Tag: communication

Spectralink DECT devices now integrated with Microsoft Teams SIP Gateway

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 8, 2022
No Comments on Spectralink DECT devices now integrated with Microsoft Teams SIP Gateway

Spectralink DECT devices are now integrated with Microsoft Teams SIP Gateway to help create better results for business-critical frontline workers.

The DECT devices integration with Microsoft Teams SIP Gateway is now available in Australia and New Zealand through local distributor Wavelink.

The integration comes at a time when sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and logistics, are relying more heavily on business-critical deskless workers (workers who have to go to a business location to carry out their roles).

It is clear that enterprise businesses globally have also embraced the significant business benefits of cloud-based collaboration tools, leading to more demand for better technology.

In today’s climate, deskless workers must be able to communicate and collaborate easily with their colleagues who work across locations, shifts, and time zones from anywhere. This is often enabled by cloud-based communication and collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams.

The new integration will further enable enterprise customers to migrate to Microsoft Teams while keeping those business-critical deskless workers connected through and after the process.

“Open integration is part of Spectralink’s DNA and this latest integration proves our commitment to the objective of providing customers with choice over their preferred systems,” says Spectralink Corporation managing director EMEA Julien Bertheuil.

“As more and more businesses were coming to us asking for support migrating to the cloud to improve worker collaboration and safety, our experience in enterprise-grade DECT, combined with our knowledge of the Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) market, meant we We were ideally placed to develop this much-needed integration with Microsoft Teams. We hope more and more businesses will now be able to complete their digital transformation journey seamlessly.”

Microsoft vice president teams engineering Mahendra Sekaran says the new integration will help many frontline workers with communication on the job, helping them better serve their communities.

“Spectralink DECT integration with Microsoft Teams SIP Gateway enables Teams users to use their DECT devices as another Teams endpoint, while getting access to all of Teams collaboration capabilities. Frontline workers rely on these devices to get their work done, and this new integration allows them to stay connected with their colleagues while on the go.”

Spectralink says it has been developing solutions ranging from on-premises digital private branch exchanges (PBXs) to private and public cloud-delivered collaboration tools for 30 years. They say that this integration, as with the company’s other implementations, helps to bridge the gap between enterprise communications platforms and infrastructure of all sizes.

Tags Cloud, communication, microsoft, Spectralink, teams, UCaaS

Technology

There Are 2 Google Meet Apps Now

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 5, 2022
No Comments on There Are 2 Google Meet Apps Now

Google has started merging its Meet and Duo video-chat apps to create what the company calls a “single video communications service.”

Starting this week, Duo is getting an upgrade to include video calling and meeting capabilities. Once fully rolled out later this year, the app’s name and icon will also change to “Google Meet,” featuring a camera in Google’s familiar colors.

“We have been doing this carefully, first adding Google Meet features to the Duo app, and now rebranding Duo to Meet,” a company spokesperson tells PCMag. “And by the end of the year, [we’ll] have everything in one web and mobile experience under Google Meet.”

Confusingly, the existing Google Meet is sticking around for a bit—now with different-color logos to help differentiate the new “Google Meet” from “Google Meet (original),” the latter of which will one day be put out to pasture, (alongside Labs, Wave, Reader, and, soon, Hangouts).

help article that outlines the different color logos for meet and duo

Color schemes for Google Meet, Google Meet (original), and Google Duo

If you’re puzzled by the alterations (and, frankly, we all are a little), Google released a couple of help articles about changes to Duo and the impact this has on various app icons.

One-to-one video calling app Duo launched in August 2016 as a FaceTime alternative for iOS and Android mobile users. Based on your existing phone number, it taps into your contact list and automatically adjusts call quality to changing network conditions—switching between Wi-Fi and cellular data without dropping the conversation.

Google formally launched Meet, formerly known as Hangouts Meet, in March 2017, but the enterprise-friendly, video-conferencing service really picked up steam in April 2020, when the platform became free to everyone during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the years, Google has bulked up the programs, introducing features like virtual effects, live captions, and noise cancellation. Now it’s combining all that (and more) into one app.

“Existing video calling features from Duo are here to stay, including the ability to make video calls to friends and family by phone number or email address, use fun filters and effects, send messages, and ask Google Assistant to call using existing devices,” according to a June blog announcement. “All conversation history, contacts, and messages will continue to be saved in the app and there will be no new app to download.”

Users can also expect enhanced functions like custom backgrounds, meeting scheduling, in-house chat, integration with other Google tools, and the ability to invite up to 100 participants.

Tags Business, communication, home, Video Conferencing Software

Australia

Voluntary assisted dying’s ‘prohibitive’ communication laws face GP legal challenge

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 2, 2022
No Comments on Voluntary assisted dying’s ‘prohibitive’ communication laws face GP legal challenge

A Melbourne GP is taking legal action against the federal Attorney-General to fight what he calls an “extraordinarily prohibitive” law that prevents doctors from communicating via modern technology with terminally ill patients about assisted dying.

Dying with Dignity Victoria board member Nick Carr said he had pursued legal action in the Federal Court to clarify the definition of suicide in the Commonwealth Criminal Code 1995.

Under the code, it is illegal for a person to discuss suicide through a carriage service, which includes phones, text messages, emails and telehealth services.

Dr Carr said he filed the affidavit after federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus did not respond to a letter warning legal action would be taken if the code was not clarified.

He also said former Attorney-General Michaelia Cash wrote to him in February saying she would not change the code.

Big ends for breaking the law

To be approved for Victoria’s assisted dying scheme, two doctors need to verify a patient has less than six months to live for a physical illness and 12 months for a neurological condition.

But breaking the communication laws can result in ends of up to $222,000 for individuals or $1,110,000 for businesses.

Dr Carr, who was one of the first GPs trained in Victoria to provide voluntary assisted dying support, said current laws were “extraordinarily prohibitive” for people living with disability and in regional or rural areas.

“If it changes, what it means is that it will make it much easier for patients to be able to access voluntary assisted dying — and crucially it removes doubt for practitioners,” he said.

“At the moment if we make a single phone call, text message or email to a patient, there is doubt about whether or not that could be crossing a legal boundary, and we could be at risk of prosecution.

“We desperately need that to be clarified so that we can make those calls, emails and contacts with patients, which is an integral part of this process.”

Lobbying for two years

Dr Carr said he had been lobbying current and previous Victorian state and federal attorneys-general for nearly two years about clarifying the law.

“All have either passed the buck or said they have no intention of changing the Commonwealth Criminal Code Act,” he said.

“And having no response from the new Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, we felt that there was no choice other than to go down the legal path.

“Even if the court does decide that assisted dying services are restricted by the criminal code, medical practitioners will at least then have necessary clarity … and the issue of whether there should be any restriction will be squarely a legislative issue.”

Protesters rally outside the Victorian Parliament during 2017 to call for voluntary euthanasia.(Supplied: Dying with Dignity Victory)

Dr Carr said he would argue assisted dying was not suicide, which is a widely held consensus in the medical community.

“Suicide is usually done in private, and it’s not supported by family or friends who are devastated when it happens,” he said.

“Voluntary assisted dying is about giving patients who are already dying a choice about how to die.”

An Attorney-General spokesperson told the ABC he was not able to comment while the matter was before the courts.

Doctors are ‘too cautious’

Victorian crossbench MP Fiona Patten, who was central to Victoria’s voluntary assisted dying legislation in 2019, said she did not believe legal action needed to be taken.

Victorian crossbench MP Fiona Patten believes doctors are unlikely to be prosecuted under the laws.(abcnews)

She referred to advice from barristers Robert Richter QC and William Stark in 2020, who concluded it was “extremely unlikely” a doctor would face criminal charges under the code.

“It was an absolute unintended consequence of the legislation, but I think the doctors are being too cautious,” she said.

Ms Patten added, however, that the law had not yet been tested in court.

While she said the Victorian government would look at the state legislation “in the next year or two” when the voluntary assisted dying program is scheduled for review, the federal government could “easily clarify it.”

“Given every state in Australia has legislated assisted dying, that would be a practical solution,” she said.

A Victorian government spokesperson said it had made “numerous requests to the former federal government to make changes to the code”.

“Working with other jurisdictions, we are continuing this advocacy and look forward to working with the new Commonwealth government on this issue,” the spokesperson said.

Western Australia implemented its voluntary assisted dying laws in a way that allowed telehealth consultations, according to Dying With Dignity WA.

It is understood voluntary assisted dying will be discussed in a meeting between the state and federal attorneys-general next week.

Tags commonwealth criminal code, communication, Dr Nick Carr, dying with dignity, euthanasia, mark dreyfus, Michaelia Cash, voluntary assisted dying, wow

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