Slate has a decent review of various VOIP services. They like AT&T CallVantage, but it sounds like you may want to wait a bit yet based on this opinion of VOIP as a whole: Reliability also is not always up to land-line snuff. Sometimes there’s no dial tone, your outgoing calls don’t go through, or [...]
How many times have you been at a movie, in a lecture, or on the train and heard someone’s watch beeping? And have them not even notice? Grrrrr. This Casio GW-400J vibrating watch (covered at Watch Report) makes too much sense – you feel it vibrate, and nobody else knows. My wife’s analog/digital combo watch [...]
I like the idea, but haven’t done it yet – I get free long distance on my cellphone, and since I’m a social recluse, I just don’t talk that much anyway. Our landline has the ringer shut off since we only use it for DSL. But I know that eventually we’ll go with VOIP, if [...]
IMAP lets you have the best parts of a corporate email server for your personal life. Jennifer Berger at MacWorld recently saw the light – you should take a look. As she says: IMAP lets me keep all my e-mail on my company’s e-mail server, along with any custom folders, and my Sent items. I [...]
This is a great way to save on clutter and expense. We live in an apartment, so the computer is right where an entertainment center would be anyway. Rather than buying a big, heavy, expensive TV plus a big, heavy, expensive monitor, put all the cash into a nice LCD monitor. You’ll need a TV [...]
The very un-minimalist Uncrate (“Uncrate is a web magazine for guys who love stuff. Our team finds the best gadgets, clothes, cars and more so you can blow your rent money easier.”) has a pointer to the Zippo Cargo Case, which allows you to stow your indispensible Zippo lighter in your checked luggage. Hmmm. Now [...]
Anyone know if these little Japanese dishwashers actually work? Also, does anyone know whether dishwashers really save water over hand washing, or is that an urban myth? (Via Engadget)
I hate cables and adapters both at home and while traveling. Problem number one is the huge number of incompatible chargers. This WaPo article says it best: “If you switch [cell phone] brands, it won’t work,” Kammerer said of his many chargers. “I wish they were standardized. My briefcase gets heavy.” Manufacturers argue that providing [...]
Most often, high tech is overly complicated. However, as the NYT points out this morning, high tech is making prostheses much simpler and better for those who have lost their legs. Of course, they have to be plugged in, but that seems reasonable for the benefit they provide: He recalled attending a party where the [...]
In the beginning, there was Compact Flash (CF). Then that was too big, and thus was created Secure Digital (SD). Then manufacturers created “standards” for a bajillion other random formats that annoy the heck out of anyone who shops for digital cameras, PDAs, cellphones, and laptops. Fortunately, there are some products that help with the [...]