Wireless

wireless, WiFi, WiMAX, 3G, 4G, EVDO

Apple iPhone launches

January 9, 2007

The Apple iPhone is a rumor no more - and Apple is even using the name "iPhone" - Cisco's trademark on the term 'iPhone' be damned!

The Apple iPhone measures just 11.6 millimeters thin and includes a 3.5-inch wide touchscreen display with an interesting proximity sensor that turns off the touch screen when it's close to your face so you don't accidentally start clicking on programs, icons, etc. The iPhone is essentially a widescreen iPod and a phone all-in-one.

It comes with 8 GB of storage, Bluetooth, a 2 megapixel camera, and WiFi. It also supports quadband GSM radio with EDGE for high-speed Internet access. Damn, another player in the already crowded smartphone space - there goes my PALM stock!

It actually runs OS X with support iTunes, Google Maps, and Safari browser.

Posted in Gadgets, Mobile Phones, Wireless

Vonage partners with Earthlink and becomes an ISP

January 8, 2007

Vonage has decided to move from their low-margin, high turnover business (VoIP) to another low-margin, high turnover business (ISPs) when they announced today that they are partnering with EarthLink's municipal wireless Internet networks. Essentially, with this partnership, Vonage is now an ISP or an OEM ISP I suppose. Isn't that grand? Talk about watering your brand, though at this point, Vonage has nothing to lose, especially considering their stock/IPO has tanked and their stock is still way down from the IPO.

According to TMCnet, Vonage, plans to sell Vonage-branded Wi-Fi Internet access through a three-year contract with EarthLink. Vonage will buy Internet access on a wholesale basis from EarthLink, one of the pioneers within the emerging municipal Wi-Fi market.

Posted in VoIP, Vonage, Wireless

Motorola announces MOTORIZR Z6

January 8, 2007

Posted in Gadgets, Mobile Phones, Wireless

Talkster launches public beta

December 11, 2006

Talkster today announced that their closed/invite-only beta is now open the public. Talkster essentially lets you place free calls from your regular cell phone to instant messaging clients such as MSN Messenger, Google Talk, and Gizmo Project. What's nice about Talkster is you don't have to have a telephone number to reach someone - you simply use their buddy (contact) name. Further, Talkster is convenient because it consolidates 3 popular communications services people and allows you to leverage them to make VoIP calls to any of these services using your mobile phone.

Posted in Mobile Phones, Skype, Technology and Science, Wireless

speaQ SIP softphone for Mobile Phones

November 15, 2006

speaQ is a new softphone application designed to make VoIP calls using WiFi or EVDO on mobile devices. Created by QTech, Inc., they claim it was designed from the start for smartphones and PDAs, which have limited processing power. It currently runs on Windows Mobile 5.0 Devices and under Linux on the Sharp Zaurus.

If you have a SIP-based Broadvoice or other SIP-based VoIP phone service account, Alpha Trial speaQ provides a simple phone interface with full call logging, contact integration, and DTMF (touch tones), on any 300Mhz+ Windows Mobile devices, such as the Palm Treo 700w, HP Ipaq 2495, etc. or under Linux on the Sharp Zaurus 5600.

Posted in Linux, Microsoft, Mobile Phones, VoIP, Wireless

Talkplus Skype demo

November 14, 2006

If you recall, I interviewed Jeff Black at ITEXPO back in October and discovered that Talkplus had reverse engineered Skype and built their own Skype gateway so you can dial Skype usernames. Specifically, I wrote:

One final interesting thing we talked about at ITEXPO is that TalkPlus has built their own Skype gateway. In fact, when pressed further, Jeff mentioned they actually reverse engineered Skype's protocol. Although the Skype gateway isn't part of TalkPlus's launch today, Jeff explained that they have tested it in their labs and it's working very well.

Posted in ITEXPO, Mobile Phones, Skype, VoIP, Wireless

Catch a Wave, the Z-Wave

November 13, 2006

The dream of home automation has been around for a long time -- push button (er, make that "wireless" today) simplicity to take care of your every whim at home.

And it's a dream that's still slowly evolving toward a bright future, as the Z-Wave Alliance made its way to the recent DigitalLife show in New York to show us how much closer we're getting.

The "host" company at DigitalLife, Zensys, is the developer of Z-Wave, an interoperable wireless mesh networking technology that is trying to become the de facto standard in wireless home control.

Z-Wave brings many benefits to everyday life, including real-time home monitoring and energy conservation by controlling a wide array of home devices such as lighting, appliances, HVAC, entertainment, healthcare, access and security systems.

Posted in Wireless

Linksys CIT310 Phone for Yahoo Messenger

November 8, 2006

Linksys has partnered with Yahoo! to offer a new dual-mode cordless phone called the Linksys Dual-Mode Cordless Phone for Yahoo! Messenger with Voice (CIT310). Linksys sent me a review unit to check out and put through the paces. Similar to the Linksys CIT200 Skype phone I reviewed, the Linksys Yahoo Messenger CIT310 gives you low-cost PSTN Outbound calling using VoIP and FREE voice calling to your Yahoo Messenger buddies.

Posted in Gadgets, Mobile Phones, Reviews, VoIP, Wireless

Globe Dialer mobile app enables cheap international calls

November 7, 2006

Globe Dialer is a proprietary software application that you download directly onto your mobile phone. Their software allows you to make convenient, low-cost, 'one-click' international calls, which no doubt uses VoIP termination. Of course, as I have reported, Jajah offers something similar, and they even offer free worldwide dialing, though there is a catch. Talkplus also offers a mobile app to download, but its primary purpose isn't inexpensive mobile dialing, though that is one of its benefits.

Globe Dialer has no "catch" and it's sole function is inexpensive international calls.

Posted in Mobile Phones, VoIP, Wireless

Broadcom PC-less Skype Wi-Fi phone

November 7, 2006

Broadcom today announced that the Broadcom Wi-Fi phone now supports Skype software. Similar to other Pc-less Skype phones, you will be able to scroll through your contacts, see presence info, make free Skype-to-Skype calls, as well as SkypeIn and SkypeOut support if you paid for these optional services. The beauty of this WiFi Skype phone is of course you don't have to be tethered to your PC, nor does this Skype phone have to communicate with a base station connected (via USB) to a PC running Skype.

The handset features include a high-resolution color display, speakerphone and Buffalo’s AOSS easy configuration protocol.

Posted in Skype, Wireless

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