Few years back, a group of designers and engineers here looked at the smartphones people were carrying and saw an opportunity for something better. Phones had become centered on icons and technology, and we believed they should be centered on people. So we set out to build a phone for each of us, rather than a single phone for all of us. The result, in November 2010, was Windows Phone 7. We didn’t expect to change the world overnight. But the design awards and glowing reviews that poured in from customers and critics told us we were onto something special.

Today I’m pleased to announce the launch of Windows Phone 8, the world’s most personal smartphone operating system and perfect companion to your new Windows 8 PC. The first new phones are expected to start going on sale at operators and retailers in Europe this weekend, and continue to roll out around the world throughout the month of November.

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SOURCE Windows Phone Blog

Working from anywhere, using any device at any time, efficiently and effectively is what Unified Communications (UC) is all about.

UC comes in the form of various bundles of services, from Presence and IM, to Email, to Conferencing and Collaboration, MPLS and Voice telephony. And all these smoothly intertwined with business processes of the company.

It comes with so many advantages to simplify the business but most importantly it saves a ton of time. Time – one incredibly valuable commodity with limited supply.

UC will save time on checking company directory, prevent calls to colleagues that are busy in this instance an not able to answer the call anyway and inform when is the actual best time to connect.

Unified Messaging is one neat example of UC. All emails, voicemail, text and fax come into a single inbox. And those voicemails are transcribed into text so no more time wasted dialing into the mailbox, typing the password, dialing to hear new message, waiting for the prompt…etc.

UC enables employees to be more productive for longer periods of time as information is sorted and timely.

The best part is the ability for the customer to try Unified Communications at a comfortable pace and test variety of options available without the pressure of full immediate integration.

ComputerTalk's ice product provides all the Unified Communications you need on a simple all-in-one platform; phone, email, instant messaging, social media (Facebook and Twitter), video, webchat, and Skype. Learn more about ice contact center.

SOURCE L3

Yesterday, the Microsoft Lync Mobile client for Windows Phone finally got released, just making it out in the “Q4 2011” that was promised earlier this year. After making the server side changes a couple of days ahead of time, I got a chance to try the client out yesterday, and see what it can do.

First, when you log in, the client asks about setting up a single number reach, which is really just setting up Simultaneous Ring for your mobile number. This feature has been there since day one, but if nothing else, having it front and centre like this will expose it to people that have never used it before.

Phone numbers are dumb.  There’s really no way around it-if I want to talk to someone, I need to know (or look up) an arbitrary number that’s 4 or more digits long and dial it.  This was bad enough when most people had only one number, but now I’m sure most people have at minimum two or three places where they could reasonably be expected to be reached (home, office, mobile, cottage, private jet etc).