Google, Jingle and Jabber

As you might have heard by now everywhere. Google in cooperation with Jabber.org released the library Jingle (specs) used by Google Talk. Libjingle extends the XMPP Jabber and make it possible to add multimedia functionalities. It also makes it possible for developpers to connect their client to the Google P2P Jabber framework. For now only the VoIP is possible with the lib but other video and multimedia extaensions are possible and expected.
The library's homepage.

New VoIP IM with video based on theora to be open sourced

FTW:
" :: Technical Specifications:

- audio sampling 8khz (narrowband) or 16khz (wideband Skype-like)
- supported audio codecs: speex, gsm, g711u, g711a
- available audio codecs (upon compilation): amr_nb, amr_wb, ilbc
- supported video codec: theora
- available video codecs (upon compilation): h261, h263, h263+, mpeg4, h264 (requires a gpl build)
- audio bitrate: 28kbps
- video bitrate: 64kbps
- P2P NAT friendly protocol (full non-symmetric NAT support; port prediction when behind symmetrical NAT)
- the basic subsystem works under Windows, Linux and Mac (without video)

Planned developments for the future:
- TCP Tunneling to bypass Firewalls
- End-to-End cryptography
- Re-engineering of the P2P component in Python to allow code portability.

Tipic Voip/audio implementation is based on the following Open Source projects:
- http://iaxclient.sf.net: Basic VOIP stack. Tipic added video, wideband audio and support for echo cancellation.
- http://www.speex.org: Default audio Codec. Tipic sponsored the echo cancellation improvements.
- http://www.theora.org: Default Video Codec.
- http://www.libsdl.org: Video visualizzation in TipicIM."

Sources haven't been released yet as of 15/12/2005.
I'll post again about it when the sources are out there. Still it looks very promissing.

Edit: It is actually released as open source, at least the modified iaxclient library has been released on sourceforge under the LGPL here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/tipicforge.

"Tipic Inc. is proud to announce the born of the first Open Source, P2P, VoIP and Video conferencing solution for XMPP/Jabber. The target of this project is to develop a new portable set of codes using high quality libraries to add VoIP and Video to XMPP"

Why thou shall not use Skype!

(ahora en castellano también e in italiano) Digg this story


This is a blog focused on FOSS so I shouldn't be talking too much about proprietary stuff.
The only problem is not too much that Skype is proprietary (though it is), the real issue is that it uses a closed and proprietary protocol. Now, what does that mean? It means that Skype users are only allowed to communicate with... well, other skype users.

What's the big deal?
Try to apply that concept to real landline phones, say you're a Verizon subscriber and you want to call a friend that is a subscriber to another company that is not Verizon, what would happen? Your friend would need to buy a special phone from Verizon or subscribe to their service to be able to communicate with you. Sounds annoying right?
In the software world, softphones that use open and free standards such as SIP can communicate with one another, this is impossible with Skype.

Who cares? Downloading Skype won't cost me a penny!
You might be right for now but what if Skype gets almost all VoIP users and that all VoIP hardware phones get Skype compatible only. Skype might decide to charge too much for its hardware license and turn its gratis softphone as we know it today into a fee based service!
This is called Vendor lock-in, it is common practice among software companies. It consists of tricking users into using a technology for free and then charge unfair fees for it once it has become a standard because it's costly to move away from a de facto standard see this wikipedia article about that problem (Vendor lock-in is what Microsoft did with its API and Franhofer with MP3).
Most importantly, letting the means of communication in the hands of only one entity is undemocratic especially when this entity uses a secret protocol that can only be controlled by that entity (a profit driven company). Are you OK with losing your freedom and privacy for a bit of commodity from Skype? Is your freedom that cheap?

Who cares? I'll just stop using Skype and start using a gratis alternative!
Well, look at what happened in the office world. OpenOffice and GNU/Linux are free and gratis and yet no one is switching or at least slowly. Why is that? Switching technology in the corporate world is costly especially when it comes to hardware (think of all those Skype-compatible hardware phone your boss invested in...). So using Skype now is like getting addicted to some bad drug, it will be hard and costly to stop using it even if the dealer decides to raise unfair fees on you. Using Skype now is putting your future in the good will of Ebay Inc and Skype Corp.

OK I'm kind of convinced :) How can I avoid that?
Just don't use Skype or stop using it NOW. There are lots of alternatives that use standard protocol such as SIP and AIX. Tell your friends about alternatives. This is a blog focused on Free and Open Source alternatives so I will advise you this alternative.

Hope that post will help you make the switch to the free world of VoIP :)
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Make this story popular on del.icio.us, help free VoIP!

New GStreamer 0.10 released... and a nice VoIP use of it!

"Thread-safety, RTP/VoIP support, automatic registry maintenance, twice the performance, and a whole lot more...the best just got better. A highly flexible, cross-platform, and GUI-independent multimedia framework, GStreamer takes your media, chews it up, and spits it out into aural and visual paradise."

Of course the part that is of interest for this blog is the TRP/VoIP support :) Fluendo and Nokia are using it. There are also a couple of projects that use it. One of the most interesting is tapioca (LGPL). It uses GStreamer, sofia-sip, JRTPlib, libgs and GTK for the UI.

Tapioca is a VoIP framework that make it easy to build application on top of it using different protocols such as SIP or AIX or else. It provides:

1. a SIP daemon
2. a dbus layer
   
3. " A daemon providing the VoIP engine and a client interface that provides access to the VoiP engine services."
4. a plugin interface to use different protocols, only SIP is implemented
5. A GTK test GUI

Check it out...

First Post!

Welcome to my Blog!
This is a blog all about VOIP in the free and open source world.
I will try to bring articles about the latest and coolest stuff available on that field.
If you want to keep track of my blog I advise you to put the XML file in your favorite feed agragator.

Happy reading :)

The only true FOSS Skype replacement

QutePhone is the only true free and open source software that offers all of the Skype features and even more.

Here is a list of all cool features covered by QutePhone:

1. PC-to-PC phone calls, Video and Chat
2. Call-out to phones or mobiles
3. Compatible with any SIP phones
4. NAT and Firewall Transversal
5. Free and open source GPL License
6. Send SMS
7. Uses open standards only
   
8. Multi plateform (Windows,gnu/linux,MacOS,Windows Mobile,BSDs)
   
9. Contact availability
10. Audio smileys
11. more...
    

Get it Now! (The Gnu/Linux version is already part of Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSuse and other distros! :) )