Comments on: Say Tello For Presence

By: Hillrider

Hillrider — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 16:59:05 +0000

It appears that Tello has bit the dust. The main phone line (650-581-2400) is permanently busied out and the website has not been updated in months. The website confirms that before winding down the company had no real management team left. The CTO, Alan Johnston, the VP Engineering, ?, the VP of Marketing, Kevin Gavin, and all the founders fled in rapid succession with the culmination of the CEO, Doug Renert, being asked to lock the door behind him.

Apparently all Tello accomplished was cash burn and flowery PR.

By: Kelly, logo designer

Kelly, logo designer — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 21:18:19 +0000

From the first look it doesn't seem to be very simple and convenient in use.

By: TechCrunch en français » Tello - bon produit, stratégie discutable?

TechCrunch en français » Tello - bon produit, stratégie discutable? — Sun, 05 Feb 2006 13:47:19 +0000

[...] En second lieu, ils ont visiblement décidé que les bloggeurs ne sont pas si importants. Om Malik et Alec Saunders ont pris le temps d’écrire à leur propos. Bien qu’ils soient consultés par une large et très pertinente audience, Tello n’a même pas pris le soin d’en faire mention sur la page des nouveautés. Beaucoup d’autres bloggeurs ont écrit (y compris notre MobileCrunch) mais aucun n’a été mentionné. Les sociétés qui ignorent les bloggeurs ont tendance à être attaqués par les bloggeurs. Les sociétés qui leur porte attention et les remercie recevoir en retour beaucoup beaucoup en retour. [...]

By: Mull

Mull — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 02:54:33 +0000

So now when I let a call go to voicemail people will know I am blowing them off? That can't be good.

By: Om Malik on Broadband : » VoIP, Not Just For Cheap Calls

Om Malik on Broadband : » VoIP, Not Just For Cheap Calls — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 19:11:53 +0000

[...] There are more applications which are on the horizon. Take Mabber as an example. Or Tello, which could possibly be able to connect large corporations with their partners directly over the Internet and thus bypassing the PSTN. There are so many more experiments waiting to happen. I sincerely hope someone takes a crack at building Mac-VoIP apps. Wouldn’t it be cool if someone wrote a plugin for Apple Address Book, where a click could route the call over say, Gizmo Project soft-phone. [...]

By: Telefonos WiFi y Voz IP » Archivo del weblog » Blog de Vo IP de US

Telefonos WiFi y Voz IP » Archivo del weblog » Blog de Vo IP de US — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 18:38:10 +0000

[...] Seriously, this is designed really to federate between enterprise networks to make it easier to reach one another. If anything it attacks Groove, Ray Ozzie’s baby that Microsoft is banking on for extended workforce collaboration and access and is as Om points out all based around the idea of presence and identity, the former of which has been a Jeff Pulver driven crusade for many years aside from just VoIP. [...]

By: Jeff Hester

Jeff Hester — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 17:26:14 +0000

I'm sorry, but Tello bores me, and the only viable reason for the coverage they've received is their pedigree. Presence is not new. Their vision is clever (if a bit Orwellian), but the product doesn't yet deliver on that vision. There are far too many disconnected pieces to achieve widespread adoption.

A better solution? Provide a framework with an API for integrating everything (IM, VoIP, POTs, etc.). Parter with one or two key players, and provide incentives for others to develop plug-in connectors. This lets everyone take advantage of the concept without forcing them to switch tools (i.e. using Gizmo Project or Google Talk instead of Skype).

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 16:04:26 +0000

yup, that's precisely the point. i wrote that already. anyway follow-up post coming soon.

By: Jeremy Pepper

Jeremy Pepper — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 06:47:33 +0000

Isn't this what Microsoft's LCS is supposed to do?

By: TechCrunch » Tello’s Made Some Mistakes Already

TechCrunch » Tello’s Made Some Mistakes Already — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 08:04:11 +0000

[...] Second, they’ve obviously decided that the bloggers don’t matter much. Om Malik took the time to write about them. Even though he commands a very large and very relevant audience, Tello didn’t bother to list him on the news page. Lots of other bloggers wrote about Tello too (including our own MobileCrunch), but were not mentioned. Companies that don’t embrace bloggers tend to become attacked by bloggers. Companies that embrace bloggers, and thank them, get lots and lots of love. [...]

By: Tello Outed at Last -- Alec Saunders .LOG

Tello Outed at Last -- Alec Saunders .LOG — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 06:13:44 +0000

[...] Tello Outed at Last Tello launched today. This stealthy start-up has remained under the radar for the past 12 months, refining their vision and building a compelling product before bringing it to market. During that time, I’ve been privileged to have several conversations with them and watch how their vision has evolved. The easy way to think about Tello is to imagine what Skype might be like if it were built for a business user. It’s a voice and IM app that can federate across multiple networks, support a heterogeneous universe of endpoints(hardware and software), and reflect presence information throughout the network. It’s a big vision. The Tello team has done a fabulous job of telling that story too. Naturally, the commentary has been diverse: Andy Abramson’s short, but pithy comment: "Is Microsoft the enemy in this new venture launched by Jeff Pulver and a few tech all stars?" He’s right on the money. Tello is trying to play the cross platform card to Microsoft’s Windows-only LCS. Stowe Boyd’s insightful piece wonders if they can deliver on the vision. He writes: "This group is prescient enough to find the battlefield, but way too small to hold it." Erick Schonfeld muses "Sounds like Tello wants to go beyond cheap phone calls and use VoIP and IM as an application platform to connect people across businesses. Voice is the new platform." Wrong Erick. Voice 2.0 is the new platform! Tom Keating is a good deal more skeptical. He writes: Personally, I think this one is a wait and see. Let them role out the beta and we can learn via the end user experience if the “presence” that everyone is talking about is an enabling phenomenon that supports improved work efficiency or rather the realization of a more invasive tech-future in which you can unfortunately say I’ve met big brother and her name is Ma Bell. Om Malik also published a lengthy write-up and wondered how well the company would do if the inevitable feature creep, combined with a "good enough" sentiment from consumers would hold the company back. [...]

By: moo

moo — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 04:09:25 +0000

Verizon has a similar proprietary offering called iobi. It offers presence and other PIM related tools too. It has some cool features but suffers from feature creep. Jeff Pulver should watch out for that. Check it out at http://www.verizon.com/iobi

By: Creative Slice

Creative Slice — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 04:08:01 +0000

hmmmm, they really coulda used some advice from a designer during this launch. While the technology behind Tello appears to have some merit the casual browser (aks, non-geek) is going to skip over this site before they blink.

I like the concept, now let's work on the communication.

By: Cloudy Thinking by Ron K. Jeffries » Blog Archive » SIP Gets Interesting

Tue, 24 Jan 2006 03:53:06 +0000

[...] Tello could well be an inflection point for the SIP protocol. Om Malik has an excellent summary. [...]

By: ThePodcastNetwork :: G’day World » Blog Archive » G’Day World #75

Tue, 24 Jan 2006 03:31:37 +0000

[...] Tello, the new VOIP app [...]

By: mathewingram.com/work

mathewingram.com/work — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 01:59:19 +0000

Tello and Iotum do the “presence” thing

Reading about the launch of Tello, a software application aimed at the idea of “presence” — in other words, helping people figure out where you are and then helping them reach you with the appropriate phone or other device — re...