Smart Home Blog

If you need to connect your fax, answer machine, PC or Sky box modem but don’t want to make additional wiring the Wireless Phone Jack helps you to do that. Using cordless DECT standard from RTX in a special configuration it allows to send data with 56 Kbit/s up to 50 meters. No bad for £50 for transmitter receiver pair. Additional receivers are available at £25 only.

The Wireless Phone Jack installation is extremely simple. Just plug transmitter and receiver into the power socket and they start to communicate each other.

[via AutomatedHome]

Belkin recently introduced its new Desktop Internet Phone for Skype which doesn’t need a PC for making calls. It features speaker, speed dial, call hold/release, call pickup/park, mute, redial, hold, call-timer display and contact list for comfort and productive work. Its contact list supports over 500 sets of Skype and SkypeOut™ contacts. The phone also supports SkypeIn™ – a personal and portable Skype number that people can use to call your Skype phone.

The setup of Belkin’s Skype phone very simple. Just connect it to your router using WiFi or Ethernet and type your Skype username and password.

The new Belkin’s Skype phone can be purchased in March 2008 at $99. So, if you works hardly with Skype don’t miss that date. Personally, I prefer more generic solutions offered some alternatives such SIP, GTalk, Skype or Gizmo in one. For example, I’m going to use my Nokia E65 make VoIP calls via VoipStunt (SIP protocol). In my mind Skype works unstable last couple of months and it’s expensive a bit (I mean SkypeIn and SkypeOut). In any case it’s just a matter of preferences.

[via eHomeUpgrade]

Yesterday I tested Nokia770 and N800 as IP phones for LinuxMCE. I used Internet Communications Software for that. N800 was flashed by the latest OS2008 which already included it from the box. so, I just add a generic phone in LinuxMCE and setup a new SIP account on N800. After quick reload of router N800 connected to the Asterisk.

For Nokia770 I use OS2007 Hacker Edition. So, I followed by instructions from Internet Communications Software site and installed it successful regardless of the fact that the last package gave error. Finally, I added another generic phone to the LinuxMCE and configure SIP account on the Nokia770. After that I make a call from N800 to Nokia770. The quality of sound was good except a small echo (remember, I didn’t modify any options of Asterisk). But generally it was acceptable.

It’s really nice option to use Nokia770 or N800 as a SIP phone with Asterisk. But it’d be much better to integrate it into Orbiter. Maybe somebody knows howto do it.

Nokia E65 is new and stylish mobile phone with built-in WiFi. But it has another cool feature – emulation of Cisco 7970. E65 can be connected to the Cisco Call Center as 7970. So, we decided to try add it to our Plutohome installation and see what’s happened. After a few hours of unsuccessful attempts we configured E65 as SIP phone and connected it to the Plutohome Asterisk. It works great! Now outside the office E65 is a mobile phone but near the Plutohome access point it allows to make cheap calls via Asterisk.

We didn’t give up with installation of emulator of Cisco 7970 in the E65. I don’t think that in might be useful (the XML Orbiter won’t provide wide functionality) but we try it again.

SysMaster used embedded Linux to create a four-line IP video phone with built-in PBX and audio/video playback capabilities. Tornado M20 appears to be based on a very similar hardware platform with M10 – STB with amazing features and functionality. The M20 connects to local networks via wired or WiFi interfaces. it supports standard SIP-based VoIP registrars, proxies, or outbound proxy servers.

For comfort work with M20 it sports 3.5-inch color LCD display, along with a telephone keypad and handset. It can be connected to the TV via analog RCA video and stereo audio ports.

The M20 is already available with a suggested retail price of $260.