Telephony/conferencing - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• NetScout to buy Psytechnics to better probe networks

  NetScout Systems plans to buy Psytechnics, a small developer of service management software for unified communications, for an undisclosed sum.

• FBI: Web-based services hurting wiretapping efforts

  Web-based e-mail, social-networking and peer-to-peer services are frustrating law enforcement wiretapping efforts, a lawyer for the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation told lawmakers Thursday, but she did not offer concrete ideas on how to fix the problem.

• Skype looks to developing markets for growth

  Skype is looking toward developing markets for its mobile business as the popular voice-over-Internet Protocol service seeks to grow its presence in places where smartphone use is less common.

• Skype buys Qik mobile video streaming service

  Skype has acquired Qik, the mobile-to-mobile video streaming service, as part of an effort to expand its voice and video calling service beyond PCs and to more devices.

• Google extends free phone call offer for US Gmail users

  Gmail users in the U.S can continue call phones in North America and Canada for free after the new year, Google said in a blog post on Monday.

• Microsoft Lync: The pros and cons for enterprises

  Lync, the next generation of Microsoft's Office Communications Server software, was unveiled yesterday in New York City, complete with a surprise appearance from Bill Gates via Lync's video conference tool.

• Galaxy Tabs to soon have access to HD videoconferencing

  Polycom announced an agreement with Samsung to embed high-definition videoconferencing capability in the new Galaxy Tab.

• Citrix will add video conferencing to GoToMeeting

  Citrix Systems will add video to its web conferencing service GoToMeeting via a new feature called HD Faces, the company said on Wednesday at its Synergy user conference in Berlin, Germany.

• Cisco unveils Umi home videoconferencing

  Cisco has introduced Umi, a home telepresence system that uses existing high-definition TVs and also works with Google Video Chat.

• Skype hires Cisco's Bates as CEO

  Skype has named Tony Bates as its next CEO, hiring him away from Cisco Systems, where he led some of the company's core businesses.

• Polycom's CTO says openness is key

  Joseph Burton, Polycom's new chief strategy and technology officer, comes to the company from one of the key jobs in the enterprise voice and video business, having been vice president and chief technology officer for unified communications at Cisco Systems. Though Polycom is smaller than Cisco, with revenue just under US$1 billion last year, it has a long history in enterprises as a maker of desk phones, conference phones and videoconferencing systems, as well as the infrastructure behind them.

• Microsoft previews communication server overhaul

  Microsoft has released a nearly completed preview version of its next-generation communications server and associated software, which the company has collectively renamed as Lync.