SlashGear JPThe market for VOIP phones is growing steadily, as more and more people learn to say “no, I don’t want you to touch me there” to their local telco when the big greedy reaches for their wallet. Philips has a few on the market already, and Geekzone took it upon themselves to try out two of them – the 433, which works with Windows Live Messenger, and the 321, which works with Skype. Despite the shared manufacturer, the handsets look pretty different and have some different features; for instance, the 433 has a colour screen, albeit a crap one. My own view is that these just aren’t as useful as proper WiFi phones – they both require your PC to be on whenever you want to use VOIP.
Look at what the cat dragged in! As you’ll see in the flash presentation below, there’s a stylus that lives behind the right hand side of the TSU9600. Other than that, there isn’t much more info other than a really sweet looking presentation. Here’s a quick run features of the Pronto: a 3.7-inch VGA (640×480 pixel) touch screen display, PC macro downloads, voice recognition, IR and wireless extenders. Trust me, this one is going to put a dent in your wallet considering the TSU7500 is already priced at $1,199.99!
In related news, Philips Electronics Ltd. has announced the Pronto family of customizable remote controls, consisting of the TSU7500, TSU3500, and RFX6500.
We’ve all been there: you’re just about to leave the house and your great aunt Jessica calls to remind your uncle Horace (who has been living with you since the accident) that they’re going out for a joint haircut and Pimms morning at the church hall. There’s no paper to hand, no pen either, and your taxi driver already has the meter ticking. All you can do is attempt to chew open a minor vein and scrawl a basic message on the wall, hoping that you’ve enough time to call by the hospital for a quick suturing. Bloody inconvenient.
In Medieval times, forces laying siege to a city would catapult rotting horse carcasses over the city walls. Anybody splashed with this equine warfare would be pretty much guaranteed of dying. Well, Philips must be hoping its competitors will meet a similar fate when it drops its slinky LX1000 Media Centre PC, a £999 slice of compact loveliness based on the Korea-only 
The Nano is one of the sexiest DAP around, hands down. If I had to pick a runner up at gunpoint, I’d pick Philip’s GoGear SA9200. It’s every bit as appealing as the Nano. Aside from its stunning 9cm long, and weighs next to nothing at 48g; it’s packed with features to rival the Nano. The interface displays rich icons, and easy control via Sensory Touchpad SuperScroll for tapping, dragging or swiping a finger on the smooth surface for navigating through menus and to select titles. The buttons glow a soothing blue color that compliments the 1.7-inch color screen, that also display photos. The battery will last upwards of 14-hours of continuous playtime. There’s support for MP3, WMA, and compatible with PlaysForSure.
I’ve never really been all that impressed by Skype phones that connect via USB. My feeling is that, if VOIP is to properly take off with non-techie people, the proviso that “it’ll only work if your PC is turned on” just isn’t acceptable. So I’m pleased to see that the small group of ethernet phones – that plug directly into your router – has been joined by the Philips VOIP841.
