Skype features

Our enemies friends over at the Yahoo! Messenger blog linked to this article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday:

Roughly one-third of U.S. employees use instant messaging at work, many without the knowledge of their employers, according to a 2006 survey by the American Management Association and the ePolicy Institute. Many employers remain reluctant to endorse it officially fearing security breaches and distracted employees. But tech consultant Gartner Inc. projects that instant messaging will be the “de facto tool for voice, video and text chat” for 95% of employees in big companies within five years.

True, most IM systems can be distracting, but Skype chat (as we like to call it) is different. The differences are subtle, but allow you to stay productive, as well as having more fun.

Persistent chats

• When you start up Skype, all of the chats you were in the last time you used Skype will still be there. You can restart a previous conversation instantly, even if it involves a group of people.
• If you go offline, you won’t lose any messages. Next time you go online, they’ll be delivered to you.

Discrete chats

• If you don’t want a little ping or animation every time someone sends you a message, you can turn them off.
• Even better, you can turn them off selectively. You can choose to be alerted only when specific keywords are mentioned in the chat, for example.

Flexible chats

• With a single click, you can turn a chat into a call, or a group chat into a conference call.
• Sending a file to everyone in a group chat is as easy as sending a file to one person.

Safe chats

• All messages are encrypted, and go straight from one computer to another most of the time. No servers for the French government to worry about.
• If you’re on Windows, and using the latest version of Skype, you can edit your chat messages for a short while after you’ve written them. If you need to correct a mistake, you can do so.

Bringing this all back home, and with a quick hat tip to Helen Keegan for pointing it out, is the OxIS Internet in Britain report. According to the research, 60% of internet users in the UK use instant messaging — and an earlier report by M:Metrics says that nearly 6% use mobile instant messaging services, such as IM+ for Blackberry.

Looks like we’ve still got a way to go in the business world, as it’s clear from the OxIS report that students are much more likely to use instant messaging than people who work. If IM is to become the “de facto tool for voice, video and text chat” as Gartner suggest, then it’s going to have to become a lot more Skype-like.

Hello UK Skype friends. I’m Andrew—usually I write for the Skype Gear blog (about new Skype hardware and mobile stuff), but this week I’m filling in for my mate Peter as he’s off getting sunburnt somewhere outside of the UK (lucky guy).

So by now you may have tried out one of the many Skype Extras available—they’ve been around since version 3.0 and add all sorts of functionality to the Windows client, from productivity add-ons to entertainment. Some Extras cost a bit of money but many are free. I just wanted to share a new group of them that seems pretty interesting and has the potential to become even more compelling over time.

Now when you go to the Extras Manager (by going to the Tools Menu -> Do More -> Get Extras), in the left column you’ll see a ‘Movies’ option. Therein you’ll find four options related to the new horror film Vacancy, which just came out in the UK on 15 June. You can watch the trailer, tell your friends about the movie, play a 3D game, and even call the Pinewood Motel from the movie.

Now I have to warn you, this movie is a thriller, and the 3D game is almost surprisingly violent, so do take that into consideration before you open it up at the office or show your kid brother or sister. But it’s pretty neat that the Skype Extras manager now has a ‘Movies’ section. No doubt there will be more interactive content from new films down the road.

We’ve just launched SkypeOut Premium, which lets you call UK premium rate numbers (the ones starting with 09) with Skype. These numbers are used for a huge range of services, from weather forecasts to relationship advice.

You don’t need to do anything differently to calling any other number with SkypeOut. Just make sure you have some SkypeOut credit, and dial the number in Skype as normal.

Don’t forget that these premium rate numbers cost more to call than normal landlines or mobiles, so check the rate chart before you call.

The numbers themsleves aren’t operated by Skype, obviously, so if you have a problem with one of the services you’ll need to contact the company which operates it. The regulator ICTSIS can also help if you get into difficulties.

If you’d like to block or unblock access to premium rate numbers, you can do that from your account page.

Over the last week or so I’ve had quite a few people contact me asking about SkypeIn area codes — it seems that more and more people are looking for area codes for places which aren’t big cities.

In the UK, SkypeIn numbers are available with the following area codes:

• 020 — London
• 0121 — Birmingham
• 0131 — Edinburgh
• 0141 — Glasgow
• 0151 — Liverpool
• 0161 — Manchester
• 0191 — Newcastle/Gateshead/Durham
• 0113 — Leeds
• 01237 — Brighton and Hove
• 028 — Northern Ireland (numbers available are in the Belfast range 028 95XX XXXX)
• 029 — Cardiff (numbers in the range 029 21XX XXXX)

These cover a reasonable selection of the bigger towns and cities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but there are certainly a few gaps. Which places would you like to see added to this list?

Just in case you’re not aware, you can buy a SkypeIn number for wherever you like in the UK — different rules may apply to overseas numbers, and I know that France in particular requires you to be a French resident before you can have a French phone number.

Within Britain, though, you’re free to choose any number. If you’re at university in Birmingham, but have friends in Manchester, for example, you could grab a Manchester SkypeIn number so that they can call you at local rates. If you work between Glasgow and Edinburgh, and it’s important to your clients that they don’t think you’re favouring one city over the other, then just pick one of each; you can have up to 10 SkypeIn numbers attached to each Skype name.

Now there’s something I never thought I’d see in my living room again. After five months of broadbandless misery involving MAC codes, BT line tags and almost wilfully incompetent “support” staff at my old ISP, who’d apparently outsourced their helplines to a box of monkeys in a ditch, I am now online at home again.

From next week I’ll be working from home full-time again, and Skype will be vital to my livelihood. It’ll be a relief to be free of an office management that won’t let me download Skype, or Google Toolbar, or Irfanview, or pretty much anything useful, though I understand that such rules are pretty standard in the workplace nowadays. Far be it from me to suggest that the nation’s business brains are suffering a fear of the new that blinds them to the benefits of the internet. It’s inevitable that business practices will take time to catch up with technology.

But I do think it’s a shame that some companies and employees are missing out on Skype’s workplace benefits. Skype’s Extras gallery features a small but savvily-formed pile of business applications that can really improve efficiency, boost communication and cut costs for the forward-thinking professional.

Skype Extras are little downloads that help you get more out of Skype – anything from 3D talking avatars to lie detectors. At the moment Extras are only for Windows users, but Mac compatibility is in the pipeline. Extras are submitted by Skype’s developer partners, and those programs that work particularly well with Skype earn Skype Certification. So look out for the icon when you’re browsing the extras, or when you’re shopping for Skype gadgets:

The growing batch of business add-ons include Skip2PBX, a gateway that enables up to 99 concurrent Skype lines, and Skylook, with which you can record calls, get SMS alerts and more. The sole Skype Certified Business Extra is Convenos Meeting Center 3.3 (below), a subscription-based web conferencing tool that was one of the first programs to win certification. Users attend the conference through their browser, creating a virtual workplace where participants can securely meet, share and store documents. Coffee isn’t included.

My blog colleague Jaanus has offered an update on Skype for mobile, which seemed to have hit a roadblock thanks to pricey data plans imposed by mobile operators.

At the moment you can get Skype for Windows Mobile on various devices including Smartphones, or you can opt for one of the two rather fabulous 3 X-series phones that went on sale at the beginning of December. I briefly got my grubby hands on one of the X-Series phones, a Nokia N73, and it was lust at first sight for this big-screened beauty whose built-in software includes Skype, Google, eBay and genius remote TV program Slingplayer. Find out more on 3’s X-Series blog.

Skype is working hard to get the software on more platforms at reasonable prices, but hammering down those call charges doesn’t come naturally to many mobile operators. Nonetheless, upcoming versions of Skype will be compatible with more and more devices and platforms. Apple’s headline-grabbing new iPhone seems the perfect fit for the Mac version of Skype, so keep an eye on Skype’s website for announcements.

Skype’s Extras gallery is an ever-growing trove of programs and add-ons that promise to enhance your Skyping, and a decent number of them have won the ultimate honour: Skype certification.

One great example is CrazyTalk, a new Skype Video add-on from Reallusion that gives you an all-talking, all-lip-syncing, all-animated customised avatar.

CrazyTalk is fully integrated with Skype 2.0 video version, and because it serves as a virtual camera you don’t need a webcam. It’s also completely free to download and use.

Skype introduced public chats in November, and it didn’t take long for my colleague Jaanus to set up a Skype blog chat. To get involved, click the ‘join now’ link in the box at the top-right of Jaanus’s Share Skype blog.

Once you’ve got the taste for this public chatting wheeze, why not create a chat of your own? Public chats are basically Skype text chats that anyone can create, host and join, and they’re not much different from private text chats, except that anyone can join without being “added”. You can choose for the chat to be as open or private as you like.

Here’s a top money-saving tip: set up your own New Year’s Eve public chat, post a link to it in an email, whizz it off to friends, loved ones and distant relatives, and stage an en-masse babble with all your favourite people this Sunday night. It’s much cheaper than pretty much anything else you can do on 31 December (the most overpriced night of the year), and it’s a far more original way to see in 2007 than freezing your pants off in the town square and waking up the next morning with a sore head.

Happy New Year, Skypers!

Latest addition to the ever-growing Skype download goodie bag is online advice network BitWine, where knowledgable web users offer useful advice for a small fee.

The BitWine Taskbar Skype Edition is now fully integrated into Skype 3.0, so you can get advice or info from real people in real time. You negotiate the price between you, and pay using PayPal.

BitWine co-founder Alon Cohen said: “By combining the power of Skype’s rich media audio and video communications, we can now open our service beyond dispensing advice. We can now offer a whole set of diverse rich media services, ranging from music lessons to language tutoring.”

Paul Amery, Skype director of developer programs, added: “We have been working to enable Skype as a distribution platform for third party add-ons. Applications such as BitWine Extra that use both Skype and PayPal are important in enabling end users to generate revenue while further integrating Skype into their day-to-day work or life.”

You don’t have to pay upfront for advice from your BitWine sage – you only pay if you feel comfortable with the interaction. If only plumbers and builders worked like that.

Next time you’re tempted to describe your gorgeous body and corking CV to your new-found Skype flirt-pal, make sure that you’re honest. Because, if your correspondent has downloaded the KishKish Lie Detector, honesty is definitely the best policy.

KishKish, an upcoming premium addition to the Skype add-on family, reads your Skype caller’s stress levels by analysing audio streams in real-time. Theory has it that if their stress levels are high, they’re telling porkies. (High stress levels could, of course, also mean that they’re just a bit nervous or dying to go to the loo, but let’s ignore that for now.)

“This is a really excellent application, and the kind of thing we want to see more of,” said Paul Amery, Skype’s developer director. Paul has a point, but personally I’m a little upset that ‘bradnewyork’ may soon discover that I haven’t, in fact, got Angelina Jolie’s lips, a pad in Tuscany and a PhD in thermonuclear physics.

Life just gets easier and easier for eBaying Skypers. Skype’s auction-giant partner has announced that it’s expanding the number of categories in which sellers can add Skype Me buttons to their listings.

According to eBay, the recent trial of click-to-call buttons in auction listings has shown that buyers and sellers have “enjoyed the opportunity to resolve questions quickly and easily, while also improving trust in the process.”

Here’s an idea for Halloween. Get into the All Hallows spirit (Google certainly has – check out the screen below) by personalising Skype with nightmarish enhancements, rather than by hammering on the doors of old ladies and demanding the cash they’d put aside for the gas meter, mm’kay?

The Personalise Skype page has a bunch of ghoulish noises with which to Hallow-up your Skyping, including ‘Ghost Voices’ and the fun-sounding ‘Ave Satanus’. Click on a sound to get a sneak preview, but I’d recommend avoiding this in the office, or your boss will know you’re not actually working. I know. I tried. I’m still a bit embarrassed about it, to be honest.

Anyway, happy Pumpkin Day!

We’re a step closer to total liberation from our desktops, thanks to the free new Vox for Skype service that lets you make and receive Skype calls on your mobile. Any mobile.

Don’t take my word for it. “Vox for Skype works with all 2.2 billion mobiles in the world today!” yells the Voxlib website. “It even works from any landline phone. It works from any device, on any network, anywhere.” That’s one hefty promise. If you put it to the test, let me know how you get on.

The key to Vox’s pan-mobile compatibility is that the online plug-in only needs to be downloaded to your PC – there’s nothing to install on the phone itself, and you don’t need a mobile data service plan. The only catch is that you must be logged into Skype and have it running on your PC when you make or receive the call.

Continue reading "Vox Poptastic" »

Did you know that you can include up to 100 people in a Skype Chat? Skype’s Group Chat feature is a big help to those of us who are blogging all over the world, as Francis Rossi once nearly sang. When each of Skype’s bloggers logs on, we can automatically catch up with what everyone’s been saying in the Skype bloggers’ instant messaging group - even if we haven’t been near a computer for days. It means you never feel left out of the gang.

To find out more about using Group Chat, visit the user guide and spin through the tips, pic by pic.

First came Tony Blackburn. Then came the podcast. And now, we present the latest chapter in the epic history of broadcasting: the Skypecast.

A Skypecast is basically your own radio discussion show, via Skype. You can broadcast your thoughts on subjects close to your heart in groups of up to 100 people anywhere in the world. Your Skypecast will be listed in the online directory, so that people with similar interests can listen or join in.

I found out about Skypecasts through blogger service TypePad, which now allows its bloggers to incorporate Skypecasts into their blogs with a Skypecast Widget.

It’s fitting that Skype and TypePad have teamed up, since they’re both about giving people a voice without ripping them off. Skype means you can talk without paying outrageous phone bills, and blogging lets you publish your work without jumping through 1,000 hoops or being a C-list celebrity. And now, Skypecasts allow you to be a broadcaster without buying an entire radio studio. Power to the people!

I don’t enjoy forking out cash unless I absolutely have to, so I’ve made it my Tuesday resolution to convert as many of my friends and family to Skype as possible. Yes I know I can call them on the cheap anyway using SkypeOut, but why settle for a 2p call when I can get a completely free call?

Lure your mates into this bill-free nirvana by using the Tell A Friend page on Skype’s website. Type in your name, your Skype name, your friend’s name and their email, and off goes a note inviting them to talk to you for free. An offer they can’t refuse, especially if you attach the Tell A Friend e-card with ‘I’ve got the new Skype’ daubed on the house. Class.

Friday’s toolbars story sent me spinning off on a magical mystery tour of Skype’s Extras pages, where I discovered the Extras Gallery: a kind of open-source playground for voip-savvy techies.

These are the chaps who spend every last nanosecond (one billionth of a second; abbrev. nsec) of their weekend (223,200,000,000,000nsec, based on one weekend comprising the 62 hours from 6pm Friday to 8am Monday) inventing Skype-friendly freeware, rather than watching telly or playing Dragon Quest.

And let’s be glad that they do, because some of these programs could prove very useful. For example the eBay Bid Advisor alerts an eBay seller when someone’s bid on their item, and the Autodialler connects you via SkypeOut to any number you highlight and copy.

Of course, some entries in the gallery are about as useful as a pair of marshmallow wellies, and it’s worth remembering that Skype doesn’t endorse all this homespun software. Download at your own risk, and all that.

My Skype Extras Gallery wishlist…

Continue reading "Extras, extras" »

For those of us whose language schooling extended no further than a couple of Je m’appelles under the supervision of a terrified 22-year-old supply teacher, Skype can often be a frustrating missed opportunity. All those millions of Skypers, chatting in languages rich, strange and no more familiar to me than Klingon. Good old British edukashun.

So I was intrigued to read on the Skype forum about the catchily-named Universal Language Real-Time Message Translator, known fondly to its creator as “ULRTMT”. Good job he didn’t go for some obscure, geeky name like Skype Translator, isn’t it?

This simple web-based tool translates Skype instant messages in real time, as you might have guessed from the name. Given the vast melting pot of lingo being Skyped across the globe as we speak, this could be the most useful invention since, say, voice-over IP.

Continue reading "Sprechen Sie Skype?" »

Here’s a special post for Aisleyne off Big Brother, on what may be her final day in the house. (She’s second favourite to leave, form-watchers; numpty Nikki is the frontrunner.)

Pretend ghetto superstar Aisleyne, who uses phrases like “off the shizzle” and “I ain’t no man-teef” without blushing, might agree with ZDNet blogger Russell Shaw that Skype has the potential to be the biggest thing in hip-hop since Grandmaster Flash.

Russ points out that MP3.com’s hip-hop page (above) is littered with ads from the likes of Cingular Answer T9ones, but none from Skype. To Russ, this is nothing less than a catastrophic marketing oversight.

Continue reading "Shizzle my Skype" »