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VoIP & Gadget blog with the latest news in the VoIP and gadget space, wireless, mobile phones, product reviews, opinion & analysis.  As Apple looks to grow its iPod franchise, Toys "R" Us will begin carrying iPods and related accessories this month.The products will be sold in Toys "R" Us stores nationwide and will be merchandised within specially designed "iPod boutique" wall displays. The assortment includes the iPod Shuffle in silver, blue and pink, the iPod Nano in a selection of recently introduced colors, and the iPod Touch. Accessories include products from iHome, iTunes gift cards and a selection of carrying cases and car adapters. More at TWICE.
Tags: apple, ihome, ipod, ipod nano, ipod shuffle, ipod touch, toys "r" us, twice
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 Philips has announced the launch of a range of swappable faceplates for its televisions. They will work in a similar way to the Xbox 360 and allow you to customize your television to match your décor. Called "Flavors," the new flat high-gloss white TV will feature removable frames. The removable frames are available in a variety of colors and patterns that can be customized and taken on and off the front of the TV in a matter of seconds. A matching Flavors home theater system also has interchangeable frames. To match that white design you'll get white cables and even the remote control is in high-gloss white to match the "pure design" of the television. As a final touch, the Flavors products come with a choice of on-screen menus that match the chosen design of the frames. Flavors will initially only be available in Italy, however a spokesperson for the company has said that if successful we will see them in the UK. (And what about the U.S.?????) More at Pocket Lint.
Tags: flavors, philips, swappable faceplates, xbox 360
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 A major new version of OctroTalk (see previous write-up), an IM/VoIP/video P2P app just came out. The new version is called OctroTalk 2.0 for Windows Mobile and it now has real time video conferencing with VoIP, File Transfer, Instant Messaging and avatar support. You can even have video calls if you have OctroTalk running at both ends. The OctroTalk desktop version also supports video conferencing.OctroTalk supports IM/VoIP and can communicate with Jabber, Google Talk, AOL/AIM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, and ICQ. Might have to compare this app with fring, one of my favorite multi-IM/VoIP applications. You can also stream live video to the Web. Just add 3001@switch.octro.net to your buddy list in OctroTalk, and make a video call to this buddy. Users can look at what you are streaming by going to http://video.octro.com/ and entering the username as your JID. (Your JID is your Jabber/Gmail ID that you are using to log onto OctroTalk. Currently, the front camera support is for Samsung Blackjack, and not for HTC phones (HTC hasn't opened up their API). Download it at http://www.octro.com/. To download cab file directly to your Pocket PC or smartphone.
Tags: AOL/AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, Jabber, MSN Messenger, Octrotalk, p2p, videoconferencing, voip, windows mobile, Yahoo
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 In August, I visited Digium's headquarters and excitedly wrote, "the next release of AsteriskNOW (1.5) will bundle the very popular FreePBX front-end GUI. This is big news! FreePBX has become the defacto standard for web-based GUI administration of Asterisk, so now Asterisk fans can download AsteriskNOW, boot of the self-install CD and not only getting a working copy of AsteriskNOW, but FreePBX as well!" I also explained that the forthcoming AsteriskNOW which previously ran on rPath will now be using the very popular CentOS (5.2) distributionWell my Asterisk friends, that day has come! AsteriskNOW just came out in beta. Now go grab yourself a copy! 
Tags: asterisk, asterisknow, CenOS, freepbx, voip
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 Popular Mechanics has jumped the gun and already given us their ten best gadgets of the year.Here's their lead-in: The early 20th century produced a breathtaking succession of innovations--the Wright Flyer, the Model T, the Panama Canal. It was a golden age of engineering. (Some serious gadgets indeed!) A century hence, observers may well look back at our era in much the same way: Cars are being reimagined from the wheels up. Advances in solar energy show the way past fossil fuels. And space probes explore planets that could become our future homes. Check out their "Top 10" here and let us know what you think. (And thanks to the New America Foundation for the Rube Goldberg image.)
Tags: model t, popular mechanics, rube goldberg, top ten gadgets
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Thought I'd share this interesting report from Accenture about mobile phone app utilization that claims higher-end applications remain vastly under-used by U.S. consumers. Funny, I think Apple iPhone users might disagree. The report found that 88 percent of U.S. consumers said they never use their mobile phones or other mobile devices to watch videos. That is high, but expected since most mobile phones can't even play videos. My main phone, a Windows Mobile 6.1 smart phone doesn't even natively support Youtube Flash videos using Pocket Internet Explorer. I did install Skyfire though, which adds pretty respectable video performance. I was able to watch Youtube videos on my Windows Mobile with pretty decent video quality, but of course I'm not the 'typical' mobile phone user.
The report adds that 84 percent said they never use their mobile phones or mobile devices to send email. Say what? Email is only 4 pts better than video? I would have expected email penetration to be much better, especially with all the Blackberry phones. People want email access on their phone more than any other app, but maybe that's just my opinion. Further, the report says 79 percent said they never employ them to play games on the go. So more people played games on their phone than sent email? You've got to be kidding me. How is that possible? I suppose many phones come with cheezy built-in games, which might skew the results. Anyway, read the report for yourself... Continue reading No ♥ for High-end Mobile Apps...
Tags: accenture, Apple, consumers, iphone, mobile applications, mobile apps, mobile phone, skyfire, U.S.
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 snom today launched the snom 820, an elegant and attractive VoIP phone. It features a large high-resolution TFT color display (3.5", 320 x 240 pixels) and can easily display call lists, phone directories, and caller information via the integrated XML browser. I believe this is snom's first "white" VoIP phone, which gives it a nice clean look. Very Apple-esque. It appears to support "picture / photo" CallerID but I need to confirm. The snom 820 also supports wideband in the handset which captures more than double the spectrum of voice frequencies that by standard phones. Perhaps the most interesting feature is that the new snom 820 supports WiFi. No need to use a network cable if you don't want to. In fact, the snom 820 supports Power over plug (A/C adapter), Power over Ethernet (PoE) or WiFi. Security-wise it features secure VPN, TLS and SRTP. Important business features include three-party conferencing, polyphonic ringtones, and up to twelve different SIP identities. According to snom, the new look of the snom 820 was designed in cooperation with very renowned German industrial designers. They stated, "this first model of the new product line of snom phones is living up to the highest expectations in functionality and timeless beauty." Indeed, that is one beautiful phone. Can I have one?
Tags: ip phone, poe, snom, snom 820, voip, voip phone, wifi
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 The text message from the elephant flashed across Richard Lesowapir's screen: Kimani was heading for neighboring farms.The huge bull elephant had a long history of raiding villagers' crops during the harvest, sometimes wiping out six months of income at a time. But this time a mobile phone card inserted in his collar sent rangers a text message. Lesowapir, an armed guard and a driver arrived in a jeep bristling with spotlights to frighten Kimani back into the Ol Pejeta conservancy. Kenya is the first country to try elephant texting as a way to protect both a growing human population and the wild animals that now have less room to roam. Elephants are ranked as "near threatened" in the Red List, an index of vulnerable species published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The race to save Kimani began two years ago. The Kenya Wildlife Service had already reluctantly shot five elephants from the conservancy who refused to stop crop-raiding, and Kimani was the last of the regular raiders. The Save the Elephants group wanted to see if he could break the habit. So they placed a mobile phone SIM card in Kimani's collar, then set up a virtual "geofence" using a global positioning system that mirrored the conservatory's boundaries. Whenever Kimani approaches the virtual fence, his collar texts rangers. They have intercepted Kimani 15 times since the project began. Once almost a nightly raider, he last went near a farmer's field four months ago. It's a huge relief to the small farmers who rely on their crops for food and cash for school fees. Basila Mwasu, a 31-year-old mother of two, lives a stone's throw from the conservancy fence. She and her neighbors used to drum through the night on pots and pans in front of flaming bonfires to try to frighten the elephants away. Get more at NewsFactor Network. Continue reading Now Even Elephants Are Sending Text Messages!...
Tags: elephant texting, gps, kenya, kenya wildlife service, save the elephants, sim card
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 No, you are not seeing things ...Last week there were unconfirmed sightings of an "Obama for President" billboard in the Xbox 360 racing game Burnout Paradise. Today the truth can be told. It is, in fact, an official advertisement placed by the senator's campaign team. "I can confirm that the Obama campaign has paid for in-game advertising in Burnout," revealed Holly Rockwood, director of corporate communications at Electronic Arts (EA), the game's publisher. EA regularly allows ad placements in its online games. "Like most television, radio and print outlets, we accept advertising from credible political candidates," she added. "Like political spots on the television networks, these ads do not reflect the political policies of EA or the opinions of its development teams." Now can we expect to see a McCain ad in some video game, too? Anybody want to get which game that might be? Get more at GigaOM.
Tags: burnout paradise, ea, electronic arts, mccain, obama, xbox 360
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 An increasing number of industry players will help push 3D virtual worlds into a sustainable industry, reaching 33 million registered users by 2013, according to Virtual Worlds: the Internet of Avatars.This new report from Parks Associates details the evolution of the virtual world value chain, which has added a variety of different companies and providers in its relatively short period of existence. 3D virtual world platform companies, world operators and full-service agencies form the core of the virtual world ecosystem, providing services to consumers, media companies, advertisers and enterprises. However, content and application developers and service providers are becoming increasingly important. Parks Associates will distribute a free whitepaper titled "Virtual Worlds and Social Media" at the Virtual Worlds London conference, October 20-21. So, will Second Life have a second life?
Tags: avatar, parks associates, second life, virtual world
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  Today, Microsoft debuted Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2 (R2), an update to Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. Customers will be able to purchase the release, currently in private beta testing, beginning in February 2009.Office Communications Server 2007 R2 includes several new important functionality, particularly for remote and mobile workers. It includes on-premise audioconferencing to help reduce operational costs and introduces new developer advances, including the ability to build communications-enabled business processes. "Office Communications Server 2007 R2, debuting just one year after the Microsoft unified communications launch, highlights the pace of innovation that is possible with software," said Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft Business Division at Microsoft. "This new release puts Microsoft on a rapid path to deliver voice software that does much more than a network private branch exchange (PBX) and with much less cost." Interesting quote, eh? Does this not sound like Microsoft is sounding the death knell for the network PBX (IP-PBX)? This is an interesting turn of events. Microsoft hasn't been pitching OCS 2007 as an IP- PBX replacement, but rather as something complementary. In fact, I remember talking with Microsoft about this last year and they went out of their way to explain that OCS 2007 is not an IP-PBX replacement. Also, Microsoft has many IP-PBX partners in the OCS 2007 arena, including Mitel, Nortel, and others. Slip of the tongue? Or is Microsoft going full-out into the IP-PBX arena? Certainly, the fear by many IP-PBX vendors is that one day Microsoft will offer a full-fledged software-based IP-PBX replacement, but I don't think that day has come yet - even with the new features in OCS 2007 R2. Microsoft added more fuel to the fire when the explained, "Since the solution became available in 2007, businesses have begun migrating their workers off their PBXs to Office Communications Server for all their telephony needs. Customers such as Royal Dutch Shell plc are already taking a load off their PBXs by using Office Communications Server and Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 for mobile and remote workers in place of PBX phones to provide global employees with innovative communications solutions to quickly and efficiently reach their colleagues and help reduce operational costs." Then they threw some napalm on the fire when they said, "Customers are leapfrogging an entire generation of Internet protocol (IP) PBX technology to move straight to unified communications and software-powered voice over Internet protocol (VoIP)." They also stated, "Office Communications Server 2007 R2 allows customers to take the next step toward replacing their PBX with Microsoft's unified communications software and managing voice in the same way as other applications such as e-mail and instant messaging." Now they did bring out the peace pipe and say, "Office Communications Server interoperates with legacy PBX and IP PBX investments, allowing customers to transition to the new platform without undergoing an expensive rip-and-replace upgrade of their network." It'll be interesting to see how the IP-PBX vendors take these statements. In the meantime, check out the key new features of Office Communications Server 2007 R2. One big feature I like is Persistent Group Chat:
Tags: microsoft, Microsoft OCS 2007 R2, OCS 2007 R2, Office Communications Server, persistent group chat, Stephen Elop, unified communications, voip
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 Millions of youngsters across Europe could suffer permanent hearing loss after five years if they listen to MP3 players at too high a volume for more than five hours a week, EU scientists warned Monday.(Am sure that would track nicely with the North American market would look -- and sound --like ...) The scientists' study, requested by the European Commission, attacked the concept of "leisure noise," saying children and teenagers should be protected from increasingly high sound levels -- with loud mobile phones also coming in for criticism. There has been increasing concern about exposure from the new generation of personal music players which can reproduce sounds at very high volumes without loss of quality, noted the study. Risk for hearing damage depends on sound level and exposure time. More and more young people were exposed to the significant threat that leisure noise posed to hearing. Commission experts estimate that between 50 and 100 million people listen to portable music players on a daily basis. If they listened for only five hours a week at more than 89 decibels, they would already exceed EU limits for noise allowed in the workplace, they said. But if they listened for longer periods, they risked permanent hearing loss after five years. More at the New York Times. And thanks to Kid's Health for the ear shot.
Tags: european commission, hearing loss, kid's health, leisure nose, mp3 player
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 Just when you were ready to give up cable altogether and watch TV on your computer, telecommunication companies start aggressively rolling out fast new ways to get TV, Internet and voice services -- do I hear "Triple Play"?And they really, really want your business. AT&T has announced it would begin selling its AT&T U-verse TV and U-verse High Speed Internet services in Circuit City and Wal-Mart stores across the country. U-verse uses a hybrid network of fast fiber-optic and conventional copper wires to bring TV, Internet and voice services to your home. Bundles start at $69 a month. It's trying to sweeten the deal by offering $200 cash back to customers who order certain U-verse packages online. Why the big deals and incentives? AT&T is duking it out with Verizon's FiOS and cable companies like Time Warner Cable to get into new homes as customers frustrated with the relatively slow speeds of DSL look for faster service. And they're doing it at a tough time. Broadband service providers are having trouble recruiting new subscribers, due to a soft housing market, a weakened economy, broadband market maturity and predictable seasonality, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. More at the LA Times.
Tags: at&t, circuit city, fios, strategy analytics, time warner cable, u-verse, verizon, wal-mart
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 Sony has ruled out cutting the price of the PlayStation 3 console before Christmas, insisting that the PS3 is better value than rivals half its price.(Maybe time to rethink that in today's -- or at least last week's -- economy?) With up to 50% of video game sales made in the run-up to Christmas, Sony is gambling that despite the weak economy, consumers will not just buy the cheapest machine. If they do, Sony could lose further ground to Nintendo's Wii and to Microsoft's entry-level Xbox 360, which sells for $199 in the U.S. after a price cut in September - half the $399 cost of the cheapest PS3. Sony argues that the basic Xbox has no hard disk drive, while the PS3 plays High-Definition Blu-ray movies as standard. Sony launched its third PlayStation model in the line in November 2006. The PS3 competes most directly with the Xbox 360. Both are high-powered consoles that have sold well to gaming enthusiasts, but neither has matched the casual appeal and rapid success of the much cheaper Wii. More at the Financial Times.
Tags: blu-ray, microsoft, playstation 3, sony, wii, xbox 360
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Apparently, a young a Norwegian developer named Erik Kristiansen has developed an application that lets you run Windows Mobile on the iPhone! Now why would someone go and do something like that? How bout actual copy/paste that works, plus the ability to run 3rd party apps in the background? The video is an interview taken at MyPhone 2008 and he explains that he has essentially created bootcamp for the iPhone. When the phone powers on, you see the Windows and Apple logos allowing you to select between booting OS X and Windows Mobile. Of course, I doubt Apple and Microsoft use the same set of APIs to communicate with the dialer application. So if I launch the Windows Mobile dialer app from an iPhone, will it truly be able to dial out? The video interview does show the Windows Mobile dialer, but he doesn't actually dial out. Windows Mobile also won't take advantage of iPhone hardware such as multi-touch, which lets you zoom in/out with two fingers and other multi-touch tricks. Still, for hardcore geeks, this could be something fun to try.
Tags: Apple, Erik Kristiansen, iPhone, MyPhone 2008, Windows Mobile
Copyright VoIP & Gadgets Blog Comments on this Entry: (Matt on Oct 13, 2008 5:45 PM) That is a great find! If it isn't a just a video running on his phone but real software I am very impressed - to the point of being skeptical. It would be like getting XP to run a G5 hardware, almost impossible. -Matt (db on Oct 13, 2008 6:53 PM) maybe he can fix ATT/APPLES problems with dropping calls.
 Today, Global IP Solutions launched peer-to-peer video calling and multi-point video conferencing capabilities on Windows Mobile-based phones called GIPS VideoEngine Mobile. As part of this release, it only runs on specific Windows Mobile models, however, future plans for Symbian phones and iPhones as well as other Windows Mobile devices are planned.Using GIPS VideoEngine Mobile, wireless carriers, application developers and mobile handset manufacturers can provide high-quality video calls, even under adverse network conditions. The company has partnered with Marvell Technology to ensure its media processing software provides the most advanced mobile phone features on the Marvell chipset and to highly optimize it for the XScale PXA310 devices including the Hewlett-Packard iPAQ series, Samsung's SGH-i780 and Gigabyte's GSmart MS808. The software leverages GIPS expertise in packet loss as well as lip synchronization to ensure a good quality video experience. My only complaint about this launch is there is no beta software available for end users to try it. I realize GIPS sells/licenses the technology to mobile carriers, application developers, etc., but they should at least offer a limited "proof of concept" video softphone that end users can install and try. I wanted to tested it on my Windows Mobile, but alas it was not to be. Anyway, for more info head here www.gipscorp.com/mv
Tags: GIPS, GIPS VideoEngine Mobile, mobile phone, video, videoconferencing, voip, Windows Mobile
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 Look at this email phishing scam purportedly coming from Vonage. You know Vonage has hit the big time when scammers starts targeting them. Unfortunately, the scammers, like many scammers, have poor English skills making their poorly written emails a dead giveaway.Let me give the scammers some tips for the future:
Maybe the web interface does display credit card info, social security, or some other info that a credit card or identity thief can use? Any Vonage customers out there care to pipe in? Here's the scam email. Warning: The links go to www.angeltrans.kr not vonage.com. I didn't click through. You never know what untrustworthy sites have viruses, buffer overflow exploits, etc. I suggest you not click through either. |
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