Unified Communications

Unified communications news, solutions, reviews and analysis, covering VoIP, videoconferencing, messaging, and collaboration.

The enemy of SMS is my ... ?

Posted May 14, 2012 - 10:58 am

As previously noted in this space, text messaging, or SMS, is a scam and it needs to die. I suggested that Google Voice, Kik Messenger, and Apple’s iMessage could help kill it off. Yet it’s really a fourth, much more obvious service that will be the death of SMS.
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Screen-sharing BlackBerrys, face-tracking Apple TVs, and more

Posted May 9, 2012 - 9:09 am

BlackBerry 10 devices could let you show people what you’re seeing on your screen. Apple’s purported HDTV offering could see what you’re looking at. And you may not see any Verizon representatives pushing an iPhone on customers any time soon. This week’s Rumor Roundup is all about vision.
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Why will IT STILL not support BYOD?

Posted May 8, 2012 - 4:08 pm

Despite years of experience showing cloud and mobile computing not only increase productivity, but make end users happier and reap otherwise-lost hours of work while employees are at home, many IT shops still won't support work using personal devices.
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Cell test: T-Mobile rules, AT&T is better than you think, Verizon is overhyped

Posted April 18, 2012 - 12:51 pm

Cell-phone carriers rely on reputation to sell their service, because they won't let customers test one network against another. PCWorld did test them, and found the networks everyone thinks are the best and the fastest are far slower than one barely known for its service at all.
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Clearing up a few myths about the newly renovated Chrome OS

Posted April 16, 2012 - 12:34 pm

Now that Google’s released a developer preview of Chrome OS’ almost entirely new look, it feels like a good time to do some Q&A.
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'You can't break anything,' or how intimidation affects tablet use

Posted April 13, 2012 - 11:43 am

Perhaps the best way to encourage people to fiddle, discover, and stretch out isn’t to provide them with a completely customizable system, but with something that they know they can’t break.
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New iPhone travel app aims to save right whales from Angry Ships

Posted April 12, 2012 - 1:25 pm

Right whales are big, slow, and dumb enough they don't realize colliding with a ship will kill them, not the ship. NOAA's new iPhone app helps ships avoid them instead. It's not Angry Birds, but if you travel in ways that make you worry about crashing into whales, it might work for you.
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Google Nexus tablet delays, iPhone 5 chipset testing, and another no-Google-needed Android

Posted April 11, 2012 - 9:10 am

April is the cruelest month, breeding iPhone 5 rumors out of the (temporarily) dead gadget realm, mixing memories of gee-whiz product launches with desire for some competition, and stirring inventory issues with overseas rumor. Let’s get into it.
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Denials don't fix Facebook security flaw on iOS, Android

Posted April 6, 2012 - 9:45 am

Facebook is trying to spin the news of a security flaw in its smartphone apps that would allow malwareto steal credentials, which are stored unencrypted and unsecured. The hack works on any iOS or Android phone, researchers say, not just those stolen or jailbroken, as FB claimed.
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Lab accident could lead to roll-up smartphone screens

Posted March 30, 2012 - 12:27 pm

OLED displays could be lighter, brighter and less power-hungry than LEDs, but have been too expensive and too short-lived to be practical. That might change after two Ph.D. candidates realized a cleaning solvent had a revolutionary effect on the OLEDs they were building.
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Google Drive, Google Voice partners, and the HTC One X in pictures

Posted March 28, 2012 - 8:59 am

It’s tough when rumors are actually vetted, confirmed, and realistic, because then they’re not very exciting rumors. We see that paradox this week in a few different ways, with Google drives, Google Voice partnerships, Windows 8 release candidates, and HTC’s hotly anticipated One X.
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How do you organize your phone home screens?

Posted March 27, 2012 - 11:24 am

Let’s open the doors to bragging, debate, show-and-tell, and all the other stuff that makes for a lot more fun than “Oracle's Google Android patent lawsuit cut down to size”.
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What does Google want out of your Voice?

Posted March 23, 2012 - 11:03 am

Why is managing every single phone call for you so attractive to Google? There’s a cynical guess, a reasonable line you can draw through their previous voice-based initiatives, and then there’s just a question mark the size of a server farm.
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Lawsuits call Google privacy change a felony, not a simple business decision

Posted March 22, 2012 - 12:34 pm

Two lawsuits take Google to task over the March 1 policy change that pulls data from almost all Google's services into a single data pool. Customers claim the change violated a different expectation of privacy in each service with no chance to opt out without dropping the service.
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HTC phones with free MOG music, Galaxy Nexus on smaller carriers, and Windows Phone on Sprint: your rumor roundup

Posted March 21, 2012 - 9:27 am

With the iPad 3 out, the rumor mill is mostly focused on Android, particularly on the upcoming swath of LTE-enabled phones due out soon. Because those phones have to get their radios approved, roaming agreements confirmed, and their newer chipsets tested, more news than normal leaks out about them than is usual. And that’s great for us!
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How InfoChimps plans to fill the gap in the big data market

Posted March 19, 2012 - 9:03 am

InfoChimps has lots of strategic data to sell, but its true ambition is in helping companies manage and understand their own growing Big Data sets.
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CIA director just can't wait to get your appliances to spy on you

Posted March 16, 2012 - 4:49 pm

Adding intelligence to heating and cooling systems, appliances, cars and almost anything else will let them respond to owners more quickly, but will also let spies use them as Internet-connected sensors that can be taken over like zombies in a botnet.
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Intel's weird TV play, a more-square Lenovo tab, and ceramic Galaxy SIII?

Posted March 14, 2012 - 11:02 am

Some interesting stuff has bubbled up this week, including an Intel rumor that makes no sense! Please to enjoy this week’s mobile-ish roundup.
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$200 Google Nexus tablet, unlikely iOS 6 rumors, and Netflix on your cable box

Posted March 7, 2012 - 11:51 am

The iPad 3, or maybe the iPad HD, will be announced today, and then we’ll all have to get back to whatever it is we did before we started debating the structural properties of LTE chips and tablet chassis. In the meantime, here’s a handful of things to speculate that do not involve Retina Displays or magical new features.
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Dropbox is valuable because it's a screwdriver, not a multi-tool

Posted March 2, 2012 - 3:35 pm

When someone goes and does something like declare Dropbox a future $40 billion company, the urge to pop the bubble proves basically irresistible.
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Wreck of undersea cables shows the backhoe isn't the only natural enemy of the Internet

Posted February 28, 2012 - 5:32 pm

It will take three weeks to repair major cables off the coast of East Africa after three broke mysteriously and one was snapped by a dragging anchor. Few Internet cables survive close brushes with backhoes or shovels, but under 650 feet of water, you'd think they'd be safe.
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Why did Google pay for Motorola to be behind a 'firewall'?

Posted February 27, 2012 - 1:46 pm

Google says it will keep Motorola's phones at arm's length at all costs. And Motorola's patents are tricky to enforce. So now what?
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Your phone carrier: out of space, getting restless

Posted February 24, 2012 - 10:08 am

Cellphone carriers now have millions of tiny computers constantly looking for connections, and the narrow bandwidth chunks they were set up with aren’t cutting it anymore.
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Office on the iPad rumors, a bulkier iPad 3 case, and desktop-ready Android?

Posted February 22, 2012 - 8:45 am

Why would Microsoft deny that Office is coming to the iPad, when it's one of their most exciting upcoming releases? That and other mobile-centric rumors, rounded up and broken down.
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Can an Android phone run without Google?

Posted February 20, 2012 - 11:51 am

So, how, exactly, do you trick Google into giving you the foundation without allowing them to look through any windows? Here’s how to set up an almost entirely non-Google-powered Android, in practice.
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