I've got a backlog of posts like this I'm trying to get done - product reviews, both by me, and my oldest son, Max.
I've posted reviews by Max before, but he's leapfrogged me, and recently started his own blog, which I must say is quite good. So, this is really two posts in one. First, it's a review of Microsoft OneCare, from a 14 year old's point of view. Microsoft has been involving me in some of their launches - including OneCare - and as a result, I've been using some of their products for review. Max has been using OneCare longer than me, so he's reviewed it first.
Secondly, I'd like to welcome Max to the blogosphere, and encourage you to read him. He's on my blog roll now, and all RSS feeds would be welcome as he's trying to generate some traffic. Stay tuned for his upcoming reviews of the Nokia n800, and later the N95 (mine too).
Plus, our long-discussed video blog is coming very soon, where Max and I will be doing tech reviews on Blogtv.ca. We'll keep you posted.
Technorati tags: Microsoft OneCare, Jon Arnold, Max Arnold
Monday, April 30, 2007
Friday, April 27, 2007
Mitel Acquires Inter-Tel for $723 Million
This story broke late yesterday, and I just wanted to draw attention to it. Not much public detail or blog coverage yet, but I think it's a good story. This is a $723 million deal, so it's not a small thing, and speaks loudly to Mitel's ambitions about becoming a bigger player in a rapidly growing market.
Mitel has long been a leading IP telephony vendor, especially in the small/mid size end of the enterprise market. Inter-Tel has a strong communications platform, and both companies are leading advocates of SIP and standards-based technologies.
It's another industry consolidation play, and will build two mid-tier players into a big, single mid-tier player who can dominate their space as well as better challenge the top tier vendors. Sounds like a good move for both companies, and it will be interesting to see how they combine their portfolios and manage joint customers.
Another angle to watch is how a private company absorbs a public company, especially with Mitel being Canadian and Inter-Tel being American. Also, Mitel has been on-again/off-again about going public, so this may be one way to address the issue, although my understanding is that Mitel will be remaining private.
For reference, I recently did a podcast with Don Smith, Mitel's CEO. He didn't tip his hand then about these plans, of course, but no doubt talks were underway at that time.
Technorati tags: Mitel, Jon Arnold, Inter-Tel
Mitel has long been a leading IP telephony vendor, especially in the small/mid size end of the enterprise market. Inter-Tel has a strong communications platform, and both companies are leading advocates of SIP and standards-based technologies.
It's another industry consolidation play, and will build two mid-tier players into a big, single mid-tier player who can dominate their space as well as better challenge the top tier vendors. Sounds like a good move for both companies, and it will be interesting to see how they combine their portfolios and manage joint customers.
Another angle to watch is how a private company absorbs a public company, especially with Mitel being Canadian and Inter-Tel being American. Also, Mitel has been on-again/off-again about going public, so this may be one way to address the issue, although my understanding is that Mitel will be remaining private.
For reference, I recently did a podcast with Don Smith, Mitel's CEO. He didn't tip his hand then about these plans, of course, but no doubt talks were underway at that time.
Technorati tags: Mitel, Jon Arnold, Inter-Tel
Blogs, Baseball and a Bloody Sock - Why Not?
Just a quick post about a news item that combines a few things that I really like - baseball and blogging. Not so sure about the blood part, but just like Tommy Lasorda bleeds Dodger blue, it's only fitting that players for the Red Sox bleed red - right?
So, there's been a bit of a story brewing in the sports media that the fabled "bloody sock" from Curt Schilling during the 2004 ALCS Series against the Yankees - perhaps THE defining moment in Red Sox history - was bogus. You don't have to look far to find this story, along with the subsequent denials from the Red Sox to discredit this ridiculous claim. The more I think about it, this is sounding a bit like Verizon's patent claims - I digress.....
Well, this could be a lame excuse to talk about the Red Sox, who are off and running, and have a golden opportunity this weekend to stick it to the Yankees right in George's house - weather permitting. I won't deny that, but what I really want to post about is that the protagonist in this story - Curt Schilling - who we all know is outspoken and very media friendly (he's a regular on the Boston sports talk show scene)- also happens to have a blog. It's called 38 Pitches, where he blogs not just about baseball, but his personal life and his activities outside of baseball. If you're a gamer, you might already know this, as gaming is one of his passions, and 38 Studios is a venture he started up to develop games. It's all there on the blog if you want to poke around.
Back to the sock incident - they picked the wrong guy to accuse for a sensational story, and Curt has wasted no time putting up his personal take on the matter. Today's post, titled "Ignorance has its privileges", provides his rebuttal to this nonsense, along with his some criticism about the media in general, especially when the media itself becomes the story, as opposed to getting the story.
I've scanned the major U.S. sports sites, and while everyone is talking about this story, outside of the Boston sports media, Curt's post isn't being picked up. Either they're steering clear of it because they don't like the message - or they don't know what to make of jocks who blog (which may well be true). Or they don't know he's got a blog - which I would be surprised to learn. In any event, if ESPN was smart, they'd get an RSS feed going to my blog, at least for my Red Sox posts! :-))
There's a whole can of worms here around sports stars and celebrities who blog, since they're going to have a built-in following, and you never know what their real agenda is. That's another discussion, but I just wanted to tie in a few themes here, since this story just emerged the other day, and it happens to focus on a guy who blogs, and is pretty articulate in the first place, and just happens to play for the Red Sox.
I'm done - back to work...
Technorati tags: Boston Red Sox, Jon Arnold, Curt Schilling, baseball
So, there's been a bit of a story brewing in the sports media that the fabled "bloody sock" from Curt Schilling during the 2004 ALCS Series against the Yankees - perhaps THE defining moment in Red Sox history - was bogus. You don't have to look far to find this story, along with the subsequent denials from the Red Sox to discredit this ridiculous claim. The more I think about it, this is sounding a bit like Verizon's patent claims - I digress.....
Well, this could be a lame excuse to talk about the Red Sox, who are off and running, and have a golden opportunity this weekend to stick it to the Yankees right in George's house - weather permitting. I won't deny that, but what I really want to post about is that the protagonist in this story - Curt Schilling - who we all know is outspoken and very media friendly (he's a regular on the Boston sports talk show scene)- also happens to have a blog. It's called 38 Pitches, where he blogs not just about baseball, but his personal life and his activities outside of baseball. If you're a gamer, you might already know this, as gaming is one of his passions, and 38 Studios is a venture he started up to develop games. It's all there on the blog if you want to poke around.
Back to the sock incident - they picked the wrong guy to accuse for a sensational story, and Curt has wasted no time putting up his personal take on the matter. Today's post, titled "Ignorance has its privileges", provides his rebuttal to this nonsense, along with his some criticism about the media in general, especially when the media itself becomes the story, as opposed to getting the story.
I've scanned the major U.S. sports sites, and while everyone is talking about this story, outside of the Boston sports media, Curt's post isn't being picked up. Either they're steering clear of it because they don't like the message - or they don't know what to make of jocks who blog (which may well be true). Or they don't know he's got a blog - which I would be surprised to learn. In any event, if ESPN was smart, they'd get an RSS feed going to my blog, at least for my Red Sox posts! :-))
There's a whole can of worms here around sports stars and celebrities who blog, since they're going to have a built-in following, and you never know what their real agenda is. That's another discussion, but I just wanted to tie in a few themes here, since this story just emerged the other day, and it happens to focus on a guy who blogs, and is pretty articulate in the first place, and just happens to play for the Red Sox.
I'm done - back to work...
Technorati tags: Boston Red Sox, Jon Arnold, Curt Schilling, baseball
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Canadian IP Thought Leaders Series - Mario Belanger - Avaya Canada and IP Telephony
On this week's podcast, my guest was Mario Belanger, President of Avaya Canada. I try to have a mix of large and small companies on my podcasts, and it was nice to hear how an incumbent vendor sees the market. Mario and I spoke about the state of IP telephony from Avaya's position, and the issues around getting enterprises to see the vision and value of IP as business transformation tool.
That's an ambitious agenda, but it's certainly one Avaya is banking on - as are other vendors. It's not easy migrating from PBX to IP PBX to business transformation - for both the vendors and the customers, but that's where IP is heading. There's a good story here, and I urge you to hear it for yourself.
You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Mario. Enjoy.
Technorati tags: Avaya Canada, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, IP Telephony
That's an ambitious agenda, but it's certainly one Avaya is banking on - as are other vendors. It's not easy migrating from PBX to IP PBX to business transformation - for both the vendors and the customers, but that's where IP is heading. There's a good story here, and I urge you to hear it for yourself.
You can download the podcast here, as well as read more about Mario. Enjoy.
Technorati tags: Avaya Canada, Jon Arnold, VoIP podcasts, IP Telephony
Vonage - Rallying for the Little Guy - Will You Vote?
In the wake of Vonage's "permanent stay" reprieve this week, things are quickly falling into line as a David and Goliath story, and Vonage is taking up the mantle now in the name of competition, choice and free markets.
Yesterday, they launched a "national grassroots communications campaign to educate and mobilize consumers about preserving the freedom to choose their phone service provider." That pretty much says it all, and when you're fighting for your life, this is a pretty noble cause to initiate.
To get behind this, Vonage has launched a website, "Free to Compete", where you can hear what they really think, and more importantly, sign a petition. The site makes it very clear they think Verizon is trying to patent VoIP, and use analogies like "Can you patent an orange?". Well, of course you can't, so the logic makes sense, but - I couldn't resist - we're really talking apples and oranges here (and I don't mean Apple...). That's a bit of a stretch, but I will say that I don't think Verizon can patent VoIP, but it's a much grayer area than Mother Nature.
The site also mentions that Vonage has taken out full page ads in national papers about this, but being in Canada, I wouldn't see these, but I'll assume they're a variation of what's on the site.
Anyhow, so what is this petition all about? Well, if you go there thinking it's a vote for free competition and preserving choice for the consumer, you may be surprised. Those are the reasons I would go there, and those are solid reasons to be voting.
However, the petition is for Verizon to drop its case against Vonage. Well, that's very different in my eyes. Ultimately, yes, it's about choice - if you follow the logic that if Verizon wins, Vonage is out of business, and consumers have less choice. There's a lot of causal logic going on there, and Vonage needs to be careful that this doesn't come across as a pressure tactic to rally public support behind them to get Verizon to back down. Public sentiment may be favoring Vonage in the David/Goliath scenario, but am not sure it will be this favorable.
The campaign could work very well, but it could also backfire. What if people don't sign it? What if people are worried about somehow getting on Verizon's bad side by doing this, and their phone service or Internet service all of a sudden starts acting up? Do you really think Verizon will just stand by and ignore this initiative? Maybe they will - deliberately. Or maybe they'll launch their own counter effort to tell their side of the story. They've got pretty deep pockets, and am sure they don't like being painted as the bad guy. They do own these patents after all - for better or for worse.
I definitely have mixed feelings about using public forums like this to sway opinion and rally support. Vonage's survival cannot be regulated, and in a free market, consumers make their choices, and that's what determines who wins and who loses. If it comes down to who uses PR more effectively, Vonage might be on the right track here. Or they may not.
If the glove fits....
Technorati tags: Vonage, Jon Arnold, Verizon, VoIP
Yesterday, they launched a "national grassroots communications campaign to educate and mobilize consumers about preserving the freedom to choose their phone service provider." That pretty much says it all, and when you're fighting for your life, this is a pretty noble cause to initiate.
To get behind this, Vonage has launched a website, "Free to Compete", where you can hear what they really think, and more importantly, sign a petition. The site makes it very clear they think Verizon is trying to patent VoIP, and use analogies like "Can you patent an orange?". Well, of course you can't, so the logic makes sense, but - I couldn't resist - we're really talking apples and oranges here (and I don't mean Apple...). That's a bit of a stretch, but I will say that I don't think Verizon can patent VoIP, but it's a much grayer area than Mother Nature.
The site also mentions that Vonage has taken out full page ads in national papers about this, but being in Canada, I wouldn't see these, but I'll assume they're a variation of what's on the site.
Anyhow, so what is this petition all about? Well, if you go there thinking it's a vote for free competition and preserving choice for the consumer, you may be surprised. Those are the reasons I would go there, and those are solid reasons to be voting.
However, the petition is for Verizon to drop its case against Vonage. Well, that's very different in my eyes. Ultimately, yes, it's about choice - if you follow the logic that if Verizon wins, Vonage is out of business, and consumers have less choice. There's a lot of causal logic going on there, and Vonage needs to be careful that this doesn't come across as a pressure tactic to rally public support behind them to get Verizon to back down. Public sentiment may be favoring Vonage in the David/Goliath scenario, but am not sure it will be this favorable.
The campaign could work very well, but it could also backfire. What if people don't sign it? What if people are worried about somehow getting on Verizon's bad side by doing this, and their phone service or Internet service all of a sudden starts acting up? Do you really think Verizon will just stand by and ignore this initiative? Maybe they will - deliberately. Or maybe they'll launch their own counter effort to tell their side of the story. They've got pretty deep pockets, and am sure they don't like being painted as the bad guy. They do own these patents after all - for better or for worse.
I definitely have mixed feelings about using public forums like this to sway opinion and rally support. Vonage's survival cannot be regulated, and in a free market, consumers make their choices, and that's what determines who wins and who loses. If it comes down to who uses PR more effectively, Vonage might be on the right track here. Or they may not.
If the glove fits....
Technorati tags: Vonage, Jon Arnold, Verizon, VoIP
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Next Stop - IT360 Conference, Toronto
Trying to stay closer to home these days, and for a change, the next conference I'm participating in is here in my back yard.
Next week is the IT360 Conference and Expo here in Toronto. It's put on by IT World Canada, which is an affiliate of giant IDG. The IT focus isn't of much interest to me, but Linux World is part of this, so there's a strong Open Source element.
I'll be giving a presentation on Unified Communications on Tuesday, May 1, at 11am so if you're in the area, I'd love to see you there.
In terms of star power, there are two speakers I'm keen to see. One is author/consultant Don Tapscott, who will draw heavily on his latest book Wikinomics, and explore how technology is creating a more collaborative economy. Later that day, Digium's Kevin Fleming will talk about the future of Asterisk. And lucky me - my presentation is sandwiched between theirs, so I'm in pretty good company. Hope to see you there.
Technorati tags: IT360 Conference and Expo, Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates, Unified Communications
Next week is the IT360 Conference and Expo here in Toronto. It's put on by IT World Canada, which is an affiliate of giant IDG. The IT focus isn't of much interest to me, but Linux World is part of this, so there's a strong Open Source element.
I'll be giving a presentation on Unified Communications on Tuesday, May 1, at 11am so if you're in the area, I'd love to see you there.
In terms of star power, there are two speakers I'm keen to see. One is author/consultant Don Tapscott, who will draw heavily on his latest book Wikinomics, and explore how technology is creating a more collaborative economy. Later that day, Digium's Kevin Fleming will talk about the future of Asterisk. And lucky me - my presentation is sandwiched between theirs, so I'm in pretty good company. Hope to see you there.
Technorati tags: IT360 Conference and Expo, Jon Arnold, J Arnold & Associates, Unified Communications
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Vonage - I Made the Right Call - This Time, Anyway
Well, as it stands this afternoon, I made the right call about Vonage. Yesterday - and previously - I said Vonage would win, and so far, that's how it's turning out.
Vonage has wasted no time issuing a press release about getting a permanent stay, so they're free to continue signing up new customers, and doing "business as usual".
Investors are pretty happy, as their stock price has zoomed up 49% so far, up to $4.30 or so. Good time to buy - or sell? Depends on your timelines and greed factor, I guess.
Actually, I'll just comment that I hope Vonage DOESN'T go back to "business as usual", as Jeff Citron has been saying. That's exactly what's gotten them into this mess - they need to be doing business as UNusual. I've been talking to BusinessWeek about this today, and have been saying they have two very valuable assets right now - customers and cash. You got those two, and you should have a successful business. Seems to me they need to deploy these resources very differently now - not just to keep what they have, but to intelligently build on this going forward.
All I can say now is that they need some radical thinking to get this business right. To me, Verizon's case may be the best thing that's happened to them - it's a major wakeup call, and I don't think they'll get a second chance like this again.
Technorati tags: Vonage, Jon Arnold, Verizon, VoIP
Vonage has wasted no time issuing a press release about getting a permanent stay, so they're free to continue signing up new customers, and doing "business as usual".
Investors are pretty happy, as their stock price has zoomed up 49% so far, up to $4.30 or so. Good time to buy - or sell? Depends on your timelines and greed factor, I guess.
Actually, I'll just comment that I hope Vonage DOESN'T go back to "business as usual", as Jeff Citron has been saying. That's exactly what's gotten them into this mess - they need to be doing business as UNusual. I've been talking to BusinessWeek about this today, and have been saying they have two very valuable assets right now - customers and cash. You got those two, and you should have a successful business. Seems to me they need to deploy these resources very differently now - not just to keep what they have, but to intelligently build on this going forward.
All I can say now is that they need some radical thinking to get this business right. To me, Verizon's case may be the best thing that's happened to them - it's a major wakeup call, and I don't think they'll get a second chance like this again.
Technorati tags: Vonage, Jon Arnold, Verizon, VoIP
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