Skype blogmaster Villu Arak’s entry on the AT&T Picturephone brought back memories for me.
Back in 1964, I trekked with my family from Chicago to the World’s Fair in New York. As a sarcastic teen, not much captured my imagination. But the Picturephone did. It's one of the few things, along with General Electric's "Progressland," I remember seeing while out at the Meadowlands.
Continue reading "Back to the future: “Crossing a telephone with a TV set”" »
By
Howard Wolinsky on March 25, 2008 in Events, General, In the news.
There are only days left to vote. (Only until March 31.) Pressure is mounting. And “our guy” needs your help.
We’re not talking the Pennsylvania primary or Obama or Hillary or McCain. We’re talking CNET’s 2008 Webware 100 Awards on Web 2.0 products.
Skype did well in the voting last year.
And Skype has been doing more than kissing babies since then, launching High Quality Video, the 3 Skypephone, and appearing in the new Sony Mylo and the Sony PSP Slim & Lite.
This year, Skype is a finalist again.
By
Howard Wolinsky on March 22, 2008 in General, In the news.
A couple years ago I wrote an article for the Chicago Sun-Times about a couple with a long-distance relationship that they kept going with Skype-to-Skype calls, coast-to-coast. He was in Seattle (Pacific coast); she in Chicago ("the third coast").
They would put on their wireless headsets and stay connected via Skype throughout the evening. They talked while preparing dinner. They watched the same TV shows and rented the same DVDs, commenting back and forth. They shared the silent moments. Together.
Continue reading "Ambient Skype: the next best thing to being there" »
Missionary Malcolm Lanham of course puts his faith in God.
But he and his team with Global Outreach, based in McDowell County, the poorest area in West Virginia and the fifth poorest county in the United States, rely on Skype to communicate with far-flung missionaries.
By
Howard Wolinsky on March 14, 2008 in In the news.
The Hollywood Reporter says: “CNN puts Skype in picture.”
But it’s more like Skype put vacationing CNN analyst Jeffrey Toobin into the picture on the hot-hot-hot Eliot Spitzer scandal.
Unless you’ve been dozing on a hammock in Maui, you'll know that Spitzer, who was known as “Mr. Clean” for tacking on corruption on Wall Street and the mean streets of New York, got caught on a wiretap relating to his illicit activities with a prostitution ring. Spitzer stepped down as governor of the “Empire State.”
Now the story behind the story.
By
Howard Wolinsky on March 13, 2008 in In the news, News, Events, Milestones, Skype Beta and new releases.
When my cousin Ted, a computer engineer and genetic genealogy buff from Tucson, Ariz., heard I was going to be blogging for Skype, he had one question:
“When are they going to upgrade Skype’s Linux version? Like to fix bugs and offer video calling.
Ted didn’t have to wait long for an answer.
Skype on March 13 released the new Linux version of Skype for nerds like Ted.
Ryan over at the Linux blog spells it all out in his “Seeing is believing” entry.
Skype announced the free general release of Skype 2.0 for Linux with video calling.
You can Download it here.
Ryan says the new Linux version, available in 20 languages, also improves audio and fixes hundreds of bugs.
This will make Ted happy. Maybe we can spend hours at a time on video calls now, instead of just chatting about genetics on audio.
By
Howard Wolinsky on March 12, 2008 in Events, In the news, Insight, Mobile.
Everybody and his mother have a mobile device. Now the market appears to be moving toward providing them with Skype on their devices.
Jonathan Christensen, head of audio/visual at Skype in San Jose, CA., says the next leap forward for the mobile world will be “unfettered mobile IP access on open devices. There is now a chance this will happen.”
Christensen, whose team develops software for Skype calls and video calls, was the opening speaker Wednesday at the emerging Communications (eComm) show at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.
He says that economic forces, including Federal Communciations Commission auctions of spectrum and flat mobile phone plans, “are pushing the market in this direction.”
He says this will mean people using Skype on mobile devices will be able to do “many of the cool things they can do on their computers with Skype now.” This includes video calling as well as sharing files, pictures, moods and presence, the ability to see if your network buddies are available or unavailable for your call.
“It’s happening now and Skype is excited to be innovating at the edge,” says Christensen.
Meanwhile, let’s contemplate our mobile future on Skype. Better put on our sunglasses. As the band Timbuk 3 said: “The Future’s So Bright Gotta Wear Shades."
By
Howard Wolinsky on March 10, 2008 in Events, In the news.
Last week, Oprah Winfrey’s foray into the New Age with spiritual teacher and best-selling author Eckhart Tolle went off the rails.
It was too much of a good thing. More than 500,000 seekers showed up to sit at Oprah’s and Eckhart’s feet. The plan was for class members to share their views via Skype video calls on the “A New Earth” event.
But there was trouble. The show crashed. A disappointed Oprah conceded there were “technical difficulties."
Don’t worry. It wasn’t Skype.
Despite the glitches, nearly two million people, from Afghanistan to Zanzibar, eventually watched or downloaded the first show at oprah.com or itunes.com.
By
Howard Wolinsky on March 5, 2008 in Insight.
Recently, Skype Journal and VOIP-News have been discussing unwanted, frustrating, irritating and even embarrassing IMs and voicemails on Skype. People use these techniques to push porn, spam and other images and messages you wouldn’t want anyone in your home exposed to.
They are a pain. I can remember getting phone calls and even contact-list entries from people I didn’t know when I first signed on with Skype a couple years ago.
There is a simple solution to keeping these intruders out. Force Skype to only allow calls from people in your contact list.
Here's an example of how: Go to and click on “Tools” on your Skype toolbar. Scroll to and click on “Options...” Then select “Privacy” and finally click on “Only allow people in my Contact List to contact me.”
Continue reading "Avoiding stranger danger: Keeping unwanted callers and IMers out" »
By
Howard Wolinsky on March 4, 2008 in Events, Skype Campaigns and Promotions.
I was looking forward to watching my fellow Chicagoan Oprah Winfrey using Skype for communications on her ambitious Webcast. I signed up at Oprah.com. I was good to go.
Oprah's project features spiritual teacher and best-selling author Eckhart Tolle on an interactive classroom Oprah.com. The 10-week program discusses Tolle’s "A New Earth: Get Ready To Be Awakened." I was ready to be reawakened.
Skype, along with GM's Chevrolet division and Post-It Notes, is sponsoring the Webcast. With over 750,000 registrants, and about a half million who showed up, this well could be, to quote Oprah, the world's largest classroom.
Oprah explains it all at Skype Campaigns.
Oprah's star power attracted 750,000 registrants from 139 countries, from Albania to Zimbabwe, and all 50 states.
By
Howard Wolinsky on March 4, 2008 in Life at Skype, Skype Around the World.
Just to introduce myself. I am Howard Wolinsky, your friendly neighborhood blogger from Chicago. I recently left the Chicago Sun-Times, where I was a tech writer and before that a medical writer. I was among the first journos to cover the AIDS crisis and also among the first to cover the internet.
Check me out at GapersBlock, a popular Chicago blog run by Andrew Huff, a former student of mine at the University of Chicago.
I have long been a fan of internet communications—going back to the geeky "internet telephony" era—and have been a Skype user. As a part-time freelancer, I used Skype to cut my phone bills and to extend my reach for sources to Europe and beyond. Thank you, Skype.
Now as a full-time freelancer, I expect to do more with Skype. I will share my adventures on planet Skype and hope you will do the same.
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