Google buys Internet telephone firm GrandCentral

Google has bought GrandCentral Communications, a fledgling Internet firm that gives people telephone numbers that essentially follow them where ever they go. Google did not disclose how much it paid for the Silicon Valley start-up but said the technology will give users of the popular Internet firm’s services another way to communicate. “We think GrandCentral’s technology fits well into Google’s efforts to...

Saving Money on Internet Calls

People use VOIP for very practical reasons. You can easily call anywhere in the world at rates that are lower than if you used your regular telephone or even your mobile phone. Who doesn’t want to save money, right? Let me give you an example. If you lived in Europe, for example, and would like to place a call to your cousin who lives in Florida, you would have to pay a hefty per minute rate. The rates are usually...

VoIP Providers: Choosing the Cream of the Crop (Part 3)

Of course with the big players you’ll generally pay about 5 or 10 dollars more, just for the assurance of having a well-known brand name like AT&T or Vonage ( the current largest VoIP providers in the market). But then more and more companies are spreading its wings, so again, it’s all up to you. However, keep in mind that if a service has less than 100,000 subscribers you might want to think twice before...

Friends and family

Who among us here have friends and family overseas or at least in places miles away? You may have a close relative who recently moved to another state. Your best friend may have recently moved to another country to study for a few years. Or you may be dating someone from across seas or borders. Most of us are likely to have at least one relative or friend whom we’d like to get in touch with regularly, but fail to...

The future of VoWiFi – WiFi vs Cellular Technologies

Earlier at the turn of the century, the cellular networks looked to the third-generation (3G) standards as the future of mobile telephony, with its support for high-bandwidth applications such as video-conferencing and multimedia transfers. The then—and now still—prevalent digital cellular network was GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) can only support sub-broadband speeds of 56 kilobits per second,...

Google being sued over Google Talk

Leading search provider Google is being sued by a small patent-holdings firm for the unlicensed use of technologies that it claims it holds patents of. Rates Technology, Inc. (RTI), based in New York, has holds two patents filed years ago, which pertain to technologies that can lower the cost of non-domestic telephone calls. RTI is claiming that Google Talk, Google’s instant messaging-cum-voice client launched in...

It’s a Wireless World

The world is going wireless. From computers to telephones, people are losing the plugs. Geniuses from Einstein and Tesla saw that one day the world would be without wires, many thought they were mad, but in this new millennium people are opting for hotspots rather than being bound by cord and outlet. As people continue to increase in mobility, the need for wireless technology continues to advance. Computers are...

Uniden and Microsoft launch VoIP for Win IM

You may have heard about how wireless electronics manufacturer Uniden teamed up with Vonage, a VoIP service provider to release the Uniden UIP1869V, a 5.8GHz digital expandable cordless broadband phone system. Well Uniden’s done it again—working with Microsoft Corporation to create another digital cordless phone that can take both traditional and Internet calls. The 5.8GHz digital cordless phone bundles VoIP...