Gmail has just become even more useful. Google now allows voice calls to another phone using Gmail. Now, that is pretty useful. It will be free if you place calls to the US and Canada until January 2011. Phone calls to other countries will be billed at “very low rates”.

Talking with family and friends in the U.K., France, Germany, China, India, Mexico and other countries is as little as $0.02 per minute. Just dial a number like you normally do and click “Call phone” at the top of your chat list. Only US Gmail users will be able to use it over the next few days. You just have to install the voice and video plug-in.

We’ve never seen a phone raise and stand on it’s own like a zombie from a grave, but we dig this concept of just such a phone. This Nokia Kinetic concept design will use an electromagnet in it’s thick base to shift the balance so that it gradually rises or lowers itself.

When you get a call or a text message, the phone will gradually stand up, letting you know that you have a call. If you don’t want to answer the call, just tap it to reject. Pretty neat.

Vitality Inc. wants to sell you a new pill bottle system. The idea is that it will transmit a signal to a base station in your home every time the bottle cap is opened. So if you are not able to open the bottle cap in time, the base station will play sounds to remind you.

Should you go on vacation or are away from home, just set the base station so that it can place a call to your handset as a reminder via AT&T. No word on when we might see this or what it will cost. Do you think something like this will be popular for the elderly?

Rotary dial phones seem to be making a comeback, at least in gadgets if not actual phones. First there was the rotary dial app for iPhone. Now we have the Zihotch Retro Phone Watch, which is a pretty unique watch.

So how do you tell what time it is? You need to make a phone call to find out. Just dial 117 and the you’ll get the time from a recorded voice. Dial the wrong number and you get, “We are sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service. Please check and call again.” It can also be used as an alarm. It can be yours for $79.99.