calls

Gamers are emotional.

They live in the moment. And sometimes they die in the moment -- which leads to self-expression, occasionally involving shouts, screams, and the rending of garments.

One Call of Duty player in Sweden though, may not have been prepared for the result of his pained outburst.

Kotaku directs me toward the reporting of Sweden's the Local, which describes how a group of teens were playing Call Of Duty and quite naturally became vocal.

You know how it is with Call Of Duty. Sometimes, you die. In this particular case, after an especially galling death, one of … Read more

There are many reasons to enjoy Wi-Fi calling, from starting video chats with family far and wide, to giving your old phone a new lease on life as a Wi-Fi-only device in little Johnny's hands. However you want to use it, you still need to know which apps are best.

There are quite a few companies battling it out in the data-calling space, each of which has its own benefits and drawbacks. Some offer voice-only calling, while others allow for video calls, photo transfer, and group chat.

Select apps share the love with other services, but others prefer to … Read more

A favorite of RadioShacks nationwide, now this household name offers its very own app. Sadly, FREE Calls with magicJack on your smartphone doesn't work nearly as well as replacing your home phone. Call quality is spotty and some calls aren't delivered at all. It could save you if you're really short on minutes, but it's not terribly reliable.

The app gives you a nice, big keypad to dial on, which makes sense considering the service is especially popular with an older crowd. You can also choose to pull numbers from your phone's contact list. If … Read more

Bobsled Calling - Unlimited Free Calling is one of many "unlimited free calling" apps that have sprung up, and like so many others that we've tested, it failed to work as promised.

Bobsled first requires access to your Contacts, which is typical for this type of social app. You'll have to create an account to sign in, or you can use your Facebook information. We opted to create an account by entering our e-mail address and a password. We were then told that a confirmation e-mail would be sent to the e-mail address we provided, and … Read more

Libon is a communications app that lets you make free calls and texts with other Libon users, create custom greetings, and offers a subscription service that unlocks certain features, but gives you limited talk time.

Like popular chat app Whatsapp Messenger, Libon lets you chat with other friends who have the app, but you also have the ability to make free calls to other Libon users with HD-quality sound.

Main features Upon launch, you'll see the app's home screen with icons for seeing the latest notifications, your contact list, your recorded greetings, a call button, and a write … Read more

People who use Gmail to make free phone calls in North America will be able to keep doing so for another year.

Google said in a blog post today that it was extending free domestic calling through 2013. It also touted its cheap rates for international calls.

Launched in the summer of 2010 as an alternative to Skype, Google's calling plugin lets people make calls to any mobile phone or landline via the Chat section in Gmail. The service is available for a slew of countries (there's a list here, under "show all rates").

For a … Read more

Whether you love them or hate them, memes -- culturally relevant multimedia often enhanced with a witty caption -- are here to stay.

In an attempt to crown the king of all that is viral, the meme maniacs at the site Know Your Meme analyzed internal page views, search interest on Google Trends, covers, and even parodies to suss out the top memes of 2012. … Read more

A new Apple technology could make it easier for you to manage incoming phone calls.

Approved today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the patent dubbed "Dynamic Context-Based Auto-Response Generation," describes a method to intelligently manage an incoming call, whether you're on the line with someone else or simply unavailable.

In one scenario, the system can be totally automated. So if you can't answer the call, the caller receives a specific pre-recorded message based on the caller ID and other attributes. In that case, the caller would be prompted to leave a voice mail. … Read more

Video games are the subject of so many studies, not to mention findings. Some suggest cognitive benefits, others behavioral issues that may or may not persist over time.

Many of these studies are small enough to require further investigation, and the journalists reporting on them often confuse correlation (when results happen in tandem) with causation (when one action is shown to result from another).

A new study out of Ohio State University suffers from a small sample size (70 participants), but its findings -- that people who play violent video games for three consecutive days show increases in aggression and hostility … Read more