B. Mann Consulting

Through Gizmodo comes this DesignTechnica article, announcing VoIP for the Palm Tungsten C, using WiFi:

VLI is introducing Gphone for Palm handhelds to enable VoIP for Palm Tungsten C handheld users. Gphone is a VoIP (Voice-over-IP) application available for several platforms that will allow users to place phone calls to any other Gphone-using Tungsten C, Pocket PC, or desktop system, or even over the public telephone network. Gphone also integrates into existing infrastructures to allow for automatic call forwarding to the handheld, and lets users within the same company call each other over the company network without any telephone costs at all.

The Gphone software is of course PC-only. Blecch! My PC doesn't have a mic, but maybe I could just turn on the "answering machine" function and you all could fill it with messages. The download is here, for free no less.

Or here's another idea -- just use standards! Note to self: go look up SIP-compatible soft phone apps, and see if there are free versions for different platforms.

Next up is The Register, which brings us news of GSM sign-on for wireless LANs.

The demonstration showed a WLAN connected laptop authenticated by a GSM network with the same ease as a regular mobile phone call over GSM. Anyone who's signed up his or her laptop to use any current WLAN hotspot will know just how different the experience is to using a mobile phone.

Ericsson provides a single sign-on for both GSM and Public WLAN, so not only a simpler logon, but also one bill. It forms part of Ericsson's Mobile Operator Wireless LAN (MO-WLAN) solution. This is a Wi-Fi, Wireless Internet Service Provisioning system, targeted at mobile operators. In addition to the existing components for service provisioning, user authentication, billing and network management, Ericsson has added a new piece with the Ericsson WLAN Authentication Server.

A long quote, but worthwhile to read through. This fits squarely into the "how to make it easier to make money and use the damn stuff" category. This absolutely - absolutely - makes sense. If I had a WiFi-capable device, I would definitely love to have the ability to pay for service in various places by just having the price added to my cell bill.

Of course, free service with everyone spitting out bandwidth is good, too.

Note: I don't have a wireless category, nor a VoIP category, nor a smartphone category. Any more votes on what types of categories need to get added? I was also thinking about something for iTunes stuff, but I don't know what that would be called. Media? Multimedia? Music?