iRiver B20: Video, music, and so much more

In a world where Apple's iPod dominates and reigns supreme in the portable music/video player market, it's quite easy not to notice the other players available, even if they're jam packed with more functions and features.

One player which is more than worth mentioning is the iRiver B20, which does more than just play music and videos.

Slightly smaller than the iPod, the B20 sports a 2.4 inch QVGA TFT LCD screen that can display up to 260,000 colours, which makes it such a joy to look at. Navigation is super easy with its Advanced D*click System, which lets you go through the menu and functions simply by pressing the left, right, top and bottom of the device.

Besides playing music and videos, the B20 has features even the iPod would die for, a Digital TV and FM Radio Tuner (complete with a small antenna). That's right, you can even watch TV on this cool device, and not to mention RTB's digital radio channels.

The B20 comes with stereo headphones and built-in speakers, another feature the iPod lacks. Transferring songs is also a breeze with its USB 2.0 connectivity and built-in Mini-SD slot.

The iRiver B20 might not have all the media attention and publicity as the iPod, but all in all, it's one great feature-packed player, and without doubt definitely worth buying.

The iRiver B20 available online at the QQeStore, with the absolute lowest price in Brunei guaranteed!* For more information on its current price, please click here.

Sony Ericsson P1: Mixing business with pleasure

The latest addition to Sony Ericsson's P-series comes a year after the release of its predecessor, the P990, and proves to be their best one yet. The P1 offers a number of new features that many P-series enthusiasts have been waiting for, including an improved display and upgraded user interface.

The Sony Ericsson P1 combines business with pleasure in one beautiful, stylish package. It's 25% smaller than the P990, and perhaps one of the most obvious changes is that the P1 sports a QWERTY keyboard, looking quite like the M600 with wider keys, which is surprisingly very comfortable to use.

The P1 packs a new 2.6" QVGA transreflective TFT display, which will make it easier to read when under direct sunlight. The display still maintains its touchscreen capabilities, a feature all P-series enthusiasts have come to get used to. The phone's intelligent handwriting recognition software lets you input text with a stylus, as you would with a pen, and transforms it to the corresponding letter on a keyboard.

3G connectivity, combined with full office applications, lets you edit and view your documents, and send them to your business counterparts with ease. A surprising addition to the P1 is the business card scanner, which lets you use the phone's 3.2 megapixel camera to take photos of business cards, and automatically scans the text and saves it as a contact.

Besides being 3G enabled, the phone also boasts Wi-Fi connectivity, Push email support, Opera Web Browser, 160MB internal memory and 512MB Memory Stick Micro.

The P1 offers more than every other Sony Ericsson smartphone has ever before, and is by far the best in the long line of P-series phones.



This smart, feature-packed phone is available at Incomm for $1,088 (further discounts with a DST Card) . For more information, please call 2420122.

The Sony Ericsson P1 is also available online at the QQeStore, with the absolute lowest price in Brunei guaranteed!* For more information on its current price, please click here.

Sony HDR-SR7E Camcorder: Record even the longest of events in HD

In a world where AVCHD (Advanced Video Codec High Definition) camcorders are fast evolving and increasing, Sony still manages to lead the way, especially after releasing their HDR-SR7E.

This beautifully designed camcorder lets you record up to 22 hours of 1080i quality High Definition videos, all made possible by the AVCHD compression technology. The SR7E is one of the lightest and smallest AVCHD hard disk Handycam models ever made.

With the added functionality of HDD Smart Protection and Easy Back-up Solutions, you can store and share every single moment with superior video and audio quality.

The camcorder's Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T lens with 10x optical zoom, lets you capture still images of up to 6.1 megapixels regularly and 4.6 megapixel photos in dual record mode. It also includes optical image stabilization and Dolby Digital 5.1ch surround sound.

The 2.7-inch wide Hybrid Touch Panel features a 230,000-pixel screen resolution that lets you view your movies clearly, even when shooting in bright outdoor conditions.

Weighing at just 530g, the SR7E is around 20% smaller and 17% lighter than its predecessor, the SR1E.

The Sony Handycam HDR-SR7E camcorder is available online at the QQeStore, with the absolute lowest price in Brunei guaranteed!* For more information on its current price, please click here.

Nokia E90 Communicator: The legacy lives on

The 10-year old Nokia Communicator legacy lives on to this very day with the release of the eleventh in the series, the E90 Communicator.

The smart phone, which now comes in mocha-brown or maroonish-red, still sports its iconic side-folding design with QWERTY keyboard, but this time it can be folded open to a full 180 degrees.

Slightly smaller in size than its predecessor, the E90 now runs on a Series 60 (S60) platform, dropping the dated S80, making it compatible with a vast array of software titles available. The S60 on this phone is tweaked and optimised for the phone's wide 800 x 352 pixel inner display, making everything look good and easy to access.

The E90 now boasts 3G connectivity and is HSDPA enabled, giving you high-speed Internet access and video calls. You can also talk anywhere in the world with the phone's GSM quad-band 850/900/1800/1900) and WCDMA 2100 support.

Other notable features include integrated GPS, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g WLAN, 140MB of internal flash memory, and 80MB of RAM, 4 times more than that of other S60 smart phones.

The E90 also packs a respectable 3.2 megapixel camera with flash and autofocus and VGA video recording.

All in all, the latest in Nokia Communicator series really does impress, boasting quite a significant upgrade from its predecessor. It really is a must buy for the avid Communicator fans in Brunei, especially for those who demand performance when working on the move.

A brief look at the Nokia E90 Communicator

The Nokia E90 Communicator is available at Incomm for $1,488 (further discounts with a DST Card) and comes with a 512MB Micro SD Card and pouch. For more information, please call 2420122.

This performance inspired smart phone is also available online at the QQeStore, with the absolute lowest price in Brunei guaranteed!* For more information on its current price, please click here.

iPhone matches most of its hype

Finally, the first public impressions and reviews of the iPhone have been made and surprise surprise, it really does match most of its hype.

After 6 months of non-stop, and always growing hype and anticipation, and for some people, days of queuing up, the iPhone finally went into the hands of the public late Friday evening in the United States.

Despite a few activation issues (AT&T system glitch) and minor flaws, the iPhone met its high expectations, with some even going as far as saying that it's the best smart phone ever created.

After a few days of testing and playing with the phone, most iPhone owners claimed that all phone functions worked as well, and as smoothly as the iPhone ads make it seem.

The new optical quality touch-screen glass clearly proved that it is very much as scratch resistant as Apple claims it to be, even when being deliberately scratched with a key. The iPhone also passed a few 'drop' tests, as PC World magazine reports..

Apple iPhone Stress Test - PC World


Virtual keypad typing wasn't as hard to master as claimed, even with large fingers, as Gizmodo.com demonstrated here.

The debate whether or not it was silly of Apple to partner with AT&T, given their so called 'slow' EDGE network, was temporarily laid to rest as iPhone users experienced surprisingly fast downloads, averaging around 150kbps, rather than earlier reports of only less than a third of the speed.

There were, however, a couple of notable flaws. The iPhone doesn't support Multimedia Messaging (MMS) or 3G, and even has no video camera. The unremovable battery makes it hard to swap batteries when you're running out of battery life, and you can't use your own ringtones yet either.

These were just probably tiny flaws when compared to the amount of great functions the phone has to offer. One thing is clear though, the iPhone is still the most wanted gadget of 2007 by a mile.

As every Bruneian gadget lover would painfully already know by now, the iPhone will not be arriving on our shores until 2008, but it's almost certain that we'll be getting much better, updated iPhone versions by then.

New York's iPhone launch - CNET TV