DigiAnalytics™, the easy-to-use call monitoring solution officially launched today. (PRWeb Dec 4, 2008) Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/12/prweb1696254.htm

DigiAnalytics™, the easy-to-use call monitoring solution officially launched today.

Tim Westergren, founder of Pandora Radio, has revealed that the company has surpassed 2 million registered iPhone and iPod touch users. “We’re hearing all sorts of wonderful feedback from listeners who are using it on their commute, jogging with it, plugging it into home audio systems...you name it,” Westergren wrote in a post on the company’s blog. “And as usual, offering all sorts of great ...

8x8 has announced a year-end 50 percent off special for new subscribers to its Virtual Office Phone service.

Businesses who sign up for the Virtual Office hosted PBX service can now pay $24.99 per month per extension if they subscribe by December 31, 2008, instead of the usual $49.99 per extension. They also can choose to pay $250 per extension in a one-time annual fee for the first year.  New customers have to purchase 8x8's new IP phones and agree to keep the service for at least one year to be eligible.

Interestingly, we don't expect to see "relief" business packages from other VoIP and IP communications providers by the end of the year.  All the others are sticking to the "we save you money over traditional phone service" line and seem to be reluctant to engage in a significant price cut/discount package for fear of trigging a price war - something no one wants at this point in time.

Life may be more interesting over on the consumer side in larger markets, however, with cable companies attempting to add more ARPU and/or suck up more market share from phone companies. Since October, Comcast has been offering free cable service with the purchase of Internet or phone service.

For more:
- Read the press release from 8x8.

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Reports out of Mumbai claim the 10 member Lashker-e-Taiba terrorist attack group was steeped in off-the-shelf consumer technology.  The FBI is reportedly assisting Indian intelligence agencies in deciphering "Internet telephony signatures" originating in Pakistan.

Terrorist controllers/handlers in Pakistan used VoIP to communicate with the Mumbai attack cell, with calls flowing out of Pakistan to satellite phones carried by the group. Conducting traffic analysis - number of calls, type of calls, frequency, and length - on the communications stream between Pakistan and Mumbai seems to have occurred, but it is not clear if Indian authorities have access to any media streams - the actual verbal conversations -- of calls. 

The FBI is apparently providing support to trace back when calls started coming in to the cell phone. While not being publicly discussed, it is likely that a United States National Security Agency "vacuum cleaner" system sucked up the broadcasted satellite phone conversations in some form; it is unknown if the communications were encrypted end-to-end, but if they were, it would provide an additional complication to learning the substance of the communications between Lashker-e-Taiba and its Mumbai cell.

Players on both sides of the terrorist equation - both attackers and defenders - are aware of the use and application of off-the-shelf technologies for attacks. In October, a short report by the U.S. Army 304th Military Intelligence open source intelligence team examined the potential use and application of mobile phone and VoIP technologies by terrorist groups. While the media generally obsessed over the application of Twitter, the report also highlighted the use of GPS, software to change voices in conjunction with VoIP calls, and Google Maps.

For more:
- The Economic Times of India briefly discusses FBI involvement in VoIP cracking.
- Ars Technica and the media fetished on Twitter as a terrorist tool, but the U.S. Army report highlights other technologies as well.

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Taliban VoIP calls - FierceVoIP
YouTube to take down terrorist videos - FierceOnlineVideo

How to employ a new Web-philosophy aimed at turning advertising into content, and content into an experience.

Ten things every marketing manager, business owner, and sales executive needs to know about business websites.

Processes to help to ensure that you find and choose the right web designer for your business.

You must be extremely careful of how you build your site if you're trying to please Google.

With such a high potential return on your investment, SEO should still be a priority.

Some marketing blogs that will make you want to go back and visit again and again.

Insurer site now allows consumers to manage policies online.

Zagat To Go's carefully compiled restaurant reviews may be ready for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but its delivery is only half-baked.

With tighter credit and slower sales, it's a buyer's market. VoIP-News pulls out 10 ways to get the best deal on VoIP systems and services - it's not a list resellers are going to enjoy much.

At the top of the list is asking for competitive bids, but making sure you have a tight RFP and perhaps a consultant to garbage-filter convoluted answers to what should be straightforward technical specifications. Working the system with a multi-year contract on software and/or maintenance is suggested along with trying to get free feature upgrades and other goodies thrown in. Bundles are also a good way to save some cash.

Like car salespeople, vendors and salespeople have end-of-month and end-of-year quotas to make, so you've always got some leverage if you pick the right time to negotiate. We're not so sure that last recommendation -- "being a showcase for emerging technology" -- is the best way to save cash; pioneers are typically the guys with the arrows sticking out of their backs.

For more:
- VoIP-News lays out a 10 step program to save cash on your new VoIP system. Article.

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A full-blown blog-o-war has started between The Register and BitTorrent.  A Register columnist said BitTorrent's uTorrent client is going to bring the internet to a crawl because of its preference for using UDP.

The use of UDP as UTorrent's default peer-to-peer protocol allegedly could make the amount of ungovernable traffic go through the roof, clobbering bandwidth, slowing gamers and VoIP. ISPs could control traffic flow by slowing down UDP traffic, but such a move would "utterly destroy VoIP," alleges The Register.

Techno sites have taken the cannon fodder and fired it with differing results. Excess UDP traffic could slow last-mile connections, say some, rather than bringing the whole Internet to its knees.

BitTorrent says The Register piece is "utter nonsense" and a switch to a UDP-based implementation of its client was intended to reduce internet congestion, not kill the Internet proper.

We suspect some of this brouhaha has to do with the fine British journalistic tradition (The Register is published in the UK) of running wild headlines and wilder stories to generate controversy and more readership. Gotta get those web hits up for the end of the year bonuses, wot?

For more:
- The Industry Standard raps on UDP vs TCP. Article.

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Comcast, BitTorrent cooperate on P2P fix - FierceTelecom
Study: Cox among BitTorrent traffic throttlers - FierceTelecom

Besides the Zagat ratings and reviews, there are photos, menus, Google maps, click to call capabilities and functionality that allows users to make instant restaurant reservations.

LONDON - T-Mobile is to become the first UK mobile phone operator to launch ad-funded gaming.

With demand for its innovative telephony applications exploding, Ifbyphone today announced the addition of Todd Curry, a veteran of Orbitz, HSBC and Intel, to its executive team as the company’s first vice president of marketing.

Orange Business Services has launched a "Unik PC" service for the French market enabling mobile subscribers to make calls from their PC using a USB key and bundled software.

By Carl Ford

My IT friends on Wall Street have always looked at the IPhone as an annoyance. Most of them were not Apple friendly to begin with, and have shown much reluctance to allow the iPhone into the support system.

In other words you can get one, but you are on your own, which actually is probably where you would be anyway. However, I would like to point out as I survey the world market, the iPhone may be the first phone consistently available and offered worldwide.  Traditionally, local phones can roam internationally, but they are not the same all over. Apple is starting a new trend line here to follow.

However with RIM & AT&T's Bold and RIM & Verizon's Storm, the Enterprise Architect has something they can point to that is "kewl" enough to hold the dogs back. And now that the bloom is off the rose, the iPhone has some interesting quirks that I think will allow the IT folks to hold it back. 

Here are the notes from the family test lab.
Number 1. Hanging up the phone is actually hard. Disconnects have to be forced otherwise you find that you are hearing that wonderful tone to tell you there is a phone off hook without a call. 
Number 2. Texting does not get the benefit of the landscape keyboard.  In other words the iPhone is friendlier to email even though its client base probably likes text better. The other complaints are not particularly relevant to a discussion about the enterprise.  

The RIM devices are not without problems, either. Friends with the Storm complain that some keys on the visual keyboard are impossible to click. So while the experience starts great, the frustration with the keyboard is problematic. However, the pressures of downsizing results in a number of RIMs being returned to the Enterprise and contracts to be bought out or renegotiated as a group.
On Wall Street, the Enterprise Architect has other issues to cope with. Like the auditing of the seat reduction as the company downsizes. With the tragedy in Mumbai, and thousands of employees being let go, the centralized directory of employees and their functions are going to be critical to continue productivity.

And yet with all this turmoil, some opportunity exists.

Whatever trials were going on or tools were being rolled out, if they were justified before these turbulent times, the loss of seats provides a savings that allows the roll out to be seen as a necessary supportable upgrade. Microsofts' OCS will be a beneficiary, but video systems from Cisco and Polycom are right now still leading the pack.
The good news for the employees involved in these trials is that they are being kept to implement these tools.  And who knows they may become consultants after the project is over.