Tom Keating : VoIP & Gadgets Blog
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Amazon Kindle Fire - Hot or Not?

September 28, 2011



The Amazon Kindle Fire 7-inch tablet aims to take on the Apple iPad, but will the Fire catch fire with consumers? Amazon has loyal Kindle e-reader users, but part of its draw is the e-ink screen which works in direct sunlight for beach book reading. It's the one-up Amazon had over the iPad which doesn't do so well in direct sunlight.

The new Kindle Fire is a color screen and not e-ink, so it loses that advantage. Further, the new Kindle Fire doesn't have a camera!



Toshiba Thrive 7 Tablet Impresses

September 28, 2011



Toshiba today announced the Thrive 7, little brother to their big brother the Thrive 10. Both Thrive models are based on Android and the original Thrive 10 has had some modest success, but the 10" tablet space is a bit more crowded. So it's a smart move for Toshiba to go a bit smaller with the Thrive 7. The Thrive 7 sports Toshiba's AutoBrite™ LED Backlit Display and interestingly has the same 1280x800 screen resolution as the Thrive 10.

Skype Integrated GroupMe App?

September 20, 2011



So I got this email from Skype saying this:
We’re excited to introduce GroupMe – the newest member of the Skype family.

GroupMe is the easiest way to chat with the people and groups you really know, wherever you are. GroupMe works on almost every cell phone¹ and there’s an app available for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone 7. Add in SMS chat² as well and you’ll be connecting with all your friends in no time at all.

And best of all, the app is free³.
In no time at all you’ll be wondering how you lived without it. Visit GroupMe to learn more, or get the free app³ today.

Happy chatting,
Skype

No smartphone?











HTC Unveils HTC TITAN 4.7" and 3.8" Radar Smartphones

September 6, 2011


HTC has unveiled HTC TITAN (image above), its largest screen smartphone featuring a 4.7 inch WVGA 480x800 pixel display and the smaller 3.8 inch HTC Radar, both of which run on Windows Phone 7.5 Mango operating system. The HTC TITAN sports a slim 9.9 mm (0.39 inch) aluminum shell and a whopping 8 megapixel camera with a f/2.2 aperture lens, dual LED flash, BSI sensor (for better low-light captures) and 720p video recording.

The HTC TITAN, previously codenamed HTC Eternity, is powered by a 1.5GHz Scorpion processor, Adreno 205 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8255 chipset  with 512MB of RAM and integrated GPS. The internal storage memory of the device is only 16GB. I'm really surprised such a high-end smartphone sporting a large screen and a high-end 8MP camera doesn't sport 32GB of internal storage for storing lots of photos and other media (music, videos).


The Apple Downgrade Kills HP

August 19, 2011


We all know about the S&P downgrade caused by the rating agency's view of U.S.'s debt and debt ceiling. S&P saw the writing on the wall that U.S. is on the road to insolvency and default on the debt. Well, apparently the Apple iPad tablet has had a similar downgrade affect on HP's PC, laptop, and tablet business.

Vonage Time to Call iPhone App Makes Cheap International Calls

August 3, 2011

Vonage today launched Time to Call for the iPhone, a new mobile VoIP app that aims to deliver low-cost international calling. Vonage claims Time to Call is the first downloadable app that allows pay-per-call international dialing to more than 190 countries.  The app, designed for iPhones, lets consumers make 15-minute international calls and it features payment directly through iTunes, which will no doubt improve the adoption rate.

For a limited time, Vonage will provide a free international call, up to 15 minutes, to 100 countries. 

Google, Mozilla, Samsung & NVIDIA Join DevCon5 HTML5 Conference

July 26, 2011


Some cool news to share about TMC's DevCon5, a HTML5, WebGL and WebCL-focused conference. Executives from several heavyweights, including Google, Mozilla, Samsung, and NVIDIA will be participating.

Check out the news...

Executives from Google, Mozilla, Samsung and NVIDIA Join the Discussion at DevCon5, Taking Place July 27-28 in New York

New Sessions Discuss the Evolution of the Browsing Experience in Today’s Mobile, “Any-to-Any” Environment





Twilio, the Cloud-based VoIP/Skype App Enabler

July 26, 2011


Today, Twillio is launching their cloud-based VoIP offering that enables developers to add VoIP capabilities to any website with just three lines of code. Twilio's VoIP developer toolkit called “Twilio Client” enables realtime two-ray audio to voice-enable browsers, iOS, and Android Apps. Twilio's product uses the Flash plugin to access the microphone. But since Apple's iOS doesn't support Flash I'm told for mobile they are integrating with iOS and Android through custom mobile SDKs. The mobile SDKs will allow the Android and iPhone mobile platforms to offer Twilio-powered VoIP to their applications.

Twillio explained that "with Twilio Client, web developers worldwide can now build Skype-like voice capabilities with Twilio’s scalable, reliable communications infrastructure-as-a-service. With just a few lines of code, web and mobile applications can host voice conversations, conference calls, and other forms of rich communication." Essentially, you can think of Twilio as a hosted Skype service that lets anyone into the VoIP game.


Viber for Android Available!

July 20, 2011


Viber, a popular mobile VoIP app which enables users to make free phone calls and text messaging to other Viber users over 3G and Wi-Fi, is announcing today the official launch of the Android version of the app. Previously, it was a limited beta. Viber also stated that it has over 12 million active users (last 30 days) and has achieved an important benchmark - call traffic volume of over one billion minutes of calls per quarter.

Here are some exclusive Android Features not seen on other mobile versions (i.e. iPhone):
  • Full call screen whenever a Viber call is received;
  • Popup text message notification, which lets users respond to text messages without having to open Viber;
  • Tighter integration with the phone, which allows users to see their regular call logs and messages within Viber;
  • A default dialer setting that enables users to use the Viber dialer for all their phone calls, not just for Viber calls.
Check out the video demo:





Facebook Kid Bullies Google+ Kid. Punches Thrown, Body Slam & Hilarity Ensues

July 13, 2011

Perhaps you recall the viral video of a skinny bully picking on a much larger kid, egging him on, taunting him, punching him, until finally the larger kid has had enough, he picks up the smaller kid, lifts him in the air and body slams him on the concrete. The bigger kid (Casey Heynes) became an instant hero to millions of picked-on kids, including his own Facebook fan page. Well, what if that skinny kid was Facebook and the big kid was Google? Why you get one of the funniest animated .gifs of all time!

{Disclaimer: No Facebook or Google+ servers were harmed during the making of this film}

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