Uniden WIN1200 - Windows Live enabled Cordless Phone

William — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 06:00:00 GMT

I got a few new gadgets recently and have been meaning to blog about them b/c all in all, I highly recommend them. The first of these is the Uniden Win 1200 Windows Live Enabled 5800 mhz phone. I'm not a big IM User although recently, Ryan Olshan, Brian Madsen and a few other friends have gotten me into Windows Live Messenger . Although I have been a VOIP fan, using Skype and then getting a more permanent Packet 8 Account , I never really liked sitting at my computer to talk to people. In fact, it's really hard to talk to people when I'm at my computer b/c it's too distracting. So I took a chance and picked up a BlueTooth Cordless phone however I was completely unimpressed. (To be honest, I'm not a big bluetooth fan. I've been through multiple bluetooth headsets and have bluetooth in my car, but I can probably count the number of times I've actually had conversations using the things on one hand). Then I saw the Uniden Win 1200 at in stock at Amazon and decided I had to have one. Well, I highly recommend it. Here's why:

It's very comfortable and user friendly
It holds a charge really well
Pretty nice looking color screen
Can receive notifications of email and chat attempts
I can use VOIP and walk around the house, and I can often get out to the garage before I start experiencing any signal degradation
The integration with Windows and Windows Live Messenger is seamless. Plug in the USB port, answer "Yes" to the "Do you want to use this as a phone?" question and off you go.
As you'd expect, it has your contacts listed as soon as it signs in. So you can IM people (however chatting by typing on the keys is kinda lame), and/or start a phone conversation and a whole lot of other cool IM Features.

Truth is though, that I don't have that many IM buddies so I don't get to use that aspect of it much. I've started using it more and more though. And one really cool thing you can do is bring it with you on the go. There is a http://www.panerabread.com/ for instance, at the bottom of the building across the street from me. They have free wifi and an outside terrace (like most Panera's, it's busy most of the time and they are pretty cool about you hanging out as long as you buy stuff. However if you sit at the terrace, you can pretty much hang out as long as you want. And best of all, they have power outlets out there so if you sit outside, you don't have to jockey for a table with an outlet near it). So you can just bring the phone with you and get calls just like you're at home. Since you're outside, you can talk comfortably without rudely bothering people trying to eat around you (people gabbing on their cell phones at restaurants can be a real annoyance and I certainly don't encourage it).

My other favorite new gadget is the Pleomax . The Pleo comes loaded with the Ceedo (which as I found out recently, can be loaded on most any USB device - if you haven't checked out the Ceedo - give it a look, I can almost assure you you'll like it and you can't beat the price). The Pleo/Ceedo combination has what's known as the Secure Mobile Environment which is just overall cool (the Pleo is powered from a USB port too negating the need to lug around a power chord). You can encrypt your files, run your browser inside of it so that you don't leave bread crumbs on your work machines, run your NNTP or RSS reader off of it, run Office applications in it and install a whole lot more).

Both of these gadgets are priced right around $100.00 and IMHO, well worth every penny. And if you look around on ebay, you can probably find used ones a lot cheaper. So if you use MSN Live Messenger for phone calls, drop me a line some time ;-)

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Uniden WIN1200 - Windows Live enabled Cordless Phone