Category Archives: Reviews

Spellbinding. I couldn’t put it down. Stop reading my blog and go read this instead.
What, you’re still here? OK. Here’s the deal. Nick Conover is the CEO of a large office-furniture company. Someone’s stalking his family. He kills the stalker, more or less unintentionally, and suddenly finds himself pursued by a dogged homicide detective (who, in a welcome reversal, is a devout Christian and portrayed sympathetically as such), under attack by rivals at work, estranged from his teenage son, and involved with a, er, somewhat unstable woman– the daughter of the man he killed. Finder’s storytelling ability is amazing; his characters are richly drawn, and overall this was a terrific book. Highly recommended.

This book, subtitled Darkside to Baghdad, purports to be the story of Lt Col Bryan McCoy, USMC, and his troops: 3rd Bn, 4th Marines. Unfortunately, most of the book is about the author. That’s all right; he paints an engaging portrait of life as an embedded journalist with a Marine unit. However, there’s not much insight into the ostensible focus of the book, LtCol McCoyas other books. Compared to other similar books, like Atkinson’s In the Company of Soldiers, Koopman’s book comes off much more like an extended series of newspaper columns. One highlight: the interspersed emails from readers of his column who mailed him to talk or ask about their friends and family members in 3/4. Overall, this wasn’t a bad read, but it is essentially little more than a memoir; it lacks the depth of characterization found in Atkinson’s book or in Wright’s Generation Kill, and it’s no replacement for The March Up as a chronicle of 3/4’s campaign.

Bottom line: this is the most impressive Windows Mobile device I’ve used, with great functionality and capability. Verizon’s BroadbandAccess works great, and the built-in QWERTY keyboard is a terrific feature, but battery life could sure use some improvement.

First, the gross physical attributes. The converged-device market has started to coalesce into two form factors: sticks (like the SMT5600 and palmtop devices, which range from the small Treo to the big ol’ HP 6315– and this device. The XV6600 looks like a conventional PocketPC device, but when you slide it open that’s when you really notice the difference. The screen is brilliant, large, and colorful; I think it’s equal to the 6315’s screen, although perhaps a little brighter in sunlight. Below the screen are the standard set of Pocket PC phone buttons: four hard buttons for Windows Mobile, plus red and green phone buttons.

The 6600’s QWERTY keyboard slides out from beneath the screen. Greg Hughes called it a “pimple-style chicklet bubble layout”, and sadly I have to agree– the keys are little recessed circles, and there’s very little tactile feedback when typing. The keyboard on the Treo is superior, although it’s a good bit easier to enter text on the 6600 thanks to Windows Mobile’s predictive-text engine. (There’s also the fact that you can enter text using only the stylus on the 6600, which of course you can’t do with the Treo).

Phone: the 6600 worked quite well as a cellphone. However, I had trouble making calls since there’s no hard keyboard available for dialing– unless you pull out the QWERTY, in which case there’s no way to tell whether you’re hitting the number keys or not. Many of the heavy Pocket PC phone users I know have Microsoft’s Voice Command installed, and that’s probably the best solution, but I didn’t try it. Speaker and speakerphone volume were good.

Messaging: What can I say? It’s Pocket Outlook, which worked fine over the air and when syncing with my desktop.

Synchronization: As with the SMT5600, I had a few minor problems with ActiveSync on the desktop, but those were easy to resolve. Over-the-air sync with EAS worked well, although I didn’t use it much because of the phone’s terrible battery life.

Bluetooth: This device has great Bluetooth support if you install the available update from Audiovox. I switched from the Jabra FreeSpeak 250 headset to the GN6210, which is essentially the same hardware; after installing the update, I was able to pair the headset and make and receive calls. Range wasn’t that good; the manual suggests putting the phone on the same side of your body as the headset, and I found that if I didn’t do that, I’d get some crackles and static.

Other: it’s a darn good thing this unit has a replaceable battery, because the battery life is terrible. I got about a day per battery charge, and that’s without using the device much as a phone at all. The ringer volume was too low; I missed several calls in airports, taxicabs, and other noisy environments. I never got used to the keyboard, which has basically no “feel” to it.

The one killer feature I haven’t mentioned yet is Verizon’s EVDO network, which offers up to 2Mbps of wireless service. It worked flawlessly in my tests in DC and Cincinnati (well, until my battery died). I didn’t have the right cable to tether the 6600 and use it as a laptop data modem; if you’ve got Bluetooth in your laptop, the process is simpler– in which case you’ll find that Bluetooth is too slow to keep up with EVDO! (Instructions for tethering in USB and Bluetooth modes are here).

Bugs and annoyances: Verizon doesn’t offer this phone with WiFi or a camera, even though other carriers (notably T-Mobile and Cingular) offer versions that have both. The phone would sometimes spontaneously reboot, and it kept bringing up a data connection even though I wasn’t running any data applications (that I knew of, anyway).

Overall, I was impressed with the 6600. Even though it lacks WiFi, it’s much better as a phone than the 6315, and it’s more usable as a PDA than the 5600. However, the large size and poor battery life made it a poor fit for my use, and it’s expensive to boot. However, the EVDO connectivity is a killer feature for mobile users, and once VZW and UTStarcom solve the battery life problem this will really be a contender.

Wow.

Star Wars Revelations is a fan movie, made without permission or assistance from George Lucas and his merry band. was a better Star Wars movie than the preceding two official movies put together. The technical quality of the movie is excellent, with brilliant special effects. The plot’s a bit opaque, and the actors are clearly not Hollywood megastars. On the other hand, the acting here is no worse than that of The Phantom Menace. C | Net has a pretty good story that features some background on the larger phenom of fan-created works, but for now you should hop over to Panic Struck Productions’ web site and grab the film for yourself. (Better yet, get the torrent).

First, let me say this: if you haven’t read Gould’s Jumper, you’re missing one of the five best science fiction novels I’ve ever read. The protagonist of Jumper is a teenager, Davy Rice, who unexpectedly discovers that he can teleport himself. He discovers this as he’s about to be beaten by his drunken, abusive father; the story of what happens next is naturally and wonderfully told. Reflex is the sequel to the 13-year-old Jumper, and it’s every bit as good– if not better.

Davy’s married now and working occasionally for the National Security Agency. When he unexpectedly disappears, his wife Millie (whom you’ll meet in the first novel) sets out to find him, aided by her unexpected discovery that somehow she’s “caught” the ability to teleport from close contact with Davy. A nefarious group has kidnapped him and found an ingenious (and stomach-turning) way to control him (here’s a hint). Of course, Davy’s not inclined to go quietly, and Gould expertly cuts back and forth between his efforts to resist and his wife’s efforts to locate him. Gould is so good at this milieu: his characters are rich and real, their dialogue is crisp and honest, and the technical details he includes are accurate– but he’s content to leave them out when doing so helps the story. This is strictly an action yarn, though; there’s very little philosophical depth, which means Gould misses out on exploring some interesting themes (like whether Davy has a responsibility to use or explore his special ability more than he’s done in the past). The ending is unsurprising; unfortunately, the book just sort of stops, clearly leaving room for a sequel. I just hope that it doesn’t take Gould as long to write it.

Any time a book is advertised in the Wall Street Journal, I make an effort to check it out. This has led to some real treasures (including Finder’s Paranoia, which I need to review on of these days) and this book, which as far as I can tell is Robotham’s first novel. The protagonist is Joe O’Shaughnessy, a British psychiatrist with Parkinson’s disease, a beautiful wife, an adoring daughter, and a problem: the police think he killed a former co-worker.

Robotham spins an extremely complicated plot, but does it so effortlessly that it seems very natural as circumstances unfold. Of course, O’Shaughnessy’s not the real killer, but finding out who is– in time to stay out of jail– takes Joe through a very rapid series of plot twists and turns, including a couple of additional murders for which he’s blamed too. The first third of the book moves slowly, but after that the pace picks up steadily. O’Shaughnessy is a smart and acerbic self-observer, which makes him far more interesting than the typical ordinary-guy-turned-detective. I’ll be looking forward to Robotham’s next book– but this one is highly recommended.

Verizon loaned me an VX6600 to write about. I haven’t used it much, but so far, a few first impressions:

• The ringer volume is way too low. Even at max, I can barely hear it.
• Verizon shipped me the device with an old firmware version on it. As shipped, the phone absolutely refused to recognize my GN6210 Bluetooth headset, either with hands-free or handset profiles; about 80% of the time, it refuses to launch the Bluetooth Manager applet.
• After I updated the firmware, I was able to pair with my 6210 and make and receive calls. I haven’t tested this as much as I want to, but so far it seems to be working well.
• The built-in keyboard doesn’t feel as good as the Treo 650, but it’s better than nothing at all. I think I’ll just have to get used to it.

I’ve been reading a lot lately. Herewith a few quick reviews of my latest.

• Lashner, Fatal Flaw. His other books were much better. Turgid, needlessly convoluted plot and unsympathetic characters. Don’t bother.
• Turtledove, Days of Infamy. What if the Japanese strike at Pearl Harbor had been followed up by an amphibious landing? That’s the central premise of this book, which is well enough written that I slogged through the exceptionally slow first 2/3rds of it. I hope the next book in this series (because there will be one, no doubt) is a little snappier.
• Silva, Prince of Fire. Five stars and then some. Silva is, for my money, the best thriller writer in the business (with Barry Eisler a close second). Rich characters with complex motivations, rapid plotting, and a thorough mastery of both storytelling and the political and social forces that underlie the characters’ actions. Highly recommended.
• Lefcourt, The Deal. I only read this because our library didn’t have The Manhattan Beach Project yet. This was supposed to be a satire of 1990s Hollywood, but it felt contrived and lacked the edge that’s so important to pulling off a satire. Maybe it would have been better in 1992 or so. Not especially recommended.
• Gaiman, American Gods. Why, oh why, did I wait so long to read this? Superb.

Somewhere, Robert Heinlein is smiling.

John Scalzi‘s Old Man’s War (thanks for the suggestion, Devin!) is a terrific hybrid of military science fiction and a coming-of-age novel… except that the lead character, John Perry, has just turned 75 as the novel opens.

In Perry’s world, humans have colonized a good portion of the universe, but there are lots of competing alien species that are ready to fight for the same limited set of colony worlds, so humans have built an off-planet military force to both protect and acquire colony planets. To build this army, the Colonial Defense Forces offer Earth dwellers a compelling deal: if you enlist at age 65 or older, when you turn 75 they whisk you off Earth and make you young again so you can serve your ten-year enlistment. If you survive, you get rejuvenated again and farmed off on your choice of colony worlds.

Perry takes this deal and gets a good deal more than he bargained for: his new body is green, has a built-in computer, and can do a variety of tricks that I won’t describe here so as not to spoil the fun. Perry is very much a grown-up version of Heinlein’s Juan Rico, or perhaps Haldeman’s William Mandella without quite so much cynicism. The battle sequences are taut, the dialogue is crisp and believable, and the overall world Scalzi builds is very believable. It compares favorably with both Starship Troopers and The Forever War, although I don’t think it has quite the ethical depth of the latter. Still, this is a terrific novel, if a bit short, and I look forward to reading more of Scalzi’s work in the future. Highly recommended.

I’m sorry I wasted the time to read this; the mere appearance of Nylund’s name on the cover should have warned me. Avoid.

I first saw Conquistador in an airport bookstore, but after reading Dies the Fire, I wasn’t sure I’d like it enough to buy it in hardcover; instead, I put it on my to-read list. I’m glad I did, because it was a great read. The basic storyline is simple: a freshly returned World War II vet accidentally opens a gateway to an alternate Earth where Alexander the Great didn’t die in 323. To sum up, this means that Europeans never colonized North America– so the vet discovers a pristine, mostly uninhabited California, which he proceeds to colonize. Most of the story is set in 2009. Tom Christiansen, an agent for the California Department of Fish and Game, begins investigating some odd findings in a poaching investigation; that leads him, through a fairly interesting series of switchbacks, to the other side of the Gate. I don’t want to reveal too many details of the story, becuase it’s well-plotted enough that I don’t want to spoil it. However, I will say that the characterizations are excellent; the dialogue realistic, and the overall story plausible. Assuming you accept the possibility of the Gate, the rest of the novel’s developments flow logically from the characters and their actions. Highly recommended.

Wow. That’s all I can say. Julie and Paul were kind enough to give me a pair of Etymotic earphones for Christmas (thank you very much!), and I fired them up on my most recent trip to Seattle. How’d they sound? Marvelous. They offer 41dB of noise reduction, well above what my old Sony folding active noise reduction (ANR) headset provides. They did a great job of blocking the (excessive) noise of Delta’s CRJs on my trip, and they did it without giving me a headache like the Sonys do. That’s partly because of the lower volume level, and partly because these are passive headphones.

The ER-4 comes in a nice box with a set of accessories that include some disposable foam earplugs, some really nice flanged silicone eartips (that are too small for my huge ear canals, sad to say), a zipper case, and a pack of replacement filters. Assembly was easy, and the cabling and drivers are well constructed and seem fairly sturdy.

On to the big question: how do they sound? The sound quality is astonishingly good. Put it this way: this week, as I’ve been working, I’ve had iTunes busy re-ripping a big stack of my CDs from MP3 at 128Kbps to AAC at 160Kbps. I’ve always scoffed at the hoity-toity audiophiles who claim that MP3/128 sounds crappy, because in a car, office, or any other semi-noisy environment they sound OK to me. (Of course, that may be due to a misspent youth passed in the company of Marine Corps helicopters and too much Led Zeppelin.) However, with these headphones, you know what? I really can hear the difference. Highly recommended if you’re an audiophile or want to act like one.

Bottom line: the Treo 650 is a superb device for Palm OS users, period. However, since it’s currently only available on Sprint, I’m holding off.

PalmOne has been working on the Treo line for a while. Their Treo 600 is arguably the most popular PalmOS-based smartphone, and the Treo 650 is evidently an attempt to improve on its strengths by adding features.

First, the gross physical attributes. The Treo 650 is about the same height as the SMT5600, but it’s much wider and somewhat heavier (although lighter than the 7135). The screen is large, very bright, and very sharp– the only better screen I’ve seen on a handheld is on the iPaq 6315. It’s physically smaller than, but as bright and clear as, the excellent screen on the Tungsten series; the screen is clearly visible outdoors and in sunlight. Below the screen are the familiar four Palm application buttons and a five-way nav device, plus “home” and “menu” buttons; below the buttons is the Treo’s QWERTY keyboard (more on that in a minute).

Phone: the Treo 650 worked flawlessly as a cellphone. I was easily able to make and receive calls, and the integration between the built-in address book and the Phone applet is excellent. I had a little trouble using the keyboard to dial, just because the number keys are much smaller than the ones on the SMT5600 or 7135. For the first time, I actually found myself waiting to make phone calls in the car until I could pull over or stop and actually see what I was dialing! Speaker and speakerphone volume were both quite good. There have been reports on Slashdot, and elsewhere, of poor audio and voice quality on the Treo 650 but I didn’t have that problem at any time during my tests.



Messaging: PalmOne includes two messaging apps: one for SMS messages and VersaMail for email. I was most interested in Exchange ActiveSync, so I spent a good bit of time with VersaMail. Overall, I found it inferior to Pocket Outlook in both ease of use and stability, although VersaMail does a better job of handling multiple email accounts and letting you quickly switch between them. When you configure a mail account with EAS (you can only have one at a time), the device warns you that it’s going to erase all of your stored messages and calendar data, then resync. I lost my calendar data by accepting this warning, then forgetting to configure my desktop conduit to skip calendar sync– be careful! (To be fair, this was entirely my fault, not the Treo’s.) Once set up, Exchange ActiveSync worked fine, although there are no sync logs kept on the device. This would be a helpful troubleshooting feature, and I hope Palm will add it in th next release (along with sync for contacts and additional mailbox folders).

Synchronization: I had a few minor problems with ActiveSync on the desktop, but those were easy to resolve. Over-the-air sync with EAS worked well, and I like the ability to choose what gets synced over the air and what gets synced over the wire– the Treo 650 forces you to sync mail and calendar data or nothing at all. I also tried using PocketMac Phone Edition to sync the 5600 to my Mac OS X desktop running Entourage. BIG mistake. PocketMac is unstable and buggy; their technical support is slow (when they respond at all), and the software doesn’t do what it claims. Avoid.

Bluetooth: I tried to use a Jabra FreeSpeak 250 headset with this phone. The headset is listed as compatible with the Treo 650 as a headset device. This is odd, since it worked fine with the SMT5600 as a handsfree device. One annoyance that the manual didn’t mention is that with a headset-only device, you have to push the headset button to transfer a call from the handset to the headset– this contradicts the manual’s assurance that when you have an active headset, calls are automatically routed to it. Fortunately, PalmOne has a KB article that explains how this really works.

Other: the Treo 650 has an integrated camera that is reputed to be quite good. My device was a preproduction test unit and didn’t have a camera, so I can’t say whether it’s any good or not (but these side-by-side comparisons make the Treo 650 look pretty good). Battery life has been excellent, and the addition of a replaceable battery is quite welcome. The internal speaker sounds great when you play MP3s through it, which surprised me a little bit. The addition of a sliding “mute” switch on top of the phone was a very useful touch; it’s trivial to make sure the phone is muted before you walk into an important meeting, or church, or wherever.



Bugs and annoyances: most of the annoyances I had with the Treo 650 centered around Sprint’s service in my area; I had trouble making and receiving calls in and around my house, and for a whole day I couldn’t get my voicemail. This is not to say that Verizon or T-Mobile has great coverage in my neighborhood either. I had a little trouble getting used to the keyboard, which is awfully small. I already mentioned its effect on dialing; another minor niggle was that I never did figure out how to use keyboard shortcuts for menu commands. However, with a keyboard-aware app like DateBk5, it’s possible to work without using the stylus at all– an impressive accomplishment.

In all, this is a terrific device, although at $369 for new subscribers it’s fairly expensive (although, interestingly, cheaper than the Kyocera 7135 from Verizon!) I’m waiting for either a GSM or Verizon version before I take the plunge, but the screen quality, speed, and utility of the 650 make this a very strong contender as my next device.

I gave careful thought to whether the SMT5600 should have a permanent place on my belt, but in the end it wasn’t quite the right device for me. I posted a more detailed review at e2ksecurity.

Bottom line: the SMT5600 is a great device, but it’s not exactly a replacement for a full-function PDA, so I’m sending it back.

There are already lots of reviews of what the phone looks like and how it works, so this won’t necessarily be a complete review of every aspect of the SMT5600. Instead, it’ll hit what I think are the high and low points. Microsoft has been positioning Windows Mobile smartphones as “phone-plus” devices that combine solid phone functionality with mobile messaging and the ability to run various applications (both productivity apps like Outlook and line-of-business applications).

First, the gross physical attributes. The case feels solid, with no flex. The phone is relatively small and light (I’ll post a picture of it next to the Treo 650 and my trusty Kyocera 7135), and it fits comfortably in a shirt or trousers pocket. One of the first things people say when they see the 5600 for the first time is “wow, what a great screen!” The screen is large, clear, and very sharp. The keypad has a nice crisp feel. I never really got used to the 5-way rocker pad; I found it too easy to accidentally press it to the left when I was trying to click it down.

Phone: the SMT5600 worked very well as a phone. Audio was clear and crisp, and the speakerphone had adequate volume for use around my (noisy, child-filled) house. Address book/phone integration is good; the 5600 includes a Photo Contacts app that lets you take or import pictures and add them to the contact so they’ll be displayed for incoming calls. This was a nice touch. One useful feature: as you dial, the phone app will display contacts whose phone numbers match what you’re typing– if you type “800 325” it’ll jump to the first contact with those numbers (in my case, Delta Airlines). While you’re in a call, you can easily switch to other apps, and there are dedicated buttons for viewing your calendar or the contact data for the person you’re talking to.



Windows Mobile: this was my first real experience with a Windows Mobile device. I was very impressed; it was stable and easy to use (not to mention being very familiar-looking). The bundled applications all worked well, and I found Windows Media 10 Mobile Edition to be a very nice addition. If I didn’t already use an iPod, this would be a neat way to listen to music, and with WMP10 on the desktop you can transcode video to watch on the phone. This is a great app for commuters and others who have disposable time to watch mobile video.



Messaging: what can I say? I had no trouble using OMA or Exchange ActiveSync with this phone, and this was one of its best features. When Always-Up-To-Date is properly configured, you have essentially always-on email in what looks like an ordinary cell phone. The included MSN Messenger client was also very useful, although pecking in a complex Passport password on the keypad gets old pretty fast. In fact, I quickly found that the utility of always having my mail was diminished by having to use a 0-9 keypad to answer it. The SMT5600 includes the Tegic T9 text input system, which worked pretty well, but it’s no substitute for either a QWERTY keyboard or pen text input.

Synchronization: I had a few minor problems with ActiveSync on the desktop, but those were easy to resolve. Over-the-air sync with EAS worked well, and I like the ability to choose what gets synced over the air and what gets synced over the wire– the Treo 650 forces you to sync mail and calendar data or nothing at all. I also tried using PocketMac Phone Edition to sync the 5600 to my Mac OS X desktop running Entourage. BIG mistake. PocketMac is unstable and buggy; their technical support is slow (when they respond at all), and the software doesn’t do what it claims. Avoid.

Bluetooth: I used a Jabra FreeSpeak 250 headset, which I quickly grew to love. The SMT5600 paired with it immediately, and I could initiate and answer calls with it (although I never got voice tag recording to work properly). I didn’t test using the phone as a laptop modem via Bluetooth, nor did I test other Bluetooth devices like the Pharos GPS module that i use with Streets and Trips. (I did put Pocket Streets and Trips on it– pretty darn cool!)

Other: the included camera is nothing to write home about; it does a serviceable job, and the included camcorder app works well enough for casual use. Battery life has been excellent, although I haven’t spent that much time talking on it.



Bugs and annoyances: sure, there were a few, but nothing major. Frequently, the SMT5600 would decide that an appointment was an all-day event, so it would start alarming me at 0830. If you use the keylock function (which you really need, since this isn’t a clamshell phone), you can’t answer or make calls with a Bluetooth headset. For some reason, the phone wouldn’t auto-set the time from the AT&T network. The phone app doesn’t like dialing numbers with slashes (425/818-0484 would only dial “425”), so I had to go through and reformat most of my phone numbers. These are all minor problems, though; overall, the device was as stable and reliable as other phone-only devices I’ve used.

One odd note: several other people I know who have the SMT5600 complained about radio interference. My old Motorola GSM phone would buzz my desktop speakers whenever it communicated with the cell, and its successor did the same thing in the car. However, the SMT5600 sits right between my desktop speakers and hasn’t generated a grain of noise since I got it, and it’s been silent in the car, too. Maybe I got a newer rev or something. (The 650, OTOH, buzzes the baby monitor all the time– I can always predict incoming calls!)

In all, this is a very impressive device that delivers on its promises of high functionality in a small package. You can only get it for AT&T’s network in the US, although if you unlock it it will work fine on T-Mobile. Cingular doesn’t sell the phone in its retail stores, but Amazon still has it for a net price of $-25 for new subscribers.

Update: added some notes on the SMT5600’s phone functionality that I forgot in the first draft.

Update: Cingular is selling the phone; in fact, you can get it for free from Buy.com until 31 December (if, that is, you activate a new Cingular number with it).