Jajah buttons

Phoneboy picks up on the launch of the Jajah buttons [via].

Jajah has launched their new click-to-call buttons. It’s very similar to many other similar services. Person clicks on a button on your site, enters their phone number into a web form, and you’re connected. As the button owner, you’re charged normal Jajah rates for the call, which if the person is a Jajah member, can be free!

I have a Jajah account and have set my wife up with an account too, that way I can take advantage for the free calls between Jajah uses whilst I’m on my travels. There are upsides and downsides to Jajah, it’s free, but you have to change your dialing habits and plan in advance that you’re going to make a Jajah call. You have to fire up a web browser, log in and then click the person you want to call. This process could be costly from your mobile if you’re roaming.

Roaming data rates can be pretty steep so even the downloading of a small page and potentially remaining contacted during a 5 min call may canceled out the money saved on the phone call.

I prefer Jajah over Skype for calls out from the PC, as it involves picking up a traditional handset after the call is initiated. I also think the call quality is better than Skype out calls.

So thumbs up for Jajah then.

Technorati Tags: Jajah, Skypeout, VoIP, SIP

The audience is more intelligent than the presenter

I just present our sourcing wiki to my Senior Vice President and his M2 Managers of Orange Business Services over the phone. I wished that I could have done it in the same room and got to see their reactions. It’s difficult to judge how well a presentation is going over the phone, but it’s a means to an end.

I used the wiki as the presentation tool and did a live editing/linking demo hosted over windows net meeting so people could see what was going on. The question now is will it get adopted. I’m going to spend time talking to people about it and trying to get them to think about what content could go onto the wiki and encouraging them to put it out there and make the wiki a success.

New N800 to have GPS

More and more news about the new Nokia N800 is slipping out. Firstly, Wimax  is included and now GPS is included. There may also be some truth in the rumor that the device with have better ‘touch’ interactivity. [via]

Technorati Tags: Nokia, N800, GPS, WiMax

Apple iBrick announcement

We were all waiting for it and here it is;

Apple has discovered that many of the unauthorized iPhone unlocking programs available on the Internet cause irreparable damage to the iPhone’s software, which will likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed. Apple plans to release the next iPhone software update, containing many new features including the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store (www.itunes.com), later this week. Apple strongly discourages users from installing unauthorized unlocking programs on their iPhones. Users who make unauthorized modifications to the software on their iPhone violate their iPhone software license agreement and void their warranty. The permanent inability to use an iPhone due to installing unlocking software is not covered under the iPhone’s warranty.

As Mark says, there will be some funky new thing in the new firmware which will mean that you’ll want to install it. unlocking your iPhone almost means a move away from iTunes and connecting it with Apple if you want to remain unlocked. [via]

Technorati Tags: iBrick, Apple, iPhone

TruPhone to Launch VoIP Client on iPhone

Blognation has the exclusive. This is like a double kick for AT&T, not only is it the hacking of the iPhone which provides the ability to unlock the phone, but it also allows you to use SIP instead and miss out the traditional carriers. [via]

I’m still not sold on Truphone, I didn’t like what it did to my N95, Maybe I need to look for the Sip settings and program it in myself but their app made things that used to be one click away, two clicks.

Technorati Tags: Truphone, iPhone, AT&T, Hack, iBrickr

Highly unlikely: BT to acquire Sprint

Even though this should be filed under “highly unlikely,” it’s interesting to note how investor and analysts are thinking that something needs to be changed inside the US’ number three carrier. Earlier in July, we’ve had similar rumor involving Korean SK Telecom as a potential acquirer of Sprint/Nextel, and now it’s British BT Group who emerged in the same role.

This is so unlikely to happen I don’t know whether it’s worth commenting on. The only point worth noting is as the post says the fact that Sprint stock rose 3% based on the rumor. [via]

Orange get French iPhone deal

In another of those ‘oh what a surprise’ announcements, it’s been revealed that Orange will be marketing the iPhone in France.

The announcement was made by France Telecom (Orange’s parent company) Chief Exec Didier Lombard during a conference in Hanoi.

No details on pricing as yet, and the Orange France website is surprisingly lacking in information, It won’t be a surprise if the price is the same as the T-Mobile/Germany deal of €399. [via]

Technorati Tags: iPhone, France, Orange

France Telecom the world’s first major telco to support OpenID.

Orange SA, a subsidiary of France Telecom, announced today at the Digital ID World conference in San Francisco that France Telecom will act as an OpenID server-agent. That means the company will verify the identities of their 40 million users immediately, without the need for another account to be created, for any other site on the web that supports OpenID.

This according to Six Apart’s David Recordon who blogged and Twittered excitedly from the event. Recordan, an expert in emerging identity issues, says that the move makes France Telecom the world’s first major telco to support OpenID.

This is great news, as an employee of the FT Group and I’m pleased that FT has been so forward thinking here. [via]

Technorati Tags: France, Telecom, OpenID

VeriSign PIP and Seatbelt

Fedex delivered my VeriSign security fob this morning so I registered it against my OpenID. I know have a second identification request when I log into my OpenID. So somebody may brute force my password but then they’ve got to guess the six digit number sequence correctly.

However, I still can’t bind it to my PayPal ID, it looks like I’ll have to wait for PayPal to roll out the fob’s in the UK.

Having bound the fob to my VeriSign ID I installed seatbelt too. SeatBelt is a Firefox plug-in that helps you;

SeatBelt is a Firefox plug-in that assists you when signing in to OpenID sites with your PIP URL. Typically, if you are not signed into your PIP account when you access a sign in page using OpenID, you need to access your PIP account and sign in. Since you must do this within the same browser window, you have to navigate away from the page you wish to sign in to.

SeatBelt detects that you have clicked on an OpenID sign in field while not signed into your PIP account and prompts you to sign in. Once you have signed in, SeatBelt automatically returns you to the OpenID sign in page with your PIP URL filled in. The sign in session continues as normal.

 

So if you’re looking for an OpenID, and you should, then VeriSign’s PIP and seatbelt provides an integrated solution.

Technorati Tags: VeriSign, PIP, SeatBelt

another Jaiku S60 beta released

The guys over at Jaiku have released a new beta version of the S60 client for Jaiku;

The main feature of this upcoming release are photos that are shown in streams. Other changes are bug fixes to connectivity.

We have also enabled WiFi access points in settings.

The WiFi part is cool, but I know what impact it’ll have on my N95 battery.