Shoretel Rumors03.05.2008 20:36 - source: voipgadgets I'm reticent to spread rumors about a VoIP company's demise - I certainly don't want to be be the Valleywag of VoIP blogs. However, Rich Tehrani, my boss, has been hearing rumors about ShoreTel and it doesn't sound good. It goes without saying that Rich Tehrani has his "ear to the ground" in the VoIP industry perhaps more than anyone - myself included. Rich heard things about TMC's main competitor long before the story broke out in the blogosphere, but both Rich and the TMC team took the "high road" and chose not to write damaging stories about our competitor. With this in mind, Rich wrote in his blog, "I have never heard the kind of rumors about a vendor that I am hearing about Shoretel. Reports of unhappiness in the ranks of the workers and management problems persist in the industry." Rich adds, "I normally hate to talk about rumors without doing more research than this but in my experience this level of negativity is unusual for any company and for it to come out of the blue and unsolicited from multiple sources means there could likely be fire causing the smoke." Greg Galitzine also weighs in when he writes, "In my opinion these guys were once the truest darlings of the VoIP world. Maybe I was simply a sucker for a great desk set (and they had some nice hardware, I tell you) but in the wake of all the sour news in the VoIP world I have to wonder if the old adage “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” applies." Greg adds, "Shoretel stock (SHOR) was down 10.10 percent on Wednesday, but appeared to be making a huge run in aftermarket trading, bouncing back about 8.5% at 6:50 pm ET." ShoreTel is one of the early IP-PBX pioneers and they have some really great technology. I for one would be sad to hear if the rumors of their demise are indeed true. While it could be fun for me to speculate that pressure from low-cost IP-PBX solutions, especially Asterisk, the open source IP-PBX is affecting ShoreTel, I don't think this is the case. The last time I looked at ShoreTel, their technology was more scalable than any of the Asterisk-based solutions out there. Asterisk's sweet-spot is really under 80 seats (some exceptions excluded) where as ShoreTel's sweet spot is 80 seats and up. ShoreTel competes more with Cisco, Nortel, and Avaya. So why is ShoreTel having problems? As Rich wrote in July 2007, "ShoreTel hit it big with an IPO which jumped 27.5% on it’s opening day. The IPO was derailed last week as a result of a lawsuit filed by Mitel. The company closed the day at $12.15, after the company priced 7.9 million shares at $9.50 a share." So perhaps Mitel's lawsuit against ShoreTel took the steam out of ShoreTel? Perhaps all the recent lawsuits against various VoIP companies, including Vonage, which has lawsuits filed against them by Verizon, Sprint Nextel, Nortel, and even me over my cold pizza has stymied ShoreTel? Tags: Asterisk, Cisco, Greg Galitzine, IP-PBX, Mitel, open source, Rich Tehrani, ShoreTel, VoIP Related Entries Mitel sues ShoreTel - What does it mean? - Jun 28, 2007 Asterisk 1.6.0 beta5 - Mar 06, 2008 Digium launches Switchvox Free Edition - Oct 31, 2007 Avaya #1 VoIP PBX Vendor? - Aug 21, 2007 Predictive Dialing on Asterisk? - Jun 13, 2007 Digium - The Showstopper! - May 18, 2007 pbxnsip IP-PBX Review - Feb 21, 2007 Digium podcast of Mark Spencer's new role - Jan 30, 2007 Rev B of Astfin's BRI (ISDN) Asterisk Appliance Arrives - Apr 29, 2008 Hulk Smash Asterisk 1.6! - Apr 16, 2008 Read more… |
TringMe Now Works with AOL/AIM03.05.2008 20:36 - source: voipgadgets Well, it certainly didn't take long for someone to leverage AOL's Open Voice APIs featuring full SIP support. TringMe is apparently the 'first' out of the gate announcing support to millions of AIM call-out users to make calls directly from TringMe. AIM users can use TringPhone - TringMe's fully web-based SIP phone to make calls directly from the browser. According to TringMe, "with TringMe’s MobileVoIP solution, AOL/AIM users can use a mobile device (e.g. Symbian devices) to make VoIP calls from a mobile device. If they desire to use Gtalk to make VoIP calls over this service, that’s supported too. In general, AOL/AIM users can use any of TringMe’s supported originating devices to make calls (say Gtalk)." Apparently it's pretty easy to setup. You just login to your TringMe account, enter your AIM or AOL screen-name (AOLScreenName@aol.com or AIMScreenName@aim.com) and SIP password in the TringPhone settings. Make sure to specify “AOL” in the Domain or Proxy setting as well. That’s it! Now you can use TringPhone for making calls through your AIM call-out account. Via TringMe blog Update: 11pm. Figured it was worth sharing some thoughts from around the VoIP blogosphere on the AOL Open Voice API news. Obviously, the main gist of the news is that you can now use any SIP-based device and register it with the AOL SIP registrar. TringMe was first to promote succesfully doing this. I thought about trying to register one of my spare Aastra phones or an X-Lite client, but Dan beat me to do it by getting X-Lite to register on AOL. http://www.disruptivetelephony.com/2008/04/aol-launches-op.html Dan York gives some good details on how the AOL Open Voice APIs allow you to use any SIP client, such as X-Lite. He also writes "Does accepting SIP connections at your SIP proxy constitute an "API"? Does providing SIP termination services to the PSTN constitute an "API"?" He has a valid point. I thought about that myself, but assumed there was an API in addition to the SIP support, which again TringMe was so quick to leverage. Alec Saunders has a Squawk Box on the news and also emails fellow VoIP bloggers hinting the news is a non-event, while simultaneously discussing AOL's starts & stops in the VoIP space which directly affected Alec's company. http://saunderslog.com/2008/04/30/squawk-box-april-30-trust/ Mr. Blog responds, "I agree that it is not an API, by any stretch. But I disagree that it is a non-event" http://mrblog.org/2008/04/30/aol-open-voice-program-works-with-phonegnome/ One last thought on my end... I'm glad AOL is opening up their network to allow any SIP device to connect. I wish Skype would be so open. Heck, I wish Vonage, which is SIP-based would allow you to have open SIP credentials and use any SIP device. Whether this is enough to get people to switch from using SkypeOut minutes to AOL's PSTN termination remains to be seen. In theory, I can configure an Asterisk server to use AOL as an ITSP. But then AOL just comes another SIP termination service provider, which are a dime-a-dozen these days. Tags: AIM, AOL, SIP, tringme, TringPhone, VoIP Related Entries AOL Launches Open Voice APIs - Apr 29, 2008 TringMe opens platform API to developers - Apr 16, 2008 tringme TringPhone Flash VoIP App Launches - Dec 03, 2007 AIM Call Out Update - Oct 29, 2007 AIM Call Out Launches - Oct 26, 2007 Voxeo Adds VoIP Party Line App to Facebook - Apr 22, 2008 Microsoft Response Point Announces SIP Trunking Service Providers - Apr 18, 2008 PhoneFromHere.com & Digium Ink 5 Year Deal - Apr 09, 2008 C2Call - New browser-based Java VoIP app - Apr 03, 2008 JAJAH Mobile VoIP client for the iPhone - Apr 02, 2008 Comments on this Entry: (Jack on Apr 30, 2008 6:51 PM) Yes it defenitely did not take very long for tringme to provide support for AIM Call Out. I just made an International call & it works great. Thanks for that update tom. http://journals.aol.com/opensip/aol-open-voice-platform (Randell Jesup on May 1, 2008 5:49 PM) This is far from an open SIP server - no registration, no direct IP calls, no inbound calls at all. It is, simply, an (open) outbound gateway, and users need to have AOL/AIM accounts with money. Useful, but not exciting. Read more… |
Call Screening Patent03.05.2008 20:36 - source: voipgadgets 
While researching for my VoIP call screening post earlier today, I came across a patent for "call screening". Curious, I decided to check it out the filed patent and found it was filed by Nortel Networks in July 2004. Interestingly, the patent application agrees with me that hosted voicemail needs call screening and goes as far as to say service providers with hosted voicemail systems are at a competitive disadvantage when they don't have call screening. The patent app reads as follows: The present invention relates to telephony communications, and in particular to allowing a user to screen calls by listening to a voicemail message being left in a hosted voicemail system from a telephone device. Background of the Invention [0002] Telephone users with personal telephone answering devices can listen to callers leaving messages thereon, and during the call, decide to take the call. This highly desirable technique for screening calls is unavailable in hosted voicemail systems, because the voicemail system is a separate entity in the telephone network and is not directly associated with any individual's telephone device. In a hosted voicemail system, incoming calls that are not answered are forwarded to the voicemail system. Since many users, especially residential users, rely on the ability to screen calls, service providers with hosted voicemail systems are at a competitive disadvantage when trying to market hosted voicemail services to their subscribers. Accordingly, there is a need to provide call screening for users subscribing to hosted voicemail services. Yeah, no kidding 'call screening' is a desirable feature! What's even more interesting is the patent diagram makes no mention of VoIP, as seen here: The text of the patent itself makes no mention of VoIP, so this is strictly traditional PSTN hosted voicemail call screening. Earlier today I griped about the lack of real-time call screening in VoIP services, such as Vonage & Packet8. It's not that hard, especially if using software. You should be able to easily setup a 3-way conference call via SIP to enable call screening. That is, one leg is the caller, the second leg is your phone, and the last leg is special call screening software running on your PC. You just send a SIP Invite to the PC, have the software auto-accept the SIP invite and connect legs #2 & #3. If the user accepts the call, simply connect/conference leg #1. Now most people don't want to perform call screening on their PC. Most would want to do it via the phone, especially since the PC may not be on or nearby. Well, that's easy enough as well. First, you ring the user's phone, then after X number of rings, the phone stops ringing and the hosted voicemail system prompts the caller to leave a message. Simultaneously, the hosted voicemail system calls the phone again (via another SIP Invite) and this time tells the phone to play a special ringtone to indicate a caller is leaving a message. Hearing the special ringtone, the user can pick up the phone, be conferenced into the voicemail message being left (with mic muted) and if the user presses a touch-tone they can instantly pull the caller out and their mic is unmuted. Simple! Damn, between the "special" ringtone to indicate the opportunity to screen the caller and the "instant" ability to pull a caller out of a hosted VoIP voicemail system, I should patent these! The special ringtone can even work with analog phones connected to ATAs simply by varying the length of the ring voltage, i.e. two super-quick rings. Now while I didn't go crazy searching the patent database, I did look around and didn't see a patent for "VoIP call screening". Hmmm. Very interesting... Ok you patent trolls, here's an opportunity for you. File a patent for "VoIP call screening". In fact, file one for "hosted VoIP call screening" and another one for "customer premise VoIP call screening" that works on customer premise Voice over IP phone systems (IP-PBXs), such as Asterisk. Then when you rake in millions from patent extortion, just make sure you show me some lovin'. After all, I did give you the idea. If you don't show me some lovin' then may your guilty conscience eat you up. Oh wait, patent trolls with a guilty conscience? What in blazes am I thinking? Update: (12:20pm) I neglected to mention that there are some hosted voicemail providers offering call screening. They aren't necessarily VoIP or leveraging VoIP technology though. Some examples include CallWave, GrandCentral, and Ring Central. Figured they were still worth mentioning. Tags: call screening, hosted VoIP call screening, Nortel Networks, patent, patent troll, VoIP Related Entries VoIP Call Screening - Apr 30, 2008 VoIP Pioneer Slams Sprint - Jan 25, 2008 Another VoIP Provider Bites the Dust - Sep 26, 2007 Vonage vs. Sprint - Court Decision Reached - Sep 25, 2007 P2P or ENUM Saves Vonage? - May 11, 2007 Vonage warns it could file for bankruptcy - Apr 18, 2007 Vonage Patent Update - Apr 09, 2007 Vonage NOT Saved by VoIP, Inc. - Apr 04, 2007 Vonage inks deal with VoIP Inc bypassing Verizon patent claim - Apr 03, 2007 Shoretel Rumors - May 01, 2008 Read more… |
VoIP Call Screening03.05.2008 20:36 - source: voipgadgets 
Robert Traphan, a college friend of mine stayed at my house last night and we were talking about the various VoIP products and services. Robert is a former SunRocket customer until the SunRocket implosion. Robert was a huge fan of SunRocket over both Packet8 and Vonage. One of his favorite features was SunRocket Signature Message Screener, a piece of software that runs on your PC and allows you to see who is calling (Caller ID with Name) via a TOAST icon in the System Tray. Even cooler, SunRocket Signature Message Screen lets you screen the voicemail message on your PC speakers as it is being left in real-time and it allows you to redirect the call to a predefined number (such as your cell phone). SunRocket Signature Message Screener image courtesy of MyDigitalLife.us Because it automatically plays out your PC speakers, the software gives your hosted VoIP voicemail service the feeling of a true home answering machine. Robert's only complaint he told me is that when the caller is leaving a message and you decide to redirect them they hear a ringing tone, which can be disconcerting to the caller. Still call screening on broadband VoIP service is a must. Why oh why Vonage, Packet8, and all the others haven't copied this feature yet is beyond me. When I did have Vonage, I disabled their hosted voicemail because I like to screen callers and used a Uniden 5.8GHz TRU8885-2 multi-handset phone system which features call screening on any of the phone handsets. After all, the call could be a telemarketing call, or it could be family or friends calling. Without live call screening to me and to many people the voicemail system is useless. I should also point out that CallWave can be used as a hosted voicemail replacement and they support not only call screening but also Voicemail-To-Text transcribing. (See: Rich's post on CallWave) Why don't any of the major broadband VoIP service providers offer this functionality? Robert was very sad to hear SunRocket was ceasing operations, which meant he was losing call screening. He asked me for advice on which VoIP service provider I'd recommend he switch to. However, we both learned that Teleblend was going to take over SunRocket's operations and maintain the existing feature set, including SunRocket Signature Message Screener. He's been a happy Teleblend user ever since. His only complaints about them is they don't seem to update their website very often and they started a blog, which also isn't updated. Then Robert started talking about the big hoopla surrounding the Skype outage. Robert said, "Did you hear about the Skype outage? Apparently, Microsoft Windows Update caused the Skype supernode network to crash." With a big grin on my face, I responded, "Did I hear about the Skype outage? I broke the story about the Skype outage and I theorized what the cause was - Microsoft Patch Tuesday and I was right. I was linked to by several bloggers & websites, including Computerworld, PC World, GigaOM, and Good Morning Silicon Valley. A couple mainstream media outlets linked to it and the San Francisco Chronicle called me for an interview on this major news since I broke the story. (SFC article is here.)" I thought to myself, "Sheesh, don't you read my blog? [sigh] With friends like these..." Tags: answering machine, Caller ID, call screening, SunRocket, SunRocket Signature Message Screener, Teleblend, VoIP Related Entries SunRocket 10 Day Countdown - Jul 27, 2007 SunRocket Saviors - Jul 20, 2007 Call Screening Patent - Apr 30, 2008 SunrRocket sues Vonage over dirty tricks - Aug 24, 2007 SunRocket Lives? - Aug 06, 2007 SunRocket warns "All hands abandon ship! Repeat, all hands abandon..." - Aug 01, 2007 Packet8 Outage Sunday - Jul 26, 2007 Ooma Free Phone Calls - Jul 19, 2007 SunRocket ceases, Vonage fights for the scraps - Jul 17, 2007 Private Caller Hack - Jun 01, 2007 Read more… |
OnState, the Skype Call Center functionality Enabler, Used by B4 Consulting03.05.2008 20:36 - source: voipgadgets I always find it fascinating to read about companies that take standard Skype and add additional features that make it a great solution for various business processes beyond just VoIP. One such company is OnState, the creator of OnState ACD for Skype, which adds ACD & call center functionality to Skype. They recently announced support for Zimbra, a popular open source server and client software for messaging and collaboration - email, group calendaring, contacts, and web document management and authoring. The mashup of Zimbra and Skype will delivers a low-cost Unified Messaging solution. Today, OnState has announced their multi-modal solution is being used by B4 Consulting. Specifically, B4 Consulting's tech support uses OnState chat and call center capabilities to deliver 24x7 customer support globally featuring VoIP, chat, voicemail, call recording, callbacks, CRM integration, and more. To be honest, this is the kind of functionality that Skype should offer to businesses themselves instead of that joke known as Skype for Business. Skype gets a bad rap for being too consumery - and deservedly so because they haven't added any features to Skype for Business worth mentioning. Fortunately, third-parties like OnState are extending Skype and adding business-class features. Another example is VAPPS, which offers high-definition conferencing that works with Skype. But Skype shouldn't be relying on third-parties for business-class features. In any case, check out the news... OnState Communications, innovating new-generation contact center solutions, today announced a multi-modal call center solution for technical support services. The solution has been adopted by B4 Consulting, an SAP® channel partner that has achieved gold-level status, which uses the OnState CallCenter for Skype to deliver real-time customer support. The OnState CallCenter for Skype™ is integral to B4 Consulting’s delivery of its global Application Management Services for the SAP Business One application, SAP’s affordable business management solution for growing businesses. B4 Consulting’s Web-integrated call center capitalizes on the full range of OnState’s multiple communications modes and customer contact options. This includes concurrent Skype chat and voice, Skype voicemail, dynamic call recording, and callbacks. Customers can initiate contact with agents via live chat, free inbound Skype calls, toll-free inbound lines, as well as non-Skype traditional landline and email. Additionally, the OnState CallCenter is integrated with B4 Consulting’s customer relationship management system. “To deliver technical support services on a global basis, B4 is leveraging nearly every feature within OnState’s portfolio of customer contact solutions,” said Pat Kelly, president and CEO of OnState. “And, they are using them in a completely integrated manner and sometimes simultaneously to deliver highly-responsive support services to their customers using SAP Business One.” Moreover, as call center and support portal functions are Skype-based and Web-enabled, support can be delivered from anywhere at anytime. Therefore, B4 Consulting’s support customers can rely on call center agents who are subject-matter experts in SAP Business One. “When we launched our Application Management Services [AMS] for SAP Business One, we couldn't afford the time and resources to establish a traditional call center – yet we wanted to provide premium, enterprise-level services on a global basis," noted Frank Paetzold, vice president of delivery and AMS at B4 Consulting. "Establishing a sophisticated call center was quick, easy and affordable with OnState. The beauty of OnState, however, goes beyond affordability. Implementing OnState requires no server hardware or software and minimal agent-based client software installation. OnState eliminates barriers to communication, enabling us to give customers the freedom to decide how and when they want to communicate with us as well as the option for self-service through our online knowledge portal.” B4 maintains that most customer conversations begin with voice and evolve to other communication modes, principally chat. “Currently, live chat is most often used by customers," noted Paetzold, "it's a quick way for customers to communicate issues and an efficient information-gathering mechanism for our agents.” All customer contact, conversations, email, and chat exchanges are easily recorded in B4 Consulting’s CRM system for historical reference. “As the market matures, I'm sure customers will use a wider variety of communications methods,” continued Paetzold, “and find a lot of creative ways to use them.” Tags: ACD, B4 Consulting, call center, CRM, OnState CallCenter for Skype, OnState Communications, Skype, Skype for Business, VoIP Related Entries OnState Mashup of Skype & Zimbra - Feb 11, 2008 Web-based GUI comes to Frontrange HEAT - Sep 18, 2007 Skype 3.8 for Windows - Apr 29, 2008 AOL Launches Open Voice APIs - Apr 29, 2008 Skype Launches Unlimited Flat-Rate International Calls - Apr 21, 2008 Plantronics SupraPlus HW251N-USB Wideband Headset - Apr 11, 2008 Packet8 Virtual Office Adds Salesforce.com VoIP Plugin - Apr 09, 2008 Microsoft & Aspect Software Partner on Unified Communications - Mar 18, 2008 SippySkype SIP-to-Skype Gateway - Mar 07, 2008 SimplyExchange Skype PBX Gateway - Feb 22, 2008 Read more… |
DVD Book Type Setting - Troubleshooting DVD Burning Problems03.05.2008 20:36 - source: voipgadgets 
Codeguys.rpc1.org is a popular website run by C0deKing and Kanalratte that offers crossflashing and overclocking of your DVD±RW drives using "hacked" firmware for your DVD burner. Often the hacked firmware enables missing features such as overclocking the speed of the DVD burn and more importantly, setting the 'book type' permanently to "DVD-ROM". (more on that later) RPC1.org also offer "autopatchers", which are are easy do-it-yourself tools with an easy-to-use GUI to patch DVD burner firmware. I recently bought a Sony DRU-840A DVD burner and when I tried to burn a home movie I noticed Nero didn't list the booktype setting under the 'Options' button. (Here's a screenshot of the book type setting in Nero on my Vista PC with a different DVD burner:) The Book Type setting, also knowns as "bitsetting" allows you to change DVD+R media's default book type of "DVD+R" & "DVD+RW" to "DVD-ROM" more more compatibility with home DVD players which are looking for this particular book type. The Book Type is four bits at the start of every DVD disc (in the physical format information section of the control data block), which indicates what the physical format of the disc is.Many DVD players will refuse to play burned DVDs without the proper book type. Changing the book type works on both single-layer (SL) and dual-layer (DL) DVD+R media but not on DVD-R or DVD-RW media. In other words, minus (-) is bad for compatibility and plus (+) is good. So in any event, the reason I bought the Sony DRU-840a was because it was supposed to support bitsetting/book type. I had Nero 7 installed which should have recognized the drive as supporting this. So then I figured I may have had old firmware. I went to Sony's support page and couldn't find any new firmware for this drive. I knew there was "hacked" firmware out there and have gone to the RPC1.org website in the past to add "features" missing in my DVD burner. So I headed on over to codeguys.rpc1.org to see if I could find better firmware for my drive only to discover the site was down. I tried several days in a row and it was still down. The last Google cache is 5 days ago. Not good. Seems like a permanent outage to me. Wonder if they were shutdown for illegally distributing hacked firmware? Yeah well maybe if the original manufacturers didn't cripple the firmware users wouldn't resort to hacked firmware. Fortunately, after some creative Googling I found a RPC1 mirror here: http://codeworks.cdfreaks.com/cgmirror/ I thought perhaps my Sony drive was a LiteOn OEM, since LiteOn is perhaps the largest OEM manufacturer of DVD drives that do not carry the LiteOn label and past Sony DVD burners I used were LiteOn. Generally speaking you can use "real" LiteOn firmwares with these so-called rebadged drives. But when I attempted to try the firmware loaders from the mirrored website, the utilities wouldn't recognize my Sony DVD burner. I then figured out it was actually an OEM of the Samsung SH-202J DVD drive. I then tried the OmniPatcher utility which is supposed to support Samsung/Sony DVD burners, but it couldn't detect my drive. Back to square one. I then said the hell with Nero 7, I'll just use ImgBurn, a popular freeware DVD burning software utility that has a very powerful book type setting utility that works with virtually any DVD burner. It even features an Advanced tab for configuring settings manually. I selected the 'Samsung' tab, and it gave me a warning "Unknown (Drive doesn't report it!)". I read you can just ignore this message as long as you are selecting the correct OEM company. I changed the drop-down box to 'DVD+R DL Media' and then changed the book type to "DVD-ROM". I then clicked 'Ok', and received a "Success!" message, as seen below. As long as you get this "Success!" message you are good to go. In my experience with multiple burners, I find that you can try each of the tabs with the various models and try to change the book type. At worst you'll get a "Failed!" message. In any case, I burned a DVD and then verified the booktype was correctly set to DVD-ROM by clicking Drive Info in Nero. Curious if the book type setting I set in ImgBurn would work in Nero, I then burned a second DVD and Nero correctly set the book type. So the bitsetting change made by ImgBurn is global to all your DVD burning apps. Unfortunately, the setting isn't permanent. If you reboot your PC you have to go back into ImgBurn and change the book type setting again. Using "hacked" firmware would have saved me the trouble of doing this step. Just when I was going to give up on Nero 7, I decided to see if any updates were available. I downloaded and installed the latest version from Nero 7 from Nero's website. I went back to the Options section in Nero and voila' the Book Type setting was there! Here's proof: Conclusion: So you are having problems with the book type settings in your DVD burner, try these steps: Re-install Nero or other DVD burning software with the latest updates. Use ImgBurn instead to set the booktype. Here's a good tutorial with screenshots explaining how to do it. Go to the RPC1.org mirror and try crossflashing your DVD burner or installing "hacked" firmware. Be aware this will void your warranty and could break your burner! If none of these work, it's possible your drive doesn't support setting the book type. Time to go buy a new burner! Try Googling your DVD model + "book type" and see if any discussions are out there mentioning if it supports it. Hope this info helps someone else since I wasted a couple hours trying to solve this book type setting problem. Tags: autopatcher, book type, booktype, Codeguys.rpc1.org, crossflashing, DVD burner, DVD+R, DVD-ROM, DVD+RW, firmware, problem, rp1.org Related Entries Apple to nuke unlocked iPhones - Sep 25, 2007 Fix Scratched DVD problems - Dec 12, 2006 Digium releases new firmware - Jul 28, 2005 Vonage solves Clearwire blocking problem, asks feds for help - Apr 22, 2005 Packet8 firmware download with new features - Jul 28, 2004 Read more… |
Skype 3.8 for Windows03.05.2008 20:36 - source: voipgadgets Skype 3.8 for Windows was just released with the main improvements in the audio engine. Skype claims the new version significantly reduced background noise, less delay, fewer call drops, and fewer cut-outs, especially when both sides are using Skype 3.8 for Windows. According to a Skype spokeperson, another improvement is if you change your headset, headphones or microphone, "there's no need to mess around with sound settings. Skype 3.8 for Windows takes care of it behind the scenes." If you've been offended by the profile images that popup that are certainly NSFW (not safe for work), you'll be happy to know the new version no longer displays profile images by default. You can still see the hidden avatar if you click on it. The release also includes a number of video-related bug fixes, Skype's own UPnP implementation and other tweaks. Download Skype 3.8 for Windows at skype.com/go/download Tags: Skype, Skype 3.8 for Windows, VoIP Related Entries OnState, the Skype Call Center functionality Enabler, Used by B4 Consulting - Apr 30, 2008 AOL Launches Open Voice APIs - Apr 29, 2008 Skype Launches Unlimited Flat-Rate International Calls - Apr 21, 2008 Plantronics SupraPlus HW251N-USB Wideband Headset - Apr 11, 2008 SippySkype SIP-to-Skype Gateway - Mar 07, 2008 SimplyExchange Skype PBX Gateway - Feb 22, 2008 OnState Mashup of Skype & Zimbra - Feb 11, 2008 ooVoo 1.5 Adds Phone Calling & Recording - Feb 07, 2008 Future of SIP to Skype Gateway in Doubt? - Feb 04, 2008 IPEVO Solo Skype Desktop Phone now with Wi-Fi - Jan 09, 2008 Read more… |
AOL Launches Open Voice APIs03.05.2008 20:36 - source: voipgadgets Today, AOL will launch Open Voice APIs to enable developers to integrate the AIM Call Out Service into softphones and SIP-enabled devices. According to AOL, the APIs will "provide third-party developers and VoIP device manufacturers with open standards protocols that will enable them to easily integrate the AIM Call Out service into softphones, as well as SIP-enabled hardware and cell phones with wi-fi connectivity." The APIs directly integrate with AIM Call Out, which is AOL's "SkypeOut" PSTN low-cost dialing service. AIM Call Out is built right into AIM, a popular instant messaging client that used to be and perhaps still is the #1 IM client. Skype may or may not have surpassed AOL in total users, but regardless, AOL dropped the ball when they let Skype's voice functionality help erode into AOL's formerly dominant IM market share. Many users are loathe to run multiple IM clients, so many switched from AIM to Skype because they could get IM, plus voice & video -- all in a single client. Why bog down system resources with multiple IM clients? I will say AOL has done a good job of beefing up the feature-set of AIM, but one has to wonder if Skype's momentum is unstoppable. That said, there are still several popular IM clients hanging around, including Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger, which added interoperability / federation a few years back. What I'd really like to see is interoperability & federation between all IM clients, VoIP clients (using SIP), video clients (using H.264), etc. But that may be a pipe dream, especially since Skype, Inc. doesn't want to jump on the SIP bandwagon anytime soon. In any event, Steve Murphy, Senior Vice President, AOL said, “By opening up our voice communications gateway to developers we’re furthering the mission of AIM which is to facilitate the world’s real-time conversations. We’re building on the popularity of the Open AIM program and opening up the AIM Call Out platform, enabling open standards voice communication services to proliferate in the marketplace." The AOL Developer Network provides third-party developers with direct access to AOL's technology platforms and open APIs. AOL stated the available open APIs, tools, and documentation for services such as AOL Video Uploads, Open Xdrive, Truveo, Userplane, MapQuest, Winamp, OpenAuth, and others, can be viewed at http://dev.aol.com. Tags: AIM, AIM Call Out, AOL, Open Voice APIs, Skype, VoIP Related Entries AIM Call Out Update - Oct 29, 2007 AIM Call Out Launches - Oct 26, 2007 TringMe Now Works with AOL/AIM - Apr 30, 2008 Skype 3.8 for Windows - Apr 29, 2008 OnState, the Skype Call Center functionality Enabler, Used by B4 Consulting - Apr 30, 2008 Skype Launches Unlimited Flat-Rate International Calls - Apr 21, 2008 Plantronics SupraPlus HW251N-USB Wideband Headset - Apr 11, 2008 Skype and other VoIP Apps on Mobile Phones - Apr 01, 2008 OctroTalk Launches - Mar 31, 2008 SippySkype SIP-to-Skype Gateway - Mar 07, 2008 Read more… |
New iMac Specs Are Good To Have ...03.05.2008 20:36 - source: voipgadgets 
Thanks to ZDNet for publishing a quick rundown of the specs for the new iMacs launched today. Having moved from PC to the now almost-current iMac and the fabulous new MacBook Pro, you have to tip your hat to Apple for just getting better and better ... Tags: Apple, iMac, MacBook Pro, ZDNet Related Entries Taking a Slice Out of Apple's Time Machine - May 02, 2008 JAJAH Mobile VoIP client for the iPhone - Apr 02, 2008 Skype and other VoIP Apps on Mobile Phones - Apr 01, 2008 VoIP on Apple iPhone a No Go unless over WiFi - Mar 11, 2008 Microsoft mashup of SOA and UC (Unified Communications) - Feb 11, 2008 Touchmods VoIP App for the Apple iPhone Sparks Controversy - Feb 08, 2008 iPhoneGnome VoIP app for Apple iPhone - Feb 01, 2008 Bye Bye Unlimited Flat-Rate Internet - Jan 18, 2008 RIM Garners 10% of Smartphone Market - Dec 20, 2007 Launch of VoIP on iPod touch now official - Dec 18, 2007 Read more… |
IRS Rebate Checks Crash Major Banks?03.05.2008 20:36 - source: voipgadgets Today, I was downloading my financial information from various banks and credit cards and had difficulty loggiing on or downloading information from several of them. On Citibank's website I was able to logon, but couldn't successfully download the Quicken Web Connect file containing my 'recent activity'. This has never happened to me in the 8 years I've used Quicken with Citibank. About 15 minutes later I tried again and it worked. However, I then logged onto Bank of America where I have a few accounts. I was able to logon, but when I try and view detailed account info, I get this web server error: Internal Server ErrorThe server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request. Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@mbna.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error. More information about this error may be available in the server error log. Yeah, just what I want to see. My bank running a web server that "encountered an internal error or misconfiguration". Yeah, I know this is a generic error message, but still, banks of all websites should have 100% uptime with no errors. So anyway, I then try my other Bank of America account and same error as above. Frustrated, I head on over to Discover to download it's account info to Quicken. This website wouldn't even let me logon! Now what in blazes is going on here? This is THREE major financial instutions that I'm having trouble with ALL ON THE SAME DAY. That's when it hit me. Today, the IRS is wiring out the tax rebates to millions of Americans (early I might add). My guess is that the government's computers are overwhelming the banking network or the bank's computers. Gee isn't that special? Hope my tax rebate doesn't get lost in the digital ether. Anyone else experiencing issues? Let me know. Tags: banks, financial institutions, IRS, rebate checks, tax, taxes Related Entries FCC taxes VoIP? C'mon! - Dec 15, 2005 FCC Displeased with U.S. Broadband Deployment Rate - Apr 18, 2007 FCC approves new VoIP taxes - Jun 22, 2006 Tax VoIP to fund USF? Bah! - Jun 02, 2006 Tax my Mobile Phone no more! - May 25, 2006 USF tax and long-distance - Feb 07, 2006 Comments on this Entry: (Bruce Kusenda on Apr 28, 2008 6:57 PM) I too attempted to access my Bank of America credit cards' (2) information and was unable to open the link at B of A. The attempt was made at 10:30 am and again at 3:50 pm, 04.28.08. There was no previous activity that may have altered any signal at this end. I'll try again tomorrow hoping it is a temporary glitch. (Kellie on Apr 28, 2008 8:34 PM) I'm having the same problem with my Bank of America account, so you're not alone. Read more… |
Net2Phone Lowers Price on VoIP Service03.05.2008 20:36 - source: Voipmonitornet Net2Phone Lowers Price on VoIP ServiceNet2Phone is lowering prices on VoiceLine residential broadband phone service. Read more… |
Asterisk 1.4.20-rc1 Now Available03.05.2008 20:36 - source: Asterisk The Asterisk development team has released Asterisk version 1.4.20-rc1.This release is a release candidate for the upcoming official release of 1.4.20. It contains a large number of bug fixes over the previous release, 1.4.19. We would like to encourage the... Read more… |
Zaptel 1.4.10.1 Released03.05.2008 20:36 - source: Asterisk The Asterisk.org development team has announced the release of Zaptel version 1.4.10.1. This release is a bug fix release for a regression in which the Zaptel udev rules were not installed correctly, as well as a few minor fixes in... Read more… |
Yahoo to use Jajah for VoIP for 97 Million IM Users03.05.2008 20:36 - source: Asterisk Comments: I have followed Jajah for some time and I am very excited to hear this partnership with Yahoo!. I have talked to some of the staff and they all seem to be a really quality team and on the... Read more… |
Free VoIP for FSB members27.04.2008 23:10 - source: voip-news.co.uk 
The largest business network in the UK, the Federation of Small Businesses, has launched a new initiative with internet telephony specialist Coms Plc. All 210,000 members of the federation can be provided with a business class VoIP telephone service free of charge, via the Redstone company, FSB Telecom. Under the terms of the deal, FSB members [...] Read more… |
Spirit??™s VoIP conferencing solution selected by Plustek27.04.2008 23:10 - source: voip-news.co.uk 
Spirit’s VoIP conferencing solution selected by Plustekby Lin FreestoneApril 25, 2008Plustek, a Taiwanese manufacturer of telecommunication equipment, has licensed Spirit DSP’s TeamSpirit 3.0 Conferencing Engine as the core for its corporate conferencing system Plus@com PC20. Read more… |
Bloggers offer glimpse of uncensored Cuba (AP)27.04.2008 23:10 - source: Yahoo tech AP - Only a month has passed since ordinary Cubans won the right to own computers, and the government still keeps a rigid grip on Internet access. Read more… |
Microsoft in quandary over Yahoo bid as key deadline looms (AP)27.04.2008 23:10 - source: Yahoo tech AP - Microsoft Corp. is no closer to buying Yahoo Inc. than when it made its $44.6 billion bid nearly three months ago, leaving the software maker in a quandary over whether the deal is still worth pursuing. Read more… |
GPS market at turning point with sliding prices, demand off (AP)27.04.2008 23:10 - source: Yahoo tech AP - Consumer navigation devices have gone from expensive gadgets to mainstream gear in just three years, but Europe's largest maker is struggling. Read more… |
E-Trade CFO and general counsel resign (AP)27.04.2008 23:10 - source: Yahoo tech AP - An executive exodus from troubled online brokerage E-Trade Financial Corp. is continuing, with the chief financial officer's and general counsel's departures announced Friday as the company grapples with massive losses stemming from its hemorrhaging mortgage business. Read more… |
Yahoo plans makeover with elements of social network (AP)27.04.2008 23:10 - source: Yahoo tech AP - Yahoo Inc. plans to make its Web site a social hub by hosting applications from other online services, part of the Internet pioneer's effort to spawn more advertising opportunities. Read more… |
Rossellini unsure if films can make money online (Reuters)27.04.2008 23:10 - source: Yahoo tech Reuters - While Isabella Rossellini enjoyed her foray into new media with her short films about insect sex, she is not sure they could turn a profit, given that so much content is available on the Internet for free. Read more… |
Urban miners look for precious metals in cell phones (Reuters)27.04.2008 23:10 - source: Yahoo tech Reuters - Thinking of throwing out your old cell phone? Think again. Maybe you should mine it first for gold, silver, copper and a host of other metals embedded in the electronics -- many of which are enjoying near-record prices. Read more… |
One Laptop Per Child Controversy Centers on Windows (NewsFactor)27.04.2008 23:10 - source: Yahoo tech NewsFactor - The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative wants more kinds of Sugar, and some developers are not sweet on that idea. Sugar is the user interface created for the low-cost laptop developed by a team headed by MIT Media Lab co-founder Nicholas Negroponte. The XO laptop, originally intended for a price point of $100 and incorporating an open-source Linux operating system, is designed for use by children in third-world countries. Read more… |
Microsoft takeover deadline for Yahoo expires without comment (AFP)27.04.2008 23:10 - source: Yahoo tech AFP - A Microsoft deadline for Internet service company Yahoo to accept its 44.6 billion-dollar (28.5 billion-euro) acquisition offer expired at midnight Saturday, setting the stage for a hostile takeover bid by the software giant. Read more… |