Archive for October 15th, 2008
Philips Bows Swappable Xbox 360-Like TV Faceplates
Philips has announced the launch of a range of swappable faceplates for its televisions. They will work in a similar way to the Xbox 360 and allow you to customize your television to match your décor. Called “Flavors,” the new flat high-gloss white TV will feature removable frames. The removable frames are available in a variety of colors and patterns that can be customized and taken on and off the front of the TV in a matter of seconds. A matching Flavors home theater system a...
OctroTalk adds Video Conferencing and Live Streaming to Windows Mobile
A major new version of OctroTalk (see previous write-up), an IM/VoIP/video P2P app just came out. The new version is called OctroTalk 2.0 for Windows Mobile and it now has real time video conferencing with VoIP, File Transfer, Instant Messaging and avatar support. You can even have video calls if you have OctroTalk running at both ends. The OctroTalk desktop version also supports video conferencing. OctroTalk supports IM/VoIP and can communicate with Jabber, Google Talk, AOL/AIM, MSN Messenger, ...
Automattic Goes Shopping Again
For a long time, I’ve been a huge fan of Poll Daddy because it’s user-friendly yet effective way to do polls and surveys. And given I’m also a Wordpress disciple, it’s exciting to see Automattic purchase Poll Daddy, which much to my surprise is only a two-man shop. Given all the hand-wringing these days about business models and generating revenue, it is also refreshing to see that Poll Daddy offers free and premium services. Wordpress’ acquisition portfolio now in...
AsteriskNOW 1.5 beta released
In August, I visited Digium’s headquarters and excitedly wrote, “the next release of AsteriskNOW (1.5) will bundle the very popular FreePBX front-end GUI. This is big news! FreePBX has become the defacto standard for web-based GUI administration of Asterisk, so now Asterisk fans can download AsteriskNOW, boot of the self-install CD and not only getting a working copy of AsteriskNOW, but FreePBX as well!” I also explained that the forthcoming AsteriskNOW which previously ran on ...
The Best Gadgets of the Year?
Popular Mechanics has jumped the gun and already given us their ten best gadgets of the year. Here’s their lead-in: The early 20th century produced a breathtaking succession of innovations–the Wright Flyer, the Model T, the Panama Canal. It was a golden age of engineering. (Some serious gadgets indeed!) A century hence, observers may well look back at our era in much the same way: Cars are being reimagined from the wheels up. Advances in solar energy show the way past fossil...
No ♥ for High-end Mobile Apps
Thought I’d share this interesting report from Accenture about mobile phone app utilization that claims higher-end applications remain vastly under-used by U.S. consumers. Funny, I think Apple iPhone users might disagree. The report found that 88 percent of U.S. consumers said they never use their mobile phones or other mobile devices to watch videos. That is high, but expected since most mobile phones can’t even play videos. My main phone, a Windows Mobile 6.1 smart phone doesn̵...
snom 820 VoIP phone
snom today launched the snom 820, an elegant and attractive VoIP phone. It features a large high-resolution TFT color display (3.5″, 320 x 240 pixels) and can easily display call lists, phone directories, and caller information via the integrated XML browser. I believe this is snom’s first “white” VoIP phone, which gives it a nice clean look. Very Apple-esque. It appears to support “picture / photo” CallerID but I need to confirm. The snom 820 also supports wi...
VAPPS leaves freemium for HiDef Conferencing
Chatted with Ben Lilienthal, CEO and founder of VAPPS, this morning. Skype Journal: Saw you turned off HiGhspeEdconferencing. Ben Lilienthal: Yes, we are in the process of shutting down highspeedconferencing.com. In reality, we stopped operating this service almost a year ago when we launched the 2nd iteration of it — www.HiDefConferencing.com. SJ. HiGhspeEdconferencing was novel for its Skype integration when you launched it. How has the world of conferencing changed since then? HighSp...
Skype 4.0 Beta 2 for Windows build 168
Minor update. Download page. Version 4.0.0.168. File size 24 MB. Beta release. Release date: October 15, 2008. File name: SkypeSetup-Beta.exe. Update to Extras Manager, 22 bugfixes. ...
VoIP Software Developer Job Opening in Toronto - Interested?
Think of this as a bit of a public service post. Lots of things come my way, including recruiters looking for job candidates. In situations where I’m comfortable, I use my blog to help them by putting the word out to my readers. You never know, right? So, here’s a job opening that should be of interest to local software developers. What I can tell you is that this is a Toronto-based company that’s “heavily involved in VoIP/SIP”. It’s a full-time position, and ...
TOM-Skype Breach: Meeting the Primary Investigator
This is the first of four posts resulting from an interview with Nart Villeneuve, principle investigator of the Citizen Lab report “Breaching Trust”. Last Tuesday afternoon I returned to a University of Toronto building I had last visited in its role as an engineering students’ residence in the mid-1960’s. Abandoned as a residence in the 1980’s, the building was restored in the late 1990’s to house the Munk Centre for International Studies, when the university...
Next Stop Boston - But Not What You Think
Early last night, with a full moon beaming out there, it looked like the stars were lining up nicely. I’m going to be in Boston next week for Avaya’s global analyst conference, which is the news item in this post. I last attended their global analyst event in 2006, but a lot has changed since then. Am not sure why I didn’t go last year, but I did attend their Canadian Analyst Day last December here in Toronto. I’m really looking forward to attending, with two reasons stan...
RIP Twitter
If there was one message delivered from the venture capital pulpit recently (aka Sequoia, Ron Conway, et al), it’s that if you don’t have a business model, you’re cooked. Gone are the days when you could start, grow and finance a business based on the notion that if we build it, they (consumers and advertisers) will come…and then somewhere along the way we - just like Google did - will find a viable business model to make it work. That concept is as dead as the Detroit L...
Has the Financial System Disconnected?
Before finding any Internet access – and so before we had any news in English – we found an ATM. Tried Mary’s card and it failed authorization; tried mine – Oh oh: same problem. Our first thought was that the world financial system had simply disconnected at the retail level! Maybe I should’nta been so antibailout. Now there’s personal panic; conserve cash at all costs. Eat only at restaurants that take Visa. But is Visa working? Tried our Visa and it still worked for p...
Now Even Elephants Are Sending Text Messages!
The text message from the elephant flashed across Richard Lesowapir’s screen: Kimani was heading for neighboring farms. The huge bull elephant had a long history of raiding villagers’ crops during the harvest, sometimes wiping out six months of income at a time. But this time a mobile phone card inserted in his collar sent rangers a text message. Lesowapir, an armed guard and a driver arrived in a jeep bristling with spotlights to frighten Kimani back into the Ol Pejeta conservancy. ...
eBay Q3-2008 Financial Conference Call
Wednesday is eBay’s Q3 2008 Earnings Call. October 15, 2008 at 2:00 PM PT. Join us in Skype Journal’s Investor Relations Chat. eBay usually reports Skype activity and high level financials. Has the weak dollar and world economic anxiety affected eBay buyers and sellers? tags: skype, nasd, ebay, skypejournal, q3, 2008 earnings, chat, skype journal, conference call, financials Follow Phil Wolff on Twitter or FriendFeed or on Skype. Follow Skype Journal on twitter ...
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News, opinions and announcements about fast changing communication tools and technologies, from various blogs and ezine.