I said the original version of the Hero was “daring” and “ambitious, but tragically flawed”. (Read that review first.) If it was Batman, the Sprint Hero is Superman: Nearly perfect, but goddamn boring. HTC has taken the striking, aggressive angles of Hero v1 and flattened them out into a rounded, far more generic looking phone. It’s not hideous, but it’s lost its power to captivate as a geek fetish object.

Everything else about this version of the phone is better: The software, which is exactly the same content-wise as the first Hero (read about in-depth here), has been seriously optimised, so it doesn’t suffer show-stopping slowdowns anymore, even with a full set of HTC’s widgets running. Speedwise overall, it’s about the same as a G1 running the stock Android OS—bearable, but not exactly a blitzkrieg. (The iPhone 3GS is way faster, to compare.)

Interestingly, while HTC says the hardware is exactly the same—except for the CDMA chips to get it on Sprint’s network, obviously—there are some differences we noticed. The screen, while the same size, actually seems to look a little bit better on the Sprint model. Not worlds better, but if you look close, the difference is there. The colours are a bit more saturated, the viewing angle a little wider. Also, it’s got a bigger battery: 1500mAh, compared to 1350 before. The bigger trackball is a plus, since it takes less thumb movement to get around, meaning less carpal tunnel

And, while it’s very possible firmware at play, the 5MP camera shoots, on average, about twice as fast as the first Hero, and the metering in low light seems to be way better, too. Both of the shots above were taken using the same settings on each phone, with the old Hero running the original firmware it shipped with. (Still not great, but better.)

The only new bits, software-wise, are a handful of pretty standard Sprint apps: Sprint Navigation, NFL Mobile Live, Nascar, SprintTV and Device Self-Service. Everything else, from the keyboard to the multitouch browser is the same, just faster (and in the case of Flash in the browser, more reliable, since we could actually watch videos this time around). Which is dandy, since HTC’s Sense UI, with its multiple desktops, social networking integration, widgets and other enhancements, made Android great.

The real power of this Hero is that the best Android phone you can buy—it’s everything good we said about the first Hero, but with our biggest complaint speed fixed—is on Sprint and its solid 3G network—making it the first US Android phone outside of T-Mobile—and it’s $US180. Plus, the required Sprint Everything now has free calling to any mobile number, not a bad perk.

The princess might not kiss this Hero because it’s kinda ugly, but at least it’ll actually get the job done now. If you’ve been waiting for an Android phone not on T-Mobile, or simply just about ready for primetime, this is it.

HTC’s Sense UI makes Android way more usable and adds useful features like social networking integration

Almost all of original Hero’s problems are fixed

Android kinks, like no easy way to update all apps, meh store interface aren’t polished over

Jumbo trackball and more logical front placement marred by cheap front plate

Hardware blobbified into something boring and dull, not daring and awesome

Still not as polished as iPhone or Palm Pre

[Sprint]

The Price: $US100

The Verdict: At just $US20 more than Apple’s In-Ear headset, the Klipsch Image S4i is a no-brainer, assuming Voice Control and VoiceOver are priorities to you. If they don’t matter, or if you’ve got an older iPhone or non-Apple handset, the choice is less clear.

Klipsch’s headset is one of the only ones on the market with Apple’s VoiceOver-compatible chip—a feature we raised a stink about when it first came out, but which turned out to be alright. As far as 3G Shuffle headphones go, this is about as nice as you’re going to get. The sound will suit most tastes, but not all: it’s extremely clear, and bass is smooth and deep, but never overpowering. Overall the sound reminds me of the V-Moda Vibe Duos—always a reliable standby for better-than-stock iPhone headsets—except slightly more resolved, and less muddy. What this headset doesn’t have, though, is the kind of razor-sharp presence that you’d find in headphones like the Shure SE115, or headsets like the (markedly more expensive) Etymotics hf2, or the powerful percussiveness of some of Altec Lansing’s UE rebrands. (More on those here.) Isolation and cable movement noise are better than I expected from tips made from rubbery material like this, as is fit: both are excellent, though fans of foam or foam-rubber tips will have to go aftermarket.

Mic quality is fine, too. The Image S4i’s mic sits below your shin, nestled inside the inline controls. It’s a natural location, and the headset’s buttons, which include volume controls, were easy to find and press, though the whole unit is a little slippery for sweaty exercise fingers. The mic, or its location, probably, gave my voice a boomier sound than I got from the Vibes or the Etymotics, though I remained completely intelligible, and background noises, like the mic bouncing off my shirt, or even a rickety old air conditioner, were very hard to notice on the other end of the line. As a bonus, these headsets work in the headphone jack on Unibody MacBooks, for VoIP use.

With Shuffle and 3GS compatibility comes one pretty massive hitch:
That’s Klipsch’s official compatibility chart, and they’re not kidding. If your device isn’t on this list, don’t expect much: older iPhones get basic play/pause functionality out of the inline remote, while the 1G Touch doesn’t recognise it at all. Phones from other manufacturers, including HTC and Samsung, didn’t recognise remote or mic input. The Image S4i isn’t just 3GS and Shuffle compatible, it’s exclusive. And one last minor quibble: I haven’t been carrying these things around for very long, and the Klipsch logo—as you can see in the top image—is already flaking off of the otherwise well-styled and built earbuds. Far from a dealbreaker, but disconcerting, considering how new these things are. [Klipsch]

Excellent sound quality for the price, in both mic and earphones

Work with VoiceOver and Voice Control

Styling and build quality are nice, but the finish is delicate

Compatibility list is severely cropped by Apple’s special inline remote chip

The Price: $US300

The Photos and Video: In sample shots on our kiteboarding trip and at the local beach, the W80 was not the best but sill surprisingly good. Compared to periscoped lens setups, the traditional internal 5x zoom lens made the 12-megapixel shots look sharper than most other waterproof cameras. The 28mm equivalent lens was sharp edge to edge. Colour was good, too.

But I noticed the lens was a little too slow to capture sharp motion underwater where light is rarer than on the surface. (The first sample shot I took in dim light triggered the flash where other models didn’t need one.) Colours and exposure was fine, but the grunge resisting lens and LCD were only marginally helpful in combating substances like suntan lotion, grime and surfboard wax. Video is captured at up to 720p, but it didn’t look so great. Face detection locked on pretty quickly, and there are several shake reduction capabilities, including digital and movie modes.

The Design: The casing is still one of the smallest and is by far the most pocketable ruggedised model around, but it’s only good for drops up to one metre. Models by Lumix and Olympus are far more rugged, although more Hummer-esque, too. Pentax’s various scene modes are amongst the most useful around, and there’s an simple button to switch between them, but that button and menu is also the only way to easily switch between video and still mode. Quite a chore.

The camera could use a design refresh, in all honesty, and more metal. But it’s also good for winter sports, rated to function down to -10 degrees Celcius. I liked Pentax’s optional floating wrist strap, too.

The Waterproofness: Good down to 4.8 metres, up from 3.9 metres in the last generation. Good enough for light to medium beach duty.

The Recommendation: My favourite rugged-ish waterproof camera when size is a consideration.

Compact considering its quasi-rugged chassis.

Decent shot quality.

There are tougher cams out there that take better photos, but only slightly so in all regards.

Could use a redesign, since the W60, W40 and W20 had similar cases.

[Giz, Pentax]

The Price: $US3000

The Verdict: The problem is that this set dims the sidelights whenever the program material gets dark, and it does it in the most ungraceful way ever. Check out the menu that I popped on screen, merely to show you what happens to white material on screen when the backlight is dimmed to increase black level.

See how everything white goes dark, too?

So, if there’s a scene in a movie where there’s a moonlit night, the lighting in this set would crank everything down, including the moon itself. Backlit LED tvs can turn off individual lights to increase blacks, yet keep LEDs lit in the area around the on screen moon; this set idiotically turns everything off. (*Some other sets do this for energy savings, but there’s always a way to set the backlight to a consistent brightness level.)

I didn’t even benchmark the set after this, as there was no need for me to measure other features when the set had such a glaring problem, which Samsung claims is not a bug. Oddly, many technical reviewers glossed over this fact, giving this set editor choice awards while brushing away the issue.

My impressions of the rest of the set are here, however:
• The TV’s colours are inflated like a lot of LCDs but the picture and motion handling are pretty damn comparable to any modern late model LCD.
• There are no buttons on the set, so if you lose your remote, you’re fucked.
• The TV is about 1.2 inches thick, and all the ports are tucked nicely away on the side. But because the case is so thin, the speakers sound terribly thin. Worse than on an old 22 inch TV I have in the back of the house.
• The case’s translucent edges are among the best designed cases of any modern gadget, in my opinion.
• The internet widgets and content take a long minute to boot up and include Flickr, twitter and weather apps. They aren’t worth the $US150-$200 over the 6000 series which eliminate these extras. There’s a media streamer (which I didn’t test) recipes, simple video games, exercises, art and animated children’s songs, like this really freaky one about having the munchies.

• Off axis viewing isn’t great, but isn’t bad.
• If you have noise reduction on on this set, it will strip the grain from movies, practically, making everything look like it was shot on a cheap digital camcorder. Turn it off.
• It’s worth repeating that this set is generally gorgeous.
• Like all LED sets, they’re energy efficient. But again, there’s no localised dimming with this set, which is side, not backlit.

The good news is that Samsung can fix this dimming issue by firmware. The bad news is that I haven’t heard they even believe its an issue yet. I’ve never been so irritated by such a beautiful TV and recommend you steer clear.

A nice picture

Super thin

Dimming sidelight issues.

Sounds thin

Expensive

Price: $US499

Verdict: Have you ever wanted to touch Windows XP? No? There’s a pretty good reason for that—it’s a really crummy touch experience, even with slightly larger-than-usual buttons. It’s kind of like trying to poke poke poke around Windows Mobile 5 with a stylus. (This is at least partly because the T91 is running standard Windows XP Home, not Windows XP Tablet edition.) The “touch optimised” Internet Explorer is a joke. That’s okay, Asus knows all of this too, so they’ve included their own custom interface that sits on top of XP called Touch Gate.

The UI is glossy and glowy and widgety—lighting effects, reflections and giant buttons abound. It can be impressively smooth in action, given how dinky the T91’s guts are (1.33GHz Atom Z520). It has its own apps inside, like a flashy photo program, notepad for scribbling, and internet radio. There’s widget desktop inside as well. You can move between the TouchGate homescreen, widgets desktop and Windows XP by flicking left or right. It’s confusing and annoying though—why can you only have five programs on the Touch Gate homescreen? To get to other apps, you have to move a slider sitting below to “unlock” the rest of the apps, which pop up in a semi-circle. From there, you can launch one, or trade out the apps that appear on your homescreen.

But let’s just cut to it: I’m just not sure why anyone would want this, barring other third party apps you’d install that would unleash the potential of the tablet. (Which is perfectly adequate from a hardware standpoint—the touchscreen is pretty accurate with the stylus after calibration.) With the exception of being able to literally scribble notes and some whizbang photo flick gestures, there’s nothing you can accomplish with Asus’s custom widget OS overlay you couldn’t do on a regular netbook with a regular Windows XP build. And a glorified app launcher for a handful of custom apps + a widget desktop that essentially exist just to lie on top of Windows XP to make touch actually usable aren’t exactly compelling reasons to spring for a tablet, especially when more often than not, the experience simply frustrates because the software seems to misinterpret what you intended a tap to mean.

If there’s a specific reason you want a Windows XP tablet with a crampy screen that doubles as decent last-gen netbook with a crampy screen, then for $US500, the T91 might be your ticket. But if you’re just aching for a cheap touchscreen tablet to dick around on the internet, you’d be better off waiting for the $US300 CrunchPad. The T91 was much better as the glimmer of hope in our eye at CES.

Asus custom touch interface is flashy without bogging down system too much

Touch is accurate after calibration-provided you use the included stylus

It’s half tablet, half last-gen netbook

Windows XP + touch is not the good kind of touch

In the age of 10-inch netbooks, the 8.9-inch screen is weenie-sized

The Verdicts: First, the Panasonic SL-850 turntable: This turntable uses the first version of quadraphonic sound, CD-4, which means the turntable outputs four distinct, individual channels directly to 4 separate speakers. Though it’s a form of surround sound, in my test track, “Musicione” by The Guess Who, the differences between stereo and quadraphonic weren’t quite as obvious as, say, between stereo and a 5.1 surround sound mix. There’s very little of that gimmicky “moving sound” that flits between each channel that’s sometimes emphasised in 5.1, but there’s definitely a noticeable difference between quad and stereo.

In the chorus of the quad version of “Musicione,” each background vocal track gets its own channel, which is reduced to a mere two-way split in the sad stereo mix. Also in quad, there’s a treble/bass split between the front and rear, even going so far as to split the drum set components (high hat and snare in the front, floor tom and bass drum in the rear), while the left/right split is saved for the band’s two main instruments (piano left, guitar right). It’s pretty subtle, and no doubt some of the subtlety was exacerbated by the questionable quality of my speakers, but a stereo version of the same song definitely felt flat in comparison.

The turntable also features an automatic start and stop, a welcome addition, as well as the standard 33/45/78 RPM modes. It’s the only automatic turntable I’ve ever used—instead of lifting the needle and placing it on the record (crazy! I’ll go to the gym if I’m gonna work out, you know what I mean?), you just flip a switch and the Panasonic does it for you. My particular model is missing the centre pin that holds the record in place—in the past, I’ve filed down a wood pencil as a replacement, though the drill bit I found amongst my dad’s tools (pictured) works nicely as well.

The downsides to quadraphonic? The needle, technically called the “Shibata stylus,” is a specialised type. When the time comes for replacement, you can bet it’ll cost more and be harder to find than a standard needle. Plus, there are comparatively few quadraphonic records out there—my dad’s copy of The Who’s Quadrophenia was actually only in two channel. While the SL-850 plays stereo like a champ, you’re not buying it for mere two-channel audio.

The GE 4-Channel Receiver is an even more interesting beast. Its most striking feature is the built-in 8-track cassette player, though to my deep, deep disappointment, it refused to play the only two 8-tracks in my possession, a Motown compilation and the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. No amount of NES-style blowing into the cassettes or the player would yield any sound, so I suppose it must be busted.

But the receiver itself is a powerhouse—it’s got both four-channel and simple stereo modes, a stylish AM/FM tuner, and a sweet balance joystick that lets you control which of the four channels (L/R front and back) gets the most emphasis. It was able to push my four speakers (a pair of giant Pioneer cabinets and a pair of slightly smaller Sonys, one of which was mysteriously and unsettlingly sticky) with a ton of power and pretty decent bass/treble control, thanks to a pair of sliders. Unfortunately, it’s packing only a single audio input, so it might require an external A/V switcher if I wanted to line in more than just the turntable.

The GE unit is also a handsome-looking deck, with wood paneling all around accompanied by a chrome and black plastic front. The AM/FM tuner lights up in fluorescent green and has this great squiggly grid design, and it’s very clear what every toggle and switch does. If it weren’t for the busted 8-track deck, it’d be a winner.

Turntable:
Quadraphonic audio recordings sound great

Plays stereo and quad perfectly

Automatic start/stop is a welcome feature

Rare needle could be expensive and/or difficult to replace

Not the best-looking turntable we’ve ever seen

Receiver:
Powerful, customizable sound (joystick especially is great)

Stylish design

Single input necessitates external A/V switcher

8-track player doesn’t work

Heavy as hell

Special thanks to my dad for hoarding all this ancient gear in our basement.

Gizmodo ‘79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analogue age gave way to the digital, and most of our favourite toys were just being born.

The Price: $US434 on Amazon

The Verdict: Strong. I hate going running down the feature list in reviews, but the NS4600 has quite a big spec sheet.

• Hot-swappable 3GB/s SATA, 1.5TB per drive, up to 4 drives
• RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 support
• Gigabit Ethernet
• USB HDD and printer support
• One-touch backup
• Built-in BitTorrent and eDonkey downloads
• SMB/CIFS/AFP/NFS Network Protocols Support; Shared Storage for Windows, Unix, Linux, MAC clients
• Time Machine support
• DLNA Streaming (PS3, Xbox, DLNA TVs)
• mobile phone video/music streaming (iPhone, Nokias, PSP, Windows Mobile)
• Internet management/access

And all these features work! Streaming to the iPhone was slick (just enter in the username and password) and fast, and streaming to the Xbox 360/PS3 worked as well as any other DLNA network device. This means that if you set up the correct port forwarding options on your router to punch through your NAT, you can have access to your library of music and videos on your mobile phone no matter where you are.

What’s also very useful is the RAID support, which you can check our Giz Explains to see why you’d want one. In short, you’re going to have all your media and documents on here, and it pays to have some sort of redundancy when (not “in case”) a drive fails.

There are editions of their SmartNAVI management client apps for Windows and Mac, which lets you manage shares, stream media, set up new users, set up BitTorrent and eDonkey downloads (very useful if you don’t want to keep a separate PC on all the time) as well as set up a Time Machine backup. And yeah, the Time Machine backup works. The backup folder mounts as a drive on your machine, and you back up normally, via Time Machine.

The only downside of this beefy NAS is that it doesn’t ship with drives. That means you’re paying $US434 for just a box, which you still have to populate with your own drives. If you want to max out the storage with four 1.5TB drives at $US120 each, that’s an extra $US480. A 1TB RAID solution at $US80 each would only cost you $US320. But the fact remains that this is a BYOD solution.

Is this worth it? It depends. We’re big fans of pre-built Windows Home Server machines here, and that already has a lot of backup and streaming and remote access apps built in. But it doesn’t have RAID, and it doesn’t have Time Machine support (except for HP’s), and it doesn’t have everything this unit has. So yes, even though the Promise SmartStor NS4600 is a little pricey because it runs almost five bills and you have to bring your own drives, it is quite a sturdy and capable NAS. [Promise]

Tons of features

Time Machine support

The SmartNAVI user interface is kind of clunky, but it does what it’s supposed to

Expensive for something that doesn’t ship with drives

The Price: $US300
The Verdict: This helmet cam is great for shooting mountain bike or skateboarding shenanigans, especially if you can steady the camera a bit – a snug helmet mount will work better than the handlebars. Although some sort of steadying device would help a lot, since heads tend to shake more than most areas of the body, this camera tends to shake as much as most others that also lack a fish eye type lens (Don’t get me wrong, it has a 135 degree field of view, which is wider than almost all cams on the market. And 135 degrees seems to be a good angle for chasing and filming friends with. ) colours and detail come out really well, except on snow, which tended to be washed out and over exposed. But it shoots in HD: 1280 x 720 at 30 frames per second, which is output as a 16:9 720p picture. Or 60 frames per second in SD. And that’s a rare thing in helmet cameras these days.

The ContourHD’s record/stop functioning is matter of sliding a giant tab up or down and is easy to operate, even with ski gloves on. Aiming the device is pretty simple, too, because the field of vision is determined by dual laser pointers, which remind you where your cam is pointing. It is not waterproof, but it held up fine to getting pummeled by wet snow for a run when I duct-taped it to the nose of my snowboard (probably not a recommended mounting option). Speaking of mounting, the camera comes with a goggle-strap mount and a 3M sticky-backed flat surface mount. Optional mounts are coming, including a suction mount for attaching to cars and smooth surfaces of outdoor gear.

The camera itself isn’t in a housing, which is great for the form factor, but the aluminium and plastic case will run into some issues: If you fall on this camera, there’s no layer of protection for it, and it will get hurt on big enough falls. Wind noise could also be a potential problem, as you can see in some of the videos on VHoldR’s site. And there’s no way to fully submerge this camera, so its not good for water sports.

You’ll also probably want a MicroSD card bigger than the 2GB that comes with the camera, good for an hour of HD footage. The device does charge by USB, though, and having a rechargeable lithium battery, swappable no less, in such a device kicks arse. The battery lasts 2 hours while recording SD, so less with HD.

The two significant shortcomings I saw in the pre-production demo unit they sent have apparently been addressed in the final production run. Those “bugs” they’ve addressed: the Record on/off switch now has sufficient magnetic strength to stay on when vibrating hard, and the battery will no longer shake loose under serious vibration.

HD on a sport camera.

Rechargeable lithium ion battery

Mounts only on helmet for now.

Not waterproof enough for submersion

Randy Salzman is a volunteer Ski patroller at Alpine Meadows. He rides an alpine/carving board but can pretty much ride anything.
[Vholdr]

The Price: $US25

The Verdict: Buy one! If you’re anything like me and wake up multiple times in the middle of the night for to drink water, you’ll be glad you have this Nite Coaster to ensure that you can see the target clearly in your half-asleep haze.

Even if you can feel your way to your glass or glasses or phone with your eyes closed in the dark, the fact that it’s illuminated means you can reach it much faster without the risk of knocking stuff over. Less grope time means more sleep time.

And if you’re worried about this being overly bright or overly sensitive to motion—it’s not. The light is just bright enough so that you can see in the dark, but not bright enough to even match something like a mobile phone screen or something that can wake you up when you’re asleep. Plus it makes your drinking glass look cool. [Nite Coaster]

If you haven’t already checked out MyPleasure.com’s MyVibe app in the iPhone’s app store, you might want to. Unlike many saucy apps out there, MyVibe is free—and fun.

Here’s how it works: There’s an on/off button that looks like many computer on/offs so it’s easily recognisable. On the right there are up and down arrows to control your vibration – short, quick pulses (smaller #s) or longer slower ones (higher #s, up to 100).

The intensity of the vibration MyPleasure could use for this app is obviously limited by the amount of vibration that the iPhone offers, so the orgasmic potential of the MyVibe app is similarly limited. However, orgasms—while fun—aren’t everything.

Anticipation, teasing and seduction play a major role in many people’s sex lives. Why not turn on the app, hold the iPhone discreetly against your body while on the metro, in a cab or at work as you exchange sultry IMs or Twitter DMs with your real life partner or dream partner? Having a little vibration can add excitement and tingles to your day (and your genitals). [MyVibe via My Sex Professor]

First vibrator app, works for teasing and seduction.

It’s free.

iPhone doesn’t have enough vibe power to cause an orgasm.

Dr. Debby Herbenick, author of Because It Feels Good: A Woman’s Guide to Sexual Pleasure and Satisfaction, is the Associate Director of the centre for Sexual Health Promotion in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation at Indiana University (IU) where she is a Research Scientist. She is also a sexual health educator at The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction where she writes (and hosts audio podcasts of) the Kinsey Confidential column and coordinates educational programming. She has a PhD in Health behaviour from IU, a Master’s degree in Public Health Education (also from IU) and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park. In addition, she is certified as a Sexuality Educator from the American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists.

Debby writes regular sex columns for Men’s Health magazine, Time Out Chicago magazine, Velocity, Cheeky Chicago, Psychology Today and she has also written for Glamour magazine.