Tom Keating : VoIP & Gadgets Blog
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May 2008

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Moto StarTac Started It All (Flip Phone Frenzy!)

May 30, 2008

CloudBlue for Recycling Gadgets

May 30, 2008

With more and more gadgets comes the need to get rid of some of them sometimes! But no more just dumping them in the trash -- recycle, now that's the ticket!

CloudBlue offers a suite of services that enable its customers (think corporate -- and you can too at your workplace to clear room for more stuff) to maximize the financial value of their electronic assets while exceeding strict environmental standards. In other words, they help assist in proper equipment disposal.

What's nice is their reach -- facilities in Georgia, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, New Jersey and Virginia. Customers include leading OEMs, VARS, IT consultants, schools and corporations.

So once again, think about recycling being greater than just those gadgets at home.

www.cloudblue.com

Hmmm... Buy an IP-PBX at Costco

May 29, 2008


I'm on vacation at Disney World this week but happened to be checking my email and noticed a bit of interesting news involving Costco, Microsoft, and VoIP. Yes, I know, strange bedfellows, eh? Apparently, you can now buy a Microsoft Response Point IP-PBX phone system from Costco.com! That's great news for Microsoft, though I would have liked to have seen Costco's retail stores carry this IP-PBX system as well.

1TB Drive under $200!! Wow! Oh, Baby ...

May 29, 2008

Are Mini-Notebooks on the Way Back?

May 29, 2008

Always loved the smallest of the small laptop PCs, but seems they never really took off for a number of reasons -- form factor is limited by keyboard size (chiclets anyone), features tend to not be pushing the envelope and price is high (smaller means pricier -- MacBook Air anyone).

Now Acer and Dell seem to both be getting into the act. Read more about Acer's latest offering (with photos) here on the UMPC Portal.

Ah, if we could only carry one gadget that could do it all ... will it be phone, computer or wrist radio (Dick Tracy, anyone) ...

That's one of my favorites pictured above -- Compaq's Contura Aero -- note the trackball location (thanks to the Home Computer Museum)!

Social Security Goes VoIP

May 28, 2008

The Social Security Administration is going VoIP and a big way. We're talking 1,600 locations! Assuming at least 30 people per location, that's 48,000 employees and IP phones. 48,000 employees just to manage Social Security?

SIP Forum Membership Surges

May 28, 2008

Marc Robins, a former TMC co-worker dropped Rich and me a line to tell us some good news about the SIP Forum that Marc is now a part of (he's the Managing Director). While I still hold a grudge against Marc for leaving TMC, I'm glad he at least stayed in the VoIP industry. Just kidding Marc! I'll see you in September at the next ITEXPO!

Speaking of ITEXPO & the SIP Forum, you might also be interested in reading about SIPConnect.

When One Less Gadget Is Better -- Set-Top Boxes Going Bye-Bye?

May 27, 2008

Sony has joined forces with six of the top cable companies in the U.S. to adopt tru2way technology in its TVs, thus eliminating the need for a set-top box when accessing television and other interactive services. and anyone else working on a set-top box should be nervous. Read more about it here.

Apple, Netflix, Sezmi

Shame on Dell

May 27, 2008

ezStand Is Just That for Guitar Hero

May 27, 2008

Asterisk With Office Communications Server 2007

May 27, 2008

Asterisk integration with Office Communications Server 2007 is a popular topic in the unified communications community. You wouldn't think integrating an open source Linux-based solution (Asterisk) with Microsoft's proprietary OCS 2007 UC platform would be popular, but it is. In fact, I have my ear to both the Microsoft OCS 2007 community and the Asterisk community and the integration of these two worlds is something I hear all the time. Some within the Asterisk community poo-poo the thought of integrating with Microsoft OCS 2007.

Flash-to-SIP Video Calls

May 27, 2008

Innovative Systems of Communication (ISC, Inc.), a Russian-based company, launched Flashphone.ru, a proof-of-concept Flash-based phone app which I discovered & reviewed back in November. More recently they launched a media server to go along with their Flash softphone application.

Well, ISC dropped me a line to tell me they have implemented video calls that allow Flash-to-SIP and from SIP-to-Flash video calls using their Zingaya Media Server. As you probably know, Flash-to-Flash video calls is nothing new, but Flash-to-SIP and the reverse is new. This platform marries the ubiquitousness of the Flash client on Windows/Mac/Linux with the ubiquitousness of the SIP standard and SIP gateways.

Thus, using a simple browser you can initiate a video call to a video client such as X-Lite or even (in theory) a hardphone videophone device such as the Packet8 videophone.



CinemaNow Brings Movie Downloads to Windows Media Center

May 23, 2008


CinemaNow
was one of the first to offer downloadable video content on-demand, but has been lost in the shuffle of competitors like Apple, Amazon, and Netflix for their digital movie, music, & TV downloads. And of course you have the big buzz surrounding Netflix's new Roku set-top box.

Well, today CinemaNow is announcing that its library of over 3,400 feature-length movies is now available through Windows Media Center. All you need is Windows Media Center, which comes included with Windows Vista and Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. These movies are available right now through a new Online Media channel in Windows Media Center that provides access to CinemaNow. Their library includes feature-length movies and even HD-quality movies.

The big benefit of Windows Media Center is that it gives you an easy way to browse CinemaNow’s library with the "10 foot" experience using your Windows Media Center remote control.



I Could Use a Good Way to Watch the NBA ...

May 22, 2008

Guitar Hero World Tour Is Coming!!

May 22, 2008

Get ready to rock!

When the house lights go down this fall, a new generation of axe shredders, drummers and fearless frontmen will come together and rock with Guitar Hero World Tour, the latest installment from the #1 best-selling video game 2007 (but not 2008 based on what we know so far).

Guitar Hero World Tour is slated to transform music gaming by extending Guitar Hero’s exhilarating guitar frenzy into a "cooperative band experience that combines the most advanced wireless instruments with revolutionary new online and offline gameplay modes."

The game will feature a slick newly redesigned guitar, a genuine electronic drum kit and a microphone as well as an innovative Music Studio music creator that lets players compose, record, edit and share their own rock and roll anthems, along with online Band Career and eight-player “Battle of the Bands.” Read more from the Red Octane press release at CrunchGear here.

Looking to Predict Apple's Future

May 22, 2008

Predicting the new gadgets that Apple might throw at us is a favorite parlor game of the technology industry, Wall Street and the blogosphere. The latest chatter is that Steve Jobs will reveal at a developer conference beginning June 9 a new version of the iPhone that can surf the Web over fast 3G wireless networks.

But the Wall Street Journal reports that it's more fun thinking about what gadgets Apple might be making in five years.

Forrester Research is the latest to look into the crystal ball in a new report that imagines the Apple products of 2013. But rather than predict Apple jet packs or other outlandish new directions, the research firm uses the company's recent history as a guide to forecasting.

Forrester's conclusion: While much of Apple's great successes have been mobile products such as the iPod and the iPhone, the company will seek to colonize rooms throughout the home

Just what sizes, shapes and forms those colonization efforts will take can be seen here.

Dior Getting into Mobile Phones for Fashionistas

May 21, 2008

Philips Says 3-D TV (Without the Glasses) Is Next Big Thing

May 21, 2008

Palm Ups It to Treo 850

May 21, 2008

Zemanta on Movable Type

May 21, 2008

Zemanta notified me to tell me that Zemanta's Firefox plugin now works with Movable Type. Woohoo! They said, "Just wanted to drop a quick note that we released a new version of Zemanta today that adds support for MT 4.1. Only through extension for now, but plugin will follow in a few weeks." I was a little peeved that their initial launch included Wordpress and not MT so I actually posted a thread to their forums asking when Zemanta would be available for Movable Type. They promised me support for MT was coming and indeed it has!

What Zemanta does is simply monitor the text in your blog draft and then go out on the web (connecting to Zemanta's web servers) to find relevant/related images, articles, and tags. I guess you could call Zemanta a blogger's "cheat sheet" for quickly finding relevant articles, images and tags.

Sprint Capping Data Usage!!!

May 20, 2008

According to this report in BetaNews, Sprint is planning to implement data usage caps on its mobile broadband service. Sprint will put a 5 GB per month overall use cap and 300 MB per month for off-network roaming.

Sprint states that "the use of voice and data roaming by a small minority of customers is generating a disproportionately large level of operating expense for the company. We are enforcing the existing terms and conditions for phone plans. We are placing a limit of 300 MB per month on the amount of data use allowed while roaming off network as well as a 5 GB per month limitation on total wireless data usage for Sprint's connection and phone as modem plans."

Now I don't remember seeing those usage limits in the existing terms and conditions, do you?

Downloaded Movies Were Meant To Be Free

May 20, 2008

Nice to see Roku back and how about hooking up with Netflix in the announcement of a $100 set top box that streams free movies (for Netflix subscribers) to the living room.

Instead of wading into a losing battle over cheap downloads and rentals (see Vudu, BlockBuster, AppleTV, Google, etc., which charge for each movie), we now see somebody getting the magic four-letter word right -- "free." That's what I'm talking about!

Of course, the service isn’t really free. Users have to buy the $100 box, and continue to keep a Netflix subscription active ($18/month). There are 10,000 movies available on on the box, which is significantly less than the 100,000 or so titles on Netflix’s DVD mailing service (and it’s old titles, not new releases).

Instant Charge for Cell Phones on the Horizon?

May 20, 2008

Is Virtual for You?

May 19, 2008

Blu-ray Going Under $300 -- Will Market Take Off?

May 19, 2008

Apple Takes Lead in $1K+ Computer Market

May 19, 2008

snom m3 DECT SIP Phone Coming to North America

May 19, 2008


In late 2007, snom announced the snom m3 DECT wireless SIP phone. snom sent me a review unit a few months ago to review and alas it's been sitting on my large pile of VoIP products to check out. The m3 is a cool looking phone and very gadgety, so usually I would have torn into the box and played with it the same day I got it, but if I set aside other projects every time I got a cool gadget, I'd never get anything done.

Well, I finally had time to install and test the snom m3 and hope to write a review soon. For now, I'd like to share today's news that the snom m3 wireless VoIP Phone now being generally available in North America.


"Digital Downtown" is Lower Manhattan's consumer technology expo

May 16, 2008

Build Your Own Notebook -- Really, You Build It

May 16, 2008

OCZ Technology has announced a new spin on an old product: the build-it-yourself notebook PC. Yes, you really do build it yourself ...

According to a report in ExtremeTech, OCZ's DIY Gaming Notebook (part number OCZNBIAS15DIYA on the company's Web site) includes the basics: a 15.4-inch WXGA display, an Intel PM965 chipset, an Nvidia GeForce 8600MGT/512 Mbyte video card and an 8X DVD±R/RW combo drive capable of reading and writing four-layer discs.

However, buyers have to buy and install the CPU, memory, hard drive and operating system themselves, either from OCZ or somebody else.

However, "building" the notebook consists of four steps: installing the hard drive, installing the memory, installing the CPU and attaching the bezel. (Some easy, some a bit hard, unless you've been under the hood of a desktop PC.

The new notebook will be the first of a family of products, the company said, but pricing has not yet been determined.

Touch-Screen BlackBerry Coming!?

May 16, 2008

According to reports in today's Wall Street Journal and on CNBC, pesky Research In Motion (RIM) plans to introduce a touch-screen version of its BlackBerry to thwart the challenge posed by the popularity of Apple's iPhone. (And no wonder we are seeing so many RIM TV ads ...)

Apparently dubbed the Thunder, the new BlackBerry is among RIM's strongest moves so far to appeal to the increasing number of consumers jumping for multimedia phones, a market that is increasingly turning to touch-screen devices for their ease of use (and cool factor). Easy integration with iTunes and the iPhone's sophisticated touch-screen were key features that made the iPhone such a big hit.

Nintendo Wii Outsells Them All!

May 16, 2008

SIP-based VoIP Wake Up Call Service

May 16, 2008

The beauty of VoIP and the corresponding SIP standard is the ease at which applications can be developed. Today, I learned about a wake-up-call service on www.sipservices.gr that leverages the SIP standard to allow you to schedule wake-up-calls. The software app called “Wake up Easy Voip Service” simply registers as a SIP extension to your existing SIP-based IP-PBX, waits for inbound extension calls, plays a prompt, you enter your wake-up time, and voila', the system will call you at the designated time. This is perfect application for hotels that are migrating to a VoIP phone system.

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Rumors

May 15, 2008

I've heard from various sources about Office Communications Server 2007 R2 coming soon. I'm a member of the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 MVP team, so I'm privy to information that I cannot divulge at this moment due to NDA requirements. In fact, I hadn't planned on blogging this at all had I not come across a few posts online talking about OCS 2007 R2. Other sources outside the Microsoft MVP community were also asking me if I knew anything about R2.

There are several rumors milling about what features OCS 2007 R2 would contain, including this link on Network World.

New Jawbone headset is sexy

May 15, 2008

The new Jawbone, made by Aliph, is 50% smaller than the original Jawbone. This Gen 2 Jawbone Bluetooth headset enhances the original Jawbone's claim-to-fame capability - namely its superb ability to suppress background noise.

Here's some more pics of this sexy Bluetooth headset:






The noise reduction feature was originally called "Noise Shield" but is now called "NoiseAssassin". Jawbone's NoiseAssassin technology feels your speech with its patented Voice Activity Sensor (VAS). The Jawbone headset uses the VAS to distinguish the sound of your voice from ambient noise with incredible accuracy and then uses proprietary Digital Signal Processing (DSP) algorithms to subtract the noise so only the sound of your voice comes through.

The NoiseAssassin technology was originally developed by Aliph for DARPA (The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), which creates and delivers breakthrough technology for the U.S.










Microsoft LifeCam VX-5000

May 13, 2008

Microsoft launched a webcam called the Microsoft LifeCam VX-5000 that "literally bends over backwards for you." Or at least, that's what Microsoft says.

Somehow picturing a webcam and bending over backwards sounds a wee bit pornographic is you ask me. That is until I found out what the fuss was all about. The LifeCam VX-5000 lets you "bend" its shape. The bendable attachment base that molds to virtually any surface so it can work on either a notebook or a desktop.

The LifeCam VX-5000 features a brightly colored ring around the front of the webcam in the colors Cool Blue, Lucky Green and Fire Red. The LifeCam VX-5000 also features MSN Photo Swap, a special feature that lets consumers share digital photos in midvideo conversation and see real-time reactions as both callers view the pictures.



Can You Believe It? One Fifth of U.S. Households Have Never Used Email!

May 13, 2008

Because we are so, so connected, we think everybody else is too ... But a new survey finds a substantial number of households have not crossed the "Digital Divide."

According to National Technology Scan, a forthcoming study from Parks Associates (an annual phone survey of U.S. households) found 20 million households are without Internet access, representing approximately 18% of all U.S. households.

According to Parks Associates, nearly one out of three household heads has never used a computer to create a document, underscoring the significant digital divide between the connected majority and the homes in the unconnected minority that rarely, if ever, use a computer.

Age and education are factors in this divide -- 50% of those who have never used e-mail are over 65, and 56 percent had no schooling beyond high school.

National Technology Scan found just 7% seven percent of the 20 million “disconnected” homes plan to subscribe to an Internet service within the next 12 months.

A New Way to Stargaze via the WorldWide Telescope

May 13, 2008

Maybe it's time to get a new telescope or upgrade for the future in another way?

According to a report in today's New York Times, the skies may be the next frontier in travel, but not even the wealthiest space tourist can zoom out to, say, the Crab Nebula, the Trapezium Cluster or Eta Carinae, a star 100 times more massive than the Sun and 7,500 light-years away.

But those far, far away places and thousands of others can now be toured and explored at the controls of a PC, with the constellations, stars and space dust displayed in vivid detail and animated imagery.

The project, the WorldWide Telescope, is the culmination of years of work by researchers at Microsoft, and the Web site and free downloadable software are available starting today, at www.WorldWideTelescope.org.

In case you wanted to know, the WorldWide Telescope is a Web 2.0 visualization software environment that enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope — bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world for a seamless exploration of the universe.

Here's CNET's take on it here. Happy trails to you ...

Movable Type 4.15 beta 2

May 13, 2008

I've been testing Movable Type 4.15 beta1 for a few weeks now with plans to migrate from Movable Type 3.33 to 4.15 when the product finally launches. According to the Movable Type roadmap wiki, the final non-beta version will launch in 6 days. Well, technically it says "Target Release Date: May 19ish" so they're leaving some wiggle room. Regardless, I'm pretty excited about the pending launch.

Dell Goes More Seriously after Gamers

May 13, 2008

Druid 1.2.0-3 Launches

May 13, 2008

Today, Druid 1.2.0-3, an open source Asterisk-based solution was launched. (Check out my full review of the Asterisk-based Druid platform for some background.) Here's a screenshot of their web-based front-end that makes it easy to manage their version of Asterisk:



Vikram Rangnekar from Druid shot me off an email saying they have some great new features in Druid. Figured I'd share some important excerpts of his email that explain the news:

In the two months since its been out, We have had a little over a thousand downloads. I'm more than satisfied with how the community is growing we have around 400 people on the forums a little over half of them are quite active, We have a lot of people posting bugs, suggestions and many people actually using Druid OSE in their organizations.

We have a few people porting the Druid RPM's over to Gentoo and SuSE.
We are still finalizing the SOAP API but we have added a ton of new cool stuff.








VonagePro for Business

May 13, 2008

It appears that Vonage is looking for a Director of Product Management for  VonagePro, a service I had never heard of until today. I just happened to notice the VonagePro job listing on Monster.com. Hmm... - "Requires bachelor's degree in computer science or electrical engineering or equivalent combination of education and experience." I've got those credentials! 

CNET's Tech Tips Can't Be Beat

May 12, 2008

Garmin's Nuvi 350 Is the Way to Go!

May 12, 2008

I've had the great pleasure to try out the sleek, portable nüvi 350 from Garmin for a while now. It takes GPS into a wider world than just GPS navigation, offering an all-in-one traveler’s reference and digital entertainment system . It's really a pocket-sized personal travel assistant, and it's rechargeable lithium-ion battery makes it convenient for navigation by car or foot.

The nüvi 350 comes ready to go right out of the box with preloaded City Navigator NT street maps, including a robust points of interest database with hotels, restaurants, gas stations and ATMs for instance.

So What Did Mom Get?

May 12, 2008

Apple Pays Up Over Battery Woes

May 9, 2008

AT&T Can't Make Up Its Mind

May 9, 2008

What's a major telco to do when it can't make up its mind?

Put things on the website one day and then remove them the next?

Here ya go? AT&T has flip-flopped again on whether iPhone customers can get free access to AT&T hotspots.

Amazon offers Click-To-Call Ordering

May 9, 2008

I was on Amazon.com looking for a Garmin GPS when I noticed I had the ability to click "Call me" to order stuff from Amazon. Interesting. Curious, I clicked the Call me button and saw this:


As seen above, it appears eStara is powering Amazon's Click-to-Call capabilities. Now I realize this isn't new "news" since the WSJ wrote about Amazon using eStara awhile back.


Blackberry 9000 Is Coming Next Week!

May 9, 2008

HP Goes Upline

May 8, 2008

Do we really need another online storage company?

Apparently, HP thinks so and has launched Upline, a data storage service that lets you put your data in a more secure, online headquarters location.

As we should have learned by now, automatic backup makes securing data simple, not just one time, but as often as you choose. And with any Internet connection you can easily access, share, manipulate and store your data from anywhere.

AT&T To Give iPhone Wi-Fi Hotspot Access?

May 8, 2008

New Dell Notebooks Coming?

May 8, 2008

SkyFire Review

May 8, 2008

Rich Tehrani has a great review on the SkyFire browser that gives Windows Mobile devices the Apple iPhone browsing experience. Well, not quite, but definitely much better than the built-in Windows Mobile browser. It supports easy zooming, Flash support, videos (including YouTube videos) and more. Rich was getting so frustrated with the crappy Windows Mobile browser that he even weighed the pros and cons of switching to the Apple iPhone from his Verizon HTC 6800 Windows Mobile.

But now Rich is giddier than a kid that just got a PS3 for Christmas, or that blogger who just got an iPhone and can't stop blogging about it.

Jangl & TalkPlus Spell VoIP Troubles Ahead?

May 8, 2008

Om over at GigaOm writes that Jangl was looking to sell itself earlier this week and is "headed towards an ignominious end" and adds that Talkplus "is going nowhere fast". I wrote a detailed write-up on TalkPlus, interviewing TalkPlus CEO Jeff Black at ITEXPO and my biggest fascination was how the supposedly reverse engineered Skype. I wrote, "One final interesting thing we talked about at ITEXPO is that TalkPlus has built their own Skype gateway. In fact, when pressed further, Jeff mentioned they actually reverse engineered Skype's protocol.

Covad Vonage Deal Redux

May 8, 2008

I was emailing industry analyst Jon Arnold about some things and mentioned I quoted him in my post this morning about the Covad & Vonage partnership and the resulting product offering called/branded "Vonage Broadband" and soon to be carried by Covad.

He wrote back with some interesting insights of his own regarding the deal and wonders if it's a good move or one of desperation. That thought had crossed my mind as well and I nearly blogged as such in my earlier post.

Jon mentioned he would like to blog about this deal, but he's pretty busy. Nevertheless, he provided me via email some of his initial thoughts that I thought were worth sharing:

Really concerned about their rising churn - not good. Interesting move with Covad.






South Korea Blocks VoIP - here we go again...

May 8, 2008

Do you recall my 2006 post about South Korea wanting to ban VoIP, which would also include U.S. military bases and military personnel serving in South Korea? Well, according to today's Vonage Form thread it appears South Korea has taken a playbook from the Great Firewall of China and is now blocking U.S. military personnel from making inexpensive VoIP calls back to the U.S.

The Vonage forum thread was started by a U.S.

Covad to offer Vonage Broadband

May 8, 2008

Vonage and Covad Communications today announced a strategic relationship which will enable Vonage to provide its customers with a broadband solution using Covad’s nationwide DSL network. The new service, called Vonage Broadband, is expected to be offered to new and existing customers by the end of the year.

This is interesting, since Covad's strength has always been in offering business VoIP services not residential. Though, I should point out that in 2004, Covad said they were jumping in to the residential VoIP business. Pal Jon Arnold was even quoted as saying in a CNET article that it was no surprise and "Everybody's trying to jump on the bandwagon," Arnold said.

Real iPhone Competition?

May 7, 2008

Zune To Come with Copyright 'Cop'?

May 7, 2008

iPort Keeps It Simple

May 7, 2008

Packet8 Drops International Calling Phone Rates

May 7, 2008

Calls to China dropped from 3¢ per minute to now 1¢ per minute? Wow! That's a 67% drop! All I can say is it is absolutely amazing how far prices have dropped.

O-FONE Supports SIP on Symbian S60 mobile phone

May 7, 2008

Rich received an email from O-FONE claiming they are the "First s60 SIP Symbian client". I'm not so sure about being the "first" since Truphone has a SIP client for Symbian phones, so do Jajah & Fring -- and there are others I've come across as well. Buzz2talk, from Indtelesoft had a SIP client for Symbian phones with PTT (push-to-talk) functionality way back in 2004. Alas, when I try and go to Indtelesoft's website, it appears to be defunct.

Onsia Makes Invisible Speakers

May 6, 2008

Sure do wish I could show you a picture ...

For all of us that want installed sound in every room of our nest, but don't want to see speaker panels all over the place, a company called Onsia is offering what it calls the first truly concealed flat panel speaker system. Designed to blend invisibly into any living space or office setting, (according to the company) only their remarkable performance will remind you they’re there.

The speakers integrate material science and NXT transducer technology to produce a flat panel speaker that delivers evenly distributed, rich, acoustic sound.

Get the Point ...

May 6, 2008

Telcos Join Forces to Battle Skype?

May 6, 2008

According to analysts at ThinkAnton (ThinkPanmure), AT&T and other international incumbents plan on launching a global Skype competitor.

"We believe that AT&T, in conjunction with perhaps 10-15 other incumbent operators such as British Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, and NTT, is preparing to launch, in 2009, a competitor of sorts to Skype. We believe that the motivation to do this would be to keep subscribers from completely disappearing, reducing win-back marketing costs."

Their key points the analysts stress is how "incumbent telephone operators have been losing wired access lines for a few years, to a variety of destinations: cellular, cable TV operators, competitive wireline carriers and, in a sense, also to IP telephony operators such as Skype."

They claim that the incumbent operators have been able to make up for these losses by entering new businesses such as cellular, DSL/fiber, and television.

Here's the rest of the analyst report "teaser":

However, the loss of the long-time telephone number often means that the incumbent phone operator loses the relationship with the customer entirely. Why? Because the consumer can buy access for his VoIP service such as Skype from another source, such as cable modem, 3G cellular, WiMax, or a competitive DSL/fiber carrier.









Zune Marches On!

May 6, 2008

Is Flip the Future of Video?

May 5, 2008

Blu-ray in Your Plans?

May 5, 2008

Free Albums!! NIN Gives Another Away

May 5, 2008

TMC's Biggest Loser Finale

May 5, 2008

TMC's Biggest Loser contest just ended today. First, congratulations to Alan Urkawich for winning TMC's contest who lost 36.4 pounds and 15.4% & took the $375 prize. However, if you recall, I wasn't allowed to join TMC's competition, so I made a one-way $100 bet of my own that I could beat all 5 contestants. My wife told me "Don't come home if you have to pay $100 to anyone.

Xbox 360 Goes Blu-ray?

May 2, 2008

Taking a Slice Out of Apple's Time Machine

May 2, 2008

Who's the Best in Cell Carrier Land?

May 2, 2008

Been thinking about changing cell phone companies again and wanted to find out what the faithful readers of this blog have to say about the various companies.

Let's see ... I've been on Sprint, AT&T and Verizon over the years, and the problem is that service reliability seems to come and go. One company is better for two years, then another, then another ...

What Would Have Been Your Choice Before Guitar Hero: Aerosmith?

May 1, 2008

Shoretel Rumors

May 1, 2008

SHORETEL UPDATE: 4/24/09

Could it be - with ShoreTel continuing to provide PBX solutions - that the rumors I reported about them nearly a year ago were false? Is it now clear that Rich's sources that sparked this article were wrong?

Shoretel seems to be going strong. In fact, while this article was written a long time ago, but thanks to its high ranking on search engines, it still sparks the occasional new comment from avid Shoretel fans.

You can read the comments below for other people's thoughts. There are many avid fans of the Shoretel platform that have come to Shoretel's defense.





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