HIGH GEAR

In mid-October 2000, theVooner contacted me by email with an idea about a new section for [danchan] that reviews gadgets. He told me he would even be a guest reviewer. The idea of writing reviews of stuff had been at the back of my mind for some time, and I suggested that theVooner should be the resident reviewer while I would take guest reviewing duties.

You see, theVooner is much more qualified than me to review gear, because well, he is the Gadget Master. I've known this guy since fifth grade and he has always had the latest and greatest gear. He also lives in Hong Kong which is just a day later than Tokyo from getting the cool stuff.

Which brings us to the Gear Selection Process. Generally, any items we review are things that we bought, after much research and thought and comparison against all competing items in the same category. As such, the reviews are generally skewed towards being positive, since at the time of purchase they were considered by us to be best of class. There are exceptions, we do make mistakes and end up with lemons sometimes.

The review process is not scientific in any way. It is based partly on impression and partly on subjective performance tests. We got sick of looking around the Internet for information about the latest gear and finding nothing, or at best, a list of specifications. Who cares that the device takes 4.5V DCIN?

We want to know: Is it cool? What is the design? Does it work well? Probably in that order, in fact.

Cost does not factor into the review. In that sense, all items are on a level-playing field. We are looking for the best in class.

What does best in class mean? Well, we won't compare the top of line prosumer DV camera with the top of the line professional DV camera used to film Star Wars: Episode II. So there is some practicality in our choices. They are within reason.

What will we review? I leave this open, but initially our focus will be on consumer electronic equipment.

How do we rate the gear? We want to make it simple, but we also didn't want to use the decisive thumbs up, thumbs down rating since we believe there is a gray area. So, items are given one of three designations: Essential, Money to Burn, and Waste of Time.

Essential and Waste of Time should be fairly self-explanatory. Money to Burn is that gray area of debatable usefulness. Don't get us wrong, the item might still be best in class, it's just not apparent whether or not its fun-factor, or its allure, is lasting. These are things that are generally best left until the day after receiving a big bonus check.

Welcome to High Gear.

theVooner can be contacted at theVooner@yahoo.com

24 Oct 2000 Sony DVD-FX1 Portable DVD/TV by theVooner
27 Oct 2000 Sony CLIE Palm Handheld by danchan
30 Oct 2000 Bang & Olufsen Earphones by theVooner
10 Nov 2000 Sony Vaio Picturebook Review by theVooner
20 Nov 2000 Sony MC-P10 Music Clip Review by theVooner
24 Nov 2000 Leica M6 Review by theVooner
29 Nov 2000 Christmas 2000 Wish List by theVooner
02 Dec 2000 Callaway ERC Review by theVooner
17 Jan 2001 Nikon 880 Review by theVooner
25 Jan 2001 Compaq iPaq 3630/3650 Review by theVooner
26 Jan 2001 Sony PC-5 mini-DV Video Camera Review by theVooner
01 Feb 2001 Rolex Daytona Review by theVooner
07 Feb 2001 Sony MZ-R900 MD Player Review by theVooner
12 Feb 2001 Fuji Instax Mini 10 & Polaroid iZone Instant Camera Reviews by theVooner
25 Feb 2001 Bang & Olufsen Beocom 6000 Cordless Phone Review by theVooner
26 Mar 2001 Nokia 8890 Review by theVooner
30 Mar 2001 Gameboy Advance Review by theVooner
09 Apr 2001 Casio Wrist Camera Review by danchan
28 Apr 2001 Sharp LC-15A2 LCD TV Review by theVooner
31 Apr 2001 Sony RM-VZ950T Universal Remote Commander Review by theVooner
15 Jun 2001 Fujitsu PDS4221 - 42" Plasma Display Review by theVooner
22 Jul 2001 Sony DSC-S85 4.1 Megapixel Digital Camera Review by theVooner
26 Jul 2001 Dell Inspiron 4000 Review by theVooner
20 Aug 2001 Sony MZ5 Cellular Phone Review by theVooner
30 Aug 2001 Ericsson T39 Mobile Phone and Bluetooth Headset Review by theVooner
26 Nov 2001 Toshiba Libretto L2 Review by theVooner
29 Nov 2001 Ericsson T68 Mobile Phone Review by theVooner

Not cutting edge enough...

try java/linux ones that have digital cameras, modems built in, plus support MPEG4.

And what happened to craving for new fancy phones?
http://www.wap.com/share/osas/cache/artid300339.html

High Gear's Mission

As Danny has pointed out above, we're looking at the best of consumer goods available TODAY. Yes, there are great "other" products out there, but like Danchan said, we're talking prosumer goods, not professional goods.

So most of the stuff that Ben's thinking about is completely eliminated. Yes, I've played with a few esotoric objects, like a really neat cellular scanner, but that's just out of personal interest and no one (except a few) would really care what I thought about those things. High Gear is about everyday gadgets/gear that ordinary people can AND want to get.

Also, we will not talk about future products. Sure, I want Nokia's 3G concept phone. I also want GPRS, Windows 2005, and a flying car, but they just aren't here yet. So I'll limit my comments to things you can go out there and buy TODAY. Besides, I've tried to avoid things like cellular phones, which I have owned practically every model available in Hong Kong, because they're specific to certain regions (in my case GSM900/1800 phones which would not work in the US or in Japan). The Japanese cellphones are way better anyway, but we can't use them. So why bother talking about them.

The Mission of High Gear is to review consumer goods, most of which we end up buying, sometimes the next day. Our aim is to give readers the chance to go through our buying decision-making process and then review the actual product. Some are good, some are bad. But, hey, that's half the fun of buying stuff. I hope that we can help some of you in your own buying decisions so you can avoid some of the pitfalls we found.

More To Come

Greetings and Happy New Year to ALL!

theVooner just returned from Tokyo where he spent his holidays. I've got lots of stuff to tell you and some pictures to show as well. Unfortunately, danchan is off to find some monkeys (I thought that was what the reunion was about?) in Malaysia so we're going to have to wait for him to get back to civilization before we post up more stuff. I've also got a backlog of reviews to post so give us a little time and we'll have the place up and running again.

nice links!!!
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