Monthly Archives: September 2006

Realtime: More than Just VoIP

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Many of you know Ken Camp, the man behind IP Telephony Demystified (a book which I leaned on as a reference while developing Switching to VoIP) and the personality behind IP Adventures, coiner of the phrase “Digital Common Sense”, and coordinator of the Realtime VoIP Community. This community is growing, and changing its name, to reflect a focus on the broader subject of unified communications. The name of the new community and blog is Realtime Unified Communications. Not quite the same ring as Realtime VoIP, but I think the change in direction is important.

It signals a change in how the thought leadership is changing in our industry. VoIP is a means to an end, a specific way of applying toolsets to facilitate voice communications over IP, and a way of IP-enabling telecommunications. But the revolution that’s occuring presently in the IP communications world breaks the boundaries of VoIP, and people who previously considered themselves “VoIP people”, like myself, are now looking to other forms of IP-enabled media, to other meanings of “convergence” besides voice and data.

Pulver’s increasing and very vocal interest in video is another signal of this expansion in thought leadership. YouTube is proving something: Our industry, our great drive to IP convergence is connecting people in forms which are well beyond the traditional enterprise telephony and systems management disciplines the majority of us hailed from originally. Today, our best and brightest–Alec Saunders, Martin Geddes, Tom Evslin, Bruce Stewart, Andy Abramson, Tom Keating, and others–are shining the light on how humanity is achieving a form of social convergence that is enabled by the invisible network that exists between us. And this is a network that has so much more at work than Voice over IP.

VoIP is just one piece of the converged communications puzzle. Realtime data-networking, wireless convergence, IP-enablement, and increasingly human-friendly media delivery are all playing important parts. But each is a merely an ingredient in the recipe for greater human connectedness, the farther and farther geographical reach of human ideas, faster and stronger social impact for anybody at all who has something to say, and the very democratization of human interaction itself.

Skype OK in San Jose

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I actually got a PR contact from Skype’s agency saying something to the effect of “San Jose State U and Skype have arrived at a solution allowing Skype to be used within the university.”

A. What’s the solution?

B. Being anti-Skype from a security standpoint, is hardly “luddite”.

C. Why is Skype gripping the PR angle of this so hard?

Phoneboy just says what everybody else is thinking

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You want to know why haven’t had much to say about Jajah and Rebtel? Because I’ve been thinking pretty much the same thing Phoneboy has about these two services, which purport to allow cell phone users to circumvent minutely charges by routing calls through (in the case of Jajah) another independent carrier, as long as the call recipient is also a member of that independent carrier, and as long as there is adequate data service on the phone, and as long as the phone is one of about a half-dozen the carrier supports.

Oof. With the cost of minutely telephony, and especially long-distance call switching, rapidly declining toward zero, one wonders if the same thing will happen with cell minutes. I hope so!  But doesn’t that put a dent in these guy’s business plan? Time will tell.

And keep in mind, this isn’t Jajah’s first stab at identifying a business model around telephony. Remember when Jajah used to be a soft-phone call-switching service like Gizmo Project, as recently as July of 2005? I mean, I can’t fault the guys for trying to “get it right” even if it means scrapping their original plan. But, like Dameon says, the case for Jajah is really razor thin, and their proprietors are making a mighty bet that cell minute rates will remain high (I actually see them dropping as competing offerings enter the market via campus-area solutions and fixed mobile becomes more popular), and that cell-phone data services will become so cost effective that the masses will flock to them (another bet which I think is poor, considering EVDO still costs 80 bucks a month while WiFi is available just about everywhere for free).

Amiga: 19 years ahead of its time

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Can you believe it’s been nearly 19 years since the world’s first preemptive multitasking microcomputer was first marketed by Commodore? The custom chipset on the Amiga had RAM that was permanently married to the graphics microprocessor chipset, which includes the “Agnus” as shown above. This RAM was shared by both the graphics set and the system processor, which in those days was a Motorola 68000 16-bit monster running at a whopping 7 MHz. That’s why they called it “chip RAM”. Now here in 2006, it appears Intel is following suit, with their introduction of memory onboard the system processor. Dear old Amiga had memory on the graphics processor–which was priveliged memory with accelerated bandwidth. Some old ideas are still good, 19 years later. Check it out.

Random Cynical Treatise: MySpace Zune Rumors

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? = some myspace poster
> = me
? might have a 400MHz DSP processor
> It makes sense for Microsoft to use a cheap embedded processor ala the PocketPCs of four years ago. The color iPods run on something similar, don’t they?

? might have Xbox Live Anywhere integration.
> Yikes, can somebody tell me what this means?  Why does the Microsoft have to come up with these absurdly nondescriptive and lengthy names for things like “Xbox Live Anywhere”…. OK, I know what XBox live means. Does this mean I can tap into XBox live game locator service from the Zune? Again, no thanks. Why is the iPod so well-received? Precisely because it DOESN’T TRY to have any of this crap.

? Microsoft will try to buy your way out of iTunes
> Big surprise there. I think Microsoft will have to give Zunes away for free before people stop using iTunes.

? might be like a…”A Microsoft portable gaming system”
> Let us hope not. The form factor of the Zune isn’t conducive to gaming, and the market is already crowded with two excellent handhelds that are two years ahead of the Microsoft on portable gaming.

? run a program called “Windows Mobile” <
> Am I the only one glad the iPod doesn’t run something called “Mac OS X Mobile”?

? has the ability to download movies
> This is good, if the said downloading occurs via WiFi. And certainly something Apple could learn from. WiFi syncing would be good enough. End-to-end downloading, the icing on the cake.

? be able to Wireless connect to the Xbox for exporting music.
> Again, this is good. What would be even better is if I could Bluetooth this puppy to my Macbook and sync music. Something tells me it ain’t gonna happen.

? have reduced battery life (6 hours max, and a little less than a hour when WiFi is turned on)
> Makes sense. On a device like this, the WiFi should know when to turn itself on and off, though.

? User-Customizable Wallpaper skins
> Yawn.

? probably feature a accessory such as a mini keyboard
> ROFL. You know you’re a true nerd’s nerd when your pocket electronics have detachable mini keyboards.

? be used Vertically, except for widescreen movies.
> Makes sense. Windows Mobile does flip back and forth.

? allows you to stream music to up to 4 other Zune devices.
> Useless. Sorry, but the only device I care about sending music to is my stereo receiver. Otherwise, I’ll just listen on my iPod or my Macbook.

? MIGHT (slim chance) have XM or Sirius satellite services built in.
> Wouldn’t surprise me. Of course, satellite radio is going to tank in the next few years, and I don’t think Zune is going to save it.

? might have VoIP capabilities
> Me thinks not.

? might be available in 2 additional colors at launch
> OK, this is a cool idea.

? might feature anti-shock hard drives and software
> Also a good idea, but nothing new.

? release date might be as early as October
> OK.

? Microsoft to ship 3,000,000 units in 2006
> To where?

? Future Zune products may compete with Shuffle, Gameboy, PSP and tablet PC’s
> This does sound like Microsoft, always building platforms when singular solutions will suffice.

Confirmed Specs & Features

? Li-Ion battery
> I should hope so. They weren’t going to ship it with AAs were they?

? Preloaded audio and video content
> Yawn. Kind of the the *ugh* U2 iPod, overpriced and overstocked. No thanks.

? Toshiba will manufacture first gen Zune hardware
> OK. Man, and I was hoping Tandy Corp. would return to manufacturing for this occasion.

? Zune will be launched in ’06, most likely Nov. 14
> The only electronic goodies I’m buying in November will be PS3 in nature.

? WiFi (802.11 b/g) connectivity
> Hmm. Notice how Apple’s iTV recently added 802.11n?  Methinks the game is afoot.

? 30 Giga-Byte Hard Drive
> Not enough.

? available in 3 different colors, black, brown (chocolate), and white
> Brown?

? magnetic headphones.
> Does this mean they stick to your head or to each other? Or just roll up magetically?

? LCD high resolution screen, the screen is 3.75 inches diagonal
> Yawn. Watching movies on a handheld just sounds like torture to me.

? built-in FM radio tuner
> Smart. Apple, are you paying attention here? Let me RECORD the FM programming, too.  Don’t ask why, just empower me to do it, OK? You don’t need to know why.

? TV output connectivity
> Maybe useful for powerpoint or something. Otherwise for toting movies around? How many DVD quality movies am I going to tote on my Zune? Not too many.  Still not sure why the TV output is considered a “feature”.

? dedicated song download site
> You don’t say. Now, will Microsoft practice what they preach and support the iPod? Kthxbye

? DJ Mode (broadcast what you are listening to)
> Yawn.

? wheel is NOT a wheel it is simply 4 button (up, down, left right)
> Exactly. Otherwise, Apple would be suing them for patent infringement.

? Zune brand will eventually include multiple entertainment devices
>