Over the past week, news from Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Skype and Vidyo caught my eye. Read on for more.
- Mozilla led a demonstration to show “how consumers can easily take and receive video calls from their mobile phones or desktop browser … or share their web experiences with friends or family who might be on a desktop PC or mobile phone across the other side of the world“. The demonstration used WebRTC, Mozilla’s Social API, AT&T’s API Platform and Ericsson’s Web Communication Gateway. The demonstration further highlights the potential of WebRTC to provide calling services, not just to browsers on a PC, but also on a mobile, without the need to install any plugins or special apps.
- Google has started taking requests to be the first to try out their new glasses product called Glass, so long as you have $1,500, leading some to say “Glassholes, only please“. A brief video shows how the glasses work, including for recording video using voice command (12 million views in 4 days). The technology uses a head mount camera in a pair of glasses with a Head-Up Display (HUD). I wonder how long before it can be used to stream real time video to assist with remote diagnostics etc?
- Facebook users in the US and Canada can now call each other from the iPhone Facebook application. The announcement follows a staggered release of voice and voice messenging in Canada and the US (in a mirror image, Skype, just this week announced video messenging). I wonder if Facebook will have a key advantage in already being an effective “address book” of who you want to call, and even better, you are more likely to only call when you know your contact is online (reducing the whole voice-mail tag scenario). A calling application with an accurate address book and user presence, automatically, nice.
- Microsoft has made many significant announcements to their Lync platform for instant messaging, voice, video and conferencing, these included: the first Lync certified end point (it’s from Polycom), Lync room systems, and details on how Lync/Skype federation will work (audio and IM in June this year, but video not till next year). For a detailed summary see here.
- Avaya and Cisco went on the attack to coincide with the Microsoft announcements above. Avaya chose to quote research that Microsoft Lync costs double an Avaya solution in the first year. I’m not sure how useful a year 1 comparison is.. but anyway. Cisco chose to launch a micro-site ”Why Cisco for Enterprise-Class Collaboration“, which is heavily focussed on comparisons with Microsoft Lync (definitely worth a look to understand the topics of debate), some have asked “will anyone care?“.
- Skype has an offer of 1 free month of calls, video and screen sharing. The offer is for unlimited usage and applies to landlines and mobiles globally. What I found most interesting was the pitch I saw (on Twitter) was to professionals, albeit ”budding”. I’m intrigued, so I signed up, and will use it for a month and report back.
- MIT Technology Review has put Vidyo on the list of 50 disruptive companies for 2013, in their words “Threatening the likes of Cisco by using a compression technology to enable high-def video conferencing on smartphones” Vidyo does a bit more than smartphones but I am sure they are chuffed regardless!
till next week…