Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

If you are a Vonage customer or are considering switching to Vonage read on, otherwise go download Skype or Gizmo and be happy.

Vonage has released a portable access point for the Vonage service, that is available for Vonage customers. For $39.99 you buy a USB drive that comes preloaded with a program that allows you to call anyone in the world from any computer in the world with two things: a network connection and a USB drive. The USB stick comes with a microphone as well as 250MB of usable memory, for you to use at your conscience.

This seems like a good buy for those of you already using Vonage, but if you are not a customer I would recommend holding off, if you intention is just to use this feature.

Product Page [Vonage]
Read [TechEffect]
Read a review of the product [Gizmodo]

MTV Networks and Apple got together to add some more content to the iTunes music TV store. Programming from Spike TV, Nick at Nite, TV Land, Logo, MTV and The N are now available.

Shows include: ”Blade: The Series,” “Viva La Bam,” “Sit Down Comedy with David Steinberg,” “TNA: iMPACT,” “Disorderly Conduct,” “Fatherhood,” “Hi-Jinks,” “Noah’s Arc,” “Wisecrack,” and “Beyond the Break.”

Read [Apple]

If you are a die-hard Sidekick user than today is your lucky day. As a reward for owning a Sidekick II, T-Mobile is offering you the ability to purchase the new ‘3’ version before the general public.

From T-Mobile.com, login, click Phones & Accessories, and then Upgrade Your Phone (on the right side of the page). You’ll have to click to the Handhelds tab, and then you should see a Sidekick 3 option. Or you can call Customer Care at 611 from your current phone. It will cost $299.99 with a 2 year contract extension and $349.99 with a one year or no extension.

Everyone else will have to wait until 7/10 to get their hiptop.

Read [HipTop3]

After Microsoft reported over 2.5 million downloads of the Office 2007 beta, it looks like they may delay the productivity suite once again.  The most recent date given by the company is October 2006, however when Vista was delayed recently, they began talks of pushing Office further into the future as well.

Ars Technica: “Based on internal testing and the beta 2 feedback around product performance, we are revising our development schedule to deliver the 2007 system release by the end of year 2006, with broad general availability in early 2007.”

The coming release of an entirely new operating system and suite is frightening customer companies because the need for retraining employees.  Maybe the ”Ribbon” wasn’t such a good idea after-all.

Read [Ars Technica]

Back at Bill Gate’s CES keynote, he was making use of prototype mobile device projectors.  These projectors display exactly what is on your cellphone or PDA screen so you can beam it onto any wall or even floor.  Explay is responsible for the latest projecting cellphone dongle.  Their new device, which is still in testing, is a matchbox sized projector that hooks up to your cellphone.  The company has plans to incorporate the technology into other devices.  No word yet or pricing or availability.

Via [Gadget Review]

Microsoft Business Division President Jeff Raikes recently introduced the company’s latest VoIP breakthroughs.  As a part of their Unified Communications Platform, companies like HP, LG-Nortel, and Samsung will manufacture devices that will enable business customers to communicate with Voice and Video over IP.  In addition to making the standard, Microsoft has also produced a sweet product of their own.  The Video conferencing camera called RoundTable makes it so everybody at the table is visible during meetings.

TG Daily: “One of the things that we’ve learned from our research is that it’s possible to view the meeting in about half the time just by using good compression of the normal pauses in human speech - which, of course, leads to the great paradox: If you can review the meeting in half the time after the meeting, who wants to go to the meeting in the first place?”

Read [TG Daily]

Your dreams have finally come true! Don’t want your pre-teen strolling around flashing a cell phone? Uneasy about saddling them with the responsibility of a cell phone? No problem. Just introduce them to the brand new Willcom Nico. Their begging and pleading for a cell phone will have to cease when you announce that this is the only phone you are willing to buy them.

These “fun phones” will be available July 13th and come in Blue, Green, Yellow, Pink, and Chocolate (say it isn’t so).

Read [MobileMag]

Competition in the mobile chip industry is tough these days with costs coming down, and companies such as Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, and Samsung ruling the market.  That’s why Intel has just decided to sell off its XScale processor to Marvell for $600 million in cash.  Companies such as Dell, palmOne, and HP have PDAs and Smartphones built off of the XScale technology.  Intel will continue to produce the XScale for up to two years, and Mavell will absorb the 1,400 people in the Intel XScale division.

Via [phoneArena]

Today we will find out that Google’s GBuy was nothing buy hype, they’re launching Google Checkout (checkout.google.com).  According to CEO Eric Schmidt, the checkout process will be faster than it has ever been before.  “The goal here is to make it be one nanosecond from the time the customer decides to buy to the time the transaction is complete and the product is on the way,” Schmidt said.  In addition to being a speedy process, Google will also combine the service with AdWords, waiving the transaction fees for merchants that decide to purchase advertisements on the ever-popular service.  By combining these two competitive advantages, Google Checkout will have a step up on the competition from the get-go.  Companies such as Buy.com, Starbucks, Timberland, and Levis have decided to join Checkout in its launch today.  Expect news from Paypal in coming weeks.

Video courtesy Official Google Blog

Via [PaidContent]
Read [NYTimes]

Third generation cellular wireless technology is still in its infancy and the CEO of Sprint could not spot talking about the next generation. Don’t get me wrong, 20 Mbps download speeds, compared to 3G’s 400-700 Kbps is nothing to cry about, but isn’t it a little early? I guess Gary Forsee doesn’t think so.

Sprint has spent billions of dollars building its 3G network, which is based on EV-DO, technology. The company started offering the service only a year ago, and has spent the latter half of 2005 and the first half of 2006 expanding the network. WiMax seems to be the front runner for the next gen wireless highway, delivering speeds equal to your in-home cable or DSL connection--but straight to your handset. 4G is required for mobile TV and streaming of other large content over networks both quickly and without crashing the servers.

All three of the big U.S. cell phone carriers--Cingular Wireless, Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless--already offer mobile video today, but only about 1 percent to 2 percent of the cell phone market is using the service. Sprint isn’t the only mobile carrier investing in new network technologies to handle broadcast TV on mobile phones. Verizon Wireless has already agreed to work with Qualcomm, which is developing a network especially for mobile TV using a technology it calls MediaFlo.

Read [News.com]