8 posts tagged “sony”

Nokia-n96-and-sony-ericsson-c905

It's been quite some time since my last substantiated post, and while I shall hardly consider this post to be content-laden, it hopefully will wrap up a few ties since my last posting. I'll begin by explaining my current situation in life, move on to my take on a few recent developments, and lastly touch base on some future happenings.

As you have undoubtedly noticed, the blog has taken a much more festive appearance. To be quite honest, the design layout of my blog was once again beginning to frustrate me, and I decided it's about time I made a significant change, even though it shall undoubtedly be temporary. I now know, from my previous attempt, that Wordpress, while signficantly pleasing to the eye, is not quite useful to the degree of which I utilize VOX. If vox had more design themes, and an option to create albums to be viewed in the same manner as the SplashBlog of old, I'd be undeniably happy! Alas, this is not an option, so no point making it an issue as it's highly unlikely to ever see the light of day.

Currently, my life is regrettably a lot less festive than the colors of this blog itself. I'm a student at the University of Oregon, with a Pre-Business major and hoping to  accepted as an Accounting major next year. I live a few blocks off-campus in a three-story unit, of which I occupy one of the two rooms on the top floor. From here I can see my car, which at the moment happens to be a Smart ForTwo. My room is a sort of off-white (beige tint), which is both clean in appearance and cold in demeanor.  If I had my way, I'd paint a few of the walls a nice dark red, maroon perhaps, in order to create a sense of creamy coziness. Perhaps I will... that would explain why I'm holding on to so many newspapers with the intention to protect the floor from the inevitible drips that are going to occur.

These days I walk almost everywhere. If the weather is terrible, I'll drive, but only if my destination is more than ten blocks away (aka Safeway and work). I carry in my pockets two devices, my trusty Nokia E71 (in white), and my iPod Touch. I must say, I find the new update for iPod Touch to be rather a letdown- all of my "smart playlists" are all messed up! For example, even if I rate something 5 stars on the iPod, it still won't show up on my top rated. What the heck Apple! Fix this! My Nokia E71, on the other hand, is trusty as always. I actually changed the product code in order to install the v300.21.012 firmware (which supposedly improved camera performance), but so far haven't noticed much new so I'll prolly downgrade/reverse what I did. (I already changed the product code back, anyways.) Which leads me on to my present developments...

I've got a friend purchasing a Motorola CLIQ soon, and as he's currently using a Nokia N96 I asked if I might be able to take the phone off his hands. I'm getting a bit frustrated by my E71's lackluster camera (even though I now own a DSLR), and need something a bit more adventure-worthy. (Wait for future happenings.) He generally takes care of his stuff pretty well, and while I say that he's likely dropped it a couple of times and it may have a scratch here or there. So my plan is to trade him a bunch of gadgets I have around the house in exchange for it, then purchase a complete replacement housing and transfer the electronics to the new shell. Looking it up it looks like if I want a true new N96 on-a-budget as I'm suggesting, I'll need to also purchase a new slide as well... likely a necessary thing anyways since these are known for having rather clunky slides.

Now, while this has always been an option, I do have a friend that might trade me his old C905 for something. Not sure yet, but I certainly hope so! He's already moved onto a G1, so unless he's dead set on wanting my E71, I'll likely toss whatever he wants his way. The reason why this is an afterthought is that the N96 is a real smartphone, and will achieve my ends much better than the C905. (Basically this all comes down to the factor of gaming.)

Now, time to talk about future features! I'll be travelling to Japan on December 12th, and anticipate taking a lot of pictures while I'm there. I'm planning on bringing my Nikon D40 and hopefully a phone other than my E71 to use as a backup camera / messaging device. While I anticipate taking my iPod Touch as well, I hope to only use it while on the airplane. Unless of course the N96 works out perfectly to plan (which I always seem to have trouble with ambitious plans), and then it's 16GB ought to cater to my needs nicely. (And then I might trade off my iPod Touch... who knows?)

So there, my few scarce readers, is what I've been up to. It also explains the reason for the above picture... although if I ever manage to snag such a picture for myself, it'll be a silver C905 instead of the black.

The US system of mobile telephony is broken. The big three (ATT, Sprint, and Verizon) fix prices. This isn't opinion, but neither is it explicitly provable. At last there has been investigations looking into the type of allegations I made, and at last we can hope for some changes to come about. For far too long, all those three have been charging identical amounts for basic service, leaving only the quality of service as the determining factor for which to choose. And, service areas excluded, all have the same terrible customer service departments and pushy salesmen.

I've been looking over many of the various posts here on my blog... and I realized that I don't exactly have a clear purpose, theme, or anything to it. It began as a picture storage site. I had recently obtained my Nokia N93, an amazing phone, and after about a week with it began looking for as many useful programs I could find for it. Having already gotten QuickOffice, unable to figure out a Skype-like option, and lacking any "meaningful" games, I cam across Vox. Install a small plugin onto the N93, and away I was, ready to upload pictures non-stop.

That's how this blog started. If you look at the pictures, going way back, you'll see them. The last pictures I took with the N93 that got uploaded were from Eugene- the ones at UO with all of the architecture models.

But now what is this blog for? Well, for a while the idea was that I'd use the UX quite frequently and blog quite often about my experiences with it. But that's the thing- it's just a computer. It doesn't have any gaping flaws to analyze and come up with fixes for. It doesn't have a comfortable keyboard upon which I can type up posts (my iPod Touch is better). It's too big to take everywhere, battery life is too short to accomplish much- it just doesn't have anything to blog about. And to boot, it's getting the boot.

What is my life's passion? I want to become an Industrial Designer (Product Designer for those confused by that title). Ideally I'd work for Nokia, actually, and design the types of phones I like- N-Series. Pictures which I believe can be found somewhere on this blog show how many phones I've gone through. I'm opinionated. I've now used every single type of phone imaginable, from candy-bar to flip to slider. I know what makes good ergonomics and what features are the "basic necessities."

So, perhaps, when I get my Nokia N82 I should focus on phones again. But I'll add in a twist, and start uploading some of my own ideas and design tests that I create. That should keep things interesting. In addition I'll be blogging about things which happen to me, because I will, after all, be owning an N82, which is great for a blogger.

There.
I've figured it out.
This will be a blog.
By an aspiring Industrial Designer.

Now that I have gotten the big base review out of the way, I can now focus on my day-to-day experiences with the device.

First, I want to note a potential revision to my previous comments about the keyboard. I cut my nails last night, and my typing experience has greatly improved. The keys, while still only marginally raised, have a more detectable tactility to them. I can feel them click. I seem to have a much higher WPM count, and I actually enjoy the experience now.

I would like to complain about the location of the power switch, though. While I applaud Sony for fitting everything necessary for use nearly exclusively on the front of the device, I find that I occasionally toggle the switch with the palm of my hand while holding the shift key with my left thumb and reaching for a key on the right side of the device with my left.

The obvious cure, I feel, would be to remap the “+”/”=“ key as a multiple keystroke somewhere else and change that physical button into another shift key. Maybe I’ll do that, if I can remember what key I remap that key to. And also if I can get over having an unmarked shift key.

This post is a bit unusual from normal, for reasons unknown to you. I am typing this up on Microsoft Works while sitting in the library. Then, once home this evening, I’ll copy and waste this into a blog post. That’ll take more time than it would have if I had just posted this via iTouch (Create an email, save to outbox, automatically sends when I walk inside my house). But the typing experience on the UX is much better I would argue.

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I am looking forward to next year, independent of which school I decide to attend. I look forward to meals on my terms, and being able to work with little of the family distractions I currently get now. I look forward to being able to do what drives me when I want to do it. Still being able to connect with my peers is important, and I hope to motivate them to choose personal technologies which will allow this to happen just as often, if not more frequently, than here at home.

I’m talking about laptops. Desktops are big, bulky, and impractical. I consider them to be test-beds for the technology that eventually winds up in laptops anyway. Apple computers are all the rage, and I have to say that I now believe the software, in terms of the user experience, is far more advanced on an Apple. That being said… now that I own the top-of-the-line MacBook Pro, I’m attracted to the complexity and diversity of Windows machines.
Mostly Sony laptops, though. The TZ series, while bested from it’s lead in the ultra portable segment by the MacBook Air, is more desirable to me. Loaded with a full feature set, it’s no slouch as my brief tinkering with it in a SonyStyle store proved. I found the keyboard, while smaller than the MacBook Air’s highly touted full-size keyboard, to be just as usable as my MBP’s slightly smaller one.
What makes the Sony Vaio TZ so attractive is it’s elimination of unnecessary weight and size. The MacBook Air’s super-thin design came at a rather steep price in order to squeeze in that big display and full-size keyboard: It’s wide. Too wide. Apple easily could have squeezed stereo speakers into it. The LCD has too big of a border for my liking- only excusable by the thinness of the whole computer.
Where the TZ wins is by wearing a Bond-like Tuxedo for exterior design. The Apple, on the other hand, is like the Greek fascination for the human body itself- in the nude. Think about that for a minute. The TZ is handsome, small, and looks the part. The Air is clean and minimalist. And that reflects the somewhat weak internal components. The TZ looks ready to do business- whatever that business may be, because it never fails a mission.

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I now sit waiting for an interview at Hollister. Time to go, don’t want to be marked down!

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Oddly enough… I have yet to post this. It is now Thursday, and I first started this post on Tuesday, two days ago. Well, I guess that it’s just the way this is going- the non automatic functioning of this posting method over my iPod is going to take longer.

Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about e-Ink displays, and more importantly, eBook readers. I probably sound like an odd-ball for saying this, but my one big gripe with physical books is their fragility and imposing size. I consider myself to be a proficient reader however I much prefer the ability to save the space that a book would consume and instead fill it with a smaller more functional gadget.

Now I probably seem like I’m just justifying my keen interest in picking up an eBook reader. I won’t refute that, because that is quite nearly precisely what I have in mind. I would love it if this UX had a dual-mode display which would retain it’s backlit LCD mode for computing as well as an e-Ink mode which consumes next to no power. That would create the ultimate portable computing device, in my mind.

Speaking of revisions to the UX, while looking over the back of the device I noticed what I though could be revised in order to slim the device. The WWAN antenna could be chopped out- let’s face it, EDGE is slow anyway (I know this and I don’t even subscribe to a mobile data service of any kind). Then reduce the battery size slightly, and chop off that ¼ of an inch in thickness lost by those two reductions. Remove the SIM card cover, because that’s no longer necessary, and move the USB port there so it becomes more flush with the device rather than extruding/

Back to my eBook reader- I’m leaving for Greece on the 15th. I’ll be bringing the UX without a doubt, and all that remains to be seen is whether or not I bring my MBP. Probably not. An eBook reader of my own is out of the question for then, as I will not have enough money to purchase it and I’m sure my dad would not pay for something he can’t quite justify spending money on- especially for me, the one who uses the internet for reading and hasn’t set down to actually read a book for over a year.

That being said, I might check out an eBook reader from the library to take with me on my travels. It’s an old dinosaur- a black and white LCD screen and probably uses NiMH batteries instead of the now industry standard Lithium batteries. But it has an excellent backlight: a pure, slightly off-white glow that is neither too bright or too dark and bathes the screen in uniform shine.

They haven’t updated those for a long time, I believe, and so the book selection will be poor. Also, the device itself is larger than the UX and it’s possible that the battery will be shot. Still, technology inspires me to do things. My iPod +Nike made me run, and that trend was stopped only when my sister said she was going to buy my iPod. Since she hasn’t done that it’s time to take it back and get some exercise.

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I wonder what the next big breakthrough in display technology will be. Rollable, full color backlit displays? Translucent flat panels which allow not only visually appealing computer monitors but also multipurpose building components. What’s next? I want to know so I can find the company pursuing this path and invest in them.

What about computers? Are UMPC’s and sub notebooks the end of the laptop era and the beginning of a new dual-computer system where docking one’s traveling computer becomes standard evening procedure? I would like to think so. I need a desktop… but it needs to look great first. I think, more importantly, I need a more functional phone, what I have now is beginning to wear on me. It’s outlived my expectations, and surprised me with it’s various functions, but it still is a bit dry in comparison to my beloved Nokia N93 of last year.

Let’s begin plans for which gadgets I hope to acquire and share my opinions on. The HP UMPC, really a sub-notebook with UMPC-spec hardware (minus touch screen) has a design which would quite nicely compliment my MBP. At the same time, it’s larger than my UX, and would cost more than a much more speedy and still refreshingly designed full-scale laptop. I think I need to get that one out of my system. Unless it sells for $400- and I’d snap one up in a heartbeat.
There’s the eBook obsession I have. Amazon Kindle versus Sony’s Reader. Costs are the same, but Amazon’s has more features (at the loss of an MP3 player) and Sony’s is super thin and much better designed (and has the MP3 player I’d probably never use). It’s a big toss-up, because I want to have extra features like wireless downloads and Google Maps but also value design quite highly.
I’m headed off to college next year, and know that even though the phone I have now is pretty good, it’s terrible camera requires me to bring my rather large but excellent standalone camera. That means, to be truly portable, I need a better phone. A Nokia N82 would fit the bill exactly, but it’s as pricey as a laptop. That makes it a difficult purchase to make. Maybe I’ll wait for a revised design so it is a bit more manly.
At Fossil I saw a great watch- an automatic, big-faced piece of masculine steel. Chinese movement, which is a disappointment, but at $115 it’s a steal for the amount of design work put into it.
For a desktop computer, I’d like one of the all-in-one PC offerings from HP or Sony. Apple’s iMac is a great contender, but I’ll get a better screen from a PC manufacturer for the same price as the lowest-spec iMac. Sorry Apple.

Review Date: 21FEB2008-3MAR2008

Introduction:
    One of the smallest computers in the world, the Sony Vaio UX is truly a marvel to behold. Running a full version of Windows Vista Business and capable of the full Windows Aero theme, there are truly no areas in which this computer lacks any capabilities that a full computer might feature.
    Considered to be a UMPC, the Sony Vaio UX belongs to a family of portable computers that are designed to hold the middle ground between a PDA and a laptop computer. This makes the target audience of the Sony Vaio UX hard to determine. One might argue that a UMPC is more of a business device, enabling a professional to take a device smaller than their laptop that has far more capabilities than their laptop.
    The Vaio UX, I would argue, is aimed more at the gadget connoisseur and always-connected individual. This is because of it’s dual-cameras, WSVGA screen, and cellular connectivity. Its design is more flamboyant than a business -oriented device. Then again, there has never been a Sony notebook computer that has been business oriented- especially compared to IBM, whose trademark black laptops with corners that haven’t been smoothed out.
    I therefore see myself as the perfect reviewer of such a device. As a soon-to-be college student, I am more forgiving to technology’s flaws unlike the generation of gadget lovers before me. Always searching for the very latest and best, I’ve always been acquiring new electronics. At one point I used to focus my obsession on technology in no particular direction. But as I see the field gaining ground, I’ve become much more interested in the portable world.
    With devices such as the iPhone, ultra-mobile laptops, and other always-connected devices being released everyday; does the Sony Vaio UX stand a chance? I’ll be pitting the device against every gadget I’ve ever owned, from the do-everything Nokia N93, to my recently purchased Apple iPod Touch. The UX will be accompanying me as I travel to and from school for the extent of this review, and anywhere else I might travel.

Unboxing:

 
 
    Included with the Sony Vaio UX is a nice carrying pouch. It can be put on one’s belt but I would advise against that. It’s just barely too large to pull off being barely noticeable (instead it becomes quite noticeable). It’ll also attract a lot of attention- not necessarily as a target for theft, but as a target for mocking.

    This box included a bunch of essential goodies that I’m glad Sony decided to include. The required AC adapter could have been boring, but instead Sony decided to spruce it up by putting a glowing LED onto the end of the charging jack. This looks great at night, and really helps the UX look upscale. The transformer on the AC adapter is also rather small, which I think is quite convenient for travel.
    Found also in this box is the battery. It’s rather large- when compared to the Vaio UX. It’s a significant part of the device’s size, actually. But on it’s own, it’s rather small, and light too. No LED charge indicator lights built into it, but at such a small size, it would really have been too much to ask. If you’re someone who plans to purchase multiple batteries and constantly swap all day long, then the charge status lights might have been an added plus.
    The VGA-Out dongle is rather big. Granted, it does more than VGA-Out (it also has a component-plug Video-Out), but at a little larger than 50% of the size of the battery, the size is still worth mentioning.
    Sony was kind enough to include two extra pointer-stick caps, which I can tell you will need replacing every few months if you like to keep yours clean (they tend to accumulate lint). The new Vaio UX models have a different pointer stick cap, where the “material” is replaced by a machined texture. It’s hard to describe this without feeling it.

 
    Lastly, the unit itself. The UX is encased in a box that features something of an exoskeleton. Pull that open, and slide the device out of its foam sleeve and you’re left with a breathtaking device.

Sony Vaio UX Main Unit:
 
   

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Looking Forward:
From this point on, the point of this website will be to review the UX in an everyday manner. Sure, there will be days where nothing will be posted, or at least nothing related to the UX. That’s because this is the blog of a gadget obsessed student. Next year I will be bringing the Vaio UX, my MacBook Pro, iPod Touch, PSP, and new cell phone, whatever it might be, with me to college. You can tell something about me by that list- I like portable devices. I’ve been using them for nearly my entire life. And I believe that if anyone is fit to give this device a real-world review, I’d be one of the must-haves.
 

The Vaio UX needs a longer battery life. Wait, I take that back. There's already a solution in the form of an extended battery. No, what the UX needs- what I need- is two extra batteries of standard capacity and an external dual-battery charger.

I like to be mobile, but I like to have access to the Internet that's not limited. So the UX's full browser which runs nice and quick is a real plus. But having a dead battery doesn't make my browsing any faster. I tend to pull out my iTouch more often because I fear killing the battery in my UX. Weird, isn't it? The thinner, smaller, lightweight device has a better battery life.

I imagine UMPCs have a lot to learn from this iPod. Heck, I'm posting from it now, not my UX. Isn't that odd?

Review:

Introduction

The Sony Vaio UX line of portable computers was one of the first UMPCs ever released. It officially wasn't even a UMPC at the time. UMPCs were known as the Origami Project at the time. The Sony Vaio could very well be called the defiming model of the UMPC category of computers which was to follow later. 

The Origami Project was unveiled to the world one day a couple of years ago. All the devices portrayed were super-light, durable, and portable. Keep in mind all were concepts, but even still, they all appeared to be highly functional. The operating system on these was like a stripped down yet super-capable Windows. How? While the GUI was highly simplified, it was also quite desirable. It looked good even though it lacked advanced functions. 

The original Sony Vaio UX was released slightly before, if I remember correctly. It had Windows XP, and was quite cool. It was a full featured computer, but for some reason I never associated it with an Origami device. And it's probably because it was a computer with full functionality- not a stripped down device. 

Soon after the Origami project had been rolled out, devices by various manufacturers began coming out. They were failures, all had poor battery life, atrocious performance, and bad interfaces. Meanwhile, the UX evolved with the times, getting updated specs. Eventually UMPCs broke out of the Origami type devices. "To hell with it," was basically what manufacturers said. The Origami interface wasn't up to date. Devices with low power CPUs and small batteries still had to deal with components designed for higher power usages. Trying to keep prices low didn't help either. Hard-drives were still the norm. So the various manufacturers went the way of the Vaio UX, deciding that if consumers wanted an Origami type device, they'd need to pay extra for it because right now they did not have the capabilities to serve it at such a low price like the Origami project promised. 

Specs were upped, and prices too. Strangely, the UX remained. It had updated specs from it's original iteration, this was true, but it's form was the same. Origami came to be just an application installable on top of Windows which would speed up basic functions. 

The latest and greatest Sony Vaio UC to date is the Premium model. Equipped with an SSD, it's now much more durable than the original, and quicker too. This model being reviewed is the Premium model's slower brother. Sort of. Same specs, but with a hard drive versus the Premium's SSD. It's possibly a better option than the Premium because it has more storage space and costs less. Either way, it's what I bought and what I'm reviewing here. 

Design 

All of these pictures were taken with my Kodak Z812 IS camera with it's brand-new rechargeable battery, just for your information. These pictures do quite well at capturing the beauty of this device. The glossy screen is also quite noticeable in this picture. And it is noticeable. In real life. But I manage to ignore it and it disappears (at least in my head it does). If you're in a room with lots of bright lights, you may run into a few problems with this screen.

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It's not exactly the thinnest UMPC in the world. The OQO is smaller in almost every dimension. But I got the UX instead of the OQO for a reason. It has more features, a longer battery life, and more ergonomic design. That's not to say I dislike the OQO 02 at all... rather, I like the design of it, and hope to one day acquire one for a review. However, the Sony features an Intel processor, a better graphics chip, a higher-resolution display, cameras, fingerprint reader... it really is a tiny computer. Unlike the OQO 02, which is more of a complement to a computer.




Features

One of the greatest things about the Sony Vaio UX is it's cameras. While I don't particularly see them as being anywhere near good enough to replace even my cell phone's camera, they do get the job done in a fun way. What do I mean by that? Think of Photobooth for Mac OS X. It's not a great camera, and the picture's aren't necessary aren't that good. But they are goofy, spur of the moment, and fun. Same here.
The Vaio UX has two cameras as I keep mentioning. One in the front for standard video calls, which has a maximum resolution of QVGA I believe. The rear one has a 1.3mp sensor, and in order to use it the screen must be slid up.

I was also quite impressed with the ability to do video chats on Skype or MSN Messenger. It simply wowed me. It's not skimping on any features here. There is a noticeable lag when doing this, but I think it's more of a software issue than a hardware one, so I won't discredit the Vaio UX's valiant attempt at clear video chatting.

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One of the oddest things I found on the UX thus far is the macro mode on the rear camera. This could be a super-handy feature for the avid eBayer or sales person (I'm talking about the entire camera, not just the macro mode). If asked to send a picture of something, say a car in the lot, you can just walk out with the UX, snap the picture, and while walking back send the picture over the wireless network of choice and have everything taken care of then and there.


Like I just mentioned, the UX has wireless features.

They are EDGE (Or was it 3G? I don't subscribe to any data whatsoever, so I didn't pay attention), WiFi, and Bluetooth. I do know that whatever the carrier wireless service is, it's super-easy to use. It accepts a SIM card under a small cover on the left side, and then you're off.

A feature I found by accident but am happy to have found is the drop sensor. A bunch of accelerometers detect when the device is being moved at a rate hazardous for the hard-drive to be functioning at and then disengage it. This can be anything from just a bump to free-fall. I found it out by picking it up rather quickly off of the desk. While I had wanted to purchase the VGN-UX390N with it's SSD drive to ensure durability, the extra cost wasn't worth it to me. Now that I know this has the drop detect, it at least gives me a piece of mind.




Uses

I'm still developing this section. So far, I've managed to install Skype, Windows Live Messenger, Pidgin, SecondLife and Live for Speed on this device. It's quite capable. SecondLife is a bit of an odd one, though. It runs quite stable and consistent, but it likes to deliver lower frame rates which is annoying. Other than that, it's perfect.

Right now I'm planning on installing Microsoft Office, Adobe InDesign, and Adobe Photoshop. Those are programs I use a lot while on the go, and would be very useful to have.

---[ Review Continued 1/29/08 ]---

I took the Vaio on a trip to Phoenix, AZ this past weekend. I was visiting the ASU College of Design (since I've been accepted into their Industrial Design program already). It was quite nice to be able to leave my MacBook Pro back at home in Portland and pack just my small sling bag with which to carry my camera and the Vaio in. Rather than lugging a big backpack which would probably be quite empty most of the time (or filled with stuff I never used), I was able to travel on the bare minimals- which ended up being more than adequate.

Imagine this... being on a college campus where WiFi is available at any given point. While roaming around with my camera, I can then settle down, whip out the Vaio, and upload photos to the internet while making a blog post. I could even do this while walking if the need so hit me. The small size of this computer is a real plus because I can send SMS and IM messages while walking from place to place (I don't subscribe to SMS or Data cellular services of any kind). Quite a productivity/social enhancer, right?

Turns out, there were a couple of glaring issues with this. Most were unavoidable, at least at this point in time. First, I don't have an ASU ID card yet (if I ever get one... still have to decide where I want to attend next year). Second, the built-in memory card slot on the Vaio is a MemoryStick slot. This is annoyingly different from my camera's SD memory card. I did not pack my memory card reader (which would have been awkward to use) and I don't have one of those fold-in-half SD/USB style memory cards. So I was out of luck to using the UMPC to view photos I had taken on a larger screen.

To add in, the Vaio suddenly stopped doing it's "instant-on" from standby mode of turning on. Instead, it would go into "super-standby" as I like to call it... basically, it's shutdown, but it's RAM state prior to shutting off is recorded to the hard-drive rather than completely shutdown. So it boots up much faster than if it were cold-starting, but slower than the instant-on that it used to do. Maybe this was because I put it on the battery saver mode?

I got to give my Apple iPod Touch a bit more of a whirl on this trip. Because it has instant-on like a PDA, it was easy to check in random places for WiFi connectivity. Then, if I found an open hotspot, I would quickly check my email on the iPod, then guage how much time I had before I had to move on. If I was going to be there for a while, I'd settle down and pull out the Vaio, instant messaging a little bit.


TO BE CONTINUED....