I was reading SmithOnVoIP and read how David Pogue, a well-known technology writer for the NY Times, recently made 5 what I call "obvious" predictions. One of his predictions is free landline calls. According to the article, "Prediction Number One: Free Land-Line Telephone Service. Land line phone calls will be free, because of VoIP such as Vonage, Skype and others, said Pogue. Today, you can plug an existing phone into a box that plugs into a cable modem, $15 to $20 per month, for unlimited calls, no taxes or fees (he hesitated briefly noting that perhaps he should avoid making that point to a government audience.)"So after plugging the heavyweights in VoIP, namely Skype and Vonage, he makes this "bold" prediction about free landline calls. Ho-hum, we"ve heard this before, haven"t we? His second prediction? RFID becoming prevalent. Yeah, heard that one too. His third prediction - "ala cart TV". Gee, where have I heard that before? His fourth prediction - high-definition TV, which Pogue accurately points out that the federal government will turn off analog broadcasting in 2009. So, this isn"t a "prediction" so much as he is stating a fact on what will happen by 2009. Just like I predict I will drive home tonight at 6pm.
His last prediction is "Web 2.0". A list of predictions wouldn"t be a list without mentioning Web 2.0. Pogue throws around some Web 2.0 companies, including Facebook, MySpace, and digg.
C"mon David, you can make better predictions other than stating the obvious. I love many of your techology articles, but this list is pathetic! If you keep this up, this will be yet another reason for me Click for Amazon price:
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A Google Apps multimedia training presentation shows Google Talk with "Show dialpad" in the user interface on Slide 9. It also says "Enter a name or phone number." Currently, Google Talk only lets you dial other Google Talk users, and the Gizmo Project - it doesn"t support PSTN dialing, though there are some third-party add-ons that enable PSTN dialing from Google Talk, such as GTalk2VoIP. However, GTalk2VoIP uses their own termination network not one from Google.
loses it’s velcro-ness with extended use, but the “slidingly engaging fasteners” lasts much longer, Other advantages include the fact that it won’t snag other materials such as your clothing, and it adheres silently making it a perfect choice for stealthy covert agents, snipers, Rainbox 6 shooters, etc.
Seems like Digium, makers of the Linux-based open source Asterisk IP-PBX, draws a huge crowd at every tradeshow, every keynote, and every exhibit booth. I remember the last ITEXPO they were demoing their new AsteriskNOW in the booth using a large TV flat-screen monitor and it was like 5 people deep by 12 people wide. So I wasn"t surprised when Rich Tehrani shared a video and some photos from Communications Developer showing Digium"s well-attended keynote. Once again, Digium proves itself as a real headliner attraction on the tradeshow circuit!
Today, I spoke with Fonality"s CEO Chris Lyman and Amon Prasad, Director of Information Technology for BLADE Network Technologies. BLADE Network Technologies is a former subsidiary of Nortel and get this - they selected Fonality’s Asterisk-based PBXtra over a comparable system from Nortel. Even though Nortel offered their former subsidiary a discounted price, it was still much more than PBXtra. Chris and Amon explained to me that Fonality was able to offer PBXtra at less than 50 percent of the cost of a proposed Nortel system and that included junking the existing Nortel phonesets with all new VoIP phonesets. Ecstatic over this "win" besting a well-known PBX manufacturer, Fonality stated, "BLADE is one example of how Fonality is now regularly beating out incumbents including, Cisco, Nortel and Alcatel in the small to medium business (SMB) market. PBXtra is now deployed in more than 2,000 SMBs with over 45,000 users in 37 countries."
Windows Vista Ultimate Edition is my latest desktop machine at work and some USB audio devices have given me nothing but problems. While most USB audio devices have installed just fine, since they use the standard Microsoft USB audio class, some devices, such as a Jabra Netcom 9350 wouldn"t install correctly. Apparently Vista does mandatory DRM checking for USB Audio Devices. I"ve heard of many users complaining that their Bluetooth headsets no longer work once they upgraded to Vista due to this new DRM protection. After hours of frustration trying to get it to work, I finally decided to call Jabra (who acquired GN Netcom - See today"s interesting video of Jabra/GN Netcom on the 10 blog - to see if a Vista driver was available. At first they told me the drivers for all the products were online. I explained this wasn"t true - I already looked everywhere on their site and there was no 9350 drivers anywhere. Perhaps the transition from GN Netcom to Jabra due to the acquisition has them a bit confused. In any event, I then spoke to another technician who told me they would need to upgrade my 9350"s firmware to be compliant with Vista"s more stringent USB audio requirements. He said they do this free of charge if I just ship them the unit to: