March 25th, 2006
You are currently browsing the articles from the VoIP Digest written on March 25th, 2006.
Andy Abramson just scored a big scoop. He has discovered that Kazaa, Skype, its co-founders Niklas Zennstrom, Janus Friis and several related parties have been sued for RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) violations by their rival StreamCast Networks, a company that made Morpheus peer-to-peer software. The suit was filed in the US District Court in Los Angeles.
StreamCast as you might remember was butting heads with the RIAA which had sued Morpheus, Grokster and Kazaa. This most recent legal action is most intriguing, and it would be interesting to read the full complaint and if anyone has access to the documents drop me an email. That would be a rather juicy read. This is yet another headache for folks at eBay, who snapped up Skype for $4.1 billion last year. I will add further details, as the story unfolds.
Written by Om Malik on March 25th, 2006 with no comments.
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Web 2.0 which I define as ability to do a lot more with a lot less inside of a web browser - and the ensuing funding madness has finally started to go global - albeit very slowly. Netvibes, a Paris-based start-up last week raised a million dollars in angel funding from the likes of Martin Varsavsky, the founder of WiFi network, FON, Pierre Chappaz, founder of Kelkoo and Marc Andressen, founder of Ning.
Netvibes, if you are not familiar with the company, allows you to add small modules of different kinds of information - blog feeds, news feeds, weather reports and financial information etc - and create a “portal” of your own. These Ajaxian-home pages are quite a rage, and you have a virtual potpourri of offerings to choose from: about half a dozen and that’s not including the GYM gang. (See round-up by Richard McManus.) Most if not all are going to flame out, and be forgotten, despite cute names. How many, outside of early adopters are using these services? I bet you not enough!
Netvibes seems to have the most traction in this market, with Pageflakes close behind. Goowy, which does similar things in Macromedia Flash, is running neck-to-neck with Netvibes. Martin on his blog, has about a million users, and the Alexa chart kind of bears that out, to some degree.
Tariq Krim, the founder of Netvibes, called me following the announcement, and we stalked about where his company is going, and what will those million bucks be spent on. “We want to scale the service, and stabilize the platform, so we can roll it out to more users,” Krim says.
Krim said that the original concept of Netvibes came to him, when he wanted to build a little page where he could read all the RSS feeds. And then he add ability to take web notes, and from there is grew. Apparently, a lot of people wanted that service, and when they launched their product as a beta, it grew from zero to 15,000 users. “We grew from a concept into a product in one day,” he says. Krim points out that at present nearly 60 percent of Netvibes users are coming from the US, but that’s changing slowly, as new global users start to use Netvibes. Of course a million dollars buys the company to cook-up a way to make money.
Update: Tariq emailed and point out that, “Alexa doesn’t bring us justice don’t forget that we don’t have only one page (vs tabs on others services one user use many pages). You can check other metrics like reach to see the difference !” Such as daily reach.
Written by Om Malik on March 25th, 2006 with no comments.
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Earlier today on my BBHub BlackBerry blog, I posted news of the first 3G BlackBerry- a new BlackBerry 8707v to be released next month by U.K.-based mobile phone operator Vodafone.Sorry statesiders- this is sold in the U.K. only.While we don't know the price yet, we do have the specs:The basics: Intel PXA901 at 312MHz [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on March 25th, 2006 with no comments.
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Priced at £29.95, the Firebox VoIP handset is a basic USB microphone and speaker.
The Firebox Skype phone is easily set up on Windows XP systems. On the hand, setting it up on a Mac system requires a bit more time.
Sound quality: This VoIP phone sounds like an average mobile connection. Enough said.
Techdigest smartly points out that manufacturers of phones like this Firebox model should sell two in one pack. This helps to increase the number of VoIP users. Now, why didn't I think of that before!
Via TechDigest
Written by gautam.chabbra on March 25th, 2006 with no comments.
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The folks at FCC must wonder what to make of this latest story.
As already reported heavily in the news media, VOICE OVER IP outfit Vonage apparently put on hold a 911 customer, Loren Velthamp of Chanhassen, Minnesota, who had dialed 911 on his VoIP phone for help when his house was engulfed in fire, long enough for his house to burn down.
The FCC has long given the stick to VoIP provides for getting serious about emergency service cover. However, it seems they have not listened enough.
Via the ENQUIRER
Written by gautam.chabbra on March 25th, 2006 with no comments.
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Answering Service Providers are getting over their initial ignorance, willful or otherwise, of VoIP. Some Answering Service providers will also be attending VoIP events to get the hang of things.
Take for example, Philadelphia-based Specialty Answering Service. It has decided to attend VoIP Developer Conference to be held in California this August. The company is preparing to customize its answering service & call center services to customers utilizing VoIP.
While many Answering Service Providers see VoIP as a threat, Specialty Answering Service is convinced that VoIP brings opportunities with it too.
Via XTVWorld
Written by gautam.chabbra on March 25th, 2006 with no comments.
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VoIP pioneer has launched European virtual phone numbers for those calling Europe.
The European virtual phone number service is priced at £5.99 per month. Users of Vonage's European VoIP services can now get a virtual phone number in addition to their current Vonage number in an area of their choice. Thus, you can get a virtual number for any city where your near and dear ones live.
Pretty neat, huh? This service is great for home-sick folks, too.
Via TechDigest
Written by gautam.chabbra on March 25th, 2006 with no comments.
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