VoIP & Gadgets Blog

Cisco Cius HD Android Tablet - Jun 30, 2010

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Windows on ARM - New Tablet Operating System With Some Limitations - Feb 10, 2012

Apple Planned the iPad BEFORE the iPhone. Who knew? - Feb 10, 2012

Windows 8 CPU Slow Benchmarks! - Dec 20, 2011

Microsoft Lync Mobile Client Launches in 3 Days! - Dec 09, 2011

Apple's Ridiculous Patent Claims Against Samsung Destroyed! - Dec 09, 2011

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Say it With Skype Facebook app Wants to Be American Idol

Tue, 22 May 2012 10:09:00 -0500

Skype announced a new contest to find the next great music band using their Say it With Skype Facebook app, an engaging-group video greeting app that lives on both Facebook and Skype.com. Simply use Say it With Skype to record your music band on video and you could be the next ~~American Idol~~ Skype Music Super Hero! Hey, it worked for Justin Bieber, who was discovered via a YouTube video.

Similar to American Idol, there will be some relatively well-known judges in the music industry to judge the entries, including Pete Wentz of Black Cards, Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, and MTV music personality and host of "120 Minutes" and MTVHive.com Matt Pinfield. As an added bonus to joining the app as the 'house band,' the winning band is to receive one-on-one mentoring time with the celebrity judges and paid studio time to not only record the song which will be featured on the Say it with Skype app, but also the chance to record their own song to use however they please.

Here's me rocking out to the #1 downloaded iTunes song of all time - Journey's Don't Stop Believin' using the Say it With Skype Facebook app.

Ok, maybe not. I can't sing worth a lick, but this is a screenshot of my trying out the app:

It's pretty simply to use. You simply press the Record button and it asks permission to use your camera & microphone. Then you press Done or Record again if you think your performance wasn't up to par. Interestingly, it doesn't use Skype for the video recording, but some sort of Flash app, but then I remembered my interview with Jonathan Rosenberg, Skype's Chief Technology Strategist where he explained how Facebook uses a stripped down version of Skype within Facebook. Nevertheless, the use of Flash means you won't be recording your band's audition using your iPad due to the lack of Flash (don't get me started).

Anyway, according to Skype, "The 'Join Say it with Skype' competition is an opportunity to showcase today's amazing talent pool of emerging musicians, while providing an example of the convergence of music, technology and the power of social media. Skype is giving up-and-coming artists the chance to showcase their musical talent and bring them the exposure that may not be as easy to come by. Providing the opportunity to receive guidance from music experts such as Matt Pinfield, Ryan Tedder and Pete Wentz, is a once in a lifetime opportunity for many unsigned bands or musicians."

Bands may submit entries on the Skype Facebook page, until Thursday, June 14 at 11:59 P.M. EDT: https://apps.facebook.com/jointheapp. Winners will be chosen and notified on Tuesday, June 19 via email, and will be announced publicly on Monday, July 9 at 9:00 A.M. EDT.

"Music has the uncanny ability to reach and join people on multiple levels — time, language, and now with technology, there are no barriers. It was one of the very reasons why I wanted to participate in this program and work with Skype," said Pete Wentz.

"Today's emerging artists are embracing old and new sounds, and using various tools and technology to create and share. As a musician, I am honored to participate alongside Skype in such an exciting competition that embodies this, and will showcase the next generation of emerging artists and talent in the world today," said Ryan Tedder.

"This competition is not only an opportunity to showcase today's amazing talent pool of emerging musicians, but it is also a way to enable the winning band to teach tomorrow's youth about the importance of 'the power of music and technology' to connect people here in the U.S. and around the world," said Matt Pinfield.

Tags: app, band, black cards, facebook, journey, justin bieber, music, recording, say it with skype, skype, video Related tags: skype facebook, opportunity showcase, emerging artists, emerging musicians, music technology, skype

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Skype v4.0.1325 Released for Apple iOS

Mon, 21 May 2012 23:30:05 -0500

A new version of Skype was just released to the Apple App Store. No new major features to report - just some stability fixes and a fix for a sign in issue as seen here:

Certainly if you're having sign-in issues by all means have this version a go.

Tags: apple, ios, skype, voip Related tags: released apple

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The New In Your Face Facebook Ads - Coming Soon!

Mon, 21 May 2012 16:06:07 -0500

After Facebook's disastrous IPO leading some to speculate Facebook's actual worth is in the $16-$24 range, it's worth examining what went wrong. Was it the Nasdaq computer glitches, which some claim resulted in $100 million in losses to investment firms? Perhaps a small factor. Was the initial stock price too high? Probably, but not the most important factor. Is the IPO debacle due to Facebook not monetizing its huge base of mobile users though advertising? Indeed, that is a huge factor. Look at a screenshot of the Facebook app running on an Apple iPhone where there are no ads to be seen:

Mobile advertising is a huge opportunity wasted by Facebook. Around 488 million users accessed Facebook via their mobile device in March. That's a lot of eyeballs that see absolutely zero ads.

If you think Facebook has only a mobile problem, you'd be wrong. I use Adblock Plus for both Firefox and Chrome and it blocks most advertising. Case in point, here's how Facebook looks with no ads under Sponsored (red arrow):

Ad blocking problems isn't necessarily just a Facebook problem - it affects any website dependent on advertising. There are ways around this though. Facebook could stick advertisements within the scrolling News Feed in the middle where most eyeballs are drawn. Everyone that uses Facebook checks out their News Feed the most. I can envision Facebook detecting your "Likes" and then displaying relevant products or services with affiliate links. For instance, one of my Likes is "Star Trek", so why not display a Blu-ray of one of the Star Trek movies or TV series in the News Feed?

Also, the current crop of sponsored links in the right sidebar is boring. It's true that Google Adsense ads are typically boring too, especially the text-only ones. However when you are searching for something, you might see an interesting text link relevant to what you are looking for at that particular time. Facebook is supposed to be exciting with lots of photos and videos in your News Feed. If graphical photo ads are going to compete with other photos on the page they need to be bigger.

The other problem with Facebook using your "Likes" to build your personality & advertising profile, is that it's not time-sensitive like Google (or Bing) searches. For instance, I may have 'liked' Rambo 8 months ago, but it doesn't mean I'm currently interested in buying the DVD/Blu-ray (I already own it). However, when searching on Google for "Rambo" there is a greater chance you are currently interested in buying the DVD/Blu-ray.

Still, knowing your "Likes" is valuable information for advertisers. If you like Mitt Romney, display a Mitt Romney ad or if you like President Obama display one of his ads. With around $1.4 billion to be spent this election season, leveraging the #1 social media site in the world to display an ad could be beneficial.

In fact, Facebook could really make some serious dough "selling" the News Feed space to Mitt Romney or President Obama. There are several viral YouTube videos - often with humor - that can impact people's perception of Romney or Obama. Cases in point, 'Hitler Finds Out Obama Ate His Dog', President Obama: "Dog Eater," the Music Video, or Time for Some Campaignin'. So why not offer photos, videos, or links to propaganda pro-Obama or pro-Romney puff-pieces articles? By appearing as a News Feed item, Facebook users can Like or Share the item therefore leveraging the social media sharing power of Facebook, which can make stories, videos, or photos go viral.

So in summary, here's my proposed mark-up of Facebook ads in the News Feed, right-sidebar, and the the left sidebar. [click for large image]

Tags: ads, advertisements, affiliate, apple, cafepress, facebook, mobile advertising, netflix, ppc Related tags: president obama, however searching, right sidebar, social media, currently interested, facebook

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Comcast Skype on Xfinity $9.95/month - Lame or Cool?

Wed, 16 May 2012 17:18:21 -0500

Comcast today unveiled their Skype video calling service, Skype on Xfinity which directly integrates into your HDTV. The beauty of the system is you can make and receive Skype video and audio calls from your TV. Users can send instant messages via Skype, while watching TV at the same time.

The only problem is Skype on Xfinity costs $9.95 a month extra. We saw what happened to the $599 Cisco Umi, which Rich Tehrani and I rightly predicted would fail. Rich also pointed to Panasonic's Blu-ray Skype-enabled players as another reason why Cisco Umi would fail. Well, the $10/month premium is likely to pay for the "free" adaptor box, HD camera, and remote they send you. Yeah, that's right you need a separate adaptor box - it's not integrated into Comcast's cable box. As if my home entertainment setup wasn't a spaghetti mess of various devices and cables

I suppose $10/month is better than Umi's $599 pricetag and the integrated experience of Skype directly while watching TV is pretty cool.

Here's the rear of the adaptor box showing the connections:

The service is now available in Boston and Seattle. It will roll out in eight additional markets by the end of the week, including Atlanta and Augusta, Ga., Chicago, Detroit, Harrisburg, Pa., Indianapolis, Miami, and Pittsburgh. Additional markets are coming this summer.

It includes a remote control with a full QWERTY keyboard for typing Skype IMs and making calls as seen here:

Here's the front of the remote:

Features of the HD camera:
• High-Definition camera supports up to 720p @30 frames per second (requires both users to have
consistent 1.5Mbps+ upload/download speeds)
• On/Off Indicator
• Digital/Optical Zoom Lens With Shutter
• Built-In Directional Microphones
• Adjustable Clip for Secure Placement

I'm still skeptical customers are willing to shell out $9.95/month just to have Skype on their TV. I have my Windows 7 Dell Zino hooked up to my HDTV over HDMI for free. That along with a wireless keyboard and mouse and I can Skype on my HDTV for free. Granted, I have to have my TV on PC input mode, so I cannot watch TV simultaneously. That is until I purchase a TV tuner card for the Zino! Take that Comcast!

Lastly, check out their video promo:

Tags: cisco umi, comcast, hdtv, skype, tv, video conferencing, voip Related tags: skype xfinity, additional markets, skype video, while watching, skype, month

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Plixer Scrutinizer Network Traffic Analyzer Preview

Mon, 14 May 2012 10:55:00 -0500

I've been testing Plixer Scrutinizer, a network traffic analyzer product for several weeks now. It's a great product that supports NetFlow used by popular routers and switches, including the popular Cisco ASA series of firewall/security routers, Checkpoint, Adtran, Riverbed, and more. It also supports Juniper Jflow and Juniper IPFIX, SonicWALL NetFlow and SonicWALL IPFIX and Citrix AppFlow. It also supports sFlow.

Having insights into your network is critical as time-sensitive network applications such as VoIP, video conferencing, and unified communications are deployed. Scrutinizer is an excellent tool to monitor your network infrastructure and pinpoint problems. Scrutinizer can be used to analyze and monitor the overall network health, determine top talkers, discover most popular ports being used, and more. Using the software I was able to easily create customizable reports to determine which hosts, applications, protocols, etc. that are consuming network bandwidth.

You might think of Scrutinizer as akin to the popular Wireshark network packet sniffer and indeed in some ways they are similar. However, Scutinizer is designed to monitor dozens if not hundreds of routers across LANs and WANs giving a more holistic view of a large corporation's entire network. Wireshark is great at monitoring raw packet traffic on a local network or even a single WAN link, but it isn't designed to monitor multiple remote routers. Essentially, packet analyzers like Wireshark are complimentary tools to NetFlow analyzers like Scrutinizer.

Scrutinizer supports a customizable interface that lets you add additional tabs and then add various widgets to these custom tabs. I hope to have a full-fledged review of Scrutinizer in a few weeks. But for now, here's a teaser screenshot of the user interface showing a report: (click for larger image)

Tags: cisco asa, flow analytics, netflow, network traffic analysis, plixer, scrutinizer, sflow, wireshark Related tags: traffic analyzer, plixer scrutinizer, designed monitor, network traffic, network, scrutinizer

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Netflix Temporarily Offline? On Movie Night? Ahhhh!

Fri, 11 May 2012 14:22:39 -0500

Oh joy - was checking my Netflix DVD queue to see if any interesting movies to stream as well as which ones arrived in the mail and I got this lovely error message:

Watch as many TV episodes and movies as you want for one low price! One month FREE Trial.

We’re sorry, the Netflix website is temporarily unavailable.

Our shipping centers are continuing to send and receive DVDs, so your movies will be processed as usual. And you can still instantly watch movies via your Netflix ready device.

Our engineers are working hard to bring the site back up as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience and, again, we apologize for the inconvenience. If you need further assistance, please call us at 1-877-445-6064

Here's a screenshot:

Netflix is not allowed to go offline - ever, but especially on Friday (movie) night.

Tags: down, netflix, outage, unavailable, website Related tags: movie night, netflix, movies

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Telefonica Launches Skype Competitor Tu Me

Wed, 09 May 2012 10:24:55 -0500

Telefónica today launched a new mobile app called Tu Me, which essentially takes the approach if you can't beat Skype, join em'. Tu Me features texts, voice calls, messages, and location and photo sharing - all free of charge, with the caveat that it uses your data plan more, so it isn't technically "free" unless you are on an unlimited data plan or you use free Wi-Fi hotspots most of the time.

The app is currently only available on iOS however Android is coming. Tu Me enables communication and sharing between mobile phones, recording every interaction through a searchable timeline, obviously borrowing some elements from the Facebook social network and others.

There are some major caveats with this app. First, this app requires both caller and recipient to have the app installed. Second, you cannot call phone numbers using this app - it's strictly a P2P VoIP app. Seems a bit limited to me. It also doesn't do video, doesn't do PSTN calling, and only works with other Tu Me users. The only purpose really is for Telefónica users NOT to use up their bucket of voice minutes or pay for SMS messages. Whoop Dee Do! This is less of a Skype competitor and more of along the lines of Viber or Whatsapp.

More here.

Tags: mobile voip, skype, sms, telefónica, tu me Related tags: skype competitor, skype

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Viber Announces BlackBerry Beta and Windows Phone 7 Beta

Tue, 08 May 2012 10:38:08 -0500

Viber today announced the availability of Viber for BlackBerry Beta and Windows Phone 7 Beta.

Both Viber for BlackBerry Beta and Viber for Windows Phone 7 Beta initially offer Viber Messaging, allowing users to exchange text and high-quality photo messages and share locations with other Viber users. The beta does not yet include their HD VoIP calling. Some may call this a bit premature beta since Viber is a known as a mobile VoIP app not a standalone IM app, but I'll give them a pass to bringing some early love to these two platforms.

Viber seamlessly integrates with the devices' interface, with no registration required, instantly identifying existing contacts who already have Viber installed so users do not need to go through a “friend request” process. According to Viber, "the full release for both platforms, including Viber’s signature HD-quality free voice calling, will be released as soon as it meets Viber’s quality standards."

Tags: blackberry, free voice calls, hd, im, mobile voip, viber, voip, windows phone Related tags: windows phone, viber blackberry, viber, users, quality, windows

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Nokia City Lens Augmented Reality Launches on Lumia Phones

Tue, 08 May 2012 10:20:37 -0500

Nokia today released its City Lens app for Windows Phone, an app that is an augmented reality browser. Users open the app, and depending on the phone's angle (landscape [facing away from you], 45 degrees, or parallel to ground) it automatically changes modes - augmented reality, list of locations, and map mode respectively.

The coolest mode is obviously augmented reality where you hold the phone up and scan the horizon with the camera and it shows icons where various points of interest (POIs) are located. You can specify the POI category, such as Food.

Then you can just tap to read reviews and descriptions, or call to get directions. You can also share your location with friends via social networks, SMS, or email.

Play the video below to see this cool augmented reality in action:

Tags: augmented reality, camera, city lens, lumia 800, lumia 900, microsoft, nokia, poi, windows phone Related tags: augmented reality, augmented, reality, phone

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Continue reading Ooma Telo Review...

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Ooma Telo Review

Fri, 04 May 2012 11:52:30 -0500

Back in 2007 I wrote an article "Ooma goes Booma" because Ooma's claim-to-fame feature was that it worked by 'sharing' your PSTN analog phone line with other Ooma users. I was right that this PSTN sharing feature and business model wouldn't work, so certainly that did go "Booma". However, 5 years later after dropping the PSTN sharing and moving to a VoIP-centric business model Ooma has redeemed themselves with some really cool features. Ooma is a low-cost phone service provider similar to magicJack, netTALK, and Vonage in many ways, but with some key differentiating features.

The first big difference of note is that unlike the other three aforementioned phone providers, rather than charge a monthly flat rate for service and per-minute costs for calls, Ooma only charges for the initial hardware - $199 Ooma Telo, +$50.99 for Wireless adapter, +$29.99 for Bluetooth adapter and then they only charge you the taxes and local fees for calls in the United States. They have an online calculator that tells you what those local fees/taxes will be.

Sample fees for my CT zipcode:

Regulatory Compliance Fee (what's this?)	$1.78
911 Service Fee (what's this?)	$1.59
Federal Universal Service Charge (what's this?)	$0.39
State and local taxes, fees and surcharges (what's this?) Details	$0.50
Total: $4.26/month

The $4.26/month x 12 months works out to $51.12/year. This is more than netTALK or magicJack, but less than Vonage. Cost is only one factor in a purchasing decision - features is another, and Ooma has features a plenty. Many of these features you won't find in their competitors. One of the sexy features is the base Telo unit is like the old traditional answering machines - you can screen / listen to callers as they are leaving a message and then answer or ignore the call.

The Telo hardware includes a dual-core processor, 1GB of flash memory, and wideband HD audio engine. From the base unit you can press a button to play messages over the Telo speakerphone, skip, rewind, delete, or change the brightness (low, medium, high, off) of the blue buttons. Turning off the cool looking blue buttons is great if placing this unit in a bedroom and you like complete darkness. The base unit also acts as a DECT base station but you'll have to purchase the Telo DECT handsets separately. Using the DECT handset is the only way of leveraging the HD wideband audio feature.

Oomo Internet Settings. Note the PPoE support.

I didn't test the Ooma Telo DECT 6.0 PureVoice HD handset and it is currently out of stock on Ooma's website. I checked other retailers and it lists for ~~$209~~ $149, which is a bit pricey. However, when you purchase the Oomo and Telo handset bundle last time pricing was available it was $259. So buying the bundle is the way to go, however that doesn't help your wallet if you're looking to have multiple DECT Telo handsets.

The main Ooma Telo base unit can support up to 4 handsets. The main advantage of the Telo Handset is the instant second line feature, which grabs the 2nd line automatically when another person is on line 1. It also lets you screen the caller from the handset, which is useful if the base unit (Telo) is far away and you cannot hear the caller via the base unit's speakerphone. I will say that the Telo's speakerphone is pretty loud and I was able to hear the caller from upstairs with the Telo unit located downstairs. That negates the need for handset call screening in most instances, unless you live in a mansion.

Oomo Device Status

Another nice feature is you can add contacts via the web portal and sync the contacts down to your Telo Handset(s). One final advantage of the Telo handset is the ability to send a caller directly to voicemail with the push of a button, but that's a minor feature.

Voice Quality / Latency
To combat packet loss the system leverages adaptive redundancy. The Ooma Telo system detects packet loss and sends duplicate packets to cover the gap. I made several test calls and the voice quality was pretty good. I performed some latency benchmarks and came up with an average of 0.39s/390ms. It was pretty consistent and didn't vary from this 390ms latency average at all, which was tested across three calls each lasting a 1-2 minutes long. I then tested on another day and came up with a latency average of 238ms (Ooma VoIP to landline) and an average of 258ms (landline to Ooma VoIP), so in addition to the next day having better latency, "landline to Ooma VoIP" consistently had about 20ms more latency than "Ooma VoIP to landline". This is consistent with other VoIP products I've tested where the outbound leg has slightly better latency than the inbound leg. A few more days testing and it seemed the 238/258ms (outbound/inbound) figures were the most accurate average latency.

Latency Comparison with netTALK and magicJack
For comparison, the latency of the netTALK DUO across two separate calls had a lowest latency figure of 421ms and the highest latency figure of 449ms, with an overall average of 436ms. This appears to be much slower than Ooma, though to be fair I didn't make latency tests across multiple days. I didn't test the latency for magicJack plus when I reviewed it, so I tested it today and my first latency test came up with an amazingly low 0.123s (123ms). I thought that couldn't be right, so I tested it again and got 0.139s (139ms). I tested it a few more times to come up with an average of 0.137s (137ms). Wow. magicJack clearly was the latency winner.

Back To The Features...

Tags: 2nd line, cheap minutes, free calling, magicjack, nettalk, ooma, review, telo, unlimited calling, voip Related tags: latency figure, voice quality, better latency, business model, latency average, latency

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Skype Aware of IP Security Flaw Back in 2010

Thu, 03 May 2012 13:56:14 -0500

Some more interesting information has come to light regarding the IP revealing security flaw in Skype. Researchers from Inria, a research institute in France, and the Polytechnic Institute of New York University discovered the flaw. Stevens Le Blond, one of the team's researchers who discovered the exploit told the Wall Street Journal that the team first discovered the flaw in November 2010. They were actually able to track the city-level location of more than 10,000 Skype users over a period of two weeks simply by making short calls to users that don't cause a Skype notification popup and the calls don't appear in the call histories.

The WSJ Journal article explains:

The researchers say the vulnerability could allow corporate rivals to track the movement of individuals from a company, as they travel between cities and states.

“You can scale this to track tens of thousands of employees,” said Keith Ross, a researcher from the Polytechnic Institute who worked on the 2011 paper, “and determine their strategy and who they’re trying to do business with.”

Le Blond also said the flaw could be used as a first step for hacking into the computer of an executive.

Forget executives - celebrities, government employees, politicians, and other high-profile individuals can be stalked or worse. This isn't Skype's brightest hour, but I suspect with all the recent news coverage, the Skype and Microsoft teams will fix this quickly. Unless of course, there is a core architectural reason why this isn't easily fixed, which I discussed yesterday.

Tags: privacy, security, skype, voip, vulnerability, wall street journal, wsj Related tags: polytechnic institute, skype, researchers, discovered, institute, track

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Skype Responds to IP Address Privacy Vulnerability

Tue, 01 May 2012 09:57:15 -0500

Yesterday it was reported that a simple script could expose any Skype user's IP address. A Microsoft representative saw my article and gave me this official response, which they also provided to other media outlets:

“We are investigating reports of a new tool that captures a Skype user’s last known IP address. This is an ongoing, industry-wide issue faced by all peer-to-peer software companies. We are committed to the safety and security of our customers and we are takings measures to help protect them.”
Adrian Asher, director of product Security, Skype

It's a bit of a non-answer if you ask me. True, P2P by its very nature is going to create connections between your computer/mobile and your 'target' computer/mobile. As such, it's not difficult to determine what IP addresses you are connecting to.

However, Skype leverages supernodes for a large portion of their infrastructure. I believe the supernodes handle authentication as well as call setup (or IM setup). So these supernodes act as an intermediary (proxy) between peer1 (your computer) and peer2 (target computer).

Thus, I wouldn't expect peer1 to see peer2's IP address. Apparently, this vulnerability leverages the search feature in Skype and viewing their vcard info and presence (online/offline). My guess is that Skype queries the supernodes when searching for a Skype user, but then once it find the user, it sets up a direct P2P session between your computer and the Skype user you searched for and pulls the relevant vcard / presence information. Game, Set, Match! IP address exposed!

If my assumptions are correct, I can see why Skype set it up this way. If they use supernodes to also "pull" the vcard and presence information, that's an additional load on the supernodes. I'm fairly sure, but not positive that your existing Skype buddies also make a direct P2P connection with each buddy to pull presence information, which also would expose IP addresses. But if you have 100 buddies, trying to figure out which 1 out of 100 buddies is their IP address would be difficult. If Skype made a technical change forcing each Skype client to pull presence info via supernodes (pseudo proxy) instead of direct P2P connections, that would drastically impact performance of the Skype network. This may be a huge architectural change to solve this IP address vulnerability.

However, Skype could simply change their search function to use supernodes (mask IP addresses) and allow the Skype client to query their buddies using P2P (IP addresses can be determined). At least this would block any non-buddy from determining your IP address. I may be wrong in my technical assessment, so I will reach out to Skype for further comment on this. Stay tuned...

Tags: ip address, microsoft, presence, privacy, skype, supernodes, voip, vulnerability Related tags: presence information, target computer, skype client, computer mobile, vcard presence, skype

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Does HTML5 Rock Your Mobile World?

Tue, 01 May 2012 09:05:26 -0500

We've heard the hype surrounding HTML5, but does it live up to its promise? If TMC's recently completed DevCon5 show in Santa Clara, California is any indication, HTML5 will soon rock your mobile world!

At DevCon5, an international community of HTML5 developers and designers gathered to focus on Mobile Apps, Consistent UI Development, and more. Gaming was a huge draw featuring a large, enthusiastic group.

With breakout sessions led by experts from Adobe, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Joyent and Qualcomm, DevCon5 has quickly established its position as a “must attend” event for developers and designers looking to take advantage of business opportunities presented by the advent of HTML5.

DevCon5 – created for Web developers, software architects, graphic artists and business executives – helps developers, designers and engineers learn how they can use HTML5 to create engaging mobile applications and create consistent, positive Web user experiences across any device. The DevCon5 conference program encompasses a multi-track program covering important topics related to HTML5 adoption, including browser compatibility, user experience design and Web 3.0.
DevCon5 session

“The prevailing theme from Day One of DevCon5 was the unanimous amazement on the face of attendees as they witnessed the animated Web pages they can build using HTML5,” said Carl Ford, event producer at Crossfire Media. “Even today’s most sophisticated game programs will feel the competition from sites, difficult to conceive of today, but amazingly possible using HTML5, CSS3 and javascript.”

“The progression of HTML5 possibilities and capabilities has developed so rapidly that even the most sophisticated engineers and developers acknowledge to me that they need to visit conferences like DevCon5 frequently to stay ahead of the curve,” Ford added.

With Skype rumored to be working on a HTML5 web app, if that comes to fruition, that would be a huge feather in HTML5's hat.

DevCon5 session

The next DevCon5 Conference will be held July 23-24 at The Kimmel Center on the campus of New York University in New York City. You can register here.

Tags: adobe, devcon5, developers, google, HTML, HTML5, joyent, linkedIn, New York City, qualcomm, skype, voip Related tags: developers designers, devcon conference, mobile world, devcon, developers, mobile

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New Skype for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch Sports Ability to Move Video Preview

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:09:05 -0500

Some new features in the latest release of Skype for Apple iOS, including the ability to move your own video preview, app auto-restart if it crashes, improved accessibility, improved stability, some UI improvements and more. See full release notes in screenshot.

In related news, today gHacks revealed that Skype reveals remote and local IP Address of all online Skype users using a script. Yikes! Privacy zealots have at em'!

Tags: apple, ipad, iphone, mobile, skype, voip, wireless Related tags: video preview, skype

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