Wednesday, November 24, 2010

VoIP Basics

Making long distance phone calls usually means that you have to connect to a long distance carrier through your phone company, and pay often steep per-minute charges and fees just to call a friend or loved one. Often, the cost of the phone call depends on the day and time of the day that you are making it, as well as the location you are calling to. The minutes you talk add up quickly, and the monthly long distance bill can be a shock to your system and your bank account. Fortunately, there is an exciting technology that is gives you the option of saying goodbye to traditional long distance for good. It is VOIP is or Voice Over Internet Protocol, and it's in the process of changing the face of long-distance telephone systems forever.

VOIP works by taking analog audio systems and converting them into digital data, which can be sent over the Internet. This means that your kitchen telephone could possibly become obsolete. It will not be the only place to call friends and family that live far away. VOIP can make your Internet connection, and your home computer, the place that you make your long-distance phone calls - free of charge. Because you use VOIP devices and software that are widely available, the phone company is not involved. No phone company means that there are no hefty long-distance charges for you to pay. VOIP is a convenient and affordable way to keep in touch with those who live far away from you.

There are several types of VOIP devices available that can be used to place calls from your home computer. They are relatively simple to use, and often cost very little, if anything at all, to implement. They are all commonly in use, and each provides a slightly different take on this exciting technology. The most common device used in VOIP service currently is the ATA, or Analog Telephone Adapter. This VOIP device allows you to hook your typical telephone up to your home computer Internet connection. This device converts the analog audio signal from the phone and makes it possible to use over the Internet by converting it to transmittable digital data. The ATA is simple for anyone to use. Just plug the cord from your home phone that would usually go into the wall jack into the ATA, and it is set up for you to call anyone anywhere in the world.

Another type of VOIP device is the IP, or Internet Protocol, phone. An IP phone looks like a regular home telephone, complete with a handset and buttons for dialing. But, rather than having standard phone connectors (RJ-11), an IP phone is equipped with an Ethernet connection (RJ-45). This VOIP device connects to your computer's router, and allows you to make phone calls directly from your home computer, dialing it just like a typical home telephone.

Yet another type of VOIP device is known as computer-to-computer. With this method, long-distance phone calls are made free of charge. All you pay is the monthly ISP fee you are already paying. Many companies offer free or low-price software that you install on your computer. If your computer is equipped with a microphone, PC speakers, and a sound card in addition to your Internet connection, then you will quickly be set up to talk to anyone in the world using VOIP. This is an extremely easy and affordable type of VOIP device that allows you to keep in touch with those far away from you.

As you can see, not only will VOIP change the way you make phone calls forever, but it will save you money as well. Utilizing equipment that the vast majority of us already have in our homes today, VOIP technology provides consumers with easy and affordable options in long distance phone service. With the exception of your current ISP's monthly charges, there is little to no expense at all. And since there are several options of VOIP devices from which you can choose, there is no reason not to consider VOIP as your primary means of making long distance phone calls to far away friends and family.

VoIP: Voice over internet protocol

Voice over internet protocol or VoIP is beginning to come into it's own. The promise of cost savings over traditional phone lines is driving this technology into the mainstream. Leveraging your existing broadband connection to save on your monthly phone expense at first glance makes sense. Let's take a closer look.

First off, can your existing broadband throughput handle the additional strain of digital voice transfer? You can use your favorite search engine (google, bing, yahoo, etc.) and search for "VoIP broadband test" to get a general idea of the speed of your connection. This is only the first consideration.

How is your existing broadband access coming into your home? If you're using DSL then using VoIP for your primary phone line may not be an option. DSL availability without existing phone service is not generally available. You should check with your local phone company before canceling service. You just might end up with no phone service, VoIP or traditional. Check first.

If you're using cable internet access and your connection speed test looks good, find a VoIP provider that allows for a trial period. You may find a good provider that offers up to 30 days for you to cancel if you are not satisfied with voice quality or service.

A VoIP converter and a router will be required to setup your VoIP service. Your modem would plug into your router. Next your converter plugs into your router and your phone base plugs into your converter. Most normal phones should work fine. There isn't any special phone required to use this type of service. The entire process is pretty painless, but if you should run into any issue, your provider should be ready to help.

If you're looking to leverage your existing broadband internet access to save money on your monthly phone expense, VoIP can be a great option. Just remember to check your connection, check with your local phone provider (for DSL users) and find a provider that offers a money back trial period. This can be a great way to save money, but don't be pressured before you know the facts. Even if it doesn't work out for you now, keep your eye on this technology.

The FCC is already involved in the apparent conflict between VoIP service providers and DSL access. E911 service (Enhanced 911 service) is already being mandated and additional steps will be made to bring this technology further into the mainstream. Make no mistake about this technology. It has arrived and is here to stay.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Virtual PBX Names New Officials

Virtual PBX, hosted PBX solutions provider recently announced that it has two new officials taking posts within its ranks. Lon Baker and Vincent Escamilla have stepped up to the respective roles of vice president of product development and director of operations.

Escamilla will have several new responsibilities in his role as director of operations – he will focus on network operations, network resource and IT management and carrier and vendor relations. Paul Hammond, chief executive officer of Virtual PBX said in a statement:

"Both Lon and Vincent have the technology experience along with the verve to help Virtual PBX continue pioneering into new markets."

"Their contributions allow us to further our development within the hosted PBX and VoIP markets, and each has proven to be invaluable to our future success," Hammond added.

Baker was in the position of director of product management, overseeing the company's entry into the VoIP market. Prior to Virtual PBX, he was an entrepreneur and founded MailTank.com, an e-mail management service.

At MailTank.com, Baker was a Virtual PBX customer for nearly 10 years. In his new role as vice president of product management, Baker will be responsible for the day-to-day development of products and services and will help to architect all of the company's new product offerings.

Escamilla has been with Virtual PBX for over six years and previously held the position of technical support manager, primarily working with new customers. Prior to Virtual PBX, Escamilla worked as a customer support consultant at Knight Ridder Digital and as a Web QA analyst at HorseCentral, LCC.

Here’s Virtual PBX Press Release:

Virtual PBX Names Lon Baker Vice President of Product Development and Vincent Escamilla Director of Operations

( www.virtualpbx.com/index.asp ), the inventor and leading supplier of hosted business phone services, today announced the promotions of Lon Baker and Vincent Escamilla. Baker will serve as the company's vice president of product development and Escamilla will hold the position of director of operations.

"Both Lon and Vincent have the technology experience along with the verve to help Virtual PBX continue pioneering into new markets," said Paul Hammond, CEO of Virtual PBX. "Their contributions allow us to further our development within the hosted PBX and VoIP markets, and each has proven to be invaluable to our future success."

For the past year, Baker held the position of director of product management, overseeing the company's entry into the VoIP market. Prior to Virtual PBX, he was an entrepreneur and founded MailTank.com, an e-mail management service. At MailTank.com, Baker was a Virtual PBX customer for nearly 10 years. In his new role as vice president of product management, Baker will be responsible for the day-to-day development of products and services and will help to architect all of the company's new product offerings.

Escamilla has been with Virtual PBX for over six years and previously held the position of technical support manager, primarily working with new customers. Prior to Virtual PBX, Escamilla worked as a customer support consultant at Knight Ridder Digital and as a Web QA analyst at HorseCentral, LCC. In his new role as director of operations, Escamilla will focus on network operations, including management of IT and network resources, and he will manage all vendor and carrier relations.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Woman illegally fired over Facebook Post

A Connecticut woman was illegally fired over her Facebook post disparaging remarks about her boss. A case was filed by federal authorities saying her comments are protected speech under labor laws. The Connecticut woman’s case is a first-of-its-kind legal case according to reports.

The National Labor Relations Board alleges that American Medical Response of Connecticut Inc. illegally fired Dawnmarie Souza from her job as an emergency medical technician late last year after she criticized her supervisor on her personal Facebook page and then traded Facebook messages about the negative comments with other employees.

The complaint, filed Oct. 27 by the board's Hartford, Conn., regional office, could set a precedent for employers to heed as more workers use social networking sites to share details about their jobs. Lafe Solomon, the board's acting general counsel said:

"It's the same as talking at the water cooler. The point is that employees have protection under the law to talk to each other about conditions at work."

Federal labor law has long protected employees against reprisal for talking to co-workers on their own time about their jobs and working conditions, including remarks that may be critical of managers. The law applies whether or not workers are covered by a union.

NLRB officials claim the Connecticut ambulance company has an unlawful policy that prohibits employees from making disparaging remarks about supervisors and depicting the company "in any way" over the Internet without permission.
"This is the first complaint we've issued over comments on Facebook, but I have no doubt that we'll be seeing more," Solomon said. "We have to develop policies as we go in this fast-changing environment."

The trouble for Souza started when her supervisor asked her to prepare an investigative report when a customer complained about her work, according to the complaint. Souza claimed she was denied representation by her union, the Teamsters Local 443.

Later that day, Souza logged onto her Facebook page from a home computer and wrote:

"Looks like I'm getting some time off. Love how the company allows a 17 to be a supervisor."

A 17 is the code the company uses for a psychiatric patient. Souza also referred to her supervisor with two expletives. Her remarks drew supportive Facebook postings from other colleagues.

John Barr, an attorney representing the company, said the real reason Souza was fired was because of two separate complaints about her "rude and discourteous service" within a 10-day period. He said Souza would have been fired whether the Facebook comments were made or not.

Barr said the company understands that workers have right to talk about wages and working conditions. But he said it stands by its policy against employees discussing the company on the Internet, including social media sites.

"If you're going to make disgusting, slanderous statements about co-workers, that is something that our policy does not allow," Barr said.

Jonathan Kreisberg, director of the board's regional office in Hartford, said the company's policy is overly broad. He acknowledged that the law protecting worker speech has some limits, such as not allowing employees to disrupt the workplace or engage in threatening conduct. But Kreisberg argued that Souza's Facebook comments did not cross a legal line.

"Here she was on her own time, on her own computer and on her own Facebook page making these comments," Kreisberg said. "If employees are upset about their supervisor and get together on their own time talk about him, criticize and call him names, they can do that."

A hearing on the case before an administrative law judge is set for Jan. 25.

Monday, November 8, 2010

Google Redraws Nicaraguan Border After Dispute Arises

Google Maps has retraced the border between two Central American countries after a territory dispute developed. Google on Friday night said it had updated the digital border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica with new data from the U.S. State Department. This follows a dispute that developed between those two countries over a piece of land near the San Juan River, on the Caribbean Coast.

A Nicaraguan official cited the Google Maps version of the border as justification for a reported raid of the area, according to local news. Google said in a statement issued on its Lat Long Blog, which covers mapping technology:

"It is our goal to provide the most accurate, up-to-date maps possible. Maps are created using a variety of data sources, and there are inevitably going to be errors in that data."

"We work hard to correct any errors as soon as we discover them."

Google says the U.S. State Department provided the faulty data. The tech company updated the map by requesting that the federal department update its information to reflect agreed-upon treaties.

The Google blog says:

"Once our updates go live in Google Earth and Maps we will be depicting the border according to the most recent and definitive records available."

"But as we know, cartography is a complex undertaking, and borders are always changing. We remain committed to updating our maps as needed."

Samsung 3DTV Unveiled

Would like to have a 3D TV at home? It is now available on movies and games but with Samsung’s 3DTV, it will soon be available at home.

Samsung’s 70-inch “Ultra Definition” 3DTV was developed with oxide semiconductor TFT technology and a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 pixels. Samsung is touting the monster display as the “world’s first” 70-inch ultra-def 240Hz LCD panel. It’s difficult to think of any others like this, so they might just be right.

Unfortunately, no word yet on when this incredible piece of display technology will be available for consumers. Given that you need 3D glasses to fully make use of this Samsung panel, it is more likely to head for homes than commercial uses, at least until everyone starts walking around with 3D spectacles in their pockets.

Gingerbread Arrives

The long wait for Android 2.3 is almost over. Alvaro Fuentes Vasquez tweets yesterday that the Android 2. 3 (Gingerbread) is arriving in the next few days.

"Prepare your Nexus One (developer version) for Android over-the-air update 2.3 (Gingerbread) for the next few days."

Although, it can't be immediately confirmed that Vasquez or his prediction is for real but, Vasquez states on his LinkedIn page that he's been a member of the "leadership team and usability" for the Open Handset Alliance for the past two years. His blog seems to back up his credentials as a developer. And no one has cried foul yet on the original blog post regarding Vasquez's tweet or in an Android forum.

Neither Vasquez nor Google immediately responded to request for comment.
The comments made by Vasquez follow recent rumors suggesting Android 2.3 would be released on November 11. Those rumors say the version known as Gingerbread will feature an improved design, rather than deliver a slew of new features for the mobile OS. However, Gingerbread is expected to deliver WebM support and better copy-and-paste.

But until we see Gingerbread launch or hear from Google, consider this still a rumor.

Motorola Droid Pro Preorder Begins Tomorrow

The long wait is over as the Motorola Droid Pro preorder starts tomorrow. Yes, you read it right, Verizon Wireless announced today that the Motorola Droid Pro will be available for preorder starting tomorrow.

Verizon Wireless said customers will be able to preorder the smartphone at Verizon Wireless stores or on the company's Web site. Those who want to wait can buy the Droid Pro on November 18 when it officially goes on sale. The Droid Pro will retail for $179.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a two-year contract, Verizon said.

The Android 2.2-based Droid Pro, which sports a 1GHz processor and 5-megapixel camera, is a world phone. Customers should be able to access voice service in over 220 countries around the globe, and data can be used in more than 200 countries. According to Verizon, 120 of those countries offers 3G connectivity.

The device is designed with business customers in mind. It comes with Quickoffice Mobile Suite, which allows customers to create and edit Office files, among other features. It also offers 3G Mobile HotSpot functionality, allowing up to five devices to connect to the Internet through the smartphone's 3G connection.

Verizon's announcement of the Droid Pro's launch date doesn't come as much of a surprise. Since the device was first unveiled in October, rumors have been swirling that the carrier would make preorders available on November 9 and launch the device on November 18.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Sharp 3-D Phones?

Everybody loves 3-D. It’s the latest trend in games, TV’s and movies but what if you have a 3-D phone? Would you be interested to have your phone in 3D? Well, get ready for your phone's screen to broadcast images in three dimensions.

Sharp Electronics will debut a pair of handsets that render 3-D images without the need for glasses. Cool huh? However, the Sharp 3-D phones, which run Google's Android operating system, initially will be available only in Japan.

Tech blog Engadget reported Thursday that the pair of phones will be released in Japan in December and February. The first, the Galapagos OO3SH, features a touchscreen while the second, the Galapagos OO5SH, has a slide-out keyboard.

Engadget reported via Engadget Japanese that both phones have 3.8-inch display screens, and the 3SH has a 9.6-megapixel camera while the 5DH has an 8-megapixel camera.

The ability to run 3-D on a phone may not seem to have much practical use, but as social-networking blog Mashable noted Thursday, smartphones are acting as much as portable entertainment devices as phones at this point.

Video-game maker Capcom has announced that 3-D versions of several games -- "Mega Man," "Ghosts 'n Goblins: Gold Knights" and "Resident Evil: Degeneration" -- are in development for the Android system.

Google Instant Now in iPhone and Android

Google Instant has made its way to two mobile phones, the iPhone and the Android.
Google said in a blog post that Google searchers in the U.S. using the iPhone and Android phones will start seeing Google Instant show up on their devices over the course of today.

Google Instant on iPhone and Android is a beta release, meaning Google doesn't want you to get mad at them if it doesn't work exactly right, and unlike the desktop version, you have to turn it on in order to see results as you type. It only works at Google.com in your mobile browser, but not in any of the other search boxes.

This is theoretically a boon to mobile searches, because typing on a mobile device is far more annoying than typing on a full-size keyboard. However, as TechCrunch notes, the limited screen real estate on a mobile device may make the service less useful. The keypad on several touch-screen mobile phones takes up nearly half the screen on its own, and the drop-down box that produces suggested Google Instant results further reduces the page available for the search results page itself.

Google said you'll need to be running iOS 4.0 or Android 2.2 in order for this to work.

Monday, November 1, 2010

LinkedIn Brings More To Company Pages

Professional social network LinkedIn has been beefing up its Company Profiles on the network in addition to adding more functionality to user profile pages allowing businesses to add a follow option, and include a news feed and career information.

LinkedIn idea behind these features is to encourage companies to add more data to their profiles, which can be useful for professionals looking for job opportunities and for recruiters as well. Today, LinkedIn is adding additional curated information to company pages, products, services and the ability to recommend a company or product.

On company pages, administrators can add products and services tab. So an accounting business can showcase various financial services the company offers. LinkedIn is taking it one step further to allow companies to tailor lists of products and services, based on member profiles. So a business owner can showcase one set of products (or services) to accountants in the aviation industry and another to engineers in the shipping industry.

Companies can also add videos of products and services to their pages and feature particular products more prominently than others.

In turn, LinkedIn members can recommend and review a product or service on a company profile, and their recommendations will surface on their own profiles as well. Company pages will list the people who have recommended a particular product as well. Interestingly, it looks like LinkedIn is using the recommendation technology from mSpoke, which LinkedIn acquired earlier this year.

LinkedIn is also revealing that a number of well known companies are using the Pages module, including Dell, HP, JetBlue, Microsoft and E*Trade.

Could Mobile Payments Be Apple’s Next Big Strategic Opportunity?

Could mobile payments be the next Apple big strategic opportunity? When an analyst asked Steve Jobs during Apple’s last earnings call on what he plans to do with Apple’s $50 billion in cash. Jobs replied that he wants to keep Apple’s “powder dry” in case “one or more strategic opportunities . . . come along.” Speculation started immediately about who Apple could buy with all that cash: Facebook, Sony, Adobe?

But it is known that Apple never makes huge acquisitions. Instead, it tends to make smaller talent and technology acquisitions. And Apple’s rumored interest in mobile payments startup BOKU would fall into that pattern. The fact that it is in M&A discussions with BOKU doesn’t mean a deal is going to happen, but it does mean that Apple is very interested in mobile payments.

Whether it builds or buys, or does a little bit of both, mobile payments could be a huge opportunity for Apple within the next few years. Imagine if your iPhone became your wallet? The dream of turning mobile phones into wallets has been pursued for a long time by many companies, but Apple is in a unique position to make mobile payments more mainstream. Apple already handles payments very well through iTunes, which boasts 160 million active credit card accounts. PayPal only has 90 million.

Payments will start with digital goods like songs, movies, apps and in-app purchases. Apple already does all of this today through iTunes, which is one of the best micro-transaction aggregation systems around. What if you could charge those micro-transactions to your phone bill just as easily as you could to your credit card?

Then, it would be even easier for Apple to sell apps, songs, and movies through iTunes, especially to younger customers or those in developing countries who may not have a credit card. (BOKU’s strength is those carrier relationships).

Over time, those payments could spread from digital and virtual goods to real-world purchases. Apple is not thinking about adding a near-field communications (NFC) chip into the next iPhone for nothing. The more people use their iPhones to actually purchase goods, the more indispensable it will become.

Would Apple ever take the next logical step and become payments processor itself? If it does, Apple would be able to cut out the carriers from the mobile payments equation. Swap the carrier bill with iTunes, and those fees the carriers charge to process micro-payments go away. Apple can start charging those fees instead or pass the savings along to their iPhone-toting consumers, who will then be able to spend more on stuff in the iTunes store and elsewhere.

Reddit Chief Leaves To Join Hipmunk

Top Reddit administrator/engineer Chris Slowe announced that he was leaving the social link sharing site to join Hipmunk . Slowe joined Reddit back in 2005 as the company’s first employee but now he’ll be reunited with its founders Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, both of whom are now at Hipmunk.

Reddit’s traffic has been hitting record high in the wake of Digg’s failed redesign, so Slowe’s timing on this seems strange. In a blog post announcing the move, Slowe writes that his “parting with Condé Nast, Reddit’s parent company, has been nothing but amicable”. But given the issues the companies have had recently, this is hard to believe.

But Slowe claims that the differences Reddit had with Condé Nast over the summer have been largely resolved. Until recently, Condé had been very restrictive when it came to allowing Reddit to hire additional developers, but in the coming weeks there will be blog posts announcing additional open positions. “I feel like we’re at the top of the hump,” he says.

Slowe also notes that his job position will be left open for someone else to claim as what happened when Reddit’s original founders left a year ago where existing personnel had to absorb their responsibilities because of a hiring freeze. And, as further evidence of the goodwill between them, Slowe says that even after he leaves he’ll be available to Reddit on a contractual basis.

Slowe said:

I decided to leave mostly because it was time to do something new. Five years in technology is a long time anywhere, and, without suggesting that reddit is a completed project or anything but a continuously moving and evolving target, it was time to move onto something that is less fully formed with room to explore. That, and [Hipmunk founder] Steve Huffman really has been bugging me to join hipmunk for months. ;)

Finally, Slowe talked a bit about the Digg redesign and the impact it’s had on Reddit (and why not everyone over there is throwing high-fives):

Though it’s been a windfall for reddit traffic-wise (having just last month exceeded 10M uniques and 420M impressions for the first time), it really did make me sad to watch the whole thing happen. Intercommunity animosity has been at worst a playful rivalry for years, and we’ve respected one another’s space. Seeing their front page turn from an active, vibrant community forum into a virtual ghost town in such a short time is, frankly, terrifying to watch (being in an analogous space as we are). It reminded us that there is no room to rest on our laurels, and it is the community as much as the content that makes the site.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Google Places Launched

Google knows things. Specifically Places as they launched their new product, Google Places.

Google knows 50 million places, and when you search for say "museums new york," it now shows you a new kind of search result that replaces a list of links with a list of mini-pages for museums in the Big Apple with a map on the right. Each mini-page has links to reviews around the Web on sites like Citisearch and Yelp, as well as the address and phone number. The mini-profile also has a photo and a algorithmically chosen snippet from a typical review.

Google will automatically choose the so-called Place search, rather than a general web search, if it thinks your query is about a place -- something Place Search product manager Jackie Bavaro says accounts for about 20 percent of Google searches.

More ambiguous queries such as "soccer field" will use the main search, since the user could be trying to learn the official FIFA regulations for a soccer field, not find one to scrimmage on. But Place Search remains an option for all searches, joining the left navigation on Google's search results, alongside Images, Shopping, News and Video.

"We are now organizing the world's information around places," Bavaro said. "Each place is really its own results page, dynamically connecting Web pages."

The feature will be slowly rolled out to users around the world starting Wednesday. For now, Place Search is for the desktop only, but a mobile version is in development and should be available soon -- a no-brainer, since searching to learn about or find a place is one of the most common searches on mobile devices.

The feature is yet another step by the net's major search engines to use the interface to improve search, rather than tweaking the ranking algorithms or building a bigger index. Bing and Yahoo are already making moves to build pages for "entities." See, for instance, what Yahoo does for musical artists and Bing creates for entities such as colleges.

Google Place Search does not rely on human editors to curate pages (neither do Yahoo and Bing's), and instead relies on algorithms to determine what pages on the net are about a given place. One can expect that Google and others will keep building on this idea, so more and more of your searches about things -- whether that be the San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum or the Samsung Galaxy S or Osgood-Schlatters disease -- will be mini-pages curated by an algorithm of information from the Web.

Verizon Cloud Goes Global

Verizon cloud-based IT services goes global. Verizon business said it will expand its Infrastructure-as-a-Service to wholesale customers worldwide. The IaaS product, introduced in the U.S. last June, has previously been available to select customers in Europe and the Asia/Pacific region on a one-off basis.

A full suite of cloud-based on-demand IT infrastructure services, Verizon’s IaaS is designed to compete with similar cloud offerings from major tech companies including IBM, Amazon and others. It’s designed to allow service provider and large enterprises to quickly scale up or throttle back computing and network resources as changing business needs dictate, to monitor the performance and reliability of those resources, and to pay for them on an as-you-go basis.

The Infrastructure-as-a-Service product is offered by Verizon’s Global Wholesale unit. Research firm Ovum said in a report released in August that big carriers will become major forces in the cloud computing market as customer demand increases rapidly over the next two to three years. AT&T, Verizon, Orange Business Services and BT have all made significant strides in cloud services in the lasts year, report author Peter Hall wrote, and in terms of services, can now compete with established players from the IT industry.

“The major telcos have a long heritage in providing managed data center services and hosting," said Hall, “and have combined this with their networking and security expertise to meet the needs of customers for cloud computing services."

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Amazon Web Services Free Cloud Offering For 1 Year

Do you want to try Amazon cloud for free before you decide to buy? I bet you would. Well good news because Amazon Web Services announced Thursday that it will offer a free tier beginning Nov. 1 so new customers can try the cloud before they buy into it.

Amazon’s approach boils down to try before you buy. Under the arrangement, a new developer or business can use a free EC2 instance and its associated services for a year at no charge. Services include S3, Elastic Block Store, Elastic Load Balancing and data transfer.

Amazon’s bet is simple: Get new customers in the door and then convert them to paying customers. Amazon portrayed the move was a way for potential customers to launch applications, get hands-on knowledge and get new developers in the AWS ecosystem.

Under the Amazon Web Services free tier, new customers get:

  • 750 hours a month of a micro Linux Amazon EC2 instance;
  • 750 hours a month of load balancing;
  • 10 GB a month of elastic block storage;
  • 5 GB a month of S3 storage;
  • 30 GB a month of data transfer (15 GB in and out);
  • 25 machine hours of SimpleDB;
  • 100,000 requests a month each of Amazon’s simple queue service, requests and notifications over HTTP.

LimeWire Shuts Down

Popular file-sharing site LimeWire was ordered by a New York Judge to shutdown. The judge agreed with the plaintiffs that LimeWire's service is used "overwhelmingly for infringement."

Judge Wood of U.S. District Court in Manhattan said that LimeWire "intentionally encouraged direct infringement" by users of its site, and also "marketed itself to Napster users, who were known copyright infringers "

LimeWire shut down its service Wednesday displaying only a legal notice announcing that that company "is under a court-ordered injunction to stop distributing and supporting its file-sharing software."

Nonetheless, the company insisted that it has not been permanently put out of business.

"While this is not our ideal path, we hope to work with the music industry in moving forward," LimeWire said in a prepared statement. "We look forward to embracing necessary changes and collaborating with the entire music industry in the future."

LimeWire CEO George Searle went further in a message posted on LimeWire's corporate site.

"The injunction applies only to the LimeWire product. Our company remains open for business," he wrote. "Our team of technologists and music enthusiasts is creating a completely new music service that puts you back at the center of your digital music experience. We'll be sharing more details about our new service and look forward to bringing it to you in the future."

LimeWire has been skirmishing for years with the music industry over its laissez faire approach to policing the copyright violations its peer-to-peer software enabled. More than a dozen plaintiffs pursued the case against LimeWire, which began four years ago. Sony (SNE) Music Entertainment, Virgin Records America, Inc., Arista Records, Capitol Records and Warner Brothers Records Inc. (CNNMoney.com is part of Time Warner (TWX, Fortune 500).)

While the court order has halted further distribution of LimeWire's software, the networks that software tapped into -- Gnutella and BitTorrent -- remain active, and can be reached through other software applications.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Google Collecting Emails and Passwords?

News are spreading like fire and is grabbing headlines that everyone’s favorite search engine, Google, is collecting emails and passwords. Google Inc admitted for the first time its "Street View" cars around the world accidentally collected more personal data than previously disclosed, including complete emails and passwords, potentially breathing new life into probes in various countries.

The disclosure comes just days after Canada's privacy watchdog said Google had collected complete emails and accused Google of violating the rights of thousands of Canadians. Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington DC-based privacy advocacy group said:

"If in fact laws were broken...then there's some serious question of culpability and Google may need to face significant fines."

Regulators in France, Germany and Spain, among others, have opened investigations into the matter. A coalition of more than 30 state attorneys general in the United States also have launched a joint probe.

However, it remains unclear how many people may have been affected by the privacy breach.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who is leading the multi-state investigation, said in a statement on Friday that Google's disclosure about the types of data it collected "validates and heightens our significant concerns," and noted that the investigation is continuing.

Google's Street View cars, which are well known for crisscrossing the globe and taking panoramic pictures of the city's streets, accidentally collected data from unsecured wireless networks used by residents in more than 30 countries, Google disclosed in May.

At the time, Google said the information was typically limited to "fragments" of unencrypted data because the cars were always moving and because the cars' wireless equipment automatically changed channels about five times a second.

A Google spokesperson said the company had not examined the roughly 600 GB of data captured by the cars in any detail to avoid violating privacy. The latest disclosure comes from information from regulators in various countries, who have examined the data collected by Google. Google Vice President of Engineering and Research Alan Eustace said in a post on Google's blog on Friday:

"It's clear from those inspections that while most of the data is fragmentary, in some instances entire emails and URLs were captured, as well as passwords."

Google also said in the blog post that it hoped to delete the data as soon as possible. Google had deleted the data in countries where regulators had given it permission to do so, a spokeswoman said. Investigations in six countries including New Zealand and the Netherlands, were closed, the spokeswoman said. There were investigations ongoing in other countries, but Google could not delete the data until the investigations were closed.

TOUGHER PRIVACY PROTECTION

Google appointed Alma Whitten as director of privacy for engineering and product management as part of a campaign to bolster its privacy protections, including adding new internal procedures requiring engineering product managers to maintain a privacy design document that records how user data is handled.

Google also said it was enhancing its privacy training for engineers and other important groups within the company.

"We're acutely aware that we failed badly here," Eustace said in the blog post.

Google's cars collected the WiFi data in more than 30 countries between 2006 and mid-2010 so that Google could amass data on WiFi hotspots that could help provide location-based services -- a project unrelated to taking photos for Google Maps.
But Google apparently thought it was only collecting a limited type of WiFi data relating to the WiFi network's name and router numbers.

The collection of the additional, so-called payload data was a simple mistake resulting from a piece of computer code that was accidentally included from an experimental project, Google said.

Google has said that its Street View cars no longer collect any type of wireless information.

The admission that emails and other types of data were collected means that the problem is much more serious than Google initially suggested, Rotenberg said.

More Digg Layoffs Announced!

Following a report in AllThingsD that publisher and Chief Revenue Officer Chas Edwards was bailing for a start-up, Pixazza, Digg CEO Matt Williams e-mailed staffers to announce that "the burn rate is too high" at the company and that it would be laying off 25 of its 67 staffers, a total of 37 percent. Williams wrote in the e-mail:
"We must significantly cut our expenses to achieve profitability in 2011."
"We've considered all of the possible options for reduction, from salaries to fixed costs."

Williams, a former Amazon executive, joined Digg as chief executive fewer than two months ago, following a major executive shake-up in which CEO Jay Adelson departed and was replaced temporarily by Rose. In the meantime, other prominent Digg employees started moving out the door with a few heading to AOL and some to start-ups like SimpleGeo (co-founded by former employee Joe Stump) and Path. A month later, Digg laid off about 10 percent of its staff.

A product refocus is also imminent. At the time of the executive shake-up, Digg had also just rolled out "Version 4," a long-anticipated redesign that attempted to bring the service from fanboy favorite to potential mainstream hit. Suffice it to say that it hasn't been a smooth transition; to add insult to injury, rival Reddit, which sold to Wired Digital a few years ago, has experienced a renaissance of influence as its tech- and politics-savvy user base has moseyed its way into issues as varied as the medical marijuana legislation debate and hatching the initial idea for comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to host mock political protests in Washington, D.C., before Election Day. (They're holding their joint rallies on Saturday.)

Of course, in the tech industry, it ain't over till it's over--just look at Apple, and rival PC-maker Michael Dell's now-infamous comment in 1997 that newly reinstated CEO Steve Jobs should "shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders." But it increasingly appears as though Digg won't follow that path, and that it's become a latter-day cautionary tale about too much faith in media hype.

In mid-2006, a BusinessWeek cover story featuring a grinning Kevin Rose pointed out that Digg was the 24th-most-trafficked Web site in the U.S., ahead of Fox News and approaching The New York Times. AOL and Yahoo were scrambling to copy its social-news model, the breathless article recounted. Over the next year and a half, the rumors began to show up. Al Gore's Current Media had wanted Digg and was willing to pay $100 million; Rose turned the offer down. News Corp. was a reported suitor as well. A deal with Google was reportedly almost completed before talks fell apart.

But the BusinessWeek article from 2006 concluded, almost prophetically:

"Wannabes be warned: As nearly everyone found out six years ago (in the dot-com bust), the fall from rock star to pariah can be just as quick--and not nearly as much fun."

Rose is now an active angel investor, and industry recognition of Digg employee talent is evident in the number of companies that have been eager to scoop them up. So they're hardly pariahs--but at this point few can deny that the company was badly mismanaged over the years, and that one attempt after another has been unable to get it back on its feet.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

IBM Introduced Cloud Services Platform for Service Providers

IBM introduced its new cloud services platform to service providers saying it will help communications service providers (CSPs) capitalize on the growing market opportunity for public cloud services expected to grow to $89 billion by 2015.

IBM says this will help CSPs to bring their customers new services to run a business and centralize access to their information. It enables them to offer customers a pay-as-you-go model for hundreds of new services and immediately make those services available.

The IBM Cloud Service Provider Platform is a comprehensive set of hardware, software and services to help providers rapidly deliver cloud computing on their own. The company says it includes the most advanced, carrier-grade technology with all the essential security and service management to ensure the service reliability essential to their own customers.

The platform allows CSPs to rapidly transform their business to deliver new services over their existing networks and drive new sources of revenue. They can use it to deliver “as a service" offerings like collaboration software, customer resource management, storage and backup, and industry-specific applications like claims-processing and specialized mobile applications to small and mid-sized businesses as well as large enterprises.

It can be installed in days, allowing service providers to:
  • Tap thousands of ready-to-use services and applications and accelerate the launch of new partner services from six months to six weeks
  • Provision tens of thousands of virtual machines per hour
  • Help partners create new services such as unified communications, collaboration and customer relationship management
  • Provide developers a secure development and test cloud
  • Offer infrastructure services to employees, partners and customers such as secure storage and virtual office desktop
  • Provision new services in less than a minute
  • Scale to manage millions of virtual machines
  • Use the Tivoli Netcool service assurance portfolio to manage service quality
IBM global telecommunications industry General Manager Scott Stainken said:

“Communications Service Providers play a fundamental role in society. They touch every industry, interconnect them and help make them intelligent. IBM is using its cloud expertise to help the world’s existing communications networks take on a whole new meaning." 

Steve Jobs Attacks Android - Is the Apple CEO Scared?

Steve Jobs, CEO of iPhone maker Apple, is the telecom industry’s resident pot-stirrer. And people eat it up. On Monday, he was at it again during a conference call with analysts to discuss the company’s ridiculously high fiscal fourth-quarter earnings results.

Jobs took the stage for about five minutes, and in those five minutes, fomented a free-for-all over smartphone operating systems – namely, Apple iOS good, Google Android sucky.According to multiple reports, Jobs said:

“Google loves to characterize Android as ‘open,’ and iOS and iPhone as ‘closed’,"

“We find this a bit disingenuous, and clouding the real difference between our two approaches. … Android is very fragmented. Many Android OEMs, including the two largest, HTC and Motorola, install proprietary user interfaces to differentiate themselves from the commodity Android experience. The user is left to figure it all out. Compare this with iPhone, where every handset works the same."

The big question popping out of the telecom world is: Is Jobs worried about the competition he’s seeing from Android, or does he firmly believe iOS is the superior system? We’ll probably never know. Anyway, Jobs went on to talk some smack about “fragmented vs. integrated" platforms, trying to make the case that Android makes life difficult on apps developers and users alike. That’s when the guy who developed Android, Andy Rubin, took to Twitter – for the first time ever – to say (and this is a direct quote, for obvious reasons):

“the definition of open: ‘mkdir android ; cd android ; repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git ; repo sync ; make.’"

Ah, geek speak. Well, the point Rubin was making is that that exact series of words and symbols allows a person to “develop for, hack, or even create their own version of Android," as PC Mag explained.

“The same probably cannot be said for Apple," the publication noted.

What do you say to that, Jobs?

Alas, don’t expect an answer to the question (as if that would happen anyway). The Silicon Valley magnate was too busy preparing for Wednesday’s launch of a new line of Mac computers.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Choosing the Perfect Business Phone System For Your Business

Business phone system is a must in every organization to improve its productivity, no matter how big or small the company is. It helps maintain high-end communication within the company as well as its clients and customers. Business phones provides complete and hassle free customer care solution putting your business in the competitive edge.

Business phone systems are available in the market providing different features like VoIP, call forwarding, voicemail, call recording, email integration, caller groups, call reporting, auto attendant and many more. You can choose a business phone system based on the size of your company and the number of extensions you need.

There are four different models of business phone systems which are available in the market that you can choose from. These are key systems, Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems, KSU-less phones and Voice-Over-Internet Protocol (VoIP). Each has different features and capacity to accommodate different number of extensions to meet the varying needs of different business organization.

Key phone systems are controlled by the Key System Unit (KSU). These business phone systems come with extra features which are not present in the ordinary phones. The key phone systems allow an individual to call another person in the office extension and permit one user to stay on hold. These business phone systems can support extensions ranging from five to forty. Therefore they are the best options for business organizations which are small and medium sized. The costs of the key phone systems vary depending on their features.

Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems are for businesses that requires more features, advanced functions and support for more than forty extensions. Previous models of private branch exchange (PBX) systems were too big, but now with the help of advanced technology, these systems are available in sizes which can be placed on a desk.

Moreover, these systems also have all the basic features. Some of them can also be completely programmed. However, these business phone systems involve high costs per user. Therefore, they are suitable for large business organizations only.

The KSU - less phone systems can support up to a maximum of 10 extensions. During installation they are not wired permanently into an office. Therefore they can be shifted from one place to another without much difficulty, whenever required. Some of these phone systems have the features available with the PBX and key phone systems. Therefore, the small business organizations with few employees prefer to get them installed in the office. They are available at comparatively cheaper prices too.

Voice over Internet Protocol or popularly known as VoIP, with its cost effective existence, has become the popular choice of businesses worldwide. Many small business telephone systems on the market today are equipped to handle VoIP telephone lines through either a simple hardware or software upgrade. An upgrade may include adding an Ethernet (or media) port to the system or if already equipped, simply enabling this port through software activation. Simply plugging this unit into your company LAN and perhaps minor firewall configuration you can now start saving on land line costs by calling out over less expensive VoIP lines.

Multi-line business telephone can benefit as well but through a 3rd party VoIP gateway. This gateway converts a VoIP line (sometimes called a "Trunk") to a standard telephone port. You will need as many gateways as you want lines, (or opt for a multi-port unit).

However you may have to plan on spending some time configuring and adjusting the settings of the unit to obtain the proper volume levels while minimizing echo and other artifacts that may be induced when converting the signal from a standard Analog telephone line to SIP or other VoIP protocol. Many high end units come with built in (hardware or software) echo cancellers and noise suppressors which minimize these adjustments (and work very well) but increase the cost of the gateway dramatically.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Have a Convenient Business Phone System

The growing number of businesses nowadays – both small and medium in size – has created a demand for business phone systems that are not only professional and highly-reliable, but also affordable and flexible. This is why the voice over internet protocol (VoIP) option for voice communication has become quite popular – because it requires minimal hardware and manpower for setting up, less money needs to be spent activating and maintaining the system. And because the system is powered by the internet, your phones have little chance of going down when power is lost or when phone cables go down.

Most VoIP business phone services can offer your business this kind of convenience, but there are other service providers that believe you should expect more. RingCentral, for example, wants to make sure that your phone system is equipped with all the features that your company will need to succeed in its industry. Not only does it ensure that your phone system is activated as soon as you have it set up, it also gives you the ability to easily modify your phone system settings to better suit your business communication needs.

You can make sure that your phone system is set up to send you your calls and voicemail, no matter where you happen to be. Receive important calls via your mobile phone or home phone after business hours – the service runs 24/7. With the help of its visual interface, you can easily make changes to your virtual phone system without the hassle of having to physically re-route phone lines. And because your phone system is virtual, you make it so that your business phone system need not be affected when you move your base of operations from one state to another.

RingCentral provides its customers with convenience that not only involves affordability, but also immediate activation, user-friendly system customization, and high-quality execution of features.