I recently was visiting a Sharper Image store and I actually bought something. In all the years I have visited the Sharper Image, I have never bought anything there. It is not that I no not like the store or gadgets. But for some reason or another I had never spent any money there. Well that changed when I came across the miniVox MV100 which is a portable USB speakerphone with DSP voice processing technologies. mVox is a Cupertino based company and we all know great things come from Cupertino.

The miniVox MV100 portable USB speakerphone is designed for Internet telephony and web conferencing applications such as Skype, Vonage, WebEx, Marratech, Breeze, GizmoProject, or iChat AV. The miniVox is a nice solution for PowerBooks, laptops, or even desktops when you want engage in hands-free conversations or conference calls. It is small (Dimensions: 3.2 x 2.2 x 0.8 inches – 8.1 x 5.5 x 2.0 cm) and light (Weight: 1.5 ounces – 42 grams) and cheap ($39.99 from mVox, actually less $19.95 Sharper Image – what a bargain). The miniVox MV100 also has a 2.5mm headset jack on its left size.

As anybody that has engaged in VoIP or web conferencing with a computer has experienced, audio works best with a PC headset. When you try and use your computer speakers and a mic, echo will plague the other participants. It is a simple matter of acoustics, the audio from your speakers will leak back into your microphone and cause the person you are speaking to to hear themselves back with an annoying delay. If more than one participant is connected this way, your conference may end up being a nightmare.

The solution for this is echo suppression. Many of the VoIP and web conferencing application do not have any echo cancellation or it is not robust enough to handle a acoustic situation like this. miniVox MV100 portable USB speakerphone is a full duplex speaker phone (110dB peak volume) with DSP voice processing for noise suppression and echo cancellation. The miniVox MV100 portable USB speakerphone sounds better when I use it with Skype than my expensive Nortel Networks speaker phone on my companies PBX. It is USB plug and play and no driver installation is needed.

I have used it on several Macs and Windows machines and I was impressed that such a low cost device worked this well. Since it is about the size of a portable bluetooth mouse it now has a place in my PowerBook’s backpack.

mVox also makes the mVox MV900 which is a bluetooth version and costs about $160. There are several other USB speakerphones on the market some costing over $300. But miniVox MV100 portable USB speakerphone works well, is low cost, and it is small. You will find it a pleasure to conference without a headset. Try it you will like it.

Recently, I found out Radio Shack is now selling this mVox portable.

    | Tags: usb, VoIP