Игры и программы для телефона

Thirty years after revolutionizing portable music with the Walkman for cassette tapes, Sony is trying to master the digital media player with the X Series Walkman.

Tunes sound great and videos look crisp on the device, but Sony still has a lot of work to do to catch up with Apple's market-ruling iPod. While the X Series brims with features like Wi-Fi and noise cancellation, the limitations make it somewhat.

The X Series is sleek, its black, sparkly rectangular body dominated by a bright, sharp, touch screen. The screen is excellent for watching short videos and viewing photos, and it's very responsive to finger taps and swipes.

There are buttons at the top for controlling video and song playback as well - something that came in handy when blasting songs with the player in my pocket.

As expected with a Sony device, music sounded great on the X Series, and there are plenty of options for adjusting it.

The device costs about $300 or $400, depending on whether you want 16 gigabytes or 32 gigabytes. You can buy an iPod Touch for $229 to $399, with memory ranging from 8 GB to 32 GB.

The X Series has a digital FM tuner with surprisingly good reception.

The device comes with an application for Slacker Inc.'s Internet radio service. Songs were crystal-clear.

You'll need to register with Slacker if you want to keep using the application after 30 days.

- By Rachel Metz, The Associated Press Less than a year after T-Mobile released the first smart phone using Google's Android operating system, the operator is back with a sleeker device that takes advantage of software updates.

The myTouch 3G has hardware and software kinks and a $200 price tag that's $50 higher than the predecessor, the G1, both with a two-year contract. But advances to will draw cheers.

The myTouch, looks similar to the G1, but replaces the bulk of its predecessor's slide-out keyboard with a slimmer, lighter frame that sports a touch-screen keyboard like that of the iPhone. Its face is still dominated by a long screen, but it has a few more buttons below the screen, including one that offers a shortcut to Google's search engine.

Besides being lighter, the myTouch has better battery life than the G1. It's rated for up to seven hours of talk time, two more than the older phone.

It is also zippier overall thanks to the Android 1.5 software, which T-Mobile began rolling out to G1 users as well in May.

Taking photos on the G1 using the first iteration of Android was often sluggish, as you never knew when the shutter would click. It's faster on the myTouch.

You can also take videos now, something I could do on the G1 before the software update with a third-party application, and there's a quick link to upload them to YouTube.

One helpful new feature specific to the myTouch is the ability to check work e-mail through Microsoft Exchange. This could make the handset more attractive to business users who want round-the-clock access to both their personal and work e-mail accounts on the same device.

I liked Google's voice search, accessible by holding down myTouch's search button or by swiping the touch screen to the left to reveal a virtual button. It worked impressively well when I commanded it to find sites on "bacon salt" and "best tacos in San Francisco." The only time it slipped up was when I tried something silly "alligator french fries" and it thought I was looking for eBay.

- By Rachel Metz, The Associated Press

Bluetooth wireless headsets have become a lot better at picking out the user's voice from noisy surroundings. But if you're in a breezy place, it's been hard to make yourself heard above the sound of the wind.

The latest generation of high-end headsets, with prices ranging from $100 to $130, promise to do a better job at wind suppression. I tested three.

With today's better headsets, a breeze is noticeable, but I could still make myself heard. In gusty weather, even the best headsets were occasionally overcome.

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