After years of stealing telecom service share from traditional providers, Skype is looking to cozy up with carriers. The company recently broke free of legal entanglements between its former parent, eBay, and its founders. Its chief operating officer resigned, heading to the U.S. to "pursue career interests within the global Fortune 500 technology, telecommunications and media industry."

Continue reading "Skype courting traditional wireless carriers" »

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Continue reading "Where’s the value in Skype buying Gizmo5?" »

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Editor's Note:  Now this is the 4th article I have read from another intelligence agency citing the strong encryption of Skype.  At first I thought this might be a ruse to get people that are committing crimes to feel an increased sense of safety in using Skype for their communications (In no way do I support illegal activity), but now I am wondering if it is as good as it has been claimed to be?   With the attacks in Mumbai, I can see why this is a concern being that is was reported that the terrorists used a form of VoIP (non-skype) to coordinate these most unfortunate attacks.   I am going to do some deeper research to see what I can find.  

NEW DELHI: Intelligence agencies have asked the government to consider blocking Skype as operators of the popular global VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) engine are refusing to share the encryption code that prevents Indian investigators from intercepting conversations of suspected terrorists.

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Continue reading "Skype's voice encryption stumps German police" »

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eBAY Inc.’s dispute with the founders of its Skype Internet-phone division threatens to delay a Skype initial public offering (IPO) and lower the amount raised.

Skype, which lets users place calls online, told a London court in April that it may have to suspend the service if it can’t resolve the fight. Skype’s founders, who still own a piece of software used by Skype, have accused eBay of breaching a licensing deal. They’re threatening to yank the technology from Skype, disabling the world’s largest provider of international calls.

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Continue reading "Group urges FCC to open AT&T's 3G to Skype on iPhone" »

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Continue reading "Skype to give away wideband audio codec royality-free" »

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Continue reading "NSA offering 'billions' for Skype eavesdrop solution?" »

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Usually we are not reporting about upcoming, not released yet, applications, but this one is special: the original native Skype for iPhone is coming! While already several third pary apps for iPhone offer some Skype functionality, they often are based on usage of 3rd party servers and proxies and simply do not offer some functions.

Continue reading "Native Skype Application Coming to iPhone" »

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You may have seen some reports in the media about a security and privacy breach in the software provided by our Chinese partner, TOM Online. I'm writing to let you know where we stand, and what we're doing to resolve the problem. Some brief background:

In China, TOM is the majority local partner in our joint venture that brings Skype functionality to Chinese citizens. The software is distributed in China by TOM and TOM, just like any other communications company in China, has established procedures to meet local laws and regulations. These regulations include the requirement to monitor and block instant messages containing certain words deemed "offensive" by the Chinese authorities.

Continue reading "Skype President Addresses Chinese Privacy Breach" »

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Continue reading "Digium and Skype Collaborate to Bring Skype to Business PBX" »

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Every decent sci-fi novel has a videophone. Even Philip K Dick, not a man to mess with gadgets other than robot doctors in suitcases and flapples (flying cars), dropped the occasional vidfone into his stories.

Now, of course, everyone has a videophone, whether it's a 3G mobile or a webcam equipped desktop running Skype. But that hasn't stopped Asus announcing the World's First desktop video Skype phone, which even has a pulp sci-fi name: The AiGuru SV1.

Continue reading "Asus Announces World's First Skype Video Phone" »

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Editor's Note:  Here are a couple thoughts I have about this.   First, you should always assume that every  major application out there mostly likely have some sort of remote access for governmental agencies to monitor criminals.  This is not paranoia, but if the application has encryption then you know the NSA has keys if it is distributed in the U.S.  Second, you really should not be doing anything illegal but you happen to find yourself astray of the law then you should not be using any of the high technology to conduct yourself in these ways.  I am in no way supporting any illegal acts, I am just giving helpful advice to my audience.  Lastly, this does not surprise me being the amount of users they have, it would be quite odd of our defense agencies could not  monitor this type of communication.

According to reports, there may be a back door built into Skype, which allows connections to be bugged. The company has declined to expressly deny the allegations. At a meeting with representatives of ISPs and the Austrian regulator on lawful interception of IP based services held on 25th June, high-ranking officials at the Austrian interior ministry revealed that it is not a problem for them to listen in on Skype conversations.

Continue reading "Speculation over back door in Skype" »

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Editor's Comments:  Good read, I love it when people take crusade against bad customer service.   With us being part of this free market economy you really have two options, vote with your dollars (or euro if your into that) or take up the issues and not let the corporation get away with bad service and not hear what you have to say.  Sometimes is takes a blog post, phone call or letter but make sure you get through to someone who can do something. 

Skype has just published a so-called "interview" with their new CEO. First, rather than face the press and public, and possibly have to answer some hard questions from people who have (miserable) experience with Skype, he chose to hide behind a pseudo-interview with his own publicity manager. Second, even with every softball question possible being served up to him, it is obvious that he still doesn't get it.
 

Continue reading "Skype's New CEO "Interview" - He Still Doesn't Get It!" »

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Continue reading "Google Skype Acquisition Rumor" »

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Continue reading " FCC's Kevin Martin Worries About Wide-Open Wireless" »

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While Eliot Spitzer’s predilection for hookers (sorry, high priced call-girls) has made headlines worldwide, video over Skype may end up as a beneficiary.

Marked as a first for national TV, CNN used Skype Video to conduct a live interview Monday. According to Reuters, CNN interviewed Jeffrey Toobin, who went to Harvard Law School with Spitzer, via Skype from Maui.

Continue reading "Could Spitzer Scandal Take Skype Video Mainstream?" »

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Continue reading "Why so few Skype WiMAX Phones?" »

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Note:  I found this browsing online.  The WikiLeak website looks pretty interesting and I was surprised they had that damning document from the German police.

This is what Wikileaks was created for, right? Leaked documents dated Sept. 4th, 2007 have been leaked by the German "Pirate Party" or "Piraten," showing that the German government is investigating ways to wiretap Skype, using Trojan Horses.
 

Continue reading "Germany Looks into Skype Surveillance" »

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Skype Journal has a piece about the top ten advancements that happen to it in 2007.  Here is a snippet from the article:

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:

Click Here to Read the Top Ten for Skype in 2007 

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Note: Good old Tom Keating emailed me this morning with this story. 

BREAKING NEWS! Something has happened with the Skype service that prevents all brands of WiFi and dual-mode (WiFi & PSTN) phones from signing into Skype. This problem seems to have started sometime on Saturday and continued until late Sunday (possibly as late at 1:15am Monday morning).

Continue reading "Skype WiFi Phone Outage" »

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Criminals are taking advantage of Skype's 256-bit encryption and the internet's unpredictable routing scheme to set up drug deals and other crimes, say Swiss law enforcement officials. According to swissinfo, a Swiss Broadcasting Corporation company, local police are investigating dozens of drug-related cases where Skype has been the medium of communication between gang members and client.

Continue reading "Criminals using Skype to Talk Securely" »

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Note:  I will admit it seemed a tad high but they do have a huge installed user base.  I think they should spend some time working on more creative ways to monetize their property without spamming it with ads.  (hint hint, contact me).
 
Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom admitted today that eBay's original valuation of Skype was too high, reports Reuters. It may not be a surprise--pundits have been saying as much all last week--but candid admissions are always nice to hear. His comments came at a Hungarian technology conference.

Continue reading "Skype's Niklas Admits the Obvious "Ebay Overpaid"" »

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Note: Tom Keating posted on his gadget's blog about a Skype outage that happened yesterday.  I would have to say this is the first time in my recent memory that I have heard of a Skype outage.  I must of been too busy fielding phone calls on my Asterisk PBX to notice
 
Tom's Post:
"Skype is experiencing a major outage. My fellow TMC co-workers noticed it late Wednesday when they couldn't IM fellow workers. TMC's Dave Rodrqiguez told me that he went home for the day, signed into Skype from home and was bombared with a ton of Skype IM messages that didn't go through earlier." 

Continue reading "Skype Outage" »

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Note:  Now this is what I call disruptive.  Love it.  Good read with some nice links to more information.

Today I called Alec Saunders via Skype.  Not terribly unusual, really... except that I initiated the Skype call from my Blackberry!  Back on Monday, Jim Courtney over at Skype Journal had posted a teaser about an application for the Blackberry that allowed you to use Skype IM.  Today my curiosity got the better of me and I had to IM Jim to get the info. I downloaded the app and promptly had to try it out... I guess by virtue of Alec being at the top of my contact list, he was my victim (I also know from past experience that he's open to this kind of thing).

Continue reading "Making Skype Calls from a Blackberry" »

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