Among the more interesting things I’ve come across so far at Macworld is an innovative calling application from FreedomVoice Systems, called Newber. Somewhat similar, but with a couple of key differences to Grand Central, Newber lets you route every phone call made to you though a single number and, using GPS location awareness, lets you take the call on any phone that happens to be nearby.

If you’re in the office at your desk, Newber will send calls to your work phone. At home it can ring the house phone. On the road Newber will ring your iPhone, the phone extension in your hotel room, even the payphone at the gas station in the middle of nowhere where you’re getting a flat fixed - if that’s where you want it to ring. Your callers have one number for you and you can receive their calls anywhere.

I saw the app in a demo at a press event on Monday night and spoke further yesterday with David Gerzof, president of Bigfish Communications, the PR firm repesenting Newber, about the difficulty FreedomVoice has had getting the Newber app approved for distribution in the AppStore. “We submitted it in October and Apple authorized our product manager to contact them by phone, which he does every day,” Gerzof told me. “They haven’t said it will be approved or that it won’t be approved, in fact we can’t see from our activity logs where they have even begun testing it. It’s very frustrating.”

As a result, despite having already put several hundred thousand dollars into developing the platform for iPhone, Gerzof and Newber aren’t putting all their eggs in Apple’s basket. A Demo application for Blackberry is already operating and the company is also working on one for Android. “We love Apple and began work first with the iPhone SDK because we wanted it to be the launch platform, but if they aren’t interested, we have to move forward with the others,” Gerzof says.

Officials gathering evidence in the ongoing investigation into terrorist attacks that gripped the Indian city of Mumbai this past November report at least one of the terrorists on the ground communicated with his Pakistan-based superiors using phone service interconnected through a US VoIP provider, according to a report at Network World.

Controller/handlers based in Pakistan used a virtual number issued by US provider CallPhonex to contact a mobile phone used by one of the terrorists in Mumbai. “This conversation was intercepted and, thereafter, all calls made through the virtual number were also intercepted and recorded,” according to a dossier of information released by officials investigating the attacks in India.

CalPhonex issues phone numbers from 35 different countries. When the the numbers are dialed within those countries, calls are free even though the party receiving the call may actually be loacted in another country.

In the case of the Pakistan-based handlers, they could call the terrorist using a local Pakistan number and be connected via CallPhonex’s network to the terrorist’s cell phone. The CallPhonex network can terminate calls with either VoIP, cell or traditional landline phones.

If the handlers were trying to call one of the terrorists on his cell phone, they would dial his Cellphonex-issued number and the Cellphonex network would bridge the call to the terrorist’s cell phone number.

If the handlers had VoIP phones or softphones they could place the call from anywhere they could get an Internet connection.

CallPhonex had no response to reporters’ inquiries regarding the case.

Via Network World

Understanding that thin is in, and with a bow to the requirement that all telecom devices worth their salt today come in a variety of eye-catching colors, Motorola launched Tuesday a WiMAX 802.16e modem with an integrated Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g router, VoIP ATA ports for voice calling, and an Ethernet port.

Initially available only to service providers, with pricing information likely on hold until CES opens tomorrow, Motorola calls its WiMAX Forum Wave 2 ready, multiband (3.5GHz + 5MHz, 7MHz, and 10 MHz) device the wi4 WiMAX CPEi 775.

What, the name CommunicatR was already taken?

Geekdom’s universal center of gravity shifts decidedly westward this week, with the Apple-oriented members of the tribe convening in San Francisco tomorrow for Macworld 2009 and the PC clan set to begin drumming up interest in new technology at CES in Las Vegas on Thursday.

Perhaps with a nod to lean economic times on the horizon (or maybe it’s a poorly forced analogy - you decide), small and thin seem to be the watchwords for the immediate future in both camps. Apple, a company that thrives on rumor and hype (while almost always delivering well-made products that meet or beat all hyped expectations), is widely expected to introduce a nano version of its popular iPhone at Macworld, and to update its Mac mini desktop computer with a new NVIDIA chipset, a swappable SATA optical drive, and dual display support.

Follow me after the jump for a preview of a couple of the slimmest contenders people will be ooing and aahing over later in the week at CES. Read the rest of this entry »

Lenovo, makers of the much-loved ultraportable Think Pad, join the quest for computing’s Holy Grail - designing the device that can be all things to all people - with the soon-to-be-released IdeaCenter A600.

Set to make its public debut at CES and to begin selling in the North American market in April, the IdeaCentre A600 features a 21.5-inch frameless screen with 16:9 aspect ratio, 1920×1080p Full HD resolution, Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs, optional ATI Radeon graphics, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, and an up to 1TB hard drive. The iMac-like PC also has facial recognition technology, and a motion sensitive remote control that can also be used as a VOIP handset.

Starting at $999, we may have to go to Vegas this week to see if this thing will get the dishes spotless and take out the trash, too.

Read Lenovo’s full press release after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »