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By Rachel Cericola and Grant Clauser This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here.
Ooma Office brings VoIP to small business, launching this month
Ooma's expanding its VoIP offerings to the world of business, introducing "Ooma Office" today at CES 2013. Ooma Office takes the already existing VoIP functionality built into Ooma's Telo device (made for residential use) and adapts it for small business purposes -- conference bridges, an automated, programmable receptionist, and line extensions are all part of Ooma Office. You can even set your own on-hold music, should that be your kinda thing. The biggest difference from Ooma's home offering is the price; at $19.99 a line, Ooma Office is much more expensive than the residential version (which only charges for the initial base, and not for service), but much cheaper than competitive services (see: Vonage, Access Line, etc.). Rather than pretend this is a solution for large business, however, Ooma's targeting businesses of 1 - 10 employees. "Sound like a big business at a small business price," is the device's slogan, which is highly appropriate considering the device's functionality. The Ooma Office launches this month for $249.99 at US and Canadian retailers, and it works with standard land line phones, cell phones, and "most" fax machines and credit card readers. Follow all the latest CES 2013 news at our event hub.
Ooma HD2 handset and Linx adapter available on Oct.17 for $60 and $50, respectively
Ooma's Telo telephony device is pretty wonderful all by itself, but pairing it with the company's soon-to-be-released HD2 handset and Linx peripheral presents a whole new opportunity to the VoIP crowd. The HD2 -- the second generation Telo handset first introduced at CES 2012 -- offers some smartphone-esque functionality to your home phone: syncing with contacts across various social media services, for one, and profile photos popping up in the 2-inch color screen as identification on incoming calls. It launches very soon -- October 17 -- at US and Canadian retailers with an asking price of $60, despite previously being given a March 2012 launch window. The Linx -- which was outed in an FCC filing earlier this year -- adds a much more quaint ability to the Telo: the ability to plug in any normal landline phone (yes, even that free football phone you got with your Sports Illustrated subscription in the mid-'90s). The Telo can handle up to four connected phones, in the HD2 handset or Linx-connected devices (including fax machines, also from the mid-'90s). Linx connectors are also available as of October 17 at US and Canadian retailers with an asking price of $50.
Ooma Linx extender makes a visit to the FCC, lets phones go the extra DECT distance
For a VoIP phone company, Ooma has been unusually quiet since it showed us the HD2 handset at CES this January. Thankfully, an FCC filing spotted by Dave Zatz has let slip that the company is getting chattier in the near future. As the helpfully provided manual tells us, an upcoming Linx adapter will let a conventional phone talk to a Telo base station over DECT. The goal is to let Ye Olde Wired Phone in the basement join the 21st century without having to move the Telo or otherwise jump through hoops -- it'll even bring your fax machine onboard, if you're still holding on to 1994. We can't glean from the clearance just when the Linx will be ready to shake the dust from our antiquated phones, but with all the documentation seemingly in order, the wait isn't going to be too long before that landline handset enters the modern world.
Ooma's new HD2 VoIP handset unveiled at CES
VoIP company Ooma's releasing a revamped handset for its offerings that's attempting to bring some interesting new features to the least loved of your domestic appliances: your home phone. You'll recognize the feature set from your smartphone: sync your Facebook account and your contact's avatars will show up on the two-inch color screen when they call. Subscribers to Ooma's premium service ($10 a month) will get even more out of the new handset, being able to forward calls, provide an instant second line, control conferencing options and get free calls to users of the company's new Canadian service. The HD2 runs on two rechargeable AA batteries which can be juiced from the dock and will set you back $60 when it journeys toward the retail world in March.Dana Murph contributed to this report.
Ooma Telo and Telo Air wireless adapter hands-on
Remember the Ooma Telo? It suffered the same fate as most home VoIP adapters: a lifetime chained to the home or office router, bound forever by a freedom-crushing Ethernet cable. But no. No more. The benevolent engineers at Ooma have decided to set the Telo free. Hello, Ooma Telo Air Wireless Adapter -- you're about to put VoIP in our kitchen. Ooma's Voice over IP service and the Telo adapter itself are hardly new, but we couldn't resist giving the outfit's new VOIP liberating dongle a try. Read on for more. %Gallery-133124%
Ooma intros Telo Air wireless adapter, liberates Bluetooth solution to the masses
Heads up, Ooma fans: the equipment that you know and love for free local and long distance calls is now more flexible than ever, thanks to the Telo Air wireless adapter, which adds WiFi capabilities to the Ooma Telo. While the system previously relied on an Ethernet connection for quality calls, the adaptive redundancy of this $50 add-on is said to overcome any performance degradation that you might otherwise experience. Additionally, the Bluetooth adapter -- once available only to Premiere subscribers -- is now available for $30 to anyone who wishes to integrate their mobile phone or wireless headset with Ooma. Of course, you'll need to remain within 30 feet of the Telo (due to Bluetooth's technical limitation), but if you're undeterred by the short leash, it could be a fine alternative to the company's handset. The Bluetooth adapter is available today, and the Telo Air is expected to ship on October 1st. If you're looking to ditch the local telco and save some coin, you'll find the full PR after the break.
Apple Store outage related to larger 'net issues?
As tweeted by TUAW earlier this morning, the online Apple Store was down for hours and finally came back up a few minutes ago. Although we'd love to be able to announce a new Mac Pro, the iPhone 5, and an iPad 3, it appears that nothing has changed in the store, and the outage might have been due to a larger problem with the Interwebs. Apple was not the only company getting hit with large issues today. VoIP carrier Ooma is reporting a nationwide outage although some California customers are reporting that things are beginning to get back to normal. John Gruber's Daring Fireball blog was down part of the morning, and readers and bloggers have been reporting that Twitter was visited by the Fail Whale, Facebook was temporarily faceless, and various ISPs are having issues. We haven't heard what exactly is causing these issues and if they're related, but it seems odd that so many services would be experiencing issues at the same time. Keep an eye on TUAW and we'll update this post when we find out if what or who is causing the problems.
Ooma Bluetooth Adapter ships, unites cellphone and VoIP in holy matrimony
The home VoIP gurus over at Ooma have started shipping their Bluetooth Adapter, a $29.95 dongle that you plug into your Telo to make awesome things happen. The accessory actually works two totally different ways: it makes it so that you can answer Ooma calls on your Bluetooth headset, and it also acts as a handsfree for your cellphone, letting you answer mobile calls on any landline receiver in your house -- a pretty neat trick, if you ask us. The adapter's only available online through Ooma's site for the moment; follow the break for the company's full press release.
Ooma Telo HD, Handset, and iPhone app hands-on
We stopped by Ooma's booth at CES for a quick hands-on with the new HD Telo and some time with the iPhone app. Voice quality on the service was pretty decent, although we did notice a pretty significant bit of lag -- we're assuming things would work better on a quality connection, as opposed to the slammed pipes here on the show floor. The new DECT handset was also quite nice, although it took a second to figure out how to initiate a call. We also played with the iPhone app for a second -- it worked as advertised, although once again we were limited by both the poor network connections on the show floor. It's certainly an interesting concept, though -- we'll have to wait to see how this all works in the home. %Gallery-82934%
Clean out those ears: Ooma's Telo goes high-definition, gets iPhone app
The home entertainment world may have moved on from high-definition everything to 3D everything, but the telco industry is a little bit less bleeding edge, just entering the HD revolution now courtesy of Ooma. The Ooma Telo is getting upgraded and will soon be packing some tidy new features including so-called "Pure Voice" and "High Definition Voice" enhancements, promising to deliver "crystal clear conversations over congested networks" and a "richer, more natural sounding conversation." Also on tap is direct support for calling through Google Voice, Bluetooth support so calls to your celly can be piped through your Telo, and "human-aided" voicemail transcription that we can only assume means some low-wage worker gets to listen to every reminder from your husband or wife to pick up some milk on the way home. Now there's a career opportunity for nosy folks. Full PR after the break. Update: Updated the image to reflect the new Telo.
Ooma Telo Handset now available, attempts to lure your booze money
While some of us weren't totally digging the skin of the Ooma Telo VoIP hub, it's only fair to say that the company has somewhat made up with the release of the seductive Telo Handset. This DECT device will run you $49.99 and will work with up to three other handsets on each Telo (although originally they promised up to six in total). Sure, most of the features can be found on ordinary DECT handsets, but the online phonebook which can be downloaded to the Telo Handset sounds awesome. Oh, and there are a few more handy functions like "Instant Second Line" and a "Do Not Disturb" mode which redirects calls to voicemail, but you'll have to give up $9.99 per month or $119.99 per year for this Ooma Premier service. Yeah, totally not worth it.
Ooma Telo hits the streets, handset add-on follows next month
We're not sure how we really feel about Ooma Telo's slick new look (pictured on the right). Sure, it might seem more at home with the rest of our generic home electronics compared to the semi-retro original (left) ... but is that necessarily a good thing? Either way it's out now, and at $250 a pop it's quite a bit more friendly on the wallet than the original Ooma Hub, which retailed for $400 way back when. The big new feature of the Telo is its DECT 6.0 support for working with the upcoming Ooma Telo Handset which will be out next month for $50. Since this is Ooma, all local and long distance calls are free right out of the gate, but a Ooma Premier membership goes for $10 a month and gets you some improved functionality. Two months are included with a purchase of the Telo, and a year subscription gets you a free number porting or a free Telo Handset when it becomes available. Read - Ooma Telo press release Read - Ooma Telo in the wild
Engadget's recession antidote: win an Ooma Scout and Hub with a free year of premier service!
Yes, we know, you're tired of hearing about the recession, job loss, pain and economic strife that's ravaging the globe (like the news that Panasonic's going to cut 15,000 workers), and you're thinking, "What's next? Zombies?" We can't stop all that, but Engadget can shoot some free stuff your way. We'll be handing out a new item every day (except for weekends) to lucky readers until we run out of stuff / companies stop sending things. Today we've got an Ooma Scout and Hub with a free year of premier service to give away, so read the rules below and think positive thoughts.Special thanks to Ooma for providing the gear!The rules: Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, but if you want to share a tale of heart wrenching economic strife, that's good too. You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.) If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you'll be fine. Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad. Winner will be chosen randomly. The winner will receive one Ooma Scout and Hub. Approximate value is $349.98. Entries can be submitted until Wednesday, February 4rd, 11:59PM ET. Good luck! Full rules can be found here.
Ooma's Telo steps up to DECT 6.0 for free calls across the US
It's been awhile, but Ooma's next generation release just made its way to CES. The Telo offers unlimited, free VoIP calls over the Internet across the US and features a new, cordless handset offering high-def DECT 6.0 voice, a connected phonebook, mobile transfer, speaker phone and musical ringtones. The kit is expandable to six handsets and judging from the base unit, we're looking at an answering machine as well. Apparently Telo also integrates your cellphone into the mix somehow, something the current Ooma can't do. According to Rich Buchanan, Ooma's chief marketing officer, Telo "helps combine the home phone and cell phone so you can enjoy the benefits of both without any compromises." We'll figure out how once the floor show opens tomorrow. Telo will be available in the first half of 2009 for an undisclosed price.
Ooma wants you to have free VoIP landlines -- for a price
Vonage has something new to worry about: free. Since everybody hates paying for anything internet, Ooma's jumping on the free-subscription bandwagon with reverse razor / blade model: shell out crazy cash ($400) for a sexy little Ooma Hub with lifetime free local and long distance service. The Hub plugs into your network or internet connection and, if you've got it, landline; it can route calls over the net where possible, but still reserves the ability to use your home number, and direct 911 calls over your hard, analog phone line (unlike Vonage, for example). You can also extend Ooma to other parts of the house via $40 Ooma Scouts (shown above), but there's a caveat: Ooma goes Skype on you, using spare bandwidth to route other Ooma users' calls and cut costs for the company providing you free service. Is it all worth it? Hopefully we'll get our hands on one soon to give it a try, but most of us will have to wait until September to snag one.Read - Ooma's pageRead - Mossberg's review%Gallery-5019%
