VoIP & Gadgets Blog

10 Lessons from Volleyball, Part 2

By Peter on Thursday, May 23

Part 1 of the 10 Business Lessons from Volleyball can be found here. In volleyball, the only play you control yourself is...

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Tagged sales, strategy, volleyball

CloudTC and N-Able Acquired

By Peter on Wednesday, May 22

"Australian-owned IP PBX systems company, Vixtel, has completed the acquisition of Silicon Valley based glass phone developer, CloudTC, for an undisclosed figure,"...

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Tagged hosted pbx, itexpo, mergers, phone system, RMM

ProfitBricks: Where InfiniBand Meets Cloud 2.0

By Rich Tehrani on Wednesday, May 22

In a recent meeting with William Toll and Pete Johnson of ProfitBricks, the pair were ecstatic to explain how their company has...

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Tagged amazon, cloud computing, data center, ec2, infiniband, interop, profitbricks, public cloud, technology

Proactive Care Puts Operators One Step Ahead

By Peter Bernstein on Monday, May 20

By Thomas Fuerst, Senior Director, Multimedia Solutions MarketingAlcatel-Lucent

Monitoring and analyzing network data proactively saves operators time, money, and customers.

When a network service fails, it makes headlines, ticks off customers, and costs that network operator money. When a failure is headed off in advance, on the other hand, there might not be praise-laden headlines, but it's newsworthy nonetheless.

The traditional approach to customer care has typically been: a disgruntled customer calls customer service and complains of a service interruption or problem; the rep, learning of it for the first time, sends out a technician the next day, and eventually finds a resolution. Often, customers are left feeling put out, and the operator has spent significant time and money resolving the problem. Even worse is the customer who doesn’t call and just feels this is ‘typical’ of their network experience. That is a customer at risk of leaving.

Proactive care flips this dynamic on its head by using predictive analytics to identify potential outages or errors in the network and stop them before they occur. It consists of three main parts: one, constantly monitoring and measuring data on the network; two, real-time analysis of the data; and three, the most important, acting on that analysis to fix the problem.

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Tagged Alcatel-Lucent, big data, customer care, KPIs, network monitoring, procativecare | Responses

10 Lessons from Volleyball

By Peter on Monday, May 20

I've played volleyball for over 25 years. I have traveled around the US to watch the pros live - both indoor...

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Tagged hiring, strategy, volleyball

Emerging Threats Combats a Million Plus Pieces of New Malware a Week

By Rich Tehrani on Friday, May 17

There are 250,000 plus new pieces of malware being produced each day equating to one piece per person in the US in...

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Tagged emerging threats, interop, malware, security

NFV-Based Software Telcos Need OSS/BSS Interoperability

By Rich Tehrani on Friday, May 17

One of the goals of ETSI NFV is to allow new entrants to provide solutions to carriers based on software instead of...

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Tagged bss, carrier, ericsson, huawei, interoperability, nfv, nokia siemens networks, nsn, oss, sdn, software telco

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WebRTC Challenges

January 22, 2013

WebRTC holds a lot of promise, and with the buzz surrounding WebRTC beginning to reach a fever pitch, it's worth pointing out the challenges facing WebRTC.

First, let's begin with the expectations set for WebRTC. At TMC's recent WebRTC Conference, a panel discussed how WebRTC has high expecations. WebRTC has very ambitious goals, aiming to become the de facto standard by which users voice and video chat with other Internet users, which has the developer community and techies like myself very excited. Recently, I've written about WebRTC Demo fun, 2013 - The Year of WebRTC, and

Posted in Apple, Google, Microsoft, SIP, Skype, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP, WebRTC

Tagged: apple, challenges, chrome, codecs, firefox, google, h.264, internet explorer, microsoft, safari, screen sharing, skype, vp8, webrtc : Related Tags: voice video, entire desktop, screen sharing, desktop sharing, webrtc conference, webrtc

WebRTC Test Demo Fun

January 21, 2013

WebRTC is pretty cool, allowing you to perform VoIP and video conferencing all within a browser. I thought it would be cool to demo some WebRTC code here leveraging getUserMedia, an API that began as part of HTML5 and was split off into the W3C WebRTC specification suite. It allows JavaScript access to a device's cameras and microphones to enable in-browser VoIP and video-conferencing. Further, with HTML5 it's easy to apply cool video filters (think Instagram) on-the-fly while in a video conference.

So without further adeiu, let's try "Self View" Camera on your WebRTC-enabled browser - Google Chrome, Opera, and Firefox (nightly build only) all support WebRTC, though not Internet Explorer (yet).

Posted in Apple, Google, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, VoIP, WebRTC

Tagged: apple, bistri, browser meeting, camera, chrome, demo, ericsson, google, ios, iphone, plivo, self view, twelephone, webrtc : Related Tags: apprtc appspot, https apprtc, support webrtc, webrtc enabled, video conferencing, webrtc

Logitech UC Solution for Cisco 725-C Launches

January 17, 2013

Logitech has now integrated voice, video and messaging controls into the Logitech UC Solution for Cisco 725-C, a UC keyboard (K725-C), wireless mouse (M525-C), and HD camera (Logitech C920-C) combo designed for Cisco Jabber. Cisco Jabber is a unified communications software client that gives users access to presence, instant messaging (IM), voice, video, voice messaging, desktop sharing and conferencing.

The keyboard features illuminated control buttons for call answer/end, mute video, mute audio, and volume controls. The keyboard LCD screen displays Caller ID, call duration and receives calls for the user currently signed into the system, making it ideal for hot desking work environments where users don’t have a permanently assigned desk or phone.

Posted in Accessories, Computer Hardware, Gadgets, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Hardware & Software, VoIP

Tagged: cisco, jabber, k725-c, keyboard, logitech, mouse, uc, video conferencing, webcam : Related Tags: cisco jabber, solution cisco, information logitech, workspace environments, virtual workspace, logitech

Facebook Enables Free VoIP Calls for U.S. iOS Messenger Users

January 16, 2013

Facebook launched free VoIP calling for U.S. Facebook iOS Messenger app users. Here's the problem though. Almost no one uses the Facebook Messenger app - they use the main Facebook iOS app.

Posted in Facebook

Tagged: android, apple, facebook, voip : Related Tags: facebook, messenger, users, problem

Former Apple & Pepsi CEO John Sculley to Keynote at ITEXPO's StartupCamp7

January 15, 2013

John Sculley has lead an interesting business life, including being a former CEO of Apple and Pepsi. Here he is standing next to legendary Steve Jobs in 1984 as they debut a new Macintosh computer in 1984.

John Sculley has been an innovator since his youth. By the age of 10, Sculley was dismantling radios and converting them into intercoms.

Posted in Apple, ITEXPO, TMCnet, Technology and Science

Tagged: apple, ceo, cola wars, itexpo, john sculley, michael j. fox, pepsi, startupcamp7 : Related Tags: apple pepsi, pepsi, sculley, michael, apple

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 ÐÐºÐ¾Ð½ÑÐ°ÐºÑÐµ.

Posted in Google, SIP, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP, WebRTC

Tagged: alec saunders, bistri, facebook, plivo, twelephone, twitter, video conferencing, voip, webrtc : Related Tags: messaging platform, voice video, google windows, solutions providers, using webrtc, webrtc

Intel's North Cape Super-thin ultrabook/tablet Haswell Reference Design Impresses

January 8, 2013

At CES in Las Vegas, Intel discussed their next-gen chip road-map, including new ultra-low power Haswell processors powering ultra-thin notebooks/ultrabooks and desktop computers. One of the most interesting demos was Intel showing off a reference laptop called North Cape featuring their 4th generation Haswell chip inside. Like my favorite Samsung 700T tablet (primary tablet), the North Cape is a hybrid tablet / ultrabook. The North Cape hybrid tablet / ultrabook sports a 13.3" 1080p screen, with a removable keyboard dock and sporting 13 hours of battery life when the keyboard is attached (10 hours when in tablet mode).

Posted in Gadgets, TMCnet, Tablets, Technology and Science

Tagged: apple, haswell, hybrid tablet, intel, ipad, microsoft, netbook, north cape, processors, reference design, tablet, windows : Related Tags: reference design, hybrid tablet, locking mechanism, tablet ultrabook, tablet, keyboard

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.

Posted in Facebook, Google, Skype, Social Networking, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP, WebRTC

Tagged: apple, facebook, ios, phone numbers, skype, voip, webrtc, wifi : Related Tags: facebook, skype, messenger, webrtc, voice, friends

Logitech BCC950 ConferenceCam Review

January 3, 2013

The Logitech BCC950 ConferenceCam is an innovative product marking a trend away from high-end in-room video conferencing systems toward smaller, inexpensive video systems that leverage desktop PCs or laptops, along with inexpensive USB cameras. These USB cameras often have the same if not better optics than higher-end video conferencing camera models but at a fraction of the cost.

The Logitech BCC950 ConferenceCam actually fills a niche between large room conferencing systems and computer webcams, offering a plug-and-play videoconferencing system that sports a Carl Zeiss lens, 1080p HD video, 30 fps, high-quality omni-directional microphone/speakerphone with a range of 8 feet, and the ability to pan, tilt, and zoom from the unit itself or the included remote control. It uses UVC H.264 so no driver installation is needed on PCs or Macs to get up and running.

I tested the BCC950 ConferenceCam on a Windows 8 x64 desktop PC with an Intel i7 3.07Ghz processor and 16GB RAM. I was very impressed with the feature-set and performance.

Posted in Accessories, Computer Hardware, Gadgets, Reviews, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, Video Hardware & Software, VoIP

Tagged: 1080p, bcc950, camera, carl zeiss, conferencecam, h.264, hd, logitech, review, skype, usb, video conferencing : Related Tags: video conferencing, remote control, directional arrows, active speaker, video quality, video

Skype vs. Facebook - How WebRTC Will Turn Friends into Enemies

December 27, 2012

Facebook and Skype currently enjoy a friendly relationship that all started back in 2011 when Facebook collaborated with Skype to integrate these two popular social networks. They then deepened their partnership by offering direct Facebook video calling. But I always wondered why Facebook didn't offer their own VoIP service. They own the largest social network in the world and could crush Skype if they so chose.

Posted in Facebook, Skype, Social Networking, TMCnet, Video Conferencing, VoIP, WebRTC

Tagged: facebook, skype, tony bates, video conferencing, voip, webrtc : Related Tags: active users, million active, voice video, skype users, billion active, facebook

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