Ryan Boswell [dot] com
Archive for June 2010
Twilio and OpenVBX
Earlier this week I heard about OpenVBX when my hosting provider, DreamHost, enabled it for a one-click install. Reading about it in their monthly newsletter, I got curious about it and decided to check it out. Loyal readers will remember my obsession with Google Voice and it’s potential as a phone system for large groups. OpenVBX, with Twilio, is just that, a self-hosted Google Voice for businesses and organizations.
Twilio is the under-lying service, much like a standard Google Voice. What makes it really powerful is the ability to use its API to control what happens to incoming calls and SMS. Google Voice is great for consumers, especially since it’s mostly free (intl. calls cost $). But for people or groups that want an easy to use and powerful phone system, Twilio paired with OpenVBX is the answer, at least until Google finally gets around to adding Voice to their Apps offerings.
I downloaded and installed OpenVBX on my own servers to test out. Twilio offers trial accounts that come with $30 in credit and a sandbox phone number to test out your applications before you decide to upgrade and start paying for your own number. OpenVBX is just a web application that accesses the Twilio API and provides a drop-dead-simple interface for configuring what happens when people call or text your number.
Through OpenVBX, you can setup different user-accounts for everyone in your business or organization, and they can add their own numbers into the system to use as forwarding phones. Administrators can then add users to different groups (Sales, Support, etc.). Each user also has an inbox that stores any SMS or Voicemail messages that are available to them (either personally or through a group they are in).
In the call flow editor you can add endpoints to call a specific person or group, and the system rings all of the associated phones until someone picks up. You can further customize and app various applets to the call flow through a very simple, drag-and-drop interface. There is a SMS flow counterpart to handle incoming text messages to your number.
The one drawback I see so far in OpenVBX, is that there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to integrate any kind of dynamic information into the call flow, such as a listing of groups in the company. But there is very likely a way to do this through a plugin to OpenVBX. There is a plugin directory on the OpenVBX website, and while it is small now, I imagine that in a few months there will be dozens of plugins to provide integration and more features to the base system.
In addition to plugins, OpenVBX also supports themes, which allows for custom branding and design, so you can further integrate OpenVBX with whatever other internal systems your business or organization may have.
Twilio, as a service, is remarkably well-done. It’s a very simple, but powerful service. And best of all, it’s relatively cheap for small to medium businesses and organizations. It costs you $1 per month for each local phone number and $.03 per minute for outbound calls and SMS (inbound or outbound). If you want to use a toll free number it’s $2 per month and $.05 per minute. International calls cost a little bit more, but still not expensive for the most part.
Update: One thing I can’t believe I didn’t mention about Twilio is that they also offer voicemail transcription for $.05 per minute. In my testing and usage so far, it’s about on par with Google Voice’s transcription service. It gets most everything right, but there’s still a few mixups. Obviously, voice-to-text technology is still in it’s relative infancy, and even within the next few months it will no doubt improve dramatically.
Disclaimer: After posting this writeup, one of the Twilio employees offered me a $100 service credit as thanks for my praise of the service (see the first comment below). Since I had no connection to Twilio before writing this, I accepted the offer. And this also doesn’t mean that if I find problems that I won’t not talk about them (and I’m sure they would love to hear about things they could improve anyway).
iOS 4.0
So I made the jump to upgrade to iOS 4.0 on my 3GS. Initially I was hesitant because of what happened the last few times I upgraded the software on my iPhone (iTunes crashed half way through, and I spent half a day trying to restore my iPhone because the upgrade was corrupt), but I had the whole day to play, so I decided to just jump in.
Fortunately everything went smoothly, even if the whole process to an hour and a half (from upgrading iTunes to the latest version all the way through to the post-upgrade sync).
One of my favorite features of the new OS is folders. I absolutely love them. One of the first things I did was consolidate all of my apps onto one screen, deleting about 5-6 unused apps in the process. Now, all of my apps are 2-3 taps away.
Wallpapers are nice, but it’s not like the feature is any reason to scoff at.
Multitasking is still something I have yet to really use, I don’t really have any apps that are really ‘multitaskable’, I’ve never had the desire to be able to do it. But I do like the app switcher/media control. Previously if you double-tapped the home button you’d just get iPod controls (something a lot of people I know never knew about until I showed them, it also works when the screen is locked), now you get that and the ability to quickly switch to a recently-used app, all in one interface, kinda useful I guess.
One thing that I don’t remember hearing about anywhere, is that the iPod app now makes use of folders that you have in iTunes. Previously, whatever folders and playlists you had synced just showed up in a flat list. Now everything is nested just the way you have it in iTunes. This is really useful for me because I make pretty heavy use of folders and smart playlists to sync just the right music to my iPod (since I have a collection larger than I could fit on my iPod, getting the right music on it requires a bit of magic), and before all of those playlists showed up with all the other ones, which was annoying. Now everything is safely tucked away and organized the way I like it.
The last thing I want to mention is the speed boost. Ever since upgrading, everything feels a helluva lot snappier and smoother. I noticed almost immediately that everything seemed to just zip along compared to before, not that it was sluggish or anything, but still. Damn. I can only wonder how much faster everything is and feels on the iPhone 4.
Speaking of which, I’ve pretty much decided that I’m going to make the jump and upgrade to the iPhone 4. I didn’t pre-order it (stupid decision), so I don’t know how hard it’s going to be to actually get one, but I plan on getting in line Thursday morning around 5am with everyone else at my local Apple Store and try my luck. I decided on the black 32GB model, just like what I have now. Then once I have my new iPhone 4 and everything is working alright, I’m going to ship my old 3GS off to NextWorth, my quoted price is going for $200, so overall the upgrade is going to cost me $100 plus tax and the $18 upgrade fee. Not too bad I guess. So you can expect an update sometime Thursday or Friday detailing my experience trying to get a new iPhone without a pre-order.
AT&T’s New Data Pricing
Initially I was quite upset about AT&T axing their unlimited data plans. But after thinking about it all day and then reviewing my own data usage on my iPhone for the past few months, I’m actually a little happy.
At first I was a bit outraged, I’ll admit. My first thought was that this was a move to squeeze more money out of iPhone users with overage charges up the yin-yang, and I was worried about my rising cell phone bill already. I was sure that I was going to be one of those people that would keep hitting the 2GB limit.
I then later found out that this change wouldn’t affect anyone that currently has the $30/month unlimited plan. I thought about it the whole thing a little more and then took a look at my data usage for the past few months. It turns out, I’ve never even hit 1GB in usage, my highest so far is 650MB, which was last month. So I’m actually very pleased with this move, because it’ll let me knock $5/month off my bill once I’m able to change my plan. Sure, I’ll be permanently giving up the unlimited data, but I’m not really going to need it. I use my iPhone a lot, and I still don’t get to half of what my new limit will be.
The next big part of the announcement is tethering. Finally! We’ve been waiting forever for this, and it’s finally here. Well, almost here. Once the new iPhone OS 4.0 ships this summer everyone will be able to get tethering on their iPhones, for $20/month on top of the $25/month 2GB data plan. It’s a little pricey, but since it’s just an added feature you can add and remove it as you need it, so if you’re on the go and want an internet connection on your computer (assuming you can get a good data connection wherever you are), it’s just a $20 add-on, which is cheaper than most hotel internet for more than a day or two. Plus you get tethering for the rest of your billing cycle (so plan those trips at the beginning of your cycle to get the most bang for your buck).
Version 3.0
So this morning I finally released the latest design iteration of my personal website, ie. the one you’re at right now (unless of course you’re reading this in a news reader, in which case, come on over and check out the new design).
This one is a bit of a departure from the previous versions, namely the design isn’t centered. In fact it’s probably the first design of mine since my first few years in the business that isn’t. I wanted something a little different, so I went for it. The other major difference is the color scheme, or at least the existence of one. The last iteration was a little bare thanks to my then-obsession with minimalism. I’ve since moved on a little bit, and while I still kept things simple and clean, I made sure it didn’t feel empty.
So welcome to ryanboswell.com, my home on the internet.