News Archive - January 2011
Facebook Voice calling incoming?
January 28, 2011
Rumour sirens should be buzzing right now, as this is too huge to ignore: word is a Facebook voice calling service is imminent, and it will be deployed in partnership with none other than the VoIP company, Skype. A Facebook Skype pairing should scare every VoIP service on the web.
Verizon to buy Terremark for $1.4 billion, boosting its cloud computing push
January 27, 2011
Verizon is set to buy Terremark, an information technology services company, for $1.4 billion, part of an effort from the wireless carrier to boost its cloud-computing abilities.
Most workers don't have desktop video and don't want it
January 27, 2011
Despite the popularity of consumer desktop video like Skype and FaceTime, information workers in North America and Europe have little interest in using the technology on the job, with 72% saying they don't want desktop video.
With Cloud, What You Don't Know Can Hurt You
January 21, 2011
The possibilities of cloud computing are nearly limitless. At the same time, the opportunity to step in a hole while sprinting toward cloud computing still remains extremely high.
Google Voice ports your own number for $20
January 19, 2011
Google now lets users port their numbers to the Google Voice service for a fee of $20, giving users freedom to use their current phone number with Google Voice.
35% of Global Execs Say Legacy Investments Block Move to the Cloud
January 19, 2011
Thirty-five percent of C-level executives cite a significant investment in legacy infrastructure as the reason they are not adopting cloud computing.
Amazon Web Services launches Elastic Beanstalk, a service of services
January 19, 2011
Amazon Elastic Beanstalk handles all the deployment details when a Web developer launches an application. For instance, Elastic Beanstalk will deploy and manage services for storage, computing clusters, load balancing and auto scaling.
MagicJack accused of skipping 911 VoIP fees
January 17, 2011
The Kanawha County Commission in Florida has accused YMAX Communications and its subsidiary, MagicJack, for failing to collect 911 fees from customers and pay the county. — This is an example of stupidity in the extreme. Shall MagicJack customers in Singapore send 911 fees to the county? The company has no idea where those devices are used at any given point in time. 911 does not work for them just like it does not work for Skype.
ITU-T Leading Work on Telepresence Standardization with H.323
January 15, 2011
A new experts group at the ITU started work on standardizing Telepresence functionality in H.323 systems. This is an important next step in the growth and adoption of videoconferencing, and industry that is finally seeing video communications go mainstream.
GE's $500M bet on data center consolidation and cloud computing
January 14, 2011
General Electric's energy division has agreed to acquire Lineage Power Holdings, a data center and telecom power conversion gear company, in a $520 million deal.
Skype hits 27 million simultaneous users; mobile VoIP pushing growth?
January 13, 2011
Internet VoIP provider Skype hit 27 million simultaneous users. A couple months ago the company had broken the 25 million simultaneous users milestone and it looks like the momentum continues.
Cloud Computing: A Shift From IT Luxury to Business Necessity
January 13, 2011
Cloud computing may have started out as an emerging trend that only IT professionals could get excited about (or fear), but it has quickly become one of the most important paradigm shifts in business today.
Cloud Makes Capacity Planning Harder: 3 Fight-Back Tips
January 13, 2011
Cloud computing is going to make capacity planning much more difficult for CIOs who intend to maintain all or most of their company's computing in internal data centers. Moreover, utilization becomes a highly risk-associated topic as utilization risk is shifted onto the cloud operator.
Mobile VOIP Use, Backed by Carriers, Enterprise, to Soar by 2015
January 13, 2011
The successful transition of VoIP technology from fixed-line phones to the mobile world is expected to encourage spending in the mobile VoIP space of $6 billion by 2015.
Google's dropping H.264 from Chrome a step backward for openness
January 13, 2011
With the decision to remove support for the widespread H.264 codec from future versions of Chrome, Google has undermined the widely anticipated <video> tag in HTML5.
Mirial releases SIP/H.323 video conferencing client for iPhone
January 13, 2011
Mirial announced the availability of the first professional video conferencing client for Apple iOS devices, supporting both SIP and H.323 standards, featuring high-quality video conference and optimized in order to get the most out of the mobile networks.
FCC report shows interconnected VoIP use growing rapidly
January 12, 2011
According to an FCC report, the number of consumers using voice services over their broadband connections grew by five million in 2009 while the number of traditional local phone lines decreased by 10%.
Android Beats Apple App Store’s Growth
January 12, 2011
Android Market had the highest rate of overall growth of all mobile phone app stores, reaching 130,000 applications in the U.S. by Dec. 31, or more than six times the number at the end of 2009. To be fair, though, Apple already has some 300,000 apps, so the difference in growth rates is not so surprising.
At last, iPhone comes to Verizon
January 11, 2011
At a press conference in New York City, Verizon said it will soon begin selling Apple's iPhone. The device will be available on Verizon's network starting in early February.
Skype buys rival Qik to handle two-way Android video calls
January 6, 2011
Skype announced a solution to two-way video chats on Android. It simply bought up the competition.