Richard Sprague WebLog : phone

Upgrading my Tilt to WM6.1

sprague — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 15:59:32 GMT

Sometimes you upgrade a device because you have to in order to get a bug fix. Sometimes you upgrade because you want to, in order to get some cool new feature. But sometimes, as in the case of my WM6.1 upgrade this weekend, you do it because it just feels good to be running the latest-latest software.

I had been waiting for the Windows Mobile 6.1 upgrade to be available for the AT&T Tilt, but M3's post was the first time I saw that it was actually available. He said it was easy, so I figured on Labor Day Weekend I may as well go for it. He was right. The whole process for me took less than an hour, including reconfiguring my device the way I like it (email accounts, ringtones, bluetooth, etc.).

Now I have a fancy new WM6.1 interface...and what else? Well, it's nice to run the latest software although it doesn't feel like a critical upgrade. I think calling it a dot-one release is the right call. M3 says he gets better battery life, but I'm not sure I notice anything. One thing that's very nice is the new zoom feature on Internet Explorer. There are other intriguing features, like the Remote Desktop Monitor that I can't wait to try. But all-in-all it just feels good to be running the latest software, and it was a very painless upgrade, so I'm happy.

Saved from the bell

sprague — Sat, 17 May 2008 18:07:10 GMT

I love to do interviews about Response Point, but for some reason I keep running into last-minute problems. I am sooo glad Response Point is easy, or I would be in serious trouble. Here's another example:

One morning last week I was getting ready for a phone interview on Let's Talk Computers, the pioneer of tech radio dating back to 1989, when our administrative assistant, Joy Olson, popped into my office to remind me that we would be having a fire drill in about 30 minutes. What!? I said. I have 10 minutes before the phone interview and how's it going to sound if there's a blaring fire alarm in the background?! Not good.

Joy kindly rushed to check all the adjacent buildings to see if I could borrow an office with a phone, but long-story-short, there just weren't any available on such short notice. Normally I like to do these interviews on my Response Point phone system (of course!) but how could I do that in the middle of a fire drill? I could use my cell phone I suppose, but we don't always have good reception around here.

So what did I do? Our PR manager and I rushed to the closest building unaffected by the fire drill, and I set up my laptop with OCS right there in a quiet part of their cafeteria. I did the whole interview over a VOIP line running on our internal, wireless network. Setup of course was super-easy and I had no problem starting the interview right on time.

Alan Ashendorf posted the interview and you can listen to it for yourself on the Lets Talk Computers web site. Can you tell that I'm talking on a phone system that was set up minutes before the call?

Marketing Jobs at Microsoft

sprague — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:02:43 GMT

One of my favorite things about my job is the small, start-up feel to our organization and how I'm able to have the resources of a big company behind me, but with the flexibility and impact of a start-up. If you're interested in a job like that, please contact me, because my group is now hiring.

We have several jobs open, but in my marketing group I'm especially looking for people with an interest and passion for generating demand for a new product. We want to bring a new set of telephony devices to market, and we need people who can think creatively about how to get the word out, through marcom, PR, building new customer- and reseller-led communities, and more.

If you're the right kind of person, you probably either already have an MBA or have thought about getting one, but more importantly, you have ideas for how to turn a well-engineered product into a market success. If you have a background or interest in VOIP, IP PBX, small business telephony, or anything voice and consumer-related, give me a call. Our early reviews have been fantastic, so we know this has potential to be a real hit, and maybe you can help.

China's internet users passing U.S.

sprague — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 04:26:57 GMT

The inevitable is happening, as today's WSJ and TechCrunch observe in the statistics showing China, at 210M users, is close to surpassing the U.S. in total population on the internet. If you don't already read Chinese, maybe this is a good time to set Windows Live Translator as your main page so you can keep track of the mainstream internet world.

I actually don't think this is all that big of a deal. Quantity of users doesn't matter nearly as much as how they access and what they do online. I'm not sure: do those user numbers include mobile phones, for example? Note that overall PC purchases in Japan are declining, as people find ways to get their IP fix elsewhere (mostly through phones).

Speaking of which, how long till some bright Chinese internet site starts publishing some web services that the rest of us will want. There are plenty of interesting APIs you could publish that are not language-dependent. I'm waiting for the day that Chinese web services that I want to consume surpass the U.S. -- I wonder if that will happen in my lifetime?

Is iPhone the worst phone?

sprague — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 04:34:07 GMT

I got in trouble the last time I claimed the iPhone will fail, but now I see Garrett Smith is listing all the reasons the iPhone is the worst phone. I don't completely agree with Garrett -- his complaints about battery life, for example, apply to any phone -- but he's right to bring the hype back down to earth.

This week Apple announced they've sold 4 million of the things (although, mysteriously, a large percentage have never been activated). Product Reviews UK posted an article today titled "iPhone Sales Look Unlikely To Hit 10 Million Target" (maybe they read my original bet from one year ago ? :-)

It's still possible for Apple to turn this around. Add a keyboard, faster networking, ~~upgrade to Windows Mobile,~~ software improvements -- it has the potential for being a great phone.

IMeanwhile, if you really want to see the future of mobile phones, check out MSR's Lucid Touch.

Live Speech

sprague — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 07:41:47 GMT

I've been busy with Response Point the last few months, but my old speech team hasn't stopped working. Today, together with the Windows Live team, they released to the world some very cool ways to search from your mobile phone. Try any of the following:

Browse to http://m.live.com
Download a client (complete with SR) to your Windows Mobile or Blackberry phone: http://wls.live.com
Dial 1-800-CALL-411

One of the cool things about that last one is that it works on any phone, "smart" or not, but you can still text message the results to your mobile phone. For example, I sometimes check a listing from my dumb analog home phone and have the results sent to my mobile as I head out the door.

I've been using all these services for several months now and I don't know how to live without them.

Installing a new phone system

sprague — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 02:09:00 GMT

Though I've been using pre-RTM versions of Response Point for myself in demos and more for the past several months, there's something special about getting the final hardware in all its boxed glory. I just got a shipment of units from our equpment partner Syspine, and you wouldn't believe how quickly I was able to set up a full-blown small business phone system.

I was able to get absolutely everything working, start-to-finish, in less than 10 minutes. Granted, I'm used to doing this, and I have all the right cables in my office, etc. -- but trust me, it's VERY easy. Now I can send and receive calls through an ordinary PSTN line, and if I'm not here you'll get an automated receptionist with speech recognition to direct your call or answer simple questions like my location and more.

This is going to be a fun product to show off!

Lighting up our team blog

sprague — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 04:14:32 GMT

October's going to be a busy month for me, and to kick it off our team made a few announcements this week. As part of the push to final availability of Response Point, we're starting to post more frequently on the Team Blog. If you're interested in more details about small business phone systems, take a look at what we're doing at http://blogs.technet.com/rp.

Bet's still on

sprague — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 06:48:00 GMT

I stand by the bet I made in January that Apple's iPhone won't sell anywhere near the 10M units they're targeting for their first year. You don't cut the price of something that's selling well. One of my friends at T-Mobile, who knows the business extremely well, thinks they'll have a tough time selling 3M in the first year.

Which headset do I use?

sprague — Fri, 18 May 2007 03:07:00 GMT

Marc asked me a question based on my recent post on how I use my headset instead of a phone.

I just read your article about using your headset both as a telephone and speech recognition device. I agree with you, and I think more things will tend to shift this way in the future. It just makes sense.

I'm curious what headset you're using, as I've been looking around myself for a similar item for my home office. I'm pretty fussy about my speech recognition quality, though, so I suppose I am a difficult sale.

I'd appreciate your advice, as I'm sure you have had the opportunity to experiment with more things than I!

Answer: when I have a question about microphones, I ask Marty Markoe at emicrophones.com. They have good descriptions and FAQs about microphones for speech there, and I trust their advice.

Incidentally, on my desk right now I'm using the Plantronics DSP 400.

The devices we're up to

sprague — Tue, 15 May 2007 06:08:00 GMT

If you call my desk at work, this is the phone that will ring:

Just announced today at WinHEC, it's one of a whole line of products from the Unified Communications devices team. It's plugged into my PC's USB jack and that's it. Look closely at the photo and you'll probably ask the obvious question: so how do I dial phone numbers if there's no dial pad?

I know, I know, you want me to reply "with SR", although the fact is that there is no SR built into the phone. Instead, it's designed to work with Office Communications Server (or OCS, which you can now download in beta) so dialing somebody at work is as simple as selecting their name from the address book (and yes, I can do that hands-free using Windows Speech Recognition).

For people like me who already have a nice headset, this unified communications stuff with OCS is even easier than having one of these devices. Most of the time I don't bother using the desktop phone -- I just use my headset. The two are basically identical as far as OCS is concerned. One nice bonus of the headset, though, is that if I carry it with me, I can answer and make phonecalls from whereever I am (home, on the road, at work). The other day I even made a phonecall from my TabletPC's built-in microphone and it worked just fine.

Use one of these things for a while and you'll start to wonder why people bother with a desktop phone at all. In fact, I predict that in a few years most people will just have a headset and the concept of a desktop phone will seem as quaint as one of those old rotary dials.