At last the 8 GB Sony Ericsson phone has arrived and it is as functional as expected from the specs. I thought the phone would be heavier and thicker based on the SE P90 that a lot of people still have but it is relatively light and thin for its size. I tried it out for one day and I have to say its like having a mini-computer/full-on mp3 player. Sony Ericsson have been very successful in with the MP3 Player interface over the past year, and this is even better with its easy music interface. It has a 8 GB storage for music, pictures, and videos which is separate from the memory used to store settings of the phone.

The touch screen is interesting, the first time you start it up and configure it takes about 10 minutes all in all. Then It only takes about 20-30 seconds to start up, still a little while but this machine packs a punch. The touch screen is very simple to you and intuitive and 90% of all the navigation is done through the screen. The wifi is really simple as well, and browsing is very simple to do and reading webpages is very clear as well. If you want phone & music player that does it all then this is it.

Link: GSMArena

Price: 210 KD

After passing by Alghanim Electronics I remembered that they sold iRivers, so I decided to check out if they had the Clix. It turned out they had the Clix 2 with 4GB space and it was being sold for 67 KD and came with its docking station. The 8GB version is sold for $233 on Amazon, so I thought to purchase it and try it out, the size is honestly perfect so I thought it would be easy to use.

The interface is nothing short of fantastic, very easy and simple to use. I watched a couple of episodes of 30 Rock on it, and it integrates seamlessly with my Kenwood Headunit in the car. The battery has lasted a while now, and I just keep on filling it with new music. One thing I noticed about it more the any other mp3 player I have used, its loud and clear, the volume goes from 0 to 40 and most mp3 players would stop at around 28 – 30 of the Clix volume, but this just keeps going. This is a perfect feature for when I read since I need it be loud from the wind. Right now I think the best interface possible with amazing features it the iRiver Clix 2, but I will have a full review once I go through it completely. When they fix my Creative Zen I will see what I will do with it.

I found out that Alghanim Electronics is a service center for Creative products. It is close to Alghanim Electronics but behind Nissan Al Shawaf, the first right and the first left coming in from the Fourth Ring Road.

It was clearly written as Alghanim Electronics Service Center, they seemed to have a very professional setup and what kind of they provide. I was spoke to the person at the counter and they said they repare Creative products and when I told them it wasn’t from them they said I would have to pay. If it was above 10 KD they would call me, and if it is below they would just fix it right away.

They told me it would take three days for them to get back to me if they can fix the MP3 player. I spoke to their engineer and I explained to him my issue, and it was a software issue so hopefully they would be able to fix it and he said two days to see if they can fix it. It seems they have a back log of items. I would be quite happy to get it fixed so I can really try it out, right now I have a bad impression of Creative products. I just have to wait a few days until they get back to me, I will be getting back to them before they call me most probably.

I got this warning from my laptop that my battery is reaching a point where it should be repalced since its life span has shortened. This battery lasted me about 1 year and 3 months now which is pretty good for everyday use. I knew this was going to happen at a certain point, in the beginning the battery would easily last 4-5 hours now it barely lasts two hours which isn’t too bad, and its dropping below the two hour mark at this point.

Since I had an idea about this I ordered my spare battery a few months ago, and I’m going to start using when my battery is barely able to be used, even if I get an hour out of it I don’t think thats bad. The one thing about the Dell Latitudes that I like is their ability to control screen power so you can maximize battery power, you can almost completely switch it off.

I can’t imagine my luck with this product. My first MP3 player in 99 was a Creative Player and it has 32 MB which was huge back then. Now I got the Creative Zen 8 GB from the Virgin Store in Mall of the Emirates. I thought it was going to be great and I could use it without any issues, I tried it since their were a lot of them available to tried at different Electronic stores int he mall.

I read online that a lot of people were having software and hardware issues with this player but it also got a lot of good reviews so I thought to try my luck.

I just had no luck with the product:

• I picked it up on Friday night and charged it for four hours as stated, and I kept getting a white screen. I tried everything to get out of the white screen but nothing happened.
• I took it back to Virgin on Saturday and when I gave it to them, they immediately replaced it with a new one.
• They tested the new one by switching it on and trying it on a plug which seemed to work and I could see the interface and everything was working.
• I picked it up on Saturday and charged it, while charging it went into recovery mood.
• I didn’t have a chance to get out of that mode until getting to Kuwait.
• There was no solution to get out of Recovery Mode, except to upgrade the Firmware
• So I erased the current Firmware and tried installing the new Firmware which I downloaded from the Manufacturer.
• After 99% of the installation of the Firmware and rebooting, it did this all on its own. Everything seemed working fine until it said “Firmware Problem”
• The only solution based on the website is to send it to the main reseller which is difficult since I am in Kuwait and I am not aware how it is in Kuwait.
• Now the Search Begins!

Avoid the Creative Zen

Link: Amazon

After some deliberation and looking into a few options I went with the Creative Zen and picked it up from Virgin in Mall of the Emirates. It had all the features I was looking for all in a small package, and it was readily available in every electronic store in the Mall of the Emirates.

There were two versions but I went with the 8 GB version, but there was also a 16 GB and 32 GB version which were only available online. It fit perfectly in mind hand and it is very thin, so I was very happy with the purchase.

Price: 899 AED (67 KD)

I’m always on the lookout for high quality Home Theater Projectors which are reasonably priced but have extremely good picture quality. Sim2 is one of those companies that consistantly make high quality projectors with whatever price you have in mind, but this C3X 1080 is a fully loaded projector with all the bells and whistles to make the clearest picture possible in your enviroment. 10000:1 contrast ratio with a HD upscaling, and a color-management software that allows installers to adjust the projector to home theater enviroment. They have gone all out with this projector, but the price is up there as well. If money isn’t an issue then this should be at the top of the list for a Home Theater.

Price: $31’995

Link: Engadget

I’m taking a look at a few options right now for an MP3 player, and I want to get one right away. What I’m looking for is simple but not all MP3 players can satisfy my requirements but I have found two that can do the job.

The Options:

• iRiver Clix 8 GB Gen2
• Creative Zen V Plus

What I’m looking for:

• Charge through USB
• Drag and Drop music without a software to integrate
• Creating Playlists
• Different types of Random play, not just the general random
• Clear loud Music
• Long Lasting Battery
• Flash Drive
• Friendly User Interface
• Not Big

The only issue I have is that the iRiver isn’t available for me to try out but I keep reading good reviews about it, and I can’t go too long without an Mp3 Player.

This time around I know that I can get the Logitech diNovo Edge since I have space in my bag, for a very thin device it has a pretty damn big box. Also another item which is a smart addition from Logitech is the speaker system which they attach to laptops like a docking station. I have a desktop so its not really that useful for me but seems like a very good product for those who need compact solid speakers for a laptop.

I have made the decision never to buy HDD based MP3 players at all, they just don’t work for me. A day before traveling my MP3 player seemed to be acting funky. I use my mp3 player all the time, when I travel, when I ride, and I plug it into my car stereo system. I assume this machine has been shaken around too much, I kept hearing something but I wasn’t sure even when I put my ear to it.

Then the thing just crashed and reset which was surprising, it seemed ok I thought it was just a software crash. When I tried loading some music back on it was going fine until 40% into the transfer, then it just froze. Then I heard the magic sound, which is a “clicking” sound which means the hard drive has crashed.

There has always been an argument about HDD and Flash based MP3 Players, and with this development I have decided not to buy any HDD based MP3 Player, or to really avoid them. Now I’m on the look out for a decent size Flash based MP3 Player and the Flash Drives have grown over the past couple of years.