- Unlimited calling anyone?
Ooma. Ring any bells? Well last year a
company under that name launched an unlimited VoIP service. The premise was a
one-time fee of four hundred buckaroos. Intriguing, no? Well, the original
deployment required a rather dated, corded phone and the whole approach has yet
to prove itself viable. So this year Ooma is upping the ante with a cordless,
and rather aesthetically pleasing, handset and an equally sleek router (both pictured above at CES Unveiled), all for an anticipated
$250 and unlimited calling.
- Minority Report UI becomes reality
File this one under freaking sweet. Ever
since Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg paired up for the first time, the
computer interfaces have had a single objective; be half as awesome as that
Minority Report setup. Well, I think you could make the case that Oblong’s
g-speak is actually cooler. What’s more, it’s Minority Report flavour is no
coincidence; one of the science advisors that worked on the film, who
originally conceived of the interface based on work he’d earlier completed MIT,
is one of the founders of Oblong. g-speak is purported to “redresses the dire
constriction of human intent imposed by traditional GUIs. Its idiom of spatial
immediacy and information responsive to real-world geometry enables a necessary
new kind of work: data-intensive, embodied, real-time, predicated on universal
human expertise.” Uh, yea. Just watch the video and cue mind blowing.
- The End of annoying packaging?
No, not DVD shrinking wrapping but that
other one, with the impenetrable seals of reinforced plastic that would give
Edward Scissor Hands cause for self doubt. Last week Amazon announced a new
initiative titled “Frustration Free Packaging” with the hopes of eliminating
so-called ‘clamshell’ packaging that you find primarily encasing your tech
toys. Well word comes now that Best Buy, Microsoft, and Sony are joining the
good fight against frustration, in a bid that will see retailers moving towards
more environmentally sound (ie destructible) packaging.
