Reviews

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007

June 26, 2006

On May 30th 2006, I speculated that Windows Live Meeting 2006 was coming - the next version after Windows Live Meeting 2005. I was close -- Microsoft actually "skipped a year" and released Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, a unified communications client that works in tandem with Office Communications Server 2007, which was also announced today. This solution delivers a presence-based, enterprise VoIP “softphone” for secure, enterprise-grade instant messaging that allows for intercompany federation and connectivity to public instant messaging networks such as MSN, AOL and Yahoo! It also enables one-to-one and multiparty videoconferencing, audioconferencing, and webconferencing.

Posted in Asterisk, Microsoft, Mobile Phones, Polycom, Reviews, VoIP, Wireless

Be a VoIP DJ using Yahoo Messenger with Voice

June 19, 2006

Yahoo! Messenger with Voice on Tuesday will introduce custom plug-in features and will now allow developers to custom made applications. Some of the hghlighted plug-ins include plugin applications for Amazon.com, Yahoo! 360, and eBay. My guess is we'll also see integration with Flickr and other popular community (Web 2.0) sites as well through developer-created plugins.

There is a small VoIP component to the announcement The new soundboard feature allows people to add short sound effects into their voice conversations, including ‘audience booing’ and ‘birds chirping’ sound effects. Additionally, with the Soundtrack feature, people can drag and drop MP3 music files stored on their PC and they will play as background music while they are talking to their friends.

Posted in Reviews, VoIP

Linksys WIP330 Wireless-G IP Phone Review

June 12, 2006

Ratings Score Installation Documentation Features Usability Value Performance Overall
The Linksys WIP330 Wireless-G IP Phone is one of the coolest gadgets I've tested in awhile. Linksys sent me a WIP330 for a product review two weeks ago and I played around with it quite a bit, but just never found the time to write the review. Well, here goes, an exclusive look at the Linksys WIP330 Wireless-G IP Phone...

The Linksys WIP330 Wireless-G IP Phone enables VoIP service through a Wireless-G network connected to the Internet to make low-cost VoIP calls through your Internet Telephony Service Provider (ITSP). The handset features peer-to-peer dialing, speed dial, 3-way conferencing, call waiting, call transfer, and call forward, mute, hold and selectable ringtones.

Posted in Gadgets, Microsoft, Mobile Phones, Reviews, VoIP, Wireless

Trixbox founder responds

June 7, 2006

Both Chris Lyman, CEO of Fonality, and Andrew Gillis, the founder of Asterisk@Home - now Trixbox, responded to my previous post pondering the relationship between Trixbox and Fonality. Long story short, it looks like the open-source Trixbox project is safe from any commercial intentions. Just a case of one Linux-based commercial company helping out a Linux hobbyist. You just gotta love the Linux community!

Posted in Asterisk, Reviews

Ask.com gets into blog search

June 5, 2006

Ask.com introduced Blog & Feed Search, a new web search designed for searching blog posts, finding feeds and news published to the "blogosphere," while leveraging Ask.com search technology and subscription data. I did a search on "voip blog" as well as "gadget blog" and this blog was listed as the #1 RSS feed. Sweet!

I can also see my blog posts from within Ask.com. When I roll the binoculars icon over one of the search results I can see a preview of the site without leaving the page.

Posted in MovableType, News, Reviews

Office 2007: Some Hands-On Comments

June 2, 2006

Happened to have the opportunity to get a firsthand preview of Microsoft Office 2007 -- and while I didn't get to see everything under the hood, there were a number of very useful redesigns, tweaks and improvements to Microsoft Word and Excel (didn't get to see much about Outlook and PowerPoint).

Much ado on the Microsoft site about the new Office user interface -- "The Ribbon" (below).

And it does work better for me once you begin the get the hang of it.

Posted in Computer Software, Reviews

ShoreTel 6.1 new IP-PBX features

May 15, 2006

ShoreTel announced version 6.1 of their IP-PBX which delivers feature-rich IP key system functionality to branch offices and small businesses. Many competing IP-PBXs, Cisco included have neglected or have limited "key system" functionality in their IP-PBX line, which is why ShoreTel does well in the retail and service industries. Also very unique to the ShoreTel product is that it's a single product that targets small businesses all the way up to large businesses with 10,000 employees. Competing solutions have separate products often with separate development divisions and code that is not easily integrated and a migration path that requires a forklift upgrade.

Posted in Reviews, ShoreTel, VoIP

Palm Treo 700p review

May 14, 2006

Palm's Treo 700p, the heavily anticipated successor to the popular Palm Treo 650, launched on Monday. Speculation and rumors has surrounded the Palm Treo 700p as far as which features it would and would not support. For instance, speculation was running rampant as far as whether Sprint or Verizon would be the exclusive carrier or if both would support it. Let me put one bit of speculation to rest - both Sprint and Verizon will carry the Treo 700p.

Posted in Gadgets, Mobile Phones, PDAs & Handhelds, Reviews, Technology and Science, Wireless

Fonality, an Asterisk solution passes 20 million calls

May 14, 2006

Some great news from Fonality, an Asterisk-based IP-PBX that earned a very positive review by TMC Labs in the April issue of Internet Telephony Magazine. Last time I checked, they were at 4 million calls last July. Some nice growth there Fonality! Congratulations!

Fonality, the leader in affordable, enterprise-class IP-PBX phone systems for small and medium businesses and the world’s largest distributed deployment of Asterisk™, today announced that users of PBXtra have placed 20 million calls since the product first became available in October 2004.

Posted in Asterisk, Reviews

Pangean Delivers VoWiFi Push-to-Talk Solution for mobile phones and PDAs

May 10, 2006

Pangean Technologies, a company that makes P2P VoIP software based on the SIP protocol, has announced a new product called Y-Talk. I should mention that I reviewed Pangean's VoIP software in Internet Telephony Magazine as well as in my blog and was impressed with its use of SIP along with multicast technology to broadcast voice over an entire network to multiple endpoints. Y-Talk is based on the same insta-REACT! technology that earned a favorable review from me.

Y-Talk is Pangean's VoIP mobility solution for internal instant communications. It is expected to be officially released at the end of June 2006.

Posted in Mobile Phones, PDAs & Handhelds, Reviews, VoIP, Wireless

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