I finally managed to accumulate enough experience using this device to get the review written. It's in the hands of the folks at Small Net Builder for a final polish before publication. It'll probably be online in a couple of…
It appears that the Polycom IP670 with the color backlit LCD is finally available for order. It also has gigabit ethernet like the IP560 released last fall. The IP650 (pictured right) that I've been using lately certainly benefits from the…
There has been a little rumble of late in the blogosphere about Magic Jack. Ike Elliot had an good overview of the service here. And a little more here.
I first heard of Magic Jack literally a couple of years ago when visiting Durham, NC. It was the topic of conversation on an ABC radio talk show. The host was raving about cheap long distance calls using his PC, and paying $40/year for unlimited calling.
Ho hum. Cheap minutes. I don’t generally get worked up about such things.
This afternoon I took a few minutes to get the S685IP setup and working. I thought I’d use it in the office today as I was going about my daily toil.
A few snips, a little solder & some electrical tape is all it took to provide power. I had to splice the universal power supplies that I bought last night into the lines from the manufacturers supplies power supplies. The voltages and current ratings matched, but the connectors didn’t. Is this what’d we’d call a “hardware mash-up” in web 2.0 parlance?
I had the base registered with OnSIP in about 5 minutes. It’s registering with two separate domains on the same account. Thus I can get work and personal calls. One of the truly great things about OnSIP is that they support multiple phones using the same registration. When a call comes in they simply all ring. Very handy.
The new Siemens cordless phone arrived from the UK this morning, a couple of days earlier than expected. They look really nice. We have one base and three handsets. I can't power them up just yet as they came with…
While doing some admin tasks today I stumbled upon a recent post by Mike Oeth at the Junction Networks blog. He says:
As long as the video is using the SIP standard, we at Junction Networks are all for it. Our OnSIP Hosted PBX already supports video codecs using the SIP standards. Today, any customer with a video phone can make video calls.
He further states:
Oddly, however, I have the capability and most of us here at Junction Networks have video cameras, but I do not make it a habit to make video calls for business. My kids call the grandparents on the video phone every now and then, but as a business tool, at least here, it has not caught on. Does anyone have an industry where they use the video phone all the time? If so, I would love to hear about it.
Amen. That about sums up the state of video phones in general.