Category: Skype
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Skype Journal: A paradigm shift… (aka, “phones? who needs them?”)
Continue Reading: Skype Journal: A paradigm shift… (aka, “phones? who needs them?”)Skype Journal had this post today that was short enough to be captured in a graphic:
Indeed. How many other startups have ditched landlines, IP PBXs, etc.? Tools like Skype make that rather trivial to do, especially when voice no longer matters as much in everyday business communication.Interesting times we live in…
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Large-scale conference calls with *better* voice quality than the PSTN (using Skype)
Continue Reading: Large-scale conference calls with *better* voice quality than the PSTN (using Skype)One interesting development in the world of Skype last week which I’ve seen little mention of is the fact that the folks at Highspeedconferencing.com have rolled out a Skype Extra that lets Skype users have large-scale conference calls. Like most such large conference bridges, they have moderation/”hand-raising”, call recording, email invites, etc. However, the key point to me is that their conferencing bridge uses the wideband audio supported by Skype! That is the key. You now have conference calling with audio quality that is far better than the PSTN! This is where we start to get into the space where VoIP can offer a truly different – and better – user experience than traditional telephony. The Skype blog touches on this:HighSpeed Conferencing is the only audio conferencing service available to Skype users that offers high-definition (HD) voice quality. There’s no degradation of audio quality, no matter how many Skype users participate in a conference call. And with unlimited usage during a conference call, you can talk as much as you want. Some people stay on the conference bridge all day.
I’ve not yet used the service as right now I’m not involved with large conference calls, but at the… -
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Skype and secure SIP? (Why would I see this message?)
Continue Reading: Skype and secure SIP? (Why would I see this message?)Whenever I’m using Skype, I have the “Display technical call info” setting enabled so that I see technical stats about the calls I am on. Those windows tend to stay around after a call… and I noticed this one still around with an identity of “securesip”. (click on the image for a larger version) I’ve tried to replicate this with calls that I’ve recently made to see if I could get the window again, but can’t seem to do so. Anyone know why I might be seeing this?
I’m curious…
Technorati Tags: sip, skype, voip security
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Use Skype from anywhere (providing you have GSM coverage) – Skype releases “3Skypephone” and joins the mobile game
Continue Reading: Use Skype from anywhere (providing you have GSM coverage) – Skype releases “3Skypephone” and joins the mobile gameThe big news out today in the world of Skype is that Skype and the mobile carrier called “3” have released the “3 Skypephone” that lets Skype users take Skype truly mobile. Skype-to-Skype calls and IMs are “free” provided that you are on “3”‘s mobile network. I say “free” in quotes because of course you have to have a wireless plan through 3. There are actually two options in the UK, which is the only country in which it will initially be available:
- Monthly – With this plan, the 3 Skypephone hardware itself is free and the rates are 12-17 British pounds per month. Apparently you have unlimited data connectivity with this plan, so you can in fact make unlimited numbers of Skype calls or IMs.
- Pay-As-You-Go – With this plan, you pay 50 pounds for the 3Skypephone phone itself and then keep your account filled with credits. Apparently data usage decrements this account (but it’s not clear by how much), so you have to wonder how often people will need to recharge the account. (UPDATE: Julian Bond, who is in the UK and has a 3 Skypephone to experiment with, informs me that there is apparently…
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A heck of week to choose to go dark! (Microsoft, MySpace/Skype, iPhone… )
Continue Reading: A heck of week to choose to go dark! (Microsoft, MySpace/Skype, iPhone… )Boy, did I choose the wrong week to go dark! Way too many amazing things going on out there this week… here is a quick view of some of the disruptions with relevant links:
- Microsoft formally announces release of Office Communication Server – tons of coverage out there but I recommend the analysis by the UC Strategies team.
- Skype will be providing voice to MySpace IM – again tons of coverage – Skype Journal has more info and a screenshot. See also the Skype blog.
- Per Business Week this morning, Skype will be rolling out its own mobile phone, starting in Europe.
- MySpace
- Apple, meanwhile, announces an upcoming developer kit for the iPhone via a note from Steve Jobs (some reactions here and here).
- And finally MySpace says it will open up to application developers in a similar manner to Facebook.
All in all a rather busy week! (And it’s not over yet…)
Technorati Tags: apple, applications, facebook, iphone, myspace, microsoft, ocs, unifiedcommunications, skype, voip
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eBay pays $530 million to buy out Skype founders – and writes down value of Skype by $900 million
Continue Reading: eBay pays $530 million to buy out Skype founders – and writes down value of Skype by $900 millionNot necessarily a great day over at Skype today – per the eBay news release, Niklas Zennstrom stepped down as CEO, eBay paid $533 million to “settle obligations to certain Skype shareholders” and is also taking a $900 million charge to write down the value of Skype. From a Bloomberg article:“It has not performed as well as we would have hoped in the short term,” EBay spokesman Hani Durzy said in an interview. Skype was profitable the first half of the year, he said.
Many others out there have already offered their analysis and so I’ll point you to them today:- Skype Journal (Jim Courtney): The Metamorphosis Begins: New CEO Sought for Skype
- VoIP Watch (Andy Abramson): Management Shake Up At Skype
- Bloomberg: EBay Takes $1.4 Billion Charge Related to Skype Unit
- Skype co-founder Janus Friis’ blog: (not) just another monday
- Thomas Crampton: Zennstrom defends Skype while stepping down
- Technorati search on ‘skype’
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Additional thoughts on Skype and hotel networks – there’s issues on both sides…
Continue Reading: Additional thoughts on Skype and hotel networks – there’s issues on both sides…To my immense surprise, my article yesterday about my challenges with Skype and my hotel Internet connection just hit TechMeme today, so welcome, anyone who is coming my way from there. But that also prompted me to want to offer up some additional thoughts on the subject.
First, I’m actually quite annoyed at the Best Western here in Ontario, CA, for essentially blocking Skype by virtue of their network security traffic policies. If travel shall bring me to Ontario, CA, again, you can be pretty sure that I will not be staying here. Skype has become an important communication tool for me and <cue violins>was the way I was intending to call home and stay in touch with my family</violins>. Skype has worked great at the hotel I was at earlier in the week in Phoenix and in fact at every other hotel I’ve been at lately. I do intend to contact Best Western to express my dissatisfaction at being unable to use the program.
Having said that, as a security professional I do understand WHY the security team at the Internet provider to this Best Western hotel has the policies in place that they do. As Phil Wolff commented,…
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How using Skype disrupted my hotel Internet connection and locked me out
Continue Reading: How using Skype disrupted my hotel Internet connection and locked me outUPDATE: I have now posted some additional thoughts about this issue.
It’s been a frustrating time here at the hotel in Ontario, CA, where all I’ve been trying to do is use the Internet connection. I’m staying at the Best Western and did so largely because they advertised free high-speed Internet (they were also cheaper than others). First annoyance was discovering that I was too far away from their APs to use wireless, but since I had an ethernet cable I just plugged into the wall jack and expected to get access. The very first time I connected, I did get an IP address and could see an entry in my routing table for the default gateway. However, I couldn’t ping it.
Being rather used to network troubleshooting, I did the usual things… bringing the interface up and down, disconnecting and re-connecting the cable. I even went to the hotel lobby and got a new cable in case the issue was with my portable/retractable cable.
Nothing. No net.
In desperation I did the thing that tech support always tells you to do but I avoid… reboot. Nothing.
So finally this morning I got on the phone to the Best Western…
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Skype Mashup Contest: And the European winner is……
Continue Reading: Skype Mashup Contest: And the European winner is……The first result of the Skype Mashup contest was announced yesterday at the Skype developer event in Prague, and the winner is….
Yes… a fax application! As Jim Courtney writes over on Skype Journal (he was also one of the judges):
The PamConsult team created PamFax to solve the problem of providing a very simple process (especially relative to the somewhat cumbersome WinFax) of using the Internet to easily fax an MS Office document anywhere worldwide. The primary Skype feature here has nothing to do with voice; they used the Skype Extras publishing platform not only to install the application but also as a transaction processor for collecting revenues for the service using Skype credits. Skype Chat is used to send notifications re a fax’s delivery. In addition they developed a web-based portal to manage and archive your use of the service. The application can be launched from the Skype Extras menu or from within MS Excel or MS Word. A link to Google Maps will also show roughly where the fax is being sent (to within an Area Code).
The interesting aspect to me is how it uses Skype’s micro-payment infrastructure. No need for credit cards or…
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Skype Journal: "The Dawn of the Mashup World"
Continue Reading: Skype Journal: "The Dawn of the Mashup World"For a couple of months now, a post has been swirling around in my brain that I was tentatively titling “The Dawn of the Mashup Culture” in which I wanted to talk about “mashups” and why they are so incredibly important. Unfortunately I just haven’t had the time to put all those thoughts into the written word.
Well, in the meantime, Jim Courtney went off and wrote something very close to what I was intending to do: “The Dawn of the Mashup World – Part 1: Challenges, Why and Expectations” followed by “Part 1a: What is a Mashup?“
Read them. (And the follow-on posts that Jim indicates he’s writing.)
Mashups are fundamentally changing the way we can use and control services. It’s the remix culture.
You need to understand it… because if you don’t, your products and services will be left behind.
Open APIs win. Mashups win.
Technorati tags: mashups, apis, skype, skype journal, jim courtney
