Handy Gadgets to Give People on the Move

Granted, telecom products might not top your holiday shopping list this season. But there are some oddball gadgets out there that just might fill the bill.

For friends who are continually on the brink of an accident because of the cell phone attached to their ear, San Jose-based ClearVox Communications offers several headsets that plug into the phone and allow a driver to talk hands-free.

One model features a plastic bar that fits over the user’s head and connects to a small speaker that rests over one ear. A second model sports a plastic triangle that fits over the top of a user’s ear.

ClearVox (https://www.clearvox.com) says its headsets have better sound quality than the microphones currently used by many drivers. The headsets cost $39 to $49. ClearVox’s Web site contains a list of phones that can accommodate the headsets, as well as information on adapters for those that don’t.

People on your list who do make it home in time for dinner might appreciate the Easy Hang Up, by Hello-Direct, which markets the device as an easy way to “get solicitors off your phone line fast!”

The Easy Hang Up is a plastic box about the size of a pager. Plug your phone into the box, then plug the box into the wall. When a telemarketer calls, you press a button on top of the box to activate a recording that says: “I’m sorry, this number does not accept this type of call. Please regard this message as your notification to remove this number from your list. Thank you.” The box, which sells for $19.95, works only with standard single-line phones (https://www.hello-direct.com).

For colleagues who never travel without their laptop, consider TeleAdapt’s TeleSpool. This small plastic box contains about 9 feet of super-thin phone cord wrapped tightly around a spool, with a jack at each end for modem hookups.

TeleAdapt offers other nifty products for business travelers. Its ECPak contains 10 phone adapters that can be used in European Union countries, including Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Greece. It sells for about $120 (https://www.teleadapt.com).

Friends who gripe that their swimsuits aren’t pager-friendly may be interested in a pager watch. The Beepwear device by MTX Paging Products, a joint venture of Timex and Motorola, receives text or numerical pages and also has a stopwatch feature.

Beepwear holds 16 messages in its memory and has an Indiglo night light that alerts the wearer to incoming pages. MTX uses SkyTel’s paging service. The pager watch retails for $129. Local paging-service fees start at $8 a month, with nationwide paging beginning at $14 a month. Beepwear is available at Al & Ed’s Auto Sound stores in the Southland. For a nearby location, call (800) 353-1212 (https://www.beepwear.com).

The windsurfers on your list may enjoy wind-paging services offered by Ventura-based Call of the Wind. The company uses automated wind-monitoring devices at 28 windsurfing sites in California. Customers can choose which of these sites they want to get reports about on an alphanumeric pager.

When the wind reaches 10 mph at the customer’s chosen site, the monitoring device pages them with the location, the wind speed and direction and the air temperature. When the wind drops below the 10-mph limit, the pager will display the word “calm.”

The service is $23 a month and runs on Motorola Advisor pagers, available from Call of the Wind for $90 (https://www.windcall.com).

Some telephone companies are using special holiday deals to promote their services. GTE is offering to cut its monthly voicemail service charge from $6.95 to $3.50. Customers must have GTE phone service and must sign on before the end of December. (The special price runs for three months only.) The company will also waive the $10 voicemail setup fee.

Those who take advantage of the deal get a free message-waiting-light device that alerts users when they have calls waiting on their voicemail. GTE is also providing six hours of free time for its long-distance customers who have personal 800-number accounts.

Friends who worry about being stranded by El Nino may appreciate specially designed holiday prepaid calling cards. MCI’s 10-minute prepaid holiday card shows Santa talking to a boy on an old-fashioned telephone.

Kids can use this card to call Santa’s voicemail and leave their lists. Parents may then forward these lists to family and friends. The cards are sold for about $6 at 7-Eleven stores and Mobil gas stations.

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Times staff writer Jennifer Oldham can be reached at jennifer.oldham@latimes.com