Microsoft’s Don Mattrick pulled back the curtain on the Xbox One at a live event at the company’s Redmond campus, and it wasn’t long at all before the talk turned to software. One application in particular has been the subject of speculation for months, and SVP Yusuf Mehdi confirmed that Skype (which, if you recall, Microsoft acquired for $8.5 billion nearly two years ago) is… → Read More
CopyTele, a “patent enforcement entity” based in New York, has filed a patent infringement suit against Microsoft in connection with its Skype IP calling and messaging service, now used by 280 million people every month. The two patents in question come from Secure Web Conference Corporation, a subsidiary of publicly-traded CopyTele. They are 6,856,686 B2 (’686 Patent), and 6,856,687 B2 (’687… → Read More
Microsoft has announced that it is launching a preview of Skype for Outlook.com starting in the UK. The service will be made available in the U.S. and Germany in the coming weeks before it is rolled out to the rest of the world. → Read More
Nir Goldschlager just saved your identity. One of the world’s top white hat security researchers, Goldschlager this week helped Skype and Dropbox fix a critical security flaw that could have let hackers take control of their users’ Facebook accounts. Tomorrow Goldschlager will detail how he found the exploit, but he gave TechCrunch the early heads up. Here’s how hackers exploit the hole. → Read More
Saudi Arabia is looking at a potential block of services including WhatsApp, Skype and Viber that allow VOiP, messaging and real-time chat according to the country’s official press agency (via CNET). The potential service blockage is a response to these apps not adhering to regulatory requirements put in place by the Saudi Arabian government, and seems to mirror the trouble BlackBerry had with its… → Read More
Skype released an update today for Windows Phone, which restores the “People Hub” integration (Windows Phone’s fancy address book) that had been disabled in January due to bugginess and performance issues. Though today’s blog post from Skype doesn’t directly address the Hub’s former problems, it does hint at them by saying that the new release focuses on “increasing quality and reliability.” → Read More
There is some change at Skype, the messaging giant that is now a part of Microsoft: Jonathan Rosenberg, the chief technology strategist, and then later GM of product strategy and research at Microsoft who was behind the creation of Skype’s Facebook video calling feature and other developments, has left the company to become a VP and CTO of cloud collaboration for Cisco — the company from which… → Read More
After this morning’s news that the transition from Windows Live Messenger to Skype will be delayed, word comes that Skype will now begin testing a video messaging feature. Essentially like a video voicemail option, this will allow users to record messages for contacts who aren’t online, which can be played back when they return to Skype. → Read More
A roster of privacy advocates, Internet activists, journalists and other organizations have issued an open letter to Microsoft, calling on it to issue regular transparency reports about the release of Skype user information to third parties. → Read More
When people think of consumer VoIP services, the first name to come to mind for many is Skype. But while Microsoft’s recent acquisition begins to explore a new role as a social advertising network, a competing VoIP provider, Rebtel, is hoping to gain some new ground. The Stockholm-based company, which has been in operation since 2006, today is announcing that it has passed 20 million active… → Read More
Skype has just updated its iOS app, making it much easier to merge Skype accounts with your Microsoft account.
Microsoft recently decided to phase out Windows Live Messenger in favor of Skype, finally putting the $8.5 billion acquisition to good use, which allows users to Skype with Messenger, Hotmail, and Outlook.com contacts. → Read More
Skype now has 280 million monthly users, and mobile a been a major part of Skype’s growth story in the last few years. Today the company is releasing Skype 3.0 for Android — its biggest app update for the platform in over a year — and like its new Windows 8 app, it’s built with tablets in mind. → Read More
The company is also gearing up to expand its push in physical stores. Physical gift cards are available for purchase with retailers in the U.S., UK and Mexico, and a Skype person tells me more countries will be announced soon. Users in the U.S. also have an additional option to buy Gift Cards via Facebook. → Read More
Skype has long been talking about the different ways that it could monetize its calling and messaging platform. Now, with Microsoft as its owner and 280 million monthly users passing through its voice, video and messaging network, it looks like it is getting serious. → Read More
Skype faced a fairly serious security threat today, thanks to a flaw in the system that allowed people to sign up with email addresses already in use by other users and then force password resets for any accounts associated with those emails. Reset tokens could be delivered to the Skype client itself, meaning people didn’t need access to email accounts to reset passwords associated with them. → Read More
Editor’s note: Peter Arvai, founder and CEO of Prezi, is working to help people share ideas.
Just months before Twitter launched in 2006, a company launched in Helsinki, Finland — the land of Nokia, ruler of mobile phones. The company’s idea was simple: Make it easy to publish short messages via mobile phones. Ring a bell? For the Internet-savvy community in Northern Europe, it was Jaiku… → Read More
Confirming earlier reports, Microsoft officially announced today it would be retiring its Windows Live Messenger instant messaging service in favor of Skype. In a post on the Skype blog, Tony Bates, Microsoft President, Skype Division, explained that Windows Live Messenger would be retired for all users in the first quarter of 2013, with the only exception being mainland China. → Read More
Editor’s note: Bernard Moon is co-founder and CEO of Vidquik, a new web conferencing and sales solutions platform, and co-founder of SparkLabs, a recently launched startup accelerator in Seoul, Korea.
Qik co-founder Ramu Sunkara discusses the company’s voyage from its founding in 2006 in his garage to being acquired by Skype in January 2011 for $150 million. → Read More
Skype hit version 6 today, with a rare simultaneous release for both Windows and Mac. This brings a whole bunch of new features to the table, including single sign-on with both Facebook and Microsoft credentials, so that new users don’t even have to sign up for Skype itself, Retina display compatibility for Macs, and multi-window chats. → Read More
In case you thought Skype may be slowing down while settling into being a part of Microsoft and recently celebrating its ninth birthday, here are some numbers that seem to indicate otherwise: Last week, Skype reached a new peak of 45,469,977 concurrent users online, part of a strong run for the peer-to-peer voice/video/chat service this year. Overall it has seen an increase of 70% so far in… → Read More
Skype isn’t exactly immune to malware and spam, but criminals are hoping that its users are perhaps less vigilant about clicking through on random links sent to their accounts. According to multiple reports from security firms, as well as from a community forum thread on Skype.com, the popular communications service is the latest target of a malicious online worm. The worm, identified as… → Read More
Skype is coming out with a bunch of announcements today and perhaps (perhaps) it’s sign of a re-invigorated operation even though there remains continuing grumbles from users about the actual product development and the lack-lustre, dated, interface and features.
First up it’s expanding its wireless offering in the UK and Ireland by partnering with wireless broadband provider Wicoms. “Free… → Read More
Ahead of Nokia and Microsoft’s big event in New York today, where they will formally announce new Nokia/Windows Phone devices, Microsoft is making a little pre-show appearance in the form of Skype, the once-upstart Internet voice calling company that it now owns. It was announced this AM that starting in October, users will be able to buy Skype Credits by billing them directly to their mobile… → Read More
Amidst performance improvements to the latest update to Skype’s iOS apps, photo sharing – the most requested feature – has also been enabled. Images of any size taken with your iPad or iPhone (or any image from your photo library, I imagine) can be transferred via the Skype app. → Read More
In May of last year, Microsoft acquired everybody’s favorite VoIP and chat provider, Skype, for a cool $8.5 billion. It was a big move for Microsoft and a landmark deal, which it officially closed in October. Yet, as Frederic pointed out earlier this week, other than getting to wear the brand’s pin on its lapel, Microsoft has been quiet about its plans for Skype.
However, as part of its… → Read More
Microsoft announced that it planned to buy the popular peer-to-peer VoIP service Skype in early 2011 and the acquisition closed last October. Since then, though, Microsoft mostly left Skype alone and continued to run it as a stand-alone product. With the release of the next version of Office, though, Microsoft is now integrating Skype closely with its office suite. Skype will, for example, now… → Read More
Skype says that it has a fix in the works for a frightening, but reportedly not widespread, bug that involves users’ private instant messages being shared with other unintended people in their contacts list. The bug was first discussed in Skype’s user forums, and seems to have followed a June 2012 update of the Skype software. → Read More
Skype just announced a new version of its Mac software which brings changes based on user feedback, including the return of the resizable contact list and improvements to video calls and screen sharing features. The news follows yesterday’s announcement from the company which said that Windows users on Skype’s free service would now see advertisements in the software. However, no mention of the… → Read More
Skype just announced that it will now begin to show some of its users ads during 1:1 audio calls. These so-called “conversation ads” will only appear for users who don’t have Skype credit or a subscription and, for the time being, these ads will only appear on Skype for Windows, though chances are the company, which is now owned by Microsoft, will also bring these ads to its OS X client in the… → Read More
Skype introduced a new Facebook app this morning, and before you get your hopes up, it’s not some amazing new way to Skype from the browser plug-in free, or kick off multi-person video chat sessions right from the News Feed. Nope. The app is this goofy, ridiculous creation called “Skype Humoticons” which lets you use your webcam to post pictures of you mimicking Skype emoticons to Facebook. → Read More
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