Dean Bubley on The Android-Dean and I had dinner in San Diego a week ago Saturday at Flemings Steak House and Wine Bar in the Gaslamp. We enjoyed some excellent service from GM/Operating Partner Bob Andrews (he's been Flemings Top Operating Partner four out of the last five years or so) and it was there I showed Dean the new Droid on Verizon. It has become my first phone of choice (and I have many) for two reasons. It feels like a business persons' phone and the audio quality is superb. On Verizon's network nothing is slow.

Junction Networks has created a new provisioning portal that works with Polycom phones. It makes set up simple and is a wonderful compliment to their OnSip service. Can we see this expanded to SNOM, Linksys, Cisco, Astra, Avaaya and Grandstream devices please?

With his post about the Gizmo/Google Voice deal and the label of "Not That Exciting" Doug Mohney provides fodder that indicates he may well be the second coming of the late Russell Shaw as the industry's counterweight and balance of overt enthusiasm and unrelenting cheerleading by some of us who have carried on where Jeff Pulver left off in VoIP. Jeff is doing a fantastic job at evangelizing Twitter and HD Voice now (with Doug's help I might add.) Russell, who passed away a few years back before eComm and VON in San Jose was always a sense of levity and provided the kind of perspective we need to curb the runaway enthusiasm some of us have at times. Doug is providing that now and it's welcomed and appreciated.

Robert Poe, over at VoIP Evolution writes about the HD codec from client GIPS being embedded into Nimbuzz and why it matters.

Tom Keating, who must have more time on his hands to brave yet another OS, in Google Chrome, has proved out that Flash based VoIP works with it. I guess that's good news for Ribbit too, as they have a Flash based softphone working as well.

Keating also found time to blog about client Truphone's Thanksgiving Day promotion of free calling to the USA aimed at ex-pats and those away from loved one this year. He also let us know that Fring on Android (with WiFi) is not out.

Stuart Henshall calls Gartner's list of 2012 Mobile Apps "shallow" and not a "wow." Either way, the key to this list is money transfer and mobile payments in my book. Why? That's where the money is. They don't need advertising to make them profitable, and people will "pay" to get their money. Enough history exists in this area, starting most recently with PayPal.

Esme Vos -a sometimes dining companion in SF as she was a few weeks back for a fabulous meal at Luce in the Intercontinental SF-which now has one Michelin Star- has penned a wonderful piece on conference WiFi - which I was quoted in. Speaking of which, the Intercontinental, which once had enough bandwidth to support an army is in need of a boost. Now running at nearly 100 percent occupancy-because it's so darn great and close to Moscone, has 25 megs to the property, but it needs more. Up in Seattle, the amazing Hotel 1000 now has 100 megs of XO supplied fiber connectivity--and an amazing overall experience.

Phil Wolff has a great post on how voice becomes more than cheap calling via Skype.

Larry Lisser writes up why voice is back in vogue.

Alec Saunders gets under the hood and shows just what AT&T may be up to in the battle around free conference calling and more.

The Wall Street Journal reports that AT&T says Google Voice prevents calls to convent. So what. Google execs on the Google buses already are in a monastery like environment as the are prohibited from talking on the phone making the claim nothing more than a brand extension in my book.

A real dandy of an article about pal and voice visionary Martin Geddes made its way on to the BT web site, as Martin explains about the three side business model and why voice is in vogue again.

Who Said What About Net Neutrality? The GigaOm quiz makes you wonder.

Last Friday for many was a "SNOW" day. It was the day that Apple launched their updated (and from my testing) better Operating System. It's smaller, faster and does many things better. In my testing of major Voice applications I found a few things out rather quickly:

Good News Department:

Skype 3.8 works fine

Gizmo5's latest build works fine

SightSpeed's latest build works fine

Bad News Department

Neither of Counterpath's VoIP clients work. That means neither Eyebeam nor the new and sleek X-Lite Beta work at all. Eyebeam loads up and dials, but crashes. X-Lite just crashes and burns. The Snow Leopard Compatibility Wiki also reports that the regular X-Lite has problems also. This makes this the second time in memory that when Apple has upgraded their OS that CounterPath software failed. The last time the OS changes impacted everyone in the SIP space, but it seems this time only the market's largest was caught up in it, possibly because Apple released earlier than expected. In the EyeBeam forum there was a comment about a new build coming, but as of today, Monday the 31st in London, it's still not available.

So here's my advice.

If you really need to talk, the Gizmo client allows you to add a secondary account to your login. That makes it possible for you to make and receive calls using your regular SIP accounts from your company or your telephony provider as long as you have your SIP credentials. Of course you also have to sign up for Gizmo, but that's free as is the application.

A quick note about the Novatel MiFi devices, both the CDMA version that works on Verizon and the GSM/HSPA version that works here in the USA on AT&T and on any GSM operator's network around the globe.

1. Verizon's network smokes the current edition of AT&T Mobile Broadband in the Bay Area for real time communications. After a day of use of the HSPA version, while it works very well, but I found that it is highly susceptible to the totem pole affect of GSM and great signals and amazing connectivity become simply marginal connectivity, especially if you are in a high traffic area. The Verizon CDMA version is not affected by this totem pole effect.

2. Voice communications-on Verizon the call quality is equal or better to being on a T1 line. On AT&T the call quality varies from good to great to sometime drop outs or packet loss. However I've held conference calls on both networks using Skype and HiDef Conferencing and the calls have gone well. This experience mirrors what iPhone users have experienced as well. I'm looking forward to putting this through its paces next week in the UK on a variety of networks.

3. SSID and Connectivity-I've easily latched my Nokia E71 and made calls using Truphone, as well as my iPod Touch to the MiFis. Talk about saving money. A few month's of calling via the iPod Touch over Truphone (or Skype) will pay for the device and be the gift that keeps on savings. (Note Truphone is an agency client of mine as is Nokia.)

4. Set Up- Simple and easy. I used the web interface.

5. Software-I could not install the software from the HSPA MiFi but did download it from a web site on my NetBook. I have been unsuccessful at installing the Mobilink software from Novatel on my MacBook Pro but suspect it is a version issue as Novatel is habitually behind on Mac centric software and has been that way for years. That said, they do make the best USB Dongles around and the MiFi is no exception.

Bottom line--Buy a MiFi.

A note. The HSPA MiFis are not yet for sale in the USA but you can find them internationally, and unlocked. For a road warrior like me, knowing I have one of these in my bag and a pay as you go data plan means less reliance on hotel broadband when I'm in Europe or the need to only grab a meal where WiFi is available.

If you subscribe to the Wall Street Journal, either hard copy or online, today's edition has Walt Mossberg's review of the new Apple iPhone and OS 3.0.

Apple always provides Walt an advance version of the phone, and his review tends to help set the stage for many things. Of what he didn't like on the new version, two-MMS and Tethering lack of availability in the USA have to be discounted because AT&T is limiting the availability until their network upgrades are farther along. That's no big deal for me. I use a Verizon MiFi card and my iPod Touch and get all the functions, plus better 3G connectivity for apps including those that are VoIP based, like Skype and client Truphone.

Walt's testing though methodology seemed to be as always rigorous. He likely pushed all things aside he had planned to get this review done for today, as Apple pretty much dropped a bomb last week at the World Wide Developer's Conference, surprising many with the earlier than expected availability of OS 3.0. My wonderment though is something he can't test for yet, which is how the newer version of the Apple OS will perform on a real 3G network.

Like Walt and all USA iPhone users, we're all used to the anemic AT&T network, which even the carrier admits is overloaded. Yesterday, using the prior version of the iPhone and it's last version of the OS I was on a train to Barcelona, and was using the Maps application. I never saw the maps application, or any other application run as fast as I did on the Movistar network from Telefonica. It was like watching a scene on CSI Miami or NCIS where they use these surface computing platform and move images and data around. In faster than a blink of an eye, the maps were updating as we rolled through the hillsides of Spain at close to 90 miles an hour or so.

Another key point Walt brings out in his review is Apple's WiFi authentication capability becoming native to remember credentials for as he describes "commercial" hotspots. This has to be viewed as great news for operators like BT, T-Mobile and client Boingo, as it means the can spend more time on technology efforts at the network layer, and less time crafting an application (or the insides of the application beyond a UI and such.) On the other hand, for all of the parasite type applications like Devicescape and EasyWiFi (which is from Devicescape) it minimizes their value for people who only use one device.

What Walt didn't explain here is if Apple is taking that same technology and tacitly building it into the Mac or if what we're really seeing is the Apple Keychain technology being dramatically expanded to have greater purpose on devices beyond the Mac itself. I *SUSPECT* that Apple is further pushing out KeyChain and the WiFi log on capability and the lost phone/find the phone/wipe the data/ are just the tip of the iceberg of what we will see in this area of security and authentication on BOTH Mac and iPhone platforms, as Apple continues to converge the two, with MobileMe being the core transport/sync tool. That functionality, while still in it's infant stages, really is taking aim at RIM's Blackberry Enterprise Server capability, and likely a nuance that unless one uses a Blackberry or thinks like an Director of IT, would be missed.

Those functions mean that where Apple (and their carrier partners) will be going with 3.0 is not so much after the early adoptive consumer, but after the decide later IT Enterprise buyer, which represents a major market segment dominated by HP and RIM in the USA, and which globally really remains up for grabs.

Mossberg's review is worth the read, but I'll really be interested in how and if he reviews this version of the iPhone in four to five months as more of the AT&T network gets built out. Given that other reviews from more advance network countries will start to hit shortly after the new iPhone's hit other shores, I expect Walt's review will be the baseline to compare to, so we know how much we're missing in the USA and how much everyone else has been gifted by Apple.

With the recent announcement by Skype to have an open SIP Gateway (well its in beta) the door is now wide open for a direct route of calls coming to your Google Voice number to be routed directly into the Skype SIP gateway and to ring your Skype ID. All Google Voice has to do is turn that on and become interoperable with Skype directly, the same way Nimbuzz, Truphone and others have already become.

Let me lay out what this would mean:

1. Google Voice becomes THE defacto switchboard with numbers everywhere added and sold by them. There is less to no more need for a SkypeIn number or anyone else's for that matter. Luca points out how this can be done today via Gizmo and OpenSky.

2. You no longer need to buy Skype Out. You simply bridge your calls between Google Voice making the outbound leg of the call (at lower rates than Skype) to your Skype ID. Currently I bridge from Google Voice to a Skype In Number and this works perfectly.

3. Skype has already pledged and argued for openness, what are they going to do, all of a sudden go down the path of Open being the New Closed, a point Michael Robertson of Gizmo has raised concerns about previously, who's service by the way already peers with Google Voice (thank you very much to the person who caused that to happen--Me!!!!) Robertson basically says Skype speak with forked tongue in his post on VoIPWatch earlier this year.

4. The SIP gateway play for business from Skype is designed to work with big SIP based networks. Gee, what is Google Voice if not that.

So lets think about this..400 million users on Skype or so all getting calling paid from Google. Price of calling is already down to almost nothing. Now go to a country where 3 is the carrier buy a Skype Phone, add a pay as you go data plan and receive calls for free that are bridge by Google. Ingenious. Today you can already make calls using Skype Out for now as part of your unlimited plan and pay for it . Or...tomorrow via the Web browser on the mobile phone and Google Voice's directory web page you can initiate a call to the Skype ID and it rings on your phone. At no cost to you or if you are international at really lower than Skype rates from Google Voice. Wild!!!

Now lets go one step further and be really disruptive. Get a Google Android G1 with Google Voice call bridging that will do the same thing as Skype on 3 and make calls using Google Voice minutes provided by Google. In those countries where the calling party pays the value remains with Google. They will work the deals ala Skype and 3 to drive the sale of more data plans (even pay as you go works great on 3 here in the UK). But with a simple app that ties your browser to your Google Voice directory you'll be able to make calls bridged between the outbound legs being made by Google Voice to your Skype ID on the SkypePhone like I do today, or to your Android G1 via whatever client they put on it that acts like VoIP but brings the call in via the cell phone's circuit switched network. With Googles clout and reach that far out weighs eBay and Skype, plus carriers are more willing to work with Google than they are with Skype, the game starts to get very interesting.

Now lets go over to your home or office and go with termination of the calls to a landline, wireline or IP line. Call it what you want to. Google Voice needs to add a SIP destination capability like they have done with Gizmo, and then all of those calls go for free to SIP end points, just as they do to DIDs of the older Circuit Switched nature. Now, if more calls go all SIP the need for DID's may drop off over time, but telephone numbers still remains important because people still call numbers so Google Voice really is the Grand Central Station of the telco world. All this creates incredible value for companies in the middle. Companies in the federation space, peering business and which are 2.0 app friendly all of a sudden become the main gatekeepers to IP voice traffic. Companies like clients VoxBone and xConnect come to mind here, as does IntelePeer and even Neustar. They keep things moving, while Google Voice does the pointing and the on-netting.

But back to Skype. Poor Skype just lost value with this. You see, Skype built a model based on claims of calls between Skype ID's being free. They have regularly claimed to be open. With SIP traffic piped in from Google Voice the lions share of the money goes to Google as Skype becomes nothing but a dumb pipe, and given what difference the amount of acquisition was for GrandCentral vs. Skype, it's clear who rang up the better deal.

So with all this, it's time to see who flinches first. Google or Skype? From where I'm sitting it seems the Three Wise Men of Google Voice (Wesley, Craig and Vincent) now have the big rig rolling along the information super-hiway with a lot of weight in the back (Google ad dollars, pipe, dark fiber, bandwidth, free ad visibility, many happy users) making it time to see what kind of Cirque de Soleil balancing act the new corporate and well manicured team running the show at Skype tries to pursue, now that they've walked blindly into the SIP alley, not at all prepared for a street fight.

P.S. For transparency sake I was a shareholder in GrandCentral. The earn out is now complete so I no longer have a "vested" interest in what they do. I've also sold my eBay stock too.

Randall Stross of the New York Times has an excellent analysis and shows some very good reporting around the SMS industry and to what lengths the carriers will go to preserve what they have.

In many ways this makes me think of Twitter and the value it would bring to a mobile operator, much the same way that Plaxo will bring value to Comcast. Loyalty and usage fees from that usage are my first thoughts.

Let's face it. Twitter is sticky. It's addictive. It's messaging. It conforms length wise to SMS very well. Most of all, people are already using various clients on mobile devices already to Twitter back and forth.

I say, some smart mobile operator will bag Twitter in 2009 simply to be in control of it. Heck, maybe even a group of them will buy it up.