Navoto fights roaming with Skype

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.

Omri Navot was one of the first to pioneer hardware that added value for Skype users. Skype Journal introduced his SkyQube from Singapore's Qool Labs in April 2006. Now his own company, UGI Telecom, an original design manufacturer in Rehovot, Israel, is releasing the gateway today.

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.

tags: navoto, hardware, software, gsm, mobile, gateway, skype, skypeout, israel, is, emea

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
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Photo on wood table: Navoto. Other photos and chart: Phil Wolff.

Skype for Kindle? No way, says Amazon.

Wouldn't it be cool to have book readers that could IM and offer presence? Maybe take or make phone calls? Now that Amazon announced it will open its Kindle book readers to third party developers, Skype could build an app for this new platform.

No it can't. Amazon warns "Voice over IP functionality, advertising, offensive materials, collection of customer information without express customer knowledge and consent, or usage of the Amazon or Kindle brand in any way are not allowed."

I can think of three reasons for this ban:

1. Amazon is worried about using up a year's worth of data plan with one long phone call.
2. Amazon contracted to ban VoIP at the request of its mobile carriers.
3. Amazon wants to reserve VoIP for a future Kindle product. The Amazon phone?

Kindles have a mobile phone built in and a lifetime data plan, apparently a dream VoIP device (although better speakers, a microphone, and a webcam would be nice). Amazon will require apps to pay for data transfers at $0.15 per megabyte. So I'm betting Amazon is most concerned with keeping the costs of their mobile plan affordable for users.

tags: skype, amazon, netneutrality, voip, blocking

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Review: The new IPEVO Solo adds Wi-Fi, lowers cost

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.

We've reviewed this phone before and liked it in January 2008. 

Things I still like:

• 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.

Buy it from IPEVO Store. Amperor Direct. Fry's. Amazon.

tags: skype, ipevo, deskphone, desk, phone, telephone, solo, s0-10, firmware, embedded

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private technologist roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Why Skype needed to kill off its developer program

Killing Skype's developer program was an exercise in business discipline. You prune your tree of small, weak, sickly branches so nutrients and sunlight let the whole tree flourish.

Skype's developer program (SDP) has been bloodless for years. By every measure. Growth in programmers. Number of ecosystem products. Value contributed.

What devalued Skype's developer program?

5. Musical chair management.

I've lost count of the number of managers who've taken a stab at leading Skype developer relations in the last six years. It takes time and focus to be good at devrels, to build your devrels organization, to establish rapport and relationships with prospective partners.

4. Underfunding.

Skype's management shortchanged the developer program for Skype's first four years. DevRels never got the budget or headcount it needed to educate, evangelize and support developers. Software and hardware certifications, intended to promote the Skype brand and build trust, instead became a barrier to entry and a costly delay. 

Metaphor Bank:
Prune a tree,
Remove chometz,
A controlled burn,
Put down a diseased pet,
Excise a tumor,
Balance a project portfolio,
Dumping ballast,
set developers free (Schumpeter creative destruction).

3. Broken trust.

Two steps forward, one step crushing partners. Skype me for the sad details of developers who bet on Skype's constancy and lost. Lost money. Lost jobs. Lost careers. A trail of tears and dashed hopes.

2. Who You Know.

Want to get something done with Skype? You needed an inside friend. Skype's much better now that a process culture's emerging, but it's still true.

1. Six Year Old Technology.

The perfect developer relations program cannot put lipstick on a pig.

1a. Client-only Calling APIs: So no putting Skype inside your app.

Skype's web services are all proprietary, off-limits to the ecosystem. Skype runs "naked Skype" server farms to support its Skype Lite mobile application. Skype Lite does most things a desktop client does, through Internet APIs, and without resource hungry user interfaces. It's an internal Skype as a Platform service.

Skype's third-party developers want Skype as a Platform. A SaaP would bring Skype features and the Skype network to web and mobile applications. Web applications are nearly always better business than rich clients. They cost less, don't have installation problems, are less prone to user failure, are always fresh, and take less time for customers to get their first Aha! experience.

1b. Closed Skype client: So no putting your app inside Skype.

Skype keeps users from seeing third party developers. With the Adobe Photoshop Plugin and Firefox Extension architectures, for example, you can write apps that live inside Photoshop or Firefox. They improve a user's productivity and alter the user experience. They bring specialist expertise to the exact point where users need them.

While Skype's Public API (downloadable SDK) lets your desktop program talk to Skype's desktop software, it doesn't let you change what users see and do. The Skype UI is off-limits, verboten, pristine.

So you cannot offer inline language translation, extended emoji sets, inline Yahoo! Calendar reminders, or enrich contact profiles with updates about your friends' activities. If you cannot put your enhancements where a user needs them, why build them? 

In short, the business and technology sides of the SDP were impaired to the point of irrelevance.

Skype needs to reset the program. And its platform.

More soon.

tags: skype, devrels, developers, apis, saap

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Ben Lilienthal on HiDef Audio, Skype, and conferencing

I talked with Ben Lilienthal last week about his HiDefConferencing.com business at Citrix. HiDef is the only conference bridge that lets Skype directly into a call with Skype's high quality audio, established in 2003 alongside Skype.

SJ: What are users' biggest problems with audio conferencing at it is today?

Ben Lilienthal: Cost. Clarity around pricing and expected cost.

How does audio conferencing fit into the world of social software and social media?

I'm not sure it does. We offer asynchronous components that let you upload meeting recordings to blogs and other web sites. Could that fit in? Over half of users use the recording feature.

What does high definitions audio mean to you today? Is that changing?

It means 16x16 or 16x22 [bit rate x sample rate]. It's becoming more prevalent. It's not anything more ubiquitous. When we launched HiDef two years' ago nobody had heard of high definition.

What companies or institutions need to support HD audio for it to be more than a niche offering?

We're seeing it in Skype, Cisco, Polycom (Siren codec). Lots of siloed approaches. I don't know how you make it a ubiquitous standard when they each have their own.

When will we see your iPhone app?

I'm not convinced that you will for the audio.

What do you make of Skype's SILK wideband audio codec release?

It requires a significant engineering effort and we're a little reluctant to make the investment because Skype seems to be eating their young. Nobody else seems to be using SILK. Besides, do I want a relationship with a partner who may throw me out the door?

What capabilities do you want Skype's gateway to offer you that don't exist now? What would you like to improve or change?

We're pretty happy with it. We only use Skype as a means of access to our service. We probably do more than five million minutes a month in Skype traffic.

Citrix has a growing family of services, including GoToMeeting. Will the audio parts of your sister business units be adopting your audio infrastructure? Will HiDef Audio continue under its own name?

We are using the HiDef bridge with our GoToWebinar customers. Starting in the fourth quarter, you'll have the option for HiDef when you buy the toll free option in GoToMeeting.

What are some of the big trends you're following in the conferencing space?

It's a race to the bottom, like what happened to long distance a decade ago. So we're differentiating on quality, ease of use, pricing, packaging. We're selling on features, ease of use.

Integration with web conferencing is a big one. Being able to go to GoToMeeting with high definition, for example.

Multiple points of ingress to a call: phones, Skype, and browser.

See also in Skype Journal:

• SILK: Skype's New Audio Codec Sets New Performance Standards for Voice Conversations
• SILK performs better
• Codec Wars: Yahoo! Messenger 10 + GIPS Video
• Fidelity Wars: Microsoft strains video call resolution
• Managing the Google/On2 merger at Skype
• Could Plantronics launch the first SILK Bluetooth headset? [no]
• Skype Red: The Hardware Story [fiction]
• Skype will license its superwideband codec for free
• Skype to announce… something? at eComm09
• High Definition Voice: Bringing Skype's High Bandwidth Audio to Conference Calls
• It's Now Official: HiDefConferencing Rebranding Has Happened
• VAPPS leaves freemium for HiDef Conferencing
• Another Skype Partner Acquired: VAPPS Goes to Citrix
• VAPPS Rebrands Its Service: High Definition Conferencing
• Alternatives to Skypecasts

Photo: Copyright 2008 James Duncan Davidson.

tags: skype, citrix, hidefconferencing, benlilianthal, hdaudio

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Developer: "badly managed"

Comment by an anonymous independent Skype Developer Program member since 2005, enthusiastic about Skype Extras since it was announced.

This again represents a lack of good management at Skype.

Skype as part of eBay could have worked really well if there were the people with a vision and the will to see through that vision. For example the "Skype alert" facility which passed eBay messages to Skype as a chat message was great. Until the feature was dropped in Skype version 4!

A company such as Skype is only as strong as the people around it. This means the end-users and, very importantly, the developer ecosystem. Microsoft has always been good at getting developers "into bed" with them.

Skype has shown that it regards the developer community as not being of interest to them, because it believes that the Skype Extras program has not attracted much interest. The reason for that is that it was badly managed: new entries and updates to Skype Extras took too long to appear, there was no clear and easy way to monetize an Extra once it was there and overall one gets the feeling that Skype didn't really "care" about this project.

tags: skype, devrels, extras

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Skype Eats More Young: RIP Skype's software developers relations program.

Skype clients have APIs. Thousands of developers wrote Mac, Windows, and Linux software controlling a Skype client through the API. Call recording, desktop sharing, games, commerce; thousands of products.

While Skype will maintain the API, the developer relations program around it is over. The commerce component: Dead. "Skype Certified" software: Dead. Support: Dead.

Skype will continue to engineer the communications API.

They won't help you promote your software.
They won't help you test and improve your software.
They won't help you co-brand your software.
They won't help you distribute your software.
They won't help you sell your software.
They won't help you process payments.
They won't help you keep up to date on API changes.

Not that they'd executed terribly well on these in the past.

But that's what they're defunding.

Presumably all that energy and money will go into a new program for developers. Skype moved some of its devrels people to new teams, some to a team working on the public version of Skype's future cloud communications platform.

Was there a good reason to kill off the old program before the new one was up? Skype won't say. Will the old community fare poorly on the new platform? Does the current community of developers not build a million dollars in yearly value to the Skype brand? Do these developers have anywhere else to turn?

This Dear John letter went out today to registered developers along with a blog post saying much the same thing. 

Subject: The future of Skype Extras Program
From: [Someone at Skype]

Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:52:23 +0100

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am contacting you on behalf of the Skype Extras Program.

Unfortunately I have to announce that the Skype Extras program will be shut down, effective September 11rd 2009.  Despite the incredible breadth of Extras developed for Skype, simply not enough people were using them to justify our continued support of the Extras program.  It was a tough decision for us, but we want to ensure that we prioritize our time and resources to deliver our core products such as voice and video, expanding Skype among business users, and expanding Skype into mobile and other platforms. The following changes will be effective from September 11th onwards:

• We have decided that we will no longer certify new Extras. However, all existing Extras will stay certified until their expiration dates and all unused test tickets will be reimbursed.
• We will continue to distribute applications through the existing Extras Manager in Skype for Windows but will no longer add new Extras to the Extras Manager.
• All public API documents will continue to be maintained Skype will also support accessories via the Public API.
• The Skype Shop <http://shop.skype.com/extras/>  will continue to support the currently listed Extras

This decision also influences the payment terms that are currently in place. After December 11, Skype will no longer allow the use of Skype credit by 3rd Party Extras developers. A final invoice detailing the full amount of the gross revenue received from Skype users must be submitted within 45 days of this date. After the 25th of January, Skype will no longer be able to process publisher invoices.

We understand the impact that this decision will have on our community. If you have any additional questions regarding the payment terms or any of the other listed changes please don't hesitate to contact me.

Best Regards,

See also: Alec Saunders' Go Big, or Go Home. But Please, Spare Us The Whinging….

tags: skype, devrels, extras

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

RTX retires the Cordless USB DualPhone

Guest post by Joerg Droege. Joerg has used Skype since its first release and blog about social and communications technology on Nafcom's Crap Blog!. 

RTX denies the USB Skype DualPhone works in Vista even though it has been fixed for it.

That's right! RTX denies the USB Skype DualPhone works in Vista even though it has been fixed for it. Here are the updated FAQs which read:

"Q: Can I use USB DUALphone together with Windows Vista?
A: No, you can only use Windows XP/2000/2003-server with the product."

However quoting the release notes:

"Release notes for cordless DUALphone suite v2.22
14/12 2006
[...]
- Added support for Windows Vista.
-----
Release notes for cordless DUALphone suite v2.32
2/5 2007
[...]
- Bugfix: Vista audio device handling.
- Bugfix: Vista User Account Control (UAC) issues.
-----
02/10 2007
[...]
- Vista sound devices: Automatically show hidden devices."

This step is very unlogical and sad in my eyes. I hope it will work nicely in Wndows 7!

So I started an inquiry and here is the answer I received:

"If you have Vista, MAC, UNIX or LINUX systems on your computer it is not sure that it will work, this product is an old product, which was produced before these things came on the marked.

You can only use Windows XP/2000/2003-server with the product.

This product is no longer being tested or produced, and therefore we cannot do the support on something we have not tested."

A few notes:

Truly, it has not been certified to work with Skype 4.1 but it works (There has not changed too much things that would break the support of the DualPhone API interface.)

They also should give credit to the previous product manager Carsten Helmuth because thanks to him the Dualphone Suite was fixed for working with Windows Vista (32 bit and 64 bit) as you can see the progress documented by the release notes log PDF.

So their statement that the DualPhone has never been tested under Windows Vista is wrong. That means as soon as it doesn't work in newer Skype versions and/or Windows 7 X64, I need a new Skype USB/DECT phone.

RTX puts an end to an awesome Skype phone product, the first DualPhone that was really awesome and professional but also affordable to the Skype freaks that wanted something sophisticated.

2004 is where it started, 2009 is maybe where it will end.

[Editor: RTX is now out of the retail products business under their own name. Now they are exclusively an Original Design Manufacturer (ODM), making devices for other companies, leaving Skype product branding and retailing to others.]

See also:

• DU@Lphone - Skype Handset, Skype Journal review by Stuart Henshall, August 31, 2005.
• A Portal Telephone from RTX: value beyond voice, Skype Journal, by Torben Nyhuus, January 22, 2006
• DualPhone upgrades to Skype 2.0 features, Skype Journal, by Bill Campbell, March 10, 2006

tags: skype, rtx, rtx.dk, dualphone, phones, handsets, wireless, cablefree

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Fidelity Wars: Microsoft strains video call resolution

From the Competition Is Good Department. Microsoft will sell its upgraded LifeCam webcam starting September 9. The "Cinema's" resolution is now 720p, 1280×720 pixels at 30 frames per second.

Your PC must convert all that video into streamable bits. The image encoding/decoding and compression take serious processor power, lots of memory, and real broadband bandwidth. Microsoft says this requires a dual core 1.6GHz processor, and recommends a 3GHz dual core processor and 2GB of memory. No news yet on which drivers and codecs they'll use, how much burden using the Cinema will put on your system (will you be able to run Outlook while calling?), nor how much bandwidth a HD video call will take.

This year Skype published the free SILK audio codec for wideband audio at the same bandwidth and Google announced it's buying On2, the maker of Skype's video engine. The race to fidelity hasn't been this hot since Skype promoted the GIPS audio codec suite in 2003, followed by Yahoo!, Google, AOL, and Microsoft.

LifeCam Cinema Features: 4x digital zoom, glass lens, auto focus, Microsoft "ClearFrame" frame-rate doubling technology, noise-cancelling microphone, Windows Live calling button, aluminum body. For Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. £70 or $80.

tags: cameras, webcams, microsoft, lifecam, cinema, skype, clearframe, codec, compression, HD

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Will a MicrosoftOnNokia deal affect the SkypeOnNokia deal?

Details will come in about six hours on another distribution agreement between Microsoft and Nokia, this time for a mobile edition of Microsoft Office 2010. A previous arrangement preloaded Microsoft Live products, including Skype rival Windows Live Messenger, on Nokia Series 40 and 60 handsets. Meanwhile, Skype hasn't shown up in retail channels preinstalled on some lines of Nokia's smart phones, as announced in February 2009 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. [UPDATE: Skype and Nokia committed to release by the end of September 2009.] Will Skype be positioned as prominently as Live Messenger? Will mobile Office drive more Messenger use by tight Office-Messenger integration? Skype will sync with (share?) the N97's address book; will Messenger? Will an Office bundle come with Live Messenger? Will the mobile operators who block Skype distribution also object to Live Messenger?

tags: skype, microsoft, nokia, office, messenger

Call me at +1-510-316-9773, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Skype store sells third-party software

Four companies now sell their software in the US and UK Skype stores. All are Skype Certified and three have been Skype partners for years. Skype operates stores for many markets. 13 Skype "Extras" are available in all thirty of Skype's English language stores (Australia, Belarus, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, New Zealand, Oman, Philippines,  Qatar, Serbia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, UAE, United Kingdom, United States).

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.

tags: skype, devrels, store, pamconsult, pamela, pamfax, prettymay, netralia, skylook, cucku

Call me at +1-510-455-4384, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

GigaOm: No Skype for Palm Pre yet.

"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.

tags: skype, palm, pre, palm pre, webOS, mobile

Call me at +1-510-455-4384, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

When Skype Goes Mobile: INQ1

Guest post by Martyn Davies, News Editor at VoIP User,  Principal Consultant at Dialogic, Podcaster at Blue Box: The VoIP Security Podcast, and contributor to the Voice of VOIPSA blog. @martyndavies on twitter.

The INQ¹ is the third generation of phones from the “3” network (Hutchison 3G) that has Skype integrated into it. The INQ1 is designed and made by a division of 3, so the handset is currently for 3 only, and more handset models are expected to follow this year. On 3, Skype calls are free, which means that INQ1 to Skype (on a PC/Mac) calls are free as well as INQ1 to INQ1. 3 also offer flat-rate data (even for prepay customers), and this gives a lot of freedom to use IM and social networking without the bill worries.

Brushed, Bright and Vibrant

The INQ1 comes beautifully packaged in a cuboid box with a Japanese painting design. Opening the box you see the handset itself (in my case silver, there is also a matt-black version), with all the cables, power supply and so on underneath. The handset itself has a brushed metal case and feels strong and substantial; the screen is bright and vibrant, and the sound is good and loud. The handset is quite thick because it has a slider that reveals the keypad underneath. The slide action is strong, and tactile. The keylock is automatic when you shut the handset.

I won’t go in to the full specs, as they’re available on the 3 website [editor: inserted following this review], but it has an adequate camera for still/video (with comparable quality to my Nokia E71, although without flash).

A stereo headset is provided for hands-free and music listening, although unfortunately this has quite an ugly connector that goes into the side, making the phone less easy to put in a narrow pocket. There’s one connector for everything, a mini-USB that accepts the power supply, data cable and the headphones. It has 3G data (HSDPA) and can be used as a PC modem (tether), via cable or Bluetooth.

It also has a micro-SD slot, so you can store quite a bit of music or photographs/videos.

Social Mobile Software

The key feature of this handset is obviously the integration of Skype and other social networking features. 3 have been pushing this hard with the Skype (S1, S2) phones, and the INQ1 is offered with the same free calling to Skype contacts. The Skype client in this phone works well, and offers presence, IM and calling as you would expect. The only niggle I had was in the implementation of Skype chats, which seemed to want to open a new chat window every time someone posted to the chat.

Once you have logged-in with your Skype credentials, the client offers to integrate the contacts into your address book. In fact it does this trick for Facebook (FB) too, and this turns out to be a very compelling feature of the INQ1. Once done, all of your contacts appear in the same contact directory, with an icon to show which social network each contact comes from. There is also a ‘favourites’ list; so it is possible to make a preferential list of your ‘real-life’ friends, so that you don’t get swamped by FB and Skype contacts if they number in the hundreds. When you receive a call, caller ID is used to match up with the FB list, so the handset can display the photo of your friend downloaded from FB.

A further integration feature is that all the messaging inboxes also appear in a single list. The Messages screen shows you inbox (= texts), FB inbox (also pokes and requests), Skype chats, Windows Messenger chats and email. It’s great to have that all in one place. The email is slightly schizophrenic, in that 3 offer an email aggregator (to pull emails out of existing accounts), but there is also the separate Gmail application.

There are other useful applications too. In addition to Gmail, there is Google Search and Google Maps (a cut-down version with no location features). The music player is quite useable, and can log-on to your Last.fm account and ‘scrobble’, i.e. tell the world in real-time what music tracks you are listening to. The web browser works well, and I find that I use it a lot in ‘landscape’ mode, as turning the phone sideways does switch the display. This landscape trick also works in the music player.

Navigation between applications uses a side-button (the ‘switcher’) that controls a horizontal app ribbon at the bottom of the screen. You can quite happily run multiple apps (e.g. browser, Skype, music player) and switch between them quickly and efficiently.

Most of my criticisms of the handset are really trivial: The FB font is incredibly tiny and (unlike the browser) couldn’t be changed using the +/- buttons; the landscape mode screen should work in all apps; the volume control wasn’t granular enough, and jumped to fast from quiet to “too loud”. Also, because I’ve been using Twitter a fair bit recently, it would have been nice to have a built-in app for that.

All in all, it’s a well-made phone with a lot of features of a smartphone for much less money (£80). I imagine this handset appealing most to people in their teens and twenties, and with these kind of features built-in to a prepay handset, I'm sure there will be a lot of interest.  3 is the smallest of the five UK mobile phone networks, but they’ve already seen that the Skypephones help retain the notoriously fickle prepay customers. What 3 are trying to do in this area of Skype/social software integration is still unique, and kudos to them for creating their own path among the mobile operators.

tags: skype, 3, hutch, Hutchison Whampoa Limited, hutchison, inq1, facebook, fb, mobile, handset, inq¹, review, uk

Call me at +1-510-455-4384, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

From 3's data sheet:

Overview

The INQ¹ handset is the next device to feature in our internet category and is designed exclusively for 3. It takes the principle of easy-to-use internet to new levels and is the world’s first fully integrated social networking phone. Purpose built for 3 customers in the UK this handset is designed to get the best out of the biggest and best 3G network in the UK.

Highlights

Internet services such as Facebook, Skype, Windows Live Messenger and Last.fm are deeply integrated into the handset, transforming the mobile internet experience that consumers are used to.

But rather than constrain internet usage with artificial caps on downloads we’ve created a new tariff which, for only £15 a month, provides UNLIMITED mobile internet access, UNLIMITED texts, UNLIMITED 3 to 3 calls and 75 cross network minutes. Or for £20 a month you can get the same deal, but with 200 cross network minutes.

Pricing Info

• £79.99 on PAYG
• Free on Mix & Match tariffs
• Free on the INQ¹ £15 and £20 tariffs

Key features:

• Advanced integration of Skype, WLM, Facebook and Last.fm, plus home screen widgets
• Integrated phonebook with Facebook status & profile picture, Skype and WLM presence
• Switcher key and menu carousel for easy navigation to major internet sites
• 3.2MP camera, 2.2” screen, and auto-landscape browser
• HSDPA 3.6Mbps technical spec, and pre-loaded with modem drivers making it a plug and play dongle
• Picture blogging; upload photos directly to Facebook

Full Specifications

• Size: 97 x 47.6 x 14.4 mm
• Weight: 110g
• Battery: 329 hrs (standby) 324 mins (talktime) application dependent
• Connectivity: Bluetooth A2DP, USB 2.0
• Camera: 3.2 Megapixel
• Network: HSDPA enabled
• Games: Java compatible - xgames preloaded
• Screen: 2.2”QVGA -262K colour TFT
• Memory: internal 50MB - external to 4GB (Note 1GB card supplied in-box)
• Music: MP3 player
• Integrated Facebook
• Integrated Skype
• Integrated WLM
• RSS support
• Widget support

See also:

• INQ1 flickr photo set

What will eBay do with Skype money? Buy into Korea

$US 1.2 billion for a stake in South Korea's Gmarket auction site. Skype had better fetch a pretty penny if eBay Inc. is going to keep up this M&A effort.

Skype is currently operating in Korea as part of eBay's Auction company. Will Skype's separation from eBay require reorganizing their Korean operations?

The press release and SEC Form 8-K.

UPDATE: eBay stock is back where it was a week ago, discounting both the Skype IPO and Gmarket news.

tags: skype, ebay, gmarket, auction, kr, korea, business, investment, m&a

Call me at +1-510-455-4384, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Could Plantronics launch the first SILK Bluetooth headset?

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.

 

tags: plantronics, headset, bluetooth, silk, skype, mobile

Call me at +1-510-455-4384, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Voice VPNs Over Skype: Paying Less for Private Lines

Guest post by David Tang, Global VP at Skype partner VoSKY, and Craig Coward.

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.

tags: skype, vosky, vpn, voicevpn, gateway

Call me at +1-510-455-4384, Skype me, follow @skypejournal and @Phil Wolff.
Visit our Skype Journal private roundtable, one of the longest running public Skype chats.

Review: IPEVO Wi-Fi Skype Phone

When most people think about using Skype, they probably envision a nerd with a headset sitting in front of his computer. Skype is primarily a computer-to-computer internet telephony product, but there are a few options for using your Skype service on more traditional handsets.

I have evaluated the VOIP841 from Philips before and was overall happy with the device, minus the OK audio quality. However, recently I heard about and received IPEVO's new Wi-Fi Skype handset for review.

This little unit is as small as most candybar mobile phones and contains the Wi-Fi chip directly in the handset. Contrary to the Philips VOIP841, which requires a separate base station along with the handset, everything with the IPEVO phone is housed on the handset itself.

This means you can take the IPEVO phone and use it wherever you can get a Wi-Fi signal for free Skype calls and ridiculously cheap calls to traditional landlines and mobile phones.

Opening the Box

First impressions with the IPEVO Wi-Fi Skype phone are postive. The black handset has a bright and readable screen and well-sized buttons that are used to navigate the handsets traditional Skype menus. Anyone familiar with the Skype user interface on a PC or Mac will easily be able to adapt IPEVOs implementation of them on the Skype phone.

The Skype handset takes about 4-5 hours to charge and after doing so, you are ready to assign the device to your wireless network and start making and receiving Skype phone calls.

Setup

On my home wireless network, I employ WPA-PSK encryption. When I tried to utilize the phone's wizard interface to join my Wi-Fi network, it had issues and would not properly connect. As a result, I had to manually select my home network and enter in the security setting and details by hand. After successfully joining the network, the phone prompts you to log in to your Skype account.

With the IPEVO device, you can either sign into your existing Skype account or create a new one directly on the handset without having to log into Skype on a computer. I thought this was a nice little feature.

One note about the IPEVO Skype phone: if you have special characters in your Skype or Wireless password, it is a little tricky to figure out how to input these into the phone. When you press the pound key, aka #, you are presented an on-screen menu with all the special characters you might have in your passcodes.

Usage and Performance

The IPEVO Skype phone is quite easy to use, especially after you are set up on your wireless network and signed into Skype on the phone. Upon signing in, your Skype contact list is available and shows your contacts' presence information. Like the Philips VOIP841, from the IPEVOs home screen, you press the "Contacts" button to load your contacts for easy dialing. The homescreen also displays the current local time, the current user name that is logged in, and the current Skype balance.

The call quality with the IPEVO Skype WiFi phone was outstanding for a handset. My callers were very audible to me, in fact, they were clearer and louder than when I called them with the VOIP841, for comparison. Callers said I sounded great as well. This was true for both Skype-to-Skype calls and Skype to landline/mobile calls as well.

While call quality was good, battery life left a lot to be desired. I found that with moderate usage and keeping the phone powered on, the IPEVO device could only stay powered on for about 5 hours.

This is understandable, considering the IPEVO has the power-hungry Wi-Fi chipset on board the device, but this poor battery life is something to keep in mind if you are a heavy Skype user who needs a handset that will last a considerable amount of time.

Conclusion

Overall, the IPEVO Skype Wi-Fi phone is an attractive, feature rich handset that makes great sounding calls. Anyone who wants to be able to talk to their Skype contacts or make/receive very inexpensive Skype calls should consider this device for a purchase. Having Skype on a handset like this really makes Skype no different than a normal cordless phone for regular dialing.

One important note: if you have areas of your house that have weak Wi-Fi signal quality, this specific phone won't work in those areas. The IPEVO handset does have a Wi-Fi signal indicator, but I noticed choppy calls in rooms that are far away from my wireless router.

The IPEVO Skype Wi-Fi handset is Skype Certified and is available for around $130 at various Intetnet-based retailers.

Skype Journal columnist Jason Harris, engages communities for corporations and explores internet telephony, mobile technology, and the leaders who bring them to market on his Techcraver blog and onTwitter.