Four (!) important software projects will be released by Telnic / Telnames soon!

1.) Reseller API

Bowen-Morris said he is in discussions with directory publishers in the U.K., and elsewhere, about using the Telnic API to build a custom branded environment for offering .tel as part of a presence bundle, or as part of a managed service, which could command a much higher price point for resellers. Through the API, publishers can register the .tel names and upload merchant business profile info.

Source: Kelsey Group


2.) New iPhone and Android apps for registry and management of .tel domains

Bowen-Morris says next on the list for Telnic are apps that allow registry and management of .tel names via iPhone or Android.

Source: Tech Fanatic


3.) Enhancement of the recently new introduced templates

There are a few updates being included in the release that will correct this that are still being tested. I'll let you know when it is released.

Source: Aled Williams, Director of Customer Services for Telnic (on 27th July 2012)


4.) THE KILLER APP

And yes, obviously, "call/email/skype somebody.tel" is the ultimate SIRI application.
As soon as Apple opens up SIRI to 3rd parties via APIs the first thing I'll do is make such an interface.

But Apple didn't open SIRI up yet.
So I'm not going to waste my time talking about it until it's available.

Source: Henri Asseily, Chief Strategist & CTO for Telnic (on 25th October 2011)

Now iOS 6 is currently available for developers and will be released this October (including opening apps and API for SIRI).

TelTalk wrote:1.) Reseller API

Bowen-Morris said he is in discussions with directory publishers in the U.K., and elsewhere, about using the Telnic API to build a custom branded environment for offering .tel as part of a presence bundle, or as part of a managed service, which could command a much higher price point for resellers. Through the API, publishers can register the .tel names and upload merchant business profile info.

Source: Kelsey Group

The author of this Kelsey Group article appears confused between the totally different .tel offerings available from Telnic and Telnames - not surprising when Ian Bowen-Morris is CMO of both !

To quote from the article:

Telnic is the organization that offers the .tel top level domain, which for GBP 14.95 per year provides a simple Web presence that enables individuals and businesses to store all their contact information (email, Web address, social presence) in a single, searchable profile.

TELNIC DOES NOT OFFER .tel domains for £14.95 per year, or for any other amount, direct to end users (only to registrars for resale).

TELNAMES DOES OFFER .tel domains for £14.95 per year direct to end users, but this .tel offering is as different as chalk and cheese from the Telnic offering.

Any newbie reading this article could easily get the impression you can buy a .tel that displays like http://YourBusiness.tel from any .tel registrar - you can't of course !

If computer journalists can't clearly get the distinction right between the 2 totally different .tel offerings, what chance has "Joe Public" ?

http://MikeSeaton.tel

The confusion is understandable because practically Telnic and Telnames are the same company which appears with two different names and two different offers.
But there is no difference for the complete staff, resources and address of "both" companies. But who else than an insider can know this?
The danger is high somebody wants to customize the design from Telnic and accidently buys a domain at Telnames (or opposite).

Telminator wrote:The danger is high somebody wants to customize the design from Telnic and accidently buys a domain at Telnames (or opposite).

It's already happening - there was a post the other day on Telnic's forum from someone who had registered a .tel via a normal registrar and wanted to know how he could display his data like that shown on the promo domain http://Ben.tel

The answer given in reply was of course that he couldn't, unless he transferred his domain to Telnames - I believe there is a 60-day wait after registration before you can do this, plus of course it costs over twice as much (Telnames £14.95 equals $23.45 according to XE.com).

http://Ben.tel did in fact use to be in Telnic format, but sometime in the not too distant past was converted to Telnames format.

Confusing newbie potential customers is very bad for businesses that want a successful future !

http://MikeSeaton.tel

Telminator wrote:The confusion is understandable because practically Telnic and Telnames are the same company which appears with two different names and two different offers.
But there is no difference for the complete staff, resources and address of "both" companies. But who else than an insider can know this?
The danger is high somebody wants to customize the design from Telnic and accidently buys a domain at Telnames (or opposite).

..
Cooling off and free transfer period? of 2 days before being locked in at telnames?

TelTalk wrote:4.) THE KILLER APP

And yes, obviously, "call/email/skype somebody.tel" is the ultimate SIRI application.
As soon as Apple opens up SIRI to 3rd parties via APIs the first thing I'll do is make such an interface.

But Apple didn't open SIRI up yet.
So I'm not going to waste my time talking about it until it's available.

Source: Henri Asseily, Chief Strategist & CTO for Telnic (on 25th October 2011)

Now iOS 6 is currently available for developers and will be released this October (including opening apps and API for SIRI).

Today's update from Henri Asseily:

I can't speak about the iOS 6 specifics (under Apple's NDA) but from the public statements they say that Siri can open apps only, which is a far cry from expecting to get actual parsed vocal information from it. Maybe the next revision...

My own thoughts:

As soon Apple will allow deeper integration of apps, this will have great potential.

But do we need an app? Perhaps SIRI can navigate through .tel domains via Safari?

As Google just announced the competitive product "Google Now" will be able clicking through websites!

A question that needs to be asked of Telnic/Telnames is if the SIRI and Google Now voice interfaces for .tel (assuming both are going to happen eventually) will be available for ALL .tel domains - or just those registered via Telnames ?

http://MikeSeaton.tel

mikeseaton wrote:A question that needs to be asked of Telnic/Telnames is if the SIRI and Google Now voice interfaces for .tel (assuming both are going to happen eventually) will be available for ALL .tel domains - or just those registered via Telnames ?

When SIRI and Google Now will be fully operational for domains, they can navigate through all websites (not only .tel domains). Then there will be no difference between domains from Telnic or Telnames, but .tel domains will be much more comfortable to navigate through than websites with any other extension.

JH wrote:

mikeseaton wrote:A question that needs to be asked of Telnic/Telnames is if the SIRI and Google Now voice interfaces for .tel (assuming both are going to happen eventually) will be available for ALL .tel domains - or just those registered via Telnames ?

When SIRI and Google Now will be fully operational for domains, they can navigate through all websites (not only .tel domains). Then there will be no difference between domains from Telnic or Telnames, but .tel domains will be much more comfortable to navigate through than websites with any other extension.

Henri has said he is writing an interface for SIRI and .tel, but there are minor differences between the CTH used for Telnic and Telnames .tel domains.

Whilst I'm sure the SIRI interface can be coded for both, it is pretty obvious that everything is being done to promote Telnames .tels instead of the original Telnic .tels, therefore it may be that the SIRI interface will only be made available for Telnames .tels ?

It's a perfectly reasonable question for Telnic/Telnames to answer - of course we could look at the Roadmap to find out - it it hadn't done a disappearing act just over a year ago !

How can any software developer or power user make plans for extensive enhancement of their .tels in such a secretive and non-communicative environment that currently exists ?

Answer is they can't, which may help to explain the increasing exodus of registrants from the .tel extension !

I've not totally given up on .tel (I'm keeping my best ones), but more and more developers/users/investors are getting frustrated at the current situation and voting with their feet.

Given that the Telnames template was launched several months ago, I would have thought that by now the essential worldwide marketing would have started, using an Affiliate program (preferably via http://www.CJ.com) where you only pay for results.

I just don't understand the complete lack of pro-active action shown by Telnic/Telnames over making .tel the success it deserves to be !

http://MikeSeaton.tel

Any progress on these projects after three months?