Recently in Unified Communications Category

Skype Journal wrote about one of the coolest mashups I've ever seen. Certainly one of the coolest VoIP mashups. Skype Journal explains PhoneFromHere Tim Panton's demo that he gave at Astricon where Tim mashes up Google Wave, Skype, Asterisk running Skype for Asterisk and Ibook to make Skype calls from within a browser-based Google Wave.


Not only is it sans Skype client, but it has recordings (labeled by person speaking) of individual utterances, so you can quickly playback what a particular person said at a certain point in time.

It's amazing to make a Skype call from a browser without running the Skype client. How do you ask? Well, it uses a browser-based Skype client using a IAX2 Java client to communicate with Asterisk which then communicates with the Skype network cloud. On top of it all you get Google Wave's powerful collaboration capabilities.

Perhaps some IP address geocoding combined with Google Maps to show the speakers' locations might be nice addition to this mashup. Or even pulling down Facebook profile pictures. There is definitely some awesome potential for this. Maybe Google can even stick your Google Wave/Skype/Asterisk collaboration sessions into their newly released, centralized, Borg/hive, data-collecting, privacy-busting Google Dashboard?

Ribbit today announced the release of Ribbit Mobile, a free communication suite designed for mobile professionals who need to be able to easily manage all of their phone numbers, communication devices, and how & when they are contacted.

Ribbit Mobile is a cloud-based service that lets you manage calls, messages and phones. It's hard not to compare this new offering to Google Voice. One advantage of Ribbit Mobile is that it can make calls from within your browser using their Flash-based software client. Ribbit Mobile features include voicemail transcription, smart call routing, and web-based calling. During the introductory (beta) period, Ribbit is making their "Professional" package free.

Since it leverages Ribbit's open VoIP platform, it can even call your Skype, MSN or Google Talk account, as well as SIP devices. Additionally, when a new voicemail arrives, Ribbit can notify you via email, Google Talk, Skype, or SMS. Ribbit Mobile transcribes voicemail to text and sends it to you via SMS and email. It also provides a web portal inbox where messages can be managed and stored forever. No voicemail retention limit which is nice.

Ribbit Mobile also has something they like to call "Caller ID 2.0" which links your Ribbit contacts address book with your contact's Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Flickr accounts. You can see recent updates made by your contacts to their social networks and pictures of your contacts as seen here:

Hosted VoIP is making great strides, but there is often one problem - with hosted VoIP you don't get desktop call control. Well, today SimpleSignal introduced its Call Control Toolbar, which adds advanced business VoIP calling features while leveraging their hosted environment. Personally, I am very computer-centric and hate managing my phone calls using the phone. Why use an antiquated TUI (telephone user interface) to setup a conference when you can use a GUI and drag-and-drop conference participants? So I've enjoyed the use of several desktop call control applications over the years, including Comdial's CTI app, Artisoft TeleVantage (R.I.P),  Fonality's HUD client, and more. I've also used Vonage's (hosted residential service) Vonage Pro, a feature-rich desktop call control app.

In any event, the Call Control Toolbar (image right) is an Adobe Air-based application that floats anywhere on a user's desktop for instant access to a range of calling feature controls. The Call Control Toolbar does not require users to launch a web browser.

"One of the biggest challenges we discovered in our customer research was that our Hosted PBX customers were not using incredibly efficient calling features like simultaneous ring, remote office and voice messaging, or even more basic functions such as speed dial," said Dave Gilbert, founder and president of SimpleSignal, "either because they didn't know how or didn't want to be bothered with logging into a web portal to set up or change their IP phone settings.

"The SimpleSignal Call Control Toolbar eliminates these hassles for users," Gilbert continued. "The controls are user-friendly and always available in the background on a user's desktop, so it's easy to make quick, on-the-fly changes to IP phone settings. "

The SimpleSignal Call Control Toolbar also features call notification screen pops. When a user receives an incoming call, a small window pops up at the bottom of the user's computer screen with complete caller ID information. Users can also answer the call directly from the screen pop.

The Call Control Toolbar is provided free of charge for SimpleSignal's Hosted PBX customers.

Features that can be managed by the toolbar include:

• Simultaneous Ring for up to six numbers
• Remote Office, which displays your office number on caller ID regardless of which phone is being used
• Outbound Dialing by entering the phone number or copying and pasting into Toolbar window
• Speed Dial for six numbers
• Sequential Ring for up to six numbers
• Voice Messaging Control (http://www.simplesignal.com/feat_Visual-Voicemail.php), including email notifications and transfer upon dialing "0"
• Call Forwarding Always
• Call Forwarding Busy
• Call Forwarding No Answer
• Do Not Disturb

Today, Microsemi is launching a new line of midspans which feature integrated lightning protection. This marks the first time a PoE midspan features lightning protection. As more and more PoE devices are used outdoors, including outdoor wireless Access Points (APs), outdoor security cameras, and more, having lightning protection is critical. One lightning bolt strike and it can wipe out your entire networking and IT infrastructure. While lightning is great & all since it bestows Captain Marvel his super powers, when it comes to networking equipment, not so much.

The new PowerDsine 9001G-40/SP is a single-port, high-power Gigabit solution for remotely powering both current and emerging high-power networking terminals and equipment while also providing surge protection optimized for outdoor devices such as security cameras and wireless LAN access points.


                 Rear product view

According to Microsemi, "Until now, PoE could only be deployed safely outdoors with a costly surge-protection unit installed alongside it, to prevent direct or nearby lightning strikes from damaging or destroying both the powered devices and their network switch. Surge and lightning protection units can cost from $250 to $400."

"A high percentage of outdoor PoE installations, especially in the enterprise, do not implement surge protection units because of their high cost or a lack of awareness," said Sani Ronen, senior product manager for Microsemi's PowerDsine midspans. "Nearby lightning strikes are much more common than most people think. Strikes as far as a mile away can induce a voltage level that can damage outdoor devices. Without lightning protection, surges also can move quickly along the Ethernet cable to damage expensive indoor network switches. Our new midspan delivers that protection at a cost savings of as much as 50 percent."

Microsemi's newest midspan has been tested successfully to the GR-1089 lightning standard for surges up to 2500V/500A. It can power devices designed for either the IEEE 802.3af standard, or the recently ratified IEEE802.3at standard for high power over Ethernet applications.

The 9001G-40/SP offers up to 40W of power which means it can support power-hungry devices such as 802.11n access points, pan-tilt-zoom cameras and WiMAX customer premises equipment.

"The 9001G-40/SP was designed to deliver the latest benefits of the new high-power 802.3at standard while also offering a cost-effective, single-box solution for powering and simultaneously protecting outdoor PoE systems from lightning damage or destruction," Ronen said.

KEY FEATURES
- Interoperability with IEEE802.3af and IEEE802.3at devices
- Lightning protection up to 2500V/500A
- 10/100/100-BaseT support

Pricing and Availability
The PD-9001G-40/SP Midspan is available in production for a unit list price of $119. Additional information is available at Microsemi's website here: http://www.microsemi/PowerDsine.com.

In a fascinating deal, IBM and Digium announced today that they are teaming up to offer Asterisk for Smart Cube, a customized version of Asterisk Business Edition. IBM's Smart Cube is very similar to Microsoft Small Business Server (SBS), a pre-packaged bundle of various IT & business applications - except in this case Smart Cube is based on Linux not Windows.

Businesses using Smart Cube can be up and running with a complete IT solution to run their business, including the operating system, integrated middleware, database, security and back-office functionality such as file, print, backup and recovery, and more. Extending the IBM Smart Cube to IP telephony and unified communications is a natural extension of the Smart Cube.

Asterisk for Smart Cube has administration capabilities built right into the Smart Cube Smart Desk GUI, which is perfect for the SMB. Asterisk initially ran on rPath but now uses the very popular CentOS distribution. IBM on the other hand is very partial to SuSe Linux. thus one of the technical challenges IBM and Digium worked on was getting Asterisk Business Edition to run on the SuSE Linux platform. Additionally they worked on seamlessly integrating it into the Smart Desk GUI.

How this affects Digium's own home-grown Switchvox SMB offering remains to be seen. But Digium gaining access to IBM's huge distribution and reseller channel is great news for Digium.

Via internetnews.com

If you're running Office Communications Server or LCS whatever you do, don't install KB974571 or you will cause the LCS or OCS server to state you are running the evaluation version and then say it has expired. Poof! - There goes your corporate unified communications (UC) followed by a parade of your coworkers carrying pitchforks & torches looking to find out why their UC isn't working. How widespread this patch is affecting OCS/LCS installs worldwide is unknown.

KB97451 is also known as  "MS09-056: Vulnerabilities in CryptoAPI could allow spoofing" and it was released just yesterday on Patch Tuesday. If you use WSUS or Windows Update to automatically download/install patches, you might be surprised this Wednesday morning to find your OCS/LCS server has failed. Didn't we have Patch Tuesday cause another major outage? (See: Skype Outage & Skype Outage caused by Windows Update)

If you apply the patch, the LCS/OCS services fail to start and you see these errors in the event log:

Event Type:        Error
Event Source:    Live Communications Server
Event Category:                (1000)
Event ID:              12290     
Description:
The evaluation period for Microsoft Office Live Communication Server 2005 has expired. Obtain the released version of this product and upgrade to the non-evaluation version by running setup.exe

Uninstalling the patch is the only way to fix it. According to the Microsoft OCS blog, "The issue is currently being escalated, but until a fix can be found, delaying the install of KB974571 is recommended."

You can also read more about it here.

The 10th Anniversary of the AstriCon 2009 conference is next week in Arizona (October 13-15) and it is shaping up to be a great show. For one, AstriCon is sporting 30% more companies in the Expo Hall than last year's conference. The AstriCon organizers have even thrown in some cool freebies to add to your Asterisk arsenal.  All attendees receive three popular Asterisk licenses, including: Skype for Asterisk, Fax for Asterisk, and G.729 for Asterisk.

AstriCon 2009 will be held at the Renaissance Glendale Resort and Spa near Phoenix, Arizona. You can register for the conference at www.astricon.net.

Today Vonage launched Vonage Mobile for the Apple iPhone and Blackberry. I've already said this will be a killer app and could sway iPhone users to sign up with Vonage. Though, many iPhone users and wireless phone users in general have killed their landline entirely. Nevertheless, there are some cool features with Vonage Mobile, including a single-number identity for both your home and mobile number that could give Vonage an added boost.

Vonage World is not limited to just WiFi - it works over 3G!  Vonage Mobile offers low-cost international calling and Vonage claims that you can save more than 50% on calls to dozens of countries versus the rates charged by wireless carriers. Vonage Mobile will be available for download on the iPhone, BlackBerry and iPod touch at www.vonage.com and the iTunes App Store later today.

In Q42009, Vonage will enhance the app to include the popular Vonage World plan that was introduced recently. "Vonage World" includes unlimited calling across the world to over 60 countries, which covers 2/3 of the world's population (4.5 billion) all for just $24.99/month.

"Our new mobile app is an important step in establishing Vonage as a software technology company that enables high-quality voice and messaging across any device in any location, providing great value over any broadband network," said Marc Lefar, CEO of Vonage.

Vonage Mobile features:
• Rates are better than traditional wireless and landline carrier rates
• Lets you make calls while on Wi-Fi or cellular networks, providing full mobility
• Uses your existing contact list - just click and dial - no extra steps
• Utilizes your existing cell phone number so the people you call will recognize who is calling
• Real-time balance updates and the ability to automatically replenish funds in your account
• No more trips to the store to buy calling cards, no 800 numbers or access codes, and no connection charges

What an inglorious end to the Verizon Hub, which Verizon Wireless promoted as the greatest VoIP phone ever. Sure it was sexy, and sure it was gadgety - doubling as a Web tablet and digital phone frame, but apparently users just weren't buying. Not even a year after Verizon Wireless launched the Hub they have killed it.

Verizon Wireless said Sept. 30 it was discontinuing sales for its Verizon Hub. The Hub retailed for $199 and required a $34.99 monthly fee. Too high a price if you ask me. What they should have done is sold it for $50, but lock customers into a 2-year contract or something to offset the costs of this phone device. If they terminate early, then you charge them full-price. Verizon Wireless should know this pricing model from their cellphone plans. But who am I to give financial lessons?

RIP Verizon Hub, we barely knew you...


Via PC Magazine

Microsoft today just released the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 XMPP Gateway, which is available at no cost. That's right, it's free and is immediately downloadable. The XMPP gateway allows basic presence sharing and instant messaging (IM) with Cisco Jabber and Google Talk. OCS users can now instant message Cisco Jabber and Google Talk users.

The Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 XMPP Gateway can be downloaded here. Also, check out this video featuring Ashima Singhal (Senior Product Manager) and Albert Kooiman (Senior Product Manager) from the Communication Server team who discuss IM interoperability between different networks and show how the XMPP Gateway works.

Notice the different network icons (Yahoo!, AOL, Gmail/Google Talk)


Demo of Communicator client IM'ing a Google Talk user.

Some more good news - a PIC License will no longer be required for federation with American Online (AOL).  Customers qualify for federation with AOL if they have Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Standard CAL or active Software Assurance on their current LCS/OCS license.  Alas, customers who want Yahoo! federation will continue to purchase PIC licenses, but the price of PIC will be reduced by 50%, effective October 1, 2009.

Via Office Communications Server Team blog