1. MacBook Pro 13″ (Mid 2010) – I do a lot of traveling, not just flying around the US, flying around the world, but I also commute for my work daily. About a year ago, I had the MacBook Pro 15″ as a stay at home notebook, and an HP DV1030 11″ notebook to take on the road. Turns out that every time I was traveling, I would miss my Mac. When I tried taking the Mac with me traveling, I would miss the DV1030’s portability.

In this crazy economy and in an effort to save space, it made a lot of sense to consolidate both of those notebooks down to the new Macbook Pro 13″ and it was one of the best decisions I have made. The build quality, portability/weight, 7-10 hour battery life, and hardware has made my most favorite notebooks I have ever owned. I take it with me for work in sending e-mails, writing, creating presentations, pulling up reports, and managing a large sales force throughout California.

At home, it’s my main computer in streaming media, managing my photos and to watch movies on. It can also handle a lot of the new games that are out such as StarCraft II as well as a bunch of emulators to play a lot of my classic arcade titles on. Although it only sports an aging Core 2 Duo processor, it can definitely last for another few years… or at least until Apple puts at least an i3 or i5 into this thing!

iPhone 4 32GB - Just about everything that I do on my Mac, I do on my iPhone when I don’t have it with me. A lot of the apps that are available on the iPhone these days can substitute and are very close to replacing the functions of a computer. I use the iPhone to send off quick e-mails, update reports, and stay in touch with my staff when I’m working. The iPhone 4 also provides a lot of entertainment with all the apps available for it with games such as Angry Birds and it functions very well as a media player. I also use this for day to day things such as an alarm clock, a navigation device, calendar, etc. It also takes great photos and videos as well so when I don’t have my camera with me, it comes in extremely handy.

I also have this thing Jailbroken so I use it as a hotspot when I need to and I can watch anime anywhere, anytime without WiFi using the My3G app! In short, this does about everything. I could go on and on about the functions, features, design, and how crappy AT&T’s network can get but that’s been mentioned on thousands of reviews all over the internet.

iPad 32GB - OMG another Apple device! I think I really am a fanboy! I got rid of the netbook because it sucked and wasn’t as practical as I thought it would be. The iPad however, does just about everything a netbook could do and surprisingly better. I have the iPad on my nightstand to surf the web and read the news in bed. I used to use my notebook and netbook to do that but it was awkward and cumbersome. I also use the app Stream to Me to watch all my downloaded media such as movies and anime on the iPad. I love how it supports just about all video formats from Xvid to MKVs with subtitles! On weekday mornings, I use the iPad to take to the dining table to send off e-mails while I’m eating breakfast. This is also great to take on the plane as well especially with the great battery life to read eBooks and magazines. Plus the fact that it weighs about a 1lb and it’s very thin, I can toss it into a notebook bag or backpack to take anywhere.

Sony DSC TX1 Digital Camera – I finally replaced my aging DSC T70 with this one and I am loving this camera. It’s much thinner, lighter, and takes amazing photos at night thanks to the Exmor R CMOS image sensor. The built in panorama mode makes taking wide area shorts VERY EASY and it does a great job at that. I’ve already taken at least a thousand pictures with the TX1 and it has made me look like a great photography even though I can barely operate a point and shoot! The touch screen feature is more than a gimmick, it’s actually quite useful in navigating through the camera’s interface in select modes and focus. It’s thin, light, and build make it great for travelers like myself.

OGIO M8 Laptop Bag – With all that gear, I need a laptop bag that can rely on to take on the road. The OGIO M8 Laptop bag has compartments for organizing everything I listed above as well as head phones, mouse, external hard drives, power adaptors and everything else I need to take with me. It’s quite durable, light and airport security friendly so it definitely suits my needs.

I’m actually motivated to post more on this site again so I’ll work on an article of my current gear and have it up sometime this week.

I created this video entirely on the iPhone 4 using the camera, video recorder and iMovie!

It’s a new Mac! Of course we have to make an event out of it!

It is definitely much better to surf the web and type on this. I’m writing this post on the iPad right now as week speak. The case helps a lot in typing on a flat surface because you can set it to elevate to a more comfortable typing position. I love how you can pretty much view an entire webpage at a more readable screen size where as. You had to zoom and unzoom to different sections on the iPhone.

Another feature that really shines on the iPad is the iBook app. Someone suggested on another website to use Calibre to convert PDF based books and magazines and then just drag them into to the iPad via iTunes and it’s just awesome. I converted a bunch of books and magazines and reading them on the iPad has been an incredible experience whereas reading them on my MacBook Pro or a netbook is cumbersome and awkward. It just feels natural on the iPad.

My gripes on the device are pretty much the same as everyone elses which is the lack of multitasking (which should hopefully be corrected with the next OS update or recent jailbreak) is really annoying especially for a device that is supposedly competing directly with a netbook or laptop. The lack of flash is also a bummer when this was claimed by Steve Jobs as the best browsing experience and it cannot even include that. And finally not having a webcam to videochat sucks too.

I don’t think I will be using this to play mp3s since that’s what I use my iPhone for and how stupid will it look if I took the iPad jogging with me or to the gym? One thing that would have been nice is the ability to play more video file formats such as divx or mkv files like the Archos 5 Internet Tablet can but of course this is expected from Apple to omit this feature. I guess I can live with the Netflix app for now…

Overall the iPad is a decent device for those looking for something to surf the web with or to read ebooks on, but as a netbook replacement or media player, I suggest you save your $500+ and wait for the next generation device or get a thin and light laptop. I am excited that they just recently found a way to jailbreak the iPad which will make the iPad 100X better!

I’ll have the actual review up soon. I’m going to play with the damn thing now!

The Archos Internet Tablet is an Android powered, feature packed portable media player that plays just about every popular multimedia format from AVIs (including Divx and Xvid), MPEG2/4, WMV, MKV, H.264, MP3, AAC, WMA, etc… and does so exceptionally WELL. In fact, it can manage HD media without any stuttering. There’s also a built in FM tuner and you can buy a DVR for this if you want to record and schedule your TV shows by connecting to your cable box with component or HDMI cable. There are so many features to list and so many things you can do on the device since it’s an Android player so I’m going to mainly focus on how well it does in real world every day use.

Quick Specs: 800MHz ARM Cortex-A8 CPU, 256MB of RAM, 16GB SSD hard drive, 802/11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth, microSD card slot, micro USB port, runs Android 1.6

Design

When I took this right out of the box, my first impression was that it pretty much resembled a GPS navigation device (and yes it has GPS capabilities!), which is a thin wide screen slab and about exactly the same size and weight, except a little more lighter and thinner.The Archos 5 Internet Tablet measures 5.5 inches wide, 3 inches tall, and .4 inches thick which is small enough to fit into the back pocket of your jeans (although I wouldn’t really recommend it). The display is bright and responsive with High resolution touch screen, 800×480 pixels, 4.8” TFT LCD, 16 million colors so you’re going to get really good on screen playback. There’s also a built in kickstand which is a really nice touch!

As you can see, the size of the entire iPhone is about the same size as the screen of the Archos 5 Internet Tablet!

First Few Hours

This was actually the most challenging part out of the whole experience of owning the tablet. So challenging that I was already considering returning it! After doing the initial setup I didn’t do any ROM updates because I wanted to try it out right away. I plugged it into my MacBook Pro to transfer some video files and started to get irritated when OSX didn’t detect the drive! If I had done my research instead of buying this out of impulse, I would have know that this was a common issue that has yet to be resolved and not be so shocked. Whatever. So while I waited my my Mac to restart into Windows 7 using Boot Camp, I started to configure the network settings and surf the web with it. The browser was decent but guess what? It froze!!! WTF?! I restarted and tried again and noticed that the operations didn’t run as smooth as an iPhone and was something I had to get used to.

I went through Archos’ own “App Store” on the device and it was a joke. I couldn’t even find the official Facebook application and already started planning to take this back to the store the next day but I at least wanted to try out how good it is as a video player. But before that I let the device update itself to the latest firmware and after it restarted I quickly noticed how snappy the tablet was and how smooth navigating through the OS was prior to the firmware update. Finally some light at the end of the tunnel! I loaded a bunch of Divx files, Xvids, and MKV files (most of them were anime) and they ran amazingly well. In fact, I could right away tell the difference in video playback between the HP Mini 110 and the Archos 5 which is night and day! Playback was perfectly smooth, display was bright and clear, and I was even more impressed that it supported subtitles for MKV files or SRT files with the Divx!

The built in speaker was a bit on the quiet side and I had a pair of iPhone earphones laying around and started freaking out a little bit because I was wondering why the sound was hollow and quiet. I then realized that the iPhone earphones don’t work on this but the ones that came with my iPod or with the Archos worked perfectly fine. Just something to keep in mind before you freak out and think that it’s defective!

Features Galore

I could go on and on talking about the features of this device because there are so many. I’ll just list them and describe how well they work…

Android 1.6 – Whatever you can install on an Android smartphone, you can pretty much run on this! Also you easily install the Android Market Place by going here and it makes the experience 100X better. Ditch that built in app store that Archos had pre-installed. You will be opened up to a world of applications such as Face Book, Meebo, Google Talk and Google Voice. I can listen to my voicemails, send and receive text messages on my Archos! How cool is that?!

Google Applications – After installing Market Place, you can install the Google Applications as mentioned above. You can sync Gmail, Google Calendar, Contacts, etc. You can also put in your e-mail information and sync with your personal e-mail. Sorry, no out of the box Exchange support, but who would really use this for work?!

Video Player – As mentioned early, plays video files way better than the HP Mini 110 netbook. No stutter and can play files in HD no problem! The support codes include H.264, WMV, MKV, MPEG-4/2 (Divx, Xvid, AVI, etc) which is basically everything that the Apple handhelds don’t play!

Photo Viewer – Yes you can load and view photos loaded onto the built in hard drive or off a MicroSD card

Web Browser – Standard Android browser experience is up to par with Safari on the iPhone and iTouch. Websites look even better and easier to read with its larger screen size. No flash but that should be coming in the future and no pinch to zoom!

FM Radio – Don’t really use it that much but it works. Just plug in your headset and it will use that as an antenna.

GPS Navigation – Has built in GPS. You have to pay for the software but they do give you a 7 day trial. I tethered my phone’s WiFi just to try the GPS to this and Google Maps works just fine. But why would I do that if my phone already has GPS? LOL. A nice touch none the less.

DVR Recording – You can hook this up to your Cable box via Component or HDMI and schedule recordings without a subscription! Unfortunately you have to shell out $129 for the DVR dock. Might be worth it since you don’t have to pay a DVR subscription with your cable company or TiVo.

Music Player – The interface is no iPod, iPhone or iTouch but it works. Just drag and drop onto an MicroSD card or onto the hard drive and you’re ready to go. no Itunes needed! It will even play files over the network!!! Plays WMA, MP3, AAC, WAV, FLAC, and AAC.

Overall

As CNET mentioned in their review, this is a pirate’s best friend! You can download videos off torrent and play it on this baby without having to convert saving you lots of time. As of this writing, I’ve already sold my netbook as this pretty much can duplicate its functions at a smaller size and does what I need very well. The Archos 5 Internet Tablet is well designed, very portable and it does what it’s supposed to very well. This is no way a replacement for an iPhone or any other smartphone which is why I haven’t really compared it to that. I would rather carry on the Archos than a laptop or netbook when I’m on the plane because of how portable and functional it is. Just to recap, it plays all video and audio formats, has WiFi/Bluetooth capability, and has a very capable web browser.

I can watch movies or play games since you get up to 7 hours of battery life so it will last through the plane ride. My only issue with this is that out of the box without doing any updates, it’s extremely buggy and unreliable which can be frustrating for the novice user. However, once you install the latest firmware updates and the Android Marketplace, you have a really good alternative to a netbook.

If you had to choose between this and an iTouch to play videos, I would definitely choose this. If you mainly just need an MP3 Player and play games, then the iTouch is for you. If you already have an iPhone and are tired of converting your video files to play or need something that doesn’t half-ass multimedia functions like a netbook does, then it would definitely be worth it to get the Archos.

Overall Rating: 9/10

1. Poor Call Quality – I was OK with the sound quality when I was playing music on my iPhone or on my MacBook Pro but when I took it out while driving or simply walking, other callers complained of echo and had difficulty hearing me. This was tested on multiple people, carriers, and phones. It was also hard hearing people’s voices as well when in an outdoor environment. Noise cancellation feature was non-existent and didn’t really work as advertised.

2. Poor Quality and Placement of Function Buttons – This just drove me crazy. The buttons were not only poorly place, but the response on them was extremely erratic! When you can finally find the larger round button to answer the phone, it doesn’t work unless you press exactly in the middle! Not only that, the button was flimsy and felt like it was going to break soon. Also, when trying to adjust the volume (when you can find it!), it’s a crap shoot on whether or not it will work and sometimes by accident, you will increase or decrease the volume no matter what you do!

Went straight back to Best Buy! I need to find a better headset.