Thursday, July 19, 2007 Ng: VOIP phones By Wilson Ng Wired Desktop
ONE of the hot things in technology these days is a cellular phone that can function as VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) phone.
One such thing is the HP 512 voice messenger cell phone which runs Windows mobile 6. It functions as a cell phone but can also get WiFi (wireless fidelity) signal. When there is WiFi signal, its built-in SIP voice support can be used to make VOIP calls over the Internet.
According to statistics compiled by international research firms, these are the hot rage right now, and more than 100 models of cell phones which support WiFi are expected to be manufactured by the end of 2007.
One of the coolest things is the planned integration of cell phones and VOIP. In one of the more futuristic plans, cell phone manufacturers are working to make the integration seamless to the user —that means when reaches a WiFi zone while making a voice call, the device automatically converts the call to VOIP without interference.
VOIP calls are not covered by mobile phone company charges so in the future, people will be able to reduce their cell phone bills.
For now, though, one has to manually switch to VOIP.
Another cool thing I saw last week was an ink toner from HP. The toner sand was so fine that it looked like liquid.
According to HP, the toner is made to go through a special process to make it fine and it achieves very refined print. It also will not jam the cartridge.
This is the reason, HP said in its press release that while HP buys a lot of used cartridges, it does not reuse them since they still have not found a way to refill a used cartridge without compromising the quality.
Another cool thing I saw recently was an LCD frame picture viewer. It looks like a picture frame, only that it is electronic. This seven-inch LCD can be placed in the office or in your living room.
The LCD picture viewer can play music and store thousands of pictures. It can be programmed so that it can change the picture every few seconds. It is surely cool!
It can also act as a repository or a device to show off picture files so one doesn’t have to lug around heavy picture albums. You can choose to open one picture at a time or have a slide show with background music. It also plays video files, so you can also use it to watch a whole movie, or interspersed your pictures with video shortcuts!
Of course, LCD frame viewers were available already before, but now, it is much cheaper and also the picture quality is getting better.
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One of the most exciting things to look forward to this weekend is the release of the final Harry Potter Book, which is the last of the seven books by J.K. Rowling. The last book reportedly tells who will triumph, Harry Potter or the evil Voldemort.
The print run is supposedly more than 20 million copies, although exact figures are kept secret. It is hailed as the largest book sale ever.
There was a leak reported earlier. Somebody got an advanced copy of the book, and photographed each page and made it available through file sharing. It was quickly put down.
Huge money is at stake and this weekend, millions of copies of the book are estimated to be mailed, or people will line up in bookstores to get a copy. I guess by my next article, we will all know what is the ending.
In fact, I expect that a day after the massive release, we will already know. And since the Philippines is 12 to 16 hours ahead of the United States, I guess we will know about it before the Americans!
