Motorola RAZR V3 Unlocked Phone with Camera, and Video Player--International Version with Warranty

This phone is fantastic. It takes care of all my needs (phoning, scheduling, keeping track of people & data, etc.) while traveling around the world. It's sturdy and doesn't damage easily or initiate functions by accident. Easy to use and fun to use.

I love it, and this is the second Razr V3 that I've owned.

My only complaint is that it creates a completely different entry in the phone book for different phone numbers for the same contact. My old Razr V3t kept them all in the same line.

This was purchased for my husband who doesn't want anything that's difficult to operate. He likes it. Good clarity of sound and easy to use.

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I've had this phone for almost a year and really did like it in the beginning. The sound was excellent, the button placement and size made dialing and texting fairly easy. I was very happy with it. Then it started to fall apart... the connections from the screen to the "base" started to go wonky. The screen just randomly goes black and seems to like to stay that way. If I squeeze and push the screen in just the right way I can get the picture to return, but that seems to be working less and less. Most of the time I am unable to see who is calling, what a text message says and I can't hardly use it to text to anyone. The rest of the phone is in great condition, but what good is all that when you can't even see it... :(

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great phone even in a market where 2 years makes the last model seem laughable. i have yet to find a phone that has such a good feel to it, -not too small to use comfortably, yet still nice and thin. i only wish that the ringer could be turned up a little louder.

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Have used RAZR's in past with good luck but this one broke within 6 months and Amazon would not replace it so I would not buy another phone from them again!

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Sony Ericsson K550i Cyber-shot Unlocked Cell Phone with 2 MP Camera, MP3/Video Player, Memory Stick

The k550i phone is a great small feature-packed phone. The camera on the phone takes excellent pictures, suitable for making 4x6 prints. The phone has a panorama mode that allows you to stitch together 2 or 3 images with a very good stitch guide. Also, there is a nice image editor built into the phone that can do auto-levels, contrast, brightness, and a bunch of other nice tools. You can see many full size pictures by visiting flickr and searching on "k550i". The MP3 player works great ... sound quality is excellent, though volume is soft and some may find the max volume is too low. You will want to get a micro memory stick if you want more than a few songs. I like how the included headphones double as a handsfree set and transition from music to phone back to music effortlessly. I found creating a few playlists very intuitive and easy. Battery life is very good, even with lots of music/radio playing and picture taking. The radio features trackID, which takes a sample of the song you are listening to and looks up the artist, song title, and album ... actually have found it very useful(requires data plan). The web browser is a good WAP browser for basic use ... I like that you can change to landscape screen orientation browsing.

OK, now for the annoyances: When the flash is turned on, the LED lights stay lit constantly, and they are very bright ... human targets usually complain. I was surprised that digital zoom for the camera is only allowed at VGA resolution, and not at 1MP. There is a workaround ... after taking a 2MP picture, you can zoom in on it and save the visible area to a new picture. I take pictures and immediately send them to flickr ... the phone presents a nag screen warning that the file is large, which cannot be turned off. The "take picture" button is a two-step button like most cameras, with a focus step then a snap step, but the second step takes a hard press causing you to shake the camera and get a blurry picture. Instead, I use the center joystick button on the face of the phone, which focuses and immediately takes a picture. Sending a picture as an email immediately after taking it requires some kooky steps: (press joystick in, select "view", zoom out one step, then select More->Send As->Email).

Despite the flaws, I am very happy with the phone considering the price and features.

The pro's

* very compact design, almost too small for my big hands, but over time one gets used to its dimensions, AND enjoys the small design. Fits into the front pocket of my jeans! The center button (the one which looks like a 5-way) and its surrounding ring (this ring has the four directions) feel very sturdy, they seem to be made of actual metal. The ring has four tiny dots of light, where four arrows could be, signaling each one direction, and look very cool when they glow along with the keypad, in dark environments.

* I just changed to the K550 from my previous nokia 6820, which has an expandable flip qwerty keyboard, and missed the nokia keyboard at the beginning. However, the predictive text interface is almost perfect (read con's) and I almost do not miss the keyboard anymore. Predictive text also allows you to create your own dictionary entries (this is more or less a common feature of cellphones) and allows you to enter your dictionary to maintain it: edit or delete entries (this is very uncommon and useful!). The predictive text has several modes one of which turns on "national characters". when I sometime type a message in spanish, comes handy since it allows the use of spanish accents.

* very large memory for contacts, and the fields used in contacts are very compatible with outlook, which means you will not lose data when synchronising your contacts into your PC. When I synchronised with outlook from the 6820, the mapping of fields was different, so one got lost or misplaced information in the process.

* at 2 MPixels, very good definition for a camera that is always with you, for that spontaneous snapshot.

-

the con's

* the chrome finish of the center ring is starting to wear off after only three months of use! the entire surface of the ring, starting with its perimeter, is wearing thin and leaking blue light. looks cheap and old, too bad for a set this expensive.

* The "national character" feature behaves strangely, in the sense that when I turn it on, it changes the message length limit from 160 down to 60 characters, for no good reason. And when you turn it off, the limit is still there, you would have to start a new message from scratch for the limit to be 160 again. Also whe you turn teh feature off, the phone "forgets" the words one has created with spanish characters, literally hiding a portion of your custom dictionary. I dont think of these as design flaws but more as software bugs, but they are real, limiting and annoying.

* the light of the camera, two very bright and white LEDs, is good as a lamp to fing your way walking through a dark place, but is a terrible, almost useless flash for taking pictures in the dark, which is what it's suposed to be. The camera works well only under good natural light or decent room lighting. Not worthy of the cybershot name.

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I had a Sony S710a which I unlocked when I was in Prague, but it was not a quad phone and I had problems when I travel some countries like Turkey and Poland. So I decided to purchase a small quad phone which is AT&T compatible. With K550i I found the phone I was looking for. It is doing everything S710a was capable of and more much more. The reception quality is very good. I always have more bars than my S710a at the very same places. The Gmail client, Google Maps client and Opera Mini version 4 (great browser for a mobile phone) works flawlessly can't run Yahoo GO (it display the wierd message of not available memory, even I have 67Mb on the phone) but who cares. With AT&T unlimited media package, I can surf the internet, use Jajah for VOIP international phone calls and more. Picture quality of the 2MP camera is very good, have a 2GB miniSD card and have no problem with spacing. Have not used the radio too much but it is there if you want to listen your favorite FM station and it requires carrying the plugin cable/head phones. The commercially available or free application for the phone are numbered. But I have been using it as a router to the internet via bluetooth and my Microsoft Vista Dell XPS 1330 laptop because AT&T unlimited package on the cell phone plan (only 20$ per month), it is an excellent way of using your laptop anywhere. I am also planning to purchase the new Nokia N810 web tablet next year and use K550i as router as I do with my laptop. With Nokia 810 and K550i, you don't need no iPhone. The combo will do everything I need (including Skype video calls ;) The phone is very stylish and light I am very happy with it after 6 months and I highly recommend it to anyone. I hope this proves useful.

Regards

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The SonyEricsson K550i is a fantastic phone, great camera and has a great form factor.

The only thing that may be questionable is the key size. The camera is awesome and unlike some SonyEricsson models, the camera lens stays closed at all times!

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Nice Phone. I bought it unlocked to use with cingular (now AT&T). used sonyericssons for a while now, starting with t68i, t610, t637, w600i, w810i & now k550i. I have to agree with one of the other reviewers that the reception if slightly less compared to, say w810i. In office where I'd always get 5 bars, now I get 4 bars. But that doesn't bother me much.

There was a continuing problem with the "4" key not working sometimes but that seems to have been resolved by sonyerisson via their new firmware update. Make sure you update the phone, either over the air or by connecting to a computer. It upgrades JAVA, the camera software version & this annoying "4" issue.

Overall I like this phone & hope that SE will move towards making all their phones 14mm slim. On a similar note don't forget to check out W580i as well if you are looking at this phone.

T-Mobile Prism Prepaid Android Phone (T-Mobile)

I'm an experienced Android user, and so far the phone is working pretty well. We'll see how long it lasts after the first full month of use. The features on this phone are nice, the screen is simple and the phone is thin and light. Plenty of space for music, photos, and videos. Added with an SD card, it holds a lot. I don't normally care for touch screen keyboards but I'll make an exception for this one. Tipping the phone sideways lengthens the keyboard and makes texting easier. The web browsing is excellent, very clear and allows full page exploration. Comes with the Android Gingerbread system, which is nice. Its fast and has a lot of nifty features. Overall, excellent phone.

Let's get something out of the way first, this is not a power device for the experienced smart phone users. Android devices spread all spectrum of user base and the PRISM is squarely aim at the first time demographics. Powered by a 600 MHz single core processor, this phone is only about 60% speed of my Spring XPRT which is more than a year old at this point. With this said, the menu transitions are snappy and most applications hums along in a self assure pace without missing a beat. The 3.5 inch 320x480 resolution screen isn't going to win any awards, but it is colorful, clear, sensitive and pretty useable. Unlike the SPRINT devices, TMOBILE only loaded minimal amount of crapware onto this.

If you are already a Google family like mine, the suite of software works right outside the box. Gmail, Drive, Music, Talk are integrated and functions transparently. I miss the ability to integrate with Google voice like I can with a Sprint device but this is not a fatal flaw. As an added bonus, WIFI calling (basically voice over IP via WIFI) works right out of the box and can be used to make free phone calls when you are at home. PRISM comes with a GPS, Bluetooth, WIFI(b/g/N), 2G/3G mobile data speed, accelerometer, proximity sensor and a digital compass. The operating system is v2.3.5 (Gingerbread)which is more speed optimized than many of the 2.2 devices still out there. The on board camera clocks in at 3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels but I would only use it in cases of emergencies or for people simply don't know any better (which is more or less the same assessment of most of the mobile cameras). 2GB SD card comes standard with the phone but you can expand to 32GB if you want (but... why?). If you do any traveling, this device operates with both GSM 850/900/1800/1900 and HSDPA 850/1700/1900/2100 networks. This means this phone will function in most of countries with a GSM network infrastructure.

This is one smartphone that doesn't break the bank! $20 on contract or $150 off contract, this device is comparably superior than similar offerings from Samsung such as the DART. I bought this device for my 11 year old son on a PAY as you GO plan and he had no problem leaving the dumb phone world behind after a few minutes of fiddling. This is a great device for first time SMARTPHONE users. Although racing Ashalt 6 probably isn't appropriate, give PRISM a shot if you simply need a reliable device to make/receive phone calls while learning what all the BUZZ with the SMARTPHONE world is all about.

Pro:

* A very cheap device ($20 on contract, $150 off)

* WIFI calling works and doesn't use plan minutes.

* Integrated phone books with Google contacts.

* Ability to switch to pay by day plan right on the phone.

* Minimal bloatwares installed

* Although a very slow device, there were very few crashes or lockups. Resource management seem to work pretty well out of the box.

* Can utilize over 40,000 programs for the Android ecosystem.

Con:

* Very limited internal storage (< 200MB). Programs have to be installed on internally memory while data (i.e. music, books, movies) can be loaded on the SD.

* Fairly slow by the modern standards. Some programs won't run well because of the low processor speed(i.e. games, Netflix, etc).

* Virtual keyboard a pain to use (Hint: learn to use swype).

* Included Camera is next to useless.

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I have a number of different Android phones in my household, ranging from this one to much higher end ones. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Which one is best for you depends on your needs.

The biggest advantage of this one is price. I got it as a lightning deal. If it hadn't been for that, I might have gotten a Samsung Exhibit II 4G Prepaid Android Phone (T-Mobile) which is a MUCH better phone. I have experience with that one, and its predecessor, and they are pretty good low end Android phones.

The biggest disadvantages of this phone are features, amount of ROM and processor speed. They curtail what you can do with it, but meet my needs anyway. If you have a phone at home, in your office, and have hands free calling in your car, you might need a lot less in a phone than others do. I have fairly constant access to a computer, except when I'm driving, in which case I won't typically use a phone for more than making phone calls.

This phone has a 3.2 MB camera. That's good compared to even good phones from five years ago, but bad compared to even cheap point and shoot cameras. Likewise the video camera capability is fairly basic and won't look very good on a big screen TV. Still photos will be adequate as long as you don't plan to zoom or crop. For me that's not a big issue because even the best Android phones have cheap lenses, digital zoom, and no viewfinder. So a better phone would not help me and I'll stick with a camera when I need one.

This has a rear facing camera. Without a front facing camera, applications such as Skype are limited to voice, at least in one direction. There's no light on the phone, so everything from the simplest flashlight app to taking pictures in relatively dark areas won't work.

The processor is too slow to watch something like Netflix without it being jerky. It's not impossible to use for that purpose, but it won't be very good. Then again, even the best processors won't do me much good if I have to use a display that's this small. I'm not likely to want to watch a movie on a moderately bigger screen such as with a Samsung Galaxy S II anyway, so I'll have to live with Netflix or Amazon at home. But that would be the case with the best Android phone for me so it's not a loss.

This phone has 3G, not 4G. That can be much slower. If you live in an area without good 4G coverage, it won't make a difference. And with WiFi, you can get by without either of them. Given my situation, I won't have a problem at home, at the office, or while driving, and even places like Starbucks or my doctor or dentist have WiFi these days. So do some entire cities in Silicon Valley. So do some airports, but the lack of it can make things tougher. In my case it's so rarely needed that I don't have a data plan. So 4G would not help me at all. When pressed, I ask whoever I'm traveling with to look things up.

Although it's easy to get a much larger microSD card for very little money, there are many things that can't be installed on it, and it's easy to use up the phone's ROM fairly quickly. If you are planning to use mostly built-in apps, it's not a problem. I've downloaded under a dozen of my 100 Amazon apps, since I limited it to the ones I actually use. And I added a small handful from the Play store. That alone used up almost all of the ROM. Then again, I have what I anticipate on the phone. So if you plan to add every interesting app that comes along, let's hope they can go on your SD card.

I do use things like Google+, calendar and on-line directory and it's nice having things synced automatically. But for me it works when I'm near WiFi. That's fine because I won't need to use those things away from my phone except when I'm near a computer as mentioned. Syncing my contacts and calendar automatically once a day should be fine, and realistically it will happen much more than that. Plus, with Google+ I won't have to worry about storing my photos and videos locally, and won't have to worry about transferring them since it's automatic. The resolution is good enough given the screen size that when looking at photos on G+ not taken with the phone, it won't make a difference.

Some things such as syncing your phone directory to T-Mobile's MobileLife will NOT work over WiFi. But even without a data plan, they will work over 2G if you turn it on. If you plan to use the navigator, set it up to plan the trip before you leave, while you still have WiFi, unless you will have reliable 3G. In my case I have navigators in all my cars, so it's not a big loss for me.

For somebody with needs like mine, who wants calendar, contacts, and photos synced, wants to be able to make calls or send messages from anywhere there's reception, this phone might work fine. It has the look and feel of other Android phones, but not the capabilities. But it might not meet those needs either. After a few days, mine started rebooting randomly throughout the day. That can be annoying during a phone call, more than annoying when you are using the navigator while driving, and an even bigger problem if the navigator can't resume after a reboot. After an extensive web search I found that random rebooting is a common problem for this phone. I found no clear solutions. A possible cause, according to some posts I read, was clearing out cache and user data for apps I never used. I may have done that because there's simply no other way to have enough room for adding a handful of apps. So if you can accept the apps it comes with and very little more, and the phone goes more than 30 days without rebooting for no reason, then this might be a good choice for you.

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This phone looks good for how much it costs, and it works well. It lacks the features of some other phones that aren't much more expensive, but that's as one might expect anyway. I got it for $129 on Amazon with Prime shipping. For a moderate increase in price, the Samsung Exhibit II 4G is much faster, has a little more screen size, and front/rear cams with led flash on the back. The Prism is better in terms of price, but many user might be disappointed with the feature set. On the plus side, Huawei's speakers sound pretty good and the battery life seems to be decent. This is my second Huawei-manufactured handset and I'm impressed with how much they give you for the price charged. This phone is a great value, but it is definitely not a high-performance rig.

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I am a 20 year old guy, who was looking for a simple phone, so I figured I would go with the prism. after reading a few reviews and watching some videos, i figured it looked pretty good. Here are a few things about the phone that I don't like. Right away, I found out that the phone does not have call waiting (even though it states it does), and I hung up on my boss. Also I'm not a big texter but after 2 weeks i have to manually erase all my messages, or else all incoming texts are blocked, so i have no clue who sent it just a notification that someone tried texting me. another thing, the phone comes with 2gb of memory, which is absolutely useless because after the phones internal memory is full, it notifies me that i have low memory and to transfer all apps to sd card. apps that are preloaded with the phone cannot be transferred, and this blocks you from being able to download apps. Now onto the actual apps, the apps will not open 2 out of 3 times. When I am driving, I am often tempted to throw the phone out the window because I am so frustrated by how it closes my apps on its own. the internet connection is terrible as well, and the phone is extremely slow all together. This phone is terrible, I wish i had saved my money and bought a better one. My advice, save your money and invest in a better phone/plan.

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Rode MiCon-2 Connector for 3.5mm Select Stereo Devices

• Micon to 3.5mm Stereo Adapter
• An Adapter for Your RODE Mic! Wireless Adapter/Cable s:lilrode
• RODE MiCon to Standard 1/8" Adapter

Works, but insultingly expensive.

(If these things in fact cost nothing to make, Rode might want to rethink this, and lower the price. People will be much happier with them if a $300+ mic of theirs comes with a whole PACK of these, covering all common sockets. I wonder how many people, like me, receive their stuff, realizing they forgot to get the adapters, and can't use their thing until a 2nd order arrives. An *expensive* second order.)

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These were for my Rode Lavalier. I'm a little concerned at the size of the connector, but with that said, I haven't had any issues so far and the connection seems solid.

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So the pin mic needs phantom power to work, and none of my recording units have phantom power in a 3.5mm jack, only the 3 pin XLR jacks provide phantom power. That goes for mixing boards and what not too.

Hip Street HS-VR818-4GB 4 GB Digital Voice Recorder

I've bought this item about 3 weeks ago beacause a friend had the same and it was really great! But I'm a bit disapoonted about mine. Indeed, I don't know if it's 'cause I don't know how to use it, but the sound is not really grear compared to my friend's! It's so low that I have to really concentrate myself to hear it! But it is really easy to use!

J'ai acheté cet article il y a environ un mois car mon ami a exactement le même et il était vraiment bien! Cependant celui que j'ai acheté a un son beaucoup moins élevé que celui de mon ami! Il faut que je me concentre vraiment pour essayer de comprendre ce qui est enregistré! Je ne sais pas si c'est moi qui ne sait pas m'en servir ou que c'est l'article qui est moins bon. En tout cas, il est facile à utiliser!

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TDK CDRW80TWN 80-Minute Music CD-Rewritable (Single, Jewel)

Overall these are good CDRW's they are perfect for trial and run recordings. Keep in mind that the maufacturers of these type of disc says that you can get up to 1000 write/rewrite cycles but really you may get 5 or 6. no matter how well you store them for future use. so just be prepared to have more on hand

Finally ! after trying several other CD-RWs which also claimed to be "for audio" but were rejected, my picky Sony recorder likes these ! Yay !

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I have a Sony CD recorder I use to record live performances. These discs work fine on it and I have had no issues with them. These discs are specific music discs which are required to be used on this kind of recorder.

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I had been having trouble with multiple uses of my Memorex DA RW, but these work great, even with a 5+ year old unit.

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These are excellent re-writable music CD's. I use the heck out of them recording old tapes and albums but also for special radio concert broadcasts. You can use one of these and then go back and edit it for final recording, erase it and start again. Some of the other discs out there suck and this is the last of the current TDK stock. TDK was bought by Imation and their discs have generally worn out quickly. Buy these while you can!!

Nokia 700 Unlocked GSM Phone with Touchscreen, 5 MP Camera, Symbian Belle OS, and NFC--U.S. Warrant

After month or so with the phone, I am really happy with it according to my criteria in this order:

1. I can use it as I please any operator, any country, no contract. This is great for money, time and environment.

2. it is not too expensive for unlocked, no contract phone with so much functionality

3. it is phone by form factor easily pocket-able and light not a huge screen brick/pad

4. it is phone by battery life lasts days, not hours like other smart phones. There are days when I do not use it at all. So what would be the point of charging it for the sake of it

5. it can be charged over standard USB cable great for travel/work/anywhere no need to worry about where to get charger or your "special" cable.

6. can sync with Outlook properly and without the need for network or on-line service. USB cable is ideal simple and safe. Does calendar, notes, tasks. Perfectly replaces aging but excellent Palm pilots. There is no way many people can share calendar and tasks ... with anybody, even if they wanted to

7. works just fine without persistent internet connection and you can disable data usage in one place to control your bill. In this respect it is better than most smartphones you disable network services and it stops communicating no exceptions

8. does maps and navigation off-line This is absolutely brilliant about Nokia just download the maps you need and it works and does not need any data. This is low point of Android .. in my opinion

9. No nonsense, logical User interface (UI) well done to Nokia for fixing the bloat. It was pretty frustrating on older phones. This UI honestly works better than anything I've seen, including ICS

10. talks to any bluetooth headset/headphones and GPS receiver no other phone I know of can just do this ... especially external GPS which saves power and you can place the receiver better than phone.

11. can talk to wifi network when needed, and reliably ... connects to any network. Even those bizarre hotel setups where other not full computer devices fail.

12. runs Skype reliably when needed while traveling

Anything else is just great bonus: uSD card, PDF, fantastic screen, document reader, calculator, convertor for imperial measures, .... app shop is basic, but has more stuff than I'd put on a phone

Camera is not that great ... got way better quality + auto-focus on relatively old 3Mp cheaper feature phone. Not a major problem ... it is phone, not camera

I can recommend it to anybody looking for nice and light phone ... not a monster ... Must say this Symbian rocks, I'm pleasantly surprised.

You really have to try this phone in person to appreciate how compact and well built it is. If you have large pockets, want a big screen, and don't mind the extra weight, there are many other options out there. But if you want a compact phone, with decent email, messaging, calendar, map, etc. there really is no competition right now.

Symbian Belle is a vast improvement over previous versions of Symbian, and on my phone it's been solid, and the battery life is good.

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I'm from Europe and a sucker for Nokia products, so this review will be biased.

This phone is very stylish. It's clearly a Nokia design bar form factor but with a touchscreen, very very thin, no huge screen or plastic construction. The chassis feels very sturdy. I have been put off with the "bigger is better" trend in current smartphones this phone is perfect for me.

The display is gorgeous. Comparable to my roommate's Galaxy S2, but not as bright. Battery life is okay, but the phone will die within a day and a half of heavy 3G/gaming.

Speaker is loud and clear, louder than my iPod Touch. The "lip" design worried me but is much more subtle in person. Phone came with a 4GB microSD card plugged in for some reason, which was a nice bonus; the support of 32GB microSD cards was a big selling point for me.

Symbian Belle is great. It's definitely not Android, but I like it more than iOS it's polished and very customizable. There is a severe lack of Apps in the Ovi store, so if you're the kind of person that likes 5 different Fart apps, this phone isn't for you. Nokia tries to integrate some things with their Ovi "suite" but the implementation seems half-assed. Probably because they've given up on Symbian and switched to Windows Phone, which I think is a huge mistake after using this phone. Symbian has just started coming into it's own. Browser is much improved over previous Symbian versions, but from what I can tell, still slow compared to other mobile browsers.

In the end, it's a nice mid-range smartphone with great functionality; it's not superduper quadcore with a discrete GPU, but it's got a solid smartphone feature set and great design. The price is maybe a bit high, but the phone is quite new to the market.

I found these specs and review helpful when deciding to buy:

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It's a great phone, very easy and intuitive to use thanks to the operating system that brings Nokia, it is also faster because it has 512MB of RAM, has all the necessary applications for what you need in a cell, is a good buy if looking for a decent phone that is commensurate to the mobile world of today

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I bought my phone the first week of June. I needed an unlocked, contract-free phone and I wanted it to have manufacturer warranty, valid in the US. I discarded the "latest and greatest", either for their price, size or lack of US warranty, and started looking for a so called mid-range smartphone. My search was over when I found this one at Amazon for $204.

I admit price was its top selling point. But I can tell you today without hesitation that I end up with much more than I bargained for because this is indeed a very good phone. In my humble opinion, it has excellent build quality, excellent call quality, comprehensive and easy to use software (not as fancy as an iphone but easy to use nevertheless), a full year Nokia warranty valid in the US, and the right price, size and weight. And it is a fast phone with an impressive display.

Please keep in mind my opinion is determined by my specific needs, so when I say "comprehensive" is because I'm thinking about contacts, calendar, instant messaging, Skype, e-mail, MS office documents, web browsing, maps, 3G, Wi-Fi, voice commands and so on and so forth. I don't pay too much attention to other stuff like camera, video, games, music and the whole "social" thing (with the exception of Twitter, which I use as an alternative source of news), and even at this point I can say it is very easy to take and share pictures and video, and their quality is good, especially the video. And when I say "the right size and weight" is even more subjective: ladies wouldn't mind much about some extra inches and grams in their already overloaded purses, but when we, old-school (definitively no purse) gentlemen have to slip our phones in our pockets, then they do matter.

Of course, it is not perfect. Some might find the screen to be too little for their sight or their hands. Other might find its battery life to be short.

I have found myself wishing for bigger fonts in some applications, such as WhatsApp (it is my current understanding that only its iphone version allows selecting a bigger font). As for writing, is not really hard. The phone comes with a very good prediction and correction software that practically fixes every mistake and works in English, Spanish and French. Even so, it took me a couple of weeks to get used to the landscape full QWERTY keyboard. In portrait mode I discarded the QWERTY keyboard (way too little) and I'm using the traditional alphanumeric keypad, which allows me to write single handed, once again thanks to software. The phone automatically switches from alphanumeric keypad to landscape full keyboard depending on the way you hold it.

As for battery life, so far I've always got home with some charge left in it, even in my busiest days, with lots of calls, messages and e-mails coming and going, but no YouTube, Facebook or Angry Birds. And for those of you who like to have their phone "up to date", a word of advice regarding the Belle Feature Pack 1 (FP1) software update: remember the old southern saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Some people are complaining about reduced battery life and some other problems after upgrading their phone to Belle FP1. I think the phone is fast enough as it is and there is no need to sacrifice battery life to get a faster phone, which seems to be the most appealing feature of this pack.

So, briefly stated this is the right phone, for me. I hope this information help you decide if it is also right for you.

Mustek DV3000 Multi-Function Digital Video Camera w/1.5-inch LCD and 2x Digital Zoom

This camera is a good one to start out with. I got this camera back in 2005 for a trip to Switzerland, Italy, and France, and it got the job done. It was my first digital camera, and insanely easy to use.

The picture quality is not the best, and the difference between the middle and highest resolutions is barely noticeable save in how much space is taken up on your memory card. Over time, the camera itself will most likely begin to break. Mine has started to separate down the middle, but the camera still works the same as the day I purchased it and this problem can easily be fixed with superglue.

I do not recommend this camera for someone who is looking for high-quality images. While it is a nice camera for home and personal use, the overall quality of the images is not great, and I find myself looking at other digital cameras, possibly a Canon, for my next trip that have a higher resolution and that have image stabilization. Another thing to note is that this camera has to be held very still when taking a picture. Movement of any kind often results in a noticeably warped image. The length of time the camera takes to actually take the picture definitely has something to do with this. It takes between six and twelve seconds, depending on resolution, to take a picture. The battery life itself is good, lasting about three hundred pictures before I had to change my batteries.

I have no real complaints about this camera. It is a good, basic camera with few options, and the fact that it doesn't have a flash really is not a problem once the camera adjusts to the light. When I was in the Vatican, cameras with flashes were not allowed, and I found that once my camera adjusted to the light, I could take pictures that were just fine. This even in spite of the fact that many of the rooms there are barely lit in order to preserve the artwork.

I recommend this camera to anyone who is just starting out in the realm of digital photography. This camera is perfect for anyone who is looking to take basic pictures and shines as a personal camera. The images I took when abroad are of good quality (though not the best), and the majority of the images turn out rather clear.

I bought this camera and was very happy with it. It took clear pictures and was very easy to use. Although it was small in size it got the job done. Then, after less than a month of using it, it simply stopped working. It wouldn't turn on, the LCD screen wouldn't show anything, and when it rarely did turn on, weird sounds came from it. I took good care of it, didn't drop it or anything of the like. After repeatedly calling Mustek customer service and finally getting help from them, all they said was that it had a malfunction and to ship it in, but we never got a new camera. It was horrible service, and a cheap camera.

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Well it's an ok camera except for the fact that can't take videos at 6:30 PM cause it gets to dark, and if I want to take a video in my house the blinds have to be open and the lights have to be on and it has from 5:00 AM to 6:20PM. Other than that it's an ok camera. The pictures are the most clearest, and the videos are sortta fussy.

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I recently purchased the mustek dv4000 and I hate it, the pictures are awful! I used the highest quality setting and got very poor results, the only thing I do like about the camera which is why it even got one star was the fact that the digital recording I took came out OK, but digital still pics are awful and I'd advise folks to look elsewhere and not spend their money on this one. I'm sending mine back! I'm new to digital photography but I know on the highest quality setting, the photo quality shouldn't be grainy. High quality settings yielded low quality pics on mine....Anyone out there have a better experience? Could I be doing something wrong?

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I only use the digital camera capabilities for the Mustek DV 3000. This small digital camera is great for quick pictures that are going to be used for digital purposes and the software that comes with the camera is eay to use. Even the novice computer user can upload pictures with this camera. The downside if no flash and the video capabilities seem to capture very dark video unless outside or in a very extremely high light area. So I use this camera to take quick pictures of my kids or for items I am selling online, so this camera is very functional for it's quick digital camera functions.

Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Studio SSD Deck, Up to 1080i60 / 1080p30 Resolutions

The first thing you should know is that without a SSD dock to a mac or PC, this is a boat anchor. It does nothing. You can't record because it won't format the disks. You can't read the disks from a mac or PC without the additional dock. So, out of the box, it just stares at you.

We bought a blackmagic switcher (1M/e) and now a Hyperdeck Studio. Software glitches caused us to lose EVERY broadcast we tried to capture through the USB 3.0 link to the 1m/e. So, with some frustration, we bought Hyperdeck to try and keep a backup. Plugged in the drives and they need to be formatted. BUT, the machine won't format them. You need to have another part for a Mac which we don't have. Ordered it. But we have to record now, not in 3 days when the part comes. Would it have been too hard to make the hyperdeck format a drive? or for that matter, read the drive and feed to a computer? It's once again like a great machine that just doesn't quite meet the usefulness test. 5 yards short and the kick is wide.

Tried another capture using Premier instead of the included Media Express. Failed. Another firmware glitch on the 1m/e. To be fair, we're running older firmware on the switch because the new firmware has a different bug that won't let our computer inputs work. That drives our graphics.

Of course, we could buy a $30,000 graphics system and be a "real" broadcaster, instead of using FCP7 and a Mac, but why would we own a $3000 switch in that case? This system is really getting on my nerves. 3 months into it and we're still not able to use the system. We're waiting for new firmware that doesn't break the computer input. And we're waiting for a mac USB 3.0 driver so that we can capture in FCP7-more reliable and a better workflow than Premier. Maybe, if Blackmagic gets their product developed, it will be great. Let's wait and see.

Hey, both machines have an elegant design and are well-thought through. And, they have a phone number for support. So they get two stars. I'll revise this if we ever get the system working.

The Hyperdeck Studio is a great, if not simple new tool to move you past your old Beta decks and HDV tape formats and into a better world.

One thing that I love about the device is its simplicity. There aren't a bunch of menus to navigate or figure out. You plug in an HDMI or SDI source and select between them. Hit play, or record there's even a tiny monitor so you can tell what is playing. The Hyperdeck Studio handles the heavy lifting for you on formats it auto senses what you are putting into it and records exactly that. It's pretty easy.

When you've recorded your source, grab the drive and plug it into your computer (easy to do on my Mac with a Newer Technology Voyager Q NewerTech Voyager Q Quad Interface Dock for 2.5" and 3.5" Serial ATA Drives). You will definitely need something to plug the drives into your computer this device isn't going to connect in a meaningful way to your storage or storage network. Still need to sneaker-net the drives to get the files off of them hence the firewire "drive station" recommendation.

Now that you've hit record, your video and audio are now a movie file that can be dragged and dropped onto your edit drives and away you go. The new Hyperdeck Utility software recently released now also gives you ProRes as a record choice. That along with uncompressed and the Avid flavors gives you a lot of choices to work with. Then you look at the price and you are even more amazed. And since this is file based there's no worry about someone recording over your file when they go to playback. If they hit record it will simply start another clip leaving your recording untouched. that was a relief when I figured that out. I'm going to be using two of these to transport my weekly TV show this season...repacing the HDV tape that I've been running with for the past few years. I can't wait to get rid of that format in my productions.

Now there are some things these "decks" won't do...no closed caption (as of this writing) for instance, but if you are looking to take a feed or record the output of your Tricaster or simply digitize the wall of tapes that you have into editable Quicktime files then the Hyperdeck can do that.

This version isn't necessarily portable (probably not going to attach it to your camera rig) so it's not a real competitor to a Ninja or Samurai or an AJA KiPro Mini (there is a more portable version for that market Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Shuttle 2 SSD Video Recorder, 2.5" SATA SSD Drives, HD-SDI Input & Output) but each of them do similar work in different form factors.

The SSD drives you will need are a separate purchase. They can add up price wise, but are easy to clear off and reuse. I do recommend the cases Blackmagic sells for all the extra SSD drives you'll now have as well Blackmagic Design Hyperdeck SSD Solid State Drive Cover (1). One final note it's not a problem for me (I'm working in an all-Mac environment), but the SSD drives must be formatted in the Mac format just a heads up for Windows users you'll need some extra software to even get the SSD drives ready to record.

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Purchased one of these units and it does what it says it will do and pretty well. Basic functionality of Record, Play, Fast Forward/Rewind, Jog, and deck control. It has the potential to do so much more (all via programming).

Pros:

Easy to setup

Works Well

SDI Input/Output

Records 16 Channels of SDI Audio

HD/SD Auto Detects Input

Uncompressed or Pro-Res

Screen to see what is being recorded/played back with Timecode and Channels 1-2 of audio.

Cons:

Cannot format drive(s) in unit

No Way to select which drive will be recorded to/played back from (need to remove drive)

Cannot Set Timecode

Does not read file timecode; creates its own timecode starting with the first file and working down the list which then changes with addition/removal of files.

Cannot Delete files from unit

Audio has to be embedded (used a Blackmagic Audio to SDI converter). Adds a few $$ (the Studio Pro resolves this (but only 2 channels))

Playback needs to be a certain format, and I haven't figure out how to do more than 2 channels of audio

Items I wish they would add:

Additional recording formats

Ability to select which drive you want to use

Add Network Capabilities (has a network jack)

Change items from menu (has buttons for a menu, just don't do anything)

Ability to delete files from unit

WOULD LOVE to be able to record on one drive and play back from another at the same time.

WOULD LOVE dual recording or playback (unit has multiple outputs of the same thing)

WOULD LOVE monitor output to have timecode overlay and possibly with audio levels

WOULD LOVE to see more than 2 channels of audio instead of just 1-2

Overall, recommended. Hoping they add a lot more functionality in the future (should be easy, the hardware is there, just need a software update).

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There are a few mixed reviews on the HyperDeck Studio. They range from great to not so great. I think the unit does just fine at it's intended purpose, recording a high quality master video stream straight to disk. I use mine with the recommended Crucial M4 256G SSD disks. They work great with it. 2 hours of recording time per 256gig drive. I use a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex FireWire 800 adapter STAE102 or Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Cable USB 3.0 STAE104 to read the SSD drives. You could also use a generic 2.5" SATA dock to read the disks. You'll want to delete or format the drives after each use so that the recorder has a fresh, blank disk to record onto. There isn't any utility on the recorder to erase or format the drives.

Blackmagic recently (Q1/2013) updated the firmware of the HyperDeck adding exFAT filesystem support. This means that windows users can format and read disks natively used in the recorder. Previously the system only recognized Mac formatted disks.

Pros:

**NEW** exFAT file format support for cross platform Windows users.

Apple ProRes 422 HQ video straight to disk, other formats are available.

Built in video confidence monitor showing video format and 1+2 audio levels.

Silent, cool operation.

Auto detection and display of incoming format.

Auto spillover from one disk to another when disk 1 fills up.

HDMI and SDI outputs are both active always so you can use as a confidence output.

Very responsive record, play, FF, REW and jog controls. You could use this as an instant replay unit as the jog controller is first rate.

Cons:

No way to delete clips or format drives on recorder.

My unit recording at 720p creates new, consecutive files every 3:12 (is that a bug or a feature?) I prefer this, actually as they edit together seamlessly.

Always records 16 channels of audio regardless of if audio is present or not.

Firmware seems half baked with missing features (format and clip erase needed badly).

Ethernet port has absolutely no function (please add remote control over ethernet, Blackmagic!!!).

Some front panel buttons don't have any function.

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Panamax M10-HT-PRO Home Theater Management

Don't buy it from Amazon thinking that it's going to provide insurance for your equipment. Panamax

will not honor that protection for their products bought online except from a list of authorized

dealers, which can be found at panamax.com. I do wish this had been mentioned somewhere in the

product description or even on the outside of the packaging, instead I found it in the fine print

of the little booklet packed with the unit, after my husband spent some hours carefully attaching

everything. It's a good unit, but if you, like I, are buying one of these with the insurance as

a feature partially justifying the expense over cheaper protectors, get it somewhere else.

Many folks on here talk about the power strip, it's size, whether or not it actually improves sound quality, etc. Well, I agree it is big, heavy. Build quality from the outside appears to be top notch. But one unnoticed/misunderstood, but very useful feature is the 12v Triggering capability. The bank of three outlets nearest to the power switch (opposite end to the coax connections) can be (switchable) controlled by a 12v triggering mechanism. For folks who have remotely placed HT components such as sub-woofer, power amplifiers, etc. this a tremendous value. Running a 12v trigger cable (25ft Ir Emitter 3.5mm Mono Extension Cable By Infrared Resources) from the back of your HT receiver/pre-pro to this unit, will trigger those remote components on/off as needed, without you have to either a) leave them on all the time, or b) have to remember turn them on/off. This one feature is in itself worth the price of this unit, which is frequently discounted 50+% here on Amazon. Comparable 12v triggering devices from Niles CS12V Current-sensing 12-volt trigger and XANTECH AC1 Controlled AC Outlet run well above the price of this unit, and do not also have the ability act as surge suppressors and/or power conditioner in themselves. All in all, for those who are looking for this type of functionality, as I was, this represents a huge value.

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After doing some research on different power centers/conditioners, I ended up deciding on this one based on a few things.

First off, the price. I'm glad I got it when I did, it was a little cheaper during the gold box deal. I knew I didn't want to spend $200+ on a power conditioner at this point. It was an upgrade from the 8-outlet Belkin surge protector (which featured no clean power feature). Secondly, I wanted to get better audio and video performance (which it delivered). And finally, I wanted more reassurance that my components were safe from a surge. Since Panamax is a highly respected brand in the Home Theater world, this fit the bill perfectly.

Since other reviewers have done a fantastic job of describing the physical unit, I will focus this review more on the audio and video improvements I've experienced.

The video is improved quite a bit it seems like a layer was taken off of the front of the screen, much like looking through a window after it's been cleaned with Windex (but don't use Windex on your TV!). There is less noise than there was before. Even my wife saw a big improvement, and she can't tell much difference between Blu-ray and DVD.

The audio is also greatly improved. It has a similar effect to what the video was: it sounds that much clearer. You could swear the sounds were in the room and not coming from the speakers. We watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon on Blu-ray and the fight scenes sounded more clear than before.

I would highly recommend this to those who have the space for it. The video/audio improvement is worth it alone! Take the time, measure and make sure it will fit where your TV/home theater is. Then get this power center!

Equipment and Plug Location:

PS3: Filtered

Receiver: Filtered

Samsung HDTV: Digital Video

Subwoofer: Delayed

DVD Player: Normal

VCR: Normal

Cable Box: Normal

EDIT: I forgot to mention one more nice feature of this power center. It has two diamond shaped cut outs on the back side of the strip, so it is wall mountable. I know that at some point I will make good use of that and mount it behind the TV, out of sight!

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This is my 4th Panamax product and I love them all. I live in FL where lightning and power surges happen frequently. Sometimes the power will go on an off 4 times in a row from the power company. Lightning hits always seem close. The surge protectors react immediately and shut down power until power comes back. All my electronics have survived. Prior to going on a buying binge with panamax, a lightning hit blew out a High Def DVD player, receiver and a cable signal amplifier. I took 3 months to get the receiver fixed properly with a dozen trips to the electronic repair shop that was 25 miles away. Very frustrating and something I would not wish on anyone. I've seen all my panamax units react well with power surges (nearby power transformers cycling on and off) and nearby lightning hits. Nothing will protect your electronics from a direct lightning hit, but so far panamax technology has dealt well with nearby hits. I highly recommend panamax products.

P.S. I've read comments on the large size of this unit. When I saw it for the first time, I just smiled ear to ear. I loved the large size and design of the power surge protection strip. Go figure.

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I play electric guitar with numerous effects pedals and one amp for guitar as well as another one for vocals. Everything was plugged into either the wall outlets or a power strip. I had HUGE problems with ground loops, which would cause unlistenable amounts of hum, hiss and buzz to come from my amps. I found that the only thing that worked for me in reducing all the noise was to whittle my system down to the two most essential and noise-less pedals, but I still had some hiss and I missed having all the other cool effects to play with. Then a friend got me one of these, and I bought a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2 Plus to power the pedals instead of using AC adapters. Oh my God, night and day difference! I have tons of effects pedals back in the chain now, and I can go from a screaming monstrous roar to instant dead silence just by muting the strings on my guitar with my hand. Amazing! This thing makes me love playing guitar again. I highly recommend the Panamax M10-HT PRO -and the Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2 Plus -for any musician who plays through electrical gear and has issues with unwanted noise getting into their system. The Panamax is bulky and expensive, but it is no ordinary power strip and it is well worth the extra coin.

12 ft Premium S/PDIF Digital Toslink Optical Audio Cable w/ Protective Jacket TT-80C-12

This product works great. This replaced RCA cables from my TV to my stereo. The RCA cables hummed a lot when you turned up the sound. With this cable there is no hum only clear sound. The cable feels and looks nice. Almost a shame it is hidden. It clicked into place nicely.

I have three of these in my setup: One connecting my TV (for the ATSC tuner's audio output) to an optical switch, one connecting my computer to the switch, and one connecting the switch to my receiver.

They all work great in all modes (DD 5.1, DD 2ch, DTS 5.1, LPCM 2ch).

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I bought this cable to connect my Logitech audio system to my computer. I got a perfect snap on both ends and great sound coming from my speakers.

The cable looks really elegant and high tech, so if run it were it will be visible you'll have a great plus there. I've been using it for several months without a problem.

Overall this is a high quality cable and I'm glad I purchased it.

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I've had no problems. I have had this product for a few months now, the quality of sound is great.

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Visual Land V-Touch 16 GB Video MP3 Player with 2.8-Inch Touchscreen and 2-Megapixel Camera (Black)

• 16 GB capacity for about 4000 songs
• 6 hours of audio on a single charge
• 2.8-inch color LCD touch screen
• Supports MP3, WMA, and WAV audio formats; AVI, MP4 and 3GP video formats; and JPG, BMP and GIF image formats
• One-year limited warranty

Got this fairly cheap for about $75 but the quality is worth even less than the low cost. Biggest complaint is the sound quality. If you have average ears, there is a very noticeable static noise in the background. Sounds like the radio when it has a weak signal. Tried 4 different headsets to make sure but they all do the same background noise. This annoying sound is worse than cassette tapes after it's been dropped a hundred times on concrete floor.

On top of the background noise, when playing mp3s, there is a very slight distortion like the wrong pitch.

Another complaint is the volume setting. On middle setting it is way too loud. I had to set it at 1/10 volume which compares to 5/10 on other mp3 players.

Changing the volume is a big pain. You have to touch the sound icon, and you have less than 2 seconds to change the sound before it goes back to the previous screen. Since the touch response is slow, I use the +/buttons to change it.

Touch screen is fairly responsive, not fast, more like need to double click and wait a second or two before the selection happens.

They give you a stylus pen but there is no holder for it.

A cheap cotton bag comes with it but just holds the charger and ear sets.

Tried the camera, it's blurry, even worse than a cell phone camera. Make sure you have a very steady hand. Can't zoom, rotate, or do anything with the pictures.

Video movie files have to be converted to a lower quality to play on it.

This can support mini sd. That's old technology, but you can buy an adapter for micro sd to mini sd.

Only thing good about this player is it looks like the ipod touch as long as you don't touch the screen when you turn it on or try to listen to any music.

It also has external mono speaker, but my cheap free cell phone can still outperform this. Oh and turning it on is a laugh too. To turn it on you have to slide a switch to the right for 2 seconds. To turn it off, you slide the switch to the right for 2 seconds.

There are no games for this. Their website also said there are none.

There are many other problems with navigating and finding songs once copied into the player.

They have a calendar and clock, a text reader (only .txt files), video recorder, sound recorder, I haven't tried those but there are just too many problems to even get that far to try. Actually I don't even want to know about how they are gonna mess them up too.

I guess I'll go back and keep using my $10 2gb sandisk mp3 player since it is way better quality than this one until I find another one. Disappointed that I'm stuck with the product and don't know what to do with it.

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DO NOT BUY, JUNK, WILL NOT WORK ON WINDOWS VISTA. CAN NOT CALL FOR HELP, EMAIL ONLY WAIT DAYS FOR REPLY. CHARGED BATTERY AND SCREEN SHOWS "PLEASE WAIT" BE WAITING FOR 24 HOURS. POOR USER MANUAL NO HELP, UNIT WILL NOT TURN OFF. WAITING TO SEND BACK WILL NOT BUY FROM THIS COMPANY AGAIN

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I contacted the saler of the product and he was more than happy to repair or exchange product for me and was very apologetic for my inconvenience.

Philips SA238/17 256 MB Digital Audio Player

• 256 MB digital music player with MP3 and WMA compatibility
• 128 MB of built-in memory and 128 MB Secure Digital memory card
• Stores up to 8 hours of high-quality music
• Digital FM tuner with 10 presets; digital voice recording
• Expandable memory slot; shockproof housing

This unit has surprisingly good features for the discounted price that I paid (sub-$100). Decent audio, light weight, acceptable supplied earbuds, and handy neckstrap + armband made a good package. Pluses are that it can be used to hold data files as well as mp3 as a mass storage device. Also, the FM tuner is pretty good.

128 MB SD card limitation DOES NOT apply on my unit, however it is not explained how to make it function with larger cards. Simply hold the center button down until the unit powers up! For the supplied 128MB card it only takes a couple of seconds, but, for a 1GB card, it takes up to 8 seconds or so, but it will work if you are patient. My guess is that the player has to build a database of files on the card before powering up completely, and the processor is a little slow. 1.128 GB of storage gives a lot of files to listen to during the day.

Cons are that the batteries do not last more than about 10 hours if it includes time consumed by much moving of data to/from the unit with the USB transfer. Also, the latch that keeps the back cover on does not seem to hold too tightly, but I have not had a problem with it, yet.

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This is my 2nd Mp3 player. My first is a San Disk Mp3 Companion which worked fine but has some of the same problems as this one. First this unit does sound good and the addition of the FM tuner and the Voice recorder is a nice touch. If you buy this for Mp3 listening, you need to realize there are limitations. My biggest problem is getting a playlist to work or even get an album to play in proper order. Here is an example of the order I have saved in Windows:

Black Sabbath 01 Turn Up the Night

Black Sabbath 02 VooDoo

Black Sabbath 03 Sign of the Southern Cross

Black Sabbath 04 E5150

Black Sabbath 05 The Mob Rules

Black Sabbath 06 Country Girl

Black Sabbath 07 Falling of the Edge of the World

Black Sabbath 08 Slipping Away

Black Sabbath 09 Over and Over

After syncing with the Philips Rush here is the order it plays:

6Country Girl

5The Mob Rules

9Over and Over

7Falling of the Edge of the World

1Turn Up the Night

2VooDoo

3Sign of the Southern Cross

4E5150

8Slipping Away

The limitations are frustrating and Philips customer service is a joke. I talked to 5 different people last weekend all giving me dead end solutions. Some reps were giving info that was contradicting other reps. One said this unit doesn't support playlists, yet the product manual decribes a step by step process (that doesn't work at all by the way)to create a playlist under Music Match software. The most laughable was a rep said keep checking on their website for firmware upgrades, since they are always coming out with new updates. Last upgrade was August 2004!!! Over a year ago!!! Looks like they aborted this baby...

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Purchased for use @ healthclub. Upgraded the drivers and works like a charm. Allows me to download unlike other users and plays exactly the songs I want. If people actually READ instructions, bad reviews on good products would not happen. I have used several other brand SD cards w/o issue as well. My only problem is switching songs because I have big fingers, but simply reprogramming my card to delete the songs I dont want works for me. Battery life is amazing. Its on week 3 with one simple AAA. We are purchasing a second one for my husbands use. The SOUND IS incredible! Comes with software you dont need as well but are nice to have. Just drag and drop songs onto memory card!

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I bought this item and started downloading all my music, but the only problem is, it will not let me download music to the memory card! I filled the internal memory with music, but can't get anything else to load. Any suggestions??

Otherwise, I LOVE this player. Sounds really great, and I can even use it in the car. Much better than hunting for CD's!

i read all the reviews on this page before i bought the mp3 player. well, i didn't see to many bad reviews so i bought it-big mistake! i have had two problems with this device. one, when i store songs on it it still does not recognize them. i went through my browser and opened the 2 mass storage devices to see if they were actually empty. all of the songs i downloaded to the mp3 player were listed-and yes they were all in mp3 file format. then a few days later it magically recognized them and started playing. now it has returned to its original non functioning state. when i turn it on it says, NO FILES! another problem i had with the device was with the SD card. i called Philips and they told me they just discovered in some units the SANDISK card does not work. well i guess i am just lucky! when i save songs to my sd card drive everything shuts off now. when i try and play only songs from my card only option, the mp3 player shuts off! so, buy it at your own risk, believe me i know how to read the instructions and even when i called Philips they acknowledged there are some problems. so i do not recommend that anybody buy this mp3 player.

Harman Kardon AVR 1565 5.1-channel, 70-Watt Audio/Video Receiver with HDMI v.1.4a ,3-D

• 70 watts X 5 with high-current and ultrawide bandwith capability for accurate, dynamic sound
• Three HDMI v.1.4a inputs with 3-D and Deep Color
• Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio decoding for the latest playback from hi-resolution sources like Bluray
• Exclusive Harman Kardon Logic 7 processing for an encompassing 360 degree soundfield
• Extensive audio/video connectivity for today's latest source devices

I purchased this from Amazon for a great price and it arrived in one day delivery although I only paid for 2 day delivery. Thank you Amazon.

This AVR replaces my Sony of comparable product. I have a comprehensive speaker system with polk and jbl and two sub woofers. The Sony sounded fine even though I am an audiophile from a long line of vacum tube amplifiers. I upgraded to this Harman Kardon AVR because I need more component connections. Not knowing the sound was so much better. This AVR has such terrific sound. I was really impressed by the open sound, great clarity between low and high. There are so much timbre that resonates.

I only opted for the default Harman Kardon Logic 7 surround sound effect. It was great. I am so glad I choose to make this upgrade. It is well worth the money for such terrific sound improvement. Definitely 5 stars, highly recommend.

Update Feb.11,2013

I like this AVR so much I bought a second one. I found this AVR has a power switch in the back so that I can connect both my AVR to the same system of speakers and still be independent. This way I have a lot of flexible of using both of my AVRs. The appearance of the AVR is like an art display instead of the usual switch board style, very pleasing. The unit has strong binding posts for speakers that allows also banana plugs instead of just filmsy clips like Sony any other products in this price range. The Amazon price make this purchase a terrific deal. Thank you Amazon for an excellent product at a very reasonable price.

Buy Harman Kardon AVR 1565 5.1-channel, 70-Watt Audio/Video Receiver with HDMI v.1.4a ,3-D Now

I bought this unit to replace an Onkyo TX-SR707 A/V that took a dump after only 2 1/2 years.I'll have to admit that i was leery about buying another A/V receiver. I was quite surprised when i first heard the quality of the sound.It far surpassed the onkyo.Not only in sound but in ease of setting up.The only thing this unit does not have is a phono input,This was just a matter of buying an external phono pre-amp.After doing so i was very pleased with the sound of my vinyl records.If you are a die hard vinyl fan and also want a A/V receiver at a reasonable price then this is the unit for you! This receiver at only 70 watts per channel delivers a crisp yet warm sound with a punch that suprised me.I feel this unit is fantastic! I would recommend this receiver to anyone that is looking for quality at a reasonable price.

Read Best Reviews of Harman Kardon AVR 1565 5.1-channel, 70-Watt Audio/Video Receiver with HDMI v.1.4a ,3-D Here

Does everything I need it to do. It is big. Looks great sounds better! We upgraded from an Onkyo we had since 2000 and the sound quality is amazing!

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For some looking for a 5.1 this pretty hard to beat. This was on my wish list for about a month when it went on sale for $198. Well from $333 to $198 was a no brainer and I ordered it that night thinking it might go back out or they'd run out. If you don't need or want networking then this is a great way to go. Plenty of clean power to drive the wife and cats from the room and enough connection for TV, Blu-Ray, CD player, VHS player plus. The remote is learning and it learned all of my remotes so that is huge plus.

My only downside is the feet are a rubber that don't slide well on glass so will cut furniture gliders to fit under. Don't let 'Made in China"scare you way what isn't? Yes am sure one or two slip by quality control buy this thing feels like it's built well.

For this a return to audio after 15 years of concentrating on computer hardware so it's a slight learning curve and I'm Lovi' It!

I'm down grading this for now, no menu and making adjustments without an onscreen menu is a royal pain. Also I can find no way to set speakers at large, medium or small and I believe the receiver defaults to large and I have small. Have unplugged everything, let it sit two days and followed their directions to the T and still no menu. Plugging a CD player in with headphones or using very old JLB 100's it sounds very good but I need to use the Energy 5 Pack along with a JBL sub. Sorta disappointed and have tech coming out to have a look.

Update: Menu is working so adjustments can be made for speaker size (and yes it made a huge difference). Menu is very slow, most likely hand shake problems. Had outside tech here trying to set things up, unplugged several times and menu appeared as he was about to give up, we just looked at each other. Although this seems to work this has been a huge disappointment as far the amount of time it has taken to set up. I've added one star just on the menu appearing and the clean sound this receiver delivers.

A for appearance

A for accepting banana plugs

A for connections including the future use USB

C for when making menu adjustments during play back

D+ for HDMI switching (slow slow)

B for TOSLINK (needs two)

3/06/13

Don't know why but everything is what I would call normal. It switches between devices the first time without the need for going back and forth to get something to work. It was like the TV's menu and receive's menu were not working together and they were never used at the same time. Still a little slow getting to the receiver menu but it's less than half the time at the beginning and far better than NO menu.

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Clear, clean, open sound with good bottom end. lotta bang for the buck. Powering Ohm I 's front, large Polk center, small Sony rear channels. The Deep Color seems to enhance the TV picture on Vizio 60" Smart TV. I was able to program the Uverse remote to change channels, volume and on, but will not turn unit off. Panel lights are dim-able but power light is not, bright and annoying. Radio tuner works well but I do not use it. I still have not gone through every function yet and will up date if warranted.

Sony DVP CX875P DVD changer

• Features include CD-R/CD-RW, DVD-R/DVD+RW, DVD-RW (Video Mode), and MP3 playback

I love the Sony 300 + 1 DVD player!! My original reason for wanting this DVD player was for space saving. While some may think that a 300 disc changer is extravagant, it really has lots of practical applications. Our home is very small and we had no place to store all of the VCR tapes that we had accumulated. They ended up in the coat closet in a box. So, everytime we wanted to watch a movie we had to drag the very heavy box out of the closet and dig through it to get the movie we wanted. Often, this resulted in deciding it wasn't worth the effort.

With the Sony 300+1 DVD player, all of the DVDs are inside of the player. I don't have to dig them out, find them, or set up. I just use the remote to turn on the DVD player, call up the menu, and select a movie. It is sooo easy! Did I mention that I don't have to waste space storing VCR tapes?

Some other neat features of this DVD player:

-recognizes the titles of some movies (depending on the DVD), so you don't have to program it

-for the ones that you do have to program, it is really easy, you can either use the remote control, or hook up a keyboard to the front of the DVD player

-four 'folders' are provided in the software so that you can organize your titles however you like, ex. by genre

-plus much, much more

This DVD player is very easy to use and program. Unlike the case in some homes, the wife (me) wanted this purchase. Though technically challenged, I have had no problem using this DVD player at all.

Another great feature of this DVD player is that because you don't ever handle your DVDs (unless you actually have more than 300, but not too many people do), they never get scratched! Or lost! It's great! If you are shopping for a DVD player, this is the one to get. Don't bother with anything else.

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The SONY 300 disc DVD jukebox has more features than most people will want to take the trouble to learn to use. It holds 300 discs plus one in an "EZ play" slot for easily inserting rented discs. The machine has a slow and complicated process for entering the information about the disc on the on-screen folder display. The contol buttons are unresponsive. Pressing any button on the remote or the front display is followed by an annoying pause during which you're uncertain if it will perform the function requested. It is possible to capture an on-screen image from the DVD to use as a label for the discs listing. Switching from play mode to displaying the folders showing all the discs contained in the player is very slow. The disc being played is ejected from the play postion and put back in the rack. There is a delay of ten seconds befoer the folder listings appear. I can seen no reason why this can't be done instantly. The player is able to flip a "flipper" disc, a feature I have never seen on any other DVD player before, it will do so automatincally if you put the disc in the wrong way. The player has an annoying on screen display the often says "Function prohibited by disc," for example when you want to see the main menu during the FBI warning. Other functions are adjusted through a confusing multi-level menu.

About one-third of my DVDs were able to fill out the folder listings automatically, all others needed a tedious several minutes long process to enter the disc's information. Despite these numerous complaints and shortcomings, it's still easier than having to get up and look at the spines of DVD jewel boxes on your shelf, pick one out and load it into your single-disc layer

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I purchased this DVD player with the same utopian dreams everyone else had; I can put all my DVDs in one convenient place, quickly scroll thorugh the menu and find the movie I want to play, and put all my DVD cases in a box in the garage.

I can put all my DVDs in one place, but there is nothing quick or convenient about it. First of all, the title line in the menu is ridiculously short. Only the short titles fit. For example, "Blow" is not a problem, but if you want to put in the title "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" you will have to enter it as "P/T and Autos"...that is all you have room for. What is even more aggravating is that some discs automatically load the title. Those discs not only get more room on the title line, but also get a second line below the tile. Heaven forbid the general public get the same number of characters to work with. In addition, the discs that do automatically load the titles load as for example "The Best of Friends" or "The Big Lebowski" so you do not find "The Big Lebowski" in the "Bs" you have to go to the "Ts" and scroll through the endless number of titles that start with "The". What makes it worse is that you can not go in and change the titles on the discs that automatically load. You are stuck with the title that is loaded. Some discs will even load as for example "Directors Cut Basic Instinct" so once again instead of going to the "Bs" I have to find "Basic Instinct" in the "Ds". Is it just me or should someone have thought of that before releasing this?

There is also a feature in the menu that lets you enter a frame from the movie. On the discs that automatically load, often times it will load the disc cover in the frame. Unfortunately, many of the movies just load scrambled nothing-ness. "Rocky IV" loaded as a green blob with a red frame. That might be cool in a modern art museum, but not in my menu screen.

Regarding the disc loading. It is as though an "evil spirit" possesses the machine periodically and decides to hide a DVD somewhere else. One disc will end up being put in an entirely different slot. I then have to manually find the disc and put it back and for some reason tiles just disappear. I can not tell you how many times I have lost information I have loaded. Mechanically speaking, the loader does not work either. I am to the point that if I want to watch disc #100 I have to manually remove disc #99 or it will not load.

Something else that bothers me is all the propaganda out there that this player plays both sides of the disc. Mine certainly does not. When I come to the end of side one, it loads the next disc...sometimes. Otherwise it locks up and I get an error code.

My machine also has a bad optical sensor. Need I say more. It is off to the repair man I go. I wonder if the electronics repair man can fix sledge-hammer damage?

I would like to know who at Sony decided to release this plague upon the world...I would also like the two Saturdays of my life back that I spent programming and loading all the titles...and my money back...but that will not happen because my 1 year warranty ran out. How convenient.

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Awesome storage capacity. Sony. Does it get any better? I don't think so! It is so nice just to be able to scroll through your movie list and not to have to mess with jacket covers and the like. Here is a little tip, I keep the covers in a plastic 8 1/2 X 11" sheet protector in a three ring binder for reference. Not that much difference in price. Definitely worth it!!

I have purchased the CX 860 and have purchased two of the CX875P and all of them continue to have the same problem with the opitcal sensor going bad (the sensor that reads the dvd). I have had two of the units already repaired and they are broke again and the last one I purchased 6 months ago just broke last week and now I am sending that one in to be repaired. I am tried of repairing these things. I was smart this time and bought the extended warranty on the dvd player, but the previous two I did not. I wonder why they want us to buy that extended warranty? because they know that these things are crap. I was told it was just bad luck (from a Sony Rep) that all three have had the same problem.....I don't think it is bad luck...I think there is something wrong with these dvd players

Jazz DV151/152 VGA Digital Video Camera (Black)

We found the "Jazz DV151" pocket camcorder at one of the big box stores for somewhat less than the current retail price on Amazon. At roughly 1/2 to 1/3rd the price of the Flip Video Ultra Series Camcorder, 60-Minutes (White), it seemed to be worth the risk of buying it as a backup pocket camcorder. Here are my observations:

Pros:

* Acceptable video quality *FOR THE PRICE* it is only 320x240, not even VGA (the Flip wins hands down)

* Very good microphone this was real surprise, the microphone is more sensitive than the Flip

* Has built in USB connector Like the Flip, but only USB 1.1

* Comes with a USB extension cable!

* Works as a SD card reader when connected to PC via USB (see above)

* Has Video Out can be connected to a TV for playback, cables included

* 1.5" LCD screen can rotate for convenient viewing while self recording (the Flip cannot)

* Saves files in AVI format No conversion needed

Cons:

* Low video quality it is 320x240 (but again good for the price)

* Does not come with any memory You must buy a SD card (up to 2GB) before using

Misc:

* Uses 2 AA batteries (not included)

So for a really inexpensive camcorder, with YouTube usable quality, this is a fairly good option. For use in any meaningful way, not so much.

Add or subtract another star depending on what you wanna use this camera for.

This camera is PRETTY MUCH all I personally would ever need. It's light, can be hidden well, durable (I've dropped it a few times and it works fine), and it looks/sounds great, especially in natural lighting. I've shot two feature-length movies with this camera, and I edit all the footage on the camera using VirtualDub, and I get nothing but compliments about the way my pictures look and sound. Of course, the sound has to be edited a bit on the computer, the mic in the camera is REALLY sensitive. Which is a problem, if there are long moments of silence, you will hear the camera running really loudly as well, but again, all this can be fixed by taking your videos into a computer.

So, if you're looking for a professional camera and have some experience with video editing, this camera is actually quite good. However, if you want an idiot-proof camera that shoots in HD and does all sorts of fancy effects, obviously this isn't what you want. For people who just want to film home videos and stuff, this camera is quite good as well.

I still have a few problems with this. One, it's a battery-sucker from Hell. It can record 2 hours and 6 minutes but I usually only record about 40 minutes before it's time to change batteries. I'm using nice batteries, too! I dunno if this is the norm for digital cameras, but it seems a bit excessive. Two, you can zoom with this, and the zoom is decent, sure, but you can't zoom WHILE recording. Isn't that the POINT? To zoom, while recording, into an object? So, if you want to do some dramatic zooming stuff, you'll have to record the video... stop recording... zoom... then hit record again. Why?!

Another problem for me -probably not for you -is the red light. I realize a lot of cameras have a red light. Can I just paint over this light? (if someone could reply and let me know that'd be great -maybe I should put some tape over it?) This won't be a problem for a lot of people, but it annoys me, it will reflect in mirrors, it will reflect if you're trying to record footage off of a TV or a computer, and it's just kinda ugly. The screen itself (a very handy flip-out screen) tells you in red when it's recording, why do we need a light?

One thing that I really enjoy about this camera is that it uses USB 1.1. I'm using an older computer without a USB 2.0, so being able to hook it up to this old crappy computer is quite nice. More peripherals should be compatible with older USB ports.

You will probably eventually grow sick of the look of the videos if you film enough (I've probably filmed 4 hours of footage in the past two months with this thing), but again, you can easily throw the videos into a video editing program and spruce 'em up.

I personally love this camera, and for the ridiculously cheap price ($24 at Big Lots for a while, $27 for a while at Wal-Mart), it's 100% worth it. I hope they come out with a new model that allows zoom AS you record and somehow allows a longer battery life; then, this would be an easy 5 stars. Everyone I've showed this camera to has been surprised by how good the picture looks and sounds. Note that it doesn't look/sound very good when played back on the camera, but when you put it on a computer you WILL be surprised, especially with videos recorded in natural lighting.

*NOTE*: I recently acquired a JAZZ DV152 (also known as a JAZZ T20 Camrcorder), and it fixes almost all the problems I had with this model. For one, you can zoom as you record. It won't let you record more than 39 minutes at a time, even with a 2gb card, but the battery life lasts a lot longer. You can take up to 9999 pictures with it, and the pictures look quite good -they have sort of a VHS quality to them, as do the videos themselves (which is quite an improvement from the webcam quality of the previous model). Sound seems about the same, though it seems like you don't hear as much ticking in the camera itself from the motor running, so that's great. An improvement.

Buy Jazz DV151/152 VGA Digital Video Camera (Black) Now

This was a gift for my daughter. She loves it! It is a great first camcorder. My daughter is 11 and plays on it all day. The only thing is is don't move too fast but other then that it works great for the price.

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Before you buy the Jazz DV151 pocket camcorder check for the camera at Wal-Mart. You can purchase this item much cheaper there.I also saw this camera at a local drurg store much cheaper then Amazon. I over paid for this product and it's not as good as the Flip pocket camcorder. If you want to buy a toy for your children then this camera will work but if you're looking for a pocket camcorder for an adult keep looking.

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This camera is fine for children, but two problems arise:

1. The buttons are not "noiseless" and the click is recorder along with your target audio.

2 The microphone is weak and there is no place for an external mic.

The FLIP is more expensive, but the HD quality and features are worth it.

I use the JAZZ with my first and second graders. They can use it and if they drop it....it is only 40$.