VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol
) is just such an opportunity. For business users, the advent of this new technology opens up new possibilities and new ways to save a considerable amount of money at the same time. Unlike most new technology, VoIP doesn’t require any additional equipment to install. All you need is a PC and a broadband connection. Unlike traditional phone systems, VoIP uses the Internet to connect between PCs on the same system, allowing you to make and receive calls on your computer. If you use a VoIP provider, that range is expanded to allow you to make VoIP calls using a traditional hand-held phone, thus improving the quality of the calls. It also means that your recipient doesn’t have to have VoIP at their end, which is a step up from the early PC-to-PC only VoIP systems.

VoIP works in a unique way. It breaks down the voice into transmitted digital data packets and then sends it through your broadband connection in the same way as it sends all other data. The result? Cheap instant calls that save your business money. VoIP can be used in any size organisation, making it applicable for both small and medium business users. If you are looking to break into a foreign marketplace and this involves a high volume of calls with potential clients or suppliers, business VoIP may be the best way of maximising your international business contact potential without increasing your expenditure. Because VoIP uses the Internet to send calls, the location of your original call is irrelevant, as the proximity to the destination cannot be determined, thus avoiding the long distance charges that would normally be incurred on a traditional landline.

Business VoIP has one big advantage if your location is part of a network of outlets that are all part of the same company. By using business VoIP, you can call anyone within that network regardless of their location by simply dialling the appropriate extension number. Business VoIP also offers customers standard features such as voicemail, call forwarding and caller ID as well as additional features such as softphone support and outlook integration.

You do have to consider a few external factors before rushing to install VoIP as part of your business communications package, however. VoIP runs through your Internet broadband connection so you must ensure you have sufficient bandwidth, although VoIP providers do not require substantial amounts of bandwidth, some even allow you to dictate how much bandwidth you would like to dedicate to your VoIP calls. Power outages can also interfere with the operation of the system, so it may be worthwhile thinking about a UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) system if one hasn’t already been installed.

VoIP is quickly establishing itself as a fast, efficient and cheap way of making phone calls. It makes sense that businesses, still struggling in the grips of a worldwide recession, should take every opportunity to make their business as efficient as possible. Talking to a VoIP provider and discussing your business needs is the first step in a small investment that could garner big savings as your business grows. It also means that you’ll be able to make international calls without worrying about the cost. And it could be that one international call that propels your company onto the global stage.

The PlayStation Store is Sony’s virtual market for the PSP and offers downloadable content online, a few of which are free of cost while the others have to be purchased. These include full games, themes, add-on content and playable demos. Going by the 170 million plus downloads till the middle of 2008, this site is a very popular means of getting content for the over 52 million units of PSP that had been sold till earlier this year.

One of the upcoming video games for the PSP is taken from a very popular TV series called ‘SpongeBob SquarePants’ and is expected to be released in November 2009. The game is named ‘SpongeBob’s Truth or Square’.

The plot revolves around SpongeBob losing the recipe to keep Mr. Krabs Krabby Patty formula, which had been given to him for safe keeping in preparation for Krusty Krab’s Eleventy Seventh anniversary. SpongeBob takes the help of Plankton even though the latter is known to want the secret recipe for his own use. Normally these two characters don’t get on well together. So, SpongeBob’s other friends help him to use the memory machine that Plankton has, to go back and remember the fate of the Krabby Patty formula.

In the game as played out on the PSP, SpongeBob can become an Explosive Canon to aim at and hit the bad guys. Other options are to make him into Sledgehammer Smash to stun the opposition or turn him into WaterBob Sponge, who stuns the intruders by spewing liquid. The game looks at ‘the 10 happiest moments of SpongeBob’s life’ taken from the animated TV serial and players are able to remember their own favourite moments from it. In multi player action one can play Planktons character while the other does SpongeBob. Some of the story elements are totally hilarious!

This video game is based on the TV serial’s 10th anniversary and will follow the earlier game released on PSP, which was ‘SpongeBob SquarePants: The Yellow Avenger’ and also ‘Underpants Slam!’ which was released for Xbox.

As with other games released on PSP, this too is expected to be a best seller, based on the fact that the original TV serial itself has a great fan following – and not just among kids! It can easily make the Greatest Hits range of budget titles that Sony CEA had announced back in 2006, the first lot being released that same year. The Greatest Hits line-up includes games that have sold more than 250,000 copies.