Looks like the Netgear WiFi phone for Skype is real. I did a short test at the NetGear Booth. It

The bad news? We still have a couple of months to wait! Damn. It felt so good. I just wanted to take it home!

Q. What is a Skypepotomus?

Nice job RTX! We thought this USB phone was feature rich before. Now it is awe inspiring. Isn't CEBit great? We get all this neat stuff.

Get the User Manual here.

Thanks to Torben who contributed to this story. Torben Nyhuus, is Skype Journal’s Associate European Editor, a Super User on the Skype Forum and also user of the RTX DualPhone.

The new DualPhone is a software upgrade!

The upgrade is a simple, safe three step process. The base station gets done in about 15 seconds. Patience is required for the next step... the handset must be placed into the base station. After a 10 minute wait to ensure the batteries are changed sufficiently the software will then be uploaded to the handset.

The features we liked best:

1. Support for Skype voice mail

2. Skype chat notification

3. Support for Skype call waiting

But there is a lot more....

Users will love the menu feature:

No wonder Tom's Hardware gave DualPhone "The Reader's Choice Award"

Here is the complete story from HQ...

RTX Introduces New USB Cordless DUALphone Firmware Update with Enhanced Skype 2.0 Support
RTX Upgrades the Award-Winning USB DUALphone with New Features

Noerresundby, Denmark, March 9, 2006 – Today RTX , a world leader in wireless product development, announced a free USB DUALphone firmware update. The USB DUALphone can now check Skype™ voicemail, receive incoming chat alerts and perform other Skype functions, all from the DUALphone’s sleek, cordless handset. The update adds to a long list of existing features, such as wideband audio and Skype online presence.

The USB DUALphone is a Skype Certified hybrid phone that allows consumers to combine the benefits of traditional phone lines with the advanced Skype Internet calling capabilities using a single cordless phone. When placing a traditional call, consumers dial as usual using the telephone button or they press the PC button to dial using Skype. In addition, the USB DUALphone’s cordless handset gives an audible “beep” when a Skype contact’s online status changes, and allows users to play and delete Skype voice messages all without having to be near a computer.

“This USB DUALphone upgrade shows how Skype is moving beyond the PC and integrating into the lives of consumers,” said James Bilefield, Skype Europe general manager. “Skype works with partners like RTX to provide our customers with as many device options as possible, making Skype a convenient mobile offering.”

The USB DUALphone recently won Tom's Hardware's Readers' Choice Award 2005 for “Best VoIP Product” category and is the only Skype Certified cordless phone that offers wideband audio, the ability to toggle between Skype calls, Skype chat notification and accessibility to Skype features such as voicemail and online status, without being in front of a computer.

“This update further eliminates the need to sit in front of a PC to benefit from Skype,” said Jorgen Elbaek, President & CEO of RTX. “At RTX we developed the USB DUALphone to be the best option for people who want to have convenient access to the advanced capabilities of Skype without having to change their regular phone line and calling habits.”

The included USB DUALphone charging station simultaneously connects to a traditional telephone socket and to a PC via USB. The USB DUALphone fully supports Skype to Skype, Skype to landline, landline to Skype and landline to landline calls.

USB DUALphone Features:
• Support for Skype voicemail (new)
• Skype chat notification (new)
• Support for Skype call waiting (new)
• Ability to toggle between Skype calls (new)
• Selection of which online-status to display in handset (new)
• Skype/landline hybrid phone functionality
• Wideband audio for superior sound quality
• Skype certification
• Skype contact list and online status displayed on handset
• DECT cordless technology (WiFi-friendly)
• Rechargeable and replaceable battery
• Backlit LCD display
• Standard headset connector
• Multiple handset capacity
• Upgradeable firmware
• Range: Indoor 150 feet/Outdoor 1000 feet
• Distinctive ring indicating landline or Skype calls

Pricing and Availability
The USB DUALphone update is available as a free download on the Web at www.dualphone.net. The USB DUALphone is available online at the Skype Store at www.skype.com and at selected retail outlets. Suggested retail price for the USB DUALphone is 119 Euro.

About RTX
RTX Telecom A/S is an international group specializing in the development and manufacturing of wireless communication solutions and OEM products. Its portfolio covers every aspect of the wireless technology industry, ranging from DECT, WLL, DPRS, VoIP, IEEE 802.11a/b/g, 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz to GSM, GPRS, TD-SCDMA and Bluetooth. The company, which is listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange, has 250 staff and generated sales of DKK 317 millions (€42 millions) in FY2004/2005.

###

Contact:
RTX Telecom
Jorgen Elbaek, CEO
Tel. +45 96 32 23 00
je@rtx.dk or press@rtx.dk

RTX Telecom
Jens Kofoed, Marketing Manager
Tel. +45 96 32 23 00. Mobile: +45 22 40 72 77
jko@rtx.dk or press@rtx.dk

The One Web Day dinner last night started something important for me.  Susan Crawford asked important questions. Why do I love the Internet? What has it done for me? What have I done for it? What can I do to leave it better than I found it?

I first used ARPAnet in 1979 to pass my project's logistics data to modelers at the Naval Postgraduate School. I was used to terminal based computing, even modem access to timesharing systems, but this was different. This was our computers talking to theirs, peers becoming a network, if only for a little while. It changed our work, slashed time from our project, gave us access to distant talent.

And it became the Internet.  

We're starting now, in cafes and schools and hospitals and offices, around the world. We're seeding activities "to create, maintain, advance, and promote a global day to celebrate online life: September 22, 2006." One Web Day, an international holiday. How will you mark One Web Day this year? Add your project idea to the wiki. 

Tags: events, onewebday, onewebday06, onewebday2006, skype

I have officially joined Shift Networks as their new CTO. I can't tell you how excited I am to be working with Trent and his team, a great group with awesome talent. Shift is the fastest growing SMB IP Communications company in Canada, now I know why.

Here is the Press Release:
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2006/09/c0632.html

I will be continuing my committment to blogging, writing, & citizen journalism. My new focus for the next few months will be on the SMB vendors with more Podcasts and Interviews to come.

The adventure continues, yeeehaaa!

“Experts give mixed review,” says James S. Granelli, Times Staff Writer in his LA TImes article on Skype CEBit announcements unveiling its small business solution. . “no home runs” says Jeff Pulver… “ha ha!”, says I.

Many of the home runs are from third parties and possibly the best examples are the Skype adapters to PBX (the technology behind most office phone systems). Listed in the Skype press release under Skype Certified Business Hardware is one of those home runs,

“Actiontec: VoSKY Exchange allows company PBX systems to connect with up to four Skype callers.”

Here is a line up of Skype2PBX big hitters at CEBit.

Spintronics

Speed Dragon Multimedia

ZipCOM See SkyPBX at Suncomm's booth, number is 13 E85 (4b), the product called ST 1004

This group of manufactures reminds me of Babe Ruth… all he could do is hit! This group is a lineup that will give small and medium businesses the opportunity to make many home runs.

1. Infrastructure. You do not need to throw out the phones on everyone’s desk and replace them with $300 to $500 IP phones.

2. It works everywhere all the time. Hotels, client’s offices, and Starbucks. SIP systems for the most part fail to navigate firewalls.

3. Customers and suppliers can have free local access to our office phone system via SkypeIn numbers set up around the world.

4. SkypeOut. Every phone in your business will have access to using SkypeOut without needing a computer.

5. Skype Business Control Panel (formally Skype Groups) gives you central control and financial reporting for your communication costs.

Skype.biz 30% use Skype at work.
— Skyperedirects to Skype's landing page of Skype.com/business. They've upgraded the "Skype Control Panel" service, formerly Skype Groups, with automatic topping up of employee accounts. Beyond that, Skype.biz quietly pimps Skype certified software, software and services.

This is a toe in the business waters, not a plunge, but it starts the marketing conversation. The full release is below the fold...

I am very excited to be able to announce that I have accepted a position at Shift Networks as CTO, Press Release:

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/March2006/09/c0632.html

I will continue blogging, you can be sure of that. :)

When I saw the Yahoo!/Siemens team-up story yesterday, I realized that we have a bit of a naming convention pickle brewing. The vast majority of these IM/VoIP clients have the ability to make and take calls via the PSTN for a nominal fee. The naming convention for this feature has typically been IN and OUT.

Skype2PBX? Here is a first hand story from Jeremy a very happy Skyper in the UK. Cambridge, UK to be more precise. Jeremy, the Technical Director of Z-Tech, leads a real cool group of experts in industrial process control.

Jeremy: “Our Office Phone System is a Panasonic TDA30 PBX (it has VOIP capabilities but we are not using them) with 3 analogue telephone lines in, and 7 extensions. We used a Skype to PSTN Adapter from Actiontec to link it to Skype.

“Jeremy how big a deal was it to set up the PBX to accept a line from Skype?"

"Adding the extra line to the hunt group was just a matter of marking the port as 'in service' and then adding it to the list so that the handsets know the line is available. The PBX is programmed via some windows View image">friendly software via USB it's not a chore! It took about 2 minutes to set up the PBX."

"Mind you it's a bit Heath Robinson at the moment due to the extra PC involved that isn't rack mounted like the rest of the kit and of course there are wires everywhere. But the system does work, and work very well so far!”

Bill: “Why did you connect Skype to your PBX?”

Jeremy: “We intend to move all our lines to VoIP when we believe it is viable - this is the first step. We can try it out cheaply.

And, yes Bill, we now have a Call Transfer function. But we like better is that it gives us an extra line out - 4 lines instead of 3. If we asked BT (British Telecom) for another line they want £100 setup, plus £50 per quarter plus VAT... Skype has no setup fees and lower call rates than BT too.
We have 70 employees and about 30 of them have their own PCs. I am not sure of the cost savings but the VoSKY Internet Telephone Wizard cost us £40 then there is the cost of the PC."

Bill: "What are the advantages for your customers?"

We tell people that they can call us for free using Skype they love it, we've done something for them, made it easier for people to get in touch! Employees, potential employees and of course, customers.

However - we are not cutting our BT lines just yet - Skype has got to prove itself and prove itself in the medium/longer term - we don’t know if it will continue or how it will be in a year’s time.

"Our Contact Us page on our Web Site View image
is creating excitement with customers because they can call our switchboard via Skype."

"Also some of our staff are from overseas, Czech republic, Australia, etc - and they like it as they can now call home for free - and are spreading the Skype VoIP word at the same time."

Thanks Jeremy for sharing your story with our readers.

After spending a few hours over a couple of days with Z-Tech I found they are what their web site touts them to be, "A YOUNG BUSINESS and, like all youngsters, we’re full of energy.” Very creative energy at that.

Vonage isn't happy about Canadian cable giant, Shaw Communications, claiming they can't guarantee service quality for bandwidth-intensive applications like VoIP. As a result, they're offering a service to consumers where, by paying $10/month, "Shaw will provide a quality of service (QoS) feature that will enhance these services when used over the Shaw High Speed Internet network." How this is accomplished they really don't go into but you can read more about it on their Quality of Service Enhancement page.

From AndresS Skype Staff

In order to improve reliability and stability of our central contact list we have had to disable the list for all versions of Skype for Windows from 1.4.0.84 to 2.0.0.73 inclusive.

To continue using the central contact list without problems please make sure that all your Skype versions are updated to the latest release (Version 2.0.0.90) available here: http://www.skype.com/download/

What happens if I am currently using a version which falls in this version range and is affected?

The client continues to work normally, but the contact list will not be synchronised with the contact server. If you make any changes in your contact list, these will not be visible in any other computers where you are using this Skype Name.

Why has the central contact list been disabled for older versions?

We have had an abnormally large increase in traffic to our server that controls the central contact list which was causing a number of users to lose their contacts when upgrading Skype or logging in at a different computer. We have investigated this increase in traffic and discovered a problem within a number of older releases of Skype which is causing additional, unnecessary, traffic to be sent to the server.

Can I backup my contacts?

You can manually backup your contacts on your computer so they have a record of them that can be used at any time.

Regards,
The Skype Team

In order to backup your contacts go to Tools -> Archive Contacts -> Back up Contacts to file to create an archive file that can be used later if needed.

To restore contacts from file go to Tools -> Archive Contacts -> Restore Contacts from file.

The world needs Hewy Lewis, Pete.

I've had a few pointers today to AIM opening up their API. Apparently they are not going to play with multi-headed clients. Then who can blame them when nobody else seems to either.

Where it is interesting is the opportunity for monetising AIM. My perception is AIM will want to start charging for commercial message flow. Eample, putting videos into in boxes in real time. AIM has a built in throttle on such communications. As IM and SMS systems converge the route to message me is no longer just email. Add in all the extra context. Lots of opportunity.

Note none of these other messenger systems with the exception of Skype Multi-chat handle a distributed no servers group messaging format effectively.

On the Skype score. A clear SIP strategy is becoming more important. Skype is probably the only company currently that can charge customers for SIP accounts and offer them an immediate benefit. Concurrently opening their chat client (the headless one wev'e heard about) to XMPP would further add value. Then it is time to add in SMS functionality.

Wonders in the Walled Garden never cease; AOL announced this morning that it was releasing an AOL AIM API that would support open development of AIM plug-ins, AIM user interface applications and the integration of AIM presence information into other sites and applications. Open AIM has Web site at http://developer.aim.com/, with tools and documentation; can't wait to see what the first mash-up is. Susan Mernit's Blog

VoiFi is simply another amateur hour. In one blog post I read that VoiFi technology corporation has been working on the technology for the last 18 months. In another Mr Bhatia is asked why it's simply just so shoddy.

I tested it too on Friday. I checked the blogs for any other review that went further than just repeating that the founder of Hotmail has a new startup in the VoIP space. I probably have a reputation for being scathing about new VoIP clients; particulatly those that don't match up to Skype. And I'd point out so far none do. Some provide some promise. Others remain a mystery. Tello is one. The beta (which I'm a member of is so closed I can't find another contact to make a call.) Still this was first about VoiFi.

If you can get VoiFi logged on you will have call quality that doesn't even compare with the worst cellphone call. Thus failing rull number one. You must at least match Skype on voice quality. (At this time I can think of 1/2 dozen clients that do.) At this stage in the maturation of this space I could spec out a better client in no time flat. So why such mediocrity is being launched I have absolutely no idea. The founder apparently has some money to burn. Still there are many better clients out there that have launched with much less fanfare and are more deserving. I've also raved about clones before and what it takes.

Reaching the blogwaves at the same time is the info that TelTel and Gizmo Project (passes the voice test) have received nice rounds of additional funding. So I did another test on TelTel. Last time I tried it the voice quality was at best PSTN standard. Maybe for their target market that is good enough. My tests again confirmed that TelTel's voice quality was inferior to Skype. Not on a large sample I'll admit. Still if you want me raving about it it better be at least on par with the first call.

What's the lesson?

Jean Mercier, Belgium Guest Blogger

I was trying to see if my friend Max (fictitious name) was online. And suddenly I had a big smile …
His status was offline with call forwarding enabled! And he has a Webcam!
So I told him, through the chat: “Hey Max, I know you are online, don’t pretend you aren’t”!
He asked worried: “How do you know?”.

Then I saw another friend, also offline (without call forwarding, the little grey symbol with the white cross) and … the webcam symbol visible, and asked her (it is a French woman) the same question. She was shocked!

Normally when you log off, the webcam symbol becomes unavailable. It is only shown when you want to show it, AND when you are online!

And here both did put their status in “invisible”, with webcam connected! And the webcam symbol appears. IT SHOULDN’T!!!! 

Clearly a bug in Skype, or to say it friendlier: this was overlooked by Skype Programmers!

The only thing surprising about this merger is its timing.

For family or business one PC handling 4 Skype Calls makes sense and can save a lot of dollars.

I have been doing some intensive testing the Skype2PBX or Skype to Office Phone Systems with my Skype buddies Neil Lindsey Skype ID neillindsey and Torben Nyhuus Skype ID torbennyhuus. The two most important tests:

1. How stable is is the architecture of running 4 concurrent Skype Clients on one PC?

2. Can four users with USB handsets or headsets speak concurrently with four different callers?

It turns out that our testing setup is a very useful setup for a micro or very small business or for families.

Lots of flexibility:
Skype Clients can be all the same user ID or all different or a mix somewhere in between.
Skype Groups will allow you to distribute SkypeOut credit and purchase SkypeIn numbers.
Add a VoSKY Internet Phone Wizard to replace one of the USB Handsets with Cordless phone interconnected to a regular telephone line. This gives you backup access to the public telephone network if SkypeOut fails or for 911 calls and fax.

Stable? In over three weeks of 24/7 use on both Intel P4 and AMD xp3000+ we never experienced a glitch running 4 or 5 Skype Clients on one PC.

Concurrent use of 4 USB handsets? No problem. Each must be from a different manufacturer or the USB system will have difficult (impossible) time identifying one device from another.

To have multiple Skype Clients running set up separate user accounts in Windows. You can do this in Control Panel. Give each account Computer Administrator rights and a password. Boot up Skype in each account using the "Run as.." command (Right click on the Skype short cut icon and select "Run as..")

Soon you will experience "Sharing is good"!

Jean Mercier, Belgium

One of the crazy things I do is following up the Skype Purchase Order numbers since the beginning of SkypeOut. Skype used a sequential numbering system. This has allowed me to make some wild guesses about the sales numbers of Skype.

Some days ago my wife made a purchase, and inputting the data to update my graph, I noticed a strange jump. Some friends (Bill, Adam, Luc and Matthew – thanks) provided me more data, and I could somehow conclude the jump was about 2.8 million “sudden” purchase orders somewhere between February 12 and February 18. See the “red portion” on the graph below:

So, what happened?

• Some testing of Skype Staff to see if their servers or software can handle huge amounts of purchases?
  
• A counting bug in the order number generation?
  
• Some hacker tried “something” around February 15?
  
• Something else?

To be honest, I have no explanation why. Skype staff probably knows what happened. If somebody made Skype purchases between February 12 and 18, I would be interested to receive their order number and date of purchase, thanks.

Some more comments about “Skype Orders” … the following list is a non-exclusive enumeration of “actions” that are counted as a Skype Order:

• SkypeOut credit purchases
  
• SkypeIn
  
• Skype VoiceMail
  
• Vouchers
  
• Aborted orders
  
• Allocation for Skype Groups
  
• Gift Certificates
  
• Free SkypeOut minutes
  
• Free testing of Skype Voicemail (in the past)

As we can see, orders like “aborted orders” or “free SkypeOut minutes” are not generating income, the last one is even “destroying” some income for Skype.

Good for Skype, orders seem to increase still exponentially!

Mr Marketing2.0, aka Johnnie Moore, has an interview with the “peer-to-peer banking” outfit Zopa. Their business model is, um, to put lenders and borrowers in touch. Just in a more “banking 2.0” manner, where people are treated as people and not account numbers.

These two notes quotes struck me as interesting:

4 40 Dave: Messaging has been important, so borrowers can leave a message for those who are lending to them. Some lenders love to get messages from borrowers, why they’re borrowing and how they’re using the money. Understanding the people behind the user name has been really interesting, a real talking point for our members.

5 47 Johnnie asks about the role of telephone sales people. Dave: Value of the role of talking to people on the phone, it’s been reassuring to members, they’ve made a real difference. Hearing a voice on the end of the phone has made a difference to people.

Today, your bank doesn’t appear in your IM client buddy list. I’d suggest that ten years from now, any bank that hasn’t figured out how to be there is going to be heading for the great debt collector in the sky. Getting access to people’s social and transactional network, even for short periods, is going to be big business. Anyone who captures a “hub” role here is going to make Google’s meteoric impact look minor.

Also, corporations clearly need to get personal and transparent. How about this for a first step. When you’ve got someone on hold, why not tell them “Why not go to phone.foo.com and see a webcam of our busy call centre? You can also enter your number and see where you are in the queue.” It’s the first step in adding “real presence” to the experience.

Next step: you’ll be able to see the person you get put through to. Suddenly, you really are the face of Citicorp or whoever. Being a customer service rep should be a rewarding, interpersonal high-contact job which tests your social skills. Today, we’ve got those people acting as transcription agents papering over the technology gaps between telephony, the Web and our inadequate public digital identity infrastructure.

We bank on Martin Geddes' Telepocalypse blog.

• The Skype life...
• Today was a Free Skype Day in the US and UK. Log in to your Skype.com account.
• Skype-a-celeb: bid on 10-minutes personal calls to Penelope Cruz, Melissa Etheridge,Matthew McConaughey, Maria Bello and others. While the auction, which ended tonight, is nothing new in fundraising, it's interesting that the only people who can bid are eBay users and the penalty is to install software before you can claim your prize. via 21talks, Jaanus.
• You know the Skype data API is mainstream when... [caution: mild adult content]
• The "Skype crouch" for laptops with built-in microphones
• Skype on FOX8 TV - Greensboro, North Carolina. Consumer awareness is the foundation for consumer activism.
• minor update to Skype for Windows : version 2.0.0.90. (SJ's sympathies to the Mac users still at 1.4)
• Sign up for an email alert for the Netgear Skype wifi phone's release.
• TellmeSkype is an unofficial blog for voice app developers.
• Voice 3.0 Politics:
• "Senator wants to ban 'fast lane' for Web." Call Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) to say Thank You. Wyden's Net Neutrality Bill (pdf).
• Comcast as pick pocket. Thread examined by Russell Shaw.
• AMD stuff:
• The Maxxuss hack, completely unofficial, of Skype's 5 person conference call limit. Yet again, this seems to be Skype Marketing listening to strategic partners instead of end users, evidence that it is intensely difficult to listen deeply to the final arbiters of your product's success when business is going so well.
• On Skype's being exclusive with Intel: "Excuse me while I look out for any flying pigs."
• The complete AMD Skype subpoena, a Russell Shaw exclusive.
• Not sure if I read things right, but has Skype ever said it will only support Intel dual-core processors in the future? It's one thing for Skype's marketing to announce a product; a long term policy is something else. 

I wouldn't normally blog on Skype staff changes, however Andy broke the news and I realised I had a couple of slides that telll a story and reflect the work that Kelly certainly was a key part of framing. As slides only date now seems like a good time to just put them out there. They simply tie back to every PR announcement made up to the time eBay purchased Skype. The data remains here on the Skype site.

Kelly Larabee, the PR queen who over the past few years did a incredible job building up Skype with the media, analysts and bloggers has left Skype as of today. VoIP Watch

Other startups would do well to take some learnings from the Skype example. I won't spell out all the learning here.

I have a great new add-in for weekend Skype experimenters. It will create a multiparty conference call with webcam images. Plus you can take it further and animate your Skype avatar for all your buddies with what ever video content you choose - live or prerecorded. I'm now waiting to be part of the first animated avatars multichat with 50 people. I'm also waiting to see it used for advertising videos and self promotion!. Lester similarly highlights it on his developers blog.

Time to play.

The first add-in you wil need to download is AVACON described here with video shots below. The second is SplitCam which will enable you to put whatever video content you want through the AVACON system. Here is the illustration of my Skype avatar live with a short video shot while walking with a Nokia N90. It's a boring video and changes every two seconds approx.

It works by changing the Skype™ AVATAR with captured video images of you. It is that simple. AVACON™ allows you to broadcast your captured video all the time, or use the privacy features that allows you to limit broadcasting to active calls only or you can just disable broadcasting totally. AVACON™ also come with a resizable Preview Window that allows you to view yourself during your setup. So Download the FREE Trial Version and have fun. Avacon

So how well does it work.
It does what I've suggested many times in the past. It utilizes the Skype profile picture to pass content to either buddies on your list or active callers only. Frankly it's pretty cool.

Immediate feedback on the product.

To kick off the new podcast series "The Future of Enterprise Communications" I have selected a company focused on delivering IP PBXs to the SMB market.

I spoke with Todd Landry - SVP at Sphere Communications about their 5th and latest release of their Sphericall IP PBX and the niche that he sees for this product. We also talked about the differences between Hosted SMB VoIP and IP PBX + SIP Trunking in the Enterprise.

We touched on Quality of Service and some of the features that the SMB market is looking for and expecting in a Voice and Data offering.

Todd-Landry-Sphere-IP-PBX.mp3

Subscribe to the Podcast

Todd joined Sphere in 2003 to lead product management, marketing and business development. Prior to Sphere, Mr. Landry launched carrier-class IP Telephony SoftSwitch and Media Gateway solutions as Vice President of Product Management at CommWorks Corporation (a subsidiary of 3Com Corporation). At CommWorks, Mr. Landry also established several OEMs and conducted strategic acquisitions. Prior to 3Com, he led the development and launch of the Total Control line of Internet access and wireless CDMA mobile data products as Vice President of Product Management at U.S. Robotics. Mr. Landry holds two U.S. patents related to IP telephony and mobile wireless data systems. Mr. Landry graduated from DeVry Institute of Technology and Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago, and has participated in several executive education initiatives including Northwestern University 's Kellogg Graduate School and University of Michigan 's School of Business Administration.

I had a question today. It seems simple enough. "Can you help me? I want to delete my first username because I have now a new one.I dont want two usernames" . So I bashed out the two minute reply. Here it is...

Hi,

Skype doesn't enable you to delete a name or account. Once created it is there forever; as far as I know. Still you don't need to worry about it. Just use the name you have now chosen and add your buddies to it and never log in again to the old one. The other one will be effectively forgotten. You could take some additional actions to "LOSE IT" so to speak.

If you have...
- buddies on it you could delete them.
- skypeout minutes on it you probably want to use them up as you can't transfer them from one buddy to another.
- if the profile is filled in you may want to delete all info..
- And if you are really wanting to try and lose it then change the email address on it to something that no one would ever find searching for you... unknown@hotmail.com probably works.
- then change your password to something completely random forget it and you will never be able to access any of it again.

That should do it.
..........................

Now the problem is many more people have created accounts and names on many of these systems that they would like back. However they created the name without a valid email account and forgot the password. Unfortunately they then tend to be gone forever.

In the choosing your "name" I'm a fan of real names. It may be hard if you are John Smith, still presenting your "real name" in the Full Name field in Skype just seems polite to me. Just remember that adding in a company name might later mean you want to change it all.

iSkoot: leaves me with many causes for worry. My recommendation is be very careful if you use this product. My conclusion is drawn after trying to contact iSkoot for followups and similarly trying to contact Skype security. I haven't received answers. from either party. This summarizes the last question I posed to Jacob Guedalia, CEO of iSkoot.

"I'd like to get some more information from you. I'm still worried about the security implications. As far as I can see you are logging me into a Skype client. I presume you are bridging the call with a SIP-to-Skype bridge. Thus a ping from my cellphone results in my ID being logged in while the phone also dials iSkoot's SIP (probably Asterisk) server. My inbound number identifies me and ties me in with my Skype account, which is bridged and now calling my requested buddy.

As of yesterday I had an IM from Jacob that said "the tech team is working on a response." How hard is the response? Are you logging me into a Skype client or not? Without additional information, my view is the passwords are a problem. If you have used iSkoot, change your Skype password. To complete the story...

I reported on iSkoot when they relaunched. Last Friday, Jacob Guedalia, CEO of iSkoot, called me and confirmed that your passwords are secure. I'd be happier if I had a security certification from Kurt Sauer head of Skype security. Still I thought I'd try it again. So I had it running on the background on my phone for a couple of days. It failed during this testing to provide any complete presence or buddylist information although it does allow you to quickly start making SkypeOut calls from your mobile. I continued experimenting by calling offline buddies, etc., with voicemail. While working, I've become increasingly uneasy and I believe so should you be if you have been trying it out.

I have no information from iSkoot to refute the following:

I believe iSkoot has created a database and is periodically refreshing your presence list by activating a Skype client temporarily ( by logging you in with your password) to refresh their database for you. Then when you make a call are you being logged into a Skype client to make that call. Thus in a call situation, the mobile application pings iskoot and initates a call to the iSkoot PBX. While the mobile is connecting to their PBX the PBX is being setup to connect to a Skype client they log in on your behalf. The delay is such that I believe this is likely. There is no desktop sofltware or application involved. Only a simple and nicely executed java client for your mobile. Thus, there is no requirment for you to be logged in on your PC for iSkoot to work. Unless Skype provides information that iSkoot has a deal to interconnect with their network (and what a deal that would be!) the above is the only way to connect to Skype.

If so I have the following questions.

• How do I know that the bridge from my cellphone to my Skype Client is secure?
• Is this a secure voice call?
• How do I know my buddylist is secure?
• How might iSkoot use my buddylist in the future?
• How do I know that iSkoot won't try to market itself using my ID? Example. Sends a chat message to my Skype buddy who I'm trying to call saying "Stuart Henshall is trying to connect with you from his mobile using iSkoot!"

• WHAT HAPPENS TO VOICE MAILS WHEN THEY LOG THIS CLIENT ON? A client downloads them whenever it is logged on.

• WHAT HAPPENS TO IM MESSAGES AND MULTICHATS? If they are using the client all those chats that should have got to you.. potentially went to iSkoot when it logged in. Will you ever get them?

Alternatively, has Skype enabled iSkoot to access the Skype network in a side deal? If so there are a number of us standing in line with some neat solutions. Providing this service is not hard under conditions where a switch can bridge to the Skype network. So I'm left wondering what the story is. Is Skype security involved? Does it need to be? In the meantime forget iSkoot and try out EQO which doesn't raise any of the questions posed here.

See also: iSkoot's End User License Agreement, Privacy Statement

terms from iskoot as at 022506

IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ CAREFULLY

Before reading the articles below, please review the following preliminary terms, which use some of the definitions as specified in Article 1 below.
Entering into this Agreement: This Beta End User License Agreement constitutes a valid and binding agreement between iSkoot and You, as a user, for the use of the iSkoot Software. You must enter into this Agreement by clicking on the ACCEPT button in order to be able to install and use the iSkoot Software. Furthermore, by installing and (continuously) using the iSkoot Software, You agree to be bound by the terms of this Agreement and any new versions hereof.
Electronic Signatures and Agreement(s): You acknowledge and agree that by clicking on the ACCEPT button or similar buttons or links as may be designated by iSkoot to show Your approval of this Agreement and/or to download and install the iSkoot Software, You are entering into a legal binding contract. You hereby agree to the use of electronic communication in order to enter into contracts, place orders and other records and to the electronic delivery of notices, policies and records of transactions initiated or completed through the iSkoot Software. Furthermore, You hereby waive any rights or requirements under any laws or regulations in any jurisdiction which require an original (non-electronic) signature or delivery or retention of non-electronic records, to the extent permitted under applicable mandatory law.
Beta Testing: You acknowledge that iSkoot is conducting beta testing for the iSkoot Software and You hereby agree to participate in such testing and to provide feedback, as may be appropriate, to iSkoot using the iSkoot Mobile Beta Testing Survey that is located on the iSkoot Website.
Internet Telephony and Data Services: You acknowledge and agree that the iSkoot Software alone will not enable You to initiate or maintain a Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) or other wireless, wired or internet-based telephone connection and that You are solely responsible for maintaining and adhering to all license terms with respect to (i) internet telephony and data services and related services with a company whose internet telephony and data services is supported at such time by iSkoot and (ii) mobile telephony service.
No Emergency Calls: By entering into this Agreement You acknowledge and agree that the iSkoot Software does not and does not intend to support or carry emergency calls. Please also see Article 7 below.
Jurisdiction’s Restrictions: If You are residing in a jurisdiction which restricts the use of Internet-based applications according to age, or which restricts the ability to enter into agreements such as this agreement according to age and You are under such a jurisdiction and under such age limit, You may not enter into this Agreement and download, install or use the iSkoot Software. Furthermore, if You are residing in a jurisdiction where it is forbidden by law to offer or use software for internet telephony, You may not enter into this Agreement and You may not download, install or use the iSkoot Software. By entering into this Agreement and using the iSkoot Software, You explicitly represent and warrant that You have verified that Your use of the iSkoot Software is allowed in Your own jurisdiction and You shall stop using the iSkoot Software in such jurisdiction if such use becomes illegal in such jurisdiction during the term.
ARTICLE 1. DEFINITIONS
In this Agreement the following capitalized definitions are being used, singular as well as plural.
1.1 Affiliate: any corporation, company or other entity that directly or indirectly controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with, iSkoot. For the purpose of this definition, the word “control” shall mean the direct or indirect ownership of more than fifty percent (50%) of the outstanding voting stock of the corporation, company, or other entity.
1.2 Agreement: this Beta End User License Agreement, as may be renewed, modified and/or amended from time to time.
1.3 Documentation: any online or otherwise enclosed documentation provided by iSkoot.
1.4 Effective Date: the date on which this Agreement is entered into by clicking on the ACCEPT button as stated above.
1.5 IP Rights: any and all intellectual property rights, including but not limited to copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets and patents, as well as know how contained in or relating to the iSkoot Software, the Documentation or the iSkoot Website.
1.6 iSkoot: iSkoot Inc. a Delaware corporation.
1.7 iSkoot Software: the software distributed by iSkoot for internet telephony applications, which is currently in beta form, including without limitation the iSkoot UI and Documentation, as well as any future programming fixes, updates and upgrades thereof.
1.8 iSkoot Staff: means the directors, officers, employees, agents, and contractors of iSkoot and its Affiliates.
1.9 iSkoot Website and WAP sites: the website accessible at the following URL http://www.iSkoot.com; the wap site accessible at the following URLs: go.iskoot.com and wap.iskoot.com or a successor address, from which site the iSkoot Software can be downloaded.
1.10 UI: the user interface of the iSkoot Software.
1.11 You: you, the end user of the iSkoot Software, also used in the form “Your” where applicable.
1.12 Internet telephony and data services: Any third party internet telephony and data services developed or distributed by a vendor of internet telephony and data connection services, such as Skype.
ARTICLE 2. LICENSE AND RESTRICTIONS
2.1 License. Subject to the terms of this Agreement, iSkoot hereby grants You a limited, personal, non-commercial (at home or at work), non-exclusive, non-sublicensable, non-assignable license to download, install and use the iSkoot Software on Your computer, mobile phone or PDA, for the sole purpose of personally using the internet telephony applications provided by iSkoot and any other applications that may be explicitly provided by iSkoot.
2.2 No Granting of Rights to Third Parties. You will not sell, assign, rent, lease, distribute, export, import, act as an intermediary or provider, or otherwise grant rights to third parties with regard to the iSkoot Software or any part thereof. 2.3 No Modifications. You will not undertake, cause, permit or authorize the modification, creation of derivative works, translation, reverse engineering, decompiling, disassembling or hacking of the iSkoot Software or any part thereof.
2.4 Third Parties. You acknowledge and agree that the iSkoot Software may incorporate software and other technology owned and controlled by third parties. iSkoot emphasizes that it will only incorporate such third party software or technology for the purpose of (a) adding new or additional functionality or (b) improving the technical performance of the iSkoot Software. Any such third party software or technology that is incorporated in the iSkoot Software falls under the scope of this Agreement. Any and all other third party software or technology that may be distributed together with the iSkoot Software will be subject to You explicitly accepting a license agreement with that third party. You acknowledge and agree that You will not enter into a contractual relationship with iSkoot or its Affiliates regarding such third party software or technology and You will look solely to the applicable third party and not to iSkoot or its Affiliates to enforce any of Your rights.
2.5 New Versions of the iSkoot Software. iSkoot, in its sole discretion, reserves the right to add additional features or functions, or to provide programming fixes, updates and upgrades, to the iSkoot Software. You acknowledge and agree that iSkoot has no obligation to make available to You any subsequent versions of the iSkoot Software. You also agree that You may have to enter into a renewed version of this Agreement, in the event You want to download, install or use a new version of the iSkoot Software, including without limitation any production version of the iSkoot Software currently offered in a beta version. Furthermore, You acknowledge and agree that iSkoot, in its sole discretion, may modify or discontinue or suspend Your ability to use any version of the iSkoot Software, or terminate any license hereunder, at any time, with immediate effect and without recourse to the courts. iSkoot also may suspend or terminate any license hereunder and disable any iSkoot Software You may already have accessed or installed without prior notice at any time with immediate effect and without recourse to the courts. iSkoot will not accept, and hereby disclaims, any liability in relation to the direct or indirect damages caused by (1) the release and/or the absence of release of new versions of the iSkoot Software and (2) by the suspension or termination of this Agreement by iSkoot and/or by You.
2.6 Paid Services. This Agreement applies to downloading, installing and using the iSkoot Software. The use of any paid services which may be offered by iSkoot or its Affiliates is subject to the additional Terms of Service that may be published from time to time on the iSkoot Website.
2.7 No Distribution/Incorporation of iSkoot Software. You are not allowed to distribute the iSkoot Software under this Agreement. You shall not incorporate the iSkoot Software in any product designed, developed, marketed, shared, sold or licensed by You or any third party, whether or not for any consideration.
2.8 Any other Exceptions. If You are interested in doing anything else with the iSkoot Software or Documentation other than is expressly permitted under this Agreement, You will have to obtain iSkoot’s previous written consent and explicitly agree upon any further (commercial) terms.
ARTICLE 3. PERMISSION TO UTILIZE YOUR COMPUTER, YOUR MOBILE PHONE AND YOUR SOFTWARE
3.1 Permission to Utilize Your Computer, Your Mobile Phone and Your Software. In order to receive the benefits provided by the iSkoot Software and for the limited purpose of facilitating the mobile wireless communication between You and Your Internet telephony and data services, You hereby grant permission to iSkoot to use the iSkoot Software to (i) utilize Your mobile phone or other device to which You have downloaded the iSkoot Software, and (ii) utilize Your Internet telephony and data services and Internet Telephony Account and account information.
3.2 Protection of Your Computer and Mobile Phone Data. You understand that iSkoot will use its reasonable efforts to protect the privacy and integrity of data, software and other resources stored on Your computer,Your mobile phone or other device to which You have downloaded the iSkoot Software; however, You acknowledge and agree that iSkoot cannot and does not give any warranties in this respect.
ARTICLE 4. ISKOOT'S CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION 4.1 iSkoot’s Confidential Information. You agree to take all reasonable steps at all times to protect and maintain as strictly confidential and not to use or disclose without iSkoot’s permission any confidential information regarding iSkoot, its Affiliates, the iSkoot Software and the IP Rights.
4.2 Your Confidential Information and Your Privacy. iSkoot is committed to respecting Your privacy and the confidentiality of Your personal data. The “Privacy Policy” that is published on the iSkoot Website applies to the use of Your personal data, the traffic data as well as the content contained in Your communication(s).
ARTICLE 5. BETA TESTING
5.1 Evaluation. In exchange for the license granted herein, You agree that You will not receive any additional consideration or compensation, nor shall You retain any proprietary claim, as a result of Your evaluation of the iSkoot Software or for Your completion of the iSkoot Mobile Beta Testing Survey. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THE ISKOOT SOFTWARE MAY CONTAIN VARIOUS DISABLEMENT AND OR TIME-OUT FEATURES THAT MAY BE ACTIVATED BY ISKOOT AT ANY TIME.
ARTICLE 6. IP RIGHTS
6.1 Exclusive Ownership. You acknowledge and agree that any and all IP Rights to or arising from the iSkoot Software are and shall remain the exclusive property of iSkoot and/or its licensors. Nothing in this Agreement intends to transfer any such IP Rights to, or to vest any such IP Rights in, You. You are only entitled to the limited use of the IP Rights granted to You in this Agreement. You will not take any action to jeopardize, limit or interfere with the IP Rights. You acknowledge and agree that any unauthorized use of the IP Rights is a violation of this Agreement as well as a violation of intellectual property laws, which may include without limitation copyright laws and trademark laws.
6.2 Feedback. Feedback consists of any of Your suggestions, comments or other feedback whether it is required or provided on a voluntary basis, relating to the iSkoot Software (“Feedback”). If you provide iSkoot with any Feedback, as required or on a voluntary basis, as part of the Beta Test for the iSkoot Software, You agree that: (a) iSkoot may freely use, disclose, reproduce, license, distribute and other commercialize the Feedback in any iSkoot product, specifications, or other documentation; (b) You also grant third parties, without charge, only those patent rights necessary to enable their products to use or interface with any specific parts of a iSkoot product that incorporate the Feedback; and (c) You will not give iSkoot any Feedback (1) that You have reason to believe is subject to any patent, copyright, or other intellectual property claim or right of any third party; or (2) that is subject to license terms that seek to require any iSkoot product incorporating or derived from any Feedback, or other iSkoot intellectual property, to be licensed to or otherwise shared with any third party.
6.3 No Removal of Notices. You agree that You will not remove, obscure, make illegible or alter any notices or indications of the IP Rights and/or iSkoot’s rights and ownership thereof, whether such notice or indications are affixed on, contained in or otherwise connected to such materials.
ARTICLE 7. COMMUNICATION AND YOUR USE OF THE ISKOOT SOFTWARE
7.1 Communication. Installing iSkoot Software is designed to enable You to communicate with supported Internet telephony and data services on Your mobile phone. iSkoot will maintain and update from time to time on the iSkoot Website a list of supported Internet telephony and data services.
7.2 Disruptions, Delays and Interruptions. iSkoot cannot guarantee that You will always be able to communicate with Your Internet telephony and data services or other Internet telephony and data services users, nor can iSkoot guarantee that You can communicate without disruptions, delays or other communication-related flaws. iSkoot will not be liable and hereby disclaims all liability for any such disruptions, delays or other omissions in any communication experienced when using iSkoot Software.
7.3 No Control. You acknowledge and understand that iSkoot does not control, or have any knowledge of, the content of any communication(s) spread by the use of the iSkoot Software. The content of the communication is entirely the responsibility of the person from whom such content originated. You, therefore, may be exposed to content that is offensive, indecent or otherwise objectionable. iSkoot will not be liable and hereby disclaims all liability for any type of communication spread by means of the iSkoot Software.
7.4 No Emergency Services. You expressly agree and understand that the iSkoot Software is not intended to support or carry emergency calls to any type of hospital, law enforcement agency, medical care unit or any other kind of emergency service. iSkoot, its Affiliates or iSkoot Staff are in no way liable and hereby disclaim all liability for such emergency calls.
7.5 Lawful Purposes. You acknowledge and agree to use the iSkoot Software solely for lawful purposes. In this respect You may not, without limitation (a) intercept or monitor, damage or modify any communication which is not intended for You, (b) use any type of spider, virus, worm, trojan-horse, time bomb or any other codes or instructions that are designed to distort, delete, damage or disassemble the iSkoot Software or the communication, or (c) send any unsolicited commercial communication not permitted by applicable law.
ARTICLE 8. TERM AND (CONSEQUENCES OF) TERMINATION
8.1 Term. This Agreement will be effective as of the Effective Date and will remain effective until terminated by either iSkoot or You as set forth below.
8.2 Termination by iSkoot. iSkoot may terminate this Agreement with immediate effect at any time, with or without cause and without recourse to courts, by providing notice to You and/or by preventing Your access to the iSkoot Software, as set forth in Article 2.5 above.
8.3 Termination by You. You may terminate this Agreement with immediate effect at any time, with or without cause and without recourse to the courts, provided that You meet with the conditions as set forth in Article 8.4 below.
8.4 Consequences of Termination. Upon termination of this Agreement, You (a) acknowledge and agree that all licenses and rights to use the iSkoot Software shall terminate, and (b) will cease any and all use of the iSkoot Software, and (c) will remove the iSkoot Software from all hard drives, networks, mobile phone and other storage media and destroy all copies of the iSkoot Software in Your possession or under Your control.
8.5 No Liability. iSkoot will not be liable in relation to, and hereby disclaims all liability for, any direct, indirect, incidental, special or consequential damage caused by the termination of this Agreement.
ARTICLE 9. YOUR REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES; INDEMNIFICATION OF ISKOOT 9.1 Representations. You represent and warrant that You are authorized to enter into this Agreement and comply with its terms. Furthermore, You represent and warrant that You will at any and all times comply with Your obligations hereunder, as well as any and all laws, regulations and policies that may apply to the use of the iSkoot Software. 9.2 Indemnification. You agree to indemnify, defend and hold iSkoot, its Affiliates and the iSkoot Staff harmless from and against any and all liability and costs, including reasonable attorneys’ fees incurred by said parties, in connection with or arising out of Your (a) violation or breach of any term of this Agreement or any applicable law, regulation, policy or guideline, whether or not referenced herein, or (b) violation of any rights of any third party, or (c) use or misuse of the iSkoot Software, or (d) communication spread by means of the iSkoot Software.
ARTICLE 10. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES
10.1 No Warranties. THE ISKOOT SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITH NO WARRANTIES WHATSOEVER AND ISKOOT DOES NOT MAKE ANY WARRANTIES, CLAIMS OR REPRESENTATIONS WITH RESPECT TO THE ISKOOT SOFTWARE EITHER EXPRESSED, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF QUALITY, PERFORMANCE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR USE OR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. ISKOOT FURTHER DOES NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT THE ISKOOT SOFTWARE WILL ALWAYS BE AVAILABLE, ACCESSIBLE, UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE, ACCURATE, COMPLETE AND ERROR/BUG-FREE OR WILL OPERATE WITHOUT PACKET LOSS, NOR DOES ISKOOT WARRANT ANY CONNECTION TO OR TRANSMISSION FROM ANY WIRELESS NETWORK OR THE INTERNET, OR ANY QUALITY OF CALLS MADE THROUGH THE ISKOOT SOFTWARE.
10.2 Your Own Risk. You acknowledge that the iSkoot Software is a beta product and has not been tested in the public market and may contain bugs or defects. You further acknowledge and agree that the entire risk arising out of the use or performance of the iSkoot Software remains with You, to the maximum extent permitted by law. You shall have the sole responsibility for adequate protection and back-up of any data used, created, received, or transmitted in connection with the testing of the iSkoot Software.
10.3 Jurisdiction’s Limitations. As some jurisdictions do not allow some of the exclusions or limitations as set forth above, some of these exclusions or limitations may not apply to You.
ARTICLE 11. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY
11.1 No Liability. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT ISKOOT, ITS AFFILIATES AND THE ISKOOT STAFF WILL HAVE NO LIABILITY IN CONNECTION WITH OR ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE ISKOOT SOFTWARE. IN NO EVENT SHALL ISKOOT, ITS AFFILIATES OR THE ISKOOT STAFF BE LIABLE, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, WARRANTY, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), PRODUCT LIABILITY OR ANY OTHER FORM OF LIABILITY, FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY LOSS OF DATA, INTERRUPTION, COMPUTER FAILURE OR PECUNIARY LOSS) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OF OR INABILITY TO USE THE ISKOOT SOFTWARE, WHETHER OR NOT FORESEEABLE, EVEN IF ISKOOT, ITS AFFILIATES OR THE ISKOOT STAFF HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
11.2 Remedy. YOUR ONLY RIGHT OR REMEDY WITH RESPECT TO ANY PROBLEMS OR DISSATISFACTION WITH THE ISKOOT SOFTWARE IS TO DEINSTALL AND CEASE USE OF SUCH ISKOOT SOFTWARE.
11.3 Jurisdiction’s Limitations. As some jurisdictions do not allow some of the exclusions or limitations as set forth above, some of these exclusions or limitations may not apply to You.
ARTICLE 12. GENERAL PROVISIONS
12.1 Survival. Articles 2.2, 2.3, 2.7, 4, 6, 8.4, 8.5, 9, 10, 11 and 12 shall survive termination or expiration of this Agreement.
12.2 New Versions of the Agreement. iSkoot reserves the right to modify this Agreement at any time by providing such revised Agreement to You or by publishing the revised Agreement on the iSkoot Website. Your continued use of the iSkoot Software shall constitute Your acceptance to be bound by the terms and conditions of the revised Agreement.
12.3 Entire Agreement. The terms and conditions of this Agreement constitute the entire agreement between You and iSkoot with respect to the subject matter hereof and will supersede and replace all prior understandings and agreements, in whatever form, regarding the subject matter.
12.4 Partial Invalidity. Should any term or provision hereof be deemed invalid, void or enforceable either in its entirety or in a particular application, the remainder of this Agreement shall nonetheless remain in full force and effect.
12.5 No Waiver. The failure of iSkoot at any time or times to require performance of any provisions hereof shall in no manner affect its right at a later time to enforce the same unless the same is explicitly waived in writing and signed by iSkoot.
12.6 No Assignment by You. You are not allowed to assign this Agreement or any rights hereunder.
12.7 Assignment by iSkoot. iSkoot is allowed to at its sole discretion assign this Agreement or any rights hereunder to any third party, without giving prior notice.
12.8 Applicable Law. This Agreement shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, U.S.A. without giving effect to the conflict of laws provisions thereof, regardless of Your actual state or country of residence.
12.9 Competent Court. Any legal proceedings arising out of or relating to this Agreement will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, U.S.A.

YOU EXPRESSLY ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ THIS AGREEMENT AND UNDERSTAND THE RIGHTS, OBLIGATIONS, TERMS AND CONDITIONS SET FORTH HEREIN. BY CLICKING ON THE ACCEPT BUTTON AND/OR CONTINUING TO INSTALL THE ISKOOT SOFTWARE, YOU EXPRESSLY CONSENT TO BE BOUND BY THE FOREGOING TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND GRANT TO ISKOOT THE RIGHTS SET FORTH HEREIN.
© 2006 iSkoot Inc.

Timbuktu by Netopia is one of the real serious professional IT manager’s friends. It allows them to remotely access PC’s and Mac’s (cross-platform) around the world, fix them, upgrade them etc. Still sometimes it would be nice it you didn’t need all that “tunneling and firewall management” that scares off the less technically inclined. Particularly in remote locations and where you need an easy way to set it up.

Timbuktu saw Skype and asked themselves if they could simplify remote access between users PC’s. At the same time could they actually add to the security already inherent in the product and get something more. They have found 1) an added security angle, and 2) simplifying integrated communications with Skype, 3) adding presence info to a remote management app.

Richard Baker and Evan Robertson took me through an online demo. It was the security factor when used with Skype that really impressed me with this version of Timbuktu Pro. Then the ability for it to work across platform is a big plus for many IT managers. Then if you are required to keep people up and running around the world what system can you use that doesn’t go via some central server (eg Go to My PC.)?

Timbuktu Pro on my desktop with Skype Tab.  Link to their info page.

Timbuktu Pro enables you to share desktops, enable remote access, exchange files etc. If you have it on your home machine and work machines then you can remotely access your PC and even ensure that the screen stays blank and the keyboard is locked while you do it. Note this does require it to be installed on both PC’s.

So how do they use Skype in the mix?

Thus this is one of the first Skype Ap2Ap solutions I’ve seen that is really using the benefits of connecting via Skype. Timbuktu connects via Skype API and then manages the data connection the same way that Skype manages File transfers. Thus all encrypted.

This is a key point for an IT manager is there is no man in the middle. I had just this query the other day when a reader who was looking at installing Skype was interested in Unyte as a potential remote management solution. From his perspective the screen sharing and remote control capability wasn’t secure enough. It might be okay to get someone up and running but they were interested in something much more secure.

With Skype and then Timbuktu installed it then immediately loaded my buddies and I right clicked on my new Timbuktu buddy Richard to start sharing. The screen loaded, not instantaneously, with a slight delay. He was on a Wi-Fi connection while mine is a cable modem. I watched him load presentation etc. .I also watched him remotely access his other PC which I got a look at too. 

Richard's desktop with blurring added to the screen capture.

Thus it passed the initial tests. I plan on testing it further with Bill and we may make some comparisons with some of the other sharing apps on synch speeds.

There is also a wonderful viral Marketing lesson in this too for Timbuktu sucks in all your contacts and identifies which one already have Timbuktu. Thus there is power in the network. Skype could learn from this in terms of developing their plug-in architecture. It is certainly important for programs that become more valuable as others install it. Plus if  you are designing a gaming Ap2Ap solution then you should pay some attention to this solution.

Summary, so what do I see? I see a great way to access my home PC from my laptop when on the road. I’m not the IT manager despite what my kids think. You must log in with different Skype accounts to make the connection. However then it is ready to go. That’s my next line of testing and it will give me the opportunity to see what it is like to work with over time.

While clearly a professional grade product which I’m sure many IT managers already use the addition of Skype provides increased functionality and a new option for securely managing a network.  I think it may also provide some IT managers with an incentive to rethink their policies on Skype. Certainly gives them a new way to test it out and add some remote management features.

Great work Timbuktu!

While this product is not Skype certified I don’t see that as a problem. In fact many products will emerge like this that simply aren’t presented for certification. Timbuktu certainly won’t want to start paying a royalty on all their products.

I’d also suggest this product could spur Netopia on to a range of products that till now were perhaps out of the question and not part of their market focus. These might include:

1) A Skype product that strips out some of the features, Just basic set for Skype only use.

2) What they’ve begun to master in the Skype contact list management and the secure Ap2Ap utilization could extent to other applications. Web conferencing would be but one example.

Thanks Netopia for adding to my list of Skype case studies and examples on why every company should be thinking about both their VoIP and Skype strategies.

 See the full PR Release

Intel and Skype in hot water?
AMD is also curious about this and has now subpoenaed Skype as part of their ongoing anti-trust case against Intel. AMD claims that there's no reason Skype's software shouldn't be fully featured on its own chips and says Intel is using its monopoly position to hinder competition. But what's the reason for Skype/eBay? Reader Simon suggests that that "despite their celebrated number of downloads, perhaps growth isn't what they expected, and they are desperate to claw back some of that huge price tag in the form of Intel marketing dollars." Intel denies that there was any financial incentives at all. Either way, when you find out that a simple chat program needs dual-core chips, it makes you wonder just what is going on under the covers. Techdirt

One of the great things about our SF office is that it's like three blocks from the Giant's ballpark. Spring training seems to be full swing. They'll be changing the signs soon.

Apple's "digital living room" follows the money of passive media consumption (iPods and iTunes) instead of Apple's traditional role of enabling expression through content creation. We spend more time reading than writing, listening to radio than podcasting, watching TV than shooting and producing video. So Apple's just following human behavior, and the money.

I'm disappointed, though. I've always prized the culture of the Mac for emphasizing creativity, artistry, action and collaboration, at work, school, public service and the arts. That spirit attracted me to blogging in 1998 and to Skype in 2003. Giving people tools to express themselves and to connect with one another ennobles us all. It decentralizes power and makes our world civilization less fragile.

As Apple conditions the channel surfing reflexes of iPodders, are we losing something?

I'm a fan of the Get Human consumer movement. You should be too. Should computers answer your company's support lines? Get Human advocates returning the choice about whether to talk to a person or a machine back in the hands of your customers. Power is more decentralized in our support economy and enterprise telecom planners can help call centers ride that wave.

One way is to support the many channels people use (prefer, choose) to converse. Skype is one way. Are you able to take customer sales and customer service calls from Skype users?

A quick FAQ:

Q. Are enough people using consumer VoIP to make this worthwhile?

A. About 70 million Skypers use Skype for voice calls, according to the company. This number is concentrated among those with access to broadband and all of them are regular computer users. Watch this number grow in the United States and Canada as eBay introduces Skype to its largely North American customers. (19 billion minutes served)

Q. I have my phone system integrated with call center software. Will Skype work with it?

A. I haven't looked at your system, but there's every reason to believe it could. Skype's desktop API tells programmers how to do things like tell Skype to answer a call, make one, record it, lookup a contact, pass caller-ID to another program, etc. Because Skype is multimodal (chat, voice, video) Skype has excellent logs.

Q. We're a financial institution and are nuts about security. Can we Skype?

A. So is Skype, and every conversation is encrypted end-to-end. That's more than you can say for regular phones, email, fax or any other system you use now to talk with your customers. And it is automatic, in the background, and painless.  

Q. Can many people answer one Skype number?

A. Yes, but it can be a little tricky. Until Skype introduces their business products you'll have to engineer to make it work.  

Q. Skypeskypeskypeskype. What about all the other products out there?

A. Skype is not just best of breed today, it is the one with the largest number of voice users (the driving factor) and the most sophisticated tools for programmers (the necessary condition). That may change: Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, and AOL have strong product teams working hard to catch up. Today, you can't beat Skype for customer-facing applications.   

Q. How will people know to call our Skype number? 

A. Tell them.

• People can click from your web page into a call to the right department using Skype html tags and web buttons.
• Describe your customer service office in your Skype profile, so people find you when they search the Skype directory.
• Put your customer service Skype name in your marketing collateral just the way you added email addresses and web sites in the 1990s.
• Create a Skype download page for your customers, supporting their ability to talk with you and each other. 

Millions of small business people use Skype to stay in touch with customers, clients, colleagues, and other partners. It's simple.

Bigger teams will want the corporate IT touch. Professional call center integration will include identity management, enterprise directory integration, access control, presence syndication, user provisioning, automation of SkypeIn and SkypeOut credit procurement, call accounting and log analysis, software configuration, not to mention validating new capabilities against your corporate HR, security, privacy, and other compliance policies.

Despite the potential complexities, I've seen a team deploy a SkypeIn number, roll-out the software, write simple procedures, and staff it 24/7 in one day. Your milage may vary.

That the Conversation 3.0 and the Get Human revolutions are happening at the same time is no coincidence. Both empower individuals to take control of their conversations, their relationships, their time, and their money. I can't think of a better time to step up to a pilot project.   

Note: this is an area where the Skype Journal consulting team provides professional services. The tone came off as more salesy and evangelical than I intended, but it's on point, I think.

We were actually going to hold off on announcing this for awhile but we're a bit too psyched about the idea to wait for the backhaul. We're starting a telecom hot sheet blog!

How to get an article published on News.com: declare the death of something.

Old news but worth noting. SIPphone pulled in $6 Mil from Dawntreader Ventures. The money will be used "to expand their SIP standard service to non-PC devices such as adapters, routers, WiFi handsets and dual mode mobile phones."

Ether closed beta launched today with the promise that you can earn money selling what you say. Ether provides a phone number from which you can set your availablity and only rings when people are prepared to talk to you. From $ and cents per minute up to hourly rates. The detailed "How it works!" spells out the important details like commissions (10% beta, 15% planned). The same payment system lets you charge for other content or advice by email.

Where will Ether turn up? Reading the pages of their new website I think they are hoping on blogs and around other professional services. Perhaps we will see it on Craigslist or even eBay? What's missing? I think both a community and the ability to tag your experiences. There is no profiling capability here. I can see an easy RSS set of feeds that could be created based on tags that highlight who is available and topic. Every new flash of availablity would update the RSS feed.

The Ether Founders are actually Ingenio, (about) which has successfully run the Keen site for many years. I've copied Scott Farber's vision in below. Probably worth reading his story. Go to Ether to find out more.

Ether's vision as written by Scott Farber:

The Past Ten Years: Empowered Individuals A decade ago something amazing happened: ordinary people were handed tools that allowed them to "bypass the middleman" and go into business for themselves online. Ten years and one e-commerce revolution later, more than a half-million people now make their living by selling "things" on the web – everything from baseball cards to diamond rings to that rusty trumpet in the attic. For the first time in human history, a carpet weaver in Honduras can now sell her wares directly to a home-owner in New Hampshire.

So why can't a business accountant in New Hampshire sell his knowledge directly to that newly prosperous Honduran carpet weaver? What about the things we have to say; the wisdom, advice, and insights all of us have accumulated over a lifetime? The surge of blogging over the past few years – over 50 million blogs, a new one created every second – has revealed a vast pool of expression and knowledge that for the most part has yet to find a proper commercial outlet. The sale of insights and expertise – the service economy – is actually bigger than the physical-goods market. So why haven't we yet seen it blossom online?

The answer is that the tools to sell services online are more complex than the tools to sell things. To deliver computer help, tax advice, diet tips or wine recommendations, you have to talk with your customers, which still isn't so easy over the Web. You could put your phone number online, but then you'd get calls at all hours from all kinds of people, some with no intention of paying you, and you'd lack the ability to easily collect payment even from real customers. Ideally there'd be a way to only receive calls from paying customers during the hours you choose, with a billing system that automatically collects payment for the time you spend talking.
Enter Ether
Ether is the key to the next step in online commerce. Using a seamless combination of the web and the telephone, we enable anyone with something valuable to say to sell their services online. Most importantly, Ether provides a phone number with a rate you can set for people to pay to talk to you. Your phone only rings when you're earning money, and only during the hours you choose. Ether also provides all the online tools you need to sell your digital content – written documents, photographs, tax returns, videos, podcasts. Anyone can now sell what they have to say – on their website, blog, business card, radio show, or wherever customers for their services may be found.
The Next Ten Years: Alive and Aloud
What will the online services economy look like? If the past is any guide, people will use our tools to sell pretty much everything. Geeks will sell computer help from their dorm rooms for $20 per phone call. Specialty bloggers will sell in-depth reports for $50 per document. Nutritionists will counsel distant clients for $80 per 50-minute phone session. The web will come alive and aloud, with anyone who has something valuable to say able to sell it to the person in the world who most needs it right now.

And since, unlike physical goods, services can be transmitted digitally, knowledge can and will be bought and sold by buyers and sellers on opposite sides of the world. A Manhattan therapist working in the morning will counsel an Australian housewife who's having an anxiety attack in the middle of the night. A Bangladeshi math major will tutor a London schoolchild. And yes, that New Hampshire accountant will help balance the books of that newly prosperous Honduran carpet-weaver – though they might need to conference in a Spanish-English translator for 25 cents per minute.

And Ether's current offerings are just the first step – the tools we offer to sell what you say will only get better. Soon you'll have video tools to offer face-to-face conversations. You'll even be able to service many people at a time. A motivational speaker could offer a lecture to 100 people at once. A tour guide in China could take Chicago schoolkids on a video tour of the Great Wall, and they could direct him where to walk: "Look up to the left and zoom in on that tower." Who wants to give a one-minute pep talk to that Red Sox pitcher between the eighth and ninth innings? Announce it before the commercial break and hold an instant online charity auction to determine which superfan's phone will ring.
It's About Time
In this emerging world of online services, the key drivers become intellectual capital – what you have to say – and time. At the end of the day, time seems to be the most valuable "thing" of them all. Finally there's a way to value it – literally. You can sell it when you want and any which way you want: one-to-one, one-to-many, one-to-the-highest-bidder, even in recorded form. Where you're from or who you know won't matter – just what you know. A master carpenter retired in Florida will be able to monetize decades of wisdom by offering house-building advice whenever the phone rings – and do so from his fishing boat in Key Biscayne. You can be a parent at home with three kids and still offer what you have to say. And it'll be judged not by your boss but by your customers, because you'll be, after all, your own boss.

So what do you say? Offer it out into the ether.

Scott Faber
Creator, Ether

I'm passing along a friend's request. Contact me if you have other gigs that need talent and I'll do the same for you.

I’ve got a bit of a running gag with my little brother. (OK, he’s taller than me, and officially old, but still my little brother.) We both spend a lot of time in airports. Airports are boring. Cell minutes are cheap. Often one of us will get a call from ‘tother, which always begins: “You’ll never guess where I am”. The answer is, 80% of the time, just off the corridor in the domestic lounges at Heathrow Terminal 1.

Incidentally, growing up two miles from Heathrow gives you a totally distorted view of the world. Your isochrone map looks different to everyone else’s. Twelve hours’ journey from your front door lets you visit half of humanity, give or take. Allow me a day, and where in the world did you say you wanted to meet? (OK, it took 30 hours to here, and two weeks’ walk to there, but you get the idea.) I can only imagine folk who grew up in other “crossroads of the world” like Dubai or New York quite understanding what I’m on about, and what a shock it is to have to get one of these strange “connecting flight” thingies. (Seriously, I’d been flying for two decades before experiencing one.)

Anyhow, one day a few years back my brother was picking me up at LHR. Arrangements were deliberately fuzzy — I think I was in fact arriving by land. Ignore the planes — Heathrow has all the bus and tube connections you need, too, for local transport. (Look, you might think Heathrow is a random mess of soulless buildings accumulated over 5 decades, but to us Staines folk, there’s No Place Like Home). So I’m standing there, under the yellow “Arrivals” sign, yakking to him on my mobile.

“Where are you?”.

“Under the yellow Arrivals sign.”

“Well, I can’t see you!”

“At the far end of the terminal — same end as the BA Domestic Check-In, right?”

“Yes — outside the lifts down to the Heathrow Express.”

“Well, I still can’t see you.”

The reason? I’m upstairs, outside domestic arrivals. He’s 5 metres below me, downstairs in international arrivals.

Naturally, there’s a lesson out of all this for telcoland. People use their mobile phones to rendezvous. A lot. I used to walk around the vast Sprint campus, huffing and puffing and always calling ahead so say I’d be a wee bit late to the next meeting, owing to having left my hyperspace kit at home.

Yet our mobile phones are locked into the “phones” mindset. They aren’t adapting to the things that people are actually doing: the user’s actual goal. I’m not phoning my brother, I’m meeting him.

One thing that struck me when at Sprint was that phone calls made up the vasy bulk of the company’s revenue. Yet getting people to make more and better calls wasn’t on the strategic radar. We didn’t even have any idea as to what people were really calling each other about! Everything was focused on Java downloads and minor stuff. Yet I suspect a huge proportion of “calls” are actually one of two things: manually-exchanged presence messages, and physical rendezvous.

“I’ll be home in about three hours, honey!”

Which, if you live close to Heathrow, means you’re somewhere within about 1000 miles.

Read Martin's distorted view of the world at Telepocalypse.

Here's three Skype products that aim to enhance your Skypeing experience that leaves me questioning exactly what I'm buying with Skype Certified. The three products are the VoSky Chatterbox, Jawbone Headset and the Motorola Wireless Interenet Calling Kit. Each provide a different angle on bettering the standard Skyper's headset and as you might expect each has their pro's and con's.

VoSky Chatterbox.

This simple USB device provides an easily portable plug and play speakerphone for Skype. It's simple to use and requires no additional software to be loaded. It has a volume and mute button on top and works probably as expected, as a low cost speakerphone. I'd liken it to the solution we had as kids when we could finally plug in a speakerphone box between the old phone and the whole family sat around. In principle great, in practice it left something to be desired. The Chatterbox is a little like this. It works. It's also no substitute for a decent headset. The caller on the other end of the line will know and possibly complain. Handsfree solutions curently work better with a good set of speakers and a proper stand mic. Locate them correctly and the caller won't get a any feedback. Many laptops work as good as the Chatterbox. If you feel the need try it. Just don't expect it to be a Polycom and ready for the office. For kids it may be more robust than a headset - read youngsters talking to Grandma.

Jawbone

This product was hyped at CES, looks cool and paged ready for the Apple Store if you ask me. Still the Jawbone comes with a big claim. "Its intelligent system of sensors, softrware, and ergonomic features allows it to accurately identify your speech while adapting to background noise so that you can hear and be heard, like never before." Unfortunately, those I called on it from my home office without a lot of background noise all asked me to return to my nomal headset (A cheapo Plantronics). The Jawbone has a button that rests against your cheek, you don't feel this, it just has to be touching for it to perform well. The design, like the box and the enclosed pocket case looks really cool. Semi-clear cables and brushed steel look to the earpiece and the switch unit do make a statement. It's big enough that it might be noticed. That is if you want to be seen.

Still I found it uncomfortable in my ear, and I was not alone. The single earpiece doesn't effectively replace the standard dual muff headset for sound quality. I'd also have to look at the basic design a little more carefully. The cord is generally rather short. This seems made and designed for the laptop user. Certainly don't buy it for a desktop unless you can plug it into the front or have some extension cords. You need a USB and the audio / mic ports for it to work. Strangely, given its apparent design for a laptop I found the switch unit to be too far from the earpiece to clip on comfortably and too far away from the laptop to just sit on the desk with it. So for a product that promises a lot I'm afraid it fails to deliver any more than Skype's own dual plugs earpiece dongle. Which, while cheap, is something every travelling Skyper should carry in their bag as a spare backup.

Motorola HK-500 & Dongle.
The third in this range of products. Bluetooth headsets have become light weight, and increasingly commonplace with cellphone users. This Motorola package is their first for a Skype bundled bluetooth headset. Still opening the box and putting it to use on my laptop taught me a a few things. Now my laptop already had bluetooth installed with a Belkin adaptor. So I tested out the HK-500 like that at first. Then I thought let's try the Motorola dongle. There is no warning in the package about what to do if you already have bluetooth installed. I followed the directions, it removed my Belkin drivers, and installed the Motorola dongle which only provides a headset gateway. So the dongle definitely wasn't a replacement. After that I restored my PC back to the previous settings. There is nothing wrong with the bluetooth dongle. Just make sure you really need it before installing.

So how's the headset work. The HK-500 has just a few external buttons. Holding down the main talk button for 10 seconds enables the pairing process to begin. Once set up it is ready to go. You can't use any of the advanced features incorporated in the earpiece like you might on a mobile phone (eg press button to answer) as there is no software to connect to the Skype API incorporated. This seems a little short-sighted to me. A bluetooth experience comes with pressing the button to answer. This product still requires you to answer the calls on Skype. Similarly if you were using some other device you must first point Skype's audio setting to the Bluetooth headset for it to work.

Then we have the sound test. Again my buddies can tell when I'm talking on bluetooth. I can't tell you how much I enjoy the lightweight, no wires capability to wander off and make coffee and talk at the same time. Still your caller may hear the difference. Ultimately I'm not sure if this is because these headsets are really tuned to mobile phones, narrow band audio and their usage environment . If so bluetooth in this format is doing a disservice to Skype.

One other comment on this bluetooth headset. I have a Motorola HK-810 bluetooth headset where the microphone boom folds over to turn it off. It's marginally heavier than the HK-500. I shove it in my pocket all the time. So naturally I took the HK-500 out to try with my mobile phone. I went into a meeting and then half way through the meeting my phone started talking. Now my Nokia N70 has voice activated dialing. I must have inadvertently pressed the on button twice while in my pocket or brushing against something. It was a weird and scary experience being in a meeitng when your phone goes off on what sounded like a loudspeaker. With that I'd look very carefully at how you turn your bluetooth headset off and on. It needs to be quick. Still it can't be unexpected. I think the pocket is a natural repository for these types of items.

Thus we have audio solutions tested here that frame a range of newly certified Skype products. All of them in my experience result in an audio experience worse than with a reasonalble fully wired headset with boom mic. Thus while handsfree, sexy looks and simple wireless may be very attrractive how you sound to the other person still matters. Often you are selling yourself when on the phone. I'm not convinced any of these solutions will put your best voice forward.

Separately, none of these devices really adds to the multi-modal way in which many of us use or want to use Skype. The most popular devices after the headset are the handset. In many cases they too compromise voice quality. The difference is the better ones are more integrated with Skype and provide a different and perhaps for many of us more comfortable user experience. Eg Cordless handset out by the pool.

Three Questions:
1. Should Skype certify products that result in lower quality audio experiences?
2. What does Skype certified mean when none of these tested devices actually manage or interact with Skype in anyway? Do any of them make the experience smarter? All require you to change the audio settings to connect. None of this is automatic.
3. What specs should Skype be driving for? What will provide really innovative new experiences? To this last question I think the suppliers will listen. So far most are playing a catch up game. They don't have enough experience with Skype to really think through how to enhance it.

In the meantime we have some products carrying "Skype Certified" that aren't exactly earth shattering. It's a tough call in the end. Skype needs more products; they take time to develop and it's still a relatively small market. Still even volumes in the 10's of 1000's is enough to make it attractive.

I'm seeing many more interesting products in the mobile space. Then I'm also trying out a Nokia 70 now having tearfully abandoned an Nokia N90 a couple of weeks ago. More about that here soon! So the round up on Yahoo! Go, Shozu, iSkoot, MobileGlu, VisreaSnap. For all these you need a mobile data plan that enables it cheaply! Then, what if anything, does any of this have to do with Skype? (Plus other mobile IM systems?)

Yahoo! Go.
I've added Yahoo! Go to my mobile. They have delivered a very nice web integration of the Yahoo site to my mobile. My real interest in these points first towards messenger services, next to mail and then probably maps and directions. It really is a lovely integration. I'm leaving it on the phone although I don't know how much I'll really use it.

On Messenger functionality it doesn't match up to texting with Agile Messenger. Mail is a perfect integration with the Nokia N70. On maps, I'm hooked on Google Local. It remains a better mapping experience. Still, if you are a yahooligan then this is one you won't live without. Calendar etc will be there.

Introducing Yahoo! Go – a new suite of products and services for your PC, mobile phone and even your TV. Yahoo! Go allows you to access the information and content that is important to you on whatever device you choose. So wherever you go, your photos, your music, your email, – your life – is right there with you. Ready to go. Yahoo Go

Now this is one I can't live without on my mobile. It's fixed the one click problem for uploading photos to flickr. No more need to open an email and find the address and then send. Simply shoot the picture and then it is uploaded automatically. They are adding features like contacts backup so I expect that the free picture uploading is just part of a business building strategy. Still it's a nice position to be in. One click publishing of your pictures. So now my pictures go to flickr when I want after each photo I take. Currently Shozu and Flickr don't handle video. Shozu will email each video after you shoot. I've disabled this function for now.

Visrea
More on pictures. Does one really need yet another photo app? Except here again Visrea does something different.It links your PC with a website and moble. You can access the photos off your PC on your mobile. That's sort of a neat trick. Certainly extends your album capability. That aspect seems rather Orbish to me. As it stands now I'm not sure that is enough to get me to adopt it. Still with development it certainly has some promise.

MobileGlu.
Now here's a product that looks great and yet I can't get it to install. I can see my content and access it through the content browser. So I couldn't get it to run on the N70 although I tried. Still I liked the appraoch. It aggregates your Flickr, RSS feeds etc all onto your mobile phone. Providing easy access to them. Looks more like the open platform solution for Yahoo Go. It could be very flexible. Another one to watch particularly as they are behind "Buddyping" which I've also installed along with 2028 other users. Don't think that will amount to much! They also haven't worked out how to search people!

So what does this all have to do with Skype?
First these hint that mobile devices with dataplans are going to become a lot more common. Something we know, and these products are just part of the proof that others are betting on it too.

Second this explosion of photo products suggests Skype should think more deeply about how they are integrated into the Skype client. So far the closest we've seen is the Koday Photoshare product that remains in beta. The Shozu one click type feature is just the type of Skype file sharing application that is required for mobile use. Add the capability to stimulate a multichat photo sharing session and these could be very exciting.

Similarly voice blasts to a group of friends might be great. Particularly if mobile to mobile. Some features may even enhance mobile and thus be secondary to desktop adoption. Eg what might you do just amongst "mobile Skypeing buddies"?

I sometimes joke about the completely furnished Skype video studio. High end microphones, spit guards, sets, makeup and lighting. But the Griffin SightLight is one of those cool products built for most desktop webcam situations, at least for Mac users.

It slips on to an iSight so it points where the camera is looking, is positioned behind the opening to the lens so you won't have glare, sensors that adjust brightness, LCDs with balanced color, low power draw off the firewire it shares with the camera, and fresnel lenses that keep the illumination on target.

OS News' review says it's hard to look into the camera when the lights are bright. I also like lighting that doesn't interfere with seeing the computer monitor during a session.

Mac vloggers should be all over the SightLight, at least for webcam video. Here's hoping Logitech and the other webcam makers follow suit for the PC community. Lights, please.

I was in San Francisco last week to start putting the finishing touches on the first print issue of TelecomBeat. And while there I was able to meet with several people that I'd not had the pleasure to see face-to-face before. One was Sean Wolfe. And while both of us commented that neither was what the other expected, he went so far as to say that from our phone conversations he would never have thought that he was dealing with a "hornrim'd Viking."

Skype’s stuck in a strategic dead-end at the moment. Their short-term revenue targets under the new management will no doubt be driven by SkypeIn and SkypeOut. This is the self-defeating PSTN disintermediation business. The brand licensing side of the business won’t grow fast enough to justify the acquisition cost. Andy points to a research note that highlights the need for Skype to break out of the PC ghetto. PCs make lousy phones compared to, um, phones.

So, here’s the Telepocalypse-approved patent-not-pending public-prior-art way of doing it. You don’t get payback off a $4bn deal by thinking small. The job of Skype is to make eBay’s transaction businesses pump more volume and value. What I’d want to do is insert eBay into any kind of contact between the public and merchants. Plus, it has to work with the legacy telephony infrastructure.

Let’s instead re-invent the “800 number” (freephone) business and make eBay the next Visa or Mastercard.

The first part is how the public contacts merchants. You’re out and about and you see a poster ad with a normal 800 number to call. If you want, you can call it as you do today. But SkypeBay will give you an alternative. The poster might follow the 800 number with the logo “eBay Outside™”. And this is where things get very, very different.

eBay also gives every user a personal 800 number. You can use this number to place calls, and will have it as a speed-dial on your mobile and home phone. You call eBay first, and then dial the merchant number. You’ve pre-registered the caller ID of devices you personally use, so eBay already have you identified (not authenticated).

Why would you bother? Because eBay is going to give you a better experience, and protect your privacy. When it comes to the “checkout” process with the merchant, their call centre agent transfers you back to eBay. You hear some appropriate message like “To authorise a payment of $193.20 to Foo Inc, and release your name and delivery address, please enter your PIN. To decline, press star. For more options, press hash.” Ta-da! The merchant gets your details without any transcription mistakes. You don’t have to reveal your payment info to yet another merchant. The UPS delivery is scheduled into “My eBay” or whatever, no hassles. The merchant up-front may even get language preference data, so no more of that “par espanol” stuff for us monoglot Anglos.

Naturally, you don’t have to use the 800 breakout number. You can just use your multimodal Skype client and have a great experience that way. Skype is the upwards migration path.

This is “real” IP communications. The link between eBay and the merchant is passing all kinds of information that SS7 telephony signals can never convey. The simplest case is that the merchant gets the message “Ship order X to this address — and here’s the non-repudiable payment receipt from us.” We’re just using ye olde telephony as a two-way audio link into the new world.

You win, with a better user experience. The merchant wins, with lower data capture costs and call centre costs, less fraud, higher customer satisfaction. And eBay wins, because they get rich.

Think of it as an identitiy and reputation network that overlays the traditional payment network. It also out-paces Google, with their ad network. If everyone uses their eBay reputation and credentials, a raw “click to call” model doesn’t help so much. Google get to build their network around the wrong node of the value chain, too far from the real customers: the public.

Now, at Telepocalypse HQ there’s the company motto above the door. It says “Do as much evil as you can get away with.” So here’s a wicked twist. You can give your 800 number out to merchants, should they wish to contact you. But when they call, it won’t be from one of your registered numbers. They’ll have to have a relationship with eBay before they get through (via the eBay/Skype find-me/follow-me service). And believe me, this won’t be a freephone service from their end. Plus, if they telemarket to you or spam you in any way, you get the chance to send them some negative karma.

One interesting aspect of this is that telcos themselves probably can’t cannibalise their 800 number business even if they wanted to. They don’t have an existing hub like the eBay auction business around which to crystallize the required changes in user and merchant behavior. No one telco has enough heft to effect any unilateral change. The only strategic question they need answer here is: how can we still take some small slice of these emerging business models?

I’m hoping this all sounds utterly crazed. Because it is. Just like ten years ago, it would have been nuts to think I could locate someone with an obscure cheap laptop expansion base the other side of the world, get it shipped to my hotel in California for me to collect as I pass by, and still have change from $40.

Call Martin at 1-800-TELEPOCALYPSE.

The IETF has named the new directors (Cullen Jennings and John Peterson) to the Real-time Applications and Infrastructure Area which is essentially includes all work relating to IP communications. What does this mean? I am going to catch up with Cullen in the coming weeks and let him explain.

I interviewed Ken Kuenzel, CTO for Covergence today on SIP security which just happens to be the focus of his company.

We talked for 20 minutes about SIP security and what that means to the SMB operator and the Enterprise market in general. Ken talked about their strategy on TLS, SRTP and SMB SIP trunking.

Ken-Kuenzel-Covergence-SIP-Security-.mp3

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Ken is responsible for setting the companies overall technical direction and product architecture as well as the on-time delivery of high-quality products. Over the last 25 years Ken has successfully brought large complex networking systems to market and enjoys a well deserved reputation for delivering high quality products in a timely, cost effective manner. Prior to founding Covergence, Ken was a Founder and the System Architect of Tiburon Networks, Founding Team and System Architect of Aptis Communications, and consulting engineer at both Shiva and Digital Equipment Corporation.

A few days ago a I wrote about an experience I had while trying to source a SMB VoIP offering for a friend of mine starting up a new company. Well it would seem as though I am not the only one who is having troubles sourcing a solution of small and medium business.

Have the cable companies overlooked a $100 Billion a year market? According to Heavy Reading the MSOs are too slow to take advantage of this grand opportunity and are focused on delivering residential VoIP instead. According to a report published by Yankee Group last year only 5% of SMBs in the US use VoIP as their primary means of communication and in a January report they said the market for business VoIP is expected to grow to more than $3.3 Billion in service revenue by 2010.

It would appear to me that this monster hole could easily be filled by smaller more nimble VoIP service providers focused on an SMB offer. We know that Vonage Canada, Primus and other Broadband Telephony offers won't cut it due mostly to the lack of QOS (Quality of Service) and poor business VoIP services. Shaw, Telus, and Rogers are too busy battling it out on the mobile and residential front and Bell seems to be lost in it's own bureaucracy. So, who is left to take care of the SMBs in Canada's largest cities and rural areas?

VoIP over VPN, QOS enabled Broadband VoIP and Hosted Managed VoIP for business are some of the key components that will make an SMB VoIP offering compelling. According to Yankee Group, the most anticipated growth in revenue will come in the hosted VoIP market, a communications solution appealing to enterprises because it enables migration from legacy systems to a managed IP solution without incurring capital expenditure.

To me the opportunity is obvious, smaller service providers focused on a SMB VoIP in Canada and the US have nothing but green pastures ahead of them, the telcos and cable operators are asleep at the wheel.

Russel Shaw has kicked the crap out of MSFT for not including any VoIP functionality in their new Office Live beta, rightfully so in my mind.

I can't count the number of times people have asked me in recent weeks, "Don't you think that Microsoft will decimate VoIP start-ups relying on Network Edge revenue with this new Live Office release?"

Judging by this beta of Office Live I would say companies like Counterpath have nothing to worry about.

I first met Mark Spencer when I interviewed him for our September issue. (See Free and Open: An Interview with Mark Spencer, the Creator of Asterisk PBX.) It was one of the more interesting interviews I think we've done, so I'm very happy to announce that Mark will be writing an ongoing column for VoIP Magazine on the topic of communication app development. Who better to write a column on app dev than the leading developer in Open Source communication technology?

It looks like Michael isn't wasting any time, he's launching a new service today that lets anyone get a new Area775 phone number for free and of course it runs on.. SIP.

Michael-Robertson-Area775.mp3

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I spoke with Michael about Area775 and his foray into the Mobile and WiFi world. He also speaks to the recent injection of $6M and what those funds will be used for. The podcast starts off with a demo of Area775 and later gets into very good overview of Area775 features including...

* Free U.S. based telephone number assigned to your computer and any phone 

* Dual Ring - Incoming calls simultaneously ring computer and regular phone!

* Call Screening - Listen to callers leave messages in real time (press 1 to take the call)

* Transfer Calls - You can transfer any call to any phone by pressing 2

* Voicemail (email and phone)

* SMS notification

Yes you will have to pay if you want to answer calls on your normal phone but he has to make it pay somehow. For a small monthly fee you can:

* Choose from a list of 775 numbers as well as other area codes

* Answer calls to your regular phone (cell or landline) free.

* Get a fax number

* Toll Free access for voicemail

Check out Area775.com for more info. And as usual Andy &  Alec are all over this.

It looks like Michael isn't wasting any time, he's launching a new service today that lets anyone get a new Area775 phone number for free and of course it runs on.. SIP.

Michael-Robertson-Area775.mp3

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I spoke with Michael about Area775 and his foray into the Mobile and WiFi world. He also speaks to the recent injection of $6M and what those funds will be used for. The podcast starts off with a demo of Area775 and later gets into very good overview of Area775 features including...

* Free U.S. based telephone number assigned to your computer and any phone
* Dual Ring - Incoming calls simultaneously ring computer and regular phone*
* Call Screening - Listen to callers leave messages in real time (press 1 to take the call)
* Transfer Calls - You can transfer any call to any phone by pressing 2
* Voicemail (email and phone)
* SMS notification

Yes you will have to pay if you want to answer calls on your normal phone but he has to make it pay somehow. For a small monthly fee you can:

* Choose from a list of 775 numbers as well as other area codes
* Answer calls to your regular phone (cell or landline) free.
* Get a fax number
* Toll Free access for voicemail

Press Release

SIPphone Offers Free U.S. Telephone Numbers Which Ring Computer and Mobile Identity; New
Area775 Service is First to Link VOIP and Traditional Phone System

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 16, 2006--SIPphone today announced Area775, a new VOIP service where one personal phone number can ring a landline, mobile phone or any computer connected to the Internet, so incoming calls can be answered from anywhere. With the service, available immediately from www.area775.com, users can sign up for a free U.S. telephone number that, when dialed, will ring both their computer and any U.S. mobile phone or landline. Incoming calls can be screened from any phone or computer by listening to voicemail messages callers leave while they are speaking. Desired calls can be answered and unwanted calls can be ignored with resulting voicemail messages sent to an email account as an audio attachment.

"VOIP has been all about free PC-to-PC calls," said Michael Robertson, CEO of SIPphone. "Area775 is the first service that links VOIP to the traditional phone world and gives users unprecedented power to manage their voice communications by screening and answering calls on any SIP device, computer or regular phone, as well as transferring calls between their devices."

Area775 offers unique calling features that give consumers the ability to easily manage calls in a sophisticated manner. Users can take advantage of a free U.S. telephone number in the 775 area code or pay $3.95 per month and select a different U.S. area code.

Consumers and small businesses now have access to a sophisticated phone system without the expense or complexity of setting up a PBX. In just seconds, multiple accounts can be set up, linking together remote offices, mobile phones and landlines using in a cost effective but advanced VOIP-based system.

A complete set of call-management features are included with each Area775 account, which are easily managed from the Web site, including:

-- Dual Ring -- Incoming calls simultaneously ring computer and a designated landline or mobile phone. Calls can be answered at either location.

-- Call Screening -- Much like a traditional home answering machine, callers can be routed to a voicemail greeting where they can leave a message. As callers speak, their message can be heard on either the computer or mobile phone, at which time the call can be answered by pushing the number 2 or left in voicemail.

-- Call Transfer -- Calls answered at the computer can be transferred mid-call to a landline or mobile phone by pressing the number 1. Similarly, calls answered on a mobile phone or landline can be transferred to a computer phone.

-- Voicemail -- Voicemail is provided including the ability to create a customized greeting and receive audio calls via an email attachment. A SMS notification system can be configured to send an alert that a voicemail has been received.

Additional information as well as an instructional movie describing this innovative service can be found at: http://area775.com.

More comments from Michael Robertson about the impact of this service can be found at: http://michaelrobertson.com.

About SIPphone, Inc.

SIPphone is a San Diego based voice over IP (VOIP) company that provides a free dial tone service for any SIP-based software or hardware device complete with customizable voicemail. They provide free VOIP Gizmo Project software at http://gizmoproject.com for Macintosh, Microsoft Windows and Linux computers that enables high-quality free calling and IM service worldwide using any Internet-connected computer. SIPphone is a founding member of IM Federation (IMfederation.com), which promotes interconnects with all networks and currently connects with Google's Google Talk and more than a hundred other networks. Area775 is a service offered by SIPphone Inc. powered by Callwave.

Contacts
SIPphone, Inc.
Jason Droege, 323-908-4180
(for more information about SIPphone or Gizmo Project)
pr@sipphone.com

Michael sent me this Press Release yesterday announcing that SIPphone had just secured $6M in funding to bolster the Gizmo Project with a Mobile and WiFi extension.

"The release of Gizmo Project has driven over 400,000 registered users to our PC based service, but our goals go beyond free calls between PCs," says SIPphone CEO, Michael Robertson. "We want to seamlessly link the internet and the traditional calling world of landlines and mobile phones and that's becoming possible as low cost SIP based devices such as dual mode mobile phones and wifi phones become a reality."

Apparently Michael plans to expand the San Diego office by 3-fold in order to build this next generation of Gizmo.

The financing round was lead by New York based venture firm Dawntreader Ventures and is the first external funding for SIPphone. Joining the board of SIPphone is Dawntreader managing director Edward G. Sim. Private investors from Michael Robertson's previous digital music startup MP3.com Inc. also participated in the funding.

It looks like the VCs are making their moves into VoIP and IP Communications in a big way which means great things for the technologies and consumers that use them. I am going to try and catch up with Michael over the next few days and see if I can get a phone interview for the podcast.

Michael sent me this Press Release yesterday announcing that SIPphone had just secured $6M in funding to bolster the Gizmo Project with a Mobile and WiFi extension.

"The release of Gizmo Project has driven over 400,000 registered users to our PC based service, but our goals go beyond free calls between PCs," says SIPphone CEO, Michael Robertson. "We want to seamlessly link the internet and the traditional calling world of landlines and mobile phones and that's becoming possible as low cost SIP based devices such as dual mode mobile phones and wifi phones become a reality."

Apparently Michael plans to expand the San Diego office by 3-fold in order to build this next generation of Gizmo.

The financing round was lead by New York based venture firm Dawntreader Ventures and is the first external funding for SIPphone. Joining the board of SIPphone is Dawntreader managing director Edward G. Sim. Private investors from Michael Robertson's previous digital music startup MP3.com Inc. also participated in the funding.

It looks like the VCs are making their moves into VoIP and IP Communications in a big way which means great things for the technologies and consumers that use them. I am going to try and catch up with Michael over the next few days and see if I can get a phone interview for the podcast.

Not a new player in PC-based IP Videoconferencing, Sightspeed has been building proprietary software for VoIP and Video for more than 5 years (a lifetime in this industry). The fresh and new CEO - Peter Csathy was kind enough to comp me a Premium account so I could play with it a bit. First impression was good, easy to download and get setup. Since they mention in their PR that they are leveraging Web 2.0 I would imagine they are using Ajax, it looks good.  

This new release is much more esthetically pleasing than past apps and includes some great tools for creating html links from the video/voice mail recordings as well. In Sightspeed 4.5, we can extract the MPG link from the webpage that follows the recording which is great but I should not have to go through that much hassle to find it. The video clip can only be 60 seconds long and only as a local recording, I can't record a video conference that I am part of. Not sure if this is by design but if we look at the flickr model we get plenty of storage space for free and Counterpath offers a SIP Voice/Video softphone that records all media to AVI.

I would also like it if the link were made available in MP4 and WMV and include the media extension in the html link so that my media enclosures will pick it up. Skype got picked up by the bloggers because it was the easiest app to use that was freely available, it's still not easy enough. I should also be able to upload my own MP4, MOV, WMV etc.

Add some mobile integration not unlike shoZu and multi-party conferencing recording capabilities for the Desktop client and we would now have a very useful tool for citizen journalists worldwide.

I would seem that most apps like this are targeting an audience that is less technically inclined but I think that with a little more work they could also carve out a pretty cool niche in a market that needs tools like this.

Alec has some comments as well.

Not a new player in PC-based IP Videoconferencing, Sightspeed has been building proprietary software for VoIP and Video for more than 5 years (a lifetime in this industry).

The fresh and new CEO - Peter Csathy was kind enough to comp me a Premium account so I could play with it a bit.

First impression was good, easy to download and get setup. Since they mention in their PR that they are leveraging Web 2.0 I would imagine they are using Ajax, it looks good.

This new release is much more esthetically pleasing than past apps and includes some great tools for creating html links from the video/voice mail recordings as well.

The video clip can only be 60 seconds long and only as a local recording, I can't record a video conference that I am part of. Not sure if this is by design but if we look at the flickr model we get plenty of storage space for free and Counterpath offers a SIP Voice/Video softphone that records all media to AVI.

In Sightspeed 4.5, we can extract the MPG link from the webpage that follows the recording which is great but I should not have to go through that much hassle to find it. I would also like it if the link were made available in MP4 and WMV and include the media extension in the html link so that my media enclosures will pick it up.

Skype got picked up by the bloggers because it was the easiest app to use that was freely available, it's still not easy enough.

I should also be able to upload my own MP4, MOV, WMV etc. Add some mobile integration not unlike shoZu and multi-party conferencing recording capabilities for the Desktop client and we would now have a very useful tool for citizen journalists worldwide.

I would seem that most apps like this are targeting an audience that is less technically inclined but I think that with a little more work they could also carve out a pretty cool niche in a market that needs tools like this.

Alec has some comments as well.

SIP Magazine is up and running, my first column can be found here. Featured articles from James Gledhill of SIPstorm, Todd Simpson and Alan Hawrylyshen of Ditech. Subscribe here.

SIP Magazine is up and running, my first column can be found here. Featured articles from James Gledhill of SIPstorm, Todd Simpson and Alan Hawrylyshen of Ditech. Subscribe here.

Alec Saunders and team were outstanding at Demo '06 and earned themselves a spot as Demo God. Congrats to Alec, I know how hard it can be to build product from the ground up and to get this kind of recognition is absolutly huge!

Andy, Jon, and Mark all have some great comments.

EVDO rev A will change wireless VoIP forever, Carolyn has written a great story for the San Jose Biz Journal on EVDO. I would also like to welcome Carolyn to the blogosphere!

After much debate Vonage is going public. It will raise $250M initially which pales when compared to the nearly 700M raised as a private company. I beleive that lost nearly $175M last year (I have not confirmed this yet), not exactly the performance potential stockholders would get excited about.

Nonetheless I wish them the best, they continue to educate the public on VoIP and that's a good thing.

Tom and Andy have some great comments.