At CES 2012, there are quite a few products that would totally change the way you do things (or at least save you some money) that just don’t get enough coverage. We reported on Ooma’s new HD2 VoIP handset, but nothing beats getting the facts straight from the CEO of the company.
Luckily, Eric Stang had a chance to meet with us and chat it up. → Read More
Home phones are dumb phones defined. At best they feature a backlit four-line display. At worst they suck.
Well, Ooma just introduced the HD2, which not only pairs pefectly with the company’s VoIP service but offers a bunch of functions standard to feature phones. A 2-inch color LCD features picture caller-ID with the images garnered from the owner’s Facebook, Google and Yahoo friends. This can… → Read More
VoIP free domestic calling service Ooma has raised another $17.3 million in funding from existing investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Founder’s Fund and others. This brings the company’s total funding to a sizeable $83.3 million.
What’s compelling about Ooma is that company sort of flips the Vonage model on its axis — While Vonage charges a monthly service fee and gives away its VoIP hardware… → Read More
Reports are trickling into to our tipline that Ooma, a popular VOIP service, is currently experiencing major network issues. Currently, Ooma’s phone service seems offline nationwide, and their website and support forums are working sporadically if at all.
Some users (mostly in California) are reporting that their service is returning, but right now, it would appear that a majority of… → Read More
If you dial 911 one on a VoIP phone you might be in a bit of trouble – many systems don’t support the location services most 911 operators use to find out where you are when you’re in trouble. So what to do? Well, Ooma has added a feature that should assuage the worry slightly. They’ve added 911 notification services that contact up to three people via email or text. → Read More
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… → 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
Join me in welcoming Ooma Purevoice, Ooma’s new home phone sound standard that will make all of your calls sound like you’re talking on a phone made of pure gold and unicorn fur (your experience may vary). In celebration of the technology, Ooma is offering an Ooma Telo, a Telo handset, and a year of Ooma premier service. How do you win? UPDATE – Congratulations to Sunil, our… → Read More
The best kept secret in VoIP with overseas relatives and friends is Ooma. For about $200 you can set your overseas loved ones up with some hot VoIP action, giving them a local telephone number they can use to call you and you can use to call them. If you travel then its great. That said, Ooma has just released the Telo system, an improvement to its current firmware that includes iPhone/Touch… → Read More
Ooma might be onto something here. The VoIP provider is taking a different path with the Telo system: the phone calls are free. Like, you don’t ever have to pay for calling your Mom. You can either use your own phones or the Ooma high-end DECT 6.0 handset. Sounds nice, eh? Too bad there’s a huge admission price for the hardware. → Read More
VoIP startup Ooma has raised another $14 million in venture capital, we’ve heard from multiple sources, increasing the total amount of capital the company has raised to $56 million. This most recent round of financing was led by existing investor Worldview Technology Partners and was a restructuring that wiped out earlier investors who chose not to participate in this round.
The company was… → Read More
Exactly one year ago today, a widespread outage hit Google’s GrandCentral (recently upgraded and relaunched as Google Voice). At the time, we wrote “If you want to be a phone company, and get your users to rely on you to manage all of your incoming calls, this simply cannot happen”. A year later those words ring true as a widespread outage has hit another VoIP provider: Ooma, the device that… → Read More
Ooma – the $250 VoIP box that lets you make free calls in the US (and that lets you call the US for free from international locales, an undocumented perk to be sure) – is getting more and more popular thanks to the downturn. With a new Chief Marketing Officer, Rich Buchanan, and a new price the system is now selling like cakes that are hot. The boxes are now sold at 1,300 stores and a… → 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
Consumer VoIP startup Ooma launched nearly a year ago and offered consumers free phone service for life, all you had to do was buy the hardware for $399. Just one problem. The sticker shock of paying $399 up front for the hardware put a lot of users off. And there weren’t many places you could actually buy the Ooma. It went on sale on their website in August 2007. When a number of key… → Read More
Ooma, everyone’s favorite box that offers free phone calls and looks cool, isn’t failing, at least according to a tip by Pat Phelan of Cubic Telecom. Trying to get further info. The company, backed by Ashton Kutcher, looked like it was going under last week according to a post by Valleywag. I’ve tried the service and it works well enough. It basically offers seamless free VoIP… → Read More
In the past we’ve posted communications whenever someone has threatened to sue us. I think it’s entertaining, and it hopefully makes people think twice before firing up the legal machine with ridiculous claims. So when YouTube sent us a cease and desist letter, I posted it. And when that asshole Shannon Terry threatened to sue us out of existence, I posted that too. Now the most… → Read More
http://www.brightcove.tv/playerswf New consumer VOIP service Ooma officially launched yesterday and began selling units on their website. See additional coverage from Dean Takahashi and Adweek. They also released their first (drug induced?) viral video to promote the service, which I have embedded above. The video was conceptualized by Ashton Kutcher, the company’s creative director (hear… → Read More
Vonage released its second quarter financial results today (I’ve embedded the release below with the new Zoho Viewer that launched last night). And while the stock continues to slide, revenues are way up and losses are slowing. Perhaps they can avoid the fate of competitor SunRocket, which shut down last month. The company also says that they have “substantially completed” the… → Read More
New VOIP startup Ooma, which is proving a free phone service to U.S. residents who purchase the basic hardware, started taking pre-orders about five minutes ago (6 AM PST). Orders are being taken by phone only, with delivery guaranteed before September 10. The phone number to call is 866-452-6662. The basic unit, called a “hub,” is $399. Additional “scouts” which you can… → Read More
Consumer VOIP service Vonage is beta testing a new, self-described “cool and sleek, yet simplistic and approachable” gateway device produced by Ambit. The device, an Ambit VDV21, includes a LCD screen that displays caller ID and voicemail notifications. The hope, Vonage says in an email, is that it will “inspire consumers to proudly display their Vonage router rather than hide it… → Read More
Cheapskates that we are, people are always trying to find deals, like, say, being able to make phone calls for free. Yes, that works. Over at the Times, David Pogue bravely looked at several services that offer, in one way or another, free phone calls. Skype we already know, so who cares. But there’s three other services that seem neat: Jajah.com, T-Mobile’s HotSpot@Home and Ooma. → Read More
You read the story and you heard the podcast. Now you can try out Ooma yourself, way before they go on sale to the public in September. We have fifty to give away. This isn’t like most account giveaways – each of these packages will be sold for $399 retail in September and gives you free VOIP phone service on your normal phones for life (the life of you or the company, whichever ends… → Read More
While we’re spending our time pushing our Destroy Your Landline Contest, wherein you the readers are implored to destroy your traditional landline phones, something comes up that makes us want to perhaps hold on to ours. Ooma is a new Vonage-like VoIP service that tweaks the formula just enough to perhaps survive where companies like SunRocket have failed. The VoIP ideal has been around, and… → Read More
An ambitious and long awaited new consumer VOIP startup – Ooma – launches on Thursday morning. Much like Vonage and the ill-fated SunRocket, Ooma allows consumers to use their normal phones to make and receive telephone calls, but at drastically reduced prices. Vonage provides unlimited calling in the U.S. and Canada for a flat $25/month. Ooma, however, is using an innovative… → Read More
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