Short Version: Sumo is fairly new to the bag game but this is a strong showing for the company. For $79.99 you get a 17-inch laptop bag made of waterproof ballistic, rip-stop nylon. Sadly, a lack of internal organization pockets hampers the overall storage capacity. → Read More
Short Version: There’s a whole lot of convergence going on with the $200 Chinon AVi. You’ve got an iPod dock, 7-inch digital TV that doubles as an iPod video screen, music player, FM radio, and alarm clock all contained within something the size of a toaster. As with all heavily converged devices there’s the risk of being a jack-of-all trades, but master of none. Does Chinon’s product break that mold or does it suffer the same fate as most others? → Read More
Ooh, shiny. This is the Haier “Theatre” – a portable media player with a 3-inch touchscreen, available in 4GB and 8GB capacities for $90 and $100, respectively. → Read More
We didn’t get a Nook yet but Harry McCracken at Technologizer did, which means he’s better than us. Why? Because his last name reminds me of a sea monster. Anyway, Harry found the Nook to be a 1.0 product at best and a 0.1 product at worst. His bottom line: Let’s get one thing out of the way right now: The Nook isn’t a Kindle killer–not in this initial form, at least. For all its pleasing touches, intriguing innovations, and clear advantages over the Kindle, it feels like a less-than-perfectly-polished 1.0 product, just like Amazon’s first e-reader did a couple of years ago. The user interface is surprisingly sluggish, there are some usability gaffes, and I encountered a major bug with the device’s most-touted feature. Even the much-hyped lending feature has a major gotcha: You can lend a book once. Period. → Read More
Black Friday is almost here. It’s a great time to score some deals, but don’t go at it willy-nilly. Follow these 5 simple Black Friday rules to avoid the scams and wasting time. → Read More
[tab:Intro][flagallery gid=8 name="CrunchGear Gift Guide 2009"] We’re only about five weeks away from Christmas, so now’s as good a time as any to talk about (drum roll, please) e-books. Amazon kick-started the e-book market (with apologies to earlier e-book readers) with the introduction of the Kindle in the fall of 2007. Two years later, Barnes and Noble, IREX, and Sony announced new or updated e-book readers of their own. The question becomes, which e-book reader is right for you? The truth is, they’re all very similar, so it should come down to what books their compatible book stores carry. Oh, and price, of course. [tab:Amazon Kindle] Amazon Kindle: Starting at $259 (Amazon.com) The elder statesman of the current crop of e-book readers, the Amazon Kindle is now in its second iteration (putting aside for a moment the Kindle DX, which isn’t exactly a “traditional” e-book reader, if such a thing even exists). As the name suggests, it has the full backing of Amazon—you may have heard of it—which should ensure that it’ll stick around for a while. You can find it on Amazon. Features: • Compatible with e-books (and magazines and newspaper) purchased from Amazon. There’s some 360,000 books available, so odds are you’ll find something you like. • 6-inch, non-touchscreen E Ink display. Very legible, believe me. • Free 3G wireless data access. That means you don’t have to be tethered to a computer to add new books to your device. • It now works in more than 100 countries, including the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Japan, Australia, and Brazil. • Holds up to 1,500 books simultaneously. Product Page [tab:Barnes & Noble nook] Barnes & Noble nook: $259 (BarnesandNoble.com) Yes, the nook is written in all lowercase letters, so accept no substitutes. It, along with the Kindle, is destined to become one of the two biggest e-book readers available. It’s backed by the enormity of Barnes & Noble, and all that that entails, has a color scroll bar at the bottom (color = huge when it comes to e-books), and seems to do just about everything right… It’ll be available in a few days (currently scheduled for a November 30 release) from the Barnes & Noble Web site and brick-and-mortar stores. • 6-inch E Ink display, with color touchscreen navigation bar along the bottom. Note that the screen itself isn’t in color, just that navigation bar. • Free 3G → Read More
[tab:Intro][flagallery gid=1 name="CrunchGear Gift Guide 2009"] The common portable media player has a tough existence. It’s expected to handle many tasks well, while being rugged enough to withstand daily (ab)use. It’s expected to look nice, it’s expected to provide more-than-decent battery life, and it’s expected to provide a simple enough interface that it can be operated almost exclusively while on the go. If the world’s greatest mom were a consumer electronics device, she’d be a portable media player. And while there’s no shortage of portable media players in existence, here’s a quick list of some worthy gift options (in no particular order). → Read More
Short Version: After a handful of rapid-fire firmware updates, the Android-infused Archos 5 Internet Tablet has turned out to be quite a compelling device. The snappy web browser, marathon battery life, and nearly endless list of features and functions make Archos’ latest couch companion a worthwhile option if you’re shopping for portables. If you’re drawn to the Archos 5 Internet Tablet purely based on the fact that it’s running Android, though, you’ll likely come away disappointed as there’s no access to the popular Android Market. → Read More
The Viliv X70 isn’t the first UMPC, nor is it the most feature-filled. It isn’t the most expensive or cheapest. But I’m willing to bet that it’s one of the most important devices in its class. The X70, and it’s little brother the S5, offer a lot of mobile goodness for a relatively low price. I’ve used the X70 everyday for almost three weeks and I’m more impressed each time I turn it on. → Read More
Another month, another version of the Kindle. I’ve been using a Kindle since it was shaped like a very thin doorstop and I’m delighted each time I see a new version. The latest version is the DX, a monstrous 9-inch version of the smaller Kindle 2 that supports direct PDF reading without conversion. Why am I interested in the Kindle? Well, I already have a first-gen Kindle so I’m not too keen on upgrading immediately. But I’ve been waiting for Amazon to solve something with the Kindle DX that has been nagging me for quite a while. You see, I have a problem. I don’t want to read the New York Times on paper anymore but paper seems like the only logical way to read it. Reading the newspaper on a gadget is rude and dangerous – especially with toddlers around the house. It’s a tough sell to have a gadget at the breakfast table. But then I know that I’ll never read it on the desktop whether through the Times Reader or any other source. So the DX sounded great. I has all of the features of the current Kindle plus rotational sensing and a beautiful, huge screen that might just fit the entire NYT front page and not just one article. So that’s why I wanted to see the DX. → Read More
