July 19th, 2006
You are currently browsing the articles from the VoIP Digest written on July 19th, 2006.
As my colleague Greg Sandoval reported late yesterday, YouTube has been sued for copyright infringement.Complaintant Robert Tur has alleged that 1992 footage he took of the beating of trucker Reginald Denny in the aftermath of the Rodney King riots has been viewed for free over 1,000 times on YouTube, costing Tur potential income from selling [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
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Companies such as Google, Earthlink, and MetroFi continue to roll-out municipal WiFi networks in Philadelphia, Mountain View, and other locations, creating new possibilities for an always-connected individual and/or device. Fon hopes to bridge the gaps and provide a different type of public WiFi system through its own network of user-contributed hotspots. You could always try the local cafe for a monthly paid plan.
How is pervasive wireless high speed data changing the WiFi landscape? As EVDO Rev. A and HSDPA becomes available in more and more cities in the United States and around the world, will broadly deployed WiFi hotspots provide competitive coverage and speed to compete?
In this week's PodSession, 3G vs. WiFi, Om and I take a look at the current state of 3G wireless data technologies and WiFi rollouts in the United States. The podcast is 20 minutes in length, a 9 MB download.
Written by Om Malik and Niall Kennedy on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
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Today, SIPphone announced that Gizmo Project users will be able to call other Gizmo users for free in 60 countries. The free calling is not just Gizmo to Gizmo, but Gizmo to other Gizmo users from Gizmo to their mobile phones and landlines. We now have to ask ourselves, is this yet another milestone on [...]
Written by Russell Shaw on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on General and Providers and trends and Promotions.
Do you have plans to integrate VoIP to your other applications in your business and want to make the shift in an easy manner? You may have just got your wish with Nokia getting into VoIP integration in a big way.
Nokia’s VoIP plans are elaborate and the mobile communications giant aims to have phones available that can interoperate with any back end system yet are able to integrate with the VoIP infrastructure. Towards achieving this Nokia has come out with Intellisync integration software. Nokia feels that the availability of Intellisync will allow local enterprises to integrate many types of back-end applications, including those developed in-house, and make them available in the field.
According to General manager of Nokia's enterprise solutions, Vaughn Madeley, "With Intellisync we can provide an enterprise with push e-mail, [but] the IT managers' issues were about how to manage these devices and operating systems which Intellisync allows them to do. Adding the software also allows devices to be erased over the air. The next question was about being able to take back-office CRM systems and bringing them out on the road to devices."
There is demand: It is an undeniable fact that several service providers are moving towards mobile solutions or solutions on the move. Under those circumstances, it is only natural that companies bring out solutions to meet that requirement and the Nokia Inyellisync is a logical step in that direction.
Mobile solutions involves going beyond just Email and voice communications to CRM. It remains for both the organization making the switch and for the service providers to understand the business needs fully before they can come out with a working optimal solution.
Nokia's new E Series will ship out with the requisite client software pre-installed and the Intellisync server has to be purchased separately. According to Vaughn "As a dual-mode device, if you are running a VoIP environment at the end of this year you will be able to get a client that will allow you to step from a GSM to VoIP by switching manually and seamlessly, in the future.
Written by shiama on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
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Ergonomics is big if your a PC gamer, emailer, IMer, surfer or use the PC for anything else.
(There's nothing worse that tired hands, wrists, etc., when you've been at the keyboard all day, unless it's a tired brain, don't you think).
Well, Fellowes has carved out a niche for itself in this area with their excellent keyboard drawer line. They also make monitor, printer and telephone stands; keyboard arms; wrist supports; copyholders; and foot and back rests.
(This is their "workspace ergonomics" line -- but no reason it couldn' be called "funspace ergonomics" line, instead.)
Its Office Suites Deluxe Keyboard Drawer with Soft Touch Wrist Rest offers exceptional comfort and support -- and we've been through many other models that don't do either very well.
The keyboard tray is easy to customize and can be installed at three different heights for comfort or to clear other stuff under your desk -- like file cabinets. The mouse tray mounts on either the left of right side of keyboard tray and can be slid underneath it when not in use. (Less clutter on the desktop -- always a good idea!)
Other features include a gel-like wrist support which can be affixed to the front of the keyboard tray and ball-bearing glide tracks to keep the drawer sliding easily.
Suggested price: $55.00
www.fellowes.com
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
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So why do you blog? Why do you spend so much time writing away to make
- if you're lucky - a $1 a day? According to the latest
Pew Internet
survey, 77% of people blog to express themselves creatively rather
than for fame or fortune, while 7% of people blog to mostly make money.
Rather than focus on the 77% who blog simply because they can, I'm
curious about the 7% looking to put some cash in their jeans. These
people must be very optimistic or naive because the blogosphere is a
beast with plenty of content chasing far too few advertising dollars.
Sure, you can make a few bucks a day using Google AdSense if you're
really lucky or if you're really, really lucky and quite famous, John
Battelle might ask you to join his Federated Media empire. But for the
vast, vast majority (99.99%+), there's little or no money in blogging.
So why do it? Well, if you like to write and feel the need to express
an opinion, rant, provide insight, build your brand, learn or just talk about
the weather, the barriers are almost non-existent. So blog away. It
doesn't mean you'll be famous or make a fortune (let alone a $1 a day)
but as
Sheryl Crow sang "If it makes you happy, it can't be that bad".
For more on Pew and blogging for cash, check out
Publishing 2.0 and
Reuters.
Written by Mark Evans on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
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Not too surprised to see the recent CEA SmartBrief noting an article that appeared earlier this week in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (a fine newspaper).
Seems that according to a recent online study of parents, U.S. children start using such gadgets as video games, cellphones and portable music players by age 7 -- which is six months earlier than just a year ago.
While experts wonder if that is good in the long run, seems to me that kids are at gadgets at a much earlier age.
Take such very young child-friendly gadgets like LeapFrog's Leapster (pictured), which is targeted to three- to six-year olds, for example, not to mention even less sophisticated technology like Etch-A-Sketch.
If gadgets are technology and familiarity with technology is important to kids of all ages, then shouldn't kids be exposed to gadgets at a very early age?
To read what the experts are saying, check out the Journal-Constitution article at www.technewsworld.com.
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
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Just wanted to comment quickly on this space. I've been close to the session border controller (SBC) market from the beginning, and still feel an affinity for the vendors. It's not an established or clearly defined market segment, but we more or less know who the players are. There have been a couple of recent body blows to this space, and it's not getting a lot of attention from bloggers. So, for the record, I just want to draw attention to what's going on, as I believe it has wider implications for both vendors and the financial community.
Most recently - Monday - Juniper announced it was withdrawing its SBC offerings, which are based on their acquisiton of Kagoor last March. This was a well-received exit, as Kagoor got a decent valuation, and Juniper got a solution to give them a leg up on Cisco. Things were looking good for the other SBC vendors with similar exit aspirations.
Then we had Netrake's paltry acquisition by AudioCodes last week. Netrake had raised some $70 million, but wasn't coming up with the big wins to justify this kind of investment. Looks like the VCs had had enough, and AudioCodes probably got a good deal. They're continuing along the consolidation path, and if you ask me, are on their way to being in a league with Sonus, which not too many nextgen vendors get to. Tekelec also comes to mind - also via acquisition. In the present climate, it's becoming the norm for vendors to get big or go home. It's getting more difficult to remain small and independent, especially if you have aspirations of selling to Tier 2 carriers or higher.
Netrake may not have had much choice in taking the AudioCodes offer, and while it spares them a possibly worse fate, it's got to be cause for concern among those left standing in the SBC space. Way back, Jasomi got taken out by Ditech for a fairly small payout, and Netrake did not fare much better (but at least Jasomi was self funded, and nobody lost any money). And there's Newport Networks, who went public in the UK. They raised a lot of money - without any customers or revenues to speak of. Their valuation has gone down significantly since then (much worse than Vonage), and I really don't see things changing in a big way there.
So, on that level, the Netrake deal is a continuation of a scary trend that basically says the market doesn't value this space a whole lot. At the end of day, there's something to be said for exiting early like Kagoor. Translation - get out while the going's good.
That said - I still think the SBC segment has merit on its own, but it's looking like there may only be room for a couple of players. When I was at Frost & Sullivan, I wrote a report on this space when it was just getting hot, and concluded that the market for standalones would peak and then go down as exits and acquisitions occurred - and when vendors start integrating SBC functionality into other network elements. As it turns out - that's exactly what Juniper is doing with Kagoor. As I recall, my conclusions were not well received, at least by some vendors who felt the market had much more life in it. Well, I'd have to say those conclusions turned out to be very true - and if memory serves, a good year or two earlier than I had predicted. If I was Frost & Sullivan, I'd be thinking about re-issuing that report with an update!
So, this one-two knockout punch of Netrake and Kagoor basiclly leaves us with two strong SBC pureplays - Acme and NexTone. Yes, there are several other vendors who now offer SBC solutions and/or functionality, like MetaSwitch, Tekelec and Quintum - but these are not pureplays - SBC is not central to their business.
Acme and NextTone look to be the long-term winners in this space, which validates that there's room for both an integrated big box platform - Acme, and a dis-integrated solution like NexTone's. Both are doing well, and have fairly different customer sets. NexTone got a nice funding round last year, and look to be in good shape financially for some time to come. Acme, on the other hand, has not taken any rounds for almost 3 years, and have been able to sustain themselves nicely from organic growth.
Of the two, Acme should be the most worried in the wake of the Netrake and Kagoor news. The low valuation for Netrake can't be good news for Acme's recently announced IPO, especially with Vonage's dark cloud hanging over the IPO landscape for anyone in the IP communications space. That said, Acme is a healthier company, and deserves a successful IPO. I hope they get it, but geez, early in the game this market was an Acme vs. Netrake story for the Tier 1s. Clearly Acme is coming out on top, and for their sake, let's hope the market sees them in the same light.
In the name of transparency, I must state that NexTone is a current client of mine. However, they're not the only company I'm saying nice things about!
Technorati tags: Jon Arnold, VoIP
Written by Jon Arnold's Blog on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
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GoogleFi all mapped out! Niall alerted us to this map of Google’s Mountain View access points. Click on the link for interactive map complete with coverage holes, bound to make those unlucky residents mighty unhappy.
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
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A glimpse into the quiet success story of broadband-based game distribution
If you haven’t heard much about Steam, maybe it’s because of a lot folks on the business side of the game industry would rather it just went away. The brainchild of Valve Software, the game studio behind the mammothly popular Half-Life and Counterstrike action games, the Steam network is many things: a piracy prevention system, a patch and update network, a multiplayer hosting service, and above all, a game distribution platform for Valve and non-Valve games alike.
According to Valve Marketing Director Doug Lombardi, Steam was conceived out of necessity, after the company’s vain search for a 3rd party solution to support their games online. “[A]s online gaming grew,” Lombardi tells me, “it was obvious that things such as auto-updating and more sophisticated anti-cheat measures were going to be requirements.”
Failing to find that, they went out and built it themselves. After a notably shaky launch in 2002 (gamer message boards are rife with grumbling over that troubled beginning– but then, gamers are an easily outraged audience), Stream now boasts 8 million users, 5 million of whom, according to Lombardi, have logged in at least once in the last 30 days. (An impressive retention number, for gamers are also a fickle audience.)
Unsurprisingly, the pipes and servers needed to support this subscriber base are staggering, and Valve has partnered with a number of ISPs to do that, while supplying a garrison of servers around the globe. “All told, Steam gamers are generating more Internet traffic than all PC users in Italy combined,” says Lombardi. In the beginning the legal challenges were about as intense, with Valve locked in a lawsuit with its publisher Vivendi Universal Games over control of game distribution in Internet cafes. (A huge prize, since Valve’s Counterstrike titles remain, seven years after debut, the most popular online multiplayer game out there, with significant play in the Internet cafes of Europe and Asia.) Valve prevailed in 2004, and Steam now has an integrated “Cyber Cafe” service.
Last month, Valve released Half-Life 2: Episode One, the further adventures of taciturn hero Gordon Freeman and his lithe and spunky sidekick Alyx; it’s the most prominent example of “episodic content”, an industry buzzword a few years ago that’s largely fell off the radar since then– until Valve picked it up again with this. The inaugural episode is still a retail bestseller, and while Lombardi declines to give numbers sold via Steam, it’s worth noting that for the original Half-Life 2, which sold four million total units, an estimated 1 in 4 were bought and distributed over Steam. It’s safe to assume a similar ratio will obtain for the episodic version.
There’s been other successes, too– for example, the independently-produced Darwinia and Red Orchestra were languishing on retail shelves, say Lombardi, but made the studios behind both games profitable, when they came available on Steam. A weekend-long free download of another Steam-hosted game, Day of Defeat, even subsequently increased sales of the game at retail. “[I]t was interesting to find that an online promotion through an online service can drive sales across all channels,” Lobmardi notes.
In doing this, Valve has created a viable alternative to the aging department store, off-the-shelf distribution model, where profits to studios are paltry, after publishers and retailers have taken their cut. (If the studio can even secure a decent distribution deal at all, which they often can’t.) By contrast, consider the million downloads of Half-Life 2, sold through Steam at some $49.95 each, most of which (after expenses) went directly to Valve. It’s a mystery why other PC game developers haven’t tried this channel.
To be sure, it’s partly a matter of branding, with Valve beloved by gamers, and the Half-Life/Counterstrike franchises among the most popular of all time. But perhaps it’s also an unwillingness by the big publishers to invest for the long haul in broadband as a distribution channel. “[W]e’re starting to see some publishers experiement in this space,” Doug Lombardi observes, “but they’re approaching it without the experience of running online systems, and most publishers are not interested in committing resources to long-term engineering projects that carry a certain amount of risk.”
| The Steam Numbers |
| Total Steam Users |
8 million total, 5 million active (last 30 days) |
| Sales |
Unknown for Half-Life Two: Episode One |
| Half-Life 2 sales via Steam |
750,000 -1 million @ approx. $49.95 each |
Written by Wagner James Au on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
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Folks, time to introduce you to the newest member of the GigaOM writer pool, Wagner James Au who is going to cover online gaming and MMOGs for us. So who is this guy? Well, lets see… he is a San Francisco-based writer who has written about the culture and business side of games for nearly a decade for publications and online destinations such as Salon and Wired, and Kotaku, Gawker Media’s game site.
Oh he was also an embedded journalist inside Second Life, while working for Second Life creator, Linden Labs. He left Linden in Feburary to develop a book about his experiences there, and still writes about Second Life on his own blog, New World Notes. The funniest part of negotiating with James was that he wanted to call his column, which will track the business and hardware behind broadband
games for GigaOM - “Low Ping Bastard“.
In online games, that’s the name aggravated gamers give to the player with the fastest connection. Low ping means someone who gets the broadest spectrum of game data first, and uses it to maintain the competitive edge. And is, therefore, a bastard to everyone else behind the curve.
Being an old fashioned guy that I am, we have tabled that title, but if the community says its cool with that title, we can always bring it back. I think James is going to bring some valuable insights to our community for two reasons - as we move into the second phase of broadband, what I like to call, broadband as a platform, the focus is going to shift to applications that drive the need for speed.
Secondly, I haven’t got a clue about online gaming - I still think Tetris is cool. But my limitations should not be a reason that readers should miss out on insights into this new and fascinating aspect of broadband. I hope you all will welcome James to our little community, and give him the same feedback as you always have.
Written by Om Malik on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
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By now you've likely heard that a clone of the ultra-popular Skype VoIP
client was supposedly created by reverse engineering. Charlie Paglee, a
blogger and head of VoIP provider Vozin Communications stirred up the
Internet recently when he claimed a friend called him from China with
the supposed clone, a screenshot of which is posted at his VoIPWikiBlog.
Skype has denied the claim. Because Skype's system is proprietary, there is nothing officially
compatible with their soft client. Skype must have been sure that no
one would crack their code, though, because apparently, they never
patented their protocol.
Art Reisman thinks the Skype clone is unlikely
and gives a great explanation of why (via a discussion of encryption),
and why it doesn't matter. Even if a clone did exist, for Skype, a large-scale migration to clones would crash their network, but would not otherwise be a security risk.
Security
issues are more likely to occur in other components of VoIP systems,
such as the hardware or software switching mechanisms, particularly in PBXes (Private Branch eXchanges).
In fact, two flaws have just been patched in Asterisk, an open source VoIP PBX package. The flaws, were they not patched, could lead to DOS (denial-of-service) attacks, thus bringing down a business's VoIP phone system.
DOS
attacks have been used in the recent past to bring down websites for a
variety of reasons, including attempts to take the site over, or just
have mischievous fun. In the case of enterprise VoIP phone systems, the
purpose would be to inhibit a business' telephony functions. For some
businesses, that obviously means a temporary shutdown of operations.
A
DOS attack is usually accomplished by overloading a web server or, in
this case, a VoIP PBX. Version 1.2.10 of Asterisk PBX has fixed the
flaws in the IAX protocol that would have allowed DOS attacks.
Additional sources: [ZD Net UK, CIO Tech Informer]
Written by ewriter on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and Software and Security and Hardware.
Earthlink and Tropos might be looking to make millions off of muni wireless, but members of the open source community are hard at work trying to make wireless networking free. And they just got some funds to help their cause. Sascha Meinrath, of the Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network, CUWIN, just called me this morning to say his open source wireless mesh project received a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. Sascha says he plans to use the money to add staff, scour the globe for open source partners, and boost research and testing.
The organization had been applying to the NSF for 4 years now, and previously Sascha had been paying much of the research fees out of pocket–so the news is good for him on a lot of levels! A project like this could help make wireless broadband available for communities that can’t afford it and address the real digital divide. Not just recreate the economics of the traditional phone and cable operators with a slightly less monthly subscriber fee.
I thought maybe the NSF was starting to pay attention to an open source wireless project because of what wireless networking was shown to do in recovery efforts in Hurricane Katrina and the East Asian tsunami. Sascha said he wasn’t sure why the NSF approved them this time.
The open source code addresses the networking layer that improves the strength and reduces redundancies of the wireless signal. The code is in beta form and freely available on the organization’s web site. Making this technology freely available to anyone might make some companies with nice profits from wireless mesh, a tad unhappy. But the companies that are confident in their own technology probably won’t mind.
Sascha said he has also been talking to a few companies for partnerships. For example, he says possible partnerships could be wireless hand held device makers looking to test products over a test mesh network, that don’t want to pay a lot to use an already established network owned by a for-profit company.
Allan Leinwand, a partner at Panorama Capital, is an open source networking advocate and funded Vyatta the open source router company. He says a funding like this is really exciting for the open source network community, but that it’s also a big leap to turn a project into a widely used product.
The CUWIN project is really small, so whether the code will become popular is unclear. Sascha said his group started as “a bunch of geeks in my living room and grew to an international community.” Maybe these funds could help the technology follow suit.
Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Unwired and Wireless Broadband.
Apple’s iPod is not only the hottest consumer electronics device, but it is also one of the hottest chip design wins in the business, so much so, it can make or break companies. Portal Player went to the public markets on the strength of its partnership with Apple. The company had a little set-back when it was replaced by Samsung in iPod Nano. (Sigmatel provides chips for iPod shuffle.)
That is why the chip insiders are watching who will get designed into Apple’s next video iPod. The latest company said to be winning is Nvidia, which may get its chips designed at the expense of Broadcom Corp.
“Based on our analysis, we believe Nvidia is designed into the next-generation vPod socket at the expense of Broadcom,” Satya Chillara, an analyst with American Technology Research Inc. writes in a recent note. “We believe the Nvidia chip adds 3D graphics functionality in addition to all of the existing features (such as H.264) that Broadcom supported with the existing vPod.”
Written by Om Malik on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Apple.
Here are some of the stories you might be interested in from past two days… just in case you missed these.
Written by Om Malik on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
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For those that served in the military, there are at least two things you'll probably never forget: the lousy food and mail call. We don't have a solution for the lousy food, but we've got a terrific enhancement for mail call.
We've named it MailCall for Asterisk, and it joins dozens of other telephony applications named MailCall with one important difference. Ours is FREE! What do it do? Well, it reads your email messages to you over the telephone. All you have to do is dial up your Asterisk server from any touchtone telephone. Can it handle multiple email accounts? Absolutely.
Do the email accounts have to be on the Asterisk server? Nope. Does it work with POP3 and IMAP mail accounts? Yep. Which email messages can it speak? We've tried it successfully with messages from Yahoo, and HotMail, and Google Mail, and Comcast Mail, and RoadRunner, and Outlook Express, and Notes Mail, and Entourage.
And it works with plain text messages as well as those with attachments although it doesn't deal with the attachments. No, it can't tell you what kind of picture is lurking in your inbox. Maybe someday. If you happen to be running a current version of TrixBox, then deploying MailCall for Asterisk will take you about 15 minutes.
Click Here for the Full Nerd
Written by Dal on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Asterisk Help.
The Nortel/Microsoft story certainly made news yesterday, and it opens up a lot of possibilities for both companies.
In terms of what the deal means, I'm going to steer you to Alec Saunders's post from earlier this morning. Alec spent a lot of years in Redmond, and knows the company well, and I largely agree with his assessment, which is a thumbs up.
In short, Nortel doesn't have many partner options left, especially after Siemens made their deal with Nokia. So, they either team up with Cisco and "bulk up" like the other vendors, or try to stay in the game and compete as another big vendor. They have stated a preference to go it alone, but it's hard to see how they can really continue on this path. The remaining choices seem to come down to partnering with a handset vendor like Motorola (not going to happen), an IT company/systems integrator (like IBM), or a software company (like Microsoft). There are other options as well, like Huawei or Juniper, but it's all moot now. Of all these scenarios, I'd say they made the best choice.
I've participated in a few Microsoft things recently, so they've been in my thoughts quite a bit. The only thing I'd like to add to Alec's comments is to raise the question about who really needs who in this story. At face value, obviously Nortel needs Microsoft more. Aside from settling on a clear growth strategy, shareholders need to see Nortel making moves that give them confidence. In many ways, Microsoft fits the bill here, and it's often said that in the PBX world, the sooner the vendors realize they're in the software business and not the hardware business, the better their chances of survival will be.
That said, I'd like to look at the other side of the coin and note that despite Microsoft's size and market power, they have some bigger picture challenges ahead of them. The rise of browser-based platforms/Web 2.0 is presenting a genuine alternative to software-based platforms. The same, of course, goes for open source, which is disruptive on so many fronts. Last week, I was on a briefing for Windows Live, which is basically a browser-based version of Windows. It's pretty neat, and am sure is positioned to give Google, et al a good run for their money.
Then one has to consider the hardware side of the equation. The PC industry isn't doing so well, and even Dell is running into trouble. IBM made a great move to get out of the PC business with Lenovo, but were savvy enough to keep 20% just in case. And of course, IBM has been an early champion of open source, and one could argue they are closer to the leading edge of where operating systems are going than Microsoft. We all know that Microsoft has been late to the party with voice, and in the enterprise market, the move with Nortel makes sense in this regard. Nortel's voice legacy is really unmatched, so they bring a lot to the table with Microsoft.
So, despite the difference in size between these companies, my take is that both need each other in a big way.
Technorati tags: Nortel, Jon Arnold, VoIP, Alec Saunders, Microsoft
Written by Jon Arnold's Blog on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Vendors.
Atlanta-based ISP Earthlink has set September 1st as the day it will introduce a new wireless broadband service for the hard pressed city of New Orleans.
Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the city has been relying on a rigged 'mesh' WiFi network mounted on street lights providing free 512Kb bandwidth to the residents. However, this strategy fell foul of a Louisiana law lobbied for by Bell South, which prevented local authorities running any public network faster than 128Kbps.
The Earthlink WiFi mesh network will provide high-speed Internet access for residents, businesses and visitors within a 15 mile area of New Orleans.
EarthLink says it will offer a free service for a limited time during the city's rebuilding efforts at speeds up to 300Kbs, and users will be able to access the Internet without having to view advertising. The ISP will also move towards a 1Mb paid service costing $20 for customers that want more bandwidth and customer support.
It is thought that any rival service from Bell South would not prove to be profitable.
Source: PC Pro
Written by Dal on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
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A page that was accessible on Nintendo's Wii site revealed some information on the Wii WiFi (online).
Click Here for the Article
Written by Dal on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
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VoIP services have, unwittingly, sparked heated debate concerning security. Antivirus company MessageLabs recently predicted that VoIP hacking and viruses will be commonplace by mid 2007 sparking a new wave of concern for users, network operators and service providers alike.
For operators and service providers, delivering on the new services promised by IP-based networks and adding new ones to generate revenue presents critical security issues, similar to those encountered when deploying basic VoIP services or email. However, there are several architectural steps that can be taken in order to prevent such threats and maintain the safety of the network. From end-to-end encryption to the prevention of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, SPIT (Spam over internet telephony), and viruses, products such as session border controllers have been identified as a key factor in resolving security concerns.
Delivering SIP-based services on the public network brings with it several potential security issues. These issues must be understood by both users and service providers, however the burden is with the service provider to offer a secure and reliable service to the user. This means they must show that the service does not compromise existing security and that the user's public presence is protected and managed. Service providers must also secure their own networks from outside attacks and service abuse. SIP can suffer from viruses and denial of service attacks, which can take down an entire network, in the same way PCs and email do.
Thankfully for service operators, there are lessons that can be learned from earlier technology deployments, such as email, which can offer constructive pointers as to the potential security pitfalls of migrating to a next generation network (NGN).
Having seen the dotcom boom and bust and witnessed the faltering steps of 3G, the telecoms sector has to ensure it approaches these potential security problems in the most effective way possible in order to guarantee mass user take up of such services. How the industry tackles security issues in the short to mid-term will have a fundamental effect on how the new generation of multi-media services will be perceived by customers. Likewise, service providers must protect their own networks from service attacks to safeguard their swift and continuous operation which is crucial to return on investment (ROI).
Once voice and data is converged on the network, the voice systems immediately become vulnerable to many of the same kinds of attacks that we are used to seeing on the data side. For example, phones can suddenly become destinations for SPIT. Imagine all of those annoying and unsolicited email messages transformed into a constantly ringing phoneline or the constant bombardment of text messages. Service providers would be inundated with complaints fairly swiftly and, in terms of repercussions, this is the least they could hope for if they do not invest in building a resilient and secure architecture from day one.
More threatening, if not more frustrating than constant SPIT intrusions, IP phone systems can be vulnerable to hackers using denial of service attacks to bombard a network or, similar to data security's 'script-kiddies', programming a company's phones to call other businesses, effectively shutting down the second company's phone systems. It is also possible to spoof a phone's IP address in order to make calls that are billed back to a particular target, whether that be an individual or a company.
While there hasn't yet been a widely publicised attack on voice of the kind we have witnessed on data systems, as VoIP services become popular and the underlying technology becomes more readily available, attacks are likely to increase both in frequency and creativity.
Should a major attack of this kind occur the ramifications could be long lasting, and in many cases, dangerous. For example, imagine that a denial of service attack targeted an IP address, bombarding the network with SIP messages until it breaks down under the volume of information. Now, imagine that the specified target is a hospital or police network, left without access to mission-critical communications and unable to perform effectively. Operations will quickly grind to a halt, posing serious consequence for all involved.
Frost & Sullivan analyst Jon Arnold has predicted an even gloomier outlook, claiming that VoIP hackers could do a lot more than simply disrupt a network. He believes that hackers could potentially use holes in the network to clear funds from targets, charge calls back to a different IP address or use that address to buy products over the phone.
However, VoIP does not have to be all doom and gloom, there are measures which can be adopted by both users and service providers alike which can both control and eliminate such threats. Firewalls can, to a certain extent, resolve several of the threats, however they achieve this security by effectively not letting any unauthorised message through the firewall, drastically reducing the usefulness of VoIP calls.
After all, if the user is unable to take any calls from any address they have not previously authorised, what use is a VoIP service? Alternatively, a hole can be created in the firewall to allow messages in and out. While resolving the issues around inbound calls, this hole will effectively open up the IP address to the entire network, thereby reducing your security quite extensively. There is an alternative solution to this potential problem. Session border controllers (SBCs) are able to perform a similar role to a firewall but with added intelligence, enhancing the security of multimedia networks both in the access network and in the core.
In the access network, they hide a user's real address, providing a managed public address. This public address can be policed, minimising the opportunities for scanning and DOS attacks. SBCs permit access behind firewalls while maintaining its effectiveness. In the core, SBCs protect both the users and the network while also policing bandwidth and quality of service (QoS) abuse. A secure and dependable VoIP service brings with it benefits to users and providers alike. It will build user confidence and create dependable revenue for the service provider.
By addressing the basics from day one this security need not be complex or expensive. Without it, VoIP and multimedia services uptake could falter and prove themselves to be both costly and unpopular.
Written by Dal on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on VoIP News.
ZDNet writer Russell Shaw thinks that the recently announced Microsoft/ Nortel "unified communications" alliance is destined for failure, stating that Cisco is already doing the "Internet phone hardware-software integration thing."
In a similar vein, CNBC TV's Mad Money
host Jim Cramer pooh-poohed Nortel when a caller asked about their
shares during a "Lightning Round". Cramer felt that the alliance with
Microsoft was not going to make much difference to Nortel stock, but
did not elaborate.
Cramer also said nothing about Microsoft.
Shaw on the other hand said that they "don't have a clue what to do
with enterprise VoIP, and even less of an idea how to get into the
consumer VoIP business."
That made me chuckle, because that's
exactly what I'd been thinking. At least until Nortel CEO Mike
Zafirovski announced that teamup with Microsoft would generate $1
billion in extra revenues just for Nortel alone. And surely Microsoft's
other announcement, an alliance with Yahoo!
to make their respective VoIP-enabled IM (Instant Messaging) clients
compatible would address the consumer VoIP issue, at least in part.
Sorry
Russell. I agree that Microsoft has been directionless in VoIP, as you
put it, but I think they're at least trying. And Cramer, who I love
immensely as a TV host that fires up small investors and big alike, has
been to shown to be about 50-50 with his predictions. Surely a stock
that's currently trading around $2 is going to benefit from a billion
in extra revenue?
Written by ewriter on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Software and Business and Hardware.
The USD 2.6 billion dollar question Skype watchers often ask themselves has now been answered. Charlie Paglee, cofounder of Voice over IP startup Vozin Communications, is reporting on his blog that a company in China has successfully reverse engineered the Skype protocol.
"Today I received a call through Skype from a friend at a company in China, except he told me he was not using Skype to call me. His company has successfully reverse engineered the Skype protocol and he wanted to call me in the United States to see how it worked between physically distant IP addresses. We talked for a little over nine minutes before the call dropped. Then I called him back using my Skype and we spoke for another three minutes." Paglee said he participated in two Internet calls from the China-based unit, using the cloned version. The first call, he said, had a noticeable echo, but the second was clear.
Right now, Paglee writes, every computer with Skype installed on it can be used as a relay to carry data between two other computers when both of those computers are only allowed to make outgoing TCP calls. This means that very soon Skype users will have an alternative client which will not hijack their computer. This could eventually have a very negative effect on the Skype network if too many people choose not to act as Skype Super Nodes and the network starts to deteriorate.
Skype has issued a statement that there is no evidence of such reverse-engineering and that, even if true, such a clone would not have the feature set and reliability of Skype.
Written by Dal on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype.
If you're using VoIP and do not have a "real" phone number to go with
it, it may affect your ability to conduct banking or carry on the way
you would with a regular phone or cellphone. That's according to Nuno
from 21 Talks, who is quoting Brian Youngblood.
Youngblood's experience was that he called customer support at his bank using SkypeOut,
and because that person could not tell what number he was calling from,
they flagged his account. Unwittingly, he tried unsuccessfuly to pay
for lunch the next day with his ATM/ debit card. That's obviously a
good thing in terms of banking security, but also an unexpected
convenience. Not displaying a real phone number might become a problem
for some VoIP services.
Interestingly, I used Skype last night
to call my own cellphone and the display said the caller was "0123456".
Then I used Skype to call a buddy (one who has no voice mail and no
cell phone and never intends to get either) and his display said "long
distance - unknown caller". He's probably an extreme case, but seeing
"unknown caller", he would not have answered his phone. That's just the
way he is. In fact, the only reason he did answer was because I'd
called him from my cell a few minutes previous to let him know what I
was trying.
I had another experience yesterday with Skype, that
may or may not have been because of the "unknown caller" issue. I
called one of my website hosting providers - a very large, very
well-known hosting provider - to fix a tech issue in trying to sync an
existing web domain of mine with a newly purchased hosting plan.
The guy who answered didn't say anything about the audio quality of the call,
but he was unusually rude and short-tempered. I'm not big on their
atrociously confusing website or their customer service in general, and
I only called once before. That was from my cell phone, and it cost me
big because they do not have a 1-800 number (they are a budget host
after all).
The result was that I didn't get my issue resolved, and cannot do it via email. What could have been a good experience in customer support
most definitely was not. (Although I suppose it didn't help that I
didn't know the 4-digit pin on my account, which someone else normally
manages.) For now, though, I'll stick to email support and filling out
annoying, hard-to-find web forms with some companies, or use a regular
phone in situations like these.
Written by ewriter on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Skype and Security and Services.
The IPTV bet, in words of Fortune writer Stephanie Mehta is a “pipe dream” for the phone companies. She points to a survey by Accenture that says that only “4% of telecom, broadcasting and media executives think IPTV will generate significant revenue in the coming year.” That is a chilling statistic.
And it also explains the old-fashioned triple play packages the phone companies have started to push. AT&T for example is pushing a bundle of satellite TV, DSL and phone service it calls HomeZone for between $80 and $140 a month. (Good package actually if you can get the satellite dish up on your roof! Of course it is available only in San Antonio and Ohio, though more cities are two follow.)
It doesn’t have the latest or the greatest, but AT&T says more content will come from its partners like Yahoo soon. (Point to note - the new offering doesn’t have Akimbo packaged into its version of their service as yet. Akimbo functionality rolls out on Homezone in the fall software update. Akimbo, you might remember just got funding from AT&T)
BellSouth, which is in the process of being acquired by AT&T, is now offering a $99 a month voice, DSL and Direct TV package. Or you can swap the satellite TV service for Cingular Wireless. These two packages are part of a new reality for the phone companies which are losing customers to the cable providers quite rapidly. Despite the IPTV lip-service, they need to shore up the losses as quickly as possible.
Here is another reality check, also from Fortune article:
A separate Accenture survey of 6,000 consumers worldwide asked respondents if they knew what “IPTV” was. Some 4% said they thought IPTV was a reality television show.
Written by Om Malik on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Wired.
Here's an intriguing idea:
GigaOm is encouraging Google to buy Vancouver-based
Lion's Gate Entertainment, the leading indepedent movie studio outside of Hollywood. Why. It's based on the idea Google needs distribution rights for movies and television for its up and coming
video service. For only $950-million (chump change for Google), GigaOm says the search engine giant could snap up Lion's Gate, which has a 5,500-title library featuring films such as
“The Blair Witch
Project†and
“Crashâ€, and the hit TV show,
“Weedsâ€. Lion's Gate would give Google a large library and, as important, some bargaining clout with other video producers and distributors. After all, it's easier to trade when you've got something other people want, right?.
One of the many fascinating things about Google-watching is speculating on its next move. With billions in the bank and a
$122-billion market cap, Google can buy or do anything it wants. Lion's Gate would be an interesting strategic foray to enhance its video strategy. If you want to be really extreme and truly speculative about Google's video plans, maybe Google should buy YouTube and/or Tivo and/or Sling Media. Think of the what any or all of those moves would mean. A Google-YouTube deal, for example, would be truly fascinating. Google's power infrastructure could help YouTube address its growing distribution issues (
100M video downloads a day has a strange way of making life more complicated), while YouTube could give Google lots of video content to enhance Google Video. The possibilities are endless.
Written by Mark Evans on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Google and tv and Main Page and Media.
A few months ago, a dinner companion informed me that Google was in Hollywood trying to secure exclusive distribution rights to films and TV. Intrigued, I poked around with some folks-in-the-know and, sure enough, Google is wheeling-n-dealing for exclusives. That being the case, I have a suggestion for Google. Go all out and acquire an actual movie/TV studio… and the one to go after is Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.
Lions Gate is one of the last remaining independent studios in Hollywood and a deal would be relatively inexpensive for Google… LGF’s market cap currently stands at approximately $950 million, which is about the same as its annual revenues. Its vast library includes more than 5,500 film and TV titles, including the viral-hit “The Blair Witch Project”, last year’s Oscar-winner “Crash”, and Showtime cable channel’s hit show “Weeds”.
Google should acquire LGF with the direct intention of disrupting the Hollywood business model at every level. For instance, it should go through the arduous process of renegotiating, and securing, full digital distribution rights for all the titles in the library, making them exclusively available via Google Video. (It seems to be working for Apple, so why not Google!)
Consumers should be given the choice to either pay to download & own, or to stream it free with ads. And the pay option should be priced substantially below existing home video/DVD alternatives (e.g. $3.00 for sell-through/ownership), to reflect the lower cost basis of digital distribution. Moreover, if the consumer buys the title, they should be able to do whatever they want with it for personal use… burn it to DVD, copy it to an unlimited number of machines, etc. In other words, no DRM (or one that is far less restrictive than anything out in the market).
The market window has finally arrived for digital distribution for film and TV products, and Google has the opportunity to leap-frog all competitors by packaging a service that gives consumers what they want. All other efforts recently announced (which deals I won’t name) are all sub-standard and user-unfriendly… the terms of nearly every service reflect the fear and hostility that Hollywood harbors for digital media distribution. By buying and operating its own studio and library, Google can pursue a path free of the legacy barriers that prevent all the others from being able to offer the market a solution with massive consumer appeal.
Google should also go into this with the full expectation that it will upset existing media distribution channels, particular for theatrical exhibition and DVD sales (e.g. Wal-Mart). Consequently, Google should prepare for the fallout… little to no theatrical support for new releases, a material decline in DVD revenues of library products, etc. But that’s OK… in fact, that’s the point. Google should set aside the old metrics and establish new parameters for success. You don’t win in Hollywood by making friends and convincing them to change their ways… you win by changing the game and out-flanking the incumbents.
The fact is that Hollywood will continue to fear Google no matter how lightly it treads. Given that, Google might as well throw out its sheepish disguise and act openly like the wolf that it is. Acquiring Lions Gate is probably the most efficient way to make a substantive, bold move without taking on too much risk. And if millions of consumers start to rely on them as a viable alternative for film and TV products, Google will not only have disrupted Hollywood, it will lead it into the future.
After all, Rupert Murdoch acquired his way into the Internet and installed himself as the first “social media mogul”. So why shouldn’t Google buy its way into Hollywood and go after the emperor’s throne?
Photo via Flickr with many thanks to Nice Cup of tea
Robert Young is a serial entrepreneur who played a major role in the invention & commercialization of the world’s first consumer ISP, Internet advertising (pay-per-click ads), free email, and digital media superdistribution.
Written by Robert Young on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Google and Apple and Online Video.
It's the ultimate mobile showdown these days: the
Motorola "Q" vs. the
Blackberry 8700. I've been using both recently - and the hands down winner is the 8700. Perhaps the decision has to do with the fact I've been using a Blackberry for a couple of years, but the Blackberry is still a user-friendly device that simply works well. The "Q", however, suffers from trying to carve out a niche by being all things to all people. There are so many features that none of them stand out. It is particularly frustrating to select an application, and then have to wait and wait for it to launch. And to make matters worse, there doesn't appear to be an escape button to quickly bail on the process. Meanwhile, the 8700 chugs along doing a couple things well (e-mail and voice). The 8700 has a colour screen and a new keyboard but it's still not sexy. It does work and that's what matters. For ahead to head review, check out
Blackberry Cool.
Written by Mark Evans on July 19th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Wireless and Main Page and Research in Motion.
