HDCP Masterkey Compromise Acknowledged By Intel

#HDCP #Masterkey Compromise Acknowledged By Intel http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
The HDCP master key that leaked on Tuesday is the big one, INTEL has confirmed. The key was posted on the internet on postbin site. HDCP was concocted to protect high-definition movies stored on Blu-ray and other devices. Even Adobe enabled HDCP encryption.
HDCP typically protects movies as they pass through DVI or HDMI ports on devices and now MPAA standing in the middle of the road with no clothes on! Stupid business planes by stupid people, tend to break!
HDCP was created by Intel and is administered by Digital Content Protection LLP. INTEL and DCP LLP wins with money in the pocket, MPAA loses!
Intel spokesman Tom Waldrop said "We have tested this published material that was on the Web," Waldrop said. "It does produce product keys... the net of that means that it is a circumvention of the code."
The leaked key on the site that lists the code comes with instructions;

"This is a forty times forty element matrix of fifty-six bit hexadecimal numbers, To generate a source key, take a forty-bit number that (in binary) consists of twenty ones and twenty zeroes; this is the source KSV, Add together those twenty rows of the matrix that correspond to the ones in the KSV (with the lowest bit in the KSV corresponding to the first row), taking all elements modulo two to the power of fifty-six; this is the source private key.
"To generate a sink key, do the same, but with the transposed matrix."

Extra: IS THE LEAKED HDCP MASTER KEY REAL?
Update: Yes, its confirmed by Intel that its real!

Android Users Get Tawkon Cellphone Radiation Detector, iPhone Users Get Radiated, While Waiting For Approval

#Android #Tawkon Cellphone Radiation Detector http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Tawkon announced that the Cellphone radiation monitoring app for Android has been released for free. You can download it from Android Market Place or independent Android App stores.
Tawkon is the only app to detect the radiation emitted by cellphones or similar devices at home office or the park you frequent. According to Tawkon, extensive testing coupled with RF calibrations only allow app on certain android devices, When I checked the list, most newer Android phones from HTC, Samsung, LG and Motorola were supported.

The app also runs on certain Blackberry devices like Blackberry Bold, Blackberry Curve, Blackberry Tour but that is not free. App is not approved on iPhone yet!
Tawkon lists following as key features;

Real-time Radiation Indication
Our tiny icon on your home screen changes from green to yellow to red indicating low-moderate-high levels of radiation exposure at any given time.
Live Prompts & Feedback
tawkon subtly alerts you when exposure to radiation rises, with simple prompts to avoid radiation just when you need to. Live feedback confirms that your actions were effective.
Map your Home or Office
Activate tawkon in “prediction mode” to see low and high radiation zones in your home, office or neighborhood.
Personal Stats
Dynamic graphical statistics clearly demonstrate how much radiation you avoided by using tawkon during the last call, day, week, month and six months.
The World’s First Live Radiation Map
The tawkon community is creating the world’s first user-generated radiation map. Our tawkon-enhanced Google Map shares the collective data of radiation exposure levels from our users worldwide. Contribute to this valuable collective information source by just activating tawkon on your Android!

Verizon Testing Home LTE, With Some Help From DirectTV?

Verizon Testing Home LTE http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
 DSL Reports is telling us about Verizon LTE (4G) beta test in the east coast. The testers are using Thompson TG789VN indoors and a dome antenna (above) outside to get speeds as high as 27Mbps down and 5Mbps up, which is similar to business Comcast speeds we are getting here in the bay area.
You can follow the conversation at DSLreports.

iPhone World Market Share!

#iPhone World #MarketShare http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
If we look around the news sites or tech blogs, one would think, there is nothing that could beat iPhone. With all Steve Jobs work, iPhone marketsahre is only 2%, world wide whine Nokia (40%) and Samsung (20%) and a whole bunch others before the iPhone.

Editor also provided following Gartner’s August 2010 numbers on sales to end users based on OS;

• 41.2% – Symbian
• 18.2% – RIM
• 17.2% – Android
• 14.2% – iOS
• 5.0% – Windows Mobile
• 2.4% – Linux
• 1.8% – Other OSes

You can see more informative and entertaining and graphically presented data about iPhone, Android and other smartphones at BillShrink..

Skype Facebook Seeks Deep Integration!

#Facebook Connect Skype http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
All things Digital's Kara Swisher is telling us that there are plans under way to bring Facebook and Skype together with deep roots holding the users and companies together. Things must be good at Skype because they just announced the Skype Connect Avaya deal.
The Facebook Skype alliance will among other business deals, will include SMS integration, voice chat, and Facebook Connect. I see video chat (Conferencing?)as well, see the image below!

With so many people spending their net time on facebook, it will be pretty attractive to send SMS without getting up from Poker game :) or talk to another player online during the games, make real poker buddies. Unlike the facephone,  facebook is not telling us that it is not looking to develop Facebook VoIP system and perhaps this is for the facephone, The Facebook Phone.
I can see that Skype and facebook stand to gain from the deal as 560 million Skype users and 500 million Facebook members should at least make those numbers close to 750 million each!
BoomTown

Google Need To Buy Twitter!, Now!! SAI

#Google, #Twitter,# facebook, http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Silicon Alley Insider has a pretty good article and reasons why Google should not hesitate to buy Twitter. Because, Twitter might be the only tool that is available, to fight Facebook behemooth;

Facebook is emerging as a serious threat to Google's core business, and Twitter is the only "social" company Google can buy that might have a chance of combating this

SAI

Avaya Skype Announce "Skype Connect" And A Business Partnership.

#Skype Connect http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Skype and Avaya announced today that they have agreed to jointly present business collaboration and communications solutions.
In October,  Avaya will offer Skype Connect to Avaya's customers. This will enable Avaya customers to call through Skype Connect. The actual connections will be setup based on the least cost routing and all Skype callers will be able to make free inbound calls to enabled Avaya customers within USA.
Avaya Aura and And Avaya Aura SIP enablement server, CS1000, Avaya IP Office and BCM systems will be able to handle the calls. In 2011, the two companies will  launch integrated unified communications and collaboration solutions for businesses within the US, bringing together, presence, IM, voice and video call.
I am sure there are other companies, wondering if they are late, to the Skype Game.



The Press Release;

BASKING RIDGE, NJ and LUXEMBOURG, 29 September 2010 – Avaya, a global leader in enterprise communications systems, software and services, and Skype today announced a strategic agreement to deliver innovative, real-time communications and collaboration solutions to businesses of all sizes. The multi-phase deal includes both go-to-market and an industry-first, joint technology integration that seeks to enable businesses to lower costs and expand how employees, customers, partners and suppliers communicate and collaborate with greater convenience and efficiency.
In the first phase of the agreement, Avaya customers in the U.S. market will have access to Skype Connect™, a product which adds Skype calling to IP-based enterprise communications systems, providing a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) communications channel between Avaya communications systems and Skype. Customers with Avaya Aura™ Session Manager or Avaya Aura SIP Enablement Server, CS1000, Avaya IP Office, or BCM systems can use Skype Connect to place calls globally for increased reach, while aiming to save on international calling. Enterprise-level security and features such as tracking, recording, regulatory compliance, and more are provided by the Avaya system.
Skype reported 124 million average monthly connected users during the second quarter of 2010. Now, Skype users can make inbound calls to Avaya customers in the U.S. market for free or at a low cost. Calls will be treated with Avaya’s routing, conferencing, messaging, mobility and contact center capabilities, as well as other collaboration services. For example, businesses can:

• Establish Skype Click & Call buttons for inbound calling from Web sites
• Establish Skype Online Numbers for inbound calling from landline and mobile phones
• Route inbound calls from a Skype user to an enterprise extension

Avaya customers in the U.S. market who are interested in Skype Connect can speak with their Avaya sales representative or an Avaya Connect channel partner contacts beginning in October.
In the second half of 2011, Avaya and Skype plan to deliver integrated unified communications and collaboration solutions for enterprises within the U.S. The integration is intended to establish federation between Avaya Aura and Skype communications platforms and both user communities, so that an Avaya end-user and Skype user can engage and interact via presence, instant messaging, voice and video. A business, for example, could use Skype to access an Avaya-based contact center in a simple and highly integrated way to quickly and efficiently resolve customer service issues. The integrated solutions will also allow enterprise IT managers to manage and control the inter-connectivity between end users to meet their corporate IT policies.
“Avaya and Skype have been working along parallel paths to offer, innovative, scalable, low cost, SIP-based communications to our respective markets,” said Alan Baratz, senior vice president, Avaya and president, Avaya Global Communications Solutions. “Now, the two companies will work together, striving to improve collaboration and customer service by federating Avaya and Skype solutions for a common user experience that delivers unique benefits for businesses and their customers who are Skype users.”
“Our relationship with Avaya is expected to expand the footprint for Skype Connect into more enterprises in the U.S. market, while allowing us to help Avaya’s customers benefit from Skype’s cost savings and access to Skype’s global user base,” said David Gurlé, vice president and general manager of Skype for Business. “We believe our integrated solution in the second half of 2011 is expected to offer the benefits of Skype to a growing number of businesses and open up new ways for people to communicate and collaborate.”

Amazondroid, An App Store And A Android Tablet From Amazon?

#Amazondroid, An App Store And A Android Tablet From Amazon? http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
(Or Amazonoid, if Amazon does not want to pay royalties to Lucas Films). According leaked documents from SlashGear and tips by TechCrunch, It is almost certain as day and night, that we will see an Amazon's own Android App store and an Android Tablet. Given the success of Kindle, I am sure Amazon would like to have a piece of the Tablet market set ablaze by iPad.
With Verizon building their own app store, Android Market Place might as well start a franchise, because there will be many others who will want to run their own Android App Store. As Techcrunch mentioned, I too can't wait to hear what Google CEO Eric Schmidt has to say about all this, tomorrow at TechCrunch Disrupt.
From the leaked legal papers, it seems Amazon wants to follow Apple model, regarding the app developers, their royalties will;

“equal to the greater of (i) 70% of the purchase price or (ii) 20% of the List Price”

and the rest of the developper agreement is as bad as Apples as well filled with words like DRM, EULA, Developer's EULA, default EULA,
We don't know and don't want to speculate how open or closed the Amazon App Store be, but if you are a developer, follow both the links and digest all the legal mambo jumbo, even before Amazon tells you what they are.
TechCrunch     SlashGear,
And let really see if Google is telling us anything at TechCrunch Disrupt

"Future of Open Source Communications", A Keynote By Digium At AstriCon 2010.

"Future of Open Source Communications" @ #Digium  #Astricon http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Digium revealed today that Kevin Fleming, director of software technologies, will be delivering a keynote speech cum presentation regarding the future of open source communications software at the AstriCon 2010, which will be the  seventh annual AstriCon Open Source Telephony Conference and Exhibition, taking place from October 26-28, 2010, at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.
I plan to be at the conference and I will attend presentation. Fleming's keynote takes place on Wednesday, October 27 at 9:00 a.m. ET. This is not the first such keynote and seem to be a tradition of AstriCon. The last was presented by Sean Michael Kerner, "The Future of Open Source VoIP is Asterisk 1.6" in 2007.

As we all know, Asterisk is the forefront of Open source telephony and I have been attending the conference every year since the beginning. This is the place where telephony developers, telephony and unified communications experts, resellers and VARs, and Asterisk enthusiasts come together to gain and share knowledge.

"Asterisk has been an industry-changing open source project that has grown with the support of an active and thriving community, We believe that the news we're sharing at AstriCon will further the disruption of the communications industry, as Asterisk did with its original release, and demonstrate Digium's commitment to taking open source communications in an exciting direction for the Asterisk Community." said Fleming, who has helped manage and define Asterisk's direction since he joined Digium in 2005

You can find additional information and open registration are available at http://www.astricon.net.
Digium

Comcast Changes DOCSIS 3.0 Speed Tiers.

#Comcast Changes Speed Tiers http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
DSL Reports that Comcast is finallymaking changes to DOCSIS 3.0 Speed tiers. Information gained form an internal memo, the changes should DOCSIS markets pretty soon. The new line up seem to be;

Comcast's new Economy tier will be 1.5 Mbps/384 kbps, Performance will be 12 Mbps /2 Mbps, Blast will be 20 Mbps/2 Mbps and Extreme will be 50 Mbps/10 Mbps

Currently Comcast has  12/2, 16/2, 22/5, 50/10 Mbps. Perhaps it is the time to think about that Comcast WiMAX with Cable!
 Join the discussion at DSL Reports

Faster Inflight WiFi Coming To The Sky Near You.

Faster Inflight #WiFi  http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
We have written about the Go Go in flight WiFi before and I have personally experienced (winced) the service on Virgin Airlines. Winced because I wished it could have been better, but it was certainly more useful! I have not flown Airtran, the other fleet wise WiFi airline.
Andy from VoIP Watch tells us that it is going to get better. When I checked in, yes, ViaSat, a satellite communications company, is bringing us, with JetBlue, what it called next-generation Wi-Fi service on JetBlue’s 160-plane fleet. Yes I do catch flights on Jetblue. According to the plan ViaSat will launch a 130GB broadband satellite next year expanding the bandwidth for satellite-based Internet systems.

 “If you want to watch a Netflix movie or you want to download a 50-megabit file from an enterprise server, or you want to interface with media-intensive type applications, this will make it economical,”voiced Richard A. Baldridge, ViaSat’s president and chief operating officer.

 All in all, the service is expanding and it is good news for those who fly and have to resolve to type those long reports during even longer flights. Now you can actually do some work :) like on San Francisco New York Virgin flights.Inflight WiFi should be natural, if you can call it natural.
NYT via VoIP Watch

HTC ADR6325, Verizon Branded Android 2..2 Device!

HTC ADR6325 #ADR6325 http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Verizon seem to be full of Droids these days. They have got another device, from HTC, lined up for their Droid 2 Line which includes the Droid R2-D2, a Star Wars themed phone. HTC ADR6325, is a full-QWERTY Android 2.2 handset sporting a 5 megapixel camera, micro-SD card slot, SIM card for global roaming without having to hack the device.
BGR  has more images of the device

VoIP Hacker, Edwin Pena, Sentenced To 10 Years!

VoIP Hacker, Edwin Pena, Sentenced http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
The master mind of the case of VoIP Hackers, Edwin Andres Pena that broke in to VoIP routers all over the world, who disappeared three years ago, has been sentenced for ten years in the prison.

Robert Moore, " Not so bright VoIP Hacker goes to Prison ", the other culprit was sentenced in 2007 for the same crime,  breaking into 15 telecommunications companies and hundreds of businesses worldwide. In addition to the prison term, Pena was sentenced to three years of supervised release and was ordered to be deported following the conclusion of his sentence since he is a Venezuelan citizen. Pena was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $1,012,311.

Eweek

The DROID™ R2-D2™, Star Wars Astromech Droid In Some Verizon Stores!

The DROID™ R2-D2™, Star Wars Astromech Droid  From Verizon #DROIDR2D2 http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/

One of the famous Star Wars droid duo (the other one being C3PO) is in Verizon stores and it seems that DROID™ R2-D2™ is a Special Edition DROID 2 coming this Thursday, September 30th to a Verizon location near you!
The DROID™ R2-D2™ With a graphic design depicting Astromech Droid from the Star Wars™ Saga, the DROID™ R2-D2™ by Motorola will be packaged in a custom box resembling carbonite and come with a Star Wars media dock and wired stereo headset. Exclusive content comes pre-loaded on the special edition smartphone, including:

• R2-D2 notification sounds and ringtones
• Four live wallpapers
• R2-D2 Clock Widget
• “The Best of R2-D2” video with the original Cantina music
• Exclusive Binoculars App

But if you do not have means to get the new phone because you have a Droid already, Star Wars Mobile App Available for All Customers with Android 2.1 PhonesTo celebrate 30 years since the film hit theaters, customers with Android devices running Android 2.1 or higher will soon be able to get the Empire Strikes Back app from Android Market™. The app, only for Verizon Wireless customers, allows Jedi Masters to browse, preview and download Star Wars content related to Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back. Verizon Wireless customers can access premium Star Wars content for a one-time charge of $2.99.
The Star Wars mobile app will have the following features and content:

• Bounty Hunt Visual ID: Find and capture images around the Star Wars universe to unlock hidden content
• Sound and Photo Gallery
• Live Wallpapers:
  
  • Blast the Probe Droid
  • Luke Balancing Yoda
  • Navigating the Asteroid Field
  • Watch Bespin’s Cloud City
• Trivia Challenge: Answer trivia questions about the Empire Strikes Back
• Widgets

The DROID™ R2-D2™ by Motorola will be available for $249 after a $100 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement. Customers will need to subscribe to a Nationwide Talk plan or a Nationwide Talk & Text plan (beginning at $39.99 monthly access) and an Email and Web for Smartphone plan (beginning at $29.99 for unlimited monthly access). Customers will receive the rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted.
For more information on DROID™ R2-D2™ by Motorola, go to www.droiddoes.com/r2d2.

Hurry

C2 VoIP Patent Fails In Obviousness Test., Says USPTO

#EFF C2 VoIP Patent Fails In Obviousness Test.http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
In its war against worst patents, EFF has scored a minor but very important victory against one of the top ten worst patents in EFF’s Patent Busting Project,, USPTO has agreed that C2 Patent in question, “Method and Apparatus for Implementing a Computer Network/Internet Telephone System,” does not pass the obviousness test.
This is not a final decision by USPTO as it  needs to wait for C2 response and make an argument in support of it's patent. VoIP Patents
EFF Anouncement via FreeSWITCH

Clear Coverage Maps, Shows You The Nearst Tower!

#Clear Coverage Maps http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Clear has added some more information to their coverage maps. For instance, if you were wondering "hen will Clear cover my city?" Now the future coverage maps will show a clear log in black if the service will arrive within 3 months.

 The maps also could be switched between 4G and 3G coverage as well. But the best info I got was,

We highly recommend that you apply at your job for relocation to Honolulu so you can experience using 4G while cruising the Pacific Ocean. 

Yes, I always wanted to sail.!

Some T-Mobile Android Devices To Get Wi-Fi Calling Via UMA!

#T-Mobile #UMA Give Android Devices Wi-Fi Calling! http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Armed with leaked employee training materials, Tmonews has announced that T-Mobile is planing to offer WiFi Calling on a number of Android Mobile phones, via Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) technology in the future. UMA provides a pathway to GSM and GPRS mobile services over unlicensed spectrum technologies, including Bluetooth and 802.11, WiFI.
But it seems there are some misgivings according to Tmonews, this UMA service will not hand off between Wi-Fi and T-Mobile's cellular network. Also not all Android devices will get the service and watch out those OTA's. Your device might get an update!
TmoNews

World Business VoIP services forecast 2008 - 2015, It Is Trending Up.

VoIP services forecast 2008 - 2015 http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
According to  ABI Research, VoIP markets across the globe seems to be healthy. The economic down turn may actually have helped the trend with business' looking to cut costs from every corner. The report, ABI Research’s new study, Business VoIP Services focuses on global VoIP Market, covering VoIP integrated access, SIP trunking, hosted IP-PBX/IP Centrex and managed IP-PBX services, is set to double over the next five years, is believed to exceed $20 billion by 2015,
“The trend of companies outsourcing their communications infrastructure has taken off in earnest, as enterprise decision-makers look for cost savings without having to compromise on features and functionality, Among VoIP access technologies, SIP trunking, with its promise of trunk consolidation, centralized management and administration, and application federation across enterprises, has seen considerable growth in terms of installed base and revenues in the last 12 – 18 months.”commented senior analyst Subha Rama.
“Overall, the growth momentum seen in 2009 was sustained in the first half of 2010 as companies continued to shy away from capital investments, opting, instead, for the OPEX model of hosted VoIP services.” .Rama adds, 
The forecasts suggest a 13% CAGR in terms of revenues and 19.6% CAGR in terms of lines between 2010 and 2015, despite growing competition from low-cost providers and price pressures in the market

Press Release

"A Digital Media Primer for Geeks ", The Technical Foundations Of Modern Digital Media.

"A Digital Media Primer for Geeks " http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
For those who are unfamiliar with Xiph.org, the Xiph.Org Foundation established to protect the foundations of Internet multimedia from control by private interests. Xiph.org aim to support and develop free, open protocols and software to serve the public, developer, and business markets, basically everyone on the planet. Christopher "Monty" Montgomery, Red Hat engineer is the founder of the Xiph.Org project.

 The first video from Xiph.Org,  presents the technical foundations of modern digital media via a half-hour video that you could watch or watch online.(Inevitable YouTube version which I found is below, but please visit Xiph.org, to learn more about the organization) of information. It takes one through what some call, "a Uni lecture I never got but really wanted.. I have had enough university courses on the subject but I enjoyed the video very much. Perhaps it was the presentation and the efforts, and technology behind the video.
"A Digital Media Primer for Geeks" takes one through a brief history of digital media, on tothe sampling theorem,followed by a very detailed tour of low level audio and video characterization and formatting. As the title mentions, it is intended for the technically oriented and works as an introduction to video coding, and the video itself shows us that great videos could be done with totally open sourced technology. The video did not use any proprietary means to produce the video.
SInce it is a long video, you can download and watch at your leisure, which I did. But since it is there, I am also pointing to YT video. The Xiph.org has the video 360P, 480P and 720P and provides Chapter selection and subtitles in English and French.
Xiph.org , A Digital Media Primer for Geeks.
Written by: Christopher (Monty) Montgomery and the Xiph.Org Community
Intro, title and credits music:
"Boo Boo Coming", by Joel Forrester
Performed by the Microscopic Septet
Used by permission of Cuneiform Records.
Original source track All Rights Reserved.
www.cuneiformrecords.com
This Video Was Produced Entirely With Free and Open Source Software:

GNU Linux Fedora Cinelerra The Gimp Audacity Postfish GstreamerVorbis Theora Icecast Speex CELT FLAC XSPF

Evolving Twitter Echosystem,

Twitter Echosystem http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Today I read an article on Twitter Blog, albeit a bit old in internet terms, that explains the current status of Twitter ecosystem from, many ways of people using the Twitter but let us just say peeking into mobile Twitter usage. Noticeably, Twitter For BlackBerry and Twitter For iPhone seems to be very busy avenues of Twitter access as you can see from above chart.
But other mediums are not to be ignored, considering the deludge od people converging at Twitter everyday, even  0.01% of that is very significant. Got to track my tweets,
Twitter Blog

Motorola MILESTONE XT720 Released In Canada By WindMobile.

Motorola MILESTONE XT720 Released In Canada http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
The under clocked then reverted back to normal, Motorola MILESTONE XT720 has been released in Canada by Wind Mobile for $430.. Specs show it to be a the one we looked at, Motorola MILESTONE XT720 and the box contains;

• Handset
• Battery
• HDMI AV cable
• Travel charger (need data cable)
• 8GB microSD card
• Wired stereo headset
• micro USB cable
• Documentation
• WIND SIM Card

The only drawback I see is the Android OS, it Android 2.1 but I guess it soon will be upgraded to Android 2.2.
You can find detailed information on Motorola Milestone XT720 and the story about Motorola updating Milestone XT720 CPU to 720MHz
here respectively
Windmobile

4G WiMAX™-ready laptops From Toshiba America.

Toshiba 4G WiMAX™-ready laptops http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Toshiba's Digital Products Division (DPD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., announced a range of premium 4G WiMAX™-ready laptops, letting users connect to the net beyond homes and  wireless hotspots. Also to cash in on the fast growing 4G WiMAX services available in 54 cities nationwide.

"A WiMAX-equipped laptop gives on-the-go consumers the connection speeds they're used to in the office or at home without the need for additional hardware," said Carl Pinto, vice president of product development, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Digital Products Division. "We are expanding our effort to provide more WiMAX-ready laptops to our line as mobile connectivity becomes even more essential for productivity and digital entertainment."

Following Toshiba  laptops will include built-in WiMAX technology curently.

Satellite A665
The Satellite® A665 laptop blends Toshiba's new Fusion® X2 styling with multimedia performance to boost high-def entertainment, productivity and creativity. Offering a 16-inch diagonal HD TruBrite® widescreen display2, a premium audio package, the latest Intel® Core™ processors and optional NVIDIA® GeForce™ graphics, as well as a suite of exclusive convenience-driven features like Sleep and Music for enjoying music through the speakers without having to power up, the Satellite A665 provides major horsepower for fast multitasking and a perfect palette for brilliant multimedia. WiMAX will be available on the Satellite A665-S6086, Satellite A665-S6094, Satellite A665-S6097 Satellite A665-S6098 and the 3D-capable Satellite A665-3DV6 models, starting at $804.99 MSRP3.

Satellite M645
The Satellite M645 laptop is a compact, versatile PC delivering robust multimedia performance, uncommon convenience and truly elegant styling. Featuring a 14-inch diagonal HD TruBrite widescreen display, the latest Intel Core processors and a premium audio package with harman/kardon® speakers and Dolby Advanced Audio™ technology, the laptop delivers a stunning mobile entertainment experience and is easy to carry. WiMAX will be available on the Satellite M645-S4063 and Satellite M645-S4070 models starting at $759.99 MSRP.

Portégé R705
The Portégé® R705-P35 epitomizes portability and power. With a 13.3-inch diagonal widescreen display, the laptop has a starting weight of just three pounds , measures about one inch thin and features a premium raised tile keyboard and a long battery life rating. Built-in Intel Wireless Display technology makes it possible for consumers to wirelessly connect the laptop to a big screen HDTV and enjoy digital content with great image clarity and amazing sound ??? at the touch of a button. The Portégé R705-P35 is priced at $899.99 MSRP.

Satellite E205
A Best Buy® Blue Label™ laptop available exclusively through the retailer, the thin and light Satellite E205-S1980 laptop now features NVIDIA® GeForce™ 310M graphics processing unit (GPU) with energy-saving Optimus™ technology. With a 14-inch diagonal LED-backlit HD TruBrite® display, the Satellite E205 is equipped with Intel Wireless Display technology, the new Intel Core i5 processor, a sleek slot-loading DVD drive and LED backlit keyboard. The Satellite E205-S1980 is priced at $1,079.99 MSRP.

Target Stores Will Carry iPads From October 3rd, 2010

Target Stores Will Carry iPads http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Target will be carrying the Apple's iPad line in their 1743 stores beginning October 3rd, 2010. The press release mentioned that they will have the entire iPad line, starting with 16GB Wi-Fi model starting at $499.99, the 32GB and 64GB Wi-Fi and the Wi-Fi+3G models.  on their shelves.

“Target is very excited to offer the revolutionary iPad to our guests nationwide, We are committed to providing our guests with the best products and we think iPad will be at the top of our guests’ holiday shopping lists.” said Mark Schindele, senior vice president, merchandising, Target.

Even though iPad is not the first computer tablet, it holds the crown at the moment. But a slew of Android Tablets and Windows 7 based tablets are encroaching the lucrative arena. Most iPad users browse the web, read and send e-mail, enjoy and share photos, watch HD videos, listen to music or play games With iBooks, many people carry their books around as well. The battery life lasting up to 10 hours, it is the perfect carry all digital pouch for many people, who are able to pay the price.
The said competition is coming up with cheaper, better (depends on your view of better) and smaller for easy handling. Perhaps Steve Jobs will drop the price when likes of  Samsung Galaxy Tab, an Android 2.2 Froyo based tablet hit the market.

Sell Your Android Apps In More Countries! Paid Apps Soon To Be Available In More Countries.

Paid Android Apps Soon To Be Available In More Countries. http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Currently only users in 9 countries listed below are allowed to purchase Android Apps from Android Market Place. Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom and United States are listed as locations where priced apps could be marketed.
Then Android developers received an email from the Android Market Team tell us that additional 5 countries will be added. The specific countries will be announced via an follow up email, in the very near future.
Only the developers in the same nine countries above are allowed to sell apps on the market. We are not sure if the developers from those new countries will be able to add paid apps.
The Email message from Android Market Team;

Hello,
We’re writing to inform you about some changes to Android Market that require your attention.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be adding paid apps support for additional countries.  If you have selected to publish your paid apps to all locations and intend to support all new locations as we expand the number of supported countries for paid apps, you don’t have to do anything.  If you have selected to publish your paid apps to all locations but intend to only target the currently supported 14 countries, please update your location selections to target these specific countries.
Please look for follow-up emails when we introduce paid apps support for specific additional countries in the coming weeks.  At that time, you’ll have the option to target these specific countries.
Thanks, and we look forward to continue working with you on Android
Market.
Sincerely,
The Android Market Team

Take Monitoring To Nest Generation With Rocksteady

Predictive monitoring with #Rocksteady. Snapvoip.blogspot.com
Most of todays monitoring systems give you information that has been and we usually run around fixing stuff already gone south. It would be really nice if there was a monitor that could predict what is going to happen. But since that is a bit difficult we would settle for something
So bunch of Googlers got together to create Rocksteady;

Rocksteady is an effort to utilize complex event process engine to analyze user defined metric. End goal is to derive root cause conclusion based on metric driven events. Rocksteady is only the metric analysis part of the whole picture, but we also present a solution including metric convention, metric sending, load balancing, and graphing that work well for us.

1. Metrics sent from hosts into rabbitmq, which would look something like 1min.juicer.system.cpu.prct_idle.dc1.pi101 82 1283192317. Read detail at metric format
2. Rocksteady subscribe to metric exchange on rabbitmq. It can also publish its own metric into rabbitmq.
3. Graphite subscribe to metric exchange on rabbitmq.
4. Rocksteady can request some historic metric from graphite.
5. Rocksteady process the metric and alert nagios.
6. Rocksteady capture some data, either raw or composite, into db.
7. Graphite data used in dashboard.
8. Rocksteady captured data used in dashboard.

The said Googlers are using the Rocksteady for monitoring opertional metrics at admob, like reasons for latency. They monitor requests per second (rps) together with a bunch of other metrics such as CPU and network traffic;

... together in a prediction algorithm such as Holt Winters to predict a confidence band for the next arriving value. We then record an event whenever metrics are outside the band more than a certain number of times in a row. This is what we call auto threshold establishment. Now, if we have a SLA we really care about, such as response time, we can set a hard threshold, say 250ms. When response time slows beyond 250ms, Rocksteady tells us whether rps, CPU or network crossed their respective thresholds. Now instead of just knowing there is a latency problem, we can also quickly pinpoint the potential cause.

You can find the Rocksteady and the related technology including to code, 'cos it is an Google Open Source effort. The design information is here.
Perhaps Facebook, who were monitoring data by gone, could use this, to prevent facebook take-downs like yesterday.

Get ready to Rocksteady - Google Open Source Blog

“Wi-Fi on steroids” Promised With FCC's Vote On White Spaces

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Yesterday FCC concluded with the final technical rules regarding the whitespaces, the empty airwaves between "broadcast" TV channels. Many people, including Google, thinks it will lead to a wide spread WiFI deployments, servicing the communities all across America. We do not hesitate to call that, “Wi-Fi on steroids”

The unique qualities of the TV white space -- unused spectrum, large amounts of bandwidth, and excellent propagation characteristics -- offer a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to provide ubiquitous wireless broadband access to all Americans. In particular, this spectrum can provide robust infrastructure to serve the needs of under-deployed rural areas, as well as first responders and others in the public safety community. Moreover, use of this spectrum will enable much-needed competition to the incumbent broadband service providers.{Specially Cable Carriers, like to be giants Comcast-NBC U Merger}

FCC already conducted WHITE SPACE PROTOTYPE TESTING, in 2008 and for several years since then, the tech industry, the public interest community, and entrepreneurs were waiting for the green light to begin innovating and building new products for these airwaves on an unlicensed basis. Some like Google even conducted their own trials.
FCC’s order issued yesterday finally sets the stage for the next generation of wireless technologies to emerge, and is an important victory for Internet users across the country.

Today’s focus is on unlicensed spectrum, which offers unique opportunities to innovators and entrepreneurs. Today’s Order marks the Commission’s first significant release of unlicensed spectrum in 25 years.
This new unlicensed spectrum will be a powerful platform for innovation. And as we’ve seen time and again, when we unleash American ingenuity, great things happen. We know from experience that unlicensed spectrum can trigger unexpected but hugely beneficial innovation. For example, years ago, there was a band of low-quality spectrum that was lying fallow. Nobody could figure out what to do with this so-called “junk band,” so the FCC decided to free it up as unlicensed spectrum.
The result was a wave of new technologies – baby monitors, cordless phones, and eventually a real game changer: Wi-Fi. Today, Wi-Fi is a multi-billion industry and an essential part of the mobile ecosystem." said the FCC Chairman Genachowski in an statement

We need to take our hats off for Chairman Genachowski and his fellow Commissioners for adopting rules that ultimately will lead to better and faster wireless broadband connections in the hands of the public. Most notable is the fact that the FCC seems to have rejected calls to enact burdensome and unnecessary constraints that would have restricted anything on these airwaves. FCC has chosen common-sense rules that will help encourage innovation, while fully safeguarding incumbent signals from interference.
Next step will be to assign administrators of the geolocation database, following up with the ground rules for its operation. Once these are accomplished, we all can expect to find devices and ways to utilize the found pathway to the NET.
FCC Announcement DOC, PDF

Samsung Galaxy Tab, an Android 2.2 Froyo based tablet Hands On Demo

http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Samsung Mobile has released what it seem to be the first official hands-on video explaining each and every key feature and benefit of the Samsung Galaxy Tab, an Android 2.2 Froyo based tablet. Samsung Mobile answers and contains information of the most frequently asked features from social networking sites. The video also presnts the value proposition of the Samsung Galaxy Tab, providing media, productivity, communication and collaboration for mobile workforce. Samsung Mobile tells us that this video doesn't contain any graphic effects.

Sonos Wireless Dock, WD100 For iPhone, iPad,

Sonos Wireless Dock, WD100 For iPhone, iPad http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Undock your iPhone / iPad and unlock your misic, keeping up the word of Sonos or breaking it, Sonos announced Sonos Wireless Dock, WD100. With this accesory iPod and iPhone owners will have the ability to play all of their stored music through Sonos ZonePlayers wirelessly, in any room in the house.

The Sonos WD100 will be available at the end of October for $119, and is compatible with iPod touch (1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation), iPod classic, iPod nano (3rd, 4th, and 5th generation), iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3G and iPhone.
"The Sonos Wireless Dock is the perfect accessory for our music loving customers who own an iPod or iPhone and want to enjoy the music stored on them in any or every room of the home," said Phil Abram, President, Sonos, Inc. "This new dock reinforces our mission to provide our customers with access to all of the music on the planet, including everything available on an iPod and iPhone in the home."
www.sonos.com.

Did The Facebook Downtime Bother You? It Bothered Us!

Facebook Downtime Bother http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Facebook experienced a 2.5 hour down time yesterday and it is the largest or longest ever downtime for the social networking giant.
It was a more than just one site going down and users were waiting for it to come up. It was more than 350,000 sites all over the globe using facebook API to connect / communicate were broken as well!
Facebook status page kept us in the dark, the same darkness they were in;

Current Status: API Latency IssuesWe are currently experiencing latency issues with the API, and we are actively investigating. We will provide an update when either the issue is resolved or we have an ETA for resolution.

We were then alerted to  to the actual problem they later explained in the post-Mortem of the issue.

The key flaw that caused this outage to be so severe was an unfortunate handling of an error condition. An automated system for verifying configuration values ended up causing much more damage than it fixed.

The intent of the automated system is to check for configuration values that are invalid in the cache and replace them with updated values from the persistent store. This works well for a transient problem with the cache, but it doesn’t work when the persistent store is invalid.

Today we made a change to the persistent copy of a configuration value that was interpreted as invalid. This meant that every single client saw the invalid value and attempted to fix it. Because the fix involves making a query to a cluster of databases, that cluster was quickly overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of queries a second.

To make matters worse, every time a client got an error attempting to query one of the databases it interpreted it as an invalid value, and deleted the corresponding cache key. This meant that even after the original problem had been fixed, the stream of queries continued. As long as the databases failed to service some of the requests, they were causing even more requests to themselves. We had entered a feedback loop that didn’t allow the databases to recover.

The way to stop the feedback cycle was quite painful - we had to stop all traffic to this database cluster, which meant turning off the site. Once the databases had recovered and the root cause had been fixed, we slowly allowed more people back onto the site.

Finally so it came back and the internet continued to function. That Mark fellow has too much power, breakup facebook!

Nexus One Getting Froyo 2.2.1 Update Via OTA And Manual Update

Nexus One Getting Froyo 2.2.1 Update #froyo221 http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
With All the updates abound, Google has decided to update their own Android, Nexus One. Accordint to the information on XDA forum, no one clearly know what this exactly mean but it seems Androot exploit is patched. There also seem to be improvements in WiFi operations.
Here are some basic information from the forum;

    * Android version: 2.2.1 (!!!!)
    * Baseband version: 32.36.00.28U_4.06.00.12_7
    * Kernel version: 2.6.32.9-27240-gbca5320
    * Android-build@apa26 #1
    * Build number: frg83

 The official release is available to download from Google Android Site (http://android.clients.google.com/packages/passion/signed-passion-FRG83-from-FRF91.c8847c98.zip)

But as with the Android community's capabilities, there were instructions and modified ROM available to download.
The senior member Devastatin tells us how to do a manual update, on an Unrooted normal (but unlocked) Nexus One;

1. Download the Android 2.2.1 firmware for the Nexus One.
2. Rename the file update.zip and copy it to your microSD card via USB. [Note: make sure the file is named update.zip and not update.zip.zip.]
3. Power down your Nexus One
4. Hold down the “Volume Down” button as you power the phone back on.
5. A screen should appear showing your phone’s system searching for various files. Scroll down to “recovery” and press the “Power” button.
6. When you see the triangle with an exclamation point symbol, press the “Power” and “Volume Up” buttons at the same time.
7. From the menu that appears, select “Apply sdcard:update.zip.”
8. When the screen displays “Install from sdcard complete” select “reboot system now” and wait for the phone to power back up. (this will take a long time)

 Now onto the Geo11m's modified or custom ROM with FRG83 update, FRF91/FRG83 Stock, Deodexed, rooted, busybox, battery %, TB alert/wake 9/24/10

 FRF91/FRG83 stock rooted
Insecure Boot
ChainsDD's Superuser app
Busybox
Deodexed
Zipaligned
Tweaked Internal Task killer
lilHermit's Trackball Alert/pro support with trackball in Succession - (updated for FRG33 v2)
Trackball Wake (thanks crimsondr for allowing me to use your mod)
Battery Percentage (Changed method in FRG33 now theme able)
BASH added for you Linux gurus.
Stock Rotating Home Screen (thanks Jr33 for his original mod)
Added Chrome to phone
Added HTC Sense Live Wallpaper
Added Samsung Galaxy S Live Wallpapers
Added Video Player
New Memo and Weather Widget - (new for FRG33 v2)
Notepad app - (new for FRG33 v2)
Tweaked framework for More OS responsiveness.
Many more tweaks I'm forgetting. - (FRG33 v2)
Desire Style home layout. - (FRG33 v2)

All gapps Updated:
GMail 2.2.1
Facebook 1.3.2
Twitter 1.0.3
Google Voice 0.4.26 - (updated for FRG33 v2)
Maps 4.5 - (updated for FRG33 v2)
StreetView 1.6.0.6 - (new for FRG33 v2)
Superuser 2.3.6 - (updated for FRG33 v2)
Voice Search 2.0.1 (with working set alarm clock)
Google Search 1.1.0.48668
GoogleGoggles 1.2 - (new for FRG33 v2)
Google Translate 1.1.1 - (new for FRG33 v2)
Chrometophone 2.1.0 - (updated for FRG33 v2)
G2 Launcher with 7 home screens - (new for FRG33 v2)

Removed Amazon MP3.

You can find the links for all connectios below.
Android Froyo 2.2.1 update thread on XDA-Developers
Geo11m's modified or custom ROM with FRG83 update thread on XDA-Developers.

T-Mobilr G2 Pre-order Now.

T-Mobile G2 http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
The latest Google phone from T-Mobile is available for Pre Order from now through October 4th. This is limited to current customers with My T-Mobile login. The price is $199.99 with a 2 year contract and $499 without one.
In addition to the online store, T-Mobile customers could also walk into a T-Mobile store and place a pre-order for the T-Mobile G2.
Here is a nudge, with a benchmark test where 800MHz T-Mobile G2 seem to be a pretty nifty! Your call!


Via Tmonews

Perils And Joys Of Flashing Droid X, To Leaked Android 2,2, Back To ? Android 2.1 And Onwards to Official Motorolla Android 2.2

Droid X and Firmware Hacking http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Engadget's Nilay Patel took me on a nice trip of Droid X hacking, giving me a heads up on the dark side of Android hacking.
He managed to flash his Droid X with Android 2.1, without backing up the firmware image, to a leaked Android 2.2 build. The process went fine and he was in business with Android 2.2 leaked.
Then came the official Motorola Android 2.2 for Droid X and Mr. Patel was wondering what to do as Motorola does not allow to upgrad/switch from Leaked Android 2.2 to Official Android 2.2 for Droid X. Only way was to down grade to Android 2.1! Alas since he did not have a backup, he checked at Google, Motorola and even with Verizon, alas, no Android 2.1 image for Droid X.
So he did the next best thing, roamed the net searching for a Android 2,1 image for Droid X, and he did find something called "the_gift.sbf." With some a bit of alcohol, (I assume) bravado, he went ahead and flashed the Droid X with the questionable image.
Looks like Gods were not on his side, His battery decided to go south during the flashing process. When he was about to give up, he found a another forum which guided him how to fool Droid to think It had a charged battery by the battery was charged by splicing the power leads from a USB cable to the power terminals in other words, Hotwire the Droid X.
Once that was done he was able to flash the Droid with unknown Droid X 2.1 image. From there he continued to Flash the phone with Official Droid X 2.2 firmware from Motorola and he then went to write the good article and shake his fists at Google's openness.
So go ahead and read his article but if you are doing any of these hacking! make sure, you have a backup of running rom, double check the battery level as Driod X doesn't charge when it's in bootloader mode.
After that if you have time go scold Google as well.
Entertain yourselves at Engadget above image is also from engadget.

What Is In A Truphone Ring! They Indicate If Your Call Is A Free VoIP Call

Subtle Secrets Of A #Truphone Ring http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
If you are a Truphone user, there lot more information hidden/accompanying the calling tone. Truphone tells us that these are meant to be subtle. The core benefit of the Truphone ring is in the first instance just to signal that your call is definitely going via Truphone so you can be sure you are benefiting from VoIP rates. And other indicators will tell you if it is a free VoIP call.

Redsn0w 0.9.6 Beta For iOS 4.0, 4.1 Released

#Redsn0w 0.9.6 Beta For iOS 4.0, 4.1http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
iPhone Dev Team's latest redsn0w for the iPhone3G and iPod Touch 2G sporting Apple Firmware 4.1 or 4.0 is ready for tasting or any other use. The iPhone Dev Team tells us that this uses the same pwnage2 DFU-mode exploit that they were using since long time ago. They also mention that Apple does not know more than they knew already, with this iPhone Jailbreak.

IF YOU USE THE ULTRASN0W UNLOCK, PLEASE WAIT FOR PWNAGETOOL TO SUPPORT 4.1. DO NOT USE REDSN0W.

Because it is not wise as you might lose ultrasn0w unlock (possibly forever), because you have to have updated to official iOS 4.1, in order to use Redsn0w 0.9.6 Beta.


Only the Mac OS X x86 version available as of now because the Windows version needs further testing. Keep watching iPhone Dev Team site or here for Windows version, as it will come as soon as the bugs are ironed out.
Another note mentioned by the team is that

if you have an “MC” model of the ipt2g, your 4.1 jailbreak will be tethered…sorry! (Consider rolling back to a FW supported by jailbreakme.com or spiritjb.com) 

The Redsn0w 0.9.6 BETA supports and needs following:

• 
  
  iPhone 3G and iPod touch 2G only (for now)
• 
  
  Mac OS X x86 only (for now)
• 
  
  4.1 or 4.0 firmware from Apple

Once you have updated your device to 4.1 or 4.0, then do the following to get your iDevice jailbroken:

1. 
   
   Launch the beta redsn0w 0.9.6b1
2. 
   
   Select your stock 4.1 or 4.0 ipsw (you've already used this to update your device to 4.1 or 4.0)
3. 
   
   Select “Install Cydia” and click “Next”. Use DFU mode to install the jailbreak.

Note: If you choose to “Enable battery percentage”, you actually toggle that off and on via Settings→General→Usage.

More info and the actual Redsn0w 0.9.6 Beta download;
The iPhone Dev Team
or
More robust web services
MussleNerd
Happy Jailbreaks!

FacePhone, The Facebook Phone, May Be, No, Yes And It Goes On

FacePhone, The Facebook Phone, http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Since TechCrunch broke the news on the Facebook Phone, news has been running amok regarding the Facephone.  First was facebook announcement, "No facebook phone". Then facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was interviewed by TechCrunch which brought out;

Jason Kincaid: So, it sounds like a customized version of Android seems like the best thing, the deepest integration you could do without building your own operating system.
Mark Zuckerberg: Yeah, and I mean…
Michael Arrington: Is that putting words in your mouth?
Mark Zuckerberg: No, I mean, we’ve looked a bunch of different technical things.

But things are getting warmer now with Bloomberg reporting the same INQ phone that was mentioned, will be the FacePhone and will hit the Europe first before coming to US, through perhaps, AT&T. INQ is said to be running Android based OS but TC says the Android OS might be modified for "deeper Facebook integration".
I think, at the end parents will have a way to escape from buying those teenagers, expensive iPhones. INQ those deals Facebook.
Techcrunch

Free Online Storage From DropBox,

Free Online Storage From DroBox http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
First it was Techcrunch who suggested the free online storage from DropBox. I suggested the storage to some college bound youngsters,  who wanted to have backup place for their college work etc. But I did not set one up for myself.
Today I saw Tom Keating also suggesting the Dropbox via Twitter, so I thought of giving it a go. and I registered for an account. Now I have up to 2GB free online storage for anything I want to store, music, backups, files in transit etc.
If you are running Windows, it integrates with Windows Explorer (Mac, and Linux as well) . Any files you put into Dropbox will be available, instantly on all computers that have Dropbox installed. on the go, you can access your files from Dropbox website, from your mobile device or another computer.
From Dropbox;

The Dropbox Desktop Application is software that watches a folder on your
desktop computer and syncs any changes to the web and to your other
computers.
The Dropbox Website allows you to access your files on any computer from
a web browser. You can also use the Dropbox website to share your files or
folders with others.
The Dropbox mobile website and Dropbox for mobile devices allow you
to connect to your Dropbox from your pocket, so you can take your files
with you wherever you go.

Go get your DropBox.

AsteriskNOW 1.7.1 With Add-on Installer Module For FreePBX Is Ready For You.

AsteriskNOW 1.7.1 http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Rod Montgomery recently announced that AsteriskNOW 1.7.1 (Wow, that took a long time to release, nevertheless we are happy!) has been released. This time it has something up the sleeve or trunk, a new module for FreePBX that allows installation of Digium add-on software from within the AsteriskNOW interface. Getting Digium’s G729 codec, Fax for Asterisk, HPEC, or Skype for Asterisk. We’ve also made some changes to make AsteriskNOW even friendlier for newcomers to the Asterisk community.
With AsteriskNOW, you can get among other things;

• VoIP Gateway
• Skype Gateway
• IP PBX
• Call Center ACD
• Conference Bridge

• IVR Server
• Voicemail System
• Call Recorder
• Fax Server
• Speech Server

The DAHDI configuration module and the above modules make Asterisk administration even easier for Asterisk Gurus in a hurry or a newcomer looking to learn. We have been running AsteriskNOW a long time, so much so that this time we even decided to change the machine that it was running, a pentium 4 machine with a newer and speedier AMD Phenom II machine. Like we did,  Download AsteriskNOW run it in a virtual machine or on a dedicated machine. Either way you will enter the future of VoIP IP Telephony, with ease.

Comcast - NBC U Merger, Need To Be Guarded By Proper Conditions

Comcast - NBC U Merger http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Even though they have even aligned with the Tea-Party,they are not in it for public interest notes scrippsnews;

By opting for corporate control of the Internet rather than government regulation, Tea Party activists may be acting against their own best interests, say people knowledgeable about the fight.
Last month, many of the groups represented at Glenn Beck's rally at the Lincoln Memorial, including Tea Party activists and Americans for Prosperity members, wrote to the Federal Communications Commission asking it to abandon attempts to regulate the Internet.

GigaOm has a nice article on the subject as well.

"The Comcast/NBCU merger is aimed right at competition — avoiding any series of steps that might result in having dumb (but big) pipes serving the areas where Comcast now has dominion, and avoiding having Comcast’s pipe itself made dumb. If the merger goes through as Comcast proposes, the new NBCU will have the power in Comcast’s market areas (where it routinely has a 60 percent-plus share of local pay-TV customers) to raise other pay-TV providers’ (satellite, small cable, telephone, nascent online distributors) costs of doing business substantially.

Imagine a big pipe coming into everyone’s house in a given market area controlled by one actor. Now imagine that you want to aim an online business – particularly an online video business – at that area. You’ll be subject to the whims of the carrier, and there will be no countervailing force to protect your ability to reach your customers. Maybe a small portion of that pipe will be reserved for traditional Internet access, but maybe not, and what’s reserved won’t be very fast or very standardized. Comcast wants to build a moat around its business so that it can avoid being treated like a commodity transport provider, and the addition of NBCU content will make it far easier for Comcast to make this possible."

If not regulated with conditions properly, Comcast-NBCU's post-merger market share and pricing power certainly will let COMCAST/NBCU decide what people can view, What the quality is, how fast the pipe that serve it and lastly but not least how that market need to pay for the privilege.
Guarantee of a competitive and fair market for Internet and cable television content could only be achieved by placing proper conditions on the merger.
All the links via Speedmatters.

Eight Years Of Google News

Eight Years Of Google News http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
Beginning in September 22, 2002, Google news started to turn pages, and I basically stopped turning any news paper pages.
What started as an English language news portal is now has turned in to 72 editions in 30 languages. I read at least four editions in 4 languages, non of which I am really good at!

All these were results of a team led by Krishna Bharat, founder and engineering head of Google News. The idea stemmed out of need for real news after the September 11, 2001, he was stuck in New Orleans at the time.
"a lot of time to think about current events and news and trying to get out of there,I came back here and said, 'I know how to extract content from news sites, how can I make this process of understanding much more improved?'" Bharat has mentioned in a recent interview with CNET.
The eight year ride was not that easy either, with news publishers complaining about drain of their visitors while others wondered, if their news will get included. But it has come a long way and like I, countless others all over the globe relies on Google News to get their news.
Speaking of the future of Google News, Krishna Bharat has said,

"The future of Google News is better personalization and better social input," Yes word of mouth and friends amount to a lot of news we hear!
Cnet article

Google News Blog: Google News turns eight