European peer-to-peer IPTV network Babelgum launched its public beta. The angle here is full-screen, broadcast quality, personalized TV. TechDigest offers a hands-on review. Bottom line, right now the offerings are minor league.

Nokia is investing in Web video sharing site kyte.tv, joining Swisscom, German media company Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holzbrinck and Skype founder Niklas Zennström’s investment company Atomico Investment Holdings.

The number of websites offering video jumped this year from about 200 to over 300, according to a study by Baton Rouge, LA-based Rider Research, publisher of the digital media newsletter The Online Reporter. Quantity isn’t quality, of course. But where the audience is the quality will follow. Remember TV in the 1940s? There were probably plenty of media people then saying the poor quality pictures would never catch on.

Quick: The Apple iPhone is open to third party applicatiions? If you said “yes and no,” you’re right. Gizmodo thinks allowing third party “Web 2.0″ Apple iPhone applications — in other words, applications running via Safari — doesn’t make the much-hyped device open.

And BTW, now you can chat with AIM and MSN buddies via Gizmodo’s network.

SIP phone maker Snom’s North American visibility is going up with a new distribution agreement with GenTek.

Natural disasters these days tend be followed by a flurry of Satellite IP stories, which inevitably subside shortly after like a storm surge. Asevotech of Tampa, FL is taking aim at the as-yet unproven market potential of satellite IP communications with its Disaster Lease Program (DLP) for SMBs, giving these companies the disaster protection benefit of assured satellite IPO communications backup without the upfront cost. The key, for both customers and Asevotech’s business model, is that you buy it before you need it.

Apple iChat, the “next wave of VoIP?” I’m not sold, but Network World’s Greg Royal is and explains why here.

When you needed special equipment to do it, it was called video conferencing. When you did it on a futuristic gizmo with a handset and a dialpad, it was called video phone calling. Now that IP has made this a distinction without a difference, newly-launched ooVoo is calling it video conversation. Whatever you call it, ooVoo lets you do it for at a price that’s right: free. The service also offers video messaging and a directory that lets people ooVoo you from MySpace pages, websites, and emails. Currently the downloadable beta client is only available for Windows. Release of the Mac version is expected in a few weeks.

Hope on the horizon department: In the U.S. we might see personal broadband soon. DigitalBridge Communications is launching its BridgeMaxx WiMax service, with both fixed and mobile service. The only catch right now: it’s currently available only to 7,000 addresses in Rexberg Idaho. Cudos go to a forward-looking City for promoting the first U.S. commercial WiMax Internet service.

There is no such thing as the perfect mobile phone — and there probably never will be for two reasons.

First, as in all else, what is right for one may not be — and in the cell phone world, probably isn’t — right for another. Second, trying to balance functionality and portability necessitates ideal-busting compromise on the part of mobile phone manufacturers.

I’ll list my off-the-cufff requirements for the cell phone I want to carry permanently, and you’ll see both these limiting reasons come to play:

• GSM and not locked to a single provider;
• Bluetooth, WiFi, 3G, USB connectivity;
• Full QWERTY keyboard;
• Small and light so that the right front pocket of my Levis survive six months;
• A camera that takes real pictures without the grain (this, of course, is a must for parents of small, and therefore unpredictably photogenic, children);
• Full cross-platform syncing capability;
• A full SIP stack that allows VoIP calling over wireless networks.

This phone does not — and never will — exist.

But Nokia is coming close — very close.

I’ve been alternating between two of the ceaselessly innovating Finnish company’s new-generation mobile phone products lately: the E61, which is unfortunately not widely available in North America due to mobile service carrier shortsightedness, and the more recently released (and more readily available) N80 Internet Edition (or N80i, which is different from the N80 that has been available but includes no VoIP support).

Between the two, you have something close to cell phone nirvana. Each individually — though at the top-of-the-mobile-heap — comes up a bit short.

I’ve gone through about a dozen phones in the past three years. Almost all of them are Nokia, in no small measure because my friend Dameon Welch-Abernathy, who works for the company and is an enthusiastic (and knowledgeable) fanboy for the Helsinki home team products, manages to convince me each time I am looking to change.

Of all of them, the E61 and N80 are the best.

I’ve been carrying the E61 around with me since September. It looks just like the E62 offered by Cingular in the U.S., but, unlike Cingular’s brain-dead model, comes with full WiFi and SIP capability built in. The mobile phone industry has been predicting the release of a so-called “Blackberry-killer” for years, and the E61 could be it. It’s sleek, powerful, includes a great keyboard for small thumbs like mine, and, unlike any of RIM’s offerings, includes a SIP stack and is actually relatively dependable as a cell phone (Blackberry’s abysmal cell phone killed the deal for me).

Nokia N61

I used the E61 constantly. I have made and received hundreds of calls through various VoIP channels. including the outstanding Truphone service, and Voxilla’s Communigate Pro and Asterisk telephone servers (relatively easy to set up by consulting Martin Dindos’ excellent “how-to”). For email and instant messaging, there is no better mobile than the E61 on the market.

But . . .

The E61 is just a bit too big in my pocket. It’s WiFi range comes up short, too often losing SIP registration (not unlike an on-the-road dead-spot over a cell). The phone has no camera (a feature that, just a couple of years ago, seemed superfluous but has nearly become as indispensable as an ATM card). As a Mac user, the device’s shortcomings in OSX connectivity (no SMS access, for example) are bothersome. And, even more annoying, the phone’s left-side voice recording buttons become engaged at even the slightest pressure, leaving my phone with dozens of recordings “requested” by the fabric of my pants’ pocket.

If you can live without thumb-tip QWERTY (increasingly hard for me to do), the N80 is a significant improvement.

It’s a bit thicker than many of the less-capable mobiles available, but fits comfortably in my jeans. It’s easy-to-use 3-megapixel camera fits my non-pro needs well. It doesn’t come with oddly placed buttons that mysteriously turn themselves on. And its WiFi range (802.11g. Really!) is outstanding (I’ve yet to lose registration through my home router once, even in the downstairs hillside dungeon that serves as home-office).

Nokia N80

Martin’s instructions for the Nokia E-series and asterisk apply to the N80 as well, and, though definitely cumbersome without the aid of a full keyboard like the E61’s, establishing connectivity is manageable.

Signing up with Truphone (currently in beta) could not be easier: send an SMS with the word “TRU”, wait a second for a reply SMS containing a clickable installation URL. You’re done. The phone also comes pre-installed with an applet that similarly facilitates registration with Gizmo Project’s SIP service.

Dreaming is easy and I’ve come up with two improvements for both the E61 and N80:

• These are both WiFi phones, so, when on a network, you would think you can easily manage settings over a web browser, right? No. Adding a small web server to the phones would allow it, and save countless people countless configuration hours. Ideally, one would establish a WiFi connection via the phones’ keypad and all other settings would be configurable on the browser (much like a VoIP telephone device is configured).
• Give us more universal peripheral connectivity. Nokia’s monstrous “pop-port” connector makes it very difficult to use, for example, a headset other than one manufactured by Nokia. This is a serious limitation because the lesser-quality stereo ear-plug/mic combo that comes with the phone is uncomfortable and makes for difficult conversations. How hard is it to include a standard 3.5 mm headset jack? Please do so.

But these are just nits. The more important matter here is that, finally, at least one cell phone manufacturer is coming to grips with the fact that the future of communications blends the mobile and the IP worlds. For the most part, Nokia is getting it right. And it’s probably only a matter of time before the other manufacturers — and even intransigents like Cingular and Verizon — are forced to jump in.

Martin Dindos has just filed a comprehensive “How-To” on connecting the new Nokia E-series phones (at least those with Wi-Fi capability) to Asterisk.

Before publishing it, I had a chance to follow Martin’s step-by-step instructions (I did edit the Asterisk files directly as our installation pre-dates the release of the whizzy-wigged Trixbox by a few years).

My verdict: Pairing the new Nokia “fusion” phones (the E61 in my case, this will not work with the brain-dead Wi-Fi-less imitation E62 Cingular is hawking) with Asterisk is unbelievably useful.

First, on the phone, I configured the four Wi-Fi hot-spots I am most often within reach of: office, home and my two favorite SF coffee houses (definitely not Starbucks) where I sit with the Mac and fuel the brain with espressos.

Then, I made a few minor changes to sip.conf and extensions.conf on the Asterisk end (these are detailed in Martin’s story).

Done.

Now, when I step into any of my four haunts, all calls to me arrive on the IP side of the cell phone, and all calls out are pure-VoIP. If I’m in the car, calls in and out go over the cell side.

One phone. One phone number. Find me anywhere.

Mobile cell/IP convergence has most definitely arrived. Still missing though is seamless call hand-over between Cingular’s cells and Asterisk. In other words, if I leave the java joint while on the phone, the call will still disconnect when I get in the car.

I imagine that we’ll be able to traverse the two services soon. Cingular will fight it, of course, in a futile effort to keep every last cellular penny. Eventually — and thankfully — technology trumps the dollar, and the mobile players will have to join in on the fun.

Truphone company founder Ed Guy is one of his company’s best customers. “I’m a multiple device person. My cell phone doesn’t work in my house. So when I’d only need one device I’d have to carry two.”

Now he only carries one, thanks to UK-based Truphone’s long-awaited “mobile VoIP” for the Nokia N80, which was launched today. Currently the service is only available for Cingular and T-Mobile customers because Nokia doesn’t deliver WiFi-enabled phones for the other services.

Truphone’s “secret sauce” is simplicity.

You download the software by sending an SMS with the letters ‘TRU’ to a specified number. The phone is provisioned automatically and uses your existing address book.

There’s no sign-up charge or monthly fees. You only pay for calls outside the Truphone network. All you have to do is start making calls — no special numbers or key sequences. “It’s the type of thing your grandmother could use,” explains Guy.

When you dial a call Truphone first tries to route the call over the Internet. If that doesn’t work, the call is sent over the GSM cell phone network. There is reconfiguration that has to be done when you move between WiFi hotspots. But this job is still a one-key operation.

The obvious application for Truphone is cutting airtime charges, which add up very quickly for overseas calls. For example, GSM calls from the US to the UK are $0.34 per minute while the same call placed over the Truphone IP network is $0.024 a minute — less than a tenth the cost.

And there are other handy applications as well.

If you live in a place with poor cell coverage (like Ed Guy’s house in rural New Jersey) you don’t need another handset to make calls using your WiFi network. Another use is during a power outage. If you can find an operational hotspot, you can still make calls.

Now, some are saying that Truphone offers “seamless handoff” between cell and WiFi networks. That’s not quite true.

Yes, you don’t have to do anything but dial calls. But once the call is placed over one network it’s not going to move between the cell network and the WiFi network the way calls move from one area of cell coverage to another.

“We do have the technology for roaming between GSM and WiFi,” explains Guy, “but it hasn’t been deployed.” High battery power consumption is the issue, Guy says, and the company is working on a hand-off method that won’t interfere with battery life.

Truphone hopes to bring its dual-mode calling to more phones in the coming year, although Guy won’t commit to any dates. “We’re seeing a lot of user demand for VoIP-enabled phones,” says Guy. “It should promote the proliferation of hotspots.”