2006 BMW 750Li

The good: The 2006 BMW 750Li offers a limousinelike cabin brimming with technology, while its power and handling compensate for the car's size. Highlights include power-adjustable rear seats and sophisticated cell phone integration.

The bad: The 2006 BMW 750Li edges close to the $100,000 mark with all the options, not including an MP3 player interface. And iDrive still hurts more than it helps.

The bottom line: The 2006 BMW 750Li boasts one of the best interiors of any standard production vehicle, with technology amenities galore. Neither this nor the impressive performance comes cheap, but discerning buyers at this level will be satisfied with the complete package.

Intro: The 2006 BMW 750Li is chock-full of electronic vehicle systems for performance, safety, and convenience, and it constitutes an impressive blend of spirited driving and luxurious comfort. The crispness that makes the company's smaller cars worthy of their corporate motto isn't fully present in the 7 Series, but the negative dynamic effects of the car's size are offset by the space it affords inside.

BMW's much-maligned iDrive controller for the main dashboard functions rears its head twice in 750 models equipped with the Rear Entertainment Package, as our car was. Even with the 2006 BMW 750Li's revised submenus, iDrive is indeed difficult to master without a real investment of time. But in a vehicle with such a range of electronic adjustments and features to control and customize, BMW at least deserves points for homogenizing input to such a degree. A small army of knobs and buttons might be more direct and, we dare say, intuitive but would pull the driver's eyes off the road more often.

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O2 Xda IIi Handheld Review

The O2 Xda IIi is the latest offering from O2 which is an upgrade to the hugely popular O2 Xda II. The Xda IIi features a faster processor (520 MHz instead of the 400 MHz in the Xda II), and more memory (128 MD SDRAM).You can even control the processor speed to run eihter in 'Standard' or 'Turbo' mode. This means you now have more power and memory to run demanding multimedia applications. In addition there is the option to slide in a MMC or SDIO card at the top. One up by O2 here!.

The O2 Xda IIi features a huge 3.5 inch , 65,000 color Active Screen. The Xda IIi has Windows Media Player 10 pre-installed and it also has shortcuts to popular applications on the screen so that you do not need to to fumble with the Windows Mobile Edition.

The Xda IIi is now equipped with a 1.3 megapixel camera which is activated by a touch of a button on the side. The camera can now shoot stills upto 960x1280 pixels and videos upto 240x320 pixels which is great. As far as connectivity goes, the IIi comes equipped with all possible options. It boasts of a Triband phone, GPRS, Bluetooth, MMS, SMS, Wi-Fi and Infrared. It has a smart feature which alerts you evertime you enter a new Wi-Fi node though it can become irritating at times.

In terms of weight and size, there is little difference as compared to the earlier Xda II. The Xda IIi weighs only 10 gms more than its predecesser and is the same 69mm wide x 130mm tall x 19.9mm high as Xda II. The claimed battery life is 4 hours of talktime and 168 hours of standby time and approximately 15 hours of use in handheld mode.

All in all, the O2 Xda IIi is an excellent business tool, packed with every imaginable feature you would need. The Windows Mobile Edition takes some time getting used to and a more intelligent and user-friendly version will be welcome for this Xda. It looks much better than its darker siblings and will definitely make corporate heads turn at your work place!

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Cowon iAudio A2 (20GB)

The Cowon iAudio A2 is a sleek, attractive, and all-encompassing portable video player with video-recording capability that suffers only when compared to that of the similarly appointed Archos AV500 Mobile DVR. At this early juncture, the iAudio A2 lacks remote control functionality and Windows Media DRM 10 compatibility, which is vaguely promised to "be supported later." The iAudio A2 is now available in 20GB ($400) and 30GB ($450) capacities.

Upside: Like the Archos AV500 Mobile DVR, the Cowon iAudio A2 has a dazzling 4-inch, 480x272-pixel wide-screen display that makes everything from photos to videos look sharp and bright, even in daylight. The A2 is simple to use, though the Creative Zen Vision is more intuitive. Only five buttons adorn the clean A2 face: a multifunction joystick navigational array; a Back key; and three soft menu keys marked A, B, and C that correspond to onscreen options. The A2's impressive list of capabilities include an MP3/WMA/WAV/OGG music player; an FM radio; an AVI, DivX/XviD, WMV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and ASF video player, though no motion JPEG compatibility; a JPG, BMP, and PNG picture viewer; a voice and line-in recorder; a text reader; and, best of all, a PVR to record TV programming directly from your cable box, satellite receiver, or TV. What stands out is the number of codecs and resolutions the Cowon can handle--without video conversion. Unlike the Archos, which requires a separate hub that enables a higher-quality S-Video connection, the Cowon uses the minijack-to-RCA connection familiar to anyone who's hooked up a camcorder to a TV. Cowon's rated battery times of 18 hours for audio and international-flight-friendly 10 hours for video are also excellent.

Downside: Both the Archos AV500 Mobile DVR and the Creative Zen Vision (the iAudio A2's direct competitors) are slightly smaller and lighter than the 5.25-by-3.1-by-0.87-inch, 10.5-ounce 20GB Cowon. The A2 doesn't have a convenient built-in kickstand, but the included carrying case can prop the player up for hands-free viewing. Though the battery lasts a good while, it's not removable, as with the AV500. A 100GB option for the A2 would be a nice for power users. All content is listed alphabetically in their varying sections, but a lot of material is buried deep in folders that require some drilling, depending on how it was transferred to the device. Unlike with the Zen Vision, you can't sync your Microsoft PIM programs, and it doesn't support TiVo To Go. Though the A2 sounds great, the built-in speaker is not very loud, as it is with the Zen Vision. Finally, even with file compatibility, the device does not yet work with Janus, and there are no legal and easy sources for decent video programming. It's a good thing the A2 records.

Outlook: Portable video players are gaining momentum, and Cowon's first entry can hang with the best of them--namely, the Archos AV500 and the Creative Zen Vision. Not only can the iAudio A2 do just about anything, it has excellent battery life and is easy to use. The only thing keeping nonearly adopters from ripping these off the shelves is the general lack of legally available video, though the Cowon iAudio A2 can play much of what's thrown at it. Look for Cowon's first portable video player entry to be hot--if not with the general public, then with portable video connoisseurs.

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