My free lunch is about to end. I’m one of a few hundred thousand customers enjoying free monthly home phone service.* We use a low-cost analog telephone adapter (ATA) called an OBi, connected to Google Voice for free domestic home phone service. But on May 15th, Google is dropping support for the XMPP protocol that makes this work. While Google Voice and Hangouts will still offer free… Read More
Looking at this Android-powered landline handset which U.K. telco BT has just started selling — christened with the (relatively) catchy name of Home SmartPhone S — you really have to wonder what took them so long.
BT is a broadband provider however its legacy business was copper telephone wires and landline phones — so its Internet packages, even the fibre ones, require subscribers to install a traditional landline too. Ergo, the company still brands (and flogs) a lot of landline phones.
Recent landline handsets BT was pushing on its customers included the likes of the BT6500 (see what I mean about relatively catchy) — a handset that looks like it was forged in the yuppie fires of 1985.
From there it really is a revolution to the Home SmartPhone S which is a smartphone in all ways except for being tied to the house being as it lacks the cellular radio bit — using Wi-Fi to hook into your Internet router to support web browsing, apps, and the rest.
The price-tag for this 3.5 inch touchscreen device is £150 — so pretty pricey for a landline phone, sure, but it’s far from being the traditional dumb button-pusher.
The BT Home SmartPhone S is by no means the first Android-powered landline phone. It’s just the latest slice of old school hardware Google’s mobile OS has found its way onto — as Android continues its onward march from mobiles to tablets, TVs, cars, cameras, smartwatches, fridges… and so on.
Other Android-powered landline handsets on the market include the likes of the Panasonic KX-PRX120 and the Gigaset SL930A, both released last summer.
BT itself has sold Skype phones and videophones for years, but those devices were still coupled with less than user-friendly fiddly old interfaces.
Such legacy interfaces are steadily being replaced on more devices, whether it’s car stereos or landline phones, with touchscreen panels running Android, as the platform proves itself capable of leveraging the user familiarity built up on mobile to make the leap onto more device types.
Back in May Google pegged Android activations at 900 million, up from 400 million in 2012. This year there’s no doubt Mountain View will break a billion active Androids, the question is how much it will break that figure by.
As Android continues its spread, pollinating more electronic devices, that growth can keep on coming.
Each week, our friends at gdgt go through the latest gadgets and score them to help you decide which ones to buy. Here are some of their most recent picks. Want more? Visit gdgt anytime to catch up on the latest, and subscribe to gdgt’s newsletter to get a weekly roundup in your inbox.
Big Blue’s been doing its best to catch the eye of nostalgic folks who miss the era of landlines. After introducing prepaid options for Wireless Home Phone in May, Ma Bell’s now extending the service with internet over LTE. An AT&T spokesperson told us that the new Wireless Home Phone and Internet bundle debuted in select locations (listed below) on Friday. A two-year subscription comes with a free router that can connect up to 10 WiFi devices, but it’ll cost you at least $80 a month for unlimited local calls plus 10GB of data. Ponying up $90 each month nets 20GB of data, while boosting the bill to $120 nabs 30GB. Thanks to an additional $10 charge for every gigabyte over your cap, however, wired home broadband may still be your best (read: cheapest) bet if you stream movies and TV shows frequently.
AT&T Wireless Home Phone an Internet bundle markets:
EE’s 4G may grab the headlines, but the company’s also offering land line phone and internet services with a (Kevin) Bacony-twist. Now, the network is coaxing existing customers away from rival ISPs like Virgin and BT with six new unlimited broadband and call packages. The £5-per-month basic tier will give you unlimited ADSL and weekend calls, while bluer bloods can fork out £29 a month to get unlimited fiber (up to speeds of 76 Mbps), unlimited calls to landlines and 1,000 free mobile minutes each week. We’ve added a chart for comparison after the break, assuming you don’t reach for your wallet every time you see a product pitched by the guy from Footloose.
Keen to capitalize on the ever-growing segment of landline cutters, US Cellular appears to be launching a home phone service similar to the Home Connect offerings by Verizon and Sprint. According to information we’ve received, all you have to do is plug in a regular cordless or corded phone into the provided base station and voilà — you’ll be able to make calls via US Cellular’s wireless network instead. You’ll get unlimited voice calls for only $19.99 a month, which also includes voicemail, caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding, three-way calling and that all-important E911 service. Of course, as it’s voice-only, you won’t get data or text messaging as part of the plan.
The PCD-made base station seen above has a model name of FT2260 and boasts dual-band support (800/1900 MHz CDMA), a QSC6055 chipset, two phone jacks and a USB port for diagnostics purposes. Also included in the package are a charger, an antenna and a 1500 mAh NiMH battery that promises up to two hours of talk or 36 hours of standby time. We’re not sure when exactly this’ll roll out, but from the looks of it, we won’t have to wait long for yet another alternative to ye olde POTS.
You might remember Zipwhip from its SMS-enabled espresso machine, but the outfit’s hoping a new feature added to its cloud-based text-messaging platform will catch your attention this time around. In case you’re not familiar with Zipwhip’s non-caffeinated affairs, it allows texts to be sent through a desktop app, the web and Android tablets with a user’s existing mobile number. Now, it’s giving landlines the ability to send and receive texts without the need for a new number, which the firm says is a first. Instead of converting written missives to voice messages like other text-to-landline services, the setup sends the actual text to the application. By wielding the feature, companies can communicate with customers regarding orders, reservations and the like. Though the service is aimed squarely at businesses — and even offers them a 14-day free trial — its $20 per month price tag might even make it reasonable for folks who just have an obsession with texting. To give your wired phone a taste of the late 20th century, hit the source link below.
Sure, growing old gracefully has its fair share of benefits, where among them include half price discounts when it comes to the little things in life such as dinner at a restaurant in certain places, or perhaps even when you are flying. Well, the price to pay for some might be failing health, as the internal organs start to wind down, while other senses of the body such as hearing and sight begin to fail, too. Hence, it is not surprising to see seniors walk around with hearing aids as well as a pair of glasses, and if you think that your ocular abilities are starting to be shaky, perhaps it is time to make sure the stuff around your home, too, will be able to keep up with your, er, degeneration, for the lack of a better word.
Since the telephone is one of the more useful tools at home, I guess you cannot really go wrong with the $49.95 Big Button Phone, where it works just as it is named – carrying extremely large buttons on the phone itself. The numbers on these buttons will also be raised for a Braille effect as well as easy dialing. There are three programmable “one-push” buttons that help you summon fire, police or medical help, in addition to other features including a speakerphone, 13-number memory, last number redial, visual ringer indicator, and volume controls for both the ringer (up to 90dB) and the handset. Heck, it will play nice with your hearing aid, assuming you wear one, and works even during power outages thanks to its power reserves.
We can’t say that most attempts to replicate the landline experience with a wireless link have panned out — Verizon Hub, anyone? AT&T is wagering that it can overcome some of that hesitance with new prepaid tiers for Wireless Home Phone. Those who plug their wired phones into the $100 cellular hub can now pay only for those times they want pseudo-traditional service, whether it’s $20 per month for unlimited US-wide calls or $15 for 1,000 minutes of international long distance. It’s hard to make a case for the new Wireless Home Phone option when many of us already have cellphones, but we can see its uses: think snowbirds or apartment dwellers who want a cheap, traditional phone option that will follow them around for a few months at a time. If you haven’t (or can’t) cut the cord entirely, AT&T may have the next best thing.
Panasonic announced in Japan the VS-HPS200S a unique cordless phone with a 7” Android Tablet companion dedicated to offer are more “connected” experience at home. The VS-HPS200S Tablet is a pure Android 2.3 tablet and can be used such as in order to surf the web, read books, play games and purchase software on the Google Play Store but also give you the possibility to be used as a landline phone or VoIP phone via Skype as well as a fax! The VS-HPS200S Tablet comes with a 800×480 7” screen, …
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