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The Iris 3000 is a SIP videophone manufactured by UMEC for ACN Inc. It features a 7-inch screen, CMOS Camera, an idle-time photo frame, and a standard phone jack to attach it to a cordless telephone for use throughout a home. It uses high-speed internet (DSL or cable) to connect with the service provider's network and thence to worldwide telephone systems.
The IRIS 3000 can be used as a digital photo Frame when not in use (a setup option), using either a USB thumb drive or SD memory card as the picture source, and includes a built-in phone adapter to connect an audio-only analog or digital phone for house-wide service. It also has audio and video output jacks (RCA) so that images from the video phone can be shown on a larger screen such as a computer or TV. The service provides for video greetings and video mail for others with Iris 2000 or 3000 videophones. The phone service also communicates with any other audio-only telephone, including voice greetings and voice mail.
The phone is based on Freescale's i.MX27 ARM Board and runs a custom Linux kernel. It uses SIP for the connection of the call, supports codecs G.729 and G.711 for audio and H.263 and H.264 for video.
The phone requires a broadband internet connection (xDSL, Cable or Fiber) with at least 256 Kbs upload speed in order to function properly with a video call. It will not work on any speed of dialup. It could be configured to work with 3G or wifi connections, but such options are not officially supported by ACN yet.
The Iris 3000 was featured in the fourth episode of Season 8 of Donald Trump's The Apprentice . The two competitor teams were set to the task of developing a publicity launch event for the videophone.
The videophones were sold by ACN Inc in a multi-level marketing pyramid scheme. In 2018 investors sued Donald Trump (Doe et al. v. Trump Corp. et al.) for fraud and for denying that he was a paid promoter of this get rich quick scheme. [1] The trial was scheduled for January 29, 2024 in the Southern District of New York, but the Federal Court entered an order dismissing the lawsuit without prejudice on January 11, 2024 [2] . Many of the federal claims were dismissed, leaving state court claims and out-pocket damages of approximately $7,000.00. The Federal Court declined to exercise jurisdiction over those claims, and the plaintiffs intend to continue prosecution of their cases in the state courts of California, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, respectively. [3]
In telecommunications, a customer-premises equipment or customer-provided equipment (CPE) is any terminal and associated equipment located at a subscriber's premises and connected with a carrier's telecommunication circuit at the demarcation point ("demarc"). The demarc is a point established in a building or complex to separate customer equipment from the equipment located in either the distribution infrastructure or central office of the communications service provider.
Digital subscriber line is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL), the most commonly installed DSL technology, for Internet access.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also called IP telephony, is a method and group of technologies for voice calls for the delivery of voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet.
In telecommunications, broadband is the wide-bandwidth data transmission that exploits signals at a wide spread of frequencies or several different simultaneous frequencies, and is used in fast internet connections. The medium can be coaxial cable, optical fiber, wireless Internet (radio), twisted pair, or satellite.
The Freebox is an ADSL-VDSL-FTTH modem and a set-top box that the French Internet service provider named Free provides to its DSL-FTTH subscribers.
A naked DSL, also known as standalone or dry loop DSL, is a digital subscriber line (DSL) without a PSTN service — or the associated dial tone. In other words, only a standalone DSL Internet service is provided on the local loop.
In telecommunications, triple play service is a marketing term for the provisioning, over a single broadband connection, of two bandwidth-intensive services, broadband Internet access and television, and the latency-sensitive telephone. Triple play focuses on a supplier convergence rather than solving technical issues or a common standard. However, standards like G.hn might deliver all these services on a common technology.
Videotelephony is the two-way or multipoint reception and transmission of audio and video signals by people in different locations for real-time communication. A videophone is a telephone with a video camera and video display, capable of simultaneous video and audio communication. Videoconferencing implies the use of this technology for a group or organizational meeting rather than for individuals, in a videoconference. Telepresence may refer either to a high-quality videotelephony system or to meetup technology, which can go beyond video into robotics. Videoconferencing has also been called visual collaboration and is a type of groupware.
A digital subscriber line (DSL) modem is a device used to connect a computer or router to a telephone line which provides the digital subscriber line (DSL) service for connection to the Internet, which is often called DSL broadband. The modem connects to a single computer or router, through an Ethernet port, USB port, or is installed in a computer PCI slot.
A video relay service (VRS), also sometimes known as a video interpreting service (VIS), is a video telecommunication service that allows deaf, hard-of-hearing, and speech-impaired (D-HOH-SI) individuals to communicate over video telephones and similar technologies with hearing people in real-time, via a sign language interpreter.
ACN, Inc. is a North American multi-level marketing (MLM) company. It provides telecommunications, energy, merchant services and other services, depending on the country, through a network of independent sellers who also can recruit other sellers. Based in Concord, North Carolina, United States, ACN began operations in the United States in 1993. As of 2019, the company reported that it operates in twenty-seven countries.
British telephone sockets were introduced in their current plug and socket form on 19 November 1981 by British Telecom to allow subscribers to connect their own telephones. The connectors are specified in British Standard BS 6312. Electrical characteristics of the telephone interface are specified by individual network operators, e.g. in British Telecom's SIN 351. Electrical characteristics required of British telephones used to be specified in BS 6305.
Asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) is a type of digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. ADSL differs from the less common symmetric digital subscriber line (SDSL). In ADSL, bandwidth and bit rate are said to be asymmetric, meaning greater toward the customer premises (downstream) than the reverse (upstream). Providers usually market ADSL as an Internet access service primarily for downloading content from the Internet, but not for serving content accessed by others.
A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by modulating one or more carrier wave signals to encode digital information, while the receiver demodulates the signal to recreate the original digital information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded reliably. Modems can be used with almost any means of transmitting analog signals, from light-emitting diodes to radio.
Pacific Bell Telephone Co. v. linkLine Communications, Inc., 555 U.S. 438 (2009), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court unanimously held that Pacific Bell d/b/a AT&T did not violate the Sherman Antitrust Act when it charged other Internet providers a high fee to buy space on its phone lines to deliver an Internet connection. The court ruled that where there is no duty to deal at the wholesale level and no predatory pricing at the retail level, a firm is not required to price both of these services in a manner that preserves its rivals’ profit margins.
A softphone is a software program for making telephone calls over the Internet using a general purpose computer rather than dedicated hardware. The softphone can be installed on a piece of equipment such as a desktop, mobile device, or other computer and allows the user to place and receive calls without requiring an actual telephone set. Often, a softphone is designed to behave like a traditional telephone, sometimes appearing as an image of a handset, with a display panel and buttons with which the user can interact. A softphone is usually used with a headset connected to the sound card of the PC or with a USB phone.
TekSavvy Solutions Inc. (TSI) is a Canadian residential, business, and wholesale telecommunications company based in Chatham, Ontario. In most of the country, it is a wholesale-network-access-based service provider and voice reseller, connecting its service to existing last mile networks from telecom carriers Bell Canada and Telus Communications, and cable carriers Rogers Communications, Cogeco Cable, Shaw and Vidéotron. However, in parts of rural southwestern Ontario, the service is provided over TekSavvy's own fixed wireless network. Recently they have also rolled out their own fibre optic network in parts of southwestern Ontario.
Doe et al. v. Trump Corporation et al. is an ongoing case commenced in the U.S. District Court for Southern District of New York in October 2018, in which four anonymous plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the Trump Corporation, Donald Trump and three of his adult children — Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka — alleging racketeering and of fraudulently encouraging unsophisticated investors to give large amounts of money to organizations connected to the Trumps. It is alleged that the defendants promoted ACN in exchange for millions of dollars in secret payments from 2005 to 2015. The lawsuit says that Trump "told investors that he had 'experienced the opportunity' and 'done a lot of research,' and that his endorsement was 'not for any money.'" However, it subsequently emerged that Trump was a paid spokesman for at least one of the companies whose products and services he was promoting to investors.