Build and customize your own PBX with Asterisk

You know, like at the office where one can switch a call to many phones.

Getmooh -- receive a ring and a message on your phone

Need to get a phone prompt to possibly get out of a situation?

800notes.com -- phone reverse lookup with comments

Did you receive a call but the caller did not leave a message and the Caller ID says "Unavailable"?

Looks like the veracity of the details is user-dependent.

Lingtatstic -- interpreters compete for your business

... a customer with an account will be able to request a live interpreter from our website and they will receive a call from that person in seconds. They can specify language, specialty, max price and skill level and the interpreters compete for their business. That call can come on a normal phone, cell phone, skype, Yahoo, Google talk, or MSN. We can even conference in a third party on any of those applications too!

Closed beta for the moment.

Numobiq -- the network is the cell phone

Founded by three veterans from Sun Microsystems, it wants to bring sophisticated applications to the simplest cell phones by keeping all the complexity in the network... Now, they’ve built a new virtual machine they think will take mobile apps to the next level.

Confessions of a Caller ID spoofer

The major telecom equipment maker whose employ A.G. Bell had recently left owed him thousands in unpaid commissions, he says, yet the HR department stopped returning his calls, instead "hiding behind voicemail." Spoofing the HR director's number got his underlings to pick up the phone, at least until they wised to that ploy, at which point Bell - a fictitious name I'm affording him to protect his current job at another telecom vendor - started spoofing numbers right on up to the top of the org chart...

Wrong number generator

Some hardware for some fun. Only randomly generates numbers for 75% of calls out.

My VoIP Provider -- find, compare IP voice services

Global listing.

Telephone tricks

Some IVRs [interactive voice response systems] are programmed to listen for naughty words and speed you along to human help when they hear them.

Gethuman -- get a human when dialing an 800 number

A database tabulating the appropriate response to a navigation menu to get a bloody human being to talk to.

Talkster -- free international calling

Have not tried.

Yak4Ever finally killed

RIP. The Man wins again.

Earn minutes on Jajah by listening to ads

One for one.

Forward GrandCentral calls to your Gizmo number

Sounds like free (no roaming charges) inbound calls from anywhere:

With this you can now be travelling anywhere on the planet and can receive calls through your Gizmo client when somebody calls your local GrandCentral number.

Privatephone -- net phone number to voicemail

Get a phone number to distribute, but keep your privacy.

The Pudding -- free phone calls in U.S./Can, if you let them advertise to you based on your conversation

Call out from PC only:

Phone conversations are monitored only by computers, not actual human beings. The company also does not record any of the conversations or log any of the topics discussed.

Texas Instruments' cellphone projector

Bluetooth headset roundup

From Australian company BlueAnt, the Z9 uses an audio algorithm to distinguish voice signals from everything else to cancel out external noise.

Jawbone's solution to noise cancellation is to increase mic volume when you're speaking, and lower it when you're not.

The Plantronics Voyager 855 does not have noise cancellation, but two connected earpieces for stereo listening. So it handles both phone and Bluetooth-enabled media player.

Verizon's prepaid over-the-phone interpretation service

Covers 170 languages. "Those dealing with complex personal matters will have access to medically or legally trained and certified interpreters to provide assistance in the 22 most-spoken languages." The lowest denomination card is $35.

Bookshelf in your hands

A roundup of ways to read on portable electronic devices. Dedicated readers are still expensive, but how comfortable is reading on your phone?