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Build IVR and VoiceXML apps for free! February 1, 2006

Posted by James Webster in : software, telephony , 1 comment so far

All that and more looks possible thanks to Voxeo’s Prophecy platform, currently available in a preview edition.

Prophecy includes ‘high-quality’ speech synthesis AND recognition, out of the box compatibility with most SIP providers,100% compliant VoiceXML and plenty of other bullet points worth checking out. The greatest part about Prophecy is that it is an all-in-one download, prepackaged and ready to be tinkered with.

Voxeo have already proven themselves to be a developer-savvy organisation with the introduction of a Skype partnership for the Evolution Skype Developer Program. Now you can easily build SIP-compatible voice apps, and once finished Voxeo will happily host them for you. 2006 is definitely shaping up to be the year of disruptive voice applications (or was that 2005 already???)

Check out the press release. Also, additional discussion at VOIP Magazine and at the spkydog koop. The rest of the blogosphere seems to be remarkably quiet about this at the moment, c’mon people let’s build some voice apps!

Jabphone announced at ETel January 25, 2006

Posted by James Webster in : xmpp, telephony , add a comment

As speculated in a previous post there has already been one cool mashup of Google Talk, XMPP and SIP announced at ETel; Jabphone allows users of any libjingle-compatible XMPP client (primarily Google Talk but since libjingle has been open-sourced others are rapidly adding support) to call out to phones. (via O’Reilly Radar)

Also check out Ward Mundy’s tutorial on building a telephone reminder system for Asterisk.

Unwiring from copper, and a word on ETel. January 22, 2006

Posted by James Webster in : tech, web, telephony , add a comment

Since November 2004 I have been on the leading (and sometimes bleeding) edge of broadband in Australia. I am online via iBurst, a portable/mobile wireless broadband technology that uses an array of fixed base stations with ’smart antenna’ technology to send tightly focused beams to users within the area. I think the technology still has a few kinks and benefits from better LOS to the tower, but overall I am bullish enough to stay a user for the moment. And I have seen the mobility benefits first hand; having lived on the Gold Coast, a couple of places in Brisbane, and done a business trip to Sydney or two since I have been a subscriber. Plus its available NOW, whereas WiMAX will be available, ummm, whenever?

Well, the upshot of all this is that we are moving to Sydney within the next month and frankly we are strongly considering not connecting a fixed phone service. Assuming we live in an area with decent iBurst reception, I am going to set up a basic Asterisk@Home server, buy VOIP service through Engin or a similar provider and start living the wireless dream baby! Check back in a few months to see if it has worked out, or whether I have run back to the safety but emasculation of copper!

BTW, keep an eye on the blogosphere for reports of cool demonstrations coming out of ETel, O’Reilly’s inaugral emerging telephony conference.