First iPad-App Wave Delivers VoIP Calling, Home Control

By Joseph Palenchar -- TWICE, 4/2/2010

New York - iPad apps that deliver VoIP calling and Wi-Fi control over home systems are among the roughly 1,000 iPad apps that turned up on the Apple app store in the days' before the iPad's April 3 debut.

Control 4’s home-control iPad app.

Truphone of London offers a VoIP application that turns the tablet-sized device into a mobile phone that makes free Truphone-to-Truphone calls, free Truphone-to Google Talk calls, and discounted international calls to mobile phones and landlines for as little as 5 cents a minute. Truphone also offers an unlimited calling plan and free voicemail. The application also provides a combined Truphone and IM contact list that shows the online status and presence of all contacts, including those on AIM, Google Talk and MSN.

   Truphone also offers VoIP apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

  To turn the iPad into a wireless home-control device, Control4 and Savant have unveiled their own apps. Control4, which offers IP-based home-control systems, is offering the free My Home application to deliver Wi-Fi control over a home's lighting, thermostat, home entertainment systems, security systems, Web cameras and the like. Later this year, Control 4 will offer 4Sight remote-monitoring subscription service to let users remotely control lights, lock or unlock doors, or access IP video cameras and security systems from the Internet.

  For its part, Savant's $9.99 iPad app will let the iPad control its Apple-based Rosie home automation and control system. The app lets users touch or swipe actual images of their home to control lights, lower or raise shades, turn off home-theater systems, and the like. As an authorized Apple reseller, Savant will also resell the iPad through its dealer network. The company also offers an iPhone app that controls its systems.

  To launch the app, company founder Robert Madonna is starting a nationwide tour of eight cities from April 5-15 to demonstrate the app to dealers. The tour starts in New York at Savant's New York Experience Center.