VoIPWatch

Arriving Early On Video Conference Calls

You've likely experienced it, especially since the pandemic started. You're on back to back conference calls on ZOOM and say your 10 AM call that's scheduled for 30 minutes is about to end--but you're not done, or someone else on the call isn't finished making their points and BAM-someone due to be on your next call dials in around 1025--thinking of course they'll be early for the call and maybe they can catch up with you. 

So, because the call your on has nothing to do with them, you let them sit in the waiting room, much like doctors do with their patients. But there's a rub-at least on ZOOM. That rub is as soon as I end my 10 AM call and in turn the recording and GRAIN's recording, the person in the waiting room is kicked off too.

There has to be a better way for this. My ask to ZOOM and others where this happens is make the waiting room just that, a place where participants wait  to be admitted vs being treated like their part of the active call. If that happens, they don't get the feeling they've been kicked out or ignored. It's a win win all the way.

Apple's iPhone: Something Old, Something New

With the release of the new iPhone 14s, and the features in it, Apple has both done something new and something old. The new are features like satellite connectivity, eSIM only editions, virtual ID, enhanced maps are the major differences, along with pricing, when you compare the US editions vs. those being sold in the rest of the world, reports Phone Arena.

It was back in the days of the single digit iPhones when I used to buy "world editions" of the smartphone. I still have my last "world edition"  iPhone SE (the original) in a drawer somewhere, as a veteran global worker, yes I was an early nomad, so I tended to need a phone that worked everywhere vs buying phones that were localized. Thankfully, Apple made those, and my life on the road was serene using Truphone sim cards for a while, or local SIMs in every country, and eventually as time went on, Google Fi as well.

Usually, the "world editions" were released a few months after Apple released the variants for the USA, EU and China. While the local variants mostly worked globally for calling and texting, where they differed was almost always on the data side, with the USA editions usually one generation behind when it came 3G, 4G or LTE connectivity, or where the radio frequencies were just not available, where the world edition was complete on the frequencies and more up
to date on the data speed capabilities as well.

The eSIM thing really is minor, as the small percentage of people who country hop and SIM swap, though growing, is small. Prepaid eSIMs are starting to appear so really, it's more a matter of convenience for now, but as time goes on, the eSIM, like NFC, becomes a far more secure mode of identification for transactions, and apps, especially those of a financial nature, will be far more secure. Candidly, friends who had their crypto wallets stolen would not have had this happen (or not as easily) if eSIMs were in use back then.

Another side of me says that the reason Apple is doing things this way has to do with capabilities and being more niche market focused and selling devices that are optimized for what works  in each locale. The virtual ID is USA only. Satellite also (for now) and maps, well both Google and Apple have been constantly fighting a battle to keep their maps more up to date.

If that's the case, for global nomads the 14 may be edition to skip and wait a year for the iPhone 15 or do something else or just buy an Android with global capabilities and keep the iPhone for what it can do. For those who stay closer to home all the time, the 14 provides a suitable upgrade and beyond the speed boosts on 5G, enough reasons to make the switch.