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November 16, 2004 |
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Sometimes, the best gadget of the year just slips onto the radar with hardly any warning. Such is the new Audiovox PPC6100, a Pocket PC smart phone that's all the buzz--partly thanks to a slide-out keyboard. Oh, and Firefox is pretty hot, too, but that's only a surprise to cave-dweller types.
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Firefox
Last week, the alternative browser du jour, Firefox, reached version 1.0 and issued an official release. Suddenly, searches for "Firefox" skyrocketed across our network. It seems like these things must be related. Well, here's the dish. At CNET, we're officially calling this particular cage match for Firefox, which gets our Editors' Choice for its speed, stability, pop-up blocker, tabbed browsing, and, oh, right, a little thing we like to call "security." Don't believe us? Check out our comparison of Firefox to IE and join security columnist Rob Vamosi in kissing IE good-bye.
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Motorola MPx220
First, the Motorola MPx220 suffered so many delays that some CNET users started to think it was imaginary. Then it finally did end up in Best Buy stores and started to trickle into the marketplace. Next thing you know, Motorola is recalling the phone because of problems with the earpiece and the speaker volume. Just last month, in fact, Motorola recalled some of the V710 models, and last August, it recalled the V600, too. In other news, you can currently get the new Motorola V265 for $100 after rebate--you know, if you think it's safe.
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Audiovox PPC6601
Well, hello, hottest gadget of the season. Oh, sorry, did you think we meant the Treo 650? We can forgive your confusion. Fact is, there's a new smart-phone sheriff in town, and it's the stealth-buzz Audiovox PPC6601, which you may have heard called the HTC Harrier. It's a Pocket PC-based phone with a 400MHz processor, 128MB of onboard memory (and an SD I/O expansion slot), built-in Bluetooth, and--the cool factor--a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Sadly, there's no built-in Wi-Fi. Don't get us wrong, it looks awesome. But it's $629 worth of awesome, and that's just a tiny bit out of stocking-stuffer range.
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Delphi XM MyFi
We were surprised by all the searches we saw for the Delphi XM MyFi, which is a new, pocket-size, portable satellite radio. It has recording and time-shifting capabilities--like a portable TiVo--and you can schedule it to record programs overnight, for example, and play them back anytime. It also displays stock quotes and sports scores and can be used as an alarm clock. Of course, the first question we're asking is, who's going to pay $350 plus $10 a month to listen to the radio--no matter how many celebrities are joining up--when a 20GB iPod can be had for $399? There's a lot of buzz around this product, but we suspect it's of the "no one is ever going to buy this" variety.
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Media center
We've been hearing about the "digital home" and the "digital hub" for years, and we've had a lot of searches for "media center" lately. On the one hand, we're happy to present this handy guide to setting yourself up with a digital home. Of course, you're probably wondering what the term even means. Here's the deal: If your computer can talk to your home entertainment system, you can download movies and watch them on your TV with your surround-sound stereo. You can also rip CDs and stream the MP3s to your stereo. You can also download shows from your TiVo or DVR to your computer and burn them to DVD/CD, share them, or access them from the road. Clear? Crystal.
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BONUS: Deal of the week: Sony Cyber Shot DSC-V1
All the searches for Sony's Cyber Shot DSC-V1 are coming from the fact that Sony just killed it. That is, Sony just introduced its successor, the 7-megapixel Cyber Shot DSC-V3. And what do you know, the DSC-V1 just went on sale. Formerly $600, the 5-megapixel camera, which gets a 91 percent positive user rating from CNET readers, can now be had for a cool half price ($299).
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