Highlights issues concerning using databases and computers in the small business environment of the UK and Ireland. Strategy tips and hints for a better computing outcome.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Win on eBay with BidSlammer
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
VOIP for small business users.
There are a number of services available to business and home users in the UK now.
Skype
Skype has just been bought by eBay and with the weight of eBay behind it looks like becoming even more popular then it is already. Broadband users can talk to each other for free if both of them have Skype installed. Skype also provide a dial in service called SkypeIn which gives the user a phone number which can be called by a conventional landline or mobile phone. It costs about 30 Euros a quarter. (This is the same price that NTL charges for a voicebox on an existing line.) They also have a program called SkypeOut which allows the user to buy prepaid calls to traditional lines for a very competitive price.
You can get Skype here and
pickup calls on your computer, wherever you go around the world, with a SkypeIn number.www.skype.com
Google Talk
Google Talk is based on Jabber an Open source chat client that is compatible with most online chat clients. It is still in beta version and is only available to people with a Gmail account.
It doesn't allow breakout calls yet but obviously the large numbers of Google users gives this program a very strong backer.
If you don't have a Gmail account then we will send you an invitation if you email nodenet[at]gmail.com and ask for one.
Net2Phone
Net2Phone was one of the original programs used by Microsoft netmeeting for calling out outside lines. It has a large user base and offers very reasonable call charges, so for
International phone calls at great low rates! click here.
Lingo
Lingo allows the user to make unlimited national and international calls for fixed monthly fee. There are some restrictions to some mobile phones. Lingo users attach a USB phone to there computer and use the handset in a traditional way. My friend called me on it this evening and I was very impressed with the voice quality. Get it here at Lingo VOIP
MSN
MSN have incorporated video into their chat client and a new version is now available from here
I would recommend using more then one system to test the various features and see which one you and your contacts prefer.
Happy calling!
and sell your telecoms shares from companies that are dependant on billing by the minute and selling calls, they have some very powerful new competitors that are in effect, giving away phonecalls to their customers. It reminds me of my first experience of business which was selling cardboard periscopes at Princess Diana's wedding. Silk Cut the cigarette company started giving them away with their brand on the side during the afternoon and yes it did put us out of business although as Irish people shouting in the crowd we got a fair bit of disruption from the Metropolitan Police, who were pretty basic in their detection techniques.
Friday, September 09, 2005
Mobile phone that plays iTunes like an iPod
The first mobile phone to double-up as an iPod music player went on sale in the US on Wednesday. It was unveiled by Apple at a last-minute, invitation-only press conference in San Francisco.
The ROKR, pronounced “rocker”, looks like a normal silver mobile phone, weighs just over 1 gram and stores 100 songs and audio-files on a minuscule, removable flash memory card. Files stored using the iTunes music software can be downloaded from a PC by plugging the phone into its USB port.
The idea, a joint venture between phone maker Motorola, Apple and US phone service provider Cingular Wireless, is to merge two popular portable devices – the cellphone and the iPod – into one, while adding the capability to listen to music while texting, instant messaging, playing games or web surfing.
“Fusing iTunes with your always-with-you mobile phone, the ROKR represents the ultimate convergence of mobile communications and music,” says Ed Zander, chairman and CEO of Motorola.
Apple has also released the ultra-slender, flash-memory-based iPod Nano, an MP3 player slimmer than a pencil and capable of storing up to 1000 songs or 25,000 photos. With 2 gigabyte or 4 GB memory options, it is touted as a replacement for the iPod Mini, which comes with either a 4 GB or 6 GB memory, but has a hard drive rather than flash memory.
Lion’s share
Although phones that play music already exist, experts say ROKR is different because it is the first to offer the easy-to-use iPod interface and the ability to play songs bought on Apple’s iTunes, which currently accounts for the lion’s share of UK and US online music sales. “It has what no other music cellphone has,” says Michael Gartenberg, of Jupiter Research in New York City, US.
iTunes enjoys a whopping 80% of the UK market for paid online music downloads, according to the Official UK Charts Company, and a similar share in the US. But phones available until now, such as the brand new Sony-Ericsson W800 and some Microsoft-based smart phones, are only able to play songs bought at other online stores.
“Those other phones were the best kept secret in wireless,” says analyst Roger Entner of telecoms consultancy Ovum in Boston, Massachusetts, US. “iTunes gives the technology a ready-made audience.”
Punishing competition
Many users prefer the iTunes interface for downloading and listening to songs because it is fast, easy and requires no technical knowledge, says New York City-based Peter Rojas of the gadget weblog Engadget.com. “All these aspects positively reinforce each other” while punishing the competition, he says.
The device is equipped with a special, and removable, flash memory card known as Transflash. Tim Bajarin, a consumer electronics analyst at Creative Strategies in Campbell, California, US, says this gives Apple the ability to ramp up the memory when the flash technology improves. Transflash is currently used on mobile phones to add extra memory for games, ring tones and pictures.
ROKR was available on Wednesday online to US customers for $249.99 and Cingular started selling the phone at retail outlets on Thursday. It will be available in the UK, Europe, Australia and Asia from mid-September, with South America following before the end of 2005First published in NewScientist
I think that the flaw with this is that it is tied to a mobile phone operator. The new phones - coming from Nokia, Samsung, et al incorporating 4Gb harddrives will be be used in conjunction with broadband based music subscription services where the download charges envisaged by the mobile operators do not applly. It also throws serious doubt into the future profitability of the 3G operators.
iPod is going to make the classic MAC mistake of being to pricey to keep up with the growing competition in the music download player arena, including direct competion from mobile phone manufacturers. More open and intercompatible systems will also challenge the hegimony of iTunes.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Node-net launches software download site
This site is a PAD enabled site that allows developers to sell their software or give a free trial directly to their customers. For webusers it is an up-to-date convenient repository of downloadable software with good descriptions, price information, latest version and screenshots
Developers are welcome to add links to their software in PAD form on our submit page.