In the ninth episode of the Gadget Lab Videoblog, Dylan Tweney and Jose Fermoso review the 2GB robot Sony Rolly player, which includes a bizarre control system, funny dance moves that interpret music intelligently, and oddly evokes the dancing wall fish sold at the supermarket.

In addition, Daniel Dumas and Steven Leckart review the stylish new smart phone from Palm, the Treo Pro. They go over the one valid reason why it's embedded with extra buttons, and why it ultimately disappoints as a breakthrough phone but is still good enough for a recommendation.

If the video above is not working, please click here to view it: Reviews of the Sony Rolly and Palm Treo Pro.

You can also check out all of our previous videos at Wired's channel on YouTube. (Or you can click on the Gadget Lab Video category in the right corner of this post.)

This episode of the Gadget Lab Video was created by Annaliza Savage (producer), Niall McKay (camera), and Michael Lennon (editor).

Recently, two Apple customers have said they received e-mails from Jobs: A MacRumors reader claimed Jobs replied to his letter concerning iPhone 3G network issues, and a Gizmodo reader said Jobs wrote him an e-mail hinting at plans to offer an iPhone tethering option. For reference purposes, we also looked at a third e-mail purportedly sent by Jobs regarding the iPod touch.

Though the purported e-mails are terse, they reveal information about what's coming for Apple -- which is unusual, since Apple religiously operates in secrecy. Many blogs and news outlets picked up these e-mails and spread around the "facts" as if they came directly from Jobs himself.

The MacRumors e-mail about a fix coming for iPhone 3G to resolve its network issues sparked widespread speculation that the handset was responsible for connectivity problems. As time passed, however, more and more evidence suggests that the 3G networks themselves are more closely tied to network-related problems than the phone.

We compared the three customer-reported e-mails with e-mails verified to be real: Steve Jobs' open letter to iPhone customers, his internal e-mail to Apple staff regarding MobileMe and another internal e-mail he sent to Apple staffers about outperforming Dell.

Which Versus That

MacRumors' purported e-mail from Jobs about iPhone 3G connectivity the contains an obvious grammatical error. It says:

"We are working on some bugs which affect around 2% of the iPhones shipped, and hope to have a software update soon. Steve"

According to Wired.com copy chief Tony Long, the usage of "which" is grammatically incorrect; "that" would be the correct word.

Compare this to the e-mail Jobs sent to Apple staff regarding the MobileMe launch, in which he used "that" correctly:

One step that I can share with you today is that the MobileMe team will now report to Eddy Cue, who will lead all of our internet services – iTunes, the App Store and, starting today, MobileMe.

Unnecessary Commas

The MacRumors email also includes a comma after the word "shipped." Though this is not an absolute mistake, it's an informal and unnecessary comma that only exists to create a pause in the sentence. The sentence would be grammatically stronger had it used the word "we" before "hope."

An unnecessary comma also appears in the customer-reported e-mail on Gizmodo after the word "agree." It says:

"We agree, and are discussing it with ATT. Steve"

By contrast, Jobs doesn't have a problem with unnecessary commas in his open letter to iPhone customers. Notice how in the sentence starting with "Details" there is no unnecessary comma after the word "out":

"Details are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple's website next week. Stay tuned. We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers. We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple."

Independent Clauses

Also, in Jobs' iPhone open letter, notice how in the sentence starting with "We apologize," he properly uses "we" to make the second clause of that sentence an independent clause.

This in contrast to the two customer-reported emails, which both included an unnecessary comma after the "and." If Jobs had been consistent with the customer-reported emails, his note would have read, "We apologize for disappointing some of you, and are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple."

Closing Words

Linguistics professor Farrell pointed out that in e-mails confirmed to be from Jobs, the CEO never includes closing words such as "Sincerely" or "Best Regards." However, in a customer-reported e-mail about the iPod touch, Jobs concludes with the closing words "Best, Steve."

Compare this to the internal e-mail Jobs sent to staff about Apple outperforming Dell, which one would imagine could merit the word "Best":

Team, it turned out that Michael Dell wasn't perfect at predicting the future. Based on today's stock market close, Apple is worth more than Dell. Stocks go up and down, and things may be different tomorrow, but I thought it was worth a moment of reflection today. Steve.

Fake or Real?

Farrell said Jobs' verified writing shows he has a very good grasp of written English: It is grammatical and well structured.

"The grammar in all the e-mails is competent, native, and standard English," he said.

However, he said the evidence of just three short e-mails was too scant to come to a conclusion.

"I don't see anything obvious that would lead me to believe that the three questionable emails are fake," he said. "I think one would need more evidence. Longer emails or something."

Though this analysis isinconclusive, the e-mail containing the misuse of "which" appears to be the most suspicious.On the other hand, the e-mail from Gizmodo is up for debate: Gizmodo's Mark Wilson believes it's real.

"I'm pretty sure the tip is legit," Wilson wrote in an e-mail. "I know for sure that Jobs really emails customers like this. And the source didn't have that shady, 10-year-old prankster vibe. They shared their
complete email thread including IPs from the correspondence."

Apple and MacRumors did not respond to a request for comment.

(Photo credit: acaben/Flickr)

In this week's Gadget Lab Podcast, Dylan Tweney, Daniel Dumas, and Brian Chen talk about the newest TiVo on the block, the 1-terabyte HD XL. With 150 hours of HD content and THX certified audio, the player packs heat, but it might be a bit too pricey for regular folks. Not only that, but the massive capacity might create a wacked-out zombie, or two.

In addition, they review a strange little email-only device called the Peek. The main impression: The device is too simple for its own good, especially since every other gadget with email can also do other things. Tech-friendly grandmas would be embarrassed walking around with it.

Finally, they'll discuss the most recent lawsuit against Apple, brought on by a retired Chicken of the Sea executive (no joke). The suit states that Apple's advertising claims are not only misleading, but also false and improper for such a high-rising gadget.

Thanks for listening to the weekly podcast. If you'd like to subscribe to the feed, point your feed reader or podcast downloader to the Gadget Lab podcast RSS feed. The audio player widget above requires Quicktime (you can download it at Apple's page here).

If you prefer, you can also download the MP3 file for this episode with this link: Gadget Lab Podcast #44 MP3. Check out the previous forty-three Gadget Lab podcasts after the jump.

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #43: Nikon D90, Palm Treo Pro, Final iPhone 3G Survey Results

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #42: Palm Treo Pro, The iPhone 3G Study, and Lenovo's U110 Notebook

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast # 41: The Micro Four Thirds Photo System, Tiny Tumbleweed Houses, and the MSI Wind Mini-notebook

Gadget Lab Podcast #40: Nokia E71, New T-Mobile Sidekick, and the WinePod Wine-maker

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #39: Hidden Stun Guns in Bikes, Dr. Dre's Headphones, and Nokia's Mobile Platform

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #38: Atomic Watches, The HP 2133 Mini Notebook, and iPhone 3G Bugs

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #37: iPhone 3G Launch, GammaTech Durabook, and the Openmoko Neo Freerunner

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #36: Wired's Summer Test, JVC Everio Camcorder, and Asus' U2E Ultralight

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #35: 3D Holograms, The Image Fulgurator, and New Phone Reviews

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #34: Samsung Instinct, Toshiba's Portege R500, and the Nikon D60 DSLR

Gadget Lab Podcast #33: iPhone 3G, POV Racing Toy Cars, and the Polaroid Pogo Printer

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #32: Mini-notebook Smackdown, Olympic Speedsuits, and the Eye-Fi Catches a Thief

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #31: Dell's Mini Laptop, Nokia N96, and Fake GPS Art

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #30: The OLPC 2.0, iPhone 2.0, and Roku Netflix Player

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #29: The Lowdown on the iPhone 2.0, The Flip 2 Camera Gets Tested, and The Week's Best Reviews

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #28: Maker Faire, Samsung Glyde and Olympus E-420

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #27: Psystar, T-Mobile 3-G, and AT&T TV

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #26: The Optimus Maximus Keyboard is Released, Asus Ships a Boosted Eee PC, and The Science of Walking Barefoot

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #25: The Latest on the Psystar Apple 'Hackintosh' Story, Hybrid Cameras, and Rumors of a 24-megapixel Nikon!

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #24: Bold Predictions for the 3G iPhone, the Week's Top Reviews, and Crazy Paintball Tanks

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #23: The 2008 CTIA Conference, Product Naming Trends, and Beckham's Tacky Gadget

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #22: Motorola's Split, The Sony Crapware Saga, and More

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #21: The Wireless Spectrum Auction, HTC's Googlephone, and Evil Keyboards

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #20: Exploding Batteries, Lost Gadgets, and the Week's Best Reviews

(For links to podcasts episodes #1-19, hit the link for #20, above.)

The Wired Gadget Lab Podcast #40: Nokia E71, New T-Mobile Sidekick, and the WinePod Wine-maker

Denver, CO - Last night, in a cavernous ballroom of the Denver Convention Center, Panasonic revealed the TH-65VX100U 65" Plasma display, but this time, (as opposed to the last time it made TV news), size had nothing to do with it.

With a 60,000:1 contrast ratio that leads to a larger dynamic range, the company promises this display will have the deepest blacks out there. Sounds familiar? Pioneer revealed their 'absolute black' 9th-gen Kuro plasmas last January at CES, and the dynamic colors were the talk of the show. So with this reveal, Panasonic seems to be saying, if it’s an ‘Ultimate Black’ you want, then, this is where this fight lies.

Unfortunately, it's a fixed fight. This TV will only be a custom install, which means the regular Joe and Jackie can't make a quick trip to Best Buy, unlike the plans for the next year's Pioneer. That will be a regular mass-market display (albeit one ready to be very expensive). 

Second, and more importantly, it was recently revealed that Pioneer is selling off most of the hardware side of their Plasma display business to Panasonic. What does this mean? That Panasonic probably is making Pioneer cry uncle and is slowly forcing them to reveal the secret dark sauce of the Kuro.

However, the early consensus is that the effect of the blacks in yesterday's demonstration did not disappear into the dark room in the same way the Kuro’s did, and don't match the color range yet. So the sauce is leaking, but there's plenty left in the pot, if you will.

It must be noted, however, that both technologies have only been experienced in very limited, confined productions and can’t be rated yet.

The VX100U is expected to come out in January of next year, and it features 116 adjustment menus and a customizable scale of gamma preset curves (for super precise details and over 7,100 shades of visual gradation (with an 18-bit correction – 15 and 16 bit is the top of the line at some of the new monitors seen here this week).

In the last few years, Panasonic has used big electronics conferences to unveil giant TVs, a wireless camcorder, and competitively spec-ed out Blu-ray players. But until last night, the company had not re-defined a current product line with their technology, or had taken on the specific niche of a competitor so bluntly, like they’re doing against the Kuro.

Even though Panasonic makes successful products, but they haven’t had a ‘Kuro’ or a ‘TiVo’- level difference-making product in awhile. Expect them to push this tech from the custom install league into the mass market by next year.

The scammer's name is Paul Deery, or in some cases, Derry. According to a story in CrunchGear, he's been pretending to be a CrunchGear and Philadelphia Enquirer writer to fool public relations folks and vendors into shipping him hardware.

This isn't the first time this has happened, but that ain't cool, "Paul." Here at Gadget Lab we ship products back as soon as we're done testing and reviewing them. If people like Deery continue to abuse our privileges, vendors will probably up their security measures, and we'll have to jump through all sorts of bureaucratic hula hoops just to get products to test -- directly affecting our readers. We're just helping spread the word to put this to an end. 

SCAM ALERT: Paul Deery/Derry does not work for CrunchGear or, presumably, the Philadelphia Inquirer [CrunchGear]

Casio EX Z150

Hey, Casio: Time to call Jenny Craig. Your formerly slim, sexy Exilim cameras have ballooned up like William Shatner. Witness the EX-Z150, a chunky, pocket-sagging model that looks like it has a glandular disorder. Fortunately, like the fat guy on the basketball court who hits every jumper, the Z150 quickly proves its worth.

To instantly win the mine’s-better-than-yours contest, show friends the Z150's gorgeous three-inch LCD. It’s mammoth for a camera with a sub-$200 price tag, and bright enough to see in direct sunlight. You can also fire off a group shot without having to take the customary 20 steps back to fit everybody in: The Z150's wide-angle lens (28mm) offers a dramatically broader field of view than most pocket cams. Meanwhile, the lens zooms to 4x before the digital faux-zoom kicks in—that’s a whole "x" better than other models in this price range.

Idjit-proof controls and logical onscreen menus make the Z150 a camera anyone can pick up and use sans manual, though its small, cramped control pad hurts the overall ergonomics. Users with Shatner-size fingers will have trouble. One saving grace: a dedicated video-record button. Press it to start capturing YouTube-friendly movies at 30 fps, then again to stop. Note to other camera makers: Steal this button! Casio bundles a handy YouTube uploader utility, but you have to install it the old-fashioned way: from a CD. We're spoiled by Flip Video's camcorders, which run their software when you plug 'em in.

Available in five colors (including pink for her and Corvette red for him), the Z150 tops out at 8.1 megapixels—more than adequate for the party scene (birthday and otherwise). A generous helping of “Best Shot” presets takes the guesswork out of shooting fireworks, auction photos, candlelight vigils, and the like. But as you might expect, the camera produces considerable image noise when the lights are low and the ISO high. With sufficient lighting, however, you’ll get smooth, sharp, well-balanced photos. Only the color reproduction disappoints: It’s good, but lacking that zing we see in competing models from, say, Canon.

Of course, some of Canon’s pocket shooters tend toward the bulky as well, so we can forgive the EX-Z150 its slightly excessive carriage. And we’re mad for its big screen, sweet wide-angle lens, and affordable price. Priceline Shatner would be proud.  —Rick Broida

WIRED Wide-angle lens just plain kicks ass, and 4x optical zoom gets you close without using your feet. One-touch video recording and YouTube upload software make this the perfect camera for Paris/Lindsay/Bigfoot sightings.

TIRED Too thick and heavy to leave in your pocket all day. Small, stiff control pad. Snapshot colors lack pop. Battery must be removed for charging.

$200, casio.com

(Photo by Casio)

In England, caravanning is rightly seen as the activity of the old and tired. Retirees trundle around the country lanes, dragging their dangerously unstable trailers behind them. There are only a few days of the year when this is done, and these are the "Bank Holidays", or public holidays, where the roads are already full of Britishers heading to the beach to eat ice-cream in sub-zero temperatures and enjoy a good buffeting from the wind and the rain.

Finally, though, somebody has done something about the terrible image of the caravan, seventy years after Airstream did the same across the pond in the US. The Caravan Pod is a collapsible trailer which can fit into a regular parking space. When extended, it is big enough to sleep two people. Fashioned from various plastics and metals, 23 year old designer David Tonkinson's Pod comes on like something between a public restroom and a, well, an airplane restroom. You can see some pictures of the interior below.

The concept design is being reported by Britain's best loved tabloid, the Daily Mail, and if there was any doubt of the fundamental Englishness of caravanning, the newspaper firmly dispels it with this description of the most important features of the Pod:

[...] the six onboard power sockets mean luxuries such as the television, fridge and kettle do not have to be left at home. [emphasis added]

The pods hoping to make caravanning cool [Daily Mail via New Launches]

This, according to Microsoft, is "just the beginning". Expect to see Microsoft's White (Brown?) elephant in a store near you. Perhaps you'll take a moment to check it out as you walk to the checkout with your new iPod.

120GB Zune coming to a store near you [CNET]

The hotspot covers the area of 50 football pitches. That's football played with the feet, not football played with the hands (some of you may know it as "soccer"). The price? £5 (almost $9) per hour. You could opt for the £10 option, which gives you a 24 hours of access but, honestly, who wants to hang around an airport for a whole day, even one with such pretty decorations to look at?

T Mobile launches T5 Wi-Fi [Techwatch]

Photo credit: James Cridland/Flickr

We've been watching a few rumors drifting around in the past weeks regarding a possible new large format sensor from Nikon. A tip-off received yesterday by Nikon Watch ties them all neatly together.

The background: Nikon put out a print advertisement in Rangefinder magazine, regarding an announcement to be made at next year's WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International) conference. The teaser reads "Don't miss it. It's gonna be BIG!"

This subtle hint combines with a leak to Nikon Rumors which seems to show the specs of a new, larger sensor, called MX Format. The final piece of the puzzle comes from the afore-mentioned Nikon Watch: A reader tells them that the MX sensor will be a huge 48 x 48 mm. That's right, a decidedly old-school medium format square sensor. A big sensor that will sport a whopping 48 megapixels.

This certainly ties in with Nikon's current strategy. The D3 and D700 both have a relatively low pixel-count for their sensor sizes, resulting in some very clean low-light performance. Instead of just squeezing more pixels onto the same chip, it looks like Nikon might be keeping the same pixel density and just making the whole thing bigger.

Nikon Watch's source continues: The sensor will be similar in design to the D3 sensor and the camera itself will be able to use existing FX (full frame) lenses via an adapter. This will give a crop factor of 0.5x -- pop on a 50mm lens and it will act like a 25mm lens. It will also shoot rectangular pictures by cropping the image from the sensor, which means that you can choose either landscape or portrait orientation without actually moving the camera. Finally, the camera wil be cheap. Not D60 cheap, but a lot less than the current $40,000 offering from Hasselblad.

Now, allow me a little speculation if you will, in the style of the Scooby Doo gang piecing the evidence together. The official Nikon ad appeared in Rangefinder magazine. The announcement will be made at a conference for wedding photographers, a group who shoot a lot in dark places (churches and wedding receptions) and like to print very large pictures. Could we be looking at a giant rangefinder along the lines of the old Mamiya 7? A rangefinder with stratospheric ISO settings? It would certainly be a lot easier to handle than a big medium format DSLR.

We'll see. If this comes true (and we certainly hope it will), then it will be one more victory for the new, revitalized Nikon. Come on, Canon -- let's see what you've got.

Otoji spy shot (updated) [Nikon Rumors]

Nikon Digital Rangefinder? MX Format? Medium-Format-ish?! [Nikon Watch]

Nikon MX Format [Photography Bay]