Here’s the story: I’m in love with the Wacom Intuos 4 Wireless tablet. Free from cables, it’s the best graphics tablet experience I’ve ever had.

Smoother Than the Smoothest Thing

The Wacom Intuos 4 was quite a leap from the Intuos 3. It doubled the pressure sensitive levels, and it added multifunction Touch Ring trackpad, on-screen radial menus, and eight user-definable buttons with OLED tags—called ExpressKeys—in a thin, ultralight 2.2-pound package. The Wacom Intuos 4 Wireless has all those characteristics, and they work equally as well over the Bluetooth connection.

With a sightly smaller working surface than the Medium model—8 x 5 inches versus the 8.8 x 5.5 inches of the cable-bound model—the wireless tablet is a pure joy to use. The 2048 levels of pressure sensitiveness, requiring only 1 gram of pressure to start painting vs the 10 grams of the previous version, offer the best real drawing simulation of any of the tablets I’ve ever tried. It feels like the real thing, with the slightest touch transferred to the screen as if it was real media. The brushstrokes are as smooth and precise as the real thing, and the tablet never misses a single beat, no matter how fast I try to move its very comfortable stylus—which comes with different tips for different surface feedback.

This performance is not only good for digital painting. It is perfect to retouch in Photoshop, allowing you to mask or clone with absolute precision, down to the last pixel, without having to vary the size of the brush. It makes everyday brush tasks so easy it makes me giddy when I’m using it.

Screw the Keyboard

But plenty of other tablet features also help dramatically in the daily workflow, allowing you to circumvent the keyboard almost completely.

Take the multifunction Touch Ring, a circular trackpad that allows you to perform four different, user-definable functions, like zoom: Circling my finger in one direction would zoom out. Doing so in the opposite direction will zoom out. The second function will cycle through layers, the third will change the brush size—although sadly this doesn’t work in Photoshop—and the fourth rotates the canvas to face the physical orientation of your tablet. To switch to the next function, you click in the middle button. An LED will change and your monitor will display an elegant transparent dialog that fades in and out briefly, but long enough to identify the new trackpad function.

The eight user-definable ExpressKeys are located in a perfect position: Four above and four below the Touch Ring. Each is labeled with a completely customizable OLED display, much like the Optimus Maximum keyboard, but presented in a starkly contrasting black and white. (The display looks so good that, at first glance, you’re sure the buttons are permanent, backlit cutouts.) Like the Touch Ring, you can define the functions for these buttons using the Wacom control panel. The labels will change according to your preference.

Another favorite feature of mine—which I’ve been jonesing for since I stopped using Alias PowerAnimator and Maya—are the radial menus. These are just software-based and can also be found on the Cintiq line, but they are great timesavers. Pop-up radial menus are easier to use than regular pop-up list menus (both for mouse and tablet operation). They are also user-defined, and give you eight functions at a time, which can also be sub-menus.

However, the best thing is that all these features can be application dependent, something that was possible with previous Wacom tablets, but not with this level of detail and finesse. In Photoshop, for example, my radial menus are tailored to fit my most used program features. The result is that I touch the keyboard very rarely, if at all.

Perfect Wireless Performance

All these cool features and exceptional performance, however, are shared with the existing, cheaper, cabled Intuos 4. The question here is: How good is the performance of the Intuos 4 Wireless over the Bluetooth connection? And what about the battery life?

Response is just as fast and just as good. The Wacom Intuos 4 Wireless works just like the USB-based Intuos 4.

As for the lithium ion battery, it charges quickly via USB. The tablet puts itself to sleep when it detects no signal and, as a result, you can use the tablet for a day, heavily, without recharging it at all. (Or just keep it around without worrying about losing power.) The advantage of USB recharging is that you can be using it while connected to the computer, with the cable itself as the connection (the Bluetooth goes off when the tablet is connected physically).

My only little gripe with the wireless component of the tablet is that, on occasion, it will take a few seconds to reconnect when you turn it on. This happened when the computer wakes up first, so I suspect is an issue with Bluetooth getting silly after the Mac wakes up. 99% of the times is instantaneous, however.

A Joy to Use

If you have a Wacom Intuos 4 you can probably skip this upgrade. That is, unless you are itching to have the freedom of movement of the Bluetooth connection. That’s the joy of this tablet: You can move around freely with it. It adapts to your position, not the other way around. You don’t depend on your table. You can lay back on your chair, and lose yourself in hours of photo retouching or illustration.

Given the nature of its custom menus, any user can take advantage of the Intuos 4 for every program. You can be using it constantly, instead of a mouse. If you just want to use it for graphic applications, however, another advantage is that you can put it away easily, without having to disconnect it or struggle with cables.

This tablet could only be bettered if they made it into a wireless display. Like the iPad, but connected to the computer so I can use Photoshop on my bed, the sofa or outside on the terrace (the Bluetooth signal gets there, I tried).

If you have an Intuos 3 or any other display-less Wacom tablet, get the Intuos 4 Wireless. Even though it doesn’t come with a mouse—like the regular Intuos 4 Medium—it’s absolutely worth its $399 price tag (just $30 more than the USB-based Intuos 4’s list price).

Amazing performance with 2048 levels of pressure and only 1 gram of minimum pressure

Touch Ring and ExpressKeys customizable controls avoids touching the keyboard

Slightly pricier than Intuos 4 Medium, and it doesn’t come with the mouse

A couple of times it took the Intuos 4 a few seconds to reconnect after being asleep, although this is probably related to the computer coming out of sleep as well

Packed into the deceptively small package of the BlackBerry VM-605 Bluetooth Car Kit you’ll find a host of quality audio equipment and technology that puts this car kit a step ahead of the pack. Now I know you’re asking yourself, “I thought this was a Palm site, not CrackBerry.com.” You’re right, but seeing as the VM-605 is a bluetooth car kit, it should be more or less universal and work with just about any bluetooth-equipped phone. The Pre would be one such phone, and the VM-605 performed admirably when paired.

read more

The Palm Touchstone is a great product, one of those "Why didn’t I think of that" kinds of things that seems small and insignificant but actually changes the way you feel about everyday stuff – like charging your phone. It’s in my own Top Five Pre Accessories and it should be in yours too.

It recently won Editor’s Choice as "Peripheral of the Year" in the Engadget Awards (thanks to everybody who sent that in!). Congrats to the team at Palm for creating a great accessory that’s well-thought-out all the way down to the micro-suction material on the bottom.

Were you aware than the Touchstone is also eco-friendly? PreCentral reader Otto plugged his into a Kill-A-Watt meter:

I always assumed that, like my induction charger on my electric toothbrush which draws 1W of power all the time, the Touchstone was an energy waster despite its convenience. Further, I assumed the induction charger to be inefficient and thus even more wasteful. Well, having tested it with a Kill-A-Watt meter, I’ve learned that it actually draws *zero* watts until a phone is placed on it, and then it only draws a mere 4 watts

Impressive, no? It has us wondering what’s next for Touchstone. We’ve asked this once before but thought we’d bring it up again, especially now that we’ve seen what a little clever thinking can do – the Nexus One Dock has a nice dock mode and Bluetooth for audio. The Touchstone has some clever behavior when it comes to phone calls, but what else could it do?

So what are the top three things you’d like to see in the future of Touchstone?

What Features Would You Most Like to See Next for Touchstone?(polls)

The current lot of PDAs, and perhaps their smartphone and Tablet PC stand-ins, are neat technology, but could you go to war with one? (Maybe even more relevant: could you afford to drop yours?) If what you need is something that will withstand a lot more abuse, AIS Industrial Innovations has something that might interest you: the Mobile Rugged PDA (RPDA37), with the looks and brawn that pair well with your cosplay Master Chief outfit.

The Mobile Rugged PDA is MIL-STD-810F/461F compliant, has an “ingress protection rating of IP67” and meets the IEC 60529 (IP65) international protection standard. It’s build to withstand extreme conditions, repeated five-foot drops, and thermal shock. And it has cool rubberized bumpers.

While that’s impressive, perhaps the internal specs aren’t. The RPDA37 has a Marvell PXA270 625MHz processor, 256MB RAM, and a base storage of 256MB Flash ROM. It has a 3.7-inch transflective TFT LCD that’s touchscreen capable. Resolution depends on the option chosen: either QVGA, 240 x 320, or VGA, 480 x 640. And for operating systems there’s a choice of Windows CE 5.0 or Windows Mobile 6.1.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are standard, but GPS/GAlILEO and GPRS/3G/3.5G are optional. Ports include two USB 1.1 Type A connectors, one USB 1.1 Type B mini connector, an RS-232 port, and ethernet port, headphone and microphone jacks, and a Micro-SD slot.

If you really got to have one you’re going to need to save. The base model will set you back $1,899.

Image Credit: AIS Industrial Innovations

Yesterday we saw the Samsung Wave from afar, today we get our first close look at Samsung’s first Bada-powered handset. The Wave is indeed the S8500, the first handset to receive Bluetooth SIG certification for the new Bluetooth 3.0 standard.

Ironically, Bluetooth was left out of the list of leaked specs but we will presume that Bluetooth 2.0 and possibly 3.0 is on board. Besides Bluetooth, the Wave will offer a 3.3 inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display, five megapixel camera with autofocus and flash, 720p video, DivX support, 2GB internal memory with microSD expansion, HSDPA connectivity, Wi-Fi, 1 GHz processor, 3.5mm headphone jack, aluminum body, 1500 mAh battery, and the Bada OS with Touchwiz 3.0. The Wave has the typical appearance of a Samsung phone with two flush front buttons, a triangular four way navigational button, triangular camera and flash, and brushed metal accents. Other than the performance of the Bada OS, which will have to wait until the first hands-on video is released, all that is left to find out about this handset is its launch date and geographic availability, a not so trivial fact we hope is announced when Samsung officially unveils this handset next week at MWC. [DailyMobile.se]

gawkerGallery(5471073,4,”);

BGR features the latest tech news, mobile-related content and of course, exclusive scoops.

The Jabra Cruiser bluetooth car kit packs a bevy of technology in a sleek and shiny package. While far from innovative, the Jabra Cruiser is an adequate car kit and performs capably when paired with a Palm Pre. As you might imagine, adequate does not equal superb. The Cruiser just didn’t measure up to its price tag when it came to making calls.

read more

The Jabra Cruiser bluetooth car kit packs a bevy of technology in a sleek and shiny package. While far from innovative, the Jabra Cruiser is an adequate car kit and performs capably when paired with a Palm Pre. As you might imagine, adequate does not equal superb. The Cruiser just didn’t measure up to its price tag when it came to making calls.

read more

Handsets like the iPhone may be capable of transmitting stereo Bluetooth, but as we’ve seen, it’s tough to find a great stereo Bluetooth headset. So TDK just hands us a dongle instead.

Their new TH-WR700 utilizes any 3.5mm headphone port to transmit music for up to 10 meters, and thanks to Kleer wireless tech rather than Bluetooth, TDK claims a much higher fidelity—up to 40db less noise in the signal, which would be more than noticeable.

The TH-WR700 goes on sale in Japan starting this March for about $200, but there’s no word on a US release at this time. [TDK via CrunchGear]

Look, we can hate on Bluetooth headsets all we want, but the fact is, they’re both practical and popular among a certain set—and Aliph’s new Jawbone Icon is a solid choice, though barely changed from previous versions.

The Price

$100

What’s New?

There are no major audio enhancements here; the company’s made tweaks to its NoiseAssassin noise canceling tech, but I compared it to the last new Jawbone product, the Prime, and neither I nor the person I called could hear a difference between the two. That means it sounds fine, not noticeably worse than normal phone use, although I did notice that the volume was a little bit low, even at its highest settings. But even standing on a busy street, calls were pretty clear on both ends. One really nice addition is volume equalizing—if you’re in a conference call with a loud talker and a soft talker, it’ll even them both out to a comfortable level. Basically, it sounds fine, which is about all you can ask for from a Bluetooth headset—but I would definitely have liked to see some kind of major improvement to warrant a whole new product.

Physically, it’s shorter and more squat than the Prime, as well as lighter (though it’s not like the Prime was weighing down your ear). It also comes in six different colors and patterns, each of which is named after a broad stereotype (The Hero, The Bombshell, The Rogue). Each caricature has its own appropriate voice actor to read notifications (the Bombshell sounds like Jenna Jameson, the Rogue sounds like Batman; all are hilarious, possibly unintentionally), though you can choose which one you want in the MyTalk app store (more on that later).

You’ll be hearing those voices a lot, since they’ve replaced the previous Jawbone’s bleeps and bloops with vocal notifications (“Incoming call,” “You have four hours of talk time remaining,” things like that). It’s not a bad system, but most of the voices are so laughably cheesy that it can be more distracting than a simple “beep boop.” Also, while it does read caller IDs, it only reads the number, not the name—pretty much useless, since who memorizes phone numbers anymore?

There are some minor design changes as well; the Icon charges by standard microUSB instead of a proprietary jack, it has an actual on/off slider (instead of a hidden button), the position of the LED is moved to be less ostentatious, that kind of thing—all of those changes are welcome. Oh, and a bonus for iPhone users (and only iPhone users): The Icon’s battery life gets its own little icon, right next to the iPhone’s, which is convenient.

In terms of comfort, I actually found it less comfortable than the Prime—the Icon is so short that it doesn’t get up much leverage to press against your jaw, making it feel less sturdy. It’s not, though; a vigorous and childish head-shaking proved that it stays in your ear just fine. That could just be personal taste, of course, but the Prime just feels more solid to wear.

gawkerGallery(5450433,8,”);

The Unnecessary App Store

Aliph also created what’s essentially an app store for the Icon, called MyTalk. Why? Fuck if I know. They’ve only got a couple language packs and some simple stuff like one-touch Free411 calling in there at launch, because a Bluetooth headset does not deserve an app store. I pressed Aliph for some details on where they thought MyTalk might be headed, and they didn’t share any ideas beyond the omnipresent Twitter. They may not actually know what to do with it—they seemed unwilling to commit to anything complicated or cool like, say, a Google Maps app.

For now, it works mostly like a firmware update (which makes sense, because firmware updates are a major part of MyTalk right now). You plug in your Jawbone, log into the website, and choose which app you want. Then another program, the Jawbone Updater, loads the apps onto the headset. The apps themselves are triggered with a long press on the Icon’s only button, which brings up the most salient point about why a Bluetooth headset doesn’t need an app store: It doesn’t really do that much. It only has one button, it has no interface to speak of, no screen, and connects only via Bluetooth. So I’m not really sure how they plan to flesh out the store—they mentioned Twitter, but it’s unclear exactly how that would work.

As it stands: This is a bridge too far, you guys. What’s good for the goose (the goose being smartphones, obviously) is not good for the goddamn Bluetooth headset. Kill it, Aliph. Update firmware some other way.

The Verdict

It’s probably the best Bluetooth headset on the market—it does the job, it’s cheaper and smaller than its predecessor (the Prime was $130), and sound quality is still tops in the category. Of course, it’s also gotten oddly silly since the last generation; the designs are pretty tacky (they may look cool in photos, but they’re very plasticky in person), the new voices are a big old pot of savory fondue, and the app store is ill-conceived but easily ignored. All that considered, if you’re looking for a Bluetooth headset, I don’t have any hesitation about recommending the Icon—just don’t expect any huge changes.

Very good sound quality

Lower price

Smaller size, but feels less secure

Cheeseball voice actors replace bleeps and bloops

Doesn’t read caller ID names

App store is a ridiculous idea