New phones for Skypers
TELEPHONY
A phone call just isn't the same without the phone.
Skype, the Internet phone service with the candy-cute interface and the new owner (eBay), lets you talk for free with other Skype members, and for pennies per minute with ordinary phone users. And you do not need a phone to make the call. In most cases, your computer's built-in speaker phone and a cheap USB headset or a pair of headphones will do just fine.
But for those of us who miss the feel of a handset and buttons to push, a handful of manufacturers are offering ''Skype certified" phones that plug in to your computer's USB port. The phones improve the sound quality of your Skype calls with noise cancellation and other features.
VoIPvoice, based in Manchester, England, sells something called the Cyberphone, a slightly futuristic-looking two-piece USB phone best suited for use at a desk. Some models, such as the Cyberphone K, have keypads and can be dialed like an ordinary phone -- if you are a Windows PC user. Mac people can use the Cyberphone K, too, but they must dial out through the Skype application.
VoIPvoice will also soon release a portable USB phone, the vTraveller, that looks virtually indistinguishable from an ordinary cellphone.
Linksys recently announced a kit for Skype users that includes a wireless handset, charger, and USB base station. The wireless phone allows callers to roam around the house, away from their PCs or laptops. Luxembourg-based ECCB offers the hippest-looking Skype phones. The company's portable cellphone look-alike comes in blue, green, red, and silver. ''Special edition" USB phones can fly the colors of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom; 10 different ring tones are available.
And here's good news for those who want to hook an old Western Electric push-button phone up to Skype: VoIPvoice is selling a USB gadget, the uConnect, that allows Windows users to connect their ordinary phones to the VoIP service. Mac users will have to wait for supporting software (said to be on the way) to take full advantage of the device's features.
HOME TECH
Touch, feel, dim
The Pom Pom Dimmer is where high tech meets high touch. This sensor-laden fabric wall switch, which responds to the gentlest brush of the hand, aspires to make light switching ''a sensual experience."
One tap on the Pom Pom's Fuzzy Sensors causes your lights to fade on or off. Touch and hold the fuzzy bit of the Pom Pom and your lights will dim.
''The fuzzy bit of the Pom Pom gives it a lot of surface area," said Margaret Orth, cofounder of International Fashion Machines, maker of the Pom Pom.
IFM plans to roll its Fuzzy Sensors, which are part of the field of ''e-textiles" Orth is pioneering, into lines of electrical appliances, such as lamps and possibly toys.
But at $129 for one Pom Pom Dimmer (available online at www.ifmachines.com), many of us might opt for a cheaper, if less sexy, light-switching experience.
SPY TECH
GPS tracking with Google Maps
Developers have created a new pastime, fauxjacking, that mashes together GPS mobile phones and Google Maps. One fauxjacking service, Mologogo, requires only a $60 GPS-enabled phone and the use of a mobile carrier's Internet services to work. People can use the free, downloadable Mologogo Java application (available at www.mologogo.com) to create real-time visual records of their movements. Push pins on the Google maps show the times the tracked device was in a particular location.
Mologogo's anonymous co-creators, who call themselves LemonHead and GravityMonkey, believe their invention will be part of a new wave of cheap location-based services for GPS devices.
Mologogo has been tested mostly on Motorola GPS phones, but the list of devices on which the application works is growing.
LemonHead says that he and his partner, GravityMonkey, could get in Dutch with their bosses for spending so much time on Mologogo. LemonHead asked us to use only their online nicknames--at least until Mologogo becomes sufficiently famous. ''We still have day jobs to think about," says LemonHead.
