Headset's sleek design doesn't compromise comfort

By Nicole Lee

(CNET) -- Though Samsung has been churning out affordable headsets lately, most of them have pretty run-of-the-mill features and so-so performance levels.

The WEP 700, however, promises to be one of the few with actual noise and echo cancellation abilities as well as automatic volume control.

It also has a sleek design that doesn't compromise on comfort and ease of use. The WEP 700 is not too expensive at only $89.99 retail.

The Samsung WEP 700 measures 1.81 inches long by 0.74 inch wide by 0.42 inch deep, which makes it a little bigger than most Samsung headsets, but not by much. The WEP 700 is smooth all around, with both the left and right sides tapering toward the mic to form a soft curve.

The square multifunction button sits right smack dab on the front, while the volume keys sit on the left and right side. Though we found the multifunction button easy enough to press, we thought the two volume buttons to be a bit too tiny for our liking. Underneath the multifunction button is a small LED indicator light.

Flip the headset around and you'll find an earpiece with a rubberized ring cover, so that the earpiece fits just against the ear canal. There's also an optional ear hook for additional stability. The ear hook is flexible enough to be worn on either ear, and it's thin enough to accommodate eyeglasses.

We found the overall fit to be very comfortable, and we like that the earpiece doesn't protrude too deeply in the ear. However, we would've liked to have seen different-size earpiece covers for better fit customization.

Features of the WEP700 are fairly basic; you get the typical answering, rejecting, and ending a call, last-number redial, voice command support, call mute, putting a call on hold, and transferring a call from the headset to the phone and vice versa.

We paired the WEP700 with the RIM BlackBerry Pearl successfully. By far, this has the best sound quality of all the other Samsung headsets.

The WEP700 features two internal microphones that are built to reduce background noise, adjust volume automatically, and cancel out echoes. We have to admit that it works as described. Callers could hear us just fine whether we were in a car, a crowded restaurant, or a quiet office.

However, we did get some heavy static sounds occasionally, and it doesn't completely block out strong winds. Also, we would've liked to have an option to turn off automatic volume control, just to save on battery life.

The WEP700 has a rated talk time of 6 hours and a rated standby time of 8.3 days.

Review: iPhone 3G lives up to the hype

By Kent German and Donald Bell

(CNET) -- Just over a year after Apple birthed the first iPhone, the long-awaited, next-generation iPhone 3G has arrived bearing a mildly tweaked design and a load of new features.

With access to a faster 3G wireless network, Microsoft Exchange server e-mail, and support for a staggering array of third-party software from the iPhone App Store, the new handset is the iPhone we've been waiting for.

It still lacks some basic features but when compared with what the original model was year ago, this device sets a new benchmark for the cell phone world.

With the iPhone 3G, Apple appears to have fixed some call-quality performance issues we had with the previous model--in our initial tests, the volume is louder with less background buzz than before. Music and video quality were largely unchanged, but we didn't have many complaints in that department to begin with.

We're worried about battery life--some early reviews indicate that the iPhone 3G lasts only a day--but we'll run full tests over the next couple of days and report our results on this page.

Price may well remain our largest concern. New AT&T customers and most current AT&T customers can buy the iPhone 3G for $199 for the 8GB model and $299 for the 16GB model. If you don't qualify for that price--check your AT&T account to find out--you'll pay $399 and $499 respectively.

Either way, you'll pay $15 more per month ($74.99 total) for a plan comparable with the original iPhone ($59 per month). So, while you'll pay less outright to buy the handset, you'll make it up over the course of a standard two-year AT&T contract.

Environmental explorer goes global

LONDON (AP) -- After traveling around the Arctic Circle alone, walking across South America, venturing through African war zones and hiking deep into the Amazon, Borneo and Sumatra jungles, Mike Horn is ready to embark on his most ambitious project yet.

South African explorer Mike Horn crouches on his 115-foot yacht, "Pangaea," at St. Katherine's Dock in London.

The 42-year-old South African adventurer is set to go on a four-year environmental outreach expedition around the globe, aiming to cover 62,000 miles, cross all the continents and oceans, and reach the North and South Poles.

He will walk, kayak, cycle, paraglide, ski and sail across rivers, lakes, mountains, desert, jungle, tundra and ice fields. Working with educational specialists along the way, Horn hopes to inspire young people to clean up the planet and make people aware of the Earth's gloriously uninhabited areas.

"After 20 years of exploration I cannot change my life, so I have decided to share more what I have done with the younger generation," Horn said Monday. "I'm just an explorer who wants to keep my playground clean."

He spoke from his 115-foot yacht, Pangaea, named after the expedition and the supercontinent that existed millions of years ago, docked on the Thames close to the Tower of London.

Pangaea's aim is to "cultivate respect for the environment and the protection of its resources for the sake of future generations." Along the way young people aged 13-20 will be invited to join Horn and learn about flora and fauna, and humankind's interaction with nature and the elements.

Horn's two daughters, aged 14 and 15, will join him in school holidays.

Fired TV anchor charged with e-mail snooping

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A longtime television newscaster was charged Monday with illegally accessing the e-mail of his glamorous former co-anchor, who suspected details of her social life were being leaked to gossip columnists.

Larry Mendte and Alycia Lane co-anchored the TV news in Philadelphia. Both got fired; he got charged.

Federal prosecutors say fired KYW-TV anchor Larry Mendte accessed Alycia Lane's e-mail accounts hundreds of times and leaked her personal information to a Philadelphia Daily News reporter.

Lane's personal life had routinely become tabloid fodder and eventually led to her own dismissal from the station.

"The mere accessing and reading of privileged information is criminal," acting U.S. Attorney Laurie Magid said. "This case, however, went well beyond just reading someone's e-mail."

Mendte was charged with a felony count of intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization. A conviction could bring a six-month prison term under federal sentencing guidelines.

Mendte gained access to Lane's accounts for more than two years, prosecutors said. In a five-month span starting in January, Mendte accessed her accounts approximately 537 times, authorities said.

He was fired from Philadelphia's CBS affiliate last month after FBI agents searched his home and seized his computer.

Mendte's attorney, Michael Schwartz, said the charge against Mendte "should not come as a surprise to anyone."

"As we continually have said from day one, Larry has been cooperating fully with the investigators. He continues to cooperate and will accept full responsibility for his actions," Schwartz said Monday.

Lane was fired from KYW in January after a series of embarrassing off-camera incidents, including her arrest following a late-night scuffle with plainclothes police in New York City.

Lane later sued the station, alleging it maliciously damaged her reputation by deliberately promoting her personal life to generate publicity. The station has denied Lane's allegations.

Mendte has been off the air since May 29, the day his home was searched and computer seized. He was fired June 23, days after Lane filed her lawsuit in which she also alleged that keeping Mendte on the payroll during a federal probe amounted to sex discrimination.

Mendte and Lane anchored the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts from September 2003 until Lane was fired. Her lawyer has said Mendte was jealous because she was making $700,000 a year at the time she was fired, somewhat more than Mendte.

Unlike McCain, many seniors surf the Web

NEW YORK (AP) -- If Sen. John McCain is really serious about becoming a Web-savvy citizen, perhaps Kathryn Robinson can help.

Despite John McCain's self-professed Web illiteracy, recent data shows that many seniors use the Internet.

Robinson is now 106 -- that's 35 years older than McCain -- and she began using the Internet at 98, at the Barclay Friends home in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where she lives.

"I started to learn because I wanted to e-mail my family," she says -- in an e-mail message, naturally.

Blogs have been buzzing recently over McCain's admission that when it comes to the Internet, "I'm an illiterate who has to rely on his wife for any assistance he can get." And the 71-year-old presumptive Republican presidential nominee, asked about his Web use last week by the New York Times, said that aides "go on for me. I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself."

How unusual is it for a 71-year-old American to be unplugged?

That depends on how you look at the statistics. Only 35 percent of Americans over age 65 are online, according to data from April and May compiled by the Pew Internet Project at the Pew Research Center.

Core 2 Duo Costs Less Now

Techtree News Staff

Last week, Intel announced price cuts on its Core 2 Duo range of processors, making them even more affordable. According to ExtremeTech, the top-end E8500 now costs $183. That is a massive 31% drop in price. The E8400 too is priced at $183, which could mean that efforts are on to gradually phase out the model.

At the lower end of the spectrum, the E7200's price has been slashed to $113, which brings it within the price range of E4600 and the E4500.
The motivation behind these price cuts seems to be to allow more headroom for the Core 2 Quad series. The cheapest member of the Core 2 Quad family, the Q6600, has been given a 14% price slash.

Apart from these, the server-end processors from the Xeon line also witnessed some price cuts.

BY-Techtree.com

NASA: The Moon is not enough

Scientists argue for a return to the lunar surface

By Austin Modine

NASA and its international aeronautical cohorts have some serious explaining to do before they start rocketing folks to the Moon again.

They better convince the public why it's so important for our species to invest hand-over-fist just to root around some boring gray orbital dust ball - a dust ball we already stuck a flag in a full score and 19 years ago.

Perhaps they're preaching to the choir, but this week a gathering of scientists are giving this sort of time-tested anti-space exploration diatribe a workout at the NASA/AMES Research Center in Mountain View, California. They're in Silicon Valley for the first (theoretically) annual Lunar Science Conference. It's being run by the newly-formed NASA Lunar Science Institute — whose job it will be make dust vapor studies look sexy while doling out $2m grants to teams of lucky researchers.

But whether you support the effort or not, it's a respectable question to ask. Why the moon?

Professor Carlie Pieters of Brown University sets up some of the common pieces of contention:

"Apollo was exciting... but been there done that," she said. "We have enough problems on Earth to solve like climate change, hunger, and war."

Furthermore, Mars and the search for life are more compelling. Titan and Europa are exotic challenges. The big bang, string theory and dark matter are more fundamental, she added. What good can studying the Moon do us?

For one, Pieters argues that the early history of our unusual Earth/Moon system is uniquely documented and accessible on the Moon. Our closest neighbor has changed significantly less than than the constantly shifting face of the Earth. It's a witness to 500 million years of history and preserves it. Further exploration and study of the moon may have major implications in our understanding of how the solar system evolved.

The Moon conveniently shows us the bombardment history of the inner solar system. Further probing of its structure and composition may provide fundamental information on how planets form.

The Moon is also an ideally accessible laboratory for studying the impact process on planetary scales. And that's something we will eventually need.

"Because of the way the universe works, the story of human life is a story of extinction," said Paul Spudis of the Lunar and Planetary Institute (and half-empty guy when it comes to the cosmic ballet apparently).

"It's not a matter of if, but when."

BY- The Register