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Teleconferencing Made Easy

EZPhone Cam simplifies teleconferencing for consumer use with standard PC gear.

Lincoln Spector, special to PCWorld.com

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Effective teleconferencing has been confined to high-priced equipment used by companies with tech departments. Ezonics hopes to extend those calls to friends and family with the release of EZPhone Cam, a NetMeeting-compatible teleconferencing package designed for easy setup and use.

The company plans to ship this hardware-software combination in October. It should sell initially for about $120 and drop to below $100 by Christmas.

Actually, Ezonics is avoiding the term "teleconferencing," preferring instead to call it "video chat."

"I don't conference with my Mom, I chat with my Mom," points out Mike Ostwind, Ezonics director of sales and marketing.

A Cell Phone on Your Desk

The heart of EZPhone Cam is a camera and microphone unit designed to look like a cell phone. It even has a fake antenna, although it is in no way a wireless device (more on that "antenna" in a minute). The EZPhone Cam sits on or next to your monitor like any other PC camera. For simpler installation, it plugs directly into a Universal Serial Bus port.

Among other things, the EZPhone software includes an address book so you can easily look up and call your friends and relatives. Each contact is displayed with a photograph. It's in color if the person is currently online, black-and-white if they're not. Recipients of your calls may be running either NetMeeting or an EZPhone Cam. If they're running EZPhone, their unit will ring like a regular telephone, and that phony antenna will flash to get their attention.

Bound by Bandwidth

Once you're talking, the experience should be pretty much like regular teleconferencing: You watch them on your monitor while your EZPhone watches and listens to you for them. As with any Internet phone, the video and audio quality depends on both people's Internet connection, plus factors beyond your control.

Ezonics isn't offering any revolutionary new technology, just a friendlier interface over what's already there. But if the company pulls that off, EZPhone Cam could be another viable, digital way to keep in touch with loved ones.

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