February 2006

It’s been a busy couple of days trying to get ready for the Emerging Technologies Conference next week. As there is no direct flight from the UK to San Diego the best I could find was a 17 hour trip though Washington. That’s going to hurt.

I am actually in San Jose not Palo Alto for the second week but I am going to be there for the shortest amount of time possible so I can get back home. If you IM’ed or emailed me I am still sorting out my agenda and will get back to you soon.

Developer Beta Program
I am putting in place a beta API program which will give you access to the latest builds of Skype for testing your application and so your application can take advantage of new Skype features when new clients versions are released.

I expect this to be pretty popular so to ensure that I don’t spend 100% of my time doing the admin for this I have had to put a few rules in place.

The Developer Beta Program will only be open to active Skype developers. To be classed as an active developer you will need to have at least 1 application hosted in the extras gallery.

You will also need to sign and return an NDA form..

There may or may not be other requirements that need to be met as I still have few things to do before the program goes live but if you are interested in taking part then send an email to DevBetaProgram@skype net with a link to your application in the extras gallery and I will send you the details when I finalize them.

I had a few answers on the flash proble me that hinted at converting between formats is generally not good.

Something to do with WMVs and doing something funky with frames when doing screen capture that flash doesn’t.

I tried to create a smaller file one that wouldn’t be 200mb for those wanting to take a look only the software I have been evaluating expired yesterday, Just typical isn’t it.

My head hurts with it all right now so I will have a think about it over the weekend and try some of the software you guys recommended.

Incidentally I am out at the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference in San Diego on the 6th - 9th and then in San Francisco around the Palo Alto area for a few days the week after, probably until Tuesday or Wednesday so if anyone is out that way and wants to meet up for food, drink, chat or to show my your application etc. Let me know.

Well as you can imagine I am a happy man today after yesterdays result. A lot of people guessed at 4 – 0 defeats and I was one of those. I am glad to be wrong.

We only had two winners who correctly predicted the score, so congratulations to:

Paulo Oliveira (Portugal)
Darrell Jordan (USA)

Both will be receiving a WebCam in the very near future.

Voice Applications
One of the categories for the API contest is for the best voice service application. Since many of you will have never built a voice application before and will have no idea where to begin, we have put together this handy guide on how you get started.

You can download the guide from here

Videos
Any experts out there know anything about publishing flash movies?

Here is my problem. I create my video tutorials in WMV format. 10 minutes at reasonable quality produces a file of around 10mb – 16mb in size.

If I take the same video, same screen size and same quality and convert it to Flash, I end up with a file that is 190mb. I can’t believe that WMV compression 200 times better

It doesn’t get any better if I try MOV or QuickTime, I end up with huge files.

The only way I can make the file size smaller is to change the video display size, but only when I go down to the size of a postage stamp do I end up with a reasonable file size.

Any experts got any ideas?

Not much to going down today, I am just busy with admin.

But hey that’s not why you are here today. Today you’re here because I have 4 webcams to give away.

The contest is completely un-Skype related, except you can submit your answers via IM to SkypeDevBlog or reply here..

Tonight my beloved Arsenal are playing the mighty Real Madrid in the champions league. When the draw was made back in December I was sitting with a beer in my hand thinking easy. I don’t think we have won a game since, so tonight I am not full of confidence.

So the contest is to correctly predict the score.

Real Madrid v Arsenal

Entries must be received by 7:45 pm GMT today (Tuesday).

4 correct entries will be chosen at random win a webcam. In the event of no correct answers I’ll dream up another contest.

I actually started to write his blog on Friday but ended up in meeting after meeting so didn’t get a chance to finish. It’s interesting to see how my planned weekend worked out.

Continue reading "Weekend? What weekend?" »

It’s been one of those days today where I have been rushed off my feet but don’t seem to have achieved anything.

I re-edited the ActiveX video that was corrupt, it looks like there was indeed some problem with it as the WMV file size has dropped 4 fold to about 15mb which is much better for such a small demo.

Don’t get me started on the Flash file, I’ll try and talk about that tomorrow when I am calm and relaxed.

I did find a really cool app that has been uploaded to the extras gallery. It’s in the Japanese section so you might not have noticed it.

It’s called Virtual Desktop Camera and it allows you to share your desktop over Skype Video. It’s still beta right now and they tell me they still have a bit of work to do with the CPU usage but it’s still a very cool idea. Perfect if you end up troubleshooting someone’s PC remotely or even if you want to share you desktop in a conference.

If you want to try it out, download the package from here

Click the install.bat file which will install a new webcam source called Nyanyan Desktop Filter in the video settings in Skype (Tools, Options, Video, and look in select webcam).

Once you select it then your desktop will be displayed to users when you start a video call.

That ActiveX video appears to be cursed. Not only did it take 2 days to publish but it now seems to be corrupt.

I’ll take a look tonight and republish it tomorrow. I am convinced that converting to Flash caused it, thats 2 beers you Mac and Linux guys owe me now.

Developer Support
Also I am pleased to announce that we have hired another Developer Support person, Antoine Bertout who will be monitoring and answering questions in the developer forum along with Peeter Mõtsküla.

If you’re wondering what our developer support heroes look like, here you go.

Peeter

Antoine

So if you have a developer question, please post it to the API Forums and Antoine or Peeter will be there to help find an answer.

You would have though that after the Valentines Day competition we ran last week I would have been prepared and brought my wife a card and flowers wouldn’t you.

ActiveX Video

I did completed the video on building applications with the new ActiveX Controls yesterday as promised but it’s taken me the best part of 2 days to publish the file.

For some reason the publishing software would crash at 80% complete each time when trying to output as Flash. All other formats worked fine, I event tried going from AVI to Flash, WMV to Flash, MOV to Flash and just about every other format the software supports and back to Flash again but with the same results.

Continue reading "Happy Valentines Day." »

Last day of the week, I hope everyone is set for beers.

Talking of beers, I am keen to put the Skype credit card behind the bar one night in London and sponsor the beers and perhaps a curry. If you are interested in meeting up ping me via SkypeDevBlog and depending on the interest I will set something up.

Continue reading "SkypeWeb and Friday stuff" »

If you are Windows developer this is the package for you. It contains two components made to make building Skype API applications more simple, robust and fast!

Continue reading "Skype COM API and Skype Contact List ActiveX BETA" »

Continue reading "Skype 2.0 API reference" »

As promised here are the winners of the Valentines competition.

No body answered the question incorrectly which was good. I also learned a lot as well about Valentines Day, for example it falls in June in Brazil.

The winner of the Flurop-Interflora bouquet and Perfectel handset is:

Wstephenson from Germany – well done

The following runners up will each reach a Perfectel handset

superharry_zhou
ian.mcmichael
dennisv
katanukas
jcswanston
rodolfonutz
sypher.netvisions.nl
jasonbagley
davidsrp
entre3llls

Please get in touch with me via SkypeDevBlog so I can get the items sent out to you.

Thanks to everyone that took part and a big thanks to Flurop-Interfora and Perfectel for providing the fabulous prizes.

Skype are please to be part of the eBay Developers Conference in my favorite city, Las Vegas during June 10th – 12th 2006 at the Mandalay Bay.

I know a lot of you are building exciting Skype application already, and we want to hear from you about what you are doing in this exciting space and give you the chance to talk about your solutions at the conference. We are currently accepting proposals for two presentation formats.

• Standard Talks (60 minutes)
• Lightning Talks (5 minutes)

So if you’re doing something cool and want to talk about it, we want to hear from you! To sign up or get more details take a look at http://ebaydevcon.com/callforpapers/

Friday was funny, on the way home from work I caught up with a few of my ex-colleagues for a few beers and a chat. My friends are in the mobile world so were showing off the latest and greatest mobile phones, many of which are still prototypes.

So while we are having dinner everyone is boasting about how their mobile is the best (except me, I am ashamed of mine) and blabbing about how wonderful it is.

As I was coming from work I had my work bag with me, so I took out my YapperMouse and slapped it down on to the table. It took a while before they believed me that it was a really a phone but it got them off the subject of who’s mobile is the best.

Valentines Day
You still have 2 days to enter for the valentines day contest and win Fleurop-Interflora bouquet + Skype phone for your loved one.

Either reply here or add SkypeDevBlog to your buddies list and IM the answer. I will periodically ping the SkypeDevBlog buddies to let you know about future competitions, Skype betas, but I won’t spam you.

Product Features
A few people have pinged me to ask how you submit features for future versions of Skype. I haven’t seen any other way so forgive me if you know of something official.

If you have an idea for a feature you would like to see in Skype, ping me via SkypeDevBlog with your idea. I can’t guarantee that it will get included but I will make sure that all requests get to the right places to get considered. I might even have a prize for the best idea.

API 2.0 Documentation
The API documentation is about to move from being beta to being released in the next few hours. Triona tells me that some of the major changes are to do with Call Forwarding. So if you are using that particular set of API’s then take a look a the updated documentation here: API 2.0 Docs

I would like to announce some very good news for all Windows Developers! We will soon have our own Skype COM API. If you (like me) don’t feel at home messing about with Windows messaging then this news is for you!

Right now we are doing three things to get this out to you ASAP:
1. Testing and debugging
2. Writing documentation
3. Using it to build our own next-generation toolbars

Continue reading "Skype will soon publish Skype COM API" »

Last year when Valentines Day came around I was flying back from a conference in Germany. I had to buy the last sorry looking bunch of flowers from an airport newsagent.

This year why not be prepared.

The nice people at Perfectel and Fleurop-Interflora have teamed up to produce a valentine’s bouquet of flowers that include a Skype handset.

We are offering one lucky winner the chance to win the Fleurop-Interflora bouquet and the Perfectel headset delivered to that special someone door. Plus 10 runner ups will each receive a Perfectel handset.

All you have to do to take part is answer this very simple question.

What date is Valentines Day?

To enter the competition please post your reply here or IM your answer to SkypeDevBlog.

The winners will be chosen at random from all the entries received, and will be notified by Skype on 8th February.

Good luck.

We have had few competitions recently, but its time for another Developer API Contest. If you’re a developer and you want the chance to win EURO 2,000 then submit an application to the Developer API Competition.

There are 3 categories you can enter your application, each of which is focus on different areas of Skype’s functionality.

The 3 categories you can enter are:

• AP2AP Messaging
• eBay Integration
• Voice Services

The first prize for each category is EURO 2,000. Each category will have 5 runner up prizes of EURO 500 each. To enter the competition you must follow these steps.

1) Email SampleCode@skype.com with the following details:

• Your name.
• Email address.
• Skype name.
• Description of what kind of applications you have submitted.
• Category entered (voice services, eBay integration, Ap2Ap).
• The URL to the entry in the extras gallery

2) Upload the application to the API Competition section in the extras gallery. The uploaded item can be entered into multiple categories if applicable.

Extras Gallery http://share.skype.com/directory/skypeapideveloper_competition

The closing date for entries to be submitted is 15th April 2006. The winner will be judged by a mixture of community votes (from the extras gallery) and a panel of Skype judges.

For the full API Competition rules please see the terms and condition.