Video Answering Machine from Apple, but not with Skype

via Gizmodo -

Apple's latest preview of OS X 10.5 had a little bonus over the usual glitch fix. Inside iChat was a new preference pane, called Answering, a feature that lets you record a video away message with your iSight.

Also Macrumors.com is claiming that this will be linked to the rumored iPhone Call Ahead feature. Interesting.– Brian Lam

This is a really simple yet innovative feature from Apple - Hopefully Skype will follow suit and provide a badly needed update to its antiquated VM solution soon.

Virtual Cocktail Party, Blog Tag - I am it

Alec, tagged me with reference to Jeff Pulver's experiment in Blog Tag.

So as the game goes, 5 things that aren't widely known about me...

1. I am a sci-fi buff, and one of the few people that actually own a laser disc of Dune.
2. In Grade 12 I had a main chute failure in my first (and last) sky dive.
3. I am an avid angler, and enjoy fishing all over Ontario for all species of fish, both on frozen and unfrozen water.
4. I am a member of the CSIA and teach skiing on my downtime in the winter.
5. I contracted some form of Cholera on a trip to Africa last year.

In keeping with good Blog Tag etiquette, I hereby tag - Jaanus Kase, Jim Courtney, Kevin Delaney, Tom Keating, and Hans Blauw.

Sunrocket makes no 'sense' - update, fixed!

Alec has been covering his exchange with the Sunrocket 'automatons' aka CSR's in his never ending attempt to cancel his service.

You can follow the thread here.

I find it very interesting how Alec references his VoIP blog and his readership, but it seems to fall on deaf ears. I don't think it is a matter of them ignoring the fact he is a blogger, I think it is related to the fact that the low lever CSR he is talking to and the respective manager, haven't a clue what blogging is, or social media for that matter.

My readership is about 2% of Alec's but I am blogging the story, and others will to. This horrible service that Alec is being subjected to; can and I think will, have a very real impact on Sunrocket, and they haven't a clue.

NB - Literally within 24 hours of I am sure what a deluge of posts (never checked Technorati) the folks at Sunrocket called Alec to allow him to cancel his service without hassel. The PR guy (who must have had a small coronary) made good on their policy of 'hassle free cancellation' - so a happy ending. Social media is an amazing tool for PR, but is a double edged sword, markets are conversations, its not easy for a lot of companies to learn and benefit from it.

Skype used in Nigeria money scam spam..

This was in my gmail account this AM, usually gmail scrubs all this crap out - but this slipped through. It was addressed specifically to me from someone I thought I knew so I scanned it. What I found funny was the con artist/underbelly of a snake that sent it to me; claims to have got my email from skype.com.

Hello ,
GOD bless you, well my name is sandra jones i have am single and i have faced alots of problems here,though i live in UK,Scotland,i was been invited here in west africa nigeria by someon i believe that he could be the whole world to me without knowing that he is a killer,he got me into an hotel here in nigeria and rubbed be,he took all i have ever worked for in life and all my juelries and money including my credit card i have nobody to count on now i ony have an uncle who brought me up in the UK ,i tried getting to him but there was no responce at all,all he does it to get drunk and he is a drug adict too...he does not care,i heard he has gone to japan and never a contact from him up till now,i am owning some bills for the hotel that i lodged in here in nigeria,and they will never release my passport or my return ticket tilli get the bills paid,i really need a man that will help me out of all this mess and will take me as his loving lady,.....all the money that am owning now is $2,650usd to be paid before i get out of here ot before they can realease my passport to me,i pray that GOD will guide and protect you towards by helping me out in my problems....dont be surprise of where i got your email from,its form the skype.com this is the information that you will send the money to and pls include your address and phone number so that i can get to you as soon as i get out of this mess..
the hotel manager's information...... when i was trying to reach out to who is going to get me out of this mess.....the hotel manager will be the one to recieve the money via wetern union money transfer...

recievers name.............Adio olusegun soji
city................................Abeokuta
state..............................Ogun state
country.........................Nigeria.
zipcode.........................23439
adress........................>....No 17 onikoko street ibara abeokuta ogun state..

GOD bless you as you are hoping or thinking to help me in my situations that i have been facing in here for soo long.....i will be here waiting and looking out ony mail to read and hare from you now or sooner..till then GOD bess and protect you in all ways of life and livings.......

sandra hopes for help.....

Lab Rats TV episode - Improving Skype call Quality

The lads over at Labrats.tv (a great 'dumb it down' IT related Vlog) have posted a tutorial on basic port forwarding to improve your Skype audio quality, which eliminates some of the hops it has to take to get you connected to your other Skype loving buddy.

It is worth a watch. - via Download Squad

Classic Youtube Thanksgiving Moment

Thanks to Gary Weir for pointing out this classic clip in his Skype mood message - I near wet myself watching it. It is a classic, and by far my fav. WKRP episode of all time.

Happy Thanksgiving to all our US readers.

Skype added to Google Pack, Gtalk mysteriously missing

VoipNews is reporting that Skype has been included in the Google Pack download. Suspiciously Google Talk is not. This smells like the demise of Google Talk, which is surprising considering Andy is reporting a new Google Talk phone that is in production.

The list of applications included in the pack are: Google Desktop, Picasa, Google Toolbar for IE and FireFox, the Google Pack Screensaver, Ad-Aware Personal, Norton Antivirus 2005, Adobe Reader 7.0, Real Player, Gallery Player, and now Skype.

This is a huge distribution deal for Skype and obviously part of the announced click to call strategy with Google Adsense. Has Skype won the VoIM battle? When you have competitors distributing your product, it would appear it is all over but the crying.

In other news, the Skype 3.0 beta is a worthwhile upgrade, On-States ACD for Skype and the other apps in the download gallery are worth checking out.