Palm Pre now with a VoIP Application

A new Palm Pre app has just been announced by VOXOFON. The application will be the first VoIP app designed for the Palm Pre and as it will use VoIP it will allow international calls to be made starting at 1.3 cents per minute.

The application makes use of your data plan, so if you intend to use this then go careful if you are not on an unlimited plan. The VoIP app will use a 1 – 2KB data stream to establish the phone calls.

When making a call the Voxofon account will get charged for the international portion of the call. So that you are not left in the dark as to how much that will be, the Pre App will display a message with the call rate on screen when you are ready to dial.

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MagicJack is flying off the shelves

More proof (see: the Perfect Pushup and the Snuggie.) that having a quirky, on-all-the-time commercial is a step in the right direction toward Big Success. MagicJack (commercial here) is selling something at the rate of 9,000 to 10,000 units per day, making its parent company, YMax Communications, some $100 million this year alone. But, in this age of Skype, who’s buying this thing?

Two points for you if you guessed “older people.” The company’s average customer age is 50, and and live in retirement-friendly places like California or Florida.

MagicJack, if you have no idea what I’m on about, is a device that plugs into your computer’s USB port that in turn lets you make and receive phone calls through your Internet connection. The reason why it’s so popular, I guess, is that you get the first year of service for free, and after that it’s only $20 per year. That low price is especially appealing to people on fixed income, or for people whose regular phone bills are too high.

One side note: you do need to keep your computer on all the time for something like the MagicJack to work, so all that savings you’re getting by freeing yourself from the phone company may go straight toward powering your computer.

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Review: Google Voice

Google Voice wants to be the center of your voice communications. The Web-based service combines a lot of things: a permanent follow-around phone number; voice mail with transcriptions; and text messaging, to name a few. What it lacks—consistently high call quality, full recording capabilities, flawless conferencing and transcription—prevents it from being truly comprehensive. But that's just for now. And it's so close as it is that it earns our Editors' Choice for a unified messaging solution

The central feature of Google Voice is the single, permanent, virtual phone number. When called, that number simultaneously rings any or all of your physical (and verified) phones. The feature is just about perfect at what it does.

Also part of the package are outbound, Internet-based calls. The service isn't PC-based like Skype, though the calls are placed via the Web interface. Enter a number in the Call dialog box, tell it which of your phones to ring, and click Connect. Answer your phone when it rings, then Google Voice calls the outgoing number for you. The dialog box ties to the anemic Google Contacts, the same contact list you have in Gmail. Start typing a name to autocomplete who you want to call. You never have to touch your phone to dial. (Right now, there's no way to port an existing phone number to Google Voice. But the rumor is that portability is coming soon.)

Buzz up!on Yahoo!

This service is free within the contiguous 48 states, but calls elsewhere will cost you. Every trial Google Voice user gets $1 in credit, which you'll need to call Hawaii (2 cents per minute) or Alaska (4 cents per minute), Canada (1 cent per minute), and Mexico (8 cents per minute). Other rates vary, but are always cheaper than through the phone company. You can replenish credit for Google Voice via a Google Checkout account.

If there's a downside to the calls, it's that they are based on voice over IP (VoIP). If you use a VoIP service like Vonage, then use Google Voice to call someone on a cell phone in a weak area, that's a lot of hops on the Internet and wireless towers—and the lag is noticeable. But I've never had a call so bad in quality I couldn't get through it.

Calling out will display your Google Voice number on the recipient's caller ID, but old-fashioned phone-to-phone calls will show your regular phone's number, not the Google Voice number you want to be ubiquitous. At least one third-party iPhone app, GV Mobile, makes outbound calls look like they come from Google Voice.

Google Voice's Web interface is very reminiscent of Gmail. The inbox lists all the messages and recorded conversations. You can star important items to find later, delete what you don't need, and even report voice mail spam. Click the history link to get a full account of every call in and out, including when it was made and its duration. Drop-down menus provide fast access to returning calls or sending texts. (The inbox is accessible on mobile phones via www.google.com/voice/m/.)

When a call comes in, you have the choice of answering directly, sending it to voice mail, ignoring it entirely, or answering and recording it. Hit the 4 key any time during a call to record. An automated voice will always alert both parties when you start recording, so you can't get away with anything. Recording doesn't work with outgoing calls. All recordings can be played back on the Web or downloaded as MP3 files. You can embed a player in a Gmail message or on a Web page (just as you would a YouTube video).

Google Voice's voice mail transcription is spotty. Simple messages, with just a name and number, are no problem. But longer or low-volume messages are a tad more difficult. It's fascinating to play back a message and watch the transcription highlight areas of text where it recognizes its own shortcomings, but you can't use that feature to improve future transcriptions. And it's disappointing that the system won't transcribe your recorded phone calls. Regardless, a full ten-digit number shows up in the transcription as a link you can click to easily call back.

Up to four people can be conferenced on a single call as long as they all call your Google Voice number and you're on a standard phone with CallerID and a flash button. This works well in perfect circumstances, when you have time to answer each call and hit the 5 key to conference everyone in. But if more than one person calls at a time you get chaos—plus a lot of voice mails asking what's going on.

It's only natural in this day of ubiquitous text messaging that a service like Google Voice should support SMS. With a drop-down dialog box similar to that used to make outgoing calls, you enter a phone number, or pick one from Google Contacts' autocomplete list. Type in your 160 characters and send out the message. The recipient will see that it came from your Google Voice number. Replies go directly to your Google Voice inbox—in fact, the inbox will hold entire SMS conversations, echoing the abilities of Gmail. Replies can be CCed to your cell phone; they'll appear to have come from a number with a 406 area code number, because Google uses a swath of unused numbers from Montana.

Despite its shortcomings, Google Voice is pretty fantastic as a personal switchboard. As it's another perpetual beta product, expect those deficiencies to eventually be addressed. If you've already given yourself over to Google for contacts, calendar, e-mail and more, this is just one more step—and you'll likely find yourself happy with the result.

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Google Voice Coming Soon!!

Google reportedly snapped up 1 million phone numbers last month in a move that could signal the launch of its Google Voice service.

Google Voice, which was announced in March, lets users have a single phone number that rings to all their phones. Features include Internet playback of messages, outgoing calls, settings that let you avoid certain people, transcription of your voicemail messages, and text messaging.

The service, which was made possible via Google's acquisition of GrandCentral, has been in private beta since its launch, but PC World reports that Level 3 has been supplying Google with phone numbers in anticipation of an official launch.

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VoIP: Alternative to telephony?

Now, that broadband has finally made its entry in the Indian market, time is ripe for Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to change the way ente
rprise communicate within as well as outside the organization:

What is VoIP/Internet Voice?

VoIP is a technology that allows you to make telephone calls using a broadband internet connection instead of a regular phone line.
It basically converts the voice signal from a telephone into a digtal signal that travels over the internet and then converts it back at the other end so you can speak to anyone with a regular phone number.

Introduced in 1995, VoIP has since then come a long way. Enterprises in India and the rest of the world have successfully used the technology and derived cost savings and benefits from it. It has now been adopted universally as a reliable technology alternative by which voice is transmitted over a data network.

Benefits for enterprises


VoIP is a great way to cut costs and increase productivity without any major hassles. According to a recent web poll conducted by the Computing Technology Industry Association showed respondents believed the new technology offers organizations one of the best opportunities for productivity gains.

It specially makes sense for the SMB segment to go in for VoIP. The biggest benefit is in savings in the communication cost. By using IP phones to make long distance calls between branch offices and zonal offices, enterprises effectively spend a fraction of the amount it would spend if it went the traditional telecom network way. The other big benefit is the optimum utilization of network resources.

Many enterprises have built robust networks with updated routers, switches and other devices, and put high bandwidth links in place. In many cases, a lot of bandwidth and other resources were available for use after critical enterprise data traffic was transmitted. Transmitting voice through this unused facility makes better use of the network resources.