Greg Galitzine's VoIP Authority Blog: Technology Archives

AudioCodes Looks to HD VoIP

November 3, 2008 9:00 AM

AudioCodes is getting into the HD VoIP business.

The company today announced VoIPerfectHD, its High Definition Voice over IP technology, which is designed to deliver higher voice clarity, better intelligibility and richer sound, and an improved user experience by doubling the audible voice spectrum.

AudioCodes plans to embed HD VoIP across its product portfolio throughout 2009.

According to the release announcing the move into HD VoIP:

The introduction of HD VoIP extends AudioCodes reach to both enterprises and service providers, allowing entry into new market segments which will benefit from enhanced clarity and better speech intelligibility. Among key segments expected to benefit from this new introduction are banks, government, military, health, telemedicine and education.

AudioCodes' HD VoIP is designed to enable enterprises to improve worker collaboration resulting in higher productivity and enhanced customer service quality. Service providers are expected to benefit from differentiating their VoIP offering and services by increasing call length and having a higher Average Revenue per User (ARPU). In addition, application providers and ISVs are capable of effortlessly enhancing their solutions in order to meet stringent voice quality standards.

AudioCodes' current and planned HD VoIP Enabled products consist of the IPmedia 3000 Media Server, Mediant 3000 Media Gateway, Mediant 1000 MSBG and the Mediant family of Microsoft certified basic Hybrid Gateways.

And, they're not stopping there. Plans call for the introduction of HD VoIP on a wider variety of products in the coming year.

For more information, check out www.audiocodes.com/hdvoip.

TMC, Ex-VON Team Join Up for 4G Event, Web Site

October 30, 2008 8:44 AM

TMC and Crossfire Media announced they were working together to produce 4G Wireless Evolution, comprising a Web site, an event, and other media to address a growing need for information regarding the next generation of wireless.

4G is the fourth generation of wireless communications, which is expected to be implemented globally in the next 2-5 years, and which will offer significantly faster speeds and broader applications than current wireless networks can allow. The result will be an influx of new technologies and a significant increase in the number of customers using wireless communications for a wide variety of uses.

The 4G Wireless Evolution Conference is the first event dedicated to 4G technologies, and will take place February 2-4, 2009 at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

Industry watchers will note that this collaboration brings together some familiar faces, working together for the first time. In fact, over the past several weeks, the TMC team of Dave Rodriguez, Michael Genaro and I have been meeting with our counterparts at Crossfire Media: Scott Kargman, Joann Varello and Carl Ford to hash out the details of the partnership and to build the conference program and the Web sites. It's amazing to see all that hard work come to fruition today with the official launch.

Of course, now the work truly begins to make 4G Wireless Evolution the industry's #1 resource for all things 4G. But I've got a feeling that with the resources of the two organizations and the expertise involved, we're well on our way to achieving that goal.

For the official press release, click here.

Truphone for Blackberry Now in Beta

October 28, 2008 7:39 AM

Blackberry users rejoice!

Truphone today announced the launch of a beta of Truphone Anywhere, for BlackBerry.

Earlier this year the application was made available for iPhone users.

According to the announcement:

Truphone works with the user to save them money. Instead of requiring the user to remember what to do, Truphone Anywhere simply asks whether he/she wants to make a Truphone call whenever an international number is dialed. The user simply accepts, and Truphone connects the call.

Users can download the application for free from www.truphone.com/blackberry and Handango users can download Truphone from www.handango.com.

Microsoft FREEs Up Support for Vista SP-1

July 17, 2008 3:39 PM

Tom Keating writes today that Microsoft is now offering FREE unlimited installation and compatibility support for Windows Vista, including FREE phone support!

Well, I might finally get up the courage to unwrap that copy of Vista that I got when I purchased my home office desktop last year.

I wonder how much flack it took for the decision makers in the Redmond customer service department before they threw their hands in the air and said, "Fine! Enough already! Free support until March 18, 2009!"

Now... what did I do with that list of all my peripherals that I jotted down noting whether or not Vista drivers existed?

Support is only being offered on Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1).

For more details, check out Microsoft's Help & Support page.

Yahoo! Meet the New BOSS...

July 10, 2008 5:07 PM

Yahoo has announced a new service called "Build Your Own Search," or BOSS, that will open up their technology for use by third parties.

That means developers will be able to leverage Yahoo's years of investment in time and money to assemble their own search tools using Yahoo's system for indexing information and images on the Internet.

In return, Yahoo! is looking to display their ads alongside the results on any search engine built with its technology.

According to Prabhakar Raghavan, Yahoo's chief strategist for search, "Our goal is to disrupt the search market and allow more entrants to come in."

Time Warner Trial Set to Debut Thursday

June 3, 2008 10:51 AM

As reported back in January, Time Warner Cable is making good on its promise to introduce tiered pricing in the southern Texas community of Beaumont.

The company is rolling out its consumption pricing trial in Beaumont this coming Thursday, with those who go over a preset bandwidth limit to be charged $1 per gigabyte.

Current company pricing will range from $30 a month for a 768 kbps (five-gigabyte monthly cap) to $55 a month for 15 mbps (40-gigabyte cap).

Time Warner said the trial is targeting the problem that just five percent of the company's subscribers take up half of the cable company's capacity.

Interop Briefing: Fanfare

April 30, 2008 3:43 PM

Like Rich Tehrani, I too find myself in Las Vegas, at the Interop show.

However, unlike Rich’s experience, my experience with lines has been almost nonexistent. No wait for my luggage when I arrived last night. No cab line at the airport. Nobody checking in ahead of me at the hotel.

And today, when I checked in to the show, there was nobody on line in the press room, which made getting my badge a very simple procedure.

And so I’m engaged in a day full of meetings.

First on the list was Fanfare. To see what that company is all about, click here for the report on my meeting with David Gehringer, vice president of marketing for the Mountain View-based firm.

Boston... Salesforce... Marathon?

April 21, 2008 11:26 PM

What a day.

It started benignly enough, early to the office and then off to the Amtrak station for a train to Boston. You see, I’m in Beantown again this week for a visit with our friends at Salesforce.com and their Tour de Force, which hits New England tomorrow.

However today, something else hit Boston. Unbeknownst to this New Yorker, they apparently run Marathons here on work days, and so as I exited the Back Bay rail station I found myself surrounded by a teeming mass of humanity I did not expect to be a part of.

I guess that’s what happens when the hotel you’re staying at is half a block from the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

For tonight I was invited to a dinner for certain Salesforce customers and prospects, partners, media, and the like.

For anyone who understands what it’s like to be of the Eastern Orthodox faith you’ll cringe when I tell you that 6 days shy of Easter, the dinner was held in a restaurant called Mooo (3 O’s, I think…).

I had a series of wonderful conversations with a variety of prospects and customers, all of whom had nice things to say about our hosts, and none of it seemed feigned. I get the sense that Salesforce customers really love that company’s solutions.

Well I’m excited to hear Marc Benioff’s keynote tomorrow, as well as getting a firsthand look at some of the demos of the Salesforce/Google Apps integration we’ve been hearing so much about (see Rich’s blog for more details).

I’ll have more to say in the morning, so until then…

Brave New Google Earth

April 16, 2008 3:36 PM

Peter Birch, Product Manager, Google Earth, writes about the launch of the latest version of Google Earth — version 4.3 — on the Official Google blog today.

The latest beta (of course) sets the goal of offering a “realistic, 3D model of the world by giving users a higher quality, more immersive experience.”

Here are some of the new features:

New navigation — featuring improved zoom control.
3D 3D 3D — The latest version of Google earth adds loads of new 3D content such as thousands of buildings contributed by people around the world, and photo-textured cities and towns.
Street View — You’ve used this and loved it in Google Maps.
Sunlight feature — Simulated lighting as the Sun passes overhead. Might be the only way I get to see the Sun set over the Great Wall…

Google Earth 4.3 features a dozen new languages, including Danish, UK English, Spanish (Latin American), Finnish, Hebrew, Indonesian, Norwegian, Portuguese (PT), Romanian, Swedish, Thai, and Turkish, so presumably you could stop and ask for directions…

FCC Answers to Congress

April 15, 2008 3:38 PM

The FCC was called on the carpet today to answer a Congressional committee’s questions about the recently completed wireless spectrum auction. A central issue was the Commission’s inability to attract any bidders for the so-called D block portion of the spectrum.

Lawmakers did save a little praise for FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and the fact that the auction raised over $19 billion.

The Wall Street Journal has more on the story here.

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