Archive for November 3rd, 2008
Why I’m Voting for McCain
My vote doesn’t count, of course; Vermont’s three electoral votes will go to Obama. Even so, it isn’t an easy decision: Obama has some real positives, McCain his share of negatives. Deciding Factors for McCain Foreign Policy/use of force. McCain was right about the surge at a time when all the polls would have told him to go the opposite way so he gets extra credit for not being political on this. I agree with Joe Biden that Obama is likely to be tested more than McCain – e...
Semiconductor Forecasts Predict Cheaper Gadgets Ahead
Two industry analyst firms issued revised semiconductor sales forecasts today that illustrate the poor economy’s effect on the semiconductor value chain, with one from Gartner shaving $25.5 billion off sales of chips in the coming year. That’s gonna sting, even when the revised total is still $282.2 billion in sales for 2009. The other was a report from IDC will lower its PC-chip shipment forecast for next year. There are two factors at play, the most obvious being that sales of act...
October Media Roundup
Not quite as busy a month as September, but I turned up in a few stories and was part of a nice media push from Global IP Solutions in late October. First, a couple of articles… ITWorldCanada - Nortel and passive optical networking Globe & Mail, Report on Small Business - Review of mobility plans Next, the GIPS launch for desktop videoconferencing: Press release Link to download the White Paper, which I authored An article I wrote for Business Trends Quarterly on social media in the ...
We Won’t Get Fooled Again….Canadian-style - VOTE!!!
Well, you know how that song goes - meet the new boss…. I’m not much of a political pundit, but as the U.S. election looms, I just had to share this goodie today. Canadians are well thought of for being so damned polite - we don’t win many wars being this way, but we don’t start any, either. Anyhow, if you can’t get enough poking fun at Sarah Palin, you’ll just love this piece of satire, Canadian-style. It’s big news up here, but for those of you outside...
Dash Charts a New Course, Cuts 50 Jobs
The credit crunch and the subsequent economic slowdown has everyone — from large corporations to individuals — reassessing their fiscal future, and many are taking drastic actions. The latest moves from the world of Silicon Valley startups comes from Dash Navigation, whose platform marries Web 2.0 services with a GPS-based navigation system for cars. The company is expected to announce a big reboot of its strategy sometime today. Among the changes the company is due to unveil: It&...
Deep Dive on Blogging
On Wed. night, I am moderating a discussion at the American Marketing Association - Tampa Bay Chapter (New Media SIG) on the Deep Dive into Blogging. In a Biz Journal article, the author notes, “It is a new world for business. Embrace the opportunities. Open your mind to a new way of connecting. It is a great way to prosper in any economy.” I say that in today’s business world, you have to be connecting with your customers and prospects - even your employees, vendors,...
“E-Day” Coming for Twitter
For the past few months, Twitter has been beefing up its infrastructure - making sure its servers don’t crash when things get hot and heavy for the Twitterati. Twitter made it through a major hurdle a few months ago when it survived Steve Jobs’ keynote but the real test will come tomorrow during the U.S. election when, from all accounts, Twitter is going to get pounded as people live blog (live Tweet?) every nuance of the evening’s proceedings. If the Twitter Whale rises to th...
Motorola Sells LTE With Visions of Mobile Streaming Video
Motorola today said it has demonstrated data transmissions in the recently auctioned 700 MHz spectrum using equipment based on the LTE next-generation wireless protocol. The equipment will be ready for limited network deployments in 2009. This puts Motorola ahead of other vendors such as Ericsson, which has demonstrated LTE equipment in the lab on different spectrum bands, and will launch LTE equipment for the 700 MHz spectrum in mid 2009. The 700 MHz auction earlier this year netted the FCC $1...
Frontier Adds a Cap
Frontier Communications has added a download cap to its Internet service. It will charge folks for heavy usage. The company caused confusion and some dismay among customers earlier this year, when it said it would charge for Internet use above 5 gigabytes per month, starting next year. [tbo.com] What’s most interesting is the comments. People are not happy about caps. Caps are not new. We had time limits in the dial up days. (When you can only access at 33K, time is the limiting factor.)...
Delisting Notices to Vonage, Circuit City
Neither campaign is discussing how important technology is to the US economy. Two companies received delisting notices from the stock exchange. The NYSE sent Vonage notice. That should be a fun discussion at the shareholder meeting today. Vonage also has a refinancing deal on the table. It should be an interesting week for Vonage. Circuit City was given its stock warning notice on Oct. 24. WIth only 10 days to fix it, CC better move fast. It announced that it is closing 155 stores - as we hit th...
SkyStone Video Enables Video Skype Gateway
Stonevoice has created SkyStone Video, a unique Skype-gateway product that allows video communications between enterprise video solutions from vendors such as Cisco, Sony, and Polycom and the popular Skype software. There are several voice over ip-to-Skype gateways, but this marks the first time someone has created a Video-to-Skype gateway that “bridges” the gap between high quality enterprise video conferencing solutions and Skype. “Video has become a fundamental need in the ...
Windows Live Messenger to be Essential
ArsTechnica reports Microsoft’s Windows Live Manager (WLM) will be part of the Windows Live Essentials family with Windows 7. More PCs will come bundled with WLM, setting WLM as Microsoft’s new standard IM client. Microsoft’s consumer MSN and workplace Office Communicator clients will find distribution harder. This OEM distribution will raise the opportunity cost of messengers, like Skype, that require a download. Advantage: Microsoft. Other Essential apps: Windows Live Famil...
VoxOx Skype killer?
VoxOx is a new unified communications client launched by San Diego based startup TelCentris. Think of it as Skype on steroids since it not only support VoIP, IM, and video conferencing, but it also supports social media, such as Facebook, SMS, fax, e-mail, and content sharing all in one unified desktop application. VoxOx creates a “meta address book” of contacts from all of a user’s disparate communications networks into a single user interface, accessible from any device. To r...
Social Search Engines Wink, Reunion to Merge
Wink, a Mountain View, Calif., people search site is merging with Reunion, a Santa Monica, Calif., social networking site. Combining Wink’s 700 million individual profiles and web-crawling capabilities and Reunion’s membership of about 50 million, the new company thinks it has a head start in the social search market. But any firm aiming to unseat search kings like Google will have a tough time persuading people to switch to a site geared specifically toward social searching. This ...
RockYou Gets Another $17 Million in Funding
Some venture capital investors don’t seem to be unfazed by the current downturn in the financial markets and over all economy. Today, Redwood City, Calif.-based RockYou announced that it has raised another $17 million from Softbank and SK Telecom Ventures, the venture capital arm of SK Telecom. By the way SK’s track record of investments in the US is below average. In June of 2008 RockYou announced an initial C Round investment of $35M, led by DCM. The company has so far raised...
115 hours in a Skype call
Guest post by Monty, a Palmdale, California, ham radio operator and computer geek. Monty blogs on LiveJournal, tweets, and is on Skype. This continues Monty’s 24 October 2008 post, Marathon Skype voice call: 66 hours 40 minutes. Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 OK here we go again, longest Skype call experiment part 2 is underway, will I make it past 66 hours 40 mins? Will guthro break 74 hours? 5:26 PM My friend Jdawg has just gotten upgraded to 12mbps/2mbps on Comcast standard tier wow it&...
Skype adds a light installer
Skype is changing the way users download and install software. Starting with your next full update to Skype 4.0 Beta 2 for Windows, you’ll download a quick 2.5MB "light installer." It will then download the full Skype client, around 24MB. From the Skype FAQs: "It manages the download for you so if you have any hardware or network issues, the download can be resumed. It serves the purpose of a download manager for Skype, allowing pause/resume and recovery from failure...
The Social Media Jungle: Update #3 - Revised Schedule
On November 13th I will be hosting The Social Media Jungle: Leveraging Social Media for YOU (and your business) in Melville, New York. Social Media Jungle will focus on how social media will change the way we work and live. Social Media Jungle - November 13, 2008 Schedule: (as of November 2, 2008) 08:30 - 09:20 - Registration + Networking 09:20 - 09:40 - Jeff Pulver / Welcome & Introduction 09:40 - 10:10 - Chris Brogan, TBA 10:10 - 10:40 - Jeremy Epstein, What social media means for the ...
Who Killed the VoIP Revolution?
“VoIP is dead,” Skype General Manager of Voice and Video Jonathan Christensen declared at an industry conference a few weeks ago. He spoke figuratively, of course, but he may well have been right. While Voice-Over-Internet Protocol proponents had long promised a decade of creative destruction, they themselves appear to have become the victims. The full potential of a technology is not always realized once it converges with market forces. In this case, the gravitational pull of the...
Sprint, Cogent Reconnect Networks For Now
It looks like the Sprint and Cogent networks are back talking to each other — at least temporarily. After the two companies severed networks on October 30, there has been wide spread criticism of the severing of the networks. According to some sources the disconnection between two networks caused problems for universities and many US government agencies who are customers of Sprint. In an update on their website, Sprint announced that it was reconnecting the networks as an interim solutio...
November 2008 Events
I’m attending bold events. Tips @ SkypeJournal.com with suggestions, photos, reportage. Spend your travel dollars while you have them. 2 November. Dreamforce 2008. Salesforce automation becomes an application platform for live talk. Moscone Center, San Francisco. 3. ARGS: Cross-Platform Entertainment 2.0. People in alternative reality games have strong reasons to talk live in groups. NESTA, London. 3. Defrag. Some of the hardest questions are tackled at this thought leadership event. Am...
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News, opinions and announcements about fast changing communication tools and technologies, from various blogs and ezine.