Source: gigaom.com

Source: mashable.com

Jangl has gained another parter in PerfSpot, the fast-growing social networking site. With over 8 million youth-oriented members, PerfSpot is the perfect distribution partner for Jangl’s VoIP service, which has been spreading its “call” buttons across the web thanks to its partnerships with other networks like Bebo, Match.com, Plentyoffish and Tagged, to name just a few.

Named an Amazon mover and shaker, as well as one of the fastest growing-sites in the UK, PerfSpot has the target demographic that’s already active on the social networking circuit, and is more adept to utilizing services like Jangl for text messaging, voice calls, and voicemail. Of course, one of the largest benefits to Jangl’s service is the ability to connect with people without having to share your own phone number, thus protecting the privacy of the users involved.

This additional partnership is also good for Jangl’s VoIP ads, which are run through its recently launched ad network across its partner sites. Mark will be doing a podcast with Jangl’s CEO to discuss some of the bigger trends with consumer voice and social networking, so be on the lookout for the show, right here on Mashable.

Source: goebel.net

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Hipsip is a nice and easy mobile VoIP service which let’s you call Skype and SIP contacts from a normal cell phone without a Wifi or 3G data connection. In the last weeks I could try out the service as beta tester and now they open to everyone. Hipsip does basically the same like iSkoot or Mobivox, but is easier to handle. You don’t have to install a software on the mobile phone or talk to a computer voice to establish the connection. The user just opens a mobile website where he sees his Skype contacts and calls them with a click on the name. The phone then starts a GSM call to the nearest Hipsip callthrough number where a server converts it into a Skype call. In my case it goes to a landline number in Hamburg, Germany.

Screenshot from the Hipsip mobile website.

One big difference is that Hipsip has no hosted bridge from the cell phone network to Skype. Your computer must always be switched on and you have to install a small software called Hipsip Bridge which has to be running together with Skype. Otherwise the mobile website on the phone says "Please connect your Hipsip Bridge to see your Skype contacts." That is a big disadvantage to the other mobile phone Skype services like iSkoot, Mobivox and Fring. But at least it’s cheaper than ideas from SkyQube or VoSky. They not only require you to leave your computer running, but also to buy an extra hardware which hands your mobile phone calls over to Skype. Again, they also let you receive Skype calls on a cell phone.

Call your Skype contacts with one click on a hyperlink.

If the Hipsip Bridge doesn’t run, you can still call every SIP address of choice or even email addresses, which will be explained later. I conducted a small email interview to the developer Christian Rees. He comes from Germany himself, where he long time ago used to write about Atari ST computers for the famous c’t magazine. On the phone he had told me that they are already considering a hosted solution without Hipsip Bridge, but that’s not so easy.

I see that you use HTML code like <a href="tel:+4940306988028">Call sip:johndoe@ipcall.com</a> on your mobile website. What does it do? A computer’s browser doesn’t know what to do with it, but a cell phone starts a call.

The answer is, that the so called telephone URL, tel:, is supported on converged devices (in the sense that they support circuit and packet data) like cell phones with a web browser. When a tel: URL link with a phone number is clicked in the browser, the phone starts dialing the number. It works on all phones that are less then 4 years old. It’s customary for the phone to prompt the user with the number, as a safeguard. Our users can be assured that we are only returning our local callthrough numbers.

Who is the company behind the Hipsip offer, Sipcall.com?

Sipcall.com Inc., the parent of Hipsip, is a California corporation with offices in Menlo Park. The company was founded in 2004, is privately funded and in the process of raising more capital. We are less then 10 people with backgrounds from academia, VoIP and the mobile industry. We consider ourselves an international company, that happens to be located in Silicon Valley.

Our history goes back quite a bit, starting in 1999, with the idea that email addresses will eventually turn into phone numbers. We attempted to raise funding in 2000, targetting the mobile space already back then. However, it took until 2004 for the climate to be right to start again with new ideas. In early 2005 we began developing the Hipsip Bridge for Skype. Due to our funding situation back then, it has taken until now for the relase.

What are your further plans?

We are planning to make Hipsip more useful and convenient for our users. One priority is to improve the Skype experience. We have already put emphasis on providing ISDN like voice quality for Skype calls over SIP, since Skype is so exceptional in this respect and we don’t want to loose too much of that. However, there are limitations to the current phone networks. We are not so hot on vaporware, so we’ll announce new features when they are available. And we are very interested to hear from users what they need.

When will it be hosted, so that my computer doesn’t need to stay switched on?

See above, but it is a high priority for us.

And what about new features?

One novel feature that we provide is EmailCall. With EmailCall, a user can turn their email address into their phone number, so to speak. This is how it works: if the user has verified his mobile number and email address and opts-in to EmailCall, he can now be called by his email address:

• by dialing the email address on any SIP phone registered on Hipsip, which will ring the users SIP devices (you could say we are sippyfying the email address).
• from any mobile phone by entering the URL: hipsip.com/john.doe@aol.com (as an example). When the URL is entered, the current mobile number of the owner of the email address will be returned. This is limited to other users of Hipsip, and is strictly an opt-in feature. The user can change his current number anytime, while the much easier to remember email address can be used to look it up in real time, and dial immediately.

The idea behind this is, that we will eventually see a convergence in the addressing space just as we are seeing it with networks becoming all IP, so that a single SIP/email/URI address will be sufficient for all the different modes of communications for which we have to remember identifiers today. This day is not here yet, but we believe that it will eventually happen. Today it is already possible to dial a URI on the Nokia N-Series and E-Series phones, which works very well over WLAN and 3G. Things will only improve when pure packet networks like Wimax and LTE come online.

My take: we have to wait and see how Hipsip develops. The market for such services is already crowded. But nobody has built yet the perfect bridge from Skype to SIP. Hipsip has potential if they get the service hosted, but then they would have to cover higher server costs. The EmailCall is funny but nothing new. Jangl already does it for nearly a year.

Side note:
Respect to blogger hero Russell Shaw who unexpectedly passed away last weekend when he was on his way to cover the Emerging Technologies Conference and VON.

Source: gigaom.com

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

There’s a conference in Miami this week focusing on the concept of Online Dating, while up the street is another on adult dating. One of the people hanging out and making news there is Jangl CEO and founder Michael Cerda who tells VoIPWatch that Jangl "let’s them practice safe dating. Online daters love Jangl because it gives them privacy, mobility and control, and choices as to how they want to communicate. We suit a fast, mobile world by connecting the lives we lead online to the ever-present mobile device.

At the conference Jangl announced that the world’s largest free online dating site, PlentyofFish.com will use Jangl’s SMS, calling and voicemail service to reach PoF customers. So like PoF itself, Jangl’s service there will be ad-supported making it a first for Jangl.

Unlike some of the other ad supported, VoIP powered plays out there, this one sort of makes sense. It gives the daters the ability to save money and spend money on what they need to focus on the most. There dates.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

TechCrunch says that jangl has partnered with Plentyoffish to provide VoIP solutions to the dating site that is receiving 3million page views an hour! I like to know what is the platform this guy is running this on, specially in an apartment?
Jangl fits the bill, when it comes to connecting with new friends safely and privately, with “Social Communications Widget”. It lets you make calls, send SMSs, and leave voice mails without exposing anyone’s phone number through a simple widget. Perfect for places where do not want reveal too much yet want to see a lot. Jangl’s widget will let daters call each other, send SMSs, and leave voice mails all without sharing a real number. The functionality makes it easy to take the next step in a relationship without sacrificing privacy, or just discrete phone sex.
The backend service is through Jajah. Like Plentyoffish, jangl plans to make money with advertising.

Source: gigaom.com

Source: www.voip-news.com

Jangl, Inc. recently announced the availability of a new free upgrade that will let users send and receive text messages from an computer or mobile handset, opening the company up to a whole new, important market.  Between the upgrade and their current service, Jangl customers can now:

Be private:  By talking, exchanging voicemails, and now swapping text messages — on any phone or personal computer — without ever sharing their private phone number;

Save money:  By eliminating some text messaging fees and drastically reducing most long distance calling charges, and;

Stay connected:  With anyone, anywhere, with or without your phone, easily adding friends to your Jangl network and choosing when and how they can connect with you.

“Jangl’s contextual utility in social networks has been enhanced significantly in this latest service release,” said Michael Cerda, CEO and co-founder of Jangl, Inc., in a recent press release. ”For several months, our loyal customers have been asking us to develop a text solution that would enable them to stop toggling keyboards and text quickly and efficiently with all of their online friends, while, at the same time, continuing to deliver on the most popular customer benefits of Jangl services – cost savings, privacy and safety. With today’s debut, we connect a more diverse group of people and, in turn, dramatically expand our partner offerings and our revenue potential. In the near-future, we’ll detail how Jangl will work with brand marketers to let millions enjoy all of these features and functionality at little or no cost to the end-user.

Highlights include:

Jangl phone numbers can be used for direct, phone-to-phone SMS messaging, keeping both parties’ real phone numbers completely private;

Text messaging can be initiated from either a PC or a phone, and can be delivered to either;

Sending and receiving text messages via the web interface is 100% free3;

Text messages are also delivered to a customer’s Jangl inbox and email address;

Jangl’s U.S. customers have the option of having text messages sent directly to their mobile phones;

Jangl customers can control, at an individual-contact level, whose text messages are delivered where, directly to the phone, to the inbox, or  both;

Customers outside of the U.S. can send and receive text messages over the web using the web interface on the Inbox and Contacts pages.  Jangl will extend additional features to other regions over coming months.

Source: goebel.net

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You know that I bashed Facebook very hard for being a terrible time sucker. Many Web 2.0 applications need too much attention, compared to their value. But there are some utilizations that make me smile, because the unleash the potential of Web 2.0 without wasting my precious time and money. Like Voxalot’s latest Facebook application, VoxCall for Facebook, that really disrupts telecommunications. It let’s me make free phone calls without touching the PSTN. Read the announcement:

On Monday 19th Nov 2007 Voxalot will be officially launching our new social communications application for Facebook called VoxCall.

VoxCall is an exciting new initiative from Voxalot that allows Facebook users to click on their friends and initiate phone calls. The beauty of VoxCall is that it is self-organising in that if your VoxCall friend changes their contact phone number, you don’t even have to be notified… VoxCall will use whatever number they have registered.

VoxCall also offers both public and private chat rooms where VoxCall friends can get together for a group discussion.

The underlying technology that VoxCall uses to connect calls is Voice over IP addresses (often known as SIP URIs). When you add the VoxCall application, you will be prompted to enter your SIP URI. To ensure that you are the rightful owner of that number, VoxCall will display a PIN number on the screen and then call the number you entered. Your phone will ring and you will be prompted to enter the PIN, which is validated.

As such, VoxCall supports calls between friends that belong to *any* "open" voice network (not just Voxalot).

The beauty is that VoxCall uses VoIP without touching the PSTN. My buddies just enter their SIP URI and I can call them with just one click in Facebook. When they change their SIP address I don’t have to bother to update my data since their Facebook button stays the same. We stay connected for free from SIP to SIP.

I find this much more nifty than the Facebook apps from Jajah, Jangl, Jaxtr, Rebtel, IVR Technologies, iotum, Sitfono or Grandcentral. They also connect people on Facebook and let them call me for free, in most cases. But there is always a telephone number involved, so that someone has to pay an incumbent telco which provides them.

Source: www.voip-news.com

Tom Keating from the VoIP & Gadgets Blog kicks us off this blistery cold Friday with news on an upcoming webinar from United Communications.  He’s right - it’s certainly not the sexiest topic of the day (that honor would probably go to The Spice Girls performance at the Victoria’s Secret fashion show), but it’s something that everyone should have top-of-mind.  If you don’t, you’ll surely pay the price, in more ways than one.  Be like a Boy Scout and be prepared.TMC has news on the latest blow delivered to the Vonage team in the court system.  It seems that their request for a patent hearing has been denied, and they’re going to have to shell out $120 million to Verizon in settlements.  While it comes as no surprise to Vonage, as it was most likely expected, lately they’ve been getting good at keeping their head down and their focus on running their business.  Back to basics, everyone, back to basics.Andy from the VoIP Watch talks about the recent JAJAH and Jangl deal that broke news yesterday.  He sees it as a band-aid approach, and one that the industry expected to happen … JAJAH can’t exist merely on free usage and had to step things up a bit in order to remain competitive in this do-or-die marketplace.  The future remains to be seen.And last but not least, if you want to marry your VoIP service with the latest and greatest in video conferencing tools, be sure to stop by VoIP-News and check out their list of Top 10 Best VoIP Video Conferencing Tools to make sure you have exactly what you need, when you need it.  Don’t get caught with your pants down like one tabloid-hungry popwreck.

Source: www.voip-news.com

JAJAH, the telephony 2.0 company and platform, has been certainly very good about staying in the news since they first burst on the scene, in a positive way, and today is no exception.  They announced that they have joined forces with Jangl in a strategic partnership designed to expand their communications offerings to their customers. 

“The goal of this partnership is to create several natural synergies for both JAJAH and Jangl, and has the potential to strengthen both companies’ positions going forward,” said Rebecca Swensen, Research Analyst, VoIP Services for IDC, Inc., in a recent press release  “Anytime two companies collaborate at an integral level – on product development, marketing and more – additional opportunities invariably arise.  This is one of the first major collaborations we’ve seen in the ‘Voice 2.0’ market and, to the extent that both companies execute well, this could have some very interesting ramifications for others in this space, as well.”

Here’s some of what the partnership has in store for their customers:

Jangl will leverage JAJAH’s telephony infrastructure to deliver phone services in 122 countries, further speeding Jangl’s growth as it continues to forge partnerships with top online personals and social networking communities, where it already powers in-context calling capabilities in more than 40 million online profiles. 

Jangl and JAJAH will collaborate in serving voice advertising for mobile and landline calls.  Jangl will become a publisher and begin to further monetize its traffic with audio advertising.  JAJAH will supply its in-call advertising appliance to overlay audio advertising on Jangl calls.

“More and more, JAJAH is becoming the platform of choice, and we are delighted to work with Jangl,” said Trevor Healy, JAJAH CEO. “It shows the great leaps we have made since opening our platform.  Thanks to Jangl’s position within the online community and JAJAH’s new advertising services, both companies significantly expand our advertising capabilities and monetization potential.”

“Jangl has always been about bridging the phone and the web,” said Cerda. “By giving people the same level of control with their phones, as they have with IM and email, we’re proving out our strategy.  By contrast, JAJAH has excelled at providing low-priced, high-quality international phone calling, and they’ve established a stellar back end operation along the way. Our partnership is about leveraging our complements and strengths, which will manifest in new initiatives and products in the very near future.”

Source: gigaom.com