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Verizon will be launching an app store for its Verizon Hub, home phone communications management center. Verizon is s opening the device to new application developers and will remove the rule that Hub buyers have to be Verizon Wireless customers.

"We're in the process of getting rid of that restriction," said John Gravel, a Verizon product manager told Reuters on Wednesday. "Why would you limit anyone from using this?"

The manager also showed Reuters a sleeker Hub product that looks like a digital picture frame with skinnier cordless phone handset.

The Verizon Hub is getting a lot of advertising attention with Television commercials.  Matt Buchanan at Gizmodo wrote that he is getting excited about the Verizon Hub because it is built on the open Linux platform and can work with all kinds of devices.

Future versions will have  a WebKit browser, a real email client, and a Twitter app. There is a Flickr screensaver app and Rhapsody app that lets you stream music.  

The Verizon Hub is finally getting more hubbub in a way to connect family, friends and the web.

The Verizon Hub is a phone center with a video screen, that uses broadband access for many multimedia and wireless features such as text, multimedia messages, photos and news.

The Verizon Hub also has computer-like features such as calendar, video views. It is not a landline phone but uses  VOIP that connects via your broadband internet connection for phone calls to any kind of phone.

The Verizon Hub can contribute to decor because when not used as phone, it acts as digital photo frame (which usually costs around $100). To get the Verizon Hub you must have a Verizon Wireless account already. You get your choice of phone number regardless of area code.

The Verizon Hub has a touchscreen, cordless handset, speaker phone, visual voice mail, caller ID and call waiting. It also features Anonymous Call Rejection, so that it automatically rejects incoming calls marked as anonymous. These features are included in the monthly service plan.

You can access the information on the Verizon Hub from the web at work or anywhere you can connect to the web.

The Verizon Hub has visual voice-mail so that lets you choose which voice mail messages to listen to, You can set it up so that incoming calls will automatically switch to your cell phone--or any other phone.Users can access Verizon Wireless services,such as VZ Navigator (which is included in the service for free), Chaperone and VCast entertainment.

The Verizon Hub connects to your home internet connection either via a ethernet cable or Wi-Fi. A new DSL or cable modem and/or router may be required if you don't already have a router.

Verizon Wireless will offer the new Verizon Hub on Feb. 1. It's a new touch screen home phone system with a souped-up home communications system, bridging wireline and wireless connectivity using a broadband connections.

Out of the box, the Verizon Hub has advanced calling features plus visual voicemail and contact list management. Verizon Wireless has also added  messaging options, including text message, calendar alerts and audible turn-by-turn directions delivered to Verizon Wireless phones from the Verizon Hub - with just a few simple taps on the screen.

Services offered in through the Verizon Hub:

• Check local traffic and weather in the morning before leaving the house.
• Update your calendar and automatically receive a text when an appointment changes or as a reminder not to be late.
• Get directions to the new site when the location for soccer practice is moved.
• Find the number of the new pizza parlor to order a pie.
• Preview the trailers from an upcoming movie that you might want to take the family to over the weekend, then purchase tickets using the Verizon Hub.

Truphone for the iPod Touch works on the 2nd generation iPod Touch and lets users make free calls to other Truphone or Google Talk users from any Wi-Fi zone.  Calls are made via iPod Touch's internet connection and a headphone with mic, or mic adapter.

Like Skype calls between Truphones is free however there calls to landlines and mobiles are .06 while SMS are .20. They also offer low rate packagers for Nokia and BlackBerry.

Truphone for the iPod Touch is free to download from the iTunes App Store. Calls on the iPod Touch require a headset with microphone and headphones, which you can bought at electronic retailers or the Apple Store.

VoIP services over Wi-Fi enabled cellphones available from Gorilla Mobile Jajah and iCall. Some of these services claim you can save up to 98% on international calls.

By 2011 the number of mobile VoIP users around the world could increase to 100 million from 7 million in 2007, according to consulting firm ON World in San Diego, reports Business Week. ON World also estimates that in 2011, mobile VoIP voice services could generate $33.7 billion, up from $516 million in 2006.

T-Mobile in order to cap Wi-Fi VoIP have rigged their handsets so VoIP calls made via Wi-Fi hotspots are charged against the subscribers’ wireless minutes unless they pary for an for additional $10 plan.

T-Mobile USA, Inc. today announced a new home phone service that enables customers to make unlimited nationwide calls from their home phone via their broadband Internet connection for $10 per month. Beginning July 2, T-Mobile will breathe new life and value into the home phone by launching nationwide T-Mobile @Home. The service allows customers to keep their home phone number, ditch their high phone bill and save money by adding their home phone line to their T-Mobile service.

According to a 2007 Scarborough Research[1] report, families spend an average of $65 per month on home phone service. However, for just $10 per month, T-Mobile customers can add T-Mobile @Home service to a qualifying T-Mobile wireless plan2 and get unlimited nationwide long-distance calling, plus call waiting, caller ID, three-way conferencing, voicemail, call forwarding and other features. In addition, customers will have the opportunity to use features typically associated with wireless services-for instance, CallerTunesTM (ringback tones)-and port their existing home phone number so family and friends can continue to call them at the same familiar number.

To use the service, customers simply need the touch-tone corded or cordless phone they currently use, an existing broadband Internet connection, and the T-Mobile @Home HiPortTM Wireless Router with Home Phone Connection, available from T-Mobile for just $49.99 with a two-year service agreement. T-Mobile @Home is designed to be easy to set up and running in a matter of minutes. “Unlike VoIP, no special phone is required, allowing the family’s center of communications to stay in the kitchen,” Dotson added.

T-Mobile @Home is available exclusively for T-Mobile customers, and will be offered at T-Mobile retail stores nationwide and online at www.t-mobile.com. For more information visit www.tmobileathome.com.

In collaboration with Atheros, the American wireless and wireline broadband technology specialist, Infineon has developed a chip platform that for the first time gives users the best of mobile and VoIP worlds. The low-cost chip from Infineon takes care of all telephony functions in the GSM network, while the Atheros chip kicks in when data packets are used via a wireless LAN (hotspot or WiFi) for voice or data traffic over the Internet. Better still, the whole package is available at an attractive flat rate.

“The combination of our GSM chip and the wireless LAN chip from Atheros gives even more people the chance to enjoy low-cost communication,” says Dominik Bilo, Senior Vice President Sales and Group Marketing at Infineon’s Communication Solutions Division. “For the foreseeable future, broadband landline networks will not deliver full coverage in emerging countries such as India, China and parts of South America. By comparison, a wireless LAN and a couple of hotspots or a wireless IP cell for a small village can be set up relatively quickly and inexpensively. Billions of people can then plug into the world of unlimited communication.”

Independent market researchers see significant growth opportunities for the combination of GSM and VoIP technology in mobile phones. Some 186 million units are slated to be sold this year alone, and forecasts put the figure for 2010 at 250 million units.