May 2006 Archives

Everybody complains about the high cost of downloading music, but at least eMusic is doing something about it.

Now, 25 free downloads may not seem like a lot, but 25 is what you get during your free trial from eMusic. And you get to choose from more than 1 million songs; and the songs work on the iPod and with any other MP3 player.

After the free trial is over, individual songs are 25 cents or less (take that you 99 cent sites!).

eMusic -- where the music is free (at least for a few songs).

Download wisely!

 

One of my blog posts discussing Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) has a ton of comments, from users apparently running allegedly "pirated" copies of Windows XP. I say "allegedly" since I myself have encountered a situation where I lost a restore CD or had a PC that didn't come with a Windows XP CD - instead the CD image was loaded on a hidden partition which I promptly deleted to recover the disk space. With no disk image or CD to reload Windows (a common occurence), I then "borrowed" someone else's Windows XP CD and product key. Do I feel guilty about doing this? Not in the least, since I paid for my copy of Windows XP, therefore I don't consider this "piracy", though the law may say otherwise.

In case you weren't aware, Microsoft has been cracking down on people "sharing" their product keys with their family/friends or downloading a copy on P2P networks. Microsft's latest crack at stopping piracy was to institute WGA notifications, which effectively turned the Microsoft Windows XP operating system into nagware, by displaying "This copy of Windows is not genuine" warning. The Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications application checks your Microsoft Windows XP validity and if it deems it not validated, not genuine, counterfeit, unlicensed, pirated, illegal, unauthorised or simply failed the Windows Genuine Advantage validation process, then the notification nag messages will appear.

When you attempt to log on to a non-genuine copy of Windows XP, you'll see this notification error message "This copy of Windows is not genuine..." as seen here:



It also displays this nag message as a yellow balloon tool-tip in the lower-right-hand System Tray taskbar with the nag message, "This copy of Windows is not genuine. Click this balloon to resolve now."

This got me wondering exactly how much Microsoft would charge someone who wants to change their "counterfeit" copy of Windows XP to a legit "genuine" copy. So I went to Microsoft's Get Genuine website and found this:

Complimentary offer: Microsoft will make a complimentary copy of Windows XP available to customers who have been sold counterfeit Windows. Customers will be required to submit a proof of purchase, the counterfeit CD, and a counterfeit report with details of their purchase. Only high-quality counterfeit Windows will qualify for the complimentary offer.

Read the bold part. "Only high-qualtiy counterfeit Windows will qualify for a complimentary offer." So I guess my cheap-ass burned copy with a Sharpie pen markings on it labelling the product key doesn't count?

I guess this means if you want a "free" copy of Windows XP you'll need to find a high-quality bootleg copy of Windows XP including a forged hologram. I take it Microsoft only wants to offer a "free" copy to those that were "accidentally" taken by counterfeiters. I wonder if NYC has high-quality boot-leg copies or if only the Asian market has the high-quality bootleg CDs?

In any event, if you can't figure out how to bypass the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) nag screen, or if you are simply feeling guilty for not giving Bill Gates his money, you can be "genuine" by sending Microsft $99 for Windows XP Home Edition or $149 for Windows XP Professional - no questions asked, as seen by this offer:

Electronic License Key Offer: Microsoft will offer an alternative for customers who find out via the WGA validation process that they are not running genuine Windows, but do not qualify for, or choose not to take advantage of, the complimentary offer. These customers will be able to license a Windows Genuine Advantage Kit for Windows XP online for a price of $99 for Windows XP Home edition or $149 for Windows XP Professional. The Windows Genuine Advantage Kit for Windows XP will include a new 25-character Product Key and a Windows Product Key Update tool that will allow customers to convert their counterfeit copy to genuine Windows XP electronically.

I wonder if Microsoft's stock will shoot up next quarter as a result of this "nagware"? If you are a legit or even non-legit Windows XP user and have a horror story to tell regarding Microsoft's licensing, feel free to post a comment.

When you've got as much money in the bank as Microsoft, anything is possible, but I've got to stop and think about today's rumor of Microsoft buying eBay.

On one hand, what does this mean; on the other hand, why not?

Is this a covert move by Microsoft to get its hands on Skype?

TMC has been at the forefront of customer relationship management (CRM) for over 30 years. TMC started Telemarketing Magazine (now Customer Interaction Solutions), the very first magazine focused on call centers and CRM. In 1996, TMC launched CTI Magazine which focused on the convergence of computers and the telephone. CTI Magazine was the precursor to the ultimate convergence of voice and data, which resulted in TMC launching Internet Telephony Magazine in late 1997. Internet Telephony Magazine was the first magazine focused exclusively on VoIP and the convergence of voice, data, as well as CRM and business processes. TMC has always strived to educate the market on improving business efficiencies and customer satisfaction though the use of technology - whether it was the ACD of the 1980's to CTI in the 1990's to VoIP in the 21st century - TMC has been the leading source of information on customer-facing technologies.

There are obvious synergies and business processes that can be optimized when you can integrate your phone system with your contact management database and other business data and ride over the same IP network. With TMC's 30-year focus on customer-facing technologies, it stands to reason why TMC has always been at the forefront of technologies that enable companies to better market themselves, achieve business efficiencies, and improve customer satisfaction. It also explains why TMC stands for Technology Marketing Corporation. Indeed, Nadji Tehrani (photo to right), the founder of TMC, and well-known pioneer within the call center industry chose the name well when he started the company in 1972.

Now, TMC has become one of the leading educational websites utilizing webinars to educate the industry on various technologies to achieve optimal business efficiencies. One interesting webinar coming up is on business benchmarks: How Reseller CEOs Should Collect, Monitor and Interpret Performance Data to Make Better Decisions

Here's an abbreviated snippet of the webinar description:

Are you comfortable with the knowledge you have about your reseller business? You’d be the rare leader if you had an accurate and complete handle on all sales, finance, cash flow, profitability, service and resource utilization issues. But to succeed as an IP solutions provider, these are precisely the measurements you need—in easy-to-read and interpret spreadsheets that track your business performance on your PC monitor.

If you effectively track your business data, you’ll uncover root causes of inefficiencies which may include process, people, management, systems, or a combination.

Attend this session to understand the interrelationships and impact of such data as attach rates and profitability, line of credit, cash flow, debt to equity and other finance metrics; the month-to-month cash flow changes for cash in checking, A/R balance, and credit line availability; total sales revenue, service % of sales revenue and other sales metrics; net income, return on sales %, gross margin % and other profitability metrics.

If you interested in the webinar, it's free to register and attend.

Canon is the latest company to say goodbye to its traditiional film camera business.

Seems there's no reason to invest in analog, when digital photography is all the rage; the company does say it will still support its existing film camera line.

Anybody remember the name of the first "old line" camera company to throw in the towel and stake its future all in digital?

Microsoft is planning to make an announcement for their Unified Communications platform on June 26th. At the Nob Hill Masonic Center in San Francisco, media will be invited to hear Microsft unveil their "strategy for placing people at the center of communications."

Microsoft executives Jeff Raikes, President, Microsoft Business Division, Anoop Gupta, Corporate Vice President, Unified Communications Group, and Gurdeep Singh Pall, Corporate Vice President, RTC Product Group will all be part of this unveiling. Does this unveiling mean that the Microsoft Live beta will no longer be "beta"? Of course I know that this announcement pertains to the convergence of business computing and business communications, so that falls more under the lap of Microsoft's Windows Live Meeting 2005. So perhaps we can expect Windows Live Meeting 2006? That's my guess along with some other new features. Wish I could attend to find out more, but alas, I am too far away over on the Right Coast - in more ways than one

Interesting IP-PBX stats within Infonetics's Enterprise Telephony report that shows IP-PBXs continued growth even with a generally slower 1st quarter. They also list the current IP-PBX market leaders (Cisco is listed as #1). This report doesn't list this, but I'd be curious the stats for "hosted IP-PBXs" that use SIP trunking with no customer premise IP-PBX equipment. My bet is that market is growing as well.

Overall PBX/KTS revenue down 2%, IP PBX up 1% in 1Q06

Despite a seasonally down quarter for the overall enterprise telephony market, the slow and steady move from circuit switching technology to packet switching technology remains evident, with worldwide TDM system revenue falling 11% and IP PBX revenue inching up 1% between 4Q05 and 1Q06, says Infonetics Research in its latest Enterprise Telephony report.

Combined, worldwide TDM and IP PBX systems revenue dipped 2% to $2.1 billion in 1Q06, but is 15% higher than a year ago. Annual revenue is forecast to grow to $11.4 billion in 2009, driven by strong IP PBX sales worldwide as more organizations move to voice over IP. Between 2005 and 2009, IP PBX revenue is forecast to jump 82% while TDM revenue plunges 88%.

"The overall enterprise telephony market was not immune to the first quarter blues, but the IP PBX category managed to eek out a small quarterly gain" said Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst at Infonetics Research. "We recently talked with 450 companies in North America about their voice infrastructure plans, and the results clearly indicate a steady move to VoIP, which will put this market on a nice steady growth trajectory over the next few years."
 
1Q06 Highlights
   -  In EMEA, the top IP PBX system line shipment vendors are Alcatel, Siemens, and Nortel
   -  The top IP PBX system vendors in North America are Cisco, Avaya, and Nortel in a very close race: Cisco was just in 3rd position the previous quarter, and the difference in 1Q06 market share from 1st to 3rd is less than 2 points
   -  Cisco leads the IP phone market, with 39% unit market share; the next closest competitors are 3Com and NEC, who are tied for 2nd
   -  Hybrid PBXs account for 63% of PBX line shipments; by 2009, they will account for 78%, up from 61% in 2005
   -  45% of PBX/KTS systems revenue comes from EMEA, 30% from North America, 19% from Asia Pacific, and 7% from CALA

Infonetics' report tracks IP deskphones, IP softphones, TDM PBX/KTS systems, and hybrid and pure IP PBX systems and IP PBX shipments by system size (2-40, 40-100, 101-400, 401-1K, and 1K+ lines) 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, Zultys, and others.

RuneScape Boards is one of the fastest growing forums/communities for RuneScape members and players.

Check it out at http://www.rsboards.com.

Interested to hear about other forums and why you like/don't like them ...

In my previous post, I said "Looks like we can set the speculation to rest, Spirit DSP's technology is going to be embedded into Universal Scientific's desktop Skype IP-phone and not into Skype's software". However, I started to think about this some more and wondered if indeed my speculation about Skype software licensing Spirit DSP's software should be put to rest.

I left a message for the Skype PR representative last week and didn't receive a call back, which is a bit unusual. I emailed Spirit DSP today asking for a photo of this phone and asked if this was the news they alluded to at VON Europe. Their response was to state that they were still under NDA (non-disclosure agreement) with Skype. Still under NDA even with the Skype phone announcment? So there is still a possibility that Skype will add support for Spirit DSP within their software.

If I may speculate for a moment here. I do know that SkypeСasts was marketed as allowing groups of up to 100 people to talk, but many Skypers have complained about the voice quality in large groups. I know Spirit DSP claims to be better suited than their competitors to handle large groups with good sound quality. Whether this is true or not I can't say since I haven't done any comparative benchmark testing. But assuming for a second that Spirit DSP does handle large conference groups better, then perhaps Skype is working on a "deal" with Spirit DSP to license their software to be used for SkypeCasts.

What I do know is that Spirit DSP is still using the term "NDA" even after this Universal Scientific desktop Skype IP-phone was launched. So something is 'cookin' between Spirit DSP and Skype. What exactly that is, is anybody's guess. Could simply be another standalone Skype phone embedding Spirit DSP technology or it could be that the Skype software itself will use Spirit DSP in the near future.

Guess we'll all have to wait to see what the deal is, but I will report here as soon as I find out anything.

Looks like we can set the speculation to rest, Spirit DSP's technology is going to be embedded into Universal Scientific's desktop Skype IP-phone and not into Skype's software. Skype recently showcased a new P2P desktop IP-phone designed by Universal Scientific Industrial Co., Ltd. (USI). This Skype-protocol-based VoIP desktop phone uses the VeriCall framework from Trinity Convergence and SPIRIT vocoders running on the Intel PXA270 processor. Trinity and SPIRIT have also recently signed a revenue-sharing sublicensing agreement, allowing Trinity to re-sell SPIRIT vocoders.

The desktop P2P IP-phone from Universal Scientific is a standalone Skype phone that doesn't require a connection to a PC. The phone supports Skype to Skype calling, SkypeOut (to call landline and mobile phones); SkypeIn (to receive calls from landline and mobile phones); and Skype Voicemail. The phone boasts a large color LCD screen for presence and contacts management.

As a family of four, we all have our favorite gadgets that we seem to always have with us.

Here's what the family had with them for Memorial Day (parade included):

• Dad -- Cell phone (Treo 650)
• Mom -- Cell phone (Samsung)
• Daughter -- Cell phone (LG) and iPod mini
• Son -- PlayStation Portable (PSP)

What did you have?

And can anyone guess what that image is?

 A couple of days ago I wrote about free Wi-Fi access in New York's Central Park -- it's coming; it's not here yet.

Photo above is a much better shot of what the park looks like, thanks to www.nycvisit.com.

(This does get you in the mood for a holiday weekend, doesn't it?)

 

Remember when getting a wrist watch was a big deal -- and an indispensible gadget?

Well, those days may be gone as teens (and others) use cell phones and PDAs more and more to check on the time of day. Would the coolness factor bring watches back into play? What do you think?

Fark.com's tech page shows a story link to my 3-week old post on T-Mobile banning VoIP and IM. While I'm flattered to be on Fark.com's website, which I myself visit from time-to-time, why link to a three-week old story? Sheesh. C'mon, step it up. News cycles move fast around here. How bout linking to my in-dept Plantronics headset review or some of my Vonage IPO posts? Just kidding. Fark.com is a good site which relies on user submitted links, similar to Digg.com.

Actually, the T-Mobile banning VoIP and IM is a story worth linking to even 3 weeks later. It hasn't gotten nearly the amount of press & attention it deserves.

According to the CTIA, the Wireless Association President and CEO Steve Largent congratulated the U.S. Treasury Department today for its decision to abandon its legal dispute over the federal excise tax (FET) on long-distance telephone service. The 108 year old FET was instituted in 1898 to finance the Spanish-American War, and adds 3% to the monthly bill of every wireless user in America. Today, there are more than 214 million estimated wireless subscribers in the nation.

Don't get too excited though - your next phone bill may not have the federal excise tax, but it will still have plenty of other taxes.