Business News Holding

Tag: hardware-and-technology

  • Nokia N8 Offcially for Sale at the end of September

    Nokia finally announced that Nokia N8, the company’s long-awaited, flagship handset, will be on-sale in the last week of September for £429 SIM free or on contract from £35 per month.

    The Nokia N8 introduces a 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and Xenon flash, HD-quality (720p) video recording, film editing software and Dolby Digital Plus surround sound.

    Among the features of this Symbian^3 smartphone are:

    • On-demand Web TV (CNN, E! Entertainment, Paramount and National Geographic and others)
    • HDMI connection
    • Navigation with Ovi Maps
    • Up to three personalised home screens
    • Integrated social networking: all social networks in a single app
    • Flick scrolling and pinch-to-zoom
    • Ovi apps
    • 3.5 inch widescreen (640 x 360 pixels) capacitive touch
    • 6GB mass memory + micro SD card slot, 135MB internal memory, support up to 32GB memory cards
    • 1200mAh BL-4D battery

    "The Nokia N8 is perfect for creating and sharing great content in high-definition, using HDMI out to connect to your TV as well as hot-USB swap. We’re making it fun and easy to capture and share memorable moments on the go," said Mark Loughran, General Manager, Nokia UK.

    Related news
    Nokia and Intel Build Joint Research Center
    Nokia Siemens to Acquire Motorola’s Wireless Network
    Nokia Announces Skype for Symbian

  • Skype Connect 1.0 Officially Launched

    Skype on Monday announced the official launch of Skype Connect 1.0, formerly known as Skype for SIP. Previously available in beta, Skype Connect delivers a business solution that enables IP-enabled private branch exchange (PBX) or Unified Communications systems to connect to Skype.

    According to the company, by using Skype Connect, businesses can now:

    • Make outbound calls from desktop phones to landlines and mobiles worldwide billed at Skype’s standard per-minute calling rates
    • Receive inbound calls from Skype connected users worldwide by placing Skype’s Click & Call buttons on their Web sites
    • Receive calls from landlines or mobile phones in the corporate PBX using Skype’s online numbers that have been purchased separately
    • Manage Skype calls using existing PBX or UC systems’ features such as call routing, automatic call distribution, conferencing, auto-attendant, voicemail, call recording and logging.

    David Gurlé, VP and general manager of Skype for Business said that based on internal research, in the first quarter of 2010, approximately 37% of Skype users reported that they use Skype for some business or business-related purposes.

    "Our team’s goal is to empower businesses of all sizes and types with rich communications tools to unleash their productivity, while reducing their telecommunications costs. […] Skype Connect seeks to enable our customers to reduce their phone bills, while protecting their investment in existing telecommunications equipment,” said Gurlé.

    Skype Connect already has over 2,400 active global customers and it’s now certified to work with PBX and UC products from Avaya, Cisco, SIPfoundry, ShoreTel and other OEMs.

    The solution also works with older TDM PBXs or Key Systems which can now add Skype calling capabilities through third-party IP gateways from AudioCodes, Grandstream and VoSKY.

    Companies using Skype Connect are charged a monthly channel fee of €4.95 / $6.95 per line. This is based on the number of concurrent calls being made or received. Each channel allows for one inbound or one outbound call at any given time. Calls to landlines and mobiles made using Skype Connect are billed at Skype’s standard calling rates worldwide.

    Relating articles
    Skype Now Available on Verizon Multimedia Phones on the BREW Platform
    Skype for iPhone Now Supports Multitasking, No Charges for Calling Over 3G
    Skype Names David Gurle to Lead Skype for Business Team
    Skype For SIP Now Available in Beta

  • Orange Launches Mobile HD Voice in the UK

    Orange announced that they are launching mobile High Definition Voice, which is now available nationwide at no extra cost for all UK Orange customers with an HD voice enabled handset.

    According to Orange, HD Voice reduces background noise and decreases perceived distance between callers by providing crystal clear calls. “Reducing the background noise, hisses and crackles of normal mobile calls, HD Voice also excels in noisy environments,” the company said.

    This will come as a relief for a third (32%) of Brits who blame background noise including road works or noisy chatty friends as the biggest disturbance in conversations (research conducted by Opinion Matters between 13/08/2010 and 16/08/2010).

    Orange HD Voice is available at no extra cost to all Orange mobile customers who take a HD Voice enabled handset. From launch, the Nokia 5230, Nokia X6, Nokia E5 and Samsung Omnia Pro will be HD Voice enabled with further manufactures expected to offer HD handsets in the coming months.

    All HD Voice enabled handsets will be labelled with the Orange HD Voice logo, helping customers to easily recognise those devices that support the new Orange HD Voice service. HD Voice demonstration units will also be available in Orange shops.

    According to Orange, HD Voice also opens up new opportunities for better ways of working in business. “The arrival of HD Voice is hotly anticipated by the broadcasting industry, which believes that the service could reduce its reliance on expensive ISDN lines and the need to ferry guests to studios for interviews. Other industries that will benefit significantly from HD Voice include those with significant background noise like the construction and manufacturing industries,” the company said.

  • Google Introduces Gmail Call

    Starting yesterday, Gmail users can call any phone right from Gmail. The new service is integrated into the web-based email client and enables to call anywhere in the US and Canada for free and get low rates for other countries.

    According to Gmail Blog, calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free for at least the rest of the year and calls to other countries will be billed at our very low rates. “We worked hard to make these rates really cheap, with calls to the U.K., France, Germany, China, Japan—and many more countries—for as little as $0.02 per minute,” said Robin Schriebman, Software Enginee at Google.

    Dialing a phone number works just like a normal phone. Just click “Call phone” at the top of your chat list and dial a number or enter a contact’s name. If you have a Google Voice phone number, calls made from Gmail will display this number as the outbound caller ID. And if you decide to, you can receive calls made to this number right inside Gmail.

    “We’ve been testing this feature internally and have found it to be useful in a lot of situations, ranging from making a quick call to a restaurant to placing a call when you’re in an area with bad reception,” said Schriebman.

    Google is rolling out this feature to U.S. based Gmail users over the next few days, so they will be ready to get started once “Call Phones” shows up in their chat list (they will need to install the voice and video plug-in if they haven’t already). But according to Schriebman, Google is working on making this available more broadly.

  • AT&T Adds IP Voice Services to Virtual Private Network Services

    AT&T announced that new and existing virtual private network (VPN) customers may add VoIP service to the network solution delivered over AT&T’s global network cloud.

    This converged solution is said to enable customers to consolidate their separate voice and data networks, reduce equipment and maintenance costs, and simplify migrating these complimentary capabilities to a common, secure infrastructure.

    By migrating to a common infrastructure, customers are able to take advantage of additional applications as AT&T makes them available, such as unified communications capabilities.

    The AT&T VoIP portfolio is certified for interoperability with leading industry providers of IP-PBX systems, such as SIP Trunking services qualified for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, providing support for businesses planning to incorporate a comprehensive unified communications solution in the future.

    The company’s portfolio of VoIP services includes AT&T IP Flexible Reach, a SIP trunking service, which "allows businesses to continue to use the capabilities of their existing IP-PBXs, optimizing their equipment investment."

    AT&T Voice DNA, another product in the VoIP portfolio, is a fully hosted network-based service with advanced features, applications and management tools for customers.

    AT&T customers can access their VPN using virtually any access technology, such as mobile, Wi-Fi, DSL, dial-up and Ethernet.

    “Voice service is as mission-critical for businesses today as it’s ever been, and customers expect their VoIP service to perform as well as their traditional telephone service,” said Shawn Conroy, vice president, AT&T Business Solutions.

    "Adding voice to the network cloud gives customers the ability to determine their optimal level of security, architecture, cost and performance objectives — key differentiators for AT&T,” he said.

    According to AT&t, Today, the company offers Multi-protocol Label Switching (MPLS)-based services to 163 countries over 3,800 service nodes, and operates 38 Internet data centers around the world. These assets enable AT&T to provide customers with globally-consistent access to capacity and features – when and where they need it most.

    Related articles
    AT&T Releases Mobile Conferencing App for iPhone
    Global Crossing Launches Telepresence Solution
    AT&T Enables VoIP over Its 3G Network for iPhone

  • Silicon Labs and Beceem Partner on WiMAX VoIP Gateway Reference Design

    Silicon Laboratories announced that it has partnered with Beceem Communications, WiMAX solutions vendor, to deliver a VoIP broadband gateway reference design for 4G-WiMAX service providers.

    The WiMAX VoIP gateway reference design is based on Beceem’s recently introduced BCS5350 single-chip WiMAX customer premises equipment solution. It also incorporates Silicon Labs’ Si32176 ProSLIC devices to provide the interface that enables the use of traditional home telephones for VoIP services over WiMAX.

    “With its market-leading low power consumption and small footprint, Silicon Labs’ Si32176 ProSLIC is the perfect complement to our high-performance, single-chip WiMAX CPE solution,” said Aditya Agrawal, senior director of marketing at Beceem Communications.

    “The highly integrated reference design streamlines the development process, giving manufacturers greater flexibility and faster time to market in the increasingly competitive 4G marketplace,” he added.

    The reference design uses Silicon Labs’ Si32176 ProSLIC integrated SLIC/codec devices to add one or two telephone ports to a 4G-WiMAX broadband gateway. Beceem’s highly integrated BCS5350 device implements the entire PHY, MAC and RF functionality of a mobile WiMAX terminal on a single chip.

    The broadband gateway solution enables WiMAX service providers to deliver broadband and fixed-line telephony service wirelessly to subscribers as an alternative to wired broadband services such as ADSL or VDSL over telephone wires, data over cable service interface specification (DOCSIS) over coaxial cable and passive optical networks (PON) using optical fiber.

    According to Carlos Garcia, vice president of Silicon Labs, semiconductor solutions from Beceem and Silicon Labs will enable WiMAX gateway vendors to deliver products with the high performance, low cost, low power consumption and small size that their customers demand.

    According to Infonetics Research, the WiMAX market is rebounding from the recession and showing positive signs of growth, with major rollouts underway in the US, Japan, Russia and India. “We forecast around 125 million WiMAX subscribers by 2014, with 20 to 25 percent of them using VoIP over their WiMAX connection,” said Richard Webb, principle WiMAX analyst at Infonetics Research. “WiMAX operators will need a broad range of VoIP-enabled devices to serve this growing need.”

  • Nokia and Intel Build Joint Research Center

    Intel, Nokia and the University of Oulu officially opened the Intel and Nokia Joint Innovation Center. It will employ about two dozen R&D professionals and become the latest member of Intel’s European Research Network.

    According to the companies, initially the lab will conduct research for “new and compelling mobile user experiences that could leverage the rapidly increasing capabilities of mobile devices.” They claim that creating interfaces that are more similar to interactions in the real world can enable experiences that are more natural and intuitive, in the same way that modern games and movies are more immersive through the use of realistic 3-D graphics.

    The new lab is aligned with the MeeGo open source platform recently launched by Intel and Nokia.

    "The University of Oulu’s focus on future telecommunications solutions as well as electronics and photonics made it the perfect location for the Intel and Nokia Joint Innovation Center," says Justin Rattner, Intel chief technology officer and director of Intel Labs.

    Another potential area of research could look into technologies that allow displaying a 3-D hologram of the person you are talking to on the phone, a capability only found in science fiction movies today. Consumers will feel more involved and engaged with their mobile experience than with current methods, as the companies claim.

    "3-D technology could change the way we use our mobile devices and make our experiences with them much more immersive," said Rich Green, Senior vice president and chief technical officer, Nokia. "Our new joint laboratory with Intel draws on the Oulu research community’s 3-D interface expertise, and over time will lay down some important foundations for future mobile experiences."

    The lab will be located at the Center for Internet Excellence at the University of Oulu, and will work closely with the Oulu Urban Living Labs, which provide a unique environment for sensor research, testing and piloting technological and social innovations.

    The Intel and Nokia Joint Innovation Center follows a successful industry and academia collaboration model similar to the ones of Intel Labs Barcelona and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Spain, the Intel Visual Computing Institute and the Saarland University in Germany or Intel Labs Berkeley at the University of California at Berkeley in the United States.

  • LG-Ericsson and Accton to Deliver Unified Voice and Data Solutions for Businesses

    LG-Ericsson USA officially launched its brand into the North American market offering a broad portfolio of end-to-end data and voice networking solutions for businesses ranging in size from small- and medium-sized businesses to large enterprises.

    Headquartered in Irvine, California, USA, LG-Ericsson USA, formerly Edgecore Networks, Inc., is a joint venture between LG-Ericsson and Taiwan-based Accton Technology Corporation, a global provider of voice and data networking solutions.

    The company said it will develop and deliver a line of “world-class high-performance” data and voice communications solutions to North American SMBs and enterprise businesses. LG-Ericsson owns 60 percent share in the joint venture while Accton owns 40 percent.

    According to LG-Ericsson, their solutions will include a comprehensive suite of IP PBX systems and a full complement of business-class digital, IP, WiFi, SIP, soft phones, and multimedia terminals, as well as a host of smart, fully-managed and unmanaged switches with a robust Network Management Services (NMS) and Unified Device Manager (UDM) platform to provide easy management.

    "The launch of LG-Ericsson USA will, for the first time, provide SMBs and large enterprises with a portfolio of scalable, performance-oriented, unified end-to-end data and voice network solutions from a single manufacturer," stated S.B. Mun, CEO of LG-Ericsson USA.

    "We are confident that by deploying our solutions, our customers will benefit from improved cost effectiveness and operational efficiency, as well as unparalleled interoperability," he added.

  • Sonus Enables Cable Customers to Make and Receive Calls on Their Smartphone Using Their Home Phone Number

    Sonus Networks has introduced a new solution for cable operators to add value to their existing home line services.

    Dubbed "Fixed – Smartphone Convergence," cable operators can use new capabilities in the company’s ASX Telephony Application Server to allow cable subscribers with home phone service to combine their existing phone line with up to five additional SIP-enabled devices including 3G/Wi-Fi enabled smartphones.

    According to the company, the Sonus Fixed – Smartphone Convergence solution makes it possible for subscribers to receive or place calls using both their home telephone line (using NCS or SIP call control) and nearly any SIP-enabled device connected to the Internet.

    The solution will ring all of the devices simultaneously and allows users to make and receive multiple calls concurrently as well as allow calls to be transferred to other users.

    "Cable operators are looking for ways to add more value for fixed line customers, and also get more involved in offering mobile services," said Greg Zweig, director of access product management at Sonus Networks.

    "With Fixed – Smartphone Convergence powered by the ASX Telephony Application Server, we are giving cable operators a way to make a subscriber’s home number more valuable and more convenient to access, anywhere in the world. The solution gives MSOs a compelling new offering that leverages the explosion in smart mobile phones and tablet computers," he added.

    Sonus is demonstrating this new solution at the CableLabs Summer Conference 2010 taking place August 15-18 at the Keystone Resort and Conference Center, Keystone, Colo. Live calls coming into the booth’s landline phone will ring simultaneously on different devices including a PC softphone and a SIP-enabled smartphone.

  • Global Crossing Launches Telepresence Solution

    Global Crossing has announced it is launching an immersive telepresence solution and collaboration tools for high-quality virtual meetings with Teliris.

    The solution is provided on Global Crossing’s Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS)–based global Virtual Private Network (VPN) and tier-one global public Internet network, “ensuring a reliable and secure connection for this premiere video communication technology.”

    According to the companies, through these innovative collaboration tools, “customers will experience enhanced decision-making, reduced travel costs, lower carbon footprints and increased productivity.”

    “From single screen personal solutions to fully custom engineered meeting environments, Global Crossing’s telepresence solution is easy to use, schedule and initiate, and is fully interoperable with other telepresence systems and traditional videoconferencing services,” as the company claims.

    As an added benefit, customers using Global Crossing’s telepresence solution will be able to video stream telepresence meetings through ON24’s Webcast Center platform that delivers HQ video.

    According to Gartner, the global market for telepresence systems endpoints is projected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 25.7 percent between 2008 and 2013.

    Global Crossing has informed that the volume of its collaboration services grew by 13 percent in the first half of 2010 compared to the first half of 2009. Increased usage was driven in large part by the rising cost of energy, business travel restrictions and other global economic factors, the company said.

    "Our telepresence offer represents a milestone in our collaboration portfolio," said Dave Carey, Global Crossing’s chief marketing officer. "Customers around the world continue to demand a wide range of collaboration tools to conduct meetings without boundaries. This new capability transforms the video conference into a true-to-life interactive experience, leading to better global communications."

    Marc Trachtenberg, Teliris CEO and co-founder, said: "We are thrilled to extend our market-leading immersive telepresence and collaboration experience to Global Crossing and its customers. This partnership is the latest example of how Teliris is providing companies around the world with maximum flexibility through a broad continuum of affordable telepresence solutions that wrap around any business requirement."