News Archive - January 2012

NTT DoCoMo asks Google to limit Android data use
January 30, 2012

NTT DoCoMo is having a hard time providing service to all of the bandwidth hungry Android phones. So, they ask Google to reduce how much bandwidth Android uses.
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ClearOne to Acquire VCON Video Conferencing Ltd.
January 30, 2012

ClearOne announced the acquisition of Israel-based VCON Video Conferencing, a leader in high-performance, end-to-end, software video conferencing solutions.
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Megaupload Equals Mega Fail for Cloud Computing
January 30, 2012

The shut down of Megaupload by the U.S. government is not being perceived for what it is: a mega failure for cloud computing.
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White Spaces: The Next Generation of Wireless Broadband Has Landed
January 27, 2012

Airlie Gardens in Wilmington, North Carolina, is the first commercial user of technology dubbed "Super Wi-Fi" that uses radio frequencies once consumed by analog television broadcasters.
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AT&T CEO doesn't hold back in criticism of FCC
January 26, 2012

AT&T CEO Stephenson made a rare appearance during the company's quarterly financial conference call, using part of his time to blast the FCC, which he accused of "picking winners and losers" in how it regulates and approves deals.
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Amazon fuses your storage system with its cloud
January 25, 2012

Amazon Web Services is rolling out a new feature called Storage Gateway that lets companies upload data to its cloud-storage services directly from their on-premise storage systems.
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Patriot Act Threatens American Cloud Computing
January 24, 2012

The PATRIOT Act is generating concern among cloud users around the world, who suspect that the United States government, which now has easy access to any American-made platforms, will access their private data.
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AT&T to launch communication services
January 24, 2012

AT&T will launch new cloud-based unified communications services that give businesses the ability to integrate chat, email, VoIP calls, audio and videoconferencing and more over desktops and many mobile devices.
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India: Government to form new body to oversee telecom and cyber security
January 22, 2012

India plans to set up a new body that will oversee telecom and cyber security to avoid overlap between various ministries and intelligence agencies that are currently handling this issue.
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Cameras May Open Up the Board Room to Hackers
January 22, 2012

One afternoon this month, a hacker took a tour of a dozen conference rooms around the globe via equipment that most every company has in those rooms — videoconferencing equipment.
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Should NoSQL startups be afraid of DynamoDB?
January 20, 2012

Top executives at NoSQL startups are putting on a brave face in response to Amazon Web Services’ new DynamoDB offering. They roundly cite the new product (as well as Oracle’s October entrance into the space) as validation for the technology NoSQL companies have been pushing for years, while generally dismissing the competitive ramifications of having major vendors now playing in the same pool. But is that confidence justified?
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Polycom, IBM Partner on Video Conferencing
January 20, 2012

Polycom’s RealPresence Platform, integrated with IBM’s Sametime and Connections, now allows users to connect in multiparty or point-to-point video calls across a range of standards-based video solutions from immersive suites to conference rooms, desktops and mobile tablets.
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Sprint VoIP Patent Suit Targets MSOs
January 20, 2012

Sprint Nextel is throwing the book at four cable operators, including three long-standing partners, for allegedly infringing a dozen patents related to VoIP services.
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CRTC supports the evolution of advanced telecommunications networks across Canada
January 19, 2012

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) introduced a new policy that will encourage large telephone companies to rapidly adopt IP throughout their networks. This shift will promote the development of innovative services for Canadians.
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AARNet spruiks open standards for video conferencing
January 19, 2012

In a bid to support open standards for video conferencing, the Australian Academic Research Network (AARNet) has joined the Open Visual Communication Consortium (OVCC).
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U.S. DOJ: The Cloud Provides No Legal Cover for Criminals
January 19, 2012

Crooks and their data cannot hide from the long arm of the law, even in the cloud. — And so they think. Hackers break into machines all the time. It would be easy for hackers to essentially be a leech on somebody's cloud and there is no way to trace them.
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Linux Adoption Grows on Big Data, Cloud, Virtualization
January 19, 2012

A new Linux Foundation survey on enterprise adoption of Linux indicates that growth in Linux usage is being driven by factors such as big data, cloud computing and virtualization, among others. — And this stands to reason. Linux virtual machines can be started, managed, and terminated so easily from simple scripts. Linux is an amazing operating system for cloud applications.
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Lenovo and Polycom join hands for HD tablet videoconferencing
January 19, 2012

Lenovo has agreed to embed Polycom’s RealPresence HD Video and HD Voice systems across a range of laptops and tablets in early 2012.
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Amazon launches home-grown NoSQL database
January 18, 2012

Amazon Web Services is adding a home-grown NoSQL database to its ever-expanding roster of cloud computing offerings. DynamoDB is what Amazon CTO Werner Vogels called a “fully managed” NoSQL implementation the company built and tested over the years.
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Polycom Offers Wholesale Video-As-A-Service
January 18, 2012

Polycom announced that it will launch a cloud-based video-as-a-service offering to service providers and other strategic partners on a wholesale basis only.
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International VoIP licensing by April, says BTRC
January 18, 2012

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) will start issuing new licences for international VoIP telephony by April 2012.
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Vocalocity Acquires Customers of N.C.-based VoIP provider DigiTalk
January 18, 2012

Vocalocity, the leading cloud-based phone service for small business, announced it has acquired the customers of fellow hosted communications provider DigiTalk, located in Rutherfordton, N.C.
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Tech Giants Join Forces To Fight Amazon's Cloud
January 17, 2012

A long list of tech giants want to make it easier to steal one another's cloud computing customers. They are creating a technology standard that lets enterprises easily move their applications from one cloud to another.
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AT&T Joins OpenStack, Floats Cloud Architect
January 16, 2012

AT&T has joined OpenStack. It's the first US telecom service provider to sign up for the free Rackspace-NASA-spawned open source cloud initiative.
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Deep Skype integration promised in next-gen Windows Phone
January 16, 2012

Not only is a Windows Phone Skype app incoming, but Microsoft will “further integrate” the VoIP service into future versions of its smartphone OS, according to Skype CEO Tony Bates.
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UC and VoIP updates from CES 2012
January 13, 2012

The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas was very well attended with an estimated crowd of more than 140,000 and despite all the usual noise, we managed to find a few newsworthy pieces affecting VoIP and unified communications.
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Samsung brings apps, video conferencing to smart TVs
January 9, 2012

Samsung is integrating cameras and microphones into high-end smart TVs to allow for Kinect-style voice and gesture recognition. This will allow people to do video conferencing on the devices.
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GNU Gatekeeper 3.0 Released
January 4, 2012

A new version of the open source H.323 Gatekeeper GnuGk was released introducing a number of new features, including NAT/FW traversal features, IPv6 support, RTP multiplexing, and many other capabilities.
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Cisco ceasing sales of Umi video hardware
January 3, 2012

Cisco Systems is pulling the plug on another one of its video-centric consumer products. The communications company acknowledged that it has ceased sales of its Umi videoconferencing hardware, which it introduced in October 2010.
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