VoIP Hardware

• Digium to Release Its Own Brand of Asterisk-Friendly VoIP Phones

  Digium, Inc., has announced a trio of IP phones designed to interface directly with the company’s highly successful Asterisk open-source PBX and its graphical Switchvox PBX front-end. The phones, each capable of high-quality “HD voice” using the G.722 wideband speech codec, will provide virtual plug-and-play connectivity to Asterisk and Switchvox installations, automating typically tricky device [...]

• The Voxies: The Best in VoIP in 2011

  It seems hard to believe that only a couple of years ago, some industry insiders were debating whether VoIP was dead.

  In some ways, the pessimists had a point: There hadn’t been anything exciting introduced to IP calling for a long while. Sure, there were new ways to make VoIP calls using the iPhone and other mobile devices. But for the most part, VoIP in 2010 was pretty much what it had been in 2004.

  The industry came back to life in a big way in 2011. Newly introduced hardware set lofty new standards in analog telephone devices and IP phones. Talented engineers broke free of the restrictive reigns imposed by industry giants, forming smaller companies eager to generate rapid innovation. Others have returned to the companies they founded to resuscitate them. New and updated software and services helped speed innovation along.

  It’s been a good year for VoIP, and there’s much to celebrate. So Voxilla has introduced its first ever Voxie awards to recognize the products and people who disrupt moribund industries by building better, more accessible, technology. If, in a small way, our recognition fosters future innovation, we will have met our goal.

  So here are the Voxies, celebrating the best in VoIP in 2011:

• OBi VoIP Devices to Master Small Business Phone Systems at Very Low Cost

  Obihai Technology, makers of the popular OBi line of VoIP telephone adaptors, will soon offer a managed service that extends the capabilities of a low-cost OBi100 or OBi110 analog telephone adaptor to provide powerful office phone system functionality to small businesses. The service, called OBiPlus, has entered the “latter stages of beta testing”, according to [...]

• OBi100 Zooms to #1, Now at $44; OBi110 now $50

  Obihai Technology has hit it big with it’s tiny OBi100 VoIP adapter. Introduced two weeks ago through Amazon.com, the device has moved into the #1 selling slot for VoIP adapters at the online retailer, passing strong selling devices by Cisco (PAP2), Grandstream (HandyTone HT286) and the magicJack Phone Device. Obihai has also decided to permanently [...]

• OBi Now Talks to 200 Million Google Users

  Obihai Technology’s OBi110, the $50 analog telephone adaptor released late last year that has become much sought after and hard to find after it added free outgoing and incoming Google Voice call support, has gotten a whole lot more powerful. Firmware version 1.2 for the device, released today and available for free, allows a user [...]

• Smartphone Apps Make Calls Through OBi Devices

  Dozens of mobile applications for smartphones allow you to make calls from a mobile phone through a VoIP service provider. Some iPhone and Android apps can be configured to make calls through your own IP-capable PBX. But, there has been no way of making a smartphone call directly through a typical consumer-level VoIP analog telephone [...]

• How To: OBify Your IP Phone (No Asterisk Involved)

  Do you have an extra line sitting empty on that IP phone on your desk? Here’s an idea for it: Use it to make and receive Google Voice calls by linking it to an OBi110. Setting up an IP phone-OBi connection will also allow you to dial other OBi users directly and easily give the [...]

• OBi110 Back in Stock, But Hurry

  Obihai’s powerful OBi110 VoIP adaptor is back in stock, but it’s anyone’s guess for how long. The $50 adaptor, developed by the engineers behind Cisco’s SPA series of VoIP adaptors, has been flying off the shelves at Amazon and other retailers, largely as the result of a slew of positive write-ups about the device’s ability [...]

• How To: Use Google Voice and OBi for all your calls (free)

  Using Google Voice as a complete replacement (minus 911 calling) for a landline system is easy to do. All you need is an OBi110, a $50 device manufactured by Obihai Technology, and to follow our step-by-step How-to. Until at least 2012, all your calls throughout the US and Canada, and all your incoming calls, will be free.

• Cisco Killer OBi110 Puts Google Voice on Any Phone

  It’s been a long six-year run, but the Cisco SPA3102′s reign as the most powerful consumer VoIP adaptor is over. A new device, the OBi110 by Obihai Technology, selling for less than $50, has stepped in to invigorate the sleepy consumer VoIP hardware space. The device offers virtually all the features that have made the [...]