This list is in no particular order….

1. Facebook App that pushes friends’ status updates
- like tweetdeck for iphone
- TweetGenius not ready
- SocialScope not ready

with Vodafone Update App

2. Skype App that can make free skype to skype calls
- iSkoot cannot do this

3. Music recognition App that can identify music by listening to a sample
– like Midomi for the iPhone

with Shazam

4. Outlook sms plug-in that can send, receive, backup and clean-up smses from outlook.
- like Jeyo Mobile Extender for windows mobile devices

5. everything spbsoftwarehouse.
- everything!!!

If you know of any application for the above, please post a comment. Thanks

GigaOm’s Mobilize is live streaming right now (19,000 viewers), so if you can’t be there, tune in at http://www.livestream.com/gigaomtv.  If you can be there, drop by the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco where close to 1000 industry execs are discussing the future of the mobile web. Great networking with Accenture, Adobe, Adaptive Path, AllThingsD.com, Ars Technica, Benchmark Capital, Business Week, CBS Market Watch, Cisco, CNET, Economist, Engadget, Finanical Times, Flixster, Forbes, Foundation Capital, French Maid TV, frog design, GameFly, GDGT.com, Geek Sugar, GetJar, Gizmodo, Google, Granite Ventures, Handango, HP, InfoWorld, Intel, InterWest Partners, Khosla Ventures,LG Mobile, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mashable, Mayfield Fund, mig33, Mobile Monday, MEF, MobiTV, Moconews, MocoSpace, Motorola, Mozes, NATPE, NYT, Nielsen, Nokia, Opus Capital, Palm, PayPal, PC World, Qualcomm, Samsung, SF Chronicle, SJ Merc, Scobleizer, Sony Ericsson, SVB Capital, Sprint, Sun, TechCrunch, Thom Weisel, T-Mobile, USVP, Ubergizmo,  USA Today, Venrock, Venture Beat, Verizon, WSJ, WF, Wired, Y!, Zannel, ZDNet and others.

Om Malik opened the conference.  His research venture, GigaOM Pro, which provides subscribers research on-demand, reports that the US is on track to produce by end of 2009:  280mm wireless subscribers, $160B in service revenues, $45B of that in data revenues, 2.3T minutes of voice use and 1.7T text messages, translating to $160 per subscriber of data plan spending per year and 829 minutes per user.  A huge opportunity.

MONETIZING MOBILE APPS

Raven Zachary, Small Society
Considering Apple’s event yesterday it seemed fitting to have Raven lead with the first panel who advises companies like ZipCar and Whole Foods on their mobile strategies, and is known well to these parts as one of the pied pipers of iPhoneDevCamp – Seeing more carriers wanting to have their own app store, look at Verizon with VDC, it makes sense, they have the billing relationship with the end user.  Vodafone ramping up too.

Mark Curtis, Flirtomatic
There’s been a dramatic rise in popularity of the freemium model, free monetize with ad network although CPCs and CPMs have come way down in this economy, belive in time mobile ad marketplace will be massive.  See freemium as a walk in the park, every now and then you’ll want an ice cream, it’s nice to have the option.  At Flirtomatic, have had great success selling users greater visibility on site, they’re willing to pay if there profile will be seen by more women, experiencing 4x the CPMs from user-based ads.

Mark Jacobstein, iSkoot
There used to be enormous expenses associated with porting/QA of mobile games.  Focusing just on iPhone makes things easier, and yet for all it does so well (powerful SDK, screen real estate) there is so much that iPhone doesn’t do.  iPhone can’t multitask, apps don’t run in the background.  Few client based apps like time-wasting games.  Not going to make much selling a $2 app, money is in client/server services, free to end user like Skype (big applause from panel). MMS limitations, photos via SMS from a friend are sent with password and link – that’s a huge turnoff.  Mobile increases web engagement, those that access sites via phone are twice as engaged.  Developers now building in social context/gifting of virtual goods into game mechanics to take advantage of in-app commerce.

Dorrian Porter, Mozes
Most marketers not sure what to do with the mobile consumer, have yet to see mobile as a point of inspiration for impulse buy.  Most market with voice and SMS.  (Recently became a huge fan of SMS, now can text kids whenever he wants.) Mozes focuses on the browser-based experience.  There are SMS limitations to web-clipping

Adam Zbar, Zannel
ATT networks are slammed with data.  Will see services becoming more interoperable than islands.  Carriers for the longest time wanted to be entertainment companies and content creators, now some like Comcast are starting to see themselves more as a distribution platform – good for the developer community.

LOCATION:  CONTEXT IS MONEY
4000 LBS apps today, a small % but impressive considering 18 months ago there were only 5 LBS apps in the world.

KEYNOTE:  Innovation on Android – Introducing MotoBlur
Dr. Sanjay Jha, Co-CEO, Motorola
Number of mobile users doubled between 2008-9 from 10.8mm to 22mm devices accessing daily.  20% access web via mobile device.  Going from 1:1 SMS to 1:Many Social collaboration.  Ubiquitous availability of wireless broadband.  Rapid expansion.  Mobilizing the internet is the single biggest opportunity today.  Netbooks, eBooks, gaming devices, smartphones.  Smartphones being the backbone where mobilization will occur. Broadband definition – minimum 500kb data connectivity to mulitple users without regard of location.  What makes a smartphone – larger high-res display, anytime anywhere broadband connectivity, over the air updates (key), rich media, voice quality, coverage, multi-thread, multitasking operating system.  Android gives us a platform to mobilize the internet, enhance consumer experience, mulitple simultaneous transaction, competitive differentiation, Motorola supporting development of Android, have put meaningful resources behind the Android ecosystem, consumers overwhelmed by options.  Half of US mobile traffic is 180mm social networkers, will grow to 800mm (Gartner).   Aggregate media, music, address books, email addresses.  MotoBlur service allows your entire life to exist on a single stream, enables you to focus on being social, syncs contacts, posts, media, photos, FB, Twitter, Myspace, Gmail, Y!, corporate email customized on home screen and integrated deep into corners of device, so consumer can focus on being social not on how its sent.  Have it all one finger swipe away.  Widgets:  Social status, happenings (feeds, tweets, updates), messages, weather, Android marketplace and browser.  Create rich text email.  Easy to navigate streams, syncing push contacts into address book photos, birthdates. Integrates contact info through device, receive a call and caller’s profile info pops onscreen, get turn by turn direction to where they are, and it’s worry free – phone can be found by GPS in case its off on a cab ride without you – remote wipe – wipes device but keeps data in the cloud, set up once, good to go.  Phone as primary computer device, if it doesn’t fit in your pocket, the consumer won’t use it.  price points and memory costs are drivers to computing becoming mobile.  Regarding palm, it’s not a zero sum game, all boats float, with 300mm smartphones, its the biggest technology opportunity there is, MotoBlur will eventually evolve, this is just the starting point, the first step in a long journey.   Motorola is excited to integrate location, social graph and web info in an easily digestible way, Motorola does both sw and hw and can decide how to integrate, solve problems and deliver experience that simplifies life, health, fitness, media, build trust to share info, no rationale for 4G if its not for multimedia.

Cole Brodman, T-Mobile
Watch for Cliq with MotoBlur in time for the holidays, next chapter in Android innovation, open highly customizable platform, inviting 3P innovation to the network, first phone with social skills, always on connection, glance on the go, network can handle the traffic, T-Mobile has invested $9B in last 4y, has 200mm US customers with 3G coverage, T-Mobile customers text more than anyone in the world started with Sidekick, connected socializers 30-somethings like to stay in touch, have lead the smartphone adoption. T-Mobile will have product out in time for holidays with the best value, coverage, must have alwayson devices, Cliq in two colors white and titanium, with google browser, video capture.

(Very cool demo – if only iPhone would push birthday reminders to home screen when turned on, and autoemailed birthday wishes)

Andy Rubin, Google
Smartphone is a communications device first and voice device second, data differentiates the smartphone but still need voice to carry it around with you at all time, interface with mobile internet, as powerful as a desktop PC from 15 years ago, internet is the destination, the window to the world, now cloud computing, network connected devices, we’re all personally participating in the ecosystem, what is good for the internet is good for Google, the bigger the base the better it is for Google’s primary ad business, the modern os brings the webto people’s pockets.  As for Palm and Symbian, let the best OS win.  Regarding which came first Android or iPhone OS – os developers have long history and have worked everywhere, who knows which came first, the important thing is that they came together to develop an open system.  Moving web forward as a platform, modern browsers more capable with HTML 5.

ULTRABAND:  Fast Platform for Innovation
How will we be at 100mbps or 1gbps wireless broadband by 2012.  In 1991 Xerox ParC stated its vision for pervasive computing.  18 years later still discussing what broadband is, what bandwidth is needed to be broadband, always there, omnipresent, delivering compelling user experiences at the speed of thought, a world in which the consumer knows that they desire it and suddenly it’s there.

Phil Asmundson, Deloitte
Exciting time for mobile, phones are our remote control to the world, look out 5-10y, fundamental changes to the marketplace, will find that apps that require ultraband eat up spectrum, as we watch video, primary entertainment devices for the millennials and gen xers, mobile mobile and fixed mobile still dont play with each other, two separate worlds, need to play together, cause of spectrum issues.  (Chetan Sharma:  The term smartphone will be an oxymoron in 5 years)  There is an innovation iceberg, the more broadband you provide, the more they’ll use, sw is driving the market, advances far faster than hw, then there are FCC challenges around spectrum, cells are going to be gone, need something more powerful than finite spectrum.  SW is driving force for mobile, need more partnerships, not one company can do it alone.  carriers rpus will increase, innovation cycle will advance, great new world coming sooner than you think.

Ken Denman, Openwave Systems
An all IP world is slave to consumer experience, beyond phones and smartphones there is a data tsunami coming, all things non-phones, all connected devices including things not mobile, appliances, cars , netbooks, wonderful soup coming up, exciting times, the key enabler is all IP environment, convergence will absolutely happen with mobile as the default.  Ethernet will appear to have more relevance.  There will be tiering of price around bundled services for a particular experience like Kindle.    As market evolves and consumers get snappy apps they may not have a problem with price tiering.  Offloading of multiple networks is key middleware solution, #1 RFP of CXOs.

Abhi Ingle, ATT
Increasing speeds and feeds with wireless broadband, 5y widely deployed LTE 100mbps, 10y fungibility of networks become more transparent switching the networks, evolve beyond cell tower, go way beyond phones to connected devices, internet of things, explosion of innovation, ATT Austin lab, connectivity extend to things never even imagined before, connected 30-somethings used to cloud computing environments, ATT has 38 data centers for cloud computing alone, powerful networks.  You need massive amounts of capital to achieve 1gbps, there is not enough spectrum to achieve those speeds, need capital, spectrum and transformation of network, unimaginable costs ($100B?).  One approach is to blend the networks, make it transparent to end user.

Rick Keith, Motorola
Underlying principle of delivery of apps (Twitter, FB), what is broadband relative to those apps, taking experience already familiar with moving to airwaves, to that thing previously known as cell phone, broadband is a marketing term, we’ve had wimax since 2007, for Pakistan and Brazil its the first connection ever had to home, what is broadband to them is not broadband to us.  Its an issue of latency, needs to be a subsecond from send to receive, must be snappy, cost doesn’t stop at capex, there is enormous operating expense as well. Hybrid networks need be transparent to user, right now if you have Boingo can use ATT wireless at airport, that doesn’t make sense.  Must be a bridge service.

THE NETBOOKS & ULTRAPORTABLE BOOM

Mark Spoonauer, LAPTOP Magazine
1 of 5 pcs sold are netbooks, not funny Apple yesterday showing pocket ripping from Dell Inspiron not fitting, netbooks outgrowing notebooks 2:1.  Cheap notebooks have existed before, small, easy to carry, low cost, voting with dollars due to economy, is there a cannibalization threat, netbook integrated broadband 3g attaching $60 fee to go unlimited data makes it not a low cost, carriers need to subsidize netbooks to take off

Noury Al-Khaledy, Intel

Price point needed for internet use, compact, companion, evolving of the mobile web, different form factors and uses, dependent on different devices for different needs, infrastructure to provide bandwidth is key, bill monthly per user or per device, majority shipping are wifi, open econsystem platform, battery life better and better CPU not draining battery, netbooks with 8hrs, sw ecosystem will grow,chrome runs best on pc, better battery life, integration, lower power, new processors handle full flash.

LOCATION, MEDIA & MONEY:  The Next Enablers

Len Lauer, Qualcomm
Qualcomm is starting with Smartbooks moving to broader consumer electronics category.  Problem with netbooks is that they don’t last all day.  Want a Smartbook that lasts all day, always on, email pushed, no need for fan to cool off, very sleek design.   (Three kids (18/16/13) and three netbooks not enough) Right now Smartbooks do not have full support of office environment, Microsoft not porting XP86 yet.  Adding connectivity to everything.  Amazon Kindle makes network connectivity invisible, built into price of book.  Opportunity of machine to machine.  Smart Grid technology, energy companies putting in mobile radio into thermostat in home, intelligence in smart cars where to recharge, digital cameras, navigation devices.  Lots of opportunities.  US/Europe carriers embracing machine to machine arpu higher, Verizon, ATT, Sprint, T-Mobile.  Start out with thin file apps without user involvement (not large PPT decks or media files) 4-5% royalty rate on CDMA for 3G (830mm of 4B are 3G, 3.25% royalty rate for 4G when LTE comes out.)  Interconnectivity multimode when not connected on 4G still get 3G, voice will run out on 3G til 2020.  Rate needs to come down from $60 for mass adoption, balance economics, higher cost of bandwidth costs.  Amount of data being consumed going up.  Qualcomm helping operators with network offload, Media FLO sits on its own network.  Data traffic up 400%, half from video streaming.  FLO is 1:Many, can push out top ten YouTube videos over broadcast/datacast network, or P2P if two are within a kilometer to have handsets talk to each other and send info to each other different spectrum band, low power and fast – new radio technology – going point to point via phones.  Longer R&D project.  Can also get it on to cable networks to offload but need to manage interference.  Media Flo $10-15/month subscription – 15 channels of linear feeds – Qualcomm pays for content from ESPN..  (CDN offload)  700mhz auction 10 years to get that spectrum out.  Think about lots of devices in your home being connected should be P2P, better to manage on a licensed spectrum basis.  Where its most populated is where its free – Korea, Japan, China – 45% devices watching tv.  Italy, Germany, US not hitting expectations, Qualcomm doesn’t have nationwide network yet, need to be on more devices, expand next year, platform capability not just restricted to mobile devices, should be on other consumer electronics like MP3, live tv in car (on fridge?).  Launching with AudioVox this month for cars, rear screen videos in cars will go live tv.  Watch for MP3 device with FLO coming out soon.

INNOVATION THROUGH OBSERVATION & DESIGN

Denise Gershbein, frog design
Take products from strategy to market, brand, design, physical, digital.  Augmented reality has a lot to do with context that’s the moment when you move from looking down at a device toward holding up a lens to the world.  Likes Evernote.  Looks to Twitter for creative sources, inspiration, follows interesting people.  Envisioning LTE 4G, look at parallel and analogous paths make meaning out of cultural chaos so you can meet the market.  Arthur C Clark, Childhood’s End – getting into one universal consciusness.  What does it mean that you can be connected and have access to knowledge at the same time.

Jesse James Garrett, Adaptive Path
Observational research can be misused to dictate design and not room for innovation.  Design is a greater differentiator to stand out in crowded marketplace.  Integration of mobile platforms into larger universe as barriers to technologies and networks breakdown will start seeing new opportunities to be exploited for services to work across platforms.  Uncovering patterns in people’s behavior and psych, extend beyond how they interact with your product.  Be inspired by things beyond the technology space.

Crysta Metcalf, Motorola
Team tying different devices to each other, tying mobile device to tv.  Looking at how you would use mobile device in social tv experience.

Prashant Agarwal, Fjord
Noone has cracked mobile marketing yet.  Context is huge.  My phone knows my tweets, contacts..  Best experience is Amazon Kindle, get it, turn it on and there is nothing else to do except buy books.  Last time you bought a phone, just to get voice is not that simple.

Robin Boyar, thinktank research and strategy
Don’t always have a pencil but always have your phone.  Mobile device can monitor your health, use as tool to make life easier, better.  Young kids aren’t using smartphones, using the free feature phones.  Apps need to match 30y+ audience who own the smartphones.  How do you beat Apple at its game – recognize how to make user experience easier and cooler – build the brand experience – with Apple have extended relationship with them via iTunes, the store.  Used to head up research for gaming company, to get holistic view need all stakeholders in the focus group. If 7 year old and 70 year old gets it, you have a great product.

CARRIER PERSPECTIVE ON THE EVOLVING MOBILE ECOSYSTEM

Cole Brodman, T-Mobile
Social communications root of T-Mobile.  Largest per user text base than any other carriers in the world – 600 messages per user per month – more texting than calls.  Update FB status many times a week.  (Om asks if its possible we one day see voice as an add-on)  Android 10,000 apps, average T-Mobile user 40 apps per user in last 11 months.  Abundance use of apps.   Front home screen always on with context and location so info is relevant is very powerful, allows user to act quickly without logging in to web page.  Too many apps, over 60,000 apps, only a few make money.  Google working on how to make apps more discoverable as app store inventory grows.  T-Mobile to use retail footprint, 1700 stores, sales reps can aid discovery.  Paid and new apps, categorizing and merchandising stores need to be improved.  Once they discover an app make it easier to recommend to friends and family, word of mouth is key.  Not setting up T-Mobile app store, working with Android for an open marketplace but playing a role in discovery, and of course improve ways for app developers to leverage carrier billing, make it more frictionless, to pay with one click, next accelerant for app store consumption.  Phone company has to evolve from closed telco mindset to open web-based infrastructures to allow more rapid development to get things to market, allow application innovation.   T-Mobile is a communications company, it’s what occurs on the desktop, internet, devices we haven’t even thought of yet, need to breakdown the way we’ve traditionally gone to market.  Mobile internet 3-5y from today, starts with ubiquitous wireless broadband network $9B investment in 3G married with increasingly open operating systems, open APIs, increases in memory, battery life, processing power.   Front screen access mashed up with location and context, social graph, offer smarter network in the future, won’t have to keep re-entering data.  Likes Android as the first one to live up to expectations – open to carriers, manufacturing partners, developers to innovate.  Give consumers opportunity to personalize and customize, make it their own.  Apple viewpoint – everything is the same.  (Om – PCs guys don’t make that much money, Mac guys makes lots of money on same product) Consumers will have viable choices, different price points.  Customization without fragmentation.  That’s the work the ecosystem needs to do.  (Om – problem with iPhone is ATT network)  T-Mobile network will hold up, existing customers over-consume, set us up for increased capacity to handle increased consumption.  No announced plans for LTE in US, but its a natural migration, T-Mobile International leader in LTE early on. Thoughts on VOIP – not a threat, wireless pricing will continue to evolve, future consumption is moving away from voice, can only talk so much, first carrier to launch voice over wifi, concern so far has been quality, 3G not built for latency needed for VOIP.  Forgone conclusion, matter of timing, T-Mobile has embraced voice apps in Android market.  Front counter for services, thoughts on DRM – makes it easier if there is no DRM, important to share with others (limit time-sharing), leans toward a DRM-free world to allow sharing, subscription models naturally fit that way consumers want to consume media vs. transactional formats.

FACEBOOK PHONE AND SOCIAL MOBILE

Frank Meehan, INQ Mobile
GSM Wolrd Congress winner of best handsets designed around Skype and Facebook.  Carrier developed phone that aloowed you to make Skype calls.  Old voice and text handset manufacturers are stuck  - got to be fast, stay ahead, have to be able to put next FB on your phone quickly.  Brand naming has to be cool and catchy, need great distribution, retail, marketing – Apple does it very well, not many others.  Nokia is a very big company, they’ll fight their way back, what’s going to happen operators are keen to differentiate, each carrier has segmented behind a handset, INQ gives operator great customization.  Sony Ericcson and Nokia nder $200 feature phone market are competitors – boring, dull, most users don’t get data, INQ phones very easy.  INQ is now also moving into Android.  Android phones has struggled to compete on networks that carry iPhone.  User experience has to be better to get that iPhone out of user’s hand.  Need a hit handset every year.  Owner of INQ is investor in Spotify, Meehan sits on board of Spotify, huge in Europe.  (Om: $50 Peek email device, BB for everyone) Location not there yet but coming.  iPhone sells well to 35y+ who buys Macs.  But iPod market is under 35y, sell INQ phones to that market.

JUST A BROWSER OR FUTURE OF MOBILE OS

Jon von Tetzchner, Opera Software
Browser has potential to be a unifying force to deploy across wide range of mobile devices without having to create a whole bunch of native apps.  80% of phones not running OS, thus web is natural choice for these phones, HTML 5 local storage and drag and drop, deliver rich app experience.  Browser started as a document viewer, then added Java, developers moving faster than that, now running applications.  Scalable vector graphics is coming in the browser.  Microsoft held the browser market back for years.  If doing it web-based, it will run everywhere.  Widget is a web app running in a separate window, can run everywhere, PC, Wii, TVs, media players. Webkit vs Opera mini.  Opera Unite service – there is just one web, see all devices working together.  People haven’t really taken to MMS, hard to get photos over to PC, bluetooth is a hurdle.Opera 10 downloaded 10mm times in the first week.  More than 700ees in 10 countries.  Still focus on the end-user, make peoples lives easier, FF, rewind, speed dial..people expect that, now 40mm active users.  In some countries, #1.  Touch based gestures, mouse gestures very popular.  Take pride on running on 10 year old PCs.  Core of the browser hasn’t changed.  Apps will be web-based, more power to play with.

INVESTMENT OUTLOOK:  THE VC PANEL

Lawrence Aragon, Venture Capital Journal
Panel raised $2B need to invest.  Seed and Series A not looking good for 2009.

Mitch Lasky, Benchmark Capital
Infatuated by iPhone comes out of being burnt.  App store has been great for developers and Apple but not venture, opportunity to aggregate market share hasn’t materialized, will soon be back in multi-platform world, will need to be on more than just iPhone.  Would invest in a company contingent on partnering with carrier.  Did 200,000 store keeping units serving global wireless market.  Now 27,000 games on iPhone, noone can make money.  Don’t mind high-friction environment. ARPU has been flat at $50 for years.  Will see higher RPUs when virtual goods comes to iphone apps.  ATT $18B to built out network to support data consumption.  Network build out is a significant issue.

Dixon Doll, DCM
Portfolio includes mig 33.  Series B in mig33 last mobile investment, in the midst of a Series A not announced.  Can’t justify monetization on advertising – wont get VCs excited.  Must look beyond US, US carriers at best are 3rd best in the world, lots of innovation in China and Japan.  Cynical about business model where carrier determines outcome of business, better to create competitive environment, e.g. MLB.com doing well with its subscription on multiplatforms, competitive dynamic is useful.  Economist talks about innovative mobile apps:  augmented reality.  DC does not understand job creation role of the VCs.  Primitive emerging market nations live off their mobile phones, creating microeconomies, money transfer payments exciting new applications.

Rob Coneybeer, Shasta Ventures
Portfolio includes Eye-Fi.  Prefer companies that don’t require carrier relationship, then can focus on value of partnership instead of imbalance of power.  When both parties have alternatives, its best.  People get hung up on ARPUs, want revenues higher than cost, voice down, data up, wave of growth around the corner, some new business models of advertising and promotion enabled by location and intent, can be explosive, developers can write to a platform without talking to carriers to see if it will go on a deck.  New features (accelerometers, touch screens) to get to a multibillion dollar industry.  Seek to build a portfolio of 25 exciting companies.  Plays Foursquare, gaming + location drives explosive adoption.

Bob Borchers, Opus Capital
(Fmr Apple iPhone exec) Portfolio includes Eye-Fi.  Mobile startups don’t require as much capital as before.  Can easily get fulfillment on your own, may need capital for awareness.  Venture community is so burned by the 500 feature phones they tried, soured on the space.  Many have great proof of concept. iPhone 2+ years old and App Store 1 year old.  Traditional carrier-focused metrics voice RPU, data RPU may be $50, other ecosystems $80 ARPUs on iPhone apps.  All do seed deal, have to have money to add people, need capital to keep company going.

John Balen, Canaan Partners
Last Series A India mobile company.  Series A is down because the whole market is down.  Seeing now an upswing in deals.  Activity level will rise in 2010.  Coming out of recession.  Every web app has to have mobile window because browser is so prevalent.  Not everything is showing up as mobile, might be categorized as web app.  Change is happening.  Need leverage with carrier.  Carriers operate differently abroad.  iPhone best over the top payment system and the outsourcing of cell phone business.  Watch the unbundling of what a cell phone company is.  Disaggregation of cell phones towers.  Win-win for consumer.  Happened in India even with low RPUs.  Augmented reality is next.  New ventures around location, cameras..

With Verizon entering the app store game, there are now more ways for coders to make money.  Here are the highlights from today’s Verizon Developer Community (VDC) Conference:

- VCast App Store 4Q09, goal is to provide more apps than anyone
- not offering an SDK, instead offering open APIs compatible with underlying SDK for all supported OS, giving programmers access to network-specific data like billing, location, and messaging.  This means coders can simply embed Verizon API’s to sell same BB apps in Verizon app store as sold in BB world, Get Jar.. With little effort, developers get another place to sell their apps
- expedited approval process – only 14 days to launch after submission
- No fees for APIs, testing or certification
- 70/30 rev share split, same as Apple
- CMO John Stratton – seeking to complement partners – those SDKs and platforms are established – we do not intend to create our own SDK and create further fragmentation – rather make it easier to consume apps with online portal to distribute and promote smartphone apps – VCast App Store will complement existing on-device portal
- Verizon’s site is #26 largest web property in the US with over 60mm registered users half who visit the site monthly, largest wireless voice and data network with 87.7mm subscribers 
- Verizon Developer Advisory Board – 11 members – gaming heavy hitters – Gameloft, Capcom, EA, Gravity, iSkoot, Networks in Motion, PacketVideo, Siri, Slacker, Tribal Tech, Zed Group: http://news.vzw.com/news/2009/07/pr2009-07-28a.html
- http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/07/verizon-promises-simpler-more-lucrative-app-store-for-developers/
- http://www.fiercedeveloper.com/story/verizon-wireless-launch-vcast-application-store-q4/2009-07-28

What an exciting month in the mobile space!  Today MEF hosted the Telecom Council at Microsoft.  Verizon’s Developers Conference is coming up.  iPhone Developers Camp is at month end.  And tomorrow is VentureBeat’s MobileBeat at the Parc 55 Hotel on 55 Cyril Magnin Street in San Francisco.  From 8-8 everyone in the industry is talking.  Follow #MobileBeat.  Here’s the guide:

7:30-8:30
Breakfast

8:30-8:45
Opening 

8:45-9:30
Recipe for Winning Mobile Platform
Nokia, Palm, Google,VentureBeat

9:30-10:15
Battle for the Mobile Ecosystem
Vodafone, Pandora, Motorola, Sprint, Symbian

10:15-10:45  
Mobile Startup Competition
T-Mobile, Qualcomm, Microsoft, Opus Capital, Cross-Pacific Capital, CNET

10:45-11:00
Break

11:00-12:00
Breakout #1:  iPhone App Marketing
Tapulous, Flixster, Jirbo, OpenTable, Storm8, AdMob
Breakout #2:  Netbooks
Qualcomm, Nvidia, Samsung, Microsoft, Tertius Advisory
Breakout #3  Social Mobile
SGN, Zynga, Zong, Facebook, VentureBeat

12:00-1:30    
Lunch

1:30-2:15        
Where’s The ROI?
KPCB iFund, JLA Ventures, Verizon, Qualcomm…

2:15-3:00    
Taking Mobile Mainstream
Disney Mobile, Mediasmith, Velti, NYT

3:00-3:15    
Break

3:15-4:15      
Breakout #4:  Paid v Free:  Growing Your App into a Real Business
Loopt, EA, comScore, Accel, GetJar
Breakout #5:  Are Data Intensive Apps in Danger?
Sprint, GoTV, iSkoot, Zer01 Mobile, NVP
Breakout #6:  Bringing Brand $ into Mobile
CBS, Quattro Wireless, PHD, Velti, Forrester

4:15-4:30
Break

4:30-5:15      
Gatekeepers:  Apps Store and Beyond
T-Mobile, GetJar, Google, China Mobile, VentureBeat

5:15-5:45      
Mobile Startup Competition
Skydeck, Lightspeed, ATT, Intel Capital, Redpoint, CNET TV

5:45-6:00
Closing

6:00-8:00
El Desayuno Latin Jazz, Salsa & Soul Reception

Skype is almost ready to launch that iPhone version, possible as soon as next week.

The clue about Skype’s pending iPhone launch came when iSkoot decided to move on from its Skype-centric strategy.

The company had been offering a client that allowed cell phone users to use Skype services. Skype already offers a Windows Mobile version of its client.

As mentioned before, Skype will have to turn to mobile to keep its growth intact. Many services, among them Truphone and Nimbuzz started supporting Skype in their communication clients.

So the rumour is that Skype finally has a beta under development for the Blackberry Storm or Bold phones, or possibly the 3G able models too.  This is a long time in coming and partly due to the technical way in which data was implemented on the OS on these phones in previous models.  If I remember correctly, and to put this in terms clear to non-techies too, then the only type of voice over data implementation that one could have done before, was one way traffic, i.e. much like the old ‘push-to-talk’ method of talking because the data implementation could not handle dual channel conversations.  Eish, not sure I put that quite correctly, but as long as the concept is explained that the phone had no ability to handle Skype data requirements before due to the restricted data communications implemented on the OS (I think the highest data standard old BB model phones could handle before was EDGE technology).

So, the current beta is closed, but should be the start of a whole new Skype Mobile adventure for Crackberries like me.  One word of warning though about the capabilities of this specific Skype Mobile beta – it only handles chat, no voice at all, so if you are using something like IM+ or iSkoot, you best stick with it unless the Skype model turns out more reliable in terms of battery usage and connectivity.

Just found a wonderful java application for my Sony Ericsson W880i – ISkoot! Surprisingly it works perfectly on my non-Symbian phone.

Spent a few hours on searching for anything of that kind!

Java version of the software can be downloaded from here.

Hurray!!

Exclusive Heads up: A few months ago, I asked Skype CEO Josh Silverman when was he going to launch the iPhone version of the P2P voice and IM service that has now been downloaded more than 405 million times. He smiled and said, “Stay tuned.” And so we did.

A tipster — a very reliable one — tells me that Skype is almost ready to launch that iPhone (s aapl) version, perhaps as soon as next week. CTIA Wireless, a large mobile industry trade event, kicks off in Las Vegas next Wednesday, so perhaps the announcement will be made there. I am working on getting more details, as well as screenshots of the service. 

The biggest clue about Skype’s pending iPhone launch came when iSkoot decided to move on from its Skype-centric strategy. The company had been offering a client that allowed cell phone users to use Skype services. Skype already offers a Windows Mobile version of its client.

As I’ve said before, Skype will have to turn to mobile to keep its growth intact. In recent months, many services, among them Truphone and Nimbuzz, started supporting Skype in their communication clients. However, a standalone Skype client would get a lot of traction among the Skype faithful. In the meantime, I think Skype is slowly flexing its muscles and swatting away little VoIP players with some of its recent moves.

Her geçen gün yeni BlackBerry uygulamaları çıkmakta. Bunlardan güzel olanları zaman zaman blogumda göreceksiniz. Faydalı ve ilginç olanlara yer vermeye çalışacağım. Ancak şimdi sizlere en iyi 10 ücretsiz uygulamadan bahsetmek istiyorum.

Viigo

Çok iyi bir RSS okuyucu. Eğer siz de benim gibi sıklıkla RSS’leri takip ediyorsanız Viigo mutlaka cihazınızda bulunmalı.

Vlingo

BlackBerry’nin içinde bir sesli komut yazılımı gelmekte, ancak bunula yetinmeyip çok daha fazlasını yapan bir tane isterseniz Vlingo tam size göre. Özellikle araba kullanırken çok işinize yarayacağını düşünüyorum. Vlingo sadece sesli arama yapmıyor, ayrıca istediğiniz dosyayı sesli komut ile açabiliyor, internetde arama yapabiliyor, email ve sms yazabiliyor.

Google Mobile

Google’ın sunmuş olduğu tüm hizmetleri tek bir yerde bulabileceğiniz bir yazılım. Özellike Google Maps’i çok kullanacağınızı düşünüyorum. Bunun dışında bu uygulamadan Google News, Google Reader, Google Docs , Picasa photos ve Google Notebook’unuza ulaşabiliyorsunuz.

BBNotePad

BlackBerry’nin içinde bulunan not defterine çok iyi ve üstün bir alternatif. BBNotePad ile istediğiniz uzunlukta notlar alabilir hatta kod bile yazabilirsiniz. Dosyaları .txt uzantılı kaydettiği için istediğiniz bilgisayarda rahatlıkla açabilirsiniz.

Facebook

Facebook ile çok mu zaman geçiriyorsunuz? Bilgisayarınızın başında olmadığınız zamanlarda da bu uygulama ile BlackBerry’inizden Facebook’u takip etmeye devam edebilirsiniz. İster profilinizi güncelleyin, ister mesaj atın isterseniz de çektiğiniz resimleri anında Facebook’a yükleyin.

iSkoot

iSkoot uygulaması ile Skype aramaları yapabilir, Skype kontaktlarınız tarafından aranabilirsiniz. Ses ve konuşma kalitesi sizi bir hayli şaşırtacak, zira EDGE bağlantısı ile bile gayet güzel konuşulabiliyor.

TwitterBerry

Bilgisayarınızın başında olmadığınızda Twitter’dan uzak kalmayın. BlackBerry’inizden arkadaşlarınızın tweet’lerini takip edin, tweet gönderin…

Opera Mini

Her ne kadar son model BlackBerry’lerdeki browser eskilere göre bir hayli geliştirilmiş olsada, hala Opera Mini’inin daha iyi olduğunu söyleyebilirim. Opera Mini daha hızlı, daha kullanışlı. Mutlaka bulunması gerekir.

WebMessenger

CallWave’in bu yazılımı ile AOL, Google, ICQ, Jabber, MSN, Skype veya Yahoo gibi popüler IM platformlarını tek bir uygulama ile kullanabiliyorsunuz.

Mobipocket Reader

En iyi ücretsiz ebook reader olarak göze batan Mobipocket Reader, BlackBerry’sinden ebook okumak isteyenler için güzel bir uygulama.

What do mig33, iSkoot and Truphone have in common? They are all startups that have raised gobs of money from venture capitalists. They all offer mobile VoIP clients. And now, all three are looking beyond plain vanilla voice services as they try and navigate the new, post-credit crunch economic reality.

These startups are realizing that in order to make real money they would need to create billions of minutes in calls to off-net services. It is a game only the biggest -– Skype (s EBAY), for instance –- can play. And even then, making profits isn’t all that easy. More than a few startups have died trying to play the low-margin minutes game. (Related post: VoIP – Dead or Alive?)

For these three , the sheer size of their VC funding — over $100 million among the trio — provides a cushion while they plot their evolution.

Truphone, one of my favorite applications, has already gone from being just a mobile VoIP client to becoming an all-encompassing communications offering. By supporting Skype, Twitter and other communications services, Truphone is hoping to become the default (or at least the most used) communication application on the iPhone, which would allow it to generate more call-out minutes and also open up other e-commerce opportunities.

Mig33 is taking a different tack: going after digital goods for additional revenues. These digital goods would include virtual gifts, emoticons, and other means of self-expression. Such virtual gifts have been hugely popular in other online communities, such as virtual worlds and social networks. (Related Post: Venture Capital Loves Virtual.)

During our conversation, Steve Boom, a former Yahoo (s YHOO) executive who recently took over as the chief executive of Burlingame, Calif.-based mig33, said that so far that company’s revenues have come from VoIP and digital goods, and that it will be focusing on the latter over the next six months. The company is looking to become cash-flow positive, and that is a big focus for Boom. Its application (and services) are extremely popular in Southern and Southeastern Asia, in addition to some parts of the developing world, where cheap calls are a lure for signing up new customers. (Related: Mad Money for mig33.)

Like its peers, San Francisco-based iSkoot has also tweaked its focus. So far, the company has been pushing a client-server solution that allowed folks to use Skype on their mobile phones. Its offering is the underpinning of the Skype service on 3, the UK-based 3G service provider owned by Hutchinson Wampoa. The company raised a whopping $19 million in Series C funding in November 2008.

The funds are to be used to develop a new platform for AT&T (s T) that would allow Ma Bell to offer iSkoot’s myriad services to its customers. For starters, iSkoot has released Notifier, a mobile application that allows folks to read RSS, and to interact with Facebook and Gmail on plain-vanilla mobile phones.

Company executives say that while iSkoot will continue to offer its Skype solution, the company has bigger ambitions, and Notifier is part of a bigger strategic shift by the company. (Related post: iSkoot Looks at a New Mobile Future) Who can blame them? It’s awfully hard to make a living selling a Skype solution to carriers who hate Skype to begin with.

Like mig33 and Truphone, iSkoot is making a smart move and losing its reliance on voice, a commodity business with razor-thin margins, and instead looking elsewhere for growth. Let’s hope by losing their (proverbial) voice, these three companies find something to sing about in the future.

With its core functionality – Skype calling — getting commoditized, it makes perfect sense for San Francisco-based iSkoot to look at new horizons and reboot itself. With a technology underpinning that is more valuable than just a conduit for cheap calls, the company is transforming itself into a mobile platform that helps bring the web services common on expensive superphones to cheaper and more mass market phones. 

It is a smart and logical move – especially if you consider the mortality rate among VoIP-related startups. iSkoot is lucky to have the cushion of $32.5 million in funding from the likes of Khosla Ventures and Charles River Ventures while it executes its reboot.

iSkoot got started with the idea of delivering Skype services to mobile handsets. It wanted to sell the whole solution to mobile carriers who could in turn deliver Skype to their customers. Talk about mission impossible – the company signed up 3, a 3G mobile service provider in the UK, and eventually expanded to eight countries. It has struggled to find larger acceptance among carriers. Skype recently introduced its own mobile client for Android (Skype Lite), and it is only a matter of time before other variants show up. In other words,  a reboot makes perfect sense for iSkoot. And they have the technology for it.

When building its Skype-only offering, iSkoot built a network and developed an architecture that had all the location and presence information about the users. It also had the ability to run a Skype-client in the server but allow the thin client on the phone to control (and use it.) Then, in September 2008, it acquired Social.IM  which had developed real-time communication and desktop notifications that allowed it to deliver new message alerts, information and content to social network or online community members. iSkoot wanted to extend that to the mobile.

By marrying its location and presence information with Social.IM’s notification and push technology, iSkoot has now developed a mobile client that can receive live updates, multitask and use many web applications on lower-priced phones. Push, pull and multitasking are extremely hard. Only a handful of mobile operating systems such as BlackBerry are able to do it well.

iSkoot recently launched the fruits of its efforts without much fanfare. You can use the application, dubbed Notifier, on some of AT&T’s (s T) phones by downloading it from the AT&T Media Mall. It allows folks to access web services such as Gmail and Facebook on their feature phones. However, to understand where iSkoot is going, one needs to look beyond the client.

What iSkoot has done is developed a platform for mobile phone companies to offer many services. On a PC, we can download many different applications – browser, email, instant messaging and others – and each one creates a separate connection to our network. Each one consumes a lot of CPU power and quite a bit of bandwidth, though only rarely do we kill the network.

Wireless networks, by comparison, are bandwidth constrained, and featherweight processors power lower-end mobile phones. In order for these phones to mimic their smartphone brethren, the iSkoot client creates a single connection to the network and acts as a conduit to all types of web services. (Citrix does something similar on the desktops.)

The next step for iSkoot would be to marry its client with a mobile OS and deliver an experience very much like the INQ’s Facebook Phone. For mobile carriers, an iSkoot-type solution would be a good way to offer more lucrative data services to its clients, all the while controlling bandwidth consumption — and, more importantly, keeping a tight leash on their customers.

Mobile carriers are scared of a future in which devices such as the iPhone reduce them to a dumb pipe provider. Unlike the wired web, where carriers have little control on what services we use, mobile operators are fighting to control the mobile web experience. They tried it with things like their on-deck stores and WAP. And I wouldn’t be surprised if they use technologies like iSkoot to create a new walled garden, though one with a perception of openness.

In that process, there’s a good chance iSkoot might actually find a better future for itself.

What is your mobile homepage? And does it matter?

The exit of Jerry Yang from Yahoo got me thinking about the implications, if any, it would have for mobile.    In the desktop browser world, the fight for your homepage has been waging for years between Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, AOL, and anyone else who managed to hijack it.  The theory is your homepage selection drives page views, which in turn drives advertising revenue.  More views equal more bucks.

So, what does this mean in a mobile device context? Does homepage matter?

What is particularly interesting in the mobile domain is the competing paradigms for driving traffic.  There is the “traditional” browser homepage war, the mobile desktop icon, a range of Java or Brew applications, and widget portals.

The key question is what to you want to do with your mobile device when you access the Internet and how best to get the answer you want.

A second factor is despite the proliferation of full keyboard mobile devices; the long-winded entry of URL’s and the point and click model of a desktop still does not translate well in the mobile arena.

The specific models at play on the Blackberry are:

1-    Set your homepage
2-    Download bookmarked Icons for specific sites and services
3-    Java Applications that mange collections of information feeds
4-    Widgets and Portals that are a collection of widgets.

Here is my solution – let me know if it matches what you have or you have a different use model.

When I access the Internet on my mobile it is usually about answering a particular question or reading a specific newspaper or blog.

I have my homepage set to the minimalist Google mobile.   I can enter anything I want in the search box, from a website I want to visit to a question.  This is a very functional model for me when I need business information or just want to impress family and friends with some arcane trivia.  Did you know that the state bird of Alaska is the Willow ptarmigan?

For routine information and entertainment I use the very easy downloadable bookmark icon.  The icons I have on my device are:  NY Times, Washington Post, ESPN, MLB, NY Yankees, Weather Channel, CNN, CNBC and ABC News.   This library of information is great for those commuting train trips.  In 25 minutes I can catch up on the news, read my favorite editorials, and follow the local sports teams.  This is very efficient for sites I visit often, and much better than bookmarking these sites within the browser.  This is another good example of the difference between the desktop and mobile experience.

Next, I have certain downloaded applications that I use often.  My favorites are VZW navigator, followed by Google maps and iskoot (for Skype).  For navigation applications I am asking my device a specific question and getting a specific answer.  It is either, “How do I get to….”, or “ Where I am and how did I get here?”  I use Skype on my desktop and there are rare occasions that I us it contact a business associate.  Iskoot works well and is free.

The next category of applications isthe content aggregation portal.  I have two examples that I have on my device.  The first is a very good RSS reader called Viigo.   You can easily set up the blogs that you follow and they also have pre-loaded feeds that you can keep or easily delete.  If you want to follow this blog on your mobile device, this is the solution.

I have also downloaded a specific RSS reader from “The Hockey News”.  If you read this blog regularly you know I am a big Hockey fan.  I am sorry to say the Hockey New RSS portal is poorly executed and rarely gets used.  This should be bad news to the editors at the Hockey News.  If a diehard mobile guy who is also a diehard hockey guy finds your mobile application to be poor, it is time to rethink.

Note to the Hockey News:

I make the same offer to you as I did to the New York Rangers.  I will volunteer to fix your mobile application.

Lastly, the widget portal that I have downloaded is “Yahoo Go! “.  In my view, this is a good implementation for the wrong paradigm.  Yahoo Go! Is a mobile version of the  “My Yahoo” desktop homepage.  It has lots of general information categories in a very slick carousel interface.  What is interesting is that, although I have used Yahoo as my desktop homepage for 10 years, I almost never use “Yahoo Go!”.   The reason for my low use of this service is simply that I have no reason to use it.  It does not function as a way for me to get quick answers (Google), quick information (Icons), or navigate (VZW).

It is interesting to speculate what Obama had on his Blackberry?

The Iphone, G1, HTC and other large screen devices can easily enable similar models.

With advertising revenue the ultimate goal, understanding the mobile desktop paradigm is step one.

We can hope that the successor to Jerry Yang will re-think the mobile environment to be truly mobile and not just a transposition of the desktop.

Will the Yahoo and Google be the only advertising game in down, or will quick footed start-ups like Mojiva make even bigger inroads in this lucrative market?

Please share with me what you have on your mobile desktop.  I will collect the input for a future blog article.

Six years ago, when I wanted to make a conference call involving five participants, Bell Canada wanted to charge me $0.55 per minute per participant, resulting in a $165 cost for a one hour call. All those participants had to be in North America and a conference call operator was involved. The moderator could try to “chair” the session but there were limited ways to actually manage who spoke. Any archiving of the session would rely on participants’ handwritten or typed notes.

Flash forward to today: iotum has analyzed the entire set of processes required for managing and moderating a voice conference call from scheduling and invitation to final archiving of the call for future reference. And they have researched today’s communications infrastructure, including web services and low cost voice connections.

They have executed on iotum CEO and co-founder Alec Saunders’ Voice 2.0 Manifesto. Today they are announcing the launch of their enhanced Calliflower Conference Call service – a fully interactive, complete voice conference call service that has been in beta for over a year.

From Alec’s launch post on SaundersLog:

Users have told us that their overwhelming unmet need was not to have another point solution, but to have a single tool that could manage these complex Active Conversations. And when we looked at the market, most of the innovations being introduced are actually isolated features in search of integration solution — coordination, the audio call itself, document sharing, and text messaging to name a few examples.

Originally developed as a Facebook application, they recently provided direct Calliflower portal access from the web. With today’s announcements CalliFlower is offering Premium services such as document sharing, enhanced worldwide “local” calling access and business administrator support. To top off their announcement, Calliflower goes mobile with an iPhone application that provides full access to these calls.

So what comprises the complete interactive conference call experience?

• Prior to the call: Scheduling and invitations. Reminders via SMS or email. Low cost or free access for participants. Identification of participants calling in via either a PIN number or mobile number callerID.
• During the call: A call-specific web page that displays an agenda, call participants, an interactive chat window, while allowing hand raising, muting, call recording and document sharing.
• After the call: not only is the recording archived but also the entire call web page for recall of, say, URL’s given out in the chat window or the recording itself.

The cost to participants? Simply the cost of reaching an access point.

Previously the Calliflower calls could be reached by calling a number in Minnesota or France using the PSTN, SkypeOut or a couple of other softphone VoIP services. Going forward iotum will also be using Voxbone’s newly launched iNum service, initially providing free access to a +883 number from any of Voxbone’s iNum Service Provider Partners or via 55 iNum local access points worldwide.

The heart of the Calliflower service is its use of dynamic interactive web services as the backbone to the features described above.

During the call all participants can access the call’s web page “portal” for a fully interactive call experience as described above. The moderator can mute individual participants when the kids are crying or dogs are barking in the background. Having used the service many times during the beta period I found the combination of the web page’s feature set changes the overall dynamics of a conference call and significantly enhances the participants’ conference call experience.

Once completed the call recording and web page are available for recall by any of the participants or anyone else registered with Calliflower who may want to review the call. Recordings can be inserted into websites or weblogs, such as Alec does with his SquawkBox Conference Calls that periodically discuss technology industry developments.

The iPhone application (available shortly at the Apple App Store) provides full access to your calls, whether scheduled, during a call or in the past. Past call recordings and chat walls can be readily listened to or read. One “future” feature that that still requires development is the creation of calls from the iPhone.

Basic Calliflower Conference Calls will be free; while the Premium service is priced at the special introductory price of $50 per month, for two organizers, with a no-risk 30-day free trial period, until Jan. 1, 2009. Additional organizers cost $25 per month each.

We have seen the rise of many conference calling services over the past year, based on lower cost communications network architectures incorporating VoIP. However, typically they simply make the call connections or have a limited set of features. Having used the beta Calliflower service many times over the past 12 months I have been able to witness its evolution into this complete interactive voice and web service resulting in a unique conference call participant experience (and there are still a few nifty features to come).

My costs for accessing these many calls over the past few years: the $2.95 per month SkypeOut subscription charge (which lets me also make unlimited calls to within North America). And I never need a PIN code; Calliflower recognizes that my SkypeOut CallerID is also my registered mobile phone number CallerID. This allows me to also access Calliflower calls from my BlackBerry using iSkoot which cannot recognize touch tones required for PIN numbers.

Definitely worth giving it a try, not simply for the cost saving but especially for the value-add it brings to the entire conference call user experience.

Jim Courtney is an Associate Editor of Skype Journal.

With this recession kicking into high gear it’s time for small business’s to look at ways of cutting costs without slashing employees or the marketing budget.  VoIP is a quick and easy way to trim that budget for the end of the year. See the list below:

Save Money with VoIP

1. Get a free phone number and inbound calling with Toktumi hosted VoIP.
2. Get free hosted IP PBX with Bandwidth.com.
3. Get free unified voice mail with PhoneFusion Inc.
4. Use OnState’s online call center with Skype Ltd.
5. Use trixbox Pro and get Internet calling to other users for free.
6. Send Palringo Ltd. voice IMs instead of making mobile calls.
7. Make free conference calls with iotum Inc.’s Calliflower.
8. Make free VoIP calls from wifi hotspots using dual-mode handsets.
9. Make free video calls with TokBox Inc., no software download required.
10. Make and receive Skype calls from mobile phones with iSkoot Inc.
11. Make Skype calls while using Yugma Inc.’s Web-conferencing service.
12. Get a MagicJack for you and the person you talk to most (Skype is better).
13. Move to VoIP slowly with RingCentral Inc.’s hosted IP PBX.
14. Phone home for free with Jaduka.
15. Use a Voxofon LLC calling-card number when away from your office.
16. Text message using iGoogle’s feature instead of your cellphone.
17. Use your broadband provider as a voicemail system and check voicemail from anywhere you have an internet connection (Cox Communications has this).

Fore more detailed info click here.

Having followed activity in the BlackBerry ecosystem over the past few weeks, I have come to the conclusion that BlackBerry Storm should be called BlackBerry Stealth. Why? With little media coverage, its forthcoming launch is the sleeper play in the smartphone market; it is poised to make major market penetration on its launch later this fall. Let’s look at the reasons:

The carriers: BlackBerry Storm was designed for two major carriers, with proven 3G network performance, who aren’t able to carry the iPhone: Verizon (s VZ) and Vodafone (also coming to Canada on Telus and Bell). This opens up access to several large existing customer bases (70 million at Verizon) with strong presence in both consumer and enterprise markets. For roaming outside North America, the Storm for Verizon/Bell/Telus includes the appropriate European/Asian-supported GSM bands.

A smarter touch screen: It employs new “haptic” touch keyboard technology with three keyboard options: QWERTY in landscape mode, SureType and Traditional 12-key in Portrait mode. Kevin Michaluk’s “First Impressions” review talks about his user experience with the keyboard and its unique features. One example: Hover on a letter and you’ll get other language options for the letter such as “é”. This YouTube video demonstrates the dynamic nature of the Storm’s keyboard.

Enterprise ready: IT managers already supporting BlackBerry within their IT infrastructure will readily accept the Storm as simply one more BlackBerry device. There is a legion of stories building about IT managers’ refusal of employee requests for iPhone support. With its multimedia features, including syncing to iTunes, Storm presents an opportunity to have a touchscreen smartphone that easily meets both business and personal needs.

A BlackBerry App Store is coming: Last week, RIM held its first BlackBerry Developer Conference, at which the 700 attendees learned about the BlackBerry App Store opening March 2009. Unlike Android Market, struggling to get to 100 applications, there currently exist more than 4,000 applications available via various web-based stores. The BlackBerry App Store makes it much easier to purchase applications directly off the device, both existing apps, as well as new ones that will appear as a result of developer support announced during the conference. Some developers will be backed by the $150 million BlackBerry Partners Fund.

Major general-purpose applications appearing for BlackBerry: Several applications I have been using on a Nokia N95 are now becoming available for the BlackBerry. Last week, I saw a demonstration of SlingPlayer for BlackBerry (still in pre-alpha, not yet released) on a Bold. Yesterday, there were two announcements: an alpha release of the popular “live-to-Internet” video recording application Qik became available and Truphone Anywhere for BlackBerry became available.

Background processing: While the Storm brings a different user interface, its underlying operating system is still the traditional BlackBerry O/S. I have been using a Bold for the past eight weeks and an iPhone for about three months. One key differentiator is BlackBerry’s ability to handle true background processing of data-based applications. For instance, you can run IM applications, such as Skype IM, via iSkoot, in the background, keeping you up-to-date on IM messages in real time while performing other data applications such as web browsing or checking your email concurrently. On the iPhone, you can make voice calls and play iTunes while looking at an application; otherwise, applications stop running until you return to it. Full background processing on the Storm, as on all recent Blackberry models, not only brings a significant productivity benefit to users but also allows notification and delivery of time sensitive information in real time.

What does it lack? Wi-Fi support. Probably because Verizon does not support UMA/GAN. Yet Wi-Fi is becoming important for creating additional access points in places such as warehouses or high rise buildings, where cell phone signals can become too weak.

Bottom line: Combining the Storm’s feature set and its carrier customer base, along with AT&T’s forthcoming Nov. 4 launch of Bold, BlackBerry Storm is lining up to be the “stealth” contributor to sustaining BlackBerry in its smartphone market leadership position, with a low-key, performance-based approach to the market.

Disclosure: The author has held a minuscule number of RIM shares since 1998.

While the emergence of VoIP, or voice-over-Internet protocol, technology has already helped push down the cost of making a phone call, now it’s starting to have a deflationary impact on the world of mobile, where call charges remain stubbornly high.

In the meantime, the ongoing adoption of 3G broadband and the inclusion of Wi-Fi in many high-end phones is drawing a growing amount of attention to mobile VoIP services. Indeed, research firm Disruptive Analysis predicts that the number of VoIP-over-3G users will top 250 million by the end of 2012 — from virtually zero in 2007.

We at GigaOM are constantly tinkering with these mobile services, so we’ve put together a list of seven mobile VoIP apps that we think you’ll find handy.

Skype Options

Service: Skype Mobile
Platform/Network: Java-based application that works on 50 popular phones from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Samsung. Can be used on numerous cellular data networks.
Cost: Free
Features: Chatting (including with a group), presence settings (offline, online, do not disturb), and Skype-to-Skype calls (including SkypeIn).
Our Opinion: If your phone is supported, Skype Mobile is a great way to add Skype chatting and calls to it. Though it would be nice if the Skype application weren’t written in Java, as these applications are often sluggish and unstable.

Service: 3 Skypephone
Platform/Network: Uses a specialized handset. Currently available in the UK, Italy, Austria, Hong Kong, Australia, Ireland, Denmark and Sweden.
Cost: The phone costs £49.99 (about $98) and can be used on a pre-paid basis. Calls cost nothing if they’re made from Skype.
Features: Free Skype-to-Skype mobile calls and the ability to conduct Skype IM conversations, all without touching your computer.
Our Opinion: The 3 Skypephone is best suited for those who need a few monthly mobile minutes and wish to talk/IM to their Skype friends along the way. The pre-paid feature makes it an attractive and inexpensive option for Skype chatters in the geographies it serves.

Service: iSkoot
Platform/Network: Mobile handsets such as BlackBerry, Nokia, Windows Mobile and Palm OS models. Also works on GSM networks.
Cost: Modest to expensive, based on usage. Because iSkoot is a hybrid VoIP/GSM service, it uses SMS and mobile minutes when making and receiving calls or Skype IM messages.
Features: SkypeIn and Skype-to-Skype calls, Skype IM messages.
Our Opinion: iSkoot is a good option for keeping in touch with your Skype contacts. However, I would look at other software applications that just use data to send Skype SMS and Skype voice traffic.

Mobile VoIP Players

Service: Truphone
Platform/Network: Nokia handsets
Cost: Incoming free calls while on the Truphone network, low per-minute rates while on a GSM network. Outgoing calls are billed at very low per minute rates.
Features: Truphone offers free calls, SMS and voice mail while logged into the Truphone network via Wi-Fi. Otherwise, Truphone forwards calls to your mobile handset and you pay a low per-minute charge.
Our Opinion: With its smart forwarding options, Truphone is particularly useful for international travelers. Whether you’re on Wi-Fi or just your normal GSM network, you can be reached via your Truphone number no matter where you are (charges apply in certain cases, see their site for details). For times when Wi-Fi is not available, Truphone just released Truphone Anywhere, which utilizes local gateways for outgoing calls at low per-minute charges. I have trialed the service by forwarding calls from my Truphone number to my cell phone and the call quality was fantastic; voices were indistinguishable from any other cell phone call. A Truphone-to-Truphone VoIP call yielded even higher voice quality.

Service: Fring
Platform/Network: Nokia/Symbian handsets, Widows Mobile, iPhone (pre-release beta)
Cost: Free
Features: Allows you to make VoIP calls on any SIP network, Skype or to other Fring users. Additionally, Fring is a multi-protocol IM client that will allow you to chat with your buddies on Skype, MSN, ICQ, Google Talk, Twitter, AIM and Yahoo.
Our Opinion: I have used Fring to make SIP and Skype voice calls, and over EDGE the call is choppy and hard to understand. However, Wi-Fi provides enough bandwidth to make Fring calls clear and understandable. I wouldn’t say the quality is fantastic, but it is very comparable to a normal cell phone call.

Service: Talkonaut
Platform/Network: Available for Java-based phones, Symbian and Windows Mobile
Cost: Free
Features: Talkonaut offers free VoIP and IM chatting. For instant messaging, the application supports Google Talk, ICQ, AIM, and Yahoo. Talkonaut can also use SIP for VoIP calling.
Our Opinion: Talkonaut is a Russian offering and is still very new. The application was quite unstable on my Nokia N82 handset. With iffy performance and a very rusty user interface, I would recommend looking at other applications for this functionality, namely Fring.

Service: Nimbuzz
Platform/Network: Java program, Symbian; an iPhone version is coming soon.
Cost: Free
Features: Allows you to engage in IM conversations and conduct VoIP calls, as well as to share media such as photos and video. Nimbuzz also allows for client-to-client calls and has widgets enabling calls to originate from Facebok and MySpace. Compatible with Skype, Google Talk, AOL Instant Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo, MySpace, Facebook and Jabber IM networks.
Our Opinion: The Symbian application is very responsive and easy to use. A VoIP call originating from my Facebook page to Nimbuzz over a Wi-Fi connection sounded good — just as good as any call over a GSM network.

Service: Gizmo5 (formerly Gizmo Project)
Platform/Network: Nokia Symbian handsets, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Nokia Tablets
Cost: Free for VoIP calls, low per-minute charge to call landlines and to SMS to mobiles.
Features: Gizmo5 allows you to conduct voice calls to other Gizmo5 users and grants IM conversations with friends on Gizmo5, MSN, AIM, Yahoo and Jabber.
Our Opinion: Gizmo5 is a great competitor to Skype, just not as established or well-known. They have wisely developed their client software for many platforms including numerous mobile phones, and on both Mac and PC. VoIP call quality is stellar when calling between clients, as well as to landline/mobile phones.

I just recently tested this out for a week in Europe. Works great. The only requirement is to have a data plan. It’s not clear whether or not my mobile carrier will charge an additional SMS fee? So I only used it sparingly.

But, if I do not incur any additional fees, this will change the way I can communicate when traveling abroad. Currently text messages can cost up to $0.50/text. So if this works out, I will be able to save a fortune staying in contact with members of our team.

So, where’s the catch? Not exactly sure?! I suspect there are more hidden costs than advertised. We’ll see at the end of the month. Also, where does iskoot make their $$$? I recently read an interview with their CEO, who implied that there will be a small monthly fee once a network of users has been established.

Skype recently announced a Skype for Mobile package. I tried downloading it, but failed every time. Currently it is in BETA, so I will let you know how things progress. Even if there is a fee, Skype has certainly changed the way that I stay connected. The best thing is that it is at a fraction of the cost of the traditional methods.

Σας προτείνω να δείτε το video στο οποίο ο CEO του iSkoot , Mark Jacobstein, μιλά για θέματα που αφορούν την κινητή τηλεφωνία, την συνεργασία του iSkoot με την 3 για τα Skypephones…μια μικρή αναφορά στο πως ακριβώς δουλεύει το σύστημα iSkoot + εταιρείες κινητής τηλεφωνίας, τις απόψεις του για το ότι δε βλέπει business στη χρήση του data channel για την VOIP επικοινωνία ( ειδικότερα όταν αυτή έχει να κάνει με κινητές συσκευές ) και άλλα ( και ένα κραξιματάκι για το SDK και την πολιτική της Apple ). Από τους πιο συμπαθητικούς τύπους που έχω δει σε conferences, απλός και cool όσο πρέπει. from skypejournal.com posted with vodpod

iSkoot is a nifty piece of software capable of vicariously running Skype services on any symbian phone. It is still in its beta stage and free so far.

Whereas other solutions require at least a 3G or, even better, a Wi-Fi enabled device, my cellphone which supports neither is not at a loss with iSkoot. The trick is, it uses plain EDGE/GRRS for text-chatting to your Skype contacts, and when it comes to making a voice call, the software uses the Public Switched Telephone Network, resulting in placing a usual “local” telephone call via your cellular operator.

It is hard to imagine many uses for this extravagant technology, but under certain circumstances it might be viable enough to justify its existence.

But does iSkoot really work?

That’s exactly what I set out to find out this weekend.

1) I downloaded and installed the N73 version for my E50 (the phones use the same operation system) from www.iskoot.com/register.php

2) On running the software with an existing Skype account, it logged in just fine and all my contacts where displayed.

3) A gave an Echo test service a call. And got the following results:

- My balance before the call was R136,24 (approx. $17,03).

- it took 54 seconds to make a call (at first I noticed a local South African – appropriate for my location – number is dialed) whereupon I said some meaningless nonsense to a machine for 15 secs. The other 15 secs went for getting my own words back. So, I guess the actual “conversation” took about 35 seconds for real.

- The sound quality, I would say, is anything between 6/10 or 7/10, not too bad.

- My balance after the call was 135.20 (off-peak rate), so it cost me R1.04 ($0,13) in total for the 35 seconds of pleasure.

Bottom line:

Nothing can be better than enjoying a Skype call from the comfort of your home on your PC, but if you’re out in the field with no broadband connectivity, and for some reason it could cost you less to make such a vicarious call, iSkoot might be an option, especially if you call an international contact.

In South Africa where I live the broadband penetration still leaves much to be desired, especially in rural communities, so why not get some Chief skyping out directly from his cellphone?

iSkoot announced an extended partnership with Skype. The new agreement follows iSkoot’s successful collaboration with Skype and mobile operator 3 for the global launch of the 3 Skypephone, the first ever mass-market Skype -enabled mobile handset.

Under the agreement, iSkoot will have certain exclusive rights to offer Skype-branded mobile software enabled by the iSkoot solution to mobile network operators in Argentina, Greece, Israel, Norway, South Africa, Switzerland and Turkey. These products will deliver mobile Skype voice functionality based on circuit switch-to-VoIP technology.

iSkoot delivers an end-to-end client/server/gateway solution that leverages the ubiquitous circuit switching infrastructure of the traditional voice network and offers either an on- premises or iSkoot-hosted ASP implementation.

“This new agreement with Skype underscores the commitment to our partnership and the success that partnership has built over the past two years,” said iSkoot Founder, President and COO Jacob Guedalia. “By integrating Skype with the mobile operator’s network, iSkoot creates a win-win solution that delivers Skype-to-Skype calling, Skype presence and Skype chat on almost any phone on virtually any cellular network. iSkoot brings to the Skype community the mobile functionality they desire, while adding a killer application to the mobile carrier’s content portfolio — all without undermining infrastructure or existing business models.”

“For nearly two years, iSkoot has been working with Skype to deliver Skype on 3’s mobile network,” said Gareth O’Loughlin, Skype’s general manager of mobile and hardware devices. “With iSkoot, we enabled Skype on a wide range of handsets on 3’s network and most recently launched the 3 Skypephone. We are looking forward to building on our partnership to bring Skype’s mobile offering to more of our users.”