Windows 7 First Leaked Screenshot

There's no telling how accurate this screenie might be, and it's obvious that this screenshot won't be giving us any enlightening details about Windows 7, but we couldn't pass on the chance to publish an image that claims to be the first from a super-secret test build of Windows 7 distributed solely to "key partners." So, is there anything to see here? Not that we can tell, but from the looks of things we're looking at a copy of Vista with the name "Windows 7 Ultimate" pasted  on. There's no telling what's happening under the hood. We can only hope and pray that the Windows 7 release is not going to be just a high priced Vista upgrade that forces you to have all your system drivers reinstalled. If you upgraded to Vista from Windows XP, this nightmare should sound familiar to you.

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Backdoor Dialing - Free Phone Calls

Backdoor dialing is a new service provided by Gizmo5. Give this team some credit for a trendy name for their new service that makes phone calls free for more people thanks to VoIP.  It can be especially useful for people to receive calls from outside the US because any PC or laptop connected to the Internet can now take advantage of Backdoor Dialing without incurring any long distance fees.

Roughly 11% of all US telephones, including mobile phone numbers and land lines from carriers such as Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, etc., are connected via VoIP. Right now, working with their telecom partners, Gizmo5 is making it possible to dial these phone numbers without going through the traditional phone system.

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This means you can call certain mobile and land line numbers from any computer connected to the net and talk for free. Because these calls are bypassing the traditional phone network entirely there is no per minute fee or other charge for the caller regardless of where they call from.

Since the calls are limited to certain phone numbers in the U.S., Gizmo5 has created a tool located here (Gizmo5 - Backdoor Dialing) that allows you to see if the number you want to call is available for free calling. Of course you'll also have to download the free Gizmo5 software to your PC or laptop to be able to use the service.

Gizmo5 has said that it wants to add more phone numbers in the future, so let's hope they add plenty more really quickly so that everyone can take advantage of it.

Final Note:

If you can't make the calls you want using Gizmo5's Backdoor dialing service and you still need a quick way to make cheap and free calls, you can always try a Skype account. For around $30 a year you can make free calls to landlines and cellphones to anywhere in the U.S. and Canada. The overseas rates are cheap too and you can even use it on your Windows Mobile and MS Smartphone device.

While it's not free, it's a time-tested product with millions of users and lots of add-ons and features.

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