As far as smartphones go, this is perhaps the most cost effective Android phone where you get virtually all the same features that the higher priced handsets have, minus a few nuances though. The build is very sleek, without sacrificing too much on screen size, and it is light enough not to notice when you carry it in your pocket. Excellent design there.

I’ve compared the HTC Wildfire to two other budget smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy 5 and the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro (both excellent phones), and the HTC Wildfire came out tops for me. While being cheaper, the Samsung Galaxy 5 has a mediocre camera at only 2 megapixels, and in order to upgrade the Android OS, you need to send the phone back to the service center.

Likewise, the Xperia X10 Mini cannot be upgraded on the fly. The HTC Wildfire was certainly upgradable though, and I managed to upgrade it from Android 2.1 to 2.2 through direct download via mobile network. This hassle to upgrade the Android version was the deal breaker for me concerning those other two phones.

Upgrading freeze loop

It wasn’t without a hitch though, and after upgrading, my HTC Sense process launcher froze and just would not launch, and the phone kept getting a “Force Close” message and getting stuck in an endless loop. If this happens to you, interrupt this loop by hitting the Search button and in the search box, type “Settings.” Your phone Settings will appear as one of the choices (which your phone thinks you are looking for). Now, go to your Settings and reset your phone back to its original factory settings. You will lose your downloaded apps, but you’ll also stop the freeze. Once your phone restarts, your phone will still be on the upgraded Android version.

The battery of the Wildfire is modest, at 1300 mAh, but still a tad better than the standard 1200 mAh for most other low – mid range phones. Of course, in practice, all smartphones use up their batteries like water, and all in a day’s use.

The resolution of the HTC Wildfire also leaves me somewhat desiring for better, but when you consider that the Samsung Galaxy S has a steep price all because of its display and screen, I can’t really complain – The display makes for the price difference in today’s smartphones.

The 512 MB ROM and the 384 MB RAM were also fairly ok, and it was far more than the Xperia X10 Mini or the Samsung Galaxy 5. If you are going to be downloading a lot of apps in the Android Marketplace, you’ll soon realize the need for a decent level of ROM and RAM in your mobile phone.

All in all, I would have to conclude that the Wildfire is still the best budget smartphone for now, although with the pace of handphone technology constantly on the move, I would have no idea what it would be like in a matter of months. But if you are scouting for a budget phone that has all the features, then you can’t go wrong with the HTC Wildfire.

Here is a good free guide on making the most of your Android phone.

After days of looking around and trying out many cameras, I whittled down my choice to a few models. While I see the evolution of compact cameras as that of compacting DSLR technology, the standard of most compact cameras still has some way to go.

So my philosophy is whatever we get in the meantime should just be considered as interim cameras, until camera manufacturers can lessen this very conspicuous gap. Right now, the Ricoh CX1, Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ7, Canon PowerShot SX200 IS and Fujifilm F200 EXR stood out as being the main cameras to watch in this group of mid range compacts, which was my principle search.

Also I’d have to add that besides looking at camera review sites, do check out Flickr by doing a search with the camera model you have in mind. Many of the shots in Flickr are well done, and demonstrate what the particular camera model can do.

Presently, I am torn between the Ricoh CX1 and the Canon SX200. Although I got myself a CX1, I might switch to a SX200 later. While not having as good a zoom as the TZ7 or the SX200 (which is 12 times), the CX1 has some main highlights. Chief among these is the 1cm macro close up range which is very good. It was important for me to get a camera with a good macro close up range because I wanted to practice lots of macro shots; the Lumix TZ7 minimum range was 3cm, while the Fuji FinePix could only manage 5cm.

I wanted a camera that can get as close up as possible, and be quick in response. Both Canon and Ricoh have very good macro-mode cameras except that the SX200 was bigger, bulkier, with an annoying flash that keeps popping up. Check out a couple of unaltered Ricoh CX1 macro test shots I did below.

A useful feature of the Ricoh CX1 is the ability to shift the manual focus point around on the screen. This proves quite handy if you’re taking a picture of a small moving object while using a tripod. Also, the flash intensity can be controlled within the Ricoh, which is most useful, but it takes a bit of practice to get right. Fast frame shooting and level plane indicator are other perks of the CX1.

The Canon SX200 has something big in its favor – Manual controls. If you want to get into photography, the SX200 can prove helpful in developing your skills. Otherwise, the Lumix TZ7 is a no-questions-asked point and shoot that does well most of the time. The Ricoh CX1 would be something in between, because after using it, I find it doesn’t really produce great shots out-of-camera, unless you tweak the settings here and there, and perhaps lug a tripod along.

Meanwhile for color, I’d have to say the Fuji Finepix has the best balance of color, hue, and saturation, while the Lumix TZ7 is a little too saturated for my liking. On the other hand, both the Canon SX200 and Ricoh CX1 have rather bland colors (you wish it was livelier and fuller). But since I’m mainly looking for a good macro camera, only Canon and Ricoh are on my shopping list.

Although trivial, design and LCD screen display are some frills which I think Ricoh has excelled. The 920K pixel resolution of the LCD screen on the Ricoh CX1 is by far the best, and I like the small, sleek design. Contrast that with the Finepix 200 or the Lumix TZ7, which have pretty poor LCD display, making it harder to know how well or bad is the picture you’re taking. The Canon SX200 was also quite bulky.

If image quality is the most important thing (notwithstanding price), Sigma wins hands down for me. Sigma has set a very high bar in the compact camera market with the Sigma DP2 that according to them, has a sensor 7-12 times larger than any compact camera in existence right now! Well likely the best compact for landscape photography.

It is very telling if you head to Flickr. There are way more images tagged with Sigma DP2 than any other compact camera (despite the price of the DP2), and Sigma users never shy away from uploading their photos at a large size. I’m guessing this has to do with the above par sharpness and image quality? Well, I can’t wait for Sigma to produce a Sigma DP compact camera WITH a macro setting and zoom – And not price it out of reach of the average camera buyer.

But until then, a Ricoh or Canon will do.

Firstly, the sound quality of iriver was arguably the best among the flash mp3 players, but I’m not sure about the situation now. I’ve sampled the sounds of the Creatives, Sonys, and iPods a few years back, but concluded that iriver was better. I’ve heard people talking about a hiss issue in some models, but that didn’t occur for me.

You need to hook them up with a good earphone, which should be either Shure or Sennheiser, and tweak the equalizer to achieve the type of sound you want, (allowing for a period of headphone burn in as well). Otherwise it will sound flat – a bane among all mp3 players. I am currently using a Sennheiser CX 400, and I could achieve a pretty full bodied sound quality with optimum bass, treble, and clarity as can be squeezed from a tiny flash player. In comparison, you can’t even do anything remotely like this with the Ipod Shuffle – because firstly, there is no display!

Below is an equalizer setting that I currently use, which I hope might be helpful for those of you who like to experiment with equalizer settings.

Another compelling reason why I like my iriver is because it utilizes the standard double AA battery, which means I’m not dependent on a laptop or PC to recharge it. In fact, I’ve hardly bought any batteries for the past 3 years, as I’ve been using the same rechargeable batteries over and over again! Each average battery life cycle clocks at around 12-13 hours, but it used to be around 20 hours when the batteries were newer.

Also, my iriver iFP is rugged enough to have survived so many drops, blows, humidity, and scratches that would have killed an Ipod by now. This ruggedness, coupled with the ability to record audio, has made my iriver a frequent companion on many of my trips for the past few years. It does what it’s meant to do, and that is to play music, and play it well.

All in, I would give the thumbs up to Iriver if a plain flash mp3 player is what you’re looking for. It’s a pity that iriver has discontinued many of their product series (like the iFP-700s/800s). Current flash mp3 players now push the limits to include much larger storage and video/internet capability, like the top dog now, the iPod Touch. But if your budget is small and you just need a music player to carry around, the iriver iFPs are still some of the best basic mp3 players in my book – but probably you’ll need to head for either eBay or some online shops that still carry them.

My friend recently bought a new Sony Vaio CR (lappy is what he calls it) and it sure looks cool. The only problem, he tells me is the preloaded Vista (he hates Vista). Seeing his Vaio, I hope to get myself a black Vaio G later on. But, what am I talking about? I don’t really need a laptop!

Is it unnatural to be in love with shiny new toys? I mean beyond the utility, aesthetics, functions, beauty, and all other words which can define a gadget there’s something totally different about these gadgets which forces us to grasp them. Is it unnatural to be in love with these shiny new toys? Remember, this generates the passion to grasp something which is…non-human!

Firstly, I think it is in no way unnatural to fall in love with these gadgets. It is probably our natural instinct to make things work better. The way gadgets cloth, grind and solve the complex situations for us; this actually can be quite arousing! Even the problems they give us…

This love affair deepens, and then we wonder why. It is slightly funny but true; today many humans find solace with tech gadgets instead of the living beings around them. I just read somewhere that home boys in Taiwan now fancy PCs and gaming more than girls!

I think it is becoming increasingly common for people to spend more and more time, just toying with a gadget rather than doing anything else. In The Matrix, humans create their own universe by a synthesis of human mind and machine. That’s an extreme case of tech domination. I’m just wondering what it will be like 10 years from now.

Dive into PDAdb.net and get bowled by the endless PDA devices listed. You’ll probably get to know all about the different models of PDAs, PDA phones, PNAs, and smartphones in one go. There is a database from the Quick Lists on the home page to browse the PDAs. The Quick Lists help you browse devices with specific features such as GSM and CDMA, as well as smartphones, handheld PCs, etc. It is regularly updated to show the link to devices which are coming up in the ongoing month. From mini devices to rugged devices, the list seems to have everything. Choose a specific model for specs quoted – and you can also see a detailed datasheet of the model.

If you’re looking for a PDA or a smartphone with certain specs, you might want to take a look at PDAmaster, which suggests a best match for what you have specified – like physical attributes, memory, OS, display, etc. The setup contains so many options that at one stage I used to think, why not take suggestions from my friends instead of doing all the hard work. But, you probably won’t find a better site to look for a PDA device, which seems even a little intuitive. Initially it might look to be a little complicated, but you end up learning a little bit more about PDA devices that way.

You can go a bit technical if you’d like – for example, you can look for a PDA microprocessor that offers specific CPU features like clock speed, more SRAM, 24-bit addressing, and more. Select the card slots which you prefer, the digital camera which you would want your PDA to boast of, the kind of power supply, and the satellite navigation. You’ll probably wind up spending a couple of hours searching, but that’s probably the best way to find the best matching PDA for yourself.

Interested in knowing how the PDA and its components evolved over a period of time? Hit the PDA history menu. Right from the first Psion Series 3 released in January 1990 to the upcoming models, it’s all there. But then again, this is only if you take a liking to history – I do.

The PDA comparer section lets you compare every kind of PDA. They got hundreds of options in their database and all you need to do is select the checkboxes and click compare. This could be utilized if you are confused between various PDA phones.

The site claims to have the best PDA database online, so if you find another better database elsewhere, let me know. In fact, this site is probably best suited for those with a fetish for PDAs bordering on the extreme.

Most USB drives today carry a large amount of space, and the cost for a 2 Gb drive only sits around $30 these days. You can literally store an infinite amount of data in there without having to worry about lugging along a laptop or cramming your desktop hard drive with more stuff.

There is an open source WAMP (Windows-Apache-MYSQL-PHP) bundle called XAMPP (the X is an acronym for any of 4 operating systems that it can run on) that are able to run most PHP based scripts directly from the bundle’s installation directory.

Just download it as a zip file, and unpack it onto your USB flash drive. In order to run a site, let’s say a WordPress test blog, you need to create a folder with a specific name in the htdocs folder of your XAMPP installation directory.

So, if you named your folder as “testblog” and your flash drive is named as E:\, the path should look like this:

E:\XAMPP\htdocs\testblog

So briefly, the steps to run a WordPress blog on a USB flash drive are just:

1. Install XAMPP by unpacking it onto the drive.
2. Click on the icon file named “xampp-control”.
3. Start Apache and MySQL by clicking “start” for each of them.
4. Open a browser window and type in http://localhost/xampp
5. You’ll see a splash screen; click on phpMyAdmin and create a new database with your chosen name by entering it into the empty field and clicking on the “create” button.
6. Copy all the WordPress files into E:\XAMPP\htdocs\testblog
7. Edit the wp-config-sample.php as you would for a self hosted WordPress blog. You may use the username of “root”, and no password is needed, because the user “root” has by default, all privileges, and no password.
8. Go to the url http://localhost/testblog and the rest is history.

In all, it should not take more than 5 minutes, as WordPress states. You can use XAMPP to try and install many other scripts like Joomla, Drupal, Moodle…etc, and work on them in your leisure time, right from your very own “mini server”. Although XAMPP turns your little USB drive into a “mini server”, the only one who can access “localhost” is you.

I don’t know about you, but I think it’s pretty cool to be able to run a website from a tiny USB stick.