Google’s Gmail email service already includes instant messaging along with voice and video chat. The company has now added conventional phone calls to the Gmail interface. This option is currently only available within the USA, although the company says its working on making this available more broadly. A special voice and video plug-in needs to be installed; it’s available for Windows, Mac and Linux computers.

Mark Bridge writes:

Last week the Wall Street Journal published a feature that explained how techies in New York wanted the city’s 212 area code as part of their mobile phone numbers. This may seem strange from a UK perspective until you realise that American mobile phone numbers don’t have dedicated mobile ‘dialling codes’. Instead, they’re all prefixed with a local area code and cost the same to call as those landline numbers they mimic.

Chinese mobile manufacturer ZTE Corporation has announced interim financial results for the first half of 2010. Operating revenue increased by 10.9% year-on-year to $4.524 billion (around £2.9 billion), with almost a fifth of this coming from European and US markets.

US-based technology protection and replacement company Asurion is recalling 470,000 counterfeit BlackBerry-branded batteries that have been supplied in refurbished devices. The company has received two reports of counterfeit BlackBerry-branded batteries overheating, causing minor burns to a consumer's finger and minor damage to a sofa and car seat.

Motorola, which launched its first Android-powered smartphone last year, has just announced a replacement for the flagship device.

The 2009 launch of the Motorola DROID was seen by many as a turning point for the company. This phone was renamed the Motorola Milestone when it arrived in Europe.