TechBytes: Google Voice Adds PC-to-Phone Calls From Gmail

Aug. 26, 2010— -- Google is giving telephone companies a run for their money. The company announced that you can now make phone calls from your Gmail account . The calls can reach landlines and cellphones. The service includes video calls. It puts Google in direct competition with Skype, used by 124 million people to make internet phone calls every month.

Amazon says its new Kindles are selling at record rates. The company says people are buying the next generation Kindles more quickly than any of the previous versions. The new Kindles started shipping on Wednesday. Amazon now has 670,000 books available for reading on the Kindle.

We're hearing about an added bonus for the upcoming Windows Phone 7 . People will be able to play games together. A microsoft executive says the company is working on a way for gamers to compete, real-time. It may be done with a Wi-Fi connection. The executive says the feature probably won't be ready when the phone comes out this fall, but it shouldn't be far behind.

A new app could mean lighter backpacks for college students this fall. The app is called Inkling. It's used on the iPad, and it's looking to replace textbooks by making them more interactive. For example, a student could highlight a piece of text on the iPad, and other students or professors could comment on it. Nick Bilton of the New York Times tried it out.

"One of the really neat features is the ability to actually have a conversation with your classmates or your professor. So if you all have the same textbook open on your iPad and your professor takes a note, all the students will see that note" Bilton said. "In the same respect, people can take notes that they share with other classmates."

The app also lets students buy the chapter of a textbook they need, instead of spending much more on the whole book.

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