Firefox Passes 50 Million Downloads

Firefox Passed the 50 Million Download mark. I am a huge advocate of Firefox - once you use it you will see why. Congrats to the Mozilla team, job well done.

Tom's Hardware Guide to Skype for PPC - Excellent

Tom's Hardware Guide has released a great step by step explanation on how to get your Pocket PC Skype enabled... It covers:

• Multi-Talented PDA
• You Need The Following Components
• 1st Step: Setting Up A WLAN Connection
• 2nd Step: Setting Up The BT Headset
• 3rd Step: Installing Skype For PPC
• Logging In To Skype For PPC For The First Time
• The User Interface
• How To Call
• Telephony Yes, But Not With Everybody
• Chatting Made Easy
• Multi-Week Operational Trial: Calling Anybody, Anywhere
• Range
• And How Long Does The Battery Last?
• Voice Quality
• Conclusion

Skype Beta for MS Smartphone Released.



Here are some of the details, GPRS isn't fast enough for Voice and since Smartphones aren't Wifi capable for the most part there isn't really a need for voice yet. But this is encouraging - Symbian will be next I would imagine.

Get it here.

________________________________________________________

Skype for Smartphone BETA
* participate in Skype network - log in, presence
* instant messaging
* centrally stored contact list support

Things to be aware of
* no voice (yet)
* network traffic usage - depending on your buddy list network usage can be quite large - up to several megabytes per day even without actively chatting, this is important if you pay per megabyte. There is option automatically disconnect then Skype is in idle and it's switched on by default, feel free to switch it off if you have flat-free rate.

Using Skype on a LAN or Corporate Network

Skype released a great document clearly explaining how to optimize Skype perfomance safely on a LAN. It is available here. Skype's Guide for Network Admin.'s

There is other software that I have been working with that allows for much greater control of Skype on a LAN by managing bandwith and packets; allowing for optimization of Skype traffic. The market for this type of Packet and Internet prioritization software will continue to increase, as Network Admin.'s try to remove latency from VoIP sessions on the LAN.

Skype: Brings the Final Frontier to your Classroom.

Skype call to the International Space Station today.

This is by far the biggest endorsement yet. If NASA allows Skype to run on the ISS, surely - it is fine for your terrestial based business. I hope these kids are recording this conversation and will post it on the ARISS site. As I type this, this connection is happening. There isn't a better endorsement of how VoIP technology is fundamentally different than traditional Telco PSTN infrastructure, are you listening CRTC?

Somebody at Skype, please send this class a box of T-shirts.

Fort Ross Elementary School, in Cazadero, California has been scheduled for a contact on Friday, April 15 at 18:07 UTC.

Two ARISS contacts have been scheduled with ESA Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori, as follows: Istituto Tecnico Industriale Liceo scientifico Tecnologico "G. Marconi" in Civitavecchia, Italy and Ist.Tecn.Comm.Einaudi-Mattei & Ist.Statale Istr. Sup. Malignani In in Palmanova, Italy will share a contact with the ISS, as they are linked via Skype (internet telephony). The students from each institute will take turns asking questions. The event is scheduled for April 18 at 08:45 UTC.

The European Space Research Institute (ESRIN), is slated for a contact via telebridge station NN1SS on April 20 at 12:39 UTC.

Skype Crosses the 100 000 000 download mark !

Let me be the first to congratulate Skype on passing a milestone few have reached before.

100 000 000 Downloads. Unbelievable.





May the next 100 000 000 be as exciting as the first...



Impressive Movement up the Alexa Rankings for Skype

Now this is impressive. Skype has just climbed into the top 500 websites in popularity in the world. If you don't have it yet, get it.




According to Rich Tehrani lovely wife, they are now ranked 22 ahead of Victoria's Secret, which begs the question to be asked, is Skype even more popular than the world's sexiest ladies lingerie? And are people Skyping while visting Victoria's Secret? (an entirely different opportunity) My marketing brain is straining for cross(dressing)/marketing campaigns...





Skype - Windows Mobile Treo 650, Part 3

The rumours around this are just rampant but Treonauts is reporting at a UK conference an Orange executive pulled out his new 650 and showed everyone the Windows Mobile 2005 OS running on it.. more details below.

So it looks like we might be close to a Skype Treo - not with Palm OS, but with Magneto - which I ponificated earlier would be a lot easier to accomplish...

"[Recently at] the Landmark Hotel, London, where a Very Senior Orange Person produced his Treo 650, and switched it on, and carelessly allowed all others at the table to see that it was not running PalmOS, but Windows Mobile 2005

Several people eagerly produced camera-phones to record this, and the phone was hastily tucked away where the sun can't shine."

Disconnect Supervision, POTS tricks and Skype

From my sordid youth, of pitching Nortel and Toshiba key systems and PBX's my favourite sales manager of all time Johnny "Nortel" Williamson always made sure when we were inspecting old PBX's to check to see if they had the software upgrades that allowed for disconnect supervision. Essentially this made sure that when you hung up your handset the loop start circuit was closed and you didn't leave a port open for 24 hours to Kuwait racking up a $700.00 phone call charge from your Telco. Apparently this was an issue on some really old systems, and was a good reason to pitch an "upgrade", which was basically the same thing in a new casing for twice the price.

I was calling someone on Skype today which reminded me of the old POTS anomaly where you would pick up the phone and low and behold there was already someone there. The conversation always started, "oh I was just calling you, your ears must be burning" etc. It was always really JoJo psychic'ish when you were about to call that same person as well. The cosmic duality of twisted copper, playing out in front of you.

This is what jarred my memory of the "old days" - if this cross talk was to happen today on a VoIP service everyone would be flapping about security and terrorist listening in on your calls...





Aside from the grammatical error ("just" isnt' needed), I had a good laugh.


Hitachi announces - 1 Terabyte Drives

This is rather mind boggling when you think of it. Within this year, we will have 1TB internal 3.5 inch hard drives and iPods with 120 Gigs.. For the non-technical 1 Terabyte is 1000 Gigabytes. Which to put it in perspective is

1. 1000 Divx encoded entire movies. (996 if you have the LOTR trilogy)
2. 250 000 4 mb mp3's (249 990 if you have Frampton Comes Alive and Rick Wakemen's Jouney to the Centre of the Earth)
   
3. An indescribable amount of porn etc..

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies have today demonstrated a new magnetic recording technology that could pave the way for ultra-high hard drive capacities, including 3.5" drives with a terabyte of storage.