REVIEWS: Gadgets for all

Geeks.com were once again very generous to send us some of their best gadgets over for reviews. Today we review an all-in-one mp3 player, a card reader, a 2 GB SD card, a Bluetooth headset, a USB-to-Ethernet adapter and yes, even a wine opener!

* 512MB Headset USB MP3 Player

This wearable all-in-one mp3 player is what the iPod Shuffle should have been. The actual mp3 player and battery is placed inside the headphones and you operate the device via its 4 buttons on the speaker on the right (on/off/pause/play, 5 levels of equalizer, vol+/next, vol-/prev). The device comes with a driver CD and a USB cable which is used both for file transfer and battery charging. I had trouble formatting its internal 512 MB flash with Windows for some reason, but Mac OS X did the job without a problem. After the successful format I could drag n drop mp3s from both operating systems. I expect Linux to not have any problems recognizing the device.

It is very easy to operate the device, although there is a user-interface bug. The factory has printed the word "FWD" on the button that actually goes to the PREVious song... The player locks securely around the ears so I expect that jogging is possible without the headphones falling off. The battery lasted a bit over 6 hours with volume set at around 70%. We found the headphones loud enough and with very good sound quality (better quality than most expensive Bluetooth stereo headphones have anyway). Bass was strong and tremble present too. We were able to fit well over one hundrend 128 kbps mp3 songs in the device. File transfer speed was a bit slow, maxing out at about 1.7 MB/sec (not a USB 1.1 issue, but slow-ish internal flash memory instead).

We found only a single real problem with the device. When we added some mp3s via OSX, the Mac filesystem added hidden files with the same filename. But the FAT32 filesystem does not support those, and so the device thinks that these 1 KB hidden files are real mp3s and it tries to playing them back... This causes the device to either crash or stop playing back. Just make sure that if you use Mac OS X, you don't let it create hidden files on your player (you can delete those via Windows afterwards).

Overall we found this device to be of an incredible value. You get for just $30 not only an mp3 player, but a 512 MB flash and good quality headphones! If you had to buy all these items seperately you would probably pay over $50. A great gift, especially to youngsters or those who can't stand of complex mp3s or long cables.

Overall: 9/10

* Internal/External USB 2.0 Card Reader and Writer

There aren't many internal card readers in the market, most of them are USB-based. But here is one that it's a real steal at just $8 and it can be installed either in a standard 3.5" PC floppy bay or be used via USB 2.0. The box includes both pieces, the empty 3.5" case that accepts the actual flash reader module, and the reader itself. It comes in a black color and it looks good on my black DELL workstation too. Installing the card reader internally is as simple (or as complex) as installing a new floppy drive. We experienced similar speeds either via the USB cable or the internal cabling. The limit is the flash cards speeds anyway and not the cable connection used. We tried a 2 GB miniSD, 512 MB SD, 2 GB SD, 4 GB compact flash and a 2 GB memory stick pro duo. They all worked without any problem, and according to their expected transfer rate speeds. The device also supports additional formats, via adapters. In conclusion, this is an amazing product no matter if mobility or compactness is your game, and it's selling at just $8.

Overall: 10/10

* Tekram Bluetooth Wireless Headset

This Bluetooth headset is a handy product from the point of view that it comes with both a lanyard holder and a belt clip. The upside down is that you will need to buy a European-to-US power adapter in order to charge it. This Tekram headset supports both the HSP and HFP Bluetooth profiles and we were successful pairing it with both our Nokia and PocketPC smartphones. It took 2 hours to charge it initially but it managed to work with up to 7 hours of talk time and over 160 hours of standby. Reception was good (without problems up to 8 meters away) and sound/microphone proved to be as crystal clear as a mono headset can get. Not bad for a $19 wireless headset.

The gadget is extremely lite, at just 19 grams, even if it might look bulky in the pictures. It has 3 buttons on it: talk/on/off, volum up, volume down. There is also a light that can flash to indicate 8 different statuses. There is also support for voice dialing, call hold and muting, although more advanced functions are not available. The ear loop can be placed either on the left or the right ear, however we found that it was too easy to remove it and replace it. If you do that too many times, or after you have used the device for a few months you might find the ear loop detaching from the headset all by itself...

Going back to the accessories the headset comes with, I found the belt clip more practical than the lanyard. There is a plastic holder for the headset that can open and it has space in it to fit the lanyard. That's all in theory though, because I didn't find any practical way to fit the lanyard in it. So you will have to either wear the lanyard at all times, or remove it and use the belt clip instead to hold the headset.

Overall: 9/10

* USB to RJ-45 Ethernet Adapter

I love USB adapters. They are small, mobile and easy to install. Ethernet adapters are particularly easy to work as usually the drivers are included in the operating system. This particular adapter is based on a ShanTou chipset and it works great with the drivers for Windows but not Mac OS X. For Linux there are drivers tested only for the older kernel, version 2.4.x. It managed 5 MB/sec transfer rate which is a good performance. This is a great little device if your laptop or computer does not have an ethernet jack and at just $8 it's worth every penny. Here are its technical details for future reference:

ST268 USB NIC:

Version: 1.01

Bus Power (mA): 500

Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec

Manufacturer: ShanTou [now a defunct company]

Product ID: 0x0268

Serial Number: 0268

Vendor ID: 0x0a46

Overall: 7/10

* 2GB Secure Digital Memory Card

Yes, this is a no-name SD card, but you know, it worked perfectly for over a week since we received it. And what week that was: stress testing at its best. We formatted, used and reformatted and re-used it with 2 different smartphones, 3 PDAs and 3 desktop operating systems via 2 different flash card readers. Moreover, its write-protect switch also worked as expected. The card won't get any awards in speed (it managed just about 1.5 MB/sec in "write" mode and a bit over 3 MB/sec in transfer rate), but it comes in a logical price and it has proven to be a worthy rival to branded flash cards.

Overall: 9/10

* Cork Genie - The Unique Wine Opener

And now, something completely different: the Cork Genie! I always had very little luck opening wine bottles with traditional corkscrews. But the Cork Genie makes it easier than ever. This is a much more... civilized way to open a bottle of wine: you loosely place the screw on the top of the cork and then you press the top handle down while you keep tightly the two sides. Voila! The cork is out and after you had a glass of wine (or two), you can easily re-attach the cork back without having to push hard. However, if you need to throw away the cork, it's a bit more tricky to remove it from its attached screw. The Cork Genie comes also with a foil cutter and an extra spiral screw, in case your original ones breaks. The box looks like a gift box, making it a great gift to your friends.

Overall: 8/10