Ehlo World!

I’m sure you’ve had this happen. You’re sitting at your desk, deep in thought on a serious issue, and someone walks into your area and just starts talking. You don’t want to be rude and ignore them, and you really need to restrain from your desire to strangle them for causing that great troubleshooting thought to leave you head. If only they could see your Lync presence and know that you’re in Do Not Disturb. Well, now they can!

Introducing the BusyLight for Microsoft Lync from Kuando. This slick little device has a multicolored light on the top, and indicates your Lync presence using one of four colors. It does this via a USB connection and a simple little application that runs in the system tray. Available? The unit glows green. Do Not Disturb? Deep red should keep people away. And, of course, the normal green for available and yellow for away.

Also built into the unit is a call alert feature that blinks blue to indicate an incoming Lync call, and a small speaker with customizable ring tones.

The unit is adjustable for angle and can be attached to a wall or cabinet with the included velcro fastener.

I’ve had mine for several months now, and everyone in my house knows that while my home office door may be open, all hail the BusyLight before interrupting. I’ve taken it to client sites, too. In my current cube farm, my cube is a considerable distance from my team mates. So I placed it on top of my cube partition, and they can see it before making their way towards my cube.

The unit works great, but there is a little issue that it causes. The “what’s that?” issue. People who come up to my cube, point at it, and wonder what it does. So I take my time to explain what it is and what’s it purpose is. I even made a little sign with a little blurb about the device, complete with color coded indicators.

BusyLight

This is a neat little unit that has really helped me stay focused and uninterrupted. The only problem I’ve had with the unit is that over distance, the colors can be a bit washed out. The red for busy and the deep red for Do Not Disturb are a little too close together. And the “available” green fades a little towards the yellow of “away”. The only other suggestion I’d make is that the USB cord be a little longer. But that’s just my personal preference.

The BusyLight works with Windows XP SP3, Vista, and 7. A Windows 8 driver will be available soon. It is available from many resellers for about $49.00 USD.

Do you do a lot of travel and need to stay connected via Lync or Skype? The Jabra UC 250 MS headset is a nice addition to the travelling arsenal. The “MS” designation is for Microsoft Lync. It’s a simple mono over-the-ear design with an unobtrusive microphone and USB cable. The cable includes one of the better control units I’ve seen. Many control units have a basic mute switch that just cuts the audio to the computer. The UC 250 MS control unit has a button that mutes the Lync client. So, not only can you unmute from the control unit, but you can unmute from the client as well. Very nice, as I’m sure most people who use the typical mute option on a headset find themselves scrambling to unmute in a hurry. The mute button has a nice bright red LED to indicate the headset is muted. It also has your typical volume controls, and  a handy on/off hook button. The device is supported by the Jabra  PC Suite software. The UC 250 MS comes with a taco shaped zippered case for storage. It’s available online in the $40 range.

Jabra UC Voice 250 headset

DSP Digital Signal Processing yields great sound in applications such as Lync or Skype. Recipients have reported that my voice was clear and accurate, and didn’t have that typical cheap headset sound. The cord is long enough for my use, but was a bit stiff for me. I didn’t need to use the PC Suite software, so I can’t comment on it here. One thing I did notice is it was a tad cumbersome to get it on my ear. But once it was on, it stayed in place, and the gel style insert was comfortable even for longer calls. My laptop quickly found the headset and had the drivers installed without issue. A simple selection change in Lync and I was off and running.

I’ve used the headset for many calls and can say it’s a great headset for its price point. Simple, inexpensive, and it works. It doesn’t hurt that it takes up hardly any room for storage. If you’re looking for something to toss in your backpack or use at your desk, check out the Jabra UC 250 Voice MS.

I’m always looking for gadgets. Especially UC related gadgets. Enter the Jabra Speak 410. This little gem is a great speakerphone for VoIP solutions like Lync and Skype. It has phenomenal clarity, is simple to use, and won’t break the bank. This small round unit uses USB, and installs automatically. LED indicators circle the unit, and show volume level and mute. Up/Down volume control, Mute, and On/Off hook buttons are all that are needed. Plus, it has a standard 1/8″ headphone jack so you can listen to calls in privacy. The attached USB cord wraps around the base, and the unit fits into a supplied zippered pouch and into your laptop bag. It’s relative small size and lightweight make it a perfect travelling unit.

Jabra 410 Speak – top

I can say, you’d be hard pressed to find fault with this unit. Its omni-directional microphone easily picks up clear audio from those in a room, whether one person or 5, and delivers great clear sound when listening to people on the other end. The built-in Digital Signal Processing (DSP) gets rid of the hiss, echoes, and other garbage that lesser units don’t. If you need a speakerphone for a small room, the Jabra 410 Speak is for you.

And it works for other things, too.

I rely on Microsoft OneNote a lot for note taking. But one problem when attending conferences and training is too much time taking notes of what people are saying, and not enough time to actually enjoy things. So I started using a small microphone plugged into my laptop to record audio as well. OneNote does great audio recording and can synchronize the audio with what you’re typing at the time. The problem is that you’re locked to whatever quality microphone you have. While reading about Jonathan McKinney’s journey through the Lync MCM rotation, I noticed he used a 410 Speak to record audio into OneNote. Sure enough, after trying it during some recent sessions, I can say, this little unit is perfect for this purpose. You get clear audio from your session speaker, and it picks up those in the room who are asking questions.

The unit also has pretty darn good audio for listening to music. While not stereo, it does a good job of playing your beats and the simple touch sensitive volume and mute buttons come in handy when the boss shows up at your cube.

The unit is available from your favorite dealers for just under $100.

With social networking being so popular these days, it can be difficult to keep track of all of the various messaging streams having different clients installed, etc. So I was real happy when I stumbled across an add-in for Outlook that brings full Twitter capabilities right to my Inbox. And, it’s free. FREE!

TechHit’s TwInbox product does just that. It adds a set of options to the Outlook ribbon that allow you to tweet, retweet, DM, and more.

Outlook toolbar with TwInbox options (click for larger version)

It will retrieve new tweets every few minutes, and deposit them into a folder of your choice. Tweets show up as a post in Outlook, as shown below:

Sample tweet as seen in Outlook (click for larger version)

Hotkeys can be assigned to make the various options even more convenient. For example, CTRL+ALT+P brings up my New Tweet dialog:

New tweet dialog box (click for larger version)

TwInbox has full support for attaching photos, bit.ly URL shortening, and more. It even builds a list of all Twitter names and hashtags in tweets you receive as sort of a Twitter address book.

This is a great app. I’ve been using it since the beginning, and have had very few issues with it. It makes sending tweets much more convenient, and gives me a full view into what’s going when I use the Unread Mail view in Outlook (my default view). I can forward tweets via email, and added benefit.

My only issue with the app is that if you install it on multiple machines, and have each configured to automatically download tweets, you can end up with duplicates in your mailbox. This is a minor issue for me. I leave one machine running with Outlook open anyways, so that’s the one that gets my tweets. And I just point them to a folder with a retention policy assigned. So tweets only stay in my mailbox for 7 days before being deleted.

Check out TwInbox and I’m sure you’ll agree it’s a great app.

Microsoft Touch Mouse

My favorite mouse is the Microsoft Presenter 8000 mouse. It’s comfortable, gets great battery life, and has the presentation buttons and laser pointer built into the bottom. Unfortunately, after many many trips through airports, my mouse finally died.

I decided to see what else was available. I’d tried the Microsoft Arc mouse, but didn’t find it that comfortable, and the “back” button on the side wasn’t in an ideal location, and was quite stiff. A colleague had reported that the newer Arc Touch mouse was kinda cool, but he didn’t like it after trying it.

Microsoft recently released the Touch Mouse. This is a uber cool mouse that has no real buttons on the top or sides. It uses finger gestures and the entire top is a giant button. The unit supports one, two, and three finger gestures in a variety of directions, as well as thumb gestures in two directions. The unit includes a micro dongle that stores in the bottom of the unit. It is powered by two AA batteries, and has an on/off switch on its belly.

Setup was a breeze. The mouse is designed specifically for Windows 7. I inserted the dongle, and within seconds, a tutorial popped onto the screen demonstrating the various features and gestures. It walks you through each gesture, shows you what it controls, and then has you do the same thing to get the hang of it. I found the tutorial to be the perfect combination of information and length. There are certainly a lot of gestures you can use. Single finger gestures include the normal scrolling up, down, and sideways. Two finger gestures include docking apps to the left and right side of the screen, restoring and maximizing apps, etc. Three finger gestures include minimizing and maximizing all apps. And the thumb gestures work great for forward/back movements, such as those in your Internet browser. Button clicking is based on which finger is touching the unit when you press the forward part of the unit down.

This is a nice mouse. It works great, although it did take some getting used to when I needed to right-click on things. I’m not sure how often I’ll use some of the gestures, but it’s nice to see the availability of them. Scrolling up and down really gets going if you swipe quickly, and lift your finger off the unit – something else I had to get used to since I typically used a wheel that would only turn so far when I’d let go of it.

The $50 mouse was a great addition to my travel tech gear. It would have been nice if it came in a plastic shell, like the Presenter Mouse does. I just use the cloth pouch from the Arc mouse and it works great. I’d recommend the mouse if you’re looking for something slick. I think I’ll get another one for my desktop at home.

Toshiba 14″ USB monitor

These days, I spend more time at client sites than I do in my home office. My home office has four monitors for my desktop. When at a client site, I’ve been stuck with just a single screen for my laptop. This can be tough getting used to, and be quite limiting.

Toshiba came out with the perfect solution. Their $200 14″ USB monitor that folds completely flat, and takes up less room than my laptop in my backpack.

The monitor comes with a dual plug USB cable to ensure that it gets enough power to operate. From my Dell Precision M4500, I find that it gets enough from just one port. I keep the original cable in my backpack, and use just the Griffin mini USB to the monitor. This is essentially a 2″ cable that works perfectly. Toshiba does sell an optional power supply, but I’ve yet to find a need for it.

The screen gives me 1366 x 768 resolution, and provides perfect screen real estate to keep my Outlook and other apps open while I use the laptop’s main screen for my current focus, such as documents, etc.

Setup of the monitor each day is trivial. Open the unit like a book, close the flap, and stand it up. Connect the USB cable, and you’re done. Initial setup merely required the CD-ROM for the drivers, and took only seconds. From unboxing to operational took me less than five minutes. Front panel controls include power and brightness controls. There is a little velcro flap in the middle of the case to store the cable.

I absolutely love this monitor. It provides extra working room for me to be more efficient. It takes up very little space and adds very little weight (3.7 pounds) to my overall carry load. Setup is a breeze, and the unit just works.

The only thing I could complain about is that the bezel along the bottom, which includes the control buttons, is a bit large. It would be nice if it were smaller, and provided more screen space instead. But that’s trivial.

I would recommend this unit to anyone who would like to have more working room, but need to travel with it. It’s available from Amazon.