Monday, February 21, 2011

Calling from Inside Gmail

Since the third quarter of 2010, users have been able to launch voice calls using Google Voice from inside their Gmail accounts, and at this point, calls to destinations in Canada and the United States are free. Separately, Google has created a Google Voice iPhone app, while other firms obviously have created their own mobile apps for "over the top" calling.

Developments such as these are examples of voice becoming a feature embedded in applications, as well as voice becoming a "mobile app" and a "browser app," as many proponents of "voice 2.0" have suggested would increasingly become the case.

Apple iPhone Cartoon Lampoons HTC Evo

Warning: this is funny, but there are several "F bombs." Also, despite the cartoon, I vastly prefer, and use, the HTC Evo, not the Apple iPhone, though there are six active iPhones in the immediate family (100 percent of my children and their "significant others.")

fonYou Mobile: Cloud Telephony for Mobile Service Providers

Most mobile executives are likely resigned to the idea that, at some point, they will have to offer their own "over the top" voice services. A firm named fonYou Mobile offers a "Cloud Telephony" service that allows mobile operators to offer their end customers over-the-top voice services such as an online activity register, smart address book, advanced call control features or visual voicemail, accessible through web and mobile phone browsers as well as smartphone and Facebook applications.

Service features include the ability to blacklist unwanted calls or SMS, set up different voicemail greetings for different callers, manage contacts and messages online, forward voicemails as emails, or set up call forwarding services at different times of the day.

Will Tablets Disrupt Linear TV?

Screen size typically affects the amount of consumption by any single viewer. During last year’s World Cup coverage, MobiTV said that viewers watching coverage on devices with five-inch screens watched an average of 118.2 average minutes of coverage; four-inch screen users watched 102.2 minutes; three-inch screen users, an average of 67.4 minutes; and two-inch screen users watched 61.1 minutes.

That raises the obvious question of how much more users will watch when they are using tablets with very-large screens, in a mobile context. One would assume viewing would increase.



MobiTV seems to think tablets also will create an opportunity for cross-platform entertainment video viewing, including smartphone TV, time shifting, recording and playing back content on tablets, PCs, and the main living room TV.

Best Buy Offers Demo of HTC Thunderbolt




Thunderbolt will be available on the Verizon Wireless network soon. It basically is an HTC Evo with a slightly-different size and battery.



http://simulator.bestbuy.wdsserve.com/vdevice-bestbuy/common/

$10 Billion Valuation for Zynga?

Android Big in Barcelona

Directv-Dish Merger Fails

Directv’’s termination of its deal to merge with EchoStar, apparently because EchoStar bondholders did not approve, means EchoStar continue...