I'm considering an iPhone but want to know what my options are. Is the iPhone the best smartphone if I'm a Mac user?

• Boston, MA / October 27
• New York, NY / October 29
• Seattle, WA / November 17
• Chicago, IL / December 1
• Washington, DC / December 3
• Cupertino, CA / December 8
• Los Angeles, CA / December 10

Even if it's not explicitly stated with every post about an app or discussion of a peripheral, there's one basic criterion for reviews that I try to stick to as much as I can: "Would I spend my own money on this thing?" Sometimes an otherwise-excellent product gets priced out of the value equation, or there are competitors and free offerings that deliver most of the functionality for a fraction of the cost. When you can get the same chore done with the built-in capabilities of your Mac, the decision about spending additional money on a gadget to do the same thing "but better" can get even harder.

When the IPEVO TR-10i speakerphone for iChat first shipped last year, I was eager to give it a try, and it didn't disappoint. Having a USB microphone sensitive enough to pick up voice chatter from a roomful of people is a definite advantage -- the MacBook Pro's built-in mic doesn't usually work well with more than one or two. Likewise, a built-in speaker with volume, recording and call answer controls proved to be a big plus, especially for those times where I didn't remember I needed to start recording until after the start of the call.

The unit works perfectly with iChat (including support for all the on-device controls), but also delivers good results with Skype and other softphone apps like EyeBeam and Zoiper; the microphone and speaker work with any Mac app, in fact, so you could use it as a voice mic for GarageBand if you wanted to. Call quality was very good, once I got the input volume settings sorted out via the IPEVO device FAQ. Like any good speakerphone, it's got a hardware mute button to take a brief break from your call.

Still, I think the killer feature of the TR-10i (as long as you don't mind looking a little ridiculous) is that you can easily switch it from speakerphone to handset mode and use it like you would a conventional phone. For private conversations before or after a conference call, it's very handy, and to tell the truth it doesn't look any goofier than a USB or Bluetooth headset.

With all this in mind, I would have loved to write a glowing review of the TR-10i a while ago. The only problem was the price: for quite a bit less than the $79.90US cost of the TR-10i, you could get a pretty nice USB mic and just use your Mac's speakers for conference calling. I couldn't fault the product, but I couldn't stomach the price... so I stalled and stalled on reviewing it, trying to figure out if I truly would lay down the better part of a C-note for this particular gadget.

Fortunately, I think someone at IPEVO had the same sense about the TR-10i that I did: even though Mac users don't mind paying extra for quality, they still can tell when a product's features and its price don't match up. The TR-10i is now available direct from IPEVO for a more reasonable $49.99, and at that price point I can say without reservation that I would buy one myself. The company also has a free shipping deal in force through this Wednesday (9/9), so the timing is right. The difference between the original price and the new price may be only one Snow Leopard's worth, but it makes the TR-10i much more attractive.

Recording support for the talkcast is provided by Call Recorder from ecamm networks.

Educators and professionals who need to record and podcast lectures often turn to Humble Daisy's ProfCast, a tool for adding enhancements to PowerPoint or Keynote slideshows to create powerful podcasts.

ProfCast today received a major update to version 2.3. The original app allows recording of live presentations, syncing slides with an audio track, and full RSS feed generation and publishing support. The new version incorporates several improvements, the most significant being support for PowerPoint 2008.

The app now automatically detects whether Keynote or PowerPoint is being used for a presentation, and then begins the process of recording and publishing the lecture with all slide timing and voice narration.

Humble Daisy also killed a number of bugs from the previous version of ProfCast, and version 2.3.0 is a free upgrade to existing owners of the application. The program is $59.95 for first-time buyers, and educational discounts are available. ProfCast can be purchased from the online store.