Expert: Rey Flores

Well, one of my recent acquisitions has been T-Mobile's Shadow by HTC. It's been out for a week and I picked one up the day it was released.

If you've been scouring the forums on the net about people's first reports of this device, one of the things that may draw your attention is a number of people mentioning mixed results when it comes to battery life. Sure the device has a larger screen, more memory, and a smaller battery than the Dash; however, when one has to charge it more than once a day, then that calls for some concern.

My first one, seems to have been okay for the first couple of days; but near the end of the week, I noticed that I needed to charge it twice a day from leaving the home with a full overnight charge at about 8am and then reaching low battery warning at 1pm having had very little voice usage, minimal data connectivity, beaming turned off, being in a full coverage area, etc. T-Mobile let me exchange mine to a new one over the weekend, and now only three days into it, I've come across a day when I needed to charge it 3 times!

Calling T-Mobile PDA support this morning, they now have it listed in their database (yet not posted publically) as a known issue; however, it doesn't qualify for exchange - you can request that they send you a new battery and you do mainain the option to return your phone for a full refund within the 14 day buyer's remorse period.

So, T-Mobile has sent to me (with the Express shipping charges waived) a new battery. One piece of advice given over the phone (which was something I hadn't heard since back in the MPx200 days) is that when I receive it, is to give the battery a full 24-hour charge before daily use. I know that this had worked back then for the 2nd set of batteries sent out for the MPx200s so I'm willing to give that a shot and hopefully this will solve this issue of an otherwise fun phone.

Hey there - just a reminder to those who may have forgotten that tonight I'll be live on the radio @ Computer Outlook.com for the monthly series dedicated to the Mobile Community.

The Las Vegas radio station is KLAV 1230 AM. The Internet broadcast is located at www.computeroutlook.com and the listening image link is located throughout the web site on the upper left hand corner of the pages. The live show is Internet broadcasted through Windows Media Player. Please take advantage of e-mailing us “LIVE” during the show as well as participating in our “LIVE CHAT ROOM” at: http://www.computeroutlook.com/chat.php. The shows are also archived for all to download and listen to at: http://www.computeroutlook.com/dailyshows.php.

John Iasiuolo is the main guy in charge with co-host Rob Winchell. I along with fellow MS MVP Chris DeHerrera (of www.PocketPCFAQ.com) are the special co-hosts for the series and we hope to help you make sense of the latest goings on in th Windows Mobile community and other related technologies every 2nd Monday of the month!

Please join us on the Computer Outlook Show www.computeroutlook.com for “The Mobile Community" show - which I'd like to consider it as a virtual usergroup meeting for all of you who aren't able to attend a local one of your own.

Specs:
Bluetooth version - 1.2
Range - 33 ft.
Talk time - up tp 6 hours
Stand-by - up to 100 hours
Charging time - 3 hours
Weight - approx. 0.5 ounces
Noise cancelling w/WindStop technology

MSRP: $79.99

Around here in the San Francisco Bay Area, the entry-level offering from Plantronics, the Voyager 510, seems to be a very popular choice amongst the mobile-inclined! There are a lot of managers and directors at my workplace who have made it their headset of choice. In addition, from speaking with a lot of the cell phone retailers in my area they can confirm its popularity. and who could blame them knowing the reputation of Plantronics. These facts piquing my curiousity, I decided to add this to the line up for my consideration. Will it pass my test?

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Specs:
Bluetooth version - 1.2
Range - 33 ft.
Talk time - up tp 7 hours
Stand-by - up to 170 hours
Charging time - 2 hours
Weight - 0.3 ounces
Echo cancellation/Noise suppression

MSRP: $79.99

LG's popular Chocolate phone and other candy-bar like stylings with the concealed keyboards are all the rage with teens and young adults alike. Much like established manufacturer Motorola, LG is now making headsets as attractive as their phones (have you seen the LG Prada Bluetooth headset?). The product in question for this quick review is the HBM-730 which comes in a pretty reasonable price in comparison to the competition.

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Specs:
Bluetooth version - 1.2
Range - 33 ft.
Talk time - up tp 7 hours
Stand-by - up to 300 hours
Charging time - up to 4 hours
Weight - 0.3 ounces
WindStop noise cancellation

MSRP: $79.99

Logitech's offering is a reasonably priced headset packed with a noise-cancelling capability not usually seen at this level. The Mobile Traveller is actually an improvement/evolution from their previous Mobile Freedom headset (which was reviewed by a fellow contributer of MobileGadgetNews.com Eric "GrYph0n" Jones). It has been reduced in size and boasts improved sound. I'm hoping this could be the one that'll past my convertible test!

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