BECAUSE I HAVE failing hearing, I like to pump up the volume through earbuds that work for me. The SonyEricsson W995 Walkman phone delivers an audio experience that totally enslaves me to its technology. Something about the Clear Audio solutions offered on the SE products gives my ears a sharp and dynamic audio experience with no apparent leakage through its 3.5 mm audio jack. I can control presets on the phone and get a range of sound from my 192 kb samples that I cannot pull from my iPod or from my Nokia E90. I'm using the same Bose earbuds with those devices, so my experience isn't down to a better in-ear insert. I wish I could get a phone shop to offer me an earbud competition. I'd put the W995 up against the iPhone 3G S and the Nokia N97 to see the differences. But there are some other facets of the phone that I like more than any other new mobile phone on the Irish market.
Handles My Media. SonyEricsson packages its Walkman phones with Media Go, a piece of software that lets me drag and drop video clips, tracks, photos and more between the Walkman phones and my XP PC. I can also toggle into a podcast directory and pull things down from there.
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AFTER FONDLING SONY ERICSSON phones for an hour on top of Temple Bar, I realised how many of these well-engineered cameraphones are part of my extended family. Fact is, many of the SonyEricsson phones that I buy end up in the hands of grandparents where they continue hard work for at least three years beyond the hand-me-down date. Moreover, the screens on those SonyEricsson phones are the most common place where the grandparents and the aunts see Mia, the youngest member of the family tree. When we're together for a weekend, we beam shots and video clips to the grandparents' K800i phone at left. It's a totally invincible cameraphone, takes great shots, and it's outlived two different digital photo frames that I bought for grandad and granny. In another part of Ireland, a two-year-old P1i continues providing always-on mobile office service for an OpenCoffee enthusiast. I liked that phone too, mainly because of its complete mobile document management and its snappy web browsing. And here's the kicker--both of those phones have outlived their normal expected lifespans, meaning they have stayed out of landfill, provided a lower cost of ownership than the much-touted iPhone and normally operated for more than a day between recharging.
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IN MID-MAY SOME YEARS AGO, when Corvettes were as old as me, I got the keys to my 1973 Navy Blue beast (sample above, but mine had fatter tires mounted on alloy rims) and started hacking away at it. Friends were disgusted because I replaced its T-top with see-through smoked glass and I personally fit a sound system that would damage your eardrums. I got an all-weather Escort radar detector and a 5w CB radio for police advisories. When I was finished, I had the legs for coast-to-coast cruising and that's what I did. From the second week of June through the first week of July, I drove solo from Colorado eastbound to New Jersey then reversed direction to California then back east to Pennsylvania. As a fresh college graduate, I had the bladder and focus to go from one coast to the other in no more than four days. Yesterday, I got nudged on Facebook from Gary Turner who remembers life as a 10-year old. "My father brought a light blue TransAm home for the weekend. It was awesome," he writes. "My bed as a kid had a TransAm logo sticker on the foot of it for years, and Smokie & The Bandit was my alltime favourite movie as a kid."
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EVERY TIME WE VISIT NYC, I make a power walk to the Sony Center, 550 Madison Avenue, to chat with people who understand the beauty of small yet powerful convergent electronic equipment. Sony stuff works the longest and interconnects the easiest with other products in both the consumer electronics and mobile phone sectors. Part of my focus on my most recent walk through the shop involved the least expensive items (some bags, memory cards, digital frames and the Sony Reader) because I don't have a fat wallet anymore. I like the Sony PRS-700 Reader because it works just like the advertisements say. Its ultraportable form factor fits into my coat pocket, plays my MP3 tracks, shows my photo collections and gives me a tabletop and zoomable view of Acrobat files stored on Moodle, our virtual learning environment. The only thing separating me from purchasing one on the spot (a $300 cash price in NYC) was the cost of accommodation in New York City. We spent more for a nice room--one with a great view--and that meant curtailing my purchases of electronic gadgets. But the PRS-700 is definitely on my Christmas wishlist.
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