Tom Keating : VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Tom Keating
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Gadgets

Gadgets

Trade in your Headphones cash back offer

June 26, 2008


 Time to upgrade your headphones or ear buds for some high-quality iPod music listening? Not to mention some high-quality VoIPing, Skyping, etc. etc. Well, why not get cash back for your headphones to offset the costs of a new one?

Logitech QuickCam Vision Pro webcam for Mac

June 24, 2008


Logitech today unveiled its first Mac-compatible webcam with premium autofocus technology and Carl Zeiss optics - the Logitech QuickCam Vision Pro webcam for Mac. The new Logitech webcam of course works with iChat and Skype and features a 2-megapixel camera sensor.

The new Logitech webcam uses a voice coil motor for its autofocus system, instead of a stepper motor. According to the news, "Focusing is fast and fluid - crisp even in extreme close-ups only 10 cm from the camera lens. Logitech's autofocus system compensates for changes in image-edge sharpness and refocuses images in less than three seconds"

What I don't get is why Logitech chooses to make operating system specfic webcams. Isn't USB supposed to be an industry standard?




What's the Graduation Gadget of Choice This Year?

June 19, 2008

UK court rules Modchips do not circumvent copyright protection

June 13, 2008


UK-based MrModchips was cleared of all 26 counts against him for his role in importing and selling gaming console modchips. You know, the kind that lets you play [cough] backup copies of your video games. The Court of Appeal Criminal Division ruled that modchips do not circumvent copyright protection.

The icing on the cake is that the defendant was "awarded full costs as a result of his successful appeal," Sweet! Can you imagine the look on high-priced lawyers faces representing the multi-billion dollar video gaming industry?


Digital Downtown Opens Today!!

June 12, 2008

A Million eReaders? Who Would Have Figured?

June 9, 2008

Does anybody out there love their ereader?

Well, guess so, according to this blog from Oxford University Press (OUP) USA.

When Amazon launched the Kindle there predictions aplenty about how it and its predecessor -- Sony's Reader would sell.

Over time the chatter died down, but it returned and hit full volume after the recent Book Expo America in Los Angeles, when Mr. Amazon, Jeff Bezos, discussed ebook sales volume at the Kindle store. The chatter, as reported in the NY Times, has publishers and others speculating that Amazon has sold 10,000 - 50,000 Kindles.

However, the OUP blog speculates that combined sales of the Kindle and the Reader will reach 1 million units this year.

Anybody want to dispute that fact?

What's Dad Getting for Father's Day This Year??

June 5, 2008

sipgate adds SIP-based VoIP support to iPhone

June 4, 2008

sipgate today announced the a free VoIP application for the iPhone that they claim will allow consumers to use virtually every any VoIP service on the iPhone.

sipgate claims that iPhone users can make and receive VoIP calls from their phones over a Wi-Fi connection using any SIP-based VoIP provider. Unlike Truphone, another iPhone VoIP app, it doesn't appear you need to jailbreak your iPhone to enable SIP-based VoIP support that works with any SIP-based ITSP. In addition it comes with 111 minutes of domestic calling is included if you use sipgate's SIP-based service to test out the service.

Of course, as I have written before, this service will only work over a Wi-Fi connection and not the iPhone's cellular data connection. At the Apple iPhone SDK event, Steve Jobs stated that if someone develops a VoIP program for the iPhone, Apple will allow it if it goes over WiFi and not the cellular network.



Shake, Rattle and Roll Those Gadgets

June 2, 2008

Manufacturers are increasingly embedding accelerometers and other sensors into their gadgets, according to an article in today's New York Times, allowing them to respond to movement without waiting for us to push a button. Game designers and other programmers are jumping to remake user interfaces so that users can direct gadgets with a nudge, a tilt or a shake.

It's the Wii but in something you already own/use for another purpose, like your mobile phone.

Some of the applications are silly. The programmer Graham Oldfield turned his Nokia N95 cellphone into a virtual light saber by writing software that tracked the phone’s movement using the built-in accelerometer.

(Actually, I think that's pretty cool -- if you think so, too, are are gadget-ready, you can download the software for free here. BTW, that's the 1956 Zenith "Flash-matic" Remote Control -- "the granddaddy of the 'clickers'" from TVHistory.tv.

CloudBlue for Recycling Gadgets

May 30, 2008

With more and more gadgets comes the need to get rid of some of them sometimes! But no more just dumping them in the trash -- recycle, now that's the ticket!

CloudBlue offers a suite of services that enable its customers (think corporate -- and you can too at your workplace to clear room for more stuff) to maximize the financial value of their electronic assets while exceeding strict environmental standards. In other words, they help assist in proper equipment disposal.

What's nice is their reach -- facilities in Georgia, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, New Jersey and Virginia. Customers include leading OEMs, VARS, IT consultants, schools and corporations.

So once again, think about recycling being greater than just those gadgets at home.

www.cloudblue.com

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