home working

One of the big trends in inter-home and business communication in recent year is Voice over IP (VoIP).  Some of us are aware of the technology and its ability to allow us to make cheap and sometime free telephone calls; some also think it is only for big businesses.  This might have been the case at one point but thanks to the Open Source community VoIP along with a host of enterprise features are now available as an easy to setup home or small business solution. In this article I will describe some of the best and most useful VoIP facilities for the home or small business user. 

D-Link has released an advance home network digital media storage solution: ShareCenter Pulse (DNS-320). ShareCenter Pulse is the first from D-Link’s new storage range and is available in the UK from amazon, dabs and ebuyer. The ShareCenter Pulse is packed full of features for those who need to centralised their digital media storage plus the flexibility to share, access, stream and protect these medias.

Building on its move into the digital home Acer is set to offer a cloud computing-enabled desktop, codenamed Acer Revo RL100. The new desktop will have the Acer clear.fi, a recently released connected home solution. The company said, of the 70 million netbooks, desktops and mobile phones they are planning to ship next year 10 – 20 percent will have Acer Clear.fi integrated.

The home phone has taken on a new face with the released of the new iHomePhone from Binatone. Released on the back of the iPhone, iPad and Windows 7 Phone; the iHomePhone is Android based and offers the functionalities similar to its Android based smartphone counterparts. The iHomePhone will allow users to browse the web, listen to music, chat to friends and even download apps. It is due out this month and prices start at £99.99.

Westell Technologies has been named an International CES 2011 Innovations Design and Engineering Awards Honoree for its visionary HomeCloud solution and groundbreaking HomeCloud Digital Home Manager (DHM) network appliance.  The broadband products and outside plant telecom specialist’s HomeCloud solution was judged by an independent panel consist of industrial designers, members of the media and engineers.

Treat yourself to one of the latest in home media server with the Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra Plus, due to be on the shop shelves before Christmas. The new range (four in total) according to Netgear offers a 30 percent performance increase above the previous range of ReadyNAS Ultra media storage systems. The new systems have additional integrated support for other home media systems and are due out later this month.

Western Digital (WD) has introduced a new Android Smartphone App to complement its range of digital home storage products. Owners of the WD ShareSpace, My Book World Edition and My BookLive can now use WD Photo Viewer App to access and view their photos from an Android Smartphone, iPod Touch, iPad, iPhone and iPhone4 from anywhere there is an internet connection. The WD Photo Viewer is available as a free download from the Android market as a free download.

Meet the Ericsson IPTV Two Screen Remote, a touch screen solution to control your TV and other connected digital devices in the connected home.  The remote offers a single user interface for controlling both live and on-demand TV, Internet video, the PC and the mobile phone in the home.  Following a successful launch at IBC in Amsterdam last month, where it won 'Best IPTV Technology' at the CSI Product of the Year Awards (see video below).

Buffalo Technology LinkStation network storage family has been extended with the addition of the V-Series range of Network Attach Storage (NAS) solution. The new line consists of LinkStation Pro. LinkStation Pro Duo and LinkStation Quad. As Standard there is connectivity for the Apple range of handheld devices, automatic backup and the ability to access your LinkStation from anywhere in the world from a internet connection.

Toshiba America today introduced two 4G WiMAX-ready models of the Portégé R700, the world’s lightest 13.3-inch full-performance ultraportable laptop with an integrated DVD drive. The new Portégé R700 models not only provide business users with unprecedented performance and durability in a highly mobile form factor, but the most comprehensive connectivity options available.