Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

Last month’s deployment of AT&T’s U-verse Voice in my home represented a fundamental shift in the way I look at my residential telephony service.  And now, with today’s introduction of its HomeManager™ product offering, the phone company as we no longer know it, is extending the value chain in helping me integrate and manage all of my IP services in the home.

Read AT&T Press Release here.

Here’s my review, shot in my home, here:

Overview
The AT&T HomeManager consists of three devices:  the HomeManager Frame, HomeManager Handset, and HomeManager Base.

The HomeManager Frame is a cordless touch screen device with a vivid 7 inch color display that provides easy access to your address book, as well as your call logs, voice mail, Yellow Pages and White pages, weather, news, email calendar digital photos and videos – and it’s a speaker phone.  It has the look and feel of a scaled down tablet PC and could be a hint of form factors to come, especially in light of Intel’s recent announcement of its Urban Max prototype displayed last month.

The HomeManager Handset is what it is- a handset but with the feel of something more like a Cisco, Nortel or Avaya office IP phone you see in the enterprise. 

The HomeManager Base which hooks into the Residential Gate way serves as a means to connect to the Frame and Handset.

First Impressions:
It looks really cool. Especially the HomeManager Frame.

It was easy to install. 

I was up and going in about 10 minutes.  The directions are easy to read and follow.

The HomeManager Frame got me thinking about how I consume and apply information.  In the case of Yellow Pages, the HomeManager  Frame is a great application – and a better application than having Yellow Pages on U-verse TV.  Frankly, Yellow Pages on U-verse TV is slow and cumbersome.  But on the HomeManager Frame it’s fast and easy to use.  Oh- by the way, I still use the paper version of the Yellow Pages which sits on a shelf in the kitchen.

While you can get your email on the HomeManager Frame, it’s sort of clunky and not as elegant as checking or composing email or texts on my iPhone.  The HomeManager Frame also comes with a pen stylus for tapping text instead of using your fingers.

The address book is a good idea, but you are out of luck in trying to sync it if you have an iPhone.  If you are a subscriber to the AT&T Mobile Backup Service, you can set your address book to automatically sync with your AT&T mobile phone address book on select phones.  (If you have an iPhone, I highly recommend the MobileMe service which syncs your PC/iPhone/and your .Me account in the cloud).

One thing that the HomeManager Frame does display – and can be your screen saver, is the weather.  This is a case where this type of device lends itself best for a certain type of information that I want to have at my disposal.

The lesson here is that there is no one device or communications platform that can be all things to all consumers.  The other lesson is that slowly but surely, AT&T is helping me build out a small-scale enterprise network in my home with service options that can be deployed on a variety of hardware platforms.  At the end of the day, it can be my TV, my PC, my wireless device, or now my Frame. 

Pricing:
The basic HomeManager offering is on sale starting today for $299.  Additional handsets are available for $69 each.  I wonder why AT&T doesn’t offer a $100 rebate if you sign up for U-verse, or at the very least, let you put 10 non-interest payments of $29 per month on your phone bill.

Availability:

You may purchase your HomeManager today in the following major AT&T markets:  Chicago, Atlanta, Austin, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, San Francisco, San Diego and Los Angeles.  I assume others will follow as they roll the product out.

Highly Recommended

Source: www.voip-news.com

Travelers from Israel who will be going abroad needn’t worry about leaving their mobile service behind. Outsmart Ltd. and Cellcom Israel have joined forces to launch Plu & Talk service. The service allows travelers to use their laptop as a mobile phone unit, making and receiving calls and sending and receiving SMS messages.

“The business segment is characterized with customers who are aware, and make use of, all other low-cost communication alternatives while they are abroad.” said Jacob Bros, CEO of Outsmart. “The Plug & Talk(TM) service enables Cellcom Israel to offer its customers a superior solution compared with the other alternatives. We are proud that Cellcom Israel has selected our solution to offer their customers and are happy to cooperate with Cellcom Israel, who is among the first operators in the world to offer this service.”

Plug & Talk uses VoIP communications and is based on Outsmart’s Smart Convergence Platform. It’s preloaded onto a USB device.

“Outsmart’s Plug & Talk will allow our customers traveling abroad to make and receive all their phone calls and access all phone services over the computer, while still using their same Cellcom Israel number,” said Adi Cohen, VP Marketing of Cellcom. “Our strategy is to provide our customers with a holistic set of advanced and affordable services both when they are at home or when they travel abroad. Outsmart’s Plug ‘n Talk(TM) service fits very well with this strategy and we strongly believe it will be a very successful service.”

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

AT&T is making introducing new social media tools and platforms

JuiceCaster 6.0 and Buzzwire — that keep you connected to your online world. JuiceCaster 6.0 enables you to use your AT&T wireless device to instantly share and post your mobile videos and photos with your favorite online communities — including exclusive mobile video postings to YouTube and Flickr. With Buzzwire, you can access and customize an extensive streaming media library that spans popular video and audio content, as well as live Internet radio, directly from AT&T phones.

JuiceCaster 6.0

This unique application from Juice Wireless lets you share videos and pictures from your wireless device to the Web’s most popular social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. AT&T customers also have exclusive access to post directly to YouTube and Flickr as well. Family and friends can instantly view, rate and comment on content directly from their own phones or directly from an online social-networking site.

AT&T customers can use JuiceCaster to:

• Post mobile pictures and video to popular social-networking Web sites and blogs, including Blogger, Facebook, LiveJournal, MySpace, Twitter and Xanga

• Set your status to update automatically on Facebook and Twitter, and receive friends’ status updates on their own phones

• Broadcast existing or new mobile videos and photos to global audiences using YouTube and Flickr, without requiring a computer or Internet connection

• Make content public or create custom groups by adding and connecting with friends directly from AOL, JuiceCaster, Gmail, Hotmail, MS Outlook and Yahoo!

Meet new friends within the JuiceCaster community
JuiceCaster 6.0 is available for $2.99 a month on compatible 2G and 3G AT&T handsets. AT&T customers can simply text Juice to 386 to begin connecting and communicating in a rich social- networking environment that includes profiles, pictures, videos, friend lists, comments, ratings and personal status updates. For more information on JuiceCaster, visit www.att.com/mediamall. 

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

AT&T  and MediaFLO now has announced AT&T Mobile TV with FLO™ service. This powerful new mobile television service will provide around-the-clock access to some of today’s most popular television programs — live and in color on the mobile phone.

To ensure an unmatched mobile television experience for consumers, AT&T is introducing two new exclusive handsets: the Vu from LG Electronics MobileComm U.S.A. Inc. (LG) and the Access from Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung).

3Screens News Summary:

• The service will offer unmatched TV-quality programming from leading news and entertainment brands: CBS Mobile, ESPN Mobile TV, FOX Mobile, NBC 2Go, NBC News 2Go, MTV Networks’ COMEDY CENTRAL, MTV and Nickelodeon, as well as PIX and CNN Mobile Live, which are both AT&T-exclusive channels on MediaFLO USA’s FLO TV™ service.
• PIX, from Sony Pictures Television, offers a variety of contemporary films, including comedies, cult classics, action films and family favorites from the studio’s vast library.
• CNN Mobile Live provides users with access to 24 hours of breaking news with live streaming anchored coverage from CNN.com Live as well as CNN’s most popular programs, including "American Morning," "Lou Dobbs Tonight," "CNN Election Center," "Larry King Live," "Anderson Cooper 360°," and "CNN International."

Below are examples of some of the entertaining TV programs and events that are scheduled to air the week of May 4:

• CBS Mobile: New episodes of "CSI," "CSI:NY" and "How I Met Your Mother"

• CNN Mobile Live: Live breaking news coverage, including real-time results from the Democratic and Republican primaries in North Carolina and Indiana on May 6.

• Comedy Central: New episodes of "The Daily Show with John Stewart" and "The Colbert Report"

• ESPN Mobile TV: Live game coverage as well as ESPN Mobile TV shows such as "ScoreCenter," "ReSET" and more

• FOX Mobile: New episodes of "Bones," "Back to You," and LIVE Big 12 College Baseball

• MTV: New episodes of "The Hills," "Real World: Hollywood" and "The Paper"

• NBC 2Go: LIVE NHL Stanley Cup Playoff and Final games and finale episode of NBC’s "30 Rock" (Thurs., May

• NBC News 2Go: LIVE coverage of the Indiana and North Carolina Democratic Primaries

• Nickelodeon: Episodes of "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "iCarly"

• PIX: "Memento," "In The Line of Fire," "Groundhog Day," "Kung Fu Hustle" and "Resident Evil"

AT&T Mobile TV will launch in 58 markets including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

Costs….

• Monthly access packages for AT&T Mobile TV begin at $15 a month for the Basic package, which includes unlimited access to Mobile TV, as well as access to the exclusive CNCRT channel for a limited time. AT&T also offers a Mobile TV Plus package for $30 a month, which includes unlimited Mobile TV, unlimited mobile Web browsing on MEdia™ Net and unlimited CV mobile video.
• Customers can also subscribe to a limited basic package for $13 a month, which gives them access to four channels: CBS Mobile, FOX Mobile, NBC 2Go and NBC News 2Go.
• Because AT&T Mobile TV operates on MediaFLO USA’s own dedicated multicast network, AT&T customers do not incur data or voice charges. Additionally, programming is subject to change, and sports programming is subject to blackout restrictions.

Source: www.voip-news.com

2007 was a challenging year for the group that is Vonage, and I’ll hedge a bet that they’re mighty happy that not only is 2007 over, but that they are able to start the new year off with a clean slate.  And they’ve done it with a bang.  Last week saw the introduction of their newest product strategy, ”MyVonage,” which will be focused on “introducing products, services and features that fit into a customer’s given lifestyle and support the way they want to communicate.”  As the initial step in their new strategy, Vonage introduced V-Portal last week, the first in a group of Vonage-branded products.  V-Portal is a “digital voice adapter and single port router with a built-in liquid crystal display (LCD), and Contact Book, an innovative one-stop communication hub with useful features such as group calling and voice activated dialing, giving customers more control over how they can communicate.”

“At Vonage, we believe technology, not Telco’s, will drive the future of communications,” said Jeffrey Citron, Chairman, Chief Strategist, and Interim CEO, in a recent press release. “Vonage is more than a new technology for landline replacement. We are dedicated to delivering new solutions that empower the consumer and we envision a day when people can communicate without boundaries; when, where and how they want.”

“With the V-Portal(TM), we are starting a trend of making innovative Vonage-branded products relevant and responsive to the way our customers communicate,” said Daniel Smires, Senior Vice President of Engineering. “The V-Portal(TM) expands upon what customers typically expect from a router, and is the closest thing to having a customer care agent with them in their home.”

The V-Portal(TM) is available now on Vonage’s website for $9.99 after a $70 instant rebate.  Go get ‘em. 

Source: www.voip-news.com

8×8, Inc., well-known providers of Packet8 VoIP services, announced recently the availability of a new no fee trial program that lets any US-based wireless carrier users take a spin of their Packet8’s MobileTalk mobile VoIP international calling service. With this new trial program, customers will be able to bypass per costly minute rates and bad quality reception, among other thing and get a change to experience an alternative for free?

To give it a spin, wireless customers “download the MobileTalk application onto their mobile device and use the service at no charge until a total of $2.00 in per minute fees (at Packet8’s low international calling rates) is reached. Packet8 MobileTalk service offers exceptional rates — $.02 to $.05 per minute for most locations in Europe and Asia — along with unparalleled voice quality as calls are routed over the award-winning, patent-protected Packet8 digital VoIP network. To sign up for a Packet8 MobileTalk Free Trial, follow the instructions at http://mobiletalk.packet8.net/trial or text “MobileTalkCES” to 1-408-386-4137.

In a recent ThinkEquity Partners LLC report, Communications Technology Analyst Anton Wahlman stated, “Until one week ago, one form of cell phone calling remained radically expensive and/or difficult, and that is calling a non-U.S. number regardless of whether you are dialing from any cell phone while in the U.S., or whether you are using your T-Mobile USA WiFi/UMA phone abroad. 8×8 (Packet8) launched the first solution we have seen which accomplishes this task in the easiest manner imaginable — no calling card or PIN codes, no special data plan needed, and no ‘connection fee.’ In other words, just dial a number like you normally do, with no change in user behavior at all. We believe this should appeal equally to individual consumers as well as corporate/CFO buyers interested in saving perhaps over 90% on international calls made from the cell phone.”

For more information, or to view a demo of Packet8 MobileTalk, visit http://mobiletalk.packet8.net/demo.html.

Source: www.voip-news.com

8×8, Inc., provider of Packet8 VoIP services, introduced a new product recently, their Virtual Office Tango Video Terminal Adapter (VTA).  The VTA offers a convenient and inexpensive alternative for those looking for videoconferencing solutions.  Not only will it enhance the Packet8 Virtual Office hosted iPBX phone system, which continues to be a popular choice amongst small businesses in the United States, it also offers a host of attractive features, including unlimited local and long distance calling, two or three-way videoconferencing, enterprise class PBX features and on-demand hosted call center capabilities.

“Many of our Packet8 Virtual Office voice customers have at least one employee located in a remote location, so being able to videoconference with these employees by just dialing their regular extension is an easy and inexpensive way to boost office productivity,” 8×8 Chairman & CEO Bryan R. Martin said in a recent press release. “When dealing with external customers and clients, the advantages of inexpensive, high quality visual communications go even further for those businesses that simply cannot afford the time and expense involved in travelling or purchasing high end videoconferencing and telepresence solutions which require heavy support and expensive, dedicated bandwidth.  With the Packet8 Virtual Office Tango video solution, these companies can now easily and affordably employ powerful desktop video communications right next
to their business phone to enhance the quality and success of their day-to-day interactions with colleagues and customers.”

Additional features include:

* Integration with Microsoft Outlook to allow users to import contact information and facilitate speed dialing and phonebook management
* Integration with Virtual Office calling features through on-screen icon navigation and one-touch radio buttons
* Compatibility with Packet8 Softalk ™ Office
* Built-in Router
* Digital Picture Frame capable of displaying up to 16 images
* Simple to Use Navigation
* Quick & Easy Set up
* Remote Surveillance Mode

Complete details on the Virtual Office Tango can be found here. 

Source: www.voip-news.com

Raketu, an internet communications company, debuted their new web application,  specifically geared towards Blackberry users of the BlackBerry Curve, 8800 and Pearl product series.  In addition to a host of other features, this new application will let users make free calls and send SMS text messages worldwide.  

“With over twelve million users of the BlackBerry worldwide, the introduction of our Raketu BlackBerry Application marks our definitive entry into the mobile business market,” said Greg Parker, president and CEO of Raketu, in a recent press release. “For businesses whose employees initiate a significant number of international calls from their BlackBerry mobile devices, Raketu’s BlackBerry Application is a great way to reduce monthly calling costs.”

Raketu’s BlackBerry application features include:

Raketu’s new BlackBerry Application is entirely web-based and does not require consumers to download any software. BlackBerry users can sign up and access the service via their BlackBerry web browser at BlackBerry.raketu.com. Using Raketu’s BlackBerry application, users can call Internationally for free or at Raketu’s ultra-low cost VoIP calling rates. Raketu users who sign up and make a payment of USD 9.95, USD 24.95 or USD 49.95 to their Raketu account are eligible for up to 600 free calling minutes per month towards BlackBerry initiated phone-to-phone calls. See www.Raketu.com for details and free zones.

Source: voipcentral.org

The Telephone Companies of the world are shaking in their boots right now.

VOIP is giving them sleepless nights. Telephone users never had it better.

If the Telephone Companies don’t start adapting instead of blocking this exciting piece of technology, they are dead for sure. eBay’s buy of Skype and the launch of Google Talk plus the impending launch of Google Digital Services — all are pointing towards big changes. And our blog will be there to cover it all.

We at Voipcentral hope our journey together is going to be an exciting one.