Not everyone feels the need to cart around a laptop, and many people are intimidated by PDAs, or don't feel the need for a glorified organizer. That's not to say those same people wouldn't benefit from the features of the Pavio. Because the Pavio is small enough to fit in a purse or coat pocket, who wouldn't want to be able to take TV, movies, music, and pictures with them, all in one convenient package? Even the included digital manual was complete and very easy to understand.

I initially thought the $600 price tag was a bit high, especially as compared to the Creative Zen, the iRiver, and Archos devices, Pavio's closest competitors. But with the exception of one or two of the devices in those product lines, of which Archos has quite a few, the Pavio is about the only one that will record TV. And of the ones that will, I know one of them isn't even on the market yet.

Pavio falls right in the middle of the price range for these devices. Sure some are cheaper, but they can't hold a candle to the range of Pavio's features. And others cost, or will cost, more when they hit the market. Well who wants to pay more for the same options?

What finally made me reevaluate my feelings on the cost of the Pavio is when I realized that not too long ago I paid $500 for a brand new Palm LifeDrive. A device that has 4GB of storage space as opposed to Pavio's 30GB, and virtually no recording ability (with the exception of its voice recorder). To say nothing of being able to watch TV.

I do have a couple of complaint/suggestions about the Pavio. The biggest one is that none of the applications can be paused and the device turned off without it defaulting back to the home screen when turned on again. It should come back on right where it was when turned off. And it won't turn off the screen to save power when these apps are paused. These two things really should be added to the device, even if by means of a software patch.

When in the docking station, the device must be connected to the power adapter in order for the TV antenna to work. I think when an antenna is connected to the docking station it should work from either Pavio power, or adapter power, although I agree it would be another battery drain. When hiking, cycling, camping, having a picnic or whatnot, it would be nice to be able watch TV on the Pavio, and external power isn't always available in these situations. The docking station takes up so little space I could see it being brought along in these situations if the antenna would work.

And finally, the remote; I love the remote. It will let you navigate and control all features and functions of the Pavio remotely, from play and pause, to volume, to channels, to menu navigation. Every aspect of the Pavio can be run from the remote, but the remote only works when the Pavio is in the docking station and connected to external power.

I think it would be nice if the remote worked directly on the Pavio, without the docking station. But I acknowledge that would require an IR port on the Pavio itself, which would end up being just another battery drain. Some people would be willing to accept a little battery drain to have the remote and TV antenna work without external power.