• Ian Bell on One Click on EQO to Skype

  Hi Stuart;
  
  

  Just wanted to add how glad I am to see your review, and that you took the time to give a thorough analysis.
  
  

  
  In Principle there are really two reasons to put something out in BETA form:
  
  

  
  1) To allow us to get test results from a greater diversity of environments than we could replicate ourselves, and
  

  2) To address a clamoring need for a problem to be solved.
  
  

  
  The latter reason is a newer one, to my knowledge. Without the Mosaic, Netscape, and Mozilla BETAs there would not have been a World Wide Web as we know it today. No one would have financed Andreesen's dreams without a proven community, no one would have put up web sites if there were no browsers to read them, and in short no one would have cared.
  
  
  

  To be sure the term BETA is abused a lot by Marketers like me. I think that in the case of EQO we knew that if we announced this product at DEMO 2006 that people were going to be itching to try it and to get involved. While we don't have the problem (yet) of needing money to fuel our plans here, we were really concerned about squandering that interest. Too many companies announce cool stuff only to disappear into obscurity.
  
  
  

  The software works pretty well, so we put it out there. And yes, there are one or two gnarly bugs but on balance, well, how was anyone able to do this before?
  
  
  

  Getting back to the point, Stuart, this review was awesome and actually serves as an incredible validation of our decision to release this to the public in the first place. I've seen the team responding to each point (not all of which are actually our bugs) and evolving the software to adapt to these issues and it's pretty clear to me that SkypeJournal will be responsible for some solid improvements in our software for the next release.
  
  
  

  Thanks...
  
  
  

  -Ian.
  
  
  

  Vice President, Marketing & Alliances
  
  EQO Communications - Take your buddies with you.
  
  www.eqo.com
  

• Stuart on One Click on EQO to Skype

  hmmm italics didn't work.

• Stuart on One Click on EQO to Skype

  Dialogue from yesterday republished with permission. Mine are in italics.

  Colin
  Thoughts inline below.

  Original Message-----From: Colin Quon
  Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2006 3:02 PMT
  to: Stuart_Henshal
  Subject: Re: One Click on EQO to Skype

  Hi Stuart,
  Awesome feedback! Thought I should send you a direct email. Everything you said on your post are good points.

  You are breaking new ground. It's good to see it happening.

  1. On registration ID, sounds like we need to improve the usability of the registration process in the event of failed or partially completed registration. You do not have to create a new ID - but under the current process you have to first sign-on with your existing ID from a web browser, and then continue through the rest of the installation process. Thoughts?

  I first registered the ID henshall however I couldn't get the name or the password to work. I even recovered the password and I still couldn't make it work. Second time new ID and different password it worked. BTW there is no reason for the id and the password to match your SKYPE ID and you should warn people off making them the same.

  2.In terms of the number of Skype contacts that should be synchronized to the phone, we had tested using tags on the Skype names. Also as you had noted, we have been working on a groups feature. It is coming (only synchronized contacts within that Skype group).

  I think your group feature is the way to go. Then calling a group could even set up a multiparty conference call. Just loading all the names froze my system. Still if you use names or a search feature and bring people to your site then you could add location dimensions too... etc.

  3. Interesting that you also mentioned about the audio settings. When the EQO client is launched from your handset, the EQO PC plug-in disables automatic audio tuning http://community.eqo.com/forum/wondering_why_eqo_opens_skype_and_moves_your_mouse_cursor Depending on the version of Skype you are using, this mechanism may not work with the current EQO release. We have looked into this and getting a fix ready. For get the fix, you would just need to download the PC client, no need to reinstall the J2ME client. Good catch.

  Thinking now.. there may be another demon in the mix. I use both a headset and a USB RTX Dualphone connected to Skype. The RTX doesn't change audio settings unless answered. However having the "std" and the "USB" that auto toggles between settings may cause a problem. I'm using the 2.0.81 as released today.

  4. At the moment, there is no elegant solution to "Turned out the mic and speakers on my desktop were live when the call is made." Our desired solution to this problem is integration with Skype in the network core. That way, your PC does not even have to be on for this service to work. In any case, we will look into this problem and see if we can come up with a solution to mute the speakers on the PC if the call is extended to the EQO mobile.

  You can do this (audio setting / mute / on hold) via the API. You are not the first to trip over this one. Still nothing more embarrassing than sharing the wrong conversation back at the office. I'd be happy to talk to you about how some companies are now starting to integrate back office solutions with Skype.

  We are looking into the Skype voice mail compatibility problem when there is an incoming call requests to your EQO mobile client. Because we allow the user to have dynamic call disposition option, we can potentially allow you to dynamically answer the call or redirect the call to your Skype voice mail just like you can dynamically redirect the call to your other phone services such as a landline (existing feature).

  I tried hard to figure this one out. I set my SkypeVM after the first call to a minute and then turned it off. Turning it off with Skype is not always instantaneous. It seemed off then on.. So Skype can't be completely trusted in this regard. I understand why it would be nice to still go to the Skype voice mail. I also had trouble with the instructions. My screen was dark when EQO buzzed. even clicking a non key to get it to light up and then clicking accept didn't seem to do the trick.

  Also curious about your thoughts on a number of other features such as using the EQO client to call regular numbers using Skype as your long distance carrier. You can also change the mobile number on your EQO client on your phone so that you can use a different SIM (say while you are traveling).

  Where one has a prepaid SIM card this is really appealing. As in many countries inbound calls are free. I'd think in some cases you could use the same / modified mobile client to send some preset text messages from my Skype client to the Skyper I want to talk to.. EG Call me on my mobile. or Call me on this number. Eg send message one etc. Similarly I think you could send through simple text messages. He's not here he's on mobile.. enter a "2" in the chat screen if you >would like a call back...

  Appreciate your comments and insights!

  Enjoy the rest of DEMO. I'd be happy to add this exchange to the blog comments if you want.

  It adds some nice detail and I don't think it would hurt. Good luck with EQO.
  Stuart

  Colin Founder & CTO - EQO Communications
  
  

• continued in the Skype Journal Comment River: 200 fresh comments

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