Crave

T-Mobile may be extending its Hotspot@Home service to offer voice over IP for fixed-line users.

The company is working with Linksys to make a router that integrates home phone lines into the service along with providing VoIP service over cell phones, according to recently filed documents with the Federal Communications Commission.

In June, T-Mobile launched its Hotspot@Home service, which allows T-Mobile cell phone subscribers to transfer calls seamlessly between the T-Mobile cellular network and a Wi-Fi hot spot in the home. The service is being offered for an introductory rate of $9.99 for a single cell phone. … Read more

Like many Americans, NFL referees will spend a fair amount of time this fall watching football in HD. The NFL is upgrading the replay equipment in all but three of its stadiums so that its officials can review plays in high-definition. Fans of the Giants, Jets, Colts, and Cowboys will be dismayed to learn that their home games will lack HD instant replay until the stadiums in New York Jersey, Indianapolis, and Dallas are replaced in the next few years. Along with reviewing controversial calls in HD, the refs will also get to view replays on larger 26-inch screens--up from … Read more

Well, hey now! (Does anyone else remember this episode from The Larry Sanders Show?) Symbian-Guru.com received this alleged promo flyer for a U.S. version of the Nokia N95 super smart phone. The revamped model includes the addition of HSDPA (850/1900 MHz) 3G support, a higher-capacity 1200mAh battery (compared to the old 950mAh lithium-ion cell), increased 128MB of RAM, a 1GB microSD card included in the box, and a redesigned black back cover. Some say that this flavor of the N95 could land stateside as early as next month with the backing of AT&T, but we'… Read more

There's hope for those plagued by friends and co-workers who insist on irritating us with their flying gadgets: You can now launch a counterattack with a laser-firing helicopter.

OK, so the "Sky Challenger Micro Helicopter" can't really shoot down other airborne toys, but it's still worth it. For one thing, you can give a pair of them to those maturity-challenged acquaintances and send them out to the parking lot so they can shoot at each other instead of bothering you. While they can't knock each other out of the sky, according to Tech Digest, … Read more

Motorola announced today that its second-generation Razr phone will be arriving at most major U.S. carriers by the end of the summer. The GSM Razr2 V9 will come to AT&T while the CDMA Razr2 V9m will come to Alltel, Sprint, and Verizon Wireless. T-Mobile is out of the game at the moment, mostly due to the carrier's lack of a 3G network. That said, it theoretically could adopt the GSM Razr2 V8, which tops out at 2.5G EDGE speeds, but that's just speculation for now.

Announced in May, the Razr2 line adopts the now … Read more

For bored campers accustomed to whiling away those tedious nature-filled hours downing cheap beer or playing Scrabble, we've found the perfect reason to never leave the tent.

Trevor Baylis, creator of the first wind-up radio, and the amazing electric shoe, has introduced the first wind-up MP3 player. Available at the end of August with a price tag of $350, the Eco Media Player seems like an attention-deficit camper's dream come true. The wind-up media player has a 1.8-inch color screen and a lean 2GB of memory that can be expanded using an SD memory card. Like a … Read more

Magellan must be one happy camper, as the veteran GPS manufacturer has teamed up with National Geographic for its new line of outdoor handheld GPS devices. The Magellan Triton series includes five models--the Triton 300, 400, 500, 1500, and 2000--and are compatible with National Geographic's topographic maps. Prior to this, you could only download waypoints and routes to the company's other handheld GPS devices, but now you can get full-color maps. Just be aware that these are sold separately by National Geographic, though the Triton quintet comes preloaded with Magellan's topographic maps. Other highlights include touch-screen controls, … Read more

The next time you complain that your keyboard has too many keys, remember that things could always be worse--consider the "Chromatone CT-312."

This one's actually for music, not computing, a synthesizer with hundreds of unlabeled keys that would surely drive us nuts (312, to be exact--hence the number in the name). Technabob aptly describes a "baffling chart" that's supposed to make sense of the Chromatone, but that only makes it worse. There's actually a method to its apparent madness, he says, based on a 19th century concept called the "Janko keyboard" … Read more

There's probably no greater source of upcoming tech information than the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The USPTO Web site is often the first place we find info on new products and emerging technologies, and now that the whole thing is online and (fairly) easy to search, companies are finding it very hard to keep this usually closely held information away from enterprising bloggers.

Our pals over at Gear Log (or Glog, as we like to call it) have found a new patent filing (actually an extension to an existing patent, but that's splitting hairs) from Apple … Read more