As might be expected, even before the Apple iPhone hits retailer shelves, its sexy features are showing up on other handsets. Like visual voicemail. German company SimulScribe just announced a “downloadable visual voicemail application” — SimulSays Beta — for the BlackBerry 8800 series, BlackBerry Pearl, BlackBerry Curve and Windows Mobile. The service normally starts at $10 a month, but the beta is free. However, in its rush to get the news out, SimulScribe appears to have forgotten to put the info on the website.

Dual mode phones just might be crossing the chasm and T-Mobile may be positioning itself for a spot at the head of the pack. This week the company launched the T-Mobile(R) HotSpot @HomeSM service. And coming along for the ride is the Nokia 6086 dual mode phone, also announced today. At home and in hotspots, calls are made over the WiFi network. Leave the hotspot, and calls automatically go through T-Mobile’s GSM/GPRS/EDGE wireless network. The press release lets you infer that the handoff is seamless, but I’m dubious because it doesn’t say it directly.

And speaking of WiFi, Mountain View, CA-based startup WeFi is opening up the beta of its WiFi community. WeFi helps you find and connect to free WiFi hotspots as well as keeping track of keys for locked and for-fee services.

If your idea of meal planning is ordering Chinese takeout, this isn’t for you. But for those of us who have wished we could look up a recipe for an item that’s on sale, Allrecipe.com’s new mobile service is just the ticket. Just type “Mobile.Allrecipes.com” into the phone’s Web browser.

Packet8 is sweetening the pot for customers, especially Virtual Office business customers, with “digital courier service” from YouSendIt.com, that makes it easy to send very large files electronically. It’s designed for files like video that can’t be sent via email, but it also works well for sending photos and large documents. I use it to send audio files of interviews to the archivist at my local library, and can attest to the ease of use.

It had to happen: iPlayboy widget for your Apple iPhone. Now do you want to buy one?

Looking to emulate the highly successful Asterisk ecosystem business model, IP-PBX pioneer ShoreTel has launched a partner program to extend the choice of integrated solutions available to customers.

Skype Inside: First, an agreement between Toshiba and Skype will build Skype into Toshiba notebooks. Second, German mobile software company Shape Services has launched beta versions of IM+ for Skype software for Java phones, Symbian S60 and Palm OS.

Home networking pioneer Netgear announced a new collaboration with British Ubiquisys to build a residential gateway that integrates a DSL modem, Wi-Fi, VoIP and a femtocell 3G access point. (Femtocells are being promoted for fixed-mobile convergence.) It seems like a natural progression for the company that first made it possible for the average Joe to connect to the Internet. A side benefit is that your cell phone will also work better at home.

For those of you who wish you could take your VoIP service with you when you leave home or office, Chinese manufacturer ATCOM announced a new Mini ATA AG110 that fits in your packet. The company’s website is less than helpful to the English speaker, with howlers like this: “With the powerful R&D capability, ATCOM will keep lunching all kinds of VoIP terminals and devices….” Sounds like Godzilla.

When you take your VoIP service on the road, you’re going to need a broadband connection. Boingo is helping road warriors escape being nickeled-and-dimed to death by WiFi service providers with its global, flat rate, unlimited use service. The company claims to have about 100,000 hot spots. U.S. price is about $40 a month. Earthlink and Nokia are also aiming to let travelers roam free by equipping the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet with Earthlink’s WiFi service at no charge.

Polycom’s Spectralink WiFi phones now comply with the federal government’s security specifications for ’sensitive’ — but not classified — communications. This is the first WiFi phone to achieve this, according to the press release. But it is secure enough for Vice President Strangelove?

If you’ve ever wished you had that great picture of your Maui vacation right there on your cell phone, wish no more. Glide Mobile lets you bring all your files to your phone — even documents. All for free. You’d never guess this from parent company TransMedia’s description of its business: “TransMedia is leading the emergence of rights and identity based, compatible and integrated multipurpose software and services for corporations and consumers.” Huh? Anyway, you can read Glide Mobile’s press release here. (It’s not on the website — go figure.)

With only 2 days left until “i” Day, Ajax software company Backbase is prepping its Ajax framework and developers kit for the Apple Safari 3 browser, Apple’s chosen avenue for value-added applications. Backbase says that its framework will run on the Apple iPhone without modification. You can give it a test run here.

And speaking of tech’s Cabbage Patch Kid, how many people are actually planning to buy one? Not many, according to an online survey at the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal. As of this writing, only five percent of the people taking the survey say they’re going to buy one “immediately.” At the other end of the spectrum, 16 percent say they will “never” buy one, 11 percent say “not as long as it’s tied to AT&T for service,” and 27 percent — the largest cohort — say “not while it’s so much more expensive than other options.” You can weigh in here.

P.S. Gartner says the iPhone doesn’t belong in the enterprise.

In life it’s often the small stuff that makes the biggest difference. Virtual Hold Technology has taken on a gripe we all have — waiting on hold. While the company’s eponymous system can’t eliminate the wait, it makes it easier by holding your place in line while you hang up and get on with your life. When you’re at the head of the list, the system calls you up. The company sells the technology to contact centers, promoting its ability to increase customer satisfaction and reducing costs.

Working on the theory that all of us together are smarter than each of us alone, yesterday Polycom announced the Polycom ARENA “ecosystem,” a collaboration platform that will let partners develop, test and certify interoperability between their solutions and the Polycom voice, video and content collaborative solutions.

AT&T is getting into the mobile video game with AT&T Video Share, which lets users to share live video concurrently with voice calls. The service sounds like a true Age of IP service. But the billing is strictly Ma Bell. AT&T is offering Video Share for $4.99 per month for 25 minutes of usage, or $9.99 for 60 minutes. Not so bad, you say. Well every minute after that is 35 cents.

Unlike baseball, in IPTV the three strikes rule doesn’t hold apparently, with Microsoft debuting its fourth — or is it sixth? — IPTV brand, Mediaroom. Scott Fulton of BetaNews offers an analysis.

Be afraid, be very afraid is the message of Sipera VIPER Lab’s threat advisory for SIP-based soft phones from AOL(R), Avaya, MSN(R) and Nortel(TM), and Avaya SIP-based hard phones.

Sun Microsystems and Mitel are getting cozy with an agreement to integrate Mitel’s call management software into Sun servers. One objective is to make it easier to converge voice and data applications.

Digium advanced its make-it-easy-for-the-customer strategy with a SMB VoIP provider Bandwidth.com partnership announced today. Bottom line is that Bandwidth.com will be rolled into in the AsteriskGUI graphical user interface as a service provider option, making implementation even more turnkey. The two also plan to cooperate in developing new services.

AGIS’ new mobile Location Based Services (LBS) software lets cell phone, PDA and PC users locate and track each other, talk, and exchange text and photos. The service works across cell phone carriers and can channel information to specific users. Sign up for a free 90 day trial here. What do you bet that folks suspicious of straying spouses will be among the first adopters? Now, if I could get one for my wandering cat…

Another entry in the How Not to Write a Press Release department: Over-sugared PR prose renders you near-senseless before you get to the actual news in Revolabs’ press release today. To wit, the company launched a plug-and-play wireless USB microphone system, xTag, priced around $250. The company was apparently so busy larding the press release with superlatives they forgot to post it on the website as of this writing. You can find it here.

The United Arab Emirates likes to promote itself as an global economic powerhouse. But when it comes to real western-style innovation, like they say in New York, fugeddaboutit. As reported by ITP.net, no VoIP except from government sanctioned providers and “initiatives to more tightly regulate internet functions.” Think about it the next time you fill up your car. These people do not share our values.

Today Polycom announced the Video Media Center 1000 appliance for centrally managing video content from creation to broadcast. The device works with all Polycom video endpoints as well as other “standards-based H.323 endpoints.” Availability is planned for Q3 2007.

RemoTV has launched the beta of a new service that allows users to access and share video, audio and image files on a cell phone. The service — consisting of RemoTV Channels! desktop application and the RemoTV Mobile! — follows the kyte.tv model, letting you broadcast and download any content you want as well as messaging and emailing about it.

Students in the 21st century aren’t just looking at academics — or hot party spots — when they apply to college. Technology is also factors in, according to a new study by Belgian research firm Telindus. Campus-wide WiFi access was a requirement for 36 percent of respondants.