phone – Page 9 – Graves On SOHO Technology

VoIP Supply’s New Business Class IAX2 Hard Phone

April 28, 2009
Michael Graves
Asterisk, VoIP

Just a few days ago VoIP Supply announced a new desk phone that’s capable of both SIP and IAX2. Not much has been forthcoming in the way of IAX2 capable end-points, even though the protocol has wound its way through a lengthy standards process. Digium has dropped the little IAXy (aka S101i) ATA device a while back. Last year Zeeek tried the Allnet 7960 which is IAX2 capable but lacking in some ways. So it seems that to date there just haven’t been any truly business class IAX2 phones to be had.

T-Mobile’s Home Phone Reconsidered

April 16, 2009
Michael Graves
Broadband, Telco, VoIP

A short while ago T-Mobile announced their intention to offer a home phone device not unlike Verizon’s HUB offering. At the time I thought it might be derived from OpenPeak’s other product offerings, possibly the OpenTablet. OpenPeak is in process of opening their platform up to third party developers and creating an “app store” so that they can grow a widget ecosystem around the platform. But it’s not clear that Android is the operating system involved.

Newsworthy: Siemens Gigaset S675IP

April 9, 2009
Michael Graves
VoIP

Suddenly Siemens Gigaset popped up on my radar this week, on two fronts at once. To start with Alan Lord pointed out on a post to the Asterisk Users Mailing List that Siemens have released some new firmware that adds a mute functionality to one of the soft keys when on a call.

Toward A Community Developed IP Phone

March 1, 2009
Michael Graves
VoIP

A few days ago on the Asterisk Users Mailing List Tzafrir Cohen of Xorcom fame started an interesting thread about the possibility of a community developed IP Phone.

A common wisdom here is that one should use a proper hardware phone rather that an extra software on the user’s PC. Why is that such a big issue?

One thing that bothers me with the current crop of hardware SIP phones is that they are hopelessly proprietary.

So what would it take to build a fully-adaptable phone?

I am 100% behind the assertion that most users want a hard phone on their desk. Soft phones, even good ones, seem to be exclusively the domain of those who travel and vertical niches like call centers.

Philips DECT Phones: Fail!

February 2, 2009
Michael Graves
Audio, Telco, VoIP

After a few weeks of use we’ve decided that these Philips DECT phones we acquired on WOOT.COM have just got to go. At $49 for a set of four handsets they were certainly inexpensive so I’m not all that upset. There are simply too many things about the devices that are source of frustration, so I’m once again shopping for alternatives. I should know better than to make impulse purchases. I’m such a sucker for new gadgetry.

What is the cause our frustration? So kind of you to ask….

Connecting The Dots: Verizon, Delta Three & Panasonic

February 1, 2009
Michael Graves
VoIP

Om Malik suggests that Verizon’s shutdown of their VoiceWing residential VoIP service could be the end of Delta three . When I first started experimenting with VoIP Delta Three was flying high, and I looked at their I Connect Here offering briefly. They managed to land some very interesting deals, including Verizon’s ill-fated Voice Wing and a partnership with Panasonic called JoIP.