May 2008

In the age of WiFi phones for Skype and mobile phones, desk phones seem rather quaint and outdated.

But I am convinced it will take a desk phone-style model to get some people to make calls on the Internet. Not everyone feels comfortable wearing a headset.

So the just-released Belkin Internet Phone for Skype is a welcome addition to the roundup of devices.

Continue reading "Skype goes "retro" with desktop phone" »

When we last checked in on the Skype Nomad, our intrepid traveler was just setting off on her 33-day, 'round the world journey to test Skype mobility. She was in "perpetual motion"--always on the move, with no hotels.

On Friday, Rebecca Campbell, 26, a copywriter from London, landed in New York, where she planned to check out Times Square and take a double-decker bus tour around the Big Apple.

She came to New York after spending a couple days in California. She was in San Francisco, where she rolled out in an RV with a non-stop talking rapper named Joel who took her to Disneyland. You can read the Skype Nomad's blog for more details.

Continue reading "Skype Nomad's Excellent Adventure in the USA" »

Good news for those of us on Macs.

An updated version of Skype 2.7 for Mac has been released and can be downloaded now.

Ryan, the Skype Mac maven, explains that the new version is smarter because "Skype can now 'talk' to your internet connection in order to get the best connection, and thus give you the best Skype experience."

He notes that with the new version "supports 'Authenticated Proxies' - so if Safari works for you, so should Skype." Ryan says that's great for college students who have to enter a username and password to use the Internet on their Macs.

A dispatch from Don Albert, GM of Skype North America:

Hollywood, like Oprah, is catching on to Skype. I am sitting in the American Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival, which is buzzing with a couple hundred film industry execs and film students.

Continue reading "Skype on call from Cannes" »

The Washington Post's The Trail blog describes Barack Obama's "International Following."

Shailagh Murray notes: "The World Wants Obama Coalition of international and U.S. expatriate supporters has turned into a booming marketplace of campaign-related outreach -- mostly involving people who are not eligible to vote in the United States but who are transfixed by the Obama candidacy."

There are Facebook campaigns. After all the Man from Illinois has been a major presence with zillions of friends in Facebook. There are online photo albums.

And there are instructions on how to use Skype for get-out-the-vote campaigns back in the USA.

The instructions read, "Start by explaining who you are, and asking if they would be happy to talk, for example: 'Hi, I'm Justin from London, England, and I'm part of an international movement supporting Senator Obama. I can't vote in this election, but if you have a few minutes I'd love to talk to you about how a President Obama would improve America's standing in the world.'"

Meanwhile, we reported on Silicon Valley for Obama's use of Skype to reach out to voters.

Equal time statement: If anyone from the McCain and Clinton camps is using Skype, let us know. We'll rock the vote for them too.

The mantra at the Silicon Valley for Obama organization in Palo Alto, Calif., is: "Don't hide behind e-mail. Pick up the phone and call."

And Roger Hu, a memory chip designer, who helped start the group last August and is now an delegate for Barack Obama to the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August, said Skype calls have become the backbone of the operation.

Continue reading "Putting Skype to work for Obama in Silicon Valley--and beyond" »

Skype’s Hollywood profile is on the rise again.

Here’s the latest from Tinseltown: Skype is on the A-list at the Cannes Film Festival, no less.

Not bad. Only last month, Skype had a supporting role in Nim’s Island, a Robinson Crusoe-style adventure on a remote South Pacific island.

Movie stars, directors and other Hollywood royalty that don’t make it to Cannes can make their video calling connection via Skype to the American Pavilion, the business and hospitality center for the press, filmmakers, stars and others attending the famed festival running from May 14 to May 25.

Titanic director James Cameron and cinematographer Vincent Pace, executive producer of this year’s Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour and other luminaries will be linked via Skype video calls into discussions hosted by the American Pavilion.

The American Pavilion will use Skype video calling in its “In Conversation” and “Industry In Focus” series, in which respected filmmakers and industry insiders offer audiences opinions and insights, in moderated panel discussions. The discussions happen nearly daily during the festival.

Continue reading "Skype to provide video calling link between Hollywood and Cannes Film Festival" »

My old friend and colleague Eric Benderoff described is his May 8 Chicago Tribune Tech Buzz column the way things should be for mobile device users.

He told of being at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last January and testing out gear from Intel and Motorola that transformed his car into a mobile hot spot using WiMax, an emerging technology that is sort of like WiFi on vitamins, if not steroids.

Among other things, Eric said he called back to the Chicago office on Skype via the car’s navigation system.
I saw a demo of the same WiMax technology aboard the good ship “Summer of George” on a Motorola-sponsored cruise on the Chicago River last summer. It’s amazing stuff and should be available soon.

If WiMax catches on, it would be great if the Federal Communications Commission would encourage phone and cable companies offering phone services open up their networks so everyday Americans, not just tech reporters, can use Skype while cruising like the Skype Nomad in their planes, trains and automobiles.

In the tradition of Phileas Fogg, hero of Jules Verne's 1872 novel, "Around the World in Eighty Days," Rebecca Campbell is setting out from London today to go around the world in 33 days.

This isn't a race with Fogg. The 26-year-old London resident, a native of Sydney, Australia, dubbed the "Skype Nomad," isn't going for a time record.

Rather, Campbell is showing just how mobile Skype is as she covers ground in 15 countries. "It's all about perpetual motion to show how truly mobile I can be," she said.

She'll be hopping from jet to rickshaw and bumboat in Singapore to a Fogg-esque hot-air balloon over the Alps in Austria, to gondola in Venice, a boat cruising the Yangtze River in China, cable car in San Francisco, dog sled in Alaska, the famed cross-continental Indian Pacific train between Sydney and Perth in her native Australia, and a boat ride across the Baltic from Sweden to Skype's supreme HQ in Tallinn, Estonia to finish up June 6, "D-Day."

Continue reading ""Skype Nomad's" excellent adventure in mobility" »