Before I start telling you about this new gadget, let’s have a moment of silence for the landline phone number.





Okay great, thanks for participating. Now for a gadget. Invoxia, the company behind the Triby, wants you to not only remember the landline, but use one, too. Its new Voice Bridge product connects your landline phone to Wi-Fi so that phone calls can be forwarded to your smartphone or tablet. Voice Bridge essentially turns your smartphone into a second interface for your landline and allows it to act more like your cell number.

It goes the other way, too; users can make landline calls from their smartphone, but those calls will use up data unless you’re on Wi-Fi. All actions are carried out through Voice Bridge's companion iOS app, which passes landline phone calls along and displays them on a smartphone. Those calls also go through a cell phone's caller ID and stored contacts, so users can see who's calling. As far as setup, Voice Bridge needs to be hooked into the phone line, as well as a user’s router, but overall it isn’t too arduous.

this is for all your landline lovers

I guess my main question is: who still uses a landline? I imagine the Voice Bridge caters to office workers with a specific work line, but even those seem to be going away with company-issued cell phones. Maybe if this really does save on minutes, which most people don't use anyway, it could be worth just investing in a landline and foregoing a major wireless plan. Or maybe if someone has a popular landline number this could fuse those numbers together on one device.

The Voice Bridge is available in the US starting on June 30th and will retail for $99.