Ipevo has rolled out its next generation Skype phone. Coming in at under $45, it is slim, easy-to-use and has a handy-dandy little feature that’s causing some serious buzz.

The feature?

With the touch of a button, you can record your conversation in real-time to your computer’s hard drive.

Skype is a phone-over-Internet service. Calls between two Skype phones are usually free with calls to a regular ‘land-line’ often incurring some kind of fee. This handset has separate hot buttons for making free calls on the Skype calling service and for Skype Out calls to regular phones.

Overall, using Skype instead of the traditional phone line can mean huge savings - especially for people who make a lot of global calls during peak hours. And the technology means that the calls are much clearer and free of the little bugs that made many early ‘Voice Over IP’ phones clunky to use.

Many companies like Ipevo are taking advantage of Skype’s popularity to markets its peripherals and tools.

This is the first one to take advantage of the direct-connect to your computer system with this little Spy vs. Spy enhancement…

With the Ipevo phone, you can save conversations as MP3’s once you install the necessary drivers. Then, with a push of the button you can save the contents of your call to a manufacturer asking for changes to your order, or of your relative’s story about a meaningful time to your family, or any other important conversation.

With MP3-to-text software, it’s just another step to build a transcript of the call.

It’s another ‘the future is now’ moment.

Before you go out and buy that cloak and dagger, though - remember, secretly recording calls is illegal in many states. To make sure these laws are followed, Ipevo has configured a warning alert to appear on the screen of the other person’s computer (for Skype calls) or a beep to be regularly heard (on calls to regular to phones) during recording.

The phone is compatible with PC using Windows XP or higher and Macs with OS X 10.4 or higher (although the drivers for recording calls using a Mac haven’t yet been released).

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In a couple of weeks, we’ll be launching a contest looking for ideas for Bluetooth gadgets. Along with that theme, here’s another one that recently came to market.

Alive Technologies is an Australian company that has launched Blutooth-enabled health monitoring systems.

One of these, the Alive Sports System has applications for the serious athlete. It tracks your heart rate as you exercise, sending the information to your Bluetooth phone or computer.

You can use this information in many ways; in conjunction with your doctor as part of treatment, in partnership with a trainer to improve your workouts, to see your trends ( e.g. Do you stay at peak heart rate longer during morning or evening workouts?), and  track your preparedness for an event - like a marathon or triathalon.

If you’re the type that runs or works out in the hotel fit club as your way to shake off the grit of being a road warrior, this is the kind of information can help you compare apples and apples, when you are trying to get a feel for how the road effects your performance.

According to Gizmag, Alive is tying this functionality in with other gadgets to enhance the information even more.

By connecting the system with a GPS phone that tracks your route, Alive is creating a package that will tell you where you peak and where you struggle.

And Microsoft Australia is getting into the game, too. They are testing a system where the heart rate monitor will communicate with an MP3 player. This gadget will prompt faster or slower songs to cue you to change your effort level so you keep your heart rate at the optimal level for your health goals.

What do you think?

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