November came and went, and behold – the 3Skypephone is now available to the masses. As I blogged last October, the 3Skypephone is the lovechild that came out of a union of Skype, that well-established name in VoIP, and of the mobile network 3.

So, what is the lowdown on the 3Skypephone? Well, as promised, 3Skypephone users can use their Skype account to call and send instant messages to other Skype users for free. All you need to do is to press the central button with the Skype logo to open your Skype account. But Skype usage becomes free only after coughing up £10 to keep the service activated for 30 days. The 3 network must be used, however, for these Skype calls and IMs to be free. If the calls and the IMs are made outside the coverage of 3’s network, users are charged with roaming fees. Fair use fees are also applied if the Skype calls exceed 4,000 minutes and if the IMs exceed 10,000.

You want to make regular calls and send text messages using the 3Skypephone? That is entirely possible, but don’t expect them to come at reduced rates, since SkypeOut is not supported by the 3Skypephone. There are rumors, however, that the SkypeOut may become an optional feature for the 3Skypephone in 2008.

What other nifty features does the 3Skypephone have? It has:

• A launcher hotkey that can open websites and applications like Yahoo and Google Search, Windows Live Messenger, YouTube and Facebook.
• An mp3 player and bundled headset, with videos and mp3 tracks downloadable from Planet3.
• A 2-megapixel camera that works well outdoors with ample light, but not indoors and not without enough light.
• An impressive battery life that lasts three or four days.
• A multitask button at the side of the unit that will bring up the last six applications used.

More info is available at the 3Skypephone website.

Christmas is over and the New Year cheers are all but a couple of days away, and here I am looking forward to taking a peek at the offerings 2008 has in store, and probably getting my paws on them too. The year 2007 had some pretty marvelous (and not-so-marvelous) surprises in its sleeve, so one can’t help but wonder just how 2008 would be in terms of wowing geeks like me.

Anyhow, Korean company Trigem, the company that brought to us the Averatec line of notebooks, has a few goodies in store for us by late January or early February 2008. The one goodie that I’ve got my eyes on is none other than the LLUON Crystal micro-PC.

I’m sure you can relate when I say I love my gadgets small but powerful, and the LLUON Crystal looks to be exactly that. With a size that is 45.2mm wide, 277mm high and 244.1mm deep, it sure is petite. Don’t let that diminutive figure fool you, though – this baby can kick ass. The hard drive is 320 GB with 7,200 rpm. It also has a 1 GB memory and 1.66 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, not to mention a 256 MB GeForce 8400 GS video card. Trigem said that this baby can smoothly run that resource-gobbler Windows Vista.

For those who want more power, there is a more advanced version of the LLUON Crystal. This more advanced version comes with a 2 GB memory and a 2 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, not to mention WiFi. An add-on to the LLUON Crystal is an optional 22-inch LCD monitor with a TV tuner.

As for the price, this mini-PC comes at around US$1,300 while its slightly powerful sister is tagged at almost US$1,500. Price does not include the monitor.

I am not really surprised that Windows Vista snagged the top spot. Really, I am not. After all, I have been ranting about Vista for the past few weeks now myself.

So, what according to PC World are the 15 biggest tech disappointments of the year? Here is a rundown:

15. Amazon Unboxed. Apparently, Amazon’s attempt to enter the fray of entertainment on demand resulted in something clunky and inconvenient.

14. WiMax. All deals are off. Sprint and Clearwire will not be pushing through with their plans to bring WiMax to a broader base in the US anymore.

13. Social networks. There are just too many of them out there already, and they all look the same.

12. Internet security. It simply does not exist.

11. Microsoft’s Zune. The self-proclaimed iPod killer can’t even get close to its prey.

10. Wireless networks. All the nice new mobile phones that came out in 2007 are beyond awesome. The same cannot be said, however, of the wireless networks that carry them.

09. Office 2007. Some people are still trying to figure out how macros work in older versions. And then Office 2007, with its notorious Ribbon, shows up.

08. Apple Leopard. Who would have thought that the makers of the iPhone and iTouch would have a bad hit here?

07. VoIP. It was simply a bad year for VoIP.

06. The broadband industry. The big broadband ISPs in the US interfere with P2P downloading, to which they certainly do not have the right.

05. The iPhone. Even a thing of beauty has its flaws.

04. Yahoo. Stuck behind Google and got in a fix for supplying information on dissidents to the Chinese government. For shame.

03. Facebook Beacon. Creepy in the way they get info about you behind your back.

02. The High-Def Format War. Blu-ray vs. HD DVD? Who cares?

01. Windows Vista. Enough said.

It’s very, very late, but it really did escape my attention that Google finally announced that it is bidding for the precious 700MHz spectrum that the FCC will be auctioning out on January 24 next year. In the official Google blog, Chris Sacca, Google’s head of special initiatives, it is Google’s way of putting “our money where our principles are.”

Why is Google bothering to make the effort to bid for the 700MHz spectrum? For the meantime, let’s forget that whoever wins the auction can get a lot of benefits from it in terms of business. Google claims that the realm of the wireless services is a closed realm, with only a few big names dominating it. Google wants to see this realm to be as open as the Internet is today.

It is all noble and good, and I certainly hope that Google is going to stay true to what it said. It is getting exceedingly rare nowadays to see companies putting the welfare of consumers first (supposedly). FCC certainly tried to pave the way when it ruled that whoever wins the 700MHz spectrum will allow consumers to use whatever mobile device that they want and to use whatever application that they want on their mobile device using their network.

But that doesn’t stop the speculation that Google may just be paying lip service and is just bluffing; according to rumors, Google will only shell out the minimum $4.6B required just to get FCC to continue enforcing their controversial ruling. Goodness knows it would sound so bad if Google is just bluffing.

So I fervently hope that the rumors are wrong, that Google is not bluffing and that it is really testing a wireless network at Mountain View. Because some of us still want to believe that there are still companies out there who do care.

I found two new gadgets being bandied about in the blogosphere today, and reading about them got me really amused.

Right above, we have the spanking new upgrade to the most beloved Brando USB missile launcher. What’s not to love about this one? If you’re bored and fried out of your mind while sitting at your desk, you can spark things up by nuking the hapless guy at the next cubicle and laugh yourself insane. If he’s game and he’s gone one of these pretties too, you’re in for some fun. If not, well, better hide.

As good a gadget as this toy already is, the guys at Brando decided to make it wireless, using a transmitter and a launcher with a 15-foot range. More territory to cover, I’d say.

And to the left, we have the Chevrolet KITTY Loc8tor. Before you get any ideas, KITTY stands for “Key Innovation That Talks to You.” What does this kitty do? It is supposed to help you find your car, or your cat, or even your kids if ever you lose them. It does what it does using radio signals; if the Loc8tor device finds the missing object/person while it is on locate mode, the base station is activates and it makes these weird sounds that get amplified. It will make it impossible for you not to find whatever it is that you lost. It is kind of terrifying what the KITTY Loc8tor can do, not to mention a tad embarrassing. What is even scarier about it is that the sound alert is customizable. I certainly hope no one tags this one on their kids.

The wireless USB missile launcher is a must-have. You can never get enough USB toys. As for the KITTY Loc8tor, I think I’ll pass.

Those of you who have been wondering about the changes Microsoft will include with the Windows Vista Service Pack 1 ever since it was announced now have something to chew on. Microsoft just published a detailed changelog of what can be expected when Vista SP1 comes out next year. But more than that, the first public beta-test release will be available from the Microsoft Download Center by next week. That is even something more to chew on.

Here is an excerpt of the changelog for Vista SP1.

• Improves the performance of browsing network file shares by consuming less bandwidth.
• Improves power consumption when the display is not changing by allowing the processor to remain in its sleep state which consumes less energy.
• Addresses the problem of the Video chipset (VSync interrupt) not allowing the system to stay asleep.
• Improves power consumption and battery life by addressing an issue that causes a hard disk to continue spinning when it should spin down, in certain circumstances.
• Improves the speed of adding and extracting files to and from a compressed (zipped) folder.
• Significantly improves the speed of moving a directory with many files underneath.
• Improves performance while copying files using BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service).
• Improves performance over Windows Vista’s current performance across the following scenarios:
  

  • 25% faster when copying files locally on the same disk on the same machine.
  • 45% faster when copying files from a remote non-Windows Vista system to a SP1 system.
  • 50% faster when copying files from a remote SP1 system to a local SP1 system.

• Improves responsiveness when doing many kinds of file or media manipulations. For example, with Windows Vista today, copying files after deleting a different set of files can make the copy operation take longer than needed. In SP1, the file copy time is the same as if no files were initially deleted.
• Improves the copy progress estimation when copying files within Windows Explorer to about two seconds.
• Improves the time to read large images by approximately 50%.

It’s probably going to be as good as it is going to get, at least for now.

If you are still trying to figure out what gift to give your little girl, your girlfriend, your wife or your mother this Christmas, you may want to look at these nifty girly gadgets. These gadgets are geeky enough for the girls who want them, but these gadgets are also girly enough for the geeky girl who is still trying to hide that she is a geek.

• Barbie B2 Touchscreen MP3 Player. The Barbie B2 touchscreen mp3 player from INNO in Korea is a very nice gift for girls who love their music along with their primping and the color pink. This girly gadget is the size and the shape of a compact, complete with a mirror for retouching makeup and matching pink earphones for enjoying the music.
• The Blushing Hello Kitty Digital Camera. No, we don’t know why the cat blushes when you hit the shutter button, but she does. The Hello Kitty digital camera nonetheless comes packed with a 5-megapixel camera, better than some cellphone cameras out there. It also comes with a handshake correction. Where is the lens? It’s in the ribbon.
• MP3 Pebbles. Your gal is conflicted as to whether to go for natural or for modern tech in decorating her/your apartment? Well, here’s a good way to marry natural with tech: the MP3 Pebble. Designed by Branko Ludovic, it looks really natural and doesn’t look like a geeky gadget at all.
• Active Crystals. This is a line of jewelry/gadgets that is the result of a partnership between Phillips and Swarovski. They come in two categories, namely USB keys and stereo headphones, all glittering with the famous Swarovski crystals in really girly designs, with names like Heartware, Heartbeat and Mirage.

In a way, I think these gadgets give a new meaning to the words “pretty in pink.”

Geeks and their gadgets, they always come together. And they always want the newest and the latest that they can get their hands on. Naturally, the best Christmas gift to give a geek is a gadget.

However, if you are a geek and you are thinking of asking for gadgets this Christmas, or at least of getting yourself one, you may want to read this list from TechDigest: the Top 10 reasons NOT to ask for gadgets this Christmas.

1. You asked for lots of gadgets last Christmas. They’re still working.
2. You’ll spend valuable turkey-gobbling time on Christmas Day downloading “essential” firmware updates of the internetweb.
3. The excitement of unwrapping a gadget in 2007 won’t match your childhood glee at getting, say, an N64.
4. Even Santa can’t lay hands on a Wii this Christmas. For shame.
5. You won’t be able to charge new gadgets up, due to all plug sockets being used for your super-neon Vegas-style dancing snowmen on the roof.
6. Gadgets are expensive, confusing to non-techies, and not sold in M&S. Socks are the opposite of all these things. Your aunt knows this, but you should too.
7. You’ll have to watch friends and family cover your new device in gravy-smudged fingerprints and resist starting a row.
8. The prices will be slashed in the sales, and you’ll have the physical rush of elbowing fellow geeks out of the way to get the best bargains come Boxing Day.
9. There’s a 3G iPhone coming out next year. You can wait.
10. If you don’t ask for gadgets, you can ask for whisky instead. Whisky helps you forget about the lack of gadgets.

That’s an interesting list to ponder, don’t you think? I got a good chuckle out of that, myself.

I think I’ll take their advice about the whisky. They certainly hit that spot.