Gadget

And Then it Hit Me, Open Always Wins

December 2, 2010

We know the history of the PC market - Apple had great products but a closed ecosystem and subsequently the PC - originally based on IBM components and design eventually won the war for the desktop.

In the eighties, I made the choice to move TMC to desktop publishing on a PC instead of Mac because the horsepower per dollar of the PC was so far superior. It turned out the manpower wasted in the short-term based on this decision showed I made the wrong choice. By the mid-nineties however, I was convinced that a single computer platform for our entire organization did make the most sense and as a result in hindsight, I was correct.

Fast forward to today, Apple is designing products which are superior to others but they are generally more expensive and closed. In many cases they are so closed you can't swap a battery or add memory or decide which applications you want without the express approval of Steve Jobs.

This past July, I asked if Apple was making the same mistake from the eighties in the mobile arena because when I saw the Motorola Droid X I realized this device was better than the iPhone in a few important ways.

Posted in 4G, AT&T, Apple, Blackberry, Broadband, Communications Developer, Consumer Electronics, Gadget, Google, IMS, Microsoft, Open Source, Smart Ecosystem, Social Networking, Technology, Unified Communications, Verizon, VoIP, Wireless

Rage HD for iPad AND iPhone Impresses

November 30, 2010

I am an ex-video game junkie having spent my youth either working or spending my money on video games. I started with Pong, then Space Invaders and finally Asteroids, Pacman and virtually everything else such as Centipede and Donkey Kong.

Thanks to playing video games I decided to teach myself programming to make my own video games which somehow got me to my present day career of running a media company building communities online, in-print and in-person. Weird, I know.

Since I graduated from college I haven't spent too much time playing games as I just don't have time. I did check out an Asteroids game while testing the capabilities of HTML5 a while back.

Posted in Apple, Consumer Electronics, Gadget, Technology

Will VocalTec and Skype Merge?

November 22, 2010

One of the major factors that led TMC to decide to launch Internet Telephony magazine back in 1997 was that we saw VocalTec launching products in the space which allowed telephony to travel over IP networks - and just like that the IP communications market was born.

Prior to this point, voice over frame relay was the preferred way to transmit voice over a packeted network.

When we launched Internet Telephony, we invited VocalTec co-founder and CTO Lior Haramaty to write a column in the publication - after all, no one knew more about the technology he helped invent than well, him!

Getting back to present-day Vocal-Tec, the company has merged with magicJack parent Ymax Corp. and recently raised its revenue guidance slightly and is looking to officially launch magicTalk - a PC-based service offering free US calling.

Back in August, TMC ran a piece on magicTalk and now the company says it has 100,000 beta users and 10,000 downloads per day. The magicTalk one-month Alexa rank is 386,430 up from 893,141 (lower numbers correspond to higher rank) and their Alexa chart is certainly improving as the chart below shows.

My two cents are it is tough to compete with Skype and Google in the VoIP space with a new offering but magicTalk has used television advertising to sell VoIP service in a way which turned an unknown company into a household name overnight. They used marketing well and although they have had some controversy surrounding them, I have always considered Ymax to be great promoters.

One of the past issues the company had was when they launched, they made some claims about their technology which were a bit over the top and many industry bloggers went ballistic in response. Moreover, the company has been called out about its inability to provide live voice service calls - but in reality if live support calls cost about $15 per interaction, how can you expect to get these bundled into service which costs about $40/year?

I reached out to the company for more information about what they're up to but they weren't immediately available for comment.

Posted in Communications Developer, Consumer Electronics, Gadget, Google, IP Communications, SIP, Skype, Social Networking, Technology, Unified Communications, VoIP, Wireless, Yahoo

Back from Budapest

November 22, 2010

I just got back from Budapest, Hungary and it was a great trip and I met met lots of great people - many readers thankfully at the Dialogic Connections Conference. Jim Machi at Dialogic was nice enough to write up the conference and include me in his piece.

Apparently the fact I like to talk a lot makes people think I should be in politics but strangely my wife says I don't talk enough - I'm still trying to figure that one out.

In terms of Budapest and travel there - here is what you need to know:

The weather seems similar to New England.
There are many gorgeous buildings, statues and castles worth seeing.
99% of people speak English.
They are very friendly and many people asked me how I like their country and one person even asked me to bring my business there.
The food is good - I ate some sort of mountain animal - a sheep or goat or something called a mouflon which was great.
Be sure to go to a restaurant called Spoon - basically a floating establishment in a ship and Golden Dragon in the art district in Szentendre - an hour or so from Budapest by train.
There are lots of free and open WiFi APs everywhere and the 3G is pretty fast as well.
You can also get hot wine and cider all over the place and a bus tour is a must.
Unemployment is around 30% but it seems like a very safe place.
The currency is not part of the Euro - they use a Forint which is very inflated and a hotel stay at a top location can cost as low as $150. One dollar is worth over 200 Hungarian Forints BTW.
And no, I didn't see Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie.

Angelina Jolie: From Budapest to Bosnia (justjared.buzznet.com)
The Brangelina Bunch Play In A Park In Budapest (pinkisthenewblog.com)
Jolie-Pitt Twins Enjoy a Day Out in Budapest (omg.yahoo.com)
Brangelina Out With The Kids In Budapest! (perezhilton.com)

Posted in 4G, AT&T, Call Center, Communications Developer, Consumer Electronics, Gadget, IP Communications, SIP, Speech Technologies, Technology, Unified Communications, Video, VoIP, Wireless

Kinect Hack Turns You Into a Jedi

November 21, 2010

Very cool demo of what you can do with Xbox 360 Kinect and some ingenuity. Hat tip: Gizmodo.

Posted in Communications Developer, Consumer Electronics, Gadget, Microsoft

Mobile Device More Important than Underwear for Travelers

November 16, 2010

It isn’t often I start a product briefing with a Twitter feed – but when I spoke with Chuck Dietrich, CEO of SlideRocket we started out by looking at a live feed of Tweets describing how awful PowerPoint is. And while the idea isn’t new – after all, death by PowerPoint (Tweet stream) has been used for ages, many people who use the program often know there has to be a better way. And this is the exact area where SlideRocket focuses. But more on that later.

Posted in 4G, AT&T, Apple, CRM, Consumer Electronics, Gadget, IP Communications, SIP, Social Networking, Technology, Twitter, Unified Communications, Video, VoIP, Wireless

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Impresses

November 14, 2010

TMC’s Tom Keating reported the fact that Microsoft OCS will be called Lync going forward and the name is much more conducive as a Skype alternative as asking someone to Lync you sounds much better than asking them to OCS you. Tom and I recently went to Manhattan with a group of analysts and other media to get a demo of the system at Microsoft's Technology center and put it through its paces. We had a chance to see about a dozen or more machines with various endpoints and spent time listening to Jamie Stark the Senior Product Manager walk us through what this new release will do for customers.

Posted in Avaya, Broadband, CRM, Call Center, Cisco, Communications Developer, Conference, Conferencing, Consumer Electronics, FCC, Facebook, Gadget, IP Communications, Microsoft, SIP, Skype, Social Networking, Speech Technologies, TMC Team, Technology, Twitter, Unified Communications, Verizon, Video, VoIP, Wireless, Yahoo

Wireless SIP Endpoints from Panasonic

November 12, 2010

Check out the latest SIP endpoints from Panasonic which were showcased in this video this past month at ITEXPO in Los Angeles. The TGP500 supports up to 6 additional SIP endpoints and 8 SIP registrations - it even works with Asterisk. There is key-set integration, barge capability and lots of other functions allowing an SMB to seem like a large enterprise. This solution is a great cordless add-on to another system according to the company.

Posted in Consumer Electronics, Gadget, ITEXPO, Open Source, SIP, Technology, VoIP, Wireless

Xbox 360 Kinect Review

November 6, 2010

I tested the Xbox 360 system with full-body motion sensing system Kinect a few months back and said it was revolutionary. I had a chance to spend hours with it today and that early opinion I developed is right on. This thing is incredible and allows Microsoft to leap ahead of the pack of computer companies looking for the next user interface.

In short, the technology senses the location of your full-body and as a result, games can utilize the location of your body, legs, arms, hands and feet as input.

Posted in Apple, Consumer Electronics, Gadget, Microsoft, Speech Technologies, Technology

Facebook Extends its Mobile Platform

November 4, 2010

Although this is a long article - which I admit I didn't have time to finish - it is worth a read because it gives you an idea of the Facebook mobile strategy and moreover relates it to the Google Android strategy and explains that Facebook can't take advantage of every opportunity and is opening up more so others can assist.

Hats off to Rob Jackson for spending the time it took to put together this quality piece. Here is an excerpt:

Single Sign-On: Open an application and automatically enjoy the experience with access and perhaps pre-installed knowledge about you and your friends. Sounds a bit like signing into your Android phone with your G-Mail account and having your contacts, calendar, apps, etc… already at your fingertips and syncing up!

Location APIs: If we know where you are and where you’ve been AND we know where your friends are and where they’ve been, there are some very interesting things Facebook can do from a social standpoint. Google tried some of them with Buzz and Latitude but weren’t that successful, but then again, Facebook is a company whose #1 strength is Social so perhaps they can do what Google did not.

Posted in 4G, AT&T, Apple, Communications Developer, Consumer Electronics, E-Commerce, Facebook, Gadget, Google, IMS, IP Communications, SIP, Social Networking, Technology, Twitter, Unified Communications, Verizon, VoIP, Wireless

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