Some friends of mine are launching an interesting product/service combination. It's a phone but it has an Ethernet jack instead of a phone jack. When you pick up the handset you hear a dial tone and can dial as normal. It works on VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) technology, and then the Phone-007 service acts as the "gateway" to the regular phone network (aka "POTS" for "Plain Old Telephone System").
Since all the traffic is going through the Phone-007 service, which you can log into online or call into by phone, you can do some higher level functions like:
* keep a log of all calls made
* record all the calls for you to listen to later
* listen-in live on calls in progress
* listen-in on the room the phone is sitting in (microphone works while phone is in the cradle)
* most other things you can think of doing with a product/service combo like this
Kinda sneaky. Each one has legitimate uses, and each one could be misused. Let the controversy begin...
Details: www.Phone-007.com