From InformationWeek - Two appliances for Skype phoning – a speakerphone and a PC-less Wi-Fi phone – were announced Monday as the eBay VoIP unit stepped up its drive to spread the free service deeper into business markets.

The USB speakerphone carries a suggested retail price of $129 and is the first of a planned series of Skype-approved devices slated to be developed by Polycom and Skype. The hands-free Polycom Communicator is the size of a typical PDA and is available for additional PC functions like audio and music presentations.

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From Gizmodo - The Netgear Skype WiFi phone SPH101 just popped up on Amazon, finally! It's not cheap– even though the list price is $300, it'll still cost you $249.99. The great thing is, you don't need a PC to use it, you can call anyone in the world on Skype for free, and all you need is a WiFi hotspot to do it.

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• Netgear Skype WiFi phone on Amazon
  

From InformationWeek - AOL is preparing to leverage its dominant strength in its AIM instant messaging service by giving a free phone number to its users and, in addition, by introducing AIM Pages, a social networking feature.

The free phone number would compete with eBay's Skype VoIP service, which charges $4 for a number. AIM Pages would compete with MySpace. AOL, a Time Warner unit, has 38 percent of the IM market, according to recent market research studies.

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From InformationWeek - U.S. mobile phone sales to consumers in the first quarter increased more than 11 percent, as wireless subscribers threw out their old phones for new ones.

Shipments reached 34.8 million units in the quarter, as sales neared $2.3 billion, The NPD Group said. The increase compared to the same period last year was due to a strong demand for replacement models and from new subscribers.

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From TechWeb - AOL plans to launch a PC-based Internet telephone service closely tied to its AIM instant messaging service, a move that would expand the Web portal's options for advertisers.

AIM Phoneline, due this month, would be available as an ad-supported free service for making PC-to-PC calls.

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 According to InformationWeek, The combo of voice over Wi-Fi and dual-mode handsets reduce reliance on cellular networks, but many businesses may not see enough payback to build out the infrastructure.

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From CNet News Blog,  "Looks like it's going to be a great year for Skype. Every time you open a magazine or a browser, there's a new device that integrates…"

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From Ars-Technica, "What client do you use for instant messaging? According to a recent study by comScore Networks, there's a decent chance that it's MSN Messenger, which lassoed in 61 percent of worldwide instant messaging (IM) market share."

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According to InformationWeek, about two-thirds remain ignorant of the technology, which Harris Interactive interprets as meaning that broad marketing efforts are working, but more needs to be done to reach people in particular demographic groups.

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According to Gizmodo, Skype released a beta today of Skypecast, VoIP software that lets you conduct a live moderated conversation with up to 100 of your closest friends. It's a free preview, where you, as god of the Skypecast, get to control when people talk, and you can even eject obnoxious participants if you wish. Skypecasts can be held in two modes—open discussion, or one-way broadcast where you can open it up to questions and answers afterwards.

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