My friend Eric from HTC popped by my office the other day with a demo unit of the new HD2– I have to say it was pretty impressive. I’m not a huge fan of Windows Mobile but they did a very nice job rebuilding the key components of the OS (with their multi-touch sense project) for this specific device. Where they really shine through as a company though is in the construction of the physical device– it’s so good. If they keep up developing products like this they’ll be on people’s radar in a much bigger way very soon.
New technology can often be scary. The liberal use of space age polymers and fancy LCD’s can frighten consumers into thinking they may have accidentally slipped into the future with no way back to the world they know and love. One way to remedy that is to camouflage innovation in a classic package. Hulger’s new VoIP PAPPA*PHONE effectively harnesses a new technology, while furnishing it in the eloquent and stylish package of American walnut wood and brass. Each of the phones from Furni, the Montreal based maker, is cut from one piece of wood, while the finer details are laser etched on. This first ever wooden Skype phone is compatible via USB with both Mac and PC incarnations of the Internet phone program, as well as other VoIP programs, allowing you to converse in style no matter what kind of computer you use.
Remember how we were all supposed to be talking on video phones in the mid-90s? Most wouldn’t call a tiny 3-inch x 3-inch screen that produced a stuttering two-frame-a-minute picture “video.” Then a decade later anyone with a laptop and built-in camera put that argument to bed. But, the X-Cast scientists from UseeIsee believe there’s a market for people who a) don’t have laptop technology, b) do have a high-speed Internet connection and c) want a VoIP service similar to Vonage or you cable company, but with the benefit of sight. We call these people our parents. UseeIsee knows our folks too well, as it mixes equal parts of Catskill humor and pictures of Nana talking to her grandchildren. It’s so plain spoken, it just might work.
Frequent JoshSpear.com readers know that we’re big fans of the Jawbone since way back in ‘04. It’s hard to imagine how Aliph could improve on an already solid product, but the Jawbone 2 sports a new design, a footprint about half the size of its predecessor, and improved noise-canceling technology (dubbed “Noise Assassin”) … RED TEAM GO, RED TEAM GO!
Looking back at the first generation product we only had a few criticisms. First, the package was huge for the size of the headset. Hats off to Aliph for trimming down the sexy lucite packaging to something a little more proportional and eco-friendly. Our second gripe was the beautiful but difficult to use ear loop. The second generation Aliph opted for a simpler leather-wrapped design that not only feels good on the ear, but makes putting on the headset a snap. Lastly, was the charger and USB cord. To be honest, the first generation version of these accessories felt like an afterthought. The wall plug was pretty ugly and the USB cord was difficult to detach from the headset. These issues no longer exist with the introduction of a updated charger and much easier magnetic USB cord.
Beyond that, you can really tell that Aliph took some time to analyze the old version and challenge themselves to make the new one even better. Pairing is enabled the first time the headset is powered up. Standby time has increased to a whopping eight days — though talk time has decreased to four hours from six. But, best of all, the sound quality is as crisp and noiseless as we’ve come to expect from Jawbone.
The Apple website was just updated with three new iPhone commercials. The insanely delicious (love the music) ads show off the iPod functionality, Email, iPhoto and most interesting to me, the mapping and web browsing, which just look unreal. I’m still a bit nervous about the keyboard functionality– I can’t imagine it could really beat out my Blackberry as far as typing goes. June 29th is now judgement day. Who’s buying one?
When Josh passed this little nugget of goodness on to me this morning, I thought it was too good to be true. For the cost of a call to Iowa, you can make phone calls to a bunch of countries around the world using AllFreeCalls.net. The list of available countries is pretty large, and is supposedly set to expand in the near future. According to the folks at TechCrunch, this is how it works: the founder of the service established a phone company in the great (corn laden) state of Iowa, which is apparently the only state in the Union taking advantage of an FCC ‘kickback scheme’ that gives telephone companies a portion of the fees arising out of every single inbound call to an Iowa number. When you dial AllFreeCalls’ number, some of the long distance fees you pay to call Iowa go to the company. The key is that these ‘kickbacks’ are sufficient to, on average, more than cover the international outbound calling fees. Complicated? Yes; but who cares? You can make free calls overseas people!
Gadget aficionados, cell phone nuts, Apple geeks and mobile professionals around the world are all equally blown away by Apple’s introduction (finally) of the first ever iPhone. The list of features goes on and on, from a 2 Megapixel camera, 8GB hard drive, full integration with OS X, touch (wide) screen, WiFi– all in a package thinner than any smart phone out there. The keynote is still going on as I post this, so no details on price or availability has been shared– but I’ll be the first in line, this looks like a dream phone.
Update: 4GB Models will go for $499, 5GB for $599. A cingular exclusive, available out in June.
Remember how we were all supposed to be talking on video phones in the mid-90s? Most wouldn’t call a tiny 3-inch x 3-inch screen that produced a stuttering two-frame-a-minute picture “video.” Then a decade later anyone with a laptop and built-in camera put that argument to bed. But, the X-Cast scientists from 
When Josh passed this little nugget of goodness on to me this morning, I thought it was too good to be true. For the cost of a call to Iowa, you can make phone calls to a bunch of countries around the world using 
