July 2008

Hi all,

A few weeks ago we updated the the 4.0 Beta 1 build with some necessary bug fixes. Today we're updating the build again with some more bug fixes, in particular to video calling, where some of you have reported problems when making calls to older versions of Skype.

There's no real functional change in these hotfixes, as we're still busy making a number of changes that address a lot of the feedback we've received and are aiming to launch those in Beta 2.

That's all for now.

Mike

OK, so first we had laughing, and now dancing: (thanks to Phil for the link)

There are quite a few Skype emoticons, and we're having a debate in the office about which would make the best videos. Take your pick

p.s. According to our friends at TameBay, there’s another video in the works — we’ll let you know just as soon as it’s ready.

Today, Skype's President Josh Silverman picks a lesson from Communist-era dissident communication that is equally relevant to companies that seek to become - or remain -- innovative. In fact, there's even an connection to the recently-introduced beta version of Skype 4.0 for Windows as well (which, for the traditionalists among us, will also have a compact mode).

When a Polish dissident read a letter from his East German friend, he didn't take those handwritten lines at face value. He knew that to make it past eagle-eyed officials, the letter had to appear innocuous. The how's-your-father-doing-oh-he's-fine kind. But using his finely-tuned antenna, he decoded and amplified the subtle hints judiciously sprinkled here and there. By drilling into the subtext and picking up on the unsaid, he used a skill we've largely forgotten in the West. He read between the lines.

Now think of your customer. He doesn't need to worry about a Stasi agent in the mailroom or a recorder in the vase. If you're lucky, he'll tell you exactly what he thinks of your product. Or you read it in a customer-feedback form. Or he blogs about how it could be improved. Which is fabulous. The only problem: you're scratching at the surface.

Continue reading "Unarticulated needs and Skype 4.0" »

Scott Durchslag joined Skype last week (June 30) as chief operating officer, reporting to President, Josh Silverman. I caught up with him Monday while he was in Luxembourg for a meeting of Skype's leadership.

I first met Scott a few years ago when he was an executive at Motorola, the mobile phone pioneer based in suburban Chicago, and I was a tech columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times.

He made a name at Moto, having led a turnaround of the company's South Asia business, where his team doubled revenues to $1billion. As Chief Strategy officer who architected the successful 2002 turnaround strategy, the RAZR phone was launched which became the best-selling mobile phone in history, helping double Moto's market share to 24 percent. Scott was also the force behind Motorola's shift away from proprietary software and toward consumer experience-based designs.

The self-described "consumer product guy" was involved in major deals with such partners as Kodak, Microsoft and Google.

The 42-year-old Chicago area native, who has an MBA from Harvard, left Motorola about a year ago, soon after the company lost Mobile Devices President Ron Garriques to Dell.

He laughed when I asked him whether war-torn Yugoslavia, where he was a freelance journalist, or Schaumburg (Motorola's headquarters) was more dangerous. He wisely kept his counsel.

He has been busy in the past year with some private equity deals and the birth of his second child.

He shared some thoughts about the Skype opportunity and where it's headed.

Continue reading "Skype's new COO Scott Durchslag speaks out " »