Comunicano

VAPPS ADOPTS NEW BRAND: ‘HIGH-DEFINITION CONFERENCING’

Drops ‘High-Speed Conferencing’ to Better Reflect High-Quality Audioconferences

HOBOKEN, N.J.–May 14, 2008—Vapps, Inc., provider of affordable, flat-rate audioconferencing services with lifelike, in-the-room sound quality, today announced it has adopted High-Definition Conferencing (HD-C) as its new brand to better reflect the crisp, crystal-clear audio fidelity of its audioconferences via Skype™ Internet communications. High-Definition Conferencing replaces Vapps’ previous brand, High-Speed Conferencing, effective immediately.

“We want to let everyone know Vapps is raising the bar on sound quality in audioconferencing because we’re the only conferencing company able to give users a ‘high definition’ audio experience through Skype, while still admitting participants on any kind of phone,” said Vapps CEO Ben Lilienthal. 

“When we speak, our voices produce sound in the 20 Kilohertz (KHz) range and our ears hear 20 KHz, but the copper wiring of traditional telephone networks supports only 3.5 KHz. Our High-Definition Conferencing operates in the 16 KHz range for Skype audioconferencing, a quality difference you can easily hear. At the same time, we conference in traditional telecom users, so that no one is excluded.

“We believe it’s definitely a tool for improved productivity because High-Definition Conferencing participants tell us the clarity they’re experiencing lets them better understand everyone speaking, especially those with foreign accents,” he said. “It stands to reason that people who can hear each other more clearly will work together more efficiently. This is especially important for very large group meetings with more than 100 participants.”

Lilienthal said Vapps has a newly redesigned Website for users to learn about and sign up for High-Definition Conferencing:  www.hidefconferencing.com.

Vapps recently updated its Skype Extra, a plug-in that launches the full feature set of its Web-enabled service from within Skype. Those on Skype may click on the “Do More” menu option to open the HD-C plug-in, which will now appear and operate in Mandarin Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and Polish, in addition to English.

From that interface, they can start meetings on the spot, inviting fellow Skype users by sending automated chat messages. (Should Skype contacts be caught with their headphones unplugged, the chat invite offers a telephone phone number for joining the conference as well.) They can also click on the interface’s “schedule” button, auto-logging into the HD-C site, to schedule meetings of as many as 500 attendees and send e-mail invitations to others, as well as their Skype contacts. 

About Vapps, Inc.

Vapps, Inc., based in Hoboken, N.J., provides managed audioconferencing solutions to the SMB, enterprise and service provider markets using its patent-pending, wide-band audioconferencing technology. Founded in 2003 by Ben Lilienthal and Jerry Norton, Vapps' flagship service is its High-Definition Conferencing (HD-C), the first and only high-definition, flat-rate audioconference offering that can conference together a mixed-participant group of PSTN phone and Skype users.   

For Skype-using participants, HD-C transmits a much richer, more “in-the-room” voice quality than can be achieved with traditional phones, dramatically improving the productivity of team collaboration. Vapps’ fees for an unlimited number of conferences and conference minutes start at a fixed $25 per month for 10 attendees and scale with the number of participants.  For more information, please visit Vapps at http://www.vapps.com.
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MOBIVOX LAUNCHES ITS SERVICE IN MANDARIN CHINESE

Mandarin Speakers at Home and Abroad Can Now Easily Reach Each Other For Free or at Low Cost Per Minute From Any Phone

MONTRÉAL–May 13, 2008—MOBIVOX, the international calling service that connects family, friends, business associates and Skype contacts around the world for free from any phone, announced today the launch of a Mandarin Chinese version of its acclaimed voice user interface and Web site. The newly localized service will bring Mandarin speakers a simple-to-use Web site for initial registration, and an easily understood interactive voice response (IVR) application that recognizes callers and asks for the desired number to reach, all in their native language.   

Mandarin-speaking users in over 40 countries need only call their local MOBIVOX access number to reach the IVR and enter the number they want to call.  They can also enter the name of a registered contact using the phone’s keypad, if they have previously entered the name on their Mobivox registration site. Chinese-written names can be entered through Pinyin.

Registered users in China, where there is currently no local access number, can also benefit from free or low-cost calling by using MOBIVOX’s SMS or Web Call Back features. Users will first receive a call from MOBIVOX, which will then connect their call to the contact or number of their choice.
 
Registration to MOBIVOX is free. Calls between registered MOBIVOX members are also free to more than 40 countries, and calls to non-members start at 1.9 cents per minute. 

“I’ve tried many phone services over the years—various calling plans, phone cards, and Internet calls,” said Lin Li, a state government employee from the Sacramento area who emigrated from China in 1993. “But I just tried MOBIVOX recently, and found it the best by far. I am impressed with its convenience, voice quality and extremely low cost. Now I can call my mom in China whenever and wherever I want, using my home phone or cell phone. Even better, if we’re both registered with MOBIVOX, the call is totally free. I am going to tell my friends to try it!”

MOBIVOX worked closely with Welocalize, a globalization firm based in Frederick, Md., for the English-to-Chinese translation and localization of the service.

According to Darren Yaphe, director of marketing at MOBIVOX, China is one of the four most popular destinations for MOBIVOX callers, along with Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. “China exchanges huge volumes of telecom traffic with widely dispersed émigré communities and individuals,” he said. “Considering the spread of these populations and the reach of our network, we knew we’d lower costs for the greatest number of people by making Mandarin Chinese the first language to be added to our English-language interface.” 

The Mandarin interface will also enable the use of many MOBIVOX voice-driven services, including free conference calling, said Yaphe. “Mandarin-speaking members in Vancouver, New York, London, Malaysia and Shanghai will find it incredibly easy and inexpensive to all meet together over MOBIVOX.”

A Mandarin version of this release can be obtained here: http://comunicano.typepad.com/bam/2008/05/mobivox-launche.html.

About MOBIVOX 

MOBIVOX is an international calling service that makes it possible to call friends, family, business associates and Skype contacts around the world for free from any phone. Calls between members are free to more than 40 destinations and all other calls to non-MOBIVOX members start at 1.9 cents per minute.

MOBIVOX is headquartered in Montréal with a satellite office in Boston. For more information, visit www.MOBIVOX.com.

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MOBIVOX 将推出中文服务 (Mandarin translation of release)

A Mandarin translation of the press release is available as a PDF file here:Download finalmobivox_chineseivr_mandarin_pdf.pdf.

还可根据请求提供本新闻稿的 Microsoft Word 格式. sue.huss@comunicano.com.

NEW IFBYPHONE APPLICATION SLASHES CREDIT CARD FRAUD

“Verify-Me-Now” Uses Automated Telephone Verification to Instantly Identify Fraudulent Account Applications

CHICAGO, May 13, 2008—As Internet service providers, online merchants and other enterprises look for innovative new ways to combat fraud, they often overlook something that every customer has: a telephone. Ifbyphone, the telephone application platform company, is showcasing Verify-Me-Now, a new solution that enables ISPs and any e-commerce or SAAS site to slash fraud rates by combining the power of the Web with the telephone.

Many fraudulent users provide false telephone numbers to limit an online merchant’s ability to contact them in the future. Verify-Me-Now turns that risk into a security feature with a simple process that validates that the person providing a credit card, banking information, or other form of payment is who they say they are.

Here’s how Verify-Me-Now works:

1. ISPs incorporate the hosted Verify-Me-Now application into their existing process that customers use to sign up for a Web hosting account or any other service.
2. A telephone number is collected as part of each registration or purchase transaction.
3. A PIN of up to ten digits is displayed on the customer’s screen.
4. The Verify-Me-Now service is then invoked, either transparently or via a user-pressed button, with an easy-to-use API that is compatible with most Web-programming environments.
5. The Ifbyphone server instantly places a call to the customer at the number entered in step one and then asks the customer to enter the previously displayed PIN using their telephone keypad. (The Ifbyphone server also can be configured to request and record the recipient name during this step.)
6. Depending on whether the PIN entered matches the one provided in step two, the API returns a success or failure message.

The Verify-Me-Now application is a member of a family of applications available on the Ifbyphone Telephone Application Platform (TAP). The Ifbyphone TAP empowers companies of all sizes to leverage the advantages of basic telephone calls with new and creative applications.

"Our applications all deliver enterprise telephone capabilities to businesses of any size," stated Irv Shapiro, CEO of Ifbyphone. “In this increasingly competitive world, small and medium-sized businesses need access to the same telephone technologies that large enterprises use in order to complete effectively.”

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About Ifbyphone

Ifbyphone is a hosted telephone application platform that provides small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) an easy means to increase their customer conversations and drive sales -- without the high cost and complexity typically associated with building interactive voice response systems.  Leveraging Ifbyphone's extreme usability, web developers, interactive marketers and customer service professionals can quickly create everything from simple Click-to-Call links on Web pages and e-mail to sophisticated call-routing and interactive-marketing solutions-transforming telephones into powerful tools to increase leads, improve sales and enhance customer experience.  Ifbyphone's solutions are available directly to SMBs and through a network of direct marketing resellers.  For more information, click www.phone-me-now.com/8772955100 to speak to a sales professional or visit the company website.

NEW TELEPHONE APPLICATIONS HELP SERVICE PROVIDERS AND MARKETING FIRMS EXPAND REVENUES AND IMPROVE CUSTOMER SERVICE

Hosted Solutions from Ifbyphone, “Your Telephone Applications Company,”
Help Drive Leads and Sales, and Reduce Costs

CHICAGO, May 13, 2008 — Ifbyphone helps Internet Service Providers (ISPs), direct marketing firms, online merchants and other companies balance customer service and overhead costs. Ifbyphone’s hosted platforms provide an immediate, cost-effective way for enterprises of any size to automate expensive people-based processes such as call routing, telesales, lead generation and customer care. These applications add a valuable new service line to an ISP’s or direct marketing firm’s catalog of services.

With the cost of telephone calls declining daily, companies recognize that telephone-based services are a new way to improve sales and reduce service delivery costs. Ifbyphone allows companies to add advanced hosted telephone applications and toll-free services to any phone—traditional office phones, cell phones or VoIP phones. These applications leverage the power of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems and free up human resources to focus on revenue-generating tasks.

Ifbyphone's call-routing technologies replace receptionist functions with a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week automated solution. With Ifbyphone’s SurVo Voice Forms and Web integration APIs, companies can quickly and easily create a variety of IVR applications for lead generation, call-center routing, customer satisfaction, employee notification and information delivery, letting customers enter information using familiar, intuitive methods, including speech and telephone touch tones. Historically, these same technologies were only available to large companies with sophisticated technology departments and significant budgets.

The automated, fully customizable SurVo Voice Forms provide a level of customer service that would be cost-prohibitive for many small and medium businesses (SMBs) using human-based processes. For example, instead of adding call-center staff or having other employees be distracted by constant calls, SMBs can use SurVo Voice Forms to collect and provide key information that most callers seek.

“We just couldn’t keep our ever-ringing phone answered,” says Tara Staglik at Papa Dean's Popcorn. “Ifbyphone not only eased the pressure on our in-person customer service by having to drop everything and leap for the phone every time it rang, it also succinctly and efficiently gave our call-in customers—both existing and prospective—far more information than any of our staff could have during such an extended rush of walk-in clientele. Ifbyphone has also proven invaluable in that it provides a reliable and tangible record of contacts, inquiries and orders. That’s one less thing we must struggle to organize. We also love the ease of adaptability of Ifbyphone, in that we can easily update and change the messaging on a whim. Ifbyphone has proven priceless from day one.”

Another Ifbyphone hosted application, Voice Broadcast, provides ISPs and other SMBs with a solution to the problem of overly aggressive spam filters, which block e-mails containing information that customers would find valuable. Voice Broadcast conveniently circumvents spam filters and junk folders by relying on an innovative telecommunications platform to deliver messages over the telephone.

For example, instead of using e-mail to alert customers of deliveries, sales events and other important information, SMBs can quickly create a Voice Broadcast message that’s distributed via a device that every customer has: a telephone. Voice Broadcasts also can be used to distribute interactive customer surveys, potentially leading to a higher response rate—and more insights—than if most of the surveys disappeared into recipients’ junk folders.

“An unfortunate side effect of spam filtering technologies is that e-mail is no longer a reliable medium for critical customer notifications,” says Irv Shapiro, CEO of Ifbyphone. “The Ifbyphone IVR, Toll Free Number Routing and Interactive Voice Broadcast technologies provide a suite of services that reliably deliver important communications to your customers over any telephone.”

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About Ifbyphone

Ifbyphone offers a telephone application platform (TAP) that provides small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) an easy means to develop innovative ways to talk directly with their customers—without the high cost and complexity typically associated with building voice-enabled solutions. Leveraging Ifbyphone's major advances in usability, Web developers, interactive marketers and customer service professionals can now quickly create everything from simple click-and-call buttons embedded into Web pages and e-mail to sophisticated call-routing and interactive-marketing solutions—transforming the SMB telephone into a powerful tool to increase lead generation, improve sales conversion and enhance customer experience. Based in Skokie, Ill., Ifbyphone offers hosted VAP services that are available directly at www.ifbyphone.com or through a network of value-added resellers for an affordable monthly fee, with no upfront costs. For more information click www.phone-me-now.com/8772955100 to speak to a sales professional or visit the company website at www.ifbyphone.com.

IFBYPHONE'S IRV SHAPIRO AT eCOMM

Ifbyphone CEO Irv Shapiro's presentation at this spring's eComm conference gives some insight into how Ifbyphone's services can help SMBs convert clickers into callers. Here's Irv's March 12 presentation, "Phone Mashups, Integrating Telephony and the Web."

Slides for Irv's presentation:

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IFBYPHONE ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH SITEKREATOR, LAUNCHES SYSTEM UPGRADE FULL OF NEW FEATURES

Strategic Agreement Combines Leading Voice Applications, Web-design Tools

CHICAGO–May 7, 2008—Ifbyphone, the telephone application platform company, announced today it has entered a strategic partnership with SiteKreator, an award-winning service that enables small businesses to instantly design and host elegant, feature-rich and engaging Web sites.

Also, the company launched Ifbyphone version 2.7—the next system release to its flagship voice-based, hosted platform that offers SMBs a simple way to integrate Web and telephone services. The new version includes several enhancements—largely recommended by customers and developers—that add richer and more customizable functionality to the platform.

Ifbyphone combines Web and voice services to bridge online lead generation, offline conversion of sales and customer service opportunities. The company provides a sophisticated Interactive Voice Response (IVR) platform from which it offers click-to-call, toll-free numbers and voice-broadcast services directly to SMBs and through more than 200 resellers.

Ifbyphone 2.7 enriches customer communications by immediately increasing the availability of local telephone numbers in all major U.S. metropolitan areas and in most Canadian metropolitan areas beginning May 15. Customers are also able to select either toll-free or local numbers for use with the system’s Virtual Receptionist, Find Me, SurVo—the hosted Web IVR application—and other inbound call-routing applications.

Meantime, the SiteKreator agreement gives Ifbyphone another distribution channel into the market segment of tech-savvy small businesses whose entrepreneurial owners are comfortable building their own Web sites using SiteKreator’s tools enhanced by Ifbyphone applications.

“SiteKreator is a leader in the Do-it-Yourself Web site-creation and site-management space because they enable SMBs to design and launch great-looking Web sites at a price they can afford,” said Ifbyphone CEO Irv Shapiro.

“We’re tightly integrating a suite of Ifbyphone services with a suite of Web-design capabilities from SiteKreator in an easy-to-use, all-in-one environment because our two companies share a mission to bring SMBs the kind of sophisticated telephone-application platform tools that were only available until now to enterprise companies,” he said.

For example, SMBs designing their own Web pages using tools from SiteKreator can easily embed an Ifbyphone application such as Smart Click-to-Call as a means of turning Web site visits into ringing telephones.

SiteKreator has integrated the procurement and configuration of a Smart Click-to-Call account directly into its Web site. Additionally, Ifbyphone is making available a six-month, no-cost promotional package for partners to offer their customers.  This allows customers to stay within the trusted SiteKreator environment to launch their Ifbyphone Web site sales tools.

“We were looking for a solution that bridged the online and offline worlds, especially for SMBs building their first presence online,” said SiteKreator CEO Ivaylo Lenkov. “What we especially liked about Ifbyphone was the fact that there’s no entry barrier and the integration between our two products is so straightforward.”

SiteKreator was developed for entrepreneurs, SMBs and independent professionals who want to leverage next-generation Web technologies without investing thousands of dollars or requiring technical or artistic expertise. SiteKreator’s upscale designs help business customers build fully branded and feature-rich sites in as little as 30 minutes and are scalable and customizable to grow and adapt for almost every application.

Sites built with SiteKreator attract visitors with an elegant and consistent look and feel.  SiteKreator also keeps visitors coming back by fostering two-way communication though interactive features such as blogs, Web forms, newsletters and discussion forums. SMBs can click on http://sitekreator.com to explore how SiteKreator’s Web-design tools can help them.

Other potential partners with Ifbyphone can click on www.Ifbyphone.com to learn more about the company’s partnership programs.

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About Ifbyphone
Ifbyphone is a telephone application platform (TAP) that provides small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) an easy means to develop innovative ways to talk directly with their customers—without the high cost and complexity typically associated with building voice-enabled solutions. Leveraging Ifbyphone's major advances in usability, Web developers, interactive marketers and customer service professionals can now quickly create everything from simple click-and-call buttons embedded into Web pages and e-mail to sophisticated call-routing and interactive-marketing solutions—transforming the SMB telephone into a powerful tool to increase lead generation, improve sales conversion and enhance customer experience.  Based in Skokie, Ill., Ifbyphone offers hosted TAP services that are available directly at www.Ifbyphone.com or through a network of value-added resellers for an affordable monthly fee, with no upfront costs. For more information click www.phone-me-now.com/8772955100 to speak to a sales professional or visit the company Web site at www.Ifbyphone.com.

About SiteKreator
Based in Santa Clara, Calif., SiteKreator launched in 2006 and currently powers about 50,000 Web sites worldwide. The company has been recognized to provide one of the most high-density Web hosting technologies on the market, capable of managing spikes in traffic without the slightest dent in end-user performance. The SiteKreator team has extensive experience in enterprise Content Management Systems (CMS), Content Delivery Networks (CDN), sophisticated visual art design and usability.

FONOLO NAMED BEST NEW PRODUCT AT ECOMM

eComm organizer Lee S. Dryburgh has named Fonolo "Best New Product" and posted CEO Shai Berger's eComm presentation online. As Lee says, "What Shai and his company debuted last month at eComm is what everyone has been wishing for over the past decade," namely a way around frustrating corporate phone menus.

Here's Shai's eComm presentation. Slides follow.

Slides for Shai's presentation:

| View | Upload your own

NEW IFBYPHONE WIDGET LETS FACEBOOK FRIENDS CALL FOR FREE

“Phone-Me-Now” Uses Mashup API to Demonstrate Power of Ifbyphone Technology

CHICAGO, April 29, 2008—Ifbyphone, the telephone application platform company, today announced a new Facebook application called Phone-Me-Now that enables users to place free calls from their friends’ Facebook profile pages, without revealing either party’s caller ID.

Facebook users can register for a free Phone-Me-Now account within their Facebook profile. Their Facebook friends can then contact them by setting up a two-person conference call—with the click of a button.

To place a call, a friend visits the Facebook profile of the Phone-Me-Now user with whom he or she wishes to speak, provides the number of the phone they want to use during the call and hits “click to call.” Then Ifbyphone rings both telephones, blocks the caller IDs and conferences the two callers together.

The application enables Facebook members to have personal conversations with other members while still keeping their phone numbers private. Users are also able to review the Facebook names of the last 10 callers and block specific callers.

“Even In this age of online social networking, there are times when only a real-time personal phone call can convey the right message between two people,” said Irv Shapiro, Ifbyphone CEO. “Phone-Me-Now makes it easy to connect privately with a friend by phone, without automatically divulging personal contact details the way caller ID does, and without leaving Facebook to make the call.”

The Phone-Me-Now application widget is a phone mashup that takes advantage of powerful Ifbyphone technology to enable all types of phones—whether mobile, VoIP or even old rotary handsets—to connect via the Web. Ifbyphone mashups enable inbound, outbound and click-to-call telephone applications with integrated interactive voice response dialogs.

Phone-Me-Now is an extension of Ifbyphone’s "voice of the Web" services that give small and medium-sized businesses enterprise-level presence on the Web for a fraction of the cost, through click-to-call, toll-free number, voice mail and other communications tools.

The first 1,000 Facebook users who sign up will receive free Phone-Me-Now accounts and 100 minutes per month of calling time to U.S. phone numbers. These free accounts expire in six months. Standard Ifbyphone subscriptions start at $14.95 per month.

The widget is available under Applications at Facebook.com by searching under “Phone-Me-Now” or through the following link: http://apps.facebook.com/phonemenow/.

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About Ifbyphone

Ifbyphone is a telephone application platform (TAP) that provides small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) an easy means to develop innovative ways to talk directly with their customers—without the high cost and complexity typically associated with building voice-enabled solutions. Leveraging Ifbyphone's major advances in usability, Web developers, interactive marketers and customer service professionals can now quickly create everything from simple click-and-call buttons embedded into Web pages and e-mail to sophisticated call-routing and interactive-marketing solutions—transforming the SMB telephone into a powerful tool to increase lead generation, improve sales conversion and enhance customer experience. Based in Skokie, Ill., Ifbyphone offers hosted VAP services that are available directly at www.ifbyphone.com or through a network of value-added resellers for an affordable monthly fee, with no upfront costs. For more information click www.phone-me-now.com/8772955100 to speak to a sales professional or visit the company website at www.ifbyphone.com.

Contact:
Sue Huss, for Ifbyphone
sue.huss@comunicano.com
+1 619-379-4396

TUNGLE APPOINTS TOP FINANCIAL, SALES EXECUTIVES

Firm Names Mark MacLeod as CFO, Rod Weir as VP of Sales, Business Development

MONTRÉAL, April 29, 2008—Tungle, an upstart Montréal-based Web 2.0 software company and DEMOgod award winner, today announced the appointments of Mark MacLeod as the company’s first chief financial officer and Rod Weir as vice president of sales and business development. 

MacLeod, 37, is a veteran technology entrepreneur who has led corporate finance and operations in high-growth startup companies for more than nine years. Weir, 43, is a seasoned and successful sales leader with more than 20 years’ experience in high-tech and telecommunications. He joined Tungle after having worked with CEO and founder Marc Gingras at a previous successful start-up, Nimcat Networks, as its global sales director.

“Mark adds a wealth of corporate finance, operation and strategy experience to our management team. In Rod, we have a dynamic and resourceful sales leader with experience in business development, channel relations and go-to-market programs who knows how to ramp up top-line growth. We’re honored to have them join Tungle at a time when we’re poised for explosive growth,” said Gingras. 

Tungle, now in its open beta phase, is a free service that eliminates the time drain and frustration of e-mailing back and forth and phone tag to schedule meetings among many busy people. The service dynamically allows users to see and share schedule availability without exposing the specific details of their existing appointments. 

Before joining Tungle, MacLeod was CFO at VoIP player Mobivox. He was previously vice president–finance for networked storage vendor Terrascale Technologies Inc., acquired by Rackable Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: RACK). He was also CFO at IP-networking vendor Hexago Inc., and he led finance and corporate development for electronic-signature-software vendor Silanis Technology Inc AIM: SNS).

MacLeod is a Chartered Accountant and holds an MBA from McGill University.

Prior to Tungle, Weir was responsible for international OEM sales and business development efforts for Nimcat’s Peer To Peer software telephony offer, securing a multi-million dollar OEM software deal that helped close and elevate the acquisition by Avaya Inc. He remained at Avaya as global sales director–peer to peer, until joining Tungle.

Weir’s previous management and sales roles at Cisco Canada and other ventures allow him to apply proven successful and compelling approaches to user adoption, channel development and partner alliances toward Tungle’s success.   

Weir holds MBA and undergraduate degrees from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario and also his Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

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About Tungle

Founded in 2006, Tungle makes meeting coordination fast and easy. Tungle is the first meeting coordinator to work across organizations, independent of the calendar or groupware system(s) used. Its speed, privacy and native communication with groupware clients makes it an ideal, free alternative for small offices that don’t have the desire or resources to invest in an Exchange or Domino server. Headquartered in Montreal, Tungle is funded by leading Canadian investors. For more information, visit www.tungle.com.

VAPPS' BEN LILIENTHAL CHATS (IN HIGH-DEFINITION) WITH JIM COURTNEY ON SKYPE JOURNAL

Ben Lilienthal, CEO of Vapps, talks about the future of High-Definition Conferencing with Jim Courtney, editor of Skype Journal.  The audio quality of the conferencing service is captured in the recording of the phone interview: http://skypejournal.com/blog/images/VAPPS.SkypeJournal.BenL.2008-04-22.mp3

SIGHTSPEED LIGHT FEATURED ON SQUAWK BOX

On the heels of this week's successful launch of SightSpeed Light on MySpace (see presss release), SightSpeed's VP-Marketing Eric Quanstrom  gives Alec Saunders the inside story on Squawk Box: http://saunderslog.com/2008/04/24/squawk-box-april-24-guest-eric-quanstrom/.

VOXBONE AWARDED LICENSES, NUMBERS IN SINGAPORE AND GREECE

Telephone Numbers Now Instantly Available to Give Singaporean, Greek Markets Local Access to Carriers and Businesses

BRUSSELS, Belgium, April 23, 2008 -- Voxbone, a leading provider of local telephone numbers and VoIP transport to communications service providers and businesses worldwide, today announced that it has been awarded licenses and numbering resources to operate telecommunications services in Singapore and Greece.

The new licenses, awarded by Singapore’s IDA (Infocomm Development Authority) and Greece’s EETT (National Telecommunications and Post Commission), bring the total number of Voxbone-accessible countries to 43. 

Voxbone’s DID (direct-inward dial) and toll-free numbers give its carrier, call center and major enterprise customers a way to establish a “local” presence in other countries, by being reachable through a local phone call.  Seeing an advertised telephone number that costs little or nothing to dial, end customers and prospects will call an overseas businesses as soon as any business physically located nearby or in-country. Voxbone delivers these incoming calls to the number holder/subscriber through its global VoIP network.

Customers can instantly lease and provision numbers through Voxbone’s self-care Web portal, turning the acquisition process from months to minutes.

“Voxbone is our source for local access numbers whenever we extend the reach of our free- and low-cost international calling service,” says Darren Yaphe, director of marketing at MOBIVOX, a Voxbone customer. “We rely on those local access numbers, as they enable our customers in over 40 countries to reach our dial-by-name IVR every time.”

Voxbone has partnered with local Singaporean and Greek telephone companies who are given their numbers by national regulators –- a purchase as close to the physical source as possible and in compliance with all national standards and regulations. This assures number holders of service as reliable as that of a local incumbent carrier.

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About Voxbone

Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, Voxbone provides worldwide DID numbers and toll-free phone numbers over its own private intercontinental VoIP network. The all-IP architecture of the Voxbone core network enables customers to rapidly deploy new communications services with local presence, while simultaneously reducing costs. Voxbone leases international DID numbers and toll-free numbers via VoIP to organizations in North and South America, Europe and Asia/Pacific regions. It delivers high-quality call origination and provides the global infrastructure that enables its customers to expand to international markets quickly and efficiently. Using these numbers, Voxbone customers may receive inexpensive, locally dialed phone calls from 43 countries.  Founded in 2002, the company is privately held.

Contact:

Sue Huss, for Voxbone
sue.huss@comunicano.com
+1-619-379-4396

THOMAS HOWE ON SQUAWK BOX

Alec Saunders invited Thomas Howe of The Thomas Howe Company to Squawk Box for a debriefing on Telco 2.0, which took place in London last week. More a brainstorming session than a typical "booth" conference, Telco 2.0 employed interactive wireless technology to enable particpants to submit anonymous feedback and questions--making for some lively discussions on the gulf between carriers and innovators/disruptors. Hear Tom's chat with Alec here: http://saunderslog.com/2008/04/21/squawk-box-april-21-telco-20/.

VAPPS UPDATES SKYPE EXTRA: HIGH-DEFINITION CONFERENCING TOOL LAUNCHES WITHIN SKYPE IN NINE LANGUAGES

With Skype’s Contact List, a Click and a New Multilingual Interface, Users Create Audioconferences in Which Two to 500 Sound Live and In-person

HOBOKEN, N.J.–April 22, 2008—Vapps, Inc., provider of affordable, flat-rate audioconferencing services with in-the-room sound quality, today announced an update of its Skype Extra, a plug-in that launches the full feature set of its High-Definition Conferencing (HD-C) service from within the globally adopted Skype™ Internet communications application. 

Vapps’ added HD-C to Skype’s Extras Gallery in October 2007, uniquely conferencing together public switched telephone network (PSTN) and Skype users for a value-priced flat monthly fee ranging from $25 for as many as 10 users to $200 for as many as 500. The convenience of Vapps’ Skype plug-in—with 100,000 registered users to date—encourages frequent, ad-hoc use, and along with the flat-rate pricing makes it easier for growing companies with remote teleworkers to manage costs.

Those on Skype may click on the “Tools/Do More” menu option to open the HD-C plug-in, which will now appear and operate in Mandarin Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and Polish, in addition to English. From that interface, they can start meetings on the spot, inviting fellow Skype users by sending automated chat messages. (Should Skype contacts be caught with their headphones unplugged, the chat invite offers a telephone phone number for joining the conference as well.) They can also click on the interface’s “schedule” button, auto-logging into the HD-C site, to schedule meetings of as many as 500 attendees and send e-mail invitations to others, as well as their Skype contacts. 

Better-than-phone sound quality

Skype-connected participants enjoy unprecedented sound quality through the Vapps platform’s wideband connectivity. The traditional phone system, with its century-old copper wiring, transmits a frequency range of only 3.5 kHz out of the 20 kHz or so the human ear can hear. With a range so clipped, “f” and “s” are indistinguishable, singing is tinny and people feel distant. Through the wideband data lines used by Skype and other VoIP providers, HD-C can fit a voice frequency range of 16KHz. Result: Attendees hear four times better, feel more “present” with more true-to-life sound and can better detect who is speaking. And as with any IP-to-IP voice call, they avoid local and international calling charges, a particular benefit to international phone conferences. 

The expanded audio range also helps listeners understand speakers who have accents, and non-native speakers understand the conference language. In any language, it promotes comprehension and retention by alleviating the ear fatigue of long phone conferences, and transmits more of the speaker’s inflection, nuance, attitude and even physical motion at a table or around the room.   

Vapps’ Skype Extra plug-in allows meeting coordinators to see who has joined or left, to mute and unmute participants and to record the conference. Attendees have their own HD-C browser-based controls with which to raise their hands, mute themselves and see who is on the conference.

To demonstrate high-definition voice quality to a conferencing public that has only known the phone, Vapps is offering a free, 10-day trial of its 25-user package. This provides unlimited conference calls for as many as 25 people on Skype and on the telephone. After ten days, users may sign up via credit card. Without sign-up, any further use of HD-C will be charged on a pay-as-you-go plan in cooperation with Skype, which will deduct four cents per minute of use from users’ Skype Credits on Vapps’ behalf.

“Millions of people have come to use and keep Skype running all day, every day,” said Ben Lilienthal, Vapps CEO. “The update of our plug-in in the Skype Extras Gallery encourages more people to use High-Definition Conferencing to the fullest extent and as often as possible, for the same monthly price. It attaches in-person-quality, crystal-clear audioconferencing, scalability, recording and playback capability, and professional moderation controls to the Skype contact list at a time when more and more business people are using Skype.”

About Vapps, Inc.

Vapps, Inc., based in Hoboken, N.J., provides managed audioconferencing solutions to the SMB, enterprise and service provider markets using its patent-pending, wide-band audioconferencing technology. Founded in 2003 by Ben Lilienthal and Jerry Norton, Vapps' flagship service is its High-Definition Conferencing (HD-C, www.highspeedconferencing.com), the first and only high-definition, flat-rate audioconference offering that can conference together a mixed participant group of PSTN phone and Skype users.   

For Skype-using participants, HD-C transmits a much richer, more “in-the-room” voice quality than can be achieved with traditional phones, dramatically improving the productivity of team collaboration. Vapps’ fees for an unlimited number of conferences and conference minutes start at a fixed $25 per month for 10 attendees and scale with the number of participants.  For more information, please visit Vapps at www.vapps.com.
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NEW “SIGHTSPEED LIGHT” WIDGET NOW AVAILABLE ON MYSPACE

SightSpeed Offers First and Only V-Mail and V-Chat Widget on MySpace With Easy-to-Use, No-Download Video Conversation Application

BERKELEY, Calif.–April 22, 2008—SightSpeed Inc., the leading provider of Internet video communications, has announced that a new easy-to-use, no-download version of its video application, “SightSpeed Light,” is now available to MySpace users.

SightSpeed is now the first company to offer integrated video mail, public video posting and free video chat between members of MySpace. SightSpeed Light works on any computer (PC or Mac) through any standards-based Web browser (e.g., Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari), with no downloads or installation required.

SightSpeed Light makes video conversations with MySpace friends livelier, whether they’re real-time, face-to-face chats or threaded posts created by friends recording and posting video messages.

SightSpeed Light captures and creates video messages as posts, creating extended video conversations that are face-to-face, but not necessarily in real time. These threaded conversations start with someone creating and posting a SightSpeed video of him- or herself about any topic. From there, anyone in that person’s MySpace friends group can respond and add his or her thoughts. SightSpeed Light organizes the thread automatically, thus creating a video conversation, all without leaving MySpace.

“As a result, MySpace users now have communications functionality currently not available in any other form on MySpace,” said Eric Quanstrom, SightSpeed VP–marketing. “SightSpeed Light allows MySpacers—especially those Gen Y-ers who grew up texting—to use video just as easily as they use text.”

SightSpeed Light also lets those video conversations happen spontaneously. Because  MySpace users can see whom among their friends is also online, they can use SightSpeed Light to call them immediately, without download, installation, setup—or cost. These calls are free of charge to users. 

When a MySpacer adds SightSpeed Light, all their friends are notified. Once their friends have added SightSpeed Light (by clicking “Add this App” from their MySpace profile), they can immediately see when their friends are online to call, video mail or post.

SightSpeed Light works best with a Web camera to provide the full effect of video chatting, conversations and messaging, although audio-only chats and voice mails are possible.

MySpace members can access SightSpeed Light here: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=359330835.

About SightSpeed

SightSpeed Inc. is the award-winning provider of Internet video communications for both the consumer and business user. The company offers the broadest portfolio of industry-leading Internet video communications services, including SightSpeed Light, SightSpeed Free and SightSpeed PLUS, the most widely praised consumer-focused video chat services, which turn a PC or Mac into an easy-to-use video phone to communicate with friends and family around the world; and SightSpeed Business, the world’s first high-quality, cost-effective and hardware-free videoconferencing service for all businesses (including SMBs). SightSpeed's services are SIP-based and standards-compliant. The company’s revolutionary human perception-based technology is patented and based on more than ten years of research and development originating out of Cornell University.

Founded in 2001 and based in Berkeley, Calif., SightSpeed is a privately held company funded by The Roda Group, best known for launching Ask Jeeves and PolyServe. For more information about SightSpeed, visit www.sightspeed.com.

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Contact:

Sue Huss
Comunicano, Inc.
sue.huss@comunicano.com
619-379-4396

Backgrounder to press release "SightSpeed Light for MySpace"

Quotes about SightSpeed Light from SightSpeed CEO Peter Csathy:

“SightSpeed Light is unlike anything yet available on MySpace. For the first time, MySpace users can have a spontaneous real-time video chat with their friends while remaining within MySpace. But for this demographic that grew up in the not-always-real-time world of texting, we believe SightSpeed Light’s threaded video conversation capability will be even more appealing—enabling friends to maintain an ongoing conversation about their favorite topic of the moment.”

“In my opinion, video mail and video chat will be the next big movement in communications over the Internet. Why do I say this? Because webcams are embedded in nearly every device now, and social networkers are looking for the next best way to reach out to one another. That’s what puts SightSpeed Light ahead of the curve.”

Background

SightSpeed announced in January 2008 that it was developing SightSpeed Light to run on a variety of online social networks, including those based on Google’s forthcoming OpenSocial platform. SightSpeed chose MySpace as the first of these networks for which to develop its SightSpeed Light widget.

SightSpeed Light is currently in beta version, as are all approved applications available through MySpace.

SightSpeed Light enables both synchronous communications (e.g., face-to-face, real-time chat) as well as asynchronous communications that are face-to-face, but not necessarily in real time (e.g., threaded conversations).

Application Development

SightSpeed developers created the application using Adobe Flash, one of the most widely adopted multimedia viewing and creation tools, making SightSpeed Light simple to integrate on a variety of platforms and enhancing its accessibility and usability.

SightSpeed has offered an ActiveX plug-in that works with Internet Explorer since version 1.0 dating back to 2003, making SightSpeed the first clientless video conferencing application.
Now, SightSpeed developers have taken that same core technology and approach in developing SightSpeed Light. In this case, they are using Flash to enable SightSpeed to work easily inside a social community like MySpace. That’s because MySpace’s  application programming interfaces (APIs) have been developed to work with Flash in such a way as to rapidly develop and deploy services like SightSpeed Light.

Safety and Security

No other plug-in for MySpace brings people together visually as easily and as safely as SightSpeed Light, enabling younger MySpace users to get face-to-face in a secure yet personal manner.

Video mail messages are kept securely within a thread on MySpace, on SightSpeed servers, and the owner (creator) of the thread can delete any message within, as they choose.

Future Developments

Although the application is currently limited to MySpace users, future developments will enable them to also connect with the rest of the SightSpeed community (e.g., those using SightSpeed Free, PLUS or Business).

In addition, SightSpeed has plans in the works for versions of SightSpeed Light for other social network sites.

Other SightSpeed Services

SightSpeed Light joins the full range of video communication services from industry leader SightSpeed. Offering additional capabilities, the full-featured SightSpeed PLUS and SightSpeed Free deliver best-in-class, 30-frames-per-second video calling and high-quality video mail with a virtual inbox. Also available are VoIP-based phone service with phone-in and phone-out capability, custom click-to-call-me buttons, video community access with privacy features, unlimited text messaging and up to four-party video conferencing.

For the business user, SightSpeed now offers SightSpeed Business—the company’s first business-focused videoconferencing service, providing a full suite of administrative and call-management options and collaboration tools that are essential for the business user.  SightSpeed Business is the first high-quality, cost-effective and hardware-free videoconferencing solution accessible to every business.

All SightSpeed’s award-winning services are fully SIP-based and standards-compliant, which is essential for interoperability, security, stability and overall user flexibility and utility.

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SIGHTSPEED LIGHT

Screen shot shows SightSpeed Light's video-chat capabilities on MySpace.

ARE YOU READY TO TUNGLE? NEW TUNGLE MEETING COORDINATOR ENTERS OPEN BETA

Tungle tames the scheduling jungle by allowing Outlook users to coordinate meetings easily with anyone, even users of iCal, Google Calendar and Lotus Notes

MONTREAL, April 16, 2008 – For anyone who has ever had to face the headache and inefficiencies of scheduling a meeting using Outlook, relief is here.

Tungle, an upstart Montreal-based Web 2.0 software company and DEMOgod award winner, has launched its free beta pilot that eliminates the time drain and frustration of e-mailing back and forth and phone tag to schedule meetings among many busy people.

Tungle is a free service that dynamically allows users to see and share schedule availability without exposing the specific details of their existing appointments.  It’s a big-time timesaver for small business professionals, sales professionals, head hunters, administrators, information workers, meeting planners, project managers and all who need to schedule meetings for themselves, or others.

"Scheduling and coordinating meetings in today’s information-driven world is a huge headache,” said Chris Shipley, chairman of analyst firm Guidewire Group and executive producer of the DEMO conferences. "Tungle meets a genuine market need by fixing a very real and very time-consuming problem. It is a useful and practical tool that will greatly improve productivity for busy professionals.”

What is Tungle?

To make Tungle the scheduling application of choice when it launches on all platforms later this year, the company released today a full-featured solution for Microsoft Outlook users, both with or without Exchange. Microsoft Office, the most widely installed Office Suite, has a commanding installed base of 550 million users around the world.

Using Tungle, Outlook users can now share their free/busy calendars with any other Tungle user, across and between corporations, firewalls and timezones.  Sharing availability is as easy as adding a user to an instant messaging platform.  For small businesses, Tungle can save the pain and cost of installing an Exchange server and existing Exchange users can extend their corporate functionality outside the corporate firewall.

“Sharing free/busy calendars is the first step toward helping users easily coordinate meetings,” said Marc Gingras, CEO and founder of Tungle.  “We have always been amazed at how complicated and costly existing solutions can be.  Tungle brings simplicity and savings to this process.  Our second step was then to leverage the availability of users to build the ultimate scheduling tool.  We call it Tungle Spaces.”

Tungle Spaces is the easiest way to coordinate meetings with anyone, across platforms – including iCal, Google Calendar, Lotus Notes, etc. – organizations, time zones and even with people who are not using Tungle. 

Tungle users select and highlight available timeslots in their calendars to share them with meeting invitees on a temporary webpage called the Tungle Space.  As time passes, Tungle automatically updates the organizers’ availability as their calendars fill up, thus eliminating the need for constant e-mail “ping pong” and the likelihood of double booking a meeting.  Meeting invitees access this webpage and can update their availability or book the meeting.

“Our closed beta users have raved about the simplicity of coordinating meetings with Tungle Spaces.  Some have even called it addictive,” said Gingras.  “It takes them five seconds to create the Tungle Space and then they just sit back and let Tungle do the work.  Before they know it, Tungle informs them that the meeting is booked and their calendars are automatically updated.”

Tungle is a full-featured solution. Key features include:

• One-click free/busy calendar sharing within and across organizations, firewalls, and networks
• Tungle Space to coordinate meetings with anyone, non-Tungle users on iCal, Google Calendar, Lotus Notes and any other calendaring platform
• Automatic time zone detection
• Automatic meeting invitations in the groupware format familiar to each invitee
• Create Tungle Spaces with the  availability of colleagues and co-workers pre-populated
• Coordinate meetings between individuals, without taking part in the meeting (i.e., Admin Assistant)
• Full integration with Outlook scheduling tools, including AutoPick Next and Free/Busy view in Outlook scheduling pane
• Update and History tracking
• Tungle Space management
• Multiple e-mail account support
• Latest security and encryption techniques including public key encryption, digital signatures and symmetric encryption algorithms

The Tungle Beta Pilot

“Our goal with the Tungle beta pilot is to make Tungle reflect the unique and slightly different needs that users of each calendaring program have, so we address them when Tungle is made generally available later this year,” said Gingras. “We decided to not limit our beta to a number of users.  Anyone who wants it can get it.  We figured the more people use it, the more feedback we will get to fine-tune our solution for the Google Calendar and MAC platforms.”

How To Start Using Tungle

Available now, the Tungle Outlook plug in takes less than 30 seconds to install (http://www.tungle.com).  It automatically synchronizes with users’ Outlook address books and calendars, eliminating any configuration or complicated setup.  This information is kept secure and locally on the user’s machine; it is not uploaded or shared with anyone else or with Tungle.  Its IM-like user interface makes it easy for users to understand and start coordinating meetings in seconds.

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About Tungle
Founded in 2006, Tungle is the company that makes meeting coordination fast and easy. It reduces the amount of communication required to find a suitable meeting time among many, allowing anyone to share calendar views of availability without exposing preexisting meetings.  Tungle is the first meeting coordinator to work across organizations, independent of the calendar or groupware system(s) used. Its inherent speed, privacy and native communication with groupware clients makes it an ideal, free alternative for small offices that don’t have the desire or resources to invest in an Exchange or Domino server.  Headquartered in Montreal, Tungle is funded by leading Canadian investors.  For more information, visit www.tungle.com.

MOBIVOX VISITS ALEC SAUNDERS' SQUAWK BOX

Comunicano clients seem to be getting Alec Saunders' ear lately. Most recently, Darren Yaphe of MOBIVOX was a guest on Squawk Box: http://saunderslog.com/2008/04/04/squawk-box-april-4-guest-darren-yaphe-of-mobivox/. MOBIVOX is an international calling service that makes it possible to call friends and family around the world for free or very inexpensively, and from any phone.

TUNGLE'S MARC GINGRAS CHATS WITH ALEC SAUNDERS ON SQUAWK BOX

Alec Saunders interviewed Tungle's Marc Gingras on the Squawk Box podcast. Tungle is the Montreal-based Web 2.0 company whose service eliminates the time drain and frustration of setting up meetings among many busy people. Check out Alec and Marc's conversation here: http://saunderslog.com/2008/04/02/squawk-box-april-2-tungle/.

AUTOZONE SELECTS VAPPS, INC., AS SOLE PROVIDER OF ITS AUDIO CONFERENCING SOLUTION, SERVICING 4,000 LOCATIONS NATIONWIDE

NEW YORK (March 31, 2008) – Vapps, Inc., a leading provider of VoIP audio conferencing services worldwide, and AutoZone (NYSE: AZO), the nation's leading retailer and leading distributor of automotive replacement parts and accessories, today announced that Vapps’ Conferencing Enterprise service will become the internal audio conferencing service for more than 4,000 retail AutoZone locations. 

Vapps’ Conferencing Enterprise solution was selected for its easy conference bridge customization, scalability and round-the-clock customer service.  The Conferencing Enterprise solution uses the same technology platform upon which Vapps’ flagship service HighSpeed Conferencing is built. HighSpeed Conferencing (www.highspeedconferencing.com) is a wideband, high-definition (HD) voice conferencing service that beta-launched in October 2007 for the SMB market with low, flat-rate pricing and superior, high definition (16 kHz) audio quality.   

“Vapps proved itself as a good choice for an audio conferencing solution that meets the needs of our business,” said AutoZone IT Director Randy Byrum. “The flexibility of the Vapps staff and the easy customization of the Conferencing Enterprise service made it the right choice for us.  It is a great product, which has many of the key features that you would find from a major telecom offering.”

AutoZone will use Vapps’ customized Conferencing Enterprise service to address its large number of retail locations, which will participate in frequent calls using a toll-free dial-in number, as well as for team meetings.

“AutoZone’s shift to Vapps is validation by an enterprise level customer for our mixed mode conference calling platform that blends IP based voice communications with the more established PSTN dial-in approach that has been around for years,” said Ben Lilienthal, CEO, Vapps, Inc. “Companies like AutoZone want to reduce cost, while increasing their capabilities. Now their team can meet anywhere in the world using the highest voice quality conference service from their computers, traditional landlines or mobile phones, depending on their situation. We’re giving AutoZone the best of both worlds, without any sacrifices, while also lowering their costs.”

Vapps’ cutting-edge audio conferencing solutions are also used by leading corporations, trade associations and non-profit organizations, including MSN, Yahoo! and Skype.  Vapps’ latest innovation, HighSpeed Conferencing (www.highspeedconferencing.com), is the only high-definition (HD) audio conferencing solution in the industry that allows as many as 500 audio conference attendees, including Internet users through VoIP products, such as Skype, toll and toll-free participants, into the same conference “room,” while providing the service at a low flat-rate price, starting at $25 per month.

About Vapps, Inc.

Vapps, Inc. is a technology company utilizing its patent-pending audio conferencing technology to provide managed audio conferencing solutions to the SMB, Enterprise and Service Provider markets.  Founded in 2003 by serial entrepreneurs Ben Lilienthal and Jerry Norton, VAPPS Conferencing is a turnkey hosted service that enables any business to cost-effectively make conference calls over the Internet or any telephone that approach the realism of in-person meetings – dramatically improving the productivity of team collaboration.   

About AutoZone

As of February 9, 2008, AutoZone sells auto and light truck parts, chemicals and accessories through 4,000 AutoZone stores in 48 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico in the U.S. and 128 stores in Mexico.

AutoZone is the leading retailer and a leading distributor of automotive replacement parts and accessories in the United States. Each store carries an extensive product line for cars, sport utility vehicles, vans and light trucks, including new and remanufactured automotive hard parts, maintenance items, accessories, and non-automotive products. Many stores also have a commercial sales program that provides commercial credit and prompt delivery of parts and other products to local, regional and national repair garages, dealers, and service stations.  AutoZone also sells the ALLDATA brand diagnostic and repair software.  On the web, AutoZone sells diagnostic and repair information, and auto and light truck parts through www.autozone.com.  AutoZone does not derive revenue from automotive repair or installation.

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Contact:
Sue Huss
Comunicano
619-379-4396
Sue.huss@comunicano.com

VRINGO MERGES SOCIAL NETWORKING AND ‘VISUAL CALLER ID’ WITH NEW FACEBOOK APPLICATION

Profile Pictures Imported to Address Books Add New Dimension of Personalization to Mobile Phones

NEW YORK–March 31, 2008—VringoTM, the pioneer in visual ringtone sharing, has announced a new Facebook® application that lets Vringo users import their Facebook friends’ profile photos to their mobile phones, automatically matching them to friends’ phone numbers. When Facebook friends call one another, their friend’s photos will appear on their phone screens as a type of visual caller ID.

“Vringo and Facebook are focused on sharing interesting content and experiences over digital media,” said Vringo General Manager and Senior VP–Content & Community Andrew Perlman. “By enabling Vringo users to connect Facebook friends with their mobile contact information, the Vringo experience becomes even more personalized and focused on users’ communities or social maps.”

The Vringo application enables Facebook users to update the photos on their devices through Facebook when friends change their profile pictures. Facebook users who add the application can also invite friends to become Vringo users.

The application initially will be offered free on a global basis. Vringo for Facebook is available for BlackBerry® smartphones from Research In Motion (RIM) and devices operating on the Windows Mobile platform. The application will also be available for additional mobile devices in the near future.

The application can be downloaded from Facebook at www.vringo.com/facebook. At the site, a Vringo user must provide his or her mobile number to download the application directly onto their mobile device.

Vringo’s Facebook application is an offshoot of the company’s flagship video ringtone service in which subscribers can also use their buddy lists to deliver rich media clips—“Vringos”—announcing the caller to the person being called, or to identify an incoming caller. With this service, users select their personal Vringo clips (such as customized avatars, cartoons and slide shows, as well as TV, music or video clips) through their mobile handsets or online. This (non-Facebook) version of Vringo can be downloaded at www.vringo.com.

Users can choose licensed content from providers such as Discovery Channel, Universal Music Group, Turner Broadcasting System and Agence France Presse; content they create themselves; or content imported from almost anywhere on the Web. Vringos can be shared with any subscriber in the Vringo community with a compatible wireless phone.

For further details about Vringo, to preview video ringtones or to see a list of supported handsets, please visit www.vringo.com.

A video clip demonstrating the Vringo Facebook application can be viewed here: http://comunicano.typepad.com/bam/2008/03/vringos-new-fac.html.

The BlackBerry and RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties and trademarks of Research In Motion Limited.

About Vringo

Vringo is making mobile Personalization 2.0 a reality by enabling users to experience rich media ringtones on a wide variety of mobile devices and for the first time to share that media with others within a community. Vringo is backed by Warburg Pincus and by private investors. More information can be found at www.vringo.com.

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Contact:
Sue Huss
Comunicano
sue.huss@comunicano.com
+1 619-379-4396

Vringo's new Facebook application

VringoTM, the pioneer in visual ringtone sharing, has announced a new Facebook application that lets Vringo users import their Facebook friends’ profile photos to their mobile phones, automatically matching them to friends’ phone numbers. When Facebook friends call one another, their friend’s photos will appear on their phone screens as a type of visual caller ID.

IFBYPHONE ON SQUAWK BOX

Irv Shapiro, CEO of Chicago-based Ifbyphone, spoke to Alec Saunders on the daily podcast, Squawk Box. Ifbyphone is a converged voice and Web solutions company (and Comunicano client) that helps businesses have an enterprise-level, but inexpensive, presence on the Web. Listen to Alec's conversation with Irv here: http://saunderslog.com/2008/03/27/squawk-box-march-27-guest-irv-shapiro-of-ifbyphone/.