Phone Performance:

I have to say that I have been pretty impressed with the N73 since I forgot to take my charger with me, and I was using the phone extensively over the last couple of days. The last time I chared the phone was saturday night. I took it with me sunday night to Germany, and I was using it all day on sunday and monday. Then I was using it quite a bit on tuesday before the plane. The battery wasnt acting up at all, only when I landed in Kuwait and getting the car on the way home did it say low battery. So I have to say that they did a real good job with the battery that it lasted 2 and half days of very heavy usage.

Network Issues:

Previously I thought that Vodafone controls all the networks of Europe and is the most powerful, that was the case in Italy, France, and UK. But that wasnt the case in Germany, my Kuwait phone kept finding T-Mobile cell towers every where. Even in two floors under ground in a parking lot I had full service with T-Mobile which was great. The issues I was having was very wierd. I was working all day on Monday after my meetings typing and replying to emails in my room not doing much. Then suddenly I got a wave of texts people telling me why I wasnt picking up my phone. Be it from people in Germany or family or co-workers. It was very strange, it seemed that people were calling me and it would ring but it wouldnt ring on my side. I switched phones since I had my work phone and personel phone, but it was the same case and nothing changed. I could make calls and send text msgs fine so I knew MTC didnt disconnect my phone or something. But I found it really strange people telling me they called, but nothing came up on my phone, no missed calls nothing. And some people said they kept getting network busy no matter how many times they called. I really have no clue why that happened. I cant find an explanation for it, but its still stuck on my mind. Cant figure out why.

This is one cool product. I think it is a great piece to add to home theater system since you can stream HD video to the screen from your PC running the Neodigits Software. And its both Pal and NTSC, plus works with 120/240 Volts. Its a great product overall, it has a few flaws, but nothing compared to its overall value. Where to purchase now thats the question!

Pros

• Extensive media playback flexibility
• NTSC/PAL Compatible
• DVD Region Code-Free
• Built-in Wireless and Wired Networking
• DVD upscaling via both HDMI and Component Outputs
• 1080p upscaling of all DVDs and CD
• HDMI output (1080p)
• PC Network Functionality

Link: Full Review
Link: Neodigits Helios X5000

Price: $579.00

I went to Safat Alghanim because a friend of mine told me they increased their line of TVs and there were some good deals. So I thought I would check it out. I was looking at 1080p capable plasma or lcd. I just wanted to see what they had. When I got there they had a really good selection.

Toshiba LCD 47″

Price: 1290 KD after Discount
Sony LCD Bravia 46″

Price: 1200 KD after Discount

But it sells on Amazon for 642KD, and if you get if from the most expensive online retailer its still 872KD. So you could say its overpriced, but cheaper then Sony in Kuwait. Too bad arent all the TVs arent 240V and PAL & NTSC. I would have ordered it from online a long time ago. But now there is a good selection of 1080ps at the Safat Alghanim. I do recommend the 37″ 1080 Toshiba LCD.

I was surprised when I was walking around that they now had Monster Cables, Cowoon, and Archos. They just seem to be increasing their product diversity more and more. Eureka seems to be aiming more for home appliances and Safat Alghanim seems to bring more and more electronics. Compared to online prices it is more, but its still good that they are diversifying their products. I was walking around their for a while. The one thing I dont understand is why are their arent any high quality laptops. The options are pretty limited, but they do have a very diverse amount of point and shoot cameras.

After delivery a few weeks ago I didnt have time to set it up. It wasnt a plug and play type Network Area Storage. So I was putting it together, and it was supposed to have been burned in. I got it from Eaegis and it took about two minutes to boot up. And for a while I couldnt figure out why I couldnt use it or edit any shares. Shares are folders on the Network Area Stoage. And it was already setup as X-Raid with redunancy enabled. But for some reason it wasnt working and it was telling me that one of the Hard Drives was faulty. So I decied to reset it to the factory default and restart installation from scratch. So I started the setup from the beginning with the X-Raid setup and letting the Infrant work on the reorganizing and syncing the four 400GB Seagate Hard Drives. It took about 6 hours and 40 mins for it to finish, and in the manual it said that it would take up to 8 hours. Then everything was operating perfectly, with a X-Raid setup on a 1.6TB NAS you would have 1.1TB for storage. With the redundant setup you dont have to worry about a bad hard drive. So I have started moving things to it since my last problem. After a good amount of use I will post a full review

Link: Eaegis Infrant READYNAS NV 1.6TB

I have been using this head set for almost two years now everyday when I drive and when Im on the computer and cant really pick up the phone. I use this headset, and its relatively light. I know there are smaller ones out there right now. I tried some Nokia’s and ended up returning them because I didnt like the sound quality. I even tried the Jabra JX-10 which I kept hearing good reviews, but I really didnt like it. Because i got used to the BT-500. I think the BT-500 is so good because of the gel insert that goes into your ear and a four to five day battery life with normal use. And I use it a lot since I drive a manual and while Im on the computer or in the office. I have used it so much over the years that now the battery only lasts two days at most and I got used to it lasting a long time. After two weeks of searching I found it in Khalid Bin Waleed street for 30 KD. I really recommend this headset, but I know people might like its size, but its performance and quality out weigh its size in my opinion.

Price: 30 KD
Rating: 

Positive

• Good clear pictures during daytime
• Great video recording for a digital camera
• Its relatively light
• Battery lasts a good amount of time
• Pretty simple

Negative

• Bad low light pictures
• Too much nose in pictures
• Flash is useless
• Low ISO settings make the picture fuzzy
• Lens is for short
• Too pricy

Overall it isnt worth the extreme price for what it was going for, Im sure if they are selling it anymore. But it does produce really good movies and during the day time its a great camera to just snap pictures, but the big picture for 5 megapixel just has too much picture noise!

Rating:

Positives:

• Long Batter Life (3 full days with normal use)
• Bright Screen, large and very detailed
• Very Quick to any application
• Buttons very easy to see in the dark
• Can use the phone as a flash light because its so bright
• Very quick to load applications
• Very good web browser
• Can change the screen orientation from vertical to horizontal
• Lots of applications
• Good sounding speaker
• Very large buttons and a good joystick
• No Camera
• WIFI
• Keypad Lights up in the Dark. (Light Sensitive)

This is an extremely good phone and it does what its supposed to do down to the dot. Its a business oriented phone which still has multimedia capability. It does not have a camera and that is something some people can not live without. This phone is perfect for the purpose it is built for, it has lots of applications. Loads everything extremely quickly. Very stable and relativly light for its size, it looks deceptivly heavy until you hold it. It has a solid build and a very simple external slot to put the miniSD. I think its a fantastic phone, but sometimes I need a camera. But overall I recommend this the most from the Nokia E series.

Price: 95 KD

Rating:

There is new service being deployed in the Bay Area, in and around San Francisco, specifically for gadgets! They have been working on ironing out the kinks in the service for the past 2 years. Its called LicketyShip it is specifically for gadgets and they gaurantee delivery within for hours if the item is in stock. Its currently only deployed in the bay area, but they are planning to deploy it across the US in the future. The cost is $20.00 and above for that kind of delivery.

I think that is an amazing idea, and I know I would be the type of person who would order from them or who ever uses them if they have items in stock! I wish this sort of shipping service could be thuroughly deployed in Kuwait, I think the only company that is coming close to this is Click-N-Buy right now. But still you can order any gadget and to your door in four hours! Now thats service! And instant gratification!
Link: Engadget

Link: LicketyShip

This is a phone that came out about two months ago now, and I think I have put it through the hoops. Its a really good phone but with a few kinks to work out.

Positives:

• Strong signal
• Bright and large screen
• Extremely good web browser
• Very load speaker
• Very good pictures
• Lots of tools
• Very versatile information for contacts
• Long battery life
• Very light for size
• Good buttons and joystick
• Multimedia player is very good, and slideshow for pictures is very good.
• Sms stored on Mini-SD so it can be moved
• No limit on number of SMSes and Contacts. I havent reached the limit yet and Im at 867 messages with 483 contacts.
• Keypad lights up only in the dark. (Light Sensitive)

Negatives:

• Slow to load sms or mms menu (new or to read)
• A bit slow to open contacts
• Freezes if you try too many things when its running slow
• Multimedia loads a bit slow as well
• Bluetooth needs to be adjusted, it seems not one to connect after a few times. Then you have to restart it to get the Bluetooth working again.

Overall I think its a great phone, but I wish it wasnt slow for sms and contacts since its the two things that I use the most. So its a bit frustrating when I have to send a quick sms, and if you try to force it then it will hang even more. But I think if it gets a software upgrade maybe they worked on that part. If the software improves I would bump it up to 4 stars!

Price: 143 KD

Rating: 

The other day I needed another surge protector and I was trying to remember where I got mine from. They are all generic and white, it seemed more of expansion spots for power rather then a surge protector. So I went to the Mishref Co-op only to find it closed so I headed over to the Salwa Sultan Center and I was surprised to see that they had a decent selection. Ranging from 2.5 KD up to 4.5 KD depending on your needs. I took two of each, but I just needed one and I thought I would keep a surplus in the house for anyone who needed one since we didnt have any.

If your looking for something that is more a surge protector then an expansion slot then you should go with the Monster Surge Protectors, and I know they sell them at Centro Electronics. These surge protectors are not cheap for a reason, they range from 40 KD up to 97 KD.