Skype has released a new version of a VoIP client for the Apple Macintosh platform that adds some new and unique features. Version 2.8, which was released in beta, adds two major new features including the ability to share your screen with other Skype users and access Boingo’s global hotspot network on a per-minute basis.
Skype 2.8 for Mac will ship on Tuesday, with new features including screen sharing and an integrated Wi-Fi hot spot connector.
Available only for Mac OS X at first, the new version will add screen-sharing capabilities to the app’s voice, video, and chat communications features. Skype spokespeople told me that users will be able to run all four channels at once with acceptable performance.
Screen sharing is useful in business settings (I get a lot of demos over apps like Webex, for example), but it has personal applications as well: People could share photographs, and presumably videos as well, using the feature.
Skype is also getting a feature that will allow users to access WiFi hotspots on the Boingo network for 19 cents a minute. The funds will be deducted from users’ Skype accounts. Boingo has about 85,000 hot spots worldwide, a Boingo rep told me. TMobile, the primary Wi-Fi provider at U.S. airports, is on the Boingo network.
The Wi-Fi access feature makes Skype a more useful product for people who use the VoIP app from their Mac laptops, and the per-minute payment scheme makes sense for highly mobile users for whom buying access by the hour or month would leave a lot of unused credits behind.
Skype co-founder Nicklas Zennstrom also started a Wi-Fi network called Fon, but Skype 2.8 doesn’t yet integrate with that system.
Disruptive Telephony covered other new features in Skype 2.8, including a new way to update your Skype “mood” and to follow users in a Twitter-like fashion, bigger Avatar images, and a new way to manage and prioritize chat windows.
Also, regarding Boingo: That company announced a new Apple product: A connector app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. For $7.95 a month, users of those devices can access the entire Boingo Wi-Fi network. For U.S.-based iPhone users on the AT&T network, this is not such a great product since AT&T-provided Wi-Fi is now free for them, but international users and travelers, and iPod Touch users (perhaps those who use TruPhone for VOIP calls) may find it a good deal.
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Skype 2.8 for Mac to launch Tuesday
Those of you following the progress of Skype’s beta series for version 4.0 already know that the seminal VoIP caller has been striving to get people interested in–and even aware of–Skype other features by rearranging its program’s interface in time for version 4.0.
On Thursday, Skype released Skype 4.0 beta 3 for Windows, the third–and as far as we know, final–beta in the development series.
(Credit: CNET)In addition to Internet telephony, Skype wants to make it easier to switch among IM and phone conversations, to place calls to non-Skype users’ mobile phones and landlines, and to jump on board its video chats, which, the company admitted, most users either weren’t using or didn’t know existed.
At each of the three stages, Skype has daubed on more features that build from its very rough first attempt. In version 4.0 beta 3, the ability to scroll and search through your history is the punchiest addition; you can also filter by activity type.
There’s also a new download manager for file transfers, a subtle visual “chrome” treatment when you switch into compact view (from the View menu), and a bandwidth manager. To keep Skype stalkers at bay, the company has added the option to report blocked users as abusive. As always, use this feature with care.
Laying it out on the table
While Skype is still accepting feedback to influence the final design, the essentials haven’t changed much from the beginning, and the next release will almost assuredly arrive as the final version. Yet, there are still some visual flaws and an empty storefront. Skype’s engineers may run out of releases in which to test new functionality.
(Credit: CNET)Skype users, too, are calling for more visual personalization in the instant messenger, and are calling out against Skype’s yanking of Skypcasts, which officially shut down in September 2008.
Beta number three is also missing birthday reminders and public chats, both slated for this release.
As seen from the air, Skype’s 4.0 beta is shaping up into a communications tool that will fulfill its mission to streamline its app and make it more engaging on all fronts. Up close, however, the final release of 4.0 will need more cleanup if it’s to really redefine how it’s used.
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The home stretch: Skype’s third 4.0 beta
Google is rolling out video and voice capabilities for the chat function that is embedded in the Gmail interface. It’s a bare-bones voice and video-conferencing service, but it’s simple to install and use and is a very good addition to Gmail.
It’s no Skype, though. Gmail Video and Voice, as it’s called, can’t connect to the plain phone network, as Skype’s paid service can. And there are plenty of other optional features missing, like a voice call recorder.
Gmail gets video. (And either the person who showed me the app can’t be seen in public, or Google can’t afford lights.)
I found a demo of voice and video quality on the service excellent, although to be fair I was connected from CNET’s corporate network to someone at the Google campus. I do expect Gmail Video quality to be a bit more consistent than Skype, since unlike the point-to-point architecture of Skype, Gmail Video traffic all runs through Google servers. I expect that Google has the bandwidth and server capacity needed.
But the service was a resource hog on my 2-year-old computer; it used up all my available CPU resources and made other apps slow to respond. I’ve had better luck with Skype. Newer computers would probably not have this problem.
Unlike many current video chat products, Gmail Video and Voice uses a proprietary plug-in, not Flash. The small (2MB) download supports Firefox, IE, and Chrome on the PC, and Firefox on the Mac. Support for other browsers and platforms (Linux and mobile) may come later.
Gmail Video and Voice will be made available to all Gmail users starting Tuesday at noon PST. Global rollout should be complete by the end of the day. To see if you have it, open a chat with someone (you don’t actually have to message them). If your account is video-enabled, at the lower left of the chat window, there will be an interface element labeled “Video & more.” When you click on that it will walk you through installing the plug-in. If you want to make a video call to someone who hasn’t yet installed the plug-in, you’ll be able to invite them to do so. (In my early test of the service, this feature wasn’t yet enabled).
The existing downloadable Google Talk application, which has supported voice chat for a while, only later may get the video capability. The Google people I spoke with were noncommittal.
Upshot: The addition of voice and video makes Gmail a more compelling product. It’s very nice to have all the major communications channels (e-mail, chat, voice, video, and soon, SMS) in one place and under one log-on. Google could, though, layer in some more connectivity into its own apps (like YouTube, Google Docs presentations, and Android) to make it even richer. And the lack of an interface to the standard phone system is limiting.
But Google got the first release of its videophone pretty much right. It works, it’s easy, and if you’re a Gmail user, the service is right where you want it.
Here’s a Google developer’s pitch for the service:
Original post:
Google launches video chat for Gmail
Telefonica, the largest telecommunications provider in Latin America, announced on Friday that it has officially been chosen by Microsoft to provide voice over Internet Protocol services to Windows Live Messenger customers in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, the United States, and Venezuela.
Dubbed Voype, Telefonica’s VoIP service works with Live Messenger and will enable Windows Live customers to make calls directly from their PCs to any landline or mobile phone in the world.
Obviously taking aim at eBay’s popular Skype Internet telephony technology, Microsoft’s Live Messenger VoIP solution may not be such a bad choice. Calls to and from other Live Messenger users are free, and calls made to landlines or cell phones in the United States cost just $0.014 per minute.
Rates are slightly higher in Canada and the United Kingdom–$0.055 and $0.023 per minute, respectively–but the service’s rate list reveals relatively competitive pricing. In fact, calls made in the States are cheaper on Voype than those made on Skype. Skype currently charges $0.021 for all calls sent to people in the United States.
That said, Voype is still in its infant stages. It’s currently available in select countries around the world but will soon be made available to customers in Latin America, which could increase its installed base.
More importantly, current Voype users won’t be able to receive calls on their PC. According to Telefonica, that functionality is scheduled for release at a “later point,” as part of the “second phase.”
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Microsoft, Telefonica dial up Live Messenger VoIP
