6 posts and columns on cheap

News Byte

Skype Rival Rebtel Hits 10 Million Users

in Mobile on March 9, 2011 at 9:00 pm PT

Rebtel said late on Wednesday that it has hit 10 million users for its voice-over-Internet calling service and has now connected more than 200 million calls.

Rebtel, which offers free and discount calling on a number of mobile devices, also offered up some financial numbers, saying it is profitable and 2010 revenue was $40 million, up 120 percent from a year earlier. The company said it expects 2011 revenue to reach $75 million.

News Byte

Rebtel With a Cause: Free Calling on the BlackBerry

in Mobile on January 14, 2011 at 7:00 am PT

Mobile Internet telephony firm Rebtel said on Friday that it is bringing its free international calling service to the BlackBerry. The service, which allows free international calls among more than 50 countries by routing the calls over the Internet, has been available for Android since last March. Rebtel also said it plans to add the free calling feature to the iPhone this spring.

“We are committed to bringing innovation into the oligopolistic marketplace to make international calls either free or super-cheap for our customers,” Rebtel CEO Andreas Bernstrom said in a statement. Rebtel’s app automatically notices when an international call is being made and routes the call over its VoIP service, as opposed to making a cellphone call.

Condé Nast Takes Another Crack at the iPad, With a Single-Serving App

in Media on January 10, 2011 at 3:31 pm PT

Okay. So iPad magazine apps aren’t going to magically solve the publishing industry’s problems, after all. But that doesn’t mean publishers can’t find ways to take advantage of tablets. Maybe one-off issues, like Condé Nast Traveler’s “Best of Italy,” will work.

Look Out, Dell, HP, Lenovo: iPad Is $499

in News on January 27, 2010 at 11:33 am PT

Uh-oh. As he usually does to competitors, Apple CEO Steve Jobs smacked the netbook market upside the head with a $499 intro price for the iPad tablet computer unveiled today at a live event in San Francisco. What this means for makers of netbooks–such as Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo–is clear: Ouch. Let the games begin!

The “Good Enough” Test: Flip vs. Apple iPod Nano

in Media on September 14, 2009 at 3:00 am PT

When Apple added a video camera to the iPhone last summer, the digerati declared that Flip, Cisco’s cheap digital video camera line, was dead. When Apple added a video camera to its cheap and tiny Nano iPod last week, the digerati heaped dirt on the camcorder’s grave. You know what? I think the conventional wisdom is right on this one. Take a look at this clever side-by-side test.