Jan
12
2008
The CallPod company has a new product called the Phoenix. This is one of those products I find cool, but without much purpose.
It’s a little Bluetooth hockey puck. You can pair five difference headsets with it, and they can not talk to each other in full duplex. Thats really cool…but with the range limitations of bluetooth, I’m not really sure where you’d use this.
It also has the ability to pair with a computer. So, you could start a Skype call, then have five people on bluetooth headsets be a part of the conversation. Kind of like a quiet conference call.
They also have the new Dragon Bluetooth headset. They claim a 100+ meter range. This scares me a little, but it makes the Phoenix make a little more sense. The Dragon also has the ability to pair with another Dragon. This allows two people, within 100 meters of each other, to talk directly. No phone required. This would be kind of cool for staying in touch while shopping, or paint ball.
The Dragon has a list price of $129 although a quick Google show’s it as low as $70.
Jan
11
2008
I was happy to see companies with mounting products at CES. With California’s recent statute changes requiring the use of hands-free devices, I think more people will be looking for mounting products.
The three primary sources are Ram-Mount, Panavise and Jotto.
Ram-Mount has long been the leader here. They have numerous bases, arms and holders. Many of the holders are custom made for specific devices.
Panavise has taken their experience with vises and extended it into devices. Many of their products are made out of a composite and are lightweight yet strong.
Jotto is the new player in this market. They started with products to assist road warriers and extended into computer mounts and now into phone, PDA and other products. They have even started into the realm of law enforcement with center console products for radio equipment.
Jotto had one very interesting add-on product. It’s a backlit dry erase panel called GloWriter. With this, you can easily take notes and read them day or night. Very slick.
http://www.ram-mount.com/
http://www.jottodesk.com/
http://www.panavise.com/
Jan
10
2008
I got a chance to hold the Invisio Q7. The new design is nice. They changed the design and cleaned up a few things…of course, it cost them six months getting to market.
They tell me that they’ll be available in February, 2008.
Dec
05
2007
I’ve been following the Invisio Q7 for a long time. There are references to it that go back to 2005. It looks different not, but it still isn’t actually a product.
It’s a perty cool piece of technology. It uses a bone conductive pickup for the microphone, so it should be resistant to background noise. The fit is managed using a little spring. I’m not sure how it’ll fell, but people using other models report the spring as comfortable.
It was looking like they were going to ship by the end of 2007. I just got a call from NextLink (the company) to let my know that they aren’t planning to ship until February 2008. That’s a big dissappointment.
I have to wonder if they’re planning to rework it as they’ve pulled the picture off their web site.
