Since its launch Tuesday, Skype for Windows 4.0 Gold has received some interesting coverage:
Perhaps the biggest improvement, though, is audio quality. We all thought that Skype audio was great, right? Skype’s internally developed SILK codec slipped into the final release, despite not having been in prior betas. A wideband codec that delivers the goods at half the bitrate of prior codecs, SILK makes talking on Skype a pure pleasure.
 Tom Keating: Skype Launches 4.0 with Super Duper Weenie Wideband Codec. Images conjured up when a new codec is lauded with reduced network bandwidth. Obviously Tom has his favorite food hangouts. Update: JK On The Run: Geek Session: Skype 4.0 and the HP Mini 1000 MIE provides a ten minute video recording of Kevin’s Skype video call with James Kendrick from a netbook running Windows 7 beta. Not a Skype High Quality video call but still demonstrates a reasonable quality video call, even at full screen (select “HD On” in upper right corner if you go full screen) . Would love to have knows the fps and resolution from the Skype tech specs for the call.
Have a good weekend.
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 Columnist David Pogue in a New York Times article reviewing Skype 4.0 starts by going back to the AT&T video phone demonstrated at the 1964 New York World’s Fair and user experience from then. Not a lot of calls due to technical and psychological issues. He talks about why Skype has been so widely accepted (did he remind us it was “free”?) and why Skype has been a survivor when up against iChat, MSN Messenger, SightSpeed and others.
He goes on to mention several issues that have inhibited video calling in the past but then says:
The video quality still varies when you use Skype. Fast Internet connections and fast computers still work better than slow ones. But if you do have a good setup — wow. With certain Logitech or Philips webcam models, Skype 4.0 can deliver a picture that’s as big and sharp and smooth as a TV picture (30 frames a second, 640 by 480 pixels), with almost no delay.
In my test calls to friends in California, New York and Virginia, we were amazed at what a difference it makes when the delay goes away. (Maybe, for its next trick, Skype can lend its technology to the world’s cellphone carriers.)
He then went on to make calls using iChat, ooVoo and SightSpeed: “None of them matched Skype’s immediacy or video and audio quality.” He discusses Skype’s new level of audio quality (with the SILK codec) and reduced network bandwidth speed requirement. He mentions some features that he would still like to see and mentions what differentiates services such as SightSpeed. His closing comment places Skype video calling into a historical perspective:
….. Will we one day adjust to the idea of being on camera every time someone calls?
Nah.
In the end, video chatting isn’t a replacement for phone calls, but a supplement to them, a perfect way to check out someone’s new place, check in with distant family and friends or show off a new talent (or baby). They saw the possibilities back in 1964 — they just didn’t realize that we wouldn’t always want to use them.
Go read David’s post (free registration may be required); it’s an excellent yet objective review of the personal video calling space from the end user perspective. I guess David doesn’t watch Oprah; she seems to be using Skype High Quality Video almost daily according to reports from my wife.
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 Over the past eighteen months iotum’s CalliFlower has evolved into a complete audio conference call service. While they still offer a basic free service, in January they launched a premium service that provides document sharing, local calling numbers in North America, Europe and Australia as well as a feature that allows administrators to set up, but not necessarily participate in, a conference call. The most important feature is “no per minute charges”; you get “unlimited calling with an unlimited number of participants”.
Last week, over at Web Worker Daily, I wrote a post “Search Transforms CalliFlower Sessions from Events to Social Media Elements” where CalliFlower had announced that they had made all public CalliFlower sessions searchable such that they become part of an ongoing social networking conversation. My conclusion:
If you are into social networking by engaging your customers through blogs, Twitter and/or Facebook, check out CalliFlower as one additional element for carrying on your ongoing public customer conversations.
 Yesterday the CalliFlower team woke up to learn that their CalliFlower for iPhone had been added to the Apple App Store overnight. (Yes, apparently “it just happens”; Apple uploads new or upgraded applications with no notice.) The iPhone application provides access to all of CalliFlower’s features with the exception of document sharing (which requires Adobe Flash – an issue for all smartphones). Set up a call, see your upcoming calls, see who’s on the call, participate in the chat wall and, of course, call in from your iPhone – they’re all there providing a unique mobile smartphone conference call experience. iotum CEO Alec Saunders provides more details in his post “CalliFlower on iPhone releases” where he states:
And Calliflower on iPhone – well, let me just say that you’re going to love it. We’ve remained faithful to the Calliflower experience on the web, while taking full advantage of the iPhone experience giving you the hands down BEST mobile conferencing experience ever. Here’s a few examples of what I mean.
Check out my Web Worker Daily post and Alec’s full description of CalliFlower for iPhone. Also note that CATA makes Calliflower available to 28,500 members. If you have not signed up for the service, give it a try.
Full disclosure: the author is a user of the service for a non-blogging related project with great success. I call in to CalliFlower calls via SkypeOut.
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 The most recent hotfix release of Skype for Windows 4 Beta 3 had one key new feature:
- feature: Super Wideband audio codec
The associated Skype Garage post went on to say:
… Starting from this version we’ve included the new Super Wideband Audio codec. This is our second in-house built audio codec especially designed for calls over the internet with superb quality. The Super Wideband Audio codec will help you most on lousy network conditions and when you have lower bandwidth available, although it also improves quality in normal conditions too.
Today Skype for Windows 4.0 Gold release will now allow the entire Skype for Windows user community to take advantage of the SILK codec’s features.
SILK is basically a significant improvement on Skype’s previously acclaimed HD Voice performance. I have now experienced a couple of calls where this SILK codec was available at both ends of the call; it certainly provides a clearer, crisper audio experience. (For those unfamiliar with the term “codec” they are algorithms engineered into the voice communications network for converting audio waveforms into digital streams for transmission over the communications network and then converting them back to an audio waveform at the receiving end.)
Last week I had the opportunity to interview Jonathan Christensen , Skype’s GM for Media Platform to learn more details about this “SILK” codec. This codec is the outcome of a three year development process with a focus on:
- improving the audio bandwidth out to 12,000 KHz
- providing bandwidth management to deal in real time with degraded network conditions
- balancing the codec optimization between voice, music and background noise, each of which can have an impact on the overall user experience
- overall robustness to provide a more consistent user experience, regardless of network conditions and an individual caller’s voice signature.
While the human ear can hear sounds up to 22 KHz the actual sound produced by human vocal chords has a frequency range of 20 Hz to 14 KHz; however, sounds below 70Hz are not what you would call “pleasant” (as experienced with those “thump, thump” car speakers). Skype’s SILK codec is optimized for the transmission of audio between 70 Hz and 12 KHz. Compare this to the bandwidth of the PSTN’s standard G711 codec of 400 Hz to 3.4KHz; wider band codecs, such as AMR-WB and iSAC cover the range of 50 Hz to 7 or 8 KHz respectively. And, as indicated in both the AMR-WB and iSAC Wikipedia entries, there is a major licensing cost consideration:
AMR-WB has been standardized by a mobile phone manufacturer consortium for future usage in networks such as UMTS. Although its speech quality (similar to Skype, including glitches) makes it likely that older networks will have to gradually be transformed to support wide band, its high legal costs may limit its uptake.
However, in order to deliver on this audio bandwidth, Skype also had to consider getting the voice stream across the Internet. SILK interacts with Skype’s redeveloped (network) bandwidth manager that uses a feedback algorithm to provide “adaptive bandwidth management”. SILK is a “variable bitrate” codec that can scale the bitrate (amount of data being transmitted as voice packets) up and down as necessary. The key network parameters governing this adaptation are packet loss and jitter changes. Fundamentally, to the end user, this means incorporating a level of call robustness that results in improved consistency of call quality, especially for lower speed Internet connections (below 3Mbps) with no user intervention required.
Another factor to be considered are accommodations for differences in perception of audio quality depending on whether there is voice, music or random background noise involved in the audio signal. Suffice it to say that Skype’s engineers have been involved in a balancing act amongst these factors in the development of the SILK codec.
The bottom line is that Skype has set new barriers for voice call quality and and the associated user experience. Since there needs to be SILK at both ends of a call, the number of calls I have experienced with SILK has been limited but, as mentioned above, those I have made had a very crisp, clear audio quality. With Skype’s launch today of Skype for Windows 4 Gold release almost all my Skype-to-Skype calls will be able to achieve this performance level. Going forward expect to see SILK incorporated into Skype for Mac in the near future. But the the SILK codec has been modularly designed for embedding into silicon; we can expect future Skype-enabled hardware platforms to be able to take advantage of SILK’s performance.
And finally note that, in order to keep costs low while improving call quality, Skype has no licensing costs associated with their proprietary codec. Is there a potential for a new Skype revenue stream by licensing this codec to other communications service providers as well as hardware vendors?
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Over the past eight months 1.2 million Skype users have participated in the Skype for Windows 4.0 beta program (stage 1, stage 2, stage 3). During this beta period, not only current user feedback was sought but also feedback from new users installing Skype for the first time. The goal was to provide a user interface that was more intuitive while encouraging users to go beyond simply voice calls to experience and use chat and video conversations. Today Skype is announcing the Gold release of Skype 4.0 for Windows. From the download page:
We’ve built this brand new Skype so you can have the conversations that make a difference to you, every day. It’s easy to use, plus step-by-step guides help you get started.
While most of the new features have been revealed during the beta period, Skype’s marketing will focus on three key features:
 New user interface; with over 25% of Skype-to-Skype calls involving video this new release has been designed with a focus on improving the video call user experience.- Improved call quality: Skype 4.0 for Windows incorporates Skype’s new SILK codec whose features are discussed in a separate post today. Bottom line is a crisp, crystal clear audio experience, yet only half the network bandwidth of other codecs is required to support a voice call.
- Bandwidth management: a new bandwidth manager has been developed with the goal of improving overall call performance by adapting, in real time, to degraded or low speed network conditions, such as those caused by excessive packet loss and/or jitter.
The new user interface also has taken into account factors that encourage users to explore Skype beyond voice calling. Incorporating beta user feedback Skype has found that the new UI is driving up adoption rates for Instant Messaging, file transfer and video. When you open a contact window launching a voice, chat or video conversation requires a single click on the respective voice (“Call”), chat or video button. The associated text pane tracks not only chat messages but also voice and video call detail information (launch time, end time) as well as file transfer information. And, as in the past with chat, the entire record is all archived on your local PC for future recall.
 Other features: You can choose to view your Skype activity in one larger window or in individual “conversation” windows. During a call a drop down menu on the “call audio control bar” provides quick access to making any necessary audio or video settings. Single click buttons allow you to quickly change or add conversation modes to adapt to the context of the conversation. A wizard provides assistance with testing audio and video settings. During their testing they found that these features drove new users to more quickly experience chat and video while there was an increase in usage of these modes by legacy users.
On-the-fly the bandwidth manager can adjust both video and audio transmission by making real time adjustments to parameters such as video resolution, frames-per-second or audio bandwidth. to ensure an ability to maintain a basic level of communication while enduring these conditions. When combined with SILK’s reduced network bandwidth requirements, the overall goal is to improve the overall user experience with minimum or no user intervention required.
Two changes;
- The SkypeMe! status button has been removed as a result of its tendency to be used for spamming and other forms of unwanted calls. (Of course you also still have the option to only allow callers in your Contact list to call you.). Along with this Skype has introduced “abuse reporting” which is monitored by Skype personnel for dealing with undesirable calling activity.
- While you can still participate in Public Chat sessions launched or joined from Skype 3.8, there is still no ability to launch or join a Public Chat from Skype 4.0 for Windows. This is my primary complaint about the new user interface. We have had a Skype 4.x Public Chat discussion ongoing since May, 2007; it has provided an interesting dialogue amongst Skype users and Skype personnel, including some feedback on features in Skype 4.0. And it has supported many other informal “water fountain” conversations amongst special interest communities of Skype users. Skype for Windows Product Manager Mike Bartlett
 claimed yesterday, during an interview, that Skype was reviewing how to embark on “public conversations” in today’s messaging world where services such as Twitter and Friend Feed also provide ongoing dialogues. However, Skype Public Chat has its own “space” in terms of user community; it needs to be brought back as soon as possible.
Over the next few weeks, with more experience using Skype 4.0 for Windows we may cover some features in more detail. In the meantime you can download it here. We look forward your feedback in the Comments.
 Yesterday Skype went past 16 million concurrent users around 1830 GMT. It will be interesting to monitor both the concurrent user number and Hudson Barton’s “real user” indicator as Skype 4.0 for Windows installations grow over the next couple of weeks..
Of course, the best news is that Skype-to-Skype calls (including multi-party calls), chat and video calling remain free. And there are calling plan subscriptions available for low cost calling to landlines worldwide.
From the Release Notes:
- feature: New style when copying and pasting text in an instant message (text quoting)
- featue: Video Call in separate window
- improvement: Skype now creates thumbnails of display pictures
- change: Get more ringtones and custom sounds link removed from options panel
- change: Removed display bandwidth usage option
- change: Dial pad will be opened automatically on call to landlines or mobiles
- change: Increased minimum window size in compact mode
Other Posts:
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 … your partner fails to provide an obvious path to download and install your software.
In early July last year I wrote about the launch of Dell Video Chat, based on a newly announced agreement between Dell and SightSpeed to use SightSpeed’s video services. The bottom line was that Dell Video Chat would become available on an expanding range of Dell PC’s.What follows is a story about what turns users away from Windows PC’s and why Apple is doing so well with its iMac’s and MacBooks these days. But it also has to be an embarrassment to Dell.
As background I should say that recently I have watched as two non-tech persons have started up their MacBooks for the first time. Turn it on, asks for your name and contact information, upgrades the software, takes your photograph with the built-in webcam, finds the WiFi, connects to the Internet (and finds other PC’s on your LAN). In about 20 to 30 minutes you’re up and running. No hassles, no new software to install; it just happens!. And subsequently these people do not come back to me for technical support, especially on security, operating system upgrade and new software installation issues.
This weekend I am helping an acquaintance getting transitioned to a new Dell Vostro 220 desktop PC. Due to one critical business application that only supports a Windows installation this person could not change to a Mac. In the course of starting it up I found there was a webcam embedded onto the monitor and installed the appropriate webcam software. (No, Dell did not pre-install it even though a monitor with embedded webcam was included in the initial order.) Ran a client called Dell Webcam Central. You could take photos or record video while seated in front of the monitor.
 Then I noticed in the upper right hand corner an option to “Switch to video chat”. Recalling that I had written about Dell Video Chat last summer I clicked on the link. And got a dialogue box stating: “You have not installed the video chat application ‘Dell Video Chat’. Do you want to download now?” Clicked on the “Yes” button.
This took me to a Dell web page that asked for my Dell Service Tag. Entered it and ended up on the standard page of driver downloads for the Vostro PC. Looked through the various categories (after identifying my OS as Windows XP) and could not find Dell Video Chat software anywhere. No application downloads. Nothing about it listed in a sidebar on the same page. Nada, Did a search. No luck.
So, at this point, not being sure if I had installed Dell’s webcam software properly I installed Skype on this PC and found it recognized my webcam, including its associated microphone, with no problem. Dell had failed to provide any means (let alone a user-friendly means) to download and install the Dell Video Chat software.
Sort of defeats the purpose of having this SightSpeed-Dell agreement and the associated easy access to the relevant software somehow. It actually turned out to be easier for me to download and install Skype (and have ready access to voice and/or chat conversations with the huge Skype user base).
A couple of points made in posts since my initial one about the arrangement between Dell and SightSpeed have happened since last summer:
Aside from Dell’s obvious quality assurance problem described above, the sceptic in me might ask:
- Did Logitech’s acquisition of SightSpeed somehow sour the Dell relationship with SightSpeed
- If it’s all but impossible for a somewhat technically savvy person to find and install Dell Video Chat, is there any Dell Video Chat user registered out there with whom a user could have a conversation?
- Has SightSpeed been tracking any metrics on Dell Video Chat adoption?
- Is there an opportunity here for Skype to leverage a Skype executive’s previous relationship with a current Dell executive to initiate discussions about having Dell provide Skype with all its PC’s?
- Will “Skype Everywhere” include Dell PC users when they want to hold voice, chat and video conversations simply by default? “No biz dev required.”
Just wondering …..Where’s the value in a Dell partnership? It’s all about execution!
In spite of being a 14-year purchaser of Dell PC’s, it’s one more nail in the Dell/Microsoft coffin as I contemplate a transition to a MacBook for my next laptop purchase.
And, in case anyone was wondering about what Steve Jobs brought to the table at Apple: a discipline within Apple’s corporate culture that focuses on a friction-free and overwhelmingly successful user experience. In spite of Steve’s current absence that corporate culture is not going away anytime soon.
Phil’s Observations:
SightSpeed’s CEO Peter Csathy:
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Josh Silverman joined Skype as President early in the spring of 2008; since then he has been reviewing Skype’s opportunities and building a team of experienced executives who can bring to Skype the products, programs and team building expertise required to operate a business with a run rate of $600MM per year, 20% contribution margins to eBay and growing at 380,000 new account registrations per day (with “real user” growth also increasing significantly).
 Summarizing the past executive appointment announcements we can clearly start to see the evolution of a business structure, along with each unit’s responsibilities:
During our interview at CES 2009 with Skype COO Scott Durschlag, he outlined details of his restructuring of Skype’s Operations team along two axes: product and geography under the mantra of providing “Skype Everywhere”.
Global product offerings will encompass three divisions: consumer, business and mobile, each responsible for developing products. Each of these groups will be interacting with members of CTO Daniel Berg’s technology teams to convert their technology developments into marketable global product offerings and to adapt the technology to meet product marketing needs.
- Consumer will involve the current Skype client desktop offerings along with hardware, such as Skype phones.
- Business starts with the current Skype Business Control Panel but intends to expand well beyond this starting point into a range of offerings, such as Skype for Asterisk and the recently announced IBM LotusLive developments, addressing the small-to-medium business market.
- Mobile involves current products such as Skype for Windows Mobile, Skypephone (in conjunction with iSkoot), the recently launched Skype Lite (including Skype for Android) as well as any upcoming offerings for the iPhone and BlackBerry
In addition each of these divisions will be responsible for developing appropriate customer care and support programs appropriate to market demands. For instance, the business unit will come up with ongoing support programs relevant to supporting sustainable business operations of its products’ users. Ideally these programs would follow the model of Red Hat for Linux or Digium for Asterisk and build up a network of resellers and VARS who would provide relevant and timely end user support. While Dan Berg’s technology team will be responsible for third party developer partner support, an additional challenge for the Business products group will be to assist with marketing of business applications offered by these developer partners.
While Skype veteran Stefan Oberg is heading up the Business unit, announcements re appointments to head up Consumer and Mobile are pending.
Along the geography axis is a recognition that, while the Products divisions have a global mandate, there are different market needs within different regions of the world. For instance, in many Asian market wireless carriers do not subsidize mobile phones as is the North American practice. This requires a differentiated approach to these markets with respect to how easily innovations, especially around reduced calling costs, can be introduced to these markets.
The geographical market responsibilities are:
- Americas: Don Albert becomes General Manager, Americas. Don has had North America responsibility for a couple of years and will now be responsible for both North and South America. With respect to the latter he is looking forward to building on all the Skype activity in Brazil, for instance. (And, yes, once again at CES Don was made aware we are awaiting SkypeIn and a Skype Store for Canada)
- Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA): appointment pending
- Asia/Pacific: Yesterday we saw an announcement of the appointment of Dan Neary as General Manager, Skype Asia Pacific. One of Dan’s initial responsibilities will be to build and monitor closer relationships with partners such as TOMSkype to avoid embarrassments such as that created by the TOM Skype privacy breach we have reported on last fall.
Outstanding executive appointments are expected shortly; at this point it’s becoming all about execution. The next six months will tell the story.
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 A year ago August IBM’s Lotus Sametime Division announced the acquisition of Skype Partner Webdialogs to obtain their widely respected Unyte Desktop Sharing collaboration technology. About four months later we learned, from Lou Guercia, Lotus SameTime’s Director of Operations and Strategy, more about Unyte’s integration into the Lotus SameTime offerings. In that post on Lou’s presentation I asked:
Question: with IBM pursuing excellence on a service that comprises voice, video, chat and file transfer in a secure, encrypted environment, and with the stated goals of “working with their partners”, would this not result in a situation where IBM would be licensing Skype technology to provide a comprehensive real time multi-media communications infrastructure?
With announcements this week, including some at IBM’s annual Lotusphere 2009 event in Orlando, FL, it seems like that question is starting to get some answers..
Yesterday IBM announced “A Strong Fourth Quarter, a rarity these days“. ZDNet’s Dennis Howlett, in Can IBM sustain its momentum, goes on to provide some background, pointing out that most of IBM’s growth is occurring in its software division. Certainly IBM sees its Lotus Sametime division as a key to sustaining their momentum. Except it appears that IBM has reorganized their SameTime collaborative services into “a cloud-based porfolio of social networking and collaboration services designed for business” under a new name: LotusLive.
In a press release this past Monday, in conjunction with IBM’s annual Lotusphere event, Skype announced:
…. it will integrate Skype™ functionality with LotusLive (www.lotuslive.com), IBM’s new cloud services which are designed to help individuals build communities to work smarter, more effectively and more efficiently across and beyond their own companies. Skype’s voice and video calling will add rich, real-time communications capabilities to LotusLive, making it even easier for enterprises to collaborate in the cloud.
 At Lotusphere 2009, IBM demonstrated the new Skype integration into LotusLive Engage, “an integrated suite of tools that combines your network [of contacts] with Web conferencing and collaboration capabilities like file storing and sharing, instant messaging and chart creation.”
 Today we interviewed Peter Kalmstrom, Skype’s Program Manager for Toolbars, who had been attending Lotusphere to assist with the demonstrations. Peter made several points:
- This announcement covers only the first step of what will be a series of Skype integrations into the LotusLive offerings.
- The integration into LotusLive Engage is targeted at “businesses looking to collaborate inside and outside the organization to easily expand their networks…” In other words for businesses that need to include, say, sub-contractors, third party consultants, suppliers and buyers within their business operation processes.
- Within a LotusLive Engage contact profile, “Skype” fields have been added such that when a user clicks on a a name to bring up a profile card, the user can launch a Skype conversation and transfer files with a single click.
- The only additional requirement for engaging in a Skype conversation is that the initiating user must have a Skype client open.
- In addition to Skype-to-Skype calls, SkypeOut calls can also be made.
- Where several contact profile cards have been opened, a user can launch a Skype multi-party call to host a conferencing session.
- Due to the nature of LotusLive Engage’s web architecture, the resulting Skype access is cross-platform; it does NOT require that the user have a Skype web (FF or IE) toolbar installed.
- A session can then also launch a Lotus Web Meeting (also known as a Lotus SameTime Unyte meeting).
Sounds like the Lotusphere demonstrations got the brainstorming going between Skype and IBM. In a concluding statement Peter said:
“We are enthusiastic about the partnership with IBM and we see a lot of areas where we can collaborate and help each other improve our services. We met with a series of executives at IBM during Lotusphere and the general feeling was highly positive.”
At the same time IBM announced Salesforce.com and LinkedIn integration into their LotusLive services. Andy at VoIP Watch comments on the competitive “collaboration and communications” space where IBM LotusLive, Microsoft Office Live and Google Apps are the key players.
With the IBM offering, we are seeing one more example of “Skype Everywhere”, in this case, being embedded into an offering that is key to IBM’s future success in delivering cloud-based outsourced business services.
Phil will have some comments on the technical aspects of this integration along with where he feels there are “deeper” integration opportunities.
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 At CES 2009 COO Scott Durschlag spoke about “liquid communications” and “Skype Wherever, Whenever”. InnerPass has developed a business-class hosted document management system; they have been marketing it via private label to over 3000 businesses or project teams on several continents. Over the past year the InnerPass team has developed a Skype Extra application that introduces real time communications, and serves as an interface, into this system. From their website:
InnerPass helps companies control their business critical files from anywhere and anytime. Our applications are delivered thru various Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings that are entirely web-based. InnerPass primarily offers its applications to end users through a network of partners who can private label and embed the software service into their own solutions or provide as a stand alone service.
 InnerPass starts out its communications enhanced service, called InnerPass Share and Collaborate, by building persistent document “meeting rooms” that store mission critical documents such as FDA filings, engineering and architectural drawings, legal agreements, real estate papers and other business documents which require:
- access across a geographically dispersed team of project stakeholders
- persistent storage for asynchronous 24/7/365 access
- version management
amongst other features. InnerPass has taken their document management service experience and gone a step further to support file sharing, collaboration and real time communications. They embed, within their own Skype Extra client, the ability to launch and hold real time voice and/or chat conversations, whether informal ad hoc sessions or scheduled conference calls, to discuss the underlying projects, sales meetings or other business team activity.
Using InnerPass Share and Collaborate, a user can set up a “meeting room”, store documents, launch conversations and share a designated screen for presentations or demonstrations. The room’s host can designate and invite team members from amongst his/her Skype contact list, grant permission to their team members to contribute or modify room content. From anywhere in the client, any team member has the ability to schedule and launch conference calls or group chats using the integrated Skype services.
InnerPass offers four levels of their collaboration service. A free service supports up to 5 meeting rooms with a maximum of 5 participants and 15 days of file storage. Offering perpetual file storage, the Professional Plan at $4.95/month supports 10 meeting rooms and up to 10 participants in each. The Workgroup plan, at $12.95/month, allows up to 20 rooms and 20 people per room. Their last plan, launching in March, is designed for the SMB (Small to Medium Size Business) will offer additional features including access to their hosted full document management service.
Over the past few weeks I have experienced a few sessions using InnerPass; the InnerPass team has been very responsive to suggestions made for improvements, especially with respect to some speed issues that are now resolved. It now works reliably with both Skype 3.8 (still Skype’s latest release for general use) and Skype 4.0 Beta 3.
Since obtaining Skype Certification and its subsequent launch last fall, InnerPass has registered over 270,000 users (as shown in the graphic) growing virally amongst Skype users with little publicity. You can download via Tools | Do More | Get Skype Extras using Skype 3.8 or Tools | Extras | Get Skype Extras under Skype 4.0 for Windows beta 3. Normally it should show up as “InnerPass Share and Collaborate” under the “Sharing” category but until a bug is resolved by the Skype Extras team, you may find it as “Share, Collaborate, Communicate”.
InnerPass CEO Steve Parsloe has written a more detailed post for Skype’s Autumn 2008 Developer Newsletter. And in early December Steve along with his colleague Bill Trail, Vice-President, Business Development discussed InnerPass as a guest on SquawkBox.
As mentioned at the beginning, InnerPass’s Share and Collaborate service is a representative example of making Skype available anywhere there is an opportunity to benefit from real time conversations. Skype has enabled InnerPass to offer real time conversations to virtual meeting rooms incorporating file and desktop (or screen) sharing. And it brings large enterprise services down to a cost level such that any individual, mobile professional or small business can afford to benefit from a collaborative document management service.
Tags: InnerPass, Skype Extras, collaboration, file sharing, Skype, Steve Parsloe
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The U.S. cell phone industry is asking its customers to only text during the inauguration ceremonies tomorrow. From the New York Times:
The largest cellphone carriers, fearful that a communicative citizenry will overwhelm their networks, have taken the unusual step of asking people to limit their phone calls and to delay sending photos. The carriers are also spending millions of dollars to temporarily and substantially upgrade their networks in Washington.
And the article goes on to request that customers delay sending photographs; they warn of delayed text messages and difficulty getting onto the (mobile) Internet.
But then all weekend I have heard CNN wanting to try out some “new technology” asking that as many of their “viewers” as possible send in photographs of “The Moment”. so that they can do a mass (Microsoft) Photosynth montage. Is this a recipe for Atlantic seaboard wireless network meltdown at noon Tuesday (EST or GMT-5)?
James Kendrick talks about his problems in San Francisco with AT&T; I experienced similar problems roaming on AT&T in Las Vegas at CES 2009 and in California back in September. At CES this was resolved only by setting my BlackBerry Bold to use just the “2G” network on the advice of an employee of a company who really would know; that tip resulted in a more stable and reliable operation. For those U.S. friends who want to experience a robust, reliable 3G GSM/HSDPA network, I invite you to move to Canada to be on Rogers. Rates may be a bit higher, but it’s always there, robust and reliable, in the advertised regions. Best proof: handling SlingPlayer for BlackBerry when driving along the 401 freeway at 100 km/hour.
Finally, first test of Barack Obama’s ability to change the U.S. government bureaucracy? His ability (and his resolve) to keep at least one of his two BlackBerries. And to save embarrassment when he next drops his BlackBerry, I would have to recommend an Otterbox Defender case.
Let’s hope Barack’s team can sort out the U.S. wireless scene to foster robustness and reliability as well as real innovation once again.
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During our conversations with Skype COO Scott Durschlag last week at CES, Scott outlined Skype’ criteria for its software development going forward.
First was the emphasis on “liquid communications” through statements such as “Skype Whenever, Wherever”. Just as today you can pick up any PC or mobile platform and find all the Google Tools (Search, Maps, News, Reader, etc.). Skype wants to be on virtually any platform or device.
 Pick up a smartphone, find the Skype button. Turn on the TV, find a Skype button, have a conversation. Open a web browser; start a Skype session. All this to complement Skype on the desktop. Today, besides on the desktop, you can find Skype on over 200 mobile phone handsets, several (Sony) mobile devices, Skypephone and Apple TV. But Scott emphasized, this is only the beginning. It will only start to get real when we see Skype on higher profile devices such as the iPhone and BlackBerry or when we start to see Skype seriously back into the hardware device business with vendors such as Philips and iPevo.
Then Scott outlined four benchmark criteria that every implementation of a Skype on any platform or device must meet:
- High call quality
- Simple and easy user interface
- Consideration for battery life
- Security
Last week’s hotfix upgrade of Skype for Windows 4 beta 3 included the first implementation of Skype’s three year effort to develop the SILK codec, increasing the audio bandwidth to 12 KHz while effectively reducing the Internet bandwidth consumed during a Skype call.
A key reason for Skype’s rapid and widespread adoption has been associated with its ease-of-use. Yet Scott says the Skype conversation user experience needs to be even easier to encourage adoption by a broader user base. Developing a more effective user interface has certainly been a focus of the Skype for Windows 4 beta program. At the Skype CES press conference Scott reported that, in a recent survey of users, 88% preferred the new UI to the previous Skype for Windows 3.8. But I’m still wondering if the Skype for Windows team could take a look at Skype for Mac and implement a “drawer” type interface to manage and select the active conversation. For the longer term evolution of Skype clients hopefully Skype also has a look at Dan York’s post on Skype’s fragmented product strategy.
Battery life on smartphones was a key issue that prevented Truphone, who uses a native VoIP client for calls over WiFi, from launching a native VoIP smartphone client running over 3G networks. Instead they launched Truphone Anywhere that takes advantage of the underlying network 3G GSM voice channel and uses the data channel to set up a call via a server that, in turn, sets up a VoIP client. That voice channel tends to make much less use of the device battery than a constantly compressing/decompressing VoIP client that devours the underlying processor activity. Addressing the battery life issue is a major reason why we see Skype using a similar calling architecture when launching the Skype Lite Java client on over 100 Java-enabled cell phones, including those based on Google Android.
Security is an issue that I’ll leave to Dan York and others who are able to cover this issue more knowledgeably and effectively. Suffice it to say that we would expect security to continue to be a feature of all Skype products, including those that use the mobile voice channel for placing calls from mobile phones.
Two take-aways from these statements:
- Fundamentally we should expect Skype, going forward, to be a provider of real time conversation-enabling software on desktop, web, TV and mobile platforms. To use an old telegraphy term: Full Stop! For instance, rather than developing their own social network, we should expect Skype to seek out agreements with other social network service providers, such as the MySpace agreement. Skype is an enabler of real time conversations; it is not in the community building or social networking business. Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, amongst others have already captured that space and done an excellent job at it.
- These benchmarks also provide a basis not only for deciding what product offerings Skype will develop but also when they are in a position to release a product.
The new Skype executive team is finally starting to set some benchmarks and guidelines against which we can not only measure executed performance but also have a better understanding of where Skype wants to go.
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There’s a “new sheriff in town” when it come to running Skype; CES 2009 was a “coming out” event for the new executive team.
CES 2009 provided an opportunity to catch up personally with many of the vendors we have covered in Skype Journal including Skype, Truphone, SlingMedia, Philips and Research in Motion (BlackBerry). I also had a chance to attend a most informative afternoon session of Jeff Pulver’s Social Meia Jungle event. Unfortunately Palm closed their suite after only two days of CES; thus, I missed an opportunity to learn more about the Palm Pre on Saturday. As Palm had just been awarded a CES “Best of Show” award, that was a “Huh?” moment when there was only a security guard at the suite’s door.. I also wanted to catch iPevo and Nokia but did not have time to get to their booths.
With respect to Skype we had three activities: the Skype press conference, an interview with new COO Scott Durschlag and Skype’s first reception event Friday evening. It was our first opportunity to observe the new Skype executive team in action. While I will be providing some more detailed posts, here are a few observations:
- For the first time, a senior C-level Skype executive personally acknowledged Skype Journal’s participation as a playing a significant role in the Skype ecosystem. Scott thanked us for our loyalty to Skype through all the challenges of the past two years. (That does not mean we’ll always be cheerleaders; it’s important that we maintain a skeptical and critical viewpoint within the context of the overall IP-based communications space.)
While we have had co-operation in the past, usually via Skype’s public relations agency, from many Skype employees at an operating level, it’s important for the media to be able to communicate regularly and openly with those at the C-level who are providing overall direction and developing high level strategy. Josh has initiated such openness through his blogging and interviews; now we are seeing it on a person-to-person basis.
- On the other hand many times, last week in both the press conference and our discussions, Scott acknowledged the existence of several previous controversial issues, such as technical support, platform development, the role of partners and internal management structure issues as requiring attention by the new management team. The newly recruited management team will be introducing a new level of experience and maturity to address these issues; execution over the next few months now becomes critical.
- One future post will cover Skype’s new operating and management structure focused on products and geographical markets.
- Another will cover Skype’s overall focus as a software platform developer and the standards being set for these developments. Within this context I’ll provide my perspective on what is meant by “liquid communications”.
- We’ll soon have a follow up post about our discussion with Scott of what Skype’s new executive team learned from the TOM-Skype privacy breach last fall and how it became a bonding exercise within Skype as well as establishing some new operating parameters to avoid a repeat.
- Skype is NOT shoving its partners under the bus. The new executive team is determining what innovation Skype will drive and what innovation they can expect partners to drive. Andy Abramson articulates his perspective on the issue:
Most of all, Skype is not sitting back. The are pushing the envelope, but at the same time sending mixed messages externally to partners and developers. But that too will change. Some recent hires have brought maturity to the table.
- We learned the answer to “Will There Be a Skype Client on the iPhone?”
- Finally, for the first time since I have been writing about Skype, we can see some well-articulated high level vision for where Skype is heading, where they need to focus and how they want to play in the real time communications market space at a strategic level.
Looking forward to writing about the evolution of Skype as it grows from a $500MM per year operation with 500 employees into a business with a revenue level and valuation that finally justifies eBay’s initial investment in Skype.
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At a Skype’s CES 2009 press conference today recently appointed COO Scott Durschlag provided the first hints of a vision statement for Skype under its new executive team along with some initial software offerings that hint at the direction Skype is taking towards “liquid communications” or “Skype Whenever, Wherever”.
 In leading up to the new software announcements, Scott made a few points about Skype’s recent accomplishments and focus going forward:
- Skype now delivers 8% of the world’s telecom minutes through clients that now support 28 languages
- New software will drive a liquid experience on the desktop, web, TV and mobile devices
- A key goal is to liberate the Skype experience from a captive device (desktop) to more user aware devices (mobile, TV as well as embedded into appliances)
- 41% of Skype calls on Christmas day involved video, only to be surpassed at 47% on New Years day.
- New software offerings have to pass a bar of four basic criteria:
- high call quality
- super simple user interface
- sensitivity to power management issues
- security
He then went on to talk about new software offerings:
- New desktop clients: Skype for Mac 2.8 (launched as beta at Mac World Monday), Skype for Windows 4.0 (with a February release date)
 Release of Skype Lite, a thin client for Java-enabled mobile phones with Skype for Android to be available within a few days on Android Market on T-Mobile’s G1TM and Skype Lite general availability in the U.S. (in addition to several countries previously announced) resulting in Skype availability on over 100 mobile smartphones.- Internally developed new Skype “SILK” audio codec which is twice as efficient with respect to bandwidth requirements for the audio and video experience.
- Skype for Mobile Internet Devices with a demonstration on a couple of MID platforms. (Update: access download information here.)
- Skype for Mac 3.0 to be available by year end with the feature set of Skype 4.0 for Windows.
This afternoon Phil and I spent an hour with Scott discussing the restructuring, support issues, the TOM Skype Breach and how Skype will work with its developer partners to provide a win-win direction for the development and marketing of partner applications. These topics will be the subject of future posts over the next week.
First impression: it’s the first event where a senior Skype executive has provided in a public forum an outline of its vision, guidelines for achieving that vision and how it wants to work in the real time communication and IP-based conversation space. The real challenge now lies in the execution.
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This morning Skype released a hotfix upgrade for Skype for Windows 4.0 beta 3 bringing in several new features but most significant is the introduction of a new “super wideband Audio codec; from the Skype Garage blog post linked above:
This is our second in-house built audio codec especially designed for calls over the internet with superb quality. The Super Wideband Audio codec will help you most on lousy network conditions and when you have lower bandwidth available, although it also improves quality in normal conditions too.
In the Skype 4.x Discussion Public Chat Raul Liive goes on to say: “it’s superior over SVOPC in every usage area, but it comes best out in the low bw or loose internet conenction cases”. However, the legacy SVOPC codec remains available to address backward compatibility requirements.
Other new features include;
- MySpaceIM with Skype (functionality carried over from 3.8)
- Option to disable uPnP and Nat-PMP
- eBay browser highlighter bundled
- Added Philips SPC 1330 NC as High Quality Video camera
along with an improvement in the Instant Messaging layout and numerous bug fixes listed in the release notes.
As I am at CES where my laptop still has the last released version 3.8 of Skype for Windows in order to access features such as Public Chat creation, I will not be able to try this hotfix out until I return home this weekend (where my desktop has the 4.0 beta 3). But if you have a PC running the beta version, it’s definitely worth checking out this hotfix. I am curious to see if they also fixed the “flashing technical call info” problem.
Obviously feedback about :”hidden mysteries” should go back to Skype’s forum for reporting issues; however, if you have experience with the new codec, tell us about it in the Comments.
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At MacWorld’s Showstoppers event this evening Skype announced Skype for Mac 2.8 beta, with two major new features as well as several minor ones.
Screen Sharing
The most impressive feature is a form of basic screen sharing. Either a segment of your screen or the full screen is converted into a virtual webcam such that the screen can be viewed in any Skype client via the Skype video channel. While only a Mac can currently be a source for this screen sharing it can be viewed on any Windows, Mac or Linux client as video.
Skype for Mac’s screen sharing feature is sufficient to support discussion issues as a complement to a voice and/or chat conversation; it is NOT by any means a replacement for fully featured desktop or application sharing offerings such as Yugma, InnerPass or IBM’s Lotus Sametime Unyte. It’s “just” screen sharing. In fact, it is one of two options on the Skype for Mac’s “Share” button, the other being file sharing/transfer.
Below is an example of a full screen image of a shared MacBook screen as seen in a detached Skype video window on my Windows laptop.
 Skype Access
The second major feature, Skype Access, provides WiFi access for your MacBook or MacBook Pro via any Boingo access point. While I’m told it has been tested at many of the over 100,000 Boingo hotspots worldwide, I could not get it to work at a local Canadian Starbucks listed as a Boingo hotspot location. But then, this is still beta (and the problem may be with Boingo’s interface with Bell Mobility).
More importantly is to look at the “use case” for Skype Access. Cost for using Skype Access over Boingo is US$0.22/€0.16/C$0.23 per minute using Skype credits.
Within a user’s home country, Skype Access is probably more expensive than local alternatives; this is certainly the case in Canada. However, I can see the value if I am outside the home country and wanting to make Skype/SkypeOut calls, check email or do some web browsing at airports, restaurants, coffee shops and other Boingo hotspots as an alternative to much higher cost roaming wireless calls (for instance roaming U.S. to Canada on Rogers runs at $1.75 per minute) or $40 per day Internet access charges at some European hotels.
With unlimited use Boingo subscriptions at $21.95/month for North America or $59/month Global, Skype Access is more appropriate for the occasional traveler as opposed to the hardened road warrior.
It reminds me of the use case for PamFax where you can send faxes directly from, say, your hotel room for about $0.20 per page while avoiding a hotel’s much higher $1.00/page charge for faxing. One other common feature between Skype Access and PamFax: both use Skype credits as the primary currency.
Other features in Skype for Mac 2.8 beta:
- Skype for Mac 2.8 continues the use of a “drawer” attached to a Skype chat window; from the list of active chat sessions shown in the drawer you can select which session you want to view. But now there are three levels of prioritization available for those chat sessions. In addition chats can be sorted by name or date/time.
- The process for adding contacts to a chat session now simply involves clicking the “Add a Contact” button and entering the added contact’s name.
- Your Contacts’ Mood Messages can be tracked via a “Mood Message” chat session. While this can currently only be initiated on Skype for Mac 2.8, your mood message chat session will show up as a chat session on, say, a Windows client logged into the same account. Neat for keeping up-to-date on mood message changes, especially when a mood message provides location or reference URL information; it provides a Twitter-like experience.
- Add notes to contacts: when you go into a Contact’s profile there is a separate tab for entering personal notes about that contact.
Dan York, with a lot more Skype for Mac experience than I have had (I just acquired a MacBook ten days ago), has provided a much more detailed review of all the new features He has also produced an excellent You Tube video for his Emerging Tech Talk series:
Skype for Mac 2.8 beta can be downloaded here January 6. Full Release Notes
Skype Posts: Share Skype Blog, Skype Garage Blog
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7 years and 2 days since Skype Journal launched as a stand-alone blog.
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David Pogue, New York Times: in addition to his column discussed here yesterday, he has produced an amusing video: Skype 4.0: The Cheapskate where a video starring Mr. Cheapskate shows a Skype video session with his daughter, Kim Cheapskate, obviously a student. But it also serves as a humorous introduction to Skype for Windows 4.0′s features.
Alec Saunders: Saunderslog.com: Skype 4.0 audio: smooth as SILK:
Join the Skype 6.X Text Chat Room