Verizon‘s Skype mobile apps for Android and Blackberry, tied to Verizon’s Wi-Fi, won’t roam internationally. The new Navoto GSM Gateway for Skype offers a way around this. The gateway connects your hometown wireless carrier to your on-the-road mobile phone.
Getting set up takes about ten minutes. Plug in the cables and install the software. Before your trip, take the SIM card from your mobile and put it into the gateway. When you arrive at your destination, get a local prepaid SIM and put it in your mobile phone. Then "pair" your new SIM by texting the gateway.
Once Navoto knows your new SIM, it starts to work. Calls to your mobile number at home are forwarded to you through a SkypeOut call.
You can make calls through Navoto’s ringback feature. Ping the gateway, it calls you using SkypeOut, you hear dialtone and make your call. You can also setup speed dial contacts to make it easy to reach phone numbers or a few of your Skype contacts.
Let’s look at the gear, in this case a prototype from a few months’ ago.
The front of the box has a slot for your local SIM card. By putting your mobile phone’s SIM card in the box, Navoto looks like your mobile phone to your wireless carrier.
You eject your SIM card poking a paper clip into a small hole.
The back of the box has (from left to right) a power jack, two RJ11 phone line jacks so you can keep your home phone connected, a USB port to connect to your home-town PC, and a connector for the GSM antenna.
The GSM antenna lets the box talk with your home-town wireless carrier.
The software running on your PC is a Skype plug-in, talking to your Skype desktop client. None of this works unless Skype for Windows is running.
The Navoto desktop software has many features.
Voice mail, call recording, voice messages, simple configurable IVR (phone menus), voicemails sent to your email account, SMS texting, and scheduled mode changes (home, work, offline, etc.).
Navoto Gateways are entering the distribution channel this week.
In my experience, the prototype gateway works as advertised.
However it is still very early for this product and I haven’t worked with final production versions of the software or the gear. Both the hardware and software are improving quickly in response to known bugs and feature requests. I experienced installation bugs with the email feature, for example. My version of the box, one of a handful of production tests, didn’t have final CE FCC certification, packaging, finish, labels, or documentation. I look forward to giving the finished product another look.
International calling is the largest (only?) growing telecom sector. Skypers called for more than twelve percent of all international minutes in 2009. Demand for cross-border calling is proven. How much is due to travel? How many billions of dollars does the international roaming market collect? Omri Navot aims to find out.
Similarly Russ Shaw yesterday killed the Skype Lite for Windows Mobile thin client and the Skype for Windows Mobile app. Shaw is Skype’s new VP/GM for its mobile business unit. Customer dissatisfaction with those products hurt Skype’s reputation as easy, reliable and sensual. It took fresh eyes and a clear mandate to kill Skype’s current offerings without a replacement ready. The user experience -– complaints of abysmal audio quality and improper hardware setup — hurt Skype’s business more than it helped.
Skype pulled these releases from distribution; if you have Skype installed on your Windows Mobile phone then you can Skype away all year.
Practicing product management sometimes feels like raising livestock. We have great hopes, spend time nurturing them, and get the most out of them during their productive life. When that productive life is over? Take them to the slaughterhouse and kill them. Make room for the next generation.
Skype’s mobile services are available on most handsets yet Skype is still just starting to partner deeply with mobile operators. While the product portfolio is diversified, Hutchison Whampoa’s 3 has been the only large carrier to seriously partner with Skype. Skype’s partnership with Verizon is a great start at diversifying mobile revenue partners and expanding United States distribution.
Cute 3-D Webcam from Minoru. For the friend who wants even more than Skype’s High Quality and considers 3D glasses the height of fashion. Cheerful, stereoscopic, and works wonderfully with Skype. Minoru videos on YouTube (and wear your 3D specs). Review. Amazon. $89/£50/€80.
Touch Screen Videophone from ASUS.The ASUS SV1TS gets the PC out of the way of Skype video. You drop it in the kitchen or living room, plug in the power cord, connect the Wi-Fi, touch the screen, and talk. Large, clear picture. Amazon. $230.
MXL AC-405 USB personal computer speakerphone.Absolutely the best audio quality anywhere near this price from Maxell, world experts in microphone engineering. The AC-405 shares technology with their high-end music and television studio microphones. Amazon. $55.
Freetalk Wireless Stereo Headset. Still one of the best for looks, quality, comfort and ruggedness. More than five hours of talk time and even then it works while recharging. I use it daily without tripping over cables. Review. Amazon.Skype store. $80.
Software: To Record and Share
Vodburnerrecords Skype video calls on Windows. The Vodburner Beta includes easy editing software (see screenshot below) that automatically switches the shot between the two of you depending on who is speaking. Publish meetings, interviews, and training sessions on the web. A subscription runs $9.95 (USD) monthly.
Pamela Professional Edition, the Skype Assistant. Proven software with built in voice mail, birthday reminders, and in-call sound effects. Like Vodburner, it records calls but without an audio or video editor. An all around utility kit for Windows Skype users. I’ve been using Pamela for many years. PamSoft. €19,95.
Hair: Kent White Bristle Hair Brushfor those stray hairs. (Ah, I remember the days when I had hair on the top of my head worth brushing.)
Inspection: Jerdon First Class Mirrorso you know you look good and bounce a little light your way. See yourself the way others see you.
Skin: Avon mark Cheat Sheet Shine-Blottersto remove oils from your face that shine in the light. (I always thought it was a reflection off my eyeglasses that blinded viewers, but it was the glare from my forehead. )
Wardrobe: Everyone looks better on camera in a clean, dark blue shirt: Soffe Men’s Base Layer Long Sleeve Crew Tee. White clothing creates glare and throws off your camera’s sensors. Keep a clean, dark and solid top by your desk for the unexpected Skype call.
This is IPEVO‘s best selling Skype phone in 2009. Be sure to upgrade the firmware for the latest version of Skype’s software.
Caveats: the SO-20 doesn’t come with a web browser; many Wi-Fi hotspots require you to log in before getting a connection. It doesn’t appear to import SkypeOut contacts.
IPEVO updated their IPEVO S0-10W desk phone (pronounced "solo") with Skype inside. Wi-Fi adapter is now included (so you only need a power cable), the handset is now black like the rest of the unit instead of a contrasting white, and the price is down 36% to $109.99 from $169.99. More for less.
It’s really pretty. Ipevo’s been making the classiest Skype phones for years. Every edge, button, and cable has a designer’s elegance and an engineer’s usability. You’ll look good on a budget.
The audio is clear. Not music quality in either handset speaker and microphone or the hands-free speaker. But as clear as any off the shelf PSTN phone. Even better, other software doesn’t consume CPU or disk Skype needs, so audio quality is consistent.
The buttons and control layout are big and easy to use. It’s nice to just reach over dial a number when you have to. Or scroll down and pick a name.
No PC required. So I can put this in any room in the house.
Things I don’t like:
Audio quality is limited to old CODECs, so you don’t get High Quality audio from Skype’s SILK codec.
Skype’s built in software is clunky and awkward, far from Skype’s more elegant and engaging software for Mac, Windows, and iPhone. It represents Skype’s first efforts around 2006-2007 to design compact user interfaces for devices.
Some simple tasks can be difficult. Scrolling to find someone’s name in a long list can take a very long time. Adding a contact takes many steps and is unforgiving.
No more than 500 contacts. No big deal for most people. But you can cross that limit if your company is on Skype, or you import your Google contacts, or you are the editor of Skype Journal.
It spontaneously logs out from the Skype network. Darned software leaves you back at the sign in form. It does not remember my Skype login, so I have to rekey it each time. Because it may be logged off from Skype, I can’t rely on it ringing when someone Skypes me.
Cable still required for handset. Cordless phones, handsets and headsets rock.
Firmware not automatically updated.
Skype hasn’t issued a major refresh for embedded software in a while. The average Skype phone won’t be much smarter until the design aesthetic used in Skype’s Mac and MID products finds its way into the embedded codebase.
Bottom line: This is a useful PC-free Skype desk phone. The addition of Wi-Fi and the lower price makes this a reasonable deal.
eBay’s post-Whitman management gets credit for doing something right. Staffing the right executives in 2008. Letting the new leaders turn the startup into a company worth selling. Sending the right signals to potential buyers. Getting the deal done. Not rewarding the founders for their Joltid extortion. Nice way to turn things around!
Skype will fund its own expansion. Don’t expect cash infusions for acquisitions, infrastructure, labor intensive services, or advertising. Skype has been producing more than $10 million monthly in free cash. Skype’s roadmap will chew up all of it just for internal growth and to create cash reserves.
Skype will keep its overall direction and product strategy. Skype doesn’t need to rethink its business anytime soon.
The SEC pipeline of data will be gone. eBay’s 2009q3 10Q report (coming this October) may be the last detailed reporting of Skype operations and finances ever. Privately owned companies need not report performance unless they float stock.
Five product changes I expect from Skype in the next year.
Better P2P. Skype will first deploy a simple functional replacement of the Joltid P2P engine. They will improve it, building in six years’ of real world experience Joltid never had. Skype should be able to make its P2P network more resistant to Internet outages and blocking, more resilient in the face of damage to the peer fabric, more efficient in finding and routing connections between users.
Better video. Perhaps their own video codecs. Higher resolution video as cameras and PCs catch up. Multiparty video calls. Better use of processors, including video digital signal processors.
Skype Inside. A clearer platforming strategy, building on their experience with Skype Lite (clouds of Skype supporting thin, mobile Skype clients) and Skype For Asterisk (adding UI-free Skype clients to someone else’s servers). Think "Communications as a Platform," where you can build Skype messaging, presence, and calling into mobile, desktop, and server applications.
ID anguish. Skype has an immature user identity model, left over from instant messaging services in the mid 1990s. We’ll see greater conflict between Skype’s two identity systems. Skype’s consumer and corporate Skype names (user IDs) aren’t interchangeable although their users and markets overlap.
A little less anti-social. Skype’s great at talking with people you know. It does nothing to help me find interesting, entertaining, or useful strangers. Almost nothing (do birthdays count?) at helping me curate my friends and cultivate my relationships over time. Skype backed off from supporting its Skypecasts service (hosted calls with moderated Skype chat backchannels) and Skype public chats (web links to group text chats). Skype will research how to help people do more during a conversation (collaboration) and how to add more of the value found in other social media (discovery, ridiculously easy group formation, social gestures, non-conversational messaging).
"As things are evolving quickly in this space, we will continue to keep our eye on Palm’s Pre and webOS platform, which seems to be getting good traction in its first weekend. But we have nothing to announce at this time" a Skype spokesperson told Jennifer Martinez per her Skype: No Palm Pre App for Now report.
Of course, if Skype opened up their Skype Lite server farm as a platform, developers could build their own Skype clients for the Pre.
Someone has to go first. Plantronics’ teaser campaign promises Bluetooth and vague delights. But what I really want is a great Bluetooth headset, a digital signal processor with Skype‘s SILK codec inside, and a superwideband highest-fidelity microphone (so you can hear the real me). Launch is set for nine days and seven hours from now.
Skype, one of the most used IM/Chat/VOIP/Video-Conferencing application for PC and Mac is slowly working its dominance up the mobile alley and we love it! I’ve always known it’s support for Windows Mobile, Nokia devices and Wi-Fi Phones (Skype Phones) but it was the recent integration with Sony’s Playstation Portable firmware upgrade as well as the hot-off-the-press Skype for iPhone/iPod Touch that is really cooking up some serious mobile progress. With Skype application for BlackBerry phones coming soon, Skype is in a very good position to become one of the leaders in mobile application. Having Skype on the go across multiple platform is definitely going to enhance our mobile experience, this is very exciting indeed.
In this article, I will attempt to compare Skype for iPhone vs. Skype for Playstation Portable. I’ll update this entry when the BlackBerry version becomes available.
The iPhone (iPod Touch) and Playstation Portable is arguably two of the most popular gadgets for travelers on the go. When I review communication gadgets or software, I always like to imagine myself traveling abroad where I would not have access to a local cell phone and would like to keep in touch with friends or family at the luxury of my own mobile gadget. The appeal of Skype has always been there for me for that reason, that is why a laptop has been essential for all my travels until smartphones started to feature applications to support various communication needs such as Fring. That said, I think iPhone or Playstation Portable (PSP) are two of the most carried devices for travelers. I can just see myself in an airport lounge dialing international long distance over Wi-Fi to keep in touch with loved ones via either device.
Skype for iPhone
The iPhone and iPod Touch needs very little introduction. With a large touch screen display and portrait layout, it makes a very good UI candidate for Skype (much like its desktop counterpart).
Everything is integrated so well together on this handy little app. For example, your contacts from your iPhone is automatically hooked up with Skype in addition to its default contact list. To see who is online, you can easily toggle the software button towards the top of the screen.
One of the big advantage of iPhone is it’s integrated microphone that Skype can take advantage of without the need of additional headset. The VOIP function will only work in a Wi-Fi environment (at home, coffee house, airport lounges, etc…) whereas the text Chats can work over your phone’s standard data plan.
I love the fact that this little app does everything its desktop counter part can do, including editing one’s profile or add more Skype-out funds over the handset. Overall, its an amazing application that has been done right, I love it and its free to download!
Pros: Excellent UI and layout, very easy to use and intuitive. Perfect integration to leverage iPhone’s hardware (buttons, camera, etc…) Everything your desktop Skype can do can be done here!
Cons: No VOIP over 3G data, no web-cam video conference, app must be installed separately (only mentioning this because PSP is part of firmware OS)
Skype for Playstation Portable (PSP)
I love the convenience of having my beloved PSP-3000 as a gaming device and knowing it can also surf the web with Flash while keeping up with the communications needs via Skype.
No application to install here, its part of the firmware 3.90+ upgrade. While the PSP doesn’t have a touchscreen UI and the horizontal layout is not taking advantage of the screen real estate as much, it does offer a full suite of Skype features. The SkypeOut and VOIP PC calls are there along with text chat.
Because the onscreen keyboard is driven by the directional keys and based on the 12-button numeric pad, it can be frustrating when compared to the overall iPhone experience.
The one part I have to gripe about is the need of an external microphone. My Griffin Tune Buds Mobile with integrated mic works great but if I forgot my headphones at home then I am stuck with only text chats capabilities. While Sony and Skype recommend you buy their official headset/mic kit, the iPhone OEM headset with mic should work as well. Sony should have integrated a mic solution, after all, this is their 3rd revision to the PSP franchise.
Lets hope Skype will be available for the DS or DSi someday. Overall, I still enjoy having the option of running Skype on my PSP. While its unlikely I’ll be traveling only the PSP, I can see myself using the PSP for Skype to conserve the battery life for my iPhone while traveling abroad. Due to the nature of not having any data connection, the entire operation is rendered useless if I am not nearby a Wi-Fi hotspot.
Pros: Fully integrated as part of PSP firmware, no application install required. PSP’s large display is great for Skype.
Cons: Lack of integrated Mic (and Camera for profile picture, etc…) Wi-Fi is required all the time for any communications (including text chat)
Winner: Skype for iPhone! With voice call quality being relatively the same, I have to go with iPhone because you just can’t beat the convenience of having your iPhone with Skype with you at all times. The integrated mic makes the entire package there and ready to go 24/7. The touchscreen plays well with the UI and it has instantly become one of those default applications I must have on my iPhone.
Voice Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) have long delivered real benefits to businesses with multiple sites or branch offices. As well as free calls between sites, they enable call break-out to the public network at the point closest to the call destination – saving on charges for long distance calls. They also support global numbering plans for organizations, making internal comms easier. VoIP VPNs have taken these benefits a stage further, enabling calls and data to be routed on the same IP infrastructure.
The downside is, these private networks have traditionally proved expensive to deploy and maintain. In the 1990s, they used to demand dedicated private leased lines to link offices – each costing thousands of dollars per year to rent from the telcos.
Paying to go private
In recent years, with the advent of IP PBXs, Voice VPNs could be enabled over existing IP links, just like data VPNs, giving a secure site-to-site link that is set up as needed. This drastically cut the costs of renting dedicated lines, but with a drawback.
Typically, an organization has to deploy IP PBXs from the same manufacturer at every office, to enable VPN networking. This in turn demands expensive rationalization of premises equipment. In addition, though not as costly as dedicated leased lines, expensive MPLS-based links have to be installed.
So the choice has been to either pay for the ridiculously costly dedicated lease lines, or deploy interoperable IP PBXs and MPLS links at every branch, at considerable costs. And that’s before you even consider issues such as encrypting voice traffic across the private network, or handling traffic across your network’s routers and firewalls.
These issues have typically made voice VPNs a viable option only for larger organizations or enterprises. However, there are other options now available to businesses, without the high cost of entry.
Creating a Skype Voice VPN
By using Skype, the world’s largest and most reliable VoIP network, to form the VPN, the network itself is available for free. And with PBX-to-Skype application gateways that link any office phone system (whether traditional digital switch, or IP PBX) to Skype, the benefits of voice VPNs are available to almost any business, for a low one-time upgrade cost. What’s more, businesses don’t have to swap out or replace their existing investments in PBX equipment – which is useful in the current lean times.
So how does this work? How does a business build its voice VPN using Skype and reap the benefits?
First, the business deploys a PBX-to-Skype application gateway at each location. Depending on the company’s needs, the gateways add anything from 4 to 30 Skype lines to the company’s existing PBX that can be picked up and transferred between extensions like an ordinary call. Employees simply dial 8 for a Skype line, or 9 for an ordinary line. What’s more, the gateways work with virtually any model of analog, digital or IP phone system.
The company can then create a global numbering plan for their Skype voice VPN, enabling employees to use extension dialing to branch locations on the network. These site-to-site calls are free over Skype, and long distance calls handled using SkypeOut to reduce costs. The gateways also centralize Skype provisioning and management, giving IT managers full control over its use, eliminating the need to install Skype on each PC. This means no need for headsets – all Skype voice functions are delivered to users’ PBX handsets.
Enable PBX Remote Access to the Voice VPN
IT managers can enable remote access to the corporate voice VPN, by simply installing the free Skype for desktop or Skype for mobile software client on the remote workers desktop or laptop PC. With PBX remote access, road warriors and remote workers can securely access to the voice VPN, enabling free calls to and from employees at the corporate or branch offices. This solution is much better than traditional softphone solutions due to Skype’s ability to seamlessly traverse NAT/Firewall and its superior voice quality over the open Internet.
Build Voice Extranet for Customers and Partners
With today’s global economy, companies small and large have supply chains that cross national and international borders. Traditionally, voice VPNs (legacy with leased lines or IP-PBX enabled), were designed to focus on intra-company communication and did not support connections to partner networks.
However, with the ubiquity of Skype and PBX-agnostic Skype gateways, it is easy to extend the corporate voice VPN to include an extranet for free and secure partner communication. All the partner company has to do is to connect a PBX-to-Skype gateway to its existing PBX and have the main Skype ID of the partner site programmed into the PBX-to-Skype gateway’s address book.
This will allow both companies to make and receive calls for free between their offices by simply dialing a speed dial number, which is mapped to the Skype ID. In addition, the enterprise can also set up advanced click-to-talk functionality directly from company websites or HTML emails, enabling online browsers to call the company directly, at no cost to them using Skype.
Calling up benefits
A Skype voice VPN, like its traditional counterpart, eliminates costs for inter-office calls. It has the key advantage of working with any existing infrastructure, seamlessly connecting disparate phone systems without extra costs for the network links.
In terms of traffic management, Skype works transparently behind routers and firewalls without needing any complex configurations or set-up. Furthermore, all Skype calls are secured using strong AES encryption, to protect an organization’s privacy – just like a secure data VPN.
There’s free, secure remote access to the corporate VPN for road warriors, which enhances productivity while helping reduce communication costs. Companies will be able to further reduce their telecom costs with a voice extranet that enables free and secure calls with partners in their supply chain.
These all help to make the Skype voice VPN solution a compelling proposition. So while setting up a private network for voice may not be completely priceless, it’s a solution that will quickly deliver a return on investment – and will go on delivering savings and benefits.
You can now useSkype To Go without a subscription, using your Skype credits. This widens the market for this cost saving service: Skypers who call family and friends over international lines. Could be a good move: if if STG can switch newbies from calling cards to Skype.
Andy Abramson argues this move cheapens the value of buying Skype subscriptions. I’d agree if this was a more popular feature. Since it isn’t, there’s little risk in offering it to all of Skype’s users. And as Andy says, this could burn up some of the Skype credits burning a hole in eBay’s balance sheet. Skype can’t recognize your Skype credits as income until you spend them.
STG is a blend of SkypeIn, Speed Dial, and SkypeOut. Get an STG number near you. You set up a short list of numbers you’d like to call at Skype’s discounted rates. Assign each number a speed dial code. To use, call your STG number from any phone, press your speed dial code, and you’re call goes through.
In tough times (any time), lower the barriers to buying your service. Skype just did.
… 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.
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?
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:
Operations: Product, Marketing, Customer Care, Support
Technology: Engineering, Platform, Development Community
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
Verizon‘s Skype mobile apps for Android and Blackberry, tied to Verizon’s Wi-Fi, won’t roam internationally. The new Navoto GSM Gateway for Skype offers a way around this. The gateway connects your hometown wireless carrier to your on-the-road mobile phone. 
The front of the box has a slot for your local SIM card. By putting your mobile phone’s SIM card in the box, Navoto looks like your mobile phone to your wireless carrier. 
The back of the box has (from left to right) a power jack, two RJ11 phone line jacks so you can keep your home phone connected, a USB port to connect to your home-town PC, and a connector for the GSM antenna. 
The GSM antenna lets the box talk with your home-town wireless carrier. 
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Absolutely the best audio quality anywhere near this price from 
. $55.
Still one of the best for looks, quality, comfort and ruggedness. More than five hours of talk time and even then it works while recharging. I use it daily without tripping over cables. 
Whiter teeth take years off. Feel free to smile. 
for those stray hairs. (Ah, I remember the days when I had hair on the top of my head worth brushing.)
so you know you look good and bounce a little light your way. See yourself the way others see you.
to remove oils from your face that shine in the light. (I always thought it was a reflection off my eyeglasses that blinded viewers, but it was the glare from my forehead. ) 
White clothing creates glare and throws off your camera’s sensors. Keep a clean, dark and solid top by your desk for the unexpected Skype call. 
makes you look marvelous. I use the 
on Amazon. 
Download the latest
Skype
In this article, I will attempt to compare Skype for iPhone vs. Skype for Playstation Portable. I’ll update this entry when the BlackBerry version becomes available. 
The iPhone and iPod Touch needs very little introduction. With a large touch screen display and portrait layout, it makes a very good UI candidate for Skype (much like its desktop counterpart). 
I love the convenience of having my beloved PSP-3000 as a gaming device and knowing it can also surf the web with Flash while keeping up with the communications needs via Skype. 
The one part I have to gripe about is the need of an external microphone. My 
Join the Skype 6.X Text Chat Room