Notebook Reviews

If you read the manual, it will tell you that the main product limitation comes from having to share one USB 1.1 port with many different devices-- your mouse and keyboard interactions will be guaranteed to hiccup every 3 seconds. I thought it was a great idea until I tried it out myself.

I bought this unit to interface my Palm V's serial cradle to my new notebook that has only USB ports. Not a good choice. The unit "features" a MANUAL RESET BUTTON which must be pressed for 5 seconds every time the computer comes out of sleep mode to restart the ports. Its drivers are not smart enough to do this by themselves. (Forget about putting the hub out of sight to eliminate the clutter)

Even with the reset button, I often had to exit and restart the Palm Hotsync manager to get it to talk to the Palm.

Also, the unit requires its own power brick, adding to the clutter on the desk.

Avoid this unit unless you really need all the ports

I bought two of these, one for home and one for the office for my Dell laptop. Works like a champ with USB mouse and PS/2 keyboard. In addition to these two, at the office I use the network port and at home the parallel port. Plugging in one cable instead of three plus reducing clutter on my desk are very nice. I did have to download the 2.3 driver from Targus. It worked better than the 2.4 driver that came in the package.

I picked this up at Circuit City the other day, and I was so disappointed that I took it back the next day. Sure, it covers the phone, and it's leather. Those are the solitary high points. As for the cons, the fit was amazingly sloppy. The seams are external, so they take an otherwise small, slick phone and turn it into an oversized monster. The cutouts for camera, power, etc. are approximations at best. The screen protector is nothing to write home about, and the case does not seem to stay on well. The point is, go get the Body Glove case. It really does fit the 8100 perfectly and you will be much happier. Unless you're _really_ into leather and huge cell phones.

Seems pretty durable, but quality can be better. Good price for a genuine leather case.

I bought two memory modules to upgrade my compaq presario 1700t to 512 and it wont work. Anyone with an idea or help please email me at bhartenbach@msn.com

Thanks

I recently upgraded to this memory from a 128mb chip from PNY. My file transfer ability seems to have more than doubled due to the extra access memory available to my system. However, possibly due to the faster movement of information, my computer seems more likely to lock up when over-taxed by incompatible programs (ex: Kazaa and Netscape 7 don't like one another). Note that I said more likely, incompatible programs always have a chance of crashing your unit. Thus overall, I don't mind recommending this item for people who want to be able to do faster downloads or system manipulations (defragging takes half as much time now), but for multitasking, especially if using P2P programs or downloading programs, the chip is limited in stability.

I've really enjoyed the case until the strap broke. It tore at the padded shoulder part. Luckily someone pointed it out to me before it tore all the way through. Apparently it isn't meant for every day use. I've tried to locate "Motion Systems" or "Icon" to complain but they don't seem to exist.

For 29.99 w/30 rebate and 6 msn bucks then i dont mind getting paid to take these mediocre products. The usb key is by far the best of the items but the other cheaply made products included arent worth paying for. But thats why its nice that they paid me to take it off their hands.

I recently purchased this case for my new Dell Axim as I thought that it would be a good cheap case I could clip to my belt. I was horrified my first day when it fell off my belt as I got off the subway-- If a kind stranger hadn't picked it up, I would have lost it. I tried to tighten the clip but to no avail-- it still can fall off. My Axim did survive these drops, for what it's worth, but I strongly recommend against this case.

This is a universal case and can be used as a nice little case for the Sony NZ90. It's nothing fancy, like all those expensive leather ones for $75. But, for $15, it's a great case. It has a couple of slots for credit cards and a pouch for memory sticks. This case will keep your NZ90 safe from minor bumps, scrapes, and splashes. It won't protect against a bullet, toilet dunking, or a car driving over it, but then, not many cases will do that.

If you just want a simple and efficient case for your NZ90, this is the one to get for only $15.

This product contains not one stick of 512mb but TWO sticks of 256mb. This should be included in the description.

Glad to know that this is indeed a Dual Kit which it SHOULD be. Thank you for the feedback in the first review! :)

I owned a DSC-S75 camera prior to selling it and then getting a DSC-S85 instead. This case is designed to fit both cameras and it does that. It forces you to store the camera in one direction, due to the lens housing on the camera and the case's design. The case lid is then secured with a velcro closure that you can't see in the picture but is right behind the label on the case. The velcro is not tremendously strong. The case's design also makes it top heavy with a camera inside. I had the case turn upside down at least twice while carrying on my shoulder (with the strap) and those times, the velcro did not hold it closed, thereby dumping my camera on the ground. Once was indoors, however the other was outside and while riding a bicycle. That incident severely damaged the camera body and I had to have Sony repair it. When I took the case and camera to the Sony repair station, they were sympathetic and understanding to the design flaw and did not charge me for the repair - they covered it under the factory warranty! In addition to both of those camera models no longer being in production by Sony, this case isn't either. I would not recommend this case for any camera, much less kleenex. The list price was also excessive compared to other cases available. There are also no other pockets or pouches besides the battery/memory stick pouch on the strap. The only real plus I would give this case is that it is somewhat hard or sturdy.

Nice Case. but, a little pricey for what it is. It's tiny! so is the camera, though.. too bad the memory stick offered by Tech Depot didnt show up. They told me I could go pound salt instead of getting the stick. Not very stoked about the whole sit'. First prob I've had with Amazon.com beside their slow saver shipping. know what you're getting here. u might get it for cheaper elsewhere.

This is a total rip off! I bought this to have a nice notebook. I thought it would be a realy nice one since its like 2000 dollars, and then I get a notebook with no paper! Whats wrong here! Does it have a platinum film on it are is it diamond encrusted? Huh? Why aren't you answering? This computer is crud, I type stuff in, asking reasonable questions and it doesn't answer! Hello? Computer? Mr. Computer PLEASE!

I used a Sager laptop with best-in-breed features until very recently but it really weighed on (literally too !), ~ 10 pounds with the adapter, etc.

Traveling as much as I do, I decided to look for a sub 5 pound laptop with good features and after I looked at a few such laptops in CompUSA, this one seemed not only to be very good-looking but also decently feature-laden though obviously not THE best out there. 512 MB of RAM, a 60 GB hard disk, a CD-RW, USB 2.0, FireWire are all pretty good, if not THE best you can buy. The premium that Sony charges for its Vaios was an initial turn-off but with good mail-in rebate offers at BestBuy and a 250 gift-card, the effective price was more like 1375 for me and that's good enough.

Ok - how do I like it so far? Battery life is pretty good. It will actually want to turn off the optical drive when on battery first - you can say yes or no. And, if you are only gonna do document writing and choose NOT to go with the dimmed screen (which is REALLY hard on the eyes) and instead turn up the brightness, it looks like you should get 4.5 hours out of it. Now, with a dimmed screen and a turned off optical drive, you *might* get 5.5 or even 6 hours out of it, but unless you are using it as an expensive iPod equivalent, why would you do that ? anyway, I plan to buy one of those 1.78 pound extended battery packs (NOT from Sony - their double-capacity battery is ridiculously expensive) that should add another 3+ hours, so I'll be happy camper. The keyboard will need a little (an hour of continuous use I think) getting used to. Someone complained about the built-in speakers, but I put the Die-Another-Day DVD in and it sounded ok to me...obviously headphones will sound a LOT better I am sure....the laptop's very light, of course, so i love being able to carry it with 1 hand and its lighter than a big hardcover book, so that's neat. Other than MS-Office and Mozilla, I haven't run any 'demanding' apps, so can't comment too much about performance. Eventually I plan to partition the hard disk and run Win-XP on one partition and Linux on the other, etc. However I have run something similar on an old Vaio PCG-F690 (P3-850 MHz) and things ran very well and I read somewhere that a Centrino 1.4 GHz chip was the equivalent of a P-4 Mobile 2.0 Chip or so, so I am sure heavy duty apps (both Windows and Linux) won't be a problem....

Good luck if you decide to buy this ! btw, if you have an Amex card and you use that to buy this Vaio, Amex will double your warranty on this from 1 year to 2 years, but might depend on the specific Amex card you have. This might be important if you are worried that Sony only has a 1 year warranty and doesn't offer a 2 or 3 year warranty unlike other manufacturers...

This card is not worth it. During install, it kept indicating that it was not compatible or tested with XP and crapped my standard 802.11 G connection as well. not worth the trouble.

This card is garbage. I have used Linksys products in the past with good luck. I don't know if this product is too new or what. Would recognize the router but would not connect to the internet. After hours of talking with the totally useless Tech Support people, and several installs and uninstalls with the newest driver, I boxed it up and returned it.

I started with the Linksys pre wireless version with 4 port, from Amazon about 4 years ago. Then when I got a Mac PowerBook with airport-B class internal wifi in Late November 2003 (Last PBg4 b4 the new aluminums w/.11G), I ordered a Linksys .11B w/4port and since seeing the one post about the card working in a Mac decided to try the latest GS Combo. The Mac had no problem finding the network. Wifi Setup was a snap) Linksys techs helped get all 3 routers working together, that took 30mins). The new WRT54GS and matching card**** Nice improvement, Video is only a tad slower than cat5e connection. Speed check at optonline hits 5,300(53mbps). Worth the work. You do have to know your Mac though. Airport setup is the key. *Use the WEP-set mac id on router to only accept the listed address the rest is up to you to play with. I highly recommend this setup. You get the best wifi connection a Mac can get for less, especially for pre G models. Linksys use of broadcom chip is the same standard on airport, they are compatible. Airport treats it like internal when inserted. I have had only minor bugs and one crash from not turning airport off b4 powering off the card. As far as G vs. GS price 10-20% dif. Who cares? I wanted SpEED! Besides Amzn px was best (+$30 off with Credit Card deal dropped the px to $109 Flat (no-tax, no Shipping) NOT BAD! So all you preG Mac owners who were hesitating, Get the GS (speedbooster works) 108 never gonna happen, technically impossible... read some reviews. As far as comparison with other brands. Apple certified repair shops sell these because they work. They just don't sell at Amzn prices. So enjoy your Itunes downloads fast from the backyard.

Even after an upgrade to the newest firmware, the wireless connection was buggy. The included "IP configuration" tool never found the camera even after it had obtained an IP address from my router. I had to use the DHCP table from my router to find the camera's IP address. I eventually got it connected to my wireless network (40b WEP, DHCP), but after about 10min it killed all of my wireless connections. Worked ok when connected to wired ethernet network (except that the config util couldn't find the camera). Returning it ASAP.

I am an experienced IT guy, but this camera has me tearing my hair out! First, a major warning: the spec sheet states that the camera can take 640x480 pics. This is NOT TRUE - the maximum available resolution is 320x240.

The wireless interface is buggy and cumbersome to work with, and when I tried to set it up it not only crashed the camera several times, it crashed my entire wireless network. Thinking that a D-link 624+ WLAN router might work better with it than my Netgear, I tried that too and got the same crashes. I even saw the radio communication from the camera forcing the router to reset itself - how's that for interoperability?

Finally, after fiddling with every possible setting (few of which are explained in the manual) and trying various WLAN channels (no, the camera does not auto-detect, you have to set the channel manually which also often causes a crash) I got it to work, just about. Now the brand-new D-link router is acting up instead *sigh* and loses connection to the net.

Further, the camera can send images by ftp or e-mail, but not both at the same time.

I highly recommend going with some other brand, and using a standard network camera together with an ethernet-WLAN dongle instead of a combined product. That way you can also test WLAN connectivity with a computer before setting up your camera.

First, I'm a computer guy. They pay me to do this kind of thing. Except I write software, I don't configure LANs. So I needed to call tech support because the camera was on a different subnet by default and their documentation, though long, was very lacking in advanced configuration. I had to call in three times to get the IP conflict resolved. The first two people didn't have a clue how to use the camera. The third guy knew it all and finished the job. Two of the three were Indian sounding and I had trouble communicating, but got the job done.

Then, the scheduler wouldn't work. I would set the schedule for 1 o'clock, and 1 o'clock would come and go without recording. I called tech support again and talked to 3 more people. Without admitting that the old software was buggy, they insisted that I upgrade by downloading the new stuff. The new updated software didn't work at all.

Now I have spent 18 full-time hours on this, 3 days and nights, I've talked to 12 different tech support people and here is where I am.

The camera is now an artificial reef because they had me flash it with the latest firmware which totally killed it. The application on my Windows XP PC is their newest beta version because all of their old software is buggy. And that version is buggy too. They say it's ready to be released.

So basically nothing works. Nothing. And nobody at D-LINK appears to give a crapola. Not one manager I've talked to has given me a call-back to see if this is resolved to my satisfaction. In fact, they go out of their way to explain to me that they don't have direct phone numbers that I can get back to them with. Each time I have to call in and start over from scratch.

Additionally I have a feeling they don't have a Q/A (quality assurance) group that tests their software before releasing it, but I'm not sure. It sure seems that way.

I'm giving it 2 stars instead of 1 because the camera itself was somewhat impressive at first when that worked. It has its own address that can be seen from anywhere on the internet. Pretty cool. The application on the PC side is where most of their problems are.

V.