Make Cheaper International Calls from Anywhere

Before now, there hasn't been a great way to make cheap international phone calls while you're traveling, and maintain all the functionality of your regular phone. SkypeIn works great--if you're on your computer. An unlocked phone works great--but no one back home can call you. Now, though, a small Irish company may have figured it all out.

As the New York Times tech guru David Pogue writes, there's a new $140 Cubic handset available which—for no monthly fee or contract—allows you to dial overseas for about 10% of what most cellphone companies charge. Plus, each phone can be reached using several numbers, which means that no matter where you are, you can accept local calls from people around the globe.

As Pogue points out, the Cubic phone doesn't work as a day-to-day phone, as it costs almost fifteen cents a minute for local calls, and there's a potentially maddening ten to twenty second connection delay. But when you're traveling, just set up your regular cellphone to forward to your Cubic phone, and you're good to go. (And if you've already got an unlocked cellphone, you can save yourself $100 by just buying the sim card and putting it in there.)