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2013 - The Year of WebRTC

January 9, 2013

WebRTC has been making great strides of late. A few companies using worth checking out are bistri, Plivo, and twelephone. I'm in the process of testing bistri and twelephone, but I did actual use Plivo's proof-of-concept WebRTC offering, which I'll get into a in a moment.

First an overview of bistri and twelephone. bistri is pretty interesting because it lets you link with Facebook, Google, Windows Live, Yahoo, Jabber/XMPP, and Вконтакте.

Facebook Testing Free VoIP calling in Messenger app

January 3, 2013



Well, well, well - just days after my "Skype vs. Facebook - How WebRTC Will Turn Friends into Enemies" post where I said Facebook could crush Skype if they chose to get into VoIP, Facebook released a new version of Facebook Messenger for iOS that sports VoIP features.

According to the Verge, "Facebook today began testing a new feature in its Messenger app that lets Canadian users call each other for free anywhere they have a Wi-Fi or cellular data connection. The test for now only applies to Messenger for iOS, but could roll out to Android users, as well as people worldwide, if the test goes well."

I just tried it out on my iPhone and so far it's only one-way voice messages that you record and send to your Facebook friends.





2012 WebRTC Demo Winners Announced

November 29, 2012

Google WebRTC Workshop at WebRTC Conference Exceeds Expectations

November 28, 2012

TMC was at the forefront of covering VoIP and educating the industry though Internet Telephony Magazine (launched in 1997) and TMCnet.com. So I am excited to announced that my company TMC, along with Systemwide Media and PKE Consulting has announced that attendance at the opening workshop of its first-ever WebRTC Conference & EXPO more than doubled projections, with more than 300 registered attendees representing enterprises, and companies driving a revolution in Web communications. WebRTC is going to be a huge game changer in the VoIP space, so I'm excited that TMC is involved in educating and covering WebRTC, the next evolution of VoIP. The conference is being held this week at the South San Francisco Conference Center.

Check out a couple photos from the WebRTC Conference & Expo:
 

 

Yesterday's workshop in San Francisco was led by Google Software Engineer Justin Uberti.






Watchitoo's Playground Unveiled - Watch out Skype & Google Hangouts!

October 3, 2012


Watchitoo today unveiled Playground, their cloud-based video collaboration platform for small and medium businesses featuring up to 25 participants that can do video, screen sharing, chat, and file sharing. I did a demo of Playground last week and I was very impressed. During my demo with Watchitoo's CEO Rony Zarom and a PR representative we had 3 webcams streaming and he started a screen-sharing session. Next, he started a HD YouTube video.

WebRTC - Mobile Communications Game Changer or Flash in the Pan?

September 24, 2012

Came across Erik Lagerway's interesting guest post on Gigaom.com discussing WebRTC and its potential to be a mobile game changer. WebRTC essentially embeds a standard-based real time Media Engine into all of the available browsers enabling real-time voice and video communication from your browser. Erik ponders the future leveraging WebRTC:

Imagine a world where no matter what we use or where we are we could all communicate via video, hassle-free, for free — native video from Apple devices to Samsung devices, from business phones to the TV in your living room, from your car to your home to a beach in Hawaii. That is what WebRTC can do for us.


Kindle Fire HD Awesomeness!

September 6, 2012


The all new Kindle Fire sports a faster processor, double the memory, and 40% faster performance - at $159. Is Amazon CEO Steve Bezos insane? That's a ridiculously low price, but if anyone can subsidize a tablet with paid content it's Amazon.com. Bezos said Amazon wants to produce "the best tablet any price."

OBi202 Review

August 31, 2012


Obihai's line of VoIP products that allow users to BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) instead of being locked to specific VoIP hardware has made Obihai a hit with fans of BYOD. Further, Obihai's analog telephone adapter (ATA) products offer both SIP and Google Voice connectivity making it a very versatile device choice to host your various phone service providers. Obihai's products can even give you FREE unlimited phone minutes to anywhere in the U.S. by leveraging Google Voice's 100% free calling.

Obihai sent me the OBi202 and the new OBiBT Bluetooth adapter for a review and I have to say I was very impressed.


Google Pimps Nexus 7 tablet on Google home page

August 28, 2012


Rich Tehrani discovered that Google is pimping their Nexus 7 tablet on Google's home page which is renowned for being advertising-free. The Nexus 7 (built by Asus) is the first tablet developed under Google, and is the first device to run Android 4.1 / Jelly Bean, the latest version of Google's mobile operating system. Considering the Samsung (Android) $1+ billion defeat to Apple, perhaps Google who has a huge stake in Android is flipping the bird to Apple.

Google to Apple: "You think you got massive eyeballs viewing iPhones and iPads? Well watch this!


Maaii VoIP app Now on Android - Free Voice and Texts

July 9, 2012



Maaii, the app for free talk and text is now available on Android. Maaii,  allows users to make calls and send text messages to contacts and social network friends for free, today announced the launch of its beta on Google Play. As you may recall from my review, Maaii gives you 100 free minutes per day, which is great for low volume users.

According to Maaii, in the six months since Maaii’s iOS launch, the mobile app has signed up more than 1 million registered users.



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