Archive for September 28th, 2009

IR-link’s Ziphone II bridges the gap between your phone and PC.  It’s simple – just plug your telephone line into the Ziphone II then connect the Ziphone II to your PC via USB, and you’re ready for some CTI goodness.

Ziphone II enables a bunch of telephony features that you probably don’t get from your landline, like call recording, auto attendant, and automatic dialing from your phonebook.  You can dial from the Ziphone II keypad itself, or use the PC-based dialer.

It’s a decent idea, although it seems a bit like Ziphone II is a stop gap between traditional and IP telephony, rather than a long term solution.  Also, Ziphone II requires your PC to be on at all times, which may be inconvenient for some.

AOpen’s barebones miniPCs are great for the custom PC crowd.  The company’s MP45-R boasts a Mac Mini-like form factor for around $400.

ViewSonic wants to bring the MP45-R beyond the barebones market and straight to your living room.  The company has rebranded the MP45-R and added a Bluetooth module and what appears to be an external TV tuner.

Although ViewSonic is mostly known for their computer peripherals like monitors and projectors, the company is making a big push to the living room.  ViewSonic has already announced an all-in-one PC, and it appears that the MP45-R will soon follow.

I like the idea of a miniPC as part of a home theater.  They’re small, quiet and great for platforms like Windows Media Center.  I just hope ViewSonic beefs up the specs on the MP45-R so it can handle HD.  And, a BluRay drive would be nice as well.

USB modems tend to be pretty bulky.  Often they are so big that they block adjacent USB ports – a big problem on laptops.

ZTE’s MF633 HSUPA USB modem solves this problem by going slim.  Just a bit wider than a USB port itself, you can most likely use the MF633 without blocking any other ports.  Plus, the slim design is ideal for travelers.

Internal photos reveal a Qualcomm processor in the MF633.  External photos reveal an uncomfortably green exterior.

Nokia’s 3208c passed through the FCC today.  Although this device looks like your basic candy bar, it actually packs a ton of features like a touch screen, pen input and handwriting recognition.

The 3208c was announced a few months back, and it seemed like this device was targeted primarily at the Chinese market.  Handwriting recognition is ideal for Chinese users, since otherwise users must input letters phonetically via pinyin.

The device recognizes English handwriting as well, so there is a chance the 3208c makes its way to the US.

Lyngsoe Systems passed their XR30 RFID Exciter/Reader through the FCC today.  This device is designed to hang from a ceiling, and track RFID tags that pass below it.

The design of the XR30 makes it ideal for tracking people, since all you need to do is walk under the device to be scanned.  Although the proliferation of RFID has raised some privacy concerns, there are a number of valuable applications for this technology.  For example, businesses can track the location of employees using RFID, automatically routing calls to different locations.

You can already get the LG GW550 online, but now it appears that this device may make its way to a US carrier.  The GW550 passed through the FCC today, although of course LG only offered up label location pics of the device.

The GW550 is a quad band device that runs Windows Mobile.  It looks very similar to the BlackBerry Curve and Bold, as well as some of HTC and Nokia’s QWERTY smartphones.

With the GW550, LG is entering into an already crowded smartphone market.  And although the device does have a slick form factor, there isn’t much new to see here.

LG passed a device called the M4 through the FCC today.  Interestingly, the M4 is described as an “AWS LTE Device,” possibly making it one of LG’s first LTE devices to hit the states.

Now, LG has been doing a lot of work on LTE lately.  The company recently completed the first CDMA to LTE handoff, with help from Nortel.

With the LG M4, it appears that LTE is coming soon.  Verizon has already announced plans to deploy a LTE network in early 2010, so I’d suspect that the LG M4 is probably destined for Verizon.

LG didn’t release any pictures of the M4, save for the label pic above.  I’m actually not sure exactly what kind of device this is, but I’d guess it’s a USB wireless modem for wireless data access.

In any case, this is an exciting development.  It looks like 4G LTE will be upon us soon.

Here’s another security-related device, this time from EverFocus.  The EverFocus EVS200A takes your security camera signal and transmits it wirelessly to the web, allowing you to monitor your valuables from any Internet connected computer worldwide.

The EVS200A can be set to manually record video, record video on schedule, or record only when motion is detected.  Users can view live or recorded video from the EVS200A, take photos from the video feed, or digitally zoom on the feed.

I can see this device being popular with store owners or office managers.  Even parents can use the EVS200A to keep track of their kids, although EverFocus seems to be targeting the commercial market at this point.

It doesn’t make much sense to have your car alarm going off by itself in the middle of a parking lot.  What car alarms could really use is some touchscreen wireless goodness.

Enter the Echo Touch, from Omega Research and Development.  This tiny device features a touchscreen that allows you to wirelessly arm/disarm your car alarm, check the status of your car, and manage your car alarm anytime its triggered.  You can use a single Echo Touch controller on multiple cars, as well.

Sure, the Echo Touch does have a kinda cheesy, iPhone-knockoff look.  But it does look like the Echo Touch puts the touchscreen to good use, particularly when compared to traditional car alarms that force you to control your alarm with only a couple of buttons.

It’s always a pain when you’re in a meeting with multiple presenters, and you end up passing a fat cable across the table from user to user.  Viewsonic has a novel solution to this problem with their WP-S1201.  Instead of making users connect directly to a projector, the WP-S1201 connects to presenters over the wireless network.  Then, all you need to do is connect a projector to the WP-S1201, and you’re all set – users can present sans wires.

The WP-S1201 does require users to install software in order to present.  But once you do, you have full control over the projector, including audio and video playback controls.  The device also comes with a remote control that handles basic PowerPoint functions like page forward and back.