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Digium Launches Asterisk Tech Tips Webinars

March 23, 2011

Steve Sokol, Asterisk Marketing Director for Digium informed me that starting this week Digium will be presenting a bi-weekly series of webinars called Asterisk Tech Tips.  Steve explained, "Each episode consists of a tutorial covering an interesting feature of Asterisk, followed by an open Q&A session.  People are welcome to ask questions about the tutorial topic, but it's also an open forum for general Asterisk questions."

This week Malcolm Davenport (Digium employee #4 & Senior Product Manager for Asterisk and Asterisk SCF) will be covering one of the more popular new features of Asterisk 1.8: tying Asterisk into Google.  The tutorial will teach people how to effectively use Google's voice chat (part of Gmail) as a soft-phone with Asterisk, and how to make and receive free calls in the U.S.

Google Voice <strike>Supports</strike> SIP

March 8, 2011

We all heard the buzz surrounding Google killing off Gizmo5, including some peeved users like Todd Vierling. However, Todd Vierling then discovered that Google added SIP support to reach any Google Voice number. For instance, if you Google Voice number is 203-555-1000, anyone can now call you for free via SIP simply by dialing [email protected].

A bunch of bloggers picked up on Todd's discovery. Dan York, writes "Wouldn't it be great if you could call a Google Voice number directly via SIP?

Google Voice Adds Number Porting - Carriers Cry

January 20, 2011

Social Networking 2.0 Brings Businesses Into the Fold

January 5, 2011

Social networking exploded in 2010 resulting in Facebook social networking traffic surpassing Google search traffic. What's the main difference between Facebook traffic and Google traffic? Facebook is about sharing content with groups - family, friends, and co-workers, while Google is a solo affair with individuals reading interesting stories and finding out information. People naturally want to build associations and connections with other people, which is why social networking has exploded.

Apple iOS vs. Google Android

December 28, 2010


There was an interesting discussion of iOS-vs.-Android news that began with this report by Seth Weintraub for Fortune. He explains in the article the downward spiral cost of creating smartphone components and the end product smartphone as well. He also says Apple could be in big trouble as Android activations surpass iPhone because of the lower cost of Android phones. Seth writes:

Cheap smartphones could change the way carriers price contracts here in the U.S.




Skype for Android Update - Supports Samsung Galaxy S & SD Card

December 16, 2010

Skype is on an update roll. Last week they released an update for Nokia/Symbian phones. Now they just released an update for Android devices that allows you to move the Skype app to external storage to free up precious local storage on the phone. This release also adds compatibility with the Samsung Galaxy S. Only catch is that you'll need Android 2.2.

Skype may be on an update roll, but there is NO truth to the rumor that they are releasing a video-enabled Skype app for iPhone or Android for some video chat action.

Bria for Android v1.0 Launches

November 9, 2010

Bria for Android just launched. It's priced at $7.99 ($8.99 more for G.729 codec support) and is available here. Check out the features:

Bria Android Edition has all the standard telephone features, including:

  • Support for an account on any SIP-compliant server
  • Multi-tasking support for background operation, such as fielding incoming calls while using other applications
  • Call display and voicemail indicator
  • Voicemail support
  • Speakerphone, Mute and Hold
  • A detailed call history pane that displays dialed, answered and missed calls, along with ability to delete entries
  • Contact List – leveraging the phone’s native address book
  • The ability to work with the native dialer (a.k.a. Call Intercept)
  • Ringtones and contact avatars
  • Dial plan support (softphone-side)
  • Multiple call support
    • Swap between two active calls
    • Merge calls (three-way conferencing support)
    • Call transfer (attended and unattended)
  • Audio codecs include G.711a/u, iLBC and GSM
    • Option to purchase with or without G.729 codec
  • Automatic codec selection to ensure optimal call quality
  • Noise reduction
  • DTMF support: the ability to enter number into an auto attendant
    • via RFC 2833 or SIP INFO

Advanced Features

  • NAT traversal
    • Application managed, server managed or user specified
    • Global IP support
    • STUN and ICE
  • Media efficiency and quality
    • VAD (Voice Activation Detection)
    • QoS (Quality of Service)
    • ToS Marking
  • Security and encryption
    • TLS
    • SRTP
  • Logging support for trouble shooting
  • DNS SRV record lookups

Accessories



Asterisk 1.8 - Major Release Sports 200 New Features

October 21, 2010

Digium today released Asterisk 1.8, a major new release of the popular open source telephony platform. According to Digium, it includes more than 200 notable new features.

I spoke with Digium's Product Manager, Steve Sokol, to learn more about this important release.

Truphone to Take on Skype & Offer Windows VoIP App

October 15, 2010

Truphone, headquartered in London, U.K. will soon be releasing a VoIP client for Windows PCs, as well as the Mac OS. Truphone is known for their mobile VoIP apps supported on several mobile platforms including Apple, Android, Blackberry, and Symbian, but this will be their first foray into the desktop PC environment. Unlike Skype, Truphone leverages the standard SIP protocol, so essentially Truphone will be releasing a SIP softphone client customized to work with their service offering.



CounterPath Demos iPhone to Nexus One Call Switching from VoIP to Cellular & Back

October 6, 2010


I met with Todd Carothers, VP of Product Management at TMC's ITEXPO in Los Angeles to hear about Counterpath's latest patents and new product offerings. Todd gave me one of the coolest demos of mobile VoIP I've ever seen! I captured the demo in one of two videos that I've included in this blog post. Definitely a must watch!
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