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HOLMDEL, NJ — Dec 31, `07 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Vonage and Nortel today announced that they have agreed in principle to end the litigation pending between them.

The contemplated settlement involves a limited cross license to three Nortel and three Vonage patents and will not call for any monetary payments by any party.

Claims relating to past damages and the remaining patents will be dismissed without prejudice. The settlement is subject to final documentation. More at Vonage.

Dec 19, `07 — FCC has revealed all the tiny details, except the price and availability (obviously), of Creative Lab’s unannounced video conferencing device - inPerson -

To make a video call / chat you’ll need a wired or wireless Internet connection and account with SlightSpeed (provider of Internet video chat and voice calling) or alike(?)

Key Features
• High video quality (up to VGA resolution and 2 Mbps bit-rate)
• Excellent low light performance
• Wide-angle lens
• Dual Microphones with Acoustic Echo Cancellation and Noise Reduction
• Wi-Fi
• Rechargeable, removable Lithium-ion battery
• Auto Login
• Auto Answer
• Screen Saver
• Speed dial
• Call History
• Contact List

Usage Scenarios
• Built-in dual microphones, and audio output to external speakers (not included) with the bundled RCA cables.
• Built-in dual microphones and internal speaker.
• For privacy: bundled microphone and earphones.
• Viewing on a larger screen: video output to TV with the bundled RCA cables.

Network Connection
• If inPerson is connected to the network using both Ethernet and Wi-Fi, the Ethernet connection will be used.
• Wi-Fi networks requiring a webpage login are not supported.

Specifications
Dimensions (W x D x H) 7.6’’ x 5.9’’ x 1.9’’ (194.3 mm x 150.5 mm x 48 mm)
Image Sensor Color VGA CMOS (5.04 ?m active square pixels)
Lens Precision glass lens, F/2.0
Field of View 76° ultra wide angle
LCD (Color Display) 7’’diagonal (16.7 million colors)
Microphone Built-in hardware AEC with dual microphones
Video Resolution Maximum 640 x 480 (VGA)
Exposure (brightness) Automatic, manual adjustment
White Balance Automatic, manual (Auto, Fluorescent, Incandescent, Outdoors) adjustment
Video Resolution 640 x 480 (VGA), 352 x 288 (CIF), 320 x 240, (QVGA), 176 x 144 (QCIF)
Effective Focal Range 30 cm to infinity
Video Codec Support H.264, H.263, H.263+
Audio Codec Support dvi4, ilbc, G.711, G.723.1a, G.729ab, telephony tone signalling (rfc2833)
Communication Protocol SIP/SDP, RTP/RTCP, STUN, ICE
Network Protocol UDP, TCP, ARP, DHCP, SNTP, ICMP
Ethernet Connection RJ-45
Ethernet Network Interface 10/100 Base-T
Wireless Standards Compliance IEEE 802.11b and IEEE 802.11g
Wireless Security WEP (64-bits), WEP (128-bits), WPA-PAK (TKIP), WPA-PSK (AES)
Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) 0.138 mW/g
Power Source AC power adapter:100 - 240 VAC, 50/60 Hz, 5 V/2.4 A
Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery: 3.7 V/3500 mAH
Power Consumption 6 W (typical), 12 W (maximum)

More at FCC: Creative InPerson Details, External Photos, Internal Photos, User Manual (in PDFs)

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif — Dec 17, `07 — A new telephony startup came out of stealth today, aiming to become “Silicon Valley’s first phone company.” Ribbit, unveiled a new platform for developing telephony services and a new business model for serving the new global telephony market.

The company also unveiled some of the first applications from its partner and 600-plus developer community, including an integration with salesforce.com.

The Ribbit Platform: Liberating Voice from Its Current Confines

At the core of Ribbit’s technology offering is a sophisticated, open platform that enables developers to bridge the worlds of traditional telephony and the Web. The Ribbit SmartSwitch - evolved from a Lucent-tested CLASS 5 softswitch - and open Flash/Flex-based API (application programming interface) enables non-telephony developers to quickly build innovative, rich voice applications and integrate them into web sites, communities and applications.

By connecting voice from any Flash-enabled browser to the PSTN (public switched telephone network) and new VoIP (voice over IP) networks, over 750 million computers become the next generation of phones with developers deciding how they work. With an assortment of back-office and service delivery infrastructure, the platform also enables developers to not only build services, but sell them as well. More at Ribbit.

On Friday, Dec 14, Nortel Networks, the Canadian maker of telecom equipment, filed a lawsuit against Vonage - claiming that it violated nine patents related to Internet phone services and related features such as 911 and 411 calling and ‘Click to Call’.

Vonage was dragged into the legal battle after it acquired three patents from Digital Packet Licensing last year, according to Vonage spokesman Charles Sahner. DPL had filed a suit against Nortel in 2004 alleging violation of those three patents, so Vonage continued with the lawsuit.

“Litigation is ongoing, and both parties have filed - and will continue to file - papers supporting their case,” Sahner said. On the possibility of a settlement, he said: “We always prefer to settle disputes amicably whenever possible.”

In this particular case, Vonage is pursuing the legal action, rather than getting sued. Sahner said Nortel’s countersuit was a defensive move.

In October, Vonage settled the last of its lawsuits with the major U.S. telecom companies. Throughout the year, it had fended off legal actions by Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint Nextel.

Consumer demand for bandwidth could see the internet running out of capacity as early as 2010, a new study warns. US analyst firm Nemertes Research predicted a drastic slowdown as the network struggles to cope with the amount of data being carried on it.

Such gridlock would drastically affect how people use the web and could mean the next Google or YouTube simply doesn’t get off the ground, it said. The report said billions needed to be spent upgrading broadband networks.

It put the figure at around $137bn (£66bn) globally. For users, the slowdown could see a return to the bad old days of dial-up, the report predicts. “It may take more than one attempt to confirm an online purchase or it may take longer to download the latest video from YouTube,” the report cited. But it is the knock-on effect for new services that could be the real problem, report authors think. “The next Amazon, Google or YouTube might not arise, not from a lack of user demand but because of insufficient infrastructure preventing applications and companies emerging,” the report warned.

The demand for bandwidth-intensive applications shows no sign of abating. Nearly 75% of US internet users watched an average of 158 minutes of online video and viewed more than 8.3bn video streams during May, according to research by measurement firm comScore.

The financial invested required to “bridge the gap” between demand and capacity would range from $42bn to $55bn in the US, Nemertes estimates. The report is part-funded by the Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA) which campaigns for universal broadband in the US.

On Nov 15 a U.S. Appeals Court has denied Vonage’s appeal of a patent-infringement loss to Verizon Communications. The court action means the Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) provider Vonage must pay Verizon $117.5 million, rather than $80 million.

Vonage settled the infringement suit on Oct. 25 after Verizon won both a jury verdict and an appeal in the case. The accord left open the amount to be paid until the appeals court decided whether to grant Vonage’s request for reconsideration.

Vonage had asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to review its ruling, or have the full 12-judge court reconsider the Sept. 26 decision in favor of Verizon. That request was denied today in an order posted on the court’s Web site.

“We were not surprised, but disappointed that the court denied our request for a rehearing of the case,” Vonage spokesman Charlie Sahner said. “We are pleased to continue putting litigation behind us.”

Vonage wanted the court to review a decision that upheld most of a March verdict, which found that the company had violated two Verizon patents. The jury from that trial awarded Verizon a 5.5 percent royalty on future income. The amount owed to Verizon had grown to about $88 million when Vonage announced the settlement.

Under the terms of the settlement, the $120 million payment would have been cut to $80 million had the appeals court in Washington agreed to review the decision. Holmdel, New Jersey- based Vonage must pay $117.5 million to Verizon and give $2.5 million to charity.

Vonage has settled with Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T over patent infringement claims.

EBay Inc’s Skype is working with British mobile phone service operator 3 to produce a handset that will allow users in Britain to make free calls on the Internet, a spokesman for the company said on Friday. Reuters further reports, “A spokesman for 3 confirmed that the group was working to make Internet calls mobile but would not confirm any further details or who it was working with. The phone is expected to work in the normal way but to include a Skype function to contact other Skype customers.Skype uses an Internet connection to place a voice call, cutting out the telephony network for which telecoms operators charge by the minute. Skype calls to other broadband-connected Skype users are free. The Skype spokesman did not give any further details but said the phone would be out later this year.”

More at Reuters