Our world has become communications-centric. In the computer world, we've gone from emphasis on the computer to emphasis on the network. We spend hours at a time passing instant messages -- and we always have our phones attached to our hips. Some of us are even addicted to "crackberry" (Blackberry) communications and take mobile devices everywhere: to work, to the beach, even to the bathroom.

Yet the products and services being offered to us seem to be diverging, with many of the devices becoming ubiquitous and other devices serving a group that at first looks like a lunatic fringe.

The first set of products includes the ever-present cell phone. As they get cheaper and cell services offer more minutes for the same price, more of us have them. We give them to our children at ever-younger ages, and some people even give up their traditional land lines. So families that had always had one or two lines now have four, five or more -- one for each family member.

On the other end of the spectrum are the products that seem to be very specialized. The Vonage V-phone and Skype are among them.

The V-phone is a phone that plugs into the USB port of your computer and attaches to your head by what looks like a standard, wired earpiece/mic combination. Even if it doesn't look like a telephone, it is, and it comes complete with its own number, which connects to the public telephone system through your Internet connection. It's a spinoff of Vonage's Internet phone service that has grown by offering near-land-line quality at a lower price.

Skype is a phenomenon that grew so fast that eBay bought the company. From its inception in 2003 to 2005, 9 million users signed up for Skype, which uses your computer to place your call, much like Vonage and other VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone services. But there's no monthly fee. You can call other Skype users for nothing and make calls to traditional phone numbers for a couple cents a minute. Like Vonage, Skype grew because it was a fairly good quality, cheap alternative to traditional phone service. While we spend ever-so-much more money monthly on cell service (despite lower per minute charges), VoIP users often look to bring down their cost of talking.

But it's not as convenient to talk over your computer as it is with a phone. That's where specialty phones such as Belkin's Wi-Fi Phone for Skype make their marks. The Belkin phone looks like a cell phone, but instead of connecting through a cell carrier, it connects to any Wi-Fi wireless hot spot, which can be at home, at the office or in your local coffee shop. The difference it offers: It doesn't need a computer to connect to Skype. That's a serious advantage if you're always within range of a hot spot, because it can save you a lot of cell minutes.

I found the Belkin phone to have a solid feel and good ergonomics, but it can be difficult to get the Wi-Fi signal, not unlike trying to find it with your laptop. Yet, overall the idea is sound. It puts Skype within reach of people who would otherwise consider it awkward to use. Although that's still most people, expect more converts as eBay starts to make Skype more useful and available.

Even if you don't use these specialty devices and services, we'll see more of them introduced during the next few years. So keep your eyes open for some more great communications ideas. And keep talking.