Rumours have it that a long-awaited Skype application for the iPhone will be announced at CTIA Wireless next week. The word comes through a tipster via GigaOM and it would seem to be as good a time as any with the mobile industry trade event just around the corner.

VoIP and IM aggregators currently on the iPhone already allow Skype account use but with over 400 million Skype log-ins in existence, you can bet there are a tonne of people out there who haven't woken up to the likes of Nimbuzz and Truphone or just plain don't want to use them.

There's currently no threat to most carriers but with unlocked iPhone on the horizon and PAYG handsets, it's another reason for the networks to start tremmoring

(via GigaOM)

Damn. I want this so bad. Google Voice, formerly known as GrandCentral and acquired by the company in 2006, has finally launched officially in the US. It's a service that gives you one phone number that can access all your phones, for life, for free.

It's been invite-only for nearly two years, and there are apparently tens of thousands of people on the waiting list, but Google will shortly be letting some of those people in. Accounts have, in the past, gone for up to $650 on eBay.

The way it works is that you get given a mobile phone number, and then a web interface lets you redirect that number to any phone you like. Going on holiday? Redirect it to the hotel you're staying in. Leaving the office for an afternoon? Send people to your mobile phone. Expecting a call you don't want? Put the caller through to the fax machine.

There's also Spinvox-esque voicemail transcription, text messaging, friend settings (so that certain people can bypass your voicemail) and call recording. There's even conference calling, and you can add credit to the account to make very cheap international calls, just like Skype.

Sadly, the service is only available in the USA. That's a big :( for me. When can we get that going down in the UK? It's got to be possible, right?

(via TechCrunch)

Spinvox, the voice-to-text service, has been quietly gaining plaudits for a number of years, and they've just announced a deal with VoIP service Skype whereby you can get your voicemails as texts.

You'll be charged 17p per message, plus any SMS charge you've got, but depending on how much you're charged to listen to voicemails and how annoying you find listening to them, you might think it's worth it.

Skype Voicemail to Text (via ShinyShiny)

Skype has just announced that it's giving away its SILK speech codec, which is the bit of software that processes your voice into a small enough stream of data for you to be able to communicate over a slow internet connection. A codec is basically a balancing act between file size and audio quality.

The SILK codec has been in development for three years at Skype and was finally bundled with the most recent release of the software - Skype 4. It's a major step forward in audio quality and scales depending on the bandwidth available.

So if it's so great, then why is Skype giving it away royalty-free to its competitors? Good question. My best guess is that Skype has the VoIP market so firmly tied up that it wants some competition to help grow the whole market. Then, I suppose, it's confident enough that those users will switch to Skype thanks to its fantastic software.

It might also be a sign that Skype's considering offering an API. Opening up the service, which is famously closed, would mean that other programs could be able to make Skype calls natively, without people having to open and install Skype itself. It could mean that you'll just be able to highlight phone numbers on websites and right-click to call them from the browser.

More information's available on the SILK website, and TechCrunch has an interesting take too.

Skype has just announced "the most distinctive new release" of its communications software for Windows.

Version four claims to offer far better full screen video calling as well as optimising itself depending upon your PCs specifications. Those with at least a dual core processor, fast broadband connection and Skype-certified video webcam can get up to 30fps high quality video.

More importantly for many will be improved audio quality. Thanks to a new codec, there's wideband audio quality but using 50% less bandwidth than in previous versions. There's even super wideband audio for those with compatible headsets and fast broadband.

There are many families who have to cope with the pain of separation - if Daddy has to fly away on business trips a lot, for example. Well, now Daddy (or Mummy, we're a politically correct organisation here) can read a bedtime story to his (or her) little sprog over Windows Live Messenger, wherever they are.

The website - timeforastory.com - is currently populated with three Noddy stories. 'Rocket Ship', 'Rainbow Chaser', and the intriguingly titled 'Bounce Alert!' The stories are interactive - as Mummy or Daddy reads, their kid can click on images to trigger animations.

All you need to get it going is a PC, a copy of Windows Live Messenger on each PC, a microphone and a webcam. Modern laptops generally have all those things inbuilt. So if you're in Japan, thousands of miles away from your poor son or daughter, and it's their bedtime, then stop reading Tech Digest and go read them a bedtime story.

Time for a Story

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Good news for iPhone users who have been waiting to use the Nimbuzz mobile instant messaging and VoIP client -- it's finally available to download for free.

It offers free voice calling over a Wi-Fi connection to users on Skype, Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger and Google Talk, among others, as well as instant messaging to a whole host of other services.

Good afternoon grappling fans. It's taken an extra couple of weeks to have the broken glass elements swept up and the ring re-sprung after the inaugural clash two weeks ago between Nikon and Canon, but floor -32 of the sub-sub-basement of Shiny Towers is open once again for the bloodiest match-up in the world of the chipset smack down - Technology Deathmatch.

There's a chill in the mouldy air today. It's two-for-one at the arena with many of the rich, foreign businessmen abroad or in offices with their accountants assessing the damage to their stocks, but with cheap entry comes a cheap crowd: Guinness soaked mothers with their screaming children, gangs of late thirty-somethings waiting for Mecca Bingo halls to open and sacked City traders at the hollow ends of long vodka bottles just looking for a way to forget.

They cry blood, they scream, "entertain us" and that's exactly what they'll get in the 'Battle of the Mobile VoIPs'. Telecommunication giants were twitching but now it's the mobile operators that are all a-mutter with the rise of new ways to bypass their networks. There are many companies jumping in as mobile middlemen but today, going toe to toe, are two very different contenders.

In the blue corner with thinned turnbuckle pad and rusty post is the young contender from the streets of Maskina in Olso, Norwary is the Nokia favourite, the Scandinavian SIP supplier - Vyke!

fring, the VoIP and instant messaging aggregator software, has now received approval from Apple and is available to download from the App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

A previous beta version, which required a jailbroken iPhone to work, proved extremely popular. Now anyone can get hold of the app that allows them to instant message their contacts on Skype, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, Twitter, Yahoo! and AIM, as well as make cheap calls via a Wi-Fi connection.

Finally, it's possible to keep in contact with everyone when away from the desktop environment, and all from the single application.

Everyone's favourite voice-over-IP application, Skype, released a beta version of its new application on Wednesday. It's a near complete redesign from the ground up. It's quite different, but I've been using it a few days, and I think it's a very strong improvement on the previous version. Here's why you should give it a shot:

Hardware
Skype's now a lot better at recognising the random assortment of gadgets that you need to plug into your computer to use it. Although they only promise that "Skype ready" gadgets will definitely work, it's managed to recognise pretty much everything that I've plugged in so far.

Ok, I'm a little confused here. I seem to be getting quite into the world of telephone service providers at the moment, from typical landline solutions to mobile VoIP, and trying to work out what the best and cheapest way to make your calls is. The trouble is that Skuku has got me rather stumped.

Skuku is an interesting looking new service coming to the UK after some apparent success in India and the idea behind it is to get rid of roaming charges when making and receiving calls while abroad.

Tesco has launched its new mobile VoIP service today under the name of Tesco Talkwi-fi. Of course, the concept is nothing new to the tech savvy, especially with the likes of Skype and Vyke already on the scene and as it goes it's not that much of a stretch for the supermarket giant's customers who will already be familiar with the their standard VoIP service in the shape of the Tesco Internet Phone.

The service works as a downloadable S60 app and, at the moment, will run on the Nokia Wi-Fi handsets N81, E65, E51 and the ever-popular N95, although more compatibles are promised by the end of the year.

If you've already booked your trip to Beijing this summer or you're really desperate for a free phone then, mobile VoiP service Fring is offering you your very own 3.5G handset with GPS, camera, local SIM card and an unlimited data plan in return for micro-blogging the Olympics on their behalf.

There's no regulation as to what you have to blog so long as it's got something to do with the games, even if it's just getting trollied, breaking into the stadium at the dead of night to light a fag off the eternal flame, getting brutilised by the police and spending the three or four weeks blogging from the inside of a Chinese prison.

I can't keep track of how many of my colleagues and friends use which instant messenger programs and when, and I'm sick of having all those damn applications on my desktop, let alone open all at once.

I'd decided to make my stand as a Skype guy and ignore all my MSN messenger loser mates but a new application's in town and it's here to solve our problems by aggregating all of the IM services into one. Say hello to Nimbuzz.

Skype has released a beta version of its new java based mobile application which provides mobile users with Skype access while out and about.

It's free to download from here and should work with around 50 models of handset. The beta software offers most of the same features as full Skype client, including Skype messaging, group chats, SkypeIn, SkypeOut, SkypeShakeItAllAbout and Skype-to-Skype calls. These last three are actually on restricted availability, but for a nice change the UK is in the list of supported regions.

Skype, mobile phone - got to be a winner, right? Well, there's a catch. It is still going to charge you. Generally, using the application will cost the same as a normal local call. Additionally, if you call a UK mobile or landline, you'll pay the SkypeOut cost on top of that. Likewise if you receive a call from a fellow Skype user, you pay the Skype Out rate for a local call to your area.

Isn't Skype great? Well, not if you're BT, I suppose, but for us users, free voice and video calls from from computer to computer worldwide is an absolute godsend.

Of course, as nice as they are at Skype, you still have to pay when calling house phones or mobiles but you can always do that on a pay-as-you-go basis at very reasonable rates.

Well, it seems they've decided to be even more reasonable and sell monthly packages now too. There's no long contracts but there are three different "unlimited calls" price bands to chose from: "Unlimited Country" (£1.95) for calls to landlines in one country, "Unlimited Europe" (£2.95) for calls to any of their 20 European countries and "Unlimited Worldwide" (£6.95) for calls to any of their 34 worldwide countries.

Jaxtr totally bypasses your local operator so you're not at the mercy of your mobile or landline provider any more. Sign up, register your handset, and it's hello to extremely cheap - and in some cases free - global telephony options.

Jaxtr's been going since 2007 and has just granted all of its users the chance to send £FREE international texts. Excitingly, this is one scheme that we're allowed to join in with - Jaxtr supports 38 countries and the UK is one of them. How very web 2.0 of them.

It's ad-funded, mind, so as long as you don't mind having an advert for a wholly inappropriate and unrelated product tagged beneath your every text message, go for it.

(Via Jaxtr)

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I'm not often impressed with VoIP phones, but I'll make an exception for the Thomson Symbio.

It's not just the skeleton phone design that's of interest, it's the feature set too. That allows you to use it as a wireless DECT and VoIP phone with everything you would expect from that (caller ID, address book, hands-free etc), along with HD sound, SMS messaging, RSS feeds, a fully-featured internet radio via stereo speakers and if that's not enough, it even works as a radio alarm clock.

No news on a date or price as yet, but we'll certainly keep you posted on it.

Thomson (via Nexus 404)

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Over in Japan last week, Panasonic showed off their first Skype phone, the KX-WP800, which will go on sale at the end of the month. In Japan, sadly, with no word as yet on availability for the Western side of the world.

55 hours of standby time and 4.5 hours of talk time aren't the only features it's touting, with the main attraction being the connectivity to the FON network, for free calls via Wi-Fi.

It comes bundled with a 802.11b/g router so you can create a FON hotspot in your home, office, or yacht, otherwise the Spanish company has over 30,000 hotspots in Japan already, meaning the Panny handset can be usable in many areas of the country, logging on instantly.

Japanese customers will be paying ¥29,800, or around £145, for the privilege of owning this attractive handset from Panasonic.

(via Akihabara News and TechRadar)

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Skype has finally arrived on the Sony PSP, in firmware update 3.9!
The PSP Skype microphone and headset combi - finally pictured properly
PSP getting Skype support in next update?

Sony has introduced a new range of lightweight headsets for both music and VoIP calling, all designed for clear voice transmission with a fully adjustable rotating flexible boom microphone, Sony's noise cancelling technology, Acoustic Twin Turbo Circuits and a Silent Cap Design for reduced sound leakage.

The range includes the basic DR-220DP in metallic orange and silver, the DR-220DPV, which adds with volume control, the purple DR-G250DP with 'collapsible street style design' perfect for travel and padded ear pads, the DR-260USBS hands-free stereo headset with removable USB audio box for volume and microphone sound control, the DR-115DP with swivel feature for right to left ear switching and finally, the top-end DR-EX230DP, which offers in-ear silicon ear-buds in three sizes for comfort, an in-line microphone for sound recording and a travel case.

Prices start at around 24 Euros, going up to around 45 Euros.

Sony

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