Tom Keating : VoIP & Gadgets Blog
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Mobile Phones

Mobile Phones, cell phones

Want to Make Some <em>Sick</em> Money in VoIP?

February 13, 2009

Garrett Smith over at VoIP Supply has an interesting post titled 'Sick of not making money on VoIP hardware?' He's seeing the glass half empty. I see it half-full, which is why my article is titled 'Want to Make Some Sick Money in VoIP?'

Garrett writes:

Remember the good 'ole days? When you actually made fat margins on the VoIP hardware products you sold.

It was great.



Free turn-by-turn GPS directions comes to the iPhone

February 11, 2009


Turn-by-turn navigation has come to the iPhone via xGPS. You'll of course have to jailbreak your iPhone for this, but this might be the one app that might entice you to risk bricking your iPhone - or at least drawing the wrath of Steve Jobs. It actually leverages downloaded Google Maps for the GPS coordinates and just recently added a voice engine to "speak" the directions. It also apparently works on the iPod touch, though you'll need an external GPS receiver.

Check out the video demo of turn-by-turn GPS directions on the iPhone:
What's new in the latest version of xGPS?
  • Wireless Transfer of your map files.




IPEVO Wi-Fi Phone for Skype

February 9, 2009

New HTC Touch Cruise

January 22, 2009


HTC today announced the HTC Touch Cruise, a mobile phone that is optimized to run as a personal navigation handset with its inbuilt GPS and ability to geotag places you go with a photo and audio notes. The new HTC Touch Cruise is an update to last year's popular HTC Touch Cruise model, but it sports a more compact design and several new features.

Of particular note is HTC Footprints, an application that enables you to chronicle places you visit by capturing "digital postcards" on the phone that includes a 3.2MP photo, along with the ability to attach notes and an audio clip to remind you of the location's significance. Footprints will automatically geotag the specific GPS coordinates, and even auto-names each "postcard" with its general location or area.

The HTC Touch Cruise can also be used as an advanced in-car navigation system.  Just stick it into its car cradle and the HTC Touch Cruise automatically transforms its user interface into an easy-to-use, one-touch interface with turn-by-turn directions.

It sports a decent 2.8 inch QVGA display along with HTC's TouchFLO technology. Because it's only QVGA, tt's not TouchFLO 3D, but rather TouchFLO 2D.  Still, the TouchFLO 2D UI for Windows Mobile 6.1 is an improvement over the regular UI.






D2 Technologies Improves its vPort VoIP Software for Development of Next Generation WiMAX, Femtocell and Mobile Handsets/Devices

January 8, 2009


Some interesting news from D2 Technologies worth sharing. It's worth mentioning that D2 offers the mCUE mobile convergence software solution, which combines a communications user interface with the company's vPort MP VoIP software platform targeting OEMs and service providers to help deliver integrated Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) and Unified Communications (UC) functionality.

Their news today involves WiMAX, femtocells, and fixed mobile convergence (FMC). Many predict (myself included) that 2009 will be the year of WiMAX, FMC, and femtocells. Though I think femtocells won't really getting going until late 2009.

At CES D2 Technologies is announcing a significant upgrade to its flagship embedded VoIP software, vPort, supporting processors from market leaders such as Cavium, Freescale, LSI, Ralink, AMCC, Ikanos and TI for OEMs developing the latest in dual mode and IP phones, CPE communications products and other mobile devices.

Here's the news...

D2's vPort optimizes support for video calls, high definition audio, Windows® CE/Mobile applications and remote security management.

D2 Technologies, the market leader in embedded IP communications software platforms, today announced the next generation of its flagship vPort product line, enabling OEMs and service providers to cost-effectively and quickly deliver to market the most advanced mobile and CPE communications products.










Skype Lite Java client

January 8, 2009

Skype announced Skype Lite for Java-enabled phones, including the Google Android, but it should also work on Windows Mobile with Java installed.

Skype Lite is the first native VoIP client using Java. I guess my prediction of a Flash-based Skype client was a little off. From a technical standpoint Java is better suited to an application than Flash, which is better at multimedia stuff.

In any event, Skype is submitting the app to Google's Android Market today according to Techchuck.

Since Skype Lite is Java-based, it should work on several mobile phone brands, including Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Motorola, and others. Don't expect the full-fledged features of the regular client though. Even the native Windows Mobile Skype client will have more features than the Java version.





Truphone Adds Skype Features, Twitter, MSN Messenger, and more

January 5, 2009

Truphone has added a new Skype feature that will allow iPhone and iPod Touch users to make calls and instant message other Skype users.  This new feature is scheduled to go live to consumers the week of Jan. 12, but it's available for a select few media that inquire. I'm going to try it very shortly.

You now will have the ability to make and receive Skype calls and instant message Skype users from your iPhone or iPod touch. Truphone customers on both Apple devices can contact their Skype friends via their Skype IDs.







Apple Large screen iPod Touch in Future Plus Skype & Apple Partnership?

December 31, 2008


According to Techcrunch, we can soon expect to see a 7" or 9" iPod touch, which would make it more akin to a tablet PC than a portable music & video player with app support. The app support is a key point here. One of the problems with the iPod touch and similarly the iPhone is the relatively small screen. Sure, it's bigger than most portable devices, but it's still not quite large enough for optimal productivity.

Toshiba 512GB Solid State Drive

December 18, 2008


Toshiba announced
that it will showcase a 512GB solid-state drive (SSD) at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) next month, with shipments of this large SSD in the second quarter of 2009. These NAND-flash-based solid state drives (SSD) will be the industry's first 2.5-inch 512-gigabyte SSD and features fast read/write times and reliable performance for laptops/notebooks, and other equipment.

In addition to the 2.5-inch, 512GB drive, the 43nm NAND SSD family also includes capacities of 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB, offered in 1.8-inch or 2.5-inch drive enclosures or as SSD Flash Modules. The drives feature a maximum sequential read speed of 240MB per second (MBps) and maximum sequential write speed of 200MBps. This should definitely result in faster boot and application loading times. The drives also offer AES data encryption to prevent unauthorized data access.

512GB soon...



BlackBerry OS Running On Windows Mobile HTC Touch Pro

December 16, 2008

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