Parliant has announced Echoes (http://www.echoes-app.com), a new Mac voice messaging product. It's different from Skype, FaceTime, and other voice chat applications because it eliminates "dialing" or setting up connections with your recipients.

Echoes puts an icon in your menu bar where you just choose "Announce" (or press a keyboard shortcut), speak your announcement, and press return. Echoes lets you:

° Announce to other users running Echoes on your local network;

° Announce to everyone, groups of people you configure, or individuals;

° Reply to the sender of the last received announcement'

° Set keyboard shortcuts for sending and replying;

° Resend last sent announcement without re-recording it;

° Replay last received announcement in case you missed it.

Echoes is available on the Mac App Store for US$9.99 for a limited time.