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Get Your Nokia VoIP On With Fring

Source: gigaom.com

Despite Nokia crippling VoIP on its latest N-series handsets, mobile VoIP companies are coming through with updated apps to keep Nokia users yapping away for free. Today fring released its software update for the N96 and N78 that gives users mobile IM and VoIP.

Other providers such as Truphone and Gizmo are expected to follow with their own N-series clients. Before you get too cheerful over the service, it might be worth noting that Om’s most recent post on the topic hinted that mobile VoIP users could be locked into walled gardens by individual services now that Nokia has taken out the native SIP client.

And for the hardcore VoIP users who need to bridge back to the less technically literate, TringMe is offering a worldwide telephone number folks can call that will ring you on your land line, TringMe mobile-VoIP client or GTalk. Connecting to a land line will require actual money (in the form of credits in a TringMe account), but it’s worth checking out.


Mobilize 08 by GigaOM

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Published on September 4th, 2008 under , , , , , ,

Nokia leaves Asterisk users in the cold

Source: goebel.net

A commentator to my last post "Why Truphone and Gizmo5 applaud that Nokia turns it’s back on mobile VoIP" doubts my argumentation by asking:

I thought Truphone is based on the built-in SIP client? Then it would seem unlikely that Truphone applauds Nokia dropping the mobile VoIP stack from certain models.

My answer is the following:

Yes, Truphone until now works on top of the built-in SIP client. But the Truphone software develops more and more into a standalone application: with the inclusion of SMS, callthrough where no Wifi is available, presence information and so forth. They aren’t afraid of building their own SIP app since it ties the customer even more to them. Therefore Gigaom wrote:

Truphone isnt waiting around for Nokia to do something. A company spokesman told us: From Truphones perspective Nokia has removed the VoIP client from all the N-Series phones for the planned future. We are putting in a replacement client functionality so that existing customers are not orphaned.

Don’t forget that Truphone has a very high pricing for Wifi calls! Their software is convenient to install, but many other VoIP companies are three times cheaper. That’s why they would be very happy to be your only mobile VoIP provider. Vyke already launched their own client, as you can read here, and Gizmo5’s CEO Michael Robertson officially applauded Nokia’s move in a FierceVoIP article.

The only losers are the cellphone users, since these 3rd party apps are much more difficult to use than the native SIP client. Read this insightful comment, posted at Phoneyboy’s blog:

"Im using VOIP on Nokias phone via my own asterisk server. How can Nokia expect me to develop my own Internet telephony application so that I can continue to use it? There are simply thousands of small users out there for whom this is beyond what they could do. This will leave them out in cold.

And further comment. Any third party application will have hard time to match the comfort of integrated symbian UI, where normal and internet calls are integrated together and one push of a button decides which one to make. Just compare this with Fring whose UI is just terrible."

We tinkerers who use Asterisk, Voxalot, Voipstunt, PBXes and Iptel.org are out of the game for the new Nseries devices. I am afraid that the Nokia E71 is the last cool device for a VoIP aficionado like me. Hopefully the Android devices will have more to give. Phoneboy calls us, who use 10 VoIP providers on our Nokia devices, a "minority". Nevertheless he "understands the frustration". Thank you!

But still I think that he is wrong, or maybe just blue-eyed, when he says: "It sounds like the problem is only limited to these two handsets". The problem affects all Symbian Series 60 3rd generation Feature Pack 2 (S60 3.2)! This means: All new handsets from now on are affected. Nokia’s VoIP isn’t revolutionary disruptive anymore, but has changed to a big boys’ only business.

Published on August 31st, 2008 under , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Why Truphone and Gizmo5 applaud that Nokia turns it’s back on mobile VoIP

Source: goebel.net

Om Malik has asked "Is Nokia Turning Its Back on MobileVoIP?", pinpointing to the fact that the new Nseries devices N78 and N96 lack an own SIP client, while Nokia before embraced mobile VoIP on it’s Nseries and Eseries devices. Charlie Schick of Nokia Conversations says the report of the death of VoIP has been "grossly exaggerated" and people like Phoneboy, Gizmo5’s Michael Robertson or the company Truphone are buying that argumentation, although it has its flaws. Truphone, Gizmo5 and Fring must have realized immediately that they are winning from Nokia’s move. That’s why they are holding back their horses.

Nokia says that it’s no problem that they have removed the native SIP client from their latest handsets, since companies can develop their own VoIP software based on great APIs. But it’s not as easy as Nokia is trying to say: There are hundreds or thousands of companies without an own software for mobile VoIP. They just rely on the SIP standard. In Germany it’s GMX, 1&1, Sipgate and the several Betamax daughters. Together they have millions of customers, I am one of them. These people cannot use VoIP on the new Nokia phones. I have always ten or more VoIP providers installed on my Nokia E61i’s SIP client. This way I can always use the cheapest route and leverage free on net calls.

It would be nasty if had to install ten or more pieces of software for that purpose. It’s already annoying that Truphone requires a special software because they don’t give me my SIP password. That’s a perversion of the idea of standards. If I need a special software for every company’s offer why is there a standard called SIP?

So as a VoIP tinkerer I have to stay with the older Nokia devices, or at most I can change to the E71. But Nokia’s new Symbian release, S60 3.2, is no option for me - as long as it has no own SIP client. It’s obvious why companies like Fring, Truphone, Gizmo5, Vyke and others are applauding the Nokia move. It ties their customer to them and makes it more difficult to use other companies’ offers. With a native SIP client, which allows to be connected to several different SIP services at the same time, I can be promiscuous. Even the most disruptive mobile VoIP companies prefer to lock me in their walled garden, but I don’t want that.

I still believe that pressure from mobile operators has caused this move of Nokia. HSDPA and HSUPA have brought great bandwith to the latest handsets, enough to use it for Voice over 3G. With the right voice codec you can talk about 15 minutes and use only 1 Megabyte of data. Filtering for VoIP packets slows down the mobile data networks and therefore it’s not very common. If you combine that with the right VoIP provider, like Betamax, this means free mobile phone calls to more than 30 countries. Only data prices apply.

Published on August 28th, 2008 under , , , , , , , ,

Thanks to WiFi Smartphones, Mobile VoIP is Growing Steadily

Source: gigaom.com

Business Week today has a good summary of various mobile VoIP services that allow you to make phone calls from your cellphone over the Wi-Fi network. These apps are incredibly popular amongst people who use iPhones, thanks to services such as Truphone and Gorilla Mobile, while others like iCall will soon join the party. And that is just the beginning.

By 2011 the number of mobile VoIP users around the world may rise to 100 million from 7 million in 2007, according to ON World, a consulting firm based in San Diego. ON World estimates that in 2011, mobile VoIP voice services may generate $33.7 billion, up from $516 million in 2006, the most recent year for which the figure is available.

WiFi-based voice calls may not appear to make much sense in this era of $99, flat-rate unlimited plans, but when you have to make a lot of international long distance calls, the cost saving are humongous. I use Truphone on my iPhone and/or my Nokia e71 to make calls to my family and friends in India as well as to my sources, which are spread across the world.

There are times when I have used Skype (via iSkoot) on my mobiles to make calls, but Truphone is my service of choice. I save a lot of money when compared to what calls cost on the AT&T network.

No wonder phone companies don’t have much use for Wi-Fi unless they can use it off-load calls from the precious wireless spectrum to the Wi-Fi network. Others, like T-Mobile USA, have come up with a way to measure calls made via Wi-Fi hotspots and count them against wireless subscriber minutes, unless you sign up for an additional $10-a-month plan, Business Week notes.

So obviously they’ve gone out of their way to neuter VoIP services like Truphone. More recently, Nokia decided to take out VoIP functionality from some of its N-Series devices, like the N78 and the forthcoming N96, in what could very well be called carrier arm-twisting.

I think that if carriers want to compete with mobile VoIP they need to lower their long-distance prices to that of VoIP services. By using their network backbones they can offer convenience and quality to trounce the upstarts. The problem is that wireless companies will not make this logical move — until it’s too late.

Related Stories:

* 7 Ways to VoIP From Your Mobile Phone.
* iSkoot, Not Skype, Launched on Symbian.




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Published on August 26th, 2008 under , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Nokia Deep-Sixes VoIP

Source: www.voip-news.com

Nokia is bidding farewell to VoIP on its mobile phones. The new N-series of phones isn’t compatible with VoIP, unlike previous models. Gigaom is calling it a case of cold feet. The company did insist that they are still committed to allowing internet calls alongside regular calls.

According to Gigaom:

The theory is that Nokia isn’t mucking with E-series devices because they are more enterprise focused. Since VoWLAN is more popular with the corporations, Nokia can’t afford to remove the VoIP functionality. It is one feature that makes the phones more competitive with say Blackberry.

On the consumer front, however, voice-over-WiFi has become a thorn in the side of carriers, as exemplified by actions of carriers such as T-Mobile against VoWiFi-startups such as Truphone. Furthermore, the emergence of 3G has made it easier to route calls over the 3G network.

Published on August 26th, 2008 under , , , ,

No VoIP In New Nokia N-Series Devices? Is Nokia Turning Its Back on VoIP?

Source: gigaom.com

Nokia, the leading handset maker, has been a favorite of ours for two reasons –- it ruthlessly promoted and added Wi-Fi connectivity to its handsets and added VoIP functionality to its devices.

Carriers did not view these technology developments too kindly since it prevented them from extorting exorbitant amounts of cash for costly long distance connections, leading to the rise of mobile-VoIP players such as Truphone, Fring and Gizmo Project.

But now the Finnish giant seems to have developed cold feet, and some of its new handsets, such as the new N78, are not VoIP compatible anymore. Many of these phones are not on the list of Nokia’s VoIP compatible handsets. A reader tipped us off about this apparent change in the latest N-series phones.

…the N78 (and also to affect the forthcoming N96) which is that Nokia has very quietly and seemingly sneakily redacted their built-in VoIP / SIP implementation in all phones that come with Symbian Series 60 3rd generation Feature Pack 2 (otherwise abbreviated as S60 3.2).

I have a N78 lying around so I decided to test it myself. And lo-and-behold none of the VoIP services I am accustomed to using worked. Truphone and Gizmo are two services I typically use and neither of them work.

Ditto for Fring, a VoIP-IM service as well. However, all three worked on the Nokia E71 smart phone. When I asked Nokia if this was true, the company sent me this response, which pretty much admits that is the case, though it didn’t say why.

Nokia Nseries is committed VoIP services as part of its offering. That is why we have included SIP stack and improved the developer VoIP offering in S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 by enhancing the VoIP APIs to improve the call quality, as an example.

A Nokia VoIP client is not included with the Nokia N78 and the Nokia N96 and VoIP solutions based on this particular client such as Gizmo will not work. However, Forum Nokia will cooperate with third-party developers to support them in porting their applications from S60 3.0/3.1 releases to S60 3.2. One example is Fring, whose popular application will be offered via Nokia’s Download! service for the Nokia N96.

Truphone isn’t waiting around for Nokia to do something. A company spokesman told us: “From Truphone’s perspective Nokia has removed the VoIP client from all the N-Series phones for the planned future. We are putting in a replacement client functionality so that existing customers are not orphaned.”

The theory is that Nokia isn’t mucking with E-series devices because they are more enterprise focused. Since VoWLAN is more popular with the corporations, Nokia can’t afford to remove the VoIP functionality. It is one feature that makes the phones more competitive with say Blackberry.

On the consumer front, however, voice-over-WiFi has become a thorn in the side of carriers, as exemplified by actions of carriers such as T-Mobile against VoWiFi-startups such as Truphone. Furthermore, the emergence of 3G has made it easier to route calls over the 3G network.

Funnily enough, the decision to back away from built-in VoIP comes at a time when fixed mobile convergence is finally beginning to gain traction, especially in Europe and Asia. In the U.S., Nokia launched a handset that works with T-Mobile’s Hotspot@Home service.

Nokia has to be taking a lot of heat from carriers over making VoIP easy on its devices. Whichever way you look at it, I think it is a bone-headed move by the company, which should be trying to out-innovate its competitors and be more open in terms of its features.

The decision also brings into question company’s new mantra of being open and open-source friendly. Being open isn’t about releasing some software in open source, but it is about having an open mind. Shutting down a much loved VoIP feature isn’t exactly the right move.

As our reader very aptly wrote:

….does this move by Nokia really appear to be the type of move that is indicative of a culture shift towards open source per the Symbian Foundation? Google is already culturally rooted in open source (its entire infrastructure runs on Linux clusters). I am not so confident about Nokia’s ability to shift to open source…




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Published on August 23rd, 2008 under , , , , , , , , , , ,

Come Play With US! Nokia’s N-Gage Goes Live!

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Gamotopia is reporting that Nokia N-Gage is alive now with 30 plus games from popular and well known game publishers. As far as the devices are concerned, today’s N-Gage compatible devices include: Nokia N81, Nokia N81 8GB, Nokia N82, Nokia N95, and Nokia N95 8GB. I am sure there will be more coming in near future. Follow the link for complete press release.
Gamotopia: Nokia’s N-Gage Goes Live With New Games And Devices.

Published on April 8th, 2008 under ,

New VoIP and Presence Application for Symbian Series 60 Phones, New Phone from Nokia Too

Source: andyabramson.blogs.com

Octro Talk is a new voip and presence application that works on Symbian Series 60 phones.

What’s more interesting to me is that client Nokia has introduced the new 6300i that includes more than a SIP stack. They included a full SIP based VoIP client that is easily configurable. That means users of SIP based VoIP who are able to obtain their SIP credentials from the carrier can be totting around a VoIP phone that works over WiFi. The phone, which will retail for less than $300 doesn’t have 3G capability.

A third company, Tpad has introduced a Truphone like clone that takes advantage of the stack already present in the N and E Series devices to create a full VoIP service.

Published on March 29th, 2008 under , , , , , , , , , ,

Mobile VoIP for Nokia E and N Series Phones

Source: www.voip-news.com

There’s a new Mobile VoIP service available on Nokia E and N series phones that are WiFi-enabled. Tpad has devised a free SMS messaging service that will automatically update a phone, enabling it to use mobile VoIP, Telecom Tiger reports.

Chris Morris, Tpad’s general manager said “Free calling has finally arrived on mass market mobiles. We are giving all new users who sign up for a free Tpad mobile account a free test call to the value of $0.50 for a limited period. Users will thus have the opportunity to experience the call quality of next generation mobile VoIP.”

 

Calls will be free if they are routed over their WiFi connection  however all other PSTN calls from the user’s WiFi mobile to any other landline or mobile in the world will be come at very low rates.

Published on March 29th, 2008 under , , , , , , , ,

Nokia N82 In Black, Slated To Take You To The Edge And Lets You Tag It.

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

This jet black multimedia computer enables people to "geotag" the images they capture - allowing them to not only be saved by date, but by location as well. This adds to a line-up of compelling photography features, including a 5 megapixel camera, Carl Zeiss optics and a Xenon flash. Ok That is just the camera part.

Multimedia computer excels as travel companion with photography, navigation and Internet connectivity
Espoo, Finland - Nokia today unveiled the Nokia N82 in stylish black, bringing a blend of state-of-the-art imaging, integrated navigation and high-speed Internet connectivity to the Nseries range of converged devices. This jet black multimedia computer enables people to "geotag" the images they capture - allowing them to not only be saved by date, but by location as well. This adds to a line-up of compelling photography features, including a 5 megapixel camera, Carl Zeiss optics and a Xenon flash. Not only does the Nokia N82 take great pictures, array of advanced connectivity features makes it easy for consumers to share their discoveries, journeys and locations. The Nokia N82 in black is expected to start shipping within weeks, with an estimated retail price of approximately 400 euros, before taxes and subsidies.
"The Nokia N82 is made for storytelling," says Juha Kokkonen, Director for Nokia Nseries devices. "As one of Nokia’s leading-edge connected camera, the Nokia N82 in black captures people’s journeys and discoveries. With built-in A-GPS it even helps people to find new places by pairing ‘contextual’ information with a wide array of connectivity features such as Wi-Fi and HSDPA. We make it easy for consumers to quickly share those moments as they happen."
When it comes to camera capabilities, the gloss-black Nokia N82 is set to wow world travelers and photography enthusiasts alike. The 5 megapixel camera, powerful Xenon flash and Carl Zeiss optics, ultra-fast camera activation, autofocus with a dedicated assist lamp, fast reloading between shots and DVD-like quality video capture all ensure that special moments can be captured "picture perfect" - even in low light conditions.
Taking advantage of its integrated A-GPS functionality and high resolution camera, the Nokia N82 automatically tags images with capture location metadata, making it possible to view the capture location on a map either on the Internet or on the device itself. When it comes to sharing, consumers can upload their pictures or videos directly from their Nokia N82 to services like Share on Ovi, Flickr or YouTube. By installing Nokia’s exclusive and free Sports Tracker application, consumers can share their whereabouts and travel route with others on the Sports Tracker website - including the capture locations of images. The Nokia Sports Tracker is a GPS based activity tracker that runs on Nokia smartphones. Information such as speed, distance and time are automatically stored in the application, and can be shared with others.
Urbanistas explore the world
To showcase this exciting application, several explorers took off across the globe, each with a GPS-enabled Nokia N82 as their travel companion. On www.nseries.com/urbanistadiaries, people around the world could follow these intrepid travelers, and share the experience in near real-time through images captured on each explorers’ device. The Sports Tracker widget tracked the explorers’ location and marked the spot where each image was taken on a constantly updated map. The widget has now been embedded in many blogs and social networking sites.
So that everyone can track and share their own journeys, stories and pictures with friends - just like one of the explorers - the Sports Tracker mobile widget will soon be made available with many new and existing S60-based converged mobile devices. It is also possible to share and compare travel routes or workouts with friends or the Sports Tracker community. Others’ journeys can also be browsed by location, for example to find a more exciting travel route.
The Nokia N82 is a true travel companion and supports microSD memory cards of up to 8GB which allow the device to hold the user’s choice of up to 3,600 high-resolution pictures, 5 hours of high quality video capture, up to 6,000 songs or all of the available regions for the Nokia Maps application.

Published on March 19th, 2008 under

Bhaskar Roy: Qik should be a part of Nokia’s Ovi

Source: goebel.net

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Qik is one of the greatest mobile internet applications I know. You just start the software on a Nokia N95, and yet you are broadcasting live video to everyone over the internet. Have a look at my company’s Qik stream at Mogulus if you want to see the next transmission.

I immediately thought that this kind of live video broadcast is the last feature that’s missing on Nokia’s social platform Ovi. There you can already share photos, videos, comments and blog entries in more than 100 file formats. "We support nearly every existing file format, said Serena Glover, Director Service Operations, Connect New Experiences at Nokia and ex CEO of Twango in an interview with me at the Mobile World Congress 2008 in Barcelona. But Ovi always keeps you waiting for your friends to upload a new video. You can’t just tune when it’s still being filmed. It feels more like Blockbuster video than real television. Unlike Qik, which lets you broadcast and see events while they are still happening.

"Absolutely! Qik should be a part of Ovi", therefore said Qik’s VP Marketing and co-founder Bhaskar Roy when we talked in Barcelona. He also related how venture capitalists are competing to do his company’s second round of funding. Our chat was very interesting and insightful. Who had thought that this Silicon Valley company is mostly based in Russia? While India born Bhaskar and his friend Ramu Sunkara run Qik together with some other Stanford graduates from the Californian city of Santa Clara, most of their employees live and work in Moscow. Nilolay Abkairov, who was a former speech codec developer for Skype mobile, and his team are busily porting Qik to all smartphone platforms.

His friend Alexi handles the video streaming issues, which make use of quite nifty technologies: The handset shoots the video as MPEG4 and immediately streams it as H.263 over a 3G or Wifi connection to Qik’s server. There it’s being transcoded into Flash for Qik’s website or into a Realvideo stream for mobile handsets. "Qik is developing a new live streaming to other mobile handsets, says Bhaskar. "You won’t even need a browser to watch a livestream. We send a Realvideo stream directly to your friends’ cell phones."

So soon the cell phone will not only be a camera but also a tv set. Everyone is a sender and a receiver at the same time if he has the right handset. "Qik works on all S60 platforms and a version for UIQ is in development, says Bhaskar. "A version for Windows Mobile will be launched soon. Their aim is to make Qik work on every possible camera phone. That’s why the team in Santa Clara is also developing a Java client for cheaper handsets. They even tested Qik successfully on phones with just 100 Megahertz CPU and only an EDGE connection to the mobile internet. "Qik consist of a layer that’s different for every platform and a platform independent layer, explains Bhaskar. "That’s why it takes only some weeks to port Qik to a new platform."

So while the future looks technologically bright for Qik, I asked Bhaskar how his company wants to earn money. Until now the service is free and Nokia hasn’t made an offer yet. "In this year we will only concentrate on consumer acquisition, is his answer. Advertising on Qik’s website would be easy to implement, like Google does it on Youtube. Also companies could sponsor certain channels on the website. "We could also offer value added services for very cheap prices like $1 per month", says Bhaskar. As an example for a premium service he mentions privacy. Until now every video appears directly on Qik’s starting page as soon as you activate the camera. Every stranger can see it until you switch off or hit the "0 key.

Published on February 29th, 2008 under , , , , , ,

The Morph, A Flexible Wearable Phone From Nokia And University of Cambridge

Source: snapvoip.blogspot.com

Nokia Research Center and the University of Cambridge are Morphing into the future with a concept cell phone called Morph. The Morph is featured in an online display presented in conjunction with "Design and the Elastic Mind," (which itself is a new experience to watch over the net. Follow the link to watch the exhibition online and prepare to spend some time!) scheduled to run through May 12 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

Morph, the joint nanotechnology concept, launches today alongside the new Design and the Elastic Mind exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City in which it is profiled. The exhibition will be on view from 24 February to 12 May 2008.

Morph is a concept that demonstrates how future mobile devices might be stretchable and flexible, allowing the user to transform their mobile device into radically different shapes. It demonstrates the ultimate functionality that nanotechnology might be capable of delivering: flexible materials, transparent electronics and self-cleaning surfaces.

Professor Mark Welland, Head of the Department of Engineering’s Nanoscience Group at the University of Cambridge and University Director of Nokia-Cambridge collaboration, commented: Developing the Morph concept with Nokia has provided us with a focus that is both artistically inspirational but, more importantly, sets the technology agenda for our joint nanoscience research that will stimulate our future work together.

Dr. Tapani Ryhanen, Head of the NRC Cambridge UK laboratory, Nokia, added: We hope that this combination of art and science will showcase the potential of nanoscience to a wider audience. The techniques we are developing might one day mean new possibilities in terms of the design and function of mobile devices. The research we are carrying out is fundamental to this as we seek a safe and controlled way to develop and use new materials.

The partnership between the University of Cambridge and Nokia was announced in March, 2007 - an agreement to work together on an extensive and long term programme of joint research projects. NRC has established a research facility at the University’s West Cambridge site and collaborates with several departments initially the Nanoscience Center and Electrical Division of the Engineering Department on projects that, to begin with, are centered on nanotechnology.

The Nanoscience Centre provides open access to over 300 researchers from a variety of University Departments to the nanofabrication and characterisation facilities housed in a combination of Clean Rooms and low noise laboratories. Research is aimed especially at multidisciplinary projects where engineering, biology, physics, chemistry and materials science meet.

The Electrical Engineering Division of the Department of Engineering builds on Cambridge’s history of world-leading research in Photonics and Electronics by significantly enhancing collaboration with industry and by providing a focus for multidisciplinary research involving over 200 engineers, as well as chemists, physicists, materials scientists and bioscientists. It includes the ‘Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics’ and the ‘Cambridge Integrated Knowledge Centre for Advanced Manufacturing Technologies for Photonics and Electronics’.

A video is available to watch at Nokia.

For further information, please contact the University of Cambridge Office of Communications on 01223 332300

Published on February 25th, 2008 under ,

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