I'm passing along a friend's request. Contact me if you have other gigs that need talent and I'll do the... ... continue reading.....

I’ve got a bit of a running gag with my little brother. (OK, he’s taller than me, and officially old, but still my little brother.) We both spend a lot of time in airports. Airports are boring. Cell minutes are cheap. Often one of us will get a call from ‘tother, which... ... continue reading.....

Here's three Skype products that aim to enhance your Skypeing experience that leaves me questioning exactly what I'm buying with Skype Certified. The three products are the VoSky Chatterbox, Jawbone Headset and the Motorola Wireless Interenet Calling Kit. Each provide a different angle on bettering the standard Skyper's headset and as you might expect each has their pro's and con's.

VoSky Chatterbox.
... continue reading.....

I'm seeing many more interesting products in the mobile space. Then I'm also trying out a Nokia 70 now having tearfully abandoned an Nokia N90 a couple of weeks ago. More about that here soon! So the round up on Yahoo! Go, Shozu, iSkoot, MobileGlu, VisreaSnap. For all these you need a mobile data plan that enables it cheaply! Then, what if anything, does any of this have to do with Skype? (Plus other... ... continue reading.....

I sometimes joke about the completely furnished Skype video studio. High end microphones, spit guards, sets, makeup and lighting. But the Griffin SightLight is one of those cool products built for most desktop webcam situations, at least for Mac users.

It slips on to an iSight so it points where the camera is looking, is positioned behind the... ... continue reading.....

Skype’s stuck in a strategic dead-end at the moment. Their short-term revenue targets under the new management will no doubt be driven by SkypeIn and SkypeOut. This is the self-defeating PSTN disintermediation business. The brand licensing side of the business won’t grow fast enough to justify the acquisition cost. Andy points to a research note that highlights the need for Skype to break out of the PC ghetto. PCs make lousy phones compared... ... continue reading.....

Skype Tags for MT - Movable Type. How to add Chat tags, VM - voice messaging, and "info" tags. Add the code below to your MT templates and you will have active icons. There are a whole range of icons you can activate all using the same basic structure.

I used the "Author Display Name" field in the Author's profile. In that column I inserted for each person on the... ... continue reading.....

This is a Tip's curiosity that someone may find a use for. From my perspective an accidental discovery. Normally you can't call yourself on Skype. Even if you are running multiple Skype clients under the same name. You get an informational message "You can't call yourself". (Don't believe me? Then type in the same handle your Skype client is currently logged into and try and call it.)

So I set up some... ... continue reading.....

I’ll shut up about network neutrality some time, but the craziness of the whole think just gets me riled.

Imagine that a ‘neutrality’ rule is imposed in the US. Verizon and at&t’s regional market power goes unchanged, and the cablecos are the only competition. Continued artificial spectrum scarcity is bought with some skillful lobbying. Don’t expect any price competition, because game theory tells you that you need a minimum of 3 players to... ... continue reading.....

I told you so back in 2003.

Looks like the script is unfolding to plan, give it another 24 months for the economics to start to fall apart. It’ll start with a nice stock pop (because someone underwriter’s bonus depends on it), but I couldn’t think of a worse time to IPO. The cablecos in the US are entering the voice market and are happy to give it away to keep hold... ... continue reading.....

The pursuit of advertising revenue may have unintended consequences. In knocking around the Skype Journal site I enabled 300X200 Google Ads. I'll know very quickly whether their location pays dividends. Still the new format enables image advertising which had unexpected consequences. A reader sent this picture to me this morning.

Now SkypeKiller has a legitimate business case and who am I to judge their relevance to readers. While I'd not talk... ... continue reading.....

I wanted to make use of Skype Tags and Icons to add new contact functionality to Skype Journal. I'm almost certain we are now the first public blog in the world to make more extensive use of thes icons. As part of the effort I've been hacking around Skype Journal's templates. It's not complete and anyone that wants to provide graphic / layout support would be welcomed with a huge smile. It is time... ... continue reading.....

Well this is the brave new world we live in, anno 2006 now. Look on the left: a guy in China that masks his face and voice on TV in order not to end up in jail in fear for his government, because he put some software on the market that allows people to surf freely on the internet, without... ... continue reading.....

Their DSL connection is only 256kbit/128kbit, but does me fine for most of what I need to do. And it’s fairly cheap — about US$13/month for 6Gb. (Although French readers will be snickering at this point…)

I find Skype-to-Skype calls work just fine from here. Although it’s terrible to configure with a USB headset, BT Communicator... ... continue reading.....

Just a trial baloon, want to see what you all think…

Owning a communications network is rather like being the in posession of Tolkien’s Ring. It slowly corrupts and drives mad the keeper. “I’ll capture your value, all my beautiful bits, preciousssss bits”.

The temptation to look inside the packets, to demand tribute from the greater force of user innovation — it always becomes too much in the end. Commercial insanity, or loss of all... ... continue reading.....

Would you ask someone to give you a raise over the phone if you didn't have to? Ask your love to marry you? Convince your child that narcotics are dangerous and wrong?

I'm mostly recovered from a long family visit. Highlights included stories about my great grandparents, late night confessions, and sharing the pain of our Seahawks losing the Superbowl.

Along the way were several crucial conversations, where the stakes and risks... ... continue reading.....

What do readers think of the following idea?

I’ve been working on this blog [Telepocalypse] for over two years, and written a lot of articles. Some are tosh, some are quite good (I’m told).

I could put a lot of time and effort into a book on the future of telecom and networks.

I could put a lot of time and effort into writing a book on the future of telephony/IM/personal communications/presence.

Or I could... ... continue reading.....

So, unsurprisingly BT didn’t find enough takers for e-mail and Web phone kiosks, and are not rolling out any more. The usual sorry story of telcos not being able to judge what the user needs are at the application layer.

But wait a minute … imagine for a moment the alternative “Stupid™” business model of “just get the damn connectivity out there!”. Imagine all BT payphones were also WiFi hotspots. Easy to do —... ... continue reading.....

The calls for a US “network neutrality” rule get louder and louder and louder.

I’ve covered this topic at length before. But here’s the real issue in a nutshell.

Would you want to make it illegal for at&t to offer a $5/month plan to poorer households that only allowed access to services by Yahoo!?

The proposed neutrality rules would do just this, hurthing the weakest in society most. Perhaps the... ... continue reading.....

What went round Skypeland on Valentine's day? This little number. I should have shared the love then. Instead I got a reminder when checking out Dionyseus blog. Interesting links there.

(dance)(dance)(dance)(dance)(dance)(dance)(dance)(dance)(dance)
(dance)(h)(h)(dance)(dance)(dance)(h)(h)(dance)
(h)(h)(h)(h)(dance)(h)(h)(h)(h)
(h)(h)(h)(h)(h)(h)(h)(h)(h)
(dance)(h)(h)(h)(h)(h)(h)(h)(dance)
(dance)(dance)(h)(h)(h)(h)(h)(dance)(dance)
(dance)(dance)(dance)(h)(h)(h)(dance)(dance)(dance)
(dance)(dance)(dance)(dance)(h)(dance)(dance)(dance)(dance)
(dance)(dance)(dance)(dance)(dance)(dance)(dance)(dance)(dance)

Are you using Unyte 1.0 yet? If not I recommend you download it and try it out with your buddies. It allows desktop screen sharing and is integrates very effectively with Skype. To add that professional web conferencing capability (free on a one to one basis) to your Skype sessions you can choose which applications you want to expose. So web demos, sales presentations, student mentoring, distance learning,... ... continue reading.....

Google Talk got plenty of buzz when it launched last year. At ETEL they provided an encouraging background story of development and this is promising. Now GoogleTalk is being integrated into Google Mail. Ready for chats and online presence.

It sort of works. You can't yet click to call from it. When you get into a call and chat the gmail chat box becomes disconnected. It's not meant to be a compelling reason for... ... continue reading.....

This was seen by my Skype buddy Rick in Austrialia... he snapped it at an intersection, "We were at traffic lights, and my wife said "What are you doing?" I said I have to send this to Bill, he'll get a kick out of it." An exclusive to the Skype Journal!

Rick's guess as to the owner

She looks good to me...