Tom Keating : VoIP & Gadgets Blog
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March 2012

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ZANGI New Mobile VoIP & Video App Launching Soon

March 29, 2012


ZANGI is a new mobile app that supports free SMS, voice and video calls, multi-user conferences, instant messaging, file sharing, screen sharing, integration with other programs and more. ZANGI is still in "stealth mode", but I'm told their offering is coming out next month with support for multiple mobile platforms including OS, Android OS, Symbian, Windows PC, or Windows Mobile. It can also be used via web interface or through social networks like Facebook, Google+, etc. How integrated with these popular social networks remains to be seen.

SoftPhone.com New Cloud VoIP Offering - Invite Only

March 26, 2012


Interesting new web-based VoIP offering I came across via CounterPath's Todd Carother's Google+ status update. The website is softphone.com and according to a whois lookup is indeed owned by CounterPath. Check out the website description:

Coming soon is a new cloud offering for SMBs for the United States and Canada — SoftPhone.com. With SoftPhone.com business users will be able to leverage their current IP-PBX or hosted offering to connect with other colleagues for FREE.



HP Aims to Simplify Unified Communications Deployment

March 26, 2012


HP today announced two new offerings that aid in the rapid adoption of   unified communications (UC) solutions from Microsoft and Polycom. The new offerings include HP AppSystem for Microsoft Lync, a turnkey platform designed to expedite Lync deployments, and a customizable HP and Polycom Rich Media Communications (RMC) solution for video and collaboration.

Although many organizations are deploying Microsoft Lync, not everyone is embracing it. One reason is that internal staff lacks expertise or can dedicate time to deploy UC.

Skype Releases Retina-Optimized Skype for iPad

March 26, 2012

Digium launches G100 / G200 T1/E1/PRI VoIP Gateways at Rock Bottom Prices

March 26, 2012


Digium launches their standalone G100 and G200 VoIP gateways, which negate the need for a TDM (T1/E1) card to be installed in your Asterisk server. Both products are fanless and have no moving parts, which means higher reliability. Further, many Asterisk deployments are now happening in virtualized environments or in the cloud where you cannot have a dedicated TDM card installed. These two VoIP gateways support TDM-to-SIP, SIP-to-TDM and SIP-to-SIP (transcoding) applications to bridge the TDM and SIP worlds.

HTMLExcerpt Plugin for Movable Type

March 22, 2012

With any CMS, whether it's Movable Type, WordPress, Joomla, etc., one big problem is automatically creating fully formatted HTML excerpts. The problem is that it's very difficult to know where exactly to split the HTML code without leaving an orphaned HTML tag somewhere. Many website publishers simply force their writers to manually insert a HTML excerpt into a separate field. This isn't an optimal solution, since the writer may have to have some knowledge of HTML, unless of course the excerpt field sports a WYSIWYG editor.

Ensim Adds Support for Lync Server 2010 Multi-tenant Hosting Pack

March 20, 2012


Ensim Corporation today announced support for Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Multi-tenant environments allowing enterprises who wish to host Lync in the cloud to have a a powerful deployment tool at their disposal. Ensim Unify Service Provider Edition now offers full support for Microsoft Lync in multi-tenant environments for messaging, presence, web and video conferencing, and telephony with enterprise voice. With Ensim Unify's ability to allocate resources physically and logically, service providers using Lync Server 2010 Multi-tenant Hosting Pack (Lync Hosting Pack for short) can support small or large deployments in multi-tenant mode or can dedicate a single server to a single organization and allow custom SIP integration for each organization - all while managing Lync as a single platform.

Ensim Unify Service Provider Edition offers service providers and a complete, centralized, relational platform that manages creation, activation, configuration, and administration of an entire hosted application and cloud service offering. 


Zingaya Launches Zingaya Enterprise Edition

March 20, 2012

Zingaya today announced Zingaya Enterprise, a new platform and API enabling VoIP calls from a browser or a mobile app with a single click. Their platform enables developers to build out Mobile VoIP apps, with applications that include support desk and sales & e-commerce, with the goal of improved conversion rates.

Zingaya enables VoIP calls without a phone or without requiring a download. E-commerce companies and other customer-focused organizations can embed a widget on their website that allows their customers to simply click a button to start speaking to a live customer agent.

NetZero Unveils Free Wireless 4G mobile Internet service

March 19, 2012

Remember NetZero, the company best known for offering free dial-up Internet service? Well they're back! NetZero today launched a free 4G wireless that offers a year of free mobile Internet and a free data plan through a partnership with Clearwire.

Avaya Scoops Radvision for $240 million

March 15, 2012

netTALK Launches Wi-Fi VoIP Device

March 15, 2012

netTALK today launched netTALK DUO Wi-Fi, launching exclusively first in Target stores nationwide. Check out my review of their original non-Wi-Fi netTALK DUO, which required an Ethernet (wired) connection. Their new wireless product will be available starting early April at Target stores nationwide, with other retailers being added soon.

“We are truly making history with the launch of netTALK DUO WiFi,” said Anastasios ‘Takis’ Kyriakides, President and CEO.

Post Office 2.0 Plugin for Movable Type

March 15, 2012

Movable Type has a plugin called Post Office (now maintained on Github by Endevver) which is a cool email-to-blog (moblogging) Perl-based plugin. I wrote my own email-to-blog Perl script years ago, which has some advanced features like support for both images and videos in your email attachments. However, the script would run via a Linux bash shell and executed via a scheduled cron job. Because of that, for each Movable Type user that needed this feature I need to copy the Perl script to a new .pl Perl file and change the 'static' variables (email address, MT XML-RPC password, etc.).

AT&T U-verse Closing in on Verizon FiOS

March 13, 2012

AT&T U-verse is closing in on Verizon FiOS in the Battle of the Telco TV Titans. According to IHS iSuppli Research, "AT&T in the fourth quarter of 2011 added more video subscribers to its U-verse service than cellular/wireless arch-rival Verizon did for its FiOS offering, marking the 10th straight quarter that AT&T has exceeded Verizon, according to the IHS Screen Digest U.S. Media Intelligence Service."

Swann Unveils MP3 DJ Doorbell

March 13, 2012


With the Swann MP3 DJ Doorbell - nostalgia aside - you can say goodbye to the days of the boring "ding-dong" doorbell. The Swann MP3 Doorbells lets you customize your doorbell and play your favorite music in MP3 or polyphonic formats as your visitors arrive. Scare your trick-or-treaters with some scary music or play some Christmas music when your Christmas guests arrive. Certainly putting custom holiday-themed music on your doorbell with make you the envy of your neighbors.

The MP3 DJ Doorbell sports a doorbell unit, backed with double sided tape for mounting in your doorway and a wireless speaker unit for mounting inside in your living area, kitchen, hallway etc with screws in the pack.


New iPad - the Good, the Bad, the Ugly

March 7, 2012

Apple launched their new iPad today. Here's a run down of all the cool new features in the new iPad, which was rumored to be called the iPad 3, iPad 3rd Generation, or iPad HD. The Apple keynote launch is still going on and they haven't announced the final name, so we'll just call it iPad X. Personal hotspot (Cool!)

The new iPad will be available in black & white colors. There are two wireless options available: 4G LTE or Fast 3G HSDPA and DC-HSDPA.

March 7, 1876 Telephone Patented + How to Dial the Telephone Video (1927)

March 7, 2012


On this day March 7th in 1876 - 136 years ago - Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone.  Interestingly, with the patenting of this world-changing technology an instructional black & white video was released in 1927 - a silent one at that, so pay close attention to the captions for this "Dialing for Dummies" instructional video. After all, dialing on a rotary phone is really hard! Wow, it's been 30 years since I used one.

Compare Your Reading Speed to the National Average (Online Tool)

March 6, 2012


Love to read books and curious how fast you can read? Well, take this speed reading challenge that'll measure just how fast you can read, tell you exactly how long it'll take to read some popular classics, and compare you with national reading speed averages. It'll even tell you how many consecutive eBooks you can read before your eReader's battery will die (Nook, Kindle, Kindle Fire, Sony Reader, etc.). Though I'm not sure how many people would read multiple books all in the same day causing them to kill their eReader's battery. 

Cheap Gadget Insurance Saves the Day

March 6, 2012


Protect Your Bubble, a new specialty insurance brand, launched today in the U.S., offering affordable and comprehensive gadget insurance for those pricey gadgets starting at $2.99/month. Perhaps more importantly Protest Your Bubble guarantees 24-hour turnaround for a replacement phone or tablet. So now you will only have to feel gadget withdrawal for 24 hours. Hey, if Jack Bauer can survive 24 hours fighting terrorists, being tortured, with barely time enough to check his Facebook, then surely you can wait 24 hours to have your gadget mailed to you.

Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Updates

March 2, 2012

Microsoft released some updates for Microsoft Lync Server 2010, Microsoft's unified communications server platform. You can download the cumulative update here.

Here's a list of updates released for Lync Server 2010:

Apple 7.85" Tablet Targeting Kindle Fire Will Fail

March 1, 2012


Apple is reportedly going to ship 7.85" iPads in the 3rd quarter, squarely targeting the 7" $199 Kindle Fire, which scorched up holiday sales. This new mini-iPad also targets the Barnes & Noble Nook, though the Kindle Fire is the more popular of the two. The Register is reporting that Steve Jobs' death cleared the way for this new 7.85" iPad, since Steve Jobs was opposed to a mini-iPad.

Regardless of the reason Apple has changed their minds and decided to attack the ~7" tablet market, this is one area where Apple will fail. First, the cost.


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