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Inbox Liquidation, Part 56: A Mobile Phone Bonanza!

PhoneBoy — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 07:11:09 +0000

My personal inbox is getting bigger than my work inbox, so it must be time for an Inbox Liquidation Post.

Truph0ne News: Having made use of Truphone Local Anywhere on my last trip abroad, I’m certainly interested in seeing it expand to other markets. They recently announced planned expansions of their “local markets” to The Netherlands and Spain (i.e. markets where you can get “local” numbers and pay “local” rates). Unfortunately, it’s not immediately, it’s “months.” On a more positive note, their iPhone app now supports iPhone OS 4.0 multitasking, so you can receive Truphone calls on your iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 while running other apps.

iOS4 (or rather iPhone OS 4): I’ve actually been playing with iPhone OS 4.0 for the past few months. I had the “golden master” release on my phone for nearly two weeks now and I’ve been fairly happy with it. Unfortunately, to take advantage of the multitasking feature, your apps need to be updated to support it. Why Skype did not launch their updated app the day iOS 4 became generally available, I’ll never know. My prediction: we won’t see it until after my kids get back into school in September.

Tomi Ahonen Takes on the US Wireless Industry: I am reminded of what my tour guide in Jerusalem told us: never let the facts get in the way of a good story. Former Nokia executive Tomi Ahonen gets a couple of facts wrong in this epic rant about the state of the US mobile phone industry, but most of what he has to say is spot on.

Unlimited Mobile Data in 25 Countries: I’ve gotten a couple of press releases from XCom Global about their offering where they will rent you either a wireless USB modem or a MiFi like device on a per-day basis. The pricing is pretty good, given what I paid for WiFi in Europe. Unfortunately, it only works if you’re traveling to one country. Wonder how they’d handle that situation?

MAXroam Goes Global: I had a press release in my inbox about MAXroam’s special plan for people going to the World Cup. I figured it might be a bit dated by now, so I went to see if it was still being offered. To my surprise, their website had changed and they have launched their “Global SIM” cards. This was the “Holy Grail” SIM card I used on my last International trip . You can buy reasonably-priced bundles of minutes and/or megabytes of data to use in 41 European countries. These SIMs “just work” without the usual trickery involved with global SIMs.

Positioning Without GPS or WLAN: I like the idea of not having to fire up the GPS or WLAN to get location. The mobile phone is already talking to multiple cell phone towers and it is possible to use the information from those towers to triangulate your location. It may not get as pinpoint as a GPS can, but it can certainly get close enough (does 7-12 meters work–indoors no less?) where a regular GPS can’t easily. I really hope GloPos and the technology they are building around this gets some traction because it sounds like the right idea for a lot of reasons.

Comments

24 June 2010, Jake writes: MAXroam Global SIM the Holy Grail? You must be kidding. The price per minute is 3 to 4 times higher and there are fewer roaming partners than before. I may be trying to get one of their old classic SIMs, but this new service is completely useless for me.

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Inbox Liquidation Part 55: Starbucks, Software, WiFi, Webcams, Telecoms, and Abra

PhoneBoy — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:24:49 +0000

This is a cross between an “inbox liquidation” and a “random thoughts that have been bugging me” post.

Pixy Me: I was given a redemption code so I could have a look at this application that lets you “personalize” stock photography with your name or some sort of message. The effects is really well done. There are limits to the personalization (number of characters) and the app could do a better job of noting the limitations. You can also personalize your own photos, but it’s more like an “add a border” personalization and not nearly as cool as the stock photography personalizations. A worthwhile purchase at $1.99.

Starbucks: Anyone who reads my Twitter stream knows I visit Starbucks on a regular basis. It is one place I relocate my home office to in the afternoons. I go there because of their rewards program (which I know some people aren’t fond of) and because the experience is generally predictable and consistant no matter which Starbucks I go to. And yes, I have Starbucks at home because I buy their “Custom Roasts” from Costco. And more recently, because Klout hooked me up with some free coffee (specifically Pikes Place Roast and Verona). Pikes Place is not one of my favorites (though in Decaf, I have no choice). Verona is much better, but my favorite so far on the Starbucks Tasting Tour is the Yukon Blend. I also remember Gold Coast Blend being good too (which is the coffee this week).

Boingo Offers Unlimited UK WiFi: Like the unlimited North America plan, Boingo now offers a similar plan for UK residents for £14.95 per month, with usage outside the UK being billed at £0.09 or £0.13 per minute. The version of their plan for mobile phones is £3.95 per month and is “worldwide” (though it is a subnet of the 125,000+ locations where Boingo is accepted). I have been considering getting Boingo again for my US travels as it is insanely useful to not have to worry about whether or not I’ll be able to use the WiFi.

Some Thoughts on CenturyLink buying Qwest: The landline business is going nowhere but down. Neither Qwest or CenturyLink has a wireless play of any sort (sorry, partnering with Verizon for mobile phones or AT&T for WiFi is not a wireless play). DSL (at least as these two companies currently deploy it) is not broadband, or won’t be considered broadband much longer. Size might matter for updating their infrastructure, but it won’t solve the lack of wireless problem? Maybe they buy Cricket and MetroPCS next?

LUNAR designs the outer case of Check Point Abra: According to their press release, “LUNAR’s challenge was to complete the expression of the Abra USB drive’s security features with an innovative design that evokes impenetrability and inspires confidence. The resulting solution approaches this goal from both a visual and tactile perspective, creating an object that is pure, iconic, and monolithic.” I haven’t seen the production Abra units up-close and personal, but if you’re interested, I’m sure your local Check Point SE would be happy to show one to you

FREETALK Everyman HD Webcam Coming: The team at Comunicano sent me an email today telling me the FREETALK® Everyman HD webcam (TALK-7140) will be generally available tomorrow (April 27) anywhere in the world via the Skype Shop. The TALK-7140 is an affordable new high-definition webcam that empowers Skype users with true 720p HD video and was unveiled at CES in January. Given the high quality of their previous products, I have no doubt this will be a fantastic camera. All the same, I have a review unit coming that I’ll take a look at once I get it.

Inbox Liquidation, Part 54

PhoneBoy — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 09:21:39 +0000

My inbox is bursting at the seams, it seems.

Skype and Verizon Wireless?: One of the surprises to come out of the recent Mobile World Congress show is that Verizon Wireless and Skype have signed an agreement that allows a specially designed Skype client to be available on several devices (Blackberries and Android phones). Om Malik uncovers some sources who say that this deal is exclusive for 2-3 years. What kills this for me is that all calls (either Skype-to-Skype or Skype to international number) are routed through the Verizon Wireless voice network, meaning no WiFi. Not to mention the fact that the Verizon Wireless 3G network doesn’t support voice and data. Meh.

Skype and the iPhone: Related to the above, Skype is planning on issuing a version of their iPhone app that will actually allow calling over the AT&T 3G network. Previously, Apple’s SDK forbid this practice, but this has recently been changed. The stated reason for the delay is that Skype wants to ensure the iPhone experience is tuned for an optimal experience. Skype isn’t tuning the software, if you ask me. I think they’re waiting for the next version of the iPhone OS to release, but that’s just my theory.

Restaurant Paging over SMS: The Recess Paging System is something that’s recently been brought to my attention. Instead of those annoyingly large restaurant pagers that they give you, just send an SMS to the patron when your table is ready. Clever idea, though any heavy user of SMS will tell you that it’s not always reliable. And, of course, there’s always the “it’s a great tool to spam market to your customers.”

Voxbone Provides SMS Support for iNum (+883) Numbers: One thing that makes virtual numbers more real is the ability to text message the number. I was real happy when Google added this feature to Google Voice (formerly GrandCentral) numbers. Voxbone is now providing this service to their “global” iNum numbers (which have an ITU-assigned country code of +883). I wish more carriers supported these global numbers–for calling and SMS–but the list keeps growing.

Fonolo Comes to iPhone: I got heads up several days ago that Fonolo was launching an iPhone app in the App Store. The application lets you search through the phone tree of many different companies toll free numbers. You can find exactly the right point in the phone tree and have Fonolo call you when it has navigated to that point. In short, you spend less time navigating the phone maze and more time dealing with the company you’re trying to deal with. It’s a free app and a free service.

Calliflower Adds Skype Support: I wish I had an opportunity to use Calliflower more than I do. While you could always use Skype to enter a Calliflower conference, albeit via a PSTN number, now you can dial the Skype user CalliflowerSkype and get into any Calliflower-hosted conference. It certainly makes it cheaper and easier to join a Calliflower-hosted conference. In theory, this should give you better voice quality as well, but when I tried dialing the CalliflowerSkype user from my Mac’s Skype client, I saw it was using G.729–the same codec as if I were using Skype to dial into the PSTN number.

Comments

21 February 2010, SquawkBox Conference Call: Skype Over Verizon – What Are The Consequences | Voice on the Web writes: [...] Inbox Liquidation, Part 54 (phoneboy.com) [...]

Inbox Liquidation, Part 53

PhoneBoy — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 23:55:53 +0000

Time to clean out the inbox once again…

Truphone Bonanza: I have a fair number of items related to Truphone in my inbox. A while ago, they launched an Android calling app for WiFi, making it possible to use their service to make cheap phone calls from Android phones. More recently, they launched their Truphone Anywhere service, which gives you a SIM card that gives you “local” rates in US and the UK and cheaper roaming abroad. It could, theoretically, be your ONLY GSM calling service–calls inside the US are $0.10 a minute inbound and outbound–but data is not exactly cheap at $0.75/MB. It’s a nice prepaid service I will be keeping an eye on. I’m always looking for a way to be reachable when I travel abroad, but don’t want to pay an arm and a leg to do it Oh yeah, and now you can make and receive calls from +883 (iNum) calls thanks to a partnership with Voxbone!

Skype for Symbian Beta: I’ve actually been using this a fair amount of my Nokia E71, especially when I was in Israel several days ago. It was the only way I was able to make calls back home without it costing an arm and a leg. The application is very laggy in terms of startup and shutdown, but the calls were crystal clear! Hopefully, they improve the speed of this app, as it’s my only real complaint. Well that and it does not pass touchtones at all.

CTIA Is Against Network Neutrality for Wireless: From the “no duh” department, my friends at the CTIA–the industry association for the wireless industry in the US–are against net neutrality principles (PDF link) as proposed by the FCC via their Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the subject. Seems like a rehash of their usual points (i.e. wireless is different, a competitive market, and the operators are doing nothing wrong). *sigh*

Trapster goes 4.0 on iPhone: The new version of this free speed-trap reporting program for the iPhone and a number of other phones gives you more “trap” types (including roadkill, yum!), shows you were Trapster users have driven recently (to give you confidence in the reported traps), a Caravan mode where you can message and share photos with other Trapster users, and the ability to share Trapster with your iPhone contacts. Wonder what these guys will do next?

Comments

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Inbox Liquidation, Part 52

PhoneBoy — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:49:39 +0000

It must be time to clean out the old inbox once again, which this time also includes random observations and other things that aren’t necessarily in my inbox.

Google Chrome: I’ve started using Google Chrome on my Macs and Linux boxes. I have to say, it’s quite peppy! I’m still waiting for extension support on the Mac, though I can always run Chromium, which does offer it. Google already pwns all my data, so I’m not too concerned about using their browser

CallGuard for Nokia Devices: The folks over at SymbianGuru have a neat little app that provides a whitelist and blacklist for calls at specific times. Calls from certain people can be “rejected” complete with an SMS to the number or ring through as you configure the app. I haven’t had a chance to try this out, since I primarily use an iPhone these days, but it’s worth checking out. 10 days to see if you like it, if so, pay $12.95.

HiDef Conferencing Beats Holiday Stress: While I do appreciate the reduction in mental processing that occurs when you have a conversation over a wider band medium, such as provided by HiDef Conferencing service, I find conference calls themselves stressful. Granted, they tend to take less time than the typical business trip, but there’s only so much one can do over the phone. As stressful as those business trips are, they are necessary.

TruPhone Cuts The Price Of Calling This Holiday Season: If you’re a TruPhone user, or are looking for an excuse to try out this calling service on your Nokia, Blackberry, iPhone, or Android), here’s a nice offer. From Christmas Day until the 5th January 2010, calls made on Truphone to 30 popular destinations worldwide will be charged at 50% off the TruStandard rate – allowing friends and family to talk longer for less this holiday season. In addition, calls to all listed destinations will be free of charge on New Year’s Eve (or rather 12:01 pm GMT New Years Eve to 11:59 am GMT New Years Day).

TextPlus 2.1 Launches With Personal Communities: I’ve always thought SMS was a ripoff. The operators charge way too much for too little. Several applications on the iPhone look to reduce or eliminate your dependence on SMS by pushing your short messages through their service. The only one I find compelling is TextPlus by the folks at Gogii. The main reason? It interoperates with regular SMS. People not using TextPlus on their iPhone (and soon the BlackBerry) can send messages through the short code 60611. TextPlus also allows you to do “group” messaging, sending the same message to up to 50 people. And yes, that feature works with folks not on TextPlus (yet).

VoIP Supply Reclaims Your Old VoIP Gear: This is a bit like taking your old video games down to the GameStop or similar store, trading them in for new games, or getting some cash. Except this is with VoIP gear. Maybe I should send them my list of VoIP gear and see what they’ll give me. I suspect it will be like GameStop does for old games, you won’t get as much as you’d like, but you’ll get something. At least the equipment won’t end up in a landfill somewhere.

Tweetings: I ran across this client on my Twitter stream for the iPhone and I have to say, it’s quite good. It looks a lot like Tweetie, actually, but it’s slightly cheaper ($1.99 versus the $2.99 for Tweetie 2), and for that price, it even supports push notifications of @ replies and direct messages! It’s also the first Twitter app I’ve run across that actually uses oAuth, which theoretically means you don’t have to give the application your password! However, you still need to enter your password into the app anyway if you want to use any of the media sharing services (or push notifications, for that matter).

Comments

22 December 2009, tom writes: if you do not want google to pwn your data you can use srware iron instead of chrome. windows and linux version are out now and mac should be coming soon. with chrome i was clearing my browsing data every couple days because it was slowing down so much. iron is working much better. http://www.srware.net/en/index.php
23 December 2009, PhoneBoy writes: Still no Iron version for Mac yet. As I said, I'm not terribly concerned, Google already pwns my data :)

Inbox Liquidation, Part 51

PhoneBoy — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 06:44:40 +0000

As usual, a lot of crap gets backed up into my email. Here’s a few of the more interesting bits. I have a few more that I’ll post later.

Callpod Fueltank Uno: As my portable iPhone charger I bought off eBay bit the dust the other day, this particular gadget comes along at a good time. Unfortunately, the website doesn’t say how big the battery is, but it claims to be “more than 4 times the capacity of a standard mobile phone.” It comes with an iPhone/iPod and a mini-USB charging tip. If you don’t have a phone that charges with one of those, a coupon is in the box that lets you get a free charging tip. Extras are $10 each.

Prepaid Phones a Stocking Stuffer?: One of the emails I had from a PR firm suggested that in today’s economy, a prepaid mobile phone might be just the perfect gift to stuff in someone’s stocking. They are certainly inexpensive and can be had for under $30 and do not require either a long-term commitment or a contract. I wouldn’t necessarily pick phones from TracFone, as was suggested by the PR firm, but maybe you can get a prepaid phone one from one of the major carriers, which can also be had for about the same price.

Walgreens Launches an iPhone App: Aside from the usual “store finder” type functions, the new Walgreens app on the iPhone lets you order prescription refills and upload photos for printing at a Walgreens store. It would be nice if I went to Walgreens, which I almost never do.

Social Networking Wars: From the folks who bring you SuperNews, a hilarious animated take on current events, comes Social Networking Wars. You are a nobody working in an office trying to fend off the distractions of social networking. Armed with a stapler, you must fight them off while not hitting your co-workers–or your boss. It’s a silly game, but like social networking, it’s a nice time killer.

More on the Yamaha USB Speakerphone Gadget I reviewed: Jim Courtney sent me a followup letter about the Yamaha USB Speakerphone that I reviewed a few weeks ago. One of the things he points out is that a lot of people are put off by the price, as I mentioned as a concern in the review. If you can make that jump, however, the “on site” experience of using the gadget is quite good and can prove to be valuable. To that end, In Store Solutions wants to encourage user trial and will extend its return policy such that anyone purchasing during this promotion can return it, shipping prepaid but “no questions asked”, for a full credit until January 31, 2010. This gives purchasers a chance to make their own “on site” decision about its value in the end. Nice promo, guys!

Sony Selling AT&T Service at Sony Style stores: Not that I’m a huge fan of Sony Ericsson phones, but if you buy a Sony Ericsson C905a or W518a–presumably at full retail price–and agree to a new two year contract, you get three free accessories. It’s only in stores, not online. And, if you ask me, it’s not that great of a deal. Sony gets points for trying, but I doubt the promotion will be very successful.

Comments

27 November 2009, Letterhead Printing | UPrinting.com writes: I love the Social Network Wars. :-) Really funny. Thank you for sharing these link. Will wait for more :-) Good luck with the liquidation.
28 November 2009, tom writes: prepaid phones are becoming a very big part of my business(i own a small used computer shop.) i would suggest buying one from the major carriers but than activating with someone both cheaper and with much better support. for example buy a verizon prepaid but instead of activating with verizon activate with page plus. your ongoing expense will likely be half or even less and the customer service is outstanding in comparison to dealing with verizon directly. someone will nearly always answer the support line without your being placed on hold and they are more likely to have a quick solution for whatever issue you have. do note that if the phone has been activated on verizon the ESN will not be accepted by pageplus unless the verizon account is cancelled; and that might take several days o happen. so DO NOT activate a verizon prepaid phone with verizon if you plan to use it with pageplus. if it is a new never activated phone the whole setup process is very fast and easy and you get $6.00 in free calling without having to buy anything in advance. if you talk a lot you can get 1200 minutes/1200 texts/50MB data for $29.95/month with no additional fees or taxes. or unlimited minutes/texts/20MB data for $39.95. a reliable sources tells me there will soon be an unlimited(probably with FUP) data option that can be used with a smartphone, data dongle, or MiFi device. p.s. pageplus will also activate any ESN even a phone from another CDMA network; the PRL will have to be set to verizons though. i am currently using a sprint branded palm pre with pageplus and it works great.

Inbox Liquidation Part 50

PhoneBoy — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:07:23 +0000

I spent the afternoon in Starbucks going through my work inbox. It’s still got too many items in it, but it now has less than my personal Gmail. Now it’s time to turn my attention to my personal Gmail inbox and crank out another Inbox Liquidation post:

Psiloc Cuts Prices during the Summer: During the summer, you can 1 S60 3rd edition application from Psiloc and get a second one at half off. If you buy an app for an older Nokia-type phone or a UIQ device, buy your apps for 5.99 EUR (or just under 9 USD). Psiloc has a lot of great apps. I’ve personally purchased Psiloc Connect for the N95 8GB and been very happy with it.

David Blaine‘s Street Magic: See A Card app for iPhone: For $1.99, you too can amaze your friends and perform one of David Blaine’s famous card tricks using your iPhone, or so the press release goes. But let’s be honest: it’s more impressive with an actual deck of cards than it is with an iPhone app. I guess I’ll have to try it once my iPhone comes off backorder.

Your Streelights Bring You WiFi: Duratel has a very clever solution: hide those unsightly antennas for mobile phones and WiFi inside the light poles. Have to say I like this, if only to shut the NIMBYs up. Now if only AT&T would deploy a few of these in my neighborhood.

Spy On Your Employees/Spouses With FlexiSpy: It’s available for a lot of phones, including Nokia, Windows Mobile, Blackberry, and iPhone. I’ll just let you read the site and decide if you think it’s a good idea. Whether it is legal or not is another thing entirely.

Park Your Number With NumberGarage: If you’re moving out of an area and you don’t want to lose that number, a service like NumberGarage is helpful. You can essentially port the number to them. For a nominal fee, they will keep the number alive for you. The PARK service just parks the number, the FORWARD service will forward calls to your number to a different one. It’s a clever service, but their PARK service needs to announce a forwarding number, just like your phone company does when they move your service to a different location.

David Blaine now douching up your iPhone (mobilecrunch.com)
I Ordered an iPhone, or Why Hell Froze Over Today (phoneboy.com)
How sweet it is: Apple’s new iPhone a tasty update (thestar.com)
David Blaine Brings His Magic to the iPhone, Fails to Disappear (geardiary.com)
Thwarted Techno Lust (warrenellis.com)

Inbox Liquidation, Part 49

PhoneBoy — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:43:09 +0000

It’s that time again where I sift through the debris in my inbox and pick five or so things to write briefly about. It’s kind of like Stefan Constantinescu’s series called Trimming in Public except I only write about the things that interest me. I think I’ll also take a cue and give it a cute name: “Inbox Liquidation”

Trapster Goes iPhone 3.0 and Android: While this isn’t a service I’ve used in quite a while, I love the idea of a user-generated speed trap tracking system. Trapster has been around for at least a year and now supports the iPhone 3.0 firmware, exploiting to great effect the new mapping APIs as well as the background notification services, making it much quicker to report traps as well as have the ability to receive trap alerts without having to run the Trapster application in the foreground! Of course, if you have an Android phone, you’re covered as well since you can run the app in the background.

ShoZu Going Pay, Sort Of: ShoZu is an application that takes pictures from your phone and automatically puts it in social networks and the like online. Their app had been free, but it looks like they will move the application to the various phone application stores and charge for the app. They are already doing this for the iPhone version of the app. It’s an interesting way to pay for what is essentially a “service”–buy an app to access said service. Not sure how this is going to play with ShoZu users, or how it’s going to increase their user base, but it will be interesting to see.

The Nokia Glock Model 40: My dad sent me this picture. It gives the phrase “sidetalking” a whole new meaning, if you catch my drift.

OnRelay Brings Fixed Mobile Convergence to Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1: OnRelay is announcing on 23 June 2009 that they are collaborating with Sony Ericsson to bring OnRelay’s Mobile PBX software onto the Sony Ericsson device. My response: So what? This might have been interesting several years ago, but the world has already converged on the mobile phone. PBXes do nothing for me, nor do they do anything for most of the people I work with.

Clearing Inbox Debris

PhoneBoy — Fri, 22 May 2009 08:27:35 +0000

It’s that time again:

FreeConferencing.com Launches: Until they do something to equalize inter-carrier compensation between most civilized parts of the United States and rural locations, services like FreeConferenceCall.com and now FreeConferencing.com will continue to exist and be profitable. By hosting these services in, say, rural Iowa, they actually make a small amount of money per minute on incoming calls. Anyway, FreeConferencing.com is a way to do a one-to-many call, complete with a web-based console to manage the call.

Vonage Trying To Act Like Mobile Phone Carriers: Vonage, the VoIP landline replacement service provider that refuses to die, is now offering a deal where you can sign up and not pay for equipment, shipping, or activation. The catch? You have to sign a two year agreement complete with early termination fees that are, according to my calculations, worse than a mobile phone contract.

iPopperz Fashion Earphones: Personally not my thing, but these are relatively inexpensive, in-ear haedphones with a number of styles, colors, and whatnot. I would consider buying the black, green, and black pair. One cool thing: they sell replacement earpads. Granted, there is a huge amount of markup there, but it’s the first time I’ve seen them available.

Bad Experience on DeFi Mobile: I briefly wrote about DeFi Mobile in October. Wasn’t sure how well the service was going to be when it went live, but someone forwarded me some correspondence to and from the company related to their experience. In short: it was bad voice quality and improper CallerID. Anyone have a good experience with DeFi Mobile?

Qwest Offering Free WiFi Nationwide: If you happen to live in an area where Qwest is your local exchange carrier and you get high speed Internet from them, now you can take it with you–sort of. Qwest has signed a deal with AT&T to provide Qwest customers free WiFi at 17,000 AT&T operated WiFi hotspots. Personally, I think it’s worth $9.95 a month for Boingo, which offers WiFi at AT&T locations and a whole bunch more!

Comments

23 May 2009, Andy Abramson writes: Re: DeFi Mobile---are they around? It has been months since I even heard about them. Re: Vonage--I'm at least liking the fact that the new management team is trying to be different and newer. re: Qwest-They have to wish they had been bought. I still think someone, likely Verizon gobbles them up at some point, but do they ever need a mobile play. re: Free Conference Calling---My prediction-Skype wipes that market up in a few years. The paid stuff ends up at COL (Citrix OnLine) which was HighDefConferencing.com, a former client.
24 May 2009, spg writes: when DeFi first came out I inquired about whether i could really call any phone in any country or if it was a fancy way of wording 'VOIP cals to any country' and i specifically picked a couple desitinations i know to be super expensive. they replied with a 'quote' from the marketing dept. and nothing specific to the destinations i asked about. all aditional inquires via email went unanswered and my forum posts asking questions were never posted. i notice that the forum is 100% positive posts now; so they obvoisely moderate out all else. more recently i have noticed they have a list of countries taht can not be called; this list grows almost every day. for me the one amazing thing about this service was the unlimited calls to any country. that made this an interesting service to be used from a single location for 'cost savings on otherwise expensive international calls' that i believe has a much bigger market than the limited number of people who would use it from public WiFi spots. of course with a growing list of countries that can not be called that attraction is disappearing.
24 May 2009, spg writes: i just checked the website and the list of unsported countries has now been replaced with a short list of supported countries.
29 May 2009, Matt writes: I had no idea Qwest was still around. They were my provider when I lived in Montana.
12 June 2009, jiya bingo live free writes: For me the one amazing thing about this service was the unlimited calls to any country.that made this an interesting service to be used from a single location.

Debris From the Inbox

PhoneBoy — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 09:37:16 +0000

I am starting to get more requests for “blog love” at a time when I have less and less desire to write. I am quickly coming to the realization that much of the stuff people are asking me to write about just isn’t that interesting. Quite honestly, I don’t want to simply echo what some PR people crafted into a press release. I’d rather write something that I am interested in, at least

Meanwhile, here’s a few

From the “Do we really need another way to make free calls” department: Calling America is a new site that uses a “browser-based technology” (Flash) along with ads to provide free calling within the U.S.. If you don’t register, you can make a 2 minute call. If you register, you can make a 15 minute call. Are people this hard up for money that they’ll choose this over choosing to pay Skype $3 a month for unlimited US and Canada calls?

Thomas Howe Named CEO of Jaduka: While the folks I’ve talked with at Jaduka in the past are pretty smart and they certainly have the telephony infrastructure to back it up, Thomas Howe is most certainly the right guy to have at the helm. He truly understands how all this stuff will fit together. With Network IP’s infrastructure at his beck and call, who knows what kind of mashups they’ll be able to put together.

Peter Csathy Named CEO of Sorenson Media: I was wondering what was going to happen to Peter Csathy after Logitech acquired the company he was previously CEO of, SightSpeed. Turns out he’s taking his expertise in video over to the leading company behind compressing it for consumption on the Internet: Sorenson Media. Good stuff!

Poke Your Facebook Friends While On A Voice Call: This new technology developed by Ditech Networks called TokTok will let you access, among other things, web applications, social networks, Google calendar and Gmail contacts enabling people to schedule appointments, create new tasks, conference in others, and more – all mid-conversation. If the technology works with today’s craptastic mobile phone service, that would be a feat in itself. However, the thought of something listening in on my calls, even if it’s a computer? Sorry, that just creeps me out.

Skype to be Included in Nokia Handsets: The Nokia N97, when it ships, will include a version of Skype that actually makes calls using voice over IP instead of using the GSM/UMTS voice channel as it does today. This is undoubtedly going to cause some mobile operators some heartburn, but what else is new? I think this is a great idea, but will it change Nokia’s market share numbers? I doubt it.

Save yourself a packet on mobile calls (stephenfry.com)
Skype To Give Away New SILK Audio Codec (techcrunch.com)
Skype Extends VoIP To Some Mobile Phones, MIDs (textually.org)
Nokia will ship N97 loaded with Skype VoIP software (infoworld.com)
Skype’s immunity to phone tapping threatened (infoworld.com)

Really, Let’s Clear Out The Inbox Now

PhoneBoy — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 09:39:05 +0000

I have been avoiding my Gmail inbox for some time now, trying to get to things that have been sitting there for a month now. I feel like a failure every time I look at it. Time to do something about it, with my changed blogging focus. Makes deleting those emails a bit easier.

Meanwhile, I did run across some juicy tidbits:

Fonolo is in Public Beta: Fonolo, the company that takes the pain out of working your way through the typical, large-company phone tree hell, has opened their doors. Anyone in the U.S. and Canada can sign up and use this service for free. You can scroll through their list of companies, look at the phone tree, and click a button. You’ll be called from that point in the phone tree, so you don’t have to waste time navigating that far down.

Telestial Prepaid SIM Cards: Telestial provides both global roaming SIMs like my friends at MAXroam and SIM4travel, but they also offer local SIMs in many countries, which often give you better rates in the country you’re in. They do offer a couple of U.S. SIMs–one that is basically a T-Mobile SIM, the other is a SIM that allows you to make calls on all 3 major GSM networks in North America: T-Mobile, AT&T, and Rogers. If they could do away with the $0.59 connection charge per call, it’d be a worthwhile SIM for a North American resident to carry full time!

RIAA vs. Joel Tenenbaum: This is a rather interesting case where, of course, the RIAA is suing Joel Tenenbaum for downloading songs off the Internet. He’s countersuing, challenging the constitutionality of the process and statute being wielded against him. The “Digital Theft Deterrence Act of 1999,” which was designed as a civil statute, is essentially a criminal statute, punitively deterrent in its every substantive aspect. Civil courts–where he is being tried–should not be handling criminal cases, which Tenenbaum argues this is. Looks like the case is progressing nicely, will have to keep an eye on this.

Evolution of Mobile Phones: A graphical, albeit U.S.-centric view of how mobile phones evolved. The Nokia 6100 series (which included several models) where the shiznit back in 1999 and 2000, and I’m not just saying that because I worked there then. I recently recycled mine since it’s impossible to use the U.S. models anymore, thanks to 64k SIMs and the discontinuation of TDMA.

Skyfire Goes Worldwide, Open to All: I really like the Skyfire browser available for Nokia S60 devices and Windows Mobile. It was originally restricted to U.S. folks, but now you don’t need to even sign up to use the browser. It does a fantastic job of taking a regular web page–complete with plugins like Flash and Silverlight, and makes it available on your phone. It does do this with some server side magic, so while they claim not to snoop on your private transactions, if you’re paranoid, you might want to wait until you get back to your desktop to check out your bank or PayPal account.

NAVTEQ offers Mobile Traffic: If you don’t feel like loading up Google Maps on your mobile (or can’t), NAVTEQ (which is owned by my employer, Nokia) has http://mobi.traffic.com, which provides a mobile-friendly way of checking on traffic in major cities. Unfortunately, I live just outside of the areas it covers, though Google Maps will give traffic data up to Gig Harbor, but not any farther up the Kitsap Peninsula. Still might be worth a try if you live in a major metro. They also offer traffic alerts via SMS and you can call 1-866-MY-TRAFC to get up-to-the-minute traffic information.

Work, Truphone, Nokia Messaging, RoadSync, and Snowmageddon!

PhoneBoy — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 09:05:07 +0000

For those of you only follow my blog and don’t follow me on Twitter, I haven’t been saying much here. You might say my attention has been focused elsewhere. I still don’t know who my new employer will be. It is outside of my circle of influence, so I’ve dove head-first into a project related to the divestiture. This is clearly inside my circle of influence, and I’ve made serious headway on it. I may even finish it before whatever deal Nokia makes with the third party closes!

Meanwhile, I just have been completely uninspired in the blogging realm. I read the stuff that comes across my social networks–I haven’t bothered to look in Google Reader for at least a month–and it just seems like more of the same. How many of us are saying the same stuff?

The VoIP industry seems to be touting “lower cost calling” in these tough economic times, which I can’t say I can argue with. For example, the folks from Truphone have managed to make their iPhone application both make and receive calls over WiFi and launched a cheaper calling rate plan that requires a monthly fee. This just seems more of the same, even if it is a message that people are going to want to hear right now.

Other stuff of interest I’ve run across includes the new Nokia Messaging client (formerly Nokia Email). It’s finally usable now that they’ve made it so the client doesn’t jump in your face on startup. It also just seems more polished as well. Runs nice alongside RoadSync on my E71, which I’ve been trying out as well.

RoadSync provides a slightly nicer email interface inside the standard S60 mail interface. I’ve paired it up with the company directory only version of Mail for Exchange, which RoadSync seems to leave out. You have access to the Global Address List inside RoadSync when sending email, but I don’t see a way to search in the Global Address List and add any conatcts found to your phone as a contact.

Finally, of more immediate concern to me is our crazy winter weather here in the Pacific Northwest. After a relatively mild autumn, we started our descent into snowmageddon nearly a week ago. Temps dipped below freezing last weekend and have mostly remained there since. Precipitation has been in the form of snow–something we get around these parts around this time every year, but not to the point where we need roads plowed and sanded. Our municipalities are ill-equipped for this kind of weather, as are local drivers.

Hopefully, I won’t have to go out into the snow on Sunday, as it’s looking like it’s gonna be another nasty day, complete with snow and possibly ice. Depends on what the temperatures end up being, of course.

More Inbox Cleaning

PhoneBoy — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 08:09:25 +0000

Yes, I need to do some cleaning out.

Tagggit: This is for people who have high-end Nokia phones, like tagging stuff around their city, and, um, want another social network. They supposedly can get a location fix in as little as 15 seconds–even indoors. That might be an interesting technology for someone to buy, but I’ll pass on the service.

INQ Mobile: They’re selling a “Facebook Centric” phone for use on UK’s 3 Network. Let’s see, it’s Windows Mobile, not even quadband GSM, and it has Skype on it. Skype makes it only marginally interesting. No interest here, thanks. Especially now that the Nokia N97 has been announced.

IfByPhone Gets $4.6 Million in Funding: Great news for Chicago-based IfByPhone, particularly in these tough times. It’s funny, because I was talking to one of my friends the other day. He runs a bridal shop and has been asking my advice on various things. I mentioned how technology like IfByPhone’s could be integrated into his site easily, reducing the amount of time it takes to get a sale. At least I gave him something to think about.

They Call It Cloudworker Now: Plantronics, a company from my home town of Santa Cruz, CA, did a study of teleworkers, whom they now are calling “Cloudworkers” thanks to a contest they ran. The study said teleworkers are traveling less (36% of workers reported) and in teleconferences more (40% of workers reported). Sounds about right, particularly with the economy imploding all around us.

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17 December 2008, Press for Cloudworker | ribbonfarm writes: [...] More Inbox Cleaning (The PhoneBoy Blog – December 5, 2008) [...]

Still Digging Out The Inbox

PhoneBoy — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 07:23:08 +0000

Here we go again:

Global IP Solutions Launches VideoEngine™ Mobile: This will, in theory, make it easier to provide high-quality video calling from mobile phones. This launched for Windows Mobile on 13 October and is coming soon for other platforms. Me, I’d just like the ability to do any video calling on a mobile phone. That’s what I get for living in North America.

SnapYap Offers Flash-Based Video Calling: Seems like another competitor for SightSpeed that doesn’t require you to install software. Unfortnately, the video quality is NOT SightSpeed, but if you want to give it a try anyway, you can “call” me or leave a message on: http://www.snapyap.com/call/phoneboy

TringMe Now Offering VoiceXML: In addition to offering a Flash widget to make click-to-call possible from our website, they also now offer developers the ability to script an application with VoiceXML. So where’s the business model?

The Academy Relaunches Website: Several current and former Nokia colleagues are involved in a project called The Academy where a number of videos are posted related to configuring security appliactions. The website has been relaunched and it’s shaping up to be a great resource for the security geeks out there. Now, where’s some videos on Sourcefire, Peter?

Fring Working With moblikom Austria: The PR speak: Fring and moblikom Austria announced on October 21st the launch of a bespoke version of fring’s mobile internet communication (MVoIP) and community service, that in addition to the full the fring feature-set is also enabling mobilkom Austria to provide their users a mobile internet community, packed with Intenret experiences with mVoIP, Chat, presence and more. Good for them, hope Fring gets some revenue out of it, because I don’t see their business model otherwise.

More Inbox Cruft

PhoneBoy — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:26:40 +0000

My inbox is growing! Bad email practices are obviously taking over. Here’s a few things:

Jaxtr Goes 2.0, Adds Subscription Model: On September 30th, the folks at Jaxtr launched their new subscription-level services, making it easier (and cheaper) for members to make cheap calls through their mobile phone. While I’m sure there are people willing to do this, the fundamental problem I have with all toll bypass solutions is they involve changing your calling patterns. Clearly without using software on the mobile handset–which is a positive for Jaxtr–some changes in calling patterns have to occur. I’m not quite as cold as I once was on Jaxtr’s business model. Cautiously optimistic is the word I’d use.

Palringo Pushing IM Over Texting, Adding Location Information: Clearly with the mobile operators in North America charging us an arm and a leg to text, IM is a way around the SMS tax. Palringo provides a nice multi-IM experience on the mobile handset, and now will begin offering location-based information alongside your status messages. The location based stuff will start on Windows Mobile, but will roll out to other supported phones by the end of the year. Looking forward to trying the Nokia S60 version when it becomes available.

A Good Discount on WalkingHotSpot Available: WalkingHotSpot is a way to turn your Nokia S60 or Windows Mobile device into a hotspot! It’s similar to JoikuSpot, with many of the same limitations. A 7-day trial is available, but you can pay either $6.95 a month or $24.99 a year. However, I can get you the program for $9.99 for the lifetime of the phone! Send an email to dwelch AT phoneboy.com with the subject WalkingHotSpot Discount and I’ll set at least two of you up–more if the folks at WalkingHotSpot allow it.

Fring on iPhone: Yet another multi-IM client for your mobile phone, except it also does voice. And now, it does it on the iPhone, complete with calling over WiFi and availability in Apple’s App Store. I don’t have an iPhone, but the reports from my friends on Twitter have been generally positive.

IVONA Has A New Voice: IVONA has a text-to-speech program that sounds pretty good. They even recently announced a new voice was available, this guy “Eric” from the west coast of the United States. Regardless, the inflection on these text-to-speech systems are all wrong. They are improving, but still all wrong.

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