Starting in July 2008, California drivers will be required to use a hands-free device when making calls from a car. That should be good for Mvox Technologies of Cupertino, which will soon release the Mvox Duo, a multi-talented device that's both a headset and a speaker phone for use on both cell phones and PCs.
Billed as the ``world's first wearable Smart Communicator,'' it's expected to be unveiled Tuesday at the DEMO fall conference in San Diego. I had a chance to try it out last week.
One unique aspect of Duo is that it has its own memory and speech recognition engine so that you can make calls with your voice. You program it with a PC dial by pressing one key and telling it whom to call.
All the data and software are stored in the Duo, independent of your cell phone, so you can keep your phone book and use voice recognition even if you switch to another Bluetooth phone. What's more, it will also announce who is calling so if the phone rings when you're driving, you don't have to look at your handset to know who's calling.
In fact, with a Bluetooth connection you may never have to remove your phone from your pocket or handbag.
The sound quality of the phone in both the speaker phone and over-the-ear mode is quite good.
Aside from being a better hands-free device, I like the fact that it works with both a PC and a cell phone. You could use it in the car and, when you get to your home or office, pair it with your Bluetooth-equipped PC or plug it into the PC's USB port and make free or low-cost calls using Skype or another VOIP service.
The Mvox Duo is expected to be in time for the holiday season for about $200.
