VoIP Now

VoIPing For Profit - Skype Prime?

Skype once more releases a feature, Skype Prime [via], that's in direction competition with their developer community. While it's a very exciting feature - which allows you to bill for a Skype-to-Skype call - Skype is once more suggesting that you shouldn't even bother developing anything because they'll just take the idea or partner with someone else.

Then again, Jyve, Bitwine and other similar Extras are completely safe because Skype is charging an absurd 30% of whatever you charge your callers. As one commenter at the Skype Share blog says, isn't 30% a bit excessive. Someone charging $100/h would end up paying Skype $30/h for a call that is otherwise free.

Someone from the eBay side of things must have a plan to make Skype a laughingstock. I can't see Friis and Zenstrom's original team behaving like this. Something like 5-10% is reasonable. There's also Ether, by the way, which you can use Skype with.

New VoIP Soft Client Releases

Where does the time go? SightSpeed just released version 6.0, and Gizmo Project 3.0 is  out.

New SightSpeed features include a new interface, better video quality regardless of connection speed, video mail playback and more.

Gizmo Project is now compatible with Yahoo Messenger and Windows Live Messenger. Calls to these to from Gizmo are free. Other new features include group chat, file sharing, custom avatars, tabbed chat interface for multiple chats, logging, Asterisk PBX support, a SIP number, SIP adapters, "call in" access numbers, and call recording.

No doubt we'll see releases for other softphones soon, and probably whole slew of consumer VoIP hardware. Or maybe collaborations that bring soft clients such as Google Talk to desk phones.

Voicemail-to-Text Application For Skype

SimulScribe's voice transcription services, which are already available for US mobile phone users, are now available for Skype users. SimulScribe is currently offering a one week free trial. Subscribers to the service will have their Skype voicemail messages transcribed using proprietary algorithms, then delivered via email or SMS text messages.

I'm wondering whether a service like this can last for long. While speech to text applications still have a ways to go, with more powerful computers coming, such ability could become native on a computer. In which case SimulScribe would become unecessary.

For that reason, I hope that their game plan is to develop an Extra for Skype, but not release it immediately. There's no reason they cannot charge for an Extra/ addon, like HotRecorder does, provided their application does far more than a similar freebie.

What's With Skype - Reprise

Skype is becoming more of a mystery in the way they do things. I'm still waiting for an answer about why I was sent a mysterious email about my "transaction not being completed". This was nearly two weeks after I purchased their North American SkypeOut promo package for US$14.95 (now $29.95). That's fine. I don't care about the money; it's the principle. But that is piddly in comparison to other things they're doing.

Skype has of late being doing strange things re their Extra partners and Skype community developers. First, they approved Bitwine for Skype partner status, despite it's being in beta, and despite Jyve predating Bitwine and not being in beta. Now they introduce SkypeFind, a business directory where Skypers can rate entries. However, an early Skype developer, KonuSH, had already set up a Skype business directory in 2004.

There are other examples of similar situations in 2006, where Skype introduced a feature in  a new version of their soft client that someone in the developer community had already introduced as an Extra. This is disappointing, to say the least, and sends out a bad message. Personally, I'm still hoping that SightSpeed opens up their developer API and doesn't make the same mistakes Skype seems to be making.

Skype Wants Changes To Mobile Network Access

Skype, whose name is synonymous with VoIP for some people, wants cellular networks operations to change, to be more open. In fact, they're demanding that the US FCC make changes to a legal decision from 1968 related to the AT&T network so that it applies to cell networks. That's because mobile operators limit the traffic on their networks, especially data networks.

Read between the lines and you'll probably conclude what I have: that Skype needs this ruling changed to offer full mobile Skype. Of course, they would also become very competitive with mobile operators as a result.

The irony of course is that while Skype has an open developer API (Application Programmer Interface), their networking protocol is closed - as in private. The general idea behind their request is a good one, but it just seems kind of hypocritical when they won't open their protocol - a decision that has caused companies, universities and countries to ban Skype use. And they're couching as a consumer rights issue.

Mobile Widgetized VoIP + VoIM Clients

Someone needs to go to design school. Widgets on a smartphone? Isn't the screen small enough already? Add widgets, and you just might need a magnify glass. Nevertheless, if you subscribe to the tantalizing idea of straining your eyesight, Netvibes will have a mobile version, Netvibes2Go, of their web2.0 application, which has widgets for a variety of VoIM clients. Still, anyone who has actually used applications on a smartphone/ PDA knows how awkard the experience is. I'd rather use a VoIP service like Jajah or Mino Wireless from my smartphone. They're relatively simple to use and don't require a lot of screen real estate.

VoIP Roundup - Sun Feb 25, 2007

Some VoIP Clients Not Approved For Vista
Want some more reasons for why you shouldn't yet switch to Microsoft's new Vista OS? Well if you're a VoIP user, Skype and some other soft clients are not approved for Vista yet. Now that doesn't mean they won't work on Vista, but why take the chance. There are apparently several popular apps that are not approved.

WiMax In India Soon
Intel's WiMax wireless networking protocol will be industry in India soon. A network has already been deployed in Chennai.

Skype Find Competes With The Big Search Engines?
Wondering about the new Skype 3.1 beta for Windows and the SkypeFind feature? Skype Journal thinks that SkypeFind is taking on Google, Microsoft and Yahoo for business listings. That's actually a very accurate assessment. Last year, Google offered click-to-call ability for some American business listings in their Google Maps application. SkypeFind isn't exactly the same, but it's functionality is, and they allow Skypers to rate a business. Not something a business might want though.

New Skype Integrations: Mindmeister

Skype is appearing in more and more web applications. The latest is Mindmeister, and web-based mind mapping tool that goes one step further than bubbl.us. Mindmeister not only allows real-time shared editing with collaborators, but you can use Skype click-to-call buttons to chat with each other during the edit process. [You can read a more focused review at Mashable.]

As a long-time, hard-core mind mapper myself, it's great that VoIP is enabling new forms of collaboration such as this. For example, there are a great many opportunities for VoIP in e-learning, and mind maps are a more intuitive way to brainstorm, teach or tutor. What I'd really like to see mindmapping combined with Learn Without Limits/ Tutors Without Limits, which does use Skype.

Now that said, standalone mind mapping packages like MindJet MindManager and Mindapp are considerably more robust than Mindmeister. And both allow publishing to a hosted web page for sharing with others. However, apps like Mindmeister allow real-time collaboration. It'll be interesting to see if a company such as MindJet who have a fairly mature tool, start offering competitve web-based collaboration tools. In other words, a convergence of functionality would be very, very nice.

What I'm really wondering, though, is when there will be similar SightSpeed integrations. They really need to open up their API.

What Internet TV Needs: 7 Suggestions/ Concerns

What's listed here doesn't preclude the possibility that some software or web service already does it. This is my list of ideal IPTV (Internet TV)-related functionality.

1. Mobile TV.
   This is fine, but with wearable, comfortable goggles that project a virtual large screen. Little tiny phone screens won't cut it. The goggles are out there. They just need to be married with smartphones and PDAs. (i.e., maybe through     Bluetooth, since cellular data plans are outrageously priced in some countries.)
   
2. Wireless streaming.
   From my computer to my TV, if I want. (Though my computer screen is still larger than my TV, and I use an external TV capture box, which gives better performance than IPTV.) Apple's tentatively called iTV, for the digital living room, is one example.
   
3. Faster Internet connection speeds.
   Let's face it, Joost might be nice (I'm still waiting for a Babelgum invite), but a faster connection would help, obviously. And what happens, for example, when everyone in my neighborhood on cable Internet starts watching at the same time? At that point, I turn back to regular cable TV, as will others. The success of IPTV hinges on much faster connection speeds.
   
4. More bandwidth.
   My cable Internet provider caps me at 6 Gb/mth. I eat bandwidth for breakfast. I can use a Gigabyte in a single day sometimes. But can I buy more bandwidth? Noooooooo. Instead, if I go over in a given month, they'll warn me twice then cut me off until the next month - something I simply cannot afford to have happen, as a freelance writer. And with Joost's bandwidth consumption, this is important. Which is why I've stopped using it, beyond a few beta tests.
   
5. New compression coding.
   Wavelets theory is an ultra-geeky discipline created by brilliant physicists in the 1970s but has roots in studies done in 1909. It's pure, advanced applied mathematics used to model a lot of phenomena, and a math professor told me that even most PhD's in math or physics don't understand it fully.
      
   Data compression of images and video is one application, and depending on the algorithm used, the space savings are phenomenal. The benefit is that a crunched file would download very quickly. The problem is, that massive crunching requires a fairly significant amount of processing power to uncrunch for viewing. It certainly could not be done, with present home computers, in real-time. That is, you couldn't watch streaming video as it comes in over your Internet connection if the video data has been massively crunched with wavelet compression. The alternative is to not compress and have a faster connection, or more powerful graphics cards.
   
6. Quadcore video boards.
   The whole net neutrality debate was sparked, from what I interpret, when Internet providers felt they had to apply a tiered price structure for connections based on expected usage. Fact is, if we suddenly had the billion or so current Internet users all using VoIP and/or IPTV simultaneously, the current infrastructure couldn't handle it. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)
      
   We all probably want faster connection speeds, and they're coming, but will take time to roll out. What could come sooner is a new set of video compression codecs (last point) coupled with high-power graphics cards sporting their very own quad cores or more. If our graphics cards were powerful enough, and we used super-crunched video formats, we might possibly reduce bandwidth requirements down to a point where every Internet user could potentially watch Internet TV simultaneously. (Of course, it'd be nice to have something similar for VoIP communications: a quadcore sound card.)
      
   
7. More content, more choice.
       Video sharing sites already have a great deal of content choice, though not all of it is necessarily watchable. Soft clients like Joost are young yet, but will need - in my honest opinion - a great variety of content, and a pay-per-view model without advertising. And that requires sign-on from production houses.
    

Pretty much everything I've said here could apply to VoIP quality of service as well.

VoIP Roundup - Fri Feb 23, 2007

Skype 3.1 Windows Beta Released
Skype just announced a 3.1 beta revision for Windows. I haven't even bothered to upgrade to 3.0 because I wasn't sure that the Skype Extras I had installed would all work, and because there weren't enough new features to entice me. This release has one new "major" feature called SkypeFind, which lets the Skype community post or find information about "local businesses you like".

Skype Pro for Europe Launches
Skype announced their new Pro calling plans for Europe earlier in the week. Monthly subscription is 2 Euros, which gives free calls to domestic landlines in 15 European countries, free Skype Voicemail, 30 Euro discount on SkypeIn and a few other goodies.

Sitofono Mobile Click-to-Call
Having fallen behind on my VoIP reading in January and early February, I missed a lot of stories, including that Luca Filigheddu and Sitofono now offer free click-to-call functionality from mobile web browsers. Very cool. Now they can challenge Microsoft's mobile click to call.

Watchmycell: Innovators?

Am I missing something? Watchmycell is a little application than sits in your (Windows) PC's toolbar and lets you know how many minutes of your monthly plan you've used up.

Useful, right? My first reaction was that mobile carriers already offer this functionality: sign in to your account on their website and check. A quick scan of Watchmycell's page reveals the purpose. Read between the lines, and this app is for those too lazy to sign in to their carrier's website. The app does it for you, and continuously.

Really, this doesn't excite me. If you use your cell phone that much that you need to know continuously, get a better mobile plan.

What's With Skype?

Late last week, I received an email from Skype saying the my transaction had not completed. Ten days prior to this message (about Jan 30th), I'd bought the US$14.95 unlimited SkypeOut for Canada and the US. I'd previously sent an email to support, and they replied within three business days that, no, everything was fine and that the $2.21 SkypeOut credit showing was for International calls.

Great, I thought. All clear. Then I get this new email around last Thursday or Friday. I sent a query back, but also said how peeved I was, especially as a VoIP blogger. It's now close to 4 business days and I have yet to hear back. I'm even less happy. Especially since the money WAS withdrawn from my PayPal account on Jan 30th.

What's the dealio, Skype? I'm now absolutely certain that my next telephony purchase (VoIP or otherwise)  will not be from Skype. I'm increasingly disappointed with them.

Viacom and Joost Exchange Video Valentines

An email in my inbox (as a Joost beta tester) announces a content deal with Viacom. Very cool. While Joost has two problems, bandwith hog and minimal content, as an IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) client, I'm very impressed with the video quality. And while content is still minimal, there still is enough there for many hours of viewing pleasure, including a great deal of variety.

Now while a lot of the Viacom content is from MTV past and present content, which I don't care much about, it might be kind of fun occasionally tuning in to watch old Beavis and Butthead episodes. Uh hunh hunh huh. But the rest of the Viacom content will likely appeal to a much younger crowd, not me.

Now I'm already a TV and IPTV junkie, but what I would shell out money to see is older stuff that is really hard to find - at least in Canada, and possibly in the US, maybe everywhere. For example, I'm a big fan of the American cartoon Freakazoid,and of a cancelled sci-fi-ish show called Early Edition. There are also 1950s short movies of Batman and Superman that I'd love to see and haven't found on DVD. (Granted, I didn't look very hard.)

Put all this sort of content (let me pick) online and allow payment via PayPal (Skype's sister company) and you've got me. Maybe make it a download of the month club sort of deal, for $9.95/mth, lots of content to choose from. And no ads.

Problem is, Joost streaming video content isn't stored on your computer (that I know of), so I'd have to download again and again. Hopefully they'll come up with a solution for that (straight burn to your computer's DVD drive?). But even if not, the Long Tail suggests that Joost (or someone else) could do very well by keeping the price low and offering lots of choice. And when Apple's iTV device comes out, I'm hoping I can stream Joost content straight to the 40" TV I'm hoping I'll buy myself for Xmas this year.

VoIP Roundup - Tues Feb 20, 2007

The Virtual Assistant - Take Two
Small business owners now have the option of using Skype-based receptionist/ telephonist services of Varras Consulting. But what if you don't use Skype or want to do things on your own? You can use Spinvox's voice-to-text service to manage your voicemail in text form, or even use it as a transcription/ dictation service.

One Billion Skype Users Can't Be Wrong
Well, there aren't that many users yet, but Skype Journal says that at the current daily rate of downloads, there could be a billion Skypers by 2009. Consider the significance of that number: it's about the number of current Internet users.

Linux Phones Aren't Exactly Cheap Either
A Linux-powered keyless phone, dubbed the Neo 1973 and called an Apple iPhone killer, will be available online early next month. The phone, from a company called FIC, will cost about US$350.

VoIP Roundup - Sat Feb 17, 2007

Security and IP Communications
VoIP News has several articles related to VoIP security worth reading: 6 steps to VoIP security, A guide to understanding the VoIP security threat, and 5 ways to secure a wireless VoIP system. The latter is especially timely, what with the expectation of drive-by hacking becoming a threat to unsecured Wi-Fi networks.

Launching A New Generation of Jerky Boys-style VoIP Prank Callers?
I've mentioned the Jerky Boys before, when talking about now-deceased comedienne Lucille Ball doing prank calls. Well Callitfake not only helps budding pranksters, it lets you do it from a browser. What's more, you can type in whatever you want to say and choose the voice it'll be read in. Oh joy. Just what we need.

Now This Is A Really Old School Phone
Not only does Jaht's SkyVogue phone come in classic styling probably dating to around the 1950s, it's a Skype phone with  a USB connection. I can't tell if the rotary dial is functional, but I seriously doubt Skypers with short attention spans have the patience to wait for the darn thing to complete a single turn, let alone add area code and internation calling code.

Barack Obama's Social Network?

You might have heard that US presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama has his own Internet TV channel, thanks to Jeremy Allaire's Brightcove and lots of campaign money. It appears that now has his own social network.

Brilliant way to use IP communications to build your potential presidential profile. (They've taken Peter Csathy's video politicking advice to heart, whether they realize it or not.) Wonder if the Senator has Skype? What about other leaders? It's all well and good, but maybe he should use some of his campaign money to actually answer email. It's been more than two weeks since I sent an email message to his campaign headquarter via his website. I know that as a Canadian, I don't really matter votewise - or at all. But how hard is it to hire someone to set up an automated response, to acknowledge the email? His campaigners might be doing all the new media stuff correctly, but they seem to have email communications handling all wrong. Or maybe men in black helicopters are intercepting my communications. I think I'd better wrap my house in tinfoil.

Skype Gives You The Virtual Human Assistant

Now this is great for small business: an appropriately qualified Skyper somewhere in the world to handle your customer calls. VoIP bloggers have debated VoIP-based telecommuting because the question is one of remote trust: who are you hiring? Who will monitor them? Aside from that, a bit of tweaking and a small but diverse team means the ability to handle client calls in different languages - a truly virtual, VoIP-based team.

A worldwide Skype-based "telephonist" team would essentially act as multiplexers, with each dealing with the customers of more than one client. There is an opportunity here for someone to set up a web services web site to broker VoIP-based business communications services between people to answer calls (telephonists) and companies that need it done. This is exactly the sort of functionality that VoIP/ vVoIP affords that regular telecom cannot.

That said, Varras Consulting is in fact doing exactly that, and the necessary or preferred skills to work from home include being multilingual. Varras is also resolving the trust issue by requiring a non-criminal background and a security check.

Now Varras Consulting is not a VoIP company, so they wouldn't qualify to be in the 25 most interesting VoIP startups, but bravo to them for pushing the edge of IP communications use. Let's hope that Skype call quality is not an issue.

VoIP Roundup - Fri Feb 16, 2007

Slingbox for the Palm Treo
The Palm Treo line gets some IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) loving with Slingbox's new wireless set top box. You can stream TV (cable, satellite) to a Palm Treo smartphone over your cellular broadband connection. MyTreo has an officially approved video from a recent CES demo. Note that Treo 650 and 680 are not being supported (650 is discontinued, which means that I'm out of luck). EVDO continues to be a problem as far as advanced features go, so think twice before you buy a cellular data plan with EVDO.

Wireless Chargers?
The latest in wireless technology are devices that recharge your gadgets without, well, wires. MyTreo has a picture of the Wild Charger, which sort of looks like a solar panel.

Google Talk As An Internet Radio Station
On the surface, Google Talk appears to be an unassuming VoIM client, but there are more features than you might think. Amit Agarwal at Digital Inspirations gives a brief tutorial on how to get Google Talk to play MP3 files. Speaking of Internet music players, Finetune is worth checking out. Someone wrote somewhere that they thought it was a knock off of the very cool Pandora, but I disagree. Sure, they both let you create your own music playlists/ stations. But that doesn't make one a knock off.

Mino Wireless Valentines Promo

Mino loves you, baby, so they're doing a Valentines promo. Mino Wireless, who hit 100,000 mobile users in August 2006, allows you to make VoIP-based calls from your cell phone using their Java soft client. If you buy $10 worth of calling credit on or before Feb 20th, they give you $2 free credit.

I tried it out in early August last year and the quality was crystal clear at the time, impressing even my father, who'd gotten used to me using the free Skype N. American promo. (At the time, it was free, now it's $29.95 for one solid year of unlimited calls.)

Phones and platforms currently supported: BlackBerry, Palm Treo, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Docomo. They've also added corporate calling rates in Canada and the USA.

Pondering My Next Telephony Product Purchase

It's been over a week since I splurged the princely sum of $14.95 to get a year of unlimited SkypeOut calls within Canada and the US via Skype. Until yesterday, I hadn't tried it yet to see how the quality of calls was doing. I'm happy to say that unlike mid-December, the call I made to my father yesterday was very clear on both ends.

Now the fact that it's been over a week shows you how little I use a phone these days. My cell phone maybe gets used 4-6 times a week. But as I've said, I'm more than happy to spend less than $1.50/month on unlimited long distance calls in North America for when I move to the big city (Toronto).

I'm still debating what else I want to add from Skype's shop, seeing as what I really want won't be available for a while: a Toronto SkypeIn phone number. But when that does become available, I'm going to be grabbing myself a Skype-certified Wi-Fi phone.

As for a cell phone, my Palm Treo 650 will probably be replaced with a Linux-based phone, if I can find one, and only if it has VoIP capability. I figure, what's the point otherwise? As for an Apple phone, I'd get one only if I didn't have to pay the ridiculous price. But it'd still be supplemental to a Linux phone.

The reason? Besides being an old-school Linux/ Unix shell programmer, it appeals to me. It has, I believe, the greatest potential for useful and semi-useful public sensor network applications, which is what I'm hoping to tinker around with once I can set up a lab. Of course, if someone combines this thin, rollable display into a phone, I'll be buying one of them.

6 Things To Know About Skype VoIP

[newbies] As mentioned the other day, I finally got myself SkypeOut - at least the North American Skype promo plan - for US$14.95 for a full year of unlimited calling. Now that it's February, though, the price is $29.95. I figure, why pay Vonage or someone else $29.95/mth or more when I can get what I need (for now) for less than $1.50 per month.

If you're new to Skype but thinking of getting it to make Internet phone calls, here are a few things to know:

1. You need a computer. Well, there are some hardware solutions that get around that (though I don't know enough to comment), but you at least need a cable connection. That's true of most VoIP services except those that are bridged.
2. Quality of calls varies. Skype QoS (Quality of Service) relies on several factors:
   
   1. Type of call. I.e., whether the call is pc-to-pc or pc-to-phone. The former usually produces better quality. PC means either a computer or a Skype phone.
   2. Available memory. If you've eatesn up a lot of RAM running other processes, shut some programs down before you make/ continue a call.
   3. Network usage. If you're on cable, your Internet connection will suffer at certain times of day. There's no way around this except to wait.
      
   4. Wi-Fi. If you're using a wireless connection, you could suffer additional call quality degradation.
3. Loads of Extras. Skype has an open developer API, so there are a growing number of plugins and addons. Some of them are frivolous and some are truly useful. So you could write your own.
4. Business over Skype. Not Skype for business, but Extras that let you conduct calls for pay, with payment made via PayPal accounts. Example Extras are Bitwine and Jyve. Though if you buy the N. American promo package, there's a note saying you shouldn't be using it for business. Hmm. That means they're planning more business services.
5. Turn it off. If you aren't using Skype, you're best off shutting the program down completely. Note that when you close the client, it minimizes in your toolbar. At least on PCs. I don't have a Mac yet to test that.
6. Bans or blocks. Some countries, companies, and universities ban Skype both because of their closed protocol and their network architecture model. So you may not be able to get or use Skype.

By the way, you can learn a lot more about Skype from VoIP News' Hacking Skype feature, which has a list of interesting plugins as well as tricks for making Skype do more for you.

Google Goes Hardware?

Up until recently, Google hasn't had much of a strategy regarding VoIP. In fact, their Google Talk client only has VoIM features - no calling out to real phone numbers. Then they introduced their click-to-call service from Google maps, whereby you could find a participating business and click on their phone number to initiate a call (I believe through Skype, though I never tried it).

I'm wondering what The Google is cooking, and VoIP News has some comments on a possible disruptive Google VoIP strategy. They don't even have Google Talk for Mac and Linux yet, though because it is based on open standards, it can talk to any IM client running on XMPP/Jabber, including Gaim and Trillian.

Among the possibilities, as discussed in the VoIP News post, is the possibility of hardcore competition with the telcos, and adding enormously significant features such as audio search of conversations. Imagine, every (Google Talk) conversation on the Internet is searchable, sort of like the former program to scan all emails sent to/from email servers in England, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA.

Whatever Google is up to, they first have to get around the fact that a tiny, tiny percentage of people even use Google Talk. I'm not sure that a Google Talk VoIP headset is enough. They need real VoIP features for starters.

Joost Bandwidth Issues?

Hmm. Very interesting. Never thought about it until I read about how much bandwidth Joost IPTV might be consuming. It does make sense, consider how high quality the video content I've seen on Joost has been. Quality frames take space and thus increase bandwidth.

This is kind of scary, considering that my cable Internet plan only allows 6 Gb per month, if I'm not mistaken. For someone who tests a lot of software, it's not much, but there are no options for home-based service for me. If I exceed the limit, I get a warning, then I get cut off. Which is disastrous for me, who works all day online.

It'll teach me to read the fine print more carefully on the next application I test. But it does make me wonder how successful Joost is going to be if you can use up 1 Gb in 10 hrs. While it's unlikely I'd watch that enough Joost yet (because of lack of content I'm immediately interested in) to make it an issue, the issue is still there for the future.

I'm not sure that average future Joost user is going to want to be a node in a torrent-style network, and hence bandwidth is a real problem. From a very technical point of view, they could consider using fractal image compression or even wavelets, but those are quite advanced methods that don't necessarily lend themselves to video (fractal compression is a lossy method). Ultimately, it seems to me that Joost is ahead of its time, like Skype was, and that for true enjoyment of IPTV on the larger flat panel TV screens that are coming out, viewers are going to need quad processor computers with souped up graphics processors and Gigabit access speeds.

I Got The SkypeOut

Skype can be confusing in their operations. It's possible that I was too busy to note any message on their end, but after I splurged and spent the princely sum of $14.95 for their promo (unlimited SkypeOut to Canada and the US for one year), my credits only showed a few dollars. I emailed support, and after 3 days (to be fair, they say 24-72 hrs), they clarified that the $14.95 transaction shows as a "delivered" on the final web page after purchase, as well as in a confirmation email.

I guess that makes sense, as the SkypeOut credit displayed in the Skype client applies to International calls. Now that that's cleared up, I'm going to starting testing call forwarding and maybe even some presence options from other companies. I'd like to have a SkypeIn phone number, but there's none for Toronto and area just yet, so I'm contemplating getting a New York City number to use with something like Ether. I can pair that up with SkyNET Tel's toll-free number.

Bike-Powered Voice?

Now here's a great green idea: sustainable energy thanks to you, via an exercise bike. Well, that's nothing new, but Motorola has taken it a step further and created a docking station for recharging your cell phone. In fact, you can use it with a regular bike as well. [AVING via Crave.]

Now maybe you'll get off your chair from watching Joost Internet TV (IPTV) and go ride a bike. You can consider it practice for when the Apple Phone comes out, since it's expected to be a drain on batteries. This is a concept that's been overdue.

Voice Applications: What The H*ck Is PoIP?

Despite the ridiculous name, PoIP [C|Net] isn't such a bad idea. Attendance at places of worship have decreased, partly because of loss of faith, partly because of busy lives. PoIP, or Pray Over Internet Protocol (though it should probably be "Prayer") lets prayers be broadcast over speakers.

This is really an extension of using VoIP for intercom systems, which some public  schools are now using. But there's a lot of potential here. Maybe an enterprising person of the cloth could take confessions over Skype, with donations made via PayPal. Faith groups could get together and have prayer over Skypecasts. Marginalized faith groups that are spread out over the world (for example, the Baha'i) could synchronize their prayer. There's a lot of potential for wonderful global village applications here.

Unfortunately, Even Skype Can't Get PayPal Payments Right

If you don't already know, the online payments processor PayPal is owned by eBay, who also owns the Skype VoIP soft client and service. I finally convinced myself that the N. American Skype promo, which is only US$14.95 for a full year of unlimited calling, is worth buying. Even though I won't use it much until after I move to Toronto later this year, the $14.95 deal ends in a few days and increases to $29.95 after Jan 31st.

So, with PayPal being a sister company, you'd think Skype could get the payment process simplified. I just went through the process, and clicked on the "pre-approved" checkbox (for simplifying later Skype purchases), online to find that instead of taking money out of my PayPal account, the transaction wanted me to add a credit card. I don't use them, plain and simple. So that means I had to start the whole process over, but without the preapproved setting. Which means that if I want any additional services, I have to go through the process again.

Of course, Skype doesn't yet have SkypeIn numbers for my area (soon to be Toronto), and the promo gives me free calling within Canada and the US for a year, so the point is moot. That is, I don't need the preapproved option yet, but I will. And then again, this is a PayPal problem that I repeatedly encounter when I try to buy subscriptions or give pre-approval for something. That means, with my forgetful nature, businesses lose out on sales from me. I just wish they'd display a clear message saying that that such and such an option requires a credit card.

Lucille Ball: The Original Phone Prankster?

In an episode of I Love Lucy (1950s) running this morning on the Comedy Network, Lucille Ball proves why she's one of the original phone pranksters. Her husband Ricky Ricardo is trying to get the owner of the nightclub he performs at to pay him more money. The owner, played by Gale Gordon, who was Lucy's boss in the later 1960s series The Lucy Show", tells Ricky that he can't match the other offers Ricky has (supposedly) been getting.

So Lucy, her usual well-intending but trouble-making self, teams up with Ethel and Fred Mertz to phone in nightclub reservations under different identities. They arrive at the club all dressed up and then leave when they "find out" that Ricky Ricardo isn't performing.

Not quite as extreme or rude as The Jerky Boys, but probably extreme for the leave-it-to-beaver 1950s. Now I'm wondering how much of the soon-to-be expected VoIP spam is going to be prank calls from the next generation of jerky boys and silly redheads (Lucy). Google's click to call service was reportedly the subject of half-assed nonsense, with pranksters calling up businesses and hanging up.

Of course, as far as I know, you can't spoof your Skype or SightSpeed identity, so it's hard to use either to prank someone. But with click-to-call buttons, you can remain anonymous with some services. So it'll be interesting to see whether click-to-call buttons catch on or not.

Seinfeld's Kramer Predicted The Future Of Voice?

Didn't catch the title but in one episode of the TV sitcom Seinfeld, crazy Kramer predicts the future (2000), saying that we'll all be on permanent speed dial, and that calls will just come into our brains. This was in response to Jerry's new fling (Lauren Graham of the Gilmore Girls) putting him on her speed dial at #7, after two dates, then moving him to #9. Meanwhile, her stepmother comes after Jerry, ready to defend her #1 spot against Jerry.

Well, I'm happy to report that VoIP means never having to be a position on a speed dial, at least in soft clients. Everyone in your buddy list is #1. Unfortunately, brain-based presence features just aren't here yet, 8 years after Kramer's prediction. I guess we're waiting on a skull USB port first.

IPTV: The Future of Television?

You're asking who the heck am I to weigh in on this? Well, nothing more than a lowly technoblogger and a TV junkie. VoIP is a killer application of the Internet's "tubes" (heh), but with programs like Damaka, Democracy and Joost, IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) is right up there amongst the great Internet apps. What are the pros and cons of IPTV? Let's consider...

• The long tail effect.
     
  • Content producers: This means that marginal viewership in North America is no reason any longer to cancel a show. Some of the best TV shows ever made are now in syndication around the world, and new episodes would no doubt be welcomed. The Internet can and does support small productions. On the other hand, they now have more competition, since the cost of entry and distribution is greatly reduced.
    
  • Viewers: Variety of content beyond what even Digital TV, with it's 600 channels of the same damn thing in 4 time zones, offers. They also have access to obscure content that they may not otherwise see but is valuable to them.
   
• Demographics.
     
  • Broadcasters: Those broadcasters showing full episodes via streaming video on their websites can now determine the approximate location of their viewers via their computer's IP address. They can also segregate viewers, blocking anyone outside a certain geographic area.
    
  • Advertisers: Their paid-for "content" can't be fast-forwarded over using tools like TiVo or DVRs. At least, not that I'm aware of, though this may change.
    
  • Viewers: Blocked from watching content; geographic discrimination. But this isn't really that different than the current broadcasting model.
   
• Custom viewing.
     
  • Viewers: viewers have the pleasure of time-shifting and custom viewing schedules.
    
  • Content producers: Possibly relieved to know that if their regular TV broadcast is up against a big show, people will still be able to view the show later. For example, when I was still helping out at my mother's diner, I could watch TV on my laptop using Orb when it wasn't busy.
   

Now, these are only some of the pros and cons I can think of off the top of my head. What about you? Do you watch TV via the Internet? Or maybe you use a TV tuner card on your computer - the step before full digital Internet TV/ IPTV.

Internet TV: Let There Be Joost

Joost, formerly known as TVP (The Venice Project) is the new P2P (peer-to-peer) Internet TV client from the boys who founded Skype and Kazaa. I got on the private beta test list before the name change and for TOS/ NDA reasons, I haven't written much about software.

Fact is, I didn't really test the old TVP version that I installed during the weeks before Christmas 2006. My cable-based connection in Dec was horribly slow, and my wireless router seems to make slow connections worse (yeah, it's password -protected and uses WPA encryption). So long story short, I tried TVP for a few minutes here and there and never actually saw any video and could only comment on the interface. Well, not really, according to the NDA, I guess.

But now that Joost is into public beta, I figure that I can carefully write a bit about it. Well, it appears that the new version uses a lot smaller executable file size. If I'm not mistaken, TVP was 250 Mb (though I can't remember, and I've wiped the download). Joost is tiny in comparison.

My Internet connection issues must be over as well, as right now, I'm watching the making of the Red Hot Chili Peppers hilarious tribute video Dani California. With the exception of a bit of starting and stopping, I swear I'm watching TV and not Internet TV (aka IPTV). But the stopping and starting is more than likely completely due to my RAM usage being maxed out than any problems with Joost. It also helps that I have a dual processor, I think.

I'm incredibly impressed with the video quality, the simple clean interface, and the variety of content already, including some documentaries and "critical shorts". As a TV junkie since my childhood (anyone remember the TV show Herman's Head? That speaks to me.) Though there's no way I'll be watching the "channel" of the world's stupidest celebrity, Paris Hilton.

Speaking of content, Nettwerk Records, one of my all time fave labels (aside from 4AD) has a channel as well. Nettwerk has always been very forward thinking. Back when the Internet just went public, I found that big labels were very reluctant to even set up a website. I sent Nettwerk an email suggesting they create one, and they responded that they already. Stupid me. I checked it out, and I have to say I'm not surprised they're in the channel list for Joost. Though I am surprised that the David Bowie, who a few years back incorporated himself and sold futures (and even had an ISP for a while), isn't part of this. He and David Byrne are both forward thinkers that I expected here, along with, say, Laurie Anderson.

Now I could write at great length about how groundbreaking I think Joost is, but I have to stop somewhere. Let's wrap up, bad with the good:

• There's no VoIP, though there is Gmail and Jabber text chat.
• The ads are already here and can't be fast-forwarded through. But I assume they pay for the content. T-Mobile and Garnier are some of the ones I saw.
  
• When I shut down my Firefox browser, Joost seemed to grab a huge slice of the newly available RAM. Though when my browser was restarted, it when back to using only between 8-33% of RAM.
• There are loads of plugins, but most don't interest me. (Being able to text chat with others about a channel or video is a cool, web2.0 idea, but I don't have time for it.) I watch content minimize while I research or write articles, so I have to limit my "interaction" time.
   

My external TV tuner card might get less use now, but Joost isn't going to replace my regular viewing of the CSI and Law & Order franchises, not to mention some of the newer comedies, Supernatural, Smallville, and a variety of forensic shows. Will Joost have such content in the future? Who knows? But with my cable company increasing my Internet access costs and removing good channels from the basic package, I'm likely to lean towards watching more Joost. If not, I need to buy a quad core computer and multiple monitors to satisfy my video jones to watch both at the same time.

Yahoo Messenger: Where In The World Is...?

Yahoo Messenger 8 has a neat little plugin called Map Your Contacts. Use it to map either a single address or several from either or both of your Yahoo Mail or Outlook contacts. A Yahoo Maps panel pops out of Messenger with icons marking the addresses you've mapped. Very cool. Now if only something like this was feasible on a cell phone instead of just a laptop (while you're travelling). Hmm. Google does allow mobile access to Google Maps... But Google Talk doesn't do plugins. Not that I'm aware of. Which is surprising considering that Google has APIs (Application Programmer Interfaces) for so many of their other tools.

Ballmer's Jive Talking: Or Steve vs Steve

How unoriginal. Like Pavlov's dog reacting automatically to the jingle of a bell, Steve Ballmer went on about the new Apple phone (which has no VoIP), saying how it was overpriced and overhyped. Yeah, it is overpriced (Apple's making 50% = US$250 profit on each unit.)

Gee Steve B, kind sounds like your blabber about how innovative the new MS Vista OS is. Golly gee, it's only bloody operating system, and unless you've managed to come up with your own version of Mac OS X or Linux, I'm not buying it. In fact, I'm really not buying it. When I buy my next PC, I'm explicitly going to ask that it not have Vista. That is, if I don't buy a Mac instead. (Will probably buy both, but I won't spend $500+ on an "iPhone" with no VoIP.)

I never understand how Microsoft and Apple keep getting called rivals. They have NEVER been rivals. One is a software company and one is a hardware company. It's like comparing... well... hardware and software. Microsoft might have ventured into videogame hardware (which Apple has stayed away from) and the Zune, but Apple's media player (i.e., iPods) are miles ahead on design. Microsoft is just playing wannabe. And this supposed fight for the digital living room, can't be a close call. It's like Mohammed Ali (Apple's iTV) going up against my grandmother (Microsoft's Media Center Edition OS). There's no comparision. Again.

Now Microsoft's stock might have gone up 60% over the past 6 months, compared to sideways behavior for 5+ years, but Apple is Steve jobs is Apple, and Microsoft was Bill Gates is not Steve Ballmer. Jobs has a brilliant mind, and Apple has incredible design. Without Gates, all Microsoft has left is Ballmer's bluff and bluster. Which is why they won't dominate the IP world, in VoIP and IPTV and media players.

Now That's What I'm Talking About: Skype-to-Blog

Literally. Are you a blogger that's too busy to type up your ideas? Or maybe you're a slow typist. Just last night, I was lamenting that my 100 or so backburnered personal blog posts couldn't some how be published to text via my voice. Today, imagine my delight when I read at the Skype Journal about Skype-to-Blog, which harnesses SpinVox's voicemail to text functionality via a Skype account and then posts it to Simon Crowfoot's Speak-a-blog blog.

Apparently it only works in English, and best for British English at that. But it's a great, functional voice application and an example of why I love Skype so much. Sure, I love SightSpeed too, but they don't yet have an open API.

Skype: The Price is Right?

At the end of the month, the SkypeOut rates for Canada and the US are going up to US$29.95. That's not a monthly rate; it's for unlimited calling for a full year. The current promo rate is US$14.95 for the full year - less than $2/m. I'm probably going to take advantage of the special rate on the last day of January.

I don't typically make a lot of long distance calls anymore, now that I work out of the house, and since I use text chat or email for the most part. However, I'm moving back to the big city, Toronto, Canada, sometime this summer or early fall, to be able to make it to various tech conferences and possibly do some teaching.

That means that if I want to stay in touch with my parents, it'll be a lot of long distance (two different places). And that'll be from my cell phone, since I haven't had a land line in around 10 years and don't plan to. That'll add up, even for the occasional call every month. Skype's price looks more appealing now (though they still don't have SkypeIn numbers for Toronto while Gizmo does).

Even at the doubled price after Jan 31st, it could still be worth it. Skype Journal's Phil Wolff puts the Pro Skype pricing in perspective: 4.3 SkypeOut minutes per day pays back the Pro calling plan, when compared to the new per minute rates - which are higher than they were last year, with no promise of quality. (He even offers a spreadsheet if you want to see the calculations.)

And that's my main beef. The quality of my Skype calls weren't great in December. What's more, since my mother doesn't have a computer and my father doesn't want to use VoIP, for them to call me is going to be costly for them. One the one hand, it's a piddly sum for a full year of unlimited calls. On the other, both parents have complained to me of the quality of my Skype calls to them, even though we all live in the same town. The other problem, as mentioned above, is that SkypeIn doesn't support Toronto yet. It'll be expensive for my parents to call me (my brother just emails me).

That means I need some other option, possibly SkyNET-tel's 1-800 number and a Toronto VoIP number for inbound calling. Why can't there be a single computer-based VoIP solution for a city as large as Toronto (as large as Atlanta, Georgia, if I'm not mistaken). No doubt people in other cities are wondering the same thing. So is the price right or isn't it? I'm undecided.

VoIP Roundup - Thur Jan 25, 2006

TellMe: What's The 4-1-1?
TellMe, a new service for Java-enabled mobile phones, is a potential 411-killer, and voice-activated at that. See Techcrunch for details.

Skype Gross Profits Heading Upwards
Apparently in Q4 2006, Skype sold a lot of minutes: US$1.5 billion worth, compared to $1.1B in Q3. More at GigaOm.

Bring The Woize
UK-based Woize is bringing it stateside in February. All 50 states will have VoIP service and DID numbers. [via VoIP News] So the already competitve US market will have yet another contender.

I Think I Cracked My (Blue)Tooth
One flaw of Bluetooth is that it's susceptible to easy hacking. Well, that just got even easier with Bluetooth cracking tools released by a couple of German programmers. Companies apparently don't put as much emphasis on security for Bluetooth, and these cracking tools are proof-of-concept.

The All-New Ford/ Microsoft Car: Now With VoIP + Conferencing

Bwah ha ha ha ha. Just imagine it now: in the near future, all over North America, you'll see drivers talking to themselves.

What they'll really be doing is talking to Sync, the new automobile operating system from Microsoft, to become available in a number of Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury models starting in the 2008 model year. Like drivers don't have enough distractions such as mobile phones, now they can talk to a Ford car courtesy of Microsoft? What will Sync do when someone has a case of the road rage?

Couldn't Ford have come up with a better business partner? [NYTimes free reg needed] Like working with a company with operating system software that actually works? Microsoft's the company who in 2006 had 284 unsafe web browser days due to flaws through which malware attacks could be made (and they only issue software patches once a month). Do you really want to be driving a car that runs an operating system created by Microsoft? I'd considered a Ford for a future vehicle, but this move ensures I will never, ever buy a Ford.

Surely Stock Options Steve would have entertained the idea of an iCar. Or one of the Linuxes maybe? Ford Ubuntu. I like the sound of that: able to go where no vehicle has gone, and now with cron tables. You can grep your car. But Ford, being a fiercely loyal American car company, probably thinks Linux is for communists.

Let's just hope that when you have to inevitably reboot Sync, the car's engine doesn't shut off and restart. Unless you're already stuck in traffic Though the full Sync feature list is pretty impressive. Everything is voice-activated and Bluetooth-enabled, hence my quip about talking to yourself. There's VoIP, call waiting, call conferencing, a push-to-talk button in the steering wheel, and transfer of conversations from phone to car. But my feeling is that if a car company builds in conferencing abilities into their vehicles, the country has a serious workaholism problem. Can't wait until the first virus, worm or Trojan hits Sync. Color me unimpressed.

Communication Breakdown: 5 Fake New Year's VoIP Resolutions

VoIP/ IP comm and related companies have made some boo-boos this year, and are probably making some resolutions for the New Year. Here's what they might be resolving to do.

1. Skype. We resolve to put more thought into our business version's design, and actually let bloggers know about new versions ahead of time. Well, at least a day or two.
2. Vonage. We resolve to boost our stock's share price to at least $15 in 2007.
3. Gizmo Project. We resolve to stop being the Rodney Dangerfield of VoIP services and get some respect. And more subscribers.
4. Google. We resolve to think through our click-to-call products before releasing them.
5. Cable companies. We resolve to stop screwing subscribers with ridiculous residential VoIP rates when we're already screwing them on TV subscription rates.

Tips For Shy Online Daters

With New Year's a couple of days away, there'll be a lot of socializing going on, in real or online. Online dating is hot, at least as an application and revenue generator (whether or not people actually have successful relationships or not). But each dating website has to be innovative and break new ground. PlentyofFish.com introduced free memberships and PPC (pay per click) advertising to pay for it. Verbdate introduced (I think) using Skype for willing members to talk to each other online (before video calling on Skype was enabled, I believe). Then Match.com implemented a white-labelled version of Jangl's semi-anonymity voice application.

Great, I say. But to mix metaphors, what good is all that tech if the horse won't drink the kool-aid? Match.com is now giving some tips to camera-shy online daters on how to build a profile of themselves.

3D Interface vs Voice Recognition

Which is more important to you: a 3D user interface or voice recognition? I've long waited with bated breath at every voice recognition advance over the years. It comes from being an armchair linguist. But 21 Talks points out that respected usability expert Jakob Neilsen says voice recognition is less useful than a 3D user interface.

This is an interesting comment and I have to respectfully disagree. I've studied learning methods since the late 1970s, and my impression from my research (including pre-grad school papers) is that  most people have limited 3D hand eye coordination - athletes and video game players excepted. Older research stated that females especially didn't have much in the way of 3D visualization skills. This was later shown to be false, and that any child, male or female, who was introduced early in life to architectural toys such as Lego or Meccano could form 3D visualization skills.

Still, this is not the same as being able to use a 3D interface. It might all be a matter of conquering the learning curve, but until then, voice recognition seems to be rather more valuable and more immediately usable. It's also arguably far more advanced a technology niche, though there are still issues about accents and grammar to be conquered. Still, I won't say no to either type of interface.

Skype Trojan Attack?

Who woulda thunk it? Skype recently suffered from a Trojan horse attack in the Chat mode, which on some computers tried to get users to download an sp.exe file. Apparently, the Yahoo Messenger IM had a Trojan virus as well.

These events show that certain types of VoIP service are susceptible to some form of attacks. Now security experts have been saying that things will be worse in 2007. This is on top of vishing attacks, which are expected to grow. Add to this the fact that e-911 is being mandated of VoIP providers in the US by the FCC. This could be yet another advantage for pure play VoIP services such as Vonage.

Expanding E-Learning With Skype Conferencing

Ask any schoolchild and you'll probably find that they enjoy learning about other cultures, other children. A teacher in South Carolina  has a project to hold videoconferences between his class and one in Peru. And not surprisingly, the kids loved it. Me, I was happy to see the moon landing or an eclipse on the "A/V monitors", as we called the the bulky video players way back when. Video conferencing would have been way cool (though impossible back then). So I'm glad to see that teachers are using technology in innovative ways, expanding the global village and simultaneously involving children in a sort of electronic living anthropological experiment.

Hopefully, other teachers will follow suit. Video conferencing has many uses, not the least of which is e-learning/ tutoring - i.e., as a teaching aid.

Coulda Be A Contenda: Google Phone

Rocky Balboa, the final installment in Sly Stallone's boxing movie saga just released, and it's more than a contender for hot holiday entertainment. Other hot, more relevant news is the Google Phone. Is Google in talks with Orange to build a branded phone that would run Google Talk? Would Google's move into another aspect of our lives be embraced or shunned?

Personally, I like Google Talk. Its interface is simple and clean, and because it's only a VoIM client (no calls out to landlines/ mobiles) quality has been crystal clear. I spoke to someone a couple of months back who was half way around the world but sounded as if he was in the next room. So I welcome a Google Phone, preloaded with Google Talk.

Now, Om Malik analyzed a UK story last week and said that the Google phone may go on sale by 2008 (a long ways off). So that doesn't fit in with the whisperings of earlier this Fall about the phone being free, with the cost being ad viewing. I still think that'll be one of the options. Though I have my own theories of Google's even doing this. But regardless, we'll have to wait and see whether Google Phone will be a contender.

Skype 2.2 Smartphone + PocketPC Beta

Skype 2.2 Beta for Windows mobile devices was released recently and you can start using Skype on your smartphone/pocket PC device. Though obviously you'll need a mobile data plan, preferably unlimited.

Features
The list includes:

• More Windows Mobile and PocketPC devices supported.
• Status displays (whether your friends are busy/ available).
• Alerts on missed calls.
• Chat messages and voice messages.
• Suport for HTTP, HTTPS, HTTS/SSL and SOCKS5 proxies.

Hardware requirements
Minimum hardware configuration requirements for Skype 2.2 as per Skype's website:

• OS: Microsoft Windows Mobile Smartphone 2003, Microsoft Windows Mobile Smartphone 2003 Second Edition (SE), or Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0Smartphone.
• Display: 240x320, 320x240.
• CPU: 195Mhz OMAP, 312Mhz Intel or 300Mhz Samsung.
• Network: Wi-Fi, 3G or EDGE.

Disk  space requirements

• 10MB disk space for installing on smartphones. After installation, 6MB is sufficient
  for running the app.
• 13MB disk space for installing on Pocket PC. After installation, 7MB of disk space is enough.

Existing problems

• The Skype forum lists some possible problems you might face with Skype for Windows Mobile 2.2.0.18.
• Quality of the calls via Voice over IP may not be great. Call quality is influenced by many factors.

Nomadic Workers + The Global Village

Andy Abramson writes about his Working Anywhere project, which, as he puts it, is about the nomadic worker. He talks about how he has to work in a virtual office because of far-flung clients and colleagues. As a former nomadic worker myself, I know exactly what Andy is talking about. At one point, I lived in one city, worked in another, sometimes visited clients in several nearby cities, then hung out in yet another city at the end of the day, where most of my friends lived, oddly enough.

To swing this nomadic behavior, at one point, I had two pagers and two cell phones. One pager and one cell phone had 1-800 toll free numbers (which was allowed at the time; no more) so that friends could call me. The second pager was for work. The second cell phone was mine but had the same area code as work. I had to replace my trouser belt a lot, what with the weight of VoIP didn't exist then, or at least not reliable. And smart phones were just popping into existence. So mobile VoIP was not even an option. And high-speed connections were hard to come by due to poor coverage in my neighborhood, so telecommuting wasn't an option back then for me, either.

Now, I work entirely from home but regularly collaborate with people in at least six time zones across the world. I've been using text mode chat for many years, and it's helps me get by now, too. For collaboration, I have several desktop sharing options including AIM Pro and the Unyte add-on for Skype. And for voice chat, I've used Skype and Google Talk, the two most common VoIP and VoIM soft clients amongst my colleagues. Without IP communication, there'd be no way for me to work entirely from home, away from the rat race, road rage and traffic jams of my previous career. Yay VoIP.

The electronic global village is enabled by IP communications. Though strangely enough, despite the growing e-learning/ e-tutoring and online education markets, there are some things that just can't be done over the Internet: attending live workshops and industry conferences. And that means that despite all this great technology, I'll be moving back to the big city within the next year for that reason.

Yahoo Messenger Share + Collaborate Plugins

Yahoo Messenger 8 allows you to add all manner of plugins. Here are a few focusing on sharing, collaborating, and conferencing.

Untye Desktop Sharing
Unyte's reasonably good destop sharing add-on for Skype is now available as a plugin, Unyte Lyte, in for Yahoo Messenger. Unfortunately, it failed during installation, and after two tries, I'm not going to bother again.

Video Sharing
Found a video on YouTube or Google Video? Share it with a Yahoo Messenger contact in the IM window. Is the irony lost on you? Google, Yahoo's search engine competitor, owns both Google Video and YouTube.

WebEx Co-Browse
The WebEx Co-Browse plugin lets jointly browse the Internet with someone. This is great for shopping or booking travel. Pretty cool in concept. WebEx, I believe, is the company behind the desktop sharing feature in in the recent AIM Pro IM.

ConfreeCall
Need to combine conference calls via a regular telephone as well as the Yahoo Messenger IM? try ConfreeCall. A bit of a tongue twister, but if it gets the job done, great. Any long distance charges to the conference bridge number are borne by the caller.

Gizmo Project: Local Numbers In 28 Countries

Gizmo Project just sent out an email with an announcement that they're offering local numbers in any of 28 countries, starting from US$3/mth. These numbers can be forwarded to any mobile or landline phone at the "almost free" Gizmo Call Out rates. Essentially, it means that you can redirect your calls to wherever you are, without that costing your callers extra. They'd still pay for any cost of calling to your local Call In number, though.

Now while Skype may have more users than Gizmo Project, the latter is not only based on an open standard, it also offers call in numbers in more countries. If I recall, Skype's are limited to just the US and UK, which is pretty strange considering, for example, that they've got a North American promo that includes Canada, not to mention promos in France and other countries. You'd that Skype would strike while their iron's hot and offer Call In numbers in at least the promo countries. If you're interested in the Gizmo offering, see what countries have local number support. (Also see 6 ways to give your customers free calls and read the item about Gizmo Project and Voxbone combined.)

Friends By Skype

Jaanus snuck in a little tidbit of information on the Share Skype blog indicating that

over half the people using Skype use it to meet someone new.

Very interesting. How do you meet people online? For me, I've mostly met new friends and acquaintances this year via interaction in the comments section of weblogs and community sites, and sometimes through PM (private messaging/ pseudo email at community sites). I have met some people via Skype for interviews, but then, I'm not actively seeking to meet people due to a busy schedule. How about you? (Though I did find four hello messages on my Verbdate profile the other day. Verbdate uses Skype click-to-call buttons to enable members to chat with each other, by opt-in.) How do you meet people online?

6 Ways To Give Your Customers Free Calls To You

There are oh so many ways to give/ get free calls via VoIP services and software. But if you are running an SMB (small or medium business), you're really close to the concept of value for money. And you probably want to reduce costs for your customers as well. Here are five ways you can give your customers free calls via web-based voice/ VoIP services, sometimes from anywhere in the world.

1. SkyNET-Tel 1-800 number.
   Forward your SkyNET-Tel toll-free number to any VoIP "call in" number (such as from Skype, Gizmo Project, and SightSpeed), and reduce costs on your end, too. Customers can call you from any phone.
2. Sitofono.
   Pay a flat rate, provide your business telephone number (no mobiles), add a click-to-call button on your website, and voila: free calls to you from your worldwide customers via their computer. That's Sitofono.
3. Sitofono, iotum, and GrandCentral. If you want customers to be able to reach you while you're about, read Andy Abramson's A natural hat trick, about combining these three services to route calls to wherever you are. There's so much going on in features with this trio, though you should understand all options as some may result in charges for some customers, depending on geography. That aside, this trio means being able to change your contact numbers without having to inform everyone, as well as being "found" whenever and however (office, mobile, etc.) you dictate. By the way, Phil Wolff shot a video of GrandCentral in action, and Luca Filigheddu explains some GrandCentral's options.
4. Gizmo Project + Voxbone.
   Brian McConnell gives a great explanation of how you can set up "local" numbers in 40 countries around the world. That means they can use any phone. You can also use just Gizmo Project, but that means that each and every customer would need to register with Gizmo first. (GizmoProject offers free calling in 60 countries.)
5. Skype click-to-call.
   Place a Skype Me button on your website. You will need to have Skype on your computer and so will your customer.
6. SightSpeed click-to-call.
   Now with video support. SightSpeed just released their "enhanced" Version 5.0. But what really excites me is the video click-to-call functionality. Your customers can see and talk to you, and it won't cost either of you anything for the service. Of course, they have to use a computer.

If you really want to cover your bases and satisfy the widest range of customers, use a combination of all of the above. Your total monthly bill will probably still be a lot less than with just regular telephony and an internationally-usable 1-800 number. So as not to clutter your web page, use a single custom "call me" button to link to a special contact page displaying all specific. Your customers will call you to thank you.

New North American Skype Promos

A quick glance at the Skype website shows not only a brand new home page but a new 50% off promo for North American users. If you'll recall, N.A. Skypers can call any phone in the US and Canada for free until Dec 31st. Now, you can get one full year of unlimited calling in these two countries for only US$14.95. (Skype has also had promos in the UK, France, and other places.)

Not a bad deal, and you can use PayPal to pay. Except that my most recent conversation using Skype, which was actually to another Skyper, was of terrible quality. It may have had something to do with my running Audacity to record the conversation, but having successfully used HotRecorder and Skype on a laptop with one less processor and half the memory, I'm not so sure of that. In fact, because of this, I opted to use my mobile phone to make a long distance call today to a tech support team (not Skype) instead of worrying that sound quality would suck.

The sum of $14.95 is paltry, especially if it'll save you more than $1.25/mth in long distance. But if the quality is questionable, you have to decide on your priorities. (That said, my cable Internet connection has been terrible the last few days, so maybe it's not Skype's fault.) Though if you do opt for it, they throw in US$50 in coupons for a Motorola headset, Netgear Wi-Fi phone, and Polycom speaker phone. What I would have liked to see is, say, an unlimited calling plan for $39.95-$59.95 for one year that includes a free Skype-certified Wi-Fi phone.

A couple of notes. After Jan 31st, 2007, the plan's price goes back to US$29.95. During the first three days after signup, you can only use Skype for 7 hours per day. Seriously. Even a chatterbox like myself has never spent more than 6 hours on the phone in a single day.

Talkster Interview With James Wanless

James Wanless, one of the three entrepreneurs behind Canadian-based mobile-to-VoIM service provider Talkster has been a busy man, flying here and there to promote the service. Talkster relaunched this past Monday, but he managed to fit in an interview chat with me last Friday - a follow-up to a previous chat.

You may have already read about Talkster elsewhere, so instead of repeating that Talkster is a cool mobile-to-VoIM voice service, I'll quickly synopsize what James told me about what's happening with the company.

Their plan, he said, is to market to businesses. As he mentions on his blog, in the post The Great Race (To Zero), VoIP/ VoIM providers can give some of their services away for free but they have to have a monetization model to keep the business going and offer quality. And when you're a company started by three self-employed, self-funded people, you have to find a way to monetize.

That said, James said that Talkster is not only looking for funding but channel partners. If you have an idea for a way to integrate Talkster into your own voice application, they encourage you to contact them. The interface is based on the open standard XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol), but their API is only revealed to channel partners. (This is the same approach that SightSpeed seems to have.) If you think you might have some ideas in this regard, contact someone at Talkster.

Show Me The Money In VoIP: Is Free A Four Letter Word?

Pat Phelan asks where will it all end, in regards to all this free VoIP and VoIM going around. How long can a free model sustain itself? Will ad-paid models like that of Globe7 be accepted? Will Google's rumored free phones in return for ad-watching take over the world?

I had a second chat last Friday with James Wanless, President and COO - one of three entrepreneurial spirits behind Talkster, a new mobile-to-VoIM service that just relaunched on Monday. He made a very astute comment to me regarding free services, and wrote The great race (to zero). I'm paraphrasing him (so any misquote is my fault), but he said that so many [startups] think that giving away everything for free and grabbing a subscriber list is sufficient enough for someone with deep pockets to buy them up. He then pointed out that while Skype gave away a lot, they still had a monetization plan that they implemented, including CallOut minutes.

Exactly my point. We can hope that maybe we'll have some sort of idealistic moneyless society as portrayed in the Star Trek TV series, but the truth in my eyes is that we are very distant from any such reality. And that means that if you're giving away your VoIP for free, without any monetization plan, you are not going to last very long. And as James Wanless said in his blog, quality costs money. Would you use a VoIP service because it's free but the quality was poor? [Irony of ironies: Skype was misbehaving when we had our chat.]

Configuring A Bluetooth Headset For Desktop VoIP Software

If you already have any Bluetooth headset for your cell phone, note that it can be used for VoIP soft clients such as Skype and SightSpeed. You'll need to either have a built-in Bluetooth card on your PC/ laptop, or get a Bluetooth USB dongle. Next step, configure your VoIP soft client to change the input/ output device. Shut down any program that uses sound first, else they'll be rerouted to your headset. It's not fun listening to TV or music over a single-ear headset.

That's all you need to do, but you may need to fiddle with your soft client's sound settings to get it to work right. As for comfort level, I ditched my Logitech Mobile Express after only two or three weeks of use. It sits on top of my audio mixer, no longer used, because the earpiece chafes parts of the ridge of my inner ear, which was bruised for many days after only the first two days of using it. I found that, at most, I could wear it for about 1-1.5 hours before it became uncomfortable. The Motorola Oakley Bluetooth sunglasses are said to be more comfortable, though not only is the unit expensive, it's unlikely you want to wear your sunglasses at night, especially indoors.

Skype and Bandwidth On Mobile

Did you get a shiny new EV-DO data card for your laptop or EV-DO on your PDA/ smartphone? If you're running Mobile Windows (not Palm OS), you can run Skype on your phone. If you're wondering about how much bandwidth is used up by Skype, and whether it'll eat into your EV-DO monthly data plan, Ken Camp provides a few details, gleaned from the Skype FAQ. He also discusses the quality of a call between himself and Phoneboy.

My own experience with EV-DO on my Palm Treo 650 (Palm OS) is limited to calls over VoIP bridges, as EV-DO and Palm OS don't play nice. So while I can run a few Google Talk compatible IM (Instant Messaging) clients on my Treo, I cannot run actual VoIP software. Yet. However, with my one success (I gave up after a while) on Mino Wireless, the call quality was very good.

VoIP Roundup - Tues Nov 28/06

Internet TV Middleware: An Telco Provider Necessity?
While most Internet surfers are probably still learning about IPTV (Internet TV), telcos should scramble to offer the service, to keep up with cable providers' triple play offerings. So says Light Reading, who say it's a necessity to telecoms:

IPTV middleware is the technology that can deliver that advantage to telecom carriers.

In other words, don't fear IPTV, embrace it?

Mac OS X iPhone?
Could it be? Could the Mac iPhone, scheduled for some mysterious date early next year, be running Mac OS X? Tech Digest has a pic (illustration?) of some gadget that seems to have no buttons whatsoever, and some "desktop" that may or may not be OS X. The speculation is that the phone will run a stripped down "Leopard", the next version of OS X. That would certainly make sense.

Hullo VoIP Redefining Itself
Last week, I received an email from Hullo that their beta was over and that they were working on a new version. As Alec Saunders mentions, it'll be interesting to see what they have in store. I've written previously that Hullo had high quality calls between computer and phone - enough to impress my father, who said that other pc-to-phone solutions didn't compare.

Survey Says - Vonage IPO A Dud

Is it a surprise that readers of Light Reading's recent poll IP communication IPOs voted Vonage's IPO (Initial Public Offering) a dud? It's had enough media coverage, and the stock has been a real dog. It's kind of a no brainer, and part of the reason some shareholders petitioned for a deferral in SEC rules. But when asked when who they favored for success on their IPOs, Riverbed Technologies, a company I hadn't heard of, took the lead. For upcoming IPOs, Opnext Inc. took the lead.

Now keep in mind that Light Reading's readers are fairly informed in the area of IP communications, many more so than I. So I'm not suprised to find quite a few companies - many of whom develop IP hardware - on the survey list that I know nothing about. But if you ask my opinion on which soft VoIP company has a lot of potential in the future, I'd have to say SightSpeed, for their video calling and their free video click-to-call web functionality. Of course, to be successful in an IPO, SightSpeed will need to be able to actually monetize their great video VoIP offering, which CEO Peter Csathy blogs about quite often. And his is a great example of quality corporate blogging.

Click-to-Call Ubiquity - Not Quite There

CNBC TV just ran a segment in which one of their guests said that "most [e-commerce] websites" now have a click-to-call button. Would that were true, that'd be great. But what do you expect when even VoIP supplier/ resellers don't even have click-to-call buttons? That's right, you heard me. Very few of the VoIP sales sites I see have a click-to-call button.

Though if you have a small operation, it may not be the best thing to have. But you should give some semblance of trying. You're probably worried that if you don't have your own click-to-call solution, that using someone else's (for example, SightSpeed's free video click-to-call service) may draw customers away from you. Well, I wouldn't be surprised if some soft VoIP provider out there would be willing to white label their solution for you, if you can't get any sort of partnership going. Anyone know of such a solution? At worst, make sure that your business information is available for Google Maps click-to-call functionality.

On the other hand, the natural evolution of an industry involves the weeding out of competitors who can't compete.

What's IMail?

No, it's not some iPhone alternate device Apple has submitted patents for. It's a combination of IM + email - essentially any email client that allows users to start a chat session with other users. Most popular example is probably Google Mail's in-client (webmail) chat popup. To be honest, in terms of usability, it has to be the worst form of IM available. I love Google Talk's clean, simple IM interface. I despise Google Mail's in-client chat because it disrupts my work. If I'm typing an email and a chat pops up, it's incredibly annoying and screws with my concentration. I don't think any other software (except a certain operating system) could make me fume more.

So I'm surprised that Zimbra plans to do the same [21Talks] sort of thing. On the other hand, if Google integrated the chat some where to the side of the email client, left or right, maybe it wouldn't be so bad. What's more, I'm really surprised that they haven't tied a click-to-call feature directly from Google Mail. Maybe that's something for the near future, given how they've taken a liking to click-to-call VoIP lately.

Unyte vs AIM Pro: Desktop Sharing - I'll Show You Mine

Earlier, I mentioned Unyte, a Skype plugin that allows collaboration (desktop sharing), web conferencing, and more. I downloaded and installed Unyte and took it through a few tests. The interface is clean, and it appears easy to find everything. You can pick through your Skype contact list and decide whom you want to share with (though you need Unyte+ for more than one person). A comparison of Unyte to AIM Pro's desktop sharing is given below.

I tried it in both modes, and it's fairly similar to AIM Pro's desktop sharing features. (I ran Unyte + Skype on my desktop, and another Skype account on my laptop.) The main differences:

• Unyte's interface can be in one of 12 languages, including English. Though to be honest, I never checked for this in AIM Pro.
• Unyte has two modes: a display share only, and a controlled share between all parts. I.e., remote desktop control.
• AIM Pro will let you see the Windows start bar at the bottom of the screen. Unless I missed it, Unyte doesn't have that.
• Unyte is integrated with Skype, so you can easily determine sharing.
• AIM Pro only shares one on one; at least, I don't think you can have a conference share.
• Unyte lets you pick what to share, out of the applications already running. But if you pass control over to another person, theycan start an app by clicking on your desktop icon (remotely).
• Unyte actual shared session runs in an Internet Explorer window on the other party's computer, so they don't need Unyte. With AIM Pro, the shared session starts up in a browser (mine started in Firefox) then switches to a separate window. However, this could still be a browser window, as Firefox allows this through XUL. The documentation says that it'll work with IE, Firefox or Safari on any platform, so it must be defaulting to IE on my laptop.

These are the differences that stand out for me. A few other features are that Unyte lets you quickly click a checkbox to turn off all sharing. You can be selective of which applications you use. The other parties don't need Unyte, as noted above, but they need Skype 2.0 or later. The host can only use Windows 2000/2003 or XP.

Overall, I'm pretty impressed. I can see immediate applications of this, as I hire a few writers from across the world, and I can very quickly give them a live training session.

I haven't tried Skype 3.0 for Windows Beta, so I cannot comment on Skype's own desktop sharing features, or whether they'll affect Unyte in any way. Unyte is Skype-certified, so I'm assuming Skype isn't going to directly compete with their own partners. (More on that once I find out details.)

Dream Phones, Voice2.0, Voice3.0

Luca Filigheddu describes "voice 3.0" for the future, and lists his dream mobile phone, inspired by an engaging post by Ken Camp. The phone would have several VoIP-related services, multiple
identities, video, configuration of availability, remotely stored contact lists, rich presence information and more. Sounds good to me. Sign me up. Except we're going to have to wait a few years for this before more than just us VoIP bloggers are using the term "voice 3.0".

For the present, I've listed my own VoIPmas wishes. Basically, I won't be happy with anything short of a Buck Rogers cellular wristwatch with WiFi for VoIP, Bluetooth (or Wibree), and a HUD (heads-up display) for video in. Not sure about video out, though the wrist watch should suffice. And so exactly what should we expect for voice 4.0? Portable Star Trek-like holodecks?

Unyte + Skype For Desktop Sharing

Skype's latest version 3.0 for Windows already has desktop sharing, but I haven't tried it out yet. Unyte, however, has a plugin that works with Skype - two, actually. One is free and allows desktop viewing. The other, Unyte+, costs $30+/year and allows desktop application sharing, shared control and scheduling web conferencing, etc. It has what appears to be good integration with Skype, as it lets you pick your conference participants from your Skype contact list. You can also select which applications to display/ share.

The free version only allows 1:1 viewing (that is, one person showing their desktop to one other person. Unyte+ supports 1-25 users. You can download both versions for free, though after 30 days, Unyte+ has to be upgraded to a paid version. No idea how Skype's own native support for desktop sharing (in version 3.0) will affect Unyte. It looks quite interesting, and a comparison of Unyte to AIM Pro's desktop sharing will be posted shortly.

VoIP Roundup - Fri Nov 17/06

Free Asterisk Voice Prompts Until Nov 21, 2006
Digium recently changed the deal on their Asterisk voice prompts, so Ward Mundy at Nerd Vittles has generously decided to give away a block of IVR (Interactive Voice Response) prompts, 20 words or less (hyphenated words are multiple) until Nov 21, 2006. If you don't know what voice prompts are, you probably don't need them :)

Verizon Business Conferencing
Everyone's getting into the VoIP conferencing market, and Verizon Business is the latest.

Google Maps Click-to-Call
[UPDATED]Thanks to the new click-to-call integration, you can find a business on Google Maps and then click on the displayed phone number to initiate a call to the business. Of course, you can't do this with Google Talk. You enter your phone number into an available form field on the map result, and a call is initiated. Google's service rings up the business and then you.

AIM 6.0 Released

I've gotta say that I was impressed with AIM Pro, which came out just a couple of months ago, but 6.0 doesn't seem to have a lot of new features. Nuno at 21 Talks says that there's the ability to send messages to offline users, and a dashboard for managing mobile alerts and forwarding instant messages to cell phones.

I'll be honest, I don't know how AIM 6.0 compares with AIM Pro 1.1, but the latter's desktop sharing feature was really impressive, despite being a bit buggy and slow at times. (Though I ran it on a desktop and laptop simultaneously, both of which used a Wi-Fi connection.) Not sure, either, how either release factors into AOL's plans, but they have been reinventing themselves. First, they'd announced coast-to-coast broadband Internet service in the US, leaving their dialup model. Then they started selling off their European Internet provider divisions. More recently, they've decided to a leave a subscription model and are steering towards an ad-based model of operating, thus laying off many workers.

Skype On Mobiles Redux

So apparently TalkPlus CEO Jeff Black made a call using TalkPlus from a mobile and to a Skype test user (echo123, which can't be faked - no SkypeIn number). What I'm wondering is what are the implications of that. I've had no luck running Skype on my Palm Treo 650 or any other VoIP soft client (though I can use Mino Wireless' bridge). If there's a solution, I'm not aware of it. So what if TalkPlus works on my Palm? Then why doesn't Skype? But if Talkplus doesn't work, then I'm no better or worse than now. Besides that, though, the implications of the experiment are that TalkPlus have managed to create a mobile client, without Skype components, that can talk to Skype's network. And this means that Skype could lose their revenue stream for SkypeIn numbers. TalkPlus recently received US5.5M in VC financing, so they're probably motivated to become disruptors themselves.

Semi-Anonymous VoIP Online Dating

Almost every guy that's ever gone nightclubbing probably has the same goal: meet someone. For whatever reasons. And no doubt some have scored a phone number. Out of those, there are the guys that got a real number and those that got a fake one. If you sit back and think about it, it's understandable. Some guys are relentless, and women generally aren't very confrontational; at least not in the past. So to defuse the situation, some of them hand out a fake number. Well online dating has changed the entire dating game, the environment, the rules, etc., but the objective is essentially the same: meet someone compatible. But for women especially, some semblance of anonymity is desirable. To that end, a new service, MatchTalk, from dating site Match.com, uses VoIP technology from Jangl to set up calls between two members without revealing phone numbers.

It's nothing new; Jangl offers their own semi-anonymous calling. Match.com has just integrated Jangl tech [Alec Saunders] into their offering. MatchTalk sets up a unique phone number between each two members that want to connect, so their own phone numbers don't have to be handed out until and if they are ready. This is a step up from Verbdate, which reveals your Skype username if you allow it to be public. Now if someone just added semi-anonymous video calling, touch, smell, etc., nightclubs might just go out of style. But seriously, long-distance relationships would be easier to maintain.

Sony What? Mylo? What's That?

I don't get the freebie gadgets that some of the other VoIP bloggers do, so if I want to test some phone or mobile device, I have to shell out my own cash. Interested in the VoIP capabilities of the Sony Mylo, I walked into my neighborhood Sony Style store late last week and asked the two young male clerks if they were selling it. They looked at each other, then one looked back at me with a bit a of sneer and said, "Sony what? It's replacing the Clio, right?" Uh, pardon me, but you work here, not me. (This is the second gadget store in the same mall with a rude young male clerk. And business owners wonder why some customers would rather buy online.) Diatribe over.

Then again, Luca says the Mylo's not for him. Andy likes the audio and quality and the fact that it has Yahoo Messenger. It also has Skype, which interests me. But he concludes that the novelty of the Mylo wore off for him. (Though some Mylo reviewer did use the Skype file transfer over Wi-Fi because the USB cable was missing.)

So maybe those two rude young idiots saved me some money. Fact is, I stopped buying Sony products since my cassette Walkman in the 1980s. The way I look at it, if I have to shell out a few bucks myself, I think I'm going to wait to see if Apple comes up with an "iPhone". There have been rumours about Apple's VoIP plans for a while, but it's questionable whether any new iPod this year will have VoIP.

Skype Troubles? Make Room For SightSpeed

Since eBay bought Skype not so long ago, the story goes that much of the old guard management has left. The International Herald Tribute (and others) wrote about this and Andy Abramson weighed in on the goings on. His conclusion (hope I'm not misquoting) is that eBay has enough smarts to make Skype profitable, but they need someone to run the show, to be a proper disruptive force. That is, to continue being the disruptive force that Skype was before the purchase and can hopefully still be.

Well, I agree with that assessment, but the company I'm gunning for as the up and coming disruptive force is SightSpeed. Their video calling quality arguably tops Skype's. Sure, they don't have the addon architecture that Skype has recently moved up to with Skype 3.0 for Windows Beta, but maybe that's coming - assuming I haven't somehow missed something on SightSpeed's website. Otherwise, if the ability to develop addons for Sightspeed appears in the next few releases, I think that they will become the primary disruptive force in the soft VoIP niche. (I vaguely recall something that one of the support staff told me a few months back about the existence of an SDK or API or some such, but I think it's only available on a selective basis.)

50 Most Influential People in VoIP

Wow. VoIP News just published Brian Provost's 50 most influential people in VoIP and a lot of deserving people, communities and companies were listed there, along with some surprises (Microsoft, 3com, Intel, US Congress, FCC, and others), including this weblog, under the "daily show - voip bloggers" category. I clicked on the link twice, to make sure that my eyes weren't deceiving me. (Not so long ago, VoIP Now was on Garrett Smith's Top 30 and Luca Filigheddu's Top 30 VoIP blogs lists.) But I think some names were left off the list (more on that later, when I have the nads to come up with my own list, from a different angle). Though it's never easy compiling them, so hat's off to Brian.

If I had to pick just one person to add to the list, it would be Peter Csathy, CEO of SightSpeed. Why do I think he's an influential person in VoIP? Not just because he's the CEO of a company with an impressive video VoIP soft client but also because of his engaging blog, Digital Media Update, where he's been blogging a lot lately about vVoIP and video on mobile, it's importance, it's coming ubiquity, due to the number of camera phones that will ship.

Hey, I've been dreaming of videophones since I was a kid watching The Jetsons TV cartoon in the '70s. I've always figured it's just a matter of time and technology. So you can imagine how pleased I was when I first tried SightSpeed. Yeah, I fawn a lot over SightSpeed, but I make no apologies for doing so. Can't wait for mobile SightSpeed. But it'll mean buying a new smartphone, since my Palm Treo will never handle mobile video calling.

Microsoft Hearts VoIP?

You'd expect a software giant like Microsoft to have already been playing a big role in the IP communications market. But beyond the high number of users (active + inactive) of MSN/ Windows Live Messenger VoIM clients, it's hard to say they have any great involvement in VoIP and related services. They have announced this or that sort of IP communcations-related project in the recent past, but seemingly done little to compete with the dominant forces in the market (beyond launching Windows Live Messenger, which is okay, but not as good as Yahoo Messenger). But CEO Steve Ballmer indicates that they are going to change that with their new Vista operating system, come January 2007.

The Vista OS - which someone touted as not requiring anti-virus software - will integrate a variety of IP-related offerings including VoIP, IM (Instant Messaging), and video-conferencing in desktop and server applications. There will also be Microsoft PBX. * Yawn * I'm not buying it, sorry. They're late to the game (though Garrett Smith thinks otherwise) and can't offer anything new to the individual. However, the Microsoft brand name may encourage enterprise to get more involved in IP communications - so that could be a big sell for them. (In which case I do agree with Garrett.)

There was no word about whether Ballmer raged across the stage screaming like a lunatic while saying how much he loved "this company". This is your brain on Microsoft.

Think this will help your company's share price? Hmm. Could be. Dance little Ballmer, dance.

Why Switch To Asterisk IP PBX?

John Edwards lists 5 good reasons for switching to Asterisk for an IP PBX, and 9-step guide to getting started with Asterisk. Asterisk is of course open source software (OSS) so the full source code is available.

Open source IP telephony is getting a push by companies like Fonality, Digium (makers of Asterisk) and Polycom in terms of new partnerships, hardware and software. While I'm a big fan of open source, history shows a reluctance on the part of middle managers in larger enterprises to accept such software. I'm really hoping that this isn't the case with IP telephony, because such options afford robust, customizable solutions that have as much power as more expensive offerings.

If OSS IP telephony companies are smart, they'll go after the SMBs and not worry about enterprise, who'll want more "name brand" solutions from companies like Cisco or even Microsoft, who have vowed to integrate IP communcations into their new Vista operating system in Jan 2007. My feeling is that there are enough SMBs out there that would benefit OSS IP telephony, and would welcome such an option as well as the price. But since the cost and availability of "experts" who can add modules or debug problems may be a factor, solutions with a  set of plug-and-play SMB/ CRM modules will likely capture the most interest.

100 Projects For TrixBox/ Asterisk IP PBX

Nerd Vittles always has great information regarding open source IP PBXes, in particular TrixBox and Asterisk. Now Ward Mundy has put together a list of 100 projects relating to both, some on the Nerd Vittles site, and some elsewhere. (The links are not all projects; some are links to IP communications- related websites.) Categories are:

• Installing a free TrixBox server
• Installing the free Asterisk@Home PBX
• Customizing Asterisk@Home
• Asterisk server hardware
• Additional Asterisk hardware and software
• VoIP provider reviews and configuration tips for Asterisk@Home
• Securing Asterisk
• Additional Asterisk applications
• Where to turn when you need some help

Probably everything a DIY (do-it-yourself) VoIPr can think of. Great job, Ward. I wish I had the time to try some of these. They look like a heck of a lot of fun.

All I Want For VoIPmas Is SuperSkype

Skype just released their 3.0 Beta for Windows. Wow. From 2.5 to 3.0 in only a couple of months. What's this one got that's new? Supposedly Skypecasts and Public Chats, which I thought were already part of Skype. Click-to-call from websites through Skype browser extensions (for IE and Firefox web browsers). Again, this functionality already exists for Skype through other means. A more powerful user interface: new tabbing arrangements, wall paper. Skype Extras, for playing games, sharing desktops, and a whiteboard for notes during Skype calls. (Extras aren't new, but they have been integrated more tightly with the interface.) Enterprise compatibility? This should be interesting.

But to clarify, the Skypecasts are now browsable. Search for a Skypecast then join in. The Public Chat host can moderate conversation and reject or ban users. Public chats are promotable as links in email, web pages or Skype mood messages.

What'd be really cool, though, is built-in recording, with aim to satisfy podcasters. That means searchable meta tags on recordings (a la HotRecorder). Plus the ability to post the podcast to a weblog on the all of the popular blog platforms. There is Skype Recorder v1.2, which is free and activates automatically, but it doesn't have those extra features that would be great for podcasters.

Suggestion to eBay/Skype: buy HotRecorder and hire a team to do weblog posting integration work as well. At that point, I would actually pay for the Skype soft client (provided I can use Paypal, your sister company, to do so).

So, St. Niklas (Zennstrom), all I want for Xmas is a super Skype that does all of the above. Oh yeah. And the ability to mobile Skype from my PalmOS-based Palm Treo 650 running on CDMA EV-DO cellular wireless Internet access. I'm not asking much, am I?

Recording Multi-Person Conversations For Podcasting

Nick Wilson over at Performancing.com asks about "the quickest, cheapest way to do high quality multiple stream podcasts." Meaning, in this case, recording a VoIP conference call and publishing it to a website as a podcast.

There are hosted services and even some that let you initiate a conference call from their website. For example, Gabcast offers free podcast creation and hosting, but there are some limitations. There are toll-free numbers for the US, but in other places, you might have to pay for a long-distance call.

But in my opinion, the quickest, cheapest way to pull off a multi-person podcast is, arguably, with Skype. For a free solution, a Skype conference call will work fine provided a few factors are satisfied:

1. Everyone is using Skype. I.e., not landlines or mobile phones in use.
2. You shut down any unnecessary apps on each participating computer. (For best call quality.)
3. You all have a broadband connection and are not talking during a busy period locally (late afternoon, mid evening, before midnight).

There are a few other tips for better VoIP call quality.

For recording the calls, there's HotRecorder (HotRecorder.com, US$14.95) which is even geared for podcasters. There's a search function based on the text that you attach to each recording. HotRecorder, if it's running on your PC (Windows XP, 2003, only for now), will automatically start recording when a call comes in on Skype, or you activate it. HotRecorder works on Skype conference calls as well.

For a completely free solution, use the Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net) audio editor (with support for Cubase VST plugins) to record the call. Audacity has to be manually started, but it's easy to edit your audio track afterwards - something HotRecorder does not feature. Audacity runs on Windows, Mac OS X and GNU/Linux.

Also see VoIPcasting: recording VoIP and Podcasting.

How Do You Video VoIP?

If you're using a VoIP soft client such as Skype or SightSpeed, you probably already know that both have a video calling mode. Either party on such a call can view and/or transmit video, assuming that both have cameras. The video mode can also be one directional. So if you're not up to showing yourself on call, you don't have to, but you can still see the other party if they enable video from their end. As Peter Csathy, CEO of SightSpeed, points out, keeping video mode turned off can serve multiple purposes, including allowing you to do other work while participating in a voice call. So there are suitable times for non-video, so you don't have to worry about things such as video calling etiquette.

Ahead Of The VoIP Call Center Curb

While some call centers are still considering the use of VoIP, others are already on it. CampusUSA Credit Union installed their VoIP call center system five years ago, and did it in a single weekend. [SearchCRM] The key thing to rapid VoIP deployment is having a plan, of course - knowing what quirks to expect. While companies that have no phone system at all have an easier time of a switch over to VoIP, a relatively quick install can be done.

Small companies have an advantage. But larger companies and/or those with existing phone systems can reduce deployment time - whether for a call center or just a business IP telephony system. If you treat a VoIP system install as a software project, then planning and design should be 50-80% of the time spent. Do you know what network capacity you will need? Peak support hours? Backup systems? Call recording requirements? Start with a list of your required functionality and go from there.

VoIP Support Services Market To Grow

New research from IDC suggests  [CertCities] that the VoIP support services market will reach nearly US$1.3B by 2010. The growth will come partly from the use of non-proprietary VoIP software, which a single company will not have a stranglehold on in terms of services.

This would suggest that OSS (open source software) IP PBXes such as Asterisk will have a huge role to play in the coming years. Since the cost of startup is so much lower for IP telephony, there is likely to be a boom in the number of companies offering plug-and-play add-ons for Asterisk and other OSS VoIP solutions, as well as support. And since the support can be conducted using the solutions themselves (voice calling, video calling), support costs are lowered as well. Look into the future, and voice-recognition -activated animated avatars might be handling the support calls.

Anothr.com RSS Reader For Skype

If you don't know what RSS is you're not alone. Instead of giving you a discourse on it, you can go read about RSS at Wikipedia. Some people call them "web feeds" or "news feeds". If you do know RSS/ Atom web feeds, well anothr.com let's you read them from Skype.

I tried it out last week, before Jaanus mentioned it on the Skype blogs. While it functions fine, it rings you up as an incoming call whenever there's a new headline and associated story text to display. This is fine for web feeds that don't have a lot of articles posted, but it could be a disruptive for busier websites. As Jaanus points out, this method isn't for the professional blog reader, who would subscribe to multiple feeds (I read/ browse/ scan the web feeds of over 900 web sites each week or so).

By the way, Asterisk, the open source IP PBX software, has an RSS add-on that reads you one minute headlines/ summaries over Asterisk-based VoIP phone.

Everyday Is Hallowe'en: CrazyTalk For Skype

Today is Hallowe'en in North America, so maybe this is as good a time as any to bring up CrazyTalk for Skype, an add-on for the video-calling mode that lets you put on an animated mask. A number of VoIP bloggers, including myself, have joked about how having video-calling in SightSpeed and Skype means having to shave/ do your face, put in your teeth, or what have you.

Well CrazyTalk lets you pick up an an animated avatar, human or animal. When it's installed and you run video mode calls, your other party will see the avatar. The crazy part is that it will talk; it's lips will move in sync with whatever you say. If you don't like the choices, you can create your own using additional software that they sell.

I downloaded and tested it (Windows XP, 2000 only), and it works after a fashion. If you use an animal avatar, such as the frog prince, the cat or dog, it'll be hard to tell what someone is saying. The animated mouths don't open wide enough to shape properly. The human animations are a bit better.

In all, it's a bit of fun for when you wake up on the wrong side of the bed for video calls. And it's free. Give it some time, and maybe a few versions from now, with a few avatars created from Poser, maybe you won't be able to tell the difference between an animation and a real person. [If you decide you want to show your mug, Emily Post has her own video conferencing etiquette rules - via VoIP.com]

Video Politicking - Reach-Out Campaigning

Gadget Trail has a list of ten ways to use VoIP that you probably didn't think about [link below]. One of the tips, #4, suggests volunteering with you fave political party, then using Skype to make free outbound calls (to landlines) to registered voters in swing states. What a briliiant way to campaign without spending loads of money. Rock the vote. Save the campaign money instead to pay for the nasty, mudslinging TV commercials. I suppose you could post them on YouTube as well.

Go one step further and use videblogging using SightSpeed (or Skype). Or hold live video interviews that anyone can join in on. Even one-on-one video campaigning could be effective, as Peter Csathy discusses [link below].

The politician that captivates the web-savvy group, and maybe even uses something like Skypecasts or video-conferencing in SightSpeed or IPTVbroadcasts, is a person whose message will get out there, and who has a chance of running for high office. But that person will also be under intense scrutiny, so the best course of action is utilizing a "permission list" to send campaign videos to, if they're precorded. Consider also using "SkypeMe" buttons on a campaign website.

Whatever you do, don't follow step #10 at Gadget Trail to connect the White House with Cuba. Unless you're at a public computer that doesn't require signup of course :)

[sources: Digital Media Update, Gadget Trail via VoIP Telephony Service]

Phishing, Vishing, And Voshing?

While browsing Digg today, I stumbled across something called GabMail/ GabJam. If you have a webcam, you can record a video message and send it on to a friend. GabMail doesn't do the sending for you. They give you an URL which you can copy and pass on to a friend via email or whatever. The recipient just clicks on the link in their email, and a new browser window or tab pops up for replay. They can also "respond", but clicking on the "Reply to Message" button simply pops up a new GabMail window where your recipient can go through the same process.

The closest thing to integration with email readers is that some buttons/links cause an MS Outlook popup, with the link already included. This could be fun, but it needs more integration. It's certainly not video calling, like Skype and SightSpeed have. Fortunately, the way GabMail is set up, videos cannot be auto-generated by a spambot. However, someone could easily record themselves then feed the resulting GabMail URL to their spambot. Yuccch. Though I guess this possibility isn't exclusive to GabMail. You canot vish with it, but I guess you could "vosh" a whole bunch of people with a single videomail.

Will VoIP For Coffee

Ted at MacVoIP talks about how he's been reduced to buying a cup of coffee at a cafe so that he'll have Wi-Fi Internet access. Me, I can't stand the smell of strong coffee - gives me a headache. So no cafes for me. But there's an old circular building at the nearby university, where school chums and I used to socialize on weekends during our college years. It's now a lounge and it has free Wi-Fi access (provided you are a student or alumni). So last year, when I was toying with the idea of a Master's and PhD, I'd go have a rum and coke and check my email between classes on Fridays. That was before I discovered VoIP, knowing only about MSN Messenger's voice call feature.

Now, there are tons of VoIP/ VoIM choices, and loads of free/ semi-free Wi-Fi hotspots all over the place. (The university library, but not most of the campus.) And with the number of municipal Wi-Fi projects growing by the week, it probably won't be long before the world at large is unwired. At which point Ted may not have to buy a coffee just to surf the net, and a significant percentage of the long-distance conversations in the world will be free. (Just make sure your university or other public hotspot isn't blocking VoIP, and that you are not transmitting sensitive details over unsecured Wi-Fi, or you might be the subject of an evil twin. Although some universities are embracing VoIP.)

Muni Wi-Fi update: Minneapolis, Minnesota plans to roll out city-wide Wi-Fi next year. Twin city St. Paul is not sure what approach to take.

VoIP Roundup - Thur Oct 26/06

Nextel Wireless Impersonates Speed Racer
Twenty-one metro areas in the US will be getting faster wireless Internet before or by late 2007, thanks to plans by Sprint Nextel Corp. They will be using EV-Do Rev A technology, which is supposed to enable video-conferencing. [via Kansas City Business Journal]

Real Chat In Advertising
Nuno reports that IBM plans to run two-way advertising, which lets you actually talk to them. I wonder if "truth in advertising" will stretch to VoIP.

Easy PBX Management: Just Add Browser
Want to manage your Asterisk IP PBX via web browser? VoiceOne 0.4.0, which is not only web-based but open source, lets you do this.

Comcast Choking?
Comcast may have the lead in cable VoIP subscribers in the US, but reports indicate that they are running into service outages in the Northeastern US. What's more, these outages seem to have started after Comcast started offering VoIP service only a few months ago. Maybe they'd better finish hiring those extra 4,000 employees. I don't have Comcast, but I'm finding that in the last couple of days that many sites with servers in the US have been difficult to reach.

17 VoIP + IPTV-Related Xmas Suggestions

If you are not already familiar with VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) or vVoIP (video and voice over IP), it's a means to voice and video calls from a computer. Most VoIP services also let you call to regular phones. VoIP is a great way to save money on long-distance calls, as PC-to-PC calling is free, as is some PC-to-phone calling. IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) refers to a variety of TV-watching services on the Internet, and loosely includes streaming video.

Here's a short-list of some things that might be nice to give as holiday gifts this year, for the VoIPr in your life. I am going purely on specifications and my knowledge, not necessarily because I've tried something (although I have tried some). These are in no particular order, and are not endorsements of any product or service. The suggestions are for both mobile and stationary VoIP calling.

1. VoIP soft phone. There are tons of choices for VoIP software, all free. Some IM (Instant Messaging) clients such as AIM Pro, Windows Live (MSN) Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger also have the ability to call out from computer to regular phones. Google Talk cannot, but if you add Talqer, you can.
2. Calling credits. SkypeOut credits for Skype, or the equivalent for SightSpeed, Gizmo Project, Hullo, etc. This lets you call from your PC/ Mac to a regular phone. Gizmo Project already offers a lot of free calling to landlines in 60 or more countries, but only if the callee is registered.
3. Call-In phone number. A "Call In" phone number for Skype, SightSpeed, Gizmo Project, Hullo, etc. With one of these, people can call you on your computer as they would your regular phone. Skype is limited in the cities that they support; SightSpeed has a bit more variety.
4. 1-800 number. SkyNET has a reasonable plan for internationally-accessible 1-800 numbers, which can be redirected to a VoIP Call-In number. If you live in an area where Skype or SightSpeed (or whatever) do not offer local phone numbers (for Call-In), you can get a SkyNet 1-800 number and redirect it to whatever Call-In number you get. SkyNet also has local numbers, but that means you have to purchase their VoIP calling plan instead of Skype's, etc.
5. Webcam. Mobile video may take a while, but desktop video calling is free and functioning, courtesy of SightSpeed and Skype. MTV's Total Request Live (TRL) even incorporates fan input via SightSpeed, right into the show. My suggestions: For a laptop, get one that clips on easily. For a desktop, get both a flat USB port and webcam with a "snake" cable, so that it's easily adjusted.
6. Microphone. You don't need an expensive one, if you are not doing podcasting. But most built-in mics on laptops are relatively low-quality. Alternately, you might want to give someone a headphone/ mic combo headset (#7) or Bluetooth headset/ earpiece (#10).
7. Speakers or headset.
8. New smartphone or PDA. Pretty much any new Nokia N or E series phones, most of which, I believe, support VoIP (properly). Some PocketPC or Windows Mobile-based devices might as well. I don't know all the specs on the RIM BlackBerry Pearl phone, but it is a cool phone. Many phones will allow "mobile VoIP" services such as EQO or Mino Wireless, etc., to function correctly. These services essentially call you back, once you activate a call, so your cost per call is only your cell minutes, plus the cost of your cellular Internet usage. Of course, if Apple actually releases the iPhone/ iSmartphone, that might be nice, too.
9. Cellular wireless data plan. Great for accessing the Internet from your mobile phone, and making mobile VoIP calls. Just make sure that an "unlimited" plan really is unlimited. Many cellular providers only allow 250 megabytes per month, and cut you off after that.
10. Mobility. Bluetooth earpiece or headset, to give your voipr some mobility around the house or office - or for hands-free operation while driving. Also nice for when it's cold out. You might want to test earpieces, as some chafe the inner part of the ear. A headset is another option, or the Motorola Bluetooth hat, or the Motorola/ Oakley Bluetooth sunglasses. But Bluetooth devices are not only more expensive than regular wired headsets, they eat power for lunch. And mobile phones operating in "find Bluetooth devices" mode will also need to be recharged more frequently. A new Nokia wireless protocol called Wibree may change that in the very near future.
11. Mobility, part 2. Wi-Fi VoIP phone - maybe even a Skype-certified one. That, or maybe a dual-mode Wi-Fi/ cellular phone. These are going to be hot, with all the municipal Wi-Fi projects going on all over the world.
12. Wireless router. If you want to be walking around the house while VoIPing, one way is to use a Wi-Fi phone. Depending on the type, you will probably need a wireless router attached to your broadband Internet connection. Most large office supply or consumer electronics stores have these.
13. VoIP call recorder. You may want to record VoIP calls for posterity, business reasons, or even interviewing or podcasting. HotRecorder is my fave, but there are lots of others. HotRecorder activates itself when a Skype call comes in - and it's supposed to work with other VoIP soft phones. It's only about US$15, but if your budget is running a bit thin, there's the free audio editor Audacity, which has to be manually activated, but works fine.
14. Business VoIP. An iBlue IP PBX, made with a Mac Mini. Great for that Mac-lover who also has a small business and wants to use IP telephony for communications. Or for a larger business (including call centers), there's Pika Technologies' bridge over troubled VoIP. It marries the Skype interface with Asterisk IP PBX.
15. VoIP knowledge. A copy of Ted Wallingford's VoIP Hacks, where he'll teach you to make your own iBlue with a Mac Mini and Asterisk software.
16. Cinema screen. For all the good little boy and girl voiprs, if they've been extra special this year, get'em a 50" Apple display, to watch both IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) and video calls via Skype or SightSpeed, at the same time as the do other stuff on the screen.
17. Plug'n'play VoIP adapter. Know someone who can benefit from inexpensive VoIP calls but does not like/ have/ want a computer? I know a few people like that. For them, you can get plug-and-play adapter/ router that (usually) configures itself once you plug in a broadband Internet connection, your regular phone line, and your regular phone. Of course, if you don't have a computer, why would you have broadband Internet? Well, if you have cable TV, for a bit more money each month, you can have broadband, and all on one bill. Your cable company will try to sell you their "digital phone" plan, but they usually charge a lot more. You'll have to decide.

Happy voiping.

VoIP Roundup - Wed Oct 25/06

Lessons In Mobility: Airline Wi-Fi Guide
On The Beach has a fairly comprehensive guide to Wi-Fi/ Internet access on airines, right down to actually listing airlines and the flight numbers. Not all access is free, but they've listed costs as well. If you're travelling, this should be a great resource. I'm assuming you should be able to use most Wi-Fi phones via these services, unless there's some sort of blocking. To accompany the airline guide, here's a bit about saving on hotel phone bills using complimentary Internet access.

(Sort of) Free Skype-to-Phone Calls In The UK
Live in the UK? Want free calls? Sort of. Buy £10 of Skype credit before the end of this year and you can call from your PC to a UK landline phone for the next six months. Not quite as free as the free SkypeOut calling in Canada and the US (until the end of this year), but reasonable. I suspect that a similar offer might be on the table for North Americans after Dec 31st. [Skype via The VoIP Weblog]

Can Gizmo Project Take On Skype?
Rich Tehrani talks briefly about Gizmo Project as a possible contender to Skype. Gizmo is SIP-based, an open standard. So any other SIP-based soft phone can communicate with it. Gizmo currently offers free calling to landline phones for around 60 countries, provided the person you are calling is registered with Gizmo Project. I wrote briefly about Gizmo Project vs Skype, a while back.

More About Mobile Video Calling

I may never have mobile video calling on my Palm Treo, but several bloggers have been engaged in a dialog about about its possibilities over the past week. Peter Csathy thinks mobile video calling will be big business. Andy Abramson seems to think it'll do better in Europe rather than the USA, which is car-centric. You don't want to drive and call at the same time, but on mass transit, which Europe is more geared to, it's not as much of an usability issue - as Andy says. Luca Filigheddu seems unsure, at least about the success of 3G mobile video calling. Jeff Pulver thinks it'd be rather useful. Ken Camp offers his thoughts.

Now not only are these people VoIP bloggers but they are actually involved in the VoIP/ IP Communications industry. Several of them are CEOs/CTOs or consultants for big clients. As Wayne and Garth might have said, "I'm not worthy to discuss IP communications with them," though not to Alice Cooper. I'm no longer in the telecom industry, except for writing about VoIP. I can only say that I think video calling will be great for anyone on the go who either has the discipline not to use it while driving, or who uses public transit. (Also great for real estate agents, to give guided remote tours, as Peter mentions in one of his posts, and as I have before, possibly elsewhere.)

I gave up a lot of things a few years ago when I changed careers to become a freelance writer, so I don't have a car anymore. My headspace has been either passenger or pedestrian for a good 3+ years. Hence, when I think about mobile VoIP and vVoIP (and technology in general), I sometimes forget about the driving- and- talking aspect. Having once been almost sideswiped by a woman who seemed to be trying to do her lipstick and talk on her cell simultaneously, I've always been cautious about driving and talking, preferring handsfree mode. (Now I have a Bluetooth earpiece, but no car :)

The only thing I can think of as a video analog to Bluetooth is to use HUD (heads-up display) goggles, which is part of my ultimate gadget wish list. Some HUDs are unobtrusive, allowing you to see the road ahead. However, that does not mean that they are not distracting. I cannot see anyone successfully driving and conducting video calls, with or without a HUD. A video display mounted in a car dashboard couldn't possibly be much better. However, at least that way, the video mode could be automatically shut off if the ignition is running - only the audio would function. When the ignition turns off (or switches to "park"), the video would turn on. It's mobile video calling, but probably not in the way that the other VoIP bloggers are talking about. Until our cars pilot themselves on roadways, mobile video calling might not do so well in North America.

Having said all this, I should clarify. Recently, I said I'm not keen on video on mobile. What I meant was watching mobile TV on a small screen. For mobile video calls, which would probably last only a few minutes, I don't see a small screen as an issue, and actually look forward to it.

Telecoms Scared Stiff Of VoIP?

My mother, a woman who refuses to have voicemail and who shirks a computer, told me last night that she thought the telephone and cable companies were worried about all this "computer calling". That was in response to my mentioning that she could make some free long distance calls over the computer. Now I assure you, my mother doesn't really know anything about VoIP, other than that I sometimes use my computer to talk to her.

But she is like a spymaster, with a network of two dozen or so people who regularly inform her of goings on in the world. She constantly surprises me with what she's learned, even if it may sometimes be superficial knowledge. She does know that the bottom line is that if she gives in and starts using VoIP, that she'll be saving  money: several hundred dollars per month in her case. And that scares the telecoms. Want more reasons they are worried? Here are 33 reasons why VoIP is destroying traditional telecoms.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like VoIPmas

Check out the "handheld holy grail" feature list of Zack's at the VoIP Service blog, in response to my post asking for your ultimate media gadget's feature list (which in turn was in response to an ABC news article). A very thorough list (but VoIP was so far down it).

Hmm. Santa is going to be busy this year with the big kids. I wonder if he uses Skype or SightSpeed? Or do you figure Gizmo Project? Think anyone has registered "santaclaus" on any of these? That'd be something, wouldn't it? If Peter Csathy put on a jolly suit and answered big kids' video calls on SightSpeed? Well, Santa, I want SightSpeed to run on my Palm Treo, even if I can't do video calling. (I'm sure that if SightSpeed ever sells, he'll be going ho, ho, ho because he'll be rolling in the dough, dough, dough.)

Is Google Like Henry Ford?

A book I once read long ago (Think and Grow Rich) had a story about Henry Ford. It seems someone at a Chicago newspaper accused the inventor of being uneducated. Ford went to court to deal with this libel. He was grilled with all sorts of stupid questions and ultimately end it all with one comment. He basically said that should he need to know something trivial, he had a row of electric buttons on his desk. He could push one, and someone with the answer to whatever he wanted to know would come and supply it.

I'm almost starting to see a bit of parallel - however tenuous - with Google. Someone complained that Google Talk didn't have true VoIP capability because you cannot call to regular phones with it. So what? There's Talqer to do that. And then there's the deal with Skype that hints at some interoperability to come, with click-to-call capability no less.

Then Mark Cuban called Google a moron. Okay, he didn't, but he did say whoever buys YouTube is a moron. And as we know now, Google bought them.

Okay, a tenuous parallel, I agree. Point is, just because Google's web application offerings may not be full-featured does not matter. Because when they need the functionality, they will enter the necessary agreement to acquire that.

And because of this, Google's stock is doing great. It might just become the Berkshire-Hathaway stock of this century: everyone knows it's valuable but most people cannot afford it. (Ever wonder about that? Microsoft stock was always relatively affordable. Google shows no signs up splitting shares.)

More Reasons To Hate Palm Treo: Mobile Video Calling? Not On My Treo

Lately I feel like Jack Nicholson's Joker in Batman, when he says, "Why didn't anyone tell me he had one of those... things?!" about Batman's cool gadgets. Every time a cool mobile app comes out, when I'm done salivating and attempt to try it out for myself, on my Palm Treo 650, I'm finding I often can't. And since more mobile apps than not do not work on PalmOS devices, there are many reasons I hate my Pam Treo now.

One more reason is mobile video calling. I may not go to Star Trek conventions, but I'm the next level down from a Trekkie. I may not want to implant RFID chips into my body, but I walk around in public with a Bluetooth earpiece, and plan to have HUD (heads-up display) goggles and wearable computing when they're more affordable.

So mobile video calling is one thing I've been looking forward to. I love desktop video  calling apps like SightSpeed (even if it's been nearly a week and SightSpeed Support hasn't answered either my voicemail or email), and look forward to a mobile version. Except it won't happen on my Palm Treo. Ever.

Why not? Well, VoIP will eventually work properly on a PalmOS device (or specifically, a Palm Treo). But video calling just can't. The digital camera lens is on the back of the device. Obviously, video calling was not an application they had in mind when the device was designed. I will, of course, be more than happy to be proven wrong.

VoIP Roundup - Mon Oct 23/06

Wi-Fi VoIP Setup: A Clarification
In a previous post, I talked about a municipal Wi-Fi service that had plans in the future to offer VoIP calling plans. A reader had asked about this, as it would seem you could just make a call from a Wi-Fi phone. I'd forgotten about the question until just now. My statement was based on what the press release stated. But assuming you have the right type of Wi-Fi VoiP phone, you should just be able to turn on your phone, access whatever VoIP service you have already signed up for (e.g., Skype on a Skype Wi-Fi phone). Unless, of course, calls are somehow being blocked.

Yahoo Messenger Video-Sharing Plugin
This has to be one of the strangest things I've seen. Yahoo! Messenger 8 has loads of plugins available at the Plugin gallery. There's one just recently announced, the video-sharing plugin, which has a huge red double circle stamped with "REVOKED" over it. No idea what that's about, but it would have been a pretty cool plugin.

8x8 Award VoIP Patents
VoIP Provider 8x8 Inc. was recently awarded two US patents for VoIP technology. The first is called "Voice Over Internet Processor", which is for a programmable audio processor chip for DSP (Digital Signal Processing) functions. The second patent is called "Sensor Controlled Telephone System", for a method to select a telephony operating mode. 8x8 has previously received other IP patents. [sources: Multichannel News, Sys Con]

VoIP + IPTV: CEO Bloggers To Read

The blogosphere supposedly has 50 or 60 million weblogs, even though 80-90% of them are probably zomblogs, abandoned by their creators like Frankenstein's monster. Of what's left, there's the A-listers, B-listers, and those inbetween. My experiience is that the Bs and inbetweeners are the interesting ones, primarily because of their unique commentary, not because they are covering fresh topics. In the blogosphere, there are no fresh topics. Well, that's not true. I'm finding the IPTV to be one of the few niche topics that hasn't been done to death yet. VoIP ranks up there, too, but probably not for long.

There's also another type of blog that is increasingly popping up: the CEO blog, or something of that sort, where an important executive-type person at an important company blogs their thoughts, usually on their industry. Two such blogs are those by Peter Csathy, CEO of SightSpeed, and Janus Friis, billionaire co-founder of Skype and Kazaa. (Prediction: Peter will be a billionaire in a few years, too.)

Both of them are blogging about VoIP (voice and video) and various aspects of IPTV, two.point.five niches of IP (Internet Protocol) communications that are already (becoming) hot topics. Peter talks about SightSpeed TV, and Janus about The Venice Project (TVP). So if you want the lowdown on VoIP and IPTV goings on, these are two blogs you should keep an eye on, as they are heralds of some very cool IP-based software and services to come.

Enterprise: Ways To Marry Skype With IP PBXes

Not too long ago, Pika Technologies announced their bridging solution for Skype and Asterisk, perfect for enterprise use. And there's also VoSKY's solution which combines Skype and an IP PBX, aimed at SMBs. They even have a VoSKY Skype Call Center. And I won't pretend to know exactly what this does, but last week, Instant Solutions released their ChanSkype Skype channel driver for Skype. But from what I gather at O'Reily Emerging Telephony and other sites, it seems like you can use it to run Skype clients off of an Asterisk IP PBX. They tested it off of a Dual Xeon 3.0 Ghz with 6 Gb of memory. Hmmm. Wonder if it might also function as part of a Mac Mini IP PBX, since both Skype and Asterisk can run on one.

Build Your Own IP PBX?

Okay, don't get mislead by that title, but if you saw the slick iBlue IP PBX made from a Mac Mini and don't want to pay 3,000 Euros, Ted at MacVoiP mentions that in his new book VoIP Hacks, there are instructions on how to make your own. In fact, you can even use the open source SIP-based Asterisk IP PBX software. Save even more by using any USB stick; an iPod to boot the system is not necessary. Don't know what a Mac Mini costs, but I'm guessing if you can make your own iBlue-type of IP PBX, it'll cost you far far less than 3,000 Euros. I gotta find me an Apple store somewhere. And a bookstore. And lock myself away to for some VoIP DIY (do-it-yourself) projects.

Why I Now Hate My Palm Treo 650

Okay, this isn't only about VoIP, but it caught my attention. I just noticed that my mobile carrier is offering both mobile TV and mobile radio. They don't support Palm devices, so it now doesn't suprise me that services like Rok/ FreeBe TV, Orb and other mobile TV services don't either. But for $15/mth, my cellular carrier also offers mobile radio, which is really just XM Satellite Radio. Though I'm not keen on video on smartphones, mobile radio is something I'm keen to try but not necessarily buy. That means that after you download the free mobile radio app, and sign up, you've got access to XM's programming. No expensive device to purchase.

A great idea, to be sure, but once again my bloody Palm Treo is not supported. I am seriously regretting this purchase, no matter how much I first loved it. It can't do most of the things that are important to at least try so I can write about them: VoIP (well, not very well; limited), mobile TV, mobile radio. Greatly disappointing. Either my device isn't supported, or my carrier isn't. I hope Palm is paying attention. Instead of making all these new devices, such as the Treo 680, why don't they promote what they have, to get apps working on those devices?

Embedded VoIP: You've Got Gizmo Project In My LiveJournal

FierceVoIP asks, Will bloggers want to talk to each other, referring to the fact that the LiveJournal weblogging  platform now has Gizmo Project embedded into it. Users of LiveJournal (LJ) can see the online status of their "friends" and communicate either with voice or text chat, or leave a message.

If you want to try Gizmo Project for LJ Talk, you'll need a free LiveJournal account first, which involves a ridiculously hard to read captcha graphic (to prove you are human and not a spambot). Then you'll have to choose between two different types of free account or a paid one. (While I like MovableType, a cousin to LJ, I'm not a big fan of LJ.) Finally, you can download the clients (Win 2000, XP = 11.1 Mb; Mac OS X 10.3.9+ = 18.9 Mb). A microphone and headphones (or speakers) are obviously required.

Once you've downloaded and installed LJ Talk, when you run the client, your "presence" will register on your LiveJournal journal pages, to your LJ friends. (This is based on what I can tell from the LJ pages. Since this is essentially Gizmo Project, I have no plan to install it as well.) Now you need some friends to try it on. Go search for and invite people on LJ.

Will you be my friend? If you are like me and have no friends, you can at least use the client to voice post to your LiveJournal weblog, which is a nice feature. If you already have LJ friends, your contact list will be used to populate LJ Talk. I suspect though can't confirm yet that LJ Talk supports click-to-call, whereby someone can click on a "call me" type of button on your LJ journal web pages to initiate a VoIP call with you in your LJ Talk client.

By the way, you can also use a variety of other compatible clients to chat with someone on LJ Talk.

deltathree iConnectHere World Plan VoIP

World Plan is a new VoIP service from iConnectHere, a division of deltathree. As the name suggests, the plan provides international calling at reduced rates. Subscribers can select a phone number from any of twelve countries. Calling plans start at US$6.99/mth. Service features include:

...voicemail, caller ID, 3-way calling, advanced call forwarding and real-time call records

There is also the obligatory free soft client for pc2phone calls, and a Virtual Calling Card that provides toll-free access numbers in 27 countries - allowing you to use you calling plan elsewhere. A $30 signup bonus is given for World Plan, a free broadband plug-and-play phone adapter, and a phone number. See the feature list for more details. [via PRWeb]

deltathree also announced a partnership with telSPACE  to allow MVNOs (Mobile Virtual Network Operators) to offer VoIP and cellular services on a unified platform. The company won the 2005 Product of the Year for iConnectHere, from Internet Telephony magazine. deltathree has been expanding their presence in the Carribean and LatinAmerica, amongst other places.

VoIP Roundup - Mon Oct 16/06

New Bloggers: Sightspeed CEO
Peter Csathy, the CEO of Sightspeed - the video and voice calling software - has joined the ranks of bloggers with his DigtalMediaUpdate weblog. [via VoIP Watch]

AllWorx Wins Telephony Award
The 2006 Internet Telephony Excellence Award, issued by TMC (Technology Marketing Corporation). has been given to Allworx for their 24x VoIP system. Allworx is a division of inSciTek, who earlier this year received US$2M in VC funding to expand their Allworx line of VoIP products.

Intrusion Prevention For VoIP
Industry Canada, an agency of the Canadian government that promotes the "knowledge-based" economy and business innovation, including telecommunications policy, etc., is working with Third Brigade to test "intrustion prevention" technology that safeguards converged networks (data, voice, video). [via InterGovWorld] Brian O'Higgins, co-founder and CTO of Third Brigade will be giving a talk in Ottawa, Canada, on Thurs Oct 19, 2006, about the state of the art of intrusion prevention in computer and network security.

Sightspeed Call-In 800 Numbers

Not sure when this was added, but a quick browse of the Sightspeed website shows that they you can get either a 1-800 or local Phone-In number all over the US. A local US number is US$3.95/mth, which includes free voicemail. A 1-800 number costs only $1.00 per month, plus $0.02/minute for incoming calls. It's only an US toll-free number, though. So they cannot even accept calls from outside the US.

It's not a bad rate for a toll-free number, provided you don't have friends and family outisde the country. Hopefully they'll add support for "international" toll-free numbers, where you can accept calls from (select) other countries. If you are looking for an International toll-free number, try Skynet-tel.com.

The Linux Phones Are Here

Geeks rejoice. Greenphone is the first mobile communication device built on an open Linux platform. The application development platform starts at US$695 for the device (including SDK - software development kit), plus a license fee of $195. The Qtopia Greenphone was announced back in mid-August at LinuxWorld San Francisco, and is offered by Oslo, Norway's Trolltech, who went public in July. The phone was dreamed up in February by Trolltech CEO Benoit Schillings, to be an open phone for development.

Well, the price is steep and the phone is a GSM/ GPRS device, but this could be one fun gadget. And I'm more than certain that if you can get VoIP running on it, you'll be able to set up custom voicemail messages. (Because as any Linux-phile knows, you can do anything with the OS.)

[additional sources: GigaOm via Download Squad]

Now That's What I'm Talking About: Custom Voice Mails

Not long ago, I was bellyaching about wanting a way to produce different voicemail messages for different callers (based on caller id). In fact, some other blogger mentioned something about wanting one voicemail message for his girlfriend/ wife (both?), another for business contacts, and yet another for friends and family. Well YouMail lets you do this. Their initial application rollout is for Verizon, Cingular and T-Mobile cellular subscribers only. Currently, there is only Windows support, with Mac coming soon. More details at YouMail. (As I'm not a subscriber of any of the above providers, I can't test it.)

I'm guessing that even if YouMail doesn't get into the VoIP niche, someone else will come up with similar features for soft phones. I mean, it can't be that hard. All soft phones already know who is calling, if the caller is at least on a soft phone. Now since I have not explored VoIP soft phone and VoIM voicemail all that much, I may have just missed the fact that some of them already have customized voicemails. I'm wagering that if Asterisk cannot already do this, that it wouldn't be all that hard to do so.

[sources: MobileCrunch, Technology Evangelist]

Bluetooth File Transfer Capabilities

The Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group) has declared October as "Bluetooth Transfer Month". They are promoting the fact that Bluetooth can be used to transfer digital content wirelessly between enabled devices including phones, computers, PDAs and other devices. Any two devices with Bluetooth capability and memory have the ability to transfer files to each other. (Whether they actually can is dependent on whether manufacturers have made the functionality available to users.) [via Wireless IQ]

Sample applications include passing digital business cards between phones and PDAs, capturing TV or stage show information from digital billboards and posters, sharing photos and music, and more.  A stage version of the Lord of the Rings included a promotion where special subway posters allowed people to download ringtones using Bluetooth. Obviously, there could be some very interesting social applications.

To help promote the file transfer abilities of Bluetooth, devices that are capable of this will have an "Experience"  icon on the device and packaging. But with VoIM becoming more common on cell phones, Bluetooth file transer usage might increase without the promotional campaign - if the ability is built into the next generation of VoIM clients, for short-range transfer.

SMS Text Messages In Non-Roman Alphabets

While English might be the de facto language in India, especially for business, and usually the first language taught in most schools there, Hindi is the official language. The script known as Devanagiri, and the language both derive from the dead language Sanskrit, which is a sister language of Latin.

The fact that Hindi is written in a non-Roman alphabet makes it complex to when it comes to computers and cell phones. However, Feedelix Wireless has managed to send the first-ever Hindi SMS message from a subscriber in India to another in San Diego, California. Feedelix's HindiVayuSMS software was used. [via Cellular News]

This of course bodes well for other languages that do not use the Roman alphabet. An alternate method would be for one participant to type in English, and for on-the-fly language translation software to convert to Hindi, even in Devanagiri script. This of course is only a partial solution. Other possibilities are to auto-generate Devanagiri script by translating voice input.

Google Is A Moron

At least that's what you would have to deduce from motor-mouth Mark Cuban's recent comment that "you'd have to be a moron to buy YouTube". Cuban later reiterated his dislike. Well, I've always thought Cuban was a moron and a few other choice words besides. Google will likely prove him wrong with their YouTube purchase. They obviously have something worthwhile planned. I cannot recall them ever buying something without a purpose. Whatever you may think of Google's acquisition machine, Sergey Brin and Larry Page each deserve the title of genius.

By the way, Here is Loren Baker's 5 reasons why Google will buy YouTube - obviously written before the actual buyout announcement. Some of those reasons are why they will not be cancelling their click-to-call project.

Quantizing Voice Data For VoIP Applications

One of the great benefits about VoIP and IP telephony in terms of business use is that a voice call now becomes data. What that means, amongst other things, is that a VoIP system adminitrator can manage user accounts invidually or in groups. Access can be given to voice-related data - such as call recordings - in the same manner that computer file access can be given. It also means that a group of people can be given access to long-distance calling, file transfer, application sharing, or what have you, with relative ease. While traditional telephony offers some of these group-access features, VoIP telephony makes it fairly easy to implement advanced features without special phone lines or equipment. As well, VoIP calls are treated as a computer resource, so security is easier to implement.

VoIP As A Teaching Aid

VoIP is increasingly being used in a number of ways that traditional telephony never could. One such way is in online tutoring. Using either a VoIP or VoIM soft client, you have access to a host of free (or inexpensive) functionality ideal for remote teaching: text chat, voice chat, file sharing, video calling, conferencing. Some soft clients, such as AIM Pro, also have the ability to do desktop application sharing. There are even a number of options for collecting payment for your time: Ether or Skype + Jyve.

If you plan to tutor online, using VoIP or VoIM software is an ideal way to supplement the learning experience. See more details at 8 reasons to use VoIP and VoIM in teaching.

Click-To-Call Project Cancellation Hoax Revealed

Believe it or not, Google's official Blogspot blog was hacked over the weekend. Some wag posted, in bad grammar and spelling, that Google's click-to-call project was being cancelled. This of course would be odd considering this project is partly in collaboration with eBay. Click-to-call and VoIP SOA in general are too important a new niche of VoIP for a company as large as Google to suddenly change their minds after signing a big deal. It's not necessarily about immediate costs but more market share.

The Google blog has been hacked before. However,  no one is saying it, but it's probably some disgruntled outgoing employee whose access hadn't been terminated. That makes more sense and is less worrisome than if it was some random hacker outside the company. Om Malik wrote about the official stance from Google.

Protect Kids With IMSafer

VoIP blogger Alec Saunders talks about a new Instant Messaging monitoring tool for parents that has been created by his friend Brandon Watson. Called IMSafer, it would run in the background on a computer, discreetly monitoring IM text conversations and using lexical analysis to determine if the person talking to your child might be a sexual predator. The analysis techniques used are the same used by law enforcement.

I have no children myself, but this is a wonderful idea. It's unfortunate that we need these things, but we do. And with VoIP use becoming more widespread, maybe someone can marry voice-to-text translation with something like KishKish lie detector for Skype and come up with something that can protect people from vishers.

Sightspeed: SMBs and Video Conferencing

Back when I was working on a Master's degree, one class I was in was part of a trial with another nearby university. The course was being jointly taught by two professors, one in each town. The room my class was in was a small amphitheatre with a large screen usually obscured by the overhead projector's screen. The other university had a similar setup. Occasionally, our lecturer would turn on the transmission and we'd see the other professor, who would conduct the rest of the lecture - or vice versa with our professor. This only happened a few times during the semester, and the transmission was over a satellite link. It was video-conferencing of a sort, but very expensive, if I recall.

This was back around 1993-4. I know the room is still there, although I don't know if they still use the satellite link. The campus had access to the "web" back then, which consisted only of email, ftp, gopher, archie, newsgroups, etc., access. The full Internet was only a few months away. Today, there is Wi-Fi across parts of the campus, accessible if you have a student or alumni account. But video-conferencing is not only a lot more accessible these days but far less expensive. Anyone with an internet connection and a video-calling soft phone like Sightspeed can have a video conference.

In fact, several SMBs (small and medium businesses) in the United States are using video-calling functionality. A small teacher certification business in Texas uses Sightspeed's video-conferencing feature to communicate with their students. The founder of a consulting firm also uses Sightspeed to communicate with both clients and colleagues (in another office). Yet another company uses Skype and the Festoon add-on, which bridges both video and voice calls between Skype and Google Talk.

VoIP itself can save a small business. Video conferencing can save a business even more, coupled with the ability to share clickable URLs, documents and desktop applications, the need to travel even locally between offices can be reduced significantly. This not only saves money but valuable time.

More VoIP Advantages Over Traditional Telephony

The Yankee Group has a report suggesting that soft phones (Skype, Gizmo Project, Sightspeed, Hullo) and IMs (Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Aim Pro, Google Talk) are moving into a new voice applications such as click-to-call, an area that tradtional telcos and cellular carriers just cannot follow into easily.

Click-to-call and other VoIP SOA (service-oriented architecture) offerings are gaining in popularity with service providers. Google is already planning a click-to-call service with eBay. Adobe plans to embed VoIP into Flash media players, which are fairly common on some websites - especially with the rise of embedded streaming video in personal and professinal weblog-style websites.

[sources: VoIP Magazine]

Lights, Camera, Sightspeed

MTV is looking for VJs for their Total Request live show, which often features Sightspeed-driven videos by fans. Sightspeed is arguably the best video-calling VoIP soft phone available. Andy Abramson talks about the MTV casting call and some of the positive aspects of this development, including a new type of social interaction enabled by VoIP.

Earlier this year, Skype promoted a special contest for fans of alt-rock band Coldplay. The two young women who won got to Skype with members of the band for several minutes. Now consider the Japanese TV broadcasting via Skype. So there is great potential for celebrities to connect with fans via IPTV over VoIP IMs, either live or recorded. And with video interaction through Sightspeed, Skype or similar soft phones, citizen video could become the source of unique TV or IPTV content, such as 11 Cameras (which is supposedly a view of the lives of several people via 11 video or webcams viewed through instant messengers).

Free Public iKiosk VoIP Phones

Ginny Granger writes about a network of free public VoIP phones called iKiosks in Aberdeen, Scotland. The iKiosks offer free email, videomail, internet access, and free VoIP phone calls. Calls are based on software similar to Skype. Robert Gordon University is one of the first iKiosk sites.

This is a marked contrast to SJSU (San Jose State University) in California (and other universities) where they had planned to ban the use of Skype on campus but later reversed their decision. Maybe something like iKiosk would be more to the university's liking? Free public phohes is a radical idea. In Australia and other places, public VoIP pay phones are being rolled out.

Skype From Mobile: SoonR - Take 2

Song Huang from SoonR responded in detail to my original post about Sooner, as well as a post about soft VoIP for mobile devices. SoonR is an application that lets you not only make Skype calls from your mobile phone or PDA, but it also lets you view your desktop applications. Apparently it can render all kinds of information on your phone including Powerpoint slides, AutoCad and Illustrator drawings, and PDF documents.

Except that I couldn't get it to work, other than being able to view my desktop's folders. I couldn't get a simple text file, nor could I use the Skype feature to phone a friend. Actually, I could, but when SoonR called my cell, I was still on data mode and it went to voicemail. So the friend I was trying to call heard my voice mail instead of me.

According to Song's response to my problems with SoonR on my Palm Treo 650, it appears that I missed a few details. Treos are problematic, especially on EV-DO networks. (At least, I think that's the issue. Palm devices using Microsoft Pocket PC don't have the problem.) SoonR allows you to set a delay so that you can switch from data over to phone mode. I missed that. But then, I missed that setting for a few apps. Delays are how Mino Wireless and EQO Mobile both get around the Treo data network problem. (Though at least Mino's is automatic, and EQO might be as well.) So if you are having similar problems with SoonR on Palm OS-based smartphones/ PDAs, try configuring the delay setting.

Now I guess I have to add SoonR to the growing list of VoIP/ voice apps that I have to try or re-try. But assuming that it will work for me now, with all the features it has, it's an incredibly cool application. At least in theory. While it'd be very nice to have access to apps like Outlook, Powerpoint, Illustrator, and PDF, it's like I said about Cognos announcement about running their business intelligence software on Blackberry devices. Basically, the app may be cool, but all of them suffer from the fact that mobile devices typically have such small viewing screens.

What I'd like to see - although I am a geek - is a HUD (heads-up display) that I can connect to my PDA, and a simple interface - possibly a wired glove (maybe even RFID) to actually interact with the application as simply as possible. This is about the only way I'd care about running complex apps or viewing complex data on the go. (That and a better cellular data plan.) Even my relatively large Palm Treo 650 screen won't cut it for me.

Single Geek Male Seeks Single Toll-Free VoIP Number

The VoIP Girl and others recently cancelled their Vonage account. VG is switching to something else. What VoIP service did she switch to? She hasn't decided yet, but it appears she has some choices, including using a virtual number call-forwarded to her softphone. She wants a local number (to her).

This approach could be interesting, but I'd want a single toll-free VoIP number. A few years back, just after I stopped working for a large telecom, I paid for a personal 800 toll-free number through their cellular division. It just happened that I did a lot of commuting: live in one city, work in two others, meetings for personal projects in others, hang out with friends in yet another, promote bands in still more. All in a single day or week. I didn't want people to have to spend a fortune trying to call me.

At first, I had a local cell phone number, but if I took that phone with me out of town and someone called me from my hometown, then it became a long distance charge for them. Then I got a second cell phone but with an area code in the city I spent most of my work day in. But that didn't quite work either. I then switched to a regional 800 toll-free number and my friends and business contacts were very happy. It only cost me about $35 per month, which beat the $200-300+ that I would have spent calling everyone myself. Except some weird politics developed between two big cellular providers and the 800 numbers on mobile phones option was cancelled in my area.

This was a whlie ago. Now I work almost completely from home, and don't travel much at present. Anyone I know that's geographically separated from me has a computer and I talk to them via IM (Instant Messaging), email, or a VoIP soft phone. Most of the time. But being the nomadic wanderer that I am, I'm planning to move yet again. Anyone I know locally right now would want to call me at my new town via a regular phone, not from a soft phone. (Don't ask. Maybe it's something in the water, but I can't convince anyone I know locally to get a soft phone. They don't mind IMs; soft phones they don't understand, or maybe don't like. Oh the shame.)

That means, to save everyone the long distance charges that would occur, I'd want a single call-in number linked to a softphone. Sure, I'll still have my Palm Treo 650, but it'll have a new local number after I move. I want something that isn't going to cost people money. Sure, Gizmo Project has a free 775 area code-based number, but that doesn't give you toll-free - as far as I can tell from the area 775 FAQ.

What I want is a single VoIP plan with a toll-free number attached to a quality soft-phone. Could be wrong, but I don't think anyone has that yet. This means that I'll probably have to get a landline (haven't had one in over 10 years) with an 800 number and forward it to a VoIP Call-In number. This isn't quite the same as VoIP Girl, since she wants a local number. I don't. I plan to be doing a lot of travelling before the end of this decade, for business and pleasure, and a single (toll-free) VoIP number would be best, for friends, family, and contacts. Of course, if I could get this number for fully-functioning mobile VoIP on my Palm Treo, I'd be even happier, and gladly pay for it. And before the end of the decade, please. Then I wouldn't have to worry about which VoIP soft client everyone was using.

Speaking of toll-free numbers, TipMonkies points to a site called Hardtofind800numbers.com. Speaks for itself, I think.

Skype Ubiquitous On Mobile Phones? Not Just Yet

So it's not just me. According to a CRN article, Skype on mobile phones and PDAs has some technical hurdles to cover before it'll function correctly. Skype CEO and co-founder Niklas Zennstrom specifically mentioned Symbian phones being more difficult than expected. PocketPC-based phones and PDAs do have Skype, but a lot of other mobile communication devices do not. Or when there is a Skype-related mobile solution, such as SoonR, there are still technical glitches, depending on your phone. So I can almost sympathize with Zennstrom.

In fact, Skype isn't really the only VoIP service having this problem of achieving ubiquity on mobile devices. I've had little luck getting anything to work on Palm Treo 650, a very specific phone. Mino Wireless works, and Chris from EQO says that EQO Mobile should work, too. (I'll try it this weekend.) But as for actual mobile Skype, well Niklas Zennstrom says that have nothing to offer yet and no timetable besides.

Too bad. I guess I'll be waiting with bated breath, and keep my outrageously expensive cellular wireless data network plan going in anticipation. Wonder how many additional active users Skype'll gain when they do go mobile? Maybe Skype needs to start acquiring a few companies with some of that US$2.6B they got from eBay last year. In the meantime, though, Skype-specific Wi-Fi and dual-mode phones do seem to work, so you might want to consider one of those for a bit of mobility.

Skype File Transfer: Unusal Uses

Have a Skype-certified mobile device but no appropriate USB cable handy? You might be able to transfer files to the device using Skype's file transfer feature. Skype Blogs has a post about a reviewer who managed to transfer music files to a Sony Mylo media player and wireless Skype VoIP phone via file transfer. (Sony didn't send him an USB cable.)

You can also use this feature to transfer files between two of your own computers. Really, that's no different than if you were just sharing files with someone else. I work daily on both my laptop and desktop computers for overlapping purposes and have two different Skype accounts, and two different Google Talk and GMail accounts. (Google Talk recently got the file transfer feature.)

I suppose I could just as well use either of my wired or wireless networks and Windows Explorer for a file transfer, but this is easier because I don't have to expose my directories to sharing, and then unshare them each time. My home network stays secure. BTW, here's a link if you want a quick overview of various Skype features.

GTalk2VoIP: Combining Google Talk And MSN Messenger

Not so long ago, I was lamenting that Google Talk didn't have true VoIP (until Talqer), and despite being based on an open VoIP standard, it could not communicate with more popular IM (Instant Messaging) clients such as MSN Messenger (now called Windows Live Messenger), Yahoo Messenger, or Skype (although Festoon Unity tried). Well  now it can, at least with MSN, using GTalk2VoIP. No software to download. Just add an email address to your Google Talk contacts and fire away.

Well, I just tried GTalk2VoIP a few minutes ago, and honestly, besides the annoyingly loud background music (Guns'n'Roses?!! bleah), the whole setup involves a text menu with a list of options that you have to choose from. Most people want transparency in their phone calls, VoIP or otherwise. They don't want to have to enter a command, nor memorize the list. sorry, but it's way too complicated for wide spread use. (Look, I'm an old-school Unix/ Linux person, but I don't want a command line program for my VoIP client.)

VoIP Roundup - Wed Sep 27/06

EverywhereNet: Might As Well Be On Mars?
Ted Wallingford posted a fascinating article, EverywhereNet is on peoples' minds, in response to Andy Abramson's discussion of something called Open Net. It's new territory for me, and I honestly don't think I can sum it up for you just yet. But if you are interested in reading about ideas for a better national and global IP infrastructure, I suggest you read them both.

Forget iPhone?
Cynthia Brumfield points to David Pogue's NY Times discussion of the rumoured Apple iPhone (not to be confused with the SIP-based iPhone from Teledex). Basically, forget about it.

Jajah Mobile Suite No Threat?
Russell Shaw weighs in with his nine reasons why Jajah Mobile Suite is no threat to cell or VoIP. Common thread: people with existing cellular or VoIP subscriptions are unlikely to switch.

SJSU OK's Skype
Phil Wolff reports at Skype Journal that, reversing an earlier decision to ban Skype on campus, SJSU (San Jose State University) has okayed the popular soft phone for now. The post also has a nice summary of the reasons why Skype would be beneficial to the university. Bravo on both counts.

VoIP and SOA

With click-to-call and embedded VoIP apps gaining popularity (witness Adobe's plan to embed VoIP in Flash players and Google's deal with eBay/ Skype), you can expect to see more offerings like BlueNote Network's SessionSuite SOA software [eWeek]. SOA, or Service-Oriented Architecture, software is hot in the web services arena. SessionSuite essentially allows developers to build web telephony CRM apps that work together as a suite.

SessionSuite does not require any hardware (other than a web server) to bulid voice data applications with. Software such as this, some people feel, spells the future of VoIP and the beginning of extremely sophisticated voice-based online applications.

10 VoIP Soft Phones and Soft Services

This is a quick list of some of the soft phones and software-based services covered here in the past year. It's not a complete list, and is not an endorsement of any particular soft VoIP client. By "software-based services", I mean VoIP services such as Jajah, which does not use a soft phone but from which calls are initiated via a web page or other software. Also included are text IM clients which have VoIP features. Here they are, in alphabetical order:

1. AIM Pro.
2. Gizmo Project.
3. Google Talk.
4. Hullo.
5. Jajah.
6. Sightspeed.
7. Skype - there are a lot of articles about Skype here, so here's the actual Skype site.
8. Talqer (gives true soft VoIP features to Google Talk, or runs on its own).
9. Wengo.
10. Yahoo Messenger.

Windows Live Messenger has only been covered piecemeal here, over numerous posts, so it's not mentioned. There are other VoIP-related software that works in tandem with some of the above-mentioned softphones, but not by themselves. As such, they haven't been mentioned here.

By the way, check out the article 10 Skype Alternatives for a few more softphone options.

Mino Wireless Reaches 100,000 Users

After seven months since they launched, Mino Wireless has reached 100,000 users. I wrote about Mino Wireless last month. Of all the mobile VoIP solutions I've tried, it's the only one that actually worked for me on my Palm Treo 650. Not only did it work (I used the complimentary free minutes), when I called my father on his landline (cordless phone), he said the call quality was far better than when I called him on Skype or even Hullo from my computer. Given that that's the case, I'm surprised more people have not signed up.

Despite Mino being the only one that's worked, EQO has promised me that in an upcoming revision of their service, they should be supporting Palm Treos as well. Like many mobile VoIP services, Mino works by temporarily using your Java-enabled smartphone/ PDA's cellular wireless connection to access the Internet and establish a call. It then gets off the Internet and gives you a chance to switch your phone back into cellular mode. You then receive a call from their VoIP bridging service. Once you answer, it calls your target party.

For other mobile VoIP providers, see Soft VoIP for your mobile devices or Skype for the mobile warrior.

Let The Embedding (of VoIP) Begin

There's a lot of buzz the past few days about Adobe working on some VoIP project, possibly to embed VoIP from within a flash video player. Om Malik is credited with breaking the story. Bruce Stewart, Tom Keating, Ken Camp, Phil Wolff, and no doubt others have weighed in on the news.

Maybe it's Friday, when I tend to be jaded and play devil's advocate, but I don't see this as particularly surprising or big news. Isn't this really kind of an extension of click-to-call VoIP? At the least, it's embedded VoIP which, while a hot subniche, is already working from web browsers, Microsoft Outlook, and other programs.

But at least with those programs, there's some semblance of relevance for having VoIP-calling, as a phone number will be part of the information. Even if a Flash video has an extra tag for a phone number, how ubiquitous is Flash anyway? (Despite what the other VoIP bloggers are saying.)

Every web design site I've read in the past year cautions people to go easy on Flash-driven content because it's not indexable in the search engines. And it takes time to load, which drives away visitors on slower connections (not everyone has broadband yet).

Nevertheless, while I may not like that Adobe bought out Macromedia, it's an interesting idea and I wish them luck with the Flash-VoIP features. It could certainly be useful for live help sites that want to add VoIPability. [Note: After I wrote this low-key diatribe, I read Tom's piece, which says the Flash player has already had VoIP capability since early 2002. That's a surprise to me, but I still maintain my jaded opinion.] On the other hand, click-to-call types of embedded VoIP applications just might make soft VoIP clients obsolete.

More Mobile VoIP Solutions: iSkoot, Fring

There are a couple of recent mobile VoIP offerings that maybe noteworthy. First, Ken Camp talks about fring, a beta offering that is PC-free. It only works for 3G phones and allows mobile-to-PC calls to Skype and Google Talk, as well as other calling combos. It can be downloaded into your handset via SMS text messaging and all calls are free. Just pay for your cellular data network. Unfortunately, as it currently only supports seven Nokia phone models, I can't test it on my Palm Treo 650. Let's hope they follow up with other mobile phone and PDA support.

The other recent offering is iSkoot, also in beta, which is referred by a lot of VoIP/ comm websites as Skype-on-mobile phones. That's because it works with Skype. Fortunately, for me anyway, this one now offers support for Treo 650 and 700p PDA phones (in addition to Motorola, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson). Unfortunately for me, while trying to register with iSkoot, I was unable to enter my full Skype id. Curses!! Foiled again. How much effort would it have been for them to add a few more characters to the form field for Skype id? I'd have to register yet another Skype id just to try iSkoot.

Well, if none of these offerings are for you, there are a number of other mobile soft VoIP options for you mobile warriors.

VoIP Roundup - Thur Sep 21/06

Thomson + Skype Offer Dual-Mode Skype Phone
Thomson and Skype are aiming a new wireless handset at Skype-lovers who want to maintain the ability to make both landline and Skype calls. The GE DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Technology) 6.0 wireless handset (GE Model 28300EE2) has an MSRP of US$149. The set has 120 hours of standby time, 10 hours of talk time. The system is expandable up to six handsets, which can be placed around your home. Read about the feature set at Skype blogs.

Brazil: Mobile Phone Lines Exceed Fixed Lines
The current number of mobile phone lines (12.3M) in Brazil are twice the number of fixed lines (6.5). [via Cellular-News]

Yahoo Messenger Plugins: Learn Languages
Someone's gotten smart and created an interesting way to learn a language, in this case Vietnamese. The Peacemoon plugin for Yahoo! Messenger supports four types of quizzes. While it's designed for Vietnamese, a note in the description welcomes other users.

VoIP Roundup - Wed Sep 20/06

Cable VoIP Really Gaining Ground
Cable giant Comcast is so pleased with their one million VoIP customers that they are apparently adding 4000 new jobs [GigaOm]. as Om says, it's proof of the success that cablecos will enjoy because of offering triple play services. People want simplicity, and getting a single bill each month satisfies that demand. Comcast only got into the VoIP business earlier this year.

New VoIP Consortium Member: Anue Systems
The University of New Hampshire's Interoperability Lab is overseeing a VoIP Consortium, where members can jointly test products with a VoIP system emulator as well as variety of hardware and software provided by Consortium members. Anue Systems is the latest member. Get more details at TMC Net.

Intel Offering Plug'n'Play VoIP Development Kit
Intel is branching out into other hardware arenas with a development kit for plug'n'play VoIP. The kit, the Intel UPDI (Universal Phone Device Interface), consists of a software framework that is intended as a uniform platform for soft phone and hardware device interfaces. [via MyBroadband] Earlier this year, Intel launched a phone adapter to allow VoIP calls over regular phones.

VoIP Roundup - Tues Sep 19/06

What's Digium's VoIP Business Strategy?
Garrett Smith reflects on what he thinks might be Digium's plan of action for their future. Digium is the company that offers the Asterisk breed of SIP-based open standard IP PBXes and related software and hardware. While they've been giving away their software, presumably to sell their hardware and support services, Garrett thinks that Digium may take a different approach now that they have US$13 M in venture capital. Go have a read.

Cable VoIP Gaining Ground
Vonage may have reached 2 million subscribers for its true VoIP service, but  cable VoIP providers in Canada and the US scored over a million new subscribers in Q2 2006. This isn't it all suprising, since cable companies have the advantage of offering a "triple play" of services, including TV programming, telephony, and Internet access in a convenient bundle.

Summary of Weak + Strong Areas For VoIP
Light Reading has a recap of a report from Keynote Systems of some areas that VoIP is either lagging behind in or ahead of traditional telephony. And if you're in the mood for overview, Andy Oram at O'Reilly Net summarizes the report from VON. Both articles are worth reading.

Cognos Biz Analysis S/W For BlackBerry

As Blackberry PDAs and phones gain more market penetration, we're probably going to see more high-end software being ported over. One such package is Cognos Inc's business intelligence software, which will be offered for Blackberries [CRN] in early 2007.  That's likely to include the new Blackberry Pearl mobile phone.

But as the CRN article implies, getting the user screens right is going to be a challenge when screen real estate is so minimal. I don't know about you, but I think that complex software really has no place on today's mobile devices.

On the other hand, if someone comes up with affordable HUDs (Heads-Up Displays) - which have an effective real estate of a large-screen TV, and that don't make you look like a Cyborg - as well as some ingenius, simple method of data entry outside of a keyboard (say a one handed keyboard or eye-tracking tech) and makes it all affordable... Well, then now we're talking. Complex software can have a place on mobile devices. Until then, though, only the simplest of applications, including mobile VoIP, are really all that are likely to get used.

Online Music Collaboration, VoIP Chatting, and Social Networking: Rype

About two years ago, I was helping a young musician develop some confidence in his guitar-playing abilities. (I had spent several years booking bands for shows and promoting local musicians in the past, so I decided to help this immensely talented young man.) Because we worked conflicting schedules at the time, we oftened chatted using MSN Messenger. in text mode. At that point, I'd forgotten that Messenger had rudimentary VoIP (pc2pc only) capabilities.

When my friend, A, initiated a voice chat, I was impressed. At least for a few seconds, until I realized how crappy call quality was (probably mostly due to my then poor wireless signal). But he pulled out his guitar across town and played for me some of the new songs he'd composed. I reviewed them with him. Despite the quality issue, it was quite a heady experience.

Fast forward a couple of years and VoIP call quality has improved - at least for some soft clients. I lost touch with A, because of his strange work hours, and last I heard, he was a bit disheartened about not being able to collaborate and thus gave up writing new songs. (Unfortunate, because he has the talent to be the next John Mayer or Dave Matthews, his fave.)

His biggest problem was finding people to collaborate with when he was actually at home, on his computer, too tired to go meet with anyone to jam in person. Well, budding musicians will be happy to know about Rype, a desktop application that appears to be the ultimate tool for musical collaboration in the global village.

Rype is from guitar.com, but it's not quite available yet, so what I'm telling you is based on the wee bit of text at the site, and the screenshots. And it really looks impressive. Rype will let you record, edit, and produce music, and has a built-in social network. So I assume that regardless of where you are, you'd be able to find someone awake to collaborate with. And when you do finish a song, you'll be able to sell them on iTunes. Brilliant or what?

This is one of those "killer" apps VoIP, and I can't wait to get my hands on it, even if it costs money. (No indication either way.) And if it's as good as it looks, or maybe even if not, it'll probably spawn a dozen copycats/ competitors. First it was online games using VoIP, now this. What's next?

[Found via Skype Journal, but the actual permalink doesn't work, so I haven't supplied it.]

VoIP Roundup - Fri Sep 15/06

President Asks For Warrantless Wiretaps
US president George Bush is asking for warrantless wiretaps, particularly in relation to prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. [via CNBC TV] Recently, US District Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ordered a halt to the wiretapping program, concluding in her report that warrantless wiretapping is unconstitutional. CALEA allows a backdoor for law enforcement agencies to wiretap calls if public security is threaten. However, the wiretapping program in question was secretly signed by President Bush in 2001.

Telus Corp Wins 5-Yr Telecom Contract
The government of the Province of Ontario (Canada) awarded Telus Corp (second-largest Canadian phone company) a five-year, Cdn$140 M contract to manage and supply various network services, including IP communication. [via CNW] Telus recently announced that they were converting to an income trust.

Yahoo Messenger Plugins: Pandaf Sudoku Battle
Not sick of the immensely popular Sudoku number puzzles? The Pandaf Sudoku Battle plugin for Yahoo! Messenger 8 lets you battle against an opponent. I assume you race to finish first. This is of course quite the variation on the puzzle, as it's traditionally a one-player challenge.

Stratus Techologies Acquires Emergent
  Stratus Technologies announced the US$10 M buyout of Emergent Network Solutions [Extreme VoIP], a VoIP infrastructure company.

Free Conferencing On Yahoo Messenger

Yahoo is offering free conferencing calling for users of their text and VoIP IM (Instant Messaging) client, Yahoo! Messenger. The service is called ConFreeCall and is sourced from Vapps, Inc.

However, unlike other soft VoIP clients such as Skype, you have to download something to do conference calls. The conferences will reputedly be able to handle up to 500 participants on one call, and one person can act as moderator by announcing participants and controlling volumne, etc.. [via eWeek]

The moderator function is a definite plus. As I've mentioned previously, something like Roberts Rules of Order is necessary for successful moderation of conference calls.

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.

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.

Online Role Playing Games Add IP Communications

RPGs (Role Playing Games) are a type of online game that involves multiple players online at the same time. MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games) have been popular for several years and have spawned a whole subculture. One acquaintance of mine would play for up until 30 hours straight when he was out of work. Now, as a baker, he has to get up early and can't play as often. But on his days off, he's back to the mega-sessions, playing up to 15-20 hours straight.

One of things he repeatedly asked me to check on (before I started writing about VoIP) was a way for his clan (forgive me if that's the wrong term) to be able to talk to each other simultaneously without paying a fortune for some company's subscription fee. Now that was last year, before I knew about free VoIP conferencing. But his clanmistress was ultimately happy with her choice. However, their choice was not integrated into the game they were playing - meaning that while playing the RPG, they would have to use a separate web browser window (or tab) to start a conversation using another service.

Enter a new generation of RPGs, with integrated VoIP. A new RPG, Fallen Earth, by Icarus Studios, will have IP communications integrated right into the software. Another company, BigWorld, is producing a new RPG development suite which will have VoIP capabilities built-in. Both are a couple of new customers [Mass High Tech] for Vivox Inc.'s integrated IP communications platform and development software.

While there are a growing number of voice data applications, I believe this is a new direction for VoIP. I'm not otherwise aware of any of the more popular online games having this ability. Though I wouldn't be surprised to see, in a few years, RPGs with video capability and even video avatars, where a person appears as their character, in real-time. And then a whole new generation of sleep-deprived players will be swept in.

Enterprise VoIP: Pika Combines Skype and Asterisk

Big news on the enterprise VoIP front. Pika Technologies, Inc., a Canadian call center services company, has come up with a solution that seamlessly combines Skype and Asterisk. Free plus free equals free. Get more details on Bill Campbell's post at Skype Journal, or the Pika press release.

Wow. It's amazing how flexible Skype seems to be, considering it's not open source like Asterisk. Regardless, anyone with a small business should be salivating at this news. This sounds like the perfect enterprise VoIP soution, both for SMBs (aka SMEs) and large enterprises. And here even Skype was saying last November about how it wasn't suited for enterprise use. Pika (and Asterisk) save the day. Expect to see an aftermarket of solutions and hardware for Pika.

VoIP Roundup - Thur Sep 07/06

Vonage Needs To Watch Their Back
Vonage may have passed the two million subscriber mark, but apparently cable providers aren't too far behind. Om Malik adds that Vonage has already spent over half a billion dollars to get those 2 mln customers, but needs 3 mln more to make a profit.

New Yahoo Messenger Plugin: Typing East Indian Scripts
For our East Indian readers, you may like to check out the ChitChat plugin from Vishal Monpara for Yahoo! Messenger 8. With it, you can type text in eight different East Indian scripts including Hindi.

Oregon: Wi-Fi Investment Leader
According to a study of all 50 US states, Oregon leads in Wi-Fi investments.

US East Coast VoIP Services
The areas of Boston, New York, Philly, and D.C. will have new VoIP services offered to SMBs (Small and Medium Business, aka SMEs) from a partnership formed by BroadSoft, Inc., and mindSHIFT Technologies. Broadsoft is a VoIP app software provider and mindSHIFT is a managed services provider. The VoIP service will work through hosted PBXes. [via New Telephony]

Blackberry Pearl Camera Phone

RIM's blackberry line gets a camera phone next week. The Blackberry Pearl has a 1.3 megapixel camera, media player (audio and video), a microSD card slot, trackball, and fairly largish looking screen. [see Computer Business News for some details, and BBHub for loads of pictures and details about file format capabilities.]

I did not see any indication of its ability to VoIP, but that doesn't mean it can't. Regardless, it's good to see that RIM has gotten past the lawsuit that NTP had levied on them and moved on to doing what they do best - making cool mobile communication devices. I'm guessing this phone is new territory for them. By the way, there's a Google Talk client for Blackberry devices.

New Treo 750 Phone From Palm?

Seems that Vodaphone, a Palm vendor, mistakenly released details of the new Treo 750v. But if you're still contemplating the 700WX, here are some incentives: free 1Gb card, rebate for Treo 650 trade-in, free overnight. Thanks, but I just bought my Treo 650. It works fine, so why would I trade it for only $125? (Then again, I picked mine up for $199 for a three-year contract that I would have signed anyway.) But now that I know I can actually use mobile VoIP on it (sort of), after a few failed attempts, I'm pretty happy with it. And I don't really ant to reinstall all that software.

VoIP Call Quality Now Better Than PSTN?

ITWire has a story which quotes a testing company named Minacom. Minacom is claiming that VoIP phone service "now sounds better and connects faster" than PSTN phone service. This is based on data they collected over twelve months, and only applies to VoIP services offered by cable providers and telcos. The test uses a standard measure called an MOS (Mean Opinion Score). Minacom's test contradicts Brix Networks' recent report saying that quality is declining. However Brix measured opinion on soft VoIP and pc2pc only calls.

Having tried only soft VoIP services, I can't comment on Minacom's findings, except to say that I can see how phone2phone VoIP calls, using a plug'n'play adapter and a broandband internet connection, would be fairly high quality. As for soft VoIP, it's definitely not true. Not in my experience, anyway. Basically, the more software of any type that you have running on your computer, the lower your call quality is going to be.

As laptops tend to have less RAM than desktops, they are the worst for call quality. That's true even if one party in the conversation has a powerful desktop, as I recently found out when calling a friend on his laptop. My laptop with 512 Mb didn't fare much better, unless I pretty much closed all programs. Which is why I switched to making most of my calls on my desktop. High soft VoIP call quality requires optimum computing power.

My experience with my desktop (1 Gb RAM, dual processor) is that pc2pc calls are almost as high quality as regular phone2phone. (As I've said, I haven't tried a VoIP adapter or VoIP phones.) It's when there's a mix of pc and phone in a VoIP call that quality seems to go down. However, according to a couple of people that I've called on both Skype and Hullo, Hullo calls were almost as if I were calling from a regular phone.

So quality from soft VoIP services seems to be increasing, but I think VoIP as a whole has a ways to go yet. Better quality VoIP phones and faster connection speeds would make a difference. We might even find faster microprocessors in VoIP phones, or special VoIP-dedicated chips in the next generation of computers, just like graphics cards were eventually dedicated to computer screen management. A dedicated VoIP computer chip, either in computers or phones, would go a long way towards improving call quality. (If there are VoIP-dedicated chips, I'm not aware of them. Let me know.)

VoIPcasting: Recording VoIP and Podcasting

If you're running Skype and want to record your conversations, VoIP-Sol lists 15 voip recording applications (10 for Windows, 5 for Mac) specifically for Skype. If you are using something other than Skype, there's our posts: Recording Your VoIP Calls and How To Record VoIP Calls - Reader Q+A.

What you do with your recordings is your business, but if you plan to podcast them online and have or plan to use Asterisk IP PBX, here's Nerd Vittles' lowdown for a podcast studio using your phone and a free podcast hosting service called Gabcast. Gabcast lets you record podcasts from a phone or using VoIP.

You can actually use Gabcast from any soft VoIP client that has pc2phone capabilities, so you don't really need a sophisticated setup to make a podcast. I used a cheap microphone and Skype. As long as you follow the rules for good VoIP quality, your VoIPcasts will be of reasonably good quality as well. If you're opting for a very professional production, there are all kinds of audio equipment you could look at, and which I might discuss in the future, if readers are interested.

Gabcast: Free Podcast Creation And Hosting

Gabcast is a new podcast hosting service which lets you create podcast episodes simply by calling one of their phone numbers, from either a telephone or via VoIP. There are three different monthly service plans, with the basic one being free. Setup is easy, and once you've created your podcast channels and epsiodes, you can embed their MP3 player into your website/ weblog with relative ease. (They also have VoIP conferencing, but I didn't look into that.)

They have a list of phone numbers you can use, with a toll-free number applicable to all of the United States, so calling in might be free as well, depending on where you are. You could also use Skype's free SkypeOut for anyone in Canada and the US (until Dec 31st), or Hullo, which seems to be free to anywhere right now.

The basic (free) plan gives you 200 Mb of disk space. Each episode that you record can only be up to 60 minutes in duration, regardless of plan. If you embed an MP3 player on your website, you can allow listeners to leave audio comments, or you can disable that. (See the Gabcast site for more details.)

I tried some of the features of the service, first creating a channel, then using Skype to call in. I recorded a couple of minutes, reading off of a blog post I'd written, reviewed it, then saved it. The same issues of VoIP call quality apply for podcasts made using VoIP, so keep that in my mind when you try this or similar services. Verdict: easy to use, for the most part, and fun - especially when you don't have to pay.

Can't Get Skype? HeyU Will Help

As previously reported, a number of countries, including China, Oman, UAE, ban the use of Skype and sometimes VoIP altogether. (Some cellular networks in North America ban the use of VoIP by customers.) People in Dubai have reportedly gone to great lengths to get around the Internet blocks, but apparently HeyU has figured a way around. And for $25, they'll let you download a copy from an unblocked link. Keep in mind that your country might consider this illegal. If that's true, it's probably unlikely that you're reading this post anyway. They have a couple of other options, including a secure site and a SkypeOut voucher. See ITP Technology or VoIP Weblog for more details.

Personally, despite my belief in freedom of speech, I think that this is a really bad idea. There's no evidence either way whether or not HeyU is legit. I'm not saying that they are not, but for your computer's safety, I wouldn't recommend downloading VoIP software except from the original vendor. If you cannot get it that way, and you are willing to circumvent your country's law, at least get your software from a reliable source, such as a friend or family member, who in turn goes to the proper source. This way, you're less likely to be installing spyware-ridden software.

AIM Pro 1.1 Gets Desktop Sharing

If you haven't already seen it advertised all over the place online, AOL's AIM Pro text/ VoIP IM client is available for free download. This version, which is aimed at business professional, is integrated with Microsoft Outlook, has added security, and has a One-Click WebEx meeting feature by which you can run presentations and collaborate on documents in real-time. The latter is basically application and desktop sharing. Of course, AIM Pro has text-, voice- and video-calling.

I downloaded a copy to both my desktop and laptop, and tried the voice calling first. It's hard to tell when you're talking to yourself, but the pc2pc call quality for my setup (over wireless router connected to cable Internet) sounded fine. I don't have two webcams, so I didn't bother with that feature, but I did try the desktop sharing. It's considerably slow, but it works. In fact, it shares EVERYTHING on your computer, so you'd better be working with people you trust. For me, it's great because I work simultaneously on both computers and was only the other day wishing I could view my laptop screen from my desktop. Well now I can, and I can share apps and transfer files without sharing my hard drives or folders - which possibly opens up my private network to wireless lurkers.

While AOL's been making a play into the VoIP market for a while, I saw no ability to call-out to PSTN phones. So Skype and company have nothing to worry about. And AIM does not have an open interface AFAIK, so companies like Vozin aren't going to be able to build bridge applications like Talqer, which gives Google Talk call-out capability.) Also, desktop sharing isn't a new feature - MSN Messenger had it several years ago, and there have been other ways to manage desktops remotely since at least 1996, if not earlier. However, it's all in a nice, free package, withe recognizable brand name, which will no doubt make a lot of the people it's intended for (business professionals) comfortable using it, especially if they for some reason do not want to use MSN.

I haven't previously used AIM a great deal, I know very little about past versions. Because of contacts I communicate with, I do occasionally chat using Gaim or Trillian on my AIM account. But if I can figure out how to speed up app sharing and get it to use a larger area of my desktop's screen, I might use it simply for remote access to my laptop. If you do decide to try Aim Pro 1.1, keep in mind that you need MS Outlook 2000 and SP 4 (service pack) to utilize the Outlook integration.

Desktop-sharing speed issues aside, there is a great deal of potential for businesses to communicate with customers using AIM Pro. For example, Leader's Bank in Arlington Massachusetts is already using AIM (though not necessarily Pro 1.1) to let customers communicate with their bank manager. If a customer has a question about services, etc., text mode is fine. But if they are having some problems with a web-based service, the manager can open up application-sharing (without relinquishing control of the mouse cursor) and walk through the necessary steps. Alternately, if the customer knows the manager well, they could allow the manager to control their own desktop, if the situation warrants it.

How AIM's desktop-sharing compares to other IM clients, I don't know, but I'll work on a comparison for the future.

Webacall Per-Second Web Calling

A few years back, some cellular providers in North America decide to offer per-second billing to their customers. It was great for anyone who felt that they were being overcharged for excess seconds in a minute. Webacall is doing the same thing for VoIP. What's your shortest phone call? Fifteen seconds? Imagine getting a phone bill for that. Coupled with already low rates, you're going to save a considerable amount over time - but really only if you are a hardcore gabber.

Webacall has a feature called missed call callback (aka ANI callback) which basically lets you use your account privileges from any phone anywhere in the world, without extra dialup charges. You have a variety of choices for making phone calls, including "triggers" for web and WAP (mobile browser).

This service is similar to Jajah in that it doesn't involve downloading any software. You're just using a regular or mobile web browser, so you can use Webcall with any computer or any WAP-enabled smartphone or connected PDA. But unlike Jajah (if I recall correctly), Webacall also has pc2phone and even (IP) device2phone calling, with the latter basically using any suitable plug'n'play PSTN2VoIP adapter. Pc2phone calling does require a soft client.

I've downloaded the X-lite softphone - it's extremely sexy looking, but the account setup seems overly complicated. You do need to register (free) from the Webacall website first, although anyone who downloads the software might miss that detail and get confused. Note that you need to download the Webacall SIP dialer to use the per second billing for pc2phone. Pc2pc calls to other Webacall users are free.

I have a lot of beefs with Webacall: Despite their attractive website, there are so many services that some users may find it confusing where they should start. There are just too many links on their home page. Keep it simple, and guide people to where they should go. I haven't a clue where I should start. Do I need the SIP dialer? It's not clear. If I just want to evaluate the X-lite softphone, where do I start? Why isn't there even a link to it on the home page? Or should I sign up just before I download it? And why do they need my address and postal code for me to register a free account? If I'm paying online, does it matter to them? What are my payment options? Do I get a few free minutes to try out? Because I'm not paying for a VoIP service that I haven't tried first. Why does the zipcode field during signup only expect 5 digits - most countries other than the US have letters and numbers in their postal codes. And why in tarnation do I have to wait one day for my login information to be sent to my email? Are you kidding me? This is the Internet.

Maybe I'm being overly critical on Webacall, but after evaluating so many VoIP services these past few months, there are some signup details I just get miffed about seeing - especially ones where despite asking for your country, they expect only a 5-digit zip code. Keep it simple, and if I like the software, I'll try some of your other services. Confuse me, and why would I bother, especially when I already have a dozen VoIP soft clients over a couple of computers? Thanks but, I think I'll stick with Skype, Google Talk/ Talqer and Hullo for now. Note to other VoIP providers: keep your home page simple, or at least guide visitors.

VoIP Roundup - Tues Aug 29/06

Update On Hullo VoIP Client
The other day, I wrote about Hullo, a new VoIP client that other VoIPers seem to be disinterested with but which I think might have the potential to give Skype and other soft clients and run for their money. I've used Hullo several times now, and the parties I've called have said how clear the calls seem to be. I tried a call with my father on Skype, then followed it up immediately with a call on Hullo. Verdict: Hullo is much clearer. According to my father, "it almost sounds like you're calling from a regular phone."

What's more, with the friendly help of the support team, I figured out what my Hullo numbers are for, and actually called my computer from my PDA. Again, clear voice quality.

What's Better? A Text or VoIP IM Client?
Truth be told, there are many times when a conversation is better in text mode than in audio. E-mail is not immediate enough, and voice doesn't let you "see" things being said. I particularly find that my conversations with clients and collaborators for website content are more productive in text mode. With voice conversations, it's very easy to get sidetracked. With text, you have a visual record of details, which don't need to be transcribed.

New IP Telephony Apps From ShoreTel
ShoreTel will soon be offering two new IP telephony applications, one for CRM (Customer Relationship Managment) and one for Enhanced 911. These will be in the form of modules for their pure-play IP PBX. [via eWeek]

Voice data applications, as I've mentioned here ad infinitum, are going to be where VoIP will shine over PSTN telephony.

Text + VoIP IM Roundup - or Props To Techcrunch Day

New IM (Instant Messaging) and related software for VoIP and text conversations just keeps on coming. Some of it's great, some not so much. Here's a quick roundup of what's new. (Props to Techcrunch, because I'm summarizing some of their recent posts, and adding in a bit of commentary based on my own user experience.)

Wablet Text + VoIP IM
Wablet is a Flash-based interface that bridges conversations between most major IM services. The chat box can either be embedded on a web page (like Meebo) or used as a popup. When a chat request comes in, you can see a profile and photo of the person, as well badges indicating which social networks they belong to. According to Techcrunch, Wablet's primary innovation is around identity, allowing you to create multiple profiles for various purposes - personal, business, social.

Wablet is in an invite-only state, but you can sign up to be notified for when it's available. So I can't say much more than what Techcrunch already said.

Nimbuzz Mobile VoIP
Nimbuzz allows mobile phone and Internet users can communicate with each other using either SMS or voice. It installs on your mobile phone (or desktop - Windows only for now) and bridges numerous IM protocols. Nimbuzz, based in the Netherlands, funded by Mangrove VC, who funded Skype. (What's going on in that part of Europe? Lots of cool software coming out.)

The website says that they support most mobile phones, but they don't have any Palm devices aside from Tungsten, so I can't try it. I downloaded the Win XP client (12 Mb) then talked to the really dumb Jimmy the Chatbot, who didn't even know what Nimbuzz was. Not impressed with the desktop client (keeps crashing on me), and don't know about the mobile client. [Jive Software, Internet Is For People, Techcrunch] Techcrunch has the exclusive details.

Sky-Click Web Call Centre:
Sky-Click is a call centre based completely online, so it runs in web browsers. Calls between pc2pc and pc2phone are free, but there is a monthly charge. You can test it with their free 30-day trial. I'll explore this at a later time, but from the site's description, it seems like precisely the type of killer application that'll push VoIP forward with SMBs and maybe even enterprise. More details at Techcrunch.

Combine Jajah and Skype: Hullo VoIP Dominance

Hullo might just cause a hullabaloo, seeing as it pretty much amounts to free VoIP calling, for now, but there will be paid services later (smart move). One difference between it and Jajah is that you can call from a telephone (PSTN or mobile) or from your computer (as with Skype). With Jajah, you can only call from your phone. Hullo also lets you transfer calls, as well as allow new people to a conversation (provided you initiated the main call). Sounds pretty innovative. You can read more at Saunders.LOG.

I downloaded and installed Hullo, but only tried the pc2phone feature. First, I called my father and got his voicemail - very clear. Then I called myself on my cellphone - also very clear quality, but I'm getting weird audio cancelling, probably due to using speakers on the desktop computer and an ear plug for the mobile phone. Try it for yourself. You can make conference calls by selecting more than one profile in your contact list.

By the way, you get two phone numbers when you register: a Hullo number and a Call-in number. I tried calling the Call-In number from my cell, got a recorded message asking for my extension, but found no clear explanation of what that might be, not even in the FAQ. Then again, it's only in beta, so I fired off an email to the support team. (I also tried calling the Call-In number from Skype using SkypeOut, but this time, the call was not answered.)

But I'm overwhelmingly impressed. Skype better watch out, especially if Hullo starts getting plugins. Better get all your free calling in now, on Hullo, before they change the pricing structure.

More On-The Fly Language Translation

New software designed for laptops, intended for Army and medical personnel in Iraq, translates English-Arabic audio conversations in near real time. The software, called IraqComm, records spoken words, translates them, and plays the translations. The process takes a few seconds. The predecessor to IraqComm was a handheld device called Phraselator. [via Technology Review]

While IraqComm is currently for military evaluation only, it is also intended for a variety of other users. It shows the potential market for automated language translation tools. It certainly would be nice to have something like this for Skype which, to my knowledge, only has something like ULRTMT, that translates text nearly on the fly.

VoiP Call Quality: Monitoring Skype Calls

Has anyone been using a recent version of Skype? When I switched to using my desktop computer more predominantly than my laptop recently, I downloaded and installed the latest version of Skype for Win XP yesterday. I've made a couple of SkypeOut calls on the desktop, but it wasn't until about the third one, earlier today, that a web browser window popped up asking me about the quality of the call. I made another call shortly afterwards and there was no survey that time. Maybe it's a random survey that Skype is conducting, what with all the writeups about call quality. I've never seen the survey before, to my recollection.

The good news is that my pc2phone calls are now incredibly improved, due to my new computer setup, which I discussed yesterday in the post VoIP Call Quality Improvement Tips. Also good news, if you've downloaded a new version of Skype, you get several free minutes of SkypeOut so that you can test the quality. Since I can take advantage of the current free SkypeOut promo in Canada and the US, it doesn't matter to me. But if you live elsewhere and have not upgraded, you might want to. I mean, free minutes are free minutes, right?

On-The-Fly Language Translation?

I've posed the idea before: how nice it would be for a VoIP data application that provides on-the-fly language translation. Well, there's already such a plugin for Skype in beta format. It's called ULRTMT - Universal Language Real-Time Message Translator. [Mathemagenic via Skype Journal]

Although before you get too excited, it's for text conversations only. Surprisingly though, it handles a whoppingly big list of language conversions. I didn't count, but there's probably close to thirty translations, some of which don't even involve English. And the software supposedly works on both active and archived Skype text chats.

Unfortunately, as Mathemagenic indicated, it takes a bit of effort to install. Follow the instructions carefully and it actually does work. Use Internet Explorer. (I didn't try Firefox browser, because the actual translation window runs in an IE browser window. Don't forget to bookmark the link; there doesn't seem to be a trigger from within Skype.)

I tested the service with English-to-Japanese and English-to-French on archived chats. Then I ran Skype on two different profiles on two computers, with one set to French language (although this isn't necessary for languages that use the Roman alphabet).

Unlike most Skype plugins, the meat of the service runs in a browser window. [Like I mention above, the instructions mention IE Explorer, so that's what I went with.] After refreshing the translation browser window, I selected the active conversation on my desktop - the computer with the so-called English speaking user. Then I typed simple French greetings on my laptop. The translation window immediately showed both my French text and the English version. The desktop's Skype chat window, however, showed the French text as typed from the laptop's Skype session.

Verdict: Unfortunately, the Japanese translation does not use the Romaji letter set, and my knowledge of the other three Japanese letterforms has disintegrated with disuse. So I don't know how accurate the translation is. The French-to-English translation, however, is reasonably accurate, if a bit literal. I assume other translations will undergo the same problem. It's part of the reason why machine translation of a language is generally a last resort if a human translator is unavailable. Still, it's a nice start, so bravo to ZOverLord for a great effort, and to a product that just might one day be the closest thing to an IM Universal Translator. At least in text mode.

VoIP Roundup - Wed Aug 23/06 - Skype Blotter

On the off-chance that you use Skype and don't visit the Skype Blogs regularly, here's a quick roundup of some recent postings there.

More Free Skype Calls
Skype is currently allowing users to call regular toll-free numbers in certain countries, such as Taiwan, at no charge, regardless of where you are calling from. [via Skype Blogs]

Skype As Political Campaign Tool
Can Skype be used as a political tool? Shashi Tharoor, author and long-time United Nations employee, held a Skypecast last week with WABC-TV New York. Tharoor is currently the UN Undersecretary General and is a potential successor to Kofi Annan's post of UN Secretary General. [via Skype Blogs]

VoIPing For Profit
Gumtree is a classifieds ads community site aimed at the UK market. According to the Skype Blogs, over 5% of listings have a Skype button. Besides the standard listings for landlords, etc., some of them are for language tuition. Personally, I think that Skype, and similar soft VoIP clients, are ideal for this sort of use. The Skype post didn't say whether the tutors are using Jyve to accept payment for their time.

More Active Microsoft Messenger Users Than Skype Users

According to figures released by Microsoft, there are supposedly more active Microsoft Messenger users than Skype users, and more simultaneous users at peak use as well. [via Skype Journal]

While that may be true, Microsoft does have the advantage of time and brand. I question the meaning of these numbers (but not the Skype Journal article) and whether they'll hold up a couple of years from now. Are we comparing apples to oranges right now?

I use numerous IM clients, whether for text or VoIP conversations. But guess what? I use Skype more often than Messenger. If I have Messenger contacts I need to converse with, I almost always use a multi-protocol client such as Gaim or Trillian. Heck, I even use Google Talk far more often because most of the people that I actively converse with daily use it. And it's based on an open standard, which means I can use web services such as Meebo.

So I'm probably considered an active Messenger user for the once or twice a month that I use it. But I still use my Messenger account (hotmail) a great deal. So am I considered an active Messenger user? Don't know. And now that newer versions of MSN Messenger are compatible with Yahoo! Messenger 8, it doesn't matter. Because I use the latter client more often, mostly for all the cool plugin modules it has. (Getting the picture? Microsoft really missed on power users by not using a compatible protocol until now.)

Which leads me back to why Skype shouldn't worry. Even though Microsoft has more users, the Skype environment is so much further along in terms of VoIP and data application integration. Even Yahoo!'s new Messenger has modules that are mostly non-VoIP related. Skype developers all over the world have created a rich set of addons that spell the beginning of some fairly sophisticated voice data applications.

In other words, core users of each service (collective users of both Messengers compared to Skype users) have different needs. For now, Skype is much further ahead in data applications, which is what VoIP power users need, and are thus unlikely to use either Messenger client.

VoIP Call Quality Improvement Tips

I've gone over VoIP call quality issues a couple of times, including tips for improving quality. To reinforce some of those tips, here's my latest experience. I recently set up a wireless router at home, configured over my cable Internet service. Because I'm still having access problems on my laptop, I decided to start working off my desktop.

The desktop has dual processors and 1 Gb of RAM memory, and under a gigabyte of hard drive space left on C: drive. The laptop has a single processor and 512 Mb of RAM and at least 8 Gb of hard drive space on C: Both computers are running Windows XP Home edition.

I've only made two Skype calls from the desktop computer to a landline phone, but from the comment of the one person that answered, it seems that call quality is far better than similar calls from my laptop. I should point out that my current Internet connection is also faster than what I used for my earlier calls on the laptop. But even with my current wireless connection fluctuating in speed, call quality is better.

I also found that you do not need to use headphones, provided that you have a directional microphone that won't pick up the audio from your speakers. (I'm still using my $1 microphone. I'm amazed at how well it's performed so far.)

So to summarize, to maximize your VoIP call quality, use a fast computer with lots of RAM, and a fast Internet connection. If you're directly wired to the Internet via cable or DSL, that's probably better. But a wireless router configured to cable works fairly well, too. As for having a dual processor, it's not necessarily going to make a difference because not all software is designed to take advantage of it. My observation while running processor-intensive programs is that one processor will be closed to maxed out, and the other will be relatively idle. Win XP doesn't necessarily balance processor load.

Show Me The Money In VoIP - Even More Thoughts

Tele2 is handing out free wireless phones for customers who buy thirty euros of their Parlino Dial Out service. The phones are supposedly worth about 69 euros (approx. US$87). [via The VoIP Weblog]

Given that my laptop is actually overloaded with text/ VoIP IM clients, I'm declaring a moratorium on downloading more for now, so I'm not going to try Parlino's soft client just yet. However, Tele2 had a bright idea! Maybe some of the frree soft  VoIP companies such as Skype, etc., can learn something from this.

For example, I previously complained that despite my love of Sightspeed, the signup process just to try the client wanted all kinds of info including whether I wanted to buy a phone. To Sightspeed: great product, just take a cue from Tele2. Heck. I'd pay a similar amount of money for dialout if I got a free Wi-Fi phone in the deal. [Just make sure you use something like Paypal as an option.] Same goes for Skype, Gizmo Project, etc.

Hardware is one of the areas of VoIP where the money is. Give customers something tangible to associate with your service, and you might find them using your service more often. It's purely psychological, and just my hypothesis, but if I had a "free" Wi-Fi VoIP phone, I'd probably order more minutes after my initial minutes ran out, unless the call quality sucked. Otherwise, my free gadget would just be sitting around, and we wouldn't want that, would we?

If customers reloaded their callout minutes just once, VoIP soft client makers could probably cover the cost of the phone. If call quality is good and the device easy to use, then you just might have repeat customers. Hardware/ software combo deals like this could really push VoIP use.

Enterprise: Choosing Between Hybrid and Pure IP VoIP Systems

Telephony has been moving from PSTN/ POTS systems to hybrid IP-PBXes, as far as enterprise VoIP systems go. But some people expect that hybrid VoIP systems, which support TDM and IP calls, will be outdated in just a few years, supplanted by pure IP that is well integrated with data applications. [via Datamation]

Thus, companies who are currently planning a switch to VoIP need to consider what sort of system that they want to go with. If this is the situation you find yourself in, ask yourself how you to plan to use VoIP. If your business cannot benefit from integrated data applications, then a hybrid system is probably sufficient. But if you want to be able to build, say, a sophisticated CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system, a pure IP system is the direction you should consider.

VoIP Roundup - Mon Aug 21/06

[Updated: Wed Aug 30/06]Philips is giving Australian customers a choice for combining VoIP with PSTN. They now have a couple of cordless handsets that either use Microsoft Live or Skype (not both). You do need a PC and a broadband Internet connection to use the phones. [via The VoIP Weblog]

Because Baby Boomers are expected to migrate to specific urban or rural areas over the next twenty years or so, companies like ComSpan will beneft from offering triple play services. [via VoIP Magazine; free registration required]

Asterisk has just released a free voicemail client, Tycho, for Win32, Linux x86, and Mac OS X computers. [via Asterisk VoIP News] I assume Tycho has nothing to do with Tycho Softworks - who offer an open source telephony stack - but I could be mistaken. [CORRECTION: It's in fact Sip-Syndication that has released Tycho, not Asterisk/ Digium. Apologies for the error.]

Show Me The Money In VoIP - Still More Thoughts

Telesyte reports that Australian PSTN telcos will lose more than US$5 in revenue for every US$1 earned. [via 21Talks] So even if they start offering VoIP services, their overall revenue will go down.

As mentioned in our Show Me The Money... In VoIP and More Thoughts posts, the money seems to be in hardware - both handsets and adapters - and integration. But as Fonality is showing, there may also be some revenue potential in VoIP PBXes.

Fonality is a company that makes Asterisk-based IP-PBX systems. While Asterisk itself is free, Fonality's PBXtra has additional features aimed at enterprise. In fact, this is why they are purportedly tops in the Asterisk PBX market. [via GigaOm]

Overall, though, this is still a young market providing a valuable and essential service. Since the service is mostly free or inexpensive, it's everything else associated with the service that will provide revenue opportunities. But my proverbial money's on VoIP data applications. 

Half of North American Call Centers Go VoIP

According to new research from Yankee Group, close to half of North American call centres will have switched to VoIP systems by the end of 2007. [via Asterisk VoIP News]

Given my experience with lousy call quality while calling my website hosting provider lately, I'm hoping that the call centres that do switch use some of the common soft clients. Say Skype, Google Talk or Gizmo Project. But I'm thinking that if they do even use soft VoIP clients, that they'll go the route of Leader Bank and use MSN or Yahoo! Messenger. Which given their new features may not be such a bad thing.

VoIP Roundup - Fri Aug 18/06

Skype has released version 2.1 beta of their client for PocketPC smartphones, which will actually work on either Windows CE or Windows Mobile 5 devices. [via The VoIP Weblog]

The question of how VoIP calls get routed to their proper destination over the Internet depends on several methods, none of which are standardized. Some people think that this hinders adoption of VoIP for enterprise. So a set of protocols called ENUM (tElephone NUmber Mapping) was devised which is tied directly to domain names or IP addresses in really clever, simple way. Read more at Extreme VoIP.

I'm not the only who makes nearly all of my calls via VoIP or a cell phone. Phoneboy does so as well, but uses Gizmo Project whereas I use Skype for the free SkypeOut in Canada and the US. Although the pc2phone  call quality of Skype (and other soft clients) is pretty bad, as Phoneboy points out.

But using Gizmo does have some shortcomings, too. Go have a read (it's short) about how he got around a not being able to mute his handset during an 800 number-based conference call.

11 Cameras - Lights, Camera, VoIP

Word is that in Canada, on the CBC government-run TV network, is a new show called 11 Cameras. The concept of the show is centered around lives lived online, where the main characters communicate with each other primarily through video-calling software: VoIP with video. Although the term VoIP is never referred to, nor is "software" mentioned.

You can see the episodes online. (Internet Explorer only, and content not available in all countries.) I'm just not sure it's worth the time. While CBC has award-winning shows much of the time, 11 Cameras certainly cannot be one of them.

The acting is dreadful, the camera angles one-sided, the setup and plotline one-dimensional. What do you expect from a show where the TV viewer sees a computer screen and a few video call windows? That's pretty much all you see, with each character staring straight into their presumed webcam (and one security camera in a variety store).

It might be okay to date via VoIP, but watching people carrying on with their boring lives from one camera angle? Unh-unh. Advice to CBC programming directors: can the show or maybe you'll see "you've got (angry) mail" on your computer screen. If this is the future of million-channel Internet TV, I don't to be part of it.

Show Me The Money... In VoIP - More Thoughts

Ted Wallingford says that others who will make money on VoIP are integrators/ consultants. [Note: Ted Wallingford's VoIP Weblog is moving over to Download Squad. You should also check out his (brief) thoughts about Adam Fisk's dislike of Skype's closed system. (Warning: Adam's article is of a fairly technical nature.)]

Or the money might be in VoIP-based phone booths. [via Andy Abramson's VoIP Watch] Of course, as Andy points out, with so many Municipal Wi-Fi projects going on, could something like payVoIP work?

According to a Synergy Research Group report, IP phones enjoyed a 50+ percent growth over the past year, and nearly 25% growth just from Q1 to Q1 2006. [via eWeek] This supports the idea that the money in VoIP is in the aftermarket. That's my stand and I'm sticking with it.

IM Your Bank Manager?

If you've ever done banking online or by phone, you know that sometimes you run into problems and need some help. But like the IVR (Interactive Voice Reponse) systems of larger banks are not exactly a joy to interact with. A small bank in Arlington, Massachusetts - Leader Bank - realized this and decided to let customers text IM the local branch manager. [via CRM Buyer]

Leader Bank currently only supports AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) but may be adding the Yahoo! and MSN Messenger clients as well. Okay, it's not VoIP, but it's a good step forward in CRM (Customer Relationship Management), which should lead to happier customers. If VoIP support is added, then coupled with data applications, businesses could benefit from the resulting advanced CRM tools.

InnovAlarm VoIP-based Alarm System

It's always nice to see VoIP being used in unique new ways, and that's exactly what InnovAlarm is doing. Imagine home and security alarm systems, but which use Skype or another soft client instead of regular phone lines. The service is in pre-beta. [via Read/Write Web]

The only drawback with this application is that your computer has to be turned on. I'm wondering if there's a market for a similar solution using phone2phone with a VoIP bridge, using hardware such as Digifone's plug'n'play adapter. Phone2phone VoIP calls generally seem to have better quality.

There's obviously a perception that there is a market for InnovAlarm's method. In fact, Read/Write Web reports that the company will be getting $10 M of venture cap in Q4 2006.

Google Talk Now Has Voicemail + File Transfer

Google Talk, Google's text + VoIP IM (Instant Messaging) client, now has voicemail and file transfer. I could swear, however, that this was already available as recently as a week or two ago. However, according to a C|Net news article, these are new features announced yesterday, for Google Talk's first birthday. [via GigaOm]

GoogleTalk now offers a soft client for Blackberry devices, but has yet to offer true VoIP capabilities such as calling in or out from/to regular phones. Vozin Communications Talqer soft client, which integrates with Talk or runs standalone, provides such features.

Rack-Soft 4PSA VoipNow V1.2 Control Panel

Rack-Soft's 4PSA VoIPNow (no connection with this website) is a VoIP control panel for a variety of Linux operating systems. It allows HSPs (Hosting Service Providers) and ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to offer VoIP service to residential and business customers.

The newest version, 1.2, is out of public beta testing. Prices start at US$299, and a trial can be obtained at Rack-Soft's website. There is also an online demo of 4PSA VoIPNow.

Globe7: Free Net2phone For Watching Video Ads

Globe7 has joined the mad rush to give away Internet calling for free. But they've take a different approach to monetizing VoIP: making you watch video advertising. To make it worth your while, though, you get a half-cent (US$0.005) credit for every minute of video you watch, good for international calls.

They've also thrown in a free gigabyte of web storage space, where you can backup and share your files. And they've added customizable news feeds in the soft client so you can keep up with the latest news.

In addition to voice, you can make video calls to other Globe7 users. In fact, they're also making a play for other video services, including IPTV/ Internet TV. Although at this point, their content consists of just clips and trailers - which is what you have to watch to earn credits for your international calls.

While they maybe wisely do not use the term "VoIP" on their home page, they unwisely only support Windows 2000 and XP. You also need Adobe Flash Player 8 or above to watch the video ads. I assume, though, that with all the other clients that support Mac or Linux, Globe7 will eventually follow suit.

Personally, though, while this is a great concept, I think they dropped the ball on this one. They really should have incorporated this in terms of a social network and given it a catchier name.

Oh, wait a minute, they did. They call it "my forest". It makes me wonder what age group they're aiming at. My forest? Maybe that's why they want my birthdate (and phone number and whether I'm M/F) during the registration process. All I can wonder is why?

You're asking me for far too much information all at the same time, just to use your service. Apparently others disagree, as they've had about 18 million downloads. It'll be interesting to see how many people are actually using the service, and whether that number increases when they come out with a Wi-Fi version of Globe7. I'll stick to Sightspeed or Yahoo! Messenger 8, thanks. (Although I'll be honest; I can't remember what info either one asked for, but I'm pretty they didn't need my birthdate, sex and phone number.)

Meebo Meet My VoIPpleganger

A couple of early Friday mornings ago, something strange happened to me, just before I went to bed. Skype messaged me saying someone wanted to add me to their buddy list. Okay, that's not strange, but the person had the same initials and last name as me. Had I pressed some strange combo of ALT-keys? No, this was a real person, and they lived half-way across the world. Some sort of VoIP doppleganger - a VoIPpleganger, maybe?

Then, after a few hours of sleep, I'd barely un-hibernated my laptop when someone from the Ukraine IMed me via the Gaim text IM client, on my AIM/ICQ account. Gaim was running for one business contact, Google Talk for another, and Skype was running for the free SkypeOut within Canada and the US. Gizmo Project wasn't running, and I hadn't installed Yahoo! Messenger 8 yet. And I'd just shut down the Trillian IM client because Gaim could manage the same accounts.

The moral of the story? Arrrrrrggggghhhhh. My laptop's RAM is always maxxed out because of all these damned text/ VoIP IM clients running for different biz contacts. Are you going crazy trying, too, trying to manage a handful of software clients?

Fortunately, a number of companies are making an effort to either be compatible with other IM clients, or at least be a bridge. We've already covered a few. For example, the newest Yahoo and MSN Messengers are compatible, and Festoon Unity tries to bridge Skype + Google Talk.

Well here's another one, which bridges four different IMs. And you don't have to download anything: Meebo. Meebo, which is AJAX-powered, works in your web browser, sort of like a virtual desktop. It bridges AIM/ICQ, Jabber/ Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, and MSN Messenger IM accounts. You get little dialog windows that you can move around, and all of your contacts from all of your above-mentioned accounts sit in one handy little window, with different icons to differentiate their source IM.

Meebo Me is a separate web-based service which lets you place a chat box/ shout box on a website/ weblog, and probably aimed at the various social networks. I haven't tried it because I already have an abundance of shoutboxes on my sites.

Meebo itself doesn't handle VoIP, nor Skype or Gizmo Project clients to my knowledge. But maybe all that's coming. Although it is convenient, easy-to-use, and a good start to IM network compatibility. Enough said; go give it a try.

KishKish Skype VoIP Lie Detector Test

KishKish has a new feature for Skype called SAM, which effectively functions like a lie detector. Or so they claim. Voice Stress Analysis is the principle on which lie detectors work. SAM can do this for VoIP calls recorded from Skype.

SAM was orginally just a voice answering machine for Skype. If you're away, it'll record the call and notify you with a list of messages, as well as access to the recording. Now it also detects voice levels on recorded Skype calls, to help determine if the person is potentially lying. [via Skype Blogs]

On their webpage, they have a video of President Clinton talking about the allegations levelled at him re Monica Skankinksi.. uh Lewinski. While the video is playing, a little graph shows P-Willy's voice level fluctuating, synced to his facial and hand gestures. Yet I saw no stress in Clinton's face nor heard any in his voice, despite what SAM suggests. They have a "Skype Me" button to a profile named "clintondenial". If you've downloaded and installed SAM, you can record the call and try the VSA feature yourself. (There's a 10-day free trial, the installation's simple, and SAM is very easy to use, as is the VSA feature.)

Keep in mind that lie detector tests are often disallowed in court in the US. Still, there are a few other presidents and prime ministers I'd like to VoIP and record when KishKish comes out with their real-time version of SAM.

VoIP Roundup - Tue Aug 08/06

Looking for work in the VoIP field? 2it Consulting is looking for a Pre-sales Engineer with Cisco VoIP/ IPT (IP Telephony) experience for one of their clients in the Sydney, Australia area. [via IT Wire]

Jajah has added Australia and New Zealand to its list of free-call countries that can have free phone-to-phone calls using Jajah's VoIP bridge. [via m-net]

The Philippines government has an interest in VoIP and wants to build intranets for its use. Several government agencies are said to be buying switches for installation. Once the VoIP intranets are built, the next step will be to hook into commercial telephony networks in the Philippines, but not until they offer VoIP services as well. [via Inq7] This is an interesting approach, and one I assume the VoIP-over-municipal-WiFi project in Taiwan is considering as well.

Apparently, Skype will have an official version available for MS-Windows Smartphone 2003-based mobile smartphones/ PDAs. (Note: there is already a Skype client for Windows Pocket PC-based devices.) The bonus for owners of dual-mode phones is that they'll have a choice of Skype over either Wi-Fi or 3G - a sort of DIY converged service. [via Red Herring] It'll be interesting to see how fast they'll come out with a Mobile Linux version, once Mobile Linux for PDAs actually exists.

First there were Skype-certified Wi-Fi phones, now Alpha Networks is offering Google Talk-enabled Wi-Fi phones. Google's GMail will also be supported. [via Asterisk VoIP News]

VoIP From A Cell Phone With MINO Wireless

Dr. Watson? It's MINO. MINO Wireless is a new VoIP service for smartphones and PDAs that have cellular wireless data connections to the Internet. Calling between forty countries is supported, for approximately 2 cents per minute. Besides PSTN phones,  MINO works on Java-enabled cell phones, or those with a WAP-based web browser. [via The VoIP Weblog, VoIP Monitor]

Most cell phones/ PDAs that can surf the internet will support WAP. MINO is also carrier-independent, so presumably this service will work for nearly any cell phone or PDA. Right now, they have a couple of promos. For those hesistant to use the service, the software is free and you get a trial of 30 minutes worth of free calls. MINO-to-MINO calls are half-price. If you like the service and refer friends, you'll get US$1.00 for each referral.

As it's my job to test as many services as possible, I signed up. The process is relatively simple, and they seem to support a lot of phone manufacturers. My cellular carrier was not on the list, but the info provided AFTER sign-up shows that GSM phones can download software and CDMA phones can use the WAP site. (This is in fact partially incorrect, as I found out later.)

Since my carrier uses CDMA for the Palm Treo 650 (with 1xEV-DO wireless), I can only report on my experience in that regard. And unfortunately, as seems to be the case every time I try VoIP services on my Treo 650 (CDMA), it didn't work from the WAP browser.

But their website instructions are slightly incorrect (as I found out afterwards). So I went to their regular website, entered a couple of phone numbers I'd be calling from, including Treo's mobile number, then tried a couple of calls. I was finally able to do a PSTN-to-PSTN call successfully, but after several tries, I nearly gave up on involving my Treo in the equation.

Actually, being the stubborn sort that I am, I then sent MINO support an email, and they got back to me nearly immediately. (Thanks to Jim + Ray at MINO for their help.) After a few emails exchanged, MINO Support helped me figure out the right way, at least for my set up.

First, I had to download their Java application and install it to my Treo (despite the signup instructions for CDMA phones). Then, when making a call, I had to wait 30 seconds for the call to connect. What I also had not done is switch my Treo from data to phone mode. Doh!

Finally, using the MINO Java app on my Treo, I punched in the number I was calling and waited until the call connected. Then I switched over to phone mode on my Treo. MINO called me, then dialed my father. Success! I felt like Alexander Graham Bell. Finally, success using VoIP on a mobile device!! I could hear my father clearly, and he could hear me.

In fact, he said that call quality was far better than my previous calls to his landline from Skype. As a result of the call quality, he actually plans to use MINO and some of the other similar services, such as Jajah, for phone2phone long distance use. (Gizmo Project requires that the party you're calling has registered as well, which won't work for him.) However, he's a bit more reluctant to use pc2phone services because he doesn't like the call quality. So to paraphrase a popular candy's catchphrase, quality mobile to phone VoIP calling does exist.

VoIP Call Quality To Landlines Really Does Suck

I've increasingly been taking advantage of Skype's free calling to landlines within Canada and the US lately. To date, I've probably made calls to six or seven people at four different phone numbers. It appears that VoIP calls made to my Internet hosting provider's support line are of the worst quality. At least on their end.

With the exception of one call, I hear the person I'm calling (on a landline) clear and crisp. But last night, while trying to resolve some domain name issues, the hosting company rep repeatedly had to tell me that she was picking up only every other word I said. The conversation ended up taking twice as long as I'd hoped. For Skype calls to other people, though, the callee stated that they thought I sounded distant or maybe in some sort of booth. Quality wasn't great, they said, but it was passable.

On the other hand, a Skype-to-Skype VoIP call with someone half-way across the world was clear as a bell, with a single audio artefact - a slight buzz for a millisecond - and a slightly reduced volume. The other party literally sounded like he was in the same room as me, hence barely a noticeable delay. The person's voice, however, did drop in volume a few times. Which might have been what had happened with my voice when I called my hosting company.

This all contradicts what I said previously about call quality, supporting Brix Networks findings. I think there are a number of factors to consider when determining what kind of VoIP quality you'll experience. There are ways to improve call quality, but if one party is using a landline and the other a computer, quality may be poor.

My observation so far is that if you want to involve VoIP, pc2pc seems to have the best call quality, provided you have a broadband Internet connection. Phone2phone with a VoIP bridge usually does as well. (I tried with Jajah, which offers free calling between registered users. However, I only called myself, with a phone in each ear, so that's not a true indicator.)

How To Record VoIP Calls - Reader Q+A

There are many reasons to record VoIP calls, especially in a business setting. But even for home use, it can come in handy. (Just have the courtesy to notify the person you're talking to that you are recording the call. In fact, in some countries, recording a regular telephone call without the other person's consent is illegal. Unless you're the government.)

On a previous post about recording VoIP calls, one reader, Richard, asked how he can record his calls using 3rd party audio recording software:

I have been reading your site about how to record VOIP calls. I have Nero Wave Editor and have tried recording. However, the speaker is a fair way from the microphone and I cannot hear the other person when I play back the recording. Would I have to place the speaker close to the microphone or is there another way where the recording can be done perhaps internally through the sound card. If so, would Nero Wave Editor enable me to do this or would I need something else?

Richard, you don't say whether you are using a softVoIP client, such as Skype, Google Talk, Gizmo Project, etc., or if you are using hard VoIP through some PBX device. Let's discuss both scenarios. Regardless of your setup, you want to combine the audio of both people at the same volume.

Recording From Soft VoIP Clients
If you're using something like Skype, there are 3rd-party plugins and overlays. I'm using HotRecorder. With most other softVoIP clients, such as SightSpeed and Yahoo! Messenger, etc., audio recording is built-in. You just have to activate it. So I'm assuming that if you are using a soft client, you do not have built-in recording. In this case, you'll need to employ an external mixer.

First, I don't recommend placing the speaker near your mic. If you do, you're likely to get screeching feedback. Instead, you'll have to send the audio output of your computer to an audio mixer. (I use inexpensive, good-quality Behringer mixers, but they're popular and sometimes hard to find.)

You don't need multiple channels or anything fancy. You're simply going to reroute the audio of your conversation by sending it out of your computer, to the mixer, and back into your computer's audio input, and thus into your recording software - in this case, Nero Wave Editor. I haven't used Nero, but I'm assuming that you will have to manually trigger it, when you start a conversation.

Recording From Pure-Play VoIP Phones
If you're using a regular handset and have VoIP via a service like Vonage, or are using a VoIP PBX, etc., this is a bit more difficult to answer. As I said in previous post on recording, there are special solutions. Otherwise, it depends on the specific phone you are using, but you might be able to output the audio of the conversation from the handset straight to your computer's audio input.

As before, you'd have to trigger your recording software manually. Unless your phone has a MIDI (Musical Instrument Device Interface) port, in which case you'd have to have a sound card on your computer with a MIDI port as well. This is a very unlikely situation. I haven't heard of telephone handsets with MIDI ports because they serve no existing need of musicians and composers. But in case they exist and you find one, the MIDI signal from the phone would trigger your recording software - provided it has MIDI sync capabilities.

But generally speaking, whether using soft or hard VoIP, you basically want to route the conversation's audio directly to your recording software, and this may require a multiplexer or a simple channel mixer as an intermediary device. If you're recording calls for podcasts and want to mix in other sounds, you're better off doing after-call sound editing.

In either case (soft or hard VoIP), you'll have to do a bit of planning to determine the most efficient way to record your calls.

Aside: For general audio recording needs, I use a variety of software. But for the price, you can't beat the free, robust, open source, high-quality Audacity audio recording software. It's supposedly written by industry insiders for garage/ basement/ bedroom musician, but can be used for any audio recording - up to 16 channels simultaneously, if your computer's RAM can handle it. It accepts Steinberg Cubase's VST plugins. (Cubase is a high-end music composing/ sequencing software package.) There's also a built-in programming language, Nyquist, in Audacity, with which you can write your own audio effects. Audacity runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and GNU/ Linux.

Advanced VoIP Apps For Enterprise, SOHOs and SMBs

According to CIO Today, VoIP adoption is getting a boost through advanced features such as broadcasting, presence, find-me/ follow-me, and conferencing. But the real promise of VoIP, they say, is in the integration of voice and data applications.

VoIP also gives advanced CRM (Customer Relationship Management) power to SMBs (Small to Medium Businesses) and even SOHO (Small Office/ Home Office) owners. [via TechNews World]

By treating VoIP as a data application, some incredibly sophisticated CRM experiences can be produced. Throw in auto-answer attendants and CCXML and VoiceXML support, and you have a powerful voice-driven VoIP-based IVR (Interactive Voice Response).

You can also take advantge of VoIP data. For example, if you're an SMB that sells services or products over the phone, each VoIP call becomes data you can store: which country or city the call came from, how much and what they purchased, etc. All of this data can be quantized, stored, and then geo-analyzed. For larger businesses that have multi-language operators, you can transfer calls to the correct operator by applying language defaults based on IP addresses.

It's not that you cannot do this via existing phone systems and computers, but it's not integrated, and thus requires more human data entry. With VoIP data applications, most of the process becomes automated and thus less prone to error. Imagine getting a monthly report, via, email, from your VoIP system showing sales by region. This is just a glimpse into the potential of advanced VoIP data applications.

VoIP Roundup - Fri Aug 04/06 - Press

Here's a summary of some of the VoIP-related PR we've received recently.

Actiontec Electronics and Azlan have signed a distributor agreement for the Actiontec's VoSKY family of Skype-certified products. Azlan serves resellers in UK and Ireland. VoSKY products include: Chatterbox (plug'n'play USB speakerphone for Skype), Internet Phone Wizard (PSTN/ Skype multiplexer for traditional handsets), Call Center (extends Skype to mobile phones), and VoSKY Exchange (a PBX add-on that multiplexes PSTN/ Skype calls for all phones in an office).

These Actiontec products have already been out on the market for some time. I haven't seen any of them in action, but I'm salivating. Could call center really work on my frustrating Treo 650 (on a CDMA carrier, 1xEV-DO)? VoSKY Exchange could be just the thing to make SOHO/ SMB owners salivate. This information was sent to us by a PR agency, but if anyone associated with VoSKY is reading this, feel free to to send some of this stuff over for, uh, testing. Yeah, that's it. And review, of course.

VoiceOneT is now offering the VoIP-related Click4Me.Net web service. Registration is free, and registered members can talk free from any combo of phone, mobile, or IP phone. Visit Click4Me or Labs.VoiceOne. There is also Click2Me for cell phone users, which requires registration at Click4Me first, and provides a web interface.

Click4Me works similar to a service like Jajah. Unlike Jajah (as far as I'm aware), you can show your availability status. Users can also keep their phone numbers private, block specific callers, or reqire special PINs (Personal Identification Number). Apparently you can also embed the service into web pages, web ads, and emails through the use a hyperlink. The email thing sounds like a great killer app.

How To Make Free VoIP Calls - Reader Q+A

It's not suprising that a lot of readers of this site ask, via the comments, how they can make a free VoIP call from a specific country to another, where the callee has a phone but no computer. So I thought it'd be worthwhile giving a summary of some of the services that have come out this year, in terms of categories rather than specific software.

First, let me answer the question(s) as simply as possible. There are some countries that are less likely to have free calling between PC and PSTN/ mobile phones - not that I've seen. Two of those countries are India and China. Maybe it's because they're the two most populous countries in the world, and few companies want to give up the potential market share.

The only exception I've run across is Jajah (see below), which is currently offering free landline and mobile calling to/from China. But if you run their trial, you can also make a 5 minute call to/from India as well. If I find any other VoIP services that allow free landline calls to/from India or China, I'll write about it on this site.

On the other hand, if both the caller and callee have a computer with a non-dialup Internet connection, you can make all the free VoIP calls you want, between any two countries, with pretty much any softVoIP client. For example, Skype, Google Talk, MSN Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Gizmo Project, etc.

If you want to call or receive calls on a regular phone via a VoIP network, there are SIP-based adapters (hardware). You'll still need a broadband Internet connection, but won't need a computer. But how many people have a broadband connection and no computer? Not many, I'm guessing.

For many countries, there are a few options for free PC-to-PSTN (PC-to-phone, PC2phone) calls, occasionally including mobile. Some are time-limited promos, some are permanent offers. Here are just a couple of options. (I'll not cover everything here.)

(1) Skype just finished a July promo for free pc2phone calls from Canada and the US to Mexico, Japan, and the UK. I'm guessing they'll have other country offers later this year. They also have free pc2phone calls within Canada and the US until Dec 31/06. But if you don't live in either Canada or the US, you'll need to pay for their inexpensive SkypeOut service, which lets you call pc2phone to many countries.

(2) Gizmo Project has a permanent offer that let's you call pc2phone between 60 countries (but not India and China). However, both caller and callee need to register as Gizmo Project users. (This might mean having to download and install the software as well. So if you don't have a computer, you may have to ask a friend. Keep in mind that you are allowed up to, I believe, three phone numbers per registrant, so your friend may not want to help you :)

(3) Jajah allows PC2phone calls free for up 30 minutes. It's unclear exactly which countries are allowed and which are not, as I've read different things. They do have a 5-minute trial call, and their list of countries includes India and China. But when I read their web pages, I see only China included in the 30-minute free calls, between registered users. You should note that Jajah allows you to make phone2phone calls, not pc2phone calls.

This is just a sampling of some of the nice VoIP plans currently available. If you know of others, please feel free to mention them in the comments section. I will try to put together a comprehensive free-VoIP guide, before Christmas time, that points to articles both here and on other websites.

VoIP Roundup - Thur Aug 03/06

Ted Shelton of IP Inferno and VoIP Magazine has been busy and proactive. First he sent a letter to Meg Whitman of eBay, urging her to open up the Skype VoIP protocol. Then he sent a letter to US Senator Dianne Feinstein, and got this positive letter about network neutrality in response.

Dal of Asterisk VoIP News asks, is residential telephony past it's sell date? Both mobile comm and VoIP have threatened providers of regular phone service, particularly in the Asia Pacific region. Analysis from Frost & Sullivan shows that the industry there reached its peak in 2005, and the subscriber base will be growing at a paltry compound yearly rate of about 2.3 percent up until 2012. There are, however, other areas of growth in the business. [via Asterisk VoIP News]

For those of you familiar with RSS (Really Simple Syndication), you know that it's a handy way to consume the content of your favorite websites, especially news sites. Well, here's a leg up on RSS news reader software: one that reads you one minute headline summaries via an Asterisk-based VoIP phone. [via Nerd Vittles] There's also MailCall for Asterisk, which reads you your email by VoIP phone.

New Zealand's Slingshot offers the iTALK VoiceBox to bring VoIP calling to regular home phone users. This is done by connecting a regular phone to a broadband connection via a suitable adaptor device. [via The VoIP Weblog, Scoop]

How Do You VoIP?

What do you find more valuable to you: a smartphone, PDA, or laptop? According to market research firm In-Stat, users of smartphones find those more essential to their business. [via CNS Magazine] However, that's not factoring in how people use VoIP. Given that it's the SOHO (Small Office/ Home Office) and probably SMB (Small and Medium Businesses) owners that are most likely to be the next wave to adopt VoIP, the value of one device over may soon depend on its ability to VoIP.

I know that when I bought my first Palm PDA in Oct 1999, it wasn't "connected". But it was essential to my consulting for task management (no laptop back then), as was my cell phone - especially since I haven't had a land line in about 12 years or longer. Of course, there was no VoIP then, so it didn't matter.

Now that I have a Palm Treo 650, which is a PDA with cell phone and cellular Wi-Fi access, I rarely use it except to actually test VoIP products. But that's primarily because I now work 100% from home. If I were still travelling around, even locally, as I used to for consulting, that'd be different.

So to me, my laptop is more important, as I can move around the house, or go up to the university library to do research. I do most of my softVoIP calls from Skype, mainly because the few people that I speak to who use VoIP only have Skype. The other reason being of course Skype's free calling within the US and Canada (until the end of 2006).

On the other hand, if I could actually find a VoIP service that works on Treo 650 (CDMA network, in my case), I'd be more likely to use my Treo for VoIP  long distance calls outside of Canada and the US. How about you? How do you use VoIP for your business?

VoIP Roundup - Wed Aug 2/06

MediaRing in Singapore will be offering "prefix-3" VoIP phone numbers. These numbers can receive calls from both PSTN and mobile phones as well. [via ChannelNews Asia]

Verizon had just reported a loss of US$500 million between Q1 and Q2 of 2006. A story in today's New York Times confirms this. Verizon is the USA's No. 2 local phone carrier, just behind AT&T. Qwest, the fourth largest carrier, also reported losses due to VoIP/ Internet telephony compared to a year ago. Both companies stated that increased sales of broadband and wireless services dampened the losses slightly. [Aside: As I was about to post this roundup, CNBC TV showed a video segment about New York's over-taxed electric grid, and how Verizon is helping out with hydrogen cells.]

Now here's a company who understands unlimited Internet usage from a cell phone. The UK's T-Mobile is offering rates of less than a penny per kilobyte, with a maximum charge of 1 GBP (Great British Pound) per day. It's all free after that, for the rest of a day. They're also not limiting what sites you visit, but proof of age is required for access to adult sites. Unfortunately, this service is only available for two phones: the Motorola v3 RAZR and the Nokia 6131, with other handsets promised soon. [via The Register]

Infonetics Research, in their VoIP Services report, says that VoIP service revenue has doubled between 2004 and 2005 in North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific. In these regions, from 2005-2009, It's expected that US$120 billion will be spent on VoIP services. [via Infonetics]

VoIP Inc. has just launched their VoiceOne Lab Development website as a showcase for their new VoIP technology and projects. [via New Telephony] Interestingly, the project page has something called the gTalk Mobile Client. Should be interesting to see who has the rights to that name, as some people use GTalk to refer to Google Talk's IM client.

Festoon Unity Video + Voice Bridges Skype + Google Talk

Festoon Inc, formerly called vSkype, has relaunched with two voice-related offerings. One is Abazab, which lets you collect video comments on a website or weblog. The second, Festoon Unity, is a WoIP (video + VoIP) bridge between Skype and Google talk.

Festoon Unity runs in the background, activated by a button from either Skype or Google Talk. The callee must also have Festoon installed, as well as Skype or Google Talk. The nice thing about Festoon Unity is that it really does unify Skype and Google Talk, or so they say. I haven't convinced anyone to download it yet, but apparently you can call from Google Talk to Skype.

Hot damn! VoIP intercompatibilty. To a degree. Although there's no mention of Sightspeed or Gizmo Project, both of which are based on the open source SIP standard. But hey, it's a start, and the alliances are forming. Unity is supposed to be supporting AOL, Yahoo! Messenger, and MSN Messenger by some time this year.

On their what's new page, a number of features, both useful and frivolous. Besides intercalling between Skype and Google Talk, the new version (beta) has better lip syncing, faster video, and better audio quality. They also now support most proxy servers, including SOCKS and HTTP. And for conference calls, they've improved group audio for better conversation flow. For the kids, they have video effects collectively called EyeCandy, which basically lets you paste your face in cutouts and pretend you're someone else.

Abazab, which is Festoon's new offering, isn't VoIP, but it does let website owners and visitors communicate with voice and video comments. Festoon is very similar to Grouper [Mashable, Techcrunch], and is aimed at squarely at bloggers, particularly the social spaces of MySpace, Xanga, etc. As long as you have a website/ weblog where you can add HTML code containing a Shockwave/ Flash player, you can use Abazab.

Both Abazab and Grouper look like a whole heck of a lot of fun, and advance the cause of a read/write two-way sort of web. And Festoon Unity advances the search for the holy grail of text/ VoIP IM clients. Bravo.

VoIPing For Profit - Jyve Talking

Like Ether, Jyve is an Internet-connected voice commerce application that lets you consult via phone calls and earn money. Unlike Ether, Jyve is directly plugged into VoIP. In fact, it's an application layer over top of the Skype VoIP IM client.

Jyve's another great idea, like Ether, but they've gone a step further by creating a free searchable , structured directory of "experts" who will consult with you via Skype at a given rate. You can search for listed experts by categories and sub-categories, or by tags. (Ether has a community forum, but no consultant listings that I could see.)

If you're an expert yourself, you can signup, setup, and list yourself on their site, under a variety of categories. They create a "Click & Buy" billing account for you. You can then download Skype and Jyve buttons to post on your website. These buttons display your availability. (Jyve availability can be configured differently than Skype availability.)

Once you get a Skype call from a potential client, you generally spend a few minutes negotiating a price, then use Jyve to switch the free call to a paid call. I think that this feature alone makes Jyve a potentially better service than Ether, since the latter requires two separate numbers to pull this switch off. It's seamless in Jyve - or at least in theory. If you're unavailable for consulting, clients can leave you a voicemail or an email by clicking on the appropriate button on your Jyve listing page.

Jyve-Skype calls can be pre-paid, or metered by the minute, or in blocks of time, etc. You can also sell digital content via Skype's file transfer feature. For example, you may want to record conversations and supply a copy to your clients at a later time. (To send free screen snaps, use TechSmith's free Skype profile for SnagIt. You can also run live screen sharing using WebDialogs Unyte's free Skype plugin. I'm just not sure you can meter either of these for profit. Warning: to use SnagIt for Skype, you must already have SnagIt installed. If not, install the Snagit 30-day demo first, then the Skype profiles version. If you've previously tried the demo and passed the trial date, you're probably out of luck.)

The major drawback to Jyve is that it's purely web- and Skype-based. The calling party also has to be using Skype. So you cannot take calls from a regular phone/ mobile through Jyve. Thus the smart consultant will set up both Ether and Jyve accounts. And like Ether, you're not limited to just talk-only consulting. There are all kinds of professions, including writing, listed in the Jyve experts directory.

So what does Jyve get out of this? They take a 20%, which is higher than Ether's 15%. But in any commission-based industry, 15-20% is pretty standard, unless you're Elvis and your agent is Colonel Tom Parker - in which I case Tom gets 60%. Hmmm. Gives me an idea: Elvis-By-Skype. Need an Elvis to perform for an event? Hook up your speakers to your computer and Jyve-Skype me. Though I think I'd much rather perform Led Zeppelin's Communication Breakdown, or maybe Blondie's Call Me (in Spanish?). Though I'll throw in Electric Light Orchestra's Telephone Line. Hint: voice commerce can be used in a lot of ways, particularly for musicians to communicate with fans, besides corny references to musical communication.

VoIP Roundup - Tues Aug 1/06

Verizon reports that their net revenue for Q2 2006 was down $500M. Part of this had to do with costs involving their FiOS fiber-optic broadband service. The other reason, although it doesn't explicitly mention VoIP, is that the company had a more than seven-percent drop (over a year) "in the number of switched access lines in service", due to customer migrating to other technologies. [via InfoWorld]

Microsoft had egg on their face when a live demonstration of their IVR (Interactive Voice Response) voice recognition software completely misunderstood the demonstrator and, after fitfully trying to interpret what he was saying, actually typed out some gobbledygook about erasing everything. [via CNBC TV, InfoWorld] (Now do you believe me when I say that the domain name wewillassimiliateyou.com - or something like that - was once registered to Microsoft?)

While the software in question  was not VoIP-based, voice-processing is increasingly become a part of popular VoIP packages, typically through add-ons or plugins. Microsoft has also expressed a strong interest in VoIP lately

You know VoIP's about to go mainstream and become a household word when the Motley Fool personal finance and investing website starts talking about VoIP. [via Motley Fool]

In the article, Fool contributor Tim Beyers mentions that in the eight months since using Skype instead of a landline in his office, he's had a lot of dropped calls but ended up with a total (prorated) annual savings of nearly $450. However, he's opted to stick with a regular landline at home, for a variety of reasons. In all, a fairly balanced look at the pros and cons of using VoIP.

The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) describes how one branch of the Health Services Union assessed their undesireable phone system situation and, after considering a number of vendors, went with a US-based VoIP provider, Zultys Technologies.

This is an interesting read because the Union branch was not obviously a candidate for VoIP, especially because there's no need for long-distance calls, and most calls were expected to be inbound from 20,000 members. [via SMH]

VoIPing For Profit - Ether Consulting

Ether is a voice-based service, though not necessarily VoIP-based, that lets you essentially set up a consulting business online, with the help of a phone, email address and website (free-hosted is fine). I'd all but forgotten about Ether until I stumbled across Amit Agarwal's post a couple of nights ago.

Ether is a brilliant concept. They give you a free toll-free number (and personal extension) that clients can call, which you advertise on your website, email, or business card, along with your rates and availability. At the Ether site, you can login and configure your availability throughout a single day. Calling clients will be notified that you are unavailable at present, if necessary.

If a client want to talk to you, they pay upfront, with their credit card, through Ether's billing system, and the call gets transferred to your desired phone number (home, cell, etc.), if you're configured as being available. If you've set a fixed time limit for a call, the call will end.

Your rates can be set by a variety of time periods, including custom (max $1,000 for a max of 120 minutes). You can even specify that minutes are free after a certain duration. So, for example, I could charge for the first 45 minutes, then allow the rest of a call to be free. (Although there's no way that I saw when I signed up for the beta where you could limit the free time. That's something that would have to be managed manually.) If you've set recurring rates, such as $30 for every 15 minutes, the client will be billed before the call can continue.

It appears that you can setup multiple phone profiles from a single Ether account. So if you do a variety of consulting work and have different websites to promote that work, you can post a different Ether extension # and call rate on each site.

Ether went live near the end of June 2006. I signed up months ago during the beta trial. Because of technical and personal reasons, I never got around to actually fully setting up my account. However, I did come across a couple of websites where the owners had set up. One site owner had two profiles/ numbers. One was something like $100/hour consulting. The other was 30 minutes free, available for a couple of times each week, first-come-first-served.

It's a great concept, and I had intended to set up for business. In fact, I even bought my Palm Treo 650, and the calling and wireless data plans, with Ether consulting explicitly in mind. Unfortunately, since I don't have a landline (haven't for nearly 12 years now), that means I have to use up my costly cell phone minutes. Either that or I need to purchase a SkypeIn, TalqIn, or Gizmo Call In type of plan.

So while Ether might be using VoIP in their phone system infrastructure, it's not a VoIP service from the end user point of view. However, if you have a "call in" phone number for Skype or one of the handful of other softVoIP clients, or even a hardVoIP phone number, there's no reason why you cannot enjoy VoIP benefits from your end.

In fact, because Ether also lets you sell digital content to clients via email or by downloading from your website, you could offer extra services. For example, if you are using a SkypeIn number, you can record calls and offer clients a copy for $0, or even a small fee. If you have voice-to-text software, you could even offer a text transcript, maybe in PDF form, for later download from your site - again for free or fee. Additionally, you could offer language translations of the transcript.

You can essentially set up a consulting practice for nearly any type of business (there are a few restrictions) for next to no cost. (For example, you can use a free-hosted site, but I wouldn't recommend it.) You can do followups by email or downloadable documents, if necessary. The options for businesses are endless, even if you don't want to do a lot of talking.

For example, let's say that you do web analytics work, say with a basic package rate of $500. Set up one Ether profile that gives a limited number of free 15 minute calls. Then set up a second profile that provides a 10-15 minute call for $250, but provides the content via email or download at an agreed upon date. (I have yet to see the non-phone Ether interface, so I'm speculating about the email/ download setup.)

That means that a client calls for free and describes what they want done. The call is the equivalent of a free estimate, but in this case, the price is fixed. If they think you can do the job, and you want to, they call back immediately on the other Ether extension, pay for your service up front, and finish providing the project details, etc.

It might take you a week to finish, or whatever, but when you do, the client calls back on the agreed upon date for a second $250 call, and you complete the transaction. The client has their work and your Ether account will have this additional $250, as well as the $250 from the second call. You could obviously get more sophisticated in your setup and break things down into four calls.

Ether takes a 15% commission from each transaction, which doesn't sound too bad for the service they offer. Hopefully they'll consider integrate with a softVoIP client such as Skype (because of it's Paypal connections) or an open source client such as Gizmo Project. For video calling, there's also Sightspeed, which would make it possible to offer consulting services with visual instruction, such as language pronunciation lessons. To summarize, Ether's a great concept, with room to grow in the VoIP arena to become a killer application.

Sandhills Software Skype Add-ons

Sandhills Software  [via AsteriskVoIP News] is offering three Skype-related products. The first are not explicitly VoIP offerings but instead use voice processing.

SkypeTransfer is US$19.99 and lets you transfer calls to someone in your Skype contact list. SkypeAttendant, is US$29.99 and  automatically answers your SkypeIn or Skype to Skype calls using voice-to-text recognition. (To be honest, maybe I've lost my mind, but from the live demo of these two services, I cannot tell the difference.) There are 30-demos of these two packages.

SkypeMusicShare is US$9.99 and lets you share songs with your Skype buddies. There's also a Delta Jukebox that lets you play songs from your Windows Media Player library using voice commands. This sounds like fun, but the live demo button on their website just replays one of the other demos. There is a 15-day trial download. [If fledgling bands/ musicians want to talk to their fans and share their music simultaneously, they should follow the example of the Coldplay and Skype promo.]

So I download and installed all three demo versions to my laptop (Win XP). (From what I can tell, there are only Windows versions.) SkypeMusicShare and its included Delta Jukebox both gave me run-time errors. SkypeTransfer didn't seem to work; I tried to test it with a friend. I didn't bother having me call back to test SkypeAttendant.

It's unfortunate that these didn't work for me, as their general concept is sound, and the Delta Jukebox would have been fun. If I've understood their very brief description correctly, SkypeAttendant would likely be particularly useful in an enterprise VoIP setting.

Yahoo Messenger 8 IM - Text + VoIP Features

Yahoo! might just have come up with the ultimate text/ VoIP IM client around with Yahoo! Messenger 8. This IM is seriously tricked out with loads of plugins (180) that create a very entertaining experience. The problem is, you don't want to use this if you're trying to work, as your productivity might go down. Or up, depending on what kind of work you do.

There was an earlier version this year, but Messenger 8 has even more features. In addition to regular text IM and VoIP (with built-in video calling, etc.), you can add plugins for Yahoo! finance, news, weather, movie trailers, Music LAUNCHcast (streaming music with lots of choice), and much more. Not enough for you? The NewsGator plugin lets you browse RSS/Atom audio and video podcasts. There's an obligatory web search feature at the very bottom of the window, and loads more plugins that you can install with a click or two. You can also send email from your Yahoo account with the click of a menu item. (But oddly enough, because the MS Internet Explorer browser is fired up, you have to sign in with an MSN passport id such as your Hotmail account name.)

What a brilliant concept for an Internet command center. Stick in as many sources of content as possible, in collapsible sections, into a single IM client, and you ensure that anyone who has bothered to download this version is now more likely to use it than a competitor's IM, if only for the convenience. There's no need to use anything else. Or that's what you'd think.

With all these great features, they might've tried to obscure the fact that their call-in and call-out features still need to compete with other VoIP IMs. A Phone-In number is only US$2.49 per month and up, but only available in three countries: US, UK, and France. Come on. And a quick look shows that there are only phone numbers available for just a few cities in each country. Even New York is unavailable. Miami, L.A., and San Fran are, though.

Phone Out rates seem to be comparable or better than Skype and Talqer, but I have not done an item by item comparison. Phone Out credit has to be purchased in US$10 or $25 amounts, and there's an option for auto-refills of credit.

Voicemail appears to be free, and there's a nifty little popout control panel to check voicemail, missed calls, and call history. You can also distinguish between incoming and outgoing calls.

Yahoo is obviously interested in VoIP. Last year, they bought California-based Dialpad Communications, a VoIP service provider. (This year, Skype bought two VoIP companies, Sonorit Holding AS and its US subsidiary, Camino Networks.) But overall, Yahoo Messenger 8 has a ways to go to compete with Skype or Gizmo Project in terms of VoIP offerings (that is, in terms of country-to-country calling offers).

I'm having a blast using Messenger 8 as a sort of Internet command center. But all the extra fun, cool features/ plugins come at a price: this IM takes up a lot of memory. On my laptop, with Yahoo! News, Finance, Movie trailers and LAUNCHcast plugins installed, it takes between 50-100 mb of RAM, depending on which plugins are actually running. I really think I need to get some more RAM.

Nevertheless, Yahoo Messenger 8 has set the bar for other IM clients, whether just text or with VoIP/ WoIP features. Bravo. Now I just have to find someone who has it so that I can really test the audio and video calling quality.

P.S. The streaming radio sound quality is so impressive that I've been listening for hours. I've encountered no glitches in the past 16 hours.

VoIP Roundup #4

Skype will be getting SMS text messaging services courtesy of Mobile 365. The latter company already delivers 2 billion messages monthly. [via Biz Journals] Skype had already added a free SMS service in early 2005.

The Inquirer (British) thinks that Microsoft's real threat is Skype.

With all the inexpensive means of publishing content, citizen journalism is on the rise. People are recording war footage in the Middle East with their cell phones and posting the content to websites, including YouTube.com, as a way to share what the "camera person" is experiencing. Some even write a description, to express all the feelings. [via SF Gate]

New Zealand's Woosh wireless has broadcast rights from Sky TV to provide Internet TV using its WiMax network. [via NZ Herald] IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) is the next frontier in multimedia content over the Internet, with tests being conducted worldwide, including the US, India, China, and elsewhere, supposedly causing fear in cable TV companies.

Market Clarity, a telecom research firm in Australia, has a free online directory listing VoIP providers in that country. [via IT Wire]

Batelco in Bahrain has expanded VoIP calling from five destinations to over 200. They've also reduced rates for their international VoIP-based calling cards. These cards are valid for calls from PCs, PSTN lines, and cell phones. [via Trade Arabia]

IM Text/VoIP Lowdown

Last week was a busy one in the IM industry, for both regular text and VoIP IM clients, with loads of announcements.

Gizmo Project, a hopeful competitor to Skype, announced permanent free calling to 60 countries, for registered members. Skype couldn't beat that, but they did come out with a new Mac version and a Skype toolbar that integrates with Office products, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Clicking on a number within one of the apps triggers SkypeOut. iSkoot offers Skype-based mobile-to-PC (and vice versa) calling.

I haven't counted how many plugins Skype has, but if it doesn't have at least 180, then they'd better move over for Yahoo Messenger 8, which does have that many plugins. Once purely a text IM, it now has even more VoIP features than the new MSN Live Messenger (which it is also compatible with).

Yahoo also recently opened their IM to developers. Could it really be? Well, don't get too excited, as they're still not compatible with open source IMs such as Google Talk, Gaim, Trillian, Gizmo Project andothers. [I'll have a review of Yahoo Messenger 8 later on today.]

Not to be completely outdone, Google Talk added a couple of new features including file transfers, voicemail, and sharing info about the music you're listening to. As Michael Arrington of Techcrunch points out, Google Talk is only available for Windows computers.

And if the IM member emails I've been getting are any indication, several other IMs will be releasing upgrades. Services to support these IMs for mobile devices are being revamped as well. More details when Ifind out more.

VoIP Roundup #3

Michael Kanellos sums up the value of using RebTel's VoIP service very nicely: instead of losing your unused monthly cell phone minutes, use them in international or other long-distance calls using RebTel. They create a bridge service by creating a dedicated local number that saves the caller long distance charges. For $1/week, that's not bad if you tend to put off long-distance calls because of cost.

BT (British Telecom) has been laying out plans to get into the internet telephony business (i.e., VoIP). They're looking to have one million internet phone customers in the next year. The company was formerly a monopoly and originally concerned about VoIP, but has changed its stance.

A Taiwanese government web page says that Taiwan is preparing for a VoIP explosion. The output value of VoIP-related products rose to US$460+ million in 2005, up from about US$370 mln and US$262 mln in the previous two years. A government-funded research institute has set up the ViTA (VoIP Taiwan) Forum to set up VoIP product certification standards in that country.

Arcosoft is offering VONaLink SoloRecord recording software for SIP-based VoIP phone systems, including Vonage. Either soft or hard VoIP services are supported. Calls are recorded in .WAV or .MP3 format, and an audio watermark can be audio to prove non-tampering.

Robert Poe of VoIP News shows why IP PBXs are going to replace their TDM counterparts in the enterprise.

Gizmo Project Soft VoIP Client Overview

This morning, an email from Gizmo Project arrived, focusing on their new "free VoIP calls to 60 countries" feature. Odd that this email came today, after websites have been writing about the announcement for several days. So I had a deeper look at the Gizmo Project website, in case there were some new VoIP features lurking.

At first glance, Gizmo Project seems like Skype. However, there are differences, some mentioned here before. One is an invisble feature, namely that Gizmo is SIP-based and therefore open sourced. So not only can you call other Gizmo members (PC, PSTN) but also members of other SIP-based networks. In fact, you can now at least IM Google Talk users, with actual softVoIP calling to come. (This I'm looking forward to.)

With the recent announcement, you can also call to PSTN phones in 60 countries for free - a potential market of 2 billion phones - provided the person you're calling is a registered member of Gizmo. If they're not, Gizmo CallOut (similar to SkypeOut) offers low per-minute rates. The free calling to 60 countries is a permanent feature, not a promo. (There is a noticeable absence of China and India on this list.)

Gizmo Call In gives you a free US-, UK-, France- or Spain-based phone number for US$3/m, payable in 3- or 12-month increments. Interesting that Canada is not part of that, especially considering Skype's 2006 promo for free calls between the US and Canada. (I.e., there's a VoIP market in Canada.) Over all, you can have a phone number from over 50 cities. (How cool would it be to have, say, an L.A. phone number yet live on the East Coast. East meets West.)

Essentially it means that if you live in one of the cities represented, you can travel and still receive calls as if you're local. Less cost for your friends. It's also ideal for people who've moved - or relocated temporarily - and want friends and family to be able to contact them without long distance charges.

One other call option is an US-based Area775 number, although in the same breath it's described as being both free and costing a small monthly fee. (Don't know how that's possible.) When other people dial your Area775 number, it can call both your computer or regular phone. Calls can be screened, transferred, or shuttled to voicemail. The latter has the option of generating SMS messages. (Having your regular phone called costs $2/call.)

For those of you that get calls from strangers - like I occasionally do - Gizmo Project has a Google map that shows you their call location. This is ideal for for flagging potential Vishers who tell you that they're from somewhere else.

If you have need of conference calling, Gizmo Project has FreeConferenceCallTM, which allows calls between landlines, cell phones, and Gizmo softVoIP users. Gizmo users initiate the call with a free conferencing number. Other phones have to dial a (non-toll-free) number, then the conference room #. Of course, if other callers are using Gizmo, there's no long distance cost.

There's also support for Asterisk PBX, an open source PBX designed for enterprise VoIP, and a host of other features. Or if you want to make outbound calls from a PSTN phone, you can buy Gizmo-compatible SIP adapters.

Finally, if you're a developer and want to build VoIP applications, they have an API (Application Programmer Interface) and SDK (Software Development Kit) for both Windows and Mac OS X, with a Linux SDK coming soon. The SDKs are unfortunately only in C++, but a lot of Java and other object-oriented programmers do not have too much trouble with C++.

At the most basic level, the API and SDK allow you to create your own branded SIP-based softVoIP phone, so businesses could have a soft client with their logo.

Gizmo Project is available for Windows 2000 + XP, Mac OS X, Linux, and the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. They're a member of the IM Federation, an organization promoting IM network intercompatibility.

Unlimited Cell Phone Data Plan? - Mmm, Not So Much

Nate Anderson has a great overview of how unlimited "unlimited" 1xEV-DO (=EVDO = Evolution-Data Optimized) wireless data plans on cellular phones really are. He mentions Verizon, but what he says holds true with a lot of providers.

EVDO is the wireless data network that some CDMA-based cell phones use, in a number of countries in Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Canada and the US. (The Wikipedia link above has a fairly comprehensive list of carriers, phones and laptop data cards which use EVDO.)

If you have a smartphone or PDA that uses CDMA, the wireless data plan available is likely to be EVDO-based. If you've purchased, or are thinking of purchasing, an "unlimited" monthly data/ wireless plan, check your provider's fine print. More than likely, there's a bit of text that says you cannot use the service for VoIP, streaming music or video, and several other purposes.

When I called my service provider recently to upgrade to the "unlimited" plan, he told me that not only was that plan grandfathered, it had only ever been available on the laptop data card, not my Palm Treo 650. I insisted that the sales rep had said otherwise, but the rep wouldn't budge. So I ended up witha plan offering only 250 Mb/mth bandwidth, for something like $100/m. Ouch.

Consider that one day, when I had trouble with my regular Internet connection, I used my Palm Treo 650's EVDO connection, via a Bluetooth USB adapter (different from a Bluetooth headset) as a modem, from my laptop. In a regular half-day's web browsing for researching my daily articles, I used nearly 90 Megabytes. In a half day. No streaming music or video. Just one test of VoIP, because I was writing about a service.

Note: CDMA phones cannot use the phone and the wireless connection simultaneously, which usually means not being able to use most VoIP software directly on the device.

Obviously cell phone data plans are not for power web surfers like myself, but it sure would be nice to have options for a bigger bandwidth plan at a better.

SayNow's Voice Services

In a previous post, I speculated that VoIPing for profit might be something musicians could consider, and that fans would love. This speculation was based on a successful promo that ColdPlay and Skype offered recently, where band members spoke via Skype to the two young women who won the contest.

If you've followed some of the goings on of top popstars and actors, just a couple of years ago, fans were paying for daily voice messages from stars. The voicemails were accessible through a pay-per-minute phone number, and contained the daily goings-on of the star, as well as goofy messages telling the fans how much they were loved.

Well, someone got smart and realized the both the value and the (potential) profit in having musicians be in touch with their fans using voice services and the Internet. SayNow is a free service that lets musicians record voice messages, and for fans to respond to them. SMS messages are used as alerts to indicate new messages from a musician. Fan and musician phone numbers remain private.

The real killer feature, at least for musicians, is a map and head count of where fans are calling from, presumably based on their cell phone number (or possibly their IP address). Imagine the marketing tool that this could be turned into, if a few more layers of web service were added in - surveys, friendly VoIP chats, pre-purchase of tickets, CDs/ DVDs, merch, etc. While SayNow seems to be aimed at Myspace musicians, there seems to be no restriction in that regard, and no reason why only musicians can take advantage of this service.

Odeo is not the same thing, but combining it with twttr (SMS) and Hellodeo (video mail) gives you similar basic functionality. (Warning: Hellodeo displays recently recorded videos, and someone's already put prawn videomail up there.)

Still, none of this is true VoIP, yet I think SayNow shows that there's a  potential market for VoIP calls between celebrities and fans, provided that various safeguards are put in place to protect privacy or other situations. I mean, I'd really hate to have Carmen Electra Skyping me every hour, telling me that Dave Navarro finally succumbed to Rockstar Supernova's charming host Brooke Burke. Yeah, right.

VoIP Roundup #2

TechCrunch reports that SightSpeed 5.0 launched. Yet when I checked the Sightspeed site (10 PM Pacific time), there's a message saying you should return at 9 PM Pacific time. The new version apparently includes place-shifted TV, a new video codec, PSTN out- and in-calling, and more. The beta was available a couple of months ago. Sightspeed is a competitor to Skype, but went one step further by incorporating native call recording as well as video calling and free voice and videomail. [Update: 5.0 is now available for both Mac OS X and Win XP. Unlike Skype, Sightspeed is keeping version numbers for both platforms in line.]

GigaOm points to a post on Andy Abramson's VoIPWatch about a new deal between SixApart and Gizmo Project. The new service would let LiveJournal webloggers VoIP and text IM site visitors. This is in addition to the recently announced Jabber-based text IM that LiveJournal would be adding. These kinds of integration of web services are going to appear a lot more often, as innovative companies like SixApart see the value to the end users.

Benjamin Higginbotham presents a compelling argument for why Skype has not won the VoIP battle yet, saying that while it's great in the C2C (consumer- to- consumer) market, it falls down in the B2B (business- to- business) and B2C markets. Skype did announce late last year, and again recently, that they were going after the enterprise VoIP market. That is despite saying their software was not enterprise grade. Nevertheless, I think I have to agree with Benjamin, as Skype (and most other softVoIP clients) support neither VoiceXML nor CCXML, which would really make a difference for businesses.

For Better Or For Worse - Is VoIP Quality Decreasing?

Brix Networks, a company who makes monitoring tools to test VoIP networks, says that data collected on their TestYourVoIP website indicates that users are rating 20 percent of nearly a million calls tested as being of poor quality. This data spans 18 months.

My own experience is not substantial, but I say quality is getting better, at least in newer softVoIP clients. Over a year ago, I VoIPed a friend using MSN Messenger, which he was also using. The call quality was terrible. Since then, I've either used or briefly tested Jajah, Skype, and Talqer, all on the same laptop, headphones, and cheapo $1 microphone. Talqer had the best call quality. And I'm using a wireless connection. Direct broadband connections would probably offer the best quality.

It is of course to Brix' advantage to publish such disappointing findings. And if I've understood the BusinessWire press release correctly, the TestYourVoIP service is really measuring broadband quality, not actual calls. So the data might in fact be misleading, considering that there are a lot of other factors to consider in VoIP call quality testing.

What's your experience? Are you finding better quality? If you want to test your VoIP, try Brix Network's Google Gadget, which requires you to have Google Desktop Version 4 or higher.

Sources: ComputerWorld, BusinessWire [via FierceVoIP]

Network Inter-compatibility - A VoIP Holy Grail?

According to comScore [via TechCrunch and others], it appears that the Google  Talk IM does not have all that many users. Google Talk is a distant fourth in the list of IM clients. The top three spots are taken by MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and AIM. We're not talking total number of downloads, just number of users.

These numbers indicate that, as of May 2006, there are only just over 339 million IM users of all flavours, out of over 900 million Internet users worldwide. MSN is at the top with about 60% of the market and Google Talk has only 1%.

The numbers appear to be for text IMs only. Consider that for Skype, I've been numbers like 250 million (PDF, 1 page) and 280 million downloads, and 100 million registered users (which was passed in early May 2006). Google is nowhere close to neither Skype nor the top text IM clients. Note: the TechCrunch article points out that the comScore numbers do not include the embedded version of GTalk within GMail. Some GMail users apparently prefer to use the native IM.

Some of the above IMs (in fact, possibly all - I don't know much about AIM) have direct VoIP (PC-to-PC) capability. Windows Live Messenger and the latest Yahoo! Messenger now have VoIP ability as well.

Regardless, the numbers suggest that Skype has to be able to keep up, especially with the announced IM alliance between Microsoft and Yahoo! When their respective IM's become compatible, together they'll have over 83% of the IM market (using current numbers).

With that kind of market share, don't have to swallow their pride and use the open source Jabber/XMPP, but it sure would be nice. That's what Google, Trillian, and several other lesser-known IMs use. Can you imagine an Internet where you can choose your fave IM/ VoIP soft client and connect to anyone? Skype, MSN, Yahoo, AIM, Google Talk.... Nice.

As for Michael Arrington's suggestion (at TechCrunch) that Google come up with a strategy to grab more market share, I recommend they buy Vozin Communications. Their Talqer soft client turns Google Talk into a true VoIP client.

From my point of view, once all the technical kinks are worked out of VoIP services, including e911 and improved call quality, every person on Earth who uses a phone will be using a straight or hybrid VoIP phone or soft client. If they were to all become intercompatible, then these usage numbers might be perceived as meaningless - especially by the marketing engines of the larger companies. This would be a reason for them not to work towards compatibility. Too bad, because we could use more IM/VoIP network intercompatibility.

Aside: If you do a Google Search for "how many Skype users worldwide", you can see how fast Skype downloads increased in 2005. Or you could read Jean Mercier's post at SkypeJournal (about downloads in the US and Canada), which suggests that the number of downloads needs to be filtered for previous users who were upgrading one or more times since they first downloaded Skype.

Crystal Gazing - VoIP Voice-from+to-Text Applications

Marshall Sponder at WebMetricsGuru talked about a colleague of his, Bill Tancer, who injured himself in a cycling accident, temporarily being unable to write for his website. Tancer turned to Dragon Naturally Speaking software as an alternative, which worked out fine. Now of course, this isn't VoIP software, but it got me to thinking. If voice recognition software has come along far enough, it could be harnessed into VoIP-to-text applications. The same goes for voice translation software to create text-to-VoIP applications.

For example, Asterisk is offering MailCall, a free email-to-VoIP application. It reads your email to you over Asterisk-based VoIP phone, and works POP3 and IMAP accounts for numerous web-based and standalone email clients. Imagine the fun listening to your spam email. Psychologists will have a field day studying the effects. On the positive side, text-to-voice could be coupled with voice-to-text to build a VoIP system for users who are hearing-impaired. Such a VoIP-based system would replace the expensive human-generated voice-to-text systems that piggyback PSTN phones.

So far, these examples are for human-to-human interaction. VoIP applications could be used to control the ubiquitous VoIP-controlled SEDs (Service Enabled Devices) that'll be appearing any time now. If you in fact did have a wired home, you could potentially VoIP home to your private web server and control SED appliances, such as the sprinkler. I've said that before, but I didn't think about voice recognition software as part of the bridge for being able to talk to appliances and control them.

Of course, you'd have to use a fairly limited grammar, and have a suitable processor. There are already markup language grammars such as VoiceXML for telephone system menus, but as far as I know, there's nothing for ordering around SEDs. If someone devised a command language wrapped up in XML and made it open source and extensible, in a few years, we might all be talking to our appliances with ease. Dare I say, the same language could be used to ask robot maids to make scrambled eggs in the morning?

Failing a George Jetson existence, if you're interested in building Skype apps, check out the Skype API Intro page, complete with a video. Be an early adapter and be one of the first to start building VoIP-controlled web services. I think voiceWeb/ VoIPWeb will form the next wave after web 2.0.

Gizmo Project vs Skype?

Last week, SIPphone announced that Gizmo Project softVoIP users would be able to talk free to other Gizmo users in up to 60 countries. It's interesting that Michael Pollock of Solostream was asking, back in July 2005, is Gizmo is really a Skype-killer?

What's more interesting to me is that Pollock stated back then that one of Gizmo's advantages is built-in VoIP recording, but that Skype should be able to do the same thing natively. Well, one year later, Skype still has not done that, resorting to third party plugins and standalone software (e.g., HotRecorder). While there's nothing wrong with that per se, Skype users do have to resort to downloading an extra piece of software.

Service-wise, when the free North American Skype calling (specifically PC-to-PSTN to numbers in Canada and the US) ends just before New Year's Day 2007, I'm wondering if there'll be a surge of VoIP users transferring to the open source SIP-based Gizmo Project. However, with less than a million Gizmo users and over 100 million Skype users (or 280 mln, depending on who you believe), Skype does not have much to worry about. Yet.

Soft VoIP For Your Mobile Devices

The other day, I reflected on SoonR, a relatively new application that integrates with Skype to supposedly let you Skype from your cell phone, PDA, or other mobile device, provided it has both a phone number as well as a wireless data plan.

I didn't have much luck getting SoonR to work on my Palm Treo 650, as I pointed out in that post, where someone supposedly named Keith Richards left a comment. "Keith" openly left his email as being on the rock.com domain,  where I'm currently listening to the screamingly funny Dave Navarro live streaming Spread Radio show - music + (uncensored) talk. Dave is of course married to the ultra-heavenly Carmen Electra, and is a producer of the Rockstar Supernova TV show, where the unbelievably revolting Tommy Lee is a judge. While I seemingly digress, Dave was actually talking about IMing one of his DJ friends, but didn't mention what software he used. Anyway, on to "Keith Richard's" question:

What about installing softphone software on your mobile device? Could this be used for VoIP mobile conference calls on Skype or is this PC only software?

Well, Keith, if it's really you, you and Mick and the boys should drop by some time for some of my Curry Elvis' special curry chicken, seasoned with Brown Sugar. I could explain it to you then; just leave the syringes elsewhere.

Otherwise, I'll say that most PC-based softVoIP clients simply cannot be installed on PDAs or other smartphones. There are text IM clients designed for Palm OS such as Chatopus, which is built on the open Jabber/XMPP, and thus compatible with your Google Talk account. However, that's just for text, not VoIP.

As for VoIPing from a mobile device, there are various solutions that work for Microsoft Mobile OS-based as well as for people running Skype on Mac OS X devices. For Palm OS, there are fewer solutions, and most do not work on Treo 650, or suffer from some other technical issue - at least in my experience.

I've also tried EQO for Palm OS, but my mobile carrier isn't supported, and my support question has gone unanswered. The problem is that Palm Treos, and some other PDAs, seem to have a problem, especially if they are running the Palm OS operating system, of handling simultaneous data and cell usage. Which is why SoonR, because of the way it works, simply will not work for some Palm OS devices. (Palm devices running Microsoft apparently do not have this problem.)

To answer the last part of your question, Keith, SoonR actually sets up a conference call between your cell phone and the party you're calling, using your computer's Skype to initiate the VoIP conference. They also claim on their website to be able to handle conference calling, so presumably you'd be able to have mobile VoIP conference calls. Just not on Palm devices running Palm OS.

TalQer Enhances VoIP For Google Talk

Someone was commiserating on their blog the other day that Google Talk had not had a great deal of success in the VoIP arena - it might have been Charlie Paglee of VoIPWiki blog, and head of Vozin Communications, but I can't remember. So why no full VoIP capabilities from Google Talk?

Fact is, I use Google Talk several times daily to text-talk with friends and clients via the IM. Surprisingly or not, most of these people do not have a mic/ headset; some have no Internet, computer or even cell phone. (My name is not Fred Flintstone.)

That means I have to call my neanderthal friends on their landline. But at present, Google Talk's VoIP capabilities are limited only to other Google Talk users, or those of any compatible softVoIP clients. So Vozin Communications, big fans of Google Talk and its open source code, decided to change that with their Talqer soft client.

Talqer (pronounced "Talker") is a downloadable client that either integrates into Google Talk or can run on its own. If you choose to run it from Google Talk, that client will now have a button to launch the Talqer dialpad.

Talqer keeps a history of your calls and has a mini-phonebook. It's also integrated with MS Internet Explorer, in that you can highlight a number on a web page, right-click your mouse, and select "Call with Talqer". Pretty cool. So why not with other browsers? Firefox integration is coming, they say.

So I downloaded Talqer and installed it to run with Google Talk, then called myself twice from PC to home landline. The quality was amazingly clear, even with my cheapo $1 microphone. But Talqer didn't tell me how much I owed for the call. So I Skyped Charlie Paglee, head of Vozin Communications. The Talqer call had been relatively clear; the Skype call was crackly. (That was actually my first VoIP call on Skype; I've only used the text mode previously.)

Charlie very kindly filled me in on a few details, indicating that new Talqer members get a few minutes free - hence the reason I could make the call without seeing a charge. After a few minutes use, you'll need to buy TalqOut credit, which is similar to SkypeOut, to call someone's landline or cell phone from your PC. Rates are better than Skype's, the Talqer site claims.

Or there's TalqIn, with free voicemail, which lets people call your PC as if you had a regular phone number. For US$3/mth, that's comparable to SkypeIn. A special, time-limited promo gives you a number in over thirty area codes  in Canada and the US for 20% off the annual rate = US$2/m. Two bucks a month for a number? Not bad, I say.

If you're a Chatty Kathy like me, you can opt for UnTalq, which is their unlimited calling plan for calls to Canada (excluding area code 867) and the continental USA (excluding Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands). The rate is US$12/mth or $120/yr, exlcuding any applicable taxes. This plan also applies to someone living outside of the valid calling areas but who wants to call those areas.

Just my opinion, but with a seemingly better VoIP call quality and rates that are comparable to or better than Skype's, Talqer could potentially give Skype and other softVoIP providers a run for their money.

Charlie Paglee, by the way, is also the blogger who not only broke the story about the Chinese Skype clone, but got the call from the clone in the first place. He hinted to me during our conversation that Talqer will be announcing some very interesting services later this year. As a fan of Google Talk myself, I'll be watching.

VoIP Providers' Business Model Makes Sense

On VoIPWiki, Charlie Paglee talks about how Skype's business model seems counterintuitive to traditional business models, but is actually working for them. In fact, most softVoIP providers are following the same model.

Their model of giving away the software as well as some of the calls makes a great deal of sense. But in traditional bricks and mortar business it probably wouldn't work. It'd almost be equivalent to car makers giving cars away for free (although even that may not help Ford Motor Co right now) and charging for the gas - provided they had a monopoly on the gas.

Jajah, Babble and lately Gizmo Project are some of the softVoIP providers following along in the same model, allowing not just free PC-to-PC calls, but some other combinations involving PSTN phones/ mobile phones. The model works, I'm thinking, because the Internet, although vast, is essentially a closed system, and any softVoIP provider is satisfying the needs of a different user than hardVoIP providers.

SoonR Lets You Skype From A Mobile Phone

SoonR is one of the new breed of web 2.0 applications that integrates another web application. In this case, SoonR has a number of applications that synchronize your PC and mobile phone, one of which lets you make VoIP calls from your mobile phone (to PC or PSTN) using Skype's conferencing feature.

To start with, you must have Skype and SoonR Desktop installed on your computer (with Internet access). Your cell phone or PDA must have a (wireless) data plan, as you have to access the SoonR site from a mobile web browser. There is no PDA software to install.

From the SoonR site, you click on a Skype "buddy" (auto-retrieved) or enter a phone number. SoonR Talk triggers Skype on your computer and sets up a conference call to the person you want to talk to.

Unfortunately, this a complicated way to do things, and you have to leave your computer on, despite their claims that you no longer have to be tied to your PC. I gave SoonR my "gee-whiz not-too-techy" acid test by downloading, installing and following obvious instructions, but without digging into details.  Upon setup of the SoonR Desktop app, it asked me to provide my cell phone number and to create a SoonR account. Did all that, and SoonR sent an SMS text message to my phone. A link from the text msg fired up my mobile browser pointed at the SoonR site, which automatically logged me in.

From the web page on my PDA, I could see my laptop's "My Documents" folder, but for some reason was not able to "get" a simple text file. Also, the VoIP calling isn't quite right - at least not for my Palm Treo 650. Entering the number I'm calling requires holding down my shift key and entering the digits. Except if keep the shift key down, the entry gets messed up. So I have to press down and release the shift key with every digit I enter. Going back to my laptop's Skype and adding the number to my contat list there helps, because a link shows up on my mobile browser. (So make sure you've added the most common PSTN numbers you call to your contact list beforehand.)

But the VoIP calling they've set up seems odd. What's strange is that SoonR first calls my cell phone and then the party I'm calling, via a Skype conference call. Except that I'm using the data access, so Skype gets my voicemail. (This is symptomatic of Palm Treo and certain other makes and models of PDAs and smartphones. They have a problem in that they cannot handle a phone call at the same time that the wireless modem is being used.)

I'm just wondering, though, why the heck SoonR tries to act like it's Jajah? Isn't the point is to save me my cell phone minutes? Depending on what country you're in, you may also have to spend SkypeOut minutes calling your own cell phone, which would not be the case were you calling from Skype on your computer.

Still, I tried calling my buddy with SoonR, and when he answered his phone, he heard only silence, and then some woman's recorded voice with instructions about his message. Effectively, the call was equivalent to my friend calling my voicemail. (Because of the Treo problem.)

So for some PDA users at least, VoIP that functions correctly is still a fable. (I've made other attempts at  VoIP calling from my Pam Treo 650, without success.)

Had this worked for me, it would have been great, during those times of day that I have free minutes on my cell. Still, some people will benefit from SoonR. Unfortunately it's not me.

Jajah Phone Buddy Desktop Dialing Software

Jajah Phone Buddy is a little software application that touts itself as being able to add "automatic telephone dialing to almost any [Windows] application" via Jajah's VoIP software.

Jajah, a recent competitor to Skype, already has a plugin for Microsoft Outlook, and there's a Mac OS X Address Book Plugin as well. Phone Buddy gives you similar abilities in virtually all Windows programs. By clicking your mouse on a phone number in your Windows app, you can then press a Hot Key that scans the phone number and triggers Jajah. Voila, you can make your VoIP call.

You'll need a Jajah account (free), and Phone Buddy will tell you the cost of the call per minute, and the currency (based on what you selected when setting up your Jajah account). However, Jajah does give you a few dollars free (it was US$3.00 for me). Jajah is free between users.

I randomly tested Jajah Phone Buddy from a number of applications running in Windows XP, including Skype's "contact edit" window, and everything seemed to work fine. The assumption is that the number you've clicked on is a valid phone number; there is no parsing done to validate numbers.

Additional sources: [Jajah Phone Buddy]

VoIP Security Issues: Skype and Asterisk

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]

Microsoft + Nortel Unified Communications Project Not A Big Deal?

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?

Microsoft + Nortel Teamup Expected To Generate $1 Billion In Revenue

Microsoft's and Nortel's announced teamup for unified communications (e-mail, instant messaging, telephony, and multimedia conferencing), which includes VoIP, is expected to be a financial boon.

Mike Zafirovski, president and CEO of Nortel, says that they feel that moving their voice technology into software, and teaming up with Microsoft, is going to bring Nortel an extra billion in new revenue.

Nortel's stock (NYSE: NT) is currently around $2 and has seen a steady decline this year - way off the high of $100+/share of late 2000 - early 2001. Microsoft's stock (NYSE:  MSFT) has been relatively flat for the last 5 years, hovering around the $20-25/share range.

Unified communications can be expected to include both video and voice over IP. This move into the VoIP market for both Nortel and Microsoft might mark a postive step for share prices, as well as for customers who would rather put trust in these two companies than some upstart unknown VoIP provider.

Source: [Microsoft]

Microsoft's Showing Strong Interest In VoIP

Microsoft is showing its intense interest in VoIP lately by partnering up with not just Nortel but Yahoo as well.

Microsoft and Nortel are working on a new project focusing on unified communications, which the MS press release says includes e-mail, IM (Instant Messaging), telephony, and multimedia conferencing. Take the latter to mean WoIP - Video as well as Voice over IP.

Nortel has proven itself to be an innovator in telephony hardware and software in the past. This is also a great step forward for Microsoft in the VoIP market. Can they do the unthinkable and make this unified communications thing open? You never know.

They're at least trying to unify MSN Messenger IM with Yahoo! Messenger - both of which now have VoIP capabilities - in a new alliance. Between the two IMs, that's about 350 million users. Now what's the chances that they'll switch to SIP, thus making themselves compatible with true VoIP IMs such as Gizmo Project and Sightspeed? [Note: despite an earlier post about finding VoIP plans, Sightspeed is in fact SIP-based.]

Additional sources: Microsoft [via FierceVoIP].

Improving VoIP Audio Quality

The consumer market for VoIP grew by over 250 percent in 2005. This refers to people who actually subscribed to a VoIP service, which amounts to over 3 million people. That number is expected to nearly triple in 2006, and be nearly ten times in 2009. [C|Net News] Call audio quality is going to be an issue sooner or later, if it has not become one already.

Besides hardware-based VoIP, many more people are using soft clients such as Skype, including some PDA users, without any subscription plan. Some may even be using the voice capabilities of IM (Instant Messaging) clients such as Google Talk or MSN Messenger. For Skype alone, there are an estimated 100 million users worldwide.

Up till now, people may be putting up with poor call quality, simple because for soft client users, VoIP calls are very cheap or even free. My own experience suggests poor audio quality is fairly common. If you're a VoIP soft client user, here are a few things to consider, to improve your audio quality:

(1) Don't use a $1 microphone if you intend to record VoIP calls, particularly for podcasts. You mic doesn't have to be expensive either. You're not recording vocal tracks for a music CD. For standard calls that will not be rebroadcast, you can probably use a sub-$30 mic or headphone + mic headset combo. (My $1 mic works just fine, if my laptop RAM is free.)

(2) Make sure the RAM on your computer isn't maxed out. For my daily work, my RAM is constantly topped out and it affects my audio (and especially my video when I use a WoIP soft client such as Sightspeed). If you notice poor audio quality, you could try closing some other programs on your computer. Sometimes it's the program itself. I noticed that the free Babble.net client is unfortunately a memory hog.

(3) Expect poor audio quality if you have a slow Internet connection. If you're using a Wi-Fi setup, it might be a matter of positioning. Try moving around.

If any of the above problems arise, you'll probably get audio artefacts including warbling, echo, or buzz. Electrical interference can cause your microphone to generate hum as well.

As for the audio quality of calls over VoIP hardware or networks, that's something manufacturers and providers have to work on. As the C|Net article says, PSTN phones use dedicated networks, thus providing high quality calls. Early VoIP adopters are putting up with issues of poor audio quality and reliability. However, as VoIP usage spreads, newer customers are less likely to put up with poor service. Someone also has to come up with a reliable e911 emergency calling solution.

Finding The Best VoIP Plans

With all the choices for VoIP service now available, it's probably confusing for newbies to figure out what service is best for them. The questions you have to ask yourself, in finding a good rate and service, includes how you'll use VoIP.

Do you plan to call from your computer to another person's computer (PC-to-PC), to their phone (PC-to-PSTN), from your phone to their computer (PSTN-to-PC), or from phone to phone (PSTN-to-PSTN)? (Note: PSTN = Public Switched Telephone Network.)

The cheapest choice, obviously, is free, which PC-to-PC calls tend to be. Your choices at present include Skype, Sightspeed, and Gizmo Project. The latter uses the SIP standard, which means that users of other VoIP SIP-based soft clients can talk to each other across their networks. Clients such as Skype and Sightspeed cannot do that because they use proprietary systems. There are many more choices than those three, but they are the common ones.

For PC-to-PSTN calls, there are services like Babble.net, who have 3-month promo of up to 30 minutes free for calls to certain countries. Skype has this for Canadians and Americans until the end of 2006. For PSTN-to-PC calls, the target person needs to have something like SkypeIn service, which essentially provides a worldwide phone number.

Then there's RebTel, who've made international PSTN-to-PSTN calls very affordable, especially for mobile-to-mobile phone calls. Jajah also offers a combination of free call options, including PSTN-to-PSTN, and is based on the SIP open standard. Possibly to compete with providers such as Babble and RebTel, Skype is currently offering free weekends in July for calls to certain countries.

You can also use the free VoIP capabilities of some IM (Instant Messaging) soft clients such as Google Talk, MSN Messenger, etc., but they are strictly PC-to-PC and are client-specific.

These are just some options available right now. Keep in mind that most of them currently have poor to no support for emergency calling.

additional sources: Times Onilne UK.

CORRECTION: Despite my incorrect comment above, I have previously correctly stated that Sightspeed is SIP-based. Thanks to Peter Csathy and Andy Abramson for pointing out the error.

Microsoft and VOIP

With European Union giving Microsoft a slap upside the head, they've got more to worry about than their share price. Their shares have been fairly level over the past five years, and some people think it's because they have stopped become innovators, with few forays into the newest technologies on and off the web. For example, when you think VoIP, do you think Microsoft?

Back last fall, when they acquired Teleo, it was expected that Microsoft was making a big leap into the VoIP market. What have they done with VoIP since? If past history is any evidence, they'll buy a company with wide presence - often with a free product - and embed their offerings into enterprise applications. That's their thing, their forte. But the web hasn't been about enterprise. If they want to dominate the Internet, Microsoft should take advice from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and give it away, give it away, give it away, now.

I shouldn't be too harsh, though. They did release Windows Live Messenger, with the expectation of upstaging Skype. But early in February, we asked is Microsoft serious about VoIP? Then late that month, they announced a free VoIP app allowing Office users to make free calls on Wi-Fi phones - preferably with the Windows Live Messenger-compatible VoIP cordless phone they teamed up with Philips to launch in January. In March, we were sure Microsoft's serious about VoIP.

So they're obviously trying. Personally, I'm glad they didn't buy Skype (did they even make an offer?) or Sightspeed, else the products might have been buried deep in other offerings. I think they need to consider offering products purely on their own merits, which don't need other MS apps installed to run on.

Recording Your VoIP Calls

With all the recent free VoIP services available, like Babble.net, Skype, Sightspeed, and Jajah, there are obviously a growing number of VoIP users, and thus an increased interest call recording. In fact, it's a common question on various VoIP forum websites.

Enterprise audio file storage issues aside, there are some relatively simple methods to record VoIP calls. The method to use does depend on whether your VoIP is hardware- or software-based, as well as which service you're using. Some software clients have recording built in; others require a plugin or even a separate standalone program. For example, IPcelerate has a product called IPstudio for recording VoIP calls, but it must be integrated into their IPsession platform. [via FierceVoIP]

Tom Keating of TMC has written frequently about recording VoIP calls, including using HotRecorder, and also provides links to forum discussions and other articles. HotRecorder has a free trial for software that supposedly works with all VoIP soft clients (according to Tom's article), and they push the podcasting, online journalism, and business angles on their website.

I tried out the free version of HotRecorder, and it's a compact little setup that latches on to your Skype window. If you move the window around, HotRecorder does too. I tried out a call to my father, who had never heard of VoIP or Skype before yesterday, and who I've been trying to get to install it. He hasn't yet, so I just used Skype's current free PC-to-PSTN calling promo (in Canada and the US) and rang him up, just after activating HotRecorder. [Apparently, this is wrong: activate recording after establishing a VoIP connection.]

While HotRecorder appears to work fine, my cheapo $1 mic might be causing my voice to be "weak" and "unclear", according to my father. After saving the conversation in HotRecorder, I played it back. The freebie version has an annoying feature: one person's voice is on the left channel of playback, and the other person is on the right. But other than that, it worked like a charm.

Extrapolating my experience, if I had a better microphone, real broadband access (instead of my cellular Wi-Fi), and the inexpensive paid version of HotRecorder, this would definitely be a tool I'd use for podcasts. So I went ahead and bought a copy. (See below.)

Their website says HotRecorder works with Skype, Google Talk, AIM, Net2Phone, Yahoo! Messenger, Firefly and other VoIP apps. I'll have to try it out with Gizmo Project. (Sightspeed already has audio and video recording capability builtin.) See Tom's article or the HotRecorder website for more details.

The freebie version has ads, and you cannot change the call quality or other options. Recordings are also only 2 minutes max. But you can take advantage of the goofy array of "emotisounds", including cheering crowds, wolf whistles, and more.

All conversations are stored in their proprietary .ELP-format recordings. (Fans of Emerson, Lake and Palmer, maybe?) There's a separate audio converter program, in beta, for conversion to a variety of audio file formats, which are currently just WAV, MP3 and the open standard OGG/ Vorbis. You get this converter when you pay for a full version of Hotrecorder, so freebie users are stuck with .ELP files, which appear to take up half the space of MP3.

The features that I think will be the most beneficial to podcasters who do a lot of VoIP interviews, and anyone who does a lot of business calling, is the ability to tag conversations with keywords and later search for them. (I wonder how long it'll be before The Jerky Boys or someone else uses Skype and HotRecorder to create a searchable crank-call podcast.)

Being pumped about this tool, I actually just went and paid for a serial number via Paypal. But after changing some of the options around and trying to re-play the conversation with my father, I got an access violation error message. Hmm. Will have to look into this.

An alternative to HotRecorder is Callcorder, although I don't know much about it. Other discussions about VoIP recording are available at the Vonage-Forum. And since HotRecorder does not currently work with Mac (or Unix), Ted Wallingford has an article at MacVoIP about a piece of recording software called Cain and Abel.

For enterprise solutions, there's CallRex Professional from TelRex. Although at "as low as $259 per phone", it seems a bit costly, but I could be mistaken. There's also the Unix-based PBXpress Call Recording VoIP PBX (which by the way supports e-911 through a backup PSTN connection).

For homegrown hardware-based methods, Chris Pirillo of Lockergnome suggests routing microphones and PC audio output through channel mixers, and back into the PC. In fact, that's the way I would have done it, until I came across software solutions. Chris also links up to a similar VoIP recording article by Jake Luddington.

Babble - More Free VoIP Services

Whoever said there was no free lunch probably didn't expect anything like VoIP. Joining the ranks of free VoIP services like Skype, Sightspeed, Jajah, and Gizmo Project is Babble.net.

As with Yahoo and Google when they first started, people are probably wondering how these VoIP companies are going to make any money. Well, Skype got bought up by eBay and makes some revenue from their per minute plans for calls not qualifying as free (typically between PC-to-PSTN calls, or vice versa). Some are also offering extras for sale, such as VoIP handsets.

Whereas Skype has made any combo of PC and PSTN calls free in Canada and the US, at least until the end of 2006, Babble has a slightly different approach. The first 30 minutes of a call are free, and only during their promotion.

Like Gizmo Project, Babble is using the open SIP standard. Which means members of the Gizmo Project network, and others, should be able to communicate with Babble users. According to Babble's getting started page, not only can you communicate free with other Babble users, you get free voicemail, a "real" phone number (at a cost), and you can watch free Internet TV stations, as well as other features.

The signup page does require you to provide your phone number, as well as some promotional code. Seeing none anywhere, I just entered 1111 and downloaded the Babbled softphone. Unfortunately, it's a RAM hog. And as I write this, I'm connected to the Internet via my cellular data plan (max 250 Mb/m), so I'll try to give a comparison of Babble's softphone against Skype, and other VoIP soft clients at a later date.

Additional sources: TechPlanet Asia [via The VoIP Weblog]

Is VoIP-Based On-The-Fly Language Translation Possible?

Any sort of voice-based application is eventually going to beg the question of whether there is more than one language in use, and whether languages can be used interchangeably. In countries such as Canada and the United States, that have a sizable immigrant population, and where VoIP applications like Skype have really taken hold, this is an important question.

While many countries in Europe, Asia and Africa are officially bilingual, Canadians and Americans (and probably citizens of Australia, New Zealand and the U.K.), are for the most part unilingual, speaking primarily English. Some do speak French or Spanish as a first or second language. But there is a sizable portion of recent immigrants - particularly the young - or 1st- or 2nd-generation born, who may lose fluency with their mother/ heritage tongue, or never gain it in the first place.

It's often the latter citizens who while trying to uphold their culture and keep up contact with any family back home, often find a language gap. (Sociologists claim that clothing and then language are often the first characteristics of immigrants to change.) They'll speak in broken English blended with their mother/ heritage tongue, instead of fully in the latter. Technology such as VoIP-based language translation may be able to help them, or anyone else who wants or needs to communicate with people in another language.

For example, I can understand 95% of what is spoken to me in my mother tongue, but when I try to speak it, my words are often garbled. So if I want to converse over the phone with my grandmother, my words have to be translated to her. Or my grandmother has to do most of the talking and questioning. I respond to her in fragments, with poor tense and possessive nouns. But being the quiet woman my grandmother is, she won't do that. That means I rarely speak to her, beyond a hello.

No doubt I'm not the only North American to lament my lack of fluency in another language. There's a problem desiring a solution. So consider: what if you could simply speak English, or some other widely-spoken language, and your call would be translated on the fly? There already are voice-to-text and text-to-voice translators in several languages, as well as language-to-language text translators. The next step is to efficiently translate voice-to-voice in two or more languages. Universal translators anyone?

While universal translators to cover every Earth language may be improbable, natural language processing and speech recognition could foreseeably be combined to offer on-the-fly translation between two to five languages simultaneously - especially between languages that are closely related to each other. In a nutshell, language translation works on grammar trees. Once the grammar trees of two languages are properly paired, it's easier to write software to do the translation.

True, there are translation issues such as the difference between colloquial language and literal meaning to be worked out. That is not an easy or even short-term process. Also, processing power and grammar tree storage space are factors. But VoIP-based systems are far more likely to achieve speech translation than PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) ever could.

Seems to me like there's an application opportunity just waiting to happen. And not just once - over and over in different pairings of languages. All someone has to come up with as a starting point is some VoIP- and XML-based protocol that everyone else can follow, hopefully in an open-standard that can be shared.

The Phisher Kings - Phishing Crime Comes To VoIP

Phishing is defined as the act of sending targeted, unwanted emails to people in the hopes of tricking them into giving up their financial details, be it credit card numbers, banking codes, or even Paypal or eBay account information. This is usually accomplished by getting the victims to click on a fraudulent website link, using the graphics and text copied directly from a legitimate service-based website. Phishing is related to spam but is typically more targeted to small groups of people at a time. Unfortunately, people are falling prey to phishing, and because of past successes via email, it didn't phishers long to apply their wiles to VoIP.

Vishing, or VoIP-based phishing, is already becoming a problem, according to a couple of very recent reports. With the proliferation of free VoIP software and services such as Skype, Sightspeed and Gizmo Project, it's also easy when the software often has SDKs (Software Development Kits) that can be used to build vishing applications right into fraudulent websites.

PC World reports that such fraudulent websites sometimes appear to offer financial services. Such sites offer a "Skype me" type of button, which legitimate sites also offer. But when you call the fraudulent site's Skype phone number, they ask you via recorded message to leave credit card details. Another new scam is getting auto-dialed calls via VoIP telling you that there are problems with your credit card. An IT Observer article elaborates further.

It goes without saying that vishing is going to be a big problem if there isn't a concerted effort in the VoIP industry to come up with solutions now.

Additional sources: Business Week.

Digital Audio Voice Signatures for Payment Authorization Via VoIP

VoIP ubiquity in software and hardware [1, 2, 3] is just around the corner, and it's likely to come in (now) familiar packages. Some of these VoIP voice applications are already here, some just arrived, and countless others are on their way. Imagine being able to initiate a VoIP call via Microsoft Outlook, just by clicking on a contact's name in your address book. Your familiar email client becomes a VoIP client. Or maybe you want to send a Paypal payment via Skype, or track and buy something from an eBay auction via Skype.

Of course, you can already do all of those activities, and many people have. I don't have sales figures for Skype-based Paypal payments, but it's pretty obvious that electronic payments in general are increasing. That's true whether via the Internet, through RFID-enabled smartcards or smartphones, or with biometric devices that incorporate RFID. In fact, it's said that India will have the largest market for contactless electronic payments via cell phones, with possibly up to 100 million users.

While I have a bit more faith in the security of hybrid biometric-RFID contactless payment systems, I'm not so sure I'd want my cell phone, or Skype or Outlook software, to be able to make a payment without my explicit authorization. So it made me wonder if there could be some way to authorize e-payments via VoIP, in terms of a digital audio voice signature.

The theory's long been put forth that each human voice is unique (notwithstanding comedian and impersonator Rich Little). While that theory has had a bit of difficulty in courts of law in the past, newer research suggests that it's true. It wouldn't be all that difficult, then, to take a voice scan for authorizations as an alternative to fingerprints.

It's my feeling that such an alternate will be more welcome than biometric scans. The reason for this may be purely psychological. Human beings have been familiar with voice recordings for decades. So recording their own voice does not make them uncomfortable. Biometrics, on the other hand, is a new science and the general populace does not have first-hand familiarity with it, unless they work in secure-access offices, military bases, or laboratories.

Of course, biometrics could be combined with VoIP technology for secure authorizations. However, my feeling is that such a combination would be unnecessary and more costly when digital audio voice signatures could be used reliably instead, and would probably have wider acceptance.

Sources: Owl Investigations - Aural Spectrographic, TC-Helicon - Voice Modelling Parameters.

Sightspeed - Free Video VoIP Calling Is Here

Aside from The Jetsons cartoon TV show, does anyone remember how long it's been since the public was promised video phones? (1964 World's Fair) I know I've wished for a way to communicate live with my grandmother, thousands of miles away, for a very long time. Well hello grandma, Sightspeed VoIP video calling is here, and it's free.

Sightspeed is a competitor to Skype, who enabled video calling last year, in their 2.0 beta version. Like Skype, Sightspeed has free PC-to-PC calling for both audio and video, and low rates for PC-to-phone calls. Now this is different than Vodafone's video calling, which is done on cell phones over their 3G network.

Sightspeed also lets you create free video mail, publish to a video blog, and have video conference calls with up to three other people. What a fantastic idea. I can't wait to try this out.

To be fair, Skype might also have this feature, but they haven't made any effort to make this obvious on their home page. Am I going to dig through the website looking for these features? Well, I used their search and still didn't see a "summary" page touting similar features.

I already have Skype, and it requires Skype-certified webcams. While my Palm Treo 650 camera shows up in my Skype list, it doesn't appear to work. My dedicated webcam just requires too much RAM for me to bother using it on my laptop. (Actually, I just tested it, and Skype doesn't seem to pick it up either.)

Anyway, Sightspeed's plans look enticing. Their "free" plan includes an unlimited number of voicemails of 30 seconds in length, and stores each for 30 days. The paid plan (US$4.95/m, 49.95/yr) allows unlimited 60 sec videomail for unlimited durations. Not bad, certainly affordable. The free plan does not allow unlimited multi-party video conferencing. Other than that and the support, there isn't a lot of difference between the free and paid plans. But if I can convince any of my friends or family to get something like Skype or Sightspeed, let alone a videocam or a microphone, it might be worthwhile paying for the service.

The only annoying thing about trying to download Sightspeed is that, besides requiring to you register (which is fair enough), they try to sell you a camera along the way. I just want to try the damn software already. One interesting sentence in their terms states that minors must get permission from parents to use video conferencing. Bravo for that. (Maybe Skype has that too; I may have missed it.)

After downloading and installing a copy of Sightpeed, and running through the fairly easy configuration, I find that my webcam works fine, even with my laptop's RAM usage maxed out. Cool. However, my Palm Treo 650 camera did not work, so either it's not support, or I don't have it configured right.

Now if could only get my friends and family to realize the value of VoIP, I'm all set to gab online. But if Video VoIP will be as popular as text messaging, I guess it means I'm going to have start shaving everyday again :)

Sightspeed runs on Win 2000, Win XP, and Mac OSX 10.3.9 or higher.

Sources: 21Talks [via Andy Abramson]

China’s UPC Enhances Network with Nortel Solution

China’s UPC is improving the network connecting its three separate campuses with a Nortel solution in order to improve communication and ensure online access to advanced learning resources for forty thousand students. This upgraded communications platform supports the exchange of information in real time irrespective of the location and access to high bandwidth and internet based services such as web-based multimedia collaboration, distance learning, VoIP and video conferencing.

An ERS 1600 is also being deployed in order to provide additional support for converged applications along with a series of Nortel Ethernet switches for high throughput and density desktop connectivity.

Via digitalmediaasia

CounterPath to Enhance Customer Experience for VoIP

CounterPath would be enhancing the customer experience for VoIP communications through integrating its software with the Intel 600SM PCI Phone Adapter. The users of CounterPath’s eyebeam SIP based softphone along with any PC utilizing the Intel 600SM PCI Phone Adapter would be able to make calls utilizing standard phones, corded or cordless.

The company has worked with Intel for optimizing and integrating CounterPath’s softphone and Intel’s product which includes support of wideband audio codecs for improved voice quality. Their 600SM product contains and RJ11 port enabling the user to plug their traditional corded or cordless phones directly into their PC to place VoIP calls seamlessly through CounterPath’s softphone.

Via tmcnet

Public Beta for Zfone Released By Philip Zimmermann

Philip Zimmermann has come up with the public beta for Zfone which is a new product for encrypting VoIP conversations. Zfone makes use of a new protocol for encrypting VoIP conversations. ZFone makes use of a protocol referred to as ZRTP which is better as compared to the other approaches for securing VoIP as it achieves security without relying on certification, PKI, certificate authorities, trust models or key management.

The new protocol has been submitted to the IETF as a proposal for a public standard which enables interoperability of SIP endpoints from different vendors.

Via itwire

MantraGroup Launches Mobile Software for Palm OS Devices

MantraGroup has launched mobile software which is the first solution targeted for Palm OS Devices. mobiVoIP requires the Palm devices to be enable to connect to the internet through Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or EVDO. It enables users to place telephone calls directly from the PDA which in turn expands PDA’s capabilities to be used as a converged device.

According to Manohar Chapalamadugu, CEO, Mantra Group:

We are the first company to release a VoIP solution for Palm OS. We are confident that mobiVoIP will truly change the way we use our Palm devices.

Via prweb

Nokia Upgrades Nokia 770 to VoIP and IM

Nokia has come up with an upgrade for their Nokia 770 Internet Tablet which gives the device VoIP and instant messaging capabilities through Google Talk. The announcement of this device was made at the VON Europe conference in Stockholm and it marked the entry of Nokia into VoIP.

Company officials claimed that this technology was not expected to break into the market of traditional mobile telephones. Existing users of Nokia 770 can upgrade their devices in order to use the new Google Talk features for free over the internet.

Via digital-lifestyles

Opsware Version 6.0 has VOIP capability

Opsware, a developer of NAS (Network Automation System) based in California, has released a new version of its data center automation software, Opsware Network Automation System at the ongoing Interop Las Vegas 2006.

Opsware Network Automation System (NAS), Version 6.0 sports a support for VoIP systems. 

Using NAS 6.0, administrators can easily dedicate automation tasks to VoIP systems. NAS 6.0 now also contains tools to stop unauthorized network changes. NAS 6.0 also provides a better view of the network.

Via CRN

SpectraLink Softphone for feature-rich third-party devices

SpectraLink Corp., which produces Wi-Fi VoIP handsets, has recently announced that it can easily port its PBX integration software to third-party devices, which include Wi-Fi/cellular dual mode handsets.

Customers can use SpectraLink's VoIP gateways to port PBX features from their organization's telephone system to mobile employees on site or off site. Moreover, a softphone that uses SpectraLink Radio Protocol (SRP), which is a thin-client protocol for Wi-Fi networks, can run on any portable gadget including PDAs and smartphones that have Wi-Fi capability.

Using SpectraLink's 'NetLink Telephony' Gateway's interface, customers can enjoy the enhanced features and functions of their organization's company's phone switch, including call transfer, conferencing and voicemail, to the third-party device.

Via New Telephony

Packeteer's Release 8.0 features VOIP capabilities

Packeteer is a leading player in the business of WAN application optimization in the world. Recently, Packeteer launched the next-generation operating software for its PacketShaper appliances. Packeteer has unimaginatively named it Release 8.0.

Release8.0 has the usual augmented feature–list, but what interested me is that Packeteer is prepared for trend of multimedia networks that companies are setting up. All this multimedia, especially voice traffic needs quality-monitoring and bandwidth management software that will seamlessly handle this network convergence. Release 8.0 can also examine Real Time Protocol (RTP) traffic for jitter, delay and packet loss.

Moreover, Release 8.0 has new real-time traffic compression capability, which allows it to expand bandwidth capacity for increased voice and video traffic loads.

Via Playfuls

Human Error at NASA causes VOIP shutdown

According to sources, the system shutdown at NASA's Washington D.C. headquarters took place when an outside technician working on a contract basis deleted the entire NASA Headquarters VoIP user database by mistake when he was adding some new VoIP user accounts to the system.

As a result, the VoIP system went down from around 1:30 p.m., April 12.  Technicians finally back network online by 3 p.m. However, the VoIP phone service was reinstated by 7:30 p.m.

Via VoipNews

Facetime claims it can detect and filter out Skype 2.0 traffic

IM security specialist FaceTime claims that its new software can detect and filter out Skype 2.0 traffic.

Detecting and filtering out Skype is fast becoming a must-have feature for many businesses who want to control the flow of data flow in their organizations. However, very few software companies can actually do this blocking work.  It is some sort of the Holy Grail, if you will.

Facetime has released the latest version of its IMAuditor platform, called version 7.0. The latest version has the much-vaunted anti-Skype feature

Via PC World

Active VoIP Recorders from Nice

The new Active VoIP Recorder Software works with IP-systems manufactured by big companies such as Cisco, Nortel and Avaya.  Nice claims that the new Active VoIP Recorder software eliminates set-up, administration and management at branches or remote sites.

Nice claims that active recording reduces the overhead and complexity, usually the case with older-generation VoIP recording systems, to a great degree.

via CallCenter

New Version of VoIP Supply site launched

Called VoIPSupply.com Version 3, the latest update to the popular online store features easier navigation, additional education options and increased functionality.

Moreover, VoIPSupply.com Version 3 has a unique 'Bandwidth and VoIP service quote submission' service. Buyers can also view real time pre-owned inventory. The Vendor Spotlights section focuses on a specific vendor's products, and increased informational content for better customer education.

Via PR Web

BlackBerry gets serious about VoIP

Research In Motion Ltd. Has bought a privately held software firm based in San Jose, California. Ascendent, which is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of RIM, makes software that will now allow BlackBerry devices to take on the features of a business phone, or so-called private branch exchange (PBX).
RIM has not disclosed financial details of its purchase of Ascendent Systems.

Via CNN Money

Avaya releases new version of IP Telephony software

Avaya has introduced new versions of its industry leading IP telephony, messaging and contact center software. This software helps businesses benefit from a more reliable, open enterprise communications foundation supporting enhanced employee and customer communications. This software can help organizations increase business continuity and advanced call preservation, drive greater investment of multi vendor technologies with expanded SIP support and improve mobility with new virtual workspace features.

The new capabilities of the software released are:

Enhanced Survivability
Hot Desking Enterprise Mobility
Expanded SIP Support
Greater Security for Applications

via [CRMToday]

Least Cost Routing Software from TransNexus

Georgia-based TransNexus's new software for Cisco VoIP networks enables least Cost Routing, Quality of Service routing and automated credit controls.

TransNexus's new software platform enables Telecom operators to maximize their VoIP gross margins by supporting over one million routing breakouts.

The VOIP market is a tough one:

in the U.S. market, least cost routing tables must have more than 400,000 unique routes to ensure wholesale providers do not lose money to customers who pay a low, blended rate for termination services and then only route calls to high cost destinations. In the international market, the risks of losses from being "cherry picked" is even greater because the difference between landline and mobile network termination costs can exceed 10 cent per minute.

Via [eMediaWire]

Tollgrade to feature Cheetah Solutions for VoIP and IP Services Deployment

Tollgrade Communications announced that at the CableLabs(R) Winter Conference 2006 it will launch Tollgrade Cheetah(TM) Cable Network Assurance Solutions which will be held in 
Colorado Springs from February 26 to 28. In the event Tollgrade Communications, a leader in communications test and management solutions will feature products that address the unique challenges of VoIP- and IP-based service deployments. 

The Cheetah VoIP software module for Tollgrade's DOCSIS(R)-based transponder tests VoIP Quality of Service (QoS), proactively manages network performance and remotely isolates multi-layered service troubles by identifying and correlating faults within customer, outside plant, headend and core network locations.

Via [PRNewswire] 

WengoPhone available as an extension for Mozilla Firefox

WengoPhone, GPL licensed VoIP client is now available as an extension for Mozilla Firefox. The software makes use of SIP and defaults to the patent free Speex audio codec. Neuf Telecom is offering the optional Wengo call out service to connect users to the public telephone network. The labeled beta 0.66 version is more limited in scope than the prior, non XUL renamed WengoPhoneClassic. It is available for Firefox 1.5 and later on would be available on Windows and Mac, although closed beta tests are being conducted with Linux. The framework supports video in addition to voice chat, SMS text messaging to and from public telephone network and XMPP presence and messaging.

via  [NewsForge]

Microsoft to release free VoIP application

Microsoft would be releasing a free VoIP app which would let Office users to make free calls on W-Fi phones running windows Mobile software. The new application and service would be a part of a mobile version of Microsoft Office Communicator that would be released this year.

According to Business Online.com report  "will take the form of a voice-over internet protocol (VoIP) application that allows Office users to make free voice calls over wi-fi enabled phones running Windows Mobile software."

The app would also enable to access e-mail, power point and other office applications.

via  [NetworkingPipeline]

Yankee Group gives number one position to Prognosis

Prognosis precise performance monitoring software from Integrated Research has been recognized as the most comprehensive VoIP management solution. In the VoIP Management Solutions Guide released by Yankee Group, Prognosis has earned the reputation of a top ranked product. Prognosis is different from others as it focuses on particular components of IP telephony management. The major strengths of Prognosis are in the breadth and depth of coverage across the Cisco IPT solution, call performance in real time, ability to provide TDM – equivalent performance management by monitoring calls and the flexibility and scalability of its solution.

via  [PrNewsWire]

NetClarity launches free vulnerability testing program for VoIP equipment providers

NetClarity has launched a free vulnerability testing program for VoIP equipment providers. The program Audit My VoIP requires vendors to ship their gear to NetClarity where it is connected to one of the company’s Auditor security auditing appliances. The appliance which has been certified by MITRE to its CVE standard moves through a variety of tests and produces a PDF report which is confidentially e-mailed back to the vendor. Already a dozen companies have participated in the program since it was announced on Jan 25th. The company can analyze any piece of VoIP equipment ranging from Windows CE phones to high end network gear.

via  [VonMag]

Opera Software and Amino enter into an extended partnership for IPTV market

Under an extended partnership with Opera Software, Amino would be offering the Opera Browser as an option for shipments of its AmiNET110 set top boxes and would also be working with Opera to integrate browser technology into the next generation products. The reason for choosing Opera 8.5 SDK was because of its faster performance, lower memory footprint and support for advanced web based user interfaces for IPTV.  The Opera browser provides a convincing surfing experience for the users of Amino’s IPTV set top boxes. As per the agreement Amino could also provide application developers with Amino Software Development Kit with the Opera browser option.

via [VoIP Central]

eMMS Toolbar launched by General Wireless

General Wireless has launched eMMS Toolbar that would enable SMS and MMS to be sent easily from Internet Explorer to mobile phones. This technology can be integrated into other toolbars and it would benefit Yahoo, Google, Skype and other companies. It enables easy sending and forwarding of text, pictures, sound and video from internet connected PCs to mobile phones. This would ensure increased revenues for General Wireless customers. It is expected that eMMS toolbar would significantly increase operators’ SMS and MMS traffic as it can be easily accessed on the desktop.

via [MobilityToday]

D2 Technologies and Cavium Networks announces vPort software

D2 Technologies and Cavium Networks have announced D2 Technologies vPort software for VoIP Customer Premises Equipment which would be available on Cavium Networks OCTEON CN31XX,CN30XX MIPS64 based processor. The combined solution would be used by Networking OEM Vendors which require adding VoIP ports to secure routers and gateways, wireless gateways and triple play devices. This software provides a complete VoIP CPE solution with rich voice features which includes the SIP signaling protocol, Adaptive Jitter Buffer, RTP packetization, DTMF Relay, iLBC Voice Compression and Packet Loss Compensation.

via [ThomasNet]

Caller ID Manager program blocks anonymous VoIP calls

Privacy Corps has released a VoIP compatible program called Caller ID Manager for $ 99.97. Privacy corps helps in blocking anonymous and unidentified numbers and allows all other numbers. It can block up to 175 numbers, prefixes or area code. It allows only those callers which have been invited by name or number and permits wildcard to ring someone’s phone and blocks others as one chooses. It can also configure specific controls for individual numbers and it works very well with regular phone lines. It sends the caller directly to the voice mail or answering device without ringing the phone. It can also ignore the caller completely and go unanswered.

via [VoIP Central]

Open source VoIP engine named OpenZoep

OpenZoep which is pronounced as open soup is a client side telephony and instant messaging communications engine. This engine supports computer to computer VoIP calls, outbound PSTN, instant messaging and SIP calls to free and premium SIP providers. It is available under GPL license and commercial license for those companies which do not want to publish the source code of their commercial products based on OpenZoep. It permits anyone to embed telephony functions into their desktop applications. The OpenZoep API makes it easy to pick a sound in device and sound out device and dial by username. It also offers instant messaging capabilities.

via [OS]

Cisco releases patches for its Call Manager VoIP Software

Cisco Systems has released two patches for flaws in its Call Manager VoIP software. The first flaw was detected by a customer and it could have resulted in an attack on the user system by hackers. The second flaw would have allowed users with read only access to get full administrator privilege and the consequences could have been serious as a hacker would have been able to gain total access. The patches have been posted on the website of Cisco Systems and the company is urging all the customers to fix the problem as soon as possible.

via [What PC]

Interlink to provide point to point video and multi participant video conferencing product

Interlink Global Corp will be providing a point to point video product and a multi participant video conferencing product through its existing VoIP network. These new products can be downloaded on to a computer and will allow on net users to make point to point calls at no charge. Point to point video product will allow up to 11 simultaneous users on the same video conference call. A built in recording feature in multi participant video conferencing phone will enable the call moderator to record the calls for quality and archiving purposes. The point to point product will be a free product for existing customers but the multi participant video conference phone will invite charges. In order to provide these products Interlink has signed a memorandum of agreement with I Stream

via  [ financialnewsusa ]

Photo Sharing via VoIP

VoIP is not just voice over web, it was just an initial phase. The VoIP Communities idea is fast growing with new and innovative means to use the technology are coming up.

Latest offering is from Kodak and Skype – Photo Sharing. This service will allow users to chat with Skype and display their favorite pictures simultaneously to their friends. You need to download Kodak’s EasyShare Gallery application from the Kodak’s official website and be a Skype User. Users can easily create a photo presentation by selecting photos from their PC,a dn the presentation is shared among both parties. Photos are only viewed and not actually transferred which is seen as a drawback by some. The service is in beta right now and free to use by Skype Customers.

via [ABC News]

Industria and Opera come up together for Advanced IPTV

Opera Software and Industria are partnering together which would enable Industria to use Opera 8.5 for its IPTV software solution named Zignal. This would enable to introduce a wide array of revenue generating services on set top boxes. The support from Opera would improve Zignal solution by bringing a rapid development of Web based solutions for IPTV.

This move will give a boost to the rapid development of open Web technology in television.

via [IRIS Dev]

Hosted VoIP from Phonetag LLC

New hosted VoIP software from Phonetag LLC can be used for providing a new line to the existing phone numbers so that in case of a phone outage, work can continue uninterrupted. phoneplusmag.com reports:

Using Level 3 Communications Inc. as its underlying provider, Phonetag’s service works with existing infrastructure and bandwidth.

Read More: Phonetag Launches Hosted VoIP via Level 3

CrystalVoice and NetZero

CrystalVoice will provide its acoustic QoS technology to NetZero as support for its new phone to phone VoIP service. The software is capable of making real-time adjustments according to the variations in bandwidth availability.

Zycko to distribute LignUp products

LignUp Corporation, which provides web-based converged VoIP communications, will distribute the LignUp Communications Platform in Europe through Zycko. Zycko is a leading distributor of networking, storage, and VoIP solutions.

The LignUp Communications Platform consists of the LignUp Call Director, LignUp Media Server, and LignUp SDK. The LignUp solution also offers onsite IP-PBX, hosted IP-PBX, unified messaging, voice mail, etc.

Quality management software from Xelor

Xelor Software Inc. has introduced an automatic service quality management software that identifies the voice-enabled devices on a network and manages network traffic to ensure call reliability. It jettisons packets when the network bandwidth is exceeded and does not let the service level go down. eweek.com reports:

Citizens in remote parts of the countryside will be able to present documents or seek help with tax forms or benefits applications via video phone.

Read More: Xelor Rolls Out QOS Tool for IP

VoIP news round-up

Patriot Media, New Jersey, and Level3 Communications have come together in a multiyear agreement. Patriot Media launched its digital phone service last month and Level3 Communications will provide its (3)VoIP Enhanced Local service.

Intrado Inc. is using the Net-Net session border controllers developed by Acme Packet for routing VoIP 911 calls to the 911 network. tmcnet.com reports:

"Intrado remains focused on helping our customers address the changing demands new technologies are placing on the nation's 9-1-1 system," noted Stephen Meer, Intrado chief technology officer.

Read More: VoIP Big Guns

CrystalVoice

The VoIP-based Internet phone service initiated by NetZero is using the IP voice communications software developed by CrystalVoice. United Online, which Internet subscription services to consumers, uses the software to make Internet services available over both dial-up and broadband.

The software is capable of making adjustments according to the bandwidth available so that data and voice transmission occurs smoothly. The CrystalVoice Acoustic QoS solution offers scalability and is architecturally secure. The NetZero offering is available to users in five voice calling plans independent of the ISP their ISP. The plans range from no cost to $ 14.95 per month.

CrystalVoice is also partnering Datacraft Asia. Datacraft Asia is to use the CrystalVoice Click-to-talk system in its offices and conduct marketing and installation the CrystalVoice Acoustic QoS software solutions in the Asia Pacific.

SoftGnome

TelEvolution has introduced SoftGnome, which is a virtual device that enables PC’s and Wi-Fi handsets to be connected to PSTN landline telephones. tmcnet.com reports:

"SoftGnome is an extension of PhoneGnome that you can use virtually everywhere," said David Beckemeyer, founder and CEO of TelEvolution.

Read More: TelEvolution Intros Internet Telephony Softphone

Softswitches

Both PSTN and IP networks take a specific route from the origin of the call to its destination. Routing, transmission, and billing are the three key functions of these networks. In a PSTN, these functions are achieved to a large extent by the Central Office (CO) switches.

The two major aspects of these switches are the switching fabric and the switching logic. The integration of voice, data, and video applications is being facilitated by softswitches, which are also easing the migration from PSTN to VoIP. These softswitches have a separate control logic function and physical switching function.

The call agent and the media gateway are the two major elements of the switching function. The call routing and signaling functions are handled by the call agent. Physical connectivity is provided by the media gateway that may work with a range of LAN and WAN interfaces. The connection networks and the transmission format, such as LAN, WAN, etc decide the number of media gateways that the call agent may control.

Improved tools

VoIP vendors are now developing tools that help companies measure and control the manner in which the networks are running. This is a result of the fact that customers are becoming more aware of the specifics of their problems.

EMC also intends to get into the voice management market, which IDC estimates will more than triple from $103 million this year to $320 million in 2009. Through its SMARTS purchase completed in February, EMC plans to offer VON attendees a peek at its EMC/SMARTS VoIP Manager 1.0 software bundle.

Read More: Vendors reacting as VoIP nets mature

VoIP codecs

Coders/decoders (Codecs) are used by VoIP networks for converting analog voice signals into digital pulses and then reconvert the digital pulses into analog signals. In order to communicate, the codecs have to be compatible with each other. The algorithms that the codecs use for conversion of the data streams affect the quality of voice as well as the bandwidth consumption.

The solutions to algorithm usage are either proprietary or covered by international standards, where everyone has access to the algorithms. Pulse Code Modulation (PCM) was responsible for the development of the T-carrier systems that are used even today. PCM could yield a data rate of 64 Kbps. The signal was sampled in two ways, Mu-Law in the US and Japan and A-Law in Europe. Both these forms of sampling allowed for a high resolution as the discrete levels were apportioned logarithmically and not linearly.

Recommendation G.711 has been instituted by the ITU in 1988 and is the standardized form of the PCM encoding. PCM does not eliminate the redundancy in the signals, which can result in a high data output rate unsuitable for certain situations, especially when there is a bandwidth constraint. This is the reason why several speech algorithms have attempted to reduce the data rate. Reduction in data rate by half can double the call-carrying capacity of the given bandwidth. G.722.1, G.723.1, G.726, etc are codec standards that reduce the bandwidth requirements. Their data rates are 24/32, 5.3/6.3, 16/24/32/40 Kbps, respectively.

Apart from these open standards, there are proprietary algorithms that may or may not offer an advantage over the ITU-defined algorithms. However, they can tie a business to their implementation for the economic life-cycle of the VoIP system.

VoIP - beyond PCs

eBay’s acquisition of Skype has led industry watchers to believe that with customers switching over to VoIP in increasing numbers, the traditional telephony suppliers may get marginalized. VoIP allows the telephony software to be integrated with almost any application, for example a 3 megapixel digital camera by Samsung that also doubles as a phone, Ubistar provides memory sticks that come preloaded with a softphone. According to research conducted by Infonetics, 40% of those who have broadband connectivity will be using VoIP services by 2008. news.zdnet.com reports:

Softphones have become popular in corporate networks, especially among road warriors who travel for business. Softphone clients are sold as part of a larger corporate IP telephony solution from companies such as Cisco Systems, Avaya, Siemens and Nortel Networks.

Read More: VoIP wants to cut the computer cord

PeerMe

PeerMe, which is a California-based startup, released the beta version of its VoIP client in the third week of September 2005. The company has also announced collaboration with Ameba, which is a major blog aggregator from Japan. The two have combined to release Ameba PeerMe. PeerMe is completely focused on providing peer-to-peer service at present; it may venture into selling of connect time to PSTNs.

According to Tom Lasater, founder and CEO of PeerMe, the service is accessible from any Wi-Fi hotspot in the world and should really come into its own when mobiles get equipped with high-speed Internet connectivity. The company plans to use free voice service to attract customers to a number of its e-commerce ventures, such as the PeerMe Game channel, which uses technology developed by Boonty.

RADCOM

SIPSim, which is a tool that simulates SIP services, will now be available with a Software Development Kit (SDK) added to it. This was announced by RADCOM Ltd, which has developed SIPSim. voip-news.com reports:

The SDK-enhanced solution allows customers to easily define call flows to simulate conditions of extreme stress. It also offers a Call Flow Library of common call flows that can be deployed as is or with customer-defined modifications to stress test any SIP entity.

Read More: RADCOM Adds Advanced Software Development Kit to its SIP Services Testing Solution

Apparent Network's launches software for latency detection

A new software was launched by Apparent Networks that can be used to comb company networks to locate bottlenecks that may be hampering smooth VoIP communications. The product called AppareNet Enterprise Voice can be used as a maintenance tool by engineers to assess networks that are being deployed for VoIP.

The software detects more than just defects in the VoIP networks, it can even locate hardware troubles. The recent problems faced by customers deploying Cisco CallManager will gain from this diagnostic software. It is easy to use and can fix network problems of very large enterprises within a short period of time.

The product was to be launched at the VON Fall 2005 conference held in Boston. AppareNet Enterprise Voice comes at a price of $170,000 per license with a additional $3000 fee for each laptop it is installed into. At present Apparent Network has 12 partners who sell and deal with the software, the company eventually plans to have 20 partners by the end of December 2005.crn.com reports:

"It's an awesome diagnostic tool," Bottacio said of AppareNet Enterprise Voice. "It detects more than just VoIP, because in some cases a slow network might be caused by other hardware, the NIC cards could be bad or the switches may have duplex mismatches."

Read more:Apparent Networks Aims To Soothe VoIP Pain Points

VoIP and gaming

VoIP is poised to give gaming companies an advantage in the battle for IP telephony supremacy. Microsoft and Sony Corp. offer gaming networks, namely xBox Live and Playstation, which are VoIP enabled. eweek.com reports:

"It's tough to say what gaming consoles or services will offer in terms of communications capabilities, but there's no reason to think that additional [VOIP] platforms won't grow out of those systems," said Joe Laszlo, analyst with New York-based Jupiter Research.

Read More: Playing Games with VOIP

Four important voice codecs

G.723.1 is a standards-based voice codec for video conferencing and telephony over standard telephone lines. Real-time encoding and decoding is achieved with G.723.1. G.723.1 is integral to the video conferencing standards for H.323 and H.324. It operates at a frequency of 8 KHz and a bandwidth of 6.4 Kbit / s. G.726 can work at 16, 24, 32, and 40 Kbps. G.726 converts the signals to the compressed form as per the bit rate selected. It works on the principle of Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation (ADPCM). iLBC supports voice communication over IP, it is a free codec that operates at a bit rate of 13.33 kbit / s for an encoding frame length of 30 ms.  The degradation of speech quality with iLBC is not abrupt. It operates at a frequency of 8 KHz and a bandwidth of 15.2 Kbit / s.  Speex has been created for speech and is an open-source patent-free software, which intends to popularize voice applications by offering an alternative to the costly voice codecs. Speex is available under the BSD license. It works at a frequency of 8 KHz and a bandwidth of 32 Kbit / s.

X-Pro TAPI to integrate VoIP with Outlook

Global IP Telecommunications introduced the X-Pro TAPI, a Telephony API-compliant software telephone which can be integrated with Microsoft Outlook. The X-Pro TAPI is the evolved version of X-Pro Softphone. It can be noted that X-Pro Softphone is the award winning SIP telephone from the market leader Xten Networks. It supports the real TAPI, which helps to link professional CRM software with VoIP. It also providers a Caller ID feature to the users.

The interesting feature of this VoIP Softphone is that it can be integrated to Microsoft's Outlook. With the X-Pro TAPI feature, MS Outlook users will be able to any member on the Outlook contact list. The product will create new opportunities for the VoIP market. tmcnet.com reports:

The new product brings professional functionality to VoIP users, which has previously been reserved for large installations. The development was difficult, extremely time consuming and could only be accomplished through excellent expert knowledge and skills. says Michael Best, director of Global IP Telecommunications, Ltd. in Schoeffengrund, Germany.

Read More: X-Pro TAPI Integrates VoIP with Outlook

VoIP 2.0, the future of VoIP

VoIP has started a new revolution in the history of Internet Telephony. With more software companies embracing VoIP, it is recreating itself with the advent of the new technology. It is believed that future of VoIP is VoIP 2.0, which will focus on services instead of cut-rate pricing. Though companies like Google, Skype and Microsoft are offering new services now, the day is not far when every company will be forced to charge for this service after adding new features and technologies.

VoIP 2.0 is the latest version of VoIP which will allow the users to advantage of more flexibility, customization and powerful features. It is being planned to introduce more advance features rather than the simple conferencing feature. It will be the next phase of VoIP. VoIP 2.0 is the theme of Internet Telephony Conference & Expo to be held this October in Los Angeles. Using VoIP 2.0 may prove to be more productive, efficient and profitable. tmcnet.com reports:

Google, Microsoft and Skype are software companies providing primarily a free service. Where do they have to go but to add more features and new services?

Read More: VoIP 2.0 Gets Closer

SIPphone launched new Gizmo Project VoIP Software

SIPphone Inc. has released Gizmo Project 1.0, new VoIP software application. It helps Mac, Windows and Linux users communicate over the Internet using optical features vial telephone lines. The most significant of this project is that it's free to download. Gizmo Project consists of a software application that requires Mac OS X v10.3.9 or later and a microphone-equipped Mac. It works with both the dialup and broadband Internet connections.

The software lets users communicate with other users pf gizmo Project or SIP-based software. This service is offered for free through Instant Messaging or voice Calling. SIPphone also announced that it would connect to Google Inc.'s Google Talk IM network. macworld.com reports:

What’s more, Gizmo Project’s “Call In” service lets users in the United States and the U.K. receive calls from any mobile or landline connection, billed at $5 per month in three or six month increments. The “Call Out” service, which Project Gizmo users buy in blocks of credits, let users make outbound calls to landlines and mobile phones.

Read More: SIPphone releases Gizmo Project VoIP software

SIP That Cheers: Skype and other VoIP Possibilities

Nothing comforts you than the lilting voice of your child over the phone, when you're busy in checking the last miute details for your Board Meeting scheduled for tomorrow. We have the ability to connect with individuals throughout the world thanks to Alexander Graham Bell's boon to the mankind through that little tool known to the world as Telephone. With the ever increasing importance of communications, telephones and fat bills have become an integral part of human lives. That every phone bill month after month brings along with it its share of groans and moans is a truth no phone user can deny.

Thankfully, the situation for telephone users has changed for good. A technological revolution has made its appearance with a promise of that Utopia where subjects are free from dreaded phone bills. VoIP has given callers the ability to make completely free calls throughout the world. With free online programs like Skype, users simply have to download the necessary software and they can communicate for free. The best part is, the voice on the other end need not use VoIP but can simply have a standard landline.

-Rambabu Arle

Pingtel Works for Open Source VoIP

Pingtel is launching an effort that may help drive the development of open source VoIP software. The Pingtel Solution Provider Program can run on Linux and will deliver open source VoIP and other IP products to small- and mid-size customers. According to CRN:

"In terms of the value proposition, this is unique for VARs and timely because, for a lot of VARs in IT, margins are going down on hardware and they're looking for a way to differentiate themselves," Brisard said. "We're targeting the IT guy who typically has sold data equipment and sees voice as the next logical step."

Read more: Pingtel Builds Channel For Open-Source VoIP

PCTel Announces VoIP Roaming Client

PCTel Inc's new VoIP-enable roaming client will be available in spring and will allow users to receive and make calls using the same number on both the cellular GSM network and and IP-based Wi-Fi network. A later version will be support the cellular CDMA standard. According to Information Week:

The product supports connection management, profile management, Wi-Fi hot-spot authentication, and 802.1x/WPA security on wireless networks. It also has a Voice Dialer that operates on both cell and IP networks.

Read more: New VoIP-Enabled Roaming Client

Open-Source Software Will Influence VoIP

Jeff Pulver, who heads the Voice on the Net (VON) conferences and publications, gave his predictions on how VoIP would take shape in 2005. He believes that open source software will have a big effect on VoIP PBXs and that many VoIP startups will launch IPOs.

According to ITnews.com.au:

Pulver said the open source software movement in VoIP is gathering momentum faster than is generally realised. He pointed to the effort by Asterisk users worldwide to create a VoIP PBX.

"They are developing a sophisticated PBX on a PC with the (capability) of a US$100,000 PBX," he said. "It will be a world class PBX that runs on Linux. You can have a PBX for the cost of a PC."

Read more: Open source software set to influence VoIP

Open Source VoIP

Jon "Maddog" Hall, president of Linux International, said Wednesday that the opportunity should arise for open-source VoIP to become bigger than Linux.

According to ZDNet UK:

"I predict that over next three years, VoIP using an open-source solution, such as Asterisk, will generate more business than the entire Linux marketplace today," said Hall.

Halls explained that the open-source project Asterisk provides a cheaper alternative to proprietary PBX solutions, which are used by many companies today to provide telephone services. [...]

According to the Asterisk Web site, the software can interoperate with almost all standards-based telephony equipment using relatively inexpensive hardware and provides features such as voicemail services, call conferencing and call queuing.

Read more: Open-source VoIP 'will be bigger than Linux'

3Com Prepares Launch of New Linux VCX VoIP Softswitch

3Com is coming close to launching a new Linux version of its high-end VoIP softswitch.

According to CRN:

The new products are part of 3Com's continuing push to expand its enterprise networking, VoIP and security business.

President and CEO Bruce Claflin said 3Com will soon release a Linux-based version of its VCX softswitch that channel partners can sell to mid- to large-sized customers.

"With the release of this, we expect to open the aperture of sales, leveraging the channel base," Claflin said during a conference call to discuss the Marlborough, Mass.-based company's quarterly financial results.

Read more: 3Com Preps New Enterprise Products, Eyes Possible Acquisitions

Cisco to Purchase VoIP Software Maker Dynamicsoft

Cisco Systems Inc. announced today plans to purchase Dynamicsoft Inc. Dynamicsoft makes VoIP software based on Session Initiation Protocol.

According to InfoWorld:

Cisco will pay $55 million in cash for the Parsippany, N.J.-based Dynamicsoft, assuming the vendor's $3.8 million in debt, according to a statement from Cisco. The acquisition fills out Cisco's software portfolio for carriers interested in providing converged applications to subscribers, such as presence management and unified messaging.

With its acquisition, Cisco is targeting broadband service providers looking to deploy converged voice/data services to consumers and businesses.

Read more: Cisco to buy VoIP software vendor

Skype Launches Mobile VoIP Software

Skype Technologies, a leader in peer-to-peer VoIP technology, has officially launched Skype for Pocket PC 1.0, allowing Wi-Fi-enabled PDA users to make unlimited free telephone calls from anywhere with wireless access.

According to NewsFactor:

This is essentially a mobile version of the company's global VoIP service based on peer-to-peer software, and also delivers instant messaging without voice over GPRS wide-area networks. Conference calling is also available. [...]

"Skype is delivering VoIP to the masses," said IDC analyst Alex Slawsby, "providing voice communications on a mobile device or a PC."

Read more: Skype Delivers Mobile VoIP