Following on Peter Csathy’s post about how he uses SightSpeed for business and personal communication, Andy shares six tips for making video calls. In a nutshell, 1) Get over it, your hairdo’s not that bad 2) Get a hat, 3) Come as you are, be comfortable, 4) Have good lighting, 5) Learn to multitask on camera, 6) Don’t worry about multitasking on camera, it’s not considered rude.

Thanks Andy!

I’ve been wondering about the GrandCentral “One number for life” mantra, and TalkPlus‘ second number for your mobile phone. While I understand these products target different markets, I find it hard to keep them distinct in my mind. It dawned on me that this could be a problem that consumers have as well.

There’s a lot of chatter about Voice 2.0 applications–the user in control not the network–but that is the VOIP blogosphere talking. Me, I think okay, I get another number, it’s free for now, and it’s solving what problem exactly? 

GrandCentral:

Provides a phone number not tied to a device or location. When people call this number, the phones you have “attached” to it ring, like your cell phone, home phone, and office phone. Up to six phones can be linked to your GrandCentral number. The service is all about giving you control over how people reach you (inbound calling) as opposed to how you place calls. Callers can leave voice messages that can be checked by phone, email or online. You’re notified of a voice mail via email or text message to a cell phone. And you can flag unwanted callers as spam. It’s also free.

You need it if people have a hard time tracking you down. You find yourself playing telephone tag. You WANT to be found but heck, you’re always bouncing between work, home, and on the road.

TalkPlus:

Provides a second number for your cell phone so you can separate personal life and work life. The number can be used as a second line for business, dating, classified ads, online auctions, social groups, or a second residence. Like GrandCentral, unwanted callers can be blocked while priority numbers ring through. When making outbound calls, you can specify which caller ID to use so that the person you are calling doesn’t know how or where you’re calling from.

You need it if your mobile phone is your primary means of communication but the  separation of work and play is important to you. You want people to know that you’re calling from the office (the caller ID says this is a work-related call) even though you’re calling from home or the beach in Maui. You are also concerned about personal privacy and want to make sure that your personal number is only available to the people you want to have it.

***

In talking with Craig Walker, GrandCentral CEO, he tells me they couldn’t be more different than TalkPlus.

“Our philosophy is that we don’t need MORE numbers for people to reach us at…we need less.  As long as I have the control over my inbound calling that GrandCentral gives me, there’s no reason that I would want to juggle different personas. I don’t want phone numbers that identify me as being located at a certain place or doing a certain thing, I want a phone number that is personal to me.  If you want to reach me, call my ONE NUMBER.  I’ll be able to answer it wherever I want…I will be able to know who’s calling every time, and I’ll even be able to listen in on the voicemail as its being left if I’m still unsure whether I want to take the call.  When somebody calls me, they shouldn’t be able to “figure out” or know where I am based on the number…if I’m in the office, working from home or on the beach, that’s my business.” 

Obviously there’s more to both GrandCentral and TalkPlus than what I describe here, and the enthusiasm voiced by many in the VOIP blogging community seems to be not so much what these services are doing today, but what we can expect from them in the future.

To set up a free GrandCentral account, click here. To sign up for a TalkPlus sneak peak beta (for Cingular, T-Mobile, and Sprint customers in select U.S. states only), click here. TalkPlus won’t be a free service like GrandCentral and pricing is to be determined.

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!

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. 

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. 

The good news is that hovering your mouse over just about anything in the Skype window will display a tool tip (a little one-sentence definition or status report).

However, I found that almost right away I needed a cheat sheet for the online status icons, those green or gray clouds beside each contact. If you have anything to add or change, please do.

 Online: the person can receive calls or chats. If you set your status to , you can receive calls/chats from other Skypers. Depending on your privacy settings, you can receive calls from anyone, from people in your contact list, or from people who you’ve authorized to see your online details. To set privacy settings, go to Tools ->Options->Privacy.

 SkypeMe: the person is in SkypeMe mode, which means that everyone on Skype knows he/she is available and interested in talking or chatting, including contacts they don’t know. If you set your status to SkypeMe, you are allowing calls and chats with other Skypers who can find you by searching the Skype directory. To turn SkypeMe mode ON or OFF, go to File –> Change Online Status (Windows) or Account -> Change Status (Mac OS X).

 Invisible: the person appears to you as  offline, which means you can’t call or chat with them. If you set your status to invisible, you will appear as  to everyone else. Use invisible if you want to be able to make your own calls or chats, but don’t want to receive them. You’ll also be able to see the online status of everyone else in your contact list, even though you’ll appear to them to be offline.

 Away: the person temporarily can’t be reached–out to lunch, away from computer, in a meeting or whatever. If you set your status to Away, you are still notified of incoming calls or chats. Skype automatically switches your online status to Away if you have been inactive for a certain number of minutes. Go to Tools ->Options ->General to change this setting.

 Not available: the person can’t be reached. Sounds a bit more long term than Away. If you set your status to Not Available, you are still notified of incoming calls or chats. Skype automatically switches your online status to Not Available if you have been inactive for a certain number of minutes. Go to Tools ->Options ->General to change this setting.

 Do not disturb: the person doesn’t want to be bugged. Calls or messages are queued for you to check later. If you set your status to Do Not Disturb, you won’t be notified of incoming calls or chats (no pop-ups or ringtones).

 Not sharing: the person does not give you permission to see if he/she is online, offline, away, and so on. It’s probably nothing personal. When adding the contact you may have decided not to request their details, or they may have dismissed your request. To ask again if they’d like to share details, right-click the contact name and select Request Contact Details.

 Offline: the person is not available through Skype. They may have set their status to offline or invisible, or they may have logged off. If you set your status to Offline, you can’t make or receive calls/chats with other Skypers. But, if you have a voicemail account, people can leave you messages. You can also call forward your calls when offline to another number (either a regular number or Skype name), and you can still make SkypeOut calls (calls to regular numbers). 

 Skypeout contact: a person with a regular landline/mobile number. Not a Skype number.

Did you know that for the year 2006, “J” was the most popular letter of the alphabet? Okay, I made that up. I have no idea if it’s true, but three out of ten most popular baby names last year started with J….

I had a comment a few days ago from Eric C. wanting to know about Jaxtr, Jangl and JaJah. What’s the difference? What indeed! People (like me) are starting to ask questions like this because…who can remember what these guys do! They sort of sound alike, they’re in the same industry space, they appeal to the same type of folks. Eric then wanted to know how the Js relate to GrandCentral. Oiy!

Jaxtr:

• Provides a click-to-call widget (button) for social networking sites like MySpace, web sites, and blogs. Visitors to your page have the option to call you, send you a text message, or leave you a voice message. They don’t need a microphone or headset. They call you by entering their phone number in the widget, Jaxtr then provides a local number for them to dial.
• Free registration, then you buy jax credits to forward calls to your phone. 100 free credits per month.  You can send unlimited calls to voice mail for free and unlimited text messages for free. Calls to other Jaxtr users are also free.
• No software download required.
• Unique feature is Voiceblast. You can record your own message or greeting that’s played automatically or on mouse-click when a someone visits your web page. I’ve added my voiceblast to my About page here.
• Like Jangl, Jaxtr has privacy options that allow you and the person calling to hide your phone numbers or email addresses.
• Like GrandCentral, you can block incoming calls or forward calls based on caller ID. Unlike GrandCentral, Jaxtr does not give you a 10-digit phone number that can be dialed from any phone. People calling you are given a special 10-digit number they can use, but they must use the same phone every time. If they call from a different phone, Jaxtr provides a different number.
• I like it.

Jangl:

• Provides a click-to-call widget (let’s call this widget dialing) for social network sites, web sites and blogs that masks the incoming and outgoing numbers. It’s a way for people to make and receive calls without giving out phone numbers. I guess the advantage here is privacy. For example, you can post the Jangl widget on MySpace without revealing your personal phone number.
• When you register, you receive a Jangl ID that people use to call you. Someone enters your Jangl ID in the online widget, Jangl then gives them a special number to call you on a regular phone. Your number and the calling person’s number are never exchanged.
• Registration is free, then you pay per call based on telephone company charges.
• You can choose from several cool looking widgets
• Not really like GrandCentral at all, except in that they both have widget dialing (GrandCentral recently introduced web buttons).
• Sounds a lot like Jaxtr but I still found Jangl a bit confusing and not a lot of info or online support. I haven’t used it much.

JaJah

• Provides web-based dialing, or dialing from a web page, without a microphone or headset. All calls are made phone to phone, whether landline or mobile. This means the person you’re calling does not have to be connected to the internet.
• You log in to your Jajah account, enter your friend’s number, and click the CALL button. Your phone will ring, you pick up, then your friend’s phone will ring.
• No software download required.
• Other Jajah services and tools include conference calls, call scheduling, access to Jajah phone book from the web browser on your mobile phone, Jajah plugins for Google, Outlook, Mac OS X Address Book, Firefox, and Plaxo
• Registration is free, you get 5 minutes free calling anywhere, then you pay as you go. Calls to Jajah users are free.
• I have an account but haven’t used it.

I’ll leave TalkPlus, Talkster, and Talk-Now for another time….”Tango of the Ts” perhaps? 

Analog audio signals: Analog audio signals are used to transmit voice data over telephone lines. This is done by varying or modulating the frequency of sound waves to accurately reflect the pitch of the sound. The same technology is used for radio wave transmissions.

ATA: ATA or the analog telephone adaptor is the hardware device that connects the conventional telephone to the Internet through a high speed bandwidth line, provides the interface to convert the analog voice signals into IP packets, delivers dial tone and manages the call setup.

Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the volume of data that can be transmitted over a communication line in a fixed amount of time. It is expressed in bits per second (bps) or bytes per second for digital devices and in cycles per second, or Hertz (Hz) for analog devices. Bandwidth can also be defined as the difference between a band of frequencies or wavelengths.

Broadband: It is a term used to define high speed Internet connection, generally provided by cable TV, DSL or dedicated telecom lines. The high speeds are achieved by the carrying capacity of the cable that can carry multiple messages simultaneously.

Cable modem: The cable modem is a device that is used to connect a computer to the high speed coaxial cable run by cable TV companies to provide access to the Internet. The connection is made through an Ethernet port, which is a shared medium and can affect download speeds if too many users log on simultaneously to the Internet on that particular cable segment. However, despite this cable modems provide extremely fast access to the net.

Circuit switched networks: These networks have been used for making phone calls since 1878. They use a dedicated point-to-point connection for each call. This reduces their utility because no network traffic can move across the switches that are being used to transmit a call.

Client (Softphone client): The software installed in the user’s computer to make calls over the Internet.

Codec: Codec is a term that arises from the Compressor-Decompressor or enCOder/DECoder process. It is used for software or hardware devices that can convert or transform a data stream. For instance, at the transmitting end codecs can encode a data stream or data signal for easy transmission, storage or encryption. At the receiving end, they can decode the signal in the appropriate form for viewing. They are most suitable for videoconferencing and streaming media solutions.

Compression: This is a term that is used to indicate the squeezing of data in a format that takes less space to store or less bandwidth to transmit. It is very useful in handling large graphics, audio and video files.

Data compression: This is the process that is used to compress large data files into mall files so that they use less bandwidth during transmission and less disk space when stored. The compression depends upon the repeatable patterns of binary 0s and 1s. The higher the number of repeatable patters, the higher is the compression. The right compression codes can compress data files to 40% of their original size. The graphics files can be compressed even more – from 20% to 90%.

DSL modem: A DSL modem is a device that is used to connect one or more computers to the high speed DSL line provided by a DSL operator to gain access to the Internet. The customers use these modems to log on the net to download or transmit data. Since the DSL lines have high bandwidth capacity the data transfer speeds are very high.

E911: E911 is the short form of the term Enhanced 911, and is used for providing emergency service on cellular and Internet voice calls.

Emergency 911 calls: This is an emergency telephone number that handles all calls related to police, fire or medical emergencies. The number, which is allotted under the North American Numbering Plan (NANP), is answered by either a telephone operator or an emergency service dispatcher, who, in turn, alerts the appropriate emergency service.

H.323: An ITU standard that lays down guidelines for real time voice and videoconferencing utilities on the Internet. The H.323 standard supports voice, video, data, application sharing and whiteboarding and defines media gateways for conversion to packets.

Internet congestion: Internet congestion occurs when a large volume of data is being routed on low bandwidth lines or across networks that have high latency and cannot handle large volumes. The result is slowing down of packet movement, packet loss and drop in service quality.

IP address: An IP address, also known as Internet Protocol address, is the machine number used to identify all devices that are connected to the net. Each device has its own unique number which it uses to communicate. This number is fixed in the case of those computing devices that have a fixed IP address. The rest are allotted a dynamic IP address, which is valid for the period they are connected to the net. The numbers range from 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255.

IP mapping: IP mapping is the process of identifying IP addresses on the basis of their geographical locations. The mapping enables web administrators to pinpoint the location of any computing device connected to the Internet.

IP Phone: An IP phone is one that converts voice into digital packets and vice versa to make phone calls over Internet possible. It has built-in IP signaling protocols such as H.323 that ensure that the voice is routed to the right destination over the net. The IP phones come with several value added services like voicemail, e-mail, call number blocking etc.

IP telephony: IP telephony refers to the two-way transmission of voice over Internet. The voice is transmitted in real time by using the packet-switched technology over the IP network. Some of the applications that use IP telephony are IP-based phone services, voice over instant messaging and videoconferencing.

IP: IP, which is the acronym for Internet Protocol, defines the way data packets, also called datagrams, should be moved between the destination and the source. More technically, it can be defined as the network layer protocol in the TCP/IP communications protocol suite.

ITU: ITU, which is the acronym of International Telecommunication Union, is a telecommunications standards body based in Geneva. It works under the aegis of the United Nations and makes recommendations on standards in telecommunications, information technology, consumer electronics, broadcasting and multimedia communications.

Jitter: It is a term used to indicate a momentary fluctuation in the transmission signal. This happens in computing when a data packet arrives either ahead or behind a standard clock cycle. In telecommunication, it may result from an abrupt variation in signal characteristics, such as the interval between successive pulses.

Kbps: Kbps is the acronym for kilobits per second and is used to indicate the data transfer speed. If the modem speed, for instance, is 1 Kbps then it means that the modem can route data at the speed of one thousand bits per second.

Lag: Lag is the term used to indicate the extra time taken by a packet of data to travel from the source computer to the destination computer and back again. The lag may be caused by poor networking or by inefficient or excessive processing.

Latency: Latency is the time that elapses between the initiation of a request for data and the start of the actual data transfer. This delay may be in nanoseconds but it is still used to judge the efficiency of networks.

Mapping: The process of identifying all related data fields or data streams and putting them in an easily identifiable context. For example, IP mapping enables users to pinpoint the geographical location of any computing device on the Internet.

MGCP: Acronym of Media Gateway Control Protocol. Used for a Voice over IP system. It consists of a Call Agent and a set of gateways, of which at least one works as the “media gateway” and performs the conversions.

NANP: Stands for North American Numbering Plan. A telephone numbering system that has evolved the way area codes and numbers are allotted. The system was established in 1947 and covers the United States, Canada and a few neighboring areas. It uses a three-digit area code and seven-digit telephone numbers. Its fiat is, however, limited to the public switched telephone networks only.

Net Phone: A net phone uses the Voice over IP technology to make voice calls. These calls are made by converting analog sound signals into digital data packets, and then moving the packets to their destination over the net.

Packet loss: Packet loss is the term used to indicate the loss of data packets during transmission over a computer network. This may happen on account of high network latency or on account of overloading of switches or routers that are unable to process or route all the incoming data.

Packet switched networks: These are networks that break messages into small digital packets, stamp each packet with the destination IP address, and route them across different channels to their destination where they are reassembled in their proper sequence. This is done to avoid network congestion and speed up data movement from multiple sources.

Packet: A packet is a unit of data transmitted over the network in a packet-switched system. It consists of a header that stores the destination address, a data area which carries the information that is being transmitted, and a trailer which contains information to prevent errors during transmission.

Peer-to-Peer (P2P): The term peer-to-peer is used to indicate a form of computing where two or more than two users can share files or CPU power. They can even transmit real time data such as telephony traffic on their highly ad hoc networks. Interestingly, the peer-to-peer network does not work on the traditional client-server model but on equal peer nodes that work both as “clients” and “servers” to other nodes on the network.

POTS: POTS is the short form of plain old telephone service. It transmits voice as analog data on communication lines that are much slower when compared to today’s ISDN or FDDI lines. However, not long ago POTS, which is also known as the public switched telephone network, was the standard telephone system across the world.

Processor drain: This is a term used to indicate a drop in the quality of VoIP phone service when a user opens several applications on his computer simultaneously.

Protocol: It is a convention or standard that defines the procedures to be adopted regarding the transmission of data between two computing end points. These procedures include the way the sending device should sign off a message or how the receiving device should indicate the receipt of a message. Similarly, the protocols also lay down guidelines for error checking, data compression, and other relevant operational details.

PSTN: PSTN, which stands for Public Switched Telephone Network, refers to the telephone system that transmits analog voice data. Till recently, PSTN was the heart of all phone systems worldwide. However, most of the developed world is now switching to or has switched to telephone networks that are based on digital technologies, such as ISDN and FDDI. RJ45: RJ45, which is the acronym of Registered Jack-45, is a telephone connector that is used in Ethernet and Token Ring Type 3 devices. It has eight “pins” or electrical connections.

Router: A router is a network device that that handles message transfer between computers that form part of the Internet. The messages, which are in the form of data packets, are forwarded to their respective IP destinations by the router. A router can also be called the junction box that routes data packets between computer networks.

Sampling: This is a methodology used to measure the value of an analog signal at regular intervals, and encoding it into a digital format for VoIP phone services.

Service provider: A service provider is a business entity that provides a communication, storage or processing service for a fee. Some of the service providers in the digital world are the Internet service provider (ISP), application service provider (ASP), storage service provider, mobile phone service provider, web hosting provider, and of course, VOIP service provider.

SIP phone: A SIP phone is a telephone that uses the SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) standard to make a voice call over the Internet. The SIP phones come with several value added services like voicemail, e-mail, call number blocking etc. There are no charges for making calls from one SIP phone to another, and negligible charges for routing the call from a SIP phone to a PSTN phone.

SIP: SIP, which is the acronym of Session Initiation Protocol, is an IP telephony signaling protocol. It is primarily used for voice over IP (VoIP) calls, though with some extensions it can also be used for instant messaging. It is less complex than H.323, the other IP telephony protocol.

Skype: Skype is a peer-to-peer Internet telephony company that revolutionized the way voice calls are made by using VoIP technology. The company, which has been acquired by eBay, was founded by Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis. Skype users can speak to other Skype users for free, but have to pay a small fee for calling or receiving calls from conventional phones.

Soft switch: It is a software application that is used to keep track of, monitor or regulate connections at the junction point between circuit and packet networks. This software is loaded in computers and is now replacing hardware switches on most telecom networks.

Softphone: This is a software application that is installed in the user’s PC. It uses the Voice over IP technology to route voice calls over the net and provides several value added features, such as call forwarding, conference calling, and integration with applications such as Outlook for automatic dialing The audio is provided through a microphone and speakers plugged into the sound card. The only limitation of a Softphone is that the phone call has to made through a PC. Many softphone are free VOIP software downloads.

Voice chat: This is an application that enables two or more than two individuals to carry on a verbal conversation over the Internet. Voice chat is also known as audio-conferencing or telephone conferencing on the net.

Voice over IP (VOIP): VoIP or Voice over IP is the technology that is used to transmit voice over the Internet. The voice is first converted into digital data which is then organized into small packets. These packets are stamped with the destination IP address and routed over the Internet. At the receiving end the digital data is reconverted into voice and fed into the user’s phone.

Voicemail: It is a telephone messaging system that digitizes the analog voice signals and stores them on disk or flash memory in a central computer. These messages can then be retrieved by users by logging on to the server or forwarded to another voice mailbox. Most voice mail systems have auto attendant capabilities, that is they can use prerecorded messages to route callers to the appropriate person or mailbox. Voicemail is usually a free feature in VOIP service plans

IM: IM, which stands for Instant Messenging, is a software that allows users to exchange messages in real time. However, to do so both the users must be logged on to the instant messaging service at the same time. Some of the popular IM services are: MSN Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk and ICQ.

VOIP Gateway: This device provides the conversion interface between the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and an IP network for voice and fax calls. Its primary functions include: voice and fax compression/decompression, packetization, call routing and control signaling. It also provides an interface to Gatekeepers or Softswitches, billing systems, and network management systems.

VOIP PBX: VoIP PBX, which stands for Voice over Internet Protocol Private Branch eXchange, is a telephone switch that converts IP phone calls into traditional circuit-switched TDM connections. It also supports traditional analog and digital telephones.

VOIP Phone: A VoIP phone is one that uses the Internet to route voice calls by converting the voice data into IP packets and vice versa. The phones come with built-in IP signaling protocols such as H.323 or SIP that help in the routing of data to the right destination. A VoIP phone can also be a software application that is installed in the user’s PC. In this case it is known as the Softphone. Also, the calls in this case have to be made from the PC, and not through a telephone instrument.

VOIP services: The VoIP services are packet-based services that use the Internet to move voice data. These services are much cheaper than the traditional PSTN services because the investment in infrastructure is low. They also come with several value added features which make them more lucrative than the conventional landline phone services.

Web phone: A web phone is a device that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet.

WiFi Hotspot: An area where a wireless access point enables users carrying wireless-enabled laptops to log on to the Internet. The limiting condition is that the access point is configured to broadcast its presence and does not require authorization for access. Generally, WiFI hotspots are located in public places like airports, train stations, libraries, marinas, convention centers, coffee shops and hotels.

WiFi phone: A WiFI phone is one that enables users to make phone calls from public WiFi hotspots or residential WiFI network environments. Besides voice calls, these phones can be used to send e-mails wirelessly.

GrandCentral works like a charm forwarding to my Gizmo number. I am also lucky enough to be one of the first to beta test a Canadian GrandCentral number, which means this service will be even more practical for me to use. I’ve been wanting a local number for awhile; Gizmo only offers Canadian area codes in Manitoba and Ontario. Skype offers none at all.

So when you call my GrandCentral number (778-785-6755), I’ve set up GC to forward to Gizmo. What I haven’t quite figured out yet is the voicemail. My Gizmo calls that are ignored/unanswered are bumping to GrandCentral voicemail, which is fine. However, I also have Gizmo voicemail activated, so I get an email and WAV file from Gizmo with nothing “in” it so to speak.

I think this a little bit of the untidiness you see when one app is not fully intergrated with another. See Alec’s post. For more reviews on GrandCentral and Gizmo, see Andy, Garrett Smith, Ken Camp, and Paul Kaputska.

You’ve seen a few posts already announcing SightSpeed’s Peter Zottolo debut as DirectTV host for Fizz Newzz. Personally, I think that anyone who can move his or her eyebrows independantly of one another (and in complete control) deserves a shot, so way to go SightSpeed Guy. And how about a company (SightSpeed) that actually pays their employees to come up with this stuff!

Ted Wallingford cites his favourite SightSpeed Guy moment. I like the freestyle dance routine for Halloween (c’mon Sightspeed Guy, give us the link for that one!) 

 What’s yours?

Today BridgePort Networks announced the commercial availability of MobileSTICK, a USB device that transforms your PC or laptop into an extension of your cell phone. When you plug MobileSTICK into a PC or laptop with a fixed line or Wi-Fi broadband connection, the device launches a PC softphone, secured by a SIM card that utilizes the your existing mobile phone number to make and receive phone calls, SMS messages and multimedia (MMS) messages. Your existing mobile remains active and continues to utilize its existing SIM.

Ken Camp had the opportunity a few months ago to do a podcast with BridgPort’s Sanjay Jhawar that explains the MobileSTICK technology in detail. It’s really good and worth a listen.