Amid the entertainment gadgets on display at the Digital Life Show in New York were a handful of intriguing tools for home and remote offices. Here's a rundown.

Communications

Perfect for full-time teleworkers and virtual teams is Packet8's VideoPhone for Broadband, a high-end video phone that works with the company's VoIP service. Introduced in June, the product and service package is a compelling alternative to the new crop of VoIP products and services that use standard telephones.

Sturdy and sleek, the desk phone includes a large display and built-in video camera and plugs into a broadband modem or router. In a demo on the show floor, picture quality was excellent but dependent on the broadband connection's upload speed. At 128K bit/sec, the display was a bit choppy; 256K bit/sec was acceptable and 512K bit/sec was excellent. As synchronous applications like video become more common in the home, expect providers to offer higher upload speeds.

Features are comparable to other VoIP services, including caller ID, conferencing, voice mail and Web-based call management. Subscribers choose their area code and can assign virtual numbers to other users. Unique is Packet8's E911 service, which routes emergency calls through your local emergency system. Service is inexpensive, $19.95 per month for unlimited calling, but the phones, sold in pairs are pricey, costing $500 each ($1,000). However, Packet8 offers a $500 rebate.

Another tool that turned heads was SightSpeed Video Messenger 2.5, a software service that adds video and audio to instant-messaging sessions over broadband or dial-up. It works across platforms (Windows and Macintosh), and unlimited video calls cost $4.95 per month or $49.50 per year. Video and audio quality, as well as synching between them, is better than most we've seen. Hosted and multi-party conferencing services are available, and SightSpeed offers a starter kit that includes a one-year subscription, Logitech Web camera and Plantronics headset for $129.

Productivity

Google Desktop Search finds information stored in Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express, Office, Internet Explorer Favorites, and across stored IM chat sessions in AOL's AIM service.

Because Google Desktop Search integrates with Google.com, queries run through Google.com also are run through the desktop search. The application continually updates the index of local desktop files, visited Web sites and saved AIM chat sessions, so searches contain the most current data. It can find multimedia and PDF files based on their file names, but doesn't search the metadata of multimedia files, such as images, MP3s and video clips, nor does it index the full text of PDF files.