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The most glaring omission from the Joggler though, is a web browser. It’s an omission thrown into even sharper relief by the excellent screen, fine virtual keyboard and lovely touch UI. Fingers crossed, some day soon O2 will see fit to provide a version of the cracking Opera browser that Archos ships with its 5 and 7 Internet PMPs. Incidentally, our Joggler came loaded with just one game, the housewife's favourite, Sudoku. Presumably, more will be available as downloads from O2 in due course.

O2 Joggler

Brimming with features, but browserless

On a final note, the firmware in our review device wasn't as robust as perhaps it could have been. On one occasion the audio output gave up the ghost, while on a few others it dropped the connection to Windows Media Server when left to idle for an hour or so. It refused to re-connect even though the Wi-Fi signal was fine. Both problems were solved by a quick ‘reset’. In the absence of an on/off or dedicated reset button, this involved yanking out the power plug, which felt a bit barbaric.

O2 are pricing the Joggler at £150, which is pretty fair value for such a versatile gadget but it is also available free of charge in lieu of a handset upgrade to O2 contract customers and we reckon that makes it the bargain of the year.

Verdict

We can see no good reason for O2 locking the device down quite so comprehensively and not letting users load content onto the Joggler via Windows Explorer. After all, the Joggler is better seen as a handy, network-enabled media player, ideal for those who run their media from an always-on Nas box, so just forget all that calendar malarkey. The weather, traffic and news features are useful, with Internet radio and e-mail access due in the not too distant future. Indeed, it has lots of handy subsidiary functionality built-in but, if it had a web browser too, it would surely be the ultimate on-line, bedside companion. ®

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85%
O2 Joggler

O2 Joggler

An excellent, all-round, on-line gadget and so much more than the interactive calendar that O2 is punting it as
Price: £149 or free on O2 upgrade RRP
Latest Comments

It may be some use if....

When you entered a diary item it would send it to your phones calander rather than as a text message. Yup you'd have to tell it what phone you use but that would have done it for me..

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Had ours a week

On a free, instead of a replacement phone.

And I rather like it. Not a replacement for a corporate outlook, but certainly for the papery thing that no-one keeps up to date. It is slightly odd that it doesn't produce an alert on the display, but we've already had one update since plugging it in, that may come. Which will be a must when the radio function arrives (then the kitchen radio will go)

Speakers are a little tinny, I have a pair I'll plug in some time. Connectivity is no problem whatsoever for us. Nice photo frame screen-saver. The kids - 8 and 6 - can use it without thinking about it. The touch-screen is excellent. It stores the weather location without any problem, btw, I've seen that down as a bug before.

There's a hacking project for it - http://hackthejoggler.blogspot.com/

It has a place in a busy family.

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O2 Joggler - BIG FAIL

You gave this 85% !! Can't upset the sponsors I guess? Several flaws you didn't mention:

- Can't set an end time on an appointment

- Can't sync with any other calendar

- Alerts do not pop up on the device itself rather it has to send SMS - don't most phones already sync with PC calendars and have auto event reminders ?? YES !!

Why would you rate a device that loses Wifi connection after a hour, or has such an obvious tie in to the manufacturer, so highly ? I have to regard future reviews with the scepticism they deserve.

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