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| Worldgate Ojo Personal Video Phone (PVP-1000) | 
 enlarge | Brand: Worldgate
Category: CE
List Price: $799.99
Buy New: $249.99
You Save: $550.00 (69%)
New (6) Used (1) from $249.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Color: Silver
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 8
Dimensions (in): 20.5 x 11.5 x 11.3
Warranty: 2 years warranty
MPN: 519877-001-00
Model: 519877-001-00
UPC: 612572122174
EAN: 0612572122174
ASIN: B00098175K
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 The "Jetson" future is here! A fantastic product. August 31, 2006
21 out of 22 found this review helpful
First, the bad news: the Ojo is fantastic. That's right...and it gets better from there. I'm extremely pleased with the Ojo and would never want to be without one again. In comparison, regular landline phones and webcams come up far short. Both the picture and audio quality are excellent and with no audio delay. The video messaging was automatically downloaded (free) after I bought the units. It's a great feature. The display is at a good height for viewing (no looking up peoples' noses). I was surprised that the display appears larger than it is (7" diagonally). The handset is cordless and detachable. I seldom use the handset away from the unit, but don't want to be tethered to a phone, so didn't even consider other videophones. Material and construction appear to be first-class.
I live in a remote area of West Virginia and bought four units last December (three as gifts for the people whom I talk with the most: my mother near DC, a daughter and grandson in Houston and a daughter near Los Angeles). My mother is 87 and wants to live alone, so I bought one for her so I could SEE how she's doing. Incidentally, she has trouble using her landline phone - too complicated, but the Ojo couldn't be simpler to make calls. Seeing the two daughters and grandson several times a week is great too. Now, my wife and I are integral parts of their daily lives, and vice versa. We are now able to SEE our grandson grow up! We get an Ojo call every time he loses a tooth or something significant happens. He loves to "show-and-tell" on the Ojo. Birthdays - when we can't be there - are now special events to us as well. Plus, this month, my California daughter's boyfriend asked my permission to marry her...using the Ojo. This may sound tacky, but if you've ever used the Ojo, you'd think it was completely normal. It's just like being across a table from someone.
I'm not a techie, but was able to set up the ones for my mom, one of my daughters and myself with no problems. My mom has Comcast cable, my daughter has Road Runner cable and I have Verizon DSL. I have been told that any broadband connection works. I just hooked routers to the cable and DSL modems then plugged in the Ojo's. Plug-and-Play. Later, I connected two of the Ojo's to Ethernet bridges (home plugs) which plug into any electrical outlet and can now use the Ojo's anywhere in the houses where there's an electrical outlet. The signal travels through the house wiring. I haven't noticed any loss of picture or audio quality.
I haven't had a problem with any of the four Ojo's to date, so can't say what Worldgate's customer service personnel are like, but their activation people were excellent.
By the way, Motorola is no longer the distributor. The manufacturer, Worldgate Communications, now directly distributes the Ojo's at about half of the original list. They also sell a cheaper version (less features), the Shadow.
There is a monthly service charge of $14.95 but that includes unlimited video calls to any other Ojo in the world! Sometimes we just leave it on as we do things around the house and talk as though the other person is there. To me, this sure beats flying. Plus, the cost of one flight will typically pay for two Ojo's, including service for a year.
Italy and America closer NOW April 11, 2006
14 out of 18 found this review helpful
We got our OJO from our son who lives in US..It's a wonderful product I enjoy talking and seeing my grandson while his father is in office and he stays alone ? home with the nanny...I hope talking to me will alow him to learn Italian easily
LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!!
 Too expensive, get MSN Messenger which is free March 28, 2006
10 out of 27 found this review helpful
The Ojo fails exactly where the previous video phones have failed: it's way too expensive, even before the "generous" mail-in rebate which will take months to receive if ever. For $50 or so you can get two webcams with video and audio quality just as good as (if not better than) the Ojo and then just get MSN Messenger which is free and has the best video phone quality and features, even over slow Internet connections.
 Greedy Motorola... February 14, 2006
27 out of 38 found this review helpful
The Ojo looks gorgeous, is beautifully finished and easy to use. The perfect machine to give your technophobic family members who are terrified of computers, for instance.
Unfortunately, these are the same people who are very unlikely to already have access to the broadband service required to get videoconferencing, and it may be difficult to justify the price of a broadband connection simply for the videophone.
The pricing model is leaving me baffled. Usually service providers such as satellite TV and cell phone carriers sponsor the purchase of devices and give you a kickback in exchange for a service committment. Not so with Motorola, who not only wants to collect money up front but also charges an outrageous monthly fee for what is nothing more than a live directory service (which instant messaging companies would have been glad to provide for free, like AOL does for Apple's iChat).
Although the VoIP interoperability is commendable, it makes the lack of interoperability with common videoconferencing protocols an even more glaring omission.
The outrageous fee Motorola requires to enable the Ojo's videophone feature makes it very hard to recommend when you can get a brand new iMac G5 with built-in videoconferencing camera for the price of the Ojo and a couple of years of subscription to the service.
Unfortunately, Motorola seems to have brilliant industrial design and style specialist and fantastic hardware and software engineers, but inane marketing teams who ruined the potential of a product that could have been very promising.
Still, this is probably your best pick if you need a simple videoconferencing product, are absolutely opposed to using a computer and don't mind Motorola's high price and outrageous monthly fee. But before you pull the trigger, do yourself a favor, go to an Apple store and ask for a demonstration of iChat.
Priced at $200 and without the ridiculous and unjustified $15/month fee, the Ojo would deserve five stars; but at its current price and with the added insult of the monthly fee, 3-star is a more than generous rating.
Finally, a practical full-motion videophone February 6, 2006
15 out of 20 found this review helpful
Motorola really hit a home run when they made the deal to market and sell Worldgate's Ojo. The video is crisp, clear, and 30fps--the future of person-to-person communications, and perfect for business use.
This is truly the next great electronic gadget for the home, right next to your iPod and cell phone.
***
Edit: I've had this thing for a while now, and I can't get tired of it. I've given 5 of them to friends and family as gifts to help spread the word of it.
There's no substitute for being able to see full-motion video of the person you're talking to, short of actually standing in front of them.
This is the future of communication, folks...all you need is a broadband connection and THAT'S IT. Can't recommend this enough.
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