[asterisk-users] Nomination for Coolest App in 2007
Mine goes to chan_bluetooth. Somewhat of a pain getting it going but I am totally floored with how cool it is! Thanks, Steve Totaro ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] Nomination for Coolest App in 2007
On Tue, Mar 06, 2007 at 11:14:15PM -0500, Steve Totaro wrote: > Mine goes to chan_bluetooth. Somewhat of a pain getting it going but I > am totally floored with how cool it is! > > Thanks, > Steve Totaro > ___ > --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- > > asterisk-users mailing list > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users My, that is a cool app. I look forward to running it when it's a bit more stable. While the outgoing call ability seems of limited use since cell call quality is not that exciting to even unlimited night and weekend minuets are probably not too attractive compared to 1 cent/minute SIP terminations, there are a number of interesting possibilities: a) If your target has an unlimited calls to other customers/family/etc. plan, you would want to call them this way to save minutes. b) Handy on some carriers for checking cell voice mail. (I have found that with many US carriers, however, you can call your cell phone with CID set to your cell number, and it goes directly to voice mail Make sure you have a password!) c) Incoming calls, obviously handy. d) During daytime, program to receive incoming calls and say, "I am at my desk. Please call me at xxx- or press 1 to have me call you back at " so you get better quality and don't bill cell minutes. In the evening, assuming unlimited weekends, you might forward directly. Can it send and receive SMS via bluetooth too? I also like a lot the talk of coming softphones with bluetooth headset support. This would allow you to use your bluetooth headset as an extension on your Asterisk pbx. I happen to have a bluetooth headset that plugs into my hard phone -- I wish more hardphones supported them natively -- and that's handy. This could be just as good. To really get it right you would want some speech recognition so you could place calls from the bluetooth headset by saying names and digits, as many cell phones can already do. Of course, a linux softphone could reside right on the asterisk box. You could multi-dial your bluetooth headset and your hard phones and answer where you like. ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
RE: [asterisk-users] Nomination for Coolest App in 2007
> -Original Message- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:asterisk-users- > [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brad Templeton > Sent: Monday, March 12, 2007 8:29 PM > To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion > Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Nomination for Coolest App in 2007 > > On Tue, Mar 06, 2007 at 11:14:15PM -0500, Steve Totaro wrote: > > Mine goes to chan_bluetooth. Somewhat of a pain getting it going but I > > am totally floored with how cool it is! > > > > Thanks, > > Steve Totaro > > ___ > > --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- > > > > asterisk-users mailing list > > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users > > My, that is a cool app. I look forward to running it when it's a bit more > stable. While the outgoing call ability seems of limited use since > cell call quality is not that exciting to even unlimited night and > weekend minuets are probably not too attractive compared to 1 cent/minute > SIP terminations, there are a number of interesting possibilities: > > a) If your target has an unlimited calls to other > customers/family/etc. > plan, you would want to call them this way to save minutes. > b) Handy on some carriers for checking cell voice mail. (I have > found that with many US carriers, however, you can call > your cell phone with CID set to your cell number, and it goes > directly to voice mail Make sure you have a password!) > c) Incoming calls, obviously handy. > d) During daytime, program to receive incoming calls and say, > "I am at my desk. Please call me at xxx- or press 1 to > have me call you back at " so you get > better quality and don't bill cell minutes. In the evening, > assuming unlimited weekends, you might forward directly. > > Can it send and receive SMS via bluetooth too? > > > I also like a lot the talk of coming softphones with bluetooth > headset support. This would allow you to use your bluetooth > headset as an extension on your Asterisk pbx. I happen to have > a bluetooth headset that plugs into my hard phone -- I wish more > hardphones supported them natively -- and that's handy. This could > be just as good. To really get it right you would want some > speech recognition so you could place calls from the bluetooth > headset by saying names and digits, as many cell phones can already > do. > > Of course, a linux softphone could reside right on the asterisk box. > You could multi-dial your bluetooth headset and your hard phones and > answer where you like. I was part of an onsite USAID project to evaluate and help rebuild the infrastructure in war torn West Africa (Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea). A great experience to truly realize what down and out is, but more importantly, see what real hope and the excitement that a new democracy is. Interestingly, when war broke out in these areas, land lines were cut. Probably partially to prevent communication but I was told it was actually more the locals that used the copper in the lines to make pots and pans. Everything was prepaid cellular. GSM gateways were the only way to connect a PBX and they were quite expensive. With this app, a smaller NGO with not little funding could setup a nice PBX a few cell phones doing triple duty as extensions, FXO ports, and an SMS gateway. Everything is pre-paid there since there is no such thing as credit. Another interesting (from an American's perspective anyways) is that inbound calls on cell phones are free. Even if you buy a SIM with a little pre-paid time and use up the time, you can still receive inbound calls for free for a couple months. Thanks, Steve Totaro http://www.asteriskhelpdesk.com KB3OPB ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] Nomination for Coolest App in 2007
On Wed, Mar 14, 2007 at 09:37:45AM -0500, Steve Totaro wrote: > > Another interesting (from an American's perspective anyways) is that > inbound calls on cell phones are free. Even if you buy a SIM with a > little pre-paid time and use up the time, you can still receive inbound > calls for free for a couple months. Inbound calls on cell phones outside North America are alas, not free, though people pretend they are free. They are "caller pays for airtime." The only free incoming call systems I have seen are some mobile to mobile free call plans, and a small number of North American mobile plans that, for a flat monthly or daily fee, offer free incoming. The caller-pays system found outside North America is, in my view -- though I know some differ -- one of the last, great curses of old world telephony on our new environment. With my VoIP terminators, I can call most of the world's landline's for a price so low I think of it as free, with one exception -- the damn caller-pays cell phones which cost over an order of mangitude more because the fact that the payer doesn't negotiate the price removes the competition that would normally drive the price down. (And has driven it down in the receiver-pays countries.) However, for people in those countries, the bluetooth module does seem like a good idea. Obviously in places with no landlines, but also in places with these bizarre prices, so that if you call one mobile from another mobile, it's cheap, but if you call from a SIP terminator, it's 25 cents/minute. ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Re: [asterisk-users] Nomination for Coolest App in 2007
From: Brad Templeton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 13:37:55 -0700 On Wed, Mar 14, 2007 at 09:37:45AM -0500, Steve Totaro wrote: > > Another interesting (from an American's perspective anyways) is that > inbound calls on cell phones are free. Even if you buy a SIM with a > little pre-paid time and use up the time, you can still receive inbound > calls for free for a couple months. Inbound calls on cell phones outside North America are alas, not free, though people pretend they are free. They are "caller pays for airtime." The only free incoming call systems I have seen are some mobile to mobile free call plans, and a small number of North American mobile plans that, for a flat monthly or daily fee, offer free incoming. Several carriers in Canada offer first-minute incoming free. Quite an interesting concept from consumer's perspective. The caller-pays system found outside North America is, in my view -- though I know some differ -- one of the last, great curses of old world telephony on our new environment. This debate came up in several places and the verdict is not crystal clear. Do you realize that caller-pays system also effectively reduces spam - or at least make it less painful? Especially with SMS, people who carries a mobile phone could easily be targeted by marketers and PAY for it! (I'm starting to see voice telemarketers calling to people's cell phones these days.) Considering per-minute cost in a mobile network is still much higher than that in PSTN, you can't deny advantages of a caller-pays system. Yuan Liu With my VoIP terminators, I can call most of the world's landline's for a price so low I think of it as free, with one exception -- the damn caller-pays cell phones which cost over an order of mangitude more because the fact that the payer doesn't negotiate the price removes the competition that would normally drive the price down. (And has driven it down in the receiver-pays countries.) However, for people in those countries, the bluetooth module does seem like a good idea. Obviously in places with no landlines, but also in places with these bizarre prices, so that if you call one mobile from another mobile, it's cheap, but if you call from a SIP terminator, it's 25 cents/minute. ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
Bluetooth Re: [asterisk-users] Nomination for Coolest App in 2007
Another idea that has just come to me regarding bluetooth and a PBX is like this. Many people would like to use headsets with their IP phones. Some support wired headsets, but bluetooth headsets can be a good choice for a headset -- no wires, many people often have one, and there is a rich competitive market that makes them cheaper than many of the headset products available.There are a few hardphones that will take a bluetooth headset -- this seems to me like an obvious idea that's not very expensive to implement -- and I have a plantronics bluetooth base station for use with any phone that works on my Cisco 7960 and other phones with a headset jack. But it's expensive, and in the latter case, goes digital-analog-digital. So with a bluetooth channel that can talk to a bluetooth headset, you could have Asterisk itself give you your bluetooth headset on your desk phone.To do this, you would: a) Send calls to your desk phone to both the phone and headset. You can answer on either. See caller id on phone. b) Tranfer calls from desk phone to bluetooth headset. (Unfortunately requires the cumbersome transfer function of many phones.) c) Better still, have it so if the bluetooth headset opens a connection, and the "paired" desk phone is in a call or has a call on hold, auto-grab that call and put it on the headset. d) If the BT headset hangs up, instead of a normal hangup, consider that a transfer back to the desk phone, which will ring, and can then take over the call for any phone functions (real transfers, etc.) If you really meant to hang up, it does mean you have to answer and immediatly hang up this final call.The user could program if she wants this, and from which modes she wants it. Other than some minor inconveniences of (d), you get something much like the ability to have a bluetooth headset as a handsfree headset for any phone on the system, even analog phones. Unfortunately, you can only have a limited number of BT headsets operating at once from any bluetooth dongle (typically 8, and at that point you also get interference issues.) However, dongles are only $10, so you can have several on one server. If people will be far from the server, you have to do this functionality from remote machines, which might be best done with an IP phone softphone module. In that case, you can have more UI, include a choice on termination. The general idea of a "secondary phone" which, if it connects, automatically grabs any call on the "main phone" is handy. For real phones with dials, you can have this be a magic extension to dial. Bluetooth headsets can't dial and can have it simply happen on connection. ___ --Bandwidth and Colocation provided by Easynews.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
