Anyway, it’s back to CES work for me – I’m really looking forward to sleeping after this week is over…

[Update 2: Jenith (a former MobileBurn employee and fellow Australian) weighs in, as does James Kendrick.]

Today is a travel day, as Ze Frank would say, and while packing up for the impending journey I am faced with the decision of what gadgets to take with me. It’s only the essentials that are coming this time, so the list includes:

1. HP dv2040XT notebook computer
2. Nokia N73 smartphone
3. Motorola MOTOKRZR K1
4. Sandisk Cruzer Titanium thumb drive
5. HP iPAQ h1940 PDA in a GPS car holder for directions
6. Sony CyberShot DSC-W7 digital camera
7. mVox MV900 Bluetooth speakerphone for in the car
8. Assorted memory cards, cables, and chargers for the above

Sitting the trip out that would otherwise be coming is the iMate JAQ I will be reviewing, for the simple reason that it hasn’t arrived yet.

So, if you’re reading this, I would be very interested to hear what gadgets you take with you on a trip. Let’s try and start a meme: post your travel gadgets list to your blog, and be sure to ping me so I can find you. Kent Newsome, Robert Scoble, Richard Querin – I’m looking at you!

Let me say right off the bat that the Motorola MOTOKRZR is one of the nicest feeling devices I have used. Not since the LG KG800 Chocolate have I felt a handset that is so well put together. Nothing creaks or squeaks, and the fit and finish is great. On the other hand though, the MOTOKRZR runs a version of the Motorola UI that is only slightly updated from the RAZR V3 – which is a shame, considering Motorola is sitting on an all-new UI, as seen in the ROKR E2.

In any event, enjoy the quick video, and watch out for the full review to be posted on MobileBurn very soon. Oh, and please excuse the focus work in the video – I’m very new to the video scene!

Also, another new addition that I forgot to mention is the Motorola MOTOKRZR K1 that arrived for review the other day. I have mixed emotions about the device, as the build and feel is excellent, but it still runs only a slightly updated version of Motorola’s classic UI, rather than the funky new Java Linux UI that is on the ROKR E2. I will try to do a short video overview of the device today and post it up here.

Unlike Barry Allwood at MobileScraper (like the name), I think this is a great idea – with a caveat. Like Barry, I hate Motorola’s confusing naming. Why are vowels so bad, Motorola? What I do like, however, are names like LG’s Chocolate. Think about the auto industry, manufacturers do not name their vehicles with long, confusing numbers, but instead give them names that are memorable, which increases model awareness and encourages word of mouth marketing.

I don’t think a pure name based system is the answer, though; Too many names will get just as confusing as the numbers. What I would love to see is manufacturers using names for ranges of products, which are then broken down with short, easy to remember numbers. Samsung, which I previously called the worst offender, has actually begun introducing this method (though only on a very small range of handsets currently). Samsung has its ‘Ultra’ range, which is then broken down into numbers based on the thickness of the handset (Ultra 9.9, Ultra 6.9), and while I don’t particularly like the decimal point in there, I think this is the way of the future.

Imagine it, the Ford SMAD-1901 – pretty memorable…

After the announcements of the MOTOKRZR K1 and MOTORIZR Z3, I really thought that Motorola was going to give me something new. But with no shipping date for these handsets in sight, what has the company given us? That’s right – RAZRs in new colors… again… Though this time it comes in the form of ‘Tattoos’ for the aging handset.

One day, Motorola is going to really surprise me with a handset that just makes me go ‘wow.’

On the MobileBurn side of things, I have reviews for the LG M6100 handset and the Motorola H300 Bluetooth headset in my to-do pile, which I aim to post during this week. The boss man has gone away on vacation for the week, so I’ll be stepping up again to look after the castle.

I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my Nokia E61, which should finally be showing up tomorrow (Monday). I use a lot of phones, but this is one I’m really looking forward to putting through its paces. Expect a mini-review to be posted here on Monday night or Tuesday morning.

I recently got well and truly put in my place in a conversation about the Motorola V3i m. Yes, that ‘m’ at the end is intentional, as is the space after the V3i part. You see, a month or so ago I got word of a Motorola V3im (no space) for the UK market, which is a V3i with iTunes built in. When I queried Motorola about this, as it was a model designation that I had not heard before, they claimed it didn’t exist. As you can probably guess though, it does, but it is a V3i with an ‘m’ variant, not a whole new model, so the PR people weren’t aware of it. To make matters worse, you can also get the plain V3i with iTunes, making the ‘m’ version superfluous anyway. So in summary, yes there is a V3i m, but no there is not a V3im. Thanks, Motorola.

I wonder if something like this can be used as prior art?

It seems as though both Allen from Mobiledia and I had published similar articles at almost the same time. Allen thought that I had sourced his article and published my own without bothering to link back to his. This is understandable, as apparently Allen had scoured the USPTO’s website and found this piece himself – quite a daunting task. The unfortunate thing is that I had this sent to me as a tip before the Mobiledia article was published.

Hence, our two articles were published within nine minutes of each other, with both of us getting inbound links from different websites.

I would like to reaffirm my belief in journalistic integrity. I will never rip off another person’s hard work, as I know I would not want that to happen to me. I will site a source in the article, should there be one, and give credit where credit is due.

I have spoken to Allen, and he is fine with it. From what I can tell though, Allen has been emailing the sites that have linked to MobileBurn and told them that he was my source, and to link to him. As this was not the case, I certainly hope that damage was not done to neither my, nor MobileBurn’s reputation. I understand why Allen did this, so no hard feelings to him, but I hope that no unnecessary damage has been done.

Again, I would like to formally state that all the staff at MobileBurn practice good journalism, and uphold our morals in every way. No Andrew Orlowskis here.

New colors.

The only announcements from Motorola were three new colors for the RAZR V3i, the V3m (which is just a V3c with a memory card slot), and a new low-end handset that takes queues from the PEBL.

I’m sick of Motorola.

The handset business of Motorola is getting by on the success of the RAZR, so the company is getting lazy. There is a lack of innovation coming from the manufacturer, and eventually the RAZR is going to fade away – if the company wants to keep its position in the market, it is going to have to show some interesting devices, or it will be caught with its pants down.

We can’t go on forever waiting for the Q.