VoIP – Page 6 – Digital-Lifestyles

Skype Beta 3.0 Gives Web Click-to-Call And Hits 8m Users

Skype Beta 3.0 Gives Web Click-to-Call Skype has made public its Beta 3.0 version of it super-popular VoIP software for Windows. It’s been sitting with NDA’s beta testers for just over a week now. Skype has also hit 8 million simultaneous users online today.

There’s a few changes, but we’re not sure that there’s been enough to justify a whole version number upgrade.

One of the most interesting additions is the ability to click-to-call any landline phone number that you see on the Web (once a small browser plug-in ins installed), by placing a call through your SkypeOut account.

Henry Gomez, Chief Marketing Officer & Director of Worldwide Operations, Skype, gave an example of how it might be used, “imagine you’re searching online for a good place to eat and you find a restaurant and want to make a reservation. All you need to do is click on the number and you can make a direct call using SkypeOut.”

As ever with each Skype release, there’ been more adjustments made to the software interface. Amoung other changes is another main tab, called “Live,” which gives quick access to the Skypecast feature – giving real-time chats (IM and VoIP) to up to 100 people) – which has been around for quite a few releases.

By including the Live tab so prominently, Skype are attempting to make people become more dependent on Skype, beyond using it for ‘just’ communications, they’re hoping people will use it for ‘entertainment.’

Skype Beta 3.0

Camrivox First To Support Google Talk In VoIP Hardware

Camrivox First To Support Google Talk In VoIP Hardware Camrivox are claiming to be the first company to integrate Google’s Gtalk into hardware-based VoIP products, making them the first device that supports Google Talk without a PC.

The equipment lets you setup to work with both a SIP account, as you’d expect, and a GTalk account at the same time. These features are across the whole range of Terminal Adaptors as well as their new handset, the Flexor 500 IP phone.

Commenting on the difference between Skype and GTalk, he points out that GTalk publish their information, a world away from the closed approach of Skype.

The big advantage of the Camrivox approach is to make their kit zero-configuration at the users end. The whole thing can be setup and changed simply by the operator or can be carried out by Camrivox on their behalf.

They have two TA’s, the 151 (pictured) which has support for both phone line (PSTN) and Ethernet (VoIP), letting the user chose between the ‘traditional’ phone line and VoIP. The 201 only supports VoIP.

Camrivox First To Support Google Talk In VoIP Hardware Analysis
The GTalk inclusion is an interesting move for Camrivox. The world of VoIP is becoming increasingly crowded, so having your company’s voice heard (no pun intended), is also difficult. By implementing the GTalk support Camrivox is clearly hoping to hitch a ride on the Google coat tails and with the good looking kit that they have, it’s likely to catch peoples eyes.

GTalk hasn’t really set the VoIP world alight, with the clear current winner being Skype. That’s not to say that GTalk isn’t important, or that it won’t achieve a more significant position. The biggest winner GTalk has got is its integration into other Google products, such as its inclusion in GMail. Also as more people sign up for Google services they’ll automatically be signed up for GTalk.

Camrivox appear keen on integration with other products too, given they have just announced a deal with SalesForce.com. The integration will bring up callers information up when a VoIP call comes in via their kit.

Camrivox

Palm Treo 680 Affordable Smartphones Announced

Palm Treo 680 Affordable Smartphones Announced Palm has introduced a new range of quad-band Palm Treo 680 smartphones, running the tried and trusted Palm OS.

Backed by a $25 million marketing campaign – their biggest marketing campaign in half a decade – Palm is hoping that the lower priced Treos will attract customers beyond their traditional business base.

The GSM/GPRS/EDGE phones will be offered in a range of attractive colours (Graphite, Copper, Crimson and Arctic), weighing 23g lighter than the last PalmOS Treo, the 700p, and measuring up at 6mm longer and 3mm thinner.

Like the Windows-powered Treo 750w released earlier this year, the Treo 680 comes without the pocket-bulging, iconic chunky antennae, something which Palm thinks will have a positive impact on the European market.

Palm Treo 680 Affordable Smartphones Announced The Treo comes with a large and bright 320×320 screen and the well regarded full QWERTY keyboard, with a raft of multimedia functions including an integrated digital camera, Bluetooth 1.2 , MP3 player, video recorder and player.

Onboard, there’s 64MB of user-available storage – nearly three times the capacity of the original Treo 650 smartphone – with expansion card support up to 2GB.

Although the Treo 680 is still lagging behind with the latest technology – there’s still no W-CDMA or Wi-Fi support – its superb user-friendly interface still puts it streets ahead of some higher spec’d phones.

Software
Like its Palm OS predecessors, the 680 displays text-messaging conversations as IM-like “threaded chats,” a fabulous feature that should be introduced by law on all phones.

The phone also lets users respond to calls by firing off a preset text message (“bog off weird stalker person”), and there’s support for three-way calling.

Palm Treo 680 Affordable Smartphones Announced Along with the usual bundled applications for e-mail, Web browsing, messaging, multimedia, calendar and contacts, there’s a special version of Google Map for the Treo.

Billed by Google as,”the fastest, slickest version yet,” the application offers real-time traffic reports, detailed directions, integrated search results (search for cafes/bars etc, get addresses and call them with one click), satellite imagery and fast-downloading detailed, draggable maps with translucent pop-up balloons.

Sadly, us in Britland will have to wait for a while as the program currently only offers maps for Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the US.

Palm Treo 680 Affordable Smartphones Announced Palm has also announced that it will be partnering with several media companies, including Yahoo, Google and blogging firm Six Apart, to make their products available on the new device – these will join the enormous back catalogue of commercial and free software that’s already available for the OS.

Availability
Palm head honcho Ed Colligan said he expects the new smartphone to be available around the world by the end of June, 2007, “competitively priced with comparable smartphones in the marketplace,” with the price rumoured to be around the $200 mark.

Palm 680

Vonage V-phone Gets To The UK

Vonage V-phone Gets To The UK Vonage have launched a new means of making VoIP calls on you PC – a USB stick with headphone socket.

The invite to Vonage’s event to launch the V-phone billed it as ‘The World’s smallest phone.” Whether you feel that is a marketing spin or correct is personal interpretation.

It’s not a phone in old understanding of it … but frankly, what is? The USB stick has Vonage Talk software pre-loaded on it, with a detachable stereo earpiece/microphone and you’ll be left with 250Mb of usable memory. You also get a new Vonage phone number. All for £20.

With it, you can use any PC as a way to send and receive phone calls on a Vonage – even PCs without the Vonage software installed. To use it, just plug the neat USB stick in with the the headphone, the software temporarily runs and you’re ready to go. When you’ve finished chatting, simply software-eject the USB stick and remove it. There’s nothing left on the machine.

Skype has done a similar thing through a deal with SanDisk to have their software on their Cruizer USB stick. We’ve used it and found it pretty impressive. The only thing missing is the headphone socket.

We think this kind of approach – temporary software – will become more common as computing become ubiquitous and more a utility than rarity.

Vonage V-Phone

D-Link Announces Unlocked V-CLICK Dual-Mode GSM/Wi-Fi Mobile

D-Link Announces Unlocked V-CLICK Dual-Mode GSM/Wi-Fi Mobile Router heavyweights D-Link have announced a new line of “V-CLICK” dual-mode phones that allow users to easily switch between cellular and Wi-Fi networks.

Due to start shipping early next year, the new D-Link V-CLICK phones rack up the connectivity options with tri-band GSM (900/1800/1900 Mhz) and switchable 802.11 Wi-Fi (2.4Ghz) capabilities.

Once the user’s SIM Smartcard is slapped into the V-CLICK phone, GSM access is provided with stored phone numbers and address books automatically imported into the phone.

The phone’s quite an attractive looking affair, resplendent in an all-black, compact-but-chunky shape (h 4.17″, w 1.73″, d .75″), with D-Link offering additional colours planned to fit any lifestyle (we’re not sure how a phone’s colour fits in with someone’s lifestyle, by the way, but there you go.)

Wi-Fi access is turned on and off with a bash on the phone’s V-CLICK button, with Opera Mobile browser support for surfing Websites and checking mail on the phone’s two-inch (176×220 pixels) screen.

D-Link Announces Unlocked V-CLICK Dual-Mode GSM/Wi-Fi Mobile D-Link doesn’t say if the phone will work with existing VoIP providers like Skype – their press statement simply says that users will be able to configure a specific SIP profile, with multiple profiles being available “to make usage between home and office automatic.”

“D-Link’s involvement in dual-mode technology is the next step to evolving wireless phone communication,” purred Steven Joe, president and CEO of D-Link Systems, Inc. “Similar to our popular flip-style Wi-Fi phone, the V-CLICK phones are open and unlocked.

“The market for dual-mode phones looks very promising, and the more than 10 years we’ve had in researching and developing 802.11 wireless and VoIP technologies make this a natural extension of our product offerings,” he added.

D-Link quote a phone battery life of around 5 hours of talk time with GSM, slipping down to just 2 hours over Wi-Fi. Users can turn off the Wi-Fi to save juice

The phone should be knocking out around a very pricey $599.99 (£318,€472) and will be available from the D-Link shop some time in the first quarter of 2007.

Coms F1000/F3000: WiFi VoIP Handsets

Coms F1000/F3000: WiFi VoIP Handsets UK VoIP company, Coms, has just launched two WiFi VoIP handsets in advance of their service which is going live on 9 October.

Coms claim their service will be the first in the UK that let people choose their own phone number from 178 UK geographic area codes.

Don’t forget, all you need to use these handsets is a WiFi connection, either yours, or any open connection. We think these services will be big and eventually seriously dent the income of mobile phone companies, especially roaming minutes when people are abroad.

We’ve had our hands on a few VoIP WiFi phones of late or VoWiFi as we’re referring to them, and have generally found them pretty easy to use – despite them clearly being at the early stage of their development.

Coms F1000/F3000: WiFi VoIP Handsets While we’ve not had our hands on these particular handsets (yet – watch this space), we seen shots of them and had sight of the specs. Both work on 802.11b & g and use SIP which will allow them to work with most IP-PBX kit.

The F1000 is much like other VoWiFi handsets that we’ve seen and a little reminiscent of early-ish mobile phone handsets. Couple of stats on it. Talk time, up to 4 hours, with a 2-3 hours charge time and a standby of 80-100 hours. It’s 11 x 4.5 x 2.2 cm and weighs in at 111g. The cost? RRP £128 ($239, €189).

The upscale F3000 is a first to us, a VoWiFi handset that is a flip phone. Stats: Talk time, up to 3 hours, with a 2.5 hours charge time and a standby of up to 75 hours. Size: 85 x 43 x 22 mm and weight of 90g. RRP £175 ($326, €258).

Differences between the F1000 and F3000 include the F3000 have a 65k colour 1.8″ screen, polyphonic ringtones.

Shared features are

Roaming between Wi-Fi access points
Up to four stored SSIDs with individual security settings
Up to four hours talk time, up to 100-hours standby time
Call hold, call waiting, call transfer, call conferencing
Call logs – made, answered, missed calls
Caller ID
Personal address book with auto dial
Built in Web server for administration
Automated provisioning – up to 256 byte encryption
TFTP
HTTP

Tune in later for reviews of the handsets and the service.

Coms

Orange Unique/Unik Offers Converged VoIP/Mobile Telephony

Orange Unique Offers Converged VoIP/Mobile Telephony Orange has launched, nay unleashed, the Unique phone, its first converged service using a single handset that connects via WLAN in the home and then switches to the regular mobile network when the user goes walkabout.

Initially rolling out in the UK and selected European countries, the phone promises unlimited free VoIP calls from home to other Orange mobiles and landlines.

Calls can be seamlessly switched between the Orange mobile network and VoIP, with screen icons keeping customers constantly informed of the network connection.

Interestingly, calls started from home remain free, even when the user has wandered out of their front door and out of range of their Wi-Fi network, causing the phone to switch to the mobile network.

To use the service, customers must get an Orange Livebox which lets users connect to the Orange network via Wi-Fi.

Households can have up to six Unique phones, although there is a limitation on their use, with only three users allowed to use the Internet or make calls at any time.

Orange Unique Offers Converged VoIP/Mobile Telephony So far, only the Motorola A910, the Nokia 6136 and the Samsung P200 can be used with the service, but more phones will be launched in 2007.

Two price plans are currently on offer; the Canary 50 (offering 600 minutes per month) and the Panther 65 (1,200 mins), priced at £50 and £65 respectively.

A broadband connection is bundled in free with the convergence-tastic deal, with the setup offering clear benefits to users, who’ll now only need one phone, one number, one address book, and one bill from Orange.

The service will be available from November, although punters keen to be hip with the convergence crew can pre-register their interest here: www.orange.co.uk/uniquephone

ChanSkype: Skype And Asterisk Talk To Each Other

Asterisk And Skype Talk To Each Other A Brazilian company has forged a software bridge between Asterisk and Skype.

Asterisk is an open source VoIP PBX that runs on Linux and other platforms which handles VoIP to VoIP calling as well as calls to landlines. Developed by Mark Spencer it has taken the community by storm, sprouting many tens of thousands of installations world-wide, with a thriving development community.

It can work with traditional telephony systems or POTS (plain old telephone system), with digital systems (ISDN etc) and modern VoIP protocols such as H.323, SIP, MGCP and more.

Digium (set-up by Spencer) now manufactures hardware and offers a commercially supported version of Asterisk known as ABE (Asterisk Binary Edition).

One feature that has been missing is Skype integration (the next version of Asterisk v1.4 supports GoogleTalk using Google’s libjingle library). A Brazilian company has now changed that, with their ChanSkype site.

ChanSkype
Currently the service is in test and you have to utilise ChanSkype’s own Asterisk servers. They offer a “free” trial whereby they allow a SIP connection and then by passing in a Skype address it sets-up a connection to the Skype user.

In the future they will be offering an actual chan_skype that plugs directly into any Asterisk server and can connect to the Skype network.

Of course it’s not quite so simple. The initial release only runs on RedHat’s Fedora Core or CentOS (which means it will probably also run on RedHat Enterprise Server too as CentOS is a clone of that). There must also be an X server running as well as the Skype for Linux client. So ChanSkype just bridges the two systems together.

A dual Xeon 3Ghz with 2 gigs of memory should run 30 simultaneous Skype calls without any noticable degradation of performance.

Pricing has not yet been set, but it will be licensed on a per-channel basis.

There may be licensing problems too as Asterisk modules should normally be available under a GPL license and with source code, but as Skype is proprietry they may get away with it.

Someone really needs to reverse engineer the Skype protocol and then a native chan_skype could be developed, but this is unlikely to happen in the western world as that could be illegal.

It’s a good idea, but really just a straight link into the Skype software which unfortunately is the only way it can be done.

ChanSkype

CSR Does Voice over WiFi Chipset: £11

CSR does Voice over WiFi CSR, a chipset design lab in Cambridge that specialises in radio, has released a voice over WiFi design (UniVox) which a bill of materials of around £11.00.

The reference design utilises CSR’s UniFi-1 Portable chip which supports 802.11b and g, while also supporting various security protocols such as 802.11i, WEP, WPA and WPA2. The design also incorporates CSR’s MAP (Multimedia Applications Processor) which is a RISC CPU which has DSP (digital signal processing) capability that allows it to support QoS (quality of service), various codecs, echo suppressions and intelligent power management.

A system built using the platform and a standard 1500mAh battery should support talk times of 8 hours and 250 hours standby time. Using WMM-PS (which requires an access point that also supports WMM-PS) talk time is extended to 40 hours and standby to 400 hours.

CSR does Voice over WiFi Both SIP (version 2) and IAX2 (Inter Asterisk Protocol v2) are supported. IAX is useful in NAT environments as it can traverse NAT without any special software, while SIP can be a complete headache.

If the chip is adopted, a multitude of new, very affordable handsets could soon hit the market further increasing the penetration of VoIP.

CSR

Skype Hits The Pleasure And Pain Of The Mainstream

Skype Hits The Pleasure And Pain Of The Mainstream: IFA The news that OFCOM is to review its position on Voice Over IP services (VOIP) – the way we can make low cost or free phone and video calls currently from our PC’s generally using call centre-type headsets – is part of the evolution of these types of service from guerrilla geek to middle class mainstream. Now that Tesco’s are marketing VOIP services it’s fair to say that it’s a ‘regular’ service/product.

VOIP service providers are predictably angry over OFCOM’s meddlesome intervention and have asked why such a code of practice is needed. OFCOM will try and tread a fine line between existing heavily regulated voice service providers and the new upstarts who hitch a cheap ride on the existing infrastructure.

Along with the news that VOIP is likely to face some of the requirements that traditional telcos have to deliver on, comes the announcement that Philips Electronics are bringing to market, for year end, a cordless DECT phone. If anyone asks you, DECT is the rather nifty acronym around Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications.

News of the new DECT handset, the Philips Voip841 broke at a recent consumer electronics show in Berlin. The phone will allow callers to use Skype’s service without being connected to a PC and is likely to hit both landline and mobile companies. The Phone will access your regular home line and broadband and allow you to call other Skype account holders for the grand sum of nothing.

Prices for the new device are not yet released, but industry observers are talking of a figure around a £100 to make this potentially cost saving purchase.