Thursday, October 30, 2008

Get Free WiFi With Your iPhone And BlackBerry From AT&T

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
It is getting easier to get VoIP Services with more mobile devices (Mobile VoIP) now that AT&T has decided to deliver AT&T free WiFi services to it's BalclBerry and iPhone customers. I have all my business conducted from an BlackBerry when I am out of the office and now the life might get easier, so to millions of other users of iPhone and BlackBerry. But make sure that you have the unlimited data plan, that is one requirement from AT&T.
AT&T announced today that it will begin offering free AT&T Wi-Fi(SM) service to current and new Mobile customers. Mainly iPhone and BlackBerry customers. In addition to the iPhone, iPhone 3G, BlackBerry devices like BlackBerry Bold, the BlackBerry(R) Pearl(TM) 8120 and the BlackBerry(R) 8820 will follow later this year, will have free AT&T Wi-FI service. AT&T plans to make the offer available to more mobile devices in the future. AT&T has the nation's largest Wi-Fi network, with more than 17,000 hot spots including Starbucks, Barnes & Noble,and thousands of other locations to access free wifi.
Additional details, including instructions on how to access the hot spots, are available at attwifi.

"AT&T is committed to providing its customers with the best connectivity at the best value," said David Christopher, chief marketing officer of AT&T's mobility business unit. "We have the industry's leading lineup of smartphones, along with the nation's largest Wi-Fi network. It only makes sense for us to bring these unique capabilities together for our customers."

OOMA Phone And Services Improved

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/

Video is from ooma
OOMA Phone improved? According to a news release, ooma has enhanced it's ooma phone system with new features and services like
Call Logs, Personal and Community Blacklist , Personal Number and Voicemail , Mobile Integration with Multi-Ring, Voicemail Attachments, Virtual Phone Numbers making your life easier. According to the company, by using ooma, households can save $400-$600 per year by eliminating costly phone services with only a fraction of ooma’s features.

These new features and services are being delivered as a software-only update to customers and are included in the ooma Premier service, a bundle of enhanced calling features designed to enrich the home phone experience. Each ooma system comes with a free 60-day trial of ooma Premier. The ooma Hub is a powerful Linux-based platform that enables users to benefit from new features and services seamlessly.

An ooma system consists of the ooma Hub™ connected to a broadband connection and a primary phone. The ooma Scout device extends the benefits of the ooma system to additional phone jacks in the home. ooma Core is a $249.99 hardware bundle that includes ooma Hub and ooma Scout. ooma Premier is an optional service option for the ooma Core bundle and costs $12.99 per month or $99.99 per year.

Press Release


Have a OnSIP With Fring On Your iPhone.

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Once again Andy from VoIP Watch brings some good news for OnSip users. Now you have have OnSip service on your iPhone with a little bit of help from fring.
The process seem to be so easy, that my partner who already had fring on iPhone just pointed his SIP service to OnSip and He was done.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

RC29 update on T-Mobile G1, Some Gets It.

image from Endgadget
http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Endgadget is reporting about the RC29 update on T-Mobile G1, the first Android based commercial phone. Many of the users are still on the RC19 and awaiting the RC28 update when some users have reported to Endgadget about the updates they received. Both reports that it sent the phone into convulsions of showing an image of chip being flashed and susequent rebooting. But after few such "OMG what is going on with my Phone" moments, and looks like an eon (5 minutes) phone settles down and you can start eating away into your monthly voice data and other mumbo jumbo you subscribed.

Monday, October 27, 2008

TruPhone On Blackberry

Image from GigaOM
http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
GigaOM is reporting that Truphone is now working on the Blackberry. Om Malik has an early version of the program running on his Balckberry and very successful, evn on T-Mobile, unlike Andy Abramson with iSkoot on Android.
I will try TruPhone on my Blackberry later today as I am a bit busy during the day. I hope to have the same sucess that Om Malik did. But if you already has an account with TruPhone you might run into truble getting that account working with the new phone. Om Malik has opened new accounts on several occations on different phones. Lucky for me I tried TruPhone on my partners phone. Balckberry will be my first TruPhone Pnone.

iSkoot For Skype On Android Does Not Work

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Everyone seem to be trying iSkoot on Android and seem to be failing. But I wonder if these peole know the dirty little secret that I published on Why I Will Not Get A T-Mobile Android! (No VoIP On It);
http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/09/23/skypeno.jpg
"When I talked to Cole Brodman, the CTO of T-Mobile, after the event about what would stop something like Skype from designing a program that could run on the phone, negating the need for a massive voice plan, he said he had "worked with Google" to make sure Android couldn't run VOIP. "We want to be open in a way that consumers can rely on," is the way Brodman put it to me."
Among us we have two mobile devices that uses iSkoot and one of them are my Blackberry and we have no complain.
Andy over at VoIP Watch has written an account on trying to get iSkoot working on Android. The reason that he was unsuccessful, could have something to do with the above statement by CTO of T-Mobile

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Skype's Contribution To Ebay Analyzed.

Skype profits helping Ebay has been better analyzed by Skype Numerology and it is much easier to see the picture as several graphs present the real picture. Mercier has done a good job of explaining the fact Skype's "contribution" to ebay and the correlation to the Skype out minutes.
Skype Numerology: Skype certainly is profitable!

Friday, October 24, 2008

Puzzllotto, iPhone Game That May Gives You Upto $30000.

Mobile Games
United Lemur (Think Mike Lee) has released Puzzllotto to iPhone App Store. The game costs $4.99 and 10% of the App Store income will go to support Madagascar Fauna Group. Now that the nasty statistics are away, let's look at the fun part.
Puzzllotto on your iPhone transports you to what is supposed to be eighth continent, inviting exploration and discovery. The game is said to be in the same puzzle caliber such as those games like Zork and Myst. A friendly lemur might help you and, those what looks to be light emitting giant butterflies may light your path in this dark green Forrest. The wily Fosa! is something that you are supposed to look out for! You will make your way through the beautifully rendered jungle while listening to the multi layered sound scape, recorded on location in Madagascar, to find those secrets and to solve the puzzle. If you do, you will be able to win up to $30,000.

Official rules are available at puzzllotto.com, but the promotion basically breaks down like this:

  • Puzzllotto will appear on the App Store on Wednesday, October 22. The Puzzllotto Prize starts as a trophy, a metaphorical empty cup.
  • Each day at noon (Pacific Time), the company will announce via Twitter (twitter.com/unitedlemur) whether the puzzle has been solved.
  • If the puzzle has not been solved, the jackpot will increase by $1,000.
  • This promotion will run for 31 days, with the maximum jackpot being $30,000.
  • If nobody wins the $30,000 jackpot after 24 hours, it will be donated to charity.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Gmail for mobile version 2.0 for J2ME-supported and BlackBerry phones

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/


I do most of my business work on my Blackberry and having gMail without trouble is a must for me. So I downloaded the new app and I am a happy camper, so far.

The re-architectured new client is taught to push all the processing to the background, improve the client-side caching scheme and optimize other tasks associated with gMail.

The new client brings you;
  • Overall performance improvement.
  • Multiple accounts management.
  • Multiple mobile email drafts.
  • Powerful shortcut keys.
  • Basic offline support.
In addition to the above, over 35 languages are supported now. Please note, though, that not all features are available for all phones.

Go to m.google.com/mail in your mobile browser to download the new Gmail for mobile for your phone.

Comcast Announces More Bandwidth For Home And Business Customers.


http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/

Comcast announced that it is making the leap from broadband to wideband with the launch of next-generation DOCSIS 3.0. This jump will enable Comcast to introduce a brand new Internet speed tiers, in USA.
Some other countries like Japan has been providing 100MB fiber to home at about $60 a month for some time now but most US providers were slow to advance in to the higher bandwidth offerings. Comcast so far had the highest broadband bandwith provided in the most parts of the country.

According to the press release by Comcast, it’s new services will be available to millions of residential homes and businesses in parts of New England, including the Boston Metropolitan region and Southern New Hampshire, as well as areas of Philadelphia and New Jersey, in the coming weeks. These services also will be available in the Twin Cities where wideband was launched earlier this year. Comcast plans to widen it's wideband reach to 10 major markets within several months.

Wideband is a game-changer for the industry. With wideband running over our next-generation fiber-optic network, we can greatly enhance our customers’ online experience immediately. And these speeds are only a preview of what’s to come—wideband will provide the capability of delivering dramatically faster speeds in excess of 160 Mbps in the future,” said Mitch Bowling, SVP and General Manager, Comcast Online Services. “Today’s announcement reaffirms our commitment to offer more speed to more homes than any other U.S. Internet service provider.”

Comcast will launch two new premium speed tiers with this wideband service to its residential and business class customers;
1. Extreme 50, offering up to 50 Mbps of downstream speed and up to 10 Mbps of upstream speed at $139.95/month.*

2. Ultra, offering up to 22 Mbps of downstream speed and up to 5 Mbps of upstream speed at $62.95/month.*

With 50Mbps one will be able to download a high-def movie (6 GB) in about 16 minutes, a standard-def movie (2 GB) in about 5 minutes and a standard-def TV show (300 MB) in a matter of seconds. I think Comcasts triple play will benefit from this speed jump, without any lags for a few users at a time.

iPhone Apps Get Video Ads From LiveRail AdServer.

According to MyAdlets, iPhone developer now have another way to monetize their product by including video ads from Liverail. I also found this video after following links.

LiveRail iPhone AdManager from LiveRail Inc. on Vimeo.

LiveRail AdServer Provides iPhone Apps With Video Ads. | MyADLETS, The Viral Frontier.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Mobilkom Joins Fring To Provide Moblie VoIP And More

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com
Telekom Austria's mobile arm, Mobilkom, who provides A1 over IP service product, has partnered with Fring, to provide what they called first ever mobile VoIP and Social services by tier one network operator. As the news published here and from experience, we know that Fring is going places but this is another good if not strategic move as it proves to mobile network providers, that there are other players than Skype. Skype has already partnered with Three network that is present in the country.

Initially, Mobilkom's A1 Over IP service will be integrated with fring's SIP service. Mobilkom Austria will provide a custom mobile fring client to its customers opening up fring’s entire open-platform, feature-rich suite of internet based mobile communications & community services, enabling users to talk, chat and interact with each other & all of their online communities, and access fun mobile web applications, using the internet connection capability of their mobile device.
"Avi Shechter, fring’s co-founder and CEO commented: “Today’s announcement by fring and its new partner, mobilkom Austria, represents just the beginning of a sea change in the relationship between mobile VoIP and traditional mobile carriers.

Dr. Hannes Ametsreiter, CMO mobilkom austria and CMO Telekom Austria TA said: “Internet services and mobile communications will increasingly grow together in the future. We were very early to adopt the international SIP standard. Through the partnership with fring we can demonstrate today how the two worlds will merge in the future." "

Monday, October 20, 2008

Sync Android And Microsoft Exchange Server With ContactsSync.

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Now that the Google phone has come in the form of T-Mobile G1. One of the first apps that makes it easier for the Microsoft Exchange users has been developed and will be given away free when the T-mobile G1 is ready to use it.!
ContactsSync can connect your Android to Exchange server and will down load your contacts right into the phone. Even though this is not a full Exchange syncing app, it will aid you to get all your contacts on the phone. I think it is a good start!
The fact that it is being free might help you a bit after spending a bunch for the phone and the contract, specially in these hard times. The app is ready and you can get it as soon as you get the phone. None. The application was sponsored by Wrike, Web-based project management software, Intermedia, a exchange hosting provider.

Know Your Twitter Qwitters.

I read a good one at http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/

Friday, October 17, 2008

Enhanced LCR Module For Kamailio

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Kamailio, the ex OpenSER team has released an enhanced version of lcr module, in to the development trunk.
The new high-performance implementation keeps lcr information in an in-memory hash table. The size of which could be managed with the new parameter 'lcr_hash_size'.
The 'weight' field in 'gw' table allows to assign a gateways according to weight in a group. Among other enhancements, lcr_reload function is now executed under a lock minimizing race conditions.

You can learn more about what is new in upcoming Kamailio 1.5.0 at Kamailio Dokuwiki site:

If you are a developer, then download trunk version of Kamailio via SVN:

svn co https://openser.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/openser/trunk kamailio



Skype Lights Up Ebay Skies!

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Looks like Skype is making silver lightning in the Ebay's financial cloud, even though it a sliver, in the over all Ebay's revenue. Accounting to about 10% of the total revenue of Ebay. Skype is still climbing but it is slower rate than before.
Ebay released it's 3rd quater financial information; "Ebay Inc.today reported financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2008. The ecommerce company posted third quarter revenue of $2.12 billion, up $228 million from the same period last year. Net income on a GAAP basis was $492 million, or $0.38 per diluted share, and non-GAAP net income was $592 million, or $0.46 per diluted share.
.......................

  • Skype surpassed 13 million concurrent users at certain peak times.
  • Skype-to-Skype minutes reached nearly 16 billion, a 63% increase year over year."

Even though Skype is only one tenth of Ebays revenue, it is holding tough. Skype's revenues for the third quarter were $143 million, albeit with a slowing down growth rate, it is still growing.The growth is visible on it 46% annual and 5% sequential quarterly growth. Skype has 370 million users currently who consumed 16 billion minutes of talk time.

The annual growth rate of those minutes and the number of minutes people actually pay Skype for, Skype Out minutes, are showing helthier growth.

Hope Ebay will take more notice of these and make Skype even more prominent portion of it's business.


Thursday, October 16, 2008

Android Kill Switch

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
I already told that I will not buy T-Mobile G1, and now there might be another reason not to go for the little devil. Like the iPhone kill switch, which Apple unceremoniously and sneeringly embedded into iPhone, Android is also said to be carrying a such switch.
But the main difference is that Google is stating fact ahead, even before the firs Android phone hit the shelves. But I am concerned about having someones hands on my testes. Be it Google or anyone else.
According to an statement on the Android Market, somewhat equivalent of Apple's App Store, ""Google may discover a product that violates the developer distribution agreement ... in such an instance, Google retains the right to remotely remove those applications from your device at its sole discretion.""
Are they talking about spambots or malicious applications that created to harm users, I do not know.
Another bonus about the Android Market is that you can return any application that you bought within 24 hours! I think that is a plus! How about the same treatment on App Store, Apple?

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Mobile Video Conferencing! With GIPS VideoEngine™ Mobile

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
GIPS has been a hot topic over here all the time. From GIPS Softphone to GIPS VoiceEngine has been covered a few times.
Now GIPS is taking another step and providing capability for Mobile Video Conferencing! Yes Video conferencing for your mobile phone. GIPS VideoEngine has been released for PC and Mobile devices along with The VideoEngine SDK for developers to get their applications on the road.
With all the mobile devices that we are carrying arround with video capabilities, we might be holding Video conferences from under that tree by the 12th hole in near future.

Following is the press release;

San Francisco — October 13, 2008 — Global IP Solutions (Oslo Børs: GIPS), the leading provider of IP multimedia processing solutions, announced today the availability of its VideoEngine™ Mobile on the Windows Mobile platform, which enables peer-to-peer video calling and multi-point video conferencing on mobile phones.

Using GIPS VideoEngine Mobile, wireless carriers, application developers and mobile handset manufacturers can provide high-quality video calls, even under adverse network conditions. The company has partnered with Marvell Technology to ensure its media processing software provides the most advanced mobile phone features on the Marvell chipset and to highly optimize it for the XScale PXA310 devices including the Hewlett-Packard iPAQ series, Samsung's SGH-i780 and Gigabyte's GSmart MS808.

“Mobile VoIP is increasingly becoming an important service for users who seek to maximize the value received from mobile phones,” said William Stofega, Research Manager at IDC's VoIP Services Program. “With video calling the mobile operators can now deliver the full benefits and innovations of IP communication, allowing them to offer more value-added services to customers while increasing their revenue streams.”

According to a recent report from NSR, mobile TV and mobile video services are projected to grow almost ten-fold to 566 million users by 2013.

“Today's mobile phone users demand the best in quality and rich functionality, which is why there is an enormous opportunity for application developers and wireless carriers to offer real-time video calls to the masses,” said Emerick Woods, GIPS' Chief Executive Officer. “Our expertise in enabling IP communications will allow mobile phone users the highest quality video calling experience possible.”

GIPS leverages its industry-leading real-time communications capabilities to manage network effects and hardware limitations to provide a superior mobile video call experience, while addressing the most complex voice and video-related issues in IP communications, such as packet loss and lip synchronization.

Future releases of VideoEngine Mobile will also support other popular mobile platforms including Symbian and Apple's iPhone, as well as additional hardware platforms for Windows Mobile.
For more information, visit www.gipscorp.com/mv

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2, Coming Soon

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/

Microsoft unveiled OCS 2007 R2 at VoiceCon Amsterdam and it was a handful. The company has big plans to make office life better and of course to keep other vendors off the turf that it was late to enter. But certainly it is going places

But this release mainly has enhancements in few of the important areas. As a developer, I see the value of OCS 2007 R2 developer tools. According to the release news, OCS 2007 R2 is extensible. The new developer tools introduces new APIs and Visual Studio tools to help developers integrate collaboration services into business processes.

The others are collaboration, enhanced voice and mobility enhancements. The collaboration in OCS 2007 R2 and IM, voice, and conferencing has some new touches. Persistent group chat should be appealing to the corporate crowd. This feature provides permanent chat rooms, notifies members of new entries, and best of all archives discussion meeting compliance requirements. There is also on-premises audio conferencing bridge, desktop sharing via web browsers, and the ability to move conversations from voice to Web conference.

On the office front, OCS 2007 R2 includes an attendant console, like in the good old POTS days allows receptionists to manage calls and features for the rest of the office. These telephony controllers will be able to setup teleconferences or filter calls.

The other part that might make network people happy is that it includes SIP trunking, directly connecting OCS to a VoIP provider, unlike before which required a VoIP gateway.

The OCS 2007 Mobile client will now support Nokia S40 and S60, Motorola Razr, and BlackBerry devices. They also introduced the one number, where people could get their calls routed to their mobile devices.

Here are some high lights from the press release;

Key new features of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 include the following:

Next-Generation Collaboration
• Dial-in audioconferencing. Office Communications Server 2007 R2 enables businesses to eliminate costly audioconferencing services with an on-premise audioconferencing bridge that is managed by IT as part of the overall communications infrastructure.
• Desktop sharing. This feature enables users to seamlessly share their desktop, initiate audio communications and collaborate with others outside the organization on PC, Macintosh or Linux platforms through a Web-based interface.
• Persistent group chat. This enables geographically dispersed teams to collaborate with each other by participating in topic-based discussions that persist over time. This application provides users with a list of all available chat rooms and topics, periodically archives discussions in an XML file format that meets compliance regulations, provides tools to search the entire history of discussion on a given topic, and offers filters and alerts to notify someone of new posts or topics on a particular topic.

Enhanced Voice and Mobility
• Attendant console and delegation. This allows receptionists, team secretaries and others to manage calls and conferences on behalf of other users, set up workflows to route calls, and manage higher volumes of incoming communications through a software-based interface.
• Session Initiation Protocol trunking. This feature enables businesses to reduce costs by setting up a direct VoIP connection between an Internet telephony service provider and Office Communicator 2007 without requiring on-premise gateways.
• Response group.A workflow design application manages incoming calls based on user-configured rules (e.g., round-robin, longest idle, simultaneous), providing a simple-to-use basic engine for call treatment, routing and queuing.
• Mobility and single-number reach. This extends Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile functionality to Nokia S40, Motorola RAZR, Blackberry and Windows Mobile platforms, allowing users to communicate using presence, IM and voice as an extension of their PBX from a unified client.

New Developer Tools for Business Applications
• APIs and Visual Studio integration. This improves the efficiency of everyday business processes by enabling businesses to build communications-enabled applications and embed communications into business applications.

Join Us for Launch

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 will launch in a worldwide online event Feb. 3, 2009. Those interested can register to participate in the launch at

http://www.microsoft.com/communicationsserver.

Tags: , , , , ,

Storm Up Your Blackberry Curves And Pearls BlackBerry Storm Theme

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
As you can see from the image above, that click and feel 3d look the upcoming Blackberry Storm is promising us is available for (for 7 bucks) for your Pearl or Curve.
RIM touted this interface feature as one of the prominent features of the Storm, which was to be Thunder before!
ThemesBB Via Gizmodo

Monday, October 13, 2008

Media Relay MediaProxy 2.1.0 Released!

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
The development team responsible for developing and managing to MediaProxy project has release MedaProxy 2.1.0. MediaProxy is a media relay for RTP/RTCP and UDP streams that works in tandem with OpenSIPS to provide NAT traversal capability for media streams from SIP user agents located behind NAT.

When using MediaProxy, NAT traversal for RTP media will work without any settings in the SIP User Agents or the NAT router.


Main Features
--------

- Scalability of thousands of calls per server limited only by the Linux kernel networking layer and network interface bandwidth
- Supports multiple chained relays as long as each has a public IP
- TLS encryption between the relays and dispatcher
- T.38 fax support
- Graceful shutdown capability
- Modular design for custom selection algorithms for the relay location
- Automatic load balancing and redundancy among all media relays
- Real-time sessions statistics
- Configurable IP and UDP port range
- Support for any combination of audio and video streams
- Ability to use OpenSIPS' MI interface to close a call that did timeout
- Radius accounting of IP network traffic
- Database accounting of complete media information including all streams, their type, codecs and duration.

Multi-tenant PBXware 2.1Platform for ISPs and Telco’s Released By Bicom

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Bicom's Multi Tenant version of PBXware offers a wide range of options in VoIP IP Telophony for service provides or even large scale building and apartment managers looking to offer VoIP Services to their clients. With the platform they will be able to offer Hosted IPPBX, Residential Lines, Resellers Partitions, Prepaid Long Distance, ANI Recognition, Call Back and EFAX.

Since the system is able to handle unlimited user, unlimited resellers and user/company self portals, service providers to serve IP-PBX market with fully featured hosted IP-PBX solution from a single platform.

Following are some of the features:

• Unlimited Tenants, Unlimited Extensions
• One Interface
• Single IP address required
• Single Server Setup with Optional Redundancy or Cluster
• Co-Branding
• Multi-Language
• Admin Interface
• Customer’s end users self-care interface
• Individual: Extension Numbers and Digits, Call Groups, Dial Plans Etc.
• Management of each individual Tenant Package, DIDs, Trunks, CDRs
• Cool Feautres such as integration of cellphones as extensions
• API for Easy Integrations

You will find more information on the product at http://www.bicomsystems.com/mt/ and an
online demo: http://mt.bicomsystems.com. Use email: admin@domain.com password: mtdemo. for the demo.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Why I Will Not Get A T-Mobile Android! (No VoIP On It)

I was pretty excited when Google Phone Coming Soon actually became a reality. I have been searching for all information on the phone in my regular places getting ready for the phone. But this search also lead me to an article on Wired and I am sure, I will not get T-Mobile G1, the Android based phone to hit the shelves soon. Following is the sole reason and I am sure there will be other carriers who are "OPEN". I will buy a iPhone 3G like Diordna (read backwords) did until then.

"T-Mobile made a big deal about being one of the few carriers embracing open standards and open Skypenosystems -- which is true. Yet just how open is a (sorry) open question. When I talked to Cole Brodman, the CTO of T-Mobile, after the event about what would stop something like Skype from designing a program that could run on the phone, negating the need for a massive voice plan, he said he had "worked with Google" to make sure Android couldn't run VOIP. "We want to be open in a way that consumers can rely on," is the way Brodman put it to me."
Wired Article.

VoIP on Live Messenger Switched Back ON!


As you can see from the picture above, Tom Keating at TMC is very happy (and Dizzy) that Microsoft has re-enabled VoIP on Live Messenger. Microsoft took away the capability do so earlier this year. With the new capability to dial out to PSTN with Telephonica and actually it promotes Telefonica's Voype service when you try to make a call on Live Messenger. Those previous exclusivity with Net2Phone and Verizon seem to gone away.

But what I thought was intersting the is the price, 7 cent below SkypeOUT, I think Telefonica's Voype service will atract quite a few customers given that Live Messenger is on every thing that comes out of Redmond. It could certainly become a good Skype challenger only if they managed to bring in something similar to SkypeIN.
But I hope Microsoft will make up it's mind and let it's customers relax and make use of this widly available convenience.
Tom has done a much better coverage of the matter and you will find it on TMC Blog.

FreePBX Time Groups and Time Conditions Explained

After giving you FreePBX 2.5, the FreePBX team continue to give you more! One thing that I really liked was write up on Time Groups and Time Conditions.
FreePBX 2.5 introduced the separate time groups and time conditions modules to ease the time management on FreePBX. If you ever had to deal with "Destination if time matches", you know how hard it is to work backwords, like having a destination before setting up a time condition or having to deal with time sequetialy.
But these modules make the time management much easier and the article explains it very well. Hope I did not already confuse you with those time conditions! Here is the article by Moshe Brevda, FreePBX Development Team.

Update;
Moshe has his own blog and the article could be found at MBrevda.

Thursday, October 09, 2008

OpenSIPS 1.5.0 Gets A New Routing Module.

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
OpenSIPS announced that OpenSIPS 1.5.0 (development branch) has a new module for routing. Even though it is similar to LCR module in basic functionality like routing based on rules, the major difference seems to be in ability to scale and high performance.

The OpenSIPS site noted that the new module is following capabilities and enhancements;

Internal data organized as a search tree which is very fast
Unlimited number of rules and gateways (Tested on a production setup with 200K rules and with no search penalties)
A rule may point to set of GWs to be used for;
(1) sequential selection, (2) random selection , (3) weight selection
Inbound processing - prefix and strip for calls originated by the GWs

The module already sports an intuitive web interface for provisioning which will released in the near future, along with an OpenSIPs Control Panel Web interface.

A comprehensive documentation and description available from the OpenSIPS development site.

Buy Your iPhone 3G Online Now


http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/

Actually partially from AT&T! You can order the phone and pick it up at the store nearest to you. (Or any store near you that carry the iPhone).
This was earlier possible with Apple online store as well! But I think a new stock of iPhone 3G has made it to the stores and AT&T does not want to keep it's shelves loaded! So they posted;
"As of October 9, iPhone 3G is now in stores. We have both 8GB and 16GB (black & white) in stock and available in all AT&T stores."
So go order yours!

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

The Blackberry Storm, That Came Out Of Thunder!

A Storm is blowing from the direction of RIM and "The Storm", (Which used to be Thunder) but I think the storm is better as it is expected to bring thunder AND lightning to the iPhone world. So Verizon Wireless, Vodafone and RIM together rang out the coming of the BlackBerry Storm.

So those of us who are under Verzon's watch, are assured of very fast everything under it's 3G evdo network. So those of us who surf will be pretty nifty with the horizontally or the vertically oriented browser that comes with the phone, or the storm. The browser supports all the usual things that a browser allows you to view, web pages, music, video and also the RSS feeds. (On our site we had to cut down the full feed to stem out those splogs.)

But what is unique to the storm is that it is bringing us a "clickable" touch screen, which depresses a little (those 3d buttons!) with a tap and clicks to tell us that the intended task has been completed. This touch screen measures 3.25 inches with 480 x 360 resolution.


Similar to all BlackBerries, the Storm also delivers mobile email and messaging, which supports both personal and corporate email, SMS, MMS and instant messaging from almost all consumer and enterprise platforms.

The Storm's built-in GPS for location based services will be able to rescue you should you get lost in a real storm and also could be used to geotag your photos.

The Storm has dimensions of 4.43 inches by 2.45 inches by 0.55 inches and puts 5.5 ounces in your palm or pocket. Unlike iPhones, it has a removable and rechargeable 1400 mAhr battery which lasts up to six hours talking on 3G networks and 15 days of standby time.

The device's 1 GB of onboard memory and the capacity to use microSD/SDHD memory card slot to bring the storage to a 16GB should provide ample space for music, videos and Photos that you also can take with the 3.2 megapixel camera with variable zoom, auto focus and a flash that also acts as a continuous light source if recording video.
The built-in media player is used to watch afore mentioned movies, photos and manage music collections.
The hand held also features a 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack and supports Bluetooth to listen to those sounds.

Blackberry Storm
http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/

Wild Androids!

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET News)
Snap Voice
C|NET news is showing that people other than Big Boys at Google like Larry Page are using Android phones! But we may have to wait a while as T-Mobile G1 has already sold out the batch of Android based G1 phones already!
C|NET

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

BlackBerry Media Sync For MAC!


The Boy Genius has found a beta Blackberry Media Sync for mac and has been playing with it. From the look of it, it is very promising and seem to give all those benefits that we got with the PC version.
Do not confuse this with the pocketMac for Blackberry. The real deal and you can see more screen shots and information at BGR site!
I think the whole MAC world is hitting BGR at the moment and so be patient.

COX Does Not Violate Verizon Patents! Court Rules.

COX Verizon
Much to the surprise of VoIP world, court (jury) has sided with COX and ruled that COX does not violate Verizon patents that I feel should not have been awarded in the first place. Verizon is in a suing spree targeting VoIP providers. I am wondering why these patents have not been challenged yet, properly.
According to Broadcasting Cable;
a Virginia Court has ruled that it did not violate Verizon's Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) patents.

"The jury found that Cox was not infringing any of Verizon’s Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol telephone patents at issue in the case," said Cox in a statement circulated by the company's lead law firm on the case, Kirkpatrick Stockton.

These are the same patents which Verizon took Vonage to court forcing Vonage to settle with Verizon. Did it acted too soon? But it is also expected for Verizon to file an appeal and chase after other VoIP providers like Comcast and Time Warner.
From Broadcasting Cable via Techdirt.

Monday, October 06, 2008

Android Emulator For G1

Google blogscoped reported that the T-Mobile has put up an Android Emulator and when I followed the link, it was not available! Looks like it has been taken down or perhaps will come back on later after the surge has gone down.
But actually there has been a Android Emulator included with Android Development kit (Android SDK). So if you really want to try that is one way to do so!
The Android emulator mimics all of the typical hardware and software features of a typical mobile device, except that it can not receive or place actual phone calls. It provides a variety of navigation and control keys, which you can "press" using your mouse or keyboard to generate events for your application. It also provides a screen in which your application is displayed, together with any other Android applications running.
http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/

Jailbroken iPhones At Risk?

Techcrunch is requesting you to change your "root" password on you iPhone (Any generation, iG , 3G) if it is jailbroken. It seems that the default root password for a jailbroken iPhone is "alphine". If you connect to any open network people will be able to browse your iPhone without any limitations.
If your phone is not jailbroken, you do not have to worry.
There is instructions on Crunchgear and do not forget to read the comments.!
http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/

It Is 3 (Three) Network For Me IN UK

After reading Andy's account on his experience in using 3 Network and skype phone in UK, I know whom I will be using in UK, once I get over there for a 3 months on a study break coming winter and again in next summer.
I have used various carriers in UK as I travel there often as I am affiliated to a University over there. But non have been so convincing so far.
But as I read Andy Abramson's experience in utilizing 3 Networks resources, I know who my carrier will be and I am sure I stand to gain a positive experience. Voip Watch Article.
It Is 3 (Three) Network For Me IN UK

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Free Calls On iPhone With Fring!


Fring has released fring for iPhone and I think many people are excited like me. Tom Keating is one, who actually pointed me to this news via his blog.
I use fring more than my partners but I am sure the value lies in fring's ability to communicate with many VoIP / IM providers.
The fring for iPhone is available from Apple App Store and once downloaded you can make free calls with other fringsters™ or via fring using Skype, Skype-out or any SIP providers you choose.



Free calls with iPhone

Tags: ,

iPhone Is Not Yet A Blackberry Killer!

According to Gizmodo, Apple has failed to provide push notification system by the end of the September.
"After buying the iPhone I remembered that I could get annoyed every five seconds with its built-in push mail. I checked the preferences and I saw Push was turned on. Then I waited.
I waited. And waited. And then waited some more. But nothing arrived. Push wasn't working.
"
It is still not seem to work. So you can put away those clothes, you were planing to wear for the Blackberry funeral!
Blackberry Killer

Thuraya Satellite Phones / Modems Are Lighter and Smarter.

Japan Digicom offers satellite phone services for use in places where regular telephones cannot be used, such as on the ocean and in the air. The company offers IRIDIUM, INMARSAT and THURAYA services mainly to customers in the broadcasting industry and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The company is placing particular emphasis on THURAYA, the newest satellite phone service, which is being show cased at its booth at CEATEC JAPAN 2008.
Japan Digicom has introduced Thuraya's high-speed communications, wrapped in a smaller and lighter handheld units than we have been so far. The THURAYA Module, with dimensions of 72mm (H) x 52mm (W) x 9.5mm (D), and 60g in weight, providing a compact communication units previously unheard of in the industry.
This module can be embedded in communication equipment like car navigation systems, container tracking systems and OEM satellite phones. So these allows new pathways for these systems to be used as backup systems for conventional phone systems and real-time tracking of cargo containers.
But another notabla feature is that the cost of satellite phone services that used to very expensive, could be had through THURAYA for a fixed rate package of about 300,000 yen per month (about US $2857).

THURAYA product line includes the THURAYA DSL satellite modem, the new THURAYA IP modem, the SG 2520/SO 2510 Series satellite phone units (see image and the video below), the SEAGULL 5000 satellite phone for marine use and the TrailBlazer satellite-based tracking system.
The THURAYA IP modem supports high-speed 444kbps data communications and streaming communications at a maximum of 256kbps. SG/SO Series mobile phone units are not much different from conventional cellular mobile phone and be carried arround the same way.




THURAYA Satellite Phones

Friday, October 03, 2008

Docomo Phone With A DLP Projector

While we here trying to get VoIP in to cell phones,(Mobile VoiP) Japan is marching forward in the field of phone design and innovative use of the same phones. We reported that iPhone in Japan was not that big a hit in Japan. Why? Because
The NTT Docomo has been demonstrating a mobile phone at CEATEC JAPAN 2008 with a DLP projector from Texas Instruments embedded. The device is capable of projecting a TV image of about 24 inches to a wall or a screen about same distance away!


Snap Voice

VON Assets Are In The Hands Of Virgo Publishing.

Andy Abramson of VoIP Watch is reporting that Virgo Publishing has acquired the VON Assets that we all have been wondering about for some time.
According to the press release, which is also on Andy's post, Virgo plans to carry out the VON traditions. But I guess we will have to wait and see.

Snap VoIP

Skype 4.0 Beta 2 For Windows

On the heels of news about Skype Selling out to Chinese government, I hear that Skype beta 2 has been released. I have not installed or tested yet. But we did test Skype 4.0 beta 1 and it seem to be offering some interesting information. But the reports I hear says that it has improved on the beta one and there much more to be expected in the beta 3.
One of the better mentioned features is that you now can switch to classic view if you do not like modern view of Skype interface.
To alleviate the problem of missed messages, the new beta brings a orange colored indicator on System tray icon for new messages. Also they have returned your ability to drag and drop files to chat window and now you have dynamic groups like who is online, whom you just chatted or whom you have blocked. You also seem to have ability to delete and add these groups.
But we also hear that another beta is on the way. The c|NET has a more extensive report and if you want the skype 4.0 beta 2, you can download it here. And if you have any feedback, that could be submitted here!
But while downloading I will be wondering whom they will sell us out to next! You can also read about Skype President's response to the last breach of trust by Skype on Skype blog here. All I read that is now the they have hidden the place they upload the files, nothing much!.
http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Skype Sells You To China With TOM-SKYPE!

Contrary to the statements by Skype, the great telephony provider has screwed some users, specially Chinese users, (not only people from China) according to this report. Skype snubbed users before and I am sure continue to do so in the back ground. I doubt it is only the chat messages. What else Skype?
According to the report published

"Our analysis suggests that the surveillance is not solely keyword-driven. Many of the captured messages contain words that are too common for extensive logging, suggesting that there may be criteria, such as specific usernames, that determine whether messages are captured by the system."

So the BS about certain keyword monitoring and dropping the messages will not work here. Did you also record the voice as well skype?
In addition to the above, here are some more major findings;

• The full text chat messages of TOM-Skype users, along with Skype users who have
communicated with TOM-Skype users, are regularly scanned for sensitive keywords, and
if present, the resulting data are uploaded and stored on servers in China.

• These text messages, along with millions of records containing personal information, are
stored on insecure publicly-accessible web servers together with the encryption key required to
decrypt the data.

• The captured messages contain specific keywords relating to sensitive political topics such
as Taiwan independence, the Falun Gong, and political opposition to the Communist Party
of China.


But if these are alarming you, you can remove skype, uninstall skype or even if you decided to remain a user, how not to be a supernode could be found on this site. We have been telling these for last three years!

But according to a report here, China might even change wikipeidia! Well what people do for a buck.
snap voice

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