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Gizmo5 shutting down on April 3rd, credits can be transferred to Google Voice
Google may not have offered too many details when it acquired VoIP outfit Gizmo5 back in November of 2009, but it's not like any of that matters now. Gizmo5 customers around the globe are receiving an email today notifying them of the service's impending closure, with April 3rd pegged as the final day that calls can be made. After March 11th, you'll no longer be able to add credit to your account, but you can request a refund or have your remaining credits transferred to Google Voice (if you're in the US). Head on past the break for the full message, and feel free to pour one out. Or, you know, just wipe that FOF off of your face by watching this. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Google makes Gizmo5 acquisition official, offers few details
This one wasn't exactly the best kept secret of the week, but Google has now come out and officially announced that it has acquired VoIP company Gizmo5, and that Gizmo5's engineers will expectedly be joining the Google Voice team. This being Google, however, it isn't saying much more than that it's looking forward to "working together to bringing more useful features to Google Voice," although that's no doubt more than enough to make the folks at Skype have a slightly less relaxing weekend. Current Gizmo5 users can also expect their service to continue as normal, but Google has suspended new signups "for the time being," and existing users can no longer sign up for a call in number.
Google to acquire Gizmo5, swing at Skype with VoIP-enabled Google Voice?
There's no official word on this yet, but the inimitable Michael Arrington says that Google's up and purchased VoIP company Gizmo5 for "around $30 million in cash." You know, pocket change for the crew in Mountain View. The deal would presumably bring Gizmo's SIP-based VoIP talents to Google Voice, taking it from quirky phone-management service to complete end-to-end calling solution, and instantly catapulting it into direct competition with Skype. Heavy stuff -- we'll see if Google or Gizmo5 confirms Mssr. Arrington's report sometime soon.
Gizmo Project 3
Gizmo Project, the internet telephony software for PC, Mac, and Linux, just hit 3.0. New in this release are: the ability to talk to folks on Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live, and Google Talk custom avatars file transfers history of your text chats group chats Gizmo Project is free, and requires 10.3.9.
Gizmo Call brings VoIP to the browser
If downloading a whole entire app for making VoIP calls is just too much commitment, or perhaps you'd like to get in a few free phone calls on some random PC you don't quite have that kind of privilege with, SIPphone has quite a dealio for you. The builders of Gizmo Project have just unveiled Gizmo Call, which allows you to make phone calls from your browser, using a Flash-based mini-app. You get five minutes a day of free calls to any phone line, along with unlimited free calls to users of Google Talk, Windows Live, Gizmo Project and any other SIP service. There are fancy little "Call Me" links you can hand out to your friends, along with the ability to customize your CallerID to make your call look like it's coming from your mobile or landline. The service is live now, so start pranking your friends before they catch on!
Keyspan Cordless VoIP Phone: soon to be chattin' for $79
It seems like everyone and their sister is coming out with Skype-compatible phones these days. And taking a page out of the handheld barcode scanner design playbook, Keyspan wants a piece of the VoIP pie too. Its new $79 model, imaginatively called the "Cordless VoIP Phone", has 15 hours of talk time, 1200 hours of standby time, USB/AAA power, and it's Mac and PC friendly, a'course. However, Keyspan doesn't list where you can buy this handset, or when it will be available. That aside, if another company (besides FiWin) really wanted to make the real-deal ultimate killer handset, they'd make a phone that was Gizmo/Zfone and Skype-friendly -- we'd definitely be interested. But apparently Skype doesn't like to play nice with SIP phones or any other kind of VoIP, which is a real shame because there's such a great marketing opportunity here -- they could call it SIPpe, like "sippy", as in the cup. Whaddya say?
Gizmo Project makes all VoIP to landline calls free. Forever.
Skype ruffled some feathers in the internet telephony world earlier this year when they announced they'd be offering free SkypeOut calls to the US and Canada for the rest of 2006. We weren't too interested since it came off as little more than a promotion, and we typically skip over promos (for obvious reason). But we're kind of left wondering how Skype -- deep eBay pockets and all -- intends to compete with archrival Gizmo Project's latest tactic: free Gizmo-to-landline calls anywhere, anytime, any amount, forever. We'll probably be spending a while trying to make heads from tails of their business plan which pretty much totally gives away the shop, but who's really going to be reeling here is the rest of the VoIP telephony industry that's currently clawing desperately to monetize on landline phone replacements. Not everything's free with Gizmo Project, however; even though you can all over Europe, Asia, and the Americas (to 60 countries and counting), if you want your pals to call you on Gizmo from their landlines, you're going to have to buy a Call In number. (Fret not though, since those cost as little as $3 a month.) Also, in order to call them up they need to have a number registered to an active Gizmo account, which increases the barrier to entry by a bit. But what started with Captain Crunch's 2600Hz whistle may now end with Gizmo Project's capture of the biggest voice trunk of all time; if this is any sign of things to come, we'd say the free voice revolution may finally have a proper flagbearer. So let the free phone wars begin.
Nokia surprises, unveils Internet Tablet 2006 OS for 770
So instead of revealing that upgraded version of the 770 Internet Tablet as we expected them to today, Nokia flipped the script on us and announced that the Google Talk and keyboard features we had been anticipating will actually be coming in the form of a software upgrade. The good news is that these new features -- part of the company's so-called Internet Tablet 2006 OS -- will be available to current 770 owners through a simple update, although those folks who were expecting a hardware QWERTY option (and not just an on-screen "thumb board") are certainly going to be disappointed. On the plus side, the new OS will support SIP-based VoIP solutions, with Nokia specifically mentioning that a version of the Gizmo Project client is forthcoming. IT2006 will become the default operating system on 770 units, and will be available as a free download to existing 770 users, beginning sometime this quarter.
