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Posts Tagged “

Vonage

hype sheet

Hype Sheet: Electrocution is Comcastic!

The Pitch A harried mother, her face creased with exhaustion and dread, pleads with her son's principal via telephone. It seems that little Sammy's been expelled on account of some violent malfeasance. Mom promises that her demonic offspring has seen the light, but Sammy proves otherwise in the background; he inserts a vacuum in the family aquarium, just to see the fishies die. Fire and mayhem result, though all involved are lucky to be alive—water plus electrical appliances generally equal tragedy, no? (Or at least so I learned in the first scene from The Believers). It's the perfect setup for an insurance ad, but don't be fooled: The product on offer here is Comcast Digital Voice, the cable Goliath's phone service. "Your phone calls won't change, they'll just cost less," the narrator promises. But is this money-saver really such a revelation, especially compared to VoIP upstarts like Vonage? More »

roundup

Afternoon News: FBI Billboards, Radiohead Webcast, and Patents, Patents, Patents

• The FBI wants to install 150 digital billboards in 20 US cities in the next few weeks to show fugitives, missing people and gadget bloggers. [Network World]
Oft-discussed Radiohead will have a live webcast concert at midnight on January 1. It's almost cool to stay home on New Year's Eve now. [Pitchfork]
• Google is stuck in patent troll hell with Hyperphase Technologies, LLC. The company claims it holds patents on certain parts of AdSense technology. [The Register]
• Yahoo filed a patent for "smart drag-and-drop" technology, which means "displaying drop targets in proximity to a drag-able selected object." Too bad everything from MS Excel to Apple Mail to Adobe Flash all use similar technology already. [Ars Technica]
• Vonage finalized their settlement with AT&T over the former infringing on the latter's VoIP patents. The settlement is believed to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $39 million. [CRN]

lawsuits

Vonage Ordered to Pay Verizon $120 Million

A recent lawsuit involving Verizon and Vonage has been settled, and Vonage has been ordered to pay Verizon $120 million due to patent infringements. The fine imposed on Vonage means they are edging closer to bankruptcy, with debts mounting to the sum of some $250 million prior to the court's decision, it looks like Vonage may have a tough time remaining in business. More »

review

Vonage Visual Voice Mail Hands On (Verdict: Mixed Success)

VoIP telephone service provider Vonage just began offering Visual Voice Mail, a text transcription service that turns all of your voicemail messages into text that's immediately emailed to you. Using a combination of speech-to-text software and human transcribers, Vonage is charging 25 cents per transcription, which could end up getting expensive if you have a lot of voicemails. We gave the service a try, with inconsistent results. More »

cheap calls

$400 Ooma Gives You Free VOIP and Landline Calls for Life

Companies such as Vonage had better look to their laurels, as new kid on the block Ooma is looking to steal their thunder with a product that offers VOIP calls—but with a twist. From September, you will be able to get your hands on the Ooma, a hub that combines VOIP with regular landlines. But you have to shell out a lot of dosh first... More »

SunRocket VoIP network has closed shop and will move its 200,000 customers to other carriers. Oddly, its website is still soliciting new subscriptions. [NYT]



vonage

Vonage to Offer Calling Cards With 200 Free Minutes

Vonage will start offering calling cards loaded with around 200 free minutes, according to a daisy chain of well placed, yet anonymous sources. ("So oooo hot," said one member in the chain.) Apparently Vonage wants to target homesick business travelers who want to continue to use their home phone number while away from their base of operations. Muito interessante. As with all rumors, feel free to viciously disbelieve and yell at us should it turn out to be false. More »

gadgets

Vonage Router Gets Gussied Up by Frog Design

VoIP provider Vonage made friends with hipster frog design inc., resulting in this pleasing router design that just might someday make it out of the basement and server closet and onto the desktop. It looks awfully purdy, plus it's designed to be more durable, too. More »

deals

Dealzmodo Supplemental: Get $40 Back For A Linksys PAP2 Vonage Adapter

Amazon has the Linksys PAP2 Phone Adapter for Vonage at $59.99 plus a $100 rebate, which actually earns you $40 after all's said and done. The adapter works by plugging in a standard analog phone and an ethernet cable. Not a bad deal when you're actually making money. More »

gadgets

Vonage V-Phone Hands On

Vonage, the VoIP company with an incredibly annoying theme song ("Woo Hoo") just released the V Phone, a VoIP phone contained inside a USB thumb drive which we mentioned a few days ago. I've been playing around with it for a while and can state conclusively that, yes, it is a phone and, yes, it does work. More »

peripherals

Vonage Announces V-Phone USB

Taking a page from Skype's book, Vonage announced the V-Phone: a USB stick that holds Vonage software allowing users to make Vonage calls from any broadband PC. This is pretty interesting news for Vonage users, since it lets people take their calls on the road pretty much anywhere. More »

portable media

How To Get Phone Messages on Your iPod

The trick with this how-to is to transmit VOIP voicemail messages to an email account and then sync those MP3s to your iPod. Why you would ever want to do this... maybe because you get SO MANY VOICEMAIL MESSAGES YOU CAN"T STAND IT, but that's pretty rare. Anyway, MacMerc has full instructions, so do what you will. More »

gadgets

SunRocket: Like Vonage, But With a Flat Fee

Not sure how this stacks up to the rest of the big boys yet, but we talked to some folks at SunRocket the other day and they told us about their $199 unlimited yearly calling plan with 30 minutes international calling and all kinds of E911 hotness. Plus, there's no cancellation fee. If you're already using Sun Rocket, go ahead and tell us about it, but it seems like a good deal. However, they call their hardware the "SunRocket Gizmo" which makes them deserve unceasing excoriation. More »

gadgets

Vonage D-Link VTA Two Line Phone Adapter

The new D-Link VTA allows Vonage users to connect two Vonage VoIP lines through one broadband connection. Plug this adapter into your current router, then plug in your standard house phone (RJ-11) into one of the two phone ports. This allows you to use regular landline or even cordless landline phones with Vonage. More »

software

Vonage USB SoftPhone Kit Leaked

Our Bothan spies sent us some shots of a USB-key based Vonage SoftPhone that will be available in June. This thing consists of the USB key containing the software and a headset. You plug it into any PC—no Mac support, apparently—up comes your home phone and voicemail et al. No pricing yet. More »

gadgets

Vonage Sells WiFi Phone


Vonage is set to release its portable WiFi phone, called the F1000, today. It's been in the works for ages, but we finally have some specs and pricing details. Manufactured by UTStarcom, you'll be able to use this phone on any public 802.11b network, and it's configured to work with existing Vonage call features, such as three-way calling, caller ID and voicemail. It will also have cellphone-type ring options, like silent, vibrate and selectable ring tones and you'll be able to save WiFi profiles. Battery life is about 5 hours of talk time and up to 100 hours of standby, according to Vonage. The phone is available from Vonage and should cost about $80 after rebate. The service is free to the company's customers The service does require all users, even those who are existing Vonage subscribers, to purchase a calling plan with the wifi phone. So if you are a current customer, and you buy the wifi phone, you still need to sign up of a new plan for the phone. More »