Verizon (Wireless) decloaks its VoIP Hub home handset

With a flourish of dramatic language, Verizon Wireless (yes, the cell phone guys) announced "the new touch screen home phone system" -- a.k.a. Verizon Hub. You should be able to get one at a storefront on February 1, with more details on pricing to be announced soon.

"In a dynamic move sure to rattle devotees of plain old home phones," says Verizon Wireless in its Friday press release. "...Only Verizon Wireless can launch a new touch screen home phone system designed to replace old-style home phones with a souped-up home communications system." The release goes on to say that the device will plug into any broadband connection, be it FiOS or Verizon DSL or "any other high-speed service provider" and will bridge wireless and wireline connectivity. Hub also "reinvents" the home phone on your kitchen counter and ... well, you get the picture.

The reason why Verizon Wireless is peddling this gizmo is easy: It has Verizon's biggest consumer-facing "footprint" in terms of stories and selling hardware. The landline guys dismantled their storefronts and consumer hardware sales years upon years ago.

Hub will work with "virtually any" broadband provider anywhere in the U.S. and comes out of the box with visual voice mail, contact list management, plus messaging options including text message calendar alerts and audible turn-by-turn directions delivered to Verizon Wireless phones from the Hub. If that's not enough excitement, Hub can connect to Verizon Wireless apps including VZ Navigator directions, Chaperone GPS cell phone tracking, and access V CAST video content.

PC Magazine got a first look at the underlying Hub-ware at CES a couple of weeks ago. It's a VoIP-based Linux device that has the capabilities to mange a family calendar, "limited' web browsing, message center, digital picture frame and a phone. The device is based upon OpenPeak's OpenFrame design and is an 8 inch, 800x480 touch screen device with a single DECT 6.0 cordless phone that snaps into the base. Web-based widgets deliver calendar and other types of functionality, including caller logs and visual voice mail.

Verizon has put its own proprietary services on top of OpenFrame, but it isn't clear if the cmpany has discarded access to OpenFrame widgets such as an RSS reader, YouTube, and Flickr clients. Buttons on the OpenFrame panel allow it to sync with contact lists and calendars, send an IM or SMS, check the weather, play music, watch streaming media or whatever else you might want to do within the ranges of the hardware and Verizon's forbearance.

Under the hood, Hub has a pair of ARM processors. PC Magazine says the device has a hacked Linux kernel and OpenPeak is more than happy to offer a full API for developing third-party apps - to carriers. All the software on top of the Linux kernel is proprietary.

For more:
- Verizon Wireless press release [1] on the Hub
- PC Magazine got a look at the Hub-ware at CES. Article [2].