“The second time may be the charm for HR 1722 — the Telework Improvements Act.

The measure, designed to expand the use of telework by federal employees, was defeated on the House floor last May by opponents who claimed to be worried about the ballooning Federal deficit.

But the principal author of the bill, Rep. John Sarbanes, (D.-Md.), isn’t giving up. He says the telework bill will be re-considered on the floor of the full House as early as tomorrow.”

Read more here

From  Engadget:

By Vlad Savov posted Jul 15th 2010 1:41AM

Yes, the Droid X has joined the Kin… in being available to buy on Verizon’s online Wireless store. No shock or awe here, it’s a cent under two Benjamins with a two-year deal and you can give it the shopping basket treatment right now. Either that or wait in line overnight like a lovesick puppy, it’s up to you.

Some of the iPhone and iPad applications which needs high-bandwidth are disabled by default while running on 3G network. These applications would only run on high-speed Wi-Fi connections. Some VoIP apps including Skype charge extra when running over 3G.  Now there is an applications called “3G Unrestrictor” which enables these applications to run over 3G that is recently updated with iOS 4 and iPad support.

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From the Digium Blog

Digium’s Switchvox Mobile is a freely available application for the iPhone and BlackBerry smartphones. Switchvox Mobile seamlessly integrates your Switchvox SMB phone system with your smartphone, unifying your communications no matter where you are.

Even if you don’t have a Switchvox phone system yet, you can see how unified communications can work for you by using Switchvox Mobile’s Demonstration Mode. In Demo Mode, you’ll find a sample account that shows you what Switchvox Mobile has to offer.

Make Calls

Call your clients or your coworkers from the Switchvox Mobile application, and your calls will appear to be coming from your deskphone.

Check Calls

View your Switchvox Call Logs, which show your incoming, outgoing, and missed calls. Return a call easily, right from the Calls screen.

Access the Directory

Look up your coworkers’ extensions and email addresses, and then easily call that person, or send an email message.

Manage Greetings

Choose which of your voicemail greetings your callers hear. On the iPhone, you can record a new greeting.

Check Voicemail

Listen to your Switchvox voicemail messages. Return a call easily, right from the Voicemail screen.

Activate Call Rules

Toggle your Switchvox Call Rules. Now it’s easy to activate your “Meeting” rule so that important calls go to your partner.

Requirements

  • Switchvox SMB 23120 (4.5.2) or later
  • Appropriate network access to Switchvox (more information)
  • iPhone OS 3.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.
  • BlackBerry Device Software 4.2.1 or later. Compatible with Bold, Tour, Curve, Pearl, and Storm devices.

Download / Availability

Switchvox Mobile for iPhone is available through the iTunes App Store.

Switchvox Mobile for the BlackBerry is available through the BlackBerry App World.

For one month Skype is offering free phone calls to these countries:

• 60 minutes free calls to landlines in Algeria for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in Argentina for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in Australia for a month
• 400 minutes free calls to landlines in Brazil for a month
• 60 minutes free calls to landlines in Cameroon for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in Chile for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in Denmark for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in France for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in Germany for a month
• 60 minutes free calls to landlines in Ghana for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in Greece for a month
• 60 minutes free calls to landlines and mobiles in Honduras
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in Italy for a month
• 60 minutes free calls to landlines and mobiles in Japan for a month
• 120 minutes free calls to landlines in Mexico for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in the Netherlands for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in New Zealand for a month
• 120 minutes free calls to landlines in Nigeria for a month
• 60 minutes free calls to landlines in Paraguay for a month
• 60 minutes free calls to landlines in Serbia for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in Portugal for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in Slovakia for a month
• 120 minutes free calls to landlines in Slovenia for a month
• 120 minutes free calls to landlines in South Africa for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in South Korea for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in Spain for a month
• 120 minutes free calls to landlines in Switzerland for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines in the UK for a month
• 60 minutes free calls to landlines in Uruguay for a month
• Unlimited free calls to landlines and mobiles in the USA for a month

Time to chat it up with other folks about the world cup.

Here is the blog post

First Wave, now Google Voice….no invite needed.

Be sure you get your Google Voice number if you don’t have one.

voice.google.com

Never could get a Google Wave invite…worry no more, Wave is out of Beta and no invite is needed.

“Wave open sign-ups: Google Wave is open to all users at wave.google.com, as a Google Labs product — no invitation needed. Google Apps administrators will also have the option to add Wave as a Labs feature for their domains, helping groups of people communicate and work together more productively.”

I have never seen an IP phone that looked military spec  until now.

“Elektrobit, commonly known as EB, introduced two new VoIP phones designed for the military: the Field Phone and Desktop Phone.

Announced at Eurosatory, a military trade show held in Paris, these new VoIP phones are pretty impressive. They’re both very rugged, able to withstand the trauma of field work, but they’re not just muscle.”

Read more here

As if websites going down around the world due to the iPhone wasn’t a sign for a company that has not learned that they need increased capacity on launch day – then again you could make the argument that the crashing servers might just be a marketing ploy.

But now it seems that the “iPhone 4 Order Security Breach Exposes Private Information”  Even if it is an AT&T issue like the iPad breech last week, Apple picked AT&T, not the iPhone customers.  Apple needs to step up.

Read more here

A really interesting article about VoIP protocols.  SIP beat out established protocols like H.323 & MGCP.

“As an industry grows, it is quite common to find multiple solutions that all attempt to address similar requirements. This evolution dictates that these proposed standards go through a stage of selection—over time, we see some become more dominant than others. Today, the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is clearly one of the dominant VoIP protocols, but that obviously didn’t happen overnight. In this article, the first of a series of in-depth articles exploring SIP and VoIP, we’ll look at the main factors that led to this outcome.”

Read more here