Announcements

A quick update from our busy team of translators: over the weekend, we launched a new version of our Arabic website. You can now buy subscriptions and Skype Credit, and check up on the details of your account, all in Arabic.

At Skype, we aim to build software for everyone, no matter where they are or what language they speak. Our new Arabic website takes us a bit closer to that goal.

Great news – we’ve closed the deal with the new investors.

The investor group is led by Silver Lake, and includes Andreessen Horowitz, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Joltid Limited and our founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis.

The deal valued Skype at $2.75B US, with eBay retaining approximately 30% of Skype, and the investor group led by Silver Lake controlling the remaining 70%.

Our journey continues: say hello to the future!

Milestones are significant for us, not just because they’re big numbers, but because they reflect the actions of people around the world using Skype to stay in touch with friends, family and colleagues. Right now, there are 20 million people around the world, saying hello (or bonjour, or hola, or 喂, or tere) to their parents across continents, having dinner with their spouses from hotel rooms across countries, and keeping an eye on their pets from across town.

But big numbers are hard to get our heads around – what does 20 million actually mean? We can think about it in terms of the number of families kept closer together, or the number of businesses saving money and staying ahead of the competition. Right now. The number of new babies being shown off to adoring grandparents, or the number of romances being kept alive. Right now.

In fact, in the 30 seconds since you started reading this, those 20 million people have made around 1,600 hours of free Skype-to-Skype calls and 200 hours of calls to landlines and mobiles. That’s a lot of people talking. Right now.

Innovation is at the heart of Skype's success. But it's not a one-off effort: we continue to invest in our capabilities to develop the world's best communications software.

Skype already employs some of the industry's leading engineers and technologists. Now, we are privileged to add Dr Jonathan Rosenberg, a telecom industry veteran and the co-author of the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), as Skype's as Chief Technology Strategist. In this role, he will report to Skype's Chief Technology Officer, Daniel Berg, and will work with Skype's engineering teams worldwide.

Dr Rosenberg's leadership and expertise will help guide Skype's future technology strategies and architecture, an area where we're continuing to invest heavily.

Please join us in welcoming Jonathan to Skype

I have some very exciting news to share with you today. In the past couple of days, we and eBay have reached a settlement with Joltid regarding our dispute with them. This has extremely positive implications for us on three critical fronts:

• We will now have ownership of the software previously licensed from Joltid, so we’ll be in control of our technology future.
• All litigation against eBay, Skype and the investor group ends, so we’ll be free to concentrate all of our efforts on building the world’s greatest communications software.
• Joltid and Skype founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis will join the investor group and the Skype board with a 14% share in exchange for providing Joltid software and a significant capital investment, so we’ll benefit from their expertise, vision and continued commitment to making Skype a long-term success.

This is fantastic news for us, clearing the road ahead and making what was shaping up to be an exciting journey, an unbelievable journey.

Onwards!

More financial details in the press release.

Great news for those of you who make calls to Inmarsat satellite phones - you can now call them using Skype.

Take advantage of our super-low rates: from just €1.80/$2.62/£1.64 per minute.

If you have loved ones stationed on ships or oil platforms, Skype can make it just that little bit easier to stay in touch. By making calls more affordable, you can spend that little bit longer catching up, sharing news and telling bedtime stories.

You can even call satellite phones from your mobile phone using a Skype To Go number - meaning that you can say goodnight to your partner while you're doing the grocery shopping, or just have a chat with them from a park bench on a sunny afternoon.

You'll need to buy Skype Credit to get started - you can pay for it using credit or debit cards, PayPal, bank transfers and vouchers from supermarkets and convenience stores, depending on where you live.

Let us know how you get on

A small connection fee applies to all calls to satellite phones.

Change often starts with having a conversation. At Skype, we're proud to enable global conversations that can help end poverty. We are partnering with the United Nations Millennium Campaign to foster conversations about the most important issues facing our generation during "Stand Up and Take Action!," the annual mobilization where citizens gather at events around the world to demand that world leaders eradicate extreme poverty by 2015.

As part of the program, for the first time, Skype is collaborating with Ustream to enable video calls about global poverty between world leaders, celebrities, and citizens globally to be broadcast on the internet live via Ustream's interactive video broadcasting platform. The Skype calls will be broadcast on both the Stand Up Take Action! page on Facebook and Ustream's web site.

Those participating in the Skype video calls include former Irish President Mary Robinson, as well as African entertainers Femi Kuti and Angelique Kidjo. The calls will take place throughout this week, leading up to the "Stand Up and Take Action!" weekend on October 16-18 when millions of citizens will take part in activities demanding that world leaders keep their promises to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

We hope you will join us to stand up to poverty by engaging in your own dialogues about this global crisis and what can be done to eradicate it. To find out how to get involved in "Stand Up and Take Action" events happening across the globe, please visit www.standagainstpoverty.org.

I'm excited to tell you that Sten Tamkivi, our Chief Evangelist and GM of Skype Estonia, is now an advisor to Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves in the areas of information technology, innovation and entrepreneurship.

This is an incredible personal honour for Sten and we are humbled to have such an individual as a key part of our team here at Skype.

As an Estonian, I'm proud of the country's achievements in the area of technology innovation and the impact it has had on the society. I'm sure there are many more novel ideas coming to life in and from our small country.

As a Skype employee, I am excited to see that world leaders have recognized the innovative spirit that lives within our organization and that they are now turning to our six-year-old company for advice in these areas.

As someone who has known Sten for years, I know that he is up for this challenge, which will call upon his skills as a communicator and entrepreneur, as well as his passion for all things innovative. We wish him well, knowing that he will work hard to ensure that both Estonia and Skype retain their places at the technology innovation table.

Oh and by the way, this new advisory role doesn't mean Sten will be leaving Skype!

Congratulations and well done Sten! (Or 'Hästi tehtud, Sten!' as I would write on our Estonian blog)

I’m Neil, Skype’s General Manager for our global consumer business. What does that mean in simple terms? That I’m responsible for managing our desktop product lineup – Skype for Windows, Mac and Linux – as well as looking after our website, our online marketing and the Skype brand as a whole.

I don’t do this all single-handedly, thankfully, and I have a great team here at Skype who contribute to the incredible products we make. Nevertheless, there are some areas where an outside perspective can be invaluable, and that’s why we’ve just appointed three great agencies to help us develop the Skype brand and help us with our global advertising. The Skype brand isn’t just about our logo, or clouds and rainbows. It’s about what you, the Skype user, think about us as a company and the products we make. How you feel about your experience of using the Skype software, and how you describe Skype to your friends.

Wolff Olins, TBWA\ and Rapp will be our partners on our journey to enhance this iconic global brand and all that it means to you, and I’m looking forward to working with them in the months to come.

Robert Miller is Skype's General Counsel.

On October 6, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in favor of Skype and eBay affirming a judgment from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas finding that two patents asserted against Skype and eBay are invalid.

The case was filed two years ago by Peer Communications Corp., a subsidiary of Acacia Research Corp. Peer alleged that Skype's Internet communications product infringed two of its patents relating to a peer-to-peer communications network.

The case reached the Federal Circuit after the district court ruled favorably for Skype and eBay on a key claim construction term, which then led to a judgment of invalidity on both of Peer's patents.

"We applaud the Federal Circuit's ruling," said Robert Miller, Skype's General Counsel. "We will always fight against allegations of patent infringement that lack merit and protect Skype's interests to the full extent necessary."

Irell & Manella LLP represented eBay and Skype and Andrei Iancu of Irell argued at the appeal. The law firms of Susman Godfrey LLP and Friedman, Suder & Cooke represented Peer.

Since launching our iPhone application six months ago, people have downloaded and installed Skype on 10% of all iPhone and iPod touch devices sold - making it clear that people are extremely interested in taking Skype conversations with them on the go.

All of us at Skype applaud today's announcement by AT&T (in an FCC filing to be published shortly – update, it's here in PDF format) that it'll open up its 3G network to Internet calling applications such as Skype. It's the right step for AT&T, Apple, millions of mobile Skype users and the Internet itself.

Nonetheless, the positive actions of one company are no substitute for a government policy that protects openness and benefits consumers. We're all looking forward to further developments that will let people use Skype on any device, on any network.

The problems we had earlier have now been solved, and things are returning to normal.

From all of us at Skype – sorry for the interruption to your conversations today.

As some of you may have noticed, we’re having some system problems which mean that calls to landlines and mobiles, SMSs and incoming calls to Skype online numbers may not work as expected.

You may also have trouble signing in to Skype, both in the software and on the website.

If you’re signed in to Skype, you can continue to make Skype-to-Skype voice and video calls, send and receive IMs, and transfer files as normal.

We’re working to get everything back to normal as fast as possible.

As some of you may have noticed, Skype for iPhone is now available in Canada For all of you there who’ve been waiting in agony, it’s now here. Head over and download it now (opens in iTunes/App Store).

Photo by Ian Muttoo

The latest update to Skype for iPhone and iPod touch brings a number of improvements:

• You can set up call forwarding from your iPhone - forward Skype calls to a phone number when you're not signed in, so you can pick up calls even when the Skype app isn't running on your device
• Improved performance and better audio quality when making Skype-to-Skype calls
• It's even easier to send text messages (SMS) - you can now send SMSs from the Call tab

For those of you in need of a refresher, it also lets you make free Skype-to-Skype calls, and save money with great value calls to landlines and mobiles. Calling is only available over a WiFi connection, but all other features (SMS, IM and presence included) work over any mobile data connection too. Full details are elsewhere on the website.

Get it now (opens in iTunes/App Store)

Today, Skype begins a new chapter. We’re spinning off from eBay to become an independent company once again. This is very exciting news for all of us here at Skype, and I want to give all of you a brief overview of what’s happening.

A small group of venture capital funds have agreed with eBay to acquire a majority stake in Skype. The group is led by Silver Lake Partners, joined by Index and Andreessen Horowitz Ventures. You may recognize some names – for example Danny Rimer and Mike Volpi (both at Index Ventures) who were some of the earliest Board members and supporters of Skype.

The new investors will buy approximately 65% of Skype, with eBay continuing to own 35%, in a deal valuing Skype at $2.75 billion US. It means we’re back to being a fully independent company again, but with a new group of owners who believe passionately in our mission and in the ability of our team to deliver on it. I can’t wait.

In a filing today responding to the FCC's inquiry into its role in the approval of apps made available through Apple's App Store, AT&T said that it plans "to take a fresh look at possibly authorizing VoIP capabilities on the iPhone for use on AT&T's 3G network."

If this policy is changed, you may be able to make calls to other Skype users, landlines and mobiles over 3G from your iPhone.

We welcome AT&T's willingness to take a fresh look at this issue and hope this is a step forward in enabling consumers to use Skype together with their iPhones and 3G connection. We look forward to hearing more about any potential change to AT&T's policy, in connection with the pending FCC proceeding related to the Skype petition (RM-11361).

All of us at Skype want to encourage other wireless carriers around the world whose policies block or discourage Skype use to re-evalute their policies and to make it easy for their users to take Skype conversations with them when they're on the go.

Residents of South Africa, Netherlands and Malta can now take advantage of Skype online numbers. They’re perfect if you have friends, family or colleagues who don’t use Skype – anyone can dial your online number and reach you on Skype, wherever you are.

Online numbers cost just €15/$18/£14 for 3 months or €50/$60/£37 for a full year (€17.25/£16.05 and €57.50/£40.25 where VAT applies, respectively). You can get up to 50% off this cost if you have or purchase a monthly subscription.

Find out more, or head straight over to your account to set up your number now.

Over the last few months, our engineers have been working with our friends at Freetalk on a super-secret project. The challenge? To produce a super-wideband audio headset for everyone, everywhere.

It’s now ready for public consumption – a plug-and-play super-wideband audio headset which gives you great quality Skype calls. It’s lightweight and folds flat so you can throw it in your bag with your laptop.

It’s great value and available now from the Skype Shop. For detailed specifications and a comprehensive review, head over to Andrew’s post on the Skype Gear blog.

We’ve just released the final version of Skype 2.8 for Mac – it’s ready for you to download now.

Those of you who have already been using the beta version won’t notice any new features, but we’ve fixed a number of bugs. Raul’s post on the Garage blog has all the details.

For those of you downloading for the first time, my post on the Mac blog has a full rundown of the new features since 2.7, but I’d like to highlight screen sharing in particular:

Screen Sharing

Sometimes trying to explain what you are seeing on your screen to someone on a call just doesn’t work. With screen sharing you can easily show exactly what you are looking at by simply calling your Skype contact and sharing all or part of your desktop.

It’s great for sharing presentations with colleagues, or for showing off a killer move in a game. It’s easy to do, and totally free.

You can share your screen with anyone using a video-capable version of Skype, and screen sharing is also available in Skype 4.1 for Windows, enabling cross-platform collaboration.

Head over and download the new version of Skype for Mac now while it’s still warm

The Skype Shop is now available for our users in Latin America – if you’re in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, you can now browse and buy a range of Skype Certified accessories and hardware, including headsets and webcams.

Your purchases will be shipped directly to you from third party merchants we’ve partnered with, and you can be confident that every item has passed Skype’s quality and performance certification tests.

If you’re using Skype 4.0 or 4.1 for Windows, you can also access the Skype Shop from within the Skype software on your computer – just click the Shop tab on the bottom left hand side of the main Skype window.

Skype is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family around the world – and if you regularly call Turkey you’ll be happy to hear that we’ve cut the cost of calling numbers in Turkey by up to 78%.

Skype-to-Skype calls are always free, forever. But you can’t reach anyone everywhere on Skype. Calls to landlines in Turkey now cost from just €0.024/$0.034 US/£0.02 per minute* and calls to Turkish mobile phones start from only €0.13/$0.183 US/£0.111 per minute*. You can find full details of the new rates elsewhere on the Skype site.

This means that you can call more often and for longer without worrying about the cost. And it means one less excuse for not calling the parents

If you don’t already have Skype, download it now and get some Skype Credit – and get calling.

* A connection fee and VAT at 15% apply to all calls to mobiles and landline phones.

Download Skype 4.1 for Windows

Skype 4.1 for Windows is now gold, and is ready for you to download.

We’ve fixed a number of bugs found in the beta release, and recommend that you update now.

We’ve added useful features like screen sharing, which is a great way to show off your latest creations and presentations, or help a friend with their computer. We’ve also included birthday reminders (though you’ll have to bring your own cake).

What’s more, we’ve listened to your thoughts and feedback and further refinements have been made to audio and video quality – so your calls should sound and look better than ever.

Download Skype 4.1 for Windows now

Some of you may have seen update notifications in iTunes or on the App Store on your device, but for those of you who haven’t – Skype 1.1 for iPhone and iPod touch is now available for download.

New languages

Skype for iPhone speaks your language – it’s now available in Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish and Traditional Chinese as well as English.

Voicemail and SMS

We’ve listened to your feedback – Skype for iPhone now lets you listen to your Skype voicemail while you’re on the move, as well as send super low-cost SMSs to friends and family around the world.

… and more

Additionally, we’ve made some improvements to the look and feel, particularly when calling phones using the dial pad.

So – what are you waiting for? Download the update in iTunes, or launch the App Store on your device and tap Updates to grab the latest version.

Note: This version requires iPhone OS 2.2 or 3.0. If you’re still using iPhone OS 2.1 or 2.0, you’ll need to update to 3.0 in order to run Skype 1.1 for iPhone – it’s free (for iPhone users) and easy to do. Skype for iPhone is not supported on devices running modified versions of iPhone OS.

It’s better than ever before – the Gold version of Skype 3.0 for Windows Phones is now available for download.

It includes two cool new features: SMS and file transfer. Sending SMSs using Skype is a great way to reach friends and family instantly anywhere in the world – Skype’s low rates mean that you won’t have to break the bank to do it. And file transfer lets you send files quickly when you’re on the move.

We’ve ironed out the remaining wrinkles since the Beta release, and it’s ready to go. Download it now and give it a whirl.

Screen sharing in Skype 4.1 Beta for Windows

Hot on the heels of 4.0, the beta version of Skype 4.1 for Windows has arrived. It adds screen sharing, a feature many of you have been asking for since we introduced it in Skype 2.8 Beta for Mac, and more too.

Download now — Skype 4.1 Beta for Windows

Screen sharing

Have you ever tried to help a friend with their computer? Or take a colleague through a presentation? Or help a friend with their essay? Or show off a killer move in a game? Well, screen sharing in Skype makes doing things like that super-easy. Just click the Share menu in the conversation area of the Skype window.

With this beta, you can share your screen with any other Skype user on Windows, Mac or Linux. You can share your whole screen, or just a selection, and best of all, it’s totally free.

… and more

We’ve also added birthday reminders, and you’ll also be able to send contacts to other Skype users. For those of you who missed these features in the last version, they’re back

In addition, 4.1 Beta lets you import contacts from a range of other services including Gmail, Windows Live Hotmail, Yahoo! and AOL.

It also includes further refinements to audio and video call quality, bug fixes and accessibility improvements. Look out for a post from one of our accessibility experts in the near future, who’ll explain exactly what we’re doing to make Skype easier to use for blind and visually impaired people, and for people who can’t use a mouse.

How do I get it?

Download now — Skype 4.1 Beta for Windows

So here’s the deal – you download the beta, and in return, you give us your feedback. Please let us know what you think about the new features, and let us know if you spot anything which doesn’t work as expected. You can leave a comment below, or better still, fill out our feedback survey – your input will help us make future versions of Skype better than ever.

Oprah Winfrey talks to Josh Silverman

For the past year, Skype has enabled The Oprah Winfrey Show to talk face-to-face with anybody, anywhere, at anytime.

We've been tremendously inspired watching Oprah use Skype video to connect with everyday people, celebrities, and even animals on her show. In fact, did you see Oprah last week? Oprah had a Skype video call with a huge grizzly bear. (Now, that's a first.)

This week, we're expecting to see Oprah push the limits with Skype even further. Watch Josh Silverman, President of Skype, make an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Thursday, May 21st as part of the "Where the Skype are You?" episode. It's going to be a fascinating Skype adventure not to be missed as Oprah takes viewers to some surprising places over Skype video.

Check out the video teaser on Oprah.com.

Unlimited calls
– now to 42 countries

The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that we've added a few new countries to call to our subscriptions - not just that, but we're offering a 25% discount on our already low rates if you sign up for 12 months before the 6th May.

Five simple reasons why Skype subscriptions rock:

• You can talk as long as you want*, at any time of day, to over 40 countries
• No long term contract - you can sign up for 1, 3 or 12 months at a time
• You can call at any time - there's no such thing as 'peak' or 'off-peak' with Skype
• Voicemail included - so you never miss a call, plus 50% off an online number
• You can use your subscription from your mobile (including iPhone) or from any mobile or landline with a Skype To Go number

If you're looking for great value calls across the globe, our Unlimited World subscription should do the trick. You can make calls to over 40 countries - now including Argentina, Bulgaria, Colombia, Croatia, Slovakia and Thailand - for just $12.95 US/€8.95/£6.95 per month.

We have subscriptions for calls to specific countries, too - India and South Africa, for example - which are a great way to stay in touch with family back home at a time when every penny counts.

See our subscriptions ›

* Fair use policy applies

I’m happy to report that Jason Fischl has recently joined Skype as Director of Developer Relations. Among other things, he’ll be heading up the Skype Developer Program.

Jason’s no newcomer to the world of VoIP. Before Skype, he was Chief Technology Officer at CounterPath, the leading developer of cross platform softphones for desktops and mobile convergence products for the likes of AT&T, BT and Verizon.

Personally, I’m thrilled about Jason joining. We have a great opportunity to revitalize our developer program and he has the skills and experience to lead this effort. He has an excellent track record working with industry standards bodies like the IETF in and is a thought leader in open source software development.

Last month, Skype made news when we offered our advanced SILK speech technology – which is incorporated into Skype 4.0 for Windows – to developers for free, and positioned it as a new standard for high quality audio.

Jason’s new role will allow Skype to do more in this direction, continuing to give third-party developers access to tools like SILK – and making Skype a platform for ground-breaking innovation.

For those of you reading this in an RSS reader, you can watch the video here. You can also grab the embed code if you want to use this video in your own blog.

I know you’ve all been waiting for this one – I certainly have – but it’s finally here. The long anticipated Skype for iPhone and iPod touch has hit the App Store, and it’s yours to download for free.

Kurt Thywissen, lead engineer on the Skype for iPhone project, explains all in the video above, but I suspect that many of you will want to dive straight in and download it now.

Skype for iPhone delivers a true Skype experience: make free Skype-to-Skype calls and low cost calls to landlines and mobile phones – and participate in conference calls – from any WiFi zone. You can IM to your heart’s content, and participate in group chats too, whenever you have network connectivity, whether it's WiFi, 3G, EDGE or GPRS.

The user interface is everything you’d expect from an iPhone app, and it integrates with your Address Book for super low cost calls to friends, family and colleagues abroad. It also integrates with the Camera Roll and your photo albums so you can select a profile picture you love.

As always, we’re keen to hear your feedback – development of Skype for iPhone doesn’t stop here, and your thoughts and ideas can help us make it even better. Leave a comment below, or head to the iPhone area of the Skype Community to share your views.

Update: You might like to read answers to two common questions abut Skype for iPhone.

For those of you reading this in an RSS reader, you can watch the video here. You can also grab the embed code if you want to use this video in your own blog.

Just over a month ago, I mentioned on this blog that we were gearing up to launch Skype 3.0 Beta for Windows Phones , and now it’s ready for you to download and try out.

It includes two great new features: SMS and file transfer. With 3.0 Beta, you can send text messages from your phone at Skype’s low rates, and send and receive files with your Skype contacts around the world – John Nguyen explains all in the video above.

File transfer in Skype 3.0 Beta for Windows Phones

Now that Skype for Windows Mobile supports file transfer, you can send and receive documents on the move. Need to do an impromptu presentation to a potential client? Have a colleague send that 50Mb PowerPoint document straight from the office. Made some edits and want to back it up? Send it back again.

Of course, Skype-to-Skype file transfers are secure and private, so you can send sensitive documents in the knowledge that they’re safe from prying eyes, even across unsecured WiFi networks.

SMS in Skype 3.0 Beta for Windows Phones

When you’re abroad and in a WiFi zone, the SMS feature is a great way to avoid mobile roaming charges – you pay only Skype’s low SMS rates to send messages to friends and family. Of course, roaming charges may apply if you’re connecting to Skype using a 3G network, so check with your operator before doing so.

Of course, even when you’re at home, the SMS feature in 3.0 Beta is a great way to reach friends and family instantly anywhere in the world – and Skype’s low rates mean that you won’t have to break the bank to do it.

And more…

We’ve also spruced up the user interface, and combined Pocket PC and Smartphone apps into a single download – so head over and give it a try

Today, Skype takes another step towards greater interoperability with the launch of the beta of Skype For SIP.

SIP is the leading voice over Internet protocol used in businesses telephony networks – there are millions of installations across the globe. According to IDC^†, 438,000 IP PBXes were shipped worldwide in 2008, so this represents a significant opportunity for Skype, and for small, medium and large businesses around the world.

What Skype For SIP can do for your business

With Skype For SIP, your business can:

• Receive and manage inbound calls from the 405 million Skype users worldwide on SIP-enabled PBX systems, connecting the company website to the PBX system using Skype click-to-call buttons
• Place calls via Skype to landlines and mobile phones worldwide from any connected SIP-enabled PBX, saving your business money with Skype’s low rates
• Purchase Skype online numbers to receive calls to the corporate PBX from landlines or mobile phones
• Manage Skype calls using your existing hardware and system applications such as call routing, conferencing, phone menus, voicemail and call recording and logging – no additional downloads or training are required

Skype For SIP is the perfect way to integrate Skype with your existing PBX, allowing the communications from your PBX to be complemented by Skype functionality – head over to the Business blog to find out more about the Beta programme.

^† Source: IDC, Worldwide IP PBX and Desktop Hardware IP Phone Market Forecast, 2008-2012: Using the PBX as the Foundation of Unified Communications, Doc #210695, February 2008.

It can be difficult to make yourself understood in an unfamiliar country, particularly when you don’t speak the language. As a result, we try to make both the Skype software and our website available in as many languages as we can.

As part of this process, our translators have been hard at work on the Russian version of our website, and the results of their efforts are now live – head over and take a look.

Jonathan Christensen is Skype’s General Manager for Audio and Video.

Today marks a significant moment in the journey of Skype. Some of you may be aware of the SILK speech codec which is included as part of Skype 4.0 for Windows – it’s what enables super-wideband audio and optimizes call quality, even in low network bandwidth environments. It transforms sound quality for Skype calls, and if you haven’t already tried 4.0, believe me: you should.

I’m speaking at eComm today, and have some very special news to bring our developer community – we’re making the SILK speech codec available for a royalty free license by third-party software and hardware developers soon.

Continue reading "SILK, our super wideband audio codec, is now available for free" »

Skype voicemail means that you’ll never miss a call. Your unanswered calls are sent to voicemail and you can listen to messages when you want, wherever you sign in to Skype, or using Skype To Go. To make voicemail even better, we’ve added two new features: voicemail to text and voicemail alerts.

Voicemail to text

With voicemail to text, you’ll never miss an important voicemail – thanks to our partnership with the ultra-cool SpinVox. SpinVox will convert your voicemail to text, and we’ll send it directly to your mobile by SMS for you to read (SpinVox's blogger, James Whatley, is understandably quite excited about this ). The SpinVox gnomes currently understand voicemail messages left in English, French, German and Spanish, and, believe me, they’re pretty good.

Each voicemail to text conversion will cost €0.20/£0.17/$0.25 plus the cost of sending up to 3 SMS at standard low Skype rates, depending on the length of the voicemail message. The number of messages we send will depend upon the length of the voicemail message – if we can’t fit it all into 3 SMSes, you’ll see an ellipsis (…) at the end of the third message, and you’ll have to sign in to Skype or call your Skype To Go number to hear the full message.

Voicemail alerts

You can now set up email or SMS voicemail alerts to let you know when you have new voicemail messages. Email alerts are free, and SMS alerts are charged at Skype’s standard low SMS rates. You can also use Skype To Go to pick up your voicemail on the move.

To make life easier for you, we’ve also introduced privacy settings for voicemail alerts, so you can get alerts only from people on your contact list. In addition, you can set a daily limit for the number of alerts.

Both of these enhancements should make Skype voicemail even more useful – and don’t forget; if you have any comments or questions about these new features, leave a comment below and I’ll respond as quickly as I can.

Skype To Go
Now for all paying users

We launched Skype To Go back in 2007, and it’s been so popular that we’ve decided to offer it to everyone with Skype Credit.

A Skype To Go number lets you make super low-cost international calls from mobiles and landlines. When you’re on the move, dial the Skype To Go number from any phone to reach your friends, family or business partners abroad. Skype To Go numbers are local numbers, so if they’re included in your phone’s calling plan, you’ll pay only the low Skype rates for the calls you make.

With a Skype To Go number, you can call your friend in Australia, your son on holiday in South America, or your colleague in Tokyo at Skype’s super-low rates from a landline or mobile phone – no matter where you are. Skype To Go lets you take low-cost calls everywhere.

Continue reading "Skype To Go now for all paying users" »

Just under two years ago, we launched the Send Money feature in Skype for Windows. Unfortunately, it simply hasn’t been used by enough of our users for us to continue to support it, and so Send Money will no longer be available in Skype itself. It was a tough decision for us, but we want to focus on the things we do best – free, high quality voice and video calls, instant messaging and Skype for mobile devices, to name but a few.

Instead of sending money in Skype, we suggest that you head directly to our friends at PayPal – it’s a safe and simple way to send money online.

Greetings from the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. I’m excited to announce a major strategic partnership between Nokia and Skype. It’s a meeting of two great innovators and two great brands – the world’s largest and most distinctive mobile manufacturer, and the world’s leading communications software company. Together, we’re going to develop and deliver a great mobile Skype experience that meets the needs of our many users who are also Nokia customers. It will also bring Skype to new mobile users in both developed and emerging markets.

Image: Nokia N97 with integrated Skype

Continue reading "Nokia and Skype Partnering in Mobile" »

Our engineers have been hard at work on Skype for Windows Mobile over the last few months. Just over two months after the release of 2.5 Beta, we’re ready to share the Gold version with you. We’ve fixed a bunch of bugs, and smoothed and refined the user experience on new devices. Head over and download it now – for both Pocket PC and Smartphone devices.

However, I know how keen you are to learn about the latest beta versions from our labs, and so we’re also previewing the first beta of Skype 3.0 for Windows Mobile at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today. It includes two great new features: SMS and file transfer. With 3.0 Beta, you can send text messages from your phone at Skype’s low rates, and send and receive files with your Skype contacts around the world. We’ll be releasing 3.0 Beta in March, so keep your eyes peeled for more news on this blog.

We’ve also been working together with Sony Ericsson and have developed a Skype Panel for the Xperia X1, which tells you at a glance which of your contacts are online. It’ll be available for download in March.

As always, we’re keen to hear your feedback on Skype for Windows Mobile. Leave a comment below, or head over to the Skype Community and join the discussion there.

For those of you who are regular readers of this blog, this should come as no surprise – the gold version of Skype 4.0 for Windows is now ready to download. It’s an exciting day at Skype – and not just because we’ve also just passed the 16 million online user milestone – as it marks the final stage in a process which has lasted over two years, and incorporated feedback from tens of thousands users like you.

I’m going to keep this brief, as much of the story of 4.0 has been covered in Peter’s previous posts, but even if you stop reading now, this is the bit to remember: the gold version of Skype 4.0 for Windows is now ready, so download it now and share it with your friends, family and colleagues.

At Skype, we feel that we’re really having an impact on the world when people love to use Skype – chat, make voice and video calls, have group conversations and send files – and in 4.0 we’ve focused on making these features better than ever. To meet that goal, we’ve made a number of dramatic improvements to video calling, ease-of-use and call quality:

• Improved video calling – With the changes we’ve made, video calling in Skype 4.0 for Windows is the next best thing to being there. A new built-in bandwidth manager ensures that you have the very best video calling experience possible, even on a low bandwidth connection. If you have a fast enough connection (recommended 400 Kb/s or higher) and a high quality webcam, Skype delivers up to 30-frames-per-second High Quality Video at full screen.
• Calls and instant messages are easier to manage – video and voice calls, as well as instant messaging, are all easy to reach in a single window. The new Conversations tab makes it easy to hold multiple conversations at once, and to switch quickly between video and voice calls, instant messages and SMS. This is particularly beneficial for the power users among you.
• Call quality is substantially improved thanks to a number of under-the-hood changes. Calls sound richer and clearer than ever thanks to support for Super Wideband Audio with compatible hardware. The bandwidth manager should ensure that you have crystal clear calls even when bandwidth is low.

4.0 also sports a radically overhauled user interface – a slicker, cleaner look with less clutter and easier-to-find core features. We’ve also included Compact View, which retains the structure of the Skype 3.8 interface for those of you who prefer to work that way.

We’ve also improved the History and search features, and have added abuse reporting – if you choose to block a new contact request you’ll now be given the option of reporting the blocked user to Skype. This information will be used to help us detect and block the tiny minority abusive users.

It represents a fundamental change in the way we’ve thought about the software development process, and is the most distinctive new release in Skype’s five year history. We’ve examined every aspect of the software, both inside and out, and taken on board your feedback at every stage. I’m very proud of the work our engineers and designers have put in to this version, and I hope you enjoy the results of their efforts.

Greetings from the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. On Thursday morning, I spoke at a CES press conference about Skype, sharing our vision of the future and new additions to our product range.

One of our major priorities is to let you take Skype with you wherever you go, so you can use Skype anytime, anywhere, on any device or network. To make this possible, we’ve been hard at work developing versions of Skype which will run on your mobile devices, in addition to continuing to innovate with our desktop products. At CES, we announced two fantastic new additions to the Skype software line-up.

Android

First, a new lite version of Skype is now available for download on Android-powered mobile devices. The lite version of Skype is a ‘thin client’ which lets you chat with or call other Skype users, as well as call landlines and mobiles around the world. You’ll now be able to run it on Android-powered mobile devices, beginning with the T-Mobile G1, as well as more than 100 other Java-enabled mobile phones from Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and LG. For the first time, it is also now available for US users.

You can download the lite version of Skype for Android direct from the Android Market on your Android device. Following our announcement last month of a new Skype for Windows Mobile 2.5 beta, Skype is now available on nearly 200 mobile devices.

For those of you reading this in an RSS reader, you can watch the video here. You can also grab the embed code if you want to use this video in your own blog.

MIDs

We are also bringing Skype to entirely new categories of devices. Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) are powerful, adding extra processing power and memory, larger screens and improved battery life, enabling us to bring the full functionality of Skype to them. For these devices, Skype now offers free voice and video calling from the palm of your hand. We’re rolling out the first version of Skype for MIDs based on the Intel Atom processor and Moblin-based Linux OS.

ABI Research expects 86 million Linux-powered MIDs to ship by 2013, so this is a big opportunity for Skype, and we’re working in partnership with Intel to make Skype the communication tool of choice on MIDs. Head over to the Garage blog to see some more information and download the Skype for MIDs Beta.

Together, these two products represent a big step towards our goal of making Skype available everywhere. Now, following the recent updates to Skype for Windows Mobile last month and the recent introductions of the 3 Skypephone S2 and INQ1 mobile handsets, we’re making progress towards our goal. Over the next 6-12 months, you’ll see Skype become available on an even wider range of mobile handsets and platforms.

Mac

On the desktop front, we released Skype 2.8 Beta for Mac earlier this week and introduced two new core features – Skype Access and screen sharing. I am passionate Mac user myself, and I’ve heard your feedback about wanting to see some new features launch first on Mac. I hope you enjoy them. I’ve been using the screen sharing to share YouTube Christmas carols with my 4 year old daughter Madison, and she has enjoyed them despite my poor singing.

Windows

I’m also excited that, in a few weeks time, a final version of Skype 4.0 for Windows will be made available. As part of the all new Skype, our engineers have developed something we are calling ‘super wideband audio,’ which is available today. This new speech codec produces incredible sound quality – even when bandwidth is low. You just need to download the updated beta.

If you use a sound card and headset or speakers which support sampling above 16khz, you’ll already get the full ‘super wideband audio’ experience. While there are a number of headsets and devices that already support this, we will be announcing a number of ‘super wideband audio’ certified devices over the coming months.

As you can see, we’ve been busy getting these products ready for you. And there will be plenty of other great things ahead from Skype in 2009. Stay tuned

We know it’s been a while, but we’re finally ready to pull the wraps off Skype 2.8 Beta for Mac, our latest release for the Mac platform. To make up for the wait, we’ve included two exciting new features which aren’t currently available on Skype for Windows.

Download the new Beta now – and read on for more details.

Continue reading "Skype 2.8 Beta for Mac: Skype Access and Screen Sharing" »

Hello again! Today we’re launching Beta 3 of Skype 4.0 for Windows.

We’ve spent the last few months analysing your feedback in detail, and I’d like to thank all of you who have contacted us directly as well as the hundreds of discussions on blogs and Twitter, all of which have helped us shape this third Beta version.

So what’s new?

Firstly we’ve included full History features, as promised when we launched Beta 2. You can browse and search past conversations by event type (instant messages, incoming calls, outgoing calls, and so on), making it easy to retrieve information about who was involved and what was said. You’ll find the History button at the bottom of the Conversation tab.

But that’s not all. We’ve added a few new ingredients to the mix to make using Skype just that little bit smoother:

We’ve made numerous improvements to call and video quality with a new Bandwidth Manager. You’ll notice that Skype will adapt a lot faster to varying changes in your network condition now.

You’ll notice a new look that’s more reflective of our brand which we’ve achieved by customising the Windows chrome. You can turn this off from Options if you don’t like it.

We’ve also introduced Abuse Reporting when you block a user. This will help us address unwanted authorisation requests which a small number of our users are experiencing.

Additionally, we’ve improved the readability of instant messages and the usability of the Call Toolbar. Outlook Contacts are back and we’ve also made some adjustments to the way Group Conversations are viewed.

So, yup, we’ve been pretty busy – all thanks to the feedback you’ve been given us. This has been a fantastic experience for us really engaging our community and building a product with all of you.

What next?

Please download it and try it out. Your feedback is still important to us as our Windows team continue to work on priming 4.0 Beta for the next release. Stay tuned

Just under a fortnight ago, Josh Silverman blogged about Skype’s plans for the coming months. We’ve been making some changes to the way we work, restructuring and expanding our teams to help them work more effectively, and part of that process involves hiring new people at all levels. You can check out our jobs site for a list of vacancies – there are 55 at the time of writing.

Today, however, we’re very pleased to have filled two vacancies with fantastic new additions to our senior staff. Very shortly, Daniel Berg will hop on board as Chief Technology Officer and Christopher S. Dean starts straight away as Chief Strategy Officer. Both of them will report directly to Josh.

Continue reading "Welcoming our new CTO, Daniel Berg and CSO, Christopher S. Dean" »

As part of our quest to enable the world’s conversations, we’re always looking for ways to make it easier to use Skype. We’re aware that for some of our users, it’s difficult to buy Skype Credit where you are, and so we’re working on ways of making this easier.

To help out our Ukranian Skype users, we’ve partnered with PrivatBank, the largest Ukranian bank, to offer a range of new ways to pay.

Continue reading "Say hello to our Ukranian partner, PrivatBank" »

As you probably know, Skype’s largest office is in Tallinn, Estonia. Whenever I visit, just before touching down at Tallinn airport, the plane passes Lake Ülemiste – home of the Ülemiste Elder, a mythological character who innocently asks passers-by whether the growing city has been completed. Apparently, the correct response is, “Not yet.” Imply the opposite, the legend goes, and the grumpy Elder will flood the city.

Skype, too, remains a work in progress. We’re a dynamic, fast-growing company that learns from a changing world and adjusts accordingly. For us to continue thriving, change cannot be a one-time thing. It has to be a way of life. Stagnation, the dismal alternative, requires no effort and creeps up silently. People tend to get stuck in their ways and companies are no different. When they get bigger, they get clumsier.

I’d rather avoid that last bit. So, in August we began evaluating our structure to make sure, really sure, that we don’t join the Clumsy Club.

Now, 2008 has been a very good year for us. Our growth rate has been terrific and I’m cautiously optimistic about healthy growth in 2009 as well. Obviously, anyone claiming to have a reliable crystal ball is either a fool or a gambler. We’re neither. So we cannot fully predict how much additional business will be heading our way because of the recession. As a five-year-old company, we simply haven’t lived through a downcycle before. But in difficult times, people tend to turn to value. And Skype represents value. We’re monitoring the market closely, but based on what we see at the moment, we plan to continue growing our team to help achieve Skype’s full potential.

Excited as we are about bringing new colleagues aboard, there’s more to reorganizing our structure for continued growth. Back in the summer, we set out to be smart about it. And transparent. And fair.

Which is why we held numerous workshops to gain input from the team on how our structure and ways of working need to change. Change that we hope will lead to sustained growth, better products and an even more empowering work life at Skype. One of the things we’re doing is to create smaller “companies” within the company: consumer-, business-, mobility-, and developer-focused business units vaccinated against shackles that curb innovation and risk-taking. Each new business unit is designed to emulate the feel of a start-up and to cultivate a deeper sense of ownership.  

This is just a low-resolution snapshot from what’s a continual journey of change. There’s much more to it, of course. Replotting our roles, responsibilities and accountability takes time. While we think that we’ve done most things right, some won’t come through as intended. Tweaking them for a few months should make life at Skype work well for everybody.

Naturally, changes will be most meaningful to us on the inside. If you’re a Skype user, I hope you don’t care too much about our organizational plumbing. The pleasures and struggles of your own life are much too important for that. But here’s the thing. Our structural rethink isn’t about change for change’s sake. From day one, everything at Skype has boiled down to delighting the customer. With a bit of home improvement to support further growth and innovation, we’re just making sure it stays that way.

As for the Ülemiste Elder with flood fantasies… Sorry to disappoint you, old man.

Skype will always be a work in progress.

Josh Silverman
Skype President

Skype is all about conversation – and we realise that it’s sometimes hard to have a conversation with someone when you don’t speak the same language.

That’s why we try to add new languages to our repertoire when we can, and today we’ve launched an Arabic version of the Skype website. For the hundreds of millions of Arabic speakers across the globe, Skype now speaks the way you do.

Visit the Skype website in Arabic »

إن Skype برنامج للمحادثة - وقد لاحظنا أنه من الصعب أحياناً أن تُجري محادثة مع شخص ما عندما لا تتحدثان نفس اللغة.

ولذلك فإننا نحاول إضافة لغات جديدة إلى مخزوننا عندما نتمكن من ذلك، وقد قمنا اليوم بتدشين النسخة العربية من موقع Skype. من أجل مئات الملايين من المتحدثين باللغة العربية، أصبح Skype يتحدث الآن بلغتكم.

قم بزيارة موقع Skype باللغة العربية »

We’re working to make Skype available on as many different devices as possible. Earlier in the summer we launched the 3 Skypephone S2, and our Linux team also shared their plans to bring Skype to the new generation of MIDs in the autumn.

Today, however, we’re very excited to announce that the ASUS AiGuru SV1 is now available for purchase direct from the Skype Shop in North America, and for pre-order in Europe. It'll be available in Asia later this year.

Continue reading "Skype certified videophone hits the shops" »

The Skype blogs have always been a place for lively and productive discussion, but as the volume of comments is pretty high, we’re introducing some guidelines to help everyone stay on track.

What sort of comments are we looking for, then? Comments which make a substantive point with a minimum of fuss – the same sort of standards we try to adhere to when we’re writing these blogs, in fact. We don’t edit comments, so make sure yours fits the guidelines below before you post it.

Continue reading "Introducing some guidelines for comments" »

This beta’s a bit different to the one Mike was talking about last week. Today’s release is rather more pocket sized, and encompasses a number of improvements to Skype for your mobile.

Continue reading "Skype for your mobile Beta 2" »

You may have seen some reports in the media about a security and privacy breach in the software provided by our Chinese partner, TOM Online. I'm writing to let you know where we stand, and what we're doing to resolve the problem.

Some brief background: In China, TOM is the majority local partner in our joint venture that brings Skype functionality to Chinese citizens. The software is distributed in China by TOM and TOM, just like any other communications company in China, has established procedures to meet local laws and regulations. These regulations include the requirement to monitor and block instant messages containing certain words deemed "offensive" by the Chinese authorities.

It is common knowledge that censorship does exist in China and that the Chinese government has been monitoring communications in and out of the country for many years. This, in fact, is true for all forms of communication such as emails, fixed and mobile phone calls, and instant messaging between people within China and between China and other countries. TOM, like every other communications service provider operating in China, has an obligation to be compliant if they are to be able to operate in China at all.

In April 2006, Skype publicly disclosed that TOM operated a text filter that blocked certain words in chat messages, and it also said that if the message is found unsuitable for displaying, it is simply discarded and not displayed or transmitted anywhere. It was our understanding that it was not TOM's protocol to upload and store chat messages with certain keywords, and we are now inquiring with TOM to find out why the protocol changed.

We also learned yesterday about the existence of a security breach that made it possible for people to gain access to those stored messages on TOM's servers. We were very concerned to learn about both issues and after we urgently addressed this situation with TOM, they fixed the security breach. In addition, we are currently addressing the wider issue of the uploading and storage of certain messages with TOM.

It's important to remind everybody that the issues highlighted in yesterday's Information Warfare Monitor / ONI Asia report refer only to communications in which one or more parties are using TOM software to conduct instant messaging. It does not affect communications where all parties are using standard Skype software. Skype-to-Skype communications are, and always have been, completely secure and private.

I passionately believe in Skype's mission to enable the world's conversations. Allowing the world to communicate for free empowers and links people and communities everywhere. Our challenge is to bring this valuable service to people all over, including China, while being transparent to our users and staying within the boundaries of the local laws. We are committed to meet this challenge.

Update: Josh answers some common questions about the privacy breach.

In June we announced the first beta of Skype 4.0, a radical departure from any other version we’ve made before. Since then we’ve spent a lot of time reading and analysing your feedback and we’ve made a number of changes.

This video is recorded in HD - we recommend viewing it full screen (for those of you reading this in an RSS reader, you can watch the briefing video here - you can also grab the embed code if you want to use this video in your own blog)

First, I’d like to talk a little bit about the feedback itself. We had over 350,000 people trying out Beta 1. We had around 15,000 people giving us their comments through the Give feedback button directly in Skype; around 40,000 through surveys (both online and email) and about 700 comments on various blog posts.

Continue reading "Skype 4.0 Beta 2 for Windows" »

As you may have heard, something groundbreaking’s happening in the land of 3.

A software update being pushed to handsets in the UK and Ireland from tomorrow will let you call landlines and mobiles abroad using Skype’s paid-for services from your 3 Skypephone or Skype-enabled 3 mobile. 3 Skypephone users – both S1 and S2 – along with people using Skype on 3 mobiles will be able to take advantage of Skype’s low rates to stay in touch with non Skype users around the world.

Now you’ll have no excuse not to get in touch with your friends, relatives and colleagues, even if they’re on a beach in Sydney or a hotel in Rome

Update: Skype for Asterisk is out of beta

Stefan Öberg is vice president and general manager for Skype Telecom and Skype for Business

I’m speaking today at AstriCon in Glenndale, Arizona, and I’m excited to announce the beta version of Skype For Asterisk, which will allow small and mid-sized businesses to integrate Skype functionality into Digium’s Asterisk software. If you’re an Asterisk user, you’ll be able to make, receive and transfer Skype calls from your Asterisk phone.

Specifically, the beta version of Skype For Asterisk is an add-on channel driver module that integrates Skype calling with Asterisk-based telephony products. Skype For Asterisk also complements small and mid-sized business users’ existing services by providing low rates for calling landline and mobile phones around the world.

Continue reading "Skype for Asterisk Beta" »

A month ago, we announced the extension of our subscriptions to cover Finland and Israel – and today we have some even more exciting news

Four new cities join our Unlimited Subscriptions – and the details are below. This is great news if you're an Unlimited World subscriber, as you can now call landlines to Moscow and St Petersburg in Russia and in Buenos Aires and Córdoba in Argentina for no extra charge. Unlimited Europe subscribers can now call Moscow and St Petersburg for no extra charge too.

Continue reading "Moscow and St Petersburg in Russia and Buenos Aires and Córdoba in Argentina join subscriptions" »

I'm staring at the blinking cursor on an empty page. This page. And it occurs to me that five years ago today, Skype was that cursor. An impatient speck on the world's radar screen, vying for attention that would help write a new chapter in the history of communication.

With the benefit of five years of hindsight, Skype's success now appears so logical, so natural. As if Niklas Zennström, Janus Friis and their skeleton crew of Estonian programmers had planned it all along.

Hmm. They simply couldn't have predicted where this journey would take them and millions of others - who, among them, have clocked up more than 100 billion Skype-to-Skype minutes. Visionary foresight is one thing. But expecting Skype to have touched close to 350 million users by year five, to have enabled billions of conversations, enriched and even enabled millions of relationships, and along the way to have helped transform one of the largest industries in the world? That would have been downright delusional.

Continue reading "Five Years of Wow" »

At Skype, our aim is to offer products that delight people and enable the world's conversations. Part of our vision means coming up with new ways for our community of more than 338 million registered users to stay in touch.

Skypecasts is one of the many features that we've developed to enable these conversations. What we've learned by watching how the product is used and through user feedback is that Skypecasts is not quite measuring up to our high standards and expectations for connecting and delighting our users.

As a result, we have made the decision to retire Skypecasts from active service for the immediate future, effective 12 noon BST on Monday, 1st September 2008.

This decision is consistent with Skype's efforts to prioritise resources towards the products and areas of innovation that that will have the biggest impact on the Skype community.

Philosophically, we continue to believe in the concept of Skypecasts - group communication on a specific topic of interest. As such, we will look for ways to reintroduce this functionality in a way that lives up to both our and our community's high standards.

To those people who regularly enjoy hosting and taking part in Skypecasts, we apologise for the inconvenience and hope we'll be able to release a new and improved Skypecasts product in the not too distant future. We'll be sure to let you know when that day arrives.

Although it hasn't exactly been kept a secret, we're all very excited to announce that the new 3 Skypephone is here. It's called the S2, and as with the first 3 Skypephone, Skype is fully integrated, so you can make and calls and send instant messages to Skype users anywhere in the world absolutely free.

Equally, it's absolutely free for other people to call you or message you on Skype while you're using the 3 Skypephone S2. Of course, it does all of the other things you'd expect a mobile to do too - make calls, send text messages, take photos and browse the web.

How does the S2 compare to the the original 3 Skypephone?

New user interface — even easier to use than the original 3 Skypephone, with a carousel interface which makes switching apps speedy. It preserves the integrated Skype phonebook, so your contacts' Skype names appear alongside their landline or mobile phone numbers.

Better build, screen and camera — it has metal keys and back as well as a bigger screen (2.2" vs. 2") at higher resolution (240 x 320 vs. 176 x 220) and a better camera (3.2 megapixel vs. 2 megapixel).

HSDPA broadband and built-in dongle capabilities - it has built in modem drivers so you can use the cable that comes in the box to plug it into your laptop and get online.

Facebook and Last.fm apps and RSS reader - convenient access to Facebook and Last.fm, plus your top RSS feeds, while on the move.

Where can I get one?

It's available in the UK only at present, and it's available to buy now. It's priced at £69.99 on Pay as You Go, and it's free with a contract from £15 per month.

Update: Our calling subscriptions have been updated to include Moscow, St Petersburg, Buenos Aires and Córdoba (Argentina) - please refer to the more recent blog post for the latest information.

When we launched our subscriptions back in April, we had always planned to increase the number of countries included. And today, we’re happy to announce the first two new members of our unlimited calling club: Finland and Israel (finishing 22nd and 9th respectively in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest).

This is great news for existing subscribers, as Skype's subscriptions now offer even better value — and is very exciting for people who call Finland and Israel on a regular basis.

Continue reading "Unlimited calls to Finland and Israel now included in subscriptions" »

Hello!

It seems like only yesterday that I was introducing myself to the readers of Skype’s UK blog — and today I’m stepping up to take on this one.

I see my role not as that of an author, or even necessarily an editor. Instead, I see myself more as a curator — so you’ll be hearing from plenty of other people here at Skype besides me. We’ve already featured Josh Silverman and Mike Bartlett among others, and that’s a trend I want to continue.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that I’ll be taking a back seat. My role is very much two way — both talking about what Skype’s up to, and, more importantly, listening to what you have to say.

I’m not going to claim that this blog isn’t about marketing, but those of you who’ve read the Cluetrain Manifesto (or any of the hundreds of books and blogs which discuss similar ideas) will be familiar with the idea of ‘marketing as a conversation’. That means talking and listening — and that’s what this blog is about.

You can find me on Skype as peterparkes — and don’t forget to grab the feed for this blog, or subscribe to email updates. That way you won’t miss a thing

Hi folks. You've probably noticed that it's been a while since my last post. At the same time, I hope you've also noticed that the range of people writing on the blog has expanded considerably. Always a good thing, methinks. But there still needs to be someone to hold the rudder and keep the boat from zigzagging all over the place.

So, without much further ado, I'm pleased to introduce Peter Parkes. Some of you may already be familiar with his writing on Skype's UK blog - and occasional posts right here. If you haven't devoured his writing yet, worry not. But prepare yourselves for a delightful ride. For Peter is a young man with a smart, insightful and positively crooked mind. Not unlike the readers of this blog, in fact (yes, I do know how to pander).

As for me, I'd like to thank you for a wonderful time together on these pages. I'll miss the thrill of blogging for Skype, but it's time to move on and tackle something else entirely. Taking over from Jaanus Kase, the force that spawned this blog, feels like yesterday, and I'm glad to have had the opportunity to be the torchbearer for a while. But it's now time to say goodbye and wish Peter the best in his new, improved and expanded task as Skype blogger extraordinaire.

Take care,
Villu

Hello! I'm Mike Bartlett, Director of Windows Product Management here at Skype.

Four and a bit years ago we changed the way people talked. Free calling is something that brings smiles to people all over the world, every day. We're very proud of that.

Today, we're announcing the most exciting change to Skype since inception - Skype 4.0 Beta 1 for Windows.

Over the years, we've added a lot of richness and functionality to Skype. It's no longer just a little piece of software for making free calls. Our video calling experience, now enjoyed on over a quarter of all Skype to Skype calls, is starting to take centre stage alongside other great features such as instant messaging, group conversations, SMS & voicemail.

Continue reading "Skype 4.0 Beta 1 for Windows" »

Your mobile rings, you take the phone out and it says Unknown or a weird combination of numbers - and so you don't pick up the call. Sounds familiar?

This might have been someone calling your phone with Skype because only people that had bought online numbers could set them to show on their friends' phones when calling. Up until last week, anyway. Now anyone with a mobile phone can set its number to show when calling a landline or mobile from Skype.

Caller identification, as we call this feature, is easy to set up. Simply sign in to your account and follow the on-screen instructions. Please note that if you have previously set up your mobile number to show when sending SMS messages you don't need to verify the number again. Just choose to use the same number to show for SkypeOut calls.

Setting caller identification is free to use and costs the price of two SMS messages to set up. It's available for almost any mobile phone and subscription type in almost every country of the world.

Hi, I'm Antoine Bertout (but partners used to call me Ants), the Partner Relations Manager here at Skype.

While I'm packing my luggage for my trip to Chicago, where Skype has three sessions at eBay DevCon, I thought I'd let you know about some news from our team.

Our partners have been telling us they want the Skype Developer Zone to be their window into Skype - where they can find new documentation, the latest SDKs, to be able to see the latest forum activity and blog posts as well as being able to get in touch with us, so today we launched version 3 of the Skype Developer Zone.

With the new version we think we've covered of all this, with a bit of personality thrown in as a bonus.

There's also a new Partners section, where we'll be letting partners share their experiences of working with Skype - we strongly believe that new partners will learn a lot from others' experiences of developing a solution with Skype. It's also where partners can engage with Skype and where we'll help promote them and their solutions.

We're also expanding our Partners program by helping to put partners in touch with Approved Integrators if they need support during the development process.

If you're a partner, we hope you enjoy the new version - leave us a comment below if you like to tell us what you think.

(PS - If by chance you have Halina Mugame in your contact list, feel free to share directly your comment, as this new DevZone has been her "baby")

Hi, my name is Andrus, I work in marketing and some of you might remember me posting here before.

It's been a bit more than a year since we introduced Skype Prime™ Beta, a marketplace for voice and video services which brings together those people who have expertise, knowledge, advice or skills to sell to others who are seeking advice and happy to pay for it.

Since then we've seen many businesses - both small and large - sign up for Skype Prime to provide services to the many people who are seeking those services. The most popular services we've seen so far fit into the following categories:

• Business & Personal Finance
• Computer & Internet
• Language Lessons & Translations
• Relationship Advice & Counselling
• Spiritual & Astrology
• Tutoring & Homework

However, it's been pretty challenging for people on Skype to find these service providers unless you knew exactly where to go or stumbled upon them. Today, we're addressing service provider find-ability with the launch of the new Skype Advice and services directory.

Continue reading "Introducing the Skype Advice & Services Directory " »

Beta-friendly users have been running Skype 3.8 for Windows since April 2. But with the usual beta imperfections now sanded off, this audio-focused iteration of Skype is ready for public release. If you're a Windows user, head to the download page to get it.

Continue reading "Skype 3.8 for Windows goes public with audio improvements, other tweaks" »

Update: Our calling subscriptions have been updated to include Finland, Israel, Moscow, St Petersburg, Buenos Aires and Córdoba (Argentina) - please refer to the more recent blog post for the latest information.

Most people look forward to Fridays (or their cultural equivalent that promises rest, fun and fresh air). Banishing the ruthless alarm clock until Monday morning which, for a brief moment, appears eons away.

Well, my kind colleagues here at Skype have taken a crack at making the world's Mondays a bit less blue. Enter Skype's brand new flat-rate calling subscriptions that were announced this Monday, i.e. today. According to the announcement, the subscriptions "signal the first time Skype has offered a single, monthly flat rate for international calling to landline numbers in 34 countries."

Continue reading "Going the (long) distance: Skype's new calling subscriptions " »

Hi, I'm Josh. The new guy. On March 24, I'll step aboard as CEO to lead the next stage of Skype's exciting journey.

To say that I'm looking forward to leading this company is an understatement. Skype is one of the defining internet technologies of our era. It's helping people all over the planet connect with each other like never before. It's changing the world. You don't look forward to something like that. You drop what you're doing and jump aboard.

I’m well aware that it is more than just an ingenious feat of engineering, which has made Skype one of the most rapidly-adopted technologies in human history. It’s a passionate community of users who believe in the power of human connection, in bold innovation and in striving for product excellence which has put us on our path to changing the world. I share your passion, and take very seriously the responsibility of all of us at Skype to be good stewards of the product and the brand.

So what can you expect from me? That I’m serious about wanting to build the greatest products -- and the greatest company -- on Earth. That doing so means listening well, being willing to think different and take risks. And in everything we do, one thing is certain: we'll always have the best interests of the Skype community at heart.

I’m the new guy, and have a lot to learn. To really understand Skype's cultural and technological DNA, my number one priority is to do a lot of listening and learning. With my wife and kids about to begin their adventure in Estonia as well, I have all the support I could ever need. I want to know everything about the technology, the team and the community. And I hope to share some of my observations on this very blog and see what you think, too.

As chief executive, I'm stepping into a flight deck first captained by co-founder Niklas Zennström and latterly interim CEO Michael van Swaaij. Both of whom have done great, meaningful things with this company. I don't yet have the right to expect your enthusiastic two thumbs up. But as we go further on this journey together, I plan to earn it.

In the meantime, I look forward to meeting and talking with as many of you as possible over the months and years to come.

So, remember [back in June 2007](http://share.skype.com/sites/en/2007/06/skype_to_go_international_call.html "Skype To Go: international calls from your mobile at local rates - Skype Blogs") when you were living in Sweden with a mobile in your pocket with a friend in [San Nicolás de los Garza](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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](http://skype.com/intl/en/allfeatures/togo/ "Cheap international calls from mobile phones with a Skype To Go number"). It’s still a part of [Skype Pro](http://www.skype.com/go/skypepro "Cheap international calls and pay nothing per minute calls with 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](http://skype.com/intl/en/allfeatures/togo/ "Cheap international calls from mobile phones with a Skype To Go number") to find out more and register a new Skype To Go number.

A few days ago, I wrote about why Skype felt it had no choice but to recall and replace about 8,000 London-based 0207 SkypeIn numbers. Our colleagues in customer support have pulled in extra resources and are totally focused on making the transition as smooth as possible.

Hardest hit were users who had subscribed to the affected SkypeIn numbers for 12 months. (SkypeIn subscriptions are available for 3 or 12 months). We know that small businesses are among them and that their trust and confidence is a precious, fragile thing. It’s with them that we’ll have to work the hardest to win back their confidence.

So here’s where things stand at the moment. Our customer support team has been working round the clock to assist everyone affected. At the moment, they've responded to over 75 percent of those who’ve required additional support. And we hope to sort out the remaining inquiries this week. (If there are any outstanding questions, please send an email to sichange@skype.net If you'd like to explore the possibility of retaining your number outside of your Skype account, please contact GCI Telecom on sales@geonum.co.uk).

Everything is being done to keep this from happening in the future. We’re no strangers to crises and major issues like this help us learn as a business. We’ll use the knowledge wisely. Have faith in us.

Here is some great news for existing and potential [Skype affiliates]( http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/partners/affiliate/), we have just increased the commission rate on [SkypeIn]( http://www.skype.com/products/skypein/), [SkypeOut]( http://www.skype.com/products/skypeout/) and [Voicemail]( http://www.skype.com/products/skypevoicemail/) from 5% to 25%.

And as a special promotion, we are offering a flat rate of $15 commission for any affiliate referred sales of the new [Skype Wifi phone package]( http://accessories.skype.com/landingpage?page=wifi)

The Skype affiliate program is free to join, so you really have nothing to lose here. If you are directing traffic to Skype, you can be earning revenue.

You can sign up to the Skype affiliate program through either [Commission Junction]( https://signup.cj.com/member/brandedPublisherSignUp.do?air_refmerchantid=1562723) or [Trade Doubler](http://www.tradedoubler.com).

Existing affiliates through these networks have automatically been upgraded to the new commission rates.

Good luck!

You may have seen this announcement last - [Introducing the worlds first WiFi phones for Skype](http://about.skype.com/2006/07/introducing_the_worlds_first_w.html).

This is a great example of the Skype eco-system in practice. In this case we have partnered with several hardware manufacturers who are all introducing leading edge technology and helping to bring Skype in to new environments. The big step here is that Skype software is embedded on the phone, so you no longer need to have your PC running to use Skype.

These partners are also doing a great job of helping to promote Skype via their websites and have built targeted microsites to help promote the new WiFi phones.

Checkout these partner sites:

* [NetGear]( http://tools.netgear.com/skype/)
* [SMC]( http://www.wifiphone24.com/)
* [Belkin]( http://www.belkin.com/skype/)
* [Edge Core]( http://www.edge-core.com/skype/index.htm)

You may have seen the announcement yesterday that Skype has signed licensing agreements with major music publishing companies such as EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, and Warner/Chappell Music, as well as from the MCPS-PRS Alliance, which represents authors and publishers in Britain.

So what does this mean to partners? Well it is not, as some people have speculated, that we are trying to take on iTunes. No, we signed these agreements so we can distribute ringtones from our [personalise skype store](http://www.skype.com/go/shop.personal?store)

Personalise Skype allows people to make Skype their own by purchasing ringtones and pictures to show the world who they are. Of course with 100 million users not everyone likes the same pictures or sounds and this is where you come in. We’re constantly refreshing and adding to the selection to make it more compelling for all Skype users and to help people to find exactly what they’re looking for.

If you are interested in offering pictures and ringtones to the Skype community, please see [the partner enquiry page](http://www.skype.com/partners/content/personalise/) for more information about the program.

At this week’s CeBIT conference, we announced the new Skype for Business offering. You can read the [Press Release](http://www.skype.com/company/news/2006/skype_smb.html) here.

The story was picked up by several key titles, here are two of the bigger ones:

* [LA Times](http://www.latimes.com/services/site/premium/access-registered.intercept)
* [Business Week]( http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2006/tc20060309_564273.htm)

So what does this mean to partners?

Well this signifies a significant strategic move from Skype to target the micro-businesses with 1-10 employees. As the release and related articles explain, we know that a lot of our existing users are already using Skype for their business. We are hoping that by having a unique web page and highlighting the relevant features and hardware that apply to small businesses, we will be able to further grow this usage of Skype amongst small businesses.

So if you have products or services that cater to that market, then this will be an opportunity to work with us to better cater for the small business sector.

You can read more about Skype for Business and see how other partners are using it at [www.skype.biz](http://www.skype.biz)

One of the announcements we made at this week’s 3GSM conference in Barcelona was that Skype is to establish a huge new retail presence in Europe, through the creation of a new distribution and retail programme with Dangaard Telecom. To read the official release, please go [here](http://www.skype.com/company/news/2006/skype_dangaard.html)

The initial product selection will include starter packs, headsets, USB phones, and webcams – all in uniformly-sized packaging with consistent colouring and branding. The product price range will be €10–40 with an entry-level focus. To showcase the products, retailers will be offered plug-and-play ‘Skype Stand’ display units, ready-stocked with Skype certified products, that can be placed anywhere in the store.

In mid-March, Dangaard Telecom will launch the programme into its existing accessories programme, which currently includes 3,500 points-of-sale across Europe. In late March, Dangaard will work with Skype to expand the programme across its 34,000 retail locations in 12 countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Spain and Sweden).

The Skype–Dangaard programme is open to new retailers. If you're interested in featuring Skype Certified accessories in your store you should contact Thomas Friis on [skype@dangaard.com](mailto:mail: skype@dangaard.com), or phone +45 7330 3080.

You may have seen the recent announcement regarding SkypeWeb, if not you can view it here href="http://www.skype.com/company/news/2006/skype_skypeweb.html">here

SkypeWeb is supported in the latest release of Skype for Windows. To activate SkypeWeb, you need to turn it on. You can get your own Skype button here.

SkypeWeb in short means that you can have a fancy button for your e-mail or web page which goes something like this:

This functionality is ideal for partners who want to be able to show their online status, or indeed offer that feature as a value add to your customers. We already have 50 or so partner’s using this service, please read below for some examples.

Continue reading "Show your online status with SkypeWeb" »