Reviews

Chit-chat with Mark Spencer

January 25, 2006

I met with Digium's founder, Mark Spencer yesterday to discuss what was happening with Asterisk. Mark told me that they are working very hard on Jingle support, an open set of extensions to the IETF's Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) for use in VoIP, video, and other peer-to-peer multimedia
sessions. This will enable federation with Google Talk and other Jingle supporters. Mark said that Jingle support will be coming very soon.

Posted in Asterisk, Reviews

Performancing for Firefox 1.1 released

January 24, 2006

A new version of Performancing for Firefox has just been released. The most notable new features are the Technorati tagging support and Delicious bookmark integration. Now that I can tag with Performancing for Firefox I'll have to re-evaluate whether or not to switch from my current WYSIWYG blogging software that I use� (HTMLArea). Not being able to tag was a stumbling block for me.

Posted in MovableType, Reviews

Internet Telephony check list

January 23, 2006

I leave for Internet Telephony Expo tomorrow and I figured I may as well use my blog here as my checklist for stuff I need to do in preparation for the show. I am going to be crazy busy at this show with several appointments, I'm moderating a session, and I hope to blog all the cool stuff happening at the show.

Tom Keating's pre-Internet Telephony Conference & Expo checklist

Bring Nokia N90 phone to ITEXPO and do some live video blogging (vlogs) of the show. I only have a 64MB MMC card though. Thought the Nokia N90 used SD. I was going to pick up a 1GB SD card so I can do some large vlogs.

Posted in ITEXPO, Reviews, VoIP

Global IP Sound killer?

January 16, 2006

Rich Tehrani has a very interesting inteview with Andrew Sviridenko of Spirit DSP, where Andrew positions Spirit DSP as a more robust solution than Global IP Sound (GIPS) due to Spirit DSP's better multipoint conferencing support and scalability. The GIPS codec/voice engine is used in Skype, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, and a few other VoIP softphones. Interestingly, Andrew mentions speaking with Microsoft, so if Spirit DSP were to be embedded in a future release of Windows Live Messenger, that would be a huge win for Spirit DSP.

And speaking of Windows Live Messenger, Microsoft's bloggers have been covering the beta of this software and "leaking" some of the really cool features in Windows Live Messenger, including a really neat feature that lets you share your music playlist over the Internet. In fact, one of the Microsoft bloggers, Leah, has an interesting birthday wish:

"For my birthday, I wanted a way to play music on my computer and then invite my buddies to listen with me on his/her computer.

Posted in Microsoft, Reviews, Skype, VoIP

2006 the year of IPTV?

January 12, 2006

Is 2006 the year for IPTV? Certainly seems that way with all the releases I've been getting in email lately, including this one below, which lists broadband data and 400 IPTV channels. 400 channels? 400 CHANNELS!?!?!

Posted in Home Entertainment, News, Reviews, VoIP

Open mouth, insert foot and Nokia N90 to the 911 rescue

January 9, 2006

A few weeks ago I was leaving church when my wife and I were sidewiped by an out-of-stater, who apparently thought the left lane was clear and tried to make a left hand turn right into our Taurus's passenger doors. Damn New Yorkers! So we pull to the side of the road and after confirming my wife was ok, I calmly get out and ask the driver if he's OK. I know in the past I've gotten hit and I was really ticked off, but for some reason I was at peace.

Posted in Personal and Humor, Reviews

Extreme Blog Makeover

January 6, 2006

So I'm just minding my own business, surfing my own blog yesterday when I noticed I received some Google click-throughs (referrals) directly to a blog post I just wrote yesterday, ironically about Google that apparently was picked up by Google just hours after I posted it. I was curious how the heck Google was picking up my blog post titled "New Google Adsense Graphical Ads" so quickly, so naturally I Googled "new google adsense graphical ads" the blog title - nothing. Hmmm, that's odd. Why is Google giving me referral links directly to such a new blog post?

Posted in Google, MovableType, Personal and Humor, Reviews

GPS for Nokia Symbian phones

January 4, 2006

Destinator Technologies, a provider of personalized navigation software, announced today at the annual Consumer Electronics Show, the general availability of Destinator SP (Smart Phone), GPS-based navigation software for Nokia Symbian Smartphones, such as the popular Nokia 6600 series phones, in North America. It is compatible with Nokia models 3260, 6260, 6600, 6630, 6670, 6680 and 6681.

The Nokia LD-3W Wireless GPS Module is a good add-on GPS for Nokia phones.

I should point out that Destinator SP has already been available for Windows Mobile phones and that they did already have a version of Destinator SP running on Nokia phones - but only with European maps. I've used Destinator's GPS software before. In fact, Destinator 3.0 was my primary GPS running on an iPaq PocketPC until the serial connector on the iPaq started getting flaky.

Posted in GPS, Gadgets, Mobile Phones, Reviews, Wireless

Global IP Sound to go IPO on NASDAQ?

December 30, 2005

A reliable source has told me that Global IP Sound (GIPS) informed their investors that they will have an "extraordinary" meeting early January. They have named a few new board members, one of them, Bradley E. Sparks, used to be chairman of the Issuers Affairs Committee on NASDAQ. Could an IPO for Global IP Sound, one of my favorite VoIP companies be in the works? (right now they are traded OTC) Boy, GIPS has come a long way since I did the very first review of their VoIP codec on a PocketPC. Their codec is used by Skype, GoogleTalk, and many other softphones.

Posted in Reviews, VoIP

Microsoft partners with Softbank for Business VoIP

December 28, 2005

I'm still trying to digest what this press release from Microsoft, Softbank, and Japan Telecom means - I'm a bit busy trying to catch up after the long holiday. I think Softbank has termination and I believe Softbank is considered the "Vonage" of Japan. In which case, I believe this release is saying that Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 is not only using MCI for PSTN termination, but Microsoft has now also added Softbank for termination.

Actually, upon some further review it appears that this partnership is enabling Microsoft to have a foot in the door within the "business VoIP" sector. Very interesting.

Posted in Microsoft, Reviews, VoIP

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