Gadgets: Wood for your ears

Students used to go to college with an enormous pair of stereo speakers housed in wood cabinets. Back then, most speaker makers favored wood because it radiated a rich, warm sound.

Now several companies offer wooden earbud headphones, claiming they re-create that natural resonance for iPods and other portable audio devices. Can it possibly work?

It did in a pair of Rain headphones from Thinksound ($100, but you can get them for $59.12 at Amazon). They deliver a balanced, natural resonance that is lacking in many headphones for portable audio players. The Rain earbuds use a 9-millimeter driver and fit snugly in your ear to create passive noise reduction that filters out ambient noise. (Thinksound provides four sets of silicone ear inserts to ensure a good fit for a range of ear sizes.)

The in-ear headphones are compact with a simple, elegant design in two finishes: black chocolate and silver cherry.

The Droid2 inspires a sense of familiarity. Physically, it is almost identical in size and weight to the first Droid, released nine months ago, and has the same 3.7-inch screen and a slide-out keyboard configuration. But there is a big difference under the hood. The new Droid is almost twice as fast and promises longer battery life.

The Droid2 runs on the newest version of the Android operating system, 2.2, also called Froyo, which offers a pile of new features, including an app that allows voice search and the ability to dictate texts and voice mail to the phone. It also views Flash video and animation online, which iPhones can't do.

It can be used as a Wi-Fi hot spot, which means you can connect your computer -- up to five devices, actually -- to the Internet.

Motorola did away with the large-ish navigation control from the first Droid, leaving room to space out the keys for less cramped typing.

The Droid2 is $200 through Verizon Wireless with a two-year contract that requires a data plan. To use the hot spot or tethering features, there is an additional $20 monthly charge.

NEW YORK TIMES