Videophone Touch AiGuru SV1T (Novice, Under $500)

For the grandparent who has neither the time nor the interest in learning to use a computer, the ASUS Videophone Touch ($299) makes an amazing gift. Essentially, the all-in-one device allows the user to make unlimited video Skype calls, without using a computer or other hardware. The 7-inch touchscreen, built-in camera, and speaker make the whole process incredibly straightforward; assuming they have an available Wi-Fi or Ethernet Internet connection (which could be your bonus gift), you simply set up their contacts once and it's smooth sailing from there on out, thanks to an intuitive icon-based interface. Nothing quite matches the intimacy of seeing your parents or grandparents (or, for tech-savvy seniors, your grandchildren) face-to-face, of course, but video chat makes a much better alternative than the standard telephone.

During tough economic times, businesses want to tighten belts, and prospective employees clamor for any position, even if it's unpaid. Combine that with the ease of communication afforded by the Internet, and a whole new niche in the job market emerges: virtual internships.

According to CNN, businesses, particularly small ones, are tapping into new pools of employees around the world by hiring interns to work remotely via e-mail, instant messaging, and even services like Skype. At New York-based Urban Interns, which matches people with internships, 24-percent of the available positions are virtual internships. "Virtual interns allow business owners to connect with a talent pool that's not in their area," says co-founder Cari Sommer. Another London-based site called Enternships typically has around 30 virtual positions available at any time.

Skype, a service which provides free Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls between users, has exploded in popularity, reportedly becoming the world's largest international call provider. Skype is generally considered to be almost impenetrable to hackers, due to its encryption software, but it's now evident that a "wiretap Trojan" virus will allow eavesdroppers to record, and listen to, the VoIP calls before they are encrypted. This has nothing to do with Skype itself, but rather with an exploitation of Microsoft's audio drivers, which the Peskyspy Trojan horse actually infects, making all programs that use audio vulnerable. For more information on the vulnerability, check out Symantec's full alert here, as well as Skype's security blog, which explains the threat pretty clearly.

According to the Associated Press, Ruben Unteregger, a Swedish programmer, has been developing the virus since 2006 because he said he wants people to know that "we are now becoming a surveillance society." Kevin Haley, director of Symantec Security Response, said there is no need for hysteria or paranoia, though, because "It's not practical for any type of broad-based attacks."

Since Skype has almost 500 million users, and attracts over 300,000 more a day, it's almost inconceivable that someone could weed through all the meaningless chit-chat and intercept something incriminating or compromising. While China and Germany already are, or are thinking about, monitoring people's Skype activity, the invasion of privacy would, hopefully, still be illegal in the States. So, while Big Brother may immediately come to mind, your private conversations will most likely remain private, at least, for a little while. [From: AP/USA Today and Skype Security Blog and Symantec Security Response]

It's no big secret that men hate shopping. The experience is a bit like the Goldilocks tale, except there is no "just right" ending. Enter the style-savvy ladies over at Oregon-based Trunk Club. According to TechCrunch, the company has created a concierge-type service for dudes who just want to sit at home, get a box of clothes delivered, and then have pretty ladies provide honest feedback.

Using Skype, the Internet and her experience as a stylist, Trunk Club CEO Joanna Van Vleck started the Web site for guys who can't stand shopping, but don't quite have the budget or time for a personal shopper, either. After a man (it's men-only) signs up, he explains to a shopper what he wants, what his size is, and what type of budget he is working with. The shopper then picks out a selection of duds -- no minimum is required -- and ships out a box for the customer to try on. He communicates with the shopper via webcam and they decide what he should keep and what he should return, all the shipping costs being included in the membership fees. Then, he pays retail price for whatever he chooses to keep.

The catch? Well, there is someone else shopping for you, so this service might not be ideal for the super-picky. Also, due to the semi-intimate nature of the webcam, the site has potential to lure lonely men who don't want clothes, but only personal contact with interested women (all of the site's shoppers are female). But, for the guy that simply can't be bothered, this might be the perfect way to get rid of those silk-screened Ed Hardy shirts you always wind up wearing, once and for all. [From: TechCrunch.com]

In the world of network television, show producers have millions of dollars at their disposal. As such, they can usually swing some high-tech equipment to make sure that when guests appear on video from some other part of the world, they do so with a high-quality video and audio signal. Oprah, despite her millions (billions?), is forgoing all that in favor of Skype, the free online telephone and video service that she loves ( but, it turns out, many of her viewers hate).

Skype software enables its users to instant message, talk, and conduct video conversations anywhere in the world, completely for free. Fans of Oprah were introduced to the computer program on her show a year ago, and the media mogul uses the service to converse face-to-face with guests, fans, and even bears.

On Thursday, May 21st, Skype president Josh Silverman will visit 'Oprah' to discuss the features the technology offers to its subscribers. In true over-the-top Oprah fashion, the show will have a bunch of people calling in from exotic locales around the world. Judging by the video teaser for the episode -- titled "Where the Skype Are You," for the record -- you can expect to see video chats on an airplane, a submarine, Antarctica, and London's Harrods department store.

Every day, the folks over at TechDealDigger are letting us know about some of the best gadget deals they can find, so we're going to pass that information on to you. After all, in these tough economic times, every little bit counts. We may not be buying Swarovski-covered iPods any time soon, but everyone needs essentials like a computer. So, take a look at what the online deals site sent us today.

Internet phone company Skype is offering 25-percent off of any its 12-month unlimited calling plans if you sign up before May 6th. If you're not using Skype, but find that you make a lot of calls from your desk, it's definitely worth looking into. With its unlimited U.S. and Canada plan, for example, you can make calls from your PC to any cell phone or landline for just $3 a month -- and that's before the discount. Similar plans for unlimited calling to a single country or anywhere in the world are $6 and $12 pre-discount, respectively.

Watch this space every day for new tech deals. [From: TechDealDigger and Download Squad]

It's finally here, and even a few minutes early. Skype for iPhone is now available in the US iTunes store, free of charge. We've heard great thing from the folks in Japan who've been fiddling with it for the last twelve hours, and so far it's sounding pretty good for us, too, with only minor hiccups. Not sure if it's a glitch, but despite what we heard earlier, we seem to be able to dial out while on 3G and not over Wi-Fi (at least running OS 3.0 beta). Hit up the read link for quickest route to the app store page, and let us know what you think. Betcha wish you could ditch that AT&T voice plan now, huh?

Update: We're getting reports the app is crashing for jailbroken iPhones -- and possibly non-jailbroken ones as well. We just got our first denial when dialing out over 3G via a popup notification, but it only happened once and we were back to old habits one call later. We did experience a brief period where no sound was coming through, but that might have something to do with using OS 3.0 and was remedied by restarting the phone.

Update 2: So far, it looks like dialing over 3G's only working for those with OS 3.0 beta, but unfortunately all of us in that situation are now suffering from frequent crashes and loss of audio. Things seem to be going smoothly for those running the latest non-beta firmware, but the calls only work over WiFi. That said, when using the app as intended (non-beta firmware over Wi-Fi), audio quality was surprisingly good, far better than any third party apps we've used.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]

It's legit; Skype is coming to the iPhone on Tuesday, BlackBerry devices in May. While we've seen plenty of Skype-capable apps on the iPhone, the poor, often echo-infected calls should be easily bested by the official Skype App that doesn't need the extra audio transcoding workaround required by the existing crop of unofficial apps. The Skype app works over Wi-Fi only (not over EDGE or 3G data) and supports calls to SkypeOut contacts in addition to many of the other features you've used from the desktop client. iPod touch owners will require earphones with an embedded mic to talk. CNET has a hands-on preview of the App just as long as you can muster the energy required to hit the read link below.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

We're still filing this away in the rumor folder for now, but we'll be honest -- this is totally believable. GigaOM has it on authority that a bona fide Skype for iPhone client will be launched as early as next week, and with CTIA kicking off on April 1st, we'd say the timing is just about ideal. Of course, we've already seen a variety of alternatives for bringing Skype and other VoIP apps to Apple's darling, but by and large, they've been supremely unimpressive. There's no word on pricing (we're crossing our fingers for free) or any other tasty tidbits, but you can bet we'll be keeping an ear to the ground for more.

How does it feel, AT&T?

According to research company TeleGeophraphy, Skype has put the smack down on AT&T and its peers, and can now claim to be the largest international call provider. Skype boasted 33 billion minutes of use in 2008 and an overall, worldwide traffic increase of 41-percent. A February report showed the online telephony service gaining over 380,000 users a day.

Much of the traffic on Skype comes from free, computer-to-computer use, but the service (which eBay bought for $2.6 billion in 2005) still managed to rake in $550 million in 2008. Seriously though, AT&T is doing just fine. We just like taking shots at the big boys every once in a while. [From: Ars Technica Via: Textually]

Related Links:

• Skype To Make Its Way To Your Cell Phone
• Sony's PSP Skype Headset Finally Arrives Stateside
• Oprah Does Skype Video Calls

Criminals are usually steps (or leaps) ahead of the law enforcement agencies that are chasing them. This has, depressingly enough, always been the case. The dark side is apparently very well funded. That said, it is a cheap Internet phone service that is currently giving Italian authorities fits.

Police in Italy believe Skype is the new frontier for shady characters attempting to circumvent the law. More and more criminals are turning their backs on traditional phone services and embracing Internet-based phone calls. Skype, for instance, has an encryption system that it will not share with authorities (incapacitating call taps) and criminals know it. In one case, Milanese police heard, via wiretap, a suspected drug trafficker telling an accomplice to switch to Skype. Police can only hope they are allowed to tap online calls sooner rather than later. The dark side isn't going to wait for them to catch up. [From: BBC via Textually.org]

Related Links:

• Skype Coming to Nokia Phones but Maybe Not in the States
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We love Skype -- and so does everyone else, apparently. The VoIP company that eBay bought for a staggering $2.6 billion in cash (in addition to eBay stock) is seeing an average growth of about 380,000 new registered users a day. Currently at 405 million worldwide users, with a peak count of 15 million simultaneously active users, Skype seems to have a bright future, despite earlier reports that the company was losing money.

To put the numbers in perspective, Skype has more than double the number of registered users as Facebook, and is growing by the population of San Francisco every two days. And unlike most start-ups with tons of users but no business plan, Skype is making money. Last year, the company made $550 million in revenue, and in the last quarter of 2008 made $45 million in profit.

Where's this money come from? In addition to Skype's free services, there are also a number of pay services that are offered, including the ability to call landlines, and receive standard phone calls and voicemail. In fact, we use Skype regularly to make local and domestic calls at insanely cheap rates. With companies looking to save anywhere possible, and the proliferation of Skype clients on everything from PCs to phones to Sony PSPs, the question is, why aren't you using it? [From: PC World]

Related Links:

• Skype Coming to Nokia Phones but Maybe Not in the States
• Increasingly, US Households Going Cell Phone Only
• Skype Offers Unlimited Calls Worldwide for $9.95 Per Month

Great news for anyone who's looking to pinch some pennies -- Skype is partnering with Nokia to get its software on the company's newest phones. The first phone to have the cheapo program will be the N97 smartphone, debuting in June.

The phone, and its N-series brethren, will include Skype in its address book to show users when their contacts are online for calls and instant messaging. Using the phone's Internet capabilities, the service will allow users to talk with other Skype customers for free and with everybody else at inexpensive rates using SkypeOut. This is the second partnership involving the eBay-owned company to be announced at this week's GSMA Mobile World Congress; Sony Ericsson will also be including the program in the Windows Mobile Xperia1.

The problem here is that neither Nokia nor Sony Ericsson have anything lined up with a service provider in the United States, which might mean we're out of luck when it comes to Skype-ready mobiles. Although we can't quite figure out why a major company would give their customers a phone that lets them make calls through a different service, we do hope one of these companies figures out a way to bring this feature to us. After all, we can all use another way to save some dough. (For now, though, there's always the UMA service from T-Mobile.) [From: CNET]

Related Links:

• Are Cell Phones Too Complex? Survey Says... Yes!
• The Cell Phone Comes to Cuba
• Average Cell Phone Ownership Rising to Two Per Person

It was a long and exciting first day at CES, with the Palm Pre proving to be the biggest announcement made at the show. It certainly made us do a double (and triple) take, but there's plenty more to report and lots of surprises still to come.

• Grippity Keyboard Reinvents Typing - There's a very strong chance you're sitting in front of a keyboard right now as you read this, and while the things are nearly ubiquitous when it comes to home consuming, many (including us) would be very happy to see a typing interface that's a little more fresh. One possible solution is called the Grippity, a handheld device that looks something like an overgrown PS3 controller with a normal QWERTY graphic layout on the front but with the keys themselves on the back. While we find the idea to be totally intriguing, it sadly feels a bit clumsy to use.

• Gateway's Mid-Range MD and UC Laptops - There's something of a growing divide in the laptop realm between high-end, powerhouse laptops and low-end, budget netbooks. Gateway is filling the void with its MD and UC series laptops, both with stylish designs and practical specs at reasonable costs that should fit into most people's budgets. They're not exactly groundbreaking in any respect, but they're solid choices for sure.
  

• Samsung Shows Off Flexible OLED - LCD screens have definitely reached something of a saturation point, but the way things are going, it looks like they'll soon be superseded by OLED. These new screens don't require backlighting like an LCD, so they can be ridiculously thin. They can also be extremely flexible, as is Samsung's trick screen shown in the above link. Right now, OLEDs tend to be small and expensive and, generally, not available, but we expect to see many, many more of them this year.
  

• Skype Hits Android, Java-Compatible Handsets - Millions have used Skype to make free online calls, and now it's getting much easier to make those calls on the go as the folks at Skype have announced the program's compatibility with numerous handsets. First up is a version of the app capable of running on Google's free mobile operating system Android, meaning anyone using a G1 can make calls without using minutes. Skype has also released a streamlined Java version of the client that's compatible with many handsets. If you're pushing the limits of your calling plan's allocation, you may want to make the leap.

• Coby Shows Off Sub-$200 Netbooks - Netbooks are great, truly bringing low-cost portable computing to the masses, but they still need to get a bit cheaper before they're ubiquitous. While Gateway is filling the middle of the cost spectrum, Coby is heading to the bottom with its lineup of under-$200 offerings. The machines have the standard tiny netbook styling and hardware specs, with Intel Atom processors, but their bright coloring and low cost should make them a hit -- if and when the company actually puts them into production.

• Mattel's Mind Flex Will Challenge Your Kid's Minds - There are plenty of games out there that will make your kids think, but not many tax the ol' noodle quite like this. The Mind Flex uses a headset to detect your brain activity which, in turn, levitates and guides a ball through an obstacle course: relax to lower and focus to raise. It's actually a lot of fun and we're eager to hear what others have to say when it's released this Fall for $80. [From: Engadget]