Business Phone System Reviews | SE Telecom

Is the PlayStation Phone Real

Rumors have long circulated the Internet over Sony releasing a new PSP. These rumors long melded this new PSP with phone features. Those rumors are once again raging like a wildfire thanks to Engadget. Only this time, some not so blurry photos of an actual phone accompany those rumors.

This new PlayStation Phone looks to come from Sony Ericsson, which would go a long way to putting this phone maker back into the sales game. The PSPhone sports Google’s newest Android 3.0 OS (dubbed Gingerbread). Most notable is that this new Android OS is specifically geared towards higher-powered phones and tablets. The phone itself will sport 512MB of RAM, 1GB of ROM, 1GHZ Qualcomm processor, and a screen in the 3.7 to 4.1 inch size. These specs are par for many of the Android based phones on the market today.

Where the phone starts to show some PlayStation roots is in the slide out section of the phone. Where many would expect to find a keyboard, a controller now replaces this. A d-pad and four face buttons are standard fare here. What looks to be a game changer is a section dedicated for multitouch input. This could be huge as current PSPs only have one analog nub, and this new multitouch input could be the answer to the long wished for dual analog stick on PSPs. Of particular note, there is no Sony Memory Stick slot, but a microSD slot is present. Is Sony finally getting away from making their own memory format?

The rumors go even further with a release date so close that many are now salivating for some truth. The rumored release date is holiday season to early 2011. This does make a bit of sense, as this would be a good defense toward the rumored Verizon Wireless iPhone announcement many are hoping for as well.

Right now, this is all just rumors, but Sony has a nasty habit of leaking highly anticipated products early. There are many more questions like how well the phone will play games, will the market support the phone, how well will this stand against the iPhone, and when can we finally get this phone! As of right now, the rumors certainly look good.

The International Avaya, Users Group (IAUG) has formally announced they have completed the process of establishment. IAUG completed the process with the first board of directors’ election.

IAUG is a not-for-profit technology user group that not only represents current Avaya products, but also includes legacy Nortel product users as well. The completion of the IAUG founding now includes three other user groups as well. The International Nortel Networks Users Association (INNUA), International Alliance of Avaya Users (InAAU), and INSIGHT 100inc have all been consolidated into one nice little entity. IAUG will now serve as the primary resource for things like education, community, support, and networking.

IAUG is starting with a big base of knowledge as it starts it new foundation with 6,000 Avaya and Nortel customers across the world. The bigger goal of IAUG, and the consolidated members, is to not only educate new and existing members across the Avaya communications, but also create a peer-to-peer network that easily allows for sharing of common issues, along with best practices and solutions.

Just how does IAUG plan to benefit its members? Benefits will come in a variety of ways including training, certification, conferences, and webinars just to name a few of the bigger benefits. Other hidden benefits come in the sheer size of this new user groups. Items like advocacy for Avaya products, continued first class support, and special interest groups are just the beginning of what will soon become a wealth of goods coming from this user group.

User groups are a great place to share and grow your knowledge base of many products and services. With the consolidation of three major Avaya user groups into one centralize location, the benefits of IAUG will quickly become apparent to any member. If you would like more info on IAUG, hit them up on the web at www.iaug.org.

The AGMA (Alliance for Gray Market and Counterfeit Abatement) has announced that it is adding Avaya Inc. to the list of member elite. This will be a big win for not only Avaya and AGMA, but also the consumer, as this means even more security will be added to the Avaya name. You see, AGMA is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to watching for the abuse of warranty and service, counterfeiting, and the gray market around the world.

The biggest advantage to Avaya is the safeguarding of their intellectual properties, and this even includes patches and updates. To further protect their own intellectual properties, Avaya is running audits of customers on a global scale. This is on top of investing in product architecture to bring a new “lock and key” license technology to the market.

How does all of this benefit you, the customer? First, companies without Avaya support coverage provided by Avaya, or one of their many authorized partners, might be at risk of pirated software and upgrades. These pirated pieces are not only against many laws, but can lead to backdoors for hackers resulting in stolen data, or worse.

AGMA fits into this security puzzle by creating difficulties for the gray market, as well as warranty and service abuse. They do this by providing AGMA members access to programs, processes, and collaborative strategies to address the gray marketing in the IT sector. This makes it harder for unauthorized perpetrators to offer their dirty services to unknowing customers. Thusly, Avaya has better intellectual property protection, and the customer has peace of mind that they are using genuine Avaya hardware and software.

This new partnership may not be some piece of hardware, software, or physical object that a customer can see and feel, but it is a very important piece to the security pie. Avaya can continue to develop new and fantastic hardware and software with more peace of mind that their technologies are protected from unwanted thievery. Customers gain confidence that the providers selling them new Avaya hardware, software, and support gain the peace of mind that they are dealing with authorized resellers and not some shady company looking to snatch up some data for resell.

A new report by the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative (or OTI) recently came out with some shocking figures. The numbers that are in OTI’s report are those tied to cell phone bill costs, and who pays the most per month for the coveted use of mobile phones. The country that takes the cake of high costs: Canada.

OTI looked at prepaid, unlimited, and postpaid cell plans in 11 countries to determine who has the best rates overall. At the end of the day, the US and Canada rock the top of the list as the most expensive place to gab, text, and surf the web on cell phones. Canada takes the number one spot for most expensive bills, but it is not by much. The average US cell phone bill is $59.99 for these services, while Canadians pay US$67.50 for the same services. Meanwhile, India and Hong Kong bring up the bottom of the list at US$12.90 and US$13.50 respectively.

These high bills breakdown in a few ways that may cause you a bit of a sour stomach. First, the US and Canada pay the highest in postpaid voice rates, with the average being $0.18 and $0.17. Sure, these may appear cheap at first, but keep in mind Hong Kong pays a whopping $0.01 per minute. Voice plans are not the only thing US and Canadian citizens pay more on, text messaging is also an exorbitant cost for these countries. Even Sweden pays less for text messaging that the US and Canada.

The last area of concern is data plans. These are slightly more difficult to track due to companies shifting how they charge for these plans. Remember, AT&T has brought in a tiered data pricing structure that is still a bitter pill for many to swallow. On average, the US pays $0.08 per MB while India pays $0.0004 per MB. These rates will surely change as smartphones continue to saturate the market, and consumers shift their phone usage habits.

The one area that is not discussed in the report is reliability and coverage in the countries surveyed. While the US and Canada may pay more, their service might be more wide spread, reliable, and useable. Many people just might be willing to pay more for a service if it works, and works well.

The Avaya DevConnect program has been around for a fair number of years now. In fact, there are countless news stories during a month of new companies joining the coveted Avaya program. With so many developers lining up in the prestigious halls of DevConnect glory, why would anyone want to compete? There are some pretty solid reasons for having your name on the wall of certified DevConnect partners.

First off is the development cycle. Sure, you could try to stand out in amongst the millions of .net, SharePoint, and Java developers, but how many of these developers are making communication-enabled solutions? Maybe it is time to put some of those skills to use to develop new strategies for the ever-growing Avaya platforms. Do keep in mind that Avaya has increased the size, and scope, of their developer and third party technology partners over the last four to five years.

There are a number of new initiatives coming to the DevConnect program for 2011 as well. One such initiative is to grow the community features of DevConnect to start using the Avaya Web.Alive portal. This will give DevConnect developers a meeting place to talk, collaborate, and troubleshoot new ideas with like-minded folks. Another expansion is onto the YouTube space. This will focus on promoting solutions from DevConnect members. That is darn near free advertising!

Think of the DevConnect program in another sense. Avaya has formally acknowledged 220 solutions for 70+ technology partners in the small business space alone. Even better, this does not account for those developers/partners working on Avaya Web.Alive technologies. This is a huge market that you could easily develop, market, and sell to with the backing of a great name like Avaya.

Being a DevConnect partner brings you more advantages than it does disadvantages. This is only going to grow as Avaya increases the collaboration, advantages, and benefits to being a partner. There is no time like the present to jump on this boat!

This week marked the ambitious launch for Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 mobile phone platform. While many have doubted the software giant in their attempt to rekindle the mobile platform, there has been strong support from hardware makers like HTC, LG, and Samsung. Yet, there is more to this than just hardware and names.

First off, Microsoft, while late to the game, has been able to pick the best features from the two largest phone OS platforms. Similar to Android, Windows Phone 7 runs on more than one piece of hardware, and is available on multiple wireless networks. Taking cues from Apple, Microsoft is maintaining some for of control over device design, along with keeping the UI the same across all devices carrying this new mobile OS.

As Apple pointed out with large demand numbers, it is not so much about the hardware, but the software that will make or break a phone. This is where Microsoft is relying on two big factors. The first big hope is based on name recognition. When a phone comes with Microsoft and Office, consumers can safely assume a decent interworking with MS Office documents, easier integration to corporate networks, and some form of familiarity with the overall software ecosystem.

The second big piece of software is an easy integration with the Xbox 360 gaming crowd and the Zune market place. The Xbox 360 tie in will bring many parts of the Xbox 360 experience right to the phone, deepening the overall integration with Microsoft products. The Xbox 360 tie in also brings on many game developers with some 60 games already in development for Windows Phone 7. Meanwhile, the Zune Marketplace will instantly bring new phone owners a deep music experience, complete with a great music subscription service.

Windows Phone 7 is still in the infant stages of life, as it only hit the market this week. Bugs, like no copy and paste (remember how much flack iPhone caught for this?), some carriers not supporting the new mobile OS, and adoption rates will be closely watched over the next few months. The bigger question is will the market support yet another mobile OS?

Collaboration is the name of the game at this year Gitex Technology Week. With this in mind, Avaya is looking to bring on the big guns and show the world just how much they want to rule the communication space in the business world. Avaya will do this in a few ways.

First, Gitex will be the first time people can see, touch, and smell the new Avaya Flare Experience. You might remember this as Avaya’s new foray into real-time enterprise video communication. The Flare combines and Android OS backbone with Avaya’s own video and voice technologies to provide an experience looking to rock how businesses conduct their chitchats.

The Flare might be the centerpiece for Avaya, but it is not all that Avaya is bringing to Gitex. Avaya is also looking to showcase a slew of new, and enhanced, product innovations and services running on the Avaya Aura platform as well. Avaya’s SIP based architecture integrates communication devices across multi-vendor, location, and model businesses. This new suite of innovations is looking to change the face of economics and effectiveness of real-time enterprise level communications. All of this adds up to faster decision-making processes, with a sprinkle of lower impact on the finances.

Quite possibly the most import aspect of Gitex is Avaya reinforcing their commitment to provide customers with advanced communications and capabilities necessary to compete, and grow, in this competitive global marketplace. They are also hoping to show a growing commitment to not only the big enterprises, but also show their dedication to the small businesses. Topping it all off is a dedication to do more with less while changing the way companies do business.

Gitex will take place from October 17-21 at the Dubai International Convention Centre. For those that want to be the first to fondle the Avaya Flare right away, head to GulfComms’ Zabeel Hall number Z-D10 and get those grubby mitts all over it.