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Content Tagged with sprint + voice
Samsung’s Instinct Feels Less Than Instinctive
Playing with the Instinct, Samsung’s answer to the iPhone, is a fun experience, but not one I could handle on a daily basis. The touch interface is nice, with a satisfying vibration each time the phone registers a touch command, but lacks an accelerometer to register the changes in direction, like the iPhone has.
The Instinct will be available in June, and it appears to have all the features a consumer could dream of wanting.
In fact the phone has so many features crammed onto it, and it’s such a small device, that it was hard to do things without accidentally taking a picture or hitting one of the three hard-wired buttons on the bottom. The same thing happens on my BlackBerry Pearl, however, so my fat fingers might be the problem.
The navigation feature, which is powered by TeleNav and incorporates voice-activation technology from Microsoft (acquired through its TellMe acquisition), was my favorite. I could just tell the phone the name of one location and it would bring up a list of others nearby. Click on a car icon and it figures out where you are and then offers turn-by-turn directions to the place of your choosing. The icon will also appear near addresses in emails, eliminating one step in getting directions.
The phone uses a proprietary Samsung- and Sprint-developed operating system. The software-based keyboard can be used in landscape mode or vertically. When web searching, the keyboard contains a handy dedicated “.com” key. Surfing was easy and you could drag your finger across the screen to navigate down the page.
The television service, provided by Mobi, is still under development, so was slow to load and pixelated. Downloading music was easy, although the files downloaded from the Sprint store were a scant 1 MB, which makes me wonder about their quality. Battery life is about 5.5 hours, according to a spokeswoman, which includes a mix of talking and data usage. The phone will also come with a second external battery.
The best part about the phone seems to be that these features will be available under Sprint’s unlimited plan. That includes, texting, talking, navigation and data. But without an idea of what Sprint plans to charge for the phone, it’s hard to say how this stacks up against the competition that is similarly aimed at challenging the iPhone. And although not as intuitive as the iPhone, if the price is reasonable, given how many services Sprint includes in the plan, the Instinct may be a bargain.
And Now Its AT&T’s Turn To Sue Vonage
Its like the Groundhog Day for Vonage (VG), the beleaguered VoIP services company. After being separately sued by Verizon (VZ) and Sprint (S), and losing its cases over patent infringements, the Holmdel, NJ-based company is now facing similar charges from AT&T (T).
Vonage was ordered to pay $66 million to Verizon, and it recently settled its case with Sprint for around $80 million. AT&T, apparently has been trying to reach a settlement for past two years, but couldn’t strike a deal. “We were forced to file a lawsuit,” AT&T spokesman told the Wall Street Journal.
Sprint Patents Get Vonage Cash
The beleaguered VoIP provider Vonage (VG) has been taking it on the chin for so long that even a marginal bit of good news is worth noting. The company said today it has “settled its pending patent dispute with Sprint (S)” and has “entered into a licensing arrangement under Sprint’s Voice over Packet (“VOP”) patent portfolio.” The settlement has sent Vonage shares soaring this morning, up 73 percent to roughly $2 a share.
The agreement is valued at $80 million: $35 million for past license use, $40 million for a fully paid future license, and a $5 million prepayment for services. On Sept. 25, a Kansas jury handed down a verdict finding that Holmdel, N.J.-based Vonage had infringed six of Sprint’s patents. Vonage was asked to pay $69.5 million in damages.
Why is this good news? It’s one less thing for Vonage to worry about; now the company can focus all its energies on resolving the patent imbroglio with Verizon (VZ). The courts asked Vonage to pay $66 million to Verizon back in June. If they can resolve that issue, then they can get back to battling cable companies for customers.
FCC privacy rules can KO CableCos Wireless plan
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) just announced a new rule that makes it difficult for anyone to get your information from the telephone company, without a password set up by the telecom customer. It seems like such a great idea because it prevents pretexting - you know the whole scandal that involved a couple of reporters and Hewlett-Packard.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin in a statement said that the new order “takes a strong approach to protecting consumer shopping.” Wow, Martin actually watching out for the American people! But then a proverbial Mr. T screamed in my ear - FOOL! How can you think that Martin would do something like that?
The Wall Street Journal says that the new order can put a hex on the proposed wireless service being planned by cable companies and Sprint Nextel. Cable companies have plans to use Sprint’s wireless and build out a four-play offering that can a big bite out of phone companies’ business. The cable companies are already putting the hurt on phone companies’ bread-and-butter business.
WSJ points to a line buried in the order that prevents telcos from sharing private data with “joint venture partners or independent contractors.” No wonder some folks say at Comcast are concerned, according to the WSJ story.
VoIP patent mess to get messier
The telecom death match between Vonage (VG) and Verizon (VZ) is being played on in a small arena enclosed by a mesh wire of patents. And things could get quite bloody in months to come. Ed Pennington, head of patent practice for Bingham McCutchen, a Washington DC law firm told Telephony that a whole bunch of patent trolls could be waiting to pounce as a result of the Verizon-Vonage decision.
Verizon recently won the $58 million lawsuit, giving hopes to all patent holders, each looking to some get their piece of the action. Verizon, which has won its patent infringement case against Vonage could be emboldened by its win, and go after other players including cable companies and other small VoIP providers. Business Week estimates that there are about 2,000 VoIP-related patents have been issued to a diverse group of companies.
Some of the companies with big patent portfolios include Sprint, Net2Phone and a little known company called Web Technology. Incidentally, Web Technology last week filed a law suit against Verizon, Vonage, AT&T, Earthlink and SunRocket. Tech giants Cisco, Motorola, and Broadcom also have their own patents related to VoIP.
“You will see more companies exiting the business,” David McClure, president and CEO of the US Internet Industry Association recently told Business Week. Now that’s a novel way of precipitating a shakeout!
- 3/26/2007: Vonage ready to rumble
- 3/23/2007: Vonage has 2 weeks to stop using Verizon patents, says Judge
- 3/16/2007: Vonage - rocky road, not road kill
- 3/8/2007: Vonage owes $58 million in patent case
- 2/15/2007: Vonage growth slows in Q4
- 1/22/2007: Vonage’s tough road ahead.
Will Skype save Nokia Internet Tablets?
Nokia’s Internet tablet efforts – the 770, and more recently, the N800 – have produced a mixed bag of results. While the techies have been enthusiastic about the Linux-based tablets, the consumer electronics crowd (and buyers) hasn’t been overwhelmingly enthusiastic.
On Tuesday, some Nokia folks stopped by in our makeshift offices and articulated their vision for the tablet series. The company is betting that as more web services start to support the platform, the devices will gain in popularity. The Finnish phone maker believes that tablets are the next evolution of computing, and as web service matures, these Internet-centric devices will gain more traction.
And one such service is Skype. Nokia is expecting that Skype support will make the device more alluring, especially in the overseas markets.
The Nokia N800 is a nifty looking device that is very capable when it comes to making VoIP phone calls – we use Gizmo client all the time. Google Talk hasn’t exactly become our favorite, but like most we think Skype could actually make us use the device a lot more, especially for quick calls to other Skypers.
“Skype is certainly the most popular,” says Ari Virtanen, Nokia’s vice president of convergence products. Nokia will release in an early beta (without SkypeIn/SkypeOut support) in a few weeks, but the full version of Skype client is expected later this summer, Virtanen says. The Skype support, if nothing else, makes the N800 more attractive to folks who don’t want to lug a laptop along on short day trips.
We see N800 becoming a good way to consume music from subscription services such as Rhapsody and Napster. Nokia folks showed off the Rhapsody service, it was simple, easy to use and music streamed quite nicely over an EVDO-powered Wi-Fi network. Nokia wants to add more such services: Yahoo Music, MSN and Yahoo Messenger amongst others to boost the utility of the device. “It is an Internet services based platform,” says Virtanen.
“The world of computing has gone from mainframes to desktops to now laptops,” says Virtanen, “and the next step is tablets.” That future is going to take a lot longer than either Nokia or anyone else can imagine.
The sales register isn’t exactly jangling with regularity. Nevertheless, Nokia plans to add more retail outlets to its sales channel, especially in the US. Currently the device is sold online, and at Fry’s and CompUSA.
The big boost for N800’s descendants will come when Sprint launches its WiMAX network, sometime in 2008. At higher speeds, most web services are going to become easily accessible, and the N800 type devices will see their utility go up.
