January 2006 Archives

Rich Tehrani has a very interesting inteview with Andrew Sviridenko of Spirit DSP, where Andrew positions Spirit DSP as a more robust solution than Global IP Sound (GIPS) due to Spirit DSP's better multipoint conferencing support and scalability. The GIPS codec/voice engine is used in Skype, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, and a few other VoIP softphones. Interestingly, Andrew mentions speaking with Microsoft, so if Spirit DSP were to be embedded in a future release of Windows Live Messenger, that would be a huge win for Spirit DSP.

And speaking of Windows Live Messenger, Microsoft's bloggers have been covering the beta of this software and "leaking" some of the really cool features in Windows Live Messenger, including a really neat feature that lets you share your music playlist over the Internet. In fact, one of the Microsoft bloggers, Leah, has an interesting birthday wish:

"For my birthday, I wanted a way to play music on my computer and then invite my buddies to listen with me on his/her computer.

How awesome would it be if both of us in a conversation could share one playlist, to which we could add or remove tracks, skip to the next song, or reshuffle? It’d be like we are at the same dance party, except we could actually dance because no one would be there to make fun of
us!...Unless we add webcam of course "

Global IP Sound or GIPS is their only competitor as of today and others will emerge according to Andrew... "Possibly Microsoft," he says. They are speaking with Microsoft about using Spirit's technology. According to Andrew, Global IP sound positioned themselves as a company developing a voice engine and he feels that GIPS is focused on softphone vendors and voice over IM vendors.

"Their deployment with Skype made GIPS popular," he says. He doesn't think GIPS has a strong future as they don't have the resources to move into voice in a full-blown way. He continues saying that Spirit has been preparing for the past few years knowing that multipoint conferencing is the future. They see that global players are moving in this direction as well.

Forget singers (Ashley Simpson) faking their singing in concerts by lip-synching their tunes, this release just emailed to me talks about a band using the video features of the iPod to fake the entire performance (voice & video) of a particular band-member that can't make it to the concert. If I read this release correctly, they display the video of the drummer, guitarist, keyboardist or bass player on the Jumbotron. Only thing I don't get is that the iPod has a 320x240 resolution. I would think that'd look pretty crappy on the Jumbotron. Actually, on Apple's website, they say that the iPod Video can support MPEG4 file formats up to 480x480 at 30 frames per second, so maybe it would look OK.

Still, you'd probably only get away with faking a band member's performance with a bunch of stoned Deadheads, but I'm thinking most concert goers would notice a missing band member, especially if its the lead singer. As if rockers don't already have the impression of being "slackers" now they're going to start using an iPod to transmit one of their past performances?

In any event, check out the release below. It's pretty amusing, in particular this line: Will the iPod ultimately replace Midstates' errant members? "Probably not," says Heintz. "But, it's much easier to stretch out in the van with the iPod on board." I'm sure this is mostly a marketing plot to build some awareness for the band, and I certainly bit hook-line-and-sinker by blogging this.

Apple's Video iPod Joins Chicago Band, Midstates

New Device Becomes Band's Stand-in Drummer, Keyboard Player and Guitarist

Chicago rock band Midstates recently welcomed Apple's new iPod as the group's sixth member while on tour this last November. The hot new device played drums, keyboards and guitars and even made sure audiences could visually experience the unique skills of the group's drummer. This is probably the first instance of an iPod being used to recreate not only an audio performance, but also a visual performance.

Midstates, touring in support of their upcoming release Boxing Twilight, recently found themselves in a bind - how to tour with popular combo, Wheatus, for three weeks without three-fifths of their members?

With the tour falling around the holidays and three members unable to carve out enough time from other obligations, Midstates' Paul Heintz and Steve Munoz needed a solution and needed it fast. To further the dilemma, drummer Angel Ledezma's highly-charged live performances are always a crowd pleaser and the group felt his absence would detract from the shows. Enter the new Apple iPod with video capability, which had just hit the shelves just before the band was scheduled to hit the road.

"I bought the new iPod right when it came out to keep me entertained on the road. Then I found out that Angel, Sasha and Dahlman couldn't make it," explains Heintz. "We spent a lot of time working up to this record and live show. Touring with Wheatus was a great opportunity. I hated to see it lost."

Then one day, while considering various solutions, the light bulb popped on.

"Why not record Sasha and Dahlman's parts and then videotape Angel playing his drums." Heintz says. "We can mix it all down and project Angel behind us."

Using a digital video camera and their studio, Spectra Kakarot, the band put together a video of Angel playing drums in time with the rest of the band. Using Videora, a free converter application, the band converted the video and music to iPod compatible backing tracks. They ran the iPod through the board and a video projector and played along with the tracks and Angel's video all while controlling the order and volume of the tracks from the stage.

Will the iPod ultimately replace Midstates' errant members? "Probably not," says Heintz. "But, it's much easier to stretch out in the van with the iPod on board."

According to Yahoo/Reuters, Apple is developing the oft-rumored iPod mobile phone with a recent trademark of the phrase "Mobile Me". Hey, if they are going to marry an MP3 player with a mobile phone, they may as well marry VoIP too, right? I wonder if Apple's Mobile Me will run Skype? That'd be cool.

And speaking of marrying, just came across a CNet article saying two people got married using VoIP and two webcams. CNet article states: "They met through the Internet. Sutrisno proposed that way, and they finally exchanged wedding vows in a ceremony using voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology"

Anyway, check out the Apple Mobile Me news from Yahoo/Reuters:

Apple Computer Inc. has filed to trademark the phrase "Mobile Me" for use in a wide range of businesses, furthering speculation it could introduce an iPod phone.

"We believe this is further indication of (Apple's) strategic direction to extend its iPod + iTunes and Mac franchises into new business areas including smart phones, value-added mobile content services, and the broader consumer electronics space," American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu wrote in a note on Thursday.

Apple made the filing with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on January 5.

There has long been speculation that Apple would ultimately introduce an iPod that also works as a smart phone, extending its brand and functions as more content becomes digital and mobile. In addition to music, one model of the iPod also now plays videos and purchased content such as TV shows.

The areas that the trademark covers include computing devices, mobile devices, and mobile services including digital music, video, games, e-mail, and messaging across Internet, intranets, extranets, television, cellular, and satellite networks, the filing shows.

An Apple spokesman declined to comment.

This week, at Apple's annual Macworld show in San Francisco, Chief Executive Steve Jobs announced the MacBook Pro, which will replace the PowerBook line of its high-end notebook PCs, and a new iMac all-in-one computer.

The two machines are the first that use Intel Corp.'s (Nasdaq:INTC - news) Core Duo microprocessors. Apple said in June it would move to Intel chips from the PowerPC chips it had used for years, made by International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM - news) and Freescale Semiconductor Inc. (NYSE:FSL - news)

There has also been speculation that Apple would, along with an iPod phone, resell cellular phone service provided by a cell service provider, becoming what's known as a mobile virtual network operator, or MVNO.

"We believe this would be a successful strategy, given the type of content and markets Apple has had success in," Wu wrote, referring to mobile music, video and the youth market.

Kodak, Canon and now Nikon have decided that producing conventional film cameras just doesn't make sense in this age of digital imaging -- just seems a bit sad when one of the great names in photography (often the gold standard for professionals and amateurs alike) makes a move like this. Of course, Nikon digital cameras share a similar status.

Of course it's all about economics, so with film camera bodies accounted for less than 5% of Nikon sales, it couldn't have been a hard decision. Nikon will also stop making lenses for those film camera bodies, too. (I'm sure a third party manufacturer will step into this breach -- still a big universe of film cameras out there.)

No doubt that eBay will see a continued interest in Nikon film cameras for both those looking to buy and sell ...

Remember when airplanes had telephones in seat backs rather than LCD TVs? Expensive to use ($6 a minute seems to ring a bell), they were used sparingly (very sparingly) by most travelers. The ones still in existence are operated by Verizon.

Now the FCC is planning to auction off (everybody loves an auction!) the airwaves reserved for phones embedded in airplane seats -- May 10 looks to be the starting date.

The upside? Multi-faceted it seems to me. More money for cash-strapped airlines, cheaper phone service for travelers and broadband Internet access during flights.

Another benefit? With the greater freedom to make calls during flights, we no longer will see everyone on the plane whip out their cell phones when the flight attendant gives the "all clear."

The downside? You guessed it -- more chatter and another place where you can't be left alone.

Today Vonage, along with three other companies, was recognized by Avaya with the new Avaya Intelligent Communications Innovation Award "for their innovative approaches to weave communications into the fabric of their business". Maybe it's just me, but Avaya and Vonage seems like strange bedfellows. Just wait till Vonage finally targets the SMB market and competes with an Avaya IP-PBX, then we'll see if Avaya gives Vonage any future Innovation awards.

Actually, you can get Vonage lines with a business VoIP account using a few standard ATAs, but you still don't get advanced PBX functionality such as 3-digit extension-to-extension dialing and transfers. Although, I suppose an Avaya IP-PBX could use Vonage for the IP-trunking, so maybe they're not competitive after all. Anyway, here's the news they sent me.

Avaya Inaugurates Innovation Award for Companies Using Intelligent Communications to Improving Business Processes

--Vonage; the Wynn Las Vegas Resort; Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP; and The Visiting Nurse Service of New York First Recipients

Companies use voice and other business communications applications to increase customer service and satisfaction and gain competitive edge

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:Thursday, January 12, 2006

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. - Rapid technology changes, increasing customer demands and the need to provide 24/7 customer service are driving companies to re-examine the way they do business. Four companies, Vonage; the Wynn Las Vegas Resort; Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP; and the Visiting Nurse Service of New York,have been recognized by Avaya (NYSE: AV), a leading global provider of business communications applications, systems and services, with the new Avaya Intelligent Communications Innovation Award for their innovative approaches to weave communications into the fabric of their business.

The awards were presented November 30, 2005 at a special forum entitled, Innovation is Everybody's Business,in New York City, hosted by Lou D'Ambrosio, senior vice president and president, global sales and marketing, and Avaya's "chief innovator," Ravi Sethi, President of Avaya Labs.

Intelligent Communications seamlessly connects communications applications and business applications, giving workers, customers and processes the ability to be linked to the right person, at the right time, by the right medium - voice, text and video - over any network.This right-time, right-choice communications gives businesses and workers increased agility through greater speed, responsiveness to customers and control over communications.

Avaya, the global market leader in IP telephony according to Synergy Research[1] and itself an innovator with Intelligent Communications, used the awards to highlight what's possible with IP Telephony for business and their customers.IP Telephony or VoIP can help a business improve customer's experience, increase business continuity and security, provide greater mobility for workers and enable better business performance.

"Innovation is particularly important for businesses now because performing well means managing operations to respond to the instant-gratification, multi-channel, distributed world where competition is a click away," said Lou D'Ambrosio, senior vice president and president, Global Sales and Marketing,."Companies must effectively use every means of communication with customers and make their increasingly mobile workers connected and empowered, everywhere they go. The company that does the best job of building a loyal customer base wins."

The four award winners and their innovations include:

Vonage

Vonage is a pioneer in the broadband phone industry, setting the standard for pricing, features, call quality and reliability for the entire VoIP category.Its former contact-center system was challenged by increasing call volume.In March, it replaced that system with an Avaya Contact Center Solution.All of its agents now use Avaya IP Agent SoftPhone to handle its daily call volume.Like its customers, Vonage is an early technology adopter, using Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to make it easier to add and move agents, relocate its headquarters and make seamless handoffs between New Jersey and its growing contact center in Canada.
"Customer service is paramount to Vonage.Vonage's alliance with Avaya helps the company be more responsive to our customers' needs and embodies the company's commitment to utilize innovative technologies to improve customer service," stated Dan Bemis, senior vice president of Customer Operations for Vonage America.
Avaya DeveloperConnection member, Witness Systems, also provided workforce management software to help strategically manage and forecast staffing needs.The award was presented to Dan Bemis, senior vice president, Customer Operations, Vonage.

The Wynn Las Vegas Resort

When Wynn Las Vegas Resort and Country Club opened last April, the 60-story property set a new benchmark for customer service and convenience with an Internet Protocol (IP) telephony solution from Avaya and Avaya's strategic alliance partner Extreme Networks.The fully integrated voice and data network solution enables Wynn Las Vegas to provide a host of communications capabilities, from centralized guest service functions to in-room communications, throughout the hotel and its more than 2,700 guest rooms.

In addition to providing high-speed Internet access in guest rooms, the hotel uses 4,000 color Avaya IP screen phones throughout the hotel, guest rooms and its customer service facilities to deliver a variety of services.The new IP phones are rich with information about the hotel's services such as guest services, room occupancy status and event information right on the guest room phones and enable the guests to seamlessly access the hotel staff. The resort staff also uses Avaya Extension-to-Cellular, enabling the user's cellular phone to ring simultaneously when their office extension is dialed, for fewer missed calls and prompt guest service.

Avaya Unified Communication Center software provides the resort's highly mobile professional hospitality staff with speech access to their unified voice and email box enabling workers to use simple speech commands to manage messages by phone and perform communication functions such as conferencing, directory access and calendar management, for more efficient responses to guest requirements.

The award was presented to J.P. Ayache, telecommunications manager, Wynn Las Vegas Resort.

Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP

Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP, based in Washington, D.C., is a national law firm with more than 425 lawyers in six cities. The firm is known for solving challenging business problems and resolving unique legal issues for many of the nation's largest companies, including Ford, The Home Depot, First Data and Westinghouse.

Sutherland serves clients across the nation and internationally, and understands the importance of technology as an integral part of their services. In addition to the standard modes of communication, we recently installed state-of-the-art voice and video-conferencing in all of our offices to further enhance communication abilities.

In December, 2004, the firm replaced its existing system in Washington with an Avaya IP system, including IP soft phones and Avaya Extension to Cellular.Client calls now connect with the lawyers whether they are on the road or at the courthouse.Additionally, they can monitor incoming voicemails on their PDAs. This has greatly increased their productivity and client responsiveness and centralized management ensures accurate client billing.IP Telephony also provides Sutherland with cost-effective business continuity by allowing the firm to locate survivable servers in multiple cities.

The award was presented to two Sutherland innovators, David McLean, director, Technology Services, and Dan Boling, Network/Telecommunications Manager.

The Visiting Nurse Service of New York.

The Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNS) is the largest not-for-profit home-healthcare agency in the nation and for the past century has been an integral part of keeping New York on its feet. VNS delivers the entire range of healthcare services throughout all five boroughs and Nassau and Westchester counties.Its 9,000-plus care workers see more than 26,000 patients a day. VNS is a critical responder in times of crisis, and its workers must be able to communicate with the people they serve at all times. VNS cannot afford to miss a call.

After a network assessment performed by Avaya Global Services, implementation began in 2003, with completion in February 2004.The organization now has almost 3,000 IP endpoints across 10 locations.In the contact center, about 300 agents take calls, all on IP, supported by the Avaya Call Management System.VNS's road warriors use Avaya Unified Messaging to stay in constant contact and minimize phone tag.

By moving to Avaya, VNS has improved agent productivity, increased responsiveness to incoming callers, and allowed for greater internal collaboration. VNS is saving more than $250,000 a year in communications costs.

The award was presented to Randy Cleghorne, director, IT Planning and Management, the Visiting Nurse Services of New York.

Is 2006 the year for IPTV? Certainly seems that way with all the releases I've been getting in email lately, including this one below, which lists broadband data and 400 IPTV channels. 400 channels? 400 CHANNELS!?!?! Sheesh! I only have about 120 TV channels at home. When is someone going to come to my town and offer me 400 TV channels? C'mon, hook me up - I know some IPTV service provider is reading this! I'll review the IPTV experience and give ya some great publicity.

Just kidding. I can't be bought - not even for 400 free TV channels. Well, then again if they offer me Al-Jazeera TV - the most respected news TV journalism program in the world - for free then I can be bribed. NOT! (that was sarcasm in case you missed it.)

OPTICAL ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK ANNOUNCES IPTV CARRIAGE AGREEMENT WITH STARZ ENTERTAINMENT GROUP

One of 400 IPTV channels to be Deployed on OEN's FISIONFTTH service in Houston, Texas

Houston, TX- January 12, 2006 - Optical Entertainment Network (OEN) announced today that it has signed a number of IPTV carriage agreements with Starz Entertainment Group LLC (Starz).As a result of the new deal, all 13 Starz and Encore channels will be offered to subscribers along with Starz HDTV and Starz On Demand as part of OEN's premium service offerings.

OEN's FISION service will provide digital IP Video, Internet and Voice service to 1.6 million households in Houston, Texas, the 10th largest television market in the U.S., over an existing fiber network covering the majority of the city.FISION will provide fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service, which presents unparalleled programming offerings to residential subscribers in Houston, Texas.STARZ is the latest addition to the most complete line-up of IPTV channels in the US, which also includes the largest number of SD and HD TV channels in a system that is made fully available for license in other metropolitan areas.

The company has created the first integrated service for Video, Internet, Voice, Video-On-Demand (VOD) and Home Security designed specifically to take advantage of the benefits of FTTH technology.OEN has acquired programming agreements for IPTV distribution from top television networks and will deliver 400 television channels, including over 50 channels of High Definition Television (HDTV) to subscribers.In addition, OEN will offer 10 to 100 Mbps Internet service to subscribers' homes, video-on-demand, subscription video-on-demand, pay-per-view specials and events as well as original programming created by OEN Studios, the creative television production arm of Optical Entertainment Network.

"Our Starz IPTV license is very important to us and we see it as a strong vote of confidence in our fiber-to-the home platform from a leading network," said Thomas Wendt, CEO of OEN."The wide variety of commercial-free films shown on the thirteen Starz and Encore channels - with everything from Elf on Starz to The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King on Encore - will give our subscribers the very best that Hollywood has to offer. Better yet, Starz on Demand will give our subscribers to Starz instant, on-demand access to more than 100 movies per month at no extra charge."

"With blockbuster movies such as National Treasure and The Aviator exclusively on Starz and Starz On Demand this year, OEN will be equipped to provide terrific programming to movie lovers in Houston," added Christine Carrier, division vice president for Starz Entertainment Group. "We look forward to working with OEN to provide their customers the great movies, all uncut and commercial-free."

I've written about pixel ads a few times, including the famous MillionDollarHomePage pixel ad site and I wrote about the interesting SmashMyViper.com pixel ad site. Nowadays, they're certainly a dime-a-dozen. Still, that doesn't stop people from trying to repeat the success of the MillionDollarHomePage which sold its last 1000 pixels on eBay for $38,100. In fact, I was emailed by PixelPPC's owner the following new pixel ad concept - a pay-per-click pixel ad. Well, can't fault the guy for trying, right?

Introducing... PixelPPC - Pay per click pixel advertising.

Finally, the all the rage of pixel ads combined with the proven performance of pay per click advertising.

The image size is 1000 pixels, 40x25. Along with your image, you can include up to 250 characters to be displayed when a user puts the mouse over your ad. You will also choose a category. Yes, these ads are targeted!

Publishers, visit PixelPPC now and add our pixel ad banner to your website or blog. All you have to do is copy/paste our simple javascript code that is automatically generated for you. This could be a great way to add extra revenue to your site; you make a percentage for each click you generate!

All ads are displayed in our "Pixel Ad Banner." The banner can run either horizontally or vertically and can be between 4 and 20 ads, so it will fit nicely into any site design.

With prices starting at only 2 cents per click, why not try this inexpensive new advertising method?

Pac-West today announced a partnership with Verisign to deliver converged communications services, that combines IP/data, VoIP, and wireless. I've written about Verisign in the past with regards to VoIP. In fact, Verisign is a huge proponent of ENUM, as am I. Looks like they're going to support e911 as well.

Check out the news...

VeriSign Database and Signaling Services Combined With Pac-West IP and PSTN Expertise to Create Turnkey Convergence Offering for VoIP

Pac-West Telecomm, Inc. (Nasdaq: PACW - News), a leading provider of traditional and next-generation voice communications services, today announced a strategic alliance with VeriSign, Inc. to provide services that enable communications providers to offer converged IP, voice and data communications.

By bundling VeriSign signaling and database services with Pac-West's network, the companies can offer the infrastructure elements needed to interconnect IP-based and traditional public switched telephone networks (PSTN).

VeriSign will supply Pac-West with back office and database services including Calling Party Name (CNAM), Local Number Portability (LNP), SS7 and provisioning services. Pac-West will contribute voice and data network services such as trunking, switching and IP transport.

The result will be a VoIP service bureau that features LNP, E911, directory listings, customer ordering and service interfaces with near real- time notifications combined with IP and PSTN bearer and signaling networks for near real-time service activation.

"Working with Pac-West allows us to speed the introduction of VoIP and next-generation services," said Bill Wolfe, senior vice president, VeriSign Communications Services. "Combining VeriSign's experience operating mission- critical database and signaling services with Pac-West's services creates reliable solutions that providers can use to compete in today's rapidly changing communications market."

"VeriSign is the ideal partner to enhance our national expansion plans and strategy of being a single source for converged solutions that VoIP, wireless, broadband and other service providers are starting to offer," said Hank Carabelli, Pac-West president and CEO. "VeriSign's intelligent infrastructure services greatly expand the functionality and scalability of our traditional and IP-enabling services, allowing both companies to drive adoption of next- generation applications."

It's been a little more than week since Intel launched a new branding campaign to replace the famous and very effective "Intel Inside" campaign that positioned a lowly computer chip as one of the key items consumers should think about when buying a computer.

Yes, it's been a week and I still can't get used to the new "Intel. Leap Ahead" company tagline.  Just doesn't have that succinct message of the "Intel Inside" tagline.The "Leap Ahead" makes me think of anything but technology, which makes sense (I guess) since Intel is moving into the living room with its new Viiv concept -- and the living room is where you live with technology transparently (hopefully), rather than dealing with technology like we have come to learn from so many computer glitches and headaches over the years. (Hey, they are not all Intel's fault, and I'm certainly not blaming them.)

"Intel. Leap Ahead."

Does this get anybody warm and fuzzy over the company's image?

Anybody got any better ideas?

TMC's Internet Telephony Conference & Expo is in just a couple of weeks and I am anticipating this being the best VoIP show ever with over 200% growth from last year. I'm actually speaking at this show - well technically moderating a session, but I'll probably provide some of my own insights for the "Managing Your Network for High-Quality Voice" session.

TMC has many firsts to its name, including launching the first VoIP magazine and launching the first contact center magazine. Well, TMC now has another "first" to add to its repertoire, namely a mashup of Google Maps with TMC's Internet Telephony Conference & Expo attendees! There are attendees from all over the country attending this VoIP conference. In fact, this map doesn't do ITEXPO justice since we have a huge international audience attending ITEXPO but it was more difficult to figure out latitude/longitude information for our international attendees. Maybe for the next show we'll do a global Earth mashup.

Rich has the scoop on this TMC "first" - a meeting of Web 2.0 and VoIP 2.0, which includes a link to the "live" real-time mashup. In fact, Rich was quoted as saying, "“It is my belief that just as web applications are becoming more interconnected, VoIP 2.0 applications too will be more interconnected with one another as well as tightly coupled with Web 2.0 applications."

I should mention that due to the thousands of attendees, our webmaster had to put a timer delay when doing a live mashup with Google Maps, so you may have to wait for all the push-pins to display. I guess that's not necessarily a bad thing.

It looks like Google Video is using geolocation to determine what county you live in and then displaying this message: "We're sorry, but this video is not available in your country." if you are in a "disallowed" country. The reason? Well, many non-U.S. countries are 6 months behind on U.S.-based TV episodes, if not longer. In Hollywood, syndication means money, not to mention the European TV advertisers won't be happy if Europeans can download a U.S. TV episode before it even airs for a first-run on European TV stations. My guess is that Google Video is working with the TV content providers in determining the date each country is airs specific episodes and then changing the status from "disallowed" to "allowed" to download when the date expires.

This type of geolocation (geographical filtering) is evil incarnate! In fact, I wrote about this in my blog post titled Geolocation data - Good for Internet or Satan incarnate? What ever happened to Google's Do No Evil motto?

I was one of the first to write about the NETGEAR Skype phone, a PC-less Skype phone and I'm almost positive I was the first to acquire an image and post it online. I love the Engadget site and often submit some of my interesting stories to them. I know they picked up at least one of them, namely my Linksys CIT200 Skype phone review.

Anyway, I decided to submit my NETGEAR Skype phone blog post to Engadget and a few other sites, which included my exclusive photo of the NETGEAR Skype phone. But before doing so, I altered the image slightly so I could track to see if anyone used my image and didn't reference my website. Basically, I opened Photoshop, trimmed the whitespace around the original image and added a small red line to the middle of the NETGEAR phone in the black background. Small enough for the average person not to notice, but big enough for me to quickly notice it if anyone "borrowed" my exclusive image.

Well, Engadget took the bait. They posted my image with the red marker and wrote about the NETGEAR Skype phone at 6:50pm on Jan 4th (mine was hours earlier at 2:57pm) and didn't give me credit for the "hat tip". (screenshot of top of the post - notice red marker)


They even kept the same exact filename (with mixed-case) I used (NETGEAR-Skype-phone.JPG) and the same 250x476 resolution. I actually resized the original 2559x3000 image down to my blog's specifications. I almost always resize images to 250pixels wide so I can have the image to the right with enough room for text to wrap on the left. Anyway, here's the original image and original filename (Skype phone_20Dec05 002.jpg) emailed to me by NETGEAR for comparison. It's almost 1MB, so as to not make my home page take forever to load, I resized the original to a thumbnail. Click the image for the full 1MB image, which you will notice doesn't have my Photoshopped red line.


But, I can't hate Engadget - they're still one of my favorite sites with some really great reviews & news. Besides, awhile ago, I was testing a "news" portal and included some of Engadget's content (citing them of course) until I was asked to remove their content, which of course I did. So I guess we're even!

Video search -- just what we needed!

Not too surprising to find the big players in search (Google, Yahoo!) now looking at video; makes sense with all of the video and visual programming and files we now have crammed into our computers, mobile phones, handhelds (and the list goes on).

AOL doesn't want to be left out of the party, so it's recent purchase of Truveo, which now makes AOL a leader in video and search services (apparently). Seems this will help AOLers shift through its recently launched video service, which offers thousands of hours of old television shows for free.  Ads, like in the good old days of B&W TV, will foot the bill.

Fans of classic programs as Welcome Back Kotter, Babylon 5, Lois & Clark, La Femme Nikita and Growing Pains rejoice!

As if we don't have enough time to play poker (or watch all kinds of poker on TV -- even the Travel Channel!), now I hear how Harrah's (one of the oldest, not glitzy-est) gambling companies will offer the "World Series of Poker" on mobile phones.

Through the agreement with Glu Mobile, mobile phoners will not be able to bet or gamble, but will have access to special ringtones, wallpaper and other goodies. Any bets that betting will soon be coming -- can't see how such as friendly state as Nevada won't soon allow it.

Next we'll have to have multi-screen phones like the ones on the Nintendo DS or adapt picture-in-picture TV tech for the phone to keep up with all the stuff that we'll be able to watch on it; right?