Archive for September 18th, 2008
Michael Robertson says Skype should open to Gizmo Project
Michael Robertson tells Andy Abramson his Gizmo Project peers with hundreds of other networks, so Skype should open up too. Robertson contrasts Skype’s closed network to Skype’s Carterfone petition to the FCC, a plea for mobile phone companies to let customers use phones of their choice. Skype wrote a letter last week It’s a false comparison. How we connect a phone to a mobile network is standardized. How we connect a client to the Skype network is not. How we connect the Skyp...
Congrats to Thomas Howe
Thomas Howe has been wandering around IT Expo. Last night he won the Broadsoft Xtended Voice Mashup Contest with Disaster Dispatcher, “a voice mashup that integrates Twitter, BroadWorks and RSS feeds to provide a one-window communications tool for emergency operators. By keeping all data in one window, emergency personnel can analyze the collection of information after the emergency to optimize response procedures.” Congrats, Thomas! Tags: broadsoft, mashup, thomas howe, twitt...
Signals From the Near Future: The Mobile Guru Panel
GigaOM Mobilize conference — futurists panel Chetan Sharma of Chetan Sharma Consulting: Let’s talk about the user experience. What does it mean to you in a product that gives you that zen moment for user experience? John SanGiovanni, Zumobi: We look at the user experience as built on the cognitive theories of flow. User experience means graphic design and usability testing. But design with a capital D is an elegant solution to a hard problem on the front end. So when building a...
First Skype Video Phone
Videophones were first demonstrated to the public at the New York World’s Fair in 1964 and Montreal’s Expo ‘67. But, until Packet 8 introduced a video phone a few years ago, they were not readily available. Once Skype introduced video, you knew someone would have to come up with a Skype-enabled video phone. Coolest Gadgets reports the announcement of a Skype-certified AirGuru SV1 Skype video phone. No additional details are known at this but it’s a development we’ll...
Google’s Miner on Mobile: No One Party Will Be In Control
Rich Miner of Google at Mobilize. Rich Miner, Google’s Group Manager for Mobile Platforms, says no one party should control the future of the mobile platform. Period. With two decades of mobile experience under his belt, including co-founding Android, Google’s mobile platform, Miner should know. At his previous job at carrier Orange he saw, firsthand, the dysfunctional carrier approach to developing and launching mobile applications on an endless amount of incompatible handsets &#...
Mobilize: Thinking Experientially: User Experience Panel
We just finished a panel on mobile user experience with some excellent ideas about specific opportunities for startups to build mobile software. Here’s the rough transcript: Thinking Experientially panel at Mobilize. Dylan Tweney, Gadget Lab, Wired.com (moderator): Invoking the iPhone. The iPhone interface is beautiful. There it is… Introduces panelists: Jason Devitt, CEO, Skydeck Jyri Engestrom, Entrepreneur, Google Rachel Hinman, Mobile Design Strategist, Adaptive Path Jeff ...
Without Voice: The Future of Mobile Web Data Products
Ken Fisher, Ars Technica: Amazon Kindle and Dash point to a future of mobile web products that aren’t phones. Traffic coming from mobile devices is on the rise so we’ll look at some of the issues around that. What was the single most important design challenge you faced and how did you conquer it in bringing your mobile Internet product to market? Ken Kershner, Dash Navigation: We wanted to provide information that’s not in a standard GPS going at 65 miles per hour. The car ex...
Mobilize: Nortel CTO John Roese
GigaOM Founder Om Malik just took the stage to grill John Roese, the CTO of Nortel, who promised a world of hyperconnectivity is already upon us and warned that infrastructure needs to evolve appropriately. It was a timely conversation given the recent news that Nortel will sell off its Metro Ethernet Networks (optical and 40G) business as a way to shore up rest of the company and focus on 4G and related technologies. Om: Tough day? Roese: Everyone else is having a tough day, too. Misery loves ...
Now For the Good News???
It’s tempting not to put any content into a post with this title today. Even a perpetual optimist like me finds his irrational exuberance dampened by what’s happening in the world’s financial markets. But there is good news and it’s more fun to write about than doom and gloom. Inflation was down last month The consumer price index DECLINED 1% month-over-month in August as energy, housing, and food prices fell. This trend will continue at least another month based on wha...
Mobilize: Location-Based Services, Forget the Starbucks Model
Guess what, guys — the location-based mobile model of the coffee coupon getting pinged to your phone as you walk by Starbucks is tired. Location is all about adding relevancy to applications already being used. That was the contention of Mobilize’s LBS panel. Thank you, let’s retire that caffeine-fueled scenario. GigaOM Mobilize conference — Location-based services panel But location is becoming more and more important as a way to make mobile applications richer ̵...
Mobilize: Padmasree Warrior, CTO, Cisco
I joined Cisco as a CTO about six months ago from Motorola, so I had the opportunity to work for the company that invented the cell phone, and now I am working for the company that’s running the Internet. Mobility as a term has existed for a long time and for a long time it was synonymous with wireless and cell phones for voice. Now that has changed in the last few years, and that’s because of the massive scale of mobile-phone use and adoption. For example, every second four babies ...
ITEXPO West 2008 a Resounding Success
Some great news from TMC about our IP communications conference & expositions (ITEXPO) taking place this week that I thought I’d share. The show is still going on, with today being the last day. Yesterday’s exhibit hall attendance was tremendous as seen by some photos I snapped and posted yesterday. I had some great meetings or saw many important VoIP companies, including Asterisk/Digium, CosmoCom, Fonality, Microsoft, Packet8, PIKA, Skype, and more. Many companies announced news...
Mobilize: What’s the Future of Mobile Apps?
How do cell phone users want to get their mobile applications, how do mobile developers want to deliver them, and what’s the future? Web or native, preloaded or installed, at a centralized app store or a distributed model, bundled or installed, offered by a company or a consortium, and open or closed? OK, so the non-controversial answer is a combo of all these things, but the conclusion of the debates, including audience input, was that we want: web apps, centralized, installed, offered b...
Upcoming Social Cocktail Events in the Greater DC Area (Sep 22) and Atlanta (Sep 24)
Next week I will be hosting two social cocktail events: On the evening of September 22nd, I will be in McLean, VA, and will will be hosting a real-time social networking event followed and will then be giving a talk about my experiences Investing in early-stage Hi-Tech Israeli Startups. Details for this event can be found on Facebook. The cost of the event is $15 and you can register for the event here. On the evening of September 24th, I will be in Atlanta and I will be hosting real...
Our Live Coverage of Mobilize
It’s a beautiful Thursday here in the city by the Bay, and the GigaOM team is ready to bring you the events of Mobilize, our mobile application conference. GigaOM staffers Katie Fehrenbacher, Liz Gannes and Stacey Higginbotham will be blogging the panels and keynotes, and we’ve corralled Kevin Tofel and James Kendrick from jkOnTheRun for some live interviews with attendees. You can click here for a live video stream of the main stage speakers and panels. Let’s mobilize. Platf...
Joost News Flash: No Download Required
Internet TV startup Joost is ditching its downloadable desktop software, as NewTeeVee previously reported. But now the company is taking things a step further, to give users the option to access the site without even downloading a P2P browser plug-in. All its content and new social features will be available in Flash, with higher definition, live, and some international programming only available with download of a “premium” (but still free) plug-in. The premium version of the site is open ...
IT Expo - Day 2
Day 2 was more of the same here. Lots of briefings and some good sessions. The show floor opened late yesterday afternoon, and I had a quick walkabout. It’s smaller in scale from last year, but that’s par for the course for all shows these days. The traffic seemed pretty good, but it’s too early to tell how exhibitors are finding things. It’s also a bit early to determine how much the show has benefitted from the VON fallout. I’m going to stay mum on that for now, ...
“Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That…..
but the Bill (Gates) and Jerry (Seinfeld) show is apparently over. After two memorable, quirky and definitely different television ads, Microsoft has decided to pull the plug on Gates and Seinfeld. It’s a strange decision because you have to wonder how many layers within Microsoft had to approve the concept before it allowed to see the light of day? I’ll give Microsoft credit for trying something new and, to be honest, the ad had potential. Seinfeld was Seinfeld but he was outshone b...
Amazon Launches Content Delivery Network. Rivals Watch Out!
It was a matter of when, not if, Amazon would launch a content delivery business in addition to its current suite of web services that include S3 storage service and EC2 on-demand computing. The Seattle-based company has announced its intention to offer a content delivery service that could shake the very nature of the industry and pose a serious challenge to not only dozens of CDN upstarts but also become a thorn in the side of existing giants such as Akamai Technologies and Limelight Networ...
Sitting by the Dock of the Bay: Your Data Center
Earlier this month, the blogosphere was lit up with stories of Google filing a patent around the concept of data centers on the sea that use wave power — essentially retrofitted ships and barges that would be docked 3-7 miles from shore, in 50-70 meters of water. While they might sound like something an evil villain in a James Bond thriller would build, the concept is actually not that far-fetched. In fact, one stealthy startup is currently working on building one of its many data center...
Announcing a new seminar series: Social Media Face to Face with Jeff Pulver
Im happy to announce that I will be hosting a series of seminars across the United States over the next few months where I will be sharing my evolving perspective on the state of social media and how the evolution of social media will effect the future of business communications. This seminar is ideal for people who are trying to get a better understanding on how social media can be better leveraged by themselves and in their business. I am planning on offering only a limited number of seats i...
Josh Silverman
Skype CEO Josh Silverman at the Skype Inn in San Jose, California, on 12 September 2008. tags: skype, joshsilverman Follow Phil Wolff on Twitter or FriendFeed or on Skype. ...
Skype Journal Interviews Josh Silverman: The Way Ahead - Managing the Skype Team Culture
This is the third in a series of posts resulting from an interview last Friday with Josh Silverman, Skype’s recently appointed President. In this post we talk about Skype’s value set, getting the business side right while benefiting from the experience and skills of the current employees and the role of product marketing. In the last post we talked about the major issues Josh has identified for addressing along with a strategy for employee empowerment to reduce the complexity of deci...
Mickey D Says ‘You Deserve a Zune Today’
McDonald’s and Microsoft are now offering a side of Wi-Fi for Zune. Microsoft Zune users will be able to tap into free Wi-Fi networks at nearly 10,000 McDonald’s nationwide under a new partnership. (Do we put “I’m Loving It” here?) A software upgrade lets Zune users instantly purchase and download songs through the player’s FM radio application when connected to a hot spot. The McDonald’s feature is made available through high-speed Internet...
Sarah Palin email hacked, posted to Wikileaks & Wikileaks goes down
In case you haven’t heard, some hackers hacked into Governor Sarah Palin’s Yahoo! email account. Some of the emails were posted to Wikileaks.org, a site that posts leaked information. Well, apparently the popularity of Sarah Palin must have brought down Wikileaks, since I can’t get to their website. I’m guessing all the media coverage and pointing to the Wikileaks site must have overwhelmed their website with too much traffic. The Palin Phenomenon continues! Whether you ...
How About OS X on EEE?
Feel like stepping beyond the limits of Apple hardware? Want a Mac netbook for under $650? How about an EeePC running Mac OS X? If you answered “Yes!” to any of these questions, then read on! At least part of the appeal of the dimunitive EeePC netbook is its hackability – from Linux to Vista, intrepid hackers have figured out how to run just about everything on the EeePC. While many would question why you’d want to go to the trouble of installing OS X when there ar...
When the Chips are Down, Ditch Those Assets
A study out today from research firm iSuppli shows that operating margins in the chip industry have declined from the upper teens to the single digits, making the industry more cutthroat than ever. The numbers paint a grim picture for AMD, Freescale and NXP, all of whom are still struggling to get out of the old-boy (and expensive) mentality that only real men have fabs. That adage, pushed by Jerry Sanders, the founder of AMD, defined chipmaking (and all chipmakers) for years, and saw companies...
ITEXPO photos part 2
Enjoy! Sent from my Windows Mobile phone. Related Entries TrackBacks | Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: ITEXPO photos part 2 Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog ...
Skype’s Chris Libertelli to Discuss Open Networks on SquawkBox
Christopher Libertelli, Skype’s Senior Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs – North America will be the featured guest on SquawkBox tomorrow (Thursday, Sept. 18 at 11:00 a.m. EDT - ‘GMT-5′) to discuss his recent letter to FCC Chair Kevin Martin about U.S. wireless carriers misperception of what “open networks” and “unfettered access” really means. For the past two days at IT Expo I have been listening to speakers talk about the need to make wire...
ITEXPO exhibit hall photos
Enjoy some photos from the show floor. Sent from my Windows Mobile phone.Ironically, I ran into Rich Tehrani taking photos via his iPhone. Related Entries TrackBacks | Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: ITEXPO exhibit hall photos Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog ...
Can’t I Tether Up My iPhone …?
Tethering is a feature that allows you to use your mobile smartphone as modem to connect to the Internet or corporate LAN over your carrier’s cell phone network. Unfortunately, Apple has not integrated tethering into the iPhone — both the original EDGE data network model or the iPhone 3G. Nor is it (apparently) going to allow anyone else to offer an iPhone tethering app of their own through the AppStore. Nullriver, which had seen its NetShare iPhone tethering application put...
Wbsconnect cool HD telepresence video
Quality of my mobile camera stinks, so just trust me when I tell you this product is frickin cool. They’re using a large mirror to project a HD image with multiple participants. Sent from my Windows Mobile� phone. Related Entries TrackBacks | Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: Wbsconnect cool HD telepresence video Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog ...
Skype asks FCC to support unfettered customer freedom
Skype called "liar, liar, pants on fire" [my phrasing] on the leading US mobile carriers and "we can’t trust those guys" to the Federal Communications Commission. It was triggered by comments at last week’s CTIA conference. For example: "Unfettered access would be a pretty bad experiment." "There needs to be some stewardship or control." — Robert Dobson, chairman and president of T-Mobile USA "I think we have to be careful t...
Art of Peering
When I wrote about peering breaking down back in April, Dan Golding at Tier1 gave me a beat down in his newsletter. I chose not to respond at the time. Ars points us to a white paper on the Art of Peering written by Mr. Norton of Equinix. Dan Caruso reminded me to mention it. Tags: peering Related Entries Intro to Peering - Sep 03, 2008 Is Peering Breaking Down? - Apr 21, 2008 TrackBacks | Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | On Rad’s Radar? Home | Permalink: Art of Peering Tags:...
Nortel Exits Optical, End of an Era
For those of us who’ve been following the rise of optical networks, today will go down as a red-letter day for the industry. Nortel, whose name has long been synonymous with optical networking gear, has announced it will sell off its Metro Ethernet Networks (optical and 40G) business, as a way to shore up rest of the company and focus on 4G and related technologies. The news of the divestiture of the optical unit came along with news of lower revenues for the third quarter of 2008. Nortel...
Subscribes
Archives
-
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- November 1999
- January 1970
Sipy...
-
News, opinions and announcements about fast changing communication tools and technologies, from various blogs and ezine.