Reviews

Reviews about interesting gadgets, gear, mobile technology and lifestyle products.

Palm Centro Smartphone Review

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Fans of Palm smartphones and PDAs continue to wait as days, weeks, months and years drift by without a major update to their favorite mobile operating system. It’s not far from the truth when I say that the Palm operating system hasn’t changed all THAT much since it’s introduction back in the late 1990’s. It still has the same look and feel, which is both comforting and let’s face it, kinda boring. While the OS side of Palm remains the same, they have offered hardware updates on a semi-regular basis. The latest one in the stores is the Palm Centro. This is a CDMA EvDO smartphone running on the Sprint network. How does Palm’s most affordable (when purchased with a 2yr contract) smartphone stack up? Let’s find out…

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Audioengine A2 Desktop Speakers

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Earlier this year, Audioengine was
kind enough to send me a pair of their wonderful
A5
speakers to review. These speakers have turned out to be a favorite of mine
and still occupy space on my desk at Gadgeteer headquarters. Now Audioengine
have created another set of speakers for people that don’t want to devote as
much desktop space and money in order to own a great sounding pair of speakers.
The A2’s work great with both PCs, Macs and other audio devices. Let’s take a
closer look.

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Coast LED Lenser LED Lantern (TT7105CP)

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Although I’ve never been camping in my life, I seem to have an unnatural fetish for outdoor gear like pocket knives, compasses and flashlights. I enjoy going into stores like Dick’s Sporting Goods and spending time looking at all their gear. If you prefer online browsing, a store that specializes in knives and flashlights is Discount LED Lights and Knives. In the past, they have sent me several LED flashlights to review and the most recent product that I’ve had the opportunity to try out is the Coast LED Lenser TT7105 LED Lantern. While I didn’t get a chance to test this product on an actual camping trip, I did test it a couple of times during my version of a ‘roughing it’ activity… power failures at home ;o)

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Apple iPod classic

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The globally popular Apple iPod video has been updated with a new face, a new interface, higher storage capacity and even a new name. It’s now called the iPod classic, which may sound like a name that would be given to a low end model, but this isn’t the case with the new iPod classic. This
classic may not be tiny like the new “fatty” nano, or have a touch screen like the new iPod touch. But neither of those devices are available in capacities of 80 or 160GB, enabling you can carry your entire music and video library with you in your pocket. Today I’m going to tell you about the 160GB version of this device.

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Dream Cheeky USB Fridge

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Every geek has their own personal arsenal of tools. For me they happen to be my 24″ iMac that I sit in front of every night pounding out reviews, a smartphone, iPod and last but not least, a can of Diet Coke. Yes, Diet Coke is a very important tool in my role as The Gadgeteer. Without it, I might not be able to type into the
quiet  hours of the night. There isn’t anything better than a nice cold can of DC to keep you wide eyed and perky. Unfortunately it doesn’t stay cold very long when it sits on
a coaster on your desk. What about a can cozy? Ummm, no ;o) Lucky for me,
Brando sent me an interesting “tool chest” for my Diet Coke. It’s the Dream Cheeky USB Fridge.

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Saddleback Leather Company Briefcase Review

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I love leather gear bags. Not the froo-froo kind though. I’m talking about the more rugged style of leather bags. The kind that Indiana Jones might appreciate if he was a real person. The kind of bag that might be able to tell stories if it could talk. The kind of bag that isn’t made on an assembly line, but in a more personal setting. Bags from the Saddleback Leather Company of Texas fit this criteria and according to owner Dave Munson, these are the kind of bags that your grandkids will fight over when you’re dead. Sounds good enough to me, let’s take a closer look…

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honestech VHS to DVD Deluxe 3.0

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The vast majority of consumer have gleefully accepted the digital video wave with DVDs, DVD players and digital video files on computers, iPods and PSP devices, to name a few. So it may come as a shock that analog video equipment is owned and utilized in some households.

In my house, we have an old VCR in our loft for our daughters to watch the occasional out-dated video. Even if your household is one without an analog video device, I bet you have at least one VHS tape that, even though you have not touched in years, you are not ready to throw away.

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Oral-B Triumph with SmartGuide ProfessionalCare 9910 Electric Toothbrush

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I hate going to the dentist. I joke around and say that I’m still dealing with post traumatic stress from when I was a kid. It seemed like every time my sister and I went to the dentist, we had a cavity. The hygienist used to yell at us saying that if we didn’t open our mouthes wider, she’d have to start all over again. Yikes, I get goose bumps just thinking about it. These days you practically have to drag me to go to my annual cleanings. I usually make them biannual just because I don’t want to go. I must be doing something right though because I haven’t had a cavity since I was a teenager and my dentist never yells at me for waiting so long in between visits.

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Vaja BlackBerry 8800 Classic Leather Case

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Perfection. That sums up the Vaja Classic Blackberry 8800 case.
Currently, the Blackberry 8800 is my device of choice (with me 24/7). Every
cool piece of personal technology deserves a case that compliments its form
and features while protecting it from the hazards of day-to-day life. This Vaja
case does both with style & craftsmanship second to none.

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BlackBerry Pearl 8100 Smartphone

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It’s hard for me to believe that I’ve not reviewed a
BlackBerry device in over 6 years. The
last device that I reviewed was the
950,
which was an email only device shaped like a pager. Back in 2001, BlackBerry
products did not have telephony capabilities. These devices were for one purpose and one
purpose only: email. Wow, times sure have changed, haven’t they? That’s especially evident with the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 series smartphone. This little beauty sports a quad band GSM radio, a wonderful display and an innovative trackball pointer. Will this phone cause me to put my
Treo 680
and 750
in my
drawer o’ phones, or will it end up there itself? You will have to keep reading
to find the answer.

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Fatherboard

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This is an exclusive product preview, that you can only read here at The Gadgeteer. These are truly exciting times for us all!

** I’m sure you all knew this was an April Fools Joke, but just in case… ;o) A new (real) product review will be posted tomorrow.

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Victorinox Travel Companion 2-Way Carry Horizontal Tote

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Ah… bags. Yes, it’s an addiction. Got a million of them in the attic, many gathering dust. I buy them, use them, find something better and then move on. My requirements for a gadget bag are simple: lots of pockets and/or compartments, have rough dimensions of 10-12 inches long, 7-8 inches tall and 4-6 inches deep. The CityWalker and Europa Field bags are both excellent examples of the kind of bag I love. I use the Europa to tote my Fujitsu P1510D laptop to work every day, but for my travels this year I decided on a new bag. A beautiful, black and compartmentalized bag from Victorinox called the Travel Companion Horizontal Tote.

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MonsterPod Digital Camera Tripod

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If you are a photographer or snapshot enthusiast, you probably often find yourself in situations where a tripod would come in handy. This is especially true when you wish to include yourself in a group picture. The problem is that lugging around a tripod everywhere you go can be somewhat inconvenient. What if you had a tripod that stowed easily in a gear bag and could stick to almost anything? The MonsterPod claims to do just that. Let’s see if the claims are true.

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Guard ID Vault

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My first impressions of the Guard ID Vault were good; it looks like what it is supposed to do. Lock up your personal user information in a unit that looks like a lock. The unit plugs into a free USB port on your computer and stores your user names and passwords, so that it is not necessary to reenter this information each time you visit that particular web site.

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