Category: Applications
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Creating voice applications that interconnect with Skype and SIP
Continue Reading: Creating voice applications that interconnect with Skype and SIPGiven that I write on Voxeo’s blog site, I tend not to write much here about things we are doing at Voxeo.But I thought I’d mention here one specific post I put up recently called “Skype-ifying your voice applications” which talks about the intriguing ways in which you can use our hosted platform to make voice applications accessible through a number of different mechanisms.
As shown in the diagram to the left, an application that you write and is hosted on our platform can be called into over the PSTN, over a direct SIP connection or via Skype or FWD. Likewise calls can go out to PSTN numbers or to SIP endpoints.
This flexibility is one of the many things that intrigues me about the platform (of which I knew nothing about prior to joining the company in October).
Anyway, more information is in the full blog post. I just thought I’d mention it here. (By the way, if you’d like to try it out yourself, developer accounts are free.)
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The EComm 2008 Interview with Skype’s Jonathan Christensen should be required reading…
Continue Reading: The EComm 2008 Interview with Skype’s Jonathan Christensen should be required reading…As we enter into the final month before eComm 2008, I would suggest that the interview with Jonathan Christensen, Skype’s general manager of audio and video, should be required reading for anyone seriously interested in this space. Why? Well, in part because Jonathan Christensen does provide some good information about what Skype has done and is doing but also because it provides some good insight into what one of the people driving Skype’s agenda is thinking about this space. Take one of the final paragraphs where he answered Lee Dryburgh’s question about what he saw as the the future of communications (bold emphasis added by me):Well, a big question I guess and, having worked on the space for quite a while, I think that it’s only going to get more interesting over the coming years since, well, like this open spectrum for example. You know, I just have to reiterate, I think that anybody who has not figured out that the Internet is the platform and that there isn’t any such thing as walled gardens that will survive, or sub-networks [such as AOL tried] that are going to survive, those people are doomed. The intersection of these worlds is going…
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Voice mashups – Notes on Alec’s conference call today
Continue Reading: Voice mashups – Notes on Alec’s conference call todayUPDATE, Jan 11: The recording of this conference call is now available.
As I mentioned in an earlier post today, Alec Saunders convened a 30-minute conference call today on voice mashups. The call was recorded and will be available as a podcast from his site. (I’ll add the link here once I’m online.)
I was traveling down through the state of Vermont today and so while I had no Internet access I did call in and joined the call from my Blackberry. (My wife was driving the car at the time.) I wrote down the following notes on my laptop during the call.
Alec introduced the call, mentioned that it would be recorded and distributed as a podcast. He then muted all the callers except for himself, Thomas Howe, Jim Courtney and Andy Abramson. For callers with Facebook open, they could press a button to “raise their hand” at which point Alec could unmute them. I was calling in on my cell phone while traveling with no Internet access, so for me it was to press “*2” to raise my hand.
Alec tossed out the first question which was “what is a voice mashup?” Thomas laid out one definition which…
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Want to talk about voice mashups? – Today, 9:30am Eastern US – Conf Call with Alec Saunders – Talking about Voice Mashups
Continue Reading: Want to talk about voice mashups? – Today, 9:30am Eastern US – Conf Call with Alec Saunders – Talking about Voice MashupsIf you are interested in “voice mashups”, as I am, and are available today from 9:30 – 10:00am Eastern US time, you might be interested in joining a conference call hosted by Alec Saunders and several others. More information can be found over at Alec Saunders blog:
Talking about Voice Mashups: “Thursday morning a few of us will be doing a round table discussion on Voice Mashups using the iotum FREE Conference Call service. Andy Abramson, Tom Howe, Jim Courtney and myself will convene for 30 minutes to have a con-cast (Conference Call + PodCast). If you’re interested in the topic, please join us and contribute. “
I’m going to be traveling today, but if cell service works, I’ll be joining in. Should be an interesting conversation.
Technorati Tags: apis, applications, voip, mashups, iotum, alec saunders
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Truphone embeds an IAX softphone into Facebook that lets you make calls to regular phones for free
Continue Reading: Truphone embeds an IAX softphone into Facebook that lets you make calls to regular phones for freeThe major product Dean Elwood has been working on now that he has moved to Truphone is the Facebook application that Truphone announced two days ago. Their blog provides a link to the Facebook application and, of course, in true Truphone style, offers us a video with cows:
I’ve not yet had a chance to do more with it than install it and play a bit with the configuration options:
but I’m very much looking forward to giving it a try. There are several interesting aspects to this app for me:- It is an embedded softphone (Java-based). No extra software you need. Just click the button and you can call the person who has it on their Facebook profile. To my knowledge this is the first time we’ve seen this in a Facebook app.
- From the user side, you can link that button to any of the following:
- Your Truphone number.
- Any regular landline or mobile phones in the US or Canada.
- A SIP address.
- A Google Talk address.
- A GrandCentral phone number.
- The Facebook app uses the IAX protocol used primarily by Asterisk. This gets around all of the firewall/NAT traversal issues that plague SIP. …
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New Facebook voice app: VoxCall lets you do free calls between SIP phones/numbers
Continue Reading: New Facebook voice app: VoxCall lets you do free calls between SIP phones/numbersBy way of my Facebook NewsFeed this morning, I learned that several friends had installed a new Facebook app called “VoxCall” (must be logged into the walled garden of Facebook to see the link). A quick Technorati search brought me to Alex Saunders’ blog post on the subject which clued me in to the fact that this was from the folks at Voxalot, some of whom I’d met down at Fall VON in Boston.
[Side Rant: This also shows the inherent weakness and stupidity of Facebook’s current implementation of “groups”. The Voxalot folks had posted info about this app in both the news and wall of their Facebook group, but of course I would never see it unless I just randomly happened to go there. Had they sent a message to all group users, I would have seen it in my Facebook Inbox, but it would be nice if instead Facebook had some way to notify you that you had new info in the groups to which you subscribe.]
The VoxCall app is basically a “click-to-call” app that makes use of Facebook’s directory. You simply click on the name of someone else who has the app installed…
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It’s about the platform – Google finally answers the “Gphone” speculation… with an Android!
Continue Reading: It’s about the platform – Google finally answers the “Gphone” speculation… with an Android!“It’s about an open platform, stupid!” While I didn’t include Google when I first wrote my post about how voice is really all about application platforms, I did note in the comments that I had intended to do so… and today’s announcement really shows that they should be in anyone’s list of telephony application platforms. As announced on the Google blog with “Where’s my Gphone?“, Google today announced the Open Handset Alliance and the associated set of forthcoming software called Android. The front page of the Open Handset Alliance provides a rather compelling (to me) statement:
What would it take to build a better mobile phone?
A commitment to openness, a shared vision for the future, and concrete plans to make the vision a reality.
Welcome to the Open Handset Alliance™, a group of more than 30 technology and mobile companies who have come together to accelerate innovation in mobile and offer consumers a richer, less expensive, and better mobile experience. Together we have developed Android™, the first complete, open, and free mobile platform.
We are committed to commercially deploy handsets and services using the Android Platform in the second half of 2008. An early…
