Airing Om’s Dirty Laundry

Written by Skype Journal on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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Endeavor-Vonage deal will help the VoIP order FUD factor

Atlanta-based Endeavor Telecom is one of those vendors that furnish wholesale services to telephony providers.We're talking field service support as well as Tier 1 and Tier 2 phone help.Earlier this week at Fall VON in Boston, Endeavor execs sounded like they could not wait for the formal announcement that they are providing professional installation services [...]

Written by Russell Shaw on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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SIPconnect release a big step forward in ensuring VoIP quality

At Fall VON in Boston, the SIP Forum took what I believe to be a big step in the advancement of the SIP protocol by releasing SIPconnect.SIPconnect, the Forum explains, stipulates detained instructions and architecture-related specs necessary for delivery of consistent quality-of-service and low cost SIP-based VoIP calls.The functionalities in the SIPconnect draft encompasses SIP [...]

Written by Russell Shaw on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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Wireless is Not Cordless… A Solution for Howard’s Parents (and Yours Too) …

Written by Skype Journal on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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Skype for Mac 1.5 Gold and 2.0 Beta with Video

Written by Skype Journal on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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Not the Time to Move Beyond Skype WiFi Phones - a Letter to Jim Courtney

Written by Skype Journal on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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Viagra and Lingerie Mice for your PC

So you wanna get your hands on some Viagra do ya? Perhaps even get your hands on some sexy lingerie. Well, I can help you get your hands on either one of these for about 29.90 EURO. Of course, technically you will only be able to use one hand on either of these items. Keep the sick jokes to yourself please...

Pat Says Now (weird name) has some creative computer mice that were designed to look like a voluptuous women's body wearing lingerie, a Viagra pill, as well as several other interesting designs, including a velvet heart, a doggy mouse, a leopard print mouse, and more. While these mouse designs are certainly eye-catching and artistic, I'm thinking you may want to show some "discretion" before buying some of these sexually-charged mice and bringing them to work. See the full mouse lineup.

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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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News Corp To Mobile: You Need Us

CTIA, Los Angeles: News Corp’s COO Peter Chernin is certainly getting a lot of attention this week after emphasizing MySpace’s weight in the web 2.0 world. This morning, however, he was concentrating on Mobile as part of his keynote at the CTIA wireless convention in Los Angeles.

Chernin talked a bit about News Corp’s recent purchase of a controlling share of mobile company Jamba and how bullish the company is on mobile as an entertainment medium, but his most interesting comments dealt with the harsher realities of the mobile content business in the U.S. Finding mobile entertainment on cell phones is basically a joke right now, he said, adding some reality to the mobile lovefest going on in the convention hall.

His perspective coming from the entertainment industry: we’re selling something no one really needs so companies have to work hard and figure out a better way of making people want that content.

News Corp’s wireless push will likely be good for more than just the company’s bottom line. The mobile content ecosystem in the U.S. needs a heavy weight like News Corp to counter balance the carrier-centric system. And of course Chernin had a few ideas on how to improve it: The industry needs better and more simple business models, more attractive marketing, much easier ways to find the content on or off phones, as well as more standardization between handsets, Chernin says.

Any consumer who has tried to download ringtones or mobile games, would heartily agree. I test this stuff for a living and sometimes being able to just access and find the content is like pulling teeth. What do you think? Any mobile entertainment experiences you’d care to share?

Written by Katie Fehrenbacher on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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Google and GigaBeam deploys WiFiber

 

Ron Sege, President and CEO of Tropos Networks, said, "We are excited to be working with GigaBeam, the global leader in 70-80 GHz technology. Their 1 Gbps WiFiber throughput substantially increases the capacity of a WiFi mesh network, enabling service providers to deliver multi-megabit services and support bandwidth intensive applications for a very large number of subscribers on a metro scale. Also, being a wireless solution, it can be deployed faster, more economically and to more locations than terrestrial fiber. We look forward to working with GigaBeam to deliver fiber-grade connectivity to our customers' MetroMesh networks worldwide."

Lou Slaughter, GigaBeam's Chairman and CEO, stated, "We are delighted to be a preferred partner of Tropos, the leading provider of meshed WiFi networks in the US and globally. Our current WiFiber product, offering 1 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) transport and backhaul, ensures robust network integrity in any meshed network. Unlike lower speed microwave technologies, our higher speed technology is more suitable for carrying and distributing data, VoIP and video capacity across WiFi networks. We and Tropos have found that to be precisely the case in the Mountain View network, where the addition of our WiFiber product substantially improved the capacity of the overall meshed WiFi network. We look forward to working with Tropos in the US and globally."

GigaBeam WiFiber products operate in the 71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz radio spectrum bands. This portion of the radio frequency spectrum has been authorized by the Federal Communications Commission for wireless point-to-point commercial use. Use of these frequency bands for commercial use was pioneered by GigaBeam's founders.

GigaBeam's technology, utilizing these large blocks of authorized contiguous spectrum, enables multi-Gigabit-per-second communications through use of Gigabit Ethernet and other standard protocols. The current speed achieved by GigaBeam's WiFiber G-1.25 product series is full duplex at one Gigabit-per-second (equivalent to 647 T1 lines or 1,000 DSL connections) which supports GigE protocol. GigaBeam recently announced its WiFiber G-2.7 series, to be released this year, which will operate at 2.7 Gbps. The protocols to be supported by the G-2.7 product series include 2 x GigE (2 x 1 Gbps); OC-48 / STM-16 (2.488 Gbps); SMPTE 292M (1.485 Gbps) and both 1 and 2 Gbps fiber channel. GigaBeam also plans deployment of future products capable of 10 Gigabits-per-second utilizing either the 10 Gigabit Ethernet or OC-192 protocol standards.

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Written by Dal on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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Sorry, could you repeat that?

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Trango Powered Backhaul Selected for Pittsburgh’s Downtown Wi-Fi Network

Trango Broadband Wireless, an industry leader in high-performance wireless products and backhaul solutions, announced today that U.S. Wireless Online, one of the nation's largest wireless Internet broadband network providers, selected Trango to power the backhaul for Pittsburgh's Downtown Wi-Fi Network.

 

The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership (PDP) commissioned U.S. Wireless Online to deploy the Wi-Fi network in order to provide free outdoor wireless access in the Central Business District. In addition, the Wi-Fi network will provide nearby municipalities with secure service for critical communications for public safety entities. "Trango Broadband Wireless has been an infrastructure partner of U.S. Wireless Online for some time now," said Tim Pisula, EVP & CTO of U.S. Wireless Online.

"Their product suite represents a significant value for us as it delivers -- day in and day out -- consistent carrier-grade performance whose operational cost of ownership is tough to beat." The Trango products used for this project were the Access5830 Access Point, the Atlas Fox Subscriber Unit, and the Atlas 5010 Point-to-point System, known for exceptional performance and reliability, offering features that continue to out-perform the competition for "last-mile" and backhaul connectivity. 

"We have found significant success using Trango wireless radios to power muni-wifi applications similar to Pittsburgh's Downtown Wi-Fi Network. Our ability to provide high-capacity 45 Mbps constant throughput and our proven reliability in the field makes Trango the vendor of choice for powering up muni-wifi mesh networks," said John Seaman, Director of Sales at Trango Broadband Wireless. "We are pleased that US Wireless has chosen Trango for the Pittsburgh project and we look forward to supporting them in any way possible."

Written by Dal on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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How SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) Works

Note:  Nice little article explaining SIP in a basic sense.  Informative Read

Have you ever wondered why long distance calls cost so much? In part the reason is because telephone lines cost so much. When driving, you might occasionally see a telephone crew maintaining a telephone line, but what you may have never considered is that there are literally thousands of individuals working around the clock to maintain our telephone lines.

 

The telephony system works via a cog and wheel setup. What this means is that every long distance call you make is routed along a telephone wire to a central station, where your voice is routed to another central station, which is finally carried to the person with whom you are trying to communicate. For the call to be maintained, the entire time you are speaking, a space along all the lines in between you and the person you are talking with must be completely devoted to you. Because millions of people are talking at the same time, the little space along the telephone lines becomes rather desired property. And like all things desired, the price is high. Before recent innovations, however, there were no alternatives, so everyone grudgingly paid the often costly long-distance telephone bill.

SIP, or Session Initiation Protocol, has turned the telephony world upside down. Specifically, SIP refers to a protocol that allows computers to talk to each other without going through a central station. Practically, what that means for you and me is that it is no longer necessary to pay for expensive telephone lines to complete our calls. SIP technology is a relatively new development in which calls are made on a peer-to-peer rather than cog and wheel network. What that means, is that you are now able to call people directly from your SIP enabled phone to theirs. This ends up being radically cheaper than the old way of calling.

The SIP system does not require a central computer and operators like the old telephony system did. Rather, your computer, or SIP enabled phone, does all the routing for you.

SIP has been around for a number of years, but only recently has it begun to go mainstream and take off in popularity. This quick increase in interest over SIP is due to companies like Mobalex, who were aware of the fact that over the generations we have come to expect certain tones, buttons, and protocols from our phones. So what they have done is to transpose those functions onto the SIP system. Rather than forcing users to communicate in a completely new way, what these companies have done is to provide a calling experience which from the user’s perspective is completely identical to traditional telephony.

SIP is typically offered in two formats, computer based and hardware based. Computer based SIP is a system that allows you to make calls using your computer as the router and communicating via a headset on your computer. The more practical and popular version, however, actually provides you with new SIP enabled telephone handsets or converts your existing phones to SIP. By eliminating any technical requirements, modern SIP providers have made using the system as easy, or easier, than using a traditional phone. I say easier, because many companies are able to take advantage of the fact that the system is internet based to provide you with some very unique benefits. These include the ability to adjust your plan, change your calling options, and even pay your bill from the same website.

SIP technology is quite revolutionary in the world of communication. By creating a peer-to-peer network, SIP has been able to radically undercut the prices of traditional telephony, take advantage of the Internet, and still maintain the ease of traditional telephony. It is merely a matter of time before we are all using SIP for all of our telephoning needs.

Source: Click Here 

 

Written by Dal on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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Crucial’s Got Flash (Memory) & Much More: 10 Years After

Memory companies hold a funny place in the world of gadgets -- they provide an essential component to PDAs, MP3 players, smart phones, digital cameras and the like -- yet they are essentially invisible.

And while branding does play a role in consumer's purchasing decisions in this area, very often price is the determining factor when faced with competing products in clam shell cases hanging from retailers' display racks.

All this leads to a note about Crucial Technology celebrating its tenth anniversary this year. 

The Crucial story starts with Micron Technology, one of the largest dynamic random access memory (DRAM) manufacturers in the world and the only one based in the U.S.

Headquartered in Boise, ID (yes, that is true), Micron manufactures DRAM chips and assembles them into memory modules for sale to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) worldwide. And they have been doing it for more than 25 years.

When Micron asked, well, what about the end user? What about the everyday folks who want to upgrade their existing systems with OEM-quality memory -- the home desktop user, the IT network guy, the student notebook user?

To make a long story short, Crucial Technology was born in 1996 (September to be specific -- so it really is 10 years to the month!) to take this memory to consumers with factory-direct pricing.

Obviously, 10 years in the memory business underscores that they must be doing something right.

So, if you're not familiar with Crucial, take a look at www.crucial.com.

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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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Free phone calls on your Blackberry

Want to make free phone calls from your Blackberry? Well, there is now a piece of software called BBCalls (Blackberry Calls) that when used in conjunction with Jajah, grants you your "free phone calling wish".

Jajah announced back in June free phone-to-phone calls to almost anywhere. The JAJAH Free Global Calling Plan applies to both landline and mobile phones to many of the most-called places in the world.  

JAHJAH uses a unique method of initiating the call. You go to a website, enter in your phone number and the number you wish to dial and JAHJAH dials both legs of the call and connects the two. Free calls from your Blackberry? Sweeet...


Hat tip to BlackberryInsight

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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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LumenVox Speech Recognition Engine for Asterisk

Asterisk Business Edition will now be including [Asterisk VoIP News] the Speech Starter Kit and Speech Engine from LumenVox at no extra cost. Or you can get the Kit and Engine for US$245 if you're an Asterisk open source community member. Speech processing solutions can be built over the Speech Starter Kit. (LumenVox also has a number of other voice processing packages, including Speech Tuner and Speech Assistant. Their Speech Engine received a Best of Show award at TMC's Internet Telephony Conference earlier this year.)

This is good news for anyone wanting to build advanced voice data applications for VoIP systems using Asterisk, based on the open source VoIP standard, SIP. In fact, this Speech Engine could spur the development of inexpensive voice-triggered CRM (Customer Relationship Management) applications for SMBs and even SOHOs, not to mention enterprises. And now that Pika Technologies just built a seamless integration package for Skype and Asterisk for enterprise use, I can see some pretty sophisticated VoIP call center solutions being created as well. Call Center/ IVR and CRM in a box anyone?

By the way, you can try out the IVR demo for ordering a pizza or checking the weather. Neither my SkypeOut call nor a call from a cordless phone seemed to register too well, but the "woman" for the pizza demo is pretty darn funny. So since she psychically knows where I live, I should be getting a gigantic pizza in about a half hour.

Written by ewriter on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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Bad News Is Good For Second Life

Donald Trump had it right - there is no such thing as bad publicity. Second Life, the cultish online virtual world, which came under heavy flak after a security breach exposed data about Second Life citizens, saw a 300% spike in its total user base. SL demographitrix Tateru Nino crunched the numbers and came up with some startling conclusions.

And then we begin to rise. That number on the right there for the 11th of September is a whopping 16,610. Second Life’s highest daily signup rate to date was 6,444. (Average is 5,471.) That’s two and a half times the previous record.

Well, Linden Labs couldn’t have predicted that!

Written by Om Malik on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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What Happened to the Apple Cell Phone?

Of course we are all very excited about all of Apple's announcements yesterday, like iTunes 7.0, its movie downloads and ways to get them from the computer to the TV, but where's the Apple cell phone?

If you remember "I want my MTV" from the early days of the music video channel, then it's time to pick up a new slogan -- "I want my Apple cell phone."

(Or is it "I want my iPhone"?).

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Tags: apple, iphone, itunes 7.0, mtv
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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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Finally: Skype Video Calling For Macs

Mac Skype users who have been salivating over the video-calling that PC users have had for a while can wipe their drool. Skype just released Skype Mac 2.0 beta. You need "OS X v10.3.9 Panther or newer, a G4, G5, or Intel processor running at 800 Mhz or faster, 512 Mb RAM, 40 MB free disk space" and of course, an Internet connection.

Video display can be within a Skype window or full-screen. (Hey! Do PC Skype users get that?!) You also get to see yourself in a separate window, in case you have a piece of chive in your teeth or pizza sauce all over your the front of your shirt. (Unless of course, you want it that way.) Don't forget the niceties of video calling, especially in a video-conference.

Apparently, Skype also released Skype for Mac OS X 1.5 Gold, but I see nothing about it or 2.0 on the Mac OS X download page. Sightspeed, by the way, has had video-calling for Macs for quite some time.

Written by ewriter on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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Toronto Film Festival Movies Online?

If you didn't know it already, the Toronto International Film Festival is now going on - and it seems the entire city has a really bad case of celebrity-itis. (evidence: Brad Pitt press conference/love-in) In the Before Children (BC) era, my wife and I used to see a handful of films, most of which never appeared at movies theatres let alone the local Blockbuster. These days, I'm lucky to see one film (usually the Rogers Gala - this year it was "Penelope"). Given there are so many great films at the festival, wouldn't it be great if you could access them on the Web after the festival is over? Putting aside all those tricky technical, distribution and copyright issues, it would give a much wider audience the opportunity to see movies, and provide film makers/distributors with another source of revenue. This idea seems like such a win-win, no-brainer that I'm surprised it hasn't been explored earlier. And with Apple planning to offer movie downloads via iTunes, it's an idea whose time has come. (For Steve Jobs fans, check out Om Malik's post: "Is Steve Jobs Bill Gates 2.0?").

Written by Mark Evans on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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Free Avaya VoIP Security For Dummies eBook

Jupiter Web is giving away free copies of the Avaya edition of VoIP Security for Dummies eBook (PDF, 68 pages) in consideration for people joining the Avaya developer community. The link was sent to me in a regular Jupiter Web email, so I cannot guarantee you'll be able to use it, but I don't see why not.

The ebook is pretty "dummy-ish", in the sense that they've simplied a wide range of IP telephony security issues and summed each of them up in a few short paragraphs. It even mentions privacy issues such as CALEA (Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Agencies) and a number of US govt regulations that add up to considering why you should record VoIP calls in your company.

This is certainly not a book you would use to actually implement VoIP security measures, but it's not a bad place to start if you feel you don't know enough about the issues, or don't know where to start reading about them. (The book is of course geared towards discussing Avaya solutions, so it's not exactly vendor-neutral.) You can sign up free (just your name, email, and job function) at this Jupiter Web page and download your copy.

Written by ewriter on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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What neutrality giveth…

Written by Skype Journal on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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Skype for Mac 2.0 has video!

Just received word that Skype for Mac 2.0 beta now has video. Mac users have been clamoring for this video feature that PC users have been enjoying for some time. So Mac users, rejoice!

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Written by VoIP & Gadgets Blog on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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MySpace: Arrogant or Confident?

News Corp. must be feeling pretty chuffed about its prescient acquisition of MySpace last year. How else to judge a here's-the-facts-ma'am statement from News Corp. chief operating officer Peter Chernin, who said at an industry conference Tuesday that MySpace may be looking at creating a YouTube-like service. (Source: Multichannel News)

“If you look at virtually any Web 2.0 application, whether its YouTube, whether it’s Flicker, whether it’s Photobucket or any of the next-generation Web applications, almost all of them are really driven off the back of MySpace,” he said. â€œThere’s no reason why we can’t build a parallel business.”

There are a couple ways to judge Chernin's statement. One is misplaced arrogance: sure, MySpace has more than 100 million members but we're talking about fickle people who will jump on the next hot social networking service in a flash. Some smart polling company should spend some time on a university campus to talk about MySpace. They may come away with some surprising data that suggest MySpace's momentum is slowing down. It is also possible Chernin and News Corp. realize MySpace has become one of the Web 2.0 platforms so it's doing nothing more than floating a trial balloon about a video service much like it casually tossed out the idea of a MySpace magazine last month. MySpace's growing membership and clout may give it the power to pursue a variety of strategic options.

For more thoughts on MySpace, check out Peter Cashmore, who talks about how there is already a MySpace ecosystem of add-on services that may fall by the wayside if MySpace decides to imitate them. In some ways, Peter's post reminds me of Skype vs. its third-party developers. Skype has flourished because there is a fertile add-on environment that makes Skype that much more useful. The problem, however, is when Skype (or MySpace, for that matter) looks at third-party services making money and decides to get into the market themselves. Rick Segal, meanwhile, thinks MySpace is "brilliant" as it drives to create the new AOL. Rob Hyndman and Mathew Ingram also weigh in.

Written by Mark Evans on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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WhoseSpace is MySpace

Peter Chernin, Chief Operating Officer of News Corp., according to Multichannel News dropped the proverbial hammer on those who he sees are leaching off the MySpace ecosystem.

“If you look at virtually any Web 2.0 application, whether its YouTube, whether it’s Flickr, whether it’s Photobucket or any of the next-generation Web applications, almost all of them are really driven off the back of MySpace.”

There is a good chance, a lot he said was left on the cutting floor, but if (and only if) he means what he says, then all those tiny start ups that are betting the farm on MySpace economy better watchout.

Regardless of what happens, it is important to point out that MySpace is neither DirecTV nor BSkyB. Instead it is MySpace, somewhat hard to describe, and perhaps that is why we channel Robert Young, who so eloquently wrote an essay called, Inherent Truths and Value of Community, back in September 2005.

So as time goes by, the foundation of ownership and control for content and distribution is increasingly shifting from corporate entities to people and communities. A phenomenon that will cause countless sleepless nights for old media and old-line technology leaders who don’t fully comprehend the significance of the dynamics at hand.

The utility of MySpace is that it is more than a social network. It is a platform, which puts users in charge of taking and assembling their pages, regardless of where the content comes from. It became one, just because it did not care what and how people put their MySpace pages together. Wild wild web? Sure, but millions saw it as the page they started their day, and spent most of their time on it.

In other words, MySpace is an “attention page” not a portal page. For millions of users, MySpace is their most important page, the one that has all their attention. That attention is why MySpace accounted for 10.8% of Google’s search traffic, and the reason why News Corp subsidiary, Fox Interactive Media was able to craft $900 million deal with the search engine giant.

News Corp should be doing its best to grab more of this attention, and figuring out how to make money in the process. Google deal was a good start, and they need to figure out a “developer” plan to make money, not come in the way of those who create widgets to put on MySpace pages, or the actual MySpace community.

This is something we have talked about in the past, in our podsessions. Glad to see our friends at Techcrunch are carrying on the crusade. I’ll let others chime in… it is late, and time to get some shuteye.

Written by Om Malik on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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Level 3 Goes Web 2.0 with You Tube

A few weeks ago, Level 3 had announced that it had snagged MySpace as a customer. Today the company announced that it has signed up YouTube as a customer. YouTube is going to buy 10 gigabit/second connections from Level 3 to build out a nationwide backbone. What is this? A Web 2.0 makeover?

I guess they need all that bandwidth, up until the point they can find someone else to pay the bills. The company claims that it serves 100 million videos per day, and more than 65,000 videos uploaded everyday. According to Nielsen NetRatings, YouTube has nearly 20M unique users per month.

Still, these kind of Web-meets-telecom press releases make me queasy, and remind me of another time and place when Qwest and its ilk would tout applications on demand. (Funny, AT&T bought a former Q partner USinternetworking for about $300 million in cash and assumed debt.)

Anyway back to Level 3 and Web 2.0. The trick would be to get Jim Crowe to blog, where he can mouth off about people and things he doesn’t much care about. Like George Gilder or SEC? Or author of Broadbandits .

Written by Om Malik on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
Read more articles on Media and Startups and Broadband.

Which iPod will you buy next?

The showtime has come and gone. Some of us are happy with the announcements, while others are unimpressed. Still, Apple refreshed its iPod line-up ahead of the all important Holiday season. The question, however, is that will you spend dollars on any of these new shiny devices.

Written by Om Malik on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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What’s New Today

Okay so everyone was busy watching Steve Jobs, but that doesn’t mean nothing else happened around the techworld. Here is a list of some important events that caught our eye.

1. Personal Bee launched an updated version of its service, and it is sleek, useful and worth giving a second shot. Lots of new features. The meMeme seekers pay attention. It is faster too. Check out the GigaOM Bee.

2. Mobissimo, a travel search engine launched a Netvibes module allows travellers to search hundreds of different global travel suppliers directly on their Netvibes personal start page. Its’ a widget world.

3. Rumors about CounterPath snagging a big fish turned out to be true. The softphone maker signed a deal with AT&T, which means one less reason to stick with Vonage.

4. Xconnect and iPeerX hooked up, which means another rumor confirmed. Though they don’t have much mindshare, XConnect could be a consolidator in the VoIP peering space.

5. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it is the mythical Netgear Skype wifi phone, which has had more publicity than Paris Hilton. It will finally start shipping sometime… this week or in the near future, depending on where you live.

6. Niall tips us off on Showcase, a new photo hosting service from Adobe. Okay this one actually makes sense, since Adobe does have something to do with digital photography. Is this a private label service, or did they put it all together?

And in case you were wondering, we are going to keep September 13th and 14th as Apple free days on GigaOM.

Written by Om Malik on September 13th, 2006 with no comments.
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