Clients & Platforms
Toronto-based Talkster Inc. has unveiled a unique mobile phone-to-IM calling service as a part of their new VoIP network. Talkster is designed to allow you to place calls from mobile phones to any mobile or traditional phones. You can place voice calls to users that do not have unique phone numbers, such as your IM contacts. Through Talkster's network, you can call your IM contacts on MSN Messenger, Google Talk or Gizmo Project if the voice options are enabled on the contact's IM client.
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Using Talkster's network, you can call your IM contacts on MSN Messenger, Google Talk or Gizmo Project.
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Placing the call from your mobile phone is a is a two-step process that is handled by Talkster's Network. Once you have chosen where to call (e.g. another telephone number or IM contact), Talkster's VoIP network is signaled to initiate the call. Talkster will then trigger your phone to call a local access gateway, or use a process where you get a phone call back for the connection. This step connects the call over the cellular voice network, and the person you are calling will receive the call on their phone. If you're placing a voice calling to an IM contact, their messenger client will ring for notification of an incoming call.
The cost of international calls made through Talkster to other phones are based on a per minute rate which is charged depending on the location. Talkster has launched the mobile phone-to-IM calling service as a free beta service, and while they do not charge a fee for the connection between their gateway and your IM contact, some users may incur a charge by their own mobile provider to connect to Talkster's local access number. The mobile phone-to-IM calling beta service is available for a wide range of mobile phones and does not require any additional software to be installed on your phone or PC to use.
Coversant has released a suite of open source software developer kits (SDKs) for building custom XMPP-based collaboration applications. The SDKs, collectively called "SoapBox Studio," can be downloaded from Coversant's Developer Community Web site. SoapBox Studio is freely available for the x86, x64, and IA64 platforms with support for Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, Microsoft .NET Compact Framework 2.0, and Novell's Mono open source framework (Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, and Unix).
Since InstantMessagingPlanet.com's last IM Watch both AOL and Miranda IM have updated blogs and news pages with details about new beta offerings and what to expect in the near future. The Miranda IM Team recently blogged that Miranda IM 0.6 Preview Release 2 is now available for download. This second preview version includes some fixes for a core and various plug-ins. Installers can be downloaded here. Over at the AOL Beta Center, team members have thanked beta testers and in a new post they declared AOL 9.0 Strauss, AOL 9.0 Tahiti and AOL 9.0 Blue Hawaii as GM. There was also mention of a new AOL Connectivity Service (ACS) Beta version available, which is an update from 4.6 to 4.7.1.1.
In spirit of the holiday season with all its sales and discounts, Jabber Inc. has announced a new price reduction on its secure instant messaging appliance, JabberNow. The promotion, which runs through January 31, 2007 offers JabberNow at a new price starting at $1,800 for new clients. During the promotion period, existing clients can purchase additional user licenses and plug-ins at promotional prices.
Web-based IM
OkCupid, a free online dating site in the United States that claims to have over 500,000 active users has implemented the Userplane Web messenger technology. Userplane is a wholly owned subsidiary of AOL that offers users both an IM and chat tool for real-time text and streaming audio or video. With Userplane technology OkCupid users can simply choose the "Click to IM" button beneath a person's picture to begin a conversation.
Mobile IM
Oz Communications, a developer of wireless messaging technologies has announced a new mobile-phone application that allows users of online social networks to browse, post comments and upload photos and videos. Oz offers messaging software that enables cellular phone users to send and receive e-mail and instant messages from AOL, Microsoft or Yahoo accounts. This new service is expected to support many of the popular social networks, such as MySpace.com and YouTube. The OZ mobile social networking solution is expected to be available in 2007.
LG Electronics and Cingular Wireless have announced the CU400, which is Cingular's first 3G phone to offer Push to Talk (PTT) technology as well as other features including mobile e-mail using Yahoo! Mail, MSN Hotmail, and AOL. Instant messaging capabilities are also available through AIM, Yahoo!and MSN.
Knewtrino Inc. has announced their plans to add a wireless advertising program on NootMobile, which provides mobile access to the most popular instant messaging communities including AOL, Yahoo!, MSN and Google Talk.
IM Security & Research
On December 1, several amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) regarding a company's duty to preserve and produce electronically stored information (ESI) in the face of litigation — or pending litigation —took effect. Under the new federal rules, companies need to keep track of all the e-mails, instant messages and other electronic documents they maintain as business records and, if involved in litigation, be able to produce their electronically stored information according to specific requirements as part of the litigation discovery process. In the week following the revisions, AXS-One, FaceTime, Akinox as well as other vendors offering security and compliance solutions have announced changes to their products, where needed to meet the new requirements.
A new AP-AOL IM trends survey says that nearly three in four (72 percent) of teens who use instant messaging say they send more IMs than e-mails, as do one in four (26 percent) adults. The survey, which examined instant messaging trends and usage habits among 1,513 IM users, further revealed that more than half of adults polled (54 percent) log on to send instant messages every day. In this survey 27 percent of the adult IM users also said they send instant messages at work, and more than one in four said that instant messaging makes them more productive in the workplace.
Postini has listed what they believe will be the top 5 Communications Security and compliance predictions for 2007. Again e-mail spam is first on the list, as spam numbers are expected to increase at a unprecedented level over the next year. Postini also says that 2007 will be an "explosive" year for communications compliance initiatives and that IM, e-mail messages and even blogs will need to be retained and produced on demand. Other top concerns making the list include compliance with government and industry requirements and the need for more security and compliance for web 2.0 initiatives.
In a new study focused on mobile messaging, Gartner predicts that the volume of global mobile messaging will hit 2.3 trillion by 2010. Gartner's research says that is up from the estimated 936 billion messages sent worldwide in 2005 via the Short Message Service (SMS). Gartner analysts also noted that growth of Mobile IM (SMS with presence) has been hindered by the complex service setup, device configuration, usability and also integration with existing online IM user IDs.
In the report Gartner stated they believe that there the need to integrate communications options with Personal Information Manager (PIM) functionality in mobile applications, because it simplifies the challenges of navigating between screens and functions.
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