02.Day 3 - Ruggadised phones
Mobile phone as tough as a CAT
While ruggadised phones have been around for sometime, few look as hard core as the CAT B10 (pictured right).
While the phone would not look out of place on a mining rig, with its yellow and black casing, its surprisingly light and easy to operate.
It operates on our network 3G bands and uses Android 2.3.5 with the ability to upgrade to Android 4.0 (ICS) down the track.
Performance was good if not amazing for the time I played with the device (it uses a 800MHz Qualcomm processor). That being said, I also wouldn't throw the HTC Velocity, or Samsung Note in the water or kick it around like I did with the CAT phone.
It has a front facing camera and the 5MP camera produced clear sharp photos (at least on screen, I didn't print any out) and it is also one of the very few phones I have seen that is dual SIM and 3G, which means you can have a SIM from work and one from home and take and make calls on both.
All the dual SIM phones we have tested in the past operate on the GSM (2G) network only.
Look out for a full test on this phone later this year.
Angry iPod docks
While there are hundreds of resellers extolling the unique nature of their digital wares at CeBit, many are pushing the same type of device - the dock.
The dock comes in many sizes and shapes, some look like oversize Lego blocks, while others take on the various characters in the popular app game Angry Birds (pictured right).
Connectivity with iDevices such as the iPod, iPhone, and iPad using the proprietary connection are all over the show. Manufacturers are grizzling about the $5 or so that goes to Apple for every device they sell, which they admit they pass onto us.
Other connectivity options that are becoming increasingly more common are devices using Bluetooth or WiFi for added versatility, as the speakers can support many more devices than merely products coming out of an Apple store.
Many of the devices will be showing up in our next portable dock test. We will no doubt give a more thorough assessment, but on first listening the Angry Bird docks sounded very cheap and chirpy (pun intended).