The world as frankps sees it!
Posts tagged VoIP
Questions to Skype
03 years ago
I’ve started using the early public beta of Skype 4.0 for Windows, and I am not sure what to say. I am not used to instant messenger client covering the whole screen, and by the way the screen is 27″ Full HD. What is the purpose with making Skype in to a one window app? Will advanced users get the option to run Skype in multiple windows as before? I dislike having to scroll down a long buddylist to see who have written to me. Another thing, is the important space used to show information about the person you are talking to. I guess most of us would be happy with just getting that as a small text info, a huge flag and a clock showing local time are both unneccessary for most of us!
I am working at a university, and have scientists/researchers working with colleagues around the world, so Skype is an obvious choice for communication. But so far, we have also needed to use other tools and some of them are Web 2.0 applications. My professors are helding keynotes and speaches of conferences regularly, and just last week I saved my department for 2-3 plane tickets to Santa Barbra. Saving money and non-productive traveling time are of course important, but more important is the environmental perspective.
The sad thing is, every time they need help with holding a keynote from their office, we are introduced to a new tool. Software might need to be bought and installed, and some times the solution depends on nagware like Real Player. My biggest hope is that Skype could get functionality to import Powerpoint presentations and that it can make them in to HTML slides that can be used next to a video conference. This functionality would be perfect for Skype, imagine how many researchers are travelling around in the world only to hold presentations that are to last an hour or less?
Skype 3.8 – Upgrade Now
0I’ve been on and off on recommending Skype, mostly cause I found the development going in the wrong direction. The application has over time gotten bloated with unnecessary functionality. Skype v3.8 is focusing on making it’s core functionality better. As far as I can see, no new features are added. Both the improvements I want to point out, are important for us that give support on Skype in a professional environment:
- The main improvements can be found under the hood of the audio engine. The result is reduced background noise, less delay, fewer call drops, and fewer cut-outs.
- The second set of improvements you might notice, is improvements in Skype’s implementation of Microsoft UPnP. You notice these changes when you change your headset, headphones or microphone. You don’t need to mess around with the sound settings anymore. It just works
Speculations around Skype
0The last couple of days rumors have it that something is brewing between Google and Ebay’s Skype. I am a frequent user of Skype and it is the solution that we have chosen for VoIP and video conferences at my faculty. But, I had problems with seeing how Skype could bigger money and what Ebay saw in Skype.
Skype’s two major problems have been that they had to make PC-to-PC calls free (to compete with MSN, Yahoo and Google Talk) and the second problem was to compete with traditional phones and mobile phones when you don’t have phone numbers for your customers. Other providers beat them on the last one, thousands of VoiP companies have been established the last 4-5 years. I have been using Telio and Phonzo and my parents for instance Phonzo and Tanet. All three companies delivering small VoIP adapters that you can bring with you on your travels and connected to a broadband connection. And why did these companies win, cause they could provide a traditional phone number and free calls through out Europe and Northern America. Why should Skype be alternative for them?
Skype managed to conquer their first problem. From day one Skype has been a hype, as the vendors managed to involve the users in translating their software (feeling ownership to the product) and to market their product. Heck, I was one of them! I didn’t just help out translating Skype to Norwegian and advocate the product, I also started using it at work to communicate with my scientific staff being abroad. But I guess most users are like me, they have paid 10 euros for house calls and 1,5 years later still have 9,5 euros left. This is what Epay should have seen, there is no money to be earned with Skype …
… and what seems to be worse, Epay didn’t know how to integrate Skype in to Epay and PayPal. Why did Epay buy Skype? You sit with the feeling that Epay suddenly got filthy rich and didn’t know what to buy, and instead of doing a bit of research and plans, they just said what is most hype and let us buy it! Of course, it was’t like that, but you may wonder?
What could Google gain from buying Skype? As the Techcrunch article lists up, Google is beginning to dominate the voice space. They already have a VOIP service through Google Talk, a free 411 service and GrandCentral. The journalist forgets to include the aquision of Marratech (Swedish company) a video collaboration / e-meeting solution. My experiences with Marratech is that they are big in the education sector, especially at universities in Europe. By adding Skype Google gets a scalable technology and a proven platform in the VOIP, VOIP2POTS and P2P Video. And just as important, 100 billion VOIP minutes have been logged on Skype to date. At any given time there are 10 million simultaneous users on Skype. Skype might be their needed that can pull all the nascent Google products together. Google would then also be ready to compete with MSN/Yahoo.
Let us see what the next days bring us …
Is it just me?
0I tend to pop in read the blog aggregator at Skype once a week, reading about the development of the VoIP client. It is still my prefered way of communicate, simply cause most of my friends and colleagues are using it. But is far from the best, Google Talk seems to be superior when it comes to sound quality.
What worse is that Skype tends to become bloated, the developers behind it are adding more and more useless features for the most of us. The possibility to charge somebody when calling you, account management and the possibility to transfer money with PayPal. These features had to come, they are the very nature of eBay. But it shows how bad the overtake of the company was.
Well, I am as so many of my friends simply gonna continue avvoiding to use PayPal. I am not touching that shit again.
More important for me is the lack of updates of the Skype client for MacOS X and Linux.
Fring 3.0 released
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Fring 3.0 got released a few days ago. Important news in the version is support for the SIP protocol and support for Unicode – all of those funny characters that appears instead of Ææ, Øø and Åå should now be real letters!
I wonder if it would work with my VoIP supplier Phonzo?