Posted 11/11/08 at 04:11:12 PM by Alex Castle

Google’s been on a real spree lately, rolling out one improvement after another for their Gmail service. Looks like that’s not about to stop, as they’ve just announced that the service's built-in messenger will be getting noticeably beefier with the addition of voice and video chat.

The feature will be built right into the Gmail page (no client download required) and will allow anyone to chat in real time with other Gmail users. Google has posted a video showing off how the feature functions, and frankly it looks pretty damn cool.

The service certainly isn’t as full featured as voice-chat top-dog Skype (it cannot, for instance, connect to a regular phone), but it looks like it might be just the thing for a quick chat with someone you’ve been talking to with email or Gmail’s chat. And, knowing Google, it’s probably just a matter of time until the service’s features are fully fleshed out.

The service is available now, and requires a plugin download.

Do you use video or voice chat on your computer? Will you give Gmail’s new service a try? Let us know after the jump.

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Software, Gmail, Google, video chat, voice chat

Posted 10/30/08 at 03:04:26 PM by Andy Salisbury

When most people think of Logitech the first thing that comes to mind is hardware. Webcams, mice, keyboards, just about anything that you can consider a peripheral. But all that is about to change thanks to their latest acquisition, SightSpeed, which they hope will take them right into the software game.

So what’s it cost to for a hardware giant, such as Logitech, to get their fingers deep into the software game? As it turns out, only $30 million in cash (the deal is expected to close in early November). The addition of the 25-person company to Logitech’s roster comes with the goal of creating solid video communication software to go along with their extremely popular webcams. Current users of SightSpeed are open to use a free version of their software, or a premium version that costs either $9.95 per month or $99.95 a year.

As of right now there’s no telling if the software of the fancy new acquisition will cost anything to use, or if it’ll be an upgrade on the software bundled with the cameras, but with any luck more details will emerge soon.

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Software, logitech, webcam, hardware, sightspeed, video chat

Posted 06/26/08 at 09:32:15 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Dell has announced a couple of exciting apps that will come aboard the bright range of Studio notebooks. Strangely both of them make the Dell Studio appear like Dell's homage to Mac. But it is only after the jump that you will know whether the two proprietary apps, Dell Dock and Dell Video Chat, are anything to write home about.

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Software, notebook, apple, dell, news, hardware, dell studio, dell dock, dell video chat, sightspeed, ichat, video chat