01 Feb 2005 | Brian B said...

As a twenty-something year old techno-geek, i've got to say, I was shocked the other day when my parents friends (in their late fifties) asked me if I was using Skype yet. 25 Million users now, and thats just the beginning. there was an interesting article in I believe Business 2.0 about them a few months ago. The guys running it are doing so out of top-secret offices so that the MPAA/RIAA doesn't find them (as they were being hounded for Kazaa).

01 Feb 2005 | svinto said...

No, they're not. Or maybe they are, but I don't think that helps since the president of Skype is listed with his home address and cellphone number at two (out of two) online phone-directory services... I wouldn't trust Skype for a bit anyway with all the spyware in Kazaa fresh in mind.. (although I have no idea if there is any in Skype)

01 Feb 2005 | Matt Haughey said...

I just used Skype for the first time a couple days ago (though I had a voip line in 2003) and I guess I haven't completely gotten the religion yet because it felt like iChat audio chat to me so far. A couple questions:

- Does the mac beta client interact at all with the mac address book? I can't seem to pull records from address book into skype, and instead it is asking me to enter them all in by hand.

- The calling out option doesn't seem to be in my copy of skype. Is that something you have to pay extra for, the global calling out thing? I thought calling out to a real phone was free.

01 Feb 2005 | JF said...

Hey Matt. They just released 1.0 for OS X today.

01 Feb 2005 | SH said...

I just downloaded Skype to see what the fuss was after hearing from one more person how great it is. Before I had a chance to customize my privacy settings, I'd received four "calls" to my computer from people in Morocco and Pakistan.

*Four.* In less than ten minutes. Even one unwanted call from some stranger in Pakistan is enough for me to say no thanks and let this wave pass.

01 Feb 2005 | chris rhee said...

I've been using Skype for a long time. I've never tried iChat's computer to computer chat, but I have tried it on AIM and MSN. Skype's quality is just a LOT better. And back when I first started using it, you could only do 1 computer to 1 computer chats. But now, you can chat with multiple people at once, so that's great. I'm glad to see more people are using it.

01 Feb 2005 | sloan said...

Skype uses a distributed network similar to Kazaa and other file sharing services to get around network bottlenecks. So it has some advantages over straight IM to IM in terms of quality, the ability to call regular phone lines is great as well. They have competitive rates to call regular lines all across the globe. In the end though, I think you will see convergence of IM and VOIP that integrates Skype's model and Vonage's... Skype has a huge fanbase partly because you can look up "numbers" for people that have similar interests like friendster. Not sure how this will all shake out, but as for now my friend's boyfriend lives in S. Africa and Skype has put a huge dent in their phone bills!

Look for VOIP cell phones in the future that start to use IM and Email as voice mailboxes. Just think, leaving a typed message instead of some last second, off-the-cuff-incoherent voice message...

02 Feb 2005 | Colly said...

It's pure genius. The power is having it in the dock, ready for when you really need it. The ability to call a mobile phone from the laptop, and make notes typing with both hands whilst my colleague or client bangs on is brilliant.

I've stashed a few Euros credit on my account, and am now desperately trying to resist the urge to call everyone just to say "Hi, I'm talking to you through my laptop".

My Mum will think I'm holding the laptop up to my ear, of course.

02 Feb 2005 | brian b said...

anyone know if i can pair my bluetooth headset for my motorola cell phone w/my powerbook and use it as a headset for skype? now we need someone to merge flickr with skype and friendster(or thefacebook if you are a college kid) and AIM. like centrally collect people's profiles from each together to one portal type of site... just a thought.

02 Feb 2005 | beto said...

Well I guess I know what the beginning (or rather, the end) of it is: The end of outrageous phone bills and prohibitely expensive overseas calls. The telcos, of course, are not happy about this. For me, it's just overdue payback time.

And of course, I've been using Skype on my Mac since the early betas. SkypeOut has made possible for me to communicate with long-gone friends and relatives overseas for pennies on the dollar. It just works indeed. How could one ask for more? At last a marketing tagline that isn't just some piece of PR BS.

02 Feb 2005 | Sunny said...

My father uses Skype to keep in touch with his workplace in Vista, CA from Adelaide, Australia. SkypeOut for calls to other Asian destinations and for even local calls in Australia. Since local calls in Australia have a per call charge, it turns into nice savings. And the quality is astounding.

02 Feb 2005 | mark rush said...

yes skype is excellent, tho MSN Messenger has just been upgraded to capture the market with VoIP, video conferencing and file sharing capabilities

02 Feb 2005 | sloan said...

MSN Messenger does VoIP? I didn't see that anywhere. They had messaging to a cell phone via their IM service, but I didn't see any VoIP service to connect to normal phones. If Skype let you set up a phone number or Vonage let you IM, then I would like the services... As it is, I will probably get Vonage or a similar service to lower phone costs and use a SoftPhone so that my laptop acts as a semi-mobile number. Vonage will turn voicemail into WAV files and email them to you, but I'd like to see Vonage recognize that it is a computer trying to make the "call" and offer typed messages or voice messages as options.

02 Feb 2005 | Arjan Zuidhof said...

I had the same feeling recently, when I was at work. A collegue called whilst sitting in a train somewhere in the hinterlands of Sweden, where he had trouble connecting to our website. His laptop was connected to the internet by using his cellphone. I helped him out instantly and saw his entries appear in my logs at the same time. These are exciting times,indeed ...

02 Feb 2005 | Simon Jessey said...

After reading this entry, and the comments that followed, I signed up to see what all the fuss is about. I'm in the Philadelphia area but I have family in the United Kingdom, so if it works better than MSN Messenger or AIM, I'll get them to download Skype too. The low cost of calls to normal telephones intrigues me.

02 Feb 2005 | Michael Cannon said...

What headset or speaker and microphone combination do folks recommend for Skype on a PowerBook? Does Skype include protocols for AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, or MSN?

02 Feb 2005 | Pete Prodoehl said...

Just remember that Skype is a closed system, is *not* based on open-standards, and is controlled by a single company. Compare that to the openness of VoIP providers and while Skype is a fun toy, it's nothing I'd want to rely on too heavily...

02 Feb 2005 | Mat said...

Peter -fair point, but if you live in Australia, the whole telecoms system is basically controlled by one company anyway...

02 Feb 2005 | Irdial said...

This is a cool way to use it: Siemens has a nifty USB adaptor so that you can use a traditional phone handset wirelessly on Skype.

Now that is VERY cool.

As for that comment about getting four random calls; honestly, if you cant use a simple piece of software like Skype, that a 70 year old grandmother can (and does) use, the problem is with YOU not Skype. You can easily set Skype to only accept calls from people you know. Doing that on a 'normal' phone counts as a feature...that you have to pay for.

Skype is very popular. It works well. Its going to change the world. This is the second hugely popular software tool its developers have created. There will always be be some people whose nature it is to hate that sort of sucess and genius. We don't call them. Or is it 'dont call us, we'll call you'?

You know, I'm not sure!!!

02 Feb 2005 | One of several Steves said...

Skype's not what's cool. It's VOIP that's cool. Skype's just one of many, many tools to use. Granted, it's silly easy to use if you've ever spent any time with any IM client, and the free user-to-user feature is very nice.

But is Skype going to win the race? Dunno. In an era where open standards are preferred over closed systems, Skype has a handicap. Not to mention, to get real widespread, it's going to need to make the leap from the computer. Most people don't want to talk on a computer. They want to talk on a phone.

Not that Skype couldn't come up with that. But the VOIP race is just beginning, and I'm not sure Skype's even in the lead. There's a long way to go yet.

03 Feb 2005 | Irdial said...

VOIP is certainly 'cool', but its not what gets the job done. Tools get the job done, and all the USA based tools that you have to pay monthly fees for are doomed IMHO, as people start to understand what Skype is and the word continues to spread.

More than half of all households in the USA have computers and broadband, the same uptake is happening in the EU. If you look at that Siemens link above, its clear that you can use traditional handssets with Skype, so the idea that it won't spread 'because it doesnt look like a telephone' is not true.

Skype is going to become the backbone for telephony world wide. People are going to manufacture more familiar, computer grandma friendly devices to work with it, and all pay-for-access telephone services will die. We call that 'A Prediction'.

Since Skype is not based in the USA, all FCC attempts to kill it (like the absurd 'must be able to access 911' proposal) will utterly fail. 60,000,000 people have downloaded it, there are almost 2,000,000 users on it at any one time - what I find truely astonishing is how there are STILL people that cannot see this revolution exploding right in their faces. They will say anything to knock it down. Not that any of the talk counts, but honestly, its like denying that sunrise is coming at the crack of dawn.

The 'VOIP Race' has been won by Skype. They are innovating faster than everyone else, cover more platforms, deliver better service, and have the most users and most momentum. Anyone entering the race would have to come up with a piece of software that is better than Skype, OR which offers, say, free calls to land lines and mobiles world wide to overtake and beat them.

03 Feb 2005 | /pd said...

There' some more skype chatter here

03 Feb 2005 | pb said...

Skype is brilliant because it can support all 6 billion of us with zero marginal costs.

12 Feb 2005 | jens said...

Irdal: Your arguments are all valid but you've forgotten about one important little detail that skype lacks. The ability to call from a fixed or cell -phone to a laptop...! I.e the bigger picture.
That is where the operators using open standards kick in and take over (Read SIP/SDP).

best regards/jens