Luca Filigheddu just posted some interesting comments on testing the N95 the last few months. It reminded me to add a comment of my own. The cord for the ear buds is two short when the handset is carried at the waist. You’ve got to bend over or tilt your head sideways (looks dorky). The ear piece jack is not a standard size (3.5 mm instead of 2.5 mm) so you may have to hunt around to find something else with a longer cord and mic.
By now the VOIP world knows of Truphone’s victory in court over mobile giant T-Mobile. Yesterday, UK Truphone won an injunction against T-Mobile blocking calls to Truphone users: For the last month, anyone calling a Truphone number on T-Mobile network would hear a "Number not in service" message. By Monday, July 23, T-Mobile has been instructed to start routing these calls.
There’s plenty of cheering on the Truphone website, http://truphone.blogspot.com/2007/07/truphone-wins-court-injunction-against.html but I have yet to find T-Mobile’s official or unofficial response. I couldn’t find anything on their website. In the spirit of gathering the whole picture, let me know if you find a company statement or interview anywhere.
It’s been about a year since I bought my Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop and I’ve really loved it, except for one little thing that’s become a big annoying problem. When I have a headset plugged in, I quite often hear squealch-like static that renders the conversation inaudible. Calls I’ve had on SightSpeed and Skype have been plagued by this problem, and until now I always put it down to cheap headset hardware. Instead it turns out to be a Dell design flaw. My searches on the Dell forums indicate that it’s been more than just me experiencing this static and the culprit seems to be a wonky bit of wiring in the headset jack.
So, I’ve broke up with analog headsets forever and purchased a Plantronics DSP-400 folding USB headset. So far so good. It’s a wired headset and costs about $100.
Some wireless headsets worth a look if you’re having a similiar Dell moment is the Plantronics CS-50 USB Wireless Headset, Plantronics Voyager 510 Bluetooth Headset, or the Plantronics Audio 910 Bluetooth headset. All are pricey but going wireless may be worth it.
The intrepid Tom Keating reviews two headsets here:
http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/headsets/plantronics-audio-910-headset.asp
This morning I was down in our basement office pecking away. It’s a great spot to hide. I am effectively cut off from the what’s going on in the rest of the house (a blessing at times). Can’t hear a thing…no doorbell, kids pummeling each other, or the kettle… I guess my husband got tired of the kettle screeching away so he sent me a text message from the kitchen PC. "Hi…water boiling". Now that’s practical IM.
On Wednesday Jangl announced a new service called “Call Anyone” that allows you to get a phone number for someone just by entering their email address. With “Call Anyone†you enter someone’s email address on Jangl’s homepage www.jangl.com. You are then given a local phone number to call them (even if they’re long distance, you get a number local to you). During the first call, you leave a voicemail, which Jangl then delivers via email. Once they receive that message, the person gets instructions to get a number – local to them – to call you back. This service still keeps your personal number safe, enables text messaging via SMS and the easy exchange of voicemails, too.Â
The service is free but the calls are placed and received on “real” phones so you pay the appropriate carrier or mobile airtime fees.
I tried it and it seems to work just fine. The email that Jangl sends to notify the person you’re calling looks a bit suspicious so I suggest customizing the subject and text of the message (you can do this in the first screen before sending). Embedded in the email is a link to listen to the message. Once the person listens to the message, they can click another link to get the private number for calling you back.
I also noticed that Jangl updated their look and feel and it works much better for me. The control panel doesn’t seem as confusing as it was before. I have a problem displaying the Flash widgets however. They don’t appear in the preview area.Â
I’m not offering up answers here, I’m asking!Â
I’ve been rereading the May 9th press release from Jajah announcing their investment funding from Intel. No doubt this is a huge affirmation for the Mountainview CA/Luxembourg company. About a year ago, I remember messing around with their beta and the free five-minute call anywhere deal. But now I need help drilling through the finance-speak to get to what Intel really means for Jajah current and future customers.
Jajah will now have “access to [Intel’s] extensive community of product dealers, OEM customers and developers, to further their reach into global development communities. As an Intel Capital portfolio company, Jajah will also be able to participate in Intel Capital’s IP Access Program, which will give Jajah access to Intel’s extensive VoIP patent portfolio.” And Trevor Healy, Jajah CEO says “JAJAH can be embedded into Intel solutions”.
So, what will embedded Jajah do for me as a consumer? In the future, will I be buying a laptop powered by Intel with Jajah on board?
Let me know your thoughts please!
(BTW, does anyone else have trouble typing “Jajah”, or is it just me? I get jajaj, Jahjaj…)
I recently mentioned Jangl in Battle of the Js. On first look, I wasn’t overly enthused–the home page promise didn’t mesh with the user interface/support once logged in. But since then I’ve had chance to talk with the folks at Jangl to learn more about their service. They agree the user experience is something they need to improve, and are working hard to get there as we speak.
Jangl’s Tim Johnson was able to walked me through all this, so now I get it. However, he knows you can’t personally explain the concept and use to everyone. Improving the overall package to make the service clear and easy to use is part of Jangl’s planned enhancements over the next month and a half, starting with the announcement last week of a new Jangl widget for Tagged, a social networking site. Today, Jangl announced a new TypePad widget which will give TypePad bloggers and their readers anonymous phone numbers for talking, texting and exchanging voicemail on their mobile phones.
Here’s what I learned about Jangl:
It is all about connecting two people without sharing phone numbers. The two people can be bloggers, social networking junkies, or they can be “off Net” contacts.  Why would you want to keep your phone number private? Well, let’s say you’re selling something on Ebay or Craigslist you don’t want to share a personal phone number. Or you have a personal profile on a social networking site and you want to connect with your fans without sharing a personal number. Or how about you are using an online dating site like Match.com and want to keep your contact number private.
There are two ways people can get an exclusive number for you. As a Jangl user, you can give out your Jangl ID or you can post a Jangl widget on a website or email. If you give your Jangl ID out at a party, for example, the person goes to Jangl.com and follows the instructions to generate a number for you. If someone clicks your Jangl widget online, the widget generates the number. Either way, people can call you on a regular landline or cell phone. You answer the call on whichever phone is attached to your Jangl account. It could be a mobile phone or an office phone, for example. You can choose to answer based on the caller’s introduction, or you can send the call to your existing voicemail system.
Because Jangl relies on the use a regular phone to make the actual calls, not a computer platform, you can receive calls from fellow bloggers visiting your Typepad site while out and about on your mobile phone. YOU don’t have to be sitting at your computer. And once the other party has generated a number for you AND specified their mobile as the phone they’ll be calling from, then they can call you from anywhere as well. That’s a pretty cool way to take your online profile with you.
The only required online part of the process is generating the phone number. Once that’s done, the computer is completely out of the picture. You can maintain a list of Jangl contacts online in your account, but that’s up to you.
Who pays? To get a Jangl ID and create an online widget of your own is free, but because the calls you make and receive are on regular mobile phone or landline networks, you pay the appropriate fees to the service provider.
Hope this helps!
“Sahweet” as my son would say. For once I had no trouble with the setup of the Nokia N800 internet tablet. I’m hooked up using Wi-fi and was able to make calls right away using Google Talk. I haven’t yet hooked up via bluetooth to my phone, but that’s next. As you can see, the screen is a great size and remarkably crisp and clear. Another neat feature is the full screen finger keypad, which I found somewhat bizarre at first, but I think there’s a bit of a knack to it. A little more practice and I’ll be a pro in no time.
There’s so many great features to explore on this device, like web cam, media player, internet radio, email and text messaging, internet calling with video. I’m trying to be systematic but it’s hard! The design is sleek, fits great in your hand, and the snap out desktop stand doubles as a hand grip. I checked on Amazon and the N800 can be had for around $379.
I posted earlier about a two week wait for response from Skype. I didn’t think that was too bad at the time. But another blogger has been waiting for 6 weeks for support and his Skype account is unusable in the meantime.
What’s the deal? Skype is happy to take your money but if it doesn’t work for you, too bad?
Michael Cerda from Jangl clarifies my earlier post Battle of the Js. Read his comments here.
Michale says Jangl is not a click-to-call widget because it produces a real phone number for a caller to call the widget owner. The tech behind Jangl has been used at Match.com since July 2006. More to come from Jangl soon.
Thanks Michael.
