What is VOIP? – Can I really cut my phone bill?

If you are not familiar with VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocal), then you must live under a rock. You know those Vonage ads… wooo ooo…oooh ooh ooh…

Simply put, it means using the internet to talk to someone instead of using the ‘old fashion’ landline phone or cellular network. Cost savings can be huge- especially if you make a lot of international calls.

There are two types of VOIP. There are Hardware VOIP providers (like Vonage), and Software VOIP providers (like Skype). Originally with Skype, the “soft VOIP”, you had to use a computer, and although you could call people for free, you probably felt like a nerd talking into your computer. Now you can get a handset that looks like a telephone, so that’s good- but your PC has to be on ON and connected to the internet. Outgoing calls are no longer free, but are at very low rates.

Also there are sound quality concerns, and you can’t dial 911- which would suck if you lit your face on fire or chopped off a finger, and then had to knock on a neighbors door all injured and bleeding and ask to use their phone. I mean, I don’t dial 911 that often… thank god- but in the event that I needed to and couldn’t… well…I guess I’d be shit out of luck.

Anyways…

VONAGE has become a popular alternative to a regular landline. So much so that Verizon has sued (successfully) the pants off the company, leaving some to believe that the VOIP leader will fall. There are plenty of other companies around to pick up the slack (VOIP Providers).

Another cool option is to buy a $400 box from Ooma and ‘own your dialtone’. So there are no monthly fees, and you get unlimited US calling. You buy the stylish box, and thats it. Pretty cool. Actually very cool. The technology is really revolutionary and quite ingenious – Ooma uses “hubs” and regular PSTN phone lines to route your calls accross the country, giving you free domestic calls. And Ashton Kutcher is the Creative Director of Ooma. So thats a plus, right? Only downside is that if the company fails, you have a worthless $400 box. And if you read the print, they are only promising free domestic calls for 3 years.

So whats the future look like for your telephone? Well in my opinion, the internet will most likely carry your voice in data packets, everything will be wireless, either cellular or over the internet (or both), and most importantly we will all be paying a lot less to communicate with each other. The Big Telecom companies will adapt-they have to. Cell phones and ‘home phones’ will merge into one. I mean, I don’t even own a ‘home’ phone- I have my cell, and my work cell- I certainly don’t need another phone. Well maybe an iPhone. Or a gphone?

Read Full Post »

Drinking the FaceBook Kool-Aid

Well I am about to launch my first Facebook application soon, and I have to say… I am very excited. But at the same time I have to stop and give myself a reality check. It seems like while there certainly is a great deal of buzz around the Platform, no one has really figured it out yet. It’s like everyone knows there is something huge going on, but they just don’t know exactly how to take advantage of it. And to top it off, since the gold rush began a few months ago over 5500 applications have flooded Facebook, giving some user’s “app fatigue”. Not me of course, but I just realized I am “that guy” with a messy profile page and 15 apps that don’t really do all that much.

I believe that in the future, the culture of Facebook will change, and the days of Vampires biting you, and Chicken wings being thrown at you will give way to more useful apps (hopefully mine included) that will make Facebook more of a social utility, and less of a time waster.

The demographic is getting older, and user behavior is changing. Users are eventually going to get tired of all the fluff apps, and they are going to want applications that take advantage of the social graph to provide them with useful online tools. Facebook is going through this growth stage so quickly, and it will be interesting to see how everyone reacts to it (Facebook and its users).

Hopefully developers will find a way to make money (god i hope so), and Facebook will morph into whatever it is morphing into with its character intact. Hopefully Facebook will eventually transform into a place where friends no longer spend their time poking and stalking eachother, but sharing information and being productive.

Till next time. Right now I have to go spend some imaginary currency on little fish that swim around in my girlfriends virtual fish tank.

Read Full Post »