Category: Skype
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Talko’s Purchase By Microsoft Shows The Challenge Of The Directory Dilemma
Continue Reading: Talko’s Purchase By Microsoft Shows The Challenge Of The Directory DilemmaToday Microsoft announced that they acquired the technology of Talko, a communication app created by Ray Ozzie and launched back in September 2014. Fortune has an article on the acquistion, as do a good number of other media sites.After Talko first launched, I wrote about my initial experience – and the problem I had of Talko working through my home firewall. But I was intrigued by the possibilities laid out in a Medium article about how Talko could change communication and integrate voice, chat and messaging in interesting ways.
The reality, though, was that Talko was a classic case of suffering from the Directory Dilemma – as I said in that article:
People will only USE a communication application if the people they want to talk to are using the application.
And that was true for me… I tried out Talko, as I try out many apps. I used it for a while. And then… I stopped.
The people with whom I communicate were not regularly using Talko.
You can see the recognition of this dilemma in today’s front page of Talko’s web site:
However, as engaged as many of you have been, the reality is that the broad-based…
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Updated “Directory Dilemma” Article Now On CircleID…
Continue Reading: Updated “Directory Dilemma” Article Now On CircleID…Back in December, 2014, I published a post here called “The Directory Problem – The Challenge For Wire, Talko And Every Other “Skype-Killer” OTT App“. After receiving a good bit of feedback, I’ve now published a new version over on CircleID:The Directory Dilemma – Why Facebook, Google and Skype May Win the Mobile App War
I incorporated a good bit of the feedback I received and also brought in some newer numbers and statistics. Of note, I now have a section on WebRTC where I didn’t before. You’ll also notice a new emphasis in the title… I’m now talking about the potential winners versus the challengers. I also chose “Directory Dilemma” not only for the alliteration but also because the situation really isn’t as much a “problem” as it is an overall “dilemma”. It may or may not be a “problem”.
I’m not done yet.
I’m still seeking feedback. I intend to do yet another revision of this piece, but in doing so intend to:
- Change it from the informal tone at the beginning to more of a “paper” style;
- Include a bit more about potential solutions.
Comments and feedback are definitely welcome… either as comments here on…
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Jim Courtney Discussing His “Experience Skype To The Max” Book on March 27 on VUC at Noon US EDT
Continue Reading: Jim Courtney Discussing His “Experience Skype To The Max” Book on March 27 on VUC at Noon US EDTWant to learn more about what’s up with Skype right now? Tomorrow, March 27, 2015, at 12 noon US Eastern, my friend Jim Courtney is going to be discussing the new second edition of his “Experience Skype to the Max” on episode 534 of the VoIP Users Conference (VUC) podcast.
As noted on the VUC page, Jim will be talking about:
- New features over the past three years and why they don’t have the “buzz” impact that new features used to have. Are we becoming calloused to anything new?
- The challenge of innovating with a product that has built up a legacy and familiarity
- The challenge of educating users about features beyond free voice and video calling (and it’s also a challenge for smartphones – to make users realize there is value in all those applications available beyond voice calls and SMS messages).
- The feature set to consider when evaluating other alternatives
- The directory issue
- Skype vs Skype for Business
- Asynchronous vs real time comms (migrating to IM backend has allowed more “persistence” with chat messaging, for instance)
- Anytime communications Rooms
It should be a good session. I’ve known Jim for many years through his blogging about VoIP and he…
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Skype Translator Looks Intriguing
Continue Reading: Skype Translator Looks IntriguingWhile it is only a “preview” release and is only available to people using Skype on Windows 8.1, Microsoft’s new Skype Translator announced on Monday looks very cool! As they state:The preview program will kick-off with two spoken languages, Spanish and English, and 40+ instant messaging languages will be available to Skype customers who have signed-up via the Skype Translator sign-up page and are using Windows 8.1 on the desktop or device.
The very well-done video shows the real potential, though:
I think many of us have always wanted the Star Trek Universal Translator and while this “preview” from Microsoft is not yet near that sci-fi ideal, it’s definitely a very intriguing step along that direction. I like the idea that it can do both speech and text translation. Given my travel to different parts of the world, the idea of being able to whip out my smartphone and be able to translate to and from another language is definitely welcome.
I’m told the Windows 8.1 restriction is because it is based on Microsoft’s Cortana ‘personal assistant’ technology. Given that I have no Windows 8.1 devices nor expect to anytime soon, I won’t personally get a chance to check…
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The Directory Problem – The Challenge For Wire, Talko And Every Other “Skype-Killer” OTT App
Continue Reading: The Directory Problem – The Challenge For Wire, Talko And Every Other “Skype-Killer” OTT AppAs much as I am enjoying the new Wire app, there is a fundamental problem that Wire faces… as well as Talko, Firefox Hello and every other Over-The-Top (OTT) or WebRTC application that is seeking to become THE way that we communicate via voice, chat and/or video from our mobile phones and desktops. That is:How do they gather the “directory” of people that others want to talk to?
The fundamental challenge all of these applications face is this:
People will only USE a communication application if the people they want to talk to are using the application.
And where I say “talk” it could also be “chat” or “message” or… pick your communication verb.
It’s all about the “directory” of users.
There’s a war out there right now… and it’s a war for the future of our communications between each other. It’s a war for messaging… and it’s also a war for voice and video.
And it all comes back to… which communications application or service can provide the most comprehensive directory of users?
Which communications tool will be the one that people use the most? Will any of them replace the default communications of the mobile phone? NOTE:…
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Walk-Through: Skype 5.4 For iPhone Lets You Host Audio Conference Calls
Continue Reading: Walk-Through: Skype 5.4 For iPhone Lets You Host Audio Conference CallsSkype released a new version 5.4 of it’s iPhone app that includes an interesting ability to host “group audio calls”. In a post on Skype’s “Garage & Updates” blog today, Skype’s Gary Wong writes that the goal of this release is “to make it easy for you to host a group audio call with just one tap.” They did that… and I’ll show that below in a series of images walking through the process.A couple of caveats and thoughts from the testing:
- As Gary Wong noted in his blog post this first release is limited to four people in a group audio call.
- It seems from the testing described below that the “group audio call” is limited to Skype users. I couldn’t find a way to add in a call to an external phone number.
- It also seems to be limited to the iPhone and is not yet available on the iPad.
- Image sharing isn’t seamless between Skype for iPhone users and Skype desktop users.
- The user interface was a bit troubling when switching between parts of the group call.
With that in mind, here are more details…
An Architecture Change For Audio Conferencing
What’s interesting is that this…
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Why Is Skype Forcing A Software Upgrade On All Of Us? (Plus The Community Outrage)
Continue Reading: Why Is Skype Forcing A Software Upgrade On All Of Us? (Plus The Community Outrage)Today when I opened up my laptop and switched to Skype, I found that I had been logged out:
The text in that image says:
We’ve signed you out because you’re using an outdated version of Skype. Download the latest version now.
Now, to be clear, I wasn’t using an ancient version of Skype. My laptop had version 6.3.0.602 from sometime in, say, March 2013 – so yes, it was over a year old, but the thing with Skype is that it has had a history of always “just working”, which perhaps we as users have gotten used to. The upgrade went fine on my MacBook Pro that is still running Mountain Lion (10.8) and I’m now using Skype version “6.15 (334)”.
Community Outrage
In a Skype public chat in which I participate a number of other users said they’d been logged out – and looking in the Windows Skype community and Mac Skype community web forums I see MANY messages from people who are experiencing problems over the past week. The frustration is even visible in the Linux Skype community (a community Skype has often ignored), where a staff moderator posted last Friday, August 1, this message:
From today,…
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Skype Shuts Down SkypeKit and the Skype Developer Website
Continue Reading: Skype Shuts Down SkypeKit and the Skype Developer WebsiteGoodbye to SkypeKit… and perhaps more importantly to the developer.skype.com website. Prominently featured there now is a banner saying the site will close on July 31, 2014:Leaving aside the bizarre way to end the warning banner (“… to integrate with” and then nothing more), I went to the site because I received an email from Skype in the form of a “SkypeKit License Termination Notice”. The email says in full:
Dear Dan ,
In July 2013, we notified you of our intention to end support for our SkypeKit SDK at the end of July 2014. With this date now approaching, this email serves as 30 days’ official notice of termination of the SkypeKit Licence Agreement (“Agreement”) pursuant to Section 13.2.4 of the Agreement. The Agreement will end on July 31st 2014. Upon termination of the Agreement you must promptly destroy all copies of the SkypeKit SDK in your possession or control, except that if you have already entered into the SkypeKit Distribution Terms and have received a commercialization keypair for your SkypeKit Product(s) then you may continue to distribute these SkypeKit Products(s).
Skype will not be issuing any new keypairs and we remind you that keypairs may only be…
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10 Years Of Skype – Massive Disruption… But Will Skype Remain Relevant?
Continue Reading: 10 Years Of Skype – Massive Disruption… But Will Skype Remain Relevant?Ten years ago today, on August 29, 2003, a group of entrepreneurs and developers from Denmark, Sweden and Estonia unleashed a small software program that would fundamentally and irrevocably disrupt telecommunications and just communications in general. Everything would change. Skype has a 10th anniversary blog post out today that highlights some of those changes that have been brought about by Skype, although I personally find their 9th anniversary infographic a bit more interesting because it traced back the history of Skype.Massive Disruption
There is a GREAT amount for Skype to celebrate on it’s 10th birthday. The disruption that has occurred within telecom is truly massive:
- The cost per-minute of international phone calls has been commoditized to near zero. (Indeed, how many people actually make real “phone calls” internationally anymore?)
- Telcos – and governments! – who depended upon those per-minute fees have seen almost that entire revenue stream evaporate, or at least show that it is rapidly fading away. Economic disruption on a massive scale!
- Skype came to be a prime example of how “over-the-top (OTT)” apps could exist on top of the existing telecom networks – and take both marketshare and revenue from those networks.
- Skype introduced the masses…
- The cost per-minute of international phone calls has been commoditized to near zero. (Indeed, how many people actually make real “phone calls” internationally anymore?)
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Skype 4.2.1 for iPad/iPhone Brings Microsoft Integration, Chat Interop, Better IM Features
Continue Reading: Skype 4.2.1 for iPad/iPhone Brings Microsoft Integration, Chat Interop, Better IM FeaturesSkype today brought its increased integration with Microsoft services to the iPhone and iPad with the new release 4.2.1 available in the iOS AppStore. As you can already do in the Windows, Mac and Android versions of Skype, the big feature is that you can now sign in with your “Microsoft account” and merge our Skype contacts with those from Windows Live Messenger (WLM) and Outlook.com. You will now be able to chat back and forth with your WLM contacts directly from within Skype.
This is very cool from the point-of-view that Skype has always been a “walled garden” of instant messaging (IM) that did not interoperate with any other service. Many of us long ago wound up having to use two IM clients on our system: 1) Skype; and 2) a multi-service client (like Adium or Pidgin) for all the other IM networks. This doesn’t quite solve that problem because it is now really just expanding the Skype client to work with two IM networks, but it is at least a step toward greater interop.
In a post on Skype’s “Garage” blog, Beom Soo Park indicates these new features:
- Sign in with your Microsoft Account to merge your Windows Live…