Recently in TMCnet Category

Sources informed me a few months ago that Microsoft's SMB IP-PBX called Response Point was in trouble. Then my Microsoft contacts Rex Backman and Richard Sprague, who were integral parts of the Response Point team were let go around May of this year which told me things were not looking good for the Response Point product. I really liked the Response Point product, though I did think it was a bit pricey when compared to other solutions. Still, it had a nice TCO since it was so easy to manage.

Sources have told me that Microsoft has indeed just killed the Response Point product. In addition to my complaints about pricing, I always thought that Microsoft should have taken their OCS 2007 product and offered it as a turnkey appliance. OCS 2007 is not an easy product to deploy into the enterprise, has complex licensing, various hardware servers required, needs Exchange integration for unified messaging, etc. -- but is a very feature-rich unified communications platform.

Thus, if Microsoft could offer a turn-key, or nearly turn-key OCS 2007 (2010?) appliance they could really take the SMB market by storm. They could offer it inexpensively by locking down various advanced features with a license key which can be later activated when the customer needs the features. For instance, they could start with basic PBX functionality, but have software license keys for unified messaging, speech recognition dialing, video conferencing, audio conferencing (conference bridges), etc.


I'm sad to see Response Point go, but at the same time I'm hoping this means Microsoft will take the freed up resources to concentrate their efforts on making the future release of OCS 2007 a much easier install with less hardware requirements and a much lower TCO. One can only hope Microsoft listens and doesn't abandon the SMB telecom market entirely. We shall see...

Apple iTunes is experiencing some severe outage problems today. I was trying to install Truphone and Skype on a coworker's iPhone when I noticed I couldn't search the App Store on his iPhone. Rich Tehrani also tried installing a gaming app I recommended called Blowfish, but it wouldn't accept his password.

My IT administrator then proceeded to try and register a new iTunes account within the iTunes PC software for this iPhone and that wouldn't work either. Perhaps the Michael Jackson resurgence phenomenon is overloading iTunes? According to CNET, "On iTunes, the Web's largest music service, 8 out of the top-10-selling albums for download were from Jackson, with a compilation album, "The Essential Michael Jackson" in the No. 1 spot."

Ok, so the just launched Skype 1.1 for iPhone doesn't support push notifications, but eBuddy, a brand new app for the iPhone or iPod touch does support push notifications. What does this mean? It means you can close eBuddy and still receive instant messages (IMs) from your buddies. Further, eBuddy is an IM aggregator supporting MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Gtalk, and Facebook. Too bad they don't support Skype though like fring does. eBuddy also supports Google Android phones.

Check out the features for eBuddy on the iPhone & iPod touch:

• One buddy list for MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Gtalk, and Facebook
• Stay online when you exit the app
• Get push notifications for incoming messages when you exit the app*
• Reconnect automatically if connection is lost
• Get offline messages after reconnecting
• Get new message alerts & typing alerts in the chat screen
• Easily switch between chats by swiping your screen
• Shake your iPhone or iPod Touch to send a buzzer
• Display pictures, personal message and status
• Emoticons & buzzers
• Sound & vibration
• Multiple IM networks
• Multiple accounts for each IM network
• Buddy list management
• Offline messages
• Group chat support

Push notifications for incoming messages are only available if you have the latest iPhone 3.0 software on your device. eBuddy will also soon be adding landscape mode. Oh, and did I mention unlike similar app Beejive ($9.99) & IM+ with Push ($9.99), eBuddy is a free app in the Apple App store? Some minor complaints include it only supports push for up to 30 minutes and it doesn't support file sharing (audio, picture, etc.). Still for a free IM aggregator app, this one is definitely a must for the iPhone!

Whatcha waitin' for? Go grab this cool app now!

I received an email from a U.S. military service person asking me if I was aware of any VoIP service providers offering a "military suspension plan" which allows U.S. military members to "suspend" your contract without paying monthly fees.

Mr. Tom Keating,

I'm a current customer of Vonage, but have recently been disappointed by them. You see, being in the military, deployments do not allow us to use our regular phones, for obvious reasons. As far as I'm aware, every cell phone carrier has some form of "military suspension plan" which allows you to keep your contract without paying any monthly fees until you notify them that you want it reactivated (not sure about landlines, but most ISP's seem to have a similar policy).

My question to you is: do you know of any VOIP companies that have a policy to accommodate military deployments, or even long vacations? At $35ish/month, I'd prefer not to pay this during a 6+ month tour in Iraq.

"Bitter cold, Bitter fight" a weary U.S. Marine in Korea 1950

I'm not aware of any VoIP service providers currently offering "military suspension plans". Have we forgotten the blood, sweat, and tears they've shed? Have we forgotten the hardships they ensure - whether it's the icy cold winter in Korea or the 110+ degree heat in the deserts & streets of Iraq? American VoIP companies should remember their sacrifice and do the honorable thing and cut them a financial break. Who's going to step up to the plate and reward our brave young men and women serving this country? Vonage? Packet8/8x8? Broadvoice? Anyone?

WildCharge, makers of wire-free charging skins for various mobile phone models today has announced a wire-free skin for the iPhone and iPod touch, which enable the popular Apple devices to be charged instantly simply placing them on the WildCharger Pad™ or on other surfaces that are embedded with the WildCharge technology.

"The market is demanding a move towards wire-free charging, and WildCharge is thrilled to answer that call in adding Apple devices to our lineup of commercially available products," said WildCharge chairman and CEO Dennis Grant. "With the addition of these two designs to our reference design library, both of which are Apple "Made for iPod" and "Works with iPhone" approved, WildCharge is solidifying our position as the leading, wire-free charging developer in the industry."

The WildCharge Skins are durable, protective, form-fitting cases that when placed on the WildCharger Pad, transfer wire-free power from the Pad to the device inside the skin. The soft cases provide the same protection consumers already enjoy from traditional skins, but have the added value and convenience of enabling a wire-free charge. The WildCharger Pad, used in conjunction with the skins, delivers full power to multiple devices, allowing them to simultaneously charge together on the Pad while eliminating the clutter caused by multiple chargers and power strips. The iPod touch skin is available today and the iPhone skin will be available in early July. WildCharge Skins are also available for the Blackberry Pearl and Curve, and all are sold for $34.99 at WildCharge.com. I have a review unit headed my way to test on my brand spankin' new iPhone 3GS, so I'll do a review once I get it.

In addition to the WilCharge Skins, WildCharge recently announced a Universal Adapter for mobile devices that works with the WildCharger Pad. The Universal Adapter is able to charge over 150 different cell phone models from major brands such as Motorola, RIM, and Nokia through the use of interchangeable tips, with the list of compatible devices constantly expanding.

WildCharge claim that provide the only commercially available technology that enables licensing partners to deliver wire-free charging to a variety of devices that require varying amounts of power. From cell phones that require only a few watts of power to laptops that need over a hundred watts, virtually any device that has a rechargeable battery can be powered from a single, contiguous, and non-discriminating charging surface. WildCharge technology has met the industry's most stringent regulatory and safety standards, including UL, CE, FCC, RoHS, and has been certified across all of the GSM bands.

What if you could do Skype VoIP & video conferencing on the Google Android? Sounds pretty damn cool, doesn't it? Especially given all the media hype surrounding the new iPhone 3GS. I already tweeted my displeasure that the new Apple iPhone 3GS doesn't support Flash and also tweeted my annoyance that Apple didn't put a front-facing camera for video chat support using Skype. Thus, while the iPhone supports a native Skype app, it only supports VoIP and not video chat. And don't expect video chat anytime soon either. As Skype Journal remarked, "iPhone programmers can use the webcam to store video to a file, but won't be able to write apps that manipulate or route the stream. This means Skype for iPhone won't be able to add video calling any time soon."

Well forget about the damned new iPhone! I have a method that "should" enable Skype video chat on the Google Android mobile phone.

How do you ask? Well, first we need to "cook" in a Flash player into Google Android's ROM, since Flash support on the Android isn't officially released yet. But we're not waiting on Google, so let's get cookin'!

Here are the steps to get Skype video chat working on the Google Android:

1) Download the HTC SuperHero V2 ROM for the Google Android
2) To keep memory freed up and automatically install apps to SD, go download this. (direct link to .zip file here)
     Download a2sd.zip, unzip put the unzipped file onto your C drive
     Open command prompt and type these:
     adb remount
     adb push c:\a2sd.sh /system/bin
3) Upgrade to the latest SPL & radio by heading over to this page on android-unleashed.com
4) Launch Skype Flash application and make a video call to another Skype user.

Where the heck is the "Skype Flash" application you ask?

Oh, I'm sorry, I can't tell you that. I want to test this first to make sure it works & capture some screenshots to put here as proof.

Sorry to be such a tease, but I want to be the first to get a Skype video chat call to work on a popular mobile phone platform. Stay tuned though!

P.S. Check out the SuperHero V2 Official Release Change log:

• Cleaned up things to make space, updated boot.img thanks to Detox
• Drawables from ophone were added
• Slightly themed in many places by me & L3wish
• Flash player is back
• Multitouch browser
• Updated libs from ophone
• Led code implemented in init.rc by detox will not be used untill leds are fully working thanks to shasty for the led coding.
• All updated from beta 2 but now optomized to run very smooth and stable.
• Htc chirp still not working will update soon.
• Automatic apps to sd is pre loaded but not used unless you want just add the ap2sd.sh to bin

Release notes & how to upgrade ROM Via:
herog3.wicholandia.com
and
android-unleashed.com

Flaphone has done some updates to their Flash-based VoIP application. Back in 2007 I broke the story about the first Adobe Flash-based SIP VoIP app called Flashphone, later renamed Flaphone. Flaphone is a web-based SIP softphone that uses ubiquitous Flash (Mac, PC, Linux), to enable you to make or receive calls to/from all SIP phones and SIP services, including Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, and Google Talk. You can make free web-based Flash calls to Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, and Google Talk (gtalk) users. You can even make Flash-based SIP-to-Skype calls using Flaphone, which I tested back in February. You simply enter sip:skype_username@skype to make a call to a Skype username. Good stuff!

They just announced some new features, including a new skin (white), emoticons in chat, and the ability to transfer files up to 5MB in size between Flaphone users if both have Flash player 10 installed. The file size is restricted for now, but Flaphone stated that when they add P2P support they will remove the restriction. I like Flaphone since I can run it from any PC and make SIP-to-SIP calls or SIP-to-Skype calls without installing anything. Definitely worth checking out.

Smartphones, netbooks, smartbooks, and Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) while very similar feature-wise, each has their own distinct advantages. Smartphones such as the iPhone have been widely successful, while the MID market has been a bit slow to take off. Elektrobit Corporation (EB), based in Oulu, Finland aims to change that with their new MID reference design that combines the "pocketability" of smartphones with the power of PCs/netbooks since it can run desktop Linux applications. Picture an iPhone that can actually run full version Linux applications such as Firefox, Opera, OpenOffice, Thunderbird, SSH client, and more. That's exactly what you'll get with Elektrobit's (EB) new MID reference design. EB's sleek, media-centric MID reference device takes the power of the PC and makes it pocket-able so you don't have to compromise on mobile capabilities.

I spoke with EB's Vesa Kiviranta Vice President, Mobile Internet Device Solutions, Wireless Solutions BU about their new reference design. Vesa explained that it's based on Intel's next generation Moores­town platform. The reference design includes touch-screen support with multi-touch (cool!) support. It uses the latest 3D and high resolution capacitive sensing touch screen (3.97") powered by EB Touch & Feel technology. Because the screen measures nearly 4 inches (3.97"), it fits into the MID category, while smartphones have screens smaller than 3.9 inches and netbooks have screens larger than 5 inches.The reference design relies on a Linux-based OS with EB's MID UI & Application framework based on QT. It also features EB Navigation Suite with integrated GPS.

It supports two cameras (front & back of phone) so not only can you snap photos, it can also easily support videoconferencing/videochat. I asked EB about support for Skype video chat  and they told me it will indeed be supported in their MID design. In fact, they tested it using the Linux Skype application in their labs. As far as I know, this marks the first time a pocketable mobile phone can perform Skype videoconferencing! Cool stuff! I know many iPhone fans were very disappointed the new iPhone 3GS didn't add a front-facing camera (myself included), which would allow for videochat capabilities. Of course, the current Skype for iPhone client doesn't support video, but my sources tell me it's in the works. It will be very hard to have a videoconference if you have to turn the iPhone around so the camera is facing you, but not the iPhone screen. Basically, they'll be able to see you, but you won't be able to see them - unless you spin the iPhone back around.

Terminal Services allows you to remotely run applications as well as perform remote administrative duties on servers. It has allowed remote audio to be streamed over IP from the remote computer to your local computer (audio redirection) but has never allowed the microphone or line-in port to be redirected. If Microsoft did, you could do VoIP. Of course, you'd have to redirect from the local PC to the remote server and not the other way around. Well read on...

This is the greatest Linux command ever! Definitely my favorite.
find ./ -name \*.html -printf '%CD\t%p\n' | grep "03/10/08" | awk '{print $2}' | xargs -t -i mv {} temp/

What it does is look (find) for files that end in .html uses the printf option to format the 'find' output, then passes it to grep for searching for a certain date, then awk for printing a certain field, and finally xargs for executing a certain command.

Let's break it down...

The printf part within the find command has the format '%CD\t%p\n'.

%Cx = File's last status change time in the format specified by x. x=D. D=date in the format mm/dd/yy
\t = Horizontal tab
%p = file's name
\n = newline

So basically it outputs the file's last status change followed by a horizontal tab, then the filename, and then a new line. But before it outputs it, it sends it to 'grep' which searches the output and only outputs lines with "03/10/09".

Example so far: (minus the awk, xargs and mv commands)
find ./ -name \*.html -printf '%CD\t%p\n' | grep "03/10/09"
Outputs this: (notice the tab to separate the 2 fields)
03/10/09        ./2005/05/index.html
03/10/09        ./2005/03/index.html
03/10/09        ./2005/04/index.html
03/10/09        ./linked-in.html
03/10/09        ./consumer-electronics/samsung-bribery-news.html
03/10/09        ./technology/iptv/index.html

Now send this output into the awk command (awk '{print $2}') which parses it and pulls out the 2nd column/field (hence the tab character), which is the filename, including the path.

Here's the output you now have after adding awk '{print $2}' in:
./2005/05/index.html
./2005/03/index.html
./2005/04/index.html
./linked-in.html
./consumer-electronics/samsung-bribery-news.html
./technology/iptv/index.html

Next, send this output of "exact path + filename" to xargs for execution in the Linux shell.

The "xargs -t -i mv {} temp/" part basically takes the input from the previous commands (files named .html modified on 3/10/09) and moves (mv) them to the temp/ folder.

The xargs command can do anything. So instead of moving the files, I could delete them, run chmod on them, or something else.

It took me awhile to write this command. I've used various methods of finding files on Linux servers over the years, but this one is one of the most powerful.

Definitely a command you should have in your Linux arsenal!

p.s. Here's another tip. If you want to search ALL files (not just .html) then use the following command. Notice the \* and not * for the search. That part got me since I didn't think the * (wildcard) had to be backslashed. Usually when you backslash a character that means you want the 'literal' character specified after the \ (backslash) character. I didn't want filenames with a '*' in it. I wanted the wildcard. That threw me for a minute before I figured it out. Anyway, here's the command:
find ./ -name \* -printf '%CD\t%p\n' | grep "03/10/08" | awk '{print $2}' | xargs -t -i mv {} temp/