November 2005 Archives

I remember not so long ago when anyone who had TiVo couldn't wait to tell anyone who didn't have TiVo how great the system was -- watch TV when you want to, skip over commercials, record shows easily, blah, blah, blah.

Now TiVo's plans to partner with some the world's largest advertising agencies to offer TiVo users the ability to search for -- and watch -- commercials that they are interested in seeing seemingly turns the TiVo model on its head.  Granted, there must be some way to make people watch commercials.

This reminds me of the old days in Europe when there were certain TV channels that actually showed nothing but commercials.  I never understood why anyone would want to watch them, but given the state of today's TV programming, maybe the commercials are better than the shows?

With so many gadgets and electronics, this site wonders, "Are you exposed to computers, TV, mobile phone, microwave oven and other electronic appliances everyday? In today's lifestyle, you are exposed to man-made electromagnetic fields. The growing demands of ever-changing technologies and changes in social behavior have created more negative electromagnetic fields around you.Electromagnetic fields (EMF) above certain levels can trigger biological effects!"

The site goes onto explain that electromagnetic field sources have become the focus of health concerns and building mass hysteria by exclaiming, "Electromagnetic fields (EMF) is everywhere!" (nevermind the poor grammar).

But never fear, these crackpots have the EMF blocking solution for you!

'Chi' WaveGuard is a health-protector that contains 'chi' technology material. It is the result of a state-of-the-art bio-wave technology that was developed in Japan. Positive 'chi' energy released by 'Chi' WaveGuard neutralizes the negative effect of electromagnetic fields radiated from electronic appliances. 'Chi' WaveGuard will help to reduce stress, fatigue, headaches and emotional uneasiness caused from using electronic appliances.


Well, alrighty then. I best get my Chi in order and do some feng shui in my home while I'm at it. Maybe I'll light some spiritual incense candles, break out the Ouija board and ask the ectoplasma ghosts to protect me from EMF fields.

Sensis, known as "Australia's Google" launched a pay-per-call pilot on its search engine, sensis.com.au, powered by eStara's click to call technology. Users of sensis.com.au can initiate a phone conversation with advertisers with a simple click of the mouse. The partnership was announced at this week's Kelsey Group Interactive Local Media 2005 (ILM:05) conference. This follows the recent news last week on Google entering the click-to-call fray, though in this case I think it's true "VoIP" calling where as Google was a PSTN call between the advertiser and the customer. I know eStara does VoIP, but I know they also have infrastructure for PSTN dialing as well. I'll have to look into this further.

"Sensis is very excited to offer Australia's first 'Click to Call' solution, a leading edge technology," said Alex Parsons, Group Manager sensis.com.au. "We're committed to delivering innovative advertising solutions and encourage advertisers to participate in the trial to help grow their business, by driving direct phone leads from search results."

The service will be offered by Sensis at flat-rate pricing through the pilot. The company plans on migrating to auction-based pricing in 2006 and expects advertisers to pay a higher rate due to the increased value of phone leads in comparison to clicks to a website. Calls are free to the end-user.

Further expansion of the service will include deployment of call tracking numbers in addition to the click to call buttons. Built on eStara's VoIP (Voice over the Internet Protocol) platform, the service tracks inbound phone activity for toll-free numbers and provides real-time reporting and number provisioning.

Analysts predict pay per call advertising to become a $4 to $5 billion industry by 2009. "We're seeing rapid acceptance of pay per call in the local search market," said John Federman, CEO of eStara. "By providing this service to its advertisers, Sensis is showing that they are thought-leaders in the industry."
To measure customer satisfaction, Sensis is offering post-call surveys to end-users. eStara surveys of directory customers have found over 92 percent of click to call users said that they would be more likely to contact an advertiser that offers click to call over one that does not, and 95 percent of users said a click to call option made it more likely that they would visit again in the future.

Plus, nearly 90 percent of users said that click to call "greatly" or "significantly" enhanced their experience using online directories.


Update (4:57pm): (screenshot captured of the click to call search on Sensis).

simply search on "hosting" to see some click to search examples



And when you click you get this screen. It's a PSTN call not VoIP, but as I mentioned, eStara has the capability of doing VoIP and adding it as an option very easily. (also see the comment to this post)

TechDirt has an interesting post about how Cingular is testing a program where its customers can make unlimited calls to AT&T landlines for $6 a month. $6 bucks per month just to have unlimited calls to AT&T landlines? That's just crazy talk! If I were to pay for this program using say Vonage's VoIP unlimited plan, the overall phone bill for Cingular/AT&T would be 24% more than Vonage's unlimited plan. What lame brain marketing guy or financial analyst over at AT&T & Cingular (now simply AT&T) dreamed up this hairbrain scheme?

TechDirt hits the nail on the head when he says:

Rather than make a play for the $6 per month in additional revenues, they'd do better to simply make it free to call AT&T landlines, using the feature as a competitive differentiator, as well as a loyalty tool and an incentive for people to hang on to their AT&T fixed lines.

Anyone notice that if you are logged onto your Google Adsense account, Google Groups account, or Google Gmail account that the Google home page now includes a "Personalized Home" option, "My Account" option, and "Sign Out" option? And if you aren't logged in yet, the Google Home page gives you an option to sign on via a link in the upper-right hand corner. Here's a screenshot of the upper-right hand corner of my browser showing the new options available on Google.


When you go into My Account, I was hoping for some sort of "unified portal" depicting various statistics and information across all of my Google accounts (i.e. unread email, daily Adsense revenue, etc.), but alas, it's simply hyperlinks to the various Google offerings.

I wonder how long has Google's home page has had this feature. For all I know it's been there for weeks and I've just been too busy to notice. Anyone know?

Auvi Technologies, a designer and developer of digital entertainment hardware and emerging technologies, today announced its development strategy encompassing a complete line of Voice-over-IP (VoIP) and Skype-enabled products aimed at residential customers. The product image to the right is "coming soon" according to their website, with no additional feature specs, but it appears to me to be a cordless Skype phone product similar to the Linksys CIT200 I reviewed. Interesting how both the handset and the docking cradle have a keypad. I'd venture a guess that this must mean it has an embedded speakerphone.

According to Auvi, "Ranging from PC-controlled Skype accessories to standalone cordless speakerphones / entertainment hubs, Auvi offers retailers unique turnkey solutions in next generation communication hardware, as well as service. Furthermore, these products enable retailers to benefit from new growth and profit opportunities through existing VoIP partnerships. End-users receive innovatively designed, easy-to-use products with exceptional value."

"The VoIP sector is booming yet consumers are being led to believe that there are only a few choices available," said Santosh Patel, CEO and president of Auvi Technologies. "Our strategic direction is not to compete head-to-head against the service providers of the industry, but rather provide retailers with products that bridge the gap between VoIP and traditional communication hardware. Auvi’s line-up offers them new opportunities to grow this category and make VoIP available to the masses.”

"The consumer is the ultimate benefactor with VoIP and Skype. Auvi’s product roadmap gives the consumer more choice, more unique solutions and best of all, more value  to truly take advantage of this emerging technology," added Patel.

Auvi’s first VoIP and Skype-enabled products will launch in the U.S. and Canada at the end of November through select retail outlets. The complete line will be showcased at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall 4, Booth 35652, January 5-8, 2006.

Volvo Cars has developed a system to prevent drivers from falling asleep at the wheel. The system, called 'Driver Alert', gives an audio warning if the car appears to be losing control. A camera installed on the windscreen measures the distance between the car and the markings on the road surface, while the sensors register the car’s movements.

This is probably an exorbitantly priced extra option. Why not just roll down the window for some fresh blowing air and then blast some Journey, Metallica, Guns N' Roses or Barry Manilow? That's what I do to stay awake. Well, everything except the Barry Manilow.

And besides, aren't Volvos supposed to be like tanks with the best safety records? If you watch any of the Volvo commercials you'd get the impression that if you did fall asleep at the wheel that the vehicle would simply jump the curb, plow through a tree, through a rock wall, and both you and the car would emerge unscathed and unscratched. So sleep all you want to if you're driving a Volvo. You will be A-OK. Trust me...

Israel may not be blocking after all. My blog yesterday and Jeff's blog today at 12:13am about Israel blocking VoIP got the attention of Yair Hakak, regulatory economist with the Israel Ministry of Communciations.

Here are portions of the email I received at 1:45am last night. The good news is it appears there was some miscommunication by the Ministy of Communications - how ironic.

Hello,
I am Yair Hakak, regulatory economist with the Israel Ministry of Communciations. Here is a copy of a letter I sent Jeff Pulver about our VOIP regulatory policy. In short, a tempest in a teacup, and we are certainly not going to block or filter traffic in any way. Our orders to the ISP were about very specific piratical activities, and not in any way addressed to VoIP endusers.

Sincerely,
Yair Hakak
Economist and Budget division, Israel Ministry of Communications

Hi Jeff,
it ain't so.
ISP's were sent a letter requiring them not to sell high-speed data lines to pirate companies that terminate here on grey routes, either through bezeq or "tellulars" to the GSM network. no one was required to block voip, or filter traffic, or anything like that. I can reiterate that we are strongly committed to net freedom, that we consider it one of our most important regulatory roles to make sure that internet service providers and infrastructure providers do not filter traffic, interfere in any way with various uses, or attempt to monitor their customers use of the public internet. We also know such an attempt is doomed to failure, in addition to being morally indefensible.

There is no intention to block or filter any form of pc-to-pc voip, nor are we going to require packet sniffing against people in Israel with vonage boxes.

Additionally, there are currently more than 10,000 voip lines in Israel supplied by licensed providers under a market experiment scheme (including local numbers and officially sanctioned interconnect), and we are currently working on giving these licensed providers permanent licenses to allow them to develop further.

I hope i've cleared this up, it was a bureaucratic issue and not a policy one.

Yair Hakak

Hard to believe that Microsoft is selling its new Xbox 360 as a loss leader? 

Yes, that's right.  According to a report published on the NewsFactor Network(http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=39715), the total cost of the Xbox 360 that retails for $399 is $552.27; in other words, the cost of parts and manufacturing  means that Microsoft loses more than $150 on each box if sells (and this figure is even higher if we factor in the wholesale price that retailers actually pay for each unit).

Reminds me of the old joke about the clothing store that loses money on every suit it sells.  How do they stay in business? Volume.  (Rim shot special effect, please.)

Really, though, as volume increases, manufacturing costs decrease so there are profits on the horizon.  Plus, Microsoft receives royalties from game publishers to soften the impact.  Plus, they do have a sizable cash horde ...

Just received an email from the Mozilla Firefox PR folks to inform me that the final release of Mozilla Firefox 1.5 is now available for download from GetFirefox.com for most major operating systems or from the mirrors.Users of the release candidates should receive the update soon. I just hope they fixed the damn clipboard problem I've been having.

Firefox 1.5 introduces several new features, including an improved software update system, faster Back / Forward page navigation, a new options to clear private browsing data, drag-and-drop reordering of browser tabs, a redesigned Options/Preferences window and more robust popup blocking. Standards support is also improved, with support for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), JavaScript 1.6 and additional CSS properties. Accessibility is much improved (including new IBM Contributes DHTML Accessibility Code to Mozilla">DHTML accessibility features), security has been enhanced and Mac OS X support has also been improved.

More details can be found in the 1.5 Release Notes

Update: Some more info from Mozilla:

This next generation browser provides a better and safer user experience including significant performance and usability upgrades, security and privacy enhancements, support for Web standards, and greater customization options. With Firefox 1.5, Mozilla also begins a new search relationship with Yahoo! in China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Having strong relationships with leading search engines, such as Yahoo! and Google, is important to continuing innovation for Firefox. For more information, please visit: http://www.mozilla.com/press/mozilla-2005-11-29.html or Mitchell Baker's blog: http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/mitchell/archives/2005/11/

Cool new extensions available for Firefox 1.5

With the rollout of Firefox 1.5, Mozilla has streamlined it's extensions Web page and is showcasing new extensions:

Answers: https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=735
del.icio.us: https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=1532
Paypal: https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=1538
Weather Channel: https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=1035

Everybody knows the Apple iPod and Microsoft's Xbox 360 are in the in-demand products this holiday season, but are they the best products of the year?  (Or perhaps the worst products of the year?)

Well, we want to find out.  So, in the best end-of-year tradition, we are asking readers to submit a list of their best products of 2005.  At the same time, don't be bashful about submitting your list of worst products of the year -- but please let me know what category the product is being submitted for!  And don't be shy about telling me why the product earned top honors (or bottom honors). 

Will be interesting to see how the voting goes.  Look forward to hearing from you ...

According to Globes Online, Israel's regulatory agency (Ministry of Communications) is planning on ordering ISPs to block international calls carried over VoIP which terminates on the PSTN. P2P VoIP such as Skype-to-Skype calls are exempt from this ruling. According to Globes Online, the article states, "VoIP is taking revenue away from international calls carriers and is pushing down prices." Yup. Uh huh. You betcha! So, um what you're saying is VoIP is lowering prices for the consumer, so what's the problem? Also in the article it quotes Ministry of Communications director general Avi Balashnikov as saying "this activity (VoIP) seriously harmed licensed international calls carriers."

So I guess Israel, which boasts the pioneer of VoIP (namely the Israel-based VocalTec - now defunct - which created the VocalTec Internet Phone application) and who has some of the best high-tech companies in the world has turned from their strong technology roots in favor of regulation that favors old-tech incumbents?

And just how are the Israeli ISPs going to know if the call terminates on the PSTN? This is ridiculously unenforceable. VoIP is simply data travelling to an IP address. Unless the ISPs map every single IP address owned by the Internet Telephony Service Providers (ITSPs), there's no way they can block Israeli citizens from making international VoIP calls that terminate say on BroadVoice's network. Besides, someone will probably just setup anonymous proxy servers which will change the destination IP address - so good luck simply blocking the IP addresses of the major ITSPs! So when Israel figures out they can't block international VoIP calls, what's next? Arrest any citizen making international VoIP calls? Firing squad? Yes, I jest, but I would expect this kind of blocking crap from China not from Israel.

Surely, the democratic people of Israel will stand up to this blocking outrage without fear of retribution. What say you O' Israel?

With the ongoing nasty war between the Blue-Ray and HD-DVD camps, it looks like their is a new entrant entering the ring and joining the fight.

In the Blue-Ray corner we have Blue-Ray founders, Sony Corporation and Royal Philips Electronics along with corner-men 20th Century Fox, Apple,
Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Dell, Electronic Arts, MGM Studios, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, The Walt Disney Company, Vivendi Universal Games, and Warner Bros. Sony aims to make Blue-ray the standard of choice by including a Blue-ray disc drive in their forthcoming Playstation 3.

And entering into the HD-DVD corner we have founders Toshiba and Hitachi with corner-men Buena Vista Home Entertainment, New Line Cinema, NEC, Microsoft, Paramount Pictures, Sanyo, The Walt Disney Company, Universal Studios, and Warner Bros (in both corners).

And now entering the ring making this a battle royale of Andre the Giant WWE proportions, we have InPhase Technologies, a Lucent spinoff with a 300GB DVD standard that is able to read and write data at 10 times the speed of a normal DVD. It utilizes so-called Tapestry holographic memory technology to store data by interference of light. InPhase's corner-men include Hitachi and Maxell which will manufacture the discs.

InPhase body slams Sony's Blue-Ray technology before it even gets out of the gate. Ut oh, Microsoft, a HD-DVD proponent attacks InPhase from behind knocking InPhase to the ground. Microsoft applies a sleeper hold on InPhase. It looks like it's all over folks.

But wait! A huge crowd of consumers is chanting "We want large DVD storage! We want large DVD storage!" It's working! InPhase is "Hulking up". InPhase knocks Microsoft to the ground, and then throws them out of the ring. InPhase closelines Sony out of the ring and then picks up the rest of the battle royale stragglers and throws them over the top rope. InPhase is the last DVD standard standing. Well, at least I hope so!

I heard on WABC talk radio this morning that the FCC wants cable companies to offer TV channels "a la carte" to give consumers more choice. Considering how harsh I was on the FCC's e911 requirements this morning, I have to commend the FCC on this one. I planned on blogging my thoughts on the FCC helping to bring more choice to the consumer, but Rich Tehrani beat me to it. Go check out Rich's blog post on TV channel ala carte. I'll just say I'm sick and tired of paying $55/month for cable TV and getting less channels than satellite and paying for channels I could care less about. According to the radio show, the FCC order is "non-binding" - it's more of a suggestion to the cable companies and even if the FCC makes it binding, the cable companies will fight this tooth and nail.

I've been pricing out satellite solutions for the past few days to switch over. The only reason I've been stalling this long is that I also have cable broadband (at a ridiculously expensive $39.99/month for 3Mbps) and didn't want to have to switch to DSL. Pain in the butt to change both your broadband provider and your TV provider at the same time. But the time has come. Cable companies have been robbing me blind for years and I'm not going to take it any more! Satellite & DSL here I come!

I was notified by a VoIP affiliate program that they are no longer carrying Lingo within their VoIP affiliate portfolio due to e911 requirements by the FCC. Lingo does not currently conform to e911 requirements and therefore they are restricting their marketing efforts. As you probably were aware, the FCC order specifically prohibits marketing and acquiring new customers for any VoIP provider that is not e911 compliant. So does this mean the end for Lingo or any similar VoIP provider? Sure they could add e911, but that will take time and money. Considering cellular companies are not e911 compliant and they've had 10 years to work on the problem it is odd that the FCC is coming down so hard on VoIP.

Also, the FCC order is extremely vague as to what constitutes "marketing" or acquiring new customers. For instance, I still see Vonage commercials on TV and I don't think Vonage is completely e911-compliant in every region in the U.S. yet. But Vonage could argue their TV commercials are not designed to acquire new customers but rather it's a "brand awareness" campaign designed to show market leadership and to RETAIN existing customers. After all, a VoIP provider that spends millions on TV ads must have strong financials, right? (and please don't bring up the millions of dollars of marketing Genuity spent on their Black Rocket campaign and which is now defunct )

Point being, the FCC should not have a right to restrict VoIP companies from retaining their existing customers through brand awareness campaigns. Considering the FCC board members are appointed by a Republican Administration and Republicans are known for being pro-business, the FCC's stance on this issue is quite surprising. It also just seems un-American to prevent a business from keeping their existing customers. In fact, an argument could be made that the FCC order is stifling VoIP companies from freedom of expression and indeed freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment.

VoIP providers should be allowed to start their brand awareness through marketing regardless of the status of meeting the e911 requirements. They can simply turn away customers and not sign them up until they meet the FCC requirements or be fined by the FCC. And speaking of fines, what the heck are the fines for violating the FCC e911 order? Is it a flat-rate fine per violation? Is there an incremental increase for repeated offenses? What if a customer is in an area where e911 is served then moved to a rural area where their is no e911 - does the VoIP provider have to terminate the service or face a fine? How many offenses before the FCC removes your right to do business in the U.S.? The FCC has been very vague in this area which is leading to a lot of confusion in the industry. Besides the e911 requirement, the issue of "what is the punishment?" may be one reason why Lingo has decided to pull back on their marketing.

On a related note, Packet8 announced today that they are e911 compliant for all of their Packet8 subscribers and which was developed in partnership with Level 3.