TMCnet Blogs

Prior art? http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/rich-tehrani/consumer-electronics/be-caref…

And lasers. And Unix. And switched networking. And binary digital computers. And long-haul undersea cables. And the first successful communications satellite. And data networking. http://blog.tmcnet.com/next-generation-communications/2011/08/the-top-…

A comment like this makes me think you really don't know much about Bell Labs. http://blog.tmcnet.com/next-generation-communications/2011/08/the-top-… A lot of modern computing traces back to them and Xerox.

You're right, it looks like the capability was there before Microsoft bought Skype. https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2013/06/new_details_on.html That's not to say they didn't help: http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/microsoft-patents-voip-and-sky… https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4254925 http://news.softpedia.com/news/Microsoft-Ignores-PRISM-Claims-Dumps-P2…

It seems OOMA already has that Bluetooth to phone integration but yes Magic Jack doesn't . More detailed comparison is here at : http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/images/magicjack-vs-nettalk-vs… More details

I think wiretapping is one of the big reasons for the rearchitecture. Skype officially claimed they could not comply with wiretapping requests because of the P2P network as late as 2008 (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-9963028-38.html), and Microsoft was already working on wiretapping VoIP in 2009 (http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/microsoft-patents-voip-and-sky…

Can't speak for the OP, but the WP7 interface does not look tired to me: http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/images/windows-phone-7.jpg That home screen is the perfect mix of iPhone (structured, but with minimal ability to display info) and Android (stacked with widgets, but a mess layout-wise). The UI in WP7 is incredibly person-centric- I look up their entry in the phone book, it shows me their updates on various social networks, as well as a "history" tab that aggregates all our chats, e-mails and text messages into one list. It's very slick.

This is the first long term support release of Asterisk since version 1.4.0 was released in 2006, and there's >200 notable new features. A few important features that stuck out to me were Google Talk & Voice support, improvements to SIP handling, calendaring integration, and less noise on conference calls. For a good writeup of some of the new features, also see: http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/asterisk/asterisk-18---major-r…

Rumor Mill: Google Acquiring Sprint http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/rich-tehrani/google/rumor-mill-google-acqu…

The DC Hayes Micromodem II for the Apple ][ had its own weird command codes using control characters, with ^A at the "attention" command. IN#3 (Apple ][ command to hook input from slot #3) ^A ^F (modem command to set full duplex) ^A ^Q (modem command to pulse dial the following number) ^A ^Z (modem command to hang up) https://mirrors.apple2.org.za/ftp.apple.asimov.net/documentation/hardw… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayes_Microcomputer_Products#Early_Hayes… https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102645985 https://www.ebay.com/itm/393165436881 Later on once the Hayes AT command set took over and BBSs became popular in the 80's, there was a flat $25/month subscription service called "PC Pursuit" that had banks of modems in different cities connected by a network, which you could dial up locally, then connect over the network to another modem, and dial out to a local BBS system. It was a subsidiary of Telenet, which spun off from BBN, and later was a subsidiary of U.S. Sprint. http://www.bbsdocumentary.com/library/CONCEPTS/SERVICES/PCPURSUIT/hack… https://bbs.fandom.com/wiki/PC_Pursuit https://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/tom-keating/voip/pc-pursuit---the-forerun… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telenet#PC_Pursuit There was a fun game you could play called "PC Roulette", in which you first connected to a remote modem with the PCP command, then issued the command "A/" directly…

I believe they are referring to a beam-forming antenna when they say active phased array. Basically, timing of the RF signal to various portions of the antenna is altered such that it restricts and focuses the beam towards an intended target. The technology has only recently come to the point that it is practical for consumer level applications. I don't see it helping with reflections, with endpoints all over, you'll have a bunch of very strong beams scattering everywhere, but it can help push the signal further than a simple omni-directional or even sector antenna. I don't believe it helps much with the received signal. A real engineer will be able to answer the signal processing question much better than I, but to my knowledge, multipath can only be effectively dealt with when all versions of the signal originated from the same device. When you have effectively a stray signal, it's difficult to tell even where the carrier is. There is some mitigation possible with timing of transmit/receive signals(usually with GPS), but this also requires some control over the propagation of the signal. As far as weather, for most areas, 39ghz would probably be practical out to 2 miles, with some brief interruptions for very heavy rain. But with the bandwidth limitations, this isn't in line with the stated goal of gigabit level service to high-density urban environments. This would certainly be a last-mile tech, but the described target is high-density urban areas, where population…

I'm not seeing the conspiracy, sorry. What evidence is there that MS selling patents to AST was part of an evil plan? AIUI, AST (Allied Security Trust) isn't known as a patent troll. AST members include: Verizon, Cisco, Google, Telefon AB L.M., Ericsson, HP. Source: http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/rich-tehrani/patent/allied-security-trust-… If "not inviting" OIN was part of the conspiracy, surely a group that included Google shouldn't have been included either. AST on their website even assert that they don't assert patents against infringers: > Will AST assert these patents against infringers? > No. The purpose of AST is to provide the freedom to sell products and cost reduction. Member companies who wish to participate in a particular patent purchase are granted a worldwide non-exclusive patent license. Source: http://www.alliedsecuritytrust.com/q-and-a.html This is a non-story.