Digital-Audio Reviews

These speakers sound like crap. I have a pair of old $12.00 Kenyo's that sound better. Do yourself a favor and spend a nother $40.00 and buy the Klipsch and get some REAL speakers!! Almost any of the lower end 2.1's will sound as good if not better than these.

I purchased the I-Trigue 3300's to replace my Bose MediaMate's because my deskspace was getting very tight with an LCD monitor, 2 cell phone chargers, 2 PDA cradles, a lamp, and alarm clock. The slim and sleek design, matched with a subwoofer and generous frequency range seemed to be a fantastic combination. But as I found out, you really need to HEAR a set of speakers to really decide what you like.

DESIGN: 5 STARS
The silver die-cast material used on the casing is very attractive and feels very well-built. The black speaker covers can be removed to give it an even better look.

SOUND: 3 STARS
The I-Trigue 3300's are ALL treble and bass. The midrange is nearly non-existant and for each PC application, I need to set the equalizer settings, which I didn't have to do with my Bose speakers. (...). In iTunes, the setting that worked best for me is the "Pop" EQ setting.

REMOTE: 5 STARS
The wired remote is very handy with a volume/power control, headphone jack, and bass level dial. The bass level dial is a VERY much appreciated design change from the old speakers where the bass controls were located on the back of the subwoofer! There is a cool indigo LED on the remote to indicate that the speakers are powered on.

VALUE: 2 STARS
The I-Trigue is a pretty expensive 2.1 setup considering that the fidelity derived from these speakers are not up to par with the competition. (...)

SUMMARY...
These attractive, space-saving speakers are a big jump from those crappy little Harmon Kardon's you got with your system. With an 80watt total system power rating, it'll pump up the bass and provide loud, shaking music and gaming effects. (...)

Because I use a Terk Leapfrog device to transmit my satellite TV signal from the living room to an old 13" TV in the kitchen, I wanted to connect a good audio device to the AV outputs on the Leapfrog receiver to get the best sound possible. The narrow footprint (1 3/4" wide) of these I-Trigues were perfect for the small space I had on either side of the TV, which sits on a small microwave cart, and the look was more stylish than any others I'd seen. I was more than pleased with how sturdy all the components felt, and was then blown away by the quality of sound these little things crand out. Keep in mind, I'm transmitting this sound across my house over a wireless device! The bass from the subwoofer blends quite nicely with the sound from the speakers, providing good, balanced sound imaging. If I have any complaints, the audio signal from the headphone connection on the remote is a little weak, especially when compared to the great sound coming directly from the speakers.

Weighing in and sizing up as to be no larger than a regular deck of playing cards, the Nomad IIc is a great little MP3 player. It is packaged with a single software CD, USB cable, and 1 battery. Yup, no headphones.

Once you have the player setup, it's ease of use is straight forward. The screen is backlit and there are different setting options to help you maximize player feedback. Out of the package, this player supports both MP3 and WMA (however I am finding WMA's a bit more picky to set up). The onboard 32MB of memory will support roughly 40min of music if ripped at 160Kbps. You can rip in the range between 20 and 320kbps (CD quality is roughly 128). The higher your setting, the more memory is used, hence less music you can store. So I suggest buying a Smart Media chip to increase memory if you want to listen to anymore than 45 minutes worth at a time. The open end of the firmware will allow you to upgrade to future codecs (so Creative says).

The player also has a built in microphone for voice recordings in which you convert later to .wav, .wma, or mp3.

I found the onboard menu's pretty easy to navigate. If you can operate a modern microwave or alarm clock, you can operate this player.

The nice thing I think aboout when it comes to Smart Media cards, is that there are no moving parts. Unlike small hard drives or discs, there is no wear or tear on internal parts.

Now the software on the other hand is a bit of a disappointment. Upon opening the package there is no manual. You actually have to install the CD-ROM and Adobe Acrobat to get to the manual .pdf files. Also there are some programs on the disc that have no description on what they do, or why they were included so I am at a loss on whether I want to load them or not. Basically you only need to load the IIc driver and player software in order to use your Nomad, all others seem to be fluff. At the very least Creative could have supplied a one page document explaining what exactly the 6 programs on the disc do.

The Creative Play Center, while serves it purpose, could have been much more robust. If all you want to do is tranfer files from PC to Nomad, or rip CD's, its very painless and straightforward. Third party software like Real's Jukebox or WinAmp does a much better job in organizing your MP3 library and making changes. The changes you can make in the included software are basic at best and really limit full control over your music library. The manual is also buried on the disc and while explanations are adequate, it lacks depth. For a computer/MP3 newbie, this could prove a little challenging and overwhelming, you may want to look at other software music organizers. Overall the disc is not too user friendly.

This is the first MP3 player I have owned and i am extremely satisfied. My friend has the Nomad 2 so i knew that the Creative Labs digital audio line was a good one. I decided to get the Nomad IIc and an extra 32mb card. This makes the Nomad IIc just the same as the Nomad II if you allready have headphones and you dont want the extra FM radio feature. Why pay 50 bucks for headphones and a radio? I convert all my files to wma at 64kbps to get 32 songs onto my player with the extra 32mb card. This is below CD quality but I cant tell the difference and you get an extra hour of music. The software is also great! It is so simple to use. It only takes about 5 minutes to get a fresh 30 or so new songs onto the player. No moving parts meens no skipping. All around--- a good choice.

I've had the Nomad IIc for about three months and couldn't be more pleased. It's extremely light weight, it's durable, dependable, easy to operate and the quality of the sound is wonderful. The software was easy to load and easy to use. Downloading into the IIc is a snap. I had a 128m card in the desk drawer when I got the IIc and immediately filled it will music. I also had a couple of 64m cards from a previous I-Jam player that I gave away (piece of junk) and I filled those. Changing genres is easy...jazz on one care, blues on another, classic rock on yet another. Using the 128m card, plus the onboard memory, I can get about 3 hours of music into the little guy. You can pay a lot more and not get the features and quality of the IIc. It's a great product from a great company. If you get one, you will not be disappointed.

My first experience with a portable MP3 player was with a Bantam Interactive BA350...what a nightmare! That horrible experience taught me to ALWAYS research a product BEFORE buying it! So, I read, and read, and read all I could about numerous flash players, and the undisputed champ was the iAUDIO CW300. I prefer a flash player over a hard drive player because it's tiny and can fit in your shirt pocket. The CW300 can not only fit in your shirt pocket, it also comes packaged with a nifty armband and armband case, great for walking or running. Mine also came with a leather belt clip case, and even a cool little necklace so you can hang the player around your neck. I chose the option of Sennheiser MX400 earbuds with mine and they sound fantastic. All of the above are more than enough reasons to buy this gorgeous little thing, but wait, there's more!

SOUND QUALITY IS SECOND TO NONE!!!!! I guarantee you will not find better sound quality in ANY other MP3 player of any kind at ANY price!

Oh, did I mention that it also plays FM radio? It does, and reception is very good.

Plus, it's also a voice recorder. You can adjust the sensitivity and it will pick up soft spoken nearby conversations. Who would have thought this little beauty even has clandestine uses. Hardly anyone would ever guess it was a recorder unless you told them, but that wouldn't be any fun ;-)

Bottom Line, if you're looking for the best flash player available, the CW300 is the one...BUY IT!!!!!

I have a CW300 512MB and I'm fully satisfied.
... here are my comments:

- Sound Quality: VERY satisfing, all the spectrum is represented without noise. I had to buy the CW300 with Cresyn hearphones (the 512 Mb is not available with MX400 yet), then I went to a shop and bought MX400 for [price]. The MX400 are much better, you easily notice a far better bass reproduction.

- Output Power: with the internal hearphones there is plenty of power. I tried with external hearphones (I have Sony MDR-V3, quite old and I don't know the impedence) if you use the maximum power the sound is loud but tolerable. I would have liked some spare power, just in case you come across a low level MP3 when you are using big hearphones.

- Voice Recording: this was a surprise, the sentitivity of the microphone is really good. If you set it at "high" and if you turn on the volume of your hearphone to the maximum you can hear the faintest sound while recording, even your breath! It seems that your hearing capacity is enhanced by this amplification and the microphone has good directionality too.
Just an annoying little problem: when I touch the controls during recording, the backlight turns on and a high frequency hiss is heard (and recorded) until the light turns off. Maybe mine is a defective device, I'll ask iAudio.

- Radio: good quality but far from the MP3 quality. Here the problem is that once you get used to the very good quality of the MP3 player, it is very easy to criticize the quality of a FM receiver, intrinsically lower. The difference is worsened if you try to record one radio station with the recording functionality because the result is mono only.
Sometime I notice that the scan function tend to be too selective and to skip some good signal radio stations; for receiving all the stations you have to manually find them.

What I would have liked:

- a bookmark functionality to set points in long MP3, it may be useful if you are listening to an audio book and you want to switch to some music without loosing the possibility to come back to the point you have reached.
- you must store all the MP3 in 4 folders and this is good, but you are not allowed to store more then 64 files in each folder. This can be annoying if you have 512 MB of free space, potentially containing 140 songs, because you cannot keep all in one folder if you want to do so.

Overall I strongly recommend this player, everybody should have one (and iAudio and its competitors should lower the price).
...

Marco

I just received the CW-300 and we already have an I-Pod so all of our songs are on I-Tunes, however we run a PC (Windows XP)....DOES ANYONE KNOW...how to download to the I-Audio....from I-Tunes.....HELP!!..I like the product but need to figure out how to use it!!!....Thanks, CG

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This device works MUCH faster than connecting your camera directly to the laptop. For that reason alone its worth the price, but there's more...

I use this to allow me to take unlimited pictures when I'm on a trip. Fill up my CF card, copy all the images to the laptop, delete all the images from the CF card and start taking pictures again. When the card is full, I repeat the process - unlimited pictures! Why buy a larger capacity CF card when you can get this adapter for much less?

Another thing: Images from a camera are just computer files. I've used this adapter to turn my 32 MB compact flash card into a "disk drive". Once you put this CF card and adapter into the laptop's card slot, it shows up just like any other "disk drive".

So you can put the CF card/adapter in your home or offece desktop computer's card reader, use Windows Explorer to copy files (Word documents, spreadsheets, image files, or whatever) to the card, take the CF card out and move it over to the laptop - using this adapter. It makes the compact flash card act just like a high capacity disk drive! You can bring files home from work the same way, and the CF card fits in your wallet...
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I plugged this adapter into my new Dell Laptop and it brought up my CompactFlash card as an additional hard drive in Windows 2000, no software or additional drivers required.

I was then able to browse and even edit pictures on the card as if it were a disk drive. Truly amazing. All peripherals should be this easy to install and intuitive to use.

I use this product to move pictures from my camera to my computer. My primary purpose was to save my battery since it requires my camera to be on when downloading shots and I have a 256MB Compact Flash card.

Not only does it save my battery power by allowing me to put the CF card into my computer, but it downloads very quickly. I have had no problems with the unit and received the adapter from Viking earlier than I expected.

The Nokia 6600 is really just a glorified 3650: you know the 3650, those bulbous, formless, big phones a few unfortunate ATT customers are carrying around. The Nokia 660 runs the Symbian OS, which works pretty well for most standard phone fare, most of the stuff is not that intuitive, but if you actually learn how to use it all, there's plenty of neat tie-ins.

I've got mine to the point where it checks my pop e-mail, I can send videos and photos straight out to my contacts that have synced via Bluetooth with my Macintosh, and I can even control iTunes on my computer using a great program called "Sailing Clicker". However, I doubt many people will ever get that far.

The camera is decent, the videos are fun and pointless because of their low quality and short length, but the design of the phone is much friendlier than the 3650. The screen does get scratched up, but the phone is very durable. The battery life is also very decent.

This is a very cool phone if you know how to use it, but, for the casual phone user, I would wait for Nokia to really figure out their operating system. If you like this phone but can't stand the size, wait for the Nokia 7610, which has a 1.3 megapixel camera and is a much more standard, dare I say, svelte size.

I did lot of research before buying this phone and it paid off. Thanks to all the people posted reviews on amazon.com and it is my turn to post a review. First of all this is my first Nokia phone and I had a samsung phone earlier. These two companies are so much different in making their phones. First let me get down to the pros.

- Symbian OS. Excellent features. It has all the features I could ever think of and the UI is great.
- Display. with 65K colors the screen rocks.
- Connectivity. It has all the cutting edge connectivity(bluetooth, IR) I ever need( ofcourse I can crib on the lack of 802.11 and some other stuff but I want to be fair here). These are simple to use and very useful to transfer files.It syncs with outlook as well.
- Solid call quality. Call quality is extremely good. some times the signal is bad inside our home but I have checked with T-Mobile and it is T-Mobiles' fault. They don't guarnatee the coverage inside buildings.
- VGA camera. Nicely done camera for a phone.To be fair, Let's not compare canon S30 with this camera.
- video recorder is useful sometimes.
- Contacts has several customization options. You can store multiple numbers, change the label etc..
- Solid battery life.

Those are the big pros of this phone and now it is my chance to crib..

- Bulky. I don't know what Nokia is thinking. The form factor could be lot better.
- Sometimes the OS could be sluggish. I am not sure 100 percent sure on this but I want to mention this.
- Video recorder works for only 10 sec. I don't understand what Nokia is trying to do here..
- keyboard is slightly cramped. I don't have any problems with it but some people could.
- Games on the phones suck. I found lot better games online but I need to pay for them.

To conclude this is a great phone and I think this is the best Tmobile phone out there in the market. If you like the shape of this phone, this is the phone for you. There was a good deal on amazon when I bought this phone.

This phone is one of the best I've ever used. It has everything I needed: bluetooth, infrared, support for MMC, camera, and a good operating system with lots of supporting software.

I purchased this puppy for my new Visor Prism - Color. Overall, very impressed with this MP3 Player:

Here are the Pros/Cons:

Pros: Awesome sound quality(better than the Rio 500 I own), Small Size (fits flush into Visor), great user Interface (in color) for the Visor, excellent desktop client software (again it kills the RioPort software)

Cons: No add-on memory, earphones included are weak

Highly recommended

I just received it today and am enjoying the tunes. It uploads music to my Platinum fast (all 64 megs in about 4 minutes) and the sound is crystal clear. This is my first springboard and it was a good one (no pun intended).

Here are the reasons I went with this one over the MiniJam:

1) It fits nearly flush into the Visor. You can put your cover on the front just fine and barely fits on the back due to the fact that the springboard is raised about 1/16 of an inch from the back of the Visor. The MiniJam on the other hand doesn't look like you can put the cover on at all.

2)Although this doesn't support extra memory, 64mb is enough for me. That's over an hour of music. The MiniJam with 32mb costs the same price and then you get to pay extra for more memory.

3)I have issues with the company that makes MiniJam, InnoGear. They were supposedly going to come out with a SixPak module last year that I was totally planning on buying. Then, with no explanation, all traces of the SixPak development and schedualed release dates disappeard. They dropped the ball, I dropped them.

4)SoundsGood comes with a nice case to put everything in.

Battery life
Good battery life. I've noticed a slight increase in battery usage while the module was in use. Somewhat more than other Springboard (SB) modules such as memory expansion modules. Also, when the module is plugged in, it seems to affect the reading of the battery gauge, making it seem like there's less power than there should be. As a result, you may get a low battery warning sooner than you should. This is normal, but if you're using rechargeable batteries, you may want to swap fresh ones, since they have less capacity per charge than normal alkalines to insure you don't lose handheld data. The gauge returns to normal when the player is removed from the slot. My suggestion, if you use your Visor a lot and/or foresee using this player a lot as well, it may be worth your while to spring for nickel metal hydride rechargeable batteries. You'll swap batteries more often due to its lower capacity per charge, but you'll get your savings back after a month of usage.

Sound quality
I'm no audiophile, probably nothing to brag about, but the sound quality is good enough for me. Very close to the sound you get on a PC with "average" speakers and sound card. I can't put my finger on it, but the provided headphones sound "tinny", so using a better quality set ought to take care of that. Max volume is more than enough in quieter places, but on a "rickety" subway like the older NYC trains, you'll be almost hard pressed to hear much of anything.

External controls
There 4 controls: play/pause (technically play/stop, as when you DO "pause", it actually turns off while remembering where you last were), skip forward one track, skip back one track, and a volume jog dial control. The first turns on and plays the player, or pauses and resumes play. The next two are self explanatory, but further adding that reaching the first or last track will wrap around to the last or first track respectively. Unlike many CD and mp3 players however, there is no search mode available (done by pressing and holding these buttons). The last controls volume, but also can be depressed (like the wheel of a scroll mouse), which will automatically bring up the control screen regardless the current state of your Visor. The jog dial gets you to your desired volume setting after a few flicks, but the controls are just rounded knobs, so you'll have to press hard or use your nail. Also, you may accidentally lift and pull out the head phone jack (mine plugged in wasn't snug, but a little loose) when you try to press the button next to it. It has it's faults, but is still a nice alternative to having to whip out your stylus and cover just to control the audio. One thing I do like about this is the play button will light green (dim or bright) if you set it that way. This takes more battery power, but I recommend it so that you can tell if the unit is on or off, without having to turn the screen on or plug in headphones to listen and potentially draining your power without knowing it.

Software interface
It's simple and intuitive. Similar to Winamp minus the skins and fancy equalizer. You can bring down a pull down menu of all the songs you've loaded, there's an simpler equalizer where you can adjust bass, treble, and general frequency settings (none of which I really used), sliders for volume and track position (volume adjustable through the up and down keys as well), options to view details of mp3 tracks, and set modes of play (repeat, shuffle, etc.), as well as oversized standard buttons for play, stop, etc.

Loading music
Easy enough. All you need to do is ensure that all your music files are indeed mp3 format, drag and drop, and your next hotsync op will transfer the songs over. On the desktop software, it even tells you how much space you've got left before you transfer. Takes about a minute to transfer the full capacity. Pretty reasonable considering it Is USB 1.1.

Stability/reliability
Reliability has been good. I've never needed any tech support, and the thing's never broken down on me before. There have been times where upon plugging it in, I get "module was inserted improperly" or "Module seems hung, please try again". I sometimes get that once or twice in a row. The only time I get it 6 times in a row was when I left it in the car for weeks, in 35F degree weather, which I guessing was due to the cold.

Tech support
N/A as far as I'm concerned. The company is still there, but they've changed their business model. I tried calling them up about months after they changed their ways (this was approximately around summer of '02) and only one guy was there who had a decent understanding of what this product is and does. He wasn't able to answer my question though. Don't count on getting ANY tech support. IMO, this product is well made, so assuming there's nothing wrong with your Visor, tech support won't be needed.

Other notes
First, you can play games, take notes while the music is playing simply by hitting the home button. You actually need to hit the 'stop' button either internally or externally to actually turn it off. You could also leave the screen off to save battery. Next, you don't have the option of rearranging your playlist on the handheld. You need to do that before you load the music on there. Finally, only 64MB of nonexpendable memory? That makes this best suited for workouts, grocery shopping, and "low-end" users. 128MB would've been IDEAL. 4.5 stars is my actual rating, since there are some trivial issues with this, but it does deliver what it says smoothly and acceptably.

I purchased the LA-95 last year for a roundtrip flight from NY to Hawaii. From the reviews, I knew that I needed something to extend the battery life if I wanted to use it for more than a couple of hours without recharging. I purchased the extended battery from Panasonic which worked beautifully, more than six total hours. I also purchased what was advertised as an adaptor for use in the car or with airline power outlets from J + R. It turned out to be incompatible. I was able to connect the player to tvs in every place we stayed but one, so we had dvd movies everywhere we needed them which was not very often since we were in Hawaii. I've taken it on every plane ride since and have hooked it up to tvs in many hotels and condos. As long as there's a compatible input, I can watch movies. One little glitch did develop a few months ago. The lcd screen got what looked like a black splash across the screen which obscured the picture. Since it was under warrantee, I had it fixed for $65. They replaced the lcd panel. Fortunately, I only had to drive to New Jersey. My other option was to ship it to Texas. I don't know how this happened since it had been stored for about 3 months in a padded case in the closet, not dropped or mishandled. It must be very delicate. I did not ask how much it would have cost to repair if it wasn't under warrantee; I was afraid to know since between the unit and the extended battery, I have a considerable investment. It is a LOT of fun, though and you're never stuck with airplane or expensive hotel movies.

I've tried to imagine what our road trip with 3 small children from northern California to southern New Mexico would have been like without this player, but I shudder every time I try. The picture quality of the Panasonic DVD-LA95 is excellent for a portable and the sound quality and volume were sufficient enough to enable our kids to watch their favorite DVDs in a noisy minivan without the need for clumsy headphones. But more importantly, this player provided me and my wife with a peace and quiet you just can't put a price on. No having to endure the dreaded "Are we there yet?" mantra coming from the back seat. No shouts of "Daaaaaad, he's on my side!" or "I'm bored!" to contend with. A true sanity-saver. My only complaint was the short battery life and the somewhat cryptic setup menu. Neither of which would prevent me from highly recommending this player to other parents planning cross-country vacations with a carload of kids. However, if you plan on taking this unit on the road, do yourself a favor and purchase a cigarette lighter adapter. You'll be glad you did. The unit has also proved to be an excellent in-home player for the TV in our bedroom. After extensive research online and through local retailers, I found the Panasonic DVD-LA95 to be the best portable DVD player on the market. If only they had these things when I was a kid.

The 9" screen cannot be beat. Although I must admit that the sound and the picture quality on the Sharp 8" player (which is cheaper) is moderately better, the LA-95 is overall the best portable player. It also does not get any sleeker than this. It is very easy to use, extremely light, and has the best collection of portable accessories of any new players (many of the older Panasonic model's accessories work with the LA-95). After all - if I am going to watch a DVD movie at home - why wouldn't I watch from my big screen TV? I recommend getting the optional battery pack CGP-H501... and/or the the XTend airline power adapter if you plan on (as I do) using on long trips to keep your children occupied. I am not sure, though, if I will ever need to play any of those other formats (what exactly is DVD-RAM?). By the way - cartoons look the best and color sci fi the worst.

I recently bought the Viewsonic V36 as a Christmas gift. Although this is easily the least expensive PDA at this processor/memory level (Intel 300MHz XScale processor, 64MB RAM, 32MB ROM), it performs extremely well and is very well designed. I originally intended to purchase the HP IPAQ 1945 which has very similar specs to the V36 but was sold on the Viewsonic with the $100 lower price tag (the actual cost is $299 less a $100 mail-in rebate; the HP is $299 with no rebate). The HP 1945 has integrated Bluetooth which the V36 lacks but the V36 has a nice integrated 300KP camera which is not available on the HP (the camera works quite nicely in well-lit conditions and can take both still and moving images). (Note: If you need WiFi capability, there is an optional 802.11b SDIO card available for the V36 for $129 that plugs into the sole SD card expansion port.) Also, the V36 will accept a standard headphone plug for listening to MP3s while the HP requires an adapter for its miniplug. The 3.5" screen is clear and bright and identical in quality to the HP. All other hardware/software specs for the HP 1945 and V36 are identical (well, okay the HP is a half inch shorter and half an ounce lighter but that's not really worth the hundred bucks price difference to me).

Setup of the unit is a breeze (you'll barely need the included manual) and synchronizing the unit with a PC is fast and effortless. Everything you need to get up and running is included in the box (USB adapter cable, power cable, companion CD with MS ActiveSync and MS Outlook 2002, and a carry case). I highly recommend the Viewsonic V36 PDA.

I purchased my V36 in Dec. 2003, and absolutely "Love" it. My purchasing criteria was; great price,lots of extras, Color Screen & Camera. The other brands had those options, but charged extra for them, sometimes $100 - $200 dollars more. The ViewSonic V36 came standard with a camera, 64K Memory, lots of software & a $100 rebate as well. Hands down the best deal for my money.I have a small business, and I keep all my personal & business data on my Viewsonic V36 Pocket PC with plenty of memory to spare. Although Amazon's editorials don't tell you this, the ViewSonic V36 does come with a small pocket case, a stylus, charging adapter, & USB Sync cord. I highly suggest you purchase the sync & charging craddle. If you are prone to dropping things like I am, you might want to buy the optional Viewsonic carrying case, that alone has saved my Pocket PC from destruction, a few times already. And unfortunately, NO.... they are not paying me for this review. LOL

Best PocketPC for the price!
I researched a LOT of PocketPC's before I buy VeiwSonic V36 and I love it!
MP3s, Videos, Voice, Photos, MS Compatibility,
Definately the best PocketPC for the price! No problems so far - I am very pleased - I recommend this model to all.

I just got the dreaded e18 error message on this camera and its only two years old. canon has a problem with all of its retractible lenses and they get either jammed in the out or the in position and the camera wont power up, rendering this useless. canon will fix it for 175.00 but the problem, as i have found from others on the web will happen again. it is a mecanical flaw? and canon wont support you at all.

This is the ultimate camera for active/sporting/outdoor snapshots. It's so small you can stick it in a pocket, and yet it has flash, 3x optical zoom and 4 megapixel resolution! Because it's digital you can see the results immediately, and you don't have to worry about wasting film. Send your experiences and memories to everyone!

Pros:
* Very small and handy
* Unobtrusive-your friends will stop posing every time you try to take a picture! My friend Christine has mastered the art of stealth photography with her S410; she looks in a different direction while glancing at the LCD viewfinder!
* Uses Compact Flash (CF)- Low-cost easy to handle memory cards available in capacities up to 1 GB!
* Picture quality (so far) is excellent

Cons:
* Uses a rechargeable battery-This takes some extra planning and perhaps a purchase of a spare battery.
* Non-automatic operation is difficult-the small size makes it hard to read and navigate the controls
* Small size can be a danger! You could lose it accidentally or drop it out of a shirt pocket

I've been reading the reviews on this Canon PowerShot S410 camera before and after purchasing my own. There certainly are numerous whiners out there. It seems people love to find something to whine about. Honestly, this camera has given me nothing but pleasure, excellent pictures and compliments from others. This is a solid well-built camera (my cats knocked it off my desk and dragged around a bit and it had no scratches and still works excellently) with excellent picture quality both indoor and outdoor and easy to figure out menu and buttons. People also seem to complain about the LCD screen being small on digital cameras in general. My answer, look through the view finder. In addition, with the Canon S410 the image on the LCD screen is so vivid and clear and the colors so rich that it doesn't really matter. After all, the most important thing is both the final print and how it looks on your computer not the size of the LCD screen. When I connect the camera to my Canon CP-330 compact photo printer, it's a one press operation and away it goes printing the best quality pictures ever. Unless you love to nit-pick (there's really nothing to nit-pick about on this one) you'll love this camera. Minor note, Canon could have possibly been a little more generous in what comes with the camera, such as an AC power adapter (although I love the battery recharger). However, don't consider this a complaint, just a suggestion to Canon. If you do decide to purchase, ENJOY! And to those whiners, life is too short .......

I received my Garmin 2610 a week ago and I have been having lots of fun ever since.
I saw a review where another buyer had troubles with the software that comes with the unit. The operating system on my computer is an ME too but I got the software installed with the help of a Garmin tech. This is my first GPS but the unit is really user friendly. Even I could use the unit in my van the first day that I received it. I have a van, truck, and a motorcycle that I will be using the unit on and it will get it's share of use. I always worry about my wife getting around but I don't have to worry any more. Yesterday she had to go to the airport and did not know how to get there. I set a route for her to the airport and showed her how to use the "home" feature to get her back to the house. She made the trip there and back without any problems. It worked so good that I may not ever see the unit again because my wife says that she loves it! I went for a ride on my motorcycle with a few of my friends and found a down side to owning this GPS unit. Now all my friends look to me to get them everywhere we go. If there is a negative to having this unit on my vehicle I can't find it. This is one of the most effective pieces of equipment that I have ever put on one of my transportation vehicles. If you had six stars this product would get it!

Mr. De Leon cannot be talking about the 2610.
* It is not hard at all to program addresses from the car - use the remote, or the on-screen spelling capability. You can type the first part of a street (or city, or business, etc) and then see all starting with these characters.
* You can drive to a location and mark it as a waypoint. Then you can easily give it a name (other than default 001) and change its symbol from a box to a school, a house, etc.
* 2610 doesn't have batteries! Use car cigarette lighter or home AC power.
* I think De Leon had the StreetPilot III Deluxe. Using the III is much more cumbersome than the 2610.

For more info, see my other review, the first on this device.

My bottom line: If you're looking for an excellent GPS for navigation in your car and you can afford the price, then this is the device for you!

The Garmin automotive navigation is a great item in which for those new comers who drive or ride from Florida or California. This little item makes it easy for regular travler to find their way around. So in times of going to the club in the next town or just driving around major one way streets this little gadge makes anyone a pro in getting to thier point of orgin. So travel a little safer whether you take the train in holland or the drive to El Paso, Tx. Here's to TRAVELING ON A SAFER LEVEL.

Thank You
Shara L. Bouie
Atlanta,Ga<USA