The Hub is a landline slayer launched in a wireless world, where the landline is almost dead. It's a fertile garden behind a red-painted wall—red 'cause it's Verizon, har har—found when most people are trying to break down those walls. It's a Verizon Wireless VoIP phone coming about at a time when AT&T is killing their VoIP service entirely. It's the phone we imagined before the iPhone, tethered to our home broadband connection for instant-pizza-ordering awesomeness. In other words, it's a lot of interesting things, appearing in the wrong place and at the wrong time.

That's not to say it's bad. It's just unfortunate. The Hub makes sense in a very specific context: If you're a lock, stock and barrel Verizon customer, from wireless to TV to internet to, obviously, landline phone service. That's where the "Hub" name comes in—it brings a bunch of different Verizon services together in one spot: You can monitor cellphone locations using Verizon's Chaperone, send maps and directions from the Hub to phones running VZ Navigator, and manage a central calendar that your entire family's phones sync to. Eventually, you'll be able to do more, like manage your Verizon FiOS TV DVR. While a minor point, in a sense it's a very sore point with the Hub, since you can already do that from many Verizon cellphones this very second. Why do I need a Hub again?

The garden walls reach their greatest heights when you try to text or picture message to a non-Verizon phone—you can't. The calendar isn't open, using a standard like CalDAV for easy export—it's squarely in Verizonland. A surprising amount of managing the Hub actually takes place on Verizon's website, like uploading contacts (via CSV files) and photos. Thankfully, the Hub's pages are better designed than the rest of Verizon's website—there's legit eye candy in the photo gallery, for instance. And nearly anything you can do on the Hub itself, you can do from the website remotely, like manage voicemail or check your call history. But it's odd you can't do something very simple like upload photos via the Hub's USB port.

It doesn't really matter if there are walls around the garden if you're never tempted to leave. Unfortunately, the Hub isn't enough of an attraction. Pretty much anything you can do on it—buy movie tickets, send text messages, check traffic or watch videos, you can do faster or better on your computer or cellphone. The virtually useless selection of VCAST videos make the average YouTube video feel like HD in comparison, and the "traffic report" isn't a map with live traffic info, but a canned audio briefing from Traffic.com that you have to sit through an ad to hear.

The Linux OS itself isn't particularly a joy. God knows, Verizon's committed some horrible user interface atrocities over the last few years, but at least the Hub's is alright—usable, not mind-blowing. I wish it moved faster. The keyboard is annoying to type on, but it'll get better in the next software update, which adjusts the spacing and adds pop-up letters. A persistent set of buttons on the left gives you constant, instant access to the two main menus: The phone and the uh, menu, where you get to your apps. In the top right corner is the home button, which takes you to the desktop, where your widgets, like for weather, time, voicemail, etc. hang out. Applications tend to have a two-pane layout that's framed by buttons on three sides, which doesn't sound like a problem, but it becomes one since the touchscreen is not so responsive around the edges. I've accidentally called two people at 3 in the morning while trying to press the menu button. Not cool.

Actually, that's one of my more concrete frustrations with this phone: The hardware feels cheap and shitty. The handset, which costs $80 a pop, is a plastic piece of garbage with a shoddy build quality and terrible screen. (It doesn't help that you can't do much from the handset either, like send text messages.) The touchscreen isn't as responsive as it should be, and it distorts with even the slightest bit of pressure, adding to the whole crappy feeling. A screen designed to be touched shouldn't freak out when you touch it. The speakers really harsh, crappy and tinny too. I couldn't stand using it for loudspeaker calls.

There are a few bright points. While the directory isn't as precise as say, MenuPages, it is fairly painless to find a nearby pizza place and call them in a single stroke. The synergistic—I know, that word provokes a gag reflex—stuff works well. Directions quickly went to the Samsung Sway test phone I got with it, which promptly fired up VZ Navigator and pointed to wherever I pointed it. (Too bad VZ Navigator is slow and sucky, but that's somewhat besides the point.) And the call quality itself is pretty good—or at least I sounded "loud and clear" to the people I called.

The brightest light may end up being the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel—the promise that developers will be able to create their own apps for this thing in the future. The included ones, for the most part, just aren't that hot, and some of the newer ones in the pipeline are definitely more head-turning. But it's hard to see how this product can sustain itself long enough to engender a solid third-party developer community. More likely, it'll get slightly better, then go extinct.

It's pretty ballsy to charge $200 for a landline phone with $35/month VoIP service right now, one that does the same thing you can do on an iPhone or G1, but is tied to your desk. Which is a lot of the reason I like it. But it's just as ridiculous to ask that much for a phone that's built with subpar hardware and doesn't live up to its full potential in a world where it's already horribly outmoded. Time was up two years ago. [Verizon]

First off, yeah, we're aware that the main point of being cordless is that you can take the phone with you around the house. That's one point in its "positive" column. Here are the negatives, in no particular order.

• Security. The president needs to make sure some bozo out on the lawn can't eavesdrop on his phone call with a baby monitor.
• Interference. "Hold on Putin, the kids are microwaving some popcorn."
• Sound quality. Being able to actually hear inflections in people's voices is kinda important when dealing with international crises.
• You have to charge it. Aides can probably do it for him, but it's a pain.
• It's easy to lose
• It requires power. If the White House ever completely loses power (including whatever generators they might have), he wouldn't be able to make any calls from his desk.
• Corded phones have more features. The most gadgety reason is that his current phone, which is probably by Cisco or Avaya or someone similar, has tons and tons of features. There's probably even an Optimus Prime voice changer on that thing. No way will a cordless phone be able to match that.

To be honest, I had to check my calendar when writing this post, since this whole topic of cordless vs. corded feels like I'm back in 1993. You kids and your beepers! And your V-Chips! And your closed captionings! [NYT]

Update: Someone who used to work for the DoD says that the phone might be an STU-III. Thanks tipster!

Update 2: Someone else says it's probably the STE, not the STU-III, since it's the current technology.

The dialpad is an interesting concept unto itself, featuring a touch interface the encourages dialers think of phone numbers as shapes rather than sequences. It's a sharply observed design, but if you're familiar enough with a number to develop muscle memory for it and you happen to live in the 21st century, you'd kind of expect to just be able to save it to, oh, I don't know, a contact list. [Core77]

Congress says the rules, which would give a 48-hour time limit for carriers to transfer numbers between each other, are necessary since carriers have been known to delay processing in a bid to throw as many retention offers as they can at customers trying to switch. The FCC seems to agree that it's a good idea, but was ambivalent as always about when it'd get around to implementing new regulations. [DSLreports]

The one drawback to the device seems to be that it does not replace the ringer from your phone. In order to use the device you would have to turn the phone ringer off and use the volume control on the Ringboxx to control the sound. On the plus side, the unit can be plugged-in between your phone and the outlet or independently in any spare jack, making it fairly easy to use. Generally, the Ringboxx will run you $50, and each tone will tack on another dollar — but they are currently running a promotion that offers a unit plus 10 free tones to "ring in" the holidays for only $39.95. [Product Page via DVICE]

Although only available in the Far East right now, Samsung has plans to roll out the phone throughout the US and Europe, saying that it sees a market for for the i8080 worldwide. Prices will depend on the service you choose, and will probably include a subscription to the phone's special Internet features. [Electronista]

GE didn't stop there with the handset phones, jump to see some more.

Cellular Fusion (center)
This landline phone can connect to cellphones via Bluetooth and receive the calls meant for the cellphone. The only advantage of this over actually using the cellphone is being able to use a comfortable GE handset. It will be available in May for $179 and include a secondary handset.

GE28310 Skype Phone (right)
Just another Skype phone. It does allow calling without the use of a PC at all. Available in Spring for $179. – Travis Hudson

The government has stepped in and is going to offer a telephone tax refund to compensate for these 108 years of unnecessary taxation. Anyone who has paid taxes on a landline, wireless or VoIP phone service qualifies. The refund can be filed on the 2006 federal income tax return and will give up to $60 back. Up to $60 isn't much for 108 years of a 3-percent tax on every phone bill, but free money is free money. There are a lot of specifics about the refund, so hit up the FAQ below to get the whole scoop. Thanks, Dale Higgs – Travis Hudson

Image Via Consumerist
Telephone Tax Refund Q&A [IRS]

The RTX comes with a charging dock, a base station, and a handset. The base station connects into your ethernet network and your landline, meaning you're free to take the cordless handset anywhere in your house. Even that closet your wife stores her letters from her old lovers in. It's 109.99 ($206), so it's not exactly as the non-standalone phones. T'is the price of progress. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Skype Style]

To get the feature list out of the way, it uses DECT 6.0, which operates on a wireless frequency that doesn't interfere with WiFi and Bluetooth. It also supports four handsets (I only had one), has a 150 foot indoor and 900 foot outdoor range, speakerphone, caller ID, Skype phonebook, and Windows 2000/XP support.

How do I like it? Only one way to find out.

The short answer is, I really enjoy it. The phone is very easy to use, and though some would dock points off the old-school LCD screen, I give it points for its large text that makes it easy for slightly older users to read. Which ties into the other think I like about it, that it's easy enough for your parents to use. Let me explain.

Setting up the phone just consists of installing the included software onto your PC to interface with your Skype install, plugging in the USB base unit, and charging up the handset. The handset and base unit detect each other automatically so there's no setup. Then, you can plug in a landline phone to your base unit to get analog calls as well. Once everything's set up (less than 10 minutes), you can make and receive calls on both Skype and your landline from one receiver—very useful.

The call quality was pretty great on our setup, and although there was a little static, we couldn't figure out whether it was due to our PCs, or the phone, or the Skype network. As opposed to the WiFi Skype phones like the Belkin or Netgear models, all the Skype processing is done on your PC. There's tons more processing power there, so as a result the call quality and battery life both go up. The only downside is that you can't take this phone anywhere you go, but it's good for an office or home phone.

So besides the call quality being great and the screen easy to read, we also liked the one-touch Skype contact list button. The buttons are large and give great feedback, and the handset is large enough to not feel uncomfortable in your hand, something we noticed with a few other phones. All in all, the $120 price tag and feature set on this phone makes it a great deal if you're looking for a Skype phone that also does analog calling. – Jason Chen

Product Page [USRobitics]

If you know someone with this phone, we bet it's real fun to go mix up a few of their pictures. – Jason Chen

Ronsonic Teleface Phone [TWAcomm via Gadgetizer]

I guess it is kind of cool how the keypad is integrated into the ugly headset, though. The XACT XQ2500 is available for 80 buckaroos. – Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via OhGizmo!]

"I...will...be...home...soon...dad...EL...Oh...EL...exclamation...exclamation...one...one." – Jason Chen

Verizon Wireless to Give SMS a Voice [Textually]

The SMS notifications are pretty cool, but we don't know how much use the proximity recording is going to be. Maybe burglars are going to list all the items they steal out loud?

KT releases new phones in Korea [Akihabara News]