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While I am inclined to give this fairly expensive toy a BAD for falling apart (the membrane that protects the buttons broke after 2 months of sporadic use), for the TERRIBLE built-in maps, especially once you are out of major city limits, expensive and equally useless (for Thailand, at least) supplemental maps, the very basic interface and options, entering text is painful, the fact that to be at all useful you need to tether it to a PC, poor instructions, a goofy charging/data cable, and the inability to make basic maps from the unit itself...

OK, so it is bad. But, it has a pretty color screen and generally solid construction. I hesitated initially in giving it a bad evaluation because I do like having a GPS, but there doesn't seem to be any products on the market that really meet my needs (at a reasonable cost).

A simple example: a built-in electronic compass (not a direction-of-travel based compass) with the ability to take a bearing to a landmark from multiple locations and add in the triangulated location as a Point of Interest doesn't seem like that much to ask for. The handheld form-factor has some limitations (namely in precise tracking and in determining elevations of distant objects), when there is no base map for where you are it would be awfully nice to be able to mark points without actually being there! (Magellan and Competitors- I'm available for consulting! I have plenty other good ideas...)

One last comment. You can make your own maps from freely available sources. The justification for doing it isn't that it is free though; you can often get much better information! Again, unfortunately the major manufacturers want to sell you their expensive ($100+ for small area) proprietary and heavily locked maps (that you have to re-purchase if you lose or upgrade your GPS unit). This often makes it harder to use free software to import map data to the unit. Garmin is generally better supported than Magellan, and if there was a decent (consumer cost based) waterproof Pocket PC or Palm computer then the options would be much better. Unfortunately, you will pay almost double what a basic laptop costs to get a ruggedized Pocket PC.

I'm angry with Research in Motion, the makers of the BlackBerry. They, more than most other manufacturers I have dealt with, have especially strong SIM locking. What this means is that even if you pay an un-subsidized price for your phone, or keep your phone beyond the contract length, you cannot switch it to another service provider. Similarly, RIM does not sell unlocked phones directly to consumers. This is really stupid. Personally, it means that I can't buy a BlackBerry myself, and use a Thai service provider locally.

Also, the phone feature on the 7290 is awful. I carry a second phone for making calls. Legal problems for RIM also make it difficult to know if you will be able to use it in a few months.

All that said, it is the best "smartphone" on the market. The web browser is generally usable (you can do better with a Treo or Pocket PC), and the mail feature is great. Synchronization with Outlook/Exchange is almost perfect for contacts and calendar information. The real attraction though is that the battery lasts forever (a week with heavy use) on a single charge. The Treo lasts a day...

I don't understand the attraction to flip phones. There. I said it. I bought it because I needed a quad-band phone for use in the US and abroad, and it was kind of cool.

However, the menus are the least intuitive that I have ever seen (long-time Nokia fan), and the general user interface is awful. The only thing you can do with the phone in the closed position is change the ring style. When a call comes in, you can't "ignore" when the phone is closed, and if you have "answer on open" activated (the only logical reason to get a flip phone), opening the phone to ignore a call will have you answering it. The battery is also terrible, and despite having a standard mini-USB port, you have to load software onto your PC (sorry, nothing for Macs) in order to be able to charge it from a laptop. The only chargers that will work are the ones provided directly with the phone. Conversely, my Blackberry will charge from anything that has a mini-USB port, so I don't need to haul around more "wires." Marie hates wires, and I am pretty sick of all the different ones that are required as well. STANDARDS, PEOPLE! How long have consumers been complaining about this? There is finally a simple way to make it work at almost no extra cost!

We used to have an iMac G4 (with the spherical base). It was a thing of beauty. Unfortunately, it didn't have any batteries and was awkward to put in a bag to transport-- not well suited for travels.

We "upgraded" to a 12" iBook. We like it, don't get me wrong, but the display isn't what we had on the iMac. I like high-resolution screens because I always have a lot of applications open at once. The iBook does the job though, and it is cute. Good battery time, good free applications, and a built-in web server that I use to test my website. Not bad at all!

We've had three iPods, a 15GB, and two 60's (one for Marie and one for Me; James has our old 15GB now). I really like having it, especially keeping all my music in one place. I would not recommend buying songs online though, the quality does not justify the price at ANY of the sources. Likewise, I am not a fan of the ear buds. If you don't want the ear muffs, go for the in-ear monitor style (the ones that you actually shove into your brain from the ears).

Being able to have a few thousand songs in something that fits in my man-purse is great! We also opted for two beach-friendly Otter Boxes for the iPods. It makes them significantly bigger, but is waterproof down to 1m and keeps dust, mold, and sand out.

I am quite fond of my Digital Rebel, although I will admit that I would love to have the newer Rebel XT (8 Megapixels and faster startup). Good solid camera and I recommend it. I also recommend Canon's 50mm Prime lens to go with it. It's cheap and fantastic for indoor, low-light shots.

If I had one complaint, it would be that with the "proSumer" cameras, the sensor is smaller than standard 35mm film ("Full Frame"). This means that you need a lens that is 60% smaller focal length (60mm instead of 100mm) to get the same shot. This is fine when you are at a distance (free bonus), but for architectural photography the wide-angle is very expensive to get. Fortunately, with the photo manipulation software, it is easy to create a panoramic from multiple shots...

While no match for the features and options of the Digital Rebel (or any SLR), it easily fits in a pocket (and in my Man-Purse, along with the iPod), and can always be close at hand. I also recommend the leather carrying case (sized to fit snug) and a spare battery.

I hate Sony cameras. My major excuse is that the memory format (Memory Stick) is unique to them, and therefore more expensive than SD cards. I also think they are a bad value proposition.

A nice little phone with