Mobile Phones

Mobile Phones, cell phones

Microsoft Blocks VoIP on Windows Marketplace for Mobile

May 6, 2009

Microsoft has banned several applications for it's new Windows Marketplace for Mobile app store, including VoIP. Guess Apple isn't the only VoIP crippler in town. Perhaps this is an opportunity for Google Android to surpass BOTH Apple and Microsoft within the mobile phone space. After all, Google's philosophy is do no evil.

Posted in Android, Apple, Gadgets, Internet, Microsoft, Mobile Phones, Skype, VoIP, Wireless

50% of Mobile Voice Traffic Will Use End-to-End VoIP by 2019

May 5, 2009

Gartner, a respected research firm located just a stone's throw from TMC said today, "mobile VoIP poses a huge challenge for traditional mobile voice providers." You don't say? Hmm, I would have never guessed such a thing. Ok, other than stating the obvious, the research does have some fascinating points, including claiming that ore than 50% of mobile voice traffic will be carried using end-to-end VoIP by 2019 - or basically 10 years from now.

"Mobile portal voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) offered by third-party application-based providers poses a huge and direct challenge to the $692.6 billion global mobile voice market", according to Gartner, Inc. Gartner predicts that over time traditional network-based mobile carriers face the real prospect of losing a major slice of their voice traffic and revenue to new non-infrastructure players that use VoIP.

But Gartner doesn't paint an entirely rosy picture for VoIP. Gartner said "that despite this significant potential, conditions for the rapid expansion in the use of mobile VoIP are not yet right and are not likely to become right for at least five years and perhaps as long as eight years."

Yeah, well when carriers like AT&T pull crap like forcing Apple to only allow VoIP over WiFi and not over a 3G data connection, it's no wonder why mobile VoIP growth will be stunted by anti-competitive tactics.

Posted in Apple, Mobile Phones, News, SIP, Skype, Technology and Science, Unified Communications, VoIP, Wireless

Free Calls on Skype

April 23, 2009

3 UK is opening up its network to allow anyone with a 3 SIM and a compatible handset to have unlimited Skype-to-Skype calls and instant messages without ever having to pay. 3UK announced that on May 1st users with a 3UK SIM and a 3-provided Skype-enabled handset will be able to use Skype for free. Additionally, previous deals for free Skype required a monthly topup of £10 on pay-as-you-go and there will be no data charges. Thus, Skype will be 100% free, subject to their fair use policy of course.

Posted in Apple, Gadgets, Mobile Phones, SIP, Skype, Unified Communications, VoIP, Wireless

Plantronics Voyager PRO

April 23, 2009

The Plantronics Voyager Pro is the successor to the much-loved Plantronics Voyager 510 Bluetooth headset, which goes on sale today, although, Best Buy started selling its stock a bit early. I have a review unit which I plan on testing and giving my thoughts/opinion on in the new few days. I reviewed its predecessor, the Plantronics Voyage 510, which had a cult following. I was a big fan of the Voyager 510 and have one on my desk.

Posted in Accessories, Gadgets, Headsets, Mobile Phones, Reviews, Skype, VoIP, Wireless

GVDialer for Google Voice

April 11, 2009

GVdialer is an intriguing mobile application for Google Voice, supporting iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Microsoft, and Symbian. GVdialer enables you to use Google Voice with your mobile phone while enabling some cool features. For instance, you can present your Google number as your Caller ID on outgoing mobile calls, thus keeping your mobile number private. This also gives you a one number identity to share with people.

Using the app installed you can dial directly from your phone's contacts, speed dial, call log or keypad, and GVdialer will automatically connect the call using Google Voice.

Even cooler you have Google Voice feature access including instant access to Google Voice's voice mail, Inbox, and GOOG-411.

As seen in the iPhone application, GVdialer lets you configure when GV would be used, i.e.

Posted in Android, Google, Mobile Phones, Unified Communications, Wireless

KIRK 2010 <strike>WiFi</strike> DECT VoIP phone

April 9, 2009

The KIRK 2010 WiFi DECT VoIP handset launched today. This is the latest edition to the Polycom KIRK Series. I wonder if Captain Kirk is aware that Polycom is trying to copy his copyrighted 'communicator'?

Then again, Kirk's communicator didn't have a numeric keypad. Just turn the dial and instantly talk to the Star Trek Enterprise's bridge (hundreds of miles away) with seemingly no latency either.

Posted in Gadgets, Mobile Phones, Polycom, SIP, VoIP, Wireless

IPEVO S0-10W Skype Desktop Phone

April 7, 2009

IPEVO's S0-10W Skype Desktop Phone is a pretty neat Skype phone, that unlike most Skype phones, was designed for your desk, not to carry around. That includes the IPEVO Wi-Fi Skype phone, I recently reviewed. While the IPEVO Wi-Fi Skype phone was designed to be portable and carry around, Skype phones like these are small which means a very small speakerphone (or none at all), resulting in limited or no hands-free speakerphone capabilities. The IPEVO S0-10W Skype Desktop Phone solves that problem.

Rather than sporting an Ethernet connection, however, it uses a built-in Wi-Fi adapter, so you could carry this around the house / business if you wanted to (still needs power, so would have to plug it back in).

Posted in Mobile Phones, Skype, VoIP

Tweefind a new rank-based twitter search

April 6, 2009

Fellow VoIP blogger Luca has launched a new endeavor called Tweefind, which is a rank-based twitter search engine rather than a simply timeline search on keywords.

Luca explains:

How is the Tweerank calculated? Behind the scenes there is a sophisticated algorithm which analyzes how users use Twitter and calculates their rank accordingly. The rank is obtained taking into account a certain number of different parameters in a certain timeframe:

# followers

# following

# of tweets

# of RT he/she receives

# of replies

# of distinct users who reply

# of distinct users who retweet

# of RT he/she makes

# of links the user shares

much more...

Luca explains that a twitter user's ranking can change daily, depending on how much they use twitter, and other variables. It's an interesting model.

Posted in Mobile Phones, Social Networking, VoIP

Skype for iPhone Blocked in Canada

March 31, 2009

I learned that the Skype for iPhone app is unavailable to our Canadian friends across the border in the Apple iTunes App Store. I contacted Skype for comment and their representative told me, "There are some patent-licensing issues which prevent us from offering it there."

I then asked if other countries were affected or if it was just Canada and was informed it was just Canada. When asked whose patent it was or what category it involved (i.e. mobile VoIP), the representative told me, "I can't go into many more details other than it's codec related."

Sounds to me like their was some sort of patent settlement which Skype can't talk about.

Posted in Apple, Gadgets, Mobile Phones, Skype, VoIP, Wireless

Skype on iPhone is Official

March 30, 2009

Gigaom's Om Malik was right about Skype launching a native Skype app for the iPhone. The WSJ and CNet are confiming Om's scoop today. When I say the news hit the wires, my initial reaction was "I hope Om go credit for breaking this story last week. He's one of the premiere bloggers and deserves credit from the mainstream media and other tech journals".

Alas, I was sorely disappointed that they didn't give Om credit.

Posted in Apple, Mobile Phones, Skype, VoIP

Previous 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 ... 65 Next

VoIP & Gadgets Blog

Mobile Phones