Reviews

Fonality Asterisk-based IP-PBX

June 19, 2005

On Monday Fonality will be coming out of "stealth mode" promoting its PBXtra with their first press release even though they've been officially servicing customers since October 2004. "We've kind of been in stealth mode because we wanted a wide deployment before doing our announcement", said Chris Lyman, founder and CEO of Fonality based out of Culver City, California. "We're at hundreds of customers right now and thousands of lines sold on our platform in over 30 states and 3 countries deployed right now."

Fonality Web Interface

PBXtra at its core is an Asterisk-based PBX with over 110,000 lines of Fonality's code added to the Asterisk platform, which makes the system more complete than native Asterisk with a much easier to use Web-based front-end interface. According to FOnality, the total lines of code now supercede the amount of Asterisk code.

Posted in Asterisk, Polycom, Reviews

Xbox 360 Launches

May 13, 2005

Microsoft Corp. says its next version of Xbox will thrill hard-core gamers with mind-blowing graphics and lure in newcomers with free online games, slide shows, music and video chats with friends.

Xbox 360 looks nothing like its bulky, black predecessor. It's sleek and white, and it can stand on one end like a book or lie flat like a DVD player. Its 20-gigabyte hard drive and three powerful processors will enable high-definition graphics and surround sound, making games seem more like movies.

Mike Sabine, a market analyst with International Development Group, raved about the lifelike look of a war game he saw in a recent preview offered to analysts and reporters.

"I actually expected to be a little underwhelmed," he said. "I expected it to be a leap or two better (than the original Xbox), but I was very impressed."

Another game Microsoft demonstrated featured NBA star LeBron James, his muscles flexing and his shiny tank top rippling in the light of a street lamp as he dribbles and shoots.

"Honest to goodness it was almost as good as video," said Van Baker, vice president and research director for Gartner Inc.

Though Microsoft had planned on giving consumers their first peek at Xbox 360 in a half-hour MTV special Thursday night, some of the 200 people who attended the show's taping a week ago leaked pictures and specs on gaming Web sites and blogs last weekend.

The MTV debut is part of Microsoft's strategy to outshine rival Sony Corp., which is not expected to release the next version of PlayStation until next year.

Posted in Gadgets, Reviews

AOL's new Converged Communications Client

April 28, 2005

AOL is starting from scratch in building their next converged IM/voice/video software client. In reading the AP news it appears it will be easy to add on additional modules. Say goodbye AIM! Perhaps they will follow the Firefox model and allow third-party plug-ins to be easily added to their main client?

Posted in Reviews, VoIP

iPod Camera Connector Review

April 26, 2005

Apple iPod Camera Connector

Check out the full review of the new iPod Camera Connector from Apple. Since I am going on vacation next week, I was looking for some way to backup my camera photos to a laptop. In fact, I was planning on "lugging" my laptop while on vacation. I learned the hard way that backing up photos is critical as my camera was stolen on the plane on the way to my honeymoon with my wife.

Posted in Gadgets, Reviews

History of Video Games

April 26, 2005

Ah, the history of video games. Who hasn't reminisced about the good ole' days of Pong, Pacman, Super Mario Bros, Legend of Zelda, Tank, Space Invaders, Asteroids, and all the other classic video games? Have you ever wondered how video games got their start? Have you ever wondered who invented the first video game?

Posted in Reviews, Technology and Science

8x8 Slashes Price Of Packet8 Videophone To $99

April 14, 2005

Wow! Videophones are typically very expensive, so to cut their videophone to $99 is very impressive and they reduced the monthly service charge as well. Perhaps this will entice more users to purchase the Packet8 Videophone. (Check out my review of the Packet8 Videophone)

8x8, Inc. (Nasdaq: EGHT), provider of Packet8 broadband voice over internet protocol (VoIP) and videophone communications services, announced today that it has reduced the price of the Packet8 Broadband Consumer VideoPhone from $250 (after rebate) to $99 and decreased the monthly service fee from $29.95 to $19.95, effective immediately.

Posted in Packet8, Reviews

AOL VoIP Review

April 14, 2005

I don't have AOL as my ISP, so I figured I'd link to the first review I have seen of AOL's new Internet VoIP service. This AOL VoIP review was written by Edward Baig of USA Today. He breaks out the pricing options as follows:

AOL members can choose among three pricing options. A local-oriented monthly calling plan costs $13.99 for three months, $18.99 thereafter.

Posted in Reviews, VoIP

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition uses Sendia

April 13, 2005

I just finished writing a product review of Sendia for Customer Interaction Solutions when I received this email below about how a reality TV show is using Sendia's technology. Normally I would not "taint" my blog by promoting a reality TV show (i.e. trash TV), but I deemed it news worthy... I promise to never mention another reality TV show again in my blog.

Posted in Call Center and CRM, Reviews

rapidBox vs. ActionTec Internet Phone Wizard

March 29, 2005

Yesterday I posted my review of the ActionTec Internet Phone Wizard with Skype. Ironically, four days earlier I received an email tip about a very similar device called rapidBox from RapidVoIP, which retails for $49.99 and is ~$20 cheaper than the ActionTec device.

I have not tested the rapidBox, but like the ActionTec device, it supports Skype and can ring analog phones. In addition, according to its specs, unlike the ActionTec, it has an 3 RJ11 ports (ActionTec has 2 RJ11 ports), so you can actually have 2 persons on the same line talking to the caller. Of course you could just use a phone splitter.

Posted in Reviews, VoIP

iPod FM Transmitter

March 24, 2005

I was just telling my coworker this morning how my iPod FM transmitter apparently stopped working. I can barely hear the music while dialed to 87.7FM. There was a strong station on 87.9FM, but I tried getting it to work over a 32 mile trip and it was 99% static with barely audible music in the background. I actually only used this iPod FM transmitter once, and was going to write a review on it, but I must have forgotten, so it sat in my winter hibernating Viper for the past 8 months.

While cleaning the car I realized I had forgotten about this little gadget, so I took it to work with me in my 3000GT.

Posted in Gadgets, Reviews

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