Our Gadget of the Week: Wi-Fi on the Fly CALLS MADE OVER THE INTERNET -- especially to international destinations -- cost less than those sent via conventional phone lines. But Internet phones need an online connection, something not always available. A system called 1 Button to WiFi, from WorldTel Xchange, remedies that. It's a $200 electronic box that turns a high-speed Internet connection in your home into a base station through which you can make online calls for as little as two cents a minute, regardless of where you are. Call it from a cellphone, PDA or BlackBerry, wait for a dial tone and then ring up anyone, be he or she in Hackensack or Hindustan. Set-up is easy. I connected our test unit to my home network's router in two minutes. Over the next three weeks, I used the system to call Long Island and New York City from California, and Baltimore, New Jersey and London from New York. I called from cars, from L.A. airport and from a train creeping into Manhattan's Penn Station. The sound usually was clear on both ends and indistinguishable from the typical cell call. I couldn't reach one exchange in Paris (although I did by regular cellphone). But, over all, the device worked well. One caveat: It doesn't handle text messages. The phone service is paid from an account pre-funded with a credit card; there's no service contract. If you make only domestic calls and not too many of them, the system might not be worthwhile; you still need basic cellphone service, which covers a number of hours of U.S. calls. But if you frequently are on the go and make lots of calls, particularly to sites abroad, it could be a boon. -- Richard Rescigno
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