Lypp are understandably rocking. Just a little while after launching their public services, they’re back offering their very own API and wholesale termination service which is set to become a total godsend for many developers. Simply put, if you’d like to add VOIP into any application, you can, with a few lines of code, thanks to Lypp.

Have a read..

Link: Lypp Launches VoIP API and Wholesale Termination Service (lypplog)

Lypp announced today the availability of its first API (Application Programming Interface) and wholesale VoIP termination service, decreasing time to market for developers when integrating VoIP into any application.

“We have built a REST-based VoIP API that will fast track VoIP Integration for any developer that understands XML,” said Lypp CEO Erik Lagerway. “Until now the only way developers could integrate scalable and reliable telephony was through acquisition of expensive equipment and infrastructure. Lypp has removed those barriers by building a simple API and allowing our customers to leverage our access to the North American PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) including but not limited to TELUS, Rogers, Bell, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, SBC and BellSouth, through the most trusted interconnect providers in the business including Level 3, Global Crossing and XO. We are working with the best partners to deliver the best call experience in North America and we’re excited that our partners can leverage our API to deliver this experience to their customers.”

The Lypp API enables rapid VoIP feature implementation, including: Click-to-Call and Click-to-Conference, virtual phone booth calling features, and integration of basic and advanced telephony such as embedded email and profile call links for FaceBook, MySpace and other web-based applications and services.

Ah this is an exciting one. While other operators are busy disabling the VOIP capability of all their handsets, 3 is embracing new technology with a degree of fearlessness unfamiliar to most mobile operators.

Link: 3 to launch cheap Skype handset | Technology | The Guardian

The mobile phone operator 3 is working with the online calls firm Skype on a cheap handset that will bring free mobile internet calls to the mass market.It has teamed up with a far eastern handset manufacturer to produce a phone, to be launched this year for pre-pay and contract customers. It will allow Britain’s estimated 2.5 million Skype users to make free calls and send texts. 3 has been working with Skype, owned by eBay, for well over a year, and already offers the service on its niche X Series platform.

I like the concept, I really do.

I won’t stop using a mobile operator. I still NEED (or want) to have connectivity when I’m sat on a farm in the middle of England somewhere — or worse, Hartlepool. I will still pay for the privilege of using a cellular call, especially when nothing else is available. There will always be a future of sorts for mobile operators. I think 3UK’s innovation — whatever the market reaction to a ‘Skype phone’ — will put it in a good position on-going.

And when the handset is available, we’ll be first in line to test it!

Link: blognation USA » Blog Archive » BN Exclusive: TruPhone to Launch VoIP Client on iPhone

Blognation are reporting they’ve witnessed the first ever VoIP phone calls made from an Apple iPhone, courtesy of mobile VoIP provider Truphone. It’s still early days - the demo apparently required a bit of phone hacking - but this could be an important milestone in the iPhone’s early history.

To say the application isn’t yet ready for prime time would be a pretty major understatement as it currently requires the use of terminal on the iPhone to tell the iPhone to use its on-board SIP stack to place the call over WiFi instead of via the SIM card. To use the terminal application, in turn requires that you first Jailbreak the phone using an application like iBrickr or iFuntastic. This is not an application for the inexperienced or the faint of heart.

Interestingly enough, you don’t need to SIM unlock the phone to use another network - it’ll work fine in it’s standard AT&T (and soon to be O2, T-Mobile and Orange) flavour.

Word is Truphone for the iPhone will be available for beta testing in about a month’s time - head on over to this page and register your details if you’re interested in giving it a spin.

Update: Andy Abramson has got a video clip of the Truphone on iPhone demo here

Vyke, the leading mobile Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service provider, today released a new version of its Vyke Pro software.  The upgrade to this software now allows mobile phone users with limited-access mobile internet service to send and receive free text messages. This upgrade is offered for free to all Vyke users and, to maintain continuing service, users are asked to upgrade prior to October 1st, 2007.

Vyke Pro is an easily downloadable programme that is compatible with all recent Java enabled handsets.  It offers UK mobile users the opportunity to drastically reduce the exorbitant charges they are currently paying for conventional text messaging by using its smart message routing technology.  This allows Vyke Pro users to send free text messages to other Vyke Pro users around the world, or to send normal text messages to non Vyke Pro users for as little as 1p per message.

Vyke recognizes that a key part of text messaging’s appeal is due to its always-on-time delivery of messages to the recipient. Vyke has therefore incorporated its “wake up” technology into Vyke Pro, which allows Vyke to remotely start a user’s Vyke Pro software, and deliver an incoming message to it, when receiving a message from another Vyke Pro user. This important feature allows Vyke Pro to provide the same always-on-time delivery of messages, but at dramatically reduced cost.

Most UK consumers think of text messaging as the cheapest and easiest way to communicate, with a typical cost for a standard 160 character text message of approximately 12p.  When that cost is broken down and related to the actual amount of data being sent, the true cost of texting is revealed.  Every character sent in a text message equates to 1 byte of data. When translating this into a per Megabyte cost, it becomes clear just how expensive it is in the UK to send text messages, with consumers paying approximately £750 per MB*.

Aaron Powers, VP of Business Development said, “Vyke is very pleased to be able to offer Vyke Pro and its free text messaging service to consumers currently hampered by limited access mobile internet service. The Vyke team feels that the 12p a typical UK consumer is paying for a text message is simply exorbitant. With the new release of Vyke Pro, we are able to offer significantly expanded access to our service and provide consumers with a viable alternative to the price gouging that occurs with conventional text messaging.”

This upgrade to Vyke Pro is the first of two accessibility-oriented software upgrades to be introduced by Vyke. Vyke Pro, with its primary service as free text messaging, can now be used by Vyke customers that suffer from limited mobile internet access offered by their mobile service provider. The second software upgrade, due to be launched in the coming month for Microsoft-based mobile phones and soon thereafter for Symbian-based handsets, provides full mobile VoIP functionality to WiFi enabled mobile handsets that either do not have inherent VoIP capabilities or have had their VoIP functionality intentionally removed by incumbent mobile operators. With this upgrade to the Vyke Mobile IP software, Vyke will be providing access to low cost or free mobile voice services to a large number of UK consumers that currently have compatible mobile phones, but are unable to access mobile VoIP due to software restrictions.

For more information or to try Vyke Pro, please visit: www.vyke.com

And just in case you wondered what the * was for…

*If the user sends exactly 160 characters per SMS (the max allowed and the standard billing increment), then he/she will be sending 160 bytes of data.  This means that the user must send 6250 SMS messages to equal one MB (megabyte) of data transfer.  6250 SMS messages (@ 12p per message) = £750 per MB

I’ve been waiting for this for AGES.

Finally Pat and the team at Cubic Telecom have done it! It’s been a long hard slog of negotiations, testing and goodness knows how many peering agreements and finally they’re about to go live — and not without garnering significant attention (check out Scoble’s perspective on them).

Here’s the guts of the announcement today:

Cubic Mobile is a dual-band GSM/Wi-Fi phone that comes with several major innovations enabling callers to make and receive low-cost calls around the planet, wherever they roam:

* MAXroam: the world’s first universal SIM card, offering consumers the best country-to-country phone rates anywhere. The MAXroam SIM, which can also be purchased separately, is a major breakthrough, and the result of years of negotiations with GSM carriers around the world.

* As many phone numbers as you like: full PBX functionality on the handset. Consumers get a single phone number, but can create multiple permanent local numbers for themselves - up to 50 - anywhere around the globe. All calls are forwarded to their Cubic Mobile phone, no matter where the calls originate, at the best rates for the callers.

* All Voice over IP (VoIP) calls within the Cubic network are free. All Cubic Mobile customers get a short code that they can use to make free VoIP calls to any other customer on the Cubic network. This is an especially attractive feature to families who live across borders and globally distributed companies and workgroups.

If you travel abroad often, it might be worth getting yourself a Cubic Mobile — that is, a physical dual-band GSM/Wi-Fi handset that automatically identifies the cheapest call route.

Or, you can simply get yourself the MaxRoam sim card which will work in any unlocked device.

Here’s mine:

I haven’t activated it yet — I’ve gotta wait ’til 24th September then I can activate it at maxroam.com — just in time for my visit to Italy.

I’m really excited at the prospect of being able to create up to 50 permanent local numbers around the world — that’ll be absolutely wicked. I’ll keep you updated with my exploits. If you’d like to join in, get yourself over to maxroam.com and get yourself a sim… and avoid the three-quid-a-minute charges when you’re abroad!

And, to finish.. here’s a nice pic of Sean and Pat, the chaps behind Cubic Telecom:

With Ewan off to meet mobile VOIP and messaging company Vyke as I write, it’s rather apt timing to tell you about their new Vyke Lite software released today.

The software provides mobile users worldwide access to Vyke’s low cost international calling and text messaging service. Totally free to download, Vyke Lite supports viral user-to-user distribution and features a redesigned, easier and friendlier to use interface.

Focussed on distribution via Vyke’s successful Vyke Direct retail program, the new version of Vyke Lite has been totally re-engineered from its previous incarnation, Vyke Mobile. Vyke Lite retains Vyke Mobile’s most popular services such as international IP-initiated calling and low cost, operator independent text messaging, but is now free to download and distribute by users worldwide.

Vyke Lite is a Java-based mobile application that allows users to quickly and easily make low cost, operator independent international calls and text messages. It features an ease-of-use oriented interface similar to the scroll-and-click menus found in many mobile handsets. Vyke Lite allows users to access their handset’s address book directly from the application, simplifying the calling and texting process, while also supporting such standard phone features such as predictive text entry.

Jan Berger, Executive Vice President of Global Sales for Vyke said, “Previous versions of Vyke Lite have been tied to online user accounts on Vyke.com. By upgrading the software and releasing it into our successful scratch-card based VoIP distribution program, Vyke Direct, we are greatly expanding Vyke Lite’s potential distribution base. Our market studies show that Vyke Lite is very relevant to Vyke Direct customers and we are very enthusiastic about its impact in the market.”

Mobile VOIP and messaging application fring has just got an upgrade - and now supports auto-roaming between Wi-Fi and cellular networks.

fring auto-roaming enables all dual-mode fring users to automatically connect to recognised Wi-Fi or 3G networks without any manual involvement. If Wi-Fi is not available, fring accesses 3G/GPRS respectively. Unlike current standards, fring auto-roaming operates independent of network type and provider, and on any fring-supported handsets. This flexibility gives users the freedom and optimal experience to automatically roam between any available Wi-Fi and 3G networks.

“Adding auto-roaming functionality is further proof of our commitment to providing the most feature rich, useful and dynamic mobile VoIP (mVoIP) service on the market,” said Avi Shechter, co-founder & CEO, fring. “Auto-roaming provides the optimal IP connectivity automatically, without any manual involvement, thus ensuring the best possible mobile internet-telephony experience for our users.”

While active, the auto-roaming for fring will constantly monitor the available wireless channels (3G and GPRS/CDMA and Wi-Fi that the user has previously logged into) and switch between them automatically based on their reception availability. Priority will always be given to the free Wi-Fi connections unless otherwise configured by the user. The handover between Wi-Fi and 3G channels takes place automatically without user involvement, when the user is not on a call. For example on entering their home, fring will identify the Wi-Fi zone and switch to it. All VoIP calls and chat will be made over this Wi-Fi connection within its reception area. If the user is on the move, the system will automatically switch the connection to 3G and maintain the user’s on-line availability. When the user enters their preconfigured office, favourite coffee shop or public Wi-Fi hotspot, fring will automatically switch again to the Wi-Fi connection.

fring is a free, downloadable mobile phone application enabling free mVoIP calls, real-time presence and live chat with multiple IM providers. Compatible with more than 350 mass-market mobile phones and PDAs, and operating over GPRS/EDGE/3G or a Wi-Fi connection, fring delivers real mobile independence. fring users or “fringsters” mVoIP communicate with other fring users, landline or cellular phones using SkypeOut and SIP providers as well as PC contacts through Skype, Google Talk, MSN Messenger, Twitter and ICQ, all through one integrated contact list.

Enhanced with real-time contact availability (presence), fring helps users choose the best call provider before dialling, based on the recipient’s availability, reception quality and call cost, among other factors. It also ensures that fringsters are constantly connected online with their real-time presence status updated within the fring client and via the pc-based instant messaging services they use.

fring saves users money by utilising Wi-Fi internet access or fixed Internet data plans over 3G or GPRS instead of mobile airtime (GSM) minutes. fring is PC and operator independent, operates on mass market mobile devices and does not require dedicated hardware.

Cubic Telecom’s new service will shortly be arriving. It promises to really poke the existing mobile operators in straight in the eye when it comes to roaming. I’m looking forward to being able to — as Pat puts it — pick up my handset and use it, anywhere in the world, without having to worry about stupid, stupid roaming costs.

There’s a substantial amount of market interest in Cubic Telecom so I’ve decided to publish their release in full below.

Cubic Telecom, the innovative international telecommunications operator, today announced plans to become the world’s first truly global mobile service provider. Cubic Telecom’s service aims to eliminate the high cost of international roaming charges by focusing on introducing simple, high-quality telecommunications services. Their breakthrough technology intelligently uses existing mobile phone network resources to drive down costs. Its core target market is aggrieved customers across the globe who don’t understand why they can’t get value for money when making international calls and roaming. Cubic is working towards free speech.

The company was founded in 2005 by renowned telecommunications blogger Pat Phelan, and is headquartered in Cork with offices in Vancouver, Canada and offers service in 160 countries. To date, he has backed his vision of “working towards free speech” by raising a EUR3.5M investment from private backers in order to develop a suite of innovative global mobile and home phone products under the Cubic Telecom brand, together with its own international virtual carrier network. A further EUR1.5M has been raised to fund a series of international launches of products and services in the coming six months.

Cubic has just completed its first round of telecommunications partnerships, which will see its services becoming available in 160 countries. It is now commencing its marketing partnership round, which sees it seeking wholesale and resale partners. Its initial focus will be on Europe, North America and Australia.

Cubic Telecom’s chief executive officer, Pat Phelan, commented, “We want a world in which you can pick up your mobile phone anywhere and call anyone for as long as you like and not worry about the price. When most people think about driving down the cost of telephone calls, they think of calling from computer-to-computer. We don’t. We deliver simple, high quality, high value telephone services direct to the devices that people like to use - their mobile phones. There’s no software to download, nothing to configure, nothing new to learn. Our service is straightforward and our network caters to all.

“We’re creating telephony products and services that allow the planet to talk at sensible rates.”

Just in case you’re after a refresher, here’s the low down on Cubic:

Based in Cork, Ireland, with offices in Lisbon, Portugal and Vancouver, Canada, Cubic Telecom is an innovative global communications company focused on introducing simple, high quality and high value telecommunications services. Its core target market is aggrieved customers across the globe who don’t understand why they can’t get value for money when making international calls and roaming. Cubic Telecom was founded in 2005 by renowned telecommunications blogger Pat Phelan. Pat wants a world in which anyone can pick up their mobile phone wherever they are and call anyone in any country for as long as they like without worrying about the price. Cubic Telecom is working towards free speech.

Truphone today announced Truphone Out+, a new feature that enables free and VoIP-rate calls to be made from a customer’s existing phone number. Truphone Out+ also brings carrier pre-select to Truphone customers, ensuring free Truphone-to-Truphone calls are set up whenever possible.

Truphone Out+ is accessible to new customers from countries where Truphone does not yet provide local mobile numbers. Currently this means countries outside of the UK and USA. For these new customers Truphone Out+ means that a customer’s existing phone number is now displayed as their CLI when they make a Truphone call.

Carrier pre-select is achieved transparently: when a Truphone call is made the Truphone’s servers recognise if the ‘ordinary’ telephone number being called is linked to a Truphone account. If the destination user is online, a free Truphone-to-Truphone call is setup.
Truphone is a mobile operator for the internet age, delivering a UK-based service accessible from around the world. Truphone Out+ is an evolution of the Truphone service.

All existing Truphone customers can continue to make free and low-cost mobile VoIP calls over Wi-Fi and the internet. Truphone-to-Truphone calls are always free.

James Tagg, Truphone’s chief executive officer, said: “Truphone Out+ will encourage access to the Truphone service from countries where we have not yet introduced local number ranges. At a stroke we have massively increased the number of people who can access and benefit from the Truphone service.”

Mobile VOIP specialists Truphone have just added InTones to their service - which allows you to choose one of nine ringing sounds callers to your Truphone number hear.

You’ve now got a choice between Rock, Jazz, Bluegrass, Hip-Hop, Ska, Disco, Euro House, the standard ‘ring ring’ tone and the rather cool Truphone ringtone.

The tones were composed by media and music consultants Nik Goodman and Dan McGrath, and according to Truphone’s CEO James Tagg, “Truphone InTones use the Internet to bring an enjoyable and free service to customers, typifying Truphone’s fresh approach to mobile communications.”

I, like Dominic Pannell who commented last night and every other Skype user, received a note from ‘The people at Skype’ last night which read:

You may or may not know but last week Skype wasn’t available for a couple of days. There were a number of reasons for this and I am delighted to say that the problem is now well and truly sorted and everything is back to normal.

Me too. I scrolled down to the bottom of the letter to see who ‘I’ was. Nick Zennstrom, right? No. It’s signed ‘The people at Skype’. (The ones, presumably, who were busy drinking coffee and eating pizza whilst I was waiting for my Skype service to be fixed.

For those of you who tried to use Skype during that time but couldn’t, we’re very sorry. For those of you who didn’t try to use Skype - well thankfully you were not affected but we want to reassure everyone that Skype is now working happily and the problem is fixed.

We know we have many faithful users out there who give us feedback (good and bad) on what we’re doing as a company. The Skype community makes us what we are. Without you, our users, we simply wouldn’t exist. We’ve helped people stay in touch with their friends and family over the past four years without any massive hitch and we want it to stay that way.

When the unexpected happens, it’s important to remember the people who stuck behind us and whose loyalty humbled us. I want to thank everyone for their support, patience and being part of the Skype community. And for those of you who missed out on using Skype last week - I want to especially thank you as well.

No comment, no comment. I’m not going to comment. I’d like it to be a nice day today.

As a goodwill gesture to all you faithful Skype Pro, Skype Unlimited, SkypeIn or Skype Voicemail customers, we’re adding an additional seven days to your current subscription, free of charge. And even if you didn’t miss out on using Skype last week - you can still have a week free on Skype, on the house!

So please enjoy it, call your loved ones, friends, family and colleagues and thanks again.

Talk soon,
The people at Skype

So, if you’re a paying customer, have an extra seven days worth of service. Meh. Ok. I was thinking a month or something like that, but that gesture works for me.

But I don’t really appreciate being lumped in with the great unwashed. Everyone gets seven days. Where’s the love for the folk who’re PAYING?

I’ve had a lot of conversations with people about Skype recently. Their failure really did kick-start a lot of smaller and newer companies in terms of attention and subscriber numbers. More on that soon.

Link: Patch Tuesday update triggered Skype outage | The Register

According to The Register, Skype are busy this morning blaming Microsoft for their recent major outage. The reason? Too many people logged out and in again.

Apparently it all started going wrong following Microsoft’s “Patch Tuesday”, which, like most of the monthly Windows Updates, required a reboot. But apparently this particular set of updates toppled Skype by the sheer number of people simultaneously rebooting their PCs. Hmm..

In a system update, Skype said:” The abnormally high number of restarts affected Skype’s network resources. This caused a flood of log-in requests, which, combined with the lack of peer-to-peer network resources, prompted a chain reaction that had a critical impact.

“Normally Skype’s peer-to-peer network has an inbuilt ability to self-heal, however, this event revealed a previously unseen software bug within the network resource allocation algorithm which prevented the self-healing function from working quickly. Regrettably, as a result of this disruption, Skype was unavailable to the majority of its users for approximately two days,” it added.

My response? B*llocks. Absolutely total  rubbish. Ewan would say ‘arse’ at this point I’m sure.

Following on from last night’s Skype coverage I reckoned everything should be functioning today. That’s just past 11am on Saturday now.

I’m pleased to see that Skype’s heartbeat system thinks everything is working. It’s not.

I won’t bore you with yet another ‘quote and comment’ piece from Skype’s inane updates. Allow me just one:

Link: Update at midnight GMT - Heartbeat

We’ve commandeered extra supplies of pizza and coffee, and we can promise that the Skype people aren’t going anywhere until they’re happy that everything is back to normal.

You do have to laugh. Otherwise, the alternative is just bad for your heart rate.

You’ve COMMANDEERED extra supplies of pizza and coffee?

What, that’s what’s going to fix your systems, is it?

I really, really dislike how Skype, via this kind of messaging, are massively downplaying the significance of this outage.

It’s certainly been eye-opening; a super illustration as to how Skype management wish to portray themselves in today’s marketplace.

They’re jokey, they’re matey, they’re ’sorry for the inconvenience’.

They truly are still running around with a dotcom, startup, ‘it’s a freebie service so really, why should our customers care?’ attitude. When they should be playing in the same leagues as an international telecommunications firm.

Ridiculous.

Anyway, it’s still not working. They’ll, no doubt, get it fixed. But telling your customers that you’re busy eating pizza and drinking coffee — as IF that’s your only solution — ain’t the way ahead.

Tell me you’ve got five teams of shit hot Sun engineers on site in three different locations sweeping through your code. Tell me that you’ve got 500 people in 6 continents on the problem. Show me updates from your Direction Team every 30 minutes. Don’t tell me you’re busy eating pizza. If you’re going to go along those lines, why not tell me what sort of jokes your team are telling? Maybe you could give us an example of some of the music you’re all listening to while you don’t-fix the service? Could you give us an indication of a favourite The Onion article that you’ve all emailed round the office? Maybe also, could you comment on where you got the pizzas from, you know, keep us up to date on how many Hawaiians you’ve had? That would be swell, while we, your customers, get busy downloading SIPhone.

Having briefly met James Body, who is Truphone’s rather grandly titled ‘Director of Networks’, at the Mobile Geeks of London beerfest a few weeks back, I figured it was time I paid him a visit at their plush new London HQ.

Truphone were, up until not that long ago, based on a working organic farm in deepest darkest Kent. They made cheese,  developed cutting edge VOIP applications for mobile phones, and all was good. But then life on the farm got a bit cramped, and the cows were getting narked at sharing space with people on laptops sipping coffee, so they headed to the big smoke and got a rather plush office by the river at Tower Bridge, which is where I met up with James.

The first thing that strikes you about their offices is the view. I mean, where else can you get a view like this? OK, so if you move the random bloke out the way of the shot it’s pretty, isn’t it? The second thing you notice is the office is covered in cow prints and fake grass. They say never forget where you came from, and Truphone obviously haven’t. There’s even a bail of hay in a perspex box in reception - to be honest I was half expecting to see a few cows and sheep wandering around as well!

Having settled in with a nice cup of tea, and being introduced to the team, Katie - one of their very nice customer service people and a whiz with a mobile - had a good fiddle with my E61, tuned it up a bit, and made it all lovely. They certainly know their way around their handsets - it puts me to shame.

Talking to James and his colleagues, they’ve got huge amounts of cool stuff going on - and they’re certainly a company to keep an eye on in the coming months and years. They’re not just ‘another’ faceless mobile company either - they’re damn nice people and passionate about what they do. OK so the couple of beers and a pizza may have swayed me a tiny bit, but it’s true - they’re a great bunch.

I’ve used Truphone a few times since my visit (now that it’s all lovingly tweaked on my rather flakey E61), and it’s reliable as anything. Always been a bit wary of the quality of VOIP providers, but they’re top notch.. plus until the end of the year you can call free to 40 countries around the world - including the UK (01/02 landline numbers).

Phonevite is the new, fun and simple way to send announcements and invitations over the phone.

I haven’t been able to try it out on account of not having a US or Canadian number under my control and, for the time being, it looks to be only for North America.

However I have a lot of time for these concepts. You record your message and then Phonevite does the sending for you. I do like the broadcast perspective. There are times in life when you just want to get the message out, right-away, to everyone.

Think, for example, the news of a birth or your wife going into labour. You want to make one recording and whack it out to a predetermined list of people. Or if you want to get a message to each of your work-at-home employees right-away.

Or, as the service name suggests, it’s rather useful if you want to invite a load of people to a party — why send a boring email when you can send an audio message, eh?

Anyway check it out at phonevite.com.

(Thanks to Fox Mulder for the tip)

Link: Compiler - Wired Blogs

Voice-to-text provider SpinVox has inked a deal to bring its technology to users of Skype’s internet telephony service. SpinVox says the service will launch some time before the end of the year.

Once the service is rolled in, when you place a call to a Skype user who isn’t available, you can leave a message which will be translated into text and sent off to their mobile phone as a text message. Not only does this make it easier to reach a Skype user when they’re on the go, but it’s a bonus for the Skyper who is paranoid about missing messages while out to lunch, on the road or somewhere other that in front of the computer. Text messages can be forwarded to any mobile phone or device.

One of the world’s foremost mobile telephony geeks dropped me a note this evening to highlight that things are moving fast with Gaboogie. He, like a lot of people, has been watching the exciting teleconference startup closely.

Link: Gaboogie Blog

Mike and I regrouping after Adhearsion Jay’s departure. We are looking very good now for a release of Gaboogie v1.1 which will include the Gaboogie Mobile feature set.

Version 1.1. should be interesting indeed. I am not sure if I’ll be able to play with it, being UK based (it looks very much a North American product set).

If you’re anywhere near mobile telephony in terms of interests, do keep them on your radar.

 Mobile VOIP provider Truphone have unveiled a neat way to tell how whether your call is going via Truphone or your existing mobile operator.

One thing that makes Truphone different (and better, we humbly suggest) is that your phone works as always. No separate application - dial as usual and save pots of cash.

And how do you know your call is going via Truphone? Easy - thanks to our spankingly-innovative ‘Truphone Ring’.

Want to know what it sounds like? Here’s the video:

Link: Truphone press office

Literally just popped into my inbox, is the news that Truphone have won their court injunction against T-Mobile. The judge in the case has instructed T-Mobile to stop blocking calls to Truphone.

An electronic version of the judgement is expected tomorrow - in the meantime you can read the Truphone blog entry for more details.

Congratulations to James Tagg and all at Truphone!

It’s all kicking off!

Link: Truphone press office: Truphone vs T-Mobile in the High Court of Justice, Chancery Division

Software Cellular Network Limited, which develops and operates the Truphone mobile VoIP service, yesterday applied for an interim injunction against T-Mobile (UK) Limited.

More detail over at the Truphone Press Office site above.

Internet telephony provider Challenger mobile have announced some new features for their Nokia handset-compatible VOIP service. The service, which works on Nokia Eseries, N80ie and N95 handsets, has gained inbound, outbound and call forwarding features.

Through the new Challenger out feature, Challenger mobile account holders can easily call both landlines and mobiles all over the world at local rates.

Challenger in is a ready-to-buy local phone number that lets people call the subscriber at local rates, no matter where he or she is in the world.

The third new feature, Challenger forwarding, is a call forwarding service that ensures any incoming internet calls are forwarded the Challenger mobile customer’s regular mobile phone number, whenever they are not online.

Link: Truphone Blog - Internet telephony on Nokia mobile phones

Following on from our exclusive coverage on the new version of Truphone, it’s now out of beta and is ready to go.

Some cool new features include:

• VOIP over 3G
• Presence support
• Free SMS to other Truphone users
• Multiple SIM management for travellers

More at www.truphone.com

Jersey-based company Blubell Technologies have launched their new software app Blubell for Skype - a PC-based application that allows you to make and receive calls on Skype using your Bluetooth headset.

The software also provides mobile-like features such as voice dialing, voice recognition and caller identification.

Lars Nielsen, MD of Blubell Technologies commented, “We wanted to bring to the user a mobile-like experience - without the prohibitive charges associated with mobile telephony. We know that many users regularly initiate calls on mobile phones well within the Bluetooth range of their computer - and by using blubell‚ instead of a mobile phone, they can now do so in the same way but for free by making better use of the standard equipment many users already have rather than investing in dedicated VoIP equipment.”

You can download a free 14-day trial of Blubell for Skype from www.myblubell.com

Link: GigaOM Vonage: The Last Stand «

These are desperate times for Vonage: it is losing a lot of customers, otherwise why else would it offer  a $3.99 a month (for a year) deal to the defectors. Judi Sohn, a defecting customer, sums it up best when she writes, “Getting garbage at discount still stinks.”

Vonage is not having a good day. Or a good year. Om’s got the gossip at the link above.

For me, however, I’ve always wanted Vonage to work. I really liked the idea. Never worked for me though. Never properly. People kept on asking me to call them back on a ‘better line’…

All my trials and tribulations of Vonage are right here.

 Mobile VOIP provider Vyke have just launched their new Java-based text messaging app, called Vyke Pro - which according to the company lets mobile users worldwide send free text messages worldwide, and radically reduce the cost of sending text messages for UK consumers.

It appears to be a similar offering to Hotxt or Tex2. Messaging between Vyke Pro users is free of charge (except for your data charges), and if you’re sending a text to a non-Vyke Pro user it’ll cost you from 1p.

There’s also a ‘dial-back’ service built into the software for cheap international calls. You enter the number you want to call in the Vyke Pro application, and their platform will call you back and connect the call.

Finally, did you know that NASA pay approximately £61.50 per MB for receiving data from the Hubble Space Telescope, whereas UK consumers pay approximately £750 per MB for sending a text? That’s according to Vyke, who actually featured that as the main part of their press release. Another useful fact you’ll be able to share down the pub tonight