I've pretty much gone AWOL from blogging this week, as I'm fully immersed with the Smart Grid Summit, which you'll be hearing more about quite soon.My last post was way back last Friday, where I commented on the Google Voice/Gizmo5 news. There's more to this development than meets the eye, and I think it has potential to truly disrupt the voice market even further than what's been done already.I don't have any bandwidth to comment further today, but here's the next best thing. Fellow blogger Andy Abramson weighed in with a lengthy post today that speaks to a lot of what's been on my mind.
Selected by jonarnold
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Jon Arnold's Analyst 2.0 Blog
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Google Voice and the Bigger Picture
20 Nov 2009 | 11:13 am -
Quiet, but busy
19 Nov 2009 | 7:55 amJust a quick note to say I haven't been blogging this week as I need to be very focused on the Smart Grid Summit right now. It's been an intense few days, but we're seeing the results, and we'll have some nice announcements coming soon. As things settle down there, I'll get back to regular posting, hopefully by tomorrow. -
Google + Gizmo5 = More Disruption
13 Nov 2009 | 6:19 amVoice continues to be a really interesting space, and while I was attending Cisco's Collaboration Summit this week, a couple of notable developments took place. On the topic of disruption, Cisco is doing its best to upset the apple cart and reinvent itself as a software company. During their summit, we got a steady diet of collaboration, video, cloud services and the new world of work, but never a word about routers. Anyhow, you can review my earlier posts this week for more about that.Back to Google. I'm going to keep things short and steer you to a nice piece that ran in Wired on Wednesday. -
Cisco Collaboration Summit - Day 2
11 Nov 2009 | 5:08 amTuesday was end-to-end Cisco, starting at 8, going through til 5 with a series of presentations around various aspects of collaboration and cloud services. It was a pretty intense day, and if there was one thing everyone could agree one, it was the overwhelming amount of information. There was definitely a lot of interesting content here - a mix of demos, announcements and vision - but it's not the kind of thing you can distill into a sentence of two. To me, that's the strength and weakness of events like this. It's a strength in that having us all here is an efficient way to get all this… -
Cisco Collaboration Summit - Day 1
10 Nov 2009 | 8:47 amYesterday was the kickoff for Cisco's Collaboration Summit. Last year I attended virtually, and this was my first time going in person. As with other Cisco events, it's very well staged, and has the feel of a rock concert at times. Given that the focus is on collaboration and using all the multimedia tools to fullest effect, it all felt about right.There was a lot of buildup around the slew of releases coming from Cisco now, and they made this clear repeatedly, so the basic message is that Cisco is up to some big things and jumping to new curves. That's not a new message from Cisco these…
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VoIP Watch
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Where Have The Big Internet Players Gone in VoIP and Why
20 Nov 2009 | 6:36 amThe crusty John C. Dvorak has been a fixture in PC Magazine for many years. This week he penned a piece about Google Voice and free calling. In the opinion column John raised a few points that need to be expounded upon, and I'm in the kind of mood to do just that! Point One: Now that Google is behind the latest push for free calls, the whole process will likely be accelerated worldwide. Soon enough we'll all be wondering why the whole process took so long, and why Google had to be behind it. Where was Microsoft? Or IBM? What about the almighty Apple? None of the CBG (Came Before Google)… -
There's WiFi In the Air
18 Nov 2009 | 8:05 pmMy all time favorite Travel Critic of All Time, the venerable Joe Brancatelli, who pulls no punches, and always calls them like he see's them, has a two page story in Portfolio Magazine about WiFi in the Sky. In the story, Joe basically says that the flying public is cheap, and to his credit, he's right. Most passengers don't need to "stay connected." But for those of us who do, we don't mind the added costs of WiFi. On Sunday I flew up to Seattle, via Alaska because it was a non-stop. I would rather have flown on Virgin America which has a full fleet of WiFi equipped planes. United is hit or… -
It's Official-Gizmo Goes to Google Voice
12 Nov 2009 | 2:47 pmThe news, which we all have been waiting for, is now official. Gizmo has joined up with GoogleVoice, as a result of the acquisition by Google, that went official today. There's a lot I could say, but in an article based on an exclusive interview with Wired's Ryan Singel yesterday, much of what I would say here, is in his well penned article. By calling GoogleVoice the "uncommon carrier" I made a pun on the 7Up campaign, of being the unCola. That was the clear soda's way of saying, "we're cool" and suggesting that if you're cool, you should be drinking 7Up. Now with Gizmo, GoogleVoice and… -
Cisco Needs to Buy Counterpath
11 Nov 2009 | 1:56 pmWith Logitech buying LifeSize today, that makes for a very interesting development in the war in the desktop video market. Cisco owns the high end market with Telepresence. While one would say that HALO is a competitor, offered by H-P, it's really not, and HP has nothing below it, making them also an ideal buyer of Counterpath, as well as Vidyo. But HP doesn't work that way, and more and more is moving into the services, not apps as services world. Logitech, also has SightSpeed, the entry level, but like Lifesize, a service based on SIP and H.264 so with today's acquisition, they are building… -
Logitech Buys Lifesize
11 Nov 2009 | 4:09 amLast year about this time, Logitech purchased client SightSpeed to move more deeply into the consumer video space. Today the news came out that the Swiss company has purchased LifeSize. This puts a company like Vidyo in play in my opinion. Vidyo, which has some of it's own Intellectual Property may be a good alternative for Cisco which is facing some challenges in its pursuit of Tandberg.
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Om Malik
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AmEx to Buy Revolution Money for $300 Million
18 Nov 2009 | 6:55 amAmerican Express, the company well known for overpriced charge cards, is buying Ted Leonsis and Steve Case’s Revolution Money for $300 million. Leonsis shared this information on his blog. Amex wants to use Revolution Money to build a next-generation offering. Revolution Money has some kind of a next-generation payments technology that brings together offline and online worlds; it’s part of the Revolution group of companies floated by Steve Case. No one I know has either seen it or actually uses it. If there is one company that is going to do offline-online payments, that will be… -
How Much Money Did Joyent Really Raise?
17 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pmIntel today said it’s invested an undisclosed amount in Joyent, the 6-year-old Sausalito, Calif.-based startup that started out as a web hosting company but eventually evolved into a cloud service provider. Neither Intel nor Joyent disclosed the amount of money invested, but Intel’s investment in the company is a strategic bet for the chipmaker, as it faces a smaller end user base for its silicon thanks to enterprises turning to computing delivered as a service to help limit the number of servers they buy. First the deal specifics. Intel Capital has invested $8.5 million into the… -
Norwest Closes $1.2 Billion Venture Fund
17 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pmNorwest Venture Partners (NVP), one of the most respected funds in Silicon Valley, says that it’s closed NVP XI, a $1.2 billion fund that will invest in diverse sectors and geographies. NVP, which recently recorded a major hit with the $405 million sale of video conferencing equipment maker LifeSize, is one of the few venture funds to close a mega-fund. Khosla Ventures ($1 billion) and Greylock Partners ($575 million) are two other partnerships that have been able to raise mega-funds. At the same time, there have been numerous reports of many partnerships struggling to whip up interest… -
Why imeem Really Sold Out
17 Nov 2009 | 7:00 pmThis morning news broke that MySpace, the second-largest social network that’s currently reinventing itself as a music destination, was buying imeem, a free online music service that has been remixed (and remade) more times that ’90s dance anthem “Keep on Moving.” TechCrunch, which reported on the news, didn’t reveal what the deal terms were. I have been dialing sources for information, and have found an interesting backstory behind this sale. First, it was essentially a fire sale. Imeem, which in the past has been threatened into submission by large music… -
Motorola to Sell 600,000 Droids in 2009
17 Nov 2009 | 8:24 amMotorola and Verizon, thanks to their $100 million marketing efforts, are going to sell some 600,000 Droids during the fourth quarter of 2009, according to Mark McKechnie of Broadpoint AmTech, a boutique research firm. He had initially expected about 200,000 device sales following the launch, but he has upped his forecast: Motorola should sell another 200,000 Droids by Black Friday and 150,000-200,000 during the remainder of the holiday season. This would bring the total to some 600,000 Droids for 2009. We recently reported the findings of a study from Flurry that indicated Motorola might…
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Rich Tehrani
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Interop New York 2009 Videos
20 Nov 2009 | 3:06 pmI got back from Interop New York 2009 last night and was pretty excited to conduct a number of video interviews in the new TMC Newsroom set. One of the videos I was particularly excited to conduct was with Dr. Gaston Ormazabal, Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff, Verizon Labs. Gaston and the team he works with have found some SIP security flaws and are working hard to solve the problems. These discoveries leave SIP servers open to attacks which come in a number of forms such as malformed packets, out of state machine order packets and packet floods. Gaston is working on these… -
Back From Interop NY 2009
19 Nov 2009 | 3:16 pmI am on the train home from the show and I took this photo last night when it wasn't drizzling. This is Times Square, one of my favorite parts of New York. I will have more to report soon but for now check out the TMC videos page for some of the Interop NY 2009 interviews TMC Newsroom host Erik Linask and I conducted this week. Follow me: Facebook Profile Google Reader Profile Twitter Profile Related Entries TrackBacks | Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | Communications and Technology Blog - Tehrani.com Home | Permalink: Back From Interop NY 2009 Copyright Communications and Technology Blog -… -
Interop 2009 New York Day One
18 Nov 2009 | 5:33 pmSome tech and political discussions from Day two of the show but really day one for me I had a great set of meetings at Interop today and the energy at the show was quite inspiring. Talk of sales gains and the potential for acquisitions were common. In many of my discussions there was concern over the current administrations direction in terms of burdening small business owners. A repeated theme was doesn't the Obama team realize small businesses do most of the hiring n this country. Why are they trying to hurt them? A few small business owners confided in me that they aren't growing as fast… -
Off to Interop NY 2009
18 Nov 2009 | 7:04 amHere is a shot of an NYPD parking lot viewed from my train seat window as I head to Manhattan to interview a number of industry players at Interop NY 2009. Follow me: Facebook Profile Google Reader Profile Twitter Profile Related Entries TrackBacks | Comments | Tag with del.icio.us | Communications and Technology Blog - Tehrani.com Home | Permalink: Off to Interop NY 2009 Copyright Communications and Technology Blog - Tehrani.com -
ITEXPO East 2010 Miami Update
17 Nov 2009 | 2:47 pmI just came across this web page with some important details on ITEXPO. I mentioned the keynoters in a recent post and I still think they are one of the best combinations of thought leaders in our space. Google Voice, Sprint, Digium, Polycom, Skype and Verizon Wireless are some of the companies you will hear from at the show. In addition there are a full eight conference tracks you cannot find anywhere else: Business Communications Delivery OptionsCall CenterDeveloperEnterpriseHD VoiceService ProviderUnified CommunicationsVideo CommunicationsTMC University Microsoft OCS As always, we poll the…
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Thomas Howe
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Pretty clever…
12 Nov 2009 | 12:52 pmSusan Scrupski tweeted this today: the opening video intro for Information Architected’s session at Enterprise 2.0 show. Pretty clever. -
CEBP Ecosystem Report
12 Nov 2009 | 8:32 amFor months now, management teams have been struggling with understanding how the CEBP market matures, how to create sustainable value chains, and how each actor in the ecosystem survives (or not). I’m really honored to have the chance to put some ideas to paper with Dan Miller from Opus Research. Over the past two weeks, Dan and I had a chance to collaborate on a report called The Recombinant Telephony Ecosystem that identifies the landscape, sizes the opportunity, names the players and makes educated guesses on how each can thrive in this new opportunity. If you’d like a copy of… -
Introducing Light and Electric
11 Nov 2009 | 9:49 amAfter a couple of months in “stealth” mode, I am happy to announce the formation of my new company “Light and Electric“. Light and Electric is a management consulting firm supplying expert advice and custom development services to businesses and their partners. Our efforts center on the intersection of business communications and web technologies, such as social business, mashups and open source software. Unlike traditional management consulting firms, our advice comes from our real world experience solving businesses communications problems. Our approach is holistic:… -
TMC, Light and Electric Partner To Produce Cloud Communications Training Series
11 Nov 2009 | 9:36 amWebinars, Screencasts, Sessions at TMC’s ITEXPO Planned for Coming Months Norwalk, CT, (November 11, 2009) — Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC®), a leading global media company, today announced a partnership with Light and Electric for joint participation in a series of Webinars, screencasts and in-show sessions covering the benefits of cloud communications. The initial workshops and sessions are scheduled to be collocated with TMC’s ITEXPO East 2010 in Miami Beach, FL this coming January. Combining TMC’s powerhouse media with the award winning and practical… -
Orange Partner Event – San Francisco
5 Nov 2009 | 2:37 pmJames Siminoff, Scholar and Gentleman I wanted to thank everyone who came out last night to the Orange Partner Event in San Francisco last night. I, for one, really enjoyed hearing all of the presenters, especially my friends from Voxeo, RebelVox, LiveOps and PhoneTag. In fact, the only part of the night that was better than the presenters was the audience, as any one of them could have taken our place on stage. For those of you who asked, I will put my presentation up here on the blog as soon as I can for your enjoyment and/or derision. For those of you who missed this august meeting,…
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VoIP News
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eBay completes sale of Skype
20 Nov 2009 | 1:19 pmeBay has finally completed the sale of Skype to investment group Silver Lake, while Skype’s founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, will receive a 14% stake in the company. Silver Lake will take a 6% share of the company while eBay will retain 30%. eBay will receive $1.9 billion from the deal. The deal [...] -
fring available on Android handsets
18 Nov 2009 | 2:04 pmfring is now available to Android users, allowing them to make free VoIP calls. The application is already available on Symbian S60, iPhone, iPod touch, Windows Mobile, J2ME and Linux devices. Fring is a mobile internet community and communication service that lets users communicate and share web-based experiences from their mobile device. Android users will [...] -
TeamViewer 5 beta adds VoIP
17 Nov 2009 | 2:25 pmTeamViewer GmbH has released the beta version of its TeamViewer 5 desktop sharing solution, which adds the latest VoIP and video conferencing technology to the software. Audio transmission is integrated into TeamViewer 5 and VoIP can be included with a mouse click, allowing users to discuss documents they are collaborating on. The solution allows a webcam [...] -
GIPS simplifies VoIP app development for Android mobiles
17 Nov 2009 | 2:12 pmGlobal IP Solutions (GIPS) has launched ‘GIPS VoiceEngine Mobile’ which will allow mobile application developers to build VoIP-enabled clients for Android handsets. The apps will be able to offer HD voice, as well as addressing IP network issues such as delay, jitter, packet loss, bandwidth constraints, noise and echo. Roar Hagen, GIPS’ Chief Technology Officer [...] -
Broadcom releases open source voice codecs
12 Nov 2009 | 7:58 amIn order to support the transition to HD VoIP, Broadcom is offering its BroadVoice family of voice codecs royalty-free and without any licensing fees. Wideband and narrowband BroadVoice codecs, in both floating-point and fixed-point C code, will be available as open source software. The codecs will enhance the quality of voice transmissions by reducing latency, [...]
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Skype Journal
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Live From The RealTime CrunchUp: No Skype
20 Nov 2009 | 12:28 pmStream videos at Ustream Skype and live voice/video conversations haven't been part of anything in this event, or the others like it. I blame Skype's branding problem: Skype is antisocial software, not a place or way to discover future friends or colleagues. Skype is just for your closest circle, fewer than ten contacts. Skype is an isolated network that doesn't interop with others. That branding is reinforced by Skype's product focus. Fear of strangers, as shown by the inane and inadequate profile and privacy systems. Little support for large numbers of contacts because the… -
Skype sold, deal done. No surprises.
19 Nov 2009 | 3:42 pmSkype blog post ("Great news – we’ve closed the deal with the new investors.") and news release. Investor group pays Skype $1.9 billion in cash, $125 million note for 70% of Skype. eBay buys a $50 million note from them. Investors include Silver Lake, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Andreessen Horowitz Fund, and Joltid Limited. Skype now owns Joltid's peer-to-peer intellectual property, free and clear. All the talent dedicated to replacing Joltid's p2p engine have been reassigned to other Skype engineering projects, like its forthcoming platform for third-parties. This… -
IPEVO P2V Point 2 View USB Camera Review
19 Nov 2009 | 1:43 pmGuest post by Howard Chang, AmperorDirect, Houston, Texas. I received the new Point 2 View (P2V) USB camera sample from IPEVO recently. The P2V is indeed designed with interesting concepts. The most eye-catching part is the white, elegant long-neck webcam stand. IPEVO, did you get the idea from Pixar's iconic long-neck lamp? Its main body looks very similar to IPEVO's old POV webcam, which includes a camera capable of taking extreme close up shots (within 2 inches), and comes equipped with a snapshot and a force focusing button. The major change from the previous version is that P2V is now an… -
Beyoncé's Video Phone
18 Nov 2009 | 12:53 pmDoes this need explanation Really? NSFW: Skype, sex, and the sex industry. do people use it for other things too? tags: beyoncé, beyoncéknowles, mtv, videophone, skype, sex, positionCall me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff. Visit our Skype Journal private roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats. -
Skype-modded Hulger phone
10 Nov 2009 | 2:14 pmThe Hulger P*PHONE is a gorgeous retro USB phone. It's technically simple, just a microphone, a speaker and a cable. Canadian artist and designer Mike Pelletier "added a lever switch connected to a phidgets interface kit [seen below] so a max patch can detect when you pick up and hang up the phone and automatically tell skype to answer or end a call. I made sure that the wires match the phone." tags: skullbee, hulger, mod, skype, hacks, voip, phone, telephone, handset, switchCall me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff. Visit our Skype Journal…
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FierceVoIP
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Congress targets VoIP again in USF bill
19 Nov 2009 | 5:48 amIt doesn't matter how successful or innovative you might be, at some point in the growth of an industry the government is going to want to get a piece of the action. And then they are going to want more. Congress is holding hearings today to revise details of the Universal Service Fund (USF) act and their changes might effect certain VoIP providers. Congress members are deciding on whether to include a requirement that VoIP providers must contribute to the USF in states where their customers live. The draft USF bill currently being discussed would give states the power to force any… -
How Cloud Computing will change voice
18 Nov 2009 | 6:22 pmNo Jitter has an interesting top 10 list on how the advent of Cloud computing will change the way we handle voice. Highlights include cloud-based virtual phones and fast launching outbound call centers. Article -
AltiGen reports Q4 results - seeing a turnaround?
18 Nov 2009 | 6:11 pmMicrosoft-based VoIP phone system provider, Altigen, reported their Q4 09 financial results this week and they weren't too bad. Year-over-year results were not so impressive as fiscal 2009 revenue was $17.4 million, compared to $18.9 million for fiscal 2008 and its $4.7 million net loss was wider when compared to a net loss of $3.9 million in 2008. Quarter to quarter however, the numbers were looking better. Altigen's 2009 fourth quarter revenue was $4.9 million--down from Q4 a year ago which was $5.1 million--but up 20 percent sequentially from $4.1 million in the preceding… -
Rumor Mill: Google's gPhone is back but it might be VoIP-based
18 Nov 2009 | 5:58 pmIt seems like only yesterday when the wireless world was abuzz with rumors of the fabled gPhone--a Google designed and manufactured phone that would lay waste to all other phones in its path. It turned out the rumors were only partially true with the release of Google's mobile operating system Android and the G1--a rebranded HTC smartphone released by T-Mobile where the G presumably stands for Google. Well now that I've begun following VoIP a familiar story seems to have followed me here--Google might still release a gPhone but it might actually be a VoIP phone rather than a straight-up… -
Vonage pays $3M to states over customer complaints
17 Nov 2009 | 11:52 amVonage is paying $3 million to 32 U.S. states in a settlement due to customer complaints over three main issues: the difficulty of canceling service; a requirement to have a high-speed broadband line to access the service; and the definition of "free" services, including money back guarantees and trial service periods. Vonage will also refund customers claiming to be affected by the alleged problems. As part of the settlement, Vonage did not admit blame for any illegal activities and has noted that it is changing certain business practices in an SEC filing. The states will use the…
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Stardust Global Ventures
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Twitter Lists and the Power of a Smaller Network
8 Nov 2009 | 8:13 amSince I started using Twitter over three years ago, I’ve stayed pretty focused on keeping the people I follow to a group I actually engage with. I’m very mobile and most of my tweeting is done from my Blackberry. I have long used the SMS interface. This means the more people I follow, the more likely my phone buzzes constantly because of the messages. SocialScope definitely changes that, but I have struggled at times with following people who tweet in high volumes, that I’d like to follow to read some of what they say, but don’t quite know how to deal with the volume… -
reBlog from phoneboy.com: Not Following The Crowd
4 Nov 2009 | 10:42 pmI found this fascinating quote today: Much has been made over Twitter’s new “lists” feature they have been rolling out over the past several weeks. Instead of the tyranny of Twitter’s own “suggested user list,” users can feel free to create their own, add whomever they want, and share the list with others. A nice feature long overdue, if you ask me.phoneboy.com, Not Following The Crowd, Nov 2009 You should read the whole article. -
Social Media Guru’s Are Spewers Just Like Traditional Broadcast Media
2 Nov 2009 | 2:16 pmThis morning I was reading an article posted on a fairly well known web hosting blog. That set things in motion with regard to this post. Why? Well the article was about Jeremiah Owyang’s discussion on the future of social media and business. A piece of that was how important it is for businesses to listen to the conversation, instead of pushing their sell message. Jeremiah has a list of 8 objectives I don’t want to detract from, but there is a bigger picture here. Jeremiah is a well known analyst. I’ve had a couple of interactions with him, all online and he always struck… -
The Yamaha PSG-01S – USB Speakerphone for Skype
2 Nov 2009 | 9:51 amWe sometimes get the opportunity to test the most interesting new devices hitting the market. A few days ago we received a new one that we’re growing more impressed with as we use it. We’re using the new Yamaha PSG-01S SoundGadget. We’ve both been active Skype users for years. We’ve used it on every computer and mobile device we have. Some days we simply live on the phone, and Skype is our office choice for conference calls, podcast interviews and more. I’ve used more Skype speakerphones than I can count. Most have been mildly interesting, but not much more. -
Influence and Insiders and the New SUL (suggested user list)
31 Oct 2009 | 9:41 pmI’ve been thinking a bit about influence and what that all means. Let me tell you what started this train of thought. I’ll try to keep it short. Earlier I was looking at friendfeed and noticed one of Leo Laporte’s updates for his show and listed his guests. Most of you know I’ve been a Leo fan for many years. Leo invited me to visit his show and I went. Now I’ve told that story often enough I won’t go back into it, but what matters is that I am an original fangirl. I watched him on tech tv, listened to his radio show, have followed him from his early days…
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SMITH ON VOIP
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Rhino Debuts Ceros Desktop Telephony Appliance
11 Nov 2009 | 2:02 pmI can still remember the first conversation I ever had with a manufacturer about “appliances.” I’m not talking about my Maytag. I’m talking about the product that today is about as pervasive in the open source telephony space as voice itself. The year was 2004 and I was fresh off a brow-beating from a relative who proudly proclaimed that the Dell tower (Asterisk loaded) I offered up as their new phone system, “was not a phone system” but a PC. Well that was then. Today appliances are the way most in the open source game are delivering their systems. -
Video call your relatives (for free)
4 Nov 2009 | 6:29 pmIf you’re like most you’ve got family spread across the country. Or even across the world. Distance often makes it difficult to stay in touch. Let alone enjoy some quality “face time” with loved ones. Heck, with many still hampered financially seeing everyone during over the holiday’s is no sure thing. Flights aren’t getting any cheaper. But for every problem there’s a solution. For those who find themselves far away from “home” it’s video calling. The next best thing to being there. And today video calling got a whole lot cheaper… -
New Polycom 335 brings HD voice to SMB’s
2 Nov 2009 | 6:12 pmOne of the biggest hurdles confronting the HD voice movement is no longer. (more…) Get more Free VoIP information like this at Smith On VoIP. New Polycom 335 brings HD voice to SMB’s -
From potential to promise: high definition calling today and tomorrow
27 Oct 2009 | 10:07 pmCall it wideband telephony. Call it HD Voice. I doesn’t matter what you call it. It’s here and it’s here to stay. But where did wideband telephony first emerge? Where are we really at with HD calling today? And most importantly, what does the future for High Definition calling hold for us? And with Phone.com’s recent announcement of the first ever Hosted HD voice phone network, I thought who better to talk about the past, present and future of wideband telephony than their EVP and CTO Alon Cohen. And I mean that because Alon’s no slouch. He co-founder VocalTec… -
Aastra debuts color touchscreen VoIP phone
26 Oct 2009 | 7:57 pmMove over snom 870. The Aastra 6739i is here. Earlier today at the BroadSoft Connections executive conference Aastra formally announced the 6739i, a SIP based color touch screen. The latest desktop VoIP phone to hit the market touting a color touch screen. (more…) Get more Free VoIP information like this at Smith On VoIP. Aastra debuts color touchscreen VoIP phone
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Gary Kim
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Mobile Broadband Complementary to Fixed Broadband
20 Nov 2009 | 12:19 pmOver the next three to five years, mobile broadband will be complementary to fixed broadband, rather than a substitute, says William Lehr, economist and research associate in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology."I expect fixed and mobile broadband services to offer distinctly different sets of basic capabilities, and as a consequence, to remain distinct services that will not be perceived as close substitutes in most user and usage contexts for the foreseeable future," Lehr says.There will be situations where it is reasonable to… -
Is Twitter Traffic Falling?
20 Nov 2009 | 6:35 amMore than one recent study has suggested that Twitter traffic is declining, after leveling off in the summer of 2009. But is it really? The answer is complicated.According to Nielsen, traffic to Twitter.com was down a dramatic 27.8 percent between September and October 2009, falling to 18.9 million unique visitors.Research firm comScore also noted that unique visitors were down 8.1 percent in October, while Compete reported a 2.1 percent decline.Some might suggest the traffic decline is caused by falling interest in Twitter, while others suggest the traffic simply is caused by Twitter… -
Are Recession Driven Product Substitutions Permanent?
20 Nov 2009 | 6:18 amWhatever else one might say about it, a recession is a prime opportunity for product substitution whose immediate benefit might only be seen to be “saving money,” but which then might create a satisfying habit that leads to a permanent shift in demand, not just a temporary change of provider or service level.In the U.S. market, the issue is whether the millions of customers who have opted for prepaid mobility will keep those plans even after the recession has past. Virtually nobody thinks consumers who have cut the landline voice cord in favor of mobility are likely to reverse course.The… -
If You Wanted to Build a National 100-Mbps Access Network, Could You?
19 Nov 2009 | 1:48 pmThe Federal Communications Commission says it will cost $350 billion to build a single, nationally available broadband access network operating at 100 Mbps and reaching virtually every American. The FCC also says it is studying whether telcos and cable companies should be forced to offer open access to third parties that want access to their networks.Assuming one believes that both ubiquitous access and 100 Mbps speeds are a desirable thing, and virtually everyone might agree, in principle, that that is a worthy goal, the issue becomes "how to get there."At some fundamental level,… -
Google Phone: Will Second Time be the Charm?
18 Nov 2009 | 2:13 pmRemember Zer01 Mobile, the mobile virtual network enabler, which says it "is the first mobile virtual enabler company to offer true mobile voice over IP services at a carrier level?" I don't mean "remember" as in, "they're gone," but only in the sense that you might not have heard quite so much about them since they switched business plans and became an MVNE rather than a retail provider.At their original unveiling, some of us thought the most interesting angle about Zer01 was the way it went about providing voice services, at that time not a classic mobile virtual network operator,. but as…
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Alec Saunders SquawkBox
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SoundGadget: a Skype-certified speakerphone for road warriors
For the last couple of weeks I’ve been playing with the Yamaha SoundGadget PSG-01S – a Skype-certified speakerphone provided to me for evaluation. This pint-sized device provides business travellers with a high quality portable alternative to the conference phones that can be found in boardrooms everywhere. The SoundGadget packs an array of four microphones and two speakers into a tiny rectangular pillar standing less than 5 inches tall. The speakers support frequencies from 300 Hz to 20 KHz, making them an excellent alternative to the cheap units in most laptops, especially for… -
Nokia buy Palm? Not so fast…
Last week rumours circulated (again) that Nokia might acquire Palm. Palm shares rallied, but seem to have settled back down this week. The “deal”, after all, is a Wall Street wet dream, and not much more. It’s true that Nokia’s stock price is suffering and that Nokia’s share is slipping in the smart phone market. The mobile market is in transition, and Nokia was ill prepared. Nokia is fundamentally a hardware company trying to become a software company in a market which has lurched sharply toward software as the core differentiator. Wedded to Symbian while top… -
Buying the BlackBerry Onyx: Telus and Bell vs Rogers
My venerable BlackBerry Curve has just come out of contract with Rogers, so I’m in the market for a new BlackBerry and my pals at RIM tell me that the BlackBerry 9700 “Onyx” is the one to have. Not only that, but here in Canada Telus and Bell have both just launched new HSPA+ networks that compete directly with Rogers. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, there’s no way you could have missed the full page ads that Bell has been running in the papers. Identical networks, identical phones… it seems like an ideal opportunity to compare service providers, no? On the… -
iPhone versus Blackberry: Horse race or Deathmatch?
Infoworld’s product review format in the 1990’s was famous. It consisted of a detailed and hard hitting qualitative review, accompanied by a grid rating the reviewed product on a number of different critieria. Finally a weighted average of those criteria scores produced a single numeric score. Many a company was made or ruined by that single number. It’s back. In Ultimate mobile deathmatch: iPhone vs. BlackBerry vs. Droid vs. Pre Infoworld ranks 6 smartphones on 7 criteria, and then weights the scores for personal use, small business use, and “regulated business”… -
Boingo’s sponsored hot spot program is clever marketing.
Boingo’s sponsored Wi-Fi program caught my eye earlier this week. I’m a student of marketing programs, especially when quantitative measurement is involved. Boingo claims to have increased revenues by up to 35% at selected airports by allowing sponsors to subsidize internet access for travellers. The program requires the user to watch 30 seconds of advertising video in exchange for 15 to 20 minutes of complimentary internet access. Other opportunities exist to interact with the sponsor as well, including the welcome screen, a decision page and so on. At the end of…
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Dean Bubley's Disruptive Wireless
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Some thoughts on Android
20 Nov 2009 | 10:57 amI'm slowly starting to become a bit more positive about Android. I've been in the US for most of the last week, and it was interesting to see how many "normal" people had Android devices, compared with the UK where it's still viewed as geektastic. Google's introduction of free turn-by-turn navigation is a bit of a smart move too: this article makes a fascinating read about the Google business model evolving.It seems to me that the OS is maturing faster than anticipated, and certainly more quickly than Symbian and Windows Mobile. It looks as though Google will take a leaf out of Microsoft's… -
Operators should push vendors & silicon companies to support 2.6GHz HSPA+ as an alternative to LTE
13 Nov 2009 | 2:07 amFollowing up on my post from two weeks ago about HSPA / HSPA+ in 2.6GHz, I'm now more sure that this is a becoming a wise option - and operators and device vendors should start pushing their suppliers to support it. I'm becoming increasingly sceptical about the short-term case for LTE, especially for GSM/UMTS operators in developed markets like Western Europe.The received wisdom suggests that "new spectrum = new technology". I can certainly see the appeal and elegance for radio network engineers to put the newest, shiniest kit into the spanking-new bits of frequency in 2.6GHz and the digital… -
Thought experiment - two-sided broadband models
12 Nov 2009 | 2:10 amI've just seen another vendor presentation suggesting that broadband operators might be able to charge "upstream" content or Internet companies for differentiated QoS, enabling them to "monetise the pipe".It's a common refrain, underlined as usual by the 2008-era reference to "over the top players".Even leaving aside the realities of Net Neutrality legislation for a minute, there simply seem to be almost no real-world examples of "cold hard cash" changing hands for differentiated broadband in this way.Some of the recent work I've been doing with Telco 2.0 on broadband business models has… -
OneVoice for LTE + IMS : Necessary but not sufficient
7 Nov 2009 | 3:23 amThis will surprise a few people: I'm actually quite impressed with the announcement the other day about the OneVoice profile for defining an IMS-based approach to voice on LTE. I've now had a chance to read through the full document.It essentially de-options a lot of the implementation vagueness and distracting flexibility around using IMS for mobile voice, creating a lowest common denominator "Profile" from the existing standards. It strips away a lot of the unnecessary fripperies and boils it all down to what amounts to the minimum set of requirements for basic telephony to work - if you… -
Music industry: stop whingeing
5 Nov 2009 | 8:18 amOK, a little off-topic here, but having sat through a lot of hand-wringing during the Media session at the Telco 2.0 event this morning, I thought I'd stick my oar in as well. There was a lot of discussion about banning P2P filesharers, DRM, ISP responsbilities, traffic-shaping and so on, particularly about music. We had the esteemed presence of 1980s singer Feargal Sharkey.Now don't get me wrong - I produce content myself, and I don't like it when fake spam blogs rip of this site, and I also take steps to protect my published research from illegal copying.But at the same time, I absolutely…
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Unified Communications Strategies
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Video, video, video - Cisco’s Collaboration Summit
12 Nov 2009 | 2:42 pmAnalysts talk all the time about drinking from the fire hose when we attend vendor analyst briefings, but I think that Cisco had that fire hose on stun this week. They claimed they were announcing 61 or more (I lost count) products this week, and I’m sure they weren’t kidding. Granted many were perhaps features, sub products or new releases, but the overall feeling was more of I get the big picture, but I’m confused as to the dividing lines. Of course, it was video, video, video, across every product line, with several new products being announced. These included the Cisco… -
UC Around The Globe
11 Nov 2009 | 9:21 amFrom time to time, UCStrategies.com experts are invited to be keynote speakers at customer events sponsored by leading vendors in Unified Communications. In addition to our sessions at conferences such as VoiceCon and InterOp, Blair Pleasant (COMMFusion), and Don Van Doren and I (UniComm Consulting) have each enjoyed responding to those requests to provide independent industry viewpoints at these customer events. Beginning on November 20, I will be speaking at Microsoft Unified Communications Road Show events in the US, India, Greece, Denmark, Spain, Germany, Italy, United Arab Emirates,… -
Cisco Collaboration Summit - New Social Software Tools
11 Nov 2009 | 9:03 amI spent a few days in San Francisco at the Cisco Collaboration Summit. John Chambers, as always, did an amazing job of positioning Cisco as a leader and innovator. I totally agreed with Chambers when he said that the technology for collaboration is the easy party, but changing a company’s culture is hard, and it’s especially hard to change the way people work. He noted that collaboration needs to be driven from the top down to match a company’s business goals. It also leads to new business models, such as how to respond to a hurricane, or how you move operations to the data center. Jim… -
Musings on VoiceCon San Francisco 2009 – Unified Communications Still Rules
6 Nov 2009 | 5:16 pmAnother VoiceCon has come and gone – while the exhibit hall wasn’t as full with exhibitors as in years past, it was still a great VoiceCon, with lots of information-packed sessions, and opportunities for networking with vendors, customers, and peers. To help prepare for my locknote session, I jotted down notes about what I thought some of the key take-aways were. • I’m happy to say that we are not talking about unified communications definitions anymore –instead, we’re now talking about how customers can get payback from implementing UC. For the past couple years, the… -
VoiceCon View - “Mash-up” of Social Media and Unified Communications
5 Nov 2009 | 11:18 amAmong the usual chatter about “What do you think of the show”, at VoiceCon this week were comments about the need to modify some of the usual presentations that we have on comparing vendor offerings in unified communications, and where the industry is in unified communications. The vendors I talked to commonly voiced that for the most part, comparing the features of unified communications is a moot point, because almost every player has all the basics by now. That is pretty much what I saw too. The show was smaller, and there weren’t any tremendous new announcements this…
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TMCnet-News
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Tahiti Nui Satellite, Thomson Team to Launch High Definition Services in Western Europe
20 Nov 2009 | 10:26 amTahiti Nui Satellite, a satellite service provider, has reportedly selected Thomson to supply satellite MPEG-4 HD set-top box technology to support the launch of TNS' high-definition broadcast service in the fourth quarter of 2009. -
Openwave Intros Openwave Integra 3.0
20 Nov 2009 | 10:17 amOpenwave, a provider of mediation platform and tools to mobilize the Internet, has unveiled the Openwave Integra 3.0, a Linux-based, proactive service mediation and policy management solution. -
Verizon Launches Utility/Smart Grid-Targeted Consulting Services
20 Nov 2009 | 10:14 amWhen doors open to the benefits of innovative IT solutions, they also open to evil cybercrooks. -
Riverbed Launches Cloud-Based Services for Enterprise and Government Markets
20 Nov 2009 | 10:09 amRiverbed Technology, a company that focuses on IT infrastructure performance company for networks, applications and storage, has announced that it has planned to launch new products and services that will help accelerate access to services that are in the cloud environment for enterprises and governments and extend the benefits of acceleration to applications and storage in the public cloud. -
White Paper from Call Center Hiring Solutions Provider FurstPerson Discusses 'The Role of the Interview'
20 Nov 2009 | 9:54 amThe truth is, in-person interviews really aren't an effective way to measure a person's skills, aptitude or work ethic. Today, companies are increasingly using software-based evaluation and assessment tools to more accurately measure a candidate's level of skill and "fit" for a job.
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Holy Kaw!
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Capturing water in sloooow mooootion
20 Nov 2009 | 3:12 pmSome things just look cooler in slow motion. Jell-O? Totally better. A punch to the face? Way more awesome. Photographer Martin Waugh spends his day watching single droplets of water, capturing the tiny and beautiful splashes with super slo-mo video. Check out the video from Discovery and you’ll definitely never look at a leaky sink the same way again. Science geekiness galore. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Netherlands to charge drivers by the kilometer
20 Nov 2009 | 2:31 pmThe Netherlands is proposing charging drivers by the kilometer. Other taxes would be eliminated. Vehicles would be tracked by GPS. Doesn’t this make sense? Get rid of all the other taxes and tolls and simply pay-as-you-go. Or is it even simpler to use only the fuel tax to pay for roads? Think any of this could ever happen in the U.S.? Netherlanders are very practical people. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Rosetta Project stores 13,000 pages and 1,500 languages on 2.8" analog disk
20 Nov 2009 | 1:50 pmThere’s little doubt that 100’s of languages will disappear in the next hundred years. The loss of these languages is a loss of human history and cultural diversity. That’s where the Rosetta Project comes in. As part of the Long Now Foundation, the Rosetta Project plans to archive thousand’s of languages for millennia. A first step is the creation of a durable storage medium that can easily be deciphered in the future—just like the Rosetta Stone. The prototype Rosetta Disk is a 2.8” (7.1cm) disk made of nickel. The disk is housed in a stainless steel… -
Tech nerds take it all off
20 Nov 2009 | 12:28 pmA techie strip club would probably feature plenty of outlets, free wi-fi and dancers flinging off Geekologie-brand undies to a song of remixed iPhone ringtones. Calm down, pervs, there’s no plans in the works for nekkid techie discotheque (that I know of), but, in the meantime, get your dweeb kicks with the Nude Tech Calendar 2010. London’s top new media entrepreneurs stepped out from behind their computers and stripped down for the 24 picture, limited edition calendar. Proceeds go to Take Heart India, a charity that raises funds for IT education programs for blind and disabled… -
6 principles of simple agile
20 Nov 2009 | 12:06 pmWhen it comes to agile software development, simplicity is key. To help you stay focused, here are the six principles of simple agile. 1. Collaborate. And what I really mean is - communicate effectively with each other. There’s no place in agile for a lack of clear communication, since the point is to work in a team. Try to keep conversations as close to real-time as possible and hopefully as high bandwidth as possible. 3. Honour priorities. Always, always work from a ranked product blog. Your team should follow the rule, “the next thing you do should be a task in the highest…
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The Joy of Sox
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Blogging In 1974
20 Nov 2009 | 6:28 amDaniel Shoptaw, the man behind the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, is posting short Q&As of BBA members. Here's mine.One thought: this blog is a clear descendant of the sports pages I created on my parents' electric typewriter roughly 35 years ago. Also, I love hearing about other writers who did similar things when they were kids. -
Bay Rejects Boston's 4/60 Offer
19 Nov 2009 | 1:08 pmNot a surprise, as Theo Epstein said.He may end up back in Fenway, but at age 31, Bay wants to see what is out there in the free agent waters.Terry Francona held court on a number of matters, including Bay:He has earned the right to be a free agent. This is his first time, and he wants to see it through. You know we're going to be a major player. We always are. Do I hope it gets done? Yeah.The Red Sox's exclusive rights to negotiate with Bay end at midnight tonight.While Tito would like the Sox to go after some pitching (like John Lackey), David Ortiz says the team needs a power bat:I said… -
Sox Release Kottaras
18 Nov 2009 | 4:50 amZachary Nicholson, Sox Prospects:With the deadline to add players to the 40-man roster and protect them from the Rule 5 Draft rapidly approaching, the Red Sox [Tuesday] made another move to clear space, releasing catcher George Kottaras. ...Links: 40-man roster deadline and Rule 5 draft (to be held on December 10). -
Greinke Wins AL Cy Young
17 Nov 2009 | 11:37 amIt's a rout. 1st 2nd 3rd PtsZack Greinke, KC 25 3 134Felix Hernandez, SEA 2 23 1 80Justin Verlander, DET 1 9 14CC Sabathia, NYY 2 7 13Roy Halladay, TOR 11 11NL Cy on Thursday.Rookies of the Year: Andrew Bailey (A's) and Chris Coghlan (Marlins). -
Dock Ellis And The LSD No-No
14 Nov 2009 | 7:18 amOn June 12, 1970, Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis took the mound in San Diego while high on LSD.A video from No Mas and James Blagden.Ellis:I started having a crazy idea in the fourth inning that Richard Nixon was the home plate umpire, and once I thought I was pitching a baseball to Jimi Hendrix, who to me was holding a guitar and swinging it over the plate.The audio in the video comes from an interview Ellis did with NPR shortly before his death last December.
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Over the Monster
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Make Your Own "Abraham Abominaters" Team
20 Nov 2009 | 8:23 amStealing is the sincerest form of flattery. Wait. That doesn't sound right... Anyway, moving on. Peter Abraham of the Globe at Extra Bases is proposing to create your own free agent team. He has a little contest going where you can submit your team, he'll look through them and decide a winner. I like this idea. For once, I am doing this kind of thing (but not for the free book, although I probably would read it, whatever it is). So I figured let's try this at OTM, too. I don't really care if you want to post your team here, there or both locations. Doesn't matter to me, I just think it would… -
David Oritz admonishes Red Sox for not adding power. 2007 WS year they scored 867 runs, hit 166 HR....
20 Nov 2009 | 8:02 amDavid Oritz admonishes Red Sox for not adding power. 2007 WS year they scored 867 runs, hit 166 HR. In 2009 scored 872 runs, hit 212 HR. Twitter / Peter Gammons: David Oritz admonishes Red ... Mr. Gammons doesn't say much on Twitter, but when he does, he's always spot on. -
Terry Francona Wants A Pitcher: How About Chris Capuano?
20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 amAccording to the manager himself, Terry Francona always tells Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein to get a pitcher. Get me dat pitchah. I need dat pitchah. Sure. That sounds simple enough. But have you seen the free agent market? It's kind of ugly. Plus, what does Tito want exactly? A starter or reliever? Or a guy that can do both? Or a guy who he can beat in cribbage? Unlike this guy. There's one name that is intriguing to me and I think the Sox can grab him if they wish: Chris Capuano, formerly of the Brewers. Like most free agent pitchers, there's a lot of reasons to cover your eyes when… -
Over the Monster Top 20 Prospects Voting #2: Kelly Takes the Top Spot
20 Nov 2009 | 1:48 amYour #1 Prospect: Casey Kelly (via snapshots.mlblogs.com) View full size photo » Throwing this up a bit early. I have faith that no voting past 3:45 AM CST is really gonna mess with the overall result too much, and I've got a very busy day ahead. It's not exactly a revolutionary choice, but then again, why should it be? Coming in with around 34% of the vote, Casey Kelly claims the top spot on our prospect list by way of plurality. While Kelly is not quite as clear a winner as Lars Anderson was last year, he's no less deserving than the first baseman was last year. Hopefully, Kelly's… -
Once Again, David Ortiz Wants Another Power Bat
19 Nov 2009 | 1:44 pmMore photos » by Elise Amendola - AP 3 months ago: Boston Red Sox' David Ortiz stretches on the field prior to a baseball game against the Oakland Athletics at Fenway Park in Boston Thursday, July 30, 2009. Ortiz and Manny Ramirez were among the more than 100 Major League Baseball players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003, according to a report in The New York Times. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola) Browse more photos » David Ortiz is already singing the same story from last season: The best stuff came when David was asked about the Sox needing more power in…
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Sox and Pinstripes | Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees – The Greatest Rivalry in Baseball
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The slowly developing Price War
19 Nov 2009 | 6:44 pmThe Yankees are a walking time bomb right now. It’s not because their future is in any sort of danger, or because the team could change locations or ownership. In fact, with youthful owners compared to their father, with a manager who has won it all recently, and with a new stadium, the Yankees’ franchise is in better hands than it has been since well before the dynasty years of the 90’s. No, the Yankees are a walking time bomb because if they open the check book for any player from another team (it will only take one), regardless of if that team wants nothing to do with said player,… -
The waiting game begins now
15 Nov 2009 | 10:00 pmThis is the worst time of the year to be a baseball fan. The season is long enough over where you miss actual games, if your team won the World Series, the DVD isn't out yet and you can't inject yourself with baseball nicotine by watching it 47 times in a row, and the hot stove is nothing more than speculation. Add to that the element of having a blog you need to update and the whole situation is pretty awful, particularly this off season. Unlike last year, the Yankees don't have many holes to fill. They don't need to pick a new right fielder, their second baseman and… -
The finale to Rebuilding the Defending Champs
13 Nov 2009 | 8:59 pmIf the Yankees' plan is to get younger and compete for years on end, there are only two real blockbuster deals I would entertain. Trade for Felix Hernandez (who has often been mentioned with the Red Sox but never the Yankees) or trade for Curtis Granderson (who is said to be available from the Tigers) The Yankees seem to have issues making deals with Seattle, but Hernandez is about the only pitcher I'd open the farm for (I'm talking Montero and Chamberlain in a package). Roy Halladay is just too old for me to want to see a big money and prospect party over. Sure a rotation of… -
Sorting out the Yankees' Hot Stove rumors (a continuation of rebuilding the Defending Champs)
12 Nov 2009 | 10:07 pmWhen you're a defending champion and you're also the most affluent franchise in the game, rumors will run rampant around a team. The Yankees will be linked to every player involved in any trade or as a Free Agent regardless of if New York has any interest whatsoever or if the deal would make sense.It is the job of a good agent to get the Yankees, Red Sox and other teams with deep pockets in the bidding for its players. The connections don't need to be genuine or true, they just have to exist. It creates a deeper array of options and drives up the price for the player. Likewise,… -
Matsui to Boston not likely
12 Nov 2009 | 1:26 pmThe report made little sense when it was first released on multiple web sites, and based on what Theo Epstein said at the GM meetings, it is not going to happen. Hideki Matsui will not become a member of the Boston Red Sox.Matsui has undoubtedly had a successful major league career. Add the fact that his bat guided the Yankees to a World Series title, and that he has long been a Red Sox killer, and it might seem that he would be a good fit in Beantown. The problem is that Matsui is 35, has severe knee problems and can no longer adequately play the outfield. The Sox already have a guy who is…
