Ooma, my secret weapon when it comes to reducing the price of overseas calls, has just announced PureVoice, an “HD” voice technology that offers a “superior home telephony experience.” Essentially the system uses redundancy and compression to transmit voice packets at higher quality than you’d find in normal telephone conversations although, presumably, you’re still burdened by legacy voice technology on the carrier’s side.
You can check out a goofy demo of PureVoice on Ooma’s site. Press release follows. → Read More
Ooma is stepping up their offering in the international calling game. The VoIP service providers latest plans are about as competitive as can be. Watch out, Vonage, Ooma has your mom’s number. → Read More
You may remember at CES this year we had a chance to meet with MagicJack and see the prototype for their Femtocell technology, which they said would be coming out in the first half of the year. Well they missed their projected launch date, but it’s looking like the Femtocell product may still be coming this year. → Read More
No surprises here today as Verizon and Skype partner up and announce Skype Mobile at Mobile World Congress. This news is so exciting that I’m tempted to dump my current carrier and sign up with Big Red today. But are there any catches or caveats? → Read More
I’ll admit that I love me some Skype. I get to call and video chat with all my buddies from overseas without hefty fees, except I was accustomed to doing it only where Wi-Fi was available. While AT&T and Apple have made some recent policy changes to allow VoIP over 3G, it looks like Verizon and Skype are partnering up do to a little of the same. → Read More
I’ve used VoIP apps on the past few iterations of of the iPhone as well as a number of other devices including some from Nokia, HTC, and Samsung. Those apps always only worked over WiFi and have mostly worked as advertised. Experience shows that if there’s one thing cellular companies are good at it’s ensuring a call can get from point A to point B (although AT&T has been sucking wind lately). It’s what they’ve been doing for almost two decades.
Now that Apple has lifted the ban VoIP over 3G – note it is Apple lifting these restrictions, not AT&T – you have to wonder what’s going on. Won’t 3G tear down the network around our ears? Won’t dogs and cats start living together? → Read More
The inclusion of both Wi-Fi and a microphone on the DSI made it a favorite for rumors about phone functionality — and while we’ve seen voice chat in some games, there hasn’t been an official channel for that that I know of. But if new rumors, based on a support page mentioning a DSi Speak Channel, are true, then the most popular handheld in the world will be joining the most popular console in the world in having serious voice chat functionality.
Say hello to DSiPhone. → Read More
Bang & Olufsen announced their new BeoCom 5 cordless phone today. I know, I know.. bear with me, it’s kinda cool. Despite the fact that many people don’t even use land lines any more, B&O knows their target audience, and apparently that audience still does. → Read More
Comcast is preparing to launch their new service, Homepoint, which will provide a VoIP handset with integration to email, news, weather, and other services. Wait, doesn’t my mobile already do that? → Read More
Time for everyone to cash in on the new Star Trek movie. Brando is no exception with the “Star Trek USB Communicator internet phone,” a $43 VOIP device that resembles an original Star Trek communicator. → Read More
Help me out here. The iPhone version of Skype was released the other day; it’s Wi-Fi-only, but it’s a VoIP product, so I don’t understand from where the outrage is coming. Do people, e.g. the Consumers Union, expect AT&T to subsidize the phone to the tune of hundreds of dollars, and then allow you to use some other provider exclusively? A “dance with the one who brung you” sort of scenario. → Read More
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has confirmed that it plans to shut down Go!Messanger, a VoIP application that was technically only available in Europe. (Hence, the SCEE confirmation.) There’s a silver lining, though: no jobs will be lost as a result of the shutdown. → Read More
You have a great idea for a product. You have a great designer. You have a manufacturer willing to pump something out for not much money. You’re on your way to gadget riches, right? Wrong.
Dan Costa wrote a cautionary tale for all those looking to produce a consumer electronics product. His focus is magicJack, a company that we wrote about in August 2007, a post that currently has 167 comments, none of them particularly good. Here’s an example from our own comments:
How do you CONTACT these people I can find NO way to send them a message?
MagicJack is basically a VOIP dongle that plugs into your USB port. You then add a telephone and make calls. It costs $40 and then $20 a year. It should be plug and play but, as with everything in life, it often isn’t. Fair enough, you say. Just make a phone call to the support line and you’ve got it solved. Sadly, this is not the case.
MagicJack is one of the reasons we gadget writers are so cynical. We see a great idea but there is something missing either during the review or on delivery. After a while you get a sixth sense about these things but unfortunately I couldn’t see the problems with this device until far along the product life cycle. I didn’t know the company would fail so badly at support and marketing. → Read More
Row44. That’s the name of the company that plans to bring satellite-delivered Internet access to your laptop while you’re flying from finished New York to phony Los Angeles; everywhere in between, too. → Read More
ooma has officially unveiled their new hardware at CES for the rest of the world to see and they’ve dubbed it Telo. It’s a cordless handset to go along with their VoIP service. → Read More
A couple days ago we received a press release for a new service named CallingAmerica, which permits you to make free VoIP calls to U.S. phone numbers using only your web browser. Offered free of charge, users are required to look at advertisements for about 10 seconds before calls are connected (AdBlock Plus worked just fine to suppress the ads, by the way). → Read More
The executive branch of the European Union is investigating whether wireless carriers there are illegally blocking VoIP calls from being carried over their networks. You know you can’t use Skype-like applications over 3G using your iPhone? If the Commission gets its way, that practice would end, one would assume. It’s like this: the European Commission doesn’t like it when companies screw you, the consumer, over. So since it suspects, apparently, that the wireless carriers are, in fact, screwing you, it’s launched the investigation. The Commission sent a questionnaire to several unknown wireless carriers asking them a whole host of questions about what “tools” they use to manage their network, including the restriction of VoIP. → Read More
It’s hard out there for a VOIP solution. Skype rules the desktop and Vonage rules the den so where does an upstart like VoxOx belong? The product, founded by a group of voice networking ninjas who wanted to create a desktop-based VOIP and chat solution with full IM and social network integration. Think of it, then as a cross between Adium/Digsby and Skype with a little Grand Central thrown in. → Read More
After 6 months of not-quite-official availability for those of us with jailbroken iPhones, Fring, a free mobile Voice-over-IP service (VoIP), has made its way to the App Store. With that, a day that some said would never come has arrived: Skype calls can now be made on the iPhone, no hacks required. Beyond the Skype functionality (which I imagine would be its most popular use), Fring also lets you chat (and call, where appropriate) friends over MSN, GoogleTalk, AIM, Yahoo, Twitter, ICQ, and of course, Fring’s own service. → Read More
Where in God’s name is Skype for the iPhone? The best Mr. Malik could get out of Skype CEO Josh Silverman was a “stayed tuned.” Great, thanks. Maybe while we’re waiting, while we’re staying tuned, one of them there indie developers creates an absolute hit of an iPhone VoIP app, leaving no reason for us to keep waiting for a Skype app. Then what, Skype? I do like how Skype is all, “we need to be available on all cellphones, and not just limit ourselves to one platform.” Fair enough, but when that one platform is the iPhone, it makes sense to put a few resources into coming out with a app as soon as possible. And yes, perhaps Apple (or AT&T here in the U.S.) is playing hardball, doesn’t want you to use Skype over 3G, or have the app be able to run in the background. That’s fine. Just release your app as Wi-Fi-only, get your blue little icon on millions of iPhones, and build an audience. → Read More
