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Ever press the dial pad numbers in Skype, but not have the tones work right? I wrote a tiny program that fixes it. Free. This is what it looks like:
You can download it here.
So the next time you call to order pizza, book movie tickets, or check your bank balance, I hope you'll use KhaosDial.
For more information or to leave some feedback, please see this post on the Skype forum.
By Peter Henning, Skype Super User and Beta Tester. Bucharest, Romania
Today we got a brand new toy from Skype, it is called Skype for Outlook. It integrates into Microsoft Outlook, the email and calendaring program in Microsoft's Office Suite.
This toolbar enables you to use Skype directly from Outlook and should work on all versions of Outlook beginning from version 2000 onwards on both Windows XP and Windows 2000. Skype for Outlook is a plugin for Skype therefore Skype needs to be installed on your system for the toolbar to work. As a side note, Outlook is a different product than Outlook Express which comes free with Windows and this toolbar will NOT work with Outlook Express.
Okay, nice new toy, but do you need it?
To answer this question you need to ask yourself if you are still using mail or have you moved on? To be honest I don't really use mail for personal communication anymore, but do get a lot of business related mail from people I know, which is why I love this toolbar.
continue reading.....
Should you buy an Actiontec Internet Phone Wizard? With it you can make free internet calls using your regular cordless phone and Skype. Its already had many reviews done eg Hardware Geeks and featured positively in many blogs. There are also complaints and observations noted in the Skype Forums. Overall, I've had positive experiences using it. It's also a stopgap or intermediate solution before something much better is launched. continue reading.....
Living the Skype Life
Does anyone know Roxy's Skype name?
engadget: Use DittyBot
and Skype to access your iTunes collection from any cellphone (Mac). It works, but Om says you can buy an iPod for the same price as the added mobile minutes. DittyBot (cute name, cuter character) is another example of the willingness of customers to make their own features.
Russell Shaw explains 15 common Skype error messages.
For your inner Quant
The latest Skype stats:
- Total Skype Downloads: 122,320,159
- Users Online Now: 3,014,635
- Total Minutes Served: 9,947,864,820 (should roll over)
Researcher Sandvine says Skype users rule North America.
- Skype users account for 35.8 percent of individual callers on North American networks.
- Skype calls account for 46.2 percent of minutes used.
also...
- Cape
shows Skype now synonymous with voip, at least in the blogosphere. Poor Vonage.
- Skype is filling the void left by broken email.
- Xandros is adding German and French desktop Linux versions (with Skype inside). Skype's also shipping with the English and Spanish versions. When Skype is bundled with the operating system...
vSkype multiuser video chat free Beta release shipping now. See Bill Campbell's product review and exclusive interviews.
IPdrum promises a bridge between net and mobile phones later this summer. "Patent-pending technology to connect traditional mobile systems with Skype." Wholesale service or retail? via Engadget.
Skype voicemail came out of beta. New feature: Voicemail customers can leave voicemail for any Skypers.
Security? Om Malik re-voices concern about Skype crossing firewalls.
Skypes To The Editor: Online publication MSmobiles.com uses Skype for reader feedback. Leave a voicemail with your comments.
What's Your Skype Strategy? Blast from three months ago.
Coming this week:
- Supernova 2005 Conference. San Francisco. Stuart Henshall and I will see you there.
- Philadelphia Metro Telecommunications Enthusiasts Group Meetup. First meeting.
- CPSN'05 - The 2005 International Conference on Computers for People with Special Needs. Las Vegas.
- Internet Law 2005. The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School. Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- Gnomedex 5.0. Seattle.
So begins the Skype Video War. What a cool arms race. There are three groups in the race. The IM people upgrading audio and video (AOL, MSN and Yahoo!), the Skype third party developers, and Skype itself.
Two weeks ago the story was Spontania’s Video4Skype release. Now Santa Cruz Networks realeases vSkype. This means the 40 million Skype users have these features, and Microsoft, AOL, and Yahoo don't. CEO Stuart Jacobson says, "vSkype adds two cool new experiences to a Skype user: multi-user video and desktop sharing."
The screen shot below says more than my words can. It is an international conference I hosted from Kelowna, B.C. to: Opole, Poland, Toronto, Canada, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, USA, Sweden, and Bucharest, Romania.
I have been playing with and testing a pre-beta release of vSkype. It has been a thrilling week. Thank you Santa Cruz Networks ─SCN─ people for the opportunity and for putting up with all my whining and nagging.
Now I get to share with our Skype Journal readers the fascinating story of a development team who in eight weeks went from strategy to product deployment in the market. I’ll cover the product, the company, the cool features I like, test results and interviews with CEO Stuart Jacobson and CTO Barry Spencer.
First: vSkype is Easy to Use
This should look like a familiar process to any Skype user who has added a contact to a Chat.
A Skype chat message with a conference link is sent to all those invited.
Tip: In fact it would be a good idea to create a persistent chat for all the participants.
One click and you add another buddy to video conference as shown in this video conference session: France, USA, Poland, Sweden, and Canada.
Seasoned talent driving vSkype.
"We’re a group of battle-scarred veterans", says Santa Cruz Networks developer, Bernie Vachon, ex-Borland like 3 of his work mates and also an ex-Canadian from my neck of the woods. Interesting contrast to the younger demographics at Skype. CTO Barry Spencer, who has his hands around the core video technology, tells me, "I was employee number 23 in Lotus just ahead of Jim Manzi".
When asked what he brings to the table, Itzik Cohen, VP of Marketing and Business Development explains it to me this way,
"I am a 6 foot 9 former Israeli pro basketball player who was employee # 38 at WebEx. Video is the hardest thing to do on IP. I want to do what Skype did for video- just make it usable. The future is no more blind dates. We have a lot of interesting technology to make video a fun experience… eye candy, backdrops, gaming. We have a great leader in Stuart, who brings incredible wealth of experience and a calming influence, along with strong investor/board members like Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Robert Troy (Geneva Venture Partners). vSkype is just our first plug-in. We plan to release plug-ins for every major presence network out there. We have a consumer strategy and a strategy for business grade services."
These SCN guys feel like seasoned players!
Cool things I like…
- It is encrypted end-to-end
- Collaboration: I can share a PowerPoint or any other window on my desktop or even my whole desktop!
- When one party talks their name under their pic changes colour
- I can detach a video pic and resize it. Shown below. This is part of the vSkyper team at SCN. I detached Sam's pic to a separate window. Sam is the SCN in-house anthropologist. I guess they hired Sam for his videogengic eyes and Sam wanted to do a PhD thesis on old people in Silicon Valley! (Grin)
- Best is last. I can do a video call with myself! This is just perfect for anal retentive testers like me. You get to tune your systen and camera without wasting any one's time. To make a test call to yourself just go to
Start > All Programs > vSkypeas shown here View image. The result is shown here View image
Results from the Skype Journal Testing Lab:
I like to test 4 key performance indicators. In the end you the user will decide what you like best. These tests are so our beta testing group doesn't end up deadlocked like the UN. Opinion doesn't count in this court. Nor do fancy PowerPoints.
- CPU Utiliization
- Resolution
- Fluidity/Frame Rate
- Bandwidth consumption
vSkype performed remarkably well. CPU utilization was between 5 and 10 percent.
Resolution even in a 5 party video conference call was better than 300 lines per inch View image (that's really good) and it did as well as Video4Skype on the eye chart test with viewers in a conference being able to read 12 point type.
Fluidity was just okay. Fluidity is the ability to move your head or hands without any jerkiness in the video. Finger test counts were behind by one finger (about half a sceond) so lip sync was not as good as I would like to see it.
Bandwidth consumption is difficult for me to rate. SCN use a neat technique called elastic bandwidth (that Barry Spencer is a clever fellow). vSkype uses all the bandwidth you have available which makes for a great video experience, but it makes it really difficult for us beta testers to do comparitive testing! All I can say is if you want a good video experience get a broadband connection with more than 128 kbs upload speed if you can.
Let's hear from SCN CEO Stuart Jacobson
Tell me about your corporate culture. You seem to be an older lot. How does your demographics compare to others in the valley?Barry and I are a bit older but our average age is late 20 and early 30s. I am happy that you didn’t comment about our maturity vs. age. Although we are twice retired and living in Santa Cruz, we are still having fun!
Do you mean the Silicon Valley or the San Joachim Valley? The valley is multi-ethnic and so are we. We even have a Canadian on our team. We speak 8 languages among us. I have lived in India, China and Marin County. Itzik used to play pro basketball in Europe before a great run at Webex. He has lived in France and Israel. Jean-Marc was born in Paris and speaks with a real Parisian Accent. Alex is from Mexico. Our lead engineer, Jeremy lives here and in Russia. At the moment he is on vacation with his family in Germany – which is why you are seeing so much of Barry! We re as diverse as the valley!
What are the advantages of having a team of old guys vs 13 15 to 20 year olds?
Older guys don’t make as many mistakes. More important, they actually understand how computers work. Video is hard to do and still taxes processors. To make is work on the internet were bandwidth varies, and to make it work in more that just a P2P configuration, you have really understand how to manage resources and optimize instructions. Most programmers today use Java or VB. They don’t worry about overhead and do not have to know, nor can they know, what is really going on. Older guys learned how machines really work and know how to manage and optimize with scarce resources. We like to team experience and wisdom with energy and enthusiasm!
Why did Stuart Join SCN? Who found who? What unique things do you bring to the table? What gaps do you fill?
Communication is good for us all and can be a very profitable business. I joined because I think it is time to use the internet to help people communicate more often and in more ways and because there is a huge opportunity to win big. I was originally introduced to SCN by Joe Costello, our board member. Joe sat on the Saba Board. Recently I was also reacquainted with Robert Troy from Geneva Venture Partners. Geneva and Robert were involved early on with Oracle while I was their and funded old colleagues of mine who built the CRM business (Seibel and Salesforce).
Is an IPO on your radar screen?
No. I have been through 3 IPOs. Even if the market were right, my answer would be the same because it is not the right time to think about an IPO. At this point we are focused on building a great user experience, making real-time communications fun, finding interesting ways to encourage its usage in group settings, and making money.
From a Skype Plug-in perspective who is your end user?
That is a good question! One of the reasons we are releasing our product in beta is to better understand this. The Skype community is vast and wonderfully diverse. We are learning as we go along. Our colleagues over the hill in Silicon Valley are interested in using the plug-in to manage their outsourcing partnerships and clients in India and China. We have also had interest from various religious and special interest groups interested in everything from motorcycles to politics. We have also had interest from tutors and educators, especially those focused on teaching language. They all want to meet on line and in groups.
Are you a video conferencing tool, a collaboration tool or a content producing tool?
As you know, we have a large library of content and camera games that we intend to leverage with vSkype. We know that allowing users to play group camera games will be a hit in the Skype community. Our tools for conferencing are fairly complete and we think they will also be useful to Skype users. Collaboration is a big word and an industry on its own, our collaboration is light but useful.
At heart, we are a technology developer and our strategy is to enable our partners and their customers to utilize our tools to have fun, make money, and improve their customer satisfaction. If we do this well, we will make lots of money.
Did you know Tim Draper personally before you came to SCN?
No.
What is your vision for SCN at the end of 2006?
Our vision: People will come together on the internet and use it to communicate more and in different ways. As the internet becomes unwired, opportunity to communicate and share will grow. We want to be a core enabling technology provider facilitating this.
By the end of 2006 we believe that millions of users on all of the presence networks throughout the world will be using our products to communicate visually, meet in groups, play games online, and show their friends what they are doing right now!
Now let's hear from the CTO Barry Spencer
.When will you move to a P2P architecture like MSN did and like what Spontania have?We already have P2P running. It will be an option included in our production release. We decided to start with the hard stuff first (a server solution that supports both one-to-one and large groups) and offer users a broader range of services – many of which can only be delivered using a server architecture. Once we determine how it is being used, we will optimize our P2P solution.
What are the advantages of P2P?
Performance may be faster with computers that are geographically close in a P2P environment. There also is no bandwidth cost, but this cost is dropping radically. The advantages of a server based solution are many and include groups, security, scalability, reliability, and better support and management in corporate environments (e.g. bandwidth control, firewalls, NATs, etc), There are also additional features that can be offered like centralized archiving, video mail, and games.
What is unique about your technology? Why did you build your own codec? There are some really good ones on the Market like the VP6 TrueMotion.
Our technology was designed to support groups and other add-on services such as sharing. Our technology has built-in QOS for the Internet; it constantly adapts to fluctuating bandwidth and prioritizes multiplexed data accordingly. It also provides centralized bandwidth control for shared connections. Our multipoint architecture allows us to cheaply scale to support large groups of up to 200 per call. Designed specifically for the Internet, our solution securely goes through firewalls, NATs and proxies.
The Challenge
How will 3rd party video plug-ins compete with Skype video? Will the war end before Skype announces their free video? Who knows? who cares?
For us Skypers the vSkype beta is on their web site. Go play. Get thrilled, as I did, by a new Skype experience.
Many thanks to my Skype buddies Ben, Peter, Kevin D, Kevin L, Sanks, Carlo,... … the greatest beta testers in Skypeland whom I get to work with. Lucky me. - Bill Campbell. Skype me
Sociologists keep trying to explain that phones are a rich medium for research. My Social Fabric is a tool for helping you visualize, analyze, and manage your own contacts, associates, friends, and family. When was the last time you called your mother? Can't wait for the Skype plug-in. via the We make money not art blog, via Emily on Smartmobs. Visualizes the state of your relationships, including how often you contact people and how.
In the media...
Skype Me! (The Book), is coming out soon. By Markus Daehne of the German Skype forums.
BusinessWeek cover package for June 20, 2005: The Power of Us: Mass collaboration on the Internet is shaking up business.
The 35 employees at Meiosys Inc., a software firm in Palo Alto, Calif., didn't know they were joining a gang of telecom-industry marauders. They just wanted to save a few bucks. Last year they began using Skype, a program that lets them make free calls over the Internet, with better sound quality than regular phones, using headsets connected to their PCs. Callers simply click on a name in their Skype contact lists, and if the person is there, they connect and talk just like on a regular phone call. "Better quality at no cost," exults Meiosys Chief Executive Jason Donahue. Poof! Almost 90% of his firm's $2,000 monthly long-distance phone bill has vanished. With 41 million people now using Skype, plus 150,000 more each day, it's no wonder AT&T (T ) and MCI Inc. (MCIP ) are hanging it up.How can a tiny European upstart like Skype Technologies S.A. do a number on a trillion-dollar industry? By dialing up a vast, hidden resource: its own users. Skype, the newest creation from the same folks whose popular file-sharing software Kazaa freaked out record execs, also lets people share their resources -- legally. When users fire up Skype, they automatically allow their spare computing power and Net connections to be borrowed by the Skype network, which uses that collective resource to route others' calls. The result: a self-sustaining phone system that requires no central capital investment -- just the willingness of its users to share. Says Skype CEO Niklas Zennström: "It's almost like an organism."
WaPo letter to the editor: Someone Pays for That 'Free' Phone Call
Regardless of whether one finds Niklas Zennstrom's unusual business ventures right or wrong ["File-Sharing Pioneer Turns to Free Internet Calling," front page, June 4], it is important to note that his "free" Internet file- exchange and "free" phone services are not actually free and require a complex infrastructure that is maintained and paid for by someone.Jonathan Krim's article on Skype Technologies SA made it seem as though the lack of a traditional telephone network, with poles and wires and technicians, somehow means that Skype does not require any infrastructure to operate. While the service may be free to the public, the Internet on which it depends is a complex hardware and software network that is maintained by an assortment of private and public entities. This doesn't come free, which is why Internet users must generally pay a service provider for access and why many useful Web sites are festooned with advertising.
If Mr. Zennstrom had to pay for even a micro-fraction of the infrastructure that make his "free" ventures work, he would have been out of business before he started.
ERIC WENOCUR, Silver Spring
Skype makes friends...
Distribution agreements in time for summer... Mobile phone distributor Brightpoint, strong in retail and college markets, will promote Skype through its channels. In a similar arrangement, Intel will bundle Skype
.
"Intel will revamp a heap of its software utilities and bits and bobs in the second half of this year. ... It will also introduce a series of promotions in the second half of this year, including Premium Video, Digital Media Adaptor, Remote Control - a Logitech Harmony remote - and a VoIP Skype offer as bundles."
In the world of products, a little irony: Packet conditioner and policy manager supports Skype. The same system blocks KaZaA.
Popular Telephony announces they're shipping what I call a "Something-Skype Right Now Product": PeerioBiz with Gateway for Skype Peer-To-Peer VoIP System for SoHo. This leverages Skype's hotness and user base, fitting Peerio's decentralized architecture. More telephony vendors will follow.
Another meaning for mobile: Skype on a USB memory stick from U3. Just made for the millions who use Internet cafes. And the rest of us who want to keep their personal Skype voice mail, contacts, and call logs off a company computer.
Someonenew.com launches the German version of their dating site.
tools
I'm in lust for the Minivox speakerphone - perfect size to go with your phone or laptop.The $70 microtelPC desktop that comes with two VoIP solutions inside: Skype and Earthlink's SIP tool (thanks, Angelique).
Jybe: A free browser plug-in, "Jybe allows users to make Skype calls, share documents, and send invitations from Internet Explorer and Firefox." "You can now initiate a call to your Skype users directly from JYBE. Simply invite them from within JYBE and they will be automatically called and IM-ed to their Skype user name. They can now join your session instantly." The Skype API at work.
Geeking out
Great EE Times interview with Niklas Zennström if you're a phreak. "We're using different codecs for different circumstances.
For instance, if you have a broadband connection, we are using one codec and if you have a narrowband connection, we are using another." Makes me want to whip out a fuzzy logic engine to optimize codec selection. Do you think the Skype client renegotiates codec choices mid-conversation? via El Contexto es Todo (es)
Skype's network has some serious flaws, including the inability to retire or recycle user IDs or to authenticate callers. If you're interested in this stuff, see Doc Searls' pile of links from Digital Identity World. (I missed the DIDW conference to take this picture. Cost of trip: $2000. Image of Jeff Pulver eating a sandwich in his conference room: priceless.)
How do people Skype?
- Priit, an Estonian exchange student in Shanghai, tells about getting Grandmother to use Skype.
- Home-bound blogger Skypes Phoenix police about noisy neighbors.
- InfoWorld's Chad Dickerson gave up Skypecasting:
I've concluded that while Skype is really great for informal phone calls, using it as the platform for recorded interviews is simply ill-advised. I'm pretty sure this will be the last interview I do with Skype. Frankly, the people I'm interviewing (and planning to interview) are too busy to repeat the key moments that are ruined by Skype jitter/flutter and I feel like I'm insulting busy listeners if I force them to listen to garbled conversation (even when it is very sporadic). I haven't gotten any specific complaints about this from listeners or interviewees, it's just something that bugs me about the first two. This is one area where the Principle of Good Enough doesn't apply -- either you hear words clearly, or you don't.
- Man admits addiction to Skype, TiVo as gateway drug.
- Case study of hi-tech field sales organization using Skype on the road, saves money. (jp)
Will you be the first to register Skype.xxx? And could it be the next great VoIP business model?
Video4Skype is clearly a hot item. Slashdot picked up the story today. According to a spontania representative: “we had 3000 downloads just in 24hrs and our server got colapsed. Right now it is up and running so you can proceed to download it.” In my experience that makes it the hottest Skype add-on ever.
The product also received coverage on the PRZoom Newswire.
Nicolas asked me to remove his Skype User ID form the pic in my previous post because he was getting too many requests for authorizations. (Girls… he is happily married.)
I have tested with about a dozen users now. So just how good is it?
continue reading.....Last month we did two reviews of SkypeSee here and here. They have renamed the product wigiwigi which I hope won't last as a name.
The lastest version 17w is downloadable here.
This version should be considered a prototype or alpha release, but it is a very good one. The User Interface is rather crude, but it's truly worth playing with it if you are a video geek. It is the finest video quality I and my fellow testers have seen. Here is a sample:
It shows Carlo in Denmark and me in Kelowna, BC, Canada. Christian's photo is the "wallpaper" on Carlo's screen which provides a way to compare the over all quality of the video pics. The numbers below my pic on the right show how we set the call parameters for Quality at 40 and (Frame) Rate at 35. The bandwidth consumed is shown here.
At this time calls are made by entering "Call" plus the IP address as shown here in the lower left of the video window.
Once the call is established you can enter Quality 40 followed by Rate 30.
Now here is a great trick. No other system I have seen can do this. Type in Mirror instead of Call. This places a call to yourself. Now set the Quality to any value from 4 to 128 and the Rate to a value form 1 to 70. You will see yourself as other's will see you.
The resloution is so good I can hold up what I call an "eye exam chart", i.e. a page of 11 point type and Carlo can read it. That is suburb resolution.
The audio quality is good too. All this puts more pressure on Skype to excel. :) :)
I first saw the CyberphoneK at CES and then more recently caught up with the team at Von Spring. They have already sold thousands. Since then the VoIPVoice CyberphoneK has added some elegance to my desktop. It's a sweet compact design nicely weighted corded handset with full dial pad designed to integrate with Skype. In summary it is perfect if you want a phone, have SkypeIn, and don't mind that it is not cordless.
VoIPVoice is one of Skype's Partners so they've been working with the Skype API longer than most. The integration of calling features is a great illustration of where the SkypeAPI could take The CyberphoneK is designed to integrate with Skype using a small SkypeAPI program which comes with the phone. Simply lifting the headset from the base will bring your buddylist to the top of the screen. You can scroll your buddylist from the phone or immediately dial a SkypeOut number. However, their latest software upgrade does even more announcing calls and enabling you to select who you want to call by simply entering digits like you were dialing their name. If you have a CyberphoneK go to the VoIPVoice site and update your software.
continue reading.....We at Skype, are very excited to present our first public competition. It's a competition for developers (that's software developers, not property developers). We would like you invite you to enter.
We're giving away 5000 Euros of cash prizes and in return we'd like you to use our API to develop applications that show-off the potential of Skype, and make it even easier and better to use in the future.
You can put forward as many entries as you like. All we ask is that you're happy for us to make them available to download for free from skype.com and that you get them to us before the deadline for entries on July 1st 2005.
After you work your way through the Details, tell Skype Journal about your project. If you're blogging it, send us a link. For some insights, be sure to read the free Skype Journal's "Learning Skype's Plug-In Architecture" guide.
There are a lot of posts today on ActionTec's Internet Phone Wizard; tracing to Engadget and a review in Tom's Networking. However these glowing reviews miss a point. This application is not really integrated with Skype. It's an upgrade to an older device. This is the description via Engadget:
Tom’s Networking took a quick look at the Actiontec Internet Phone Wizard — a USB adaptor that lets you hook a telephone up to your PC to use Skype — and found it to be an easy way to make and receive Skype calls. Downsides include no Caller ID for Skype calls and the need for your computer to stay on to host the box. But for $60, it seems like a better deal than some other solutions, like the Siemens M34, which will set you back about $200.
Engadget
Engadget get's the key elements right. However none of these articles specifically mention whether the ActionTec is compatible with the Skype API. I don't think it or any of the currently broadly available USB devices really leverage it.
continue reading.....Would you like to connect Skype to a real phone? User interest in connecting and combining Skype is regular phones is increasing. This post looks at USB devices. Right now I'd have a hard time recommending them. In a few months that is likely to change.
When Skype first launched I wanted to try connecting Skype to a standard phone. Why? I loved talking on Skype and didn't want to be tethered to the PC. As new users discover Skype it is a natural desire. At the time I purchased a CuPhone device which I soon stopped using. Now Skype's rapid growth is launching many similar devices.
I've clipped two reader responses below. Andy found his solution a RapidBoxR and lists many others. Riaan reports on his Actiontec solution.
Are you dreaming of a cordless Hi-Fi headset for use with your laptop and mobile phone? I certainly have been. So you can imagine my anticipation when I received the latest 4-in-1 Bluetooth MP3 Headphone from GATechnologies. They have some cool gear and their BT-205 headset was one of four I encountered at CES. It's been a wonderful learning experience trying out this headset. I'm also going to say up front that I'm not quite ready to buy one. They are not cheap, expect to layout $200+ for any that are close to release.
This iZon headphone has built in a 128mb SD card for the MP-3 player, a FM tuner, and BT Hi-Fi audio streaming and BT mobile headset functions. Naturally, charger, travel bag and USB cables are included. It is presented on the packaging as a 4 in 1, 1 for ALL presentation.
continue reading.....Engadget may be hooked on Skype but still has reservations about the BenQ P50 one of the first phones to be shipped with Skype installed. I saw their new phones at CES and lust comes to mind. Check out Engadget for their review. I'm waiting for now. The next six months are going to bring many interesting new phones. It will soon be time to trade in my Nokia.
BenQ P50 (look, we're really "trying" we want to like it as much as you do) we do have to admit our little $800 friend is certainly starting to pull itself out of the mire. First we hear it;s going to support the Cingular/AT&T Wireless/T-Mobile-backed UMA standard out-of-box, and now we've been informed they’re planning on putting that integrated WiFi to good use: BenQ's launching the P50 pre-loaded with Skype.
The ups and downs of the BenQ P50: now they add Skype - Engadget - www.engadget.com
So if you are lucky enought to have purchased one.. SkypeUs and confirm how it works.
This device looks like it was "MADE FOR SKYPE". Tom Keating spills the beans for us on this new product. Wouldn't you like to test it?
Logitech's new ViewPort AV 100 includes a VGA video camera, integrated microphone with acoustic echo cancellation (which I found out today uses Global IP Sound) and a Bluetooth wireless headset, connected via USB. Logitech's ViewPort AV 100 seems squarely targetted at the business enterprise, as a video conferencing solution, which is new to Logitech since they are best known for their webcams targetted at home users. The specs include: VGA CCD sensor with 3x digital zoom, 50-degree field of view, 30 frames per second and near-CD quality sound, even over low bandwidth connections. Logitech ViewPort AV 100
This device looks like it was "MADE FOR SKYPE". Tom Keating spills the beans for us on this new product. Wouldn't you like to test it?
Logitech's new ViewPort AV 100 includes a VGA video camera, integrated microphone with acoustic echo cancellation (which I found out today uses Global IP Sound) and a Bluetooth wireless headset, connected via USB. Logitech's ViewPort AV 100 seems squarely targetted at the business enterprise, as a video conferencing solution, which is new to Logitech since they are best known for their webcams targetted at home users. The specs include: VGA CCD sensor with 3x digital zoom, 50-degree field of view, 30 frames per second and near-CD quality sound, even over low bandwidth connections. Logitech ViewPort AV 100
Firebox a UK based supplier announces a USB cyberphone for use with Skype. It looks remarkably similar to others we have seen. Checkout VoiPVoice.
The VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) is essentially a USB-friendly handset which, using clever technology developed by the boffins at Skype, allows you to make calls to other Skype users on the web for free, and calls to any other number in the world for next to nothing. Firebox VoIP Cyberphone
Simon Perry writes a detailed review of the Siemens M34 dualphone handset. If you want to combile telephony and Skype with mobility round the office then this may be for you. Note this phone won't be available in this form in the US. It works on the wrong frequency. Vtech offers something similar and Olympia the same.
Skype Phone Review: Siemens M34 Wireless Handset Review
Note: This Siemens unit offers a wireless link from your PC USB to the phone base station.
From the Skype Forums a common question:
How do you all handle speakers headset? I use my speakers to listen to music and headset for Skype. It gets very tiring to crawl under the desk to swap plugs every time I want to make or answer a phone call... maybe a y-connector, or a switch box? Any ideas? Skype Forum
Here's Plantronics speaker switch solution about $20.
Engadet reports on Actiontec's USB Skype phone connector. We are looking forward to trying the device which enables you to make Skype calls from your regular phone
Sometimes when Skype rings we scramble to find the headset in time to answer the call. This wouldn’t happen with Actiontec’s Internet Phone Wizard. It connects a regular phone to a computer for making, and receiving calls using Skype. The box channels the sound through the phone instead of the computer speakers and mic. There’s also some echo-cancellation technology that enhances the quality of the call. Engadget
I did a little further checking on Skype this morning. Try this search. Here's another article from InfoWorld With 10000+ users in a week I think it will blow all previous viral records.
I also looked up Stowe Boyd's Corrante blog on IM to see if it was being reported and then e-mailed him. Within minutes he was calling me. Very cool. I'm easy to find "stuart_henshall". I'll confirm the sound quality was much better than any Yahoo or MSN voice connection I've ever had.
It also turns IM on its head. It's ring centric. All those adults.. that are failing to understand messaging... understand how to make calls. Yep your PC will soon be ringing. Now what I want to know is:
We could create a list of questions a mile long with this one. My perception is it is really disruptive. It has element of my "Circles" post in it. Then even Microsoft employees have said this is a forefone conclusion. See Darknet. I'd hope that the communications companies have been thinking about this. If not time to start on some scenarios! This is a consumer centric world. It's small pieces loosely joined.
I'm also seeing comments about Spyware. I'm less concerned. I don't think that is the business model they are going after. At the moment anyone can call me. I just got a call from a kid in Finland. Clear as anything. However I don't need robo bots on this one.
Design Media: Usable Digital Media Skype, P2P telephony: A new P2P telephony software, Skype, is offered by the company that brought you Kazaa. One disadvantage is that, no one knows what spyware will come with this installation. But the advantage of p2p telephony offered by skype is, clients that are NATed or are behind firewlls can initiate the calls. Clients on publicly routable IP addresses will be able to proxy to NAT’ed nodes and route calls. Also, call quality is increased by keeping multiple connection paths open and dynamically choosing the one that is best suited at the time.You can call me to discuss this post!
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