Archive for September, 2008
New eBay toolbar with Skype, PayPal features
If you like such things, eBay now offers The Browser Highlighter toolbar. Skypify phone numbers, compare prices on eBay, fill forms with your PayPal data, StumbleUpon new sites. tags: skype, toolbar, skypification, eBay, PayPal, StumbleUpon Follow Phil Wolff on Twitter or FriendFeed or on Skype. Follow Skype Journal on twitter ...
Business Networking 101: How to Start Growing your Business Network
When people ask me how to get started building their business social network, my answer is a simple one. All it takes is being a little creative while using both Google and Google Blog Search and commitment to try the following advice for at least 30 days. While getting started, if you dont already have a blog, think about creating one. You will need a place which you can leverage to help you build your own social identity. To help launch your blog, consider using it as a platform to interview...
Network Management Doesn’t Have to Be Evil
Yesterday Sprint launched its Xohm WiMAX service in Baltimore, the first step toward what could become a nationwide, alternative wireless broadband network. Within a few hours, the blogosphere was in an uproar over the network management practices Sprint had disclosed on its web site. But the issue is about more than Sprint throttling traffic on its network during times of congestion; it’s about a consumers’ right to know what happens to their traffic on the network. The problem re...
Star Trek: The Continuing Mission. Episode 2: Integration
TCM Productions uses Skype to connect cast and crew of Star Trek: The Continuing Mission, an independent, fanfic, audio drama. The first episode came out in January. The second episode is out now: Download Part 1, Part 2 or The Master Cut. The Trailer. More to come; check out The Continuing Mission site for interviews with the cast and crew. tags: skype, star trek, tcm, audio, theater, entertainment, radio, drama, science fiction, scifi, workflow, collaboration, continuing mission, coord...
Broadcom Combines GPS and Wi-Fi for Location
Today Broadcom said it will add Wi-Fi-enabled geolocation sensing to its portfolio of GPS chips, which use satellites to determine where a device is. The move expands Broadcom’s location-based services portfolio and highlights the importance of location-tracking as a feature on phones, laptops and other consumer devices. Broadcom will license the Wi-Fi location technology from Boston-based Skyhook Wireless. Skyhook also has a deal with GPS chipmakers SiRF and CSR and even provided locati...
How Wall Street Can Hurt Silicon Valley
Monday’s 9.1 percent dive by the Nasdaq was so sharp — with big names like Amazon, Google, and Apple losing between 10 percent and 18 percent of their value — that some stocks are sure to bounce back. But in the meantime, something has changed: The belief that Silicon Valley is going to remain immune from the Wall Street fallout is gone. Only two single-day drops in the Nasdaq have been steeper: one in October 1987 (the infamous Black Monday) and the other in April 2000 (the c...
Service Provider Views - Is VoIP Dead?
Well, that’s what Skype’s Jonathan Christensen thinks. My latest Service Provider Views article ran yesterday on TMCnet, and the focus was on his keynote at the ITExpo earlier this month. I thought it was the most interesting presentation given, and is very much in line with what my Service Provider Views column is about. Of course, it’s a provocative question, so you’ll just have to read the article yourself to find the answer. And whether you agree or not, I’d lov...
Is Anything Off the Record?
A little while ago, I was quoted in a blog post following an e-mail exchange. At first, I was a little surprised because the exchange wasn’t an interview or a Q&A. But then I realized that I was talking to a blogger, and the rules of engagement are different. In the blogosphere, pretty much everything is on the record. Comments you make on blog posts, things you spit out on Twitter, and conversations you have at a conference all become part of the public record. It’s not very o...
Jon Arnold: Is VoIP Dead?
TMCNet Editor Michael Dinan has reported on Jonathan Christensen’s keynote two weeks ago at TMCNet’s IT Expo in Los Angeles. While many of us in the Skype world have heard pieces of this story previously, Jonathan was addressing an audience of enterprise and business telephony professionals who are dealing with VoIP implementation issues.. Jonathan’s basic thesis was that VoIP has become a commodity feature but the innovation starts by going beyond low cost voice conversations...
Jazinga VoIP System for the SoHo Business
A US$1,000 all in one box WiFi AP, Router and VoIP PBX for up to 20 extensions. Looks like plug and play SME VoIP is finally on way. Read More… ...
GigaOM White Paper: The Facts & Fiction of Bandwidth Caps
Beginning on Wednesday, Comcast, the largest broadband service provider in the U.S., is going to start capping the total amount of data you can transfer using their broadband connection — to 250GB per month. With this move, the cable company will become the symbol of a new Internet era, one that is both monitored and metered. It is an era that threatens to limit innovation and to a large extent, the possibilities for new startups. I have been very vocal about the short-sightedness of this...
Acquia Readies Commercial Drupal CMS
Acquia ,which has been putting together a commercially supported version of the popular open source Drupal content management system, is going live with Acquia Drupal–the commercially supported version–and Acquia Network–which offers subscription-based access to technical support and remote network services–will deliver a model for users of Drupal similar to the model Red Hat has pursued in the Linux arena. Acquia is headed up by Dries Buytaert, the founder and still a ...
No Surprise: Survey Shows U.S. Consumers Hate Broadband Caps
It should hardly come as a surprise to anyone — but nevertheless a survey conducted by International Data Corporation on behalf of Zeugma Systems, a company that makes an edge router for broadband networks, shows that consumers simply hate bandwidth caps and will likely switch to another carrier if they have the option. The survey polled 787 U.S. consumers. Here are some key findings of the survey: 81 percent do not like the idea of establishing a bandwidth cap and charging for use abo...
Slides from my ITEXPO security talk - SIP Trunking and Security in an Enterprise Network
Earlier this month out at ITEXPO in Los Angeles, I participated in the Ingate SIP Trunking seminars as I have been doing for the last year or so. My talk was “SIP Trunking and Security in an Enterprise Network“. The slides are available for viewing or download from my SlideShare account and I’ll also embed them here in this post. I did record the presentation in both audio and video and hope to be making that available as a Blue Box podcast some time soon. I’ll then sync...
Pandora Wins Support
In grass roots fashion, Pandora, the online music genome project, urged its users (like me) to contact Congress about extending the royalty deadline. The bill passed the House. “Pandora and other Web-based radio services have been negotiating with music-industry groups for more than a year now, hoping to agree on a workable royalty structure before the existing structure bankrupted webcasters.” [Dallas Morning News] Who was the biggest opponent of the bill? NAB. Go figure! Tags...
Skype Journal Interviews Josh Silverman: The Way Ahead - Markets
This is the fourth in a series of posts resulting from an interview a week ago Friday with Josh Silverman, Skype’s recently appointed President. In this post we talk about addressing the small-to-medium business market as well as various geographical markets. Over its five years, Skype has built up, almost totally virally, a significant base of users who take advantage of Skype to not only reduce their business communications costs but also to communicate more effectively with colleagues a...
Building a Blade Server: The HP Factory Tour
Last Friday, not only did I get a first look at HP’s containerized data center, but I was given a tour of its factory floors in Houston, where HP makes high-value custom servers for clients. One factory makes the servers, while the other assembles the computers into racks and complete systems. The systems can contain any combination of gear that a client could want, including servers from rival hardware vendors. (photos after the jump) The factories are roughly 140,000 square feet each a...
Sept 29th: The Day of Unlucky Sevens
Does anyone else find it weird that the rejection of the $700 billion bailout plan was a day of unlucky sevens? The Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 777.7 for the day. I wrote over the weekend a post that rounded up what some of the big technology companies had to say about the current credit crunch. Today, more information is emerging as to how the malaise is going to impact Silicon Valley. In particular I’ve been reading research reports from various Wall Street firms, and they ar...
Now What?
The House defeat of the bailout bill was good for both our democracy and our economy. Even the prospect of Wall Street holding a gun to its own collective head and threatening to pull the trigger - even the prospect of not getting the next round of campaign contributions – was not enough to make a majority of the representatives, every one of whom is up for reelection, vote against the wishes of the vast majority of their constituents. Special appreciation to Vermont Democratic Congressm...
GigaOM Briefing: The Smart Energy Home
There are major transformations underway in the U.S. electric grid, driven by an aging infrastructure and growing concern over the environment. Well-established firms, like IBM and SAP, have launched energy practices aimed at capturing emerging opportunities to revolutionize the way electricity is delivered to our homes. But there is a similar shift about to occur on the demand side, and the residential market is ripe with opportunities to revolutionize the ways in which we use that energy in o...
Nintendo’s New DS Goes Music, Camera, Wireless
By the end of this year, Nintendo will debut a new version of its DS handheld console that plays music and is equipped with a camera and advanced wireless functions. This would put the new DS in direct competition with such well-entrenched devices as the Apple iPod and camera-equipped mobile phones. The price for the new machine is expected to be below 20,000 yen ($189) in Japan, compared with 16,800 yen ($158) for the current model. Now I wonder what Sony and other folks have u...
An Unlocked iPhone 3G in HK?
Unlocked iPhone 3Gs are now on sale in Hong Kong direct from the company web site, according to a published report. Until now, Hong Kong iPhones could only be bought from Hutchison Telecommunications on a two-year contract, the cheapest package being a staggering $188 a month. Now Apple’s local website is offering the 8 gigabyte version of its unlocked phone for $695 and the 16 gigabyte one for $798, letting buyers choose their own GSM service provider. The shape of things to co...
Congress Gets Closer to Forcing a Broadband Census
The Senate on Friday passed a bill aimed at improving information about broadband competitiveness — or lack thereof. Following similar legislation that passed the House last fall, the Broadband Data Improvement Act act was passed in the Senate. Now the two sides must hash out a compromise bill and send it to the president. Given that the federal election is just weeks away, this may take a while, if it happens at all. The bill does a couple of things, among them ordering the Federal Comm...
Cell Phones: More Tapping Than Talking Now
For the first time in recorded history, we used our cell phones more for sending text messages than making phone calls! (Knew that day would come …) In the fourth quarter of 2007, the average subscriber’s volume of text messages shot upward by 64%, while the average number of calls dropped slightly, according to Nielsen Mobile. Not surprisingly, users with QWERTY-style keypads sent 54% more text messages than those with ordinary keypads. Teenagers 13 to 17 are by far the ...
Tumbling off the Apple Cart?
With the U.S. economy in “crisis” (Geoge Bush’s description, not mine), it comes as no surprise that everyone’s looking for victims. The freshest specimen seems to be Apple, which has been riding high for the past four years on the aura of Steve Jobs, robust sales of iPods and Macs and the mainstream embrace of Apple as cool and hip. While Apple is still as cool and hip as ever, some analysts seem to be getting a little nervous the Apple cart could be headed for a bumpy r...
Judging for the Channel Elite Awards
IT Business is one of the major tech trade publishers here in Canada, and they run a large stable of vertical titles. One of the publications, Computer Dealer News has an annual industry program called the Channel Elite Awards. These awards are focused on IT solution providers, and they have 9 distinct categories covering the gamut, including managed services, collaboration, enteprise, SMB, etc. The Editorial team has asked me to be one of the judges, which involves reviewing submissions from ro...
Why Ringside Networks Failed
Ringside Networks, a Marlton, N.J.-based startup that raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Matrix Partners in January, has closed its doors. News of the move came via a blog post authored by the company’s CEO and co-founder, Bob Bickel. The fact that Ringside, which was making an open-source social networking server for the enterprise, shut down isn’t that big of a deal. The reason why, however, offers an important lesson for all startups hoping to get bought by one of ...
Jazinga Launches
Somehow, in the midst of everything else that kept me busy last week, I neglected to post about Jazinga’s launch. Being Toronto-based, I’m always keen to support a local startup, especially one that shows this much promise. I’ve been beta testing their service for a while, and will be posting a review fairly soon. I’ve been waiting for the latest upgrades, which came just before my last conference. I hope to get this done before the week is out. Back to the news. For thos...
Xohm WiMAX Finally Gets Going with Limited Service, No Caps
After six months of waiting and a few leaked launch dates, Sprint announced commercial availability for its Xohm WiMAX network in Baltimore with a good pricing plan that undercuts 3G data but only provides limited coverage. That would have to be my summation of Xohm: it’s a compelling service with a lot of limits, kind of like a cool pair of shoes you can only wear for a few hours, rather than a pair that can last a full day. Xohm offers downlink speeds of 2 Mbps to 4 Mbps, which is faste...
Skype tries Skype Prime commissions at 8% for October
"For the whole of October we’ll be reducing the commission we take from Skype Prime to just 8%. That means you get to keep more of the money from your calls – you deserve it." Skype, in a letter to Prime service providers. 30% is Skype’s standard cut. Skype takes 120 days to pay and does not pay interest on your money. Skype Prime is Skype’s first try at eBay-style markets. Where eBay brings people together to buy and sell atoms, Prime brings people t...
The Perfect Apple for the Living Room
Apple’s bland launch of a thinner Nano left the Mac faithful craving more. Now rumors are flying around the Net about a new device, with Apple retailers being asked to return their existing Apple TVs by Sept. 30 and mysterious placeholder SKUs showing up in Futureshop’s inventory system. Apple dominates music and consumer mobility. The MacBook is selling in record numbers. But despite making consumer-friendly products for the whole family, Apple has failed in an increasingly importa...
Public Speaking 101: Jeffs Tips for Being a Better Public Speaker
Back in June, 1987 when I spoke at the Lotus Developers Conference it was the first time I ever spoke in front of an audience. And looking back at how I approached that moment, I would have been a great example of all the things someone should not do when speaking to a crowd. From writing my words in advance and reading my script to the audience and becoming a Talking Head, I can only appreciate how much the audience tolerated me as a first time speaker. Ever since that moment, every time ...
Can Browser Plug-ins Be a Business?
For as long as I can remember, I have been highly skeptical of the concept of browser plug-ins as a business. Whenever I’d learn of a browser plug-in startup fetching millions of dollars in venture funding, I’d just shake my head. And while my skepticism hasn’t really gone away, I am beginning to view a select few of these players with fresh eyes. What brought on this change of heart? A chance meeting with a senior executive at two-and-a-half-year-old Menlo Park, Calif.-based st...
Baseball, Startups and Always Wanting to Believe
Baseball continues to be amazing game. An ever forgiving game. And a game where anything can and will happen. Baseball is a game of inches. Baseball is a game of momentum. There will be days where your team wins and days where your team loses and how the team handles their wins and their loses will have an impact on their overall performance during the season. The Mets 2008 baseball season just came to an end. A season which reinforced the concept that every game in a 162 game baseball season ma...
Rural Internet access is an Obama priority
From Friday’s U.S. presidential debate, in discussion of domestic spending priorities, Senator Obama said: And I also think that we’re going to have to rebuild our infrastructure, which is falling behind; our roads, our bridges, but also broadband lines that reach into rural communities. As I reported Monday, Obama wants to pay for rural net access directly, using the Universal Service Fund. All Americans now pay for the USF with a surcharge on their telephone service, subsidizing ...
Bandwidth isn’t free
“The leaders of three of Australia’s largest ISP’s have declared the Net neutrality debate as solely a U.S. problem–and further, that the nation that pioneered the Internet might want to study the Australian market for clues as to how to solve the dilemma….. “The (Net neutrality) problem isn’t about running out of capacity. It’s a business model that’s about to explode due to stress.” [CNET] Basically they are saying that someone has ...
How Come VoIP isn’t Killing It?
Jon Arnold makes a point: “Voice is a double-edged sword for service providers - most of their businesses are built around it, but with the advent of VoIP, it’s become a commodity, and in many cases, a race to zero.” One point I make is that voice is just one app that we sell. Voice and email together are the key killer apps. But why isn’t VoIP making more inroads? I talk to many VoIP Providers and few are anywhere near where they want their numbers to be. And they are i...
Where’s the growth?
“Global Wireless Penetration to Hit 80% in 2013, Says Portio Research” [via teleclick] If all the growth will be in Africa, China, and India, what does that mean for European and US carriers? Cellular penetration is now more than 50%. Looking at the ARPU stat: “Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) declines to $15.80 in 2013, down from $23.20 in 2005.” With debt piling up from building out 3G and now 4G networks, how do you pay it back with declining ARPU? As more folks u...
Politics on the Internet
The first presidential debate was streamed live, which just shows you that the Internet is becoming a mainstream news and entertainment outlet. YouTube has channels for both candidates. Both parties are working the websites, forums, “social networks”, etc. to get the message out and spread the word. All of this to hit the Undecideds, because the people that HAVE decided who to vote for will not be changing their minds. All persuasion is targeted at the Undecided. Following the fir...
Jazinga
Jazinga launched its entry into the SMB PBX space after winning the Best of Show Award at Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO. Jazinga’s box is about the size of a D-Link router, but is more that a wireless access point and QOS router. It is a full fledged, SIP-capable IP-PBX that can use IP Phones or Plain old RJ11 phones. (You know those ugly ones on your desk now). One big selling point is the easy configuration, which comes from a consumer focus that means you don...
Will Credit Crunch Hit Silicon Valley?
San Francisco Bay Area, it seems is living in a protective cocoon of its own, oblivious to the current credit crunch and fiscal crisis that has been roiling rest of America. This morning, while there is is talk of a bailout plan being finalized, it hasn’t stopped almost everyone from cab drivers to doctors are worrying about the jaw dropping sequence of events that have unfolded over past few weeks. I have been thinking about the impact of tightening money supply on larger technology co...
Review: Bose Computer MusicMonitors Are Rocking
For quite some time, I’ve been in the market for a pair of speakers to match with my Mac(s). I don’t care much for speakers that take up too much room or have a separate bass unit, however; those are the main reasons why I left my SoundSticks back in New York. There are tons of speaker options out there, and I’ve tried many before retiring them. Last week, I went to the local mall to pick up some stuff from Adidas and somehow ended up in the Bose store. And there I saw the new...
Toxic Debt Recipe with Free Spreadsheet
Now that it looks like the Wall Street bailout will pass - unfortunately, there’s no point in crying over spilled milk; better that we all learn to make toxic debt since the government will be creating a market for it. We can’t afford to waste time making software, growing crops, or building stuff – too risky if you fail. Ever eager to help in the retraining of America, Fractals of Change has managed to obtain a tested toxic debt recipe. It can be made with ingredients available al...
One billion Skype downloads served today
Jean Mercier is the Skype Numerologist and a regular contributor to Skype Journal. Today is the birthday of my oldest son, 22 years. But also today, at about 9h17 GMT, Skype reached the phenomenal number of 1 billion downloads. Congratulations Stefan and congratulations Skype !!! Some comments about this number: This means about 2.8 downloads for each registered username The current mean download speed is about 500 downloads/minute In the past there were short periods where the mean downlo...
7 Tips for Conducting Better Due Diligence
We’ve all read horror stories about con artists and fraudsters who swindle millions from investors or entrepreneurs. Whenever this kind of news breaks, someone always asks why someone else didn’t do better due diligence. It’s a valid question — good diligence can certainly prevent rip-offs. But that’s not all it’s good for. Whether you’re raising money or investing money, you’re signing up for a multi-year relationship with someone you may have just met. At some point, you may h...
Hanging Out at Current.TV With Al Gore
With US Presidential elections likely to be held in November 2008, two major candidates Senators John McCain (Rep.) and Barack Obama (Dem.) debated issues around foreign policy yesterday. To mark the occasion, Current.tv, a citizen journalism-based TV network teamed up with San Francisco-based Twitter to host a special event that allowed folks to participate in real time as the debate unfolded. To mark the occasion, Al Gore, former US vice president and a presidential candidate who co-founded...
Making Memorable Moments
Could you tell me the things you remember about me and have you seen me lately? - Adam Duritz — Sometimes we get lost in our own lives and the lives of others. Sometimes we lose ourselves in the blur of the world around us and other times we are the blur in our own lives. And then one day we wake up and try to remember who we are and who we once wanted to be. Many times we do we dont remember the things we did the next day let alone a week later. Our daily routine is just that, a r...
How to Build a Financial Crisis-Proof Business
We’ve written recently about how bootstrapping founders can help themselves navigate a very tight credit market. Now, the implosion of the investment banking industry promises to level what was left of the landscape for both IPO and M&A exits. Startup founders would be wise to reassess their strategic priorities. With fewer opportunities to cash out of their current and future portfolio companies, the agendas of angels and VCs will also shift. Founders who are raising funds will certainly...
JeffPulver.com featured on the Blog O the week!
Special thanks to Leslie Fishlock choosing to feature this blog on the Blog O the Week. Tags: Blog O the week, Leslie Fishlock, Social Media, Jeff Pulver ...
So, What’s In it For Me?
The Web 2.0 landscape is like going to a wonderful all-you-can-eat buffet where the menu is never-ending and there’s no worry the kitchen is going to run out of food. With new services easy to create, launch and distribute, the Web 2.0 pipeline is gushing with new entries - some of them innovative, some of them useful/valuable and, sadly, many of them vanity projects that serve a niche so small that you wonder why they were created in the first place. With so much choice and competition, t...
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News, opinions and announcements about fast changing communication tools and technologies, from various blogs and ezine.