iPhone Video to launch at WWDC?
Update: Yes, it was indeed launched and it’s called the iPhone 3G S but no video calling as yet.
There are rumors abound regarding the next release of the iPhone, every tech blog known to man is all over this like a fat kid on a smarty.
The iPhone 3.0 SDK has pretty much been proven to support video so a iPhone Video product seems to make sense. What kind of video? Recording full frame video is one thing but transporting that over 3G is quite another. My guess is it will not support real-time streaming or video calling on 3G, the question is will it deliver the goods on WiFi.
It will be interesting to see what happens at WWDC (running from the 8th to the 12th), the new iPhone is sure to launch at this event.
Cheap Mobile Calls in Canada
I had a great conversation today from a new Lypp user who was blown away by the Lypp mobile calling service that is current being offered at Lypp.com. The one thing that this gentleman kept reiterating was that mobile calling in Canada is so costly and how Lypp service all of North America for one low price.
It was so great to have some positive feedback on the service and I hope they will be even happier when they see the new features we are unleashing in February.
Next month we will be launching a new Next Generation Conference Calling service but at the same time we will be enhancing the current mobile offering at Lypp.com. Lypp mobile calling users in Canada will soon be introduced to a host of new features that we believe will enhance their mobile calling experience, at no extra cost.
Lypp Eliminates Wireless Long Distance For Canadian BlackBerry Users
Vancouver, September 24, 2007. Lypp announced today the launch of its first service, which eliminates wireless long distance costs for Canadian BlackBerry users. Lypp’s service works on any recent BlackBerry model and does not require installation of additional software.
“While other countries are seeing their telecommunications costs falling, Canadian wireless carriers continue to charge exorbitant rates for long distance, as high as $0.30 per minute” said Lypp Co-Founder & CEO Erik Lagerway. “We find this situation unacceptable and unfair, and our solution is a simple alternative that BlackBerry users can set up in seconds and use for calls to anywhere in North America with no long distance charges and the call quality and reliability of a regular phone call. To kick start our launch we’re offering the service for free to anyone who signs up via our website at http://lypp.com.”
The Lypp service is available now at http://lypp.com.
About Lypp Lypp is disrupting the telecommunications industry by using the data connections and applications that already exist on cell phones and mobile devices to give users features and pricing that the wireless carriers don’t, won’t or can’t offer.
For More Information
Daniel Gibbons
(778) 998-9543
press@lypp.com
BlackBerry is a registered trademark of Research in Motion Ltd.
Free Group Calling via Meebo on iPhone
I sent a Lypp alpha invite over to a friend of mine thinking he would have some fun testing our system before we released Lypp to private beta. What happened next was pretty damn cool.
On his iPhone he logged into his Gmail account and clicked on the invite link he got in his email. He was redirected to the Lypp alpha signup page and associated his Gtalk account via Meebo on his iPhone with Lypp. He then added the Lypp buddy to his buddy list and immediately upon doing so received a confirmation code. He pasted this confirmation code into the Lypp confirmation page and clicked the Finish button.
The Lypp signup was complete, all via iPhone and all within 3 minutes of getting the invite email.
He then called me and his business partner by simply sending the call command "call 6046297990, 650xxxxxxx" to his newly added Lypp buddy. His phone rang, "Lypp is completing your call". "Ring Ring", my phone started ringing. I was giddy, he and his partner were impressed.
So there ya have it, the first Lypp group call via iPhone, and it was free 🙂
Google, Show me the Federated IM
Google needs to open up the GTalk beta, itÂ’s been months and still no one can use this unless you go through the hassle of getting a Gmail account, which is also still in beta?? I think this client has a great deal of promise but I never use it because nobody I know has it.
Speaking of timing, check out IM Federation. It looks to me like Mr. Michael Robertson is making nice with Google and visa versa. Looking closer we can see that the domain is registered to Michael. Gtalk appears to be on the federated IM client track as well as it is listed Pending. I wonder if this means they will create a federated architecture much like Gizmo or if Google will use a third party service to help them federate with other services.
At any rate, federated IM seems to be gaining momentum, which is good for all users.
My Dad No Likie IM
My dad refuses to use IM, says it’s a hassle. "Just email me" he says "I am not tethered to my PC like you ya know!".
Some of us use Instant Messaging and Email everyday, nearly always in contact and never far from a PC. There are many who shy away from IM because it’s too instant.
They are busy during the day and do not have much time for impromptu conversations on a PC and you can forget about them using IM on a wireless device. The have learned email and that frankly that is working just fine for them.
I am getting this not just from my aging retired parents but also professionals I know in the industry. They are busy! No time for IM conversations and they want to be able to track the conversations they have without a great deal of trouble.
Dad said he would probably use it more if they could pick up the IM messages he missed in the same Inbox as his email and when it’s convenient for him, via online web mail or in Outlook on his laptop.
I wanted to suggest a work-around but when I started thinking about this I could not for the life of me come up with an easy solution that would work for him. I don’t know of any hosted services out there nor are there any plug-ins for the likes of MS Outlook that allow for shared IM and Mail message retrieval. My Dad uses Outlook and I read somewhere that there are 400 Million Outlook users out there today. There are hundreds of millions of users on various IM clients. Why can’t we retrieve offline or online IM messages (regardless of his IM client) in Outlook?
Yes, MSN Messenger has "pager mode" but it doesn’t work when the user is offline. There are often times when I forget (sometimes for days) to log into the current 5 IM clients I run and I end up missing conversations and sometimes opportunities. Those messages should come through to my email and also be stored on a central server if I so choose, although web mail would be fine for this. Attachments could be sent via IM and end up in your email inbox, there are some security concerns here.
In the mobile world this makes even more sense, who has time to deal with IM on a mobile device? BlackBerries are popular with the business crowd because they can get their email just about anywhere and when it’s convenient for them. If you want to communicate with those people it had better be email, and many of them have IM.
Eyeball Messenger – beta .09
Here is a sneak peak of the Eyeball Messenger v1.0 currently in beta, built using the yet to be released Eyeball Messenger SDK. Now with federated IM accounts including MSN, AOL, Yahoo and Google plus support for open standards = SIP (VoIP, Video) and XMPP (IM and Presence).
I can’t tell you how pumped I am already, I am now using this instead of 5 other applications = 4 messengers plus our SIP softphone, now I get them all in one app.
The SIP softphone / dial pad is really cool, accessed by clicking on the purple phone button, it works pretty slick. I can use it to call via my Buddy List (as long as they are using SIP) or I can call a SIP URI / real phone number via my SIP / VoIP network. Video calls also use SIP and it’s very easy to use, highlight your buddy and in one click you’re in business.
I have had a huge amount of input on this design so it’s not suprising that I think it’s a HOT app, I might be little biased 😉 If you are interested in getting in on the beta send an email to the beta program manager = rsc AT eyeball.com, he tells me that he is still looking for a few good beta testers who have access to various SIP and XMPP networks.
The Future of IM – Interview with Sean Egan
As part of my new Blog Series on The Future of IM I recently had an interview with Sean Egan of GAIM. He had some very interesting things to say about Voice and VoIP Interop with Google Talk. Here’s a small piece of the conversation…
Me: Hey Sean, what’s new in the land of GAIM
Sean: So we’ve got Gaim 2.0.0 coming up soon.
Sean: It fixes every problem anyone’s ever had with Gaim, ever!
Me: whoa, those are some big words
Me: what else does it do?
Me: new GUI by chance?
Sean: Well, not entirely changed, of course. But some hugely major improvements.
Me: ok, an example of hugely major would be?
Sean: So, maybe the two biggest complaints about the Gaim UI are the stupid “I’m Away” window and the Disconnected/Connecting windows. Those are all gone.
Me: ah yes, much better
Sean: We slashed a ton of preferences.
Me: k, more user friendly… good good
Sean: So that dialog is no longer an navigable mess and Gaim just does the Right Thing all the time.
Me: sounds good, and what about Voice calling interop?
Me: Heard you were working on that
Sean: It’ll do Google Talk.
Me: nice
Me: so have you incorporated GIPS into GAIM ?
Me: or is the Voice processing in GAIM the same as it was before
Sean: There was no voice processing in Gaim before.
Me: ahh, ok
Me: right
Sean: But, we obviously can’t use GIPS.
Sean: I’m using a free alternative
Sean also touched on SIMPLE vs. XMPP and told me that he thought one standard was enough and really did not see the reason for two. I know that some of the SIMPLE advocates out there might disagree but for the near term I think Sean may be on to something.
I will be taking some video of the P2P-SIP ADHOC BOF on Friday and I am hoping to corner some of the SIP gurus to talk about SIMPLE and XMPP strategies and how they may differ. Stay tuned for that one!
Eyeball IM – Preliminary Beta
Holy VoIP! We have had an incredible response here to my posting announcing the Eyeball IM Beta. It looks like we are in for a great program.
Very soon we will be uploading our very first Beta version of the Eyeball Instant Messenger with VoIP, Video and Presence using SIP and XMPP to the Beta forum. If you have not already signed up for the beta you can do so by including the following info in an email to rsc AT eyeball.com:
[Name]
[Phone]
[Primary email]
[Organization]
[Position]
[IM idÂ’s]
[Background – 250 words maximum]
I myself am looking forward to this software. I use 4 different IM services and although I like GAIM it’s still not enough. I use SIP-based VoIP networks and XMPP-based IM networks as well so GAIM is not quite there yet. The fact that I will have less apps running on my desktop makes me very happy.
The voice and video quality on this prelim beta is quite good. I am very sure that this initial app will change dramatically, not only in appearance, from the near term to our expected launch later this year.
If you have already sent in your info you will be receiving an email shortly providing you with further instructions.
XMPP, IM king for now?
Is XMPP going to be the near term winner of the IM protocol battle? Comments from Robert Sparks – organizer of SIPit…
“The general opinion still seems to be that XMPP is good for right now for medium sized solutions. When people start looking at large portals and interdomain, they start looking at SIMPLE. You have seen folks like Nokia making more noise about OMA, PoC, and related things? Those tout SIMPLE pretty strongly.”
I think Robert is correct and that XMPP has proven to be a worthy protocol for small and medium business but I also agree with Google’s strategy on embracing SIP as well. I would imagine they are planning to use SIP for VOIP signalling in the early stages with SIMPLE and XCAP on the roadmap as the use of SIP for IM matures. It is quite likely that MSRP will also play a role in the deployment of SIMPLE.
All in all it’s looking like it might be a wise idea to support both XMPP and SIMPLE, at least on the softphone / soft client side of things.
WebRTC.is 