Google is rolling out video and voice capabilities for the chat function that is embedded in the Gmail interface. It's a bare-bones voice and video-conferencing service, but it's simple to install and use and is a very good addition to Gmail.
In Other News
Google has added new video and audio conversion tools to its free email service " Gmail " in an effort to eat into some of Microsoft and Yahoo's market share.
Tens of millions of people rely on Gmail, and some even pay for the "premier" edition through Google Apps for Enterprises (which boasts one million businesses as customers). So when some enterprise customers had to suffer through a Gmail outage two weeks ago that lasted 30 hours, it made some headlines. As did the bigger Gmail outage last August that affected all users for about two hours.
In these tough times there are plenty of bargains to be had for companies with liquid reserves and Logitech is taking full advantage, paying $30 million in cash for video conferencing startup SightSpeed. The company doesn't have nearly the name recognition of, say, Skype, but its software has been highly praised and sits at the core of Dell's Video Chat application.
APEX Voice Communications has announced the availability of a Dynamic Video Generator (DVG) for its OmniVox3D Service Delivery Platform (SDP).
Vodafone Essar, a cellular service provider, has launched Voice SMS service in several cities in India. The new service will help Vodafone customer to send voice SMS messages to a mobile subscriber, anywhere in India, for a fixed price of $0.01 Per minute.
