Well it didn’t take them long, just 11 days after the rumours started flying (see my earlier post), Skype have made their beta release version 2 available for download to the public.
A little buggy, well it is beta after all, this is the long awaited addition to Skype that we have all been waiting for. With a few cosmetic touches, skype is really looking slick and impressive. Additional features include contact grouping and an expandable “My Panel” (mood, events, services integrated) and most importantly Video calls!
Flickr isn’t the first attempt at capturing the hearts of the amateur photographer in all of us, but it’scertainly the most successful. Started 2002, Yahoo’s acquisition of Flickr in March this year signified the importance of convenient storage and the ability to quickly publish you photo’s to whatever medium required.
Recently I stumbled onto Reddit and I am becoming quite a fan.
After using Digg, the social bookmarking site, for at least the last six months (the redesign and improved feature set has made it much more accessible IMHO), Slashdot has really got some work to do to keep at the fore front technology on the web. While Diggs stories are not always up to the editorial standard of Slashdot you can’t help but enthuse with the rare gems that appear probably on a daily bases.
Ok, so I’m a believer! If you’d have told me about podcasting 5 yearsago or tried to convince me that I would be a massive fan just 12 months ago, I’d have probably laughed in your face. Lets face it,Podcasting to the uninitiated is nothing more than amateur radio. Even now, and I listen to probably close on 8 -10 shows a week, if I try and explain it to someone they look at me like I am some closet geek with a homemade radio transmitter in my loft!
“Its like radio shows that you can download and listen to at your own convenience. They can be made by you and I, for a relatively little amount of money, yet some of the traditional broadcasters have caught on now as well. With subject matters as diverse as web design to film and music to gardening.”
Rumours are beginning to circle the web regarding Skype offering an integrated video call option in a new release soon.
Festoon, which recently changed its name from Vskype, offers a current alternative but the name change must be taken as a signal that Skype are going their own route.
Further according to Skype Journal, an independent Skype blog commentary, last September they posted extracts from Skype’s Product Development Road map illustrating the planned video release in October.
Now with the unforeseen introduction of the Sony’s IVE, ‘Instant Video Everywhere’, application (a collaboration with Glowpoint) it must surely force Skype’s hand.
Sony’sEric Murphy: “The launch of the IVE service as a free, unlimited useservice is a communications watershed moment for consumers – aninstantaneous, easy-to-use application that brings people together by literally putting them in the same room.”
With some 200,000,000 downloads, Skype has grown exponentially and has developed to a point where Ebay purchased them last month for an estimated $2.6 billion. Skype is the no.1 name in Voip and video is a natural progression, for Sony to beat them to release must be seen as a major coup.
The concern would be that Skype’s product is rushed to the market place and the application not impress in the same way it did when first released!
