Tzah 2.0

Yesterday, June 26, we announced the world premiere of the new Go JAJAH service, to be launched exclusively in Italy. The new service, developed with support from Italian-rooted Funambol, can automatically update a mobile phone address book, creating a local number for each international number. When this number is dialed, the call is connected automatically and the caller saves up to 98% on the call cost.

You’re welcome to read Roberto Galoppini’s post about the new service. Below you can see a video explaining how to use the new service.

Lately, I’ve been experimenting with Office Communication Server (OCS) 2007 R2. I’m checking voice routing between OCS and PSTN. It took me some time to enable incoming calls from a SIP client to reach an OCS communicator so I though I’ll share it with others who are facing the same issue.

First of all, you’d need a SIP client. Normally I use X-Lite but since OCS requires TCP as an underlying protocol to transfer SIP, I used the latest 4.0 version of X-Lite. After installation, setup your account; click on the Transport tab and choose TCP as the signaling transport.

Now let’s go to the front end server of OCS 2007 R2. Go to the users list (Forest, Enterprise pools, choose the relevant pool and click on ‘Users’ directory), double-click on a user name and select “Configure…” for “Telephony Settings:”. Enter a unique phone number in “Line URI:” field with the format tel:+<country code><Area code><number>. Press OK and you’re good to go!

Alrighty then. Go back to your SIP client and type the number (don’t forget the plus sign). Your communicator will ring. answer it. Yey.

Last week Facebook announced it has become an OpenID relying party: any user with OpenID URI can seamlessly login and register to Facebook. After users link their Facebook account to GMail account, they will be automatically logged-in to Facebook after having previously logged-in to GMail.

This move is very good for the user. By using OpenID URIs, the user needs only one set of username/password with which he sign-in to his OpenID service provider. From that point on, the user doesn’t need to remember other set of credentials. Yoohoo! Freedom from long lists of passwords at last!

Single sign on (SSO) poses great advantages to users and web sites. Registration and login processes become much easier to both sides. Users will be more inclined to register to a site without having to manually type their details, wait for the confirmation mail, press on conformation links and so on. Emerging web sites will benefit from easing registration to new users.

However, one has to wonder why Facebook, which already managed to have hundreds of million of registered users without OpenID, would spend resources on this standard. One might say that being open to the web, playing nice and live in harmony with the rest of the big boys is good enough reason. I certainly support this attitude. Sharing, collaboration and overall openness is definitely the direction the web should aspire too. Still, in the wrong hands, utilizing OpenID can have negative consequences.

Maybe I’m paranoid. Maybe I’m missing something but for me, the easiness of registration can also be honey trap. When a user links his Facebook account to a GMail account, Facebook ask for the user’s email, contacts, language and country. That information is not required for SSO. Facebook can use this information to learn more about the user, customize  its offerings, match GMail contacts with Facebook accounts and suggest user’s contacts to join  to Facebook.

This kind of information is the bread and butter of many web sites. Web sites uses it for promotions, advertisements, customization and much more. Potentially, this information worth a lot for the web sites asking it. I wouldn’t be surprised if major players will start charging for that information crossing over. Maybe we can call it “Information border tax ”.

What do you think?

Windows Mobile 6.5 is done and that’s a good opportunity to provide a quick jump-start to developers wishing to learn more about the OS.

Microsoft has a tendency to overload developers with abundant API of its various platforms and technologies. Windows Mobile is no different. Managed and native API, .Net, MFC, ATL, Win32… it’s all there for the confused developer. Luckily, Microsoft has recently published an article discussing APIs for Windows Mobile 6 and later, and how to select the best fit for your application needs. BTW, don’t be tempted to choose managed .Net API before fully understanding the functional requirements from your application and the devices it needs to run on. Win32 is better if you wish the application to run on as many devices as possible. 

A good place to learn Windows Mobile development is MSDN’s ramp up which is a community-based learning program, teaching various aspects in development for WM. Another excellent source for learning and help is blogs of mobile gurus. I recommend subscribing to the following blogs: Raffaele Limosaniblog, Alex Yakhnin, Christopher Fairbairn, Windows Mobile team blog, Reed and Steve blog, the Moth, and finally, Chris Craft (especially his 30 days of .Net series).

OK. You’ve done your reading and fill ready to start developing? hold on. Make sure you took into account globalization and localization issues. Simon Judge lists many of them.

Once done development, you need to QA your application. If your application aims for numerous devices in many countries, involving different networks, you should consider using DeviceAnywhere or maybe even Mob4Hire.

Finished the cycle? congratulation! Now you can go and publish your application on Windows Marketplace.

Mobile devices are no longer tools for calling someone. That’s a known fact. You can take pictures with it, read emails, navigate, read web content, check your calendar and more. However, in the mass user eyes, it is still not regarded as an extension to your computer. Sometimes, when I’m outside my home or office, I come across interesting stuff; movie posters, concerts, commercials or even a quick glance at a newspaper’s headline. For example, I can see a poster about  Antonio Gades’s flamenco version of “Carmen” and wish to learn when and where it shows.

Until recently, my mobile options to get this information were limited. I’d have to  open my browser, go to Google and type something like “gades carmen tel aviv”. Then I’d have to go over the results and look for the information I want. That’s very tedious even if you have iPhone.

Next comes Nokia. Nokia has recently launched a beta application called Nokia Point & Find. The application, currently available in USA and UK only and for Nokia N95 models, utilizes the compound of phone’s camera, Internet connection and GPS to recognize a real life object and get information relevant to the context and location. For example, users of the service could get information about movie like reviews, local show times, trailers and could even buy tickets on-line. What I like most about the service is the management portal Nokia provides for publishers. Nokia wouldn’t want to have a dedicated professional service team to configure campaigns. Instead, Nokia’s management portal enables the publishers to do it themselves. What I don’t like is that the application is relevant only to N95 models in the USA and UK. Plus, the user will have to download and install the application. 

Finally there’s  Kooaba. Koomba is a spin-off company from the ETH Zurich, an outstanding science and technology university in Switzerland. Their technology was already used in several campaigns and looks very mature. Mobile users can send images in various ways: email, MMS, iPhone and J2ME applications, although video calls are not available yet. Publishers can use  a web-based campaign manager to set up their account. The company also offers API for partners and developers.  

Overall, this is very exciting! The products above demonstrate how to use the distinctive benefits that mobile device has to offer to provide new experiences for mobile users and business opportunities for publishers.

Skype for SIP beta program, announced last week, is a big step for the VoIP industry. Still, as I said before, Skype has more way to go before it becomes truly interoperable and could provide advanced VoIP features. Currently, Skype for SIP is aimed at organizations with IP-PBX wishing to integrate its SIP standard with Skype. It is not known at this time when, and if, Skype will launch a similar program for individuals.

Well, until that happens, you might consider using Freeswitch’s skypiax module. Though only two months on the trunk source code and still in beta stage, it’s quite stable and can be used on both Linux and Windows OS. IT guys and developers should have no problem using it for their organizations or even private use. You could see a great video by Kulwinder Singh explaining how to configure the module on windows and possible usages. Using Freeswitch strength, you could connect your Skype IDs to SIP servers, combine with advanced dial-plans and even bridge a Skype call To GoogleTalk! now that’s really cool!

Com.Vention event took place yesterday in Airport city next Tel-Aviv. Participants in the event were amongst who’s who in Israeli Internet industry including Yossi Vardi, Amos Shapira (CEO of Cellcom, a major Israeli telecommunication company), Ron Eilon (CEO of Yes, Israel sole satellite television provider) and other distinguished guests from Israel and abroad.

During the day, Pelephone, another Israeli-based telecommunications company, had a booth which aimed to create buzz around the company’s new High-speed GSM services. The booth had 3 positions to play Wii game where every 1.5 hours, a Palm Pro was given to the high-point winner at that time.

Well, it so happen that JAJAH’s very own Jasmine Aharon actually won (which is  actually remarkable given the fact she failed miserably playing Tennis Wii in the office)! Excited, Jasmine came to the booth to collect her prize, eager to hold the advanced WM 6.1 phone, try its features, twitter away using its qwerty keyboard and 3.5G high speed network, marvel at its beauty, well, you get the point. Only that the marketing guy at the booth had to brush away her dreams and return Jasmine to the hard, cold reality of Pelephone marketing logic. “you have to pay 70 NIS (about 17$) a month for 18 months if you wish to get the phone”. All of Jasmine’s attempts to get the phone for free (again, she WON that phone) or even for a discount were to a vain. Pelephone was insistent that Jasmine, which is a Pelephone subscriber by the way, will pay for her prize. Reluctantly and disappointed, Jasmine had to give up her prize and go home empty-handed. The same thing happen to other winners that day. Pelephone was not going to give the prize for free and so, many other winners decided to give up the phone. True, Pelephone did mention that the winner would have to join a subscriber program for that amount of money. Somehow, most of the people competing at the booth didn’t notice it. Even so, its simply short-sighting

This is a great example on how to create negative marketing buzz. After giving so much effort (and money) in putting the booths to gain attention, it’s really disappointing to see how, at the end of the day, Pelephone treats existing and potential customers. One of the winners, wondered what is the attitude of Pelephone towards her subscribers if that’s the way they treat the event participants which included CEOs, journalists, bloggers and other technology-eager participants. I truly hope Pelephone will come to their senses and give its prizes for free.

Skype has made a huge move this week announcing Skype for business. Organizations that have IP-PBX systems can connect it to Skype using SIP. The service, which is currently in beta, has two major benefits to businesses. First, it allows Skype users to connect to the organization using their account. The second, it enables the organizations to make PSTN calls using SkypeOut and saves money.

This is a great day for the VoIP industry. Once Skype users decide to use their account to make a call to an organization, rather than make a regular phone call, the trend towards an all-IP networks would gain more momentum. Furthermore, coupling Skype for business with the use of twitter for direct contact with customers, this service demonstrate the strength that the web/IP has to offer for organizations.

Another reason to celebrate is that Skype, that uses its own standards for signaling and media, has finally integrates with the SIP standard which make them more interoperable. However, it seems that for now, the integration has limited the service functionality to mere calls. That means no presence information, file sharing, text chatting and other great features which only VoIP (we should think of a new name) can deliver. If this remains true, people might start wondering why they should invest their time and energy with a new service that provides them the same functionality they had so far. I truly hope that Skype will enhance the service or otherwise, this entire experiment might cause damage to our industry.

Finally, there’s another aspect that we in the VoIP industry should ponder about. Individuals, as well as organizations, have abundant ways to get in touch with. We have PSTN numbers, emails, twitter, Skype, Windows Messenger, Yahoo messenger, GoogleTalk, and the list goes on and on. What we need is one URI which will map to the specific communication channels of the user. Another service is a global golden page for all those channels. Let’s say I’m looking for John Smith. the service will provide me its URI which in turn, upon sending IM or calling it, will map the request to John’s favorite channel. There’s much more to discuss about this so I’ll leave it to a future post.

iphonetouch.blorge has recently published a story from Arnold Zafra about top 40 best iPhone optimized web sites. Our own iphone.jajah.com is one of the top 40 web sites!  The site is amongst a respectable list of other iphone optimized sites like Amazon, CBS News, Digg, Meebo, Google and Twitter.

Mr. Zafra found these sites to be “useful and highly iPhone optimized sites that will enhance your online iPhone experience”. JAJAH iphone’s dedicated web site, launched at December 2007, has aimed to fully optimize the device capabilities while maintaining a simple and easy user experience. Mr. Zafra story is a testimony for JAJAH efforts in providing a variety of mobile solutions to make low cost calls.

I can’t believe I didn’t mention it in my last post. Google Voice is really great but it looks to me like it’s more focused on getting incoming calls than placing outbound calls (even though they’re free for now). A Google Voice user has 3 ways to make a call: making a callback from his on-line account, calling back people who left a voicemail or manually typing the desired number.

Let’s have a closer look. The first way is simple and intuitive. Google Voice on-line page is based on Google’s famous UI principles thus making it easy to make the call. However, it still requires going on-line with your computer which is somewhat limiting. I didn’t hear about a mobile web version for the service like JAJAH’s mobile web, but I’m sure Google is working on it right now. The second way to make calls  is to callback a person back from a voicemail but that’s more a by-product for the voicemail service than a “legitimate” way to place calls.

The third way is to call your Google Voice number, press 2 and then manually type the destination number . That’s a big problem. Most of the mobile calls we make are from the phone’s address book or call log. Typing the number requires memorizing the number and the entire process takes time. The solution is either to have a number mapped to the destination, like JAJAH Direct service, or install a mobile plug-in. A mobile plug-in can be installed on most phones today and use the phone’s capabilities. On smart phones devices like iPhone/iPod, Symbian, Windows Mobile and Android, Mobile VoIP calls can made thus saving you the cost of local call to your operator. In addition, the applications can intercept outgoing calls and route them through Google Voice. The advantage here is that the user doesn’t have to learn new tricks to make calls. She’ll still dial like she used to and the application will make the decision how to route the call. On features phone, which are still the majority of phones today, a J2ME plug-in can be installed to make calls. The plug-in could interface with the phone’s address book, allowing the user to choose a contact to dial to rather than typing the number manually. My guess is that Google will soon launch applications for mobile phones.