With landlines going the way of analog TV broadcasting, Verizon is hoping to take advantage of the VoIP market with the release of the Verizon Hub. Though it is a little on the expensive side, the Hub is an all-in-one telephone system/communications center with a cordless headset and a 7-inch touchscreen. Through your broadband connection, the Hub lets you send and recieve text messages, stream video,  stay updated on traffic and weather, and MUCH more. Although it costs $150.00 (with a $35/per month charge for unlimited calls and messaging), you get an enormous amount of features.

• 7-inch WVGA 800 x 480, LCD touch-screen
• Displays videos and pictures
• Headset with 1.8-inch LCD screen
• MP3 support
• WiFi connectivity
• 128 MB of RAM
• 500 MHz dual processor
• 128-entry address book
• Support for widgets
• Holds up to 2MB of ringtones
• Visual Voice Mail

In addition to the features listed above, the Verizon Hub’s many entertainment options, such  as Internet Radio and television clips, make it a good entertainment system.  Even with all of these extra features, the Verizon Hub still manages to offer great sound quality and clarity. Even using the speakerphone, there is little background noise or interference. The Verizon Hub does a great job of combining all of the great, mobile features of a cell phone with the traditional benefits of a home phone. As more of our world goes wireless, the Verizon Hub is big upgrade from your traditional phone line, but it is going to cost you.

With a wide range of home theater systems available, which one best balances quality and price? The answer is the Panasonic SC-PT960. At approximately $500, the SC-P960 is not ridiculously expensive, but not too cheap as to make you think it is a piece of junk. The only thing that could be added to make this home theater system the best value available would be the addition of a Blu-Ray player. Despite that, the SC-PT960 offers superb sound and value for those looking to upgrade their entertainment room, but do not want to spend upwards of $1000.

The Panasonic SC-PT960 gives you a lot for your money. It comes with 5.1-channel surround sound speakers, wireless rear speakers, HDMI upscaling to 1080P, iPod dock, five-disc changer, and it’s easy to set up. The most interesting addition is the wireless rear speakers. After spending some time playing with the Panasonic SC-PT960, I found that the wireless speakers work incredibly well. There is no lag, interference, or other problems that plague many wireless speaker systems. In addition, the included 6.5 inch powered subwoofer is extremely powerful for its size. It provides deep, powerful bass to make your movie watching experience that much better.

The SC-PT960 also has many features that are very useful. The unit has a “Whisper Surround Sound” mode that is supposed to deliver the surround sound experience at a lower volume, as to not disturb your neighbors. This is very handy for those who live in a condo or apartment. In addition, the unit comes with an integrated iPod dock which, when connected displays a full iPod menu on your TV screen. As the iPod is the dominant mp3 player, many will find this feature awesome.

Despite its limited connectivity, the Panasonic SC-PT960 delivers powerful, clean sound and many useful features for a fraction of the cost of other systems. If you want to greatly improve your TV and movie viewing experience but are on a budget, then the Panasonic SC-PT960 is your best bet.

• To get your own Panasonic SC-PT960 Click Here
• To review special pricing on the Panasonic SC-PT960 Click Here

 

What happens when you get a digital photo frame, load your favorite pictures in it and hit Slideshow Mode?

We ALL know what happens. Pictures slide by one after the other, another after another. In a few days, you would have relived all your most memorable moments so many times, they would cease to feel so special. It’s a wee-bit boring to see just yourself and your best friends frolicking in the snow, then in the sun, then in the sand, and all over again, isn’t it?

The first time someone mentioned the eStarling digital photo frame, I didn’t think it would become a fixture on my desk as it is today. When I heard the eStarling can connect to any wi-fi network, I wondered whether it was another beta with underutilized potential. But since I got my hands on this digital photo frame a few days back, I have realized that this is a perfect gift for any occasion – whether it is Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, li’l sister’s birthday, or grandparents’ anniversary.

The wi-fi is what makes the eStarling digital frame rock. Once you have set up the eStarling at home, connected it to your wi-fi, you can subscribe to any number of RSS photo feeds from Flickr, Picasa,
Photobucket, AOL, Smugmug, iPhoto, Gallery or Facebook. It’ll be a nice change from just watching your own photos! Plus, every time your friends upload pictures to their social networking accounts, you can watch them almost immediately on the eStarling digital frame. Of course there is also the option of adding photographs with a USB drive or with a memory card.

The next best thing about the eStarling is its emailing feature. Each frame has its own email address, and pictures can be emailed directly to the frame. That is such a wonderful thing for all the Moms and Dad far away from their kids and yearning to see them! One can also send short messages via email or from the cell phone.

All I have to do is email a picture from my regular email account to the photo frame’s unique email address. Bingo! Dad sees the picture almost immediately on the eStarling photo frame perched on his writing desk. Brilliant, isn’t it?

In fact, you can even email pictures from the frame by hitting a simple button. If a lot of your friends have the eStarling, you can group the frames and send pictures to all of them using a single email address.

The only frustrating bit was setting up the eStarling for the first time. It took me a little reading and exercising of the gray cells to hook it up successfully to my home wi-fi network. Once it was set up though, the rest was simple. I registered the frame on the eStarling’s sister website, and subscribed to several different photo feeds. The best and the latest photos in the world now keep popping up on the photo frame – there’s no way I can get bored because the RSS feeds keep showing me new pictures.

And to top it all, the eStarling is sexy – its 8 inch sleek black LCD screen and rounded edges are perfect for a modern home. The picture quality is bright and brilliant, and can be turned off at night for power-saving. I am definitely going to gift one to Dad this Father’s Day!

• You can get your own eStarling digital photo frame by Clicking Here

• You can check out pricing comparisons by Clicking Here

It’s talk-safe time in California. On July 1st, California will follow 30 other states in implementing a ban on driving while talking on the cellphone. Everyone is buying headsets, even those who hate the pesky, poky, blinking, Martian antibodies.

My girlfriend had been complaining about hers from day one – she had a sore ear and a tangle of wires running from the headset to her phone. The audio quality was decent…err, until she blundered by opening the sun roof in her car. Her voice was instantly lost in the flurrying wind.

We decided to go together to an electronics mall and buy a better headset for her.It was overwhelming to walk down aisles flooded with tiny headsets. None appeared to us any more impressive than the other until..

We saw the Jawbone. Its sexy design made us ooh and aah. The Jawbone trumpeted itself in two simple words – Noise Assassin. It was bluetooth, so there would be no tangled wires. The Jawbone also came with different sizes of earplugs and earloops to fit every ear.

The Jawbone uses very advanced audio technology where a voice sensor at the bottom of the headset rests on your cheek and senses motion as you talk. It only picks up the sounds coordinating with the muscle movements in your cheek, so the background noise is completely ‘assassinated’, in Jawbone lingo. My friend was persuaded.

The next day she called me while driving. It was great – I could hear her crystal clear despite the windows being rolled down and the wind racing past her. The Jawbone got a thumbs up!

The Jawbone is a really classy accessory for anyone who has to answer a lot of calls all the time and doesn’t want to engage one hand with the phone. It is a bluetooth headset which automatically detects the phone it is paired with and connects to it seamlessly. Once your phone has been paired the first time, the headset disconnects from it when the phone is farther than 10 meters away, and connects automatically when the phone is in range.

The Jawbone also does not have any blinking buttons that make you look like you stepped straight out of Star Wars. It has discreet, invisible buttons which can be pressed lightly to answer or end a call, and control volume. The LED lights on the surface are discreet and not at all intrusive.

The Jawbone is the perfect bluetooth headset – both modern and functional. If you have not yet bought a headset, the Jawbone would be ideal to leapfrog you into July’s talk-safe time. The Jawbone would also make a great Father’s Day gift for Dad – give him something sleek and sexy, with a Noise Assassin and he will call you more often too!

• You can get your own Jawbone by Clicking Here

• You can check out special pricing options by Clicking Here

• You can review pricing comparisons on this product by Clicking Here

July 1st is fast catching up with all of us here in California. After 38 other states in the country, California is also going to implement a ban on mobile phone usage while driving – forcing a lot of us to abandon the single-handed steering maneuvers while talking on the phone.

The only way to continue yapping in the car is to use headsets. Last week, I finally decided to buy a bluetooth headset before it is too late and I get a ticket.

Trust me I have tried using these pesky things more than a couple of times in the last few years.  But one of two things happened – either the headset was discharged just when I plugged it into my ear to receive a call, or I would take it home to charge and forget to get it back to the car. The last time I owned a headset was before it got crushed under a truck’s tires (I was crossing the road with a bunch of shopping bags and the headset in my hands, dropped the headset and heard a silent crunch as it got squashed to bits under a passing truck…sigh)

Scanning aisle after aisle looking at tons of tiny headsets, I was so sure that I was going to lose whatever I bought and would be back here in a week’s time – looking for another one.

And then I saw the Yada! It is amazing how the most basic design can be the perfect solution to all our headset troubles. The straight, simple lines, accessible push-click button are both functional and sophisticated.

The Yada bluetooth headset has a simple, easy-to-figure-out design. It connects easily to any bluetooth enabled phone in two simple steps – turn on the bluetooth on both the phone and headset and enter the passkey on your phone. Voila!

The Yada can connect to up to eight bluetooth devices – so everyone in your family can use the it if need be, and you can also hook it up to your multiple phones, including VOIP phones.

The best bit about the Yada is that it has a charging dock that mounts to your dashboard or air vent and plugs into the cigarette lighter in the car – so the headset is always charged. And I don’t have to take it out of my car, so it is always there when I need it. Now that solves all my troubles.

The charging dock also has an attached dock for my phone. It is a universal phone holder (I wish it could charge my phone too but sadly it can’t) it has two expandable arms that can secure any phone, so they don’t end up on the car floor.

An amazing feature of the Yada is its auto-power, auto-answer and auto-end functions. As soon as you sit in the car and start it, it automatically detects your phone’s bluetooth signal and connects to it. And it automatically powers off it it does not detect bluetooth signals from your phone for over an hour.

The auto-answer function allows you to just lift the the headset and place it into your ear to answer a call. And when you are done, just place it back into its dock to end the call. Alternatively, you can place it in your ear – it is quite small and sits snugly – and push a multi-function button on its surface to answer or cancel calls.

Aah, the days of bending double and squinting under the car seat looking for my phone and headset are over. The Yada is just what I needed for my everyday driving needs – it’s sure an amazing tech product!

• You can get this product via Amazon by Clicking Here