The Palm Centro

The two companies most often associated with corporate-issued devices, Research In Motion Ltd. and Palm Inc. are anxious to convert people like my friends. This week I tested Palm’s new attempt: the Centro (www.palm.com/centro). It looks like a hip, miniature version of the more expensive Palm Treo, with most of the same functions and only costs $99 after rebates and a two-year contract. The Centro comes in onyx and ruby, though the latter won’t be sold until next month.

Overall, I liked the Centro. It has plenty of pluses, including a touch screen, easy email set-up for personal accounts like Gmail and Hotmail, built-in instant messaging for three programs, a camera for still shots or video and expandable memory. It’s available now and runs on Sprint’s fast 3G network, costing at least $15 monthly for data on top of your voice plan. Like the Treo, it has a tiny stylus for detailed screen selecting and an on/off ringer switch.

RIM should be credited with introducing one of the first hip, mini smart phones to the demographic of 25-to-30-year-olds without smart phones. About a year ago, it brought out the $200 BlackBerry Pearl 8100, which is narrower than traditional BlackBerrys and is easy to mistake for a stylish cellphone. It uses a condensed keyboard with two letters per key that works using auto-correcting SureType technology, and has a glowing trackball for navigation.

For Palm’s Centro to compete with the Pearl, it, too, needed to be thinner left to right. But instead of doubling up letters per key and using SureType like the Pearl, the Centro has a shrunken version of Palm’s full keyboard; letter keys are squeezed so close together that large-fingered users will likely have trouble. I found the Pearl’s keyboard easier to use because its keys are flatter and larger compared with the Centro keys, which caused me to mistype messages. But the Centro’s tiny keyboard could be a real step up for people who still use their cellphone’s numbered keypad to type text messages.

The Centro’s touch screen saves time and makes navigation easier. The BlackBerry Pearl doesn’t have a touch screen, forcing users to do a lot of scrolling with the navigational trackball.

A success with the Centro would be much needed good news for Palm, which hasn’t had an easy go of it lately. While RIM has been cranking out more stylish BlackBerrys, Palm’s solid Treo hasn’t changed all that drastically in the past couple of years. Even loyal Treo users are starting to complain about Palm’s old operating system crashing. Of course, the popularity of Apple Inc.’s iPhone only rubs salt in the wounds of this once unstoppable company.

RIM will bring out a new Pearl, the 8130, next month to step up its game. This Pearl will be the same physically, but will have some internal changes, including the ability to work on the CDMA network, built-in GPS and upgraded software.

I tested a stylish ruby Centro and also got my hands on an early version of the BlackBerry Pearl 8130 from Verizon Wireless. Lined up side by side, the Palm Centro looks like a chubby version of the Pearl. The Pearl looks and feels sleeker and sharper than the Centro, due in part to the Centro’s rounded edges and tiny, bubble-shaped keys.

The Pearl is just a hair smaller in all directions — width, height and depth. The Centro is almost a full ounce heavier than the Pearl, but each weighs only 4.2 and 3.4 ounces, respectively. The Centro’s 320×320 resolution screen looks brighter than the Pearl’s 240×260 screen.

I focused on the Centro, setting up two personal email accounts on it in just a few minutes. I started out typing very slowly on the keyboard, which has keys made of a slightly sticky material. The more familiar I became with it, the faster I could go, but I’m still not completely comfortable using the keyboard.

I quickly navigated through the Centro’s menus using Palm’s familiar operating system. The touch screen saved me from arrowing around to select an icon or menu; I just tapped the screen using my finger or the stylus. First-time smart-phone users will appreciate this aspect.

I made calls on the Centro, pressing the phone shortcut key to get started. The keyboard’s number keys work just as they do on a Treo, but I preferred using the larger virtual buttons on the touch screen. The Centro felt like a normal cellphone in my hand and against my ear, especially compared with the clunky, rectangular Treos and BlackBerrys. The tiny Centro fit into the smallest purse I own.

An icon on the home screen marked “IM” linked me directly into a screen where I could log in to and use three instant-messaging programs simultaneously: AOL’s AIM, Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger. I jumped between IM sessions using the left and right navigation key buttons. But a faster way to do this was just by touching the screen to select a program. I also tapped the screen to select names of friends before IMing them. Again, the touch screen saved time and took out the guesswork of which key to press to navigate.

I played preloaded music on the Centro and BlackBerry Pearl; both have built-in speakers that sound remarkably good for such little devices.

Battery life on the Centro is estimated at 3.5 hours of talk time and up to 12.5 days of standby time. The Pearl 8130’s talk time is expected to fetch 3.8 hours before quitting, but its standby battery is expected to last only nine days. I didn’t perform rigorous battery tests, but found that my BlackBerry Pearl needed to be charged before my Palm Centro after a weekend of using them for roughly the same amount of time.

The BlackBerry Pearl 8130 comes with only RIM’s BlackBerry Messenger program. Both the Pearl and Centro have 64 megabytes of internal memory and the ability to expand that using microSD cards.

If you’re considering the leap from a cellphone to a smart phone but don’t want the bigger, geekier look of one of these helpful devices, the Palm Centro is a good option. Its keyboard will take some getting used to, but its touch screen will win you over by providing a simpler way to navigate — especially for smart-phone novices.

-Edited By Walter S. Mossberg

• Email mossbergsolution@wsj.com

One of the most important trends in personal technology over the past few years has been the evolution of the humble cellphone into a true handheld computer, a device able to replicate many of the key functions of a laptop. But most of these “smart phones” have had lousy software, confusing user interfaces and clumsy music, video and photo playback. And their designers have struggled to balance screen size, keyboard usability and battery life.

Now, Apple Inc., whose digital products are hailed for their design and innovation, is jumping into this smart-phone market with the iPhone, which goes on sale in a few days after months of the most frenzied hype and speculation we have ever seen for a single technology product. Even though the phone’s minimum price is a hefty $499, people are already lining up outside Apple stores to be among the first to snag one when they go on sale Friday evening.

We have been testing the iPhone for two weeks, in multiple usage scenarios, in cities across the country. Our verdict is that, despite some flaws and feature omissions, the iPhone is, on balance, a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer. Its software, especially, sets a new bar for the smart-phone industry, and its clever finger-touch interface, which dispenses with a stylus and most buttons, works well, though it sometimes adds steps to common functions.

The Apple phone combines intelligent voice calling, and a full-blown iPod, with a beautiful new interface for music and video playback. It offers the best Web browser we have seen on a smart phone, and robust email software. And it synchronizes easily and well with both Windows and Macintosh computers using Apple’s iTunes software.

It has the largest and highest-resolution screen of any smart phone we’ve seen, and the most internal memory by far. Yet it is one of the thinnest smart phones available and offers impressive battery life, better than its key competitors claim.

The phone is thinner than many smart phones.

It feels solid and comfortable in the hand and the way it displays photos, videos and Web pages on its gorgeous screen makes other smart phones look primitive.

The iPhone’s most controversial feature, the omission of a physical keyboard in favor of a virtual keyboard on the screen, turned out in our tests to be a nonissue, despite our deep initial skepticism. After five days of use, Walt — who did most of the testing for this review — was able to type on it as quickly and accurately as he could on the Palm Treo he has used for years. This was partly because of smart software that corrects typing errors on the fly.

But the iPhone has a major drawback: the cellphone network it uses. It only works with AT&T (formerly Cingular), won’t come in models that use Verizon or Sprint and can’t use the digital cards (called SIM cards) that would allow it to run on T-Mobile’s network. So, the phone can be a poor choice unless you are in areas where AT&T’s coverage is good. It does work overseas, but only via an AT&T roaming plan.

In addition, even when you have great AT&T coverage, the iPhone can’t run on AT&T’s fastest cellular data network. Instead, it uses a pokey network called EDGE, which is far slower than the fastest networks from Verizon or Sprint that power many other smart phones. And the initial iPhone model cannot be upgraded to use the faster networks.

The iPhone compensates by being one of the few smart phones that can also use Wi-Fi wireless networks. When you have access to Wi-Fi, the iPhone flies on the Web. Not only that, but the iPhone automatically switches from EDGE to known Wi-Fi networks when it finds them, and pops up a list of new Wi-Fi networks it encounters as you move. Walt was able to log onto paid Wi-Fi networks at Starbucks and airports, and even used a free Wi-Fi network at Fenway Park in Boston to email pictures taken during a Red Sox game.

But this Wi-Fi capability doesn’t fully make up for the lack of a fast cellular data capability, because it is impractical to keep joining and dropping short-range Wi-Fi networks while taking a long walk, or riding in a cab through a city.

AT&T is offering special monthly calling plans for the iPhone, all of which include unlimited Internet and email usage. They range from $60 to $220, depending on the number of voice minutes included. In an unusual twist, iPhone buyers won’t choose their plans and activate their phones in the store. Instead, they will do so when they first connect the iPhone to the iTunes software.

Despite its simple interface, with just four rows of colorful icons on a black background, the iPhone has too many features and functions to detail completely in this space. But here’s a rundown of the key features, with pros and cons based on our testing.

Hardware: The iPhone is simply beautiful. It is thinner than the skinny Samsung BlackJack, yet almost its entire surface is covered by a huge, vivid 3.5-inch display. There’s no physical keyboard, just a single button that takes you to the home screen. The phone is about as long as the Treo 700, the BlackBerry 8800 or the BlackJack, but it’s slightly wider than the BlackJack or Treo, and heavier than the BlackBerry and BlackJack.

The display is made of a sturdy glass, not plastic, and while it did pick up smudges, it didn’t acquire a single scratch, even though it was tossed into Walt’s pocket or briefcase, or Katie’s purse, without any protective case or holster. No scratches appeared on the rest of the body either.

There are only three buttons along the edges. On the top, there’s one that puts the phone to sleep and wakes it up. And, on the left edge, there’s a volume control and a mute switch.

One downside: Some accessories for iPods may not work properly on the iPhone. The headphone jack, which supports both stereo music and phone calls, is deeply recessed, so you may need an adapter for existing headphones. And, while the iPhone uses the standard iPod port on the bottom edge, it doesn’t recognize all car adapters for playing music, only for charging. Apple is considering a software update to fix this.

Touch-screen interface: To go through long lists of emails, contacts, or songs, you just “flick” with your finger. To select items, you tap. To enlarge photos, you “pinch” them by placing two fingers on their corners and dragging them in or out. To zoom in on portions of Web pages, you double-tap with your fingers. You cannot use a stylus for any of this. In the Web browser and photo program, if you turn the phone from a vertical to a horizontal position, the image on the screen turns as well and resizes itself to fit.

In general, we found this interface, called “multi-touch,” to be effective, practical and fun. But there’s no overall search on the iPhone (except Web searching), and no quick way to move to the top or bottom of pages (except in the Web browser). The only aid is an alphabetical scale on the right in tiny type.

There’s also no way to cut, copy, or paste text.

And the lack of dedicated hardware buttons for functions like phone, email and contacts means extra taps are needed to start using features. Also, if you are playing music while doing something else, the lack of hardware playback buttons forces you to return to the iPod program to stop the music or change a song.

Keyboard: The virtual keys are large and get larger as you touch them. Software tries to guess what you’re typing, and fix errors. Overall, it works. But the error-correction system didn’t seem as clever as the one on the BlackBerry, and you have to switch to a different keyboard view to insert a period or comma, which is annoying.

Web browsing: The iPhone is the first smart phone we’ve tested with a real, computer-grade Web browser, a version of Apple’s Safari. It displays entire Web pages, in their real layouts, and allows you to zoom in quickly by either tapping or pinching with your finger. Multiple pages can be open at the same time, and you can conduct Google or Yahoo searches from a built-in search box.

Email: The iPhone can connect with most popular consumer email services, including Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, EarthLink and others. It can also handle corporate email using Microsoft’s Exchange system, if your IT department cooperates by enabling a setting on the server.

BlackBerry email services can’t be used on an iPhone, but Yahoo Mail supplies free BlackBerry-style “push” email to iPhone users. In our test, this worked fine.

Unlike most phone email software, the iPhone’s shows a preview of each message, so you don’t have to open it. And, if there is a photo attached, it shows the photo automatically, without requiring you to click on a link to see it. It can also receive and open Microsoft Word and Excel documents and Adobe PDF files. But it doesn’t allow you to edit or save these files.

Memory: The $499 base model comes with four gigabytes of memory, and the $599 model has eight gigabytes. That’s far more than on any other smart phone, but much less than on full-size iPods. Also, there’s no slot for memory-expansion cards. Our test $599 model held 1,325 songs; a dozen videos (including a full-length movie); over 100 photos; and over 100 emails, including some attachments, and still had room left over.

Battery life: Like the iPod, but unlike most cellphones, the iPhone lacks a removable battery. So you can’t carry a spare. But its battery life is excellent. In our tests, it got seven hours and 18 minutes of continuous talk time, while the Wi-Fi was on and email was constantly being fetched in the background. That’s close to Apple’s claim of a maximum of eight hours, and far exceeds the talk time claims of other smart phones, which usually top out at five and a half hours.

The interface features \”cover flow\” technology for flipping through album covers.

For continuous music playback, again with Wi-Fi on and email being fetched, we got over 22 hours, shy of Apple’s claim of up to 24 hours, but still huge. For video playback, under the same conditions, we got just under Apple’s claim of seven hours, enough to watch four average-length movies. And, for Web browsing and other Internet functions, including sending and receiving emails, viewing Google maps and YouTube videos, we got over nine hours, well above Apple’s claim of up to six hours.

In real life, of course, you will do a mix of these things, so the best gauge might be that, in our two-week test, the iPhone generally lasted all day with a typical mix of tasks.

Phone calls: The phone interface is clean and simple, but takes more taps to reach than on many other smart phones, because there are no dedicated hardware phone buttons. You also cannot just start typing a name or number, but must scroll through a list of favorites, through your recent call list, or your entire contact list. You can also use a virtual keypad.

One great phone feature is called “visual voice mail.” It shows you the names or at least the phone numbers of people who have left you voicemail, so you can quickly listen to those you want. It’s also very easy to turn the speakerphone on and off, or to establish conference calls.

Voice call quality was good, but not great. In some places, especially in weak coverage areas, there was some muffling or garbling. But most calls were perfectly audible. The iPhone can use Bluetooth wireless headsets and it comes with wired iPod-style earbuds that include a microphone.

Google maps on the iPhone.

A downside — there’s no easy way to transfer phone numbers, via AT&T, directly from an existing phone. The iPhone is meant to sync with an address book (and calendar) on a PC.

Contacts and calendars: These are pretty straightforward and work well. The calendar lacks a week view, though a list view helps fill that gap. Contacts can be gathered into groups, but the groups can’t be used as email distribution lists.

Syncing: The iPhone syncs with both Macs and Windows PCs using iTunes, which handles not only the transfer of music and video, but also photos, contacts, calendar items and browser bookmarks. In our tests, this worked well, even on a Windows Vista machine using the latest version of Outlook as the source for contacts and appointments.

iPod: The built-in iPod handles music and video perfectly, and has all the features of a regular iPod. But the interface is entirely new. The famed scroll wheel is gone, and instead finger taps and flicking move you through your collection and virtual controls appear on the screen. There’s also a version of the “cover flow” interface which allows you to select music by flipping through album covers.

Other features: There are widgets, or small programs, for accessing weather, stock prices and Google Maps, which includes route directions, but no real-time navigation. Another widget allows you to stream videos from YouTube, and yet another serves as a notepad. There’s a photo program that displays individual pictures or slideshows.

The only add-on software Apple is allowing will be Web-based programs that must be accessed through the on-board Web browser. The company says these can be made to look just like built-in programs, but the few we tried weren’t impressive.

Missing features: The iPhone is missing some features common on some competitors. There’s no instant messaging, only standard text messaging. While its two-megapixel camera took excellent pictures in our tests, it can’t record video. Its otherwise excellent Web browser can’t fully utilize some Web sites, because it doesn’t yet support Adobe’s Flash technology. Although the phone contains a complete iPod, you can’t use your songs as ringtones. There aren’t any games, nor is there any way to directly access Apple’s iTunes Music Store.

Apple says it plans to add features to the phone over time, via free downloads, and hints that some of these holes may be filled.

Expectations for the iPhone have been so high that it can’t possibly meet them all. It isn’t for the average person who just wants a cheap, small phone for calling and texting. But, despite its network limitations, the iPhone is a whole new experience and a pleasure to use.

• Email us at mossbergsolution@wsj.com. Find all our columns and videos online free at the All Things Digital Web site: http://walt.allthingsd.com

Google has been branching out from its search-engine roots to offer a variety of Web-based applications. Some of these, especially Gmail and Google Maps, have been well received and are quite popular on computers. Now the company wants us to use these and other applications away from the computer, too — on mobile devices.

This week, we put Google’s suite of mobile programs through the ringer to see if we might let it infiltrate our on-the-go lifestyle as easily as we’ve let Google search become an everyday part of our computer’s browser. Google offers five Web applications for downloading onto your mobile device including Maps, Gmail, SMS, Search and News.

We focused on the first three programs to see how they would fare on a tiny device with a smaller screen that demands more scrolling to view information that is normally contained in a single screen on a computer.

Overall, we were pleasantly surprised by Google Maps for mobile, Gmail for mobile, and Google SMS (Short Messaging Service), a system that uses text messaging to find answers about certain topics. The programs are visually attractive on smaller screens, and didn’t require much practice, catering to people who want quick assistance without much fuss.

And Gmail for mobile lets you open attachments containing photos, Microsoft Word documents and PDFs — a capability typically only found on Treos, BlackBerrys and Windows Mobile smart phones, not cellphones.

Google Inc. isn’t alone in this field. Many companies, including its rival, Yahoo Inc., make mobile applications for cellphones, and this category is likely to keep growing.

We used three mobile devices for our Google tests: the $80 Samsung A900M cellphone from Sprint, the $225 Samsung Drift cellphone, from a new phone carrier called Helio and the $400 Palm Treo 700p with Verizon service (all prices include two-year contracts). Your cellphone carrier must use Java programming language to work with Maps and Gmail for mobile; Verizon does not. The Treo works with Google Maps for mobile but not with this new Gmail version. Any phone with text messaging capability can use Google SMS.

These Google mobile applications are free to download, but your cellphone carrier may charge you for Web browsing or text messaging, depending on your plan.

To download any of these applications, you can go to www.google.com/mobile and enter your cellphone number, triggering the site to send a text message to your device with a URL link for the program you want to download. Or you can enter the URL (found on the Web site) into your cellphone’s browser. We tried both methods with success, downloading Google Maps for mobile in 10 seconds during one test.

Our Sprint Samsung A900M came preloaded with Gmail for mobile, so we quickly entered our Gmail username and password to get started. In seconds, our screen was filled with up to six emails at a time, each clearly divided by lines. Each email’s subject, sender and date were visible on our tiny screen, written in a legible font that didn’t seem squeezed. New emails were listed in bold type.

We used the phone’s directional buttons to scroll up or down, highlighting and selecting emails to read them. Each email read much like on a computer screen, but (thankfully) without the advertisements that Gmail usually lists along the right side of a computer screen.

Email attachments were easy to open and read; we opened a Microsoft Word document and a digital photo in JPG format, the photo was shrunk to fit onto our phone’s screen so we didn’t have to scroll. Attachments can’t be edited.

You can perform every action in Gmail for mobile that you can in regular Gmail, including replying to and starring emails, searching through messages, reporting spam and archiving. We searched through emails for the word “Walt” and quickly got a list of relevant emails, and an email that we sent from the phone was received on the other end in seconds. Tasks performed in Gmail for mobile automatically synched with our Gmail account.

Google Maps for mobile was familiar and simple. After downloading it and opening it on our cellphone, we entered our ZIP Code and a map of Washington, D.C., appeared on the entire screen. A list with Find Business, Find Location and Directions options helped us narrow our search.

The select button on each of our devices zoomed in on the map, and scrolling around with directional buttons moved the map accordingly. We quickly switched between map view and satellite view, the latter showing us detailed aerial shots of our tree-filled neighborhoods. A Show Traffic option color-codes highways in 30 major cities to show how fast the cars in that area are moving.

We searched for our local Four Seasons hotel by typing “Four Seasons” into the Find Business section of Google Maps for mobile. Nine results were returned, the second was the hotel. The hotel’s address, phone number, parking fees, room rates and acceptable credit cards were also listed.

The Helio Samsung Drift cellphone comes preloaded with Google’s Maps for mobile, and also has built-in GPS capability. This feature lets you press “0″ when using Google’s mapping program on your phone; a tiny circle marks where you are on the map.

The Google SMS mobile tool is fun to use, and doesn’t require a download. We just sent questions via text message to GOOGL, or 46645 on the numeric keypad. Various data can be retrieved including local listings, weather, sports scores, trivia, movie times and translations.

We asked for George Bush’s age and got the 41st president’s birthday sent back in a text message a second after our question was sent (June 12, 1924, if you’re curious). While on the way to an Irish pub for dinner, we typed in the slightly odd name of the place and its ZIP Code (RiRa 22201) and got a local listing response, including the address and phone number for the two RiRa Irish Pubs in the area.

Sometimes we had to rephrase our inquiry to receive a helpful Google response, and if you don’t have text messaging included in your phone’s plan, this could get costly. But as we used Google SMS more, we got better at asking questions the right way.

If you use a computer every day, chances are good that you’re spoiled by being able to retrieve helpful data within seconds, thanks to the Internet. Google’s mobile applications give you that convenience on the go, in a way that doesn’t leave you missing your computer.

Email: MossbergSolution@wsj.com

When it comes to cool hand-held devices, one always stands out in the crowd: the T-Mobile Sidekick. You may have seen photos of Hollywood stars posing with this device like an accessory, or maybe you’ve just seen someone using one and you caught yourself wondering what it was.

The Sidekick, built for T-Mobile by Sharp Electronics Corp., doesn’t look like most common hand-helds, such as the Palm Treo or RIM BlackBerry, which are designed with a screen and keyboard lined up under one another for convenient emailing, phone use and Web browsing. Instead, the Sidekick is meant to be held horizontally and its screen must be twisted out with a dramatic, eye-catching snap in order to use its hidden keyboard underneath. In closed-keyboard position, the device can be held up to your ear vertically to use as a phone.

This week, we tested the latest version of this trendy hand-held, the Sidekick 3. It will officially launch July 10 for $300 with a two-year contract from T-Mobile USA Inc., but is available just for current T-Mobile customers starting today for 12 days.

Testing the Glam Factor

The last edition of the Sidekick — Sidekick 2 — came out almost two years ago, and plenty of improvements have been made in this product category since then, so we were expecting exciting new things from this third edition. We had fun testing the glam factor of the Sidekick 3 this week, using it in clubs, bars and taxicabs with extra screen-twisting snaps just for effect. But while our new gadget earned plenty of approving glances from those in the know, the Sidekick 3 isn’t all it could be.

The Sidekick 3’s most distinctive feature is its flip-out screen, but you can’t dial phone numbers with the screen closed.

Its new design is slightly more tapered than the chunky Sidekick 2, but that’s not saying much. Compared with the 0.45-inch thickness of the recently introduced Motorola Q, the Sidekick 3’s 0.86-inch depth isn’t anything remarkable. The more physically comparable Palm Treo 700p is 0.9 inches deep, but the Sidekick 3’s overall length outstretches the Treo by almost an inch, making it appear larger overall.

The Sidekick 3’s screen is generously sized at 2.62 inches diagonal, due in part to its horizontal layout. But the screen’s resolution is the same as it was on the Sidekick 2: a mushy 240×160 pixels. Compared with screens on other devices that offer greater sharpness and brighter colors, the Sidekick 3’s screen is a definite downer.

While many of the latest smartphones use high-speed EV-DO data networks for zippy Web browsing, the Sidekick 3 only uses EDGE — a much slower technology. When we tried to pull up articles about the World Cup, it took us at least 30 or 40 seconds to load each Web site.

New Trackball

Four navigation buttons that dot each of the screen’s corners make it easy to get around to different areas on this device. We especially liked the Sidekick 3’s trackball, which replaced the Sidekick 2’s up/down wheel so as to enable scrolling in all four directions.

But we were disappointed and a little surprised that the Sidekick’s lousy phone function hasn’t been improved with this version. Because of this device’s flip-out screen, the keyboard and numeric keypad are hidden unless the screen is out. So you can’t dial a number with the screen closed. After opening the screen and dialing, you can flip the screen in again and hold the phone up to your ear, but this back-and-forth process is tiring.

You can call people in your Contacts list with the screen closed by selecting an icon on the screen, because you don’t need access to the keypad for that. But even this process is a bit clumsy compared with the speed-dial functions on standard cellphones.

A few more bells and whistles try to spice up the Sidekick 3. These include Bluetooth, a processor four times as fast as that of the Sidekick 2, and a 1.3-megapixel camera. We found the camera easy to use, and a special button positioned on the top right edge of our Sidekick 3 worked as an easy shortcut to use the camera on quick notice.

We easily emailed photos directly from our photo gallery, using the trackball and navigational buttons to pull up an email format before swinging the screen out to type an email address using the keyboard.

Instant messaging on the Sidekick 3 is well-done, as it was on the Sidekick 2. AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger and Yahoo Messenger come with the device, and we chatted with friends on AIM with ease. The keyboard, though it’s hard to get to, is generously spread out and comfortable to use after typing messages for awhile.

The Sidekick 3 also has a built-in Mini-SD memory-card slot, but we had to call tech support to learn where it was located. This card slot is inconveniently located behind the back panel of the device, meaning you have to actually remove this panel — exposing the battery — in order to use the slot. For users who want to pop their memory cards in and out, this is a real hassle.

Cutesy Extras

If you’re desperate for cutesy extras, the Sidekick 3 is loaded with them. The trackball turns different colors to indicate waiting text messages, instant messages, email or voice mail, and a multitude of sounds chime from the device just for the fun of it. Seventeen cartoon icons come loaded onto the device for pairing up with the contacts in your address book if you don’t want to use an actual photo. Even the low-battery indicator on the Sidekick chimes in a way that sounds cute.

But at the end of the day, this device is still not up to par with its competitors. In social circles where it’s considered cool, it might be worth buying. And if you have a separate phone, you can use the Sidekick 3 as a data-only device, though that means paying for, and juggling, two gadgets.

But the Sidekick 3’s poor phone, low-resolution screen and covered keyboard design left us unimpressed, even if it might be trendy. Our advice? Impress your friends with technology that works better for you, the user.

• Email: MossbergSolution@wsj.com

The cellphone — or, more accurately, the device formerly known as the cellphone — is getting to be more and more like a little portable computer. High-end models, known as smartphones, can handle large volumes of email, complete with attachments; surf the Web at high speed; view and edit Microsoft Office documents; take decent pictures; and play back music and videos.

To manage these laptop-like tasks, they come equipped with faster and faster processors; more and more internal memory; expansion slots for increasingly spacious memory cards; and small, but usable, keyboards, instead of mere phone keypads.

We’ve been testing two new such phones. One, from Palm Inc., is an improved model of the Treo, which has long been our favorite smartphone. The other, an entirely new design from Motorola Inc., manages to pack most of the Treo’s functionality into a much thinner and lighter body, at half the Treo’s price.

The new Palm model, called the Treo 700p, uses the Palm operating system and is being sold by both Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp. for $399, with a service contract. The Motorola challenger, called the Q, uses Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system and is being sold by Verizon for $199, with a service contract.

Palm’s Treo 700p, priced at $399 with a service contract (left); Motorola’s Q, priced at $199 with a service contract (right)

The Q is the bigger news here. In the tradition of Motorola’s RAZR phone, the Q is a sleek, handsome devil. It demolishes the two biggest problems with smartphones like the Treo: They are bulky and expensive. The Q is a little wider than the Treo 700p, but it’s just half as thick and, at 4.06 ounces, is more than one-third lighter.

Unfortunately, its Microsoft software is much clumsier than the Treo’s Palm software, degrading its utility. Also, the Q’s screen is lower-resolution than the Treo’s and slightly smaller, and its battery life as a phone is weaker than the Treo’s. While the Q keyboard is larger than the Treo’s, we actually found it worse for typing.

Still, the Q is a decent solution for light email users and for those who have avoided a smartphone due to bulk and cost. We assume that, at $199, the Q will sell well and will challenge the Treo and BlackBerry in the marketplace.

However, we still prefer the Treo for serious users of mobile email, Web and Office. And the new model, with greater speed and other enhancements, only adds to the Treo’s strengths.

Both of these phones run on the new, broadband-like EV-DO data networks offered by Verizon and Sprint, so they are actually practical for Web browsing and for downloading big email attachments. In our tests, both registered speeds of between 200 and 500 kilobits per second, compared with about 70 kbps for the older Sprint and Verizon networks. Neither phone has Wi-Fi wireless capability.

The new Treo 700p is essentially the same as the Treo 700w introduced a few months back, except that the “p” model uses the Palm operating system, while the “w” model uses Windows software. Like the 700w, the newest model has a squarer shape than that of the older Treo 650. It also has bigger, better keys than the 650, roughly twice the usable internal memory and a higher-resolution 1.3-megapixel camera.

Also, the 700p now has — built into its memory — the excellent Documents To Go program from DataViz, which allows you to view, and in some cases edit, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents and Adobe PDF documents.

The main advantage of the 700p, however, is its ability to use the high-speed EV-DO network. And the new Treo can be used as a modem for a laptop, either via a USB cable or a wireless Bluetooth connection.

In our tests, over a couple of weeks, the Treo 700p performed well. Web browsing was a pleasure at the new high speeds. Our only complaint was a short but annoying lag in displaying the text of emails and in performing certain other operations. Also, our test unit crashed twice and had to be restarted. (It didn’t lose any data in the crash.)

The Q is a mixed bag. Its hardware is elegant. Its software is annoying, often requiring two clicks to do what takes one on the Palm.

Motorola chose a more stripped-down version of Windows Mobile software than the one used on previous keyboard phones, and it does work better one-handed. But it still requires many of the extra steps of its Windows sibling and yet lacks the touch screen and built-in Office programs of other Windows-based smartphones.

In our tests, we found the Q easy to carry, but often irritating to use. Things like muting the phone, locking the keyboard and even playing the built-in solitaire game took much more effort than performing the same tasks on the Treo.

The Q has four navigation buttons positioned below the screen like the Treo; like a BlackBerry, it has a scroll wheel and back button on the right edge. The Q’s keyboard has more space between each key than most smartphones, but the rounded shape of the keys themselves makes them uncomfortable to use for more than a few sentences of email.

The familiar green Send and red End keys are prominently located just above the keyboard, and number keys are distinguished in black. We chatted away using the Q’s phone, and it worked well on voice calls.

Special designated Back and Home keys are next to the Send and End keys, and two other buttons enable direct access to email and the Q’s digital camera.

We set up email accounts on the Q using EarthLink and Hotmail.com, but Windows Mobile software really started to get annoying while we were navigating through our email. Performing a task as simple as deleting a message requires two steps — selecting Menu, then selecting Delete — and we couldn’t find any way to highlight and delete a group of emails.

By contrast, on the Treo, using the major email programs, you can delete an email with one click and even clean out a whole inbox with a couple of clicks. This may not matter much to people who get little email, but for heavy users, it’s crucial.

We also had trouble with attachments on the Q. While we successfully received some pictures and documents, a test series of four emails, each with a different type of document attached, failed on the Q. On both of our test Q units, using two different email services, the four attachments simply disappeared, even though they came through fine on the Treo and on Windows and Macintosh computers.

Viewing Microsoft Office and PDF files on the Q is a more cumbersome process than on the Treo, and the files can’t be edited on the Q.

The 320×240 resolution on the Q’s screen is 25% lower than that of the Treo 700p, which has a 320×320-resolution screen. Many things — Web sites, photos, attachments — just didn’t look as good on the Q compared side-by-side with the Treo. The Q’s built-in 1.3-megapixel digital camera captured videos and still shots without a problem, but the view on our screen was cluttered by information bars at the top and bottom.

You might like the $199 Motorola Q because of its price tag or striking design. If you don’t use email too much, or if you’ve never used another smartphone, you might not miss the more user-friendly features that the Treo 700p has to offer. We wish that the sleekness of the Motorola Q could be combined with the intuitive features of the Treo 700p. For now, we’ll stick with what works best — the newest Treo.

• Email: MossbergSolution@wsj.com

When it comes to smartphones that have a full keyboard and good email capability, Palm’s fast-selling Treo is the best. New devices are constantly being announced in hopes of becoming the “Treo killer.” Most of these challengers use Microsoft’s Windows Mobile software, formerly called Pocket PC, which was designed to evoke the Windows computer experience on a hand-held device.

None of these Microsoft-based devices has gained much traction, however. The most notable entry so far has been a hybrid gadget — a Treo that uses the Windows Mobile software, the 700w. But this model is mostly aimed at the computing staffs of big companies, who rigidly favor Microsoft products. For individual users, Palm still offers the Treo 650, which uses the Palm operating system and will soon be replaced by a newer Palm-based model capable of running on faster networks.

This week, we tested two of the latest Microsoft-based, would-be Treo killers: T-Mobile USA’s $400 MDA and Sprint Nextel Corp.’s $600 PPC-6700. (Both cost less when purchased with service plans.)

These new email phones have some very nice hardware features. But they suffer when compared with the Treo because of their Windows Mobile software, which often requires more clicks and greater menu navigation to get simple things done than the Palm-based Treo does.

Sprint PPC-6700 by Sprint Nextel Corp. $599.99. www.sprint.com.

The two devices are nearly identical. In fact, they’re really the same core device made by the same Asian manufacturer, HTC Corp. Sure, there are various small physical differences between the two, such as their different styluses and navigation buttons. But they both offer the same two striking features: a generous 2.8-inch color LCD screen that can switch automatically from portrait to landscape view; and a full QWERTY keyboard that slides out from behind this screen. Like the Treo, each offers Bluetooth short-range wireless networking. Unlike the Treo, they also offer Wi-Fi wireless networking.

The biggest difference is in their speeds over cellphone networks, and it’s a major distinction. Like the Windows-based Treo, and the forthcoming new Palm-based Treo, Sprint’s PPC-6700 works on an EV-DO network, a high-speed wireless broadband connection comparable with that of a home DSL line. T-Mobile’s MDA offers only EDGE, a drastically slower alternative that constantly reminded us that we were using a pokey mobile device, rather than a home computer.

The two devices have physically bigger screens than the Treos. But while their resolution — how much material they can display — is better than that of the Treo 700w, it’s actually less than on the Treo 650. The new contenders have much larger, roomier keyboards than the Treo does.

We tested most of the features in both devices without much trouble, synchronizing digital photos, Word documents, Internet Explorer Favorites and music files from a Dell desktop computer to each. Both have built-in 1.3-megapixel digital cameras, like that found on the Treo 700w, and the photos that we snapped around the office turned out surprisingly well. We sent them off in emails with a few simple steps.

We used each smartphone to place calls, and immediately noticed another deficiency compared with the Treo. Because the keyboards on these new models are typically hidden when the phones are held vertically, you are forced to tap soft keys on the screen to dial a phone number. With the Treo, the keyboard, which includes number keys for dialing, is always available.

The Sprint felt bulkier and more rectangular when held up to our ears compared with the T-Mobile MDA, which has more rounded-off edges. Their specs say that these two share roughly the same dimensions (about 4″ by 2″ by 1″), but the MDA’s tapered edges give it a better feel in your hand. The T-Mobile is also lighter than the Sprint, 5.29 compared with 6.1 ounces, respectively.

T-Mobile MDA by T-Mobile USA. $399.99. www.t-mobile.com

After sliding the full keyboard out, the screen view on each of the smartphones automatically switched to horizontal view for use with the keyboard. We preferred this view for Web browsing, as it offered a wider screenshot for each Web page and made it easy to type in new Web site addresses, using the keyboard.

We also tested email, which worked OK, though it was very slow on the T-Mobile device and we found the email software to be limited and clumsy compared with the Treo’s.

But it was difficult to use Windows Mobile on either device as we walked around or stood in a crowded subway. Many commands seemed to take multiple steps, and many of them required the use of the stylus, which was a pain to get out so often. By contrast, the Palm-based Treo has been engineered for minimum steps and one-handed use, with the stylus rarely required.

For instance, you can delete an email on the Palm-based Treo with just one keystroke. But, in Windows Mobile, you have to open a menu, and hit “Delete” — two keystrokes. Those extra motions really add up if you’re clearing out a lot of messages. And there are similar extra steps all over the interface.

T-Mobile’s MDA has two handy one-touch buttons at the top of its screen: one for mail and another for Internet Explorer. The Sprint didn’t have a direct access button for mail, and its Internet Explorer one-touch button was poorly positioned on the side, where we accidentally turned it on a few times — especially while sliding the keyboard back in.

Using the T-Mobile’s EDGE Internet access, it took our device a full 50 seconds to pull up the Journal’s home page, WSJ.com. The same page came up in its entirety using the Sprint PPC-6700’s EV-DO connection in only 25 seconds.

If you’re wowed by the larger screen, or need the roominess of the slide-out keyboard, these devices might appeal to you. But the T-Mobile MDA is slow; and the Sprint PPC-6700, while quite fast, is hampered by a bulky design and oddly placed navigational buttons. Both suffer from the extra steps, and frequent stylus use, dictated by their Windows software. On balance, neither of these devices offers the form and functionality of the Treo 650.

• Email: MossbergSolution@wsj.com

Cellphones keep getting sleeker and smaller, which means they are also getting easier to lose or misplace. For instance, Motorola’s latest model, the SLVR, is so thin and light, you’d hardly notice if it slipped out of your pocket or purse.

And, of course, losing your cellphone can be a disaster, because it contains your address book. In fact, it often contains the only copy of your address book. Except for a few smart phones, like the Palm Treo, most cellphone models — especially the small ones that are easiest to lose — don’t synchronize with your computer to back up data.

So, how can you back up your data to protect against losing your phone?

Most of the big-name phone carriers offer services that will store your cellphone contacts for a relatively small monthly fee. But these services, which are designed in part to keep you tied to a carrier, aren’t widely used, or even well known to most users.

The $39.99 CellStik by Spark Technology plugs into your cellphone and copies your contacts onto the tiny device with the press of a button.

There are also various carrier-independent backup software products out there, but they involve the use of a computer and can be clumsy and complicated. Some use cumbersome cables to attach your phone to a PC, others use your phone’s messaging capabilities or Bluetooth functionality to send data onto a nearby hard drive.

But this week, we took a look at a new product from Spark Technology Corp. in San Jose, Calif., that eliminates the need for a computer altogether: CellStik. This $40 product is a pocket-size USB thumb drive with a cellphone adapter on one end and a USB adapter on the other. By plugging the phone adapter into your cellphone and pressing a button on the CellStik, you can have your contacts backed up on the device in just seconds — problem solved.

In our tests, we found CellStik to be a smart solution that really works, and it’s about as easy to use as possible. We did have one problem with it, but that was relatively minor compared with the potential loss of all your contact data when a phone goes missing.

While CellStik doesn’t require a computer, it can optionally be used with one. The USB end of each CellStik can be plugged into a Windows PC, so you can view and edit your backed-up contacts via a simple software program. You can then unplug the CellStik and reattach it to your phone, uploading any changes.

In addition to backing up your phone’s data, CellStiks can be used to transfer contacts from an old phone to a new one, but you may need to buy a separate CellStik for each phone if they differ in manufacturer or connector type, and use a PC as an intermediate device.

Six versions of the CellStik are currently available for about 70 different models of Motorola, LG and Samsung cellphones, and Spark hopes to introduce CellStiks for Sanyo, Sony Ericsson and Nokia this spring. CellStiks can be purchased online at www.sparktech.com and Amazon or at retail stores including Fry’s Electronics and J&R Electronics.

CellStik can also be used with your computer for viewing and editing your cellphone’s contacts.

We tested two of the three CellStik-compatible phone brands: an LG VI125 and two different Samsung SCH-A670s. Backing up the contacts from each phone took just a few seconds after we pressed an arrow-shaped button labeled “Save to CellStik” and waited until it stopped blinking green, indicating that all contacts were saved.

The CellStik software, called CellStik Central, is basic and self-explanatory, listing each of your contacts’ names, various phone numbers and other data in spreadsheet-like fashion. We loaded it onto our computer from an included CD, but it’s also available as a free download.

After making a few changes in our list of contacts with the convenience of a full computer keyboard — rather than using the painstaking entry process on our cellphone — we selected “Save to CellStik” in the software program, detached it from the computer’s USB port and reattached it to our phone. By pressing the “Update to Phone” button, we made sure the changes were reflected on our cellphone.

We ran into one frustrating problem with CellStik: in the case of our Samsung cellphone, which has a built-in camera like most new cellphones, the pictures that we had assigned to our contacts were scrambled on the phone after CellStik was used. In two cases, instead of a friend’s picture showing up on the cellphone screen during an incoming call, a picture of Katie’s mother appeared. That was pretty confusing and also made caller ID via pictures useless.

Spark Technology says this picture mix-up is a problem only with certain cellphones and that CellStik is a backup product, first and foremost, so most users would be most concerned with keeping contacts rather than getting images associated with the wrong caller. This problem only occurs if you reattach the CellStik to your phone and press “Update to Phone,” not if you’re opting solely to use CellStik without a PC, as a data-backup device. But it’s still irritating.

If you’d like to transfer one cellphone’s contacts to another, such as if you bought a new cellphone, you can do so using “Transfer Phonebook” in the CellStik’s software. It walks you through steps of removing one CellStik from the USB port and inserting another, onto which the old device’s contacts will be saved.

Overall, CellStik is a fast and simple solution that could save users from the frustrating ordeal of losing a cellphone and every name and number on it. Its independence from phone carriers and from your PC — if you so choose — make it a smart buy, but check first to be sure it’s available for your phone. And keep a lookout for photos that might be mismatched with incoming calls.

• Email: MossbergSolution@wsj.com

Anyone with a cellphone is familiar with this scenario: You come home, take your jacket off, and set your purse or briefcase down near the door. A few hours later, you get your cellphone out of your bag to use it, only to find that you’ve missed three calls because you weren’t close enough to hear your phone ringing.

Cellphones rule in lots of places — we can call for car help when stranded along a highway, find friends in a crowd, and be nagged by co-workers or spouses at any time and place. But the old-fashioned wired phone wins at home. When someone calls your house line, extension phones all over the house ring, and can be used to answer the call. With a cellphone at home, you have to schlep it everywhere you go.

RCA Cell Docking System by Thomson Inc. — $149.99/ www.rca.com

As more and more households continue to trade in their landlines for cellphones with better calling plans and free long distance, the inconvenience of toting a single cellphone around the house gets more annoying.

So, this week we took a look at two products that aim to solve that problem by tying your cellphone into your wired home phone setup. They allow you to use your home phones, including extensions in every room, to place and receive calls through your cellphone and your cellphone calling plan.

The two products are the RCA Cell Docking System from Thomson Inc. and the Dock-N-Talk Universal Cellphone Docking Station from Connecticut-based Phone Labs Technology Co. Each costs $150.

Both work by directing your incoming cellular calls to a wired phone — and allowing outgoing calls to be made through your wireless network using these telephones. The RCA product comes with a special cordless telephone that links to a cellphone docking station, while the Dock-N-Talk is a small box that connects any corded or cordless home telephone to your cellphone. To use the RCA system in multiple rooms, you need to buy additional cordless handsets for $70 each that work with the RCA system.

These products also allow users to toggle back and forth between a landline and a cellular line, though we tested it only in a house where cellphones had already eliminated the need for a landline. The RCA’s included cordless telephone has buttons labeled Home and Cell to answer or initiate calls using either line.

With Dock-N-Talk, you can also use a landline or your cellphone line by adjusting a switch on the box and buying splitters for your phone jacks. House phones attached to line one will ring for landline calls, and phones plugged into line two on the splitter ring for cell calls.

Dock-N-Talk Universal Cellphone Docking Station by Phone Labs Technology Co. — $149.99/www.phonelabs.com

Because cellphones use many different types of connectors, these products are compatible only with phones for which adapter cables exist, or which can be connected using Bluetooth wireless networking. The RCA Cell Docking System comes with cellphone adapter cables, but these work only with 57 models from three manufacturers: Sony Ericsson (a joint venture of Japan’s Sony Corp. and Sweden’s Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson), Motorola Inc. and Nokia Corp.

The Dock-N-Talk is a bit more versatile, but instead of using adapter cables that come with the device, you must buy them separately; most cost about $20 each. These cables are compatible with 418 different cellphone models from six different companies. If your cellphone has Bluetooth, a separate $80 Bluetooth adapter can be plugged into the side of the Dock-N-Talk for use with 267 cellphones from 24 different brands.

We took these devices home and tried them in real-life scenarios. The RCA device wasn’t compatible with either of our cellphones — a Palm Treo 650 and a Samsung SCH-A670. The Dock-N-Talk is compatible with the Treo 650 using Bluetooth.

The RCA device needed 16 hours for its cordless handset’s battery to charge, like most cordless phones. (This handset also functions as a regular phone, in case you ever stop using it with the cellphone docking system.) Thomson lent us a Motorola V551 cellphone for testing, and we used an included cable to plug it into the dock — a clear plastic cradle where the phone can rest.

We called the cellphone’s number, and as it’s designed to do, the cordless handset rang. We picked up the handset phone, and the connection sounded fine.

Using the Dock-N-Talk was rather straightforward, too. We connected it to a cordless home telephone and used the same Motorola V551 cellphone for testing. After setup, the Dock-N-Talk box had four cords running from it: a short phone cord running to the cordless phone, a longer phone cord running to a phone jack on the wall, a power adapter plug running to a wall socket, and a cellphone adapter cord attached to our Motorola.

We called the cellphone and it and the attached cordless phone both rang. We also plugged another phone into a wall jack in a room down the hall — remember, this was in a house with no landline — and both house phones and the cellphone rang without a hitch.

We also tested the Dock-N-Talk’s Bluetooth adapter, a small, flat piece that plugged in where the cellphone cable had been. Our first Bluetooth attempt with a Treo 650 failed — we never got to the pairing step for some reason that we think has to do with the Treo itself. However, we tried our trusty Motorola V551 cellphone once more, as it has Bluetooth capability, and it “discovered” and “paired” with the Dock-N-Talk. Calling the cellphone worked just as it had with the cable — the cell rang, as did the two house phones.

These devices have a practical use in any busy home where cellphones are used. One issue that might arise is the fact that in many homes, each family member has his or her own phone. The solution to serving multiple cellphones is to buy a different device for each phone, which could get pricey.

Though the RCA Cellphone Docking System includes a separate cordless phone and cellphone cables, its compatibility is very limited. It can work only with its own handsets, while the Dock-N-Talk works with various handsets. Dock-N-Talk also works with more cellphones, and is Bluetooth compatible.

If you’re looking for a smart solution to stay connected with your cellphone without the need to keep it in your pocket at all times, the Dock-N-Talk is the way to go. It stands out because it will work with more products, including house phones that you already have. Just be sure your cellphone is compatible before you make the investment.

• Email: MossbergSolution@wsj.com.

This week, my assistant Katie Boehret and I tested a new service called AskMeNow that attempts to be like a digital version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’s phone-a-friend. This service works by answering questions of all sorts in just a few minutes for free, or in some cases for 49 cents per question.

AskMeNow answers your questions in SMS or email format, sent directly to your mobile device, for free or 49 cents each.

AskMeNow, based in Irvine, Calif., is a division of Ocean West Holding Corp. and is currently only available in beta (or prerelease version), but its full-scale service will come out in the beginning of next month. Its concept is very straightforward: You send questions to the service by calling from your cellphone or emailing directly from a portable smartphone, and answers are sent back to your phone or hand-held via Short Messaging Services (SMS) or email within about a minute.

Questions can be asked for free using a form-entry method, called “auto answers,” or by calling in questions that don’t fit into one of the form-entry categories. (These are referred to as “AskAnything” questions, and they are the ones that cost 49 cents each.)

To answer your questions, the company employs real people who sit at computers in the Philippines, furiously researching the Internet (using data from content partnerships) trying to respond to your queries within three minutes. This doesn’t always mean the response is correct. It simply means that the retrieved information was online somewhere. But our results proved rather accurate.

If your question has been asked before, it’s more likely to get a faster response because its answer is already on file. AskMeNow reserves the right to not answer questions that aren’t family friendly. The service sometimes answers opinion questions using opinions posted online, but we couldn’t get an answer to our question, “What is the hippest bar in Washington, D.C.?”

To start using AskMeNow, users must go to its Web site, www.askmenow.com, to enter sign-up information including your name, ZIP Code, country and cellphone number; you’ll never have to enter credit-card information as fees are all charged through your carrier. BlackBerry users also need to enter their email addresses, because answers are emailed to BlackBerrys. On all other phones and devices they are sent via SMS.

AskMeNow began its testing with BlackBerry devices, and these hand-helds are still the most compatible with the service right now. Katie used a BlackBerry 7290 to test a few features, including a downloadable version of the program that resides on your hand-held. This included eight icons for auto-answer questions, or form-entry categories, that make it simple to get information about certain categories including weather, stocks, directory assistance, sports, movies, flights, directions and horoscopes. Answers to these questions are free, excluding carrier fees.

Next month, AskMeNow plans to offer downloadable auto-answer programs for other phones and gadgets, including the Palm Treo and other cellphones. Extra icons will also become available, eventually including one that saves local settings so you can more easily ask about restaurants, movies and weather in your area.

Katie tested these auto answers with questions about the weather in the small town of Batesville, Ark., by entering the city and state in the appropriate blank spaces. About 10 seconds later, an email message including the five-day forecast for this locale appeared in her inbox. Another question returned the name, address and phone number for a nearby movie theater where “In Her Shoes” was playing, by just entering the movie title. She also saw final scores for a Red Sox game by selecting “MLB” from a list and typing out the team name.

I used my Treo smartphone to sign up for AskMeNow, and asked my questions by calling 585-419-0412. Currently, instructions for call-in questions are as simple as stating your question and hanging up, but when the service comes out of beta (and the phone number changes to 1-888-EZ-ASK ME), it will offer more-specific narrations to differentiate between auto-answer questions and others that fall under the AskAnything category and incur a 49-cent fee per question.

I asked why the leaves on trees were green and received a formulaic, but seemingly correct, answer involving chlorophyll.

Katie also tried the call-in questioning, asking a specific question about the average life expectancy of males and females, as well as a general question about whether it’s worse for your health to smoke every day or drink every day. The first question returned a satisfying answer from the National Center for Health Statistics, but AskAnything said it couldn’t respond to the second question due to company policy. The question was actually interpreted incorrectly as “What is worse for your house” instead of “health.” Exaggerated pronunciation must be used for the call-in questions, we learned.

You can also ask these AskAnything questions using the downloadable hand-held program, which Katie did by selecting the AskAnything icon on her BlackBerry, typing out a question and pressing send, just like with regular emails. At its start, the company expected users to ask more cut-and-dry questions, but it soon found questions coming in that ranged from what to wear on a date to why the sky is blue (we also asked the latter).

We asked some tough questions like, “Where are the Rolling Stones playing tonight in Washington, D.C.?” and “Why do men have nipples?” But we got accurate responses to both. Katie even tried a snarky question: Why are girls smarter than boys? But the response just said that her question was unanswerable due to editorial policy.

In its release mode, AskMeNow will run one-liner “sponsored by” references to other companies at the very bottom of each answer response. It will also sell ringtones, cellphone wallpaper (screen designs) and games using icons in the auto-answer section.

Users who sign up for the service now will have to re-register with the revised version that will be released in November, as that new version won’t be able to transfer accounts from the current registry. But sign-up doesn’t take long at all.

If you’re asking yourself whether AskMeNow is worth a try, we think the answer is yes. But take heed, all ye who think you’ve found the way to prove that you really are always right; AskMeNow just might prove you wrong.

With reporting by Katherine Boehret

• Email me at mossberg@wsj.com

Of course, if you stock numerous extra batteries for each device, and keep them charged fastidiously, you might ride out a long power outage. But that takes a fat wallet and an iron will. You could use a car charger to keep these gadgets going in a power outage, but during Katrina many people couldn’t get gasoline to power their cars. You could recharge your gadgets from a home generator, but few people own them or stockpile the fuel they consume.

The Multi-Purpose Radio FR300 by Eton

So this week, my assistant Katie Boehret and I tested gadgets that are specifically designed to work in emergency situations. We tested two radios that use cranks to recharge their batteries, including one with a built-in cellphone charger. We also took a look at disposable chargers for cellphones, smart phones and even iPod music players.

Obviously these products won’t help you stay connected should the communications infrastructure itself go down, as happened during Katrina. If the cellphone towers, Internet providers, and TV and radio stations are knocked offline, even a well-charged laptop, phone or radio might be useless. But it’s best to have your end of the system ready if some of these networks do remain operational, or come back on line during the crisis.

The crank radios were pretty easy to set up and use, which is a relief for anyone who might buy them and not learn how to use them until actually necessary. We found the $50 Multi-Purpose Radio FR300 by Eton Corp. at Hammacher Schlemmer (www.hammacher.com) and liked its multifaceted functionality, which includes picking up the audio signal from TV stations.

Freeplay Eyemax Weather Band Radio from Innovative Technologies Distribution Inc. Price: $69.99. For info: www.windupradio.com

This sturdy-looking, square radio has a carrying handle on top and comes with a case. Its front displays a speaker, small flashlight, and tuning display for five settings: AM, FM, the TV1 and TV2 television audio bands, and a “WX” band for the government’s weather channels. Katie used a slide bar just below that display to choose which she wanted to hear. She turned the tuning knob to hear a specific radio station; a smaller knob built into the larger knob allows for more precise tuning. There is a collapsible antenna.

To generate power for the FR300, we simply folded a plastic crank out from the radio’s side, and turned it for a little while, evoking a loud whirring sound. Eton says that two minutes of cranking should suffice for an hour of radio play time, but we got 35 minutes out of a 30-second crank, which is even better than that estimate.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration broadcasts can be tuned in on the FR300 by setting the slide bar to the WX setting. A separate tuning knob lets you turn to whichever is the strongest of the seven NOAA channels. You can set another separate knob on “Alert” so as to hear whenever the NOAA announces emergency weather news in your area. A siren is also built into this radio.

A small cellphone-charging piece plugs into the back of the FR300, and five included adapters permit charging of certain Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, Siemens and Sony Ericsson phones. Katie easily plugged her Samsung cellphone into the adapter and had it charging after a few cranks.

The $70 Freeplay Eyemax Weather Band Radio from Innovative Technologies Distribution Inc. (www.windupradio.com) was similar to the FR300, but it lacked a few features. This radio has its crank, speaker and tuning display all lined up on the front, with a tiny flashlight at one end and an antenna at the other.

iRecharge for iPod mini by Compact Power Systems Inc. Price: sold in $79.99 Value Pack. For info: www.cellboost.com

A solar panel on its top can be used to operate the radio in direct sunlight, which might be a nice feature if you’re not up for repeated hand-cranking. The Freeplay also comes with an AC adapter, unlike the FR300. But the FR300 can run on three AA batteries, which might be more useful during an evacuation; the Freeplay had no option for disposable batteries.

While the Freeplay Eyemax is also advertised to receive seven NOAA weather-band channels, its weather-tuning display is confusingly represented on the same display as AM/FM tuning. We liked the FR300’s separate weather-channel knob better because it allowed us to set one weather station and not have to change it after listening to the radio.

The Freeplay’s estimated crank/run time was more accurate — as the company said, 30 seconds of cranking enabled the battery to work for 35 minutes, the same as the FR300.

Katie and I also re-tested a product we have reviewed in the past — Cellboost by Compact Power Systems Inc. These are tiny disposable cellphone chargers that can give your phone 60 minutes of usage time or 60 hours of standby time. But this month, the company introduced the same devices for smartphones, which are cellphones designed for email and Web browsing. Other new Cellboost models power portable game stations, camcorders and even iPod music players — though these aren’t necessarily emergency lifelines.

Cellboost for Treo smartphones by Compact Power Systems Inc. Price: $7.99. For info: www.cellboost.com

I use the Treo 650 smart phone every day, for email and phone calls, so I tested the $8 Treo Cellboost, which promises 60 minutes of talk time. As soon as I attached the Cellboost and flipped its on/off switch, it worked like I had plugged my smartphone into its wall charger. Katie tried the $8 BlackBerry charger and the $10 iPod mini charger with the same simple results. The Cellboosts for iPod and iPod mini each afford eight hours of play time.

Compact Power Systems also introduced a product called the iRecharge, a rechargeable portable battery that fits snugly around your iPod, iPod mini or iPod shuffle giving the iPod and iPod mini 12 hours of extra play time and the iPod shuffle 40 extra hours. It has an on/off switch, so you can charge your iPod as needed, as well as a charge-level indicator that glows to tell you how much juice is left.

Katie used the iRecharge with her mini, and it worked easily. The iRecharge for iPod and iPod mini is sold for $80 in a Value Pack with a disposable iPod Cellboost, belt clip and a leather carrying case. The iPod shuffle’s iRecharge Value Pack costs $40.

We highly recommend getting a couple of Cellboosts to keep in your briefcase, purse or glove compartment; each charger remains usable for up to two years. And we recommend a crank radio as well. But, while Cellboosts are an inexpensive solution for recharging your gadgets, crank radios are more of an investment. Be sure to look for one with as many power sources as possible — such as a slot for disposable batteries and AC adapter — and make sure it includes a good flashlight.

Then, pray you don’t have to use any of these things.

With reporting by Katherine Boehret

• Email me at mossberg@wsj.com