Posts tagged as:

Alec Saunders

Since its launch about two years ago, I have blogged several times about iotum’s CalliFlower Conference Calling service. More significantly I have used it for several conference calls of up to 25 people, including a couple that ran for over two hours. While permitting up to several hundred participants into a conference call, Calliflower’s [...]

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Categories Communications News, Conversation Providers, Mobile Applications, Service Providers, Skype For Business, Skype Partner News, Skype Partner Solutions, Using Skype

The Skype Spinout Version 2.0

by Jim Courtney on Mon, Nov 9, 2009 11:11 am

So it’s finally resolved. The Skype spinout from eBay will involve Skype’s founders as investors and board members while contributing a cash investment. Skype finally owns the core intellectual property required for Skype to operate at its current cost levels. eBay gets the cash they were looking for but 5% less of the new [...]

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Categories Communications News, Skype News, Skype Operations

Building on Skype’s recent announcements of its evolving Skype for Business activities, Chief Strategy Office Christopher Dean gave a keynote address yesterday at a joint VON/Channel Partners Conference session. Three posts have followed up on the session:
Khali Henderson, in Skype Not Just Telecom’s “Bad Boy”, CSO Says, reports Christopher’s overview of their approach to [...]

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Categories Skype For Business, Skype News, Skype Partner News, Skype Partner Solutions

The recent announcement of Skype’s decision to drop its Skype Extras (marketing) program initially caused much anguish across the blogosphere; however, more sober commentary has been appearing in the past few days. To recall the announcement:

Immediately: No new partner programs or upgrades will be placed into the Skype Extras
Going forward: Skype Extras will remain [...]

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Categories Communications News, Developers, Service Providers, Skype News, Skype Partner News, Skype Partner Solutions, Skype Platform

This week about 50,000 people have gathered in the northern Nevada desert for the annual Burning Man ritual. You really have to visit their website to get a feel for what it is about and the principles that guide this annual one week experience.
Started in the mid-1980s, Burning Man is designed to generate a [...]

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Categories Communications Stories, Communications Technology, Conferences and Events, Wireless Carriers

The initial feedback post, FREETALK® Everyman: The Bloggers Speak Out, is getting a bit long for a single Internet post. But feedback continues to arrive, not only in blog posts but also via Twitterville where we find, searching on “FREETALK Everyman” and “Skype Everyman”:

And Michael Graves (@mjgraves), in his post Skype’s FREETALK® Everyman Headset, [...]

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Categories Communications Stories, Skype Hardware, Using Skype

On a recent trip to Spain, where I turned off my BlackBerry Bold’s and iPhone’s  mobile carrier network connection except when really required, I was able to use WiFi connections at my various hotels quite effectively to keep up with my “data” activities on these devices. (Except in a situation mentioned below I used [...]

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Categories Communications Stories, Mobile Devices, Service Providers, Skype on Mobile, Using Skype, Wireless Carriers

It all started when I attended the June 2 Android launch on Rogers Wireless. During a scrum I had asked “Fringe” actor Joshua Jackson if he had made a call from Paris, France to his wife in Vancouver using Skype for Android (Skype Lite). Rogers Wireless CMO John Boynton interjected that Rogers allows all [...]

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Categories Communications Stories, Conferences and Events, Service Providers, Skype News, Skype on Mobile, Wireless Carriers

I first met iotum CEO Alec Saunders as a competitor in the Canadian PC software market back in 1994. I was Canadian Country Manager for Quarterdeck whose QEMM-386 memory manager had been the tops-selling utility for DOS-based PC’s; Alec was Microsoft’s Canada’s Product Manager for DOS where they were introducing some memory management techniques [...]

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Categories Communications Stories, Developers, Mobile Applications

Yesterday’s announcement of Grand Central’s rebirth as Google Voice drew a lot of attention from both the mainstream media and blogger world. In following the IP-based communications world over the past three years, I have come to believe that the only potential real time conversation service provider challenger to Skype could come from Google. [...]

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Categories Communications News, Conversation Providers, Mobile Applications, Using Skype

RIM’s BlackBerry App World Launches

by Jim Courtney on Thu, Mar 5, 2009 10:03 am

At the BlackBerry  Developer Conference last fall, RIM announced that they would be launching their BlackBerry applications store in March, 2009. While it’s early in March, RIM last night provided significant details leading up to the launch of BlackBerry App World later this month. Rather than doing a launch at some big event, in [...]

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Categories Communications News, Developers, Mobile Applications

With the launch of Skype for Windows 4.0, Skype delivered its first client incorporating Skype’s new superwideband SILK codec providing a new user experience in voice calling. For example, Alec Saunders in “Skype 4.0 audio: smooth as SILK”:
Perhaps the biggest improvement, though, is audio quality.  We all thought that Skype audio was great, right?  [...]

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Categories Communications Stories, Communications Technology, Conferences and Events, Developers, Mobile, Skype Channels, Skype News, Wireless Carriers

Since its launch Tuesday, Skype for Windows 4.0 Gold has received some interesting coverage:

David Pogue, New York Times: in addition to his column discussed here yesterday, he has produced an amusing video: Skype 4.0: The Cheapskate where a video starring Mr. Cheapskate shows a Skype video session with his daughter, Kim Cheapskate, obviously a student. [...]

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Categories Communications Stories, Skype News, Skype Software, Skype for Personal

Over the past eighteen months CalliFlower has evolved into a complete audio conference call service. While they still offer a basic free service, in January they launched a premium service that provides document sharing, local calling numbers in North America, Europe and Australia as well as a feature that allows administrators to set up, but [...]

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Categories Communications News, Mobile Applications, Service Providers

When I started using Skype more intensively about three years ago, I had been a heavy user of Microsoft’s MSN Messenger for several years. But about 18 months ago, I stopped logging into MSN Messenger; none of my contacts were there – or, if they were, they were also on Skype. As for GTalk, well [...]

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Categories Communications Stories, Skype For Business, Skype for Personal, Using Skype