Archive for October 2nd, 2008
Ooma No Go Booma
Well, this sure was interesting news on a few levels. I’m not going to rehash the history, but I’ve been following Ooma from the begining, and not long after, Tom Howe got into the mix and made a public wager they would not last a year. Looks like Ooma has proven him wrong as they just raised $16 million, and not a day too soon with the markets being in meltdown mode now. This has all unfolded in the past couple of days, and it’s just bubbling up on my radar. It’s newswor...
Now the iPhone Is a Political Tool …
Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign launched an iPhone application today that turns the gadget into a political recruiting tool. The most notable feature “organizes and prioritizes your contacts by key battleground states, making it easy to reach out and make an impact quickly,” according to the software. For example, if you have contacts in Colorado, Michigan, and New Mexico, they would be ranked at the top; at the bottom would be someone with a cell phone in Texas. ...
For Sale: Freescale’s Wireless Chip Biz — Cheap
Freescale Semiconductor said this afternoon that in an effort to focus its energies on high-growth segments such as automotive and networking chips, it will consider strategic options for its wireless chip business, including its possible sale. Anyone looking at the varied business units of the former in-house chip division of Motorola would have seen this coming. It has too many business lines, most of which didn’t have enough market share to be truly competitive, as we said back in May....
Ronco’s Baaack!!!
Remember the Veg-O-Matic, the Pocket Fisherman and the Inside-the-Shell Egg Scrambler? To many baby boomers, those names recall the days when Jimmy Carter was in the White House and Farrah Fawcett starred in Charlie’s Angels. And who can forget the Bass-O-Matic skit on Saturday Night Live (when it really mattered!)? Now a new generation will be able to form its own memories. The Ronco Acquisition Corporation, the company behind these products, is reviving its in-your-face infomercials...
Skype President Addresses Chinese Privacy Breach
Read Josh Silverman’s announcement. ...
Credit Crunch Could Stall Clearwire Network
The worsening financial environment that has stymied the sale of Embarq, made short-term borrowing more expensive for AT&T, and generally made credit hard to come by, could also slow the deployment of the Clearwire nationwide network. The company and analysts say the joint venture that will link Sprint’s and Clearwire’s WiMAX spectrums should close before the end of the year, but building a nationwide network might take longer if debt stays expensive. When asked if the current c...
WiMAX Deployment Needs Pico-Sized Help
When it comes to WiMAX, towers might not be the only deployment option, according to Richard Keith, who leads Motorola’s wireless broadband and strategy. Keith expects that carrier-owned microcells and picocells placed on buildings will be part of WiMAX networks in addition to towers. “With 4G, most of the networks are higher frequency, and that means more opportunity for holes, and less opportunity to penetrate buildings,” says Keith, whom I spoke with in conjunction with thi...
3 Reasons Why We’ll See an Apple Netbook Soon
The netbooks market is not one that Apple can afford to ignore. Others like HP, Dell and Lenovo have already jumped into the space. But Apple has a far more limited product line than the PC manufacturers, so how can they fit another device in the mix? They can’t, but they will. For three reasons why, head over to jkOnTheRun. ...
seeing skype commercials
"I keep seeing these Skype commercials. Anyone familiar with it? Does it work well for conferencing?" — John Kreiss (what you want to see from big television spend: inquiry, word of mouth, brand notes grokked) tags: skype, ebay, marketing, advertising, tv, wordofmouth Follow Phil Wolff on Twitter or FriendFeed or on Skype. Follow Skype Journal on twitter ...
Chipmakers Want a Bailout Too
The Semiconductor Industry Association said today that chips sales were up 5.5 percent in August compared with the year before, but cautioned that since more than half of chips go into consumer devices, the U.S. Congress needs to act to stabilize the economic situation. SIA president George Scalise added his pleas to those of other tech industry leaders saying, “consumer confidence is essential to the entire supply chain of the global technology sector.” A decade ago that wouldnR...
Gabe Rivera Has Nothing to Worry About
Google has finally updated its blog search service. Question: what took it so long? This is so supposed to the be the world’s leading search player, and its blog service has been sitting there relatively unloved while the blog search market has been floundering. For all the startups (e.g. SearchMe, Powerset, Culio) focused on the Big search market, they would have much better off going after the blog segment. While ReadWriteWeb may contend Google’s new and improved blog search serv...
Skype 4.0 Beta 2 Makes “Live Messenger Look Outdated”
The PamConsult team, producers of Pamela and PamFax amongst other products, lives and breathes conversation products due to the breadth of their overall product line. In their PamNews blog post on Skype for Windows 4.0 Beta 2 they state: …. We have tested it and found it to be already stable enough for day to day usage. It has less rough edges [than] Beta 1 and a lot of the Beta 1 feedback has been incorporated in this release. So if you are a bit computer savvy you will definitely want t...
card
"quick poll for realtors; what would you put on your business card other than the required info? skype? twitter? website? blog? AIM? others?" — Sasha Cannon Farmber "@sashafarmer blog is a must. I also put skype on the card" - Matthew Rathbun (wishing moo card still partnered with skype) tags: skype, business card, calling card, identity Follow Phil Wolff on Twitter or FriendFeed or on Skype. Follow Skype Journal on twitter ...
Pic>1kword: Diagraming Palin’s Grammar
Here’s the sentence: “I know that John McCain will do that and I, as his vice president, families we are blessed with that vote of the American people and are elected to serve and are sworn in on January 20, that will be our top priority is to defend the American people.” [source] ...
a year in china
"@johnkreiss When my friend spend a year in China, she used Skype to talk to her family back home. Apparently great quality, low/no cost." – Jenny ...
Skype 3.8 for Windows update
Download release Skype for Windows 3.8.0.180. New features: Added Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) webcam support Added High Quality video support for Logitech QuickCam Vision Pro Command line login Changes: Removed Live tab (Skypecasts now gone) Removed links to Klonie Avatars (seemingly abandoned by provider Comverse) and Emotive Ringjam ringtone (Emotive apparently out of business) Updated Firefox plugin to version 2.2.0.102 Updated Internet Explorer plugin to version 2.2.0.205 Bugfixen: Video ...
Why a War on Virtual Gold Sellers Makes No Sense
Call me a radical, but when launching a big-budget online game, it doesn’t strike me as a very good idea to risk alienating nearly a quarter of your user base right out the gate. That, however, is likely to be the consequence of an extreme anti-gold selling policy at Mythic Entertainment, the studio that developed Electronic Arts’ new MMORPG Warhammer Online, which is widely seen as World of Warcraft’s best competitor. As part of the launch, co-founder Mark Jacobs said Mythi...
Is Your City One of the Most Connected?
Among the top designated marketing areas (DMAs), San Francisco, Miami and Los Angeles are the most connected cities based on home networking adoption. What does connected mean: A wired or wireless home network allows consumers to connect multiple PCs and printers, and to share Internet access among computers. MultiMedia Intelligence’s research identifies significant variations among major metropolitan areas. San Francisco has the highest household home networking adoption rate of 28% amon...
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.