Reviews

The 12-megapixel Kodak EasyShare Z950 ($250 as of 12/7/09) is an easy-to-use pocket megazoom camera with an impressive list of advanced features. In addition to a 10X-optical-zoom lens, it has exposure bracketing, shutter priority, aperture priority, high ISO, and high-definition 720p video capture. Regrettably, while the zoom lived up to expectations, the video quality did not.

The Z950's bricky, all-black design won't win any awards, but you could consider it a bit retro; it reminded me of my first 35mm camera from childhood. Though the Z950 has a 3-inch LCD, it lacks an optical viewfinder.

With a solid combination of slick graphics and snappy functionality, SportsTap scores well as a sports fanatic's mobile companion. The free Android Market download provides frequent score and result updates for the major sports in an interface that's fairly easy to navigate.

The main screen provides icons for the major sports leagues like the NFL, MLB, the NHL and the NBA as well as shortcuts to major college and international professional sports. Games in progress are indicated by a red ball with the number of active games next to the appropriate icons. If a major event such as the US Open tennis tournament is underway, a screen-wide link may be provided.

The 12-megapixel Samsung DualView TL225 ($350 as of December 1, 2009) packs various never-before-seen features into a single point-and-shoot camera. As a feat of engineering and design, it's an astounding piece of work. Performance-minded photographers, however, will see past those nifty features and demand better battery life, sharper photos, and more manual settings for the price.

"Subtlety" isn't in the DualView TL225's vocabulary. When you tap the area to the left of its 4.6X (27mm to 124mm) optical zoom lens, its black front faceplate morphs into a secondary LCD screen. The front-facing LCD screen has several useful functions, depending on the mode you set the camera to.

It can be tricky to pick the right accessory for an iPhone owner but we found some great ones: A solar charger, a hands-free Bluetooth device for your car, an adapter for your nightstand that turns the iPhone into an alarm clock, and a device that helps you use the extra space on your phone (or iPod) for a portable hard drive.

Cisco's pocket-size Flip Video camcorder line achieved widespread popularity by making the process of capturing video and posting it to YouTube incredibly easy. Now, a companion set-top box seeks to make viewing those videos--either your own or those shared over the Internet on Flip's FlipChannel service--on your HDTV almost equally effortless. But while the Cisco FlipShare TV ($149 as of 12/1/09) can capably stream high-definition video from your hard drive, the quality of videos hosted online can vary widely. That's because the FlipShare TV streams all of its video from your PC through a peer-to-peer 802.11n Wi-Fi connection using an included, oversize USB dongle--and Internet video must first stream to the PC. This two-step process can easily introduce artifacts, especially if your PC's network connection is also wireless.

To set up the FlipShare TV, you start by attaching the USB dongle to your PC; the dongle then initiates an upgrade to the FlipShare software that all Flip camcorders install when you first connect them via their pop-up USB connector. Once the updated PC software and the drivers for the dongle are installed, you connect the small, white FlipShare TV box to your TV set, through its composite-video or HDMI ports. (The FlipShare TV comes with a composite-video cable, but if you want the superior image and sound quality that HDMI can deliver, you must provide your own HDMI cable.)

On the surface, the Samsung Omnia II ($200 with a two-year contract from Verizon; price as of 12/1/09) seems to be the Windows Mobile phone that fans have been waiting for. With its gorgeous 3.7-inch AMOLED touch display, attractive design, and impressive specs, this phone is a real head-turner. Unfortunately, the Omnia II's performance disappoints. The TouchWiz 2.0 user interface seems to bog down the phone's speed; in one instance, our review unit crashed and had to be restarted.

On looks alone, the Omnia II is quite alluring and fits in nicely with Verizon's line of premium smartphones like the Motorola Droid, the HTC Droid Eris, and the BlackBerry Storm II. Measuring 4.7 by 2.4 by 0.5 inches thick and weighing 4.8 ounces, the Omnia II is just slightly larger and heavier than the original (which was 4.4 by 2.2 by 0.5 inches and weighed 4.3 ounces). Still, the phone remains quite slim. With its rounded corners, brushed metal details, and smooth red-and-black back cover it is much more aesthetically pleasing than its predecessor.

In its warm brown wooden frame, the Kodak EasyShare D830 ($140, as of 11/30/09) easily blends in with any other frames arranged on your desk or coffee table. With this model, however, Kodak has decided to allow you to replace the frame in the box with any picture frame you choose: Simply pop out the D830, slip the new frame over it, and slide the toggles to hold it all together.

The D830 has 512MB of internal memory and it accepts SD, SDHC, MMC, Memory Stick, MS Pro/MS Pro Duo, and xD cards, as well as USB. Simply plug in your card (or transfer photos to the frame from your PC) and the show begins. Images on the 800-by-600-pixel screen popped with vibrance and sharpness.

The Haier Sport Video HHS1A-2G MP3 Player ($50 as of November 10, 2009) is a smooth, water-resistant MP3 player with a 2GB capacity and some nifty features for workoutaholics. The player itself is lightweight and easy to work out with, and sports some cool features (such as a pedometer and video playback), even if some, such as video playback on a one-inch screen, seem a bit pointless and gratuitous.

The HHS1A-2G looks like a soft black-and-aqua pebble. It's also slick like a pebble--and potentially slippery when the going gets sweaty, so the accompanying armband is a real plus. The player's dimensions are about 2 inches high by 1 inch wide, and it has a 1-inch, 128-by-64-pixel OLED screen. The controls, which are fairly intuitive, include a play/stop button; a fast-forward, rewind, and volume control on the main navigational wheel; a menu/power button on the top; and start/stop and reset buttons on the sides (for the stopwatch feature). The USB and headphone jacks are located at the bottom, which I found a bit annoying, but forgivable, when I exercised with it.