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TMCnet

Cisco acquires WebEx

March 15, 2007

Cisco has acquired WebEx for approximately $3.2 billion, according to the Cisco website. WebEx is one of the most well-known companies in the hosted on-demand collaboration application space. Although WebEx is very well-known (who hasn't used it?), in my opinion Cisco overpaid for WebEx. First, the hosted collaboration space is very crowded. You have Raindance, Placeware (now part of Microsoft), Genesys, and a dozen other smaller players all in the web collaboration space. 
Posted in Microsoft, TMCnet, VoIP

Microsoft - Tellme - What does it mean?

March 14, 2007

Microsoft has acquired Tellme Networks, a hosted provider of speech-recognition solutions. I had dinner with some Microsoft reps last night at Tao Restaurant in NYC and asked about the pending Tellme deal, but their lips were sealed and they wouldn't even acknowledge such an acquisition was pending. But I saw right through their poker faces, and with a wink and a smile they changed the subject. I was actually meeting with them to check out a demo of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 which combines VoIP, presence, and other features for a "unified communications" experience.
Posted in Microsoft, Mobile Phones, TMCnet, Wireless

Skype Prime Allows Users to Charge for Calls

March 12, 2007

A beta of the Skype client recently made available allows users to charge for voice and video calls placed to their account through a new service called Skype Prime. eBay-owned Skype has developed Skype Prime to grant users the ability to either charge by the minute or a single charge for the entire call. Fees would be taken out of the caller's Skype account, and the called party would receive 70 percent of the proceeds collected, payable through PayPal, another eBay-owned proprietary. This is very similar to Ether, a service I have written about, except Ether gives you a separate phone number.
Posted in Skype, TMCnet, VoIP

Windows Defender calls Alexa Toolbar Trojan

March 2, 2007

This morning I discovered several PCs running Windows Defender and the Alexa Toolbar were receiving messages that the Alexa Toolbar was classified as a trojan. The name classfication within Windows Defender was Win32/VB.BZ as seen here: (click for large view)



I then tested installing the Alexa toolbar onto a brand-spanking new Windows Vista PC. As the file was downloading, Windows Defender popped up with a warning and said the risk/Alert Level was "High".



I installed the file anyway and it once again classified the Alexa Toolbar as Win32/VB.BZ, a "trojan clicker", according to the results I see via a Google search on Win32/VB.BZ.

The files it found were C:\WINDOWS\system32\alxres.dll and C:\WINDOWS\AlxTB1.dll - legitimate Alexa files.

So does Microsoft have it in for Alexa?











Posted in Microsoft, TMCnet

CompUSA store closings

March 1, 2007

Posted in News, TMCnet

AT&T Lightspeed ahead! (NOT!)

March 1, 2007

AT&T won't be reaching 18 million homes this year with its "Lightspeed" U-Verse IPTV & VDSL broadband network, giving more credence to my AT&T U-Verse Doomed? article. The ironic thing is that AT&T just a few days go stated it was ready for an aggressive rollout of U-verse. They told the San Antonio Express News that it had ironed out technical glitches with the service and is readying a breakneck expansion that will take it to all major cities in its 22-state service area and 8 million households by year-end.
Posted in Home Entertainment, TMCnet, Triple Play, Video Hardware & Software, VoIP

Comcast Digital Voice passes two million

March 1, 2007

Comcast, a major provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services, today announced it has surpassed the two million customer milestone for Comcast Digital Voice. The company celebrated by awarding a customer in southeast Michigan with a digital home makeover to take advantage of the new integrated features that are available through its Triple Play package of phone, high-speed Internet
and video services.

Relatedly, in December of last year, TMCnet reported that Cablevision had also reached two million VoIP customers and also announced a major upgrade to their Optimum Online high-speed Internet. It raised the speed of its core Optimum Online service, from up to 10 megabits-per-second (Mbps) downstream and 1 Mbps upstream, to new speeds of up to 15 Mbps downstream and 2 Mbps upstream, at no additional charge. Almost makes me wish I still had Cablevision (I switched to DSL).


Posted in TMCnet, VoIP
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