Voipally

Sony have just announced the MyLo (My Life Online), which includes a webbrowser, IM client and a Skype phone in a form-factor roughly the size of a PSP. The exciting thing about this device is that – unlike most present Skype wireless phones – the addition of a web browser means that users will be able to authenticate at WiFi hotspots that require browser-based authentication (ie – most commercial hotspots today).

This makes the MyLo a much better optin than most other Skype phones.

More coverage at TechCrunch.

Arstechnica has an editorial on some suggestions for how Google’s GTalk Instant Messenger client could impove. They suggest:

• Focusing on corporate users, by integrating support for things like Google Calendar.
• Increasing mobile support – they note that GTalk on the Nintendo DS would have huge potential.
• Soliciting feature requests from their users.

See http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060731-7385.html for the whole article.

One of the cool things about Jabber is that it allows you to host your own server, which gives you an IM address like name@host.com.
The webhosting company Dreamhost has taken advantage of this and now offers to host your own Jabber server in any of their hosting plans. I haven’t tried the Jabber hosting, but it seems like a pretty good deal – plans start at $7.95 per month for unlimited domain name hosting, SSH, etc as well as your own Jabber server.

UPDATE: During April, the code 30OFFER will get you a $30 discount on any plan from Dreamhost. Just enter it as a promo code during the sign-up process and the discount will be applied.

Google has just done a new release of the GTalk client, adding the much-requested file transfer feature. The new version also includes voicemail and “music status”, which will show what song you are listening in iTunes, Winamp, Windows Media Player and (interestingly) Yahoo Music Engine.

This is a significant release, because the lack of file transfer was a real negative which meant that a lot of people who would otherwise use GTalk couldn’t.

Update: It’s also mentioned on the Google Talk Blog.

Live Journal is integrating a white-label version of Gizmo in order to offer IM & Voice communications between Live Journal users. Presumably this will integrate the Gizmo contact list with the fairly sophisticated social networking features which already exist in Live Journal.

The press releases seem to indicate this will be the case:

Using the free Gizmo Project for LJ Talk voice and IM software, LiveJournal users will be able to make calls and instant message contacts from their LiveJournal Friends list, making it easier to stay in contact. Their existing Friends list will be automatically available to users when they log in to the software using standard LiveJournal account information, and new contacts can be added easily. All calls between LiveJournal users using the software will be free and LiveJournal users will be able to take advantage of the same promotional calling plans that Gizmo Project users enjoy.

It looks like LiveJournal have written their own Jabber server for the IM compnent, which they are opensourcing:

The introduction of the Jabber server continues LiveJournal’s tradition of contributing significant technologies to the open source community…..Any company or service provider wishing to use the LJ Jabber server can go to http://code.sixapart.com for more information.

Hat tip to GigaOM & VoIP Watch.

Techcruch reports on Comscore’s Instant Messenger marketshare report, focusing on the low number reported for GTalk. However, they appear to be reporting on the usage of the GChat client application only, which would mean that actual GTalk (via GMail) usage would be significantly higher. Google appears to be trying to disrupt the IM market by offering a web-based chat client, and allowing interperation via the Jabber protocol. This (disrupting an established market by trying to change the parameters of that market) is a pretty obvious strategy.
Ignoring the gratuitous (and probably mis-founded) Google bashing, the other interesting thing to come from that report is the significant lead that MSN Messenger has over its rivals.