Overnight Microsoft announced they had closed their acquisition of Skype, following the final EU Commission regulatory approval last week. Key points:

• Skype will remain as an independent business unit within Microsoft under the leadership of former Skype CEO Tony Bates who becomes President of Microsoft’s Skype Division. It’s a new tact for a Microsoft acquisition.
• Microsoft anticipates the integration of Skype into many of its current products – the most obvious being Skype for Windows Mobile and Outlook integration (as well as other Office products). But there are opportunities foreseen for Windows Live offerings as well as its Microsoft Lync enterprise offering.
• Whereas Skype had little enterprise presence other than small businesses and employees who would use it at work, it will be an interesting challenge to see how Skype becomes integrated into Microsoft Lync. There are challenges on the Microsoft side not simply from a technology perspective but also from a business perspective, for example, the costs and burdensome licensing associated with their server-based products.

Tony Bates has put out his vision statement, including a video and an supporting infographic, for Skype’s direction within Microsoft:

Microsoft is committed to the ubiquity of the Skype experience – communication across every device and every platform will remain a primary focus. And we’ve only scratched the surface. We’re at the starting line of integrating world-class talent, innovative technologies and products. By bringing together the best of Microsoft and the best of Skype, we’ll deliver amazing new experiences for consumers and business around the world.

Leading up to the closing we have seen some subtle activity on the Skype side:

• Most notably new releases of most Skype client software that incorporates advertising. Skype intends to place ads in a discrete manner during Skype-to-Skype calls made by users who are not generating revenue through Skype credit, a Skype Calling Plan subscription or a Skype Premium subscription. As mentioned by Skype CEO Tony Bates at a recent forum event, one of Skype’s goals is to generate major revenue through this advertising initiative.
• Skype has continued to offer upgrades for all its supported platforms over the past two months, not only supporting the claim that Skype’s brand would be damaged should they stop supporting platforms other than Windows but also supporting Skype’s initiative to provide more incremental upgrades every two to three months.
• A strong emphasis on Skype’s unique ability to drive video communications in a way that encourages easy adoption (more in a future post).
• Last night Skype released hotfix upgrades to Skype 5.6 for Windows that removed a Google Product Bundle offering, comprising the Google Toolbar and the Chrome browser, during installation. (Will we be seeing a Bing product bundle soon?)
• While Skype has made some top level management changes over the past few months, they appear, with a few minor exceptions, to have kept their operating staff, whether on the developer side or marketing side.This brings an experience base that is critical to meeting Tony’s goals in a timely manner.

And some questions:

• Will we see a Skype for BlackBerry? Can Microsoft leverage its relationship with RIM to resolve this issue? (This has been a most requested feature on one LinkedIn forum discussing what users want to see on the Playbook.)
• How will Skype now encourage third party application development? Will there be support for using web-based tools meeting the IETF’s RTCWeb initiative? What is the road map for SkypeKit?
• Will we see Skype Online numbers for Canada?
• And, in the longer term, will Skype pass the “AmberMac Test”?
• Can Microsoft become as ubiquitously associated with leadership in real time communications as they have been in the evolution of desktop operating systems?

About thirty years ago I worked for a company that had developed Magnetic Resonance technology that was evolving from chemical analysis applications into the medical imaging field. This company initially attempted a partnership with GE who were the leading medical imaging company of the day, especially with CT scanners but were just dipping their toes into learning magnetic resonance technology. However, my employer of the day did not have the financial or other resources required to jump from a business selling $100K to $500K systems to a research market into a business selling $3 million systems into a medical market (with all its regulatory implications). In the end GE simply acquired the company’s magnetic resonance division and has now become a leader in the MRI market. I see a similar opportunity here for the combination of Skype’s technology resources with Microsoft’s financial and business resources along with their market reach.

One final comment: over the past five and a half years I personally have come to meet many Skype employees. Their common thread and over riding motivation was their participation in an initiative that was revolutionizing real time communications on a world class scale. It has been a pleasure to work with them across several projects. Let’s hope they can continue to thrive under the Microsoft umbrella; they are a key resource to the success Tony envisions. Congratulations are due to all the members of the Skype team that made this transaction possible.

It will be an interesting ride. Can they execute? What will happen with the user experience? Will it drive a significant return on a $8.5 billion investment?

What’s your take? What are the opportunities and what are additional questions beyond the list above? Look forward to your comments.

Just as I finished writing this post, Dan York put up his views over at Disruptive Telephony:

My interest was not only in the “across all devices”, which has been a large part of Skype’s goal for some time… but also in the use of “real-time communications”. For a while that was a phrase that only the more technical-minded folks used, but now increasingly “real-time communications” seems to be the phrase of choice for many. I, for one, applaud the usage.

Read Dan’s post for another perspective on the acquisition.

Update: Phil Wolff at Skype Journal: Skype: New owners, new customers, new channels.

Full disclosure: The author is an involuntary participant in the Canada Pension Plan – a beneficiary of this acquisition. Now CPPIB is looking at investing in a retail chain called “99 cents” stores.

Today I came across a post by Tom Keating at TMCnet advising of a security vulnerability in Skype for iPhone 3.0.1 and possibly Skype for iPad if it is a full iOS issue. Dan York has subsequently written about it, including a statement from Skype:

We are working hard to fix this reported issue in our next planned release which we hope to roll out imminently. In the meantime, we always recommend people exercise caution in only accepting friend requests from people they know and practice common sense Internet security as always. [Author’s bold]

Both posts include a video demonstrating the vulnerability posted by the initial reporter of the vulnerability at the SUPEREVR Security Blog .

Bottom line is “know your contacts”. As Dan states:

Skype’s mitigation recommendation is a good one as the default privacy setting is typically that you can only receive chat messages from people on your Contact list. Therefore, the attacker would have to be someone who you have authorized and added to your contact list.

Hopefully we will see a new release of Skype for iPhone any day now and, if also affected, Skype for iPad. In the meantime “practice safe Skype” by knowing your contacts.

Whenever Skype has has a new feature announcement and I wanted to test it out, I would often approach Dan York who was always gracious enough to assist with the evaluation. And his Disruptive Telephone blog has become a wealth of information about the evolution of the IP-based communications world. He has become a significant reference for many of my blog posts.

About four years ago, Dan found what, for his skills and experience, was an ideal position, most recently as Director of Conversations, for Voxeo, a major vendor of hosted voice system solutions for businesses. The combination of his technical knowledge and writing skills brought an interpretation of the implications of the technology that became easily readable by his target audience, whether for technology personnel or from an end user perspective.

Dan has also been a resource for understanding open standards and security issues with respect to the operation of the Internet. Today he has announced his acceptance of a position as Senior Content Strategist for the Internet Society, a global non-profit organization with a very simple mission:

to promote the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people throughout the world.

where his role….

will very much be about the creation, curation and distribution of information. Writing articles, reviewing resources, blogging, creating videos, screencasts, etc. Once we have the initial repository built out, there will be a phase next year where we will be out on the conference circuit talking about these technologies and helping people understand how they can get started… and continually adding even more content.

Having always found the Voxeo team to set a high standard not only for their technology but also for dealing with its various market constituencies, whether developers, media (including bloggers) or its customers, this had to be a hard decision for Dan. I always appreciated the opportunity to deal with any of the Voxeo team members where Voxeo CEO Jonathan Taylor sets a leadership example to be emulated. Jonathan represents the ultimate entrepreneur who started experimenting with telephony hardware for PC’s several years ago and evolved a business that now is a major force in today’s telecommunications market.

Congratulations, Dan, and we look forward to listening to your evangelism for an open Internet. But we also expect that you will not let up on your mission as Chief “Skype for Mac” Equality Evangelist!

Related articles

• Voxeo Selected as a Top Vendor on “Shortlist” in Ovum’s Cloud IVR Decision Matrix (prweb.com)
• Voxeo Acquires Tenth Company in Four years: WebForPhone (prweb.com)
• Video: My Talk on “How IPv6 Will Kill Telecom” from eComm2011 (disruptivetelephony.com)

Yesterday Skype released the “Gold” or “user” version of Skype 5.5 for Windows. Many of the features, including the Facebook integration, were discussed in Skype for Windows 5.5 beta: First Impressions with Facebook Integration and Skype for Windows 5.5 beta: The Call Bar. In the final release these have been enhanced; at the same time Skype introduced some amusing new emoticons – some in the emoticon table for the chat message; others are “hidden”.

As for the complete new feature set, according to Raul Liive, Skype’s Beta Program Manager, it includes:

• Skype to Facebook instant messaging (enhanced from beta)
• New and updated emoticons (new)
• New login experience
• Improved call controls (modified from beta)
• Improved video calling reliability (yes!)
• Simplified installer flow (only three splash screens)
• Avatar selection improved
• Video snapshot capture improvements
• Changed group conversations profile area:
• 
• Plus several bug fixes

Facebook Enhancements: In the beta there was little to identify whether you were in a chat session with a Contact’s Skype chat or Facebook chat. With this release, the Facebook icon appears at the top of the conversation pane. However, confusion can still arise. In the Contacts pane “Recent” tab there is no way to identify whether one would be communicating with the Skype chat or Facebook chat. Product management is probably conflicted because they also want to show the contact’s presence information … maybe a blue icon for Facebook chat presence would help.

Notice also that if you are in the Contacts Facebook chat conversation, the call bar only allows you to call PSTN numbers (via SkypeOut) but not place a Skype-to-Skype call, as would be expected. You can still set up a conference call and monitor your hardware and network conditions via the call bar.

Finally the Facebook news feed content has been moved to the Skype client Home Page tab (no longer a separate tab) but still continues to show the profile pictures (avatars) for the most contacted Contacts (either through calls or chat sessions).

• When you enter a Mood Message on the Home Page tab, there is an option to share the message on your Facebook news feed.
• Running your cursor over any of the Skype profile pictures along the top row or a Facebook message will bring up a Call button which can launch either a Skype-to-Skype call or a SkypeOut call with the Contact.
• You can “Like” a Facebook message and/or add a Comment

It will be interesting to see how the various calling services evolve in both the Skype client and Facebook itself as Skype’s integration into Facebook deepens beyond the initial Facebook Video Calling introduced three weeks ago. Dan York adds his comments on the implications of the Facebook Chat integration in Skype Opens Its Walls A Bit? Lets You IM Facebook Users Just Like Skype Users.

Emoticons: not something I used a lot but I can see using them more often; when appropriate in the context of a chat session I might use only a few of the emoticons. However, today Skype introduced several new emoticons as shown on the right. Most amusing is the “wfh”, a hidden icon that I can see many users in today’s virtual commuting world having an association with (although more often in their Skype Mood Message).

Skype has several hidden icons, as shown on the left – sometimes called “Easter eggs”. I’ll not give the shortcodes but many of them can be implied from the name. “Working from Home” is very dynamic rotating between the two images shown in this graphic. For those who are totally puzzled and frustrated there is a hidden “wtf” button.

Suffice it to say that these icons have created much discussion and amusement today. Skype for Mac’s Chief Whining Officer, Dan York made himself heard arising out of our musings earlier today when the release was first announced. Let’s hope they appear in a forthcoming Skype for Mac release. Actually both sides of the conversation need to have Skype for Windows 5.5 “Gold” release in order to see these emoticons properly.

The Call Control Bar (or Call Navigation Bar) has been modified slightly. Most importantly it continues to offer the Call Quality Info feature – perhaps its most useful feature where you want to monitor and modify conditions during a call. Also very useful is the PopOut window during a video call which allows you to watch the video image while using other applications during a call.

And, talking about Video, over the past two weeks I have done a few Skype Group Video Calls with up to eight parties. Where this group had previously used a service where only the speaker’s video appeared (it was really a “push-to-talk” service) the dynamics of the group call change entirely when you have the many “ad hoc” features of a Skype Group Video call – chat window, identification of who is speaking, monitoring the network conditions .. even the network connection recovery feature has helped a few times. And, as it should, the technology stayed in the background relative to the conversation. (The call resulted in at least one Skype Premium subscription being picked up.)

Oh, and there’s lots of flexibility in sizing and placing the various participants’ images. As Raul noted in his post reference above:

In this version we have made numerous ‘under the hood’ updates to our video engine to improve its reliability. We have reduced the amount of graphic card resources needed for video calls and improved support for older cards, especially for users with SiS graphics cards.

Full disclosure: the Skype Group Chat is being hosted on a quad core PC with a 1.7 Mbps upload speed on the Internet connection.

Bottom line: Skype for Windows 5.5 “user release is a winner, most importantly because the client and technology is almost totally transparent to the conversation. The Facebook integration remains optional as to whether you use it (you simply can either not log into Facebook or log out of it if you find it not satisfactory). It still needs a bit of User Interface work to more readily identify whether you are chatting via Skype or Facebook. The emoticons can add some fun and excitement to the conversation (an picture is worth a thousand words sometimes) and have some amusing new additions. But experiencing the robustness of Skype Group Video Calling is perhaps it most innovative feature in terms of user benefit (even if Skype for Windows is still awaiting inclusion of the screen sharing feature recently introduced in Skype 5.2 for Mac).

Being the “Gold” or “ user” release, Skype for Windows will probably auto-update at some point. However, if it does not or you want to try it out now go to Help | Check for Updates or click here to access the download.

By the way notice that the Help Menu now includes a link to Skype’s Heartbeat page – not sure if this is new but worth drawing attention to, as one qick check on the service status. Don’t know if this arose out of the comments re Phil Wolff’s “Heartbeat” suggestion reference by Tony Bates in the Skype Journal interview at CES last January.

Release notes.

Related articles

• Skype for Windows version 5.5 update adds more Facebook features (digitaltrends.com)
• Facebook Video Chat – Powered by Skype: First Impressions (Voice On The Web)

Yesterday came the first firm indications of the imminent arrival of Skype for iPad. It’s been hotly sought out in Google searches and Skype users have long regarded Skype for iPhone as somewhat pathetic when running on an iPad, especially in 2x mode.  With the iPad’s much larger display and, with iPad 2, its video features a dedicated Skype for iPad offers interesting possibilities, especially for turning an iPad into a unique video phone. The first indication of its appearance was this video on MacRumors where someone had captured a temporary YouTube placement by Skype:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5G_CkPfDOU

Then came the review on CNET; this post on TUAW provides comments from an interview with Rick Osterloh, Skype Head of Consumer Product Management. But I had my first interview about Skype for iPad with Neil Stevens, Skype’s Vice President and General Manager for Consumer at CES last January. The main takeaway from that interview: Skype has hired a user interface expert to design the UI for Skype for iPad. Skype wanted to get a fresh approach to the user experience.

Some comments re Skype for iPad:

• Initial response to the video have been positive about the user experience; however, we all need to try it out ourselves.
• With Skype Everywhere – on PC’s, iPhone, Android, TV sets and BluRay players – and the ability to call the PSTN worlwide – it’s not really competition for FaceTime but rather establishes the standards benchmark for cross platform video and voice calling.
• Having had an iPad for six months, it has become, as predicted at the time of the initial iPad announcement, my electronic briefcase. I rarely take a briefcase or even my Macbook when out of my home office, just the iPad. Applications such as Skype for iPad (and even Facetime) are an extension of the iPad’s functionality “beyond the briefcase” into user engagement. (Although I do seem to recall often carrying my mobile phone in my briefcase.)
• The tablet provides an ideal form factor and display size for a video call on a mobile device; easily carried about; no squinting to see the video (unless in direct sunlight). With its much larger battery, it will be interesting to see Skype for iPad’s impact on battery life. Once experienced by consumers Skype for iPad could help accelerate iPad 2’s sales growth.
• The cnet review, linked above, covered Skype for iPad’s performance over WiFi (excellent) and 3G (good enough). However, recently I dropped my iPad 3G subscription with Rogers when iOS4 became available on my iPhone. When I want to connect my iPad over a 3G connection, I simply turn on the iPhone’s Personal Hotspot and use the iPad’s WiFi via the Personal Hotspot as my only Internet connection. It will be interesting to test reception of a video call on my “original” iPad over this connection.
• While obviously the audio can be handled over the iPad’s 3.5mm audio jack, it should also work with USB headsets via the iPad’s Camera Connection kit as the USB adapter.
• One key assumption: given the support on Skype for iPhone, Skype for iPad should be expected to supports Skype’s SILK codec on Skype-to-Skype calls.

Finally, if I had an iPad 2 I could see making the iPad as my primary Skype device. It won’t be hindered by having multiple applications running as on a PC and it’s a very convenient overall form factor. And it’s easily portable with no cables attached. In fact it becomes closer to a large desktop phone (for the same reasons Bria for iPad can become a business desktop phone replacement). Let’s come to that decision once we’ve had actual experience with Skype for iPad.

Hopefully, as rumored, we’ll see Skype for iPad become available about the same time as Skype’s Jonathan Christensen speaks on Tuesday at eComm America 2011.

Final question: is there a hint there of having the same call bar as Skype 5.5 beta for Windows? That would be a contributor to consistency in the user interface.

Related articles

• Skype for iPad coming next week? (intomobile.com)
• Bria for iPad: Putting an IP Phone on the iPad (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Using Skype on iPad – Helping Navigate Canada’s Newest Air Travel Service (voiceontheweb.pmlo.org)
• Skype is coming to the iPad (gigaom.com)

With today’s announcement of Microsoft’s intention to acquire Skype, subject to regulatory approvals, Skype has received the endorsement required to be considered a long term, viable and stable service addressing both consumer and enterprise markets.

From the press conference and press release:

• Skype will continue as a brand and an independent business unit within Microsoft. There is significant value when your brand name has become a verb in the English language (and one that translates readily to all other languages).
• Skype will continue to support “Skype Everywhere” on Mac’s, Linux, iPhones/iPads, Android phones, TV and other devices – a key requirement to maintaining and growing its current base of over 170 million active users. (This was one condition of closing the deal but execution is key; the first test will be the revamp of the Skype for Mac 5 user interface.)
• Skype has a strong basic revenue generating business; at this point it should be profitable but certainly has had good EBIDTA.
• Skype now has 170 million active users (in the past quarter), as many as 30 million online concurrently at its daily peak and growing the accounts at a rate of over 600,000 per day.
• Outlook is a key initial application for integration into current Microsoft products; Microsoft Lync will be taking advantage of Skype’s underlying technology where appropriate and feasible.

My initial thoughts:

• Keep in mind that Microsoft has bought a communications software company; one of the biggest challenges will be the integration of the software development activities across what has to be at least two different product management and software development cultures.
• Microsoft brings to the table a new level of business process and product management expertise from which Skype will benefit significantly.
• Only Microsoft has the resources – technical, product and business – that can be leveraged to justify an $8.5B buyout price (and give the current investors ~150% return on their investment over 18 months). With opportunities to enhance Office products, add technology to Microsoft Lync and complement other collaboration product such as the Sharepoint platform, they can readily get their investment back within a few years.
• Skype has found a permanent home.
• Skype can now focus totally on product and service development without the distraction of seeking financing (and the associated endorsement).

Some questions:

• How will the two companies’ instant messaging services be brought together? Skype chat offers a richer chat experience, especially given the ability to rapidly escalate to a superior voice and video conversation and to provide complements such as file transfer.
• What will happen to the Skype Store and associated hardware? While Skype has supported and sold products from several hardware vendors, Microsoft’s limited hardware offering (of mice and keyboards) is sold via traditional PC hardware retail distribution channels. Yet much of the hardware has been designed, with assistance from the Skype-certified program, to take full advantage of Skype’s inherent technology.
• Skype has been attempting  to address the large enterprise market with its Skype Connect program; yet we have heard of no successes. Microsoft Lync is a large enterprise product that can probably take advantage of Skype’s inherent technology while delivering an offering that meets the concerns of enterprise communications managers. However, what will Skype be doing to support the small to medium business market – where over 35% of its users say they are using Skype in business?
• What impact will the time required to deal with regulatory issues be on the development and launch of upgrades and new products ? We were told at the press conference no road map will become available until these regulatory issues have been addressed such that the acquisition can be completed. Yet innovation, business development and product releases must continue during this period.
• What direction will the developer program take? Will Skykit survive its rather long birthing process or can Microsoft bring in developer program expertise that would finally get Skype an active developer program from which we can see results? (and from which third party developers can benefit.)
• Can we still expect to see evolution of the Facebook relationship in some way that supports real time conversations via Facebook?
• Since Steve Ballmer showed up on stage at RIM’s BlackBerry World event last week and is now deeply associated with Skype, can we expect to see a carrier-agnostic Skype client on BlackBerry devices? Or would that be too much conflict with Windows Phone?

Bottom line: while there have been overlapping products (such as Live Messenger and Skype Chat) there is so much synergy here that it’s going to be interesting to see what product evolution occurs over the next year and how Microsoft integrates an acquisition with what has become a brand onto itself. Steve Ballmer can be thankful that there was no Yahoo acquisition and that the Skype opportunity has come about with so many more obvious benefits.

One other benefit for Canadians: the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board cleared about $500MM on the deal above their initial $300MM investment 18 months ago.

Other thoughts:

• Dan York: The End of the “Skype as Bandit” Era where Dan provides an interesting  commentary on the barriers Skype has overcome, the Skype experience and the people behind Skype. Dan has blogged more about Skype than any other topic; his employer, Voxeo, lives and dies by Skype, especially the Skype chat.
• Alec Saunders: Does Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype change anything? where he talks about the impact on carrier relationships, video calling and handset manufacturers.
• Alec Saunders: Why is Steve Ballmer excited about Skype? where he provides an excellent overview of today’s Microsoft-Skype press conference and his conclusions as to why this is an excellent deal. (Recall Alec worked for several years at Microsoft.)
• Tidbits, Apple News for the Rest of Us: Microsoft to Buy Skype for $8.5 Billion “… Microsoft says it will continue to invest in and support Skype clients for non-Microsoft platforms. If Microsoft really loves us, they’ll throw out the Skype 5 interface as an initial gesture of goodwill.”
• Phil Wolff, Skype Journal: What Skype’s partners can expect from the deal and Why did Microsoft buy Skype?
• GigaOm: Steve Ballmer & Tony Bates Talk About Skype-Microsoft …

Related articles

• Done Deal: Microsoft to Buy Skype for $8.5 Billion in Cash (kara.allthingsd.com)
• Microsoft to Acquire Skype (online.wsj.com)
• Microsoft targets video-calling with Skype (theglobeandmail.com)
• Microsoft’s Plans for an Office-Flavored Skype (blogs.wsj.com)
• It’s official: Microsoft to buy Skype for $8.5 billion (seattlepi.com)
• Why Microsoft Plus Skype Is An Enterprising Idea (informationweek.com)
• Microsoft Brings Skype from Living Room to Board Room (pcworld.com)

Today Skype released the promised Hotfix to Skype for Mac 5.1 that addresses the security vulnerability that was the subject of much Internet angst last Friday.

Click on Skype | Check for Updates … and you will get this:

Release notes, such as they are, mention three issues addressed:

• Security updates
• Resolves video freezing in high-packet loss networks
• Fixes minor bugs

Dan York has put on his enterprise enterprise security manager hat in posting: Skype Issues 2nd Mac 5.1 Hotfix for “Security Issues” – But What Are Those Issues? and concludes with:

Seriously, Skype… security matters… and even more, communication about security matters. We all know that with any system there are security issues… no system is perfect and attackers will always try to compromise systems. We get that. It is how you react and communicate about those security issues that is so incredibly critical.

Update: Adam Asher, Chief Information Security Officer at Skype, has provided a post outlining why Skype is holding back on details of the security issue addressed by this hotfix as well as confirmation from Pure Hacking (who originally found the issue) that the vulnerability has gone away.

My approach on releases is to always wait for the majority of our users to update before detailing / discussing any of the specific issues that have been fixed. This minimizes the amount of time that would-be attackers have to try and exploit those of our users that haven’t upgraded yet.

Bottom Line: if you are running Skype for Mac 5.1 (or 5.0), do the update. If you chose to stay on Skype for Mac 2.8 while Skype addresses some much larger issues with Skype 5.x, you need do nothing.

Note: as of the time of writing this post, Dan reports that “Check for Updates” is not working for him. Probably needs to clear U.S. customs or similar border security issue. You can also get the download here.

Related articles

• Skype Security Blog: Security Vulnerability in Mac Client Has Been Addressed (blogs.skype.com)

Over at Disruptive Telephony, Best Practices Chair of the VoIP Security Alliance, Dan York, summarizes recent reports on a security vulnerability in Skype for Mac.

Given that I basically live inside of Skype for Mac and use it extensively every day, this is obviously extremely concerning. Particularly because I do let anyone on Skype send me messages… and my Skype ID is easily found on my websites and many other locations (and since is rather obvious – “danyork”).

As a heavy user of Skype for Mac’s group chat feature, Dan questions why there has been no communications from Skype other than a response to ZDNet UK’s story where they say:

UPDATE (5:13pm): Skype has just sent ZDNet UK a statement promising a fix next week. The statement reads: “We are aware of this and will release a fix early next week to resolve the issue. We take our users privacy very seriously and are working quickly to protect Skype users from this vulnerability.”

This evening Skype has responded in their blog post, Security Vulnerability in Mac Client Has Been Addressed. To summarize:

• Skype acknowledges they were aware of the vulnerability, not only via Pure Hackers but also their own internal processes
• The issue was addressed in a “minor” update, version 5.1.0.922 released on April 14, 2011

This vulnerability … is related to a situation when a malicious contact would send a specifically crafted message that could cause Skype for Mac to crash. Note, this message would have to come from someone already in your Skype Contact List, as Skype’s default privacy settings will not let you receive messages from people that you have not already authorized, hence the term malicious contact.

However, they also stated:

As there were no reports of this vulnerability being exploited in the wild, we did not prompt our users to install this update, as there is another update in the pipeline that will be sent out early next week.

And go on to point out that customers will prompted to install a more comprehensive update to be released next week. But they made the following statement:

In the meantime, we recommend you update your software with the fix made available on April 14th, just click on Skype -> Check for Updates or you can download the software here.

I checked my installed version; it was 5.1.0.914. I did the “Check for Updates” and was told there were “no updates”.

Bottom line: download the updated software here (version 5.1.0.9220 and install it to ensure you have no exposure to this vulnerability. And expect to be notified of a more comprehensive update next week.

You can’t win … when customers are heavily prompted to update, there are complaints; when they are not prompted the story somehow gets out  anyway. Decisions, decisions….

One final question: will this update address any of the issues discussed not only in my recent posts but also in several other online discussions (listed at the end of some of these posts).

Update: Dan questions why this issue even had to come to light in ??Skype’s Security Communication FAIL – Why Issue a HotFix If You Don’t Tell Anyone?

Related articles

• Skype Bug Leaves Mac Users Vulnerable to Exploit (macstories.net)
• Expert: Skype for Mac hole can be used in remote attack (news.cnet.com)
• A bug in Skype for Mac could give hackers root access to OS X (thenextweb.com)
• Skype bug gives attackers root access to Mac OS X (theregister.co.uk)
• Skype vulnerability discovered by Pure Hacking (purehacking.com)

For over a year the author has been a keen user of Skype for Windows 5 as a Skype client that has simplicity, yet flexibility. It’s easy to manage contacts, follow conversations, handle video calls as well as archive and search conversation history. Yet, with the release of Skype for Mac 5, there has been a “Skype for Mac 5” fever outbreak on the Internet due to its lack of consistency with these features. Bottom line is that users are confused and, in many cases have gone back to Skype for Mac 2.8. The rash of posts reminds me of a famous comedy routine asking “Who’s on first, What’s on second and I Don’t Know on third” (read down the post for an explanation). On the other hand the Skype for Mac team says they are listening.

It is obvious from personal enquiries and blog posts that Mac users have not experienced Skype for Windows 5 and why it has become so readily accepted after some initial feedback from beta versions and even previous “Gold” versions. The irony here is that, whether intentional or not, Skype for Windows 5 subtly incorporated some of the widely acclaimed  User Interface features of Skype for Mac 2.8.

Behind all this, Phil Wolff, in How to keep & maintain an online relationship tip #1 (Skype!), points out how deeply Skype has penetrated our psyche:

First, Skype is just assumed. It is not novel, special, or difficult. It’s just there, like it’s always been. How could you not Skype? More than seven years after launch, Skype is part of American [Ed. worldwide] youth culture. Like tuxedo nail polish art.

In this post I want to point out where some key terminology needs to aligned so that a couple of terms used in Skype for Mac 5 is consistent with the terms already used in Skype for Windows 5. Keep in mind that in Skype for Windows 5 there are two underlying panes, each with a consistent purpose:

• Contacts on the left: add them, manage them, organize them, select whom you want to converse with and open the relevant conversation pane.
• Conversations on the right: it’s about content! Chat sessions, call detail records for voice and video calls, file transfer information, when did it happen? over what time period. Even the Facebook feature puts conversation content into the same pane. And if you select your own name at the top of the Contacts pane you deal with your own personal “content”.

Compact View

In his  Ignore the Code post, Skype 5 for Mac, Lukas Mathis provided an example where he was able to follow eight separate chat conversations in one Mac desktop. When he wants to deal with Skype he simply switches to his “Skype” desktop and picks up on the relevant conversations – switching desktops is unique to the Mac OS/X:

Skype for Windows has a Default View where the Contacts pane and Conversation pane are side-by-side in one window. However, after a wave of initial user feedback, it quickly incorporated a “Compact View” where conversations could be broken out into separate windows with the following result for an eight window scenario:

One window for managing Contacts, three containing group discussions, one window for the dialpad (more on that in another post) and three conversation sessions with individuals. However, one advantage of Mac OS/X is the ability to have up to four “desktops”. As a result there is the potential to keep these windows open on one Mac desktop and have them readily accessible by using the Mac OS/X features for switching desktops.

Because I personally find it easier to manage conversations in my activities, I now prefer the Default View; however, users have a choice; choice has won over acceptance.

But “Compact View” in the current Skype for Mac 5 simply removes the Contacts’ Profile Pictures from the list of Contacts in the left pane; frankly, it’s useful only because I want to optimize real estate and maximize the number of Contacts I see in the left pane. And forget about the “Cover Roll” view; I find no reason or utility for it other than aesthetics.

Anti-biotic recommendation One: Incorporate the flexibility to have either a single “Contacts/Conversation” pane or a “Compact View” similar to Skype for Windows 5 where the Contacts pane is accompanied by multiple individual conversation panes, such that Lukas could keep his “Skype” desktop. And use the term “Compact View” for this option on both platforms.

Groups and Categories

When Skype launched Skype 4.0 for Windows it changed the definition of Contact Groups (“Groups”) and introduced a new term: “Contact Categories” (“Categories”). Basically a Group is comprised of all the Contacts participating in a Group Chat or Group Voice call (multi-party call). A Group is created in the Conversation Pane either by dragging Contacts into the blue header of a Conversation pane or using the “Add People” button in the Conversation pane call bar. Once created, a Group can be added as a Contact in the Contact pane’s list.

Contact Categories, associated with the Contacts pane only, are subsets of Contacts that can be categorized by some common interest. Basically by selecting a Category from the Contacts (or left) tab in the Conversation pane you only see those Contacts within the Category – a great tool when you have over, say, 50 Contacts and the Categories only include those for whom there is a common association.

The issue with Skype for Mac 5 is that what are Categories in Skype for Windows 5 are still called Groups in Skype for Mac 5. And, with Skype for Mac 5.1 the Groups are listed across the top of the Conversation side of the client. Also I can find no way to create a Group in Skype for Mac 5.1; fortunately adding a new Category in Skype for Windows 5 is reflected in the “Groups” of Skype for Mac 5.

Anti-biotic recommendation 2: Incorporate the Skype for Windows 5 algorithms for identifying and managing Categories and Groups into Skype for Mac 5. Use the left (“Contacts”) pane only for all management of Contacts, including Categories. And introduce a “Create Contact Categories” feature.

Managing “Who’s on First”

(Apologies to non-North Americans who have not heard the Abbott and Costello’s famous “Who’s On First” routine; it’s a word play parody incorporating baseball analogies.)

In Skype for Windows 5, near the top of the Contacts pane are two “tabs”: on the left one for selecting Categories as defined above; on the other a tab called , simply – and appropriately – “Recent”. It builds a Contact timeline, going backwards, of those Contacts with whom a user has had her/his most recent conversations. The latter reflects Phil’s statement:

In my own experience Skype weighs fresh conversations more heavily than other factors.

Select a Contact under either tab and the Conversation pane opens up with a chat window and button bar from which a conversation with that Contact (or Group Contact) may be launched or continued. Note that there is also a Search window where a user can quickly find a Contact when the Contact list gets too long to appear within the length of the Contacts pane; a feature I find very helpful.

But one might as well watch “Who’s On First” to get a flavor for the confusion created in Skype for Mac 5. Contacts and “Recent” Contacts are not readily separated or categorized. In fact, if you want to see the Contacts in a Group …  woops Category … you need to click on a a Group (Category) name in the right pane and the Contacts are listed in what should only contain conversation content.

Anti-biotic recommendation 3: Incorporate the Categories tab, Recent tab and Search window that is seen in Skype for Windows 5. If there are any “Mac”-unique quirks associated with doing this, such as a floating Contact Monitor, incorporate them as an enhancement but keep consistency with the basics as a starting point.

Bottom line: Not only should Skype for Mac have the same feature set as Skype for Windows, as often  promoted by Dan York, but also the user interface and associated terminology should be similar such that a user going from one platform to the other can just continue to use Skype in a manner totally transparent to the user. On the other hand, let the Skype for Mac team innovate through enhancements that take advantage of features of Mac OS/X where feasible and reasonable.

Other posts in this series:

• Skype for Mac 5 – From Ecstasy to Agony
• Skype for Mac 5: Returning to Ecstasy – Step 2 – The Conversation Pane

Other views on this issue:

• Ignore the Code: Skype 5 Ideas
• Dan York, Disruptive Telephony: My 3 Main Issues With Skype 5.x For The Mac
• Balance Network: Skype 5 for Mac Redesign, “A little more than just a Chat Style”
• Attack of Design: Skype Beta for Mac’s Usability Failings
• Hudson Barton, Aaytch: How To Fix Skype-for-Mac 5.x
• Andy Abramson, VoIP Watch: Skype Has Another Set of Outages Yesterday
• Keith Lang: screen shot on how to organize Contacts
• Jaanus Kase: Skype 5 for Mac: spatial arrangement and inconsistent single-window design

And, for those design masters: enter the Mac chat style competition; competition announcement

Related articles

• Skype for Mac 5.0 Goes Gold: Incorporating Beta Feedback and More (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Skype for Mac 5, Skype for iPhone 3.0.1 – Upgrade Wednesday (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Skype for Windows 5.2: Subtle Window Dressings II – “Text Tone” Dialing (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Months pass, and fury over Skype 5 for Mac still boils (skypejournal.com)
• This Is What Skype 5 For Mac Should Look Like (techcrunch.com)

For Mac devotees worldwide there has developed a significant appreciation of Skype for Mac 2.8 with it’s drawers, separate chat conversations windows, contact management algorithms and other features that present a “Mac-like” user interface. It provided both ease-of-use and flexibility across the spectrum of new to advanced users. However, there have also been cries for incorporating many features that are now available in Skype for Windows 5.x, especially Group Video calling. A tall task, to say the least. Recall Dan York’s rant on Skype’s fragmented product strategy, for instance.

Over the past couple of months Skype has released two versions of Skype for Mac 5.x (5.0 and 5.1) to some acclaim (yes, I have heard some complements) but also to much dismay. On the positive side it supports Group Video Calling (but now requiring a subscription). It took a couple of weeks after the Skype for Mac 5.1 release but last week the Internet erupted with an outbreak of Skype for Mac 5.x fever as several bloggers passionately displayed the rash by posting their concerns, apprehensions and aspirations. From my recent interviews with Skype personnel, their blogs and my own experience using both Skype for Windows 5.x and Skype for Mac 5.x I find the following:

• It appears that the goal for Skype for Mac 5.x is to have an interface similar to the revamped user interface first launched as Skype for Windows 4.x and now at its most recent version, Skype for Windows 5.2. At the same time the goal was to catch up to the feature set of Skype for Windows 5.x.
• From my CES interview with Neil Stevens, Skype’s VP Consumer Products, I learned that Neil wants to see new versions with incremental feature enhancements released every two to three months. Certainly the activity since the beginning of 2011 has lived up to that goal with two new releases of both Skype for Windows and Skype for Mac in that time frame.
• In the announcing the contest for “Styling” a theme the Skype for Mac 5.x conversation pane there is a concluding paragraph stating:
  • Finally, a note to those of you who have commented on the user interface as a whole. We’re in the process of developing some changes which will offer a lot more flexibility in the interface, and they’re on the roadmap for a (near) future version. Stay tuned.
• In response to last week’s deluge of blog posts Skype’s Rick Osterloh has posted “An Update on Skype for Mac” where he attempts to explain some of the challenges of building Skype for Mac 5. He states:
  • However, there’s still plenty of work for us to do and we know that not all of you prefer 5.X. To that end, we’ve taken a comprehensive look at the feedback from the last couple of months and identified two broad patterns. I’ve captured a distillation of some of the issues we have heard.
• In the meantime Skype has restored the ready availability of Skype for Mac 2.8 on their website as an option.

Skype for Mac 5 Fever – The Outbreak

• Lukas Mathis, Ignore the Code, in his post Skype 5 for Mac, finds an upgraded Skype Contact asking: “What the hell happened to Skype? Is this some kind of a joke?” He goes on to point out the simplicity in Skype for Mac 2.8 of the basic contact window, how chats were displayed and how he uses the Mac multi-desktop feature to manage multiple concurrent chat sessions. He continues by outlining his issues with Skype for Mac 5: complexity, rigidness and non-essential features. All valid points including a demonstration of how a more advanced user took advantage of the UI’s flexibility in 2.8.
• Jaanus Kase, a former Skype employee who has since acquired a degree in Human-Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University, in his post, Skype 5 for Mac: spatial arrangement and inconsistent single-window design, discusses the the “Floating and Disappearing Dial Pad” as an example. [My comment: here is one feature that needs to be addressed by looking at how the dial pad is handled in Skype for Windows 5 (I’ll have more to say later on this one.)]
• Hudson Barton, a Skype for Mac enthusiast who tracks Skype users online every 15 minutes, uncovers a previous Skype for Mac UI design proposal from an agency that Skype worked with (don’t know if they still do). He points out in his post, How To Fix Skype-for-Mac 5.x :
  • ….. the features of Skype-for-Windows work consistently and as one might anticipate, with lists of contacts,  conversations calls on the left and the content of those items on the right.  The Mac interface, by contrast, is all mixed up. {Editor’s bold} Things pop up in unexpected locations and in formats that are both strange and unusable.  Some of the features are too buggy to use.  Others are annoying, or meaningless, or simply dead, and several things that were admired in 2.8 have gone missing.

  and offers some suggestions for fixing Skype for Mac 5.

• Phil Wolff at Skype Journal, in Months pass, and fury over Skype 5 for Mac still boils, provides one perspective on “How did this happen” and points out that “Design Is Hard”:
  • How do you hold fast to your core Skypiness, to what made people love you, and support new features for new markets, new use cases, new business models? Your backlogs overflow. The pressure is intense. Heck, I add to my Skype wishlist daily so I can only imagine what your iceboxes look like.
• Andy Abramson at VoIP Watch speculates on how this all may have evolved in Skype Has Another Set of Outages Yesterday.

Skype for Mac 5 – The Anti-Biotic

From these posts and conversations in the general course of my work I get the feeling that I am one of the few users who has experienced both Skype for Windows 5 and Skype for Mac 5 on an almost daily basis. I am also involved with a network of business contacts who simply use Skype — they don’t care about the underlying technology –  and just want it to work but again I hear that “What the hell happened to Skype?” line from those who use a Mac.

Just over a year ago I acquired a MacBook Pro and quickly learned first hand about the features that made Skype for Mac 2.8 attractive to its user base. And then I realized that some of the basic precepts behind Skype for Windows 4 and 5 had some consistency with how Skype for Mac 2.8 worked, especially when it came to handling contacts and conversations. At that point I realized how some of these features were inherent to Skype for Windows 4.x and have become very comfortable with the Skype for Windows 4 and 5 overall format while benefiting from its new features:

• The two panes clearly separate Contact Management and Conversations
• There is a “Compact View” option to have a separate window for Contact management and multiple windows for individual conversations (with chat text, call detail notes and file transfer records) in addition to the “Default View” with one overall user interface window and two panes. (Note: don’t go running to Compact View in Skype for Mac 5 – that has totally different consequences)
• Skype for Windows 5.x has evolved with new UI features that make using Skype even easier (for example I have commented on two nifty new Skype for Window 5.2 here and here – the latter addresses one aspect of how the dial pad works).

Over the course of this week I will be putting up a series of additional posts outlining in more detail what I see as needed for Skype for Mac to come close to the convenience, feature set and ease-of-use found in Skype for Windows 5.2.

Bottom line: the Skype for Mac team has lots of work outstanding to address the challenge of not only having the feature set but also ease-of-use of Skype for Windows 5 while also taking advantage of some potential features that are unique to the Mac. Hopefully my comments can help point out key issues. With over 30 million online concurrently last week and 145+ million active users late last year, there is a significant portion of Skype’s users who count on a positive user experience (18% of this blog’s visitors in 2011 are on a Mac.)

Dan York has some additional comments:

• My 3 Main Issues With Skype 5.x For The Mac – And Jim Courtney Summarizes The Skype for Mac 5 Saga

Other posts in this series:

• Skype for Mac 5: Returning to Ecstasy – Step 1 – Consistency
• Skype for Mac 5: Returning to Ecstasy – Step 2 – The Conversation Pane

Other views on this issue:

• Ignore the Code: Skype 5 Ideas
• Balance Network: Skype 5 for Mac Redesign, “A little more than just a Chat Style”
• Attack of Design: Skype Beta for Mac’s Usability Failings
• Hudson Barton, Aaytch: How To Fix Skype-for-Mac 5.x
• Andy Abramson, VoIP Watch: Skype Has Another Set of Outages Yesterday
• Keith Lang: screen shot on how to organize Contacts
• Jaanus Kase: Skype 5 for Mac: spatial arrangement and inconsistent single-window design

And, for those design masters: enter the Mac chat style competition; competition announcement

Related articles

• Skype for Mac 5.0 Goes Gold: Incorporating Beta Feedback and More (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Skype for Mac 5 Beta 1: Catching Up to Skype for Windows 5 But With a Mac Touch (staging.dicx.com)
• This Is What Skype 5 For Mac Should Look Like (techcrunch.com)
• Download: Skype for Mac 5.1 (skypejournal.com)
• Skype 5 for Mac continues to frustrate — how’s it treating you? (engadget.com)

When entering the BlogHaus suite over three years ago at CES 2008, I quickly learned I had to be careful with my activities as Robert Scoble was running around with a Nokia N95 recording short video clips(and sometimes “instant” interviews) using a newly launched service called Qik. The basic idea was that (1) you could record a video on a smartphone for archiving on the web and (2) during the recording period the video was also being live streamed via the Qik website.

Fast forward three years later when Qik supported a broad range of smartphones, had probably millions of video clips archived and was developing an comprehensive iPhone offering.  At the Skype press conference at CES 2011, Skype announced the acquisition of Qik. This past two weeks has seen the launch of two iPhone apps: the premium ($2.99)  Qik Connect Video PLUS (at SXSW 2011) and, last week, the free app Qik Video Connect.

Over the past couple of days I have been checking out Qik Video Connect PLUS with Dan York and Phil Wolff. Basically the (Free) Qik Video Connect  offers three services:

• Video Chat: a one-to-one video calling service over WiFi, 3G and 4G
• Video Streaming: Live stream a video to the net via the Qik website with promotion via Twitter and Facebook
• Video Mail: record and email a video message.

All videos are also archived at Qik for private or public viewing. And, within the iPhone app, their availability can be sent out over Twitter and Facebook; they can also be sent to the iPhone’s Camera Roll (video/photo library). In fact, there is even an option to send it to YouTube.

Qik Connect Plus adds:

• Real-time effects: Customize and enhance video chat and live video streaming with seven effects and filters.
• Video editing: Use simple video editing tools directly from your device to share the best moments.
• HD quality: Upload and share true HD quality videos captured on your phone.

The Real-time effects are created by using the image bar at the bottom of the picture to turn the video being seen to full color, black and white, sepia and five other “effects”. When you End a Video Chat session, an editing bar appears across the top of the screen; it can also be recalled for later editing from the My Videos icon on the Home screen menu.

Some screen shots:

Qik Video Connect Contacts are those amongst your iPhone Contacts who have the same mobile or iPhone number as they have registered with their Qik account; a green webcam indicates that the Contact has Qik Video Connect installed and is available to receive a call. (You can receive a call while in another iPhone application.) Note that as I already had a Qik account, I did not have to use the registration procedure available on the application yet I could pull up and view previously archived videos.

In the center image, Phil Wolff was receiving the call and used his rear facing camera to catch our simultaneous Skype video conversation on his PC screen. I was using the “front” facing camera on my iPhone 4. The right image shows not only the option to do further editing but also the many ways a video can be shared or distributed.

And a short clip on YouTube:

If there is one concern, it’s about the user interface, not for the screens, but rather for the random way in which some screens come up. For instance, sometimes when I asked for the Connect screen (showing the Contacts) I would get a screen asking me to Invite contacts – and it would act as if I had no Contacts. Touching other Home menu items and then going back to the Connect screen would bring up the Contacts but there appeared to be no logic as to why this was happening. Also the process of showing webcam presence in the Contacts screen was sometimes not in accord with what I knew Phil was doing at the other end (for instance, I knew he was trying to call me, yet I would see his webcam as gray). Also I have yet to discover what is meant by “HD Quality”; certainly the video was not 720p HD resolution (1280 x 720).

Bottom line: While Qik certainly has developed an appealing application that demonstrates not only video messaging, streaming and archiving but also the video technology that Skype acquired with the Qik acquisition.  Questions have to arise as to where Skype will apply the technology. Will it be used to improve the resolution of Skype video calling on the iPhone and Android? Will Qik Video Connect add Skype contacts to its “Connect” contacts list? What does Skype gain in terms of transmitting video at top quality over 3G and 4G networks? Will Qik’s technology be used for recording Skype video calls? (And I’m sure there lots of other questions.)

And one other note: There are now at least three video calling offerings for the iPhone: Facetime (calls over WiFi to other iPhone, iPod Touch and Mac users); Skype for iPhone (calls to Skype clients on multiple platforms over WiFi and 3G but at lower resolutions than Facetime) and Qik Video Connect’s video chat (calls over WiFi and 3G/4G between iPhones and iPod Touch where also video “mail” messages can be left and calls are archived).

Related articles

• Qik Free available in the US iTunes store (skypejournal.com)
• Handheld HD with Qik Video Connect Plus (insideview.ie)
• Qik unveils Qik Video Connect for iPhone, offers real-time filters and effects (thenextweb.com)
• Qik technologies should flow to Skype users (skypejournal.com)

Yesterday Skype released Skype for Mac 5.0 Gold version, addressing many of the concerns raised in the beta version released three months ago. And, rest assured, Skype received lots of feedback about the new user interface experienced in the beta version and the disruption it caused to those long time fans of the previous version 2.8. While not addressing all the issues (such as my major one – see below) the 5.0 Gold release certainly has a more usable and less intrusive UI.

When I interviewed Skype’s Neil Stevens, Skype’s Vice President of Consumer Products, at CES three weeks ago he had given me a heads up that this release would be forthcoming shortly. But he also expressed two other goals for Skype’s Consumer Product development process:

• Work towards a more common User Interface across all the PC platforms: Windows, Mac and Linux
• Reduce the release cycle time between versions from  12 to 18 months down to two to three months to be more responsive to market needs and user feedback.

In my earlier post discussing the beta version I mentioned how Skype for Mac was moving in a similar direction towards the Skype for Windows 5.1 user interface. While not going all the way there, the Gold release does address some of the outstanding issues:

• the chat window can very easily be brought up at the bottom of the conversation pane and resized (addressing Dan York’s major issue with the beta)
• the Skype client window can be narrowed to take up less desktop real estate although it can almost get too narrow when the Contact Sidebar gradually disappears if narrowed down to the extreme
• reduction of white space in both the main conversation pane and sidebar (click on View | Compact Sidebar for the latter).
• more prominence to the Contact Monitor (View | Online Contacts – see below on left) where you can see who’s online by Group. (Although I’m still trying to figure out whether it’s viewable outside the Skype application.)
• restored full screen mode for video calls – probably the most requested feature restoration
• moved the dial pad up to the tool bar such that its availability becomes more readily apparent.
• on video calls, the caller’s window can not only be readily moved within the Conversation pane but also resized
• in the Call settings of preferences you can add a Skype watermark that is viewed when your cursor is not within the Conversation pane (actually it’s also faintly there behind the red “end call” button when the Call Status bar is visible).

Also Skype for Mac 5 includes support for Group Video calling for which there is a seven day trial available following which users must sign up for Skype Premium which also includes access to Live Chat support for Skype. (Note the discount for 3- and 12-month subscriptions.) Yes, it’s another potential revenue generator for Skype.

My initial observations – it’s all about the navigation and call management:

• At the bottom of the conversation window are four icons: toggle Contact Sidebar on/off, toggle chat session on/off, full screen video on/off and caller video window on/off. Very handy.
• The Call Status Bar at the top of the conversation screen still lacks the Call Quality Information feature of Skype for Windows 5.0. When I mentioned my previous recommendation about this to Neil he said to expect this feature to be incorporated into a future release. Once again, it is a most useful and handy tool for facilitating Skype calls in Skype for Windows.
• The floating Call Monitor bar, which appears when you are in an application other than Skype, remains a very useful feature. In this version double clicking on the “presence” icon returns you to the Skype client.
• While the DialPad has been moved to a more apparent position above the Conversation window, it also make more sense to have it appear on the Call Status Bar as well (as in Skype for Windows 5.x).
• One always wants to have “View | Compact Sidebar” set as I can see a Contact’s profile picture in the Conversation pane when I select the contact.
• There is more visibility, and therefor emphasis, for Groups due to their inclusion in the Contact Sidebar whereas accessing Groups in Skype for Windows requires an extra click from within the Contacts tab.
• Update Feb. 10, 2010. Support for H.264 is now included with Skype for Mac 5. This now allows calls between Skype for Mac and Skype for TV. There is still no support for the H.264 processor deployed on HD webcams and in Skype for TV clients. This also means one cannot make calls between Skype for Mac and any Skype for TV client as the latter requires H.264 support on the other party’s Skype client.

Bottom line: Skype for Mac 5.0 Gold certainly brings the Skype for Mac client closer to the Skype for Windows UI algorithm. It’s definitely easier to use than the beta. Also I have to admit my own bias in that I have come to the conclusion that the Skype for Windows algorithm is easier to manage and use than earlier versions of the Skype client. You basically have all your searchable conversation history for a contact in one “Conversation” window pane.

Whereas, unless someone was serious about providing beta feedback, I was not recommending that anyone upgrade to the beta, at this point I can readily recommend upgrading to Skype for Mac 5 Gold. There’s probably a bit of a navigation training exercise to go through but once you experience the algorithm, you’ll find it easier to manage and track your conversations. But also let’s hope we see a new version in 2 to 3 months addressing additional feature requests, such as the Call Quality Information feature.

And one Skype for Windows 5 feature that’s definitely missing: nary a sign of any Facebook integration.

Skype Journal’s Phil Wolff tracked “user sentiment” about the new version by following social networking and other feedback during launch day.

Finally, here’s the video from Skype for Mac Product Manager Krishna Panicker:

Related articles

• Skype for Mac Leave Beta, Adds Premium Group Video Calling (readwriteweb.com)
• Skype 5 for Mac out of beta, group video calling part of Premium subscription (tuaw.com)
• Skype for Mac 5 Improves on Beta – Still Far From Perfect (newsgrange.com)
• Download: Skype for Mac 5.0 Gold (skypejournal.com)
• Skype 5.0 for Mac Exits Beta, Group Calling No Longer Free [VIDEO] (mashable.com)
• Skype 5.0 out of Beta, Group Video Chat Now Premium Feature (pcworld.com)

Aid workers and care givers who provide services in politically- and infrastructure-challenged countries where law and order is not necessarily a given, where war, violence and crime are rife, have always ranked very high on my admiration list as one of the most unselfish and high risk roles that one can perform in hopes of betterment of individuals’ lives. And often these workers are in hardship situations where they must spend not only weeks or months but even years with little or no contact with their families and friends.

So what is Skype doing to help?

Today Skype announced a partnership with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) where Skype has not only worked to supply communications services to 120 “hardship locations” but also adapted their software technology to deal with the low bandwidth communications infrastructure available to these locations. Skype’s Antoine Bertout has discussed this partnership with UNHCR’s Mohammed Faisal:

In Skype experiments with refugee workers, Skype Journal’s Phil Wolff outlines some of the special technical features of this “bespoke” version of Skype:

Changes that limit bandwidth use:

• Video will not start automatically.
• Video will not start until Skype sees needed bandwidth.
• Skype’s SILK voice CODEC (8-40 kbps) will be used when possible.
• No Facebook support.

In the video you will hear Mohammed refer to “our network”; there is an element of a virtual private network (“VPN”) involved in some circumstances as well. Also the client supports Skype Chat, including Group Chat, and SkypeOut calls to the PSTN. Note also that the Blue Wall firewall incorporated into the associated infrastructure allows calls only “outside business hours” in order to minimize impact on critical business operations.

Video calling may be bandwidth challenged in some situations; it would be interesting to know what resolutions and frame rates are supported (even if lower that High Quality Video’s 640 x480 @ 30 fps, at least one should be able to see images at, say 320 x240 @ 15 fps, etc., given Skype Video’s bandwidth adaptation features). But just hearing a distant voice will suffice for most calls.

But why just for UNHCR?

Dan York questions why such technology would not also benefit a sector of the business market in Interesting Tech in Skype’s Low-Bandwidth Version for UNHCR – Wouldn’t Enterprises Want This?:

As I listened to the video, it definitely occurred to me that there are businesses and organizations out there who could also benefit from a low-bandwidth version of Skype. I think, for instance, of shipping companies with limited Internet connectivity to vehicles or ships. Or to companies with distributed offices with very small branch offices with very small Internet connections.

Skype’s Peter Parkes has responded to a comment (to the original Skype blog post) about other aid organizations with:

UNHCR is the first partner to benefit from this low-bandwidth version of Skype for Windows. A large dispersed organization such as UNHCR is an ideal testing environment to evaluate the performance of this software in a wide variety of challenging connectivity networks. At the moment we are focused on ensuring a successful roll-out of Skype to a planned 80 to 85 per cent of UNHCR “hardship” locations before the end of 2011.

As such, it is not currently available to other organizations or the general public to download. It is clear to us however, that others could benefit from the changes and the lessons learned during the evaluation of the software that Skype has developed for UNHCR. Unfortunately, however, we are unable able to talk about our future intentions and can only discuss our partnership with UNHCR at present.

You can support UNHCR’s activities also….

Skype and UNHCR have also put up a page where you can provide financial resources to UNHCR to assist with supplying textbooks and training manuals, funding teachers and purchasing solar-powered computers, amongst other requirements that go to support their programs.

Bottom line: Over the past few decades advances in communications technology have helped to overcome many political injustices, natural disasters and barriers to economic opportunity . While it’s been great that Skype offers many cost-free services to all of us,  when it comes to providing assistance to those helping peoples disengaged from life’s real opportunities, Skype’s services become “priceless”.

Related articles

• UN refugee agency staff trial new version of Skype (guardian.co.uk)
• Skype Creates Bespoke Software to Help Refugee Workers (mashable.com)
• Low-bandwidth Skype custom app created for UN Refugee aid workers [Video] (slashgear.com)

This morning Skype released, for public feedback, Skype for Mac 5 Beta 1 with a range of new features and modifications of the legacy user interface. My first experiences with it over the past couple of days generate some interesting questions (that I’m sure many developers face when developing applications for both Windows and the Mac). Keep in mind that this is a beta and Skype is looking for user feedback; I’ve already reported a couple of minor bugs encountered in my normal use of the application.

First, what’s new? Many features from Skype for Windows 5 and then some:

Bringing it up to Skype for Windows 5 features:

• Multi-party video (beta with the 28 day free trial; no mention of charges)
  • Dan York: Skype 5.0 Beta for Mac OS X: A First Look at Group Video
  • Speaking caller’s name turns green (instead of a blue halo)
• Offline IM: so you can send and receive chat messages while the other party is offline
• Improved experience with network-compromised calls
• Recovery of dropped calls (A most useful feature in Skype for Windows 5)
• Scroll up the bottom of a conversation window to expose the chat window for the conversation
• Join an ongoing conference call
• Add phone numbers to a Contact’s Skype profile (been very handy in Skype for Windows 5)
• Integration with the native Mac Address Book (vs the native Outlook Address Book)

And here’s what’s different:

• A significantly different User Interface (which is supposed to be more Mac-like)
• A Call Control Bar that stays above any documents or other application window that you have open
• Maintain a set of Favorites in the Contact Sidebar for frequent Contacts
• Contact Profile also contains all recent conversations with the Contact
• A Contact Monitor that lets you see a list of Online Contacts (upper left corner of the above image)

Dan York has a second post that covers much of the above: Skype 5.0 Beta for Mac OS X: A First Look with Screenshots.

And here’s what’s missing:

• Call Status Bar from Skype for Mac 5 Beta 1

• Call Status Bar from Skype for Windows 5.0:

• I would really like to see the DialPad, Screen Share and Add to Call, as well as the Call Quality Information icons included in the one primary Call Status Bar as done in Skype for Windows 5.
  • at the moment they tend to be scattered around the conversation screen and not easy to find. For instance the Dial Pad is buried obscurely in the lower left corner of the call window.
• And, talking about the Call Quality Information, the new version of this in Skype for Windows 5 is a very handy tool for determining the status of hardware and network connections with a readily accessible single click:

This is one other “would-like-to-see” in Skype for Mac 5 as it has really helped with determining the cause of any call issues in real time.

The User Interface:

With the introduction of Skype for Windows 4.0 (and enhanced in Windows 5), we had to get accustomed to a new User Interface algorithm. Once I caught onto its separation of Navigation (Contacts, Conversations Directory) and Content (Chat content, call History, File transfer history, etc.) algorithm, it turns out to actually be very efficient for dealing with all my Skype conversation activity. I can easily find previous conversations, Search old chat sessions, check out Facebook New Feed, and find other content. (And if I don’t want to look at the FaceBook News Feed, I don’t have to.) Most significant is its use of Tabs to help maintain focus on the task at hand:

I still need to spend some time using the Skype for Mac 5 beta user interface; there’s something not quite so simplistic about it. There’s an attempt at separation of Navigation and Content but it’s not so obvious. Fundamentally Skype for Windows 5 has figured out how to use Tabs effectively; the lack of Tabs in Skype for Mac 5 beta is what I feel is hindering the ease of user operations. Whereas Skype for Windows 5 “hides” what you do not need, Skype for Mac 5 beta appears to be totally ‘in your face” and cluttered. I would strongly suggest having some discussions with the Skype for Windows 5 product management team along with an investigation of the use of Tabs.

In another post I ‘ll have more to say about Tabs in the Skype interface as they can be used to address another issue that is arising at this time as well (but not discussed here).

What do I like about Skype for Mac 5?

• Video call quality; in the few video conversations I have had, the video quality has been excellent
• Multi-party Calling and the way it is presented; very “Mac-Like” (acknowledgements to Dan York for the image on the right)
• The Floating Call Control Bar
• The Contact Monitor
• Mac Address Book integration
• Handling of Favorites

Finally, Dan York made a video this morning where he demonstrates many of the features of Skype for Mac 5 beta, including a multi-party Skype video call; an eight minute training video to learn about all the new features in action:

Bottom line: it’s a beta, there are a few minor bugs but it needs feedback from the general Skype user community. And I really think a usability review would be in order along the lines suggested in this post. On the other hand, finally Mac users can take advantage of many Skype for Windows 5 features; it’s definitely a step in the right direction.

P.S.: Did I mention that Dan holds a copyright on requesting upgrades for Skype for Mac?

Two posts from Skype:

• The Big Blog: Introducing the new Skype for Mac, now available in Beta
• Skype Garage Blog: Skype 5.0 Beta for Mac (including Release Notes)

Download it here.

Related articles

• Skype For Mac: The TNW Complete Review [TNW Apple] (thenextweb.com)
• Skype 5 Beta for Mac Now Available (macstories.net)
• Skype Group Video Calls Come To The Mac In Beta (techcrunch.com)
• With Facetime Looming, Skype Outs a Better Mac Client (gigaom.com)
• Skype 5.0 for Mac Beta is now available — includes group video chat (tuaw.com)
• Skype Group Video Calling Comes to Mac (mashable.com)
• Download: Skype for Mac 5 Beta (skypejournal.com)
• Skype 5.0 for Mac beta gets group video chat, redesign (macworld.com)
• Facetime for Mac: Adding Millions to the FaceTime User Base (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Skype 5.0 Beta for Mac Arrives…But Where’s Facebook? (readwriteweb.com)

Yesterday Apple released FaceTime for Mac, making its popular iPhone 4 Facetime application available to all owners of MackBooks and iMacs that are using the Snow Leopard (OS/X 10.6) operating system. Most significant about this announcement was the immediate expansion by several million of the user base who could be reached on FaceTime calls. (3.89 million Macs were sold in Apple’s most recently reported quarter.)

The limitation for video calling (and any real time communications service) has always been how many users can really use the service, given the interoperability limitations. As pointed out by former Skype CEO Josh Silverman in an interview at CES last January, when Skype launches a service, such as video calling, it is immediately available to the over 100 million active Skype users in a quarter.

Other attempts at video calling services, such as Logitech’s Vid, are limited to either other users of supported Logitech webcams or any third party offering using Logitech Vid software but there was no contact base built up to communicate with.  Two or three years ago Rogers attempted to launch a wireless video calling service but nobody had the mobile handsets required to make and receive video calls; the service has at best languished. The launch of FaceTime on the Mac will certainly significantly expand the user base who can experience video calling, even if limited to WiFi or Ethernet connections.

So how does FaceTime for Mac work? Download the application from Apple’s website and install it. It will initially ask for an email address to be associated with your FaceTime for Mac. You then are given your own image along with a list of Contacts, which comes from your Mac Address Book. My initial call was to fellow blogger, Dan York, during which I found he could be accessed on his iPhone 4. I simply clicked on his mobile number and the call was made. Dan then associated his FaceTime for Mac with a personal email address and we then made a subsequent MacBook-to-MacBook call.

Orientation: on the iPhone you can change the orientation of the image simply by rotating the iPhone where its accelerometer automatically changes the orientation. On the MacBook it is necessary to mouse over your own image and a circular arrow icon will appear; click in the icon and the image goes from portrait to landscape (or vice-versa, as appropriate).

Dan has reported on our calls in Hands-On with Apple’s new FaceTime for Mac (Screenshots). He outlines three issues: How do you shut the video off? What about Windows? and the implications for Standards?

My own issue is this. FaceTime is pretty well a stand alone video calling application; it does not even link into iChat. Skype video calling is accompanied by an entire ecosystem of real time communications tools that allows concurrent chat sessions (I always like to ask if someone can take a call), file transfer, or multi-party calling. So it works when the daughter reluctantly wants to show her new braces to her Dad (watch an iPhone 4 TV ad) but there’s no chat session for sending the bill to Dad. Phil Wolff makes some interesting points in Skype beats FaceTime for Mac: 18—13.

Can you use other webcams than the Mac’s Built-in iSight webcam? Yes, I subsequently made a call to Alec Saunders using the FREETALK Everyman webcam on the MacBook Pro; it may be my personal perception but I thought it gave a better quality image, but have no evidence as to how this would have appeared at the other end.

And, as for the use of your Mac webcam for other video applications mentioned by Dan? I made some more calls that beg to differ with Dan’s thoughts on this; but that’s the subject of a separate post.

Bottom Line: FaceTime for Mac will give millions of more users the ability to experience video calling. The market usage is far from saturated and we’ll be seeing ongoing innovation such as multi-party video calling (now in Skype for Windows 5.0) and perhaps more services offering video calling on smartphones. (BlackBerry/RIM – are you following this?). Will we eventually see interoperability?

But the bottom line will be how many parties can you call using a service. The race for users has become serious. One certain call: the next version of iPad will definitely have webcam support. An obvious way to add more millions of end points for FaceTime.

Related articles

• Apple Fights Back In Video Chat With FaceTime for the Mac (newteevee.com)
• Why FaceTime And Not iChat? (crunchgear.com)
• Apple introduces FaceTime for Mac (macworld.com)
• Skype beats FaceTime for Mac: 18 – 13 (skypejournal.com)

When I interviewed Skype CEO Josh Silverman at CES 2010 in January, I had asked about the timing for a Skype IPO. Josh’s response:

“We’ll see. We don’t have a timeline for it. Our focus is to build a really great company. When we’re ready and the markets are ready, we’ll consider an IPO. At some point investors will want an exit, of course, but they’ re really taking  a long term point-of-view. This is not a quick flip; this is about building one of the great companies of technology.”

Today “long term” was defined as something between nine and fourteen months. Nine months after being taken private by an investment group lead by Silver Lake, Skype announced, through a blog post by Josh Silverman, they had filed a preliminary prospectus for an IPO. With a road show and other pre-IPO activities we’re probably three to five months from seeing the final transaction happen.

The prospectus makes for interesting read about both Skype’s business model and the communications infrastructure transition wrought by new technologies. Key Skype performance data includes:

• 2010 Jan-Jun revenues of $406.2MM vs same period 2009 of $324.8MM, an increase of 25.1%
• “Adjusted” EBITDA increase by 59.3% from $75.2MM to 115.8MM over the same periods
• $37MM in capital expenditures budgeted for 2010 vs $13.5MM spent in 2009

and some interesting user data:

One should really think of “Registered Users” as “Registered Accounts”. Especially with Skype for Business becoming more active, there will be a rise in accounts but lots of reasons for stagnant or dead accounts. (Personally I manage, via Skype Manager, over 25 accounts with about 15 users but really only use two of them for my own ongoing activities. The other users were created for one or more business activities and )

Most interesting are the “connected users” numbers, defined as “average monthly number for the three months ended [on] the date [shown on the x-axis]”. While Skype is showing a current number of 124 million“connected users” for the quarter ended Jun30, 2010  Hudson Barton’s “real users” number – which is more an indication of daily users on line is currently running at about 60 million.

The increase in paying users is the most significant number of interest. The prospectus confirms that SkypeOut represents Skype’s number one source of revenue and this number is the best indicator of how quickly these revenues can grow.

One other interesting metric relates to calling minutes, broken down as”

• Communications services billing minutes (SkypeOut minutes): from 5.0B in H1 2009 to 6.4B in H1 2010, a 28% increase somewhat consistent with the revenue increase, and
• Skype-to-Skype minutes: from 49.1 billion in H1 2009 to 88.4 billion in H1 2010, a 80% increase confirming that “free” really is the key marketing strategy for increasing Skype users and Skype usage.

Bottom line: Skype continues to grow at double digit rates but they are about to enter a phase where marketing activities and business communications services will become vital to sustaining its growth. Yet, regulatory and competitive issues will also become a significant factor and a real test of how willing governments are able to adapt to technological change as opposed to sustaining cost-inefficient legacy telecommunications operations whose fundamental business models are threatened. For the first time, we’ll be able to view quarterly the business success of Skype as an independent business operation.

There’s lots of other interesting marketing information and financial data in the prospectus but that leaves room for additional posts. And the statements re regulatory issues have the makings of several discussions.

Note that while $100MM has been put out as the amount to be raised, it was apparently only used as a metric to assist with determining SEC filing fees. The actual amount to be raised has yet to be announced.

Other posts:

• Dan York, Disruptive Communications: Skype, less than a year after eBay sale, files for $100 million IPO
• Business Insider SAI: Skype Spent $343.8 Million To Acquire Its P2P Software From Founders
• Andy Abramson, VoIP Watch: Skype To Go Public makes a couple of interesing points:

Now, going public brings with it a whole new set of responsibilities, not only SEC quarterly reporting.

For Skype’s lead investors, Silver Lake Partners, this is their opportunity to cash out. For many of the employees at Skype this is their chance for a nice reward for all the hard work they’ve put in over the past year.

• GigaOm: Skype Files for IPO

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• Skype Going Public With $100 Million IPO (thenextweb.com)
• Skype files for IPO (theglobeandmail.com)
• Skype Files For $100 Million IPO (techcrunch.com) (This one includes a block diagram of the various companies involved)
• Internet calling service Skype files for IPO (sfgate.com)
• GIPS, Google and All That Co-opetition Jazz! (voiceontheweb.biz)
• SkypeKit: “Naked” Skype Support Arrives for Hardware-Embedded Skype and PC Applications (voiceontheweb.biz)

“Fring is not a communications platform, but only a toy or at best a testbed for shiny objects.”

Comment by Hudson Barton on Andy Abramson’s post: Fring Fumbles on Cross Platform Video Chat

In observing the evolution of Skype and third party access to it over the past few years I have often wondered how far Skype would go in allowing third party services to deploy Skype as one communications mode in a multi-service communications offering. Fring and Truphone are two examples. Usually these offerings figure out a way to put up a temporary Skype client on a “gateway” server and then build their own interface to the Skype client on that gateway.

There are issues of scalability, service quality (especially voice and video quality) and the overall user calling experience that could potentially compromise the user’s experience in taking advantage of the resulting Skype connection. It’s one thing to show that technically one can make the relevant voice and video connections but the challenges rise to a significantly higher level when taking into account the overall user experience.

Personally I look for services that allow me to easily find and select a contact, select the calling destination (Skype, Home, Mobile, Office, for example) and then click on either a soft button or the hardware green button and make the connection within a reasonable time (say, less than 30 seconds). I find the multi-service communications offerings to be a bit overbearing and almost too overwhelming for a non-technical business and consumer user.

Today there’s lots of coverage about Fring and its use of Skype (or now lack thereof); Dan York has provided an excellent summary of the various viewpoints in his post: Skype vs. Fring: Is Fring not telling the whole truth?. Very significant is the speed with which Skype’s Vice-President, Legal responded to get their side of the story out; their legal personnel usually have stayed out of the public discussion on any of Skype’s market-related issues.

But getting back to basics, there are three considerations:

Skype is Fundamentally Communications Software: we have heard this many times from Skype CEO Josh Silverman; he repeated and emphasized this during our CES conversation last January. As a result they own the intellectual property rights to their software. But they have been successful largely because they make much of their intellectual property available free – they can afford to do this since the capital overhead for Skype-to-Skype calling is so low. We as users provide the key piece by using Skype on our PC’s or other Skype-embedded hardware devices. On the other hand they need the intellectual property protection not only to defend potential revenues but just as importantly to defend their brand.

Best examples of this include:

• Skype video calling – here’s the 1964 AT&T World Fair concept now going out thirty-five years later with no charge for one-to-one video calling and being used on ~35% of Skype calls.
• Skype has also made their SILK codec available royalty-free provided the licensee meets performance criteria. As demonstrated with Skype for iPhone over 3G, SILK has the potential to revolutionize voice quality on mobile calling (and I’ll pay one or two dollars per month just to have the superior voice quality after many years of mobile phone calls with somewhat challenging audio quality ). Blabbelon provides an excellent example of incorporating SILK.
• Skype mobile on Verizon: here is a software development and licensing agreement that generates sustainable revenue streams for both parties while delivering a significant benefit, namely free calling to Skype contacts worldwide, to Verizon customers when calling from the U.S.
• With the success of Skype as a commercial TV production platform, Skype has developed special licensing terms for users of this application.

The bottom line is that all these, including making basic Skype-to-Skype calls using the standard Skype clients, involve some form of license agreement that is being adhered to.

Skype is Ultimately About The User Experience: Skype’s brand focuses well beyond the enabling technology to incorporate the entire user experience. It was ease of installation and use that allowed Skype to be adopted so readily such that over 600 million user accounts have been created with around 100 million active users. Skype’s VP for Mobile, Russ Shaw, re-emphasized this during our conversation at CES. We witness this in the recent launches of Skype mobile on Verizon and Skype for iPhone over 3G. While I can only rely on third party reporting about the former (not being in the U.S.) which has largely been positive, for the latter I simply installed the software, looked up a contact, clicked on the Call button and made this excellent quality call to the U.K. using Skype for iPhone over 3G. Woops, did I mention the quality of the call again? Overall both applications set a higher standard for the user experience.

Skype is Opening Up to Developers: Yes, there has been a rough ride for developers over the past four years. PamConsult, Netralia, InnerPass and OnState have persisted with their offerings and have demonstrated the potential for Skype and third party applications. But the recent launch of SkypeKit beta – in a phased program to ensure control over quality and service level issues as the program evolves – opens up significant opportunities for third party developers. Suffice it to say that I know we can expect not only significant software partner offerings but also some innovative hardware offerings based on SkypeKit. Once again, however, there are licensing guidelines to ensure the integrity of Skype’s brand.

But the bottom line is this: sure Skype reserves the right to generate revenues where they see a significant value-add market opportunity but even with their free offerings they want and need to preserve their brand image. It would appear from Skype’s legal executive’s comments that they have been trying to work out a way to interact with Fring without success; Fring has certainly been around for over three years in one form or another, including attending Skype-sponsored events. As Andy Abramson says:

As we all know there are three sides to every story, but given Fring took the shot first, an old rule of thumb in a legal battle is get the word out first. And Fring did. Now Skype, whose legal minds are based on the West Coast, as well as their platform team and video folks for the most part have gotten in and replied.

We now are starting to get a better handle on how Skype will establish the playing field for third party applications, hardware and services. The evolution of the Fring relationship (or lack thereof) will provide a concrete example of how far Skype will go in allowing third party affiliations.

Full disclosure: yes, I tried Fring several times in the past (when it had Skype access). Simply put, I never found a way to use it comfortably and abandoned it. I have used iSkoot successfully in the past; however, they no longer support current BlackBerry platforms. But all this flurry does generate the background for a future post on what I would look for in a mobile smartphone calling experience.

Re Truphone: I mentioned Truphone at the beginning of this post as another example of a third party service that offers Skype as one communication mode. I’ll have more to say on my Truphone experiences – both favorable and unfavorable in a separate post. At least I find it a reliable backup when I have no other choice for calling.

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• Skype and Fring Go to War Over VOiP Video Calls (mashable.com)
• Who Blocked Who in Skype and Fring Fight? (gigaom.com)
• Fring’s mis-use of Skype software was damaging to our brand and reputation (blogs.skype.com)
• Skype, Fring throw punches over iPhone hang up (reviews.cnet.com)
• Fring removes Skype functionality, then says Skype blocked it (downloadsquad.com)
• Update: Fring removes Skype video call support, what is best in the US now? (zdnet.com)
• Fring for iPhone now blocked from Skype. (thenextweb.com)
• SkypeKit: “Naked” Skype Support Arrives for Hardware-Embedded Skype and PC Applications (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Skype for iPhone 2.0 Released: 3G Skype-to-Skype Calling to Require a Fee (voiceontheweb.biz)
• Skype on Mobile over 3G: A Skype Video Calling First Experience (voiceontheweb.biz)

Blogger colleague Dan York, Director of Conversations at Voxeo, recently ordered and received a Camera Connection kit for his iPad. In most dramatic fashion Dan shows he can break through Apple’s packaging and demonstrates two ways to transfer photos from his Nikon D90.

But wait –that’s not all! Being the geek that he is, he has to try other USB devices in the USB dongle that comes as part of the Camera Connection kit. First choice: a FREETALK Everyman USB Headset. And – it works with the Skype Test Call.

Check out Dan’s video: Emerging Tech Talk #52 – Unboxing the Apple iPad Camera Connection Kit

and follow his version of “Adventures with Skype Test Calls on iPad” using the FREETALK® Everyman USB Headset. (Does anyone have a report confirming the use of the FREETALK® Wireless Stereo Headset? – imagine wireless rock, roll and rap from your iTunes library, freed from the tether of a wired headset.)

Two future expectations for iPad support from Skype:

• running Skype in Background with iOS 4’s multi-tasking making Skype a true “always on” service (will this become available with the launch of iOS4 next week?), and
• Skype for iPad – a version of Skype for iPhone that takes advantage of the larger iPad screen format (will this await the launch of iOS4 for iPad later this fall?).

I assume it runs with these headsets over both 3G wireless and WiFi delivering the crystal clear sound of Skype’s SILK codec. Andy called me from an iPad when we did the freeway-to-freeway calling two weeks ago reported in the post linked in this paragraph.

And corroborating Dan’s success using the FREETALK Everyman USB Headset is Steve Garfield over at “Off On A Tanget”: Skype Voice Calls Work on iPad with Freetalk Everyman Headset.

Both the FREETALK Everyman USB Headset and the FREETALK Wireless Stereo Headset are available at the Skype Store. Don’t forget this configuration also requires the iPad Camera Connection kit which Dan appears to have ordered from the Apple store on the Internet.

Extrapolating from a number released of 100,000 sold in the last five months of 2009, it would appear to be safe to assume that over 150,000 FREETALK Everyman Headsets have been sold since its launch last July; some other posts linking to blogger reviews:

• FREETALK® Everyman USB Headset: The Bloggers Speak Out
• FREETALK® Everyman uSB Headset: From Twitterville and More Bloggers
• FREETALK Everyman USB Headset for Skype: A Reprise (includes a video demonstration by jkontherun’s Kevin Tofel)

FREETALK Customer Support is available for any questions re your order and using these headsets.

Note: while Dan has demonstrated that the FREETALK Everyman USB Headset works with the iPad, it should also mean that any Skype-certified USB headset should also work for this configuration.

Full disclosure: In Store Solutions, producer of the FREETALK line of Skype hardware, has become a client of Denali InterConneXions, publisher of Voice On The Web, building on the author’s previous business development experience with establishing partnerships that can assist with the promotion of a primary vendor’s offerings. A more complete statement will follow shortly.

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• Skype’s SILK Codec: Working Towards Adoption as a Standard (voiceontheweb.biz)
• iPad Camera Connection Kit Enables USB Headset, Keyboard Support (magicaltablet.com)
• Apple launches ‘Find My iPhone’ app to remotely wipe and find your lost treasure (engadget.com)

Ok so I’m the last to write about Google’s announcement this morning on its acquisition of Global IP Solutions, a major provider of IP-based communications infrastructure with not only its voice and video codecs but also voice and video engines that mean simply “supply me with an Internet connection, a microphone and a set of speakers” and we’ll handle the conversation on your PC or smartphone.

Combine this acquisition with Google’s experience with Google Talk and Google Video Chat, its acquisition of Grand Central to become Google Voice, of On2 for its video codec (used by Skype amongst others) and of Gizmo, Google now has a full set of the underlying tools required to bring out some interesting communications offerings. Can Google integrate these tools, and overcome the inherent management and organization integration issues, to deliver a coherent and effective communications offering? What will we see as end user offerings? And how will Google work with the competition?

After all four weeks ago I had a demonstration at GIPS of a video call received on an iPad (notice I only said “to”). And, as I reported at the time, they basically affirmed that we should be seeing video calling supported on mobile smartphones before year end. Perhaps with a GIPS mobile video engine. Will this now simply be an Android offering or will their offerings also involve smartphone video calling support for Apple’s iPhone/iPad and, say, RIM’s BlackBerry?

It’s interesting to note that I’m already observing the Skype – Google competition in my GMail window. Hover your cursor over the appropriate location at a sender’s name and I get one of two “click-to-call” options: to converse with a contact using Google Talk/Video or to converse directly with the same contact in Skype voice, chat or video:

Google has long been a customer of GIPS for its voice technology and more recently for its video technology on Android. As have Nortel, Cisco (Webex), Communigate (one of the world’s largest suppliers of enterprise email services), Yahoo, IBM/Lotus and many others for both its voice and video technology. It will make for an interesting world of co-opetition.

Other bloggers have made some interesting points:

Thomas Howe, Voyces.com in Tick, Tock, Core, Edge implies that, with the pendulum swinging from the core to the edge, IP-communications infrastructure is going to be supported primarily by two players, Skype and Google:

More important, though, is what these battle lines say about the other players. Which is to say, these guys aren’t even on the battlefield. If fellow Cape Codder David Isenberg is right, and we are in the era of the dumb network, then anyone not-Skype and not-Google is not in the running. Although I agree, appreciate and applaud Orange’s work with their core (in particular, the API program), where are they in this battle? Where is AT&T? Now, doesn’t Verizon’s deal with Skype seem much smarter? To me, it does.

Voxeo’s Dan York, in Google buys GIPS for $68 million – to take on Skype? Apple? Microsoft? gives a short course in IP Communications 101 to explain Google’s motives for this acquisition by pointing out where the real battleground lies:

The issue is that while the control channel is increasingly around the open standard of SIP, which anyone can implement, the “codecs” used in sending media from one endpoint to another have long been a proprietary battleground, particularly with regard to wideband (or “HD audio” as some call it). Yes, there have been and are standards, but usually there have been intellectual property or licensing issues. Now, there is work within the IETF to create a standard wideband codec (and as I wrote earlier, Skype is involved with this effort) but that may take some time and the outcome is not known right now.

But there’s one aspect to this acquisition that can tend to get overlooked – cross licensing. When I worked in the NMR spectroscopy industry during its early evolution in the 1970’s, the two major players (Varian and Bruker) would be filing and acquiring patents and then suing each other. But the final outcome was that both players set up cross licensing arrangements such that the entire NMR spectrometer market benefited by always being able to benefit from the best of both companies’ innovation. And it all subsequently contributed to the rise of Magnetic Resonance imaging that plays such an important role in today’s medical imaging space across six or seven vendors. Will we see Google and Skype cross-licensing their technologies so that overall IP-based communications offerings can ultimately provide best-of-breed services to both their customer bases?

Bottom line: What I see emerging is a communications market where each of Google and Skype will continue to bring forth unique communications offerings that may appear somewhat competitive to their respective customers. Recall the final value add is in the customer benefits exposed by the user interface, not the underlying technology. As a result we can expect a world of co-opetition and cross licensing such that customer offerings by either party are not held back by some intellectual property dispute that really relates to technology and infrastructure in which the customer has no interest. In the end its about growing a bigger market for the benefit of all.

Other posts:

• Alec Saunders on Voyces.com: Google Targets Skype
• Alec Saunders on Saunderslog: GIPS acquired by Google. How does Abramson pick them?
• Rich Tehrani on TMCNet: Google Buys GIPS – Here’s Why where he provides a short history of GIPS and then analyzes some interesting reasons behind what may have motivated Google.
• Garrett Smith on Smith on VoIP: Google the service provider

Update: Andy has written Congrats to The Great Team At GIPS – it’s his 18th client who has been acquired and the second acquisition by Google. He has also given me credit for the small role I played in introducing him to GIPS:

And with this acquisition, for me and my agency, Comunicano, the number of companies to “exit” or in this case “get bought” in the last 8 years now has hit 18. Alec Saunders referenced that feat in his very well written post yesterday. GIPS came to my agency and I in the same way the other 17 had. We were asked to work with them. In this case the door opener was trusted friend and colleague, Jim Courtney, who has known Emerick Woods for longer than most dating back to their days at Quarterdeck. Jim always said that Emerick is the consummate professional, and someone who knows how to win. Looks like Jim’s matchmaking ability came through.

Full disclosure: GIPS CEO Emerick Woods was the Vice-President, Internet of Quarterdeck Corporation in the mid-1990’s who became a mentor to the author on several business development projects at Quarterdeck involving partnerships with ISP’s of the time. Over the past 14 years, Emerick, in his capacity as CEO of several startups, which have gone on to be sold, has hired the author at various times for his business development services. The author, however, has no business relationship with Global IP Sound.

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Skype’s superwideband audio SILK codec is finally available for beta testing on Skype 2.8 for Mac Beta 2 released yesterday. I did a test call with Dan York yesterday where I was on a Windows PC with Skype for Windows 4.0 which supports SILK while Dan was using the new Skype for Mac 2.8 beta version. His subsequent Tweet, shown above on the right, says it all. I still cringe politely when not on a call with SILK support.

Otherwise the beta fixes a long list of bugs; the release notes document (Adobe Acrobat Reader required) outlines Known Issues as well as Fixed Issues. Two other changes:

• The My Account window is now embedded in the client itself (comes up for editing when you first install and log into the client)
• There is now a spectator window for screen sharing. Basically there is now an option to select a resizable portion of your Mac desktop to share as opposed to the entire desktop. (It still does not allow to you to select a specific window to share as is common with more fully featured web conferencing sharing¹.)

Desktop sharing (selection mode) as viewed on a Windows PC using Skype for Windows 4.0  sharing a selected portion of a MacBook desktop using Skype for Mac 2.8 beta 2. Note the SILK audio codec mentioned in the Technical Call Info.

Anxiously waiting to see Desktop Sharing as an additional communications mode in Skype for Windows… (along with full support for Skype Public Chat restored…)

Download Skype for Mac 2.8 beta 2 here. Full set of Release Notes.

¹ Recall that Skype’s desktop sharing is simply another conversation mode which can be activated across basic two party calls through the “Skype video” channel. It is not a full web conferencing service at all. Its one unique feature is the ability to handle share up to 640 x 480 video streams at 30 fps.