Tom Keating : VoIP & Gadgets Blog
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SIP

Flashphone adds Adobe AIR VoIP app

September 2, 2008

Regular readers of the VoIP & Gadgets blog will recall I've written about Flashphone several times. In theory, Flashphone, like Phweet (a Flash-based VoIP app) should work on Aircell's airline Internet service. Until of course, Aircell blocks it of course. (See Andy's post about doing VoIP over Aircell)

The most recent Flashphone news was the addition of flash-SIP/VoIP-to-video calling.

VoIP Supply Named to CRN's Fastest Growing Retailers - Proof VoIP a Fast Growing industry

September 2, 2008

Garrett Smith from VoIP Supply emailed me this morning expressing his excitement that "A VoIP pure play keeping up with a who's who of America's top retailers." Specifically, the company Garrett works for was named to CRN Magazine's Fastest Growing retailers listing VoIP Supply's retail business amongst the big boys like Best Buy, New Egg and PC Connection.

Out of the 15 companies listed, only one company posted better growth numbers then VoIP Supply.

A hearty congrats to VoIP Supply team! I'm sure I'll see some of you at Internet Telephony Expo (ITEXPO) in a couple weeks. I'm sure Garrett, who blogs for SmithonVoIP will be at Andy Abramson's Bloggers' Dinner that Andy puts together each show. I'll have to raise a toast to VoIP Supply's success.



Office Communications Server 2007 R2 beta released

September 2, 2008

Well if the cat wasn't out of the bag already over the naming convention (OCS 2007 R2 vs. OCS 2009) for the next release of Office Communications Server 2007, we can put that to rest. It will be indeed be called Office Communications Server 2007 R2. In fact, just a few days ago, Microsoft shipped the beta for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, "in record time after shipping OCS 2007 last year."

Kintan Brahmbhatt, a Program Manager at Microsoft writes, "It is a great achievement for the team.

friends of fring

September 2, 2008

fring is offering a limited number of "friends of fring" with exclusive access to news, and features before general release. I like to call fring the "Swiss Army knife of mobile VoIP" supporting SIP, Skype, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, Twitter, and AIM. I have it installed on my Windows Mobile 6.1 phone. As a "friend of fring" you can also provide feedback.

New 3CX VoIP Phone SIP Softphone

September 2, 2008


In late July, 3CX launched a new SIP-based VoIP client called 3CX VoIP Phone, with a fully-featured dialpad, and it allows for easy call transfers. It also features history of calls, the ability to put calls on hold, and the ability to accept, reject or ignore calls. Best of all 3CX VoIP phone is completely free and works with most popular IP PBXs and VoIP providers. It even sports multiple SIP profiles support for registering with multiple SIP accounts.

As I wrote back in July, 3CX VoIP Phone features strong Microsoft Outlook integration. Users can launch calls directly from their contacts' list within Outlook by just right-clicking on the name of the person they wish to call.


Microsoft OCS 2007 R2 (next release) to be 64-bit Only

August 29, 2008

It was just announced on the Office Communications Server Team blog that the next release of OCS 2007 (rumored to be called OCS 2007 R2) will support 64-bit operating systems only. Customers who are using 32-bit hardware systems to run OCS 2007 will have to upgrade to x64 systems to install and run the next release of OCS.

From Microsoft:
As a part of the broad initiative across Microsoft to support 64 bit versions across many of its product lines, the next release of OCS will support 64-bit operating systems only. This decision will help meet customer demand and is a natural progression of the product that aligns with the same approach taken by the Exchange team (with Exchange 2007) and the SharePoint team (with SharePoint 2007) to support 64 bit operating systems only.

For the next release of OCS, Microsoft will support deployments on 64 bit operating systems - Windows Server 2003 x64 (R2) and Windows Server 2008 x64.


They based their decision to go 100% 64-bit in part based on customer feedback, as they explained here:
Based on customer feedback, Microsoft's goal with the next release of OCS is to simplify deployments by reducing the number of servers needed for deployment. Customers are also telling us they are pushing the limits of existing hardware with their "mission critical" communications solutions.

OCS 2007 Video Call

There was a bit of a backlash from customers when Microsoft announced that Exchange Server 2007 would be 64-bit only, but I think that mentality has eased a bit over the last year.





fring touchtone DTMF support - uh hello?

August 25, 2008

I've been playing around with fring for awhile now. I like fring which I like to call "the Swiss army knife of mobile VoIP and IM", since it works with Skype, SIP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, and AIM. Because it supports SIP, I'm able to configure fring to work on Asterisk-based systems to be able to make and receive phone calls.



Receiving calls to my '149' SIP extension (see screenshot) works great on my Windows Mobile 6.1 Verizon XV6700 (Apache) phone.



VoSKY Exchange Pro VISIP-EX SIP PBX-to-Skype gateway

August 19, 2008


VoSKY
just announced the VoSKY Exchange Pro VISIP-EX, a SIP-to-Skype gateway product that bridges the Skype network with SIP-based IP-PBXs and SIP gateways. The VoSKY Exchange Pro VISIP-EX enables companies with SIP-enabled PBXs to add Skype trunks for inexpensive calling. This isn't the first SIP-to-Skype gateway, I've written about others here, here, here, and here, however, this is the first "Skype-certified", enterprise-grade PBX-to-Skype gateway for SIP networks.

The new VoSKY Exchange Pro VISIP-EX is based on the company's enterprise-grade Linux platform and connects an IP-PBX to Skype to dramatically reduce telecom costs up to 90% over traditional telco trunks according to VoSKY.
 
The VoSKY Exchange Pro VISIP-EX integrates with any existing IP-PBX through SIP trunk ports and adds up to 30 lines of Skype.



Free World Dialup (FWD) No Longer Free

August 6, 2008

Saw this news on http://www.freeworlddialup.com/ stating that Free World Dialup, often referred to as FWD is now no longer "free" but now has a $30 annual "fee". Well, at least they get to keep the FWD acronym since both have the letter 'f', but the domain name is no longer accurate.

Anyway, FWD was one of the first free SIP-to-SIP calling services using their SIP registrar (fwd.pulver.com:5060). It seems to me that FWD has had its loyal but small fanbase, but honestly I think it's outlived its usefulness. I can setup a FREE account here on FreeCall.com and not only get SIP-to-SIP calls for free, I can also get free calls to many PSTN destinations around the world!

How much data does fring consume?

August 5, 2008

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