VoIP Now

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.

Google and VoIP: The Story So Far

Most fairy tales end with the trite and magical, "…and they lived happily ever after." But the story behind Google and its VoIP service, Google Talk Beta, isn't a fairy tale. It's more like a whodunit, where the plot is shrouded in a "dark and stormy night." So put on your sleuth gear and join me if you dare as I lead you into Google and its VoIP mystery thus far...

How It All Began

Up to recent memory, it was almost impossible to separate Google Talk Beta from Google's free Web mail service, Gmail. When Google Talk first appeared on 23 August 2005, no one could touch that app unless that person used a by-invitation-only Gmail account. It was as though Gmail had spawned a wannabe VoIP that was non-threatening yet slightly snobby.

But Google Talk is a Beta, and limited usage was probably a wise move by Google in the beginning. Since that time, Google decided to expand Google Talk's coverage by opening Gmail to mobile phone users. Additionally, as recently as 7 February 2007, Gmail was made available in an open invitation to users across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Brazil, Australia, Russia and Japan.

Now, with few if any usability issues in sight in the Google Talk Beta version, anyone can sign up for Google Talk. Gmail accounts are no longer a prerequisite, but Google didn't open Google Talk's doors totally to the global surfing public. Chat histories and mail notifications will only work if you sign into Google Talk with a Gmail account.

Don't let appearances deceive you…despite this new "openness," Google Talk Beta has raised eyebrows as well as suspicions recently. According to VoIP News, it appears that Google Talk's creators are up to something much more disruptive than the creation of a mere instant messenger service.

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.

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.

Communication Breakdown: Ahem. How's My Voice... Tech?

While Clearwire is pushing WiMax and attempting another go at an IPO, One IP Voice is filing Chapter 11. BCE Inc. (Bell Canada Enterprises) sold its satellite division for $3.4+B, and Nortel signed a $2B CDMA EV-DO contract for 5 years with Verizon Wireless. (Nortel is the Canadian company once known as Northern Telecom that pretends it's American. I think that's because it has so many American shareholders. BCE used to be part owners, but I don't know if they still are.) Google is planning a Google Phone, possibly with Orange, and Linksys/ Cisco beat Apple to the punch with their own registered iPhone brand. Apple's Steve Jobs is expected to announce their iPod Phone in January at MacWorld. Skype announced disruptive pricing for SkypeOut in North America, though they have more disruptive plans after Jan 31st, 2007, for the whole world. More to come.

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.

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.

VoIP Roundup - Sat Nov 11/06

NZ Telecom Blocking VoIP?
A computer scientist at New Zealand's Otago University is accusing Telecom of limiting bandwidth use for VoIP software on some of their Internet plans, essentially discriminating against certain uses.

Google Talk By Phone On Camrivox
I love Google Talk but Camrivox's decision to offer a phone with Google Talk support just makes me ask "why?" With Google Talk, you can only communicate with fellow users and anyone with a SIP account. Unless I'm missing some crucial new piece of information, you can't call regular landlines from this VoIM client without Talqer. [sources: Digital Lifestyles, PR Web]

UK Businesses Lacking VoIP + VoIM Policy?
An online survey by YouGov suggests that over half of UK businesses have no VoIM or VoIP policy. Email use is generally more common, and policies for it are more likely to be in place.

VoIP Roundup - Thur Nov 09/06

Cisco Partner Education Programs
Unified communications (i.e., convergence of voice, video and data over IP) is hot, and Cisco wants its partners to be prepared. So, they're offering a "Master Specializations" certification in this niche. [via Extreme VoIP]

Google Talk Adds Offline Messages
Google Talk has a new feature to help deliver messages if one member of a chat (text) conversation in progress disconnects: offline messages. When the disconnected party signs back in, whenever that is, they will receive the rest of your message. This will also work with other open clients. [via Google Talkabout]

Alcatel Gains Huge Communications Contract
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) has awarded Alcatel a contract of US$300M over several years, starting next year. The contract work includes "the upgrade of UPMC's wired and wireless data infrastructure, enterprise telephony system, and contact platforms and applications to a converged IP infrastructure." The UPMC awarded this contract on several factors including Alcatel's previous installations. [via Lightwave] Earlier this year, Alcatel was awarded a Euros 70M contract by Telekom Malaysia.

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.)

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.

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.

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.

Google Talk Hearts Skype?

Google's Talkabout weblog, the official blog for the Google Talk IM client, has a posting about the announcement between Google and eBay (Skype's parent company). There's also a little blurb about exploring "interoperability between Google Talk and Skype". Yeah! Google Talk is based on an open standard, whereas Skype is not. This should get very interesting, with all these IM client pairings.

Russell Shaw at ZDNet, however, thinks Google's not interested in the full potential of Internet telephony for Google Talk. His reasoning, from reading between the lines of the deal, is that Google is saying that they have "relatively modest plans for Google Talk." I have to agree that Google has yet to make Talk a full-blown VoIP IM client. It can't even call out to regular phones without the help of software like Vozin Communication's Talqer. As for whether Russell's right, we'll have to see. Though I think that the higher ups at Google often use the "mystical warrior" philosophy to mislead us on their real intentions :)

Happy 3rd Birthday, Skype! And Google Does A Deal With eBay

Today is Skype's birthday, and the team had a nice gift in that over seven million users were logged on simultaneously, for the first time ever. They figure that this will become a common occurrence, and I'd have to agree. Especially considering the multi-year agreement that Google signed with eBay, Skype's parent company. Part of the agreement involves interoperability between Google Talk and Skype (yeah!), as well as "click-to-call" functionality. This means that commerce sites will be able to display a "call" button that, when clicked by a site visitor, will initiate a call to an eBay merchant or Google advertiser, using eitherSkype or Google Talk.

I think that this an incredible development. Especially considering that earlier this year, Google released their Google Checkout competitor to Paypal, which is also owned by eBay. The latter had blacklisted Google Checkout very recently. It's a good thing for consumers that they decided to kiss and make up, though Wall Street seems to be confused about the outcome. Watch for a new Google toolbar, out soon.

Google Talk has been lagging behind a lot of the VoIP capability that Skype has, but soft clients like Talqer has filled in some features. What makes me particularly happy, though, is that intercompability between IM clients seems to be progressing a lot more rapidly this year than I would have thought in January. (Note: Festoon's Unity software acts as a bridge to Google Talk and Skype.)

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.

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.

Telecom companies’ charges for high speed networks might shrink websites

According to Google a number of websites may shrink if broadband providers like AT & T start charging companies for premium access to high speed networks. Companies like BellSouth and AT&T have suggested that Yahoo, Google and Vonage should be charged for the high quality delivery content over the phone companies’ network. These companies claim that they have been investing billions of dollars in upgrading their broadband networks. Critics fear telecom companies could discriminate against internet companies and limit what consumers see when they go online.

via [post-gazette]

Google and Skype investing in startup to link hotspots

Google and Skype are investing in a startup that would help hotspot owners charge for Wi-Fi access. It is believed that this plan could face considerable opposition from internet service providers. FON’s idea which was floated three months ago in a web posting will sign up people who have Wi-Fi hotspots in one of the two ways. Skype is lending its support to FON as it believes it has a great idea to help people share Wi-Fi with one another to build a global unified broadband network. Although FON has a chance to reach critical mass of users but it would be competing with free municipal Wi-Fi networks in several cities. Google is also planning to build a free Wi-Fi network to cover San Francisco.

via [LocalNewsLeader]

Highlights from the First ETEL Event

There were two noteworthy things. Both were interesting debuts. 

1:  Sean Egan from Google talked about Gaim and Libjingle - Google's take on the Jingle initiative. Libjingle builds on the XMPP-powered, multimedia-rich Jingle platform.

2: Voipster launched XMPP-based voip extension for Firefox users. Maybe, this is yet another potential positive strike for the Open Source Community and shows real promise.

Via [Always On Network]

Google charged with infringement

Google Talk is facing allegations over patent infringements from Rates Technology Inc, which is based in Hauppauge, N.Y. The company has alleged that Google has been using its technology illegally for billing users of its IP telephony services. Google has refuted the allegations and stated that it will contest them.

Jingle for Google

Jingle is a recent specification for deploying voice using the XMPP protocol by Jabber. The Google Talk IM uses the same protocol. With Jingle, Google is looking to extend its involvement with VoIP. voipplanet.com reports:

Google Talk's implementation of Jingle is now also available for download and third-party integration via the Google sponsored "Libjingle" project on SourceForge.

Read More: Google Jabbers And Jingles

Phone companies face competition

Not just cable companies but also companies such as Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, and AOL are providing voice services and thereby offering competition to the traditional telephone companies. America Online has introduced consumer VoIP. EBay has acquired Skype and Microsoft acquired Teleo in order to develop MSN voice services. networkworld.com reports:

Eclipsing the earliest versions of PC-to-PC voice, today's PC-to-PC offerings have solved many of the quality-of-service issues and are integrated with other information services.

Read More: Microsoft, Google, AOL and Yahoo as VoIP service providers?

Google's blog

A blog has been set up by Google for discussing its Google Talk VoIP application. The first post on the blog is by Mike Jazaveri and it talks about the process of formal documentation of the voice signaling extensions to the XMPP.

Click to call

Google is in the process of testing a click-to-call feature for Adwords. This will allow advertisers to connect with prospects on the net and on the phone. Select ads on Google are now carrying a small green icon of a phone, which upon clicking prompts the user to enter a telephone number. A “Connect For Free” button then links the advertiser and the searcher. At present the vendor providing the click-to-call functionality is not known Google is picking the tab for the phone call.

Gaim

Google has been accused of influencing the development of Gaim and ignoring the inputs of several open source developers. voipplanet.com reports:

The search giant hired Sean Egan, the lead developer of the Gaim open source instant messaging project, several months ago to make it easier for other IM clients to use Google Talk's voice features.

Read More: Is Google Calling Gaim's Shots?

Yahoo! Maps

Yahoo! uses Flash for Yahoo! Maps, which makes the service eye-catching and faster. Google uses AJAX for Google Earth. tmcnet.com reports:

VoIP is more than just a way to save money. It is becoming the fuel powering Web 2.0 application engines! It seems every few weeks that VoIP becomes the enabler for another successful business model.

Read More: VoIP Fuels Web 2.0

Google Talk

Google is making big news this morning with rumors of the search giant getting ready to release their instant messaging client as early as tomorrow, according to an article in today's business section of the Los Angeles Times.

Tom Keating has reported that the new Google IM client will also feature a VoIP service and will implement Jabber messaging technology. He also speculates that this could be a Skype killer if Google can use "P2P SIP to traverse through NAT firewalls."

Even the boys over at the Unofficial Google Fan Club are chiming in with some news on Google Talk.