---
date: "2006-12-27T07:07:37Z"
title: Gadgetopia
---

<p>I've bought two handfuls of new gadgets in the last few months.
Initially I was going to post pictures and a review of each one, but
hey, I'm lazy, and that would have cut too much into my gadget time.
Anyway, here's what's new in the land o' <a href="http://pablotron.org/">Pablotron</a> gadgets:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="http://samsung.com/Products/MobilePhones/T_Mobile/SGH_T809OKATMB.asp">Samsung SGH-t809</a>: A <a href="http://t-mobile.com/">T-Mobile</a>-branded <a href="http://gsmarena.com/samsung_d600-1103.php">Samsung D600</a> cell phone. 
Yes, this means i've <em>finally</em> joined the 21st century.</li>
<li><a href="http://plantronics.com/north_america/en_US/products/cat1150057/cat1150057/prod29780004">Plantronics Discovery 640</a>: Sweet (and tiny!) bluetooth headset.  Keeps
my hands free and my phone safe.  I can also use it with <a href="http://skype.com/">Skype</a> with
my snazzy no-name <acronym title='Universal Serial Bus'>USB</acronym> bluetooth dongle.</li>
<li><a href="http://slimdevices.com/pi_squeezebox.html">Slim Devices Squeezebox V3</a>: This bad boy lets me listen to all my
music and keep my room quiet.  <a href="http://slimdevices.com/">Slim Devices</a> was <a href="http://engadget.com/2006/10/18/logitech-acquiring-slim-devices/">recently aquired</a> 
by <a href="http://logitech.com/">Logitech</a> -- hopefully they don't go down the crapper because of
it.  By the way, I've massaged both <a href="http://slimdevices.com/pi_features.html">SlimServer</a> and
<a href="http://mythtv.org/">MythTV</a> onto the same machine using <a href="http://linux-vserver.org/">VServers</a>; if there's any
interest I can post the gory details...</li>
<li><a href="http://www.steves-digicams.com/2006_reviews/t10.html">Sony CyberShot DSC-T10</a>: I loaned out my old digital camera and it
was returned with a dead battery, covered in dust, and without the
ability to take pictures.  So far I'm pretty happy with this camera;
the wealth of features almost makes up for the annoying proprietary
sony memory crapola.  Plus I eeked out a few more megapixels than
<a href="http://linuxbrit.co.uk/">Tom</a>, and that's always fun :).</li>
<li><a href="http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/iaudio/x5/">Cowon iAudio X5 60G</a>: I lost my <a href="http://www.iriver.com/html/product/prpa_product.asp?pidx=43">H120</a>, so I picked up the X5.
It was time for an <acronym title='MPEG 1, Layer 3 Audio'>MP3</acronym> player with more disk space anyway.  So
far, so good.  I like the screen, the <acronym title='Universal Serial Bus'>USB</acronym> host, and the built-in
microphone.  The audio quality on the H120 seemed a bit better, and 
I'm not a big fan of the extremely losable dongle (I bought an extra
one, just in case). Did I mention that you <em>need</em> for line out, power,
and <acronym title='Universal Serial Bus'>USB</acronym>?  What kind of crackerjack design has <acronym title='Universal Serial Bus'>USB</acronym> Host on the player
itself, but a dongle for line out and <acronym title='Universal Serial Bus'>USB</acronym>  data transfer?  The
default operating system is okay, but I installed <a href="http://rockbox.org/">Rockbox</a> anyway.</li>
</ul>