VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, is a complicated term for the fairly simple process of using your internet PC to make phone calls. VoIP has expanded in popularity recently and is now seen as a viable alternative to the humble telephone call.
VoIP uses packet switching as opposed to the more traditional circuit switching used [...]
VOIP stand for Voice-over-Internet protocol. At a very basic level it is the idea of using a data network to transfer voice between two points. Although voip has become a buzz word in recent years has it origins as far back as the early 1970s. The pioneering work of Danny Cohen at the University of [...]
Dennis Jaylon asked: A VoIP phone can be defined as an entity that is used to make telephone calls over the internet. A VoIP phone utilises the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology wherein our voice is converted into digital signal that is transmitted over the Internet. VoIP phones enable you to enjoy the benefits [...]
teju666 asked: Apart from technical details of soft voip, I also want to know how to set it up on my home pc.Caffeinated Content for WordPress
Apparently a whistleblower recently leaked some evidence that German authorities were using a special trojan horse software to tap Skype audio conversations. The document detailing this was leaked to the German Pirate Party, one of many international “Pirate Parties” that have been formed in recent years to push for more reasonable government policies on a variety of fronts from intellectual property to privacy and government surveillance. Illegally tapping Skype conversations may be illegal, but it seems that German authorities are a lot more interested in tracking down who leaked the documents and a href=”http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-party-official-raided-after-uncovering-state-trojan-080917/” target=”_new”have raided the homes of various German Pirate Party members/a, confiscating computer equipment. Of course, if anything, this would seem to confirm that the government was at least experimenting with, if not actively using, such a trojan horse wiretapping program — and the raids have only served to generate much more attention over that fact.
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The new PSP, the PSP 3000, will arrive in the UK on October 17 and will be priced at £150.
That makes Sony’s new handheld £10-20 more expensive than the PSP Slim & Lite, which seems reasonable enough considering the tweaks. However, rather than being a big overhaul - like the PSP Slim & Lite was versus the original - the new PSP is more of an Overhaul Lite.
The key tweaks are a new enhanced LCD display with improved colour reproduction to reduce screen glare, thus allowing you to game in daylight - something currently not possible. That pleasure though will cost you 20-30 mins of battery life. The other key add-on is the built-in microphone, to let you make free Skype calls.
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Ericsson is putting its wireless microchip business into a joint venture with its Franco-Italian rival STMicroelectronics as the companies look to expand their customer base in the face of slowing mobile phone sales.
The new business, which will be jointly run by the two firms, will be number three in the mobile chip industry behind the US leaders Qualcomm and Texas Instruments. Based in Geneva, the as yet unnamed venture will employ nearly 8,000 people in a unit that last year would have generated $3.6bn (£1.9bn) in revenues.
The deal was warmly welcomed by Nokia, one of the venture’s key customers, as “a positive move” that would create a “strong industry player”. Analysts, however, pointed out that the Finnish firm, which makes four out of every 10 handsets sold worldwide, is no fan of Qualcomm, having been embroiled in bitter legal disputes with the US firm, and a stronger European rival would suit the company.
Ericsson is putting its mobile platforms business, which specialises in modems and designing multimedia phones, and $1.1bn in cash into the venture. STMicroelectronics, created just last month through the merger of STMicro’s mobile phone chip business with NXP Semiconductors of the Netherlands, will put in its wireless chip-design business, worth an estimated $1.2bn.
The venture will supply chips for handsets ranging from bottom-of-the-range pre-pay phones to the next generation of internet-enabled multimedia devices. As well as Nokia, the new venture will count SonyEricsson, Samsung, LG and Sharp as its major customers. The only one of the top five handset makers the venture does not supply is the US-based Motorola.
Ericsson’s chief executive, Carl-Henric Svanberg, will be chairman of the board of the business and STMicroelectronics’ chief executive, Carlo Bozotti, will be vice-chairman.
The deal comes as sales of mobile phones begin to show some signs of slowing down and there is consolidation in other parts of the industry. Last month, for instance, Nokia took control of the British mobile phone software company Symbian. Nokia helped create the business, with the UK-based Psion, 10 years ago.
Yesterday’s deal will allow Ericsson to focus on its telecoms networks business, which has suffered as the credit crunch bites and operators rein in spending.
Analysts warned that the venture could be bad news for the UK-based Arm Holdings, which designs processor chips for mobiles. Nick James at Panmure Gordon said the deal - along with STMicro’s acquisition of NXP - represents “a pretty intense wave of consolidation”.
Though the deal does not directly challenge Arm’s position as the dominant processor architecture for mobile phones, he said, “it does reduce the number of potential licensees and may put further pressure on Arm’s licensing revenue.”
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So-called “cloud computing” has taken a beating over the past few weeks. The concept is simple enough, and hundreds of millions of people have been doing it for many years via Microsoft Hotmail. It just means accessing an online application - in this case, email - via a web browser, instead of running a separate program on your personal computer.
Of course, the number of online applications has grown tremendously. It now stretches from simple to-do lists via office-style programs such as spreadsheets and project management to more specialised business services such as accounting and customer relationship management. Users can also store their photos and movies online.
This certainly has advantages. People can access their online applications from any computer at any time, and collaborative work becomes easier. Often, too, these online applications are “free” (paid for by advertising).
But cloud computing also has drawbacks, which the pundits may be much less keen to tell you about. One has been highlighted recently: reliability. Google Docs, Gmail, Twitter and Amazon’s S3 service have all been out of action, and some of Apple’s MobileMe users have had a torrid time. At Webware, Rafe Needleman has posted a list of the 10 Worst Web glitches of 2008 so far.
Alas, even if the online application works, users may not be able to get to it. They may have local problems with their browser or their internet connection. Their internet service provider may have network problems. Remember, the internet is never guaranteed to work: it just operates on the principle of “best efforts”. (We tried. We failed. Hard luck.)
Even if an online application works and you can get to it, things can still go wrong. The company that provides the application can change it in any way (turning the interface you loved into one you hate, for example), without asking, or they can simply close it. Nikon is about to close its Fotoshare photo service, and AOL may well close its Xdrive online storage. If you were a paying Streamload user, all your data has already been dumped. Hard luck.
Still, at least when services close, users are usually given a few weeks to rescue their stuff. It’s much worse when people are locked out because the supplier thinks they have done something wrong, or because their account has been hacked.
Nick Saber, for example, recently found himself locked out of Gmail. That was bad. What was worse was that he was automatically locked out of every other Google service that uses the same logon. If it happens to you, you won’t be able to use Gmail, Google Talk, Google Docs or your calendar; you won’t have access to your photos at Picasa, and so on. It’s devastating.
Yes, people can also lose access to their data when they fail to back up their PCs. We’ve been telling them that for decades. But online data also needs to be backed up, and supporters of cloud computing should be telling people that as well.
How far cloud computing can go is another matter. Applications run much slower online than they do on a local PC, and a browser provides a much more limited interface than a desktop application, so there are sacrifices as well as advantages. Still, it’s not either/or: I think there’s plenty of room for both.
But anybody who thinks the cloud is going to replace personal computers completely is welcome to put their PC in the bin. Indeed, if you have a very recent high-end PC or Mac, I might take it off your hands for free.
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My son is about to go to university to study architecture. What sort of laptop would you recommend, for up to £600?
Cathy Matheson
JS: The final choice depends on the use, and there are at least three possibilities, so you will need to talk to your son and perhaps to his university. The first idea would be to get a lightweight portable to carry everywhere for note-taking, email and web browsing. A good cheap example would be the Acer Aspire One running Windows XP on a 10-inch screen. The keyboard beats the Asus Eee PC version. A spare battery would be useful.
The second option would be a desktop replacement laptop that he could use in his room. This would provide computer functions plus home entertainment, doubling as a DVD player, sound system, and games machine. There are plenty of portables with 15.4in widescreens from Dell, HP/Compaq, Toshiba and other suppliers, but aim for a Core 2 Duo processor and 2GB or more memory for Windows Vista. Look for a Kensington lock to tie it down.
The third option would be a portable workstation, intended to run specific software that is used on the course. Unfortunately, the software used for serious architectural work - such as Autodesk’s AutoCAD and Bentley MicroStation - needs lots of memory and a separate graphics card, rather than the Intel integrated graphics chips built into cheap laptops. To handle complex models with AutoCAD 2008, I’d be looking for something like a Dell Latitude D830 with 4GB of memory, 64bit Windows Vista Ultimate, nVidia Quadro or similar graphics, and probably a screen upgrade: Autodesk recommends 1,280 x 1,024 pixels. You might not get much change out of £1,000, and it’s not worth cutting corners: having 2GB instead of 4GB saves £40, and having 32bit XP Pro or Vista Business only saves £34. Before spending this sort of money, your son should talk to his university department and preferably to more advanced students to find out exactly what is required. A simpler and cheaper laptop may well do.
If a course involves the use of specialist software such as AutoCAD, the university will usually provide access to shared computers that have it installed. Students who want to run it themselves can usually obtain an educational version at a reduced price. The cheap LT version of AutoCAD 2008 costs around £1,500, whereas the student version costs about £100 for a 14-month licence.
I am considering an Amazon Kindle. However, I’d like to use it for ebooks freely available in text format, and others in Microsoft’s Reader format.
John Borgoy
JS: The Kindle can handle books in plain text (.txt) plus the Amazon (.azw) and Mobipocket (.mobi; .prc) formats. It can also handle Microsoft Word documents and web pages, but you have to email these to your kindle.com address. Amazon will convert them and send them wirelessly to your Kindle for a small fee. You can convert Microsoft Reader (.lit) files by using a free converter such as ABC Amber LIT.
My DigiFusion Freeview recorder died when its power unit fried after a power cut. Is there any way I can transfer the movies and recorded programmes to my PC from the hard drive?
John Rogers
JS: If you remove the hard drive from the recorder, you should be able to mount it in an external drive enclosure and connect it to your PC via a USB port. I’d guess it’s a 3.5in drive. If you are lucky, it will be in the FAT32 file format used in Microsoft MS DOS and recognised by most operating systems. If you have a proper desktop PC, a cheaper alternative is to fit the drive internally, but this can be a little trickier.
My computer died suddenly and I had to get another. I can read the hard disk of the old machine via USB, but how do I get at emails and the address book?
Alec Williams
JS: You should be able to copy the old data from your backup CDs or external hard drive! Since the hard drive still works, however, you can copy the data to your new PC in the usual way and then import it. You can find the data by running a disk-wide search for the types of storage file your software uses. If you used the Windows address book, search for *.wab (with an asterisk) files. If your email program was Outlook Express, search for the Inbox.dbx and Folders.dbx files and copy that whole folder across. For help, click here and here to read the Microsoft Knowledge Base articles.
As mentioned in Technophile (August 7), I struggled with the Linpus version of Linux on an Acer Aspire One subnotebook. Alan Cocks comments: “Information forums are appearing. This one might have helped some of your frustrations”.
On copying cassette tapes etc using Audacity software, Tim Gossling points out that it does have track splitting: go to Analyze and select Silence finder to automate the process “with probably varying degrees of success, particularly for classical music,” he says. “Manual splitting is done via Project and Add label at selection: click in the label field and type in a title. File|Export multiple will then generate multiple files, each named with the track label.”
· Get your queries answered by Jack Schofield, our computer editor at jack.schofield@guardian.co.uk
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The latest SkypePhone from 3, the S2, has just gotten its official unveiling although much has been known about the model since last month.
Alongside the free Skype calling and instant messaging, the S2 also adds a new ‘carousel’ interface and access to social networking services like Facebook. The S2 comes with a dedicated Facebook app that allows to you access your profile at the click of a button.
A new switcher key on the side of the handset operates the carousel interface, rotating between the key apps and functions more intuitively, especially when you”re surfing the Net, according to 3.
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