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			    <title>Skype News | OhVoice</title> 
				<link>http://ohvoice.com/Skype-News</link> 
				<description></description><item>
			<title>Gadgets to Have Integrated Welcome Ads Soon?</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Gadgets+to+Have+Integrated+Welcome+Ads+Soon%3F</link>
			<description><![CDATA[If ads on the Kindle Fire Welcome Screen are successful, others will follow

There are a few things which are well known about Amazon’s Kindle Fire. First of all at $199 the company either loses money or at best breaks even depending on which analyst you speak with. We also know the version of Android the device runs is unusual as Amazon has its own proprietary shell around it.
And just like a company can pay to have a promotion on the Amazon PC home page it is being reported that Amazon is considering charging between $600,000 to $1 million for the rights to have ads displayed on the welcome screen.
Will this ad be shown on current Kindle Fires or perhaps a new ad supported model? Well the answer is not known at this point.
This approach is far different than that of Apple who has implemented ground breaking minimalist designs not only on its devices’ home pages but in its retail stores.
But consumers have shown a willingness to be flexible when it comes to saving money. Witness the success of the Kindle Fire as an example.
If Amazon is very successful selling home page advertising and such ads become popular and the consumer likes the model, there is a natural industry progression we can expect.
First off, a question… What company comes to mind when I say Internet ads. OK, I get it – today the answer is Facebook but in general, Google – right? And what company has the market-leading smartphone OS? You guessed it – at least till Facebook develops one, its Google again.
So doesn’t it make sense that Google will want in on the action and will start to integrate ads into the home pages of Android phones allowing consumers, carriers and equipment makers to subsidize the price of the phone with honest to goodness product pitches?
This potential trend is a real possibility and consumers have shown themselves to be very willing to take subsidized devices in exchange for long-term contracts. They also tolerate ads on TV, radio and even their streaming radio courtesy of services like Pandora. Ad supported gadgets may be the next frontier and if Amazon is successful, we may see the market scramble to emulate and/or improve upon its model.
Tags: ads, advertising, amazon, android, apple, google, iad, ios, ipad, iphone, pandora, radio, television, tv
Related tags: amazon successful, consumers shown, welcome screen, amazon, company, kindle


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			<title>Funny and Fake Facebook Pre-IPO Letter</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Funny+and+Fake+Facebook+Pre-IPO+Letter</link>
			<description><![CDATA[This email has been circulating and is funny enough to share:A Letter from Mark ZuckerbergAbout Facebook’s IPOMENLO PARK, CA (The Borowitz Report) – On the eve of Facebook’s IPO, Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg published the following letter to potential investors:Dear Potential Investor:For years, you&#039;ve wasted your time on Facebook.  Now here’s your chance to waste your money on it, too.Tomorrow is Facebook’s IPO, and I know what some of you are thinking.  How will Facebook be any different from the dot-com bubble of the early 2000’s?For one thing, those bad dot-com stocks were all speculation and hype, and weren’t based on real businesses.  Facebook, on the other hand, is based on a solid foundation of angry birds and imaginary sheep.Second, Facebook is the most successful social network in the world, enabling millions to share information of no interest with people they barely know.Third, every time someone clicks on a Facebook ad, Facebook makes money.  And while no one has ever done this on purpose, millions have done it by mistake while drunk.  We totally stole this idea from iTunes.Finally, if you invest in Facebook, you’ll be far from alone.  As a result of using Facebook for the past few years, over 900 million people in the world have suffered mild to moderate brain damage, impairing their ability to make reasoned judgments.  These will be your fellow Facebook investors.With your help, if all goes as planned tomorrow, Facebook’s IPO will net $100 billion.  To put that number in context, it would take JP Morgan four or five trades to lose that much money.One last thing: what will, I, Mark Zuckerberg, do with the $18 billion I’m expected to earn from Facebook’s IPO?  Well, I’m considering buying Greece, but that would still leave me with $18 billion.  LOL.Friend me,Mark
Tags: facebook
Related tags: tomorrow facebook’s, facebook, facebook’s, letter, money, billion
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			<title>Comcast Skype on Xfinity $9.95/month - Lame or Cool?</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Comcast+Skype+on+Xfinity+%249.95%2Fmonth+-+Lame+or+Cool%3F</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Comcast today unveiled their Skype video calling service, Skype on Xfinity which directly integrates into your HDTV. The beauty of the system is you can make and receive Skype video and audio calls from your TV. Users can send instant messages via Skype, while watching TV at the same time.The only problem is Skype on Xfinity costs $9.95 a month extra. We saw what happened to the $599 Cisco Umi, which Rich Tehrani and I rightly predicted would fail. Rich also pointed to Panasonic&#039;s Blu-ray Skype-enabled players as another reason why Cisco Umi would fail. Well, the $10/month premium is likely to pay for the &quot;free&quot; adaptor box, HD camera, and remote they send you. Yeah, that&#039;s right you need a separate adaptor box - it&#039;s not integrated into Comcast&#039;s cable box. As if my home entertainment setup wasn&#039;t a spaghetti mess of various devices and cables I suppose $10/month is better than Umi&#039;s $599 pricetag and the integrated experience of Skype directly while watching TV is pretty cool.Here&#039;s the rear of the adaptor box showing the connections:The service is now available in Boston and Seattle. It will roll out in eight additional markets by the end of the week, including Atlanta and Augusta, Ga., Chicago, Detroit, Harrisburg, Pa., Indianapolis, Miami, and Pittsburgh. Additional markets are coming this summer.It includes a remote control with a full QWERTY keyboard for typing Skype IMs and making calls as seen here:Here&#039;s the front of the remote:Features of the HD camera:• High-Definition camera supports up to 720p @30 frames per second (requires both users to haveconsistent 1.5Mbps+ upload/download speeds)• On/Off Indicator• Digital/Optical Zoom Lens With Shutter• Built-In Directional Microphones• Adjustable Clip for Secure PlacementI&#039;m still skeptical customers are willing to shell out $9.95/month just to have Skype on their TV. I have my Windows 7 Dell Zino hooked up to my HDTV over HDMI for free. That along with a wireless keyboard and mouse and I can Skype on my HDTV for free. Granted, I have to have my TV on PC input mode, so I cannot watch TV simultaneously. That is until I purchase a TV tuner card for the Zino! Take that Comcast! Lastly, check out their video promo:
Tags: cisco umi, comcast, hdtv, skype, tv, video conferencing, voip
Related tags: skype xfinity, additional markets, skype video, while watching, skype, month


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			<title>Taking Aim and Telling the Truth</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Taking+Aim+and+Telling+the+Truth</link>
			<description><![CDATA[A Polycom VSX 7000 camera used for videoconferencing (top) with 2 video conferencing screens for simultaneous broadcast from 2 separate locations. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Image via CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase
Image via CrunchBase
I went to bed last night in Paris after just reading Vidtel founder Scott Wharton&#039;s transparent post about the video conferencing industry. It&#039;s a must read, not only because Scott is a long time friend, and Vidtel is a client and a company which I&#039;m an option-holder, but because it&#039;s just plain fact filled.
Having been involved in video conferencing myself, since SightSpeed was a standalone company, and through their acquisition by Logitech, the idea of reliable, fairly priced communications has not been a pipe dream. In my agency we use video every day and have for years. It could be Skype, it can be using Vidtel&#039;s MeetMe in combination with Cisco E20s, Skype and CounterPath&#039;s Bria, or even have people on other brands of equipment including Polycom and Lifesize, but at the end of the day, we see each other face to face and we didn&#039;t spend a fortune doing it.
That&#039;s why Soctt&#039;s point about Apple is the key though. Apple innovates in areas where the establishment languish. Look at music, phones and now tablets. For video, its no secret at all that Apple is already dabbling in real time communications with FaceTime, and Tango which first launched on Apple iOS devices is gobbling up market share the same way Viber is in voice. I wouldn&#039;t be surprised if Apple buys Tango at some point either, or Vidyo, because of their Enterprise market desires. Of course there&#039;s also Microsoft Lync that works well for those who like Microsoft software, so one can only imagine how much video calling is taking place there, given their installed user base. Enter Scott and his early on realization and vision that the installed hardware user base using multiple platforms needed to see each other regardless of brand or protocol.
Scott&#039;s point about cost and cost structures are also dead on correct. You can cobble together a video conferencing and calling service for a lot less than the &quot;name&quot; brand companies retail their systems for, and likely have more options. Given Scott&#039;s Vidtel was the first true hardware agnostic platform in the cloud (I remember using a Grandstream phone on one end and CounterPath software back in 2008) he&#039;s already done the math and woven the fabric of video communications together before anyone else who looked up, saw blue sky and put the video switchboard in the cloud.  Let&#039;s face it. When it comes to video few would dispute that Scott has video in his genes.
Scott&#039;s point about consertivism in video is also true. When you look at what radical&#039;s like Skype and Tango have done, without backgrounds in video conferencing, just smarts, determination and will, you have to realize that the old guard looks at things the old way.  Thankfully Scott looks at video a different way which means more of us will see more of each other.
Related articles 

InFocus-Vidtel Partnership Wins InfoComm 2011 Best in Show Award (prweb.com)
IP5280 Teams with Vidtel to Provide Video Conferencing Services for SMEs (prweb.com)
SimpleSignal and Vidtel Launch Multi-Point Video Conferencing for Small-Medium Business Customers (prweb.com)


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			<title>Pirate Pay Blocks BitTorrent Sharing. Is it Illegal DOS?</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Pirate+Pay+Blocks+BitTorrent+Sharing.+Is+it+Illegal+DOS%3F</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Skolkovo or Russian&#039;s competition to Silicon Valley has a hot company Pirate Pay which just received funding from Microsoft. The idea behind the system is to confuse BitTorrent clients to keep them from downloading specific content. The monetization comes from movie studios and other content providers who would pay to keep their products from being shared.The idea makes sense but the challenge is it could be illegal to use a targeted attacks on computers. In fact, a number of laws to prosecute hackers may come into play making it conceivable that the movie studios could get in trouble for sabotaging downloads.At this point the discussion is theoretical since no one knows how Pirate Pay works but it presents a fascinating look at the battle between content producers and those who are looking to pirate content.For more check out this article on companies in the Skolkovo region, one on the Microsoft investment and another on the legality of disrupting these downloads.
Tags: bittorrent, file sharing, microsoft, skolkovo
Related tags: movie studios, content, pirate


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			<title>Netflix Temporarily Offline? On Movie Night? Ahhhh!</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Netflix+Temporarily+Offline%3F+On+Movie+Night%3F+Ahhhh%21</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Oh joy - was checking my Netflix DVD queue to see if any interesting movies to stream as well as which ones arrived in the mail and I got this lovely error message: 




Watch as many TV episodes and movies as you want for one low price! One month FREE Trial.










 

We’re sorry, the Netflix website is temporarily unavailable.
Our shipping centers are continuing to send and receive DVDs, so your movies will   be processed as usual.  And you can still instantly watch movies via your Netflix ready device.
Our engineers are working hard to bring the site back up as soon as possible.   We appreciate your patience and, again, we apologize for the inconvenience.   If you need further assistance, please call us at 1-877-445-6064




Here&#039;s a screenshot:Netflix is not allowed to go offline - ever, but especially on Friday (movie) night. 
Tags: down, netflix, outage, unavailable, website
Related tags: movie night, netflix, movies


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			<title>Telefonica Launches Skype Competitor Tu Me</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Telefonica+Launches+Skype+Competitor+Tu+Me</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Telefónica today launched a new mobile app called Tu Me, which essentially takes the approach if you can&#039;t beat Skype, join em&#039;. Tu Me features texts, voice calls, messages, and location and  photo sharing - all free of charge, with the caveat that it uses your data plan more, so it isn&#039;t technically &quot;free&quot; unless you are on an unlimited data plan or you use free Wi-Fi hotspots most of the time.The app is currently only available on iOS however Android is coming. Tu Me enables  communication and sharing between mobile phones, recording every  interaction through a searchable timeline, obviously borrowing some elements from the Facebook social network and others. There are some major caveats with this app. First, this app requires both caller and recipient to have the app installed. Second, you cannot call phone numbers using this app - it&#039;s strictly a P2P VoIP app. Seems a bit limited to me. It also doesn&#039;t do video, doesn&#039;t do PSTN calling, and only works with other Tu Me users. The only purpose really is for Telefónica users NOT to use up their bucket of voice minutes or pay for SMS messages. Whoop Dee Do! This is less of a Skype competitor and more of along the lines of Viber or Whatsapp.More here.
Tags: mobile voip, skype, sms, telefónica, tu me
Related tags: skype competitor, skype


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]]></description> 
			</item><item>
			<title>Telefónica Launches Skype Competitor Tu Me</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Telef%C3%B3nica+Launches+Skype+Competitor+Tu+Me</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Telefónica today launched a new mobile app called Tu Me, which essentially takes the approach if you can&#039;t beat Skype, join em&#039;. Tu Me features texts, voice calls, messages, and location and  photo sharing - all free of charge, with the caveat that it uses your data plan more, so it isn&#039;t technically &quot;free&quot; unless you are on an unlimited data plan or you use free Wi-Fi hotspots most of the time.The app is currently only available on iOS however Android is coming. Tu Me enables  communication and sharing between mobile phones, recording every  interaction through a searchable timeline, obviously borrowing some elements from the Facebook social network and others. There are some major caveats with this app. First, this app requires both caller and recipient to have the app installed. Second, you cannot call phone numbers using this app - it&#039;s strictly a P2P VoIP app. Seems a bit limited to me. It also doesn&#039;t do video, doesn&#039;t do PSTN calling, and only works with other Tu Me users. The only purpose really is for Telefónica users NOT to use up their bucket of voice minutes or pay for SMS messages. Whoop Dee Do! This is less of a Skype competitor and more of along the lines of Viber or Whatsapp.More here.
Tags: mobile voip, skype, sms, telefónica, tu me
Related tags: skype competitor, skype


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			<title>Nokia City Lens Augmented Reality Launches on Lumia Phones</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Nokia+City+Lens+Augmented+Reality+Launches+on+Lumia+Phones</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Nokia today released its City Lens app for Windows Phone, an app that is an augmented reality browser.  Users open the app, and depending on the phone&#039;s angle (landscape [facing away from you], 45 degrees, or parallel to ground) it automatically changes modes - augmented reality, list of locations, and map mode respectively.The coolest mode is obviously augmented reality where you hold the phone up and scan the horizon with the camera and it shows icons where various points of interest (POIs) are located. You can specify the POI category, such as Food.Then you can just tap to read reviews and descriptions, or call to get directions. You can also share your location with friends via social networks, SMS, or email.
Play the video below to see this cool augmented reality in action:

Tags: augmented reality, camera, city lens, lumia 800, lumia 900, microsoft, nokia, poi, windows phone
Related tags: augmented reality, augmented, reality, phone


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 Sponsored by the Call Center Outsourcing Community &amp; the Virtual Contact Center Outsourcing Community]]></description> 
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			<title>No Surprise-Comcast Topping Business VoIP Market-But Is All Business VoIP Created Equal</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/No+Surprise-Comcast+Topping+Business+VoIP+Market-But+Is+All+Business+VoIP+Created+Equal</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Comcast Center, the headquarters of Comcast - nearly completed, photographed 3/14/08 Español: Comcast Center, la sede del Comcast (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
While many in the business of business telecom may be surprised to see Infonetics Research reporting that Comcast, along with Verizon, are topping the list of business VoIP deployments, I&#039;m not at all. You see, back when Comcast purchased NGT, in what was really a mercy take over as Comcast already held a significant portion of the company, I felt that the Philadelphia based cable giant was positioning to be big in voice, including out of their own market, and back in March I penned that cable companies are your next telco.
Well the Diane Myers led research at Infonetics seems to prove this out. The announcement also highligthed 8x8, West (which acquired Smoothstone), Bandwidth.com amongst others.
But all business VoIP is not created equal. For example, one point that is not detailed in the news release is the differene between traffic carried over a public network and a private network that&#039;s managed. Just recently Skype dropped the pure &quot;open&quot; super node concept and took the first step of managed calling, by adding their own server environment. In essence Skype is now emulating one giant phone company, for free, on the public Internet. Translated, Skype just became a true competitor to Vonage and even MagicJack, but with an existing number of users/customers. 
For most businesses, calls going over the public internet don&#039;t really matter. But if privacy, security and control are for you, then asking the question about public vs. managed Internet will be a deciding factor on which carrier you choose.
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			<title>Skype Aware of IP Security Flaw Back in 2010</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Skype+Aware+of+IP+Security+Flaw+Back+in+2010</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Some more interesting information has come to light regarding the IP revealing security flaw in Skype. Researchers from Inria, a research institute in France, and the Polytechnic Institute of New York University discovered the flaw. Stevens Le Blond, one of the  team&#039;s researchers who discovered the exploit told the Wall Street Journal that the team first discovered the flaw in November 2010. They were actually able  to track the city-level location of more than 10,000 Skype users over a  period of two weeks simply by making short calls to users that don&#039;t cause a Skype notification popup and the calls don&#039;t appear in the call histories. The WSJ Journal article explains:

The researchers say the vulnerability could allow corporate rivals to  track the movement of individuals from a company, as they travel  between cities and states.
“You can scale this to track tens of thousands of employees,” said  Keith Ross, a researcher from the Polytechnic Institute who worked on  the 2011 paper, “and determine their strategy and who they’re trying to  do business with.”
Le Blond also said the flaw could be used as a first step for hacking into the computer of an executive.

Forget executives - celebrities, government employees, politicians, and other high-profile individuals can be stalked or worse. This isn&#039;t Skype&#039;s brightest hour, but I suspect with all the recent news coverage, the Skype and Microsoft teams will fix this quickly. Unless of course, there is a core architectural reason why this isn&#039;t easily fixed, which I discussed yesterday.
Tags: privacy, security, skype, voip, vulnerability, wall street journal, wsj
Related tags: polytechnic institute, skype, researchers, discovered, institute, track


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			<title>Pirated Music, From Napster to Kazaa and Now VPNs</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Pirated+Music%2C+From+Napster+to+Kazaa+and+Now+VPNs</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I was at a conference some years back where one of the panels discussed how VoIP was blocked unsuccessfully in country after country. The point the speaker made was you can&#039;t stop IP. Users and developers are always one step ahead, masking their packets in ways (HTTP, etc) which gets through firewalls and other systems designed to thwart such communications.I remember something similar happening when Airlines provided WiFi for the first time and blocked VoIP yet Andy Abramson found a way through.So it should come as no surprise that music sharing which started with Napster, moved onto other services like Kazaa, Pirate Bay and has now evolved to use VPNs.Now the challenge for record labels and others looking to determine who is sharing and what has grown substantially. The downside? Well as the BBC points out, VPNs cost users 5-6 pounds per month in the UK making file sharing a more expensive proposition.Still, when you have a motivated audience with plenty of free time on their hands thanks to record unemployment in much of Europe and the US - it seems there are no lengths they won&#039;t go through to share music for free.
Tags: kazaa, music, napster, pirate bay, vpn
Related tags: sharing, music


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			<title>Where the SIP Operations and Engineering Community Converge</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Where+the+SIP+Operations+and+Engineering+Community+Converge</link>
			<description><![CDATA[The SIP Forum has been evangelizing the SIP market for almost as long as SIP has been around and when you consider the PSTN may go away in the next decade or even less, the importance of an organization dedicated to replacement technologies becomes apparent. Moreover, the Forum will soon hold its second live event SIPNOC which will be targeted at the technical decision makers in the SIP space.The two-day conference, which focuses on the challenges and  opportunities related to the deployment of SIP-based services in global  service provider networks has attracted technical leadership from MSOs  and carriers from North America, South America and Europe including ADP,  babyTel, Broadvox, Comcast, Cbeyond, COX Communications, Lumos  Networks,  iBasis, IntelliVerse, Socket Telecom, Sorenson  Communications, Time Warner Cable, TDS Telecom, Telefonica International  Wholesale Services, XO Communications, Uni-tel, Verizon and Vocalocity. What many love about SIP is also what they hate - interoperability. In fact the reason for SIP to exist is to enable easy communications between carriers, enterprises, consumers and equipment providers. Many of my readers know however that the SIP irony is that you need a SIP to SIP gateway to connect some equipment correctly. All the more reason for a central organization to help facilitate standards adherence and interop.The show will take place in Herndon, VA, June 25-27, 2012 and you can register here.
Tags: sip, sip forum, sipnoc, voip
Related tags: communications


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			<title>Skype Responds to IP Address Privacy Vulnerability</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Skype+Responds+to+IP+Address+Privacy+Vulnerability</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Yesterday it was reported that a simple script could expose any Skype user&#039;s IP address. A Microsoft representative saw my article and gave me this official response, which they also provided to other media outlets:
“We are investigating reports of a new tool that captures a Skype user’s last known IP address. This is an ongoing, industry-wide issue faced by all peer-to-peer software companies. We are committed to the safety and security of our customers and we are takings measures to help protect them.”
Adrian Asher, director of product Security, Skype

It&#039;s a bit of a non-answer if you ask me. True, P2P by its very nature is going to create connections between your computer/mobile and your &#039;target&#039; computer/mobile. As such, it&#039;s not difficult to determine what IP addresses you are connecting to.However, Skype leverages supernodes for a large portion of their infrastructure. I believe the supernodes handle authentication as well as call setup (or IM setup). So these supernodes act as an intermediary (proxy) between peer1 (your computer) and peer2 (target computer).Thus, I wouldn&#039;t expect peer1 to see peer2&#039;s IP address. Apparently, this vulnerability leverages the search feature in Skype and viewing their vcard info and presence (online/offline). My guess is that Skype queries the supernodes when searching for a Skype user, but then once it find the user, it sets up a direct P2P session between your computer and the Skype user you searched for and pulls the relevant vcard / presence information. Game, Set, Match! IP address exposed!If my assumptions are correct, I can see why Skype set it up this way. If they use supernodes to also &quot;pull&quot; the vcard and presence information, that&#039;s an additional load on the supernodes. I&#039;m fairly sure, but not positive that your existing Skype buddies also make a direct P2P connection with each buddy to pull presence information, which also would expose IP addresses. But if you have 100 buddies, trying to figure out which 1 out of 100 buddies is their IP address would be difficult. If Skype made a technical change forcing each Skype client to pull presence info via supernodes (pseudo proxy) instead of direct P2P connections, that would drastically impact performance of the Skype network. This may be a huge architectural change to solve this IP address vulnerability.However, Skype could simply change their search function to use supernodes (mask IP addresses) and allow the Skype client to query their buddies using P2P (IP addresses can be determined). At least this would block any non-buddy from determining your IP address. I may be wrong in my technical assessment, so I will reach out to Skype for further comment on this. Stay tuned...
Tags: ip address, microsoft, presence, privacy, skype, supernodes, voip, vulnerability
Related tags: presence information, target computer, skype client, computer mobile, vcard presence, skype


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			<title>Does HTML5 Rock Your Mobile World?</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Does+HTML5+Rock+Your+Mobile+World%3F</link>
			<description><![CDATA[We&#039;ve heard the hype surrounding HTML5, but does it live up to its promise? If TMC&#039;s recently completed DevCon5 show in Santa Clara, California is any indication, HTML5 will soon rock your mobile world!At DevCon5, an international community of HTML5 developers and designers gathered to focus on Mobile Apps, Consistent UI Development, and more. Gaming was a huge draw featuring a large, enthusiastic group.With breakout sessions led by experts from Adobe, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Joyent and Qualcomm, DevCon5 has quickly established its position as a “must attend” event for developers and designers looking to take advantage of business opportunities presented by the advent of HTML5.DevCon5 – created for Web developers, software architects, graphic artists and business executives – helps developers, designers and engineers learn how they can use HTML5 to create engaging mobile applications and create consistent, positive Web user experiences across any device. The DevCon5 conference program encompasses a multi-track program covering important topics related to HTML5 adoption, including browser compatibility, user experience design and Web 3.0.                                           DevCon5 session“The prevailing theme from Day One of DevCon5 was the unanimous amazement on the face of attendees as they witnessed the animated Web pages they can build using HTML5,” said Carl Ford, event producer at Crossfire Media. “Even today’s most sophisticated game programs will feel the competition from sites, difficult to conceive of today, but amazingly possible using HTML5, CSS3 and javascript.”“The progression of HTML5 possibilities and capabilities has developed so rapidly that even the most sophisticated engineers and developers acknowledge to me that they need to visit conferences like DevCon5 frequently to stay ahead of the curve,” Ford added.With Skype rumored to be working on a HTML5 web app, if that comes to fruition, that would be a huge feather in HTML5&#039;s hat.                                                                 DevCon5 sessionThe next DevCon5 Conference will be held July 23-24 at The Kimmel Center on the campus of New York University in New York City. You can register here.
Tags: adobe, devcon5, developers, google, HTML, HTML5, joyent, linkedIn, New York City, qualcomm, skype, voip
Related tags: developers designers, devcon conference, mobile world, devcon, developers, mobile


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			<title>New Skype for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Sports Ability to Move Video Preview</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/New+Skype+for+iPhone%2C+iPad%2C+iPod+touch+Sports+Ability+to+Move+Video+Preview</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Some new features in the latest release of Skype for Apple iOS, including the ability to move your own video preview, app auto-restart if it crashes, improved accessibility, improved stability, some UI improvements and more. See full release notes in screenshot.
 
In related news, today gHacks revealed that Skype reveals remote and local IP Address of all online Skype users using a script. Yikes! Privacy zealots have at em&#039;!
Tags: apple, ipad, iphone, mobile, skype, voip, wireless
Related tags: video preview, skype


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]]></description> 
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			<title>Optimum Live TV App now on PC</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Optimum+Live+TV+App+now+on+PC</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Update: the Optimum app for Android does not allow live TV viewing but allows you to manage your DVR and check TV listings. The company says this functionality &quot;is coming.&quot; Moreover - the app will only work on laptops - not PCs with external monitors. Is it too late to ask for a do over on this post? Having been on Android and iOS for quite some time (see my review from last April), Cablevision&#039;s Optimum TV viewers can now also watch TV on their PCs, Macs and laptops. This could be important to power users who have tricked out monitors of 24&quot; or perhaps even greater. In fact the need for a standalone TV may be getting questioned more and more as a result of the ability to directly (and more easily I might add) watch TV on PCs.In order to take advantage of the service be sure to have Windows XP SP2 or greater as well as a processor which runs at 1.6 GHz or better. Mac users will need an Intel Core Duo 1.83 GHz processor or better. Both platforms need at least a gig of RAM as 25MB of free hard disk space.Similar to the way the iOS and Android versions work - you will be able to watch TV, browse listings and manage your DVR but not watch video stored on it.I have been impressed with the Optimum app for TV viewing using an iPad although occasionally there is a connection error which is typically solved by leaving and re-entering the application.It is amazing to me that tablets like the iPad have been on the market for only a few years and already have become the first place developers took when coming out with new apps. It is well known that apps generally drive hardware purchases and point to the direction of the hardware platform market share. I remember having serious discussions with the people at Quark about their popular QuarkXPress desktop publishing solution back in 1990 or so at the New York based Folio show - at the time they said they would never port to the PC. A few years later they changed their mind and interestingly, Apple really started to decline around the same time.What will be really interesting however is when the stats come out from the cable companies regarding which platforms consumers are using to consume video. In other words - yes, PCs and laptops have larger screens than tablets but your PC isn&#039;t easy to lug into the bathroom, onto the kitchen table, etc. Of course I am not advocating TV watching in the john but if you do, please spray some Lysol on that tablet before subsequently bringing it to the kitchen table. I&#039;m looking forward to trying the app out this weekend - maybe sooner if time allows. I will report anything out of the ordinary that happens.
Tags: android, cable, cablevision, ios, ipad, iphone, mac, optimum, pc
Related tags: kitchen table, watch, optimum, android, laptops


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			<title>Ooma Telo installed - Ooo Look, Shiny Bright Blue LEDs!</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Ooma+Telo+installed+-+Ooo+Look%2C+Shiny+Bright+Blue+LEDs%21</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I received the latest version of the Ooma Telo along with the Wi-Fi dongle for a product review. I&#039;ll have to ask Ooma for the Bluetooth dongle to test since that seems like a cool mobile integration feature. Ooma competes with magicJack and netTALK offering low-cost phone service leveraging VoIP.
I hooked up the Ooma Telo in front of my Cisco Wi-Fi router and in addition to having an eerily similar size, shape, and color they both sport bright blue LEDs. Ooo... Ahhh...
This is just a preview of my forthcoming review, so for now enjoy the blue. You know you like it...
 

Tags: blue, bluetooth, cheap minutes, free calls, led, ooma, review, telo, unlimited calls, voip, wi-fi
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]]></description> 
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			<title>Is Skype Microsoft&#039;s Only Chance for Mobile Success?</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Is+Skype+Microsoft%27s+Only+Chance+for+Mobile+Success%3F</link>
			<description><![CDATA[If you are looking for increased competition in the mobile space, Apple’s recent and seemingly constant record earnings are bad news. Worse yet for the competition, Apple has transcended its original position of a computer and electronics maker to become a major force in the publicly traded markets and even the US economy. Its phones are status symbols the world over and its tablet is so far ahead of the rest of the market the company can charge hundreds more and consumers will pay for these products with a smile.
So news of Microsoft losing share to in the mobile space should hardly be considered news. In fact even if the company purchased Nokia and RIM the challenge of integration would far outweigh the benefits. Sadly this would be true if both companies were given to Redmond at no charge. How bad is the situation? Well between December 2006 and December 2011 the Microsoft went from having 34% of the US market for smartphones to a paltry 5%! And all this while the smartphone market in the US has been exploding with growth.
Microsoft knows how bad things are. Sadly, they were way ahead in mobile – I used to rely on the HTC/UT Starcom Verizon XV6700 and called it the near-perfect device in March of 2006. It deserved this designation because it was truly a mobile office in your pocket.
I complained at the time that different carriers selling the same device were calling it something else and moreover there was really no branding for the device at all.
I think this phone may have been the last opportunity Microsoft needed to exploit to stay a mobile leader.
Sure, they have the relationship with Nokia but it will be a really tough sell to unseat Apple and Android at this point – unless something dramatic and unforeseen (by others) happens like Android or iOS exhibiting a massive security flaw driving users into the hands of the competition.
But Microsoft still has Skype as its last hope to attain some relevance in the smartphone space. If the software company is serious about the market and we all know they have to be, there will have to be serious handset subsidization. Even then, it is unclear it will be significant player in the market.
But a simple way to subsidize is by bundling Skype credits with phones – there is a huge arbitrage play here between what carriers charge for their voice minute bundles compared to what Skype charges.
To offset some of the cost, Microsoft will have to show ads which could be powered by Bing.
The challenge of course is voice calls are becoming less important each year as consumers use social and text as their preferred method of communications.
But the window is still open for Skype phone which is subsidized heavily – one which consumers would have to consider because the price is so low. Of course the challenge here is carriers like Verizon provide a number of phones for free with a contract such as the LG Enlighten and the Samsung Illusion. So Microsoft would have to potentially give you a free phone as well as unlimited calling or some number of minutes per month, etc. Also this strategy assumes carriers won’t mind Skype becoming the keeper of the carrier relationship. Sure, many wireless providers have partnered with Skype in the past but it is unclear if they are still happy to do so.
In short, Skype may be the last chance for Microsoft to become successful in mobile – and in the US, the subsidized approach to providing phones and service may make it very difficult to find success. Skype integration may be a better option in other countries where devices are generally purchased on their own.
I don’t want to come off as optimistic mind you – this strategy will be expensive and basically bribes consumers to take a product they don’t want. It’s worth pointing out a similar strategy in the past used by Bing to gain share from Google was a failure. But mobile is so important, the company may be forced to give the idea a shot – and if so they better start soon.
Skype may not be the only hope as Microsoft also owns a significant portion of Facebook - tight integration with this social network may be another option for Redmond to attack mobile. But it is unclear that Facebook would be willing to work exclusively or even semi-exclusively with a platform which has limited appeal - unless the price is really right.
Tags: android, apple, facebook, htc, ios, iphone, lg, microsoft, nokia, samsung, skype, ut starcom, voip, xv6700
Related tags: mobile space, skype, microsoft, mobile, market, phones


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			<title>Skype@Home Telephone Products Coming?</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Skype%40Home+Telephone+Products+Coming%3F</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Today, Rich Tehrani wrote about Microsoft &quot;working on Skype Everywhere Initiative&quot; based on another Microsoft-careers.com job listing. Just a few days ago I wrote about a Microsoft job listing was pointing toward Microsoft and Skype building a HTML5 Web version of Skype.Rich believes there are some good synergies with Microsoft and Skype that can result in a whole like of Skype at home phone products (Skype@Home?) including DECT 6.0 phones. The problem with DECT wireless phones over WiFi phones is you need a base unit, which adds to the cost. Wi-Fi phones can just connect to the Wi-Fi access point with no additional hardware necessary.However, what if the next XBox 360 has a built-in DECT transceiver? Or what if Microsoft designs a DECT transceiver on a USB stick that you can install in one of the Xbox 360&#039;s USB ports and then the XBox 360 is now your centralized gaming, video entertainment, and telephone system all-in-one. It can even act as your answering machine and record your voice messages, but even cooler you can be in the middle of a game and screen the inbound caller using your Xbox Live headset or your Xbox 360&#039;s default speakers. I&#039;m sure you could have it set to &quot;whisper mode&quot; so the inbound caller&#039;s voice doesn&#039;t drown out the pleasure of explosions and other video game sound effects. This has serious potential and with the power of the Xbox 360 you could really build a powerful home PBX system. Heck, Microsoft could make it marketable as a SMB IP-PBX. But perhaps we don&#039;t want to go down that road considering what happened to Microsoft Response Point. We&#039;ll stick with the consumer-side... When you consider many people are killing their home landline in favor of using their cell phone, Google Voice, or Skype, Microsoft wouldn&#039;t even have to put a FXO port on the Xbox 360 for phone calls - everything would go over IP using Skype. The Xbox 360 would act as the &quot;smart&quot; gateway and could really enhance the phone experience - and let&#039;s not forget about the Kinect camera which could add Skype video conferencing to the mix. A mobile app could allow you to access your Xbox 360 system to retrieve voicemails or set your call forwarding rules. Perhaps Microsoft might even leverage their cloud for some of the storage.Let&#039;s go over what the Xbox 360 would be capable of: 

Video Games
Video streaming entertainment (Hulu, Netflix, ESPN, Sky TV, etc.)
Music
Skype Telephone phone system with advanced routing and voicemail capabilities.(hypothetical, but very possible)
Kinect integrated with Skype to enable video conferencing (hypothetical, but very likely)

The job listing says &quot;Skype is seeking a motivated Software Engineer with an unrelenting drive for working on and solving customer-based issues. As a member of the Skype Xbox Engineering Team in London, you will have a strong technical background developing client and/or embedded software&quot;.Wow, Microsoft is putting together a Skype Xbox Engineering team? That&#039;s like combining the Navy SEALS team with the Delta Force Team. Combined these teams can either kick ass and make some great products -- or their egos can get in the way, destroying team chemistry and resulting in classic trash talk such as, &quot;I eat Green Berets for breakfast!&quot; 
Tags: kinest, microsoft, skype, skype xbox engineering team, skype@home, telephone, voip, xbox 360
Related tags: video conferencing, inbound caller, microsoft skype, skype, microsoft, video


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]]></description> 
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			<title>Microsoft Working on Skype Everywhere Initiative</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Microsoft+Working+on+Skype+Everywhere+Initiative</link>
			<description><![CDATA[The fact that Microsoft would want to integrate Skype everywhere shouldn&#039;t be too surprising, Office/Lync and Windows Phone are obvious areas and so is Xbox. That&#039;s why news of the company looking for engineers who can delve into the hybrid world of video games and IP communications shouldn&#039;t be too surprising.When Microsoft integrates Skype into Xbox and bundles some free calling into the solution, what&#039;s to stop them from offering a DECT phone as well? With retail prices of DECT 6.0 phones starting at less than $20, the idea makes more and more sense.Sure, you can use a cordless/wireless phone with Skype today but if Microsoft integrates it all seamlessly and video is added for free, what happens to the business models of Ooma, netTALK and magicJack?And what about the cable companies, AT&amp;T and Verizon? Sure, a Skype home phone calling solution will be inferior as it doesn&#039;t allow emergency calling due to a lack of E-911 support but still, if it is part of a bundle and has HD voice support, why pay for phone company or cable calling? Especially if it has video as well and other great Skype calling features, presence, etc.Additionally, a benefit of the Skype purchase will be potentially becoming the phone provider for hundreds of millions of consumers. Of course Skype already has hundreds of millions of users but when I say &quot;phone&quot; I mean the actual physical phone, not the computer to computer experience.Moreover, if Microsoft is successful, it will be achieving what Cisco couldn&#039;t with Umi. And remember, one of the reasons I said Umi wouldn&#039;t make it was because of Xbox Kinect. I also mentioned Skype&#039;s deal with Panasonic, Sony and others as another reason. It would be ironic if Skype and Xbox together were to fulfill the market niche Umi was looking to exploit.The challenge for Microsoft is the tablet market - which today means iPad, is eating the video game space. So the next version of Xbox better have some really compelling features to draw the gamers back. I would think they believe tight Skype integration will be one of these features.
Tags: cisco, kinect, microsoft, panasonic, skype, sony, umi, xbox
Related tags: hundreds millions, microsoft integrates, skype everywhere, calling solution, skype, phone


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			</item><item>
			<title>RingCentral Cloud Touch Platform - Configure Phone System from iPad, iPhone, or Android</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/RingCentral+Cloud+Touch+Platform+-+Configure+Phone+System+from+iPad%2C+iPhone%2C+or+Android</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Imagine being able to record prompts, configure IVR/auto-attendant, and remove a disgruntled employee&#039;s access to your phone system all while sitting on a beach - simply using your tablet or mobile device. That&#039;s exactly what RingCentral&#039;s Cloud Touch Platform does and they proudly claim this touch-enabled phone system configuration platform &quot;Reimagines Business Phone Systems&quot;. They may just be right.Founded in 2003, RingCentral (&gt;1000 employees) is by far the largest cloud-based phone system with RingCentral&#039;s Naveen Gupta, Chief Product Officer, claiming &quot;hundreds of thousands of paying customers&quot;. AT&amp;T and Rogers resells RingCentral&#039;s platform, which partly explains their impressive customer base.The RingCentral Touch platform enables businesses to setup, manage and use their phone system from a smart mobile device. IT administrators can easily setup and configure the entire phone system from a touch-enable smartphone or tablet. Further, users can control their settings, including call handling, call screening, primary devices and call routing. They can also access voice and fax messages using the touch UI. I asked Naveen Gupta about recording IVR/auto-attendant prompts, &quot;Is it push-to-record using SIP directly over IP or does it call you to record the prompt?&quot; and Naveen said it can do push-to-record using SIP. Using a touch UI to simply select via touch which prompt to record and then instantly record using your tablet or mobile phone&#039;s microphone certainly will make phone administrators&#039; lives easier. The new platform includes three key components:Continue reading RingCentral Cloud Touch Platform - Configure Phone System from iPad, iPhone, or Android...
Tags: cisco, cloud, cloud-touch, ip phone, ipad, iphone, mobile, mobile voip, polycom, ringcentral, softphone, voip
Related tags: phone system, touch platform, record using, cloud touch, naveen gupta, phone


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]]></description> 
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			<title>Google&#039;s Chrome Team Reveals WebRTC Roadmap</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Google%27s+Chrome+Team+Reveals+WebRTC+Roadmap</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Google&#039;s Chrome team stated in their recent WebRTC roadmap that the main components of WebRTC are now stable and they will be releasing it to the 200M+ Chrome users later this year. However, they want developers to get a sneak preview of what will be in the first WebRTC release. I should mention that two days ago I discussed how Skype and Microsoft were working on a HTML5 web-version of Skype. I felt that HTML5 would be inadequate and any Skype web app would likely also use WebRTC. So the news from the Google Chrome team is very timely and very interesting. I said last year Google was looking to build Skype in the browser and it looks like the end of 2012 will bring those efforts to fruition.What&#039;s in the initial WebRTC release includes the following:JSEP JSEP (Javascript Session Establishment Protocol) is an API for signaling that  allows for much more powerful apps and flexibility in choice of  signaling protocols. To abstract the complexity, we provide and maintain  a Javascript lib that makes browser to browser calls a few lines of Javascript.  Topologies Our implementation will support multiple independent PeerConnections,  each capable of sending and receiving multiple independent media  sources.  ICE / STUN / TURN ICE and STUN are  standardized methods for establishing a peer-to-peer connection on the  Internet, even if the two end points are behind private network  addresses (NAT). Chrome’s current stack deviates from the official  current standards. We are working to fix this.  We will also support TURN servers to allow connections through tougher  firewalls, where relaying and encapsulation are needed. Exactly what  type of TURN will be supported is TBD.  DTLS-SRTP  Encryption will be mandatory for all usage of WebRTC in Chrome. For our first stable release, we will implement DTLS-SRTP.  VP8, iSAC, iLBC, G.711 The video codec support by Chrome will be VP8. We&#039;ve made several major  improvements inside and around VP8 to ensure it can deliver a great real  time experience. On the audio side, we will initially support iSAC,  iLBC, G.711, and DTMF, with iSAC being the default. It is a royalty free  wideband codec optimized for speech, open sourced at webrtc.org.I should mention WebRTC will also work on Firefox browsers with some early Mozilla doing some demos of it in action and Microsoft is expected to support it in Internet Explorer. As for the future, Google announced some of their plans for the next release. The next release will include a Data API, screen sharing,  PeerConnection proxying and recording - though the MediaRecorder specification hasn&#039;t been completed yet. The PeerConnection proxying is interesting since it will allow users to bypass restrictions that restrictive countries put in place. Think of WebRTC as Tor but for VoIP and video and more feature-rich collaboration. Exciting times ahead!
Tags: chrome, codec, collaboration, dtmf, google, isac, microsoft, skype, tor, video conferencing, voip, vp8, webrtc, wideband
Related tags: peerconnection proxying, multiple independent, should mention, webrtc roadmap, webrtc release, webrtc


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]]></description> 
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			<title>Peter Lubbers, Founder of World&#039;s Largest HTML5 User Group, to Deliver Opening Address at DevCon5</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Peter+Lubbers%2C+Founder+of+World%27s+Largest+HTML5+User+Group%2C+to+Deliver+Opening+Address+at+DevCon5</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Some exciting TMC news to share. TMC and Crossfire Media today announced that Peter Lubbers, Senior Director at Kaazing and founder of the San Francisco HTML5 User Group, will deliver the opening address at their DevCon5 – HTML5 Mobile App and Developers Conference next week in Santa Clara, California. DevCon5 takes place April 25-26, 2012 at the Network Meeting Center in Santa Clara, California. The address is scheduled for Wednesday, April 25th at 9:00am.
Admission to Mr. Lubbers’ presentation, “The HTML5 Connectivity Revolution”, as well as all other keynote and breakout sessions, is included with any DevCon5 registration plan.  While HTML5 is mostly about evolution, some of the features in the Connectivity and Real-Time area are, in fact, pretty revolutionary. Combining the power of socket connections for protocol communication, rich graphics, and offline capabilities makes it possible for web apps to be on par, or even better than, desktop applications.  This is precisely what makes HTML5 so compelling. HTML5 is making the web more interactive and in the quicker. It also reduces the need for middleware with HTML5. Peter will explore what some of the major new feature areas are when it comes to HTML5 connectivity and real time and how those are changing how you will build modern web apps.  Peter Lubbers, is the author of ‘Pro HTML5 Programming’ and the co-founder of the San Francisco HTML5 User Group, the largest HTML5 User Group in the world. Peter is known to give one of the best HTML5 overview presentations. Peter also oversees all aspects of Documentation and Training at Kaazing, a startup company specialized in building a high performance HTML5 Web Socket platform that revolutionizes web communication and the first company to offer HTML5 training worldwide.  &quot;This is a super-exciting area and I am thrilled to be speaking about it. While HTML5 is mostly about evolution, some of the features in the Connectivity and Real-Time area are in fact pretty revolutionary. Combining the power of socket connections for protocol communication, rich graphics, and offline capabilities makes it possible for web apps to be on par, or even better than, desktop applications,&quot; explained Lubbers.  DevCon5 was created for web developers; software architects; graphic artists; and business executives seeking a deeper understanding of the power of HTML5. The DevCon5 conference program encompasses a multi-track program covering important topics related to HTML5 adoption, including: browser compatibility, user experience design and Web 3.0.
“It’s a pleasure to have Peter Lubbers the author of Pro HTML5 Programming (Apress) to lead us off as we explore not only how the web is changing, but also how the way we use the web is exploding,” explained Carl Ford, a founder of DevCon5.
“DevCon5 is a community event, where the brightest minds building powerful applications with HTML5 gather to dive into the code and share ideas for improving user experiences all over the Web,” added Ford. In addition to Peter Lubbers, leading HTML5 developers and best-selling authors highlight the DevCon5 conference program:



Kiran Prasad
Director of Engineering, Mobile
LinkedIn



Senior Director
Kaazing Corporation


Steve Fulton
Game Development, Web   Technology Consultant
8bit Games


Jeff Fulton
CTO
8bit Games


Andrew Lunny
Computer Scientist
Adobe


Paul Trani
Adobe Developer Evangelist
Adobe


Jacob Surber
Product Manager
Adobe


Joey Janisheck
VP of Development
BestFit Mobile


Alex Cruikshank
Programmer
Carbon5


Rudy Jahchan
Computer Systems Analyst
Carbon5


Kenneth Russell
Software Engineer, Chrome GPU   Team




Chair of the WebGL Working   Group
Google, Inc.


Carl Ford
Co Founder
Crossfire Media


Zhenyao Mo
Software Engineer, Chrome GPU   Team
Google


Jason Hoffman
CTO, Founder
Joyent


Monty Sharma
VP Product Management and   Marketing
MassDigi


Keith Wright
Software Engineer
MocoSpace


Imran Malek
Business Development Manager
MocoSpace


Phil Purviance
Info Security Specialist, App   Sec Consulting
OWASP


Sy Choudhury
Director, Product Management,   Web Technologies
Qualcomm


Terry Ribb
CMO
Relevens


Dave Kaneda
Creative Web Technologist
Sencha


Tom Shafron
CEO
Viewbuiquity


Caridy Patino
Senior Front End Engineer
Yahoo


Marc Grabanski
Talent Evangelist &amp; UI/UX   Developer




Visit www.devconfive.com to register and for complete details.
DevCon5 is supported by diamond sponsor RIM, gold sponsor AppMobi, and sponsor Kaazing.  Media sponsors include: HTML5 Report; Stack Overflow; Software Development Times; Linux Magazine, FierceDeveloper, Visibility, Joyent Cloud, OPSEOs, Codersky Magazine, Best Web Design Agencies, Ubergizmo; and WebProfessionals.org.
  Registration for DevCon5 is now open. Members of the media can reserve media credentials by contacting Jennifer Terentiuk at jterentiuk@tmcnet.com/203-852-6800 x125.  Become a DevCon5 Exhibitor and Sponsor—contact Joe Fabiano at jfabiano@tmcnet.com/203-852-6800 x132. Partner with DevCon5—contact Jennifer Terentiuk at jterentiuk@tmcnet.com/203-852-6800 x125.  About Crossfire Media: Crossfire Media is an integrated marketing company with a core focus on future trends in technology. We service communities of interest with conferences, tradeshows, webinars, and newsletters and provide community websites with the latest information in our industries.  About TMC: TMC is a global, integrated media company that helps clients build communities in print, in person, and online.  TMC publishes the Customer Interaction Solutions, INTERNET TELEPHONY, Next Gen Mobility, InfoTECH Spotlight and Cloud Computing magazines.  TMC is the producer of ITEXPO, the world’s leading B2B communications event.  TMCnet.com, which is read by two million unique visitors each month, is the leading source of news and articles for the communications and technology industries.  In addition, TMC runs multiple industry events: 4G Wireless Evolution; M2M Evolution; Cloud Communications Expo; Cloud4SMB Expo; Business Video Expo; DevCon5; HTML5 Summit; CVx; AstriCon; StartupCamp; MSPAlliance MSPWorld and more. Visit TMC Events for a complete listing and further information.
Tags: crossfire media, devcon5, html5, html5 users group, kaazing, peter lubbers, tmc
Related tags: peter lubbers, crossfire media, software engineer, jterentiuk tmcnet, protocol communication, devcon


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]]></description> 
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			<title>Google Co-Founder Complains About Facebook, Apple and Splinternet</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Google+Co-Founder+Complains+About+Facebook%2C+Apple+and+Splinternet</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Google co-founder Sergey Brin recently explained that if the web was dominated by Apple and Facebook, his company wouldn’t have access to enough information to start its search engine. The idea is that the restrictive policies of Facebook make crawling its pages challenging if not impossible while Apple’s iPod, iPhone and iPad apps are generally not searchable.
He further explained the challenge to the internet from governments like Saudi Arabia, China, Iran and even the US where internet access is either limited or threatened to be limited very soon via regulation which is the case with proposed legislation like Sopa and Pipa.
In January of 2008 I discussed the rise of the splinternet – or a splintering of the homogenous internet we once were accustomed to using. At the time I said:

In the good old days having a website was good enough... This was your portal to the world -- your customers and everyone else. But slowly but surely a wealth of new communities are being created and if you aren&#039;t part of them, you could risk losing tremendous market share. In other words, a single homogeneous Internet is no longer what marketers can count on.
Just yesterday in fact, Hasbro Inc. &quot;woke up&quot; to the fact that over 600,000 daily users utilize a Facebook application called Scrabulous which is a Scrabble clone. Scrabble -- the popular word-based board game is owned by Hasbro, the company which launched a lawsuit hoping to shut Scrabulous down.

In September of 2010 I surmised that HTML5 will slow the growth of the Splinternet and while I still believe this is the case, the growth of apps in app stores and governments looking to “clamp down” on open communications has only grown. Here is an excerpt from that piece:

In January of 2008 I used a term Splinternet to describe the growing number of areas content providers need to focus on when delivering their services. It seems according to Forrester Research I coined the term as it refers to a splintering of the traditional Internet. At the time I used Facebook as an example of this splintering but over the years, app stores too have also become a major splintered area as media companies and others as they look to optimize their presence in each disparate splinterverse.
More recently, Wired declared the Web dead which reinforces for me that as a society we are going in the wrong direction - one of exponentially more splintered communities. Of course Apple and Facebook have every reason in the world to continue to promote apps which are dependent on their platforms and/or approval process but is this good for users or bad?
My sense is as concerned as I am about the Splinternet becoming the Internet - and you can argue the transformation has already taken place, there is tremendous hope that HTML5 will force developers to first write apps for the web and worry about the app stores later.
The only thing we need now is an open HTML5 store which handles the  billing  for developers who want the widest audience possible as their creative work is monetized.

My optimism was shattered when I wrote a piece about Facebook becoming the internet back in March of 2011 in response to a newspaper moving all its content to the world’s most popular social networking service. Here is an excerpt:

But as Facebook has grown in power and influence, it is becoming a more important slice of the pie and as such developers are looking to it as a platform to start developing on first. Certainly Zynga - the company behind Facebook games such as FarmVille and CityVille being worth about $10B hasn&#039;t put a dent in this idea.
But it isn&#039;t just the developers moving to Facebook, one newspaper, Rockville Central has decided to move all of its content to the social networking site and it will cease putting fresh content on its own site entirely.

But Google doesn’t own the rights to content on Facebook, or iOS apps. Moreover, Google is perhaps the most powerful company on earth as it can instantly demote a website so it is no longer found when a relevant query is made. How do we feel concern or pity for a company which most human beings rely on daily?
So should we be concerned that the internet is spintering? Yes. Especially when it comes to foreign countries – but Apple, Facebook and other companies have no obligation to improve the quality of Google’s search engine.
In closing, I agree the world would be a better place if search engines had easy access to all information in the form of the internet not splinternet. However, it is really tough to feel sorry for one of the most powerful companies on the web – once which routinely puts sites who are potential competitors out of business through search engine changes which come with no warning or recourse to websites who are eliminated from results.
Tags: apple, facebook, google, sergey brin, splinternet
Related tags: apple facebook, search engine, social networking, becoming internet, facebook, internet


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]]></description> 
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			<title>Microsoft Working on HTML5 Skype Web App?</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Microsoft+Working+on+HTML5+Skype+Web+App%3F</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Came across an interesting job posting by Microsoft on the Microsoft Talent Network that seems to point to a web app being developed by the Microsoft and Skype team. Running Skype within a web browser would be huge and would likely using HTML5 along with some Javascript.Here&#039;s the relevant job posting section:
Team at Skype is looking for passionate, team-oriented and  self-motivated developers to help us bring Skype experience on to the  Web.You will have a chance to integrate existing Skype solutions on  to the web with the support of the backend services build from the  ground up using latest Microsoft technologies. Result of your work will  be used by hundreds millions of thankful users worldwide.
The rest of it reads as follows:
You will  work in dynamical environment with the team of true professionals  participating in defining, designing, developing, testing and  documenting one of the most popular applications of the modern world.You  will closely cooperate with colleagues developing Skype cross platform  core library in Tallinn, Estonia, audio/video team in Stockholm, Sweden,  User management team in Prague and web plug-in team in Palo Alto, US.Key ResponsibilitiesArchitecture  and design- to design and maintain robust and loosely coupled  application code in collaboration with the team architect.Develop- to lead development by implementing most critical parts of the application.Analyse,  Estimate, Plan, Test, Document and Release- to understand Skype  software development process and perform all required and otherwise  useful practices.CollaborateTeam Rendezvous senior developer responsibility is to actively collaborate with:- Product management around product requirements and priorities,- Colleagues from supporting teams on new features and integration issues,- Team Rendezvous team members guiding their efforts and developing their technical skills.Candidate Profile, Expertise/ExperienceEssential- BS/MS in Computer Science, Information Systems or similar.- 5+ years developing rich web client applications.-  Real world experience developing HTML5 UI’s including rich interaction  based on JavaScript (ideally understands difference between standards  based ECMA, and browser specific JavaScript/JS.Desirable- An understanding of rich media in windows (AV) helpful.- C#, Java or C++ experience is a strong advantage.Excellent  verbal and written communication skills with the ability to interact  professionally with a diverse group, executives, managers, and subject  matter experts. Must demonstrate cultural sensitivity and diplomacy in  communicating with others.Self-direction- must work independently to develop application code. This role demands proactive, ‘can-do’ nature.Self-management-  must be highly organized and be able to prioritize work effectively.  Successfully engage in multiple initiatives simultaneously.Team-orientation-  Able to put team interests above personal, help team to move faster all  together and take personal responsibility for the whole team result.
The qualifications is also interesting and mentions web design. &quot;Job Segments: Computer Science, Creative, Developer,  Engineer, Engineering, Information Systems, Java, Marketing, Operations,  Product Manager, Software Engineer, Technology, Test Engineer, Testing,  Web Design&quot;.Clearly Microsoft/Skype is looking to develop a web app. I&#039;m pondering its use-case scenarios, since most mobile users are content to use their Skype mobile app and PC/laptop users are fine using their full-blown Skype application. I suppose it could be used in click-to-call scenarios, especially in shopping cart &quot;questions before you buy&quot; situations. Abandoned carts are a big problem with online retailers and offering an easy click-to-call method would help mitigate that. Of course, most Skype users already know that click-to-call already exists within Skype, however you must have the application installed for it to work. Having click-to-call utilize a HTML5 web-based app would work regardless of whether the user has Skype installed or not.As Microsoft further integrates Skype into their unified communications strategy, there could be some enterprise applications for a Web-based version of Skype as well. Perhaps a Skype-to-Lync gateway will be offered to allow Skype and Lync clients to communicate. I can envision this being done in the Office365 cloud instead of a hardware CPE-based gateway, since Microsoft hasn&#039;t been successful with telecom hardware in the past. Other than their XBox and mouse &amp; keyboard line of hardware, I can&#039;t think of any other successful Microsoft hardware. Though the Microsoft Lumia 900 looks promising. Of course, Nokia makes the hardware and Microsoft the software, so I shouldn&#039;t even count that.Many enterprises, especially larger ones lock down their PCs and laptops and restrict software installation. Allowing and rolling out an allowed software app can be a laborious chore. Thus, having a HTML5 Skype app would ease the deployment and enable B2B communication. B2B communication is a huge selling point for Microsoft Lync, especially due to its ease of federation. However, federation is still a manual process. Using a Skype web app could make B2B communication easier.For instance, in a B2B scenario, a company could have their clients go to a specific URL to join a password-protected Skype conference. You could then do presentations, desktop sharing, IM, VoIP, and video conferencing. It could compete with GoToMeeting, WebEx, and even Microsoft&#039;s own Live Meeting. Though I doubt the HTML5 standard is quite there yet when it comes to VoIP and video conferencing. Although, the WebRTC standard pushed by Google and others will help allow HTML5 to perform these capabilities. It&#039;ll be interesting to see what the Microsoft and Skype teams have planned for a web-based Skype app. Stay tuned...
Tags: b2b, desktop sharing, google, gotomeeting, html5, microsoft, skype, video conferencing, voip, web app, webex, webrtc
Related tags: microsoft skype, skype looking, computer science, video conferencing, information systems, skype


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]]></description> 
			</item><item>
			<title>Cisco Extends SMB Product Portfolio With Several New Products</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Cisco+Extends+SMB+Product+Portfolio+With+Several+New+Products</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Cisco today launched a new portfolio of small business products, including wireless, routing, switching, and voice solutions. They are also extending and enhancing the Cisco OnPlus managed service.                                      Cisco WAP121                                                        Cisco WAP321The new wireless products include the Cisco WAP121 and WAP321 Wireless-N access points. Both products feature flexible mounting, PoE, IPv6, and QoS for video and voice. The WAP121 features 4 SSIDs, 2.4GHz, Fast Ethernet LAN and retails for $173. The WAP321 features 8 SSIDS, 2.4 or 5.4 GHz, Gigabit Ethernet LAN, and lists for $310. The WAP321 features &quot;guest access&quot; with a captive portal built-in. So when a guest attempts to browse the web, they are directed to the built in web server on the WAP321 where they can then enter a password that the business owner has provided the guest. Business owners can determine what sort of access they have as well, such as Internet access only or providing access to printers leveraging VLANs. The WAP121 and WAP321 are targeted at the entry level of the SMB with the Cisco AP541N being the next level up, followed by the Aironet 1040 and 1140.Today, Cisco is also announcing a new line of stackable switches called the Cisco 500 Series and 500X Series, which replaces the ESW 500 Series and another line of their stackable switches. Highlights of the 500 Series: 12 models, 24 or 45 ports, Fast and Gigabit Ethernet, PoE+, IPv6, QoS, EEE Energy Efficiency. The 500X Series supports 10 Gigabit Ethernet (20 Gb aggregate), 10 GbE device connectivity, and stacking line redundancy and Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol for high availability. This allows you to have multiple broadband ISPs and the switch will automatically failover with no additional hardware required. This is a key feature that SMBs will enjoy. The 500/500X Series sit above the 100, 200, and 300 Series, but below the higher-end Catalyst 2960/3560/3750. List price ranges from $590 to $5,556 depending on the model.                                      Cisco RV180WThe Cisco RV180 and RV180W routers are new products launching today and they feature VPN tunnel capabilities to enable cost-effective remote access for your employees. They support Gigabit Ethernet WAN, 4-port Gigabit Ethernet switch, and up to 10 concurrent VPN tunnels. The RV180W Wireless-N router adds wireless functionality and is very flexible allowing you to configure it to act as a router, access point, bridge, or repeater. List price $182 for the RV180 and $249 for the RV180W.Cisco&#039;s Dave Tang, Director of Strategy espoused the multi-purpose functionality of RV180W. He explained, &quot;This makes it very flexible and enables it to be re-purposed. So customers love it because they can deploy it as a wireless router, but then as the routing needs progress -- if they want to for example bring in IP telephony solutions, they can then re-purpose the router as an access point elsewhere in their business.&quot; He continued, &quot;We&#039;ve heard from partners that like this approach because they can standardize on this one device and provide routing and wireless coverage that they can configure for virtually all of their customer needs.&quot; He mentioned that these two models are in the low-to-mid end of their SMB router portfolio.Cisco also is announcing version 2.2 of the Cisco UC320W Unified Communications platform, which I reviewed last year. It supports up to 24 phones with voicemail, auto-attendant, hunt groups, call forwarding and email notification of new messages. List price is $995. New features:               



 Enhanced Reboot
Reduce the number of changes that require the device to reboot in order to take effect.  


Class of Restriction
Class of Restriction: ability to individually restrict local, international, long distance and 900 calls via drag and drop. Define three classes of service.


Toll Authorization Codes
Per trunk ability to authenticate user via a password(desired per user but acceptable as one per trunk) before making an outbound call. For example, after pressing the steering digit or the shared trunk key.  Different from account codes (no CDR integration)


Support for Centrex
Ability to use Centrex lines with the UC320


Scheduled Apply
Ability to schedule a reboot



As part of the new version of Cisco UC320W v2.2, they are also announcing some new IP phones (SPA512G &amp; SPA514G). These single-line and 4-line IP phones provide HD voice and sport a 2-port Gigabit Ethernet switch. The Cisco SPA512G and SPA514G phones are currently available. List price of $194 and $219, respectively.:Continue reading Cisco Extends SMB Product Portfolio With Several New Products...
Tags: access point, cisco, guest access, msp, onplus, qos, smb, unified communications, wap121, wap321, wi-fi, wireless
Related tags: gigabit ethernet, class restriction, stackable switches, cisco announcing, router access, cisco


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			<title>Facebook Buys Mobile Photo Sharing Site Instagram</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Facebook+Buys+Mobile+Photo+Sharing+Site+Instagram</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Even before its IPO, Facebook has decided to make a major acquisition with millions of users for a billion dollars of cash and stock. Mark Zuckerberg mentioned on his Facebook timeline that this acquisition of Instagram is the largest they have ever done and may be the last of this size.Moreover, that Facebook will leave Instagram as a standalone company insomuch that you will be able to use Instagram without sharing on Facebook if you so choose.The move was a very smart one as Instagram could eventually be a threat to the company&#039;s core business. Furthermore it allows the social networking giant to gain even greater access to the mobile market - the fastest growing segment of just about every tech business. And even more importantly is the cover the company has in the form of Google+ allowing it to gobble up marketshare without regard for antitrust concerns.Reminds me of Oracle putting together a major software company with major marketshare using the cover of Microsoft competition.Will Pinterest be next? How about Twitter? At this rate the tech investment euphoria which we really haven&#039;t seen in over a decade seems to be coming back.
Tags: facebook, google, instagram
Related tags: facebook, instagram, company, major
, facebook,  google,  instagram

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			<title>ZANGI New Mobile VoIP &amp; Video App Launching Soon</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/ZANGI+New+Mobile+VoIP+%26+Video+App+Launching+Soon</link>
			<description><![CDATA[ZANGI is a new mobile app that supports free SMS, voice and video calls, multi-user conferences, instant messaging, file  sharing, screen sharing, integration with other programs and more.  						ZANGI is still in &quot;stealth mode&quot;, but I&#039;m told their offering is coming out next month with support for multiple mobile platforms including OS, Android OS,  Symbian, Windows PC, or Windows Mobile. It can also be used via web  interface or through social networks like Facebook, Google+, etc. How integrated with these popular social networks remains to be seen. It also supports syncing of your address book, as shown here:Using ZANGI you will have local and international  calls and SMS for free when dialing other ZANGI users and calls to none ZANGI users they claim will be at  very low rates. In order to use ZANGI you only need to have WiFi or 3G/4G  connection and the application installed on your smartphone. The app is also GPS/location aware, though I&#039;m not sure why exactly it needs to be location-aware.The video calling, multi-user conferencing, and file sharing certainly seem interesting. Can&#039;t wait to try it out. As previously mentioned, they are still in stealth mode, so their mobile and desktop apps aren&#039;t yet available. But this is a company to keep your eye on over the next few weeks if looking to try a new mobile VoIP / video / SMS app.
Tags: android, facebook, file sharing, google, gps, instant messaging, ios, location aware, mobile voip, sms, video conferencing, voip, zangi
Related tags: social networks, still stealth, location aware, mobile, video, calls


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			<title>Comcast Lets You Text Message from your Home Phone</title>
			<link>http://ohvoice.com/news/Comcast+Lets+You+Text+Message+from+your+Home+Phone</link>
			<description><![CDATA[It took about eight years but it seems like SMS has finally come to home phone service
In 2004 in a piece about VoIP 2.0 I wondered why home phone service hadn’t progressed and suggested that they allow instant messaging/SMS. It’s obvious the market would love such a solution and Comcast will be one of the first to bring it to market. In fact, now included with its ‘Xfinity Voice Unlimited Nationwide’ plan, customers get access to free text messaging from the Xfinity Mobile app for iOS and Android devices. In addition these devices the apps allow the ability to receive transcribed voicemail messages that can be read instantly. Both features also can be accessed online via the Xfinity Connect web portal.
Here is what I said eight years ago:
I am not talking about MP3 over IP. I am suggesting the development or rebranding of a device to lure customers into buying a service. When I look at my home wireless phone and compare it to my mobile phone I can’t believe they were both sold in the same century. Home phones do basically nothing, while today’s mobile phones can record calls, download and play music, boast speakerphone functionality, have built in SMS, IM and e-mail clients, can take and e-mail photos, videos, and voice messages, can operate in a walkie-talkie fashion, can support bluetooth, can be a PDA, can store thousands of contact records, can have memory expansion slots, can store appointments, a to-do list, and more. Surprisingly the prices for typical cordless phones and mobile phones aren’t that different.
I believe that teenagers would give up their Xboxes this Christmas if they could buy a killer WiFi VoIP phone that let them talk for an unlimited amount of time, conference, IM, speakerphone, bluetooth, etc. I am just waiting for the brilliant service provider who brings it to market first.
You may also recall at MWC Neustar discussed the fact they power such solutions – they said we can expect to see many more announcements like this. I know all land line carriers will feel the pressure to follow suit and soon, VoIP service and SMS will likely be as closely bundled as wireless and SMS.
Tags: cable, comcast, neustar, sms, text messaging, voicemail, voip, xfinity
Related tags: phone service, mobile phones, phone, service, mobile, phones


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