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The PDA247 Monthly newsletter will return from next week. It will include news, reviews (not seen on 247 yet), special offers, competitions and all sorts of other goodies.

If you signed up for the original newsletter, your details should still be held but if you did not- DO IT NOW!:) It is designed to read perfectly on a mobile device and is not just a collection of offers and discounts, but rather an add-on to the 247 sites.

You can subscribe here. Expect it in your inbox next Monday.

So, meet the Sony DR-BT21G. That's quite a mouthful, but once you tried it, you will not forget it anytime soon. It is a pair of headphones with a neckband. If you're interested, here is the specifications sheet:

Bluetooth
 
Communication method: Bluetooth standard Ver.2.0
Output: Bluetooth standard POWER Class 2
Maximum communication range: 10m
Frequency zone: 2.4GHz band (2.4000-2.4835GHz)
Corresponding Bluetooth profile:
• A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile)
• AVRCP (Audio Video Remote Control Profile)
• HFP (Hands-free Profile)
• HSP (Headset Profile)
Corresponding codec: SBC and MP3

Microphone

Type: Electret condenser type
Directional characteristics: All directivity
Effective frequency zone: 100-4,000Hz

Headphone

Type: Open air dynamic type
Driver Unit: Aperture 30mm
Playback frequency zone: 14-24,000Hz
Transmission band (A2DP)(44.1KHz sampling): 20-20,000Hz
Remote control function: Playback, halt, stop, tune sending and tune resetting
Power source: DC 3.7V
Charge time: 2.5 hours
Electric battery duration: 11 hours
Continual expecting: 100 hours
Mass: 63g

The specs above may sound nice, but how great is this wireless headset exactly? This is the first time I used a stereo headset, so I'm used to carry wired headphones. I have used the headset for a couple of weeks now, and I tested it through everyday life’s constraints. It had to bear long periods of music-listening, frequent calls and regularly being stuffed away in my bag (and even a bit of rain).

Design, form and weight

As I told in my previous post, everything looks and feels good. The open-back earphones are big enough to cover your ears, yet small enough to not make you feel like Frankenstein. It's really light too, so after some time you almost don't notice that it's on your head. Still, the build quality feels solid with no squeaky  parts, except for the neckband which may feel flimsy at times. Although a bit flimsy, it let’s you fold the device in to a reasonable small package.

The cups have a dark-grey metallic color with a silver part at the bottom- to hide the red and blue led’s (led’s are at the right ear only). All the buttons are also on the right ear, together with a tiny reset hole. The power button has a chrome edge around it. The only thing you will find on the left cup is the DC-in port.

Controls

There are four buttons, and besides the power switch, every button has multiple functions. On the face of the right cup you will find the power button (hold it to pair it with a device) and the button to answer/make calls and voice dial. The volume button is located on top of the edge, with two buttons for higher/lower volume. Lower on the edge you will find music button, which controls everything. Push it up to skip a song, or hold it up to fast-forward. Push it down to skip a song back, or hold it to rewind. Press it to play/pause, or press and it hold it to stop (you also press the music button to connect it to your device). All these controls may sound a bit confusing, but you get the hang of it soon enough. And I found it very convenient to be able to control everything from your earpiece, eliminating the need to pull you device out of your pocket/bag.

The led’s flash in a lot of combinations to let you know what's going on, with the on/off and low battery being the most important of course. The led’s also show whether searching or trying to connect (voice or audio). In the manual you will find a table with all the different combinations, which is handy when trouble shooting. I once couldn't connect it to my HTC Touch, but I saw the led’s flashing in an order that I never had seen. So I looked in the manual and discovered that it was trying to connect to my audio player. As obvious as that may sound, now I was sure that there was a problem- which was solved with a simple reset.

Battery

The battery wasn't something I was looking forward to, with yet another device to charge. I was afraid that I would often forget to charge the headset, since I was used to wired headsets. Fortunately, this only happed once, and now I charge it every two to three days (depending on my usage). The battery life is neat, but I have no experience with other wireless headphones. I ran the battery down a few times, but I wouldn't know if I managed to get its claimed 11 hours of juice. I find it to be long enough, so you won't have to worry too much about charging.

Bluetooth connection

Pairing is easy, and so is establishing the connection when you turn the headset back on. This reconnecting always went without a hitch on my WM Professional device, except for the one time that I had to reset the headset. My WM Standard device seems to have more difficulty with connecting at times, but I don't know why. Sometimes the music skips for a second or so, but this happens only when being at places such as city's. After the music returns, it seems as it's played a bit faster or the sound is higher. I thought I was becoming crazy, but then I read the manual. The Bluetooth signal can get disturbed by Wifi, and after this the sound can play at a different tone. Hmm, strange...

Sound

Since sound is the most important aspect in this review, I saved it for the end. Although I'm not exactly an expert when it comes to sound quality, I will share my opinion about it. I think the sound quality is quite good, especially since wired headsets still have a big quality advantage. The bass is decent too, which is a relieve after using a standard pair of in-ear headphones for months. The downside here is the skipping music due to the Bluetooth connection, which happens to often for my liking.

The microphone is a completely different story, although something I already expected. The mic is stuffed away in a small hole on the face of the right cup, this already creates a long distance between the mic and your mouth. Then there is the hole itself, which is positioned in a way that the wind makes it impossible to make calls when your out and about. With my wired headsets, I used to be able to make calls when riding on my bicycle- and the sound would still be crystal clear. With the wireless headset, I am forced to stop and I have to stay out of the wind too. Otherwise, the person on the other side of the line won’t be able to hear me.

Conclusion

If you're in the market for a wireless stereo headset, the DR-BT21G is definitely an option to consider. As I haven’t used other wireless headphones, so I can’t compare it to anything else. This is my first experience with such a device, and it has been a rather pleasant experience. €94.95, £72,50 or $145,68 buys you a nice piece of kit*, which will do just fine in most situations. The sound will be good enough for the average customer, and making voice calls on this headset is a big, weak point. Still, I enjoyed this headset a lot, so I would certainly recommend it to the average user.

*Based on retail price in The Netherlands.

Luca Morandi (www.pdathoughts.com)

Quite a few years ago, Clove lent me a TomTom GO to review (which is here) and it was a revalation to me. I bought it from them and ever since have used TomTom, in one form or another, for my navigation.

It stopped me selling my TyTN II, because it runs poorly on the Centro and so I have decided to try Garmin Mobile XT to see if it can break TomTom's stranglehold on my navigation experience.

Check back next week for a full review of Mobile XT, alongside two hardware reviews and lots of other bits and pieces.

Murray has posted what is it with the anti-iPhone stuff?..true costs where he talks about the relative value of the current O2 contracts that come with the iPhone.

"There doesn't seem to be much love going in the iPhone's direction from the unbelievers and I'm not exactly sure why. Here's a good post from Shaun over at pda247 and he makes some interesting points and he says some things that are quite telling, including-

If the pricing plan becomes reasonable, and I can lose my unhealthily negative view of Apple, it may be one to look at in the future.

Where do you start with that I wonder? Well, if you look at the pricing thing first. If you spend £35pm on the basic monthly tarriff on o2 you get 600 minutes, 500 texts and true unlimited data downloads. Not too shabby but of course you have to compare it to the competition here in the UK. Vodafone, for example, on their £35pm deal on the same length of contract, 18 months, give you 500 minutes (less than iPhone) but unlimited texts which is better but absolutely NIL DATA. O2's own ONLINE35 gives more minutes and more texts but again absolutely zilch data downloading capability."

OK, I will say this for the last time because it doesn't seem to be going in. I have no issue with the 'value' of the iPhone contract when the inclusive minutes and data are totted up BUT I do not like the restrictions in place. If I want a £22.50 / month contract why can't I have that? If I want to buy it SIM free why can't I do that? It's the lack of choice that bugs me, not the actual price which has been proven to be competitive.

Arcade from Hell is a variation on another set of games, that are idential to this set...

Arcade from Hell is a collection of popular games that have had millions of fans across the world. Superb animation, fun graphics and addictive gameplay make this collection a must-have for your mobile device. The collection includes options to play in different game modes, including bonus item modes and enemy scoring modes. A devilish twist has been added to each of the eight games included in the package - be prepared to encounter unexpected surprises!

One day you awaken to find yourself in a dark and hot prison cell, where your body has been split into two parts! Your mind has been transformed into a small but quick and hard ball, while your body has changed into an unbreakable platform which can bounce the ball around at will. Strategically use your two parts to defeat the demonic guardians and break free from the hellish prison where you have been trapped!

Texas Instruments, the world's second largest maker of chips for mobile phones, Monday lowered its guidance for the first quarter on slumping demand for chips in higher-end mobile phones, including 3G (third generation) handsets.

"Very recently, we received what I would call a pretty significant downward revision in wireless customer demand," said Ron Slaymaker, a vice president at TI, in a conference call. The decline was concentrated in 3G handsets and base stations, he said, adding that demand for entry-level products in emerging markets has remained consistent with initial expectations at the beginning of the first quarter.

The company cut its revenue forecast for the first quarter to the low end of its original guidance, to a range of US$3.21 billion to $3.35 billion compared to its original forecast of $3.27 billion to $3.55 billion. The company also lowered its earnings-per-share (EPS) forecast to a range of $0.41 to $0.45 cents per share, from $0.43 to $0.49. More at Yahoo.

The Nokia E90 takes on allcomers is a good look at the future competition for the Nokia E90. It seems that larger keyboarded devices are back in fashion, for some strange reason...

In a definitive look at the genre, Steve Litchfield explores the 'Communicator' form factor, looking at devices past and present, on all platforms. How does the Nokia E90 fare in such wide-ranging company?

It's fair to say that the Nokia E90 has had both brickbats and bouquets flung at it in its short year of life. But are these justified? Critics often compare it to its predecessors and competitors, unfavourably. But I think the comparisons are off-beam. Let's look at the competition...