VoIP & Gadgets Blog

PIKA Technologies emailed me to let me know about the new version of PIKA Connect for Skype that is now "platform agnostic." Before their PIKA Connect for Skype only ran on Asterisk. The latest version lets application developers integrate Skype into PBX, IVR and other business communications system solutions.

Here"s the news...
PIKA Technologies Inc., a designer and manufacturer of plug-in media-processing hardware and software building blocks that enable advanced voice and fax services, today announced an expansion to its PIKA Connect for Skype portfolio with the introduction of a version that is not Asterisk dependent.

The first release of PIKA Connect for Skype was targeted at the popular open-source Asterisk platform. Using this new technology, end users can now place outgoing and receive incoming calls via Skype in the same way they can with traditional PSTN ISDN, analog or IP calls.

PIKA has enhanced its PIKA Connect for Skype portfolio by now also facilitating connections between non-Asterisk environments and Skype, as well as making it easier for developers to program by adding it to PIKA"s high-level programming interface (API) called MonteCarlo Grand Prix.

"This new version of PIKA Connect for Skype provides significant benefits to enterprise customers by supporting Skype virtual trunks in PBX, call center and IVR environments, alongside traditional analog and digital TDM trunks," says Petr Spacil, sales manager for PIKA distributor CTI Pro. "It also allows for an easy design of a gateway between any PBX or call-center system and the Skype network."

PIKA offers both server- and client-side components in PIKA Connect for Skype. On the server side, PIKA"s patent-pending AllOnHost technology provides a PC processor-based, or host-based, engine that can handle real-time audio switching, call transfer, and media-processing functions. As a media-processing engine, it can process audio from TDM, VoIP and Skype. As part of PIKA AllOnHost, a set of low- and high-level API commands is provided to control the remote Skype clients. This message-based API communicates with a client-side application that, in turn, controls the Skype client directly.

On the client side, the PIKA Skype Gateway resides on the client machine and is responsible for transferring audio as well as call-control information between the remote Skype client and the application server. Using a proprietary audio transfer mechanism, the PIKA Skype Gateway is able to send and receive audio and call-control information from a PIKA AllOnHost equipped application server.

"When PIKA looked at the challenge of business customers connecting to Skype and similar Internet communications services, we recognized two main issues to overcome," said PIKA business development manager David Clarke. "The first was to get connected to the client, gaining access to both audio and call control. The second, and more difficult, was providing a solution that allows developers to switch, transfer and media-process this audio without adding noticeable delay. PIKA AllOnHost is designed for that exact purpose and is the key differentiator of our solution from basic gateway approaches."

"We are proud to be the only traditional computer telephony hardware and software vendor focused on delivering building blocks for the Skype environment," said Terry Atwood, vice president of sales, marketing and customer care. "Our strategy is to provide the technology required to bring Skype, a service that is typically used in a person-to-person paradigm, into the person-to-business paradigm. With the implementation of PIKA"s technology, it will be just as easy for call-center and IVR customers to accept calls initiated on Skype as it is when calls are initiated on the PSTN. And all the typical application benefits such as reports, queuing, intelligent call routing, call monitoring and call recording will apply to these calls just as they do to their PSTN calls."

PIKA developers can download the software development kit and technical documents from the PIKA Developer Zone at http://www.pikatechnologies.com/extranet/index.htm. New development partners should contact a PIKA account representative, or visit www.pikatech.com.

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Tags: Asterisk, PIKA Connect for Skype, PIKA Technologies, Skype, VoIP
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Brough Turner, one of the best thought leaders in IP Communications, has an interesting post on IMS and its future implications. He mentions that IMS is still in its infancy, but adds "IMS enables multimedia ringback, i.e. video! So there is significant new functionality, versus today’s audio-only ringback."

Similarly, Erik Linask, fellow co-worker and Associate Editor for Internet Telephony Magazine, wrote an excellent article on ringback videos back in March. In part of the article, Erik writes, "Telenity, however, took it all to a new level, combining the ringback tones and video with its video ringback tone service for 3G networks. Users can now define music videos, news clips, or personal video messages as their ringback tones. Mobile operator Geocell has announced that it has opted to deploy Telenity’s video-enabled Canvas CoolRings solution— as the personalized video ringback tone application is called— in its 3G wireless network, having witnessed a successful demonstration, and having also previously deployed Telenity’s VideoMail application. "

Very interesting, eh? I had no idea video ringback existed today. Or at least according to Erik, it is "being deployed", so it could be here now or just weeks/months away. Will have to head over to his cubicle and ask.

In any event, I was already aware that IMS could enable multimedia ringback capability, i.e. "ringback videos", however Brough"s article inspired me to write about my thoughts on ringback videos. Didn"t the futuristic movie Total Recall have a scene where a video answering machine picks up? Ok, technically that"s not ringback video, but a video answering machine.

The definition of a ringback video is that when you dial someone you will see the person"s video clip play until they answer the phone or the call transfers to voicemail. It"s an interesting concept, but one that I personally have a distaste for. I ranted against ringback tones back in 2004, when I said, "Say it ain"t so! I have enough of a beef with obnoxious ringtones. Ever see someone intentionally let their phone keep "ringing" just so they could hear the rest of their damn ringtone? I just want to say to them, "Pick up the damn phone. Nobody cares about your music tastes."

I also ranted, "I don"t want to dial someone"s cellphone and have to listen to music I may not care for or may even be offended by. I suppose if teenagers want to use this feature, that"s fine, but I pray this does not take off in the business world. When I make a business phone call I don"t want to know the other person"s music tastes, their political affiliation, or their religious affiliation."

Now imagine you dial someone from your multimedia capable mobile phone and your mobile phone displays the other person"s recorded video ringback video. If you thought people"s music tastes were bad, just imagine their video tastes. Have we become that vain that we have to force our personal music or video tastes on other people?

Back in the 1980s it was blaring boomboxes and cars with upgraded sound systems that forced other people to listen to music if they were anywhere within a 1 block radius. Blaring music is a form of self expression that basically says "This is the music I love. You should feel privileged that I am sharing this awesome music with you free of charge." Hey, I"m guilty of doing this myself, but let"s call it what it is - vanity. The funny thing is I don"t see people blaring their car stereos or boomboxes as much today as they did in the 1980s, so perhaps it was just a fad.

Today, technology is taking vanity to a whole other level. For instance, you can use Twitter to share exactly what you are to with your Twitter followers - everything from driving to work, to going to the bathroom, out on a date, or other personal details. I know my fellow techies see Twitter as one of the coolest Web 2.0 social applications on the Internet, but personally I could careless about Twitter. Do I really need to share my personal details with the entire world? Sure, my ego says "Hey, why the heck not? It"s cool to have Twitters following my every move and posting feedback. Who doesn"t like having fans? Who doesn"t want fame? Fame will cause people to do stupid things like wearing a faux mohawk - i.e. Sanjaya."

On the other hand, if I I give in to my ego and join the Twitter crowd sharing every little detail in my life, why shouldn"t everyone else do the same? So now we"re back to the 1980s with everyone broadcasting whatever is going on in their personal space, except instead of blaring music, it"s "blaring your life" in a digital fashion. Thanks, but no thanks. Web 2.0 for me has just jumped the shark.

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Tags: Erik Linask, ringback tones, ringback videos, Sanjaya, Twitter
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This is the unboxing of the Nokia N95 mobile phone, one of the hottest phones on the market... The N95 features a cool 2-way slide concept for switching between different viewing modes, integrated GPS functionality, a 5 megapixel camera and support for high-speed mobile networks using 3G/HSDPA. The N95 supports watching and recording videos, song playback, high-speed web browsing and email access.



Since I didn"t totally unbox the N95 in the 1st video, figured I"d attach this 2nd video showing the other miscellaneous cables. After all, can"t half-ass unbox something.

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TMC’s Communications Developer Conference, is just around the corner - May 14-17, 2007, and is well-known as the premier event for developers of IP Communications technologies. The conference was previously known as the VoIP Developer Conference for the first three years, but changed the name this year to reflect the industry’s evolution from just voice applications to all forms of communications, which many have coined "Unfied Communications" (UC). With so many communication methods and devices, the need to organize all this information, including presence has become critical. Certainly, the unified communications market is set to explode. and developers are looking to get in on the action.

Who better to discuss unfied communications than one of the leaders of within the UC space than Microsoft, who has a major launch of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 coming very soon (still in beta) which takes dead aim at the unified communications space integrating presence, VoIP, video, conferencing, and much more. I"ve actually been testing OCS 2007 recently and I think Microsoft may have finally gotten VoIP right this time.

In any event, Microsoft will be speaking at TMC"s Communications Developer Conference to talk about the growth within UC, how developers can leverage UC to enhance enterprise productivity and other UC-related stuff. One of Microsoft"s competitors -- and certainly no slouch in the unfied communications space is Skype, who will also be speaking at our conference. Paul Amery, Director of Skype Developers Program, will be one of our keynote speakers. Plenty of other important speakers will be there and certainly TMC"s educational conference track is second to none. If you want to learn, TMC"s conferences are the best in the industry. This isn"t me just blowing smack, TMC has done surveys that have told us this is true. In addition, TMC is the only IP communications conference in the industry that offers a 100% money-back guarantee.

If you"re interested in attending, it"s not too late. You can register here: http://www.commdeveloper.com.

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Tags: Communications Developer Conference, Microsoft, Skype, TMC, unified communications, VoIP
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Back in October I discussed VoIP in Second Life and joked about the need for e911 emergency services within this virtual world. Well, according to CNet, in the next several months, "Second Life avatars may find their long-awaited voice, said Philip Rosedale, CEO of Linden Lab, publisher of the virtual world." Voice has been in "beta" within Second Life for awhile, so I assume this means the "official launch".

In the CNet article, Rosedale states something interesting: "There are a lot of problems with telephony when doing conference calls. You can"t tell who"s talking if there"s more than one person. But in the virtual world, voice solves it," said Rosedale, noting that avatars with three-dimensional voice integration will likely accelerate using Second Life for holding virtual conference meetings.

The 3D voice inside Second Life is interesting. When a person to your left within Second Life speaks something, your speaker"s/headphone"s Left channel will output the sound. Ditto for someone speaking to your right within this virtual world. If a person is directly ahead of you, both the left and right channel will output the volume equally. Second Life utilizes technology from Diamondware, which isn"t "new" news - it was covered by TMC"s writers here and here.

The brains behind the technology is Keith Weiner, the founder of DiamondWare. I"ve met with Keith a few times over the years at TMC"s Internet Telephony Conference & Expo and it was quite obvious that  he is an extreme audiophile and expert in audio acoustics. Second Life was smart to use his technology.

I would like to see Second Life integrate lip-synching technology to go along with the voice over IP. I mean who wants to look at an avatar that is speaking but the lips don"t move? Probably the coolest lip-synching avatar technology I"ve used is from Gizmoz. You can pick avatars such as Sanjaya, Saddam, Osama, Hilary Clinton, etc. and add your voice to it and it will be lip-synched. Of course, their technology is post-processing - not real-time processing of your voice, which is needed in Second Life. Still, it can"t be hard to come up with some simple lip movements as you speak within Second Life.

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Tags: DiamondWare, Internet Telephony, Second Life, VoIP
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A new mineral discovered by geologists in Serbia shares virtually the same chemical composition as Kryptonite used by the Superman"s nemesis Lex Luthor to weaken him in the film "Superman Returns". Apparently, the scientific name written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luther from a museum in the film Superman Returns nearly matches the composition of the new mineral discovered.

But don"t expect green crystals, the new mineral discovered is actually a white powerdery substance, which leads me to believe they still haven"t discovered the real Kryptonite. We Superman fans know better. Who knows was missing element might cause the powerdery substance to become green crystals?

After all, Richard Pryor in Superman III couldn"t figure out the "unknown" component in Kryptonite so he added "tar" instead which resulted in Superman becoming a bad guy.

Kryptonite is real and so is Superman. Just tune your TV to the CW Thursday nights at 8pm and you"ll see the real kryptonite and Superman. Don"t tell me it"s fake. Everything on TV is reality TV shows these days -  American Idol, Survivor, Hogan Knows Best, The Real World, etc. so it must be real, right? Of course, many would argue "reality TV" isn"t "real" at all. Just don"t be telling me Superman doesn"t exist. I"m still getting over the whole Santa Claus thing.

Hat tip to Rich, who knows I"m a Superman fan like Seinfeld. I"m a fan of everything from the original B&W Superman series to Christoper Reeves in Superman I, II, and III (IV is too forgettable to mention), to Lois & Clark TV series, to Smallville, and lastly to the Superman Begins movie.

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Tags: Krypronite, Richard Pryor, Rich Tehrani, Seinfeld, Superman
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Everyone and their brother/sister has an iPod, right? Sure Apple offers multi-colored iPods, though the white model is still the most popular. So how do you stand out from the crowd from all the other iPod users? What if you want to "bling bling" your iPod with some diamonds or gold just to be different? After all, you can get some blinged out mobile phones, including the gold RAZR V3i phones carried by Dolce & Gabbana boutiques. You can even get some blinged out diamond-encrusted Bluetooth headsets such as the Pama Diamante Bluetooth Headset (left), so why not a blinged out iPod?

Well, look no further than Amosu"s line of Apple iPods with 24 Carat Gold!

A 80GB gold-plated Video iPod retails for £399.00, while the 30GB model goes for £299.00 So if you need to get your iPod blinged, go check it out. Just don"t be showing it off in while riding any New York subways - you"re just asking for trouble.

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Tags: Amosu, Apple, gold, iPod, New York subway
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ooVoo is a new IM/video client launching soon, but I"m not sure if this another softphone client aiming to knock off the king - Skype. Simon from ooVoo emailed me, "To celebrate the launch of ooVoo, a new video communication tool, we"re looking for 1000 influential bloggers to participate in a unique event.

We"re compiling a video scrapbook called "Just A Minute" and we"d like you to be involved. You can tell us about your job, your family, your hobbies or interests. Whatever drives you, whatever you"d like to talk about in one minute, we want to see it.

To participate all you need to do is visit www.oovooworld.com, download the software and record your message. We"ve also compiled an easy-to-follow guide on recording and sending messages complete with an example clip to get you started.

Once you"ve returned your completed video message to us, we"ll include it in the ooVooworld Video Gallery and celebrate the launch of ooVoo by showing each unique minute sent to us..."

They certainly seem to be targetting bloggers and want to make their launch "viral" by offering bloggers to be part of their online video gallery. I checked out their website, but couldn"t find any information on this software client. It seems to be similar to Sightspeed since both have a pretty slick interface and both let you record a video message. Actually the sign-in screen looks almost identical to MSN Messenger"s (Windows Live Messenger) sign-in screen. Almost looks like a "skin" for MSN Messenger.

But I couldn"t find much info on their website. Does it support SIP? XMPP? Does it let you terminate and receive calls? All I have is questions and no answers. Unfortunately, I"m pretty busy today to research, so if you want to check it out feel free and then post a comment. Just figured I"d share the news.

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Tags: IM, instant message, ooVoo, Skype, softphone, video
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An anonymous source, let"s call him/her my "Deep Throat" source emailed me with a couple of interesting links that seem to disprove Verizon"s patent claims. One of the most important things in fighting patent claims is demonstrating "prior art" that existed before a subdequent patent was given to someone else. Deep Throat pointed me to a Google Groups (Usenet) post dated way back in September 22, 1995 containing some interesting mentions of VoIP that predate Verizon"s patent claims. Deep Throat also pointed to an MIT University link which confirms the accuracy of the Telecom Digest article contained on Google Groups. Not that I doubted Google Groups accuracy for date stamps: http://massis.lcs.mit.edu/archives/back.issues/1995.volume.15/vol15.iss351-400

In this post the author, Jack Decker, says:

I would like to offer up a suggestion for a product, or perhaps I should say a technology. This is an idea that I had that is really an extension of existing products, but I want to go on record as proposing this now so that when someone gets the bright idea in a few months or years, I can point to this as "prior art"

The Sept 1995 article goes on to say:

The idea is this: At some point on the Internet you have a server that connects to the telephone network.  It can detect ringing and seize (answer) the line, or it can pick up the line and initiate outdialing. So far all of this can be done using existing products (modems, for example).  But what I would then propose for this new technology is to take the audio from the phone line and convert it into an audio data stream that can be sent to another location on the Internet.  In a similar manner, this product should be able to accept an audio stream from the Internet and send it out to the phone line.

Audio stream over the internet to a phone line? Sounds like Voice over IP to me.

Further, the article states:

The user could then take some action to "answer the phone" by causing the server to take the phone line offhook and start the audio streams flowing, and the computer user would then be able to hold a conversation with the telephone caller.  Or, if the user wished to make an outgoing call, they could enter a number to be called and then take some action (keypress, mouse click, etc.) that would cause information to be transmitted via the Internet that would cause the server to take the line offhook, dial the requested number using touch tones or dial pulses, and then start the audio data streams flowing, permitting the user to converse with a called party.

Now if this isn"t VoIP, I don"t know what is! Just as fascinating and in a Nostradamus moment, the author even coins the term "iPhone" before Linksys/Cisco sued Apple over the term iPhone and even before VocalTec"s Internet Phone which was nicknamed iPhone. This guy"s got prior art for not one but two patents! Though technically iPhone is a trademark not a patent. The section where Jack mentions iPhone is as follows:

In this situation, the telephone line would come into one location that is connected to the Internet, and the user of the line could be almost anywhere else on the Internet.  They"d be able to answer an incoming call, or place an outgoing one, and then talk using an IPhone or similar type interface.

He then tried to protect his ideas when he writes:

The main ideas I want to have on record as "prior art", in case nobody"s tried to patent them yet (I hope), are:

1) The idea of taking a unidirectional or bidirectional digital audio stream from the Internet and converting it to analog and sending it to or from a telephone line,

2) The idea of using client software at a user"s site on the Internet to remotely control another device on the net that can initiate a call or answer a call (this is prior art anyway, as folks have used remote modems on the internet for over a decade, but this may be the first time this has been proposed in connection with a device that would send real-time audio streams to and from the line).

3) The idea of using authentication with such a system, so that whenever a command is sent that would take the phone line off hook, the command string would include a password or other mechanism that would be verified by the server to insure that the user actually has
authority to remotely control the line.

4) And just to cover all the bases, I"ll also suggest that an adapation of this idea would allow someone to call into the Internet using a server, have the call transported some distance over the Internet as digital audio streams, and then sent back out into the public switched telephone system at a distant point. I"m not suggesting this would work well, would be legal, or should be done, but I want to go on record as saying it would be possible with the
right hardware and software.

Note that although I make reference to the Internet at several points above, this technology could work in a similar manner on a private or corporate network.

Not only does he mention the voice over the Internet but he also mentions that this technology could be used in a private/corporate network, i.e. corporate LAN.

I mentioned in a recent post that only Superman could save Vonage now. So Jack Decker, aka Clark Kent, aka Superman, where are you? Where are you Superman! We need you!

Or are you really covert CTI agent Jack Bauer who has really cool wiz-bang mobile phone technology that is light years ahead of today"s mobile phones (See Jack"s Perfect Mobile Phone). You share the same first name (Jack) - it all makes perfect sense now. Sorry if I outed you man. Hope I don"t end up like Scooter Libby. That man got a raw deal.

Well Vonage, hope this info helps in your litigation.

Update: 4/19/07 - 5:17pm :
Ironically, Andy posted a related blog post about 3Com having discussed VoIP in 1996 that could help Voange in it"s legal battles with Verizon. Check it out.

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Tags: Apple, Cisco, iPhone, Linksys, patent, Scooter Libby, Superman, Verizon, Vonage
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On the heels of the Verizon vs. Vonage patent lawsuit, and warning it could file for bankruptcy, Vonage customers today are experiencing outages across the country. This isn"t the first Vonage outage, nor will it be the last - unless of course the court shuts down Vonage permanently. Within the Vonage Dashboard a message states:

Service Announcements

Vonage continues providing you with quality, reliable phone service and world class customer service. For the latest information on the Verizon litigation please check out http://pr.vonage.com/press.cfm

At this time some customers may be experiencing difficulty receiving a dial tone or placing outbound calls. Our engineers are aware of this issue and working to resolve it as quickly as possible. We appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Anyone catch the irony between "continues providing you with quality, reliable phone service and world class customer service" and the fact they are experiencing an outage?

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