Tom Keating : VoIP & Gadgets Blog
Tom Keating
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Microsoft

Microsoft

Logitech Quickcam Orbit AF Review

December 4, 2007

The Logitech QuickCam Orbit AF is Logitech's best webcam money can buy. The QuickCam Orbit AF is Logitech's flagship webcam featuring Carl Zeiss optics, integrated microphone, and a cool motorized tracking that automatically follows your every move. The QuickCam Orbit AF (AF = autofocus) also has premium autofocus, up to 30fps, a true 2-megapixel sensor, with up to 8-megapixel photos (enhanced), 960 by 720 pixels, 24-bit true color Video capture, and RightLight 2 Technology which adjusts intelligently to produce true-to-life clear images in dim or poor backlight settings.

The QuickCam Orbit AF also has a 'trick' up it's sleeve. Not only can it sit low in its base, but it also comes with a 9" long stem that lets you mount the camera up high.

Microsoft Response Point Review

November 12, 2007

Microsoft Response Point, is Microsoft's foray into the SMB phone system space, offering companies of up to 50 employees to easily set up and maintain an IP-PBX with advanced functionality such as speech recognition dialing and voicemail-to-email - all at an affordable price. Response Point, which was developed under the code name 'Edinburgh', is being sold as embedded software within digital phones manufactured by Microsoft hardware partners D-Link, Quanta Syspine, and Uniden Evolo. Aastra also plans on offering a Response Point system sometime in 2008.

Inevitably, Response Point will be compared by some against its big brother Office Communications Server 2007. You can read my take on that comparison here.

Microsoft Wows Analysts with Monster Quarter

October 26, 2007

Microsoft just announed a monster quarter, pulling in $13.76 billion in revenue - a 27 percent jump over the same quarter last year. This is a a net income of $4.29 billion, making it "the fastest revenue growth of any first quarter since 1999". On the earnings call they revealed that Microsoft has achieved more than 20 percent growth in Vista sales for three quarters in a row. I guess people aren't necessarily sticking with Windows XP or downgrading from Vista to XP.

Also, they sold 1.8 million XBox 360s this quarter, which is a 90 percent increase over the same quarter last year, much of which is attributed to the August price cut and Halo 3 purchases.

Office Communications Server 2007 Software Update Service

October 17, 2007

Microsoft released Office Communications Server 2007 Software Update Service, which provides an automated way to update all unified communications devices deployed in an organization.

This includes all the OCS-compatible phones (Polycom Inc., LG-Nortel Co. Ltd. and Thomson Telecom) that run Microsoft Office Communicator Phone Experience.

According to Microsoft, "unified communication (UC) devices, such as Microsoft Office Communicator Phone Experience and Microsoft RoundTable, enable rich communication within an organization. Deploying these devices requires regular maintenance by the IT department, which includes providing available software updates to these unified communications devices. All UC devices rely on an automatic mechanism to obtain software update required on a regular basis."

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Software Update Service provides an automated way to update all unified communications devices deployed in an organization.

This download is comprised of two files:
  • OCSSoftwareUpdateService.msi – used to configure the Software Update Service component on your Office Communications Server 2007 Web Component Servers or your Standard Edition server.

  • OCSSoftwareUpdateServiceSP.msi – to configure the Update site on the SharePoint Service.








Aculab launches ApplianX Gateway for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007

October 16, 2007

For my last post today on Microsoft OCS 2007 (hope you enjoyed the comprehensive coverage), I wanted to let everyone know that Aculab launched their ApplianX Gateway for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. ApplianX Gateway incorporates the Mediation Server function of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. Dialogic, a competitor, also has a series of gateways that acts as the Mediation Server saving on the TCO. Nice to see several players offering OCS 2007-compatible gateways that include the Mediation Server.

Drag-and-drop Conference Calls = OCS 2007 Success?

October 16, 2007

I was just checking out Rich's impressions of the Microsoft UC launch since he was actually there in the audience to gauge the audience's reactions. Rich writes, "Perhaps the most memorable moment about the event so far other than the dry ice smoke and blaring guitar at the start of the day is the fact the audience actually clapped when they saw how a conference call can be initiated with a simple mouse click."

I too picked up on this strong audience reaction to the simple mouse-click and drag-and-drop conferencing ability. (I was streaming the video of the UC launch.)  As CTO and as a former IT Manager, I also speak from experience that no matter how many times I trained a sales person how to make a conference call, they would simply forget the next day because it's too complicated to remember. (no offense my fellow sales co-workers!)

It's surprising that TMC has covered this conferencing usability issue since 1996 when TMC launched CTI Magazine, a magazine dedicated to covering the integration of the computer and the telephone (hence CTI - Computer Telephony Integration) and how CTI would make using the phone much easier to use by leveraging the computer's user interface (UI).

In fact, all of TMC's publications, including Internet Telephony Magazine and Customer Interaction Solutions have been espousing the need for a "better phone" that leverages the computer with its more powerful and flexible UI.





SAP Duet to leverage Microsoft OCS 2007

October 16, 2007

Rich Liveblogging Microsoft UC Launch

October 16, 2007

Dell Gets into VoIP Game with OCS 2007

October 16, 2007

Dell is now in the VoIP game! I was talking with Microsoft's Clint Patterson, Director of PR for Unified Communications, this morning and I asked him about Dell, since I noticed they were listed as one of Microsoft's OCS 2007 partners being announced today. I was curious if Dell's plans were to pre-install Microsoft OCS 2007 and leverage their huge professional services division to help businesses deploy Office Communications Server 2007. As you know, I've expressed some skepticism about Microsoft deploying OCS in the SMB space without channel partner help.

Well, Clint confirmed that Dell was indeed going to pre-install OCS on Dell servers and offer professional services.

Microsoft OCS 2007 Review

October 16, 2007

Today is the big launch of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS 2007), the core of the Microsoft Unified Communications Strategy. OCS 2007 is a unified communications server that delivers enterprise instant messaging, audio, video- and web-conferencing, and enhanced voice over IP. Today, Bill Gates and Jeff Raikes will announce the worldwide Unified Communications Launch 2007 in San Francisco, with smaller launch parties taking place across the country. I've been testing OCS 2007 beta for a few months now and also the OCS 2007 RTM (release to market) version more recently.
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