An app offering real-time translations is to allow people in Japan to speak to foreigners over the phone with both parties using their native tongue.

NTT Docomo - the country's biggest mobile network - will initially convert Japanese to English, Mandarin and Korean, with other languages to follow.

Even though the translations are bound to be hilariously bad sometimes, this may still be useful in some situations.

Zfone™ is a new secure VoIP phone software product which lets you make encrypted phone calls over the Internet. Its principal designer is Phil Zimmermann, the creator of PGP, the most widely used email encryption software in the world. Zfone uses a new protocol called ZRTP, which has a better architecture than the other approaches to secure VoIP.

* Doesn't depend on signaling protocols, PKI, or any servers at all. Key negotiations are purely peer-to-peer through the media stream * Interoperates with any SIP/RTP phone, auto-detects if encryption is supported by other endpoint * Available as a "plugin" for existing soft VoIP clients, effectively converting them into secure phones * Available as an SDK for developers to integrate into their VoIP applications * IETF has published the protocol spec as RFC 6189, and source code is published

Few things warm the heart quite like a goofy publicity stunt. P.T. Barnum once had an elephant plow a field. German phone manufacturer Gigaset is right on Barnum's wavelength. Animals get attention. In this particular case, the animal is a chatty British Gold Macaw on Facebook.

OK, let's review. We have a parrot. We have Facebook. Put the two together in a live-chat format and you get people from around the world jawing with a bird over the Internet's most popular social-networking site.

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The parrots will be on duty until the 9th of May between 3 a.m. and 1 p.m. PT. There are a few simple rules. Be patient. Don't swear. He won't answer questions about his personal life, but topics such as biscuits and chickens are OK.

European travellers who use their mobile phones abroad could soon see a dramatic reduction in their bills, after the European Commission announced plans to eradicate roaming charges by 2015.

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“Huge differences between domestic and roaming charges have no place in a true EU Single Market,” said vice-president of the European Commission for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes. “We need to address the source of current problems, namely a lack of competition, and to find a durable solution. But we are keeping an open mind on exactly what solution would work.”

OpenBTS is an open-source Unix application that uses the Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) to present a GSM air interface ("Um") to standard GSM handset and uses the Asterisk® software PBX to connect calls. The combination of the ubiquitous GSM air interface with VoIP backhaul could form the basis of a new type of cellular network that could be deployed and operated at substantially lower cost than existing technologies in greenfields in the developing world.

In plain language, we are working on a new kind of cellular network that can be installed and operated at about 1/10 the cost of current technologies, but that will still be compatible with most of the handsets that are already in the market. This technology can also be used in private network applications (wireless PBX, rapid deployment, etc.) at much lower cost and complexity than conventional cellular.

Nimbuzz Mobile lets you call, chat, message, and send files on the go, for free. It combines all your buddies from Skype, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, AIM, Google Talk and more. One login, one contact list, all accounts.

fring™ is a mobile internet community and communication service that allows friends to connect, share experiences and enhance their online communities together.

Using your handset′s internet connection, you can interact with friends on all your favourite social networks including Skype®, MSN Messenger®, Google Talk™, ICQ, SIP, Twitter, Yahoo!™ and AIM®. You can listen to music with your Last.fm friends, check out what each other are up to on Facebook, receive alerts of new Google Mail™ and tailor make your very own fring by adding more cool experiences from fringAdd-ons™.

Russia's most powerful business lobby moved to clamp down on Skype and its peers this week, telling lawmakers that the Internet phone services are a threat to Russian businesses and to national security.

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"Without government restrictions, IP telephony causes certain concerns about security," the lobby's press release said. "Most of the service operators working in Russia, such as Skype and Icq, are foreign. It is therefore necessary to protect the native companies in this sector and so forth."

Ekiga (formely known as GnomeMeeting) is an open source VoIP and video conferencing application for GNOME.

Convert RSS feeds to MP3 speech.