If you are like me, or any other broadband user, you have the 'desk'. This desk probably has 3 or 4 devices on it - A telephone, a wired or wireless router, a cable/dsl modem and/or your computer. It is probably also a mess of cables and clutter as well. The there is the power issue too - All of those devices and their huge power bricks probably make it difficult for you to find space to plug them all in. The premise of the new Verizon One phone from Verizon is to consolidate all of that.
The Verizon One phone is not only a cordless land line phone, (with a base station speakerphone, I might add) but also combines a DSL modem, and Wired and Wireless router all into one unit. This of course might have started to Pique your interest, but as the infomercial salesman says - 'But wait, there's more!'
The Verizon One has a nice 7-inch touch-screen LCD screen that helps it serve as an internet connected appliance. Not only does it show caller IDs, the time and weather, but it can also serve up web snippets, the local weather, your calendar, and hand-scrawled notes for others in your family. Some might say that it's trying to replace not only the mass of cables and boxes on your desk, but the notes and calendars magneted to the fridge.
'But that's not all!'
You can also upload pictures to it and use them as the screensaver, so in essence, the phone becomes a digital picture frame as well.
I've been using a version of the phone (thanks Yussie!) for the past few days and so far the basic setup was relatively straightforward. However, I have still yet to access the advanced features - i.e. the online calendar integration and screensaver. I hope to get them working and update my review soon.
So far the only bad thing that I have to say about the device is that from the on-screen menu the only wireless setting that I can configure in the SSID. While the Verizon One does support WEP, WPA and some other standard wireless settings that most routers support, I had to access them by logging into the Verizon One's web admin tool, something that might not be so simple to do for the average wireless user. To be fair though, my phone might have an earlier version of the software, and the production versions might have improved upon this.
More to come.
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
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2 comments:
And what would this wonder appliance run me?
NM,
I believe that the list price is $149.99 - but that's it - just a one time fee and no additional charges.
However, the catch is that it is only available to Verizon DSL customers.
Interestingly enough, despite all of the features, this doesn't have an answering machine - probably because they want to use it to integrate with Verizon's home voice mail and unified messaging.
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