Video Conferencing

Cisco Cius HD Android Tablet

June 30, 2010

Cisco unveiled Cisco Cius, a business tablet running on the Android OS that offers "virtual desktop integration with anywhere, anytime access to the full range of Cisco collaboration and communication applications, including HD video." Now before you think iPad killer, you should know that Cisco is focusing this tablet on the business enterprise not the consumer market. It sports WiFi, 3G, and soon 4G when it becomes available. Nice! It also has a front-mounted 720p HD camera supporting 30fps.

I should add that many enterprises are using iPads as laptop replacements, so I wouldn't classify the iPad as strictly a consumer product.

Posted in Android, Cisco, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, VoIP

No Facetime friends? Call 1-888-FACETIME

June 25, 2010

Even with millions of iPhone 4s being sold, you probably don't know any people who also own an iPhone 4 to test Facetime video chat with.

No worries though. You can video chat with an actual Apple representative! Just call 1-888-FACETIME (1-888-322-38463) to talk via Facetime. (last digit E = 3 not needed)

They're available from 8am to 8pm CDT.

Via Crunchgear

Posted in Apple, Mobile Phones, TMCnet, Video Conferencing, VoIP, Wireless

Microsoft Kinect Adds Video Chat

June 14, 2010

Project Natal for the XBOX 360 has just been renamed to Microsoft Kinect. Personally, I prefer the old name. In any event, Microsoft also announced a VoIP & video conferencing app simply called Video Chat. Great, get rid of a cool project name and then offer the lamest name for a video chat application ever! Offering a video app is a natural extension for this video camera device.

With this news of bringing videoconferencing to your TV, it would appear Microsoft isn't going to take Skype trying to take over the living room TV lying down.

Posted in Microsoft, Skype, TMCnet, Video Conferencing, VoIP

CounterPath Announces Linux Softphone

June 2, 2010

Today, CounterPath has announced its Bria for Linux softphone client. Bria for Linux will support multiple VoIP accounts, LDAP, a wide variety of codecs and more. The new Bria 3.0 for Linux will debut next month, however CounterPath said it has already ben deployed by two Fortune 500 companies. CounterPath is well-known for it's industry-leading SIP clients, both free (X-Lite) and paid (Bria), so perhaps the biggest advantage of this announcement is that enterprises can have a single SIP application that enables VoIP across embedded products, Linux, Mac and Windows operating systems.

Posted in SIP, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, VoIP

fring Brings Video Calling to Android

May 27, 2010

fring, today announced mobile video calls over internet on Android devices. Just last year, fring announced iPhone/iPod video calling, which Rich Tehrani and I reviewed. fring also supports video calling on Nokia (Symbian S60) mobile phones. Time to go borrow TMC's Android device and try this out. I'll post the review when I get a chance.

fring's new android version is available for download here.

Posted in Android, Reviews, TMCnet, Video Conferencing, VoIP

Panasonic Activates Skype on Viera 2010 HDTVs

May 18, 2010

Panasonic has promised a Skype upgrade for their 2010 line of HDTVs. Well, today at 10:30 a.m. they activated Skype on your 2010 Panasonic VIERA CAST enabled HDTVs. So if you're one of the lucky few, fire up that bad boy and make some Skype calls!

They also announced the availability of Panasonic's Skype-enabled communication camera (TY-CC10W). In addition, today Panasonic released a cool ad / commercial featuring grandpa calling his family and using the TV remote as a phone. Hilarity ensures...

Posted in Gadgets, Home Entertainment, Skype, TMCnet, Video Conferencing, Video Hardware & Software, VoIP

FaceTime Vantage - The Ultimate Unified Communications Compliance Tool

March 29, 2010

As I have mentioned in the past, controlling and monitoring Skype usage in the enterprise is very difficult. It is Skype's ability to work on any network, regardless of the types of NAT, proxy, firewall, or intrusion prevention systems that have helped make Skype such a popular application. It is this same set of characteristics that has made Skype the bane of many corporate network managers that wish to control what applications run on their network.

FaceTime Communications (www.facetime.com) today announced the release of Vantage, a software solution for the security, management and compliance of real time and unified communications, including Skype. Vantage is the successor to FaceTime's IMAuditor, (note the name change) and it expands the support for UC platforms such as Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) and IBM Lotus Sametime and for the first time provides stringent security and compliance controls for Skype in the enterprise.

Most notable among the features integral to Vantage are extensive support for OCS Group Chat, compliance archiving and ethical wall creation for Microsoft Live Meeting and support for Call Admission Control (CAC) to manage resource allocation. Support is also provided for logging IBM Lotus Sametime announcements, file transfer capture, scanning and controls and a host of compliance features including ethical walls, inline disclaimers and data leak prevention.

In addition to controlling who can use Skype, the software also records the Skype instant messages, controls whether file transfers are allowed, and can control when VoIP or video can be used.

Posted in Microsoft, SIP, Skype, Social Networking, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, VoIP

Carrier Peering Federation Enables HD Voice and HD Video

January 21, 2010

One of the more interesting bit of news coming out of ITEXPO is that XConnect is not only offering "High-Definition (HD) Voice Peering Federation", but they're also offering a free one month trial. Their federation service for carrier peering let's you carry both HD voice and HD video by passing codecs across carrier networks.

Importantly, there is now a bridge server as part of Asterisk that assists in HD transcoding. So if 3 of us on a call and if only 2 of us have HD voice phones, Asterisk can transcode it so 2 phones that have HD stay on HD, while the 3rd phone goes down to G.711 or another non-HD codec.

Posted in ITEXPO, SIP, TMCnet, Video Conferencing, VoIP

Tandberg Enhances Movi, But Will Cisco Slam the Video Interoperability Door?

December 8, 2009

Videoconferencing is becoming more critical to businesses, especially with many enterprises employing remote teleworkers. As such, having high-quality HD video has become a requirement, as is the ability to simultaneously collaborate within the videoconferencing session.

Well, today, TANDBERG announced new advanced capabilities for Movi, its business-quality PC video solution. Movi offers the ability to share content, HD video, we well as full audio capabilities and centralized management. Movi's key new feature is the ability to share PC content with other session participants.

I'll just reiterate my concerns about Cisco recently acquiring Tandberg, where I thought perhaps Cisco could take Tandberg's various industry standards-solutions and make them closed/proprietary solutions.

Posted in Polycom, SIP, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, Video Hardware & Software, VoIP

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