Some local boys have put together a wicked-looking battle bot for a formalized competition in Lorain County, Ohio. The Admiral King “Rambots” team hopes to win this battle royale with their metal monster, the price of rustbelt metal fabricating and mechanical angst. Video courtesy of the Chronicle-Telegram.
First off, if you haven’t check out Vlip, the (free) social video service that is so cool it may expand the domain of webcam owners beyond Macintosh users, cybersex addicts, and frustrated Best Buy customers who couldn’t get their cam to work, then you should check it out now! Why? Because it’s Mac-compatible (not just Windows, doy), it’s designed for virtual discourse (not virtual intercourse), and perhaps most importantly–because it works and works wonderfully!
Thanks to Adobe’s recent intrepid addition of audiovisual input to Flash and some equally intrepid 2.0 speculating at Sightspeed (Vlip’s developer), the world now has a really cool all-video community that’s equally fly on Firefox as it is on IE. Vlip doesn’t muck up the flow of discourse with the busy, scatterbrained “similar videos” links and other nonsense that’s common on YouTube. Plus, unlike YouTube, Vlip is all about YOU–as opposed to whichever mildly amazing police crash video or claymation experiment that you can find, process, and upload to grab people’s attention. In fact, Vlip doesn’t even pretend to be YouTube. Think discussion forums or blogging–only video-fied.
I’ll give you an example–in one video, somebody talks about pizza being one of the major “college kid foodgroups”, and a response video is posted by a guy who is just chomping on pizza. Perfect!
I do have a few thoughts on how Vlip could be improved. First, the list of videos on the left should always sort by most recent unless you’re logged into Vlip–then it should sort by however you prefer it to sort. Secondly, though we (ok, I) absolutely adore Nina and her peculiarly infectious brunette smile, we (ok, I) don’t need to see her welcoming me to Vlip with the same explanatory greeting each and every time I navigate to Vlip.com. People will get the idea of what Vlip is all about with Nina having to explain it just because they’ll see the latest posting. Vlip’s proprietors could even pick 5 or 6 videos per day to be on the “home page” if they want to have a little editorial persuasion over the “first impression” of new visitors. But, please, Nina, we (ok, I) love you, but I’ve had enough of that greeting.
So go check out Vlip. Who knows, you might even see dear old Ted on there.
Vonage is in trouble with a capital T. We’ve known this for a while as their stock plummeted, riding the deflating tide of inertia that appeared to be forming behind them. Investors who put up fifteen bucks a share to buy Vonage into the public economy are pissed, and many of Vonage’s customers are pissed. Not surprising, considering they have no real control over quality, and their call center people are ignoramuses as cited many times before.
But I’ve got a ticket out of this mess for Jeffrey and the gang at Vonage.
Six months ago, I would’ve said, “Vonage, NOW is the time to innovate something compelling, something more than pizza box head butts and cute songs. NOW is the time to get ahead of your competitors and create that magic thing that has consumers flocking to you throwing their twenties and fifties at you, kinda like Apple.”
Well, not any more. Innovation, in my humble but informed opinion, can no longer save Vonage. Sure, they have a lot of cash in the bank (half a billion I believe). Sure, they own more VoIP lines than any other provider. Sure, they still have some marketing momentum, maybe. But without innovating a next-gen solution that does something NEW, they’re as good as dead. Things Vonage still doesn’t offer:
- SIP-based find-me-follow-me
- Open SIP access
- Simultaneous ring on multiple endpoints
- Configurable incoming call handling, a la Grand Central
- “Visual voicemail” (a la Grand Central)
- A realistic call-center / hosted PBX solution, a la Packet8
- QoS (not much to be done about that though)
- Installation support
- A significant co-marketing arrangement with somebody in the residential and business access business (Sorry Vonage, the Covad boat sailed away a few years ago…)
And these aren’t even things I would consider innovative. Cue BNL with “It’s all been done before”–because everything on that list, somebody else already has. So when you’re eating Vonage’s $25/month pitch promising “look at all these features”, don’t forget all the stuff you aren’t getting with your meal. No cornbread. No ranch dressing.
So with innovation clearly off the drawing board at Vonage HQ, one must find Little V’s ticket out of this mess in the realm of economics and politicking. Two of my favorite bloggers have two different opinions, but they both involve Vonage getting sold. Andy Abramson suggests that Vonage will sell to an incumbant, possibly Verizon, with a premium possibly sliced off the top due to the pending lawsuit award. Sprint is waiting in the wings with suits no-doubt being prepared as we speak, and if Vonage became Verizon’s property, a Sprint v. Verizon lawsuit would be a lot smaller threat to Vonage’s existing business. Russell Shaw, on the other hand, thinks Vonage should sell its stock back to private investors, for a seriously negative premium. Me, I wouldn’t let Citron anywhere near MY money, and that’s on the basis of Vonage’s performance alone.
Not sure who’s right here, but I can tell you this much. If I owned Vonage stock (which I don’t), I wouldn’t be too happy about sucking up $12 per share (or more) just to see my dotcom 2.0 darling survive and go on to do nothing for me and my portfolio.
So I’m inclined to agree with Andy that Vonage’s ticket out of this mess isn’t innovation or a private buyback, but rather a shameless sell-out. The Bells hold the key to Vonage’s survival.
Via an e-mailed news report from an uncited source:
Judge to Issue Injunction Against Vonage Over Patent Dispute With Verizon
A federal judge today said he would issue a permanent injunction against Vonage Holdings Corp., barring the Internet calling start-up from using patented technology owned by Verizon Communications Inc. The judge delayed signing the order for two weeks during which he will consider Vonage’s request to stay the injunction. A hearing is scheduled for Friday, April 6, to hear arguments on staying the injunction. Vonage shares plunged to a lifetime low of $3, down 26% from the closing price the previous day, in trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Trading in the shares was briefly halted while the company issued a statement regarding the injunction.
This comes via a client of mine who runs several locally-owned FM and AM stations in Cleveland (yes, local radio does still exist if you know where to look). The way most commercial stations are run is using a software-based programming automation system. This system manages the playlists, the DJ booth’s selection of material, as well as tracking what got played and when–songs, programs, and advertisements.
One of the top vendors in this area is a company called Scot Studios–which manufacturers a Windows-based automation system for networks at radio stations. So when I was working at my client today, I was surprised to see a cardboard box with a Google logo sitting on the floor in his server room. I asked him if he’d purchased a Google search appliance, and he informed me that the box had contained a new automation server. Google has acquired Scot Studios, and has gotten into the business of syndicating overflow advertising spots on terrestrial radio. The purpose of the new server was to track which of the overflow ads were played on the local airwaves so that Google can kick back funds to the radio station, a la AdWords/AdSense. Apparently, the revenue is split 50-50 with the local station (quite a premium over what webmasters receive since they deliver ad hits by the click and not by the listen).
I find it interesting that Google is spreading out in so many different directions, and I’m compelled by the notion of their tying all of their advertising options together. It would nice if, one day, while listening to streaming radio, you could have the option of visiting an advertiser’s web site, while the ad was playing, Google style. I would also bet money that the HD “side bands” will begin to proliferate Google-driven advertising, since Google will take a risk on that medium before a traditional, conservative mom and pop advertiser would not.
The Apple reservation system for booking time slots with the Genius Bar now supports booking for the following day instead of just the current day, even if you’re not a Pro Care member. It’s about time.
I am SO glad it’s spring. These two-foot snowfalls and ice cold nights here on the “north coast” are enough to drive even a tough kid from Detroit batty. And with spring comes Spring VON, arguably the biggest IP convergence tradeshow of them all. Even though I’m not there, the Spring VON event has generated some consulting work for me. I’ve been on the phone setting up appointments for people who ARE there. Hey, it’s a living.
But check out some of the news bits pouring from the Pulver event (I’ve hand-picked my favorites):
Grand Central is teaming up with Global Crossing. Microsoft launched a PBX in firmware. Didn’t see that one coming did ya. I remember just 18 months ago (or so) talking to somebody at Microsoft who said QUOTE Microsoft has no interest in the PBX market UNQUOTE. Well, it seems, the passage of time does not occur without some irony. Andy also had a chance to catch up with some people in the newspaper business–this subject is apparently near and dear to His Andyness, as it is with me. Indeed, my biggest client is a newspaper. Another of my clients, who was also at VON this time around, remarked that he thought the show was small and undertrafficked. It’s no Comdex, of course, but I recall Fall VON being quite a hefty thing indeed. Of course, I’ve never been to a Comdex. Do they even still have Comdex? This sentiment seems to be echoed by Iotum’s Tom Howe, who thinks ETel is perhaps now a more pervasive event than Spring VON.
The City of Emeryville, CA has selected Spark Parking, the innovative company that’s using Asterisk and other software to create automated public parking solutions, to track parking utilization and length of stay in a rapidly growing mixed-use neighborhood. Better parking data will enable Emeryville officials to understand the impact of new housing and retail development in the area, supporting recommendations from a parking management plan process expected to begin shortly. Check out Spark Parking here.