Gmail users in the US can now use the Voice & Video Chat service to make phone calls. The new service is accessed directly through Gmail’s Chat interface.
If you have a Google Voice account, the associated phone number will be used for outbound calls. You can also forward calls from Google Voice to Google Voice & Video Chat.
The included call screening feature even allows Google Voice users to listen to callers as they leave messages.
Currently calls to US numbers are free, while there is a charge for calling internationally which varies depending on the country.
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Although it was recently judged to be a legal process, Apple still doesn’t want anyone to jailbreak their “i” devices, and has applied for a patent that would give them the right to “kill” jailbroken devices, as well as “kill” stolen iPods and phones.
The patent is titled “Systems and Methods for Identifying Unauthorized Users of an Electronic Device,” and it covers a number of security measures to “protect” devices from “unauthorized users.”
Those unauthorized users are jailbreakers and those that have stolen devices from other legit owners.
The patent was filed in February 2009, and was just published this week. The application will help Apple identify “particular activities that may indicate suspicious behavior,” so that Apple can restrict those devices. Suspicious activities include “hacking, jailbreaking, unlocking, or removal of a SIM card.”
Reads the application (via CNET):
In some embodiments, an unauthorized user can be detected by comparing the identity of the current user to the identities of authorized users of the electronic device. For example, a photograph of the current user can be taken, a recording of the current user’s voice can be recorded, the heartbeat of the current user can be recorded, or any combination of the above. The photograph, recording, or heartbeat can be compared, respectively, to a photograph, recording, or heartbeat of authorized users of the electronic device to determine whether they match. If they do not match, the current user can be detected as an unauthorized user.
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The music video website VEVO has launched a native iPhone app today, giving users a way to access the service’s millions of music videos on the go.
Vevo, launched last year as a joint venture by YouTube, UMG and Sony Music, has reached over 1.1 billion streams, with almost 60 million unique visitors in the U.S. and Canada, monthly.
The service has licensing deals with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Music, ABKCO, Beggars Group, Big Machine Records, CBS Interactive Music Group, Concord Music Group, Hollywood Records, Lyric Street Records, Razor & Tie Entertainment, Ultra Records, Walt Disney Records, Wind-up Records, Caroline Distribution, Fontana Distribution, INgrooves, IODA, RED, SAAVN and The Orchard.
Vevo’s app is pretty straightforward, giving users the option to search for music videos, as well as filter through top video, premieres, new artists, artists on tour, and “nearby” videos that are hot in your city.
Any video debuting on Vevo.com will be available simultaneously via the app.
Unfortunately for users with iOS 4.0 installed on their iPhone/Touch, the app cannot multitask, yet.
