We Can Thank Star Trek for This July 21, 2011 @ 03:15 PM | By Sarah Murphy

Many of us across the country are slowly melting in the extreme heat.  One way to beat the heat is to escape for a couple of hours at the movies.  We recently saw the last Harry Potter movie which got me thinking about the “technology” those kids have at their disposal.  They live in a world of wands, owls, apparition and disapparition.  No smartphones or computers are found at Hogwarts.  Such a contrast to the gadgets Star Trek introduced us to years ago –many have become a reality including the “Communicator”.

Every time Captain Kirk talked into his communicator, the person he wanted to talk with immediately responded.  Well we aren’t quite there yet. We still have to initiate a call by dialing and waiting for either a live voice or voicemail answer.  No guarantee that the one we are trying to contact will immediately respond.   However, with IM integration to your BlackBerry you can know in an instant who’s available to meet.

Cisco Connect IM for BlackBerry now delivers instant messaging (IM) and presence to your BlackBerry.  With this free app download you can:

• Access your desktop IM contact list and take action with features such as click to IM, click to call, click to email, and click to text
• Join an instant WebEx meeting from an IM conversation
• Maintain security using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption and by connecting your BlackBerry directly to the Cisco IM infrastructure.

Now for us muggles, magic wands aren’t an option, but what other conferencing gadgets would you like to have to make instant collaboration even easier?

Sarah Murphy is a marketing manager at InterCall. With over ten years of experience in the conferencing industry, Sarah has worked with customers and products that cover all segments of conferencing, including traditional operator attended services, video and online meeting solutions.