WebRTC

WebRTC Challenges

January 22, 2013

WebRTC holds a lot of promise, and with the buzz surrounding WebRTC beginning to reach a fever pitch, it's worth pointing out the challenges facing WebRTC.

First, let's begin with the expectations set for WebRTC. At TMC's recent WebRTC Conference, a panel discussed how WebRTC has high expecations. WebRTC has very ambitious goals, aiming to become the de facto standard by which users voice and video chat with other Internet users, which has the developer community and techies like myself very excited. Recently, I've written about WebRTC Demo fun, 2013 - The Year of WebRTC, and

Posted in Apple, Google, Microsoft, SIP, Skype, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP, WebRTC

WebRTC Test Demo Fun

January 21, 2013

WebRTC is pretty cool, allowing you to perform VoIP and video conferencing all within a browser. I thought it would be cool to demo some WebRTC code here leveraging getUserMedia, an API that began as part of HTML5 and was split off into the W3C WebRTC specification suite. It allows JavaScript access to a device's cameras and microphones to enable in-browser VoIP and video-conferencing. Further, with HTML5 it's easy to apply cool video filters (think Instagram) on-the-fly while in a video conference.

So without further adeiu, let's try "Self View" Camera on your WebRTC-enabled browser - Google Chrome, Opera, and Firefox (nightly build only) all support WebRTC, though not Internet Explorer (yet).

Posted in Apple, Google, TMCnet, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, VoIP, WebRTC

2013 - The Year of WebRTC

January 9, 2013

WebRTC has been making great strides of late. A few companies using worth checking out are bistri, Plivo, and twelephone. I'm in the process of testing bistri and twelephone, but I did actual use Plivo's proof-of-concept WebRTC offering, which I'll get into a in a moment.

First an overview of bistri and twelephone. bistri is pretty interesting because it lets you link with Facebook, Google, Windows Live, Yahoo, Jabber/XMPP, and Вконтакте.

Posted in Google, SIP, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP, WebRTC

Facebook Testing Free VoIP calling in Messenger app

January 3, 2013

Well, well, well - just days after my "Skype vs. Facebook - How WebRTC Will Turn Friends into Enemies" post where I said Facebook could crush Skype if they chose to get into VoIP, Facebook released a new version of Facebook Messenger for iOS that sports VoIP features.

According to the Verge, "Facebook today began testing a new feature in its Messenger app that lets Canadian users call each other for free anywhere they have a Wi-Fi or cellular data connection. The test for now only applies to Messenger for iOS, but could roll out to Android users, as well as people worldwide, if the test goes well."

I just tried it out on my iPhone and so far it's only one-way voice messages that you record and send to your Facebook friends.

Posted in Facebook, Google, Skype, Social Networking, TMCnet, Unified Communications, VoIP, WebRTC

Skype vs. Facebook - How WebRTC Will Turn Friends into Enemies

December 27, 2012

Facebook and Skype currently enjoy a friendly relationship that all started back in 2011 when Facebook collaborated with Skype to integrate these two popular social networks. They then deepened their partnership by offering direct Facebook video calling. But I always wondered why Facebook didn't offer their own VoIP service. They own the largest social network in the world and could crush Skype if they so chose.

Posted in Facebook, Skype, Social Networking, TMCnet, Video Conferencing, VoIP, WebRTC

ITEXPO Miami - Important Conference Program Updates

December 10, 2012

TMC today released an updated conference program for their ITEXPO Miami 2013, the world's largest and best-attended communications and technology conference and trade show. The event, held January 30 - February 1, 2013 at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami, Florida, combines an innovative series of educational programming with networking opportunities for technology buyers, sellers, resellers and manufacturers.

Since its launch in 1999, ITEXPO has been the bi-annual meeting place where next-generation communications innovations are on display, and vendors meet end users to develop new relationships and business partnerships.

The program is anchored by noteworthy keynote presentations from Telef�nica and Level3 Communications, panels on the future of cloud computing, the evolution of the telecom service provider, and StartupCamp7: Comms Edition, a networking and early stage startup event.

Posted in ITEXPO, TMCnet, Technology and Science, Unified Communications, VoIP, WebRTC, Wireless

Windows 8 Tablets Will Beat Apple & Android

December 5, 2012

After using and testing the Samsung ATIV Smart PC Pro 700t (XE700T1C) for a few weeks I've come to the conclusion that Windows 8 tablets will without a doubt beat Apple iPad tablets and Android tablets. The reason is simple actually and can be summed up in just two words - "No compromise". With Apple tablets and even Android tablets there is always some compromise. With Apple, the biggest compromise is the lack of Flash and if I hear one more person tell me Flash is dead and HTML5 is the way to go I'm going to smack them!