I just can’t help it. When I put the Altec Lansing BackBeat 903 wireless stereo headset on, I have to dance. (Notice, I didn’t say “I have to dance well.”) The sound from this review unit sent by the Altec Lansing is quite good — better than I expected, actually. I can wirelessly control music playback, volume, and even use these to take phone calls. Yesterday, I used these with my Palm Pre to participate in a 2.5-hour conference call, and they worked out very well. The only issue I had was the tiny mute button, which I think needs a little improvement. Bass isn’t the deepest, but holding the Play/Pause button for two seconds gives a bit of a boost to assist in that area.

For $99, I think these offer an excellent value. The sound won’t be quite as good as a high-end wired headset that costs far more, but unless you’re a true audiophile, these should work out nicely. Plus, you gain the convenience of wireless connectivity. As in all things mobile tech, it’s a trade-off.

Got questions I didn’t cover in the video review or here? Just post ‘em in the comments, and I’ll do my best to answer ‘em.

My coverage of the Viliv X70 and S5 UMPCs has been very popular and I am getting asked by a lot of people how the two devices compare during use. This is not an easy question to answer, however, as even though they are comparably configured they are very different devices to use due to their respective sizes. The easiest way to demonstrate how I use each UMPC is on video, so have a look and hopefully you’ll get a feel for how each of the two devices feel.

The X70 is the first up on camera and has a 7-inch screen. Last up is the S5 with the little 5-inch screen and I show how both of them are used in portrait orientation in the hand. Have a look and see what you think about these UMPCs from Korea.

You’re probably getting tired reading about the Palm Pre; news about it appears everywhere you turn. The fact is, the Pre has a lot of people excited in much the manner the original iPhone got folks excited. It is an innovative smartphone, with the potential to break new ground in what has become a jaded market. The WebOS has the potential to become a long-term platform for Palm that can keep the Pre and the phones to come on top of the game. Given the excitement about the Pre, I felt it appropriate to my thoughts out there now that I have used the Pre for a whole day in the real world. This is not a review — it is, rather, a rambling list of things that have become important to me about the Pre.

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So James and I are each back from our respective early morning run for Palm’s Pre. While there’s no way we could come close to outdoing the several awesome reviews that hit on Thursday, we thought to share our collective early thoughts. Neither of us had any issues with the sales or activation process — props to Sprint for a fun and easy launch. Obviously, your mileage may vary based on your location.

Before I forget, I should thank my son Tyler for getting up so early and waiting in line with me. Hey, 11 years old isn’t too young to start the geek training, is it?

Now…on to the Palm Pre!

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I’ve been reviewing a new Bluetooth headset over the past week – the Voyager PRO from Plantronics. The headset retails for $99, but you should be able to find it online for a few dollars less. After using it, I’m convinced it’s worth every penny. Aside from the strong features and specifications, it offers the cleanest sound I’ve ever heard. More importantly, callers on the other end of the line simply can’t tell that I’m on a headset. At least none of them have yet.

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The first I heard of the Novatel Wireless (NVTL) MiFi 3G modem/router, I realized how big an impact it could make with my mobile work. The only negative was that I am a longtime Verizon 3G customer and I needed a version from them. You can understand my excitement when I heard that Verizon would be releasing their branded version of the MiFi on May 17, and that excitement was increased when the good folks at Verizon asked if I wanted to get an early look at it. I’ve only had the Verizon MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot for a day, but I can state emphatically it is everything I thought it would be and more. The MiFi is mobile broadband done right. Read on to see why I am definitely buying one of these.

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I have been a fan of BlueAnt headsets for as long as I can remember. The V1 I have been using for a while is one of the coolest Bluetooth headsets I have ever used, and it works great with my iPhone 3G. The BlueAnt folks announced the successor to the V1 back at the CES, and I’m happy to say the Q1 will be out soon; I’m especially happy to say I’ve got one in my hot little hands.

The BlueAnt Q1 takes off where the V1 left off and incorporates the same cool Blue Genie voice technology. Commands can be executed totally by voice, which is not only handy, but safer when driving. It’s so cool to hit the button on the headset, say “Switch headset off” and have it turn off without hitting any buttons. The voice commands can handle all aspects of headset usage such as initiating or answering calls. When a call comes in, the headset tells you a call from xxx-xxx-xxxx is coming in, and you simply speak “answer” or “ignore” as desired. Another cool command you can use is “pair me” to initiate the Bluetooth pairing process. This is used more than you might think as the Q1 can be paired to eight different phones, which comes in handy with my stable of smartphones. As it does with most processes, the Q1 speaks you through the pairing process, telling you exactly what to do when.

BlueAnt has incorporated sophisticated noise cancellation technology, and the headset provides both a normal and a Max setting for ultra-noisy environments. The wind noise cancellation is excellent, and I’ve completed numerous calls in very windy places without the caller having any idea where I was calling from.

The BlueAnt Q1 headset should be out in stores soon, according to the company, and I believe it will retail for about $130.

BlueAnt Q1 headset

I haven’t done a “Typical Day” article for quite some time and I find I can use the Viliv S5 Premium UMPC for so many different tasks that it seemed like a good time to do one. Here is my day yesterday with the Viliv S5.

The day started like most, far too early, and I stumbled to get the first cup of coffee for the day. I grabbed the S5 from my desk where it charged overnight and sat down in the big comfy chair in front of the tube to catch the first news of the day.

I slid the power slider up on the Viliv and in less than five seconds it was up running right where it left off the night before. It always starts up in the same display orientation it was in when it went to sleep and yesterday morning it was in landscape, which suits me just fine. I tapped on Firefox in the task bar as it was already running and it popped right open.

There were four tabs open like I left it: these are my main work tabs. There was GMail, the jkOnTheRun site, the WordPress page for working with the site and finally, Google Reader. I tapped the GMail tab and started checking the email that had come in while I was snuggled in bed dreaming of gadgets.

I interacted with the GMail screen with my fingertip, tapping on each email I wanted to read and hitting the “Move To” button if I wanted to file it in a particular label. I determined there were only two or three that merited a response and I did that handily.

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Over the past several years, I’ve run the CrystalMark software on just about every computing device I’ve purchased or reviewed. As I mentioned in my recent battery test for the HP dv2, there are a number of ways to test hardware. For consistency, I try to use the same test methods were I can since you can then compare the results across different machines.

That’s why I ran CrystalMark R3 on the dv2, just like I did with my MSI Wind netbook when I bought it. I think the results will speak for themselves, but I’ll add my personal thought right up front: the benchmarks reiterate that the dv2 and, more importantly, the AMD Neo platform is squarely targeted between the netbook market and traditional notebooks. You can get traditional notebook performance in a near-netbook sized package: call it a more portable package than a standard notebook, but not as anemic as a netbook. Let’s take a look and see if you agree.

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With so many ways to test a notebook platform and battery, I try to stick with techniques I’ve used before. This offers consistency in the test and therefore offers a frame of reference. That’s why I used the Battery Eater test in Classic mode on the HP dv2 with its 6-cell battery. As I often do when sharing Battery Eater test results, I want to explain how to interpret them. The purpose of the Classic test is to fully stress out the computer to provide the minimum run-time of the device. It’s a worst-case scenario to give you a starting point. When I do this test, I typically set the device to 40% screen brightness, Wi-Fi on and I disable all power management features. Again, it’s a worst-case type of test.

So how did the dv2 do? It generally performed the way I’d expect a notebook with a dedicated GPU to perform: it ate up the battery fairly quickly because it offers more processor performance than a device that sips energy.

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