May 2007 Archives

The Palm Foleo is a mobile companion for Treos, turns on and off instantly, and runs on Linux. The Foleo has a large screen and full size keyboard to view and edit email and office documents. What's cool about this "mobile companion" device, which Palm claims is the first of its kind, is that edits made on Foleo automatically are reflected on its paired smartphone and vice-versa (via Bluetooth).



It has a battery life of up to 5 hours and accesses the Internet through a built in WiFi radio or through the smartphone’s radio. Palm also says the device is designed for use with Treo’s that have the Palm OS or Windows Mobile, but most Windows Mobile based smartphones should also work. In fact, Palm is keeping the Foleo open to developers - Palm hopes to repeat the success of the Palm PDA and Treo smartphones - both of which developed huge followings in their respective developer community.

The Foleo weights around 2 lbs and features a 10" screen. U.S. availability for Foleo begins this summer with pricing expected to be $499 after an introductory $100 rebate. Will you buy one to add to your gadget repertoire or will you save your money and buy an Apple iPhone? I wonder since it's running on Linux if the Foleo will run the Linux Skype client or some other VoIP client?

Hat tip to Evan at ComputerWorld.

Treocentral has more.

Finally, check out the video from the Palm Founder below.

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Microsoft dropped a bombshell with their new Microsoft Surface touchscreen computer that is a touchscreen coffee table with "eyes" that can see what is placed on it blending the virtual and real worlds together. Microsoft thinks this technology developed under the top-secret codename 'Milan' will change the world and be used as a coffee table replacement in living rooms and family rooms. According to Popular Mechanics, here's how the screen works... A diffuser turns the Surface's acrylic tabletop into a large horizontal "multitouch" screen, capable of processing multiple inputs from multiple users. The Surface can also recognize objects by their shapes or by reading coded "domino" tags (i.e. RFID). Like Superman, Microsoft Surface even has XRay vision. Ok, I lied, it's infrared vision, a different end of the electromagnetic spectrum, but it could have Xray vision, perfect for seeing through clothes or to view the other poker player's hand - Xray radiation be damned! This table this screen kind of reminds me of those old tabletop video games you'd find in bars and pizza parlors.

In any event, the infrared "machine vision" uses an 850-nanometer-wavelength LED light source aimed at the Surface screen. When objects touch the surface, the light reflects back and is picked up by multiple infrared cameras with a max resolution of 1280 x 960. Microsoft demo'ed the ability to take a digital photo, place the digital camera on the surface and the photo was instantly transferred to the Surface. This "surface computing" as it is called, can utilize a blend of wireless protocols, special machine-readable tags and shape recognition via the infrared cameras to merge the real and the virtual world. Microsoft's Milan team refers this as "blended reality."

Simply by embedding any variety of wireless transceivers, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, RFID, etc. it can sync instantly with any device that touches its surface. I wonder how long before Microsoft or a 3rd party develops some "virtual world" games for Microsoft Surface. It could also be used as an educational tool for youngsters. For instance, the table could say something like "Place the yellow triangle on the table" and then determine if the child correctly performed this task. I do have some skepticism that this will pass the WAF (wife acceptance factor). You really think she'll want to swap out a nice wooden coffee table that coordinates with the rest of the room with some high-tech coffee table gadget? What about the power cord that will now snake across the floor unless you professionally install it under the rug? Nevertheless, all gadget lovers will salivate over this new piece of high-tech furniture gadgetry - including me. To quote Butthead, this is the coolest thing I have ever seen!

Check out the video demo from Popular Mechanics:

Arcosoft Inc., developer of VoIP call recording software, today announced the release of VONaLink DialBridge. . Services exist to enable someone to call a local gateway number, enter the destination number, and then be connected at cheaper rates than dialing directly. DialBridge is similar, except that the DialBridge software runs on your cpmputer so that your VoIP service provider can be leverages for low-cost long distance VoIP.

My first thought was that this solution must be hardware-based, since you need PSTN connectivity for the incoming call to the PC. I figured it was some sort of ATA network device, a USB gadget with FXO port, or perhaps it leverages a voice modem (though unlikely). I was surprised to learn this is a a 100% software-based solution. It leverages your VoIP softphone client for both inbound (your inbound cell phone call) and outbound connectivity (the number you are dialing). Tested VoIP providers include Vonage and Callcentric. I'm not sure exactly how it "hooks" into these softphone clients and tells them to initiate an outbound call as well as tells it to conference the call with your inbound cell phone call. Perhaps it's a simple pre-programed scripting & macro language that sends mouse clicks and keystrokes to the softphone. I'll have to download it and check it out.

In any event, caller authentication is by caller ID or password. Optionally, DialBridge can do a callback so that instead of a long-distance outgoing call from a cell phone, the call is turned into an incoming call, allowing the unlimited incoming minutes of a cell phone plan to be used.

DialBridge runs on Windows Vista, XP Pro, 2003, and 2000. Priced at $29 USD, DialBridge is available now for evaluation download.

Update:
It's much simpler than I thought. Since DialBridge is a softphone, you simply enter your SIP credentials in DialBridge and it connects to your SIP provider.

It is simply a SIP call from the PC to a SIP-based ITSP, such as Vonage. The software basically acts as a SIP relay. The software takes an inbound SIP PSTN call (to your Vonage DID) and then initiates an outbound call though Vonage's SIP server.

I assume for the 1st leg of the call when you dial the PC the software plays a prompt, i.e. "Enter phone number to dial" and then the software passes these DTMF digits to Vonage's SIP server (or another ITSP) and dials the 2nd leg. The software must mux the audio from both legs together. I have an email out to Arcosoft/Vonalink to ask if my assumptions are correct.

After bashing Google Blog Search (saying it sucks) just 3 days ago, a Google engineer came across my blog article and emailed me. He stated that Google corrected a bug with their back-end and that TMCNet's blogs were back in Google Blog Search. Kudos to Google for not only responding so quickly but for proactively contacting me since I had difficulty reaching Google.

The funny thing is that he emailed my old email address (tkeating @ tmcnet . com) which should have bounced back to him as System Undeliverable. However, I forgot my Google Blogger password, which was registered to my old email address. So I temporarily added my old email address back into our Active Directory server so I could receive the password recovery email. Just minutes later I got an email from the Google engineer regarding my Google Blog Search issues. Had he sent it just a few minutes later, it would have bounced back since I disabled this email account again and I would have had no idea TMCNet blogs were back in Google Blog Search. What are the odds? Maybe I should play Powerball this weekend.

I'm happy that TMC's blogs are back in, but I still wish Google Blog Search had some of the more advanced functionality like Technorati has, such as a tag searching, Authority ranking, etc. Of course, rumors abound about Google acquiring Technorati, so they could acquire their technology.

Although if Google did acquire Technorati, it could make Google Blog Search redundant. That's what happened with Yahoo! when they shut down Yahoo! Photos in favor of Flickr whom they acquired. Regardless of what happens, I do like Google's new universal search which integrates news, blogs, web search results, and video into the main Google search engine.

Finally, if curious, here's the email Google sent me:

Tom,
I'm an engineer at Google, and I work on Google blog search. I read your post about the problems with blog.tmcnet.com. For starters, I wanted to let you know that we fixed a bug and all of the tmcnet.com blogs should be in the index again. A query for your blog-- blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?q=blogurl%3Ablog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating
--shows about 1200 posts dating back to mid-2005.

I'm sorry you had so much trouble reaching us. The engineering team usually hears about user reports like the one you describe, but I don't recall hearing about your complaint. I'll check with the user support team and see what we can do to be more responsive in the future.

It looks like the root cause of the problem was a bug in our backend.
We attempt to distinguish between blogs and non-blogs. We do crawl the feeds for site's like TMCnet's Alternative Power magazine or the New York Times. It looks like the blogs of TMCnet got put in the same bin as the non-blogs. In short, we weren't serving your blog because we thought it wasn't a blog. Distinguishing between feeds from blogs and non-blogs is big challenge and we're continuing to improve here.

I hope you have better luck with Blog Search in the future, and let me know if you run into other problems.

According to the Spyware Guide, a Skype worm is in the wild that not only targets your Skype contacts, it also checks the registry for programs like AIM, Trillian, Yahoo! Messenger, Miranda and  ICQ and then attempts to send the infection via these other IM/VoIP clients. According to the Spyware Guide, "it uses the tried and tested methods employed by similar infections over the past few months, with the ultimate payload being the Stration Worm." This "cross-breed" worm that goes across multiple popular IM networks is certainly an alarming trend. I should point out that now that Skype features "pay by Skype" (Paypal integration), this gives virus/trojan writers yet another area to target to try and surreptitiously steal funds from their victims.

Here's a screenshot demonstrating the infection being sent to an MSN Messenger client. The Spyware Guide blacked out certain sections for privacy:

American Idol fans that didn't watch the finale live are shocked to learn their TIVos didn't record the last 6 minutes of last night's American Idol finale. The finale ran a bit long - 10 minutes according to my calculation, but some TiVo users do pad in a little extra time at the end which might account for the slight discrepancy (6 min vs. 10 min).

Apparently not enough "padding time", since a few of my fellow co-workers are peeved they didn't get to see Jordin Sparks get the nod over Blake Lewis. Yes TiVo users, you missed out on Jordin Sparks emotional and tearful acceptance and her final song on the show. At least one American Idol fan was instead watching the popular Lost TV series and set American Idol to record.

Moral of the story: Always watch live TV shows since there is a chance it could go long and set pre-recorded TV programs to record on your TiVo.

Well, if you missed the final minutes of the finale, you can click here and download the finale from The Pirate Bay using a Bittorent client.

Remember my Google Talk and VoIP on Sony PSP article from January 2006? Well, it would appear that now you can get VoIP on the Sony PSP. Well, according to the BBC, The VoIP software was developed by BT and will enable PSP users to call PCs, fixed lines and mobiles. The new service takes advantage of BT's 21 century network (21CN) designed specifically for IP.

Unfortunately, at least initially, the service will only be available in the UK and will only work on home or BT wireless hotspots. Seems a bit odd that it is restricted to just your home WiFi or BT wireless hotspots. How does BT know where your WiFi router is and why do they care? What if you are traveling with your PSP and want to make a VoIP call on someone else's WiFi connection? Are they restricting calls from certain IP addresses that you have to register? Or are they using geolocation to make sure the IP address is located in the UK? While VoIP on the Sony PSP is strictly limited to our British friends across the Atlantic, this is still a good start!

LAPTOPMAG has an actual hands on review of the new EQO software announced today. If you recall, EQO was originally designed to add Skype functionality to mobile phones, however EQO has changed their offering.  Now instead of just enabling Skype (Skype-to-Skype, Skype-In, Skype-Out) on mobile phones, EQO is offering their own mobile VoIP solution with EQO Out "credits" for PSTN termination.

The new client, which still runs on Java compatible phones, lets you make VoIP calls, as well as instant message across networks (MSN, Yahoo, AIM, GoogleTalk, ICQ, Jabber). Both Nimbuzz and Fring offer similar applications. Talkster also has a mobile application using a web interface, and last I spoke to them back in December, they said a "fat client" would be available this year.

There certainly seem to be more players offering mobile VoIP software solutions these days. Wonder how long it will take before the mobile carriers start blocking these kinds of applications? I should mention that calling another EQO user is free and calls to regular landlines use EQO Out credits which are obviously cheaper than standard mobile rates since it leverages VoIP termination.

Google Blog Search sucks and here's why. First, it is cluttered with spammy MFA (Made for Adsense) blogs that often aggregate (steal) content from legitimate blogs. I used to use Google Blog Search to see who was linking to my blog and to track any interesting blog conversations. Now, if I want to track any blog conversations I stick with Technorati.com and Techmeme.com. The spam on Google Blog Search has gotten so bad and so many blogs are stealing my content, that apparently as of a few months ago, Google delisted all TMCNet blogs, perhaps as a result of a "duplicate content" filter being tripped by these sploggers. (See my articles on splogs here, here, and here)

At first, I didn't care Google Blog Search wasn't listing TMC's blogs, since I didn't think anyone really used Google Blog Search. But Rich Tehrani, my boss forwarded me an article saying how referral traffic from Google Blog Search was growing and he wanted me to try and figure out why Google removed us from Google Blog Search. So I went to Google Blog Search "About page" to see if I could figure out why. The first thing I wanted to determine is what Google considers a "blog".

According to the Google page, it says:

"Which blogs are included in Blog Search?

The goal of Blog Search is to include every blog that publishes a site feed (either RSS or Atom). It is not restricted to Blogger blogs, or blogs from any other service

It certainly seems like blogs on the blog.tmcnet.com domain fit this description. So the next question is if you are running a legit blog, what is the proper way of getting listed on Google Blog Search? The answer according to Google is, "If your blog publishes a site feed in any format and automatically pings an updating service (such as Google Blog Search Pinging Service), we should be able to find and list it. Also, we will soon be providing a form that you can use to manually add your blog to our index, in case we haven't picked it up automatically. Stay tuned for more information on this." Great, all you need is a feed (RSS).

I see a Wiki (not a blog) http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/ listed on Google Blog Search. It's a Wiki - how is that a blog?  I also see EETimes, a CMP publication which is clearly not a blog, so Google doesn't seem to be very stringent in their requirements. Seems like anyone with an RSS feed can get on Google Blog Search.

According to Google, the link to ping is http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2, however I was already pinging http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2 since this was already added to my Movable Type configuration. At a loss as to what to do next, I decided to contact Google Blog Search using the email address they published online.I knew this was a shot in the dark at best, since sometimes Google responds, and sometimes they don't. I can't entirely blame Google since they must get thousands of requests each day from people complaining about everything from being delisted to lower rankings, etc. Still, TMCNet.com is a very respected web domain with a ~3000 Alexa ranking, so perhaps Google would respond to my query.

They've responded to me a few times in the past, but I have to say, they seem to have gotten worse over time. In any case, I wrote to Google using the contact info from the About page and didn't hear anything back. I waited a month and emailed them again - still no response. I tried a third time - still no dice. What's a person gotta do, kneel before the almighty Google Zod / God?

I'm surprised Google published the email address online since no doubt spambots will pick it up and spam the hell outta this email address. My legit email is probably lost somewhere in the middle of 10,000 spam emails.

Update: They literally JUST switched their About page to a Contact form. I no longer see the email address published. At first I thought I was going crazy and imagined it since it's been awhile since I last contacted Google Blog Search. But I went to the Google cache dated May 18th and you can see the email address listed on this screenshot:


In any event, I then tried using Google's Webmaster Tools, since according to Matt Cutts (aka GoogleGuy), the tools can help you discover any problems with your website and many (but not all) Google penalties being applied. As an example, Matt talked about a banned site in another post and explained, "...we started flagging this site as penalized in Google's webmaster console. I believe that Google is the only search engine that will confirm to webmasters that their site does have penalties. No, we don't confirm penalties if we think it might clue in web spammers that they've been caught. But yes, we do try to confirm penalties if we think a site is legitimate or has been hacked. You can read more about how we confirm penalties in this previous post."

Well, I checked Webmaster Tools and all of the sitemaps display "no errors".

At this point, I think I've all but given up on getting into Google Blog Search. Ironically, I see several of my fellow VoIP bloggers in Google Blog Search, including Andy Abramson, Om, Alec Saunders, Asterisk Blog, and a ton more. If interested to test to see if you are listed on Google Blog Search you can use the link: or blogurl: commands. I prefer the blogurl: command since it only returns results from that specific domain where as the link: command shows blogs linking TO you. So to test your blog, you would do something like this on Google Blog Search:

blogurl:http://www.domain.com

As seen by my search, my blog returns zilch:
blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&q=blogurl:blog.tmcnet.com&btnG=Search+Blogs

When I do the link: command I see a ton of MFA (Made for Adsense) blogs, including this aggregator - http://avoipblog.info that has aggregated my blog, Rich Tehrani's blog, and VoIPNow.org. This site, avoipblog.info is using full body content (not excerpts), which means my entire blog content shows up on their website. In theory, Google is supposed to give more weight to the site with more PageRank and credibility, but obviously these MFA sites are still getting traffic somehow. Take a look at this screenshot showing this MFA in action - every single one of these stories is mine:



So let me get this straight - this MFA (aka Mother F'n Ass-h**e) gets on Google Blog Search and my PageRank 7 site can't? This is why Google Blog Search sucks. I still love Google, especially their web search results, but their webmaster tools for tracing problems leaves a lot to be desired and I won't even attempt to describe their customer service. Though to be fair, Google isn't alone in hiding behind their web servers and making it difficult to reach a live customer support person. Yahoo, MSN, and other search engines are equally difficult to reach a real live person.

If Yahoo! or MSN want to gain market share on Google and win the search wars, my suggestion to them would be to invest in a call center that can accept calls -- including VoIP calls -- from webmasters to resolve these kinds of issues.

If phone calls are too expensive (due to the phone charges or the labor), then perhaps a simple online trouble-ticket system could be deployed. This would allow a search engine to track each user's issue and force the case to be handled within a timely manner - such as forcing the agent to close a case within 1-week. That would go a long way to improving customer service.

To prevent spam they could force users to register or even better, since TMC is both a Google Adwords & Adsense customer, Google can use TMC's registered Google account. Heck, we're a paying customer bringing revenue to Google, so they should at least offer the courtesy of some sort of reply from Google as to why TMC's blogs are not included. Wishful thinking perhaps... Ah well, at least TMC's blogs rank pretty well in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages).

Update: They resolved the problem!
Google Blog Search Doesn't Suck?

What happens when a VoIP blog (yours truly) writes about the fact that a former Nortel subsidiary (Blade Network Technologies) went looking for a new phone system, chose an open-source Asterisk-based solution from Fonality instead of using Nortel's own PBX and then agreed to go on record on the VoIP & Gadgets blog about why they made such a shocking decision?

A) Nothing - it's a VoIP blog - who cares? Nortel is an $11 billion dollar company that certainly doesn't read blogs for their news.
B) Nortel reads the blog post, is a little peeved, but other than some emails sent internally, no one outside Nortel would ever know they were annoyed.
C) A Nortel Board Member flips out over the article, contacts Blade and then pressures Blade to return the Fonality system and have Fonality print a retraction to the blog article (and the subsequent press release).

If you answered C) congratulations, we have a winner! Yes, it's true - and in true David (Fonality) vs. Goliath (Nortel) fashion it would appear that we have Nortel peeved that one of their former subsidiaries chose an open-source IP-PBX (PBXtra from Fonality) and who had the audacity to speak to the press about why they made such a decision. Why, the nerve!

Although they are a former subsidiary of Nortel, I should point out that according to InternetNews.com, Nortel still has a minority interest in Blade. Interestingly, according to Blade's website, Eric Schoch, the Vice President of Business Development for Nortel, serves on Blade's board of directors.

As if we needed any more proof of the power that the blogosphere holds, the fact that a Nortel executive took exception to my blog post and contacted Blade to apply pressure is almost beyond belief. I spoke with Fonality's CEO, Chris Lyman to get the exact facts from his perspective. Here is my phone conversation with him transcribed:

Chris explained, "Fonality sells it's PBXtra IP PBX to Blade. During the sale, Blade's Director of IT, Amon Prasad agrees to go on record in a Fonality press release about why he made this decision against his parent company. Then you (Tom) decided to do a story about such an interesting customer win."

Chris continues, "Here is where it gets interesting. The day after your story hits the net, Fonality gets a panicked call from Stefan Zuckut, Blade’s Vice President of Corporate Development. Stefan tells us that a board member from Nortel read your (Tom Keating) blog and hit the roof. "

Chris explains, “Well, Stefan must have been telling the truth, because 30 minutes later, the CEO of Blade, Vikram Mehta, is demanding to speak with me personally. I acquiesce. When Vikram gets me on the phone he immediately tells me that Blade is going to return their brand-new, still-in-the-box phone system. I ask, 'Why are you returning?'" To which Vikram replies: “We changed our mind.’

“You can’t change your mind. That’s not how our terms and conditions work.” says Chris, and then continued, "The next thing out of the Blade executive’s mouth astonishes me “We also want a retraction of your press release about how the Fonality system was more affordable and easier to use than Nortel.”

Stunned, Chris asks, “Why?”

“Because you didn’t follow our internal process for authorizing a press release.”

“But it is *your* internal process, and we spoke, with permission, to your own Director of IT, who personally signed off on the release. All that press release said and all Tom Keating's article said was that we're less expensive and easier to use than Nortel. What you want me to publish a document that we're more expensive than Nortel and harder to use? How the heck do you expect me to print a retraction for something that is a) true and b) out of my control now that it is in the blogosphere?”

I interrupted Chris's retelling of the conversation with Vikram and asked Chris, "How long have they had PBXtra for?"

Incredulously, Chris responds, "They haven't even installed it yet. It's still in the box."

I responded, "Right. I recall when speaking to Blade's Director of IT last week that he explained Blade hadn't deployed it yet, but were excited to do so."

After Vikram pressed Chris for a retraction, Chris in an irate mood, issued an ultimatum - "You have 60 seconds to change your mind. If within the next 60s you don't change your mind, you're going to discover how an incident turns into a scandal. Because either way, any reporter worth his salt is going to find the fact that Nortel's board of directors is putting pressure on you to get us to print a retraction about the comparative price of our systems much more juicy than the stupid article in the first place. This is getting better all the time and it's good for us and bad for you."

Chris told me they got so upset they hung up on him before he got five seconds into his count. I asked who was on the call and Chris said it was Vikram Mehta, Blade’s CEO, Stefan Zuckut, their VP of Corporate Development and Jim Sladek, VP of Finance.

Chris told me, "That's when I called you Tom on Friday to tell you about what was happening."

Chris, "Then I told Arnold, my SVP to play good cop. Call them back and tell Blade that my CEO (that’s me) is chain dialing the press. All they have to do is call off the dogs about us printing a retraction and returning the system and everything will be fine. We won't even talk about the little incident."

According to Chris, "Blade came back within an hour and changed their mind about returning - agreeing to keep it and be friends and we're sorry. Everything was lovely. That was all on Friday. Well, I came in this Monday morning and they've again decided to return the unopened system. The reason quoted in the RMA ticket is: “Poor customer service, Arnold Waldstein.” Chris laughed, "Arnold is our SVP of Marketing. Ha!"

I asked Chris, "So they let me get this straight. They changed their mind a second time? They flipped on the flip-flop?"

Chris acknowledged, "Yes, they re-changed their mind again. This is a bit of a watershed event when big big iron like Nortel calls Blade to pressure little ole' Fonality into printing a retraction of what is absolutely the truth from inside their own company. And that company goes crazy at the executive level and makes 3 decisions within 24 hours - to return it, then to not return it, then to return it again."

I contacted Blade's Stefan Zuckut their VP of Corporate Development, to get their perspective. I explained who I was and said, "I was the one who wrote the Blade & Fonality story and I was wondering if I could have your comments on what transpired between yourself, Fonality and Nortel?"

Stefan replied, "I cannot comment on that, but I'd be happy to have our CEO give you a call." I then asked, "What's you're CEO's name?" and Stefan said, "Vikram Mehta, but he's in a meeting right now, is there a way of reaching you?"

I gave my contact information, but no one called me back so I called back a few hours later and this was my conversation with the Blade's CEO:

Tom:  Hi this is Tom Keating with Technology Marketing Corporation. I was the one who wrote the Blade & Fonality story and I was wondering if I could have your comments on what transpired between yourself, Fonality and Nortel?

Vikram: <pause> I'm not quite sure I know what you're talking about.

Tom: I spoke with Chris Lyman and he mentioned that your Director of IT was pretty pleased with the Fonality system and I was wondering what changed over the weekend as far as far as why you are no longer using their solution?

Vikram: <long pause. sighs> I'm not... First of all, I'm a little concerned about getting into details about what we do on a day-to-day basis and our commercial relationships with Fonality and Nortel are in confidence, so...

Tom: So basically you're answer as to why you decided to return Fonality is -- "no comment"?

Vikram: I didn't say that. You said that.

Tom: Well I'm just trying to understand why your Director of IT very much loved the Fonality solution and then as the result of my article resulted in you guys changing your mind.

Vikram: <again repeating himself> Like I said, our relationship with our suppliers and customers are commercial-in-confidence and I don't want to be getting into any details about what we're doing with Nortel and likewise I don't want to be getting into what we are doing with Fonality. That is my comment.

Tom: Well Fonality gave me the green light to talk to you. They were very open and honest as far as their position so I'm just trying to get what your take on it is.

Vikram: I can't speak for what Fonality told you and what they did not, but like I said my position is that our relationships with our customers and suppliers are commercial-in-confidence.

Tom: Chris gave me the green light to speak about the relationship with you. He mentioned you spoke with a Nortel board member. If you let me know the contact information at Nortel, I can speak with them and find out if they would be willing to give me the green light as well.

Vikram: Our relationships, like I said, with customers and suppliers are commercial-in-confidence. I am not at liberty to divulge what we are doing with anybody.

Tom: That's fine. So if you like I can contact Nortel directly and get their perspective and they can either comment or no comment. If you just give me the person to speak with I can get their position.

Vikram: Don't know that I can point to... uhhh. Don't you have public relations contacts at Nortel?

Tom: Yes I do, but it's a big company, but I don't know who exactly you spoke with at Nortel, so I wouldn't know who to refer to. I would need a specific person for me to contact their PR firm about. So is there a specific person on the board at Nortel you spoke with?

Vikram: Like I said, our relationships with our customers and suppliers are commercial-in-confidence. I cannot divulge anything about our commercial relationship with our customers and suppliers.

Tom: But I'm not asking you to divulge the relationship, I'm just asking to speak to Nortel.

Vikram: Go right ahead.

Tom: But who do I speak with?

Vikram: I wish I could help you.

Tom: Ok, so did Nortel offer anything in exchange for you returning Fonality's PBX. Was there a quid pro quo?

Vikram: I don't even know what you're talking about.

Tom: According to Chris Lyman you said you were returning the Fonality system.

Vikram: Like I said, our relationships with our customers and suppliers are commercial-in-confidence and I'm not in a position to divulge anything about our commercial relationships with anybody. Whether that is Fonality, Nortel, other customers, suppliers who we do business with. I'm not in position to speak about any of that stuff with the press.

We spoke a little more, but as you can tell, I was getting nowhere with Vikram. However what "wasn't said" spoke volumes -- both from his demeanor and his avoiding answering my questions, in my mind confirmed what Chris said was accurate. I then contacted Nortel to get their perspective. I spoke with a Nortel employee who wishes to remain anonymous. He stated that Eric Schoch, the Nortel board member was travelling and therefore wasn't able to get him to respond.

The employee did however admit that he was aware that Eric sent Vikram (CEO of Blade) a note about the Fonality press release where it simply stated "I would appreciate seeing copies of any news releases that have our name 'Nortel' in it before they go out." The Nortel official explained, "Anything that uses our trademark name we like to take a look at it." The employee added that he was not aware of any pressure applied by Nortel to have Blade reverse their decision on selecting Fonality or forcing a retraction.

Let's tally the score to try and figure out who is lying and who is telling the truth. Chris Lyman and Arnold Waldstein from Fonality claim that Vikram called them and stated unequivocally that a Nortel board member was very upset over the blog article and press release and as a result Blade demanded a retraction and a return. When I contacted Vikram at Blade, he was evasive, wouldn't set the record straight, and simply hid behind "customer-in-confidence".

Finally, I contacted Nortel, and although the board member in question was not available for comment, the Nortel representative admitted that an email from Nortel's Eric Schoch was sent to Vikram. Nortel claims however they were simply upset that Nortel was not consulted for approval in the issuance of the press release. So let me get this straight - this whole story is simply about not giving Nortel a heads-up on a press release wherein Nortel doesn't exactly come out smelling like a rose resulting in Blade demanding a retraction and returning Fonality's PBXtra? C'mon!

Just to put this all in perspective, according to the latest research I've seen, Nortel's market share has declined from 29% in the fourth quarter of 2004 to 17% in the third quarter of 2005, according to Merrill. With Nortel's slipping marketshare is the new way of retaining marketshare by strong-arming or pressuring open source PBX rivals from telling their successful stories to the press/media including blogs? While I cannot confirm this is the case with 100% certainty, it certainly is quite suspicious. As Chris stated, this is indeed a watershed event for open source telephony.

I was reading SmithOnVoIP and read how David Pogue, a well-known technology writer for the NY Times, recently made 5 what I call "obvious" predictions. One of his predictions is free landline calls. According to the article, "Prediction Number One: Free Land-Line Telephone Service. Land line phone calls will be free, because of VoIP such as Vonage, Skype and others, said Pogue. Today, you can plug an existing phone into a box that plugs into a cable modem, $15 to $20 per month, for unlimited calls, no taxes or fees (he hesitated briefly noting that perhaps he should avoid making that point to a government audience.)"

So after plugging the heavyweights in VoIP, namely Skype and Vonage, he makes this "bold" prediction about free landline calls. Ho-hum, we've heard this before, haven't we? His second prediction? RFID becoming prevalent. Yeah, heard that one too. His third prediction - "ala cart TV". Gee, where have I heard that before? His fourth prediction - high-definition TV, which Pogue accurately points out that the federal government will turn off analog broadcasting in 2009. So, this isn't a "prediction" so much as he is stating a fact on what will happen by 2009. Just like I predict I will drive home tonight at 6pm.

His last prediction is "Web 2.0". A list of predictions wouldn't be a list without mentioning Web 2.0. Pogue throws around some Web 2.0 companies, including Facebook, MySpace, and digg.

C'mon David, you can make better predictions other than stating the obvious. I love many of your techology articles, but this list is pathetic! If you keep this up, this will be yet another reason for me not to read the NY Times.

Dialogic Corporation announced today that it has expanded its support for Microsoft unified communications solutions. The Dialogic Media Gateways will enable unified messaging in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, I've got a testbed with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Exchange 2007 installed (which I still have to write the review on), so perhaps I'll get my hands on this new Dialogic hardware to some more interesting tests with. It's been quite some time since I last tested Dialogic hardware. My first review of Dialogic hardware was way back in 1996 in CTI Magazine.

In any event, Dialogic has expanded its gateway product lines and capabilities to support Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. Office Communications Server 2007 is a unified communications platform that brings the rapid pace of software innovation and software economics to communications. Dialogic Media Gateways are designed specifically to bridge legacy PBX and PSTN networks to next generation, VoIP based applications and services such as Office Communications Server 2007.

"Unified communications is coming fast on the heels of the transition from traditional circuit switched telephony to IP telephony,” said Eric Swift, Senior Director of Product Management, Unified Communications Group at Microsoft. "We see Dialogic as playing a critical role in providing media gateways necessary to connect and navigate disparate networks and legacy systems to help customers unlock the potential of unified communications.”

Dialogic has expanded its current Media Gateway product lines with new gateway platforms and features that integrate with Office Communications Server 2007 and deliver VoIP security, superior audio quality, ease-of-use and manageability. In addition, Dialogic Media Gateways are known for their superior PBX interoperability and a strong support organization standing behind them.

Dialogic has a range of media gateway products that scale from 8 to 120 channels and provide connections and protocols such as analog, digital PBX, ISDN BRI, T1/E1, CAS, ISDN, Q.SIG and more, to meet the needs of any given Microsoft unified communications installation.  Dialogic is currently supplying gateways worldwide to enterprise customers participating in early adoption programs.

Specifically for the upcoming unified communications release, Dialogic is readying a new series of gateways capable of hosting one of the server elements required for the Office Communications Server 2007 solution. The new gateways will debut the first hybrid architecture designed as integrated systems specifically for the Microsoft unified communications environment. Capable of hosting server software on-board, these hybrid gateways reduce the total number of servers required in the solution set. The new gateway series is scheduled for general availability early in the third quarter.

"Dialogic is a pioneer in providing standards based platforms and communications technologies that enable innovative software companies to develop new communications applications,” states Jim Machi, Vice President Marketing for Dialogic. "In many ways, Dialogic has been working towards the unified communications vision supported by open enterprise infrastructure from its origins as the leader in standards based computer telephony. The industry is at another inflection point defined by unified communications, and customers are demanding flexible, interoperable, and non-proprietary communications solutions. Dialogic is pleased to be working together with Microsoft to meet that demand.” .

A Google Apps multimedia training presentation shows Google Talk with "Show dialpad" in the user interface on Slide 9. It also says "Enter a name or phone number." Currently, Google Talk only lets you dial other Google Talk users, and the Gizmo Project - it doesn't support PSTN dialing, though there are some third-party add-ons that enable PSTN dialing from Google Talk, such as GTalk2VoIP. However, GTalk2VoIP uses their own termination network not one from Google.

So looking at this screenshot taken from an official Google page, can SIP-to-PSTN calling from Google Talk be far behind? How bout free PSTN calling? Google never does anything half-ass and most of their services are free, so I wouldn't be surprised if they leverage their massive fiber network to offer free calling. Now that would be cool!

Hat Tip: Google Blogoscoped

Ah yes, who doesn't love velcro? With the beauty of velcro, now we don't even have to teach our kids how to tie shoe laces (seems like all kids shoes are velcro now). Yes, velcro makes life so much better and who doesn't love the cool ripping sound? Velcro is the successor to the zipper, but can there be a successor to velcro?

Well, Leonard Duffy managed to come up with “slidingly engaging fasteners” which consists of an interlocking grid of triangular and hexagonal pieces of flexible plastic that not only lasts longer, it can hold up to eight times more.


Further, traditional velcro gradually loses it’s velcro-ness with extended use, but the “slidingly engaging fasteners” lasts much longer, Other advantages include the fact that it won’t snag other materials such as your clothing, and it adheres silently making it a perfect choice for stealthy covert agents, snipers, Rainbox 6 shooters, etc.

As for the technical name which doesn't nearly roll of the tongue like 'Velco', no, he’s not going to change the name to something catchy - it’s "slidingly engaging fasteners", damn it!

Source: Popular Science

Seems like Digium, makers of the Linux-based open source Asterisk IP-PBX, draws a huge crowd at every tradeshow, every keynote, and every exhibit booth. I remember the last ITEXPO they were demoing their new AsteriskNOW in the booth using a large TV flat-screen monitor and it was like 5 people deep by 12 people wide. So I wasn't surprised when Rich Tehrani shared a video and some photos from Communications Developer showing Digium's well-attended keynote. Once again, Digium proves itself as a real headliner attraction on the tradeshow circuit!

Rich Tehrani said, "Digium/Asterisk's Kevin Fleming is keynoting TMC's Communications Developer Conference and kicked off his presentation by dispelling the myth that Asterisk is only an open-source PBX. In fact he says it is much much more. Contributors to Asterisk do not come from Greenland or Antarctica but according to Kevin they come from everywhere else."

Check out the video and the photos taken from Rich's blog entry...


click Play button above to play video