November 2007 Archives

Skype launched their latest version of Skype last week featuring what they call "High Quality Video" - not to be confused with HD Video used on HDTVs which features display resolutions of 1280x720 (720p) or 1920x1080 (1080i or 1080p). Skype High Quality Video isn't quite 1280x720 or even 1920x1080, but it is a very respectable 640x480 (VGA) resolution at 30fps. This is probably the perfect resolution size since any higher and you will need a ton of bandwidth. HD Video can get away with higher resolutions since there is plenty of bandwidth space in DVI cables and component cables that travel 6 feet or less from your various home entertainment components.

In any event, Rich and I have been playing around with Skype HQ Video over the past week or so and we've both been very impressed. You can check out Rich's thoughts here.

I thought I'd post my thoughts on it as well. First, to experience free High Quality Video, this is what both sides of the Skype call will need:

• Skype 3.6 for Windows
• a Logitech webcam that has been optimized and certified for High Quality Video (the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000, the Logitech QuickCam Pro for Notebooks or the Logitech QuickCam Sphere AF (Logitech QuickCam Orbit AF in the U.S.)
• Logitech QuickCam software, version 11.5 (expected to be available in November at www.logitech.com/downloads)
• a dual-core PC
• a broadband connection (384 kbps and above).

The dual-core PC and the Logitech QuickCam requirements will eliminate many Skype users from using Skype HQ video. In fact, some Skype users are ticked off that Skype's HQ Video only works with Logitech webcams. Reminds me of my 2006 post where I griped about how Skype bumped the conferencing from 5-party to 10-party but only if you had an Intel dual-core chip. AMD processors are just as fast as Intel processors and there are a millions of AMD users, so Skype making Intel and exclusive hardware partner just didn't make sense. And now Logitech is an exclusive partner.

Don't get me wrong, there is some value to partnering with the "leaders" in their respective industry. Certainly, Intel is the leader in processors and Logitech unquestionably is the leading webcam company. So I don't have a problem with Skype "prioritizing" and optimizing their software for the the majority of the market first (Intel and Logitech users) and then later on adding support for HQ video and 10-person conferencing to other web cams/other processors.

Update: Skype added 10 party conferencing to all CPUs in Dec 2006. I missed that in the release notes and didn't see a news announcement stating this. But it's been over a year since the dual-core announcement and still no 10-party conferencing support for AMD chips, so I'm skeptical that support for HQ video for other webcams is coming anytime soon. In any event, let's move on to testing the HQ video, shall we?

One thing you should be aware of right off the bat is that you need your dual-core processor to be at the maximum performance setting. I had a laptop that was not set to "Maximum Performance" and it prevented HQ video from working. Vista is very similar, though on my desktop PC it's called High Performance. Funny, I prefer "maximum" over "high" since maximum implies you are squeezing every possible CPU cycle for maximum speed. Well, they do say Vista is slower than XP, so that explains it. Now if it said "Highest"... Maybe that's the problem with Vista being slower? Maybe I'll launch a Hex editor and change the text to "Highest". Yeah, yeah, that'll speed up my Vista PC!

I should mention that Jim Courtney over at Skype Journal has an excellent review of Skype HQ video worth checking out and had similar results to mine. Importantly, Jim writes, "... Jonathan Christensen, Skype's GM for Audio and Voice, [stated] their High Quality Video is the result of extensive co-operation between Logitech and Skype working together to optimize their codecs and drivers, often at some fairly basic levels to achieve a sustainable high quality video experience. Skype had set initial goals of having a sustainable user experience that could be achieved by a reasonably broad base of Skype users: 640 x 480 @ a sustainable 24-30 fps outcome over an entry level broadband connection (384 kbps)."

Initially, I made a test call from a Dual-Core 1.86Ghz Vista PC to a 3.0Ghz Windows XP PC (non-dual core). Skype is promoting that for the true HQ video experience that BOTH ends require dual-core PCs, but I figured I'd try anyway. The sending end (Vista) was still able to send HQ Video and the receiving end (XP PC) was able to view 640x480 @30fps (HQ video) even though it wasn't dual-core. The quality looked very good - better than previous Skype video sessions I tested. I honestly wasn't expecting the video quality to be better since I read that in order to have HQ video BOTH ends required dual-core processors.

I confirmed the video was indeed 640x480 @30fps by turning on the advanced "Display technical call info during calls" setting in Skype. This allowed me to view the frames per second being received in real-time. So it would appear that even if you don't have a dual-core PC you can still view HQ video being sent by the remote party just as long as you have a 'beefy' processor. You will not however be able to SEND HQ video to the remote end even with a fast non-dual core PC since Skype optimized their software specifically for the dual-core processor.

For my next test, it was time to test a dual-core to dual-core Skype video call. I called Rich Tehrani on his dual-core laptop. I should mention that I was testing all of my video calls using the high-end Logitech QuickCam Orbit AF webcam (image top-right), which features a Carl Zeiss optics, integrated microphone, a cool motorized tracking that automatically follows your every move, premium autofocus, a true 2-megapixel sensor, with up to 8-megapixel photos (enhanced), 960 by 720 pixels, and RightLight 2 Technology which adjusts intelligently to produce true-to-life clear images in dim or poor backlight settings. It a very cool webcam and I plan on reviewing the Logitech QuickCam Orbit AF itself very soon. Here is a Skype HQ call I made to Rich Tehrani. Note the Skype HQ Video message in black. It goes away after a few seconds.

The video window also displays a white icon in the top left to indicate you are viewing HQ video - when the video exceeds 24 fps. It took about 10s for the HQ video logo to appear. The latency was almost nil. Of course, we're on the same LAN, so that's to be expected. (Note: I did test across the WAN/Internet and the latency was still excellent.)

Importantly, when you move around quickly you don't get artifacts or the "blur" effect caused by a camera or the software not being able to keep up. In fact, waving my hand in front of the camera very fast it was still very smooth with no "blur" effect. Certainly, the bump from 15fps in the old Skype to 30fps in the HQ video version had a lot to do with this improved performance.

The CPU utilization for Skype was as low as 40% and as high as 50% during HQ video transmission on my dual-core 1.86Ghz Vista PC.

Here's a snapshot of the video in "window" mode - 640x480@30fps. (Note: The fps varied, but never dropped below 24fps, the limit before HQ video is turned off) This screenshot was reduced in size to fit onto the webpage, so feel free to click on it to view the full actual image. Rich Tehrani gets the glory of being the larger image while I'm in the smaller image at the bottom. Note how both have the white icon indicating full HQ video on both ends.



When I switched to full-screen mode it was slightly pixelated, but not bad at all and much better than full-screen video in the older Skype software. All in all, I was very impressed with the video quality. I was surprised at the video quality actually. Part of it was Skype, but I also have to tip my cap to the Logitech QuickCam Orbit AF camera. Importantly, I should mention that the lip-syncing was spot on with no audio out of sync with the video.

If you are a heavy Skype video user and you've got the processor horsepower, I'd say go download the latest version. And if you don't have the supported Logitech cameras then I'd say go buy one or add it to your Christmas list. You can pick up the QuickCam Pro 9000 for just $99.99, the QuickCamPro for Notebooks also for $99.99 or the motorized QuickCam Orbit AF for $129.99.

Ok, show of hands - who hasn't been on a conference call or talking with a spouse, family or friends, and they heard you pecking away at the keyboard? [crickets in background...] Ok, even if they didn't say anything, I'm sure there have been occasions where you are on the phone and you were also checking email, surfing the web, etc. and the other party knew you weren't giving your undivided attention. This can be dangerous from a personal perspective (See: Wife's dog house) but also a business one. You don't want to appear you aren't paying attention to the business client.

So I was intrigued to learn about SoliCall's PBXMate, "an innovative and breakthrough technology that will reduce background noise in VoIP networks supporting SIP." PBXMate will help you cut down on having that extra noise transmitted during your business calls. SoliCall claims it can reduce background noise (including keystrokes) and improves voice clarity. Of course, this is VoIP only, regular analog phones need not apply.

SoliCall explained, "When was the last time you were able to conduct a conference call without suffering from the annoying street noises, generated by at least one of the participants in that call? Or those low-quality incoming calls from cell phones?"

"This will mark the end of noisy business calls, and especially conference calls," says Shlomi Simhi, Director of Marketing for SoliCall (Ltd.). "Our customers report on a dramatic improvement in voice quality and on a whole new conversation experience."

SoliCall's PBXMate can work with any VoIP network that supports SIP and it runs on Linux & Windows.

How's it work? Well, that's a darned good question. SoliCall PBXMate sounds eerily similar to the 'free' SoliCall Softphone Add-On. I know SoliCall Softphone Add-On works with any VoIP softphones (Skype, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, etc.) simply by changing your default sound settings so that the SoliCall sound driver is used instead, as seen here:



It sounds like SoliCall PBXMate might sit on the network itself, capture the SIP and RTP streams and then perform some audio optimizations. Considering the real-time nature of VoIP, I'm not sure that's feasible. It would also have to intercept the packets ("man in the middle") before forwarding them on, which is a security no-no. Maybe it front-ends the outbound Internet gateway/router in which case it could inject its sound improving algorithms before passing the packets onto the Internet router?

Anyway, I'm pretty busy or I'd look into this further. If I find out more, I'll update this post.

I'm a huge fan of Sangoma and their popular line of Asterisk-compatible analog and T1/E1 boards. They just plain work with no install hassles or IRQ issues. So it came as no surprise that Frost & Sullivan recently selected Sangoma as the recipient of the 2007 North American Frost & Sullivan Growth Excellence Award in the enterprise voice communication market.

According to the release, "Sangoma has amply demonstrated an ability to leverage unique opportunities such as open-source telephony in a mature, yet rapidly evolving market and translate it to accelerated revenue growth."

What amazed me is the continuing phenomenal growth spurt for Sangoma. In Q2 2007, Sangoma declared an amazing increase of 95 percent in revenue over Q2 2006. It then had a 68 percent growth in Q3 2007 over Q3 2006. In most quarters, sales to the open-source telephony market accounted for most of the growth. The company reported almost 40 percent growth from 2005 to 2006 accelerating to 72 percent growth in 2007. Rich Tehrani, SmithOnVoIP, and I have highlighted Sangoma's stock performance in the past.

Perhaps part of the reason is that Sangoma makes their boards work with multiple open source solutions? Though I'm sure Asterisk-based solutions are the biggest slice of the pie. Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst Krithi Rao said, "Sangoma's level of commitment in catering to the open-source telephony market is unique compared to other incumbent hardware vendors that only occasionally address the needs of this market. Rao added, "While many of its hardware counterparts focus on specific open-source telephony projects, Sangoma's products can work with multiple open-source telephony initiatives including Asterisk, FreeSWITCH, CallWeaver, and Yate."

This USB Fridge is the ultimate geek gift this holiday season. Nothing like grabbing a cold caffeinated soda to quench your thirst without having to leave your PC. After all, you might be in the middle of something important, like playing World of Warcraft or somethin'.

This USB gadget will keep your drink cold while you're at your computer and it just plain looks cool. Friends will be envious of this uber gadget! As I said, with this mini fridge you can keep your beverage chilled and stay at your computer longer. (Pee breaks not included.)

Supposedly this USB Fridge will child very quickly after plugging it into your PC's USB port. The USB Fridge's cold plater chills to the perfect temperature taking just 5 minutes to bring the fridge down to 8 degrees  (8°C) centigrade or 47 degrees Fahrenheit (47°F). It even has a cool blue LED that illuminates the inside of the fridge.

Easy installation (obviously) simply by connecting a 4 foot USB cable -- and with no USB driver required. Though it would be kinda cool if it had a software driver to control the opening of a motorized door. Then you could open the door with a click of the mouse and you wouldn't even have to waste the 0.2 calories opening the door manually.  Hey, maybe the driver can even let you monitor the interior temperature as well from your PC? Ok, now the gadget freak in me is just taking over. Sorry, can't help it with the Christmas season upon us, I'm hoping to get some cool gadgets for Christmas. Might have to add this to my wish list. Sure it only holds one can, and its chilling limit is 47 degrees, but it's running off a 5V USB connection, whaddya expect? Absolute zero? (–459.67 °F)

Via Amazon - USB Fridge

IPEVO, makers of some cool Skype products, has a funky new Skype camera out. This telescopic camera looks like it can zoom in on far away objects. Like you know, the planets, the moon, Lana Lang your next door neighbor - that sort of thing.



The IPEVO PoV handheld webcam is being unveiled at the Taipei Computer Show. It's designed to simply aim at what you see to show others what you are seeing. I don't get it. Why do I need a long-ass camera to aim at something when I can adjust webcam just by turning it? Though if it indeed does have a zoom lens, I suppose that's useful. And assuming you can look through a viewfinder on the back end and see precisely what the lens is pointing at, that might be somewhat useful. Since the product page isn't in English and it isn't officially launched yet, I can't get further information on how exactly the product works.

Anyway, it features a VGA (640 x 480) resolution, adjustable focus that can focus as close as 4cm away, automatic white balance, microphone and USB 2.0. It also espouses some 'exclusive' Skype Remote Monitoring function with a password secured login to remotely view the camera using Skype.

Finally, is it just me or does this camera look like the Borg Queen's head?

[IPEVO PoV Camera product page]

Ok, we all know that millions of Christmas trees are cut each year to celebrate the Christian holiday, but did you know that millions of trees are also cut down and used in catalogs used to promote products for the Christmas shopping sprees. Now I'm sure the Big J can doesn't mind the cutting down of Christmas trees to commemorate his birth. After all, if he can turn water into wine, and turned a few loaves of bread into hundreds, I'm sure he can turn easily replace those trees with a flick of his hand. Ok, I know it takes years for trees to grow, just go with me here, will ya?

Now, I'm no tree hugger by any stretch of the imagination, however, I love the environment just as much as the next guy and hate to see waste. What's annoying to me is when I get duplicate catalogs the same week from the same company. Often times the catalogs come in my wife's name and my name. Or worse, I get one under Tom Keating and another under Thomas Keating. Uh, have you heard of de-duping? Almost as bad is when they send nearly the identical catalog the following week. Don't bother - and don't waste the space in my mailbox, which is already overflowing with tons of other catalogs.

It's like the companies blasting out these catalogs just don't care. All they care about is the Almighty Dollar and making sure they are in your face as much as possible since they are competing with other catalogs, window shoppers, and of course Christmas shoppers that shop online.

I don't think the Big J or the Big G for that matter would be pleased at such wasteful utilization of the planet's resources and especially not in their name. If this waste keeps up, I just may have to join the War on Christmas , the liberal plot to ban Christmas.

Ironically, I was thinking about how wasteful catalogs are when I received an email this morning about a company offering services to reduce catalog waste. Melissa Data's new NCOALink SmartMover real-time tools prevents duplicate mailings, mis-addressed entries and outright bogus online requests. The new Web service tool provides businesses and mail houses with the ability to keep their customer lists current by matching them to the weekly updated USPS® NCOALink change-of-address file.

Using the SmartMover Web service ensures mail pieces (like catalogs) reach their intended recipients without duplicates, delays, detours, or flat-out returns – thereby reducing waste and saving valuable time and money.

Here's some interesting stats on catalog waste I received from Melissa Data:

• Over eight million tons of trees are consumed each year in the production of paper catalogs.
• Nearly half of the planet’s original forest cover is gone today. Forests have effectively disappeared in 25 countries, and another 29 have lost more than 90% of their forest cover.
• More than one billion people living in extreme poverty around the world depend on forests for their livelihoods.
• There are other significant environmental impacts from the catalog cycle. The production and disposal of direct mail alone consumes more energy than three million cars.
• The manufacturing, distribution, collection and disposal of catalogs requires energy which will generate "global warming gases" - if you believe in the whole global warming thing. Personally, I'm skeptical about global warming being caused by humans and not the sun or other natural cycles, but I would like to see us reduce waste regardless.
  

An experimental robotic exoskeleton from Sarcos turns ordinary soldiers into super-soldiers. Wouldn't we all just love to do 200lb pull downs, bench press 500lbs with utter ease, and flip heavy car batteries with our own personal exoskeleton hook? Who doesn't love half-man half-machine stories with superhuman strength? Bionic Man, DC Comic hero Cyborg, etc. etc. Well, be prepared to be blown away by this video.

The helmet bears a striking resemblance to Master Chief's helmet in Halo, Halo2, and Halo3. Once again science fiction bears reality. Of course, let's just hope the Covenant, the Flood, the Skynet nor the nearly indestructible Terminator T-101 and T-1000 come to pass.

Anyone want to build a carrier-class network? Show of hands - would you rather use "tried and true" hardware gear from Cisco or Juniper Networks and pay through the nose OR would you rather build your carrier network using commercial off the shelf (COTS) components? Well, just a few short years ago, most of you would raise your hands for the former over the latter. After all, who would trust their carrier network using various COTS components from multiple vendors? Whose neck would you strangle if something went wrong or it didn't integrate correctly?

Today, COTS is quickly gaining steam due to lower cost, faster standard processors, and open source software. Rich sent me a link to his post titled COTS to the Service Provider Rescue which piqued my interest. He goes through some analysis and perspective including talking about CompactPCI and Advanced TCA. He also points out an educational webinar coming up which I think I might check out. Here's a brief synopsis:

Innovative telecommunications service providers, NEP’s (Network Equipment Providers) and ISV’s (Independent Software Providers) are leveraging commercial off the shelf (COTS) technology to help reduce the cost and complexity of delivering their Next Generation Network (NGN) services.

The IBM BladeCenter family is a COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) platform providing greater deployment flexibility - Central Office, Data Center, or Customer Premise; seamless integration into existing network infrastructures with support of a wide range of protocols and interfaces; and an increase in the quality of provisioned services, facilitated by a high-speed architecture at substantially lower CAPEX cost when compared with legacy and proprietary platforms. This common infrastructure enables simple standard processes, shared spare inventory, pre-installation of power, cables, racks, and networking to reduce ongoing OPEX costs.

To learn more be sure to check out the upcoming TMCnet webinar titled Building Carrier Networks Using COTS Technology which takes place December 5, 2007 at 2:00 PM EST/ 11:00 AM PT. Ironic, that Blade Network Technologies chose to be a sponsor, considering I “spanked” them and Nortel (who formerly owned Blade) in this uber-popular blog post picked up by Slashdot, TechDirt, O’Reilly, ZDNet, and a ton of blogs.

When I think of biofuel cars, I think slow, imperfect, compromising performance for greenness. Not to mention the lovely smell of french fries and other fried food smells emanating from the exhaust pipe. Cause: your mostly purified cooking oil used as the fuel. I certainly don't think of a "green" car that sports 1018HP and 780/lb/ft of torque at 6100 rpm that puts the Bugatti Veyron to shame. Well, that's exactly what the Koenigsegg CCXR supercar sports via its lightweight, cast-aluminium V8 engine, whose biofuel powers it from 0-100kph in just 2.9 seconds! The lean mean green machine's performance is made possible by E85 biofuel's higher octane rating and better cooling properties. Ok, so it doesn't use cooking oil, I guess that's a plus. It'll only cost you 1.5 million euros to bring one home and with the dollar still dropping, that'll cost you .. oh about $1 billion dollars. Sorry U.S. green sports car fans -- no green performance for you!

More Photos:



Via WorldCarFans

Discovered a cool new gadget this weekend - a digital photo Christmas ornament, which was advertised in a Brookstone catalog. The digital photo Christmas ornament stores over 50 pictures via its 8MB memory and it'll even play them in a slide show mode.

The 3.5" tall ornament has a 1 ½" (diagonal), bright, color LCD screen. Features include photo rotate and crop and auto power off. Now if this thing had video and sound that'd be really cool. Only needs 2 AAA batteries to run and can auto power off.

Comes in red or green as seen by these two photos below. Click here for the Brookstone page for this product. The Brookstone photo ornament is now unavailable online. Well, if you prefer to do all your holiday Christmas gift shopping at Amazon, you can buy the digital photo ornaments on Amazon here. They currently are selling them for $49.95$19.99.
You can also see a collection of various photo ornaments on this Amazon web page.

Yeah, yeah, I know this is my 2nd Christmas-related gadget post today. So shoot me for being in the Christmas spirit.

Update!
Found some more cool digital photo ornaments you might want to buy:

Picture This! Digital Photo Holiday Ornament w/1.5" LCD Screen (Red)
Price: $22.99

Media Street eMotion 1.5" Digital Photo Viewer Snowman Christmas Tree Ornament
Price: $23.95

Digital Picture Ornament
Price: $14.99

Video glasses haven't exactly taken off, partly because of all the wires involved. Today, I learned about the Qingbar GP300, billed as the "world's first wireless video glasses" featuring a QVGA video image (432x240) that simulates a 50" display from 2M away. It sports a built-in media player that'll play your favorite movies, videos, MP3 music, photos and even e-book text using its built-in SD slot. It's play several video formats including MP4/MPG/AVI/ASF(MPEG1/2/4) and most importantly Divx3.x/4.x/5.x & XviD.

Portable wireless video glasses are cool, but it's too bad you have to download the media content to an SD card in order to play it. I'd rather the device support Bluetooth or WiFi and wirelessly stream content from my PC. Even better, "if" it could stream the "actual" video screen pixels of your PC (think PCAnywhere or Microsoft Remote Desktop/RDP Protocol) then you could play with your XBox 360 or PS3 with this bad boy.

I also wish it had a microphone and a camera. Then you could do some Skyping/VoIPing and webcamming. Of course, the camera would have to be aimed away from your forehead, else the remote webcam party is going to get a shot of your forehead.

Still, a cool pair of video glasses that might be great for travel.  They're shipping at the beginning of December of this year for $399, with pre-order going for just $299.

Via YellowMosquito

I got my Christmas edition of the Sharper Image catalog over the Black Friday/Thanksgiving weekend and saw some cool gadgets. One of my favorites was a 8" tall Star Wars R2-D2 droid that is a roving webcam transmitting real-time video to your computer with the camera atop R2-D2's dome. The video specs include 62 degree viewing angle, 628x582 resolution, and zoom in/out. Also part of the package is a full-scale light-saber that acts as a USB telephone with its built-in microphone.


It works with Skype and can automatically launch Skype with the 'S' button on the keypad (image right). Using the "Skype Saber" you can drive R2-D2 around, move the camera, take snapshots, and record video. R2-D2 can move forward, backward, left, and right and perform 360 spins. A sensor located on R2-D2's front leg detects desk or table ledges and automatically stops the droid from proceeding. The R2-D2 unit runs on 6 AA batteries and the light saber runs of 2 AA batteries - all batteries are included. This is perfect gift for Christmas for any VoIP & Gadget lovers. Oh wait, that's the name of this blog. Well I'll be damned - better add this to my Christmas list.

It's $380 smackaroos, so if I do get this for Christmas, it'll have to be my "big" gift. Maybe I'll just get a unit for a VoIP & Gadgets blog review. Yeah, yeah, that's the ticket!

In any event, if you want one, or want to give this to a gadget/Skype/VoIP lover, then head on over to Hammacher Schlemmer and buy one.

Oh, and if you think this is cool, check out the Astromech R2-D2 Voice Interactive Droid on Amazon.

Star Trek fans will be ecstatic that the first 29 episodes (Season 1) of their favorite TV show are finally available on HD DVD - perfect timing for Christmas, but they might be a little peeved at a few "improvements". Some of the special effects of the original Star Trek episodes have been edited to make them more realistic. For instance, they redid the show's intro, with a CG Enterprise and planet. Personally, I think messing with the original special effects is sacrilege. Sure the special effects were cheesy, but they're nostalgic, damn it! Also, I don't see how the old effects can blend seamlessly with the new special effects. It'll probably detract from the viewing experience.

True Trekkies will probably be annoyed at these touch-ups, but then again having Star Trek remastered on HD DVD could still make a great Christmas gift. There are 10 discs in this set with one side containing the episodes in 1080p AVC MPEG-4 HD DVD format and the other side is standard DVD format. Even though they used the original film negatives for the remastering, don't expect HD DVD quality. Expect some wear and tear on some very old 1960s film negatives.The audio is being released in Dolby True HD 5.1 and Dolby Digital Plus 2.0. But again, the original source audio wasn't in 5.1 surround sound, so don't expect earth-shattering improvements. I'm so torn whether to add this to my Christmas list...

Check out the preview of the new HD DVD:


Via High Def Disc News

The multi-faceted Nokia N810 internet tablet has finally arrived on store shelves. This highly anticipated Linux-based gadget has more gadgety features than you can shake a stick at - including a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, built-in GPS, digital audio/video playback, Bluetooth, camera, MP3 player and even Wi-Fi capability for surfing and VoIP calling. Like the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet, its predecessor which runs Skype (with the latest firmware), the N810 will come pre-bundled with Skype, making it one of the most powerful portable VoIP devices out there.

The Nokia N810 gives you a truly portable Internet experience that's actually useful due to its large 4.13" color wide-screen display and touchpad screen navigation. It sports a 400MHz processor, Mozilla-based Web browser, and up to 10GB of memory (which comes as 2GB of internal memory with an optional 8GB memory card combined).

Battery Life:

• Continuous usage (display on, wireless LAN active): up to 4 hours
• Music playback: up to 10 hours
• Always online time: up to 5 days
• Standby time: up to 14 days

Connectivity:

• WLAN standard: IEEE 802.11b/g
• Bluetooth specification v.2.0 . +EDR (profiles supported: HID, FTP, DUN, GAP, SPP, HSP, SAP and OPP)
• USB high speed for PC connectivity
• 3.5 mm stereo headphone plug

I like how the N810 has the camera in the front, unlike the Nokia N800 where it pops out of the side. It also features an auto-dimming screen so when you use the GPS feature in your car, it dims the screen slightly so you aren't blinded by the screen at night.


The N810's browser has a Flash 9 plugin, and supports AJAX, which I don't believe any other mobile device can do, including the iPhone. The N810 also adds support for Windows Media codecs, which gives you access to more video content on the web. Besides Skype and Mozilla, other applications supported include Rhapsody, Gizmo as well as a few games (Chess, Blocks, Mahjong and Marbles). Gizmo, a Skype competitor apparently even supports video chat on the device. Cool!

Retailers where you can buy the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet include Best Buy Mobile, CompUSA, Micro Center, and Nokia stores in New York and Chicago. The N810 is available for a suggested retail price of $479.

Garmin and Volvo have inked a deal where Volvos will seamlessly integrate the Garmin nüvi 760 onto the top of the vehicle's dashboard. Perfect, since I just bought a Volvo XC70! Of course, the dealer-fitted accessory which uses a smart mounting bracket is positioned on top of the dashboard, which is just an invitation for it to get stolen.

Voice in my head: Over your stolen GPS in Disney?

No, I'm still not over my stolen Garmin nüvi 350 in Disney World. I'm not over Macho Grande either. (Airplane 2 reference)

In any event, typically, most cars that come with the GPS option cost $2000. Garmin nuvis are relatively inexpensive ranging from $300 to $700. Garmin today announced that Volvo Cars Corporation has selected the nüvi 760 as a customized navigation solution for select Volvo cars, including the new Volvo C30 and Volvo XC70. The Volvo specific nüvi 760 will be available at dealerships across Europe and North America.

Volvo's dealer-fitted accessory kit includes the latest Garmin satellite navigation system, the nüvi 760, as well as a smart mounting bracket that is positioned on top of the dashboard.

According to the news release, "Volvo has carefully researched the optimum position of the navigation system to make sure it is easy to use yet does not distract the driver's concentration on the road. The bracket is designed specifically to coordinate with the look and style of the vehicle, and eliminates the need for exposed power cables and suction cup mount typically found on portable navigation devices." Volvo's built-in bracket easily folds down when not in use. The nüvi 760 may also be taken off the mount and moved between different cars.

Yes, well the bracket stays permanently, so I still say that's an invitation for someone to break a window even if you hid the GPS under the seat. Still, I do like how the nüvi 760 fits neatly onto the custom-made bracket, offering a quick 'plug and play' solution. It's too bad they can't cut a hole in the dashboard and with a push of a button have the GPS flip underneath the dashboard and hidden from view - ala James Bond gadgetry. Now that's what I'm talkin' bout!

Oh and if you aren't familiar with the nüvi 760, it boasts a bright, widescreen with turn-by-turn, voice-prompted directions. The nüvi 760 also includes Garmin's newest safety feature, "Where Am I." A single tap on the screen shows drivers their exact latitude and longitude position, the nearest address and intersection, and the closest hospitals, police stations and gas stations.

The nüvi 760 navigation package fits current production Volvo car models, including the new Volvo C30 and Volvo XC70. It can also be fitted to a selected number of earlier models. The nüvi 760 accessory kit for Volvo is expected to be available from early December 2007.