The fwdOUT™ Network is a system that matches callers with other users that can complete the call for them at no charge. The only catch is that to make some calls, you have to let others use your phone. fwdOUT™is free and not to be used for commercial purposes.

The fwdOUT™ Network keeps a tally of calls that you make and that you give to others. It’s like getting a calling card that starts with a few credits. One credit is used for each call and you get credits for each call that you give. As long as your balance remains positive, you can place calls.

Many of us have free calling regions and unused minutes in our phone plans, by sharing minutes, you get expand your free access considerably. Even if you don’t have free minutes, the minutes you give might cost significantly less than those you take – balancing out in your favor in the end.

An Example:

In New York, Steve and Nick want to go backpacking through Europe this summer, and they are trying to make reservations in Korfu. The Palace doesn’t have a US number and they don’t have international dialing privileges. So, they connect their Asterisk system up to the fwdOUT™ Network and dial 394+30 26610 53103. This dialing pattern routes their call to the fwdOUT™ Network. fwdOUT™ finds the best and closest matching fwdOUT™ members through which to route call. In this case, fwdOUT™ found a system in Athens to complete the call. The call goes through the internet to Athens and then back on the Phone Network in Greece.

To learn more about this new free service check out fwdOUT™ Network

A recently filed class-action lawsuit against alleged spyware king DirectRevenue of New York claims that the company has deceptively downloaded harmful and offensive spyware to unsuspecting users’ computers.

The suit, filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, alleges that DirectRevenue LLC “unlawfully used and damaged plaintiffs’ computers to make money for themselves while willfully disregarding plaintiffs’ rights to use and enjoy their personal property.”

According to the suit, the spyware infiltrated users’ computers to learn their Internet browsing habits and track their Internet use.

Further, the suit contends that DirectRevenue deceptively prevents users from removing its spyware, overwhelming computers with unsolicited advertisements.

Source: eWeek

Sony Corp.’s new PlayStation Portable is turning into a great tool for Web browsing, comics reading and online chat — and it also happens to play video games, movies and music, if you prefer that sort of thing.

The $249 PSP handheld video game player went on sale in the United States on March 24, and it took very little time before techies added the kinds of functions to the PSP that Sony did not include — and may never have intended. One man needed only 24 hours to get a working client for Internet Relay Chat, or IRC, an older messaging platform.

“I was on IRC, and someone mentioned how cool it would be to use their PSP on Wi-Fi at Starbucks to talk to people over IRC. I said, ‘I can do that’, so I began working on it immediately,” said Robert Balousek, creator of PSPIRC , in an email interview.

Balousek said as many as 100,000 people may have visited the IRC client, and he is starting work on a new project that would let PSP users chat on the AOL Instant Messenger network.

Hacking new video game hardware is old hat — rare is the console that does not get its own version of the Linux operating system from enterprising developers. But the gaming and hacking communities embraced the PSP with speed rarely seen in the console world — a nod, perhaps, to its portability.

Other “hacks” include a way to transfer TV shows recorded by the TiVo digital video recorder to the PSP ; a program for reading ebooks, ; and a viewer for comics downloaded from the Internet.

Source: Reuters

Online search engine leader Google has unveiled a new feature that will enable its users to zoom in on homes and businesses using satellite images, an advance that may raise privacy concerns as well as intensify the competitive pressures on its rivals.

The satellite technology, which Google began offering late Monday at Google Maps, is part of the package that the Mountain View-based company acquired when it bought digital map maker Keyhole Corp. for an undisclosed amount nearly six months ago.

This marks the first time since the deal closed that Google has offered free access to Keyhole’s high-tech maps through its search engine. Users previously had to pay $29.95 to download a version of Keyhole’s basic software package.

A more traditional map will continue to be the first choice served up by Google’s search engine. Users will have the option of retrieving a satellite picture by clicking on a button.

The satellite maps could unnerve some people, even as the technology impresses others. That’s because the Keyhole technology is designed to provide close-up perspective of specific addresses.

Source: AP

The Mozilla Foundation has developed a beta patch for the Firefox browser that it claims improves the blocking of pop-up ads.

The popular open-source browser already contains a pop-up blocker by default, but this does not handle pop-ups launched by plug-ins such as Flash and Java. Mozilla employee Asa Dotzler wrote in his blog last week that Mozilla developers are responding to the increasing number of advertisers that are using plug-ins to launch pop-up ads.

Firefox 1.0 can block pop-ups launched by plug-ins, but this feature is disabled in the default set-up because it would affect Web sites that rely on plug-in triggered pop-ups for legitimate functionality, according to Dotzler. The beta patch resolves this issue by enabling users to whitelist sites where pop-ups are needed.

The beta patch has been packaged as a Firefox extension, called PopupsDie, and can be downloaded for testing here.

Source: News.com