海角大神

If you鈥檝e ever envied those nifty push-to-talk communication badges from the Star Trek series (and who hasn鈥檛?), you鈥檙e in luck. San Francisco hardware start-up OnBeep has launched the Onyx, a $99 personal communicator about the size of a hockey puck that allows you to connect to anyone else wearing an Onyx. The Onyx pairs with your Android or iOS smart phone via Bluetooth, letting you talk with your group anywhere there鈥檚 Wi-Fi or cell data service.

The Onyx is very similar to long-distance walkie-talkies, minus the range restrictions on those devices. If you want to talk with your group, you just tap and hold the center button. The LED ring encircling the button changes color depending on your status: green for talking, blue for listening, and yellow for muted. The Onyx also has volume buttons and a power switch.

OnBeep鈥檚 chief executive, Jesse Robbins, is a volunteer firefighter and former Amazon executive who built the Onyx to duplicate the two-way communications used by first responders, but in a way that鈥檚 easy for ordinary consumers to use. The Onyx could be especially helpful, Mr. Robbins says, by workers who want to communicate with their home office, families keeping track of each other at a ski resort or amusement park, or anyone who wants push-to-talk functionality, without having to make many individuals cell phone calls to the others in their group. The Onyx鈥檚 smart phone app lets you see who else in your group has their communicator turned on, and even shows their positions on a map, if they have geolocation turned on.

OnBeep says the Onyx has a battery life of about 12 hours with 鈥渁ctive鈥� use, though it could be longer if you鈥檙e not transmitting much. Robbins says the communicator is designed to be charged with about the same frequency as the smart phone with which it鈥檚 paired.

In a review for The Verge, Dan Seifert says the Onyx works pretty well: 鈥淎udio quality was quite good, and OnBeep says it is using a low latency codec that minimizes bandwidth usage. And ... the device is compact and lightweight enough that it could be clipped to a belt or shirt pocket and not be uncomfortable or impede movement.鈥�

Onyx can be pre-ordered starting on Wednesday, with units shipping before the end of the year. The price ($99 for a single Onyx, or $195 for a pair) includes a year of OnBeep鈥檚 service, but the company hasn鈥檛 said how much the service will cost after that.