Since its launch in August 2003 Skype has developed its brand through “free” calling for Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls as well as chat. However, whenever they launch a revenue generating offering, users need to experience the actual feature before paying up. Recently Skype has come up with a couple of ways to have a free user experience of a feature.

Experience Skype WiFi

Skype WiFi is a “last resort” offering that allows nomadic Skype users to make calls when traveling from over 1 million access points worldwide at airports, restaurants, hotels and coffee shops amongst other “road warrior” locations. But at a cost that is country dependent but about 20 cents/minute in the U.S.

Yesterday Skype announced free Skype WiFi over the Christmas period (December 21 to 27) at 50 U.S. airport locations. Provided your battery is charged or you have access to a waiting room power outlet, you can not only make Skype and SkypeOut calls but also check your email and surf the Internet for up to one hour. (You can also access Skype WiFi on your iPhone or iPad if you have installed the Skype WiFi app.)

Experience a Simulated Group Video Call … and have some social fun at the same time

Skype’s Group Video Calling requires a Skype Premium subscription; however, through Skype’s Facebook page you can experience how Group Video calling works while sending birthday greetings or Happy Holidays wishes via a Skype Facebook application: Say It With Skype. Skype has worked with several bands to create melodious greetings that can be sent via a friend’s Facebook wall, a URL or embedded into an email message. Click on the tabs to see the progress.

The resulting video is a simulated Group Video call where each member of the band selected is a separate Group Video Call participant. And, if you elect to record, your own video is added in. Not quite a full Group Video Call experience but you start to get a feel for it. On the other hand the couple of recipients to whom I have sent these have appreciated them; it’s one way to have a bit of fun with Skype.

For a complete Group Video Call experience the 7-day trial remains available.

Personally I have been on a weekly Group Video Call that has participants in three continents across nine time zones for the past five months. When you consider that a Skype Premium subscription also incorporates Skype Out calls to U.S./Canada and Live chat support, at $4.49 per month for a one year subscription, it’s a no brainer.

Over the past few months there has been lots of coverage of RIM’s forthcoming BlackBerry Playbook and its potential for acceptance in the quickly emerging tablet market. The media frenzy generally perceives it as a competitor to the iPad; the initial reviews of the past week have been mixed, to say the least.

The issue with these new launches are “expectations” versus the “reality”. Even at the initial iPad launch a year ago, many disappointed reviewers were looking for a device that effectively would be a “tablet” version of a full personal computer. Some reviewers were disappointed that it had no native voice calling application; Truphone and Skype have taken care of that aspect. My own perspective at the time, after watching the announcement presentation, was that it was more an electronic briefcase, providing mobile and portable access to a user’s documents, email, photos and videos as well as to the web (sans Flash support, however).

At Christmas I received an iPad and have found it’s been a replacement for most of my newspaper reading, an alternative for watching NHL hockey games on my NHL Center Ice subscription (cable TV, PC, iPhone and iPad) and instant access to the my documents stored on the cloud through services such as Dropbox. There are many other applications that are handy to have accessible. It provides access to all my social networking services: Twitter, Facebook, foursquare and YouTube. And, of course, I can make Skype calls; however, with only the iPhone form factor, one can readily visualize there is opportunity for Skype to make better use of the tablet-size display format. Bottom line: I take it wherever I go and have ready access to all my cloud content as well as handy applications, such as the Toronto Transit app, that can assist with my road warrior activities.

Since its announcement back in October I have followed the PlayBook, starting with the announcement last October and providing some commentary at the time.

BlackBerry Playbook: Leveraging All of RIM’s Strengths into a Tablet

Later I saw the demonstration at CES 2011, recently attended a Mobile Monday Toronto presentation discussing the developer opportunities for applications and this weekend read some of the initial reviews of the past few days.

All these activities have established certain expectations. The most obvious one is that it is a competitor to the iPad. Certainly it is an alternative tablet platform and satisfies the media’s thirst for comparisons, whether valid or not. But any tablet platform that cannot distinguish itself from the iPad does not support a sustainable business model. While there is certainly some overlap, it also has its significant differentiators. In general the media are having difficulty separating the  technology from the user experience. We have yet to see real user experiences that evolve from the technology behind the platform.

Yesterday, above the fold, the Globe and Mail’s front page very visibly directs readers to the Report on Business three page spread reporting on the Playbook’s launch.

Frankly I have never seen the Globe and Mail or its Report on Business do such extended coverage of a product launch. However, as Canada’s “National” newspaper they have recognized the importance of the PlayBook’s launch as not only significant for Research in Motion but also for its potential value to Canada’s economy and high tech indutry. RIM has become Canada’s technology darling and counts over 12,000 Canadians amongst it 18,000 employees worldwide; it’s an important player in these times of a challenging economy.

The primary article: “RIM makes a play for its future” where technology reporter Omar El Akkad writes:

This is one of the most important moments in the history of Canada’s most important technology company – not because RIM needs to sell millions of PlayBooks or beat the iPad to survive (it doesn’t), but because it must prove that it has a second act.

A lot more is riding on the PlayBook’s success or failure than the trajectory of a single company. Since the slow death of Nortel Networks, RIM has moved to the centre of the Canadian technology sector. It spawns new startups or acquires them, spends a healthy proportion of its $1.3-billion research and development budget in Canada and is the largest employer of co-op students in the country. No other Canadian-controlled business offers as much opportunity for bright Canadian engineers and mathematicians to find meaningful work at home.

Coming out of the launch coverage are several significant questions:

• While BlackBerry Playbook is an obvious complement to the BlackBerry smartphones, can it serve, in its current offering, as a stand alone device for the consumer market?
• Is BlackBerry’s traditional security sufficient to maintain its significant presence in the business and government markets?
• Will WiFi as the only wireless mode on the launch version be a limitation?
• When “content is king” for the tablet market how will RIM appeal to developers to ramp up applications rapidly?
• Are there any “killer” apps coming out initially? Does it have any totally disruptive features?
• How will it leverage the dual cameras not simply for photographs and video recording but rather will we soon see any video calling applications?
• Is it really an iPad competitor or are we seeing the launch of new type of tablet-size appliance?

Media thrives on having competitive comparisons. They especially want to find the “killer” device for a product that has been an obvious hit. (Look at how many “competitors” there are to Skype in the real time communications space but none has achieved nine figure numbers of active users.)

In a follow up post I’ll address these issues and point out key strengths and weaknesses that make the PlayBook an interesting tablet market play and where I see potential new directions for this type of device.

Related articles

• BlackBerry PlayBook reviews say that it’s not an iPad killer (tuaw.com)
• Everyone’s Right: The BlackBerry Playbook Doesn’t Stand A Chance (RIMM) (businessinsider.com)
• Review: BlackBerry PlayBook strong, well-priced (sfgate.com)
• RIM CEO defends BlackBerry PlayBook tablet against meany critics (venturebeat.com)
• RIM CEO Defends BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Against Meany Critics (nytimes.com)
• RIM: claims BlackBerry PlayBook rushed out aren’t ‘fair’ (electronista.com)
• “BlackBerry PlayBook Better Than Apple iPad at Multitasking Says Experts” and related posts (phonesreview.co.uk)
• Playbook: Maybe just right on target (calliflower.com)

Yamaha launches their PSG-01S Microphone Speaker for Skype to be sold via the In Store Solutions shop on the Skype Store.

During my recent European trip I had my first ever encounter, after several decades of traveling on Air Canada, with their baggage scales and new weight limits: 23 kg per checked luggage piece and 10 kg per carry-on item. As a result my wife and I had to reorganize our luggage at the airport to comply with these limits. Given that I would also be on RyanAir for a couple of trips while in Europe – with 15 kg checked baggage and 10 kg carry-on limits, it made me much more conscious of what I would be carrying in my laptop briefcase. Out went the spare battery (Air Canada has laptop power outlets at the seats); I was also reduced to carrying one book along with my laptop. If I want a printer while traveling I can simply fax a document to the hotel fax using PamFax. So when it comes to adding complementary devices for a laptop, such as a device to support audio, I look at not only the feature set but also the weight and “bulk”.

Prior to my trip on RyanAir to eComm Europe in Amsterdam I was given a Yamaha SoundGadget USB Microphone Speaker to determine where I could find user experiences that facilitated my business travel; in addition I arranged to have several units sent out to bloggers for their feedback over the past couple of weeks.

So why would one want this audio device in a market that has many speakerphone offerings?

It’s the combination of size and feature set. It’s not “just a speakerphone”. At about 200 grams in a very portable 12 cm x 4 cm x 5 cm package, the recently released Yamaha USB Microphone Speaker is a personal microphone/speakerphone combination that allows one to combine Skype calling, wideband audio recording and music or podcast listening into a compact, yet feature rich, device. Some of the other features on which feedback came:

• Sound quality: supporting a 300 Hz to 20KHz audio bandwidth for both local (voice and music) recording and listening, the sound quality in such a small size package was the first feature always commented on. While it’s definitely not the boom box that one would have at home, the consensus appears to be that, for its size, sound quality is excellent for voice calls and listening to music or podcasts in a hotel room or small office environment.
• Skype calling: With its Skype client that supports all three of Windows XP/Vista/7, one can use the buttons on the device to answer and end calls as well as manage the speakerphone volume. To date it appears to be the only Skype speakerphone that has the appropriate client for all three versions of Windows and, in particular, Windows 7. (And yes, while the Mac will recognize it as an audio device for Skype calls, a request has been made to Yamaha for a Mac client that would achieve full integration with Skype.)
  • Note, for audio quality purposes, that the microphone supports Skype calling up to 7Khz – sufficient to take advantage of Skype’s wideband SILK codec feature; however, this limitation is removed for “local” voice or music recording.
• 360 degree “around-the-table” pickup: unique in a Microphone Speaker is its four microphone array on the top complemented by the internal echo cancellation and background noise reduction firmware. As a result several people can be positioned, say, around a small office table and all parties heard equally well instead of having everyone facing the device from one side.
• Tilt for (stereo) listening: while vertical it supports Skype calling and recording in mono mode; tilt it to a horizontal position and the two speakers go into a stereo mode for listening. Not much physical separation but then I see a lot of iPod devices out there where the two speakers are combined into one unit.

My experience: it came in very handy during my trip, for instance, my wife and I could participate in calls back home together while sitting across a table; in one case, it was beneficial where a person in the room only spoke Spanish but I had a translator as the called party. When horizontal, it came in handy in my lodging as a speaker for the iTunes media player on my laptop – much better audio quality than the embedded laptop speakers.

As a result, it appears to be the ideal complement to the laptop for road warriors and for use in a personal office. And it could be considered as a holiday gift for the laptop addict amongst your family members or colleagues.

However, as outlined in the full disclosure below, I am probably considered to be a bit biased, although I did a fair bit of research on speakerphones in coming up with this post. I will either add to the end of this post or, in a couple of weeks, put up a post pointing to blogger and Twitter feedback. Update: as I wrote this, the first blogger feedback has appeared from Jonathan Jensen on “The Really Mobile Project”.

But the real test comes if users have a chance to experience it and use it for themselves; perceived audio quality tends to be a very personal experience. So here’s the deal: Normally priced at US$219/£199/€199 – including delivery and VAT/Sales taxes, until December 31, 2009 pricing has been reduced to US$199.90/£179.90/€179.90 – including delivery and VAT/sales taxes. It’s available at any of the Skype Stores that Yamaha has shown on their website for this product. And where’s the value-add? Being able to take advantage of the inherent audio enhancement feature set while traveling, but not paying those €20 per kilogram overweight charges on RyanAir or €5 per kg on Lufthansa.

But you also need assurance that you will have a positive and satisfying personal experience with it. Should you buy the Yamaha SoundGadget USB Microphone Speaker during this promotional period and then decide – for any reason, “no questions asked” – that this device does not meet your expectations, simply return it to In Store Solutions, shipping prepaid, by January 31 and a full credit will be issued. The timing on this return policy is such that you can gift it to a family member, friend or business colleague during this holiday season and still give them enough time to decide if they like it.

Full disclosure: In Store Solutions 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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On a recent trip to Spain, where I turned off my BlackBerry Bold’s and iPhone’s  mobile carrier network connection except when really required, I was able to use WiFi connections at my various hotels quite effectively to keep up with my “data” activities on these devices. (Except in a situation mentioned below I used Skype on my PC for voice calls.) But there were two situations I encountered during this trip which really hit home the message that WiFi is becoming as important as mobile carrier offerings for wireless smartphone communications:

• In one instance, two Canadians, who had stealthed Skype for iPhone onto their iPhones, used a Spanish hotel’s WiFi service to make Skype voice calls between each other, almost as if their iPhones were “walkie-talkies” while on the hotel’s grounds. No roaming charges for these calls.
• In another case, I spent one night in a hotel room, in a recently renovated 8th century building, that had no landline. But it had a WiFi service available; I used Truphone on my iPhone to make a couple of voice calls. (The price of staying “legal” in Canada is not to have Skype for iPhone installed.)

The trip, combined with my WiFi experience during a March vacation trip to South Carolina, significantly reinforced my belief that WiFi is becoming the potential “stealth” carrier in the smartphone communications business. But what does that portend for the future?

Friend Andy Abramson, in a post Rumored New Apple iPod Touch Will Be Huge for VoIP, Multimedia, has pointed to the rumors of a new iPod Touch that will include a camera, a built-in microphone and 64GB of memory:

This is awesome news for the likes of Skype and client Truphone and will likely start a flood of “me too” applications from the likes of Cablevision who operates a WiFi hot zone in the New York area, Clearwire and Comcast who are chasing customers in the Portland area with WiMax and elsewhere as the WiFi capability of the iPod touch means its a mobile phone without the mobile phone bill and contract connected to it, something Jeff Belk, the former Senior VP of Strategy at Qualcomm discussed in Unstrung in February of this year.

And where does he see the disruptive uptake?

…. Within two key categories:

1) Pre-teens who need a phone but can’t afford a contract

2) Travelers who don’t need to be “always on” but want to stay in touch cost effectively.

Who benefits from this? Anyone with a travel router to sell, including Apple. Toss a travel router in your bag, and stay in a hotel with wired broadband to your room, and logging on is a snap.

As pointed out in the introduction to this post, I think I was already well into Andy’s category 2 during my Spain trip. Alec Saunders, in Will the new iPod Touch unleash VoWiFi? I’ll wait and see, sees WiFi as a “backup” to 3G network but pipes into the road warrior discussion with:

Travelling, however, is a different story.  As Andy notes, you can talk for free on WiFi when you’re travelling, versus whatever the outrageous roaming rate that your carrier might charge.  Savvy travelers use products like Truphone and Skype to avoid roaming charges.

Bottom line: users will continue to look for the combination of access and cost that serves their immediate need. While in Canada, I never run over 1GB of data on my BlackBerry Bold and have a reasonable cost voice subscription for voice calls; thus my mobile carrier costs are not a particular concern. But when I leave Canada, I will look to use any wireless service that avoids the last bastion of excessively high mobile calling costs: roaming charges.

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• Skype 101 for Carriers: A “Voice On The Web Primer” (voiceontheweb.biz)

Having just come out from behind the rocks of West Virginia and spent all yesterday traveling, I arrived home to find that it has been confirmed that Skype will be launching an application on the iPhone tomorrow. The major point coming out of the announcement, aside from the conversation feature set, is that Skype for iPhone will require WiFi access to the Internet. A masterful stroke on Skype’s part, especially after my experience over the past ten days that involved 3200 km of driving, mostly on U.S. Interstates, and nine nights of lodging. Some key bullets to back this up:

• AT&T is just not a reliable 3G wireless network – full stop. I have reported on this previously involving trips to California and Nevada; Om confirmed it recently when he switched from iPhone and BlackBerry Bold on AT&T to Blackberry 8900 Curve on T-Mobile.
• When the best I can find is one bar (and not always) at a major tourist destination with over 2 million visitors per year, Skype could not rely on AT&T to deliver anything close to the current experience Skype and iSkoot are having on the 3 networks in nine countries.
• T-Mobile actually had more bars than AT&T on Hilton Head Island but only two at best; of course an iPhone will not work over T-Mobile.
• AT&T coverage along the Interstates varied from zero to full 3G, but with the latter only near major cities (as to be expected). It was the intermittent 2G/EDGE coverage along the Interstates that was very frustrating. (I can drive along Ontario’s major freeways with no service interruptions, whether 2G or 3G.)
• WiFi access points are becoming pervasive. Every hotel along the route was advertising high speed Internet connectivity (usually WiFi); most restaurants also had WiFi access, including one at a New York State Thruway rest stop. Our primary lodging had individual access points for each unit.
• I used my Boingo account at one overnight hotel for access without a hotel WiFi charge.

My WiFi experiences during the week (all at no additional cost):

• the major connection for both my Windows laptop and MacBook at our accommodation
• Making Skype video and voice calls from the Mac Book
• Downloading and installing the final release of SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry
• Updating iPhone applications
• Following an NHL hockey game of interest via SlingPlayer on my BlackBerry Bold using my NHL Center Ice cable subscription
• Making Skype calls and PSTN calls via Truphone for iPhone (but with echo cancellation issues on the Skype call and termination issues when calling the PSTN).
• With Boingo, avoiding additional WiFi charges at one of our overnight stops during the trip down.

Not only did WiFi make these applications possible; there were no (Rogers) roaming charges for a Canadian traveling in the U.S. At $6/MB (and when I had an AT&T signal), I limited my use on wireless GSM networks to checking GMail headers, following Twitter via SocialScope and, during our trip home, finalizing a hotel reservation as we neared our overnight destination (and this exercise involved waiting for coverage at some points as we traveled along the I-79 through West Virginia’s mountains).

Boingo will be a major benefactor of this trend; their relationships with major hotel chains, airports and restaurants contribute to this trend and provide an account that minimizes charges. Having clients on Macs, Windows PC’s, Nokia smartphones and, currently in alpha phase, BlackBerry again improves the user experience making the technology transparent to the calling protocol.

One difficulty continues with WiFi: access at high usage locations such as conventions where capacity limitations come into play.  Ultimately it reinforces that WiFi still needs to address scalability issues.

Bottom line: WiFi is stealthing its way significantly into the wireless picture for fixed point access to the Internet by road warriors. Of course its speed and robustness features are additional benefits.

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Skype Access, where a Skype user can go to any Boingo WiFi access point and use Skype Credits to pay for Boingo service on a “per minute” basis via Skype Credits, has so far only been available via Skype for Mac 2.8 beta launched in early January. However, as a St. Patrick’s Day present, Skype announced that they would give away 10,000 free minutes of Skype Access for one week from March 17 to March 23 00.00 GMT. Skype will pick up the first 30 minutes of an individual user’s session under this promotion.

Having failed, shortly after launch in early January, to get Skype Access to work at a local Starbucks, where Bell Mobility has a partner agreement with Boingo, I returned to the same Starbucks (Streetsville in Mississauga, Canada) this afternoon. I can now report that, on launching Skype for Mac 2.8 beta on a MacBook, Skype Access was immediately recognized and a WiFi session commenced.

During this time I successfully made an excellent quality Skype video call to Dan York where the technical specs showed the video to be 640 x 480 @ 15 fps (or slightly greater – recall that Mac webcams do not meet the 30 fps network transmission specifications required for Skype High Quality Video). At 25 minutes I was warned that I only had five more minutes to use Skype Access free; while I certainly went beyond five minutes, I do not see any charges against my Skype Credits when looking at my call history.

Using WiFi at a Canadian Starbucks (provisioned by Bell Mobility) now gives me five options for acquiring WiFi access:

• Skype Access (~C$0.23 per minute using Skype Credits)
• Bell Mobility (C$0.15 per minute via credit card)
• Bell Mobility (C$0.15 per minute charged to my Rogers Wireless account)
• Starbucks Card (free for up to 2 hours daily provided you have used your Starbucks card in the previous 30 days, also available over AT&T in the U.S.).
• Boingo (~C$11.50 per month, suitable for road warriors, provides unlimited access at thousands of North American locations)

Obviously Skype Access is a service that one would use as a last resort in attempting to make WiFi access. For instance, need a quick email check or browser lookup while in an airport waiting room or at a Starbucks between meetings on the road, Skype Access becomes a convenience. Definitely not a service I would use for a two hour meeting requiring Internet access at a Starbucks in Canada.

I also took the opportunity to check out Boingo’s access services. When I booted the MacBook, I immediately received notification that I was at a Boingo access point. Turned on my iPhone with the Boingo client installed; once again I was able to make a connection. However, this required me to navigate through three or more Bell Mobility “login” pages on the iPhone – including having to re-enter my Boingo login data at one point – tedious but I was eventually connected.

I then attempted to access Boingo WiFi on my BlackBerry Bold. Once again the new alpha Boingo client for BlackBerry recognized I was at a Boingo access point; however, i was not able to login successfully. A report is forthcoming to Boingo contacts but I also have reason to believe there is an issue with the BlackBerry WiFi access algorithms on my older, but most recent Rogers, version of BlackBerry firmware in this case.

The key point here is that WiFi access for road warriors is continuously expanding, not only in terms of number of locations but also variety of service options available, even at one location. And Boingo, whose story I have followed since its launch in 2001, continues to expand not only its locations but also the platforms supported.

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Whenever I travel to the U.S. I am careful with usage of my BlackBerry Bold for voice calls; there’s a $0.95 per minute roaming charge for any use of it on the AT&T or T-Mobile network even before any long distance charges are considered. Calls back to Toronto from California will result in a total charge of $1.75 per minute. And, at $6.00/MB for data usage, I try to maximize my data activity via WiFi access points in hotel rooms, airports and conference press rooms. And, when I go to Mexico or Europe I look for any opportunity to make voice calls over Skype and access data services over WiFi; in fact, in Mexico, one is advised to turn off the BlackBerry. Roaming charges will easily clean out your wallet.

Recently a Los Angeles Times reporter was referred to me for more information about how he could avoid “roaming charges billing shock” in the future. He had just received a $400 roaming charge billing for using his iPhone over the Rogers network during a weekend trip to Vancouver, Canada.

At one of Andy Abramson’s famous Blogger dinners, held during a recent conference, roaming charges were identified as the number one cost issue and arbitrage opportunity existing in the wireless services market today.

Today Truphone, who has continuously demonstrated innovation in low cost wireless calling, announced their forthcoming Truphone Local Anywhere service at Mobile World Congress. From the press release:

The introduction of Truphone’s multi-country, single-SIM service will change the current experience of people with an international lifestyle.  Their mobile experience is currently characterized by frustration, brought on by constantly having to juggle multiple SIM cards and mobile phones in order to minimize their mobile costs.

In an interview with Truphone CEO Geraldine Wilson, she highlighted four key benefits of this service. On a single handset a Truphone Local Anywhere subscriber can:

• have a local number whenever travelling in a supported country
• make calls anywhere in the territory of participating carriers at “local” rates
• make international calls at reduced costs
• eliminate or minimize ”roaming” charges at most destinations

But there is also a benefit to people calling to a Truphone Local Anywhere subscriber. Personal and business calls to the subscriber can be made via the subscriber’s “local” number for the location from which the call is being placed.

Other issues:

• All numbers will be “mobile” numbers, capable of supporting SMS messaging and data activity
• The default callerID seen by the called party will be the call destination’s “Local” number but the displayed callerID can be managed to display other numbers available to the subscriber
• calls to other Truphone Local Anywhere customers will have the lowest calling rates

Geraldine was quite specific in stating that the target market includes mobile professionals, travel industry employees, expatriate workers who need a “local” number in both their home country and “on the job”, and international students. According to Geraldine, this “road warrior” market encompasses 300 million today, making over 700 million trips per year.

Why an announcement now at Mobile World Congress? While Truphone has already signed some carrier and service provider agreements for this program, they are seeking out additional carrier and MVNO partners to build out a worldwide network.

As for the infrastructure behind this service:

• the customer will receive one SIM that supports service providers in all countries
• it is a scalable, plug-and-play solution
• a customer will be able to add another carrier or service provider to the SIM over-the-air
• Truphone is seeking out non-traditional distribution channels
• it will have full data compatibility

Bottom Line: if Truphone can pull off a sufficient number of service provider relationships worldwide, Truphone Local Anywhere will have the same friction-free impact for travellers’ mobile communications activities as the introduction of the Euro provided to European travelers, eliminating the need to stop by an “exchange counter” when arriving in every country.

Update: Jon Arnold: Truphone Launches Local Anywhere Service

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Over the past few years we have seen the evolution of several conversation communities, some simply employing instant messaging; others employing both instant messaging and voice. Skype is the primary example with its support of IM, voice and video as well as auxiliary features such as file sharing (and, as announced tonight, basic screen sharing) but we are also seeing these services diffuse into Google, via GTalk’s voice and chat capability, MSN Live via Live Messenger, and, in spite of its trying to define who they are, Yahoo. Truphone is a mobile voice calling service that I have used for a couple of years from a Nokia N95-1; it became critical in a situation I encountered in Germany two years ago. I have liked both the quality of the voice calls as well as the user interface, especially its use of the device’s native address book for initiating a call. While they have had some hiccups with their recent product launches, Truphone has become the leader in providing low cost calling from the iPhone while breaking the carrier barrier via Apple’s App Store. I will soon be reporting on Truphone Anywhere for BlackBerry. Now, under recently appointed CEO Geraldine Wilson, Truphone is making a move to grow their user base rapidly by leveraging the user bases of other services.

This evening at the MacWorld Showstoppers event Truphone announced an enhanced Truphone for iPhone providing connectivity to these four conversation communities. Supporting both instant messaging and voice conversations, voice calls to, say, Skype contacts are free provided they go over a WiFi connection. Calls to these communities can also be made over a carrier’s 3G network, usually at the cost of a local call. In addition Truphone is providing access to Twitter as one additional messaging service accessible via Truphone’s iPhone application.

In my interview this evening with new Truphone CEO Geraldine Wilson, she pointed out:

• Using Skype as an example, Truphone’s enhancements set up an appropriate Skype client on a Truphone gateway and complete the call to the Skype contact, taking advantage of Skype’s peer-to-peer architecture such that there are no resulting termination charges.
• By introducing instant messaging, Truphone is recognizing the key role IM is taking on in IP-based conversations where a conversation may start over a chat session and migrate to a voice session if deemed appropriate.
• Truphone sees the introduction of these enhancements as a key to building the Truphone user community; Truphone generates revenue through offering low cost calling to/from the landline and mobile PSTN network.
• Truphone is looking at adding BlackBerry and Android to their supported platforms for this service over the next few months. Key here are devices that support an application store in order to make user access to these services simple and trivial.
• To avoid high roaming charges it is recommended that Truphone for iPhone be used either over a WiFi connection anywhere worldwide but only over a user’s home country 3G carrier.
• These new features go live on next Monday, January 12.

Some outstanding questions:

• Given that the Truphone application needs to be active for conversations, how will this work when other applications are open? Currently if I have Truphone as the open application on my iPhone, I can receive free Truphone calls and my presence will be indicated to other Truphone for iPhone users if I am in their “Favorites” tab. However, if I am in another iPhone application, I cannot receive “free” Truphone calls over WiFi; nor is my presence indicated to others. I look forward to seeing how the enhanced Truphone handles Instant Messaging when Truphone is not the “open” application on the iPhone. This is where BlackBerry’s full multi-tasking capability is a major advantage over the iPhone.
• Calling Skype contacts involves providing your SkypeID and password. What security is in place to maintain the confidentiality of this information. What other security aspects are compromised as a result of placing the calls via a connection to a gateway that supports the caller’s Skype client.
• What is Skype’s reaction to having Truphone siphon off what could otherwise potentially be SkypeOut revenues while leveraging the Skype user base and using the “free” aspect of Skype? We know Skype is working to launch mobile phone applications, probably this week at CES. With iSkoot and the Skypephone on 3′s networks, as we learned at last year’s eComm 2008 iSkoot presentation, a portion of carrier revenues are shared between Skype and iSkoot.

A major step forward in making low cost calls worldwide, Truphone’s moves once again emphasize that WiFi is becoming an ever growing alternative connection option to making wireless calls. At the same time it will be interesting to see how the business model plays out in a world where the cost of voice calling continues to move towards zero.

GigaOm: Truphone Brings Skype to iPhone and iPod Touch

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At MacWorld’s Showstoppers event this evening Skype announced Skype for Mac 2.8 beta, with two major new features as well as several minor ones.

Screen Sharing

The most impressive feature is a form of basic screen sharing. Either a segment of your screen or the full screen is converted into a virtual webcam such that the screen can be viewed in any Skype client via the Skype video channel. While only a Mac can currently be a source for this screen sharing it can be viewed on any Windows, Mac or Linux client as video.

Skype for Mac’s screen sharing feature is sufficient to support discussion issues as a complement to a voice and/or chat conversation; it is NOT by any means a replacement for fully featured desktop or application sharing offerings such as Yugma, Inner Pass or IBM’s Lotus Sametime Unyte. It’s “just” screen sharing. In fact, it is one of two options on the Skype for Mac’s “Share” button, the other being file sharing/transfer.

Below is an example of a full screen image of a shared MacBook screen as seen in a detached Skype video window on my Windows laptop.

Skype Access

The second major feature, Skype Access, provides WiFi access for your MacBook or MacBook Pro via any Boingo access point. While I’m told it has been tested at many of the over 100,000 Boingo hotspots worldwide, I could not get it to work at a local Canadian Starbucks listed as a Boingo hotspot location. But then, this is still beta (and the problem may be with Boingo’s interface with Bell Mobility). ([Update: on a March 19 visit to the same Starbucks, Skype Access worked with no problems.]

More importantly is to look at the “use case” for Skype Access. Cost for using Skype Access over Boingo is US$0.22/€0.16/C$0.23 per minute using Skype credits.

Within a user’s home country, Skype Access is probably more expensive than local alternatives; this is certainly the case in Canada. However, I can see the value if I am outside the home country and wanting to make Skype/SkypeOut calls, check email or do some web browsing at airports, restaurants, coffee shops and other Boingo hotspots as an alternative to much higher cost roaming wireless calls (for instance roaming U.S. to Canada on Rogers runs at $1.75 per minute) or $40 per day Internet access charges at some European hotels.

With unlimited use Boingo subscriptions at $21.95/month for North America or $59/month Global, Skype Access is more appropriate for the occasional traveler as opposed to the hardened road warrior.

It reminds me of the use case for PamFax where you can send faxes directly from, say, your hotel room for about $0.20 per page while avoiding a hotel’s much higher $1.00/page charge for faxing. One other common feature between Skype Access and PamFax: both use Skype credits as the primary currency.

Other features in Skype for Mac 2.8 beta:

• Skype for Mac 2.8 continues the use of a “drawer” attached to a Skype chat window; from the list of active chat sessions shown in the drawer you can select which session you want to view. But now there are three levels of prioritization available for those chat sessions. In addition chats can be sorted by name or date/time.
• The process for adding contacts to a chat session now simply involves clicking the “Add a Contact” button and entering the added contact’s name.
• Your Contacts’ Mood Messages can be tracked via a “Mood Message” chat session. While this can currently only be initiated on Skype for Mac 2.8, your mood message chat session will show up as a chat session on, say, a Windows client logged into the same account. Neat for keeping up-to-date on mood message changes, especially when a mood message provides location or reference URL information; it provides a Twitter-like experience.
• Add notes to contacts: when you go into a Contact’s profile there is a separate tab for entering personal notes about that contact.

Dan York, with a lot more Skype for Mac experience than I have had (I just acquired a MacBook ten days ago), has provided a much more detailed review of all the new features He has also produced an excellent You Tube video for his Emerging Tech Talk series:

Skype for Mac 2.8 beta can be downloaded here January 6. Full Release Notes

Skype Posts: Share Skype Blog, Skype Garage Blog

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In my early 50′s youth when I was delivering afternoon newspapers in somewhat remote Saskatoon, Saskatchewan I always tried to be at one customer’s home at 4:30. Why? At that time the only television viewable came via high rooftop antennae from transmitters far away (~400 miles) near Minot, North Dakota. If atmospheric conditions were favorable my customer would let me watch half an hour of a kid’s program (probably Howdy Doody); most of the time we got to watch it masked by a snowy blizzard of faint reception. Getting any type of television reception at that time and location was, at best, a challenge and an adventure.

Fast forward 55 years to this past week’s 2009 New Years day afternoon. While riding as a passenger in our car, we sped along Ontario’s main 401 freeway as I watched the CBC Sports color telecast of the third period of the NHL Winter Hockey Classic (live from Wrigley Field) on my BlackBerry Bold. It was one more test to carry out during the public beta of SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry.

I viewed all the action in full color; equally as impressive was the quality of the stereo sound (which “swells” out well beyond the device). The only frame freezing probably occurred as my BlackBerry switched between cell tower sites. Otherwise I was experiencing a crisp picture with sharp colors and clear sound coming from my home cable TV box. Talk about convergence – a Rogers cable TV signal being transmitted back out over Rogers High Speed Internet to a BlackBerry Bold via Rogers 3G wireless.

I have provided the detailed basic requirements for using SlingPlayer for BlackBerry Mobile on my recent Web Worker Daily post: “A New BlackBerry Experience Goes Beta: SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry” along with a history of SlingMedia’s hardware and software products. Note especially that it requires a version 4.5 firmware upgrade of any BlackBerry 8×20. While it works via a WiFi connection on all supported devices, over a 3G HSDPA network (Rogers, AT&T and T-Mobile in North America)  it only works currently on the BlackBerry Bold.

Over the past 15 months I have been using SlingPlayer Mobile for Symbian on a Nokia N95-1 over WiFi connections. It has been a consistently reliable experience over that period; it also provided me with some benchmarks for testing the BlackBerry version’s user interface and video/audio quality. Here are some of the experiences I have had with SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry on my BlackBerry Bold 9000 over the past few days of beta trials:

• a rock concert on HDNet where percussion, guitar chords and voice cover a wide audio frequency range
• a rebroadcast of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas eve concert on PBS where over 200 voices, soloists and the orchestra provide an excellent source for testing the clarity of audio as well as the resolution of the video
• several sports events, including fast moving football and hockey action as a test for shadowing and pixelation
• Oprah Winfrey making Skype High Quality Video calls

In all cases the experience on the Bold took full advantage of the Bold’s processor power, network speed, native stereo audio and its widely acclaimed “stunning” color display. Simply stated, I became immersed in the programs I was watching to the point where the experience was transparent to the underlying technology. My only negative was more physiological than technical: I found full “playing surface” views of sports events could cause a bit of dizziness due to focusing on all the action within the Bold’s display size; holding the device further away from my eyes addressed this issue.

While I had some excellent viewing and listening experiences, a few comments:

• instead of a full visual representation of the cable box remote control, the remote control buttons are represented on a menu bar across the bottom of the screen. Note that in addition to the icons on the menu bar, one can “fast-track” to an item using the keyboard (for instance, M=Menu, O=Power On/Off, etc.)
• scrolling across any of the three menu bars is done via the BlackBerry’s trackball.
• audio comes out by default over the Bold’s speakers without the need to click on the “speaker” button
• the “Favorites” menu bar picks up your “Favorites” channels stored via SlingPlayer for Windows¹
• changing channels may cause a video freeze up for 10-20 seconds; this is an issue SlingMedia is trying to minimize.
• no apparent viewing experience difference whether using either a WiFi or 3G connection
• needs a bar to display volume level when using the BlackBerry’s volume +/- buttons
• switches readily between a full screen video and a display that incorporates one of three menu bars
• needs to “reconnect” if you switch to another BlackBerry application while viewing (SlingPlayer application remains open in background but disconnects from the source); the “reconnect” time is 5 to 15 seconds.
• battery life on the Bold for continuous reception of a broadcast via WiFi is about 2-1/2 to 3 hours.; it’s probably shorter on other 8xx0 models.
• I have also been able to get SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry beta working on a BlackBerry 8820 over WiFi where, once again, it provided an excellent true reproduction of the video signal within the limitations of the 8820′s video and audio hardware.
• it can also be used to operate the PVR on my cable TV set-top box.
• latency: at midnight New Year’s Eve, SlingPlayer for BlackBerry Mobile rang in the new year seven seconds after the broadcast version directly connected to a cable service.
• you can almost read those real time scoreboard bars that appear across the top of the screen during football and hockey broadcasts.

And, for now for those not able to take advantage of SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry due to its current specifications:

• it works over a GSM/EDGE connection on unsupported BlackBerry 8xx0 devices; however, SlingMedia does not guarantee the resulting performance. This is really an application for 3G or faster wireless networks only; an attempt to connect my Bold in a rural area where there was only EDGE wireless failed.
• once SlingMedia releases this HSDPA version of SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry they will look at doing a version that runs over Verizon’s, Bell Mobility’s and Telus’s 3G EV-DO network

A suggestion for RIM: SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry demonstrates the full potential of the Bold’s and Javelin’s video display. Let’s hope that newer versions of their firmware can achieve the same level of high quality video on the YouTube player and other video applications supported by these devices.

If you have both a SlingBox and one of the supported BlackBerries, upgrade your firmware (where necessary) and give SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry a try (U.S., Canada, U.K.). Sling Media is now looking for feedback from its targeted user public.

With over 500 channels to choose from, at any location worldwide where I can find a WiFi or (unlimited data plan) 3G HSDPA connection, television broadcast viewing has come a long way from having, in a fixed location, a single channel available only when atmospheric conditions permit.

SlingPlayer for BlackBerry has significant potential for business road warriors; in addition to the entertainment aspect, it also provides immediate access to “breaking news” and business broadcasts from taxis, airports, coffee shops, restaurants (mind your etiquette, however). For those states considering legislation prohibiting texting while driving, they may also want to include viewing videos as a potential distraction.

And this is an application I don’t expect to see on an iPhone any time soon.

(I would have put up a screen capture; however, the video does not make it to the BlackBerry screen capture programs I employ, including PC desktop programs.)

¹SlingMedia’s remotely stored “Favorites” feature will be supported by a future version of SlingPlayer for Mac.

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Later today my family will be celebrating the marriage of my son, a computer engineer and medical doctor, to his fiancé, a materials engineer and MBA by training, and now employed in the financial division of a resources company. Talk about how to win over the heart of her future father-in-law — she recently traveled to the Kyrgyzstan (also known as the Kyrgyz Republic) in central Asia. She has a story to tell about how she downloaded her Blackberry email in Krygyzstan, where Rogers has no roaming agreement.. So the steps are:

• Be employed by a company with a mining operations at a 13,000 foot (4,000 meter) elevation.
• Drive up to the mine over a mining development road from the 1,500 foot elevation of the main plain (and I’m told it’s a very scenic drive from the capital city, Bishkek, to where the mining road starts, along the shore of Krygyzstan’s largest lake.)
• Get out and look north; pull out the Blackberry and search for a network.
• Check a few minutes later and you’ll find your email updated.

The secret: a few miles/kilometers north of the mine is Kazakhstan where Rogers does have a roaming agreement. At a 13,000 foot elevation there is enough residual signal from the Kazakhstan operator’s towers to do a download. I have not asked about the resulting roaming data charges…??

But it speaks volumes about the sensitivity of the rf engineering in the Blackberry where even weak signals can be picked up and carry the data stream. For those who ask, it was a Blackberry Curve.

Now off to the wedding celebrations; I’ll be back next week.

Tags: Blackberry, Kyrgyzstan, Rogers, Kasakhstan

Luca Filigheddu, CEO of Abbeynet, has put up a guest post on IPCovergence.TV: Mobile VoIP Services – Conusmers Seek Usability and Real Cost Savings. His whole thesis is summed up by the statement:

…. it’s very difficult for me to see another major disruption coming in the short term to impact mobile communications. I’m referring to changing the way people use their mobile phone to communicate. In a nutshell, people are used to performing two simple actions: dial a number on their mobile phone’s keypad and click the green button.

Alternatively, they look for a contact in their address book and, again, they press the green button. How can anyone be so brave as to try to convince customers that they have to change their habits and offer them a different way to do this?

This is what I like about Truphone on the Nokia N95 (aside from the call quality itself); you simply look up a contact in your address book, select which phone number, press the green button and my connection to the contact is completed over a VoIP service. Of course the one drawback is that I can only do this currently from a WiFi connection but I have had non-technical people use Truphone this way.

iSkoot is almost there. On the Skypephone simply look up a Skype contact, press the green button and a call is started (even when calling a Skype contact). Using iSkoot on my Blackberry is just as easy for reaching Skype and SkypeOut contacts in your Skype contact list – select the contact, press the green button and the call is completed. The secret here is that, even though there is a “call back” in the iSkoot algorithm, you do not have to answer the call back … the connection is handled automatically. One improvement for iSkoot would be to access my Blackberry address book and be able to call any number directly from the Blackberry address book. The advantage of iSkoot is that I can effectively make the call from any location with GSM wireless voice and data access for the cost of a “local” wireless call when I am in my “Home” territory. Hopefully, multi-country SIM cards, such as Truphone’s recently acquired Sim4Travel or Cubic Telecom’s MaxRoam services will resolve the roaming charges issue in the near future. To return to Luca’s post:

The promise behind mobile VoIP is surely challenging. There are many innovations and valuable services brought by different players like Rebtel, Truphone, Mobivox or Jajah, just to name a few, but I don’t believe consumers will embrace every new functionality they make available to users.

Bottom line: as Luca so eloquently points out, users are familiar with the legacy process for placing a call; changing behavior patterns — such as required by call back services such as Jajah, Rebtel or even Mobivox will take second priority in broad user adoption. Mobile VoIP calling does not need to be a “disruptive innovation” from the user perspective.

Tags: Luca Filigheddu, Abbeynet, IPConvergence.TV, Mobile VoIP, Truphone, Skype, iSkoot, SIM4Travel, MaxRoam, Cubic Telecom, Jajah, Mobivox, Rebtel, Skypephone, Nokia N95, Blackberry

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Yesterday’s announcement of new international calling plans available from Skype probably set a record for generating press traffic about Skype. Certainly my “:Skype” keyword feed in FeedDemon has been gone off the end. Most of the reports were simply rehashes of the original two press releases (Global and North America). But some bloggers’ observations are worth mentioning.

Pat Phelan at Cubic Telecomm (MaxRoam) thinks these plans will seriously impact the phone card market:

This a serious blow to the phone card market and with the multicountry plans to launch prepaid Skype cards now starting to ramp up this could spell the end. ….

These packages are certainly going to make me re-examine my Skype usage, couple this with the excellent quality I have been getting on my 3Skypephone lately and its time thr a package change on my Vodafone corporate account

Mark Evans thinks the sexier story is Skype’s growth:

There’s lots of excitement today about Skype unveiling a new plan offering unlimited long-distance calls to 34 countries but the far more interesting story – at least from this corner’s perspective – is Skype’s strong growth, which has been chronically unreported.

Andy Abramson, at VoIP Watch gives his take:

1. Revenue can become more predictable as it will be charged monthly. Unlike the Skype Unlimited plan which was a one time purchase, this allows users to change plans and also drop or add it as they need it. That means students and vacationers are ideal targets.

2. The charges can be to PayPal or any credit card. This opens up the universe of potential users to non-PayPal users.

3. The plan is changeable between hemispheres so if you buy one in say the USA and end up in Europe working, in school or on vacation the Skype users can swap out as needed.

While I know road warrior and world traveler Andy immediately signed up for a World plan, PhoneBoy’s selection is more typical of North Americans with no overseas family ties:

This certainly makes it easier for people to justify giving Skype more per-month. If I made a couple of calls to Mexico or to the countries that are supported, I would certainly do it. However, I find the current Skype Pro offering–and the Skype Unlimited U.S./Canada plan–suffciient for my needs.

Dan York, who gets a bird’s eye view of the telecomm world from his work with Voxeo sees it, for the U.S. market, as a step up from “unlimited” domestic calling plans in the U.S. He also comments on telcos’ use of the term “unlimited” (to really mean “lots and lots” but “enough is enough”):

Of course, I had to laugh at Skype joining into the game played by all the major carriers here in NA known as “redefining the word ‘unlimited’”. Several of the carriers here in the USA and also in Canada have at various times trumpeted their “unlimited” data plans… which of course were “unlimited” only according to the carrier’s definition of unlimited… really something more like:

“Unlimited” = “unlimited calling up to a certain point that our finance folks have determined you start to impact our profit”

My thoughts on that issue: if you’re using that many minutes (over five hours of calling per day)

• it’s only fair, and does not hurt, to pay for excessive use if you’re running a (revenue generating) business
• figure out a way to get your contact onto Skype.
• get a life!

Certainly these plans could have a major impact in the Canadian market where we have many families with roots in the overseas countries serviced by the World plans. From my own anecdotal contacts, Skype attracts two major demographics in Canada: (i) family calling back to the “home country” overseas and (ii) small businesses wanting to grow worldwide. Unfortunately Skype’s “World” plans do not cover India, Pakistan and the Philippines where many Canadians have strong family ties. (I’m especially surprised by the lack of India since we know Skype has termination arrangements for both Canada and India through VSNL.).

The consensus in this morning’s Squawk Box call (recording link to follow when available) was that these plans are evolutionary while setting new pricing benchmarks for flat rate calling. It’s more a matter of working out the various terminating carrier agreements as opposed to any major new technology developments. And the biggest challenge is making access to Skype calling easier for the consumer through increased distribution of dedicated Skype-enabled hardware platforms with the familiar telephone touchtone interface in various markets – but especially in Canada and the U.S.

Tags: Skype, Pat Phelan, Mark Evans, MaxRoam, Andy Abramson, VoIP Watch, Dan York, PhoneBoy, VSNL, Skype Calling Plans, Squawk Box

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The emerging proliferation of WiFi-enabled personal assistant devices, such as Nokia’s N-series and Mobile Windows phones, and PC’s requires a complementary build-out of WiFi infrastructure. During our current road trip to Atlantic Canada we have passed many “local” hotels where the main promotional feature is “Wireless High Speed Internet”, sometimes along with free continental breakfast and a couple of other amenities. We have been staying at a low cost hotels that meets our need for a clean room and an overnight bed; their services include free WiFi usually without even a login screen. So my question is: “Why do several multi-national chains, such as Hilton, still feel they have to charge a premium surcharge for high speed Internet?” when it has become critical not only to traditional business travel but also to tourists keeping in touch with their families and truckers keeping in touch with their dispatchers.

The Good News, however, is that market demand for high speed Internet is rapidly building infrastructure for Skype WiFi phones at travel destinations. Reminds me of the 1960′s when Color TV was the big differentiator in the lodging business, featured on highway signage.. (While available in the US from the late 50′s, color TV only came to Canada in 1967.)