Phones

So, Google has screwed me. They got me all excited about this Google Talk deal, but now I’ve found out that only the GT program itself (which is Windows only) has voice chat. There are a bunch of non-Windows chat clients that can connect to the GT protocol, but none of them have voice chat. Come on Google, when do I get VOIP?

It’s a service that uses VoIP technology, but can connect to the telephone network. Not that different from Skype? The difference is, this is free. It’s skyware free, and you don’t need to give any personal information. The catch is, to prevent telelmarketers from using the service, calls are limited to one minute in the free service, and to get rid of that limit, you just have to pay a Euro. One time. A one-time, one Euro fee.

In my opinion Google should skip releasing a standalone IM client. They sort of already have IM capability with Hello (although that’s a part of their picture service). Instead, they should go after and buy Skype — or something like it, maybe — for something that has chat and IMO the more valuable voice services.

As you may know, Amateur Radio has historically played an important role during disasters. In many cases it’s the only reliable means of communications when normal communications, such as landline telephones and cell phones, are not operational (sometimes for weeks). Check out the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL), eHam.net, or send me an e-mail if you’re interested in Amateur Radio.

However, there have been rising concerns that cellular coverage underground may aid terrorists in striking subways. Besides allowing them to communicate through mobile devices, cell phones have been a favorite tool among terrorists to detonate remote bombs; as may have been the case in the Madrid commuter-train bombings that killed 191 last year.

I read an article recently about how cell phones are becoming a personification of their users’ personalities. If that’s the case, my tech-geek cell phone matches me perfectly. A definite “thumbs up” for the Motorola e815.

And in a week full of Google speculation, Om Malik comments on the rumours Google might be preparing a voice instant messaging application rather than considering a Skype purchase.

Google is going to be releasing a new 'communications tool' tomorrow. There are many people speculating that it is going to be an IM service / tool. That would be so 1999. I think they are going to release a VOIP service. They might bundle chat with it similar to Skype though.

PConline has some shots of the newly unveiled NEC L1. This thin phone appears to give the Motorola RAZR a run for its money. Check it out.

While many find that Nokia’s Operating System is generally easy to use, those more familiar with the Sony Ericsson phones may find themselves slowed down a little bit. The joystick is the sole controller for the interface, allowing selection as well as directional abilities.

Engadget 1985 is by far the funniest piece of computer geek humor that I’ve read all day. It took me right back to the day I got my first modem—which was actually back in 1991. Cell phones have definitely come along ways since their brief case-sized ancestors debuted. And thank goodness GPS receivers have come down in size and price. Gadgets that cost more than your house just don’t seem like a wise investment no matter how cool. Catch it all and the trendytapecast over at Engadget.

As of now, I use iChat to talk to my friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and Jabber along with Skype. I use instant messaging in Skype more often than I use chat. One main reason is it file transferring abilities. I would love to replace Skype with an openly based program, but I will not do so unless that program has most of the functionality that Skype has.

: The love fest continues…Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless have debuted an inter-carrier MMS agreement between the two companies, allowing more than 70 million wireless customers to exchange picture and video messages with directly from their camera phones.

But it can’t last forever and it may, just may, already have a rival! Sony Ericsson’s new K750i’s focus on its super duper mega pixel camera quality is building a fan club. Dramatic scenery, vivid picture quality and a spectacular, if ridiculous, finale is making waves and getting its message across, autofocus and all.

On another note, I’m off home toBarbados in late September for a few weeks. First stop will be my grandfather’s place to fix his home network, and ensure his DSL line works satisfactorily. I’ll also be installing a Sipura for him, probably a two line one so he has options. He probably won’t use the options, but I think I’ll configure the primary line with either Gossiptel (who seem to have problems recently :( ) or the UK Vonage service. The secondary line, I’ll stick on FWD - he’ll be able to dial myself and my parents for free that way (and could do with Gossiptel, we both have Gossiptel accounts), and could also dial 800 numbers in the USA.

I talk to my daughter in Okinawa almost every day. We gave them a Vonage phone (nayy) to take with them. Costs me $30/month. Thank some smart people and the internet.

Another friend I've known since I was a kid is over in Spain working on her Master's Thesis in Madrid. Her mom and I, good beach buddies, have been hanging out lots. So we emailed Spain and talked to her live on Skype--computer to phone hook up, very cheap--and we got her Thesis Draft in the email a few hours later.

I was reading Oliver Star's Blog today and I saw this.

It turns out that Parks and Associates did some research on what features users wanted to use on mobile devices…

So, as most of you know, I rebelled against my smart phone roots and went for a basic phone this time around, grabbing a Motorola Razr. Why? Because it is a phone. I always have my 12-inch Powerbook around when I need to do any of the things a full-on smart phone does, and I liked the sleek small form factor of the Razr.

If at first you don’t succeed…. It took three tries but Telco giants SBC and Verizon have finally been successful at getting legislation though the Texas legislature that will create a statewide franchise of IPTV triple-play television services delivered by Telcos.

The best part of the movie is the complete product endorsements by Microsoft. We have the Xbox fighting between Lincoln and Jordan but of course this is 2050, so it’s more realistic than just punching the keyboard. Later, Lincoln and Jordan go to Los Angeles where they use MSN Search booth to locate their sponsor. Now that would be an interesting utility to have. Most of the PCOs in India don’t even have a telephone directory next to them, forget having Internet Directory search. Truly, futuristic.

Someone, pinch me. It's only little over a year since my yawns were growing increasingly more frequent in conjunction with Motorola product launches, and all of a sudden the handset maker is churning out objects of lust like there's no tomorrow. At CeBIT, the company unveiled the V1150, which is essentially the RAZR V3 - with 3G, a 2 Megapixel camera and all the other goodies found in the V3.

So now it’s Tuesday. A company trenching for fiber optic managed to cut several of our phone lines and almost all of our data lines. The company doing the trenching saw the markings for phone lines, but bored anyway. By the end of the day, the street in front of the office had been dug up, and BellSouth had settled in for a long night of repairs. Just as I was asking what next, the bottom fell out and the newly dug trench began to fill with rainwater. We’ll be lucky to have our network back online by the time kids arrive.

(17:48:20) Mike: because my voice number is Vonage that simul-rings my home phone, office phone and cell phone

First things first, let me get it straight that I didn’t actually choose this phone (I would have probably got a k750i so Ill swap if anyone wants to). I didn’t even see it coming. Dad just came home carrying a box of phones and accessories and there it was. You see, my mother and sister are on plans and now that the plans have run out- they get new phones to replace their 18 month old 3315’s as retro as they are (I have 2 and a half of them to get rid of if anyone wants to buy one). Anyway, as it happens, mum doesn’t need (or have the ability to use all the features of a new phone so I traded my 3100 and a few houehold chores for the new razr v3.

I recently took on the task of installing the newest Cingular ROM/firmware update (1.15) to, hopefully, “improve” my Treo experience. What I actually got were more questions than answers.

Erik Lagerway pointed on his blog (www.sipthat.com)today to his interview by voxilla about his comments on P2P SIP. I read the article and found it quite interesting but it rose a couple hairs on my arms. It makes me nervous to see VoIP people talking about completely denuding telco's of their business model. One thing that P2P SIP really has an opportunity to do is destroy the commercial viability of telephony. It was ok when it was just Skype, a proprietary technology based mainly on hype and "enhanced" numbers. But the telco's have been getting bonked on the head repeatedly over the past few years; first they lost the internet to cable, and long distance, then they had to share their infrastructure with clecs, then this voip thing.

You may think I’m jumping to conclusions very quickly, and that it’s only $10, I can quickly get over it and carry on. But for god’s sake, it’s a whole 100 minutes of talk time! The reason I’m using VOIP to chat abroad is because it’s cheap. I could’ve used that same ten dollars and talk to my relatives for 30 minutes, perhaps less, but in this VOIP world, even a dollar is a lot to lose. Now, please, if you belong to the Gizmo project, do something about this. If you use the Gizmo project and have previously succeeded in your refund, tell me about it (comments below or sid@rev2.org). If you’ve read so far, I take it you like hearing people whine, whine, and whine. ;-)

Gartner’s definition of a PDA excludes smartphones, such as Palm’s Treo 650 and RIM’s BlackBerry 7100. According to Gartner, a PDA is “a data-centric handheld computer.” IDC defines PDAs as non-voice-centric devices capable of syncing with a computer.

Stan woke me up again this morning, but this time it was so I could talk to the totally awesome Qwest tech, who came out and ran his fingers over the wiring to unleash extra decibels of awesome out of the modem. This may or may not solve the rain problem, but it was nice to talk to someone who actually knew what the hell was going on.

I wasted a lot of time with this and let let me tell you, its NOT possible in the current state. Our friends at Rogers thought this would surely be doable upon selling the Treo 650 at the price of $799, but it turns out the connection cannot be established.

I declared war on Cingular today, and I think I lost. Yeah, I lost and I’m not happy. Here is the story. I was with AT&T, which of course was bought out by Cingular. I was informed through the mail that whenever I switched over to a Cingular plan I wouldn’t be penalized for ending my contract with AT&T, since they no longer exist. That is problem #1. Problem #2 is that my plan with AT&T was a local plan, which means I roam when I’m out of WV, KY, and OH…so I’ve been roaming everytime I’ve been to MD/DC. My cell phone bills have been over $100 for the past 2 months, and so far this month I already have about $88 in roaming fees. Problem #2 creates problem #3, because Cingular does not have local plans, only national plans. Great, sign me up. Oh no, they won’t do that.

And finally, to end today's non sequitur, I noticed this weekend that I'm such a drone to marketing that when I catch myself about to do something stupid, my mind plays the Vonage music. I'm not digging this at all.

I've been having to make calls back to the UK for the last couple of weeks, and I didn't want my phone bill to be through the roof with roaming charges, so last week I decided to go hunt for a pay as you go phone or SIM (whichever was easiest, and cheapest to come by). First stop was Best Buy, where they had Virgin Mobile pay as you go phones and Moto Boost. Neither are GSM and you have to buy the phone (there is no SIM card), whilst this was appealing I didn't really want to carry 2 phones around, so I asked the sales assistant if they did SIM cards, and his reply was that you just can't get them over here, and that I'd have to buy a Virgin or Moto phone. So disillusioned and concerned for the US mobile phone market, I wandered out and 2 doors found a Cingular store. So I wandered in, asked if they did prepaid SIM cards, and the answer was yes (It's nice to know that I still have the ability to find the incompetent sales assistant in a consumer electronics store (Best Buy) regardless of country).

I am looking for something with bluetooth to allow the use of a wireless headset. Have thought about a treo 650 or a Windows Smartphone as a possible candidate.

As a result of the completion of that milestone, I now also have an opportunity to tell you about a wonderful product! Global Positioning Systems that provide navigational services based on the locations of satellites are extremely powerful and have become remarkably affordable and available in recent years. Stuart and I have used many devices made by Garmin over the years, since we like to go day hiking, and geocaching and that kind of outdoorsy thing. As many of you know, they even have a terrific Palm OS device! Naturally when this issue came up for my mom, I thought of Garmin immediately. We did some research using the Treo 650 right there in the restaurant, and we located a nearby store that had what we thought would be just the right product for my mom in stock, the “StreetPilot c330″ which we installed easily in her Beetle that afternoon.

I have an SBC DSL package that is supposed to be giving me download speeds of 1.5 Mbps-3.0 Mbps, and upload speeds of 384 Kbps-512 Kbps. I've run the speed tests a couple of times this morning and always getting something like 1.1 Mbps for downloading, and 315 Kpbs for upload.