VoIP Now

VoIP Roundup - Thur Mar 08, 2007

Skype Founder Janus Friis: Mile-High Bad Boy
Valleywag reported a couple of days ago that Janus Friis, one of the founders of Kazaa, Skype and Joost, and a millionaire by all accounts, got drunk and frisky with his girlfriend while on a Virgin Airlines flight. Get this: his girlfriend is the daughter of Roger Moore. As in Bond, James Bond.

Clearwire IPO Snags $600M
Intel may have come up with WiMax but Clearwire is the company building the networks in the United States. Doing that cost them $240M last year, but their IPO today generated $600M.

RIM's Balsillie Steps Down
Sort of. Jim Balsillie of RIM, maker of the BlackBerry line of mobile communications devices, has stepped down as a Chair of the Waterloo, Canada, company. This is due in part to an error in earnings reporting that will cost RIM US$250M. [Source: Kitchener-Waterloo local TV] Maybe Balsillie can spend the extra time finding a hockey team.

Who's Got Muni Wi-Fi?

Municipal Wi-Fi networks are popping all over the world, making connectedness easier for lots of people and pushing the possible ubiquity of dual mode cellular/ Wi-Fi phones (i.e., VoWiFi or VoIP over WiFi). Well, DailyWireless has a great list of the 10 most connected cities in the world, and goes in depth about each city. Note that the first 5 cities or so listed are all in Asia. Most of the rest are in Europe. What's up with North America, then?

Most interesting (to me, anyway): Shoreditch TV, which is a network of 100 public cameras in Shoreditch (east London, UK), broadcasting to the Internet. The idea is to dissuade criminals. Little Brother 2.0? Neighborhood Watch takes on a new meaning. Then again, the UK is considered to be one of the most endemic surveillance societies in the world.

Of course, there are loads of municipal Wi-Fi projects going on in the US and Canada, especially a few big ones in Silicon Valley (42 municipalities over 1500 sq mi).

Where in the World Are... You?

GPS capabilities are supposedly one of the current and near-future hot features of cell phones. It's been predicted, probably even before 2001, that all cell phones will have GPS capabilities, which would be particularly useful for tracking people in emergency situations.

However, for tracking bike and pedestrian traffic, PNAs (Personal Navigation Assistants) are supposedly not ready. That's primarily because the necessary cartographic work for bike and foot traffic hasn't been done for most places in the world, so having a nav system for them is pointless. And for safety reasons, you cannot assume either type of traffic can use regular GPS nav maps.

Still, when and if such maps are recorded, smartphones such as the Apple iPhone or some of the Linux keyless handsets might be ideal platforms for PNAs for cyclists and pedestrians. In fact, I'm predicting a general rise in world tourism over the next two decades (pretty easy prediction to make).

So PNAs for this type of traffic could become a burgeoning market. But having worked in GIS and digital mapping for seven years, I know there's a lot of work to be done to satisfy a market that doesn't yet really exist, and may not exist for many years. Not an easy business decision to make. On the other hand, as Clumsy on their feet says at the end of the article, paper maps never run out of batteries.

VoIP Roundup - Mon Feb 26, 2007

Apple TV Delayed
The shipping of the Apple iTV set-top box is being delayed until mid-March. The IPTV device allows you to wirelessly stream video content from your PC or Mac to a TV screen. I can hear TV junkie geeks everywhere going "damn!"

Some Communications Purchases
Two recent telecom purchases include Broadview Networks Holdings Inc.'s buyout of New York-based InfoHighway Communications Corp and phone maker Ericsson's plans to buyout Tandberg Television.

The Broadview combined company will serve 80,000 SMBs. Ericsson's planned purchase is in hopes of expanding their presence in the IPTV market.

How To Profit From VoIP
SmartBiz has an article with the enticing title How to profit from VoIP, which is actually an overview of Unified Messaging and presence. The crucial point of the article: it can't be done with the traditional PSTN system.

Skype Wants Changes To Mobile Network Access

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

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

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

Mobile Widgetized VoIP + VoIM Clients

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

Free Restaurant Wi-Fi?

Not sure how many of you go out to a restaurant expecting to work on your laptop, but First Watch Restaurants in the US seem to think there's a lot of people. So they're offering free Wi-Fi access in their company run restaurants, based on a Specialty Coffee Association poll that suggests 11% of customers choose a cafe based on having Wi-Fi access.

Seriously, there's a huge difference between a cafe and a restaurant. And if you can't put away your laptop or smartphone to enjoy a meal... well, you're lost. I personally can't see this making a difference for First Watch, especially if they're banking on more customers as a result. But if they did it to be generous, then bravo for them, for the fraction of customers who might interrupt their own meal to check their email.

VoIP Roundup - Sun Feb 25, 2007

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

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

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

What Internet TV Needs: 7 Suggestions/ Concerns

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

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

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

VoIP Roundup - Fri Feb 23, 2007

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

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

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

Agreement on the iPhone Name

Apple and Cisco have reached an agreement on the use of the iPhone name, which Cisco owns (except in Canada). iPhone is of course the name given to the new Apple keypad-less phone due out in the USA later this year. [Sacramento Business Journal, Red Herring.]

From what I can gather, they're both going to use the name, which Cisco has owned through their Linksys subsidiary since 2000. There's no mention of the Canadian-based VoIP provider Comwave, who is claiming trademark ownership of the name iPhone in Canada.

Interestingly, same day reaction in the stock market caused Apple shares to go up about 30 cents and Cisco to go down about 28 cents.

Vonage Going Wireless?

Nuno of 21Talks reports that Vonage is about to start offering wireless services later this year. They'll also be reselling other broadband Internet access.

This might just be what Vonage needs to boost their profile. Ultimately, they're in business to make money. No doubt Vonage's shareholders will be happy with a rising share price. Customer would likely be happy to know that their VoIP provider will be staying in business after all.

If Vonage can do this by expanding their services and products offering, then all power to them. And if they end up being called Vonage Wireless like Nuno quotes some analysts saying, is that going to affect their business? Personally, I kind of like the sound of that. Om Malik, on the other hand, thinks it's more confusing to the market.

XM Satellite Radio Gets Sirius About Merger

How could I resist a pun like that? Peter Csathy talks about the pending merger of two Satellite Radio operations XM and Sirius. No doubt radio shock jock is wondering if the merger will affect the hundred plus million or so he got. Damn. Maybe I'm in the wrong business. I'm only offending people in the blogosphere.

Now I've been saying (just to myself, mind) since last Fall that they should merge. Service offerings-wise I think that customers would benefit. of course, for some cell phone handsets, you can already get XM Satellite Radio shows for about $15/m. No expensive XM device necessary.

Of course, whatever the merged company is called, they might consider offering some programming via the Internet. That's if their satellites are IP-based.

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.

Video Killed The Mobile Phone?

ABI Research released a report in late December stating that the mobile video market in mainland China will pass 32Mln users in 2008. The significance of this is tied to the fact that the Beijing Olympics takes place in that year. There will be two different technologies in use: broadcasting (27%) and unicast streaming (73%). Some users are expected to use both technologies. The Chinese SARFT (State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television) announced two voluntary standards last year: DAB, which will give way to T-DMB. More details at ABI Research.

I'm still the Doubting Thomas on video about mobiles. Is there enough bandwidth? Are screens even big enough to prevent eyestrain, and to thus be enjoyable? While mobile video use will undoubtedly increase in the next few years, there's a difference between conducting short video calls and watching prolonged mobile video. But if there's any candidate for enjoyable mobile video, I'd have to say it's likely the Nokia N-series of phones - though I haven't laid my mitts on one yet.

VoIP Roundup - Sun Dec 31, 2006

VoIP Comm Now Mainstream?
Ken Camp points out that VoIP is no longer a niche and that it's gone mainstream.

San Fran Wi-Fi Is No-Fi
At least for now, San Francisco is delaying their citywide Wi-Fi network. Again. This is the network that Google is involved in. The issues come from within city council regarding who will own the network.

US Cellular Network Outages Kept Secret
When cell phone networks have service outages in the United States, they aren't announced. In fact, the FCC ordered "wire line" suppliers in 2004 to report them, but in turn removed them from the Freedom of Information Act. [via VoIP and Enum]

Verizon Will Allows Ads On Mobiles

Subscribers of Verizon Wireless who visit certain websites on their mobile phones will soon find advertising as part of the content served to them [NY Times]. As I've no doubt said before, I'm opposed to advertising if I have to foot the bill. Cellular data bandwidth is not unlimited everywhere, and some data plans are expensive.

So if someone is going to make money off of me, I'd expect that there'd some concession, such as free bandwidth or at least reduced monthly rates. At least the rumored Google phone is expected to be free, to counter the fact that you'll see ads. Or so the rumor says. So, if your cellular provider is planning hit you up with ads, protest to customer support until they either reduce your monthly rate or, welll... You decide.

Funding Free Municipal Wi-Fi

You've no doubt heard or read about all the muncipal Wi-Fi projects popping up across the United States and elsewhere. In some cities, there are several subscription options for different access speeds. In others, it's all free. One question that comes to mind is who is going to pay for the costs of this "free" Wi-Fi? In Portland, Oregon, Microsoft is involved in a full-speed wireless network that'll offer free access in return for showing users paid advertising. Dailywireless asks whether this will work.

My own feeling is that in any given city, some people will be more than happy to have free Wi-Fi, even if they have to watch ads. It's why VoIP subscription models like that of Globe7 could work. However, are there enough such people? Way back in the early 90s, I tried free regional long distance calling in return for listening to ads (pre-Internet) and got sick of wait, the crappy music, and the same old ads. If, however, I had to watch, say, movie or TV trailers for access to the Internet, I might be okay on that. What about you?

If there are not enough people supporting the advertisers of such wireless networks, however, what happens to the city? Do taxes go up? Do they force paid subscription on users? And when people say sayonnara, does the city tear down the infrastructure? That costs money, too.

The concept of free wireless access is relatively new. I'm not sure, but I think it was used by some ISPs for dialup Internet access, though I'm not so sure that succeed as I can't think of any examples. Only time (or indepth surveys) will tell if such payment models will work.

VoIP Roundup - Sat Dec 30, 2006

Who Loves Ya, VoIP?
ISP Planet has a list VoIP carriers and vendors that are "helping to shape and define this industry." [via VoIP News] It shows how much I need to learn, as I haven't heard half of these names.

WiMax In Italy
WiMax might be something you're only expecting in North America, particularly in the US. But the Italian Communications Ministry is offering licenses for sale starting June 2007. [via Red Herring] I guess no Korean WiBro for Italy.

Nokia N-Series vs Treo 700w
I've muttered on about how much of a love-hate relationship I have with my Palm Treo 650 PDA, but I have nothing to compare it to for you. But Ken Camp does have his own comparison of the Treo 700 versus the much ballyhooed Nokia N-series phones. Ken is one of the bloggers selected for the Nokia blogger relations program.

The Indian Bluetooth Gambit: Or How To Cheat At Chess

Grandmaster Bobby Fischer caused a ruckus in the 1970s. when he he denounced the United States - where he grew up - and made pointed political comments. More recently, he renounced his US citizenship to avoid deportation to the US and a 10-year jail sentence. He also spoke in Iceland about President Bush's "regime". By comparison, Umakant Sharma, an Indian chess player, might be considered less trouble, merely cheating at chess using a Bluetooth device stitched into his cap. Now, this isn't the Bluetooth ski cap Motorola offers, but this certainly would be one unexpected way to use it. It's not like it's hard to configure Bluetooth headsets.

His accomplices would run chess simulations on a computer and relayed info to him. Sharma has been banned for 10 years. Maybe he can join Fischer on the fugitive lecture circuit.

Some Tech For VoIP Lovers

Gizmodo has a couple of articles discussing some interesting new tech ideal for VoIP and wireless work. First, there are these wee little portable USB Phonebook devices that plug into your cell phone and laptop, for easy transfer of your address book. Then there's Gefen's Wireless USB hubs with a 100-foot range. I have to admit, I hadn't really understood the concept of wireless USB, in the sense that "what's new here?". But these UWB (ultrawide band) hubs have something going for them, possible even as a replacement for Bluetooth tech, which can be notorious energy hogs. I'll have to look into this further, but the equipment is a bit pricey.

VoIP Roundup - Fri Dec 29, 2006

Stop, Phone Thief!
The Jan 2007 wired has an overview of 4 anti-theft technologies for cell phones: a screamer from RemoteXT, a gait and voice recognition system from VTT, a holster sensor from Research in Motion, and a GPS tracker from NTT DoCoMo.

Stop, Wi-Fi Thief!
If your neighbor has unsecured Wi-Fi just begging to be used, you may want to think twice. Same goes for Wi-Fi at the local cafe. Seems arrests for inappropriate use of Wi-Fi networks is increasing these days. Techdirt has a suggestion: offer the leeches coffee. Makes sense, and generates a bit of revenue. Though I can't see a neighbor doing the same. Maybe you could ask for a cup of sugar?

Stop, Phoneblogger!
Just kidding. ComputerWorld has five fantastic phone tricks to get more out of your phone, including the lowdown on a free phone blogging service called Plusmo.

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.

Rogue Airport Honeypots

No, that's not the name of some fictional character from the old M*A*S*H TV show, it's what might greet you at airports (possibly near VoIP lounges). Lifehacker has a few tips about fake Wi-Fi networks in airports, setup for the explicit purpose of grabbing personal info off your laptop, by luring you with the "honey" of free Wi-Fi.

Instead, be your own Wi-Fi hotspot. If you have a smartphone/ PDA with a cellular data plan, use that connected to your laptop instead. You'll either need a special USB cable, or if you have Bluetooth on your phone and laptop (just get a Bluetooth USB dongle), you can configure both to talk to each other. Although the password is only 4 digits, you're probably going to be transient enough in the airport that it's no big deal.

Alternately, if you have an EV-DO cellular data PCMCIA laptop card, you don't have to bother with the phone/ laptop sync. Either solution is better than giving up your details to random honeypots in strange (or not so strange) airports.

Mega-RAM Jam For Mobile Phones

Only a few years back, 1 Gigabyte of RAM memory on your computer sounded like a lot. Now, 1-2 Gb is fairly standard on new computers. Well thanks to a memory innovation from NEC, we might be seeing 10Gb standard without needing extra slots. The same technology would also make 2Gb standard on mobile tech such as cell phones. The latter would lead to fast video playback and 3D graphics.

With faster wireless neworks such as WiMax and WiBro starting to peer out, mobile TV might become more common. This kind of memory on smartphones certainly won't hurt VoIP/ VoIM clients such as Skype, which is available on a wide array of Windows Mobile and Pocket PC devices.

Skype 2.2 Smartphone + PocketPC Beta

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

Features
The list includes:

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

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

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

Disk  space requirements

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

Existing problems

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

5 New + Recent Terms In IP Communications

IP telecommunications is obviously a huge area with many facets, and new ones popping up. While those in the industry and some VoIP bloggers may know the terms, the general public likely does not. I often use Google Trends to compare terms and their relative search volumes. Which is what I've done witih some of the terms below. These are terms to watch, because we'll see them mentioned in the media more often.

1. Spot dialing.
   Brian McConnell came up with this to describe make a call over a Wi-Fi hotspot. I.e., as a replacement to Voice over Wi-Fi (which some people call VoWiFi but is rather techy).
2. TVoIP, teeVoIP.
   Ken Camp wrote a very evocative piece called Ken's magnificent Seven for 2006, about what he thinks have been the hot growth areas for IP Comm. He came up with the term TVoIP to represent user-generated content such as that at YouTube and blip.tv. I've been referring to this as a facet of IPTV, though that's probably incorrect.
3. vVoIP, VVoIP, WoIP.
   This aren't new, per se, as there are references to it back to at least 2004, possibly earlier. But Google Trends says there isn't even enough search data for them to show a comparative graph. But there are three ways to signify this, possibly causing confusion. Should we use any of these or come up with yet another one and hope it'll catch on? Video calling works for me.
4. POVS.
   Garrett Smith came up with POVS, Plain Old VoIP Service to refer to any VoIP service mimicking traditional phone calls. I.e., what some people call pure play, when you use a regular telephone with an ATA (Analog Telephone Adaptor), such as with Vonage and PhoneGnome.
5. FMC, Fixed Mobile Convergence.
   Most searches for FMC are probably for one of two companies with "FMC" in their name. (Google doesn't give hard search volumes.) The longer version doesn't register in Google Trends. But true FMC will push dual-mode cellular/ Wi-Fi calling forwards, though maybe it needs a friendlier name.

What do you think about these terms? A bit technical, in some cases. Got any suggestions for alternates?

Talkster Interview With James Wanless

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

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

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

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

Skype and Bandwidth On Mobile

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

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

iPod As Destroyer Of Civilization?

Fox TV talk show loudmouth Bill O'Reilly went off his regular nut recently, blaming all kinds of mobile gadgets for the collapse of civilization - or so I interpret And VoIP blogger Russell Shaw says he agrees with him for once. I've actually been saying some of what Russell says for many, many years. I'm not quite a Luddite - as I love gadgets - but my unfinished book "Moving Forward While Standing Still," started over a decade ago, talks about this sort of thing.

Call me contrarian, though, because in the intervening years, what I've come to realize is that technology (and media) just amplifies the social lack in some people. Blaming technology in and of itself is easy. We as a collective society are ultimately responsible for our actions, not technology. Need I mention all the positive applications of mobile devices? I select my gadgets fairly carefully, and they have to serve multiple purposes, or I won't buy them. While I may dislike my Palm Treo, for example, for specific reasons, I still get a lot of mileage out of the device. And if I put on my iPod's earpods as I walk across the street to catch a bus, without looking both ways, how is that the iPod's fault?

Is Wi-Fi Bad For Us?

George Ou of ZDNet writes about a UK woman who claims that Wi-Fi makes her sick. He then lays out a test scenario that he'd like to give her to prove that she can in fact detect when a Wi-Fi access point is present, like she claims. This isn't the first that I've read about something like this. Just about a month back, about someone in the UK - possibly the same woman - claiming they were getting headaches after installing a Wi-Fi router. This woman, Kate Figes, says Wi-Fi leaves her feeling exhausted, nauseous and sleepless.

Ou calls it "EMF junk science" but the WHO (World Health Organization, not the band that causes hearing loss) has an EMF project, due to public concern about health and electromagnetic fields. Figes isn't the only person claiming this. The WHO's brochure on EMF (PDF, 2 pgs) that "[no] major public health risks have emerged from several decades of EMF research but uncertainties remain." Maybe these people are the proverbial canaries in the coalmine of an cumulative illness that takes time to manifest.

I've certainly found myself more fatigued since installing my Wi-Fi router, but that could be for several reasons, including the fact that I always feel fatigued come Oct/Nov, during Daylight Savings Time change (or whatever it's called). As well, since installing my router, I also spend many more hours working on my computer than previously. Sleep is something I do because I have to. And lack of sleep gives me headaches. A few minutes outside in fresh air almost always seems to make a difference.

It's an easy correlation to assume it has something to do with Wi-Fi, but I'm certainly hoping it doesn't. Imagine what'll happen to the fledgling municipal Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi VoIP phone industry if it does.

Motorola On Acquisition Trend

Motorola recently bought Symbol Technologies, a well-known RFID equipment manufacturer. Now they've purchased [Law of Mobility] Good Technology, a make of e-mail mobility. Law of Mobility wonders if Moto will buy Palm next, and analyzes that scenario. My feeling is that while they might try, I can't see why Palm would sell, despite recent drops in quarterly earnings. Palm has its own name, built up over several years. Though it might give them a serious advantage over RIM and their Blackberry products.

Caller IP talks about the purchase as well, and mentions Radicati's report (PDF, 2 pgs) that wireless email will take off. But the market will be driven by Microsoft and RIM, according to the report. However, with Motorola's acquisition of Good, things might just change.

Sony What? Mylo? What's That?

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

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

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

My Phone Is Red Hot; Your Phone Ain't Diddly Squat

Patrick Barnard of TMCNet asks how much are you willing to pay for fast wireless mobile broadband? Lucent Technologies has done research that shows that both consumers and businesses are willing to pay a premium. The United States and Canada have only recently started rolling out 3G (third-generation) services such as HSPA (HSUPA/ HSDPA - or supa-dupa, as I call it) and EV-DO wireless broadband networks, whereas these are already available in other parts of the world.

But Russell Shaw (who seems to have cloned himself for other blogs) writes at IP Networked (a new GigaOm web property) that he's skeptical of EV-DO, mainly because market analysis shows that many 3G phone users "fail to understand [3G service] benefits." He says that he is actually subscribing to EV-DO service through SprintNextel, which gives him a discounted rate, but that ROI for him specifically might not be worth it.

For me, EV-DO is only a backup, at present. As an onine-based freelancer writer/ technoblogger, I need a "plan B" in case I have any problems with my cable broadband access, or in case I cannot find Wi-Fi network for my laptop if I'm mobile. While it's expensive and I cannot exceed a maximum of 250Mb/month bandwidth. But given that my revenue would disintegrate without it, if I couldn't otherwise access the Internet, it's worth every cent. And I can probably write it off as a legitimate expense against earnings. It's also good for me, since I plan to move next year, and having had lousy response time from cable installers in the past. EV-DO for me is a security blanket, albeit one that could be less tattered and a bit more comfortable - especially in the area of mobile VoIP, which it sucks badly in, at least on the Palm Treo.

Nokia Opens US Mobile Apps Research Center

Palo Alto, California, is the home of the new Nokia Research Center. Nokia has a three-agreement with Stanford University to jointly work on research projects for "collaborative mobile computing and applications". The four areas that their research will focus on are:

• Context-aware content and communities.
• Wireless grids.
• Advanced user interfaces and visual media.
• Innovation radio and sensor networks.

Nokia recently bought an RFID company, and with research into wireless grids and sensor networks, it's possible that they will work on crowdsensing applications. In such apps, each mobile phone would have an RFID chip capable of sensing some environmental condition, such as moisture or heat. Each handset would be a node on a wide grid. If such apps are feasible they could revolutionize local/ regional weather reporting, possibly even traffic reporting.

The research center will initially employ 35 researchers, with plans to expand to 100 or more. Nokia recently introduced a new wireless protocol called Wibree, which is a low-power connectivity protocol designed for small objects and possibly mobile phones. Whether Wibree will play a role in the Palo Alto research center is unclear. They have also been planning VoIP on their line of mobile phones for quite some time.

[additional sources: Press.XTVWorld]

VoIP Roundup - Tues Oct 31/06

Skype UK Calling: Not Free After All?
Skype recently announced a promo for UK customers. Spend £10 in Skype credit before the end of 2006, and you get 6 months of free SkypeOut from and to the UK starting shortly after you sign up. Except that some customers are still being charged for their SkypeOut.

Mobile VoIP Player Gets VC Financing
TalkPlus, a holder of patent-pending VoIP technology that provides telephony services for mobile devices, just received US$5.5M in Series A venture capital from Menlo Ventures. One of their offerings is a second number of cell phones, called the TalkPlus Number, which they feel is ideal for the online dating market. [via Saunders Log]

Glofiish Smartphone: Kooky Name But Offers GPS, Wi-Fi, And Skype
Why not cover all angles? The Glofiish smart phone covers all the hot features of the mobile domain: GPS, Wi-Fi, and Skype. It's powered by Windows Mobile 5.0. [via 21Talks]

Splish Splash I Was Skyping In Bath

I can't find the original page at the Skype site that I read, but here's another that says 75% of all UK Skype users have talked to people on the phone while in the toilet - some even in the bath, particularly women. I know someone years ago who did a radio interview (recorded, not live) while on the toilet, and his friend played it on her college radio show. But I digress.

The info is part of a survey that Skype did as part of their free Talk for Britain SkypeOut promo. This is the third region in the world where Skype is offering free calling to landlines for a limited time. The other two regions are France and North America (Canada, US only). Hong Kong also has free Skype-to-toll-free numbers only. Yahoo! had a holiday offering for East Indians on the past weekend for the Diwali festival: free calls from Yahoo Messenger IM (from North America?) to landlines in India. Russell Shaw wondered if this holiday/ promo trend would be the beginning of free VoIP calling all over the world. Jim Courtney asks if this new SkypeOut promo for the UK is a trend for SkypeOut.

I'm inclined to say yes. Skype had other promos during the summer, where people could call out from North America (Mexico excluded) to different countries (UK, Mexico, Japan) for a limited time frame each weekend during the promo. With the VoIP/ VoIM market suddenly becoming so competitive, we'll no doubt see more such promos, and maybe even some from Microsoft and AOL. Gizmo Project already allows free calling to landlines in 60 countries, provided the person you are calling is registered with them.

I know that I plan to get SkypeOut when the North American promo expires. However, they don't have local numbers in my area, and since I'm planning to move back to the big city next year, I'm still seeking the optimum VoIP service for me. Note to VoIP providers: I'm getting SkypeOut because I can pay with Paypal. I don't have/ use credit cards.

KISS VoIP

Luca riffs off of something Andy Abramson and the New York Times have said: some VoIP phones are difficult to configure. Now I haven't picked up a Wi-Fi phone yet, but judging from my experiences with various desktop and mobile VoIP apps this year, it appears that as I age, my tolerance level lowers for technology and applications that aren't a cinch to setup. Maybe its tech overload from all the research and writing I do, but there it is. I want my VoIP + VoIM simple, and no doubt those less technical than me do as well. KISS = keep it simple, stupid.

As Andy says, if VoIP Wi-Fi phones are not easy to configure, it'll only be early adopters and techies who use them, even if others purchase them. I'm thinking that if the term "VoIP" continues to be used, it might also discourage people. In fact, the NY Times piece is called "Phones for that other system." Some people/ companies are afraid to call it VoIP, preferring terms such digital phone, e-phone, internet phone, net2phone. Jane Hoskyn of Skype even goes as far as saying "Forgive me for rolling out that ugly word 'VoIP'..." I wouldn't go that far, seeing as 'VoIP' is a play on the word 'voice'. But nevertheless, simplicity and consumer-friendly terminology will aid IP telephony adoption.

Will VoIP For Coffee

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

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

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

Mobile Skype? For Some Phones

If you have a BlackBerry or a Windows Mobile PDA/ phone, you can now use Skype on them courtesy of EQO Communications. In fact, they support more than just Skype, including the more popular IMs: AIM, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber, MSN Mesenger, Yahoo Messenger. EQO already supports over 400 devices. See the press release for the full list.

Skype had announced last month that they were having difficulties getting Skype to work on some mobile phones, particularly Symbian, and that they were working on the technical problems. At the time I last tried EQO on my Palm Treo 650 (PalmOS, EV-DO), it didn't work for me. I'd been told a few weeks ago that Palm Treos were now supported. For technical reasons I won't get into (unrelated to EQO, I was unable to test it again at this time.)

VoIP Roundup - Thur Oct 26/06

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

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

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

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

17 VoIP + IPTV-Related Xmas Suggestions

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

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

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

Happy voiping.

VoIP Roundup - Wed Oct 25/06

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

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

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

More About Mobile Video Calling

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

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

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

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

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

VoIP Roundup - Mon Oct 23/06

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

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

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

What's Your Ultimate Electronic Media Gadget?

An ABC News article asks what electronic gadget you would pick if you had to pick just one. What would it's functionality be? Music player, web surfer, game device, instant messager, mobile phone, digital camera? Or a combo? Obviously, most people would like a combo, but if the fact that there are more cell phones in active use in the USA than landlines, communication is obviously an important aspect of personal electronics. (Compare this to the fact that only about 500,000 people had cell phones in the US in 1986. (My father had one of those big-ass brick-sized army-size mobile phones that he carried around. Portable yes, convenient no.)

Me? My ultimate gadget would be a hip- or wrist-worn device with Wi-Fi + Bluetooth + GPS capability, plus everything a web-connected PDA/ smartphone can do, but with vVoIP (video and voice over Internet protocol) ability. And a HUD (Heads-Up Display) that's unobtrusive, with voice-activation or some sort of Bluetooth glove. And it can't make you look like an ultra-geek. Or better yet, it'll have Wibree instead of Bluetooth. A tall order. What about you?

The Electronic Global Village Expands

First Singapore announced plans for implementing 2400 hotspots in Northern Singapore. Now Japan plans a giant wireless mesh network over 100 cities, resulting in open broadband access for over 50Mln people. Earlier in the year, Taipei City, Taiwan announced a wireless project to replace PSTN, with an aim of having 200,000 wireless VoIP phones for city employees by year end. And of course there's the countless other cities in the USA and other places installing their own municipal Wi-Fi networks, or just finishing the bidding process.

And with free or inexpensive municipal Wi-Fi, growing in abundance, there's expected to be a burst in sales of plain Wi-Fi or dual-mode Wi-Fi/ cellular phones. If ever there was a time to consider buying stock in wireless and IP-related hardware manufacturers, it's probably now. Just wait until after the US stock market crashes this November due to the mini-tech bubble that's formed.

Virtual GPS

Don't have GPS capability in your mobile phone or PDA? The Navizon Web API from Mexens Technology can pinpoint users by triangulating signals from nearby Wi-Fi access points. This location can then be used as a reference point to show the user additional location-based information such as nearby stores, banks and restaurants.

This functionality could be teamed up with the mobile click-to-call/ pay-per-call that Microsoft and Ingenio are now offering (jointly with Ingenio). It could be a great way to promote local business