Phones

It is an idea (following the London bombings) that each person can and should do.

Put in your cell phone directory the name ICE then put a number to call for notification of an emergency. A wife a parent etc...

Saturday morning I woke up at a criminally early hour (for a weekend anyhow). Since sleep apparently wasn't in the game plan I decided to call Vonage to see if I could actually get someone on the phone, and if I could convince them to listen to me long enough to troubleshoot a hardware/firmware problem I've been having with my VOIP terminal adapter.

Well the rumored RAZRBerry is officially announced by Motorola. It is called Moto Q. It runs Windows Mobile 5.0 and will be released early next year. Cool. Another thing in my wishlist.

I just couldn’t resist any longer. I threw caution to the wind and bought a Motorola RAZR V3 (Black) for myself. Everyone said that it was a beautiful phone with wonderful construction but had terrible operating software. After using it for a couple of days, I’d have to say that they are right about the construction, but the software is just fine except for the address book. It has only single-letter searching, which makes a long list a bear. Also, if you have multiple entries (emails, phones of the same type, etc.) for a person there is no way to differentiate (that I have found) between themSpecial Edition Black RAZR V3

Kent Norman is a cognitive psychologist who directs the Laboratory for Automation Psychology and Decision Processes at the University of Maryland. He studies and teaches the cognitive aspects of human/computer interaction with the goal of understanding how to make technology user-friendly. And in his spare time he torches, smashes and chainsaws broken electronics. And to think I was merely going to take a hammer to my pair of dead Nokia phones. Check out Kent’s online survey, publicity and instructional videos.

First there was PGP e-mail. Then there was PGPfone for modems. Now Phil Zimmermann, creator of the wildly popular Pretty Good Privacy e-mail encryption program, is debuting his new project, which he hopes will do for internet phone calls what PGP did for e-mail.

Tonight I’m home alone with my honey (that’s a happy thing) and the animals, who now outnumber us (not so happy.) Nick is in DC on his way to National Scout Jamboree. (Happy for him, not so happy for me.) Katy is somewhere nearing Japan, where she will land at Osaka Airport in a few hours. (Really, really not happy for me but thrillingly happy for her.) I am a little bit distressed as I have no way to contact her (nor she me, apart from a very prohibitively expensive collect call which I would totally take if she needed to call me) and she’s half a world away. I keep reminding myself that there was a time when there weren’t cell phones and we still managed…I just miss my kids.

My internet broke on Friday, right before I left to go interfere with Chris for the weekend, so I didn't have time to do much about it (i.e., call Cablevision), so when I came home this afternoon, I called for help. I think all I had to do was press the "Power" button on the cable modem, as it appears everything is currently functional. It's kinda a pain when the cable modem goes, though, because I use Vonage, which means my phone line is connected through the cable modem, and I pay the Cablevision bill through the internet, which means I don't get paper bills, which means I can't access the internet or call Directory Assistance to find their tech support number to call them. And although I do have a cell phone, the fact that I live in a basement apartment means I have to go outside to get phone reception, which means that when the tech support guy (or gal) asks me a question or tells me to do something, I have to explain why I have to put them down and run into the house. I lose internet connectivity maybe 2 or 3 times a year (usually because I'm moving wires or cleaning or something), so it's not a really big deal, only a hassle that makes me reconsider not having a "real" phone line or something similar. Ahh well.

Well, this is my first mobile entry from my Treo 650. I’m heading home from being out of town for work. While I am in a cool place, Fort Lauderdale, its been hard work and little fun. I suppose it’s better than many other places.

Skype’s model departs from the basic razor and blade model in that the consumables are not necessary for the master to be useful. On June 13, Skype claimed that more than 1.5 million users had paid for SkypeOut. While this number is impressive, especially given that SkypeOut was less than a year old, it represents fewer than one in twenty of the more than 42 million Skype users. The source for this is the press release announcing Skype Voicemail, another paid service.

Is the new Motorola PEBL mobile phone coming to T-Mobile? The folks over at PhoneMag.com believe that it just might be! Now I have to admit, I like the PEBL design. I’m not sure what it is - perhaps it’s the rubberized design .. or perhaps it reminds me of a Star Trek Phaser.. or perhaps it’s because it doesn’t look like a RAZR.

The good news, besides the fact that the Nokia 6682 is finally available, is that you can purchase it unlocked instead of waiting for Cingular to release theirs, then pay the money to have it unlocked/flashed… yada yada.

Because the V551 is Bluetooth enabled, wireless headsets can be configured with the phone for total handsfree operation. It supports Cingular’s “Fast Forward” call forwarding device, which enables you to easily forward your wireless calls to your land-line phone.

On SkypeOut Gift Days you’ll be able to redeem 10 minutes of credit for SkypeOut calls and it won’t cost you a thing. It’s free.

Even with cheap $20 Sony headphones, I could hear nuances from 192kbps MP3 I had never ever heard before from any speakers or headphones. Originally, I plugged in my Apple iPod white earbuds – I’ve come to the well-formed conclusion they’re the most craptastic speakers, ever. (Best headset microphone I’ve used is the Plantronics Gamecom Pro 1. Very pricy, but worth it for Skype or for Counter-Strike… I own two: one for home, one for the office.)

While telecom giants SBC Communications and Verizon Communications are already beginning to roll out IPTV services, they're also asking Congress to streamline the rules that forced cable TV carriers to negotiate franchise agreements with every local government where they provided service. The large telecom carriers faced heavy regulation in the traditional telephone market when they were the only providers, they argue, but when Congress opened up voice calls to competition in the 1996 Telecommunications Act, competing carriers had fewer regulations.

N-Gage enabled phones are the way of the future? Who knew? The simple fact is that the N-Gage inituative has been at best, a bust. Naturally gamers have flockd back to the companies that have built their trust by delivering games they love; Sony and Nintendo. These companies have a reputation for delivering quality gaming machines by producing first-rate titles on their systems. The PSP and the DS are primarilly gaming machines first. Even if these Nokia phones do incorporate some sort of gaming fuction, the people who buy them are first and phone users, and therefore they will never see the same level of game sales as their console brethern.

Many of you know that when I am not fulfilling my duties as a “Professional Traveler”, I also do some tax consulting as a backup. Ok in all fairness, I do enjoy my tax work & have worked hard to make it a global tax practice, unfettered by cables and anything else that restricts me to one location. Thanks to the wonders of laptop computers, wireless internet access, international cell phones, and Adobe Acrobat, I can (and do) run my practice from anywhere in the world. Even 5 years ago I think this was not possible. Now I roam free and make a living at the same time!

seguendo l’attuale modello economico e mappandolo su un altro asse è fuor di dubbio che il Peer2Peer (cioè reti tra pari. vi basta un niente per averlo) sia il prossimo cavallo di battaglia della tecnologia ICT. L’economia si muove secondo questa formula (”Se tutti andassimo per i fatti nostri puntando solo al nostro interesse personale, allora faremmo il bene di tutti”) nel mondo internet diventa uguale a (”se andiamo ognuno per i fatti nostri facciamo il bene di tutti”)…la tecnologia assorbirà questa richiesta e spunteranno come funghi reti peer 2 peer, cellulari peer 2 peer, stampanti peer 2 peer, fotografie peer 2 peer e dio sa cosa, ma solo in peer 2 peer. Skype si comperà la telecom, Google sarà la televisione del futuro…nel senso che tutti la vedono ma nessuno la guarda. passivamente.

3. we ditched our phone service with qwest and at&t in favor of lingo (thanks scott for the recommend!). its a voip service and it works friggin’ great. 20 bones a month for unlimited long distance to us, canada and western europe. can’t beat that with a stick.

Parsing the information, (which comes from market research firm Point Topic), we see that as of the first quarter of this year, the top ten VoIP providers listed by number of customers were:

1. Skype- 5,300,000

So i just got off the phone with the qwest phone company. i scheduled an appointment to have them come over and install my own phone line in the basement as well as 5mbps DSL. FIVE!! that’s faster than cable here ^_^ i’m so excited. for a while the fastest connection i could find to have installed there was 2 mbps cable and it wasn’t guaranteed. so yeah i’m excited! I’m off to eat dinner be back later to blog more.

Expect the RAZR V3x to start shipping in the fourth quarter. Rumors point it to launch with Cingular.

We know that real-time geographic information is here: weather and traffic are examples. We know that remote sensor technology provides these data and can display them on maps. And we know that access via the internet and cell phones is providing anyone who will pay for it the ability to see it. We know that a shop keeper in Shanghai can see traffic congestion in Chicago...but why would he? We just know that he can.

Most telecom reps will privately recommend calling cards as the cheapest and most economical long distance solution. The best are less than 4 cents/minute, no per-call connection fee, no monthly fees, and the ability to recharge minutes at any time. Cards provide higher value than cell phone minutes, and certainly have higher quality connections over traditional land lines.

I am so skeptical about these new technologies, I don’t know, I don’t know… I am keeping my skype.

I’ve been opening wide my treasure chest of friends, finally, and it makes me happy beyond belief to realize I have so many wonderful people in my life. I’ve definitely been blessed in this respect as my friends are definitely all beautiful in their own right and all very unique. It’s wonderful to finally be able to talk to them using this Skype service and to catch up and see how they are doing these days. =)

Sheldon and I had yesterday figured out Thursday night or so we thought. We were looking forward to spending the Friday alone, hoping to spend quality time together on her day’s off before I go back to work. I set aside my painting (which wasn’t easy because I’m excited about it) to spend time with her. Then I wake up, and NO DSL, AGAIN. I mean come on! How many times do we have to go through this with Qwest? I called a local ISP who was working up some quotes for me to install a T1 line as I waited for Qwest to send another tech repairperson to the house. I learned it will cost us $305 for T1 install costs and $550 per month for the service. Not bad, we’re going to go with it. On the Qwest side, our DSL always goes out in the middle of the night on Friday evenings….hm.

Sprint finally came through with the Bluetooth Dial-Up Networking for the Treo 650. It was posted last night on Engadget but waited until this morning to do the update.

Also, I don’t think I’d want one at the moment. There are too many spammers on the networks, and if we only had one protocol their life would be so much easier. It’s also nice to be able to be available on one network, say Skype for business related IM for example, and not have to talk to everybody who’s on Yahoo and wants me to play online.

Rich Tehrani of TMCnet posted today that there are rumours of Bell South purchasing Vonage at 3.5 billion dollars US. http://blog.tmcnet.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/9198. The blog wires are humming with comments etc about this today, and there's all kinds of interesting analysis. I'm gonna add some too, although I'm no analyst, and don't really know all that much anyways....

Last night saw the delivery of about 20 pounds of phone book to our front walk. The last time I used a phone book was … I honestly can’t remember. The only thing a printed telephone directory adds to an internet search is advertising, and that’s not exactly a selling point for me. This is a serious waste of paper, even if it’s getting recycled, which it is. Immediately.

Anyway, the scuttle on the net is that Apple are going to (in part) bypass the US networks altogether and launch their own with a brand new invention from the networks, the MVNO. In effect Apple would hire bandwidth/airtime from a network (sounds like they’re using Sprint) and label the network “Apple.” People would get SIM cards from their nearest Apple Store (or www.apple.com) and away they go. The MVNO has anumber of operators in the UK so really it’s a no-brainer in my mind.

SkypeIn gives you a regular telephone number that people can call, and you can get the calls directly on your Skype client, anywhere in the world. Best thing is they only pay the cost of the call to the number, so if they live in the same area as the number then they only pay local rates. What makes this really cool is that you can get up to ten different numbers, in different countries, so you’ll always be a local call no matter where you are! Awesome!

The new quarter-inch-wide phone is his weapon of choice in Motorola’s bid to overtake archrival Nokia Oyj in its strongholds overseas. About half as thick as the pricey Razr phone U.S. customers embraced last year, Scalpel also incorporates the “candy bar” shape of almost all of Nokia’s models.

As some might have noticed the site has been down almost 2 weeks. Doing the old self hosting thing and moving plus changing my ISP from Bellsouth to Cox has made for an interesting adventure to say the least. We got moved by the 24th of last month but no internet access or cable until the 30th. I went strictly cable services this time including a rather pricey upgrade to business tier service. Each item had to be completed before the next item could be undertaken. We bought a house that was built in 1964 so every single thing like establishing new cable service had to pretty much be done from scratch. Lines that were in existence had filters on them and the house had only one outlet installed and firebreaks in the walls made installing new ones difficult but Cox got it done. That was phase one.

I got a new cell phone today — the amazingly badass black Razr. Since Cingular follows the usual cell phone industry practice of offering the worst deals to their loyal customers, I didn’t renew my contract with them — we found a new-customer deal that was far, far better. As a result, I’ve got a new mobile number. If you need that number, send me an email.

We’ve been without DSL service since late Friday and only came back up around 7:00 pm on Tuesday, then lost it again until this morning. I managed to upload Saturday’s blog from FedEx Kinko’s on Saturday. Sheldon and I decided that we’d take a break from the Internet and let Qwest do their thing, hoping they’d have the DSL back up by Sunday morning. The problem started when Qwest experienced an outage Friday night, a second one on Saturday, and then “visibility issues” from Sunday. I don’t know what happened last night, but thank goodness it came back on again.

I have a cell phone from Cingular wireless. Their relentless commercials say they have the most overall coverage and the least dropped calls. They are “raising the bar.”

Well not in Omaha, they're not.

The Sprint VI-125 by LG is an almost perfect little voice phone and a worthy recipient of our Editors' Choice award. It may not be packed with features, but it makes clear calls, feels great in your hand, has a long-lasting battery, and costs relatively little.

This box is a modem, switch (glorified hub), and router in one, plus it is a WiFi access point. This will be used with the Axim, so I can have internet access on it all around the house, in my back garden, and well down the street, without any cables. So now you'll be able to Skype me anywhere around the house.

Yesterday's VoIP-a-thon at S Witham was interesting. A collection of many different ATAs, IP phones and Skype over bluetooth headsets. Basically it all "just worked" via Tom's wireless network, which runs on beer and tobacco.

So I went out on Friday and picked up a Motorola HS820 Bluetooth headset. At this point in time, the current function of a Bluetooth headset for me is for Skype on my laptop and my desktop at home. I intend to upgrade my phone to the new Treo 650, which has BT, so I didn’t think it would be a bad idea to go ahead and pick up a headset now, particularly since I use Skype just about every day and I’m really getting tired of wearing a huge wired Logitech headset.

this one just arrived this morning... i was supposed to order the motorolla razr but decided to buy this instead... i mean, the appearance of the moto razr's really nice coz it's very thin and elegant-looking but the features were just so-so... unlike the nokia 6630, which is fully-loaded... 1.3 megapixel camera, 1-hour video, mobile chat, internet, and loads more... so i decided to get this one instead... i'll use this phone for my US line (cingular wireless) so that i could call some peepz that i know from here...

After going about our day we realized that our phone line wasn’t working. Turns out our Vonage line survied better than the QWest line – We had to call Qwest and only after they ran a test on the line did it magically start working again.

The Treo 600 (I couldn’t bring myself to splurge $600 on a Treo 650) is a much better machine than the Sidekick II for a number of reasons: Open platform with a large library of software, open platform that allows for anything to be installed, no reliance on an unreliable backend server, a phone that actually works, better RF performance, and expandability through its SDIO slot.

Starting today, CSU listeners can telephone, email, or Skype your questions or comments — which may be aired on an upcoming episode!

Origin of Storms - the blog project has posted some great info. to help get you started in restoring your Motorola v265 to it full potential: Add your own ringtones (without paying Verizon), transfer pictures, get rid of the Verizon logo concealing date display, etc.

Independent ISPs face a tough fight as the dominant telecom carriers such as BellSouth, Qwest Communications International, SBC Communications and Verizon Communications push for a rewrite of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. The Bells want to end federal regulation of their networks, an outcome that ISPs and competitive carriers generally oppose.

There are many other features which would sell the phone individually, but when taken together make the phone a must have. With the release of the Treo 650, many carriers are dropping their price on this phone to a reasonable level so unless you need the Bluetooth and other small feature differences in the 650, I'd stick with the 600. The only complaint you'll have while answering the phone, taking pictures, sending and receiving email, SMS, and MMS messages is maybe you are TOO reachable.