Video4Skype is clearly a hot item. Slashdot picked up the story today. According to a spontania representative: “we had 3000 downloads just in 24hrs and our server got colapsed. Right now it is up and running so you can proceed to download it.” In my experience that makes it the hottest Skype add-on ever.

The product also received coverage on the PRZoom Newswire.

Nicolas asked me to remove his Skype... ... continue reading.....

Mindmapping by yourself is slow, hard work. But talk with others and the ideas and organization just flow. In Japanese or with Google translation to English. More on brainstorming. Does Skype open up your creative juices?

Nicolas, a fellow beta tester in France, and I just tested the new Video4Skype a new 3rd party API Plug-in

Skype like and slick, one minute to download and install. I really liked its excellent colour renditioning.

It features:
• No network configuration
• End-to-End encryption
• Free

It is strictly one 2 one video conferencing for now.

It is... ... continue reading.....

Their statement: Restrictions on running Skype P2P software at CERN. Because Skype clients help each other find others on the net (acting as supernodes), basically behaving too much like KaZaA. via physics professor Jacques Distler's thoughtful blog post.

The stated reason seems a little shaky to me. Aside from the unsavoury nature of its cousins, the P2P filesharing programs, I don’t see why skype supernodes would pose an undue...

Skype said it will be re-launching their Software Developer Program, SDP, this month. They have 2 days to go! Please hurry!

Since I was the first member of the SDP eight months ago I can say this is a much-needed upgrade. Skype continues to innovate. But the real long-term innovation engine will be driven by an ecosystem of global software and device developers. Small, like Khaoslabs in Toronto, Canada, with the two genius... ... continue reading.....

Lives in Madrid. His day job is telecom engineering. Evenings and weekends are filled with all things Skype. He programs the Skype API using VB.NET via a COM Wrapper. He is host and administrator of the Hispanic Skype User Forum.

I have worked with Ramon for a year now. continue reading.....

This paragraph sent to me by Louis Philip of SummitCircle made us both chuckle. He remarked: "I'm really not sure what went through the product marketing guys head when he decided that Skype compatibility... whatever that means in this context... is a must have feature!."

" This latest version of ìGuru also offers compatibility with ABIT’s next-generation Guru Clock peripheral. Part of the ìGuru family, the Guru Clock allows you to access and...

Akshaya wins the PrixArts Digital Communities Award.

Akshaya is a project undertaken by the Kerala state government in India, to bring e-literacy to its people. Malappuram has become India's first e-literate district, with over 600,000 individuals having basic knowledge of computers, including the Internet.

From their website :
"Wiring up Malappuram, 3,550 Sq.KMs spreading from East to West section of Kerala is a huge challenge. Connectivity Requirements:
- Should... ... continue reading.....

Grassroots activists found FreeConferenceCall.com in the 2004 U.S. election. As long as everyone pays for their own long distance call, it's free of service charges. They're now inviting Skypers to use the service. Their pitch: use SkypeOut to call in and cut your long distance charges to SkypeOut's $1.20 an hour.

Why not conference using Skype alone? Two reasons: scale and access. This service supports up to 96 callers at a time. It... ... continue reading.....

Blogged by Jordon Kalilich, 15, in Deerfield Beach, Florida, USA.

The other day I got a call on Skype from what sounded like a group of Hungarian students. At first, when the Skype Answering Machine (SAM) took over the call, I heard them speaking in Hungarian. I took control of the call and asked if they spoke English, and to my surprise, I heard a "Yes." They sounded like they were in their teens;...

Skype announces that they are no longer in Beta with PayPal. Now you can use PayPal wherever it's available. It's an interesting partner for Skype. Will announcments with eBay be next? What's the affiliation deal for PayPal worth when they sign up new Skype users. Hmmmmm aren't those PayPal users some of the early adopters? Strike up another win for Skype.

“With nearly 72 million accounts worldwide, PayPal is a proven online payment...

First off, let's look at writing. The American Management Association wants writing interns to write a book on making deals online. Has Skype helped you make a deal? If not, the you may want to swing by the World Association of Newspapers conference in Seoul. 29 May - 1 June. If blogging is journalism, what is skyping? The next day another conference, TrendTag (Trend Day) in... ... continue reading.....

This is another update on SkypeVM, voice messaging in my language and voice mail in theirs. In my initial post I figured that VM could be one of Skype most profitable early money raisers. Currently it's not performing to my adoption expectations and that traces to their execution. Let me illustrate with a story.

I spent time reconnecting today with a colleague who has a friend who doesn't like interruptions. It's the type... ... continue reading.....

Could I be missing something when others query Niklas's cash flow claim? Is it too simple to look to the invoice numbers we quoted and looked at the other day. The chart is here.

Although subscribers only pay a few euros, these revenues would help to make the 2-year-old start-up cash-flow positive this year, he said.

"That's the case," he said, when asked if his company would be cash flow positive in...

As I write this my Skype buddy Gaurav Prasad is just waking in India. As he opens the chat message I sent him he will think he is still dreaming.

Gaurav is a Linux freak. He is a major contributor to the Learning Skype’s plug-in Architecture guidebook

I sent him this link. Business Week's coverage of the new Nokia... ... continue reading.....

A simple little tip. Skype likes slipping in new features and this one could have been there forever. It will be on some release notes. Still it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I learned you could "drag n drop" files into an open chat windown and that would auto-magically activate the send file transfer. Simple as that and much quicker if the folder is already open.

continue reading.....

Niklas Zennstrom's presentation from VON Europe. What's changed and what's been updated since VON Canada?

Insert positioning Skype as providing free global roaming particularly with SkypeIn. Added in details on the affiliate program and providing a similar although stronger point of view on regulation. Plus still thinking ecosystem.

• Encouraging evangelizers
• Extensive API which is free to use
• Accessories which are Skype Enabled are very attractive to consumers
• Existing users recommend Skype to...

Nice post by Maja Brisvall a design strategist on Skype targeting the mobile space.

The design director at Nokia told me a month ago that his misjudgment of MMS was basically that people don't want to send images to strangers. Well this cannot be true, as Lunarstorm finds that what it's users do all the time is communicating by exposing photos of everything. And marketing director, David Erixon, of Vodafone Sweden agrees, it is...

• Tech Digest: Nintendo DS sets sights on VoIP. Not this year
• Strategic Board Blog: The onslaught begins: Yahoo and MSN begin the assault on Skype More focused on serving Big Three customers than worrying about the new kid
• mambo software powers the blog, via Liew Cheon Fong's blog.
• Junior's Page: Portuguese tutorial on installing Skype.
• The Engadget Interview:...

In The Jeff Pulver Shift Happens presentation at VON Europe 2005 he opens with "Net Freedoms" and "Consumer Empowerment" and then moves to Skype. These are some of the reasons Skype Journal was started and why we are blogging about "freedom" and "regulation", concerned about port blocking etc. From almost the first day I wrote about Skype I've seen it as facilitating a... ... continue reading.....

Simon Perry of Digital Lifestyles reports from Von Europe where he interviewed Niklas yesterday who announced the formal launch of the Skype Affiliate Program.

There will also be "super affiliates" that will have their own Skype account manager - a first for them. The first two announced are Luna Storm in Sweden and SuperEva in Italy. Luna Storm is a online phenomenon in Sweden, having over 2m members, which in a country...

Dial 911 in Skype. This is what you get.

How many voip services can give you this feedback?

Personally, I think this is a mature response. This is Skype starting to think like a player engaged in a contest for political power with gargantuan telcos and cable companies. And a software company listening closely to its users. And its lawyers.... ... continue reading.....

Mixed messages? Two clips from the same day from Skype's website. Are recent E911 rulings scaring Skype? I find real mixed messages here for consumers too. As a Skyper, Skype has replaced the telephone for me. So it is a "replacement." Yet it isn't apparently a "replacement" service.

If VoIP providers want to win / and work with users to get the "right" regulation in play then better language is required. Users don't care... ... continue reading.....

One's just lonely, two's company, three's a crowd. Some bloggers are dropping other IM products for Skype. Is this a stampede? Myself? I turned on my Trillian a couple of times in the last few weeks. Only to get to someone who I haven't yet converted. My buddy list keeps growing. While I want to organize it renaming buddies kills the extra details (timezones, locations etc.) that my buddies keep updating.

My colleagues Jeremy...

A BBC story about a family in Guyana that uses Skype.

Duane DeFreitas, an adventurer and guide living in the tropical rainforest of Guyana. ... Out here it pays to be self sufficient: the nearest town is across the Rupununi river and down a gruelling four-wheel-drive track - about three hours away in the dry...