This Mifi Sucks!
...power that is. I'm such a sucker for a pun or inflammatory headline. The one area that the Sprint issued Mifi device leaves me wanting is in the battery life. If you are accustomed to wifi all the time then…
In-Stat On Media Phones
It’s no secret that I’ve been living with a couple of Polycom VVX-1500 Business Media Phones around my office for the past few months. My review of these devices will shortly run over at Small Net Builder.
This is one of the few times that 3000 words seemed like a problem. That is, I could use more space to get into more detail about the devices. Perhaps we’ll run a follow-up later on. That’d be great, presuming that I get to run a trial installation of the phones as I hope.
Anyway, Media Phones. It’s a whole new category. It’s like the iPhone for the home or office. That includes some other devices that I’ve shown interest in, like the Verizon HUB from Open Peak, and Glass from Cloud Telecomputers (pictured).
Analysts In-Stat have published a report on media phones. It’s free. Go fetch it. I’ll wait.
Ruben’s Take On The Citel C-4110 IAX/SIP Phone
There's just way too much interesting gear out there for me to try all of it. That's at least part of the reason why I was happy to read Ruben's review of the Citel C-4100 IP phone. Back in May…
Review Delayed: Dreamwave SIP-D28P
I wanted to be working on reviewing the Dreamwave SIP-D28p by now, but that effort has been delayed due to a firmware issue. The phone is powered-up and running. I’ve been able to use it a bit, exploring its firmware, web GUI, etc. It shows some promise. There are some nice features in the device.
However, I came to a screeching halt when I found that the phone doesn’t provide sidetone into the handset. This stopped me dead in my tracks. The lack of sidetone makes using any phone very unnatural. Thus I’ve not been able to put it on my desk and actually use it as my primary phone. That’s the process that forces me to gain enough experience with a device to write about it sensibly.
New SIP Wifi Handsets: Yawn!
Some time back the folks over at VoIP Supply posted something about a collection of new SIP Wifi handsets. Whereas in the past that would make me take notice, even catch my interest, I found myself completely disinterested. In fact, it was surprising how little appeal these gadgets had.
Over the years I’ve tried various SIP Wifi handsets and come to a very simple conclusion. That is, for my home office application they have no merit at all. The fact that I have a solid cordless SIP solution eliminates the possible interest that any of these new products might have.
In everything experiment that I’ve ever tried DECT/CATiq products soundly beat any dedicated SIP Wifi handset. Now that there are affordable SIP/DECT products from sources like Gigaset and Snom dedicated VoWifi handsets just don’t measure up for many applications.
The Nature Of Product Reviews
As devices come my way I’m always looking for the most effective way to review them and present the resulting information. Most typically this means writing a detailed description of my experiences with the device, but I also think that supporting images are important to making the material visually interesting.
Recently I’ve been thinking about using more recorded audio (podcasts?) and even recording some video laying hands on the product.