TechWatch: VoIP, Sempron, Tablet PCs

VoIP Calling
Are your business customers itching for some low-cost long-distance minutes? Then maybe you should think about partnering with a VoIP phone-service provider. One such vendor is i2Telecom International, which offers turnkey hardware and also partners with resellers so the latter can reap revenue through resales of calling plans. The company has just released its latest VoIP box in the form of the EVoIP-4310, a four-channel microgateway. The product is used to deploy the i2Telecom's hybrid VoIP approach, under which it uses the Internet to connect nearly all of a call except the last leg, which goes via the phone company. The 4310 is equipped with RJ-11 jacks for simple connection to any PBX or phone system. Users can assign a U.S. phone number to each channel, regardless of physical location. And the unit has cellular-bridge capabilities that enable users to make worldwide VoIP calls from any cell phone.

EvoIP-4310, www.i2telecom.com Price: $1,575

Sempron Fi
Aiming at the "value segment" of the market, where systems sell for less than $500, AMD has released the Sempron processor family. The lineup consists of seven desktop and five mobile CPUs, ranging in price from $39 for an entry-level chip aimed at the Asian market to $126 for an advanced Socket-754 processor. AMD's chip is a shot across the bow of Intel, which in June introduced its own value desktop processor in the form of the Celeron D. AMD is hoping Sempron will enable resellers to squeeze a little bit of additional profit out of sub-$500 boxes. However, since the parts are priced only about $5 less than the comparable Celeron D, that may be a tough goal. Nevertheless, white-box vendors will be able to ramp up quickly, thanks to Sempron motherboards on the way from Asus, Biostar, Elitegroup, MSI, Shuttle, Soyo and Tyan, among others.

SEMPRON, www.amd.com Price: Ranges from $39 to $126 each in 1,000+ quantities

Picture This
Ever have to crane your neck when you want to read somebody else's screen on the sly? You won't have to do that anymore if Motion Computing has its way. The company's new M1400 Tablet PC comes equipped with a wide-angle display and offers as an option Motion's "view anywhere" technology to cut reflections and deliver more clarity. Although tablets still haven't caught on with consumers, Motion Computing says models like the M1400 are a hot ticket in a host of vertical markets. The company has already partnered with more than 350 VARs and is helping them target the tablets at mobile-worker applications in health care, field-force automation, government and education. Easy-to-see screens like those of the M1400s could spur further deployments of tablets as viable mobile replacements for PDAs and traditional notebooks.

M14OO TABLET PC, www.motioncomputing.com Price: $1,999, tablet; $289, "view anywhere" option