Sony has officially announced VoIP (voice over IP) for the Sony PlayStation Portable. Unfortunately owners of the original Sony PSP “1001″ model like myself are excluded, as this will only work with the new updated Slim PSP model. Somehow visions come to mind of holding the 6.7 inch by 2.8 inch PSP awkwardly to your ear, like the first generation Nokia nGage. Of course VoIP will most likely require a headset with a microphone.

Although the updated Slim (aka Slim and Lite) PSP has several enhancements which improve the gaming experience it is not a “must have” upgrade.

The Sony PSP is already a multifunction device, with the ability to play videos and music as well as browse the internet. It is rather large to use as an MP3 Player, even though the Memory Stick Pro Duo media is currently available in capacities up to 8GB. I’ve watched a couple of video clips on my PSP, and the screen is excellent. Of course, having the Sony Media Manager to copy the video files in the right format to the right directory on the Memory stick (with the right filename) helps. Mostly though, I play games on it. Slow load times aside, this is where the PSP excels - and I’ve played with a number of different handheld gaming consoles, each with its own unique qualities.

There is nothing like a few days at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to persuade you that your life is nothing — nothing! — without a high-def, flat-panel plasma TV at least as wide as the front porch on your double-wide mobile home.

Of course, in my case, I fear that installing the world’s largest version of these — a 150-inch monster shown off by Panasonic at the event — would not only require re-engineering the framing of the entire structure of my house, but would also probably cause my retinas to ignite and my brain to seize up in a form of encephalitic shock induced by too much exposure to Howie Mandel’s head on Deal or No Deal.

No, this Clifford-the-Big-Red-Dog-sized display isn’t for sale yet. That’ll happen sometime in the undated future. So you’ll just have to settle for a more modest size, say, 65 inches.

What does a TV have to do with computers? Absolutely nothing. But now that Comdex is dead, the tech event we computer journalists must do pilgrimage to on an annual basis is CES. I know. Don’t thank me.

And when you go to CES, you get to look at a lot of TVs. In fact, if I see one more herd of XXL-sized business men in dark suits casually blocking the aisles in front of a wide-screen TV, trying to look like they’re composing business while really catching Mission Impossible III with the sound turned up too loud, I’m going to thrust my head into an aquarium. (Yes, there were lots of those around too — to show off the water-resistant bodies of the new breed of digital cameras for active living.)

But I promise, over the next month, while I sort through my voluminous notes, I’ll be sharing the most interesting new computer products I saw at the show. Some are even worth buying.

Golly, the year is flying by. Before I know it, Valentine’s Day will have arrived, and yet again, I’ll be without a gift for my sweetie. This year, I swear to be ready! I already have something in mind for my night owl — a unique garment that reflects the special penchant she has for staying up into the wee hours tapping away on her computer with nary a distraction from the rest of the household…

Don’t you marvel at engineers who come up with better designs for the stuff we use every day? I mean, whoever created Glide floss should be knighted as far as I’m concerned. That goes for office supplies too. In particular, I’m talking about the Staples One-Touch 3-hole punch.

This is my story…

While I hesitate to admit this to you (because we hardly know each other), I am an incompetent at punching holes. Inevitably, what happens is this: I become overly ambitious with my dreams of workplace organization. That means I sit down with a stack of papers that all need to go into a newly labeled 3-ring binder. Thus begins the chore of punching holes in all of those documents. But I usually grab too many sheets and the puncher has dull blades, so some of the sheets go sideways in the puncher in my struggle to punch them, and the holes sometimes end up halfway off the sheet, which means they’re not really holes so much as crescent moons. So I grab my single-hole puncher to remedy the situation, but I can never line up the missing hole with the other holes on the sheet and, therefore, many sheets end up not really suitable to fit uniformly in my 3-ring binder. So goes another effort at personal improvement.

Apparently, the designers at Staples have experienced similar office gaffes, and they have come up with a puncher that takes — according to their calculations — 50% less effort than the standard puncher. (If they had measured it against my puncher, the ratio would have been much higher, but I digress.) This monster can handle up to 20 sheets at a time. And the compartment where the detritus accumulates isn’t a funky piece of plastic that, when you peel it back, sprays your office floor with confetti.

What next? Self-cleaning microwave ovens? Now is truly a majestic time to be alive.

In the BlogBytes blog entry “No Computer for Christmas” I mentioned that I was enticed by another gadget instead of a desktop computer. I’ve since been asked by a reader what that gadget was.

Trusted Reviews writes this about it:
“you can dismiss it as an over-priced gimmick…but that would be ignoring the sheer software and hardware engineering genius that’s gone into making this product viable”
and
“Put simply, if you want to experience the cutting edge in interface design, this is the best way of doing it without saddling yourself with a $60 per month phone bill”.
(I altered the price per month from Pounds to Dollars with the lowest Rate Plan for the iPhone from apple.com)

Yes, it is the iPod Touch, less than an iPhone without the cellphone but more than just a widescreen iPod, a whole lot more. I’ve actually only listened to one or two songs on it and watched one video clip (excluding the ones from YouTube). The rest of the time I browsed the internet with my index finger, and searched for web apps I could use on the Touch.

This week Popular Science announced its annual list of what’s best in the world of science, and over the next few days I’m going to share some of the products and services that earned recognition in the computing category.

First up, midomi.com, from Melodis Corp., a Silicon Valley company focused on sound recognition and search technologies.

midomi is a web-based service that mixes online karaoke with social networking and what is purported to be a remarkable search capability.

Ever tried to remember that song playing through your head and couldn’t quite place the performer? Here’s how midomi can help out. Using a microphone plugged into or built into your computer, you simply record a few bars of the song — whether by singing, humming or whistling. Then you push a button to submit it. The site instantly compares that recording to other tunes already in the database to help identify what the song is titled, who the performers are, and what other fan recordings it has of that same tune in its collection.

Registered members can create profiles, share recordings with friends, rate each other’s performances, send messages and buy original music. Fans with high scores can become a midomi “star” and have their vocal act featured on the site.

The site’s goal is to build “the most comprehensive database of searchable music.” But I have to tell you, it’ll never get my vocal offerings. Why not? The system didn’t recognize a single one of my test submissions. Now, as a writer, I believe I’ve developed a fairly thick skin through the years. But I have to take exception with any Web 2.0 offering that can’t appreciate my personal rendition of Thing Called Love. I was reduced to using the site’s text search function to track down other Bonnie Raitt fans. What’s with that?! (Check out PSnavely’s rendition of another Raitt tune. Now that’s something to talk about…)

You know how it is when you noodle over a decision to buy a device to solve a particular problem, you finally buy it and use it and it sort of works, but not entirely — then a few days later a friend shows you his device, and you wished you’d spent the money on that one instead? Yes, that’s what happened to me recently.

I was taking a multi-day road trip, driving a truck that wasn’t mine. The truck had an AM/FM tuner, but that was it — no CD player, no cassette player. Yikes! And me with about six amazing books on media to listen to for whiling away the hours alone in that truck cab. I suppose I could have used ear-bugs, but I didn’t want anything that would impair my driving ability. (That and my sweetheart would have killed me if I’d tried.)

So I hit a Radio Shack and picked up the amazingly tiny iSymphony T-Speaker for iPod for $19.99 plus tax. It was incredibly dinky, required a single AA battery for operation, had an on-off (mute) switch and included an 3.5mm jack. This last point was important. I had hauled my iPod Shuffle, my Walkman cassette player and my Sony portable CD player. That kind of jack would presumably let me plug my T-Speaker into any one of these devices, depending on what media I wanted to listen to. I was prepared!

Alas, although the T-Speaker worked fine for belting out music and podcasts from the Shuffle, albeit, with a bit of a tinny sound, it was truly inadequate for the cassette or CD player. I couldn’t hear a thing unless I put it directly against my ear — which was kind of against the point of buying it in the first place.

My trip was mostly media-free, which I suppose resulted in more mindful driving (plus, the billboards of Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa and other states did receive more of my attention).

But in my next post, I’ll share what I’d wished I’d gotten instead. Same basic price. Much better product for my needs.