May 2005 Archives

As a huge fan of Triple Play, including IPTV solutions, I thought I'd share this news...

SkyStream's Video Headend Systems Selected by Eagle Broadband and GlobeCast to Power Their IPTVComplete Turnkey Video Solution for Broadband Providers

Companies to Demonstrate IPTVComplete(TM) Video Service Using Advanced SkyStream Headend Technology at SuperComm 2005

SkyStream, the leader in IP video delivery solutions, announced today that Eagle Broadband (AMEX:EAG - News) and GlobeCast have selected the company's Mediaplex-20(TM) and iPlex(TM) headend systems to power their IPTVComplete(TM) turnkey video solution that enables telephone companies, municipalities, real estate developers and other broadband providers to deliver high-quality video and entertainment services to subscribers.
The companies will conduct demonstrations of IPTVComplete by appointment June 7-9 at the SUPERCOMM conference and trade show in Chicago.

IPTVComplete is a turnkey, end-to-end video solution that provides the fastest, most cost-effective way for telephone companies, municipalities, real estate developers and other broadband providers to launch and deliver high quality, IPTV video services to their customers over fiber or DSL broadband networks anywhere in America. IPTVComplete provides a unique combination of video content, headend infrastructure, satellite distribution, set-top boxes and operations support that reduces the time, effort and costs for new and incumbent broadband providers looking to generate new revenue streams from offering more competitive entertainment services.

"IPTV will be a key focus at SUPERCOMM this year and GlobeCast and Eagle Broadband's turnkey solution has made it much easier for providers to rapidly launch and deliver high quality video services to their subscribers," said Andy Lovit, vice president of worldwide field operations, SkyStream. "As we will demonstrate at the show, the IPTVComplete system offers telcos and other broadband providers a very attractive, turnkey IPTV solution that provides an alternative to buying and building their own customized headend."

SkyStream's Mediaplex and iPlex systems are highly dense, advanced video headend systems with carrier class performance and reliability. Eagle and GlobeCast are using SkyStream's Mediaplex-20 to aggregate, encapsulate and multiplex IPTV video programming for delivery over satellite directly to IPTVComplete's SkyStream iPlex remote headend systems that provide on-premise content aggregation and encapsulation for IPTV program distribution over the broadband provider's last mile distribution network.

IPTVComplete is available now. Prospective customers, press and analysts interested in seeing a demonstration and learning more about SkyStream's headend and the IPTVComplete service are encouraged to contact SkyStream at info@skystream.com or 408-616-3394 or Eagle Broadband at iptvinfo@eaglebroadband.com or 281-838-6034 to set up an appointment at SUPERCOMM.

Does your roomie or significant other steal your Ben & Jerry's ice cream? Or perhaps if there is an agreement to "share" a pint of your favorite Ben & Jerry's ice cream over the course of the pint's lifetime, only you feel like you keep getting shortchanged?

Well, look no further than this Euphori-Lock combination lock to keep others in your household from finishing off the last bite of your Chubby Hubby - just when you were looking forward to it too... Of course, thieves could use a knife through the side of the cardboard, but it is hoped that a guilty conscience would "kick in" before that. Yeah, I guess sneaking into the freezer, popping off the cardboard lid, and eating the last few bites of ice cream just isn't enough these days to trigger people's conscience. Must be the 24hr news channels de-sensitizing us to these hard core criminal acts! Yeah, that's right, I meant what I said - Ben & Jerry ice cream thieves are "hard core" thieves and need to be stopped!

You can buy them for $5.50 on Ben & Jerry's website.

A Wired article titled Watch for Roadcasting Rage reads: "Stuck in traffic and sick of Howard Stern, you may soon be able to tune in to the music collection of the person in the car in front of you. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University are developing an ad hoc networking system for cars that would allow any driver to broadcast music to any other vehicle within a 30-mile radius."

By the way, I already use an iPod FM Transmitter which broadcasts my iPod's tunes (mp3, podcast, etc.) but only to a ~25 foot radius. I always wondered if anyone driving along side me might pick up my iPod tunes...

Anyway, this article reminded me of an idea I talked about a long time ago. My idea was that cars with GPS could aid in traffic monitoring to help avoid congested roads by transmitting their speed and location to other cars in say a 30-50 mile radius. Specifically, I wrote in my I Hate Traffic, GPS to the Rescue entry:

Now, I know privacy advocates would probably scream bloody murder at the idea of letting someone "track" their vehicle, but there are ways around the privacy issue. What if the owners of GPS-enabled cars "opted in" to allowing a third-party traffic monitoring company track their vehicle anonymously to determine traffic patterns real-time? As an incentive, the GPS service provider (OnStar) could offer a discount if you opt-in to letting them track the speed/location of your vehicle. Service providers can "sell" the traffic data to radio stations for accurate traffic reports, or even back to the people they have "opted in".

Perhaps some sort of anonymous P2P GPS system could be put in play so that even though you are transmitting your location & speed, no one knows it's your car. This would aid immensely in avoiding traffic jams. Please, someone invent this! I BEG YOU!


Given the choice of "roadcasting" (listening to other people's music or transmitting your own music) or "GPScasting" (receiving and/or sending your GPS location/speed), which would you choose? Post a comment - and as already stated, I'd rather see GPScasting.

Shunra Software Ltd., a leading provider of application and network performance management solutions for distributed enterprises, recently announced version 3.5 of its Shunra Virtual Enterprise solution. TMC Labs has reviewed Shunra's products a few times in the past and we've always been impressed. I actually still have a copy of their software somewhere in the labs. In any event, this new version includes expanded integration with related performance solutions, including Segue Software’s SilkPerformer, and scalability for modeling large distributed enterprises.

Shunra Virtual Enterprise recreates an exact model of the production environment including the Wide Area Network (WAN), remote offices, end-users and background traffic, giving users a place where they can safely test and experiment with the network, applications and infrastructure. According to Shunra, "Used throughout the application lifecycle, the Shunra Virtual Enterprise takes an empirical approach to modeling the production environment. Through this approach, users run the actual applications and send real traffic through Shunra's emulation technology, and import network conditions directly from the production environment. The accuracy achieved through this approach creates an environment that is as close to reality as possible, and eliminates the guesswork and risk of deploying new or updated distributed applications and infrastructure in production."

Among the many enhancements, key new features of Shunra Virtual Enterprise 3.5 include:

• Enhanced dynamic network emulation. The Shunra Virtual Enterprise 3.5 includes a variety of new features that support dynamically changing network environments, such as dynamic routing, real-time network condition changes and automatic packet modifications.

• Expanded end-user automation and integration. The Shunra Virtual Enterprise now integrates with Segue Software’s SilkPerformer automated load and performance testing tool. SilkPerformer simulates up to thousands of simultaneous end-users working with multiple computing environments and interacting with various application environments such as Web, client/server, Citrix® MetaFrame®, or ERP/CRM systems.

Support for SilkPerformer adds to existing support for web user automation, integration with Mercury’s LoadRunner 8.0, and custom developed tools and application traffic generators. Together these features deliver a broad range of options to automate the entire testing process from application scripting and scheduling, through network emulation and reporting, with even greater accuracy due to more precise real world traffic and application patterns.

• Enhanced scalability. The Shunra Virtual Enterprise can now model up to 100 remote office locations, thereby delivering support for critical business applications with a broad geographic reach, such as large multinational organizations.

“The increasing complexity of today’s network infrastructures and applications is matched by management demands for increased flexibility, reliability, availability, and security. Whether it is large corporate users, offshore companies, or ISVs, all face demands for higher performance and quality in services and deliverables,” said Michael Azoff, Senior Research Analyst, Butler Group. “This latest version of Shunra’s Virtual Enterprise Solution includes a number of enhancements that help customers face these challenges, and enable them to reduce risk in running large and/or complex IT departments, especially where mission critical applications are involved.”

Playstation3 defeats XBox 360? C'mon! As if the console wars weren't heated already, I just received an email "claiming" the Playstation3 "has taken a surprising leap over the XBox 360". I don't know what they're smoking, but all the news lately is mostly about the XBox 360. Neither the Playstation3 or the Xbox 360 are in the market yet and already the PR spin has begun. If I had to guess, XBox 360 will overtake Sony Playstation3 in consoles sold and the balance of power will once again shift. First it was Atari, then Nintendo, then Sony, and now Microsoft will become the dominant game console manufacturer. That's not a prediction - that's a fact. It doesn't matter who has better benchmarks - the XBox 360 is adding some cool integrated applications that the Sony Playstation3 just does not have. Microsoft has steadily been signing exclusive gaming deals and even worse news for Sony, Microsoft has been using its vast capital to acquire the "lifeblood" of gaming - the gaming developer companies, such as RareWare.

Ok, check out the email + release. Can you say PR spin??? The spin-age is unbelievable. Hmmm. spin-age? spinach?

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After all the buzz over the console war between Sony and Microsoft, interest in the PlayStation3 has taken a surprising leap over the Xbox360. IGN Entertainment's Gamermetrics, a videogame business intelligence tool, has measured just how much hype the two consoles generated during the show.

I've included the press release below. If you are interested in learning more about the news or the GamerMetrics tools please feel free to contact me.

ANTICIPATION FOR SONY NEXT GENERATION CONSOLE CRAWLS ABOVE MICROSOFT'S NEW PLATFORM, ACCORDING TO IGN ENTERTAINMENT'S GAMERMETRICS

BRISBANE, Calif. - May 27, 2005 - Despite coming out of the gate after the significant excitement about the Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation3 surprised some by garnering the lion's share of interest in the console war. IGN Entertainment's GamerMetrics, a leading videogame business intelligence tool analyzing awareness, engagement, and purchase intent of more than 20 million gamers, showed that the PlayStation3 and Xbox 360 were the buzz of the show, enjoying a more than 60% mindshare among the network's 2.1 million daily unique visitors.

The major industry announcements of Xbox 360 and PlayStation3 engaged IGN's audiences at record numbers, generating more than 35 million page views on May 17. IGN Entertainment, the leading gaming information network reaches an audience of more than 24 million unique users*.

According to GamerMetrics, the top 5 games of E3 2005 were:

·The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Published by Nintendo for GameCube

·Metal Gear Solid 4
Published by Konami for PlayStation3

·Killzone
Published by Sony Computer Entertainment for PlayStation3

·Devil May Cry 4
Published by Capcom for PlayStation3

·Vision GT
Published by Sony Computer Entertainment for PlayStation3


The top 5 platforms, listed by mindshare were:

·Sony PlayStation3 34%

·Microsoft Xbox 360 28%

·Nintendo Game Cube 17%

·Sony PlayStation2 10%

·PC 5%


Over the five days of E3, IGN.com and GameSpy editors:

·covered more than 1,120 different games

·wrote more than 3,800 articles

·offered up almost 18,000 E3 images

·uploaded more than 2,200 videos

Users posted more than 450,000 messages on the IGN boards in the five days of
E3 and 7,337,052 video features were served.

IGN Entertainment's flagship website, IGN.com, reaches the highest concentration of 18-34 year old males online, according to Nielsen//NetRatings @Plan Spring
2005 release. IGN Entertainment's network of media properties reaches an audience of more than 24 million unique users*.

GamerMetrics, the industry's leading business intelligence tool, analyzes awareness and activity of more than 20 million gamers, 2.5 million daily gamers and game ownership metrics from over 400,000 panelists and 260,000 paying subscribers.
Taking the heartbeat of the business directly with gamers, IGN can be a resource for anyone who needs to understand the year ahead in the games market.

About IGN Entertainment
IGN Entertainment provides many of the Internet's leading destinations for video gaming, entertainment and community targeted at teens and 18-34 year-old males.
The company's properties include IGN.com, GameSpy, Rotten Tomatoes, FilePlanet, GameSpy Arcade, GameSpy Arena, Direct2Drive, TeamXbox , 3D Gamers, more than 70 community sites and a vast array of online forums. Collectively, these properties reached more than 24 million users worldwide* in the month of March 2005, according to Internet audience measurement firm comScore Media Metrix. IGN Entertainment is also a leading provider of technology for online game play in video games.
The company's paid content, download and game play services are among the most popular game-related subscriptions available on the Internet. The privately held company has its headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area, with offices throughout the U.S.

* comScore Media Metrix, March 2005 Worldwide data. Worldwide data cited herein represent an aggregate of 32 countries reported by comScore Media Metrix on a monthly basis.
All other data, IGN internal logs.

# # #
IGN Entertainment, Direct2Drive, IGN.com, GameSpy, Rotten Tomatoes, FilePlanet, GameSpy Arcade, GameSpy Arena and TeamXbox are trademarks of IGN Entertainment.
Other trademarks and copyrights mentioned are the properties of their respective holders.

Homesourcing (call center agents working from home) is a hot trend according to Phil Keating (no relation) on the Fox News Channel just about 5 miniutes ago (7:35pm). Phil Keating reported homesourcing is becoming a growing trend among American call centers In fact, he reported that Office Depot is closing 10 of 12 call centers and replacing nearly 1,000 agents with agents working from home. According to the Fox News Channel, (the most accurate news network by the way - inviting some flaming here ), about 20% of all customer service agents are taking orders from their houses not companies.

Phil also interviewed Tim Houlne CEO, the CEO of Working Solutions, an outsourcer of homesourced agents. They provide companies with qualified home working agents. Tim Houlne stated, "So if you focus on the results and the solutions that you provide it makes a great alternative to building brick and mortar facilities."

Phil Keating reported, "The homesourcing trend is replacing the trend of a few years ago - offshoring those call center jobs. The reason? American customers say they prefer an American on the other end of the phone. You mean no more agents with Indian accents answering my call? Hey, does this mean no more offshoring of IT/MIS jobs as well? Alas, programmers never really have to talk with people - only as a last resort and begrudgingly at that. Nobody ever said IT folk were socialable! So I don't think this news applies to IT/MIS.

One thing Fox neglected to mention is the technology that is ENABLING homesourcing of call center agents. I'll give you one guess... Yep, it's often VoIP connected to the "brick & mortar's PBX.. There are several solutions that do this, including solutions from Citel. Although some homesourcers simply use a VPN to access a CRM database and use the good ole' PSTN. Of course even when they do use the PSTN, often times the call is routed from one VoIP gateway to another VoIP gateway and then to the agent's home to save on toll costs. And if they aren't using VoIP and are still using expensive conferencing ports where an agent has to dial-into the PBX, then they need to get on the ball and move to VoIP and save a ton of money. Call centers have more call volume than any other industry, so every cent saved per call counts!

P.S. Gotta love Windows Media Center Edition PC - using my PC I was able to rewind the story to get the exact names and quotes.

VoIP is scary! The horror! The horror! This Covad movie titled The Ringing Movie is pretty scary (I included the Covad movie below set to autoplay). Just look at the eyeball in the screenshot to the left taken from Covad's website. On Covad's website the eyeball follows your cursor as horrific screams play in the background - the eyeball even winks and the eyeball protrudes closer. Hide your kids, this is scary stuff! The movie is a spoof of "The Ring" and the "Scream" movies where the phone ringing portends doom. Ok, I can't watch any good horror flick without some popcorn. Hold on, let me go make some popcorn to watch this. I'll be right back...

...

Ok, I'm back. This new Covad VoIP Business advertisement is pretty impressive and a great marketing ploy. It's right up there with those Vonage commercials if not better. It's a fairly long movie (3min 30s), so at first I wasn't sure if Covad planned to air this on TV or not - considering most commercials are either 30s or 60s. but according to Covad's website, the ad is playing in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Baltimore and Washington D.C. I contacted Covad and they told me that they have a shorter version for TV. TiVo users listen up - don't skip the commercial - it's actually a good commercial IMO. As to the content of the Covad commercial - well basically Covad is is using this unique ad campaign to launch their business grade VoIP product. Yep, the big news is Covad is going after the business market to replace your corporate PBX (though they can work alongside your corporate PBX as well and just do VoIP trunking). And although I included the movie here, go check out the Covad movie directly on their site for the full horror experience!

Now this is an intriguing use of SIP! TelTel, who claim to have the largest SIP-based Internet telephony user community, today announced the addition of media channels with its service. The new offerings will include both music and audio programming and already has 13 channels of audio in two different languages. This is the first step as TelTel plans to offer more content and services to its nearly 1 million users. My take is that this is essentially equivalent to iTunes Radio or Windows Media Player Radio... but using a SIP client instead. If you think about it, it's not that difficult to add media content to a SIP client. After all, SIP-based media servers serve "voice prompts" for IVRs that are streamed over RTP, so why not stream music? It's an idea that I actually pondered several weeks ago when I was playing around with XTen's SIP client. Another idea I had was the ability to stream a MP3 or other audio file to the person at the remote end of a SIP call and it will mix the audo with your phone conversation.

Check out the press release:

TelTel Offers New Media Channels Via SIP-based Internet Telephony

Offers 1 million user community unique application of SIP-enabled VoIP technology

TelTel, a provider of SIP-based global Internet telephony service with presence-enabled features, announced today the introduction of innovative media channel services. This new offering of music and audio programming takes TelTel's managed peer-to-peer Internet Telephony network to the next level. Now, its more than 1 million user community can take advantage of TelTel's service for more than voice calling.

These new media channels showcase the many capabilities of TelTel's standards-based SIP technology. They add a new experience to the already popular voice calling to and from anywhere on the planet to fellow TelTel users.

TelTel currently provides 13 channels of audio entertainment in two languages, and plans to expand the range of offerings in the near future. A TelTel user only needs to click on "My Channel" on the softphone and can immediately enjoy a wide variety of content.

"We are very excited to offer these media channels to our user community as an added feature to our instant voice services," said Sherman Tuan, CEO of TelTel. "The media channels give TelTel users more services to choose from and demonstrate our capabilities to provide a platform for a variety of SIP compliant services to the TelTel user community."

A media content provider can be a TelTel partner through its partner
program. Similarly, nearly any telecom service provider using SIP, including
the SIP termination and SIP origination service providers, also can become TelTel's partner through the same partner program. TelTel's user base now has more than one million users, making it the world's largest SIP-based Internet Telephony user community.

TelTel's media service is in beta. TelTel's service is available for download at www.teltel.com.

Cisco is warning about a DNS vulnerability which could affect Cisco IP phones, Cisco routers, and Cisco ATAs. Cisco issued a patch for a domain name system vulnerability that could put some of its routers and Voice Over IP products at risk for exploits.

According to National Infrastructure Security Coordination Centre, which reported the flaw, the vulnerability could leave some systems open to a Denial-of-Service attack after receiving a specially crafted DNS packet.

NISCC said the exploit targets hosts which use the DNS protocol to resolve names to IP addresses. It said an attacker could craft a DNS packet containing invalid information in the compressed section, which can result in an error in processing on the receiving host. This could cause the device to crash resulting in a denial-of-service.

Cisco said products that could be affected by the flaw are DNS clients, including its 7902/7905/7912 series of IP Phones, its Unity Express and ACNS devices, as well as its ATA (Analog Telephone Adaptor) 186/188 and its series 4400 content routers. In addition it's series 500 and 7300 content engines are at risk from this flaw.

I read in one article that because many vendors include support for this protocol in their products, it is likely they have already issued patches for the vulnerability. As a result, NISCC did not issue a severity rating on the flaw and urged companies to contact the vendors it listed as affected by the vulnerability.

Ok, so what about the hundreds of thousands of Cisco ATAs used by Vonage, Packet8, and other broadband users? These ATAs are typically locked by the VoIP service provider so users have no way of updating the firmware. Only the VoIP service provider can update the firmware. Thus, I sincerely hope Vonage and all the other VoIP players plan on downloading a patched version of the firmware to all of their customers ASAP.

With all the bad news surrounding e911 support within the VoIP industry, we don't need bad press from a major DOS attack on the hundreds of thousands of broadband VoIP users. Imagine if instead of a Vonage or Packet8 outage which occurs perhaps several months apart, we have all of the VoIP providers having an outage all on the same day! Of course, this vision may be a bit apocalyptic with little chance of happening, especially considering Cisco puts out a vulnerability warning every other week..

Still, I wonder now that I've warned about an "apocalyptic VoIP outage" how long it will be before Vonage or another ITSP puts out a press release saying "Vonage takes security and reliability for their customers very seriously and as such we are the proud to announce that we are the first to deploy a patched version of the Cisco firmware which addresses the Cisco DNS DOS vulnerability". Anytime media/PR has a chance to squeeze a lemon into lemonade they will certainly do it.

Courtesy of Russell Shaw, check out the Cisco DOS vulnerability from the horse's mouth:
Cisco Security Notice:Crafted DNS Packet Can Cause Denial Of Service

Are you addicted to email? Let me rephrase. R U addicted to email? True email addicts use shortcuts both in IM and email to reach maximum efficiency when typing emails. The faster you can type your emails, the faster you can receive more emails and the cycle repeats! I was emailed an interesting survey from AOL that talks about email addiction that I thought I'd share. Another sign of email addiction not listed in the email below is when your Blackberry fails and you wait exactly 22 seconds before calling your IT Department to check the Blackberry server. (Yes, Rich that was directed at you! )

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We have completed a nationwide survey of email behavior and found that people are beyond addicted -- they can't live without their 2.8 (average) email accounts and check their mail constantly.

Please see the national press release below. We also have an information resource and a little quiz to help users find out how addicted they are on www.AIM.com that will appear later this morning.

Please let me know if you would also like:

1.) A summary of the most relevant national findings organized by theme.
2.) Tips for how to get control that you are welcome to share.
3.) Highlights from the top ten "addicted" cities.
4.) Infographics on topline findings if you need artwork (Jpeg or EPS).

Please let me know if you have any questions.

P R E S S R E L E A S E

For Immediate Release

MIGHT AS WELL FACE IT... WE'RE ADDICTED TO E-MAIL

AOL Survey Reveals the Average E-mail User Checks E-mail Nearly Five Times a Day Morning, Noon and Night, Even While Driving

Miami, San Francisco and Philadelphia Top the List of Cities That Can't Live Without E-Mail

DULLES, VA - May 26, 2005 Are we a nation obsessed with e-mail? Do we check it first thing in the morning and all day long? Does it keep us up at night? Can we go more than three days without it? America Online, Inc., the world's leading interactive services company, today announced the results of its E-mail Addiction survey, which takes a look at the new behaviors and routines that have formed among millions of Americans for whom e-mail is an essential part everyday life.

The survey asked Americans about their e-mail habits, including everything from how often they check personal e-mail at work to whether or not they've ever checked e-mail while in church. The survey found that e-mail users today rely on e-mail as much as the phone for communication, spend about an hour a day on e-mail, and that 77% of e-mail users have more than one e-mail account all pointing to the fact that e-mail has forever changed the way we communicate.

America Online, in partnership with Opinion Research Corporation, conducted online surveys with 4,012 respondents 18 and older in the top 20 cities around the country to measure e-mail usage.

Signs that we're hooked on e-mail:

We wake up and check it. Forty one percent check e-mail first thing in the morning, 18% check it right after dinner, 14% say they check e-mail right when they get home from work, and 14% do so right before they go to bed.

We can't make it through the night. Forty percent of e-mail users have checked their e-mail in the middle of the night.

We can't live without it! More than one in four (26%) say they haven't gone more than two to three days without checking their e-mail.

We have multiple accounts. Most e-mail users have two or three e-mail accounts (56%). The average user has 2.8 accounts.

We check it anytime, anywhere. E-mail users have checked their e-mail in a variety of locations, including:

In bed in their pajamas (23%)
In class (12%)
In a business meeting (8%)
At a Wi-Fi hotspot, like Starbuck's or McDonald's (6%)
At the beach or pool (6%)
In the bathroom (4%)
While driving (4%)
In church (1%)

E-mail me, please... When meeting someone new, e-mail users are about as likely to give the other person their e-mail address (32%) as their home phone number (37%) or cell phone number (28%).

We check personal e-mail on the job
The survey found that 61% of e-mail users who are employed outside the home check their personal e-mail at work, with three times a day the average.

About half of those who check personal e-mail at work (47%) check it sporadically throughout the day, while about one in four (25%) check it first thing when they arrive, 18% check it at lunchtime, 8% during an afternoon break and 2% right before they head home.

Women are more likely than men to check their personal e-mail at work throughout the day (50% vs. 44%), while men are more likely than women to check their personal e-mail first thing when they arrive in the morning (28% vs. 21%).

Those who check personal e-mail at work are slightly more likely to say they do so to take care of personal errands (26%) rather than to correspond with friends and family (20%).

20% feel guilty about checking personal e-mail at work, and women are twice as likely as men to feel guilty about sending personal e-mails from the office (27% vs. 13%).

About one in ten of those who check personal e-mail at work (9%) have been busted by the boss for doing so.

And on vacation

Six in ten of all e-mail users (60%) check their e-mail while on vacation, mostly for pleasure (47%) rather than business (13%).

Of those who access e-mail while on vacation, 57% say it's very (21%) or somewhat important (36%) that they have access to e-mail.

Other findings from the survey:

Share it with loved ones. One in four e-mail users (26%) shares an e-mail address, with a spouse (21%), their children (7%), a friend (6%), a parent (3%) or a roommate (1%).

Take it back. E-mail users are most interested in being able to un-send a message which hasn't been read yet (45%) and a similar number are interested in being able to track where an e-mail has been forwarded (43%). Others are interested in the ability to put a lock on e-mail so it can't be forwarded (27%), a pop-up that asks the user to double-check who they are sending the e-mail to (27%) and un-sending a message which has already been read (14%).

Top 10 Cities Addicted to E-Mail

According to the survey, the top ten markets that can't live without their e-mail are:

1. Miami-Ft. Lauderdale
2. San Francisco
3. Philadelphia
4. New York
5. Houston
6. Washington, DC
7. Boston
8. Dallas-Ft. Worth
9. Chicago
10. Los Angeles

This index was based on several factors including: number of e-mail accounts; average times e-mail checked per day; average times personal e-mail checked at work; whether e-mail is checked on vacation for pleasure; average hours spent e-mailing per day; and percentage of those concerned they may be addicted to e-mail.

For more information and to see if you're addicted, please visit www.aim.com.

Survey Methodology
These results are based on online surveys conducted by Opinion Research Corporation with 200 residents per city in the top twenty cities nationwide; respondents were 18 years of age and older.

Quintum Technologies, Inc., a leading manufacturer of voice over IP solutions has introduced its Tenor Call Relay 60 Session Border Controller (SBC), which provides VoIP connectivity between enterprise networks or small service provider POPs, and the public network. The new Tenor Call Relay has doubled the capacity of its original Call Relay, and added several new features.

Call Relay 60 architecture has been enhanced. The base unit, which supports 16 simultaneous VoIP calls, can now be upgraded via software to support up to 60 simultaneous VoIP calls, double the capacity of the original Call Relay.

Tenor Call Relay supports both H.323 and SIP signaling protocols. In addition, it offers auto-codec negotiation and signaling translation between H.323 and SIP for transparent inter-networking, allowing it to be used as both a signaling gateway and a media gateway. Passing signaling through the Call Relay and streaming media directly between endpoints allows selection of optimal media paths. This eases deployments for both enterprises and service providers looking to expand their VoIP networks to home offices branch offices, customers, partners and across the public internet.

Also, now built into the Call Relay 60 is a local gatekeeper option to register and control H.323 IP endpoints. The gatekeeper routes calls within the local network, which maximizes efficiency. When calls are being sent to endpoints outside the local network, they are routed through the Call Relay to the WAN IP.

Call Relays support both NATAccess™ and Remote NAT for transparent and secure network deployment behind firewalls. Tenor Call Relay also supports Quintum’s PacketSaver™ technology, a multiplexing software with the ability to reduce the bandwidth required by multiple calls between Quintum Tenor Switches and Call Relays up to 57% of the incoming VoIP traffic stream. This is an optional software upgrade.

Tenor Call Relay comes with a simple configuration GUI for easy set up. It also provides a central point for VoIP call management, administration and security at the edge of the network.

“With the growing number of VoIP endpoint devices in the enterprise, the session controller capability at the edge of the enterprise network becomes more critical,” stated Chuck Rutledge, VP of Marketing at Quintum Technologies. “The Call Relay 60 provides the perfect session controller solution for the enterprise.”

The call relay 60 is generally available and pricing starts at $2000.

According to Skype CEO Niklas Zennström speaking at a VoIP tradeshow, Voice over IP (VoIP) will force traditional telephone companies to stop charging for voice calls by 2015.

Zennström said the fact telephony has evolved from a network to a software application "is a game changer". He cited the fact that since VoIP applications such as Skype have no customer acquisition costs and no real cost for calls, "we cannot charge for phone calls in the future," Zennström said. Thus, traditional carriers will have to change their business models. "If you fast forward ten years, all revenue will come from internet access and none from voice minutes or line rental."

Zennström also said he doesn't forsee the traditional carriers going away since they own the last mile copper. Yes, Mr. Zennström but just wait for high-speed wireless such as WiMAX! Then the death of the carriers' empire will be complete. BWWWWAHAHAHA!!!

PlayStation Portable is the most wanted gaming gadget in U.S. according to a Park Associates research report. You don't say? I could have told you that for free! Close to one-half (49%) of U.S. Internet users who plan to purchase a portable gaming device want a Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP), according to Parks Associates' Mobile Entertainment Platforms and Services, a new consumer study of more than 2,000 U.S. Internet users.

Given this level of interest, PSP is in a good position to challenge the other devices in the portable gaming domain, especially devices from Nintendo, the current market leader. Gameboy Advanced and Gameboy DS, both from Nintendo, scored only a combined 33% among U.S. Internet users with purchase plans for a portable gaming device. Nokia N-Gage lags far behind with only 4% of future planned purchases.

"Sony's aggressive marketing and smart positioning have paid off, with more than 1.3 million units sold in the U.S. in less than two months, with no signs of its sales tapering off," said Yuanzhe (Michael) Cai, senior analyst at Parks Associates. "Our research further shows that the PSP's sleek, sexy design and support for music and video playback bolster its already strong appeal among gamers older than 18."

Mobile Entertainment Platforms and Services, a new consumer study from Parks Associates, surveys more than 2,000 U.S. Internet users (including teenagers) regarding their ownership, usage, and interest in different mobile/portable entertainment platforms and services. For additional information about Mobile Entertainment Platforms and Services, visit http://www.parksassociates.com

Spirent Communications (NYSE: SPM; LSE: SPT) today announced it is partnering with Psytechnics, the global leader in voice and video quality assessment software, to offer carriers, service providers and equipment vendors the industry's first video quality assessment test system. This Spirent solution responds to the urgent need of determining video quality as well as a broad range of video distortion and degradation parameters under various network configurations and real-world load conditions.

"As Triple Plays gains momentum, the interest of service providers and carriers in testing and monitoring video is rising. If cable companies require the addition of voice to rollout their Triple Play offerings, traditional phone companies will need video," said Jessy Cavazos, program manager of the Communications Test Sector at Frost & Sullivan. "Customers refuse to compromise on voice quality, demanding at least the same level of quality from VoIP that they receive from their traditional phone systems. Similarly, they will demand at least the same level of video quality than the one they receive from cable technology."

High quality video services are a compelling business driver for the successful adoption of triple play services.  Carriers and cable providers are in the early phase of planning, validating and demystifying advanced video on-demand and IPTV technologies. Video quality assessment will be a critical component of the successful adoption of these services.  Ensuring satisfactory end user experience of these new services is a necessary ingredient of a successful service rollout.

"Assuming a rigorous testing regime of the IP infrastructure is sufficient for the proper delivery of high quality voice and video is a common mistake made by many," said Bahaa Moukadam, vice president - IP Telephony, Spirent Communications.  "Though necessary, infrastructure testing must be combined with direct media quality assessment in the lab and on the network. Psytechnics brings significant value to this relationship based upon its vast research and experience in media quality measurement. Spirent reviewed several technologies and we decided Psytechnics was the best choice for full reference video quality assessment."

Spirent has licensed the Psytechnics Video Agent (PVA), a full reference video quality measurement tool based on the ITU J.144 standard and part of the Psytechnics family of Assessment Modules. Spirent has integrated the PVA into its Abacus 5000 IP Telephony Test Migration System.

The test system works by sending reference video clips into the device or system under test.  Using a complex video quality assessment algorithm, the test system compares the received video clip from the output of the system under test to the reference clip and provides a MOS (Mean Opinion Score) video quality rating score on a scale of 1 to 5.  Additionally, the test system provides several video degradation metrics including Blockiness, Blurriness, Jerkiness, Frame Freeze Events, Frame Skip Events, Temporal Complexity and Spatial Complexity.  In addition to performing this testing in a lab environment, two or more test systems can be distributed at various points of the network to perform pre-production assessment of voice and video quality in a real network environment with various levels of real world traffic load.  This will help carriers diagnose problems in the network and get an accurate picture of what the network is capable of and where it may break down.

"Spirent is the proven market leader in testing, and together with Psytechnics' expertise in video quality assessment, this partnership brings a very powerful and unique solution to the market," said John Winchester, CEO of Psytechnics. "We are seeing dramatic growth in the roll-out of content-delivery programs over IP such as video on-demand over IP. It's critical to ensure video broadcasts are of high enough quality to win and retain customers. Psytechnics' technology is based on many years of research into voice quality tools and video quality is a natural extension to this experience. We look forward to building a strong relationship with Spirent and quickly rolling the solution out to many high-profile customers."

Skype aims to generate more business from its VoIP service by rewarding partners (affiliates) who agree to promote and sell it. Currently, Skype has around 39 million users and they claim it is increasing by more than 150,000 new users every day. Now, Skype is looking to bolster that number through their affiliate program.

Skype just announced their affiliate program that will give groups such as bloggers, Web retailers, and online communities commissions of up to 10% of the revenue they generate.. Skype has tested for the past two weeks and has already generated 1,800 affiliates including 192.com, aSmallWorld, Firstream, LunarStorm Sweden, LunarStorm United Kingdom, MyFamily.com, Passado, Spymac and SuperEva.. The affiliate program will be managed by Commission Junction, a leading provider of affiliate programs. Commission Junction will take care of tracking, reporting and paying affiliates.

“With such considerable benefits for all parties, the Skype affiliate program has incredible growth potential and is already developing at a
fantastic rate,” said Jonathan Forster, Commission Junction’s UK Country Manager. “Websites of all sizes are able to attract new clientele as well as sustain visitor loyalty by enhancing their customers' online experience with the Skype brand and value-added functionality.”

“We look forward to rewarding our most ardent online evangelizers by creating an avenue to increase profits from their websites,” said Skype CEO and co-founder Niklas Zennström. “A strong affiliate program not only opens up a revenue stream for Skype devotees, but also provides an interactive communications tool for website publishers to engage in dialogue with their audiences.”

Skype generates revenue from premium services such as their SkypeOut and SkypeIn services. Affiliates will receive a 10% commission based on the customers they bring into the Skype fold and which spend money on one or both of these Skype services. SkypeOut has around 1.4 million users, the company said. Figures for SkypeIn and voicemail were not immediately available.

Skype was launched by Niklas Zennstrom who also cofounded the popular Kazaa P2P file sharing program.