Nokia Aims to “close the Gap with the Competition” in the Smartphone Market
Nokia has built a solid foundation for future success, CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told shareholders Thursday.

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Smartphone competition hits Nokia
HELSINKI, FINLAND: The world’s top cellphone maker Nokia cut its profit outlook and delayed the launch of phones it needs to compete with the iPhone and Blackberry, in the fast-growing high end of the market.

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Product: DC31 Handheld Vacuum

Manufacturer: Dyson

Wired Rating: 9

The DC31 handheld vacuum is here to terminate not just debris, but also Dustbusters, Dirt Devils, Sharks and other inferior portable suckers.

Looking like the unholy crossbreed of a power drill, a French press and an aardvark, the DC31 also roars like a 747 when you pull its trigger. That’s because the vac’s 65 air-watts of suction power come courtesy of a turbine that spins at more than 100,000 rpm. At that speed, the DC31 can suck for only about six minutes on a single charge — perfect for cleaning a staircase covered in cat hair. Drop the suction to a still-impressive 38 air-watts (a push-button mode change) and you’ll get closer to 10 minutes, which should be enough to give your car seats and floor mats a once-over. And if you fumble, say, a can of coffee, the DC31 eliminates the evidence in a matter of seconds.

Like its upright cousins from Dyson, the DC31 dumps everything into a clear debris chamber that’s blissfully easy to empty.

Let us be clear on one thing: if there’s a better hand vac anywhere on the planet we’d like to see it.

WIRED Sucks like it means it. Accidentally swallowed wedding rings are easy to retrieve from crystal-clear debris chamber. Retractable dust-brush head for when you want to hit the crevices.

TIRED Big, unwieldy, and weighs in at a wrist-tiring three pounds. Priced higher than many full-size upright vacuums. No wall-mount dock for charging/putting on display.

View full post on Wired Product Reviews

We can now say for certain that Grant Imahara from Mythbusters will be an emcee at the VEX Robotics World Championship in Dallas on Saturday April 24th.

The competition runs from Thursday April 22nd through Saturday the 24th at the Dallas Convention Center. You can find out more about the competition on the World Championship page at RobotEvents.com.
I’ll be running one of the four divisions, so stop by and look me up if you’re in the area. The event is free to the public. Hope to see you there!

View full post on GeekDad

Product: 9 PC Tablet

Manufacturer: Archos

Wired Rating: 4

Wired

Entourage eDGe

Archos 9 PC Tablet

Sony Reader Daily Edition

Coolreaders Cool-er

Astak 6″ EZ Reader

iRex Digital Reader 1000S

Barnes & Noble Nook

Amazon.com Kindle DX

Apple iPhone

Amazon.com Kindle 2

The iPad is not yet out, but the aspiring iPad killers are lurking everywhere.

One of the first out of the gate is the Archos 9 PC Tablet. Archos has long ruled the portable media-player space, and in recent years it has tiptoed into the mini-tablet arena, most recently with a device that runs Android OS, the Archos 5.

With the Archos 9, it jumps up to Windows 7 (Starter Edition), a full-on PC in a slate form factor, all for an iPad-competitive price of $550.

Don’t get too excited just yet.

The Archos 9 is an interesting device, but even a few weeks before the iPad’s release it’s clear this tablet has an uphill climb ahead of it.

The near-fatal flaw with the Archos 9 is in the realm of data entry. A tablet is only as good as its touchscreen, and the Archos’ is one of the least capable we’ve used. While you can theoretically use your fingers to operate the device, this is in reality a fool’s errand of the highest order. Accuracy is a problem, but pressure sensitivity is an even bigger one. In mere minutes of use, you’ll find you’re jabbing at the onscreen keyboard (conveniently loadable at the push of a hardware button, thankfully), only to find you are missing the right letter half the time.

You’ll find a stylus stowed away in the rear of the unit. Trust us, you’ll need it.

Performance is another issue. Remember, this isn’t a souped-up phone, it’s a stripped-down PC with an Atom processor and a 60-GB hard drive. It’s the meager 1 GB of RAM that’s the problem. Delays of more than a minute for applications to load are not uncommon with the Archos 9, and its performance benchmarks are truly rock-bottom. Without enough RAM to run Windows (and there’s no upgrade available, so you’re stuck with that 1 GB), the 9 often borders on frustratingly unusable.

That leaves the device best suited for simple tasks like web browsing or watching movies. The 8.9-inch, 1024 x 600 pixel screen is at least better than your cellphone or iPod. But if you’re doing even a modest amount of data entry, it quickly becomes enraging.

A single USB port (there’s also a headphone jack) at least gives you the option of plugging in an external keyboard, but if you’re going to do that, you might as well buy a netbook, right?

WIRED Very portable (1.8 pounds). Eye-catching. Sturdy. Runs just about any Windows app.

TIRED Downright awful touchscreen. Needs more RAM; performance is dismal. Just 3 hours battery life even with Wi-Fi turned off.

View full post on Wired Product Reviews