2007 may go down as the year Skype video helped video conversations become mainstream for families.
Virtual Christmas 2007
07:15 minutesFor example, agnes988 spent Christmas with her family.

This year I got to join the family via pc, thanks to Skype. Because my sister "lost" her camera, I decided to film it in 45 second clips using our little 5mp digital. I compiled the best parts and created my first edit. It isn't fantastic but it makes ME smile. I wasn't going for professional...just fun.

Note that all the female voices sound the same. That's Mom, my sister and myself. I'm the loud one because I'm closer to the mike. (and Oh those Texas accents, huh?) Ignore the overlapping echoes please. Just laugh with the kids. THAT's what Christmas is for anyway. :)

People substitute Skype video for days of travel, for airfare, for lost work. That's millions of dollars shifting from travel costs to consumer goods.

Skyping makes impossible conversations possible, audio conversations richer, and brings people closer.

Skype has many opportunities as they build their video capabilities and video platforms.

• Make it easy to save video to disk or to a web service.
• Include simple tools to edit video locally or on a web site.
• Make it easy to preview and watch video locally
• Provide open tools to share saved video, whether to a mainstream video site like YouTube, to a community site like Meetup or facebook, or to a blogging site like Skype Journal or Wordpress.com.
• Bridge multiple conversations with threaded video chat. Look to Seesmic and YouTube for examples.

And I am so eager for Skype video to become part of the mobile client. Jeff Pulver talked about the Led Zeppelin  concert where 20,000 fans not only took photos but shot video. I want Skype to be the destination, the channel, where I stream that video, or tune in to watch a world of live conversation.

So, if you cannot be with the ones you love, Skype them.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 03:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Our friends over at iotum have determined that 40% of you will not go out to celebrate New Year's Eve. For that 40% and even those amongst you who do celebrate they are attempting to establish a world record New Year's Eve Countdown conference call as the biggest celebration on Facebook. Details:

• Call organized at Free Conference Calls on Facebook
• Time: 11:30 p.m. EST, December 31, 2008  (New York, Toronto, Montreal, Miami, Atlanta, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington) but open to those in other time zones who want to celebrate out-of-sync with their local time zone.
• Register for the call and more details here.

Now while calling the conference number in the Minneapolis area (+ 1 218 936-6581) may be inexpensive or free for those in the U.S., calling from other countries, including Canada, may incur significant long distance charges. As a result iotum is recommending use of one of three services; one, of course, is to use SkypeOut (which I have used successfully in previous calls to Free Conference Call session).

Since I will be out at a movie and having a New Year's Eve Chinese meal at friends I will be attempting to call in via Skype but using iSkoot on my Blackberry.

One participant has suggested that everyone sing Auld Land Syne in their own language. Unfortunately, as some of us know from attempting a Happy Birthday sing-along in the fall, latencies in the network will make this a totally aharmonious, ear piecing activity. Not recommended for the faint of ear.

Happy New Year

Tags: SkypeOut, iotum, FREE Conference Call, Facebook, Skype, Blackberry, iSkoot

Posted by Jim Courtney at 02:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

...or how to use up all those IP addresses available on a cable/DSL router.

While our focus has been on Skype, there are other products and services that we have had access to over the course of the year. Here are the ones that have stood out with me as providing a significantly differentiated and innovative user experience:

Eye-Fi Card - a 2GB Secure Digital (SD) Flash memory card with an embedded WiFi chip. Once set up and in a recognized WiFi zone, you simply take a photo and it goes to a designated folder on a PC on the same WiFi network as well as to one of many photo services such as Facebook Photos, Flickr or even some that print your photos. You do have to access these services to provide final "authorization" for the photos to appear on the service. With the WiFi chip located in the memory card and no "dongle", this is perhaps the most amazing technology I have encountered this year; it simply continues to "wow" those whom I have demonstrated it to or discussed it with. If WiFi can be embedded in such a small form factor, we can expect to see many more single purpose WiFi-enabled devices in 2008.

SightSpeed: While Skype has certainly taken the lead in one-to-one video conversations with its High Quality Video, SightSpeed continues to be the leader in providing PC-based multi-party video conferencing as well as video messaging services. And with their SightSpeed Business, they certainly have become part of the disruptive "no hardware" hosted services movement.

FreeTalk Wireless Stereo Headset: This one continues to perform and make my entire PC audio experience - media players, SlingPlayer, Skype calls more enyoyable.

Nokia N95 and Nokia N81 8GB: The Nokia N-Series phones are maturing into a quite acceptable line of smartphones. Improved browsing, GPS and navigation features, more reliable WiFi access point management and a more robust Symbian operating system in the N95 have all contributed over time to change my perception of these from techie toys to a relatively user friendly product. Support for SlingPlayer for Symbian and Truphone help to differentiate it from the Blackberry as well as the FM radio which I use every time I visit my fitness club as the audio for its multiple TV displays. As a consumer user test I have recently provided the N81 8GB to a non-techie acquaintance; he is finding it quite useful in his daily work visiting customers. Takes a little learning about all the features but they are working quite reliably. But it's about the T9 keyboard -- not suitable for any heavy duty e-mail. And the N95's battery life is still an issue.

Blackberry 8820: This has become my smartphone of choice, largely due to its QWERTY keyboard, rock solid operating system, relatively long term battery life and WiFi connectivity. And, of course, it provides true push e-mail. And it's the WiFi connectivity (even without deployment of UMA/GAN by my provider) that has changed my use of a mobile device. Gmail now monitors my standard e-mail for important "non-Blackberry authorized" messages in my regular e-mail; iSkoot and IM+ for Skype allow me to keep in touch with Skype IM chat sessions when in a WiFi zone; its built-in GPS support has bailed me out of a few driving situations ... all while lowering my wireless data usage on my Rogers EDGE data plan.Add in its multi-media capabilities the 8820 certainly provides a comprehensive enough feature set for all my business activities.

With a Blackberry that has the required connectivity speeds inherent to WiFi support (along with the 8320 Curve and 8120 Pearl) rumors say that a SlingPlayer client and Truphone capability are under development. But at the moment I need both the Blackberry 8820 and Nokia N95 to have access to all the mobile applications I routinely use. I can only hope that Rogers will not only soon supply and support the Blackberry 8x20's but also invoke its UMA/GAN features (as the T-Mobile @ Home plan has in the U.S.) to provide truly cost effective mobile voice and data access.

SlingPlayer Mobile for Symbian: One of the "micro" wonders of 2007; I continuously use this on my N95 to follow all the sports action when away from home, especially since I have a personal interest in one of the pro athletes who is having his best season in the NHL. That I can emulate a full HD format picture so crisply on the N95's small screen continues to impress ... and with no speed compromises for the fast action of hockey.

Truphone; When I was able to facilitate a 30 minute, high quality voice, no-charge call from Hanover, Germany to Brandon, Manitoba for a colleague attending ceBit 2007, I realized that Truphone had a serious service for anyone with an appropriate mobile phone (such as most Nokia N-Series smartphones). While currently free, except to mobile phones outside North America, Truphone continues to expand its service offerings and mobile device support such that I expect it to become a major player in the mobile communications uberlayer where Skype plays - using the Internet to provide low cost worldwide connectivity that bypasses the traditional carriers.

My Blackberry Google(-enabled) Phone: OK, so it's not a mobile device but then you can't always believe the media hype. Back in April I predicted that Google would not be offering a hardware device but rather an applications platform. As of a couple of weeks ago Google is supporting nine¹ of their applications along with a Google Updater program for the Blackberry. The "Google Phone" experience is going to diffuse its way onto various mobile devices; currently its support for the Blackberry is the most comprehensive (for instance, on the N95 only Gmail and Google Maps are supported via mobile.google.com).And, with Google Maps' support of the 8820's GPS, I have found myself using the Search, GMail, Maps and News applications regularly.

Using up my home network IP addresses. When I set up a wireless network at my home office four years ago, I wondered why there would be so much "address space" for the internal IP addresses assigned by my Linksys cable./modem router. I only had two PC's around at the time. Yet, today I look at the DHCP table and find I have addresses assigned to 2 SlingBoxes, two PC Free cordless Skype phones, Nokia N95, Blackberry 8820, three PC's and an Eye-Fi card. With my family home for Christmas we added two Macs and another Dell Inspiron to the network and a friend occasionally visits with his iPod Touch. I certainly expect that 2008 will be another year of IP-based networked devices in our high tech repertoire.

New Year's Eve Update: Both Research in Motion (Blackberry) and SlingMedia (SlingPlayer) were mentioned in this year end review of disruptive innovation.

¹Top Row: Google Search, GMail, Google Maps, Google News, GTalk; 2nd Row: Picasso, Google Updater, Google (Calendar) Sync, Google Reader, Google Docs

Tags: Eye-Fi, FreeTalk Wireless Stereo Headset, Nokia N95, SlingPlayer, SlingBox, Blackberry 8820, Truphone, Google Phone, SightSpeed

Posted by Jim Courtney at 05:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of my contacts in the Skype ecosystem pointed this out to me in an email Friday. While lists such as these can tend to be somewhat subjective, VoIP-News has included Skype Journal in its list of Top 25 VoIP blogs. The recognition is more appreciated when included in a list of those I consider the real movers in this space such as Jeff Pulver, Andy Abramson, Om Malik, Alec Saunders, Russell Shaw and Skype Journal Founder Stuart Henshall..

Their note on Skype Journal, however, needs a couple of corrections:

Very nearly as well-patronized as the aforementioned Skype corporate blogs, this private venture run by Jim Courtney has more of a traditional blogging style. The posts are lengthy, detailed and helpful. News reports from around the world keep readers informed about the entire Skype community and all kinds of VoIP-related issues.

In an attempt to change the perception I responded with the following comment:

David, thanks for and appreciate the recognition. However, I need to spread the credit around. Phil Wolff is actually the "owner" (publisher and webmaster) of Skype Journal; I am on board as one who has followed VoIP from both the press and business side for the past twelve years. Phil also needs recognition for his contribution which can often tend to be on the more philosophical and futuristic side. It also helps that through Skype Journal I have met some great people within the entire Skype ecosystem; without them there would be no stories to tell.

And, of course, our thanks go out to the many people in the entire Skype ecosystem - Skype employees, Skype Partners, Skype users and VoIP bloggers, amongst others - who have often provided us with the stories to tell. We look forward to meeting you again and many more for our stories in 2008. (And, not being a Socratic person, I promise to stick to the more pragmatic aspects of the Skype ecosystem.)

Posted by Jim Courtney at 05:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

While this blog tends to focus on new developments and the role they can play in our future real time conversations, it sometimes pays to look back to see what has been accomplished. For 2007, these are, from my perspective, ten top accomplishments for the Skype ecosystem:

1. eBay CEO Meg Whitman states at an eBay quarterly analyst conference call, "Not enough focus on 'Delight The User'". Hopefully this is a high priority guiding principal in the search for a new Skype CEO. Great technology but needs the business development, marketing and leadership skills of a seasoned high technology executive to truly make Skype happen on a world market leader scale. End users need a delightful "total" experience, including user support, adequate and well timed announcement of changes to calling plans, more participation in the blogosphere, higher awareness and broader availability of Skype hardware ... and the list goes on.

2. Skype High Quality Video: because it brings a whole new dimension and level of realism to real time conversations. Yes, to take full advantage requires a new webcam with enhanced optics, but my final selection came because of the very positive reaction and response of those whom I converse with and who receive my High Quality Video (Recipients don't need all the requirements of senders -- the past two weeks two parties have observed "my" High Quality Video on their Macs.) A success story involving not only Skype software but also hardware specifications and co-operative device driver development.

3. HD Voice --nobody has called it that specifically but here I pick up a term used to name a Fall VON session. I refer to wideband voice transmission covering a minimum 8Khz audio bandwidth (twice that of conventional telephony). Over the year Skype has been making gradual improvements to the Skype voice engine, including the codecs, such that today most Skype voice conversations can be held with a basic laptop, and no additional headset or microphone (provided one is available in the laptop) is required. Over Christmas I helped my son with a Skype for Mac 2.6 installation; he made a call yesterday from his home that was very clear, with no echo, using his basic Mac speakers and mic. Each new version of Skype since Skype 3.2 for Windows has had some improvements but with Skype 3.6 for Windows I am getting many unsolicited comments, along the lines of this one, about how it better handles lower Internet connection bandwidth configurations. And, should you use a headset, such as the FreeTalk Wireless Stereo headset, for, say, personal privacy or office etiquette reasons, you will find your other parties on the call "in your head". HD Voice received additional support this fall when High Speed Conferencing became equipped with the ability to ensure all Skype participants on a conference call would experience HD Voice quality when conversing with other Skype users on the same call.

4. Mobile Access to Skype. We still don't have a Skype client for three of the most popular mobile devices (Nokia, Blackberry, iPhone); true mobile VoIP requires not only either WiFi or 3G connectivity but also appropriate wireless network infrastructure to handle the capacity demands VoIP would place on a wireless network. However, we have seen the release of several offerings that provide a combination of a Skype IM client for these platforms along with a protocol that allows easy access to the wireless (GSM) voice network to complete a call from a mobile device at reduced costs. These include the 3 Skypephone, IM+ for Skype (even works on not only the iPhone but also iPod Touch), iSkoot and Fring.

5. Skype Developer Partner acquired: Pioneering Skype Developer Partner Webdialogs was acquired by IBM's Lotus Sametime division in September. Certainly says that with the right technology and offerings there is potential for other Skype developer partners to lead the way to expanding the Voice 2.0 world where applications are the value generator. Question: will IBM's Lotus Sametime license Skype technology for their own real time conversations capability?

6. Skype Developer Platform. While still requiring web services support to be offering a complete mashup development platform, the Skype Mashup contest and announcement of the Skype Public Platform Roadmap have brought enhanced awareness to this program. Partner PamConsult has led the way in demonstrating, with PamFax, how Skype technology, digital rights management and transaction engine can be combined to offer a carrier independent, worldwide service that requires only a Skype user account, an Internet connection but no additional hardware beyond a basic PC.

7. Disruption Rules: While PamFax can reduce the cost of those $1.00+ per page faxes from hotels, two Skype Partners have introduced products that portend for significant business model disruption:

• OnState's Call Center brings a "no hardware" solution to the call center space. Whereas a full call center previously required a low six figure investment in a PBX, as well as IT support and other infrastructure, OnState's Call Center has the cost of a PC for each agent along with a $30 per month per agent ongoing subscription fee with no long term commitments.. Suddenly call centers become viable both for even the smallest business and for remotely located, geographically distributed employees.
• Vapps, Inc.s' High Speed Conferencing provides hosted business grade conference calling (with HD Voice support as mentioned above) that is robust, reliable, scalable and supports up to 500 participants on a call. For as little as $25 per month to as much as $200 per month you can have 10 to 500 Skype participants with unlimited minutes as well as 300 to 5,000 toll-free minutes for callers from the legacy phone network. Six years ago $200 got me one hour of a five-party conference call.

8. Innovation Rules. Whereas disruption requires the displacement of legacy business processes, innovation brings new services that allow new, previously unavailable (business) processes to happen:

• For instance, there is a Vosky distributor in Texas who has worked with a local social service agency to provide much more effective counseling services by bringing into the monthly review of "challenged" children's education the child's teachers located at the school during a social worker's monthly visit to parents at home.via Skype conference calling.
• But we also are seeing innovative new services such as Evoca's Media Service. This involves a hosted "Get a Phone for your Website" audio service that provides for asynchronous voice conversations being used, for instance, by Discovery Channel, with user access from either Skype or a legacy telephone.
• Collaboration: there are three different collaboration services, each addressing its own market niche. I label these services as innovative as they bring entirely new processes to business for both internal and external conversations, especially businesses that are geographically disbursed.

9. Skype Toolbars: For some time Skype has offered toolbars which make Skype calling more readily accessible in common applications such as Outlook, Internet Explorer and Firefox. In fact, the Skype Outlook Toolbar and Firefox extension have both become routine elements of my everyday communications operations. (Remember, I don't dial phone numbers, I call people with real names.) Two weeks ago, Skype released a new version of the Skype Outlook Toolbar which has optimized Skype-enabled operations within Outlook while eliminating a couple of "nuisance" bugs in the previous version. However, the browser toolbars became embedded into the standard Skype installation but should you elect not to install them, you now have to re-install Skype itself. This is one example where Skype needs to "Delight the User" by restoring the ability to install these Toolbars individually when they were not installed at the time of Skype installation.

10. Skype Public Chats: Since first introduced in May, I have been a participant on several group chats, the most enduring being the Skype 3.x Discussion chat where several Skype enthusiasts share their thoughts and ideas. One interesting aspect of this particular chat is that a few members of the Skype Developer team and Skype PR people monitor the session and, when appropriate and not in conflict with "company policy", participate in the conversation as well as provide notification about new releases, etc. It was a rather heated discussion on this public chat that lead to this Skype Journal post about restoring a "geek" feature buried in Skype related to Skype video. Another Public Chat was open during the beta testing of the Skype Outlook Toolbar; no doubt its input, and ability to bring out common issues, contributed to the robustness of the newly released Skype Outlook Toolbar.

11. (I can't stop at 10): And for the 11th accomplishment: Skype Technology Licensing: In my recent interview with Sten Tamkivi, GM of Skype Estonia (a detailed post to follow), he mentioned that Skype is migrating its development focus to becoming a platform developer from simply a client and services developer. In addition to a platform for Partners (discussed above), the recent licensing to MySpace is the first in the series of what they hope becomes Skype infrastructure technology licensing deals with other services as their route into, say, providing social networking infrastructure.

From my perspective these have been the top accomplishment within the Skype ecosystem in 2007. It has resulted in a cost effective conversation ecosystem that has no equal amongst VoIP service providers. However, this ecosystem is not near demonstrating its full potential; hopefully eBay will announce a new CEO soon who captain the ship into providing a "delightful user experience" at full sail.

Next: My projections for 2008. Related "Skype Primer" posts:

• A Backgrounder
• Enabling Real Time Communications
• Skype Hardware - If and When Available
• Skype's Extras Gallery and Developer Partner Program
• Mobile Conversations

Posted by Jim Courtney at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

In 2008...

1. More than a dozen Rich Presence services will come to market.

2. Alex Iskold: "Implicit applications, which monitor our habits and automatically infer our likes, will rise." But Skype will miss out on this, despite having enormous volumes of tremendously useful data.

3. eBay will hire a leader for Skype from outside the family. Finally.

4. Skype reorganizes, shakes things up. Twice.

5. Small layoffs and founder departures during the year and before Xmas 2008. Again.

6. Skype will publish APIs for white page directory services to their 550 million user accounts. No traction until their third major release in Q3.

7. Skype will publish APIs for yellow page directory listings, promoting Skypenomics.

8. Clinicians will use Skype for telemedicine.

9. An executive with power will threaten to move Skype's engineering from Tallinn.

10. The peak number of simultaneous users online will hit 16 million, fueled in part by iSkoot and Skypephone rollouts around the world

11. A US Presidential candidate will use the word "Internets" and not know it is meant to be ironic or self deprecating.

12. Skype will launch its biggest promotion ever for the Spring Festival travel season (Chunyun), bringing family webcam and voice visits to millions of Chinese who cannot move their atoms home for their Chinese New Year reunion dinner.

13. eBay will have a great year as the US economy slows down.

14. eBay will offer a bundle of Skype-related software, services and products. 100k PowerSellers will adopt Skype-connected CRM, IVR, and call center technologies for the first time.

15. The success of Santa1to1.com's Skypecam service delivery will inspire others to offer live consulting, education, entertainment and information over Skype.

16. Skype for XO, the One Laptop Per Child.

17. Skype for Chumby.

18. Skype for Cats.

19. Three large phone companies will make/buy "Skype-killers" for their customers. One will be worthwhile.
20. Skype's bizdev will land distribution deals on Lenovo and Sony laptops

21. Skype and Tencent will announce a partnership or joint venture.

22. March's Emerging Communications Conference, the Trillion Dollar Rethink, will revitalize and extend the defunct Emerging Telephony community.

23. Tallinn will fail to execute on identity interop architectures like OpenID, OpenSocial, OAuth remaining a walled garden.

24. Skype will try but fail to deliver a scalable, open web client.

25. Another year without Skype-integrated email.

26. Skype will not buy Jaduka.

27. Pacifica, Adobe's new realtime communications stack, will let their million flash designers create their own Skype-like clients in a day. Watch flash creatives like Braintank Studios turn banner ads into conference calls. Ribbit will be Adobe's biggest evangelist for VoIM in flash.

28. Someone will offer a Skype client for the 3G iPhone

29. Someone will demonstrate a Skype-like Silverlight client

30. Skype will try a new, dramatically improved Enterprise edition, and run smack into Microsoft FUD.

31. IM translation software will triple in popularity as US companies sell with a cheap dollar.

32. Skype, MySpaceIM and other IM/VoIM clients will be use in Get Out The Vote projects in the US Presidential Election. via Mark W. Johnson

33. Lobbying for the future of telecom leaves Washington D.C. as U.S. telecom and cable companies spend record amounts on local and regional political campaigns and advocacy. 

34. Google's live communication strategy will become visible, seductive, and a growing threat to the stand-alone VoIM space where Skype lives.

35. Photos of babies meeting grandparents over Skype video continue to be the most popular snapshots for "skype" on flickr.

36. The top Skype extra of 2008 will blend Skype multiuser chats with blogs, bulletin boards, wikis and social networks.

37. A Web 2.0 Predictions Generator will pass a Turing test.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 06:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

'Tis the season to reflect on social media, New Marketing and perception triggers in a Web 2.0 world.

Three weeks ago, in Delling with Bloggers: Listening, Engaging and Delighting the Users, I posted about a session with Dell's Richard Binhammer on Dell's experiences and some outcomes as a result of Dell's change in approach 18 months ago to dealing with the blogosphere. At the time I mentioned I had also had the pleasure of meeting a couple of times Lionel Menchaca, who is responsible for Dell's blog Direct2Dell. The initial months of Dell's blogging relationships were also reported in Shel Israel's and Robert Scoble's book, Naked Conversations.

Shel recently told me that the Dell case has become a "classic" in his presentations and discussions on the impact of social media on enterprise operations. Yesterday Shel, in his ongoing series of interviews for his SAP Global Report on Social Media's impact on culture and business, reported on an interview with Lionel that provides more insight into Dell's blogging activities, getting internal buy-in as well as rebuilding credibility with the blogosphere audience.

Recall Richard's comment: "You don't lose control by joining the conversation - you gain it. Not engaging online is when you lose control". In the interview Lionel talks a lot about managing control through blogging [author's bold]:

6. As you know, many enterprise decision makers are fearful of being shouted at, lack of adequate measurement tools, loss of message control, leaking secrets and of course--no clear ROI. How would you address each of these?

I think all of those issues are reasons why corporations stay away from joining conversations. I would argue though that the benefits of being part of the conversation outweigh all the risks. In my view, it’s really about facing the reality of the changes that are happening in front of us. Companies need to admit that control is shifting toward customers. More and more customers are talking about companies they either like or dislike. Those conversations happen with or without companies being actively involved. And it’s becoming increasingly clear that those conversations have more influence over perception than much of the marketing material and PR messages that companies produce.

We wrestle with measurement tools and ROI all the time for a couple of reasons:

• This is a new, but maturing field, and that means it will take time to develop tools and metrics that mean something on a broad scale
• Proving ROI in social media almost always involves looking at a topic over an extended period of time

In my view though, the real value in social media is that it has the potential to change customer perception in ways that just weren’t possible before. Just because that’s hard to measure doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing. Time will tell, but it seems to me that not being part of the conversation is a far riskier proposition.

The entire interview is definitely recommended reading. But then take the time to read two other thought provoking posts published today on the topics of New Marketing, passion, control and social media.

Hugh McLeod: "So What's All This New Marketing Stuff, Anyway?"

And Richard Binhammer: "Food for Though at Christmas".

Tags: Dell, Direct2Dell, Lionel Menchaca, Richard Binhammer, Shel Israel, Naked Conversations, SAP Global Report on Social Media, Hugh McLeod

Thanks to Hugh McLeod for the cartoon; if they stocked Stormhoek at LCBO I'd pick some up.

Posted by Jim Courtney at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Andy Abramson has been in Europe (UK, France and Spain) visiting clients and attending conferences. But he needs to keep in touch with not only his home office but also many of his contacts worldwide. This morning he put up a post "Skype's New Codecs Showing How [Much] Better They Can Be".

Now that I've been working from Europe for three weeks, while I've been working out of hotels I've been making extensive use of all types of mobile and laptop software for communications ranging from CounterPath's Eyebeam that works incredibly well with client Junction Networks onSip platform, GizmoProject, Skype and SightSpeed, I have to admit that Skype has really improved their off net audio quality, especially when it comes to calling mobile phones in the USA. At all times my connection has been WiFi, also providing additional validation to my concern that both DSL and Cable networks in the USA are not that "modern" and while good for non-real time data service, not very good for voice or video. To that end, all of my SightSpeed and Skype calls have been much "brighter" while here in Spain, where Telefonica has pretty much control of the network. I've had the same experience in the past in Portugal where PT pretty much has the access sewn up.

This past Thursday evening, from my home office near Toronto, I "joined" Andy at his hotel restaurant in Madrid for dinner. The hotel has excellent high speed WiFi support in the restaurant and special tables designed for those who wanted to access the Internet while eating. We each had our Skype video running - his on a Mac while I was able to run Skype's High Quality Video from my end (at Full Screen). Put on my FreeTalk Wireless Stereo headset; we had a half hour conversation as he ate and checked out the local wine. Lighting for Andy was supplied by his Mac screen; had to keep the screen saver from running!

Andy was seeing my High Quality Video (as indicated by the logo's presence at my end) throughout most of the conversation. The audio quality was as if we were across the table from each other. When I joined my family for dinner an hour later I mentioned that it was my second "dinner" of the evening. The video and audio quality improvements at Skype this past few months are making transoceanic "virtual dinner conversations" a reality.

While they still have their marketing and business operation challenges to overcome, Skype continues to set the barriers for the technology infrastructure required for real time conversations.

Tags: Skype, Skype Voice Quality, Skype HD Voice, High Quality Video, Andy Abramson, VoIP Watch, FreeTalk Wireless Stereo Headset

Posted by Jim Courtney at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's not just my imagination when traveling or attending business events this fall; the Blackberry is becoming evermore ubiquitous. Yesterday RIM reported results for their third quarter ending December 1 and the numbers exceeded analyst expectations:

• 1.65 million new Blackberry users
• > 3.9 million units sold (with 2.2 million upgrades)
• Revenue and net income doubled from same quarter a year ago;
  • Revenue up 22% from previous quarter; net income up 30%
• And on the consumer acceptance front, Globe and Mail Report on Business reports:

“It is clear from the results in this quarter that BlackBerry smart phones have crossed over,” RIM co-chief executive officer Jim Balsillie said during a Thursday conference call to discuss the Waterloo, Ont.-based company's third-quarter results with analysts.

“Black Friday¹ was a record day and it used to be an unusually slow day.”

While there are probably going to be some significant numbers reported for Apple's iPhone, RIM is certainly not being affected other than iPhone's raising the awareness of smart phones across a broader consumer base. And with the upgrade numbers, Blackberry certainly has a loyal user base moving up to 83xx Curves and 88xx Series offerings.

In other RIM developments:

• Globe and Mail ROB also reports on two potential new models: a Touchscreen device (Blackberry 9000?) with an iPhone-like touch sensitive display and a Pearl 2.0 with keyboard modifications.
• RIM is working with retailer Wireless Giant to open its first "Blackberry" store in Detroit's suburban Farmington Hills, MI.
• And in the same CBC report, RIM COO Don Morrison is quoted on the impact of high data plan rates: "North American carriers could sell eight or nine times more BlackBerry devices a week if they introduced cheaper data rates, like those in Europe."
• Building on previous Google "Blackberry" offerings, Om Malik reports: Blackberry Users Rejoice, Google Sync for Calendar Rocks:

one application that is going to pleasantly surprise everyone is the brand-new Google Sync, which makes your Google Calendar whisper sweet nothings to your Blackberry Calendar.

With the current and forthcoming Blackberry offerings, iPhones and the evolving Nokia N-Series and E-Series platforms, 2008 certainly has all the ingredients to be the "Year of the Smartphone". And will it also be the year of migration to 3G wireless in North America? It will be interesting to see where Skype plays in this space.

Related posts:

• Precursor to GPhone? On My Blackberry?
• Blackberry with WiFi - First Looks at the Blackberry 8820
• Getting to the Entire Rogers Data Plan Picture in Canada
• A Primer for Skype's Direction: Mobile Conversations

Tags: Blackberry, Research In Motion, RIM, iPhone, Wireless Giant, Jim Balsille, Don Morrison, Om Malik, Google Sync

¹Black Friday is the unofficial launch of the U.S. Christmas buying season on the Friday following U.S. Thanksgiving.

Disclosure: The author has been the holder of a minuscule number of Research in Motion shares since 1998 and has now attended ten annual meetings that are held one hour from his home base.

Posted by Jim Courtney at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

UK's regulatory agency may finally force Skype into providing 911 services at which point providing Canadian SkypeIn may become trivial.

A major issue for Canadian Skypers is the unavailability of Canadian SkypeIn numbers. We Canadians can have US SkypeIn numbers and UK (or several Eurocountry) SkypeIn numbers but not Canadian SkypeIn numbers. I recently confirmed with a CRTC spokesperson that, in addition to the need for Skype to obtain a business agreement with a Canadian CLEC (Rogers, Bell, Telus, etc.) to provide SkypeIn numbers, they also need to provide e911 services to be in compliance with CRTC regulations. And this would involve contracting with a Canadian 911 service provider as does DID provider Unlimitel. But that is not the entire story; Skype would also have to provide callerID service to be in compliance with e911.

Well, it seems the holiday in the UK is about to come to an end. Andy Abramson at VoIP Watch brings our attention to a new requirement for UK operators of VoIP services to provide access to the '999' emergency services number. Seems like, in spite of all the disclaimers by VoIP service providers, 78% of households believe the could call 999 from their VoIP service. Another case of customers simply wanting a service to be transparent to the underlying communications technology:

Ofcom's decision to require access to emergency services has been made because of the confusion that consumers face with the ever merging of phone and Internet services. It will be more and more difficult to discern whether a telephone call is routed over VoIP or the traditional PSTN network, especially for someone who doesn't understand the technology or isn't aware of the specific setup at a location.

Effectively it appears that Ofcom will force Skype to put together the legal and technical infrastructure for providing emergency services for SkypeIn numbers. So, while Canada became totally independent of the UK politically in 1931 and repatriated its constitution in 1982, it may take a UK regulatory authority to force Skype's hand on providing SkypeIn number compliant with CRTC e911 emergency services requirements. Rule Britannia and all that! Or, is this a case of the (British) Empire strikes back?

Tags: Skype, SkypeIn, SkypeIn Canada, Ofcom, CRTC, Unlimitel, Rogers, Bell Canada, Telus, Allstream, Andy Abramson, VoIP Watch

Posted by Jim Courtney at 04:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

by an unknown artist

One of Skype Journal's longest comment threads is about hidden Skype emoticons with examples of emoticon art text. Please share your own versions of holiday cheer and national pride.

Copy the following text into a Skype chat to make the Pizza Pie Xmas Tree...

(clap) (clap)(clap)(clap)(clap) (pi) (clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)
(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(pi)(pi)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)
(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)
(clap)(clap)(clap)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(clap)(clap)(clap)
(clap)(clap)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(clap)(clap)
(clap)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(clap)
(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)
(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(pi)(pi)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)
(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)
(clap)(clap)(clap)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(clap)(clap)(clap)
(clap)(clap)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(clap)(clap)
(clap)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(clap)
(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)
(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(pi)(pi)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)
(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)
(clap)(clap)(clap)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(clap)(clap)(clap)
(clap)(clap)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(clap)(clap)
(clap)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(clap)
(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)(pi)
(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(pi)(pi)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)
(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)(hug)(pi)(pi)(hug)(clap)(clap)(clap)(clap)
(clap)(clap)(clap)(hug)(hug)(pi)(pi)(hug)(hug)(clap)(clap)(clap)
(clap)(clap)(hug)(hug)(hug)(pi)(pi)(hug)(hug)(hug)(clap)(clap)
(clap)(hug)(hug)(hug)(hug)(pi)(pi)(hug)(hug)(hug)(hug)(clap)
(F)(F)(F)(F)(F)(F)(F)(F)(F)(F)(F)(F)

Posted by Phil Wolff at 01:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The happy Santas at Santa1to1.com will Skype you for €10 for a voice call or €17 for a high quality "Santa Cam" call in English, Finnish or Spanish.

This blend of Call center, Skype, and North Pole is a great example of Skypenomics at work.

1. Marketing. Professionals offer a real time entertainment service.
2. Discovery. Customers discover the service, via the web in this case.
3. Coordination. They arrange a time (before December 26th in this seasonal case) and a channel (phone, Skype voice, Skype video).
4. Negotiation. They arrange payment, in this case a fixed fee that bypasses Skype's Prime service.
5. Delivery. They deliver the service, in this case over Skype.
6. Payment. Major credit cards accepted. And PayPal, Skype's sister company.
7. Reinforcement. Children dance with glee! Santa sends an mp3 or video file so you can experience it again.
8. Virality. Parents book times for next year and tell all their friends and family. I cannot wait to see what shows up on YouTube.

From another Skype Journal post:

Simply, Skype helps people sell intangibles to each other the way eBay helps people sell atoms to each other. The intangibles markets are much larger than the goods markets, a humongous opportunity. Few companies have mastered the art of making those markets work online, but Skype is trying to learn, with Skype Find and the Skype Prime Beta and more services to come. Do you believe we live in an information, knowledge, entertainment, and service economy? Skype looks like a strategic investment.

Skype staff blogger Halina Mugame interviewed Alex Bright, CEO of Santa1to1. Find out what webcam Santa Claus uses and why Alex decided to start the service.

And to all a Good Skype!

Posted by Phil Wolff at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tis the season for bringing utilities and products out of beta; Yesterday I reported on PamConsult's PamFax coming out of beta with the addition of scanning and printer driver support.. At almost the same instant I received notification that Skype has made generally available version 1.1 of its Outlook Email Toolbar, a tool which I use frequently for launching Skype and SkypeOut calls directly from Outlook.

The new features include:

• support for Outlook 2007.(the major one)
• improved startup performance (except the first time you log into a profile)
• changes to improve overall performance as an Outlook plug-in
  • for instance, selecting appointments is no longer supported
  • on demand analyzing of other email recipients

To expand on the last comment: "When you create a conference, multichat etc from an email the other recipients (apart from the sender) are analyzed when needed, not in advance."

Skype Toolbar Product Manager Peter Kalmstrom has more details here on the Skype for Business blog; he has also created an instructive screencast here.

I have been a member of the beta program for this utility over the past three months and can testify that the new version has also eliminated one "nuisance bug" I was experiencing with the earlier version. Having followed the Outlook beta test group chat, I can also testify that it went through some fairly rigorous and aggressive testing to ensure that it works with both Outlook "Internet" and Outlook "MS Exchange" and across VPN connections.

Also, someone raised the question whether this utility is competitive with Skylook. Skylook is a prime example of a developer who has found a market niche and addressed it. Whereas the Skype Outlook Toolbar certainly facilitates making Skype/SkypeOut calls, Skylook provides a tool for archiving all your conversations, whether voice or chat, into an Outlook folder for ready recall from within Outlook. As a result Skylook is very useful as a Customer Relationship Management tool. Phil reports on a recent interview with Skylook Founder Jeremy Hague in Melbourne's The Age.

Along with the Skype Browser Toolbar for Firefox, the Skype Outlook Toolbar, continues to be a major component of my "I don't dial phone numbers any more" campaign.

Tags: Skype, Skype Outlook Toolbar, Skylook, Peter Kalmstrom, Outlook 2007, SkypeOut

Posted by Jim Courtney at 08:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Those folks at Engadget have been reading through the FCC applications again and uncovered an application from Creative for their (forthcoming?) inPerson wireless video conferencing phone. Interesting feature set claimed, including:

• VGA camera (640 x 480)
• 802.11b/g WiFi and Ethernet
• TI DaVinci graphics chip, designed for set-top boxes and handhelds
• 76-degree wide angle lens with "excellent low light performance"
• fully integrated with SightSpeed accounts
• TV out port
• Battery life: 2 hours, increasing to 5 hours using TV out
• no pricing available

Gallery of photos, probably taken from the FCC application. In order to attract an initial customer base, it seems like they've also partnered with SightSpeed as the device apparently incorporates SightSpeed support including "automatic SightSpeed account login, speed dials, call history and contact list management".

From my experience with Skype's High Quality Video and the subsequent reviews of the Logitech QuickCam 9000 Pro one would have to question if Creative has taken similar steps to Skype's partnering arrangement with Logitech to allow 30 fps video at 640 x 480 resolution over a 384 kbps upload speed.. I can also see end user network configurations issues to make it a practical consumer device. At the moment SightSpeed requries a 1.5 Mbps upload speed (well beyond standard broadband upload speeds of < 1Mbps). to support 640 x 480 @ 30 fps. Or has Creative licensed webcam technology from Logitech?

To go out on a speculative limb, can this portend a future Skype Video phone from, say, Logitech using their Carl Zeiss optics and RightLight^TM2 low light sensing. Recall Skype and Logitech had to work together to adapt the Logitech Carl Zeiss cameras, through both device drivers and adaptation of Skype's p2p technology, to work at these specifications.

And how many telecom platforms will we have on our desk, in our house or on our belt (mobile devices). The world is a long way from figuring out where and how it wants to wear video. I am slowly adapting just using the High Quality Video for my Skype calls from my PC as a standard component of my conversations.

Tags: Creative, FCC, Engadget, Skype, Logitech, SightSpeed, TI DaVinci, Logitech QuickCam 9000 Pro

Posted by Jim Courtney at 03:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Skype Journal friend Jeremy Hague was featured in Melbourne's The Age about Internet café worklife. A bit from Nick Miller's article:

Hague's two year-old business is called Skylook. It's built around a modest but useful piece of software that, for $50, brings together Skype's free internet telephony and Microsoft's Outlook. Customers all over the world download the software off the net.

It's not a business model that lends itself to an office. Marketing is done via word of mouth, reviews, or Google ads, which are booked and monitored online. There are no sales staff. There is no boardroom. Welcome to Web 2.0, the burgeoning interactive internet economy.

Hague got bored spending all day staring at a computer screen at home. So, gradually, he found the cafes around Melbourne that offered free wi-fi and made them his office.

"I have everything I need right here," he says. "I've got my mobile Skype phone, a Dell laptop. I come here, plug this in and I'm at work. If I have to see a customer or someone in the media, it's pretty cool to meet in a good location without paying $600 a week for a little, shitty office. You just have to drink enough coffee to defuse the guilt."

His company also makes Callburner, a popular Skype call recorder for Microsoft Windows. 

Congratulations on your new baby girl, Jeremy!

Posted by Phil Wolff at 01:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

The Consumer Electronics Show is one of the world's great gadget fests. Manufacturers show their 2008 product lines to book distribution deals and earn publicity. [email editor at skypejournal dot com to set up interviews, briefings, parties, etc.] 

On my gear wishlist... 

Multimodal Communication. Show me new ways to mix media in my conversations. The VoIM folks - Skype, Google, ICQ, AOL, QQ, Yahoo, Microsoft - use an IM user interface:

• Do you have a gaming interface? Piano controls? A fishing reel paradigm?
• Where is my facebook toy bear?
• Does your Home Of The Future include an intercom?
• Does your SIP phone support IM? Video? Mood indicators?

Break the mold with mixed modes, please.

Rich Presence in Gear. Talk to me about the rich presence information your product produces, brokers, or accepts.

• Does your digital telescope produce an RSS feed of stars you've seen?
• Does your car's navigation device give your calendar a list of places you've been?
• Does your bicycle helmet tell your phone that you are on the road?
• Does your TiVo mark my Google Calendar with what's on for tonight and my blog show what I watched and how I liked it?

I'm gaga over the next generation of presence, write about it, speak about it, and always want more real world examples. I own and edit Skype Journal and am on the advisory panels for January's Presence 2.0 and March's Emerging Communications conferences. If you have a presence product, talk to me.

See you at CES.

Posted by Phil Wolff at 11:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

... adds scanning and print driver features for sending faxes worldwide.

Back in August PamConsult, publishers of the Pamela universal Skype utility with call recording, conversation archiving, message personalization and audio emoticons, entered the Skype Mashup competition with their beta release of PamFax. At the time PamFax would allow you to select a (Word or PDF) document and fax it to any destination. At the Prague developer event in September PamFax was announced as the worldwide winner of the (first?) Skype Mashup Competition. Dick Schiferli at PamConsult reports that PamFax has been quite busy delivering faxes for Skype users since the September launch.

Today PamConsult has released PamFax for general availability; in this release PamFax adds two important new features:

• the ability to scan a document from any Windows-compatible scanner for faxing, and
• a PamFax print driver which allows you to select PamFax as a printer and turns every fax machine worldwide into a potential printer for your Windows print operation.

I have been beta testing the new edition of PamFax with three scanners: a 5-year-old HP4470C, a 7-year old HP OfficeJet T45 and a one-year old Lexmark 8350 over the past few weeks. It is safe to report that, after several iterations, PamFax now works flawlessly with these scanners or multi-function devices. PamConsult has also been running beta tests with several other parties to obtain feedback on a wide range of scanners. (I think the HP4470C and its siblings presented the biggest challenge but now they work fine.)

PamFax installs as a Skype Extra. Initially you will have to download it from the PamFax website; the released version (1.0.0.29) should appear in the Skype Extras within a few weeks. My only caveat: after installing PamFax: reboot your PC to ensure that all the "appropriate associations" between PamFax, the scanner(s) and Skype are properly established. You can then launch PamFax from the Skype Extras menus, a desktop icon,as a Printer for any Windows application.or via the "Send To" menu in Windows Explorer.

To quickly review PamFax:

• is a web-based program accessed via a Skype Extras client
• has three document source modes: Wiindows document, scanner and printer driver
• allows optional selection of cover page
• uses Skype Credits, via the Skype Extras transaction engine, for payments
  • there is now an alternative for USA-based suers to use Amazon payments
• delivers fax status notification via Skype chat, e-mail and/or SMS
• provides a user portal for tracking fax activities
• has SSL security
• is totally ad hoc: no upfront payments, no subscriptions, no registration
• is added to the Windows Explorer "Send To" menu as "PamFax Recipient"

While, for cost reasons, I will probably continue to use my home office fax machine for sending scanned images or working documents within North America I can see using PamFax for faxing documents:

• to destinations outside North America
• from remote "road warrior" locations: hotels, customer offices, coffee shops, airports, or any available WiFi access point
  • locations that have been charging $1.00 per page or more.

PamFax has become another disruptive communications application that, like Skype itself, transcends specific carriers and eliminates geographical restrictions and physical barriers to sending faxes. And, as one who has never mastered the complexities of WinFax, PamFax provides a much easier, more user friendly "faxing from anywhere" solution.

Tags: Skype, PamFax,