I needed a second set for myself, so bought a cheap one — Samsung E250. It comes with all the stuff that I need, such as Bluetooth, EDGE, MP3/AAC support, Java, FM radio, and most importantly good looks… well, it has got it all.

It has a sucky camera (VGA, 640×480 pixels), but I’ll never need to use it. My Sony Ericsson W810i comes with a very good camera but I’ve hardly taken any shots with it.
E250 is very light-weight (80 grams) and has interesting features such as mobile tracker, voicemail, offline mode, and more. Not bad for a $100 phone!

Got my new laptop today, Toby bought it for me from Germany.

The specs are: 1.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 mobile processor, 1GB of 667 MHz bus DDR2 memory, 2 MB L2 cache, 120 GB SATA hard drive, 15.4″ WXGA “CrysalBrite” TFT-LCD display (1280 x 800), double-layer DVD burner, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100, 56 Kbps ITU V.92 modem, Gigabit Ethernet, Intel PRO/Wireless 802.11a/b/g, Type II and 1 ExpressCard PCMCIA slots, 4 USB 2.0 ports, IEEE 1394 FireWire port, 5-in-1 card reader (SD, MMC, MS, MS Pro, xD), infrared port (IrDA), mini-DIN S-Video output, microphone and speaker and so on.
And oh, it comes with German keyboard… there are some extra keys, and Z is placed on Y and vice versa!

I was about to get myself a Sony Ericsson W200i, but I changed my mind after reading all the positive reviews of W810i. Even though it’s priced double my budget, I bought it today since it’s rich in features and more importantly Linux friendly.

Being a “Walkman” phone, the sound quality is superb, and so are the earbud headphones. The packages includes two tiny external speakers, which are of very good quality and can come handy if you want to listen to Radio or MP3s when a sound system is not available. This nifty device has a 2 megapixel camera, GRPS, HSCSD, and EGDE connectivity, infrared and Bluetooth for wireless transfers, and so on. For storage, a 512 megabyte card is included (Memory Stick Duo Pro) and supports upto 2 gigabyte.
Once cool feature of this phone is the ability to use the data cable to recharge it, which can be very …

The latest addition to my tech gadgetry is a night vision webcam. This A4Tech PK-7MAR “FlexiCam” captures 30 frames per second at 640X480 pixels both in daylight and absolute darkness.

For the night vision function, the cam uses 4 infrared LEDs which are placed around the lens. There’s a bright flash-like light panel on top of the cam that acts as a filler in low-light conditions. The cam is mounted on steel tube, which can be extended upto 16″ or 40 centimeters. The tube is flexible enough to be bended and stretched to bring to cam to eye level. A microphone is built-in as well which seemed to be of good quality. It has a “snapshot” button that can be used to take quick pictures (however, it’s a software dependent feature). The front-side sliding cover is a good attempt to protect the lens, and can come handy if you suddenly need …

I got myself a DVD burner today. It’s an ASUS DRW 1608P3S drive, which can write at maximum of 16X on DVD±R, 8X on DVD+RW, 6X on DVD-RW, 8X on DVD±R (Double Layer), 5X on DVD-RAM, 40X on CD-R, 32X on CD-RW, and can read at maximum of 16X on DVD-ROM and 40X on CD-ROM.I also got myself 1 gigabyte TwinMOS DDR RAM, making my system happier with a whooping 2.25 gigabyte memory. Cool, huh?

I finally got myself a LCD monitor! It’s a Philips 17″ TFT LCD monitor and has built-in speakers, an USB 2.0 port for using peripheral devices, accepts both VGA (analog D-sub) and DVI-D (digital) signals, and is very easy to swivel and tilt. But what impressed me the most is it’s 8 ms response time! Isn’t that outstanding?Wondering what response time is and why it is important? Well, it’s the period of time required for a liquid crystal cell to go from active (black) to inactive (white) and back to active (black) again, and it’s measured in milliseconds. Faster is better: lower response time means faster transitions, and therefore, results in fewer visible image artifacts in the display of transition of text and graphics. Lower response time also resolves ghosting problems.
More details about the monitor (I’m sure you’ll never need them!):
Picture/Display
LCD panel type : 1280 x 1024 pixels, Anti-glare …