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Free PC-to-Phone in Canada and U.S.

FreeCalls365.com has launched a new VoIP (Voice over IP) telephone service that provides free PC-to-phone calls in Canada and the United States.

The service is supported by advertisements. You place the call from your computer. Headphones are strongly suggested. The dialer will constantly display ads based on the user's area code.

Skype lines up audioconferencing service

Skype plans to turn intimate get-togethers into block parties through an audioconferencing service that will allow for conferences with as many as 500 callers.

The popular VoIP service currently allows only five users on a call at one time, but that will expand when Highspeedconferencing.com gets certified as a Skype service, expected in the next few weeks, according to a Skype press representative. When that happens, and the service emerges from beta testing, it will become available through Skype's home page or the Skype Store site.

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Free phone calls and free 411 calls

Many people know that Skype offers free calls across the Internet. You can only call other computers plus a few toll-free telephone numbers (unless you pay for the Skype-In and Skype-Out service.

Phone companies like to gouge their customers for calls to 411 (information). Now there is a simple work-around:

British supermarket chain to ring up VoIP

Supermarket giant Tesco is expanding into the Internet telephony market, the company announced Thursday. Tesco will target customers with a voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, service, which it plans to start offering from more than 350 stores over the coming months. The company says call rates will be "slashed to rock-bottom prices compared to existing fixed-line services."

Linksys CIT200 Internet Telephony Kit for Skype

If you're one of the millions of registered Skype members who regularly use the company's Internet phone services, you already know that the service tethers you to your computer. The new Linksys CIT200 Internet Telephony Kit cuts the cord--for a price.

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Related post: Linksys CIT200 Internet Telephony Kit for Skype

Save Even More Money with Vonage Telephone Service

Vonage is a company that offers telephone service over your broadband Internet connection. With Vonage, you don't need a normal telephone connection in your home. All you need is a high speed Internet connection (DSL or cable) and a phone adapter box made by any of several different companies. You can initiate and receive telephone calls just as you would with any other phone. The one difference is pricing: Vonage is a lot cheaper than the local telephone company's rates. For details, see http://www.vonage.com.

Will You Replace Your Cell Phone with a Wireless Vonage phone?

Vonage has announced that it will soon offer a mobile phone that allows subscribers to use the company's VoIP network whenever they're in a Wi-Fi network. Rather than use a cell phone, Vonage subscribers could enjoy unlimited calling on a portable device as long as they are connected wirelessly to the Internet. Vonage offers unlimited calling for about $25 per month, significantly less than mobile phones companies charge for their unlimited calling plans.

I have a Vonage (wired) Internet phone here and can report that it works well. I'd love to try a wireless version.

Question: How would you make a Wi-Fi phone call when speeding down the expressway? Then again, watching some drivers as they drive and talk simultaneously, maybe it is a good idea if they DON'T call and drive.

yakForFree Virtual VideoPhone for Mac OS X

Yak has announced the launch of a Mac OS X version of its yakForFree Virtual VideoPhone software, which offers free member-to-member voice and video calls over the Internet using a high-speed connection. In addition, yakForFree offers several advanced phone features, including Audio Conference for 10, Unlimited Distributed Conferencing, Quad User Video Conference, Audio and Video Call Recording, Speaker Phone Mode, Call Transfer, Call Logs & Missed Call Indicator, Auto Answer & Conference and Do Not Disturb. Users can search the Yak Community directory listing for friends and, with the Buddy List feature, see which contacts are online at any given time. Users can upgrade to one of Yak's WorldCity VoIP paid services to make voice calls to traditional landline and cellular telephones worldwide at what it says are "exceptionally low rates."

"We are delighted by the early popularity of the yakForFree service offering and are excited to deliver the Mac download of the Virtual VideoPhone to this user community," said Charles Zwebner, Chief Executive Officer of Yak. "Mac users are recognized as early adopters of cutting edge technology, and we believe they will quickly see the value of yakForFree and we expect them to lead the way in the mass adoption of the technology."

"In addition to supporting Mac OS X, in the near future we plan to roll out a yakUnlimited service upgrade that offers local line replacement including unlimited local and long distance calling in North America for only $19.99 USD," said David Hurwitz, President of Yak's VoIP Initiatives. "Additional new features that yakForFree users can look forward to include a download for Mobile Pocket PC, a version that runs on Linux, as well as the development of an Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP)."

You can learn more at http://www.yak.com/yakworldcity/wc_plans_free.php

Skype 2.0 (beta) now includes video conferencing

Skype, the free-telephone-calls-via-your-computer company, has now delivered a fully integrated video solution with their Skype 2.0 beta release which is for Windows only.

Skype also announced a distribution partnership with Logitech and Creative which collectively sell about two-thirds of the world’s webcams positioning Skype to go after the likes of AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo who have long offered video conferencing capabilities in their instant messenging products. Skype 2.0 also includes mood indicator emoticons, the ability to see the local time of your contacts to avoid blasting ‘em out of bed in the wee hours, and the ability to group contacts at last.

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VoIP - A Layman's Look - Should You or Shouldn't You?

So what's all this VoIP hype anyway? I mean we all know that our voice can be delivered to the four corners of the globe over telephone lines.