Filed under: Cellphones, Networking

With Skype and other assorted VoIP services getting more and more popular, you might be eyeing one of those new handsets we’ve been showing your for the last few months. However, some of you might have wondered why you’d want to buy another handset when you probably have a perfectly good cellphone with the necessary internals to do the job, right? You’re in luck, as such a product just debuted at the VoIP / IPTV World 2006 expo in Korea: Clipcomm’s BS-T100V will convert your home VoIP service and send it over Bluetooth to your celly, letting you talk up a storm without using a ton of those precious minutes. (Of course, if you’re a T-Mobile customer in Seattle, you could get HotSpot @Home right now.) As happy as this product makes us, we still can’t get too excited yet given that we don’t know what it’ll cost, nor if it’ll ever make it across that bigger pond to the West.

[Via AVING]

 

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

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: Misc. Gadgets, Household

Thinking about ditching that landline? Are those VoIP options — especially the free ones — looking more and more attractive? Keynote Systems, a globally respected internet and communication testing company, has completed a ridiculously thorough investigation on the true audio quality that can be had using VoIP (within American borders), and the results are quite intriguing. To test call quality and remove human error / bias, they had automated machines in apartments nearly 3,000 miles apart call one another 125,000 times throughout the month of August, play a 30 second clip, and let an audio analyzer handle the rest. VoIP hard / soft phones, digital cable VoIP phones, and traditional landline phones were all tested and compared, only to discover that cable company-provided VoIP phones that utilized PacketCable — an IP multimedia transmission system optimized for coax — scored a whopping 4.24 MOS (mean opinion score), trouncing the 4.0 found in traditional phone networks. Granted, when viewing all VoIP venues, outliers were found around 2.6, which is fairly unacceptable when a 3.2 MOS is considered the “minimum” for a frustration-free conversation. All in all, landlines ranked second only to the mighty cable offerings, while hard VoIP phones (like the ATS E6501) slid in third, and “soft” services (Skype, for instance) were declared last. While we’ve personally had great success with the likes of Gizmo and other free internet calling alternatives, our ears certainly aren’t sine wave decoders, so if you’re thinking of tossing that ole rotary dialer for something with a touch more clarity, you might as well give that cable company a ring.

[Via Ars Technica]

 

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

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

It seems like everyone and their sister is coming out with Skype-compatible phones these days. And taking a page out of the handheld barcode scanner design playbook, Keyspan wants a piece of the VoIP pie too. Its new $79 model, imaginatively called the “Cordless VoIP Phone”, has 15 hours of talk time, 1200 hours of standby time, USB/AAA power, and it’s Mac and PC friendly, a’course. However, Keyspan doesn’t list where you can buy this handset, or when it will be available. That aside, if another company (besides FiWin) really wanted to make the real-deal ultimate killer handset, they’d make a phone that was Gizmo/Zfone and Skype-friendly — we’d definitely be interested. But apparently Skype doesn’t like to play nice with SIP phones or any other kind of VoIP, which is a real shame because there’s such a great marketing opportunity here — they could call it SIPpe, like “sippy”, as in the cup. Whaddya say?

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Filed under: Wireless

If you’ve been looking for a headset that’ll work with your plain old phone service and also let you do that VoIP thing, you might want to take a peep at GN Netcom‘s new 9350 dual-function headset (or just look past it if you’re on a budget). While GN’s “future-proof” claim seems a little dubious, for $349 you do get a 300 foot range on 1.9GHz (think: “WiFi-friendly”) with DECT 6.0 technology, as well as promised sound enhancements from the headset’s noise-canceling microphone and DSP and IntelliTone capabilities. Expect to get about six hours of talk time when using it with a PC, or nine hours on regular phone duties, with a recharge time of three hours and forty-three hour standby time. If you really want to blow things out, you can also sync up to four headsets to a single base station for conference calls, which kinda negates the whole VoIP cost savings thing, but do your thing.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Wireless

While this may not match your speedy new Lamborghini notebook, the Asus AiGuru S1 handset should make your VoIP calling a bit easier — while you’re on the PC, at least. This Skype-friendly wireless handset resembles a Nokia candybar phone circa 2000, but touts the ability to connect via 802.11b/g to make calls. Unfortunately, that excitement was quickly put back on the shelf, as reviewers noted that it only connects via a computer with “customized software” installed (thoughtfully included on a USB wireless adapter), thus eliminating the thought of hitting up a VoIP call whenever near a stray WiFi signal. The 128 x 64 blue LCD was said to be “responsive” to commands, and the 2.5 hours of talk time should be plenty for all but the lengthiest chats. It was noted that the built-in voicemail was a tad buggy initially, but eventually worked itself out, and the most important praise came from the “perfect audio quality” when yapping over Skype. As somewhat of an afterthought, the phone does have an audio output for streaming tunes via Windows Media Center to your headphones or attached speakers, but we doubt your VoIP handset will become your favorite musical liaison anytime soon. The AiGuru S1 performed well enough to earn 8 out of 10 golden stars, but considering that you still need a (powered up) PC to use this thing, £69.99 ($132) seems a bit steep to get your VoIP on.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Wearables, Wireless

Full points for effective buzzword usage here: Japanese department chain Mitsokoshi is implementing a new system in their dressing rooms that allows patrons to scan RFID-tagged items and then use a VoIP phone to check inventory and call for other items to be brought. The whole system is tied into Mitsokoshi’s Point Of Sale system to have real-time info on inventory, and since most of the system is based on Cisco phones the installation costs about $700-800, instead of $20,000-25,000 for a similar setup based on touchscreen kiosks. When an RFID-equipped clothing item is scanned, different sizes, colors and similar product show up for selection on the 5.6-inch touchscreen of the phone, and picking up the phone to call for help is a bit more discreet than shouting out your ever expanding waist size over the dressing room wall. The setup is being provided by Litescape, who claims to be already demonstrating to US retailers such as Abercrombie, Home Depot, the Gap and Virgin Mega — so maybe we won’t have to be too far behind Japan in this regard. Go USA.

[Via RFID in Japan]

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Filed under: Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Speaking of unholy abominations, Sony decided to take some design tips from their own PSP, functionality from the OQO, usage scenarios from Nokia’s 770 (and a wee dash dash of inspiration from Ixi’s OGO), and mash it up all together into a single device: the mylo. The name refers to “my life online,” ahem, which we assume probably has a little something to do with the Sony’s old school MYLO / My Life Online, a wireless service Sony launched launched at PC Expo 2001 “to offer mobile users an original and personalized way to access information and entertainment content for work and play.” (Yeah, that’s specific.) This blast from the past now takes shape as a $350 WiFi-centric handheld features a slide-up 2.4-inch screen, VoIP capabilities via Skype, web access, media playback capabilities, 1GB flash, and a Memory Stick slot — just think of it as a UX180P, you know, for kids.

[Thanks to Eric and everyone who sent this in]

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Google, whose entire product line seems to be in a constant state of beta, has upgraded its Google Talk client, trying to catch up with the rest of the instant messaging world with file transfers, voicemail and the ability to show contacts what music is playing on your PC. Undaunted by the fact that virtually no one uses its Google Talk application—reportedly only 44,000 people used it last month—Google presses on with, yes, another updated beta that doesn’t support the Mac.

Now you’ll be able to send files with a button click while talking to another user of Google Talk, leave voicemails up to 10 minutes long that will be e-mailed to the person who didn’t pick up the phone, and for some reason you’ll be able to reveal the music you’re listening to, which changes as the tune does. Why you’d want to do this, we’re still scratching our heads. Anyway, maybe these new features will help Google Talk pick up a few dozen more users. – Charlie White

Google Talk Swings Back [TechCrunch]

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: Culture, Handsets, Others, Windows Mobile, GSM

If you’re having a hard time justifying dropping a cool million on your next phone, might we turn your attention to the “Black Diamond,” brought to us by Swiss manufacturer VIPN. Penned by Singaporean designer Jaren Goh, there’s little question that the glossy black candybar is gorgeous — but whether it’s $300,000 gorgeous is another question entirely. Details are slim, but we know that the Windows Mobile 5 device should be rocking quadband GSM, WiFi, 128MB of memory with SD expansion, a 2-inch display, and a 400MHz XScale all wrapped up in titanium and diamonds. The touch sensitive keypad is Chocolate-esque, completely disappearing when not lit, while SIP is thrown in to keep your GSM usage minimum when you’re in WiFi range (not to suggest anyone owning this phone is looking to save a few bucks). If we’ve piqued your interest, it looks like you’ve got until early 2007 to save your pennies, but keep your eyes peeled — production is limited to 5 (yes, five) units.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

We've been pining after Unlicensed Mobile Access and the promise of seamless VoIP / cellular handoffs for so long, we've admittedly become a little jaded, so forgive us if we seem a bit desensitized to the news that Samsung has launched its SGH-P200 UMA slider in Italy this week. Samsung's claiming that the P200 is the world's first commercially available UMA mobile, and we're inclined to believe them, despite a string of promising announcements over the past couple years that have yet to materialize. UMA aside, the P200 sports a 1.3 megapixel camera, EDGE, smallish 220 x 176 display, and 80MB of shared internal memory in a 22.5mm thick package -- fairly pedestrian specs, but hey, the draw of VoIP is strong, is it not? Expect the phone to spread elsewhere in Europe shortly, while our American friends shouldn't have much longer to wait for the similarly styled T709 on T-Mobile.

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Filed under: Handsets, Samsung, T-Mobile, GSM, GPRS, EDGE

We’ve been pining after Unlicensed Mobile Access and the promise of seamless VoIP / cellular handoffs for so long, we’ve admittedly become a little jaded, so forgive us if we seem a bit desensitized to the news that Samsung has launched its SGH-P200 UMA slider in Italy this week. Samsung’s claiming that the P200 is the world’s first commercially available UMA mobile, and we’re inclined to believe them, despite a string of promising announcements over the past couple years that have yet to materialize. UMA aside, the P200 sports a 1.3 megapixel camera, EDGE, smallish 220 x 176 display, and 80MB of shared internal memory in a 22.5mm thick package — fairly pedestrian specs, but hey, the draw of VoIP is strong, is it not? Expect the phone to spread elsewhere in Europe shortly, while our American friends shouldn’t have much longer to wait for the similarly styled T709 on T-Mobile.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Earlier this week, a gentleman named Charlie Paglee received a Skype call from a colleague in China -- nothing out of the ordinary, except for the fact that this particular call was coming from an unofficial, homemade Skype client. Paglee, who cofounded the VoIP startup Vozin Communications, claims that the Chinese friend he spoke with is part of a team that has successfully reverse-engineered the Skype protocol, possibly paving the way for a series of third-party clients that would delight consumers but provide no small amount of frustration to Skype-owner eBay. Although this unlicensed client is currently only able to perform peer-to-peer calling -- presence, instant messaging, and super node features have not yet been implemented -- it seems to be only a matter of time before the engineers have a more robust demo available for public download (they're supposedly shooting for an August release). And since all of this work is going on in China, eBay has no legal means of shutting down the client's development, but even if they did, it's probably already too late -- now that the cat is out of the bag, it's pretty clear that an open-source Skype client is inevitable, and that eBay's future business plans will have to take that reality into account.

[Via GigaOm]

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Filed under: Networking

Move over Verizon, ’cause Klausner Technologies wants a crack at the telecommunication whipping boy du jour, Vonage. In yet another claim of patent infringement, Klausner, a patent holding company with 25 VoIP voicemail patents to its name, is seeking $180 million in damages and royalties to compensate the suffering endured by their private investors. This, after failing to convince Vonage to sign a licensing deal back in January like they did with Time Warner in April for the technology behind AOL Voicemail. And just in case you’re taking odds on who’ll sue whom next, Vonage just announced that it had acquired three unrelated VoIP patents for the compression of packetized digital signals allowing them to go after, and collect licensing fees from competitors like Motorola, Time Warner, Qwest, Sprint, and you guessed it, Verizon. Oh what a tangled web we weave.

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Filed under: Handsets, Software, HTC, T-Mobile, Windows Mobile, GSM, GPRS, EDGE, Misc

If your SDA is feeling a little long in the tooth, don't throw cash out the window on a new device -- give 'er a makeover! Besides overclocking the 195MHz OMAP to a more palatable 240MHz, we have here some tips on unlocking the phone yourself (at no cost) and throwing Skype on there for some do-it-yourself dual mode action. Like the article says, proceed at your own warranty-voiding risk, but honestly, what red-blooded Faraday or Wizard owner hasn't putzed around with ROM images at this point?

[Via Hackaday]

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Filed under: Wireless

It would seem you can’t keep a good use for a good municipal WiFi project down. Not long after news broke about Anaheim taking telephony to the 2.4GHz airwaves by way of EarthLink’s newly deployed WiFi network, more news broke that ten companies are standing behind a new Taiwanese initiative called Taipei Easy Call. From some accounts it sounds suspiciously like a UMA rollout, but apparently the Taipei city government plans to use WiFi VoIP calling service to replace more expensive fixed-line service at hundreds of schools, and city offices by as early as the end of August — while rolling out for general consumer use as well, of course. We assuming they’re gonna be using Taiwan’s big WiFi rollout to handle the Wifi haul; Taipei hopes to have as many as 200,000 citizens sign up for service with Taipei Easy Call, which we don’t think is at all unrealistic should software be developed for WiFi-enabled handsets, and assuming the local cellphone carriers don’t throw and severe hissy fits.

[Via GigaOM]

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Filed under: Wireless

Apparently entirely unafraid of being accused of cannibalizing their own MVNO business — at least in the fair town of Anaheim, California, anyway — Earthlink’s freshly rolled out WiFi network will take on a new charge providing wireless VoIP service, to offered on WiFi-only voice phones with calling plans between $10 and $25 per month. Of course your calling area is limited only to those portions of the Anaheim WiFi rollout currently complete (Earthlink plans to eventually have 50 square miles rolled out when the dust settles), but Earthlink VP says their test handsets are running handoffs at up to 40 miles per hour — which you know is remarkably fast if you’ve ever actually driven in Southern California. Still, with wireless Skype handsets, portable Vonage adapters, and all manner of VoIP software for WiFi-enabled cellphones, it seems like the early adopter crowd Earthlink has its sights on in Anaheim might need a little more incentive to drop a couple hundred on a handset that may or may not only make calls on Earthlink’s SoCal WiFi rollout.

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Filed under: Cingular, HSDPA, UMTS

Cingular is going to let you roll VoIP over its 3G network, but they don't have to like it. That's the message Cingular CTO Kristin Rinne effectively gave this week, saying that they don't explicitly have a problem with folks running VoIP through their UMTS pipeline, but they'd rather have QoS and billing systems in place (naturally) beforehand. Since they don't, and data is data, let the Skypeing begin on that all-you-can-eat HSDPA plan of yours -- just don't be surprised if they suddenly try to nickel-and-dime you once their IMS implementation gets going.

[Via The Wireless Report]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

If you've been looking for a nice, IP-based boringphone for your desk job, Mitel is releasing their new 5330 and 5340 VoIP phones that might be worth a look. The 5330 ($395) and 5340 ($495) both support Mitel's new Gigabit Ethernet and Wireless LAN stands for hooking into your network, and sport E-911, Mitel's MiNet protocol and SIP. Slightly more interesting is the 160 x 320 display (backlit on the pictured 5340) for softkey use, and the ability to use Dreamweaver or FrontPage to create your own interfaces and apps for use on the phone. We're thinking a text-based RPG should be doable, er, we mean, call-routing shortcuts to boost your productivity 15 percent!

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

If you’re not too worried about being on the Fed’s wiretap-this-VoIP-line list, Intel’s making it a little easier to get your internet telephony on with their new 600SM PCI phone adapter. Not too different from the usual kind of POTS-to-VoIP gear you’d see from Vonage, et. al., but this one adapts that telephone through your computer, and is compatible out of box with your choice of CounterPath, DeltaThree, Engin, Packet8, Skype, and Yak. Not a bad idea, if you ask us, but we probably won’t bite until it’s motherboard integrated, We’re just not all that terribly interested in a VoIP calling card, dig?

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

When we last checked in, the FCC had given the ok on wiretapping commercial VoIP providers; this decision, of course, went straight to appeals, as we’d hope and expect. We’re sorry to report, however, the case which  appeared before the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has officially been settled upon, and it’s been decided that we’ll continue to live under the provisions outlined in the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). As upheld in a 2-to-1 decision, companies like Vonage and Skype would have to open up to authorized government intrusion, the same as any landline phone provider — private networks (like those on college campuses), however, will theoretically remain legally secure from the wiretaps. Kind of a bummer, but we’re not gonna lose too much sleep over this one; we all know how easy it is to secure P2P VoIP, and really the law’s only effectively leveling consumer landline VoIP with analog landline telephony and cellphone calling with regard to wiretaps, so it’s almost more about upholding status quo than breaching civil liberties. So, everybody know how to create an SSH tunnel yet?

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Filed under: EV-DO, CDMA

VoIP over EV-DO Rev. A, the technology stack that effectively killed EV-DV, has been given Qualcomm's blessing this week, possibly clearing one of the last remaining roadblocks to Sprint and Verizon getting this show on the road. Of course, the big draw for VoIP over EV-DO is simultaneous voice and data, a feature where UMTS currently has EV-DO squarely beat. To get the seal of approval, Qualcomm went big with 62 simultaneous VoIP calls on a single channel in "mobile, pedestrian and fixed" environments. Picture sixty-two Verizon "Can you hear me now?" guys standing in the area of one city block, and you'll get the idea.

[Via dailywireless.org]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Four upcoming VoIP phones from Avaya are promising to meet the communications needs of nearly every type of employee at your company, from the receptionist on the phone all day to the salesperson always on the road to the executive who needs complete control over his/her conference calls. Falling under the general one-X Deskphone Edition brand, all members of the 9600 series — the 9610, 9620, 9630, and 9650 — feature high-quality audio with G.722 wideband audio support, Avaya’s Communication Manager software, and the ability to add new apps on-the-fly through the integrated Wireless Markup Language (WML). As you step up the model line, each phone adds more features and controls for advanced users, so the 9610 is a rather simple unit designed for ease-of-use by the general public in a lobby setting, while the 9650 is meant for people who are making and taking calls non-stop throughout the day. Although Avaya neglected to release any pricing information, we do know that the 9620 and 9630 will be available next month, while the 9610 and 9650 won’t show up until early next year.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

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