I doubt I’ll ever tire of covering Ojo video phones. Why, you ask? Because I have a history with these puppies. But more on that in a moment. Today, WorldGate has announced general availability of the Ojo Vision digital video phone with bundled calling plans. Sign up for a two-year contract, and you can get an Ojo Vision for just about $140 plus $29.99 per month for unlimited calling. The phone itself looks a bit archaic with its corded (?!) handset, but the pop-up 7-inch screen promises “real-time video for true-to-life conversations.” That translates to a fair 25 frames-per-second at 640×480 resolution, according to the spec sheet, with bit rates configurable from 80 Kbps to 1 Mbps.
I owned one of the early Ojo video phones back when Motorola had a deal with WorldGate around 2004/2005. The prices have come down significantly since then, as the original hardware was a whopping $800. Luckily my unit was free for testing purposes, and I have to admit, it was a wonderful accessory for sharing the first years of my daughter’s life with her grandparents. Unfortunately, the phones as a whole were a nightmare at the time. There were numerous interoperability issues with the routers on the market, and getting an individual Ojo unit to work was about a fifty-fifty shot. I have no inside knowledge of how the new Ojo Vision phones work today, but I have to admit I’d be a bit cautious before buying. Not to mention, with Skype and FaceTime, do you really need a dedicated video phone now?