TalkPlus, an internet telephony startup, just announced a very cool product for mobile phones -- a second phone number with its own voicemail. It used to be that lots of people kept their cell phone number secret, but that's largely changed since cell phones are now many people's primary (if not only) phone. TalkPlus lets you add another number that you can use for non-essential business contacts or for giving out for online dating. You can both send and receive calls using that number and there's a myriad of other features like cheap international calls, white lists and black lists, etc.
There's a glowing and exhaustive rundown of the service at TMCNet, along with an explanation of the phones which support the service (it's carrier neutral). It sounds like the company hasn't quite got totally disposable phone numbers yet, but you can sign up for a free beta account at their site.
This is more about low-level privacy and phone call management, than a truly private phone service. Since the service carries phone calls to and from the regular phone network, it has to wiretappable, according to FCC rules.
You can also get yourself a disposable number that has free, unlimited incoming free calls via AOL's AIM Phoneline, but to call out you have to sign up for the paid service.
Photo: GlowingTones
