VoIP & Gadgets Blog

Why the Cisco Cius Failed & Why Microsoft Might Beat the Mighty iPad

By Tom Keating on Friday, May 25

Rich Tehrani has a good post today on why the Cisco Cius failed. He put it succinctly and with a nice metaphor...

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Tagged active directory, byod, cisco, cius, ipad, it, microsoft, rich tehrani, tablet, windows 8

Turns out Cisco Cius Can't Compete With the iPad Either

By Rich Tehrani on Friday, May 25

Company after company is learning what most of instinctively know already – competing with Apple head-on is like trying to tackle...

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Tagged a175, android, apple, avaya, cisco, cius, consumer electronics, consumerization of it, flare, ios, ipad, tablet

Disruption Targets Currency Exchange Kiosks

By Rich Tehrani on Friday, May 25

Technology has resulted in massive margin compression among industry after industry. Retailers have to struggle to make money to pay their brick...

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Tagged app, app store, apple, consumer electronics, currency, financial, gadget, iphone, wireless

Will It Rain for EarthLink in the Cloud?

By Peter on Thursday, May 24

EarthLink is really pulling out the umbrella to get it to rain in Cloud. EarthLink picked up XO's former CMO, Michael Toplisek,...

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Tagged cloud computing, earthlink, email, security, vdi, virtual desktop, virtualization

A Lesson in Value Proposition

By Peter on Wednesday, May 23

This came across my twitter stream this week:"Must-read for founders: A VC explains how to build a killer value proposition" on VentureBeat...

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Tagged agents, hosted pbx, marketing, sales, sellecom, value, vc

Combatting Mobile Data

By Peter on Wednesday, May 23

How do you offer your broadband customers mobile access? There are a couple of options. One is MVNO, reselling cellular data cards...

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Tagged att, cableco, cellular, mso, vzw, wi-fi, wireless

Yahoo Reinvents Mobile Browser with Axis

By Rich Tehrani on Wednesday, May 23

Yahoo has taken the mobile browser and improved it dramatically by integrating search and allowing users to view results rapidly without the...

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Tagged apple, axis, chrome, firefox, google, ios, ipad, searchme, yahoo

Kickstarter, A Solution for the Patient

By Rich Tehrani on Wednesday, May 23

If you want to be involved - intimately involved with the manufacturing process behind a product you purchase then I suggest you...

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Tagged apple, consumer electronics, crowdfunding, gadget, ipad, keyboard, kickstarter, touchfire

Sonos SUB Expensive but Convenient

By Rich Tehrani on Tuesday, May 22

Sonos makes a great WiFi-based sound system allowing wire-free sound in any room in your home. The only problem with this strategy...

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Tagged airplay, amazon, apple, consumer electronics, gadget, sonos, speaker, stereo

The Mobile VAS Ecosystem

By Jim Machi on Tuesday, May 22

Last week in Thailand, Dialogic held an event for our APAC customers. Although Dialogic is evolving to provide more and more...

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Tagged Dialogic, Service provider, Value-added service, VAS | No Responses

Say it With Skype Facebook app Wants to Be American Idol

By Tom Keating on Tuesday, May 22

Skype announced a new contest to find the next great music band using their Say it With Skype Facebook app, an engaging-group...

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Tagged app, band, black cards, facebook, journey, justin bieber, music, recording, say it with skype, skype, video

TV to GO: Cablevision Customers Access TV Beyond the Home

By Rich Tehrani on Tuesday, May 22

Cable companies having come together to share their WiFi networks in order to compete somewhat with 3G and 4G networks are also...

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Tagged cable, optimum online, television, tv, video

Skype v4.0.1325 Released for Apple iOS

By Tom Keating on Monday, May 21

A new version of Skype was just released to the Apple App Store. No new major features to report - just some...

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Tagged apple, ios, skype, voip

No Special Sauce

By Peter on Monday, May 21

There is no special sauce.Everyone has the same technology (or will 5 minutes after you market yours).It was never about the technology.It...

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Tagged customer service, marketing, strategy, technology

The New In Your Face Facebook Ads - Coming Soon!

By Tom Keating on Monday, May 21

After Facebook's disastrous IPO leading some to speculate Facebook's actual worth is in the $16-$24 range, it's worth examining what went wrong....

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Tagged ads, advertisements, affiliate, apple, cafepress, facebook, mobile advertising, netflix, ppc

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Why the Cisco Cius Failed & Why Microsoft Might Beat the Mighty iPad

May 25, 2012

Rich Tehrani has a good post today on why the Cisco Cius failed. He put it succinctly and with a nice metaphor when he writes:

Company after company is learning what most of instinctively know already – competing with Apple head-on is like trying to tackle a freight train with your bare hands as it is barreling down the tracks in your direction. Amazon with its Kindle Fire competed on price and used its services to subsidize the device. Other tablet makers are finding it virtually impossible to compete without such advantages.

Rich is exactly right.

Posted in Android, Apple, Gadgets, Microsoft, TMCnet

Tagged: active directory, byod, cisco, cius, ipad, it, microsoft, rich tehrani, tablet, windows 8 : Related Tags: windows tablets, active directory, virtually impossible, windows, tablets, tablet

Say it With Skype Facebook app Wants to Be American Idol

May 22, 2012

Skype announced a new contest to find the next great music band using their Say it With Skype Facebook app, an engaging-group video greeting app that lives on both Facebook and Skype.com. Simply use Say it With Skype to record your music band on video and you could be the next American IdolSkype Music Super Hero! Hey, it worked for Justin Bieber, who was discovered via a YouTube video.

Similar to American Idol, there will be some relatively well-known judges in the music industry to judge the entries, including Pete Wentz of Black Cards, Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, and MTV music personality and host of "120 Minutes" and MTVHive.com Matt Pinfield. As an added bonus to joining the app as the 'house band,' the winning band is to receive one-on-one mentoring time with the celebrity judges and paid studio time to not only record the song which will be featured on the Say it with Skype app, but also the chance to record their own song to use however they please.

Here's me rocking out to the #1 downloaded iTunes song of all time - Journey's Don't Stop Believin' using the Say it With Skype Facebook app.

Ok, maybe not.

Posted in Skype, TMCnet, VoIP

Tagged: app, band, black cards, facebook, journey, justin bieber, music, recording, say it with skype, skype, video : Related Tags: skype facebook, opportunity showcase, emerging artists, emerging musicians, music technology, skype

Skype v4.0.1325 Released for Apple iOS

May 21, 2012

A new version of Skype was just released to the Apple App Store. No new major features to report - just some stability fixes and a fix for a sign in issue as seen here:

Certainly if you're having sign-in issues by all means have this version a go.

Posted in Skype

Tagged: apple, ios, skype, voip : Related Tags: released apple

The New In Your Face Facebook Ads - Coming Soon!

May 21, 2012

After Facebook's disastrous IPO leading some to speculate Facebook's actual worth is in the $16-$24 range, it's worth examining what went wrong. Was it the Nasdaq computer glitches, which some claim resulted in $100 million in losses to investment firms? Perhaps a small factor. Was the initial stock price too high?

Posted in Apple, Mobile Phones, Social Networking, TMCnet, Wireless

Tagged: ads, advertisements, affiliate, apple, cafepress, facebook, mobile advertising, netflix, ppc : Related Tags: president obama, however searching, right sidebar, social media, currently interested, facebook

Comcast Skype on Xfinity $9.95/month - Lame or Cool?

May 16, 2012

Comcast today unveiled their Skype video calling service, Skype on Xfinity which directly integrates into your HDTV. The beauty of the system is you can make and receive Skype video and audio calls from your TV. Users can send instant messages via Skype, while watching TV at the same time.

The only problem is Skype on Xfinity costs $9.95 a month extra. We saw what happened to the $599 Cisco Umi, which Rich Tehrani and I rightly predicted would fail.

Tagged: cisco umi, comcast, hdtv, skype, tv, video conferencing, voip : Related Tags: skype xfinity, additional markets, skype video, while watching, skype, month

Plixer Scrutinizer Network Traffic Analyzer Preview

May 14, 2012

I've been testing Plixer Scrutinizer, a network traffic analyzer product for several weeks now. It's a great product that supports NetFlow used by popular routers and switches, including the popular Cisco ASA series of firewall/security routers, Checkpoint, Adtran, Riverbed, and more. It also supports Juniper Jflow and Juniper IPFIX, SonicWALL NetFlow and SonicWALL IPFIX and Citrix AppFlow. It also supports sFlow.

Having insights into your network is critical as time-sensitive network applications such as VoIP, video conferencing, and unified communications are deployed. Scrutinizer is an excellent tool to monitor your network infrastructure and pinpoint problems.

Posted in Internet, Unified Communications, VoIP

Tagged: cisco asa, flow analytics, netflow, network traffic analysis, plixer, scrutinizer, sflow, wireshark : Related Tags: traffic analyzer, plixer scrutinizer, designed monitor, network traffic, network, scrutinizer

Netflix Temporarily Offline? On Movie Night? Ahhhh!

May 11, 2012

Oh joy - was checking my Netflix DVD queue to see if any interesting movies to stream as well as which ones arrived in the mail and I got this lovely error message:
Watch as many TV episodes and movies as you want for one low price! One month FREE Trial.
We’re sorry, the Netflix website is temporarily unavailable. Our shipping centers are continuing to send and receive DVDs, so your movies will be processed as usual. And you can still instantly watch movies via your Netflix ready device.

Our engineers are working hard to bring the site back up as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience and, again, we apologize for the inconvenience.

Posted in Home Entertainment, Internet

Tagged: down, netflix, outage, unavailable, website : Related Tags: movie night, netflix, movies

Telefonica Launches Skype Competitor Tu Me

May 9, 2012

Telefónica today launched a new mobile app called Tu Me, which essentially takes the approach if you can't beat Skype, join em'. Tu Me features texts, voice calls, messages, and location and photo sharing - all free of charge, with the caveat that it uses your data plan more, so it isn't technically "free" unless you are on an unlimited data plan or you use free Wi-Fi hotspots most of the time.

The app is currently only available on iOS however Android is coming. Tu Me enables communication and sharing between mobile phones, recording every interaction through a searchable timeline, obviously borrowing some elements from the Facebook social network and others.

There are some major caveats with this app.

Posted in Mobile Phones, Skype, VoIP, Wireless

Tagged: mobile voip, skype, sms, telefÃ³nica, tu me : Related Tags: skype competitor, skype

Viber Announces BlackBerry Beta and Windows Phone 7 Beta

May 8, 2012

Viber today announced the availability of Viber for BlackBerry Beta and Windows Phone 7 Beta.

Both Viber for BlackBerry Beta and Viber for Windows Phone 7 Beta initially offer Viber Messaging, allowing users to exchange text and high-quality photo messages and share locations with other Viber users. The beta does not yet include their HD VoIP calling. Some may call this a bit premature beta since Viber is a known as a mobile VoIP app not a standalone IM app, but I'll give them a pass to bringing some early love to these two platforms.

Viber seamlessly integrates with the devices' interface, with no registration required, instantly identifying existing contacts who already have Viber installed so users do not need to go through a “friend request” process. According to Viber, "the full release for both platforms, including Viber’s signature HD-quality free voice calling, will be released as soon as it meets Viber’s quality standards."

Posted in Mobile Phones, SIP, VoIP, Wireless

Tagged: blackberry, free voice calls, hd, im, mobile voip, viber, voip, windows phone : Related Tags: windows phone, viber blackberry, viber, users, quality, windows

Nokia City Lens Augmented Reality Launches on Lumia Phones

May 8, 2012

Nokia today released its City Lens app for Windows Phone, an app that is an augmented reality browser. Users open the app, and depending on the phone's angle (landscape [facing away from you], 45 degrees, or parallel to ground) it automatically changes modes - augmented reality, list of locations, and map mode respectively.

The coolest mode is obviously augmented reality where you hold the phone up and scan the horizon with the camera and it shows icons where various points of interest (POIs) are located. You can specify the POI category, such as Food.

Then you can just tap to read reviews and descriptions, or call to get directions. You can also share your location with friends via social networks, SMS, or email.

Posted in GPS, Gadgets, Microsoft, Mobile Phones

Tagged: augmented reality, camera, city lens, lumia 800, lumia 900, microsoft, nokia, poi, windows phone : Related Tags: augmented reality, augmented, reality, phone

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