Congratulations to the Jyve team who submitted a personal presence server with browsing and call forwarding to win the Skype Developer Competition. Full kudos to them. All the details can be found on the Skype site here. I certainly enjoyed supporting them during testing and constantly asking for more. Well done guys! Some of the others won't come as any surprise to Skype Journal readers, you have already read about them on... ... continue reading.....

1.4 Windows Beta released.

• Free Call Forwarding
• Expressive content
• Improved Search
• Application to Application Messaging
• New API improvements
  • Application to Application Messaging
  • Skype Window Control
• Skype URI links (skype://) for email and web pages

Get it on the Skype for Windows download page.

Cautions: We've had some difficulty with promptness of presence. What do you think about the new features? The look and feel changes?

Change notes... ... continue reading.....

Do you want to make internet telephony easier to use and more accessible? Do you want the option of taking Skype calls on your home cordless phone (or any phone)? In my case I want the family to make cheap calls to New Zealand without messing with my PC and yet having simple access to SkypeOut.

Perhaps you are not yet ready... ... continue reading.....

Free yourself from Skyping on the PC. I like going cordless with Skype. I've used a bluetooth headset with limited range, and more recently the DUALphone now finally available in the US. This is one of the most sophisticated cordless / combination internet and standard landline phones on the market today. The DUALphone lets you take and make those important Skype calls from... ... continue reading.....

What a week for Skype. Microsoft buys Teleo to increase its presence in VoIP/VON space. This follows last week's intro of Google Talk, and the surprise release of MSN's release of 7.5.

VOIP can't get hotter? Watch out for Yahoo who are on stage for an announcement at VON Boston in mid September.

This acquisition gives MSN PSTN connectivity. This may cut into Skype's SkypeOut revenue streams.

Skype created this space. Dominates... ... continue reading.....

Thanks to all who came to Palo Alto to celebrate Skype's second birthday with us. Great people, good food, and a lovely time.

Where will Skype be a year from now?

Last Tuesday we were all waiting for Google Talk. By Wednesday we had Google Talk, MSN Messenger's 7.5 with video and quality talk, Skype opening up SkypeNet and SkypeWeb.

Something's breaking through. "Something wonderful."

Let's talk about it over spicy noodles at Jing Jing. Come one, come all. Bring friends and spread the... ... continue reading.....

In all the talk about Google Talk many missed Microsoft's release of MSN 7.5.

Net net, the... ... continue reading.....

Details later. Chinese noodles involved.

Conducting a business meeting and one or more attendees are not in the boardroom but are availble via Skype or SkypeOut? If so, you have the perfect application for a speakerphone.

Maybe you have family members in a conference setting? Again a perfect application for a speakerphone.

In my experince, most calls using a boom microphone and speakers are not of good quality and often result in echo.

I just tested the Radio Shack... ... continue reading.....

Vonage thinks of itself as a phone company. Others do too. Google does not. While being thought of as a telco simplifies your positioning and marcom plans, there are tradeoffs. For one, you don't have a portfolio of other services and activities to leverage.

For example, Google can easily GTalk-enable its email, social network, and blogging services. They are already building on their digital identity (gmail... ... continue reading.....

So let's play.

Four buttons on the left:

• S for Skype
• G for Google
• P for...

Silicon.com has a hot news item about Skype and Intel.

Intel senior vice president Pat Gelsinger said on Wednesday that the two companies were working together at the research and development level to build what he called "good business-class audio", for voice over IP networks.

"I'm happy to announce a partnership between Intel and Skype to make their clients better on our platforms using our software technology, codec technology [encoding and decoding software], and...

24 hours and Google Talk is the buzz of the town, up in the "Skype" buzz neighborhood.

The SkypeNet and SkypeWeb announcements are interesting. A bit scary too. Not for Google, the intended target, but possibly for members of the Skype Developer Community.

Lenn Pryor in today's Share Skype blog had this to say,

"We are announcing two new initiatives that make Skype and the Web a little more interesting and open up new possibilities for the developer and partner community... "

I am glad Lenn feels that SkypeNet and... ... continue reading.....

It's been hard to write this essay on Skype and Google, because the world is changing faster than I can put the words together. And whilst I'm happy with the general thrust of the argument, I'm sure much of the detail will be muddled. I hope you've got the patience to stick with it, and look forward to your feedback.

Putting together Skype and Google, whilst no match made in heaven, does have a lot... ... continue reading.....

Is it all over for Skype? As Google Talk launched tonight with an Orkuttian viral shove provided by Gmail. At first glance it could be Skype's worst nightmare or the kick start necessary to refocus Skype. If you missed the buzz, Google Talk is the long awaited and predicted IM / Voice client. It won't be over for a while and the battle will take to the trenches with Yahoo, MSN and AOL... ... continue reading.....

The rumor of Google Talk appears to be rattling the cage at Skype and will shake some egos. This post reflects on Skype's latest PR release which opens the gates on new initiatives. Are they in response to Google Talk? I wrote this prior to testing out Google Talk this evening. I'll let you be the judge.

Party time at Skype over the next week.

Full Text of a Skype news release today.

SKYPE OPENS ITS PLATFORM TO THE WEB

Skype Creates the Largest Open IM and Presence Networks Worldwide

(Luxembourg 24 August 2005) - Skype, the pioneering Global Internet Communications Company, which offers free high-quality phone calls to anyone with an Internet connection, is preparing to mark its second anniversary next week by opening up its platform to anyone who wants to integrate Skype’s presence and instant messaging services...

The recently launched DNA, a national English-language newspaper, has bagged the first interview with Niklas Zennstrom in Indian media. No surprises really, as he talks about how Skype has taken off, the thinking behind creating Skype and the way forward for Skype. Partnerships with handset manufacturers, and wifi enabled devices, neww payment options, and additional premium offerings such as video-conferencing and workgroups focussed offerings.

A non-committal 'perhaps' to the question of whether India could... ... continue reading.....

Well Google talk is out there.

It took 45 minutes to connect to Phil on voice. That is 44.9 minutes longer than it took me to connect on Skype two years ago. But it works. It appears to be peer 2 peer. Voice quality is close to Skype.

I was disappointed that I had to have a gmail account to use it. I have had one for a year but forgot my user... ... continue reading.....

Thanks to translation efforts of Giovanni Tomassini, Skype Journal's guide,"Learning Skype's Plug-in Architecture" is now available in Italian as Imparare l’Architettura delle Estensioni di Skype (pdf, 1.1mb). Learn the Skype API while making your own voice mail, in about an hour. Also in Spanish, Japanese, Russian and English.

continue reading.....

RTX America Inc, located in San Jose, CA announces the availability of the DualPhone in the US.

Move up to 300m away from your PC and make Skype™ and SkypeOut calls. See who’s online with one push of a button on the handset. It’s a cordless Skype™ phone and ordinary landline phone in one.

Price point is $139.

Thanks to our SJ man, Torben Nyhuus, in Denmark for this story.... ... continue reading.....

Skype and its friends are making it much easier to record chats, calls, and even video conversations. And folks like the Internet Archive and Google are making it easier to host and find those records. I just have to wonder how Ariyeh Yakov Mendel will feel at his bar mitzvah about ... continue reading.....

Om Malik let Jesse Kopelman onto his blog with a guest post on "Skype as the Next Generation PBX. Jesse's written and commented before there. Many of you may have read the post on Om's blog. My two cents. Great post, yet it isn't going far enough on the implications for social networking services, and two, it fails to really spell out the opportunity access to millions of profiles provides.

What are...

Does anyone need a Skype API programming project? Just for fun? So I could:

• Be writing a note to a friend in Microsoft Word or sorting a list in Excel
• Print it out using a Skype2Fax print driver
• The driver asks me to pick a Skype ID or a fax SkypeOut number
• I'm offered a few other options, scheduling, resolution, cc, etc....