In this day and age, hardly anyone ever uses landline phones anymore. On the other hand, people don’t want to use up their cellphone credit just chatting with friends. Using your computer to make calls over VoIP is simple and easy, no matter what your OS is. Check out some of these VoIP applications for Linux that works great for personal or small businesses.

Skype for Linux

Skype is usually the first service that comes into mind when it comes to VoIP or video chatting online. Skype for Linux is equipped with all the features you’ll find in its other OS versions, like screen sharing, quick add, group chats with up to 150 participants, and conference calls. You can also use Skype to call mobile phones and landline numbers for a very small fee.

Asterisk

Asterisk is an open-source VoIP engine with a tool kit often used by small business owners who want to keep communications costs down. Its features include call waiting, call transfer, caller ID, and text-to-speech recognition among others.

Ekiga

Ekiga is another open-source VoIP and video conferencing application especially designed for GNOME. Its features include an advanced contact book, call hold, forwarding, and transferring, configurable sound events, and others. It can also handle several network interfaces at once and integrates well with Novell Evolution and Asterisk.

Linphone

Linphone can work with most webcams to provide voice conference and video conference calls for users, as well as an instant messaging/text chat capability. Although you can use Linphone to call mobile numbers and landlines, you’ll be charged a small fee. Linphone is ideal for users who want a simple VoIP app without the bells and whistles.

Callweaver

Callweaver is an independent, cross-platform, open-source VoIP app that was derived from Asterisk. It supports digital and analog PSTN telephony and has standard VoIP features like conference call, call forwarding, and call queue management. It even has support for fax-over-IP.

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Everyone’s buzzing with excitement over the announcement of the new iPhone 3GS, especially since it comes equipped with a lot of exciting software and hardware features, like the new 3-megapixel video camera. However, the placement of the lens is rather odd; instead of being located above the touchscreen, it now faces away from you – the wrong way for video calls. It’s as if the new iPhone 3GS was designed to prevent video calling apps from working, which is not good new for Skype users. Although iPhone programmers can use the camera to store videos, they can’t write apps that will route the stream, which means that Skype for iPhone will probably skip adding video call features anytime soon.

There are four reasons why this may have happened. First, it could be due to simple manufacturing economics; it’s too early to lower the costs of video components. It could also be because video-to-file is easier to manage than streaming video. Battery life could also be a factor – video calls eat up batteries very quickly. But I think the real reason is that it’s a carrier issue. Mobile operators are threatened by the potential of VoIP and the big savings they offer to consumers. I imagine AT&T would be hostile to any VoIP-friendly features on the iPhone.

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With so are many VoIP phones available on the market today, it’s difficult to narrow down the choices and select which VoIP phone to get. The trick to buying the right VoIP phone is to get to know the VoIP protocols supported by the phone; that way, you can see if that particular phone will fit your needs.

These VoIP control protocols may include:

Session Initial Protocol (SIP) is a standard multimedia with conference protocol that makes up voice, video and data conferencing through packet-switched networks.

Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP) is an internal protocol used within one VoIP system, and is designed to address the demands of carrier based phone networks.

IAX2, which has more bandwidth sufficiency that other VoIP protocols, allowing you to support more VoIP calls at the same time using the same amount of bandwidth.

Other features that might be useful:
3-way calling
Do Not Disturb mode
Custom ringtones
A feature that allows you to work behind routers and Network Address Transaction
Real Time Transport Protocol Support
Support for a SIP outbound proxy
Compliance with Quality of Standards
Encryption

A virtual phone service contains many call management features that will allow you to handle customer calls more efficiently or will make inter-office communication easier. If you aren’t using a virtual phone system for your small business, consider trying one out to explore the ways it can improve your communication. Here are some call management features your virtual phone system should have.

Virtual receptionist auto attendant. Your virtual receptionist automatically deals with all incoming calls, ensuring that all received calls will be sent to where they should go to. The caller decides who they want the call to be routed to, and the virtual receptionist takes care of the rest.

Screen incoming calls. Your virtual phone system should offer you the ability to see the caller’s information and allow you to decide if you want to speak to that person. More sophisticated virtual phone services will even give you a virtual call controller that lets you view this information on your computer.

Answering rules. This feature allows you to set rules incoming calls must follow, allowing you to route calls based on certain criteria like the time of day, what day of the week, etc.

Large call volume queues. This feature lets you put calls on hold and accept them based on the order they came in. If you receive a lot of customer calls, this is an indispensable feature you cannot do without.

Call forwarding. Your virtual phone systems solution should be able to route customer calls or business calls to any phone, no matter where it is located. This allows you to work from your house or receive important calls when you’re out of town.

Despite all the wonderful features mobile phones have these days, they’re not particularly known for cheap calls. Although rates for roaming calls and long distance calls are a lot more affordable today, calling family, friends, and business associates can still result in an expensive phone bill if you call them frequently. Everyone who makes frequent calls, especially across borders, wishes there could be more affordable mobile phone plans. This is where VoIP comes in.

In order to use VoIP on your mobile phone, your handset must support wireless connectivity through any of the following technologies: HSDPA, WiFi, 3G, or EVDO. You also need to sign up with a service provider that allows you to make calls over the Internet using VoIP. Different mobile providers have different requirements – for instance, a mobile VoIP provider that has WiFi connectivity will require you to log into a WiFi network before you can make a VoIP call. You will need a mobile phone that supports WiFi, and you’ll also need to get into a hotspot when placing a call. The disadvantage here is that out of wireless range, there won’t be much use for your VoIP.

Nonetheless, mobile VoIP still has a bright future. With people looking to cut communication costs in a period of recession, more VoIP providers are responding to this need by making their services more available. It won’t be long until more and more people make the transition to mobile VoIP.

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As part of their Ferrari-branded notebook line-up, Acer just revealed the new Ferrari 1200. This incredibly thin and light laptop has a carbon-fiber cover, a 12.1-inch LED backlit LCD screen, an anodized metal touchpad, a (tacky) Ferrari logo, and a ventilation system design that resembles the exhaust pipes of F1 cars. This machine looks pretty powerful – other specs include a M780G-powered motherboard with integrated DirectX 10 graphics, an AMD Turion X2 Ultra processor, SATA hard drive, up to 4GB of DDR2 memory, WiFi connectivity, a slot-in DVD, and a webcam. The Ferrari 1200 also comes with an optional Xpress VoIP phone! No news on how much this will all cost or when it will be available.

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If you got an iPod Touch under the Christmas tree for the holidays and would like to use its VoIP capabilities – you’re in luck! The new firmware 2.2 is an upgrade of the iPod Touch’s recording capabilities, which means that you can now use third party microphones for VoIP. All you have to do is connect it through the Touch’s dock port. Besides that, Nimbuzz is now available for download on the iPhone App store, which means that you can use your iPod Touch to chat or do voice calls through the following instant messaging services:

* Yahoo! Messenger
* MySpace
* Windows Live Messenger
* Skype
* Facebook
* AIM
* Google Talk
* Jabber
* ICQ

Nokia E90 users, the v300 firmware update is finally out! This is one of the more significant updates because it will give you the following features:

- faster orientation switching
- a cosmetic upgrade to Music player
- built-in Nokia Maps 2.0
- updates for Flash video and Flash lite 3
- v 3.1.736 for Download! application
- improved WiFi
- new VoIP baseline
- support for FLV format on Realplayer (FLV files can be played directly like mpeg4 files)

Unfortunately, the big downside to v300 is that it took out Blackberry support from the E90 in order to make it like its E66 and E70 siblings. If Blackberry support is essential to your use of the device, stay away from this firmware update until you hear more information from Nokia.

At long last, the long-awaited Google Phone has finally been launched! The Linux-based Android G1 was unveiled in New York today. It’s not as sleek and slim as the iPhone and the QWERTY keyboard looks a little unweildy to use, but I think what might turn people off about it is that it’s not as “open” as Google would have led you to believe. On the VoIP side, Google’s GTalk will automatically work as an IM client when you launch it but you can’t use it to make voice calls. There won’t be any restrictions on VoIP apps because the OS is open, and T-Mobile didn’t place any restrictions on VoIP over WiFi either. However, T-Mobile occupied the same stance with AT&T and Apple: they have no plans to support VoIP on their 3G mobile network. Hardly a very open approach.

As for developing applications for the G1, VoIP or otherwise, Google says they need to “validate” the apps before they can be made available. They didn’t give out any details on how that will work, which is really not much different from Apple.

Also, Daniel Roth from Wired asked T-Mobile CTO Cole Brodman what would stop a company like Skype from designing a VoIP program that will run on the G1, thus negating the need for the T-Mobile voice plan. Brodman’s response was that they “worked with Google” to make sure that the G1 won’t be able to run VoIP. In that case, I wouldn’t count on getting the G1 as a VoIP device.

Asus has released a new gadget in the market, which is the lovechild of the renowned tech-maker and the world’s favorite free VoIP provider, Skype. This new gadget is the AiGuru SV1 Skype videophone and if Asus is to be believed, this is the first ever Skype-certified standalone videophone.

The SV1 was especially designed to make it easier to make web-based calls while on the go, which is why it has an icon-based interface and an intuitive button layout. It has a 7-inch 800 x 480 display, a 0.3 megapixel webcam, built-in speakers, and a microphone. No need to plug this onto your PC because the SV1 can connect to your broadband link directly over 802.11b/g Wi-Fi. With the SV1, you can make Skype-to-Skype video calls and voice calls, do video conferencing, and make or receive calls to mobile phones and landlines. The only downside? The battery life lasts a mere 20 minutes when you use video chat.

The Asus AiGuru SV1 will be released in the US and Europe on October. Suggested retail price is about €250/$300.