January 2009

Are you using Twitter yet? It seems to me that lately everyone is talking about it. I think it's a very cool service, and you can use it quite easily with Skype.

If you haven't heard of Twitter, it's essentially a microblogging / group messaging service--you send a short, 140 character message out (via SMS, the web, a Twitter-specific program, or Skype), and people who elect to follow you will receive that message (in a similar number of ways). Anyone can follow anyone else (though you can set your Twitter updates to private so only those you approve can see them), and all your tweets can be viewed on a single page (here's mine).

Twitter's great because you can use it however you like--I use it primarily as a way to get status updates out to friends, and have those updates synced up to Facebook and Skype. Other people are using it to talk about things that interest them, to share links, to promote what they're doing, to network, to find jobs--the list goes on.

Twitter is easy to use on the go because your message has to be short and there are multiple ways you can send and receive messages from your mobile.

And if you're interested in a particular topic, searching for that topic on Twitter is a great way to see what people are saying. Increasingly news (like that recent plane crash on the Hudson River in NYC) is appearing online first on Twitter.

You can make Skype and Twitter work together in several ways.

• On Windows, you can use Twype or SyncMood to make your most recent tweet become your Skype mood message (just make sure in Skype you say OK to giving the programme access).
• On a Mac, you can link Skype 2.8 Beta to Twitter so that anything you type in your Skype mood message box also shows up on Twitter. It requires some file editing though; Dan York has instructions.
• You can also use Twitter4Skype to send Twitter updates and receive them from people you're following within a Skype window. This option is particularly useful for people with 3 Skypephones or Skype Lite--then you can tweet in a Skype chat rather than having to sent an SMS.

Do you know of any other ways to use Twitter with Skype? Let us know in the comments.

• FierceVOIP has a nice roundup of Skype announcements, and several others mention Skype Lite on Android and phones that run Java.
• Mr. Gadget from the Las Vegas Sun checked out Skype's booth at CES Showstoppers (52 seconds in).

• Here's a great wiki that lists different ways to use Skype in the classroom and classrooms that are interested in speaking with other classrooms. There's also a similar 'Around the World with 80 Schools' project.
• A professor taught the first day of his class this semester from Iraq via Skype.
• Students in the US from Boston are going to Washington DC to participate in next week's inauguration of Barack Obama, and will be using Skype to report back to their classmates.
• Universities are using Skype to conduct interviews with potential students.

• Oprah has been using Skype for quite a while now to interact with her audience and have far-away guests on her show. She recently told Meryl Streep, on the show via Skype, she wanted a part in Streep's new film Doubt.
• Phillip Seymour Hoffman recorded a voice part for an animated feature with the assistance of Skype.
• Some comedians got their show together through Skype.

• Interesting story in the New York Times about families who work apart but use Skype to read to their children and keep in touch. A follow-up post on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reader blog has some other ideas for ways to use Skype with books.
• An opera singer uses Skype to keep in touch with her partner while traveling.
• A soldier son in Iraq gave his mother in America a 50th birthday present via Skype.

Yesterday at CES, among Skype's many announcements (Skype on Mobile Internet Devices! Skype Lite in the US! Super Wideband Audio!), my favorite has to be Skype Lite on the Android platform.

The Skype Lite client provides a great way to have Skype with you at all times--it's really nice to use the G1's keyboard for chats on the go, and it's really easy to use your phone's minutes to call Skype contacts and make SkypeOut calls internationally for cheap using your Skype credit. (But do be aware--receiving Skype calls on a Skype Lite client uses your Skype credit, but you can set the client not to receive any calls if you want.)

Here's a video I made showing off Skype Lite on Android's features:



It's available now in the Android Market (just search for Skype). You can also download Skype Lite for more than 100 other Java-enabled mobile phones from Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and LG by going to the Skype website in your phone's browser.