Tag Archives: VoIP

Nokia updates firmware for N800 Internet Tablet

el Nokia N800 ahora con SkypeImage by Hector Milla via Flickr

Back in February I did a review of the Nokia N800 tablet and noted that it came up short in several areas.  Nokia has been working to improve the tablet, and has just released updated firmware.  As noted on the ThoughtFix weblog the updates are primarily focused on greater stability and performance, and one huge new addition – Skype capability.  Out of the box, the N800 had the Gizmo Project built in, but Skype has become somewhat of a global VoIP standard, so it’s addition to the base firmware is certainly worth noting.  If you have an N800, I would suggest making your way over to the maemo website and downloading the upgrade.

Legistlative stupidity regarding VoIP in India

For all the liberalization of the Indian economy, bewildering efforts like this are still the rage amongst some regulatory agencies in India.  Of course, taxation is the central focus:

Illegal Web calls by BPOs face axe- The Economic Times

According to official sources, foreign players such as Skype, in addition to disturbing the level-playing field for bonafide licensees, were also causing great revenue loss to the government as they did not pay the 12% service tax and 6% revenue share on internet telephony. Sources said DoT was keen to implement this move on security grounds too. Foreign service providers could be a “serious security threat as they did not come under any Indian regulator and policy framework,” they added.

Yahoo unleashes voice “Skype Killer” IM

Last year’s dubious purchase of Skype by eBay for an ungodly sum is looking even more foolish today.  Yesterday Yahoo! released the beta 7.5 version of Yahoo! Messenger with Voice.  This update allows Yahoo!IM users to buy phone numbers, call out, call in, and generally function in a world similar to Skype without having another IM environment to deal with.  Om Malik fills us in with some more details here.

Tello to let you see where you’re buddies are

Om Malik points us to a pretty interesting startup company based in the Bay Area, Tello.  The premise behind Tello’s technology is to provide us a sense of where a particular contact is available.  In other words “Presence”, as Om notes.  He points to several interesting articles, one from the Wall Street Journal and another from BusinessWeek, that describe the technology in greater detail.  After sifting through these articles, I think I came to the same conclusion as Om did; this is great stuff, but I’m not sure how many people will adopt it….and the key to success in this type of technology is blanket adoption.