Google said Sept. 1 Gmail users made more than 10 million calls through its new Call Phones from Gmail feature. The company provided tips on how to use the service with Google Voice. - Google said Sept. 1 Gmail users made more than 10 million calls through its new Call Phones from Gmail feature since it launched a week ago. Launched Aug. 25, Call Phones from Gmail lets users place calls to contacts directly from Gmail. Calls placed from Gmail in the United States and Canada ar...

Google's Gmail calling threatens Skype because it copies its service for initiating and receiving free or cheap calls over IP. Gmail and Skype offer trade-offs, and analysts and industry experts have different takes on how these services match up. - When Google launched its Gmail calling service Aug. 25, the top question was how the VOIP service would impact Skype. Gmail calling threatens Skype because it copies its service for initiating and receiving free or cheap calls over IP. However, Gmail and Skype offer trade-offs, and analysts and ...

Google's new Gmail phone-calling service presents a challenge to Skype, as well as Gmail's e-mail competitors. Google has been making aggressive plays in the VOIP market. - Google is rolling out a service that makes phone calls through Gmail. Calls to the United States and Canada will be free through at least January 2011, with international calls ranging between 2 cents and nearly $5 a minute. That presents a challenge not only to Google's e-mail competitors, b...

The North American handset market has just gotten more crowded. On July 28, INQ Mobile, owned by Hong Kong-based carrier Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., said it will start selling its INQ Chat 3G phone through Telus and Koodo Mobile, both based in Canada.

The device will boast a Qwerty keyboard, pile all messages into one inbox, and feature a fast browser and social apps such as Facebook. Telus hasn't disclosed pricing. Koodo expects to sell the phone for about $50, according to INQ.

At this price, INQ should compete with low-end handsets from Research In Motion and Samsung, said INQ CEO Frank Meehan. "We are going into RIM's heartland," he said in an interview. "We are coming in with a device that's really aggressively priced, and with bells and whistles."

For INQ, the U.S might be next. The company is in discussions with U.S. wireless carriers, and hopes to introduce a smartphone in this market in 2011, Meehan said. He didn't disclose which carriers he is talking to. INQ is within months of unveiling a smartphone based on Android operating system developed by a consortium of companies lead by Google.

With Canada under its belt, INQ will be selling its phones in 12 countries, including the U.K. and India.

Google added direct access numbers to its Google Voice for mobile application on Android and Blackberry smartphones. The company is actively soliciting suggestions from users about how to improve Google Voice. - Google July 22 moved to accelerate calls placed on Android and Blackberry smartphones through its Google Voice for mobile application, the latest in a string of changes the company has made to its phone management tool. Google Voice is a free Web calling and phone management application. The p...

Fring, which has enjoyed interconnectivity with Skype for four years, called the VOIP provider "cowards" for allegedly blocking Fring from offering video chat on smartphones. Skype said it didn't block Fring. - In a nasty war of words between VOIP providers, Fring accused Skype of blocking it from letting users make video calls on Apple's iPhone 4, Google Android and other smartphones and applied the quot;c-word quot; to the company. Fring, which has enjoyed interconnectivity with Skype for four year...

Optimism returns ahead of earnings reports from Intel, Google and AMD.

Sparks are flying as a host of high-tech powerhouses square off in various battles royal. Whether it’s Google vs. Microsoft or Apple vs. HTC, here are 10 tech tussles that are creating fireworks.

Today: Google’s Android army has gained share in the U.S. smartphone market. Plus: Mortgage rates fall to historic lows.

TechCrunch has tantalized users for months with the idea that Google is building a desktop client of its Google Voice phone management application using its Gizmo5 assets. Reports that Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are shelving the product have given rise to a grass-roots petition for people who desire a desktop VOIP client for Google Voice. - Google just made free phone management application Google Voice available to the general public June 22 While that release is a Web-based program that lets users route calls to home, work and mobile phones through a special number provided by Google, TechCrunch has tantalized users for months wit...

Amazon.com Inc., the world's biggest Internet retailer, doesn't plan to cede ground in its growing digital books business.
To that end, it's adding features to the application that make its digital books available on competing devices -- a move designed to ensure it won't lose sales even as consumers read books on rivals' machines and Apple makes enhancements to its own digital book application.
The Seattle-based company announced that Kindle books on Apple Inc.'s iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch will be able to offer embedded video and audio clips. The move comes just days after Apple added new features to its iBook application for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad devices, including over-the-air syncing of bookmarks and notes, easy PDF viewing and new font choices. The online retailer quickly followed that with another announcement June 28, that it had begun offering its Kindle app in Google Inc.'s Android Market for Android-powered phones such as the Sprint EVO made by HTC and Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S line of phones, which will be carried by all four major U.S. carriers this summer.
Analysts have said dedicated eBook reader devices such as the Kindle could lose ground in coming years to devices like the iPad, which offer full color screens and are capable of doing other tasks, including viewing video.
Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos has said the company plans to release a new, sleeker version of the Kindle, with an upgraded screen, in August. Amazon slashed the price of the Kindle 2 to $189 from $259 on June 21 after retailer Barnes & Noble cut the price of its Nook reader to $199.
Even as Amazon attempts to maintain its hefty market share for dedicated reader devices, the Apple move makes clear that Amazon sees the real threat coming from all manner of devices that can sell books, music and other content that helped make it a household name. Its strategy to make the Kindle application not only available on rival devices such as the iPad but more sophisticated could pay off in the short term as it readies its own color-enabled device. So far, Bezos has been tentative about the color market, and most recently said an LCD-type device is a long ways off because it can't be read well in the sunlight.

Google May 18 agreed to purchase real-time voice and video processing software maker Global IP Solutions (GIPS) for $68.2 million. Google may have targeted GIPS' assets to build a VOIP platform to compete with consumer VOIP market leader Skype, which has a loyal user base of over 400 million users. Looking at the entrenchment of Internet powers such as Google in search and Facebook in social networking as precedent, it will be nearly impossible to displace Skype from its lofty VOIP perch. - Google May 18 agreed to purchase Global IP Solutions (GIPS), which makes software for processing high-definition audio and video over the Web, for $68.2 million. The buy is a 27.5 percent premium on GIPS' closing share price from May 14. quot;The Web is evolving quickly as a development platf...

Google May 14 began rolling out its Google Voice phone management application to students, the search engine said. While the company is targeting college students with this new offer, a Google spokesperson told eWEEK any user with the .edu domain suffix may submit their e-mail address to procure an invite from the company. Google acquired Gizmo5 last year and is expected to take those assets and turn Google Voice into a Web calling service such as Skype. Google also expects to offer Google Voice to the enterprise through its Google Apps suite. - Google May 14 began rolling out its free Google Voice phone management application to students in the United States, aiming to tap into a potentially rich pool of hundreds of thousands of new users. Google Voice lets users route calls to their home, work and mobile phones from a special Google-g...

BlackBerry Mobile Voice System 5 lets enterprise workers use their landline phone number and extension from their BlackBerry smartphone, Research In Motion said at the Wireless Enterprise Symposium April 26. The idea, much like the phone management capabilities of systems such as Google Voice, is to give employees a single work phone number to ring their desk phone and BlackBerry smartphone. BlackBerry MVS 5 is expected to be available later this summer from RIM's more than 400 carrier partners worldwide, including Best Buy, Wal-Mart and other retailers that sell electronics systems. - ORLANDO, Fla. -- Research In Motion Limited April 26 introduced Wi-Fi support to its new BlackBerry Mobile Voice System 5, allowing enterprise workers to use their landline phone number and extension from their BlackBerry smartphone. MVS 5, which RIM unveiled at its Wireless Enterprise Symposiu...