Sony introduced a free Internet phone service

Yesterday, electronics giant Sony announced a free VoIP phone service similar to Skype, but more focused on video conference applications.

With the name IVE or "Instant Video Everywhere" , this service is based on Windows software that you can easily download from the Internet. It will ship with the new Vaio BX laptop line - the first laptop to be equipped with Sony's integrated digital camera.

Like Skype, IVE will set aside a preferential service for subscribers with a fee of US $ 9.95 / month - allowing you to call to fixed and mobile phones from your computer.

The product Sony cooperates with GlowPoint, IVE to mark the technology industry's latest effort in realizing the idea of ​​"visual phones" in the consumer market. This concept was first introduced by AT&T at the 1964 World Exhibition, but in the later 70s, it completely failed to penetrate the market. It was not until the dot-com era, when a high-speed Internet connection appeared, that the phone saw a new image "re-exporting Gypsy".

While the big Internet portals such as Yahoo and AOL of Time Warner have been providing video features for IM services for a long time, few users have looked at them now, partly because the bandwidth is not large enough to reach them. to high speed.

More recently, Skype Technologies SA has promised to introduce a video version of the VoIP service - which is extremely popular worldwide - by the end of the year. Yesterday, a company called "strange" Yak Communications also launched a free Internet calling service, integrating similar video.

Back to Sony. The company's latest move in providing Internet phone services does not mean Sony Electronics wants to become a phone company. Simply, the company only creates software to stimulate the hardware.

Holding Exam (According to AP)