garrett

Product: Sunpentown RF-320S List Price: $429.00 Average customer review: Amazon Price: Too low to display Click Here To See Amazon Sale Price Add to cart to see low price@ Availability: In Stock Usually ships in 24 Hours Free Shipping Available

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My decision for a compact refrigerator was a double door design. Separate freezer and refrigerator.

I highly recommend this product and this brand (Air Purifiers USA). After ordering the product, I contacted the manufacture (via the email confirmation details), and asked about the color options. White on white vs. Stainless on black. (I read them on the product description page, but was not able to make the selection during checkout). The gentlemen suggested putting the order on hold for 2 hours, he then contacted the warehouse, determined availability, and called me back and I selected Stainless on black. The order arrived in 3 days using regular shipping and the box was very well packaged. In fact, the original packing carton was inserted into a slightly larger carton (with good padding) and the entire packing was first rate.

The refrigerator is a thing of beauty. A full size look in a compact size unit. Stainless front with black box. The top has a convenient molded tray, designed to be used as a ’spill proof’ counter top. The topside is large enough to hold coffee maker, cups, etc. and will never scratch.

Time will tell if this unit will perform as expected. My confidence is high and I am a very pleased customer.

I bought a slightly different model 1 year ago. It has worked superbly all the time. So, why do I bother to write the review NOW ? Because of Customer Support. I needed to move the fridge to another location, and re-hung the doors from hinges-on-the-right (the way it came from the factory) to hinges-on-the-left. When I was done, the freezer door was slightly misaligned and did not close properly. I called their 800 number; it is busy much of the time (it is either busy, or a person answers, no waiting), but it was worth retrying. When I got through to a person, HE ACTUALLY WALKED ME THROUGH THE STEPS NEEDED TO FIX THE PROBLEM on the phone; no charge, no hassle (and he spoke flawless American English, as opposed to me). I am so impressed that I felt compelled to write this review. These guys can sell me any of their equipment any time.

I bought this fridge in spring of 2004 for a camper.

As such, I used it for 6 months of the year, in season, and then it sat idle for the other 6 months.

It is well laid out, doesn’t seem to frost up excessively, and, overall served us well

The compressor froze up in Oct. of 2007. That’s 2 years of actual use.

That kind of life span is totally unacceptable. Maybe the other choices of this class of fridge are no better, but I’ll never buy a Sunpentown again.

Totally disappointed!

Product: Garmin Nuvi 650 List Price: $749.99 Average customer review: Amazon Price: Too low to display Click Here To See Amazon Sale Price Add to cart to see low price@ Availability: In Stock Usually ships in 24 Hours Free Shipping Available

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I have have a been a long time Garmin GPS customer including three generations of the Streetpilot. I am very pleased with the Nuvi 650 echoing some of the praises you’ve read here in the reviews.

However for those of who are on the fence about getting the 650 versus the 660 for the extra Bluetooth, FM transmitter and traffic receiver, I want to offer you some more reasons to consider the 660. The Nuvi 650 does not include the leather carrying case, AC adapter and printed manual which comes standard with the 660 packaging ($50 value).

As a an old time Garmin user, I am used to having these items come with my GPS. In addition, the Nuvis do not include CD/DVD map software nor the friction mount (must buy separately esp. for California and Minnesota). Considering how easy it is now for users to access the memory space of the Nuvi from their computers, it’s much easier to corrupt the system unintentially. Thats when you’ll need the original map software to recover.

Don’t get me wrong, I do like the Nuvi 650 over my Streetpilot 2720 for it’s size, improve user interface and the SirF Star III receiver for much more reliable GPS reception. But I can only give this product 4 stars because of the lack of accessories that I find essential for my usage and yet comes standard for the Nuvi 660, 670 and 680.

Before the Nuvi, the only GPS I’d ever used was a Garmin hiking GPS, which I purchased in 2004. It wasn’t extremely easy to use, and installing maps on it was awkward. So for the longest time, I didn’t bother looking at automotive GPS units, especially Garmins.

My parents recently got a Nuvi 650. They’re in their 60s and not extremely technologically savvy. Yet they were able to use it right out of the box, spending minimal time reading the (very short, well-written) “getting started” guide that comes in the package. They are retired and spend every winter RVing around the country, so the Nuvi is an extremely useful device for them.

My wife and I got to see their Nuvi 650. We were impressed with how well designed the interface is. It’s very intuitive. The screen is big and bright and easy to read in any light. We and my parents experimented with the auto-nav features and found it did a great job navigating us through complicated routes.

I got the bug to buy an automotive GPS and did my research. A recent Consumer Reports issue (Dec 2007, I think, also available online) has a great review of automotive GPS units. Four of their top 5 are Nuvis (the other is a TomTom).

I ruled out the TomTom because the suction mount it comes with isn’t as good as the Nuvi’s mount.

I considered the Nuvi 660 (which adds bluetooth and a traffic receiver, but is a lot more expensive). The traffic info requires an extra cost subscription (after a free trial period). The bluetooth wasn’t attractive to me for these reasons: 1) I will only use my GPS for road trips and occasional visits to an unfamiliar part of the city I live in, yet I use my cell phone all the time. 2) My car stereo already has built-in bluetooth features and, after trying them out, I ended up not using them.

I ruled out the cheaper Nuvis for two reasons. Some of them have smaller screens: 3.5″, whereas the 6xx series has a 4.3″ screen. Second, on some cheaper units, the voice directions do not include street names (”turn left in 500 feet”), whereas on the Nuvi 6xx series, the voice directions tell you what street to turn on, as well as how many feet or miles or whatever.

So I settled on the Nuvi 650.

Before making the purchase, though, I was concerned that this particular model was introduced 3 years ago - a long time for a technological gadget. More importantly, I worried that the maps on it would be from 2004. I emailed Garmin customer support, they replied in 24 hours and said that Nuvi 650s are now shipping with the latest maps - the 2008 City Navigator North America NT mappping software. If, by chance, I happen to get a unit that doesn’t have the latest maps, when I register my unit online I will be able to order a free update to the latest maps.

Based on this, I ordered a Nuvi 650. Sure enough, it came with the 2008 maps.

Despite that this model was introduced 3 years ago, my wife and I find it very well-designed and it meets our needs very well. As others here have noted, the auto nav is not always 100% accurate - but that’s true with any automotive GPS. You always must travel with a good atlas, and of course, your cell phone.

The Nuvi series is great: there are lots of different ones with different features, something for just about everybody. Some reviews of the 650 complain about this or that feature missing — fine, then look at the Nuvi line — there’s probably a Nuvi with the feature you want.

Nuvis are easy enough to use right out of the box, for people who don’t like reading manuals. But for those that do, it’s worthwhile to spend 20-30 minutes reading the manual and tinkering with it.

If you plug it into your computer using the included USB cable, it shows up as a drive in Windows explorer. You can drag and drop your favorite photos onto the photo folder of this “drive”, and then view them on the Nuvi as a slide show. You can pick one of them to be your splash screen, which you see when you first power up the unit or plug it into your computer. You can drag and drop your favorite MP3 files to the Nuvi, and play them on the Nuvi’s internal MP3 player. The Nuvi has an audio output jack (which takes a standard earphone sized plug), so you can play the Nuvi’s sound through your car stereo if it has an auxiliary input jack.

You can change the auto icon that represents your vehicle on the map; there are quite a few to choose from on the garmin website. You can change the voice that gives you directions; the English speaking voices include an American female (the default) or male, a British female or male, and an Australian female or male. My wife likes the British male voice the best. If you’re multilingual or traveling abroad, you can switch to one of many foreign language voices.

Since the Nuvi 650 is not the latest and greatest, shop around and you should be able to get a great deal. We got a fantastic deal from c o s t c o d o t c o m. (Trying to avoid the censor.)

One last tip: The Consumer Reports article I mentioned said that thieves love to break windows and grab GPS units (and iPods, etc). The article said that you should not only take the unit with you when you park somewhere, but also remove the windshield mount - some thieves will see it and assume you left your GPS in the glove compartment, and break your window to find out.

Had this GPS exactly one month, so I’m still learning about it. However, it’s an extremely convenient, easy-to-see, great sized navigation tool. Can easily fit in a jacket pocket to take with me anywhere. I find it helpful just about every time I use it, and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it.

But it’s not the perfect answer, just a tool. You have to be aware of what it’s telling you, and make decisions based on your knowledge and common sense.

Pros:

–Large, bright screen (which can switch to a dark backlight when it gets dark out).

–Text-to-speech directions pretty clear (occasional weird pronunciation.)

–Remembers lots of places you’ve been, easy to save places as favorites.

Cons:

–Need to understand what the Nuvi believes is fastest versus shortest, and when you may want to turn off highways as part of the navigation.

–Sometimes the nuvi does NOT tell you to bear right or left as a road forks, and if you’re not looking at the screen, you won’t realize it (until the GPS-voice-with-an-attitude tells you that it’s recalculating).

–The precise locations of things is more of a rarity than you may think. As an example, the nuvi is locating my “home” on the street that runs 150 feet behind my house. If it’s accurate to within 200 or 300 feet, that’s a football field away from where you actually are.

–It sometimes doesn’t announce turns in advance (doesn’t happen often, but does happen).

–Do yourself a favor and buy (separately) the friction mount (sandbag-style) rather than bothering with the suction cup mount that’s included. You’ll love it, it’s easy to move (either from car to car, or to put under you seat so that thieves don’t see it and break in). Absolutely should be the standard mount.

Additional comments:

The 650 doesn’t include a few features, such as bluetooth, that are standard in the 660 and above. If you use audio books or play music through the MP3 player, bluetooth would enable you to play through your car stereo. If you don’t care about that, the 650 is a better deal.

No printed manual is included — just a Quick Start pamphlet. Do yourself a favor and go to the garmin site and download the manual right away. It’ll answer a ton of questions for you and clear up things that are not obvious.

Product: CR Spotless DIC-20 List Price: $449.99 Average customer review: Amazon Price: Too low to display Click Here To See Amazon Sale Price Add to cart to see low price@ Availability: In Stock Usually ships in 24 Hours Free Shipping Available

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I purchased this product after seeing someone wash my motorhome using one. I really works and not having having to dry a vehicle after washing makes the task fun.

This unit works great. I recommend this to all my friends.It keeps the new black car looking like new!

Product: Brother MFC-9840cdw List Price: $999.00 Average customer review: Amazon Price: Too low to display Click Here To See Amazon Sale Price Add to cart to see low price@ Availability: In Stock Usually ships in 24 Hours Free Shipping Available

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I have waited many many years for the perfect all in one COLOR LASER….and this is it + more! I bought mine from a local store and have had it about a week. It comes in a huge box, but don’t worry, this MFC is large but not too large compared to the other Brother mono laser all-in-ones (of which I have owned three over the years). The print quality is EXCELLENT and very fast for full color (21 pages per minute). My only initial concern was that it creased envelopes when printing on envelopes……but after consulting the manual there are fuser tension adjustment switches that solves that for perfect envelope printing (Settings, A, B and Envelope). I had compared many all-in-one color laser machines for many years (including recent ones from Xerox and HP). I was surprised that HP hadn’t come out with a great, feature rich one yet. Brother beat HP to the punch and it is a knockout for sure. I am replacing a higher end Minolta color laser with flatbed scanner, a Brother MFC mono, and an HP mono workhorse with this ONE MFC-9840CDW!!! I am very very picky with print quality but this one is great! Bonus features are built-in duplex scanning, duplex printing, and wireless network capability! The replacement supply costs are also very reasonable and lower than most of the other color laser brands. Brother truly has a winner on its hand with the MFC-9840CDW!!! Thank you Brother….I LOVE IT!

I just got this machine to replace two others a month ago in my home office - an HP inkjet all-in-one 6310xi, and a Brother laser printer HL-1870n.

This new unit is superior in just about every way.

The print quality is much higher than on the HP. In B&W it is similar to the old brother laser.

The print speed is out of this world, especially for color. The inkjet could take minutes per page for letter-size photo prints. This one doesn’t seem to take any longer than for other prints, amazingly ! This is no doubt thanks to its 128 MB of memory. I was thinking about upgrading the RAM, but there just isn’t any need to do that at all !

Copies are also spectacular, just as fast as any photocopier. The HP all-in-one could take several minutes per page in the highest quality in color, and typically at least a minute even for high-quality black & white. And of course the quality is much better.

Scanning speed is also great. It is really measured in pages per minute, not minutes per page.

The ADF duplex scanning is invaluable.

The bundled software (Paperport) is also very reliable and far superior to the bloated crap that came with the HP.

Despite its size, this unit actually saves office space compared to having two separate inkjet color and black & white laser units.

Photo prints are very good. I have noticed some yellowing compared to the inkjet prints. But I am confident it’s possible to adjust this in software and make the photo prints just as good as the inkjet. I just haven’t had time to fiddle with it yet.

The unit is not perfect, but nearly so. There are a couple things that I wish were improved :

- The ADF is limited to A4/letter size. For legal size documents, you must use the glass scanner. This is my biggest regret about the machine. If I could I would give 4.99 stars because of it instead of 5.

- It weighs 85 lbs, actually 115 lbs with all the packaging. With the packaging, it was too large to fit through my stairs. I had to remove it all first. And if I didn’t have a roommate, I would not have been able to bring it to the 2nd floor. I wish there was a printer with all these features at less than 50 lbs packaged. Or perhaps Brother could deliver it in 2 separate parts to assembler (let’s say, printer unit and scanner unit) in 2 smaller boxes, so one person alone could move it and set it up.

- It doesn’t work with glossy inkjet photo paper. That paper just melts and half the sheets come out pink. I had to sell all my Costco photo paper with the HP inkjet, and buy new special laser photo paper (HP branded) that worked great. I wish I had known about this requirement before the purchase.

My wife is an em elementary school teacher, and she gets limited numbers of copies for each term. She also has a great deal of worksheets and other papers that take up a lot of room and make finding a particular worksheet very hard. We came up with a plan: All of her documents would be scanned into a PDF with management software, and she would be able to make copies for her classroom when she ran out at work. We wanted a color laser printer with network scanning and duplexing and had looked at all the different solutions but were bummed to find that many of the scanners only supported printing from Apple computers and not scanning to them. Some had the options to scan to e-mail, but the documentation on these features were very limited.

After looking around at an HP model and a Canon model we decided to look at what Brother had to offer. We were pleased when we saw the specs and features on this model. The best feature was its Mac support which was very extensive. In fact, this was the only model in our search that had equal support for both Mac computers and Windows computers.

I found that the software on the Mac and its Windows counterparts were written fairly well. On the Macs that run 10.5 we had to get an updated TWAIN driver for scanner control, but that was the only small issue we had. You can walk up to the scanner, scan to the computer in the other room over WiFi or even save a scan to your Flash drive by plugging it directly into the front. It is very handy. The scan quality was on par with what I expected. I wouldn’t use it for high-end photo scanning, but an occasional family picture scan here or there, especially for web distribution will be just fine with it.

The print quality was also very nice. Even on cheaper paper the colors were vibrant and not splotchy at all. Text was crisp and print times were more than acceptable. I was getting about 20ppm both in color and black and white once the unit was warmed up. Slightly slower than the 21ppm claim, but the pages were also more than 5% covered which is likely where they get that number.

Faxing is somewhat convoluted compared to other all-in-one devices. After a few blank test faxes though, the steps were easy enough to remember and it does a superb job for those occasional fax jobs that we require.

Pros:

*Great Mac and Windows Support

*Software is easy to use and works well

*Scanning quality is very high

*Many scanning options including direct to flash drive

*Great color printing

*Great B&W printing

*Wireless networking is very nice and works reasonably well

*Toner reasonably priced

*Real duplexing for scanning and printing

Cons:

*Faxing function is slightly convoluted

*Scan to email doesn’t seem to work with Gmail or Google Apps domains and the required authentication schemes

*Software and drivers don’t appear to be downloadable from Brother’s website, so hold onto those CDs that come with it

*All networking functions are off by default

*Some features lack thorough documentation and require a certain level of trial and error mixed with technical skill to complete successfully

*Color scanning can be slightly time consuming, especially over the wireless network to a computer

Overall thoughts:

Overall this printer was worth every penny. Hundreds cheaper than similar models, and it provides great Mac support. For simple printing from a Mac, no software or drivers needed to be installed. The software was only for scanning and other advanced features. My wife has scanned in hundreds of pages already. I must say, I truly love this printer.

Haier WDBF01W Christmas Sales!. Product: Haier WDBF01W List Price: $370.00 Average customer review: Amazon Price: Too low to display Click Here To See Amazon Sale Price Add to cart to see low price@ Availability: In Stock Usually ships in 24 Hours Free Shipping Available

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I bought this product in Oct 2007. It worked mammoth until Sept 2008, when suddenly the pump stopped bringing the water up from the bottle.

Since there is a 1 year warranty on it, I called Haier and they sent me a mark modern unit within 2 days. I plugged in the unusual unit and loaded the water bottle. The motor went on, the pump started pumping, but the pump brought absolutely no water up to the water tank - same spot as the one I returned to them.

I called customer service and they said they would send me a replacement for the replacement.

2 days later, another price recent unit arrived. This one had curious noises coming from the motor, and the pump never even came on.

I again called customer service. They are processing a rotund refund for the unit, and told me not to even bother sending it befriend to them. (I guess they now know that these units don’t work too well)

What a shame, because the unusual unit was unbelievable for 11 months.

Why can’t they acquire one that lasts?

Haier WDBF01W Aqua Fontana Bottom-Mount Water Dispenser

Received the item with many leaks, both internal and external, upright out of the box. Exposed electrical control board inside cabinet not a profitable thought in a water (potentially wet) environment. Connections seemed below quality standard of a food dispensing machine. Premium designate doesn’t match coarse quality compose and components. Would not recommend.

I puchased this item for my husbands christmas, to have in his office. It was probly 30days before he ever took it to his office. when he crooked it up; it leaked water. Called warranty dept. shipped serve for repairs or replacement, receive another one after haveing to pay for packaging to and fro(additional $27) and the item has the same quandary….must be peice of junk I do not reccommend.

Product: Archos 501318 List Price: No List Price Available Average customer review: Amazon Price: Too low to display Click Here To See Amazon Sale Price Add to cart to see low price@ Availability: In Stock Usually ships in 24 Hours Free Shipping Available

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I just got my new Android 5 500GB direct from Archos yesterday and its quite a beauty. I’m upgrading from my old Archos 5 250GB, so that will be my primary point of comparison. I also have the following to compare to: iPod Touch 64GB, Archos 605, Walkman X, Samsung P2, and a host of other MP3 players large and small.

Given that my iPod Touch upgrade this year was less than astounding, I pretty much figured that this upgrade for Archos would be similarly understated. Mainly I just wanted the extra hard drive so I could backup all my laptops onto my music player. I was wrong! The new Android version seems to have a whole new feel both in form factor and the new software. I had heard that Archos was having problems with the software, but they seem to have ironed most of them out as of 1.1 firmware release. I did update my firmware immediately, and the process was quite smooth.

I’m going to rate this player on my absolute scale. I will also be making notes on the value of the upgrade from my old Archos 5. Note: I mostly use this as a media center to play music and video; secondarily as a backup drive.

Let’s get to it then, these are the things I love about my new Android:

1) 500GB — totally awesome amount of disk, I can now put just about every digital file I own on the Archos.

2) Android interface — the overall feel of the software interface has definitively improved with the integration of Android. Effects are crisper, the esthetics are cleaner, things seem to happen faster. I especially like how easy it is to access the most recently played song or video from the main screen, pops up with a little thumbnail that you tap on and voila, resumes right where you left off!

3) Apps — with Android we now have access to some serious app selection. Of course, nobody compares to the Apple App Store, but this comes the closest.

4) Weight — this actually feels lighter to me than my 250GB.

5) DVR — this popped right into my old 5 DVR and started playing right away. I still think this is the best DVR/Player combination available of all the MP3 players.

6) Video/Hi Def — of the players I have owned, this has the best, biggest, and highest resolution screen.

7) Portrait/Landscape — Archos has borrowed the iPhone trick of rotating the display according to orientation. I guess they have an accelerometer in there now, I dunno. Still, its fun to see this feature on an Archos. Its a lot easier to navigate playlists in portrait mode.

Easy and regular firmware updates — with a WiFi connection, the firmware updates are easily performed on the unit itself. That’s the easiest system I’ve seen of all my players. One thing I’ve learned about Archos over the years, they will put out a steady stream of firmware updates.

9) WMV/MTP mode– very smooth interface to Windows for either Media Monkey or Windows Media Player.

10) Dedicated volume button — power and volume buttons have been conveniently located onto the top edge. This is actually much easier to use when it is docked on the DVR (which is where mine spends most of its life!).

11) Sound quality is pretty good, sounds great through my Klipsch speakers and seems to have more oomph than my other players.

12) WiFi/Browser — has a good browser and WiFi connection has worked well for me. I think the keyboard is better than the Touch’s, although Safari is probably the slightly superior browser. The bigger screen also helps for browsing. Overall I’m inclined to give the Archos the top ranking for browsers.

13) I just discovered Twidroid, one of many apps pre-loaded, allows me to check my Twitter in a really nice format — love it!

14) Portability — well there’s only so much portability that can be expected with a screen and hard drive this large. This new design is smoother and rounder so its a little more comfortable in a pocket. It is very easy to carry around as a handheld device, fits nicely in my hand as I stroll about the house trying out all of the Android Apps! In any case, this is not as portable as a Touch but I think its pretty good for a small computer — which is basically what this is.

15) No extra plug ins needed (so far!). Always in the past I’ve laid out another $40 for additional Archos plugins to play iPod format music and other video formats. So far I haven’t had to do that — thank you Archos
16) Archos will stand behind their product. I’ve had to send in a couple of Archos units over the years and they have always been happy to either repair or replace the unit without quibbling about it, as long as its under warranty. Note: it did take two weeks to get my unit back!

17) Multi threading: now I show my engineer/geek side. This baby can do a bunch of different stuff at the same time, unlike the iPhone/Touch which can really only do one thing at a time. The Android can be doing other stuff while you are listening music. I love the little bar on the top that you can pull down and switch to any other task that is running.

18) Built-in kickstand, very nice feature.

19) Stylus friendly touch screen — sometimes you just get tired of trying to type a touchscreen keyboard with fat fingers! In general, this is one of my favorite touch screens. Most of the other touch screens, including iPod/iPhone, are capacitance which means stylus won’t work

20) Micro USB cable plug-in: finally a standardized USB plug and you can have it resting on its kickstand while plugged in

Given that the Archos tops the class in several categories, and continues to be the best 500GB 5 inch screen player available I give it about a 4.7 stars out of 5 (round to 5). There are a few things I’m less than thrilled about:

1) External hard drive EXT3 — as I understand it, Archos changed to the EXT3 hard drive format for reasons of speed and reliability. The result for me is that I can no longer simply select hard drive MSC mode, plug the Archos into a Windows machine and expect to access the drive. You have to install an Ext3 driver such as EXT2 IFS on your Windows PC. Once I did that I was able to access the hard drive and backup files to my hearts content.

2) The playlist interface didn’t get much of an upgrade and its still kind of clunky. I want to simply tap my playlist and it starts playing. Often times I have to do a couple of extra taps to get the thing playing.

3) We lost the dedicated play button and removable battery a while back — but I still miss them both! None of my favorite touch screen players has either of these features. I’m also missing the brown metallic color and the rubbery backside.

4) Finding a case for this baby is no easy trick. You’re not going to find one at the local Best Buy I’m afraid. In the past I’ve resorted to ordering my Archos cases from European companies like I-nique and Noreve. This is generally true of any player that is not an iPod or a Zune.

5) As always with Archos, you must remember that you are dealing with a French based company. This means that they don’t always provide the best support/service/upgrades to us Americans.

6) Lets face it, Archos is always playing catch up. Some of the new features aren’t fully functional yet. I do have faith that Archos will fix all the little glitches with things like GPS over the course of the next 6 months. The Apps available are currently a bit limited. I expect this will improve over the coming months.

7) Keep in mind that this is not a unit for the faint of heart. This is more for the hobbyist who wants a cutting edge experience that may take some messing around to get it just the way you want it. If you want something easy that requires minimum effort then iPods are going to be more your cup of tea.

For me this is still the best player of its class — that class being large hard drive, big screen PMP players with other fun features. Android makes for some fun possibilities, and overall I’m impressed with this as an upgrade. Once again, if you don’t mind a smaller screen and you love apps I suggest you get an iPod Touch. If what you care about most is sound quality you may want to get a Walkman X. For me those are your top 3 touch screen players, it just depends on what you care about the most.

Note: 10-23-2009; I upgraded to firmware version 1.2.03 which fixes some App, Browser, and YouTube issues. Apps do seem happier now, upgrade process was very smooth. Still happily listening to tunes for about 8 hours a day with no problems

Update 11-7-2009: I’ve been running version 1.2.15 with a host of bug fixes and the unit does seem more stable in general now. Wifi is working better and USB connection seems more reliable.

This is a great device with a few minor interface issues and bugs. im not going to write a thesis on this, so ill just boil it down. just to let you know, ive previously owned an archos 604wifi and an archos av420.

the pros:

- the interface is very slick, it takes some getting used to but once you do it is great! its MUCH tighter than any apple product in the way the interface works seamlessly throughout the entire experience despite what application you are using.

- set up was very simple, streaming from either web radio, pandora, or my personal network (all via wifi) was amazing. surprisingly the battery life doesnt seem terrible either. i havent done any strenuous tests yet, but i used the device last night constantly streaming web radio via wifi, connected to bluetooth devices, and with the screen on and active while i was browsing the net a bit (looking thru applications to add) for 2 or 3 consecutive hours last night, and only seemed to use 1/3 of the battery.

- its more intelligent than previous versions, letting me know why certain files i have wont play on this during the transfer process. it offered to still let me copy them across for storage, but said i wouldnt be able to play them with the device. previously it would copy them, let me add them into the playlist, then bail-out of playback whenever it came across it, which was very annoying since i tend to make big playlists and use shuffle.

- built in fm transmitter! FINALLY! ive been waiting for them to put this into (or at least attached to) the device themselves for a long time - basically since i bought the fm receiver for the av420 /thinking/ it was a transmitter. sadly i havent figured out how to get this working just yet, but i havent had alot of time to play with it in the car (thats my after-work project today).

i havent had the chance to play with the GPS yet, but making this all inclusive like that is a great idea, i hope its executed well (however i havent heard good things about teleatlas).

the cons:

- its ALOT thicker than it appears on the web - probably dictated by hard drive size, but its basically as thick as my 604wifi. the web image was very misleading, i was expecting something much thinner.

i dont get why all the applications use the accelerometer to change orientation, but the home menu’s dont? seems like a silly oversight.

- it seems a little laggy, and its hung a number of times to the point that ive had to force-reboot it. im really hoping for a system update to fix this stability issue.

- text entry boxes are a little odd, you cant easily click and drag to highlight parts of text to delete or edit. hoping a system update fixes this.

- im pretty good with tech toys, but i have not been able to get this thing to “tether” to my phone yet. it seems to pair with phone, but my phone says there are no available services on the archos that its interested in so it never “connects”. not quite sure whats going on here.

- not a real con but since i am a previous owner it was a little hard to get used to: you cant choose to add an entire folder of songs to a playlist when creating them on the device anymore. at first i thought they were forcing me to add one song at a time, but its not as bad as that: what they do is make you enter the directory you want to add, choose any song and click to add it to the playlist from the menu. once you do it opens another small menu asking if you want to add just that track or all the tracks in that directory. its mildly annoying b/c it requires a few extra steps for something that seems really basic: they could have just let me add the directory and automated that functionality. im really hoping a system update fixes this as well.

- booting up doesnt seem to be any better than it had been on the 604 (which was noticably longer than the 420 had been). however it does have a “stand-by” mode that appears to use no battery life and boots up in seconds. not quite sure if this really is a con since they seem to have provided a solution that is great, which is why its last.

Summary:

great device, some bugs but very small and easy to overlook so far, and they should be easily fixed (hopefully quickly). im REALLY excited for this product and hope to see archos throwing its continued support behind it.

sorry, i guess that was alot longer than i hoped or expected.

I have to say that I went against my gut when purchasing this device, as it looked really nice, and really, I wanted it for watching movies, listening to music and checking the internet quickly when I am on the run in airports.

The movie portion worked really well. For that, I give this device 5 STARS…I actually downloaded movies to my Amazon Unbox, then hooked up the Archos and bam, instantly on my new Archos 5 (well, after the movie downloaded to my unbox in 1.5 hours).

The music portion also works flawlessly. Not really any hiccups there, and the sound was good, but could be better. For that, I would give it 4 stars…

SO FAR SO GOOD RIGHT?

WRONG

First, I had the reset this device 5 times in 2 days because it just plain froze up. I would get multiple error messages when I was connected to internet, dropping the connection frequently (and yeah, I’m pretty skilled at making that work). TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE.

And I don’t want to hear how a simple patch or download will fix this issue. If it doesn’t work out of the box, than DON’T SHIP IT!! I’ve been reading that apparently, Archos is getting slammed with this stuff after only a week.

FOR THAT, it gets 1 STAR and should get ZERO stars!!

Second, the Appslib was never installed on this device. I called customer service, was talking to someone in 5 minutes, who then put me on hold for 45 MINUTES!! After 45 minutes (I only stayed on hold that long cause I was watching NFL game so I had nothing else to really attend to at the time), the phone rang for 10 more minutes, and then, line went dead. PATHETIC!!!!

I am reading that some software update added actually might have been the reason for the Appslib to never appear, and if you look at Amazon site, they pulled the 160GB version.

For that, I give it NEGATIVE STARS…TERRIBLE service and TERRIBLE that this device did not come preloaded as advertised.

I am sending it back and will use my Toshiba Netbook to watch movies on the plane rides for now. I’m really disappointed. The device itself was really nice and sleek looking. The interface was nice.

The resistive keyboard was kind of annoying as it took a pretty good finger press to make it respond, but worked well enough. I learned to type pretty well on it in 2 days.

I’m ANNOYED!!!

I would have bought the ZuneHD but the screen is too small for movies, as well as the Ipod touch..

I’m now considering the Viliv ex70 as I’ve heard great things and it’s gotten favorable reviews.

I’ve read Archos history but wanted this device to work…The Android platform has a lot of potential and anything google touches pretty much works as advertised.

Now, I’ll have to shop around a little.

I can tell you one thing…unless people start giving this device 4-5 stars when the bugs are worked out, I’ll never buy another thing from this company.

EDIT TO REVIEW:

I have downloaded a new firmware update and the device is no longer needing to be reset constantly. It also does not lag any longer and seems a little more snappy and responsive. I’m going to hold on to it for now and see how this plays out over the next 3 weeks. I’m actually flying to CA for a sales meeting next week and so it’ll be tested well. If I find it is just needing more debugging it’s going back and I’ll also update again.

I have 2 movies that I just loaded to it from Unbox. Wolverine and The Dark Knight…Both look very good, although I’d love to get my hands on a HD version of these movies to push to the device.

I’m nervous, however, to buy the HD plugin because I’ve read somewhere that it does not work or does not read that you have purchased it.

One last thing:

I also just read now that on the Viliv you can actually run Windows 7. It has a camera, and if that is the case, you can snap photos and then ink on them which I do when I’m on job sites taking photos and marking up buildings and plans. That seems practical to me. However, it’s expensive (around $800-$900) and this device would be GREAT if these bugs go away.

Let me also so, GET THE 32GB NOT THE 160GB model. The 32GB runs SSD and it very snappy. It’s also half the weight and thin.

I’d say it’s as thin as my wife’s iphone and as heavy as holding a large starbucks coffee. It’s light and thin.

I have yet to try the GPS software but plan on downloading it from the disk provided to get the 7 day trial out of it. I’d LOVE that to work. Has a lot of potential when the 3D maps are available for the US in 2nd quarter of 2010.

BEWARE, not matter how much you want something…BEWARE

UPDATE #2: Done with it. It is going back NOW. I did the firmware update and it did NOTHING to help this machine. At first it appeared to make the system work faster, but then, it has frozen up 2 more times. Furthermore, I tried to install the GPS 7 day trial using the disk and the device again froze up. Sorry, but I cannot believe that these people would let these go out the door KNOWING it has issues. How the hell can they NOT know? If everyone here but one person has given this thing pretty poor marks, are they only using fully functional and perfectly tested devices?

Literally, look at the reviews and you will see what I am talking about. It’s amazing to me that a company would do this. Yes, large companies have devices that periodically are returned defective. But at the rate that these people are getting complaints, you have to wonder how this could go on for the period of time that it has.

So, Archos will never get another dime from me, unless of course they come out with a fully functional non brick like device that people are raving about. I believe my next device will be a Viliv. I have read review after review on those devices and they are almost all positive. The machines perform the way they were intended to, unlike this one.

And it’s too bad…this is such a nice looking and feeling device. The screen is nice, it feels really easy to use in the hand…It’s a shame it just does not perform.

Product: Olympian 57331 List Price: No List Price Available Average customer review: Amazon Price: Too low to display Click Here To See Amazon Sale Price Add to cart to see low price@ Availability: In Stock Usually ships in 24 Hours Free Shipping Available

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My little travel trailer came without an LP Furnace. I originally thought this would be a huge drawback and prevent me from dry camping…until I discovered the Olympian Wave 3! What a fantastic little unit! It’s every bit as powerful as a forced air 12000BTU LP furnace, however it has some big advantages– 1. it’s completely silent. No loud blower motors to wake you up every time they turn on; 2. it doesn’t require any battery power (an LP furnace won’t run if your battery dies); 3. it’s smaller, lighter, and portable than an LP furnace; and 4. With a hose and leg accessories, you can move the heater around to wherever you need it.

The only disadvantage is that there’s no thermostat control– you only have two heat settings (low and high) that stay on as long as the unit is on. But since it’s more consistent radiant heat, once it warms the interior, you can maintain a consistent temp inside by just adjusting your windows or roof vent.

Unlike cheaper catalytic heaters such as the “buddy” series or the Coleman “cats”, this one uses much less LP per hour (since it uses low pressure LP rather than high). It also works in higher elevations (where the others can’t operate above 5000 feet or so).

Highly recommended product that will last you for years!

A great little heater. I use mine in my small travel trailer. It heats the interior well. Front grid gets hot but if it is well placed it is not a problem. Note warning about hypoxia. The heater will not produce carbon monoxide but will use up all the oxygen in an enclosed place. Follow directions for use and there will be no problem. Product is very well made and undoubtedly will provide years of trouble free service. Miserly with propane.

This heater keeps the furnace from coming on all night and works great. Just keep your windows cracked a little and enjoy the warmth.

Product: Garmin c330 Refurbished List Price: $449.99 Average customer review: Amazon Price: Too low to display Click Here To See Amazon Sale Price Add to cart to see low price@ Availability: In Stock Usually ships in 24 Hours Free Shipping Available

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UPDATE:

Below is my review which a lot of people found useful. So, i want to write this udpate. Now, get the C340 & not the C330. the biggest difference is C340 spells street name out like turn left on main st, take 95S etc. It MAKES A BIG DIFF FOR ANOTHER $50 !!!

AND GET THIS MOUNT, IT IS FANTASTIC:

Garmin Dashboard Mount for StreetPilot c320, c330 and c340

===============================================================

I have used Navman ICN 630, Megallen RM 700 & finally this one.

I can tell you this is the best & most of all easiest. This is why this unit is the best:

1. No downloading of Maps

2. Has most udpated Maps compared to other brands

3. Has 5 million points of interest compared to others

4. Touchscreen

5. Easiest of all to use. Easier than the Acura GPS i have used.

6. Very small but with most usable screen view. It doesn’t take a lot of winshield space, doesn;t block visibility. Though screen is small, letters are SO BIG & EASY TO READ.

7. Very fast software

8. Very easy to carry while traveling.

9. Excellent windshield mount. Very stable

10. It comes on when Car is turned on.

11. It has rechargeable battery which lasts for about 3 hrs i think.

12. Loud/clear voice.

13. Very intuitive operating system.

14. Fixes the GPS signal instantly. Navman used to take longer.

15. This is interesting. You can remove the unti without unplugging the car DC cord. DC cord is connected to mount always.

The Garmin C330 is a well designed, easy to use GPS. It does not offer all the bells and whistles of the Garmin 2620 or Magellan RM700, for example - but the C330 offers simplicity and quality in a nice neat package. The advantages of the C330:

- The display is awesome - high resolution with good contrast.

- No buttons! Everything, except volume and power, is controlled by the touch screen.

- The software is fast; route calculations take just a few seconds.

- After the initial lock, this little unit locks on very quickly after powering up.

- The internal battery is terrific; you can do your route planning indoors without looking for an AC receptacle, and you can leave the unit on during a rest stop on your trip to preserve trip data. Battery life is 3 to 4 hours.

- The OS is super intuitive.

- The 3D view is simple to follow, but the map view is excellent, also.

- Navigation performance is excellent.

- Speakers are built in, with excellent sound quality.

- Windshield mount is small, sturdy and simple.

- The unit is small enough that it won’t obstruct your view.

- The power cord is hardwired to the windshield mount - no plug to contend with.

A few disadvantages I’ve noticed:

- The battery is not user replaceable

- The C330 cannot save a route. But this is not a big deal. When you start up after a stop, you just have it calculate the route to your destination, which takes just seconds - or just leave it on if your stop doesn’t exceed 3 to 4 hours.

- The display can get washed out in direct light on a bright day - but I expect that is common to all GPS units.

- As I mentioned, it doesn’t have the bells and whitles of the 2630 or RM 700. For example, you can’t monitor satellite signal strength from indiviual satellites. you can’t determinen your lat/long position, and as I mentioned, you can’t save routes in the C330. And you can’t program it for several different users like you can with the RM700.

But all in all, the C330 is a winner. It’s simple to operate, well designed, very effective, and reasonably priced. It’s a strong buy!

This is my first Navi ever, but I’m no stranger to it, I just never owned one till now. For the features I was looking for, I narrowed my options to The Garmin 2620, Garmin C330, and Megellan 700. Needless to say the C330 was my pick.

I painstakingly reviewed these (3) GPS items and read every review and feedback I could find, then I comb the manufacturers websites for all specs and features,updates yaddy yadda, then I made a few trips to the store to get some hands on experience and feel of the products.

The C330 has a refreshing out of box experience. It can be fired up right away to begin use. I did not need to read the manual to start using it, the idiot proof interface makes it very easy to learn, which is a plus because my wife can use it when I’m doing the driving. The models that I also considered provided a little more features than the C330, But they did not have an internal power source. Memory-wise, the C330 has a 2 GIG micro drive, which is quite adequate for all the US maps and any updates etc.

Personally, my heart was set on the Magellan 700, but the cost and the fact that it only had 2 million POI (Points of Interest) compared to Garmin 5 million POI, turned me away from it. Of the (3) items I considered, the C330 is the only one that has a 100% touch screen interface and the smallest size so that it can be mounted/stored anywhere. GPSs’ are not getting any bigger, with today’s designers using micro/flash memory technology, our units will become more inconspicuous.The C330 can be a little difficult to see in the Sunlight, but not too bad. The Megellan 700 and the Garmin 2620 does have a port for an external antenna as well as the C330, which can be had for about $20 from a third party source.

The manual is very easy to read and colorful, but I found that it was not in-depth, some things I had to call Garmin to clarify. I was curious about the internal battery, that only they can change. It would cost $125 just to send the unit in if it needed work outside of the warranty period…..hopefully the battery will last about five years when I’m ready to upgrade.

Garmin updated maps usually comes out every 10-14 months so one is due out any time now. and it would cost me $75 to update the maps if I so desire. If you plan to get one and you get it on or after the new maps release date, the upgrade would be free.

I’m very please with the touch screen response and the layout out the maps, the list of Hotels, restaurants etc. all w/ phone numbers too. the volume is great, as long as you’re not do 80MPH w/ your windows down. It recognizes dirt roads also - provided that the roads all existed before 2004 (the last map release date).

I will not be redundant and mention all the other points that the previous reviews mention, but for the most part the (3-4) reviews before mine were accurate and very helpful.

The C330 does not display your elevation, which is a minus, it’s nice to know when driving in the mountains.

This unit has its share of nuggets to find that will just leave you in amazement. If I had to choose all over again I’ll still get the C330.

Buyers beware, If you purchase the more expensive model (c330) it comes preloaded with all the maps so there is no need to be transferring data back and forth, but you DO NOT get the software on City Select CD ROM. If you opt for the cheaper version (C320) you will get the City Select CD, because the entire map can’t fit on that unit..you’ll have to transfer data via memory card.

I’ve also noticed that unless you are looking directly perpendicular to the screen, the colors don’t show correctly, in other words if you are the driver or passenger and you look at the screen at an angle, it will be still visible but the colors tend to wash out, sort of like with a laptop if the screen is not tilted right.

My experience with Tech support is fair. The wait time is a little lengthy, but once one the phone, they don’t try to rush you through your questions to get you off the phone. I was helped adequately with all my questions.

A great advantage is the mounting flexibility, any area of the windshield, the dashboard or console (comes w/base mount) or as a handheld providing the internal battery doesn’t quit. Icons, splash screens and markers can by customerized via the Garmin software on their website. the images can be transported back and forth from the unit as BMP files and edited.

There are three ways to view the map

1) Bird’s eye view with the map always facing north and the arrow/cursor moves as you drive.

2) Bird’s eye view with the arrow remains still and the map moves around as you drive

3) “3D” mode. Where the view is the same as you would see out of your windshield except it’s slightly elevated so you can see a wider angle and detect streets about a block away an all three sides of you.

The unit automatically detects your speed and zooms out when you’re driving fast and zooms in when you’re moving slow, so you’re never over/under driving the map. The receiver is very good in my opinion, sometimes (depend on what part of the house I am) I get a good signal indoors. I have my C330 mounted above my rearview mirror in my vehicle (barely got it to fit) so it does NOT have a clear view of the sky and if it did, the factory tint in the windshield would also block it…yet I get a good signal. Mounting it on the middle of my windshield yield the best results and start up time, but I chose to mount it above my rearview mirror to eliminate any sunlight glare from hitting the screen and it’s working great.

To respond to previous reviewers comments…. It was pointed out that Garmin should’ve added a feature where you can see an Icon or marker that indicated the locations of all the POI nearby as you drive by them. Well I’ve found a way to do it, although it’s not noted in Garmin’s sub-par manual. All you have to do is go to [Menu - Where To - Show Map] and you’ll see all the attractions, lodging, eating, gas etc. locations on the road/area that you’re currently on.

Another thing that’s not mentioned on the manual. Lets say you’re somewhere and you don’t know the address, but you want to save and revisit that location. Go to [Menu - Where TO - Show Map - Info - Save]

Product: Kenroy Home 53200PLBZ List Price: No List Price Available Average customer review: Amazon Price: Too low to display Click Here To See Amazon Sale Price Add to cart to see low price@ Availability: In Stock Usually ships in 24 Hours Free Shipping Available

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We absolutely love our new Costa Brava Fountain. It was well worth the wait until it was available.

Product: Garmin Nuvi 260W Mexico List Price: $426.66 Average customer review: Amazon Price: Too low to display Click Here To See Amazon Sale Price Add to cart to see low price@ Availability: In Stock Usually ships in 24 Hours Free Shipping Available

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This Garmin GPS was my choice as I live in Mexico and need a GPS for navigating in urban areas. I have had it for nine months.

1. The Mexico maps are about 85% accurate in the major cities. They attempt sometimes to send you the wrong way down one-way streets, and give confusing directions at traffic circles. Some streets do not appear on the maps, and names are sometimes misspelled. In addition, Mexican street names are often combinations of words, but the Garmin cannot determine what street you want, even for major streets. Nevertheless, in confusing Mexican cities with heavy traffic, it is an enormous help, and will deliver you close to where you want to go. In general, in major cities the Garmin GPS can get you within 2 or 3 blocks of any address, and one block of most.

2. Between the cities, the maps are far less accurate and omit some major four-lane routes (e.g., MX145). Detail falls off rapidly outside any major city. Thus, while the GPS can substitute for the Guia Roji street atlas of a major city, it cannot substitute for the Guia Roji road atlas of Mexico.

In sum, the Garmin GPS with Mexico map is worth buying for navigation in major cities, but cannot be trusted for navigation between them.

The Garmin 260W also has difficulty finding the satellites, with no obstacles, and at 20 degrees north latitude where the satellites are almost directly overhead. At times the Garmin takes 3 resets and up to 30 minutes to find the satellites. There is no predictability to this.

Perhaps a better Mexico map will be forthcoming at some point. If combined with a GPS that can find the satellites reliably, it would be a better option.

I bought this thinking it would not be able to find where I used to live in Texcoco and where my wife’s parents live in a small neighborhood in Cuautitlan Izcalli both just miles outside of Mexico City. I typed in the address of my in laws’ house and it found it right away - I was truly amazed. This thing will be great to get around Mexico City - if you have ever driven there you know it’s hard to get to know the city and where you are. I only had a few routes memorized and had gotten lost a few times - the roadsigns arent very helpful there and the road system is confusing, so I think this is a godsend for me.

The only complaint I have is that it seems it randomly puts things in your favorites list with names like 002. I don’t think I’m hitting the wrong buttons, but its kind of whacky like that.

I don’t know a lot about GPS’s, but i really don’t like that the thing takes it’s time to start up, to acquire whatever it needs. What I do like is that it’s accurate, knows it’s was around town and has a sexy voice. Other than that, I’ve played with it a little and it hasn’t messed up on me, or frozen or crashed. I like that you can scroll around the U.S. and take a look at maps just for kicks. This model has the maps for Mexico too, so live it up! I really liked the price too. Not a five-starer because it takes one ore two whole minutes to start up, other than that, awesome.