VoIP Blog - Tehrani.com

« January 13, 2008 | Main | January 15, 2008 »

Sipera Interview

Sipera Systems is on the leading edge of IP communications/VoIP security and it is worth pointing out the company was just interviewed by me and in the interview there is good information about the growth areas of IP communications as well as the potential risks involved.

Here is an excerpt:

RT: What is the most exciting market change we can expect in communications in technology in 2008 and beyond?

EW:

One of the most exciting market changes in 2008 will be the use of presence technology, expanding from the boundaries of instant messaging and including other communication modes such as mobile phones, hard phones at work and office, soft phones, etc. Further, presence will go beyond whether one is online to also include geographical location (via GPS), On Call, In Meeting, and In Car. The major challenge here will be understanding and managing privacy and security in this context based on domains, user groups, device, etc.

Oh, and by the way I almost forgot to mention this interview was with Sipera CMO Eric Winsborrow and you can see him speaking at ITEXPO next week in Florida.

| This entry was posted at 6:37 PM. | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Link this | Email this | Leave comment
Trackback URL: Sipera Interview
Technorati Del.icio.us BoingBoing Slashdot Digg Spurl Furl

Best Buy CRM Challenge

Although I cannot vouch for whether this is true, the story of Best Buy allegedely screaming at someone for purchasing a video game which is rated for mature audiences could get some play on network TV. Apparently the store accused a potential customer of buying the game for a minor. If the TV networks do pick up on this story -- assuming it is true, we can expect Best Buy to issue some sort of apology.

Then again, it is admirable to see a company put values (even if they were wrong in this case) ahead of profits.

| This entry was posted at 6:27 PM. | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Link this | Email this | Leave comment
Trackback URL: Best Buy CRM Challenge
Technorati Del.icio.us BoingBoing Slashdot Digg Spurl Furl

OCS Assimilation

Tom Cross has an interesting post about Microsoft OCS and in it he has a good communications history lesson detailing some of Redmond's past activities in the telecom space. Here is an excerpt:

What all this means is that the old-time interconnect company is finally going away. Many of them hate IP systems, never wanted to learn IP and keep thinking it’s a fad that will go away. This also means huge opportunity for those who finally want to see the telephone finally get “assimilated” PC and the benefits of “unified” communications or messaging finally arrive. In subsequent articles I will address this concept and how finally AI-artificial intelligence systems can finally be integrated into communications.

In my humble opinion, OCS is the most significant event since the digital PBX and while the PBX will remain for sometime to come, its days are numbered. Now is the time for all parties to get knowledgeable about OCS and where this is going and how to prosper from it or begin looking for a new job. And, yes the reference to being assimilated comes from the Borg in StarTrek® where all knowledge comes from, of course. Microsoft® is a trademark of the Microsoft Corporation.

You can see Cross next week at ITEXPO in Miami, FL where he will be teaching a Microsoft OCS Certification course as part of TMC University. Hope to see you there.

| This entry was posted at 5:43 PM. | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Link this | Email this | Leave comment
Trackback URL: OCS Assimilation
Technorati Del.icio.us BoingBoing Slashdot Digg Spurl Furl

Sangoma Interview

When you listen to David Mandelstam the President and CEO of Sangoma, you get the feeling you are speaking with a hybrid scientist/entrepreneur. Mandelstam's company is a pioneer in both open source and unified communications and he is a good person to interview if you are looking for a broad range of viewpoints regarding where the communications market is going.

I had a chance to conduct an e-mail interview with Mandelstam and although the answers are a bit brief they give valuable insight into where he thinks the open source communications market is headed and moreover how SIP and video have altered his company's business.

It is worth a read.

| This entry was posted at 5:31 PM. | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Link this | Email this | Leave comment
Trackback URL: Sangoma Interview
Technorati Del.icio.us BoingBoing Slashdot Digg Spurl Furl

Squeezebox Duet

You probably know I spent some time thinking about how best to connect my computer system to my stereo and I ended up with a solution that is not perfect but at least I can listen my phone's music collection through speakers worthy of a home stereo system. The way I did this was with a pair of bluetooth speakers from Sharper Image and this cost me about $100 to pull off.

If I had decided to spend more money I could have gone with products from Squeezebox. I have decided not to do this right now but if I were to blow a good deal of money on a solution to connect my computer home stereo system it would likely buy the Squeezebox Duet.

This system uses an iPod like controller which gives you the ability to control music throughout the home.

Tom Keating wrote about this new product a week back or so and now engadget is saying the controller is even better than the specs originally led us to believe.

The remote includes Flickr support, a built-in speaker and headphone jack, SD card slot, IR transmitter and 3-axis accelerometer which could theoretically be used as a video game controller or to control music with various gestures of your hand.

| This entry was posted at 5:14 PM. | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Link this | Email this | Leave comment
Trackback URL: Squeezebox Duet
Technorati Del.icio.us BoingBoing Slashdot Digg Spurl Furl

Samsung Bribery News

Samsung has its hands in just so many things and subsequently it is worth sitting back and taking notice when the company is accused of setting up a slush fund and engaging in bribery.

Samsung Group is easily South Korea’s leading conglomerate. The company has 58 subsidiaries and accounts for over 20 percent of the country’s exports. Samsung Group’s assets are valued at more than $280.8 billion and its exports were worth $66.3 billion last year.

Scandals are not considered new to such huge South Korean industrial groups as Samsung. These conglomerates have regularly been accused of wielding their economic power to influence government decisions, as well as using shading dealings between subsidiaries to help controlling families to evade taxes and transfer wealth to heirs.

Read more on TMCnet.

| This entry was posted at 5:10 PM. | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Link this | Email this | Leave comment
Trackback URL: Samsung Bribery News
Technorati Del.icio.us BoingBoing Slashdot Digg Spurl Furl

Sprint Layoffs

The bad news keeps flowing for Sprint employees as there are now rumored layoffs coming. Still, with a new CEO, this news is not too surprising. Moreover, for shareholders these cuts will likely be welcomed as sales are slowing and churn is increasing. Sprint desperately needs to do something to make their company and service sexy.

Verizon has the best network from a quality perspective. AT&T has the iPhone. T-Mobile -- well T-Mobile doesn't have that much beyond their GSM compatibility. As a past colleague of mine once said -- their phones work in Europe.

Sprint just needs something sexy. They need a gadget. An exclusive video game or TV playing device that is different enough that people will run out and switch their service to this beleaguered wireless provider.

If something doesn't change consumer perception about the brand soon, I fear we should expect more bad news in the future.

| This entry was posted at 4:49 PM. | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Link this | Email this | Leave comment
Trackback URL: Sprint Layoffs
Technorati Del.icio.us BoingBoing Slashdot Digg Spurl Furl

Fake Apple Keynote

It is amazing what a cult of personality Steve Jobs has become. It has gotten to the point where speculators not only try to figure out what Jobs will say but now they are even writing a full speech (or at least notes) in advance of Jobs presenting.

Credit Wikipedia as the location of this "fake" speech and TechCrunch for alerting me to its existence.

Here is an excerpt:

iPhone/iPod Touch SDK
- Apps and Widgets
- Using Cocoa with Objective-C
- Developers submit programs as source code, not executable
- Specify iPhone or both iPhone/Touch (certain features iPhone only)
- Set your own price: Apps $0-$6.99, Widgets $0-$2.99
- Users buy/download in iTunes Wi-Fi Store / iTunes Store (Mac/PC)
- Automatic updating wirelessly or docked

- Demonstration of exporting from XCode 3 to iTunes Store
- Submits source code to Apple for validation (make sure that people aren’t abusing the system, prevent malware and viruses)
- If using microphone or GSM, iPhone only; otherwise, available for both iPhone and iPod Touch
- Apps can be free or up to $6.99; Widgets free or up to $2.99
- Developers recieve 70% of revenue for their products
- Licensed under Apple Mobile Software License
- Can download wirelessly from iTunes Wi-Fi Store or docked to computer from iTunes Store
- Demonstration of wirelessly downloading (and running) the app submitted earlier
- Apps and widgets can be rearranged on front screen; front screen scrolls to show all apps/widgets
- Resubmit updated versions of apps; when added to store, iPhone/Touch will ask you to update it next time you use it (or next time you dock the iPhone/Touch)
- Developers can get their hands on a beta version of the SDK tomorrow on ADC and start developing; final version due early February
- iTunes 7.6 and iPhone/iPod Touch Software update 1.3 allowing for Apps mid-February

Example apps/widgets
Apps:
- iChat (coming with 1.3 update) (AIM, Jabber/Google Talk)
– Quick demonstration
- RSS Feed Reader (coming with 1.3 update) (read feeds online or off)
- One of our partners made something cool: Last.fm (scrobble tracks played on iPhone/touch wirelessly without syncing w/ computer)
Widgets:
- Dictionary (coming with 1.3 update) (quickly look up words, translate, use wikipedia)
– Quick demonstration
- Yellow/White Book (coming with 1.3 update) (search for contacts, add them to your address book directly from the app, will sync back with address book on your Mac/PC)
- Sports Ticker (coming with 1.3 update) (choose your sports and teams, get updates on their progress)
- Another partner: Twitter (update your Twitter on the fly, see your friends tweets)
- Try these out on the show floor today

| This entry was posted at 4:25 PM. | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Link this | Email this | Leave comment
Trackback URL: Fake Apple Keynote
Technorati Del.icio.us BoingBoing Slashdot Digg Spurl Furl

Google iPhone Upgrade

The latest news out of Google is not surprising as the company decided to choose the week of Macworld to announce that they have improved their iPhone experience. As I wrote about earlier today, iPhone search activity is much greater than the search activity of other mobile devices.

As such, Google has announced it has made its applications and interface speedier for iPhone users and while doing this they have also made the applications look slicker, easier to navigate and use via touch-screen.

You can also customize your start page at www.igoogle.com.

Because we now know just how much traffic the iPhone is sending to search engines, this news is not surprising. What we should be aware of however is the fact that it is going to be very difficult for the Google Phone/Android to be better than other phones as Google has to make its applications extremely user friendly regardless of device.

I mentioned this in a post last night in fact.

It is conceivable that the iPhone could provide a better browsing and search experience than anything Google and its partners in the OHA can come up with. And therein is the challenge for Google.

But then again, if their apps run everywhere they still win.

| This entry was posted at 1:49 PM. | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Link this | Email this | Leave comment
Trackback URL: Google iPhone Upgrade
Technorati Del.icio.us BoingBoing Slashdot Digg Spurl Furl

iPhone Google Traffic Surge

Back in the late nineties the CEO of Nokia made an interesting prediction at an industry show in his keynote address. The prognostication was that soon more people would surf the internet on their mobile devices than on PCs. Unfortunately I did a search for the exact details of this quote but came up empty. We are just going to have to use my memory as a guide for this blog post.

Partially fueled by this and other predictions, many companies focused on getting their sites to be mobile ready by embracing WAP which was the mobile web browsing standard at the time.

While WAP did allow browsing, the small screens at the time and the non-graphical websites which WAP allowed meant that mobile browsing was a huge disappointment for many.

But it may seem that the comments while not true were merely early as according to The New York Times, Google and other search engines are reporting soaring web searches from the iPhone. In fact, this past Christmas, the iPhone generated more traffic to Google than any other mobile device. This is an amazing statistic as Apple's iPhone only accounts for 2% of smartphone purchases.

So it seems like the the desire to browse from mobile devices is there and it is just a matter of time before mobile device makers develop enough devices to allow us to browse the web well. Any way you look at it, there is a lot of potential here.

| This entry was posted at 9:40 AM. | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Link this | Email this | Leave comment
Trackback URL: iPhone Google Traffic Surge
Technorati Del.icio.us BoingBoing Slashdot Digg Spurl Furl