Verizon’s “exclusive” agreement with Skype has created a Skype client that has a number of quirky restrictions including the fact that it eats your wireless minutes in some instances (conveniently keeping voice minutes relevant in the age of smartphone mobile VoIP).

But Skype’s specialized Verizon application also had a fairly nasty bug: Android users who used the Skype app over 3G couldn’t turn on Wi-Fi at all.

In other words, they couldn’t use Skype on 3G and browse the Internet via Wi-Fi. At the time, Verizon gave a roundabout explanation, admitting there was a bug, but also insisting that CALEA wiretap restrictions were partially to blame for the problem, as the Verizon-specific app runs over Verizon’s traditional voice network. Whatever the cause, Verizon and Skype have apparently figured it out, and Skype for Verizon smartphones now works with Wi-Fi turned on.

Link to the original article…

Despite a few hiccups, Google’s launch of VoIP integration for Gmail has gone rather smoothly, with the company stating they placed over one million phone calls (about one out of every 3,000 phone calls made that day) the first day the service was live. According to Google, more than 200 million people worldwide are active Gmail users, and all of the company’s users in the U.S. now have access to this new functionality. Google is allowing users to make free calls to either the U.S. or Canada at least until the end of the year, hoping to ramp up adoption quickly as they take aim at Skype and Skype’s 560 million registered (124 million active) users.

Link to the original article…

Earlier this year Skype unveiled an “exclusive” arrangement with Verizon that involved releasing a somewhat-limited version of Skype for Verizon phones which in some cases eats user minutes, seemingly defeating some benefits of Skype. It was widely speculated that as part of the arrangement, Skype slowed their development of Skype for other platforms – though now they’ve finally released a version of Skype for the Apple iPhone. Unfortunately for users, this version too seems to have some odd restrictions:

iPhone users can make free Skype-to-Skype calls for the rest of the year but after that will have to pay a small, monthly subscription fee. Perhaps even more disconcerting for Skype users, the app – at least initially – apparently does not support background push notifications, meaning users must have the app up and running to receive incoming Skype calls.

These restrictions seem to be custom-made to help AT&T avoid the erosion of SMS and voice revenues in the face of smartphones, push IM clients and mobile VoIP. Of course it remains amusing that Skype keeps striking these kinds of restrictive, closed agreements with companies like AT&T and Verizon – after spending a large chunk of the last five years complaining about closed networks.

Link to the original article…

Despite announcing that Skype will debut group video calls for Windows users earlier today, Skype also announced that they will not be delivering a Skype application for the upcoming Microsoft 7 Phone platform, due for release later this year.

Things aren’t looking good for fans of Skype and the next generation of Windows Mobile software, that is expected to land later this year. Skype has announced that it has stopped developing for the coming OS.

This is really no surprise given that in February Skype pulled its Windows Mobile VoIP application for WinMo. Skype is focusing on developing for the iPhone, Symbian, and Android OS.

Say it ain’t so Skype.

[ Links: Slashphone, Skype Blogs ]

Use Skype? Love to use the video calling features? Hate how some of the higher priced Microsoft and Logitech cameras claim to be better; but really don’t measure up until you’ve spent over $100 or so? FREETALK has introduced their FREETALK® Everyman HD Webcam (TALK-7140) that has the following specs:

• Skype-certified High Definition camera
• High-performance optical lens
• 24-bit true color depth
• Auto Exposure and Auto White Balance
• Auto Focus capability
• Supports HD video encoding at resolutions up to 1280×720 at up to 22 frames per second
• Universal clip for supporting wide variety of displays

And all for the lovely price of $49 USD. Do want.

[ Link: Skype, Skype Shop, In Store Solutions ]

Apparently the long-awaited update for the Maemo based Nokia N900 has been leaked as a global PR1.2 update and has finally updated a lot of stuff after the prior PR1.1 and PR1.1.1 updates; which ushered in a few updates and bug fixes. What’s been confirmed so far is:

• Qt updated to 4.6.2
• Portrait Browser Mode
• Updated Application Manager
• Skype and Google Talk video calling
• Improved virtual keyboard
• USSD call codes now work
• Improved camera options
• Build No: 10.2010.12-9

Among other UI and software updates, unfortunately there’s not an update for the Flash version but it’s not the 10.1 Flash Player (version 9.0.260.0). PR1.2 is apparently quite the update.

As it stands though, Nokia has not officially released the PR1.2 update and this build is 4 weeks behind the latest known PR1.2 update, but as it stands this leaked version is a global release that has plenty of bugfixes and features that many Nokia N900 owners have been waiting for. I’m impressed with the Skype video calls… that’s a killer app in my mind. More over at Talk.Maemo.org (TMO).

Update: Ovi Maps 3.0 also confirmed.
Update: Flash Player has been updated from 9.0.246.0 to 9.0.260.0.

[ Related Links: Maemo "PR1.2 Is Released" Thread, Nokia N900 PR1.1 Update ]

LG Electronics and Skype today announced ‘Skype on Your TV’, its broadband TV with embedded Skype capability, which allows Skype users to make voice and high-definition video calls directly from their family room without a PC. The Skype Your TV will be demonstrated this week at the International Consumer Electronics Show.

“Embedding the Skype software in our broadband HDTVs enriches the user experience, allowing consumers to connect with family and friends from the comfort of their family room without a PC,” said Peter Reiner, senior vice president, marketing, LG Electronics USA. Skype on LG HDTVs will give our customers another flexible option in allowing them to communicate using Skype, as well as access content directly through their HDTV.”

The Skype service on a TV will work much as it does on a PC. A TV program will stop playing once a Skype call is made or answered. The new LG TVs will also deliver familiar Skype features, including free Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls to other Skype users, calls to landline or mobile phones at Skype’s low rates, and being invited to participate in voice conference calls with up to 24 other parties.

Link to the original article…

It’s been discussed at length how what Google Voice is starting could significantly alter the telecom industry, even if there’s still a significant number of people who don’t understand why (or what Google Voice even does). While 2009 involved lifting voicemail, contact management and other functionality off of the phone company and delivering it to the user on a server (aka the “cloud”), 2010 will be about integrating Google’s acuiqistion of softphone operator Gizmo5, and making Google Voice increasingly like Skype – and then some.

Says Google’s Bradley Horowitz to eWeek:

“What we’re trying to do with telephony is give people a seamless experience that frees up their telephony communication from the silos where it’s lived for the last decade. Voicemail, my contacts, all of those things have been segregated from the rest of my Web experience. We have big plans to do a better job.”

Of course as Google (and inevitably a flurry of other more limber companies) begin doing a better job with the network GUI/Voicemail/call mechanics and user experience than the phone companies, companies like AT&T and Verizon face the possibility of being little more than dumb pipe providers. This utterly terrifies all cable and phone executives. To stop this, and the obliteration of dying cash cow business models (wireless “minutes,” SMS come to mind) companies used to generations of pampered monopoly are going to have to do two things they’re not exactly known for: innovate and quickly adapt.

So far, AT&T and Verizon have done neither. Instead, the baby bells have done what they do best: use lobbyists and smear merchants to attack Google’s credibility. AT&T and Verizon’s policy folks tried very hard in 2009 to paint Google as the worst sort of evil (read: AT&T’s claim that Google hates nuns, or AT&T/Verizon funded Scott Cleland’s fact-optional claim that Google’s a evil bandwidth-sucking monster that doesn’t invest in infrastructure). If the phone companies want to beat back Google in 2010, they’re going to have to stop whining and actually start competing – and that’s good news for consumers.

Link to the original article…

Fring has always been on the cutting edge and one of my favorite multiple client IM programs on my Nokia N810 and Apple iPhone but the addition of being able to receive video just pushes it that much further than the rest in my book.

And what a new year’s gift this is… the world’s first video calls over internet on the Apple iPhone and Apple iPod Touch! fringsters with iPhones and iPod Touch (and selected Nokia devices as announced last week) can now see all their family and friends on fring and Skype this Holiday Season!

Right now iPhone and iPod touch users can receive and make fring and Skype video calls entirely over Internet connection (for free!) and see the person on the other end. When a front camera is placed on these, we’ll have two-way video calls available here too just as we do on all the supported Nokia devices.

The promise of 2-way video from Fring has my attention, that’s been the killer app in my mind for quite some time. Just will be awkward because the Apple iPhone has no forward facing camera at the moment and the Nokia devices they’re currently supporting are only the Symbian phones.

But the Maemo powered Nokia N900 also has a forward facing camera… how about some support there too fring? Please?

[ fring ] [ Skype ] [ fring blog ]

I’m a hardcore user of Fring user already – MSN, AIM, Yahoo, gTalk, ICQ, Skype and SIP.

But I do use Skype – as the above list shows. But I love to use the video part of the desktop version quite a bit. But voice, overseas, for free? I’m down. Per usual the AT&T requirements – voice data has to use wifi and not 3G – show up, but to be honest, I’d almost hate to hear voice over 3G given how heavily the AT&T 3G network has been hammered.

I’ll keep playing around with it. But so far, so mediocre – but this is Skype. Can’t wait to see if this will be upgraded or left to die much like the Nokia N810 version of Skype. Hmmm…

I’ve tried to use the AIM application that’s been out and it still just does not do what I’d like for it to do… like never crash. I’ve switched to Fring, which gives me Skype and SIP (Gizmo Project mostly in my case) as well as MSN, GoogleTalk, and AIM.

Enter Nimbuzz.

Landscape-chat makes it easy and fast to type
Call your IM buddies all over the world for free on your Wifi connection: Skype, Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger (MSN), Google Talk
Chat with social network friends: Facebook, MySpace, Gadu-Gadu, studiVZ, Hyves

Presently it’s free in the Apple iTunes Store, and honestly, it’s giving my love of Fring a run for the money. The landscape mode definitely gives me more room to type, a more comfortable way to hold the phone and… ok, I like the default tones.

I had gotten my first MagicJack USB VoIP device on July, 19 2007. After one small business trip, it somehow stopped working but the guys over at MagicJack replaced it without question last October. So my “one year review” truly started in October, 19 2007.

A year later, I have gone from Windows 2003 Server SP2 to Windows Vista SP1 – I know, I know… it still sucks – switched professions and cities, and I still am using the same replacement MagicJack device. I’ve even pumped in about $50 into making overseas calls while on-the-go – the rates are “competitive” to most countries… but honestly still a disappointment to some other countries compared to other VoIP options.

The good news, I just renewed for another year of phone calls within the US and Canada for some $20 USD for the entire year. The device has been updated at least 5 times using their upgrade process, only once have I had to manually update it – that was during my switch to Vista. It was quick, painless… and it seems that I was somewhat fortunate. I’ve read about some horror stories over at The Unofficial magicJack Support Forum. The unofficial site that is about one of the only sources for reliable help if you have questions since magicJack’s main website is mostly about just selling the device. You can still get assistance via their live chat at magicjack.com, but it’s only active after you use search.

The bad news. You will have to always keep a machine up and running in order to receive a phone call. For the geek type that loves to have uptime records to brag about, that’s great. For somebody like my mother that treats her computer much like a lamp… it’s off the moment she walks out of the room; that’s going to be a problem if you wish to receive a phone call via the magicJack device. This is not a standalone ATA device like you’d have with Vonage. MagicJack uses your main machine – it only works in Windows XP and Vista, as well as Intel Mac OS X – to receive a phone call. No Linux version yet.

Once you open up the blister pack, place it into an USB2 port and after a very quick and simple registration process, you will be up and running in no time. Place a regular phone into the back of the magicJack device, hit talk on the telephone and you should hear a dialtone; dial all 10 digits of whomever you’re calling in the US/Canada… and you’re golden. I think even my own mother could set this up without even calling me once.

Along with a my.magicjack.com account that will mirror your e-mail and password that you input earlier, the system will prompt you to how to get into your voicemail within the actual phone application itself. You can use either a headset and microphone or use the aforementioned connected telephone. While traveling, I’ve actually hijacked the telephone in the hotel room and plugged it into the magicJack device instead of carrying around another telephone with me or even a headset for that matter. But if I were to use the device at a coffee shop, I’d probably switch to a headset to avoid whipping out a big telephone and looking crazy.

Then again, I might just eBay an old rotary phone for the heck of it now.

If you have good broadband access – my cable modem is rated at 3mb/s down, 1mb/s up normally – your voice clarity will be as good as a cellphone, if not better. I’ve had compliments from people when I call them using magicJack. But as with anything that’s bandwidth dependent, if you get busy downloading things, or use something that likes to hog the bandwidth, like Skype or bit torrents, your voice quality will suffer. Google around and turn off Skype’s supernode if you insist on using that program.

Using the thing now is like second nature. I walk in, grab a phone, dial a number, the software window pops up – it autoruns on windows start, and will pop up each and every time you minimize it, then use the telephone. There are ways to remove this nature as well. I’ve found some good tutorials on how to do so over at the Unofficial MagicJack Forum. But to be honest… it just works.

Sure, there’s been a few times it failed – I might have dialed too fast, missed a number, or the software didn’t register a few numbers I dialed. I tend to dial quite fast, so it happens quite a bit. But the speed dial numbers work every time. Perhaps I’m a clumsy dialer. It rings just like a regular phone, if you leave a message, they see the number – but not the proper name, it just says whichever city you got your number from usually. And speaking of numbers, magicJack has quite a list of area codes and numbers. Not all areas are covered – my part of South Carolina is not covered at all – but since most cellphones have the ability to call long distance now, or in my case I use a Grandcentral number for local numbers – that’s really not an issue. And if you call overseas, you will hear before it attempts to connect you an approximate amount of minutes announced before it dials out. To me, that’s a plus.

With how to use it and how it sounds out of the way, my gripes are very simple. I don’t like the fact that I have to keep my machine running, always. The machine my magicJack device is hooked up to… it’s loud. Like Boeing 777 about to take off loud. In order to make phone calls overseas, you have to pre-pay. Which isn’t a problem, but they don’t accept Paypal. And that… annoys me somewhat. Being a windows process control freak, I do not like the fact that it installs an USB driver that’s always started up – UTSCSI.exe. And for some reason, on my machine, magicJack doesn’t always autostart; which is resolved by merely double clicking the magicJack icon. Nothing major, but it’s a gripe if I were in a rush and thought it was already running.

There are a few other minor gripes; however it just works fine for me – but I’m a casual telephone user. For a month, I had my own mother try it out. She’d get confused sometimes, miss calls and the VMail button wouldn’t announce that there was an voicemail waiting for her (they’ve since fixed this, btw) and not all of her messages came to her directly via e-mail. Some were delayed by a day or so.

This device is also not ready to replace my normal landline. True, it has e911 which works rather well – ask Vonage, it’s the same type of system. But some numbers, such as AT&T 800 numbers just refuse to work. You get some unnaturally fast busy sound. I’ve also noticed problems with toll-free numbers that start with 866 or 877 also being a problem as well. And outages aren’t that rare either.

But when it works… it’s great.

By now, I’ve rambled long enough. Is it for you? I’d say that depends… are you a casual telephone user, do you slaughter your cellphone minutes like I tend to do? Or do you just want to drop a landline and have a cheap secondary line besides your cellphone? I’d say go for it. If you want to replace your landline… I’d say try it out first. If you want to make this your sole telephone line… I’d just honestly say “Don’t do it and wait for another option.”…

All in all… 3.5 out of 5 (It’s good)