Beecher Tuttle speculated Skype bought the assets of group text startup 3Jam. Skype’s texting features are… uninspiring? Hiring 3Jam’s Enlai Chu might fix that. Or is it feature creep?
CallByText compromises Skype security, requiring your Skype name and password, setting you up for identity theft. (Thanks, Hudson)
Reuters reports Google and Facebook talked about buying Skype. They didn’t talk to each other, although that would be interesting. Like this is something new? Skype’s corporate affairs folks must talk to potential buyers, if only to understand a non-IPO deal space.
Ubergizmo unboxes the Logitech TV Cam for Skype. “At CES 2011, Skype on TV was a huge hit, particularly among seniors. I’ve never seen so many seemingly retired people at CES, and they were almost all excited by this.”
Catching you up,an 18-year-old first-year female cadet reported consensual sex with a male student at the Australian Defence Force Academy “was broadcast, without her knowledge, to six other Defence Force members watching in another room.” Some of the other cadets were under 18. Photos were taken of the video, then shared. The secret sex video was streamed via Skype.
Rounding out the story: the ADF started a criminal investigation; the female cadet was offered counseling for privacy violation; the female cadet was punished at the same time for an unrelated matter, raising questions about insensitivity; ADF heads have started to roll; and it’s now a political football. Some call it “the Skype affair.”
The privacy Skype offers users is what made it an attractive tool for the college students.
As people use technology more, online behavior more accurately reflects good and evil offline behavior. This incident is more evidence Skype is becoming ordinary, showing humanity with all its flaws and glory.
Channel 10. ADF cadet sex ‘broadcast on webcam’. Video interview with ‘Kate.’ 5 April 2011.
Sydney Morning Herald. Defence ‘culture’ to go under microscope after sex scandal. 11 April.
ABC. ADFA head stood aside pending multiple inquiries. 11 April.
The speed of innovation is clearly accelerating. As we talk ‘cloud’ computing and mobile operators dig deep to find ways to increase ARPU and satellite communications makes its presence felt, it is important to see where it’s all heading. Societies win when innovation thrives and consumers have a choice.
Innovation means change. Disruptive innovation means major change. And change can be scary and even threatening for some. But it is the consumer who wins – innovation opens up richer, easier, more valuable options. And industries must adapt. Full Story »
Skype-to-Skype calls are free. Skype sometimes charges you a small connection fee for Skype-to-PSTN calls in addition to your per-minute rate. The rates to non-"Global Rate" markets go up four cents per call on Sunday, 6 September 2009 to US$0.079 (about 8 cents).
CORRECTION: "With a calling plan there is never a connection fee, regardless of where you call".
Without a calling plan you’ll continue to pay 3.9 cents for each call to mobiles or landlines in Skype’s Global Rate markets (listed below). Now, without a plan, your connection fee is 7.9 cents per call outside those markets.
The Global Rate destinations: Argentina – Buenos Aires, Argentina – Cordoba, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Denmark – Shared Cost, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Guam, Hong Kong, Hong Kong – Mobile, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Hungary, Korea, Republic of Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico – Mexico City, Mexico – Monterrey, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Norway – Shared Cost, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Russia – Moscow, Russia – St.Petersburg, Singapore, Singapore – Mobile, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, USA.
Why did Skype raise the rates?
Does this new pricing simplify buying and calling choices? Does it make Skypers switch from pay-as-you-go to a subscription? Does it help prevent predatory calling or unwanted telemarketing? I think not. Most people will not notice the four cent increase. Are termination costs really higher outside of Skype’s Global Rates markets? Possibly. This might offset those costs.
How much more revenue will this price increase bring?
Skype doesn’t report the number of calls made or call volume by country. So let’s guess [See the Google Docs spreadsheet and play with the the numbers yourself]. Skype reported 3 billion minutes of SkypeIn/SkypeOut calling. Let’s say ten percent are to non-Global Rate markets (I suspect it’s a larger share). And that Skype calls average 10 minutes (much longer than the average PSTN call, a little shorter than free Skype-to-Skype calls). 3x(10^9) minutes * 10% of all calls / 10 minutes per call. So, 30 million calls per quarter. At 4 cents more per call, that puts new income around $5 million each year. Or more. What’s your guess?
Many of these stores aren’t localized beyond currency and payment, operating in English instead of Eesti, Chinese, and the other languages people use. For now, UK and US customers are shopping in Euros instead of Pounds or dollars. US customers also pay UK value added taxes.
This is a bare bones start, but an important one. Skype is preparing to build a platform for programmers. An "app store" helps partners make money from their investment in your platform.
The "extras" department isn’t seeing much traffic yet according to publishers. When it does, this distribution channel could encourage hundreds of existing developers to invest in Skype certification.
The first products in the store:
Company
Product
Description
Price
Cucku
Cucku Backup
Free remote backup to friends, family or a second PC.
Freeware
Scendix Software
Pamela Call Recorder
Pamela Call Recorder, play cool sounds and auto Chat Reply.
€17.79 incl. VAT
Scendix Software
Pamela for Skype – Business Edition
Includes easy integration with MS Outlook as well as call recording and other great features.
€29.95 plus VAT
Scendix Software
Pamela for Skype – Professional Edition
Pamela Professional allows you to record Skype calls of any duration as well other great features.
€19.95 plus VAT
Scendix Software
Pamela for Skype – Standard Edition
Pamela allows you to record Skype calls.
€12.95 plus VAT
Scendix Software
Pamela mcePhone for Skype
mcePhone for Skype allows you to seamlessly integrate Skype and Pamela in Windows Media Center 2005 and Vista.
€17.79 incl. VAT
Scendix Software
Pamela Rich Mood Editor
Create cool HTML formatted Skype Mood Messages
Freeware
Scendix Software
PamFax for Skype (Mac)
Send faxes to any fax number in the world.
FREE (pay per page)
PrettyMay Team
PrettyMay Call Center for Skype – Standard version
Skype PBX Phone System for Small Business.
$200 incl. VAT
PrettyMay Team
PrettyMay Call Recorder for Skype – Basic version
Record Skype calls FREE within 15 minutes.
Freeware
PrettyMay Team
PrettyMay Call Recorder for Skype – Business version
Record Skype Calls, Store voicemails, auto answering.
$29.95 incl. VAT
PrettyMay Team
PrettyMay Call Recorder for Skype – Pro version
Record Skype Calls, Store voicemails, auto answering.
$24.95 incl. VAT
Netralia Pty Ltd
Skylook – make more of MS Outlook with Skype
Recording contacts office outlook calling.
€99.95 incl. VAT
CORRECTION: The Pamela and PamFax software products are from Scendix Software, not PamConsult, their professional service firm.
OK, this looks fun. A team from NSW opened their beta to Skyecandy, a speed dating site that uses Skype video. "The more you share, the better you pair."
I really like the "Skyecandy" name but hope they have a decent IP attorney.
I’m in the New York Times coverage of Google Voice. Quoted correctly (yay!) but before my own column on the subject came out (d’oh!). Google has some truly delightful advantages in the race to become the world’s largest communications company.
Foresight Institute gets a new president. Skype me (evanwolf) if you want to come to Dr. Hall’s Sunday reception in Palo Alto. We’ll all be talking molecular manufacturing, nanotechnology and the singularity.
Nokia shares its vision. Smartphones rising. Death of patience. Rewarding engagement. Personal expression. New learning economy. Clickable world. Personal relevance. A good summary of forces driving the interplay between mobile technology, industry dynamics, and human behavior.
Benjamin Leviton seeks VoIP help: "I have a Brekeke SIP proxy server. I am looking for someone to remote on to my desktop, log into its interface and config my carriers with the proxy server. Also check the interface of Polycom phone and make sure it is working properly with the SIP proxy server." Contact: +1-917-273-5808, ben@capitalfinanceusa.com, yahoo IM gcc644@yahoo.com, or skype:levtop.
Basic voicemail is so 1980s. Now SpinVox transcribes voice messages and alerts you, for a fee, when you get Skype voice mail. Set up your Skype voice mail alerts here. This is a great idea. I love anything that improves voice messaging freshness, accuracy, speed, comprehension, searchability, and context.
Sadly, this Skype implementation fails to deliver the minimum quality, reliability and affordability to be a useful market test. Eight problems:
First, Skype’s SMS alerts will cut off transcripts.
SpinVox is famous for its voicemail transcription. Yet this offering is limited to no more than three SMS alerts. That’s too little for half of voice mail messages.
Three alerting SMS messages at 140 characters is 420. Let’s reserve 25 per message for identifiers (something like "SpinVox Skype Alert 1 of 3"). That leaves 345 for the payload.
Let’s say it might take 100 characters for the intro voice mail metadata: sender Skype name or caller ID, receiver Skype name, length of message, date/time sent. That leaves 245 characters for the transcript.
So with 250 characters available and 245 needed, that should be enough, right?
It’s not enough. Averages blend higher and lower numbers. If normally distributed, maybe a third to half of your messages will be severely cut off as users speak longer than the mean.
Failure to give me the whole message one third of the time, combined with transcription error rates, creates an unreliable experience.
Second, email alerts don’t include transcripts.
Huh? Really? This would be immensely useful!
Third, I’m forced to choose between email and SMS alerts. I don’t know in advance which will be the best way to reach me. Why force me to choose? And why can’t I have multiple email addresses for alerts? Or alert other Skype users?
Fourth, no Skype chat notification.
Huh? Really? Vipadia can set up a Skype chat bridge for you.
Fifth, it costs too much: $1.50 per voice message.
I’m assuming nearly all voice mails will take three texts. Including SpinVox translation (about $0.20), sending Skype-to-SMS ($0.13 USA-to-USA), and receiving SMS ($0.20), most voicemail alerts will cost me $1.50.
For active Skypers, those who use SkypeIn and get voice mails every day, this adds up.
Sixth, no full transcripts of voicemails.
You have SpinVox! Use them! Send me full transcripts of voicemail by email, by browser, or in chat. Searchable, downloadable, persistent archives make voicemail useful and actionable.
Seventh, no videomail support.
Does Skype offer videomail? Not now. When Skype does, SpinVox should transcribe videomail too.
Eighth, no live call transcription.
Voicemail alerting and transcriptions treat a pain point. There’s opportunity in transcribing conference calls the millions using Skype for collaboration, coordination, meetings, recruiting. As transcription costs fall, they are becoming standard meetingware.
I’m glad Skype and SpinVox are working together, finally. This initiative gets so many small things wrong; I can’t imagine it meeting any commercial success as it’s scoped now. So iterate quickly, please. Find a sweet spot and a vision.
LONDON and LUXEMBOURG, Mar. 03, 2009 -SpinVox,the global leader in voice to content messaging and Skype, announces the availability of voicemail to text conversion for all Skype voicemail users today. SpinVox conveniently converts voice messages to text in English, Spanish, French and German. The messages are then sent by Skype as an SMS text directly to a designated mobile phone for users to read.
Skype users can now benefit from instant ‘visible voicemail’, and never miss those important calls from friends or colleagues when they are away from Skype. Recipients of converted voicemail messages can listen to the full voice message by either signing into Skype or by calling their Skype To Go number*. As well as being able to receive voicemail as text via SpinVox, Skype users may choose instead to receive voicemail notification via SMS or for free by email.
“Skype is the first internet communications software provider to deploy SpinVox, further reinforcing our position as the only provider of voice to text messaging services which are used daily by millions of people on five continents,” says SpinVox co-founder and CEO, Christina Domecq. “Our user base has grown over twenty-fold in the last 12 months and bringing Skype’s voicemail subscribers on board will accelerate this trend.”
“Using SpinVox gives our users added flexibility and convenience over their Skype voicemails, said Mike Bartlett, director of product strategy at Skype. “As people continue to spend more time on the move and on their mobile devices, people want to take their Skype conversations with them. SpinVox is a great option for our users to save time on checking their Skype voicemail and receive messages immediately sent to their mobile phone.”
It’s easy for Skype users to set up voicemail to text from their account page, by simply registering a mobile phone number. Each voicemail to text conversion will cost €0.20/£0.17/$0.25 plus the cost of sending an SMS at standard low Skype rates. Additional SMS charges – a maximum of 3 – may apply depending on the length of the voicemail message.
All payments are made fuss-free through Skype Credit. Users have a choice to set a limit on the number of voicemail conversions received per day and to receive messages from people only in their contact list to help them manage their Skype credit. An email notification will be sent if that limit is exceeded. For more information please visit http://www.skype.com/go/voicemail-to-text.
About Skype
Founded in 2003, Skype is revolutionizing the way people communicate around the world. Skype has more than 405 million registered users globally who use Skype software to communicate for free through voice and video calls as well as instant messages. Skype generates revenue through its premium offerings, such as calls made to and from landlines and mobiles, voicemail, call forwarding, and SMS. Skype is used in almost every country on Earth, and people have made more than 100 billion minutes worth of free Skype-to-Skype calls. Conversations over Skype can take place on computers, mobile devices and Skype Certified™ hardware.Skype certifies and sells hundreds of hardware products from more than 50 partners, and works with hundreds of third-party developers who have created plug-ins to extend Skype’s functionality.
Skype is an eBay company (NASDAQ: EBAY). Learn more and download Skype at www.skype.com.
Access to a broadband Internet connection is required. Skype is not a replacement for your traditional telephone service and cannot be used for emergency calling.
Skype, associated trade marks and logos and the “S” symbol are trade marks of Skype Limited.
About SpinVox
SpinVox® is the world’s largest privately-held speech technology company, providing the only voice to text messaging services which are used daily by millions of people and whose user base has grown over twenty-fold in the last 12 months.
Through significant innovations in voice and network technologies which are protected by over 60 patents worldwide, SpinVox has converged the two most natural forms of communication – voice and text – to create the fastest-growing form of messaging: Voice-to-Content™.
SpinVox services are available directly on www.spinvox.com and through leading carriers and through new media, Unified Communications and other service providers globally.
Implemented as a carrier-class hosted network feature, SpinVox is proven to able to easily create value from everyday user behaviour using voice and deliver rapid and easy implementation of low input, sustained high reward services.
At the heart of SpinVox is its ground-breaking Voice Message Conversion System™ (VMCS), which works by combining state-of-the-art speech technologies with a live-learning language process. Developed by the Cambridge, UK- based SpinVox Advanced Speech Group; VMCS now serves users across five continents in English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese and Italian.
SpinVox is now live with Alltel, Cincinnati Bell, Sasktel, Rogers Wireless, Telus, Telstra, Vodacom South Africa, Vodafone Spain, Movistar Chile, Skype and Livejournal.
###
*Skype To Go is currently available in Australia, Chile, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden, UK, and the U.S. For more information about Skype To Go visit www.skype.com/go/skypetogo
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.
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.
This evening iSkoot, the service that provides Skype access from smartphones, announced they had received a new $19 million venture financing round to build out and bring to market a new suite of mobile communications services. Recently iSkoot acquired Social IM, who is in the beta stage of producing a desktop Instant Messaging client linking real time communications and notifications to social networks. No further details have been released but obviously both their existing financing partners and one new partner feel there is a significant potential.
Update: VentureBeat reports that the financing relates to a forthcoming AT&T service offering “an array of Web services to users of its low-end phones — the majority of its phones, which don’t have the iPhone’s powerful features. The services will include things like social networking, email, RSS feeds and eventually services like Twitter.”
In addition to their smartphone service, iSkoot also provides the firmware behind the Skypephone, available through the Hutcheson Whampoa 3 carrier in the U.K., six other European countries, Hong Kong and Australia. According to Tech Crunch over 300,000 Skypephones are now in service. However, their recently launched iSkoot for Android appears to have encountered a rougher road; Andy speculates they may have launched prematurely to meet the G-1 launch date. I’m sure we’ll see upgrades to address the outstanding issues.
Personally I have iSkoot running on my BlackBerry Bold, largely to keep current on my Skype chat sessions when away from my office, and have experienced it on the 8820 as well as a Nokia N95. Look forward to learning more about the services whose launch is being supported by this new funding round in today’s somewhat rough economy. At least there’s still support for innovation in the real time conversation space.
3. Defrag. Some of the hardest questions are tackled at this thought leadership event. Among others, Daniela Barbosa of DataPortability.org is speaking. Colorado Convention Center.
5. Web 2.0 Summit. Still hankering for a press pass. Palace Hotel San Francisco.
5. WinHEC 2008. Windows hardware engineering. Los Angeles Convention Center.
5. Design Futures: Deconstructing Networks – Jonah Brucker-Cohen, of Trinity College Dublin, experiments in how we design and think about the social effect places and alert networks. U.C. Berkeley, California.
6. Edge of the Web 2008. Perth has a growing Web 2.0+ community. Crawley, Western Australia.
6. Tweets and Dreenks: November Social Drinkup. Mars Bar, San Francisco.
6. Mobile Forum Meeting: Opportunities in Broadband Wireless. San Jose, California.
10. Internet Identity Workshop. iiw2008b is a must-go event. This is where the digital ID architecture of the next 10 years is conceived, debated, and bought into. Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA.
10. VoiceCon. Enterprise and unified communications. San Francisco.
11. e-Democracy ’08. The first post-US election event to explore politics, public participation and digital technology. RIBA, Central London.
11. US Veteran’s Day, Canada and UK Remembrance Day. National holiday.
12. Emerging Communications Dinner. Thought leaders who can’t wait for eComm2009 March 03-05 will talk over supper. Ping me if you want an invite. (tips at skypejournal.com) San Francisco Airport Marriott.
12. Under the Radar: Mobility. 32 mobile startups less than one year old. Microsoft, Mountain View, California.
15. Convergence 08. Focus on long-term technologies, especially Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno. Co-sponsored by Foresight.org. Computer History Museum, Mountain View, California.
15. >play – Berkeley Digital Media. This year’s theme is Disruption: Changes in the Digital Media Landscape. Organized by MBA students at Haas, U.C. Berkeley, California.
16. Adobe MAX 2008. Designers and developers imagine the next generation of browser-based talk. Moscone Center, San Francisco.
17. Future of Mobile. Jemima Kiss, James Brody, and folks from Google, Symbian, and Mozilla make this a must attend event. Kensington Town Hall, London.
17. Mashup Camp. Steve Repetti of DataPortability.org is speaking at this mostly un-conference. Mountain View, California.
18. Mobile Content Forum. The event for all those companies who made millions on ringtones and wallpaper. Register from your iPhone, baby. Hilton London Kensington.
19. Open Mobile Summit 08. Discount: Register by Oct 10 with priority code TRL and save $400. agenda. trailer:
Fantastic hallway with Skype’s Jonathan Christensen, AT&T, Dean Bubley, Om Malik, Rebtel, BT Design’s JP Rangaswami, Truphone’s James Body, Orange, O2, The US FCC’s Julius Knapp, David Isenberg, Amazon, T-Mobile, AOL, Nokia, Google, Symbian, Intel, TAT, LG, RIM, OpenMoko, Funambol, Qualcomm. San Francisco.
18. Robo Development 2008. Robotics small, large, smart, and social. Santa Clara, California.
19. SOA World and Cloud Computing. The 14th Service Oriented Architecture conference. Now the standard for platforming architectures. I want to hear the session on building real-time SOA systems. The program’s big buzzwords: cloud and virtual. The Fairmont Hotel, San Jose, California.
26. The Media Festival. The session I want: "Case study: Lessons from the adult entertainment industry; learn the secrets of success in mobile entertainment." Always two to five years’ ahead in technology and business practices due to intense competition. Manchester.
27. US Thanksgiving. A nation shuts down for a long weekend of American football, turkey, beer. And gratitude.
Vendor Relationship Management, putting people back in control of their identities and their relationships with companies. Sun Microsystems London. 
Join the Skype 6.X Text Chat Room