Skype Blogs

Did you know that we only smile 35% as much as we think we do? And that the longest recorded laughing fit was in a village in Tanzania in 1962 and lasted two years? Two years?!

Well, 1962 was ages ago. At Skype, we've decided it's high time we had another laughter epidemic -- but this time it should be around the world. So, we're creating the world's first and longest giggling fit, and we want you to join it

Just plug in your webcam, watch the start of the chain below, and film yourself watching it. Send us your video and your laugh could be added to the chain.

Find out more about the Laughter Chain (plus find out how many calories a good laugh burns up) at the Skype Laughter Chain website.

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 again!

It's been 10 days since we launched the first Beta of Skype 4.0 for Windows, so I thought it would be a good idea to reflect a little and to respond to some of the feedback we've received.

Firstly, I'd like to thank everyone who has given us their thoughts via our feedback site, on this and our other blogs, but also via the various feedback mechanisms we introduced for this Beta. It always amazes me how many people are so passionate about Skype and that's what makes it so enjoyable to get up and come to work every morning (apart from last Thursday - boy, did my head hurt).

We've had very different reactions to Beta 1, in particular the big change we made of having Skype in a larger window. One of the primary reasons for doing this was that we found an overwhelming majority of people had trouble working with multiple windows and were using Skype mainly to make calls and video calls, especially amongst those new to Skype. We've had some very positive feedback from a lot of people on the new way of working, and that's encouraging as it seems we're starting to solve the problems that we set out to solve. However, it's very understandable some of you used to using Skype on a regualar basis have been a bit frustrated about not being able to work with Skype the way they are used to.

We always planned to address our more advanced users in a second beta, and I just wanted to say - don't worry -- we will address the need to have Skype take up less room on the screen with a feature that allows you to reduce the size - we call it compact mode. We hope to get it out towards the end of the summer with our second beta release.

Other people have also commented on being able to resize video. There are a few things you can do here in Beta 1. Firstly, in the single window, you can resize both your own video and the video of the other person you are talking to. If you hover over the bottom left corner of the video feeds, you will find this functionality. What you can also do is pop out the video window using this button -> , which you'll see at the top right hand corner of your screen, to the right of the "+ Add people" button.

Which, will mean, if you're on a video call, you'll see something like this:

We will make further improvements to this with Beta 2.

Finally, a lot of people have asked about a Mac version. Both the Mac and Linux teams here at Skype are working closely with us on this Beta. They are reading all of this feedback and will be picking out the truly great bits and putting them into their respective versions. So you can certainly expect to see something on Mac after summer.

Again, thank you for your passion and you enthusiasm - and hopefully you are enjoying Skype 4.0 Beta 1.

Speak to you again soon.

Mike Bartlett
Director of Product Management, Skype for Windows

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.

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)

A while ago we realised we had outgrown our home. There was so much to pack in, and Skype got a bit crowded. We learnt that people new to Skype had so much choice, they didn't always know where to start or how to find things. So we decided to move into a bigger, better home. Skype 4.0 Beta 1 for Windows.

We're sharing this beta with you a little earlier than normal because we know it's a big change, and sometimes change can take some getting used to. We're going to spend the whole summer listening to your feedback and making changes so that when we do launch the final version, we'll make sure it's perfect. Because we're releasing it early, a few little things aren't available in today's beta: full history and contact groups are two examples.

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 introductory demo video here - you can also grab the embed code if you want to use this video in your own blog)

So what's new then? We've given video calling the screen size it finally deserves, plus we've made it really simple to use. A single click on the Video call button and you'll be seeing and talking. Video doesn't start off really small anymore - it's big and beautiful to begin with. You can also resize and move your own video window around the screen quite easily. Plus in one click, you can have an IM conversation alongside the video call.

Helping people juggle lots of conversations all at once is another reason behind the big changes in 4.0 Beta. We found people had to keep track of multiple windows in order to have a few conversations. In fact, if you had a High Quality Video call alongside an IM, plus you were sending a couple of pictures that was five windows! It's now all in one window. Take a look at the Conversations button just above the Contact list. It's a list of all the conversations you've got going on. Just click between them to pick up a conversation right where you left off. You can also pop your conversations out into separate windows if you prefer having different windows for different conversations.

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 advanced demo video here - you can also grab the embed code if you want to use this video in your own blog)

Finally, we've made working with Skype Certified hardware dead simple. We heard some of our users were having problems when plugging and unplugging new devices and sometimes people couldn't hear them talking. In Skype 4.0 Beta for Windows, the first time you plug in your new device, Skype will automatically detect it and start using it. We'll remember your devices so that next time, even if you switch headset mid-call, we'll get it right.

OK, that's enough from me. Go ahead and download it, try it out for a few days, make some video calls and then let us know what you think.

Update: Sten Tamkivi, the General Manager of Skype Estonia, has also written about the beta on his personal blog:

Yes, it has taken something like 2 years from first conceptual ideas being bounced around. I've been involved in Skype's Desktop clients team since March and I have to tell you ... I'm truly proud of what the hundreds of people involved have pulled off

I'm in Seoul with Josh Silverman, Skype's President. Three months into the job, Josh was invited to give the keynote business speech at the Conference of Ministers on 'the Future of the Internet Economy' of the OECD (the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the leading inter-governmental organization dealing with economic and social policy).

This is a major conference, a follow-up to the OECD's 1998 Ministerial Conference on e-Commerce, which agreed the principle that the Internet and e-Commerce should be as unregulated as possible to enable their growth (which as we know, worked rather well). And we're very proud that Skype was chosen to give to the Government and Industry leaders from more than 40 of the world's most advanced countries the main message about the future of the Internet as we see it. (Summary of Josh's speech: "Skype rocks. Be open. Be cool").

Josh opened the conference together with EU Commissioner for the Information Society Vivian Reding, US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin Martin, and Korean President Lee Myung-bak.

Josh also recorded a short video for the OECD about his view of the future of the Internet - and why he loves the Net:

For those of you reading this via RSS, you can see the video (and the comments about it) on YouTube.

You should also be able to see a webcast of Josh's speech on the Future of the Internet Economy on the conference website.

Jean-Jacques, Skype Government Relations team @ OECD Ministerial in Seoul

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 " »

Howard Wolinsky here, your friendly neighborhood US Blogger for Skype, just popping in with the latest breaking news from the Skype Nomad:

Thirty-three days, and 17 countries later, Rebecca Campbell, better known at her blog, Facebook and MySpace, as the Skype Nomad, finished her 'round-the-world trip and got off the boat in Tallin, Estonia.,
She headed over to Skype's supreme HQ where she was greeted with cheers, along with champagne toasts and slabs of strawberry mousse cake. A night out on town followed.

"I'm pretty tired, but it was great. It was an epic adventure," said Rebecca, 26, a copywriter from London, England.

Her goal was to show that she could be in "perpetual motion" and still communicate via Skype.

Continue reading "Skype Nomad successfully completes excellent adventure in mobility" »