February 2006 Archives

In days of old (actually not that long ago), everybody who had TiVO loved to tell anybody who didn’t have TiVO how great the system was – record TV show, watch them when you want (and skip the commercials!). Ah, those were the days ...

Now, as TiVO faces increasing competition on simultaneous front – cable TV companies, satellite TV companies and consumer electronics manufacturers with their own digital video recorder offerings – TiVO is contemplating the ultimate four-letter word in CE (and any other market, too): free.

Yes, in another version of the “give away the razor, sell the blades,” TiVO is considering pricing options that would include free set-top boxes (with the trade-off being long plans or some such catch.

Will existing customers (some 4 million) get a break?

Never a dull moment ….

At today's special Apple Event, Apple made several product announcements that can finally silence the "hype" that has been surrounding this news event for the past several days. As I predicted, Apple did not launch an Apple iPod VoIP device. They did however announce a few products including two updated models of their Mac mini.

From TAUW:
1.5GHz Intel Core Single
1.5GHz Intel Core Solo processor
2MB L2 Cache
667MHz Frontside Bus
512MB memory (667MHz DDR2 SDRAM)
60GB Serial ATA hard drive
Combo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
Price: Starts at $599.00

1.67 GHz Intel Core Dual
1.66GHz Intel Core Duo processor
2MB L2 Cache
667MHz Frontside Bus
512MB memory (667MHz DDR2 SDRAM)
80GB Serial ATA hard drive
Double-layer SuperDrive (DVD R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Price: Starts at $799.00

They also announced a new leather sleeve for the iPod, which no doubt will cause many third-party accessory manufacturers to cry foul. Note the "official" iPod logo.

Finally, they launched the iPod Hi-Fi, a battery powered (D batteries) or A/C adaptor speaker system with built-in iPod dock. It also has an Aux port in the back that will work with the iPod shuffle or any device with a standard audio plug.

Excuse me while I yawn. None of these products are "innovative". Many third party manufacturers have already been selling similar products, including the iPod Hi-Fi. And where's the iPod WiFi people were predicting? Part of me was kinda rooting for an iPod VoIP device, even though I knew it wouldn't happen. Oh well.

I noticed Engadget was down, so I then checked other Weblogs blogs, including Ted Wallingford's VoIP Weblog and it too was having an outage. I then check BBHub, Russell Shaw's BlackBerry blog, and it too was down. Wow, I've NEVER seen Engadget or any Weblogs site down. Could be a major outage. Time of this post: 1:10pm.

Update: it's now 1:27pm and all Weblogs blogs are back online. I'll shoot off an email to my contacts and see what happened. Boy, last week it was the Wordpress hosting site, and now this week Weblogs, Inc.?

The NEUTON Cordless Electric Mower is an environmentally friendly mower that is also half as loud as their gas-guzzling brethren.You can do yourself and the environment a big favor by swapping your gasoline-powered, fume-spewing lawn mower for the NEUTON Cordless Electric Mower.

Here are some excerpts from their news release...

Not to be confused with electric mowers that run off an extension cord, the NEUTON Cordless Electric Mower is a lightweight, battery-powered lawn mower with the unique added capability of trimming and edging. It will run for about one hour on a single charge and springs to life, quietly, with the simple push of a button, relegating the back straining pull-cord and associated noises to a distant memory. The simple-to-use drop in battery pack can be recharged with less than 10 cents worth of electricity.

The NEUTON Mower is also the quietest mower available - emitting fewer than 80 decibels while under full power, about half as loud as a 90 decibel gasoline-powered mower. [NOTE: the decibel scale is non-linear – a 10 dB increase is perceived by the ear as double].

Weighing only 48 pounds the NEUTON Mower is ideal for people with quarter-acre or smaller lawns who don't want the headache, backache, hassle or noise associated with gasoline-powered mowers. There are virtually zero carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon and nitrogen oxide emissions – all of which are major sources of pollution resulting from the use of traditional gasoline engines.

It retails for $359.

p.s. I'd be tempted to buy one of these to "make up for" my environmentally unfriendly 8.0 liter, 450HP, 10-cylinder, gas chugging 2001 Dodge Viper, but alas my lawn is too big for an electric mower. Well, at least I only drive the Viper about 3000 miles per year, so that's gotta count for something.

Red Herring is creating their own little "herring" by speculating that Apple plans on launching an Apple iPod with VoIP capabilities. Red Herring writes:

When Apple talks, people listen-and chat among themselves—and the computer company’s announcement about products to be unveiled Tuesday had watchers speculating about a VoIP-enabled iPod. <snip...> Talk of Wi-Fi on personal media devices like iPods has generated speculation that the company might roll out VoIP-enabled media players.

My reply? I don't think so. Not yet anyway. VoIP is still a little immature to start making MP3 players that also double as a VoIP phone.. Sure, the iPod started with music, and then they added video with the video iPod, but a VoIP iPod?

Let me put this in perspective. Even with hundreds of hotspots around the country, even WiFi VoIP phones aren't exactly taking off. It's more hype than reality. There are three problems with WiFi phones. One, they are very "niche" - "one trick ponies" if you will - that only techies and VoIP fans will shell out the $100 to $200 to pay for them. Second, it's another device to carry. Third, many hotspots have a Web authentication page in order to obtain access to the hotspot's Internet connectivity. Since WiFi phones don't have a Web browser, often times they cannot get a connection. The standards are a bit immature to make sure WiFi phones can obtain access without a Web browser.

So with these three problems with VoIP and hotspots, why would Apple add VoIP functionality to an iPod? Even though I am a huge fan of VoIP, the market just isn't ready for a VoIP-enabled iPod. Further, why would Apple incur more costs to embed VoIP into their iPods? They have to add more memory to hold the SIP stack (assuming they go with SIP), they have to beef up the processor to handle the encoding and decoding of the voice packets. The Apple iPod (Third Generation/Fourth Revision) features dual 90 MHz ARM 7TDMI processors (PortalPlayer PP5002 system on a chip), which is not nearly powerful enough to handle realtime encoding and decoding of voice packets. Unless Apple drops this processor in favor of a more powerful processor, VoIP on the iPod just ain't gonna happen. And if Apple uses a more powerful processor, they will compromise battery life. Who wants an iPod that will drain the batteries in 30 minutes if you make a 30 minute VoIP call?

This is way too much feature-creep if you ask me. Microsoft is known for feature-creep, not Apple. Apple is known for their laser like focus on creating innovative and useful products, not just throwing every feature and see what sticks.

Since Apple is now "friends" with Intel, it is "possible" Apple could switch to say a 624 MHz Intel PXA270 processor used in some Windows Mobile 5.0 phones. But if Apple is going to go with a speedy Intel processor with plenty of horsepower, why not just make a full-fledged Apple iPod iTunes Mobile Phone and compete with Microsoft? Course, they'd have to come up with a whole new mobile operating system and compete against both Palm and Microsoft. Hey, maybe that's what they will announce in a few hours, who knows? It is more likely that Apple is announcing some wireless connectivity in today's announcement and not VoIP. First wireless, then maybe 1-2 years down the road, VoIP. Baby steps... Baby steps... Red Herring mentions WiFi, but it's more likely it'll be Bluetooth if you ask me. WiFi is too much of a battery hog.

Getting back to WiFi phones, to me dual-mode phones are much more interesting since they are multi-functional and not one-trick ponies like their WiFi phone counterparts. Perhaps Apple will be announcing a dual-mode phone with iTunes? But a VoIP iPod? - I don't think so. If it does happen, the media will all clamor and say how smart Apple was for being a true innovator and being the first to develop a VoIP-capable music player. But after all the hype dies down, we'll see just how many VoIP iPods Apple sells. In my opinion, not many.

iLoad-c is able to wirelessly deliver music directly to the iPod Nano using your carrier's network and music store.

The folks at Wingspan claim to be the Evangelists of the “shortest distance between two points” theory. Today Wingspan revealed a video demonstration of its iLoad-c, a gadget that utilizes the music stores
proliferating on cell phone networks, to download music directly to the Apple iPod Nano, without using a computer.

iLoad-c clamps onto a Nano and then connects to your cell carrier’s music store to download the music directly to the Nano.

Wingspan will provide the device that is initially compatible with the Verizon, Sprint/Nextel, Cingular and T-Mobile networks and will shortly begin discussions with Apple and others to enable the WiFi capability within the device.

iLoad-c is planned for release by mid-Summer at a retail price of $199

Wingspan’s other announced devices include iLoad, a device that copies CDs to the iPod without using a computer and iLoad-v, a device that connects to a cable or satellite TV boxes and records video and music onto the iPod without using a computer.

Watch the video on www.iLoad.com

Just wanted to share some recent IP-PBX vs. traditional TDM PBX market share numbers from Infonetics that came out today. Infonetics tracked Cisco and determined they were the market leader with 42% unit market share in 2005. I wonder if Infonetics also tracks Asterisk? Although, Asterisk is a bit tough to track since users can download and install the open-source PBX for free, which makes tracking a bit harder. Fonality, is a popular pseudo-hosted Asterisk IP-PBX that is gaining traction. I have a box in my labs and plan on writing a review for Internet Telephony Magazine before the end of the week. Anyway, check out the market share numbers:

Worldwide IP PBX Revenue Up 23%, TDM Systems Down 15% in 2005

The enterprise telephony market continues its steady transition from circuit switching technology to packet switching technology, with worldwide TDM system revenue falling 15% and IP PBX revenue rising 23% between 2004 to 2005, according to Infonetics Research's latest Enterprise Telephony report.

Together, worldwide TDM and IP PBX systems revenue totaled $8.1 billion in 2005, a 12% increase over 2004, and will grow 43% between 2005 and 2009, when it will reach $11.6 billion as organizations continue to move to VoIP. In that five-year span, IP PBX revenue is forecast to jump up 82% while TDM revenue will plunge 88%.

For the quarter, PBX/KTS revenue totaled $2.2 billion in 4Q05, up 1% over 3Q05, and 10% higher than a year ago. TDM system revenue was down 6% in 4Q05, and IP PBX revenue nudged 3% higher than last quarter.

"The PBX market came in at our expectations in 2005, and from a global perspective is doing very well," said Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst at Infonetics Research. "Worldwide revenue growth accelerated in 2005, although it's mostly coming from EMEA, Asia Pacific, and CALA. North America lost revenue share in 2005 as things slowed down here, showing just 4% revenue growth for the year."

More Highlights
- In the overall PBX/KTS systems market, Nortel, Avaya, Siemens, Alcatel, and NEC (in that order) lead in worldwide 2005 line shipments
- Nortel leads the North American IP PBX market in line shipments for 2005, followed by Avaya and Cisco, but it's a very close race among all three
- Alcatel leads the IP PBX market in EMEA in 4Q05 and for the year, followed by Siemens
- Cisco dominates the market for IP phones with 42% unit market share in 2005
- Hybrid PBXs accounted for 65% of 2005 PBX/KTS revenue, TDM 23%, and pure IP 12%; hybrids and pure IP will continue to increase through 2009 at the expense of TDM
- 44% of 2005 PBX/KTS systems revenue came from EMEA, 32% from North America, 19% Asia Pacific, and 5% CALA

Infonetics' report tracks IP deskphones, IP softphones, TDM PBX/KTS systems, and hybrid and pure IP PBX systems in North America, EMEA, Asia Pacific, CALA, and worldwide. Companies tracked include 3Com, Aastra, Alcatel, Avaya, Cisco, Ericsson, Inter-Tel, Mitel, NEC, Nortel, Polycom, ShoreTel, Siemens, snom, Sphere, Swyx, Toshiba, Vertical Communications, Zultys, and others.

Hey, you wanna talk to Penelope Cruz, Matthew McConaughey, Brooke Shields, or some other celebs? Well, according to the Share Skype blog, you can now. You actually have to outbid others for the privilege on eBay and it's for a charitable cause. Now, I know why eBay spent $4 billion on Skype! Heck if ABC's "Dancing with Stars" is a runaway TV ratings success, just imagine imagine if the average American can talk to their favorite celebrity. I'm partial to Harrison Ford myself. If I were single, I might be game for talking to a female celebrity.

Unfortunately, the list of celebs is limited, but sitll worth going to the skype-a-celeb auction on eBay. Make your bids quicky, it ends March 3rd.

If you're into extreme sports (and who isn't -- from the active to the armchair), then you don't want to miss your chance to vote in the 6th Annual Xtremey Awards. (It's sort of like the Academy Awards, but without all of the gowns and other trappings.)

Just take a look at these categories in which you can cast your vote:

• Best Freestyle MX
• Best Freestyle Sportbike
• Best 50' Freestyle
• Best Competition Documentary
• Best Broadcast Competition
• Best Off-Road Truck
• Best Quad/Sand
• Best Rock Crawling
• Best Snowmobile

We've got Travis, Metzger and a whole bunch of others takin' it to the max. 

My favorite -- FMX Riot 2005 -- another awesome Paul Taublieb DVD! It's got my vote in the Best Competition Documentary category.

www.xtremey.net

VoIPCentral has an excellent interview with Aswath Rao, who not only has decades of telecom experience, Aswath is also a well known VoIP blogger like myself. Aswath talks about his journey from India to New Jersey, thoughts on ENUM, and the future direction of VoIP. Check out the interview.

The iPod is certainly a lot of fun, but not when the battery dies (come think of it, what product is?). However, battery replacement for the iPod has a shrouded-in-mystery feeling when you have to send or take it somewhere special to have the battery replaced.

Now, Newer Technology has solved that problem with its super-duper, handy-dandy, ultra-awesome NuPower High-Capacity iPod Replacement Battery. Oh, by the way, the NuPower actually increases capacity as compared to the original Apple battery; the iPod mini, for example, gets a 50% boost.

Although they recommend that a qualified service install the battery (and help to find one is available at www.newertech.com), they do include two screwdrivers with the battery for the DIY set. The MacSales.com web site has a follow-the-bouncing ball, step-by-step QuickTime instruction video (http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ipod/battery/install-service/#1428).

Retail price: $24.95 (for the iPod mini). Batteries for other iPods from $14.95 to $29.95.

Microsoft Outlook 2003 is my primary email client in the office.I've used Outlook for over 12 years, heck before it was even called Microsoft Outlook. I don't even remember its original name. Was it Windows Messenging? I think the server portion was Microsoft Mail (MS Mail?). In any event, here's my pet-peeve with Outlook - it periodically crashes and all my open emails I was working on are now closed when I go back into Outlook.

Now I should put a disclaimer on stating Outlook crashes periodically. Outlook is actually pretty stable and doesn't crash on me very often. I'm not even sure if Outlook is to blame since as you can imagine I load more software on my PC than the average person. In fact, I suspect Yahoo! Desktop Search, which indexes my email is to blame. It's a real processor hog. But even so, why is it that Outlook can't remember which emails I had open when I reload the application?

I get tons of email, so it's impossible to remember which emails I was working on. At any given time I have 5-10 email windows open with the intention of eventually replying, or using the information in the email for a blog or some other purpose. It's essentially my daily "To Do" list. Though these emails can stay open for several days until I complete them. If I have to reboot, I simply mark the messages as Unread, then reboot and re-open them.

I should mention that since I receive so much email I gave up organizing my Inbox. It's just too time-consuming to organize each email when I can simply use Yahoo Desktop Search to find an email. Thus almost all of my email stays in my Inbox which is currently 10,156 items. Thus, when Outlook crashes, trying to find which emails I had open is pretty difficult without going back and re-reading weeks worth of emails. Even sorting by date, sometimes I have emails open from weeks or months ago with information I am working on.

Why is that if the Firefox browser crashes and I have the SessionSaver plugin installed, it remembers all my open tabs (websites) and re-opens them the nexttime I launch Firefox? Same with Avante Browser. Even Windows will remember which Windows Explorer windows you had open when you reboot. In my opinion Outlook should have a "remember open emails" feature as well when it crashes.

Whomever develops it I'll gladly pay them $200 for it.


P.S. If I never responded to your rmail, perhaps, just perhaps your email was closed due to an Outlook crash and I forgot to re-open it. So I'm probably not ignoring you!

Check out Rich's Top 8 things to do if Blackberry gets shut down. Hilarious! - especially the last one in the list (#1). By the way, what's the matter with you Rich - you couldn't come up with 2 more and make it an even Top 10?

It's a trifecta for David Pogue, who writes the weekly "Circuits" technology e-newsletter  and a column for The New York Times! (Every Thursday).

This week's column, "How to Survive a Tech Support Call" is a funny (pathetic, but funny) column about dealing with tech support (in this case specifically Dell).

The two previous columns -- "Where Hard Drives Go When They Die" and "The Fight Against Hard-to-Open Packaging" -- are also brilliant, but in different ways.  The first is a look at a company that salvages data off of dead computer drives (with some celebrity clients -- Keith Richards to Gerald Ford), while the second looks a thorny problem we all come to face when dealing with gadgets -- the plastic packaging that entombs them can be next to impossible to open.

His column is always worth a look and a read.

Attention Apple iTunes shoppers!

The 1 billionth legally downloaded song from the site, ”Speed of Sound” (purchased as part of Coldplay’s X&Y album), fell into the basket of Alex Ostrovsky from West Bloomfield, Michigan!

As the grand prize winner, he will receive a 20-inch iMac, 10 fifth-generation iPods and a $10,000 gift card good for any item on the iTunes Music Store. In addition, Apple will establish a scholarship to the world-renowned Juilliard School in his name.

How sweet it is!