I loved some of the older PC keyboards – I remember the IBMs with their wonderful clacky sound and proper switches (rather than conductive rubber bouncing off a PCB). They cost about £100 but they lasted indefinitely. Apple and Olivetti were the same in the early days. But everybody has economised now, which is why I’m rather tempted by the Matias Tactile Pro Keyboard, which deliberately tries to recreate the golden days.
Category Archives: Gadgets & Toys
What’s important about IP telephony?
I suppose that, having worked on and off with VoIP for a little while, I really should have cottoned on to this earlier, but it’s only having it at home that has made me realise what will really be different for ordinary users in a VoIP world.
It’s not the lower cost, though that will be nice. It’s not that you’ll need fewer wires around your house, or that you’ll be able to make phone calls from your laptop, or that you’ll only need to buy one link to the outside world because your internet connection and your phone connection will have merged. No, I think the big changes will be that:
- You’ll be able to have as many extensions as you like for no extra cost. This means that the concept of one or two lines coming into the house may go away. Yes, your daughter will have her own extension, and she’ll be able to call her friend’s bedroom without blocking the line for everybody else. You’ll be able to call the kitchen from the basement, or call the basement from the shopping mall, if you so desire.
- Phone lines will be more like email addresses. And many of the things you can do with email addresses will apply to phone lines. So, for example, you can redirect them to point at other addresses. Or you can make one address ring several phones, which may be in different parts of the house or in different parts of the world.
All of this has been possible in the past, but it won’t be long before this is a standard facility that everybody will have at home if they choose to make use of it.
Drive me crazy
I powered up all my Firewire drives today. I don’t often do that.
Mighty Mouse
Apple have released a new mouse. Unusually for Apple, it doesn’t just have a single button. But if you were worried that Apple might have started to conform a bit too much, try working out just how many buttons it does have…
A bit more of a review on Russel Beattie’s site.
Somewhat sneaky Orange
Here’s something to watch out for; I switched my mobile from Orange to T-mobile recently. To do this, I requested a PAC code from Orange, which lets me take my old number to the new provider. When you do this, they tell you that it’s valid for a limited period (60 days, I think). What they don’t tell you is that your contract includes a one month notice period, so you will pay the service charge for the next month regardless of when you use the PAC code.
If you’re like me, you normally request the code immediately after opening a new account. The right thing to do, if you can, is to request it a month before you want to move..
Disposable Camcorders?
Well, not quite, but the American CVS pharmacy is apparently introducing a Digital One-Time-Use Video Camcorder.
BluePhoneElite
I love my new Motorola RAZR V3. It’s the first phone I’ve really been able to slip in my jeans pocket and not notice. It doesn’t spoil the outline of my otherwise svelte figure(!) and it also has noticeably better sound quality than any mobile I’ve used recently.
Of course, when moving away from Nokia, you sacrifice ease of use, and Motorola’s user interface is even worse than most. This has bothered me less in recent years because much of what I used to do on phone keypads I now do on my Powerbook, which integrates with most of them very nicely. Sadly, however, the RAZR doesn’t integrate with the Mac Address Book as well as my previous phones. In particular, unlike the Nokia, it doesn’t let me send SMS messages directly from the Address Book.
This is why I was particularly pleased to discover BluePhoneElite, a $20 utility which not only gives you lots of control over SMSes, incoming and outgoing calls etc, but also does some cute things with Bluetooth, like pausing your music and changing your IM status when you (& your phone) go out of range of the computer. It also does genuinely useful things like pausing iTunes when you make or receive a call.
Very nice. And I’m not the only one who thinks so. Look at the stars!
SUV Segways
Mmm. The Segway XT looks fun.
See also the comments on my last segway post for another use for Segways.
My first time
Yesterday I rode on a Segway for the first time. I had high expectations and it lived up to all of them. A beautiful bit of engineering.
The main reason I don’t have one (despite it being an expensive toy at present) is that I would feel guilty about not exercising. It’s faster than walking and more convenient than but not as fast as cycling, but since it wouldn’t give me any exercise it’s not a compelling replacement for either of those. I couldn’t really justify it simply on the basis of being more fun.
For me to buy one I’d need to find a convincing reason to use it instead of a car. I don’t have that yet. But I’ll keep looking!
AirScooter
Ooh. Now, I really want one of these.
I have a lot to do in my gadget competition with John since he bought his Prius, but I think this might just allow me to overtake!
Mouse adapter for those with shaky hands
This is cool. It’s easy to forget how many in our society can’t use the technologies we’ve come to depend on.
It’s also very interesting that IBM decided to release this as hardware when, presumably, it could easily be done in software.
iPod Camera connector
The iPod camera connector will be available before long. It’s on The Apple Store (U.S.). No details yet, though.
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