Source: www.voip-news.com

A simple comparison, now that the new iPod Touch has a microphone and there is at least one working VoIP application to use with wifi. For the purposes of this comparison I am going to skew every single decision in favor of the iPhone as much as possible.

But first, the VoIP calling details. Fring has a free iPhone/iPod Touch app in the Apple app store that is smart, can call via Skype and via several SIP clients and knows enough to offer you all available calling options (including cellular on an iPhone). The significance is that with a global Skype Out plan you can call pretty much anywhere in the world for very very little. Note that you cannot use the VoIP calling portion over 3G – so outside wifi range you are going to have to make cellular calls and pay the freight.

Price

iPod Touch

$229 (for 8GB model)

Total - $229

iPhone WITHOUT plan (buyout)

$199 plus $18 fee plus $30 first month (as far as I can make out in the legalese you are stuck with the first month no matter what you do) plus $175 buyout. Note that this gets you an iPhone with no cellular capabilities – essentially an iPod Touch with a camera. Of course, if the plan is to switch to another carrier, then this is likely your way to go.

Total - $422

iPhone WITH plan

$199 (for 8GB) plus $30 per month (for two years) plus one time $18 upgrade fee. I am not including the cost of the cellular plan since I will assume that it is replacing my existing plan.

Total - $937

Feature Differences

Ipod Touch

Our baseline.

iPhone WITHOUT plan

Has camera.

iPhone WITH plan

Has a camera. Can make cellular calls and access the data network from anywhere 3G works – a significant amount more than any wifi coverage.

What does this mean? First – despite a few heated comments on bulleting boards and forums, it is a complete waste of time to buy out of an AT&T iPhone contract unless you are moving it to a different cellular plan.

Second. If you spend most of your time near wifi, you can save yourself over $700 by buying an iPod Touch and using Fring. Just don’t expect it to be more than an iPod outside of wifi range.

Source: voip-tech.blogspot.com

Even the new born in Apple house, the well-known multimedia portable player iPod, available on the App Store and very similar to his brother iPhone, will have its VoIP functionality, thanks to the new earphones with microphone it will be possible to make VoIP calls by the TruPhone application and the integrated Wi-Fi LAN (802.11b/g), TruPhone is available for free on the App Store.

Source: www.voip-news.com

The latest iPod will have VoIP capabilities. Yep, all it took was one extra wire in the headphone jack and the little music player will be able to double as an internet phone. How crazy/funky/cool.

And go Rich Tehrani of TMCNet for predicting it. Course his column says 1994 and links to a story from 2004. Lord, if it was in 1994, that would have been pure genius. Do you remember 1994? Computers and the internet were in their infancy compared to today.

Now, who wants an MP3, VoIP, Video player?

Source: www.voip-news.com

Did you know you can turn your iPod Touch into a VoIP phone? Lifehacker has step by step instructions.

Gigaom talks about Skype’s first quarter earnings here.

Meanwhile, Skype is getting some bad press thanks to its new CEO. Read about it on VoIP Watch.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

Ken Rutkowski turned me on to this story in Lifehacker.

The story provides step by step instructions for turning an iPod Touch into an iPhone of sorts that works with FreeVoIP and likely other SIP providers.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

iPod Nano Sparks in Japan!
Geemodo: Sparking iPod Prompts An Iinvestigation In Japan.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Copyright © 2008 SnapVoip.blogspot.com

That is what Stanley Sigman, President and Chief Executive Officer—AT&T Mobility, has said when he was first shown the capabilities of iPhone. According to a Wired magazine’s article about how iPhone exploded the wireless market.
The article goes through the development phase of the iPhone, its marketing phase and where it is today.
The four page article carries you through Apple meeting rooms, development, iPod beginnings and I think will keep you glued to it until the end, like it did to me.

The Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

MobileWhack reports that the iPod Touch can be used as a VoIP device with a new hack that’s coming out of France right around the New Year.

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

It looks like the new year will bring some late holiday cheer to VoIP loving iPod touch users.

A web site is making the claim that come New Year’s Day a SIP capable client for the Apple iPod Touch will be out.

Source: www.voip-news.com

If a product’s design is not well thought out, functional and attractive, chances are that the product might experience sluggish sales. But is the design all that? Michael Gregoire of Taleo Corporation sure thinks so. As Gregoire recently told Blogging Stocks, “If you go to Google or Amazon.com, do you need a user manual?” he asked. “Of course not. It’s natural. The technology doesn’t get in the way… We think design and usability will be a key differentiator going forward and very important for growth.” Competitors, are you paying attention? Although, even with a recent controversial price reduction, the cost is still a little steep, no doubt the sleek and stylish design lured many people in. Thoughts? Comments? Discuss.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

According to idea mentioned over on Apple Gazette, where members have suggested thatyou’ll be able to get Skype going on the touchscreen jukebox. When it arrives in the next few weeks, the iPod Touch should be able to make VOIP phone calls.

Since it runs the same browser as the iPhone, that means it will work with SkypeforiPhone.com. Unless Apple has somehow preemptively disabled the mic from iPhone headphones, there’s no reason that they shouldn’t work when you plug them into your iPod Touch.

Source: goebel.net

Do you remember my post "Google is the real telco disruptor" from july?

Well, it seems that the story could become even more interesting with another player entering the 700 MHz wireless spectrum auction that many didn’t have on their list: Apple might also bid for that "bech front property" spectrum, suggests a BusinessWeek article called "Apple Eyes the Wireless Auction".

Taking into account this possible development many pieces of the puzzle would fall into their place. Why is the iPod touch such a cool device, an iPhone without phone? Why did Apple cut the price for the iPhone so soon and drastically?

In Germany the association eco, alliance of 330 big internet companies, hailed already last week the new device by saying "Wifi iPod makes mobile internet a mass market" in a press release. They are fed up with the slow acceptation of mobile internet service on Germany because the incumbent mobile operators keep 3G data prices high and accept only walled gardens on their devices.

"T Zones, Web-n-walk und Vodafone Live all try to keep away the user from the free and open internet", says eco director Harald A. Summa. "Exactly this policy of closed networks has so far prevented the breaktrough of the mobile internet to a mass market. The success of iTunes and Youtube shows that the users know much better than the operators what they really want." The new iPod touch offers direct Wifi access to iTunes and Youtube, circumventing the closed networks of the mobile operators.

So, let’s just imagine that the iPhone never planned to sell millions. Maybe it’s real purpose is just to create buzz for the new iPods? The iPod touch has every feature that you like from the iPhone. It only misses the annoying part of the phone: A 60 dollar per month cell phone contract. New iPods could work without that contract, using the 700 MHz spectrum, suggests the article in BusinessWeek:

Signals at the 700Mhz spectrum, for example, could provide far faster Internet access than today’s cellular or even Wi-Fi networks, and the signals can easily pass through buildings and work glitch-free, even in lousy weather.

Still, even the possibility of an Apple bid is intriguing. For starters, it would mean Apple would no longer need to rely on a phone company to deliver songs, TV shows, and other digital fare purchased at its iTunes Music Store. As it is, the major complaint of iPhone shoppers isn’t with the phone, but with the pokey Net access from Apple’s exclusive U.S. partner, AT&T (T).

If it owned its own spectrum, Apple could provide the network service itself, possibly for far less than the $1,440 iPhone owners must now fork out over the course of the cheapest two-year contract. For example, Apple could hold down costs by letting users choose a Net telephony program such as Skype rather than develop its own voice software, say analysts.

Apple might even be able to give away network service for free, and make its money off services such as iTunes and possibly by selling subscribers advertising space.

Indeed, cutting out the carrier would probably be in sync with Steve Jobs’ view of the world. Before striking the iPhone deal with AT&T, he publicly dissed phone companies as little more than "orifices"good only for providing dumb pipes to deliver more innovative companies’ more innovative services.

"Apple is the most anti-carrier company there is," says the former Apple executive. "They’re probably already frustrated with AT&T. If they put a few billion behind this, they could build a kick-ass network." Indeed, on Sept. 5, Apple announced a new iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store so consumers can buy songs at wireless hotspots, something they can’t do on AT&T’s network. And Jobs made a point of noting Wi-Fi is faster not only than the so-called 2.5G EDGE network, but also than 3G cellular networks.

A very convincing argumentation that matches perfectly with what eco said. That’s also the reason why I had to copy such a long passage of the original article. (Sorry for that!) Hopefully it’s not only intentionally leaked hot air to lift Apple’s stock price.