Articles about Skype

Christmas is upon us and that means two things -- travel and guilt. While most Americans will be travelling for the holiday, a good portion of them will not be spending it with family. This ultimately leads to the aforementioned guilt. After all, for some, it may be the last Christmas they get to spend with older relatives before they pass away. These people are opting for alternative plans -- how cold! However, Microsoft has a solution -- Skype your family instead.

"According to a recent survey we conducted with Harris Interactive, not everyone will get to be home for the holidays. In fact, three-quarters (77-percent) of Americans will be traveling away from their homes this holiday season, and one in four say they aren't spending time with immediate or extended family this holiday because it's too far to travel. Another 20-percent blame the cost of travel from keeping them apart from their families", says Nicol Addison, Microsoft.

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In late-July 2012, Microsoft launched Outlook.com, a new consumer-oriented email service set to replace the cluttered and dated Hotmail. Its long-term mission would be to take on Google's prevalent Gmail and establish itself as a product with widespread appeal. By grandfathering-in those who used Hotmail, Microsoft announced, in early-May 2013, Outlook.com had reached 400 million users.

I delivered my review of Outlook.com two days after its launch. My impressions were positive for a product that, at the time, was still undergoing testing (the official public launch happened in late-February 2013). Still, I concluded that the service was not up to par with Gmail, because it was missing key functionality. But lots of things have changed in the meantime, which is why I decided to write this long-term review of Outlook.com, outlining the most important changes and detailing the positives and negatives of the service, now that it has reached maturity.

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More and more business users are shunning a traditional desktop or laptop for tablets and smartphones. While tablets are great for consuming information, with the help of keyboard attachments, they are sufficient at creation too. However, tablets and smartphones are very personal devices; they are not optimized to handle a conference call for multiple users. Today, Logitech announces a product designed to solve this dilemma -- the Mobile Speakerphone P710e.

The company says, "with the Mobile Speakerphone, you can be more productive with hands-free access to your mobile device of choice and an integrated experience for video conferencing and conference calls. Whether you’re hosting your noon conference call using your mobile device in a hotel room or joining a call from a conference room in your local office with your PC, the Logitech Mobile Speakerphone is the ideal travel companion for the mobile employee or small business owner".

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With Android handsets and iPhones taking the lion's share of the smartphone market, Windows Phone is quite often overlooked by most consumers in their purchasing decisions. The popularity, or lack thereof, of devices running Microsoft's mobile OS likely plays an important part but it also detracts folks from getting the smartphone that may be right for them. Ask yourselves how many of your acquaintances have been in this position.

Many do not even take Windows Phone into consideration and the ones that do easily find a couple of reasons to dismiss the platform and jump on the Android or iPhone bandwagon. Yes, Windows Phone may not be the right answer for everyone but it might be for more people than naysayers think. And I have got 10 good reasons why consumers should give Windows Phone a chance.

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Today, Microsoft officially launches Windows 8.1 to the public, after almost two months since its new operating system reached the RTM status. The latest release is packed with many new features and improvements over its controversial predecessor, Windows 8, including the revival of the Start button and the much-awaited option to boot straight to the Desktop and avoid the Modern UI.

Just like Windows 8, Windows 8.1 is available to consumers in just two editions: base and Pro. The former is aimed at home users while the latter also includes features such as BitLocker encryption and hosting Remote Desktop Connections that are suitable for business use. There are also pricing differences between the two.

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In a blog post that looks forwards as well as backwards, Skype lays out details of planned improvements for the desktop and mobile versions of the app. Mark Gillett applauds the technological improvements that have been made over the past year and also gives a glimpse of the changes we can expect to see in the year to come. The post acknowledges that a large proportion of Skype usage is on mobile devices, and a number of mobile-friendly changes are revealed.

One particularly noteworthy feature specific to mobile users is the promise that chat synchronization across devices will be improved. This is something that anyone who used Skype on multiple devices will have noticed can be a problem. Send a large number of text based messages from the desktop version of Skype and when you launch Skype on another computer or a phone, you'll currently find that there can be quite a delay as message history is downloaded. While no details are provided, Gillet says:

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When a consumer decides to buy into a platform or operating system, they expect commitment from the developer. For instance, Apple released iOS 7 on Wednesday and included support for the iPhone 4 which was released in 2010. An iPhone buyer can reasonably expect a healthy dose of updates for years. As a result, Apple users trust and buy into iOS.

Conversely, Microsoft announces that it is ending Skype development and support for Windows Phone 7. Yes, Microsoft will continue to support the smartphone operating system until September 9, 2014. However, ending support for one of its own apps is a slap in the face to the loyal users who chose to buy into the platform.

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Big news came from Apple and Microsoft this week. Microsoft seemingly had a change of heart; having previously said that Windows 8.1 RTM would not be made available before its official launch date, the company announced that it would be released to people with TechNet and MSDN subscriptions.

The same group of people also gained access to the pre-release version of Skype. Microsoft was clearly in a very giving mood this week as the company also announced that it was giving free copies of Office 365 to non-profit organizations.

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Its no secret that a lot is changing in the 8.1 update of Microsoft's operating system, which suddenly rolled out today for those with a subscription to Technet or MSDN. Aside from a new, and less functional Start button, the software giant was said to be adding Skype integration as well.

Today the pre-release version of that communications service also has surfaced. "We’re thrilled to share this preview with you so you can experience for yourself the first-ever, fully integrated Skype on any Windows 8.1 device", says Skype's Ana Guzik.

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2003 was a good year. The UK experienced its highest recorded temperature ever, the final Lord of the Rings film was released, and iTunes was launched. It was also the birth year of Skype, the VoIP tool that is still going strong ten years down the line. Not long after having been acquired by Microsoft, Skype is celebrating its tenth anniversary by handing out free Wi-Fi to its users -- oh, and there’s a good old fashioned infographic to show what’s happened in the past decade.

One of the most impressive figure highlights in the charts is just how quickly Skype has been adopted. In just ten years, the service went from no users to 300 million. This equates to an uptake rate ten times faster than the telephone and two and a half times as fast as the cell phone. But it is not just the numbers that are impressive, the scale of Skype’s reach is mind-blowing.

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Microsoft continues to integrate Skype into more of its products, a process that seems slower than it should be. The messaging and calling service is now finding its way into one more property, in this case the web-based email service, Outlook.com.

The new integration is considered a beta release, but is available in multiple international markets -- the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada and Brazil. "The Skype for Outlook.com preview makes it easy to connect with your Skype friends right from your Outlook.com inbox", says Skype's Pierre-Eric Jacoupy.

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Social integration is one of the most interesting features of Outlook.com, as it allows users to manage emails and, at the same time, chat with friends on Facebook, Google Talk and Skype. Microsoft started to integrate the latter service in late-April, with the roll-out continuing into the summer and, now, the company announces a new change as the process reaches its final stages.

Microsoft just revealed that, "as part of adding Skype to Outlook.com", users will no longer be able to access the social messaging history through the adjacent folder, as it will be removed "sometime this fall". The feature will still be available, but only through the Messaging panel.

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Microsoft has released Skype for Windows Phone 2.9, an update to its popular video and audio messaging tool for Windows Phone users. Version 2.9 ships with two notable changes, an improved Home Screen and new People List Filter.

The People List Filter has been implemented as a direct result of user feedback, with Microsoft responding to user wishes to have the option of splitting Windows Phone contacts from Skype contacts in the Skype People List.

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Microsoft has released Skype 6.6 for Windows and Mac, which introduces minor updates to the company's popular chat service that "focus on quality by addressing user feedback and improving ease of use".

Version 6.6 concentrates on adopting consistent entry points for sending video messages across all platforms, plus implementing a number of platform-specific fixes.

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Microsoft purchased Skype back in October 2011 and took a bit of time to figure out where to go with it, but the company has its communications legs under it now and is off and running with deeper integration into Office and Windows. Now the company celebrates 100 million Android customers by rolling out version 4.0 of the mobile app.

"We’ve completely redesigned Skype for Android to be faster and easier – especially when you’re trying to fire off a quick message. Everything is at your fingertips", says Microsoft's Derek Snyder.

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