The video camera, while a welcome feature in emergencies or must-capture moments, delivers 640 x 480 output. Even under good lighting however, nano videos lack clarity. The FM radio isn’t that different from your typical cell phone radio; you need to plug in the earphones to listen to your favorite FM stations, as the cord acts like an antenna. The built-in pedometer? You can only maximize it when you buy an iPod + Nike kit—which you have to do so for the previous-gen nano anyway. And the less said about the external speaker, the better.

What does work in the iPod nano’s favor is its status as an affordable, stylish, and high-capacity portable music and video player. This remains true for the fifth-generation iPod: nothing else on the market costs below $180, features a bright 2.2″ 240 x 376 screen, is really thin, and makes short work of browsing through music and videos.

In other words, the iPod nano is perfect for those who’ve fallen for Apple’s effective (and mostly accurate) iPod marketing, but aren’t willing to pay more for the iPod classic or touch, and would rather do without the display-less iPod shuffle experience.

Visit the Apple Store to buy the iPod nano

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It’s possible to switch between conversations, meaning users can chat with multiple contacts simultaneously. On the S60 version (tested on an N97), sending and receiving around 50 IMs via HSDPA added up to about 450kb/73kb of download/upload bandwidth usage. Needless to say the speed of the app depends on network coverage and phone connectivity. Connections are possible through mobile broadband and WiFi.

Palringo also supports the sending of photo and audio messages, straight from the phone’s camera or audio recorder. What’s weird though is the app can’t seem to pull content already available on the gadget itself, limiting multimedia messages to the recently captured.

The IM integration app also needs work with how it manages contacts. While it categorizes them conveniently under offline and online sections, there’s no way to narrow down the list (by search text, IM service, etc.). Locating a contact to chat sometimes requires significant scrolling.

Despite these issues however, the real-time communication allowed by Palringo makes it stand out as a mobile instant messaging application. Visit the official site for more information.

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David Pogue, leaked by the Financial Chronicle, at The New York Times:

So do the Pre’s perks (beautiful hardware and software, compact size, keyboard, swappable battery, flash, multitasking, calendar consolidation) outweigh its weak spots (battery life, slow program opening, ringer volume, Sprint network)? Oh, yes indeedy. Especially when you consider that last weak spot might be going away. Verizon Wireless has announced that it will carry the Pre ”in the next six months or so.”

Steven Levy, at Wired:

It’s a huge win … The Pre emphatically shows that Palm has not reached the stage of suffixes. And multitasking rules!

Walt Mossberg, at the Wall Street Journal:

The Pre is a smart, sophisticated product that will have particular appeal for those who want a physical keyboard. It is thoughtfully designed, works well and could give the iPhone and BlackBerry strong competition — but only if it fixes its app store and can attract third-party developers.

Joshua Topolsky, at Engadget:

To put it simply, the Pre is a great phone, and we don’t feel any hesitation saying that. Is it a perfect phone? Hell no. Does its OS need work? Definitely. But are any of the detracting factors here big enough to not recommend it? Absolutely not. There’s no doubt that there’s room for improvement in webOS and its devices, but there’s also an astounding amount of things that Palm nails out of the gate.

Jason Chen, at Gizmodo:

The software is agile, smart and capable. The hardware, on the other hand, is a liability. If Palm can get someone else to design and build their hardware–someone who has hands and can feel what a phone is like when physically used, that phone might just be one of the best phones on the market.

Mark Spoonauer, at Laptop Mag:

We’ve seen many smart phones come and go since the original iPhone, and the $199 Palm Pre is the first device we’ve tested whose user interface not only matches up well to Apple’s offering, but also beats it in some areas. … Palm and Sprint have a hit on their hands with the Pre, and the webOS is a smart phone platform to be reckoned with.

Boy Genius Report:

The OS is great. There’s no ifs ands or buts; it’s really refreshing to see something that’s brand new with a UI unlike anything else out there. The only problem with this is, Palm’s never been a hardware company that anyone’s really cared about. … Couple that with the nation’s underdog carrier at a $299 price-point (before rebate), and we’re not sure how many people are going to be lined up overnight, yet we’re pretty confident once people are able to play a real unit themselves, there will be more than a lot of happy Palm Pre customers.

Bonnie Cha, at CNET:

Despite some missing features and performance issues that make it less than ideal for on-the-go professionals, the Palm Pre offers gadget lovers and consumers well-integrated features and unparalled multitasking capabilities. The hardware could be better, but more importantly, Palm has developed a solid OS that not only rivals the competition but also sets a new standard in the way smartphones handle tasks and manage information.

Ginny Miles, at PC World:

The long-awaited Palm Pre lives up to the hype with a responsive touchscreen and an engaging interface, but a few hardware design flaws keep it from being the perfect smartphone.

Stephen Wildstrom, at at BusinessWeek:

If the Palm Pre had appeared a year ago, it might have turned the smartphone market upside down. It would have beaten out Apple’s iPhone 3G and the iTunes App Store, Google’s Android, the BlackBerry Bold and Storm as well as BlackBerry App World, and possibly taken the spoils. But the field has grown so crowded with clever entries in the past 12 months that the Pre, ingenious as it is, seems evolutionary rather than revolutionary.

Sinead Carew, at Reuters:

The long-awaited Pre has nice new touches, but Palm Inc has a lot of work to do if the device is to be a serious competitor to the iPhone.

Om Malik:

…it is a pretty good-looking device, but it feels a little plasticky and is lower in build quality than a BlackBerry. It is squat, has a nice screen, and is easy to grip. It is round in the right places. However, the slide-out keyboard seems flimsy and cluttered.

Peter Svensson, at the Associated Press:

Move over, iPhone. You’ve had two years on top of the smart phone world. Now there’s a touch-screen phone with better software: the Palm Pre. In a remarkable achievement, Palm Inc., a company that was something of a has-been, has come up with a phone operating system that is more powerful, elegant and user-friendly.

Ed Baig, at USA Today:

The first Palm Pre will certainly give the iPhone and other rivals a run for their money. To be sure, there are areas where it could improve: Bring on the apps. But Palm has delivered a device that will keep it in the game and give it a chance to star in it.

Would you get the Pre? I’m sure long-time Palm fans like myself would enjoy putting a Pre through its paces.

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To make a long story short, the HP Mini 2140 is a bit expensive, but you get what you pay for. At least according to Liliputing:

Sure, the processor isn’t any faster than the CPUs in lower priced netbooks like the HP Mini 1000. And it’s not the thinnest and lightest mini-laptop available. But for a reasonable amount of extra cash you get a sturdier case, an accelerometer, a spill resistant keyboard with DuraKey finish, an ExpressCard slot, and a decent if not spectacular 3 cell battery. A 6 cell battery is also available, which reportedly runs for up to 8 hours with a standard hard drive, and up to 10 hours if you opt for the $575 80GB SSD.

Personally, I’m happy that HP didn’t make the same mistake they did with the Mini 1000: engineering a proprietary VGA-out port. That setup required a relatively expensive adapter to be remotely useful for presenters on-the-go, and limited the potential appeal of that netbook.

(Image courtesy of HP)

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So how does a hefty 17″ laptop from Toshiba—with a 2Ghz Core 2 Quad from Intel and a 1GB NVIDIA GeForce 9800M—hold up? Obviously, the puny 6-cell battery can’t power things for long, and carrying a desktop replacement that’s 2.5″ inches thick at its beefiest point must give owners hernia.

But Toshiba markets the X305-Q725 as a gaming notebook, so obviously performance is most important. Compared to its peers, this offering falls somewhere in the middkle. See Anandtech’s review for the full details.

Personally, I still think desktops are best for gaming procrastination; laptops should remain the domain of workaholics.

(image from Anandtech)

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By far the biggest advantages of the 12V Spotlight, a portable flashlight that snugly fits into the cigarette lighter of your car, are its rechargeable battery and very bright bulb. You don’t have to spend money to buy replacements, and a great way to blind yourself is to shine light directly into your eye. Twisting the cap turns the light on, and turning it the other way activates its charging mode.

At full charge, the Spotlight is powerful enough to actually cast its aura under direct sunlight. Informal tests show that the light retains useful brightness for about an hour and forty-five minutes, dimming considerably until completely drained by the third hour. The manufacturer claims a total of seven hours will fill up the battery, which is actually faster than it sounds when you leave it plugged into your car’s DC socket.

The Spotlight usefully emits red while charging, making locating it under low-light conditions a snap. It even comes with a special adapter (named the “Fit Clip”) that allows the light to draw power from any specialized 12-volt sockets that aren’t necessarily in your car.

I’m not even sure if there’s any significant drawback to this gadget. The $20 price sounds a bit high for your average penlight, but considering the very functional nature of the Spotlight, it’s a great buy/gift for people who spend a lot of time with their cars—whether enthusiast or your average driver. Worried about the Spotlight interfering with the other doo-hickeys on your dashboard? On my 2008 Mazda 3, the light protruded about .75″ from the socket, not blocking anything.

12VSpotlight.com offers the portable in a wide variety of colors; it would be better to just visit the product list page and see for yourself. Useful accessories are also available, like the Super Socket, which splits your car socket so that a Spotlight and another accessory (like a mobile phone charger) can draw power at the same time.

For online purchases made in North America, regular shipping costs $4, and express sets you back by $8. Perhaps that’s something the makers of Spotlight could work on, as the shipping charges makes ordering individual units less practical. Although 12VSpotlight.com also maintains a list of vendors located throughout the world.

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On a recent trip to Singapore, I kept a watchful eye for a Bluetooth mouse. Eventually I settled on a black Razer Pro|Click Mobile, which was buried in a bargain bin.

The relatively low price notwithstanding ($40), this Bluetooth mouse seems like a good buy so far. Within the box were two AA Duracell batteries, so I was using the mouse within minutes after unboxing. Pairing the mouse with my Windows XP laptop was a snap.

Build-quality is great all-around, with the buttons feeling solid click, and the middle mousewheel striking a good balance between snapiness and softness.

Of course, like any Bluetooth mouse, the Pro|Click Mobile’s weakness is its reliance on batteries that you need to change every so often.That represents additional spending for owners, unless rechargeable batteries are used.

On top of that, this circa-2007 mouse is showing its age. The optical sensor has a hard time tracking on certain surfaces and textures—the same ones that proved no problem for my older (not as brand-new) wired optical mouse.

Still, the compact size and relative affordability of the Razer Pro|Click Mobile is well worth your money. Amazon’s currently selling it for less than $44.

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