Source: goebel.net

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Many people were wondering during the last two years how the Israeli mobile VoIP company Fringland Ltd. wants to make any money. Their versatile software works on virtually every platform and supports more than 1.000 mobile handsets. I heard that 200.000 new users sign up every month to Fring, as well as 80 companies which want to become a SIP affiliate. More than 500 SIP companies are already using the Israeli software as an easy to deploy solution for mobile VoIP, by sending a preconfigured Fring to their users’ handsets or telling their customers how to use it. Fring invested heavily in software development and has to channel the other 500 companies’ traffic over its own servers. Every voice connection goes first from the cellphone to Fring’s servers, no matter if it’s on Skype, SIP or Google Talk. Fring could take its share from the other companies’ earnings, but hey do it for free. Also there is no paid version of Fring. All these business ideas are still in the cloud.

So how does Fring want to make money?

The cell phone multi messenger, which also serves perfectly for nearly free VoIP calls over 3G, should soon be sponsored by advertising. At the OSiM World conference in Berlin I saw an unreleased software version with banner ads for McDonald’s in Fring’s chat window. In a former occassion I could already see advertising by Gillette. The Israeli company with $20 million in venture capital seems to finally care now for revenue streams. Although CEO Avi Shechter had told me in February in an interview at Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress that the entire year of 2008 would be dedicated exclusively to software development and revenues would be irrelevant. "The McDonald’s banner ads are just a demonstration", said Fring’s cofounder Boaz Zilberman when we met in Berlin. So until now Fring makes no money from advertising but is proving the concept.

Fring with McDonald’s banner ad on a Nokia N95 8 GB | Foto: Markus Gbel

One problem is, says Boaz, that mobile advertising is not very common yet. The advertisers still don’t understand it and therefore employ only small budgets. But these small budgets would be eaten up immediately on the millions of daily Fring messages. That’s why the company is going for bigger clients and advertising networks like Doubleclick or others. Context sensitive advertising like at Google Mail is not on the agenda. "We would have to read every chat message", says Boaz. "But we don’t want that because it would hurt our users’ trust." The business model of another Israeli born company seems creepy to him: Pudding Media is even eavesdropping their users’ conversations to deliver targeted advertising at the computer screen during the phone calls.

Fring is now developing from a sole software for messaging and VoIP to an universal contact solution, which even keeps track of your buddies’ location by GPS. The latest version 3.36.6, which you can only download from Fring’s developer website, has already joined the menus for messengers and social networks. The boundaries between these categories are every time more blurry, because for instance Facebook is also an instant messenger now. In future software versions, every person should appear only once in Fring’s contact list. Until now some people appear twofold, threefold or even more times - because they are connected to Skype, MSN, ICQ or other services at the same time. One click at the buddy’s icon will start a chat, no matter which messenger to other person is using, which can always be escalated into a Fring phone call via VoIP.

Source: gigaom.com

Source: www.voip-news.com

I’ve been through the gamut of instant messenger programs. I’ve even tried many early VoIP services — back when the calls were fuzzy and static-y. Today, instant messenger and voice are often combined into VoIM (voice over IM) services, so you don’t have to flip between your AIM window and another to call a buddy for free online . . .

Google Talk is one such service that does traditional instant messenger with a VoIM twist.

Now, I love Google Talk. It’s simple, it’s accessible, and most of my friends and colleagues are on it. But, I am beginning to wonder if it’s not a little too easy to make a VoIM call.

Why?

If I had a nickel for every time I accidentally hit the call button and my laptop made a screaming ring at me . . . (and I jumped to stop it before I - gasp - had to actually speak to anyone) I’d be a rich, rich woman.

Have you tried any VoIM services? If so, which ones? Do you think they are too easy these days?

Check out The 102 Best Free Phone Services on the Web on VoIP News to find the best free ways to call, conference and connect . . .  

Source: goebel.net

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There is a much quoted explanation from Emoci of Toronto how to create a SIP address that will ring to your Skype name using the Net2Max.com service. It’s quite difficult to implement but has received many kudos.

I like these kinds of solutions very much, but I would prefer it the other way around: that Skype rings my SIP address. So I would never have to switch on Skype again. I have all my SIP accounts nicely consolidated to ring my phone or my cell phone. I could do the same with Google Talk, Yahoo and MSN. Only on Skype I am nearly never reachable because I don’t like communications that force me to switch my computer on. That’s why Skype is Oldschool to me. VoIP has left the PC world long ago and goes along with me.

Mr Blog, David Beckemeyer, thinks the same:

I couldn’t agree more, particularly "So I would never have to switch on Skype again." Why doesn’t Skype simply offer a ‘forward to my SIP address’ option? Of course we know why. They want to keep everyone contained in their world. They say it’s because Skype users don’t want interoperability - if you are a Skype user, maybe it’s time to tell them, not me. I agree with you!

That reminds me of the recent discussion started by Dan York: "Skype says "No" to VoIP interoperability - *because customers aren’t asking for it!* - Well, I am!".

Me too. As well as Martyn Davies and the commentators to his post at VoIP User.

Source: goebel.net

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In the last weeks I was displeased with the state of VoIP on mobile handsets. Wifi coverage is spotty and callback services like Jajah require two phone calls at the same time, which makes them too expensive for penny pinchers like me. That’s why I am a fan of callthrough applications which involve only one call leg. The call goes to a local number where a server converts it into a VoIP call. But unfortunately this needs numerous key strokes in addition to the destination number and makes callthrough a cumbersome activity.

Software like MobileTalk from Packet8 would help, but it is bound to just one VoIP provider and could be done much better. Unfortunately the underlying software from Mobilemax gets distributed only to companies and not to end users. So people have to wait until their VoIP provider of choice implements it.

But salvation is near, at least for iPhone users: RingFree let’s you use every VoIP provider or even your own Asterisk / SIP server for outbound calls on Apple’s "Invention of the year 2007" (according to Time Magazine). iPhone Atlas has the story:

Here, in a nutshell, is how the app works: A user registers with RingFree, entering his iPhone number and providing some other information. The user is then prompted to call a country-local number to confirm their information by entering a PIN. Once logged into the site, the user selects from a list of pre-defined VoIP providers (including VoicePulse, Gizmo Project, PhoneGnome and others) or defines his own by entering a proxy address, username and password.

After selecting or defining a provider, the user can access the Web apps keypad, which looks something like the iPhones standard dialer, selects the preferred VoIP provider from a menu, and hits Call. The call sends a bit of JavaScript over EDGE to retrieve a local number from the VoIP provider, which the user is prompted to dial with the iPhones native phone application. When this number is dialed, the VoIP provider is triggered to dial the number entered in the Web app, and the call goes through.

RingFree is basically a website with a virtual dialer. It is linked to VoIP providers of choice and uses standard voice minutes to make VoIP calls. Therefore it doesnt require any hacking or jailbreaking, nor does it require the presence of a WiFi network. Only a small amount of data is transferred over the EDGE network to signalize the call. The voice quality is reportedly good, and calls go through without too much delay so that a commentator at IntoMobile states:

Thank you for this. This is the most useful iPhone application yet. I set it up in less than 2 minutes and I made a call to Ireland using Gizmo Project. Sweet and simple. I am happy and would be jumping up and down with joy if it let me call Skypers.

That’s exactly what I was looking for. RingFree is free in the first month, then it costs $30/year. You can also call Google Talk, Yahoo or MSN contacts from the iPhone. I wonder when someone will launch a similar service for other platforms, such as Symbian. It could be a great new feature for Voxalot, whose mobile callback I often use with my own VoIP providers. It costs 0.01 of data or less to establish the call, but still it demands two simultaneous phone calls.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

If you got surprised by the new Google Reader and GoogleTalk sharing feature, a post on Google Reader may help you to get things right.
Google is looking at ways to make sharing more flexible, and in the meantime there are several ways to share items without letting all of your Google Talk friends see them (you can also add or remove friends via Gmail or Google Talk).
I do not see the big deal. You are sharing, reading publicly available feeds. I see a problem in that I don’t want to bombast my friends with my silly/serious feeds!

Official Google Reader Blog: Managing your shared items

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

Anne Zelenka at Web Worker Daily has a very concise summary of the functions and features of GTALK and explains how to get more out of it.

While I use Google Talk alot, I tend to diminish its value on the Mac because of the lack of a voice client there, and instead tend to use it more when I’m on the Flybook, my Windows Vista portable of choice, or on the new Nokia N810 Internet Tablet where it really shines.

Give Anne’s recap a read and see how it gets you using more of Google’s very complete IM platform agent.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Now you can see all these languages in the pull down menu on the the Google Talk homepage,;
Chinese(Simplified), Chinese(Traditional), Danish, Dutch, English(UK), Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese(Brazil), Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese.
I think it is really important to be able to chat, talk in ones native language. My problem is that I am some what fluent in a few languages (no scholar though!) English (I still spell color, colour!!) , Dutch, Japanese and jabbering ability in few other languages. The picture above shows the gadget in Japanese which I will use to communicate with my girlfriends family (my girl friend and I speak in a language which is a combination of English, Dutch and Japanese.) and some of our friends in Japan.
Sometimes we feel that Google Talk is neglected child at Google but then something happens that put a smile on our and our friends faces. When people are looking for VoIP solutions, it is good to have something that we could use from any and every web browser. Will we be able to Google talk on Google phone?
Google Talkabout: Google Talk Gadget in 20 new languages

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Although in the back channels of news and talks about communications, Google talk has gone through many a changes and challenges. Two of those were integration with GMail and Orkut, both of which I use extensively.
These integrations provided unique scalability challenges to Google Talk team and had to handle a sudden increase in very large number of users. But they have fared very well and one of the Engineers, Reza Behforooz, has done a presentation at the Google Scalability Conference
a while ago. But the lessons learned might help any project that will require to scale to large number of users in a very short time.
Following is a video at Google Video.

Google Talkabout: Lessons in Building Scalable Systems

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

NoiseFree VoIP has just launched a fresh all-software solution to those often noisy VoIP calls. Skype, Yahoo Messenger with Voice, and Google Talk are great ways to save money on long distance, but if you’re calling anywhere near civilization, you’re bound to get interference. A noisy line can undo the advantage of free Internet calls.

Until December 31, 2007, NoiseFree VoIP is offering a free beta of its noise-canceling software to registered users. The Repoter tested it at CTIA and was impressed with the demo. There was noticeable improvement in call quality when I toggled the software on and off, though the background buzz in the busy room didn’t and couldn’t have faded completely.

“Our software easily installs and when used at both ends of a call completely removes the challenges presented by uncontrollable environmental noise. Additionally, NoiseFree VoIP is able to reduce the packet load on a network, mitigating instances of voice distortion due to impacted network nodes. By doing so it enhances overall bandwidth availability.”

Unlike traditional commercial noise cancellation solutions (including those used in applications such as audio conferencing, stereo and hi-fidelity sound reinforcement and avionics), Noise Free products provide, receive and transmit noise cancellation and require no additional hardware devices, DSP chips, or other costly additions to support laptop or VoIP handset usage.

NoiseFree VoIP Features:

• Patent pending noise cancellation technology that detects and suppresses background noise to enhance user speech clarity
• Low power consumption
• Very low memory requirement
• Advanced Voice Activity Detection
• Fast Echo Cancellation
• User-friendly installation
• Readily available through download

NoiseFree VoIP supports a wide variety of VoIP Software and Services including: Skype™, Yahoo Messenger™, Google Talk™ and soft phones. It has been tested and is compatible with Windows™ XP and Vista.

You also can check out some demos here.

And if you want you can download it here.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

New Symbian Platinum Partner Provides Free Software for Symbian Smartphones, Offering VoIP Calls, Text Messages and Instant Messaging.
EQO Communications today announced plans to release a native Symbian C++ version of its mobile VoIP, text and IM application. EQO (pronounced “echo”) is a free mobile application that lets users call anywhere in the world for rates as low as 1.2p/minute (2.3 cents USD) and also features inexpensive international text messages and free access to popular instant messaging services, including MSN, AIM, Yahoo!, Google Talk, ICQ and Jabber. By developing a Symbian C++ native version of EQO, Symbian smartphone users can enjoy a faster and more responsive mobile VoIP experience.

By using EQO, Symbian smartphone users can now save up to 95% on international calls to landlines and mobile phones, and save up to 70% on international text messages. In addition, calls and texts exchanged between EQO users are free. Once the EQO application is downloaded, users can automatically import all of their existing contacts into their EQO phonebook. With EQO’s presence feature, users are able to see which of their contacts are online and who is available for a call, to receive a text or have a chat using EQO’s free IM feature.
EQO is inviting all Symbian enthusiasts to be part of the beta trial by signing up at www.EQO.com/symbian.
EQO works on hundreds of different mobile phones – for a complete list of supported phones please visit www.eqo.com/supportedhandsets
News Source

Source: gigaom.com

In countries where international long-distance rates are high, mobile services like mig33’s mobile instant messenger and VoIP calls are starting to gain a sizable user base. The Burlingame, Calif. startup, which was an eTel/GigaOM Launch Pad startup, says it has signed up more than 7 million users to date and has added several new features, including Google Talk (GOOG).

The startup’s 7 million members and growing user base actually surprised me a bit — the company said it had 6 million members in July — given that its main approach is to use downloadable mobile software. Mobile clients can often be a barrier to entry when attempting to build a sizable amount of users, particularly for services that are supposed to save users money. For those that don’t want to download, the company also recently added a WAP site. Other mobile callback/calling type services that offer lower-cost minutes include Jajah and Cellity.