This is Amanda Bynes and her Blackberry taken 1/29/09.

Ashley Tisdale is running a few errands in LA and chatting on her iphone.

If you look at this picture long enough will notice after a while that Kristin Cavallari is holding a Blackberry. I think it looks like the Blackberry Storm.

Blackberry Storm

When the new broke that Barack Obama may have to relenquish his Blackberry I was a little curious as to what model he had. After a bit of investigating I learned he uses the Blackberry 8700. One site I cam across mentiones it was the 8700c.

Walmart appears to be jump starting the holiday season with a pretty good deal on a Compaq CQ50-139WM laptop for only $298. As is typical with Walmart this seems to be configured specifically for Walmart. The laptop has a w/ Intel Celeron Processor 575, 160G drive, 2G of ram and Vista Home Basic.

I was looking for a portable field recorder and decided to give the Zoom H2 a try. I payed $169 for this unit. There are competitive units out there but they really do not match the value that the Zoom offers for anywhere near this price point.

Some of the features I like are:

• records onto cheap SD memory cards
• records in WAV or MP3 format
• is very portable
• can record up to 4 hours on 2 AA batteries
• can be mounted on a tripod
• has 4 microphones which allows for flexible recording options
• You can monitor recording through headphones

The Zoom H2 come with everything you need except batteries. The unit includes headphones, a case, wind screen, a neat little tripod for table top usage and more!

I removed the unit from the packaging and was able to figure out this unit without the manual. My type of gear! Zoom does include a quick start guide and a full fledged, very complete owners manual.

The included 512MB card can record well over 3 hours of 320Kbps MP3 audio. You can also use up to a 16GB for insane recording times.

Zoom H2 Sound Samples
Hear are untouced sound samples from The Zoom H2. Notice the nice stereo image. You can also hear crickets in the background of the recordings.
Zoom H2 Sound Samples - Dog Barking
Zoom H2 Sound Samples - Cars on the road

Overall I’m impressed. The Zoom H2 makes is a great choice as a recorder for students, videographers and musicians

I was strolling through Best Buy today and noticed the Asus - Eee PC. This wasn’t the first time I heard of them but I never saw one in person. The model was the EEE PC 900 and was $449. This model has windows XP loaded on it. The keyboard was a nice size and the thing was light as hell. The 8.9″ screen seemed a little washed out. Maybe it could be corrected with some adjustments.

I imagine most people are buying these as a second computer and basically want an internet appliance. For about $50 less you can get the linux version which is fine for surfing the net.

My Ipod Nano got the ole broken screen defect. Being the handy man I am I decided to order a kit from ebay and replace the screen myself. I have more degrees in electrical/electronic engineering than I can shake a stick at and I consider myself somewhat talented at fixing things.

Everything was going beautifully until I tried to attach the ribbon cable to the main board. I broke the little connector on the main board. I got frustrated at this point and gave up.

My advice. If your Ipod breaks send it in for a repair.

If you’re in the market for a compact digital camera take a close look at the Casio EX-Z77. For many people Casio isn’t the first name they think of when it comes to digital cameras. Many people don’t realize that many cameras in this price range share the same sensor made by Sony. For the most part differences in picture quality are negligible.

What sets the Casio apart from other cameras in this price range is the amazing 2.6 inch LCD screen. Casio makes some of the best screens in the business. The screen is easy to see even in bright outdoor sunlight.

Another feature that sets this camera aaprt for it’s competitors is the quality of the movies it takes. The movies are encoded in the H.264 format as opposed to motion Jpeg that is found on other cameras. What this means is that the Casio can create much better quality movies in a smaller files size. The built in microphone does pick up wind noise outdoors.

Everyone that sees this camera loves it. It is small and light weight. It can easily fit into pockets on jeans and if you place it in a shirt pocket you barely know it is there. It’s as easy to carry as a small clamshell style cell phone.

This is a perfect camera for teenagers. It comes in cool colors, is rugged and is priced well below $200 at many online retailers.

Awesome.

I’ll admit I was a bit skeptical when Apple unveiled the new Ipod Nano. I thought they lost the people that like to use the Nano for exercising.

A friend just bought the new Nano and I have to admit it’s cool as hell. It seems to be as thin and lightweight as the older Nano, though I didn’t have one to compare directly. I placed it in my front pocket and I really couldn’t feel it was there. It would make a nice little unit for exercise.

The games that come with it are pretty fun too.

I’m no Ipod fanboy, but I have to give apple credit for this slick mp3 player.