October 2008

Conference calls suck. Really.

by alec on October 30, 2008

This evening I participated in a conference call with 6 people using a traditional conference calling bridge.  It was a horrible user experience.  HORRIBLE.  I had forgotten how bad conference calls can be because I’ve been using Calliflower for so long.

What was so bad?

  1. Where was the agenda for the call?  Without an easy to tick through agenda on the screen, we just wandered.  With Calliflower, the agenda would have been mailed out with the invitation.
  2. Who was on the call?  The call started with a bunch of disembodied voices, and no clue who was on the call or not.  Then, at one point somebody said goodbye and I thought the call was over. So I hung up.  But the call wasn’t over.  With Calliflower, I would have seen that everyone was still on the line.  With this other service, I had no idea.
  3. Where was the chat window?  There were a couple of times that would have been really handy.
  4. How about the hand raise?  We kept talking over each other.
  5. Where was the mute?  One person came on the line and introduced a huge amount of echo to the call.  It would have been so handy to just hit the mute button and shut it down.

And you know what the worst part about it was?  The conference call originator was paying for this horrible experience, and happy to do so.

Calliflower is free, and it’s an amazing experience.  I didn’t realize how amazing until I had to go back to the stone age of conference calling tonight.

From now on, if anyone wants me to join a conference call, we’re doing it on Calliflower.  No exceptions.

Try Calliflower, and let me know what you think.

{ 3 comments }

4G Conference emerges

by alec on October 30, 2008

Looks like there’s a new show in town.  Apparently TMC’s Rich Tehrani has teamed up with ex-VONners Scott Kargman and Carl Ford to produce a 4G wireless event for next February.  February 2-4, 2009 at the Miami Beach Convention Center, this will be the first event dedicated solely to 4G technologies.

Congratulations!

{ 1 comment }

Ways to benefit from VoIP? What about productivity?

October 30, 2008

A couple of articles appeared yesterday on ways to benefit from VoIP.  VoIP-News 12 ways to benefit from mobile VoIP is about all the great convergence applications for mobile VoIP handsets, and TMCNet’s 21 Different Ways to Use VoIP is a whimsical look at difference uses for cheap place shifted calling. One of the most [...]

Read the full article →

Ooma adds new features, premium price

October 30, 2008

Ooma is putting out some new enhancements to their VoIP telephone system for the home.  Their $12.99 per month premium release now includes: The ability to add up to 9 virtual phone numbers for the home.  You could put in a virtual home office, or add a line for each member of the family. The [...]

Read the full article →

Squawk Box October 29: Guest GIPS

October 29, 2008

This morning we talked with Global IP Solutions about the future of video conferencing. You may remember Global IP Solutions as the company that teamed up with Skype to deliver high quality voice over IP from the desktop when everyone said it couldn’t be done. Today they believe we’re on the cusp of the same [...]

Read the full article →

BlackBerry finally gets Truphone

October 29, 2008

Great news for the travelling BlackBerry user yesterday came in the form of an announcement from Truphone that Truphone is beta-testing software for the BlackBerry. Users of Nokia devices and the Apple iPhone have had Truphone for some time, and are already accustomed to Truphone’s low low international calling rates.  Best of all, early reports [...]

Read the full article →

Desktop video space sizzles!

October 29, 2008

Things are getting quite heated in the desktop video space. Late last night one of the pioneers in the space, Sightspeed, was acquired by Logitech in a deal worth $30 million.  Few details were provided by Logitech, other than a statement from Exec VP Junien Labrousse that users want video to be “integrated into their [...]

Read the full article →

Microsoft goes OpenID, sort of

October 28, 2008

At yesterday’s PDC, Microsoft announced that Windows Live would become an OpenID supporter.  The service will now issue OpenID’s for users, allowing them to log in to any web site that is OpenID enabled.  Calling it the defacto standard protocol for Wed user authentication, the company has committed to let Windows Live users create and [...]

Read the full article →

The death of satellite radio?

October 27, 2008

The last few days I’ve been cruising around in my car listening to a selection of music on my iPhone that I haven’t paid for.  No, it’s not via some illicit P2P network.  Rather, I’ve been using two streaming services — last.fm and Flycast — to deliver high quality music over the 3G network to [...]

Read the full article →

Playscreen prospers during the crash

October 27, 2008

Bill Volk’s latest blog entry is another look at how to survive the economic downturn.  In contrast to many of the startups announcing layoffs these days, Bill is running his business in a classical “pre-VC” model — fund cashflow and product development from cash receipts on consulting.  It seems to be working for his company [...]

Read the full article →
Alec on LinkedIn Alec on Twitter Alec on Facebook Calliflower on Youtube RSS Feed Contact me