Remember the 80’s smash, Vacation, from the Go-Go’s? As we are in the last half of August, most people I know are actually on vacation. The real question is with today’s email connectivity, whether they really are on vacation?

According to the Go-Go’s the point of a vacation is ” Vacation Had to get away Vacation Meant to be spent alone..” Unfortunately with email and mobile devices, we are virtually unable to be ‘left alone’.

I came across a great  blog by Rebecca Coggan where she quotes from a new AOL email usage study. She says, “ More than 50% said they check their email while on vacation. It’s even higher among mobile users. 78% of those who have a mobile device check email while on vacation.” She also writes, ” 28% said they feel obligated to check work email while on vacation, and 19% choose vacation spots with email access.”

That just sounds sick to me. I once had a job with a prominent Wall-Street bank and my boss told me that he was flying to the Himalayas for a 2 week vacation. I thought to myself, that this would mean that I’d get a bit of downtime at work and be able to spend some quality time with my family. Well much to my surprise within an hour of landing he sent me an email from his Blackberry. C’mon.

People need to understand that it’s okay not to be connected 24/7 as well as that the world will go on if you don’t answer an email.  If you are a business owner or a manager, you need to trust the employees that you hired, to be able to do the job while you are out of the office.

But maybe all is not lost. Ronda Muir writes on her lawpeopleblog that a law firm is urging employees to disconnect while on vacation. ” Linklaters is reported having decreed, in a fit of concern for work/life balance, that lawyers leave their Blackberrys at home while on holiday (vacation to us).The order is designed to insulate associates, in particular, from the relentless rat race for a few sweet weeks a year, according to management.”

Good for them Let’s hope that this becomes a trend.

Aaron Katsman is Managing Editor of the Israel Opportunity Investor newsletter. He is lead portfolio manager for the Israel Growth Portfolio and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. For more information, go to www.israelnewsletter.com or call 1-888-327-6179, or email aaron@profile-financial.com.

Your cell phone bills may start to get cheaper. Why? Well just like traditional fixed land-line prices dropped to virtually nothing due to new technology, most notably Voice Over IP (VOIP), the same thing may very well happen to your cell phone as well. An Israeli hi-tech start-up, Spikko ltd. is set to launch a free cellular telephone service for handsets with at least 3G capabilities.

According to a report in Globes: “Each subscriber receives the company’s SpikkoPhone software and an Israeli telephone number, which is used to make calls and accumulate airtime, allowing for the placing of calls for free anywhere in the world. The service also offers video and chat services, and will soon also offer e-mail and instant messaging.”

Currently it’s available in Israel only, but the company is working on making the service available internationally. The company estimates that customers will save between 40-80% off existing bills.

It will take time for cellular prices to drop down to levels that we pay with our landlines. It’s not something that will happen overnight, but with companies like Spikko, and others trying to do similar things, I have a hunch that cellphone companies better figure out other revenue streams, like content and other value added services, because it does stand to reason that we will continue to see price erosion on airtime charges.

 Aaron Katsman is Managing Editor of the Israel Opportunity Investor newsletter. He is lead portfolio manager for the Israel Growth Portfolio and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. For more information, go to www.israelnewsletter.com or call 1-888-327-6179, or email aaron@profile-financial.com.