Your next video conferencing solution could be Biscotti. No, not the crescent-shaped cookie, but a $199 device that’s shaped like a Biscotti and is officially called "Biscotti TV Phone." It sits atop your HDTV and lets you make HD video calls to anyone with another Biscotti or on the Google Gmail network.
Biscotti, Inc., which was founded in 2008, unveiled the sleek, black new TV phone Tuesday night at the Consumer Electronics Association CES Unveiled NY show. It was just one of a number of new gadgets arriving this year and early next. Biscotti is not the first HDTV video conferencing solution. Most notably, Cisco (with UMI) and Google and Logitech (with Google TV and the Revue) have made the leap. Yet none have been particularly successful. Some think these products were simply too complicated. Biscotti, on the other hand, is more or less plug-and-play.
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The device connects to your HDTV via an HDMI cable. Unlike most other HD devices, Biscotti actually has you run your cable box connection through the device. So the back sports both HDMI-in and HDMI-out ports. Biscotti conducts the video calls over the Internet, which means you’ll need Wi-Fi to use it—there’s no wired, Ethernet option.
Once you’ve created a Biscotti account, you can call anyone on the Biscotti network anywhere in the world. It also works with all Gmail accounts, but does not support Skype. Video calls can be conducted with Gmail Chat-enabled PCs, phones, and, of course, similarly equipped TVs. Because you feed your cable box through the device, Biscotti TV Phone can place an incoming call alert overlay on top of what you’re watching. This eliminates the need to use the input switch on your HDTV.
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There is a remote, but if you set up auto-answer, you never have to use it. Biscotti can even use "Consumer Electronics Control" CEC to turn on the TV (if the device is CEC-enabled) when a call comes in and turn it off if no one is there to answer. It does keep track of missed calls. The $199 fee covers the cost of the device and all calls.
Overall, Biscotti’s goal is to make video calling as easy as possible and in the brief demo we saw, it looked quite straightforward. At 720p, the image quality was acceptable and the wide-angle lens worked well in a large room (you can digitally zoom and pan, as well). The interface offers only a few choices, keeping the process simple and obvious.
That simplicity could help Biscotti succeed where others have failed this holiday season. To be fair, the Logitech review camera is cheaper (by $50), but you have to buy Logitech’s Google TV box to use it. Cisco’s UMI is $100 more for a 720p device and you have to pay for the UMI service: $9.95 a month or $99 a year. Biscotti is pay once, use forever—or at least as long as Biscotti lasts.
Biscotti ships on Nov. 21. What do you think? Do you want a Biscotti TV Phone or might you buy one for one of your less digitally included relatives? Let us know in the comments below.
This story originally published on Mashable here.
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