Doug on IP Comm » Android

Skype’s busy summer

Doug Mohney — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 20:06:50 +0000

Over the past six weeks, Skype (www.skype.com) has announced new products and/or deals with Comcast, on Android, and with Facebook. Anything else?

At The Cable Show 2011, Skype and Comcast (www.comcast.com) announced that Comcast users would be able to lease Comcast hardware to enable Skype video calling on HDTV video sets. The service uses a little adopter box plus a customized remote to manage the Skype – and to-be-named-later apps – session to make and receive Skype video and audio calls, IM, and watch TV at the same time.

No price on the hardware has been set, but it kinda screams dead-end unless Skype is also going to offer/sell/promote this to other cable companies in the future.

Later, Skype released Skype for Android 2.0, enabling video calling over Android in the (closed) Skype universe. Support runs over Wi-Fi or 3G, with downloads free. Again, it’s nice, but with all U.S. wireless vendors except for Sprint rolling out data caps, I’m not sure how useful running video on a mobile phone actually is, unless you’re next to a power outlet.

To wrap up its summer of video, Skype announced a partnership with Facebook (www.facebook.com) enabling video chat within the Facebook environment. I think the embedded video message part is the most intriguing feature of this announcement since Facebook loads itself to asynchronous-ness communication. How it all plays out on the mobile environment will be interesting.

I suspect the Facebook announcement was the last of the group and we won’t hear any Big Deals for a while, given that Skype now has to finish being consumed by Microsoft.

D2 adds full IP video calling to Android mCUE software stack

Doug Mohney — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 17:39:52 +0000

Last week in Japan, D2 Technologies (www.d2tech.com) announced that its mCUE converged communications software for the Android got a whole bunch of features, including the addition of IP video to its already robust HD voice and VoIP support.

Now available for new Android devices such as “tablets, HD media players, IP media phones, connected TVs and STBs,” mCUE includes a customizable user interface, an embedded, hardware-platform optimized voice/video media engine, HD voice support, an “industry leading” acoustic echo canceller (AEC), multi-protocol support including IMS, a complete Skype Integration, and a remote management interface.

Reading between the lines here, D2 is about ready to open up a lot of different Android-based devices for both HD voice and vide (see laundry list above). While D2’s hand has been strong in wireless implementations – 4G, WiFi, WiMax, LTE — the whole TV and STB thing is going to be interesting to watch, especially with Skype thrown in for good measure.

CounterPath officially announces Bria Android

Doug Mohney — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 20:15:03 +0000

At IT EXPO last week, CounterPath (www.counterpath.com) officially announced that it will roll out an Android version of it’s Bria softphone at the end of this month (October).

Bria Android will work both over 3G and WiFi networks, and joins versions for the Apple iOS (iPad, iPod, iPhone) family, and Mac, Linux, and Windows-based desktop versions.

Compatible with any smartphone running Android V2.1 or later (hmm, will have to bum a copy for my Sprint HTC Evo at some point), features include support on any SIP-compliant server, multi-tasking support, automatic codec selection, options for rejecting, holding, forwarding, merging and splitting calls just like on a desktop phone, NAT traversal, and optimal customized branding for graphics and SIP settings for enterprise and telephony providers.

Phone.com adds slew of mobile features

Doug Mohney — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:50:33 +0000

Note: Phone.com is an advertiser on HD Voice News

Phone.com (www.phone.com) has cranked out a whole bunch of mobile features for its SMB service, including clients for the iPhone and Apple plus SMB send support on phone.com phone numbers.

Released in June, Phone.com added the Phone.com Mobile VoIP client for the iPhone and the Phone.com Mobile Office Client for Android. The Mobile VoIP client enables iDevice users to use their Phone.com virtual account to place VoIP calls over either a Wi-Fi or 3G connection.

The Mobile Office Android client provides a user interface to enable Phone.com users to listen to/manage/read voicemail, view received faxes, review call history, block calls from unwanted or unidentified numbers, send and receive SMS messages, click-to-connect to a private conference bridge and (of course) use Phone.com to make low cost international calls.

Both apps show the user’s Phone.com number as the caller ID when calls are made and both apps can be downloaded free from their respective app store sites.

SMS send and receive is now included with all Phone.com local numbers and plans, so anyone can send an SMS text message directly to a local Phone.com number. The new feature is free of charge and included in every Phone.com plan.

Digium gives wishy-washy answer on Android mobile client for Switchvox

Doug Mohney — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:25:06 +0000

I hate to take Digium (www.digium.com) out to the woodshed, but this is the response I got when I asked about the potential for a Switchvox mobile client for Android.

"Digium is evaluating the public response and usage of the iPhone and BlackBerry Apps, and based on these results we’ll determine if and when we should develop a version for Android or any other platforms and if the current functionality should be refined or changed."

*sigh* Serious corporate-speak and not the sort of thing I would have expected to see out of them.

DiVitas Networks moves mobile UC client to Android, Blackberry, iPhone, desktop

Doug Mohney — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:43:50 +0000

Mobile UC solution provider DiVitas Networks continues to make steady progress. Today, the company announced it is rolling out “Enterprise Social Networking” (Hmm, I wonder if they’ve seen Avaya’s FacePhone demo) for all major commercially-available smartphones, including web client support for Android, Blackberry, and the iPhone. In addition, they added a desktop — which could just as easily go on a netbook or laptop — client as well.

Previously, DiVitas had announced support for Nokia Eseries and Nseries, along with various Windows Mobile smartphones.

And what is Enterprise Social Networking? DiVitas does a redirect of an existing desk phone number to provide business voice/PBX services to the smart phone. In addition, DiVitas has integrated business voice with IM and social networking applications to include a person’s availability, location and network. Contacts are accessed directly from an organization’s LDAP director for one-click access to any member within the secure corporate community and individuals within the secure community can check on availability of others via Mobile Presence and Status to figure out the best way to contact a person based upon a listed preference and location.

Net-net: If a corporate colleague is in a meeting and they don’t want a phone call, the client will indicate that, so you send an IM, enabling you to communicate faster than playing phone tag.

IT and service providers of DiVitas have the ability to maintain version control with the web client, allowing the most current version of the software to be provided; the DiVitas server can provide both the new web client and the native client simultaneously.