... 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.

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1. Skypest.com is a market for buying/selling Skype names. Like trading in domain names. Hmmm. Check your wallet. And start ego surfing.

2. Google added Skype to the free Google Pack. Excellent distribution partner. Also explains why the Google toolbar comes with the free Skype toolbar bundle.

3. Skype's Firefox toolbar catching some users by surprise. They're surprised because they don't notice toolbars installing with Skype 3.0 beta for Windows. (just click next.) They are happily surprised: they like the phone number hotlinking. I've been doing this since the summer of 2005 using the Skypelinkify script.

4. How to use a hex editor to tweak Skype. Now if I only didn't have to use a hex editor.

5. Debian and ubuntu linux users have a simple Skype install now. Love those .deb packages.

6. Business 2.0 profiles a software trainer who uses Skype. The shot of Bill Lewis Skyping his students from the Puerto Vallarta beach in his shorts. Classic. The story says entrepreneurs have new opportunities when phone service is free/cheap. Good one for Skype's PR team.

7. The Skypecasts service graduated from Preview to Beta. When?

8. SPIM (spam over instant messaging) causes Skypers to shut down calls from strangers. Can you imagine only getting email from people you already know? Phone calls? Maybe it's time to start white/grey/black lists, like for email?

9. PhoneBoy picks SightSpeed video over Skype 3.0. Just one data point, right?

10. Will Skype continue free SkypeOut calls in the US, Canada, and elsewhere in 2007? Millions want to know. A few, so they can top up their Skype accounts. Others, so they can start shopping.

11. Waiting for Skype to pay off for eBay. A what-happened-in-the-year-since-eBay-bought-Skype story by the International Herald Tribune's Kevin J. O'Brien. I liked Martin's quote: "Skype is in danger of becoming the Netscape of voice over Internet protocol phone companies... Skype may prove that you can be the first to innovate a piece of software but the last to find a way to make money from it." Typical Geddes, and everyone else pretty much said what you'd expect them to say.

 

 

As mentioned elsewhere I have had significant exposure to a variety of phones that have been designed to work with Skype, either as the primary purpose of the device (Skype WiFi phones, Skype Cordless phones) or as an application within a more versatile mobile "personal assistant" platform (Windows Mobile platforms and, by year end, Symbian platforms such as the Nokia N-series). In addition I have now had the opportunity to work with a few wireless phones made by Nokia and Research in Motion (Blackberry). A few comments that could help Skype ecosystem product managers going forward:

Battery life: many of these phones have a battery life of four to six hours idle time. Probably best to license RIM's Blackberry power management -- I can get four to five days of idle time on my 8700. Any device that will have a hope of broad market acceptance should have at least two days idle time.

DTMF tones: This is a fairly basic and widely deployed feature of the Voice 1.0 phone infrastructure; yet I am constantly amazed at the cavalier approach taken to making sure "TouchTones" work with any Skype client, whether a softphone or a hardware device. Here are some of my experiences:

• Skype itself would not work reliably with DTMF tones prior to version 2.0; that issue has been resolved at this point (within the Skype client's "Dial" tab).
• The Skype WiFi phones do not support DTMF; therefore they limit the usefulness of SkypeOut when calling businesses that use IVR systems or other services, such as voice mail systems, that require a DTMF response. I have also experienced USB phones with the same issue.
• At the other extreme the RTX Dualphone and VoIPvoice Cyberphones do provide the appropriate support; the Sony Mylo aslo supports DTMF but you have to remember to put their unique keyboard in NUM mode to enter the tones.

Chat: I view Skype as having two primary features: Instant Messaging (presence and chat) and Voice. For USB phones, the IM activity remains on the host PC; however, for PC-independent devices there are issues:

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Yesterday came out of stealth mode the TalkPlus project that has been over two years in development; underlining this project's viability was a coincident announcement of a $5.5 million financing by Menlo Ventures. Om broke the story early yesterday morning; Ken Camp, Stowe Boyd, Voxilla and Alec Saunders, amongst others, have posted their initial impressions. I spent an hour yesterday afternoon discussing TalkPlus with Jeff Black, Founder and CEO. Jack provided some of the operational details that were not covered in the press release. First an overview from the press release:

TalkPlus today announced plans to revolutionize the way people use mobile phones by offering new and innovative Voice 2.0 calling services that work with existing mobile phones globally. Under development for more than two years, TalkPlus' patent-pending technology will provide customers a wide array of new and advanced calling services previously unavailable from mobile phone carriers.

First Offering: A Second Number That Works on Your Mobile Phone

With an additional phone number from TalkPlus, mobile users can now take advantage of having two numbers on their mobile phone. This additional mobile number is fully functional and unique; it works just like a mobile number issued by a carrier. By having a separate number to both place and receive calls on the same phone, subscribers get greater convenience and flexibility, as well as the benefit of an additional layer of privacy. With a second number, TalkPlus subscribers will be able to easily manage personal and work lives, while carrying only one mobile phone.

Subscribers will also benefit from an online management center, where they can easily control the TalkPlus Number's advanced call screening, voicemail, and contact management features.

Incorporated into the "Second Number" feature set will be an independent voice mailbox, a rules based engine for call management, bidirectional calling (in and out) such that a user can, say, separate her personal and business life, while using one phone handset with one carrier account. If you want to apply these management features to your original (well publicized) mobile number, you can port that number to the TalkPlus service and have a new (probably unpublicized) number applied to your basic carrier service.

But the calling support services go beyond capturing voice mail. Here are a couple of  examples:

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Initiated when Andy invited me to participate in the Nokia blogger program back in June, I have now had the opportunity to work with several mobile platforms and, over time, made several attempts to work with programs that access Skype from the mobile phone. I've also been following the Skype perspective on mobile here, here and here where expectations are set for processor power (minimum 400 MHz on Skype for Mobile), wireless access requirements (WiFi and/or 3G) and other operational limitations on a mobile platform.

As a guideline for user simplicity, I look for an experience where I can (i) easily "ping" a contact and enter text for a chat session and (ii) simply access a (Skype) Contact or dial a number to make a voice call - an experience that has a minimal installation and learning curve for the user public; an experience that will readily gain broad market acceptance. For the record the platforms I have worked with include:

Device	IM Client	OS/Keyboard	Wireless
Dell Axim X50v	Skype for Mobile	WinMobile/ MS PocketPC Stylus	WiFi
Nokia N70*	Quick IM, SoonR, EQO	Symbian S60/T9	GPRS, 3G
Nokia N91*	EQO	Symbian S60/T9	GPRS, 3G, WiFi
Blackberry 8700*	WebMessenger	Java/ Blkbry QWERTY	GPRS/EDGE
SMC Skype WiFi	None	Linux/ T9? (no DTMF)	WiFi
Sony Mylo	Skype for Sony Mylo	Linux/ Mylo QWERTY	WiFi

* also accepts SMS messages

At the moment the best platform on which to experience Skype on a mobile device is the Sony Mylo with its embedded Skype client. It has both the standard Skype IM and Voice functionality (as well as supporting file transfer). It does not require any special setup other than to use the embedded Opera browser to log onto fee-based WiFi Hotspot services. Of course its other limitation is the availability of WiFi connectivity although Jon Arnold is already proclaiming 2007 as the Year of WiFi. The Mylo does present the most authentic and most complete Skype user experience. Skype-to-Skype calls are straight forward. Calling any PSTN number worldwide, provided you have SkypeOut access to the dialed number, is a simple matter of going to the Skype Dial menu, entering the PSTN number (with +Country Code) and clicking. Finally, as noted by both myself and others, the Mylo has superior voice quality due to its embedded VeriCall voice engine. One minor shortcoming is the lack of Outlook Contact synchronization; but this is not necessary given the overall intended Mylo experience as a personal communicator and not primarily a wireless phone.

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Today Skype released Skype for Pocket PC 2.1, a release whose accompanying documentation reflects the reality of the limited resources of handheld mobile devices. A full list of new features is available here; however, key items include:

• A new multi-chat interface which supports chats with several participants.
• Skype Launcher, a small 'launcher" application that checks available memory and verifies that Skype is installed correctly. (Hopefully this will avoid the situation I previously encountered where sometimes I had to reboot a Windows Mobile device before Skype for Pocket PC would start if other programs, such as SliingBox Mobile, were running.)
• Built-in call management that detects incoming mobile calls (via your normal mobile service) during a Skype call and offers the user the choice to hang up or ignore the call. You can switch to Skype calls when in a mobile call.
• Detailed contact search including specification of country, city and language as options.

However, buried in the details are the following that reflect a more realistic approach to Mobile Skype:

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Thursday I received, as an evaluation unit, a Sony Mylo via the folks at Trinity Convergence whose voice engine software is embedded in the device. The Mylo has turned out to be an interesting personal companion and nothing has changed my opinion that this could be for Sony in the 2000's what the Walkman was for them in the late 80's.

The Mylo merges personal entertainment and personal communications  into one device. I expect I will be learning its many features over the next couple of weeks but a few initial comments:

• That blue ring around the right side is not an illusion; it indicates that it has an active WiFi connection.
• It is a device through which a group of friends can maintain ongoing remote contact, whenever they are in WiFi range, sharing (but not swapping) music, pictures and video, talking and IM'ing. (The agreement with T-Mobile in the U.S. is an ingenious piece of marketing.)
• On our first Mylo-to-Mylo call this evening with Andy Abramson, who bought one today, we both remarked it had the best Skype voice quality either of us has experienced. Suffice it to say that, remotely, Andy got right inside my head! (I have yet to decide if that is good or bad <gr>.)
• The Skype experience on a stand alone WiFi device has been all positive. The user interface and Skype feature set is much more intuitive and feature rich than on those Skype WiFi phones. It reinforces my recommendation that Skype move beyond the simple Skype WiFi phones, especially given that the Mylo can handle the full combination of voice communications, instant messaging and file transfer inherent to legacy Skype.
• Is there some irony that you can only IM with the embedded GTalk capability? (Same for the Yahoo Messenger)

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Marcelo Rodriguez rounded up five products that connect Skype and SIP products in his post, Is a Skype-SIP Peace At Hand? 

• VoSky Exchange
• Skype2PBX
• Uplink
• ChanSkype 
• Pika Connect for Skype

We all want interop, and these products are gaining loyal followings. They build audio pipes between SIP and Skype voice callers. We've been calling these Level Three Skype integration in our Skype Journal Connectivity Maturity Model. 

Skype Journal Connectivity Maturity Model

Level 0. No connection.
What's VoIP? What's Skype?

Level 1. Skype indifferent.
Devices doing nothing but input or output like the most basic of USB phones. On the software side, the only software is Skype.

Level 2. Skype aware.
Configurations are Skype-aware or Skype-smart devices, like the Kensington Vo300, the YapperNut YapperBox.

Level 3. Skype conversant.
Level 2, plus audio pipes between apps, especially across the SIP barrier. You call with your SIP phone, something happens in between, and my Skype phone answers.

The move from Skype to SIP at Level 3 costs you all the benefits of rich conversation. You lose:

• Availability and geopresence
• Mood messages
• Caller authentication
• Access to caller profiles
• Launching text chat or video in the same call
• File transfer and folder sharing
• Voice messaging
• Access to Skype voicemail
• Skype multichat and conferencing
• Broadband audio quality 
• End-to-end encryption
• Chat/call permalinks 
  (e.g. skype:?chat&id=%23leedryburgh%2F%24evanwolf%3Bd5b446f89da627a3)

Level 4. Skype equivalent.
Level 3, plus restoring most of the missing elements. 

Does this model work for you? What's Level 5? What do you call it when the other system has capabilities beyond or different from Skype and you can't translate them?  

Last weekend Netralia launched Version 2 of Skylook - a tool that links Skype to that ubiquitous contact management and email tool, Outlook 2000/XP/2003, and extends facets of the Skype experience to your mobile phone. In an interview with Jeremy Hague, Skylook's CEO, I learned that Skylook is rapidly becoming a key business tool for that 30% of users who use Skype in business. Key points include:

• over 60% (and rising) of Skylook licenses are known to be for business use;
• its major appeal is to hard core Skype users
• its business users have as many as 15,000 contacts in Outlook
• its US$99.95 per year per user price tag includes a 12 months 24 hour response time support warranty as well as all updates during this period

While working with Outlook, Skylook 2 also introduces audio technology for several key features, incorporates enhanced SMS messaging into Skype's Instant Messaging features and uses Skype's API's to forward voice and email messages to your mobile phone. In the image above I have "wrapped' the toolbar to show all its features. Skylook 2 offers six key functions:

• Communicate with Outlook Contacts: for instance, you can even send an SMS message to any Outlook contact, including those who do not have a Skype account, provided they have a mobile phone
• Record Skype calls (with several new features in Skylook 2.0 - the subject of a separate post - ideal for creating podcasts using Skype)
• Alerts and Forwarding: a totally new feature that will be the subject of a separate post.
• Answering Machine provides full voice mail functionality
• Archiving and organizing all your communications: emails, IM sessions, SMS activity and voice mails.
• Synchronize your Outlook and Skype Contacts.

Skylook has a more detailed outline of its functions on its web site along with links to examples of how several features work.

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Peter Burch skyped me from Paris to ask why France is the first country in Europe to get a promotion like the USA's and Canada's. Unlimited SkypeOut to French landlines until 31 December 2006.

Sadly, France is its own zone, so no calling between France and North America. Also, Monaco not included. And doesn't include SkypeOut due to Skype forwarding or to mobiles.

Is four months long enough for a promotion like this to build buzz? To teach French Skypers le joy of SkypeOut?

Skype gets hooked on Google. What's all this mean?

As Jaanus Kase of Skype puts it, "What does all this mean in detail? We'll see next year, as testing of all these new joint initiatives is said to begin in early 2007. For now, one thing is sure -- great companies working together is always exciting news."

Yes, the Google-Skype story feels very upbeat. It is a tremendous opportunity to monetize their huge customer base. This is bigger than SkypeOut and very scalable.

So do we have to wait till 2007? Will there be no sex? I doubt it. The new Skype-enabled Google Tool Bar is available in the 2.6 Preview Release Jaanus blogged about here.

Big Disclaimer

The formal press release ended on what seemed to me to be an unusual disclaimer,

"At this time, eBay does not expect this agreement will have material impact on its financial statements in 2006 or 2007."

Really? No sex? Let's see later today how Wall Street votes. eBay shares should, in my opinion (just about worthless), get a big boost.

To find out I talked with Don Albert, the North America General Manager for Skype. Don told me:

'Click-to-call' is something we have not done before. It is brand new. We are really excited by it. It is a new revenue stream for eBay it is just too early to predict financial impacts.

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In a post this morning, Alec Saunders has introduced Hullo, a new calling service that allows you to control not only to which phone your calls will both originate and be received but even seamlessly hand off calls to another phone as you go from, say, your home to your car. While Alec's post provides much more detail, two key points:

hullo bills itself as a personal call manager.  The promise is that it will help you stay in touch better than ever before.  It incorporates a buddy-list style softphone with some very slick advanced telephony features. 

The company is focusing their launch on the college and high school crowd.  The features have been designed recognizing that young people are increasingly the most sophisticated users of mobile phones.  hullo's feature set makes it easy to use those phones to socialize, arrange events, or stay in touch with friends and family who might live in different cities.  It's not hard to imagine how appealing this will be for students away from home for the first time.

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Both Alec Saunders and Jon Arnold have commented on a KTVU news item video where Andy is interviewed about dual mode WiFi/GSM phones. Andy points out that he could not demonstrate on his Nokia E61 in the hotel where he was interviewed because of the requirement for a login page. A week ago I commented on the need for a simple login page that was "mobile" optimized until an automated authorization-authentication protocol is worked out for mobile WiFi access.

Turns out that Montreal-based provider of hotel-based WiFi services, Intello (formerly iHotel), has taken one step in the right direction by "mobile optimizing" their initial user page. I have often used my evaluation Nokia N91 Personal Entertainment Assistant to simply and discretely detect the presence of a WiFi signal in a hotel lobby or coffee shop. When you start up the N91's web browser at a location serviced by iHotel, you get the mobile-optimized page shown on the right; simply enter the access code given by the front desk attendant and "Voilà"! Not a totally seamless switchover but the entire form fits within one screen. Were this my Dell Axim I could start using Skype Mobile. (Is Skype developing a Skype for Symbian?)

According to the AT&T spokesperson in the video, we can expect to see a seamless dual mode carrier operation at some time in 2007.

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The emerging proliferation of WiFi-enabled personal assistant devices, such as Nokia's N-series and Mobile Windows phones, and PC's requires a complementary build-out of WiFi infrastructure. During our current road trip to Atlantic Canada we have passed many "local" hotels where the main promotional feature is "Wireless High Speed Internet", sometimes along with free continental breakfast and a couple of other amenities. We have been staying at a low cost hotels that meets our need for a clean room and an overnight bed; their services include free WiFi usually without even a login screen. So my question is: "Why do several multi-national chains, such as Hilton, still feel they have to charge a premium surcharge for high speed Internet?" when it has become critical not only to traditional business travel but also to tourists keeping in touch with their families and truckers keeping in touch with their dispatchers.

The Good News, however, is that market demand for high speed Internet is rapidly building infrastructure for Skype WiFi phones at travel destinations. Reminds me of the 1960's when Color TV was the big differentiator in the lodging business, featured on highway signage.. (While available in the US from the late 50's, color TV only came to Canada in 1967.)

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Sony saves Skype users who feel tethered to their PC. Sony announced an agreement with Skype to integrate Skype software into Sony's first WiFi broadband communication and entertainment device, the mylo (My Life Online) personal communicator.

It looks like an awe-inspiring product. I can't wait to test drive it.

The mylo personal communicator will offer a rich array of Skype features, including

• Skype to Skype, SkypeOut, and SkypeIn calling
  
• Call history and voicemail
  
• Skype chat and multi chat with animated emoticons
  
• Contact add and search
  
• Full profile viewing and automatic Skype sign-in

The Skype Certified Sony mylo personal communicator will be available in September at Sony Style stores, sonystyle.com and at retail outlets across the United States. Price point is about $350. Read more about it here.

• Slide-out QWERTY keyboard.
• Large 2.4 LCD colour screen
• Internet Browser and e-mail client (Opera)
• Three-hours continuous talk time on Skype
• Small: Approx. 4 7/8 × 31/32 × 2 1/2 inches (123 × 23.9 × 63 mm)

"The mylo personal communicator puts the fun parts of a computer in the palm of your hand,"

said John Kodera, director of product marketing for personal communication devices at Sony Electronics."

The Sony mylo ranks as a "must have product"!

Over the past few days, Katie at GigaOm has been trekking down to Mountain View on hot days to try out the new Google-Fi network. Most recently she went with a Mac and Nokia 770 and tried out Skype and GizmoProject respectively to determine the feasibility and quality of the call.. She concludes:

• If your call is critical and you're in a big hurry, and not willing to tinker with new technology, stick to your cellular handset. and
• if you're willing to give up the ease-of-use of your mobile handset, then, Google's Mountain View network is not bad

Alec Saunders has referenced Katie's post, commented on his experience and concludes:

The biggest problem, identified in the comments area, is the ubiquitous authentication screens that nearly all public WiFi access points have now.  For all intents and purposes, these make the use of non-PC based VoIP (such as dual-mode handsets) impossible.

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