After the Internet made it possible to route telephone calls to ordinary landline numbers and mobile phones, only people with too much money have made international calls using traditional telephone services. No one has to pay several dollars per minute only to call back home anymore. Fortunately, a number of new telephone services are offering free or low-cost rates for overseas phone calls. FooCall is one of them.

FooCall service is offering low-cost international phone calls for mobile phones, PCs and landline telephones. The rates are low, because ...

As we expected, the trend in ebook reader devices is strongly pointing to touch-sensitive displays instead of exotic keypads featured on devices like the Amazon Kindle or the Sony Reader PRS-505. For instance, the Barnes&Noble Nook, Entourage Edge, and Sony Touch Edition all have touch screens of some sort. Irex, one of the pioneers in the ebook device industry, has introduced a touch screen device as well.

The Irex DR800SG ebook reader comes with 8.1-inch touch screen. Device menus and ebooks are accessed by tapping the screen with ...

What similarities powerful server computers and small smartphones have? Sure, both can connect to the Internet, run applications, and perform many useful things, but there is one core component that's the same: Linux software. Originally developed for a desktop PC almost twenty years ago, Linux operating system has become the de-facto server software for Internet servers and it is becoming increasingly popular on smartphones after Google adopted Linux for mobile devices and labeled it Android. Also Samsung has decided to add Linux smartphones to its product range.

The Samsung Galaxy Spica is a touch screen smartphone designed for ...

For a moment, we thought that all ebook reader devices would be alike. The most popular devices (at the moment) Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader are slim handheld tablets optimised for displaying text alone. Without a color display, without Internet access, without email, without the possibility to write down notes, getting an ebook reader means carrying an extra device along with a laptop PC. Not anymore, if we believe a company called Entourage achieves its goal and can develop an attractive product that merges ebook reader, netbook, and tablet PC into one small device.

The Entourage Edge is a netbook, tablet, and ebook reader with two displays. The black-and-white display is ...

Photographers who take plenty of photos during their shooting sessions tend to carry spare memory cards. It is a sensible solution for ensuring the storage capacity for digital images won't run out. It doesn't, however, solve another nasty problem; losing the photos already stored on memory cards. We have discovered a solution that pretty much protects photos already taken, even if the photographer forgets his backup strategy altogether.

The Epson P-6000 and P-7000 are high-capacity multimedia players that can be connected to a digital camera for instant image backups. When the P-6000 or P-7000 is connected to a camera ...

JoikuBoost is one of the greatest innovations we have recently discovered in the mobile phone industry or one of the weirdest gizmos without real life application (other than being a toy for nerds). JoikuBoost application is aimed at boosting mobile network download speeds by sharing the bandwidth of multiple smartphones. Sounds exciting? We thought so. Let's explore what JoikuBoost smartphone application can do so that you can judge for yourself if you find the application useful.

JoikuBoost is a downloadable application for smartphones running on Symbian S60 software. After you have installed the application into a smartphone, you can connect, for example, your laptop ...

Nokia became an overnight sensation in North America in the late 1990s, after the company had learned the tricks of the unique market with RadioShack. One of the key things was that Nokia was more than willing to customize mobile phones for US operators.

As a challenger, Nokia was agile and innovative. In 1998, it succeeded to beat Motorola in the race for the number one position. Nokia became the largest mobile phone vendor in the world and in the US. In 2001, Nokia introduced its first smartphone, the 7650. Since Nokia was a top ten brand globally and the new Symbian S60 software allowed anyone to create applications for the phone, management made a decision to stop customizing phones for operators. If a customer wanted to have their own version of a Nokia phone, the customer was welcomed to program his own applications and install them to the phone.

The decision was logical and didn't really affect Nokia's sales in Europe or Asia, but it was fatal in the US. Slowly, but surely, US operators stopped distributing Nokia phones ...

The top management of the Barnes&Noble bookstore chain must have been hit by a terrible headache when Amazon launched the Kindle ebook reader device. Matters turned even worse when the device became an instant success. Finally, the Barnes&Noble management decided to re-enter the ebook business which the company left in early 2000s. Fortunately, the company had the foresight to design a different kind of ebook reader device than the Amazon Kindle or Sony Reader. Let's find out if the Barnes&Noble Nook can beat its competition.

The unique feature on the Barnes&Noble Nook ebook reader device is its color display. In fact, the Nook has another unique feature; it has two displays. It is not as crazy as ...

Many smartphones are so powerful that it is possible to store a whole movie on the device and view the flick on the phone display. That's an excellent way to spend time on a train or during a flight. When you want to watch the video clip with friends, you need another solution. A number of smartphones come with TV out connectors for connecting the device to a TV monitor, but you need cables and know how to tweak both smartphone and TV settings. A new, more convenient solution for the small screen problem is to have a projector that can reflect the smartphone screen as a large image to a wall.

Since the key feature of a mobile phone, iPod, or laptop is that it is easy to take the device along, the projector has to be small and portable as well. The Cinemin Swivel is ...

You may know Acer from its PCs, laptops, and netbooks, but lately, the company has been very active in smartphone business as well. It has introduced three smartphone product lines with a number of phone models in each category. Let's take a look at a smartphone with touch scren adnd numeric keypad.

The Acer beTouch E200 is a compact touch screen smartphone that also ...

One of the most common accidents that can destroy a mobile phone (or any electronics) is dropping the device into water. Water resistant mobile phones designed for sports activities are available, but few people find them attractive. It is, however, possible to totally protect a mobile phone from water. You simply slip the phone into a pouch designed for the purpose. We tried out a low-cost waterproof pouch for mobile phones.

Canadian company RIM became a major mobile phone vendor when its email-focused Blackberry smartphones broke through in North America. Two key factors contributed to the success: push email system that made it very easy for users to access messages from their corporate account and qwerty keyboard that made it easy to type messages. Nothing is sacred for RIM as iPhone and other popular touch screen smartphones are pushing the company to move to touch sensitive devices. RIM has now introduced the Blackberry Storm2, company's second touch screen phone.

The Blackberry Storm2 (model numbers 9520 and 9550) comes with 3.25-inch, 480 x 360 pixel-resolution color display. The display is touch sensitive, built on a technology ...

Practically every major PC manufacturer has decided to venture into smartphone business. So far, only few brands have succeeded. Whereas Apple has scored a huge hit with the iPhone, a major corporation like HP has introduced many smartphones but few people have even notice them. Acer introduced its first mobile phones in early 2009, the Tempo series, but they didn't make a major breakthrough. Now, Acer has decided to expand its smartphone operation to Windows Mobile and Android-based products.

The Acer neoTouch is a touch screen smartphone built on Windows Mobile 6.5 software. Its large 3.8-inch display has high resolution of ...

Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, is one of the greatest success stories of free information sharing on the Internet. Thousands of volunteers have contributed articles to Wikipedia database, making it the most extensive (although many argue that its quality is lagging behind commercial products) encyclopedia on Earth. It is so easy to find information from Wikipedia that it is also one of the most visited destinations on the Internet. Amazingly, Wikipedia is free to use.

When you are away from your PC and desperately need information from Wikipedia, what can you do? OpenMoko, the company behind the Freerunner Linux smartphone, believes that the information stored in Wikipedia is so valuable that a dedicated device has its place in our pockets. OpenMoko has created WikiReader, a small handheld device that is ...

Heavy users smartphones and portable media players suffer from dead batteries because they tend to use the Wi-Fi connection more often than ordinary mobile phone users or they love to view videos and surf the Internet on their smartphones. The worst thing is that the battery tends to die when there is no hope for getting a quick recharge. We have encountered a number of backup power solutions that provide extra juice for mobile phones and media players, but they are independent accessories from the actual device. It means that you have to remember to charge the extra battery separately and you have to remember to take it along when you go out. Until now, because a company called Xmultiple Technologies has invented an ingenious solution that brings extra power right there where you need it.

The XP1-2500 is a power cable you can use to charge your Apple iPhone, iPod, Blackberry, Zune, or mobile phone. You plug your ...

The possibility to view live TV shows on a pocket-size handheld device that has large touch screen sounds like an excellent idea. Or does it? Let's find out because Qualcomm has introduced a product called Flo TV which is a dedicated device for watching live TV programming on the go.

The Flo TV has built-in digital TV receiver. It is not, however, the same digital TV signal ...

We love our touch screen phone. We love it so much that we don't see any chance of switching to a phone with hardware keypad for the winter. Yet, we are painfully aware of the inconvenient weather conditions during the winter. We have to wear gloves when it is cold, but we can't tap the Apple iPhone screen with gloves on. The iPhone multitouch screen simply doesn't react at all. So, we have to take off gloves in order to dial someone. Freezing. Unless ... someone has invented gloves that ...

Many experts believe that the Apple iPhone has had an advantage over other smartphones because of its multitouch display technology. A multitouch screen lets you manipulate objects using two fingers. For instance, if you want to zoom in to a photo displayed on the screen, you would simultaneously slide two fingers away from each another. It is a handy and fast way to control the phone once you get used to it. Many Apple competitors claim that two fingers is too complex for users to learn. One way or the other, we are happy to find out that there are other products with multitouch capability besides the iPhone.

The HTC HD2 smartphone has a large multitouch screen. The display is one of the largest ...

You know how a full HD (High-Definition) TV looks like, right? A large, flat panel display. It makes you wonder what kind of gigantic video camera is required to shoot full HD movies. Well, since the whole system; cameras, film editing, broadcasting system and TV sets are digital, the camera can be very small if you are willing to sacrifice some image quality for convenience and ease-of-use. That's how Toshiba has seen the development; a tiny camera has to be able deliver large, high-resolution video images.

The Toshiba Camileo S20 is a slim and compact camcorder that ...

Picture frames that can display digital photos and videos are kind of electronic products that even our grandma is happy to use. Typically, a digital photo frame is easy to use, because there is only one thing to do; to display photos. Only one or two buttons is required; one button to switch the device on and another one to advance the slideshow to the next picture. The most advanced frame models, like this one we recently reviewed, let the user download images from Internet photo albums as well. There is, however, a feature we haven't appreciated in many picture frames; they have to be connected to a power source. You have a nice frame on a bookshelf, but you can't take it to the sofa and pass it around among friends, because the power cable prohibits moving the frame. No more, because Philips has introduced a portable picture frame with a battery as its power source.

The Philips SPH8008 digital photo frame can be moved from room to room or passed ...

A couple of years ago, when the Apple iPod MP3 player was the hottest product on Earth, hundreds of accessories were made available for the device. You could get headphones, loudspeakers, cases, FM radios, docking stations, and other accessories. Now, the Apple iPhone is the hottest product on Earth, but add-on accessories can be primarily be found in the App Store. Applications are the new accessories for smartphones. Except for one product; hardware keyboards for the iPhone.

The thing is that an add-on hardware keyboard for the Apple iPhone is a stupid idea. If you feel you need ...

So far, ebook reader devices built on the e-ink display technology have been about the same size independent of the brand. All right, the Amazon Kindle DX is larger than the other devices, but none of them has been small enough to fit into pocket. Now, a company called Bookeen has introduced an ebook reader device that has the same high-contrast, sharp, flicker-free display as other devices, but it fits into pocket.

The Bookeen Cybook Opus ebook reader is about the size of an PDA (if you still can remember those iPaq and PalmPilot devices), only slightly taller. The dimensions of the Opus are 6 x 4.2 x 0.4 inches or 155 x 108 x 10 mm. The unit weighs 5.3 ounces or 150 g. True, you must have a largish pocket. Remarkably, Bookeen has ...

Facebook is the most popular social networking service that people across the world love to access on their PCs. There are ways to access some Facebook functions from a mobile phone as well, such as photos, but so far, it hasn't been very attractive or easy. Nokia and Facebook have decided to do something about it. Nokia has developed an application, called Lifecasting, that can be downloaded to select Nokia smartphones for mobile Facebook access.

Nokia has developed the Lifecasting with Ovi application with Facebook, allowing Nokia's software designers to go deeper into Facebook functionality than ...

This day will be remembered as the day when Nokia indirectly unveiled a big change into its smartphone software strategy. Linux-based Maemo is likely to become the operating system for high-end devices while Symbian S60 software is likely to be the choice for low-end devices. The quick adoption of touch screen devices has been a decisive factor for the change. From the beginning, Maemo was designed as a touch screen software, while Symbian S60 was originally designed for single-handed use with a numeric keypad. Also, Nokia already has a decent track record with Maemo touch screen devices, like the N800 and N810.

In any case, the Nokia N900 is a powerful smartphone, or a pocket-size PC with in-built mobile phone, depending on the angle where you are looking at the product. The large touch screen on the N900 allows scrolling menus and pages like the Apple iPhone ...

Nokia Ovi, a suite of online services for mobile phones and PCs, is a strategic bet for the company's future. While Ovi is critically important for Nokia's top management, the service still has to prove its importance to Nokia customers. The Files service, however, shows potential beyond currently available backup and remote access features. We reviewed the service and analyzed its potential ...