Source: www.voip-news.com

NetMotion Wireless has released the latest update of their Mobile VPN Software. Version 8.51 of Mobility XE(TM) can now support character sets from many languages including French, German, Italian, Spanish, and most other European languages. That means that IT admins and end users can use their native languages for user names, passwords and more. Additionally, the new release has support for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and 2005 SP3.

“Many European languages include characters that are not supported by the basic English character set and most products built for the United States market ignore this fact or deal with it poorly,” said Pam Cory, vice president of marketing, NetMotion Wireless. “The new Mobility XE allows IT managers and mobile workers outside the U.S. to use the same character set they use every day. We’re committed to serving the European market, and we believe this new product enhancement will better serve business and government agencies looking for a best-in-class Mobile VPN solution.”

According to the company:

Around the globe, more than 350,000 mobile workers use NetMotion’s Mobility XE to mitigate some of the most common challenges in mobile deployments today, including application stability as users move in and out of wireless coverage areas, and seamless roaming between Wi-Fi and wide-area cellular networks. In addition, the company provides advanced security and network management controls that extend corporate security policies to mobile devices, while also allowing customers to utilize their existing mobile investments to reliably deploy real-time applications such as Voice over IP (VoIP) and streaming video.

Source: www.voip-news.com

Motorola has release the MC55 EDA, an Enterprise Digital Assistant with a 3.5 inch display. It’s intended for mobile workers and combines the convenience of a cell phone, two-way radio, bar code scanner, digital camera and mobile computer in one compact, light unit. In addition, the unit is VoIP-enabled.

“As a leader in the handheld mobile computing market, Motorola constantly innovates to provide customers with the most versatile enterprise mobility tools for improving productivity and streamlining operational efficiencies,” said Bob Chen, vice president and general manager of Mobile Computing, Motorola Enterprise Mobility. “The MC55 illustrates Motorola’s ability to help mobile workers work without boundaries, with robust connectivity to mission-critical business applications in a compact business-class device.”

According to Motorola:

Each of the MC55 models is designed to meet the needs of a specific type of mobile worker – those inside the four walls, those outside, and those that work in both environments. The MC5590 EDA offers wireless 802.11a/b/g LAN (WLAN) and Bluetooth(R) connectivity for workers mostly inside the four walls – including healthcare workers in a hospital environment, as well as retail or hospitality associates. The MC5574 EDA comes equipped with wireless WAN (WWAN), wireless LAN (WLAN) and Bluetooth to support workers in the field, including maintenance personnel and postal and delivery workers. In addition, the MC5590 and the MC5574 EDAs are VoIP enabled offering the capabilities of Push-To-Talk (PTT), as well as the ability to support soft phone clients and integration with installed IP PBXs.

“Motorola continues to demonstrate its high standards for product quality with the introduction of the new MC55 EDA — uniquely designed for mobile workers inside and outside the enterprise,” said Chuck Dietrich, vice president of Mobile, salesforce.com. “Our relationship with Motorola provides salesforce.com enterprise customers with rugged solutions for accessing data and applications through Salesforce CRM Mobile and ISV applications built on the Force.com platform. And with the MC55, we are able to provide our customer-base with an incredibly powerful option for boosting field service productivity in any vertical market.”

Source: www.voip-news.com

Motorola has released an outdoor CPE with integrated VoIP. The Motorola wi4 WiMAX CPEo 450 is for new subscribers that want broadband and voice services without big hassles.

The new device will be available to ship in Q2 2009.

“The CPEo 450 offers best-in-class performance with both voice and data capabilities in a compact outdoor form factor that is easy to install and reduces support costs,” said Charles Riggle, senior director of strategy and business development, WiMAX devices, Motorola Home & Networks Mobility. “Motorola’s CPEo 450 demonstrates once
again that a superior performing CPE provides greater wireless coverage, increased throughput and network capacity, and higher service availability. These attributes translate into lower capex and operating cost for carriers, a faster ROI, lower churn and greater customer satisfaction.”

The device is comprised of an outdoor subscriber unit, integrated antennas and an indoor power adaptor.

Source: www.voip-news.com

Motorola has a new all-in-one access point that combines WiMAX, Wi-Fi and VoIP, along with an Ethernet port. THe Motorola wi4 WiMAX CPEi 775 is a WiMAX 802.16e modem with an integrated Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g router, VoIP ATA ports for voice calling, and an Ethernet port.

It’s the second generation for this router, which was introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show.

According to Motorola:

The second generation CPEi 775 follows the award winning CPEi 850, and once again raises the bar on performance for the rest of the industry. By incorporating adaptive switching techniques, the CPEi 775 does not need to be rotated for optimal signal strength, allowing easier installation. With some of the most advanced antenna designs available today, the CPEi 775 sets new standards for device transmit power and receive sensitivity — two factors that have a big impact on a network operator’s bottom line, and the number of cells required to provide coverage.

“As mobile WiMAX networks proliferate globally service providers are looking for ways to leverage the speed and performance of WiMAX for more advanced services,” said Charles Riggle, senior director of strategy and business development, WiMAX devices, Motorola Home & Networks Mobility. “It takes considerable know-how to put two different radio technologies together in a single package with internal antennas and not suffer from interference or degraded throughput. With the CPEi 775, we are able to provide high performance in a very attractive form factor.”

Source: www.voip-news.com

NetMotion Wireless is boosting mobile security with expanded support for new end-user authentication protocols. NetMotion’s Mobile VPN, Mobility XE makes it easier for companies to meet set standards.

According to the company:

The new functionality, available at no cost to most customers with existing maintenance agreements, allows IT administrators to flexibly deploy a host of strong user-authentication methods, including public key infrastructure (PKI), smart cards and biometric systems. The expanded authentication options also enable industries with strict regulations over data security, such as law enforcement, to become compliant with state and federal security guidelines, such as the Criminal Justice Information Systems (CJIS) Security Policy.

“At a time when revenues and budgets are shrinking, public safety agencies across the country are faced with meeting strict security standards for data delivery and user access to regional and federal information databases,” said Major Steven Williams, chief technology officer, Florida Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles. “Support for these authentication methods helps our agencies meet these standards quickly and inexpensively so that our officers and employees can have mobile access to the information critical to their duties.”

Source: www.voip-news.com

Oh yea, baby. That’s what I’m talking about.

Intel is working on four new motherboards that will feature a wake when VoIP rings feature. Nice. So you can let your computer sleep without worrying about missing phone calls. Talk about good news in a trying financial time — after all, energy costs are on the rise.

According to ExtremeTech:

The new addition to the technology is the ability for a VOiP call to wake up the PC, a feature that’s obviously geared toward Skype and other VoIP providers. VoIP provider Jajah announced support for the technology. However, both Orb Networks and CyberLink did as well, evidence that Remote Wake will be used for media management, such as recording TV shows, in addition.

Intel spokesman George Alfs confirmed the capability, and named the motherboards, which use either the G45 or G43 chipset: the DG45FC, the DG45ID, the DG43NB, and the DP43TF. Mor details on the new boards may be found at Intel’s Web site.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

Today, I had a demo of U-verse Voice, AT&T’s consumer VoIP phone service.

Where AT&T’s U-verse Voice stands out is in its integration under the U-verse brand name and its robust services. 

You have to re-think the way you use your phone because your new world being delivered is through your big screen and / or on your computer-  and not your phone.

The functionality of the phone (making and receiving calls) stays in place, just like it has since the day that Alexander Graham Bell told his assistant to come into the room.

I think the service is important for several reasons:

1. It gives AT&T a compelling reason for consumers keep their residential land lines even though trends show that while AT&T’s wireless business continues to grow, the residential land line business is slowly declining.

2. If you have a home based business and need a land line phone, then this type of service lets you combine the best of both worlds with having a central portal in which to manage your calls both at home and away from your home office.

3. It further differentiates itself away from cable and satellite. 

TV is the center of millions of American’s digital lives. Now with voice  being integrated as part of your TV service’s user-interface, the nature of, and the way you think of and mange "voice" totally changes. 

Yes, a phone is a phone is a phone.  But now the phone itself become secondary to the real value of managing and  controlling your family’s voice services.

4. It becomes a precursor to having what will one day be some similar to a small-scale enterprise network in your home.  (Think HomePNA and ultimately G.hn)

No matter where you work, chances are your company is on some type of enterprise network. The bigger the company, the more complex and carrier grade your network might be.  Something similar is evolving in the home:  you now have voice, data and video over one phone line that is being trafficked and managed by the phone company.

Coming soon: my own real world review.

I’ve decided to order my service and once its up and going, look for a future post (hopefully next week) once I have had a chance to play with it.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

6:30 PM CST

Ok— so the remotes are now working.  So, all is good.

I remain baffled as to how they scheduled me service call for August 16 and how they dispatched the call to another technician who was on vacation this week.

Regardless, a few phone calls later, it did get fixed, though 2 hours late.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

AT&T will donate more than 30,000 prepaid phone cards in 2008, with a retail value of more than $200,000, to be distributed to military personnel stationed overseas with the help of the USO. This donation builds on more than 85 years of AT&T support for U.S. military families and a 20-year partnership with the USO. The company also recently provided a $315,000 sponsorship to support USO events and entertainment tours in 2008.

The donation program will begin with the first 10,000 prepaid cards distributed on overseas military bases and during USO entertainment tours slated for the weeks surrounding Mother’s Day. According to AT&T, this donation is in honor of U.S. military moms, whether they are on active duty or whether they have a son, daughter, husband or loved one who is actively serving.

In the coming weeks, the USO will help AT&T distribute the first 10,000 phone cards to troops throughout Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, South Korea, Japan, Spain, Italy and Germany, including personally handing cards to wounded military members at Landsthul Regional Medical Center. Each donated phone card will provide military members with 20 minutes of free talk time from Iraq to the U.S.

The donation builds on AT&T’s commitment to help keep military families connected: In the past two years, AT&T has donated prepaid phone cards with a retail value of over $4 million to help support U.S. military members and their families. In the past 20 years, AT&T has contributed tens of millions of dollars to the USO in support of the Operation USO Care Package and USO Operation Phone Home® programs as well as USO entertainment tours; and has helped the USO boost troop morale through funding regional operations in Europe, Southwest Asia and the Pacific.

Since 1941, the USO has provided morale, welfare and recreation-type programs and services to enhance the quality of life for military personnel and their families around the world. The USO currently operates more than 130 centers, including 10 mobile canteens, offering free Internet and e-mail access, prepaid international phone cards, entertainment and lounge areas, libraries, travel assistance and refreshments. USO entertainment tours bring celebrity volunteers to entertain and lift the morale of troops and to express the gratitude and support of the American people.

For more than 85 years, AT&T has remained dedicated to supporting active military personnel, their families and veterans through charitable contributions, sponsorships, the hiring of military veterans and maintaining policies that support reservists who are called to duty. Since 2000, AT&T has donated free prepaid phone cards with a retail value of nearly $8 million to military members and has provided nearly $6 million in grants that support military members and related nonprofit organizations. The company has also built 70 calling centers for military members stationed in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan, so that they may stay in touch with their families.

Source: alanweinkrantz.typepad.com

AT&T is running ads telling you to get Mom an iPhone for Mother’s Day.


Don’t.

At least, not yet.

If you want to get Mom an iPhone, tear out the ad, give her a dozen roses.

Hand her the ad and tell her she’s got a 3G iPhone coming in June.

Source: gigaom.com