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More on FCC VoIP wiretaps

September 28, 2005

It appears that the new FCC rules to allow a backdoor for wiretapping is not going to happen without a fight. Declan McCullagh reports that The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) said Wednesday that it plans to file suit against the new federal rule. The only thing that Declan may have gotten slightly wrong is this part in bold where he only refers to SkypeOut:

the Federal Communications Commission said that broadband providers and Internet phone companies that link to the public telephone network (Vonage, Packet 8, SkypeOut) must rewire their networks to readily accommodate police wiretaps. If they don't comply, they must shut down.

As I have recently stated here and here, it appears that not only is SkypeOut applicable to this new FCC wiretapping rules, but plain-ole' Skype (Skype-to-Skype) calls fall under the FCC wiretap guidelines as well.

Posted in Google, Packet8, Skype, VoIP, Vonage

Is Google becoming the dreaded Skynet?

September 20, 2005

General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems and Jabber, Inc. announced a partnership to help solve the information sharing issues inherent in cross-agency collaboration. Combined with General Dynamics' mission awareness capabilities and Jabber, Inc.'s XMPP-based extensible presence architecture, the two companies will work to deliver solutions that solve the interoperability issues associated with information sharing for government customers; from first responders to military commanders to intelligence officers.

Utilzing XMPP? That's just great - this just confirms my fears that Google, which also supports XMPP (via GoogleTalk) will soon be able to take over the Defense Department, CIA, and NSA once Google evolves to becomes the dreaded Skynet depicted on the Terminator movies. (Not only that, but I just learned Google may be adding "search" to their voice Google Talk application)

Anyway, here's the news...

According to Baghdad veteran, national security information specialist and Jabber, Inc. Sr. VP Michael Helfrich:

"Since 9/11, the information technology mission of the U.S. national security infrastructure has been to facilitate horizontal communication across stovepipe architectures and ensure decision makers receive accurate information at the moment of most value."

To achieve this end, General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems and Jabber, Inc. announced today a partnership to help solve the information sharing issues inherent in cross-agency collaboration.

Posted in Google

Keep your eye on Eyeball Networks

September 19, 2005

"I sense a shift in the force." As most in the VoIP blogosphere already knew, Eyeball Networks, a developer of VoIP and video telephony software for service providers and device manufacturers, hired Eric Lagerway, as their Chief Operating Officer. Eric runs the popular SIPthat.com VoIP blog and was formerly with Xten, another softphone company. TMC Labs did one of the first, if not THE first review of Eyeball Networks product back in 2001, which you can check out here.

Eric has always been a big proponent of open-standards and he promised me that he will push Eyeball Networks in that direction. Admittedly, Eric stated that Eyeball Chat is still proprietary but "before Xmas this year it will be SIP and open standards through and through." Part of my role here is to instill open standards and new product strategies.

Posted in Google, Reviews, Skype, VoIP

Microsoft vs. Google the Tit-for-Tat war

September 15, 2005

Two days ago I pondered whether Google would acquire Technorati or finally build their own blog search engine. Just a few hours later from this post, Google announced Google Blog Search. Actually, I planned it that way! Of course, I was not the only one or even the first to wonder why Google hadn't yet offered a blog search engine.

I believe now that Microsoft should acquire Technorati and here's why. First, let's look at the Microsoft vs.

Posted in Google, MovableType

Chril Pirillo on GoogleTalk, eBay/Skype and other IM stuff

September 14, 2005

Eric Lagerway, formerly of Xten emailed me with an interesting podcast/interview he had with Chris Pirillo.

Eric writes:
I wanted to get Chris Pirillo's feedback on some recent events including GoogleTalk, eBay/Skype and the proprietary IM scene. We had some great (uncensored) conversation about the problems with Instant Messaging today and what Chris is doing to make it right. Chris also talks about lining up the big IM vendors on a panel at Gnomedex, a very cool technocrat convention he puts on in Seattle each year.

I had a listed to the podcast and it is indeed interesting and worth checking out. You can listen to the "uncensored" podcast here (be prepared for some profanity):
http://sipthat.com/mp3/Chris-Pirillo-Google-Skype-IM.mp3

Posted in Google, Skype

Google Blog Search beta

September 14, 2005

Google Blog Search Beta

Looks like Google has a blog search engine after all - Google Blog Search beta. The screenshot is a search on "voip blog". <click the image above for a larger view of Google Search Beta> I'm listed on the top, woohoo! I guess an acquisition of Technorati is a moot point now.

Posted in Google

Google buys Technorati

September 13, 2005

Google buys Technorati - sounds plausible doesn't it? Since it seems to be end-of-summer merger mania (ebay buys Skype for example). Tom Raftery thinks it might be Rupert Murdock eyeing Technorati, which after the recent acquisition of MySpaces.com would be yet another step towards Rupert Murdock's Fox News, IGN, and all his other properies controlling the world. Oh no!

Posted in Google

Jabber to enter the softphone market

September 9, 2005

Remember the new open-source softphone I recently promised would announce its plans very shortly? In my prior blog post I mentioned I didn't want to steal TMCnet's Robert Lui's thunder, since he had the scoop on this story. Well, Robert has just posted the story to TMCnet.

The company I "teased" you about a week or so ago is Jabber - the very same Jabber that had its XMPP protocol embedded into Google's softphone, aptly named Google Talk

Let's just hope this new Jabber softphone client is more like Skype in terms of the GUI and functionality than it is like Google Talk, which I was a bit disappointed with when I took it for a test drive.

Anyway, here's an excerpt from Jabber - Reluctant Voice Player:

Jabber plans to integrate
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) directly into voice capabilities of its core Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) – occasionally referred to as the “Jabber” protocol – by next spring, TMCnet has learned. more...

Posted in Google, Skype, VoIP

Google hires Vint Cerf

September 8, 2005

Google Inc. announces that it hired Vinton (Vint) Cerf, the longtime technologist who is widely known as a “founding father” of the Internet, as Chief Internet Evangelist.

When Microsoft was pressed for comment they stated "First it was Kai-Fu Lee and now Vint Cerf. What, does Google want to do -- own the world? We will vigorously pursue a lawsuit over Google's acquisition of the 'founder father' of the Internet. Vint Cerf belongs to no one and yet everyone. We will not stand for Google's usurpation of the Internet. We believe Vint's intelligence and knowledge should be open source."

Posted in Google

Global IP Sound to announce video product

September 1, 2005

In a few weeks Global IP Sound (GIPS) will unveil a new product to complement the GIPS VoiceEngine Suite called VoiceEngine Multimedia. This will add high-quality video capabilities to the VoiceEngine product line. It's a natural extension to GIPS' renowned voice engine that is used in Skype, Google Talk, and other VoIP products. Global IP Sound's engine is the reason why Skype sounds so damn good - ditto for Google Talk, due to GIPS's ability to handle packet loss, latency, etc.

The initial release will incorporate On2’s VP7 codec, which is a high quality video codec.

Posted in Google, Skype, VoIP

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