User stories

Skype's showing up before and during conferences.

• Buzzword of the Week: Backskyping = Backchannel with Skype. Suw Charmin's post on the value and overload of backchannels.
• A success story: Skype and vSkype help presenters prep for a conference.
• "Mom Skypes speaker at Harvard law conference." Mom, can I skype you back? I'm in the middle of something...

Digital Lifestyles reviews Skype for PocketPC. 3 of 5 stars; poor sound quality.

A blind student is frustrated by Skype inaccessibility. No progress in any releases this year. Should Skype name a spokesperson for accessibility? How could accessibility be part of its developer program?

Players

Residential VoIP: MCI (soon to be part of Verizon) tests a Vonage-competitive service. Looks like smart approach. Willl MCI learn to work with local governments? Martin Geddes: how BT can fix Fusion, BT's combo of mobile, residential WiFi, and DSL is broken, at least if you're a customer.

Nokia and Apple are building a browser together. This could rock. What iServices might they build in? iTunes? iChat? iPhoto? iMovie? RSS? What would they have to leave out? Will we see the browser on iPods? And will callto: tags work?

Two services that show firms are learning from Skype. First, GTC Telecom rolls out Zanvo. "Zanvo is a free internet based calling service." Call-out service to come. Then there's Jajah.

"Free internet calls, live chat, video calls, low cost calls to ordinary and mobile phones, texting, HiFi sound quality, ringtones, message translator, low bandwidth, SIP and IAX compatible"

From Austria. They says you can call people with Skype IDs, but not if you can receive calls from Skypers. From the first review, Jajah looks like a basic contender. And you gotta love the backstory.

Coming soon

This week in Washington lobbying: The Congressional Wireless Caucus will hold a digital television luncheon, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee is slated to hold a full-committee hearing on the changeover to digital television and the recovery of the broadband spectrum, and the Wireless Communications Association International holds its convention.

June 27-30. JavaOne. San Francisco. Several telephony tracks. Anyone written a Java wrapper for the Skype API?

June 28. Vertical LEAP. Santa Clara. Specialized search. Anything about searching p2p networks?

June 29-30. Where 2.0. San Francisco. Location, location, location. Just don't ask for directions in a crowded room...

July 13-14. Catalyst. San Diego. Same old SIP.

On Skype Journal, last week...

The Sultanate of Oman's Omantel blocks Skype.com. Anyone care to mirror Skype software?

Skype serves 10 billion minutes, upgrades the client, adds a browser to the client for big partners in Poland and China, and changes its home page to emphasize new users, and bans kids from its developer competition.

Videos: Stuart Henshall speaks for half an hour to the London Ecademy about presence. Phil Wolff interviewed by David Weinberger about Skype and politics.

Skype Journal's Bill Campbell interviews Skype board member Tim Draper about the company, the product, and the future.

After five days, vSkype served 1.6 million minutes and 272 thousand downloads.

On the fun and handy side

• A Greasemonkey script makes phone numbers on any web page into links, so you can just click on the number to call via Skype.
• Cordless Skype from a small Actiontec box.
• And the first story about plane-to-plane calls in Skype Air Heads.