The SMB Tech Report

Panasonic Enters SMB Telephone Service Market with Cloud Business Phone System

Panasonic has entered the cloud service marketplace with the Panasonic Cloud Business Phone System. The company says benefits of the system include a low monthly rate, month-to-month service with the no contract option, a business-ready service easy to install and expand, and 24/7 live customer service. The base service, designed for companies with fewer than 10 employees, is available online and at major business retailers. more

LogMeIn Updates iOS App

LogMeIn has updated its iPad and iPhone apps for its free screen-sharing service join.me. The update includes a new VoIP option so users can participate during online meetings or screen-sharing sessions. more

Unified Communications Offers Free Comparison Guide for Eight Leading VoIP Providers

Unified Communications is offering a free comparison guide covering the technology strategies of eight leading vendors based on 26 of their flagship product features. The guide covers cost-saving and revenue-generating features of the Unified Communications platform, which unites e-mail, voice, data, chat, and Web sharing on one platform. The report also compares on-premise versus SaaS communications approaches. more

Paltalk Releases Paltalk 10.0

Paltalk has released the latest version of its real-time, video-based chat community. The new version of the Internet-based video chat system includes virtual gifts, YouTube functionality with PalTube, and an enhanced user interface. more

FedEx Office Offers Self-Service Printing from BlackBerry Phones and USB Flash Drives

FedEx Office (formerly FedEx Kinko’s) has announced self-service printing from BlackBerry smartphones and USB flash drives. Dubbed FedExOffice Print & Go, the service is available at the company’s retail locations and is based on the HP ePrint mobile printing application. more

PalTalk Offers Mobile VoIP App for iPhone

The PalTalk real-time, video-based community has released its Vumber Mobile application that allows users to place VoIP calls through WiFi on their iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. The service allows users to separate business from personal calls from a single device and to call anywhere in the world for only $9.95 per month. App users will need to maintain a carrier plan, but can limit the number of minutes on their plan to save money. An app for Android phones and tablets will be available the the end of the first quarter. more

ZTE Peel Lets Sprint Customers Call and Text Using the iPod Touch

ZTE Peel from Sprint is a sleeve for the second-and third-generation iPod Touch that connects it to Sprint’s 3G WiFi network. The sleeve gives the Touch the ability to use Sprint's 3G with Line2’s service, which replicates the iPhone features, including conferencing, call waiting, visual voicemail, and carrier-grade SMS texting. The service costs $29.99/month for the PEEL plus $9.95/month for Line2. more

No Fax Machine? No Problem. Send a Fax for Free.

Fax machines do not cost much these days, and they can be handy if you have lots of pages to send or receive. But, if your machine dies an untimely death, you do not need to buy another one or pay money for an online fax service to send faxes. Take a look at some of the online services, but check carefully before you use them for any gotchas. For example, some of the services are free, but the company inserts ads in your fax. Here are three sites you can use to send faxes for free:

• http://faxzero.com/
• http://www.freefax.com/
• http://www.gotfreefax.com/

Virtual PBX Announces Free Conferencing

Virtual PBX has announced the inclusion of free audio conferencing into all its service plans. The on-demand system includes real-time monitoring and flexible security. more

Skype Offers Lower Cost Calls to Landline and Mobile Phones Worldwide

Skype is offering new subscription plans to provide savings of as much as 60% on calls to landline and mobile phones in 170 countries compared to Skype's standard pay-as-you-go rates. The packages offer subscription plans ranging from 60-minute to unlimited amounts per month in one-month, three-month, and twelve-month periods. The subscriptions start at about $1.09 per month and offer effective rates as low as one cent per minute for calls worldwide. more

Microsoft Debuts Communicator Mobile for Nokia

Microsoft Corp. and Nokia have introduced the first fruit of their alliance in mobile productivity, Microsoft Communicator Mobile for Nokia devices. This unified communications client connects directly with a company's communications systems to streamline mobile collaborations. Users of Symbian-based Nokia E-series smartphones can download the English version from Nokia's Ovi Store. more

my1voice Announces Partnership with ChamberofCommerce.com

my1voice, a provider of virtual PBX and related communications services to small businesses and particular mobile professionals, has announced a partnership with ChamberofCommerce.com and its 1 million business users. The partnership will provide information and make it easier for Chamber members to access my1voice service offerings. more

CounterPath Announces Network-Based Mobile PBX

CounterPath Corp. has announced NomadicPBX, a converged mobile and broadband session initiation protocol voice, messaging, and presence services. more

Verizon Offers Bundled Service Discounts for Small Businesses

Verizon has announce a new selection of bundled voice, Internet, and TV services built around its FiOS and high speed Internet services for small businesses and consumers. more

Broadcore Adds Call Recorder to Virtual Unified Communications Service

Unified communications provider Broadcore has introduced Broadcore Call Recorder, a hosted call recording solution that integrates into Broadcore's existing services. The recorder is tailored for business uses such as customer service training and compliance, with unlimited storage and retrieval of call information. more

Harris Study Shows Users Want More from E-Mail

A Harris Research poll of 1,000 U.S. business e-mail and social networking end-users found that what people want from their e-mail is changing. The study found while business use of social networking sites is increasing, e-mail is the most commonly used collaboration tool in businesses in part because it is easy to access and makes easy to communicate with groups of people, with fellow employees and with business partners outside the enterprise. Respondents complained about too many irrelevant e-mails, lack of ability to collaborate in real time, no organizational structure in in-boxes, and very limited storage. more

Vonage Offers VoIP on Android over T-Mobile and AT&T

Vonage Holdings Corp. has announced expansion of Vonage Mobile to Android smartphones running on the AT&T and T-Mobile cellular systems. The Android application can be downloaded from www.vonage.com. Vonage already has applications available for iPhone, iPod Touch and Blackberry devices. more

Social Sentry Saas Service Monitors Employee Use of Social Networks

Teneros Inc. has announced Social Sentry, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) service that monitors employee public activity on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It is designed to manage corporate risks related to compliance, leakage of sensitive information, human resource issues, legal exposure, and brand damage. more

Virtual Systems Aptela Offers TalkScribe Free Trial

Virtual PBX service provider Aptela is offering a 14-day free trial to the TalkScribe voice mail transcription service to its subscribers. TalkScribe allows users to read their voicemails and manage them as documents with attached .wav or .mp3 files. more

SMBs Looking for Disaster Recovery

A new survey of more than 10,000 small-to-medium size businesses shows large numbers concerned about continuity planning and disaster recovery for voice communications. The survey, conducted by virtual PBX provider VoiceNation, showed while 100% of respondents agreed on the need for an emergency plan to cover the sudden loss of their voice communications platform, only 38% of actually had a continuity plan. more