Tom Keating : VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Tom Keating
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Gadgets

Gadgets

Cool Stuff at ITEXPO

January 30, 2008

Last week TMC held our very successful ITEXPO tradeshow covering various IP communications and contact center technologies. One thing we all need to keep in mind when it comes to voice over IP is that voice over IP is simply a dumb transport. What really gets customers excited and coming to various VoIP tradeshows is to learn about how they can leverage VoIP within their business processes, whether that's screenpop of customer data, remote agents using soft or hard phones, mobile phone capabilities, etc. Customers are looking to integrate all of their various communications - email, voice, CRM, etc.

Gadgets and Water Don't mix

January 30, 2008


I came home last night and learned my 21-month old daughter Megan had decided to take our Canon Powershot G5 digital camera off the kitchen table and plop it into the dogs' water bowl. My wife scrambled to remove it quickly, but the viewfinder is now all fogged up and it won't turn on. Maybe it will dry out, who knows?

I joked with my wife that surely Megan didn't get her "gadget destroying genes" from a gadget lover like me. Then again, my background is in engineering and engineers like to see how things work, and they love to stress test something to the max, etc.


Sony PSP GPS

January 9, 2008

Sony announced GPS functionality for its Sony PSP gaming platform. While the GPS accessory was released in Japan in late 2006, this marks the "demo" launch (at CES) of the product in North America. It was simply a demo at CES, but Sony reps said they expect the product to ship sometime this year.

The GPS device will load map data from an included UMD that's region specific. Updated or additional country maps can be purchased and downloaded to a Memory Stick.

WMWifiRouter adds Wi-Fi Connection Sharing to Windows Mobile

January 9, 2008

Windows Mobile users looking to turn their mobile phone into an Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) device need not rely on ICS any more. WMWifiRouter is a piece of amazing freeware software that turns your Windows Mobile phone into a Wi-Fi router, giving any Wi-Fi device access to your cellphone plan's data network. This is similar in concept to the popular Treo DUN (Dial Up Networking) hackjob application, which lets you share you data connection over Bluetooth. Alas, Sprint decided to disable DUN, which required Treo fans to perform the aforementioned hack job.

Trade your Bluetooth Headset for a Jawbone

January 7, 2008

Just got an email that Jawbone is offering their Jawbone Bluetooth headset in exchange for your current Bluetooth headset. The deal is you visit their booth at CES, give up your old BT headset, Jawbone will smash the competing BT headset into tiny little pieces (for recycling purposes of course) and they'll hand you a brand spankin' new Jawbone. A brand new Jawbone in exchange for my current old Bluetooth headset? Wow!

8 Simultaneous Videos only Data Could Love

January 7, 2008

You think you're a good multitasker? You've got 20 Firefox tabs open (or IE) and you're watching a YouTube video while reading email. Bet you're proud of yourself huh? Well, have a cool piece of software for you!

Thin out your George Costanza Wallet with Just One Club Card

December 27, 2007

I previously wrote today about my George Costanza wallet, which was replaced with a Men's Digital Photo Wallet from Brookstone. Even with my new gadgety wallet, I still had to do some pruning of various club cards to reduce the thickness of wallet. For instance, I took out my Mohegan Sun casino club card, Foxwoods, Viper Club of America card, Stop & Shop card, and various other cards.

Well, today, I happened to come across a website called Just One Club Card, which lets you combine your various club cards into a single small sheet of paper, thus saving you from having an overstuffed fat wallet or a backache/buttache from sitting on a fat wallet.

You simply enter in your club card account numbers online and it will generate the barcode images on the web page in a small condensed format that you can stick in your wallet. You can then print it out.



Gadgets for Christmas

December 27, 2007

I got a couple of cool gadget gifts for Christmas, both of which were from my wife. The first gadget was a Men's Digital Photo Wallet from Brookstone featuring a built-in (yet removable) 1.4" color LCD screen for displaying up to 55 digital photos. The LCD unit is fairly thin, but will add some thickness to your wallet. I have to say, my old wallet was starting to rival George Costanza's overstuffed wallet which made him sit at a tilt with it in his back pocket, forcing him to even it out by stuffing his other back pocket with napkins.

Creative InPerson Wi-Fi Videophone

December 20, 2007

Creative leaked the Creative InPerson Wi-Fi videophone via their FCC filing.


It features H.264 video with SIP support, high video quality (up to VGA resolution and 2 Mbps bit-rate) and claims to perform well under low light. It features a wide-angle lens, and dual microphones with acoustic echo cancellation and noise. It comes with a lithium-ion rechargeable battery that will power the 7-inch, 16.7 million color LCD for about 2 hours.


RIM Garners 10% of Smartphone Market

December 20, 2007

According to ABI Research, Research In Motion (RIM) is likely to end 2007 with around 10% share of the smartphone market. In terms of device shipments, RIM will be the second largest smartphone vendor in 2007, after Nokia. RIM’s share in the smartphone market has steadily increased in the last five quarters — from 7.2% in 3Q 2006 to 9.5% in 3Q 2007.

The report points out that RIM’s business is still predominantly in North America and stresses that RIM needs to focus on bringing their smartphones to the emerging markets of Asia Pacific and other regions. RIM's Blackberry, Curve, Pearl, and other models have changed the email landscape forever, when they enabled 100% continuous anywhere email access with an easy to use interface (large screen + QWERTY keyboard).

With all the hype surrounding the Apple iPhone, I'd be curious what percentage of the smartphone market share it now holds.



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