Motorola i296

It's lightweight and rugged, but that's about all it has going for it. For users looking for the cheapest prepaid push-to-talk device possible, it'll do, but everyone else should look elsewhere.
I had higher hopes for the i296, if judging only from its looks: it's cute, and it looks solid. It measures 4.6 by 1.9 by .5 inches (HWD) and weighs just 3 ounces, but it feels durable, as it should—the i296 has been ruggedized to meet military specifications for dust, shock, vibration, and more. It withstood a five-foot drop just fine. The phone is made mostly of matte black plastic, with a shiny black plastic band framing the screen and keypad. The 1.8-inch display offers just 128-by-160 pixel resolution, which makes everything look grainy. I quite liked the keypad, with its raised, easy-to-press, cleanly separated keys. The selection keys above it work fine too, though the main selection key, a big, round button smack dab in the middle of the phone, is curiously large.

Documents to Go—a must have for da Droid

I saw an immediate problem when I opened the Motorola Droid for the first time. My first response was almost to put it back in the box and send it back for the same reason I was never interested in the iPhone when it first came out. It had no built in software for handling Microsoft Office files such as Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint, not to mention PDF files. A serious PDA user interested in mobile productivity needs to be able to access, edit, and crate programs in these formats on the go.

What is the solution? Don’t buy anything but a Windows Mobile device? Well, there are some note taking programs that will allow you to do word processing after a fashion. There are some programs that allow you to view various kinds of documents, but you cannot edit them or create new ones, which make them next to useless.

There is, however, one magnificent solution, and that is Documents on the Go. It is the only program that will allow you to view, edit, and create Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents. It also lets you handle PDF files.

Palm Pre review

Palm Pre Palm's back, and in a big way with the Palm Pre, their first Web OS phone. The Pre has all the design queues of an iPhone challenger with its capacitive touch screen, super-fun user interface and iPod masquerading feature for iTunes syncing. Happily, the Pre is up to the job and is as fresh, easy to use and fraught with possibility as was the iPhone when it came out. The Pre is currently exclusive to Sprint in the US, and it features EVDO Rev. A for fast data, a GPS, 3 megapixel camera, WiFi, Bluetooth, email with MS Exchange support, Sprint TV, Sprint Navigation and more.
Sprint


Palm Pre review
Palm Pre Plus The Pre comes to Verizon as the "Plus" version with 16 gigs of storage vs. the Sprint version's 8 gigs. Otherwise, they're largely the same. The Pre Plus has a 3.1" capacitive touch screen, super-fun user interface and iPod masquerading feature for iTunes syncing. The Pre is features EVDO Rev. A for fast data, a GPS, 3 megapixel camera, WiFi, Bluetooth, email with MS Exchange support, VZ Navigator, a YouTube player, Google Maps and more.