Category: News
March 6th, 2008
Exclusive: iPhone DevCamp's Raven on iPhone SDK and what it means
Just a few minutes ago, I had a most enlightening email conversation with someone who knows as much about the new iPhone SDK, and its effects/potential, as anyone who doesn’t work at Apple. And probably know more than most who do.
That’d be Raven Zachary, who you may know as key force behind the iPhone DevCamp, (group-and-grin from 2007 SF event in pic) as well as an analyst and perhaps THE key thought leader in the third party iPhone developer community.
Raven had some thoughts on the new iPhone SDK. I know you are here because you want to know what he thinks.
Comin’ at ya!:
RS: Your overarching thoughts on SDK?- is it what you hoped for in terms of flexibility, ease of use, etc?
RZ: This is what the development community was hoping for - a platform that allowed developers to build native applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. In terms of openness, it looks to be something in- between what Apple does today with the iPod Games market and the Mac. Developers can write almost anything, but will need to distribute the software through the iTunes App Store, with Apple taking a 30% revenue share for distribution, billing, and marketing, basically. Developers wanting to distribute free applications through the App Store will be allowed to do so, as well.
RS: How does SDK functionality change the game for 3-party iPhone devs?
RZ: 3rd party development for the iPhone up until now was web-based through Safari, and a small number of people in the hacker community working on unofficial apps. We’re now going to see an entire new market created around native applications, and providing functionality not possible through web development. You’ll see iPhone development for web-based applications, just not exclusively.
RS: Are you troubled by the Apple “control” issue, i.e. they reserve right of approval?
RZ: No, because it seems that Apple will only limit this in extreme situations. Steve Jobs was quoted in the Q&A session with the media that they would even allow VOIP applications, although limited to Wifi and not over the carrier network. What we don’t have here is Apple review of all source code, which would have been time consuming and expensive.
RS: In SDK, what’s cool?
RZ: Everything, pretty much. Apple has provided a large sandbox for developers while still providing for data security.
RS: In SDK what’s missing that ought to be there?
RZ: There are still a number of unanswered questions from today’s announcement, such as hardware and peripheral connectivity, but these will be answered by Apple in time.
RS: Any other thoughts?
RZ: Don’t underestimate this market and the disruption on RIM (BlackBerry). Kleiner Perkins is putting $100m into the iFund, and this platform has a very exciting future, and one with plenty of commercialization opportunities for 3rd party developers.
March 4th, 2008
Score one for the little guy: FCC entirely backs consumer in Sprint slamming case
The meme that this FCC
is highly partial to the interests of large broadband service providers and telcos has often been hammered home on these screens.
While I am certainly not ready to contradict those overarching feelings, I nevertheless feel enthusiastic and obligated to tell you about those FCC decisions in which the consumer wins.
One of those just crossed my disk this morning.
In rather strong language (”it is ordered,” “absolution,” etc.) the FCC has just come down on the side of a consumer in a forced carrier change (”slamming”) case.
Joy rules.
As the FCC said in their order:
In this Order, we consider the complaint alleging that Sprint Communications Company, L.P. (Sprint) changed Complainant’s telecommunications service provider without obtaining authorization and verification from Complainant in violation of the Commission’s rules. We conclude that Sprint’s actions did result in an unauthorized change in Complainant’s telecommunications service provider and we grant Complainant’s complaint.
The next section of this ruling indicates the statutes that the FCC cited as the reason for this decision:
In December 1998, the Commission released the Section 258 Order in which it adopted rules to implement Section 258 of the Communications Act of 1934 (Act), as amended by the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (1996 Act). Section 258 prohibits the practice of “slamming,” the submission or execution of an unauthorized change in a subscriber’s selection of a provider of telephone exchange service or telephone toll service.
In the Section 258 Order, the Commission adopted aggressive new rules designed to take the profit out of slamming, broadened the scope of the slamming rules to encompass all carriers, and modified its existing requirements for the authorization and verification of preferred carrier changes.
The rules require, among other things, that a carrier receive individual subscriber consent before a carrier change may occur.
Pursuant to Section 258, carriers are absolutely barred from changing a customer’s preferred local or long distance carrier without first complying with one of the Commission’s verification procedures. Specifically, a carrier must: (1) obtain the subscriber’s written or electronically signed authorization in a format that meets the requirements of Section 64.1130; (2) obtain confirmation from the subscriber via a toll-free number provided exclusively for the purpose of confirming orders electronically; or (3) utilize an independent third party to verify the subscriber’s order.
If you want to read on about the FCC’s siding with the consumer in this case, well, then, just make with the “click-y.”
March 4th, 2008
Uh-oh: Oprah's streamed New Earth Event runs short on bandwidth
Last night’s inaugural, Skype co-sponsored webcast of Oprah Winfrey’s Oprah.com New Earth Event scored 500,000 simultaneous log-ins.
That would be all well and good, but the gathering multitudes resulted in 242 Gbps of information moving over the ‘net at the same time.
This morning, Oprah.com is posting a statement acknowledging resulting delays in viewing the webcast, and noting that work is continuing to find a specific cause for what happened.
The statement says in part:
Harpo Productions, Inc., Move Networks and Limelight Networks recognize that interactive Internet broadcasting to a mass audience is still an emerging medium, and we’re proud to have been pioneers in pushing the industry forward. We deeply regret that some of our audience did not have an optimal viewing experience and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. The first session of the webinar will be available in its entirety for viewing on Oprah.com or for downloading as a podcast on Oprah.com or iTunes (later today).
February 27th, 2008
9-1-1 VoIP passes Senate, but that's far from a complete solution
The IP-Enabled Voice Communications and Public Safety Act of 2007 has just been passed by the U.S. Senate.
The hill amends the Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act of 1999 to irequire interstate VoIP providers to provide enhanced 9-1-1-services.
Not only that, but the bill authorizes the FCC to dictate that these providers have right of access to 9-1-1- service elements. That includes direct access to PSAP (Public Safety Answering Pint) facilities.
Additionally, the bill allows the FCC to delegate relevant 9-1-1 access to state agencies charged with overseeing local emergency communications networks.
These are major steps toward the credibility of VoIP, but there remains one hurdle.
Innerrant point of presence detection for IP calls made over notebooks and handsets. True, there are some GPS-based solutions, but without boosters, GPS is primarily an outdoor medium.
And don’t tell me about indoor boosters and adapters. The way it seems to me, the VoIP user who does not take the time and care to register a temporary location (say at his aunt’s) isn’t going to be the one to rig up a solution that will bring the presence-detecting aspects of GPS inside.
February 27th, 2008
iotum's conference call Facebook app picks up three new intl partners
Internet calling solutions provider
iotum has announced expanded availability for its FREE Conference Calls application on Facebook.
Internatinal in scope, the expansion fir the five-month-old service is being facilitated by agreements with Internet communications partners Truphone in the U.K., Abbeynet in Italy and MOI Telecom in France.
The service, which has more than 90,000 users, is currently being used not only for conference call talk, but for public tele-seminars, private meetings, family events, New Year’s Eve countdowns, political discussions and to record multi-person podcasts.
iotum says users can join an iotum FREE Conference Call using one of three methods:
Direct dial from home, office, or mobile. In the United States, Canada and France, users can dial the conference server directly using an ordinary call and be joined to the FREE Conference Calls. Iotum says it intends to roll out more direct-dial countries in the future by recruiting additional partners to service other parts of the world.
VoIP. From anywhere in the world, users can call using their PCs. All that’s required is an active Internet connection, and clicking on the FREE Conference Calls application icon in Facebook.
Call back. A user can be called back simply by entering into the FREE Conference Calls application on Facebook the phone number where his or her call is to be received.
February 26th, 2008
Lose your VoIP in today's massive South Florida blackout?
(via South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
Quoted on the website of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper, Florida Power & Light spokeperson Aletha Player estimated that some 700,000 South Floridians lost power due to a shutdown at an FP&L nuke plant today.
Power losses and VoIP don’t play well together, especially when we are talking about VoIP over your PC.
Applying VoIP penetration rates to that 700,000 estimate, I can conclude that several thousand South Floridians lost their VoIP connection when the power went out.
Were you one of them? Were you talking via, say Skype or Vonage and then everything went dark? Or did your surge protector cover your back for a few mins., giving you time to shut off your PC and give your VoIP connection a “I think the power has just gone out, I’ll call you back when our electricity is restored” signoff?
Tell us your stories via Comment. I’ll roll ‘em up and fashion a new post from them.
February 26th, 2008
Report: sales of carrier-grade routers and switches up 16% in 2007
That’s the carrier-strength Cisco 12000 Series Router and its configuration.
Suitable intro to a new report from Infonetics Research that says that worldwide sales of service provider routers and switches totaled $11.2 billion in 2007, up 16% from 2006.
The quarterly report is entitled Service Provider Routers and Switches. Reference is made to high bandwidth applications, as well as IP-based networks as key drivers.
In a statement, Infonetics co-founder and principal analyst Michael Howard said:
“The common drivers pushing the carrier router and switch market upward are 1) the ongoing migration to next generation networks based on IP, MPLS, and Ethernet, and 2) growth in consumer broadband, corporate, IP video, and mobile data traffic. Of course, the traffic jams are being caused by user applications, like music and video downloading, YouTube clips (even corporations are using YouTube for marketing videos), online news, and social networks like MySpace. “
Various stats and other factodia from the report:
- Cisco’s router and switch sales are up 20% year-over-year, Juniper’s are up 25%;
- After 11% and 9% sequential jumps in the second and third quarters, the overall market is relatively quiet in the fourth quarter, up 2% sequentially;
- The 40G market for routers and WDM is on the uptake; 100G is at
least 2 years out; - In 2007, Juniper (pulled) ahead of Alcatel-Lucent to gain the #2 spot in worldwide market share for service provider routers and switches; Cisco maintains its strong overall lead;
- Worldwide carrier Ethernet switch (CES) port shipments are up 36% in 2007; Cisco continues to lead by far in this segment, followed by Huawei and Nokia Siemens.
February 26th, 2008
Elton John to Larry King: I don't have a computer or a mobile phone
During last night’s Larry King show, Larry asked Elton John for the Web address of the Elton John AIDS Foundation. BTW, a noble cause- a benefit for which Elton played after the Academy Awards Sunday night.
As to Larry’s question, Elton admitted:
I don’t know what our website number is. I don’t have a computer or mobile phone or anything.
I know your first reaction will be, well, Elton is almost 61 and is a superstar, so not surprising he doesn’t have a PC or cell, and apparently doesn’t know much about the Internet.
But I can tell you of at least three other superstars, each older than Elton, who have professed Internet use. Eric Clapton wrote his latest book on a PC. Mick Jagger has referenced personal Internet use. And in 1999, when I wrote a streaming media guide for RealNetworks (ultimately not published due to a strategic shift), guess who wrote the preface:
Yes, RealNetworks communicated directly with David Bowie.
But here’s the good part. Just a few seconds after Elton professed ignorance about his charity’s website number, a producer put the website addy on screen.
“There you go,” Elton then said. “It’s terrible I don’t know that. “
February 25th, 2008
Skype appoints new CEO: "I want to learn." Well, duh
Former Evite co-founder (well, I guess he will always be a co-founder), and eBay marketing exec and current Shopping.com CEO 
Josh Silverman has just been named the new CEO of Skype.
As Jim Courtney of Skype Journal notes, Josh is already blogging.
In terms of revelatory, Josh’s first post is hardly that. But he officially steps on board March 24 as Skype CEO so his words and thoughts count:’m well aware that it is more than just an ingenious feat of engineering, which has made Skype one of the most rapidly-adopted technologies in human history. It’s a passionate community of users who believe in the power of human connection, in bold innovation and in striving for product excellence which has put us on our path to changing the world. I share your passion, and take very seriously the responsibility of all of us at Skype to be good stewards of the product and the brand.
So what can you expect from me? That I’m serious about wanting to build the greatest products — and the greatest company — on Earth. That doing so means listening well, being willing to think different and take risks. And in everything we do, one thing is certain: we’ll always have the best interests of the Skype community at heart.
I’m the new guy, and have a lot to learn. To really understand Skype’s cultural and technological DNA, my number one priority is to do a lot of listening and learning. With my wife and kids about to begin their adventure in Estonia as well, I have all the support I could ever need. I want to know everything about the technology, the team and the community. And I hope to share some of my observations on this very blog and see what you think, too.
As chief executive, I’m stepping into a flight deck first captained by co-founder Niklas Zennström and latterly interim CEO Michael van Swaaij. Both of whom have done great, meaningful things with this company. I don’t yet have the right to expect your enthusiastic two thumbs up. But as we go further on this journey together, I plan to earn it.
In the meantime, I look forward to meeting and talking with as many of you as possible over the months and years to come.
OK, well, duh.
So we learn that Josh is serious about this gig, wants to learn as much as he can and listen to users. But will he insititute non-obtuse communication channels to help him listen to we Skype users?
And will Skype-owner eBay listen to Josh?
February 25th, 2008
Study: talk on your cell four hours a day and your sperm count may suffer
Seems as though Ashok Agarwal, director of the andrology lab at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, is working on a study that indicates that prolonged exposure to cellphone radiofrequency electromagnetic waves can lower a man’s sperm count.
And when that happens, fertility can be adverselely affected.
Publishing in the journal Fertility and Sterility (gee there are journals about everything, no?) Agarwal and his co-researchers note they examined 361 men under 40.
Agarwal’s team studied 361 men under 40 who were being evaluated for infertility; men whose personal or family history might explain a low count or other sperm abnormalities were excluded.
The researchers found a correlation between those who talked longest on their cell per day, and a drop in sperm count and quality.
Seems as though four hours a day is the tipping point. Longer than that, and, well, how should we put this? Those little fellers seem to have trouble swimming. Even an hour a day, and well, you know.
Agarwal says a reason for this could be heat generated by the mobiles. Sperm production is sensitive to temperature.
Although Agarwal cautions this research is preliminary, it makes you wonder. If a guy talks to his sweetheart a couple of hours during the day, and then drops by to see her most evenings, can “issues” arise?
February 20th, 2008
Hey, Dell, it's no longer "President's Day"
I suppose that in the annals of marketing mishaps, this one rates merely a mention.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t entertaining, though. And since this is Wednesday/”Hump Day,” I thought entertaining would be good.
As I show you at the top of this post, I just received an email from Dell Small Business, touting their President’s Day Sale.
Only problem is, this is February 20, and President’s Day was February 18.
I then looked at the message header, and sure enough, the message was sent out at 12:43 a.m. on February 18:
There might be a temptation to blame my email provider Comcast. At least in my experience they don’t do mail holdups for two days. Two hours every once in a while, but not two days.
Pure experiential speculation on my part, but I would not be surprised if this two-day delay was precipitated by glitches at Dell Small Business, or their email services provider.
I checked the sender address, and got www.ema11.net. The web site addy redirects, but the page just hangs.
What gives?
February 19th, 2008
Mozilla Messaging transition to Thunderbird 3 may spark VoIP integration
You know Mozilla’s email component as Thunderbird, a utility easily integratable as a service extension of Mozilla’s Firefox browser.
But no more. Today, the Mozilla Foundation announced Mozilla Messaging, a new open source development initiative incorporating Thunderbird 3. Not merely a new Thunderbird build, but an effort to recast Thunderbird as front and center of a collaborative messaging alternative.
From reading the blog of Mozilla Foundation’s Mozilla Messaging’s CEO-designate David Ascher today, it sounds as though VoIP integration could be a Mozilla Messaging initiative.
David writes in part (bold face is mine):
It is worthwhile considering what the right user experience could be for someone using multiple email addresses, multiple instant messaging systems, IRC, reading and writing on blogs, using VoIP, SMS, and the like. What parts of those interactions make sense to integrate, and where? I don’t believe that stuffing all of those communication models inside of one application is the right answer. But the walled gardens that we’re faced with today aren’t the right answer either. There is room for innovation and progress here, and we need to facilitate it.
In other words, when it comes to VoIP in Thunderbird- the Mozilla Foundation is thinking about it.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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