It’s touted as the most beautiful WiiMo device in the market. Hmm, gimicky. I could care less how it looks as long as it works. And I’m right about the gimicky part as the “most beautiful WiiMo” ain’t no beauty in the functionality department:

Strangely, once turned on both the HTC Touch Diamond and Aston Martin DBS failed to impress us… Both are in fact poorly manufactured with cheap materials and slow and unreliable.

I have been using the Touch Diamond for a month now and I’m sad to report some puzzling facts:

- First we have the material used on the Diamond, cheap plastic, especially on the back. After using it for a week it begins to make little noises around the stylus silo, if you happen to hold your phone firmly at this end.

-Then you have the screen, a nice VGA little wonder which is “burned out” by the the phone’s backlight. On our demo unit, the right side of the screen seems to be brighter and “burned” compared to the other side.

- Slow like a dead snail. Don’t get me wrong here, but I hate having a 500Mhz plus powered device in my hands that’s slow to respond when I tape on an application. I can assure you I’ve seen worse, but the Diamond is sluggish and you have to tap the screen several times in order to start an application.

- TouchFlo 3D… Why did HTC recreate what others have already beautifully done, like the SPB Mobile Shell 2.0? I complained earlier about the Touch Diamond’s speed, well believe it or not, the Diamond is slow mainly due to the TouchFlo 3D environment.

There are NO doubts that the UI is gorgeous and will amaze you with it’s nice graphics and animation, but after 15 minutes you’ll find yourself in the Settings Panel removing TouchFlo 3D from your Today List. If you don’t care about speed and enjoy taking your time doing things, consider this… You’ll will spend much of your time scrolling left or right when accessing certain applications. Let’s say for example that you’re at the Home screen and want to access to your web browser with TouchFlo 3D… You’ll have to scroll left or right 5 times to arrive to your final destination. If you’re like me and don’t care about the camera feature or Mp3 player, guess what, there is no way to remove them!

-Too much “tapping” to launch applications! Similar to the TouchFlo 3D interface, HTC also made things worse by adding unnecessary additional steps to get to your “Notification”. Since our VGA screen is smaller than many of those found on other devices, HTC decided to add an additional pop-up page to let you choose between different notification icons like EMAIL, PHONE, NETWORK ,and so on. This adds a further step to the process.

-Weak radio. I own several HTC products, like an MTeor, a Hermes, an Advatange X7510, and now the Diamond. Among all of my HTC toys, the Diamond is the only one which often loses the network when I leave it alone for a time. I have tested this at several different locations and where my MTeor had a signal, the Diamond could not catch anything. Even more puzzling is how sensitive the Diamond is… I was outside Tokyo for a video shoot on the new Toyota Crown Hybrid. Where I used it if I swung the phone to my left I had 3 signal bars, to my right, none… Scary!

-GPS? Well… Yes the GPS works, but don’t be in hurry to get your location.

Read the rest at Akihabara

This Englishman created a machine that plays the guitar with a pedal. It’s a whole instrument to replace guitarists because this amiable English chap said that it’s better than having a human guitarist because it doesn’t drink, it doesn’t smoke and it doesn’t do all the things a human does. :P

If any Japanese were to look at this, i think they’ll come out with a robot that plays any tune you want. Soon enough.

This new wireless headphones from Onkyo is made to be iPod compatible. This sleek and poised headset has a 2.4GHz band is compatible with the iPod Classic, Touch, Nano and Mini. It also includes inputs for other audio devices as so it does not limit itself to just the iPod users.

The Onkyo Wireless headphones is set to release in Japan on Nov 14th for around $200, but there is no word on where it will be released in North America. You could try to order it via eBay should you be lucky enough to find it there - it would make an excellent treat for yourself or as a present.

Crunchgear

Ever wonder if the PC guy, famed as the antagonist in Apple ads with Justin Long, wears the same pleat jacket in real life?

It’s a cool idea because of the novelty of the event - hacking into PSP is a feat, not to be reckon with ;)

But when you think about it again, unless you’re stuck in some cave as hostage in Afghanistan and you’ve successfully hacked your PSP (graciously slipped out of those terrorist’s sight) and found connection through one of the Taliban’s old laptops, a small second computer screen on the PSP may not be such a big deal. Why do that when you can get a nice Samsung Hi-Res screen? :)

Check it out, it is cool nonetheless, in the most geekery sort of way:

There are many two-purpose gadgets around but I rather like this one. I am not a smoker but I like carrying a lighter around because you never know when it will come in useful. What makes it better is that this lighter is also a USB Flash Drive of 8Gig capacity. Talk about functionality, baby.

Check out the specs:
* Refillable lighter with built-in USB flash drive
* 8GB capacity
* USB connector slides out of the lighter
* Metal case
* Adjustable flame
* Includes USB cable
* Dimensions: 1.5″ x 2.4″ x .5″ (3.8 x 6 x 1.3 cm)

Get one for yourself or for an early Christmas pressie for later here: USB 8GB Flash Drive Lighter

Hilarious and witty.

If you’re a computer geek, code monkey, techie, and everything along in those lines where you live and breath computers. What is the best birthday cake you can ask for? A motherboard cake, of course!

Rolos for the win, this cake is 1337!

The Vaticans have actively taken part in bringing a greener life to their brothers by installing Solar Roof Panels on their rooftops. The celibate-hood spent approximately 1.5million dollars to install 2400 panels. I wonder where they got their money from?

I guess they weren’t kidding when they said the Vaticans are some of the richest organizations in the world! But kudos on the effort, I suppose 1.5million is well spent if some study had said that the Vatican establishment creates the most pollution in the EU.

Say hello to the top that won’t stop….or until the battery runs out in 8 hours. It’s a nice ornamental toy for your desk especially if you work on your desk 1/3 of your day away.

This shiny toy goes for only GBP9.99 :)

Features

* A spinning top that will not stop (unless you stop it of course, but then you wouldn’t do that, would you?) defying physics, gravity and logic.
* When spinning the top emits a fancy light display that’s different every time.
* Colours may vary.
* Suitable for ages 3 years+.
* Requires 2 x CR2032 batteries (included plus spares).
* Size: 8 x 5 cm.