By David LaGesse

The traditional home phone has suffered indignities in recent years as consumers cut the line, rely more on cellphones, and otherwise usurp the onetime king of communications. In fact, more U.S. homes today rely exclusively on cellphones than rely solely on landlines, federal researchers reported this spring.

Still, there is much to be said for the ease and convenience of a traditional handset. Now devices are emerging that seek to reinvent or boost the home phone. Here's how these innovative products all seek to change how we dial:

Hub master.

The Verizon Hub creates an electronic focal point for families. It combines Internet and cellphone service to connect, inform, and entertain parents and children. The Hub ($150 with two-year service contract) replaces the landline for voice calls and the refrigerator for notes. It's essentially a super-simple computer with a 7-inch touch-screen that connects to broadband service. It includes a cordless handset and phone number for making and receiving voice calls over the Internet. The voice-over-Internet service costs $35 monthly for unlimited local and domestic calls.

The Hub can organize notes and a family calendar and display weather and traffic data from the Web. It serves as a digital photo frame as well (snapshots can be uploaded to a special Verizon Web account.) It also links to Verizon Wireless services, including television shows, from the VCast service. In addition, the Hub makes it possible to exchange photos and text messages with Verizon cellphones, offering a nifty view of text messages that turn them into Post-it-like notes.

It's a promising alternative to the small "net-top" PCs that are taking aim at kitchens, but the Hube initially suffers from a lack of flexibility. It can exchange address books with Outlook but doesn't keep them in sync, and the calendar data can't yet be exchanged with other calendar programs. Future software updates could correct those shortcomings.

[See how PC makers want to make their net-top PCs the family hub.]

Home boss.

This is another 7-inch touch-screen that functions in many ways like the Verizon Hub, except the AT&T HomeManager will also connect to a conventional phone line. That's not surprising with AT&T, which still services millions of traditional landlines. And unlike the Verizon service, AT&T wireless customers can sync their handset address book with the HomeManager's.

The device can also connect to an Internet voice line through AT&T's U-Verse service. Consumers can then get "visual voice mail" that enables them to more easily choose which messages to replay--much like the system first made popular for wireless users on the iPhone offered by AT&T.

Like the Verizon Hub, the HomeManager also displays weather, movie times and reviews, and other data pulled from the Internet. And like the Hub, it feels awkward as an initial version with no syncing calendar information with Web accounts or Outlook. The HomeManager, meanwhile, has no VCast-like service to bring cablelike shows to its little screen and can't text-message like the Hub.

The HomeManager sells for $100 to AT&T broadband customers. Others can buy it to hook the HomeManager to a non-AT&T landline and broadband providers. But they pay a steep $300 for the HomeManager. Adding a second frame at $50 is reasonable, as are additional handsets at $40 each.

Cell slave. Dropping the landline service to save money, many consumers find themselves longing for the bigger handsets and multiple extensions they enjoyed with traditional wiring. The XLink Cellular Bluetooth Gateway offers a wireless link to send wireless calls to conventional phones. The gateway is a small black box that uses Bluetooth to connect to as many as three cellphones and then connects those cellphones to a home's phone wiring.

Calls coming into the cellphone ring the handsets connected to the phone wiring. Likewise, calls made from the handsets are made through the cellphone service. If more than one cellphone is connected to the XLink, outgoing callers can choose which wireless account they want to use for each call. The XLink can even speed-dial through numbers stored on the cellphones.

Incoming calls to each cellphone prompt a different ring on home handsets that support "distinctive ring." Walk into the house, and a cellphone should automatically connect to the XLink. If someone gets home while talking on a cellphone, the calls get transferred to the wired handsets. The basic XLink costs $100. A second version for $120 can also plug into a landline for the added option of making and receiving calls the old-fashioned way. What the XLink can't do is improve the sound quality of cell connections or the dropped calls that accompany them.

 

 

The Call of the Highway (From a Cell Phone)
Garrison Keillor

In Minnesota it's illegal to text-message while driving -- trying to type on a tiny keypad at 70 mph is crazy -- but it's legal to make calls while driving, which in my case means removing my glasses so I can see to scroll down the directory while steering with my knees at 70 mph. I call up my mother while driving, which is exciting for her since she is 94 and remembers when phones were attached to the wall and you talked on them while standing still. 'Is that safe?' she says.

Five Reasons Why My iPod Is My Favorite Game System
Ryan Kuo, Crispy Gamer Videogame Reviews

The App Store provides a vibrant, inexpensive and ever-growing library of some of the most inspiring games I have played in years," Ryan Kuo writes. "Actually, I like gaming on my iPod better than my Nintendo DS, my PC and my Xbox 360.

How to Play PC Games On Your Mac
Evan Narcisse, Crispy Gamer Videogame Reviews

I use Macs. I've messed around with Windows, but I've never let it into my home. But, in the name of science, dear Crispy Readers, I'm sacrificing the virginity of my month-old 13-inch MacBook Pro to the Crispy How-To Lab. By following a few simple steps, it's possible to run PC games on a Macintosh. Here's what I did...

Planet of the Apps: Apple iPhone's Top 25 Free Games
Kyle Orland, Crispy Gamer Videogame Reviews

iPhone owners can download any one of thousands of free games the moment they find themselves with some free gaming time.

Cyberwar Is the New Atomic Age
Mike McConnell Interview

A level of vulnerability has been introduced into our way of life that is unprecedented. We now have a smaller connected globe where information can be moved in seconds, where information managed by computer networks -- which runs our utilities, our transportation, our banking and communications -- can be exploited or attacked in seconds from a remote location overseas

All-in-One PCs Take Aim at the Kitchen

Most PC-savvy Americans keep their address books, calendars, and notes on computers. But not the family address book and calendar, which stick stubbornly to corkboard and paper in a corner of a busy kitchen. PC Manufacturers like Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Averatec, Asus, Acer, and others are aiming new desktop models at the kitchen, or whichever crowded room is the center of a busy household. They're pitching relatively inexpensive all-in-one computers that bring added power to Mom's calendar while not taking much more space than the paper version.

The iPhone and I
By Mark Bazer

Well, it was nice knowing my family, but now I've got an iPhone. For the uninitiated, the iPhone is the cell phone + iPod + organizer + portable game console + friend when you're at a party and no one is talking to you and you've already peeled off the label on your beer.

Companies Give Some of Their Best Discounts On Twitter & Facebook
Kimberly Palmer

Companies have traditionally let their customers know about sales and special discounts through newspaper advertisements, radio spots, and in-store announcements. But now, they are increasingly turning to a more avant-garde form of communication: Twitter, Facebook & Social networking sites.

(c) 2009 U.S. News & World Report