| Reliance Globalcom has entered the VOIP space with Reliance iCall. Beware all Free VOIP Providers, Reliance can give you a run for your money. They are now offering totally free international VOIP Calls to multiple locations. |
| Good news to iPhone users. According to Om , Truphone, a provider of mobile VoIP client using which cheap international calls can be made, is going to support skype chat and voice call from iPhone and iPod touch. This new feature shall be available to users on Jan 12th. Using this new client, iPhone or iPod users can call skype users and at the same time receive skype calls from other skype members. Hold on, some more good news, in addition to skype they also support Gtalk, MSN, yahoo messenger and twitter. So they are becoming more like a unified interface for all IM clients. |
| Screen sharing is a feature, not a collaboration service. Skype has left the door open for all its developer partners to continue to build their businesses with Skype embedded into their offering, especially when it comes to fully featured collaboration services. When you come from a technical background it's easy to confuse features with a complete business offering. For instance, "screen sharing" or "desktop sharing" is a feature appearing in many Web 2.0/Voice 2.0 communications applications and services. But a full collaboration offering for a business environment involves bringing together several features that deliver a significant ROI to the customers. Just to recall my own career history, working with Quarterdeck we did have some "utility" products that initially generated revenues of up to $50MM per year. But eventually they became features within a larger business offering - in this case the operating system itself. Memory management and multi-tasking were not always easy sells but had a market at the time. Today these features are hidden within Windows. It took Microsoft about six versions of Windows to get multi-tasking and memory management right. We also had the same experience developing a web browser; Microsoft eventually incorporated web browsing into the operating system as a feature. I have also been close to the collaboration market for many years. In fact Webex is an outgrowth of a whiteboarding service that Quarterdeck had acquired. When Quarterdeck evaporated (was sold to Symantec for remnants of software intellectual property), the team with whiteboarding experience went on to found Webex. Recently acquired by Cisco, Webex is now a major player in large enterprise collaboration activities, including desktop or screen sharing. It requires an entirely different underlying robust and scalable infrastructure to meet large and medium enterprise collaboration needs Yesterday Skype added a screen sharing feature to Skype for Mac. We can expect it to show up in Skype for Windows in the near future. But, as I mentioned in my post about Skype for Mac, it is a feature, not a full collaboration environment. There are several Skype Partners who offer a full business collaboration environment; they are not threatened by Skype's screen sharing feature. In fact, they may make Skype users more aware of desktop sharing and start looking for a more complete collaboration environment. What is in a fully featured collaboration environment?
No, Skype is not going after Webex or Yugma's or InnerPass's or the Lotus Sametime markets. Skype's screen sharing is another feature that's a peer with file sharing, video calling, IM/chat or SMS messaging. It's a person-to-person calling complement; it's not for highly robust, readily scalable business grade collaboration services. Phil, I'm sorry but Skype for Mac's screen sharing, to which I had access about a week before yesterday's announcement, is a feature not a collaboration service. Let my repeat my statement in my initial post on Skype for Mac:
Bottom line: There are lots of opportunities for independent developers who want to develop a complete offering that makes an independent business. |
|
Screen Sharing The most impressive feature is a form of basic screen sharing. Either a segment of your screen or the full screen is converted into a virtual webcam such that the screen can be viewed in any Skype client via the Skype video channel. While only a Mac can currently be a source for this screen sharing it can be viewed on any Windows, Mac or Linux client as video. Skype for Mac's screen sharing feature is sufficient to support discussion issues as a complement to a voice and/or chat conversation; it is NOT by any means a replacement for fully featured desktop or application sharing offerings such as Yugma, Inner Pass or IBM's Lotus Sametime Unyte. It's "just" screen sharing. In fact, it is one of two options on the Skype for Mac's "Share" button, the other being file sharing/transfer. Below is an example of a full screen image of a shared MacBook screen as seen in a detached Skype video window on my Windows laptop.
Skype Access The second major feature, Skype Access, provides WiFi access for your MacBook or MacBook Pro via any Boingo access point. While I'm told it has been tested at many of the over 100,000 Boingo hotspots worldwide, I could not get it to work at a local Canadian Starbucks listed as a Boingo hotspot location. But then, this is still beta (and the problem may be with Boingo's interface with Bell Mobility). More importantly is to look at the "use case" for Skype Access. Cost for using Skype Access over Boingo is US$0.22/€0.16/C$0.23 per minute using Skype credits. Within a user's home country, Skype Access is probably more expensive than local alternatives; this is certainly the case in Canada. However, I can see the value if I am outside the home country and wanting to make Skype/SkypeOut calls, check email or do some web browsing at airports, restaurants, coffee shops and other Boingo hotspots as an alternative to much higher cost roaming wireless calls (for instance roaming U.S. to Canada on Rogers runs at $1.75 per minute) or $40 per day Internet access charges at some European hotels. With unlimited use Boingo subscriptions at $21.95/month for North America or $59/month Global, Skype Access is more appropriate for the occasional traveler as opposed to the hardened road warrior. It reminds me of the use case for PamFax where you can send faxes directly from, say, your hotel room for about $0.20 per page while avoiding a hotel's much higher $1.00/page charge for faxing. One other common feature between Skype Access and PamFax: both use Skype credits as the primary currency. Other features in Skype for Mac 2.8 beta:
Dan York, with a lot more Skype for Mac experience than I have had (I just acquired a MacBook ten days ago), has provided a much more detailed review of all the new features He has also produced an excellent You Tube video for his Emerging Tech Talk series:
|
|
Fast forward 55 years to this past week's 2009 New Years day afternoon. While riding as a passenger in our car, we sped along Ontario's main 401 freeway as I watched the CBC Sports color telecast of the third period of the NHL Winter Hockey Classic (live from Wrigley Field) on my BlackBerry Bold. It was one more test to carry out during the public beta of SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry. I viewed all the action in full color; equally as impressive was the quality of the stereo sound (which "swells" out well beyond the device). The only frame freezing probably occurred as my BlackBerry switched between cell tower sites. Otherwise I was experiencing a crisp picture with sharp colors and clear sound coming from my home cable TV box. Talk about convergence - a Rogers cable TV signal being transmitted back out over Rogers High Speed Internet to a BlackBerry Bold via Rogers 3G wireless. I have provided the detailed basic requirements for using SlingPlayer for BlackBerry Mobile on my recent Web Worker Daily post: "A New BlackBerry Experience Goes Beta: SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry" along with a history of SlingMedia's hardware and software products. Note especially that it requires a version 4.5 firmware upgrade of any BlackBerry 8x20. While it works via a WiFi connection on all supported devices, over a 3G HSDPA network (Rogers, AT&T and T-Mobile in North America) it only works currently on the BlackBerry Bold.
Over the past 15 months I have been using SlingPlayer Mobile for Symbian on a Nokia N95-1 over WiFi connections. It has been a consistently reliable experience over that period; it also provided me with some benchmarks for testing the BlackBerry version's user interface and video/audio quality. Here are some of the experiences I have had with SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry on my BlackBerry Bold 9000 over the past few days of beta trials:
While I had some excellent viewing and listening experiences, a few comments:
And, for now for those not able to take advantage of SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry due to its current specifications:
A suggestion for RIM: SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry demonstrates the full potential of the Bold's and 8900 Curve's 480x320/360 video display. Let's hope that newer versions of their firmware can achieve the same level of high quality video on the YouTube player and other video applications supported by these devices. If you have both a SlingBox and one of the supported BlackBerries, upgrade your firmware (where necessary) and give SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry a try (U.S., Canada, U.K.). Sling Media is now looking for feedback from its targeted user public. With over 500 channels to choose from, at any location worldwide where I can find a WiFi or (unlimited data plan) 3G HSDPA connection, television broadcast viewing has come a long way from having, in a fixed location, a single channel available only when atmospheric conditions permit. SlingPlayer for BlackBerry has significant potential for business road warriors; in addition to the entertainment aspect, it also provides immediate access to "breaking news" and business broadcasts from taxis, airports, coffee shops, restaurants (mind your etiquette, however). For those states considering legislation prohibiting texting while driving, they may also want to include viewing videos as a potential distraction. Update: SlingMedia announced at MacWorld that they are targeting to release a SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone this calendar quarter. (I would have put up a screen capture; however, the video does not make it to the BlackBerry screen capture programs I employ, including PC desktop programs.) |
|
In my interview this evening with new Truphone CEO Geraldine Wilson, she pointed out:
Some outstanding questions:
A major step forward in making low cost calls worldwide, Truphone's moves once again emphasize that WiFi is becoming an ever growing alternative connection option to making wireless calls. At the same time it will be interesting to see how the business model plays out in a world where the cost of voice calling continues to move towards zero. |
|
Skype's bundling free screen sharing into Skype's software will popularize the feature to hundreds of millions of people. This makes the market for online conferencing bigger. The bundling will also kill the freemium business model (try our free version, upgrade to our posh version) conferencing companies use to get customers. This will hurt the following Skype developers directly: Back in mid-2005, Bill Campbell asked "Does Skype eat its children?" when Skype competed with presence developers with Skypeweb. Those developers abandoned Skype. Since then Skype competed with video developers, who've abandoned Skype. And with Outlook integration developers. And with Salesforce integration developers. And with mobile developers. Skype's ecosystem is littered with the bleached bones of third-party software developers. They filled gaps in Skype's product line. They made Skype's network more valuable. They bet their jobs on Skype's partner program being safe from Skype itself. Clearly, a bad bet. Skype desktop sharing will be wildly successful. Building it into Skype clients and putting it one or two clicks to add sharing to a call makes it 10 to 100 times more convenient than other systems. Ubiquity will change the way people think about desktop sharing the way ubiquity is changing how people think about video calling. WebEx-style meeting, sales, training, tech-support, and webinar services comprise a multibillion dollar industry. Skype desktop sharing will be disruptive to the industry: vastly cheaper, more convenient, more social. We'll hunt for market share stats this year. So while this announcement is great for Skype, the choice will chill investment by software development partners. Platforms must be safe, trusted, with manageable risk. And platforms must foster creativity, innovation, and opportunity. Skype's choice subverts developer trust. That's one hell of a brand note |
| Guest Post by Dan York, reposted from Disruptive Telephony.
Continuing Skype's rather fragmented product strategy, they have rolled out some new features in this 2.8 beta release that will at least stop us Mac users from whining about Windows users always getting the good stuff first. Here's the quick list of what Skype notes is in this release:
Courtesy of Skype's PR team, I've had a chance to play with the 2.8 beta for a couple of weeks and have these thoughts below... SKYPE ACCESS Probably the largest "new" feature is "Skype Access", a service that lets you go to any of the 100,000 Boingo Wi-Fi hotspots and - using Skype - connect to the Boingo hotspot. When you connect, you pay on a per-minute basis and the fee (roughly 20 cents per minute) is deducted from your Skype Credit. You do not have to pay the Boingo monthly fee. You do not have to pay any hourly or daily fees. Judging from the news release and pre-release info, Skype is immensely proud of this feature but I will be honest and say it does little for me. I just don't use Wi-Fi hotspots as much while traveling (especially now that I'm paying for a wireless broadband adapter). However, I can see how this could be of value. If all you wanted to do was crack open your Mac and send some email, this gives you a great way to do that on a per-minute basis. If I were a heavy user of Wi-Fi hotspots, I'd want to do the math to figure out if it would just be cheaper to buy a monthly Boingo access. Regardless, it's an interesting move for Skype to get into the business of connecting you to Internet access. SCREEN SHARING The coolest feature of the 2.8 beta is a "screensharing" feature where you can share either your entire screen or just a portion of your screen with the Skype user on the other end. Now, this works with all other versions of Skype because it replaces your video stream with the screen sharing. So a Mac Skype user can share their screen with Windows and Linux users.... which is pretty cool. It's hard to show in a blog post, but if you watch my screencast about the 2.8 beta, you can see it in action: You can share either your entire desktop or just a section of your screen. You can also resize the section you are sharing while you are in the middle of sharing. When you stop sharing, you just flip back to showing your video. CHAT PRIORITIZATION By far the most useful feature I've found in the 2.8 beta is the ability to set the "priority" of a chat session - and then sort your chat sessions by priority in the Mac's "drawer" way of displaying chat sessions. I can just control-click a chat (either a private or public chat) and then go down to the "Set Priority" menu choice: You can then sort the chats based on their priority using the drop-down menu at the top of the "drawer": You can also sort based on title or date. Personally I've found the Sort by Priority to be very useful when you have, as I do, a zillion chats open at any one time. (And yes, I report to RJ, our CTO, so his chat gets the highest priority! ;-) ) MOOD MESSAGE CHAT - AND FOLLOWING (like Twitter) Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the 2.8 beta is the new "Mood Messages" pseudo-chat that you can enable in the Advanced part of the Skype Preferences: Once you enable the "Mood Message Chat", you get a new chat window that opens up that shows you the mood messages of all of your contacts: It also very nicely lets you set your mood message simply by typing in the window as you would to any other chat window. This is quite nice for someone like me who almost never changes my mood message in the regular window. This actually makes Skype mood messages useful to me. However, because of that other option that says "Show iTunes song in my mood message", you rapidly wind up seeing that a whole lot of people have that option checked and your Mood Message Chat rapidly fills with updates of music people listen to. What if you don't want to see their updates? Well, Skype has made it so that you can "follow" updates from your contacts through a simple menu choice: The down side here is that if you enable the Mood Message Chat, you are following all your contacts by default and have to go through and "unfollow" (i.e. uncheck the menu choice) people you don't want to follow. It would be great if Skype had a "follow by default" or a "stop following all contacts" choice... something along those lines to let you control who you are following. The intriguing aspect here is that this enables you to turn Skype mood messages into the kind of status updates that you typically have in Twitter, Facebook, or any of the other zillion services offering status updates. The great thing here is that it is simply another Skype chat window like all your other chats. (Of course, you can get a Skype chat for Twitter using "twitter4skype", but this is now with Skype mood messages.) I think, though, for it to reach any kind of real usage, you need more people to enable this feature (it is off by default) and actually start using it - and for that it also needs to be on more platforms. [As a tease, I'll mention that there is a way to integrate this mood message chat with Twitter, so anything I type there also shows up in my Twitter stream... but I'll write about that in a separate blog post as it's not directly tied to the 2.8 beta release. Soon...] QUICK ADD Another nice feature is the ability to quickly add someone to a chat through a button at the top of the chat window. You click on the window and start typing in a contact's name: Before you could always drag-and-drop a contact from your main Skype window into a chat, but now you can use this quick add button. It is particularly useful if you have a large number of Skype contacts. NOTES ON CONTACTS Another useful feature is the ability to add private notes to each of your Contacts. So you could store information about how you know the person... their interests... basically anything you want as it is a free-form text field: What's not yet clear to me is where these notes are stored. Are they accessible through multiple Skype clients if you were logged in on multiple machines? Or are they tied to the machine where you create the Notes? I'm guessing that they are stored with the local client like chat histories are.... but I'd need to have multiple installations of the 2.8 beta to really know this. OTHER FEATURES Skype also added a few other features:
There are undoubtedly other features that we'll find as we work with it more. CONCLUSION So with this 2.8 Beta for Mac OS X, Skype provides some interesting new capabilities. I can see the screen sharing being quite useful to show people what's on my screen. The chat prioritization is great for heavy chat users like me. The possibilities of actually making the Mood Messages useful intrigue me. Frequent Wi-Fi hotspot users may find the Skype Access feature useful and economical. All in all, it's a great evolution of the Skype client for Mac OS X. I do wish, though, as I've discussed before, that Skype's product strategy weren't so fragmented. Sure, as a Mac user, it's fun for a few minutes to have some features that Windows users don't have... but that fun rapidly fades when I can share my desktop with a Windows user but they can't share their's. And they almost never use the Mood Messages because it's not convenient to do so. Perhaps most annoyingly, I am currently in a position where I am helping some Windows users get started with Skype and so I'm trying to help them with their Skype client... when mine is markedly different. It's a frustrating experience. I do hope Skype's new management can help converge the product streams so that the user experience (and technical support experience) is closer between platforms (while, yes, acknowledging that platforms have UI/behavior differences). We'll see. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy using this new beta on my Mac and seeing what else might be inside the release. Again, Skype indicates that the 2.8 beta will be available tomorrow, January 6, 2009, for download for Mac OS X users. I'll look forward to reading what you all think... |
| Unconfirmed, |
| Jim Courtney and I are heading to Las Vegas for the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show. I'm also going to the Please share your tips with us. Email, twitter, or Skype Me. Love to see you there. Gear to pack for CES:
Non-gear: 3x5 cards, notepad, flair pens, writing pens. Clothes to pack: Warm, layers. Good walking shoes. Scarf. |
|
A mainstay for communications in any office with at least a few employees is the need to accept incoming calls, determine who is calling, what is their general need and getting the call to the right employee. In the interest of effective and productive customer and supplier relations, calls need an automated way to reach sales personnel, customer care, accounting or technical support or "the boss". Preferably this call management should be handled without any human intervention; over the past twenty or more years this has resulted in the evolution of increasingly effective Private Branch Exchange ("PBX") offerings from telecomm equipment suppliers. And it traditionally required a reasonably demanding capital expense, from $15,000 up. The basic functions of a PBX include:
However, IP-based communications technology along with web 2.0 tools provide opportunities for enhancing the PBX to build more productive and effective business processes when it comes to managing relationships with both suppliers and customers. For instance:
Building on its Call Center experience OnState has launched its Virtual PBX which provides all this functionality as well as:
A few weeks ago, OnState CEO Pat Kelly was our guest on a SquawkBox conference call where he provided more details about OnState's Virtual PBX, including a sharable slide show presentation accessible as a Google document. Bottom line; for as little as $15 per month per seat and no capital investment, small to medium enterprises and organizations as well can establish an enhanced PBX capability to facilitate both more productive business processes as well as more cost effective communications. Definitely a business model disruptor. |
| I've been wracking my brain for the defining Skype moments of 2008. It comes down to Skype's identity. The marketing, psychology, defining oneself sense; not the login, badge sense. Brand marketers may talk of lovemarks, but trust comes before love. The people of Estonia trust their electronic voting systems with the fate of their nation. In a country that recently survived cyberwar, that's a lot of trust. Estonia conducts elections online. Building on successes in 2005 and 2007 they recently approved voting with mobile phones by 2011. The Estonian National Electoral Committee (VVK) will provide SIM chips to Estonian voters for free. Would you trust Skype's technology and Skype's business with your vote? If you asked me in 2007, I'd have said yes. Skype's brand promises privacy and safety. Outside security experts applauded Skype's authentication, strong encryption, and ability to bypass most obstacles. Skype is an eBay company (though few people know this) and borrows some of our trust of eBay and PayPal. I'm unsure now, as 2009 starts. Skype's technology is strong but incomplete. Skype's encryption is end-to-end, from Skype client to Skype client. Nobody can listen in. So the weak points are the end points: a user's PC or Skype-enabled device and the gateway to the the voting system. Secure those end points and you'd have a pretty secure system. That's not the whole story, though. We learned in 2008 that Skype shared a copy of their desktop source code with the TOM-Skype joint venture in China. That includes Skype's authentication (proving who you are) and encryption (foiling eavesdroppers) code. We don't know how many people, including TOM-Skype former employees, contractors, and members of Chinese security services, have access to that code. (Hypothetically, if I offer a $1000 bounty, would someone sell me a copy?) Many people have the means to interfere with an election conducted through Skype. Given time, we know a way finds itself in the hands of those with a will. Speaking of intent, let's return to the joint venture. Skype's founding executives traded code for access to China. China is now Skype's largest market. The new executive team tightened up operational security, minimizing unauthorized access to log files, surveillance, and source code. Despite Skype's 2008 policy review, the original deal stands:
This is the arrangement we know of. We don't know if Skype agreed to similar arrangements with, for example, EU law enforcement or USA intelligence agencies. Landline and mobile phone companies have long given keys to their networks to law enforcement and communications intelligence agencies. We're accustomed to the rule of law applying to our phones. We hope, we assume, we believe, perhaps naïvely, that our phone company keeps our secrets. It is sad to let go of those illusions regarding Skype. So this goes back to Skype's brand promise of privacy and security. Do you trust Skype? Would you trust Skype's corporation with your vote? With your country? With your liberty and freedom? I'm less certain. |
|
It will be interesting to see how PamConsult's Skype partnership evolves in 2009 as the new executive team introduces a comprehensive technology roadmap and revamped partnering programs. |
| Skype is running end-of-year banner ads. They are pulling people to Skype.com with "Download Skype now" the call to action. Developed by Albion London. Here is a video of three flash ads.
|
| This afternoon I came across this article by reporter Chris O'Brien in today's San Jose Mercury News: "Video Chat has entered the mainstream". It appears that the worlds of Oprah viewers and Silicon Valley geeks and reporters have more than six degrees of separation. The story starts out by talking about an email he received from his mother: Seemingly out of nowhere, this note from her landed in my inbox: "Have you heard of Skype? Apparently you can use it to do free video calls on the computer." My mother, who lives just outside Kansas City, tends to be a reliable barometer for when a technology is gaining adoption outside the hermetically sealed bubble that is Silicon Valley. Well, my mom, and Oprah. As one of only a handful of people on the planet who don't watch Oprah's show every day, I had missed the fact that she's recently begun using Skype to make regular video calls with her audience. Chris goes on to report on a brief interview with Skype President Josh Silverman whom he quotes with: And Skype has a new version in beta that will make video calling much more central to the service, according to Skype President Josh Silverman. .... And in its new release, Skype users will be able to enlarge the video to fill the entire screen without degrading the picture quality. Well we now know what Chris is giving his mother for Christmas. For his benefit, listed below are previous Skype Journal posts on both Skype High Quality Video and our reporting last March on Oprah's use of Skype Video.
Chris, keep up with Skype Journal and you won't be learning about how Skype is used from your mother. By the way, how did I know to follow up on Chris's interview with Skype President Josh Silverman last Wednesday? He set it up via Twitter messages with Skype PR. They had found that Twitter provided the most "immediate" asynchronous communications mode as compared to, say, email exchanges. Also speaks for the device independence of Twitter. A final question: will we be seeing a new version of Skype High Quality Video (or better) introduced at CES in January? |
| If I ever had any doubt about the value of Twitter as a commercial social networking tool, it evaporated this weekend as a result of following some Tweets on the subject of smartphones that appeared this weekend. They certainly provide an independent perspective on issues that I'm sure others are wondering about: Mark Evans acquired an iPod Touch back in August after deciding he did not need an iPhone; as a result of his recent employment status change, he is now debating the merits of having a smartphone - in particular, an iPhone So I'll assume Mark is really looking to have a mobile microcomputer or PC experience on a smartphone. Having had several months' experience with both an iPhone and a BlackBerry Bold, here are my criteria for a mobile microcomputer or, more aptly, a "Laptop for the Hip or Purse":
A great set of specifications but the key question here is: "How does it change the user experience?". In particular does it eliminate the "urge" to turn on, or always carry, a laptop to keep up-to-date with real time activities? As I have mentioned elsewhere, after a month's experience with the BlackBerry Bold, I found I had lost that tugging "urge" to turn on my laptop for keeping current with real time (and often mission critical) information. This change did not just involve email and web browsing but also Instant Messaging, Twitter and attached document editing.. RIM would do well to position Bold as a "Laptop for the Hip or Purse", bypassing all the technical comparisons and moving on to succinctly promoting Bold based on the actual user experience. I like my iPhone for many of its personal information delivery features; it gives me a feel for what is appealing about the iPhone. I can find Toronto Transit streetcar times, do unit conversions, find the nearest Tim Horton's or Starbucks; it has lots of great information delivery features. On the media side it's definitely an extension of the iPod although it does not have the full audio performance of the Bold. However, a mobile microcomputer the iPhone is NOT! Yes it uses a modified Mac OS; it uses Safari browser; it has an iPod variant. However, I find myself turning to my Bold much more often than my iPhone for real two way interactivity. Just as important as the keyboard is the ability to track instant messaging sessions, whether on iSkoot (for Skype chat), Palringo or BlackBerry Messenger in background while carrying out other activities. On the subject of low cost international calling I find I can make much more use of Truphone for BlackBerry than Truphone for iPhone (that's the subject of a future post). I am encountering more and more acquaintances who have no use for a touch keyboard; certainly my typing error rate is much worse on the iPhone. For this reason alone I consider the iPhone to be a very good one-way information delivery device whereas BlackBerry is a true two-way communications device. As for applications, suffice it to say that over the next six months, where feasible, business savvy developers will publish applications running on both devices. For instance, The Hockey News has just released mobile applications for both the BlackBerry and iPhone. I mentioned Truphone above; Mobile Google apps are another example. Keeping up with iTunes music via BlackBerry MediaSync is a trivial operation. Frankly from some video and audio streaming experiences I have had, BlackBerry Bold provides superior stereo audio performance even without earbuds or a headset. Bottom line: when I leave my home office or hotel room with my Bold, I no longer have to take my laptop to keep current. Yes, at the moment, the iPhone browser a superior user experience but rest assured RIM is not ignoring the issue. At this point the Bold's browser issues have sometimes been frustrating but they not been an inhibition to my browsing activities in any major way - I still get the information I am seeking. The critical parameter here is the 480 pixel display width, which is sufficient to view most websites and weblogs without the need for horizontal scrolling via a ribbon bar. When RIM releases carrier-specific versions of their upgraded operating system - including browser enhancements, the Bold will live up to its full potential as "A Laptop for the Hip or Purse". (As for pricing on Rogers, both the Bold and iPhone are C$199 with a three year contract.) In future posts I'll cover in more detail some of the issues mentioned above, including my Truphone evaluation on each device, some very amazing real time video and audio experiences, the range of third party applications available on each device and why both background processing and WiFi is becoming critical to any smartphone. And, Mark, if you're looking for a mobile microcomputer, I would suggest serious consideration of the BlackBerry Bold. As a final determinant, have a look at the Bold's display - it's been universally acclaimed as "stunning"; I can only agree. In closing, can we expect Skype to include BlackBerry as one of their supported platforms for Skype for Mobile? Or will iSkoot improve on their user interface to take advantage of some new BlackBerry developer tools? (Most Skype executives I meet are sporting a BlackBerry - it's supported by eBay IT.) 1) Always on Experience: the BB is offering me a realtime always-on experience never found in any device I used before |
|
TokBox's "Send Santa a Video Mail" promotion is cooler and shows TokBox's strengths well. The promotion lives inside TokBox's flash client (no download required). They offer fun special effects using video mail templates, like speaking inside a Santa hat and beard. Santa answers video mail, a personal touch. You may broadcast to your friend list (not exactly a great idea if you use TokBox for all of your life). TokBox saves your message to Santa in your "Sent" folder, a keepsake. In all, TokBox's holiday promo exploits TokBox's strengths while Skype's promo fails to employ Skype's.
|
| SyncMood and Twype copy your twitter updates into Skype for Windows. I've had great success with Twype for a while. This is part of a few broader patterns. Open Platforms. Skype's and Twitter's APIs are public, free, and easy. So people can build apps that work with them. Social Sync. Update once, see it everywhere you want it seen. As a category, this is getting smarter. I'm seeing useful features like
Lifestream Shaping. Setting up filters and agents so you and others see only what matters, at the best times, in the best media, in the right contexts. One response to social network overload. Data Portability. The social platforms, and the sync and lifestreaming tools which use them, put some power in user hands. It puts a little proof behind a promise that your-data-is-really-yours. |
| ESS Technology announces the ES9701 as the newest member of its VoIP product line. First in the industry to embed two Subscriber Line Interface Circuits (SLICs) and an Ethernet switch, the ES9701 brings the highest integration and lowest bill of materials to consumer VoIP adapters and IP phone applications.
To enable quick time-to-market for customer product development, the ES9701 comes with a VoIP phone/adapter reference design complete with voice codecs, SIP protocol stack, all necessary drivers, and a software development tool chain. |
| SimpleSignal and Wesbell Technologies have entered into a distribution agreement to market SimpleSignal's SIP Trunking solution to Wesbell's AastraLink Response Point resellers. SimpleSignal's SimpleSIP solution gives SMBs and large enterprises advanced VoIP calling features and works with any PBX and IP-PBX phone system. SimpleSIP Trunking delivers productivity enhancing features, such as simultaneous ring, unified messaging and disaster recovery capabilities. Under the agreement, Wesbell resellers of AastraLink Response Point will be able to offer SimpleSIP to their business customers in the U.S. and Canada.
|
|
|
|
What questions does this report answer?
HIGHLIGHTS
|
|
|
|
|
|
The webcam looks like a single legged red-aced alien with arms protruding. Minoru works the trick by combining two USB webcams altogether and adjusting the red and blue levels to create a near perfect 3D video stream. Obviously, the trick works best if the other party also has a similar webcam. Minoru is compatible with existing messaging programs like MSN or Skype and you can always upload pictures of your antics on Youtube. Don't try to convert a 2D movie into a 3D one using this technique though or you could be in for a rather nasty headache. Minoru can still be used as a 2D webcam if you or your friends do not have the glasses. Source: IT Pro Portal |
