Viber VoIP iPhone app: 3G calling, no registration and absolutely free

Now would be an awesome time to bid 'em adieu. Out of nowhere, Viber has swooped in to crush the dreams of Skype and every other VoIP provider out there, and if these guys can reach critical mass, avid iPhone users will certainly be able to buy a mobile plan with fewer minutes. It works as such: install the free app on your iPhone, provide just your phone number (no "registration" is necessary) and then fire it up. Viber uses your existing contact and favorites list, and you can make Viber or standard voice calls from within the app; naturally, a Viber logo pops up beside any contact who is also a user, making it easy to see who you can VoIP call for free. As our brethren over at TUAW point out, there's simply no catch to be found __ well, except for those of you counting your kilobytes on AT&T's newer, metered data plans. Call quality was said to be excellent over 3G and WiFi, and potentially best of all, gratis SMS and an Android version are both on the way. Head on past the break if you need any additional convincing, and tap that iTunes link to get your download on. So, AT&T, what's the value proposition on those "rollover minutes" again?

Google: 1,000,000 Gmail calls in 24-hours

Gmail voice and video chat makes it easy to stay in touch with friends and family using your computer’s microphone and speakers. But until now, this required both people to be at their computers, signed into Gmail at the same time. Given that most of us don’t spend all day in front of our computers, we thought, “wouldn’t it be nice if you could call people directly on their phones?”



Starting today, you can call any phone right from Gmail.













Calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free for at least the rest of the year and calls to other countries will be billed at our very low rates. We worked hard to make these rates really cheap with calls to the U.K., France, Germany, China, Japan—and many more countries—for as little as $0.02 per minute.



Dialing a phone number works just like a normal phone. Just click “Call phone” at the top of your chat list and dial a number or enter a contact’s name.

Lower Your AT&T Cell Phone Bill with VoIP iPhone Apps

Cut your cell phone bill down to size with these free and cheap-to-use applications for your iPhone.In the complex kitchen sink of fees AT&T has built up around the iPhone, with separate billing for phone minutes,text messages, and even AT&T Navigator, the obligatory unlimited data plan has been like a Swiss Army knife taped shut: Technically, it can replace many paid features – including voice functionality – but Apple’s strict rules for apps have prevented it from doing so.

Slice that red tape and get ready to pop open the corkscrew, because those days are over.

In late January, Apple has lifted its ban on voice-over-IP (VoIP) apps using AT&T’s cellular data network. In other words, the tunnel out of AT&T’s fee structure has been opened: You can now place calls through the Web without paying the company another dime for minutes. Wondering how to get started? Here are a few of the best VoIP apps for the iPhone, along with rates.

The same great app you know from the desktop has landed on the iPhone, and very soon, will allow you place calls over AT&T’s 3G network when you don’t have Wi-Fi. Unlike Google Voice, Skype actually charges a small monthly fee to place outgoing calls from the app, but in return, it won’t bite into your monthly minutes. You can get unlimited calls to the U.S. and Canada for $2.95 a month, to one country for $5.95, and to the world for $12.95. Like Google Voice, you can also place long-distance calls for bargain basement prices. Calls to Spain, for instance, will run you 2.4 cents per minute. You can also buy a Skype In number (a phone number others can dial into to reach you on Skype) for as low as $30 a year, with the purchase of a monthly outgoing subscription.

FringFree

This all-in-one instant messaging client goes beyond simple text to offer two voice options:Skype and SIP. Skype will allow you to log in to your account and use the same options outlined above, but SIP (which is a protocol, not a service) represents a whole other can of worms. In order to use it, you’ll need to sign up with one of dozens of VoIP providers that support that SIP protocol and Fring, which you can find on Fring’s partners page. Get an account with one, like VoIPCheap, sign in with your details through Fring, then dial away at rates that make AT&T look like thieves.

Google VoiceFree

Google managed to burrow out from under Apple’s rejection of this Google Voice by putting it on the Web rather than in the App Store, which means that technically, this isn’t an app. But it works the same way. After signing up for a Google Voice account, you’ll receive a personal number allowing you to both send and receive calls through Google Voice. Unfortunately, numbers placed through the “app” actually have to be handed to the iPhone’s dialer, which quickly dials a local access number and puts you through to your intended contact, meaning it will deduct minutes. That said the access number is always local, so for international calling, Google Voice rates absolutely flog AT&T. Call to Spain on AT&T: $1.49 a minute. Call to Spain on Google Voice: 2 cents a minute. You can also send and receive text messages for free, and try cool features like voicemail transcription.

iCallFree

Much like Skype, iCall offers calling from your iPhone without minutes counting against your phone plan, for a fee. Monthly plans cost $9.95 and include unlimited domestic calling, while pay-as-you-go minutes start at 2.1 cents per minute (considering AT&T’s cheapest calling plan breaks down to 11.25 cents per minute for domestic calling, that’s still a bargain.) You can also make international calls for rates that closely mirror Google Voice’s (read: cheap).

Vonage MobileFree

The mobile app from this well-established provider of VoIP-based landlines offers one of the most polished iPhone apps we’ve seen. For instance, it allows you to dial directly from your iPhone’s standards contacts without any “import” process, making it feel familiar in many ways to the standard iPhone dialer – without the high rates. Per-minute prices closely mirror Skype’s, but Vonage offers only one monthly pricy service plan: unlimited “world” calling for $24.99 a month. Although this place includes access to over 60 countries compared to the 40 or so available through Skype’s $12.95 world plan, both seem to offer the same spotty restrictions on international cell lines (you’ll pay extra to call cell phones in some countries, and not in others). The most notable exception that might warrant paying almost double for Vonage versus Skype: landlines in Mexico are included, while Skype’s unlimited world subscription only discounts Mexican landlines to 4 cents per minute.

TruphoneFree

Similar in many ways to Fring, Truphone allows access to IM clients like Yahoo, AIM and Gtalk, also works with Skype, and offers outbound calling plans through its own service. Truphone offers three service tiers: basic per-minute calling with no monthly fees, a $4 monthly subscription that uses discounted per-minute rates, and a $17 monthly option that includes unlimited landline calls within its most popular countries, and to mobile lines as well within the U.S. On the no-subscription model, per-minute rates are generally higher than many competitors (for instance, domestic calls are billed at 5.1 cents per minute while Skype and iCall will both make them for 2.1).

Chinese iPhones Get Wi-Fi

Apple iPhones for sale in China - at least, not on the black market - have lacked Wi-Fi, but that'll change next week.

Apple’s iPhone partner in China, China Unicom, says (Chinese) it will start selling Apple iPhone handsets in China with integrated Wi-Fi wireless networking beginning next week. When Apple iPhones initially went on sale in China last year, the units lacked Wi-Fi connectivity due to Chinese wireless regulations; at the time, China was trying to promote its own wireless networking technology dubbed WAPI, but has sense eased regulations to permit Wi-Fi devices.

China Unicom says it will sell 8 GB iPhone 3GS units with integrated Wi-Fi, and continue to offer 16 GB and 32 GB models without Wi-Fi.

Adding Wi-Fi to the Chinese edition of the iPhone should help the phone compete against the wide range of devices available on the Chinese market…as well as black market iPhones being imported from other countries. The iPhone 4 is not yet officially available in China.

Fring Loses Skype as Feud Escalates

Skype is now blocking messaging aggregator app Fring claiming misuse and that Fring it's damaging Skype's brand and reputation. Fring calls them cowards.

There’s a battle brewing in the mobile messaging and VoIP market for mobile phones…and, for once, the controversy doesn’t surround the iPhone and AT&T. VoIP operator Skype has blocked third-party messaging application Fring from connecting to the Skype service, claiming misuse of Skype software and that Fring’s Skype functionality was “damaging our brand and reputation.” For its part, Fring characterizes Skype’s move as “cowardly,” finding irony in being blocked by Skype when Skype itself once carried the openness banner to the Federal Communications Commission, urging regulators to let any lawful, non-damaging device or application be used on wireless networks.

The Fring application acts as a front end for a variety of chat services, enabling users to send messages, engage in voice communications, and place video calls via a variety of services (including Twitter, Yahoo, AIM, Google Talk,Facebook, MSN, and Skype) without having to manage separate applications for each service—and does it all over a phone’s data connection (whether mobile or Wi-Fi) so the services don’t count against SMS totals or voice minutes. Fring recently introduced two-way video calling over both Wi-Fi and 3G connections to its application, and has been scaling up its capacity to meet demand for video services.

Now Fring claims that Skype is blocking their application’s access to the Skype network, meaning Fring users can no longer send messages, chat, or place video calls via Skype. Fring says the move is all about Skype shutting down a competitor: the company notes it has been connecting users to Skype for four years, but the block only happened when Fring rolled out video calling for the iPhone 4.

“We are disappointed that Skype, who once championed the cause of openness, is now attempting to muzzle competition, even to the detriment of its own users,” said Fring co-founder and CEO Avi Schecter, in a statement.

Skype says they aren’t blocking access to Fring, and claims Fring removed Skype functionality on its own accord. In a blog post, Skype’s Robert Miller claims Fring was “using Skype software in a way that [..] is a breach of Skype’s API Terms of Use and End User License Agreement.” Miller says Fring’s misuse of Skype software has damaged Skype’s brand and reputation with its customers. “On Friday, for example, Fring withdrew support for video calls over Skype on iOS 4 without warning, again damaging our brand and disappointing our customers, who have high expectations of the Skype experience.”

Without the technical details of how Fring may have been violating Skype terms of use, it’s impossible to know which side may be in the right here—if any. But one thing is certain: the scuffle has now entered the public arena as each company tries to persuade its customers it is doing the right thing.

eBay, Skype, IDT, and Net2Phone Settle Lawsuits

eBay, Skype, IDT, and Net2Phone have settled four years of patent litigation...but no one is saying how much money has changed hands.

Ebay, Skype, IDT Corporation, and Net2Phone have announced that they have reached a settlement of all legal disputes between the companies, including two patent infringement lawsuits pending in an Arkansas U.S. District Court. The dispute goes all the way back to 2006 over a patent involving exchanging IP addresses to establish data links between computers. IDT got the patent when it acquired Net2Phone in 2000; it sued VoIP operator Skype, which means getting eBay involved because it had acquired Skype back in 2005.

The companies have not disclosed financial and other terms of the settlement.

eBay has since sold off a majority share of Skype for $1.9 Billion to a group of investment houses, after admitting it overpaid for the VoIP operator and failed to find meaningful ways to integrate it into its online auction business.