Since times are getting harder and people look for various ways to tighten their belts without affecting one’s lifestyle by too much, how about taking a look at how many phone calls you make from home each month? Instead of relying on calling cards, how about making use of your existing broadband connection and utilize VoIP technology instead? Verizon has a new Hub to cater to such a crowd, being an intuitive device that puts a communications command center in the home while merging both wireline and wireless connectivity. It doesn’t matter whether you’re running on a broadband connection supplied by Verizon FiOS Internet, DSL or any other high-speed service provider, the Verizon Hub works with them all.

The touch screen display that you see in the image on the right is the main gateway to access the Verizon Hub’s functionality that includes the following :-

• Calendar (with Text Message Reminders) – View a monthly calendar, navigate forward and backward from the current month, set Calendar Alerts with a subject field for a specific time and date and reminder notification to appear on the Verizon Hub. Calendar Alerts can also be sent as a text message to any Verizon Wireless mobile phone
• Contact List – Create a personalized address book by storing contact information for friends, family and businesses. Contact list entries are synchronized between the Verizon Hub, Verizon Hub handsets and the Verizon Hub Web management site for quick and easy access
• Movie Listings, Show Times and Ticketing – Find out what’s playing at local theaters, view show times, play trailers and purchase movie tickets directly from the Verizon Hub’s touch screen
• Ringtones – Customize the Verizon Hub with a selection of free embedded ringtones
• Traffic – Get current video reports of slowdowns and accidents in top metropolitan areas
• V CAST News and Sports – Watch video of headline, financial and sports news, check sports scores and schedules
• V CAST Entertainment – View entertainment and celebrity news, kids’ entertainment and horoscopes
• V CAST Food & Dining – Access and view recipes (some with video demonstrations), tips and techniques, and healthy eating information
• V CAST Lifestyle – View tips and information on parenting and family, home and garden, going green, beauty and fashion, health and wellness, and travel.
• Verizon Relay – View photos received via picture messaging from family and others, all in one place
• Visual Voice Mail – Browse voicemails in the voicemail box through a graphical interface, view message information before choosing which message to play, prioritize message playback order
• White Pages and Yellow Pages – Perform name-based searches of white page directory listings by city and state and search the entire Yellow Pages by keyword or business name, along with the option to browse by category
• Weather – View five-day forecasts for a location right from the home screen (multiple city views available)

In order to get started with the Verizon Hub, you will need a 911 service, a home broadband connection, a wireless router and Verizon Wireless’ service. The Verizon Hub will retail for $199.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a two-year agreement, while additional cordless handsets will retail for $79.99 a pop.

Press Release