skype

Scoble forced to admit he was wrong about Skype and Windows Phone 7 Mango

January 15, 2012 | By Surur

Robert Scoble, has rapidly become an enemy of Windows Phone due to his hardening position on the eventual failure of the OS, has been forced to admit he misquoted Tony Bates, the Microsoft VP in charge of Skype.

Scoble has claimed even Skype, which Microsoft purchased a few months ago, was prioritising other platforms over Windows Phone, and if Microsoft could not even get their own subsidiaries to support Windows Phone, what chance did the OS have at other apps.

Bates has not forced Scoble to retract his statement regarding Skype, with Scoble posting:

Yesterday in my post about Windows Phone I didn’t get it right. https://plus.google.com/111091089527727420853/posts/B6RWtAHjYtx
Tony Bates, President of the Skype Division at Microsoft, says that they are indeed doing an app that’s coming on Mango. He says I misquoted him and didn’t understand what he was saying when he said they would wait until Apollo to fully build in Skype. So, today he called me to clarify: a Skype app is coming on Mango on Windows Phone and further integration will be built into the Apollo version of Windows Phone.

Hopefully Scoble will be forced to eat even more of his words in the coming months, especially of the rumour of the top 25 apps coming to Windows Phone in H1 2012 is true.

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Skype and all “top 25 apps” to be released in first half of 2012

January 15, 2012 | By Liwen Guo

Just yesterday, we reported on an interview with Skype’s VP of products, Rick Osterloh, in which he confirmed that a Skype app for Windows Phone would be “coming soon”. Now, thanks to Paul Thurrott, we’ve gotten a slightly better timeframe: the app should be out in the first half of 2012.

However, there’s something even more interesting: According to Thurrott, Microsoft actually plans to get all “top 25 apps” from both iOS and Android onto Windows Phone before the end of the first half of 2012. What’s more, for those apps that will not come to Windows Phone (Pandora is cited as an example), Microsoft will promote competing apps with “tens of millions of dollars” over the next three years.

This might sound a bit, well, crazy, but considering Thurrott’s excellent track record, and the fact that he got these bits of information from the same documentation which revealed Nokia’s marketing plans and the upcoming LTE Windows Phones, both of which have proven to be accurate, we can’t help but believe him. If the 25 most popular apps of the two (currently) leading smartphone platforms and many other important key apps really become available on Windows Phone in the next six months, that would improve the app selection a lot, partly negating its arguably biggest disadvantage right now.

Source: WinSuperSite

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Microsoft says Skype for Windows Phone coming soon

January 14, 2012 | By Surur

In a Microsoft interview with their Skype division, Skype’s VP of products, Rick Osterloh has renewed their promise to bring Skype to Windows Phone soon. (after 1:10 mark)

He notes after the 2:30 point that he is working with deeper integration with Microsoft products, including Windows Phone, but it is expected that the first version of the app would not benefit from this feature.

The product seems to have been delayed bizarrely by the Microsoft purchase a few months ago, but hopefully when it comes it will be good.

Via theverge.com

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MS Skype pushing for VOIP access in UK, Ofcom supporting

November 28, 2011 | By Surur

After UK telecom regulator Ofcom expressed support for Skype’s VOIP service, saying restrictions on Skype’s services stifle innovation and it may take action if the blocking persists, Microsoft said it will step up negotiations with UK mobile phone companies to open up their service.

Skype complained to Ofcom last year, saying its services are regularly impeded by mobile operators.

“You would expect us to be more impatient than Ofcom,” Jean-Jacques Sahel, head of European regulatory affairs at Skype, said in a telephone interview. “In Europe, there’s still a huge amount of restrictions.”

VOIP software are regularly blocked either via policy or via actual blocking of common ports, with users either not having access at all or having to pay for a much higher tier of data access to be allowed to use the feature.

Examples include T-Mobile UK and Vodafone, with both O2 and 3 UK allowing free access.

“To have that extra hint from Ofcom is helpful and should allow us to continue the dialog,” Sahel said. “We need the few that lag behind to catch up.”

Microsoft, which completed the takeover of Skype for $8.5 billion last month, plans to incorporate the service in its Windows Phone products.

WNM Live Brings Free VOIP Voice Calls to Windows Phone 7

October 28, 2011 | By Brian Hamachek

The location-based social network, WNM Live™, beats both Tango and Microsoft’s own Skype in being the first to add free VOIP calls to the Windows Phone 7 platform.

WNM Live from SynergeTech Solutions™ was updated today for the Windows Phone 7 platform. The location-based social network’s latest update adds a number of new features that further enables WNM Live’s users to meet and connect with other people nearby. Most significant of the new features is the ability to place and receive voice calls over a data connection (VOIP). This is the first application for the Windows Phone 7 platform to enable such functionality.

Many of the new features included in the update for the Windows Phone 7 application have also been added to the service’s Facebook application, as well as the WNMLive.com website. For instance, users from any of the platforms will be able to call one another using the new voice calling functionality – mobile devices, PC, and Mac users are all included.

WNM Live’s features now include:

• Search profiles of other users based on criteria such as distance, interests, gender, or age
• Find users looking for friendship, chat, networking, or romance
• Send free text and picture messages with other users
• Create a profile for yourself, complete with photos
• Read, contribute, or comment on a public local stream of group conversations
• Send and receive free voice phone calls (VOIP) with users of any platform
• Earn points, rank of the leaderboard, and exchange virtual gifts with other users

WNM Live is the only app for Windows Phone 7 that allows users to meet new people and interact based on their location. The free application shows you other users near you that share your common interests. When a user finds someone they are interested in, they can send free text and picture messages and now can also make free voice calls over a data connection. All of this can be done while remaining as anonymous as the user chooses.

The Windows Phone 7 application has been the recipient of numerous awards, including 2nd place in Microsoft’s 1st annual Windows Phone 7 App Challenge that took place in Los Angeles, CA during the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in June of 2011. WNM Live is free and has over 350,000 users. The update can be downloaded from the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace or from the WNM Live website.

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Microsoft/Skype deal to be approved by the EU

October 6, 2011 | By Surur

Microsoft’s big nemisis in the last few years have been the EU, who have repeatedly pursued anti-trust litigation against the company, famously forcing Microsoft to release a version of Windows without Windows Media Player a few years ago and more recently a browser ballot screen when Windows is installed.

It seems the climate in Europe has however changed, with Brussels set to approve Microsoft’s $8.5 billion purchase of Skype without a second round of investigations or restrictions.

The FT reports that Joaquín Almunia, the EU competition commissioner, is to give the green light to the proposed deal without any remedies, in spite of complaints from would-be rivals over Microsoft “bundling” the software with Windows.

To achieve this outcome Microsoft promises to maintain Skype on other platforms like iOS and Android, and asserted that there are numerous competitive services that prevent Skype users from being locked in.

The deal has already been approved in June by the US Federal Trade Commission.

The approval opens the way for the service to be deeply integrated into Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8, and would double the reach of Microsoft’s own IM services, which currently has more than 300 million active users.

Could This Be The Group Chat Interface For Future Windows Phones ??

October 4, 2011 | By Pradeep

When I was browsing through recent patent publications from Microsoft, I got these two design patents. Just showing simple speech bubble from various numbers with a message. Could this be a Skype’s GroupMe like group chat service UI or something else ?? Anyway, whatever it may be I just thought of sharing these with you people. What’s your thoughts on them?? FYI, These patents were filed only in May 2011.

Source: Patent 1 & 2

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Front facing camera and Skype coming to Windows Phone Mango

August 25, 2011 | By rush24

There have been indications of this in the past but now finally, Neowin has news from Tech Ed in New Zealand whereby Microsoft confirmed front facing camera support in the official Mango update. The story is supported by a tweet from Windows Phone NZ. They go on to say…

Neowin can confirm this news, as staff members saw devices a few months back already sporting front facing cameras. We also reported back on January 10 that Microsoft was working on a FaceTime competitor for the platform, uncovering references in the SDK for a "portrait camera.

Furthermore, the author writes about hints of Skype integration with the front facing camera.

This is welcome news all around and especially if it will also seamlessly integrate with Windows Live Messenger and Facebook video chat.

Via Neowin

Image credit Q / WPcentral

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Skype buys GroupMe

August 22, 2011 | By Surur

Skype, who is in the process of being purchased itself by Microsoft, has just finalized its own purchase of GroupMe, the cross-platform group messaging client.

The year-old company has been raising a rapid following as a challenger to WhatsApp, and similarly uses data to send group messages, and also allow free conference calls to be set up.

GroupMe will be managed as a standalone brand, with the services being integrated over time, Skype CEO Tony Bates said.

“The group messaging space in general is one of the most important markets for Skype,” he told Techcrunch via a Skype video call earlier today. He added: “GroupMe creates a very sticky instant feeling. Like Skype, it is an everyday interactive form of communication. Skype’s goal is to get to 1 billion users. Mobile is the place to do that.”

GroupMe has a Windows Phone 7 client, but this was coded by an intern and is not feature-complete. Hopefully with its impeding Microsoft ownership more priority will be given to a client which support all of the features of their service.

Skype developing native “video engine” for Windows Phone 7

August 3, 2011 | By Surur

A job posting by Skype has dispelled any rumour that Skype video calling will not be coming Windows Phone 7.5.

In the job posting Skype is looking for a developer to optimise their Video Engine solution for Windows and Windows Phone , with the aim of releasing an update every 2 months.

The fact that they are looking for a C++ developer confirms the solution will be native rather than 3rd party, given that those developers are confined to Silverlight and XNA.

So far we have only seen one confirmed device with a front-facing camera, the Samsung SGH i937, but the Nokia Sea Ray is also expected to sport one.

See the job posting at Skype Careers here.

Via WPCentral.com

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Skype/Facebook integration tremendous opportunity for Windows Phone

July 6, 2011 | By Surur

With today’s announcement Microsoft’s $8.5 billion investment in Skype is pretty much validated, not simply because Skype will now integrated with the most popular social network in the world, but also because Skype provided something indispensible to Facebook – a fully mature and trusted service with a real brand name, making the combination more than just another service for Facebook but in fact elevating both brands,

This is not something Facebook could just have achieved by launching its own service, as I am sure Google will soon find out when they attempt to expand to a wider audience with Buzz +1. It gets Facebook up to an instant running start, and finally gives Microsoft a real stake in Facebook, much more than their 2% currently is worth.

As Microsoft integrates Skype into their own properties the service will suddenly be everywhere that matters, boosting the network effect tremendously and likely cementing it as the only real Video Calling service that matters.

Skype is not yet integrated into Windows Phone, but the best possible way to leverage Microsoft’s new crown jewel is to make Skype the default way of making video calls in Windows Phone 7, completely erasing the line between desktop and handheld with a truly cross platform solution.

Do our readers agree that Skype should become the video calling solution on Windows Phone 7? Let us know below.

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Facebook to launch Skype-based video chat

July 2, 2011 | By l3v5y

According to rumour, next week Facebook is to launch a new in-browser video chat based on Skype technology.

The product has been built on Skype and will include a desktop component. It’s not clear to me whether that means it will just work if a user has Skype already installed on the computer, or if additional software will need to be downloaded even if the user already uses Skype. But it’s clear that there’s very deep integration between the products, and from the user’s perspective, the product will be an in browser experience.

Facebook and Skype have already been working together, including integration of various Facebook features into the Skype service.

But this is something else entirely. The partnership could substantially increase Skype usage. Facebook has more than 750 million active users. Currently Skype has just 170 million. And it will certainly help Facebook become even stickier for users as they start to have voice and video chat as an option to communicate.

Microsoft has long invested in Facebook, and closer links between Facebook and the now-Microsoft-owned Skype can only be a good thing. Skype last year became much more closely integrated with Facebook chat – perhaps in the near future the two will become one and the same?

via techcrunch.com

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New Leaks Reveal Deep Skype Integration In webOS, Next Stop Windows Phones?

June 20, 2011 | By Pradeep

As discussions on Skype integration in Windows Phones still going on after Microsoft annoounced their Skype acquisition, new leaks on webOS 2.2 rekindles the discussions. A German webOS blog webos-blog.de have posted screenshots of upcoming Skype integration in webOS. It is possible to Skype call/video call/chat a person on Skype from his profile, i.e from Contact list. Video calls are supported through 3G and wifi as well. You can check Skype credit from Phone menu itself. Last but not the least, You can make Skype your default voice call provider in your phone or you can set it to ask at every call. Very cool integration right? Expect even more tighter integration of Skype in Windows Phones ! ! ! May be in Windows Phone 8 or Windows Phone Post-Mango update??

Source: webos-blog.de ( Bing translated)

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