Hey hey hey -- what's wrong with lower prices as Microsoft is reportedly considering dropping the price of Xbox to $200 to appeal to the mass gaming market.

According to one report on CNET, an Xbox console with no hard drive could retail for $199 as soon as next month.

Nintendo's Wii is currently the lowest-priced console on the market at $249.

In related news, Xbox Live avatars are reportedly coming soon to new version of EA Games.  

The avatars can don football gear and other accessories, but there is no word on whether the avatars can be inserted into the new versions of Madden or NCAA Football.

This from GameDaily BIZ.

Comcast is about to be punished for messing with its customers Internet traffic, including messing with P2P traffic and reportedly even VoIP traffic. Apparently, Comcast making nice nice with Vonage wasn't enough to appease the FCC. This news wire reports that "A majority of members of the Federal Communications Commission have cast votes in favor of punishing Comcast Corp. for blocking subscribers' Internet traffic, an agency official said".

Ouch! Looks like Comcast has finally got their comeuppance!

Today, Dell will launch Dell Video Chat powered by SightSpeed, which will be pre-bundled on all consumer Dell PCs. Landing Dell is a major win for SightSpeed, a competitor to Skype, Microsoft Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, and others.

I spoke with Eric Quanstrom, Vice President of Marketing for Sightspeed about this major annoucement. I also installed Dell Video Chat to check it out for myself, so I'll include some screenshots along the way.

Eric said, "We've been bundled with camera manufactureres before but we've never been resident on OEM PC hardware. In fact, I believe this is the first time ever that anyone has bundled a communications client directly onto the operating system across all SKUs." He continued, "We're going out with their Consumer line. The good news is that it represents an all-in-one where we eliminate any kind of download/install scheme that I think the mainstream video/chat/conferencing market has suffered from."

Since Dell works on a June-to-June calendar for major software changes to their computers, Dell PCs this month should start to come pre-bundled with the SightSpeed communications client. Eric explained, "We've optimized Dell Video Chat powered by Sightspeed for the new Dell hardware that is going out. That includes all the embedded web cams, array mics, and we've designed a user interface that has gone through some pretty extensive user testing or competive bake-offs as far as usability is concerned. We've emerged on the eve of the release with a product that we're very happy with."

That's me doing a quick video test. Will try a 9-party 4-party video conference soon. (Note, the SightSpeed Business offering has 9-way video. I mixed up the two since SightSpeed also sent me a SightSpeed Business account to test)

Dell Video Chat is the equivalent to SightSpeed PLUS. Dell users get free 4-way multi-party calling, unlimited free calls to other SightSpeed users, multi-party text-chat (up to 4), video mail, long video mail record time, and it comes pre-bundled with 5 minutes of PSTN calling. You can also use the free VoIP minutes even if don't have webcam.

Dell is doing away of Desktop icons entirely and promoting Dell Dock. The Dell Dock is essentially Dell's answer to task-based launching of programs and applications. It's really similar to the Mac launcher that resides at the bottom of your screen. Here's a screenshot of Dell Dock:
Dell Dock (top of screenshot) where SightSpeed has premium placement in the Communications section of Dell Dock

In fact, the first dock item is "communications" and the Dell Video Chat is co-located with "email" which launches Outlook or whatever email client you are using. This gives SightSpeed very high visibility on the Desktop of Dell PCs and laptops. It's very similar to Apple's popular application launcher.

Additionally, Dell Video Chat is also a shot across the bow of Apple iChat. Apple iChat can only run on Apple environments where as SightSpeed can run on Apple, Windows, and Linux.
The native video frame specs are 320x240 30fps using the H.263 video codec throughout. Currently, if you change your bandwidth setting to 1.5Mbps up&down you'll automatically go to 640x480 video. You can increase the bandwidth further and the video will adjust accordingly. Eric proudly explained, "As much as you want to pump through our system the quality will continue to increase." 

SightSpeed vs Skype
This is unlike Skype's HD video feature which as my Skype High Quality (HQ) Video review explains, requires specific Logitech webcams and specific PC hardware requirements - namely dual-core PCs to get higher resolutions. Score one for SightSpeed!  I also like that SightSpeed is not proprietary and leverages industry standards such as SIP & H.263. Like Skype, SightSpeed also supports wideband audio.

I inquired how they price compare with SkypeOut per-minute rates and Eric told me, "We're actually lower. We come in about 2/10ths of a cent lower to both the U.S. & Canada and 3/10ths of a cent lower to the UK. When we're rolling out Dell Video Chat and prestocked the minutes, this was a very conscious decision for people to give us a try and check out what we have to offer. Not just from the video chat perspective which we think is great story to tell, but this may be the untold story is also our PSTN side of the phone."

Dell Video Chat sample 4-party multi-party video conference

The Internet Connection screen where you can set your bandwidth and even tweak your MTU

Dell Video Chat powered by SightSpeed will include the following features:
• A completely redesigned and streamlined Dell user interface
• Free, unlimited video chat worldwide
• Free, unlimited voice chat worldwide
• Free, unlimited text chat worldwide
• 4-Way Group Chat (voice, video or text)
• Low-rate worldwide calling to ordinary phones - 2 cents per minute in the United States and Canada
• 5 minutes of free phone calling is included with every Dell system
• The ability to purchase custom phone numbers and area codes
• Presence indicators
• Message Center: All video/voice calls Inbox
• High-quality Video Mail
• Video Mail recording of up to 3 minutes
• Storage of an unlimited number of Video Mail messages
• Notification of missed calls and receipt of Voice/Video mail and e-mail
• Reporting of Video/Voice call history

Other SightSpeed attributes include:

• the highest-quality, full-motion, 30-frames-per-second video with clear audio and no delay;
• superior video and audio experience with low to no latency over variable bandwidth conditions;
• patented technology that provides superior rate control for any bandwidth, handling of firewalls and video-codec optimization.

Dell Video Chat's Text Chat screen


Voice dialing screen

I played a "welcome / promo" Dell video chat message which essentially is your 1st Video Mail.



Welcome screen when you first launch Dell Video Chat

The application is pre-installed on Dell systems and is activated with one mouse click. SightSpeed has also made it easy for users to share the application with their friends and family who can simply download the "invitee" client program by visiting http://www.sightspeed.com/dellvideochat.

"Dell went out and got the best-of-breed video-communications service--SightSpeed--to be included in their newest laptops. This is as easy-to-use, wherever-you-go as it gets," said SightSpeed CEO Peter Csathy. "Their stamp of approval means that video conferencing is becoming a part of everyday communications and they picked the best company to provide it."

The consumer 4-way multiparty video for free is actually a $9.95/month value that Dell users get for free when they purchase a Dell system. Non-Dell users would have to pay $9.95/month for the 4-party multiparty video and other "SightSpeed Plus" features.

"Dell is excited about the opportunity to provide enhanced video chat services to our customers," said Dell's Michelle Pearcy, director, Global Client Software Marketing. "The partnership with SightSpeed allows our customers to quickly and easily communicate with friends and family in a variety of ways by combining both text and video chat features into a simplified customer communication experience."

Lastly, I'm going to include an edited version of my interview with Eric Quanstrom as a podcast. (there was some stuff off-the-record) Some interesting thoughts on the Dell partnership, his views on SightSpeed & their competitive advantages, and more. Download it here.

Metaaso mermaid is a line of products based on a Peer-To-Peer (P2P) technology, which is completely server-less and allows users to broadcast data/audio/video/text to millions around the world, without the need for heavy infrastructure, and over their very own private, secure peer-to-peer network.

What's interesting about mermaid is that it's the first IPv6 P2P sharing application that I'm aware of that makes extensive use of the new IPv6 address scheme, which helps get around pesky NAT issues and share data/media with your other peers.

Mermaid can also be used for P2P VoIP that doesn't require centralized supernodes like Skype does. In addition to VoIP you can also broadcast your webcam, and your voice live, to millions of people worldwide in real-time over your own private, secure, P2P network, optimized for webcam and voice broadcast.

What else can you you do with mermaid? They claim the following capabilities:

- The ability to broadcast MOVIES in realtime to millions of people worldwide over a private, secure, server-less P2P network.

- The ability to broadcast and receive NEWS, over a server-less, P2P network spanning the globe, where you can get the news, as soon as it gets published.

- The ability to broadcast ANY audio/video source connected to your computer over your own private, secure, P2P network to millions of people around the globe.

- Multiple people connected to each other, sharing their webcams, their desktops, their voice and files (file sharing) over their very own private P2P network, bringing global, and scalable multi-node video conferencing to mainstream.

How does it work? Well according to their website, the Mermaid products are pure peer-to-peer, and do not require any major infrastructure to scale to millions of people. "What that means, is that you can create your own network, which will be identified with your network-id and password, and over that network, you can broadcast movies, webcam feeds, audio feeds, news, files to all the people connected to your network. What's more, is that you can put your own ads to be shown on your network(s)."

They go on to explain that the more people on your network, the better. In fact, they explain, "No, you won’t need a heavy-tank computer or a gazzilion-terabytes/second network to stream to millions of people. The collective power of all the computers connected to your network will be harnessed. You can easily make do with an average PC and an average network."

Cool!

One one caveat - you need IPv6, as they explain here:

The software works like a charm on office LANs, and campus and other networks. But you want your network to be globally available right? Good, so you need to get IPv6. Call your ISP, and say you need ‘a globally routable I-P-V-6 address’. If they don’t, tell them you’re switching ISP coz they’re so lazy that they can’t click a button on their screens.

That’s pretty much it…

Yeah, cuz IPv6 is being deployed like gangbusters - NOT! I know, they keep saying this is the year of IPv6, but I'm still waiting... Still, once IPv6 does take off, interesting apps like this P2P IPv6 app will certainly take off. No doubt Bittorrent and other popular P2P sharing apps will get on board the IPv6 wagon . Due to the server-less infrastructure, it will be even more impossible to shut down pirated media since there are no centralized torrent trackers. Take that RIAA and MPAA

The software is FREE, but it is advertising supported - apparently to support their beer drinking habits.

You recall my SIP to Skype gateway breaks Skype's Great Wall of VoIP, right? You don't? Well, let me refresh your memory. I wrote:

As most techies know, Skype uses a proprietary protocol and does not support inbound SIP calls. If you ask Skype CEO, Niklas Zennstrom why Skype chose their own proprietary protocol, (which many reporters have asked him), he always gives the same canned reply - that they chose their own proprietary protocol because SIP doesn't do everything they need, SIP has issues traversing firewalls, our proprietary protocol is more flexible, blah blah blah. Even though there are now NAT traversal solutions for SIP that perhaps didn't exist a couple of years ago, Skype still hasn't moved to SIP and it doesn't look like they will.

Part of the blog post rants how SIP-based softphone users can't communicate with Skype users. Well, today I learned that a new Skype-to-SIP gateway called Skype SIP Gateway (PE) 1.0 from Zhink.com was recently released. This product allows two callers, one on Skype and the other with a SIP address, to communicate with each other. Sweet! By configuring this product and any SIP server (such as OpenSER, Asterisk, etc.) correctly, you can come up with many interesting working scenarios.

The following possible scenarios are listed on their website:

• Forward Skype callers who are your friends to your mobile number. This is very much like personal “skypeout”.
• Reject all Skype callers whom you do not know.
• Allow yourself and family members with own Skype accounts to call into interactive voice response system provided by Sip server. With this, you can do things like access your voice mails or dial out to PSTN lines.
• Using multiple Skype To Sip Gateways, you can now allow Sip users on different private Sip servers to communicate, using the gateways to provide internet connection via Skype network. This is much like local PBXs of branches of a company connected via internet. Note: This will require multiple PCs, each hosting one Personal Edition of this gateway.
• Allow Sip users on softphones like Ekiga, X-Lite and many others to contact Skype callers directly. The Sip users need not have Skype accounts.

Here are some screenshots of the software:







This screenshot above is interesting because I noticed it is using the jackd daemon. The jackd daemon is part of JACK, "a low-latency audio server, written for POSIX conformant operating systems such as GNU/Linux and Apple's OS X. It can connect a number of different applications to an audio device, as well as allowing them to share audio between themselves. Its clients can run in their own processes (ie. as normal applications), or can they can run within the JACK server."

Obviously, JACK must be that heart of how this application works. It must be muxing the audio from the Skype application into a standard SIP call using the RTP stream. Ironic, that since this requires JACK, this Skype to SIP gateway only runs on Linux - which is often the last operating system to get Skype updates. The software allows you to talk for 1 minute for free without registration. It costs $25 to register. A cool application you should try out.

Propel Software Corporation today debuted Propel PBM, a "personal QoS software" at DEMOfall 07. The Propel PBM (Personal Bandwidth Manager) application provides personal bandwidth management on your PC by automatically optimizing and prioritizing network access for time-sensitive applications. By prioritizing the packets on your PC you can easily improved the performance of VoIP (including Skype), video calls, online games, and streaming media.


image courtesy of OReilly.

Who hasn't tried to use BitTorrent or some other bandwidth hungry application while on a Vonage or Skype call? When I used to have Vonage, I'd have to quickly shutdown my BitTorrent or eMule client whenever I heard my wife say "Are you hogging the Internet again? The voice is choppy again!" Even FTPing files from home to work would have to be canceled. You would think by now Microsoft would let you set bandwidth priority by application or process. After all, from Windows Task Manager you CAN set the CPU priority for individual processes, so why not bandwidth priority?

Well, Propel PBM allows you to prioritize bandwidth BY APPLICATION. It's a simple software install that anyone can do. No messing with setting TOS QoS bits on a router - assuming your router supports TOS. Not to mention Skype packets are nearly impossible to set TOS bits on. Propel PBM also shows detailed information about how your network connection is used. A traffic monitor displays in real-time the cumulative bandwidth consumed (inbound and outbound) and the current transfer rate for inbound/outbound traffic. More importantly, it shows the applications currently using your network connection, the proportion of bandwidth utilized by each application, and the effects of prioritization on your applications.

At DEMOfall 07, they demonstrated (see video) Propel PBM maintaining high call quality during a Skype call, while the simulated high-bandwidth application continued in the background.  They showed the quality with Propel PBM off (bad quality) and then with Propel PBM on (good quality).

"We've developed an easy-to-use, powerful application for helping individual PC users get the most from their network connection," said David Murray, president and CEO of Propel Software. "By using Propel PBM, PC users for the first time can be assured their high-priority, time-sensitive applications will run simultaneously with low-priority applications and maintain optimal performance in any given network condition."

"Propel PBM is breakthrough software for individual PC users who demand high quality when using bandwidth-sensitive applications like VoIP or online gaming," said Chris Shipley, executive producer of DEMOfall 07. "As more and more applications compete for use of an individual PC's network connection, Propel PBM will become must-have software for PC users."

Propel PBM for Windows will be available Fall 2007. It's currently an invitation-only beta program, but you can sign-up here to get in queue for this very cool application.

Last week I ranted about censorship of the word "God" in a promotion of The Ten Commandments movie of all things. Today, I'm going to continue that theme with an unbelievable story of how Comcast is blocking BitTorrent, a popular P2P sharing network.  According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Comcast is performing packet forging which causes the connection between two BitTorrent nodes to reset.

What's particularly troublesome about Comcast's packet forging is that customers have no idea what is causing the connection problems. It is believed that Comcast is using Sandvine to generate these reset packets. Apparently, other apps, such as Lotus Notes, are caught in the crossfire of this packet blocking. You can debate whether or not P2P networks have any legitimate uses, but there is something truly insidious when your ISP starts injecting forged packets into your Internet communications. What if Comcast decides that VoIP uses too much bandwidth and starts causing packet resets or outright blocks VoIP packets being sent to Vonage's network or any other VoIP service provider?

I'm usually all for a government hands-off, no intrusion policy, and let the free market decide, however, there are times when the government needs to intervene - especially in situations where a near monopoly exists. ISPs are often in a near monopoly position, with customers often only having one, perhaps two broadband ISP choices. So perhaps now is the time to revisit the need for Net Neutrality?

Or we could just do what a ticked off 75-year old woman did and drive to Comcast's office, hammer-in-hand, and smash the place.

A German blogger has a posting about how the police came knocking on his door, arrested him and confiscated all his computer equipment. The crime? He runs a Tor server, a sort of P2P anonymous proxy server that allows people to anonymously surf the Web, download files, and unfortunately download child pornography with relative impunity. Well, impunity for the downloaders using the P2P Tor server, not so anonymous for the Tor server admin. Specifically, the police stated he was suspected of placing a bomb-threat at a german copper-forum called copzone.de - a forum the blogger never heard about. Obviously, it was someone else using his Tor proxy server to post the message.

The Tor website itself espouses the benefits of Tor by stating, "Tor aims to defend against traffic analysis, a form of network surveillance that threatens personal anonymity and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security." Yeah, right. Other than the uber-security conscious, who other than criminals and hackers would actually use the Tor network? Ok, I suppose it does have some uses in totalitarian states like China to get around China's infamous firewall that blocks many legitimate websites. I retract my last statement then.

So the question is "Is the blogger an accomplice to the crime?" After all, his Tor server aided in the crime. The answer? He isn't an accomplice to the crime since otherwise ISPs, which route traffic, would be held liable for the actions of its users. The actual crime the police were looking to charge him with was the bomb threat itself and not an accomplice-related crime. I'm sure the police asked the forum admin for the source IP address of the posting and then went to the ISP and asked for who was registered to that IP address at that specific time.

There are so many ways of forging your source IP address on the Internet, it's a wonder anyone can be convicted simply on source IP address alone. I guess that's why they also confiscated his computer equipment for corrobarating evidence. But the keystone coppers didn't realize his Tor-server was running 500km away and didn't bother to confiscate that server. The blogger tried to explain as he was being arrested that he runs a Tor server, but the police weren't tech savvy and so he was taken downtown for questioning. His wife also got a good scare from the police "visit".

Apparently the blogger has lost his "civil" courage and fighting for the right to keep a Tor server up-and-running. He writes, "The consequences: I’ve shut down my Tor-server. I can’t do this any more, my wife and I were scared to death. I’m at the end of my civil courage. I’ll keep engaged in the Tor-project but I won’t run a server any more. Sorry. No."

Ironically, while doing a security audit of TMC's network, I discovered the former IT administrator accidentally left a static IP address mapping to an ISA Server 2004 proxy server. Using a packet analyzer I noticed viagra spam and other spam being sent out via the proxy server. I also noticed Tor traffic was taking advantage of the open proxy server. I shut that down real quick, but just imagine the liability for TMC if someone did something illegal via this open proxy. Relatedly, home users better think twice before setting up a WiFi access point - even with WEP turned on, this can be cracked in 5 minutes. I bet home insurance companies will soon have to offer a separate liability insurance or additional fee to their home insurance policies to cover Internet crimes being perpetrated by criminals using an unsecured or hacked WiFi access point.

In any event, while the charges were eventually dropped, he incurred lawyer fees, and is attempting to recoup them by suing. Though he writes, "They stopped the investigation. I’m sitting on a pile of bills from my lawyer no one except me has to pay. I’ll sue for compensation, but I don’t think that this will lead anywhere."

So all you civil libertarians that think the Internet should be a free-for-all with no consequences better take note. While this happened in Germany and I'm not sure if Germany has a 1st Amendment equivalent, the idea or principle that "freedom of speech" is "free" is far from true.

More from CNet.

Today, BitTorrent has launched their licensed entertainment networl and an enhanced BitTorrent protocol that will allow it to offer copyrighted movies, TV shows, games, and other media. The BitTorrent Entertainment Network will launch starting with over 5,000 titles, including films from Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Lionsgate, and Warner Bros, as well as episodes of TV shows such as 24 and Prison Break.



According to the company, the service is aimed at young males who regularly use BitTorrent to download pirated versions of the same films and who prefer to watch these video programs on their PCs instead of a TV. BitTorrent is used by millions of users and in fact 1/3rd of all Internet traffic is consumed by BitTorrent traffic. The problem from naysayers is "converting" these pirates into legit-paying customers. Of course, the same naysayers were skeptical of Apple iTunes when it launched in the post-Napster age and iTunes is a runaway success.

The BitTorrent company claims that at least one-third of the 135 million people using BitTorrent software will be willing to pay for legitimate content. To entice the pirates, err, I mean potential law-abiding customers, they are featuring popular content at just $1.99 and targetting males between the ages of 15 and 35 years. Full-length movie takes about 30 minutes to download, while a TV episode should only take about 10 minutes. Movies will also be available for 24 hours at $3.99 for new and $2.99 for old titles. Sample movie content includes Superman Returns and Mission: Impossible III. The content will be protected by Windows Media DRM, and will only play back using Windows Media Player. Sorry Mac fans!

The library within the BitTorrent Entertainment Network is very extensive. It includes 3,000 movie and television titles as well as 1,000 games, and 1,000 music titles. Movie and record studios and associations have aggresively tried to shut down various BitTorrent tracker sites, including The Pirate Bay and isoHunt.com. Now that BitTorrent has gone legit, will the studios back off? Not a chance in hell.

Brian Cohen, the creator of BitTorrent has is working on some major enhancements to the BitTorrent client. While many other popular BitTorrent clients exist, such as Azureus, BitComet, etc., BitTorrent.com's client will most likely be the only one to support these DRM-protected downloads. I would venture to guess that both Azureus and BitComet are more popular than the official BitTorrent client, but things could quickly change. So it will be interesting to see if BitTorrent.com's client takes a larger market share and as such, if they start adding advertisements and/or adware to the client. The new version will support BitTorrent DNA Version 2. Unlike current versions of Bittorrent, the new version of Mainline will apparently NOT be released as an open-source client.

According to PC Magazine, the µTorrent client BitTorrent acquired in December will be used for portable apps. With DNA 2.0, users can start a BitTorrent swarm off of any Web object. The technology also recognizes when the user is Web surfing or using VoIP, by gracefully scaling down the network utilization to avoid interfering with the user's other Internet activities.