Can you say “riding the coattails of VoIP”? Knowing how hot “VoIP” is, this little 17-year old teeny-bopper decided to create her own VoIP software to coincide with her debut single. Coincidence? Stupid marketing ploy! Actually, it worked, since I’m giving her the publicity.angry

Her software lets you call her live or leave her a message if she doesn’t answer. I think everybody should go and download her client, install it and “prank” call her using the anonymity of the Internet. Just keep it clean, like “You’re such a lamer.” or “Stick to music not VoIP.” Ok, maybe I’m being a bit harsh.

Teen pop singer launches own VOIP phone service. Kandice Melonakos, a 17 year old singer/songwriter is releasing her own branded version of VOIP called KanTalk! right along with her debut single. Her target is obvious - the MySpace generation that lives on the net and listens to music.

Hollywood, CA (PRWEB) December 15, 2005 — There’s Skype for shopping on E-Bay. There’s MSN, Yahoo, and AOL VOIP for voice chatting. Yet, even with 11,000 or more VOIP providers, there is still room for a new kid on the block. And technically speaking, a kid she still is. Kandice Melonakos, a 17 year old singer/ songwriter /ventriloquist, is releasing her own branded version of VOIP called KanTalk! right along with her first single. Her target is obvious - connecting with people who listen to and make music.

The Kantalk! VoicePod is a free downloadable software that turns the computer into a phone and enables people from around the world to talk to each other over their computers without charge. After downloading, simply plug in a headset and start calling. KanTalk! enables friends to talk for hours and save their cell phone minutes for when they are truly mobile. The KanTalk! registration link can be found on http://www.kandicemusic.com. After fans hear the music on the artist’s VoicePod, they can click a button to call the artist, leave a voicemail, send a text message or even video mail.

KanTalk! includes video and voice mail features, as well as the ability to listen to Kandice’s music which she writes herself. “Kandice is the perfect poster child for the VOIP industry,” says her executive producer, Tolga Katas. “She spends hours daily on the Internet like millions of other young people, chatting and cruising MySpace. She’s always worried about running out of minutes on her cell phone. Music and technology is what she lives and breathes. It is fitting that she is the first artist to launch her own brand of VOIP software. It’s like MySpace and Skype put together.”

KanTalk! was created using a brandable VOIP software called WhitePhone from Voice Commerce Group, a company which has officially sponsored Kandice. Nick Ogden, President of the Voice Commerce Group based in the U.K., said, “We’re very excited about the launch of the KanTalk! VoicePod. Kandice is a very talented artiste and it’s most fitting that a star of the future should be using technology of the future. WhitePhone is designed to build and strengthen on-line communities and has natural applications throughout the whole media industry. KanTalk! demonstrates this by providing fans with a rich interactive experience, far more than has been possible until now - with video messaging, free PC-to-PC conversation, and an interactive announcements service, which will allow fans to share information and memorabilia.”

Paul Fishkin, co-founder of the highly successful Time-Warner labels: Bearsville Records and Modern Records, and who helped guide the successes of legendary acts such as Stevie Nicks, Twisted Sister, Foghat and Natalie Cole, predicts that the KanTalk! VoicePod concept will be a hot new technology all music acts, signed or unsigned, will soon be adopting to advance their brands. Currently, he manages Hush whose debut album, Bulletproof, was just released through Geffen. Fishkin introduced Hush, a technology-savvy artist, to the KanTalk! strategy and now Hush’s own VoicePod is in development. Hush’s VoicePod will also host his Vlog and music videos for the video iPod.

The KanTalk! release party will take place December 19th at 10:30 p.m. at the world famous Whiskey A Go Go in Hollywood. In attendance will be John Draper, a software developer for Voice Commerce. Draper, a.k.a. Captain Crunch, was first made famous for outsmarting long-distance charge with his phone phreaking activities in the 70’s. Draper is programming the Mac version of KanTalk! and is a Kandice music fan.

Uniquely, KanTalk! even comes with its own live operator, sometimes. Her name, of course, is Kandice. “But if you sign up for KanTalk! and the operator doesn’t answer the phone every time, don’t worry,” laughs Tolga Katas. “She probably just hasn’t come home from school yet.”

A reader writes on SpitCam:

I found a program which lets you use a prerecorded video and stream it as your webcam. The product is called SplitCam at SplitCamera.com. I was able to share a video with my friends in realtime. SplitCam shows up as a webcam option. It even allows you to use images instead of videos so you can share them in realtime. Why this is great is you don’t need to email, transfer, or upload the file. You could stream it instead. This could even be used as a way to have a video answering machine if there was some way to make skype auto answer the call.

SplitCamera is a freeware virtual video clone and video capture driver for connecting several applications to a single video capture source. Usually, if you have a web-camera connected to your computer, you cannot use it in more than one application at the same time, and there is no standard Windows options that makes it possible. SplitCam driver allows you to easily multiply your web-camera video in any conferensing software like ICQ, Yahoo, MSN Messenger, or whatever… and to broadcast it to many users at a time. With SplitCam you can connect up to 64 clients to a single video source. In a few words: SplitCam does just what its name says: it splits the video stream coming from the video source and tunnels it to numerous other client applications.

Vonage is set to release its portable WiFi phone, called the F1000, today. It’s been in the works for ages, but we finally have some specs and pricing details. Manufactured by UTStarcom, you’ll be able to use this phone on any public 802.11b network, and it’s configured to work with existing Vonage call features, such as three-way calling, caller ID and voicemail. It will also have cellphone-type ring options, like silent, vibrate and selectable ring tones and you’ll be able to save WiFi profiles. Battery life is about 5 hours of talk time and up to 100 hours of standby, according to Vonage. The phone is available from Vonage and should cost about $80 after rebate. The service is free to the company’s customers The service does require all users, even those who are existing Vonage subscribers, to purchase a calling plan with the wifi phone. So if you are a current customer, and you buy the wifi phone, you still need to sign up of a new plan for the phone.

One problem: because it uses WiFi, any hotspot that asks you to pay will be off-limits to this phone, which could be annoying (thanks a TON, Starbucks).