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The Internet Technology

Toshiba Adds VoIP to PCs 96

Posted by Hemos from the cutting-out-the-telcos dept.
securitas writes "PC World/ IDG reports on the new Toshiba SoftIPT SoftPhone software that turns Windows XP-based computers into VoIP telephones. The software features call answering and forwarding, voice mail retrieval and conference calling and costs $200. Now if only Toshiba managed to come up with a version of the software that runs on 802.11 WiFi handhelds like the e800/e805 ... More details in the press release."
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Toshiba Adds VoIP to PCs More

Toshiba Adds VoIP to PCs

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  • Cheaper to buy a hardware phone! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by CoolRay ( 526069 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @09:29AM (#7827310)
    The hardware-based options are computer-independent AND cost less... so why spend $200 on a sofware license?

    • Re:Cheaper to buy a hardware phone! (Score:5, Insightful)

      by PPGMD ( 679725 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @09:38AM (#7827364) Journal
      Because it will bring inroads of VoIP to the average Toshiba (in this case) computer user. Most users don't seek out Vonage, and the other companies, but if it's pre-installed they might try it and like it.

      Also if they want a cordless one they can purchase a 802.11b access point and a e800 handheld, thus making more money for Toshiba.

    • Just how long before VoiP becomes standardized enough for open source software to be developed ?
      Then cost of a software license becomes irrelevant.

      Hardware based options are too expensive - think Internation Calls.

      • Re:Cheaper to buy a hardware phone! (Score:4, Informative)

        by buffer-overflowed ( 588867 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @10:04AM (#7827493) Journal
        GnuPhone. Sister project to Asterisk [asteriskpbx.com].

        Already here, well, you need some speciality hardware, but it's already here.

        I'll stick with my POTS tho, pls nod thanx. It never has any problems, I've yet to see a VoIP service that can match it on anything other than price in my area.
      • A number of providers let you make SIP to SIP calls for free, regardless of the country being called.

        Now if their 802.11b phone can with ANY access point then it'll make things much more interesting. Talk all you want for free by tapping into any open access point! Heh heh. Not planning on cancelling my cellphone any time soon though ;)

        • VoIP on a PocketPC is a kludge at best for now. Forget about wardriving (warwalking?) with a PDA. The CF and internal WiFi cards are much lower power than laptop PCMCIA cards so you won't have the range you need. Battery life with the WiFi radio running is pretty pitiful too. Not a huge problem with outgoing calls, but forget about leaving it connected in standby to receive calls.

          Still, if you want to try it, there's a few SIP softphones for PocketPC, Xten [xten.com] and SJPhone [sjlabs.com]. Never tried them myself, but they're
    • If anyone cared to look at the specs for the e800/e805, you will see that there is VoIP software included in ROM. Check out their PDF document at Toshiba.

  • consumer market (Score:2, Interesting)

    by kjba ( 679108 )
    It intrigues me that although many people have a high-speed internet connection nowadays, VoIP does not seem to have taken off on that market in any significant way. Any insights on why that is so?

    • Re:consumer market (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Biogenesis ( 670772 )
      Maybe people just dont want to sit at there computers all day long.

    • Re:consumer market (Score:5, Interesting)

      by milgr ( 726027 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @09:47AM (#7827407)
      To get a high speed internet connection at an affordable price, I needed a phone line (I got DSL). I can call anyone in North America without incurring any charges. Why would I want to use VOIP?

      If I were to use VOIP, would I need to leave my computer on? I turn it off when not in use to save electricity and cooling (it generates an inordinate amount of heat).

      Until people can use VOIP to talk to people who are using POTS, I don't think it will catch on.

      • Re:consumer market (Score:4, Informative)

        by dirty ( 13560 ) <dirtymatt.gmail@com> on Monday December 29, 2003 @09:55AM (#7827455)
        As far as leaving your computer on, with an IP phone you don't need to, but they cost anywhere from $70 to $500 per phone. And there are services such as IConnectHere and VoicePulse, which both will give you a real phone number and connect you to non-voip phone numbers. I think with VoicePulse for something like $25 a month you get a real phone number, voicemail, callerID and all of that, and 600 minutes of US calls per month. IMHO that's a pretty good price.

        BTW, I think VoicePulse uses a bunch of Linux boxes running Asterisk to handle the calls.
        • packet8 [packet8.net] has a $20 plan with unlimited calls in US and canada. $20 mer month pluse the cost $75 for the VoIP phone. They have a free (just buy phone) plan that will let you call anyone on the packet8 network. So if you call one person often you could both splurge the cost of the phones and call each other for free.

          I think with several major companier launching plans for VoIP in the last month or so it will begin to catch on faster from here. Several call centers are replacing thier old PBX systems with VoIP

      • Re:consumer market (Score:3, Insightful)

        by twisty7867 ( 542048 )
        I think then that you have pointed out the real flaw: insufficient marketing. Although your argument about DSL requiring a phone line is valid, most broadband users in America use cable modems. Even so you might find that a basic phone circuit + VoIP price is less than you currently pay for your unlimited POTS price. I have VoIP phone service from Vonage [vonage.com]. I have an ordinary 212 phone number, use my ordinary cordless phone to call any other phone number in the world in the usual way. the only difference is

    • Re:consumer market (Score:2, Informative)

      by diersing ( 679767 )
      For me:

      My cell phone has free long distance so often it is more convienent then a computer based solution.

      And, when I tried it a couple years back, the lag was terrible causing a broken conversation. I fully admit that the experience has spoiled me a bit on the idea and in time, I'm sure I'll give it another go. Hopefully, the technology will mature into a usable service for the home user. I want to say my upload speeds (or those of the person I was calling) is the source of the lag but that is pure gue

    • DSL and cable modems are not anywhere near as reliable as regular telephone lines. Unless you're talking to someone in a remote country or on a poor-quality mobile phone, it's rare to have a telephone call drop out or lag. For people that regularly spend less than $30 per month on a phone bill, VoIP presents no savings.
  • The Toshiba Infinia desktops of several years ago (remember the ones that looked like Darth Vader's toilet tank?) came with an impressive-looking telephone voice-mail and speaker phone and caller ID system: all software through the voice modem. It was not VOIP, of course. It looked great on paper, but in practice it was kludgey and unreliable.

    I hope they actually deliver with this proposed VOIP system.
  • Now when you buy a Toshiba PC you'll have to pay additional telephone tax for the computer. That's exactly what I ever wanted.
    THANK YOU !

  • So... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by xie ( 722634 )
    VOIP technology is being considered by some companies that wish to manage only one network for both voice and data communications in order to cut operating costs.
    These companys have to 1st upgrade to systems running XP and they have to be Toshiba brand PC's/laptops and then purchase @ $200 a pop a licence for each peice of software. I could see why they might be waiting to jump on this.

  • what happens (Score:3, Interesting)

    by way2trivial ( 601132 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @09:36AM (#7827354) Homepage Journal
    when I use my sprint pcs unlimited data for 10$ a month
    for voip- no more voice minutes used.

    • Re:what happens (Score:2, Insightful)

      by H8X55 ( 650339 )
      You get away with it for a bit. Then sprint figures out what you (and a few thousand others) are doing, gets rid of that option, and at your next renewal you find out you're sol.
    • Where are you located in order to receive this for this low rate? When I look up a quote on the Sprint PCS website (for Columbus, Ohio) I see starting prices at $40 a month for a limited MB amount per month.

    • Re:what happens (Score:3, Interesting)

      by gl4ss ( 559668 )
      they won't have that option for quite long then.

      unlimited data is just stupid in a device like that(from providers pov).

      there was a company that offered unlimited gprs transfers for like ~40$ per month. didn't last(now all providers around here have some service that's like 17e or so per month with ceiling of 100mbyte after which you pay for per mbyte like regularly, which is quite convinient for irc & etc low traffic / high connection time activity from phone), it ended up costing them too much when
      • AFAIK, T-Mobile offers unlimited GPRS for $30/month if you don't have an existing voice plan or $20/month if you do. Just as soon as my AT&T Wireless contract is up, I'm switching.
    • Tried it. Sounds like shit. Throughput on the PDA is okay, but latency just rips voip a new one. Might be the hardware I'm using though (Treo 300...maybe can't handle the data speeds).

  • So what? (and here's what I WANT) (Score:4, Interesting)

    by extra the woos ( 601736 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @09:39AM (#7827368)
    I'm not trolling, its an honest question. Why does this matter, the article is very short on details (yes, i read it)... I remember using a mic and speakers and free software that all i had to do was plug in his IP, we connected, and chatted...just as I'm seeing this as, only this includes conference calling and can take advantage of some toshiba hardware...

    the article says " It works on both wired and wireless PCs running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP."....

    why wouldn't it work on both wired and wireless pcs? am i missing something?

    Why would someone buy this instead of some hardware only solution or some "phone" that just uses some free protocols over wireless ethernet?

    such features as "conference calling, voice mail retreival" etc...thats not exactly anything new here folks!!!

    I a phone with a built in vid cam/little screen, that opens up and is a headset with the screen/cam about a foot in front of my face, uses WIFI and i can wander around the house with, connects to ALL the popular messaging systems (aim msn yahoo etc) and lets them view my webcam automatically (which happens to be mounted on my headset out a foot or so) and automatically displays there webcam on my screen (which is a 1.5 or 2" lcd about a foot in front of my face as well, mounted on the headset), AND if the user i'm talking to is on chat but doesn't have the capability to hear my voice, I want it to do some decent speech recognition, I want my voice to integrate seemlessly into text and get sent to someone's IM client. Dont tell me the technology isn't there yet, a directional microphone can pick up my voice and NOTHING else, and folks, dorm-mates of mine were using dragon dictate to type papers with FIVE YEARS AGO... Tell me that wouldn't be a killer product?

  • Uhhhh... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Talez ( 468021 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @09:39AM (#7827369)
    Ahead, the makers of Nero, have created an IP phone for the PC. It's called Sippstar [sippstar.com] and you can get a free 2 month demo.

    I was using it to talk to a friend on his Cisco IP phone. Took up a bit of bandwidth (8K/sec in both directions) but the quality was fairly good.
    • Or Windows Messenger, which is SIP.

      Or NetMeeting, which is H.323/Q.931

      Both come with Windows.

      Or how about Gnomemeeting (H.323/Q.931), Kphone (SIP) or Linphone (SIP) for *nix?

      This press release sounds like such a non-event.

      -transiit

  • Or.... (Score:4, Informative)

    by dirty ( 13560 ) <dirtymatt.gmail@com> on Monday December 29, 2003 @09:45AM (#7827395)
    Or you could use X-Lite, Gnophone, SJphone, or Diax. All of which are completely free. Add about $15 / month for IConnectHere or VoicePulse account with a phone number and you're done.

  • Compare to Cisco's SoftPhone (Score:4, Informative)

    by aredubya74 ( 266988 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @09:49AM (#7827419)
    As one might expect, the press release is a bunch of marketing crap, utterly lacking in tech specs. Still, it leaves me wondering how this software will compare to Cisco's Windows-based Softphone [cisco.com]. At my company, we tried it out on our laptops, while also using their hardware 7960G [cisco.com]. The hardware phone was consistently superior, as the SoftPhone took huge resources to run (you could barely run other apps with it up and dialing). I still use the hardware phone from home today, in conjunction with a company-managed IP telephony gateway, calling folks over a VPN as well as calling others nationwide. Call quality is pretty solid, although only after a lot of mystery codec installation by our IT admin. I also use Vonage [vonage.com] at home, and it's clearly better than both Cisco solutions (although it also uses a Cisco ATA 186 [cisco.com] analog-to-VoIP adapter).
    • Heh AC, you were lucky not to be running some of their initial codecs. They came out with a codec for high latency clients (like mine, >50ms RTTs between client on the east coast and gateway on the west coast) about a year ago, and it's been excellent. And we did train up two IT folks on the product, watching it go from working-but-occasionally-crap-sound to working-with-generally-good-sound.

    • Further, Cisco's softphone runs on the iPaq and works just great over 802.11b. If you've got the bucks, I'd say get a Cisco 7960 802.11b hardware phone.

  • "Toshiba Support" is an oxymoron (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jgaynor ( 205453 ) <jon.gaynor@org> on Monday December 29, 2003 @09:50AM (#7827427) Homepage
    Now if only Toshiba managed to come up with a version of the software that runs on 802.11 WiFi handhelds like the e800/e805

    Toshiba does not provide support for it's customers [theregister.co.uk] and even re-negs on advertising promises. Many [earthv.com] people [linuxjournal.com] will no longer be buying [linuxjournal.com] from them - including me, my family and any corporate/educational group that I work for and have purchasing decision power with.
  • Why do we always have to put up with these putdowns at the end of slashdot stories.

    VoIP is cool and it's cool that toshiba have started putting it in PCs. I'm sure if it takes off it'll find its way into more products but if it's not available on your handheld of choice then start coding it....
    • I think a lot of folks are like myself.... I know the basics of the VoIP concept - but I'm still a little fuzzy on just why this technology would be beneficial to the home user at this time?

      As others have pointed out, there are plenty of tools around to allow voice chatting over the net. I guess the idea of having a standard protocol for the purpose is a good thing - but realistically, it doesn't seem like it's offering much value for the end-user just yet.

      The telephone is popular mainly because it's de
      • I use VoIP all the time. I live in the UK and vonage give me a regular Denver phone number which here connects to a regular phone.. so i can make international calls to my collegues and fiancee for free.

        But then again not many people are in my position.

  • My VoIP dream (Score:5, Interesting)

    by swb ( 14022 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @10:10AM (#7827518)
    I can't give up my voice line -- I get DSL on it and my wife would never tolerate it.

    But what I want is:

    A box similar to the Vonage VoIP bridges that you can plug into your IP network and your voice network. It would sit between your POTS phones and the POTS line. Incoming POTS and some VOIP calls would be routed to the phones as usual. But outgoing calls would be routed over VoIP for certain programmable number sequences; either direct dial to other VoIP phones or to other bridges for completion to POTS lines. With the right authentication, incoming VoIP callers would be able to use my POTS line as a gateway to the POTS network.

    With one at work and one at home:

    1) Mirror my work phone at home
    2) Make work calls and make work LD calls using work's LD provider
    3) Make personal VOIP calls to home
    4) Make personal calls on my home line from the road

    With a device at a relative or friend's house, I could theoretically make free LD calls local to their setup and vice versa.

    Does something like this exist? It seems fairly trivial, especially if you make analog call routing pretty basic.

    • Re:My VoIP dream (Score:2, Informative)

      by ptimmons ( 235569 )
      Your dream come true [pulverinnovations.com]?

      NB: I haven't tried one of these devices myself.

      • Re:My VoIP dream (Score:1, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        This in addition to Asterisk on a linux box would probably do what he's asking for (Asterisk for the VOIP part).

    • Re:My VoIP dream (Score:2, Informative)

      by PhiberKut ( 9428 )
      Something like this does exist. See www.asterisk.org
    • A couple of people have mentioned Asterisk, but have not given much in terms of details (I am currently setting up an Asterisk box for my business so I have read far too much).

      Asterisk is a software package (GPL) for Linux (and BSD, although less supported) that provides PBX functionality with decent "call routing" decision making abilities. It is all command-line controlled with text files in "win-ini" format.

      To drive your phone lines, you use a card called an FXO card. * is developed by a company call
      • I guess they don't get the quantity to get the price for the line cards down.

        A basic 4 analog plus 1 S0 internal PABX costs under 300 Euros at the moment. I realise that you can do a lot more with Asterisk (incl. VOIP), but remembering that you need to tie up a PC for it, I would like to see the line cards somewhat cheaper.

        • You might think that the Digium hardware is a bit expensive, but this depends on your reference point. VOIP phones for $400 to $65 each are expensive compared to analog phones at $5.95. And yes you do need a PC, but compared to the other VOIP solutions out there, Asterisk is a great solution at an unheard of price.

          If you need programmable, supported, commercial PBX functions, then you can always run Artisoft. VOIP channels are $200+ each and a loaded system can hit $10K in a heartbeat. They work, but a
          • For me, I'm a home office with a BRI ISDN line ( = 2 channels) coming in with flat-rate ADSL. From this, I drive 6 analog lines on a PABX and two ISDN phones on a single S0 internal bus. The hardware is getting old, and I would like to replace it. IP telephony is still at the stage of a 'nice to have' rather than a necessity and I still can usually save enough with LCR (Least cost routing) as there aren't enough IP telephones out there that I want to communicate with.

            So, what I'm looking for is firstly a


          • Compare the cost of a Cisco VOIP gateway (96 ports), with the cost of a PC equipped with a 4-port PRI interface running asterisk. And people are complaining?
            • So just how much is such a GW from Cisco, $30K.

              In all fairness, you would probably need a healthy system running Asterisk to keep up with 96 simultanious VOIP codecs, but still.

              I personally think that Digium is doing themselves a bit of a disservice by not shipping a hardware-less / VOIP-only config as a stock distribution. This lets you play without any hardware at all, which is what it takes to get up to speed.

  • Ok, so you go to... (Score:3, Informative)

    by Mr. Dop ( 708162 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @10:10AM (#7827522)
    Vonage [vonage.com] and get the soft phone (as many as you want) with all those features and a CISCO 186 [cisco.com] for $14.95 a month.

    If I read this right its jut for the softphone not for the sevice that will make it work on top of that. If all you want is the soft phone, there are plenty of freeware ones available with the same featues. I've used X-Lite [com.com] in the past and found it to not suck.

  • Now if only Toshiba managed to come up with a version of the software that runs on 802.11 WiFi handhelds like the e800/e805 .

    They could call it a "cell phone".
  • I'll stick with skype [skype.com].
  • Computers consume significant power. Leaving a 100 Watt computer running all the time would cost you extra 21c a day electricty bill, about $75/year.

    Electicity cost of leaving computer all day power on [energymenu.com]

    Not that little, compared to say $40/month vonage bill.

  • Why is this press release/empty marketing on /. ? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by petree ( 16551 ) on Monday December 29, 2003 @11:22AM (#7827984) Journal
    Two and a half years ago I played with the Cisco version of this product. Just as previous comment [slashdot.org] spoke about, this is not news, it offers nothing special. In fact, theCisco SoftPhone [slashdot.org] is not only a standalone IP phone, but it can also be used to control the 7960 [cisco.com], 7940 [cisco.com] or 7910 [cisco.com]. Although that was marginally useful, the java app (I can't remember the product name) that let our receptionists use their computers to monitors lines and transfer calls was really cool. Just open up your browser, login and then enter the extension of your phone. Bang instant operator. Once they got into it (3-4 days) they were handling twice the load they were before...it rocked. Softphone was more of a novelty than anything else though. People seem to like the idea, but either a real IP phone (even a barebones one like the 7910) or even the Cisco ATA 186 [cisco.com] analog to ip phone adapter is was more useful than a softphone for most people. And if you want to be untethered, check out the Symbol NetVision [symbol.com] phone. (Note, it came out two years ago!)

    This is all old news. And by the way, no I don't work for cisco, nor do I work at a company that uses IP telephony now.
  • It already supports VoIP. Toshiba includes software in them, the only problem is you need a separate service subscription.
  • Toshiba E800 uses PocketGPhone as SIP phone [geekzone.co.nz]

    "It's now revealed that Toshiba is bundling VLI PocketGphone Wireless VoIP Software with these PDAs. Combined with VLI's service GphoneOnline.com, the Toshiba e800/805 becomes a device that can make calls from public hotspots and Wi-Fi environments worldwide.

    VLI is announced the bundling of their Gphone Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony software with Toshiba's e800/805 Series Pocket PC handhelds. Gphone adds the ability to place phone calls over IEEE
  • This is nuts! Xten.com has been building award winning telephony software for Windows, MACs and even CE for several months. The features surpass this Toshiba softphone, it's open standards-based AND it's FREE! Where's the beef?

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