Phil Wolff's 67 Reckless Predictions for 2010

In 2010...

1. A hot stranger will IM something inappropriate to you.
2. Skype's SilverLakeification will be complete, with a very short leash on strategy and operations at first.
3. Skype will serve 125 billion minutes of calls.
4. Second Life will serve 20 billion minutes of calls.
5. Oprah's television show will end as scheduled in 2011; lots of Skype calls in 2010 leading to the finale as former guests make cameo appearances, holding out for a spot on Oprah's last (highest-rated-ever) episode.
6. "The Tyra Banks Show" will end as scheduled in 2010. Nobody will Skype in.
7. UK police will allege terrorists use Skype (like everyone else). Parliament will demand the PM bring Skype under control.
8. Skype 5.x will offer multiparty video.
9. Skype 5.x will offer team features.
10. Someone will attend a family funeral via Skype video. And forget they are on camera.
11. Skype will release a "naked Skype" public beta. This Skype engine, no user interface, will be free/cheap. Hardware developers will like it; web developers won't.
12. Skypecasts will still be offline.
13. Facebook will add voice to chat.
14. Skype for Business will account for ten percent of Skype sales.
15. Nortel changes its name to Avaya. Or avice aversa.
16. The world economy will continue to suck. An American commercial real estate crisis will reinvigorate the Great Recession. Good news for Skype as more people work from home.
17. 24's eighth season will feature Cisco's new midrange video conferencing.
18. Skype won't offer a "Login with Skype" service.
19. Vampires still won't Skype.
20. Tencent will buy ICQ for its non-China userbase. Skype won't.
21. Google Talk will add multiparty video with On2 inside, and become a standard part of the Google office suite.
22. Skypers post thousands of videos of Skype calls on YouTube, thanks to recording software. Jeremy Hague's Vodburner outpaces Pamela as the bestselling Skype add in.
23. The US student loan crisis ($700 billion outstanding) strains consumer lending.
24. Skype starts a post-SIP standards discussion about communications protocols for the 21st century.
25. Avaya will make Skype for SIP the default setting for new switches they sell.
26. Skype manages to get a television commercial on the air.
27. China's troubled economy will boost Skype usage when families can't afford to travel home for the Lunar New Year.
28. A team will talk for 200 hours in an uninterrupted Skype-to-Skype call.
29. Wi-Fi phones will ship with Skype SILK inside.
30. Six former Skype employees will become CxOs.
31. Someone dies, unable to Skype for emergency help.
32. You'll be able to make iSkype voice calls on Verizon 3G before AT&T 3G.
33. 100 handsets will run on Google's Android.
34. Skype will release their homemade COTTON video codec, so they don't have to use the ones from Google's On2. Higher quality. Easy, free license. Independence.
35. Skype.com still won't let you log in with OpenID.
36. Windows Live Messenger gets a huge boost in new user signups from Bing, Office2010, Office Live, and Windows 7. Microsoft will rock in 2010.
37. LG ships a television with Skype inside.
38. Mobiletelco 3 ships its third generation Skypephone.
39. An angry entertainer tweets to a million followers her PC crashed and lost all her Skype history. So she's switching to...
40. Skype opens a mobile research lab in India.
41. Gizmo5 features migrate to Google's plumbing and Google Voice.
42. A Harvard Business Review case will feature a Skype-related issue.
43. A Fortune 500 company (not eBay) will provide Skype for Windows for their employees.
44. Volunteers phonebank using Skype on behalf of a national EU political candidate's campaign's.
45. A lobbyist slips a Skype-hostile measure into a US law on behalf of incumbent telcos before Skype can muster opposition.
46. The Skype store will sell a netbook with Skype preinstalled.
47. The BigTelco industry pressures Nokia, so it never preinstalls Skype on its Series 60 line for the US market.
48. Skype relaunches its software platform developer program mid-year.
49. Skype's unreasonable Broadcast Terms of Service keeps it off new dramatic television programs and out of movies all year.
50. A court will find Skype guilty in a class action suit related to collecting small sums of money from customers but not offering service or prompt refunds.
51. Skype will offer to buy Tokbox for its browser-based video.
52. Skype revenue per minute called will continue rising from $0.06 as Skype trunking starts to contribute.
53. Skype will top $900 million in revenue.
54. Skype will sell small businesses pricing plans making it easy to budget and buy.
55. An IETF working group publishes avatar portability protocols.
56. 23 million people will log in to Skype at the same time.
57. 180 million new Skype accounts, about 500k daily.
58. Someone Skypes from a Virgin Galactic space flight.
59. Skype loses juicy US government contracts over the TOM-Skype security compromises. You don't know when someone you're talking with is using a TOM-Skype client with monitoring software from Chinese security agencies. An audit will show Skype on 500K federal employee computers anyway.
60. Skype relaunches Skype for Android. Android Skypers have more dialtone per user than the iPhone or Skype Lite.
61. Zombies become the new Vampires.
62. Tom Green Show's corps of Skyping fans will continue to Skype into the show while he is on the road with his new Standup Comedy Tour.
63. Skype-like features become generic, included in every communications and collaboration product shown at Demo, TechCrunch50, Telephony Startup Camp and similar product launchpads.
64. BT/Ribbit adds video support to its platform for programmers.
65. Voicemail to email transcription becomes a standard feature in most markets for mobile and home phone service.
66. United Nations rescue and recovery teams standardize on Skype.
67. Skype sponsors a Festivus site for the public "airing of grievances" and videos of your "Feats of Strength."

Hudson Barton predicts a 2010 peak of 27,695,335 Skype users online, Total "real users" will be 67,596,505.

What are your predictions? Can you do better? Prior years' predictions: Phil Wolff's 26 incriminating 2009 Skype Predictions, Phil Wolff's 37 Sketchy 2008 Skype Predictions, Predictions? Wish List? What's In Store for 2008 (Jim Courtney).

tags: skype, future, predictions

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

2009: The Year even Clooney lost out to Video Communications.

Guest post by Larry Lisser, the man behind the Telephony2Market blog, instigator of the first Startup Camp Telephony Edition (21 January 2010, Miami), and an Emerging Communications Conference alum. He's the go-to consultant for helping emerging communications startups position, package and get to market growth.

Recently, I made the obligatory trip to George Clooney's latest movie, 'Up in the Air.' Predictable results followed: Clooney played the same guy he often does and my wife was just happy to have watched his pretty face on the big screen for two hours. What I didn't expect was to see how central video communications was to the story line. This got me thinking.

There can be little debate that the year 2009 was the best yet for video communications. After years of false starts (i.e. before widespread broadband) and then a somewhat remarkably slow start even once its quality issues were no longer, video found its legs this year. Indicators of video's accelerating market momentum were everywhere, coming at us in the forms of mainstream media coverage, viral user base growth and of course M&A activity.

The acquisition roster proved to be the strongest evidence yet. By the time the year was done, we counted three buyers and four deals with bets aimed squarely on the future of video over IP communications. Grand total: in excess of $6B. No small bets by the buyers of Tandberg, Skype, LifeSize and SightSpeed (in order of transaction size).

Now back to Clooney. He played a hired grinch; someone who traveled the world every week to deliver pink slip news on behalf of his firm's corporate clients. Early in the plot, an upstart member of his own head office team tried to re-write his playbook though - and eliminate travel expenses - by introducing video as a means to fire people from afar.

Clooney pushed back (charmingly, of course), professing that what he did for a living required in-person communications and could not be done as effectively by camera. I'll let you discover the rest at the movies, but suffice to say that I came away with a few year-end revelations about video:

1. What we once thought to be the obvious and pervasive applications for video (i.e. travel replacement), may not end up being the ones that spur exponential growth. Think video as a component of a process and not just as an advanced form of communications.
2. The video enabled call center is coming. Actually, it's already here but few of us have experienced it real-time. Imagine for a moment the difference in empathy you and an agent might exchange during a heated customer service conversation about a canceled flight - if you were looking at each other.
3. I'm shifting terminology from 'Video-Conferencing' to 'Visual Communications'. The former has become too limiting. Conferencing implies just that, while visual communications can and will mean so much more.

So the year ends with bankers, end-users, the media and now Hollywood having told us that 2010 and beyond hold much more than just promise for video communications. As Andy Abramson put properly into context for us this week, if VoIP was the industry of the decade, the next ten year will belong to video over IP. Or Visual Communications, if you prefer.

tags: skype, video, trends, 2009, upintheairmovie, termination, firing

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Gifts for the Skype crowd

Gear: The Better to Hear and See All Year Long

Cute 3-D Webcam from Minoru. For the friend who wants even more than Skype's High Quality and considers 3D glasses the height of fashion. Cheerful, stereoscopic, and works wonderfully with Skype. Minoru videos on YouTube (and wear your 3D specs). Review. Amazon. $89/£50/€80.

Point 2 View (P2V) USB camera. Skype in-focus close-ups in your video call. You show the grandkids your stamp collection, they show you the bugs they found in the back yard. Armature stand included. Review, Overview, Gallery, FAQ, Tech specs, Downloads. Ipevo Store. Amazon.

Touch Screen Videophone from ASUS. The ASUS SV1TS gets the PC out of the way of Skype video. You drop it in the kitchen or living room, plug in the power cord, connect the Wi-Fi, touch the screen, and talk. Large, clear picture. Amazon. $230.

MXL AC-405 USB personal computer speakerphone. Absolutely the best audio quality anywhere near this price from Maxell, world experts in microphone engineering. The AC-405 shares technology with their high-end music and television studio microphones. Amazon. $55.

Freetalk Wireless Stereo Headset. Still one of the best for looks, quality, comfort and ruggedness. More than five hours of talk time and even then it works while recharging. I use it daily without tripping over cables. Review. Amazon. Skype store. $80.

Software: To Record and Share

Vodburner records Skype video calls on Windows. The Vodburner Beta includes easy editing software (see screenshot below) that automatically switches the shot between the two of you depending on who is speaking. Publish meetings, interviews, and training sessions on the web. A subscription runs $9.95 (USD) monthly.

Pamela Professional Edition, the Skype Assistant. Proven software with built in voice mail, birthday reminders, and in-call sound effects. Like Vodburner, it records calls but without an audio or video editor. An all around utility kit for Windows Skype users. I've been using Pamela for many years. PamSoft. €19,95.

Skype Journal Video Grooming Kit:

Teeth: Rembrandt 2-Hour Whitening Kit. Whiter teeth take years off. Feel free to smile.

Hair: Kent White Bristle Hair Brush for those stray hairs. (Ah, I remember the days when I had hair on the top of my head worth brushing.)

Inspection: Jerdon First Class Mirror so you know you look good and bounce a little light your way. See yourself the way others see you.

Skin: Avon mark Cheat Sheet Shine-Blotters to remove oils from your face that shine in the light. (I always thought it was a reflection off my eyeglasses that blinded viewers, but it was the glare from my forehead. )

Wardrobe: Everyone looks better on camera in a clean, dark blue shirt: Soffe Men's Base Layer Long Sleeve Crew Tee. White clothing creates glare and throws off your camera's sensors. Keep a clean, dark and solid top by your desk for the unexpected Skype call.

Lights: Natural light makes you look marvelous. I use the Verilux Original Natural Spectrum Deluxe Desk Lamp, so the camera can see my face. (Despite requests to turn it off.)

Lens: Keep your webcam lens clear with the Nikon Complete Lens Cleaner Kit or the LensPEN Lens Cleaning System. (This doesn't seem to help me: I always turn out smudged no matter how clean the webcam.)

UK broadband miles behind its counterparts

Guest post by Shahul Hameed, broadband analyst at VAC Media. Shahul reports on UK broadband provider performance, technologies, and markets for VAC's Broadband Suppliers site.

Will instant downloads ever happen here? Can we play online and watch videos without interruption? We have been expecting these changes with our UK broadband services a long time.

A recent study by Broadband Suppliers states our international peers, especially South Korea and Japan, are miles a head of the United Kingdom. Even though the UK ranks among the top thirty richest nations, the UK's telecommunication infrastructure is worse than rest of Europe and most of the countries in the world.

South Korea, for example, is the first country in the world to bring fiber optic cable connections to every school nationwide. Online games are a national event.

The maximum broadband speed offered in UK is 50 Mbps while the average monthly bill shoots up to 10 times higher than other countries. Expert analysis claims houses in most part of the country still connect to exchanges using old BT copper wires. Copper wires do not have better data carrying capacity compared to fiber optic cables. Moreover, the longer the wires are from the exchange, the slower the speed will be. The fiber optic cables have been laid in major cities while other parts of the country still wait for network expansion.

The Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) recently announced that the UK is worse on broadband penetration by standard measures. They also reported that one in every five users (21%) express dissatisfaction with broadband speeds. 16% are dissatisfied with the price of the plan and 13% with the reliability and performance of the connection. Almost 26% of customers say broadband providers set a wrong expectation about connection speed.

Some of the major factors affecting speeds include:

1. Line capacity of the ISP's
2. Cable quality
3. Distance between the residents and exchange

Awareness about the speed of the broadband is mixed. Many people are well informed about the factors affecting speed and choose the fastest ISP, while almost 40% are unaware of the head line speed. Broadband suppliers continue to mislead the public regarding download speeds and tag customers with higher prices. This was also reported and criticized by Ofcom this year.

The UK Government should speed up the process of laying fiber optic cables and increase the coverage of wireless networks. Else we will remain in the 26th position or fall further when it comes to the quality of broadband service in the world, while competitors like Japan and South Korea are future ready.

tags: uk, broadband, rok, southkorea

Free Speech Activists Use Skype Data Channel To Bypass Government Censorship

Skype Journal is blocked by China's government. Millions work around censorship and monitoring with networking tools like GTunnel. The GTunnel proxy on your PC connects to GTunnel servers. The client connects directly, through the TOR network, or through the Skype network. Connecting through Skype assures your packets are encrypted from beginning to end. This hides your IP address from servers. This also circumvents blockades of target servers like mine.

GTunnel is run by Garden Networks for Freedom of Information, a member of the Global Information Freedom Consortium. When you combine GTunnel with UltraSurf, FreeGate, FirePhoenix, GPass, and Ranking you get a complete suite for surviving online censorship and monitoring.

Caution for Chinese users: Skype cannot assure what you download from TOM-Skype does not include spyware. So download the international version from the Skype.com site or another independent source.

tags: security, censorship, iran, china, gfw, encryption, anonymity, gtunnel, anti-jamming system, jamming, blocking, blocks, blocked, globalinformationfreedom, gift

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Collaboration Lego Style

Creating a shared vision, talking through it until it becomes a plan they both understand, then dividing up work between them, troubleshooting together and adjusting the plan, until it's done. Collaboration builds relationships, not just houses.

tags: lego, collaboration, family, commercial, house

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

More M&A: Should Skype buy ICQ from AOL?

What would Skype pay to add 42 million active users in 2010? The $300 million AOL seems to be asking for ICQ may be steep. According to AOL, 1.1 billion messages are sent and received in the five hours per day the average 13-29 year old ICQ user is connected. ICQ is bigger than Skype in Germany, Russia, Ukraine, and Israel.

On the other hand, Skype added 40.3 million new users in 2009q3. Ninety days of growth and an established community would be nice.

Maybe. You could lose half the ICQ users at first switch.

ICQ's proven centralized services were appealing when Skype was desperately seeking alternatives to Joltid's p2p technology. That compelling interest is over.

Techcrunch says South Africa's Naspers (JNB:NPN), a big investor in China's Tencent, expressed interest. Tencent's QQ was inspired by ICQ.

I'm sure AOL values ICQ based on its advertising revenue. Skype is unlikely to

It might be cheaper to hire the Israeli Mirabilis team directly.

tags: skype, aol, aim, icq, is, israel, mirabilis, tencent, naspers, china, russia

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Download: Skype for Symbian S60 3rd Edition Beta

Skype and Nokia announced at the February 2009 GSM World Congress that Nokia would pre-install Skype on its S60 smart phones by 2009q3. It won't happen this year but the limited release of Skype for Symbian shows progress.

This is a real client, not a Skype Lite thin client. It works over 3G and Wi-Fi You won't get the full Skype experience. You do get chat and calling. You don't get public chats or the ability to initiate a conference call. No video calling. No Wi-Fi via the Boingo-provided Skype Access service. No call transfer.

A few cautions. First, don't try this Beta on your phone unless it's on the list. Second, install it in memory; it's too slow if you run it off your SIM card. Third, Nokia's PC Suite backup won't backup Skype. So upgrades to Symbian or your firmware delete your Skype chat history. Fourth, you cannot forbid Skype from using 3G. If your data plan is capped or expensive, Skype may use it even when Wi-Fi is available. Skype doesn't ask or give you the choice. Last, it's an early beta, still with bugs or design defects that drop calls, give you confusing messages, make loud noises. Caveat downloader.

Cautions aside, go get it. Symbian S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 devices (Nokia E71, E63, E66, N82, E51, N95, N95 8GB, N81, N81 8GB, E90). Symbian S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 devices (Nokia N96, N85, 5320, 6210 Navigator, 6210 Classic, N78, N79).

Your Nokia isn't on the list? Check out Skype-compatible IM+ for Skype, Nimbuzz, fring or minifring.

Full text below of the Skype for Symbian User Guide (pdf).

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User Guide

Skype for Symbian 3rd Edition Feature pack 1 and 2

Introduction

Skype for Symbian S60 enables you to use Skype on smart phones running the Symbian S60 3rd edition, Feature Pack 1 and 2.

This guide describes how to:

• Install Skype for Symbian S60 smart phone
• Configure Skype for Symbian S60
• Use Skype for Symbian S60

Installation

Environment requirements

Skype for Symbian can be installed on any S60 Feature Pack 1 or Feature Pack 2 phone.

However, currently it has been verified to be functioning optimally on following phone models and phone firmware releases;

• E 71 S60 3d Ed. FP 1 210.21.006 RM- 346
• N 96 S60 3d Ed. FP 2 12.043 RM-247
• N 85 S60 3d Ed. FP 2 10.045
• 5320 S60 3d Ed. FP 2 04.13 ( 01-12-2008) RM-409
• 6210 Navigator S60 3d Ed. FP 2 4.13 RM - 367
• 6220 Classic S60 3d Ed. FP 2 4.13 RM- 328
• N 78 S60 3d Ed. FP 2 20.149
• N 79 S60 3d Ed. FP 2 20.175(06-04-09) RM-348
• E 63 S60 3d Ed. FP 1 100.21.110 (14-11-2008) RM-437
• E 66 S60 3d Ed. FP 1 210.21.007 ( 27-02-2009) RM-343
• N 82 S60 3d Ed. FP 1 31.0.16
• E 51 S60 3d Ed. FP 1 300.34.56 RM - 244
• N 95 S60 3d Ed. FP 1 31.0.017
• N 95 8 Gb S60 3d Ed. FP 1 20.0.016
• N 81 S60 3d Ed. FP 1 11.0.045
• N 81 8 Gb S60 3d Ed. FP 1 11.0.045
• E 90 S 60 3d FP 1 300.34.84

It is recommended to update phone’s firmware to the latest one.

Installation on phone models not listed is not recommended.

Skype for Symbian requires at least 6 Mb of free storage space on your phone to install.

To function effectively, Skype for Symbian requires a high speed wireless Internet connection over a wireless (Wi-Fi) or 3G networks. The procedures to configure Wi-Fi and 3G features are beyond the scope of this document, but are typically performed by selecting ‘Applications->Tools->Settings->Connection->Access points’.

Recommended installation method

Skype for Symbian can be installed via various means, installation methods include;

• OTA (Over the air)
• Via Nokia PC suite
• Via sending application sis file to phone via Bluetooth.

Supported installation locations

Skype for Symbian should be installed to phone main memory.

Installation to removable memory card is not recommended and can result in application performance degradations or launch failures.

Starting Skype for the first time

Notifications

On first start user is notified of details of client usage.

Application access

User asked to allow the application access to wireless connectivity and mobile network.

No emergency calls

User is informed that Skype for Symbian is not a substitute for an ordinary phone and cannot be used to make emergency calls.

Choose a connection

Please choose an access point that Skype will use to establish internet connection. In a while, you will be signed in to your account and will see Skype Contact list screen.

Creating new account

Accept terms of service.

To create a new account, please fill in all fields.

When you finished filling in ‘Create Account’ form, press ‘Done’– if the Skype name that you have entered has not been already taken; the new account will be created for you.

Signing in to existing account

If you already have an account you can choose ‘Sign In to Skype’. Fill in ‘Skype Name’ and ‘Password’ fields, then press ‘Sign In’.

Using Skype for Symbian

Main menu

Main menu provides quick access to all client features.

Contact list displays user contacts.

IMs contain chats and their history.

History contains a log of sent and received calls, files, voice mails ,SMS-es and authorization requests.

Contacts screen

The Contact list screen displays Skype users and phone numbers (for SkypeOut calls) you have added to your contacts list. It displays the current online status of each user, and allows you to manage your contacts.

Setting own Presence status

To set own online status, press ‘Options’ and select ‘Change online status’ from menu.

List of available Presence statuses:

• Offline – you are not currently signed in to Skype.
• Online – you are ready to make and receive calls or chat messages.Your status will be set to Online automatically when you sign in.
• Away – indicates that you are online but away from your Pocket PC.
• Do not Disturb –indicates that you are busy. Skype will not notify you of incoming calls or chat, although a Call tab is added to the tab bar when a call is received.
• Invisible – allows you to remain online while others see you as offline.

Options menu

‘Options’ menu allows you to among other things;

• Add a Contact to add known contacts.
• Search for Skype Users to search for other Skype users based on selection criteria.
• Change Skype Settings.
• View ‘About Skype’ to provide information about the running version of Skype for Symbian.
• View ‘Help’ screen.
• Sign Out to end your Skype session.
• Exit to close (as opposed to send to background) the Skype application.

IMs screen

This screen displays a list of active chats. You can open an active chat, set the chat topic, leave a chat and add or view chat participants.

History - Calls screen

This screen displays a history of received, dialed, and missed Skype and SkypeOut calls. It is possible to place a call directly from this screen by pressing ‘Green’ button.

History – Files screen

This screen displays a history of files sent and received to device. Individual files can be accessed from this screen.

History – Voice mails screen

This screen lists received voice mails. From this screen you can send, play and manage your voice mails.

History – SMS messages screen

SMS messages send by you are listed here. You can view and manage individual messages from this screen.

History – Contact requests

Unanswered authorization messages, contact details requests are displayed on this screen.

Settings – Call forwarding

Here you can manage the way Skype forwards incoming calls when you are offline, available options are;

• Don’t forward – calls are not forwarded
• Skype voice mail – calls are forwarded to your Skype voicemail (requires purchase of Skype voice mail service)
• Other number – calls are forwarded to a specified number. (requires Skype credit and forwarding set up.)

Settings – Privacy

Here you can restrict which other Skype users can contact you. Privacy settings for chats and Calls are separate. Settings available for both types are following;

• Anyone – any Skype user can contact you.
• Only people in my Contact list – Skype users already in your contact list are allowed to contact you.
• Only people with my details – Skype users with whom you have shared your details are allowed to contact you.

Settings - Connection

You can change different connection related settings here:

• Default access point
• 3G cost alert – if enabled, Skype will require explicit user permission to establish 3G connection.

Making a Call and Starting a Chat

• To make a call, highlight one of your contacts, and press ‘Green’ button.
• Alternatively, press Joystick Middle button – ‘Communication’ menu will be displayed. Select ‘Call’.
• To start a Chat, press Joystick Middle button – ‘Communication’ menu will be displayed. Select ‘Start Chat’.

Incoming Skype Call

When you see an incoming call balloon, you have several options:

• Answer the call by either pressing ‘Green’ button, or by selecting ‘Answer’ from ‘Options’ menu.
• Reject the call by either pressing ‘Red’ button or by pressing ‘Reject’ soft button.

Note that during Incoming Call notification, ‘Red’ button does not dismiss Skype to background, but rather rejects incoming call.

Terminating ongoing Skype Call

• To terminate active Skype call either press ‘Red’ button, or ‘End call’ soft button.

Dial a number

In order to make a call to any number, perform following actions:

1. From Contacts screen, press ‘Options’.
2. Select ‘Dial number’.
3. Input correctly formatted phone number and either press Green button or select ‘Call’ from Options menu.

You can change your dialing prefix by pressing ‘Options’ ‘Country codes’ and selecting the country. Appropriate dialing prefix will be added automatically to phone number input screen.

Sending Voicemail

You can send a voicemail to other Skype users who have voice mail service enabled.

1. From Contact list, highlight a contact.
2. Press ‘Options’ select ‘Send Voicemail ’
3. After voice mail greeting is played, recording of your voice mail is started.

Managing contacts

A contact is any Skype user you allow to talk or chat with you, or a SkypeOut number. Use Skype’s privacy features to decide who can and cannot contact you.

Known contacts

If you know the Skype name of a contact to add, perform the following tasks:

1. Select ‘New Contact’ from the Contacts ‘Options’ menu.
2. Select the ‘Search Skype users’ option.
3. Type the Skype name of the contact – Skype will search for it, and display the results.
4. Highlight desired contact and then select ‘Options->Add to Contacts’.
5. In the ‘Enter a reason’ window, type a message to introduce yourself.

The new contact will appear on the Contact list. If the user authorizes you to see online status, the Contact list displays the current status for the user.

Alternatively, to add a SkypeOut contact, perform the following tasks:

1. Select ‘New Contact’ from the Contacts ‘Options’ menu.
2. Select the ‘Add phone number’ option.
3. Enter the phone number into window and then select ‘Yes’.

Unknown contacts

If you do not know the Skype name of a user you want to add to your contacts list, perform the

following actions:

1. Select ‘Options->Search’ from the Contact list screen.
2. Type a name in the ‘Name or e-mail address’ of the Search screen, optionally specify search criterion using the remaining fields and then select ‘Ok’ button.
3. After a short delay, Skype for Symbian displays a list of Skype users that match your search details.

Authorizing contacts

When a user requests to add you to a contact list, Skype for Symbian displays an authorization request notification. Open the notification to respond to the request.

Existing contacts

To manage existing contacts, perform the following tasks:

Highlight a contact you want to manage, and then select ‘Options->Contact’ submenu.

From here you can perform following tasks:

• View the contact’s profile.
• Rename the contact.
• Remove the contact.
• Block the contact.
• Request authorization (only if you are not authorized yet).

If your contacts list is large, you can use the quick search facility to find a contact quickly and easily. While on the Contact list screen, simply press a button on the keypad – respective letter will appear in the text box to view only those contacts whose names begin with that letter.

Backup/Restore

Skype for Symbian is not included in the Backup performed by Nokia PC Suite. This means that if you Backup and later restore your smart phone, your Skype installation will be lost together with all your Chat history.

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tags: skype, symbian, nokia, download

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Download: Skype for Windows 4.2.0.141 Beta

Download the Beta now (full install). A few new features and improvements, 35 bug fixes.

Skype Access. (Beta). Boingo brought over from the Mac version. "Pay by the minute for WiFi internet connection in public hotspots: Automatically detects accessible Wifi hotspots; Connect manually: Tools > Skype Access... Connect to the web and pay per minute with your Skype Credit. Only pay for what you use. Available at over 100,000 WiFi hotspots worldwide."

Call Quality Indicator. Answers the question What's wrong with my call? "Check microphone, speaker and webcam, as well as computer CPU and internet connection speed. Skype runs a diagnostic and gives an overall rating for how good your call quality’s going to be. Full five bars indicates optimal conditions and fewer than five bars indicates less than optimal conditions. Clicking on the indicator allows to check the individual elements and to troubleshoot."

First-time User Experience. "Allows an improved account creation experience. An enhanced experience for creating a new Skype account, updating the profile information and accessing the Getting Started Wizard."

Pop-up Alerts. Social peripheral awareness or interruptionware? "Alerts about new contact requests and delivers messages from Skype. Alerts when someone is requesting to become your contact.  Messages from Skype about your account, and other important notices."

Call Transfer. One more reason to have a Skype subscription plan. "Transfer calls to other Skype users and to landline’s or mobile’s. This feature was available in Skype 3.x version, and has returned by popular demand. Direct transfer: Call is transferred directly to the intended recipient. Screening transfer: Incoming call is placed on hold, intended recipient is called and informed of the intended transfer before transferring the call. In addition to the voice call, during an active Call Transfer call to another Skype client also File Transfer and Instant Messaging are available. Note that Video is not available."

Toolbars. Chrome! 7! "Skype browser toolbar improvements. Support for Google Chrome browser. Windows 7 support. Revised Windows taskbar functionality. Support for new taskbar behaviour. Support for jump list. Support for audio ducking. On Account creation users will be pre-filled using Windows Location API."

tags: skype, skypeforwindows, windows, beta, 4, 4b, 4.2

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Niklas Zennström bores at Le Web

Niklas Zennström doesn't speak often to large crowds. When he does, he isn't insightful or novel or passionate. His talk at Le Web was no exception. He could have shared the personal story of clawing his way back to ownership of Skype. The fury and anger of being kicked out of Skype without the billion dollar payout. Or the pain of choosing to close Joost. Instead he chose slideware and platitudes. I'd have preferred to hear from Catherine Zennström about the Zennström Philanthropies. Or from Geoffrey Prentice about Atomico's portfolio strategy.

Sigh.

tags: skype, leweb, #leweb, niklaszennstrom, atomico

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Frontiers of Real Time Collaboration

When I think of my community, where I belong professionally, I find my peeps highly concentrated in two places: The Emerging Communications Conferences and last week's Supernova Conference, #sn09. Collaboration and realtime communication was the topic during a panel discussion on day three. Dr. Weinberger brought the conversation through qualitative changes due to speed, brevity, and engagement; and collaboration norms within vertical subcultures. Side note: Skype wasn't mentioned once. Here's the video, my play-by-play notes, and my observations.

Part 1. (1 hour)

Part 2. (6 minutes)

• Moderator: David Weinberger (Berkman)
• Anna-Christina Douglas (Product Marketing Manager for Google Wave)
• Laura Fitton (Pistachio Consulting and founder of 140.com, co-author of Twitter For Dummies)
• Paul Lippe (Legal OnRamp)
• Deborah Schultz (Innovation Design Practice, Altimeter Group)
• Jason Shellen (CEO of Thing Labs, founding product manager of Google Reader, Blogger.com)

Notes: [paraphrased unless quoted]

David: What's different about today's tools?

Laura: Speed of interaction.

Deb: Ubiquity. Filtering leads to activation of groups of people, like people who are in the same place.

Jason: Engagement and iteration.

David: What is good about the 140 character limit?

Laura: Meets the need of two-way, social grooming.

Jason: It's short, like a one line joke.

Deb: Constraints breed invention.

Deb: SAP tried 5000 character tweets in an in-house pilot and it didn't go far.

David: Lowers the transaction costs compared to blogging.

Deb: Twitter is more like communication.

Sanford Dickert: Twitter solved the privacy and noise problems. "Hmmm - I actually like the 140 character limit - it makes people more efficient with their thoughts - just like how limited memory and HD space made programmers in the 60s and 70s very efficient programmers."

My Observations:

Collaboration is a lot more than editing a document or a thread together.

It's casting (bringing the right people together).

It's the metawork of common language development, modeling the deliverables in a way everyone understands, goal setting, planning, coordinating, controls, communication.

It's the social activity of bonding around common purpose (sometimes around a paycheck but often around a shared interest or value).

It's trying small things before big things to climb a learning curve of how to work with each other, building trust, knowing who can do what well, of learning who leads, who works, who has insight, who has connections.

It's creating a common vision of the work to be done and how to do it.

It's learning how to resolve differences within the group and resolve stressors from outside the group.

It's creating rituals and rites of passage, of establishing behavioral norms.

It's about finding best practices that help you become productive, efficient, and effective together.

Tools like Skype, twitter, blogs, and wikis let people talk with each other but few tools help with any of the other parts (let alone the actual work).

You're still on your own. 

- Phil Wolff

Laura: Public waves weren't planned but became popular, and are now part of the central design.

Deb: The fact that we're not collaborating more with all these tools out there is what's really interesting.

Jason: One barrier to tool interop is the profit motive.

David: These tools give us new kinds of publics. Paul's software creates gated communities with defined publics.

Paul: A great deal of work is uncovering extant knowledge and creating new knowledge. Lots of knowledge is in verticals. Legal OnRamp's software respects structures for attorney-client privilege, so there's a public ramp and company-specific things. Solving collaboration as a horizontal problem is much more difficult than solving collaboration vertically.

Laura: The fact that twitter is so messy and random and torrential creates an interesting collaborative context. Problems find their way to the right people.

Paul: The social structure of law departments and their ecosystem are much more defined.

Jason: Knowledge management (document management) systems died, replaced by internal blogs and wikis and search.

David: KM systems became records management. When companies bring social media inside the firewall, how do the media change?

Jason: Talking in a human voice doesn't change. It's still about engagement and virality.

Deb: The writing depends on an org's people, culture, products. Contrast legal vs. media companies, for example. Media tools are making roles more porous. Inside the firewall, businesses have goals, focused energy.

David: Is there an anti-hierarchical cultural statement made by wave?

Laura: Waves are very democratic today. Enterprises may adapt wave to add back controls.

After...

Adrian Chan (via Google Wave): "Sorry to have missed it -- it just bugs me to no end that in the midst of the conversational turn in web and web tools, so many of us miss the fundamental differences introduced by talk... talk is the mode of production, talk is the means of distribution. that's social media. it's not "information" -- though it contains information of course -- it's more and much of what more it is still escapes us -- escapes our ability to capture, measure, relate, quantify, filter, sort, and so on...

tags: skype, #sn09, supernova2009, collaboration, conference

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Holiday Skype calls unite families

Telephones bring families together at holidays. We make room at the dining table for a laptop, a Skype window between two homes.

Thanks to Barry Silver for the beautiful photo with the Moses family: Shankar, Manakshi, Sita Chan, and Umba. cc-by. You can see Barry's reflection in the screen and his picture in the lower left corner of the Skype window.

Skype set up Asia-Pacific USO centers with Skype credits and webcams for soldiers and sailors calling home. Stop by to Skype home at USO Guam, USO Japan in Yokosuka, USO Okinawa, or USO Korea in Seoul. I'm sure you already know the international date line and time zone differences.

P.S. Does anyone make wide-angle or panoramic webcams?

tags: skype, video, family

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Tencent QQ 2009q3: 1B accounts, .4B active, 75MM online

Ahead of Skype worldwide is Tencent (HK:0700), a diversified Chinese online empire with the QQ instant messaging service at its core. Building on free IM, QQ makes money with "Online Media, Wireless Internet Value-Added Services, Interactive Entertainment Service, Internet Value-added Service, E-commerce, and Online Advertising Service." Tencent had another record quarter.

QQ now has more than a billion (1057MM) user accounts. Active accounts in the last two weeks of the quarter are just shy of half that at 484.9MM. Peak concurrent users rose to 75.5MM. Twice as many accounts and nearly four times as much dialtone as Skype.

QQ's "Dialtone Density" (quarterly peak accounts online as a percent of the number of active accounts online) shows customers are spending more time connected with the QQ network.

Tencent explains their growth as "driven by the popularity of our SNS [Social Network Service] applications which enhanced user engagement and activity through cross-platform integration, as well as increased usage of our IM services through mobile devices."

Tencent has an adjacency strategy, adding businesses that complement their core QQ service and sharing common usernames.

So they have casual gaming, MMO games, FPS games, desktop games, enterprise IM, mobile, email, feedreader, security, media player, download manager, pinyin authoring, news and community portal, search, mobile games, mobile QQ, mobile music and ringtones, blogging, dating, facebooking, online fashion, live video, music sharing/streaming, ecommerce shopping and payment services. They all make money, either through premium services and virtual currency, or through a huge advertising network.

Tencent can deploy service after service because QQ runs on a massive centralized infrastructure. Skype will have to package core capabilities through APIs before they can speedily build new services and let partners build on the Skype network.

See also:

• Watch out, Skype. Tencent steps out from China. Skype Journal, September 2009.
• Tencent QQ continues growth, profitability. Skype Journal, August 2009.
• Tencent's QQ IM triples Skype's dialtone.  Skype Journal, March 2009.
• Tencent's QQ: 45 Million Simultaneous Online, Skype Journal, November 2008

tags: tencent, qq, qqim, performance, stats, dialtone, dialtone density, trends, charts

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

In-Skype advertising

A few more ads for the English language North American market within the Skype for Windows 4 client. Some are tips, like this new one for The Phone Booth Experiment.

 

Turn on Skype-provided tips, help messages, promotions and public service announcements through the "Alerts & messages" controls under the Tools > Options menu command. Or turn them off.

Use the #inskypeads tag for alerts you see inside Skype. You can always tweet them to @skypejournal email them to tips@skypejournal.com and we'll share them. Thanks!

tags: skype, advertising, design, ue, ui, ux, inskypeads

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Chris Pirillo extols traveling with the IPEVO S0-20 Wi-Fi Skype Phone

Chris says you save on roaming and keep connected with Wi-Fi when cell coverage is spotty. The IPEVO S0-20 WiFi Phone for Skype on Amazon.

AmperorDirect has a detailed unboxing video.

This is IPEVO's best selling Skype phone in 2009. Be sure to upgrade the firmware for the latest version of Skype's software.

Caveats: the SO-20 doesn't come with a web browser; many Wi-Fi hotspots require you to log in before getting a connection. It doesn't appear to import SkypeOut contacts.

See also: VoIP Planet review. CrunchGear review. Skype forum feedback.

tags: skype, wi-fi, wifi, phone, hardware, gear, gift, mobile, ipevo, so20, s020, s0-20, so-20, so2o, confusingname

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Odd Skype promotion: Call a phone booth

The Phone Box Experiment from the:viral:factory, the people who brought you the Skype Laughter Chain. Rob is hanging out at a Spanish payphone for ten days. Call Rob. Or Skype him at +34 951 055 675. See if Rob answers. 

Ad Age quotes a Henry Cowling statement: "We were inspired by the phenomenon of the Mojave Desert Phonebox, which became known as the loneliest phone booth in the world, and gathered a huge following of people who would either trek to the phone box or call it randomly, just to see if someone answered."

That, and to demonstrate Skype click-to-call and international SkypingOut (SkypeOuting?).

As stunts go, it's pretty cheap. But I clicked. At two in the morning Spanish time. Rob didn't answer.

Hi, my name is Rob Cavazos, born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico.

I’m 28 years old and a huge Manchester United fan. I speak German, Spanish and English and have lived in England, Mexico and Germany.

My favourite film has to be a three-way tie between Chasing Amy, The Princess Bride and Amores Perros. I love to play sport, including American Football (come on Green Bay Packers!) and basketball.

Some people say that I look like a hobbit, especially after I broke my nose shooting a fight-scene in a student film. I’ve been hit by a car twice (not the same one) which is probably why I like walking round London in the middle of the night when it’s really quiet.

I’m always up for meeting new people so just give me a call.

At a loss for what to say if he picks up the phone?

Ask Rob to repeat Inigo Montoya's line from The Princess Bride: "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." With passion. Once again. Tell him Phil from Skype Journal sent you.

tags: skype, marketing, promotion, stunts, spain, phonebooth, payphone, landlines, skypeout, robcavazos

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Skype for SIP Beta now open to all Businesses

Ten thousand businesses asked for Skype for SIP when it launched in March. Eight months later the SFS Beta is now open to all users with business Skype names. Anyone with a business control panel, a corporate Skype name subject to the business terms of service and EULA, and a business SkypeIn phone number can now use Skype for SIP.

I talked Monday with Skype's Matthew Jordan about the latest update. Here are the details.

Skype for SIP connects your company's phone switch to Skype. SkypeIn and Skype-to-Skype calls come in to your phone system, outbound calls can go over SkypeOut. VoIP people call a connection between your phone system and a phone company a "trunk." Some people call Skype for SIP "Skype trunking."

SFS is a limited add-on.

• No emergency dialing: You still need a regular phone service to dial police, fire, ambulance.
• No phone number portability. You need a Skype Online Number and you don’t get to use an existing number.
• Service levels aren’t regulated by local or government authorities or guaranteed by Skype.

SFS isn’t free. US$ 6.95 per month for each channel, one call at a time per channel. You have to rent an Online Skype phone number for your business. You pay for SkypeOut at published rates. At the moment, the Skype Global Rate is 2.1¢/minute in more than 36 countries. You'll pay more for mobiles in most places. Unlike SkypeOut for consumers, Skype doesn't allow or offer flat-rate calling plans. Calls coming in to your phone from the Skype ecosystem are free.

Many smart phone systems let you write rules for routing outbound calls. You might choose SkypeOut for international calls or if you haven't the buying power to negotiate discounts with your phone company.

Skype is building a distribution channel. They've partnered with PBX makers like ShoreTel, Cisco, and SIPfoundry. Together they have thousands of value added resellers (VARs) who serve local businesses. Those resellers will be eligible to earn affiliate referral commissions from Skype, although a separate program for VARs is not in place. Skype is talking with more PBX makers to make adding a Skype channel a built-in menu option.

Skype for SIP is an indirect sales effort. SFS partners with PBX makers, their VARs, to reach IT and telecom departments responsible for configuring telephone systems and buying telephone services.

So Skype gets to know your Phone Guy. This gives Skype a beachhead in your company, a relationship to sell more Skype products, and a champion for Skype technology.

For many institutions, it is much easier to buy more from an established vendor than a new one. This makes it easier for the rest of the org to adopt Skype.

In addition to your phone team, SFS is attractive for remote workers. They can Skype to your company phones for free. It can be as simple as adding your company switchboard as a Skype contact.

Your sales, marketing, and customer service teams may also like SFS. If you want to add Skype click-to-call to your web site, SFS lets you reach worldwide Skype users without running up your phone bill. It lets your prospects and customers Skype, the way they want to. And you get to keep your call center gear and software.

Skype for SIP builds with Skype's current suppliers. Skype is one of the world's largest buyers of PSTN termination and origination services. These suppliers connect Skype to public phone networks. In a very real sense, Skype is a middleman, a retailer buying PSTN at wholesale and selling it to individuals and companies. These same suppliers connect SkypeOut services for all of Skype. Because of this, there should be no issues with scaling Skype for SIP.

There are a few barriers to Skype for SIP adoption. SkypeOut prices are not competitive in many markets. Small businesses don’t know how to configure phone switches for telecom services that aren't built in to the switch. Small businesses only change phone services rarely, often when buying new hardware. The telecom VARs don’t know about Skype for SIP, Skype’s affiliate programs, or how to support their customers who want to buy or use Skype.

What’s in it for Skype?

Easy billable minutes. Skype can earn a small, growing share of the $billions companies pay to local, long distance, and international phone carriers. Skype could earn a share of the whole company’s spend before winning individual hearts and minds or getting Skype installed on company desktops and mobiles. More paid minutes means more buying power over Skype’s suppliers. This is a very high return on a very small Skype team.

What will Skype learn?

How to support and lead a channel. While not a new capability at Skype, Skype has never been strong in this area.

Skype will accumulate a massive business call data record (CDR) database. They'll be able to mine the data for behavior patterns to help them design new business products, uncover new ways to find future Skype customers, understand how company telecom departments shop and buy.

What's in Skype for SIP's future?

Potentially there will be free calls to other SFS customers; Skype doesn’t need to pay termination fees. Subscription plans for business, if they helps companies choose Skype. Tools to help telecom administrators manage SFS channel capacity ("You’re at capacity 94% this month. Add a channel?").

Skype for SIP will soon put $20 million per month in Skype's hands. But this anonymous, hidden, back-door Skype product endangers Skype's brand and the trust we have in it: Skype For SIP: Big Money, Skypeless, Brand Destroyer.

tags: skype, skypeforsip, business, sip, voip, telecom, telephony, voice

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Skype For Sip Beta Opens to Everyone

View more documents from evanwolf.

See also on Skype Journal:

• Skype For SIP: Big Money, Skypeless, Brand Destroyer. Skype could be hurting its brand, reducing confidence in its security and privacy pledges, and Skype's value as a rich collaboration and communication network.
• Dan York on "Skype and SIP"; Input for Skype's Platform Ambitions?
• SIP -- The Promise, The Reality and The Potential
• The Skype for Asterisk Story -- Significant Details
• Skype for SIP == Skype for Asterisk DOA?