I got my Eco Media Player about 2 weeks ago and I’ve been checking out it’s various functions. The device has several features like a video player, music player, fm radio, LED torch, photo viewer, hi-fi recorder, memo recorder, data storage device and a mobile phone charger. You charge the device via USB, but if you don’t have a computer nearby it can be hand cranked to recharge the juice via a fold-out handle on the rear.

They claim that 40 minutes of audio play requires only one minute of self powering. Actually when I put that to the test I got a whole lot more. Closer to 2 hours. I don’t know if that is typical or not, but I let the battery deplete to nothing before I wound it. So that was a plus. I loaded a few videos and the conversion software is pretty effortless. The quality of the video is surprisingly crisp and clean for the small 1.8″ color screen. No complaints there.

I’ll be reviewing both the Kone and the Kurv hand vacuums from Dirtdevil. These are Dirt Devil’s newer more stylish vacuums that don’t assault your decor, while remaining handy to clean up those messes. In fact, both the Kone and the Kurv perform that function very well. Unlike most small appliances, they actually fit into and become a part of your living space without screaming to the world, “Hey, I suck up filthy stuff.”

I was curious to find out which would perform better, so I divided my time between both units, back and forth. It’s worth noting that these are not intended to clean your whole carpet and replace your upright, or to suck up huge disastrous, nasty, sticky, toxic spills. And it’s not designed to be a full power shop vac. So, unto my impressions of both models.

Over the past week we’ve had the opportunity to try out Sound ID’s SM100 EarModule Bluetooth headset which resulted in a unanimous vote of “impressed” from those of us who spent some time with it. The headset seems pretty cool from its looks alone but there are also some less visible features that add to the uniqueness and value of the SM100. We tested the headset with the Motorola MOTOSLVR and the new Motorola MOTOROKR Z6m which were both very easy to connect.

For starters, and one of the most important things we watch for in these devices, is the general size and comfort. If you find yourself wanting a wireless headset its probably because you spend a fair amount of time talking on the phone and the last thing you need is something that’s too uncomfortable to wear for those multiple and long conversations. The comfort was not an issue for us with the SM100, and in fact after a few hours of wearing it I found myself once even having to check with my hand to see if it was in my ear. The headset measures about 1.75 inches by 1.0 inch by 1.2 inches and weighs only 0.4 ounces.

If you’re like many people that spend any amount of time online, you’ve probably had concerns or problems with probably the most common issues people have with surfing the net lately; security. For many, more and more interactions and transactions are taking place online, and everywhere you go you have to enter a user ID and a password. You can’t complain since security for the most part is a good thing, but it’s hard to remember the login credentials for every site you go to, and with all of the online identity theft scams going on these days many people are leery of entering their financial information online at all.

GuardID has a product called the ID Vault which we recently had the opportunity to review that goes a long way to help thwart online scams and gives you a single point to store login information. As a software engineer that has been developing hosted applications for years I’ve always trusted my own ability to identify phishing scams and unsecured sites, and I had never used a product like this before as I’ve always been hesitant to put all my information into one point of access. Although I still feel I do a good job of watching out for scams on my own I do have to admit that after spending some time with ID Vault product I’ve changed my tune and am pretty impressed with the secure environment this product creates.

This past June we wrote about Casio’s tough G’zOne Type-S mobile phone when it was released and we recently got a chance to get our hands on one to see just how tough this thing really was and what “water resistant” really meant. What we found is that the G’zOne Type-S lives up to its hype on standing against the elements and also had some nice surprises we were not expecting.

SmartNav by NaturalPoint is a hands free pointing device designed to provide an alternative for graphical navigation. The sensor looks eerily like the flying automatons from Batteries Not Included and sits atop the monitor responding to reflection from the infrared light it generates. You can wear the cap provided with the unit or apply the reflective tabs to anything you wish. The cap is a bit geeky but it works best in my experience.

The software provided allows for fine tuning the reaction of the device as well as control over how the user causes a click event. With a little experimentation the unit can be optimized for minimal head movement. The software accommodates pausing the detector with customizable key commands to make switching to another device simple. There are two methods of evoking a click event: software or hardware. Key commands can be assigned to initiate a click event or any number of simple actuators can be connected to get the most out of the user experience.

CellPoint has recently acquired a couple of Bluetooth headset product lines from Gennum, one of which is called the nX6000 and we recently had the opportunity to review it here at the ‘Brick. This model wasn’t Gennum’s first crack at the mobile headset market. Prior to this version was the nXZEN PLUS 5500 and in our opinion they’ve done quite a nice job with improving the look while still maintaining a very quality product.

There are a few main features of the nX6000 that are important to point out, which are also key things we look for when choosing a good headset, the first of these being its size. This device measures only 1.75 x 0.8 x 0.5 inches and weighs a mere 0.38 ounces making it a feasible solution for multiple continuous hours of comfortable use. It comes packaged with 3 different sizes of ear tips and 2 different sized ear hooks. The ear tips are designed to fit slightly inside your ear which makes a much clearer sound and helps keep the device in place. Some headsets that do not do this will flop around when the wearer moves their head, making a loose feel. Even with glasses the device was easy to wear and fit comfortably.

The HangTimer from DropZone is just like the name sounds. It’s a small stopwatch sized gadget that’s used to measure your hang time when doing any type of activity that involves you being temporarily airborne.

It works through a Tri-Axis Accelerometer that measures the changes in acceleration that occur when you take jumps and then records the total time from when you left the ground until you return. The HangTimer controls consist of simply two buttons to run all the functionality. At first this was slightly confusing to switch between the modes but once we figured it out it was pretty simple to work. The two larger buttons on top actually made it easy to operate without having to remove our gloves.

This hang time measuring gadget will automatically switch modes and record your jumps without having to have it in the “Hang Time” mode. …

In a twist on the Comic Book Guy’s famous catch phrase, we are giving praise to some of the best, if not the best, earplug style headphones that we have seen lately. The M-Audio IE-20 XB Reference Earphones are professional grade in-ear style earphones, but they are more than that. They have a large bass driver that makes these earphones really stand out.

Usually earphones lack the low end oomph that larger head phones have. This is not the case with the IE-20 XB, however, as they deliver great bass performance, as well as high-end and mid-range. The XB stands for Extended Bass and M-Audio means it. The IE-20 XB has two dedicated speakers built in, one for low frequencies and one for mid-range and high frequencies. The earphones themselves are …

Relic, the company that produced the Warhammer 40,000 games has done it again. We have long been fans of the Warhammer games (actually one of us spent Thanksgiving day playing through the Dawn of War games again) and we’ve been anticipating Company of Heroes. We are glad to say that it does not disappoint.

Company of Heroes follows Able Company through the D-day invasion of Omaha beach up until the Battle of Normandy where the Allies defeat the Germans in France.

The game just does things right. Company of Heroes is a an RTS but like other Relic RTS games the sometimes tedious resource gathering and base building concepts are turned on their head. You have to capture and hold strategic positions in …

The DCR-SR40 Handycam is a small camcorder with a large capacity for video. This video camera holds it’s multimedia with a 30GB hard drive instead of using a tape or miniDV.

After shooting with this camera for a couple of days the best part of it, especially compared to non-HDD camera’s, is the fact that you can view and manage the video files with the touch screen LCD interface. Each time you start and stop the recording, the camcorder creates a new file. The files are automatically organized into dates when they are saved to the hard drive, so navigating them is fairly easy. Also, the files are represented on the screen by the first frame of the video. A few times I would forget to remove the lens cover before shooting, and those videos would all be identified as black, but aside from …