The day after Christmas I was driving south from central Oregon on my way to Mount Shasta...

I stopped by the Klamath Falls RadioShack store. K Falls is a small community of about 20 thousand people just north of the California-Oregon border. They only have one RadioShack store but eight people in different parts of town were able to point me in... ... continue reading.....

With the new year about to start, what are other people resolving? People share their goals and resolutions on 43 Things. Of those mentioning Skype,

1. try "skype out" (9 people)
2. skype (8)
3. get more people I know to use skype (3)
4. Talk to a friend on Skype in English (2)
5. find people to talk to on Skype (1)
6. talk with skype...

About to visit your family for a Chrismakah party and, on your way out the door, you realize: no gift. What do you do?

Introducting the Skype Journal Labs Last Minute Privacy Shield.

Carol for the Skype Journal Team from Skype

Play the video.

SkypeJournal the online blogsite
Its full of very techie prose (or pro’s?)
So if you’ve got a question
They’re always the ones who know

All of the other bloggers
Use to laugh and call them names.
They never let SkypeJournal
Join in any blogging games

Then the day that... ... continue reading.....

Google's approach build up Jabber into a more effective development platform will be welcomed by many small players. There is no SIP here however Google's approach could quickly create some PSTN interconnect solutions. Eg Asterisk plus... That may be part of their bet.

Finally some evolution. Google announced their Libjingle program this week. In a world in which IM texting is a commodity and voice apparently... ... continue reading.....

The Ultimate Voice Coach - Learn To Sing Like A Star! (2005)

Do you always turn up your microphone volume? Do people keep asking you to speak up? to speak more clearly? Then you might need The Ultimate Voice Coach, singing lessons from Gary Catona and Ron Anderson, Voice Coaches to the Stars!

Your voice will be so strong, they'll hear you even without... ... continue reading.....

Muni wifi is a big deal, especially in a city as large as Taipei. If they can do it, in less than six months, why can't... ... continue reading.....

Phil Wolff asked me via IM what I thought about this Booz Allen Strategy + Business article on ‘Format Invasions’, as it relates to Skype. I’ll post my thoughts here in public, though.

To save you the effort of actually reading the article, the essence is that industries are susceptiple to invasion by new entrants wielding a “new format” or value network that has lower intrinsic cost. Many examples are given, such as... ... continue reading.....

I'm not sure what using a Nokia N90 "transformer" phone has to do with Skype, other than keep me away from it. I've been testing the N90 compliments of a program kicked off by Andy Abramson to let bloggers really play with the product. There's about a dozen stories from me wrapped up in this phone already. My first real acquaintance with it was... ... continue reading.....

ライブドア大学　世界が注目するSkypeの正体！人気の秘訣と最新ビジネスモデルを徹底解明. Livedoor University hosted this lecture for the first 30 people to sign up.

On the agenda:

1. The true Skype business model, which is not just "free telephone software "
2. The secret of Skype's popularity where 200 employees support 70 million users
3. Skype as used in Japan's business scene, Skype's circumstances, and future development

Does anyone... ... continue reading.....

When at Sprint, myself and David used to run around doing exec presentations on how the Sprint diamond logo (RIP) should be a trust mark, and that Sprint could add value as an intermediaryby making people’s (wireless) web browsing experience safer and more convenient. We even filed a patent, whereby the operator logo on the handset would light up when showing operator-provided interstitial advice pages.

Anyhow, we used to get a lot of blank... ... continue reading.....

I've been editing Skype Journal for 10 months and I'm so ready for this wishlist. Not in any order:

1. Punctuation. Commas from Bill, semicolons and periods from Stuart. Anything from Dina.

2. Someone to update the Skype Technologies entry on Wikipedia.

3. A truly devastating scandal to write about. The love child of... Warrants outstanding for... Candid videos of two people... The Taavet Christmas Album.

4. A Skype API... ... continue reading.....

Taipei (臺北市) put its RFP for a citywide wireless broadband network out to bid in July 2005. 20,000 access points later, and they are set to officially launch 20 December. The mayor of Taipei, Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), is ending his second term with a technical demonstration. He will use Skype to talk the mayor of Tao Yuan, at the other end of the country, showing how the city's wifi service is... ... continue reading.....

My parents are kleptomaniacs. Just don’t tell them I told you. The garden shed is bursting with stuff. The loft is full of old boxes. The shelves teem with ornaments. (eBay will have a good fiscal quarter the sad day they shuffle off this mortal coil.) And the drawers under the bed are stuffed with toys from our childhood.

Which turns out to be quite useful when you yourself have kids and an endless... ... continue reading.....

Xandros bundled Skype with their Linux distributions since February, showing up in some People PC products. Skype bizdev is bragging a little this week about Mandriva (great penguin!) bundling Skype with their new distribution, Mandriva 2006. The Skype for Linux release is at 1.2, far behind the Windows version; Skype for Windows had major 1.3, 1.4, and 2.0 beta releases. Skype is... ... continue reading.....

This little story over at El Reg reminds me on an anecdote from a few years back. Anyhow, the lead-in first:

The Mirror reports that a BT insider who had access to the shows’ voting database fed the results to a betting syndicate before they were made public to viewers on the live TV...

Stuart Henshall and I will be going to the International Consumer Electronics Show in January. Will you be there shopping or selling? Leave a comment that you're going and maybe we can swing by your suite or booth or party or demo or swimming pool or limo or ...... ... continue reading.....

By Torben Nyhuus, Aalborg, Denmark

The contest to acquire market shares on the growing VoIP market is at full pace. The market is;

• the VoIP calls,
• the internet access,
• the devices.

VoIP calls:

Skype is reaching out to new customer segments. With Jubii and Skype in new cooperation!

(Jubii was the first and is the most successful web portal in Denmark, visited... ... continue reading.....

Share.Skype reports an update for the Skype Pocket PC. While this doesn't bring you the same level of features as Skype 2.0 for Windows, Skype improved reliablity (long list of bug fixes), performance (two versions, each optimized for different speed CPUs), compatibility, and functionality (voice mail). Download it, discuss it in the forums, check the change log for details. Caveat Beta and let us know what you think.

Skype’s problem now is maintaining growth. The second challenge is to get Skypers to adopt premium services and think about dropping their home phone. There are many barriers to this. The PC must be always on. There is currently no embedded Skype device. People just don't want to lose their numbers. Free local calling may apply and be an advantage, as is 911. Many early adopters that have Skype have not yet added SkypeIn (lack... ... continue reading.....

Vonage is launching a Wi-Fi phone so you can now use your Vonage account anywhere you can find a Wi-Fi connection. There's a $50 rebate on it... for a price of $79.99 and a minimum 3 month contract. There will be an early cancellation fee too. This is a substantial price break from the retail price I see elsewhere for the UTStarcom F1000. It almost suggests they are... ... continue reading.....

Back in April I wrote that the United Arab Emirates was blocking VoIP traffic and the Skype.com web site. They still are. The latest of many comments:

Damian:

My hopes of broadband quashed in UAE as I read the terms and conditions set by Etisalat which makes VOIP basically "illegal" or against the ISP's policy. When calling a rep to...

Skype Journal is pleased to announce our sponsorship of the first O'Reilly Emerging Telephony Conference. We'll have at least three of our people there, maybe more. And w