Archive for September 10th, 2008
Court bans VoIP on iPhone
A ruling was just issued by the Higher Regional Court (Oberlandesgericht) of Hamburg, Germany banning VoIP on the Apple iPhone. Specifically, the sipgate VoIP app (image right) has been banned - all part of T-Mobile’s ongoing fight to block VoIP on the iPhone. Apparently, the court felt that sipgate would “lure” iPhone users into “jailbreaking” their iPhones. WTF? Banning software because it might entice customers to do something bad? Glad I live in the good oleR...
U Kentucky shuts off landlines
The University of Kentucky, in Lexington KY, finds that dorm dwellers aren’t using plain old telephones anymore, so they’re shutting them down. According to nky.com, a Web site affiliated with the Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper The move will save the university $840,000; it pays $25 per land line each month . . . The university’s 5,600 dorm residents still can request a phone line, but only seven had done so a day after the academic year began Wednesday . . . A UK survey recentl...
Is Apple’s Genius Good or Evil?
Earlier today, I upgraded to iTunes8, which includes Genius, a new playlist service unveiled by Apple this week. Genius works by scanning your songs and playlists to come up with new playlists based on an artist that you select. For example, I select Blue Rodeo’s So Far Away, and then Genius created a playlist that includes Corb Lund and Lyle Lovett - songs/artists that Genius determines are in the same genre. It’s a beautiful tool. In the few hours that I’ve used it, Genius h...
German court bans VoIP on iPhone
Too bizarre. Read Tom Keating’s post on software as thought-crime. tags: skype, voip, germany, iphone, blocking, banning, censorship, hamburg, de, sipgate, apple, t-mobile, tmobile Follow Phil Wolff on Twitter or FriendFeed or on Skype. ...
Pic>1kword: Lipstick
T-mobile instigates court action and kills VoIP on iPhone
As Tom points out, a German court in Hamburg has made VoIP on the iPhone illegal, at least temporarily. Give me a break already! ...
Change is Coming - Watch My Blog
Can’t say any more than that right now, but I’ve been working on some changes that are a little more Analyst 2.0. Should have more news in the next few days. Back to work. Technorati tags: blogging, Jon Arnold ...
Verizon, Your Hypocrisy is Showing
I happened across a post on Verizon’s Policy Blog this afternoon and had to chuckle. The entire post is an effort to refute statistics used by organizations that claim the U.S. is falling behind in speed or has really pricey broadband compared with other nations. We all know that statistics can lie, but this particular diatribe is hilarious coming from a company that has stood in the way of collecting meaningful broadband data for years, most recently by suggesting the government pay a no...
Sling Media SlingCatcher and Slingbox PRO-HD Available
The new Sling Media SlingCatcher and Slingbox PRO-HD (Sling Media Slingbox PRO-HD SB100-100) are now available for pre-order from Amazon and SlingMedia.com at $299.99 each. Just in time for the Christmas holiday season! Woot! Ok, Christmas is still 3 months away, so I’m getting a little ahead of myself. The highly anticipated SlingCatcher lets you display video content to your TV using a USB drive, but even cooler it can project your PC’s display (Youtube, Hulu, etc) a...
5 Reasons to Move Your Startup Out of Silicon Valley
All tech startups need just a few ingredients to germinate: sophisticated money; first-rate technology universities; and a few template successes (a Google or a Facebook, and so on) to encourage founders to get off their duffs. Contrary to current wisdom, these ingredients exist in many communities outside of Silicon Valley –- in fact, they always have. When you add a large and economically accessible employee base to our first three criteria, you have the recipe for successful startups. Tel ...
South Korea Allows WiBro VoIP
South Korea, who I have criticized several times over their blocking of third-party VoIP providers like Vonage and blocking U.S. military from using VoIP, has announced they plan to allow VoIP on WiBro (wireless broadband). WiBro is essentially the Korean version of mobile WiMax. So far WiBro has had a slow disappointing uptake. The Korean Communications Commission (KCC), Korea’s broadband and telecommunications regulator, decided to allow WiBro to support VoIP, which could give WiBro the ...
FCC Grants Reporting Forbearance
SERVICE QUALITY, CUSTOMER SATISFACTION, INFRASTRUCTURE AND OPERATING DATA GATHERING. Granted forbearance from legacy reporting and accounting requirements. Seeks comment on industry - wide reporting. (Dkt No. 07-21, 07-139 , 07-204). Action by: the Commission. Adopted: 09/06/2008 by MO&O. (FCC No. 08-203). WCB. The CommLawBlog writes, “On Saturday, September 6, the FCC released a decision granting forbearance from filing Automatic Reporting Management Information System (ARMIS) Report...
Where’s the Serious ROI In Serious Games?
Forrester Research recently sent us a copy of “It’s Time To Take Games Seriously,” an overview of the burgeoning “serious games” industry. As the term suggests, these are video and computer games created to achieve practical, real-world outcomes, such as education or job training; consequently, it’s a space with an eclectic spectrum of players, from universities and NGOs to the military and for-profit corporations. (Recent examples in the latter category: U...
NetIQ AppManager for Microsoft Office Communications Server
As a fan of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS 2007) and with OCS 2007 R2 just around the corner (later this year/early next year), I’d like to see 3rd party vendors offer utilities to monitor OCS 2007’s performance to ensure reliability and uptime. After all, your communications are your lifeblood. Microsoft’s OCS 2007 is a unified communications (UC) platform that handles several communications methods, including IM/presence, voice, video, and collaboration, so ...
Internet Telephony Expo Preview
Rich posted the official ITEXPO Show Guide, which gives you a preview of what’s happening at next week’s ITEXPO. You can check out the 17MB PDF by clicking the image to the left. In Rich’s blog post, he previews what’s happening at the show and he writes, “All the top names are in the show… Cisco, Avaya, Time Warner Cable, Mitel, Interactive Intelligence and Dialogic. In addition, the most important open-source communications companies will be exhibiting. Dig...
Sprint or Verizon? Recommendations for broadband access card for my Mac?
Who would you recommend for a wireless broadband access service for my laptop? Sprint or Verizon? (Those seem to be my main choices here in Keene, NH.) And would you recommend the USB dongle or the ExpressCard version? In heading out the Communications Developer Conference/ITEXPO next week in L.A., the show organizers have already told me there is no free WiFi access at the LA Convention Center… but I can, of course, pay for the access through the local provider. (And probably deal wit...
What’s Making News This Morning
I am still sifting through all the information I have gathered this week while attending a couple of conferences. This has taken my focus away from what’s news. The good news is that most of the team has been busy at work. You can follow our Twitter-style News Feed over on GigaOM Daily which has tons of latest news for your consumption. (Get RSS or follow on Twitter.) Across the GigaOM network, this morning we have published most of the important news-related posts with our unique an...
Where the Internet meets the Constitution
[This column was never published — until now. It was to be my regular VON Magazine back-pager. I submitted it on March 20, 2008, but VON Magazine and the Pulvermedia empire crumbled before it was published. I stumbled upon it just now while I was searching for something else . . . and it is as relevant today as it was six months ago, maybe even moreso, given articles like this one. — David I] Where the Internet meets the Constitutionby David S. Isenberg, March 20, 2008 The Internet i...
Steve Jobs Suckered Me…Sorta
About a month or so ago, I had to buy a new MacBook. The good news was that Apple was running a student promotion in which you received a free iPod if you purchased a new MacBook. Since my wife is a student, she was kind enough to “buy” the MacBook for me so I could get the new the iPod Touch, which I had was salivating over for months. At the time, there was speculation about Apple introducing new MacBooks but I really couldn’t wait for that to happen, especially since the st...
Event: US-Israel Web 2.0 Business Exchange - Sept 24/25 Atlanta, GA
Im looking forward to being in Atlanta on September 24-25 at the US-Israel Web 2.0 Business Exchange. This event was created by the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce Southeast Region. This two day event is designed to bring together American and Israeli companies to discuss potential strategic partnerships, customer relationships, and investment. On the afternoon of September 24th I will be introducing the visiting Israeli companies to the attending community. In the evening I will be hosti...
Ashton Kutcher, Tech Darling — and His Celeb Posse
Ashton Kutcher’s practiced finesse and stage presence were completely out of place at the TechCrunch50 conference earlier this week, but his appearance was the talk of the show. Kutcher wasn’t in San Francisco to run a casting call for “Beauty and the Geek,” but to launch a web video show focused on something about which he knows a fair amount: celebrity gossip. Celebrity spokespeople are a fact of life at this point, but celebrity tech founders? Like so many things, it...
MAXroam: 100,000 & Counting
While most of media attention at TechCrunch’s annual start-up showcase in San Francisco was on the latest and shiniest start-ups, I ended up spending most of my day walking the demo pit, quietly checking out what was on display. And after that I checked on the health of the alumni of 2007. I was most interested in Pat Phelan’s company Cubic Telecom, which got a reluctant and very partial thumbs up from me a year ago. To jog your memory, Cubic has a service called MAXroam, which...
My DEMO Rant and 5 Cool Products
After spending two days at DEMO and catching most of the presentations, I’m slightly disappointed. The number of passionate entrepreneurs who are thrilled to be here are inspiring and fun to be around, but some of the products launching make me want to scream in frustration. First, I’d like to point out for the umpteenth time that Google AdWords isn’t a business model. Second, think about your startup and what you are trying to do with your particular mashup. There are several...
Satellite Internet Access That Could be Good
According to The Wall Street Journal, A company called O3b Networks LTD Traditional is planning to launch up to 16 satellites by the end of 2010 to provide Internet access in Africa, the Middle East, and parts of Latin America. This satellite plan, unlike many others, could be good. These are low earth orbit satellites or LEOs so they will be able to avoid the latency problems which are unavoidable with the geostationary satellites used by companies like WildBlue and Hughes to provide “las...
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News, opinions and announcements about fast changing communication tools and technologies, from various blogs and ezine.