With Memorial Day and summer activities coming up, it’s easy to accidentally overspend. It doesn’t take much to max out the monthly budget by buying one more margarita, one more new summer outfit, or one more hot dog at the ballgame.

Luckily, there are some great strategies for saving money so there’s a little extra “fun money” left over after paying bills. One such money-saving strategy is switching to a cheaper phone service, like VoIP. VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is the technology behind Internet calling. Internet calling is a great deal cheaper than traditional phone service, which runs off of old analog telephone lines or cellular towers.

To help callers budget a little easier as they ease into summer expenses, My VoIP Provider announces the top 5 residential VoIP providers to help users save money and enjoy a little more “fun money” each month.

KyLinTV announces the launch of its VoIP based home telephony service, “KyLinVoice” in North America, as a new standalone service. KyLinVoice, a digital home phone service, offers free domestic and international calling with its most unique feature “free In-account calls” first introduced in the VoIP industry. By bundling this unbeatable home phone service with its award winning Chinese pay-TV service, KyLinTV offers the best value to its customers through the double play service with significant savings.

Followed by a successful launch of the first Chinese IPTV content in true HD and Chinese live channels and VOD content viewing on multiple devices (“KyLinTV Everywhere”) in 2011 and 2012, KyLinTV now provides customers with KyLinVoice, a high quality local, long distance and international home phone service via VoIP. Empowered by its new robust technology platform, KyLinVoice offers tons of advanced VoIP features, including free In-network Call, Number Porting, Mobile Access and many more.

netTALK.com announces the release of its Unlimited SMS texting service using your DUO home phone number. netTALK customers can now send and receive SMS text messages from the netTALK Text Android app by logging in with their DUO credentials for SMS texting. Even while traveling internationally customers can still send and receive SMS text to and from the U.S. & Canada (where Wi-Fi or 3G/ 4G access is available).

“The addition of this app further enhances the entire netTALK experience and our innovation underscores why we are the fastest growing company in the nation’s fastest growing industry,” said Cedric Guillory, netTALK’s Senior Director of Marketing. We’re always looking to add feature packed products at an affordable price. With our new netTALK Text Android app with unlimited SMS texting, no contracts and no monthly bills, we are doing just that!” Guillory did emphasize that at this time the app is for SMS texting only and does not work with images or attachments, but it comes with the following features and that an iOS (Apple) version will be released soon.

During the recent Amphion Forum, a conference where device and mobile security experts from different disciplines gather, Ang Cui, a fifth-year grad student from the Columbia University Intrusion Detection Systems Lab, demonstrated how connected devices such as networked printers and VoIP phones can be easily hijacked to give intruders virtually unlimited remote access to extremely sensitive information and allow them to eavesdrop on private conversations. The Amphion Forum is hosted by Mocana, a leader in device and mobile security.

Using a common Cisco-branded VoIP phone, Cui inserted and then removed a small external circuit board from the phone’s Ethernet port—something Cui asserted could be easily accomplished by a company visitor left unattended for a few seconds—and starting using his own smartphone to capture every word spoken near the VoIP phone, even though it was still ‘on-hook.’ While he did not specify the precise vulnerability, Cui said it allowed him to patch the phone’s software with arbitrary pieces of code, and that this allowed him to turn the Off-Hook Switch into what he called a “funtenna.” According to Cui, once one phone is compromised, the entire network of phones is vulnerable. Cui later said he could also perform a similar exploit remotely, without the need to insert a circuit board at all.

Rebtel announces the private beta launch of its new SDK for iOS and Android. The Rebtel Voice Platform introduces a powerful yet simple tool that will now allow developers to integrate voice capabilities into any app in 15 minutes.

Now any app developer looking to add a live calling feature has the ability to stream voice to their customer base. Gaming apps like Poker and apps that offer social networking features such as picture sharing comprise the bulk of apps developed today, and are prime examples of specific use case scenarios where smartphone users could benefit from free app to app calls.

Using Rebtel's Voice Platform for in-app calling means game developers can offer players the opportunity to phone a friend for strategy tips without ever having to leave the game environment, and dating apps can now offer the ability for real-time voice calls for better matchmaking possibilities.

3CX announces a strategic partnership to provide increased flexibility for organizations using snom phones with 3CX Phone System.

This partnership between two prominent European technology companies merges the best of breed PBX and IP phone technologies to provide diverse businesses and institutions with a complete phone system solution. snom phones are easy to deploy, as they are fully supported for plug and play provisioning, and all snom phone features, such as direct dial and call recording, are available with 3CX Phone System.

"We are extremely pleased to announce this strategic new partnership, which allows us to offer our joint customers a more advanced unified communications solution that combines best of breed IP Phone and PBX technology," said Nick Galea, 3CX CEO. "Both snom and 3CX can now innovate faster, and offer a more advanced and better integrated telephony platform. This will benefit our customers and partners, and allow 3CX to accelerate its growth."

The VoIP industry has become very popular over the past few years. However the opportunity to sell VoIP services has been limited to those who can run a switch and have the technical knowledge to do so. VoIP Innovations is hoping to change that by providing an entry-level platform designed for entrepreneurs with limited technical knowledge.

VoIP Innovations is announcing the official launch of Titanium III Private Label service for VoIP resellers. This solution enables resellers to quickly and inexpensively capitalize on the booming VoIP business. Titanium Private Label allows resellers to brand, market, and sell residential and business VoIP services as their own. Resellers can choose to sell VoIP Lines, Sip Trunks, or Hosted PBX service through a web-based platform. This service permits resellers to fully manage their business through the cloud and avoid the need to run their own switch.

PCN announces the introduction and availability of its UltraEdge system for rapid cost effective deployment of VoIP and Unified Communication data networks.

With a single Ethernet connection to access the Internet or outside data networks, the UltraEdge system requires limited IT knowledge for installation and enables access and transport for IP device connectivity at every edge. Using any grade copper the UltraEdge VoIP system easily interfaces to existing junction boxes, legacy PBX consoles, or other wiring infrastructure already in place.

Providing maximum capabilities and feature rich applications, the system is a true IP networked solution leveraging PCN's high-performance 19" Rack Mount Multi-Channel Server (PCN3485-MCS4) for 10/100 IP transport to every UltraEdge module (PCN3485-SCC1) which enables access for VoIP enabled phones or other devices. Unlike media converters, each UltraEdge module is a true Ethernet switch where each end point has access for up to three Ethernet RJ45 ports.

Inflow Communications has expanded its consultation, installation and follow-up support services with the acquisition of San Francisco VoIP phone system provider, Ketchum Integration.

Inflow’s expanded service offering builds on the core competencies of both companies. Ketchum Integration provides single and multi-site VoIP installation. Inflow Communications has been a provider of strategic consultative services and installation of ShoreTel VoIP business phone systems and HD video conferencing with Unified Communications integration since 1997. The new San Francisco location joins Inflow Communications’ other offices in Oregon and Washington.

“Our new partnership with Ketchum is very exciting for us,” says Inflow Communications President Travis Dillard. “With this expansion, we have improved our ability to service customers in and around San Francisco and ensure they receive the same level of support our customers in Portland and Seattle enjoy.”

Fraunhofer IIS will showcase how its Full-HD Voice codec, Enhanced Low Delay AAC, supercharges the communication quality of any VoIP app, be it for smartphones, tablets or televisions at CES 2013.

Natively supported in iOS and Android, the AAC-ELD codec is now readily available to app developers and service providers to offer superior VoIP applications that run at the Full-HD Voice quality level. This delivers a completely new same-room communication experience to the end-user.

"From mobile phones to TVs, consumers expect the highest audio quality from their entertainment experiences. There is no reason the expectations for VoIP communication should be any different," said Harald Popp, head of the Multimedia Realtime Systems department at Fraunhofer IIS. "By providing developers direct, native access to the best codecs to deliver Full-HD Voice VoIP apps, consumers can expect the best quality possible."

Fraunhofer's Full-HD Voice technology is already widely used to provide CD-like audio quality for professional video conferencing systems, as well as consumer video telephony applications, such as apple FaceTime. With AAC-ELD now available in iOS and Android, this same level of professional communication quality can be readily deployed in consumer VoIP apps.

Voxbone announces it is providing international direct inward dial numbers to Aculab for Aculab Cloud, a true cloud-based platform that makes it easy for developers to create on-demand automated telephony applications that make, receive and interact with calls.

Aculab selected Voxbone because the company’s VoxDID service enables Aculab to easily enhance its services with instant provisioning through Voxbone’s convenient application programming interface solution. Voxbone maintains a supply of geographic and national phone numbers for incoming communications from more than 50 countries and 4,000 cities.

Aculab Cloud enables functions including transferring calls, playing messages, mixing calls together in a conference, playing text-to-speech prompts/messages, analyzing call progress, detecting answering machines, queuing calls, and making thousands of simultaneous outbound calls.

VoX Mobile VoIP calling application is now available on the Samsung app store for Android devices, which are projected to exceed one billion in service in a short period of time. Users of Samsung devices are now able to download the VoX "Pay and Go" subscription-free calling plan, or other VoX calling plans directly to their Samsung devices.

The subscription-free VoX plan called "Pay and Go" can be topped up with amounts as little as one dollar and enables calling anywhere in the world without paying a recurring monthly fee.

VoX's Chief Information Officer, Mark Richards, noted, "We are highly encouraged by the increased conversions brought to us by our newly-launched Pay and Go plan, so we decided to broaden the reach of our app by making it available on Samsungapps.com. We note that the Samsung store is ranked in the top 5,000 sites in the world and the app store icon is now installed on every Samsung smartphone and tablet that is shipped globally."

Shopping around for IP surveillance cameras is one thing but, deciding which one of those thousands of cameras is the right fit and will actually perform as advertised is quite another thing.

That's why, for those customers that need trustworthy help to make the best decision, we're happy to announce that the Mobotix Global Partner Network now includes VoIP Supply as a Registered Mobotix Partner.

Not just a fancy title, what a Registered Mobotix Partner means for customers is:

• Customers receive combined attention because as a Partner, VoIP Supply receives additional high-performance support from Mobotix to design a solution.
• Customers are assured that VoIP Supply is fully trained to support them because Partner level status requires that we attend certification seminars.
• To offer the highest level of help to customers, VoIP Supply has to help itself by investing a high level of commitment to the Partner Program. For example, VoIP Supply is required to have demonstration products on hand so that our people know how to use Mobotix equipment.

Grandstream Networks introduces the GXP1160/1165. Along with a graphical LCD display that supports multiple languages, this low cost, single-line IP phone features high quality audio, integrated Power over Ethernet (GXP1165 model only), 2 call appearances, rich telephony functionalities, and Electronic Hook Switch capability with Plantronics headsets. The GXP1160/1165 is fully interoperable with leading IP Telephony platforms (such as Asterisk, Broadsoft, Metaswitch, 3CX, etc.) and various Internet Telephony Service Provider networks, and can be easily mass deployed and securely managed from a central location.

snom announces the completion of interoperability between the snom m9 cordless DECT phone and BroadSoft's BroadWorks hosted Unified Communications platform. The snom m9 has completed interoperability testing with BroadWorks Release 18.SP1.

snom's m9 is now available to BroadSoft's more than 500 global telecommunications service provider customers in order to deliver enhanced, personalized communications and entertainment services to their businesses and residential subscribers. BroadSoft serves 18 of the top 25 largest telecommunications service providers, based on revenue, in more than 65 countries. With the completion of interoperability testing, BroadWorks powered end-users can benefit from the latest features and functionality when choosing a snom m9 DECT phone for their business.