... in a game where, as in golf, the lowest number of strokes wins! Google announced a Click-to-Call feature for Google Maps yesterday. So I go to Google Maps, select Businesses, enter "restaurants" into the Type of Business box and "Mississauga {Home Postal Code}" into the "Where" box. And I get:

Click on B for Golden View Restaurants (where we obtain our annual New Year's Eve party food) and I get the pop-up below on the left. Click on Send to Phone and I get the pop-up asking for my phone number and my carrier -- except there are only U.S. carriers listed (and all Telco 1.0)! 3 clicks plus 10 characters (to enter your phone number). Except I live in Canada ....hmmm ....

Or, since I have installed the Skype 3.0 Beta with its Click-to-Call feature, I can simply pick up my UConnect-enabled Nortel phone, dial **, (or pick up a USB-connected VoIPvoice Cyberphone) and click on the Skypified link under the restaurant's listing on the left:. I then click OK on the "Start SkypeOut" confirmation window. Call initiated; no Telco 1.0 carrier designation required! (And note that Skype 3.0's Click-to-Call recognizes that it is a Canadian phone number.) One click to place the call; one to acknowledge that there could be a charge involved.

A simple example of what Martin is talking about in his Telco 2.0 "Death of the Phone Company" post.

Powered by Qumana

Last May Skype announced their first "free" SkypeOut promotion -namely all SkypeOut calls within North America would be free until Dec. 31, 2006. In early September Skype announced a similar program covering France. Basically, if you were not already a Skype user, you simply sign up for Skype, and all your SkypeOut calls within the designated territory are free; however, you pay normal SkypeOut rates for calls outside the designated region. And the promotions expire in just over two months, Dec. 31.

Last week Skype UK announced Talk for Britain, a new promotion that probably gives a hint of what will happen to these earlier promotions after December 31. Talk for Britain involves :

• Purchase £10 of Skype credit using PayPal or a UK-issued credit card
• Wait for up to 72 hours to confirm eligibility
• Free SkypeOut calling within UK for the subsequent six months.
• Program expires Dec. 31 for acquiring the six months free SkypeOut credit. (If you buy Dec. 31, you have free calling to June 30, 2007)
• Call Forwarded calls are not included in the promotion.

Over the past few weeks I have had several queries as the what will happen to these promotions after Dec. 31. Does Talk for Britain start to provide some clues?

continue reading.....

One new cool new feature in the Skype Preview version (2.6.0.44) of August 9th. is live (clickable) URLs inside a mood message.

Here is how my fellow Skype beta tester Don enhanced his mood message:

This is a great way to share web content (think video on UTube) with your buddies or to just simply direct them to your web site.

Thanks Don. Just think how many new readers we would have if everyone was as kind as you. A "love-in" for Skype Journal. (grin)

It is also a great time to learn about TinyUrls. TinyURLs work like a trash-compacter. They take a hugely long URL and make them shorter.

This URL:
http://www.skypejournal.com/blog/archives/2006/08/stealth_re
lease_of_skype_26.php

equals this:

http://tinyurl.com/r29o5

when compacted.

Go get in the mood!

Using Bubbleshare (well, you're all tired of Flickr, right? and it's a local product coming out of the Toronto area), I have finally organized my pics from the eBay/PayPal/Skype Developer's Conference two weeks ago.

Double click on any picture for a larger version and the slide show in a separate window. Enjoy!

This album is powered by BubbleShare

Aplogies for not taking full advantage of BubbleShare and putting words in people's mouths...;-)

Powered by Qumana

Over the years your Skype contacts list will grow and grow. Mine is over 500 now. And that's after constant pruning. A long list of contacts makes it difficult and frustrating to scroll to find a contact. Even if you use Grouping (I gave up on Grouping Contacts).

If you happen to be one of the ten million Skype Users who are red-green colour-blind (like I am) you will find this function absolutely invaluable.

Now I just use the Search function. Works like this--

I need to find Sharon's SkypeOut number.

In the "Flag Field" at the bottom of the Skype Client I start typing in, "Shar... " a "Looking for... Shar" tab opens up (see the top arrow in the screen shot) It lists all contacts with the contiguous letters "shar". I double click the entry I want and Sharon's landline rings.

continue reading.....

On my way to listen to Meg Whitman's "big"?? announcement to the eBay Live Conference.  There are 15,000 eBay Resellers registered and the crowds make it feel like a mini-Comdex (of which I am a 15 year veteran). But probably 14,900 of them know little or nothing about Skype. If the rumors are true that may change in the next couple of hours.

Activity at the Skype booth was intense; it was also one of the busiest booths. Most of the demonstrations were basic Skype introduction.

A large inventory of Skype The Definitive Guide in the eBay Store.

Powered by Qumana

There are hundreds of brands to choose from. But not all Skype telephone adapters are created equal. Study the specification sheets with care. The US Robotics USR9620 has a gem of a function – Call Forward PSTN Calls to a Skype Client. This is especially handy in countries without SkypeIn, like Canada and Chile. This function is sweet in Chile where they pay for all calls, even local calls.

continue reading.....

Maybe you have experienced callers who have hung up by the time your mobile phone starts to ring because Call Forwarding took so long. Your caller experiences too many rings; you experience a lost call and no voice mail. Anyone who lurks on the Skype Forum knows there is some confusion around the Skype Call Forward function.

Let's see if Neil and I can help you decrypt Skype Windows Call Forward. Neil Lindsey is a fellow Skype Tester (neillindsey) from Vancouver, BC

If you want to have the incoming call forwarded to your PSTN or mobile number on the first or second ring read on...

Note: this applies only for users who have Skype Voice Mail (we have not tested a scenario for Skype users who do not have Skype Voicemail).

If you open Skype>Tools>Options>Call Forwarding and Voicemail and in the lower part of the window (Voicemail section) you see in blue: "Advanced settings". Click to open and a window will open like this:

continue reading.....

What is the easiest way to link Skype into your office phone system or office PBX? That is the question I posed to Paul Daut, IT Integration Specialist at US Robotics. US Robotics have all their support call centers set up to accept calls from Skype.

One way of course is...

continue reading.....

For the balance of 2006 SkypeOut will be free for users in Canada and the US to call others in Canada and the US.

Thank you Skype.

This feels like a marketing ploy. Free calls to landlines and mobile phones is likely to give Skype some needed visibility in this geographic corner of Skypeland. I hope Skype will back this move with some other complimentary moves because cost of long distance is not much of a driver in this market.

Questions and Answers.

by Stephen Klosky, Director, Federal Systems Engineering, Dataline, Inc.

I often demonstrate Skype and its capabilities to business associates. Crowding around a monitor is sometimes awkward. At my desk, I have a laptop, a docking station, and a second monitor which works well for me and one or two guests. For larger groups, I needed a better setup, so I decided to "Skypify" the nearby conference room.

Before

The typical setup in conference room before the upgrade was to take a portable LCD projector and connect it to any of the laptops in the office. The projector pointed at a whiteboard or a blank wall. This setup was functional, but had some drawbacks. Cords ran across walkways, image quality took some time to tune and setup correctly, there was no audio support, and there was no pc based VTC support.

I did have some gear available for the project. The IT department had purchased a Polycom ViewStation H.323 station with a TV for a monitor. This setup was on an A/V cart. This was attractive because the remote controllable camera could be used for the video part of Skype. Also, the mic pod could be used for the Skype microphone.

View Stephen's complete photo set on flickr as a slide show.

Shopping on a $510 budget

So, there were definitely some areas for improvement. My plan was to add a stereo for sound reinforcement, a USB video capture device for the video support, a ceiling mount kit for the projector, a wireless keyboard and mouse setup, a ceiling mount kit for the stereo speakers, a manual pull down screen for the projector, cables, mounting hardware and power strips.

I was on a non-existent / small budget, so, after a brief eBay session, I found the items I needed. Fortunately for me, I work for an office with quick approval processing and was able to get the upgrade approved in about an hour or so. After getting the approval, I went back to eBay and ordered up the gear. Here is a spreadsheet I used to track the gear.

continue reading.....

Skype calls are not perfect quality. No surprise. What can you do when you have a poor connection. Hang-up and call again. Yes, but with a twist.

Here is what my Skype buddy Neil Lindsey in Vancouver discovered. Hang-up, but before you call again set your Skype status to offline for 15 seconds. This apparently forces a new Supernode to be selected for call setup and improves the likelihood for a better connection to be established.

Here is to clearer connections...

By Jean Mercier, Oostakker, Belgium

... temporarily at least (Grin)
Version 1.2 is about one year old, but ...

When I tried the "Import Contacts" function from the new 2.5 beta version I hoped that it would have improved, because the results found from my Outlook address book were disappointing me, this since version 1.4!

That is what it found, in less then ten minutes:

First you should know that I have more then 500 contacts in my address book. And I don't do that kind of importing exercise every month. From the 13 matches, only 2 were people I know.

But, ooooh surprise, this is what Skype showed me, while searching the user cloud:

continue reading.....

Some how Skype just doesn't ring in America like it rings elsewhere around the planet. A good example of this comes from comparing Radio Shack as a Skype Partner vs. Dangaard Telecom in Euroland. Skype Journal's Phil Wolff has told the Radio Shack story here, here and here.

To compare this to Euroland's Dangaard Telecom I interviewed Eric Feyder a member of Dangaard Telecom Belgium Skype's Team.

The photo: Eric's Dangaard Telecom Skype Team Members participating in a Business Event Dangaard sponsored to drive the market in Belgium. Sally Sorensen, Marketing; Vanessa Sales Manager ECCB (Simplyphone) from Luxembourg; Thomas Friis Product & Sales Coordinator

Less than three months ago Skype announced the Dangaard Telecom Program. Two-days ago Eric and his Dangaard Skype Team sponsored a Business Event with the manufactures Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, BenQ-Siemens, Motorola, Qtek, HP, Logitech, Kingston and Tomtom along with about 800 customers.

continue reading.....

Editing Skype Journal is a joy, more so because of the great conversations with and among our readers. Here are seventeen recent user notes to Skype Journal. If you have answers, leave a comment. Diverse is not the word but it's always interesting to look for themes...  

Ross Baldwin:

I know this question will sound redundant, You've tried to explain it so many times before. I'm just ignorant I guess. But, I need some help. I'm 16 years old, and I goto a school where, they gave out Mac OS X laptops to everyone. I want to make a podcast using skype conference. But I just can't see how I can do it. I have the following: Mac OS X laptop with Skype, A windows xp with Skype, Audacity on both. A headset/Mic for the Windoes. I have everything don't I? I just want to have a recorded conference of me and my friends talking basically. The thing I don't get is. If I'm recording with Audacity on the same computer I'm talking into with the speakers, wont it mess up? I need some help. Thanks

VeroBenei

Hi, I have been getting very loud and constant noise interferences when on the phone with "poonamis", something like a "gravedigger sound" that we don't seem to be able to get rid of. We just had to give up chatting through Skype. I did not have this issue with the other person I have talked to through Skype so far. Please advise. Thanks.

Todd Levy

Does Skype send a paper bill in the mail? Does skype mail a detailed statement of the calls you make with Skype, or are those just available on your online account info? Thanks.

continue reading.....

continue reading.....

The Skype peer to peer technology is apparently going to be tested as the network base for a Battle Field and Combat Information System which will encompass a whole Battle Scenario. Amongst other delivering real time Friend & Foe information on all objects. Is this a response to all the pressure and legal threats against Skype we have seen?

27. march 2006
Maersk Data Defence and L-3 Communications – Henschel have been selected by General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems to provide Multi Function Consoles (MFC) for the US Navy’s newest class of ships, the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS).

The communications system has a high capacity digital communications switch, developed by Danish company Maersk Data Defence (formerly Infocom) together with Karlskrona, which interconnects the voice and data communications channels. The system provides internal communications or open conference lines and access to external communications with various radio links and land-based networks.

continue reading.....

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.

This simple USB device provides an easily portable plug and play speakerphone for Skype. It's simple to use and requires no additional software to be loaded. It has a volume and mute button on top and works probably as expected, as a low cost speakerphone. I'd liken it to the solution we had as kids when we could finally plug in a speakerphone box between the old phone and the whole family sat around. In principle great, in practice it left something to be desired. The Chatterbox is a little like this. It works. It's also no substitute for a decent headset. The caller on the other end of the line will know and possibly complain. Handsfree solutions curently work better with a good set of speakers and a proper stand mic. Locate them correctly and the caller won't get a any feedback. Many laptops work as good as the Chatterbox. If you feel the need try it. Just don't expect it to be a Polycom and ready for the office. For kids it may be more robust than a headset - read youngsters talking to Grandma.

continue reading.....