Google has now started public testing by invitation only of Wave, a new online tool for communication and collaboration between people online. Wave has been described by its designer as what email would look like if it was invented today, and contains real-time communication through text, photos, video, maps and more according to Google.

The communication using the Wave tool is live somewhat like an instant messenger allowing users to see others edits as they make them, character by character. Should a users not be online at the same time, the communications will still be available to view at a later date, much like emails waiting in your inbox.

Google wave should be making waves in no time. Think of it like a live chatroom with a spread of documents, photos and/or videos, where you can reply to any part of any message or anything that’s shared, and it all operates in real-time. Basically TMI.

It’s a combination of Twitter, IM, Friendfeed and other service with semi-real-time stuff. In Google Wave, you can share and collaborate on projects, and all of this is going on at once. Probably great for those with ADD. You start a wave with any message or photo or whatever, and you bring people into the stream, and then they can bring people in.

Taking some of us completely by surprise, Reigncom has released its Wave wifi phone into the wilds of the Korean market. It’s an iPod Touch type device. It’s basically a portable media player with some extra capabilities, like voice over IP (VOIP), supports music/video playback, photo/text viewer, electronic dictionary function and more. Not a ton of other details, but at least it’s been outted.