http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/personal_tech/article6924233.ece
Google is gearing up for an all-out assault on the mobile-phone market that will include a new, Google-branded handset and the first comprehensive Google phone service with unlimited free calls. Now, a single company will control everything from the software in users’ phones to the services they use to make calls and surf the web.
Rumours suggest the Google-branded phone will be built by a third-party supplier, possibly HTC, and will incorporate a Qualcomm processor.
Googlephone will leverage Google Voice, which gives US users a free phone number and allows unlimited free calls to any phone in the country — landline or mobile. International calls start from a couple of cents (just over a penny) a minute. Google Voice also uses voice recognition to turn voicemails into emails, can block telemarketing calls automatically and offers free text messaging.
Google sounded its intentions two weeks ago when it purchased a small company called Gizmo5, which had developed technology to connect Google Voice with voice-over-internet (Voip) networks such as Skype. Now Google has the means to offer a complete, end-to-end phone service, with which consumers can make and receive calls between the Googlephone and other phones or computers anywhere in the world, and often for nothing.
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