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Ooma Linx extender makes a visit to the FCC, lets phones go the extra DECT distance

Jon Fingas — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 05:28:00 -0400

For a VoIP phone company, Ooma has been unusually quiet since it showed us the HD2 handset at CES this January. Thankfully, an FCC filing spotted by Dave Zatz has let slip that the company is getting chattier in the near future. As the helpfully provided manual tells us, an upcoming Linx adapter will let a conventional phone talk to a Telo base station over DECT. The goal is to let Ye Olde Wired Phone in the basement join the 21st century without having to move the Telo or otherwise jump through hoops -- it'll even bring your fax machine onboard, if you're still holding on to 1994. We can't glean from the clearance just when the Linx will be ready to shake the dust from our antiquated phones, but with all the documentation seemingly in order, the wait isn't going to be too long before that landline handset enters the modern world.

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Motorola HS1101 and MBP2000PU Android Home Phones get examined, detailed by the FCC

Zach Honig — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 10:04:00 -0400

We imagine that the vast majority of Android users have since abandoned or even eliminated landline service, but if you're still tethered to the grid at the homestead, your DECT cordless might as well be running Android. Motorola demonstrated such a concept at an event way back in 2010, and it now looks like the company may finally be readying a pair of production models, dubbed the HS1101 and MBP2000PU Android Home Phones. Based on published user manuals, both of the handsets appear to be virtually identical, with the exception of color scheme -- the HS1101 is covered in a glossy black finish, while the MBP2000PU is decked out in silver and white.

The WiFi-equipped handsets could be running Ice Cream Sandwich (based on a screenshot of the HS1101), and each include a 3.2-inch 400 x 240 LCD, a front-facing camera with video capture, stereo 1.5-watt speakers, microSD storage, along with micro-USB and a standard headphone port. Naturally, you'll be able to download apps (through SlideMe), while some selections, including an Aldiko e-book reader and a Digital Answer Machine come preloaded. Whether or not consumers ever plan to buy another cordless set remains to be seen, but if you're in the market, you might as well hang tight for a Motorola Android Home Phone. Both models have passed through the FCC, so the grueling wait for an ICS-powered DECT cordless may soon come to an end. Jump past the break for a closer look at both models, or hit up the source link to thumb through those meaty manuals.

Filed under: Mobile

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Vonage Extensions makes mobile international calling a free-of-charge affair

Joseph Volpe — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:25:00 -0400

Hey Vonage customers, your VoIP service of choice is about to get a bit of a mobile value-add. Announced today, the company's new Extensions service links your existing home internet calling plan to extra phone numbers -- like a cellphone-- for free, so you can make that long-distance call to Tante Lulu in Gstaad on-the-go. Okay, so the feature isn't exactly gratis -- you're still required to sign up for an unlimited international calling plan, but the bucks literally stop there. All it takes to get started with this "virtual calling card" is an access number and some foreign digits. Sound too complicated for you? Don't fret, official iPhone and Android-compatible apps are scheduled to hit their respective markets in the coming weeks. So, go ahead and ring ol' Lu for her 89th birthday. She'll be glad you called.

Filed under: HD

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Vonage offers unlimited VoIP calling to mobile phones in 42 countries

Christopher Trout — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 17:21:00 -0400

It's been a while since we've heard much from the ever-embattled VoIP provider, but it looks like Vonage might still have a couple tricks up its sleeve. The company's latest service plan, known as World Premium Unlimited, offers unlimited calling to mobile phones in 42 countries -- and landlines in 80 -- for $55 a month. This plan also provides for unlimited local and long distance service in the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico, and requires callers to use a touch tone phone, hooked up to the internet by way of a Vonage adapter, to make calls to places like the UK, Mexico, and Brazil. It may not be an ideal primary calling solution for most, but it could be enough to put Vonage back in our sights. Full PR after the break.

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AT&T asks FCC to phase out landline regulations

Donald Melanson — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 03:25:00 -0500

A day without landline phones? Some may say that's inevitable, but it looks like AT&T is now starting to try to speed things up a bit, with it recently responding to an FCC request for comments with a 32-page filing that details its position on the matter. That more or less boils down to two major requests: that the FCC eliminate the regulatory requirements that it support a landline network, and that it provide a firm deadline for phasing it out. To back up that request, AT&T has provided the FCC with a whole host of statistics that paint a bleak picture for landlines, including the fact that less than 20% of Americans rely exclusively on switched-access lines for voice service (though plenty more still use them as their primary voice service), that at least 18 million homes now use a VoIP service, and that those two numbers are fast growing in opposite directions. Needless to say, such a change would have a broad range of regulatory implications, and AT&T isn't providing answers for everything -- like exactly how it expects that last mile of users to transition away from landlines, or how to deal with issues of public safety or those with disabilities.

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TrueCall shall fight telemarketers on the beaches, landing grounds, etc

Samuel Axon — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:01:00 -0400

Telemarketers-turned-inventors from the United Kingdom have started shipping TrueCall (£99.99), a device that acts as an automated secretary on your land line, either forwarding trusted numbers to your phone or answering untrusted numbers with an automated message and shooing them away. When an unrecognized number dials in, TrueCall asks them who they are and then rings you asking whether or not you want to take it. Sure, it's not the most fun way to automatically ditch unscrupulous callers, but we'd like to listen in on the conversation when a robocall reaches this baby -- it'd be like one wall talking to another wall.

[Via Slashdot]

Filed under: Misc, Household

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Planet Earth: now home to four billion phone lines

Darren Murph — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 17:20:00 -0400

Go on, pick your jaw up off the floor -- this isn't that staggering, now is it? Considering all those cellphones that have been sold here recently, and the plethora of folks who just refuse to ditch that landline, four billion total phone lines seems just about right, truth be told. According to the International Telecommunications Union, our planet is now home to about "1.27 billion fixed lines and 2.68 billion mobile accounts," but the total number of people represented by these data is much less clear. Notably, the study found that "61-percent of the world's mobile subscribers are in developing countries," and further added that China and India were greatly to thank for reaching the milestone. And just think, there were less than 1 billion lines combined across the globe just 11 years ago.

[Image courtesy of OwlRecruitment]

Filed under: Cellphones

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Planet Earth: now home to four billion phone lines

Darren Murph — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 17:20:00 -0400

Filed under: Studies, Misc, Mobile

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Efonica VoIP service supports dial-up too

Evan Blass — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 12:03:00 -0400

Fusion Telecommunications of Dubai has just entered the already crowded VoIP market with a beta version of its SIP-powered Efonica service. Registered users can chat amongst one another for free using standard telephones connected to an analog phone adapter or dial POTS lines on the cheap, with calls to the US from other countries costing under two cents a minute. What sets Efonica apart from some of the other services out there is its claimed ability to work even on dial-up connections -- still a rarity these days -- allowing people in areas with low broadband penetration to get in on all the fun offered by Internet telephony. Although the basic version of the service is free, calls to landlines or cellphones and voicemail functionality require signing up for the Efonica Plus option, which will avaiable at the end of the public beta test in about two months.

[Via Personal Tech Pipeline]

Filed under: Misc

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Comcast rolls out Motorola SBV5220 cable modem with battery backup

Marc Perton — Wed, 24 May 2006 10:57:00 -0400

If you've made the break and use a VoIP service as your only landline, you may have noticed one of the main downsides of the option (especially if you live in a rural or isolated area): if the power goes out, so does your phone line. Hooking up a UPS can help, but can also be expensive and may not provide power for more than an hour or so. However, help is on the way, at least if you get your VoIP access as part of a bundled plan from Comcast. The company plans to offer Motorola's SBV5220 cable modem to at least some of its customers as part of its $39.95 Digital Voice service. The SBV5220 includes its own lithium-ion backup battery, which provides up to 8 hours of power. Of course, if you use a cordless phone and it isn't fully charged before the lights go off, this may not do you a whole lot of good, so be sure to keep those phones charged.

Filed under: Misc, Household

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The Pipeline: Pundits go Wii!

Marc Perton — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 11:24:00 -0400

Welcome back to The Pipeline, a weekly feature where we dig through the mainstream media and see what the pundits, prognosticators and and pencil pushers have been discussing over the past week.

This week, the media was all over Nintendo's announcement that the gaming console formerly codenamed Revolution would henceforth be known as Wii. And, not surprisingly, most of the mainstream journos covering the story concurred with our assessment that the name somehow isn't going to wiin Niintendo any kudos. "Is Nintendo being desperately silly to attract attention, or is it just desperately short of clue?" asked the Guardian, while the Financial Times headlined its article "Wii aren't too sure about this." However, Nintendo did have at least one defender, Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan Securities, who pointed out that "N-Gage and Gizmondo are cool names" that didn't help those products win many fans. "Consumers relate to the coolness of the product, not the name." Wii'll see, Michael, Wii'll see.

Of course, the Wii announcement wasn't the only story in the news this week, and the mainstream press managed to crank out a few other interesting nuggets. USA Today took a look at the Pioneer Inno, and declared it "a winner," while The New York Times looked at the growing number of home docking systems for cellphones. Meanwhile, Forbes looked at another way to use cellphones at home, checking out the market for UMA-enabled handsets. Our favorite media hit this week, though, came from the Washington Post, which took an in-depth look at the DDR-as-exercise phenom, with the paper's reporter declaring, "Hello, my name is Caroline, and I'm addicted to 'Dance Dance Revolution.'" Hey, at least she's not addicted to the Wii.

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Gaming, Home Entertainment, Household, Portable Audio/Video

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