I left JAJAH  late January after four interesting years. I still have some friends in JAJAH (I think) and some which are not anymore (pretty sure). I recently saw some posts about JAJAH launching services with O2. I am glad that the integration of JAJAH services and technology into O2 is progressing well. I think that JAJAH impact on O2 services may go way beyond what is currently implemented, and I guess this will be figured out sooner or later. I am very curios to see the long lasting impact on a small technology company on a large mobile operator, if this works well, it will resonate through out the mobile industry. Disruption from the inside, pretty nice, hope the guys understand this mission.

It took me several long month to join Vonage, which were not simple in many aspects. During this time I was involved with two start-up companies Karaboo (that will launch a new cool version in the next few days) and Talkatives (that took life of it’s own with a new CEO) . It’s hard to explain in words the ‘need’ to create, I don’t know how to express myself in singing, or dancing or painting, I can only do software products. It might be pompous, but for me software development and product creation is an Art. It’s not for money, it’s not for fame – it’s the need to express oneself…

At first I didn’t really think I’ll join Vonage, it took several long months for me to get to know the people. On the other hand, it also took a lot of time and convincing to get me into JAJAH in the first place. Maybe it just takes me time. I’m glad I jumped on that ship though. This is by far the most talented group of individuals I ever worked with. It’s kind of amazing how such a large group of talented people have gathered around from various places around the world with a joint missing to disrupt the communications industry. We released our first product last week TalkFree – which spreads like wild fire.  But this is only the beginning.

I’m fortunate to work for a company that gives the space and means to innovate and create without muddy politics and personal aspirations (and no, I’m not up to salary review any time soon…).

I moved from Purple (JAJAH) or Orange (Vonage). For me, Purple represents the boyhood, noisy, kick-ass approach JAJAH once had,  and Orange is the mature passion burning to give a new perspective on communications.

But let’s put things in perspective, we release products, as successful as they may be, but we are all just people, we came from the same place and end in a similar place, and there’s still a lot more in life…

The Internet is the most wonderful place invented in the past few years; it truly turns our world into an electronic village. More than anything else the Internet fosters communication: free communication accessible to everybody. But FREE communication comes with a hefty price: we pay with our privacy and quality of interaction. This price lurks in the shadows and creeps into our lives step by step, as if unnoticed.

Our teens grow into a hyper-communicated and exposed world where shallow communications are being broadcasted around the net to match a fictions face they want to present. If you talk with teens about this they wouldn’t even know what you’re talking about – mostly because they know no other way.

We understand why our emails, messages and communications are being scanned, it’s not for the Big Brother conspiracy, but rather to pay the operational costs and lubricate the share price to drive the industry into more innovations. Users (=we) demand FREE services, so communication providers resolve to advertisement… We ‘understand’ but we don’t agree…

PROJECT CODENAME “T  is about providing FREE communications without giving up our privacy or compromising on the quality of expression.

If you share our vision of  FREE communication without giving up privacy, and want to join the T revolution, leave your details here.

Amichay,

On behalf of PROJECT CODENAME “T”

More later…

This whole trip started some seven years ago. About the same time of the year 2002 Shani started to practice Capoeira , with Amarildo (a.k.a. Sapo). I made a promise to her than, that if she continues when she turns 12 I will go with her to Brazil. However, when she did turn 12 and still continue to train, Amarildo suggested to delay this in a year, since than he’ll be able to join too. And so we did.

When we set out to Arraial D’Ajuda in Bahia, Brazil it was not only Capoeira that I had in mind – it is also a rare opportunity for me to re-educate Shani on values that are dear to me: Keep an open mind to different culture, don’t criticize but observe and learn, see how people live on basics – little money, little technology, little possessions but big happiness, mutual respect and support – and live like they do, even for a short while. It also an opportunity for Shani to live with no so many rules and boundaries and learn to loosen up, go to the beach, enjoy the sea and just have fun without thinking so much like she normally does.

July 22nd – July 23rd : Arrival @ Arraial

For some obscure reason we decided to fly with EL-AL – that turned out to be a big mistake: The flight from Tel-Aviv to Sao Paulo was terrible : the airplane was much crowded, the food sucks, the on board entertainment system is outdated and worst of all is the service. It’s kind of turndown to fly for 15 hours with air stewardess that the sign ‘I deserve a better job’ is written all over their faces , it’s been years since I saw such an unprofessional service. We arrived at Porto Seguro at 5 Pm on July 23rd and Amarildo rushed us to the port to take a ferry to Arraial, I’m very thankful for Amarildo to show up, it would have been very difficult for us after this long day to find ourselves around without him. Amarildo arranged for us to stay at a local Pousada. Our room is Spartan but that’s all we need. Home away from home. We went for local home-made dinner before calling it a day. Kind of funny though, Amarildo explained to the restaurant owner that Shani is a vegetarian and does not eat meat, so the owner said “Ok, no problem, I’ll get her a chicken than”. The local cuisine is very good: lots of meet (cooked in various gravies, fried, and the famous Brazilian BBQ), but also rice with wide range of beans seasoned with local roots and fresh vegetables.

July 24th – First Capoeira trainings

We started the day with a walk to the beach and a breakfast from groceries with bought at a local store (including some special sweet bread).

At 10 AM Shani joined the first training session with the adult group lead by Mastre Railson at the Sul Da Bahia Capoeira Academy. Shani practiced till noon time, we rested some and got ready for the evening training and we called it a day. This all place is around Capoeira, training, clothing, instruments and partying. Seems like this place never sleeps and never stops, very energetic place.

July 25th – Trancoso, and first big Roda

We took a local bus to Trancoso, a very beautiful village some 50 minutes drive from Arraial. We walked from the beach to the city center and around the city, and took a break at a local coffee shop where Shani had a Passion Fruit Juice.

We got back, went to the beach and Amarildo caught up with us saying there’s a Roda at the Academy outside Arraial. We took a MotoTaxi (a Motorcycle Taxi, first time for Shani). We found ourselves outside Arraial, at a hard core poor area where kids practice instead of working the streets. There was one Roda inside the Academy, and one outside in the village center. The Brazilian kids were amazing. Amarildo & Shani also joined the Roda.

We than took a very bumpy bus drive back to Arraial, and went out for some drinks (Shani was not drinking..) and went to see a big Capoeira Show in the shopping Roda area. Actually Amarildo forgot all about it, and he did not join due to the consumed alcohol. It was a long show with lots of energy and it ended after 11 PM.

July 26th – Birenbau Workshop

We started the day with a nice breakfast and watching flowers and parrots in the Pousada garden and cleaning up our room.

We went to Amarildo friends for a Birenbau workshop in the outskirts of Arraial. Shani prepared her own Birenbau from Bimba wood, sharp knife and pieces of broken glass, the string to the Birenbau is taken by cutting strings from a car tire and polishing it. It took about 4 hour to build and tune a Birenbau, but it was a fun process and friend people.

I used the time to play some soccer with the kids and climb a tree (which is somewhat higher than what looks in the picture…)

Once the instruments were done, the group started playing and singing together.

(you can see Amarildo in the center)

One the way back Shani found a butterfly, Shani’s Caopeira name is Borboleta (which means butterfly in Portuguese).

At night we went out to the have some good food and fun in Arraial

July 27th – Day 1 – Capoeira Mundial …

The 4th ECONTRO MUNDIAL 2009 Capoeira Sul Da Bahia starts! the day begins with three hours of intensive training ending at group singing.

At the end of the first training session Mestre Railson gathered the group to finalize the 3 hours of first training with a group singing.

After a short break, the Capoeirists meet again for a two hour session of playing the Birenbau – this may sounds easy, but it’s far from being the case. Shani played on the Birenbau she made herself the day before:

I used the time to swim and walk the never ending beach Arraial

There is no idle moments in the Encontro and we learned that on day one, in between the sessions people just grab instruments and play informally, the below is just one example or Amarildo and Maxwell play:

At night the group meet again from 8 pm to 10pm for an open Roda with participation of several Mestres and gave a great Capoeira session starts with low Capoeira (Capoeira Angola) and continuing with high energy high games (which Shani joined as well).

Amarildo, Shani and I finished the day at a great local fish restaurant (which Shani did not appreciate much, but I did).

July 28th – Day 2 – Capoeira Mundial

Training continues at the same intensity as the day before, people already start to receive injuries mostly because the bodies are not used to the training or have been partying too long the night before (which is what people here are doing nearly every day..), Shani got a nice mark on her right eye too…

You can see Shani is still having fun despite the fatigue and injuries

After the training we went to a traditional Brazilian home cooking place went Amarildo and friends, Shani was very tried that day and went back to the Pousada to rest. Afternoon was Latin dancing which Shani decided not to attend followed by a Movie in Portuguese so Shani mostly rested we played some Billiard and went to the night training (8 pm – 10 pm) with Mestre Mao Branca who’s a third level Mestre which is highest in the world. I gave Shani some sips of black coffee before the training and she was full energized.

Somewhere in the middle Mestre Mao Branca made an impressive entrance and took over the playing, with already 3 more Mestres this turned into a world class show. It was so intensive and interesting that I forgot to take pictures …

July 29th – Day 3 – Capoeira Mundial

The day started with a lot of energy and training

After the training Amarildo took us to eat Acai, which is a protein rich drink that people eat here before and after training to revitalize. Acai is  rich with Vitamins and  Fibers (and some other stuff I better not think about).  We than went to a Pitinga beach (which is about an hour walking each way) for Capoerista gathering at the beach. On the way Amarildo showed us places he played in as a child and explained how much Arraial has changed in recent year. We first went swimming, but the gathering soon turned into acrobatics show off…

Amarildo was a big star on the beach, from playing football to saltos and ending up with nearly 20 continues back flips..

At first Shani was very much opposing Acai, but since she tried it once it was hard to get her disconnected. One the way back we have to stop for Picolo Acai too… This is how Shani looks like after 3 hours of training, 3 hours of walking on the beach and swimming…

The afternoon started with a lecture on Capoeira history and origins

As you can see people where thrilled and highly interested in the lecture:

After the lecture there was an open Hoda, and Shani played a lot and played well too

A 12 year old from the US joined as well, and it gave Shani extra energy to work hard and participate. After training we (Shani from practicing, and me from watching…) were staved and went for a big Pizza…

July 30th – Day 4 – Capoeira Mundial

We started the day with a nice breakfast

Followed by yet another day of intensive training, she trained hard on two different workshops

After the training session and lunch Shani went to rest and I went to swim in Patinga beach (about an hour walk each way)

The afternoon session was a Capoeira competition which Shani was not allowed to join though she had a good chance against some of the contestants.

The competition attracted a lot of energy and attention and was a very fun event. The below video is a dance performed during the fights by the US team, cheering up each other. I think the competitions were very successful and it showed how the contestants improve from one fight to another.

The competition end late at night, we took a break in the middle and returned to the same fish restaurant we had dinner the other day with Amarildo.

July 31th – Day 5 – Capoeira Mundial

I must confess that the change in Shani is much more rapid than I anticipated. She is has been growing stronger by the day, aside the evident improvement to her Capoeira, her self confidence improved, she allows herself to do more things, she’s getting a long with everybody, our basic life style does not bother her and she’s genuinely happy and having fun (though I still think she does not realize she’s actually in Brazil…).

Shani practices hard, she’s actually one of the only participants that actually join all training sessions, while people here tend to party all night, she goes to bed around 10 PM reading a book so she can be up early morning for training (although I gave her opportunities to go out later, she’s rather read and rest for training). Shani is getting a long very well with people more than twice her age, one of the main reasons is that she is showing a lot of sensitivity and understand when to push and when to take a step back. I’m very proud of her.

My day here starts and doing laundry

Than it continues with buying and preparing breakfast, waking up Shani (which is NEVER easy) and checking on things at work. In the mean time Shani is enjoying intensive training, you can also see her talking to her sisters which are at the time traveling in Italy

Amarildo has been sick for the past couple of days, he’s specially upset since this causes him to miss the first competition event, as you can see, he is in no shape to compete…

Shani is resting after the day’s training, note she has blisters all over her feet, her muscles are tired but she will not quick, part of it is the fact that Amarildo is encouraging her to train harder and stronger, and the effects are quite evident.

Before the day’s competition and finals we went to do some shopping, Shani seems to enjoy this activity . The competitions were really good, France and Chile did well but Brazil won in most events (at time with the assistance of the judges …), it’s interesting to see that when Brazilians play there’s always a smile on their face (btw, also on Shani’s face), but with the French its mostly competition and winning. It was a good events, with lots of energy – this is the future of Capoeira.

August 1st – Day 6 – Capoeira Mundial

I spent the entire morning in Portu Seguro trying to fix our flights. It seems like we’ll have to fly to Salvador and catch the flight back from there, this is somewhat unexpected and also quite expensive. In the mean time Shani was doing two practices with two old Mesteres whom apparently still got it. Afterwards Amarildo (who’s now a lot better), Shani and I went to Sao Joao, a great fish restaurant and probably the best meal we had in Arraial till that point. We spoke on how badly foreigners are treated in Israel and Amarildo shared with us his experiences with the notorious ‘Immigration Police’ and the injustice around it in Israel. After the late lunch it was already time to get ready for the 2009 Batizado – where Amarildo was getting his Professor belt. He was very excited and tensed before the event. The Batizado started at 5pm and ended after 11pm, it lots of energy and good games

Shani was a little upset for not getting the first belt for adults (though seeing some of those who did get the green belt I can say she’s not lesser than them, yet I think it’s not a bad idea for her to train more – better to get a belt later and earlier I think).

There were quite a few shows, magic and dances as well as Mesteres plays during the Batizado which was well organized.

After the event Shani was taking everybody’s pictures with Meital’s camera (ours run out of battery…), followed by a late but good dinner at Manguti which ended around 2pm and we called it a day…

August 2nd – Day 7 – Capoeira Mundial

This was the last day of the Mundial, which consistent mostly of a beach party and people saying their goodbyes. We spent the day at the beach, followed by the gateway party on Pitinga beach and started packing our stuff for the way back.

August 3rd – Goodbye Arraial

That’s it, time to leave and say goodbye to Arraial d’ajude. Looking at Shani now, I think my work here is done…

Recent moves and announcements by Google, can’t stop me from wandering if there’s some (dark, or not, that’s for you to decide) plan in Google’s cellars to take over the world. While Google as a software monster makes measured steps in releasing software, it does seem to be there’s a bigger plan behind recent moves with the aim of providing a web based, ‘network computer’ like solution and take over as a major application provider. Some may see this as a Google Operating System, but I think it might not be exactly that:

1. Google release Chrome, a web browser with optimizations to various Intel platforms.

2. Google release of Google Gear for Firefox & IE. Google Gear is an infrastructure allowing local caching of web applications. This technology allows web based applications to work even when disconnected. It also means that if you’re working on a mobile environment with in unstable network connection you might still be able to run your apps smoothly. This was a central barrier in the past for the ‘Network Computer’ revolution.

3. Google Application engine – I actually wrote a blog post on that and Google’s move into Web based OS about a year ago you can check it out here.

4. Google Wave – Google released a preview of Google Wave, Google Wave is a web based communications tool combing emails, IM and VOIP.

5. Google Voice – A solution for a single number plus advanced telephony services, also moving into Android.

Now try tying all ends together and you get a web based application server, with lots of web based utility tools providing emails, IM and other communication tools running asynchronously on top any browser, either desktop or mobile. What else do you need? Just run any browser, on any device and get all your applications running either locally or remotely with all your data and productivity tools. Add to that the fact that Google actually started by providing a web based Office-like solutions before providing a search engine you can see where all that is heading.

The impact on Microsoft in this case might be devastating, by pulling more a more developers towards Google, providing web based disconnected productivity tools, and given Android as a potential OS for Mobile it leaves MS OS as an empty shell – not to mention MS investment in the new office suite.

However, keep in mind that the last guys who tried to take on the world were Pinky and the Brain, and see how well this turned out for them:

 

Amichay

My daughter is in  the 7th grade, and her class is part of a special studying project called KATOM (orange in Hebrew). This project started few years ago by the Weizmann Institute of Science – if you can read Hebrew you can follow this link for more information.

Students in the KATOM project receive a laptop (in my daughter’s case it’s a 13” HP Laptop). The laptops are partly subsidized by Weizmann Institute of Science, in part by the local municipality and in part by the parents. Annual cost per student for the parents is around USD 200. Aside laptops for students, the school perimeters are equipped with a wire-less network, each class as a projector device and teachers carry laptops as well. Instead of writing on the blackboard, teachers step into class with a well prepared presentation. Students submit their homework via the net, and become proficient with MS Office tools, Wiki, blogging, IM and more.  ‘Goggling’ during class turns students into net-citizens instead of memorizing things by heart.

As part of science studies, a group of students (including my daughter) had to do science project on Israel’s Water Problem, as Internet Savvy users they created an amazing video clip to explain the problem and their suggested solution.

You can watch the link to the video here, and are most than welcome to put in your vote.

Just watch what 12 year olds who care can do, boy am I proud!

Amichay

I recently got a new W500 Laptop (4062-2GX), while it’s supper fast and has a great display it is somewhat of a disappointed. As an avid ThinkPad users I can tell you – this is not an IBM laptop… it’s not built the same way my old T43 is built, and there are small things that make what used to be a great product into a good to very good product.

It started with my W500 mouse getting hanged, drove me crazy, I reinstalled the OS, drivers, searched the web only to realize there’s a known hardware malfunction – it was replaced super fast (2 days), but yet I did not expect this from an IBM laptop.

Than came the Blue Screens. After a while I decided it’s time to dig deeper and get this resolved. My Blue Screens where at iaStor.sys – to make a long story short there’s an Intel driver called AHCI driver that you can see here:

When you update your driver, or go to Windows Update it will look at Intel to see if this driver needs an update. But Surprise! while the Windows / Driver Update thinks your driver is updated there’s a new driver on Lenovo’s web site (which they are not too vocal about) Version #8.6.3 (which is newer than what I had from Intel) that you can download here:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-70477.html

Once I installed it BSoD are gone, at least for now…

Putting all this aside there’s a great lesson for me as a developer – it is the small but annoying things that make the difference between a very good and an excellent product.

Hope you find this helpful.

Amichay

 

Microsoft project codename “Velocity” is now at CTP2 and due to be released in the second half of 2009. At JAJAH we have had many times to deal with scalability & performance issues, which lead us to develop our own scale-out solutions addressing both performance and high availability needs. A solution like “Velocity” could have shorten development & deployment time for us, however better late than never… There are few points about Velocity which I think are worth commenting on:

•   Velocity is an advanced distributed cache, in a way you can look at it as an ‘in memory’ database.
• , I find it interesting to learn that this solution emerged from the SQL Server group – this says  lot in my mind to the future of database architectures.
•   One of the things that .NET framework was always weak on was the enterprise software architecture, this is very much unlike J2EE that was by design including architecture and interfaces (though some of it was poorly implemented ). When talking with Microsoft people I heard that Microsoft was hoping for other software vendors to augment with additional tools, while Microsoft was trying to stay away from competing  with their own clients – this tendency seems to have changed (for the good if you ask me).
•   Velocity works well with LINQ making this a real ‘in memory database’, aside the software architecture implication, there’s a direct implication on the development process – the DB is gradually turning into a smart storage device and less as container for application logic. This allows the migration of application logic to the business layer without worrying of potential performance issues – this is a key shift in my mind that’s hard to achieve in real life today.

Some notes for the future:

•   ‘Object Oriented Database’ is very much 80’s and unfortunately did not really lift off big time – so far – however, I think it’s a gold opportunity to revisit with such a solution.
•   I’d very much like to see this integrated with .NET 4.0 parallel task framework – why have distributed cache for data components and not executable objects / tasks? Seems to me like a logical interpolation.

Some further notes:

•   The move of business logic out of the database strips the database from many of it’s assents : why don’t we see integration of database companies with storage companies?
•   The re-thinking of threads in the conceptual terms on tasks kind of reminds me “Monty Python and the Holy Grail“:

 HEAD KNIGHT:  Nee!
      Nee!
      Nee!
      Nee!
  ARTHUR:  Who are you?
  HEAD KNIGHT:  We are the Knights Who Say... Nee!
  ARTHUR:  No!  Not the Knights Who Say Nee!
  HEAD KNIGHT:  The same!
  BEDEMIR:  Who are they?
  HEAD KNIGHT:  We are the keepers of the sacred words:  Nee, Pen, and
      Nee-wom!
  RANDOM:  Nee-wom!
  ARTHUR:  Those who hear them seldom live to tell the tale!
  HEAD KNIGHT:  The Knights Who Say Nee demand a sacrifice!
  ARTHUR:  Knights of Nee, we are but simple travellers who seek the
      enchanter who lives beyond these woods.
  HEAD KNIGHT:  Nee!  Nee!  Nee!  Nee!
  ARTHUR and PARTY:  Oh, ow!
  HEAD KNIGHT:  We shall say 'nee' again to you if you do not appease us.
  ARTHUR:  Well, what is it you want?
  HEAD KNIGHT:  We want... a shrubbery!
      [dramatic chord]
  ARTHUR:  A what?
  HEAD KNIGHT:  Nee!  Nee!
  ARTHUR and PARTY:  Oh, ow!
  ARTHUR:  Please, please!  No more!  We shall find a shrubbery.
  HEAD KNIGHT:  You must return here with a shrubbery or else you will
      never pass through this wood alive!
  ARTHUR:  O Knights of Nee, you are just and fair, and we will return
      with a shrubbery.
  HEAD KNIGHT:  One that looks nice.
  ARTHUR:  Of course.
  HEAD KNIGHT:  And not too expensive.
  ARTHUR:  Yes.
  HEAD KNIGHTS:  Now… go!

  [SCENE 31]

  ARTHUR:  O, Knights of Nee, we have brought you your shrubbery.  May we
      go now?
  HEAD KNIGHT:  It is a good shrubbery.  I like the laurels particularly.
      But there is one small problem.
  ARTHUR:  What is that?
  HEAD KNIGHT:  We are now... no longer the Knights Who Say Nee.
  RANDOM:  Nee!
  HEAD KNIGHT:  Shh shh.  We are now the Knights Who Say Ecky-ecky-ecky-
      ecky-pikang-zoom-boing-mumble-mumble.
  RANDOM:  Nee!
  HEAD KNIGHT:  Therefore, we must give you a test.
  ARTHUR:  What is this test, O Knights of-- Knights Who 'Til Recently
      Said Nee?
  HEAD KNIGHT:  Firstly, you must find... another shrubbery!
      [dramatic chord]
  ARTHUR:  Not another shrubbery!
  HEAD KNIGHT:  Then, when you have found the shrubbery, you must place
      it here beside this shrubbery, only slightly higher so you get a
      two-level effect with a little path running down the middle.
  RANDOM:  A path!  A path!  Nee!
  HEAD KNIGHT:  Then, when you have found the shrubbery, you must cut
      down the mightiest tree in the forest… with… a herring!
      [dramatic chord]
  ARTHUR:  We shall do no such thing!
  HEAD KNIGHT:  Oh, please!
  ARTHUR:  Cut down a tree with a herring?  It can’t be done.
  KNIGHTS:  Aaaaugh!  Aaaugh!
  HEAD KNIGHT:  Don’t say that word.
  ARTHUR:  What word?
  HEAD KNIGHT:  I cannot tell, suffice to say is one of the words
      the Knights of Nee cannot hear.
  ARTHUR:  How can we not say the word if you don’t tell us what it is?
  KNIGHTS:  Aaaaugh!  Aaaugh!
  ARTHUR:  What, `is’?
  HEAD KNIGHT:  No, not `is’ — we couldn’t get vary far in life not
      saying `is’.
  BEDEMIR:  My liege, it’s Sir Robin!
  MINSTREL (singing):  Packing it in and packing it up
                       And sneaking away and buggering up
                       And chickening out and pissing about
                       Yes, bravely he is throwing in the sponge
  ARTHUR:  Oh, Robin!
  ROBIN:  My liege!  It’s good to see you!
  KNIGHTS:  Aaaaugh!
  HEAD KNIGHT:  He said the word!
  ARTHUR:  Surely you’ve not given up your quest for the Holy Grail?
  MINSTREL (singing):  He is sneaking away and buggering up–
  ROBIN:  Shut up!  No, no no– far from it.
  HEAD KNIGHT:  He said the word again!
  ROBIN:  I was looking for it.
  KNIGHTS:  Aaaaugh!
  ROBIN:  Uh, here, here in this forest.
  ARTHUR:  No, it is far from–
  KNIGHTS:  Aaaaugh!
  HEAD KNIGHT:  Aaaaugh!  Stop saying the word!
  ARTHUR:  Oh, stop it!
  KNIGHTS:  Aaaaugh!
  HEAD KNIGHT:  Oh!  He said it again!
  ARTHUR:  Patsy!
  HEAD KNIGHT:  Aaugh!  I said it!  I said it!  Ooh!  I said it again!
  KNIGHTS:  Aaaaugh!

Amichay

As JAJAH CTO I get to see quite a few technologies in our space, most I suspect will not make a major impact and will end us as a nice feature at most. However, there are few technologies that reach a point where technology maturity meet with emerging customer needs. I’ll try to survey few of those in this post. I’d be glad to hear your opinion.

VIDEO CALLS

Video messaging is not new, in fact Video conferencing has been around for more than a decade and quite a few companies provide different levels of Video support as part of their offerings – but until recently it didn’t really reach wide spread as IM for example. I think it’s about to change as more and more companies will be adding video capabilities to their clients. We too at JAJAH spent quite some time ensuring our Data Platform (currently servicing Yahoo, eHarmony, eMobile and others) may pass along video. As more and more IM clients are to introduce Video capabilities the main questions are still what is the added value of Video in a discussion, and how to make money from it – yet I’m confident that in 2009 more and more main stream companies will be pushing this method of communication to the masses. It will most probably go beyond PC-to-PC communication and we’ll be seeing video calls gradually entering the mobile market later 2009. Mobile providers with growing data bandwidths and narrowing business will push this strongly and will convince us it’s the holy grail of communications – in few years from now we’ll probably not understand how we could live without it.

ULTRA LIGTH MOBILE PCs (UMPCs)

In CES ‘08 I’ve seen in Intel’s booth several bulky devices under the tag UMPCs or MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices) – none of that was really consumer ready – but you could have seen the birth of a new space of devices, a space I think will be fast growing in 2009 and effect both consumer electronics and software companies. We consume a lot of information today off the web, and the ratio of information gathering vs. information creation is continually growing – in other words – most people consume data services, but few generate information. Take a look at SHARP D4 currently sold by Willcom in Japan – it’s a really cool device if you’re a knowledge worker who needs fast Internet connection, get quite a few emails a day, need to carry around electronic documents, run presentations, get information off the web and make cheap international calls while traveling.

Take a look.

 

I also really like Fujitsu new Netbooks line – like  http://mobilitysite.com/2008/08/fujitsu-netbook-gets-official/ – though I’ve seen it in much cooler colors.

WAKE ON EVENT

Short disclaimer here – I was heavily involved in the Wake-On-VOIP project we’ve done with Intel’s Corwin Springs chipset (I might write a separate blog on how to that topic). JAJAH provided the back-end support and the client side wrappers to Intel SIP based Wake-On-VOIP chipset, while MailVision integrated with our client side allowing a softphone to be in a standby mode, receive an incoming call, wake up in less than 5 seconds and divert the call to the softphone. There was quite some press (for example http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2328083,00.asp) around this project. This is actually the second time Intel is trying to introduce remote wake technologies – however -  last time their Wake-On-Lan was a total disaster. Putting JAJAH hat off for a while, there’s a broader view to wake on event technologies, allowing PCs to be in a stand-by mode yet be awaken remotely by incoming data such as emails, virus updates, OS updates, TV shows and more. As energy preservation is key these days, the ability to bring out a device out of standby mode using an external event is a key feature in many applications – specially for Mobile VoIP applications.

VOICE RECOGNITION

This will probably go beyond 2009 – but demand for high quality voice recognition is ever growing, there’s a wide range of new services just waiting for the right engine to emerge. If you know of one – drop me a note

 

Amichay

Analysts say that Mobile VoIP Market will boom around 2012 hitting more than $65B annual revenues. Many interpret this as a sign for investments in Mobile VoIP applications and services, thinking that consumer VoIP market will grow from nearly zero in 2008 to over 500M users in 2012. Every other day I read breaking news about VoIP Application for a new mobile device or platform.

I think they are all wrong. I don’t think that by 2012 Mobile VoIP market will even exist as a standalone market.

VoIP stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol – now which consumer really cares about what protocol is carrying his or her voice to the destination device? What the average consumer wants is a cheap and simple way to make calls, the protocol used is really least of the consumer concerns. Phone bill is though, but what does that have to do with Mobile VoIP? Would Internet Protocol make your phone bill shrink? I hardly think so. Phone companies need to make money so they can keep giving us a high quality service, keep their backbone, customer support, sales and other departments running requires money, and lots of it. Phone companies need to pay their employees, and these guys don’t really care if their dim comes from per minutes or per kilobyte cost. It’s not to say that I don’t think we’re over charged for making calls – we are – since most phone companies are just too greedy – but it has nothing to do with Internet Protocol per se.

So unless we switch back to direct trading economy phone companies will continue paying their employees and this money will come from us either directly (us paying phone bills), or indirectly (by someone subsidizing our calls for some sort of benefit). Mobile VoIP application providers may temporarily ‘enjoy’ lower operational costs and thus provide cheaper calling, but it’s neither convenient nor a steady service going beyond the techies community – it’s not a long term investment.

The reason I think Mobile VoIP market will never lift of, is that I don’t think it has independent existence from the mobile telephony industry. There are various providers (including JAJAH) providing all sort of mobile VoIP applications to make calls over data connection but those are not consumer ready for many reasons which I won’t count here. Mobile VoIP application can be consumer ready only if they are merged into the mobile device, either coming from the handset maker, mobile service providers or both. Hence it will never be an independent market. Mobile VoIP is a very misleading term.

What I do think will happen in the next few years is that Mobile Operators will gradually shift their core infrastructure to be NGN-like  and this is because audio is only one of the media types that will be pass over the air – it does not make sense to keep one infrastructure for voice and another for data – merging makes more sense. While this may potentially lower operational costs for mobile operators, it will not necessarily lower how much consumers pay – this has more to do with the core greediness of the operators than the core network architecture.

Best,

Amichay