• Innovative, ultra-compact design
• Easy to use
• Unique features for browsing songs

• No display
• Won't be comfortable for all users

There's more than one way to make a wireless MP3 player, and building it directly into a set of headphones may seem like the easy way out, but it gets the job done. Plus, there are none of those audio-fidelity issues you might run into with technologies such as RF and Bluetooth, which is probably why Sony elected to take this route with its new W-series Walkman. This 2GB MP3 player is built into a set of impressively small ear bud-style headphones and sports a palatable price tag of just AU$119.

Design

We've got to give props to Sony for the design of the W-series Walkman, which is available in a plethora of colours: black, pink, white, violent lime green and Ribena purple. Two rectangular audio modules - each measuring roughly 2 inches long by 0.8 inch wide and 0.4 inch deep - attach to one another via a flexible, twisting neckband. It's the smallest all-in-one MP3 player/headphone we've ever seen and it's impressively lightweight as well at just 35 grams. Of course, with any such device made specifically for active pursuits, a secure fit is a chief concern. Luckily, the W-series Walkman is up for the task: we tested the player walking, jogging and doing jumping jacks, and found it quite capable of staying in place during all of these activities. Still, comfort is somewhat of a concern - the fact that the ear buds are integrated will no doubt cause issues for some, despite Sony's inclusion of three sizes of silicone ear tips.

As might be expected, the W-series Walkman's interface is rather untraditional. Naturally, there's no screen - it would be rather difficult to view one on a device that's attached to your ears. Music plays straight through in alphanumeric order by default, or you can activate the shuffle switch on the inside of the right earpiece to randomise playback. The bottom edge of the right module contains the remainder of the controls: a volume rocker and a jog dial. Swiping the dial forward or backward serves to cycle through tracks.

Features

The W-series Walkman is predictably light on extras, but Sony does integrate a few unique and useful features. The first is something called Zappin, which lets you browse through tracks by ear by playing a snippet of the chorus of each song. You can choose between long (10 seconds) and short (four seconds) settings for this mode. If you come across a song you want to hear, a press of the jog button will start it from the beginning. The player also offers a quick-charge feature that will give you 90 minutes of playback from a three-minute charge - particularly handy for a fitness-friendly player. And the package includes a sticky-bottomed stand/docking station for charging the device and transferring songs via mini-USB. Finally, each earpiece is magnetised; so when you stick them together, the player automatically powers down.

Unsurprisingly, the W-series Walkman is an audio-only device; it can play back MP3, AAC (unprotected only) and WMA (subscription included) files. Although a playlist section showed up under the player when we connected it to our PC, there is no indication by Sony that the device can support anything resembling a playlist. This would be a welcome feature, considering the sporty applications. Another gym-friendly extra that would have been nice is an FM tuner, though we can certainly understand excluding one in such a compact device. The small size of the player also excuses the rather unimpressive 12-hour rated battery life.

Performance

As for the straight-up digital-audio playback, overall audio quality will depend at least somewhat on how the headphones fit. The deeper the ear buds go and the better the seal, the deeper the bass response will be. For our part, we had to hold them in to really hear what the W-series could offer on the low-end - and what it offers is more than adequate. Regardless of fit, you can expect clear-sounding audio with no distortion or background hiss. Also, the ear buds aren't the best at blocking outside noise, but this is a good thing if you're going to be jogging outdoors. The player's volume gets plenty loud, though, if you want to drown out the hum of gym equipment.

Conclusion

The Sony W-series Walkman is a great option for active users who want an all-in-one music device to use while working out, although we'd hassle the salesperson for a try-on demonstration first, just in case.

• Sony NWZ-A826KB Walkman
• Sony W-series Walkman: Wearable and wireless
• Sony Walkman X-series (16GB) NWZ-X1050
• Sony NWZ-A728 Walkman (8GB)

• Compact design
• Ability to answer calls with your voice
• Multipoint technology
• A2DP stereo Bluetooth
• Automatic reconnect
• Very good call quality

• Won't replace your car stereo speakers in terms of audio quality
• Volume rocker is a bit stiff
• Won't read incoming caller ID like the Supertooth 3

BlueAnt has quietly made a name for itself as a maker of quality Bluetooth products, especially ones with voice control. The BlueAnt V1 was the first headset with a voice control interface, and the BlueAnt Q1 carried over that feature. One of its most popular products, the Supertooth 3 speakerphone, also has advanced voice recognition software that lets you handle calls with just your voice. Now BlueAnt has released the BlueAnt S1, which is a slightly lower-end version of the Supertooth 3 - it doesn't have the ability to read out caller ID - but BlueAnt has wisely added multipoint technology plus stereo A2DP compatibility on top of the already excellent voice command features. Perhaps the best part of it is that it's quite affordable at only AU$109 at retail.

The BlueAnt S1 has a very different design compared with the Supertooth series of speakerphones. It's a lot curvier and more compact, measuring 4.7 inches long by 2.4 inches wide by 0.6 inch thick. On the front of it are a round speaker on the left and the BlueAnt logo on the right. Between the two is a tiny indicator light, and the microphone is on the upper right corner. On the back of the S1 is a slot for the clip, which you can then attach to your car's visor. Of course, when mounting the S1 to your visor, clip it so that the microphone and buttons are facing toward you.

All of the S1's controls are located on top, in the form of protruding buttons. The green or leftmost button is the multifunction button, and is used for toggling the S1's power, pairing, answering calls, voice dialling, redialling, and transferring audio. The red or rightmost button ends and rejects calls, and the volume rocker is in between the two. We found the volume rocker rather stiff to push, but the other two buttons have a nice give when pressed.

We paired the BlueAnt S1 with the Apple iPhone 3G and the LG LX370. Unlike the Supertooth 3, the pairing process isn't voice-guided. But that's OK, as it's not difficult; it automatically goes into pairing mode when you first power it on. To go into pairing mode manually, just hold down the green button when its power is off until the light indicator glows red and blue.

The S1 doesn't have the text-to-speech feature of the Supertooth 3, so it won't read out incoming caller ID. However, instead of that, you get multipoint technology that lets you connect up to two different phones at the same time. The S1 will be smart enough to receive the incoming call of whichever phone that rings first. The first phone to be used on the S1 will be designated as the primary phone, though you can swap the primary and secondary phones by pressing the red button for five seconds. All calls made with the S1 will be done via the primary phone. We tried this out with both the iPhone 3G and the LG LX370, and it worked beautifully.

Another nice touch to the BlueAnt S1 is the addition of A2DP stereo Bluetooth compatibility. This way we could stream the music on our phones to the S1, which was especially handy with our iPhone 3G with the latest OS 3.0 firmware that added stereo Bluetooth support. The sound quality is a bit tame and probably won't be as good as your car's stereo speakers, but it's a decent option if your car doesn't have an iPod or music player adapter.

Like the Supertooth 3, you can use your voice to answer calls. Simply say "Answer", "OK", "Accept" or "Accept Call" to answer an incoming call. You can only do so if you've turned the voice answer feature on - you enable this by holding down the Volume increase button for five seconds. To disable it, hold down the Volume decrease button for five seconds. When the voice answer feature is enabled, you'll hear an additional beep whenever there's an incoming call. The BlueAnt S1 will also work with the voice dialling feature on your phone if your phone supports it. But do note that you have to press the red end/reject key to end calls, even with the voice feature enabled.

Other features of the BlueAnt S1 include the ability to pair up to eight devices, last number redial, the ability to transfer calls from the phone to the speakerphone and vice versa, and automatic reconnection. The latter means that the S1, if powered on, will automatically search for your phone and reconnect when you bring the phone back in range.

As far as call quality goes, we were quite impressed overall. Callers could hear us over the din of engine noise with hardly any distortion. They even said our voice sounded smooth and natural, without the typical harshness of most speakerphones. On our end, we heard callers loud and clear as well.

The BlueAnt S1 has up to 15 hours talk time and a standby time of 33.3 days. It comes with an AC adapter wall charger.

• BlueAnt Supertooth 3
• Jabra SP5050
• Cygnett GrooveTooth Talk
• Motorola MOTOROKR EQ5 Portable Wireless Speaker

• Small, sleek design
• HD video
• Optical viewfinder
• Good implementation of automatic mode and scene selection
• Did we mention it's gorgeous?

• Scratches and marks easily
• No wide-angle lens
• Relatively small 3x optical zoom

Design

Take note, camera buyers - this snapper is not for the faint of heart, the wallflower or the shy retiring type. As with many of the other cameras in Canon's IXUS range, the 100 IS boasts good looks, a compact form factor and sleek design. This is a camera that will turn heads, and it's pretty much the only camera we've toted around with us that has without fail elicited a continuous "ooh, pretty" response from people. It's hard to find anyone who doesn't find this look and feel appealing. Size wise, imagine a credit card but a little bit thicker, around 1.8cm, and you're on the way to understanding how diminutive this body is. So it's definitely the epitome of a pocket-sized camera, with its slim profile and weighing 115g.

The buttons can be slightly hard to see in dim lighting because they're just so sexy. No, really, they are a little bit dark. But also sexy. (Credit: Canon)

A small viewfinder (well actually, a tiny one) is nestled at the top of the 2.5-inch, 230,000-dot LCD screen and we applaud Canon for managing to squish one in despite of the tiny size of the camera. The button configuration is standard IXUS fare, with a very small switch used to flick between automatic, program and movie mode. Playback is relegated to a dedicated button beside the switch. The buttons are rather lovely, sitting flush with the camera body, but the text on them is rather dull and dark, which could make night-time usage difficult (note that our review unit was the black model - this may not be so much of an issue with the other coloured models).

Also at the back is a slightly fiddly output arrangement with the AV and HDMI interfaces covered by a small flap. The camera is serviced by a Lithium-ion battery that slots in underneath, next to the SD card.

As striking as its looks might be, the 100 IS suffers from a severe case of scratching. No, not the pork variety, but the actual marks and blemishes that appear as part of everyday wear and tear. Due to the brushed exterior, we found that within a few days of normal use it had developed quite the battle scars.

Features

The main talking point that Canon has included on a lot of the other compacts in its 2009 range is HD video, at 720p. The 100 IS is no different in that respect, though as we've discovered with other incarnations of the IXUS range, the implementation of HD video is fully automated - no manual control here. So too are the rest of the options available to you in program mode - no selection of aperture or shutter speed. Scene modes, white balance, ISO selection and metering are the only real things you get to determine in this mode.

Things start to get a little more interesting when you flick the switch into automatic mode as the 100 IS will choose the right scene mode for you depending on the subject. And, while we're still adamant that blink detection is a fairly useless feature unless the camera is able to automatically take another photo if a subject has blinked, it actually does work, displaying a little warning in the corner of your screen - provided you turn the feature on.

The rest of the features are a little pick and mix - there's no wide-angle lens (for that you'll have to fork out for the 110 IS) nor is there an extended optical zoom like in the 990 IS. Instead you'll have to make do with only 3x and, as is the case with all the other Canon compacts, there is no ability to use the optical zoom during filming. Also note that the video file is in .mov.

Lens aperture is restricted somewhat to f/3.2 at the widest end; slightly disappointing considering its predecessor, the IXUS 85 IS, had a maximum aperture of f/2.8.

Performance and image quality

The IXUS 100 IS performs quite well considering it's probably meant to be more of a stylish camera than a speed demon. It starts up in less than one second and auto focuses incredibly fast in adequate light. As for battery life, Canon states that with the LCD monitor turned on, the 100 IS will be able to take 210 shots before the battery is drained.

Thanks to the viewfinder at the top you may even be able to draw out a couple more shots than this in general usage by turning the display off - even if you do have to squint and look rather eccentric whilst doing so.

The photos that the 100 IS delivers are full of that punchy and bright colour that you'd expect from an IXUS compact. Images were relatively sharp from corner to corner though there was a little fallout at full magnification as you reached the edge of the frame. Barrel distortion was rather prominent though, and considering the lens isn't exactly wide this was a little concerning. That said, it's not something you would notice in everyday use, and only really exhibited itself in a controlled environment.

Click image to enlarge (Credit: CBSi)

Noise was relatively well controlled thanks to the Digic 4 image processor, and on par with what we've seen from the other Canon compacts from this 2009 range. It performed better in controlling noise than the recently tested Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS15.

A really nice touch in playback mode is the transition effects as you flick through shots, almost like you're fanning out photo prints. It's nothing major, but makes the whole experience quite nice indeed.

Conclusion

The IXUS 100 IS manages to pair a sleek and sexy chassis with a very competent image-taking base and HD recording. If only it had a wide-angle lens and a slightly longer zoom it would easily win an Editors' Choice award. That said, for a price of AU$449 you probably won't be disappointed with the functionality and style on offer here.

• Canon IXUS 95 IS
• Which IXUS? Choosing the right Canon ultra-compact camera
• Canon Digital IXUS 80 IS
• Canon Digital IXUS 70

Will the GFC storm clouds rain on Fisker's plug-in dreams?
(Credit: Fisker)

Fisker gained fame as an automotive designer for BMW, where he came up with the stunning Z8, and with Aston Martin, designing the DB9 and Vantage. This background explains the very slinky looks of the four-door Karma.

But starting up a car company is no easy task, and Fisker says it wouldn't have been possible 10 years ago. And not only are the troubles of current major automakers creating an opening, but the pressing need to reduce our reliance on oil is allowing a new era of automotive innovation.

The big automakers have an infrastructure that would be very hard to build up without huge amounts of capital, so Fisker Automotive went about designing the Karma by looking for pre-existing parts. Early on, the company partnered with Southern California-based Quantum Technologies, which had already built a series hybrid concept for the military.

This hybrid system, called Q-Drive, uses two motors located in the rear-wheels, a Lithium-ion battery pack that runs longitudinally down the centre of the car, and a petrol engine as a range extender under the bonnet. The Q-Drive can produce almost 300kW has already undergone significant testing by Quantum Technologies.

Fisker Automotive isn't building the engine, either, instead purchasing it from GM. It's a turbocharged four-cylinder currently being used in the high-performance version of Pontiac's soon-to-die Solstice roadster. The battery pack will come from Enerdel, and the Karma will be built on a contract basis by the Finnish company Valmet. Having another company actually build the cars might seem questionable, but Valmet already proved itself as a contract builder with the Porsche Boxster and Cayman.

The Karma is supposed to go 80km on electric power only, after which the engine will kick in to power the electric motor. The driver will be able to choose between stealth and sport modes, as Fisker calls them, with the latter capable of propelling the Karma from 0 to 96km/h (60mph) in under six seconds. Fisker pointed out that the powertrain is currently being tested around the company's Irvine, California headquarters in ute mules.

A solar roof will come standard in the vehicle, which, in a sunny climate, adds about 12 kilometres per week of drive time. Cabin technology in the Karma is controlled with a 10.5-inch touchscreen with haptic feedback.

The Karma will be offered in three trims, dubbed Eco Standard, Eco Sport, and Eco Chic, ranging from US$80,400 (AU$101,000) to US$98,900 (AU$123,000), after a US$7500 plug-in hybrid tax credit. The Eco Chic model does away with leather seats that are standard in the other models in favour of vegetarian-friendly materials and salvaged wood.

Fisker also said the company is working on a new model, with the idea that it would be an affordable mass-market car, but still using the Q-Drive plug-in hybrid system.

• Finland chosen to make Karma
• Toyota and Ford plug in their hybrids
• Production Chevy Volt plug-in hybrid kicks off birthday party
• Photos: Fisker Karma

Upside

From a distance there are loads to love about this new HTC Android-powered smartphone. HTC's previous Android, the Magic, was a fantastic phone in its own right, but with a few notable shortcomings: namely multimedia and storage.

The Hero should handle media better than the Magic, with early reports confirming the Hero will be capable of playing back MP4, H.264, H.263 and WMV video files, plus MP3, AAC and WMA audio files. It also includes a built-in 3.5mm headphone jack, which we sorely missed from the Magic.

The new additions go far further than media file codecs though. HTC will pre-install a new, unique user interface layered over the Android platform called Sense UI. People familiar with HTC's Windows Mobile TouchFlo 3D interface will see the similarities immediately, but the focus in Sense UI is on home screen widgets. At its launch event, HTC showcased a wide selection of widgets including weather, clocks and calendars. Widgets are the Android's major advantage over the iPhone, showcasing the lengths of customisation open to users of this platform. For a closer look at Sense UI check out the hands-on photo gallery from our friends at CNET UK.

Downside

Both of HTC's Android phones so far have had a gentle lip at the base of the handset, a subtle chin pointing the mic towards your mouth. Living up to its name the Hero has a superhero-sized chin, a huge Superman-like extension. We don't want to seem shallow, but it might be a little too extreme for many conservative phone users.

While HTC has ironed out most of our media woes from the Magic, the lack of internal storage is going to rub many media-lovers the wrong way. Compared to the iPhone and N97's 32GB of storage, and Samsung's Galaxy's 8GB of memory, HTC had better not forget to slip a microSD card in the box with the handset.

Overall

In the words of a great Australian, "I'm excited!". The Hero looks like an impressive touchscreen, especially with its screen lit and HTC's Sense UI on display. We loved tinkering with the Magic, customising the interface with the widgets available on the Android Market, and seeing HTC take this to the next level is fantastic. Look out for more news around the Hero's release in August.

• HTC Hero hands-on: Photos
• HTC Magic
• New HTC Android leaked
• June launch for HTC Magic in Australia, NZ

A search for "cnet" on Cooliris(Screenshot by CNET Australia)

Some of you may already be familiar with the Cooliris add-on for FireFox, IE and Safari desktop browsers. In short, Cooliris searches image sites, like Google Images or Flickr, and returns results to your search in rows of images in a faux 3D space. You can scroll along the rows of images with a finger-swipe or by tilting the iPhone and letting the accelerometer do the rest. Once you find an image you want to know more about, you can select it to zoom in, or click the link to be taken to the original web page without leaving the app.

Ultimately, this will sound like just another way to browse the same boring internet, but the beauty of Cooliris is in the speed it renders the pictures. The images render almost as quickly as you can scroll to them (we did see a noticeable difference in performance using a 3GS handset) and zooming in and out of a photo is as smooth as you'd expect it to be on the iPhone.

As well as being able to search a preset number of image sites, Cooliris can also display the photos saved on your iPhone in this sexy screen space, search YouTube for videos and collect info from your favourite RSS feeds too. Depending on the kind of information you're looking for, Cooliris may not be the most efficient way to browse your bookmarks, but viewing the internet visually is a fascinating new perspective on an activity most of us do for hours each day.

If you want to test out Cooliris you can grab it from the applications section on iTunes. If you use a compatible desktop web browser, you can install the add-on from the Cooliris website.

• Palm Pre
• Apple iPhone 3G (16GB)
• iPhone 3GS (32GB)
• Samsung Jet

• Slick NAS admin UI
• Highly featured
• SMS alert support
• High transfer speeds

• Cheap display on the NAS
• "Stations" need to be overhauled

Design

QNAP's TS-509 Pro, like most NAS units, is a big box. In this case, it's a gun-metal grey chassis with a black plastic fascia. A silver power button, activity lights for hard drive, USB and network access are on the front, with a USB port and a programmable quick copy button situated at the bottom. Five lockable, quick load hard drive caddies are included, with grilles at the front for airflow.

A status screen is featured at the top; however, it only turns on when you press a button. The display lags and ghosts heavily, indicating its cheapness - it's certainly not as easily laid out or informative as the ReadyNAS Pro's screen, but by and large does the job. By default it displays the NAS unit's name and IP addresses. A configuration menu can also be entered, under which TCP/IP settings can be viewed and configured, and disk, volume, temperature and fan rpm stats can also be viewed.

On the rear, two gigabit Ethernet ports are supplied which support load balancing/failover, four USB ports and an eSATA port. The latter should be extremely useful for quickly dumping files to disk, should you have an eSATA external drive lying around. There is also a serial port on the rear, and interestingly a DB9 port for which its purpose is only listed as "reserved", usually meaning it has some sort of internal testing purpose.

Features

Our TS-509 Pro arrived with version 2.1 of its firmware installed - a powerful but somewhat dull interface. We updated to version 3.1, and wow, what a difference! QNAP seems intent on not only challenging Synology, but beating them in the AJAX stakes, with a flashy and attractive menu system now in place and making it easy to use.

The web interface starts on a basic menu selection screen that "borrows" from Apple's Cover Flow, acting as a gateway into the NAS administration page, web server administration, web-based file management and providing links to customer service, the QNAP wiki and QNAP forum. While it looks fancy, it slows down the entry to the administration menu by adding a needless step and all options are present on the NAS administration page anyway.

The initial web UI home page provides quick links to commonly used tasks - creating a user, group or shared folder; FTP administration and backup scheduling options. A nice touch is the news panel down the bottom, which tells you not only when new firmware or utilities have been released, but when third-party extras have been as well. Annoyingly, the latter are linked to QNAP's forums, of which you have to register to be able to see. Ultimately this is of benefit though, as the forums are well populated and QNAP representatives appear to be quick to respond to users' queries.

Configuration options are otherwise provided on the left in a typical tree view, the right side acting as an information pane, making it easy to find anything you need. This is important, since as a NAS it's heavily featured and managing those features can be a nightmare without a good interface.

On the networking side, the QNAP supports whitelist/blacklist access through either IP or domain, can block IPs based on failed log-ins, supports SSL certificates, offers CIFS/AFP/NFS protocols, UPnP discovery, wake on LAN, dynamic DNS server support and allows email alerts as well as SMS alerts - although for the latter you'll need to point it towards your own provider, and often this service is not free.

System options include fan configuration speeds, scheduled power up/down, recycle bin functionality, NAS configuration backup, user/group management (although share folder permissions are not as granular as sub-folders, only top-level), backup options including remote replication, printer sharing and USB volume support. QNAP also includes a performance monitor to see how your NAS is doing on the bandwidth front, and an incredible set of stats and logs to help you analyse any issues.

On the storage front, single disk, JBOD (called "linear volume" here), RAID 0, 1, 5 and 6 modes are all supported in an easy to manage fashion, and you can choose to either format with EXT3 or EXT4. You can create encrypted volumes, it can act as an iSCSI target and supports virtual disks. SMART diagnostic information is available, although only one drive at a time - we'd prefer an at-a-glance view of all drives.

For servers, the usual FTP/HTTP (with PHP and MySQL support)/SSH/iTunes/UPnP AV quintet is present, although just like the Synology DS209 extra functionality is offered via "stations". The included Multimedia Station is a misnomer - it's just an image viewer for pictures dumped in the Qmultimedia folder on the NAS.

The Download Station is a bit more interesting, allowing the NAS to manage HTTP, FTP or BitTorrent downloads. While you can pause or queue downloads and prioritise that queue, there is no way to schedule them. The system does allow you to right-click an entry to choose extra options, however, none of those options worked in Firefox 3 - forcing us to choose from the menu on the left.

There's also a Surveillance Station, should you have some IP cameras set up in your network. All of these "stations" look quite old, aren't consistent design-wise and haven't been overhauled like the NAS administration section. You also can't just return back to NAS administration - you have to go back to the useless start screen again, and most annoyingly, you're required to log in again.

Extra applications can be installed to the NAS via QNAP's QPKG package manager, offering CMS suites such as WordPress, a news group downloader and even an eMule client.

Performance

The TS-509 impressed with its performance, able to write our 1GB test file at a maximum of 85MBps over our Netgear GS108T, and read back at 101MBps while set to RAID 5 using five 1TB drives. No doubt this was helped along by its 1024MB of DDR2 RAM, and 1.6GHz Intel processor.

Despite the fancy hardware, the NAS remained quiet throughout use. It was definitely audible, but the slow rotation 40mm power supply fan and 120mm fan cooling the rest of the unit on the back keeps things within acceptable limits.

The QNAP TS-509 Pro comes highly recommended - it's a flexible NAS with an interface that's gaining usability as time goes on. Its weak point is in its add-ons - the Multimedia and Download Stations could do with a complete rework, just as the main interface has been. If you aren't deterred by these shortcomings, the TS-509 should definitely be on your list if you're looking at five-bay NAS devices.

• Netgear ReadyNAS Pro
• Thecus N5200 Pro
• D-Link DNS-343