HTC Plans Sales of “Hero” by July

HTC has announced that it will start selling its its new “Google phone” called the Hero starting from next month. The Hero is a 3G device that is set to heat-up competition with big names such as the Apple’s iPhone 3G S and Palm’s Pre, whether it is going to stand the test of time would definitely be determined in the next few months. The Hero is claimed to be the first Google phone with its new “Sense” customized user interface to come out of HTC and it promises to give users more value for their monies.
Physically, the Hero looks quite elegant with its beveled edges and an angled bottom contoured to fit against the face. It sports a 3.2-inch touch screen (that presents crisp view of its content), coated with Teflon for smudge resistance. Sharp and Clear photograph can be shot using the built-in 5.0-megapixel auto-focus camera that could be easily set to a suitable resolution.
For easy navigation when you are on the road, the phone incorporates GPS with digital compass that gives you excellence sense of direction and ensuring you get to your destination easily and safely. Staying connected with your loved ones cannot be any easier with the Hero as it gives you easy access to popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to view status updates and share photos. And what’s more? The smartphone also has a dedicated search button to search through Twitter, locate people in the contact list and find emails in the inbox, making life easy for you irrespective of your location.
Emphasizing on the importance of the Hero is Peter Chou, HTC’s chief executive, who said that “The HTC Hero introduces a more natural way for reaching out to the people and accessing your important information. Sense is a distinct experience created to make HTC phones more simple for people to use.”
Arrangement is underway to make the Hero available first in Europe by July follow by Asia come summer and it would be finally available in the North America much later this year.

Recently, MetroPCS announced that it would be offering a new plan that allows its customers to make unlimited international calls to over 100 different countries for only $5 extra a month. The plan includes over 100 countries and more than 1,000 destinations.
MetroPCS is adding the new unlimited international calling plan for an extra $5 to its US$40, US$45, and US$50 service plans including family plans.
Unlimited international calling will be provided in addition to the unlimited long distance service already offered to the 48 continental United States and Puerto Rico with most plans. MetroPCS offers an unlimited, flat-rate monthly mobile phone service with no contracts required.
According to  Roger D. Linquist, president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of MetroPCS, “Unlimited international calling at such an affordable rate can dramatically reduce monthly long distance costs and is yet another example of MetroPCS’ commitment to providing industry-leading value to consumers in today’s tough economic climate. MetroPCS is eliminating the worry of high international calling fees, counting minutes and dialing a connecting number, typical of traditional calling cards. With MetroPCS’ international calling, consumers are truly unlimited now more than ever.”
To be eligible for the $5 unlimited international calling plan, users must already be signed up to an unlimited national calling plan that costs $40, $45, or $50 a month. Making international phone calls from a cell phone has typically been rather expensive with major carriers such as AT&T and Verizon Wireless.
For example, AT&T offers its WorldConnect service for $3.99 extra a month, which gives subscribers lower rates on international calls. This means that a call to France still costs 22 cents a minute even with the $3.99 a month WorldConnect plan. By contrast a call to France using MetroPCS’ new $5 unlimited international plan is free.

Agito Networks has announced that it would be expanding its mobile unified communications (UC) offering to bring VoIP over Wi-Fi to the most popular BlackBerry devices. The development expands Agito’s RoamAnywhere Mobility Router, and aims to help integrate UC into organizations’ mobile devices, including Research in Motion (RIM) smartphones.
Agito is best known for its RoamAnywhere mobility router which is an appliance that lets dual-mode phones connect to the company’s PBX over Wi-Fi and act as extensions. It uses location technology to determine when to hand over between Wi-Fi, IP and cellular networks.
RoamAnywhere has previously only connected to Nokia (Symbian) and Windows Mobile devices, allowing those handsets to hold, conference, or transfer a call, as well as making use of the usual single enterprise number (for both the desktop phone and mobile), voice, directory query and call retrieve, with sub 100 millisecond handover.
Until now, the lack of support for BlackBerry handsets has been a serious oversight considering the handset’s dominance in the business sector. Indeed, Gartner says that RIM’s OS had the second highest market share based on smart phone sales to end users worldwide in Q1 2009, a position that was maintained from Q1 2008.
But Agito was not to blame for this oversight, as RIM has a ‘closed and proprietary’ operating system, with ‘limited APIs for VoIP and Wi-Fi.’ Boasting an automatic sub-100 millisecond handover across Wi-Fi and cellular networks, RoamAnywhere also features international direct dialling and roaming, least-cost routing, reverse dialling, automatic SIM swap, and dynamic calling rules.
The BlackBerry support is currently running as a closed beta trial, and is due to be available from mid-July.

When Google acquired GrandCentral.com also known as the creator of the service, in 2007, little did the telecom world know that this might later turn out to be one of the few technological advancement that would change the way we communicate. The first innovative step came immediately after its acquisition when Google changed its name to Google Voice.
With Google Voice, you can sign up for a single phone number that rings every phone you own. Then you can hand out the number to everyone you know. This implies that you can be reached irrespective of your locations so long you carry any of the devices you own along with you. It allows your callers to reach you through any of these phones and enables you to receive them in the same manner.
In order words, once you sign up and when someone calls your Google Voice number, your home phone, cell phone, desk phone at the office, and even your Internet voice-over-IP number will ring, all at the same time, no matter where you are. It means you can switch phone numbers at any time, but retain a single Google Voice number for years.
In addition, the service also supports speech-to-text, using Google’s technology, so that voicemails are transcribed automatically and sent to you by email. There are other additional interesting packages that come with the service. When a call arrives, you can press 4 to record the call. You can also listen in while the caller leaves a message, and interrupt to answer. Recorded calls are not transcribed, but you can listen to them online without any extra charges.
For you to take advantage of this service, you must ensure you have a browser on your phone, you have to go to the Web browser on your phone, access Google Voice, select which phone to use, and place the call. And Google Voice simply hands the call off to your wireless carrier.
Google has begun granting access to the service for public use just last week and those who signed up earlier should look out for a message that would notify them about the availability of the service. If you have not signed up and wish to do so,you can do so via Google Voice official website.

Google Voice is a subsidiary of the world most popular search engine, Google, and it is the company’s service for managing various phone lines. Recently the company announced that it is ready to make the service available for more users. In line with this, the company has already sent out invitations to users who have been requesting them since March when the service was re-launched.
Google Voice is a re-branded company acquired from GrandCentral.com by Google. Google Voice is primarily a service for customizing how people can reach you by phone. For instance, it can be configured in such a way that it would ring user landline, office, and cell simultaneously when some significant other calls come through. Similarly, you can push calls from slightly less important people directly to voicemail for your later review.
Interested users need to indicate their interest by first signing up for the service on the web. After which Google gives such user a single number that in theory becomes his permanent phone number, since even if he moves or switches cell providers, he can use Google Voice to re-route calls. There are other smart features too, like voicemail transcription, options to search your text messaging archives, and the ability to make calls from the Web.
More details are available on the official website of Google Voice designated for the service ( Please see https://www.google.com/voice/about for more details.