Blackberry 8800

The long anticipated Blackberry 8800 is out and it doesn't disappoint. It is RIM's first true multimedia capable device that has a full QWERTY keyboard.

I'll just focus on the new features of the 8800 compared to the Blackberry 8700 and maybe some notable differences between the two.

So, here it goes - a list: (You can scroll down to see the pictures)

1. Contrary to everyone's expectations, and rumors, the 8800 does not have WiFi support. Rumor has it that an upcoming version may support WiFi.
2. The 8800 has built-in GPS support. This is totally awesome. I can't wait to see Google maps integrated with the GPS capability of this device.
3. The 8800 is multimedia capable - plays audio and video.
4. The 8800 takes in a micro SD card for additional memory. The micro SD card goes under the battery cover - so it is not easy to pop in and out. The cover has to be removed to take it out. I don't see this as a big problem.
5. The 8800 is thinner by 0.2 inches, compared with the 8700 .
6. The much loved Scrollwheel is gone! A trackball towards the center has been introduced instead. Long time Blackberry users may find this cumbersome until they get used to this. This arrangement ostensibly helps right-handers and left-handers alike. The trackwheel was clearly not designed for left-handed users.

Screenshot of the Blackberry Keys below:


The scroll wheel on the side is gone - replaced by the Trackball (clickable). The side Escape key is gone too, it moved to a button next to the trackball. Dedicated volume buttons take the place of the scroll-wheel. (In the 8700, the scroll-wheel was used to change volume).

I'd have loved for this unit to also have WiFi - but, no support for now. Cingular should start shipping this unit in the next few days. And soon, vendors on ebay will hopefully carry this as well, for those of us who don't want to sign up for a 2yr contract. To see more about the 8800 on the net, try searching via www.eZigs.com - a clean gadget search engine.

The Nuvi 660 - GPS auto routing device

Well, if you've been wanting a GPS device in your car since you last saw it in a Hertz rental.... or you simply want to gift it to your hubby because he's such a darling and a gadget lover... you are in luck. This is the golden age of affordable, but really intelligent portable GPS auto navigation devices. What used to be clunky, slow and $2000 about 2 years ago, are now smart, pocket-size and about $500 today.

The Nuvi 660 belongs to a new breed of portable GPS devices that excel in routing features and screen clarity. Today it costs around $800 . Ouch, a bit expensive you say ? Well, no worries, you get pretty much the same thing if you go for the Nuvi 360 (about $540) and pretty much the same thing with a few less bells if you go for the Nuvi 350 (about $500).

But let's talk about the Nuvi 660 and as we go about it, I'll tell you what the other two don't have when compared to the 660. As you will see, the 350 and 360 are excellent routing devices with about 99% same capabilities of the 660. But there are some conveniences that may tip you in favor of the 360 over the 350, or to 660 over the 360.

Main features of the Nuvi 660:
It's an auto routing device. You enter the address on the touch sensitive screen... most of the time you don't have to type in the full street name... it guesses the street name after a few keystrokes. Pressing "Go" will then start guiding you to the destination. As simple as that. The unit will "speak out" instructions to you. It will even speak out the street names. ("Turn right on Talladega St") If you get hungry on your way to D.C from New York, you can simply tap on the GPS device for a restaurant (Chinese, Mexican... whatever) and it will show you the restaurants that are closest. Same with gas stations, ATMs and other points of interest.

The Nuvi 660 also has a built-in Traffic data receiver, which is really useful if you are in a busy metro area. When it detects traffic slowdowns, the unit automatically suggests detours. This is a great feature for daily travelers in busy Metro areas such as Washington, D.C. or San Jose, CA.

Among other things, it shows useful statistics such as : Time to destination, Distance to destination, etc.

It can take an SD card... so take your photos and mp3 songs with you! It is Bluetooth enabled and the biggest advantage with this is, you can easily sync up your cell phone - and as you drive, if you get a call, you can just simply speak handsfree through the GPS unit.

It has a built in FM transmitter - you can configure it to transmit to your car's FM receiver so the audio instructions from the Nuvi can be heard through your car's speaker system.

Here's how the Nuvi 360 and the Nuvi 350 differ from the 660:
The Nuvi 360 does not have the built-in FM transmitter.
The Nuvi 350 does not have the built-in FM transmitter. It does not have the bluetooth functionality either.

If all you want is a great auto navigation system, the Nuvi 350 will suffice.
If you'd like the additional convenience of handsfree cell phone communication, then the Nuvi 360 is the way to go.
If traffic alerts are important to you, in addition to the above, then Nuvi 660 fits the bill for about $200 more.

For most users, the Nuvi 360 is a good balance. Go for it!

For other views and reviews, you can visit the neat gadget search site at: eZigs.com .

To buy the Nuvi 360 from Amazon, you can click here: Nuvi 360

Here are the Amazon links for the 350 and 660:

Nuvi 350

Nuvi 660

Enjoy and happy driving!

Nokia E62 Review

I published this Nokia E62 review at another site. I'm republishing the same review here.

Review: This is a good looking PDA phone. My family is subscribed to a Cingular Family plan, so I was looking for a good PDA phone from Cingular, rather than go thru the hassle of switching carriers to get the juicy BB Pearl or an EVDO offering... and when the E62 came out, it appeared to have everything I needed in a PDA phone (looks and features). I knew it didn't have WiFi (disappointing), but, well, I thought with one of their Media Bundles, and with all the hype about EDGE, I hoped the E62 will prove to be a convenient and efficient PDA phone.

There are three ways you should look at this phone when considering using with Cingular.
1. As a standalone device.
2. Cingular's data plans that are suitable for this PDA/phone.
3. The usability of E62 when combined with Cingular's data plans.

There are too many aspects of this device, and I will not be able to touch all, but I'll try to update this review a few more times after submitting this.

1. As a standalone device.
Beautiful screen. 16million colors. The PDA itself is very sharp looking, even with the Cingular stamp on it. The QWERTY keboard is really awesome. Wider than the Treo and very comfortable to type. If you haven't used Palm OS, then you'll love the general interface as well. But if you are used to Palm (or maybe even the Pocket PC), Symbian desktop needs a little getting used to. Switching from app to app has some delays (2 to 5 seconds sometimes). The Menu is confusing at times. Will need to spend a few hours to really get to know to use this device efficiently.

The E62 does not have a scroll wheel; nor does it have a touch screen. It has a joystick, which is quite convenient to move the cursor on the screen. I still felt a clickable scroll wheel on the side would be a good addition.

The built-in browser is Ok, but very confusing to save bookmarks, and to go to a new URL. The calendar is good for a new PDA user. But if you are used to Datebook or Datebook+, this calendar is very simplistic. I installed the mobile google maps app. Looks good on this PDA. But, an irritating popup comes up everytime asking "Allow application Google Maps to use network and send or recieve data?". Even if I click "Yes", it doesn't remember... and will ask again in a few seconds as google tries to get new data when you move in the map. I didn't find an easy way to persist this setting. This irristating popup happen for other apps too. (pop email for example). So right there, that's a big negative. Some of your browsing experience becomes unpleasant right away because of this stuff.

Browsing to sites such as google news is not that bad. The page loading times take anywhere from 4 to 12 seconds (using Cingular's EDGE). A little long for my taste.

The E62 comes with an Instant Messaging App for Yahoo, MSN and hotmail. I tried Yahoo IM. The outgoing messages go quickly. Incoming messages have a big lag. Upto 10 seconds, and sometimes even 30 secondss. So, this is not very interactive for fast typers... and high speed IMers! (For me, personally, the delays were really disconcerting) Still, this could be useful if are stuck in a train (with good EDGE coverage!) or a long line at the Drivers license office!
Personally, I felt that EDGE is all hype and it is not really super fast. I hear good things from the EV-DO camp (that Verizon provides). People who compared EVDO with EDGE have consistently said that EVDO is blazing fast.

Very sleek and thin and light weight. It can slip easily from your hands though. Does not have an ergonomic rubber grip or anything of the sort on the sides. A good 3rd party case should alleviate this problem. (If you are looking for a Blackberry type holster, no luck. Cingular doesn't provide any case for this phone) (Blackberry users are used to their BB behaving differently when it senses that it is in the holster. The E62 has no such intelligence)

Voice quality is Excellent. 5 stars on this one. Speaker phone is beautiful, with good polyphonic support. Very convenient to quickly record audio memos too.

Contacts/Addressbook is Ok. Not as good as Palm's or Blackberry's.

Excellent battery life, even with using the multimedia features. I haven't timed it, but after almost a full day of intermittently using and experimenting with the PDA, the battery only went down by a notch and a half.

2. Cingular's data plan.
Whoever is heading the Cingular's Marketing department, hasn't done enough to know the prime Customer for this product. I got this phone not for business use, but for regular personal use. Going by their web page, I believed I could sign up for Cingular's Media Max 200 bundle for 19.99/month (unlimited web, 200 text msgs). The operator first added the Media Max, and once she realized I had the E62, basically said, sorry, you can't have this plan... she then proposed what she saw as the only plan on her screen - A PDAConnect plan for 59.99 (unlimited). This is completely out of sync with Cingular's web page where there is no "PDAConnect" plan. They have DataConnect plans ranging from 19.99 to 44.99. But the Cingular operator (she was very nice though) just could not see any of those plans from her screen. Finally she found the DataConnect plan for 44.99 somewhere (but not the other cheaper ones) and put that on my plan.

At this point, for a personal user, I'm wondering if the 44.99 is worth it. Well, if the browsing experience is quick and fast, it could be. But the browsing experience is not that great, as I mentioned above. (I also plan to download the Opera mini and see if that part of web usage becomes better).

Cingular should prominently inform customers of compatible data plans for this phone before the purchase of the phone itself. I got in for a bad surprise on this one.


3. Nokia E62 with Cingular:
Since the EDGE "high speed" Cingular's network isn't that great... the lack of built-in WiFi is a BIG drawback on the E62. (You can buy an unlocked E61 which has the WiFi). I found that the EDGE performance varies from place to place. At its fastest, the average web response times are 4 to 8 seconds (and for some pages longer). Some pages just time out. The included browser is Ok, not very great. Most places I go, I see WiFi coverage (libraries, restaurants, coffee shops, work place, and of course home), but poor Edge coverage. The data/web experience with the E62 is very unsatisfactory - it would be much better if it had WiFi support.

If you want to use it as a regular phone, and as a PDA (without a data plan), this is an excellent choice. (with some of the drawbacks I mentioned above; such as: slow switching of apps, slow startup of apps, slippery form factor). Will be good for mp3s (has a miniSD slot supporting 2Gig card), photographs, video. Symbian has some good 3rdParty software available (not as extensive as Palm or PocketPC). btw, the miniSD slot is hidden under the battery cover. So, the card can't easily be popped out. I think some people may like this, but others may want to have easy access to the miniSD card.

If you plan to use the Data plan, I don't recommend it. I have to say that I haven't used the Blackberry Connect or GoodLink on this one, but I don't think having those plans will drastically increase the performance of this device. Having a BB plan could give you good email performance (but then, you should get a Blackberry, which is really awesome for email/calendar and Outlook syncing).

I love this phone, but I am left with a lingering disappointment. I fell in love with this phone even before I bought it :( ... it has a lovely look and an awesome screen, but, but, I may end up returning it to Cingular within the 30 day trial period :( .

Good luck with your choice. I'll try to update this page as I use this phone more. (It's only a day since I got it). Oh, btw, there's a whole fun world of Access Point settings that you *could* get into with this PDA... but that's for another time.

Love at first sight...

Well, love at first sight is more often than not for me. I fell in love with a Nikon D70 the moment I saw it and then with the D200. The polygamous beast that I am, I didn't stop there. Now I fell in love with the D80. But why restrict my love to just digital cameras? I fell in love with various blackberries, some Clies and even a Nokia E62 (which I had to return 'coz the love didn't last very long).

With so many paramours this guilty lover needs a place to track them all and, I guess, unselfishly share the love to other love at first sighters out there.