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Tag: Phone

  • Best Business Phone Features for Small Business

    Best Business Phone Features for Small Business

    One of the most important pieces of hardware or software for small business people is their communication system. The fact is that you’ll almost definitely be using it on a regular basis, and if you choose the right one, it might provide you with a considerable competitive advantage.

    At the end of the day, every company needs a corporate communication network that is supported with a robust phone insurance plan. Establishing clear channels of conversation with clients, suppliers, and employees is essential, and small businesses can execute this task just as well, if not better, than large enterprises.

    These are the best features that small business phone systems must have to improve your business communication:

    Automatic Attendant

    Small businesses can benefit a lot from using an automatic attendant (also known as IVR) system. Tools like formal greeting, call forwarding, extension selection, and others are deployed using an IVR system.

    While many companies prefer personal interactions with their customers, an automatic attendant can help increase support efficiency, reduce waiting times, and also give a high level of customization and personalization. For example, with automatic call routing, your IVR can greet your customer by name and transfer the call to his account manager.

    This technology is perfect for working in a small office environment since it gives small businesses a more professional look. You can set your IVR to answer simple questions so your clients might get in touch with your small business 24/7.

    The advanced capabilities of an auto attendant must, without a question, be included in your current small business phone system.

    CRM Software Integrations

    Connecting with customer relationship management (CRM) and other business intelligence technologies is crucial for small businesses. In order to stay competitive, firms must identify and leverage every potential feature to increase their efficiency. Screen pop-up when looking for incoming Calls information, click-to-call, and professional phone appearance are just a few of the features available when your phone system is integrated with your CRM. Such features provide unparalleled effectiveness.

    Conversations Recording

    Recording calls is a useful feature for various small businesses. Not everyone can understand the advantages of this feature or will benefit from it regularly, but if you conduct business over the phone, having audio recordings is important because it allows you to evaluate discussions over time to enhance your effectiveness, and also refer back when you need clarification or reminding what was discussed.

    It is possible to use call recordings for several objectives, like collecting evidence for key concerns raised by a client over the phone or evaluating discussions to identify how to improve a sales presentation in the future.

    Conference Calling

    It is not always feasible to bring individuals together in person since business is now also performed remotely. Conferencing is simple, and you can have real-time conversations with as many people as you need. Simply put your caller on wait, choose a new line, then hit the conference option to attend the other lines. It is that easy! 

    Call Forwarding

    Having the ability to transfer conversations fast and easily is critical for properly managing inbound calls. One of the primary reasons firms switch to the most up-to-date, feature-rich phone systems is indeed the opportunity to do this more efficiently. Every phone user may easily send calls to other members of the team using the right phone system, which can be done with a single tap. Additionally, since you’ll have at least two phone setups, somebody else may be in a conversation at the same moment as you are.

    The Bottom Line

    The cloud-based characteristics of phone solutions provide a great deal of value to businesses. It’s hard to imagine a workplace without corporate phone services, whether it’s basic functions like call waiting or call forwarding or more sophisticated ones like CRM integrations, and also, they can be used for secure remote working. For big and small companies alike, this and the cost advantages over traditional landlines technology makes them an appealing alternative.

  • STIR/SHAKEN: The Fight for the Future of Phone Calls

    STIR/SHAKEN: The Fight for the Future of Phone Calls

    When phone calls were first introduced, it was a wonderful way to erase physical distance from a conversation. Nowadays, a minority of phone calls feature a real conversation. On average, 54% of all phone calls received are uninvited spam. The US is the 8th most spammed nation in the world, its residents receiving upwards of 122,000 robocalls every minute. These calls are worse than a nuisance; in 2020 alone, phone scams swindled Americans out of $10 billion. 

    The troubles recipients face from spam calls are well known. Less acknowledged is the damage businesses suffer when their calls are lumped in with spam. Spoofing is harming the operations of reputable businesses. When scammers spoof real phone numbers to make their spam more convincing, they are difficult to trace and impossible to police. Their association with the spoofed number taints further usage. The algorithms phone carriers use to detect spam are well-intended, but they lead to many reputable businesses receiving the label of “spam likely.” Thousands of business calls are incorrectly flagged as spam every day. This is because the phone carrier algorithms look for high call volumes, customer complaints, and lead blocking to determine which numbers are perpetrating spam. 

    How Do We Discern a Spam Caller From an Honest Business?

    How do phone carriers protect consumers from spam without harming any honest businesses? Enter the STIR/SHAKEN revolution, here to restore trust in phone communications. The revolution traces back 15 months to the passage of the TRACED Act in March 2020, a law designed to fight back against robocalls. Now in June 2021, STIR/SHAKEN implements caller ID authentication to combat spoofing and robocalls. All service providers are expected to be on board with the new standards.

    Here’s how the new system works. When a business places an outbound call, the phone carrier sends their number to a system for authentication. There, the call can be assigned 1 of 3 ratings. An A rating is full verification, meaning the customer and number are both verified. A B rating is a partial verification, in which the customer is verified but their number is not. Lastly, a C rating is for gateway calls. The call origination could not be authenticated on a C call. Once the correct rating is determined, caller ID may show the recipient if their caller is verified or likely spam. These higher levels of attestation are meant to inspire trust among consumers.

    The Benefits of the New System are Spread Across Groups

    Businesses can carry on as verified customers and consumers know for certain which calls they can trust. Should a business want to further reduce its risk of being lumped in with spam, there are a few extra steps worth considering. Rotating numbers to reduce call volume per number is one possibility, as is the mixing of hot and cold leads to maximize response chances. Services like PhoneBurner are also around to improve calling results, and they act in full compliance with the new STIR/SHAKEN regulations. It’s time to call with confidence again. 

    STIR/SHAKEN Is Changing The Future Of Phone Calls
  • Google Rolling Out Verified Calls to Tell You Why Businesses Are Calling

    Google Rolling Out Verified Calls to Tell You Why Businesses Are Calling

    Google is preparing to roll out a feature that will help cut down spam calls by verifying calls before they’re placed.

    In a support document, Google outlines how Verified Calls will work. Participating businesses will send information to Google’s Verified Calls server, including the name of the business, who they’re calling and the purpose of the call.

    Google then sends this information to the Android Phone app. Once the business actually places the call, Android compares the call with the information Google previously sent. If everything matches up, the Phone app displays a “Verified Call” badge.

    While certainly an intriguing feature, and one with a lot of potential, it remains to be seen how many users want Google knowing exactly why a business is calling them. For those who want to keep Google from knowing too much about their business, the feature can be turned off.

  • $1,000 Is the Breaking Point For Most Phone Buyers

    $1,000 Is the Breaking Point For Most Phone Buyers

    According to new data by The NPD Group, $1,000 is too expensive for the overwhelming majority of phone buyers.

    NPD’s research shows that just under 10 percent of buyers are willing to pay $1,000 or more for a phone. This could pose a significant challenge for 5G adoption. On the one hand, 5G awareness and purchasing potential is very strong, especially for a technology that has not been widely deployed yet.

    “In fact, awareness has reached nearly 3 out of 4 consumers, totaling 73 percent, at the end of the first half of 2019,” according to NPD. “This is up from 44 percent at the end of the first half of 2018. Alongside increasing awareness, 33 percent of smartphone owners report interest in purchasing a 5G-enabled smartphone.”

    Unfortunately, however, most 5G phones are falling in the $1,200 price range, limiting how many customers will be able to make the jump.

    “Overall awareness and purchase intent reported by consumers is high, but only a small segment of the market can afford these $1,000+ devices,” noted Brad Akyuz, executive director, industry analyst, NPD Connected Intelligence. “This provides an opportunity for both carriers and manufacturers to focus on diversifying their 5G portfolios by introducing more affordable mid-tier 5G models to enjoy faster adoption rates.”

    It will be interesting to see if the revolutionary speed increases offered by 5G change the public’s perception of an acceptable phone price point, or if manufacturers will need to come out with cheaper models to entice buyers.

  • Microsoft Announces Dual-Screen Surface Duo—Powered by Android!

    Microsoft Announces Dual-Screen Surface Duo—Powered by Android!

    Those who have been around tech for more than a decade remember the “good old days” when Microsoft was ruthlessly protective of its intellectual property, its platforms, its ecosystem. In fact, it was so protective that it was eventually sued by the U.S. Government for monopolistic behavior.

    Fast-forward to 2019 and how things have changed. At the Microsoft Surface event in New York City, the company announced the Surface Duo, a dual-screen phone with Android and the Google Play Store installed—that’s right, Android, not Windows.

    Surface Duo
    Surface Duo

    The device’s two screens are joined by a 360-degree hinge, allowing it to be closed with the screens protected, closed with a screen on the front and back, laid flat on a table, held like a book and virtually every other angle in-between. Apps can be run on the two screens simultaneously, with data shared between the two via drag-and-drop.

    In the demo video, the phone is remarkably thin, especially compared to other folding phones, although some might be put off by the amount of space used by the bevels. The width of the phone is larger than many popular phones on the market, and puts the device squarely in “phablet” territory. This could be a positive or a negative, depending on if a person prioritizes screen real estate or easy, pants-pocket portability.

    The announced release date is “Holiday 2020,” a long wait for customers excited to take it for a spin. Nonetheless, the phone could prove to be a hit, marrying the benefits of Microsoft and Google like no device yet has.

     

  • Apple is working on a fix for this iPhone 6S battery anomaly

    ​Some iPhone 6S users are reporting a battery anomaly that’s causing their device to display an incorrect amount of remaining charge.

    Battery percentage on affected devices is apparently failing to update, even though power is being consumed.

  • Microsoft Announces 7,800 Job Cuts from Phone Division

    Microsoft has announced that it will cut up to 7,800 jobs, mostly in the company’s phone hardware business. The company is also writing off $7.6 billion related to its acquisition of Nokia’s phone business despite only spending $7.2 billion to acquire it last year.

    “I am committed to our first-party devices including phones. However, we need to focus our phone efforts in the near term while driving reinvention. We are moving from a strategy to grow a standalone phone business to a strategy to grow and create a vibrant Windows ecosystem that includes our first-party device family,” said CEO Satya Nadella in a memo to employees.

    “In the near term, we will run a more effective phone portfolio, with better products and speed to market given the recently formed Windows and Devices Group. We plan to narrow our focus to three customer segments where we can make unique contributions and where we can differentiate through the combination of our hardware and software. We’ll bring business customers the best management, security and productivity experiences they need; value phone buyers the communications services they want; and Windows fans the flagship devices they’ll love.”

    About a year ago, Nadella announced a significant shakeup and set in motion the company’s biggest-ever job cuts – 18,000 in 12 months.

    “I deeply appreciate all of the ideas and hard work of everyone involved in these businesses, and I want to reiterate my commitment to helping each individual impacted,” he said

    Last month, Microsoft sent around 100 Bing maps data collection engineers over to Uber.

    “We will continue to source base mapping data and imagery from partners. This allows us to focus our efforts on delivering great map products such as Bing Maps, Maps app for Windows and our Bing Maps for Enterprise APIs,” said Nadella in today’s memo.

    Around the same time, Microsoft and AOL announced a huge agreement which saw AOL assume management and sales responsibilities for all of Microsoft’s display, mobile, and video ad inventory.

    Of that, Nadella writes:

    “We also announced our decision to sharpen our focus in advertising platform technology and concentrate on search, while we partner with AOL and AppNexus for display. Bing will now power search and search advertising across the AOL portfolio of sites, in addition to the partnerships we already have with Yahoo!, Amazon and Apple. Concentrating on search will help us further accelerate the progress we’ve been making over the past six years. Last year Bing grew to 20 percent query share in the U.S. while growing our search advertising revenue 28 percent over the past 12 months. We view search technology as core to our efforts spanning Bing.com, Cortana, Office 365, Windows 10 and Azure services.”

  • Facebook Is Still Trying to Take Over Your Phone, New ‘Hello’ App Shows You Info on Callers

    Back in March, it slipped that Facebook was testing a new phone app that would serve as an Android dialer and caller ID app. Internal testing called it “Phone”.

    Now that app has materialized as Hello, which Facebook is launching today.

    “Billions of calls are made everyday on mobile phones and people often have very little information about who’s calling them. Today we are starting to test Hello, a new app built by the Messenger team. Hello connects with Facebook so you can see who’s calling, block unwanted calls and search for people and places,” says Facebook Product Manager Andrea Vaccari.

    As a caller ID app, Hello has a lot going for it. If there’s one thing Facebook has a lot of, other than confidence that you’ll want to download dozens of standalone Facebook apps, it’s phone numbers. As long as a person’s phone number is public, Hello will show you their profile picture and any other public information about them – which a nice way to avoid that creeper that keeps calling you.

    Of course, all the info makes blocking numbers much easier. Plus, if a number is manually blocked all the time, Facebook’s Hello will block it automatically for you.

    “From your settings, you can block specific numbers and adjust whether you want to automatically blocks calls from commonly blocked numbers. Blocked calls go straight to voicemail and can be reviewed in your recent calls,” says Vaccari.

    Apart from its function as a dialer and advanced caller ID app, Hello also leverages Facebook’s data troves to form a pretty massive business directory. Let’s say you look up a restaurant down the street – Hello will show you an image, business hours, its Facebook rating, and quick links to call (via cellular or free via Messenger).

    If you’re interested, you can download Hello today for Android. Sorry, iOS users – no dice. iOS doesn’t play nice with apps trying to access the phone function.

    Sure, there is plenty of useful stuff inside Hello. It’s also another app from Facebook that’s not the main Facebook app. You should get used to Facebook pumping out standalone apps. It’s not going to slow down. We’ll see if, in the end, this is a good or bad thing. It all depends on the apps’ usefulness. What I can say about Hello is that it’s a hell of a lot more useful than Slingshot.

    Image via Facebook, Vimeo

  • Facebook Is Working on a New Phone App

    Facebook Is Working on a New Phone App

    If you’re unsatisfied with the fact that Facebook is not a part of your phone call-making experience, you’re in luck. It appears that the company is working on a new app that inserts the Facebook experience into your actual phone function.

    It looks like Facebook is working on an Android dialer and caller ID app – but one that uses information from Facebook to give you a better clue as to who’s calling you.

    Android Police snagged a screenshot of the app, which appears to be in internal testing (FB only). Somehow, the app install got pushed (leaked, intentionally leaked, whatever you want to say) to a small number of Facebook users. It’s simply called “Phone” and offers this description:

    Phone is a new app the shows you info about who’s calling and automatically blocks calls from commonly blocked numbers.

    If there’s one thing Facebook has a lot of it’s phone numbers. And all it has to do is tie those numbers to other data about its users and present that in a tight little package. At that point, anyone receiving a call from a strange number would be able to see a lot of pertinent info on the caller.

    Facebook confirmed that the app is real, but gave the usual “we are always testing things and have nothing to announce at this time” response. We’ll see if this app ever really sees the light of day.

    And yes, I’m aware this sounds like “Facebook Phone.” Facebook is not building another phone, however. That experiment wasn’t too successful.

  • Victim Finds Thief’s Phone, Calls His Mom

    Victim Finds Thief’s Phone, Calls His Mom

    Eliza Webb, 29, of Seattle, had a unique situation before her. She had come out to her car and found that her running shoes and sunglasses and been stolen from inside the vehicle. But the thief had also left something behind, quite by accident: his cell phone.

    Webb thumbed through the phone and found the thief’s contacts. One of them was labeled “Mom”. Now, what’s a theft victim to do?

    Webb called the number. When a woman answered Webb told her, “This is a very uncomfortable phone call to make. I have your son’s phone and I’m missing some things out of my car and I think they might be two related items.”

    The woman’s son turned out to be nineteen years old. As Webb says, “She was devastated.”

    Webb works with teenagers. She knew that a police record would certainly haunt this young man for a long time to come, hurt his chances at getting into a good school, of getting decent employment. She did not want to involve the police, especially if the mother was willing to cooperate with her in a plan she was hatching. She decided to hold him accountable, and to make sure he felt the sting of his crime.

    She went to visit the teen and his mother. “We knocked on the door and he answered in just sort of a defeated look. He looked like he had been crying,” Webb said.

    The teen admitted to her that he had stolen items from ten more cars in the neighborhood. He said that the whole spree was a result of a night of drinking with a friend. Webb and the teen’s mother decided that he would go house-to-house in her neighborhood, knocking on each door, admitting what he had done, and returning ever item he had stolen.

    One of the neighbors who spoke with the teen, whom Webb still refuses to identify, told ABC News, “Kid said, ‘I know it was wrong. We’re not going to do this again.’ I said, ‘I hope not.’”

    Webb hopes that her actions, while helping the young man avoid the direst consequences of his crime, will help steer him from any further infractions.

    “Sometimes when you get shamed or told that you did something wrong by somebody else,” she said, “it can stick.”

  • Infographic Can Help You Figure Out Where and When You Lost Your Phone

    Backgroundcheck.com created this infographic and used research by Lookout Mobile Security.

    The following infographic points out where and when people are most likely to have lost their phones.

    Nomophobia is the fear of being out of mobile phone contact and if you have it, I highly advise that you review the following infographic so that you do not have a panic attack in the event that you become temporarily separated from your mobile device.

    Wondering what time you lost your phone? Research indicates that two-thirds of phones are lost between 9pm and 2am.

    It is common to misplace your phone while partying hard and watching fireworks or frantically shopping during the Christmas season. If you recently took a trip to Niagara Falls, you better retrace your footsteps because four people lose their phones their every day. Considering 13 million people visit the falls every year, that isn’t a significant percentage.

    (image)

    People are most likely to leave their phone in places that they regularly frequent like church, the grocery store, and fast-food restaurants.

    People residing in Seattle and Philadelphia lost their phones twice a year but people in Philly lose approximately $15 million dollars more in phones than Seattleites.

    Avoid visiting an automotive shop at night in Philadelphia after you stopped to pick up a real cheesesteak at a pizzeria. You should also refrain from grabbing a cup of joe at Starbucks after shopping all day for the most in demand Christmas gift.

  • Trayvon Martin On His Phone When Shooting Occurred

    Trayvon Martin, the 17-year old Florida teen who was shot by a self-appointed neighborhood watch member in February, was apparently on the phone when it happened…and his last words could be damning for the man accused of shooting him.

    The suspect, George Zimmerman, has admitted to the fatal shooting, but he claims he did it in self defense after following a “suspicious” person in his neighborhood who looked like he was “up to no good”. Even after police advised Zimmerman not to follow Martin–who was unarmed–however, he continued to trail him, and now Martin’s girlfriend says she was on the phone with him and heard everything.

    She says Martin told her someone was following him and she advised him to run. Moments later, she heard him say, “Why are you following me?” before hearing the words, “What are you doing here?” This was followed by a scuffle and then the connection broke. It would be the last time she would ever speak to him.

    Benjamin Crump, the family’s attorney, says phone records corroborate the girl’s story and is hoping this will be the evidence he needs to put Zimmerman away. But Florida law may make it harder to get a conviction.

    “As long as you are somewhere you have a lawful right to be, if someone attacks you, the words of the statute are you can meet force with force, including deadly force, if you reasonably believe that that is necessary,” Jeffrey Bellin, who teaches law at Southern Methodist University, told NPR.

    The case has attracted national attention as well as that of the FBI and has now gone to the grand jury. There are several petitions going around online in support of justice for Trayvon and social media has been the perfect outlet for public outcry, which includes celebrity voices.

    (image)@UncleRUSH
    Russell Simmons    There are 17,000 people on our facebook page: Justice For Trayvon Martin. pls join us… http://t.co/TD2uTKmr(image) 37 minutes ago via TweetDeck ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@Selkoe
    greg    Please ReTweet Justice for Trayvon! http://t.co/4aEmxmJN #Trayvon(image) 1 hour ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@TheRealRoseanne
    Roseanne Barr    Trayvon Martin: He is America’s son now.(image) 1 hour ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@TherealTaraji
    Taraji P. Henson    RT @rolandsmartin: RT @TIME: This is the controversial Florida law at the heart of the Trayvon Martin case | http://t.co/HxADjo5w(image) 1 hour ago via UberSocial for BlackBerry ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@ArsenioOFFICIAL
    Arsenio Hall    Trayvon Martin … Bing It … Google It. You gotta know!!!(image) 1 hour ago via Echofon ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@RealDlHughley
    DL Hughley    What happened 2 Trayvon Martin is the GREATEST fear of every parent of a black male child! It keeps u awake til they walk through the door!(image) 4 hours ago via WhoSay ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

  • Orbit: New Budget Windows Phone From ZTE

    Orbit: New Budget Windows Phone From ZTE

    ZTE has added a new Windows Phone called Orbit to its growing phone portfolio. The new budget smartphone is based on the latest version of Windows Phone and comes with 4GB of memory. It also has HD voice and a 5Mpx autofocus camera with LED flash. According to Senior Director of the OEM Division of Microsoft, Mark Linton, “Microsoft is excited to continue partnering with ZTE to bring new Windows Phones to market. We look forward to the availability of ZTE Orbit in major markets around the world in the second quarter of 2012.”

    Regarding the new smartphone from ZTE, Executive Vice President and Head of Terminal Division for ZTE, He Shiyou said, “The Windows Phone platform is as powerful as it is intuitive, enabling us to create and deliver exciting new devices that meet real consumer demand. Our partnership with Microsoft is a key component of our strategy to grow our share of the smartphone market. ZTE is proud to be at the forefront of device manufacturers who are using the Windows Phone platform.”

    Orbit will join the ZTE Tania, the first Windows Phone-powered smartphone launched earlier this year (January 18, 2012) by ZTE and expected to be available in stores around April. Tania is a cool new Windows Phone device with an amazingly small sized chassis measuring only 10.7 mm in depth. It has a 4GB internal storage and surprising 4.3 inch touch screen. ZTE plans to demonstrate the full portfolio of Windows Phone devices at Mobile World Congress.

  • Mexicans Well Overcharged Billions In Phone Web

    Mexico is the second largest Latin American economy, but it seems the cost of phone and internet bills are holding it back. From the years of 2005-2009, consumers in mexico spent 13.4 billion dollars per year excess for phone and internet. Also it seems the highest fees impacted the poorer families. This overcharging ended up costing the country 129 billion dollars over a five year time span.

    The telephone market is dominated by Slim Telefonos de Mexico A.K.A. Telemex which provides nearly 80 percent of the services, while billionaire Carlos Slim controls around 70 percent of the cellphone market with America Movil.

    Dionisio Perez-Jacome, minister of Communications and Transport had this to say, according to one source:

    “This is a critical study…that exposes the weakness of the telecommunications sector in Mexico.”

    In the year 2008, Telemex had a profit margin of nearly 50 percent, while countries like Canada and the UK only had close to 30 percent. Mexican Government is, in the mean time, trying to increase broadband speeds in mexico, which apparently they feel will soften the blow of thee high prices. Evidently in their opinion broadband speed trumps ridiculous price.

    In your opinion, does speed outweigh price or do steep prices steer you elsewhere? Should speed and price equal each other? With this economy who can afford expensive internet anyway? Leave your opinions in the comments section

  • CES 2012: Smartphone Integration Reaches Hilarious New Heights

    CES 2012: Smartphone Integration Reaches Hilarious New Heights

    For the business worker who needs a phone in their phone, Nvoxia has you covered.

    File this one under silly and unnecessary, the Invoxia NVX 610 being shown off at CES combines a desktop phone with an iPod, iPhone or iPad to make and receive calls.

    The NVX 610 is a desktop phone with a port to fit your favorite iDevice in to replace the office phone. The calls are made from the iDevice and can be made to either office or phone contacts. The same is true for incoming calls as the device allows for integration of both contact lists. It uses Skype or SIP to make calls.

    The phone’s main selling point is that it features excellent sound quality. The stand on which both phones sit is a speaker that can be used in hands-free mode for conference calls. It also allows the user to listen to all music and sound related apps on the iDevice.

    The device can be remotely updated by the company so any and all future iDevices will be supported.

    It features two USB ports on the back, one of which is taken by the corded handset. It also has two ethernet ports with one of them being a Power over Ethernet port to power the phone. Also features Bluetooth technology for wireless communication with your iPhone or iPod. It can also pair the phone with a wireless headset, thereby invalidating the need for the handset.

    NVX

    This may be the most needless device I have seen at CES this week. Every device has a market and I’m sure the NVX 610 will find a market. I just don’t see why we need to integrate a smartphone into everything. The NVX 610 represents the pinnacle of needless smartphone integration because it integrates the smartphone with a phone.

    Is the NVX 610 a needless product? Are you tired of seeing smartphone integration with every other device? Does it seem useful to you? Let us know in the comments.

  • CES 2012: Samsung Galaxy Note Coming To America

    CES 2012: Samsung Galaxy Note Coming To America

    At their CES conference today, AT&T announced that Samsung’s Galaxy Note, which has been available overseas for some time, is coming to the US. For the time being, at least, the phone will be exclusively on AT&T’s 4G LTE network. There is currently no information on pricing or release date.

    With the Galaxy Note, Samsung is trying to split the difference between the smartphone and the tablet. The HD Super AMOLED display measures 5.3 inches – right in the middle of the 3.5-4-inch screens of most smartphones and the 7-inch screens of many tablets. It also comes with an S Pen (i.e., a stylus), that promises somewhat finer control than users can get with a finger alone. The device also sports a 1.4 GHz dual core processor, a 2 megapixel front-facing camera and 8 megapixel rear-facing camera, HD video recording, and 16 GB of internal memory along with a microSD card slot.

    While 7-inch tablets have generally done fairly well, Steve Jobs famously said that 10 inches was the bottom limit for an iPad. Anything smaller, he said, would suffer from an identity crisis – too small to be a tablet, too big to be a phone. With the Galaxy Note, Samsung has deliberately created a device with the very identity crisis Jobs worried about, and used that as a selling point. It will be interesting to see how well the device does (at least Samsung is immune to charges of copying Apple on this one). Look for more information as the reviews start to roll in. Meanwhile, check out the video below, then let us know what you think in the comments.

  • Motorola Mobility: Google to Get Into Baby Monitor Business?

    Everybody in the tech industry is talking about Google’s pending acquisition of Motorola Mobility, which Google has positioned as a defensive maneuver to protect Android from patent wars with the likes of companies like Microsoft and Apple.

    While that may very well be the main reason for Google’s most expensive acquisition to date (provided it gets regulatory approval), there are certainly other factors at play and other bonuses that Google gets with the acquisition.

    Henry Blodget at Business Insider thinks the whole thing could be a disaster. “Well, for starters, the deal creates major channel conflict: Google is now competing with its partners,” he writes. “And hardware manufacturing is an entirely different kind of business than Google’s core business. And hardware manufacturing is a crappy, low-margin commodity business. And Motorola is massive–Google has just increased the size of its company by 60%. And the deal appears to be purely a defensive move, not an offensive one. And so on.”

    HTC, Samsung, LG and Sony Ericsson have all lent their public support of the deal. They all pretty much say the same thing: “We welcome it.” I’m guessing the reaction isn’t quite as simple out of the public eye.

    Meanwhile, Larry Dignan at ZDNet gives six compelling reasons why it “makes sense” These (in a nutshell) are: “Integration may be all that matters” in wireless, the patents “treasure trove,” TV (Motorola’s set-top box business), Google can likely keep hardware partners “in the fold” at least for now, the deal forces Microsoft’s hand, and Android “boxes in Nokia and RIM”.

    The point about the set-top boxes is quite interesting. It’s no secret that Google TV hasn’t quite worked out the way the company hoped, at least as of yet. Could owning Motorola Mobility provide a needed boost to give Google TV more legs to stand on?

    There’s also things like:

    The Motonav GPS, Modems and routers, and even Baby Monitors. Here’s a look at Motorola’s product page:

    Motorola Products

    Then there’s the various software, like Motoblur, Media Link, Motospeak, etc.

    Motorola Software

    Last year, Motorola Mobility acquired Aloqa, a mobile service that notifies users of places, events, music, movies and other activities based on location and personalization. One has to wonder if Google will do something with this:

    Motorola Mobility also acquired Zecter last winter. This was a media sync/streaming company. This could come in handy as the company competes with Apple’s iCloud.

    At the time of this writing, Google stock is down 2.58%.

  • Over a Million Calls Made from Gmail in First 24 Hours

    Google announced (via Twitter) that over 1,000,000 people placed calls from Gmail within just 24 hours. This feature began rolling out yesterday (and as far as I can tell isn’t even finished yet).

    "Gmail voice and video chat makes it easy to stay in touch with friends and family using your computer’s microphone and speakers," says Google software engineer Robin Schriebman. "But until now, this required both people to be at their computers, signed into Gmail at the same time. Given that most of us don’t spend all day in front of our computers, we thought, ‘wouldn’t it be nice if you could call people directly on their phones?’"

    Over 1,000,000 calls placed from Gmail in just 24 hours! Thanks to everyone using this new feature http://bit.ly/aRgNtcThu Aug 26 18:29:35 via webA Googler
    google

    Google tested the feature internally before releasing it to the public (in the U.S. so far). When users with Google Voice numbers call people, that number will display as the caller ID.

    Along with the launch, the company showed off some phone booths it will be setting up in universities and airports. Danny Sullivan got to peek inside one:

    The phone booths should go a long way in showing off this feature and familiarizing people with Google Voice in general, which seems to be the company’s real goal.

    Clearly there is an interest in making phone calls from Gmail, as the numbers from the first day indicate.