The only thing to be disappointed about in the Mini-Note is the processor. The Via C7-M isn't a powerhouse. But on a system this size, how much performance are you going to need? Short of free, it's always easy to say the price is a little high but compare it to the OQO with the same processor to see how quickly the price for a really portable machine is going down. And if you want to know exactly why I like the keyboard so much, see my preview over at Tom's Hardware...

My first thought about the mini-v was; the battery looks a bit big. My second was, ooh look a button marked Launcher and a button marked Shutter. When I started using it I thought, the calibration's off and I can't hit the Start button. Then I ran through the utilities, fixed the calibration* and noticed the battery life was well over five hours with Wi-Fi on. I tried typing and discovered that the bezelled keys let me touch type, unlike the Asus Eee PC. Then I stuck it in my bag and noticed it was light, pulled it out at the airport and enjoyed playing Spider Solitaire with a finger rather than a pen and decide that for £600-odd it's far more my kind of machine than the Eee. Check out the details of why I say it's more than just a sub-notebook on Tom's Hardware.

BT has the XP version with a Geode preocessor for £590, or bundled with a mouse and USB TV stick for £630,, though it's £800 for the 800MHz Vista version I tested . US pricing is better at $1199 with Vista/XP or $1099 for bring your own OS.

*I know the original Japanese model had a calibration issue and that the Linux drivers may not help you enough here. If I'm using a touchscreen I want Vista for the touch support.

What's 3G got to do with 3G? Add in the location of the cell tower and your GPS-enabled phone can look in the right part of the sky for satellites, so it gets a fix more quickly and uses less power to do it. Online POIs are more up to date, you can get maps over the air rather than loading them in advance and calculating a route on a powerful server should be faster than doing it on your phone. That's the theory: on our last US trip we checked out Ask GPS and Nokia Maps in practice. My review on Tom's Hardware reminds me of sunny days in Las Vegas and driving through the Cascades looking for espresso huts, taxi drivers in New York and Cincinatti who didn't know where they were going - and how often I longed to throw the N95 out of the window... I did Google Maps, Windows Live Search Mobile and Yahoo Go 2 back in the summer but I need to revisit Google Maps now it has the excellent locate without GPS feature and I want to review CoPilot 7 on the O2 XDA Stella... handy that we have a road trip coming up then...

A brief look at the Asus Eee PC and a slightly longer piece on the Logitech Wave keyboard - an ergonomic design that tries to look standard - both in FT Digital Business.

and it's got GPS and 3G built in. QWERTY, check; Wi-Fi-, check; true slate format because the keyboard is magnetic, check. But the HTC Advantage (I reviewed it at http://www.itpro.co.uk/reviews/133941/htc-advantage-x7500.html) runs Windows Mobile; is that the only reason it didn't generate the same excitement as the Eee PC?

EDIT: note - I'm curious in terms of how many people have said they want the Eee PC with a 3G card, which means I consider it fair game to price the Advantage with a data contract, reducing it significantly from the non-contract price. The comments make me think it's the price for the size that is appealing to most of you,.

Want a multitouch phone now? There's the Prada and the iPhone. And for the rest of us there's the HTC Touch. Simon and I don't quite agree on this one; for business users who don't like QWERTY I think this is a pretty good phone. Here's why

I've been playing with more phones for IT Pro....

The HTC Excalibur - also known as the T-Mobile Dash - is a smart, capable, lightweight smartphone with multimedia features good enough to let you keep it in your pocket out of business hours. By the time the Motorola Q finally makes it to the UK, the S620 may have stolen its market.
Read on at http://www.itpro.co.uk/reviews/118512/htc-s620-smartphone.html

The first BlackBerry to combine a full keyboard and camera, the 8300 Curve doesn't have the visceral desirability of the Pearl - or the slab-like bulk of the 8800 - but it does have QWERTY and trackball, spell checking and competent multimedia in a small and neat package.
Read on at http://www.itpro.co.uk/reviews/119405/blackberry-8300-curve.html

I like them both and I've stuck with the Excalibur for personal use to replace the Treo 750v - the battery life, the better call quality and the standard connector plus the slimmer size made up for losing the extra software features. If you're a BlackBerry fan - and you have BES - the 8300 is an excellent phone. Incidentally, I wrote the review of it on the flight from San Francisco to Indianapolis...

The Shure E500 earphones are the priciest I've used and the best too; they have three drivers in the sleek bronze chunks. Westone has the choice of one driver or two drivers in a nice but not as sleek package with not as high a price. Which sounds better and can two drivers match three? read my Tom's Hardware review for all the details...

My review of the Canon EOS 5D doesn't seem to be live yet, but you can read what I think of the Power Shot S2, sorry the updated PowerShot S3 that's very similar to the S2, over at ThinkCamera...

sbisson and I wrote the first batch of reviews for ThinkCamera a while back but now that the site is live I can atually link to it.

Review Pentax Optio S6
Review Kodak EasyShare P850
Review Ricoh Caplio GX8
Review Fujifilm FinePix S5600
Review Fujifilm FinePix S9500

Hmm; some of those should really have Simon's name on ;-)