It goes without saying that we've been pretty excited about the Olympus E-P1 (or "digital Pen") since we first laid eyes on the prototype the company was showing off. The Micro Four Thirds camera just seems to breed gadget lust amongst the staff, combining the best of modern tech with a throwback retro style that is somewhat irresistible. Of course, no one wants to drop $800 on a digicam unless it's actually capable of taking a decent shot -- so we thought we'd put the E-P1 through some basic paces to see if this guy is worth unloading nearly a grand on. Read on for some of our first impressions and observations.

We've been nothing if not comprehensive in our coverage of this new Pentax shooter, and early reviews are showing why. Photography Blog praised the K-7 for its weatherproofing and for having "one of the best LCD screens" they've ever seen on a DSLR, while ePHOTOzine were impressed by the image quality and Wired found the package of features and specs exceedingly robust given the $1,300 asking price. Some shortcomings were found, such as the slightly unintuitive interface and noise levels at higher ISO settings, but impressions were overwhelmingly positive. If you've been looking for a solid alternative to Canon's 50D or Nikon's D300, check out all the thoroughly detailed analysis in the read links below.

Read - Photography Blog
Read - Wired
Read - ePHOTOzine

At first glance it's a little difficult to understand the necessity of another motion-sensing add-on. What could possibly be inside this particular block of white plastic that's not inside those other countless slabs of white plastic that Nintendo has already slathered on the Wii? Sure, we know in theory that the gyroscopes that MotionPlus provides allows the controller to truly orient itself in 3D space, instead of just sensing acceleration in various directions, and breaks some of that reliance on the sensor bar, but do those theoretical advances result in a true leap in gameplay? We tested it out with EA's new MotionPlus-enabled Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and Grand Slam Tennis -- the first such titles on the market while we wait for Nintendo to get its own Wii Sports Resort in order -- and we'd say the results are pretty inconclusive so far. Check out our full impressions after the break, along with enthralling videos of both games in action.

Major thanks to The Golf Club at Chelsea Piers for letting us test this out at their facilities, and to golf pros Herb and Marj for letting us waste some of their valuable time.

Recently, Engadget editors Thomas Ricker and Chris Ziegler received Nokia N97s just days apart from one another. Already established pen pals, the two immediately began to correspond across the Atlantic via carrier pigeon, discussing their very different experiences using Nokia's most powerful smartphone to date. This is a recounting of those letters.

Thomas,

I hope this letter finds you well. I understand that you've received an N97 from Nokia Nederlands recently and was wondering what you thought of it? As luck would have it, I've happened across a unit myself -- the US was the first country to get them, interestingly, which is really big deal for a company accustomed to delivering its best hardware early and often to Europe. I've been flogging it for a few days now, just enough time to form some opinions.

Here's the one-line summary of the Kindle DX: It's a Kindle 2 with a larger screen, hair-trigger orientation sensor, and an awful keyboard. Seriously awful. Yes, we know we should be focused on things like PDF support or even content partners like newspapers and textbook publishers, but we're having a hard time getting over the keyboard -- it's emblematic of some puzzling design choices Amazon made with the Kindle DX. What do we mean? Read on.

Let's be straight here: we're a little perplexed by the new MacBook Pro line. On one hand, Apple didn't really make enough changes to warrant a whole new review of the unibody lineup, and minor speed bumps aside, briefly using one of the new machines feels pretty much like using most any recent Mac: it's OS X on a really nice, albeit extremely glossy screen. On the other hand, after a week in the trenches, it's clear that all those seemingly minor changes will have a big impact down the line -- especially the move to sealed-in batteries across the board, which is a decision with decidedly mixed consequences. What's more, we think these changes impact the 13-inch and 15-inch models very differently -- the $1,199 13-inch configuration might have a shiny new Pro label on it, but even Apple admits that it's an entry-level consumer machine, and consumers and professionals don't have the same needs.

So while this isn't going to be a full-on review, we think just slightly more than just our usual bullet-pointed impressions are in order -- and we think it's important to actually break things down by model. How do Apple's latest laptops stack up? Read on for more.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it -- right? We know countless reviews of the iPhone 3GS may begin with that cliché, but there's little chance you'd find a better way to describe the strategy that Apple has just put into play with its latest smartphone. In many ways, the 3GS is a mirror image of the iPhone 3G; externally there's no difference. It's inside where all the changes have happened, with Apple issuing a beefed-up CPU, new internal compass, larger capacities for storage, and improved optics for its camera. More to the point, the release of the 3GS coincides with the launch of iPhone OS 3.0, a major jump from previous versions of the system software featuring highly sought after features like cut, copy, and paste, stereo Bluetooth, MMS, tethering, video recording, landscape keyboard options for more applications, and an iPhone version of Spotlight. At a glance, what Apple seems to be doing is less a reinvention of the wheel and more like retreading the wheel it's already got (and what a wheel, right?). So, do the iPhone 3GS and OS 3.0 tweak the details in just the right places, or has Apple gone and gotten lazy on us? Read on to find out.

We already knew the cats at Laptop were into the Toshiba NB205 / Dynabook UX netbook's aesthetic, and now they're back with a full review saying it "breaks the mold." Yep, even though it's packing the same 1.6GHz Atom internals as every other XP netbook out there, it's apparently a step above, with a tight design, kickin' keyboard, and 8.5 hours of battery life for $399. Of course, that's in contrast to some other reviews of the Dynabook UX we've seen, which called the keyboard "cramped," but it certainly seems like the NB205 is at least worth a look for potential netbook shoppers not put off by the upcoming CULV explosion.

We've seen a lot of innovation in the consumer point-and-shoot market over the past year or so, from capturing homemade action sequences at 1000fps to shooting 720p video underwater. Many of these innovations are borderline overkill, like 12 megapixel sensors wedged in behind cheap lenses, so we're happy to report that, despite its impressive specs, the latest superzoom shooter from Panasonic is respectable all the way through. The DMC-ZS3 doesn't offer any crazy features that are completely unheard of elsewhere, nor does it suffer from any rock and roll-style excesses for the sake of arbitrary "world's greatest" claims. It's just a solid camera, but at $400 is it the sort of thing you want in your pocket, capturing your family's precious moments this summer?

Just in case our comparatively brief overview of the D5000 wasn't enough to sway you either way, why not have a gander at DPReview's astonishing 33 page critique of Nikon's first-ever DSLR with an articulating display? Within, you'll find oodles of sample shots, comparison to rival cameras and enough analysis to make you feel like a bona fide expert upon leaving. If you're looking for the long and short of it, however, you'll find a conclusion that essentially matches up word-for-word with our own summary: the articulating display is a bit of a personal preference, but every other aspect is rock solid. If you're not down with ponying up for the marginally more expensive D90 and you can't bear the thought of buying Canon glass, there's hardly a better option on the market right now. Dig in below if you still need more proof.

We're all pretty spoiled in these digital days; not that long ago taking a look at a vacation's worth of photos required a trip to the store, a couple of hours (or days) wait, and then the better part of an afternoon getting fingerprints all over a stack of poorly composed shots that you daren't throw out because you just paid good money to have them printed. Now you pop a memory card into your computer, wait a few seconds for them to fly into an appropriately labeled folder, and then... probably forget you took them. It's so much easier it's hard to fathom the process getting even more simple, but that's what Eye-Fi has done with its line of wireless flash memory cards, which beam pictures directly from your camera. The company has just announced the $149, 4GB Eye-Fi Pro to make the process even more direct, letting you send pictures straight to a computer while also adding some additional features that pros and semi-pros will appreciate. We put it through its paces after the break.

Little more than a month after getting our sweaty, gloveless mitts on the Zero Motorcycles Zero S we received an offer to ride yet another high-tech wunderbike: the Brammo Enertia. Naturally our first reaction was excitement -- excitement only slightly dampened by news that we'd again be using the gridlocked NYC streets as our test track. But, we risked life, limb, and the ire of many a taxi driver to get some impressions of the latest electric motorcycle to hit the streets, and grabbed some video action of it all too. Read on for the lot.

While just about any SSD will make your average computing experience a fair bit more awesome, it takes a really unique device to make said experience Animal-Style-Triple-From-In-N-Out special. Up until now, the general consensus was that Intel's X-25M was the crème de la crème, but it seems that Corsair's recently launched P256 may just be giving that very drive a real run for its money. After seeing a pre-production unit deliver some respectable early results, we figured it prudent to pass along bit-tech's full-on review. In most cases, the 256GB P256 either topped or fell just behind Intel's 80GB unit, though the drive did seem to suffer a bit in the random read / write tests. Still, critics felt comfortable recommending the drive, and while pricey, noted that it offered better value per gigabyte in comparison to similar 256GB units on the market.