Review: Seidio Innocase Surface

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With the release of the Touch Pro 2, users are frantically looking for ways to protect their product. While holsters do a great job of offering mobility, they don’t do justice for when the device is actually in your hands being used. Most of the time this is when the phone may drop, or get scratched, making you wish you’d want to jump off a bridge for damaging your phone.

Finding hard cases to protect your phone isn’t that difficult. Ebay has a large collection, although most of the time, result in  a low quality feel and doesn’t always fit that well. Thankfully Seidio has expanded their line-up of Touch Pro 2 accessories with their latest offering, the Seidio Innocase Surface, which provides an amazing layer of protection without added bulk.
Continue reading for the full review.

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Review of the Plantronics Discovery 975

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Plantronics Discovery 975 Review

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Plantronics Discovery 975 Review
November 16, 2009 by tsowen, PPCGeeks
The Discovery 975 offers great-sounding call
quality on both ends of the line

There are headsets that are stylish, and headsets that sound great, but somehow Plantronics Discovery 975 Bluetooth Headset managed to combine these two features into one device. This week I had the privilege to test drive this device and I have to say I was blown away by it. The Discovery 975 has a sleek boom packed with microphones and windscreens that give it a surprisingly sound quality. It is sleek and stylish and comfortable.

Like its predecessor, the Discovery 925, the Discovery 975 requires no futzing: With one hand, you can place the headset in your ear, point the microphone boom down toward your mouth, and tap the call button to get rolling. Measuring 2.7 inches long by 0.8 inch wide by 0.5 inch thick, the Discovery 975 appears almost like a piece of jewelry when worn. Visually the Discovery 975 resembles a slimmed down Discovery 925, and is far less bulky than the Voyager PRO. Read more…

PPCG Review: Plantronics Voyager PRO

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This week I had the opportunity to test out and review the Plantronics Voyager PRO bluetooth headset. It has an internal 20-band equalizer to adjust to background noise to maintain a natural-sounding voice. It also has Plantronics’ newest technology, AudioIQ2.

Some of its features include:

  • Dual-mic AudioIQ2 noise canceling technology enriches voice quality
  • Boom places mics where they best capture your voice
  • Three layers of protection from wind noise
  • Durable headset withstands daily wear and tear
  • Multipoint pairs one headset to two phones
  • Voice prompts alert battery and mute status
  • Fast-charging, long-lasting battery

Its also rated for 6 hours of talk time and up to 5 days of standby time!

If you search for other reviews of this device, you’ll see that its among one of the highest rated bluetooth headsets out there, so I had high expectations from the start.  I’ve owned a Motorola H700 and a Jabra headset in the past, so those will be my main comparisons.

Read my full review after the break, you won’t be disappointed!

Buy it in the PPCGeeks store here!
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PPCG Review: Samsung SBH-600 Bluetooth Stereo Headset

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I had the change to review the Samsung SBH 600 Bluetooth Stereo Headset. When first opening the box, I must admit that they looked very comfortable. It was very well-cushioned in a soft leather. The ear pieces were very soft as well as the band. The buttons have a nice chrome finish to them, making them easy to find. I’ll admit, when it said it included a carrying case, I wasn’t expecting much, but boy was I wrong! It came with a very nice leather case that will easily hold the headset, adapter, and a few other things you could pack in there, all with a drawstring on the top.

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PPCG Review: BookSync

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I had the opportunity to take this little app for a test drive. For only $0.99, how could you go wrong right? Well, unfortunately this app needs some work. The functionality worked great. It automatically matched up my contacts with my Facebook contacts (by matching names), and I had the opportunity to sync birthdays and names. It’ll automatically sync the profile picture as well. If you have someone saved as a different name, you can easily do a manual match and pair them up yourself.

The GUI, however, needs major work, atleast on my VGA Touch Pro. Things were overlapped and hard to read and its not very finger-friendly at all.

You can download the beta versions for free, or buy the final release versions for $0.99. From their website, it looks as though they’re working on improving the GUI, which is much needed.

Some of its features include:

  • Auto matching
  • Manual matching
  • Sync profile picture
  • Sync birthdays
  • Sync name
  • Quiet mode – call booksync from a schedule app with the -q switch “booksync -q” to perform a background sync

I will give this a 2 out of 5 stars for the time being, in hopes that the GUI will be improved very soon.

Buy it from the PPCG Store here for only $0.99!!!

PPCG Review: Resco Contact Manager

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I had the chance to review Resco Contact Manager v2.02 which adds some nice features from the previous version, such as:

* Touch Optimized Interface
* Profiles management
* Facebook integration
* Google Maps application support
* Customizable today plugin
* Categories/Companies groups operations available. Send SMS/MMS to all members in group
* SMS Chat and Call History
* Keypad Hot Key
* Quick search using Keypad
* Call & SMS Statistics
* Assign photo to a contact
* Send Contact VCard

The program loads very fast.  It reassigns your right softkey to its contact app instead of the built-in Windows one.  In the Start Menu, you’ll find a new folder with direct links to Favorites, Options, MS Contacts, etc.

Scrolling is very smooth, as it is with most Resco apps.  It is very finger-friendly and easy to read.

There is one feature which I couldn’t get to work, and that is the Facebook Integration.  After using TouchFlo3D v2.1, it integrated nicely with my contacts and updated their status and profile pictures.  No matter if I was connected to 3G, WiFi, or ActiveSync, it would hang on “Downloading Users”.    I browsed the Resco forums and saw where people had the same issues, but no resolution.  This is the only negative thing I could find with this app.

It functions very similar to the free iContact, but if the Facebook Integration would have worked, this program would have it beat.  So if you can get the Facebook Integration to work, and its imortant to you, then it might be worth the $25 for this app.

I gave it a 3 out of 5 stars for now until Facebook is fixed.

You can buy it at the PPCG Store here!

PPCG Review: Kinoma Play

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I had the opportunity to review the full version of the popular Kinoma Play. The full version of the app has all the features of the free version plus:

-More search results
-Upload to Flickr, YouTube, and other social networking sites
-Works with iTunes
-Play AVC/H.264 video
-Play thousands of internet radio stations
-Play from URLs
-Play Windows Media Video
-Your personal Jukebox
-Support for FLAC audio
-Kinoma Guide
-Much, much more

Screen transitions are very smooth and has separate “landing” pages similar to an iPhone layout. Finger gestures are very smooth, as well as menu transitions.

The Exit option is a little buried. You have to press the Menu button, then go to the 3rd tab.

The free version of their Player is great and has received many great reviews. The full version just adds to it. In my opinion, it has plenty of options for your $30. Its nice to have one app that does many things well, rather than multiple apps that do things mediocre.

Playback is smooth and the interface seems very intuitive.

I give it a 4 out of 5 stars.

Buy it from the PPCGeeks store for $29.99 here!

PPCG Review: Seidio 2000mAh TP Extended Battery

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Seidio 2000mAh Extended Battery

I had the opportunity to review the Seidio Innocell 2000mAh Extended Battery for the Touch Pro (my At&t Fuze). While unpacking the battery and battery cover, I noticed the cover had the “rubbery” feel of the European covers and not the slick back the At&t Fuze came with. I prefer the European cover, and I actually ordered one shortly after I bought my Fuze.

After putting the battery in and putting the cover on, I noticed that it wasn’t a perfect fit, but its pretty close. The edges hang over just a tad, but not enough to be annoying.

As the store states, it does add about 2-3mm to the back of the phone, but its really not too bad. It doesn’t feel quite as nice in the hand as it did with the original back, but that’s expected when you buy these extended batteries.

In the battery package, it states that it will take 5-6 full charge/discharge cycles to calibrate the battery. When putting it in the phone, it came with a 50% charge and it states to fully charge it before using it. I had my phone on, but plugged in for a good 4 hours before I took it off the charger.

Read on for my usage experience!

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Review of the Motorola MOTOROKR T505 Bluetooth In-Car Speakerphone w/ Digital FM Transmitter

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Review

Motorola T505

Motorola MotoRokr T505 Review
October 9, 2009 by tsowen, PPCGeeks
Motorola’s T505 is easy to use while your eyes are on the road.

All too often we have all witnessed that driver who has been talking on their cell phone and driving at the same time. It is something that has become a habit especially here in the United States but with an in-car speaker system such as the MotoRokr T505 it’s a habit that can be broken.

I was given the opportunity to take one of these for a test drive and I have to admit it was love at first site. The device is slightly bigger that a garage-door opener and has a nice clip that attaches to your car’s visor. Not to be confused with a Bluetooth headset, the device is a speakerphone so you probably wouldn’t want to walk around with it strapped around your waist. The device pairs easy with any Bluetooth cell phone and is very easy to set up. The instructions that come with the device were easy to follow and in a couple of steps you are ready to cruise down the road and chat hands-free. With the T505 you are not limited to just phone calls either; if your device supports stereo Bluetooth you can stream music to the device or to your car’s stereo via the built-in FM transmitter.
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The New Toshiba TG01

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As most of know, Windows Mobile has been reborn in 6.5 as Windows Phone. Today, Toshiba went a little further by announcing the new TG01 Windows Phone, a spin off of the TG01. The Difference? It comes with Windows Phone 6.5.
TG01
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