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Skype, More Skype, Goodbye Copper and Casual Gaming [39:50]

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In this show we take a look at some previous blog postings.




NCTT 10th Annual Summer Worskshop discussion.


Thanks to all that attended and special thanks to our presenters and Juniper
Networks and Apple as sponsors.




Thursday, July 12, 2007 Blog



Skype
Everywhere


There have been a couple of interesting
Skype
product upgrades/releases over the past few days.



The first is
SoonR
Talk, an
AJAX enabled
application that allows Skype to run on the iPhone and other mobile
devices.



The second is the release of Skype on the
Nokia
N800 Internet tablet. The small hand-held
device connects to available Wi-Fi networks that we're all finding just about
everywhere
these days.

Here's a
Yahoo
News quote from
Gartner analyst
Elroy
Jopling:






"We will see more Skype and similar free Wi-Fi
phone services moving into mobile devices in the U.S. and Europe, he said,
although Europe could adopt it more quickly. However, he said he expects to
see "mobile operators put up as many roadblocks as they can" in both
places".




Both of these products allow free Skype voice
calls from anywhere to anywhere with Wi-Fi access.


Saturday, July 14, 2007 Blog



Some
Interesting Skype Alternatives


Network
Computing recently published a piece evaluating 6 Skype Alternatives
here.
Each alternative adds enhanced features that
Skype currelty does not
offer. Here's the list:





Grand
Central- This product allows you to
select one phone number and link up to six phone numbers you enter into your
user profile. For example, you can set your Grand Central account to ring both
your office phone and your cell phone. The one you pick up is the one that
connects the call.

Grand Central was acquired by Google a few days ago
(Mike Q was the
first to tip me off) and is currently taking number reservations on their
website.



TalkPlus -
TalkPlus is sort of the opposite of Grand Central - it allows you to have
several phone numbers that all ring to one phone. TalkPlus is inexpensive but
not free. They currently offer number in 32 different countries and especially
looks like a great product if someone has relatives in other parts of the
world.



Jajah - I've
blogged on Jajah in the past - see link
here. Jajah
provides a paid service that allows calls to be routed to landline/cell to
landline/cell in many parts of the world without long distance fees. Here's
how it works: Let's say I'm a Jajah customer and I want to call my brother who
is living in London. I log into my Jajah account at jajah.com, enter my
brother's landline or cell number and my landline or cell number. Jajah makes
the connection and rings my phone and then my brothers phone over connections
that are local to each of us.



Talkster -
Talkster's paid service provides calls from phones to to voice-enabled
instant-messaging services like GoogleTalk and Yahoo IM. One of the neat
things about Talkster is that it allows you to see your friends presence
(whether or not they are on IM) using you mobile phone browser.



Jangl - Jangl is a
currently free service (even for international calls) that works similar to
Jajah - it connects phone network end-points. The difference is Jangl does not
require that you know the number you want to call. Jangl uses semi-permanent
phone numbers and allows people to call you that don't know your permanent
number.



Jaxtr - Jaxtr is
similar to Jangl with a flashier user interface. It is also currently a free
service for domestic and international calls. Both Jangl and Jaxtr's anonymity
features cater to the "social networker" market.















Each of these products offer features and functionality beyond current Skype
offerings - it will be very interesting to see what
Google does with Grand
Central.





Now Skype is not without competion,
right?


T-Mobile HotSpot @Home service   For $10 a month, on top of your regular
plan, you can eliminate the problem of poor wireless coverage in your home and
make unlimited calls without using voice-plan minutes. All it takes is a
broadband connection, a Wi-Fi network, and one of two Wi-Fi-ready handsets
sold by T-Mobile. T-Mobile's product is based
on  Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) - we'll have to do a separate podcast
on this technology.


Thursday, July 19, 2007
Blog



Goodbye
Copper?


There's been some recent
press
about Verizon and
their
FIOS
product installation. FIOS is a fiber optic network service that
delivers voice, video and data services. You may also see it referred to
as a Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) or Fiber to the Home (FTTH) service that
Verizon is selling and installing in select markets in 16 different
states.


Most who have the service installed are extremely happy with the bandwidth
and cost when compared to lower bandwidth DSL and Cable Modem services.
The product has become so popular that it is even being used as a selling
point by real estate agents when marketing homes.


A few are complaining though. It appears Verizon, when installing the FIOS
service, is cutting out the existing copper lines leaving the customer
with only one option – fiber and FIOS. There are a couple of good reasons
from a business perspective for Verizon to do this. The first is the
existing copper wiring is old and requires a significant amount of
maintenance – Verizon spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year just
maintaining the existing "copper plant? and it makes sense to remove it
when it is replaced. The second reason is the
Telecommunications
Act of 1996 which requires the telephone companies (like Verizon)
share their existing copper lines with competitors. There is no current
legal requirement for Verizon to share new fiber optic lines with anyone.


In fairness to Verizon, there is a three step notification process for
people who sign up for the FIOS service. According to the
International
Herald Tribune, customers are told by the Verizon sales person, it is
indicated in the sales contract and the customer is told by the technician
that the copper will be cut out. Currently, Verizon is publicly stating
they will replace removed copper if a FIOS customer wished to revert back
to copper service.


Also according to the International Herald Tribune, Verizon has filed more
than 100 notices with the
Federal
Communications Commission to retire portions of copper throughout its
network.


I can understand the customer concerns about lack of choice and some
technical issues like battery back-up and also Verizon's concerns about
having to maintain two separate networks.




Friday, July 20, 2007 Blog



Casual
Gaming = Big Business


The
Hollywood
Reporter has reported that
Nickelodeon will
make an investment of $100 million in the development of casual games.
Casual games are games that are typically played for a few minutes at a
time - examples include puzzle and card games. This announcement was made
by Nickelodeon
Kids and Family Group President Cyma Zarghami at the
Casual Connect Gaming
Conference yesterday in Seattle. Zarghami is quoted:


"Particularly in the kids' space, with
more than 86% of kids 8 to 14 gaming online, we see great momentum for
online casual gaming,"


Also, according to The Reporter:


"Included in the Nickelodeon initiative is
myNoggin, a preschool educational game in the form of a subscription
service; an expansion of the Nicktropolis multiplayer games franchise;
Nick Gaming Club, Nickelodeon's first subscription offering featuring
multiplayer games with 3-D avatars;
the-NGames.com,
a casual gaming site geared toward female teens; and the transformation of
the site
Neopets.com
to NeoStudios, a property centering on the creation of new online virtual
world experiences".


In addition, the
Casual
Game Association (CGA) has released some preliminary data from their
Casual Games 2007 Report. Here's a few preliminary data highlights from a
MCV
press release:


The number of games being submitted to major online portals has doubled
over the past two years, suggesting an increase in new publishers
developing more titles.


In 2006 the most popular casual games were Mystery Case Files, Diner Dash,
Cake Mania, Bejeweled and Slingo.


Women still make up the majority (74%) of all paying players online with
men now represent about half of the much-larger non-paying player
universe.


The number of games being submitted to major online portals has doubled
over the past two years, suggesting an increase in new publishers
developing more titles.


The rapid growth of the casual games market has prompted companies to
create games for more audiences and also for more platforms, including the
Internet, PC and Macintosh computers, Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo DS, Wii
and even mobile phones and PDAs.

The full CGA report will be released in the fall - if you are interested
in receiving a copy watch the CGA website at
http://www.casualgamesassociation.org
or send an email to
datastudy@casualgamesassociation.org