I currently have a handheld Linux device to play with which is quite cool. I have been able to install a heap of different packages and play with different things – it is a great concept. The one thing that it has brought to my attention is the exceptionally liberal approach to the term VoIP.
I guess it is a little more then just VoIP – it is the use of SIP along with VoIP that is really getting me annoyed. There are many references to this particular device supporting VoIP, and in particular SIP, which got me very excited. So I grabbed the packages, only to find one for for Google Talk, and the other for Gizmo.
Whilst you could argue that both these projects are transmitting Voice over IP, neither of these projects deliver what I see as true VoIP, well – true VoIP + SIP. I see it as allowing you to connect to your own VoIP provider – be it on that PSTN terminates, Internet routes, or even your own asterisk box.
I suppose it is a case of buyer beware, but if I were to purchase this particular device – reading the marketing material that it supports VoIP and SIP, I would (wrongly) make the assumption that it can connect to any truly SIP enabled service – not a closed and in my opinion just as proprietary VoIP service (regardless of the back-end using an open protocol or not) as Skype (please don’t get me started about how much I hate skype and how much I think it is doing to damage the true potential of VoIP).
