Resco Is Cooking Up a Contact Manager

Posted by: weiganla on Oct 26 2008 - 55 views

Remember when Resco Explorer 2008 launched a few months back? One of the most popular file explorers for Windows Mobile got a… well, “facelift” is an understatement. It was a complete interface redesign, and I thought it looked great and lived up pretty well to the touch-friendly hype.

So, sometime after the product launch, I imagine this (completely invented) conversation taking place in Resco HQ:

Resco Guy 1: Wow, people are really liking our new Explorer interface  that is actually usable without a stylus and looks nice, too.

Resco Guy 2: Yeah, we should make another application like that.

Resco Guy 1: We’ve already given the touch treatment to everything else we make. We’re out of applications!

Resco Guy 2: Hmmm… Aha! How about a contact manager?

Resco Guy 1: Great idea! We’ll put up a “Coming Soon” product page and ask people for feature suggestions in the forums.

Resco Guy 2: Sure, but we definitely should include threaded SMS.

And that’s the story so far. Resco hasn’t announced a timetable for release, but judging by what they are saying, my guess is that Contact Manager will be going into beta sometime in the reasonably near future.

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Review: Audio-Technica CKM-50 Earphones Bring Music To My Ears

Posted by: weiganla on Oct 22 2008 - 41 views

My iPod gets some pretty intense use, so having earphones I like is critical. There are hundreds of options out there, and even if a lot of them are either very expensive or total junk, I’ve noticed enough moderately priced sets from quality manufacturers that I decided it was time to upgrade. Besides, the freebies that came in the box tend to slip out of my ears at really annoying times.

I’m not going to pretend to be an audiophile, but I know what sounds and feels good to me. Audio-Technica’s CKM-50s do both, and with USBfever.com offering them for $54.99 they won’t break the bank.

I’ve spent a little time painstakingly jamming rock-hard canal earphones into the side of my head, only to have them fall out two minutes later so I’d have to repeat the whole uncomfortable process. But they sounded so good! The CKM-50s are a hybrid canal/earbud-style, with a speaker that sits down in the ear canal for better sound and a round neck that perches in the outer ear for fit and comfort. Imagine the iPod earbuds growing a rubbery nubbin from the speaker, and you’ll get the idea. I was interested to see whether the new hybrid design would give me the best of both worlds.

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SyncMate Makes Mac and WinMo Play Nice… For Free

Posted by: weiganla on Sep 26 2008 - 23 views

If I won the lottery and got a new computer tomorrow, it would be a Mac. If I got a new phone tomorrow, considering that I’ve got a scary good plan with Sprint, it would be the Touch Diamond. That would be both awesome and a problem — no ActiveSync for Mac throws a wrench into the whole syncing thing.

Most people in the Mac/WM boat shell out for The Missing Sync, but if you can tolerate a  little less power, JAMM just heard about a new, free alternative. SyncMate packs iCal and Contacts synchronization, an SMS reader, and a device info plugin. The site is a little vague on what exactly you can and can’t do with the free edition — document syncing? installing applications? — because they want you to upgrade to SyncMate Expert for the same $40 pricetag as The Missing Sync.

Sadly, I didn’t win the lottery, so I don’t have a Mac that I can test SyncMate on. Actually, no one at JAMM at the moment runs Mac/WM. Decent free Mac/WM sync apps aren’t exactly thick on the ground, so please help out the community and leave a comment if you try this app!

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Quick Look: Face Time With the iPod Nano 4G

Posted by: weiganla on Sep 20 2008 - 15 views

Know what my first thought was when I saw Steve Jobs announce the new version of the iPod Nano? “Holy mackerel, that looks like a Zune!” That, and giving mental props to the PhotoShop hacks who came darned close to the real look. Nice going, guys.

Long-time readers with fantastic memories will recall that I bought a 3G Nano when it came out and just love the little guy. It didn’t start that way — I was really hesitant about the form factor and actually walked into the Apple Store planning to get a Classic. Then I picked up the Nano. The way it sat in my palm, it felt like it was made for my hand: perfectly proportioned to hold and use the clickwheel, nicely thin but with enough heft to not feel fragile, and a great fit in either an armband or my jeans pocket. If you ask me, the 3G Nano should be a model case study in design classes.

I did have a point there, and it’s that practically everyone hated on the “fatty” 3G Nano until they actually held one in their own hands. I wasn’t exactly enthused by the looks of the 4G Nano, but the least I could do was to get some hands-on time with it, right? JAMM’s review muscle doesn’t quite extend to getting brand-new iPods, so it was back to the Apple Store. Enough rambling, what’s the verdict?

Yes, it’s very small. Yes, the widescreen is lovely. Yes, the accelerometer with the shake-to-shuffle is seriously cool. And no, I don’t want one. Reason? That super-skinny form factor is hell to hold. It’s so narrow I had trouble comfortably operating the clickwheel vertically, and I think my hand would cramp before I made it though a TV episode holding the Nano sideways. There’s also the “pocket fit fragility factor.” Have you ever sat down with a wooden pencil in your jeans pocket? You generally get up with two wooden pencils. Substitute the long, narrow Nano 4G for the No. 2, except salvaging a bit of use by sharpening it won’t work as well.

Is the 4G Nano really as fragile as it feels? Does the accelerometer go bonkers when you wear it to work out? Just how badly would my hand cramp during extended use? Guess I won’t be finding out.

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Review: Flipping for the Sena Case for Centro

Posted by: weiganla on Aug 30 2008 - 108 views

I got my Palm Centro in April, and ever since then it has spent most of its time bumping around in a side pocket inside my purse. Usually I have my new gadgets safely wrapped up in cases almost as soon as I get them home, but I just couldn’t find anything I could convince myself to live with. My adorable little Centro has basically been protected by a pair of crossed fingers, and I’m lucky it isn’t as scratched up as an extra from Jurassic Park.

Then someone suggested I check out Sena Cases. They make two cases for the Centro, the LeatherSkin and the MagnetFlipper, and they were kind enough to send me a review sample of the second.

If I was a casemaker, the Centro’s distinctive styling, truckload of buttons and ports, and chunky dimensions would send me screaming into the distance. Fortunately Sena reacted better. They pride themselves on beautiful leather, meticulous craftsmanship, and a slim profile, but to make a good Centro case they’d have to hit more home runs than a doped-up Barry Bonds.

Did Sena pull it off? Hit the jump to find out!

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Quick Look: TripChill Automated Travel Assistant, A Mobile Friend in the Unfriendly Skies

Posted by: weiganla on Aug 26 2008 - 115 views

Traveling is a pain in the neck. Which completely explains why I just took a new job that will have me on the road 70% of the time. Seriously, I like going places, but with all the security measures turning airports into a much less fun version of a three-ring circus, I’ll take all the help I can get organizing and  keeping track of my travel arrangements. 

A new free service, TripChill, thinks it can help me out. TripChill is based around an online portal that stores your itinerary, and on the go it works with any phone with SMS or a mobile browser. From there, it offers a myriad of services to help you deal with everything that has to fall into place to make a trip successful and that tends to jerk you around unpredictably at the absolute worst times.

I took TripChill for a test drive last week during a business trip. Read on for a quick look!

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