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Archive for the 'review' Tag

Do I have the only Motorola Droid in Orange County?

October 31st, 2009, 9:22 am by

Motorola DroidWhen you get a new gadget to play with before the rest of the world, you’ll get a lot of unwanted (or is it?) attention.  When a friend of mine found out I was playing with the new Motorola Droid this week, he immediately invited himself over. Offered to bring lunch, in fact.

He’s a good friend, so I agreed. He’s such a good friend, I let him take the Droid while he went to get food. That brought even more attention. Someone in line stopped him and asked, “Is that the.. the.. Droid? I’ve been reading about it on Engadget!”

Wrong answer! My friend didn’t reveal his sources but said he would have let the dude check it out if he had mentioned The Gadgetress!

I may not be the only one in Orange County with the new Droid, which goes on sale next Friday. But I’m willing to share what I know. What else do you want to know? Comment below!

So, day three with the Droid. Three observations:

YouTube Preview Image

The camera. It’s a 5-megapixel camera with autofocus and flash. The flash is super bright. I actually just took a picture of myself and am still seeing spots. But it’s so slooooow (watch video on right).

Unless the area is brightly lit, you won’t be getting very clear action shots with this phone — or even clear still shots in lower light. I also had little success using on of my favorite apps, “ShopSavvy,” which uses the camera to scan in product barcodes to compare prices online. Even in brightly lit Target, the camera couldn’t get a good scan, unlike my T-Mobile G1, the original Android phone. Maybe retailers are wising up and doing something sly with their lighting? Here are some photos taken with the Droid: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Cell phones • Gadgets • • • • • | 14 Comments »

What does a PC guy think about the new Microsoft store?

October 29th, 2009, 4:22 pm by
Ed Schwartz, Stump the PC Club contributor

Hi, I'm Ed

Gadgetress’ weekly Stump the PC Club answer guy Ed Schwartz ventured into the crowded new Microsoft store that opened in Mission Viejo today. We already know what Apple fanatics think about the store and we saw that many of the folks in line overnight were just waiting for the free rock concert (watch the opening video).

Now, Schwartz, he’s a loyal PC guy. I was curious to know what he thought about the store. He’s not anti-Apple, by the way. He admits to venturing inside the Apple store occasionally to see what’s new

Schwartz stopped by the large, bright store around 11:30 a.m. today because, “Oh, curiosity. That’s my thing. I just want to know what’s going on,” he said.

Plus, he said, any store’s first day is likely to be full staffed. He immediately went to find help to get some readers’ Windows 7 questions answered. This is where he learned the difference between the blue shirts and the red shirts. If you have a tech question, ask someone wearing a red shirt.

“It took me three employees before I found one who could confirm some Windows 7 questions. They all had blue shirts until I got to the guy with the red shirt,” he said.

Microsoft opens first store in Mission Viejo. Photo by Ed SchwartzApparently, the red shirts work in the back and help out when tech questions get too hard.

Schwartz couldn’t help but compare the Microsoft store with the Apple store, starting with the shirts. There’s also Microsoft’s Answer Desk, which is very similar to Apple’s Genius Bar. Anyone can bring in their Zune or other Microsoft-related device and get help. There are also free lessons and there are special one-on-one sessions where for $99, you can get one hour of face time with a Microsoft expert every week for one year (that’s the same price as Apple’s One To One sessions).

He spotted laptops from HP, Dell and Lenovo, but that’s it. There were netbooks from Asus, Samsung and others, and all-in-one PCs from Sony. But what about Fujitsu, the brand he uses? Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Computers • news • • • • • | 35 Comments »

Verizon’s MiFi is handy portable hotspot if you can afford it

June 5th, 2009, 4:24 pm by

REVIEW: (Wow …  it’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these …)

A day before I set off on a road trip to San Francisco, Verizon Wireless shipped me its new MiFi 2200 to play with. This portable Wi-Fi hotspot came in really handy for the long drive and later at the hotel, which was trying to get us to pay $10/day for Wi-Fi. 

Verizon "iPhone" - back.
Verizon’s MiFi personal hotspot sitting on top of an iPod Touch.

Now, I already have a broadband card, gratis the OC Register, which lets me work almost anywhere, like the car (but not while I’m driving, of course). The $150 MiFi trounces broadband cards for several reasons: There’s no need to install software (like my broadband card), MiFi isn’t accidentally bendable (like my broadband card), it causes no issues when it turns off (unlike my broadband card if I skip the “safely remove” step) and it shares its single mobile Internet line with everyone else in the car.

This looks like a sleek, black business card holder with a 20-card capacity. It’s actually a bit larger than a business card and slightly thicker than an iPod Touch (see photo). A button on top depresses to turn it on, while a mini-USB port on one side is used to recharge the removable Li-ion battery.

Verizon "iPhone" - Back, shows modem is on. Verizon "iPhone" Verizon's new MiFi 2200 hotspot compared to the iPhone.

It took several seconds, maybe five to 10, before the MiFi wireless signal was recognized by nearby computers, iPods and other Wi-Fi devices. But after the network showed up, we connected and started surfing in no time. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • • | Comments Off

Review: Plustek’s book scanner scans pages cleanly

January 27th, 2009, 12:51 am by

I’ve got a special review today from Ed Schwartz, the PC Club member extraordinaire who helps answer tech questions for the Gadgetress’ “Stump the PC Club‘ feature. In a recent answer, he mentioned that he used a Plustek scanner to turn old color slides into digital files. Plustek noticed Ed’s mention and offered up any of its new scanners for review. Ed chose the Plustek OpticBook 3600, a product dedicated to scanning books. Here’s his review:

The Plustek OpticBook 3600 is a member of a family of scanners dedicated to scanning books. With a typical scanner, you must apply pressure to the book’s binding to capture the entire page without distortion. Even then, the results are not great. Below are scans showing the results of a typical flatbed scanner (left) and the OpticBook scanner (right). The difference is obvious:

 

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Gadgets • Stump the PC Club • • • • • • | Comments Off

iGirl’s iPhone verdict: No regrets but…

July 12th, 2008, 4:49 pm by

After camping out Thursday night in front of the Apple store in Irvine for 10 hours, Sonya “iGirl” Smith finally got her white, 16-GB iPhone, nicknamed “Perry White.” She’s been playing with Perry for more than 24 hours and the verdict is in: igirl3giphone

What’s new?

That’s the first thing most people ask me about my 3G iPhone. And, well, there’s not a whole lot that is new about the second-gen iPhone.

The new features are 3G, GPS, metal buttons and 16 GBs. Sure the metal buttons look cool. And the 16 GBs allow me to add more music. But neither is a reason to buy the new phone.

The 3G Internet and data access is noticeably faster than the EDGE network, but 3G is still not available everywhere in Orange County. And, that leaves GPS — which is very cool, but not necessary.

My favorite new feature — the software applications — is available not just for the new iPhone, but last year’s model, along with the iPod Touch. The iPhone app store offers more than 500 applications and I’m now hooked on the Associated Press, Scrabble, Pandora  and Twitterific apps.

Now that I’ve had a full night’s rest, my MobileMe account is up and running and my iPhone is working (it said no service for a short time today, remedied by an AT&T worker who took out and put back in my SIM card) — I’m happy with the new white-backed phone.

Verdict: For people who do not already have an iPhone, the 3G version is a great device, although the $70-plus monthly phone bill is hefty. I have no regrets, but of course, I camped out for 10 hours to buy the phone. But for people who already own the original, you should reconsider upgrading because of the extra monthly charges plus the $200 to $300 cost of the phone.

From earlier: iGirl’s iPhone 2.0 adventures

Posted in: iPhone • • • • • • | 6 Comments »

How to uh, do a, y’know, product review video

June 16th, 2008, 6:56 am by

My husband stumbled on a video on Buy.com’s web site while searching for an Apple-friendly keyboard. I thought it was a joke.

A half-dazed girl (who reminded us of that is-she-stoned girl from Apple’s Switched campaign) stands in front of her white iMac and blabbers on about how she liked the keyboard because it was white and “it looks good on any color desk.” And how the keys were thick. And it had a USB port. And then she only gave it a 3 out of 5 rating even though she liked it and it did everything a keyboard should do.

We laughed a bit too much and I felt compelled to share with readers who also might need a laugh on a Monday:

How to uh, do a, y’know, product review video

But the laugh could be on us. Apparently, “soccergirl11″ will get paid every time someone watches her review and we watched it a few times. Plus I watched it a few more times in order to transcribe it (bold added for emphasis):

I’m here today to talk to you about this keyboard. Uh, this keyboard is really easy to use and I like the color. I like white keyboards because, um, it just shows up and it looks good on any color desk, you know. And then, uh, this keyboard especially, I mean there are some keyboards that have really thin keys but this keyboard is easy to use. The uh, the keys are thick so when you’re typing uh, you don’t have to stumble as much because your um, you know, it’s easy to use and there’s bigger keys so you know what you’re pressing. That’s uh my favorite thing about the keyboard. And on this keyboard there’s this USB drive port on the back so you can plug it into this, which plugs into your computer so the info can be transferred. So, overall, I would rate this keyboard a 3 out of 5.

And I, uh, shouldn’t poke fun since I’m like a totally big user of the like’s and the y’know’s when I did video reviews.

Nevertheless, I stick to my headline regardless of whether soccergirl11 offered us an insightful video because she’s getting paid! The video came from Expo TV, a site that pays consumers who own products to do product-review videos. The more viewers, the more money in your PayPal account. In March, it looks like qualified videos made an average of $23.25 each. Not bad for a few minutes of work.

Posted in: news • • • • • • • | 1 Comment »

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