Figured I’d change the tone a bit for this blog.  Instead of heavy emphasis on product testing (which is time consuming and sometimes expensive), I’ll start commenting on things technical that strike my fancy or when I see interesting developments that I just can’t keep quiet about.

The WaterTower rating system is back by popular demand. I have made it a bit tougher than it was before, but, that is a good thing.

1 WaterTower: Ugh….back to the drawing board.

2 WaterTowers: OK…but needs a bit of improvement, it did not work fully, or I had problems getting it to work.

3 WaterTowers: Good to Very Good, worked well, easy to set up and use, but, hey, we have seen this before, an incremental change, but, a good one. May be lacking an important feature or two.

4 WaterTowers: Excellent, very easy to set up and use, new stuff or pushing the state-of-the art in an excellent way or two.

5 WaterTowers: Astoundingly Great…advancing the state-of-the-art while being extremely easy to install and use, and the WOW! factor (for me) is definitely there. (CLI Cameo, Polycom ViewStation, Polycom ViaVideo, VUDU,  Radvison ECS Gatekeeper, Lifesize HD, Codian MCU, ooVoo, AppleTalk, iPhone, Wii, to name a few)

Of course these are my own opinions and subject to your own interpretation. I will ALWAYS try to be fair and helpful, as I understand better than most how difficult it is to design.

That said….systems that are in BETA can get a 5 WaterTower rating, even if it is hard to get working since I understand what BETA (and Alpha) is.