Gizmo takes away USA dial in numbers without notice

Update:
The service is back. Looks like it was a minor glitch on Gizmo side. All is well.
Ok, this may be an after effect of Google acquiring Gizmo. Gizmo users including me lost their USA dial in numbers. I had forwarded my Google Voice Number to Gizmo dial number and was surprised to see it not working. The same number was working couple of weeks back. It was Andy who figured it out and I did my own testing to figure out that I lost my number. This doesn’t make sense. At least the least I would expect from Gizmo is to inform all their users about the new change. It never happened. Maybe, Gizmo doesn’t care about the existing users anymore. They already made the moolah. I would definitely not recommend such service/product to anyone in future.

As Andy points out, Maybe Gizmo’s integration with Google Voice is really happening and we can expect to see some major updates to the gizmo client. Let me know what you guys think.

Iphone Multitasking on its way

Yes, Multitasking is rumored to be part of iPhone 4.0 software . So this should silence some of the critics complaining about no multitasking support compared to slew of other smart phones. And maybe Martin Cooper, Inventor of Cell Phone who gave up his iPhone for Motorola Droid will have a change of heart:-) . Initially Even I was not happy about no Multitasking. However, I jailbroke my iPhone and got the background application support enabled. So it is not a big deal for me. I guess it makes more sense to have multitasking support on iPad and since the OS is the same for both iPhone and iPad, Apple might have decided to open up for both platform. So if this rumor turns out be true, apple is taking on the competitors features seriously. Amen! Competition brings the best out of any product and this is a classic example.



From an iPhone OS perspective, it’s not a technical Flaw as some critics mention. The OS is capable of supporting Multitasking. There are already bunch of apps that run in the background like phone, SMS, iPod, email, Voice Recorder etc. The same is not true with third-party applications. These applications are prevented to run in the background by iPhone security model, which closes current apps whenever the user returns to the Home screen or accepts an incoming call. In addition, Apple was worried about the performance of the apps and resources required to run multiples apps in the background. For Gaming apps, it requires lot of processing power and with multi-tasking, don’t know if the performance would be on par with what we are seeing currently.

According to Apple Insider, Apple plans to deliver a multi-tasking manager that leverages interface technology already bundled with its Mac OS X operating system.

We have been hearing rumors about Multitasking for quite sometime now, Hope it turns out to be true this time.

Apple goes after HTC with Patent Lawsuit

So it’s not about the superior iPhone features that a handset vendor needs to worry about. Apples is unleashing a new weapon, Patent Lawsuit . The first one to dodge the bullet is HTC. Today, apple filed Patent Infringement for not one but 20. Yes, your read it right, HTC is in violation of 20 Apple Patents related to iPhone's user interface, underlying architecture and hardware. Too me it looks like HTC was made a scapegoat and the bigger fish in this whole fiasco is Google. Apple is indirectly targeting Google’s Android without naming them in the lawsuit. Some of the patents refer to OS and Object Oriented Design, which clearly has something to do with Google’s Android than HTC.
The patent Troll is getting murkier, earlier it was patent lawsuit between Apple and Nokia and now it’s HTC. I guess companies use Patent lawsuit to arm-twist competitors, and in this case it could be more than that. It may take couple of years before anything can come out of this lawsuit. Maybe in the meanwhile HTC and Google will find alternative solution for some of the Patents Apple has.

For folks interested in more details. Please find below the complaint embedded( Thanks to docstoc)

Apple vs HTC -

Engadget has an excellent summary of each patent

Skype First big mobile move with Verizon

Today at Mobile World Congress, Skype and Verizon announced that Skype will be made available on Verizon Wireless smart phones in March. What this mean is that users with data plans can make Unlimited Skype-to-Skype call, send messages and see each others presence. So Users with unlimited data package can pretty much call other Skype users on mobile for free unlimited. Iam sure there is some kind of revenue sharing between Skype and Verizon or Skype could be using Verizon network for PSTN /Mobile termination. So this should generate additional revenue for Verizon.

The Skype client on Verizon Mobile can be used for following:
• make and receive unlimited Skype-to-Skype voice calls to any Skype user around the globe on America’s most reliable wireless network;
• call international phone numbers at competitive Skype Out calling rates;
• send and receive instant messages to other Skype users; and
• remain always connected with the ability to see friends’ online presence.

So this is quite big news for couple of reason. Verizon which is more conservative when it comes to opening up their network has chosen Skype to be part of their network. In addition, They are allowing Skype client to use their data network for Skype to Skype calls, sending messages and presence. All these years, operators made sure Skype was not eating into their lunch. Now, things have changed. As Om suggest , the landscape of mobile is changing and operators don’t call the shot anymore. It’s the consumers who call the shot (That’s Right!), so allowing subscribers to make Skype calls from mobile is giving some incentive to the existing subscribers to stay with Verizon. With iPhone, AT&T is growing crazy and lot of new subscribers signing up everyday just to own an iPhone. I don’t think Verizon has any handset that can directly compete with iPhone. So the new strategy might be to provide more useful apps than compete with iPhone directly. Maybe Apple will work with Verizon in future, till then they will surprise users with some cool new apps.

Initially, Skype mobile will be available on following 3G smartphones with data plans, including the BlackBerry® Storm™ 9530, Storm2™ 9550, Curve™ 8330, Curve™ 8530, 8830 World Edition and Tour™ 9630 smartphones, as well as DROID by Motorola, DROID ERIS™ by HTC and Motorola DEVOUR™.

Is this an exclusive deal with Verizon or Will AT&T follow suit, don’t know yet. Stay tuned, will dig more.

Nokia: Sorry Apple we beat you by a mile

Sorry folks, you won’t believe this but it’s true that Nokia’s handset sale is way ahead of any other competitor in the world. Last year alone, Nokia sold a total of 432 million handsets, which is 17 times more than what apple sold last year. Apple sold a total of 25 million handset last year. It’s sad to see Motorola loose the ground, they stand at number 5. In fact the faired poor compared to the year 2008 in which they sold 8% of handset.

According to Communities Dominate blog , Here are the TOP 10 Handset makers.

ALL HANDSET MAKERS TOP 10:

1 - Nokia . . . . . . . 432 Million 38 %
2 - Samsung . . . . 227 Million 20 %
3 - LG . . . . . . . . . . 117 Million 10 %
4 - SonyEricsson . . . 57 Million 5 %
5 - Motorola . . . . . . . 55 Million 5 %
6 - ZTE . . . . . . . . . . 50 Million 4.5%
7 - Kyocera . . . . . . . 45 Million 4 %
8 - RIM . . . . . . . . . 35 Million 3.5%
9 - Sharp . . . . . . . . 29 Million 2.6 %
10 - Apple . . . . . . . . 25 Million 2.2 %
Others . . . . . . . . . . 56 Million 5%
TOTAL . . . . . . . . 1,130 Million (1.13 Billion)

From the above data you can see where Apple stands. It has a total of 2.2% market share compared to 38% share by Nokia. From a revenue standpoint iam not sure if Nokia made more than Apple considering the high price of iPhones. In addition, Steve jobs claimed they made more money than any other handset vendor in the world. Sounds like a stretch.

Nokia leads the pack even in the Smartphone arena, Apple stands at Number 3.

From a Smartphone standpoint:
1 - Nokia . . . . 68 Million 39%
2 - RIM . . . . . 35 Million 20%
3 - Apple . . . . 25 Milllion 15%
4 - HTC . . . . . 8 Million 5%
5 - Others . . . 35 Million 21%
Total . . . . . . 175 Million

So looks like all those people who doubted the capability of Nokia to withstand the newcomers like Apple and Google, you are wrong. Nokia is ready for the game and is doing good compared to all their competitors. In addition,Nokia is all set to open source their flag ship Symbian OS this Thursday

For more details, check out this blog

Apple approved 3G VoIP on iPhone

With the iPad launch today, apple had a change of heart towards VoIP apps, they approved 3G VoIP. Earlier there VoIP apps were restricted to use only WI-FI instead of AT&T wireless data network (aka 3G network). According to the press release , Apple has updated the iPhone developer SDK to allow VoIP over cellular networks. So with the latest update, iCall app, a VoIP app that runs on IPhone and iTouch was approved by Apple to use 3G network for voice. This is the first and only VoIP application that functions on the iPhone and iPod Touch over cellular 3G networks.

I just made a call using iCall app and the call was successful without any glitch. The call quality was good. No Complains.


I guess the timing of this announcement coincides well with the iPad launch. The iPad supports Wi-Fi with an inbuilt speaker and microphone. So it makes perfect sense to allow users to make and receive VoIP calls from iPad.

I know many folks(Here and Here ) in the industry have complained about the voice quality and the issue with Voice over 3G network. . Here is my take on this- VoIP over 3G network should be perfectly ok with respect to voice quality. The voice quality depends on the bandwidth and the type of Codec used by the applications. So depending on the bandwidth available, there are codec’s that require less that 5 Kbit/s,which is way too low compared to the bandwidth available on 3G network. In short, I don’t see this has a big issue. (I will write a detailed technical article on why Voice over 3G is possible with good QOS. Off course it depends on the coverage.).

So this is definitely good news to all the VoIP applications like Skype, Truphone, and Numbuzz etc.

Google Voice on iPhone, Voice call Trick revealed

Yes, Google voice team found a way to provide Google Voice feature to all iPhone and Palm WebOS users via HTML5 interface. All you need to do is open your browser and type the mobile URL “ m.google.com/voice” , enter your Google Voice Credentials and you are all set to use Google Voice features. Sorry Apple you can’t block Google Voice this time. From an UI standpoint, the browser client looks pretty darn good with some limitations.


Using the browser client, you can:
• Initiate Voice Calls
• Send SMS
• Listen to Voicemail
• Update your Google Voice settings

Some details about the Telco trick:

For initiating Voice call, Google does a Telco trick here. Here is how the calling works
• You enter the number using the dial pad
• When u enter dial, the UI shows two pop up window
• Dialed number and a message “ Please press Call below to connect to Google Voice
• There is another popup windows, which has two buttons “Cancel” and “Call” with a temporary number allocated by Google
• Once you press Call button, the native iPhone call window will show up and your call will get connected to the number you entered.

Google allocates a temporary telephone number( Here's my temp number allocated for the call - +1(512) 850-4666 ), which you need to dial to connect to the number that you entered using the dial pad. I did a reverse lookup on the temporary number and found out that the number belongs to Level 3 Communications. The mapping of dialed number to the temporary number is done every time you make a call. I tried calling different numbers and for all the numbers same temporary number was allocated. So I guess Google is sending a data message to the server with the dialed number information every time you make a call. The mapping is temporary. When I tried calling the number from my iPhone’s recent dialed list, the call failed. So this proves that the number is temporary. However, if I leave the browser immediately after I see the “Call” popup button, and dial the temporary number manually then the call gets connected to the number I entered in the dial screen. I guess Google server is probably running a timer within which the user should press the “Call” button. If the timer expires, the temporary number to dialed number mapping is deleted.

Here is a video on how it works on the Mobile :

Apple tablet launch confirmed on CNBC

Oh Boy, McGraw-Hill’s CEO just made a mockery of the tablet surprise. He confirmed in the below video (check out at 2.50 sec) that Apple will announce tablet tomorrow (Jan 27). Looks like he just screwed up the surprise Steve jobs was planning for so many years. Nevertheless, now that the cat is out the bag, we just need to wait for the technical details. This video is definitely gone make Steve Jobs MAD!



Transcript:
"Yeah, Very exciting. Yes, they'll make their announcement tomorrow on this one. We have worked with Apple for quite a while. And the Tablet is going to be based on the iPhone operating system and so it will be transferable. So what you are going to be able to do now -- we have a consortium of e-books. And we have 95% of all our materials that are in e-book format on that one. So now with the tablet you're going to open up the higher education market, the professional market. The tablet is going to be just really terrific."

I love my iPhone! Tomorrow its gone be Tablet! Tablet! Tablet!

Truphone ambition, one world, one SIM is happening!

Truphone’s ambition to provide one world, one SIM is happening. It’s launching a new service called truphone local anywhere. The new service requires a multi-country SIM card that eliminates roaming charges and provides local voice, data and text rates. This should be a boon to all those frequent international travelers. The good thing about the new service is that it provides a local number of the country where you are travelling. However, not so good news is that they only support 2 countries (USA and UK). Truphone is promising to add more international countries this year. The service is possible because of the partnership agreement with Vodafone UK network. The agreement will give Truphone access to Vodafone UK's network to deliver voice and data services to its Truphone Local Anywhere™ customers. It’s a matter of time before they can forge partnership with other operators.

Truphone Local Anywhere offers customers four main benefits:
• Local calling rates in Truphone countries: With Truphone Local Anywhere, international travelers enjoy rates that are a fraction of standard roaming fees. For example, AT&T subscribers roaming in the U.K. pay between 99 cents and $1.29 per minute[i], depending on their calling plans, but from only 12 cents per minute with Truphone Local Rates
• Local contact numbers in Truphone countries: Local numbers mean people can call you on your mobile at local rates for them – at no cost to you.
• Low-cost international calling: Great rates to make international calls at home or abroad, offering savings of up to 90 percent over standard mobile operator charges.
• Low-cost roaming: Great rates when roaming in non-Truphone countries offering savings of up to 40 percent over standard mobile operator charges.

Other benefits of Truphone Local Anywhere include:
• The ability to manage Caller ID the world over, displaying a local number wherever you are
• Savings of up to 80 percent on roaming charges when visiting other countries
• An option, coming soon, to keep your existing phone number by moving it over to the Truphone network

Looks like this year is going to be great for truphone. We are seeing lot of consolidation in the VoIP space. Last year we saw bunch of companies being acquired including Jajah getting acquired by telefonica. Startups like truphone have very good chances to get acquired by bigger player. It seems to me that truphone is moving in the right direction. I had written earlier about truphone on how they want to become a global MVNO . To me truphone is definitely one of hot startup to watch for this year.

Apple Tablet, iPhone 4 confirmed!

So folks Apple Tablet and iPhone 4 are confirmed to be launched this Jan 27th. The event is going to be invite only, and selected folks from media have already got invitation for the event. The event would most likely focus on three projects; the Apple Tablet, iPhone 4 and iLife 2010 software. The invitation below looks very creative and colorful, maybe there is a message in this picture.

So stay tuned and watch out for the live coverage of Apple Event. It will be worth your time. Hope we get to see Steve Jobs at his best again.