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$60, www.mybluant.com
Combining the magic of Bluetooth with the wonders of caller ID, a new wireless headset lets you see who is calling right on the earpiece. The BlueAnt V12 Bluetooth headset has a backlit LCD screen that displays the phone number of the caller alongside other information like battery and volume levels.
It stores and shows the last 10 numbers received and can redial a caller with a push of a button. Incoming calls cause the headset to vibrate. The BlueAnt V12 is also compatible with voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) service and can be paired with up to five devices.
The headset uses a lithium polymer battery that can last for up to 12 hours of talk time and up to 15 days on standby between charges. And when ear fatigue sets in, the V12 can be snapped on to the included lanyard and worn as a necklace until the next call.
TALKING TRANSLATOR
$230, www.franklin.com
Just larger than a deck of cards, Franklin's top-of-the-line Speaking Global Translator can order sushi for you, in 12 languages.
The device uses a real human voice instead of a synthesizer to speak typed words in English, Chinese (Mandarin), Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
You can enter words directly, using a tiny, QWERTY-style keyboard that slides open below the LCD screen, or use hierarchical menus to choose up to 12,000 common phrases, such as "Find me a hospital!"
Franklin says the device can speak up to 450,000 words. Other features include an MP3 player, an alarm clock for multiple time zones, a calculator and a lottery-number generator. For those wishing to improve their skills with a new language, there is a built-in microphone that lets you hear your voice compared with a native pronunciation of a word, and quizzes devised to help you learn a language.
While the interface has improved over earlier Franklin translators, the buttons are tiny, and reading glasses might be in order. The battery is charged through a computer's USB port, providing up to a week of translations.
NEW YORK TIMES
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