One of the major highlights last February at IT Expo in Miami Beach was “StartUp Camp” organized by pal Larry Lisser. The event focuses not on the big guys with lots of money, but on the newest ideas from the newest companies just entering the marketplace. Organized in the same vein as GigaOm’s Launchpad, TechCrunch Disrupt or DEMO, each company gets their five minutes up on stage to showoff what they’ve got that’s... 

Skype Journal and others are reporting that Skype has decided to NOT charge for mobile calling from the iPhone. The news of the change in direction came as part of an announcement related to a new version of Skype for the iPhone 3GS and 4 editions.  Read More →

While I may rant about Skype’s multiparty video being Windows-only (or “kvetch”, according to the VoIP Princess ), I still do think it is an excellent development. I’m on Skype conference calls quite often and it would be great to add video. More often, I’m in a video call with someone and we realize we need to bring someone into the call… which we do… and drop everyone to audio. So, rants aside, I’m... 

Here’s a slide from Skype ’s Jonathan Silverman eComm presentation. Skype tested a large pool of users from all over the world for customer satisfaction based on the audio codec they used in a Skype-to-Skype call. In the chart to the left the Mean Opinion Score rose from 3.4 using mobile phone audio quality to about 3.85 with Skype’s highest quality, a thirteen percent jump. On the right Skype shows the effect of call quality... 

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... 

Skype ’s Jonathan Rosenberg is speaking at eComm on Monday (11:15am). He’s one of Skype’s thought leaders, the company’s Chief Technology Strategist. I was really hoping he’d announce how Skype will play in ViPR land. His talk blurb goes in another direction : Social Sharing 2.0: The Rise of Real-Time. Social sharing through sites like Facebook and Twitter has seen meteoric rise in the last year. Exciting as that... 

I’m testing Skype mobile on a Motorola Droid with Verizon . I tried to launch Skype while other apps were busy with my WiFi downloading email, news, feeds, activity streams, apps, maps, music, podcasts, and television shows. I get an error. Its text reads: “Skype mobile does not currently work on WiFi and requires switching to a Verizon Wireless data network connection. This…  Read More →

David Ponsford demonstrated Skype as a background app at last week’s Apple briefing on the iPhone OS 4 , coming mid-2010. John Chang , Skype’s lead iPhone developer, helped with the demo. David came to Skype from SpinVox Skype’s voicemail-to-text partner . Several features announced at the OS4 preview event affect Skype. Multitasking , location services, data encryption service, and a user alerting service. David answered a... 

Skype announces the return of the 1MB windows client. An end to bloat. Skype HQ phone number auctioned on eBay. Tencent Buys Skype, Moves HQ to Shenzhen. Now with free spyware. AT&T and Comcast start bidding war for Skype. Skype now translated into Na’vi , Klingon, Elvish, Ancient Greek, Latin, Babylonian Cuneiform, Esperanto. Meg Whitman crashes Skype when friending 20 million California voters. Skype for Cars: Speech UI. Video calls... 

“We missed them. We haven’t been as cool, or as profitable, since they left” said an eBay spokesman of Skype Ltd. “Since we own a swap meet , a mall , an ad network , a ticket agency , a car dealership , and a bank , a phone company should fit right in. It’s about harmony, not about synergy.” UPDATE: 0630 Pacific, 1 April 2010. Conf call. Skype management taking over eBay , and their plans for the first 30... 

“We missed them. We haven’t been as cool, or as profitable, since they left” said an eBay spokesman of Skype Ltd. “Since we own a swap meet , a mall , an ad network , a ticket agency , a car dealership , and a bank , a phone company should fit right in. It’s about harmony, not about synergy.” tags: skype , #aprilfools Call me at +1-510-316-9773 , Skype  Read More →

Verizon ’s go-to-market teams had Skype in place last week. Employees were oriented. Six months’ ago these same employees had never tried Skype. Now they know a few talking points. Demo Blackberry and Android phones had Skype installed and easy to find Local test accounts with contacts were created for each demo phone Information cards for the phones were updated with Skype listed as a feature of each phone (right above Bluetooth!)... 

Here’s the Say It Visually! whiteboard guide to Skype mobile on Verizon Wireless phones. Positioned as freeing you from your PC (the way, um, mobile phones do). Bonus points for unlimited Skype-to-Skype calling from your phone with your flat rate Verizon data plan. On YouTube . tags: explanation , communications , verizon , wireless , mobile , sayitvisually Call me at +1-510-316-9773 , Skype me , follow @skypejournal and @Phil  Read More →

Skype into the event: 877-883-4690 (United States and Canada) or +1 706-758-5386 (international). Conference ID: 64218465 Verizon Wireless And Skype To Unveil Skype mobile At CTIA WIRELESS 2010 In Las Vegas 03/22/2010 WHO: Verizon Wireless, the leading wireless provider in the United States, and Skype, the company with the software that enables the world’s conversations WHAT: Verizon Wireless and Skype will hold a news conference during CTIA... 

Ooma is on display as an alternative to Skype , MagicJack, VoIP from your US cable company, and your local landline. One flat fee for hardware ($250), use your existing phones, your current phone number, and never pay for landline service again. Just in time for the CTIA Wireless trade show here in Las Vegas. In tough times it might be worth it to pay once and be free from your local phone company. I can’t help thinking the price is steep...