OTHER TECH

Day One: Coconut Grove Coconut Grove was once a tiny village of bohemian artists, and although the tourists now outnumber the locals, it's still pretty funky, with lots of great restaurants and shops. The Sonesta Hotel & Suites was home base, and despite a poolside fashion show that kept everyone up late, we were up early, ready to play - um, start testing gear.

But first, breakfast on the sea-breeze-swept terrace and an e-mail check. Sure, you could pop open a drab battleship-gray notebook computer, but in the presence of glitterati, would you really want to? The Toshiba Satellite P15-S420 presents a more stylish look and has the muscle to back it up.

Ken relezses in Scott e-Vest TEC sports jacket while Leslie checks out some photos n the Toshiba Satelitte.

The Satellite's deep-blue cover, black base, and chrome accents make quite an impression, and its 15 1/2-inch widescreen XGA display is stunning, thanks in part to an Nvidia GeForce FX graphics processor. It packs a 3-GHz Pentium 4 processor, an 80-gigabyte (GB) hard drive, a DVD+R/RW and -R/RW drive, a slot for SD flash-memory cards, dedicated DVD/CD transport controls, S-video outputs, and USB 2.0 and FireWire ports. The ultra-cool styling was a Fashion Do, but the 9-pound weight caused a small bead of perspiration to appear on Leslie's brow - a definite Fashion Don't. We were also concerned about its short 2-hour battery life.

Still, we used its optional integrated Wi-Fi connectivity and the hotel's wireless cloud to delete some spam and catch up on mail. We decided not to find a McDonald's and use the hot spots (Wi-Fi with fries) that are appearing in more and more franchises, since the cinnamon rolls at the Sonesta were quite yummy. Business chores completed, we turned to more pleasurable activities.

In particular, we pulled out the Panasonic D-snap SV-AV100 camcorder to capture some views from the terrace. This very svelte cam shoots video both in the MPEG-2 format used for DVDs and in the lower-quality but more compact MPEG-4 multimedia format. It also shoots still images in the JPEG format and features a 10x optical zoom, a digital image stabilizer, and a rotating 2 1/2-inch LCD viewscreen that's both crisp and bright.

The SV-AV100 records up to 10 minutes of video in Fine mode (704 x 480 pixels) or up to 10 hours in Normal mode (352 x 480) to the supplied 512-megabyte (MB) SD card. It was a snap to eject the postage-stamp-size SD card, plug it into the Satellite, and view our movies and stills on the notebook's wide screen. Videos in Fine mode, though brief, were comparable to those from some DV camcorders, but Normal mode looked pretty rough. Stills were like those from low-resolution digital cameras, although the image stabilization helped the D-snap capture a sharper picture using zoom.

Operation is easy, with few buttons and menus to navigate. But the Panasonic still offers plenty of flexibility. For example, you can adjust white balance, set backlight compensation and exposure, adjust focus, and select one of several auto-exposure modes. You can even perform simple editing in the camera. The D-snap provides good connectivity, with A/V inputs and outputs and a USB 2.0 port. And all that in a package weighing less than 5 ounces. We also liked its wireless remote control - ideal for taking self-portraits.

Incidentally, while sipping his Florida orange juice, Ken luxuriated in the Scott eVest TEC sports jacket. This three-button navy-blue blazer combines the form of European styling with the functionality of pockets - lots of them. In fact, it has eight more hidden pockets than a billiards table, 14 in all (in addition to the normal, visible pockets any jacket would have). They're tucked away throughout the lining, on both sides, and in the rear, and they're all zippered.

Another nice touch is small pouches with Velcro closures behind each lapel for carrying earbuds. There are also elastic loops on each side to keep the earbud cables from dangling embarrassingly low. MP3 players, digital cameras, cellphones, videogames - every piece of gear we tested, in fact, except the notebook could be carried in this jacket with the utmost discretion.

PDF: Fast Facts