Jan 12

Ooma Telo HD, Handset, and iPhone app hands-on

Posted in: hands-on, HandsOn, Today's Chili, VoIP

We stopped by Ooma’s booth at CES for a quick hands-on with the new HD Telo and some time with the iPhone app. Voice quality on the service was pretty decent, although we did notice a pretty significant bit of lag — we’re assuming things would work better on a quality connection, as opposed to the slammed pipes here on the show floor. The new DECT handset was also quite nice, although it took a second to figure out how to initiate a call. We also played with the iPhone app for a second — it worked as advertised, although once again we were limited by both the poor network connections on the show floor. It’s certainly an interesting concept, though — we’ll have to wait to see how this all works in the home.

Gallery: Ooma Telo HD, Handset, and iPhone app hands-on

Ooma Telo HD, Handset, and iPhone app hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jan 12

CES: Inside CNET Labs Podcast 74: Don’t be a Ninja, dude

Posted in: Today's Chili

Ninjas are bad, real bad.

(Credit:
TriStar Pictures)

We love World of Warcraft (WoW) again! Thanks to the new new Looking for Group system, Dong and I are back in WoW, big time. I mean, we go on and on about it for a good 23+ minutes! Yes. We discuss …

Originally posted at Inside CNET Labs Podcast

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Jan 12

Otus Raw Controller Takes Cues from Professional DJs

Posted in: audio, MP3 Digital Audio, Today's Chili

EKSOtusRaw.jpg

When Finish company EKS was looking to improve its Otus DJ controller, it listened to what pro DJs around the world were asking for. As a result, the upcoming Otus Raw will have several requested features, including two long and sturdy SL-turntable-style pitch sliders (one for each virtual deck), large velocity pads and buttons for fast operation in hectic night clubs, and a layer switch for multiplying the layers of controls available.

As with previous EKS controllers, the Otus Raw offers a future-proof control system that promises to make it one of the most configurable DJ controllers for years to come. “The concept for the Otus RAW was simple: take feedback from the world’s most well respected DJs on the original Otus and incorporate it into the design of Otus RAW,” says Sulevi Seppänen, sales director for EKS. Look for the controller in spring. Pricing hasn’t been set, but the original Otus goes for 649.00€.

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Jan 12

Free laptops and broadband promised for 270,000 poor UK families

Posted in: free, government, Laptops, Today's Chili, uk, united kingdom, UnitedKingdom

This isn’t quite on par with Finland’s contention that 1Mb broadband is a “right,” but UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has pledged £300 million ($484 million) for the provision of laptops and broadband connections to low income families. The idea is for parents to be connected to their children’s school, so that they may access reports and track progress online. We don’t know if broadband is going to be quite the panacea that it’s being promoted as, but at least an effort is being made to make internet access truly universal. The new initiative is part of an education bill being debated in the House of Commons right now, but given the PM’s low popular and parliamentary approval, there’s no certainty that this pledge will come to pass. Let’s just hope it does.

Free laptops and broadband promised for 270,000 poor UK families originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jan 12

USB Cable Organizers Marred by Childish Design

Posted in: Accessories and Peripherals, Today's Chili, usb

cc
Quirky is the company that designs gadgets by committee, only the committee consists of everyone on the internet. It specializes in simple, neat and usually stylish solutions to small problems, like the iPod Nano kick-stand or the iPhone Beamer case with a built-in LED lamp. Now Quirky has turned its community-sourced focus on another tech annoyance: USB cables.

If you own a computer (and I’m guessing you do, unless you have a generous friend who prints Gadget Lab out for you daily), then you are fully aware of the problem of USB cables. They tangle and twist, knotting together into a serpentine convolution of wire and plastic. Worse, you never know which is which, and you end up tracing the wire back from the peripheral you want before you can plug it in.

Cable Caps fixes both these problems with characteristic elegance, although without the usual Quirky style. Annoying (”cute”) characters anthropomorphize the usual devices like printers, cameras and, erm, eggs. You slip in the corresponding cable to allow easy identification, and the trailing “tail” of the caricature is a rubber band that can secure a bundled wire.

Like all Quirky products, there is a minimum number of orders required before the production lines are fired up. You can pre-order them for $8 per set of three.

Cable Caps [Quirky. Thanks, Tiffany!]

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Jan 12

CES: Perhaps it’s time for optical drives again: The Gateway 11.6-inch EC14D

Posted in: Today's Chili

Does having a DVD drive in your laptop matter, or is it obsolete? Gateway offers its opinion with a new mininotebook. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://ces.cnet.com/8301-31045_1-10433315-269.html” class=”origPostedBlog”2010 CES/a/p

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Jan 12

Microsoft calls Android ‘free like a puppy,’ we can’t decide if that’s a bad thing or not

Posted in: Android, marketing, Microsoft, slate, tablet, tablets, Today's Chili, Windows

In a new brand of competition dissing, James DeBragga, General Manager of Windows Consumer Product Marketing, says Android “is free like a puppy.” The comment came in the context of the CEO of Entourage praising Android for the fact that’s it’s versatile and free — major motivating factors behind his use of the OS on his Edge e-reader device. James says that Android (like a puppy) is great in theory, but a hassle once you get it home. Unfortunately for him, his metaphor neglects the love and kisses and companionship many humans also associate with puppies. Perhaps James is a cat man? Still, we see his side to some extent: Windows is certainly more mature, supported and capable for powering a tablet device, especially if that tablet needs to perform serious computer-style tasks. Unfortunately, we’re not sure if Android, Windows or anything else is really ready to make tablet converts out of us. Now if you’ll excuse us, we need to go feed our free iguana, Ricardo.

Microsoft calls Android ‘free like a puppy,’ we can’t decide if that’s a bad thing or not originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jan 12

Polaroid Resurrects Instant Film Cameras

Posted in: film, Retro, Today's Chili

polaroid-pic-1000
Imagine you are an iconic camera company, and in your glory days your film was an essential for both fashion photographers and fashionable party-goers. You were so popular that your product’s name became synonymous with instant pictures.

Then the world turned digital, and you found yourself as washed up as the rock stars you once documented. You struggled to make yourself relevant, and failed, patronizing your loyal fans by offering them crappy product after crappy product. What do you do? You turn back the clock.

The company is, of course, Polaroid, and it is set to launch a new range of film cameras. After its hideous attempts to combine a digital camera and a printer in a single (huge) box, the company will step back in time and make cameras which use Polaroid 1000 film. The range is called PIC-1000, and the devices resemble the Polaroids of yesteryear.

This makes perfect sense. The Polaroid’s USP was instant prints. The odd quality of those prints were what made it an icon. And if film handles it so well, why even bother changing to digital which is, in this case, clearly inferior? Sure, Polaroid will never be the mass market success it once was, but there’s a good, retro niche for weird analog cameras, currently occupied by Lomo.

The cameras should go on sale this year. They will have flash, red-eye reduction and even a self timer, and come in wood-effect or blobby silver. Price TBA.

Photo: Photography Bay

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Jan 12

CES: Long Verizon tech support call spawns M.I.A. song

Posted in: Today's Chili

The singer’s resulting “I’m Down Like Your Internet Connection” is bound to become the new “shake it like a Polaroid picture.”

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Jan 12

MagicJack femtocell sure to face legal battle royale

Posted in: Today's Chili

Despite MagicJack’s official announcement last week of an in-home femtocell for connecting carriers’ phones directly to its service, tons of questions remain — including most of the questions we had when we first heard of the idea. Let’s recap those questions and where we stand with each of them, shall we?

  • Are these guys licensing spectrum from the gub’mint, sublicensing it from carriers, or just going rogue? Going rogue. Historically, this usually ends in an FCC-mandated shutdown — and since both carriers and the CTIA will undoubtedly be throwing a fit that some company is stealing pricey spectrum for its own purposes, we’re sure the pressure on the government to act will be quite high.
  • Are any carriers in on this, and if so, why? Nope, none. The company says that “if they were smart they would take [it] on as a partner, because all [it] could do is enhance the value they create for their customer,” but presently, MagicJack’s all alone.
  • If carriers aren’t involved, why would they establish roaming deals that would allow carrier-branded phones and SIMs to roam on MagicJack’s rogue airwaves? As far as we can tell, they aren’t on any roaming deals.
  • If they’re not working on roaming deals, the femtocells will need to spoof a carrier ID. Furthermore, TDMA femtocells are virtually impossible to design and install for technical reasons, which means these would have to be 3G. So MagicJack’s going to offer a UMTS femtocell? It appears to be a plain-Jane GSM femtocell, which is technically interesting considering what we’ve heard in the past about effectively making a TDMA unit that plays nice with the surrounding network. Considering everything else we know, though, it probably doesn’t play nice — and without a roaming deal in place, they’ll need to spoof. That’s going to rile up both carriers and the GSMA.
  • Do you get to keep your phone number when you roam on the MagicFemtocell, and if so, how? For incoming calls, probably not, unless you forward to the MagicJack number.

Needless to say, both the carriers and the feds are going to have a lot to say about this product — particularly considering that it hasn’t even received FCC approval yet. If it keeps marching toward retail, we could be gearing up for one of the most entertaining legal battles of the year.

MagicJack femtocell sure to face legal battle royale originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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