Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Sure, Konica Minolta’s “bizhub of the future” might posses a snazzy floral overlay and a built-in LCD panel, but aside from the fact that it’s not even real (yet), it definitely can’t even make VoIP calls and convert business cards to digital contacts. Well a company called DUZON C&T has unveiled a nifty (albeit unusual) piece of office machinery designed to scan business cards at a rate of “45 per minute,” and convert all pertinent contact information (in a bevy of languages) to Outlook contacts on the fly. Moreover, the NEO BizFree acts as a VoIP liaison by hooking up calls with just the click of your mouse over any requested listee. Of course the USB-powered device can also direct calls over standard telephone lines, but where’s the fun in that? If you’re overwhelmed with that looming stack of business cards (or just want another office toy to fiddle with), the NEO BizFree is available now for a budget-friendly 280,000 KRW ($299).

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Portable Audio, Wearables, Wireless

Filed under: Handsets, Others

Alright, dear readers, you know the drill: proceed with caution. We have no confirmation here, but sometimes a tip is too juicy not to share, no matter how suspect it might be. A reader is reporting to us that a coworker’s tech-unsavvy friend, who is regularly hired by Apple to do marketing photo shoots, was recently brought on to take some shots of “the sleekest, sexiest damn phone he’s ever seen.” The launch date? “Some time in August.” Yeah, not a typo — August. Now, to be perfectly clear, we don’t know what the iPhone (if it exists) will be actually called, we’ve never seen a real pic of the elusive beast, and this doesn’t really jive with the time frame suggested by Peter Oppenheimer’s recent comments — but we want to believe, and we don’t have to wait very long for this one to get debunked or confirmed.

[Thanks, Frazer]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Peripherals

We guess it was inevitable — long the bane of landlines, the novelty phone has finally found its way to VoIP, with the Verballs line of animated Skype phones set to invade desktops and annoy co-workers this fall. Available in five different characters, the Verballs flash and wave their hands when a call comes in and, most disturbingly, sync their lips to the callers voice — which could well cause you to never look at your friends the same way again. In addition to acting as a handsfree speakerphone, the Verballs also include headphone and mic ports for more discreet conversation, and can be used in conjunction with MP3s and text to speech software, if you’re so inclined. Plan on dropping £30 (about $55 US) when these critters launch in September.

[Via Red Ferret Journal]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Portable Audio, Wearables, Wireless

Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, Others

Apple’s been dogged with rumors of an iPod / phone hybrid (the real deal, not a rehash of a Moto E398 with iTunes support) for nearly as long as the iPod’s been kickin’ around. Apparently looking to beat the dead horse yet again, an analyst mentioned Sony’s success with their Walkman line of music-oriented phones during Apple’s Q3 earnings call, prompting CFO Peter Oppenheimer to respond with a fairly solid non-denial: “As regards cell phones, we don’t think that the phones that are available today make the best music players. We think the iPod is. But over time, that is likely to change. And we’re not sitting around doing nothing.” Knowing Apple, of course, this is about the biggest admission we’ll get until the iPhone actually drops, so relish in the moment, keep your eyes peeled in a year or so, and if you’re really hard up, you could fashion your own, like the pictured Nokia 6682 makeover.

[Via MacDailyNews]

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Filed under: Messaging, Misc

Reaching out to all those who maintain both a land line telephone and a mobile number, EMBARQ has launched the EMBARQ Together Phone PaQ which introduces at least one rather handy feature:  “One Voicemail” allows users to have just a single voicemail inbox for both their home and mobile phones. If only having to check one mailbox doesn’t sway you, voicemail alerts are sent to both phones where you can retrieve them at home or on the go. The biggest “feature” here, however, is the usual double-play integration between home and mobile phones; billing for both are handily included on one bill, calls to and from the two phones are always free, and there’s only one customer service number to remember for both services — a dream come true for many who can’t seem to completely reside at home or in the office, or who just want less maintenance from their voice providers.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Filed under: Household, Wireless

Well, with the recent hurricane seasons we’ve been having, it might not be exactly paranoid to throw together some survival gear and emergency communication equipment, but we can’t help but thinking this new “Personal Hurricane Kit” from Assemble Communications is a bit of a cash-in on the hysteria. Luckily, it is a full featured cash-in. Released last month, the $5,000 device comes in a watertight suitcase which holds the battery-powered Inmarsat satellite antenna and handset. But along with making your calls, the kit allows you to connect your computer for broadband satellite Internet, making this the obvious choice for mobile professionals stuck in a bit of bad weather. The price for the 6-pound kit includes 400 minutes of talk time and 150 megabytes of Internet access, so we recommend staying away from streaming those “Lost” episodes — as ironic as it may seem at the time.

[Via SOSD]

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You wouldn’t believe it, but somehow FiWin (which is owned by FIC) got Skype and SIP to sit down at the table together and play some Mahjong. It’s not really technically all that difficult, but until now we hadn’t really seen a Skype / SIP dual-mode VoIP capable handset, so we welcome you, oh pathfinding FX28S and SS28S WiFi phones; otherwise they’re just another couple of 802.11b phone devices with a 3.5 hour call life, a USB 1.1 connector, and a weak 1.2-inch 65k color 128 x 95 CSTN display in the the FX28S, and a 1.4-inch monochrome 96 x 65 display in the SS28S.

[Thanks, Sam]

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Filed under: Cellphones

For anyone who puts much stock those reports of cellphone radiation causing cancer, we recommend you set down your Moto and back slowly away. Turns out Motorola managed to score the top eight spots in a list by CNET of phones with the highest radiation levels -- as tested by the FCC. The phones are rated by SAR level, which measures the quantity of radio frequency asbsorbed by the body. Of course, a lot of these phones are nearly a decade old, but the two-month-old C290 makes an appearance, and the list is headed by the SLVR L6 at a whopping SAR level of 1.58W/kg (1.6W/kg is the max allowed). This could have something to do with the light weight of a phone like the SLVR -- though Palm's much heftier 650 managed a 9 spot -- but we're cooking up a few conspiracy theories right now if that turns out not to be the case. In all fairness, the top ten lowest-radiation phone list had a couple Motorola appearances, with the Audiovox PPC66001 leading the group at a SAR level of 0.12. Now where did we put that aluminum foil hat...

[Via Healthbetold]

Filed under: Cellphones, Transportation

We’re not usually the crazy protester types who’d brave the cold and firehoses for something silly like woman’s suffrage, (Just kidding! We love you ladies!) but we’re all ready to get out tempera paint and signage for what seems like a pretty steep rights issue in Lawrence, Kansas. Seems they’re trying to best all those current cellphone laws on the books — most of which require a handsfree device to use your phone in the car — and want to ban phones while driving altogether. “If you pass a ban that just prohibits the hand-held devices, you’re sending a message that the hands-free devices are safe, and that is false,” said Paul Atchley of Kansas University, an proponent of the bill. Seems a little bit of shaky reasoning to us, but we’re no professor. T-Mobile has spoken out against the ban, stating: “We think there are distractions just as great. I suppose if you also want to ban McDonald’s coffee and kids in the back seat, then we wouldn’t oppose it.” We say amen to that, and just dare the Mayor of Lawrence to take our phone away from our cold dead fingers — after we roll our SUV during a particularly heated conversation, of course.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio

Last time we checked in on Motorola's V3m -- a slight music-centric update to the EV-DO V3c -- we weren't quite sure if this was going to Verizon or Sprint, but it looks like Verizon won out in the end, and are now offering the handset for $150 with a 2-year contract. The phone features a microSD slot for music and video storage, and a 1.3 megapixel camera, but there doesn't seem to be a lot else new going on here. Music-wise, the phone is designed to work with Verizon's V Cast music and video services, but we're not sure of codec support beyond those downloads, though MP3 seems a given and PlaysForSure is likely.

[Thanks, Ryan]

Filed under: Culture

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Filed under: Handsets, HTC, O2, Windows Mobile, GSM, HSDPA, UMTS

Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, Sony Ericsson, Vodafone, GSM

Sony Ericsson keeps cranking out the high-style musicphones, and the V630i looks to be the latest edition to the line -- for UK Vodafone customers, that is. The phone, which eschews the Walkman branding used in other recent music-centric models, includes 10MB of internal memory, Memory Stick Micro support, a 176x220 display, 2 megapixel camera, trimode GSM support, and A2DP for Bluetooth stereo output. In sum, it reminds us a lot of another recent Sony Ericsson, the W810i, which has a similar feature set, but lacks A2DP (and that alone, of course, makes this one a new fave).

[Thanks, Goku]

Filed under: Cellphones

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Filed under: Handsets, Sprint-Nextel

Sprint Nextel is set to officially spin-off its landline unit tonight -- at one minute before midnight, specifically. The new company, dubbed Embarq, will then begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday morning, and will also join the S&P 500. As we reported earlier, Embarq plans to offer dual-mode handsets that can transfer seamlessly between WiFi and cellular networks, pitting it against