The key to the functionality of the Pulse is manifold, but it can be counted down to the infrared camera perched under the nib (I’m old, so look it up), the voice recording capabilities, and the special paper the pens use in order to work their magic. Now don’t go groaning over the fact that you have to buy special paper. Have you seen what a simple notepad costs at Barnes & Noble these days? Shocking to the point where you’ll think that paying $20 for a 200 sheet notebook which enables the power of the Pulse is a steal and a half. Combine that with the fact that the most recent Windows version of the software can print blank pages, and you’re on easy street.

So, how do the camera, recorder, and paper work to together to make this powerful combo I speak of? That’s a more complicated question, but there are answers. I am, however, going to quickly describe the Pulse and what the package comes with. First, there’s the pen, of course. Its a large pen, but not much larger than the big, thick, expensive pens which you can buy that don’t do anything the Pulse does. In the box there is a 200 page starter notebook (8.5″ x 11″, college ruled), a nicely small and portable USB magnetic dock, a pair of stereo headphones with a microphone in each earpiece, a lanyard for the headphones, a set of replacement ink cartridges and a stylus tip (nice touch!), and a crappy faux leather case (What happened!?). Take a gander at the image below:

The pen has a display embedded in the side of it. Nicely, there are several options for how you can use the pen, and one of them is to change the orientation of the screen depending on what hand you use (I’m a lefty… deal). That grill you can see under the screen is a speaker and on the top end of the pen is the headphone/microphone jack. I’ll get to the headphones later. They’re super neat. 

Now, whenever the pen is on and you write on the special paper (check out the image), the pen stores everything you write in its memory. I have the 1GB version, though there’s also a 2GB model. So, as long as the pen is on it records what you write. Now for the voice recording. If you tap on the Record button which are conveniently located on the bottom edge of every page then the Pulse starts to record, just like a standard voice recorder. Here’s where the neat trick comes into play though: as you write, the Pulse keeps track of what you are writing and tags the audio recorded to that writing. 

When you’re done taking notes, you click the Stop button. Here’s the next neato trick: While the Pulse is not recording, you can tap on any of your notes and it will play back the audio recorded for that segment. Pretty slick, eh! The trick I’ve learned already is to just write a keyword as I’m recording instead of trying to keep up and missing stuff. If I have a question, I’ll write down a snippet to remind me of the question and then carry on with my conversation. Fraking brilliant! The other controls on the pages allow you to control volume, speed, jumping forward and backward to tracks, and making bookmarks. 

Using the headphones also sports a neat trick. The jack right into the end of the Pulse so you can listen to the recorded audio in stereo. Why? Sure, the built-in mic only records in mono, but when you jack in those wicked headphones, the Pulse records in stereo. That’s why there is a microphone in each earbud. Trust me when I tell you that this is remarkably helpful. Say, for instance, you’re sitting at a table talking with 4 or 5 people. Wearing the headphones (or wearing them down on your neck using the lanyard) lets the Pulse record your environment the same way you hear. When you play this stereo sound back later, you hear the direction people are speaking from. I find it a fantastic way to recall how the conversation was going since I can visualize the meeting. 

Once you’ve collected stuff on your new pen, its time to get that data onto your desktop. LiveScribe nicely offers both Windows and Mac OS X versions of the desktop client, though the Mac version has some catching up to do. For one thing, with the Windows version you can print your own paper. Not so on the Mac. Shame! Interestingly, the box doesn’t come with a CD in it, but when you do download the client for your operating system at least you’re getting the latest version. Once its installed, all you need to do is plug in the dock and place the pen into it. It connects and moves everything from the pen to the desktop client. Once there, everything which has a voice recording attached to it is highlighted in green. 

Now, if that wasn’t enough, there’s more. Say, for example, that you’ve been taking notes for a few months now and you’ve been asked by a colleague or classmate for a note you made back in some project meeting or lecture. All you need to do is load up LiveScribeDesktop and search for the keywords. The software is so smart that it can actually parse your handwriting and show you which pages any hits are on. No kidding! This thing is so smart that it can tell which notebook you are in and which page you’re turned to. Very, very cool indeed. 

There are some other gee willikers things the Pulse can do, but they really don’t add to the functionality except for the calculator. The nice thing that the developers have allowed for is adding new features through software updates. In fact, for the first month I had this thing I received no less that 10 updates to the pen software. Its pretty amazing that the Pulse sports a 150MHz ARM9 processor and a 300mAh LiIon rechargeable battery and crams ups to 2GB of storage space into such a cool pen. 

Simply put, if you pair the Pulse up with an iPhone, BlackBerry, or one of the new Palm Pre devices, you are set to go laptop free. I’m not kidding. The only thing that LiveScribe is missing is some more options in paper products. They have the big college-ruled notebooks and some largish bound notebooks with lines or no lines, but there are no notebooks or calendar books. I’d love to see a notebook which is as long as the Pulse, 3-4″ wide, unlined, with a barrel on the spine into which you can slide the Pulse while you’re not working with it. That and I’d really like to see an integrated calendar management tool. Maybe even synching it up to Windows or Mac OS X. Now that would rock. 

Now that I’ve turned you all on to the Pulse, I would like to inform you that you can have your own right now. You can head on over to LiveScribe’s web site and order one there or you can swing over to your local Target and get it there. The 1GB model runs for US$150 while the 2GB model runs for US$200. The reality is that this is just one of the single coolest gadgets available on the planet and I can only see it getting better and better.

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• iBclean – a complete set of toiletries including the iFoof, iBrush, iPit, iPick, and iWipe systems. All devices feature a specialized version of Mac OS X and have accelerometers for position and action detection functions.
• AppleVHS – a special version of the AppleTV deck which supports playback and upcoding of VHS video cassettes.
• iPlunge – This bathroom tool sports an ergonomic handle, a 4200 mAh LiIon battery pack, and the optional iScrub toilet brush. The iPlunge can root out 150 gallons a minute and store 4,000 songs.
• iChair – There is little known about this product as Apple refuses to comment on unannounced products, but from what The Dojo iTeam can tell, it emits a Jobs Field which causes people within range to have absolute faith in Apple products. It also has adjustable height and lumbar support.
• iGuy/iGal – These complementary products offer companionship, download support, Apple’s new iHug technology, storage for 25,000 to 100,000 songs, and can operate for 12 hours before requiring a charge. You can add the optional iPerambulate system which was developed in conjunction with iRobot and adds Roomba functionality.
• iGuess – This Apple-shaped device predicts the future. Just pick it up, give it a shake to activate the accelerometer driven start function, and ask it a question. Turn it over for the answer and be in the know at any time.

That should do it. If any of these products are actually announced, I can easily say I didn’t have any insider information. I just used my iGuess. <WINK>

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Its not hard, however, to figure out how to make it more complicated. Convergence takes care of that, and what used to be one of the most beloved mobile messaging devices and an indispensable tool for the Federal government, the RIM Blackberry, has lost its way in a fight to remain relevant in a writhing sea of multi-functional nano devices which can play music, watch TV, fetch email from several accounts, browse the web, pick your teeth after a fine meal, and, if you’re lucky, make a call or two. They have cute, cloying names like Bold, Storm, Chocolate, Shine, and Behold, and they all (at least according to the manufacturers) do everything better than the Apple iPhone.

Until now. I introduce to you the one and only Peek. Its not an iPhone. It doesn’t play music. It doesn’t organize your life. Its not designed to make phone calls. Its more like 2G then 3G or 4G. It doesn’t sport a touchscreen, have any number of GBs of storage space, can’t find out where you are because it doesn’t do GPS, and doesn’t even take pictures. What it does do, and quite well, is email. If you can recall back to the mid-90′s when RIM’s Blackberry devices was just becoming hot with its two-way pager service on its neato 850/950 models then you might also recall that they weren’t phones back then. Not until 2001 did RIM add phone support.

The Peek brings back the concept of the old Blackberry and reboots it with a fresh, thin, clean, easy to use new device. For US$79.99 and US$20 a month you get unlimited wireless service which gives you access to up to three email accounts, unlimited SMS, and they’re adding features all the time. In the most recent update they added the SMS feature and the ability to view images attached to emails. My hope is that they add additional file types in the near future. Feature-wise, the interface is very clean. In fact, if you’re familiar with how the Blackberry works, you’ll be instantly at home on the Peek.

Setup of email accounts is very, very easy. The device itself has a number of configurations built into it, such as Gmail, AOL, NetZero, and many others. Just enter in the details and, if it recognizes the email address, it takes care of the rest. If you have your own mail server, just call up the service folk and they’ll set up the account for you. Word from their PR people is that they are working on adding Exchange access, as well. This should make some Crackberry addicts rather happy. I didn’t think to ask if they were also working on Lotus Domino and Novell GroupWise account access, though.

The hardware itself is very well made. The device is nicely this and light. The screen is 320×240 and has excellent backlighting and color. There are some things which could be slightly improved. The thumbwheel could be a moved from the traditional side of the unit to the front middle, which would make it easier to use for lefties like me. The battery cover, which is nice and solid, would benefit from having a strengthened locking mechanism. One odd choice was the placement of the extended characters which are located above the numbers across the top of the keyboard. All of the keys are backlit, but the aforementioned characters are not, so you can see what they are in the dark.

There are also some things which the Peek developers could do to improve the interface. First, there are only three built-in color themes, none of which are particularly attractive, to choose from. There’s also not font control, which I’m assured by my PR contacts they are working on now. One thing which they could fix, however, is the status bar at the top of the screen. Its quite a bit taller than it needs to be. If they could trim it down and modernize the icons and status elements there would be more room on the display for email. It would also be nice if there was user control over the colors.

The Peek is one of the nicest, simplest, cleanest devices to come out in a long time. It fills a hole which used to be filled quite nicely but has become ridiculously overwrought. It also fills the gap which the costly iPhone has created. Some people just want a simple phone to make calls a a nice way to access their email on the go. The Peek has no contracts and it comes in a few colors. The Peek is a very elegantly simple solution to a problem which doesn’t need complex solutions, and I’m happy to have one. It very quickly became one of my most used devices and I don’t foresee a time when I stop using it.

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If you see one of these under your tree this Christmas, don’t bother unwrapping it. Take it back to where it was bought from and buy yourself a Sony PSP. The new Mystic Silver PSP-3000 model which comes with a new Ratchet & Clank game and a movie sells for the same price and offers infinitely more functionality and fun. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

I won’t even bother going into the specifications or any real details about the device. I will, however, state that it is not what it says it is. The Sony mylo 2 is not a smaller version of a laptop, as Sony would like you to believe. That would suggest that its a MID, and it is most certainly a MID, just not a very good one. The reasons for why it is not good are simple and clear, and I will outline them for you here.

To be entirely frank, I don’t have many issues with the hardware itself. If I had to be picky, I’d complain about the poor range of the Wi-Fi module and the lack of Bluetooth. The slider snaps open with an annoyingly loud sound, and the unit us twice as thick as Nokia’s N810 Internet Tablet, a product its supposed to compete directly with. Sadly, where the Nokia N810 shines, the Mylo 2 falls very, very flat. One of the biggest failings the device has is the complete lack of any additional software in any way, shape, or form.

Yes. That’s right. There’s no software you can add. There’s not even a decent Mylo 2 site or, from what I’ve been able to tell, a development site for the version of Linux which the Mylo 2 uses. I’m not an expert, but I’m pretty sure that utilizing any related open source code requires that you make that source available. This means that Sony should have a developers site for the version of Linux the Mylo 2 uses. Nokia (I’m sorry I keep dragging them out, but they’re an excellent example) has a complete project for the Maemo project and almost all of the software is available in source form.

Apparently Sony has found a way around this by using Linux as the core, but designing every single bit of UI software in-house and using entirely private and proprietary code. Its possible to do this as long as they don’t use any open source code at all. What this boils down to is that Sony doesn’t have to give out the code, offer any SDK for developers, or really do anything at all. And that’s just what Sony has done… nothing.

The interface is annoying. There’s no software. There are no 3rd party developers. There are no games. There are no tools to convert media. You’re forced to use Sony’s proprietary Memory Stick for storage. There’s really nothing at all that the Mylo 2 can offer. So, either get the aforementioned PSP or go pick up an Acer Aspire One from Costco for a measley US$349. I’m serious. For once, I’m actually telling people to stay away what appears to be a very cool gadget. Please trust me.

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What could it possibly mean? We can easily speculate that Apple will officially release iPhone 2.0 at the show, which is held at Moscone Center June 9th through the 13th, since they’ve already told everyone it will come out in June. There’s also a buzz around the idea that Apple will introduce the second generation iPhone hardware which could add 3G capabilities. We also know that Mssr. Jobs can’t surprise us with the iPhone SDK, the Apps Store, Exchange integration via real Microsoft ActiveSync, or even the iFund program. What draws the attention is the image above which shows two Golden Gate bridges and the statement “A landmark event. In more ways than one.” The question becomes two what? It could be a cryptic way of stating that iPhone 2.0 will be released, in which case most people will be disappointed, since we already know its coming out.

Since its an image which has clearly been Photoshopped, it could portend a future where Apple gets back into digital imaging. Back in the mid and late 90′s when Apple was hawking its seminal Newton MessagePad line of PDAs, they were also vending some of the most accessible digital cameras of the time, the QuickTake. Like many other projects at Apple at the time, the returning iCEO, Steve Jobs, axed the QuickTake line. The only other imaging products Apple has released have been the iSight which was discontinued after the technology was integrated into MacBook, MacBook Pro, and iMac products. You can also find cameras in the iPhone and iPod Touch, but this is no different than other PDAs and mobile handsets.

Lets walk through some of the other possibilities. It can’t be the MacBook or MacBook pro since these form factors are well loved and well entrenched and we’re well past a second generation with these systems. Its unlikely to be the MacBook Air since it just came out and is being well received. We’re already working on the second generation of Apple TV. The Mac Pro and iMac has been upgraded several times since its release. The iPod and the Mac Mini have been through several iterations each. Apple doesn’t get all excited about software, monitors, or general accessories and we’re already on the sixth major version of Mac OS X. Apple also doesn’t shout from the mountaintops about its Xserve line and other behind-the-scenes systems, which have also been through many versions.

That leaves the iPhone and iPod Touch which are both in their first version. This leads me back to the thought that I find it hard to believe Apple would try to generate so much hype to simply re-announce something everyone already knows is coming out, Apple’s iPhone 2.0. This leads me back to the feeling that Apple will be releasing the second generation of the iPhone and iPod Touch hardware. That would mean the obvious, 3G network access, possibly an EVDO or HSDPA capable version. That, however, is unlikely since Apple still has 4 years left on its exclusivity contract with AT&T. They could be expanding storage to 64GBs or adding an expansion slot. They could also be rolling out a new, less costly, smaller version of the iPhone like the oft rumored iPhone Nano, possibly with another carrier.

Well, whatever Apple is planning, you can bet that there will be a “One more thing” in the offing.

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The Feature Set

The Pilot has a number of features. I’ll just run through the list here and then move on to some impressions. First, it can handle a number of media formats such as MP3, WMA, WMA Lossless, WMA DRM, WMA Pro, OGG, WAV, Audible, MPEG4 and WMV at 30 fps, and JPEG. It has an integrated FM radio which can handle RDS, the ability for radio stations to deliver station and song data over the FM radio signal. It has the aforementioned Bluetooth radio, a headphone jack, and even a Mic jack for audio recording. It does not, however, have an integrated mic for simple voice recording.

As indicated in the image above, the device is designed to be used in a horizontal orientation. I don’t really like the lack of being able to use it vertically, but its not that big of a deal. You are, however, able to rotate the screen 180 degrees to use it left handed. I’m left handed, but I’ve adapted to right handed operations for many things in life, so either orientation worked for me. Other, more “Left” lefties should appreciate it, though. The lack of the vertical orientation as an option was irksome, though. I guess it would have made it too iPod-like.

General Operation

I’ve used and reviewed an earlier device based on this software, Napster’s 1GB player from mid-2006 and found that interface to be unpleasant to use. I was surprised when I first fired up the Pilot to find a very similar interface, and I realized that it must have been made by the same company. My concerns were quickly washed away, however, because this more recent version is a damn sight better than the one on the Napster unit. Primarily because that disc you see in the picture, it actually works, ala 1st generation iPod. When I first removed it from the box, never having been touched by another reviewer, the wheel clicks were very hard and sharp, but after a little time, it loosened up nicely.

Interestingly enough, you’re not limited to navigating the much cleaner interface by just rotating the wheel. The wheel also clicks, ala the iPod clickwheel. This helps in a lot of cases where there is a grid of icons and not a list. For physical controls there is the aforementioned scroll wheel which has directional click capabilities, and has a Play/Pause button in the center. There is a separate Menu button in the corner. On the “Top” of the unit is a Power slider which incorporates a lock function. There is also a Voting toggle which allows you to apply ratings to tracks, which is somewhat interesting.

The graphical interface is very clean, has nice icons, and is very functional. In some places its a bit dense and it can be a tad confusing as to which control to use to get where you want to go, but its easy to pick up, even without reading the manual. There is an option to use the default circle-type menu or the easier to use matrix type which arranges the menu icons in a grid. You can also change the background image, but only from a list of included images. The Music Library section is packed with tabs which allow you to view what’s on your Pilot in a wide range of modes. One of the more interesting operational choices is that when you select an item, it doesn’t just play it, it asks if you want to play it or add it to a playlist, add it to what’s playing now, or even delete it. That’s either a feature or an annoyance depending on how you look at it.

Overall, its very easy to get around the interface after only a few minutes of fiddling with it. Not all that much different than the first time you touched an iPod. I’d rather there not be a ratcheting feel under the scroll wheel as they cause scrolling to be a tad inaccurate. One nice touch is the blue LED lights which surround the perimeter stick out slightly and make it very easy for your finger to grip the wheel as you turn it. Similarly, the Play/Pause button sticks up slightly so you can find it without looking. Really, the whole control scheme works well without completely emulating the iPod arrangement.

Bluetooth Nirvana And Sound Quality

Its impossible to miss, the large Bluetooth logo on the front of the unit between the controls and the display, and it clearly indicates that this device can handle A2DP connections to compatible stereo headsets. Configuration with the Insignia headset that Best Buy sent me was very simple and it worked out of the box without much fuss at all, something all Bluetooth devices should aspire to. The Pilot does come with a standard pair of earbud speakers, but they honestly sounded like crap, so my next try was the Bluetooth headset. I wasn’t impressed there, either.

My next test was to plug in a pair of Griffin’s excellent TuneBud headphones, designed for isolation audio and offering a clean and clear sound with excellent bass response. This allowed me to get a real sense of what the Pilot can put out. While not as good as Apple’s high quality sound chips in their iPods and personal computers, it sounds quite good. One thing that really peeved me was the EQ controls, which are just plain confusing. There are a number of presets which are easy to select, but there is also a custom EQ which you can tweak. The problem arises when you want to change the settings and then activate them. I spent a good 15 minutes wrangling with the controls to try and get the EQ to take my changes. Insignia needs to fix that, and quick.

Its A Video Player, Too!

Lest we forget, the Pilot is really a little PMP and not just a DAP. First, I had to install the included ArcSoft MediaConverter for Windows. I could easily manually transfer files to the device, but it was easier to allow MediaConverter to convert video and transfer the copy to the device, thereby ensuring that the video files would work. I copied 20 episodes of Invader Zim from a DVD to the device. Conversion time was very fast on my MacBook Pro in Boot Camp mode running Windows Vista Ultimate. Though I don’t recall the exact time, it took around 1 hour and 40 minutes to convert and copy to the Pilot.

I’m quite impressed with the quality of the display. There is no lag or blur and color is clean, if a tad dull. Oddly, Best Buy doesn’t list display resolution, but it is a 2.4″ display and they claim that it is a widescreen form factor. Its certainly wider than 4:3 ratio, but its nowhere near even 16:10. Its somewhere around 5:3 or 6:3 and I’d say that the resolution is probably in the range of 320×240 or so. I’m very pleased with the display and find it very easy to watch just about anything on it, with exception to 72mm print widescreen films. I haven’t tried encoding anything with subtitles yet, but if its 4:3 ratio (like Love Hina or Naruto) then it should be readable.

The Wrap Up

I can’t say I’m truly disappointed with any of the functions of the Pilot. It integrates with various services like Rhapsody, Rhapsody To Go, and the Best Buy Digital Music Store. The FM radio works with the RDS service for additional channel and track details. Battery life is long and strong and the battery is user replaceable. It works with Macs (as old as Mac OS 8.6) and PCs, so I’m sure it would also work with Linux-based systems. Its super light at only 2.1 oz. It has an SD card slot for adding even more storage.

The one thing I would like included would be either a speaker or bundled powered speaker attachment so I could use it to watch videos without having to use headphones. That would make it supremely usable and cool, as well as markedly cheaper than other PMPs which are larger, heavier, and far more expensive. In case you were wondering, after encoding and copying the 20 Invader Zim episodes, I still have 3GB free and the episodes look clean and clear with none of the mosquitoing you often see in badly compressed video files.

The Insignia Pilot comes in 4GB and 8GB versions. We tested the 4GB version, which sells for US$119. The 8GB version sells for US$149, so there’s no real reason to get the 4GB unless you need the extra $30 for lunch and a cab ride.

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Does it thrill me? Yes. I can say that clearly and without quibble. Does it move me, though? No. It cannot and will not move me like the iPhone does. To give you a clear idea of what it takes to move me, here’s a small, incomplete, unqualified list of things which have (in no particular order): the entire Aston Martin line, the Apple Newton MessagePads, the Original Palm III, NEC’s MobilePro line before the 900c, the birth of my one and only child, a month in the Maine wilderness on Outward Bound when I was 15, Apple’s iPhone, IBM’s ThinkPad line (pre-Lenovo), the Atari 800, the Amiga 3000 with Video Toaster at the Pasadena Community Access Channel.

If you note the theme, these are things or events which were singular to me. If you’ll excuse the events from the list and focus only on the technologies you may detect that there are certain forms and functions which I find seminal. It was NEC who developed a truly usable ultraportable with a true convergence of power and usability, with primary focus on its fully typeable keyboard. The Newton’s and the Palm III speak for themselves as the co-parents of the PDA movement. IBM’s ThinkPad line redefined what a laptop should be. The Atari 800 was, at least in my estimation, the first true integration of gaming and computing with any quality behind it. The iPhone is the epitome of all the lessons everyone has learned about a real pocket companion. And really, who the hell can resist falling in love with an Aston Martin.

Now, when you look at the N95 8GB what do you see? Its just another Symbian S60 device at its core, its really thick, the slider slides too easily, the absence of a better keyboard is very irksome, the directional pad sucks for playing games, and there’s no lens cover for the 5MP camera. Yet, despite all of this, people are clamoring for it. Maybe because there’s so much more to the N95 8GB than the laundry list of failings. In reality, there is. There’s so much to this handset and Nokia has done very well making the S60 version of the Symbian OS work good with one hand. In order to clearly see the quality, I’m going to review each element of it separately.

The Phone

Lets face it. Nokia makes phones. They make some really good ones and they make some abysmally bad ones, but the N95 8GB is not one of the latter. This is, in my opinion, one of the finer smart-ish phones Nokia has ever made. Why smart-ish? I believe that any real smartphone must have a touchscreen and a QWERTY keyboard. The N95 8GB has neither, but it still manages to do just about everything a real smartphone can do. Just don’t get any ideas that you can really manage your email with it.

Everything you’d expect in a mobile handset is here. It has a call history, quality voicemail access, a complete address book complete with in-depth contacts data fields, and it even integrates VoIP technology via its embedded 802.11b/g radio. Where it excels is in speakerphone mode. The device has stereo speakers, one on either side of the top of the unit, and they sound really good. The mic even works so your other party can hear you. The N95 8GB could truly act as a conferencing system stand-in if the need arose.

The handsets VoIP capabilities appear to also be rather cool, though I didn’t get a chance to review them. It does come with GIZMO integration which is a kind of Skype service. I’ve looked over the site and I even have an account which I created a few years back, but I’ve never really used it. Just to put that in perspective, I’ve had about US$12 in Skype credit for the last two years. Its not that I don’t like the idea. I just never use it. I guess I’m a fuddy duddy in that sense. You have a phone, you use it to call people, and they know you by that number.

The Media Player

Let me make this clear right up front. This is no iPod or an iPod killer. I have a 60GB 5G iPod in black which I keep in its case all the time and generally use as a hard drive based media player for my car. My lappy, a MacBook Pro, is my iTunes when I’m not driving. With that said, Nokia has devised a rather good media player. I’m more than a little miffed that they use RealPlayer for video, but I haven’t tried hacking that just yet, nor have I tried to watch any full-length movies on it. I just don’t like Real or RealPlayer. They’ve never been good. Its just me.

Audio and video are separated into two different applications which are converged via the Gallery tool, which gives you a unified look at all of your media-related files. It also doesn’t care whether its on the phones internal memory or on the Mass Storage drive, as Nokia refers to it. You just pick something and go. The N95 8GB not only runs the app necessary to view the file, but it also tracks your moves so when the video or audio is done, you have a back button which returns you to the Gallery. It makes what would normally be something navigation intensive into something smooth and usable.

On my review handset, I was mostly treated to the UK version of the N95 8GB experience. I was able to subscribe to podcasts, download videos from various providers, look at popular YouTube videos, and even gawk (or guffaw) at some included Nokia marketing material. There’s one video called “Snowboard” which really shows off the N95′s audio and video capabilities, too. I don’t know if that file, however, is included with all N95 8GB devices. At the time of this review, the Nokia Music Store was not yet available.

The Game Console

Back when it came out I reviewed the original Nokia N-Gage, affectionately known as the “Metal Taco”, and I did not like it. Nokia sent me two so I could use the multiplayer capabilities and one of them was DOA. Needless to say, I wasn’t too thrilled about the N-Gage over my then hot Nintendo Game Boy Advance. The controls were good and the games seemed cool, especially Tony Hawk, but it just didn’t fulfill the ideals of all components. It was a miserable phone.

However, the N95 8GB isn’t miserable as a phone, though its not that good as a game console. This mostly sources from the controls. Lets face it. Its a mobile handset. It was designed as a mobile handset. It functions as a mobile handset. The controls just suck when it comes to games. I don’t really understand why all these phone makers keep designing their phone buttons all the same way and then expect people to play games on them.

The idea of to stop putting the Select button in the middle of the cursor controller. If that weren’t bad enough, everyone then clusters the Call, End Call, Left Soft, Right Soft, and various other buttons right around it. Density supports convenience in phones meant to be phones, but not on phones also destined to be game consoles. Once the madness ends, then I’ll be interested. Until then, there are few games I would spend a lot of time playing on a mobile handset.

The Camera

First off, understand that I’m am against combining large megapixel cameras into mobiles. Its not right and its unfair to the consumer who has to either settle or demote their desires in order to own a specific phone. I can guarantee you that when people go to buy a phone, their first thought isn’t about the camera. To whit, when consumers are looking for cameras, they aren’t shopping for phones. The addition of the camera is the markets attempt to converge for the sake of sales and could care less about what you think.

With that said, the Nokia N95 8GB comes with not one, but two cameras. The first one is a massive 5MP auto-focus camera with built-in flash which can take video and has a load of features. The second is a .3MP affair on the face of the phone and is included to facilitate video calls (as if there were any). I suppose you can call another N95 8GB, but I don’t know if you need a specific plan. Its also likely that it could tie into the GIZMO system which does support video over IP connections.

Pictures are nice and video is very clear. I’m not a photographic or videographic expert, so I can’t tell you any of the specifications aside from resolution. The flash seems to work very well, but I’m a big fan of no flash shots, since I feel it ruins the natural light. You switch from Image to Video modes via a menu selection. The Video mode captures MPEG-4 and 3GP, and the Image mode captures… images. Yeah. JPEG, I believe.

How It Talks

What I mean here is how it plays with others. I’m a Mac guy, as you likely know (and if you didn’t, now you do), so I prefer that most, if not all, of my toys be both Mac and Windows capable, even better if they can do Linux. In the case of the N95 8GB, it would not initially mount on my Mac desktop. It would, however, work with Windows inside of Parallels and in Vista under Boot Camp. There are several ways for the N95 8GB to talk with computers. Its primary form is through Nokia’s complex collection of desktop communication software for Windows. While the new interface is cleaner than earlier versions, I still find it overly cumbersome for general use. It would be nice if they could develop a Palm Desktop-like integrated environment instead of having the dozen or so little apps they use now.

What I do find shameful is that it takes about 40 minutes to transfer 1.45GBs of music files over a USB 2.0 connection, in both Windows and Mac OS X. This simply isn’t acceptable. I can sync 20+ GBs to my 5G iPod over USB 2.0 in the same time, if not less. I tested in Mac OS X using the Mass Storage setting, in Windows Vista Ultimate under Boot Camp, and on an HP dc7800p Small Form Factor desktop system running Windows Vista Business Edition. Its not the source hardware, its the phone which I believe is causing the delay. I would have thought that Nokia would have more throughly tested this before allowing it to go to market.

The Wrap Up

Back in early 2007 I was listening to the TWiT podcast and Leo LaPorte was saying how he has an N95 that he loves, but was distressed at how short the battery life was. Jump forward almost a year and we now have Tyler from The Dojo with an 8GB version of the same phone, and I can say that the battery life must have improved somehow. I’m not thrilled by the fact that I can run down the battery in a few hours if I try really hard, but even with music and video playing, I’m not doing a lot of damage, unless I’m using GPS. In any case, you should count on having a car charger.

Now, however, comes the hard part. Sure, its easy to review something, but how objective could I be if I didn’t also evaluate the device’s cost, and herein lies the rub with the Nokia N95 8GB device. It’s priced in the US at US$779, just shy of $800. Add yourself a nice leather case and tax if you’re in a state which has one, and you’re talking close to US$1,000 for a phone. A PHONE. Logically, though, that’s the cost from Nokia direct. They charge based on the cost and don’t subtract a subsidy based on revenue projections per user.

How much would you spend if you were to buy each device separately? First, its a really good phone. That will run you roughly US$300 without subsidy. Getting a decent 5MP camera with quality optics will run you around US$200. An 8GB Apple iPod Nano with video retails for around US$250. Total that up and you you come up with $750. Get cases for all of those devices and you’re look at another $150, so $900. Now, total in the cost of having to juggle all of these devices which is really a subjective concept, and you’re talking at least the same cost, if not more, of the N95 8GB.

So, can I recommend it? Sure. Am I swayed by all of its features and just love it to death forever and ever and ever? No. The one thing that kills me is the standard phone keypad. If it just slid the other way and had a little thumbboard, then I’d be all over it and a half. That I could do, but that’s not what Nokia did.

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I knew up front that the Contour Active wouldn’t hold everything that I could carry in the Brenthaven, so I pared down my mobile stash. I’m pleased to report that I’m now able to carry at least 90% of what I carried in the previous bag in the Contour. The only capabilities I now miss are the ability to carry a second lappy (yes, I’m a glutton for pain) and the Brenthaven’s neato expanding bag trick. I’m amazed a what a simple design change will offer in return, though.

The Contour is designed to be a messenger-style bag, except in a vertical orientation. This isn’t simply a twist on the traditional lappy back format just for the sake of change. It actually has a real benefit; center of gravity. By orienting the laptop vertically it shifts the center of gravity across the center of your own center of gravity and brings that center closer to your own center, or, your lappy bag isn’t such a drag on your shoulder any more.

The bag is really easy to carry, as well, and the strap isn’t really anything technologically advanced. Its more like two soft canvas straps with some kind of quick adjust mechanism. It really hugs your shoulder and doesn’t slip or bite. I just sling it up there and away I go. I don’t feel my body adjusting to one side to compensate for the bags weight. In fact, this is the first lappy bag I’ve used where I felt I could walk normally.

Aside from its centrifugal properties, its also quite the lappy bag. It has two external pockets, one on the front and one on the back which is for magazines and books, which are reasonably accessible and there are numerous little sub-pockets inside of those. One thing I would like to see is that the zippers start on the sides so more of the pocket interior could be accessed without compromising what lies below the edge.

There are two additional little pockets along the front edge of the top inside the flap. One is for PDAs or iPods, and the other is for mobile phones, and they are each lined with a kind of felt/suede which I’m guessing can’t scratch your expensive electronics. Inside the bag, the lappy slot is lined with the same material. There is additional storage in front of the lappy slot.

So, let’s now head back to the beginning of the story where I told you I migrated my MacBook Pro over. How did that work? It works okay. Its clear that the bag wasn’t designed for widescreen slim lappies since my MBP is a bit too long and the slot is a little too wide. It makes it a tad difficult to snap the flap shut using the magnetic studs. While it doesn’t have Kevlar shields like the Brenthaven bags, the padding on the backside works well.

Aside from the minor quirks, this is a phenomenal bag with a great price. If you find yourself carrying around a laptop most of the time, you owe it to yourself to get one of these bags. At US$59.99, its a great deal. If you think that’s expensive, how much did you spend on your laptop?

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