For the rest of the year, you can send free SMS text messages to Asia if you have the Vopium application installed on your mobile phone. The application is easy to install, and in addition to the free SMS service, Vopium also offers low-cost international calls of a quality far exceeding what you may know from Skype.

With Vopium on your mobile phone, you can send free SMS text messages for the remainder of the year to your friends, family and other people in most Asian countries, such as India, Japan and Thailand, enabling you to send text messages to more than 2.5 billion people in Asia.

Digium announces the release of Asterisk 1.8, a significant update to the software that developers, integrators, resellers and others around the world use to create customized, feature-rich and cost-effective business phone systems. Asterisk 1.8 includes more than 200 enhancements, including new security features, integration with IPv6 and extensive additions to ISDN-BRI functionality. Asterisk 1.8 is designated as a Long Term Support release, indicating four years of support from Digium. Hundreds of members of the open source Asterisk community will take an in-depth look at the software's new capabilities at next week's AstriCon Conference & Expo, which runs from October 26-28 near Washington, D.C.

Edgewater Networks announces the availability of EdgeView VoIP Support System software version 10.5 which includes enhancements that reduce operating expense for network operators and improve end-user satisfaction. The award-winning EdgeView VoIP Support System is used by leading service providers and enterprise organizations that maintain and manage converged voice and data networks. EdgeView provides visibility into VoIP call quality performance, auto-provisioning of IP phones, simplified device administration and ongoing VoIP network monitoring.

8x8 announces the release of "8x8 Virtual Office Pro 2.0," an upgraded edition of its award-winning hosted unified communications offering with improvements designed to further enhance the productivity and mobility advantages of this powerful web-based solution.

Originally introduced in January 2010, 8x8 Virtual Office Pro delivers a complete suite of web-based communications and collaboration services - such as phone, fax, web conferencing, call recording, chat, mobile application and more - via a single online dashboard, enabling access to these tools remotely from any location using just a PC and web browser. In addition, 8x8 Virtual Office Pro reduces a business' communications costs by combining the services (including unlimited local and long distance VoIP calling) in a bundled offering priced at under $50 per user, significantly less than the cost of acquiring the same services separately from individual providers.

Ingate announces that Intrusion Detection System/Intrusion Prevention System solutions for SIP are now bundled as a free software module on Ingate Firewall and Ingate SIParator products. Firewalls and SIParators already in use can be upgraded for free.

With IP attacks to steal VoIP service a genuine threat, weak passwords still providing an opportunity for malicious activity and the potential for overloading VoIP systems a possibility, IDS/IPS has become a crucial security measure for enterprise deployments of SIP. Ingate is giving its SIP IDS/IPS module to all users of Ingate Firewalls and SIParators to protect against attacks targeting SIP devices, such as IP-PBXs. IDS/IPS works in tandem with Ingate's existing security technologies, further strengthening security for VoIP, SIP trunking, Unified Communications and other SIP applications.

With the latest version of Vopium for Android, users can make free calls over Wi-Fi and mobile data networks. Vopium automatically finds the lowest call rate on your mobile phone. International calls are made using Vopium'slow-rate server, while calls to local mobile phones are cheapest using local mobile providers. Vopium also offers an instant messaging feature, allowing users to chat on Facebook and Windows Live Messenger. Vopium is currently offering 15 minutes of free calls worldwide.

Vopium has improved its Android application and is now offering free calls to other mobile phones with Vopium on either Wi-Fi or mobile data networks.

Vocalocity has launched another feature that helps its cloud based phone system work even harder for its customers. Click-To-Dial is an additional capability that Vocalocity is providing free to all its customers.

With Click-To-Dial, customers can now make phone calls with the click of a mouse. After downloading the Click-To-Dial application to a PC, users can click on telephone numbers on any web page or they can utilize their Microsoft Outlook Business Contact add-on to place calls. When a number has been clicked, the customer’s desktop phone rings. After the desktop phone is answered the “clicked number” is dialed immediately, establishing a connection. Click-To-Dial also works well with browser-based CRM applications, like Salesforce.com, and Bullhorn.

Netviewer has now expanded its product range for Mac users with Version 6.1.1 Netviewer Meet, the proven web conference solution which is used for millions of online meetings every year, now supports audio conferencing via VoIP under MacOS, in addition to high-quality webcam video transmission of the conference participants.

CounterPath announces the worldwide availability of X-Lite 4.0, an entry-level voice and video softphone for Mac and Windows PCs. One of the world’s most widely used multimedia softphones, X-Lite gives enterprises, government agencies and other professional users a fast, cost-effective way to begin deploying VoIP across their existing laptops and desktops to reduce their communications costs and improve productivity.

Available as a free download, X-Lite 4.0 is based on a year's worth of beta user feedback. It takes many of the popular features from X-Lite 3.0 and adds a completely new user interface that provides the choice of a contact-centric experience, a dialpad-centric experience or a combination of the two.

SoliCall announces the release of a personal version of its successful enterprise level - the PBXMate product. The PBXMate is being used by organizations to improve audio quality in their VoIP network. Now this product will also be available for individuals who are using SIP phone (or SoftPhone) looking to improve audio quality. Another benefit of the product allows its users to easily record their calls. With the Personal PBXMate all parties will enjoy a high quality audio during VoIP call. “This is another step to make our solutions accessible for all users. Both small businesses and individuals will now be able to enjoy the technology that has grasped roots and became popular among large corporations”, said Adam Moore, Director of Media Relations for the company.

ASC will demonstrate its new quality management software, INSPIRATIONpro version 10.0 and it’s VoIP recording solution, EVOip at the CSA & DBSG Annual Conference, at the Hilton Metropole, Birmingham on 8th-9th September, at Stand 18.

The Credit Services Association is the National Association in the UK for companies active in the area of unpaid credit accounts, debt recovery agencies, tracing and allied professional services. The DBSG works for the benefit of those involved in buying or selling debts (or intermediaries in the sale process).

VoX Communications has a downloadable mobile VoIP app on the Ovi Store by Nokia for the Nokia N900. Nokia N900 users can download the VoIP app from VoX Communications or by going to store.ovi.com from their Nokia N900.

Nokia N900 users will be able to download the VoX mobile VoIP plan with a simple signup process that will deliver the install software package straight to the Nokia N900. Nokia N900 owners worldwide can use the app to make calls to the United States for $.02 per minute, or less, if an unlimited plan is purchased.

ooVoo announces the results of a blind study conducted by a third party research firm to demonstrate how its product stacks up against category leader Skype.

The study results show that ooVoo is preferred by 8 out of 10 Skype users, who cited superior sound and video quality as some of the reasons why they favored ooVoo for a better video communication experience delivered anywhere, anytime.

In addition to quality, a number of factors contribute to users’ overall preference of ooVoo over Skype. For example, ooVoo offers 6-way multi-point chat, versus Skype which offers only 5-way, a feature that’s currently in a beta testing phase and has experienced a number of bugs1. ooVoo hosts video chat on dedicated servers that keep quality more consistent. Skype’s technology relies on users’ individual processors making service less reliable in situations with uncertain bandwidth.

VoicePulse has been officially tested and named a verified VoIP operator for Acrobits Softphone app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Acrobits is a privately owned software development company with a focus on mobile software development.

For many VoIP users, getting the correct settings for your provider in a SIP client can be a complicated process. Customers will only have to enter their VoicePulse SIP credentials and password to get started using Acrobits Softphone. The SIP app from Acrobits costs just $7.99 in iTunes. Download the SIP app here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/acrobits-softphone-sip-phone/id314192799?mt=8. VoicePulse will also be participating in upcoming beta testing for Acrobits softphone application for the Android OS.

CounterPath announces a new release of its Bria multimedia softphone. With analysts forecasting that unified communications client shipments will grow 65 percent annually through 2015, Bria 3.1 is ideal for enterprises that want to replace their deskphones or integrate a UC application as an adjunct to their IP phone solutions.

CounterPath's Bria 3.1 is a highly secure, standards-based softphone that enables voice and high-definition (1280x720p) video calls. With this latest version, Bria has expanded its interoperability to integrate seamlessly with a broader variety of enterprise and carrier infrastructure equipment from major vendors including Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, BroadSoft, Cisco, NEC and Nokia Siemens Networks. Bria also supports Asterisk-based telephony systems.