-
/
Making Skype calls from a Blackberry… (yes, it is true!) And where was the PC making the conf call??
Continue Reading: Making Skype calls from a Blackberry… (yes, it is true!) And where was the PC making the conf call??Today I called Alec Saunders via Skype. Not terribly unusual, really… except that I initiated the Skype call from my Blackberry! Back on Monday, Jim Courtney over at Skype Journal had posted a teaser about an application for the Blackberry that allowed you to use Skype IM. Today my curiosity got the better of me and I had to IM Jim to get the info. I downloaded the app and promptly had to try it out… I guess by virtue of Alec being at the top of my contact list, he was my victim (I also know from past experience that he’s open to this kind of thing).
Tonight Jim has spilled the goods for all of us in the post rather dramatically titled “Skype on the Blackberry – A New Era in the AlwaysOn World“. It turns out to be an application called “IM+ for Skype” from a company called ShapeServices, which makes a variety of software products for PDAs (and specifically Blackberries). It turns out there was a news release about this back on May 7th, but I didn’t see any coverage of this at all. The app itself costs $25, but you can…
-
/
Skype 3.5 beta out with Call Transfer and more… (and is Skype Pro now in the US?)
Continue Reading: Skype 3.5 beta out with Call Transfer and more… (and is Skype Pro now in the US?)Today Skype released their initial version of Skype 3.5 Beta for Windows. You can download it here if you are the adventuresome type. In addition to fixing a bug (that caused Skype to crash) with public chats that has been plaguing those of us who use them, the major feature rolled out in this release is the long-awaited “Call Transfer”. Don Kennedy goes into this at far greater length in “Skype Pro Does Call Transfer” where he provides some examples and also provides a sample application.
One of his examples is the interesting one of having all calls be transferred to a “group” which could include Skype names as well as SkypeOut numbers. In Don’s example, you could have someone call you on a SkypeIn number which would then be transferred to the “group” which could include your own Skype ID and also a SkypeOut connection to your cell phone. Now all of this capability isn’t yet in the Skype GUI. Today you need Don’s Call Transfer Example application, also available through the Skype Extras manager, but it is a glimpse of what is coming.
There is one gotcha… to do the transfer from a SkypeIn number or…
-
/
Bandwidth.com to supply SIP trunking to Mitel solution centers
Continue Reading: Bandwidth.com to supply SIP trunking to Mitel solution centersYesterday, Bandwidth.com announced that their SIP trunking service would be powering Mitel solution centers across the US. From the news release:
Bandwidth.com, a leading nationwide provider of complete business communications solutions, today announced that it will be powering all Mitel(R) Solution Centers across the country enabling customers and VARS to preview innovative solutions, including SIP Trunking technology in a live environment. Mitel operates solution centers in five locations; Chicago, Costa Mesa, Atlanta, New York and Herndon (Virginia), all of which will be equipped with Bandwidth.com’s SIP Trunking VoIP solution by the end of June.
There’s been a relationship between Bandwidth.com and Mitel since last September. This announcement yesterday is a logical evolution of that relationship.
There’s a lot to write about the incredibly disruptive power of SIP trunking… I don’t think we yet fully understand how the power to obtain SIP trunks from anywhere in the world is going to so severely disrupt the global telecommunications infrastructure. With IP, geography no longer matters… and there are all sorts of local carriers – and tax authorities! – who I don’t think fully understand how much this messes up their business models. I really need to write that up……..
Two…
-
/
ShoreTel joins the VoIP IPO game…
Continue Reading: ShoreTel joins the VoIP IPO game…Per Russell Shaw, ShoreTel has filed it’s paperwork for an IPO. Reuters also has the story.[1] Ken Camp also provides his opinion. I’m sure that more will be written in the time ahead. ShoreTel is one of the many newer entrants into the enterprise VoIP market and have been doing some interesting things (and yes, in the spirit of full disclosure, they do potentially compete in some areas with my employer, Mitel). Kudos to them for getting things together to go for the IPO. It will be interesting to see how that moves forward – best wishes to them all.
[1] Side note: It’s interesting to me to see that the Reuters story about ShoreTel IPO filing in the US was actually filed by a reporter in Bangalore, India at 6:54am. At that time most North American reporters were probably only getting going.
Technorati tags: shoretel, voip -
/
One of Skype’s most public faces moves on…
Continue Reading: One of Skype’s most public faces moves on…For those of us who pay attention to things related to Skype, one of the people we became most familiar with has moved on to different pastures. Back in May 2005 when Skype started up their first blogs, Jaanus Kase was the public “face” who helped those of us outside the company understand a bit more about this thing called “Skype” and all that was happening with it. A prolific writer/blogger, Jaanus told us about new features, industry trends, promotions and also told us about many things happening inside of Skype as the company itself evolved and changed. He interviewed people, he talked about how Skype was enabling people to communicate, he responded to criticism and generally helped “humanize” the entity that is Skype through his many, many postings. He did so with a conversational style that was sometimes serious, sometimes humerous… but generally always enjoyable to read. He also launched a “Skype Blog Public Chat” back in November 2006 that many of us early adopters joined and it provided a great forum for exchange of information about what was going on with Skype. That public chat still exists, although it doesn’t quite have the same volume and interesting…
-
/
It’s the circumstances beyond one’s control that are most annoying… I’m now NOT traveling to VON Europe – Stockholm/Podcamp Europe
Continue Reading: It’s the circumstances beyond one’s control that are most annoying… I’m now NOT traveling to VON Europe – Stockholm/Podcamp EuropeAs readers and listeners know, I’ve been very much looking forward to heading over to Stockhom, Sweden, for VON Europe 2007 and the co-located Podcamp Europe. Unfortunately, when my flight leaves this afternoon, I will not be on it. I’m now not going.
Since about the middle of this past week, I’ve been experiencing some pains that made it extremely uncomfortable to sit or stand for long periods of time. Oddly, walking is fine, but sitting or standing still starts to really hurt. After spending literally the entire day Saturday in a medical center and then hospital, they think it might just come down to something like a severely pulled muscle… but they don’t know and suggest watching it for the next couple of days. It’s strange because I can’t recall doing anything that would cause a muscle tear.
The net of it, though, is that: a) spending 10-ish hours in airplanes getting over there is going to be very painful; and b) if anything gets worse, I don’t really want to be going into a hospital in Sweden… (and then fighting with US health insurance about coverage!)
So very unfortunately, it looks like I’m going to have to miss…
-
/
Digium/AsteriskWorld to be co-resident with VON Fall 2007 in Boston
Continue Reading: Digium/AsteriskWorld to be co-resident with VON Fall 2007 in BostonIn my queue of things to write about, I’d be meaning to comment on the fact that this year’s Fall VON on October 29 – November 1 in Boston will also be the site of Digium / Asterisk World. Jeff Pulver’s team announced this back in March and it will have Mark Spencer and others from Digium involved. I wasn’t particularly surprised to hear this, given that Jeff Pulver has always had an interest in open source and that Digium has always had a large presence at VON exhibit halls. (You would have to be blind to miss the giant orange booth with its many pods!) Kudos to Digium and Pulvermedia for organizing a way to spotlight all the great stuff happening in open source telephony. I’ll look forward to seeing what goes on there.
Technorati tags: asterisk, digium, asterisk world, jeff pulver, von, von2007 -
/
ARIN provides the latest word that we need to move to IPv6… will anyone heed the warning? (Does anyone care?)
Continue Reading: ARIN provides the latest word that we need to move to IPv6… will anyone heed the warning? (Does anyone care?)NetworkWorld is running an article today that talks about the announcement from ARIN (the American Registry for Internet Numbers) of the ARIN Board resolution calling upon ARIN to no longer be “neutral” in the IPv4 vs IPv6 space and instead work to actively encourage migration to IPv6.
For those not aware, ARIN is a non-profit organization that allocates IP addresses within North America and is one of the five Regional Internet Registries that allocate IP addresses on behalf of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).
Think of it this way… let’s say you start a business and want to get an Internet connection where you can run your own web server. You need a public IP address, so you are going to contact an Internet Service Provider (ISP), set up service, get an address, etc., etc. If you are in North America, the public IP address you are going to get will have been allocated to your ISP by ARIN. ARIN, in turn, was given blocks of IP addresses to give out by IANA, who is ultimately responsible for all IP addresses. So it looks something like this:
IANA -> ARIN (and the other RIRs) -> ISPs -> You
(and yes, where I…
Disruptive Telephony
Dan York on how Voice over IP is rewriting (almost) everything you thought you understood about telephony…
