Month: June 2009
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Skype launches version 4.1… (yawn)… still only Windows… still a fragmented product strategy
Continue Reading: Skype launches version 4.1… (yawn)… still only Windows… still a fragmented product strategySkype today announced Skype 4.1 for Windows. As Raul Liive outlined in a post about the 4.1 beta (see also Jim Courtney’s take), this version brings to Windows users the “screen sharing” feature that we’ve had in the Mac version of Skype for a bit. It also restores several of the features that were in the previous Skype 3.8 for Windows but that got left behind when Skype rushed 4.0 for Windows out the door. And it adds the SILK codec and some other odds and ends.Per Raul’s Skype blog post today, the final 4.1 version fixes a whack-load of bugs as well.
If I were on Windows, I’d definitely head over and download 4.1. The bug fixes alone are probably worth it.
Of course, I’m not on Windows (I’m a Mac user) and so today’s announcement is pretty much irrelevant to me. Just as whenever Skype comes out with a new Mac version or beta, it’s irrelevant to Windows users. And if by some miracle Skype should actually come out with a new Linux version (no update to their blog in 6 months), that would be irrelevant to both Mac and Windows users.
It’s hard to get excited…
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For a brief bit – Skype video calls from 30,000+ feet on Southwest Air WiFi!
Continue Reading: For a brief bit – Skype video calls from 30,000+ feet on Southwest Air WiFi!Upon entering the Southwest Airlines plane this morning on my flight to Orlando to visit Voxeo’s headquarters, I immediately noticed a “WiFi zone” sign on a column by the entry door. Naturally, I had to pull out my Macbook Pro and give it a whirl… and, given the issue of Skype-blocking last summer… try out Skype.To my great surprise and pleasure, it worked great. (For a little while – see below.) Here’s Bruce Lowekamp:
As you may or may not be able to see in the graphic, our call had been up for 3 minutes and 33 seconds when I snapped the picture.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have easy access to my headset, so I couldn’t really have a great conversation. The ambient background noise in the plane was really too much for my voice to be heard unless I bent down toward the microphone… and likewise even with the MacBook Pro volume up all the way it was a bit hard to hear Bruce unless I bent down toward the laptop.
And, of course, I didn’t really want to annoy my fellow passengers. 🙂
You can see on the right the technical stats for the call. Packet loss was…