Text messaging or SMS is a topic of nearly everyone’s dinner table.
Answernet has written up a great article detailing the history of text messaging. It all started with the pager. Here are some protocols used over the years.
Microsoft announced this Tuesday that Internet Explorer, the most common PC web-browser, will be made available for IE mobile compatible cell phones.
This comes right on the heals of Apple iPhone and their respective browser, Opera. Internet Explorer will come preloaded on compatible cell phones by the end of the year.
This is great news. Of course, I wonder how this version of IE will fare on Acid Test 2.
Two companies have just released software that when enabled allows you to turn your cellphone into WiFi hot spot. Taproot, a North Carolina software company has released their software for 3G cell phones, and JoikuSpot has put out software for the Nokia Symbian series.
These are currently the only ‘router’ applications for cells, and they only work with specific cell phones. Unfortunately, the majority of cell phone users will have to wait.
If you have one of the supported cell phones, you will have the option to include the service on your bill. However, there will be an extra charge for using the service.
The Contact Center blog has posted an article that looks into video solutions for call centers. It is well referenced with links out to several other information sources.
According to Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) President Rich Tehrani ‘video will play a huge part of call center 2.0. Call centers will video-enable themselves to increase the customer service of phone calls. In some cases conversations will be 2-way video enabled in other cases the benefits of having video calls will be so obvious that all call centers will scramble to show their agent’s faces.’
The official term for this technology is ‘Interactive Voice and Video Response.’ IVVR will provide many opportunities to call centers willing to adopt it. Experts have jumped onto the 2.0 bandwagon and are calling these capabilities ‘Call Center 2.0.’ I guess if it has to have a name… however, I still prefer IVVR.
Lots of VoIP news today.
On April 1 Sprint, Nortel, Ericsson, Motorola, Qualcomm and others will be hosting a mobile VOIP discussion at the CTIA Wireless 2008 conference in Las Vegas. Here they will discuss techniques to implement this technology. As VoIP networks evolve, expect them to be used more and more.
Telappliant is reporting that VoIP should expect even more growth in 2008. Mobile VoIP allows cell phones to connect to wi-fi hot spots and uses the internet to transport the calls seamlessly. In 2007 mobile VoIP customers rose a suprising 21.2%. The expected growth for 2008 is 24.3%!
VoIP growth in Quebec is even more startling. In 2007 Quebec nearly had a 200% increase in VoIP use! It is estimated that by 2010 VoIP will overtake standard land-line telephoney.
Imagine a world where instead of talking on the phone, you think on the phone. If you are hearing-impaired this technology would be a godsend. Imagine never having to call a relay center again. It would allow the hearing-impaired to have complete independance over the telephone. While this idea may still be a ways away, the framework for the technology is already in place.
It takes the form of a neckband worn by the ‘thinker’ which captures the signals being sent from the brain to the vocal chords. See the video below for a demonstration! Apparently, the company who makes this, Audeo, has also created a thought-driven wheelchair. Kudos to them for being so ‘forward-thinking!’
Nettel Holdings, Inc.’s (OTCBB: NTTL) has launched a new service for texters. They allow you to send text messages to cell phones, home phones, email, and fax machines. Even more shocking, you can set it up so that it automatically translates your messages in over 30 languages!
This all a little hard to believe, so here is the company’s demo.
Video Answering Services are in the near future. But how would these features be used? Most call center clients would have no need for this. However, many would. Think about the last work meeting that you could not make. If you happened to have a video based answering service, you could call your service, and they could patch you and your video through to the board room. Board meeting crisis averted.
Another situation: for property maintenance. You’ve got a problem tennet. One that calls every night about one thing or another. Now she has a pipe leaking under her sink. She has definitely called in false alarms before so you are wary. Well if you had a video answering service, you could have video of the leak in real time. It turns out that the leak was a just a small drip… and from the faucet! She can wait until the morning.
As this becomes more and more of a reality, more uses for this technology are sure to appear. There have already been a couple of skype based answering service start ups this year. It would not take many changes on their end to enable these kind of video services. However they have not offered any as of yet.
Here is another article dealing with video answering services.
Dr. Neil Martin, Founder/CEO of Global Care Quest and Chief of Neurosurgery at UCLA Medical Center announces a new way to view medical images over your cell phone.
The ICIS Mobile viewer made made Martin and others will help reduce diagnosis times. As the first 3 hours after an emergency are the most critical, this technology is sure to help many physicians who are on the move.
Please read the full article for more information.
I can’t comment much about this because I only get 80 kps at home. And this idea is just depressing when compared to that.
However, if you live in an area that is fit for fiber optic service, you can now have the internet beamed directly to your fingertips at the blinding rate of 2.5 gbps. T1 Rex’s blog has the scoop here.
Whew, makes me dizzy thinking about it!
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