The Sansa Rhapsody is a portable music player designed to work with RealNetworks’ Rhapsody music-subscription service. The preloaded music included with the player is hassle, and the device is inferior to the iPod Nano.
A new system gives you access to 2.5 million digital tunes — without even turning on your computer. But at $999, Walt Mossberg says it requires a roomy budget.
BlackBerry’s new Pearl is aimed squarely at consumers who need powerful email capabilities, but also want style and bells and whistles. And it’s a beautiful piece of work, Walt Mossberg says. (Video)
Verizon’s new Chocolate cellphone is designed as a music player first and was crafted to look like an Apple iPod. But it’s burdened by a ham-handed user interface and other failings, Walt Mossberg says.
Garmin’s Nüvi 350 GPS receiver is being recast as a “personal travel assistant” to shed its geeky roots. The device has a music player, photo viewer and more, but its core function, GPS navigation, is still too crude for its $900 price tag, writes Walt Mossberg.
Sprint did a good job designing the first mobile music store, writes Walt Mossberg. It’s a shame they spoiled this breakthrough service with stratospheric prices and overdone restrictions.
The beauty of digital media is the flexibility, Walt argues, and that flexibility shouldn’t be destroyed for honest consumers just because the companies that sell them have a theft problem caused by a minority of people.
Many people resort to time-consuming methods for transferring key files between computers. Walt looks at services that automatically keep certain folders synchronized among multiple PCs, without any work on your part.
Walt says the Pepper Pad, a new info appliance, mostly did what was promised, but it isn’t quite as easy and intuitive to use as its makers claim. And, at $799, it costs more than some laptops.
Edited by Walt and written by Katie Boehret, this is a guide to gadgets, web services and other consumer technologies.
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