Disruptive Telephony

I do have to hand it to the Skype marketing folks... it's certainly a cute move on their part to offer Skype users in the US and Canada a full day of free calls to landlines and cell phones around the world.   With Mother's Day being one of the highest days of phone usage, it's a natural day to pick for a gimmick. 

There are limits, though, and the terms and conditions were interesting to read.  I'm not sure how to read #9 where users are limited to 200 minutes per call:

Skype asks that you enjoy this offer fairly and sensibly, for your personal and non-commercial purposes. Calls are limited to 200 minutes per computer during the offer period. If you make excessive, systematic or intentional misuse of the offer, Skype reserves the right to terminate your access to your account immediately.

So is that 200 minutes, total?  Or is that per call?  i.e., if you've been talking to someone for over 3 hours on the same call you have to hang up and initiate a new call?  Either way, it's a good amount of time to spend on the "phone".

I also enjoyed this part:

Skype reminds users of the nature and limitations of the Internet and is not responsible for any hardware or software problems, any technical malfunctions of any communications network, online system or computer hardware or software that may affect access to the offer. Skype is also not responsible for any fraudulent, incomplete, garbled, or delayed computer transmissions or inaccurate transcription of information, whether caused by Skype, its users or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilized in this offer by any technical or human error which may occur in the processing of the offer which may damage a user's system or limit a participant's ability to participate in the offer.

So if you can't understand your mom (or whomever else you call), it's not Skype's responsibility!  :-)

Ah, well... kudos to them for coming up with a cute marketing gimmick.  If it get's some more people to try out consumer VoIP, all the better for us all.

I will call my Mom on Mother's Day, but odds are that I'll just be using the regular old landline.  We'll see.  It's tempting to call other people in other parts of the world that day, but: a) it's a Sunday and for most folks I know overseas it's a weekend and they like to spend that time with their family; and b) *I* will be spending that day with my family.

P.S. Also quite interesting to see that Intel is a co-sponsor of this marketing campaign.

Over on Skype Journal, Phil Wolff has posted his "26 Wishlist Items for Enterprise Skype", which makes for interesting reading.  Basically his list of what Skype needs to work in the enterprise.  It's a good list with many good ideas for VoIP in general, not just Skype.  The list isn't prioritized but my 2 cents would be that the #1 thing Skype needs is the network edge proxy server that Phil mentions... some kind of choke point that IT Security managers can use to monitor/block/allow/deny Skype access.  The reality is that I think most IT security folks just plain don't trust Skype. 

What do you think of the list?

P.S. Phil also has previously come up with the very cool image/logo to the right that I think all of us VoIP bloggers who write about Skype Enterprise really must use.  And if you don't understand the significance of the logo or the play on words, well, your geek credentials are seriously in doubt. (Hint)

Those of you with an interest in Skype may wish to read my post over on Disruptive Conversations about VoIP blogger Jan Geirnaert ceasing the use of his skype-watch.com and skype-gadgets.com domains for his blog.  I've included there links from a number of the other VoIP bloggers who have covered this issue in more detail.

Last week Skype came out with a Developer Program newsletter that provided a bit more insight into the Call Transfer capability now available in the recently released Mac version 2.6. In the full version of the article, Skype technical project manager Morné van Dalen answers some questions about what the Call Transfer API is all about.  It's interesting to see the discussion here of Group transfer, specifically in this list:

• Skype to Skype (P2P)
• Skype to SkypeOut (P2P to SipOut)
• SkypeIn to Skype (SipIn to P2P)
• SkypeIn to SkypeOut (SipIn to SipOut)
• Skype to Group
• SkypeIn to Group

It's quite curious, though, that transfer to SkypeIn and SkypeOut will only be available to Skype Pro customers, which of course is not available in North America!  Seems a rather puzzling disconnect.

Anyway, it will continue to be interesting to watch these capabilities evolve...

Quite a bit of activity lately, it seems, over in Skype-land:

1. Private beta of an "Enterprise Edition" - First seen on Jan Geirnaert's weblog and then subsequently confirmed, it appears Skype is sending around an email looking for participants in an "Early Adopter Program" for a product that would include:

• Enterprise network compatibility.
• Company-owned Skype Name creation.
• Customisable to your corporate requirements.
• Direct technical support from Skype.
• Ongoing upgrades maintenance.

A bit more text about it on Jan's weblog.  Will be interesting to see what evolves out of this.

2. New version 2.6 for the Mac with Call Transfer, public chats, Skype Prime, etc. - Over at Skype Journal, Jim Courtney writes about the new Mac version that brings the Mac version closer to parity with the Windows client (as seen in the release notes). It also apparently includes "call transfer" that will, per the download page, "Transfer calls to your Skype contacts - effortlessly." Jim provides a teaser to us that Windows users can use this Call Transfer as well... and this will be described later this week. 

If Call Transfer does indeed work, this is the first time I've really seen it in a P2P client.  (I'm suddenly thinking my wife's Macbook might need some "system administration" time spent with it.)

3. New release of the Windows 3.2 beta - Jim notes in the same post that a new build of the Windows 3.2 betaa is available, which, per the Release Notes, seems mostly about bugfixes.  (Hmmm... I suddenly become curious what the "odd background noise" is that apparently appears in the silence between two 3.2 users...)

4. Multi-device presence - I didn't note here that last week Jim also had a post about two small features in the Skype 3.2 beta that made for interesting reading.  Skype is interesting in that unlike MSN/WLM or AIM, you can have multiple instances of Skype running at the same time.  (In fact, there's a security issue related to this that we've talked about on Blue Box before.[1])  Having multiple computers, one of which has a DUALphone connected to it, I make use of this feature to have Skype on both systems.  However, there is the very real issue of "which instances' presence setting do you broadcast to Skype contacts?"  And also to the web presence icon.  I've seen the issue myself when I look at my blog from my laptop (with Skype running) and see that my Skype web presence says that I'm "Away" or "Not Available"... due to the fact that my other PC has had enough inactivity for Skype to automatically change the presence setting.

It would appear that Skype's solution out of that is to have presence be pulled from whichever Skype client logged in last.  I guess it's one way to do it... but I'd prefer a checkbox in the options that said something like "Make this instance of Skype authoritative for my presence" (obviously worded a bit better).

In any event, these are all some interesting developments... thanks to the Skype Journal team for continuing to provide the investigative digging they do.

[1] In a nutshell, the "security issue" is that with the "multiple login" feature, you have no way of knowing how many instances of Skype are open with your username.  An attacker could open up Skype, enter your username and keep guessing passwords until he/she could get in as you.  If the attacker is successful, he/she can see all your contacts, all your chats, see your event history, etc. The attacker can't listen to your calls (since those are point-to-point), but they could make a call as if it were you and presumably could also deplete your Skype Credit.

Through a link from Phil Wolff, I learned that Bruce Stewart has posted at the Emerging Telephony blog about someone turning an antique phone into a Skype phone (which actually points to a post on the MAKE Blog).  Okay, so as best I can tell, it's really a glorified USB headset, but I admit that the geek side of me finds it rather a fun idea.  Bruce links to a page on the Instructables site that has more pictures and instructions. 

(I'd note that while the articles say that it is an "antique Skype phone", it really looks to me like it's a USB headset, so it could really work with any VoIP program.)

Fun stuff...

Phil Wolff over at Skype Journal was obviously having way too much fun with graphic-editing programs, but the results are hilarious (at least to me). A very mooving piece titled "First Look: Skype for Cows 3.2".

Given today's date, it's definitely well worth a read....     ;-)

In my previous post about the Skype 3.2 beta out today, I said this:

I'm sure there will be some other things found in the release, too,

but I had no idea how right that statement was... Jim Courtney over at Skype Journal just posted this "Skype 3.2 Sets New Standard for Sound Quality" and he's not kidding. I just called Jim using Skype 3.2 and spoke to him first using just my laptop mic and speakers and then with my normal mic/headphone setup. In both cases he said the audio quality was excellent (obviously even better with the mic/headphone setup I have). He spoke to me with the setup he describes in his article... sitting back away from his computer a bit and with his microphone situated between speakers. I do have to say that the sound quality was impressive given that Jim is trying to create echoes (I heard none).  Definitely an interesting move on Skype's part... obviously only of use between 3.2 beta users, but it will be interesting as this rolls out into their production software.

In the meantime, if you are a 3.2 beta user and want to give me a call to test it out... I'm certainly interested in listening to the audio quality under different circumstances.  (Skype ID = danyork).

The fruits of the eBay purchase of Skype continue to start appearing... today Skype released a 3.2 beta for Windows (sorry Mac & Linux fans) which has as it's main feature the ability to send money to another user via PayPal (provided both users have PayPal accounts).

Rather than write more here about the feature, I'll just point you over to Skype Journal where Phil Wolff has already provided a walk-through of the Send Money feature (as well as the nice graphic I used in this post). 

It's an interesting addition... as we briefly chatted about in Skype Journal's public chat today, this has a bit of a potential to take some money away from Skype Prime, although probably not much.  If you were in a call and wanted to charge someone for the call, you could ask them to send you money via PayPal.  In contrast to Skype Prime, you could ask them to send you any amount you wanted... and you would get the money immediately (versus the 4-month hold of Skype Prime).  I don't think it will impact Skype Prime too much, though, because the process to send money via PayPal is more involved... Skype Prime makes it extremely simple.  We'll see... personally I think the jury is still out on whether or not people will use Skype Prime.  Time will tell.

As noted in the Skype blog post, the 3.2 beta also simplifies access to your Skype account info.  Previously, you had to login to Skype's web page to do everything... now, as Phil shows in another walkthrough, it's all right inside the Skype client.  There's also an ability to easily update your picture with a webcam directly inside the Skype client, which I'm sure some folks will have fun with.  The Skype blog also indicates you can now import contacts from Hotmail, Yahoo!Mail and GMail... firing another shot across the bow at those three titans of the consumer email world.

I'm sure there will be some other things found in the release, too, but for the moment it seems to be primarily about sending money...  (and anyone who wants to test sending me money via PayPal is welcome to do so... I'll even send it back to you, minus a, say, 10% "experimentation fee" ;-)

Phil Wolff over at Skype Journal's been posting some good pieces about Skype Prime:

• Walking through Skype Prime Beta - takes you step-by-step through the process of setting yourself up with Skype Prime, including screenshots (for all the Mac and Linux users out there!)
• The Skype Prime Rates - digs into the reality of the rates Skype is charging... along with the 120-day waiting period to be paid... nice graphics, Phil!
• Skype Prime blog roundup 1 - recounts the blog coverage that's been going on about Skype Prime

Thanks, Phil, for taking the time to pull all this coverage together... excellent thing for "Skype Journal" to do, so thanks!