Tom Keating : VoIP & Gadgets Blog
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March 2007

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Belkin In-Desk USB Hubs and iPod Dock for Grommet Holes

March 30, 2007


Belkin has introduced innovating "in desk USB hubs" that are designed to slip into those grommet holes on most desks that are typically used to snake your monitor VGA cable, network wire, and mouse and keyboard cables. The lien of products includes two USB hubs (including a 4-port model) and the Belkin In-Desk dock for iPod. By adding a USB hub or iPod docking station into the grommet hole, you certainly reduce clutter and maximize your desk workspace area. To me this product seems to be for the truly anally retentive organized folks that have desks so well organized and clean with no clutter they make The Pottery Barn look like a pigsty in comparison.

Apple iPhone has launch date

March 30, 2007

Skype 3.2 Beta for Windows with Send Money

March 28, 2007

Skype 3.2 Beta for Windows has just been made available for download at http://www.skype.com/go/windows-beta. Skype 3.2 Beta for Windows now has the new "Send Money" via Paypal feature. Sweet! The list of new features include:

Importing contacts from more sources – Users can now import their contacts from web based email applications such as MSN Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo! Mail. This makes it even easier for users to find and contact their friends using Skype, as well as enabling users to "Share Skype” with those friends not yet using Skype.
Video Snapshot – Video-calling in Skype recently emerged from Beta and we’re enhancing the Skype video experience even further by allowing users to instantly capture photos of themselves.


Blog Redesign

March 28, 2007

Doing a blog redesign was long overdue. I liked the Kubrick theme which was originally designed for Wordpress and which I ported it over to Movable Type, but I didn't the narrow main body content. This limited the size of images I could place within articles. So I decided to make my blog much wider, from 820 pixels to 998 pixels, which should perfectly fit a web browser at full screen (maximized) without having horizontal scroll-bars at the bottom.

Sipera Viper Lab Identifies SIP Vulnerabilities That Threaten VoIP

March 27, 2007

After two years in stealth mode, reviewing, cataloging and analyzing VoIP and SIP vulnerabilities, Sipera VIPER Lab (cool name by the way, since I drive a Viper myself - photo to right ) today released at CTIA several threat advisories for WiFi/dual mode telephones from vendors including RIM, HTC, Samsung, Dell and D-Link. Sipera VIPER Lab also released information about a number of SIP vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities can disable phones calling features, disconnect calls, and freeze phones, causing significant enterprise communications disruptions.

According to Sipera, they proactively identify VoIP threats through its Sipera VIPER Lab, which is comprised of experienced VoIP application developers, architects, and engineers, operating 24/7/365 from Richardson, Texas, and Hyderabad, India. The VIPER Lab researchers identify new vulnerabilities and potential exploits in VoIP protocols, VoIP equipment and phones. They also scan web sites, blogs, discussion groups, and media outlets for evidence of known, suspected and new VoIP vulnerabilities and attacks.

Office Communications Server 2007 Public Beta Launches

March 26, 2007

Recently I stated that Microsoft would launch the public beta of Office Communications Server 2007 later this month. Well, Microsoft gave me a heads up on the launching of their public beta of Office Communications Server 2007 which is available later today. The Public Beta code for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 + Communicator 2007 (client) will be available for download as of 10AM PDT (1PM EDT). Virtual PC images plus video demos will be available following week, which will allow IT staff to more easily trial OCS 2007 as a "virtual" turnkey solution.

NAVTEQ's Traffic.com Selects Acuity Mobile to Drive Mobile Advertising

March 26, 2007

Acuity Mobile, a provider of mobile marketing content delivery technology, announced today its EMAP technology has been selected for the embedded mobile advertising for Traffic.com, a NAVTEQ company. Traffic.com, a leading provider of real-time personalized traffic information for drivers coast-to-coast, was recently acquired by NAVTEQ, a leading global provider of digital maps for vehicle navigation and location-based solutions. Just what we need right, advertisements on our GPS units! I'm still waiting for my p2p GPS traffic idea to take shape, since I hate traffic with a passion.
 
Acuity Mobile’s EMAP technology delivers Spot Relevance -- content based on time, context, location and user preference. 

Vonage shut down in 2 weeks?

March 23, 2007

Federal District Judge Claude Hilton has told Vonage to stop using Verizon patents, and has just two weeks to comply with the judge's order. As far as I can tell, without access to these patent rights, Vonage will be forced to shutdown. Vonage's stock tumbled after this news hitting just $3.00 ($-1.05) for a drop of -25.93%.

“They could not have been commercially successful if they had not taken these patents we have and put them into their technologies,” Dan Webb, an attorney for Verizon, said at Friday’s hearing on the injunction request.

So  what does this mean for Vonage's customers in 2 weeks?



Skype allows Paypal payments within client

March 22, 2007

Skype will soon allow users to send money to other Skype users via PayPal, a popular online payments system -- all from within the Skype client. This was announced by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom during a speech he gave. Both Skype and PayPal are owned by eBay, so the integration makes sense. “You can send money over Skype,” Mr Zennstrom said of the upcoming service plan.

VoIP Avoids State Regulation

March 21, 2007

A U.S. appeals court today upheld a decision that exempted VoIP telephone companies such as Vonage, Sunrocket, Packet8, and others from many state regulations and oversight.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit backed a 2004 decision by the FCC that exempted VoIP telephone companies from rate regulation and from being required to seek certification before offering service.

Microsoft Response Point - VoIP for Business

March 20, 2007

Today at the second annual Microsoft Small Business Summit, Microsoft Corp. unveiled a small-business Internet protocol (IP) phone system, code-named “Response Point,” designed for ease of use and manageability. The new system comes in an easy-to-install box, supports both voice over IP (VoIP) and traditional phone lines, and includes a voice-activated user interface.

Now in beta testing, “Response Point” will be generally available later this year in three models: D-Link DVX-2000, Quanta Syspine and Uniden Evolo. Microsoft designed the “Response Point” software to empower small-business customers to manage system changes themselves.

Jaxtr Launches Public Beta

March 19, 2007

Jaxtr tomorrow will launch the public beta (previously a private beta) of their service that brings voice to social networks and blogs. You can now sign up to receive a free jaxtr account that links your mobile or landline phones with your online blog or social networking website. You simply add their jaxtr widget to your online profile or blog, which allows users to hear from callers worldwide while keeping their existing phone numbers private. Jaxtr currently works with many popular social networks and communities, including MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Friendster, Flickr, YouTube, Wikipedia, Craigslist, eBay, LiveJournal, and Blogger.

Sandisk 8GB SDHC Flash Card

March 19, 2007

SanDisk introduced an 8-gigabyte SD High Capacity (SDHC) card—the highest capacity now available in the SD format. The new 8GB SDHC card holds more than 4,000 high-resolution pictures, as many as 2,000 digital songs or up to 15 hours of MPEG 4 video. The 8GB SDHC card will come bundled with a SanDisk MicroMate USB 2.0 reader free of charge. SDHC cards require an SDHC-compatible reader, so providing the USB-based SDHC reader with the card ensures that users will be able to connect the 8GB card to their computers.

TeamOnCall for Windows SIP-based Presence Management

March 19, 2007

Want a SIP-based presence application that monitors all your various SIP phones and centralizes the presence information to provide centralized presence management? Well, Vonalink's TeamOnCall is a new real-time call status display software that works with any VoIP phone system based on the SIP standard to provide real-time display of call status. Put into context of the hosted presence solution Tello, which recently bit the dust, this just shows you that presence-based solutions are still in high demand.

According to Arcosoft, "While VoIP phones are being adopted by small and medium sized businesses at a growing rate, the tools to make effective use of the phones are lacking. In a business environment where a receptionist receives an incoming call and needs to transfer the call to the appropriate representative, the receptionist has no way of knowing which representative is free, unless the company has deployed a costly and complex call center solution."
  • Works with any SIP based VoIP system, including hosted services such as Voipfone or Vonage
  • Use with soft phone, hard phone, or analog phone via an adapter
  • Web server based
  • Automatic discovery of all phones
  • Real-time display of call status including remote caller and name
  • Flexible grouping of phones
  • API accepts Do-not-disturb notifications from IP phone
  • Ethernet network switch with port mirroring (more than 6 phones) or a hub (6 phones or less)

Based on one customer's feedback, TeamOnCall was created specifically to address this business pain, says Tony Leung, Director of Arcosoft. 


Fonality's trixbox appliance Part 2

March 19, 2007

Fonality's release of their Linux-based trixbox appliance certainly is creating some buzz in the Asterisk community. According to Fonality, the trixbox appliance has the following features:

  • The appliance comes with a 4-port network card, so (just like the Digium appliance) you can do your office networking on it.
  • It comes pre-loaded with the trixbox software – which saves you time
  • It comes with two 80GB hard drives so it has lots of storage (the Digium appliance comes with 1 1GB flash drive).
  • The appliance comes with a powerful Intel processor (vs.


P2P GPS Traffic Reports

March 18, 2007

Using P2P technology along with GPS coordinates sent to fellow drivers to calculate the most optimal navigation route is something I wrote about and predicted would one day happen in my "I hate traffic - GPS to the rescue" blog post. Well, according to a BBC article, vehicles may soon be swapping information about road conditions to warn drivers about jams and dangers. A German research project on show at hi-tech trade fair Cebit envisions a peer-to-peer network for vehicles on a road passing data back and forth. Cars or bikes experiencing problems would pass data that would ripple down the chain of vehicles behind them.

Tello bites the dust

March 18, 2007

Tello, a Pulver-backed startup, apparently has packed it in. I covered Tello pretty in-depth last year (Jan 2006) in a skeptical article titled Tello, a near term solution? Apparently, it was very "near term" as it only lasted a little over a year. In my January post, I wrote, "At first glance, this hosted solution to the IM interoperability dilemma seems like a great idea. However, it seems like a near-term solution to me.

Fonality launches Asterisk-based trixbox Appliance

March 18, 2007

Fonality announced a new enterprise telephony appliance based on trixbox, a popular distribution of Asterisk and aptly named "trixbox appliance". If an Asterisk-based appliance sounds familiar, you would be correct. Digium has their own Asterisk appliance as well. Are Asterisk-based appliances really that popular?

Testing 5

March 17, 2007

Clocky the alarm clock hides to block your snooze addiction

March 15, 2007

Do you hate getting up and the blaring alarm clock only results in you hitting the snooze 5 times and arriving to work late? Surely, you curse the alarm clock and accuse it of snoozing for only 9 minutes instead of 10, robbing you of 1 minute extra sleep. (Actually, little known fact, most alarm clocks snooze for 9 minutes not 10.)

Truly, you want to make it to work on time, but ohhhhh how tempting hitting the snooze button just 1 more time is. More Americans suffer from "snooze button addiction" than any other.

Cisco acquires WebEx

March 15, 2007

Cisco has acquired WebEx for approximately $3.2 billion, according to the Cisco website. WebEx is one of the most well-known companies in the hosted on-demand collaboration application space. Although WebEx is very well-known (who hasn't used it?), in my opinion Cisco overpaid for WebEx. First, the hosted collaboration space is very crowded. You have Raindance, Placeware (now part of Microsoft), Genesys, and a dozen other smaller players all in the web collaboration space. 

Unified Communications + Air-blown Fiber + Cisco + Arizona Cardinals = Interesting

March 14, 2007

TMC is sponsoring a very interesting free webinar hosted by Cisco and the Arizona Cardinals. To increase awareness and educate the IT public of how the Cardinals’ University of Phoenix Stadium has deployed Air-blown fiber and Cisco’s Unified Communications system to build an immediately scalable, flexible, and cost-effective network.

Air blown fiber, or ABF is a little known technology that uses compressed air or nitrogen to literally blow lightweight optical fiber cables through a tube cable at up to 150 ft per minute. Blowing distances can reach 3300 ft for two to six fiber bundles and up to 1650 ft for 12 to 18 fiber bundles. However, if two sets of blowing equipment are used in tandem, you can double these distances.

From what I hear, this TMC webinar has been getting lots of attention lately.



Scramby disguises your Voice over IP voice

March 14, 2007

RapidSolution Software has a cool add-on product for VoIP and online games called Scramby, which "scrambles" your voice to sound like Darth Vader, an evil warlock, an android, child, and many more voices. Scramby is a vocoder add-on for VoIP softphone clients, such as Skype. It can work with any VoIP softphone application or any Windows sound application for that matter.

Essentially, it allows users to use distortion effects to give their voices another sound or personality, and to add background noises and "fun-sounds" into the audio stream like a nuclear explosion or Terminator's "I'll be back".

According to RapidSolution Software, players of Massive Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) and Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG) usually communicate with each other using headsets and VoIP technology like Teamspeak. With Scramby, players are able to alter their voices to take on the voices of the characters their game figures represent.



Microsoft - Tellme - What does it mean?

March 14, 2007

Microsoft has acquired Tellme Networks, a hosted provider of speech-recognition solutions. I had dinner with some Microsoft reps last night at Tao Restaurant in NYC and asked about the pending Tellme deal, but their lips were sealed and they wouldn't even acknowledge such an acquisition was pending. But I saw right through their poker faces, and with a wink and a smile they changed the subject. I was actually meeting with them to check out a demo of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 which combines VoIP, presence, and other features for a "unified communications" experience.

Vonage freefall video in 60 seconds

March 14, 2007

BeyondTel's VM-01L Optical USB Skype mouse

March 14, 2007

Convergence seems to be all the rage, including combining multiple products and functions into a single product (i.e. iPod MP3 player + mobile phone = Apple iPhone). So perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise to learn about a new Optical USB mouse from Beyondtel that supports Skype. Yeah, you guessed it, it's a clamshell USB mouse with a built-in microphone & speaker.

Skype Prime Allows Users to Charge for Calls

March 12, 2007

A beta of the Skype client recently made available allows users to charge for voice and video calls placed to their account through a new service called Skype Prime. eBay-owned Skype has developed Skype Prime to grant users the ability to either charge by the minute or a single charge for the entire call. Fees would be taken out of the caller's Skype account, and the called party would receive 70 percent of the proceeds collected, payable through PayPal, another eBay-owned proprietary. This is very similar to Ether, a service I have written about, except Ether gives you a separate phone number.

Cisco uses open-source with OpenSER

March 9, 2007

American Idol Banned!

March 9, 2007

Sundance Head

Sabrina Sloan

Chris Daughtry - Season 5

American Idol will soon be banned from being recorded on my Tivo forever - or at least until America gets her act together. Last night, the American Idol elimination round just set me over the edge when America voted off Sabrina Sloan (powerhouse singer) and Sundance Head (bluesy rocker). Yes, I admit it, along with loving gadgets, VoIP, and consumer electronics, I'm also an American Idol fan - along with some 34 million other fans. The sad thing is after the Chris Daughtry shocker last season when he got voted off by idiotic voters that somehow thought Elliott Yamin was better than Chris Daughtry, that  I am no longer surprised by the voting results.

magicJack - New VoIP Player launches

March 8, 2007

magicJack, a new VoIP service provider, allows cheap phone calls from a computer using a USB device that connects on one end to your PC and your home analog phone on the other.  It has an interesting pricing model that is reminiscent of SunRocket's $299/year one-time fee - though much cheaper. The MagicJack sells for between $29.95-$39.95, and then there's an annual license fee of $19.95 for unlimited calls in the U.S., Canada and portions of Europe. Compare that with Vonage's $24.99/month for unlimited U.S.

Vonage to pay $58 million to Verizon over patent dispute

March 8, 2007

BREAKING! Vonage has been ordered by a Virginia court to pay $58 million to Verizon Communications for infringing on three of the company's patents.  Vonage has vowed to appeal the decision. In addition to monetary compensation, Verizon is also asking the court for an injunction on Vonage's service.

On March 23, U.S.

Network World discusses my VoIP calling card "gloom and doom" article

March 8, 2007

So here I am happily surfing the web when I come across a Network World article titled Hype vs. reality in VoIP security. I read this excellent two page article when an article written yesterday titled "Cisco-based calling card solutions are not doomed by VoIP" caught my eye in the Community section (Screenshot to right). The reason it really caught my eye was I wrote an article titled "VoIP spells doom for calling card business?".

Reasons To Switch to a Mac 1, 2, 3 ...

March 8, 2007

Singing the Notebook Battery Blues ...

March 7, 2007

Can I ever buy another notebook computer again?

Or maybe they can just come up with better power supplies for notebooks -- you never hear about notebook recalls, only battery recalls.

Lenovo's recent recall of 100,000 battery packs used in ThinkPad notebook computers got me to thinking about this.  This time, the fire hazard is if the battery is struck forcefully on the corner, such as from a direct fall to the ground.

PlayStation Phone Home

March 7, 2007

Skype tops 500 million downloads

March 7, 2007

Skype today announced that its software has been downloaded more than 500 million times by users around the world, "extending its mark as one of the most popular free downloads of all time." Yes, well, McDonalds has served more hamburgers than Skype has been downloaded, so nah! You gotta love these download benchmarks that are almost meaningless since they don't tell you the actual number of users. Nevertheless, congrats to Skype for reaching 500 million downloads. What does that equate to for the eBay buyout of $4000 million (4 billion)?

Free VoIP TraceBuster utiltiy

March 7, 2007

I just received an email from Mark A. Stacy, the CEO/CTO for Touchstone Technologies containing some news that I thought was worth sharing. I actually missed the opportunity to stop by Touchstone Technologies' booth at IT EXPO East 2007 in January where they debuted TraceBuster. As with all ITEXPO shows, I was dealing with dozens of vendors that all wanted to meet with me. The ITEXPO blur effect for sure.

Microsoft Public Beta of Office Communications Server 2007

March 7, 2007

Microsoft will open the public beta of its VoIP and unified communications server, Office Communications Server 2007, as well as its unified communications client, Office Communicator 2007, later this month. I wrote a detailed article on Office Communications Server 2007 last year.

"The move to Web-based phone systems will gain momentum during the next three years and Microsoft's new server software will transform the telecommunication systems industry the way its Windows operating system changed the computer industry", said Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft's business division. He added, "Microsoft sees the shift by business organizations to Web-based phone systems running on its software to generate "billions" of dollars in revenue for the company."

Billions for Microsoft in the VoIP space?



But I Wanted My iPod Games on Apple TV

March 6, 2007

Commodore: Back to the Future

March 6, 2007

Holy Batman!

Yes indeed, it's too good to be true, but one of the classic computer hardware manufacturers has come back from the digital grave as the manufacturer of "high specification" gaming computers. 

Yes, we're talking about Commodore, which launched the best-selling personal computer of the late 20th century some 25 years ago. Commodore's C64 defined the early computer games experience for millions of people worldwide -- and the whole computer experience for that matter.

Plantronics .Audio <strike>910</strike> 920 headset

March 6, 2007

The Plantronics .Audio 910 (replaced by the new 920) Bluetooth VoIP headset was recently released. It works with Skype and other VoIP softphones, so I'll have to get my hands on one to review. Looking at the Plantronics .Audio 910/920 features, it looks very similar to the Plantronics 510-USB headset I reviewed. Just look at the product photos to the right, including one from my Plantronics 510-USB review.

Marc hates Microsoft Vista

March 6, 2007

Marc Robins is having a hell of a time with Microsoft Windows Vista. Marc has encountered several problems -  Everything from printer drivers to Second Life not working and Internet Explorer crashing. Vista performance issues also seem to be happening due to the upgrade and not installing Vista as a fresh installation. I used to be Marc's IT support guy when he worked directly with TMC (he's a consultant now), so maybe I'll email him off some suggestions to speed up his Windows Vista install.

Patent Office Opens Its Doors -- What Would Einstein Do?

March 5, 2007

FCC adopts video franchise rules and overrules states that allow rural phone companies to block VoIP

March 5, 2007

Some interesting news from the FCC with regards to net neutrality, as well as VoIP. The FCC today adopted a Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that establishes rules and provides guidance to implement Section 621(a)(1) of the Communications Act of 1934, which prohibits franchising authorities from unreasonably refusing to award competitive franchises for the provision of cable services.

In the Order, the Commission concludes that the current operation of the franchising process constitutes an unreasonable barrier to entry that impedes the achievement of the interrelated federal goals of enhanced cable competition and accelerated broadband deployment. 

The Order addresses several ways by which local franchising authorities are unreasonably refusing to award competitive franchises. 



Xbox 360 Goes 512 -- Size Matters

March 5, 2007

At the Game Developers Conference 2007, Microsoft announced it will be launching a 512MB memory unit for the Xbox 360 -- eight times the orginal 64MB unit! It's also increasing the official size limit of Xbox LIVE Arcade games from 50MB to 150MB.

With 512MB, Xbox 360ers will now have greatly expanded storage capabilities for gaming on the go, enabling gamer profile and save game data to be stored and transported, as well as LIVE Arcade games and Xbox LIVE Marketplace content.

Not too surprising, but it also give 360ers the ability to download exclusive content from any of the 45,000 Xbox 360 kiosks accessible at retail outlets worldwide.

Exercise to earn free ring tones, videos, MP3 music files

March 5, 2007

Are you a music, ringtone, or Internet video addict, but can't stand going to the gym to exercise? Well, why not use your music & video addiction to your advantage ? Sony Ericsson has a patent on a "rewards / punishment" system that will give you a free ringtone, mp3, or video file if you meet your exercise goals - say 10,000 steps per week, but it will also delete one of your precious files (ringtone, mp3 file, etc.) if you miss your goal. Ouch!

here's an excerpt of the patent:

A wireless communications device includes a motion-detecting device, such as a pedometer, that generates a signal upon detecting the user's motion.




Verizon VoiceWing VoIP FiOS service

March 2, 2007

Verizon has partnered with OpenPeak to create a new all-in-one voice, data, and video center for the home riding on top of Verizon's FiOS (fiber) service along with Ethernet and WiFi capabilities. Dubbed the Verizon One, this all-in-one communications device will allow users to make VoIP phone calls, access email, search the web, view a calendar, stream music from the web, and even preview images from a digital camera. Here's a photo of the Verizon One:


Unfortunately, the Web browsing experience is tad limited, since you can only get specific Web content that Verizon has enabled. Some of the approved web content includes categories such as news, weather, and movie listings.


Is a Zune Phone Really a Surprise?

March 2, 2007

Some surprises just don't seem like surprises, do they?

If we are all waiting for the iPhone (well, maybe not all), then why shouldn't Microsoft follow Apple's lead and launch a ZunePhone?

And why shouldn't Microsoft take the same route as Apple again by denying that they are working on a product of the mobile phone type?

So, despite denials from Microsoft about the ZP existence, don't be too surprised if we see that product later this year -- and most likely after the iPhone (just in case there are any cool features that can be "added" to the ZunePhone).

According to this report, Microsoft has filed a whole bunch of patents -- speech enhancement/filtering, an on-screen keyboard, capacitance touch slider, contact display, health monitoring, clamshell form factor and remote control of playback on a remote device.

Windows Defender calls Alexa Toolbar Trojan

March 2, 2007

This morning I discovered several PCs running Windows Defender and the Alexa Toolbar were receiving messages that the Alexa Toolbar was classified as a trojan. The name classfication within Windows Defender was Win32/VB.BZ as seen here: (click for large view)



I then tested installing the Alexa toolbar onto a brand-spanking new Windows Vista PC. As the file was downloading, Windows Defender popped up with a warning and said the risk/Alert Level was "High".



I installed the file anyway and it once again classified the Alexa Toolbar as Win32/VB.BZ, a "trojan clicker", according to the results I see via a Google search on Win32/VB.BZ.

The files it found were C:\WINDOWS\system32\alxres.dll and C:\WINDOWS\AlxTB1.dll - legitimate Alexa files.

So does Microsoft have it in for Alexa?











Adobe's Photoshop Heading Online? Why Not?

March 1, 2007

Adobe intends to offer a hosted version of its popular Photoshop image-editing program in the next three to six months.

According to reports, this hosted version of Photoshop is part of a bigger company strategy to introduce Internet-delivered services that complement its "shrink-wrapped applications" and head off likely competition from Google.

And that's good news for us folks who are used to buying the "shrink-wrapped" stuff or downloading it to get what we want.

Gadgets Move Up the Marriott Food Chain

March 1, 2007

Now you're talking!

The Marriott Corp. said this week it will begin installing a new technology that will give its patrons the ability to connect various personal devices (let's just call them gadgets) to HD screens in its hotel rooms.

(About time!)

Current in-room sets reportedly are being replaced with 32-inch LCD HD units.

CompUSA store closings

March 1, 2007

AT&T Lightspeed ahead! (NOT!)

March 1, 2007

AT&T won't be reaching 18 million homes this year with its "Lightspeed" U-Verse IPTV & VDSL broadband network, giving more credence to my AT&T U-Verse Doomed? article. The ironic thing is that AT&T just a few days go stated it was ready for an aggressive rollout of U-verse. They told the San Antonio Express News that it had ironed out technical glitches with the service and is readying a breakneck expansion that will take it to all major cities in its 22-state service area and 8 million households by year-end.

Comcast Digital Voice passes two million

March 1, 2007

Comcast, a major provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services, today announced it has surpassed the two million customer milestone for Comcast Digital Voice. The company celebrated by awarding a customer in southeast Michigan with a digital home makeover to take advantage of the new integrated features that are available through its Triple Play package of phone, high-speed Internet
and video services.

Relatedly, in December of last year, TMCnet reported that Cablevision had also reached two million VoIP customers and also announced a major upgrade to their Optimum Online high-speed Internet. It raised the speed of its core Optimum Online service, from up to 10 megabits-per-second (Mbps) downstream and 1 Mbps upstream, to new speeds of up to 15 Mbps downstream and 2 Mbps upstream, at no additional charge. Almost makes me wish I still had Cablevision (I switched to DSL).


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