Asymmetrical Information

You need a </I> in the code, dear hostess.

You know what's even better than the Dell for a PDA as far a connected device goes? One of the many PDA/Phone units available from your carrier of choice. Both Sprint and Verizon sell units that get the euqivalent of 768 k DSL, an dI believe there's similar units for the other major carriers (I can't provide details on them, since I carry a Sprint unit and work for a company that uses Verizon, those are what I'm familiar with).

They use the same tech as Blackberries, but run the Windows Mobile OS; as long as you have signal, you've got internet.

I think men tend to prefer them; for me, when I'm out carrying a teeny tiny evening purse, I don't want a huge phone taking up space; conversely, during the day, I have a sizeable purse, so I don't need to worry about having a combo unit.

I worked at Bose for three years and learned two things. 1.) Their stuff sounds really good, though I can't justify that much money on a sound system for myself. And 2.) Audiophiles are really annoying. Sorry about insulting your friends. :)

"I am poor..."

As evidenced by your post, you are most assuredly not. If I could afford the tier of cable which would make Tivo ownership worthwhile, I would consider myself lucky.

There's nothing wrong with marketing your Amazon associates links, and I love your blog, but please.

I assumed my readers would know that this was a litle hyperbole . . . my student loan officer probably isn't hungry either.

Joe,

Give it a rest, buddy. That tier of cable is like $50/month. And let's face it, that just isn't very much money.

Yeah, it's a lot of money to someone in Africa. But Most Americans can swing an extra $50/month.

I have known countless residents of the ghetto with cable service. My grandmother, who had no assets aside from her tumbledown Midwestern house, and no income aside from her $780/mo Social Security check, paid $50/month for cable.

These days, electronics (and many other luxury items) are so cheap that anyone can afford them. It's often a lot easier to afford a nice cell phone, or a nice car, than, say, a house. You certainly don't have to be rich to afford decent cable service.

OK - I can your argement there, Jane. Men can get away with carrying a belt case/clip for a PDA with almost every clothing combo; women not so much. OTOH, it's not that expensive to have 2 lines nowadays, or if you are a customer of one of the GSM carriers (Cingular and TMobile) you can switch your phone with ease, so you have the PDA for daytime use, and a RAZR or some other itsy-bitsy phone to go with your evening #.

Nonetheless, the PDA/Phone is not for everyone - I mainly wanted to bring up that it's not just blackberries any more, you can have almost any PDA as a always-connected device.

My present to myself was a Canon XTi. Best camera ever. It changes the way you look at the world.

$500 for a clock radio seems a bit much.

I'm a BB partisan, but only after having tried loads of other devices, phones and pdas both. I gave up on Windows Mobile/PocketPC after much frustration with endless tapping when the recognition didn't quite work. If you are using one of them, definitely get one of the folding keyobards... they're cheap and do wonders for your productivity.

The (full size) Black Berry is an absolutely wonderful email device, keeps you completely synched with outlook, has one of the best radios of any phone anywhere, has ridiculous battery life (RIM has been designing power efficient mobile radios for 20 years), and has the best phone interface I've ever seen. In the next few months there will be new, highspeed, multimedia full size blackberries (the Pearl is not for people that live on email) with cameras. BBs are tops at communicating in email, text messages, ims, and phone calls.

Go with a GSM provider for global mobility and so you can swap phones when you are going out and don't want to lug the brick (thank god for suits and sport coats... men get lots and lots of pockets, especially in winter). Best phones out there now are the SonyEricsson W810i and Cybershot K790. Great cameras, great music software, great phone, the 790 is newer and more expensive, but gives you a better camera with a slide down lens cover so it doesn't get scrathed up bouncing in your pocket or purse. They take MemoryStick Micro and currently you can get up to 4GB cards.

I have a RAZR, fell in love with it for the physical design, and have grown to loathe it. It has had notoriously bad manufacturing faults and a very high defect rate. The phone software and menu system is complex, unfriendly, is completely unique (all your instincts are wrong), and doesn't play well with other devices. Motorola wants $50 just so you can get the cd that allows you to synch your address book with your computer. The battery life is atrocious, the radio is weak, and the sound quality is bad.

I really, deeply, desperately wish that the RAZR was a better phone, since it is physically wonderful. It's attractive, tiny, and feels great in your hands. It just doesn't work well and has driven many of my friends back to their BBs full time or to the larger candy bar phones (like the two SonyEricssons I suggested). Size helps by giving you better radios and antennas, larger batteries, better screens... make the small sacrifice of going to a slightly larger phone so that you have a much better performing phone that produces much less aggravation.

Full disclosure: I worked for Ericsson for 2 years, but building routers and data equipment. It is only very, very recently (last 4 months) that I have recommended an Ericsson or SonyEricsson phone (Ericsson's phones when I worked there were horrendous... bad, large, ugly, and unfriendly). Several of my friends work in senior sales positions for wireless networks and have used nearly every phone on the market for the past 4 years. Hope this helps.

$500 for a clock radio seems a bit much.

I'm not much of a Bose fan myself, but I've heard a couple Wave Radios and it is actually a full-featured stereo system for room(s) where you don't have space for a full-featured stereo system.

Imagine a $500 high-end minisystem shrunk down into the form factor of a clock radio and that's about how it sounds. Probably worth the price of admission if you like good sound but your quarters are cramped.

Rather ironic, considering that the speaker system that made the company famous had to sit a couple feet out from a wall in order to project correctly.

The "audiophile" objection to Bose speaker systems is that Bose does not reproduce the entire spectrum of sound that it is possible to encode on a CD or record, but tailors their output to what the human ear and brain are known to actually hear and regard as pleasant-sounding.

Yes, really, they consider this an objectionable trait. Expanding this fact into a general proof that self-styled "audiophiles" should be mercilessly mocked whenever encountered is left as a (trivial) exercise for the reader.

(That said, $500 is rather a lot for a clock radio that doesn't even have an iPod dock.)

i second the bose wave radio & tivo (although the dread catch of the tivo is that i find myself watching way more tv than i'd ever be prepared to admit in public.)

i had major problems w my harmony remote. it is way too slow for what i want - i'm always missing the beginning of tv shows bc the play button is so unresponsive. the slow feedback is annoying with everything else, but when you're trying to cue things up it goes all three stooges on you. of course, i have a different model.

also: beware on the aquos tvs, although their display is 1080p, they will not accept 1080p input. or at least mine doesn't. note, however, that this isn't a really practical concern as there aren't a whole lot of sources for 1080p content around yet. other than that, though, i love mine to the point of wrapping a blanket around it and cuddling with it on cold winter evenings. no, really.

have a RAZR, fell in love with it for the physical design, and have grown to loathe it. It has had notoriously bad manufacturing faults and a very high defect rate. The phone software and menu system is complex, unfriendly, is completely unique (all your instincts are wrong), and doesn't play well with other devices. Motorola wants $50 just so you can get the cd that allows you to synch your address book with your computer. The battery life is atrocious, the radio is weak, and the sound quality is bad.

Count me as a RAZR HATR. A few months ago, I had to replace the Samsung 530 that I had had for over two years. I liked that one. Small, solid, did what I needed it to do. At first I was appalled to find out that cell phones these days are bigger than they were two years ago, since that doesn't seem like progress to me. I was told that I'm the only one who thinks this is a bad thing, because people complain that they lose small cell phones too often. While it may be true that people complain about this, it's ridiculous. Does anyone believe that more than 0.5% of phone losses are because it falls out of a pocket or a purse and isn't noticed and not because it's left on a restaurant table, back seat of a car, airplane seat magazine pouch, or shelf in the john? The RAZR, despite having about the same volume as my old phone, feels much larger, being wider and longer. I'm also sure it wouldn't survive the dozen drops to the concrete that my old phone did (until the last one).

Plus, yes, the battery life is terrible. I frequently press the buttons on the side of the screen accidentally. Reception sucks. And not only does the menu system suck, the text input routines are awful. I can't ever type that I'm still at "work" because it always comes up as "york." I don't know how to cycle between selections or if it's even possible, because yeah, the instructions suck too. I can't even get the thing in black because I'm not a Cingular customer, only ubiquitous, low-end consumer good silver.

I must be in the minority, but I'd rather have a good, compact phone than a big crappy phone that takes pictures and plays MP3s.

Count me as a RAZR HATR.

Count me as a Motorola hater. I hesitate to bash a company because of one or two less than satisfactory mobile phones, but, I really reeeaaalllly don't have any faith in their products, and won't be tempted by any of their offerings any time time soon.

I'm a recent Harmony Remote convert. I've been muddling through with a number of different universal remote solutions for the past few years. I just got a Harmony 670, and absolutely love it, and more importantly so does my wife.

It's mid-range, with a monochrome screen, not color, but I don't find the color screen necessary, and it eats up batteries.

best thing about the bose is the crescendo alarm - amazing what a difference not being jolted out of bed can do for the start of your day.

i searched wide and far and could not find another alarm clock with such a feature. anyone else???

btw - no way i'd spend $500 on an alarm clock just yet.

actually AT, i've had a cell phone fall out of my pocket in the back of a cab on at least three occasions (and it was recovered in two - thank you whoever you are,) and i've definitely found (and returned, even,) cellies in cabs, so it can't be -that- rare.

the power buttons on the razr/pebl phones are way annoying though. who turns things on by pressing the red button?

will

I'm with Joe: these are pretty expensive toys (yeah, and tools--but pretty optional tools.)

Bottom line: if you've got that stuff, you don't need any of my cash.

BroD, I'm not asking for your money. I'm--in an apparently offensively hyperbolic way--asking readers who care to, to order anything they were going to order from Amazon anyway, through my associates account, at absolutely no cost to themselves. I am obviously not poor (although in my not-needed defense, everything expensive on this list, except the two tax-deductible items, were not purchased by me. My iPod and Bose are cast offs from relatives; the other items were either gifts, or things I helped someone else buy for themselves. I do not have the disposable income to dabble in HDTV's, Bose Radios, etc.; I am merely providing a service for those who do.) But I am not poor. I lead a very comfortable life, and no one is supposed to click on my link because they feel sorry for me. They're supposed to click because they like my stuff. Or, just as good, buy the stuff I recommend at the local outlet mall, and then send me a note--as some of you have!--telling me how much you liked it. Believe it or not, a note saying my recommendations were good means more to me than the amazon credit.

Which is beside the point, because I haven't asked anyone for any money, and don't intend to. I mean, I'm always happy when someone hits my tip jar--cash is one of the sincerest forms of appreciation--but I don't do fundraising drives or whatever. Please, keep your money--or give it to someone who is hungry or homeless this holiday season.

Jane,
Just an out of topic observation on the bose wave radio:
If consumer electronics interest you beyond their utilitarian aspect, you'll be interested in Tivoli audio http://www.tivoliaudio.com.
Great radios based on designs by another MIT great Henry Kloss. Often better priced, and in my opinion, and I dare say in that of the cognoscenti, better sound for the money than the Bose.
I just thought I'd share the info for the benefit of both you and other interested readers.
PS: I have no commercial or any other interest in Tivoli audio beyond a great personal admiration for the late Henry Kloss.

Also, I just want to make it totally clear that I do not live in a workhouse, or eat gruel.

This: "through my associates account, at absolutely no cost to themselves"-- just isn't True.

Of course the purchaser pays, and thereby, it is a cost he/she/trans- is incurring.

They may not be incurring an Additional cost, but, that's the point~

Why iPods? Players like the Archos are cheaper, maybe smaller, easy to use, have better sound quality, you can play any type of MP3 files and best of all you are not wedded to a single computer.

No one I have persuaded to buy an Archos has been dissapointed.

I'm sure that Kitchenaid of yours could make a lot of gruel fairly quickly; you should try it and report back.

As I said, the reason to buy an iPod is not superior sound; it is simply that if you buy an iPod, you will have a very wide array of docking stations, etc. to go with it. Network effects matter; Apple was the victim, and now they're the beneficiary.

Another Tivo downside; not only do I watch more TV, I also pay less attention, on the assumption that I can always hit replay if I miss something. Which doesn't work so well when I'm half-watching elsewhere.

I love not having cords

If you love not having cords, then how about not actually having a keyboard?

http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/8193/

I've never purchased, seen, nor used one of them though. I wouldn't recommend it for a primary keyboard (I can't image tapping a hard surface constantly is physiologically a good idea nor does it give any tactile feedback like a normal keyboard) but in a pinch....

A TV doesn't have to be 1080p to be true HDTV. Many of the cheaper HDTVs out there today are 1366 x 768. These are true HDTVs.

The buyer will want to avoid EDTVs, these are 480p, the same as progressive-scan DVD. (Regular US TV is 480i.)

Broadcast HDTV is either in 720p or 1080i, So a tv with 768 lines is true HDTV, and will deliver a fine HDTV picture. Obviously 1080p is preferable, but these still cost a lot more than the 768s. If your budget will only allow for a 768, by all means go for it, especially in the smaller sizes, say 32" or less.

This: "through my associates account, at absolutely no cost to themselves"-- just isn't True.

Of course the purchaser pays, and thereby, it is a cost he/she/trans- is incurring.

They may not be incurring an Additional cost, but, that's the point~

You must have been a joy to have around as a child. The "point" was that the purchaser of items via this referral method is not incuring a surcharge for doing so; the price they will pay if the want to purchase these or other items from Amazon, is the same as if they had opened up a new browser window and typed "www.amazon.com" in the URL bar.

But by clicking through JG's link, Amazon pays a referral commision to our hostess, who then invests it in bandwidth so that you and I may have the privilege of talking past each other on this forum.

anony-,

"of talking past each other on this forum."-- don't you know it!~

The real point is that there's enough bad advertising clouding the marketplace as we type.

JG, usually, is smart enough, and her readership is smart enough, to deal in the fact of the matter, especially about something as prosaic as commission>referral swaps/fees.

There is no doubt that the Tivoli Audio PAL (Portable Audio Laboratory) is a VASTLY better radio than the Bose, in every respect (as recommended above by Saloner).

Here's a link already formatted with Jane's affiliate tag: Tivoli Audio PAL (eligible for Amazon Prime shipping). That's for the black one; it comes in many other colors (including a white "iPAL") and is also an outstanding computer or personal audio output device. If you want clocks and alarms and other add-ons, the other Tivoli Audio Henry Kloss radios are also very good. Skip Bose.

I just re-read the list and realized that Jane has the necessary to get her Axim onto the internet without WiFi being available (assuming her RAZR serviceprovider supports the use of it as a modem - Verizon does, though at what I'll admit is not a cheap cost).

Extra bonus points; it can also be used as a modem for a laptop.

re: RAZR

"Nextel and Samsung handsets and the Motorola Razr are especially vulnerable to software downloads that activate their microphones, said James Atkinson, a counter-surveillance consultant who has worked closely with government agencies. "They can be remotely accessed and made to transmit room audio all the time," he said. "You can do that without having physical access to the phone." "
http://news.com.com/2100-1029_3-6140191.html

"Nextel and Samsung handsets and the Motorola Razr are especially vulnerable to software downloads that activate their microphones

Not if you're wearing your trusty tinfoil hat!

No one I have persuaded to buy an Archos has been dissapointed.

Sure they are. They're just too afraid to tell you, for fear you'll convince them to buy some other inferior product. iPods play any MP3 you can throw at them (and then some), and you are most definitely not "wedded to a single computer." I use mine with about 4 computers. The Archos' features are a subset of the iPod's features.

I've had the new Motorola variant of the RAZR, the MotoKRZR K1m (which I'd link here using Megan's Associates code if her site took .html, but you can run a search at Amazon for "KRZR" after clicking her RAZR link above and she'll still get credit for it), for about six weeks now. I personally find the KRZR's shape and look a big more pleasing (it's a bit longer and slimmer) — which, of course, is purely subjective. I'm no cell phone expert, but I believe that the menu structure is a function of not only the device, but the provider.

I'm otherwise fairly satisfied with Verizon (after a horrible experience with a defective Nokia product that Cingular refused to replace), but their version of the software for the KRZR (and perhaps the RAZR, I'm not sure) doesn't permit the Motorola Phone Tools to sync music to the phone — even though as someone noted above, they make you shell out for that software that other companies (including Nokia) give away for free.

Windows Media Player will, however, sync music to the KRZR quite readily, and the Motorola Phone Tools, after you've shelled out for the CD or the download, do a fine job of syncing up my Microsoft Outlook contacts and calendar to the phone. And especially using a Bluetooth cordless earpiece/microphone combo, I absolutely adore the voice recognition auto-dialing in the Verizon version of the software. Personally, I have not had reception or battery life problems. The only mechanical criticism I have is that I expect the hatch cover for the tiny battery/earphone port, which is secured by a tiny nylon cord-like fastener (similar to what holds price tags on most clothing), seems likely to break long before the rest of the phone wears out. Otherwise it seems mechanically very sound.

As for people bitching about our host including her Amazon Associates code in her links from here: You are being very petty. Content here, as on essentially all blogs, is free, and it was you who chose to spend your time and mouseclicks reading Megan's. She's sharing her opinions about products with which she has personal experience, but nobody's twisting your arm to read them. Moreover, you can simply ignore her links if you prefer not to subsidize her, and go to Amazon or J&R or whatever internet vendor you want, or trundle over to your local electronics outlet; or you can go to my blog, or InstaPundit, or thousands of others, and subsidize them. TANSTAAFL, and yes, Amazon's prices could theoretically be some tiny percentage lower if it didn't encourage bloggers as a means of promoting Amazon's sales. But Amazon ain't run by fools, and they presumably think they get a pretty good bang for the buck through this particular investment of their advertising dollar. In any event, your personal refusal to participate in this stream of commerce are as butterfly wings beating over the real-life Amazon, and the time you've invested in your bitchy rants here is almost certainly a more valuable commitment of your time and energies than whatever tiny, extremely indirect cost this program directs to you if you do click Megan's links. To her credit — which I take as a reflection of extreme integrity and honesty, and a commitment to rigorous disclosure — she's pointed out her financial interest. So p*ss off, Grinches.

Hmm, I was wrong about this site and .html: here is a link to the KRZR. Oh, and the KRZR's speakerphone function is also excellent, and I've had excellent success using my KRZR in lieu of an IPod or other .mp3-type player when exercising (it cuts off the music audio when there's an incoming call).

Speaking of phones, is there any cell phone that doesn't have that annoying echo and static sounds--IOW, sound quality equal to a land line? If it weren't for that (and long distance charges) I would dump my land line for cell totally.

I can't believe Nintendo DS is not on the list. So out of touch with the masses... ^_^ I don't have a cellphone, but I got myself a DS for this Christmas.

Nokia E70 > any Motorola product

Philips Pronto > any other remote control for under $1000

Tivo does own though, good call on that one.

(and 1080p is the minimum high-def you should think about if you sit less than 10' away from your set.)

Almost no current flat screen models of any size are "EDTV." I think Panasonic still makes one, but that's about it. Plasma at 1366x768 (720p) and LCD at 1920x1080 (1080i or 1080p) are quite common now.

Even 26" LCDs are 1366x768. Not much point in getting HDTV smaller than that as you won't really be able to see the rez.

Even real projection sets have improved massively, and every single one is at least 720p, with about half being 1080p.

The Sharp was really cool, once upon a time, but nowadays there are far better choices. Sony & Toshiba for LCDs are generally rated higher.

Brett,

Let me guess, you're enrolled in Summer's Eve 's Rewards points program, right?

Take it up with c|net:

FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool
Agency used novel surveillance technique on alleged Mafioso: activating his cell phone's microphone and then just listening.
By Declan McCullagh and Anne Broache
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

Published: December 1, 2006, 2:20 PM PST
Last modified: December 1, 2006, 6:35 PM PST
TalkBack E-mail Print del.icio.us Digg this
update The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone's microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations.

The technique is called a "roving bug," and was approved by top U.S. Department of Justice officials for use against members of a New York organized crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance techniques such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping him....

http://news.com.com/2100-1029_3-6140191.html

The fewer channels you have, the more valuable the Tivo box becomes. It finds stuff for you to watch. It records "premium" kids' shows that only come one once a week on Saturday mornings, and our son watches them throughout the week. It's really a great tool, even if you only have an antenna.

As a way to pay for your Tivo, I would recommend getting rid of FoxNews, CNN, and MSNBC. I honestly don't miss the screaming heads and shallow, silly analysis. (OK, I miss the FoxNews Panel a little bit) but on the whole, it's wonderful. I haven't seen hide nor hair of Ann Coulter in months. It's a beautiful thing.

BTW, for Hi-def Tivo, you can still get the HR10-250 for DirecTV from several vendors and it gets over-the-air HD as well. For cheaper than the Series 3, both in cost and in monthlies. Or course, you have to sub to DirecTV, but that's about on par with cable.

There is no doubt that the Tivoli Audio PAL (Portable Audio Laboratory) is a VASTLY better radio than the Bose, in every respect (as recommended above by Saloner).

Not really. You need to present a model that maintains stereo and the integrated MP3-capable CD player for that comparison to be even.

Beldar: while some parts do change, it's mostly the icons (verizon/vs cingular music store) and preloaded bookmarks/walled garden data. The crappy interface is common across all carriers.

Pat: No you will never get quite the same quality out of a cell as you will out of a landline. Cell phones have loads more processing in them, which reduces quality and creates delay (think broken telephone links, or re-photocopying something). They also use very high compression rates, have lower sampling rates, and try to send as little as possible (your breathing into the phone likely won't get picked up on a cell like it does on a landline), all to make it possible for us to walk/run/drive and talk. It's a worthwhile tradepff but it is a tradeoff.

I hate iPod...because the iTunes software keeps locking up on my computer. I've been able to load up a few times, but then it froze up again, so I'm effed. $430 for a 60gig piece of sh*t. It also has possessed my computer, so that I cannot play any internet radio/audio files at all. That is so Microsoftlike in its aspirations to world domination to the exclusion of all others!

I suppose if you have a Mac, it might not have these problems. If you run a PC, skip the freakin' iPod.

If it wasn't engraved with my info, I'd "regift" it to my nephew!

Have to LOL at "P!ss off, Grinches!" and the "Summer's Eve Rewards Points Program." Bwa hahahahaaaa!

Also, I just want to make it totally clear that I do not live in a workhouse, or eat gruel.
LOL, you must have a lot of engineers who like to read your site. You have to love engineers. They are incredibly bright and can solve almost any problem. Yet they are still a source of unintentional entertainment and it is hard to feel intimidated or inferior to an engineer.

For you to be able to tell the difference between 1080P and 720P (which *is* true HD) on a 37" screen, you would have to be sitting no more than 4-5 from the screen, if that far. (To tell the difference on 50" screen, which is substantially larger, you can't be more than 6 feet away.)

Am I the only one who thinks Bose products are, well, "boomy"? My last two cars (Nissan/Infiniti products) came with Bose factory sound systems that I had to dial bass response *way* down in order to sound tolerable. I shudder to think their other products have the same shortcoming...

And as to MP3 players, I have one of the late, lamented Rio Karma players (which very well may be the best MP3 player ever made). What's out there among more recent units (with higher capacity) that would be comparable in features. In particular, support for "native-mode" gapless playback?

Here's the straight skinny on Bose:

Bose products vary in quality. Bose is capable of good engineering. But here are the problems with Bose's products:

- Way overpriced. For the price of a Bose Acoustimass system, you can get equivalent products from numerous speaker manufacturers that will just sound much better.

- The use of tiny little cubes and a smallish subwoofer means that there's a great big acoustic 'hole' in Bose frequency response. The little cubes can't produce the lower midrange frequencies, and the subwoofer can't reach them either. This is straight physics, by the way. A 4" speaker driver has physical limits in its ability to reproduce sound. Bose compensates by attempting to equalize the sound electronically, which is at best an approximation, and at worst a mess.

- Bose sets their speaker displays up far away from other speakers so you can't do an A/B comparison test. Also, they tend to set them up in a 'near field' environment with the cubes a foot or two away from the listener's head. That makes them sound much better than they'll sound when you set them up in your house and sit 10' back.

- Bose does not publish specifications so you can compare their speakers to other manufacturers. They've also attempted to sue magazines that publish their own measurements of Bose speakers. Why? Because their measured characteristics suck compared to the competition.

Bose operates on a business model where they create products that look 'cool', sound reasonably good in a demo environment, and have the 'wife acceptance factor' of being very small and unobtrusive. Then they spend a bundle on marketing to try to convince everyone that Bose is synonymous with high quality. This is the same model that companies like Bang and Olufsen use. Most people who think Bose stuff sounds great have never heard it side-by-side with equivalently priced systems from other manufacturers. Or, the shock that so much sound comes out of those tiny cubes beats their expectations and makes them think it's awesome quality.

But it's not. Bose products are not crap, they're just overpriced, and at best mid-fi in reproduction quality. If you don't believe me, go find a good audio store and ask them to demo a surround-sound speaker system for $1500 from a company like Paradigm, B&W, Energy, or the like. Then go find a $1500 acoustimass system, and compare the two. It's not even close. You don't need to be an audiophile to care about the difference - you just need to be someone who doesn't want to pay double the price for a 'name' brand and a lot of marketing.

You will all throw your phones away come january.

Macworld Conference & Expo 2007........iPhone

FWIW, I love my newly acquired Blackberry Pearl for its small size (don't know how it compares to a RAZR, but it's plenty small), and pda-like features. The Pearl could probable adequately replace both the phone and the PDA (depending on what you do with the PocketPC).

Two Q:'s

First, Does anyone else notice the difference, in sound quality, between MP3's and .wav (CD) files?

Second, re: Olympus voice recorders, Do they even have anything that looks like real competition?

From what I've seen, especially with their units that have the built-in USB interface, they are far ahead in their field.

Mile: that boomy bass is an artifact with just about any factory music system these days. It does not matter if they slap a pretty name on it: it's gonna go boom boom.

This is a holdover from the days of when Motorola made car radios. In an effort to increase perceived sound quality for AM radio, they added a lot of mid-bass "bump". The result was, they sounded pretty good for the time. They never really outgrew that nonsense. I am pretty much convinced that when Motorola ceased car radio production, their car radio engineers went over to Delco/Delphi, and other makes of car radios and brought their now-outmoded engineering ideas with them.

As for RAZR phones: I don't have that much trouble with the interface because, well, I use it as a telephone, not as a game machine, music player, or email device. In fact, if someone still made an "it makes phone calls" telephone, with a black and white display that is visible outside, I'd buy it.

My BIG objection to the RAZR is the same I have found with any Motorola phone: poor quality or poorly-designed belt devices. The first I had kept sliding out of the belt when I'd go to open the case and take out the phone. I went to another kind, made by some outfit whose trademark looks like a glove from a suit of armor. It has a belt clip that does not close around the belt entirely so... clunkata-thud to the floor about 3 times a week without my even touching it. tMobile has a better case, but the only way to get it is in a 70 buck accessory kit I do not want. Buying it separately (with the car charger thrown in) is now out of stock, not coming back.

Grr...

One thing I think would be cool is (using Otis' recommendation of the Nokia E70, above, as an example) a link that would remunerate him (Otis) + JG, when someone 'purchased' an E70 after seeing his rec. here.

Hope that was clear.

Grrizzly,

"In fact, if someone still made an "it makes phone calls" telephone, with a black and white display that is visible outside, I'd buy it."

Samsung just released one, with big buttons, too!

And MOT's build quality decline can be traced back to their decision to 'manufacture' in PROC.
Previous to that, MOT prods were stout & not a peep was heard about 'flimsy-ness'.

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