January 2008

Earlier this month, we said it’d be available later this month.

If you’ve got a Sony PSP Slim & Lite and have been waiting since CES for a system software update so you could make Skype calls, now is the time to act. All you need to do is to upgrade your handheld’s system software to version 3.90.

With the update, foreshadowed in Sony’s PlayStation blog and now also announced by the Sony folks in Europe, PSP Slim & Lite users can make free voice calls to 276m other registered Skype users, see which friends are online and available to talk.

Also, if you have a bit of Skype credit lying around, you can use your PSP to make cheap SkypeOut calls to landlines and mobiles anywhere on the home planet.

To get started with Skype on PSP, it might be worth checking out this video by John Koller, senior marketing manager for PSP at Sony:

From Crackle: Skype on the PSP

As you may have heard, on March 31, Meg Whitman will step down as President and CEO of eBay, Skype’s parent company. She will be succeeded by John Donahoe, who has been President of eBay Marketplaces.

For more on management changes at eBay, please see the eBay press release.

We at Skype have now waved goodbye to this year’s CES, the consumer-electronics industry’s trade show of record.

These massive light-bending, gravity-distorting gatherings of tens of thousands of journalists, bloggers, tech companies, tourists and tote-bag-filling hangers-on are never a cakewalk. Sure, it keeps getting more crowded than ever, our backs hurt, our heels breathe fire, our vocal chords turn to beef jerky, and them miniature buckets that collect beads of executive sweat during media interviews have holes on the bottom. But CES — even with talk of the show apparently considering other, non-Vegas options in the future — is a phenomenon like nothing else. And you have to love it. (It’s the law.)

Continue reading "Echoes of CES" »

So, remember back in June 2007 when you were living in Sweden with a mobile in your pocket with a friend in San Nicolás de los Garza? And Skype To Go made it possible for you to call your friend in this impossibly beautiful-sounding place in Mexico without burning a hole your pocket?

Well now imagine being able to do that from any phone of your choice, including your mobile, to any friend in almost any country, all through just one local phone number. We know, we know, simplicity is bliss.

Enter the new and improved Skype To Go. It’s still a part of Skype Pro, but now you can use this one Skype To Go number to call any of your friends almost anywhere in the world. You don’t have to sweat about which one friend to choose anymore, you can call any of them at any given time, almost anywhere they are. For the more speed-dial inclined, you can set up to 6 friends, family or colleagues.

How does the new Skype To Go number work? It’s simple:

• Sign up to a local Skype To Go number which you can call from anywhere in your country. See below for available Skype To Go countries.
• Register online by adding up to six of your favourite friends phone numbers or Skype addresses you want to reach.
• A friendly Skype voice will also guide you on the phone to tap in a phone number or select one of your six favourite friends from your speed dial list.

What are the costs?

• Skype Pro subscription fee is €2 (€2.30 with VAT included) per month
• The cost of a local call to your Skype To Go number (maybe part of your inclusive minutes, mobile or otherwise)
• Plus the cost of the SkypeOut call to the country of destination number

The new Skype To Go number is available in the following countries: Australia, Chile, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden, UK and the US.

*Please note that Skype To Go in Hong Kong and Japan will remain unchanged, but we are working very hard for you to be able to call more than one person from your Skype To Go number in the future.

Please click here to find out more and register a new Skype To Go number.

Amid the rushing bodies in the crazy anthill known as CES, we’ve just received the good news that Skype has broken the 11 million concurrent-user barrier. We hit the 10 million mark back in October and it’s immensely gratifying to see that the universe continues to expand as it does. A deep to our users and keep the conversations going!