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Instinct's calendar syncing put to the test

I know that it's been a while, but I did promise you last month that I would report back on my experience with the Samsung Instinct's new calendar syncing ability. I apologize for the wait, but the holidays and CES prevented me from getting an activated Instinct handset from Sprint.

Fortunately, the wait proved to be the worst thing about the experience as the new feature worked pretty much as promised. Once a review model arrived, I had to download three software updates, which took about 20 minutes, but they loaded without incident or a missed connection.

After installing the updates and syncing the phone with my CNET OWA (Outlook Web Access) e-mail, a new "work calendar" update button appeared under the calendar menu. Pressing that button synced the Instinct and my Outlook calendar in just a few seconds. The data connection cut out on my first try, but the second attempt brought success. All of my current appointments then appeared under their appropriate day with the correct time, location, and description. To get back to the calendar from the main menu, I could choose either the calendar or e-mail icons.

As Sprint promised, I was able to create a new appointment on the Instinct, which then synced back to my PC automatically. Also, I could get meeting reminders, accept or decline new appointments, and edit or delete current meetings right on the phone. Any edits made on the Instinct synced back to my PC in just a few seconds; the reverse process took a bit longer. Yet, it was a satisfying experience on the whole.

Still, there were a few quirks.… Read more

USB 3.0 will crush eSATA, FireWire

Intel demonstrated a working version of USB 3.0 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week. Here's why it will make eSATA and FireWire obsolete.

When USB 3.0 is expected to hit the market in early 2010, it will have been 10 years since the now ubiquitous USB 2.0 was introduced (April 2000). The current USB 2.0 specification runs at a theoretical maximum speed of 480Mbps, and can supply power (for those looking for the hard details, you can find the USB 2.0 specification here (zip file).

According to the USB Implementers … Read more

Sennheiser's awesome--and rather expensive--HD 800 headphones

If you're someone doesn't like to pay more than $50 for a pair of headphones, look away, now. If you're someone who doesn't mind throwing down $300 for a pair of cans, you should probably look away, too. But if you've got $1,400 to burn on a sweet pair of headphones, read on because that's what Sennheiser's new HD 800 will retail for when they come out in February.

What do you get for $1,400? Well, for starters, the newly designed earcups are finished in Japanese Alcantara, which is a special … Read more

LG HBM-800 is a headset and speakerphone in one

LG seems to be leading the way in combining Bluetooth headsets with other things. The LG Decoy, for example, was one of the first cell phones to have a built-in Bluetooth headset in the back. Now at CES 2009, LG has introduced the LG HBM-800, a Bluetooth headset and speakerphone in one. This isn't new--we've seen this before in this Kyocera Portable Speaker--but we can't think of many others like this one.

On its own, the headset is like any other Bluetooth headset. It has dual microphones for echo cancellation and noise suppression, plus it has … Read more

A tale of two Delves

During its touch-screen phone marathon this autumn, Samsung left almost no carrier untouched. And that includes both U.S. Cellular and Alltel. Instead of the Behold, the Omnia, or the Eternity, both carriers opted for the Samsung Delve instead.

From the outside, both the Alltel Delve and the U.S. Cellular Delve look a lot like their touch-screen counterparts. They show some unique physical aspects, but front and center on both devices is an expansive touch screen with a vibrant resolution and a responsive TouchWiz interface.

Both handsets offer solid mid-range feature sets that center on multimedia. You'll find … Read more

Epson printer narrowly escapes death by baseball bat

I have a love/hate relationship with the Epson Artisan 800 multifunctional printer. Let's start on the positive end: after doing a thorough test of the features, I have no problem saying that the Artisan 800 produces some of the highest-quality photo and graphic prints I've ever seen, even on regular 20-pound white paper. Our standard sheet of colored text also looked very pleasing. On top of that, I have to applaud Epson for the 800's chart-topping print speed. The printer delivered a 4-inch-by-6-inch color photo in 18 seconds, almost double the speed of our comparison printers.… Read more

For athletes, a heart rate monitor--and then some

If you're a hard-core runner, it's a good idea to have the right tools at your disposal to maximize your training. In anticipation of the New York City Marathon Sunday, Polar a maker of portable fitness electronics, is now selling the RS800CX heart rate monitor. This is an updated version of the RS800G3 we covered last year.

The three major new features include:

GPS mapping: Routes are color-coded for "heart rate zones," and can be viewed on Google Earth with Polar's ProTrainer 5 Software Compatibility with Polar's speed and cadence cycling sensors Ability to … Read more

Alltel delves into the touch-screen phone game

Alltel is the winner of a new touch-screen phone from Samsung. The Samsung Delve, aka the r800, offers a thin candy bar design with an expansive touch screen and few physical keys. It shares some of the characteristics of both the Samsung Omnia and Instinct, but it shows its own unique design touches such as a tapered bottom and silver Talk and End buttons.

Features include a 2-megapixel camera, a 3.5mm headset jack, Samsung's TouchWiz interface, a microSD card slot, EV-DO 3G support, Bluetooth with a stereo profile, a speakerphone, a virtual QWERTY keyboard, a 500-contact phone book, … Read more