Gadgetory

hi I'm Tom Merritt editor from cnet.com and welcome to road warrior where we take a look at the hottest gadgets for life on the go coming up a compass that's a car a Hummer that's a laptop and a dash smartphone that's actually a smartphone let's start with a trio that's a less than a trio in a good way the new treo 680 this is a gsm phone they just launched today and it works on gsm network so they haven't disclosed exactly which carrier just yet initially available in four different colors unlocked at the palm stores but they haven't announced pricing but in the press materials they did say that it's going to be an affordable addition to the palm family so that means we're probably thinking this is going to be a little less expensive than some of the other models out there the 680 can surf the web and send email just like it's older brethren it works on the GSM network next up Itron exclaims its Hummer go book is semi rugged as you know we like to prove these things dan ackerman puts it to the test now it's time for the fun part one of the nice things about a semi rugged laptop like this is it's supposed to be able to withstand spills to the keyboard or touch pad area can it let's find out pour the water back off looks good to me pouring the water back off nice touchdown next up Bonnie Shaw thinks that the tmobile dash might be the first legitimate competitor to the motorola q it's a little smarter than the Q it's shorter here it is for comparison sake overall though same whip that's nice to feel in the hand has this nice kind of rubbery texture so it's great for gripping and nice and light has a beautiful screen and the keyboard is pretty spacious although I prefer the queue is a little bit more the dash has integrated Wi-Fi to which the Q does not finally Brian Cooley shows off some geeky but cool hidden features in the 2007 jeep compass limited but over here we've got something kind of nice but we also saw on the calibre it's this pocket sleeve for holding any kind of a portable you can stuff an iPod or a cell phone a lot of other electronic portables should fit in here rubberized on the inside so it keeps the rattling down a little channel right here for the auxiliary output wire to follow so you close that down run the wire out of there snake it over to your aux jack not the tiniest arrangement but it's free so go ahead and use it and then right below that we also have 115 volt outlet in other words a typical household wall outlet to run your laptop charger what have you that means is there's an inverter already built into this vehicle i like that brian says the jeep compass is almost identical to the Dodge Caliber case you're comparing that's it for this edition of road warrior I'm Tom Merritt check back next time for more gadgets that keep you armed and dangerously productive