Navigon 2100

Navigon's line of portable navigation systems seems to follow the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, offering three different flavors with one to hopefully match your tastes and needs. For the gadget hounds and GPS enthusiasts, there's the Navigon 7100 with its advanced features like Bluetooth and traffic services, while the Navigon 5100 is more of a middle-of-the-road system for intermediate users. And now for beginners, there's the Navigon 2100. The entry-level unit has an attractive price point of $249, and includes text-to-speech functionality for speaking actual street names, which you don't often find at this price range.

Dash Express Now Available for Preorder

It's been well over a year since Dash Navigation unveiled its Internet-connected GPS device, and after months of beta testing, we're finally one step closer to actually seeing the Dash Express navigation system hit the streets. Today, the company announced that it's taking preorders for the Dash Express from its Web site, carrying a price tag of $599.99 that includes a complimentary three-month subscription to the Dash Service. Afterward you can choose from several plans to continue the service: two-year plan at $9.99 per month; one-year plan at $10.99 per month; or month-to-month at $12.99.

The Dash Express is unlike other portable navigation systems as it offers connectivity via Wi-Fi and GPRS, so you have an always-on connection to receive the latest traffic and map updates and local search powered by Yahoo. In addition, there's a Send2Car feature so you or someone else can send addresses from your computer directly to the Dash device. The unit is expected to ship in mid- to late February.

Just out of curiosity, how many of you are actually interested in getting the Dash? Frankly, I think the unit price is a bit high (even knocking off $100 seems a bit more reasonable) and I'm just wondering if this type of system is ready for prime time yet. Although I think the offered features are great, I'm not sure how many people will be willing to pay the monthly fees

Hands-on with my new Asus eee PC

Being that I am rarely successful as an early-adopter of new hardware, I felt compelled to immediately get one of those cool new Asus eee linux-based laptops and see how quickly I could make myself crazy. (Check out the CNET review here.) I bought mine from Mwave who seem to still have them in stock.

Let me start with this: this thing is small, like s-m-all small. It's smaller than the paper notebook that I carry around with me. And it's light. You can put it in your coat pocket (if you have a big coat obviously--like the ones all the bad kids use to shoplift etc.) with minimal effect. This is exactly the laptop that you want when you go to a trade show or do interviews or meetings or whatever when you don't need all your data with you. It also supports some pretty good resolutions so you could do presentations on it as well.

Setup was minimal--basically you plug it in and it works. We did however run into a pretty miserable snag with our ultra-secure office wifi network where the eee wouldn't authenticate properly. Something about the mad wifi drivers, I think. When I took it home it jumped right on the wireless network and I was off and running.

More European retailers for Dell

More and more, the question is, "Where can't you buy a Dell?"

On Thursday, the PC maker announced that its desktops and notebooks would be available through DSG International, one of Europe's largest electronics retailers. Though specific models have yet to be decided, the agreement will include selling mainly Dell XPS and Inspiron desktops and notebooks.

DSGi operates stores such as PC World, Currys, and Dixons.co.uk online in the United Kingdom, and Electro World, PC City, and Elkjop in 11 other European nations. Approximately 1,300 brick-and-mortar retail outlets in the U.K. and Europe will now carry Dell products. All customer support will be handled by DSGi stores.

The announcement comes hot on the heels of Dell's historic agreement just a week ago to sell products through Best Buy stores in the United States. Formerly a strict direct-sales company, Dell has over the past six months cemented a retail strategy to get its products in front of consumers. The strategy is part of a turnaround plan as Dell has struggled this year to compete with the retail success of rival Hewlett-Packard.

NOKIA N95

Features, function and form

In the book, I talk about the three apsects of product design: features function and form.

In the N95’s case the features it has are very impressive - with the killer feature being a 5 megapixel camera and video camera.

The phone functions very well. The buttons, for example, are crisp, large and easy to use. It sounds like a trivial thing, but my last phone have very poor buttons that used to double-press, so I’d get phone numbers wrong.

All in all the phone feels very nice to use and is quick and intuitive.

Finally, there’s the form - how the phone looks. I think it’s great - it gives you that post-purchase buzz like all the best products do and a day later I’m still staring at it.

Sony Breaks Ground With New PDA

Sony's next handheld computer promises to break new ground in September, but even impressed analysts think its price tag may outweigh its benefits.

The miniature computer does it all: helps customers manage their schedules, records and plays back hours of video, takes pictures, sends and receives e-mail, and surfs the Web wirelessly.

Sony has even developed its own Handheld Engine to ensure that the device does it all without taxing the battery life.

Sony is so confident Americans will want this sleek new product -- which folds into a convenient 4.2-by-3.5-inch box and has an eye-catching high-resolution flip-and-rotate screen -- that the company plans to charge $700 for it. The new PEG-UX50 Clié will appear in retail stores in September.

"This UX50 is a revolutionary product going beyond the evolutionary," said Masanobu Yoshida, president of the handheld computing division of Sony. "The UX50 is so small and compact. But we never sacrifice on the experience."

No matter how eye-grabbing and easy to use the device is, analysts doubt people will shell out $700 for it. Nonetheless, they are impressed.

"It's an amazing job at integration -- a heck of a job in engineering," said Todd Kort, an analyst with market research firm Gartner Dataquest. "This will be one of the three most notable products of the year, even if it's not one of the best-selling."

Sony's latest addition to its Clié line of products has built-in Wi-Fi connectivity for wireless Internet access and a Bluetooth radio, which allows users to sync wirelessly with other Bluetooth-enabled devices.

Seamus McAteer, an analyst with market research company Zelos Group, praised the new Clié's design for the way it alerts users to nearby Wi-Fi access points and other Bluetooth devices. When a user syncs with another Bluetooth device, for example, the image of that device appears on the Clié's screen rather than the generic Bluetooth logo.

"It is a very intuitive and user-friendly way to establish a personal area network connection," McAteer said.

The miniature handheld, which runs on the latest version of the Palm operating system, comes with a host of Palm applications, including the basic calendar and date book, plus short instant-messaging service, e-mail and security software. It has an MP3 player and supports all of the Microsoft Office applications. A Memory Stick media expansion slot lets users play up to five hours of continuous video or 16 hours of continuous audio.

Customers have a barrage of choices to navigate through the device: They can use a stylus to point and click on items on the screen or to write Graffiti. There is a scroll wheel on the left side of the handheld -- similar to the Blackberry e-mail device -- and a keyboard that is bigger than that of most Palm-powered devices.

The UX50 contains a 310,000-pixel camera, although analysts and reporters at a recent San Francisco press conference weren't too impressed with it. One reporter complained that he took a picture of someone seated across the table from him, yet the image came out blurry.

Other members of the audience questioned Sony about why it would choose such a low-resolution camera when its previous product, the NZ90, comes with a 2-megapixel camera.

Sony said the picture-taking function of the device was not its focus as much as its "communication" aspect: the ability to instantly send the image to someone else.

Still, Kort and others criticized Sony for not showing off more of the device's video- and picture-taking capabilities at the press conference.

"Low-resolution video is going to be nice to send to people," Kort said. "But it would have been nice to fit in a 1-megapixel camera."

Still, Sony does include a lot -- including 16 MB of storage for basic programs, another 16 MB for a system that backs up files, and 29 MB for additional media storage -- without sacrificing battery life. A key component holding the device together is Sony's new Handheld Engine -- a chip the size of a thumbnail that maximizes the power of the device without skimping on battery life.

The chip combines an ARM926 processor, a digital signal processor and a CXD2230GA graphics accelerator that uses a two-dimensional graphics engine to produce three-dimensional images. Yoshida boasted that he wouldn't be surprised if competing PDA makers asked to use the chip, although he wouldn't say whether Sony would license it to them.

Kort said the Handheld Engine was a technical breakthrough in the PDA market.

"Thirty frames a second running on a 120-MHz processor, that's pretty impressive," Kort said. "They are ahead of everyone else in that regard."

Whether this will be to Sony's advantage is uncertain.

"Even though many of us will want (the new Sony Clié), how deep will we dig into our pockets to buy it?" Kort asked.