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Written by Alex (nedge2k)
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Saturday, 06 October 2007 23:06 |
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Yeah, I know I said a couple of days and that turned out to be a couple of weeks but it was unavoidable - read Paul's fault. Anyway, the article is up and can be viewed here: http://www.modaco.com/Exclusive-nedge-Previews-t260126.html Enjoy! :D |
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Written by Alex (nedge2k)
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Saturday, 06 October 2007 21:53 |
Well, HTC's Kaiser has finally hit the shelves and I'm sure many of you out there are wondering what's next? What could possibly outshine a device that's widely regarded as one of the best yet? Well dear readers, about 3 weeks ago a very special device landed on my desk, a device which I'm nicknaming "the Kaiser killer"!
The device in question is the Asus P750, some details of which first leaked a few months back. Little in the way of concrete information has surfaced since then but today we're going to change that and give you the full run down on what's set to be an awesome device.
I should mention before we get down to business, the device I have is an engineering sample (the only one in the country in fact!) and as such is subject to change and improvement but I'm reliably informed that hardware-wise, this is pretty much the finished article. Due to that, this article will be a preview only. There's no point in fully reviewing a non-retail device, especially when software-wise, there's a fair amount of room for improvement 
Enough of the chit-chat, on with the show!
Design & Build
Some of you may remember when when details of the Asus P526 came to light after it won the iF Product Design award. It was a sexy little device and it's bigger brother, the P750 is no exception. The rear of the device is covered in a nice touchy-feely rubberised coating which also makes it's way round to the borders of the front of the device too. The front and rear halves of the device are separated by strip of black chrome and some of the main device buttons also carry the chrome look. It makes a change for me to be able to say that a Windows Mobile device actually looks good and not only does it look good but it feels good too. The device is solid, it fits well in the palm of your hand and in case I didn't mention it enough already, it looks good, really good!
Hardware
So what hardware does this Smartphone-esque Pocket PC actually pack? Well, it has:
- HSDPA
- SiRF Star III GPS
- Wi-Fi (b/g)
- 3.0MP Camera (with Auto Focus)
- 2.6" QVGA Touchscreen
- Forward facing video calling camera
- 520Mhz Intel PXA270 CPU
- 256MB ROM
- 64MB RAM
- External microSD slot
- Smartphone-style keypad with backspace button
- 1300 mAh battery
All very impressive I'm sure you'll agree. Hopefully by the time it hits retail, the P750 will pack 128MB RAM, a 3.2MP Camera and the GPS will have TMC but this is unconfirmed as yet...so don't hold me to it! 
Software
Software-wise it's pretty much what you'd expect from a modern Pocket PC. It runs Windows Mobile 6.0 (or Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional as Microsoft would now have us know it), includes Office mobile, has a number of Asus-made applications such as a call filter, a device status monitoring tool, a backup utility and a few third-party applications too, like WorldCard Mobile.
The device also has AGPS (Assisted GPS) software which allows the GPS hardware to acquire a fix quicker via regular software downloads (every three days or so).
Finally, for those wondering how well the keypad works, Asus have included xT9, so it works very well indeed
Gallery
  
  
  
Dimensions
At a mere 57mm(W)x112mm(H)x17mm(D) and weighing in at only 145g (with battery), the P750 beats the Kaiser on almost all counts. In fact, when I first held the P750, it actually felt lighter than my everyday workhorse, the (MoDaCo) Orange SPV C600. Obviously it isn't but the P750's increased width over the C600 means it's weight is spread over a larger surface area, thus giving the feeling of it being lighter
(approx. dimensions measured by me)
Accessories
My sources tell me that the P750 will come bundled with the following:
- Case
- Desktop holder
- Car holder
- Car and mains charger
- microSD (size unknown as yet)
- and of course a sync cable
What's uncertain at this point is whether or not the device will come bundled with any Navigation software. The hope is that it will but Asus know that everyone has their own favourite when it comes to Sat Nav software so may instead opt not to ship it with any at all to keep everyone happy. In my opinion, you can't go wrong with TomTom or iGo
Release Dates & Pricing
I'm told to expect this device to hit stockists like Expansys within the next two months with network/carrier deals becoming available in Q1 of next year (most likely February). Pricing is a little vague at present but I'd expect it to go for a similar price as the Kaiser (£400-500 off-line).
Conclusion
So why do I think this is a Kaiser-killer? Ever since the crop of Smartphone-style Pocket PC devices from Gigabyte, I've longed for feature-packed device that I could use competently with one hand. This is it. It has almost every feature I could want, it's sexy looking, light, solid and I've only had to pull out the (full-size) stylus a few times in everyday use. I'm not fussed on the design of the Kaiser, nor the fact you have to flip it round to slide out the keypad (that little HTC trait has annoyed me since the Wizard) so for me, the Asus P750 is as close to my idea of Pocket PC perfection as I think I'm going to get.
Anyway, that's just my opinion. What do you think? Any questions?
PS: I wrote this article about two weeks ago and since then have used the P750 as my main device. It's awesome! Apart from the odd software glitches in its as yet unfinished ROM, it's been rock solid in performance and certainly gets some admiring glances. If you planned to shell out on a Kaiser and haven't yet, you may want to wait a little while for this puppy to come our way...it's a beast! |
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Written by Alex (nedge2k)
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Sunday, 30 September 2007 00:24 |
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One word for this film: awesome! It started out slow and left you wondering where the hell it was going but christ once it got going... It's a typical Tarantino flick, lots of violence but with some awesome muscle car action. The initial violence was a tad shocking and there were a lot of "ooo that's gotta hurt" moments but by the end of the film it just became comical to the point where I was laughing my ass off. It's an excellent flick with a good soundtrack and great direction. Although when they're playing "ship's mast" you may find yourself shouting at the screen to just slow the car down!! Go see it! |
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Written by Alex (nedge2k)
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Monday, 17 September 2007 17:14 |
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I've been a huge fan of rallying from quite a young age so the death of one of the rallying greats after his retirement from WRC has come as a bit of a shock to say the least... Rally champion Colin McRae, his five-year-old son, a six-year-old boy and a family friend have been killed in a helicopter crash. Strathclyde Police released the names of the four people they thought were on board the crashed aircraft on Saturday. Mr McRae, 39, his son Johnny, the youngster's friend Ben Porcelli and family friend Graeme Duncan, 37, were all thought to be on board. Formal identification is expected in the next few days. Ch Supt Tim Love from Strathclyde Police said the crash was not survivable and it was very difficult to tell the aircraft had been a helicopter. He added that the families have been shattered by the news. Air accident investigators have started searching the helicopter crash site near Mr McRae's home in Lanarkshire on Saturday. You'll be missed Colin! |
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Written by Alex (nedge2k)
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Sunday, 16 September 2007 20:29 |
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Today I thought I'd give making the roast a miss and instead go to the local carvery, a Toby Carvery. Our experience at the Leicester outlet compelled me to send them a little note via their feedback system: Where to begin. As we arrived, we saw an unlit sign proudly displaying a single course carvery for £5.25. Good price, we thought. It wasn't, however until after the meal that we're told it was actually £8 which was apparently clearly visible on the sign outside. It was not clearly visible. We wouldn't have minded if the food had been in the slightest bit edible but it was about as difficult to swallow as the price it was being charged at. After we had waited ten minutes for a table, we then had to wait a further 20 minutes queuing for the food. Again, not something we would have normally minded; it was quite busy after all which seemed to bode well for the establishment. When we finally got to select our food, the majority of it looked rather tasty. However, it was immediately apparent that the stuffing balls were overcooked. Anyway, we selected our food and sat down to eat. The majority of the food was undercooked. The potatoes were burned on the outside and hard to the point of being raw in the middle. The carrots were hard, the cauliflower was hard, the Yorkshire puddings were like rubber and the meat was tough and chewy. In fact, the only elements of the meal I did enjoy were the gravy and the horseradish sauce which, as my other half pointed out, is rather difficult to get wrong. Having been regulars at the Toby Carvery in Swansea, we were incredibly disappointed at the quality of the food at the Leicester outlet. I barely managed to eat half of it before indigestion kicked in, at which point I pushed the plate to one side and waited for my other half to suffer the same fate. We would both like our money back (£16) as we both agreed it was quite literally the worst meal we'd ever had the misfortune to sample. Said money should be in the form of a cheque and under no circumstances in the form of vouchers or a credit note as we have absolutely no plans to return to the establishment. Yeah, it's only £16 quid but I'm going on principle here. Seriously, the food was shockingly poor and that's something you wouldn't normally say about a Toby Carvery. It's akin to false advertising! </rant> :P |
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