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Vonage slams Skype for not following emergency rules - Vonage lays down the smackdown for Skype's refusal to adhere to Ofcom rules, an independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries. Last month, Ofcom introduced rules mandating access to emergency services (999 in the United Kingdom) for VoIP providers whose customers make calls that connect to the public switched service.  The rules also specify that caller address information is to be made available to eme...

T-Mobile Running Out of Androids - T-Mobile may have at least a short-term shortage of its G1 Android-powered phone as customers flood the company with preorders. T-Mobile said it has already sold its presale inventory of the first Google Android phone.(Guess the service is working better, too.) T-Mobile declined to disclose the number of phones initially available, but Strategy Analytics predicted T-Mobile could sell as many as 400,000 of the G1s this year. What is known is ...

Much Ado about the Apple 'Brick' - Mac enthusiasts have been transfixed lately by the mystery product, code-named "brick," that's due for release later this month.Some bloggers and pundits have suggested it might be a new iteration of Apple TV or an updated Mac Mini. But according to a report on 9to5Mac.com, "brick" refers not to what it is, but how it's made. The Web site, which cites an anonymous source, says the code name has to do with a manufacturing process for Apple's MacBo...

Best Buy Grabs MSI Wind - The MSI Wind netbook will go on sale at Best Buy priced at $399 and equipped with a 120GB hard drive and 1GB of RAM; it also coms with Windows XP pre-loaded. The netbook comes in just one configuration at the store. So much for choice, but how about that price? Best Buy is one of the few major U.S. CE retailers to stock the Wind, which keeps its price lower partly by using a less powerful battery pack -- a three-cell battery rather th...

Cross Platform Mobile Game Playing Now Here - Bringing another piece of the mobile future to today, Social Line Connect is a simple iPhone game with a cross-platform backbone. The free app, which looks similar to Connect Four, was added to the App Store over the weekend. The real point of the no-frills game is playing it with friends -- even if they don't own an iPhone. To that end, it's a also proof-of-concept title for SocialDeck, a new middleware startup that's created a server architectu...

1 Billion Wi-Fi Gadgets by 2012?! - The number of electronic gadgets equipped with Wi-Fi chips could more than triple from the 294 million in the market in 2007 to -- get this! -- 1 billion by 2012, according to a report from the research firm In-Stat.The fastest growing gadget group?  Mobile handsets. In-Stat said lower prices on Wi-Fi-equipped devices and more robust batteries had been the key ingredients in the technology's growth. Digital TVs also are expected to use ...

Sarah Palin Eyeglasses Best Sellers? - I was in Pearle Vision today looking to buy some new glasses with my new prescription, when I overheard two female customers asking about Sarah Palin's trendy eyewear. The lightweight, titanium, rimless rectangular frames were made for her by Home Optics, a retailer in Chugiak, Alaska. Sarah Palin's eyeglasses are custom made, but based on the Kawasaki 704 series and the color is 34 gray, if you're interested in owning your own pair. I asked the ...

BlackBerry Mac Media Sync on its Way - Am sure you know the feeling Feelin' left in the dust while all your Outlook-loving PC friends get all the cool BlackBerry stuff? Well, RIM has been hard at work on the Mac side of things, and here's a chance to see what's on the way -- the first look at BlackBerry Media Sync for Mac. This isn't a final version so don't get too depressed that the options are pretty limited at this time, but it least gives you an idea of what's happening. ...

Verizon Loses VoIP Patent case to Cox Communications - Rich Tehrani writes a great story with some historical context on how Verizon lost a VoIP patent case (on all 6 patent counts) to Cox Communications. Unfortunately, a bit too late for Vonage which paid millions to settle their patent case with Verizon.Really though the large telcos are the winners here and consumers are the losers. The US patent system continues to be a barrier to true innovation and consumers are being hurt -- severely so in som...

snom m3 review - The snom m3 SIP wireless (DECT) phone is one of my favorite VoIP phones. I've been testing and reviewing it for a few months but haven't had time to write up the review until now. First, let me point out that the problem with IP-PBXs is they typically give you a desk phone or a softphone with no real mobility options to walk around, which is critical in some vertical markets, such as retail and manufacturing. Even sales professionals want the f...

Do We Need a Digital Bill of Rights? - TechCrunch, much like the Digital Freedom Campaign, believes we need a Digital Bill of Rights to serve as "a consistent policy governing everything from Internet Protocol regulations to intellectual property on the Web." The Digital Freedom Campaign focuses on the first three issues laid out in the TechCrunch piece -- "The Right to Use and Reuse Content," "The Right to Control Digital Property On Your Own Device" and "The Right to the Free Flow...

Is Home Automation Market Set To Go Boom? - The number of home automation systems -- both professionally installed and DIY -- will reach more than 4 million in 2013, says ABI Research.  The Home Automation and Security Report says the market will grow more than 50 times its current size in five years. There were 237,000 systems that shipped in 2007. The study attributes the growth to new approaches: "Mainstream" systems based on standardized technologies and packaged ...

Is It Time for 3D TV? - With such television makers as Samsung and Panasonic unveiling flat-screen sets that are capable of displaying 3-D content, the format is widely considered the next leap forward in TV technology. So far, 3-D programming has been about stunts and gimmicks rather than an earnest play to engage viewers on a deeper level. With growing competition from other media, however, it may be time for the television industry to push forward with 3-...

TMC & Digium Partner for Digium|Asterisk World at ITEXPO - I've had some big news I had to keep under wraps until today. My company, Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) and Digium, the Asterisk Company, today announced that they have partnered to host Digium|Asterisk World? during INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO East 2009 in Miami, Florida. Having ITEXPO host Digium|Asterisk World is a huge win for TMC and further cements TMC's ITEXPO as the most preeminent VoIP and IP communications show. In...

fring Adds VoIP to iPhone - fring for iPhone has arrived! I'm a huge fan of fring, which I like to call the Swiss Army knife of VoIP/IM communications since fring works with AOL/AIM, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, Skype, Twitter, Yahoo! Messenger, and SIP registrars/IP-PBXs. I've used fring on my Windows Mobile 6.1 phon...

See, Video Games Are Good for You - Games and virtual reality simulators are becoming increasingly popular tools for training by the army, various police forces and even in medical applications. If a new pilot program called "InSight" pans out for Allstate, though, the next place you could be seeing video games is at the local DMV. Allstate is currently piloting a new program which seeks to find out if playing driving video games could make better drivers out of those over age 50...

Best Buy Selling Musical Instruments -- Making Real Guitar Heroes! - Look out Guitar Center and Sam Ash! Maybe you don't think of them as gadgets, but Best Buy is adding musical instruments to its entertainment repertoire at roughly 85 stores nationwide. (Didn't I just see you at Best Buy?) The stores will cater to novice and professional musicians and carry brands such as Fender, Gibson, Roland and Drum Workshop. The Best Buy in Pembroke Pines, FL, for example, features a 2,500-square-foot store-within-...

Nokia Unveils Its First Music Phone -- 5800 XpressMusic - Turning up the volume on what could be a music phone war, Nokia has unveiled the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, a mobile device for music that brings innovative new features to the mass market. Delivering on Nokia's vision to provide the best total music experience possible, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic will be among the first devices to support Comes With Music, Nokia's service that offers one year of unlimited access to the entire Nokia Music Store cat...

Windows Live Messenger Back in the VoIP game! - Ok, now my head is getting dizzy from the number of times Microsoft Windows Live Messenger/MSN Messenger has had outbound VoIP-to-PSTN calling (2006), then ...

Lenovo Celebrates 16 Years of ThinkPad - Lenovo is celebrating sixteen years of continuous ThinkPad innovation (most of them of course under the Big Blue of IBM) with -- what else? -- a sale.Lot of fun to look at the "Legends of ThinkPad" to see some of the amazing feats this little gadget has been through. You can take your choice of "melted," "sunk," "crunched," "trekked" and "stolen."Actually some stuff you won't believe!And of course there are many awards Reminds me of all of TPs I...

Now the iPhone Is a Political Tool ... - Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign launched an iPhone application today that turns the gadget into a political recruiting tool. The most notable feature "organizes and prioritizes your contacts by key battleground states, making it easy to reach out and make an impact quickly," according to the software. For example, if you have contacts in Colorado, Michigan, and New Mexico, they would be ranked at the top; at the bottom would be someo...

Ronco's Baaack!!! - Remember the Veg-O-Matic, the Pocket Fisherman and the Inside-the-Shell Egg Scrambler? To many baby boomers, those names recall the days when Jimmy Carter was in the White House and Farrah Fawcett starred in Charlie's Angels.And who can forget the Bass-O-Matic skit on Saturday Night Live (when it really mattered!)?Now a new generation will be able to form its own memories. The Ronco Acquisition Corporation, the company behind these products,...

Is Your City One of the Most Connected? - Among the top designated marketing areas (DMAs), San Francisco, Miami and Los Angeles are the most connected cities based on home networking adoption. What does connected mean: A wired or wireless home network allows consumers to connect multiple PCs and printers, and to share Internet access among computers. MultiMedia Intelligence's research identifies significant variations among major metropolitan areas. San Francisco has the highest househol...

Smelly MacBook Pros Not Good for You - Strong-smelling MacBook Pros have been discussed on Apple forums, but an anonymous French molecular biologist/researcher went to Greenpeace to check out why his smelled. Greenpeace got Analytica involved, and then Inéris, France's national institute covering the industrial environment. Apparently benzene is a component of the smell, and this could be risky -- over time, sensitive people could develop leukemia. Unconfirmed stories suggest the ...

How about Being Your Favorite Gadget for Halloween? - With October ringing in today, of course thoughts turn to Halloween -- yes, I know it's nearly a month away. Wonder why we don't see any trick or treaters dressed up as their favorite gadgets? Would be pretty easy to be an iPhone (or just about any cell phone for that matter, but those clam shell designs could be trouble?). TV set or computer monitor is another good one -- at least for head gear. What do you think? Does this make any s...

Adtran IP 706 Review - Adtran recently launched their IP 700 series of IP phones in late April. Adtran sent TMC Labs the IP 706 model, which supports up to 6 lines, but the 700 series also includes the IP 712 which is identical feature-wise but supports up to 12 lines. Each line can be configured to register with unique SIP proxy/registrar servers. This allows a different line for every line key on the phone. A line is called a multiple call appearance (MCA) ty...

2009 Microsoft MVP Award - Today, I was awarded a 2009 Microsoft® MVP Award, making this the second year in a row I've been granted this prestigious award that has fewer than 5,000 awardees worldwide. As part of the Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) announcement, a message from CEO Steve Ballmer said, "As the independent voice of users worldwide, your influence on technical communities is felt in many ways--enhancing people's lives and contributing to our industry...

Amazon EC2 running Windows Server and SQL Server - Amazon just announced that Amazon EC2 will soon run Windows Server and SQL Server. The announcement was made to Amazon Web Services developers this morning. This announcement may be partly in response to Microsoft who has been building a hosted development platform of their own. In fact, Microsoft is expected to announce the hosted platform officially at its Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles. Bob Muglia, Senior Vice Preside...

Nintendo's New DS Goes Music, Camera, Wireless - By the end of this year, Nintendo will debut a new version of its DS handheld console that plays music and is equipped with a camera and advanced wireless functions.This would put the new DS in direct competition with such well-entrenched devices as the Apple iPod and camera-equipped mobile phones. The price for the new machine is expected to be below 20,000 yen ($189) in Japan, compared with 16,800 yen ($158) for the current mod...

An Unlocked iPhone 3G in HK? - Unlocked iPhone 3Gs are now on sale in Hong Kong direct from the company web site, according to a published report. Until now, Hong Kong iPhones could only be bought from Hutchison Telecommunications on a two-year contract, the cheapest package being a staggering $188 a month. Now Apple's local website is offering the 8 gigabyte version of its unlocked phone for $695 and the 16 gigabyte one for $798, letting buyers choose their own GSM servic...

Student accuses teacher of being a witch; tries to set her on fire - A 20-year-old man is facing an assault charge after allegedly accusing his English literature teacher of being a witch and then pouring liquid on her. The man also threatened the teacher with a cigarette lighter and cigarette....

Muslim terrorists on trial in the UK - Bilal Abdulla, 29, and Mohammed Asha, 27, came to the UK from the Middle East to train as doctors in British hospitals. But instead they were part of an Islamic terror cell that wanted to maim and kill as many people as possible through a UK-wide bombing campaign, Woolwich Crown Court was told....

Muslim inmates get new clothes after sniffer dogs search their cells - A source at Dover prison said: ?It seems ridiculous that staff have to go out of their way to treat these prisoners differently. Philip Davies, Tory MP for Shipley in Yorkshire, said: ?Another way for people not to have their cells searched for drugs is not to commit crime in the first place. If you commit a crime and go to prison, there are certain things which you expect to happen.?...

Holy war strikes in India: 35 Christians killed and 50,000 forced from their homes - Mrs Panda and thousands of others like her are victims of the worst communal violence between Hindus and Christians that India has seen for decades. For a country that boasts of its mutual religious tolerance, the long-simmering tension that has erupted in the Kandhamal district of the state of Orissa ? a nun being raped, churches being burned, at least 35 people killed and thousands forced from their villages ? is both a belated wake-up call a...

Hutterites challenge post-9/11 security rules - Post-9/11 security measures will be thrust squarely in the sights of the Supreme Court of Canada today by a small Hutterite community seeking an exemption from the use of mandatory photographs on driver's licences. In a clash of Old World religion and New World realities, the 252 Hutterites claim that adhering to the post-9/11 security provision would force them to violate a biblical commandment forbidding idolatry....

Law firm booted from FLDS Church?s trust case - In a ruling that could have widespread impact on the ongoing legal war involving the Fundamentalist LDS Church, the judge overseeing the polygamous sect's real-estate arm has ousted the law firm that used to represent it. "This is an irreconcilable conflict, and it mandates the disqualification of Mr. Parker and the law firm," 3rd District Judge Denise Lindberg said. "It extends to the consultation of present and future litigants."...

Prosecutors defend charges in faith healing death - The parents of an 11-year-old girl who died when the couple reportedly chose to pray for her recovery should have known to seek medical attention, prosecutors say. Madeline Neumann, who was known as Kara, died on Easter from undiagnosed complications of diabetes, according to a medical examiner's report....

Group of Muslim scholars gains political clout in Indonesia - In a sign of its growing prominence, the Council of Ulemas in Indonesia has moved its headquarters from the basement of a major mosque here into an expensive new office tower in the heart of the capital. The council was established in 1975 by Suharto, the country's leader for three decades, as a quasi-governmental body of Muslim scholars, partly as a tool to keep politically minded Islamic organizations in check. But in the decade since the di...

The camp that ?cures? homosexuality - Exodus is one of the ministries of the so-called ?ex-gay? movement, a controversial fundamentalist Christian campaign that encourages gay people to renounce their sexuality. This, its annual conference, promises ?an amazing week of breakthroughs, transformations and healings?....

FLDS suit: Seizing trust violates religious freedom - Members of a polygamous sect contend a court-ordered reorganization of their property trust violated their constitutional rights and are suing to reverse the changes or regain control of the trust. In a federal civil rights lawsuit filed Monday, members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints argue that changes to the United Effort Plan Trust since a court takeover in 2005 have secularized it, violating their religious...