Phones

This morning, I had the great privilege of skype conferencing with two teachers and an advocate in South Africa along with Noble (who was in Vancouver). It was quite exciting to hear their passion and excitement about some changes happening in their school in Fezeka (a school that has been given support through Education Without Borders in Vancouver), in the townships of Capetown.

Everybody knows Skype. Everybody loves Skype. But has Starhub gained itself a huge advantage with Pfingo here in Singapore? Daniel and Jerrick discuss the unique features of Starhub’s VoIP offering with Senior Mac Daddy-ologist Kevin Lim, over in Buffalo. Watch original episode on Tech65.org.

SkypeFind is a feature in Skype. It lets you put listings of businesses in Skype with your review and rating, and review and search what others have put there.

After I port forwarded the ports used by Skype then there is a drastic improvement in the video quality of my video call. I have already written a post on how to port forward Airtel 220BX modem.

To remove skypePM.exe (if you don't use plugins) there are 2 methods:

A 19-year-old freshman from St. John's College, my alma mater, has started an international affairs magazine. And he uses Skype to conduct actual interviews with people around the globe and produce radio programs. Back when I was in college, just having a blog was considered cutting edge.

This class used the blog to pose questions to two businessmen in different parts of the world. They were examining globalization and how it affects the workplace. Students posted their ideas of what questions should be asked. The teacher put them together and came up with a list of questions they would ask in a Skype interview with the businessmen. The teacher then asked the students to formulate a thesis statement for their paper on globalization and post it.

A few weeks ago I became more interested in Skype than I ever have been. Since moving abroad in 2004 Vonage has provided all of my telephony needs and has worked great. The benefits of VoIP are just huge… and I’m still surprised at how many people are completely clueless about it.

We’d been at Apple the day before and I was still enjoying some post pitch euphoria. I’d had enough of talking about and selling the tools, I wanted to simply use them - connect, collaborate, create. So I fired up my Mac Book Pro, launched Skype’s video Chat and called Paul (my brother in Idaho). Free call, free wireless and free video.

Foreign IP Telephony firms such as Skype and Yahoo! will not be able to sell their services to Indian businesses under a proposed government clampdown, The India Times reports.

In this Skype conversation, hosted by Language Lab Unleashed, a group of educators from across the nation (myself included) and a university network administrator, joined Phil Wolff from Skype Journal in a discussion about the use of Skype in the classroom. Much of the discussion was about the now changed plan to discontinue using Skype at SJSU. This conversation occurred after I got of work yesterday. (So, I am not speaking on the university's dime.) Note the quality of the audio. This group conversation occurred using a free software program, Skype, and was recorded on a low end Macintosh computer and low cost audio capture software.

According to Rich, Messagr.com "overlays Skype's user directory with some interesting social networking meta-data. Essentially you can tag your Skype account with your own interests so people can find you and contact you easily and in real-time."

Tech exec, former Comverse CEO, Jakob “Kobi” Alexander, was on the lamb from the Feds for alleged shady options dating. According to the press he’s been nabbed after being traced making a Skype call from Colombo, Sri Lanka. Anonymous peer-to-peer, not; shouldn’t a tech exec know that?

The U.S. Sentate panel has sided with the telcos in allowing them to create a two-tier Internet. Get ready to pay more for your Internet services and if you’re looking to start a new Internet company, you’ll have to factor in the toll to the carriers to get your content to the public at reasonable speeds. I wonder who the first telco will be to stop (or at best degrade their service) Skype, Vonage, and other VoIP services.

I end up switching back to adium because it’s just reliable and use skype for calling.

Ebay should be criticized on its strategies. While competitors such as Google and Amazon constantly innovate with the releasing of new services, Ebay remains pretty static and slow in terms of innovation. When was the last time Ebay launched a new service? - exactly! Ebay’s business model has changed very little for, well, the last 4 years. Yes Ebay did try to expand its business to VoIP with the purchase of Skype for a whopping $2 billion something but little did change on Ebay auction pages. Skype still remains only a little banner at the footer of Ebay pages as a separate business entity. Skype is awesome on its own and Ebay is missing out big time in capitalize the potential of Skype for its auction business. Or is Ebay so busy with squashing out phishing that it has forgotten to innovate?

Honestly, thank heavens Skype is free until December, because I’ve been on the phone for about a million hours with my Grandmommy, my Mom, my aunt Sherri and some friends.

I have some happy news to share with you all. I am engaged!! Nathan J. Robertson (a school friend from years back) and I have been cooresponding for a few months now and not a day has passed that we haven’t exchanged several emails and called each other, in addition to hours spent on skype (free phone calls over the internet).

if you have a skype internet phone account, this phone will then simply let you make free or nearly free phone calls from any wireless hotspot. perfect for the cafe mercenary, or internet junkies without the need for a cell phone but wireless at home and work. wouldn’t say that it is cheap though.

Grain of Salt’s JD has a post up regarding the privacy policy (or lack thereof, if you’re paranoid) of VoIP company Skype. From JD’s post:

Launched this month, Skypecasts are live conversations for groups of up to 100, hosted by a moderator. Enabling people with shared interests from around the world to talk to each other, the host/moderator has control of the Skypecast by being able to mute or eject participants if necessary.

I wonder what this will do to the other VoIP providers like Vonage, or Packet8?

Skype the leading instant messaging/Free VOIP provider has released version 2.5 for Windows. However, version 2.0 for MAC hasn't been released yet…

In an effort to join the 21st Century, we now have a phone number for folks to call in and leave their ramblings and other such nonsense. It is available via Skype, an application that lets you contact other Skype members for free anywhere in the world or even make outbound phone calls from your computer at an extremely competitive rate.

Skype reports to have achieved the 100 million user milestone. Congratulations! Assuming that this will translate into about 100million USD revenue the math is that per "free" user they make in average 1 USD revenue with their paid services such as Skype In/OUT, server located voice mail and now ring tones. The ring tone service could of course increase the ARPU.

When you are away from your PC and there is no one to answer your incoming Skype calls, SAM will pick up the call, play a greeting message and the "all-time classic beep" so that the calling party will leave a voice recorded message.

It is extremely unclear to me what Sonorit were doing and why it should be considered to be worth $27Million - a sum which appears to be something along the lines of $1M per employee (plus or minus a bit) - although it is clear from the vague hints found elsewhere on the Internet that Sonorit/Camino were already involved with Skype and had something to do with enhancing VOIP quality - hence the lawsuit from GIPS which does much the same.

Email flies, IM works as in the office, conference calling with Skype just works. Better, a tried a videoconf with one of my friend in France and it went pretty sleek. Can’t complain. I wish I had a decent video recording capabilities on my phone to prove that to you.

Skype fué el primero en afrontar el tema de la telefonía VoIP y por eso lleva ventaja, pero poco a poco le van creciendo los enanos. Cambiar de cliente IP no nos supone ningún tramite administrativo, a lo sumo registrarnos, por lo que facilmente nos podemos cambiar al que nos ofrezca mejores precios.

I tisdags släppte Yahoo sin senaste version av Yahoo messenger, som ger full integration av telefoni och dator till dator-samtal till och från telefoner i hela världen. Prispressen är därmed igång då Yahoo lägger sig 1$ lägre per månad, än Skype som dominerar marknaden med 70 miljoner aktiva användare. Det intressanta är även att Yahoo integrerar tillgång till andra content-tjänster, social networking och real time collaboration i klienten. Microsoft är på gång att släppa telefonitjänster i den kommande MSN-efterföljaren Live Messenger som ni kan läsa i en av mina tidigare artiklar.

This is a pretty cool product. Basically it’s a flash drive with a built in sound card. You plug this thing into a USB port and it has a headset that you can use as mic and speaker. So you basically ahve your skype profile with you wherever you go, whatever computer you use! Got a friend you want to VoIP with but they aren’t to tech-savy? Get one of these, configure it, mail it to em and they should be up and running.

Yesterday I got my first free review copy for my podcast, The Teen Tech Buzz. Actually, it hasn’t arrived yet, but I have a FedEx tarcking number. The thing itself is the Free-1 Skype phone from IPEVO. IPEO is a small company that makes accecories for the Skype VoIP program. I first learned aboit the Free-1 a while ago when I was searching the web for a Mac-compatible USB Skype hone. I came accorss a couple of articles which mentioned the Free-1. I went IPEVO’s site, and there it was. The Free-1 (pricture below) is a white or black USB phone that has numbers and specila Skype buttons on it. It ahs a cool, unique design, and looks pretty nice from the online pics. It costs $30 from IPEVO. I’ll review the phone for TTB #10 (woohoo, already up to 10!!!!) on March 17th, because TTB #09 is already taken up for reviewing with Apple’s iLife ‘06. This phone is just the first step in getting The Teen Tech Buzz to be recognized as a legitimate, respected news organization, or at least give us some more listeners and free stuff.

If you log into your Skype account, you will see that they are giving away 10 SkypeOut minutes today. You will see that today is Skype Gift Day, and by pressing the button in your Skype Account Overview you can receive your gift of 10 free minutes.

What causes The Register to predict the death of Skype and Vonage is a new handset by Nokia. Nokia's 6136 phone, allows you to make calls over your home or office Wi-Fi network, as well as on a regular cellular network. Apparently it lets you seamlessly switch calls between WiFi and Cellular connections.

My email is blocked (another vote for moving entirely to Gmail), IRC is blocked, IM is blocked, Skype IM is blocked… I can't even send smoke signals via FTP. On top of that, my SMS is totally backed up and I haven't been getting texts for days.

Sony Japan has introduced a new unique mouse design which integrates Internet phone functionality into the everyday computer accessory. The VN-CX1 connects to your PC via the USB port and acts like a regular connected mouse. However, flip out the mouse and you can use it to make and receive Skype based phone cools. Pretty nifty!

If you are an IM’er (Instant Messenger), you probably face the same problems that I face. You have too many client applications to run at one time (skype, msn, AOL, Yahoo, Google Talk, Meetro, etc…). Second, when you are away from your base computer, you may not be able to access the software needed to run IM.

2. Skype. Jackholes. The Treo 650 is the reigning king of smartphones on the market right now. It does what people want and a hell of a lot more and looks nice too. There’s a very good reason why it kicks the living shit out of the slew of dogcrap Windows Mobile phones that feel like a hot brick when you jam it into your pocket. Anyway, Skype wussed out a long time ago on doing a Palm client. They think they’ll be fine if they wait for Palm/Linux to come out next year…but here’s the thing…if someone, anyone comes out with a VOIP client that works halfways well before they do, they’re going to miss out.

Now, lets look into the future. We see it already in Scandinavia today. In Finland and Sweden, already 40% of all homes have abandoned the fixed phone line completely, and use only mobile phones. It doesn’t matter how inexpensive or free there would be a Skype or Vonage -type VoIP service on the fixed internet connection, when the home does not have a wired connection of any kind anymore ! The same trend is happening in all advanced mobile markets, following the Finnish and Swedish example with a short delay. Take for example my sister. She has no fixed line phone in her home. It doesn’t matter how free we make Skype or Vonage, she will not go back to the phone company (or her cable TV company or any other provider), and start to pay a monthly subscription for another fixed connection, to then get free calls that are tied to her home. She has cut the cord, and will never go back.

A term originally coined in The Innovator's Dilemma, disruptive technology (or what Clayton Christensen later renamed "disruptive innovation") is becoming increasingly pervasive. What Skype is doing to the traditional phone companies is like what blogs are doing to advertising and PR firms, or what SOA is doing to large systems integrators: forcing them to change or die.

eHomeUpgrade has discovered that there’s a developer out there creating a Skype plugin for the Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition 2005 OS. That’s great news for people who use the UI and would love to find an integrated solution that included Skype. It it works out well, I can totally imagine connecting a webcam to my home HTPC system for voice conversations to others.

The speculation of eBay is going to acquire Skype has been spreading for the last few days. I think this might be a real fact in coming days.

Skype service, which allows people to make calls from their PCs to regular phones, enables subscribers in China to dial to major Western markets in the United States and Europe for as little as 2 eurocents per minute (2.5 U.S. cents), compared with rates closer to $1 per minute from China Telecom.

In a move that could mark a big strategy shift for the online auction company, eBay Inc. is in talks to acquire Internet telephony company Skype Technologies SA for between US$2 billion and $3 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, quoting unnamed sources familiar with the talks.

Google Talk features a free computer-to-computer call. It’s like Yahoo Messenger with voice albeit it looks simplistic. It gives you a basic interface for instant messaging or call with very good sound quality comparable to Skype’s. However Google Talk uses the Jabber protocol, an open standard protocol which is really promising compared to other existing protocols that is kept privately.

In my opinion Google should skip releasing a standalone IM client. They sort of already have IM capability with Hello (although that’s a part of their picture service). Instead, they should go after and buy Skype — or something like it, maybe — for something that has chat and IMO the more valuable voice services.

And in a week full of Google speculation, Om Malik comments on the rumours Google might be preparing a voice instant messaging application rather than considering a Skype purchase.

Google is going to be releasing a new 'communications tool' tomorrow. There are many people speculating that it is going to be an IM service / tool. That would be so 1999. I think they are going to release a VOIP service. They might bundle chat with it similar to Skype though.

As of now, I use iChat to talk to my friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and Jabber along with Skype. I use instant messaging in Skype more often than I use chat. One main reason is it file transferring abilities. I would love to replace Skype with an openly based program, but I will not do so unless that program has most of the functionality that Skype has.

Another friend I've known since I was a kid is over in Spain working on her Master's Thesis in Madrid. Her mom and I, good beach buddies, have been hanging out lots. So we emailed Spain and talked to her live on Skype--computer to phone hook up, very cheap--and we got her Thesis Draft in the email a few hours later.

Skype’s model departs from the basic razor and blade model in that the consumables are not necessary for the master to be useful. On June 13, Skype claimed that more than 1.5 million users had paid for SkypeOut. While this number is impressive, especially given that SkypeOut was less than a year old, it represents fewer than one in twenty of the more than 42 million Skype users. The source for this is the press release announcing Skype Voicemail, another paid service.

On SkypeOut Gift Days you’ll be able to redeem 10 minutes of credit for SkypeOut calls and it won’t cost you a thing. It’s free.

Even with cheap $20 Sony headphones, I could hear nuances from 192kbps MP3 I had never ever heard before from any speakers or headphones. Originally, I plugged in my Apple iPod white earbuds – I’ve come to the well-formed conclusion they’re the most craptastic speakers, ever. (Best headset microphone I’ve used is the Plantronics Gamecom Pro 1. Very pricy, but worth it for Skype or for Counter-Strike… I own two: one for home, one for the office.)

seguendo l’attuale modello economico e mappandolo su un altro asse è fuor di dubbio che il Peer2Peer (cioè reti tra pari. vi basta un niente per averlo) sia il prossimo cavallo di battaglia della tecnologia ICT. L’economia si muove secondo questa formula (”Se tutti andassimo per i fatti nostri puntando solo al nostro interesse personale, allora faremmo il bene di tutti”) nel mondo internet diventa uguale a (”se andiamo ognuno per i fatti nostri facciamo il bene di tutti”)…la tecnologia assorbirà questa richiesta e spunteranno come funghi reti peer 2 peer, cellulari peer 2 peer, stampanti peer 2 peer, fotografie peer 2 peer e dio sa cosa, ma solo in peer 2 peer. Skype si comperà la telecom, Google sarà la televisione del futuro…nel senso che tutti la vedono ma nessuno la guarda. passivamente.

I am so skeptical about these new technologies, I don’t know, I don’t know… I am keeping my skype.

I’ve been opening wide my treasure chest of friends, finally, and it makes me happy beyond belief to realize I have so many wonderful people in my life. I’ve definitely been blessed in this respect as my friends are definitely all beautiful in their own right and all very unique. It’s wonderful to finally be able to talk to them using this Skype service and to catch up and see how they are doing these days. =)

Also, I don’t think I’d want one at the moment. There are too many spammers on the networks, and if we only had one protocol their life would be so much easier. It’s also nice to be able to be available on one network, say Skype for business related IM for example, and not have to talk to everybody who’s on Yahoo and wants me to play online.

SkypeIn gives you a regular telephone number that people can call, and you can get the calls directly on your Skype client, anywhere in the world. Best thing is they only pay the cost of the call to the number, so if they live in the same area as the number then they only pay local rates. What makes this really cool is that you can get up to ten different numbers, in different countries, so you’ll always be a local call no matter where you are! Awesome!

This box is a modem, switch (glorified hub), and router in one, plus it is a WiFi access point. This will be used with the Axim, so I can have internet access on it all around the house, in my back garden, and well down the street, without any cables. So now you'll be able to Skype me anywhere around the house.

Starting today, CSU listeners can telephone, email, or Skype your questions or comments — which may be aired on an upcoming episode!

I think I’ve got the whole Skype thing figured out, I can set the software to record the computer’s Wav-Out and we’re good to go, but now I gotta figure out how to get people who are in Skype to be able to hear the Computer’s Wav-Out too so they know what’s going on in the recording other than my talking.

Skype does offer numbers from many parts of the world and they will act just like any other phone number. The one downside is that your number will not properly show up on the person you’re calling’s caller ID. Instead, it will show as unavailable or as a weird number starting with 0. Make sure to let your friends know that’s you! On the plus side, you are not tied down to a number in your area. If you have a lot of friends and family in New York City for example (like I do), just buy a NYC, even if you’re living in, say, Florida (like me). This way, the call will be a local call for them (and therefore cheaper).

There's a new version of Skype out there. Personally, I'm a huge fan of Skype - the quality for me has been as good as a cell phone call, and I use it on a regular basis to communicate with team members on the other side of the country.

Nokia’s getting into the VoIP game, but if you’re expecting to be able to use your handset to make Skype calls, you’re going to be disappointed. The Finnish phone giant is partnering with Cisco, OnRelay, IBM and others to develop technology for “enterprise voice mobility.” The basic idea is that you’ll be able to use your company cellphone from anywhere, and be able to switch transparently from the cellular network to the company’s VoIP or standard PBX. We understand Nokia’s decision to do this; there are big bucks to be made in the corporate cellphone biz. But, still, we’d really like a Nokia Skype phone (though we suppose the IPdrum Mobile Skype Cable just might do the trick).

Video calls are coming to Skype, thanks to vSkype, a plug-in developed by Santa Cruz Networks. The company has just released a public beta, which for now works only on windows machines. (Of course, most Mac users have lovely iChat/iSight combination to get their video calling groove on!)

This is a post that has been a long time in coming…a little about skype. It is a platform that I use on a daily basis and have even disconnected my home phone in favor of skypein (in combo with my celly). While I could talk and talk about the new wonderful things skype is doing (video, the family in the rainforest in guyana who use it as a their primary phone, skype in your celly, skype your mindmap, skype stories and radio…the list could go on and on.) what I have chosen to talk about is using skype and blogging in education. Last month we had a very interesting conference in HUMlab about IT in education. At a workshop on mobile learning (a bit of a pet subject for me) we were asked to create a learning task using mobile technology. Our group discussed using skype as a tool for mobile, authentic language learning.

Conventional wisdom, even among telecom cognoscenti is that Skype has become so big, that it can be declared a platform. Who can argue? After a shinny pretty face, a Mac-like ease of use and millions of users, when married to superb voice quality, it is hard not to like Skype. Even I have fallen prey to the charms of the product, and have found that I am shifting my VoIP minutes away from Vonage to Skype.

Does it work? I assure you it does. I forgot to pay my VOIP bill over the weekend and my service was suspended. Then, last night after work, I got word of this incredible program, downloaded it, set it up, deposited 10 Euros via Paypal, and have been making calls to land lines and cell phones all day today. Best of all, I have yet to spend an entire dollar.

TomsNetworking : This article shows the differences btween using SKYPE and Vonage. Which VOIP is good for you?

According to Aswath, there looks to be some evidence that Skype is using some parts of SIP for their PSTN connectivity. Maybe open standards is not totally lost upon them, that is good news.

Not much new here but put it all together and you do have a virtual office with Skype as a center piece.

Well, Skype just launched their official blog site, ShareSkype. Have a look at their blog here.

In addition, the company has also added a Voice Mail feature allowing the buddies on the messenger to leave voice messages when the user this side is away from the computer. However, Yahoo! is currently not supporting the normal phone lines like Skype does (for a small fee), but this might just be the beginning of the competition. Yahoo! has the advantage of the user base though Skype itself is not lacking behind on the number of subscribers to their services on the net.

But there are any number of problems with the service. The voice quality of SkypeIn and SkypeOut is poor - much of it strikes me as mobile phone quality where transcoding is taking place. There have been an increasing number of service problems recently. Second attempts have always worked, but it is clearly an issue.

It had to happen some day. I’ve got my first Skype authorisation spam. I won’t grace the perpetrator with publicising their ID or URL, but here’s the text from their profile:

I wonder if the Skype API will make this problem worse? Much easier to build a spambot that way.

Of course the ultimate in convergence here would be a cell phone (in particular a smartphone) which would also be able to use one of these internet telephony services, and thereby avoid some of the pricing weirdness of mobile phone plans. Microsoft has built in VOIP over Wifi functionality into their newest Windows Mobile 5. Vonage, probably the best known and perhaps oldest VOIP provider already offers a version of their software that works with Windows Mobile devices, including smartphones. Skype has also has a version for Windows Mobile Devices....

After a few months of testing, Skype is now out of beta with PayPal as a means of payment.

I really think we will see a cottage industry spring up around Skype, much like eBay has already seen.

Skype phone that would work without computer is difficult because Skype uses P2P and not classic VoIP techniques (i.e. H.323 and SIP)… but Pocket PC phones already offer Skype of course.

Also, many significant pieces of Skype's traffic are not encrypted. This could lead to exposure of information about who's being called, directory lookups, etc. The voice may be encrypted (regardless of how effectively) but many other, almost-as-significant pieces of the call set-up are not adequately protected.

came across skype again and yes, i'll never learn. actually... i have. no more filling in of personal info! decided to give it one more try after a freak called me up on my landline last year. a very egotistical one i might say.. he claimed he was a 1337 hax0r who knew everything about me. said he found my info online and can get into my computer. he said he had his ways.. so i take it with a pinch of salt.. never mind the fact that i was out of my mind to carry on the convo with him in the first place. curiosity got the better of me. it killed the cat, i know. thank goodness im a chicken. *chirp* so i egg him on.. where did you find all this info about me? i pressed.. ohhh, i have my sources. y'know, msn and skype and stuff. i can hack into their databases. sure buddy.

anyway, i've basically redownloaded skype. trying to build up address book again so i'd appreciate any of you with an account to msg over your user names ^^

Jeremy blogged anout the Yahoo Messenger announcement and he complained that Ryan Naraine over at eWEEK miscategorized Yahoo Messenger as having VoIP capabilities when Yahoo Messenger can merely do PC-to-PC calling. He preferred the term VoIM (voice over instant message) instead of VoIP. While Yahoo Messenger technically is doing voice over IP (VoIP) packetization it is limted to buddy-to-buddy calling (doesn't do PSTN calling) and that's what stuck in Jeremy's craw. I have to admit, I thought the same thing when reading the Yahoo Messenger news...

I have been trying to figure out how to record conversations in Skype so we can launch a new Gaelic language podcast.

Moments ago Skype passed another threshold. 7:30 AM in British Columbia Canada, 8 PM in Bangalore, India according to Vir Bhanu of Knowledge Systems who gave me the heads up.

If you follow Voice on the Net this is an important moment. About 8.5 percent of the Skype User community is online at one time.

The next largest player in this space is probably Vonage with a total of 650,000 users. Players in the VON space can't ignore Skype if they want to have a worthwhile strategy for this market segment.

For Skype Users the opportunities to connect and build a global personal network get better everyday. So when will the next threshold of 4 Million users online occur? Any math wizards out there care to give us a date?

I find it strange that Skype.com should become inaccessible in Shanghai after making a deal with Tom.com. I would think that Tom.com would have the guanxi to protect its partner fromthe chill shadow of the Great Firewall. On the other hand, since the Tom.com Skype page still works just fine, maybe Tom.com is using its guanxi to force Chinese surfers to use its version of the Skype software in order to drive more traffic to Tom.com?

But as I think further last few weeks, he might have a point. The Internet today is no longer the end-to-end network we original envision. Thanks to NAT, firewalls and private IP address, writing an applications today for IP network for end-to-end communication requires a lot of tweaks and hacks, and eventually some sort of overlay network. The most popular applications in the last few years, such as Napster, Kazza and Skype all have ways to 'overcome the NAT' or 'bypass the firewall' in order to achieve end-to-end.

Services like Skype could not exist unless the network automatically makes decisions for you in this area of assembling routing paths throughout, and through your machine. This decision making is neither good nor bad - it's just something users should be aware of, and, consequently either consent to or not.

Skype to hit mobile phones this year.

I got 75 Skype voice mail messages on one of my accounts - just today.

Some of these messages are long (10 minutes!), some are short. However the build-in player in Skype client can only “start playing” and “stop playing", there is no rewind and there is no convertion to MP3 format (to convert Skype Voice mailbox messages to MP3 I use this program).

… as you can see on photos here (compared there with Treo 650 and other PDA phones). It has also too slow processor (only 312 MHz) to be of interest to me (I need at least 400 MHz to run Skype client in it).

Applications are still king, but there's now a different list of applications-that-matter. The Web browser has been the most important for a long time, but application developers are just getting the hang of creating really compelling software for it. Gmail is one of the best email clients available, and it runs on any operating system with a modern browser. Other earth-shaking applications such as Skype, several varieties of blog readers and Flickr (for photos) are also almost equally useable on Windows, the Mac and Linux. Word processors, spreadsheets...

You'd think Skype's Niklas Zennstrom would have wanted to crow today at VON Canada about poachin Microsoft executive Lenn Pryor, who headed up Channel 9 and was Microsoft's director of platform evangelism. Om Malik has this wicked quote from Pryor's blog on why he left: “I decided to swap problem sets from one that I am not passionate about any more to one that I AM deeply passionate about. I just couldn’t go on being an evangelist for a gospel that I don’t believe I can sing. I am returning to focus on what I enjoy most, building...

You know the email spam you get that says, please call this bloke in Africa to send him money to (fill in the appeal here) in the wake of (insert natural or national disaster)? Well Andrew decided to call. Using SkypeOut. Interminably. At odd hours. Tying up the con-man's phone line.

This is exciting for the Linux community, but it should be for device makers and users too. This new capability will open up a whole family of new, useful Skype Products like this. This new embedded market was highlighted by Skype CEO Niklas Zennstrom, during his keynote address at the VON Canada Event in Toronto earlier this week.

Watch how Phil Torrone made an actual payphone into a Skype Client. Brilliant!

founder and chief executive officer of Skype, which provides a free downloadable voice over IP software client. “Wi-Fi plays and important part in this.”

Skype is working on VoIP clients that will operate on platforms like Symbian, Windows Mobile and Embedded Linux, he said, adding dual-mode wireless handsets that work on both Wi-Fi networks – originally designed as local-area data networks using the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ 802.11 protocol – and cellular networks.

Why the videophone service sellers or proposed sellers like cable operators don't bundle in EyeBeam, which I now use a lot for voice calls as well, is simply beyond me. For the cable companies thinking of selling VoIP and the Ojo, if it uses open standards, it would be a true market differentiator that the RBOC's landline service could never offer. If the Ojo isn't using open standards, then it's got less of a chance to survive, because between SIP and SKYPE the standards or proprietary protocols are pretty much already entrenched, and the MSO's...

In the ongoing debate I think we’ve lost sight of the original issue: separation of connectivity from applications. I’m a great proponent of this. Monopolies and markets above this in the stack concern me a lot less.

So far Skype isn’t particularly wedded to connectivity provision (with one exception). That means we don’t have to seek permission to use something else. Skype is a child of the Stupid Network, and self-centered as it may be we should be happy about this precocious toddler.

So in case you think I’ve gone completely Skype nuts, here’s a few balancing news items.

I had a Skype conference call with a client a few days ago. It was embarassingly bad, mainly because one of the participants was on a flaky hotel Wi-Fi link. In the vertically integrated telco model, this would be the telcos problem. Skype’s layered model tends to push them towards a “not our problem” approach. Mistake! The Skype client needs to be aware of the connectivity quality underneath it. If it can’t deliver, and is disrupting a conf call, then it needs to inform the participant, end the call, or somehow manage...

I’m also having too many Skype calls where I need to re-dial to get a better connection. Plus I’ve had several failed SkypeOut calls (what is a 10040 error, or whatever it was, I don’t know — but that’s not my idea of a great user experience).

Snapcast is a name invented by Jake for a short, quick podcast. I was on Skype this morning and hooked up with Tony Goodson in Australia and Rob Paterson in Canada. Alan Singer (also in Oz) jumped in as our sound engineer. We wanted to discuss Robert Scoble's recent challenge to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer over the company's attitude to some...

New Scientist reports (subscription) on the phenomenon of "Skypecasting".

...Skype was designed to allow users to make free telephone calls over the internet. But the sound quality is excellent and the software also allows callers to exchange files and play music while they are talking. Radio buffs are now exploiting the new technology to become both interviewer and DJ on a shoestring budget. In doing so, they may be starting a broadcasting revolution, one that democratises the industry and makes the amateur broadcaster king.

Skypecasting, as it is called, is possible because of another trend dubbed podcasting. Podcasts are MP3 files that are automatically delivered to subscribers' MP3 players when posted online...Now with Skype, podcasters can do more than just post an album by their favourite band or record a monologue on current events. They can interview a band on the other side of the world before playing its latest set, or bring together overseas experts to discuss a topic. With a little know-how, Skype allows these conversations and music clips to be saved as MP3 files, posted online and then automatically downloaded by listeners.

What's more, it's cheap. With Skype, people can be added to a conference call at no extra cost.

I hate shameless plugs, and this is sounding awfully like one, but for the past few months I’ve been using Skype. This is a nifty bit of software that allows you to talk for free to people on the internet. This is handy enough, but they also offer a service, at a cost, called SkypeOut. This gives you the ability to call normal telephones from your computer, and thus solving my landline problem. The bonus is the calls are much cheaper than you could get via a traditional phone.

Recently they’ve introduced a service called SkypeIn. This is where it gets clever. You pay your 10 euros and select a telephone number in a country of your choice. This becomes your number for three months and whenever anyone with a normal telephone dials it, they get put through to your computer (provided you are online and running Skype). The best part is that the people dialing you only pay a call to the country in which the number belongs. In my case, I have bought a UK number and so my family only pays a local UK call, even though...

I tested this out tonight with my Mum and gave her my SkypeIn number (it had a London prefix, out of interest), and asked her to call it. A few moments later and Skype starts ringing with an unknown caller (sadly caller ID doesn’t appear to work yet) and sure enough it is my Mum. We had a good chat and I explained exactly what I was doing. The connection was clear and stable, and we were both impressed.

For those times when I’m not online, and that does happen occasionally, they throw in a free Voicemail service. Messages appear in Skype the next time it is started, and you can leave your own personalized message to scare people away.

Scoble’s boss and Channel 9 leader is jumping ship from Microsoft to … Skype! Goodbye Microsoft, Hello Skype:

I recently accepted a new job and have resigned my post as Director, Platform Evangelism at Microsoft after almost 8 years with the company. I am joining Skype and the family and I will be moving to the UK. I have taken a position on the product and services team at Skype. I have decided that Microsoft and I need to go our separate ways and it is time to move to new pastures.

Skype scores a good one here. I was curious to see if Scoble had said anything and, nope, no update from him yet as of this writing. I’m sure he’ll have something to say about this. (Update: he does, Jeff Sandquist is taking over for Pryor)

Ben Edelman knows a lot about the lawyers and money part. He’s a Ph.D. candidate at the Harvard School of Economics and a student at Harvard Law, and a frequent commentator on Internet-related legal issues.

He wrote me this morning to comment on my post, in which I noted that when I downloaded and installed the Kazaa-Skype bundle yesterday, I obtained more than 2,500 adware files.

Ben sent a link to an artice he wrote, in which he notes that in their license document, one of the leading spyware hitchikers on Kazaa-Skype downloads fails to list anti-spyware utilities as an authorized means of removing their files from your PC.

He quotes: "You agree that you will not use, or encourage others to use, any unauthorized means for the removal of the GAIN AdServer, or any GAIN-Supported Software from a computer."

Looks like there’s an Skype Kiosk in Japan that is providing Skype calls. Is this the first sign of VoIP taking full fledge commercial flight?

The company that makes the Skype software for letting Internet users call one another for free anywhere in the world is launching two premium services as the number of downloads topped 100 million on Friday.

Great!!!! Yesterday I’ve tried the explosive combination of ET and SKYPE with Sylvain (aka |LiGF| Atlas). It works perfectly, without any lag or voice deformation. We must still try it with more than 2, and if it works, ET players can begin to fear the |LiGF| Clan!!!

NB For the newbies: ET stands for Enemy Territory, the free multiplayer extension to Return From Castle Wolfenstein, and Skype is a performant free Internet Telephony Software.

Note: as an alternative, go to an uppersemester who has internet connection and Skype. It's 2 cents a minute to call the US and Canada with Skype, I think. That's extremely cheap. I recommend that every student buy a headset with a microphone before coming to the Caribbean. You can then use Skype on campus to place a call back home though it is far better if you have an internet connection on your own.

As of today, Skype have launched a beta for their new SkypeIn service. Currently it’s possible to get numbers in four regions (France, Hong Kong/China, United Kingdom and United States), regardless of where you yourself live, that allow people to dial in to your Skype using “normal” telephone systems. For a year, the subscription costs 30€, 10€ for 3 months. A subscription for the Skype VoiceMail system, that’s also been in beta test...

To use the new features, you’ll need a newly released beta version of the Skype Client.

Stuart Henshall from Skype Journal

Bill, also from Skype Journal

I was in Tablet PC and the Motion M1400 demo mode showing the trio the strengths of the Tablet PC. They all seemed not to be as concerned by the price tag ($2500) as some on the internet are about the pricing (even I was a doubter about the expense at one time). We also looked at the PSP, recorded a really short podcast and a dark (needs refining to be publishable) video. Bill and Stuart opened Charles eyes to a world of possibilities involving Skype and his business.

The one thing none of us actually did at the Skype meetup is actually fired up and used … Skype!

Skype Video Conferencing - Are they using a proprietary codec?

Does anyone know what codecs Skype are using? Are they proprietary?

John Perry Barlow is pretty free and open, but he's no simpleton. So when he signed on to Skype, a free Internet phone service, and a woman identifying herself as Kitty messaged him, saying, "I need a friend," he was skeptical. He figured she was "looking for 'friends' to come watch her 'relax' in her Webcam-equipped 'bedroom."'