TMCnet's archive
eBuddy for iPhone Supports Push Notifications
Ok, so the just launched Skype 1.1 for iPhone doesn’t support push notifications, but eBuddy, a brand new app for the iPhone or iPod touch does support push notifications. What does this mean? It means you can close eBuddy and still receive instant messages (IMs) from your buddies. Further, eBuddy is an IM aggregator supporting MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Gtalk, and Facebook. Too bad they don’t support Skype though like fring does. eBuddy also supports Google Android phones.
Check out the features for eBuddy on the iPhone & iPod touch:
- One buddy list for MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Gtalk, and Facebook
- Stay online when you exit the app
- Get push notifications for incoming messages when you exit the app*
- Reconnect automatically if connection is lost
- Get offline messages after reconnecting
- Get new message alerts & typing alerts in the chat screen
- Easily switch between chats by swiping your screen
- Shake your iPhone or iPod Touch to send a buzzer
- Display pictures, personal message and status
- Emoticons & buzzers
- Sound & vibration
- Multiple IM networks
- Multiple accounts for each IM network
- Buddy list management
- Offline messages
- Group chat support
Push notifications for incoming messages are only available if you have the latest iPhone 3.0 software on your device. eBuddy will also soon be adding landscape mode. Oh, and did I mention unlike similar app Beejive ($9.99) & IM+ with Push ($9.99), eBuddy is a free app in the Apple App store? Some minor complaints include it only supports push for up to 30 minutes and it doesn’t support file sharing (audio, picture, etc.). Still for a free IM aggregator app, this one is definitely a must for the iPhone! 
Whatcha waitin’ for? Go grab this cool app now!
Tags: AIM, android, apple, ebuddy, facebook, google, Gtalk, ICQ, im, instant message, iphone, MSN, skype, Yahoo
Related tags: ebuddy iphone, incoming messages, notifications incoming, ebuddy, iphone, notifications
-
Follow me:
Related Entries
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: eBuddy for iPhone Supports Push Notifications
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Military Suspension Plan from VoIP Providers - Who’s Going to Step Up?
I received an email from a U.S. military service person asking me if I was aware of any VoIP service providers offering a “military suspension plan” which allows U.S. military members to “suspend” your contract without paying monthly fees.
Mr. Tom Keating,I’m a current customer of Vonage, but have recently been disappointed by them. You see, being in the military, deployments do not allow us to use our regular phones, for obvious reasons. As far as I’m aware, every cell phone carrier has some form of “military suspension plan” which allows you to keep your contract without paying any monthly fees until you notify them that you want it reactivated (not sure about landlines, but most ISP’s seem to have a similar policy).
My question to you is: do you know of any VOIP companies that have a policy to accommodate military deployments, or even long vacations? At $35ish/month, I’d prefer not to pay this during a 6+ month tour in Iraq.
“Bitter cold, Bitter fight” a weary U.S. Marine in Korea 1950
Tags: iraq, korea, military, military suspension plan, packet8, service provider, troops, voip, vonage
Related tags: military suspension, service providers, contract paying, military deployments, military, suspension
-
Follow me:
Related Entries
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: Military Suspension Plan from VoIP Providers - Who’s Going to Step Up?
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
WildCharge Wire-free charger for iPhone & iPod touch
WildCharge, makers of wire-free charging skins for various mobile phone models today has announced a wire-free skin for the iPhone and iPod touch, which enable the popular Apple devices to be charged instantly simply placing them on the WildCharger Pad™ or on other surfaces that are embedded with the WildCharge technology.
“The market is demanding a move towards wire-free charging, and WildCharge is thrilled to answer that call in adding Apple devices to our lineup of commercially available products,” said WildCharge chairman and CEO Dennis Grant. “With the addition of these two designs to our reference design library, both of which are Apple “Made for iPod” and “Works with iPhone” approved, WildCharge is solidifying our position as the leading, wire-free charging developer in the industry.”
The WildCharge Skins are durable, protective, form-fitting cases that when placed on the WildCharger Pad, transfer wire-free power from the Pad to the device inside the skin. The soft cases provide the same protection consumers already enjoy from traditional skins, but have the added value and convenience of enabling a wire-free charge. The WildCharger Pad, used in conjunction with the skins, delivers full power to multiple devices, allowing them to simultaneously charge together on the Pad while eliminating the clutter caused by multiple chargers and power strips. The iPod touch skin is available today and the iPhone skin will be available in early July. WildCharge Skins are also available for the Blackberry Pearl and Curve, and all are sold for $34.99 at WildCharge.com. I have a review unit headed my way to test on my brand spankin’ new iPhone 3GS, so I’ll do a review once I get it.
In addition to the WilCharge Skins, WildCharge recently announced a Universal Adapter for mobile devices that works with the WildCharger Pad. The Universal Adapter is able to charge over 150 different cell phone models from major brands such as Motorola, RIM, and Nokia through the use of interchangeable tips, with the list of compatible devices constantly expanding.
WildCharge claim that provide the only commercially available technology that enables licensing partners to deliver wire-free charging to a variety of devices that require varying amounts of power. From cell phones that require only a few watts of power to laptops that need over a hundred watts, virtually any device that has a rechargeable battery can be powered from a single, contiguous, and non-discriminating charging surface. WildCharge technology has met the industry’s most stringent regulatory and safety standards, including UL, CE, FCC, RoHS, and has been certified across all of the GSM bands.
Tags: apple, charger, charging, dennis grant, iphone, iphone 3gs, ipod touch, power, wildcharge, wildcharger pad
Related tags: commercially available, wildcharge technology, wildcharge skins, universal adapter, phone models, wildcharge
-
Follow me:
Related Entries
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: WildCharge Wire-free charger for iPhone & iPod touch
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Skype Video Calls on Google Android
What if you could do Skype VoIP & video conferencing on the Google Android? Sounds pretty damn cool, doesn’t it? Especially given all the media hype surrounding the new iPhone 3GS. I already tweeted my displeasure that the new Apple iPhone 3GS doesn’t support Flash and also tweeted my annoyance that Apple didn’t put a front-facing camera for video chat support using Skype. Thus, while the iPhone supports a native Skype app, it only supports VoIP and not video chat. And don’t expect video chat anytime soon either. As Skype Journal remarked, “iPhone programmers can use the webcam to store video to a file, but won’t be able to write apps that manipulate or route the stream. This means Skype for iPhone won’t be able to add video calling any time soon.”
Well forget about the damned new iPhone! I have a method that “should” enable Skype video chat on the Google Android mobile phone.
How do you ask? Well, first we need to “cook” in a Flash player into Google Android’s ROM, since Flash support on the Android isn’t officially released yet. But we’re not waiting on Google, so let’s get cookin’!
Here are the steps to get Skype video chat working on the Google Android:
1) Download the HTC SuperHero V2 ROM for the Google Android
2) To keep memory freed up and automatically install apps to SD, go download this. (direct link to .zip file here)
Download a2sd.zip, unzip put the unzipped file onto your C drive
Open command prompt and type these:
adb remount
adb push c:\a2sd.sh /system/bin
3) Upgrade to the latest SPL & radio by heading over to this page on android-unleashed.com
4) Launch Skype Flash application and make a video call to another Skype user.
Where the heck is the “Skype Flash” application you ask?
Oh, I’m sorry, I can’t tell you that. I want to test this first to make sure it works & capture some screenshots to put here as proof.
Sorry to be such a tease, but I want to be the first to get a Skype video chat call to work on a popular mobile phone platform. Stay tuned though!
Tags: apple, flash, google android, iphone, skype, video, video chat, video conferencing, voip
Related tags: google android, skype video, flash application, mobile phone, skype flash, skype
-
Follow me:
Related Entries
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: Skype Video Calls on Google Android
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
flaphone, the Flash Web-based SIP-to-SIP & SIP-to-Skype VoIP App, Adds New Features
Flaphone has done some updates to their Flash-based VoIP application. Back in 2007 I broke the story about the first Adobe Flash-based SIP VoIP app called Flashphone, later renamed Flaphone. Flaphone is a web-based SIP softphone that uses ubiquitous Flash (Mac, PC, Linux), to enable you to make or receive calls to/from all SIP phones and SIP services, including Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, and Google Talk. You can make free web-based Flash calls to Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, and Google Talk (gtalk) users. You can even make Flash-based SIP-to-Skype calls using Flaphone, which I tested back in February. You simply enter sip:skype_username@skype to make a call to a Skype username. Good stuff!
They just announced some new features, including a new skin (white), emoticons in chat, and the ability to transfer files up to 5MB in size between Flaphone users if both have Flash player 10 installed. The file size is restricted for now, but Flaphone stated that when they add P2P support they will remove the restriction. I like Flaphone since I can run it from any PC and make SIP-to-SIP calls or SIP-to-Skype calls without installing anything. Definitely worth checking out.
Tags: adobe, chat, file transfer, flaphone, flash, google talk, im, msn messenger, p2p, sip, skype, voip
Related tags: flash based, messenger google, skype calls, skype username, yahoo messenger, flaphone
-
Follow me:
Related Entries
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: flaphone, the Flash Web-based SIP-to-SIP & SIP-to-Skype VoIP App, Adds New Features
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Elektrobit MID Reference Design Aims to put Linux Desktop apps + Smartphone in your pocket
Smartphones, netbooks, smartbooks, and Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) while very similar feature-wise, each has their own distinct advantages. Smartphones such as the iPhone have been widely successful, while the MID market has been a bit slow to take off. Elektrobit Corporation (EB), based in Oulu, Finland aims to change that with their new MID reference design that combines the “pocketability” of smartphones with the power of PCs/netbooks since it can run desktop Linux applications. Picture an iPhone that can actually run full version Linux applications such as Firefox, Opera, OpenOffice, Thunderbird, SSH client, and more. That’s exactly what you’ll get with Elektrobit’s (EB) new MID reference design. EB’s sleek, media-centric MID reference device takes the power of the PC and makes it pocket-able so you don’t have to compromise on mobile capabilities.
I spoke with EB’s Vesa Kiviranta Vice President, Mobile Internet Device Solutions, Wireless Solutions BU about their new reference design. Vesa explained that it’s based on Intel’s next generation Moorestown platform. The reference design includes touch-screen support with multi-touch (cool!) support. It uses the latest 3D and high resolution capacitive sensing touch screen (3.97″) powered by EB Touch & Feel technology. Because the screen measures nearly 4 inches (3.97″), it fits into the MID category, while smartphones have screens smaller than 3.9 inches and netbooks have screens larger than 5 inches.The reference design relies on a Linux-based OS with EB’s MID UI & Application framework based on QT. It also features EB Navigation Suite with integrated GPS.
It supports two cameras (front & back of phone) so not only can you snap photos, it can also easily support videoconferencing/videochat. I asked EB about support for Skype video chat and they told me it will indeed be supported in their MID design. In fact, they tested it using the Linux Skype application in their labs. As far as I know, this marks the first time a pocketable mobile phone can perform Skype videoconferencing! Cool stuff! I know many iPhone fans were very disappointed the new iPhone 3GS didn’t add a front-facing camera (myself included), which would allow for videochat capabilities. Of course, the current Skype for iPhone client doesn’t support video, but my sources tell me it’s in the works. It will be very hard to have a videoconference if you have to turn the iPhone around so the camera is facing you, but not the iPhone screen. Basically, they’ll be able to see you, but you won’t be able to see them - unless you spin the iPhone back around.
Tags: chat, eb, Elektrobit, mid, mobile phone, netbook, reference design, skype, smart phone, Vesa Kiviranta, videoconferencing, voip
Related tags: reference design, mobile internet, linux applications, touch screen, iphone, design
-
Follow me:
Related Entries
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: Elektrobit MID Reference Design Aims to put Linux Desktop apps + Smartphone in your pocket
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Windows Server 2008 RDS Does VoIP
Terminal Services allows you to remotely run applications as well as perform remote administrative duties on servers. It has allowed remote audio to be streamed over IP from the remote computer to your local computer (audio redirection) but has never allowed the microphone or line-in port to be redirected. If Microsoft did, you could do VoIP. Of course, you’d have to redirect from the local PC to the remote server and not the other way around. Well read on…
Continue reading Windows Server 2008 RDS Does VoIP…
Tags: audio recording, audio redirection, microphone, microsoft, skype, Terminal Services, unified communications, vdi, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, voip, Windows Server 2008 RDS
- Related Entries
- Communications Developer Conference coming soon - Apr 26, 2007
- SmartSIP Launches for OCS 2007 R2 Enabling Any SIP Phone & Any SIP Trunking Service Provider - Mar 04, 2009
- Speculation that eBay wants to offload Skype - Jan 26, 2009
- Microsoft and IBM Announce Sametime and Microsoft OCS integration - Nov 13, 2008
- Sametime and Microsoft OCS integration - Nov 10, 2008
- VoxOx Skype killer? - Nov 03, 2008
- What’s New in Administration and Management with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 - Oct 31, 2008
- Microsoft OCS 2007 R2 Heralds the Death of the IP-PBX - Oct 14, 2008
- Microsoft Office Communication Server R2 ships in December plus Hosted OCS Coming - Sep 23, 2008
- ITEXPO West 2008 a Resounding Success - Sep 18, 2008
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: Windows Server 2008 RDS Does VoIP
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Greatest Linux Command Ever!
This is the greatest Linux command ever! Definitely my favorite.find ./ -name \*.html -printf '%CD\t%p\n' | grep "03/10/08" | awk '{print $2}' | xargs -t -i mv {} temp/
What it does is look (find) for files that end in .html uses the printf option to format the ‘find’ output, then passes it to grep for searching for a certain date, then awk for printing a certain field, and finally xargs for executing a certain command.
Let’s break it down…
The printf part within the find command has the format ‘%CD\t%p\n’.
%Cx = File’s last status change time in the format specified by x. x=D. D=date in the format mm/dd/yy
\t = Horizontal tab
%p = file’s name
\n = newline
So basically it outputs the file’s last status change followed by a horizontal tab, then the filename, and then a new line. But before it outputs it, it sends it to ‘grep‘ which searches the output and only outputs lines with “03/10/09″.
Example so far: (minus the awk, xargs and mv commands)
find ./ -name \*.html -printf ‘%CD\t%p\n’ | grep “03/10/09″
Outputs this: (notice the tab to separate the 2 fields)
03/10/09 ./2005/05/index.html
03/10/09 ./2005/03/index.html
03/10/09 ./2005/04/index.html
03/10/09 ./linked-in.html
03/10/09 ./consumer-electronics/samsung-bribery-news.html
03/10/09 ./technology/iptv/index.html
Now send this output into the awk command (awk ‘{print $2}’) which parses it and pulls out the 2nd column/field (hence the tab character), which is the filename, including the path.
Here’s the output you now have after adding awk ‘{print $2}’ in:
./2005/05/index.html
./2005/03/index.html
./2005/04/index.html
./linked-in.html
./consumer-electronics/samsung-bribery-news.html
./technology/iptv/index.html
Next, send this output of “exact path + filename” to xargs for execution in the Linux shell.
The “xargs -t -i mv {} temp/” part basically takes the input from the previous commands (files named .html modified on 3/10/09) and moves (mv) them to the temp/ folder.
The xargs command can do anything. So instead of moving the files, I could delete them, run chmod on them, or something else.
It took me awhile to write this command. I’ve used various methods of finding files on Linux servers over the years, but this one is one of the most powerful.
Definitely a command you should have in your Linux arsenal!
p.s. Here’s another tip. If you want to search ALL files (not just .html) then use the following command. Notice the \* and not * for the search. That part got me since I didn’t think the * (wildcard) had to be backslashed. Usually when you backslash a character that means you want the ‘literal’ character specified after the \ (backslash) character. I didn’t want filenames with a ‘*’ in it. I wanted the wildcard. That threw me for a minute before I figured it out. Anyway, here’s the command:find ./ -name \* -printf '%CD\t%p\n' | grep "03/10/08" | awk '{print $2}' | xargs -t -i mv {} temp/
Tags: awk, chmod, command, date, filename, find, grep, linux, mv, path
- Related Entries
- Search text in multiple files using Windows Grep - Jul 10, 2007
- D2 Technologies Improves its vPort VoIP Software for Development of Next Generation WiMAX, Femtocell and Mobile Handsets/Devices - Jan 08, 2009
- How About OS X on EEE? - Sep 17, 2008
- A Supercomputer for Everybody? - Sep 16, 2008
- Digium Headquarters Tour - Aug 26, 2008
- Interview With Asterisk Founder, Mark Spencer - Jun 26, 2008
- Rev B of Astfin’s BRI (ISDN) Asterisk Appliance Arrives - Apr 29, 2008
- D2 Technologies Releases Mobile Handset Solution Powered by Google Android - Apr 01, 2008
- Dell picks Fonality VoIP Phone System - Jan 23, 2008
- D2 Technologies mCUE mobile convergence softphone launches - Jan 07, 2008
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: Greatest Linux Command Ever!
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Twitter Finally Embraced + Twitter Bug
I begrudgingly joined Twitter in December last year, but after joining and playing around with it for awhile I stopped using Twitter. It seemed like its only purpose was to stroke one’s own ego by collecting a vast army of “followers”. Although rumors have it that I have an ‘ego’, I just didn’t care that much to build up my own Twitter following nor did I care to “follow” other people. I’ll leave my “stalking” of people for the real world, thank you very much! 
Further, did I really want to “tweet” that “I’m going to lunch” or “Headed to bed” or some other mundane fact? I’ve heard Twitter can be quite addictive leading users to obsessively “tweet” through all hours of the day & night, leading to lower work productivity, not to mention less sleep. So I personally saw Twitter as tech-crack, a technology drug that once you were hooked, you were never getting off of it. I figured the best course of action was to avoid it at all costs. As it is, I have enough information overload with hundreds of daily emails, dozens of RSS feeds, and dozens of websites I visit daily to stay up on technology. It’s a delicate balancing act to read and digest useful information and not burn out. It’s taken years for me to perfect my own system. I saw Twitter as something that would irrevocably damage the delicate balance I had finally attained.
Well, I hate to admit it, but I was wrong about Twitter. I was right that Twitter is an ego-kick, but it is NOT just mundane tweets. There is useful information to be had in Twitter, especially if you follow like-minded individuals that follow the same interests as you, i.e. VoIP, telecom, gadgets, electronics, unified communications, etc. An excellent article titled ‘Welcome to the Hive Mind; 
Learn How to Search Twitter’ written today put twitter searching and use into perspective. The definition of a hive mind is “a collective consciousness or groupthink”. For example, the Borg in Star Trek : The Next Generation were a “hive mind”.
The Blog Herald also today explained Twitter’s use well when it said, “Most tweets are short, uninteresting and unpolished nuggets. Sometimes they are brilliant, but most often they are not. Every little thought that ends up on Twitter is a blog post not written, and since most of the tweets are unpolished nonsense, it really isn’t a loss for traditional blogging.”
So I have finally realized the value of Twitter. It essentially is a micro-search engine allowing you to see what other’s in your field of interest/experience are thinking or writing about. I have dunk the Twitter Kool-Aid and it is good! 
Now onto a mildly annoying Twitter bug. I follow Luca Filigheddu and his picture/avatar is not displaying under my Following sidebar on Twitter. Instead his full name is displaying (See image), which takes up the space of 3 avatars! I figured out that Twitter uses Amazon’s hosted image servces for the profile images and apparently Luca’s image doesn’t exist on their servers.
Here’s the code in the HTML Source file:
<img alt=”Luca Filigheddu” class=”photo fn” height=”24″ src=”http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/60398980/luca_viso_2008_mini.png” width=”24″ /></a>
If you click the hyperlink above to Luca’s avatar using Firefox you’ll get this funky XML error:
<error><code>NoSuchKey</code><message>The specified key does not exist.</message><key>profile_images/60398980/luca_viso_2008_mini.png</key> <requestid>D691819C4CD424CE</requestid> <hostid>6YSnzpa4feSypq9JANMH/JPi+WEIPG3eb/ijcggG18ph49kGgGZYAi73u6X8QsM9</hostid></error>
Interestingly Internet Explorer gives a 404 error while Firefox displays the XML error above.
So if you visit my Twitter profile you’ll see this bug. You’ll also see it on other people’s profiles that are also following Luca Filigheddu.
Check these Twitter profiles out and see the bug for yourself:
http://twitter.com/tomkeating (make sure to follow me if interested)
http://twitter.com/AndrewHansen
http://twitter.com/TruVoIP
I suppose the “bug” might be a good thing for Luca. I randomly came across some other Twitter profiles and Luca’s full name was displayed in the Following sidebar. He might get a few extra followers that way since his name is more prominent that the 24×24 pixel avatar pictures.
Tags: blog herald, borg, bug, followers, following, hive mind, Luca Filigheddu, tech-crack, twitter, twitter.com
- Related Entries
- Skype and IBM add LotusLive Integration via IBM Cloud Services - Jan 19, 2009
- Nimbuzz VoIP app on Apple App Store - Nov 30, 2008
- friends of fring - Sep 02, 2008
- Win a free iPhone - Jul 28, 2008
- fring Enhances Mobile IM Client with fringAdd-ons - Jul 01, 2008
- Google Ellipsis Bug - Jan 17, 2008
- Firefox VoIP Extension open to any SIP provider - Dec 13, 2007
- Asterisk 1.2.24 and 1.4.10 released - Aug 08, 2007
- Pew Internet Quiz - How Techie Are you? - May 07, 2007
- Ringback Videos, Twitter - Bah! - May 01, 2007
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: Twitter Finally Embraced + Twitter Bug
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
“Holy Two-Face, Batman!” : Real Batman denied a Facebook account!
“Holy Two-Face, Batman!” The real Batman was denied a Facebook account!
Batman’s got more friends than Superman and Aqua Man combined. How could Facebook Founder & CEO Mark Zuckerberg do this?
Do you really want to mess with the Batman? Do you really want to mess with this… Do ya?
Ok, so it’s not “the” Batman I’m thinking of. It’s even better - it’s a female Batman! 
Tags: batman, facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, two-face
- Related Entries
- Nimbuzz VoIP app on Apple App Store - Nov 30, 2008
- VoxOx 1.0.1 Released - Nov 26, 2008
- Belkin GoStudio Turns iPod into Recording Studio! - Nov 06, 2008
- Cross Platform Mobile Game Playing Now Here - Oct 07, 2008
- fring Enhances Mobile IM Client with fringAdd-ons - Jul 01, 2008
- BroadSoft and JoeDeveloper.NET Debut Facebook VoIP App - Apr 22, 2008
- Voxeo Adds VoIP Party Line App to Facebook - Apr 22, 2008
- Tech Bubble 2.0 video - Dec 06, 2007
- Free Calls on Facebook - Nov 01, 2007
- Microsoft Wows Analysts with Monster Quarter - Oct 26, 2007
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: “Holy Two-Face, Batman!” : Real Batman denied a Facebook account!
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
RIM Launches BlackBerry App World
Ok, it’s official, every mobile phone provider and their brother has an application store for mobile phones. It started with the Apple App Store. Google launched the Android Market. Then last month Microsoft launched Windows Marketplace. Supposedly, Palm is launching the Palm App Catalog.
Well BlackBerry/RIM couldn’t be left out in the cold. Today, they are lauching something bigger than an App Store or a Marketplace. It’s officially named the storefront BlackBerry App World.
The site for developers will be updated and should be live by 10pm tonight.
At the same time, they will launch a sign up page for users who want to be alerted when BlackBerry App World goes live. They should go register at www.blackberry.com/appworld.
I’m going to check it out tonight and see if any VoIP apps are available.
Hey Nokia, it’s your turn… Where’s your app store?
Tags: app store, apple, blackberry, BlackBerry App World, microsoft, rim, voip, windows marketplace
- Related Entries
- Here Comes the BlackBerry Apps Store … - Oct 22, 2008
- Speculation that eBay wants to offload Skype - Jan 26, 2009
- Truphone Transforms iPod touch into iPhone - Dec 03, 2008
- BlackBerry Storm on Its Way! Look Out iPhone 3G! - Oct 10, 2008
- RIM Garners 10% of Smartphone Market - Dec 20, 2007
- Gizmo offers VoIP on Blackberry with Free Calls - Sep 27, 2007
- Microsoft killed the Blackberry Star - Feb 13, 2006
- GMail + Google Talk (GTalk) for BlackBerry RIM - Dec 19, 2005
- Nokia runs Skype on Wi-Fi and 3G - Suck on that iPhone! - Feb 17, 2009
- VoIP using Microsoft Silverlight - Feb 02, 2009
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: RIM Launches BlackBerry App World
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
John Chambers Blogs about Broadband Stimulus on GigaOM
Om Malik sent a note saying Cisco CEO John Chambers posted a guest blog entry so I went to check it out.
John begins:
Now that President Obama has signed the $787 billion economic stimulus package into law, the real hard work begins: using that money to create jobs. If spent wisely, this package has a chance at fundamentally reforming the U.S. health-care system, making our economy energy efficient and providing Americans with the training and skills required to succeed in a 21st century global marketplace.But the country can’t accomplish these goals unless it has the infrastructure to support them. That’s why the funding for broadband was so vital. Broadband is the ticket for entry to participate in the world economy. It is a fundamental technology upon which other things are built. It enables collaboration, innovation and operational excellence, and positions the U.S. to compete on a global basis.
Well, you probably already know my thoughts on Obama’s broadband stimulus. I hate it! It’s not that I wouldn’t like 100% of Americans to all have high-speed broadband. I just don’t think broadband is that vital that we need to spend billions of tax payer dollars when we are a fiscal crisis, the stock market is imploding, and the deficit is shooting through the roof. The “pie in the sky” idea that the government can just magically produce more money (and spend it) to do just about anything is partly what got us into this economic mess. What happened to fiscal responsibility? What happened to only spending what you have? Why are we mortgaging our children’s future by throwing money around?
I support an economic stimulus to help spark the economy, but spending billions on broadband today when we won’t actually reap the rewards for years… it just seems to me like the money could be better spent elsewhere for a more immediate economic impact. Believe me, I love my broadband and feel sorry for those that can’t get it, but those billions of dollars could be better spent to help the economy in the near future.
And don’t forget to factor in ‘compound interest’ and government waste. The government has never been good at investing money wisely, because it isn’t their money. It’s your money. It’s so much easier to spend other people’s money foolishly. So if it’s a $40 billion broadband package, then expect it to cost the tax payer more like $120 billion.
I can see why John Chambers, the CEO of Cisco supports the broadband stimulus. It gives Cisco a HUGE windfall of revenue to help build out this high-speed broadband network. Cisco is obviously a huge benficiary of this broadband stimulus.
John ends his guest blog post with this:
As our policymakers work on maintaining U.S. competitiveness, they should keep in mind that broadband is the vehicle by which our citizens can be more productive, health care can be modernized, our economy can become more efficient and innovation can flourish. To continue our nation’s growth, add jobs and drive innovation, we must invest in broadband.
I agree investments must be made in broadband. My beef is with who the “we” is. Is it the “we” tax payer or is it “we” the employees at Verizon, AT&T, Level3, and other ISPs that should ‘invest’ in building broadband networks. The web has only existing for about 14 years and in that time, U.S. companies themselves have brought high-speed broadband to 80-90% of Americans without a government (aka tax payer) handout.
We Americans complain about the banks needing billions of dollars in government bailout money to stay afloat, yet we’re willing to hand over billions to corporations to “help” them build high-speed broadband without complaint? It doesn’t make any sense. I guess because we all love our broadband so much and we want to “share the broadband love”, we’re willing to look the other way when the government gives OUR money to broadband providers.
If we had a budget surplus, I’d me more apt to say go ahead and give the ISPs money to build out their networks. But to me with all this spending on programs that won’t stimulate the economy today, President Obama is being penny-wise, pound-foolish. Make that penny-foolish, pound foolish.
Tags: broadband, cisco, economic stimulus, gigaom, john chambers, om malik, president obama
- Related Entries
- IPNetworked added to Gigaom blog family - Nov 06, 2006
- SHSU Switches Back to Cisco CallManager from Asterisk - Feb 27, 2009
- Cisco TelePresence Video Conferencing Enables Fans to Interact with NBA Players - Feb 13, 2009
- Cisco Unified MeetingPlace 7.0 with WebEx integration Review - Feb 05, 2009
- <a href=”http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/internet/president-elect-barack-obama-40-billion-handout-bailout-to-internet-pr.asp” title=”President-Elect Barack Obama’s $40 billion
HandoutBailout to Internet Providers”>President-Elect Barack Obama’s $40 billionHandoutBailout to Internet Providers - Jan 15, 2009![1934[1].jpg](http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/rich-tehrani/assets_c/2008/11/1934[1]-thumb-75xauto-3976.jpg)
- Verizon FiOS Voice+Internet Cheaper than just FiOS Internet? - Dec 19, 2008
- Cisco ASR 9000 High-end Router Launches - Nov 11, 2008
- Cross Platform Mobile Game Playing Now Here - Oct 07, 2008
- Om Interviews Skype CEO - Sep 12, 2008
- Cisco AutoQoS Enables Easy VoIP QoS - Sep 11, 2008
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: John Chambers Blogs about Broadband Stimulus on GigaOM
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Skype Gives Away SILK Codec - Has Wideband Telephony Finally Arrived?
Jonathan Christensen, General Manager, Audio & Video, Skype is keynoting at eComm and announced some major news today - namely that Skype is going to give away their signature SILK wideband audio codec (aka Super Duper Weenie Wideband Codec) in hopes it will help make wideband telephony adoption more prevalent. This could finally help make wideband telephony in the VoIP industry a reality. Rich Tehrani is a strong proponent of wideband audio, but I’m still a bit of a skeptic myself. I like wideband audio, I just don’t think there is a ‘rush’ to adopt it. To get true wideband audio, you need wideband audio from end-to-end. Once you touch the PSTN (analog, T1/PRI), you’re no longer using wideband audio.
Still, if IP phones (Polycom, Aastra, snom, etc.) start adding SILK to their phones and SIP trunking service providers support the codec, then you could see a rapid adoption of wideband audio.
Jonathan remarks on his blog:
Today marks a significant moment in the journey of Skype. Some of you may be aware of the SILK speech codec which is included as part of Skype 4.0 for Windows - it’s what enables super-wideband audio and optimizes call quality, even in low network bandwidth environments. It transforms sound quality for Skype calls, and if you haven’t already tried 4.0, believe me: you should.
I’m speaking at eComm today, and have some very special news to bring our developer community - we’re making the SILK speech codec available for a royalty free license by third-party software and hardware developers soon.
What does this mean for the future of audio on the web?
SILK is Skype’s signature super wideband audio codec which achieves super wideband audio quality using 50% less network bandwidth than previously required. It is the outcome of a three year long development process in the Skype labs, which focused on four things:
* improving audio bandwidth going from 8 kHz to 12 kHz, meaning that a SILK conversation sounds like you are in the same room as the person you are speaking with
* providing real-time bandwidth scalability to deal with degraded network conditions
* balancing codec optimization between voice, music and background noise, each of which can have an impact on the overall user experience
* delivering a robust solution that delivers a more consistent audio experience, regardless of network conditions and an individual user’s voice signature
Tags: audio codec, Jonathan Christensen, skype, super duper weenie, voip, wideband codec, wideband telephony
- Related Entries
- <a href=”http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/skype/skype-launches-40-with-super-duper-weenie-wideband-codec.asp” title=”Skype Launches 4.0 with Super
Duper WeenieWideband Codec”>Skype Launches 4.0 with SuperDuper WeenieWideband Codec - Feb 03, 2009
- VoIP is Dead, Long Live VoIP! - Sep 17, 2008
- Karaka Bridges XMPP and Skype - Feb 27, 2009
- Sony Kills Go!Messenger VoIP Application - Feb 25, 2009
- Nearly killed by a school bus this morning - Skype Phone Saves My Life - Feb 20, 2009
- flaphone Enables Free Web-based SIP-to-Skype calls - Feb 20, 2009
- Build your own SIP-to-Skype gateway using Asterisk - Feb 17, 2009
- Nokia runs Skype on Wi-Fi and 3G - Suck on that iPhone! - Feb 17, 2009
- 31 Million IP Phones shipped by Mayan 2012 Doomsday, the Media Phone, & Slow Consumer Adoption - Feb 13, 2009
- OpenSky enables SIP-to-Skype Calls - Feb 10, 2009
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: Skype Gives Away SILK Codec - Has Wideband Telephony Finally Arrived?
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
SpinVox Transcribes Skype Voicemail & VoiceScribe does the same for Asterisk
Skype users can now have their voicemails converted into text via SpinVox. Today, SpinVox announced that your Skype voicemails transcribed and sent to you via SMS for €0.20/£0.17/25 cents plus the cost of the SMS. SimulScribe, now PhoneTag, is a similar service, that Rich Tehrani uses regularly. GotVoice is yet another one.
But how about another cool TTS app that is currently ‘free’ and works with the popular open source Asterisk platform? VoiceScribe is a beta web-service for Asterisk that converts your voicemail to text and delivers them to you via e-mail. What’s cool about this is how easy it is to integrate with Asterisk, trixbox CE, and trixbox Pro. I tested it with trixbox Pro and it worked flawlessly in just minutes. It uses the Nuance engine. The accuracy was OK, but I’m told by VoiceScribe’s Mitchel Constantin, “Quality will get much better.”
Simply edit /etc/asterisk/voicemail.conf, go to the [general] section and make sure wav49 is the default format. Also add a line with mailcmd that sends an email with your voicemail attachment to their hosted servers.
Here’s a sample of the 4 lines you need in voicemail.conf:
Continue reading SpinVox Transcribes Skype Voicemail & VoiceScribe does the same for Asterisk…
Tags: asterisk, Mitchel Constantin, skype, spinvox, text-to-speech, trixbox ce, trixbox pro, tts, voicemail
- Related Entries
- trixbox Pro 2.0 review - Sep 04, 2008
- Build your own SIP-to-Skype gateway using Asterisk - Feb 17, 2009
- trixbox CE vs. Asterisk Downloads - Dec 23, 2008
- More on Skype for Asterisk - Sep 25, 2008
- Skype for Asterisk Launches - Sep 25, 2008
- ITEXPO West 2008 a Resounding Success - Sep 18, 2008
- Text-To-VoIP Plug-in for MorphVOX Pro - Aug 08, 2008
- Using Asterisk to Scam Credit Cards - Aug 04, 2008
- Asterisk Wake-Up calls and Web Scheduling - Feb 25, 2008
- PIKA for Asterisk boards now trixbox CE compatible - Jan 22, 2008
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: SpinVox Transcribes Skype Voicemail & VoiceScribe does the same for Asterisk
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
PIKA WARP Appliance Adds BRI Support
PIKA Technologies announced today the release of a BRI expansion module for the PIKA WARP Appliance. The PIKA WARP Appliance is a very flexible hardware telecom appliance that can run various flavors of Asterisk, including native Asterisk, Schmooze, trixbox CE, and others. They even support FreePBX, the popular front-end GUI for Asterisk. They support FreeSwitch as well.
PIKA’s BRI module supports two ports and four channels, allowing the WARP Appliance to reach a total port density of four ports and eight channels when two BRI modules are installed. BRI is very popular in Europe and is very commonly used in the SMB space, making the WARP Appliance a suitable option.
Check out my PIKA WARP Appliance for Asterisk review for more details on this flexible piece of hardware.
Tags: asterisk, BRI, freepbx, PIKA, PIKA WARP Appliance, schmooze, voip
- Related Entries
- PIKA WARP Appliance Adds FreePBX Support - Nov 18, 2008
- Asterisk-based VPN in a Flash Mobile Telephony Appliance - Dec 08, 2008
- Bandwidth.com invests in FreePBX - Nov 14, 2008
- AsteriskNOW 1.5 beta released - Oct 15, 2008
- ITEXPO West 2008 a Resounding Success - Sep 18, 2008
- PIKA WARP Appliance adopted by Schmooze - Sep 16, 2008
- PIKA WARP Appliance for Asterisk Review - Sep 12, 2008
- Sangoma Acquires Paraxip Technologies - Jul 07, 2008
- PIKA T1/E1 and analog boards now compatible with FreeSWITCH - Apr 15, 2008
- Sangoma Technologies Offers Lifetime Warranty - Mar 18, 2008
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: PIKA WARP Appliance Adds BRI Support
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Karaka Bridges XMPP and Skype
Vipadia announced the release under the GPLv2 of Karaka, the open-source XMPP-Skype Gateway which connects the XMPP and Skype networks.
Karaka is a scalable distributed XMPP transport that bridges instant messaging and presence between a user’s XMPP and Skype accounts. This will for instance enable Skype-to-Google Talk instant messaging. In theory AOL’s AIM should work, since I believe they also support XMPP. In addition to full presence and instant messaging exchange, it also supports multi-user chat (”conference rooms”). Karaka implements the XMPP standards XEP-0100 for gateway support, XEP-0045 for multi-user chats and XEP-0144 for roster exchange.
According to Vipadia, “Existing Skype interconnect solutions focus on bridging voice even though the primary use of Skype is for instant messaging and associated presence data. Interconnecting with Skype messaging and presence has been a major stumbling block for many who wish to offer Skype interconnection to their network. Karaka bridges the XMPP and Skype clouds, removing this stumbling block by converting Skype messaging and presence to the popular XMPP protocol as used by, e.g., Google Talk.”
Karaka is licensed under the GPLv2 and is hosted on Google Code at http://code.google.com/p/karaka/.
Check out out @ http://vipadia.com/products/karaka/.
Tags: google talk, im, karaka, presence, skype, vipadia, voip, xmpp
- Related Entries
- fring coming to Windows Mobile phones - Jun 19, 2007
- Truphone Adds Skype Features, Twitter, MSN Messenger, and more - Jan 05, 2009
- LiveJournal meets VoIP via Gizmo Project - Jul 27, 2006
- eqo’s Mobile-to-Skype buddy list solution - Feb 05, 2006
- Google Talk now federates - Jan 18, 2006
- GAIM 2.0 coming - Nov 16, 2005
- Chril Pirillo on GoogleTalk, eBay/Skype and other IM stuff - Sep 14, 2005
- Jabber to enter the softphone market - Sep 09, 2005
- Nimbuzz VoIP app on Apple App Store - Nov 30, 2008
- friends of fring - Sep 02, 2008
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: Karaka Bridges XMPP and Skype
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
SHSU Switches Back to Cisco CallManager from Asterisk
In 2006, I came across a Network World article, which espoused the fact that Sam Houston State University (SHSU) had switched from the Cisco CallManager IP-PBX to open source Asterisk. I wrote about this news since 6,000 students and faculty were moved off Cisco to the open source Asterisk IP-PBX, which was great news for the open source Asterisk community. This deployment demonstrated that Asterisk could scale and put to rest one of the main complaints against Asterisk.
Well, 3 years have passed, and according to this thread written by Jason Fuermann, who is responsible for SHSU’s IP phone system, SHSU has switched back to Cisco from Asterisk. Say what?
Continue reading SHSU Switches Back to Cisco CallManager from Asterisk…
Tags: asterisk, CCVP, cisco, cisco call manager, Cisco Certified Voice Professional, digium, ip-pbx, Jason Fuermann, tco, voip
- Related Entries
- Avaya #1 VoIP PBX Vendor? - Aug 21, 2007
- Skype for Asterisk Launches - Sep 25, 2008
- Digium Headquarters Tour - Aug 26, 2008
- Shoretel Rumors - May 01, 2008
- Digium Acquires Astricon - Jul 11, 2007
- Digium - The Showstopper! - May 18, 2007
- Digium podcast of Mark Spencer’s new role - Jan 30, 2007
- Signate, an Asterisk provider, bites the dust? - Dec 08, 2006
- Asterisk Receives VC Funding - Aug 08, 2006
- Another IP-PBX company bites the dust? - Aug 08, 2006
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: SHSU Switches Back to Cisco CallManager from Asterisk
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Atlantis found by Google Earth? No way!
According to The Sun, aeronautical engineer Bernie Bamford was browsing through Google Ocean when he came upon this formation showing a perfect rectangle the size of Wales lying on the bed of the Atlantic Ocean nearly 3½ miles down. A series of criss-crossing lines that looks like a large city enclosed by the a boundary appears in Google Earth. I launched Google Earth myself to see, entered in the coordinates (N31.381 W24.375) and sure enough, there it is.
Now, it could simply be a series of seams in the topographic scans where areas are being tiled together along with missing scan data that has to be interpolated. However, according to The Sun article, Google responded as follows:
Google today claimed the criss-crossing lines were sonar data collected as boats mapped the ocean floor.But the internet giant said “blank spots” within the lines could not be explained.
So has Atlantis finally been found? Didn’t Edgar Cayce, the “American Prophet” say that Atlantis would be discovered soon after the millenium? Anyone got a bathysphere I can borrow? I’ll get to the bottom of this.
Related:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10168269-36.html
Tags: Atlantis, discovered, discovery, edgar cayce, Google Earth
- Related Entries
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: Atlantis found by Google Earth? No way!
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Nearly killed by a school bus this morning - Skype Phone Saves My Life
I was driving to work in my Volvo V70 XC (XC=Cross Country) which has all-wheel-drive and Blizzak snow tires when I approached a T intersection where I had to make a right-hand turn. Now normally a Volvo with AWD and Blizzak snow tires can cut through any amount of snow with no problem. I’ve driven it through blizzards, so I know.
In fact, there was some light snow on the roads in my neighborhood, but once I got to the main roads, they were completely dry. The road I was on is also well-traveled and appeared dry in most places and wet in others. I didn’t realize the “wet” spots I saw weren’t wet at all, but were black ice. 
I tried to stop at the T intersection, my car’s ABS kicked in and the car wouldn’t stop. I quickly spun my head to my left to see if I was about to cut someone off. I saw a yellow school bus bearing down on me. I decided to go over to the opposite lane, figuring I’d rather get hit by anything else but a 7 ton bus. I hadn’t had time to turn my head to the right to see if there was a car coming from that direction. I had other things on my mind - like a big yellow bus headed straight at me! 
Not knowing if there was a car coming from that direction and although ABS was still kicking in, I quickly turned the wheel to the right just in case I could slip in between and be riding the center of the lane - hoping if there was indeed a car coming from the opposite direction, it could ride the shoulder a bit to avoid hitting me. It worked! My car did indeed finally grip and take the center lane. Fortunately, there wasn’t another car coming from the opposite direction, so I gunned the gas and rode illegally in the left lane for about 30 ft, just to be sure I wasn’t going to get rear-ended by the bus, and then got back into the right lane.
I felt bad for the bus driver who obviously had to brake hard. The bus driver probably thought I was a lunatic for taking the turn without stopping. But I honestly wasn’t going fast. I was slowing for the stop sign, but just couldn’t stop. Although the bus driver probably saw it was an “out of control” action and I did fishtail a bit - so probably deduced it was black ice.
Wow, another 1-2s later and I was a goner. There was also a line of cars behind the bus, so even if I avoided the bus, other cars would have hit me and there was an SUV just ahead of the bus. So basically, I was able to slip in-between the gap between the SUV and the bus. What if my wife didn’t remind me to take the IPEVO Skype phone to work, which I had forgotten in the bedroom? I actually had to walk back down the hallway to get it.
The mere act of taking the IPEVO Skype phone home last night to test may just have saved my life. Thank you IPEVO & thank you Skype! They say Skype is a cost saver - well now Skype’s a life saver!
Tags: black ice, IPEVO WiFi Phone for Skype, school bus, skype, snow, voip, volvo
- Related Entries
- IPEVO Wi-Fi Phone for Skype - Feb 09, 2009
- flaphone Enables Free Web-based SIP-to-Skype calls - Feb 20, 2009
- Build your own SIP-to-Skype gateway using Asterisk - Feb 17, 2009
- Nokia runs Skype on Wi-Fi and 3G - Suck on that iPhone! - Feb 17, 2009
- 31 Million IP Phones shipped by Mayan 2012 Doomsday, the Media Phone, & Slow Consumer Adoption - Feb 13, 2009
- OpenSky enables SIP-to-Skype Calls - Feb 10, 2009
- <a href=”http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/skype/skype-launches-40-with-super-duper-weenie-wideband-codec.asp” title=”Skype Launches 4.0 with Super
Duper WeenieWideband Codec”>Skype Launches 4.0 with SuperDuper WeenieWideband Codec - Feb 03, 2009 - VoiceGear SkyBridge at ITEXPO - Feb 03, 2009
- Dual Stack SIP and Skype IP Phone Coming - Jan 30, 2009
- Speculation that eBay wants to offload Skype - Jan 26, 2009
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: Nearly killed by a school bus this morning - Skype Phone Saves My Life
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
flaphone Enables Free Web-based SIP-to-Skype calls
Today, flaphone (formerly Flashphone) announced that users of their Flash VoIP application can now make a call from flaphone to skype. You simply need to enter sip:skype_username@skype after selecting “none”(global)” for the SIP account. I should mention that flaphone supports multiple SIP credentials, which is a really nice feature. I’ve been testing flaphone for several weeks now and have been meaning to write up their cool Flash-based VoIP application.
In any event, for my first test call I entered sip:tomkeating@skype and pressed the call button. The call was initiated and the call quality was superb!
You can also use this SIP-to-Skype feature for flaphone’s CallMe widgets that you place on your website.
Similarly, Gizmo5 recently launched OpenSky which also enables SIP-to-Skype dialing. However, Gizmo5 calls are free only up to 5 minutes long. For longer calls they are offering a paid service. There is no such restriction that I am aware of with flaphone.
By leveraging Flash, flaphone is cross-platform, has minimal download time, and you can run it from any browser. That and the fast that it supports SIP-to-PSTN calling, SIP URI dialing, and SIP-to-Skype calling, means this is one VoIP app you should check out!
Tags: flaphone, flashphone, gizmo5, sip, skype, voip
- Related Entries
- OpenSky enables SIP-to-Skype Calls - Feb 10, 2009
- Build your own SIP-to-Skype gateway using Asterisk - Feb 17, 2009
- VoiceGear SkyBridge at ITEXPO - Feb 03, 2009
- Dual Stack SIP and Skype IP Phone Coming - Jan 30, 2009
- Windows Live Messenger Back in the VoIP game! - Oct 03, 2008
- Flashphone adds Adobe AIR VoIP app - Sep 02, 2008
- friends of fring - Sep 02, 2008
- fring touchtone DTMF support - uh hello? - Aug 25, 2008
- Flash-to-SIP Video Calls - May 27, 2008
- SippySkype SIP-to-Skype Gateway - Mar 07, 2008
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: flaphone Enables Free Web-based SIP-to-Skype calls
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Build your own SIP-to-Skype gateway using Asterisk
While we wait for Digium’s official SIP-to-Skype gateway, Nerd Vittles today informed me about his very cool recipe that you can use today to build your own free SIP-to-Skype gateway enabling you to use your SIP-based desktop phones connected to Asterisk to make Skype inbound/outbound calls.
Part of the recipe uses SipToSis - SIP to Skype Gateway Bridge Proxy. SipToSis is a piece of software which Nerd Vittles points out “forms the lynchpin of Gizmo’s offering and which lets any Asterisk user create much the same gateway at no cost other than the expense of any Skype Out calls you may choose to make.”
Nerd Vittles explains in his tutorial:
When we’re finished, you’ll be able to call any Skype user in the world from any extension on your Asterisk server by entering either a Skype username or any 10-digit telephone number preceded by an 8 to take advantage of SkypeOut calling rates. You’ll also be able to receive incoming calls from any Skype user on any extension of your Asterisk system. In short, what you get is a transparent interface to several hundred million Skype users from your Asterisk server.
In summary, with this tutorial you’ll be able to dial Skype users, as well as receive incoming calls from any Skype user! Nerd Vittles’ recipe should work on just about any Asterisk-based system. I might have to try this recipe myself later on today. Good stuff!
Tags: asterisk, gateway, nerd vittles, sip, sip-to-skype gateway, SipToSis, skype, voip
- Related Entries
- Skip2PBX, SIP-to-Skype Gateway, is here! - Aug 31, 2007
- SIP to Skype gateway breaks Skype’s Great Wall of VoIP - Feb 06, 2006
- VoiceGear SkyBridge at ITEXPO - Feb 03, 2009
- SippySkype SIP-to-Skype Gateway - Mar 07, 2008
- Future of SIP to Skype Gateway in Doubt? - Feb 04, 2008
- Skype SIP Gateway (PE) 1.0 Released - Oct 30, 2007
- SkyStone bridges Skype and PBXs using only software - May 15, 2007
- VoIP Gateway clones an iPod - Nov 27, 2006
- OpenSky enables SIP-to-Skype Calls - Feb 10, 2009
- Dual Stack SIP and Skype IP Phone Coming - Jan 30, 2009
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: Build your own SIP-to-Skype gateway using Asterisk
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
ITEXPO East 2009 Attendance and Demographic numbers
With the resounding success of ITEXPO East 2009, I was just sent the final attendance figures and demographics that I thought I’d share.
Demographics:
Service Providers:33.3%
Reseller/Agent/VAR:28.2%
Developers:6.2%
Manufacturer:4.2%
Enterprise/SMB:28.1%
Total Attendance:
Paid Conference:211
VIPs:6,980
Exhibitors:847
Speakers:202
Press:69
Total:8,309
Tags: conference, itexpo, tradeshow, voip
- Related Entries
- ITEXPO says “Slumping economy? What slumping economy?” - VoIP tradeshow thrives - Feb 05, 2009
- TMC Celebrates 10 Year Anniversary for ITEXPO! - Oct 30, 2008
- ITEXPO VoIP Conference Testimonials - Feb 14, 2008
- ITExpo Prizes - including a Mustang Convertible! - Jan 18, 2008
- Internet Telephony Expo Draws More Countries - Jan 16, 2008
- Discount on Internet Telephony Conference & Expo - Nov 15, 2006
- VoIP Conference Tradeshow Update - Oct 04, 2004
- <a href=”http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/voip/56-reasons-to-attend-digium-asterisk-world-in-miami.asp” title=”
56 Reasons to Attend Digium Asterisk World in Miami”>56 Reasons to Attend Digium Asterisk World in Miami - Jan 13, 2009
- TMC & Digium Announce Educational program for Digium|Asterisk World - Dec 15, 2008
- Excellent Telecom & Voice over IP Blog - Oct 20, 2008
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: ITEXPO East 2009 Attendance and Demographic numbers
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Philadelphia City Council approves a Verizon FiOS franchise agreement
The Philadelphia City Council voted unanimously to approve a Verizon FiOS franchise agreement that will allow Verizon to offer fiber-based digital TV, voice, and Internet to Philly’s 600,000 residents. Verizon will spend $1 billion to build out the network which will offer HDTV channels, voice, and high-speed Internet.
City Council members said the deal was “not perfect” and they tried to push for more minority contractor involvement. Now how is it that a City Council has the right to demand who a company hires? There are already state and federal anti-discrimination laws on the books, so why the hell do companies have to answer to some local city council mafia? Obviously, Verizon wants the business and they have to suck-up to this local city council if they want to be granted the franchise.
The vote taken yesterday gave Verizon a 15-year franchise agreement. What will the Philadelphia City Council demand from Verizon in 15 years when it’s time to renew? It’s not like Verizon is going to say ‘no’ to any demands after shelling out $1 billion to build the fiber network. Why do we even have TV franchise agreements any more? Haven’t they outlived their usefulness? It’s such a scam by local governments to make cable companies - and now carriers to “pay the man” if they want to do business in the town. Phone companies don’t have to pay local franchise fees to provide telephone service, so why do TV providers have to pay? It’s a legalized mafia racket if you ask me.
Philadelphia residents and the local government should be ecstatic that Verizon is targeting the city first before many other major cities. They should be grateful.
Tags: FiOS, Philadelphia City Council, TV, Verizon
- Related Entries
- Verizon Hub Web browsing VoIP Phone Gadget Coming - Jan 20, 2009
- Verizon Boosts FiOS Internet Speed - Jun 19, 2008
- AT&T U-Verse offering 1 Year FREE of DISH Network - May 04, 2007
- Verizon VoiceWing VoIP FiOS service - Mar 02, 2007
- AT&T Lightspeed ahead! (NOT!) - Mar 01, 2007
- AT&T U-verse Doomed? - Feb 13, 2007
- Verizon FiOS Voice+Internet Cheaper than just FiOS Internet? - Dec 19, 2008
- Never Charge your gadget again - Free Electricity! - Dec 08, 2008
- BlackBerry Storm Launch Crashes Verizon Network - Nov 21, 2008
- Watching TV & Surfing Internet Go Hand in Hand - Nov 03, 2008
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: Philadelphia City Council approves a Verizon FiOS franchise agreement
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Cisco Unified MeetingPlace 7.0 with WebEx integration Review
Here is a preview of the TMC Labs review of Cisco Unified MeetingPlace 7.0, which is scheduled to be published in the March issue of Internet Telephony Magazine. Enjoy!
Cisco Systems, Inc.
Web site: http://www.cisco.com
Pricing:
40 concurrent user licenses (750 users), audio conferencing, includes application server software and media server hardware for voice conferencing - $79,999 ($2000/concurrent user)
100 concurrent user licenses (2000 users), audio conferencing, includes application server software and media server hardware for voice conferencing - $127,999 ($1280/concurrent user)
In both sample pricing scenarios, it also includes 6 concurrent web and 6 concurrent video licenses (customer needs to purchase video blade to use video licenses)
Note: As seen by the two example prices the concurrent user price comes down quickly as the system size grows.
Additionally, the customer would also need to purchase a $12,000 Cisco Media Convergence Servers, which is a standard server running Linux
//////////////////////////////////
RATINGS (0-5)
Installation: 5
Documentation: Not tested
Features: 5
GUI: 5
Overall: A
///////////////////////////////////
Unified communications is all the rage these days, especially when businesses are looking to optimize productivity and reduce costs. But what really is “unified communications”? You might be surprised at the different answers you’d get from various people. Many would simply say it is voice, video, email, and data (Web) collaboration with some business processes or rules applied. At a high-level this is an accurate assessment, but not all implementations of unified communications are the same nor do they all encompass the same communication mediums. Further, some UC systems only work with fellow co-workers and therefore are an island onto themselves when dealing with customers who cannot participate in the unified communications platform for collaborative meetings.
Continue reading Cisco Unified MeetingPlace 7.0 with WebEx integration Review…
Tags: cisco, Cisco Unified MeetingPlace 7.0, collaboration, review, unified communications, video, voip, webex
- Related Entries
- Cisco acquires WebEx - Mar 15, 2007
- Sametime and Microsoft OCS integration - Nov 10, 2008
- Cisco and Microsoft in Clash of the UC Titans - Apr 24, 2008
- Asterisk replaces Cisco CallManager - Sep 20, 2006
- Microsoft and Nortel to co-develop IP-PBX - Jul 18, 2006
- Cisco Unified Communications Changes Everything? - Mar 05, 2006
- Skype and IBM add LotusLive Integration via IBM Cloud Services - Jan 19, 2009
- Verizon FiOS Voice+Internet Cheaper than just FiOS Internet? - Dec 19, 2008
- Calling All Bloggers! Free Blogging on TMCnet.com - Nov 14, 2008
- Microsoft and IBM Announce Sametime and Microsoft OCS integration - Nov 13, 2008
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: Cisco Unified MeetingPlace 7.0 with WebEx integration Review
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
ITEXPO says “Slumping economy? What slumping economy?” - VoIP tradeshow thrives
Many people I talked to at ITEXPO before the exhibit floor opened had muted expectations about the attendance, because of the slumping economy. But I knew better… I talked to Rich Tehrani and he told me a week before the show opened that the pre-registration numbers were up from last year. VoIP when properly deployed and with the right product has an extremely fast ROI and can result in cost savings in just a short period of time. So I wasn’t worried that ITEXPO would be a resounding success.
But the VoIP industry is not without its curmudgeons. Alec Sauders wrote a scathing post titled “2008: The Year VoIP died”, which sparked a fierce debate amongst VoIP industry insiders. He wrote:
VoIP events are suffocating too. VON was a spectacular flameout, despite the best efforts of Jeff Pulver and his band of merry men to transform it from a voice only show into a voice, video and more show. At least the Pulverites understood where the future was, even if unable to craft a profitable event around those varied interests. There’ll be more of the same next year, I fear. Initial reports from this fall were that VoiceCon was an understated and quiet affair. Lawn bowling anyone?
Well, ITEXPO definitely didn’t have any lawn bowling. If you tried to chuck a bowling ball down the aisle, it wouldn’t travel 5 feet before clipping someone’s ankles. ITEXPO has solid traffic the entire show, which is a rare feat for any tradeshow these days. ITEXPO isn’t VON and it isn’t VoiceCon, and probably shouldn’t be compared to either. One thing everyone could agree upon when it comes to ITEXPO is that this show brings “buyers” to the show. It’s why exhibitors keep coming back. Exhibitors actually generate “leads” and close deals at ITEXPO where as VON (R.I.P.) and other IP communications shows were more about networking and trying to strike partnerships. ITEXPO has evolved over the years into a “networking” event as well, but its core strength has always been that it brings buyers, resellers, distributors, etc. to the show.
I found many positive ITEXPO reports from industry analysts, media, bloggers, and VoIP vendors on the Web that talked about just how successful ITEXPO was.
Here are a few of them:
Considering Convergence - Network World by Matthew Nickasch:
The conference events concluded Wednesday afternoon at Internet Telephony EXPO (ITEXPO) East 2009 in Miami Beach, FL. With a very high attendee and exhibitor count, it is clear that VoIP, convergence, and UC technologies are at the forefront of interest and innovation.
Community: ITEXPO is a wonderful example of the strong industry community that exists within the IP communications market. Highly-competing developers, integrators, and VARs maximize on the opportunity to discuss the state of the industry, exciting new technological developments, and tools for delivering better and more innovative customer solutions.
Greg Galitzine, Group Editorial Director for TMCnet.com - VoIP is Alive and Well
I’ve just returned from ITEXPO East 2009, which was held in Miami Beach, February 2-4. One of the trends that emerged at the show is that the VoIP industry is indeed alive and well. The show was well attended by people looking for solutions, the Exhibit Hall was full of vendors who were only too happy to speak to the attendees, the meeting rooms were full, the conference sessions were well attended, and all in all the show served as a barometer for the industry.
Joe Staples, Interactive Intelligence Internet Telephony Expo Wrap-Up
There’s an economic slowdown? Somebody must have forgotten to tell the show attendees. Traffic seemed as strong as ever (show promoters reference a 30% increase in attendance). The conference sessions were well attended. Our very own Rick Chin’s keynote session on “The Unified Communications Shootout” had a couple hundred people in the room (cool format…attendees hear a six minute pitch from four or five vendors touting why their approach in the best. The attendee can then decide from that whose booth their going to go spend time at getting more info).
Moshe Maier - The Flat Planet - Is VoIP Recession Proof?
Well based on the number of visitors to our booth last night at the ITEXPO opening night, the answer is yes!
Considering Convergence - Network World by Matthew Nickasch:
The session halls and exhibit floor offered standing room only during opening day at IT Expo East 2009, in Miami Beach, FL. With many innovative products, solutions, and services being discussed and displayed, it is clear that all forms of IP telephony and convergence communications are alive and well.
Andy Abramson - Industry blogger - First Impressions of ITEXPO East 2009
VoIP is far from dead and judging by the crowds and the rooms that were full of people the rumors of its death are far from over. I’ll be the first to admit that trade shows in general are down, but this year’s IT EXPO East in Miami Beach Florida is anything but. Walking the floor last evening I counted over 150 booths, and each one was buzzing with activity. In the hallways people were talking and the symposium/conference tracks had rooms full of people.
Garrett Smith - Industry blogger - IT Expo Proves VoIP Industry is Still Going Strong
Well, as usual Rich and crew, did a fantastic job. Yes, the number of exhibitors was down a bit from shows of the past, but the sessions and keynotes have never been as robust.
Not to mention the surprising level of foot traffic that was present from show open to close.
The VoIP industry is not dying. It’s alive, growing and those involved with it continue to impress me with what they are achieving.
In speaking with over 100 of the most influential people in the VoIP industry, the economy has had an effect on their businesses - in most cases a positive one. Someone even told me their customer base tripled from November to January - oh and they’ve been in business for a few years.
Marc Robins - industry analyst IP Communications Insights - Ingate SIP Trunking Seminar is Packed
Apparently bucking the current trend of “downsized” conference attendance, Ingate’s workshop on the first day of the Internet Telephony Expo in Miami Beach is packed with an overflow crowd.
While this is a clear signal that SIP trunking is still a red hot IP communications topic, it is also a very promising indicator of heathy attendance at the show in general.
Bill Miller, Digium: Facebook wall post
Awesome event! Digium Asterisk World Event is absolutely high quality attendees, presenters, and we thank everyone participating!
Tony Rybczynski, Nortel - Dispatch from ITEXPO
Earlier today, I presented in an ITExpo keynote session on UC. Surprisingly good attendance and some probing questions on mobility, converged networking , CEBP and the future of the desktop phone.
I was very happy to see that IT Expo seems to have fought off the economic slump. Maybe that’s a good omen.
O yes, it’s been running for 10 years, so congrats to Rich, Greg and the gang. I think I spoke at the first one and many in between.
As Greg stated, if ITEXPO East 2009 can be considered a barometer of how the VoIP industry is doing, then it’s certainly not a stretch to say that the industry is far from dead. 2009 won’t be the year VoIP died, but the year VoIP thrived!
Tags: andy abramson, bill miller, conference, garrett smith, greg galitzine, itexpo, joe staples, marc robins, matthew nickasch, moshe maier, Tony Rybczynski, tradeshow, voip
- Related Entries
- <a href=”http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/voip/56-reasons-to-attend-digium-asterisk-world-in-miami.asp” title=”
56 Reasons to Attend Digium Asterisk World in Miami”>56 Reasons to Attend Digium Asterisk World in Miami - Jan 13, 2009 - VoIP Supply Named to CRN’s Fastest Growing Retailers - Proof VoIP a Fast Growing industry - Sep 02, 2008
- TMC Celebrates 10 Year Anniversary for ITEXPO! - Oct 30, 2008
- Internet Telephony Expo Preview - Sep 10, 2008
- Digium Headquarters Tour - Aug 26, 2008
- ITEXPO VoIP Conference Testimonials - Feb 14, 2008
- SIP Trunking Not so Hot? - Jan 25, 2008
- ITExpo Prizes - including a Mustang Convertible! - Jan 18, 2008
- Internet Telephony Expo Draws More Countries - Jan 16, 2008
- VoIP Supply Thanks TMC & IT EXPO - Sep 04, 2007
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: ITEXPO says “Slumping economy? What slumping economy?” - VoIP tradeshow thrives
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Clicksaya offers free Click-to-Calls
Clicksaya is a new VoIP offering just launched in beta that offers click me web buttons. While click-to-call web buttons are not news, the nice thing about Clicksaya’s C2C buttons is it currently connects users for free between 5 countries including Canada, USA, Hong Kong, China, Singapore. Jajah offers click-to-call as well, but they charge to terminate the call.
So how does Clicksaya work?
Continue reading Clicksaya offers free Click-to-Calls…
Tags: click to call, click to dial, clicksaya, voip
- Related Entries
- Free snom Flexor CTI for Outlook Application offers Advanced Telephony Features - Dec 11, 2008
- TringMe offers Enhanced Click-to-Call - Jun 08, 2008
- PhoneFromHere.com & Digium Ink 5 Year Deal - Apr 09, 2008
- Mexuar Brings Java Click-to-Call to Asterisk - Mar 19, 2008
- Google click-to-call launches - Nov 17, 2006
- ATG Acquires eStara, a Click-to-Call VoIP Company - Sep 19, 2006
- Google interoperates with Skype - Aug 29, 2006
- Google Click to Call - Nov 23, 2005
- eStara hires new CEO - Nov 15, 2005
- Click to call continues to grow - Nov 01, 2005
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: Clicksaya offers free Click-to-Calls
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Bootable Flash Drive creates 15-Minute Turnkey Asterisk Installs on Atom-based processors
How’d you like a bootable USB flash drive which can create turnkey, full-featured Asterisk PBX systems in 15 minutes or less? Nerd Vittles has a recipe specially designed for the new Atom-based motherboards found in most netbooks. Nerd says it also works just fine with Dell’s PowerEdge T100 servers.
He writes how this is perfect for on-site demos:
For those that demo systems for a living, no one will touch this presentation. Just show up at a customer site with a $300 Acer Aspire One NetBook and an Aastra 57i business phone. While the customer watches the Atomic Flash build a new PBX in a Flash server from the ruins of a Windows XP clunker, you can connect and configure the 57i and explain how simple VoIP networks can be.
When you finish your 10-minute slide show, your system will be operational. Dial any 800 number from your Aastra phone, and presto… instant, flawless communications!
Check out the article.
Tags: Acer Aspire One NetBook, asterisk, Atom, atom processor, bootable drive, flash, pbx in a flash, usb
- Related Entries
- Asterisk USB Hub - Mar 31, 2008
- Intuitive Voice Technology Calls Out other Asterisk Competitors - Asterisk Clone Wars Have Begun… - Mar 13, 2008
- Asterisk Wake-Up calls and Web Scheduling - Feb 25, 2008
- Schmooze the Yiddish Asterisk - Feb 01, 2008
- Nerd Vittles Delivers some Asterisk Christmas Goodies - Dec 11, 2007
- PBX in a Flash Asterisk Distro Launches - Nov 13, 2007
- Iomega 120 GB Portable Hard Drive - Oct 20, 2005
- ContactQ Enhances Asterisk’s Call Center Functionality - Feb 04, 2009
- Switchvox SMB 4.0 launches at ITEXPO - Feb 02, 2009
- <a href=”http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/voip/56-reasons-to-attend-digium-asterisk-world-in-miami.asp” title=”
56 Reasons to Attend Digium Asterisk World in Miami”>56 Reasons to Attend Digium Asterisk World in Miami - Jan 13, 2009
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: Bootable Flash Drive creates 15-Minute Turnkey Asterisk Installs on Atom-based processors
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Skype Launches 4.0 with Super Duper Weenie Wideband Codec
According to Skype Journal, Skype has released Skype 4.0 to Gold. The new version sports not “wideband audio” but a “Super Wideband audio codec” or what I like to call the Super Duper Weenie Wideband codec after one of my favorite hot dog joints in Fairfield, CT. Course I haven’t had a hot dog since TMC’s Biggest Loser contest started. (I’m in 1st place by the way with over 7% weight lost)
The Skype Garage post explains:
Starting from this version we’ve included the new Super Wideband Audio codec. This is our second in-house built audio codec especially designed for calls over the internet with superb quality. The Super Wideband Audio codec will help you most on lousy network conditions and when you have lower bandwidth available, although it also improves quality in normal conditions too.
The codec is codenamed “SILK” and it aims to improve the audio out to 12,000Khz and has several improvements. Skype Journal covers the SILK codec benefits nicely in this post.
So if you want the Super (Duper) Wideband audio codec, head to Skype.com and download Skype 4.0. If you want a Super Duper Weenie and a Coke, head over to www.superduperweenie.com for directions.
Tags: codec, silk, skype, super duper weenie, super wideband audio codec, voip
- Related Entries
- VoiceGear SkyBridge at ITEXPO - Feb 03, 2009
- Dual Stack SIP and Skype IP Phone Coming - Jan 30, 2009
- Speculation that eBay wants to offload Skype - Jan 26, 2009
- TechCrunch Touchpad - Needs 3G/4G/EVDO, Skype, and VoIP - Jan 19, 2009
- Skype and IBM add LotusLive Integration via IBM Cloud Services - Jan 19, 2009
- Skype Lite Java client - Jan 08, 2009
- Truphone Adds Skype Features, Twitter, MSN Messenger, and more - Jan 05, 2009
- Apple Large screen iPod Touch in Future Plus Skype & Apple Partnership? - Dec 31, 2008
- Flash Skype Video cards = Flash Skype Client in the Near Future? - Dec 19, 2008
- Belkin Desktop Internet Phone for Skype - Dec 18, 2008
TrackBacks
| <a href=”http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/skype/skype-launches-40-with-super-duper-weenie-wideband-codec.asp#comments” title=”Comment on: Skype Launches 4.0 with Super Duper Weenie Wideband Codec”>Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: <a href=”http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/skype/skype-launches-40-with-super-duper-weenie-wideband-codec.asp” title=”Skype Launches 4.0 with Super Duper Weenie Wideband Codec”>Skype Launches 4.0 with Super Duper Weenie Wideband Codec
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
VoIP using Microsoft Silverlight
VoIP using Microsoft Silverlight has just been accomplished for the very first time. I’m pretty busy at ITEXPO so I don’t have time to test this, but wanted to share an email that Founder & CEO of TringMe, Yusuf Motiwala sent me. Apparently, he had to utilize a workaround to get around the lack of mic support in Silverlight.
Just wanted to let you know about a first ever demonstration of VoIP/Telephony over Microsoft Silverlight platform at:
http://tringme.com/silverlightdemo/
It demonstrates the ability to make a call directly from the Microsoft Silverlight applications. To try it out, just enter a phone number and click on “Call Now” button. Since this is a demo, the call will automatically be disconnected in 30 seconds. You can verify this to be a Microsoft Silverlight Widget by right-clicking on the widget.
Supporting VoIP over Silverlight required us to employ a neat little trick due to the current limitation of Silverlight - Silverlight does not provide access to the microphone. The trick was to use a backdoor flash widget to access the microphone.
So, although from a purist point of view, this may not be entirely done in Silverlight, nevertheless, it does opens the VoIP door to millions of Silverlight developers. There are silverlight developers who like to create telephony applications but due to the Silverlight limitation, it wasn’t possible so far. However, with this, they can now easily integrate telephony functionality in their Silverlight applications.
Even though it uses flash on backdrop, Silverlight developers does not need to worry about it. All they have to do is to include a javascript in their HTML code which hosts their silverlight widget and call.
We welcome any comments & feedback.
Best,
Yusuf
Tags: Microsoft, Microsoft Silverlight, tringme, voip, Yusuf Motiwala
- Related Entries
- Microsoft and IBM Announce Sametime and Microsoft OCS integration - Nov 13, 2008
- TringMe Creates Flash VoiceXML Platform - Oct 17, 2008
- ITEXPO West 2008 a Resounding Success - Sep 18, 2008
- Microsoft Response Point Adds T1 Support and SIP Trunking Service Providers - Sep 17, 2008
- Video Stream the ITEXPO Keynotes from earlier today - Sep 16, 2008
- Microsoft Response Point News - Sep 16, 2008
- Office Communications Server 2007 R2 beta released - Sep 02, 2008
- Microsoft develops Vi-Fi (Vehicle Wi-Fi). VoIP while driving baby! - Aug 27, 2008
- Windows Live Messenger 8.5 Launches - Jun 25, 2008
- TringMe offers Enhanced Click-to-Call - Jun 08, 2008
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: VoIP using Microsoft Silverlight
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
U.S. Social Security Blows $300 Million on Nortel VoIP system
According to CNN:
Nortel Government Solutions, a U.S. company wholly owned by Nortel completed the core network for the massive new U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) VoIP system within 180 days of initial purchase orders, an aggressive requirement of the 10-year, US $300 million Telephone Systems Replacement Project (TSRP) award.
Now I’m all for Social Security upgrading their phone systems and going VoIP, but $300 million? $300 million? That’s just crazy talk. What’s in this Nortel phone system - titanium? platinum? Surely, there must be a cheaper, perhaps open source solution that can save the Social Security program millions, which means saving me, the U.S. taxpayer millions.
Ok, so I read further…
The new system, expected to become one of the largest enterprise VoIP deployments in the world, is already supporting more than 125 offices and more than 33,500 calls daily. To date, the new system has handled over 1.6 million calls. With 12-16 offices added each week, approximately 500 offices will be added per year until all 1,526 offices are online. Nortel Government Solutions has engineered the system to support over 100,000 phones.
Ok, now that is one massive integrated VoIP phone system. It definitely has to handle quite a bit of call volume, lots of phone endpoints (100,000+), security, management, etc. Government institutions have to be especially wary of security and privacy implications, so Nortel probably offers special professional services to ensure security and high availability. I still keep tripping over the $300 million though, which is part of the Telephone Systems Replacement Project (TSRP). Doesn’t this sound eerily similar to TARP (Trouble Assets Relief program), the massive U.S. government bailout program? Only 1 letter off.
Social security is going bankrupt and they’re spending hundreds of millions on a newfandagled phone system made by a Canadian and not by an American company. Makes perfect sense to me. American taxpayers may as well bailout Nortel, Canada’s pride and joy telecom company.
Just kidding folks. The SSA should should the best phone system as the best price. Obviously, Nortel won the contract fair and square. Unless of course they greased some palms at the SSA. When it comes to the government and politics, I am always a bit wary.
Tags: bailout, Nortel, Nortel Government Solutions, Social Security, SSA, voip
- Related Entries
- Social Security Goes VoIP - May 28, 2008
- Toktumi Now Offered on Dell VoIP Website - Nov 24, 2008
- Nortel cuts jobs and lowers forecast - Nov 10, 2008
- Fonality’s trixbox Pro Unified Agent Edition integrates with Salesforce.com - Sep 05, 2008
- The IP-PBX Energy Wars… - Aug 04, 2008
- Dell VoIP Products Analysis - Jan 23, 2008
- Internet Telephony Expo Recap - And SIP Trunking has Arrived! - Sep 14, 2007
- Avaya #1 VoIP PBX Vendor? - Aug 21, 2007
- Nortel Strong Arms Open Source Vendor - May 22, 2007
- Microsoft Public Beta of Office Communications Server 2007 - Mar 07, 2007
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: U.S. Social Security Blows $300 Million on Nortel VoIP system
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Switchvox SMB 4.0 launches at ITEXPO
I just got into Miami for ITEXPO and to the convention center around 12pm and I’ve already learned some exciting news launching at the show. Digium has released Switchvox 4.0 with some new Unified Communications features. Matthew Nickasch, a writer for Considering Convergence on NetworkWorld.com covers the news extensively in his ITExpo East Kicks Off with Big Switchvox News article.
Off the bat I noticed the video phone support with support for H.263 and H.264 codecs. Another interesting new feature is XMPP support for a private chat server. Fonality’s trixbox, a competitor to Switchvox actually also uses a XMPP server for their chat/presence server as well. Fax has never been Asterisk’s strong suit, so the fax integration sounds very intriguing. Check out some of the new features below.
- Fax integration-Users can send and receive faxes quickly and easily via Switchvox.
- Video calling-Switchvox supports video phones that use the codec standards H.263 and H.264.
- Instant messaging-Switchvox includes a private chat server that uses the widely adopted, open XMPP protocol. The Switchvox Switchboard offers a Chat Panel, or users can select their favorite XMPP-based client.
- Centralized presence-Presence and status details for call and chat activity are visible across multiple peered Switchvox PBXs.
- Web-aware interactive voice response (IVR) tools-Switchvox includes many new IVR functions for building custom applications. These sophisticated tools include exchanging sound files with web applications, setting system-wide variables and more.
- Unified messaging enhancements-IMAP integration provides a standards-based solution for voicemail and faxes. Also, users can customize multiple greetings and e-mail notifications optimized for display on a wide range of devices.
- Organized phonebooks-Employees can organize their contacts into groups and keep multiple phone numbers for each contact. Also, a company directory panel uses type-to-find to help users find extensions quickly for any of their coworkers.
- Call queue improvements-Small businesses and call centers alike will benefit from the ability to log into, log out of and pause a member’s status on each queue with a single click, and even add comments that are displayed to supervisors or other queue members.
- Switchvox Notifier-A Windows desktop client provides interaction with MS Office applications. Pop-up notifications show incoming caller details and call history, and one-click options let users quickly add Outlook contacts and dial phone numbers.
- Switchvox Extend-An XML-based API lets administrators create new extensions and access call logs, reports and extension lists.
- Auto-provisioning snom IP phones-Switchvox offers automatic configuration of VoIP phones manufactured by snom technology and Polycom.
- More call options-Switchvox supports BRI-an important step toward expanded international sales, and HD Voice-high-quality wideband audio delivered via the G.722 protocol.
According to the new release, “Switchvox SMB 4.0 is available free of charge to customers with a current Switchvox SMB software subscription. For new customers, pricing for Switchvox SMB remains unchanged and begins at U.S. $3,390 for a 10 user system, including hardware, software, a one-year subscription and warranty. The entire line of Switchvox SMB appliances, the largest of which scales to serve 4″
ITEXPO has barely begun and already some exciting news in the VoIP & Asterisk space. Stay tuned for more news updates…
Tags: asterisk, switchvox, Switchvox SMB 4.0, uc, unifed communications, voip
- Related Entries
- Fonality Launches PBXtra Unified Agent on Salesforce.com’s Force.com AppExchange - Dec 09, 2008
- Zeacom News - Sep 17, 2008
- Interview With Asterisk Founder, Mark Spencer - Jun 26, 2008
- Switchvox SMB 3.5 and AA60 Switchvox Appliance - Mar 18, 2008
- Digium reaches 1 million download milestone - Dec 19, 2007
- Digium launches Switchvox Free Edition - Oct 31, 2007
- Digium Acquires Switchvox - Sep 27, 2007
- Avaya #1 VoIP PBX Vendor? - Aug 21, 2007
- PBX Prompts for Asterisk and other open source PBXs launches tomorrow - Apr 03, 2007
- Running into fellow VoIP bloggers and some VoIP news - Oct 10, 2006
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: Switchvox SMB 4.0 launches at ITEXPO
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Speculation that eBay wants to offload Skype
According to The Times of London, rumors are that eBay wants to sell Skype after paying $2.6 billion to acquire Skype back in 2005. I wrote back then a few times that I thought eBay overpaid for Skype.
Let’s assume the rumors are true. Who would be a potential buyer? Microsoft? While Microsoft would be an interesting buyer, they just laid off 5,000 employees. Laying off 5,000 people only to turn around an shell out hundreds of millions of dollars for Skype just doesn’t make sense.
Who else in the tech sector might be plausible then? Of course the obvious answer is Google, but even they had a terrible 4th quarter and are rumored to have cuts/layoffs in the works. Besides, what would Google do with Skype? Google already offers Google Talk, even though it doesn’t nearly have the penetration that Skype does. Google also loves standards and hates proprietary software/hardware with a religous zealotry. So buying Skype, with it very proprietary software architecture would be an anathema to Google.
Still, Skype could finally give Google a huge userbase in IP communications. I guesstimate at most Skype is worth maybe $250 million, but I’d have to run the numbers again. I honestly haven’t looked at Skype’s profit and gross numbers in awhile. But with voice minutes rapidly approaching “free”, the real value for whoever buys Skype might be “paid” enhanced services and applications. But then Skype has to be careful not to tick off 3rd party developers by competing against them.
Perhaps the best buyer for Skype just might be Apple. I’ve written about a possible Apple/Skype partnership before, but it bears repeating:
Perhaps in partnership with Skype, Apple could allow VoIP over a 3G/4G data connection but Apple gets a cut of all revenue generated. Apple tends to change industry paradigms and break new ground. Certainly, Apple enabling a wide-scale VoIP over 3G/4G data connection would be a huge paradigm shift. Doubt AT&T would be happy though - nor other wireless carriers for that matter.
Essentially, Apple and Skype would form their own large-scale worldwide carrier network (using VoIP with termination) without all the fuss of maintaining an expensive carrier infrastructure nor customers dealing with yearly contracts, early termination fees, etc. Apple and Skype would be very competitively priced versus the traditional wireless carriers. Although Skype has been hugely successful, it still primarily is software app that runs on computers. Sure there are plenty of Skype hardware devices, but nothing of the scale that Apple could bring to bear. Apple and Skype working together is the perfect partnership in my opinion and it would send shockwaves throughout the entire wireless industry.
If eBay is indeed shopping Skype around, I think that’s great news for Skype. I never thought much of the eBay/Skype deal and I think Skype lost their mojo soon after the deal. I heard the corporate cultures were just too different. It’ll be interesting to see is Skype can “mesh” with another tech company’s corporate culture.
Tags: apple, eBay, google, microsoft, skype, voip
- Related Entries
- VoIP over EVDO from PeerMe - Sep 14, 2006
- The Perfect VoIP Softphone and IM client - Jun 19, 2006
- Skype Lite Java client - Jan 08, 2009
- Truphone Adds Skype Features, Twitter, MSN Messenger, and more - Jan 05, 2009
- Apple Large screen iPod Touch in Future Plus Skype & Apple Partnership? - Dec 31, 2008
- fring Adds VoIP to iPhone - Oct 04, 2008
- ITEXPO West 2008 a Resounding Success - Sep 18, 2008
- Video Stream the ITEXPO Keynotes from earlier today - Sep 16, 2008
- Om Interviews Skype CEO - Sep 12, 2008
- Happy 5th Birthday Skype! - Aug 29, 2008
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: Speculation that eBay wants to offload Skype
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Ready for ITEXPO?
With ITEXPO just one week away, Rich has a good roundup of some of the happenings going on at Internet Telephony Conference & Expo taking place in Miami, Florida. Aastra, Adtran, Dialogic, Digium, and Microsoft are just some of the companies exhibiting at the show. And don’t forget Digium Asterisk World is co-located with ITEXPO!
Several prominent VoIP bloggers will be there, including Andy Abramson, Dan York, Jon Arnold, Greg Galitzine, Rich Tehrani, and of course, yours truly. I’m sure there are others as well, but I’d have to check the press registration list and I’m pretty busy today.
Hope to see you in Miami!
Tags: aastra, adtran, dialogic, digium, Digium Asterisk World, florida, itexpo, miami, microsoft
- Related Entries
- ITEXPO West 2008 a Resounding Success - Sep 18, 2008
- Microsoft Response Point News - Sep 16, 2008
- Digium podcast of Mark Spencer’s new role - Jan 30, 2007
- <a href=”http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/voip/56-reasons-to-attend-digium-asterisk-world-in-miami.asp” title=”
56 Reasons to Attend Digium Asterisk World in Miami”>56 Reasons to Attend Digium Asterisk World in Miami - Jan 13, 2009 - TMC & Digium Partner for Digium|Asterisk World at ITEXPO - Oct 06, 2008
- Digium Major Announcement - what can it be? - Sep 25, 2008
- ITEXPO West 2008 Best of Show Winners - Sep 18, 2008
- Video Stream the ITEXPO Keynotes from earlier today - Sep 16, 2008
- ITEXPO Live Video Streaming! - Sep 17, 2008
- Internet Telephony Expo Preview - Sep 10, 2008
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: Ready for ITEXPO?
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
DNS Issue Temporarily Cripples Packet8 VoIP Service
A source tipped me off to a Packet8 VoIP service outage last night & today caused by a DNS issue. I contacted 8×8/Packet8 and Joan Citelli, Director, Corporate Communications for 8×8, Inc. to find out what caused the VoIP outage. Joan told me the following:
“We are providing all subscribers who experienced this issue with the following explanation and resolution procedure via email and customer support calls. Let me know if you have any further questions.”
At 7 pm last night (January 22, 2008) Register.com changed the DNS for www.packet8.net and www.packet8.com by omitting the DNS and substituting a landing page in its place. The net result was call failure and inability to find Packet8 website. Our telephones and DTA’s have several hard coded fail-over processes built into them. However, due to the landing page put up by Register.com, the end points were given a false signal of success and did not fail over to the backup IP addresses built into each device.
Within minutes Packet8 engineers saw the issue, contacted Register.com and got the issue resolved with proper routing instructions broadcast to all DNS servers on the Internet.
Most Internet Service Providers updated to the correct DNS routing instantly. However, we have reports that ATT, ATT-Mobile and Time Warner Roadrunner on the East coast have not updated DNS servers with the correct information.
If you are having issues with the Packet8 service or reaching our self-service portal, please provide the solutions below to renew the DNS information in your modem, router, and computers.
If the solutions do not work, your ISP may be providing the outdate DNS information. Please call Packet8 support with the following information and we will contact your ISP regarding the issue.
Call Packet8 Support at 1-888-898-8733 or, if outside the US, call 1-408-687-4120
Solutions
1. Point the DNS server settings of your Packet8 endpoints and telephones to 63.209.12.18 or set your router’s DNS settings to Open DNS with 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220.
2. Edit your hosts file to force www.packet8.net to 63.209.12.100
3. Provide a network power cycle with step by step instructions shown below
Network Power Cycle
Power cycling the entire network refreshes and re-syncs all network devices with the most current network information broadcast from the ISP.
1. Unplug power from the back of all network devices (modem, router, & Packet8 device) & shutdown any computers. Then wait one minute.
2. Plug the power cord back into the modem and wait one minute to let the modem synchronize with the ISP. (Check for ONLINE/Internet light)
3. Plug the power cord back into the Router and wait one minute.
4. Plug the power cord back into the Packet8 device and wait 30 seconds
5. Check the Packet8 phone for a dial tone. Also, the PHONE LED on the Packet8 device should come light up when the receiver is picked up or turned on.
6. Check lights: solid POWER LED & an occasionally flickering LINK LED
If no dial tone, turn on a computer and make sure the customer can browse the internet.
Clear computer of old DNS information: Start — Run — cmd – ipconfig /flushdns
Goes to show you that DNS is critical to VoIP availability. Register.com is a popular site, I’m surprised they made such a big mistake. I would think Packet8 would have to request a DNS change before Register.com would do it on their own. Actually from the explanation, it sounds like Packet8 did request a DNS change, but Register.com just pointed it to the wrong location (a Register.com landing page).
Tags: 8×8, DNS, ipconfig, Joan Citelli, outage, packet8, Register.com, voip
- Related Entries
- Level 3 & Packet8 major outage - Jul 31, 2008
- Vonage Lives to Fight Another Day… - Oct 20, 2008
- Microsoft Response Point Adds T1 Support and SIP Trunking Service Providers - Sep 17, 2008
- Packet8 MobileTalk on iPhone Adds VoIP Calling - Jul 11, 2008
- 8×8’s Packet8 Posts Steady Growth - Jan 30, 2008
- Toktumi Now Offered on Dell VoIP Website - Nov 24, 2008
- Comcast Best in VoIP Quality, AT&T Best in VoIP Reliability - Nov 13, 2008
- Windows Live Messenger Back in the VoIP game! - Oct 03, 2008
- ITEXPO West 2008 a Resounding Success - Sep 18, 2008
- Packet8 675xi VoIP for the SMB - Jul 24, 2008
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: DNS Issue Temporarily Cripples Packet8 VoIP Service
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Verizon Hub News
As I wrote a few days ago, Verizon plans to launch the Verizon Hub. I just learned the Verizon Hub will launch February 1st. As I also was the first to point out, my source told me that the Verizon Hub is essentially the same thing as the Verizon One (created by OpenPeak), which I wrote about in March 2007. In my post from a few days ago, I wrote, “One of my sources told me that the Verizon Hub is the same thing as the Verizon One, but apparently Verizon changed the name to the Verizon Hub deskphone.”
The Verizon Hub is the evolution of the Verizon One. As part of that evolution, I hope they no longer restrict you to surfing specific websites. Or if they do have to limit it, I hope the list of allowed websites includes YouTube, Digg, Yahoo! + Mail, Gmail, Google, MSN, and Hotmail. The device sports a touch-screen interface for surfing, checking the weather & traffic, and more. It also allows users to make PSTN phone calls via its POTS connection (no VoIP 
), access email, search the web, view a calendar, stream music from the web, and view photo images from a digital camera - essentially making it double as a digital photo frame when not in use.
It sports a WiFi and an Ethernet connection, so I’m not sure why they didn’t include VoIP support. At least make it work with Verizon VoiceWing, which is Verizon’s VoIP broadband service. Though I have heard from another source that it will support VoIP. I’ll get to the bottom of this and let you know. It also has visual voice mail, an address book, and even audio directions which the Hub can send to Verizon Wireless phones.
I was hoping it might include a femtocell to improve signal bars in locations with a weak Verizon signal, but alas my sources tell me it won’t include femtocell. It will however run on any broadband connection and features tight integration with Verizon Wireless services. It also can integrate with Verizon FiOS and let you control your FiOS TV service from this device.
Tags: femtocell, Verizon FiOS, Verizon Hub, Verizon One, Verizon Wireless, voip
- Related Entries
- Verizon Hub Web browsing VoIP Phone Gadget Coming - Jan 20, 2009
- D2 Technologies Improves its vPort VoIP Software for Development of Next Generation WiMAX, Femtocell and Mobile Handsets/Devices - Jan 08, 2009
- Verizon FiOS Voice+Internet Cheaper than just FiOS Internet? - Dec 19, 2008
- Motorola Femtocell Picture Frame Combines VoIP, Video, Bluetooth, Touchscreen and more - Sep 26, 2008
- TechCrunch Touchpad - Needs 3G/4G/EVDO, Skype, and VoIP - Jan 19, 2009
- Skype and IBM add LotusLive Integration via IBM Cloud Services - Jan 19, 2009
- The 2009 VoIP Surge Theory - Jan 16, 2009
- Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Collocation Server Roles Supported - Jan 15, 2009
- <a href=”http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/voip/56-reasons-to-attend-digium-asterisk-world-in-miami.asp” title=”
56 Reasons to Attend Digium Asterisk World in Miami”>56 Reasons to Attend Digium Asterisk World in Miami - Jan 13, 2009 - Skype Lite Java client - Jan 08, 2009
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: Verizon Hub News
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog
The 2009 VoIP Surge Theory
Don Witt, President of cyLogistics, theorizes that the stock market meltdown and slowing economy will actually spur faster VoIP growth in an article he penned for TMCnet.
He writes, “More and more executives will be under the gun to cut costs. There are a number of ways to cut costs but one way to cut costs tends to jump out at you — the PHONE BILL. This will force many companies to take the digital/VoIP plunge. As a result, VoIP sales will increase significantly over the next year or two.”
He adds, “The stock market crash has effectively pulled in the VoIP growth curve by 6-12 months or more! As identified in the Post-Melt Down chart, VoIP sales may increase by 200-300% over previous forecasts. Thus, next year’s VoIP growth can be expected to jump from 4% to 8% or 12% or more next year.”
Of course theories, and pretty chart graphs can be made to make anything look good. Is the VoIP industry truly headed towards faster growth in this economic climate? I tend to agree with Don. There are indications that not only enterprises, but also municipalities and schools are deploying VoIP to save on costs.
In fact, I recently came across one town right here in Connecticut (Enfield), which recently deployed VoIP, resulting in dramatic savings — and not just in phone charges, but also in ongoing maintenance costs. According to the article, “Previously the schools and the town each had its own independent tech support team. Today a staff of three network support employees manages a network consisting of more than 29 remote locations and over 4,000 networked devices.” Obviously, VoIP isn’t just about saving on long-distance charges. A consolidated voice & data network in Enfield, CT has resulted in reduced support costs and lower TCO as well.
While one example doesn’t make it the rule, I do think companies, municipalities, etc. are looking to cut costs and VoIP is one sure fire way to do just that.
Tags: Connecticut, CT, cyLogistics, Don Witt, Enfield, voip
- Related Entries
- Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Collocation Server Roles Supported - Jan 15, 2009
- <a href=”http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/voip/56-reasons-to-attend-digium-asterisk-world-in-miami.asp” title=”
56 Reasons to Attend Digium Asterisk World in Miami”>56 Reasons to Attend Digium Asterisk World in Miami - Jan 13, 2009 - D2 Technologies Improves its vPort VoIP Software for Development of Next Generation WiMAX, Femtocell and Mobile Handsets/Devices - Jan 08, 2009
- Skype Lite Java client - Jan 08, 2009
- Microsoft Unified Communications Tips and Tricks - Jan 06, 2009
- Truphone Adds Skype Features, Twitter, MSN Messenger, and more - Jan 05, 2009
- Apple Large screen iPod Touch in Future Plus Skype & Apple Partnership? - Dec 31, 2008
- Broadsoft Acquires Rival Sylantro - Dec 29, 2008
- trixbox CE vs. Asterisk Downloads - Dec 23, 2008
- The State of Nortel - Dec 22, 2008
TrackBacks
| Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | VoIP & Gadgets Blog Home | Permalink: The 2009 VoIP Surge Theory
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog