Today was apparently a bad one for GrandCentral customers as many report the service was out for hours. As mentioned by TechCrunch, if you want to be phone company you can't go dead.
April 2008 Archives
There is no question Microsoft could charge more for its OS if it worked as well as products from Apple. This is the feeling of ZDnet's Robin Harris and it is difficult to agree with the many lucid points made in his article.
Still, it should be noted Microsoft now has to deal with many products which they don't necessarily control. Apple has kept a much tighter reign on the products you could get working with a Mac.
For example, Apple makes the computers that work with their OS while Microsoft does not. When you consider all the manufacturers and various types of hardware challenges, BIOS revisions, etc you see Microsoft has become a victim of its own success.
Of course all of this is known and has been happening for years.
The reason things have changed as of late is that Apple is actually the market-share leader at something again which makes people more comfortable switching over to the Cupertino-based company's products and services.
In addition, the cool factor of Apple and the look of the company's product has only improved over the years.
No company seems to be able to match Apple in design except perhaps Bang and Olufsen.
Oh yeah... Why specifically do Mac users pay twice as much for OS X according to Harris? Because people are willing to pay more for products that work correctly with little penalty for being an early adopter.
Still, it should be noted Microsoft now has to deal with many products which they don't necessarily control. Apple has kept a much tighter reign on the products you could get working with a Mac.
For example, Apple makes the computers that work with their OS while Microsoft does not. When you consider all the manufacturers and various types of hardware challenges, BIOS revisions, etc you see Microsoft has become a victim of its own success.
Of course all of this is known and has been happening for years.
The reason things have changed as of late is that Apple is actually the market-share leader at something again which makes people more comfortable switching over to the Cupertino-based company's products and services.
In addition, the cool factor of Apple and the look of the company's product has only improved over the years.
No company seems to be able to match Apple in design except perhaps Bang and Olufsen.
Oh yeah... Why specifically do Mac users pay twice as much for OS X according to Harris? Because people are willing to pay more for products that work correctly with little penalty for being an early adopter.
It seems at least one person has been thinking of all the ways a slower economy will contribute to better air travel for the rest of us. In fact this Slate.com article describes in detail what the pros are of an economy where there are less mergers, more airline bankruptcies and less of a need for executives to take up runway room with their private jets.
I have noticed my last few flights have had a few extra seats on them and the security lines have gotten shorter as well.
Few people want a slower economy of course but seems many clouds do indeed have silver linings.
I have noticed my last few flights have had a few extra seats on them and the security lines have gotten shorter as well.
Few people want a slower economy of course but seems many clouds do indeed have silver linings.
There is just something so mind-boggling about our nation's tax collection system. I was reading this MSNBC article about how New York State is looking to and likely will tax Amazon.com purchases and it goes on about how New Yorkers are supposed to be paying sales tax on these purchases already.
In fact most states require you to pay sales tax on your out-of-state purchases today.
Obviously most people do not do this and the article further describes just how confusing it would be to figure out what you owe.
In case you aren't aware, currently if a company does not have operations in your state, they generally do not charge you sales tax. It is interesting to note that if a company exhibits at a trade show in a state, the state feels the company should subsequently pay sales tax there.
In one instance, my company TMC actually had an idea to get a major internet retailer involved in a really interesting promotional idea that our ITEXPO attendees would have really benefited from. Guess what... The e-commerce company backed out because if they did anything at a trade show in Los Angeles... California would have pressured them to pay sales tax.
But I digress. We can thank Eliott Spitzer for passing a bill that will require Amazon.com to collect sales tax on shipments sent to the Empire State.
On the one hand it is extremely fair to have all retailers pay state sales tax as currently shopping online hurts local merchants who do have to collect this tax.
The flipside to this argument of course is that the federal government has passed laws against taxing the internet and this New York State Law is probably in conflict with the federal law.
There is a lot more to this issue and our entire tax code has always fascinated me as it is so complex that it requires armies of lawyers and accountants to keep track of it all. One wonders if it wouldn't be better to just have all the states work together with the federal government to simplify the mess of a tax code we currently deal with.
[Internet News]
In fact most states require you to pay sales tax on your out-of-state purchases today.
Obviously most people do not do this and the article further describes just how confusing it would be to figure out what you owe.
In case you aren't aware, currently if a company does not have operations in your state, they generally do not charge you sales tax. It is interesting to note that if a company exhibits at a trade show in a state, the state feels the company should subsequently pay sales tax there.
In one instance, my company TMC actually had an idea to get a major internet retailer involved in a really interesting promotional idea that our ITEXPO attendees would have really benefited from. Guess what... The e-commerce company backed out because if they did anything at a trade show in Los Angeles... California would have pressured them to pay sales tax.
But I digress. We can thank Eliott Spitzer for passing a bill that will require Amazon.com to collect sales tax on shipments sent to the Empire State.
On the one hand it is extremely fair to have all retailers pay state sales tax as currently shopping online hurts local merchants who do have to collect this tax.
The flipside to this argument of course is that the federal government has passed laws against taxing the internet and this New York State Law is probably in conflict with the federal law.
There is a lot more to this issue and our entire tax code has always fascinated me as it is so complex that it requires armies of lawyers and accountants to keep track of it all. One wonders if it wouldn't be better to just have all the states work together with the federal government to simplify the mess of a tax code we currently deal with.
[Internet News]
It seems TiVo is on a roll as Dish Network has failed to to convince an appeals court to overturn a previous patent win. Dish Network could end up paying from about $100 to $200 million as a result of this lawsuit.
Expect TiVo to go after service providers and also expect Dish Network to try to convince courts that they have upgraded their DVR systems in a way that no longer infringes TiVo's patents.
[Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection]
In a social network connected world, it seems auto theft will be a thing of the past. A car dealer had a relatively rare Nissan Skyline GT-R stolen recently and posted this information with pictures on the internet. The next day someone spotted the car, snapped a picture of the thief and in short order followed him to his house where the thief backed in with his license plate exposed.
The directions to his house were subsequently posted online with a map and directions.
Needless to say, he was arrested and the video of him being taken away is online as well. Gotta love the Internet.
[NY Times]
What's on your wish list for the iPhone? The obvious addition is a keyboard and faster connection (well that is my personal wish list anyway.) But certainly stereo bluetooth and GPS are on my short list as well.
According to Gizomodo -- who weaved a story from numerous far-flung sites, the next iPhone will have GPS, stereo bluetooth, better security against those pesky hackers looking to unlock the device and integration with the world's leading sneaker company.
There is also talk of the phone acting as a remote control. For what you may ask? It is unclear but perhaps it could be Apple TV?
Personally, I am waiting for full sneaker remote control integration so I can just press a button that says "run" and have the sneakers do the work.
Qwest is investigating an internet outage which took place yesterday. Apparently internet and VoIP service was interrupted for a number of customers yesterday afternoon.
Perhaps not coincidentally, some ISPs were also knocked offline which in turn took TMCnet down for about an hour last night.
Whether the incidents are related is not known to me at the moment but there seems to be a slim chance that numerous outages around the same time are unrelated.
To show you just how interconnected the nation's communications networks are, Verizon Wireless said 24 cell towers in western Colorado were off the air for more than an hour yesterday.
One would surmise Verizon is using Qwest fiber for backhaul from its cell tower sites.
[Rocky Mountain News]
Perhaps not coincidentally, some ISPs were also knocked offline which in turn took TMCnet down for about an hour last night.
Whether the incidents are related is not known to me at the moment but there seems to be a slim chance that numerous outages around the same time are unrelated.
To show you just how interconnected the nation's communications networks are, Verizon Wireless said 24 cell towers in western Colorado were off the air for more than an hour yesterday.
One would surmise Verizon is using Qwest fiber for backhaul from its cell tower sites.
[Rocky Mountain News]
TMCnet's Eve Sullivan writes about the massive adoption rates of IPTV worldwide. Apparently IPTV services grew from 4.7 million households in 2006 to 14 million in 2007.
The growth rate in Europe actually hit 250%. Here is more information on the paper.
Are unlimited voice and data plans causing unlimited headaches for carriers? More than one person told me at CTIA they think Sprint is going to be in real trouble as a result of the unlimited plan they are selling to customers.
Where does the trouble lie? In three places really. First of all, many of the enhanced services which used to generate revenue have now gone away. In addition, data and voice usage is increasing so capacity must do the same. Finally, the customers who used to pay more than $99/month now pay less.
One would imagine if my sources are correct, that Sprint may have to retract this offer at some point just to stay in business.
In the mean time, this new plan seems to have renewed some much-needed life into this carrier. It is unclear what magic the company will have to create to offset the elimination of this plan (of course this is hypothetical at this point).
I for one can't wait to see how this all plays out but I am enthused that an entire class of new mobile applications is being born for people to take advantage of.
Perhaps if Sprint does change its pricing, we will be so hooked on the data services that we won't mind paying a buck or two for data capability.
Om Malik has some thoughts on the matter as well.
Update: See also: ABI:Flat-Rate Price Plans Pose Serious Network Challenges for Operators
Where does the trouble lie? In three places really. First of all, many of the enhanced services which used to generate revenue have now gone away. In addition, data and voice usage is increasing so capacity must do the same. Finally, the customers who used to pay more than $99/month now pay less.
One would imagine if my sources are correct, that Sprint may have to retract this offer at some point just to stay in business.
In the mean time, this new plan seems to have renewed some much-needed life into this carrier. It is unclear what magic the company will have to create to offset the elimination of this plan (of course this is hypothetical at this point).
I for one can't wait to see how this all plays out but I am enthused that an entire class of new mobile applications is being born for people to take advantage of.
Perhaps if Sprint does change its pricing, we will be so hooked on the data services that we won't mind paying a buck or two for data capability.
Om Malik has some thoughts on the matter as well.
Update: See also: ABI:Flat-Rate Price Plans Pose Serious Network Challenges for Operators
Here is the good news. You can get Google's Android running on current hardware. In fact the AT&T Tilt is the Guinea Pig of choice for this particular endeavor in the following example.
It is a bit early to jump for joy of course and perhaps the bad news is I am not sure what Android does for you yet. At least this demo is not so impressive.
As a pure technical accomplishment however, perhaps this is a bigger news than the credit I assign to it. I will be impressed when I see Google Apps integrated with Android on the AT&T Tilt. Basically what I mean is that for this platform to be of use to me and other users, it needs to do something that I can't do today.
So this is one small step for mobile users and I am waiting for the giant step in productivity.
[Gizmodo]
It is a bit early to jump for joy of course and perhaps the bad news is I am not sure what Android does for you yet. At least this demo is not so impressive.
As a pure technical accomplishment however, perhaps this is a bigger news than the credit I assign to it. I will be impressed when I see Google Apps integrated with Android on the AT&T Tilt. Basically what I mean is that for this platform to be of use to me and other users, it needs to do something that I can't do today.
So this is one small step for mobile users and I am waiting for the giant step in productivity.
[Gizmodo]
You have heard me discuss how contact centers could connect with virtual worlds and moreover how virtual worlds could connect with e-commerce. One of my most recent posts is titled Virtual Customer Interactions and in this post I give an example of how you could shop in a virtual "Sachs 5th Avenue" for a tie.In case you aren't aware, there are web sites which sell glasses and the way they do so is quite novel. You upload a photo of yourself and then virtually try on various frames. You do this until you find a pair you think looks good on you.
This same concept extends into virtual worlds where you are able to try on clothing, glasses, accessories and anything else you may think appropriate. The goal being to see how things look on you without trying them on.
Even if e-commerce is not your primary business, the ability to connect your contact center with virtual worlds is good to have as many expect these worlds to become more important over time.
This is why I read with great interest that Nortel will be adding Second Life integration into their Call Center 6.0 solution. Tony Rybczynski goes into more detail on his blog.
It is great to see the US Government embracing technology. Recently the FCC said that by 2010 we should have a nationwide alert system capable of delivering timely warnings vis SMS in the event of disaster.Participation in this broadcast communications network is optional for carriers and for subscribers.
My thoughts? This is great news and shows that even the government benefits from the innovations which take place in the communications space.
I just hope all regulators and government officials realize that providing a fertile environment for competition in the communications space has benefits which are far greater than just providing more competitive pricing for consumers.
[TMCnet]
Open source web conferencing company Dimdim is looking to attack the conferencing market in the same way Asterisk "attacked" the PBX space. Although the concept of open source is not new this sort of product just shows how virtually every corner of the software market has to deal with the issue of competing with free or very cheap software supported by a community of developers who work for the "fun of it".
One way to compete with such challenges is to focus more on consulting and systems integration. Another is to focus on building your development community up as a way to add value to your core offerings.
These are things Avaya has done masterfully and it remains to be seen how companies in the conferencing space will deal with the increased pressure from open source conferencing providers such as Dimdim.
[TMCnet]
It looks like Digium's Java based client will be getting commercialized as a result of a five year deal with PhoneFromHere.com. Apparently this agreement will improve the voice quality of PhoneFromHere's products and for Digium this signals another potential revenue stream -- externally commercializing some of their engineer's creations.
[TMCnet]
[TMCnet]
