I love tech gadgets just as much as any other geek out there but in one aspect you might say I still live in the 20th century: I still have an analog phone at home … you know, the POTS system (plain old telephone service).

Now, there are still plenty of people who are happy enough with the old telephone system and that’s fine - but, among my tech-savvy friends, I know many who gave it up long ago and either rely on just their cell phones or jumped head first in the world of VoIP.

For a variety of reasons until now I didn’t seriously consider either of those two options. For one thing I have a DSL connection at home with AT&T and, as far as I can tell, I can’t separate the phone service from their DSL offering meaning that I need to have phone service with them in order to get DSL. I heard some rumors a while back that the requirement was supposed to go away but I have yet to see that.

The cell phone, at least based on my usage, is not quite ready to replace the analog phone at my house. I just don’t want to sit there counting how many minutes I have left or have to make calls only after certain hours - just won’t cut it for me.

As far as VoIP options go, I think there are only two serious contenders: Vonage and Skype.

I tried Vonage a while back and wasn’t very impressed with the quality, not to mention that since I have to pay for regular phone service anyway (even without any extras) their unlimited plan for $25 a month is not exactly that great of a deal.

Skype would be a possibility - their $3 a month pro plan for unlimited domestic calls sounds intriguing. The main problem I have with it is that it’s all done through the computer - if I want to call using a device that actually resembles a phone (i.e. not just some headset with a microphone) then I’d actually have to invest in special phones that would work with the service.

A few weeks ago I came across another company that shows great potential in this area: MagicJack. They’ve actually started their VoIP service some time around April, 2007 but somehow I never heard of them until now.

What makes their offering so interesting? Two things: they have a great, simple product and they appear to be backed by a reliable company.

MagicJack is a small USB stick - one end plugs into a USB port on your computer and the other end has a regular phone jack into which you can plug ANY analog phone. Once you connect it to your computer it will automatically install some small software it needs for its operation - that’s all there is to it.

It costs $39 for the device and it includes the first year of service for free. You get UNLIMITED local and long-distance domestic calls along with all the usual features such as caller id, call waiting, forwarding, and voicemail. After the first year the phone service is $20 per year.

You might say that it sounds a lot like Skype and you’re right in a way. However, the fact that I can plug in any existing phone I might have makes all the difference to me. I could plug in the base for my cordless system and I’d have instant VoIP on all the cordless phones in my house. It’s brilliant in its simplicity.

The company behind MagicJack is called YMax. One of its founders is a known telecom exec by the name of Dan Borislow. Another thing that sets YMax appart is that it is actually a certified exchange carrier in almost all the states. This means that it actually owns the physical lines over which many of the MagicJack calls travel once they enter the phone system, and that allows it to be very competitive in its pricing.

All in all I think it’s something worth checking out. I actually just purchased the unit, and I’m waiting for it to arrive. If it works as advertised, then I’ll probably be able to get the plan on my regular phone down to the basics, just enough to have a line that would allow me to have DSL service.

I just hope that the MagicJack business model is sustainable in the long-term since they do appear to have a great product. I would hate to see them go the way of SunRocket, another VoIP provider that had to close its doors not long ago.

If you happen to be using a MagicJack, please leave a comment here - I’d love to hear your impressions about it.

Filed under: Computers, General Interest Links, Money saving tips, Productivity | No Comments »

Firefox is my favorite browser for many reasons, one of them being that there are many, many extensions available that one can install to add additional features and functionality to the browser.

Here are some of my favorite ones:

Google Toolbar - Google is of course THE search engine to use and this toolbar will bring much of the Google functionality within the browser itself … the easiest way to search

ColorfulTabs - I just can’t remember what browsing was like before Firefox introduced tabs. Tabs are indeed a great feature but keeping more than a few open will make it a bit tough to find the right one when needed … this extension should help

Tab Groups - if you think tabs were a great idea, then check out this extension … it allows you to group together tabs based on whatever criteria you want. If you’re a power user, then this extension is a must.

FoxyTunes - it allows you to easily control your media player from within Firefox … why toggle between multiple applications when you can do it all from within the browser?

JSView - if you’re a web developer, then this extension should save you some time … it will enable you to easily see the source code for all the css or js files referenced by the page you’re currently looking at

StumbleUpon - a few years ago one of my favorite sites was a site that would send you to a randomly selected site from an internal list of links - it was a neat way to discover new sites that one didn’t know about. The problem was that you had no idea what type of site you might end up on and whether it would be even remotely interesting to you. StumbleUpon fixes all that as it will learn what you like and help you uncover new sites based on your interests.

ColorZilla - if you come across some interesting color on a site and you’d like to use it but you have no idea what the color code is, then this is the perfect extension to have around … you can easily find the color code by pointing to that color on the page - of course, all from within the browser

IE View - Firefox is the best browser out there but sadly some sites still make use of technologies (such as ActiveX) that only work in Internet Explorer. If you ever come across such sites that you have to use, then this extension will allow you to easily open an IE browser directly to the page in question.

Web Developer - this extension is a must if you do any kind of web development. It has so many features that it’s not easy to even list them all … best to just install it and try it out

These extensions are just some of the ones I use almost on a daily basis. The Firefox community created thousands of such add-ons - take some time to check them out, install any that seem interesting or useful to you, and make the most of Firefox.

Filed under: Computers, Productivity | No Comments »

Not too long ago Newsgator made a lot of people happy by announcing that their popular news reader applications will be released for free to individuals. As I mentioned in a previous article I’m currently a big fan of Google Reader, mainly because I like the ability to access my feeds on the web from whatever computer I happen to be using at the moment.

I know though very well that desktop-based news readers, such as those from Newsgator, have their own advantages. I recently came across a really great article at LifeHacker.com that goes into great details about the advantages and disadvantages of using a web-based news reader, such as Google Reader, versus a desktop-based application.

So, take a look at the article below, especially if you’re still not sure about the best way to follow your favorite news sources and blogs:

The Web-Based vs. Desktop-Based Newsreader Showdown

Filed under: Computers, General Interest Links | No Comments »