on any visible cover to have it flip out and display the songs it contains (below). You can tap on any song you see listed to start playing it. Tap the top bar of the list to flip back to the arc. Swipe left or right to rotate through all the albums. You can turn this landscape display off in Preferences. When you do the Now Playing screen doesn't re-orient at all when the D3 is rotated.

This Music application is (almost) as thorough as the one on the J3. You can bookmark (press the D3's Menu button) any song from any list, and any position within a song. The D3 doesn't do gapless playback. I give Music an A-. The sound quality is great when it isn't cutting out. There is a need for on-board playlist/favorites creation or I'd give it an A+.

Video: The D3 will play video formats including: AVI, WMV, ASF, MP4, MKV, MPG, DAT, TS, TP, TRP, and 3GP. Maximum resolution it will play is 1920x1080 (full High Definition), although not every resolution and audio and video codec combination up to that is guaranteed to play. It has played every video file I've thrown at it so far though. Those didn't include DAT, TP, or TRP files yet, as I have no sample files in those formats. VOB (DVD) files play if you change their extension from .VOB to .TS

You can resize many videos to fit the screen with a press on the screen or two. Doesn't work if the videos have their own black bars. You can find videos by Folder or Thumbnail images or Bookmarks you may have previously set. The Thumbnail list (image below) adds video length to the info presented. A long press on any movie file pops up more info, with Add to Bookmarks, Delete, and Details options. Details will include the file name, file size, and resolution of the video.

Controls on the video Now Playing screen include AB marking, a play speed option (50% to 150% of original speed), and the usual play/pause FFwd/REW-next/previous buttons. The video title is displayed on the top edge of the screen. Press the android menu button and you get several more options. Direct links to the list, details, and Add to Bookmarks are there, as well as Screen capture, AV-Out, and screen/subtitle settings. Video play on the D3 gets an A+. Better than on the J3 thanks to the larger screen size, higher resolution, and added codec support.

Pictures: The D3 will display your JPG, PNG, GIF, and BMP photo files on its beautiful AMOLED screen. The Photo app is typical Cowon. Tapping on it you begin with the last Photo that was displayed. It will tell you the total number and position within that number of the photos in the current folder. The big arrow in the upper right corner will take you to your photo list(s). Photos can be separated into folders, and folders can be selected individually. There is a nice slideshow feature with transitions and transition time choices. You can manually rotate photos to best fit the screen, and they will also rotate when the D3 is itself rotated from landscape to portrait view or back. Two-finger pinch or spread can be used to zoom out or in on details, and a double tap on the photo will also zoom in on it in steps.

Pictures can be used as contact icons or Wallpaper. Tap the photo to bring up the controls if they are not already visible. Then tap the bottom right icon to get a pop-up window for the choices. Now if only the D3 had a camera that contact icon feature would have been great. As it stands, the Pictures app is fine. Nothing overwhelming. I'll give Pictures a B+.

FM Radio: The radio app is a welcome addition to the D3. So far this is the only android-based player I've got with FM radio. You'll need to have headphones plugged in to serve as antenna, and the radio will not output over bluetooth. Options include auto-scanning for channels, Preset List, Add Preset, Preset Off, Start Recording, and Settings. Under Settings you can set your region, and turn stereo on or off. You also get an OFF switch. I'll give Radio a B, as there is no RDS feature.

User Interface: Cowon has decided they need to improve on the standard Android interface. It starts with a bottom bar that shows the available memory and amount left on the D3, next to a slider to switch between the Apps page (image below) and the home page. The left side of the bottom bar toggles between displaying the free space available, the number of running apps, and the day/date. The rest of the interface is rather normal for Android, with widgets and shortcuts and bookmarks as icons spread over 5 possible pages. On start-up the D3 wants to scan for new media you might have added, and it warns you that the system may not be responsive until it is finished. There have been four firmware updates since I started writing this blog post, and with each the screen response and fluidity has improved. I have no doubt that Cowon will keep working on the D3 until its interface performance is on par with the iPod Touch. It is very close right now.

One thing I find annoying is the lock screen Cowon insists on using for the D3. My Archos Android players don't have it, and swipe-to-unlock is an unnecessary extra step in an otherwise competent execution.

On the good side, the D3 has external buttons for power/hold (image below), and volume +/-, play/pause, and FFwd/Rev (right side). There are off-screen touch buttons for Back, Menu, and Home.

You can almost completely control media play without touching the screen. A single press of the PLAY button will usually start playing music without unlocking the screen. The power button will lock the touchscreen with one tap, turn the screen OFF with a quick double-tap, and bring up the power OFF option with a two second hold.

Bluetooth: I had no trouble pairing the D3 with my bluetooth headphones. I was disappointed to discover there is no gapless playback using bluetooth. Controls worked fine from the headphones or the D3, including volume. Additionally, in the Music app's preferences, you can turn off the headphone's ability to control the D3. I tried pairing a bluetooth keyboard to the D3 and although it paired it reported there was no support for keyboards. The D3 does support file transfers over bluetooth, but my first few attempts (with my PC and an Archos 43) have failed after downloads got past 80%. I have succeeded since. I'll blame it on the earlier firmware. At this point bluetooth for headphones is still a little buggy. I had the occasional cut-out or momentary freeze while listening to music, and I've never experienced the same on any other player. As such, Bluetooth gets a C+. Hopefully it will improve with firmware updates.

Internet: I had no trouble connecting to my home or work Wifi. The web browser works reasonably well, and multitouch zooming is greatly appreciated. There is a slight response delay after tapping on any on-screen link. It is as if the screen sensor has to think for a second before responding. Side-by-side with my iPod Touch the difference is notable. Scrolls are just a bit choppy on the D3 where they are smooth on the Touch. The D3 will show more info on a screen than the iPod Touch as the Touch adds an options bar on every web screen. The 800 x 480 screen is good, but not as crisp in detail as the Touch's 960 x 640 Retina display. Many web pages recognize the Touch and reformat to a Mobile view for it. The D3 usually gets a more typical PC page view on the same pages. Double-tap and finger-spead to zoom both work as expected. The web browser experience is better than on any lower resolution device, and better than any device without multitouch. It still isn't up to the standard set by Safari on an iPod Touch or iPhone, so Internet gets a B from me.

Apps: No app store on the D3. I've been able to side-load applications to my D3, and most have installed with no problem, the lack of an on-board market is a serious shortcoming Cowon needs to address. Out of the box the D3 includes your typical music, video, pictures, and radio media apps. You get email, web browser, YouTube, calculator (including simple and scientific versions), task manager, document (.txt) viewer, alarm clock, paint, voice recorder, calendar, contacts, comix, and twitter too. There are a few more apps on the Korean version of the D3 that disappeared when I installed the North American firmware. Until either Cowon or hackers get a Market app working on the D3 I have to give it a C B for Apps.

Update 3/23/2011: Amazon.com has opened their Android Appstore now, and although the number of apps available is small you can expect it to grow exponentially. Easy to add their app to the D3.

Conclusions: The D3 is a nice package with decent hardware and great potential. It has the power to drive my large Sennhieser headphones with authority. Music and Video codec support is the best you'll find. There are two reasons I won't recommend the D3 right now: Price and maturity. Amazon.com lists the D3 with 32gb of memory for $358. A 32gb iPod Touch is $275. The new D3 is NOT $83 better than a new Touch. The price is too high, even if every feature worked perfectly. As I stated previously, Cowon has updated the D3 Firmware 4 times since I received it. It still exhibits random freezes, audio cut-outs, slow touch response, and no easy access to Android apps. I assume Cowon will eventually resolve these issues, but right now the D3 performs worse than my old HTC Hero Android phone. Cowon needs more experience with Android. Hopefully they are learning fast, as the D3 is not quite ready for prime time.

2/10 EDIT: Cowon updated the firmware on 2/10/2011 to version x.27. I've installed 3.27 on my D3, and the audio cut-outs I mentioned seem to have been eliminated. Still no gapless playback, and no apps store.

4D.

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Archos' Latest Tablets got a Firmware Update Today.

2011-01-26T16:58:00.000-06:00

If you are still undecided about getting one of Archos' latest tablets, then you don't have any more excuses. Today they updated the firmware to version 2.2.1. It includes 30 individual fixes for the tablets including:

Video: fix some audio glitches after seeking WMA files
Video: add support for MTS files
Video: bring UTF-8 and UTF-16 encoded subtitles format support
Video: fix SUB subtitles sometimes truncated
Video: add IDX/SUB subtitle handling
Video: fix http://.*mpeg playback
Video: support resume and bookmark for network shares
Video: fix some FLV files not playing
Youtube: fix mobile site video not playing
Multimedia: fix RTSP support for Android applications
Multimedia: fix some web radio applications by adding basic M3U support
Audio: apply shorter steps in audio balance tuning
Audio: fix sound glitch on system notification while playing music
Music browser: fix album view crash on scroll with a lot of albums
Music: support samba protected directory access
Thumbnails: resolve thumbs generation freeze
Indexing: improve rescan robustness
Indexing: fix scanning not restarting after connecting device on PC or ejecting SDCard
Network shares: large files (>2GB) can now be played
Wi-Fi: fix disabling power saving not working
Wi-Fi: enable IEEE802.11n support
Wi-Fi: achieve faster reconnection
SD Card: fix sd card removal not being taken into account
Storage: enable EXT3 file system support and migration
USB keyboard: fix external directional keys layout when rotating the device
Memory: enable 32MB swap by default and increase it to 64MB after Android reset or full device reformat
Applications: fix applications disappearing sometimes between reboots
Applications: fix unit not responsive after Google voice search use
Power management: allow to define deep sleep mode by default in settings/about device/power management
VPN: PPTP VPN support has been fixed

What it means is that Archos is standing behind this generation of tablet devices with all their resources. The same download will work for their 28it, 32it, 43it, 70it, and 101it. To install it just copy the downloaded file to the uppermost folder on your device. Then disconnect from the USB cable to have it begin the install. Many users have reported the devices themselves will find and download it directly, as well as install it.

Enjoy!
4D

iPod Touch vs Archos 43 Showdown!

2010-12-30T11:18:00.006-06:00

I've been looking for a strong alternative to the iPod Touch for a long time. The original had several shortcomings, although there were no decent competitors to it at that time. Some challengers have shown up since. Apple didn't rest on its laurels, and the latest Touch answers almost every complaint I had with the first one.

Archos appears to have decided to win back bragging rights for tablet media players, and the Archos 43 Internet Tablet looks like it shoots straight at the Touch. I have both, and am getting many questions about which is better. This is my showdown. I'll rank for technology, media support, ease of use, build, and a few other things. You may not agree with every conclusion, but hopefully this showdown will help you make your own decision.

I have reviewed both. The Archos 43 has been updated since that review. Here is how they compare price-wise:

iPod Touch 8gb for $229. 32gb for $299.

Archos 43 16gb for $249. 16gb MicroSD-HC card for $36. Total for 32gb = $285.

Hardware:

- Processor: Tie

Touch: Apple A4 1GHz processor running iOS 4

43: ARM Cortex A8 at 1 GHz with DSP running Android 2.21

- WiFi: Tie

Touch: 802.11b/g/n (802.11n 2.4GHz only). 802.11n no speed

improvement over G.

43: 802.11 b/g/n (including 5GHz for 802.11n) 802.11n doesn't work

at the moment. Archos is looking into it.

- Bluetooth devices supported: 43 wins.

Touch: Profiles include A2DP, AVRCP, PAN, HID. Headphones, Keyboard, some accessories.

43: Profiles include A2DP, AVRCP, HID, PAN, Headphones, Keyboard, Mouse, GPS, File Transfer,

Phone tethering.

- Screen size: 43 wins.

Touch: 3.5" diagonal. 1.984375" x 2.9375", 5.83 square inches.

43: 4.3" diagonal, 2.09375" x 3.75", 7.85 square inches.

- Screen resolution: Touch wins.

Touch: 960 x 640

43: 854 x 480

- External controls: Both have volume toggle power/hold button. Tie

- Power button options: 43 wins.

Touch: Simple press to turn screen off. Long press for power OFF

screen.

43: Simple press to turn screen off. Long press brings up several

device options including Airplane Mode, Buttons Mode, Power

Off, and Silent Mode. Choosing Power OFF brings up a second

set of choices including Deep Sleep, Reboot, and Power Off.

- Ports: Inputs, outputs, and memory expansion. 43 wins.

Touch: Dock port, headphone jack.

43: Micro USB sync port, HDMI output, MicroSD-HC slot, headphone jack. USB storage drives and devices supported with adapter cable (not included, typically under $10).

- Cameras: Touch wins with 2. Both devices require great lighting to take good photos. The 43's camera app was updated in the latest firmware with 6 white-balance settings, resolution/quality choices, color effects, and (video) unbanding choices. It has a Photo/Video toggle as well. The Touch has a choice of cameras (front or back), the shutter button, and a digital zoom slider that shows up when you tap the screen. Both have links to their photo galleries from within camera app.

Touch: Front facing VGA 640 x 480 resolution. Rear facing 960 x 720 for Photos, 1280 x 720 for Video.

43: Rear facing 1280 x 720 photos and video.
- Speakers: The 43's speaker reaches to lower frequencies. The iPod's speaker is louder at the same position along the volume slider (about 50%). Both serve fine for notices, games and chat, but are not recommended for music listening. Tie.
- Microphone: Touch wins. Its microphone is more sensitive, and the voice memo app is better integrated than the Audio Recorder app on the 43 is.

Media Support:

- Music File Types: Tie. Differences in what is supported by each, though.

Touch: AAC, Protected AAC, HE-AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, 4, Audible Enhanced Audio, AAX, and AAX+), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV. 9

43: Stereo MP3, MP3 VBR, WMA, WAV (PCM/ADPCM), AAC3, AAC+ stereo audio files, OGG Vorbis, FLAC, AC3, AC3 stereo audio(options plugin required). 9 or 10

- Video File Types: 43 wins. Many file types are simply containers. Still the 43 is easily most capable. It also can play videos from shared folders on your home network. Above are scenes from videos playing on both. The MULAN video on the 43 was streaming from my PC over my home WiFi network.

Touch: M4v, MP4, MOV, AVI

43: M4v, MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV, WMV, MPG, PS, TS, VOB, FLV, RM, RMVB, ASF, 3GP.

- Photo File Types: Tie.

Touch: JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF

43: JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF

- Photo apps: 43 wins.

Touch: Pictures app. Sources include local, from cameras, from email, and from Web that you've downloaded.

43: Galley and Photo Frame apps.

- Music Sort Options: Tie. Differences. On the 43 you can find separate apps for Audiobooks and Podcasts.

Touch: Albums, Artists, Songs, Playlists, Audiobooks, Compilations, Composers, Genres, Podcasts, iTunes U, Seach

43: Albums, Artists, Songs, Playlists, Recently added, Recently played, Favorites, Storage, Party shuffle, Search.

- Music Now Playing: 43 wins. Info and Features accessible directly from within the Now Playing screen.

Touch: Artist, Album name, Song name, Position slider/info, Volume slider, Next/Previous, FF/REV, Play/Pause, Shuffle toggle, Repeat options, Album art, Shortcut to song list, Song x of Total, Back. 17. Music app changes to limited cover flow view in landscape position.

43: Artist, Album name, Song name, Position slider/info/absolute, Volume slide/up-down/position bar, Next/Previous, FF/REV, Play/Pause, Shuffle toggle, Repeat Options, Album Art, Shortcut to Song List, Shortcut to initial Library screen. Tap menu for Info, Party Shuffle, Add to Playlist, Add to favorites, Delete, and Audio Settings choices, Search (any text on the screen for related info using) Music/Web/Pandora/YouTube, Back. 30. Music app presents same options in landscape and Profile views.

Experience:

- User Interface: Ease of use. Finding what you want. Managing your files and apps. 43 wins. Neither device is intuitive, despite YouTube videos of toddlers play with an iPad. Many options are hidden in Settings, and the only way to know about them is to search through them one by one. Android apps generally have related settings accessible within the app. On the Touch, you have to leave the app and then open Settings to find related options.

Touch: Folder support. Multiple (11) App pages. System wide search. Capacitive screen +. Multitouch. Uninstall downloaded apps. Multitasking. Bookmarks as icons. 8
43: Folder support. Multiple (5) App pages. System wide search. Resistive screen -. Uninstall downloaded apps. Multitasking. File browser. Delete file capability. Put icons anywhere on a screen. Widgets. App icons (shortcuts) and widgets on more than one page if you want. Shortcuts to contacts, bookmarks, direct messages, directions, an email, Gmail label, Latitude, any setting, Google Voice toggle as icons on a home page. 18

- Build: The Touch (below) is too thin. I find myself getting hand cramps when holding it more than a few minutes. The 43 weighs a little more, but with its larger screen the weight is expected. Both are well built, but Apple again demonstrates that they are on top of engineering and production. The 43 is well made. I greatly appreciate the built-in kickstand (above). The Touch is a beautiful piece of work. Both are fingerprint magnets. Although not the easiest to hold or use, the Touch wins build.

Touch: 7.2 millimeters thin. Engineered glass front and stainless steel back.

43: 9 millimeters thin. Glass front with plastic body molded over a steel frame.

- Reliability: Tie. The Touch I have now is a replacement for my original purchase. The power button failed and Apple replaced it for me. So far my 43 doesn't work using 802.11n for WiFi connectivity as it claims to. It still connects using 802.11g. Archos is aware and hopefully will fix it in an upcoming firmware release. Of three iPod Touches I've owned, two have gone back to Apple as defective. Of the 6 Archos product I have none has needed to be sent back as defective, yet nagging firmware glitches so far keep this 43 from being all that it can be. Both products thus appear tied for reliability.

Summary:
43 = 16. Touch = 12. Wins worth 1. Ties worth 1 point to each device. By numbers the 43 is easily the winner. Android 2.21 is a more versatile OS than iOS 4. Since my 43 arrived it has become the one device I prefer to use over everything else you can find reviewed on my blog. The larger screen of the 43 is more welcome than the higher-resolution screen of the new Touch. Applications are available for both. The range of android apps, despite fewer in number than Touch apps, covers every category well. With no restrictions there are Android apps that do things Apple doesn't allow Touch/iPhone apps to do. The Touch is a great piece of hardware. Archos has a better device in its 43 though. In fact, Archos can't seem to make them fast enough to satisfy demand.

4D

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Archos 70 Review. 250gb and Android 2.21!

2010-12-18T16:10:00.003-06:00

My Archos 70 Internet tablet w/250gb arrived Thursday 12/16/2010, and I had it updated to android 2.21 within 15 minutes of unboxing it. Archos has already update the 2.21 firmware once to address some early WiFi and processor management issues. I also have their older Archos 7 Home tablet, and was looking forward to see if they had learned anything. They have!

First of all, the screen on the 70 uses capacitance to sense your touch. It also recognizes two fingers (multitouch!). They've added a graphics co-processor to help speed up the UI (User Interface) as well as games, and with an ARM Cortex A8 1GHz processor the experience is delightful. This Archos 70 has removed the impatience and frustration I developed using their 7 Home.

The Specs...

- Dimensions: 201 x 114 x 14 mm – 400 grams / (7.91 x 4.49 x 0.55 inch – 14 oz)

- Screen: WVGA 800 x 480 pixels, 7'' TFT LCD, 16 million colors. Capacitive multitouch.

- Storage: 250 GB Hard Drive. The hard drive version is 4mm thicker than the flash memory version.
- Wireless: WiFi (802.11 b/g/n), and Bluetooth 2.1 EDR.
- Webcam: Front facing, VGA resolution (640 x 480).
- Outputs: Mini HDMI output. (Mini HDMI / HDMI cable sold separately), and stereo headphone jack.
- Controls: Volume +/- rocker, and Power/Hold/Reset button. On-screen Back/Menu/Home/Search icons.
- Other: Microphone, Stereo Speakers, G-sensor, and Kickstand.

This model in Archos' generation 8 line-up has the same media features as all the others do. Great music playback capability. Great Photo and Video display capabilities as well. They all have access to Archos' Appslib application store, and can be easily "hacked" to add the standard Google apps and Market access. I'll refer you to my review of the Archos 32 and Archos 43, as well as the technical page for the 70 at Archos.com for more info about the media capabilities. Where the 70 stands out is that it and the 101 get capacitive (skin sensing) screens, and that means interaction is easier and multitouch comes in to make the web browser and photo gallery app easier to use. Android apps that can take advantage of multitouch also work better when it is available. Since the 70 has a front facing camera, it also comes with the FRING video chat application. The 7" screen makes every app more enjoyable. text is larger. Images are larger. Videos are larger. GAMES are larger! Yet at 7" this tablet is nearly the perfect size to enjoy at home as well as take with you when travelling. Steve Jobs obviously hasn't used a 7" tablet if he thinks they are dead in the water. Expect a smaller iPad from Apple eventually. ;)

Hard Drive: As all the data is on a hard drive, expect load times to take a little longer than they would on the Flash memory version. You have room for far more apps and media on this version though, and you don't have to swap out or even bring along microSD cards when you need more space.

Bluetooth: The smaller tablet from Archos also have Bluetooth, but at the 7" size the potential becomes more interesting. You can pair a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse with it. Add a good word processor from the android market and you'll have a serious work setup. The kickstand props the 70 at a perfect angle for viewing, and it will even stand the 70 up on end if you don't mind a little wiggle. Bluetooth can also be used to pair a $25ish GPS module to the 70, and with Google navigation it becomes a very functional GPS nav unit. I find I can also send pictures to my Canon Printer over Bluetooth, and the printer will then print them out. Lastly, you can send the audio output of the 70 to Bluetooth headphones or speaker docks.

E-Reader: At 7" the 70 is also the same size or larger than most dedicated e-readers out there. You can find Kindle (Amazon), Nook (Barnes and Noble), Google Books, and Aldiko ebook apps for the 70, and it becomes a competitive e-reader that doesn't discriminate on where your books came from. I've tried several e-readers. I've tried several tablets. At this point the Archos 70it stands out as the best solution to both categories. With battery life rated Music up to 36 hours, Video up to 7 hours, and Web surfing up to 10 hours, expect around 10 hours for ebook reading before needing to recharge.

3D Games: Archos added a graphic accelerator with 3D OpenGL ES 2.0 capabilities to this series of tablet. It means the 70 can play animated 3D games as well as your X-Box or PlayStation. An example 3D game is included, and does a good job of demonstrating the power you have in your hands. The G-sensor in the 70 allows the tablet itself to become the controller of the game. A few more example games can be downloaded from this link: Archos.com. Yes, you can play these games on the smaller gen 8 tablets. No they are not as cool there as they are on the 70! Hook the 70 to your HDTV and play on the BIG SCREEN with the 70 as controller!

Build: Although the 70 appears to be all plastic, it is plastic molded over a steel frame. The screen is glass. I find the body stiff and durable. You hear the occasional squeak of plastic case edges meshing when handling the 70. You can feel the hard drive spin, although my 50 year old ears don't hear it. The kickstand is plastic and flexes a little. There are rubber feet on the back to keep it from sliding on a table. Unlike previous Archos tablets there are no dock ports to be blocked when standing it on its lower (long) edge. Cable jacks are all on the left end, or the top edge when stood on it's kickstand end. You can't recharge it over USB, so keep track of the include AC charger. The screen is viewable from a wide angle left and right, and only darkens up when viewed from low angles to the bottom edge. Speakers sound better than those on the 43, but won't replace your home theater speakers for audio quality. Two or three people at a time could easily enjoy watching a video on the 70.

Summary: I like it. While the resistive screens on Archos' smaller tablets are some of the most responsive I've tested, the capacitive screen on this 70 is a joy to use. My wife has already laid claim to it for her Angry Birds addiction, as the version on her iPhone is "too small!". Video viewing is a delight, with good audio from the stereo speakers. It makes a reasonable digital Photo Frame if you're charging it on your desktop and not otherwise using it. Archos appears to have learned their lesson. They have been responsive to owner complaints since it came out, with a firmware update that addressed the most major ones. Check out their support forum HERE. Given that Samsung wants $550 for its Galaxy Tab, this $318 Archos 70it tablet with very similar specs is a winner. If you don't need the 250gb hard drive, give the $268 8gb version a look.

4D

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Archos 32 Review. Now with Android 2.2!

2010-12-07T18:55:00.008-06:00

My Archos 32 showed up via UPS on November 30, and as soon as I configured my WiFi connection on it there was a notice to update its firmware. Don't mistake this for the Archos 3 Vision. Within 5 minutes I had Android Froyo 2.2 running on it. Mine came from Sears.com, thanks to a Black Friday discount price of $129 with free shipping. I'll say it right now; the Archos 32 Internet Tablet is an amazing value for its price.

For comparison look at the $149 Apple Nano. The 32 sells for the same MSRP of $149. Both players have 8gb of internal memory with no memory expansion slots. Both have G-Sensors. Compare the rest of the specifications of each, and you'll see why I claim the 32 is a great buy.

A few things the 32 can do that Apple's Nano cannot:

The 32 has a 3.2-inch' (diagonal) screen, 400x240 pixels.
The 32 can also play videos (up to 6 hours) and display photos.
The 32 has Bluetooth 2.1 EDR.
The 32 has WiFi (802.11 b/g/n).
The 32 has external Volume controls (left edge), as well a off-screen touch controls for volume.
The 32 has a Camera/Camcorder (below): VGA - recording format: VGA H264 / AAC (.mp4).

The 32 has a Built-in Microphone.
The 32 has an app store, and the android Market app can also be added.
Email, Calendar, Contacts, Web Browser.

Yes, the 32 has no clip. It is thin and light enough to almost go unnoticed in a shirt pocket though. In many ways it is as capable as the larger Archos 43. You don't get a speaker or memory expansion slot or HMDI output. Yet the 32 CAN output its entire UI to a TV with an optional Composite cable. The 32 is smaller and subsequently more portable. It will play all the same games/apps you can play on the larger 43.

The power/hold button and volume rocker is along the left edge. Headphone jack, USB port, and microphone are on the bottom edge.

The first three images on this page are thanks to Archos.com.

Archos has included its own Music, Video, and Photo playback applications. IMO they are considerably better than what comes standard with Android:

- Music: The 32 will play nearly any music/audio file you put on it. See the specifications for a complete list. When you first enter the Music app you'll see a spinning array of your album covers, next to other options for sorting your music.

That array can display your entire collection, or be slid left/right to display the Recently Played, Recently Added, or Favorites covers. Hold down on any album cover to get a pop-up menu for Info, Play, or Add-to-Playlist. Selecting Info will show you detailed info about that album, including number of tracks and the year it was made. You also have options to sort by Artists, Songs, Playlists, Storage (folder), or a more typical listing by album name. Pressing on almost any text in the now-playing screen pops up options to search YouTube, your Web Browser, or the local Music collection for more information about what you selected.

You get complete control of playback, including Pause/Play, FF/REW, track length and position, Shuffle, Repeat, and quick jumps back to the play list or beginning Music sort page. Playback is gapless with FLAC files. In the Settings/Audio menu there are options for Balance and 3D effect, as well as a few equalizer presets. I you select "Custom" you gain a Bass and Treble slider. Although I miss sorting by genre, I'm still giving Music playback an A.

- Video: Video playback is another of Archos strengths. Again, I refer you to the specifications page at Archos.com. for the codecs supported. The highest resolution it will play is 720p. No, the screen doesn't have that many pixels, but it is nice to not have to convert videos you have just so they'll "fit" the 32's screen. When you open the Video app you get sorting choices including All Videos, Recently Added, Recently Played, Not Played Yet, and Video Folder. When your WiFi is turned on you will also see external Shared Folder and Media Server choices. This means you can stream videos from your home network if they are in shared folders.

There are small and large Widgets for videos that you can put on any of the 5 home pages. Both give you one-tap access to Recently Added or Recently Played lists, as well one tap to playing that last video you were watching. You can stretch a video to fill the screen. The menu button brings up options for Info, Set Bookmark, Brightness, and more Settings. Movie information and cover retrieval is available in video info. The additional Settings include Play Mode (Single/Folder/Repeat single/Repeat Folder), Sound(Audio Settings), and Display Video Title(enable or disable). I am very impressed with the 32's video playback capability. Video gets an A from me.

- Photos: There are two way to enjoy your photos that come standard on the Archos 32. You get a typical Gallery app, and the Photo Frame application. The 32 will display JPEG, BMP, PNG, and GIF graphic files. The initial view when you open the Gallery app shows separate "stacks" of your photos from each folder (gallery). If you've taken photos with the 32's camera they will show up in a camera stack. Photos in the Pictures folder show up in a Pictures stack. The number of photos in each stack is also listed. A tap on any stack will spread the photos in that stack out into an array of thumbnail images. The array is spread out by dates, with earlier photos toward the left and later photos toward the right. There is a slider tab on the bottom edge of the screen which will display the date as you slide the array left or right. You can also simply swipe the array either direction. Tap on any photo to enlarge it to full screen. Double-tap to zoom the photo out to its full pixel resolution. You can then pan around the image with your finger on the screen. Any single tap on a full-screen photo brings up other options. You can play a Slideshow, or tap to get more menu items. Those items include Share (Email, Bluetooth, Twitter(Touiteur), and GMail if installed), Delete the currently displayed image, and another "More" option (Details, Set as, Crop, Rotate Left, Rotate Right, and Add to Favorites). Across the top edge of the screen will appear quick links to the Array or gallery views, as well as a file name/sequence number toggle. The photo options are very complete. The screen isn't very high in resolution though, and that is the only shortcoming of using the 32 as your primary photo show-off device. For a better presentation consider anything with a larger screen and higher resolution. Archos' 43it is perfect for photos. Photos on the 32 get a B from me.

Camera: You can shoot photos or video with the 32. Photo size is limited to 640 x 480 Pixels (4:3) and 24BPP (bits per pixel) or 16.7 million colors. This is a sample:

Video resolution is limited to the same VGA resolution. You get several options when shooting video though. They include color effects(None, Mono, Sepia, Negative, Aqua, and Red Tint), white balance (Auto, Incandescent, Daylight, Fluorescent, Cloudy, and Shadow), duration (Unlimited, 1 minute, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, and 10 Hours), and format (QCIF 176 x 144 or VGA 640 x 480). The 32's 8gb of memory will be the biggest restriction on how much video you can record. A 26 second MP4 video I took was 10.8 MB (11,333,632 bytes). Video data rate is 3476kbps at 25 frames/second. Audio bit rate in videos taken is 8kbps mono. The lens is small and poorly placed. There is no flash. Don't expect to shoot award-winning videos with the 32, but for a quick casual photo or video to share with friends it will do fine. Be sure you're in good light though. I'll give the camera a C. Average for cameras on media players. Nowhere near as nice as that on most cell phones.

WiFi: The main reason I bought the 32. With WiFi you get email, internet access via the built-in browser, access to the android market, as well access to any other info available on the World Wide Web. If you don't have Wifi internet access, then don't bother with the 32. The low resolution screen is the biggest hindrance when browsing the web. When you set up your WiFi access, notice there is a powersave options. Make sure it is disabled for the best range. Also note that the WiFi antenna is in the lower right of the case. Having your hand over that area can reduce your range considerably. Using a WiFi analyzer it is easy to see a 15dBm drop when my hand covered that corner. From the User Manual:

How to improve WiFi reception:

In order to improve your device’s WiFi reception, avoid placing your fingers in front of the WiFi antenna area (zone in red).

There is a Widget to make it easy to turn WiFi (and Bluetooth and syncing) on and off. You'll certainly want to turn it off when not needing it. I give WiFi an A. I have WiFi web access at home and work, and the convenience of being able to quickly check the web or my email is why I prefer media players with WiFi over any that don't have it.

Bluetooth: Another of my favorite features. You'll need Bluetooth accessories to take advantage, but being able to use wireless headphones, stream music to a counter-top dock or home stereo, tether to your cell phone for internet access, and take advantage of shared game play and certain other applications, Bluetooth is a delight to have. My 32 works perfectly with 4 different Bluetooth headphones I tried. I haven't needed to try tethering, but don't doubt it will work if your phone supports it. You can connect keyboard and mouse via Bluetooth. You can copy files between devices that support Bluetooth file transfers. Who wouldn't want it? No one in my opinion. Bluetooth gets an A from me, and the 32 has better bluetooth capabilities than the iPod Touch.

Apps: The 32 comes with access to the AppLib market. Search the web and you'll find you can also add the standard Android Market application. Once you have that you'll find several hundred thousand apps you can download and use. The 32 supports 3D games as well. Get the TV output cable and see/play them on your TV. There is no app category in the iPhone app store you won't find a parallel for in the Android Market. Many games you'll have to pay for on the iPhone are free to Android users. Try Angry Birds, for example. I give apps an A+. Be sure you add the Android Market though.

User Interface: I'm used to Android, and didn't have any trouble finding my way around the 32. Graphic response is smooth. You can use animated wallpaper backgrounds if you like. 5 screens(pages) to spread your favorite application icons or widgets around to. Easy access to any screen with a hold on the touch grid (bottom edge of the screen). All five screens will appear and you just tap on the one you want. You can also swipe left or right, or touch the left or right of the bottom edge where your current page position is indicated by a number of dots. One tap on the center grid brings up the entire list of installed applications. You can run any you see from there with a quick tap, or install it on one of the home pages by holding down on it for a second or two. If you are unfamiliar with android, then spend some time looking through the User Guide. My Sister got an Android phone, and didn't realize there were settings for things like Display back-light Time Out. The 32 is responsive and quick. A better experience than Android is on my Archos 7 Home tablet. User Interface gets an A. It could have been an A+ if the screen had been capacitance and multi-touch. Great for the price though.

Overall Impression: I love it. More pocketable than the 43 or even my iPod Touch. More entertaining than any other device I've reviewed on this blog except the 43 (it's the same device in a bigger package). I wish Archos had put a higher resolution screen on it, but not if it would have raised the price. For the price of the crippled iPod Nano you get something amazing. No other device comes close for the same money. A+!

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Nook Color Review.

2010-11-21T16:36:00.002-06:00

I've been a Kindle owner since the first one came out. Although Amazon makes a fine piece of hardware, I think they've got their work cut out for them now if they want to stay on top of the e-reader game. Why? Color. More specifically Barnes & Noble's new color touchscreen Nook.

The new Nook is $249, and you won't find a nicer gadget for that price. Mine arrived Friday 11/19/2010. You get WiFi, a Web Browser, the ability to (above) play music (MP3 and AAC), videos (MP4), photos (JPG), and a few games on TOP of the ability to display almost every document format there is. The screen is beautiful, and the same IPS technology as is used on Apple's iPad. No color shift when viewed from an angle. 16 million color capable. Rotates to be viewed in landscape or portrait. 1024 x 600 resolution for sharp crisp text rendering. The size is about right at 8.1 x 5.0 x .48 inches and just less than one pound in weight. It come with approximately 5gb of memory space for your own content, and a microSD card slot for up to 32gb more.

Reading: The color nook will display EPUB (including Non or Adobe DRM), PDF (above), XLS, DOC, PPT, PPS, TXT, DOCM, XLSM, PPTM, PPSX, PPSM, DOCX, XLX, and PPTX files. There are 6 font sizes and you can select from 6 font styles, background color, line and margin spacing. Switching pages is as easy as a tap on the left or right edge of the screen, or you can give it a left or right swipe. Is there color in that document? You'll love the Nook's screen then.

You also have access to magazines, newspapers, and Alive Touch™ children's books that can be interacted with and read aloud by the Nook. No simulated voice, either. Voice actors do the reading.

Apps: The Nook also comes with Pandora® internet radio, a Chess game, a Sudoku game, and a Crossword Puzzle app. In addition you can lend ebooks to other Nook (or nook software) owners, as well as share book titles and lines from books to your Facebook and Twitter friends.

Pros: The touchscreen is very sensitive, responsive, and unlike several other tablet devices I've tried hasn't induced any frustration in me yet. The industrial design is top notch as well. The back is a matte finish soft-touch surface. The intriguing notch in the lower corner (above) hides the microSD slot. The built-in speaker is plenty loud. The top edge includes a standard 3.5mm stereo jack that should fit the plug on your favorite headphones. The wide range of supported document formats is fantastic. I plan to keep copies of all my class syllabi on board. With access to the web I also have access to my web based email. So long as any information you need with you can be saved as one of the document formats the Nook supports, the Nook could easily take the place of a laptop or netbook for content access. The screen is also multi-touch, and a pinch or spread with two fingers will zoom out or in on most content other than movies.

Cons: There are a few glitches with the media apps that hopefully can be fixed with a firmware update. When looking at photos using the gallery application, all your photos appear in one long unsorted array. They even get mixed with the movies you have on board. If you approach your media through the library and MyFiles option you can find them by folder. You can only open them one-at-a-time though, and no slide show option is available there. If you have a multi-page PDF open the normal left/right tab or swipe doesn't work. Only a vertical swipe will change pages. With DOC files all pages are reduced to one single long page. Only a vertical scroll will get you through the text. There is also no on-board way to delete files from the Nook.

MP4 Video Support

Conclusion: Barnes & Noble has a winner here. Any disadvantage (battery charge duration) is more than offset by the touchscreen interface and color screen. With a great color display, the Nook Color becomes far more than an e-book. Not restricted to just text, the music/videos/photos you can bring along mean you won't grow tired of it. Don't get one if you don't have WiFi access to the internet though. WiFi is your access to the B & N bookstore, as well as the world wide web and all that can bring. This model has no 3G connection.

4D

Archos 43 with Android. My Review!

2010-11-10T07:15:00.007-06:00

Image from Archos.com

Hints of the new Archos 43 media player caught my attention the last month or so. From the early press releases it seemed like the one to get. It is now available, so I ordered one to see if it would live up to the specifications. The name gives away the display size, as it has a 4.3" (diagonal) screen with 480 x 854 pixels and 16 million color support. All the basic underhood technology seems there with WiFi and Bluetooth, Accelerometer, Camera, a graphic accelerator, and Android Froyo 2.2 (soon) as the operating system. I've been tricked by specs from Archos before. Will the 43 be any different? It is a beautiful beast with a mirror-finish back to compliment the big glass front. Very sturdy, with an overmoulded stainless steel interior structure.

Archos didn't leave much out when they built the 43. The missing GPS and 3G (phone) chip are the only things that keep the 43 from being a smartphone. Some hardware specifics below.

- External Controls: You get a volume level rocker and a power/sleep/reset button. That's it.

- Ports: MicroUSB for syncing and charging, a mini-HDMI port, and the expected 3.5mm headphone jack. You'll need a mini-HDMI to HDMI cable to connect to a TV. About $10 if you shop around.

- RAM: 16gb internal (roughly 14.3gb for your use). A MicroSD-HC slot on the side for up to 32gb more. Media on the microSD card is merged with any internal media, and shows up together in the media apps. The Files program lets you browse content on both the internal an microSD memory.

- Wireless: WiFi (802.11 b/g/n) and Bluetooth (2.1 EDR)

- Display: Single touch (not multi-touch) screen, resistive (pressure sensitive), 480x854 pixels (FWVGA), 4.3'' TFT LCD, 16 million colors

- Dimensions: 135 x 65 x 9 mm – 5.3” x 2.6” x 0.4”

- Weight: 132 grams (4.65 ounces). For comparison my new iPod Touch weighs 103 grams (3.63 ounces)

- Kickstand (Fold out leg stand)

- Speakers: Above and below the screen. Mono output however. Sound good. Better than most phone speakers. Not as good as most headphones.

- Microphone: Should do fine when shooting video. There is also an included voice recording app.

- Camera: 2 MP - recording format: 720p H264 / AAC .MP4.

Sample taken from the 43.

The camera is best used holding the 43 upside down IMO. I can confirm that it isn't good enough to use with barcode scanning apps. I tried three different barcode scanning apps, and none could focus well enough on any barcode I tried to decode it. No autofocus or macro mode. This isn't as good as most cheap pocket cameras. Video would be best take outdoor and on a tripod if the 43 had such a tripod mount.

This is at best a token feature. It may come in handy when no other camera is available, but I wouldn't buy the 43 just for the camera feature. You'll be disappointed. Camera gets a C from me.

- G-Sensor: Works as expected. Detects screen orientation. The Whole UI will re-orient quickly unless turned off. You can turn it off in Settings.

- Bluetooth: I've had a chance to check out the Bluetooth capabilities now. I succeeded in pairing with and using my Freedom Pro keyboard with the 43. I had an initial conflict when both WiFi and Bluetooth were turned on, but a reboot cleared it up and the keyboard was usable entering text in any app that required it, including the web browser, email, and the trial document editor that came with the 43. I also was able to pair three different Bluetooth headsets and one Bluetooth speaker dock with no difficulty. There was the occasional signal glitch. I believe it relates to WiFi being on and email notices distracting the 43's attention. I couldn't get it to reliably repeat though, and I was able to use the bluetooth keyboard, listen to music over bluetooth headset, all while browsing the web or sending emails. I have no doubt a bluetooth mouse would also work, but don't have one to test. I was able to do a file transfer over bluetooth using a dedicated app for that purpose, as well as "bump" a contact to my cell phone using the Bump apps on both devices via bluetooth. I give bluetooth on the 43 an A.

From Archos you can expect complete Music, Video and Photo Players. These are NOT the standard android media applications.

- Music: Supported formats include Stereo MP3 CBR & VBR, WMA, WAV (PCM/ADPCM), AAC3, AAC+ stereo audio files, OGG Vorbis, and FLAC. It will also play consecutive song with no audible gap in between. The display rotates with the device, and you'll get larger album art playing vertically, or the now playing song can fill a screen with it's art. You can sort by albums, artists, songs, playlists, or by folders. Sorting a large collection of songs brings up a thumb tab that when used displays the alphabet as you pan up and down through the list. Songs from the microSD card are integrated with any songs that are on internal memory. You also get a nice cover roll of the recently played album songs. You can add to playlists or favorites. There is a Party Shuffle option. Very detailed Info is available about any song, album, or folder. As far as I can tell the only shortcoming of the Music app is the lack of sorting by genre. As such, Music gets an A from me.

Music playback time: up to 36 hours.

- Video: AVI (480 x 272)(720 x 404) (320 x 240), WMV (1280 x 720)(720 x 416)(540 x 360), MP4 (1280 x 720)(640 x 480) are the resolution and codec I was able to play with no trouble on the 43. Nothing larger than 720p would play. The video player gives you all the info that matters. Simply listing the files there are options for All Videos, Recently Played, Not Player Yet, and Folder Search. You can browse for and play videos on locally accessible network shared folders as well as media servers. Fast-Forward/Rewind and relative positioning within a file are both supported. You can call up detailed file info, set bookmarks, resize video to fit the screen or not, and adjust brightness. A Settings sub menu also provides Play mode, Sound, and volume/title display toggles. Play mode lets you choose Single, Folder, Repeat Single, or Repeat Folder options. Choosing Folder lets you play in sequence all the videos the same folder. Sound options include setting the EQ Presets, Bass, Treble, 3D, and L/R Balance of the audio output. You can send video out through the (optional) HDMI cable to a big TV too! Video playback get an A+ from me.

Video playback time: Up to 10 hours.

- Photo Gallery: JPEG, BMP, PNG, and GIF files can be displayed. You get a panning array or sorted group view of the available photos, both using the creation date of each photo to sort by. In the arrayed view the entire collection is show by date from left to right, with the dates appearing as you use the slider bar to move over the group. Once you've selected a photo, zooming is great. Zoom in to what appears to be one-to-one pixels displayed on the screen. Smooth Pan and Zoom is easily handled by the graphic processor. You can zoom in five steps to full resolution, or double-tap the screen to zoom all the way in/out instantly. You can slide show with transitions and music in the background. All the basic features seem to be there. You can crop, rotate, Set as (contact icon or wallpaper), You also get a SHARE option with sharing via Bluetooth, Email, Touiteur (Twitter), Facebook, or Gmail, shown as well as any other choice related to apps you may have installed. I'll give Photo viewing an A.

- Web Browser: Web surfing: up to 12 hours on a battery charge. A double-tap on any web page paragraph enlarges it to fill the screen. There are several "Favorites" already stored for you, and you can add your own page to the favorites/bookmarks page. Not quite as nice as the Safari browser on the latest iPhone or iPod Touch, but easily second best. I've seen far worse browsers. This web browser gets a B+.

- App Store: There is a decent selection of applications already on the 43. They include Webbrowser, Email, Contacts, Appslib, Twitter, Wikipedia, Weather Channel, Ebuddy, Deezer, Mewbox (UK), Napster (US), Racing Thunderlight, Weather Channel, World Newspaper, and more. The Appslib program gives you access to hundreds of other applications. A search on the web will find you can also add the Google/android market app as well, which gives access to almost every other android app out there. A+

UI: The screen reacts quickly to the touch of your finger or a stylus. Graphics flow smoothly, and there are five home pages to layout anyway you want. Add widgets or shortcuts. Arrange them anyway that makes sense to you. Delete apps you don't have a need for. I found that using my thumb isn't the best at controlling the screen, but any other finger works fine. This may be peculiar to just me and not you. I love that the whole UI and most apps will re-orient themselves as you rotate the 43. You can change screen brightness. You can turn on or off any audible alerts or notices. This is as good as any other android device I've used, and better than many. I give the UI an A.

Conclusion? Archos has a winner here. I highly recommend this to anyone who want a better media player than an iPod, yet doesn't want to give up the apps store or web browsing that come with WiFi. Now to find a case for mine.

4D

iPod Nano, Now with Touchscreen. My Review!

2010-10-17T18:34:00.006-05:00

Yes, I bought one. I probably shouldn't have though. Apple has updated their iPod Nano and the new one has considerably fewer features than the last version for the same price. I think they should have come up with a different product name, since this Nano is more like a previous generation Shuffle with a touchscreen. Something in-between, perhaps. Apple isn't the first to add a touchscreen to a small device either. They've also made it smaller. Small seems to be somewhat of an obsession with them.

Apple is the best there is at touchscreen tech, and it seemed natural to me that the Nano would eventually lose the click wheel in favor of multi-touch. Now that I've played with my new Nano I think they are on the right track.

Pros: - Finding individual songs is much easier with the touchscreen. You can tap on any letter to get to that section of the alphabetic list instantly. You then only have to swipe the screen once or twice depending on how large your collection is.

- You can set the screen to display a watch face when turned on, which makes the Nano very usable as a watch.

- The clip seems well made, and although it require leaving a fingerprint on the screen to use, it makes this Nano very easy to attach to yourself . . . almost anywhere. - FM Pause. TIVO for the radio!

- Any album cover art you have associated with a song will nicely fill the whole screen when playing.

Cons: -Small and light. Almost too small. It is easy to forget it is clipped to you. Compare to the new Touch in the photo above. - In the music song lists, it is nearly impossible to tap on a specific letter for searching.

- No user equalizer. - Limited music codec support. It won't play your FLAC, OGG, or even WMA files.
- Far too expensive relative to competing devices. You can get a 16gb Zune HD for the same price as the 16gb Nano.As for what is CAN do, check out Apple.com for the specifications. No Video playback like last year's model. No camera for taking video either. If you want those features you'll have to find last year's Nano model, or maybe consider the new Touch.

≡

So should you get one? In my opinion it is overpriced. If the price doesn't phase you, then it is an impressive little player with some unique features of its own. I'm wearing mine as a watch with it clipped to an inexpensive watch band. I have it set to display the clock face when turned on, and I always have it with me when I want a little music or radio to listen to. The pedometer tells me I walk way too much each day. Throw away the stock earbuds though. You'll get a much nicer experience with anything of higher quality.

≡

iPod Touch, 4th generation. My Review

2010-09-16T08:37:00.010-05:00

This blog started out as a quest to find a portable media player that was better than the original iPod Touch. I've still got that device. I bought Apple's second version too, but was disappointed even though they had added a few of the basic features (volume controls, Bluetooth) everyone else had except Touch #1. The 3rd generation was basically just a speed improvement over the 2nd, and so I skipped it altogether. Apple seems to have seen the light now, though. With Android based players starting to show up from the competition they appear to have pulled out all the stops with the new Touch. Almost.

Yes, the Touch now has the cameras everyone thought would show up on #3. Multitasking (sort of), copy/paste, folders, Bluetooth keyboard support (although no mouse support), and more make the new Touch one powerful computer that fits in a pocket. Is it the best at everything though? It is certainly a jack-of-all-trades just like your desktop PC.

iPods were originally just about music. Apple still sells the Nano and Shuffle and Classic that remain music centered. The new Nano has even digressed back down to the basic music player it started as. The new Touch is a PDA, cell phone, camera, and everything else that can be enabled with software (apps). So how well does it do Music?

Music - Yes, it plays music. It even sounds pretty good if you have a good set of headphones. The included Apple earbuds should be thrown out with the packaging. There are still limits in what codecs it can play. 40 hours of music play battery life isn't as good as some competitors, but not bad. The Touch is far more than a music distraction though, and won't last anywhere near 40 hours if the screen is kept active. Audio formats supported include AAC, Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), HE-AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, 4, Audible Enhanced Audio, AAX, and AAX+), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV. No OGG, FLAC, WMA, or APE that the Cowon J3 and many other devices support.

My major complaint is that some settings can't be accessed from within the music app. You have to leave the music app then open Settings, then Music, to find options to enable Shake-to-Shuffle, Sound Check, Volume Limit, Lyrics and Podcast Info, as well as the EQ choices. The Samsung P2/P3, Cowon S9/J3 and other touchscreen players have all settings on a submenu available from within each media app.

Features I like include the controls (above) that you can access from any screen in any app. To find them double click on the Home button, then slide the bar to the right. I also like full screen album art, being able to quickly flip to the song list currently playing, and genius play lists. I also appreciate the numerous ways you can sort/search your music, including with voice commands. And finally Apple seems to have made Bluetooth work right with wireless headphones. The music app is first class. Almost. It gets a B+ from me for the cheap earbuds included and settings inefficiency.

Video - With its higher resolution screen I was expecting a better video experience. Apple didn't make the screen any larger though, and video playback to my eyes is only marginally better if the content is also higher resolution than before.

Video formats include:
- H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
- MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
- Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format
- Support for 1024 by 768 pixels with Dock Connector to VGA Adapter; 576p and 480p with Apple Component AV Cable; 576i and 480i with Apple Composite AV Cable.

The main problem I'm having reviewing the video app is that iTunes won't sync any 720p examples I have to my Touch, claiming they aren't compatible. I've checked the properties of each to make sure they match the above specs. So far I've found no high resolution examples to play on the higher resolution screen. Videos that played on my old Touch also play fine on this one. I'd have included a photo or two if there had been anything new to report. Until I can find a source of higher resolution videos that play I'm rating Video on the new Touch a C+.

Photos - Again, the higher resolution screen is not any larger. You can indeed put higher resolution copies of your favorite photos on the Touch. You'll succeed in consuming 4 times as much storage space and get a barely crisper image to look at for the price. The Touch has always had a decent photo app though, and multitouch proves handy for zooming in on details. Photos will rotate with the G-Sensor. You can double-tap to zoom instantly. Panning around a large photo is so smooth and natural you might think it's a printed photo you are sliding around behind the glass. Photos get an A from me. You won't find a better photo app on any device.

The Touch is easily competent at playing media files. I have devices that play a broader range of codecs. I have devices that have better media apps, primarily in making setting variables quickly accessible from within the related app. My Cowon S9 and J3 gave up mimicking Apple's cover flow in favor of their own original Album array view when tipped to landscape view. My devices using OLED screens still look better with more contrast than the new Touch's screen does. The Touch's screen isn't 16x9, and so movies have to be stretched a little to fill it. Any player with a 16x9 ratio screen plays 16x9 movies without distortion.

So if you want a killer Music/Photo/Video player, should you get the Touch? No. Get a Cowon J3 instead. Comparing 8gb models, the Touch is $229 and the J3 is $190 with a free case. You get better media apps in the J3. You get a far more customizable UI. You get a memory expansion slot. You get a beautiful OLED screen. You get video-out with a $10 cable. It does bluetooth and gapless play and full screen cover art and all those basic things the Touch also does. Add up the cable and case saving from what Apple will charge you and save $110.

If you aren't after the best media player out there, but instead want the best pocket computer, then you SHOULD get a Touch. Nothing else today does apps, the web, FaceTime, shoots Photos and Videos, does email and contacts and weather and games and so on, and is also "almost" the best media player. Yes, the upcharge to buy Apple is worth it if you need those things. I'll warn you to turn off WiFi when you don't need it though. My new Touch completely drained its battery overnight while off, yet with WiFi left on. I'll add a few screen captures once I get it charged up again.

If you've got one, then feel free to let me know what you think of it. Comments get reviewed though, so no SPAM please.

Augen's TheBook. Far more than an E-Book Reader.

2010-09-06T10:56:00.005-05:00

Augen's TheBook e-book reader is a competent value. It is available from K-Mart.com and in some K-Mart stores. There is WiFi for access to an online e-book store as well as web browsing. It can play movies and music as well as display photos. Comparing it's capabilities to most of the MP3 players I review I would expect the price to be around $199. TheBook sells for $99.99 though, and that almost raises red flags with me. Is it too good to be true?

The Good:
- 150 e-pub books come pre-installed.
- It comes with a reasonably nice folio (fold-over) case.
- An AC charger is included.
- It plays MP4(MPEG-4) and AVI movie files.
- It plays MP3 and WMA music files.
- It displays JPG, PNG, GIF, and BMP formatted digital photos.
- Reader formats supported: TXT, PDF, HTML, CHM, RTF, FB2, EPUB, WORD, TCR, PAML, DOC, OPEN E-BOOK, OPEN READER, MOBI, etc.
- Support recent reading record.
- Support E-bookmarks.
- Support TEXT to Speech function.
- G-Sensor for Book and picture files.
- Onboard access to ebooks at http://www.ebooksmedia.com/

The Bad:
- Mine refuses to connect with my home WiFi. It does work with my local University's wifi though. It's possible the 64 character pass code I use is the problem.
- Not a touchscreen. The included joystick is slow at best, and painfully non-responsive when the device is otherwise occupied with a task.
- Only 2gb of onboard memory, with much of it taken up by the included ebooks.
- The included case "barely" holds onto it. Metal clips aren't quite up to the challenge of holding the TheBook tight in the case.
- The G-Sensor doesn't work for the web browser, music player, or menu system.
- Access to any inserted SD or SDHC card is not available from the PC when TheBook is plugged into your PC.
- Music track controls are on the screen but not accessible. It's as if the music player was designed for a desktop player and is expecting mouse taps. You can pause/play music and change the volume using page prev/next and the Enter key.
- Album cover art is not displayed in the Music app.
- Battery life is 5 hours at best. Augen avoids listing it in the user manual or on their web site.
- Volume level through the headphone jack is too loud at it's lowest setting.

Some specifications:
- Processor : ARM9 , 400 Mhz
- RAM memory: SDRAM 64MB
- Operating system: Linux2.6.24
- Compatible with SDHC cards up to 32gb.
- Dimensions: 226 x 130 x 13mm.
- Display: 7 inch, color TFT.
- Resolution: 800 x 480.
- Language: English
- Screen brightness can be adjusted to three levels.
- Onboard speaker, and 3.5mm headphone jack.

User manual HERE.

I discover my TheBook when shopping for another Augen product at my local K-Mart. At $100 I had to do a double-take. Now that I've had it for awhile I'm finding more and more great excuses for having it with me. I'm an educator and have put PDF versions of my class syllabi on it. I use its internet access over WiFi to check my web email. The note taking app on board is handy for shopping lists or lecture notes.

Summary: At $100 this ebook reader is a great value. It will need charging every day, and may frustrate anyone used to using touchscreen devices such as Apple's iPad. The screen has a nice anti-glare texture to it. Reading e-books is no harder on this device than on my Kindle. I'm keeping mine. If any problems show up my local K-Mart will give me a refund.

FTC: Mine was bought with my money.

4D

Samsung YP-M1 Review.

2010-06-04T16:15:00.003-05:00

I can't fathom why Samsung doesn't sell the YP-M1 media player in the U.S.. The 3.3" OLED screen over a Tegra processor has the stones to compete with the offerings of Cowon and iRiver and any other Korean maker, as well as Sony. Perhaps it is Apple's dominance that has them too timid to go head to head. No way of knowing, of course. I ordered this M1 from ExportPrive.com in South Korea, and it arrived within a week or so of my order. Pricey though for an 8gb touchscreen PMP.

So, what can a Tegra processor do for a pocket media player? In this Samsung it can process just about any media you can throw at it. From lossless audio files to 720p video, the M1 doesn't blink. Files that other devices choke on the M1 plays with no complaint. Samsung packs this power in a device smaller than last year's YP-P3 yet with a bigger screen. They've retained the P3's key features, but one-upped it in every media type application. Music and Video play, and even photo display are broadened and more visually entertaining.

Dimensions: 53.6 x 99.6 x 9.9mm. Weight 3.4 oz. or 95 grams (with microSD card inserted).
Included: Bundled earphones (EP390), USB Cable, PDF manual (on the M1), and a Quick Guide. Controls include Volume +/- and a Power/Hold button on the top edge with the microphone hole.

There is a microSD slot on the left side, with USB and headphone jacks on the bottom edge.

The M1 is stainless steel and tempered glass. Built like a tank. Some features:

G-Sensor. Well utilized, with landscape and portrait modes of most main apps.
Haptic Feedback. "Vibe Woofer", and tactile feedback of screen taps.
Speakers. Top and bottom of the screen. Better than most.
Microphone. Voice recording and phone calls.
MicroSD-HC slot (not well integrated).
Bluetooth, including headphone/file transfer/and phone.
1280 x 720 video support.
TV-out (not HD, sorry). NTSC or PAL. Accessory cable not included.

Music: The M1 handles MP3, WMA, OGG, ASF, AAC, M4A (not lossless), and FLAC files. I've gotten a sample of every codec to play, although some high bitrate (lossless) versions generate an error message. The M1 is rated for up to 30 hours of music playback on a battery charge.TThe Now Playing screen is complete, with full width album art. The title, artist, album, file format, Play Mode, song length are also displayed. You have to tap the screen once to call up shuttle controls. The bottom row gives you quick access to the Music Settings and A-B marking.
·
The Settings include DNSe, Play Mode, Music Play Screen, Horizontal Stroke, Add to Playlist (up to 5 user playlists), Add to Alarm, and Play Speed. EQ (DNSe) preset options include Auto, Normal, Studio, Rock, Classical, Jazz, Ballad, Club, Dance, Cade, Concert Hall, and Church. There are two user EQ (MyDNSe) settings available.
·I found the Music Player very complete. The output from on-board speakers is better than most. Using good headphones the sound is excellent. Throw in Bluetooth output and you've got an A+ music app.
·
Video: Samsung claims the M1 will play WMV, DivX, Xvid, SWF, H.264, ASF, and MPEG4. I have no doubt. The M1 is rated for up to 5 hours of video playback on a battery charge. It played every form of video file I threw at it. There is video out with the right cable, but sadly it only supports SD resolutions over NTSC or PAL.
·
Notice the little camera icon on the left above. When video is paused a tap on that icon will save an image the M1 will use to identify the movie when listing them. There are three list modes including a text list, an icons lists, and something like a coverflow list.·
Videos look stunning on the 3.3 inch OLED screen. You can see complete info about the video playing with a tap on the screen. The Settings menu includes DNSe, Display, Horizontal Stroke, Play Speed, and TV Out. You have Normal, Drama, Action, and Theater presets under DNSe. Display includes Brightess, Screen Size, and Subtitle options. You can a Bookmark one location in any video. Trying to add a second bookmark will over-write the first. It is a great video app, but not quite as complete as that on my Cowon J3. For that reason video gets an A-.
·
Photos: The M1 will display JPEG, BMP, and PNG files. There are two graphic preview styles. The one on the right above is dynamic, panning vertically up and down to reveal your photo thumbnails. Photos are automatically rotated to best fill the screen. You have the option to manually rotate them in 90 degree increments. Zoom is available up to 3X. Tap on a magnifying glass icon to bring up a vertical zoom slider. Photos that are higher resolution than the screen appear to zoom without pixelating. You can actually use this photo app for zooming in on detail in a photo. There are several clever visual transition options for slide shows. No doubt thanks to the Tegra chip. The delay between photos in a slide show seems to be fixed at 5 seconds though. I like the Photo app. It is fairly complete. Surprisingly it is not quite as full featured as that on the earlier Samsung P3. The OLED screen is much better looking though. I give the M1's Photo capability a B+.
Documents: The Samsung P2 and P3 have great txt file readers, and the M1 follows in that tradition. You get a coverflow style list of the documents on board in the landscape mode. Text will rotate as the M1 rotates. You can change the background (paper type) and text colors, as well as the text size (small, medium, large). There is a nice graphic page flip animation when turning pages. You get one bookmark setting for each file. Again, there is nothing apparent in this application that looks improved over the P3's version, except of course the larger screen and clever graphic list view. It remains one of the best text reader you'll find on any PMP, so I give it an A. The Samsung P3 is an amazing player. This M1 is slightly better, but mainly in the graphic effects the Tegra chip apparently encourages. There is far more than Music, Video, Photos, and Text you can enjoy with the M1 though. In the 2nd half of this review I'll cover the more esoteric features. So far, the M1 is looking good.
Stay Tuned.
4D

Cowon J3 Review. Update

2010-05-31T16:22:00.002-05:00

I've had my Cowon J3 for awhile and thought I'd share some of the deeper features that make it such a great player. My initial review (with photos) can be found here. These are some of the nicer and/or less obvious features that make the Cowon J3 an award winner.

Added home pages: You can create as many as 5 pages for the 1st home screen (icon array) style. This hopefully indicates more apps/games may be coming for the J3. Notice the gray bars at the top. The 5th one is highlighted to indicate the current page. You can't have a page with no icons on it or it will disappear. To move icons to a new page first hold down on one to select it, then drag it to the right side of the screen. New pages are always added on the right.

Play/Pause Tab: The 1st home screen style also has a music Pause/Play bar on bottom of the screen. It reminds you what the current song is. Tap once to pause. Tap again to start playing. It is visible no matter which (first style) home page you are on.
·

Additional, undocumented codec support: MP4 (video) and M4A/AAC (audio) files will also play on the J3, despite not being listed in the official specifications. You won't get full album art support, but it's nice that you can drag (non-DRMed) songs from your iTunes music folder right to the J3. and they will be playable. Not every MP4 movie I tried would play, but most did.

·Unicode character support: Not perfect, but characters from Arabic and other languages do display. Still work to be done though for languages that read from right to left. A sample of Arabic text in an MP3 file name displayed backwards. The letters and cover art of that file did display though. On my Zune HD the letters appeared as blocks and the album art did not display.

Transitions: There are two slide show transitions for the photo app, as well as variable timing between slides. Notice the icons right of the blue bar in the photo above. Pressing the lower one will initiate fade-in of photos during slide shows. The upper one initiates sliding in of the next photo from the right during shows. You also can make any image, even zoomed in sections of an image, be your home screen wallpaper. To do so, tap the 2nd icon down (on the right side in the image above).

Bookmarks: You can create up to 256/file bookmarks per file. You can bookmark audio and video files, as well as the percentage you are into a document in the document reader. In the Music player (above) tap the top blue bar, then the + icon to see the Favorites and Bookmark icons. Tap the Bookmark icon to add a bookmark for the current song and position in the song.·

Widgets: The third menu style has an array of Widgets to choose from. They can be installed on any of three screens:

Clock 1 (analog)
Clock 2 (digital)
Brightness (car headlights)
Battery level (graphic)
Alarm
Quick Player
Memo Pad
Calendar
RECorder
Memory indicator
Photo Zone

Extensive video variables. This is a list of the variables you can change from within the video player. I've never seen a video player application so thorough in any other device I've reviewed. From the user manual:

Sync adjustment: Adjust sync between the subtitle and video file by 0.5 sec.
Subtitle color: Select the subtitle color.
Subtitle height: Set the subtitle height.
Subtitle size: Set the subtitle size.
Subtitle selection: Select Subtitle 1/ Subtitle 2/All. * This option is used when several languages are available for subtitle use.
Subtitle On/Off
Preview videos 3/screen, 6/screen, or in a text list.
Choose between black and shaded background for preview panels.
Add a video to your Favorites list.
Add up to 256 bookmarks to each video file.
Select screen aspect ratio displayed from Full Screen (16:9), 4:3, Original Size and Original Ratio.
Set Brightness Level (7 steps).
Turn TV-Out on/off. (requires accessory cable)
Screen Quality: Select between clear/soft video.
Set the brightness of the menu bar displayed on the video.
Boundary: Select to Play one file/Play files in the selected folder/Play all files.
Once/Repeat: Select to Play once/Repeat the tracks in the specified range.
Playback Speed: Set the playback speed. * It can be set within the range between 50%~150%.
Pitch correction: Turn pitch correction On/Off. * Pitch correction is supported when playback speed is not 100%.
Set JetEffect 3.0 (sound effects).
During the playback, preview the video by elapsed time. Select a Preview thumbnail to play the video from the selected sector.
Capture and save video screen images.
A-B Repeat: Set the playback boundary to repeat.

In addition to the surprise addition of MP4 video support, the J3 also plays AVI, WMV, and ASF files. The 3.3" 16:9 AMOLED screen is perfect for video enjoyment. You won't find a better device that still fits in a shirt pocket to take with you anytime you have a few hours to kill. The music features are clever and convenient. Video and photos are beautiful. Simply put, the Cowon J3 is nearly perfect.

4D

Check out Cowon's D3. My review of it can be found HERE.
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