Teleport 2.0, the Nifty Telephone Snitch from Optimus Maximus' Father

While recording others' telephone calls may put you out business for quite a few years, recording your own chat can prove a real blessing. Remember those times you would set a business appointment over the phone (or whatever you call talking that sexy office colleague of yours into dating you), then get too excited and forget the hour? Well, fear not, as this little snitch will always keep track of your calls.

Art Lebedev Studios' latest creation, the Teleport 2.0 device connects your landline to the personal computer, thus allowing it to record all the calls, as well as their contents. Wiretapping has never been easier, although abuse can bring you a lot of trouble.

The device is also great for estimating how the phone bill will look like. Given the fact that the device records all the incoming or outgoing calls, you could calculate the phone budget prior to receiving the bill, or even better, you can see if the phone company is billing you for never-made phone calls.

The Teleport 2.0 gadget comes with some extra goodies, such as caller ID and voicemail. In fact, it is a complete business telephony robot, with detailed listings of calls, numbers and timestamps. If you are a journalist, for instance, Art Lebedev's tiny telephone snitch (not switch, that's a different story, not covered by the Patriot Act) may be the next big thing since the invention of the digital voice recorder. No more tapes or MiniDiscs with recorded conversations lying around; just some perfectly ordered digital files, with names, dates and phone numbers.

According to its manufacturer, the device is compatible with any handset that can support the Caller ID feature, and respect the Russian and / or American standards. The bundled software can store the called numbers, then redial them automatically, should this ever be needed. The gadget's design is arrow-shaped, and extremely cool, and it can be yours for as much as $71.12.