Just noticed that SightSpeed has some basic parental controls. Yeah! See previous post on Kid Safety Online.

Log in to your SightSpeed account,  click Safety > Block Lists.

Looks like you can create a list of blocked users, either by email address or by community. Some onscreen examples would do well here. You then lock these settings by a password (Parental Key). Again, a better description of the type of key…letters, numbers, number of characters, would be useful.

I would also suggest an optional approach that lets parents specify a list of “allowed” contacts (such as friends, grandparents, cousins) and exclude everything else.

Hark ye, SightSpeed Guy…

In Canada that is. We just had our Thanksgiving weekend and thus begins a week of hot turkey sandwiches and leftover root vegetables. Needless to say, I’ve haven’t been blogging, I’ve been eating. 

Although fellow Canadian Alec Saunders sighs about not being able to blog from the dinner table on Sunday because of a Blackberry problem (for heaven’s sake, put that thing away and pass the pumpkin pie), I’m reminded that Turkey Day or no, the VoIP world marches bravely on.

What caught my eye? Reviews of Sony Mylo and the AMD Live Communicator powered by SightSpeed. In my world, I’m anxiously awaiting the arrival of my PhoneGnome.

Alec Saunders has a post today on keeping kids safe on the Internet. A new product called IMSafer allows parents to monitor unsafe or suspicious online messaging while still protecting kids’ privacy. Bravo! See http://www.imsafer.com/.

The subject of kid safety online brings me to Skype and their talk-to-a-stranger-anytime feature called Skype Me. Skype Me essentially disables your privacy settings so that anyone on Skype can call you or invite you to chat. I’ve only turned this feature on once to see what would happen. Yikes. No thanks. Frankly,  I think it’s creepy. And after I disabled it, I went looking for the parental control command that would allow me to block this feature from being used. There doesn’t seem to be one.

Now I believe that parents have the responsiblity to supervise their children’s Internet time. It’s not the job of a corporation. However, Skype should consider building in kid safe features. For parents like me, it will make the difference if or where their product is installed in the home. 

“Sahweet” as my son would say. For once I had no trouble with the setup of the Nokia N800 internet tablet. I’m hooked up using Wi-fi and was able to make calls right away using Google Talk. I haven’t yet hooked up via bluetooth to my phone, but that’s next. As you can see, the screen is a great size and remarkably crisp and clear. Another neat feature is the full screen finger keypad, which I found somewhat bizarre at first, but I think there’s a bit of a knack to it. A little more practice and I’ll be a pro in no time.

There’s so many great features to explore on this device, like web cam, media player, internet radio, email and text messaging, internet calling with video. I’m trying to be systematic but it’s hard! The design is sleek, fits great in your hand, and the snap out desktop stand doubles as a hand grip. I checked on Amazon and the N800 can be had for around $379.

I’ve been playing catchup a little this week so I’m reading the flurry of posts that started with SightSpeed’s Peter Csathy on Video as the Next Big Thing in Social Networking. Luca Filigheddu and Ken Camp had some interesting things to say. However, PhoneBoy really put it together for me.

First, he says that until video is literally built in everywhere, like right in my laptop or as part of a web site, the masses on the whole may not bother. I see this already in my efforts to get friends and family to join SightSpeed. After all, it’s free, it works, and it’s easy. What’s the holdup? Seems that my friends are either a little suspicious of something FREE off the Internet (what’s the catch) or they simply don’t have a webcam. Why can’t they could just rush down to Staples immediately and spend $40 on a web cam and some gel pens? Not everyone’s a Staples geek like me. If the technology isn’t right there staring them in the face, it’s not a priority.

Phoneboy goes on to say that even if technology catches up and “the ability to do video is as ubiquitous as a mobile phone”, people may still not use it to interact on the Internet. It depends on what you have to say and how you want to say it. For example, I can convince my parents to use SightSpeed because they see huge value in the ability to see and talk to their kids in other cities. My friends are lukewarm on the idea of video calling me just to chat because it seems unnecessary (and they can’t do dishes or look for car keys at the same time).

That said, I’m still trying to get friends, family and colleagues into my SightSpeed network. I may have to resort to webcams as Christmas presents. Because SightSpeed has a great feature that lets you email video messages, I’m just gonna video mail them until a) they tell me to stop, or b) give in and try it.

Reprinted with permission from: www.quickstartvoip.com

When shopping around for a VOIP phone, no doubt you’ll come across buzzwords like: softphone, SIP phone, IP phone, and Internet phone.

Do all these terms mean the same thing, or is there a difference? Let’s take a look.

VOIP phone or Broadband phone: A handset used to make VOIP calls. A VOIP phone has an Ethernet port (RJ-45) instead of regular phone jack (RJ-12), and they connect directly to a broadband Internet modem. A VOIP phone does not require a computer or softphone application to make or receive calls. A high speed Internet connection and subscription to VOIP phone service is all that is required. A SIP phone is a type of VOIP phone.

SIP Phone: A VOIP handset that complies with the SIP standard for voice over IP. SIP is the latest open standard, succeeding H323 standards. Bottom line, SIP compatibility is good. Phones that compete with SIP use proprietary signaling protocols for voice over IP. SIP softphones are VOIP software applications that comply with SIP standards.

IP phone: An umbrella term but used to mean any phone that can be used on an IP network (like the Internet). An IP phone may comply with either proprietary or open standards for voice signaling. An IP phone doesn’t have a RJ-12 connector like regular phones.

Internet phone: This term is used pretty loosely and depending on the context can mean the same as IP phone.

Softphone: A software application that lets you make calls over the Internet using the mouse or keyboard to dial phone numbers. To use a softphone, your computer must have an sound card, plus a speakers or headset, and a microphone. A USB phone can take the place of headset and microphone. Softphones are often free to download. Free VOIP software such as Skype and Free World Dialup are two popular choices.

USB phone: A handset that connects to the USB port on your computer. It is used for convenience when dialing from your computer, but it requires that a softphone application be installed first. Instead of using the softphone with a headset or microphone, the USB phone looks and acts like a regular phone and keypad. USB phones require driver software to be installed on the computer.

WiFi phone or WLAN phone: A handset used for making wireless VOIP calls. It has a  built-in WiFi transceiver unit instead of an Ethernet port. When you talk over WiFi, the phone connects wirelessly to a WiFi base station and from there to the Internet and a remote VoIP server. A computer or softphone is not required to make and receive VoIP phone calls. All that is required is access to a WiFi base station. Many cell phone companies are developing handsets with WiFi capability. This means you can make calls on the regular cell phone network and make VOIP calls on a local WiFi network (called a WiFi hotspot).

Skype phone: A handset that is much like a USB phone, except that the softphone application used to make the calls is Skype. A Skype phone can only make calls using the proprietary Skype phone software running on your computer. Linksys recently announced the release of its CIT200 wireless Skype handset which makes using Skype convenient from anywhere in the home.

Web phone: A marketing term that has been used to mean many things, both softphone and IP phone-related.

Net phone: Same as IP phone

Computer phone: See softphone, PC phone or USB phone.

PC phone: See computer phone, softphone or USB phone.