Joy of Gadgets

Since I’ve joined Check Point Software, I’ve done a fair bit of traveling–moreso than I’ve done in quite some time. Since I am ending up more random places, and have had the joy of going through airport security in Tel Aviv on two occasions so far (which makes the TSA experience seem relatively painless by [...]

It’s that time again:
FreeConferencing.com Launches: Until they do something to equalize inter-carrier compensation between most civilized parts of the United States and rural locations, services like FreeConferenceCall.com and now FreeConferencing.com will continue to exist and be profitable. By hosting these services in, say, rural Iowa, they actually make a small amount of money per minute [...]

I really, really like the guys at PhoneNews.com. They post a lot of hard-hitting stories about mobile phone industry. They are also trying to go ad-free by running a rather peculiar promotion–buy a refurbed Nokia 2610 from AT&T for $0.01 after rebate. If 10,000 orders come in by the end of February 2009, the site [...]

Talk about a no-frills mobile phone. This is truly it–the HOP1800 from Hop-On. The phone has no screen and 14 buttons: the typical number pad, a send key, and an end key. That’s it. Not even SMS. That’s because there is no screen!
The phone is available in both European (GSM 900/1800) and Americas (GSM 850/1900) [...]

I recently signed up for the T-Mobile @Home service through the folks that support voice services at Nokia, where I work. I was sent a Nokia 6301 along with the Hotspot @Home router. The draw? Free calls on the home WiFi, or in earshot of any T-Mobile Hotspot. Why not?
Normally, I would not be buying–or [...]

When I went to a trade show in March, I was at the San Jose Civic Auditorium attending a party. I came across this phone booth (pictured left) with something important missing–a phone!
Why is this useful? If you’ve ever attended a concert at the San Jose Civic, you know it’s loud! If you want to [...]

While watching the latest Mobile Industry Review show, where I make a cameo, I found out about the Cell Ranger, which is designed to boost your mobile phone signal.
There are two models of this device: one plugs into your laptop and one that plugs into your car charger. This powers the antenna that is able [...]

To continue the trend of “easy, simple cell phones,” Tom Keating over at the VoIP and Gadgets Blog on TMCnet writes about the Pantech Breeze, which is now available at AT&T in the U.S. market.
This flip phone has a large, oversized keypad. The interface is “simplified, easy-to-read.” It includes three “hot buttons” that can be [...]

BuyMyTronics has taken the mission of turning your old electronics into cash. Their website claims to buy old cell phones, game systems, MP3 players, and what-have-you, and pay “top dollar” for it–within 48 hours of receipt, either via PayPal or via a check.
Personally, my favorite way to recycle things: give them away to people that [...]

The folks at Joiku, makers of the awesome JoikuSpot for S60 now offer a similar program for Windows Mobile devices: WMWiFiRouter. Both of these programs turn your mobile phone into a WiFi hotspot!
The theory is that the program uses the data connection on your mobile phone–which is hopefully 3G. That data connection is made available [...]