Gun battles between rival factions of a Mexican drugs cartel leave at least 15 dead near the US border. Read more…

Technicians in New Zealand are to begin defrosting a rare colossal squid, following a day's postponement. Read more…

Pirates release the crew of a Spanish fishing boat captured off the coast of Somalia, the government says. Read more…

A French socialist says he was detained by gunmen linked to Hezbollah during a visit to Lebanon. Read more…

Tamil Tiger rebels have bombed military targets in the north-east of Sri Lanka using light aircraft. Read more…

Additional fuel is due in Scotland as the Grangemouth strike nears the end of its first day. Read more…

The US government is to send consumers rebates totalling more than $100bn (??50bn), ahead of schedule. Read more…

A spacecraft for Europe's proposed Galileo sat-nav system is launched from Kazakhstan. Read more…

Arctic Monkeys star Alex Turner is celebrating his third UK number one album, with The Last Shadow Puppets. Read more…

High street chains will be the next victims of cyber terrorism, some of the world's elite hackers warn. Read more…

After conquering the iPhone and the PSP , Skype has now introduced a new beta application built for cell phones, giving users the freedom to make use of its VOIP services anywhere anytime. via MobileWhack.com Read more…

"This means that users can install and run the CHAT software on Vista machines making it easy to fine-tune the CHAT's audio settings and create their own database of defaults for different applications" ClearOne , has announced the release of a new version of software for its CHAT family of audio conferencing products. via TMCnet Read more…

Ecamm Network has announced the updated edition of their Call Recorder add-on app for Skype VoIP software. via Software Journal Read more…

Eyeball AnyFirewall Server and Engine demonstrate latest STUN, TURN and ICE implementation at SIPit 22 Vancouver, April 25, 2008: Eyeball Networks, a leading developer of NAT-traversal solutions, supplied the ... via Customer Interaction Solutions Read more…

"We have spent the last year strengthening our partner relationships and learning how we can best assist our partners as they sell ADTRAN products into the SMB and mid-size enterprise markets" ADTRAN, Inc. , a leading supplier of networking and communications solutions, announced today that the company has enhanced its ADTRAN ADvantage Partner Program. via Light Reading Read more…

SureWest announces the deployment of Alcatel-Lucent's IMS-based VoIP for Consumers solution to support its newly launched SureWest Digital Phone VoIP service in the Northern California region. via VoIPMonitor.net Read more…

The traditional land-line telephone seems in danger of heading the way of the telegram. via Canada.com Read more…

JoeDeveloper.NET and BroadSoft launched the first-ever mashup of carrier-grade VoIP features with Facebook. via VoIPMonitor.net Read more…

In 1999, I wrote a humorous article for CTI Magazine, the precursor to Internet Telephony Magazine, about my adventures with a power outage at TMC that took out our Dialogic MSI analog cards in our PC-PBX. The MSI cards are responsible for providing ring voltage to the phones, but the quick power outage blew the ring voltage generators on the cards resulting in phones that wouldn't ring on an incoming call. OUT OF THE BLUE — A BOLT OF BLUE Rather than working on the Dialogic boards during work hours, I decided to come in on a Sunday, when incoming phone traffic would be minimal. Then, I would be free to pull out both Dialogic boards and replace them with the new boards Artisoft had sent me. While pulling out one of the faulty boards, I saw a blue arc of electric current, half an inch long, pass between the two boards! Since the boards were so close together, a soldering pin on one of the boards must have touched the other board. “Well,” I thought to myself, “if it wasn’t broken before, it’s definitely broken now!” I had that odd, giddy sensation you sometimes get when you think you may have destroyed something expensive. Dialogic explained they had some issues with the BlackBox ring voltage generators and that they solved the issue, but not before I nearly fried myself. Well, I bring this all up because I just came across a great article from the Michigan Telephone, VoIP, and Broadband Blog...Continue reading Ring Voltage, REN, VoIP and a Bolt of Blue... Tags: analog, ATA, Cisco, REN, REN 3, REN 5, ringer equivalence number, ringing, ring voltage, VoIP, Vonage Related Entries VoIP Patents run amok - Apr 02, 2007 New VoIP Call Recording Software for Mac OS X - Feb 12, 2007 Cisco and Microsoft in Clash of the UC Titans - Apr 24, 2008 Court declares VoIP is exempt from service fees - Mar 27, 2008 VoIP Pioneer Slams Sprint - Jan 25, 2008 Hosted VoIP Packet Sniffing - Jan 22, 2008 Number Portability Redux - Jan 21, 2008 University of Cambridge claims largest IP telephony system - Jan 14, 2008 Vonage Blocking Ex-customer's Phone Number - Jan 14, 2008 Cool Phones for FiOS, Uverse and other VoIP providers - Jan 09, 2008 Read more…

Microsoft is giving up on the SPOT watch which leverages MSN Direct (FM frequency transmission) to send stock quotes, news, and even sync your Outlook calendar with your watch. The only person who I know owns one is Rich Tehrani, who reviewed one here. He will be so upset to hear the news. Well, least his wrist will be 3 pounds lighter so his typing should improve. You know what the problem was? They didn't have VoIP on the watch. Now if you could talk to your watch - ala Dick Tracey (see image) then this product may have succeeded. Then again, maybe not... Via Engadget Watch Image Top - Credit to Engadget Tags: Dick Tracey, Engadget, Rich Tehrani, SPOT watch, watch, watches Related Entries VoIP Pioneer Slams Sprint - Jan 25, 2008 Google to Acquire Sprint Nextel? - Nov 12, 2007 Rich Liveblogging Microsoft UC Launch - Oct 16, 2007 VoIP Tradeshow Testimonials - Sep 26, 2007 Another VoIP Provider Bites the Dust - Sep 26, 2007 Rich's IT Expo News Roundup - Sep 18, 2007 VoIP Supply Thanks TMC & IT EXPO - Sep 04, 2007 VoIPMonitor congratulates TMCNet - Aug 21, 2007 Skype Outage - Lessons Learned - Aug 20, 2007 Internet Telephony Expo Buzz Heats Up - Aug 03, 2007 Read more…

Zultys and Aastra Telecom have reached an OEM pact to delivery the next line of ZIP Phones. As part of the announcement, Zultys and Aastra announced full interoperability between the Aastra 5i Series and the Zultys MX (Media eXchange) line. I'm a huge fan of Aastra SIP-based VoIP phones and they are perhaps my favorite of any brand due to their XML capabilities and extensive customization capabilities. I have one sitting on my desk right now. The 57i CT in fact, which comes with a cool cordless handset that communicates wirelessly with the desktop IP phone. "In Zultys, we are delighted to find a SIP PBX partner that shares our core underlying philosophy that open standards should afford customers an easy-to-use, cost-effective communications solution that offers the maximum flexibility," says John Drolet, Vice President of Sales at Aastra Telecom USA. The interoperability testing involving the Aastra 5i Series, which consists of a line of SIP-based desktop and wireless telephones and expansion modules, including: • 51i - Entry level single line set with 3 line/16 character display and 9 configurable speed dial keys using the number keypad • 53i - Featured set with 3 line/16 character display and 4 programmable keys; compatible with up to three 536M expansion modules • 55i - Advanced Featured set with 144 x 75 backlit LCD display, up to 26 programmable function capability; compatible with up to three 560M or 536M expansion modules • 57i - Full Featured set with 144 x 128 backlit LCD display, up to 30 programmable function capability; compatible with up to three 560M or 536M expansion modules • 57i CT - All the features of the Aastra 57i plus integrated cordless base providing VoIP mobility employing secure 2.4GHz Frequency Hopped Spread Spectrum technology • 536M - Expansion Module with 36 programmable keys • 560M - Expansion Module with LCD Screen and 60 programmable keys Using any of the Aastra 5i series phones paired with the latest build of Zultys' MX software (version 3.2 or higher), gives some cool "out of the box" advanced functionality. In fact, Zultys told me, "MX software tightly integrates a suite of predefined critical features, including the so-called "Four P's" – that is, Paging, Parking, Pick-Up and Provisioning." As a result, Zultys will soon make available the following additions to its portfolio of award-winning phones: the ZIP 53i, ZIP 55i, ZIP 57i, ZIP 57i CT as well as the ZIP 536m and ZIP 560m expansion modules. Under the terms of the OEM arrangement, those phones will be rebranded by Zultys and made available to its distributors and resellers. "The addition of the Aastra 5i Series to our Zultys community creates a truly unique opportunity for organizations of all size migrating to pure IP or a converged IP environment. This further reinforces our commitment to offering customers unprecedented freedom of choice in finding a solution that is perfectly suited to meet their needs," explains Jonna Paquette, VP of Sales and Marketing at Zultys. Tags: 57i, Aastra, Aastra 5i Series, Aastra Telecom, IP phone, Media eXchange, VoIP, ZIP 536m, ZIP 53i, ZIP 55i, ZIP 560m, ZIP 57i, ZIP 57i CT, Zultsys, Zultys MX Related Entries More on the Aastra AastraLink Pro 160 appliance - Mar 18, 2008 Aastra AastraLink Pro 160 - Mar 18, 2008 Cisco and Microsoft in Clash of the UC Titans - Apr 24, 2008 Ring Voltage, REN, VoIP and a Bolt of Blue - Apr 24, 2008 Empire Cinema Deploys VoIP - Movie Ticket Prices go Down? - Apr 22, 2008 BroadSoft and JoeDeveloper.NET Debut Facebook VoIP App - Apr 22, 2008 SightSpeed Light Flash Video on MySpace - Apr 22, 2008 Voxeo Adds VoIP Party Line App to Facebook - Apr 22, 2008 Skype Launches Unlimited Flat-Rate International Calls - Apr 21, 2008 Microsoft Response Point Announces SIP Trunking Service Providers - Apr 18, 2008 Read more…

Computing UK has an interesting article about Empire Cinemas using VoIP in their movie cinema chains. What better things in life are there than VoIP and movie theater popcorn? Not many... But maybe I'm biased... Empire Cinemas is using the Voicenet Solutions platform using Cisco hardware, to VoIP-enable the main office and 17 nationwide branches. Importantly, Empire hopes to use the software to generate “substantial cost reductions”. In fact, the article states, “The financial benefits speak for themselves and were certainly a factor that could not be ignored,” said Empire Cinemas’ head of IT Julian Timm. Julian adds, “We envisage we will save almost ?100,000 over the first 12 months which includes substantial line rental, maintenance and call cost reductions." Fantastic! So with these great cost reductions due to VoIP, will the price of my $10.50 movie ticket & my $6 bucket of popcorn go down? Hello? Anyone? Well, it's a darn good thing for you that my homemade popcorn isn't nearly as good as your movie theater popcorn or I'd stay home and watch movies on PPV or Netflix DVDs instead. Tags: cinema, Empire Cinemas, movie theater, Netflix, popcorn, VoIP Related Entries Cisco and Microsoft in Clash of the UC Titans - Apr 24, 2008 Ring Voltage, REN, VoIP and a Bolt of Blue - Apr 24, 2008 Zultys & Aastra Telecom Partner - Apr 24, 2008 BroadSoft and JoeDeveloper.NET Debut Facebook VoIP App - Apr 22, 2008 SightSpeed Light Flash Video on MySpace - Apr 22, 2008 Voxeo Adds VoIP Party Line App to Facebook - Apr 22, 2008 Skype Launches Unlimited Flat-Rate International Calls - Apr 21, 2008 Microsoft Response Point Announces SIP Trunking Service Providers - Apr 18, 2008 Podcast Interview with Digium CEO Danny Windham - Apr 17, 2008 Hulk Smash Asterisk 1.6! - Apr 16, 2008 Read more…

Western Digital (WD) released their latest VelociRaptor 300GB hard drive. The WD VelociRaptor hard disk drive (HDD) is one scary looking beast! This puppy spins at 10,000 RPM - fast enough to tear through your gigabytes of naked flesh in nanoseconds. Did I say gigabytes of 'naked flesh'?  I meant gigabytes of important files - you know Word documents, financial spreadsheets, music files, iTunes videos, etc. The WD VelociRaptor HDD was engineered for maximum speed. WD VelociRaptor's 10,000 RPM SATA hard drive combines a SATA 3 Gb/s interface and 16 MB cache, to deliver performance that’s up to 35% faster than its speedy older brother, the Raptor. The hard drive enclosure is pretty scary as well. The heat sink just screams "I'm one bad ass hard drive." Key Features Killer Speed - Built on the performance bloodlines of WD Raptor, these 10,000 RPM drives, with SATA 3 Gb/s interface, and 16 MB cache deliver mind-bending performance. According to WD, "Not only are they 35 percent faster than the previous generation WD Raptor drives, but they also beat out all other competitors in the field." Rock-solid Reliability - Designed and manufactured to mission-critical enterprise-class standards to provide enterprise reliability in high duty cycle environments. With 1.4 million hours MTBF, these drives have the highest available reliability rating on a high capacity SATA drive. Double the Capacity - State-of-the-art technology packs twice the capacity per disk compared to its older brother WD Raptor resulting in 300 GB of high-performance storage space in this enterprise-class 2.5-inch drive. (Not compatible with notebook computers) IcePack™ Mounting Frame - The 2.5-inch WD VelociRaptor is enclosed in a 3.5-inch enterprise-class mounting frame with a built-in heat sink that keeps this powerful little drive extra cool when installed in high-performance desktop chassis. Rotary Acceleration Feed Forward (RAFF™) - Optimizes operation and performance when the drives are used in vibration-prone, multi-drive chassis. SecurePark™ - Parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down and when the drive is off. This ensures the recording head never touches the disk surface resulting in improved long-term reliability and increased drive protection when the chassis is moved. The VelociRaptor comes with a sweet 5-year limited warranty! Tags: 300GB, hard drive, Raptor, VelociRaptor, WD, Western Digital Related Entries Father of the Hard Drive Passes On - Dec 14, 2006 The Hard Drive Hits 50 - Aug 22, 2006 Consumer Storage Demands Never Cease! But Help Is on the Way ... - Aug 17, 2006 Network Storage for the Home Is Coming - Mar 23, 2006 Comments on this Entry: (turrican on Apr 23, 2008 8:42 PM) Most people know the advantages of SSD, I agree that they are better than HD's for a lot of scenarios, but this half-truth SSD bandwagon is pathetic. - Power consumption: Don't you have a car? Don't you use a 1000W heater in the winter? Don't you turn on the lights? - Where is the proof that consumer grade SSD's will have high quality, reliability, and support a large number of write cycles? Or is this based on claims from manufacturers? I don't want Maxtor style SSD's - HD's are known to have high failure rates, but SSD doesn't avoid the most common reasons why you lose important data: filesystem corruption, virus, human error like deleting files, application bugs, memory errors that corrupt system cache. - SSD is fantastic for random reads, but poor for writes. If I pay 1000$, I don't want a compromise, if I pay high end, I want high end. - SSD owns an HD badly at loading programs. Agree! But have you ever heard of SuperFetch? If you have Vista, a PC with SSD will boot 10 secs faster and that's it. - And I don't want to see MTron benchmarks and then pay through the nose for el crappo SSD. (Joe Gleinser on Apr 24, 2008 2:43 PM) What does this article have anything to do with SSD (solid state drives)? This post is about a speedy hard disk drive. I'm headed to Amazon or Buy.com to pick me up a VelociRaptor! Read more…

JoeDeveloper.NET has quickly developed a Facebook VoIP app called Click2Message that uses BroadSoft’s carrier-grade Broadworks Platform. BroadSoft aims to have developers use their platform to develop VoIP applications. Comparisons of course will be made with Ribbit, which launched late last year and which also is targeting developers. And then of course there are plenty of companies out there offering VoIP widgets & call me buttons that you can place on a website - including but not limited to Skype, Jangl, Jaxtr, and TringMe. Lypp, run by former TMCnet SIPThat blogger Erik Lagerway also offers a development platform for VoIP applications. So while what BroadSoft has done is nothing new, BroadSoft has certainly been on the leading edge of offering VoIP integration into business applications. For instance at INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & Expo, BroadSoft and C3IP debuted the first-ever VoIP mashup with ACT! by Sage. News release after the jump...Continue reading BroadSoft and JoeDeveloper.NET Debut Facebook VoIP App... Tags: application, BroadSoft, BroadSoft Xtended Developers Program, BroadWorks, Click2Message, Facebook, JoeDeveloper.NET, mashups, VoIP, Web 2.0 Related Entries BroadSoft and C3IP Debuts First-ever VoIP Mashup with ACT! at ITEXPO - Jan 23, 2008 Voxeo Adds VoIP Party Line App to Facebook - Apr 22, 2008 John McCain goes VoIP - Feb 14, 2008 Free Calls on Facebook - Nov 01, 2007 100% VoIP on the iPhone - Sep 26, 2007 Skype Could Trump Facebook in Social Networking - Sep 26, 2007 Cisco and Microsoft in Clash of the UC Titans - Apr 24, 2008 Ring Voltage, REN, VoIP and a Bolt of Blue - Apr 24, 2008 Zultys & Aastra Telecom Partner - Apr 24, 2008 Empire Cinema Deploys VoIP - Movie Ticket Prices go Down? - Apr 22, 2008 Read more…

SightSpeed just launched a new “SightSpeed Light” widget for MySpace, which adds two-way voice and video to the popular social networking site. If you recall, I wrote the following about SightSpeed Light: The obvious question that came to my mind when I was thinking about embedded Flash VoIP applets is "what about Flash video conferencing applets that do both voice & video?" Imagine simply visiting a website, and initiating an ad-hoc videoconference with other visitors to that same site. I should mention that there already exists tons of Flash video applications used by popular sites such as YouTube and LiveLeak. The video codecs at least exist within the Flash player. Though, YouTube uses buffering that isn't real-time, so Flash-based videoconferencing would most likely use a different codec that performs better during real-time communication. In any event, I knew it wouldn't be long before someone took Flash VoIP to the next level and offered Flash videoconferencing. Apparently, SightSpeed is the first company to do so... Now today its "no download" Flash-based video application, “SightSpeed Light” is available to MySpace users. You can access SightSpeed Light on MySpace here. Features include video mail, public video posting and free video chat between members of MySpace. Also, SightSpeed Light captures and creates video messages as posts, creating extended video conversations that are face-to-face, but not necessarily in real time. These threaded conversations start with someone creating and posting a SightSpeed video of him- or herself about any topic. From there, anyone in that person’s MySpace friends group can respond and add his or her thoughts. SightSpeed Light organizes the thread automatically, thus creating a video conversation, all without leaving MySpace. News release after the jump...Continue reading SightSpeed Light Flash Video on MySpace... Tags: Flash, MySpace, SightSpeed Light, video, video conferencing, VoIP Related Entries SightSpeed Light Flash Video Conferencing & Chat - Jan 07, 2008 Ojo Phone Lives! - Mar 12, 2008 SightSpeed offers High Quality Video Conferencing for the SMB - Oct 30, 2007 TringMe opens platform API to developers - Apr 16, 2008 C2Call - New browser-based Java VoIP app - Apr 03, 2008 Zingaya Media Server enables Adobe Flash-based VoIP - Feb 19, 2008 Flashphone adds SIP Call Me Button - Dec 18, 2007 Ribbit Launches - Dec 17, 2007 Firefox VoIP Extension open to any SIP provider - Dec 13, 2007 MySpaceIM with Skype launches - Dec 11, 2007 Read more…