Given how Siri requires special fields like relationship (e.g., wife, brother, father, etc., etc.), I'm not sure how well this is going to work for iPhone users.

Yes, obihai can use google voice, but you're not limited to google voice. You can also use any SIP provider you want. Sure, SIP services aren't free, but they're not horrible at around $0.02/minute.

Here's another vote for an obihai box. No computer needed, uses whatever old POTS phone you have, and has integrated google voice (assuming you have GV). Also, note that there is NO google voice callback; to make an outgoing google voice call, you just pick up the phone and dial. Very nice.

I'm not sure if this works for you, but the obihai 110 box allows you to connect both a landline and a google voice/SIP service simultaneously, and allows you to use any standard POTS phone. You only need a wired lan connection (but a wireless bridge can be used for that); no computer needed. Incoming calls come…

Word. This is such an awesomely bad killer remake. It's like watching the most horrific trainwreck in slow motion. You just can't stop watching, to see how just much worse it can get. It's farking hilarious.

It's technically impressive, pretty, and very cool, but it's not (yet) terribly useful, as there aren't, as yet, any user interface conventions as to how to use it. I spent a moment staring at it, thinking "boring", until I finally scrolled the page.

I guess I'm lucky. I haven't seen too many problems, although I have seen issues with moving events between calendars. My biggest issue is that I need to insure that my iPhone has decent connectivity when editing events; if not, the edited event won't necessarily get synced. However, I think this is an iphone…

That may be, but most people don't have the skills necessary for rolling their own mail server, especially something like Zimbra or Zarafa (push smartphone support is required). Even if they did, they may not have the time or desire to keep up with all of the various patches and security issues.

A problem with hotmail is that IMAP isn't supported, which can be a problem for those people who use mail programs like Thunderbird.

Are you using Google Sync with your iPhone? I've had very few problems with it, although it can take a minute or so for everything to update on all my devices. However, you do have to set up google calendar using the instructions at the bottom of the above-referenced page.

Nope, not missing a zero. I think it was US$30, although it might have been US$50. Costco sale a couple years back. I only bought one. I'm still kicking myself for not buying more. They had a whole pallet of them. :(

While I have a Casio, it's a solar-powered atomic watch. No more adjusting the time. I paid $30 for it (sorry, no longer available).

Don't do it. It can't be good.

Irrelevant. An email service should also work with email programs like Thunderbird.

Hotmail doesn't support IMAP. Gmail, Zimbra, zarafa, and office365 do.

Unfortunately, if you use the advanced gmail features, like filtering and iOS ActiveSync, there is no (easy) free equivalent. As @TheFu says, Zimbra is decent if you don't mind creating your own server, but that's a lot of work (and free iOS support is still shaky, I think). Zarafa is probably in second place after…

Yay, a useful and intelligent Gina post!

None (for email, contacts, and calendars only, though). Google Sync works wonderfully, and the google mobile web interface works much better for me than the minimally-featured mail.app (i.e., get push notifications via google sync, read mail via the web interface).

I think the recommendation for older battery technologies, like NiCad, where you often didn't want to constantly charge the battery, has simply persisted like an urban legend. Also, I think the fact that a constantly-plugged-in-laptop often (but not always, obviously) means "hot laptop" (which kills LiIon batteries…

That might be a nickle-metal hydride battery, and not a lithium-ion one. I don't know about NiMH batteries, but LiIon batteries do slowly degrade with time, due to oxidation (see the links mentioned in the article). This is affected by temperature, as higher temperatures cause the (slow) oxidation to occur faster. …