May 2008 Archives

Amazing to think back to a decade ago when Motorola introduced its StarTac flip phone -- great design that has been repeated over and over again until this day.

You can't even imagine how big and bulky cell phones were up until that time -- like putting a brick to your ear!

And thank goodness that will great design is timeless battery power has been improved from those days of 60 minute talk time?

Thanks to MotorolaFAQ for the shot.

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

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. After all, who doesn't want to make a run to Costco to buy some inexpensive bulk packages of chicken/meats, bulk cereal, and of course an inexpensive somewhat bulky IP phone system?

Don't forget, Microsoft Response Point SP1 was recently announced with support for SIP trunking. Well, gotta run - busy enjoying my vacation, so I'll just share the news here:

Microsoft Response Point Phone System Retails on Costco.com
Response Point small-business phone system from hardware manufacturer Quanta Computer is now available for purchase directly from Costco.com.

REDMOND, Wash. — May 28, 2008 — Microsoft Response Point, an easy-to-use voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) phone system designed uniquely for the needs of small businesses (one to 50 employees), is now available to purchase on Costco.com, a leading global retailer. Costco.com will now offer the award-winning Syspine Digital Operator Phone System from Quanta Computer Inc. featuring Microsoft Response Point phone system software.
“A small-business owner does a little of everything — CEO, accountant and IT trouble-shooter — all before lunch,” said Richard Sprague, senior director, Response Point at Microsoft Corp. “Costco.com’s easy online purchase process, combined with Response Point’s easy setup and intuitive magic blue button for voice dialing, gives the small-business owner another easy way to gain a powerful communications tool to help grow his or her business.”

The Syspine Digital Operator Phone System with Response Point features a powerful voice-recognition system that can be linked with a company’s internal phone directory, as well as an individual’s Microsoft Office Outlook address book. Syspine includes a base unit appliance with a four phone-line analog telephone adapter, four desktop phones and Response Point phone system software. Businesses can add up to 50 individual Syspine IP310 business phones to create a complete, integrated small-business phone system with no additional licensing fees.

Syspine has been lauded as product of the year by Internet Telephony magazine and Unified Communications magazine, and received the prestigious Innovator Award from VON Magazine. More information about the Syspine Digital Operator Phone System can be found at http://www.syspine.com.
Trained Response Point technology specialists are available to small businesses interested in some assistance to install their Response Point system. A comprehensive list of specialists, searchable by ZIP code throughout the U.S., is available on the Microsoft Response Point Web site, http://www.microsoft.com/responsepoint.

Samsung recently announced its one terabyte EcoGreen F1 hard drive with low power features for less than $200. Yes! Yes, you are reading correctly! 1TB <$200!!

According to the company, the eco-friendly drive can be adopted as an external hard drive or internal drive for desktop PCs.

It offers a 15% power savings compared to other low-powered 1TB hard drives and a 50% power reduction against traditional 1TB drives.

Slated to launch Q2 2008 (like now), it will carry an MSRP of $199.00.

Read all about here on the official Samsung press release.

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)!

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? With computer automation, direct deposit, and other automation, the SSA shouldn't need more than 1,000 employees. Heck, outsource to an American call center if you have to manage lots of inbound calls. It's no wonder Social Security is going bankrupt. (Update: Found that the SSA actually has 65,000 employees.)

In any event, according to FedTech Magazine, the Social Security Administration has "facilities ranging from large sites that house thousands of employees in major cities to five-person mini-offices attached to rural post offices 100 miles or more from the nearest SSA technology support center." The articles explains the TCO nightmare of moving someone’s phone from one room to another, troubleshooting a bad line or adding new features that sometimes required miles of travel by support personnel.

The SSA had to deal with the usual VoIP suspects, including: dealing with packet latency and ensuring uptime, safeguarding 911 and 411 services agencywide, and readying users to take advantage of the new services. They're spending $300 million over 10 years to go VoIP. $300 million? I think my social security check just went down $100/month.  Well, they do say VoIP will help reduce costs over the long haul, so here's hoping that VoIP will rescue my future social security check.

Hmmm... The SSA chose Nortel, a Canadian company, over an American company such as Cisco or Avaya, but I won't start waving the American flag here claiming our tax dollars should go to American companies. Nope not me. In all seriousness, Nortel makes good VoIP products and I'm sure Cisco and the others had an equal opportunity to bid for the project. Free market capitalism and all that jazz.

$300 million, huh? Wonder how much Nortel gets of that pie? Might be time to buy some Nortel stock.

Oh, and here's to hoping that VoIP will save the day with its cost-cutting attributes resulting in the saving of social security. Two cheers for VoIP! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray!

Check out the full article for more.

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. I mentioned SIPconnect and how important this standard will be to SIP trunking and at the last ITEXPO, the SIP Forum announced an important ratification of version 1.0 of the SIPconnect Technical Recommendation. It's worth a gander.

In any event, the news release is here, but here's a partial excerpt to save you a click & to show you the impressive list of member companies, including Microsoft, HP, and others:

Experiences Dramatic Surge in Membership

Leading IP Communications Industry Association Achieves Triple-Digit Growth in Both Corporate Full Membership and Individual “Participant” Membership Ranks

NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. NORTH ANDOVER, Mass.
The SIP Forum proudly announced today that it has experienced a dramatic surge in membership since the beginning of 2008, with both dues-paying, corporate Full Membership and individual, “Participant” membership experiencing a 100% growth rate compared to the last quarter of 2007. Currently, the SIP Forum has 46 Full Member companies and more than 5,000 individual members from around the world.

Companies that have recently joined the SIP Forum as Full Members include AudioCodes Ltd., Bandwidth.com, Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. (CableLabs), CGI Group Inc, Covergence, Dialogic Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft Corporation, NEC Unified Solutions Inc., Sonus Networks, Tekelec, and Telsis Limited.

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

Apparently, Sony isn’t the first TV manufacturer to jump on the tru2way bandwagon. Samsung, Panasonic and LG have all signed licensing agreements to use the technology in TV sets that will go on sale as soon as the upcoming holiday season.

What do you think about that?

Love when boxes get sucked inside of some other gadget -- it's like survival of the fittest. Darwin would be so proud ...

 

The New York Attorney General's Office has won a major suit against Dell, with the court ruling that Dell engaged in fraud, false advertising and deceptive business practices. Read more about it here.

Now are we going to see any money (Show Me the Money) or is it going to be the typical case (no pun intended) where the lawyers clean up and we get a $25 credit toward the next purchase of a Dell product???

The company to pay restitution and forfeit unlawfully earned profits -- Show Me the Money!

No more guitars on the floor or the couch!

The ezStand from ezGear supports all gaming guitar controllers - and we love it for Guitar Hero (rock ON!!!)

What's there not to like? Small and compact, it's easy to set up with an adjustable neck that fits all size guitars (and it folds for easy storage if you really need to).

BTW, it's also great for Rock Band or ezJam Jr Guitars.

MSRP: $15.99

www.ezgear.com

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. Now, whether it's because of some anti-Microsoft zeal or that Asterisk "can do anything - just give the open source community time to build it" mentality, I have to respond that OCS 2007 is here to stay and is doing very well. I am aware of several Fortune 1000 companies, including security-conscious major banks, that have deployed OCS 2007.

Fortunately, not all within the Asterisk community have such blind hatred for Microsoft that they're willing to try and integrate with Microsoft OCS 2007, arguably the best UC platform on the market today. There are some features that Asterisk just doesn't have, such as a feature rich softphone client with video support. The Office Communicator client integrates presence, call control, IM, collaboration, video, and more. Here's a sample of me using it.



Of course, you can use X-Lite, a free SIP client, with Asterisk, but it's functionality and integration isn't as feature-rich as the whole OCS platform. Though if price is your only concern, Microsoft's OCS licensing may be too much for some.

So in any event, what's the difficulty in integrating Asterisk with OCS 2007? Well, as I have written previously, the main issue is that Asterisk uses SIP over UDP and OCS 2007 requires SIP over TCP.

There are some workarounds however. One is to install an unsupported patch onto Asterisk that adds SIP over TCP support. Personally, I'd avoid this though, since any future updates could negate the patch and potentially break the "official" Asterisk. Further, SIP over TCP isn't very common (except in OCS 2007 environments). A better alternative is to install sipX, an open-source SIP proxy which handles both SIP/TCP and SIP/UDP and acts as a gateway between Asterisk and OCS 2007. You can use OpenSER as a SIP UDP to SIP TCP gateway as well. Basically it looks like this:
Asterisk < SIP/UDP > OpenSER < SIP/TCP > OCS Mediation Server < uaCSTA:TLS|TCP > OCS Server

On a related note, pbxnsip, a Linux-based IP-PBX platform offers nice & easy integration with OCS 2007. Check out the pbxnsip with OCS 2007 wiki. You can also use the low-cost pbxnsip appliance as an inexpensive SIP UDP to SIP TCP gateway if you want and use this in conjunction with Asterisk. In fact, pbxnsip can be easily integrated OCS 2007 and with Exchange 2007 UM (Unified Messaging). Check out my full review of pbxnsip for some background on the product.

A new project http://sourceforge.net/projects/asterisk-dotnet (Asterisk LCS gateway) to OCS 2007 claims to offer Asterisk to OCS integration, but it seems like a work in progress.

This is strictly from the rumor-mill, but I heard that SIP over UDP support "may" be coming in the next release of OCS 2007 - rumored to be called OCS 2007 R2. That would negate the need for a TCP-to-UDP SIP gateway and allow for direct Asterisk to OCS integration. Further, Asterisk 1.6 (still beta) has SIP TCP built in - and some have successfully gotten it to work directly with OCS Mediation server. So even if Microsoft doesn't offer SIP over UDP support in the next release, it looks like Asterisk is adding SIP over TCP support.

I should mention that Asterisk lacks CSTA support and unfortunately OpenSER doesn't support it either. While CSTA isn't required for OCS 2007 to Asterisk integration, CSTA provides tighter integration and advanced features such as RCC (Remote Call Control), presence integration, and dual-forking with presence gateways. Further, CSTA provides for 3rd party CTI applications, including predictive dialers, advanced ACD, and IVRs that leverage CSTA for communicating with the PBX.

One solution I discovered that adds rudimentary CSTA capabilities to Asterisk is offered by M-Networks. Their solution, called the Unified Call Control Gateway, functions as an intermediary that allows the Microsoft Live Communications Server (LCS 2005) and Asterisk PBX to communicate. In addition to remote call control, the software provides for PC to phone calling that allows users to use their computer as a phone. While it was designed for LCS 2005, in theory the software could work on its successor, OCS 2007. Here's some of its features:

• TCP <-> UDP SIP Proxy - Allows PC to Phone calls from Communicator 2005 without the need for additional software (ie. OpenSER)
• SIP URI normalization - Converts sip: or tel: URI's to Asterisk extensions. Also allows for proper caller id presentation for PC to internal extension calls.
• e.164 support - Full support for the e.164 numbering standard

Though, if I understand this product correctly it runs silently in the background as a Windows service processing CSTA requests from Office Communicator to control your Asterisk PBX. Thus, EACH desktop would have to install this software, which is a deal-breaker for me. I'd rather have a server-based software or hardware solution.

It's important to point out that the CSTA standard provides for 3rd party CTI applications including advanced ACDs and IVRs which uses CSTA for communicating with a PBX. This is critical in large call centers. Asterisk not providing CSTA functionality certainly isn't the death knell for providing integration with other application. Asterisk supports their AGI/Fast AGI (Asterisk Gateway Interface) which allows developers to write applications.

Further, the Asterisk Manager API adds third-party call control and can be thought of as a CSTA/TSAPI equivalent. Some Asterisk-based solutions offer TAPI-based desktop call control as well, but TAPI won't help you with OCS 2007 integration - specifically with the OCS Communicator presence/VoIP client (shown to the right).

Let's look at the routing once more:
Asterisk < SIP/UDP > OpenSER < SIP/TCP > OCS Mediation Server < uaCSTA:TLS|TCP > OCS Server

I think rather than this convoluted approach developing a CSTA-to-AMI (Asterisk Manager Interface) could offer better integration with Asterisk. Since OpenSER is not dialog stateful, you cannot send the status of the SIP clients to OCS needed for presence and other functionality. It cannot for instance know when a particular session has been terminated. Asterisk on the other hand is dialog stateful and is aware of all sessions at all times. With uaCSTA interaction between OCS 2007 and Asterisk the user-state and the VoIP-phone-state can be exchanged.The big question is will anyone in the Asterisk community write the code to do CSTA-to-AMI? Anyone?

Of course, if you must have CSTA for the advanced telephony features today, you could look into a SIP/CSTA gateway. There are several on the market. UniGone TelServer offers one. Mitel built one specifically with OCS 2007 in mind but I believe it works specifically with their IP-PBX - same goes for Nortel. I believe SIP/CSTA solutions that are "IP-PBX agnostic" are also available from Audiocodes, Dialogic, and Quintum.

I should point out that OCS actually uses uaCSTA (user agent CSTA) which refers to transporting ECMA-323 (CSTA XML) messages over a SIP session. uaCSTA leverages SIP mechanisms to provide an extensible set of features to support applications. uaCSTA can be implemented by several different types of SIP user agents, including directly by a SIP user agent on a SIP phone. uaCSTA can also be implemented by a SIP B2BUA to augment third-party call control functionality or by a proxy server that is front-ending a PBX.

I also happened across a Microsoft TechNet thread that said, "I work at a company that's developed a SIP/CSTA gateway for Asterisk and MS OCS. It's a standards compliant TR/87 gateway that uses the Manager API in Asterisk and SIP to MS OCS. It can be used for remote call control (CTI integration), location based forwarding and device monitoring." The poster is from LiteScape.com, a company that Rich Tehrani wrote about as well as other TMCnet writers. So this is another potential SIP/CSTA solution. I sent an email to LiteScape for more info but am waiting for their reply.

Conclusion:
Asterisk integration with OCS 2007 is happening today, but you have to jump through hoops to get it to work. Further, if you want advanced features like RCC and dual-forking, you'll need a SIP/uaCSTA gateway -- some solutions of which I previously mentioned. SIP over UDP support "may" be coming in the next release of OCS 2007 which would negate the need for a TCP-to-UDP SIP gateway and allow for direct Asterisk to OCS integration. Also, Asterisk 1.6 beta has SIP TCP built in and some have successfully gotten it to work directly with OCS Mediation server. You'll still need a SIP/uaCSTA gateway of some sort unless some entrepreneurial Asterisk guru writes a CSTA-to-AMI add-on for Asterisk.

Lastly, I'm told that pbxnsip will have uaCSTA support very shortly. Although pbxnsip isn't Asterisk, it is another open source IP-PBX solution and a very feature-rich one at that. It's very easy to integrate with OCS 2007 simply by adding a SIP trunk. The pbxnsip wiki explains the steps very well.

[Correction: I mentioned pbxnsip was open source. This was due to a conversation I had with pbxnsip about them 'potentially' making their solution open source. They are currently not open source, however, I should point out that it is developed in C++ and is therefore easily compiled to run on multiple operating systems, including Windows, Linux, etc.]

Here's a screenshot of the main step performed via the pbxnsip web admin:

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. The Packet8 videophone supports H.263 and H.264, so in theory it should work. The latest version of Zingaya Media Server supports video calls to SIP softphones or hardphones with H.263 video codec support. I'd like to also see H.264 video support at some point. In addition to standards-based video calls you can also configure the Flash softphone to terminate over the PSTN using any SIP-based ITSP (Internet Telephony Service Provider).

According to the Flashphone blog, "We are going to include this new feature to Flashphone 2 and allow flashphone users make video calls between each other and to external SIP soft/hardphones. Just think about that video calling without software installation and without endless list of software settings!"

Here's a screenshot showing video calls from the popular X-lite SIP application to their Flash application and back:


Update: 11:25am
Ironically, a few hours later, I saw this news announcement made on TMCnet.com stating that "ANDROME Launches the Intellivic Flash-to-SIP Gateway, a New Hi-Tech Solution to Bridge Flash and SIP". It espouses my same thoughts about bridging Flash & SIP.

Here's an excerpt:

Today, the majority of computers across the globe are Adobe Flash enabled
which has caused many new internet video applications to flourish, thanks to
the non-exclusive nature of Flash for its end-users. The Intellivic
Flash-to-SIP Gateway is building upon this reality to allow application
developers to incorporate video telephony more freely into their Flash
enabled web applications.

"The Intellivic Flash-to-SIP Gateway also bridges a gap between the
traditional telecoms environment with SIP and IMS based networks and
end-users who are using Flash enabled web applications," adds Raf Van Ham.

Applications that benefit from using the Intellivic Flash-to-SIP Gateway
lie in the areas of professional consultancy services, call centers, remote
medical assistance, home or office surveillance, e-learning and entertainment.

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. No need to use a mouse and keyboard in your living room to download & navigate a movie.  I'll be downloading National Treasure 2 - Book of Secrets and some other new release movies this Memorial Day weekend on my Windows Media Center Edition 2005 PC. Break out the popcorn, baby!

... Too bad mobile phone screen sizes are so small. It would be great to see the Celtics-Pistons and Lakers-Spurs NBA East and West finals while going mobile.

Can't they dream up a way to optimize the network and HD broadcasts so the players aren't so small?

Well, let's get ready for tipoff ...

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.