Wireless Headset for Internet Phone Calls

Wireless Headset for Internet Phone Calls
By ROY FURCHGOTT
Published: March 27, 2008
The Logitech ClearChat wireless headset, which the company says is the first of its kind with Internet calling in mind, is also meant to be faux-pas-proof.

The addition of an unusual feature can keep you from speaking out of turn. When the headset is muted, the microphone glows red. This confirms that the microphone is off, so you won’t have to ask, “Can you hear me now?” They can’t.
This stereo headset, with a retail price of $100, has over-the-ear padded phones and a boom microphone. Compatible with Macs and PCs, it requires no setup, although a small receiver will occupy one of your computer’s U.S.B. ports.

The headset broadcasts over the 2.4-gigahertz band, just like many portable phones, and Logitech estimates that the signal will carry more than 30 feet. The microphone has noise canceling to diminish background sound, so people can hear you clearly when they are supposed to.

Source: NY Times

Cell Phone Headsets for only $4

Studies show that the use of hands-free devices greatly improves a driver’s concentration, subsequently decreasing the risk of injuries and deaths.

FreeHeadset.org is an organization dedicated to promoting cell phone safety by distributing high quality cell phone headsets for only $3.94 (includes shipping and handling).

source = "beststuff.com"

Different greetings for different callers

YouMail is a free service that lets you customize your cell phone voicemail messages. You can have one standard greeting and also a different greeting depending on who is calling you.

YouMail, Inc. (www.youmail.com), the mobile industry's premiere consumer voicemail service, announced in September the addition of two new voicemail features to greatly expand users' control over their cellular worlds. The features -- "smart caller ID" and "personalized away messages" -- allow voicemail to be a much more effective method for personal communication.

SMART CALLER ID
YouMail provides enhanced notification of incoming voicemail through text messages and/or e-mails. Now when voicemails are left, YouMail's "smart caller ID" automatically tells its users not only the number of who called, but also the caller's name, and the length of the voicemail message -- all without the need for any set-up on the user's part.
"Caller ID information has generally been very limited on cell phones, with mobile users knowing only the phone number that left a voicemail," said Ken Brickley, VP of Marketing for YouMail. "With YouMail, users know exactly who left them voicemail, allowing them to save time by retrieving only the voicemails that matter and help verify that callers are who they say they are."

PERSONALIZED AWAY MESSAGES
YouMail allows users to set up personalized greetings for their callers, whether for a single caller or a group of callers like family or friends, and they can record their own outgoing messages or choose from a growing library of thousands of pre-recorded greetings. Now users who will be unavailable can quickly and easily arrange away messages for their cell phone -- akin to the similar ability in instant messaging, but tailored to different groups of people in their lives.
"Cell phone users often find themselves knowing they'll be unavailable or out of coverage for a period of time," said Brickley. "Now a user can simply choose an appropriate message and with a couple of clicks let their friends know they're away on vacation or out surfing, and co-workers or clients know they're in a meeting or on a plane."

USER FEEDBACK
Both innovations were inspired by recommendations from YouMail user feedback.
"YouMail is about cell phone voicemail that truly satisfies its users," said Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail. "Whether it's knowing everything about who's leaving you messages or easily letting incoming callers know when and where you'll be out of reach, with the touch of a button you're in complete control of how you connect with everyone in your life."

About YouMail
YouMail replaces your cellular voicemail with a free and dramatically better voicemail system that helps you save time, simplify their life, and have fun. YouMail is transforming voicemail into something that's amazingly useful and incredibly fun, providing personalized greetings and away messages for individuals or groups of callers, a library of greetings uploaded by its users, and online voicemail access with the ability to share and save special voicemails easily. To learn more and sign up for the free YouMail service, go to www.youmail.com.

MagicJack - A Jack That Lets Regular Phones Take Advantage of Those Cheap Internet Long-Distance Rates

Computer-based phone services like Skype allow you to call friends and family free — as long as they have a PC with a sound card and a microphone. A little device called MagicJack will let you make calls from your phone to other phones in the United States for fractions of a penny a minute.

The device costs $39.95, a price that includes a year of unlimited domestic calls; additional years cost $20. MagicJack, which looks like a U.S.B. memory stick, plugs right into your Windows PC, which immediately displays a telephone keypad. (A Mac version is planned.) Each MagicJack is assigned its own phone number, and the price includes voice mail and call waiting. You can also use the MagicJack overseas to reach numbers in the United States and receive calls from there.

These sorts of Internet calling devices aren’t new. The MagicJack, however, has a real telephone jack on the side, letting you quickly bring almost any corded or cordless phone into the 21st century

Source: New York Times (By JOHN BIGGS)

New Word Document Format

Microsoft changed the document format used by the Word program in its Office 2007 for Windows and Office 2008 for Mac software suites. The old .doc file extension used by previous versions of the program has been replaced with .docx, which refers to the Office Open XML format. (This file format was developed by Microsoft and is not to be confused with the OpenOffice.org Productivity Suite, a set of open-source programs with their own formats.)
While people using the newer versions of Word can save their documents to a format that is compatible with older editions of the program, not everyone remembers to do so. You are not forced to upgrade to Word 2007 just to read these files, though, and there are a few ways to crack open a .docx file.
Microsoft offers its own compatibility pack that lets older versions of the Word program open and save files in Office Open XML format. An article in the company’s online knowledge base explains the process and provides a link to the compatibility pack for Word 2003, Word 2002 and Word 2000 at support.microsoft.com/kb/924074. (Some elements in a Word 2007 document may not convert properly, and an article at snipurl.com/1yos2 describes many of the things to look out for.)
For those using Word 2004 or Office v.X for Macintosh, Microsoft offers a free Open XML File Format Converter program that can be downloaded at www.microsoft.com/mac/downloads.mspx.
If you don’t want to use Microsoft’s solutions, the Web site at http://www.docx2doc.com/ offers both inexpensive Web-based file conversions and a standalone converter program. The Docx2Rtf program for Windows can also convert .docx files into rich text format (.rtf); the software is free and available to download at www.nativewinds.montana.com/software/docx2rtf.html.

Source: New York Times

Convert To Digital

HOME MOVIES
The simplest way to digitize those shoeboxes full of Super 8 movies is to use the technique perfected by movie pirates: project the image on a white wall, set up a digital camcorder on a tripod, and then shoot the film.
This is one case where you won’t get the best results if you make it a do-it-yourself project. The different frame rates of movie film and a camcorder could cause annoying flickering of the final image. Send your movies to a commercial transfer service like Audio Video Memories (audiovideomemories.com), Digital Transfer Systems (digitaltransfersystems.net), and Just8mm.com that uses a telecine machine, a much more sophisticated version of the same home technique.
Movies arrive back on DVDs, ready to be imported into the PC for editing with a program like Apple’s iMovie ($79, part of iLife ’08) for Macs, or for PCs, Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0 ($100).

VHS TAPES
To transfer VHS footage, which is analog, into a computer, the PC needs to receive the data digitally. One way to check if your PC is so equipped to do that is to look at the computer’s ports. If it has the familiar RCA inputs — the yellow, white, and red connectors — then it most likely is analog ready.
If not, analog images must first be converted to the digital format. To do so, combination VHS/DVD player/recorders are one of the simplest ways to get your home movies off your aging video tapes and onto more permanent DVDs. Available from Panasonic, Sony and others, prices start at under $200.
Alternatively, connect a stand-alone VHS player to a DVD recorder to make a digital copy.
VHS tapes can also be recorded onto a computer’s hard drive by plugging the VCR’s output cable into a digital camcorder that offers a “pass through” mode (most do). The signal is digitized within the camcorder, and then passed on to the PC’s hard drive.
Sony’s $229 VRD-MC5 is specifically made to record DVD copies of VHS tapes, or recordings from any camcorder or digital video recorder, without using a PC. VCRs and camcorders are plugged into the device, which resembles a portable DVD deck.
If you do not own a camcorder or DVD recorder, but you have loads of valuable tapes, consider an intermediary conversion product, such as the DAC-200 ($184; synchrotech.com); Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge ($300; omegamultimedia.com), and VHS to DVD 3.0 ($80; honestech.com). Each product includes hardware and software that converts analog signals to digital,.

LPS, EIGHT-TRACKS, AND CASSETTES
Getting your old Country Joe and the Fish albums into your PC is one of the easiest conversions to do, according to Tom Merritt, executive editor of CNetTV.com.
Assuming you still have a phonograph turntable (or eight-track or cassette deck) and it is not the console type from the 1950s or earlier, plug the audio output from the turntable’s amplifier/receiver into the minimike port found on virtually all home computers.
While commercial audio editing software is available, Mr. Merritt recommends installing Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net), a free program available for Macs, PCs and Linux/Unix machines that will manage the files, convert them into a specific format (for example, WAV or MP3), and remove clicks and crackles.
For those who value their time more than the fun of connecting cables and reading manuals, there are plenty of commercial companies happy to do the converting for you. Cassettes2CDs.com will convert audio and video tapes, LPs and 45s to digital format, storing the data on a CD, DVD or MP3 format for iPod use. The company does not handle 78 r.p.m. records, reel-to-reel or eight-track tapes.