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Google Testing VoIP Calling in Gmail

August 25, 2010

Gmail is already many user's centralized communications portal - an always-open browser window. It offers access to our email, chat, contacts, calendar, documents, and soon it might add browser-based VoIP.

According to CNET, Google has started testing Gmail-integrated VoIP, which would enable users to make phone calls directly from your browser.

Google already offers several voice offerings, including Google Voice, Google Talk, and the recently acquired SIP-based Gizmo5 softphone client. To be honest, Google Talk and Gizmo5 are sort of redundant. Google should consolidate the two clients. It'll be interesting to see if users embrace browser-based telephony or if they'll stick with tried-and-true softphone clients like Skype.

Posted in Google, Internet, VoIP

Philadelphia Demands $300 Business License From Bloggers

August 23, 2010

Philadelphia, the home of the Liberty Bell wants bloggers to pay up or shut up. The crack in the Liberty Bell just grew wider. That's right, forget your free speech rights, because according to Philadelphia it isn't free. It'll cost you $300 if you run a blog with any ads that creates even 1 cent of income.

According to a Philadelphia newspaper:

For the past three years, Marilyn Bess has operated MS Philly Organic, a small, low-traffic blog that features occasional posts about green living, out of her Manayunk home.

Posted in Internet

Teevox + iPhone = Remote Control for Netflix & Hulu

August 20, 2010

Teevox, founded by former MIT students is an iPhone app that allows you to remotely control watching Hulu and Netflix on your computer. According to Techcrunch, Hulu and Netflix are just the beginning. I use Orb and PlayOn for remote media access, which are similar - especially PlayOn which supports Hulu and Netflix. Speaking of PlayOn, I just noticed last night that when I went to http://m.mobile.tv within Safari on my iPhone it forced me to add PlayOn to my Home Screen.

Posted in Home Entertainment, Internet, TMCnet, Video Hardware & Software

Jailbreaking and Ripping DVDs Now Legal in One Fell Swoop!

July 26, 2010

The copyright overlords have shined brightly this day upon us jailbreakers, phone unlockers, and DVD rippers. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today won three exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) anti-circumvention provisions, which will bring a smile to those that enjoy the freedom to do with their legally owned iPhones and DVDs/Blurays as they please. In short, you have the right to: jailbreak your phone, install any app you please, use your mobile phone on any network (unlock), and copy DVDs/Blurays. This is huge news to pirates, hackers, and legitimate users simply trying to use their mobile phone on any mobile network.

Posted in Apple, Internet, Mobile Phones, TMCnet, Technology and Science, Wireless

Citi Launches Citi Text Banking

July 23, 2010

Today, Citibank launched Citi Text Banking, which gives you quick updates on your Citibank and Citi credit card accounts. All you have to do is send a short command to 692484 (MYCITI) and get account information on demand. Pretty cool feature. Now you don't have to logon via a mobile phone or PC browser to get a quick balance.

Posted in Internet, Mobile Phones

Kids take photos of Earth's curvature using Balloon and Help from iPad

July 13, 2010

Oh kids these days get all the fun! I wish my science class (back in the day) offered our class a challenge to fly a cellphone with GPS & camera up into the stratosphere to take photos of the Earth's curvature. Alas, the closest I came was an egg drop contest, which was designed to teach about gravity, mass, and seat belt safety (don't ask). A firetruck ladder would drop our eggs in our homemade egg protection cases and see whose eggs survived the fall.

Posted in Apple, Digital Cameras, GPS, Gadgets, Internet, Wireless

Tandberg Movi Review

July 12, 2010

Multi-party HD videoconferencing is often thought of as an expensive proposition that is restricted to special boardrooms with expensive video equipment and large monitor displays. One of the major driving forces behind videoconferencing is its ability to enable collaborative meetings across distances with multiple participants, so having multiple high-tech videoconferencing boardrooms can be cost prohibitive. Further, many employees work from home all or part of the week or travel, which would make attendance at a fixed videoconferencing boardroom impossible. Tandberg, now part of Cisco, aims to solve this problem by combining Mobility and Video, hence the name Movi, a new offering that enables high-definition 720p, 30fps video when used in conjunction with the Cisco's Tandberg PrecisionHD USB camera.

Tandberg sent me the PrecisionHD USB camera to test along with Movi for the best experience, though any HD USB camera would work as well.

Posted in Internet, Reviews, SIP, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, Video Hardware & Software, VoIP

Business Software Alliance Report Irks Some

July 9, 2010

The Business Software Alliance's (BSA) annual Global PC Software Piracy Study was recently released, which is a comprehensive report on unauthorized software around the world. Paul Berber who wrote an article titled "Lies, damn lies and the BSA" is none to happy about it either. Apparently, South Africa merited a 35% piracy rate, while their World Cup rivals, the Brits scored the 6th lowest piracy rate in the world. The U.S.

Posted in Bittorrent, Internet, p2p

Most Excellent (Find) on Google Maps - Wayne & Garth

July 6, 2010

You can find the funniest and coolest things on Google Maps, Google Earth, and especially Google Street View. There was the possible discovery of Atlantis on Google Earth, and the uncovering of an unknown forest containing undiscovered species in Mt. Mabu. And now with Google's mapping vans touring the world to capture every street in 360 degrees, some interesting sites can be beholden. For instance, in Google Map's Street View Horse-boy was discovered, a strange reverse Centaur that sports a human body with a horse head:

Click image above to see it on Google Maps.

Then we have Angry Norwegians in Scuba gear chasing the Google Street View van for a most hilarious photo capture. Or how bout the two guys scrambling to pose for Google Street View? Classic!

But we may now have the "most excellent" Google discovery ever!

Posted in Google, Internet, Personal and Humor

Patriotic Video for 4th of July - American Heart

July 1, 2010

Today is July 1st, which means the 4th of July (Independence Day) is just 3 days away. I thought I'd share this patriotic video featuring an uplifting song by Jon David called American Heart. Patriotic images include the Statue of Liberty, the American flag, Mount Rushmore, and other great Americana images. If your eyes don't well up there is something wrong with you!

Posted in Internet

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