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Static plagues 9 percent of cell phone calls and 8 percent are dropped or disconnected, according to a study of U.S. network quality.
Verizon Wireless got top marks, just ahead of Nextel and Cingular.
J.D. Power and Associates, in its first such study, surveyed 16,800 wireless gabbers about seven common problems. Some, such as interference on calls, were weighted more heavily in the study.
In fact, customers who said they would likely switch carriers in the next year reported, on average, that they could hear static on 19 percent of their calls, well above the industry rate of 9 percent. People who said they definitely won't switch wireless providers heard static on just 5 percent of their calls.
Using 100 as the industry average for overall network performance, Verizon Wireless scored 104. Nextel got 103, Cingular 101 and AT&T Wireless 100. The carriers scoring below average were Sprint PCS with 95, T-Mobile at 94 and Alltel at 93.
Garmin puts GPS in Palm handheld
Garmin's new iQue 3600 is the first handheld that is also a GPS receiver - a remarkable feat, considering that it's no larger than a typical Palm organizer. It runs on the Palm 5.2.1 operating system, meaning that it synchronizes its calendar, address book and to-do list with a home computer and can run any of thousands of add-on programs. It comes with a voice recorder and Documents to Go, a program that lets you view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files when you're on the move.
The $550 iQue's bright color screen (320 by 480 pixels) covers the entire face of the device. This setup lets you hide the Graffiti handwriting area when you've got more important things to look at, such as maps. It also shows the letter shapes you're making as you write, as though your inkless stylus had ink, which makes it easier to master the Palm alphabet.
When you flip out the antenna (a hinged panel at the top of the iQue's back), you switch on the GPS circuitry. The iQue hunts for satellite signals, which can take a minute or so to lock in. When it figures out where you are, a map of your current location appears on the screen.
Using a handy thumbwheel on the left side, you can adjust the map's magnification level. With the image zoomed out all the way, you're looking at the North American continent; with it zoomed in all the way, you can practically count the pores on your nose.
The iQue can store a base map of the entire country: that is, the general contours of the land and water, the major cities and the biggest roadways. You could drive across the country using such a map as your guide, but you wouldn't know where to stop for gas.
Fortunately, using the home computer as a transfer station, you can load up detailed maps of the area you plan to visit from the two map-data CDs included with the device.
Overall, the experience is much like using the $3,000 navigation systems built into the dashboards of expensive cars. Because the iQue also accepts signals from WAAS (Wide-Area Augmentation System, a supplementary navigation signal broadcast by the Federal Aviation Administration for aircraft use), it's much more accurate than less expensive GPS units.
Ritz Camera tests inexpensive digital camera
Digital cameras usually sell for $200 and up, a lot more than their film equivalents. But Ritz Camera has begun to sell (and in Wisconsin, Walgreens is test-marketing) a single-use digital camera that costs about as much as, and works like, a disposable film camera. The Ritz Dakota Digital and the Studio 35 Digital from Walgreens hold 25 pictures with a 2-megapixel resolution, enough for enlargements of up to 6 by 8 inches. That capacity need not be wasted on bad shots; users can delete a picture if they suspect it is flawed, creating room for retakes.
The economy comes at a price: There is no LCD screen on the camera to show what the pictures look like.
Automatic exposure and flash controls eliminate some potential picture errors, though. A self-timer enables the photographer to get into the picture.
The camera costs $10.99, which includes a set of 4-by-6-inch prints, an index print showing thumbnails of all 25 shots, and a photo CD, allowing for further home or commercial printing. The CD also contains Mac and PC software for viewing, saving, printing or e-mailing photos, which need not be installed in the user's computer.
Ritz (www.ritzcamera.com) has 1,200 locations across the country under the Ritz, Wolf, Kits, Inkleys and Camera Shop names.
Just how important is your e-mail to you?
E-mail has become such a critical part of business that some system overseers consider a breakdown more traumatic than a divorce. Veritas Software's Mark Bregman, whose company released a report on reliability, said, "E-mail has become far more than a communication tool, placing a huge responsibility on organizations to ensure it is always available."
Nearly half the respondents say they would have difficulty retrieving particular e-mail messages if requested, and over a third of the IT staff questioned find the loss of e-mail more traumatic than events such as a car accident or getting a divorce.
Keeping a grip on Toshiba's portable DVD player
Portables, which are moved more frequently than desktop equipment, are also more often dropped - and "Oops!" isn't something you want to say when carrying an expensive DVD player.
Toshiba's SD-P1200 player has what it calls a sure-grip design that includes a hand-friendly shape with finger recesses and a rubberized texture. The rubberized section is bright red, and the rest black.
The machine, which has a list price of $599 and is available through online and bricks-and-mortar retailers, plays standard and recordable DVDs and CDs as well as MP3 CDs.
It has a remote control and all the jacks needed for connection to home theater systems, including S-Video and digital audio outputs. A lithium-ion battery clips to the bottom; after a little less than 41/2 of charging, it will run the player for 31/2 hours, about long enough for two ordinary movies.
Dual headphone jacks allow you and a friend to watch quietly together, and the virtual surround works well, especially through headphones. The performance is sure-footed, too: The 7-inch wide-screen display is bright enough to view outdoors in open shade.
- Compiled from Times wires