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  • IPsmarx Partners with snom to Deliver VoIP Services for SMBs and Global Enterprises

    snom announced that IPsmarx, maker of the IPsmarx’s Multi-Tenant IP-PBX Platform, has joined snom’s partner program as an Advanced Technology Partner.

    According to snom, after rigorous testing and evaluation in both companies’ respective labs, IPsmarx’s platform achieved full certification as tested and is interoperable with snom’s full line of SIP-based desktop IP phones.

    The company claims thet the combination of snom’s advanced desktop phones with IPsmarx’s IP-PBX provides service providers who cater to small and medium sized businesses, as well as larger global enterprise businesses, “a complete and affordable advanced IP telephony system.”

    Becoming an advanced interoperability technology partner gives IPsmarx customers the ability to use snom’s portfolio of advanced SIP-based desktop phones with the international company’s multi-tenant IP-PBX, which includes integrated billing, call routing, and e-commerce functionality in one unified solution.

     

    “A core philosophy of snom is to achieve broad interoperability with best of breed technology partners and this new relationship with IPsmarx continues the tradition,” said Dr. Michael Knieling, Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales for snom.

    IPsmarx uniquely packages service applications, softswitch, billing, account management, and marketing capabilities for VoIP-based telephony services in a single integrated solution that supports both direct and indirect sales channels. This integrated applications server, softswitch and billing offers “reliable and scalable” delivery of VoIP business lines, SIP trunks and hosted IP-PBX services with low cost of ownership.

    In conjunction with snom endpoints, such as the snom 370, the integrated platform also includes VoIP telephony features such as line sharing, barge-in, listen-in, whisper mode, paging and automatic configuration, to name a few.

    Arash Vahidnia, CEO of IPsmarx, said: “As an affordable and interoperable end-to-end telephony system, the combination of snom and IPsmarx provides a very attractive unified communications solution to both SMBs and enterprise customers looking for an advanced telephony system.”

  • Acrobits Launches New Free Service for SIP Providers

    Acrobits has launched a new free service which allows SIP providers to appear on the list of pre-configured providers in Acrobits Softphone.

    Customers of pre-configured providers won’t have to go through the complexities of SIP account configuration, they only need to enter their username & password and they are ready to make calls.

    The company also informed that it has released the new 3.2.3 version of its Softphone.

    The latest update to Acrobits Softphone features some minor bug fixes and configurable packet size for codecs.

    Acrobits Softphone 3.2.3 is already available on the App Store.

    Acrobits Softphone, the SIP VoIP phone for the iPhone and iPod Touch, is the flagship product of our company, which is also planning to support Symbian and Windows Mobile phones in the near future.

    Acrobits is already working on Softphone clients for other VoIP operators, including Gizmo5.

    “VoIP service is a highly competitive industry and VoIP usage on mobile devices, especially the iPhone, will play a large part in deciding who tomorrow’s leading VoIP providers are,” says Acrobits.

    Related articles
    Acrobits Provides Three New SIP VoIP Operators with the iPhone Apps
    More and More iPhone Apps Support VoIP over 3G

  • iPhone 4 is Here

    The iPhone 4 has been finally announced at the WWDC 2010. Steve Jobs himself revealed the new smartphone by Apple: the next iPhone is a 9.3mm thick (a quarter thinner than the iPhone 3GS; “the thinnest smartphone on the planet”, as Jobs said), has glass on front and back (“for better optical quality and scratch resistance”), and stainless steel around. It uses the stainless steel band as part of the antenna system.

    “It’s the most precise thing we’ve ever made,” Apple CEO said.

    iPhone 4 is powered by the A4 chip (designed ”in house”) and comes with two built-in cameras (one on the front and one on the back with an LED flash), two mics (one for a noise cancellation), micro-SIM (“we needed the space!"), 802.11n WiFi, GPS, compass, accelerometer, Quadband HSDPA/HSUPA, 7.2Mbps and up to 32GB of storage.

    The display is a huge innovation: based on new IPS technology ("quite a bit better than OLED"), the 3.5 inch, 960 x 640 Retina Display displays 326 pixels per inch (four times as many pixels as in any standard display) giving us really sharp text and pictures. The contrast ratio is 800:1 (4x better than the 3GS).

    Since the battery is now a bit bigger, its life has been improved. Apple says there is 7 hours of 3G talk, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of WiFi browsing, 10 hours of video, 40 hours of music and 300 hours of standby.

    Another new piece of hardware is a gyroscope with pitch, roll, and yaw. It provides 6-axis motion sensing and features new CoreMotion APIs for extremely precise positioning. "We’re adding a 3 axis gyro, and we tied the gyro and accelerometer, compass, and gyro together for six axis. It’s perfect for gaming," Jobs said.

    Back camera has gone from 3 to 5 MP. Apple is using something that’s new to smarpthones — a back side illuminated sensor (giving more light to the camera). There’s a 5X digital zoom, tap to focus, and LED flash built in.

    Camera also does HD 720p (at 30 frames per second) video recording. It supports tap to focus and allows us to edit videos right on the phone. It also has 1-click sharing and the LED flash will stay on for the HD video recording. There is also iMovie coming to the iPhone for $4.99 (“if we approve it,” Jobs joked).

    iPhone 4 will also feature "FaceTime" video calling. It works between iPhone 4 devices, doesn’t require any setting-up and works anywhere there is WiFi. “It’s WIFI only in 2010. We need to work a little bit with our providers,” Jobs said. He added that Apple is going to make FaceTime and open industry standard.

    Apple has renamed the iPhone OS. Now it’s just iOS 4." Becuase it’s on iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone,” Apple CEO said. He also said that 100 millionth iOS device will be sold this month. "There is definitely a market for your applications," Jobs added.

    As announced earlier this year, new iOS 4 features include Multitasking for third party apps; Folders to better organize and access apps; improved Mail with a unified inbox, fast inbox switching and threaded messages; enhanced Enterprise support with better data protection, mobile device management and wireless app distribution.

    Apple has also added Bing to the iPhone for search (“Microsoft has done a great job on this,” Jobs said). Google will still be the default, but now we’ll have choice of Google, Yahoo, or Bing.

    Developers will get a Golden Master Candidate release of iOS4 today.

    Apple is also bringing iBooks to the iPhone with the iPhone 4. It has the same bookshelf as on the iPad, the same ability to read a PDF and comes with the same controls, highlighting, notes, and bookmarking. We can download the same book to all our devices at no extra charge (“Buy it on your iPad, download to your iPhone”)! In addition, iBooks will automatically and wirelessly sync our current place, bookmarks, and notes across all our devices.

    On July 1st Apple will also start providing iAds to all iOS 4 devices. “Why are we doing this? To help our developers earn money to continue to create free and low-cost apps for users,” Jobs said. According to him, they are trying to combine “the emotion of video with the interactivity of the Web."

    Apple sells and hosts the ads, so developers just have to tell them where to put the ads. And devs get paid 60 percent of the revenue. The company started selling ads eight weeks ago to: Nissan, Citi, Unilever, AT&T, Chanel, GE, Liberty Mutual, State Farm, Geico, Campbells, Sears, JCPenney, Target, Best Buy, DirecTV, TBS Network and Disney. "We’ve got advertisers committing to $60m," Jobs said.

    Price and availability
    iPhone 4 comes in two colors: black and white. 16GB model is for $199, and 32GB model for $299. Old 3GS is now $99

    Jobs said that AT&T is going to make an “incredibly generous upgrade offer: if your contract expires at any time in 2010, you can upgrade to the iPhone 4. You can get it up to six months early."

    The new iPhone will be on sale June 24th. Pre orders begin June 15th. Apple will ship iPhone 4 in US and four other countries on the first day (U.K., Germany, France, Japan). In July they’re shipping in 18 countries more. By September it will ship in 88 countries. "Our fastest roll out ever," Jobs said.

    iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G and iPod touch users can upgrade to iOS 4 for free starting June 21.

    Reed Hastings from Netflix, Mark Pincus from Zygna and Karthik Bala from Activision were also on stage announcing that Netflix, Farmville and new Guitar Hero will be coming to the iPhone.

  • Motorola Milestone XT720 Announced

    Motorola has announced MILESTONE XT720, one of the world’s slimmest 8 Megapixel Android smartphones and the first to have a Xenon Flash. This sleek (10.9mm), capacitive touch Android 2.1 phone also features a high definition video experience and enhanced media and mobile internet capabilities.

    It offers 3.7 inch, WVGA (480X854) display, 10x digital zoom, 720p HD camcorder and comes with 8GB microSD card (included inbox; expandable up to 32GB) as well as with a smart image capture (includes easy panorama, face detection, multi-shot (six shots in a row), face filter, red eye reduction and camera shake prevention).

    According to Motorola, MILESTONE XT720 is designed to deliver high speed web-browsing and it has the capacity to support up to eight open browser windows.

    A suite of Google mobile applications including Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail and YouTube are also integrated onto the device, as well as Motorola’s MOTONAV turn by turn navigation.

    The new Motorola also supports management of multiple accounts and document editing.

    Ralf Gerbershagen, vice president and general manager for Motorola’s Mobile Devices business in Western Europe said, "MILESTONE XT720 is one of the most powerful phones in Motorola’s current smartphone range. Slim, sophisticated and technically savvy, MILESTONE XT720 is a high performance device designed for those who are actively engaged in both their work and social lives.

    "With MILESTONE XT720, Motorola has taken yet another step towards eliminating the barriers for consumers to creating and consuming media on the go."

  • Verizon to Build 4G LTE Network in Rural America

    Verizon Wireless is aggressively building its 4G LTE network across the same footprint that is currently covered by its nationwide 3G network, which – according to the company — covers more than 90% of the U.S. population.

    The company has just informed that, “in order to provide access to this 4G LTE network to more of the U.S. population living in rural areas,” they plan to work with rural companies to collaboratively build and operate a 4G network in those areas using the tower and backhaul assets of the rural company and Verizon Wireless’ core LTE equipment and 700MHz spectrum.

    Verizon is seeking companies that can assist in bringing 4G LTE service to rural areas that currently lack Verizon Wireless coverage. According to the company, they may work with rural companies that have towers and backhaul capabilities, even if those companies are not currently wireless operators.

    Verizon plans to launch their 4G LTE network in 25 to 30 markets late in 2010, covering approximately 100 million people. They say they’ll double that in 2012. They also plan to cover their entire existing 3G footprint with 4G LTE by the end of 2013.

    Verizon’s 4G LTE network will be backward-compatible with their existing 3G network. That means the two networks will co-exist and services will be integrated between LTE and our 3G Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) Rev. network.

    The company claims that with Verizon Wireless’ 10 + 10 MHz implementation, LTE will be supporting average data rates per user of 5-12 Mbps in the forward link, and 2-5 Mbps in the reverse link. LTE will enable video application on the downlink as well as uplink – including, but not limited to video-sharing, surveillance, conferencing and streaming in higher definition than is possible with existing 3G technology today.

    Related articles
    BlackBerry Bold 9650 Coming to Verizon
    ABI Research: 2012 Will Be a “Bellwether” Year for 4G
    AIRCOM: LTE Not the Only Option for Mobile Operators Today
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  • BlackBerry Bold 9650 Coming to Verizon

    Verizon announced that the BlackBerry Bold 9650 will be available for online ordering from Verizon beginning June 3 and in Verizon stores beginning June 10.

    The new BlackBerry Bold is the first global phone from Verizon to support GlobalAccess Connect, allowing customers to tether their BlackBerry Bold to a notebook or netbook and use it as a modem for wireless internet access.

    Key features:

    • Optical trackpad for easy and fluid navigation
    • Built-in Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g)
    • Push to Talk feature – allows customers to leverage Verizon’s 3G network for instant two-way communication with up to 50 people
    • VZ Navigator version 6 – gives customers access to free mapping and integration with Bing to sort searches by relevance and a new option to choose day, week or monthly subscriptions
    • VZ Navigator Global capabilities – Provides turn-by-turn directions and maps in English while navigating through more than 20 destinations

    Additional specifications:

    • Mobile e-mail and messaging capabilities
    • 2.45" high-resolution display (480 x 360 resolution at 245 ppi)
    • 3.2 megapixel camera with flash, variable zoom, image stabilization, autofocus and video recording
    • support for the Bluetooth Stereo Audio Profile (A2DP/AVCRP)
    • BlackBerry Media Sync
    • Support for BlackBerry App World
    • 512 MB Flash memory and an expandable memory card slot that supports up to 16 GB microSD HC cards (a 2 GB card is pre-installed)
    • Full HTML Web browser, streaming audio and video via RTSP
    • Built-in GPS with support for location-based applications and services as well as geotagging
    • Support for high-speed EV-DO Rev. A networks in North America as well as single band UMTS/HSPA (2100 MHz) and quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM networks abroad
    • 1400 mAhr battery

    The BlackBerry Bold 9650 will be available for order for $149.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement. A non-camera version of the phone will also be available for order online beginning June 3.

    GlobalAccess Connect plans are available for $65 monthly access for 5 GB allowance in the US and Canada ($0.05/MB overage) and 100 MB allowance in select countries ($5.12/MB overage). There is also a $155 monthly access option that offers 5 GB allowance in the United States and Canada and 200 MB allowance in select countries, with the same overage rates as the $65 monthly option.

  • IPsmarx Adds German IVR to Its Calling Card Solution

    IPsmarx announced that it has added German IVR (Interactive Voice Response) language as an option to its Calling Card Platform, making 13 total IVR language options to choose from.

    Because the IPsmarx solutions are SIP Based, Calling Card Operators and Pinless Service Providers can offer their services worldwide, without having to install costly hardware and landlines in each country of operation.

    With the addition of the German IVR language license, IPsmarx’ client base, which consists of hundreds of VoIP service providers, can now offer their services in Germany and to German speaking callers worldwide.

    The IVR languages IPsmarx offers include:

    • German
    • English
    • British English
    • American English
    • Spanish
    • Korean
    • Mandarin
    • Cantonese
    • Greek
    • Albanian
    • French
    • Farsi
    • Hindi

    “Multiple IVR languages can be added to the IPsmarx platform, giving end users the flexibility to choose the language they prefer to hear when using a calling service and enabling service providers to expand internationally,” according to the company.

    IPsmarx SIP Based Calling Card Platform was named our “Product of the Year Award” in 2008 and 2009.

    Related articles
    Winning VoIP Philosophy: Interview with Arash Vahidnia, CEO of IPsmarx
    IPsmarx and Superb Internet Announce an Alliance to Offer Turnkey VoIP Solutions
    IPsmarx Introduces IP-PBX And SIP Trunking To Its “All In One” Solution
    Winner of the Biz-News.com "Product of the Year Award 2009” Announced

  • Cortado Delivers Mobile Desktop Solution for Android

    Cortado has announced that it now offers its Cortado Workplace, a free cloud desktop solution for mobile applications, for Android OS.

    Cortado Workplace allows users to remotely store, access, view and manage documents through a smartphone (BlackBerry, iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android devices are already on board), PC or Mac. The solution provides users with a 1GB online storage space where documents can be saved using a mobile file manager.

    In addition, documents can be printed to any local or network printer. In order to use the printer, the user simply needs to connect, through Cortado Workplace, with the relevant Wi-Fi network.

    “Since its entry into the market, Google’s mobile operating system has steadily increased its market share,” stated Dirk Löwenberg, business director online sales & services at Cortado.

    The ever increasing number of Android devices, including the popular Motorola Milestone and Google’s Nexus One, as well as the convincing usability of the system, lead analysts to believe that Google Android devices are destined for a large market share.

    "We are sure that aside from its foreseeable success, Android is ideal for enterprise solutions. For Cortado as an innovative provider, it is important that this operating system is compatible with our cloud printing function. At the same time, we have come closer to our goal of offering cross-platform solutions,” said Löwenberg.

    Cortado is the mobile business division of the printing specialist ThinPrint AG. According to the company, they already have 15,000 smartphone users.

    Related articles
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  • Elektrobit Delivers Its VoIP Solutions to Finnish Army

    Elektrobit has announced that its EB Tough VoIP system has been delivered to the Finnish Army, who will commence a series of field trials on the system during 2010 to evaluate its performance in varying military scenarios.

    EB Tough VoIP will operate under demanding environmental conditions for the Army branch of the Finnish Defence Forces. It will work with the Finnish Army on various testing phases throughout this year “in order to ensure proper usage and meet system requirements.”

    “With new components such as broadband data communications, enhanced voice over IP services, and advanced functions designed specifically for ground forces, the system provides significant levels of increased performance and operational capabilities,” as the company claims.

    EB Tough VoIP can be used as a stand-alone system or the solution units EB Tough VoIP Terminal and the EB Tough VoIP Network Extender can be integrated to a customers’ existing communications infrastructure. According to the company, the products can be leveraged in many ways, including:

    • Rugged and secure VoIP clients for military communications
    • Radio over IP clients
    • Tactical data radio environment
    • Demanding environments where limitations in communications can greatly affect operational capabilities

    The EB Tough VoIP Terminal can be used with application specific headsets and handsets that are commonly used with tactical radio or digital field telephony equipment.

    The EB Network Extender is an integrated unit that provides the functionalities of a VoIP terminal, Ethernet switch and multi-channel SHDSL (Single-Pair High-speed Digital Subscriber Line) modem and it can be used to provide broadband wired connectivity, and VoIP services to the field, in LAN or WAN configuration.

    "EB Tough VoIP was designed to fulfill the communications needs of military units, and we continue to strive towards achieving that goal," said Mikko Viitaniemi, senior manager, Defense Products, Wireless Solutions at EB

  • NVIDIA Demonstrates Streaming 3D Video Using Microsoft Silverlight

    NVIDIA today demonstrated 3D video streamed live over the Internet using an NVIDIA 3D Vision PC, Microsoft Silverlight and IIS Smooth Streaming technology. The demonstration, which streamed the music video “We Are the World” 3D, at a press conference at Computex, comes at a time when consumer interest in seeing 3D movies is at its highest level ever.

    “We’ve been collaborating with Microsoft to enable 3D in an Internet browser so that it’s very simple to use,” said Phil Eisler, General Manager of 3D Vision technology at NVIDIA.

    “Just click on a 3D video and it plays in 3D, using the latest 3D Vision Silverlight-based video player and NVIDIA 3D Vision. Internet users can now enjoy 3D video content streamed in high-definition (HD) quality and viewed at full resolution. This is another great benefit of having a 3D PC.”

    To take advantage of this technology, consumers will need an NVIDIA 3D Vision-based desktop or notebook PC equipped with the latest 3D Vision drivers and the Silverlight browser plug-in. Once these are installed, consumers can then navigate to any Web site hosting 3D Vision-based content.

    For content owners, this milestone provides a secure path to distribute and monetize 3D video over the Web with Silverlight and IIS Smooth Streaming. Movies, trailers, sports and any form of 3D video can now be hosted and streamed over the Internet to a growing market of 3D PCs, most of which ship with Windows 7.

    “Customers have a peaked interest in 3D entertainment experiences, and Microsoft is looking forward to working with NVIDIA to bring these experiences to users through their PCs,” said Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the .NET Developer Division at Microsoft Corp.

    “Silverlight and IIS Smooth Streaming together deliver the highest quality HD video experiences over the Web and, with NVIDIA 3D Vision, will now provide consumers with a way to watch their favorite movies, sporting events, music videos and more, all in 3D from their own computer.”