Graves On SOHO VoIP

Back On December 22nd FWDs Dan Berninger sent out the following e-mail:

Dear FWD Member,

You are invited to participate in the next FWD HD trial starting January 1, 2010.

We have room for 100 participants in the trial which tests a web like model (the Nova) for enabling HD communications.

The blog post attached below describes the Nova concept and motivation for the trial.

Please fill-out the application at http://www.siptosip.net/content.html.

Participation in the trial requires a $100 USD setup fee.

High definition represents the next frontier for communications.

First generation high definition offers twice the sound of standard definition devices and delivers nuances associated with the emotional content of speech.

We will notify you of acceptance via email within 24 hours and start a waiting list after filling the available slots.

The trial will explore the use of the Nova as a business collaboration tool, as a means for families to stay in touch, and as a shared space for live events.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions.
Regards,
Dan

The email references his post as a guest on Jeff Pulver’s blog. In that post entitled, “FWD Nova Trial: HD Communications via a Web Model” he outlines the idea of the “Nova.”

This email was also noted elsewhere. It raised some eyebrows amongst folks in the Broadband Reports VoIP Forum.

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All VoIP and no play makes Michael a dull boy. My wife would argue that much of my VoIP-ish activity is play, but that’s another story. If you’ve been reading things around here for a bit you already know that we love our Squeezeboxen! When the music flows here, it flows through these, and we do have a few of them here and there.

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Got a fancy IP phone on your desk? Wish it had a properly mated cordless headset? Hoping to not spend a small fortune? Here’s your chance!

BUY.COM is today offering a nice Plantronics CS55 wireless headset system with a lifter for the very reasonable sale price of $199. These things normally sell for closer to $300.

The cordless headset is DECT-based, operating at 1.9 GHz so it won’t suffer interference from Wifi networks. Both it’s cordless range and battery life will be better than similar Bluetooth devices. The lifter, while decidedly old skool tech, lets the headset answer or hang up calls even on phones that don’t support the newer “electronic hookswitch” capability.

I have a similar system that I will soon be installing to the new Cisco 7960 that was deployed in my wife’s newly renovated office.

It’s nearing the end of the year so some of the punditry have started making prognostications. Those who don’t look back at the year just past for fear that the coming year holds untold terrors. And of course, top ten lists start showing up well beyond the confines of David Letterman’s Late Show.

Most of this I simply ignore, but Doug Mohney at HDVoice News has an interesting top ten list; 2009 HD Voice Players – 10 people who have moved HD Voice forward over the past year.

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As described previously, about a month ago I bought a Blackberry 9700 cell phone to replace my vintage Blackberry Pearl. The Pearl and the Motorola Razr that preceded it both used mini-USB type connector for DC power. I had thought that this was something of a standard, but if it was I guess it was short-lived. Early in 2009 the major cell phone manufacturers all agreed to settle upon “micro-USB” as the one standard connector type for DC power in new models.

Someone once said, “the great thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from.” I suspect that it might have been Dilbert.

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Some time ago I published a project about How To: DIY Music Server Using FreeNAS, SlimNAS and an H-P T5700. This remains one of the more popular items around here, generating over 6,000 page views in the past 12 months alone.

A couple of new posts to a related thread over in the forum at Small Net Builder points me to a new take on the project. Kevin Hanson has reworked it to address…How to: Building a Squeezebox Server for under $100… Yes, it can be done…

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As opposed to elsewhere, where I do in depth reviews of certain devices, this is a little mini-review that reflects the experience of my first month carrying the new Blackberry 9700, aka the Bold2. If you’re looking for a more general overview of the device I suggest Crackberry.com’s review.

In the weeks just prior to the Thanksgiving holiday my 3 year old Blackberry 8100 was failing. The mechanical trackball from which the models “Pearl” nickname was derived was simply failing. I cleaned it a couple of times but each time it would again become unresponsive after just a few days. It’s time had come.

I wasn’t settled upon another Blackberry as it’s replacement. I had been happy with the handset for a long time, but felt that a full keyboard would better meet my needs moving forward.

Further, while I was interested  in Android powered phones, I wasn’t willing to change carriers based solely on hardware availability. I’m basically happy with T-Mobile. I wasn’t about to move to Verizon Wireless just to get access to a Motorola Droid.

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Here’s a short list of things that we think would make great gifts for the VoIP geek in your life. Whether it’s a just-starting-out VoIP Geek, like my coworkers son taking a year of University in Spain and needing to call home cheap, or the more accomplished of the nerdy…these items should hold considerable appeal.

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