Some of the biggest developments in communications lately have been the smallest. In fact, if you have a smart phone you are able to take advantage of a slew of new software solutions which don't need a PC.

 

Mobile VoIP

 

Perhaps the most powerful of these applications is the simplest as I just came across a wonderful money saver/productivity enabler from a company called MobileMax. I ran into the company at their mobbed booth at ITEXPO in Miami a few weeks back. The company puts out software that enables a smart phone to ascertain you are dialing an international number. When it senses this, your call is transferred to a local US number and then sent to its destination via a VoIP service provider.

 

The cost savings associated with using a VoIP carrier to make these calls is tremendous as cellular calls to international numbers are always very expensive. Moreover, cellular phone companies block international calls in some cases and for those of us who never bothered to unlock this feature; we can now easily make cellular calls to any other country we like.

 

Sure there are calling cards that perform the same function but if you don't like calling cards or you hate the hassle of dialing an endless string of numbers and passwords, this sort of product is for you.

 

In addition, as Huw Rees (News - Alert), 8x8 VP of Sales & Marketing recently pointed out in a TMCnet podcast, the quality of calling card calls can vary greatly.

 

Incidentally, 8x8 the company behind the successful Packet8 service has a service called MobileTalk which uses MobileMax technology and routes the calls on the Packet8 network. I have tried the service out repeatedly to numbers in France and have had flawless service each time I used it. The only glitch was when I redial a number from my Windows Mobile 6 smart phone, the software doesn't recognize the number as international so it doesn't kick in. To compensate, I don't use the phone's redial feature for international calls.

 

I think this service is a game changer in the world of telecom and the people who have told me in the past that there is nothing new in telecom should wake up and take notice of what Packet8 has just done. Sure it is just basically mobile arbitrage but when you get your software installed on lots of cellphones, there is a great deal of potential for future services to be sold.

 

By the time you read this, there should be a Java version available as well which means just about every phone will benefit from this technology.

 

Mobile AP

 

Another handheld productivity application worth mentioning is called WMWifiRouter and what this product does is allow your Windows Mobile based smart phone to become a wireless access point while utilizing the cellular network for internet access. So let's say you have a few laptops with built-in WiFi at a location but there is no internet access nearby.

 

As long as your phone has access to the wireless network, you can run this program and enable the phone to become an access point which the computers in the nearby area can attach to. Some service providers allow similar functionality with a "tether" function but this costs money and is limited to a single bluetooth device. WMWifiRouter (News - Alert) is free and allows multiple devices to be connected. I have tested it with three simultaneous laptops and at a separate time with a Nokia N800 tablet computer. Each time, it worked flawlessly but I have to say that the phone gets quite hot and as you can imagine, battery life is decreased dramatically when your phone is used as an access point.

 

Oh, and one challenge is if you get a phone call while your phone is in AP mode, the phone stops being an AP and you may have to reboot the phone to get WMWifiRouter working again.

 

Mobile UC

 

Even more power comes to your mobile device through Simulscribe, the company that puts the power of visual voicemail onto your device so you can more effectively manage messages on the go. The way the software works is it downloads your voicemails while simultaneously transcribing the messages. All you have to do is click on a message to read or listen to it.

 

There is a free trial of the software available and I suggest you give it a try. I use a transcribed voicemail service today and can tell you first-hand that once you try one of these services you will wonder how you ever lived without it.

 

Big Merger, Small Problem

 

Perhaps the biggest tech news as of late is that of Microsoft (News - Alert) acquiring Yahoo! On the one hand this deal makes sense for consumers as Google is the 800 pound gorilla of web advertising. This merger would be a nice counterbalance to the dominance that Google now enjoys.

 

On the other hand, Yahoo! has the most successful website on the net from the standpoint of traffic. The wealth of content and services the company owns is bewildering. The fact that Yahoo! hasn't figured out how to properly monetize the business shows that Yahoo's business acumen or business organization is lacking something huge.

 

It could just be one or two top managers that enable to company to completely turn around in fact.

 

So while on the surface this deal looks great for consumers, allowing Microsoft to own the most popular website in the world will likely raise some flags.

 

In the last two years, virtually everything Microsoft has touched has done well and if they are able to monetize Yahoo!'s (News - Alert) traffic more effectively than Yahoo! they will be in an enviable position and could potentially damage Google.

 

On the other hand, Google's momentum does seem unstoppable at the moment and their power emanates from their superior search algorithms and massive advertiser network. I find myself torn on whether this acquisition is good or bad for consumers but in the end it does seem that Google is unstoppable and this merger will create a credible alternative for advertisers.

---------

Rich Tehrani is President and Group Editor in Chief at TMC (News - Alert). In addition he is the Chairman of the world’s best attended VoIP event, Internet Telephony Conference & Expo.

Don’t forget to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users.