Slotting an Atom into a home phone just sounds plain ridiculous, but the Home Media Phone is more than just a VoIP handset and base station. The base station (which doubles as a speaker phone) has its own software platform, developed in flash and furnished with a full API, and serves many purposes of a PC in a picture frame-sized package. The current set of apps is adequate, but after using it for a few minutes it became very clear that the Home Media Phone could actually be a fantastic net appliance.

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The team at OpenPeak is hoping to spice up the outdated landline phone by "borrowing" the entire iPhone concept and repackaging it as a feature-rich communication hub for the home. Initially, the "OpenFrame" will include core touchscreen apps like calendar, news, weather, etc., and it doubles as a digital photo frame and an internet radio. Beyond that, the idea is to get developers interested in creating third party apps--just like the iPhone. The device is expected to be sold through telcos like Verizon and AT&T for between US$200 and US$300 sometime in early 2009, but I say just pick up an iPhone and stop wasting money on landlines altogether. [OpenPeak via Wired Gadget Lab]

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With all the advances in technology we've had over the last couple of decades, you'd think that something as simple as changing your land line number into a cellular one would take hours at most. At least Congress does,... Read More »

The Vtech IS6110 is the little cordless telephone that could. There is a lot of functionality packed into one tidy little package. It is a fully featured DECT 6.0 cordless phone that includes a full QWERTY keypad and lays claim to being the first cordless phone to deliver instant messaging capabilities. All you do is plug the base station into your PC and you will be able to roam around your house instant messaging to your heart's content.

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Mobile phones are everywhere —that is obvious. But many people insist on keeping that landline around for some reason or another (what's up Mum!). So our burning question to you is: Do you still keep a landline or have you fully embraced the 21st century and ditched it. Inquiring minds need to know.

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According to a recent piece in the NYTimes, 2007 will be the first year in which the dollars spent on mobile phone subscriptions trump traditional land lines. Among other points, they site that in 2006, households spend an average of $US542 on residential lines while only spending $US524 on wireless services. Add another year of mobile phone growth to those figures, and it's hard to believe that land lines are still king.

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UK industrial designers Priestman Goode breathed new life into using landlines (so 20th century) by stripping a phone down to its bare essentials—literally. The Post a Phone is 4mm thick, fashioned from either recyclable cardboard or plastic, pops out of an A5 envelope and is ready to be jacked in. The design and product's definitely solid, but the marketing drivel about it being a "wireless phone backup" strikes us as a little wonky, at least the way it's phrased in the press release:

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