voip

We covered Jaxtr back in December. It's a cool telephony tool that lets you put a "call me" icon on your blog page, social network profile, or your e-mail signature. Today the company added a few new features that are worth checking out.

First, there's the startler tool. Over the phone, you can record a "VoiceBlast" greeting for your Jaxtr widget that plays whenever the widget is loaded on a page. When someone visits your blog or MySpace page, they'll hear you talking to them as soon as the page loads.

That is … Read more

Skype launched a new paid-by-the-minute service last night called Skype Prime. Like competitor Ether, Skype users can set their own per-minute rates that get charged to the caller. Skype Prime takes 30 percent of the fees to pay for the service, which is double Ether's 15 percent. The service is aimed mainly at consultants and other professionals looking for an easy way to monetize their phone calls.

Skype Prime users can set up as many types of paid-for calls as they want, with short descriptions and custom pricing. Each one is listed on your Skype profile for others to … Read more

Mig33 is a mashup I came across at the O'Reilly ETel conference, which mixes Web-based social networks with cell phone technology in a very interesting way. Mig33 lets users create profiles and interact with friends from their phones or their Web sites. You can also text chat with people through the Web interface or your mobile phone.

There's also a VoIP angle, allowing you to make low-cost international calls using Mig33's phone app, or set up the call to connect on both ends using Mig33's third-party connection service. There's still some cost involved, but in … Read more

There have been several communication tools on Webware in the last few days. Joining the party is Yackpack, a messaging tool that lets you chat live as a group or swap recorded messages to group members, all within your Web browser.

Yackpack creates a visual chat room for you, with floating faces representing users. Playing and recording messages is handled through a slick and simple player that sits in the top right of the interface. Handling who you are and aren't talking to is as simple as clicking icons. Toggling all group members is managed with a single select … Read more

Here's a handy tool for close groups of friends and for families: Foonz, a free conference call service.

On the Foonz Web site, you set up your calling groups. For each name, enter a cell phone number or an IM address (or both). Place your contacts in groups (e.g., "Beer buddies," and so on) and when you want to talk to everybody in a group at once, you call the Foonz service and select one of your groups from voice prompts.

Foonz then sends SMS or IM messages containing dial-in numbers to your contacts. People calling … Read more

Devicescape is a free Wi-Fi helper service that was announced at the Demo 07 conference this past week. It's designed to take the struggle out of connecting to various commercial Wi-Fi hot spots while on the go. After downloading the low profile Devicescape application to your PC, Windows Mobile smart phone, or Wi-Fi-enabled handset, you can instantly connect without having to manage log-ins or remember passwords.

The Devicescape client works with a number of Wi-Fi services, most notably T-Mobile's HotSpot service, which can be found in over 8,000 locations (mostly Starbucks). Devicescape is at work on interoperability … Read more

No, the phone pictured here isn't broken--that's how it's supposed to look. Kensington's "Vo200 Bluetooth Internet Phone" traded its funky appearance for a simple and practical use.

The mouthpiece swivels around to become a stand when the handset is used as a speakphone to improve voice reception, according to Newlaunches--and every little bit helps when using many of today's VoIP services. It's also thin enough to slide into your laptop's card slot for easy recharging.

It still looks a little too fragile for our taste, but we're all thumbs when … Read more

EJamming, which makes software that enables people to practice music together if their instruments are MIDI-enabled, is announcing a service that works for non-MIDI instruments too: drums, guitars, voice, violins, etc. The idea is to let musicians practice together even when they can't get together physically, or to let students and teachers work together remotely.

There are really interesting technical challenges to making this work. Not only do you have to transmit very high-quality audio, but you have to do it with extremely low-audio latency. The eJamming founders, Alan Glueckman and Gail Kantor, told me their audio processor and … Read more

Skype is set to launch a new version of its VoIP phone service for international customers in 24 countries. The new service, named Skype Pro, won't charge by the minute for its SkypeOut service, which lets computers call landlines. Instead, it will charge users a €2-per-month subscription fee and €3.9 cents-per-call connection fee.

There are some benefits to the new system over the old one: specifically, free Skype voicemail (which used to cost about $20 a year) and a large discount on a SkypeIn number at which regular phones can call you. All in all, it's a … Read more