Since I’m not an audiophile, I’m pretty satisfied with these speakers. However, people with more sensitive ears than me, have mentioned that the sound isn’t the best when listening to music where there’s “a lot going on” like metal. Bob Dylan’s music on the other hand, sounds great using these speakers. Good thing I’d rather listen to folk than metal…

I had read up on the speakers before buying them, and one of the things that was mentioned in all of the reviews was how compact and portable TravelSound 400 was. Still I was shocked when I first saw it in the shop. It was tiny compared to how I expected it to be. Measurements are 15,7 x 4,1 x 7,1 cm to be exact. In addition to a stereo-to-stereo cable, you also get a cute travel pouch in the pack.

Besides the cute travel pouch and the size, I like that it is possible to rotate the speakers 180 degrees. TravelSound 400 is very simple. As you can see, it only has four buttons on the front: On/off, volume down, volume up and the wide stereo effect button. The last mentioned button is another thing I like about the speakers. When using this function, the sound becomes better and seems more spread out.

I recommend these speakers if you want something small, simple and last but not least, cheap. They cost $71.95 over at Amazon. Mine were actually cheaper, but if you combine shipping, the cost is about the same.

Wow, the phone really does sound awesome when you combine all those features. However, I’m not that interested in it since it will be too expensive for me, and I don’t really need all those features anyway. I’m happy with my little SE Z550i…

So back to the real reason why I’m blogging about 8300 Curve – it’s an excuse to talk about my favourite artist, John Mayer. John has mentioned several times that he’s a devoted Blackberry user (and an Apple lover, but that’s another story), so it was no big surprise when Blackberry was announced as the sponsor of John’s summer tour this year across the US.

In addition to sponsoring the tour, the folks over at Blackberry have also set up a website for him with tour dates, pictures and a video clip where John talks about his tour and what his Blackberry means to him.

Source: TryJM.com

So Facebooking is one thing I’ve started doing thanks to the oh so fun bandwagon. Another bandwagon I’m jumping on is the blogging-about-the-enviroment one. Mind you, I’m not going to tell you how using dark coloured layouts is going to save electricity and hence save the rainforest ( ), but I thought I’d share an interesting chart that I found over at Geeksugar. It’s a chart made by Greenpeace showing which electronics manufacters are the greenest.

The list:
1. Lenovo
2. Nokia
3. Sony Ericsson
4. Dell
5. Samsung
6. Motorola
7. Fujitsu-Siemens
8. HP
9. Acer
10. Toshiba
11. Sony
12. LGE
13. Panasonic
14. Apple

Even though I keep talking about how great iPods are, you should maybe think twice before buying one. Here’s what Greenpeace has to say to Apple: Green my Apple. But I’m sorry, I will never buy a Lenovo just because the machines have good quality and the production of them is enviromental. They are just so ugly. I just don’t get why people have to make ugly computers. It can’t be that hard hire a designer… (This was a rant I was going to start in another post, but I’m being efficient, so I’m merging the rant-post with the eco-post making it the rantico-post).

Here’s my map:

Where have you been?

One day I decided that the perfect thing to buy on eBay would be a Polaroid camera. I’ve been wanting one for quite a while now, so the search began. But sadly my luck in winning auctions is apparently non-existent, so I gave up pretty quickly and spent the money on buying a CD instead…

This is the Polaroid One600, and it’s the only instant Polaroid camera that I know of that can be bought where I live. The thing about Polaroids is that the cameras are not that expensive themselves, this one is only $34.99 at Amazon, but a pack of 20 films generally costs around $20.

After a while I reckon it would be more profitable to just stick with your digital camera and give your pictures the polaroid-look by using the Hockneyizer:

LG KE850 Prada $800+
This stunning Prada phone cought loads of media attention in the time right after the release of the iPhone because of their remarkable resemblance in design. LG was first out with their phone as it had already won a International Forum Design Product Design Award for 2007 earlier in 2006.

Media player: Audio – MP3/ACC/ACC+/WMA/RA. Video – MPEG4/H.263/H.264. 256MB MicroSD card follows, expandable to 2GB as of now.
Photo Album and camera: 2MP camera, pictures + videos. Has a photo album.
Internet devices: EDGE, xHTML browser, email
Touch screen: TFT touchscreen with 256K colours. 3 inches screen size, 240×400 pixels.
Other: Document reader, FM radio, battery life ~3h (iPhone ~5h). The iPhone is a step ahead KE850 in some areas, but they are mostly similar.

Samsung F700

Media player: Audio – MP3/AAC/AAC+ player. Video – H.264/H.263/MPEG4 player. MicroSD (unkown how much follows).
Photo Album and camera: 5MP camera (auto focus) + 3G camera, pictures + video. Don’t know about album.
Internet devices: 3G (HSDPA), EDGE, xHTML browser, email, IM
Touch screen: TFT touchscreen with 256K colours + QWERTY slide out keyboard. 2.78 inches screen size, 240×440 pixels.
Other: In my opinion, this is a great alternative to the iPhone, but it’s about personal preferences when choosing between the iPhone and F700. If you want a good camera and prefer a QWERTY keyboard, then you’ll go for this one, while if you like widgets and want a phone with an iPod, the iPhone will suit you better.

Neonode N2
The Neonode has used iPhone’s much popular “touch-scrolling” function for years. Neonode is a rather small Swedish cellphone company which is now very up and coming. In addition to releasing this phone which has been called “the iPhone mini”, their new CEO was formerly the CEO of Sony Sweden.

Media player: Audio – MP3/WMA/WAV. Video – MPEG/WMV. MiniSD (unkown how much follows).
Photo Album and camera: 2MP camera, pictures + video. Has a filemanager.
Internet devices: xHTML browser
Touch screen: TFT touchscreen with 65K colours. 2 inches screen size, 176×220 pixels.
Other: Specswise the N2 is probably the worst out of all 4 cellphones. But I think it targets a younger group than the other phones by being simpler. Even though it’s the worst compared to the other phones, it might be very good for someone who doesn’t need that many functions in their cellphone, but just wants a phone that looks unique.

Even though the iPhone has been much praised, you can see that there are many good alternatives that can compete with it. I think that Samsung F700 is the strongest candidate because it has many things that people are missing from the iPhone: 3G, document viewer, QWERTY keyboard and a better camera. So it’ll be exciting to see if iPhone will create a positive shift in demand of smartphones and if it is able to compete in the cellphone market!

While I have an Incase Burgundy Neoprene Sleeve for my laptop, there are several nice laptop skins out there that might suit you better. Incase make many simple and high quality sleeves that you should check out.

An alternative to the Incase sleeves are be.ez’es LArobe sleeves. They are not that expensive either and I like them more becaue the colours are fresher. It should be noted that both the LArobe and Incase sleeves are custom designed for iBooks, Powerbooks and Macbooks (Pro), so if you’re laptop is a bit bigger, you might have to go up a size.

Ollie & Nic make loads of fun and cute bags and accessories for both men and women (though mainly for women). So when they made Gladys Laptop Case, it also turned out fun and cute of course. The only bad thing I’ve got to say about it is that it only comes in one size which should exactly fit a 15″ laptop.

Three more sleeves to ckeck out: here, here and here.

By the way, I’m not going to buy a domain for this blog, but I did buy one for a blog that my friend and I are starting. And I didn’t buy the package from Surpass either, but from xfluro.com since they gave me a pretty sweet deal.

Surpass Hosting’s promotion is really jaw dropping. I thought their previous prices were low (200GB space and 2000GB bandwidth for $60 a year), but now you can get any plan for for $1 for one year! Yes, I know I’m repeating myself here, but it is quite amazing. You can get 200GB space and 2000GB bandwidth for $1 a year, or 800GB space and 6000GB bandwidth for the same price! As far as I know, this does not include a domain name.

Now wouldn’t this have been the perfect Christmas present?

First…

Right now I’m in the process of applying to colleges and universities around the globe, and it’s so stressful. Some schools want me to write three essays! Like I don’t have enough homework. So I thought I could kick the new year off with a entry about some inexpensive stress relievers for those of you who can’t afford to spend money on vacations or expensive spa treatments.

A common thing that happens when people are stressed, is that they get tense shoulders. Something inexpensive that can improve tense shoulders is a Mini Massage On The Go (Slogan: “Massage anywhere!” Wow, really?). It’s cute, it vibrates, and yes, it comes in pink as well (and green and purple).

¨
Stress can also come from frustration. If there’s someone bugging you, and you don’t have a voodoo doll of them, try the “Rip Apart Ref” referee doll instead.

On to more high tech stress relievers:

- The first device is named “Eyezone Massager” and it’s supposed to “revitalise your eyes and banish bags, pain and puffiness.” Sounds kinda cool, eh?
- The second device is an “Orgasmatron“. I don’t think it’s anything nasty about it although one of the customer reviews mentions that it’s “Very effective during foreplay.”… The Orgasmatron gently massages the pressure points on your head and on the back of your neck. I think I want one of those…