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My brother is a good friend of mine and so he tells me about all the purchases he plans out like his high performance computer, video games and now a superb GPS. The Magellen Maestro 4050 is an amazing device, and if you're in the market for one, you shouldn't at all be surprised about what I'm going to tell you. I'm going to go from obvious to cool features on this GPS.

First off there are pre-loaded US, Canada, and Puerto Rico maps all displayed on a 4.3 inch screen. It is 5. 0 (l) x 3.75 (w) x 0.88 (h) and contained in a high quality plastic case. It can run 2 hours with continuous use but isn't important because mostly you'll have it plugged into your car at all times.

My brother just bought a BMW 328xi with a load of feature including Bluetooth and an integrated feature called BMW assist. BMW Assist system offers safety, security and convenience services at the touch of a button. Using advanced technology, BMW Assist connects you with a trained response specialist, much like OnStar, to help you with almost everything, from an emergency situation to directions and traffic information. How does this relate to the Magellan Maestro 4050? If you didn't pay for some of the luxuries you can add to a car, then this GPS will provide at least some of those for a fraction of the cost. Bluetooth, hands-free calling, and Built-in AAA Travel Information, this will rival an integrated navigation system.

I haven't even got to the best part yet. Next is the included services offered by Magellan. TrafficKit can be added onto the GPS with applicable subsciption fees. Basically, TrafficKit will tell you traffic updates faster than your local radio. Finally, there is voice recognition software. There are two YouTube videos that I found to be quite good. One shows a close-up of the GPS being used with not the best function(click here) and then the other one is more of a review of the voice recognition with a demo(click here).

Compared to TomTom there are some advantages and disadvanges. For one, TomTom has mapshare which is really helpful when you find an error, you can help correct it, and therefore in turn, you'll have a more reliable map. Magellan though has the amazing Voice Command and wins my heart.
I looked at the big three in the industry, Magellan, TomTom, and Garmin and took into account their routing engine and map accuracy. There are two different mapping data providors for these 2 companies, NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas. NAVTEQ is better for North America and comes standard on Magellan units and Garmin (Garmins is several years old but soon to be updated) while TomTom uses Tele Atlas.
I'm not done yet. Here are some pros and cons about the Magellan Maestro 4050.
Pros

• Great, easy to use interface
• notifies you well in advance of turns
• 4.5million P.O.I.S that is better than larger databases on other GPS systems
• Multi-destination routing with route optimization
• QuickSpell, to speed up entering text (no real need to use it with voice commad)
• Loud speaker
• Allows you to see your current location w/ time, speed, direction, & allows you to save your current location
• Four routing methods to choose from
• Only GPS on the market that includes AAA's TourBook information

Cons

• GPS voice is hard to understand and is the worst text-to-speech of Magellan, TomTom, and Garmin
• Cannot enter a street address using the voice command
• Hard to use voice commands while driving
• Docking system is hard to use
• Map colour scheme makes it hard to read
• Sometimes wakes up without you saying "Magellan"
• Icons are transparent, making them hard to see
• Traffic Reciever is big
• P.O.I lookups don't use QuickSpell
• Bluetooth is difficult to hook up with your device
• Map Screen only uses night mode, all other screens stick to day

Retailling at $499, I think I'd pick one up for Christmas.

Pandora's Box was always a secret and when it was finally released and let out into the world, everybody except the US got to look into it. For some time though, Pandora was seen by peering Canadian eyes but last May it was shut down to Canadians. Now there is a website entitled Last.Fm and is open to Canadian residents and the rest of the world. This is a huge relief because I dearly missed Pandora and it's beautiful choices of music. There restrictions to it originally which included prohibiting you to scroll more than 5 times for a set amount of time. Last.Fm does not have many restrictions but they do get a little annoying on their website. For one, you can search up a song/artist on their website, but you can only it for 30 seconds and it doesn't allow you to play the full version on your downloaded software even though it says you can. The stations though play some unique songs like the Rolling Stones version of Into You-Fabolous.

My pet peeve of this software is you can only search for Artists and Tags where you are almost dispersuaded from searching for albums and titles. I suggest you experience becuase right now you don't have an alternative if you're a Canadian resident living in Canada. Let me know what you guys think about the alternative and comment away.

Earlier I did a review on some new websites and I told you I would do a larger review on this website, Zoho: DB & Reports. We'll my dad, who spends hours on the computer making charts, graphs, and spreadsheets, looked at the site and gave it his once over. This is what he thought of it.

All the major phone manufacturers are all abuzz about creating an iPhone killer much like the digital music industry was trying to create an iPod killer. Now Microsoft might have finally succeeded at doing that with the new generation Zune as it's currently hard to find in many US retailers. But that's not the story for today. Today I am here to report on the Blackberry 9000 which is supposed to be an iPhone killer.

Another phone, only thought to be in the US and elsewhere (at least in my mind), the Motorola Razr2 V9 is now being offered by Rogers for $199 with a 3 year contract. Bell Mobility also offers it for the same price. A beautiful phone that I did consider when shopping around for a new cell phone, I simply chose not to buy it because it was a flip phone. It was on the very top of my list in the category of flip. There were many reasons why it was there including aesthetics, size, quality, and actual features.

Look and Feel

One glance at the Razr2 and it had me hooked with it's elegant design and flashy yet modern and professional look. Carrying on the tradition of it's predecessor, it still has the bump on the bottom to support the phone in your hand when using the phone flipped. I guarantee people will comment on the exterior with one of the largest external screens in it's class at 2 inches with a resolution of 320x240. Made of stainless steel, the casing of the V9 is made to impress.

Size

With a small size from it's predecessor, the V9 had a lot to live up to. If there were no new technologies invented from the releases of the original and the V9 then it would be no problem, but Motorola had to contend with 3G.

Razr V3 - 98 x 53 x 13.9 mm and 95g

Razr2 V9 - 103 x 53 x 13.3 mm and 125g

Impressively the V9 shaved off half a millimetre from it's width but it added 30g mainly because of the 3G support. Size still makes this phone appealing and will continue to be a main factor for buyers.

Features

With 45mb of included memory and the option to expand it to 2GB with a MicroSD card the user will be able to store tons of photos, music, and videos. 3G is the newest technology in North America and offers high speed broadband for utilizing your phones internet. Also EDGE will speed up your transfers 3x faster than the current technology. The CrystalTalk��� technology provides the user with a clear & precise talking volume & clarity wherever the user happens to be as the technology will automatically adjust the phone audio volume to suit the user's surroundings which distinctively reminds me of the technology involved in changing the volume when the car speeds up (in my brothers Beamer). The 2.0 megapixel camera comes with an 8x digital zoom & a multi shot camera feature. There are literally tons of other features on this phone but that would take too long. Drop in on your local Bell Mobility store to find out more.

A good friend of mine at CutEdge let me in on a secret, or I just went to his site and read a couple articles. I enjoyed them and took him up on his offerings to join Adrive and MediaMaster.

Adrive

"For the couple of days I���ve been using ADrive, I���ve been able to access it 24/7, both at school when I need data and at home when I do the homework."

When I first went to the site, I was impressed just like any new website that is recommended to me by my good friend at CutEdge and I was equally impressed by the services it offered. ADrive gives us internet users, the chance to own an account that will hold up to 50GB of files, with no fee whatsoever. With no hesitation I clicked the Join Now link and started to register. I entered my usual information but was surprised, yet relieved to learn that my password was not sufficient enough. My password had to be at least 8 characters long, contain a capital letter, and have at least 1 numerical key. Now some people might say this is a pain the butt, but most dually note that this is a hug security feature. The internet is a scary place and ADrive is doing the best to keep it as safe as possible. After registering and logging in, I browsed away, only to come back to this drab screen. I asked myself if a popup came up, but quickly discovered there was no pop-up and it was the website I had been eagerly awaiting, ADrive. The utility of this site though is great and because of its basic design, the ease of use is apparent. Most file uploaders only let you upload one file at a time, but this one let me upload about 150 photos at a rate of 45-65kb/s. It was a long wait but it didn't slow down my computer at all.

MediaMaster

This is a great program because as it's slogan states, "Your Music, Anywhere". It's the perfect slogan as users can upload music to the website and play them from any other computer with an internet conneciton. Setup is easy and with no downloads necessary. They have an uploader but it works all on the internet and uploads at relatively decent speeds. By no means is it speedy as one song took around 5min to upload a 4300kb file with only 5 files set to upload. The more you add to the task, the slower it operates and slows down your computer. One thing I love about this site is the album art. Offered on iTunes and Windows Media Player, MediaMaster is by far the best at it. If it gets anything about the album wrong, you can change it, entering in a different artist, album name, and lets you select a different album art based on that info. I noticed a few drawbacks at first to actually playing the songs. I couldn't figure out why, when I double-clicked the track, it wouldn't play. I am a little impatient so within a couple seconds, I double-clicked another track. Little did I know that this site is streaming the music to you and it takes a little bit of time to load it. Wait approxiametelely 5sec and the music will start playing. Another quirk I noticed when you select an album, it shows you all the songs on that album, but bolds the one you uploaded. This can get a little annoying but gives you a quick reference to the albums track list. Finally, I must say that the experience is great and I'm extremely happy with the quality of the service. The music stream is constant and does not provide any interuptions and it does it all with a nice clean interface.