Well Ive been looking at the following E-Reader devices:

Irex Iliad KD 208
Bookeen Cybook 3 KD 122
Sony Reader KD 80

Now all of these would carry a shipping charge of KD 25 to get it to Kuwait. And then you pray that the folks at the Kuwait Customs office dont delay it for whatever non-logical reasons they can invent.

Pros & Cons

Bookeen Cybook V3

Cons
No Wifi
Expensive for its feature set

Pros
Sexyiest of them all
Amazing battery life (8,000 page turns)
Supports more formats including mobipocket, pdf, etc…

iRex Iliad

Cons
15 hour batter life
Slow performance with Mobipocket E-Books
The largest and Heaviest of them all, not ideal for one handed reading

Pros
Largest Screen
Wifi and Ethernet port (You can browse the web/read blogs)
Handwriting recognition
You can make notes on the pad, sort of like a tablet PC

Sony Reader

Cons
Sony DRM E-Books Only
Sony DRM only means you’re going to have a hard time finding the titles you want
Sony does not convert media for you

Pros
Great Battery Life (3 weeks)
Semi-Sexy

Bottom line, Im stuck between Cybook V3 or the iRex Iliad.

*sighs* would be so nice to carry just one e-reader device with my books on it, than to drag around large text books for class or technical books for work.

Well today I decided that to purchase wnet from Wataniya, the decision was made for the following reasons:

1.) I run a hosting operation on the side (dedicated - webhosting - application hosting) and need internet access everywhere I go, in case of emergencies.

2.) Wataniya delivers to your location for free, you pay a nominal fee of KD28/month and KD 69 to buy the wnet USB dongle. (Expensive for home users I guess, but to me its worth the price due to the nature of my work)

The speeds decent enough, though you should know that wnet cannot compete with DSL cause its very inconsistent.
Any claims of made of a stable download speed should be taken with a grain of salt (in wnet’s case a truck load of salt should do nicely)

Here are some tests that I ran just now consecutively back to back (http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/):

Download Speed: 1328 kbps (166KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 304 kbps (38 KB/sec transfer rate)

Download Speed: 930 kbps (116.3KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 311 kbps (38.9 KB/sec transfer rate)

Download Speed: 862 kbps (107.8KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 267 kbps (33.4 KB/sec transfer rate)

Download Speed: 643 kbps (80.4KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 316 kbps (39.5 KB/sec transfer rate)

Download Speed: 802 kbps (100.3KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 312 kbps (39 KB/sec transfer rate)

And now to the most interesting and disappointing part of the story:

How does the wnet USB dongle play with the mac?

Wataniya provides you with a “provider customized” Globe Surfer Icon 7.2
This means you wont be able to get firmware updates, or software updates directly from Option.

Wataniya provides drivers for the modem on their website, my concern however is, how recent are those drivers?
And who keeps them up to date?

The dialer application however is not.

What you get in the cheap fancy looking jewel box is the modem, a CD with a pdf version of the printed documentation, but no Mac Dialer software. For the non-technical mac users, this poses a problem.

If you thought tech support would walk you through the process of dialing in you are mistaken.

The wataniya call center agent will explain to you that they are under strict orders, that no one is to talk to the “wnet” tech support team regarding Mac Installs. And if you need assistance you would have to them in person with your laptop and they will do it for you.

I for one think thats retarded, why do I have to drive over there, let someone access my Laptop physically to set up the dialer for me? It should be included on the CD, or at least available to download from their website.

Fortunately for those of you who are just as lazy as I am, there is a solution.

Launch2Net http://www.novamedia.de/e_pages/e_produkte_mac_l2n.html

Basically get the modem, connect it, click to connect, and your all set.

Dont believe me? Check out their demo. I paid Euro 75.00 (KD29) for the software, and I think its well worth it for the features it has.

Im not in the mood of driving to wataniya, wait in line, and then have some stranger mess about with my mac.

(call me a weird privacy freak, or whatever…. or just too lazy… either way I dont care)

At the end of the day am I ….

Happy with the product?
Yeah

Happy with the device?
I dont think they could find an uglier device on the market, this one looks like a door stopper.

Happy with their customer support?
No, dont think anyone else could be… it feels like calling a Diwaniya Call center, not an international telco.

Does it work?
yeah provided you mess around long enough, or shell out KD30 for an alternative solution, or drive to wataniya

Do I recommend it to anyone else?
Yeah sure, but not for gaming, or streaming purposes.

Product: Jabra BT620S
Desc: Light Bluetooth Mic/Headphones

Overal: 3/5
Ease of Use: 4/5
Sound Quality: 3/5
Comfort: 3/5

Pros: mic, headset, can pair with PC and mobile
Cons: control buttons are laggy, not comfy for people that wear glasses, sound quality is mediocre at best

Im sure if you have a few gadgets you probably have a rogue cable war raging on the surface of your work-desk. Here is what my desk is loaded with:

3 x Mobile Phone Chargers
2 x 15″ LCD monitors
1 x 4 port KVM Switch (PS/2)
1 x 2 port KVM Switch (USB + Audio)
1 x Macbook Pro
1 x IP Phone
1 x Zalman 5.1 Headphones (Long Cable 5.1 Surround Sound)

So yeah its a total mess, and on top of that I’ve nearly killed 3 co-workers cause they kept tripping over my headphones cable(thats cause I sometimes walk into the meeting room to smoke a cig, still wearing the headphones listenin to my tunes) . Dont get me wrong the Zalman’s are very nice clear headphones, but the problem is it almost weighs more than my motorcycle helmet. *grins*

So I thought to myself wouldnt it be nice if I could find some good affordable wireless headphones? Few days later I purchased the Jabra BT620S from a mobile store. (I’ve been told there are Jabra Distributers in Kuwait)

Ease Of Use:

For a techy like me, installing/pairing/configuring was a breeze. Though I could image that the average non-tech savvy person might have to struggle a bit. Moving on….

The Sound:

The sound quality is average, but not bad, not great either. If you listen to tracks with heavy bass in them and you like it very loud then perhaps this headset is not for you. At max volume the bass starts to produce a “crackling” sound. I mediated this with just keeping a slightly over medium volume, enough to drain out the constant chatter of the drones I have to work with, but not too loud so as not to distort the songs Im listenin too.

Comfort:

“Cool and comfortable behind-the-head neckband wearing style” - LOL

Although the headphones are quite lite, they are not exactly the most comfortable. This may be especially true if you wear glasses, as the frame of your glasses will be pressed against your ear from the slightly tight fitting neckband.

Misc:

• Talk time: 16 hours
• Standby time: 240 hours
• Weight: 3.53 oz
• Music Streaming

Why you should buy these:

If you need simple bluetooth headphones, that “get the job done”.

Dont buy these if your looking for the ultimate wireless headphones that are very comfortable, and have amazing audio quality.

Misc Notes:

If you lock your workstation while using the BT620S, you will loose all controls, but the audio will still play, controls re-activate when you unlock your station.