Puddle Jump Fail

Totally unrelated to technology, but please vote for this picture on Failblog of my buddy Jean Marc attempting a puddle jump - it is a one in a million picture.

It is at the bottom of Page 3 of the voting page.


more fail, owned and pwned pics and videos

Create a US iTunes Store account to get Skype for iPhone in Canada

Confirmed, this works!

I can't confirm that this works (please someone let me know, thanks MacGasm!) but apparently you can register for a US iTunes account separately inside of iTunes to get the Skype for iPhone application.


Link to Apple Support on how to do this here.

Also - thanks to Tyler: for the following link follow the instructions here and you are in business: Step by step instructions to creating an iTunes account in other countries.

Also - the imminent release of Skype for Blackberry will also be affected with a different version that is IM and inbound Skype call only - due to some patent issue. Because you can load BB applications via a desktop loader, that really won't do much to prevent CDN uses from getting the full application..

I don't think jailbroken iPhones have this geo-issue as you should be able to load any application on it, I imagine it is just a matter of time till someone releases the iPhone app. to the jailbreak community.

Skype tries TV Advertising

Skype PR and marketing have finally made the decision to start using mainstream media to get the word out. Adoption rates are likely to soar in markets where these ads are running. Viral marketing has a place, and built Skype to what it is today; strongly on a free calling proposition, but today it is so much more than what it was when it started. I hope these ads run in the US and Canada too in the near future.

This is the first, in what I hope is a series - it is fantastic. I don't think you could capture Skype in 30 seconds better than this ad does.

Skype 4D Conversations - TV Advert
Uploaded by SkypeConversations

Skype makes a small ripple, but no Splash with new VM features.

Over a year ago, I talked about a Skype/Spinvox deal and I was admittedly lukewarm to the idea. I have been critical of Skype's Voicemail Strategy (VM) and I think for good reason.

Skype's VM service is proprietary and closed, this severely limits its usefulness, and for some reason Skype refuses to add any significant resources to this feature. You can't listen to a Skype VM message unless you are logged into your client. It has remained unchanged for the better part of 3-4 years, until now.

Today, Skype has made some 'upgrades?' to this service - announced @ Ecomm (I think) Skype has (finally) integrated with the Spinvox API, and now allows Voice to SMS transcribing of your messages for a cost of .25cents PLUS the cost of up to 3 SMS messages depending on the length of the transcription. There is no email option (which would be trivial to add) so you have to pay the piper twice. I don't think this will be very significant in the long term, it is far too expensive, and the nature of Skype's VM service limits its usefulness anyway.

The other news regarding Skype's VM feature upgrade, is the ability to receive txt ($) and email (free) alerts that you have a VM waiting for you. This is a welcome upgrade, but frankly still falls far short of what would be expected of a Voice 2.0 service today. You can also call a Skype to Go number to listen to your VM if you live one of the 11 countries that has Skype To Go numbers.

I am (I think) rightfully critical of Skype's VM strategy. In other posts I have asked for the following as a minimum.

A web interface and portal of my messages would really tie me to Skype as a communication tool, even when I am not logged onto the p2p. Every other VoIP solution currently offered in NA/or the world provides this basic form of Unified Messaging.

Personally I wouldn't pay for the SpinVox solution, if it was free I would probably use it - I imagine more text/SMS centric people will think differently. But as a member of the Blackberry faithful I would rather just get an attachment sent to my mobile/email, that I can then store and forward a la' Apple's new Visual VM for the iPhone.

Messaging could be major area for revenue @ Skype, they have the ability to create something much better than what Google offers with Grandcentral, and users will gladly pay! I don't know why; but they dip their toes into the messaging pool, rather than cannon balling off the high dive. They need to make a huge splash, not a ripple.

Jim Courtney's thoughts here:

Skype Voicemail to Text via SpinVox: Tell Me Why?

Adhearsion - Great name, great project

The Adhearsion project (which I have been following for a while) has some big news today. A new site Adhearsion.com and a new member of the team, and friend of mine Jason Goecke. Jason knows call centres and telephony probably better than anyone I know - this guy gets Voice and Web 2.xxx. Jason is excited about Adhearsion, if I knew nothing else about the project that would be good enough to get me interested.

Adhearsion (from the site):

is a new way to write voice-enabled applications. It's not just an API or library — it's a fully-featured framework, the first of its kind, designed for maximal code reuse and intuitiveness. The name "Adhearsion" is a combination of "adhesion" and "hear" because Adhearsion shines best when integrating technologies with voice.

I will be watching very closely what is coming out of the Adhearsion project. This is something completely different in a very hot market segment. IfByPhone, Ribbit (now BT), Voxeo are all sucessfully entering/defining the market with unique voice services platforms. Adhearsion is something a little bit different - marrying Asterisk with Ruby without any of the complications.

Adhearsion will make the 'cool voice stuff' mainstream - I have been a long proponent of IVR becoming web/visually based - Adhearsion is the first step to that reality. I encourage you to check it out, play in the Sandbox and start combining the web and voice together in the most complicated; yet simple ways easily.

Superbowl - Etrade Baby

It is almost that time - the big game is on Sunday, E-trade has a teaser video out of some of the video that didn't make the cut for this years commercial.

Classic stuff - hat time Rimarkable.

Skype for Mac beta 2.8 with ScreenSharing!

Dan York has the scoop on the new Skype for Mac beta 2.8. Probably the most interesting for me is the Screensharing feature. This has been a favourite of Skype developer partners for some time, and it is now native to the Skype for Mac client. It even supports dual monitors!! full screen and application only.

It was announced at the Showstoppers event this evening - pre MacWorld.

New features (from Dan's Blog):

• Skype Access
• Screen Sharing (awesome)
  
• Improved chat management: ability to sort chats in the drawer and set priorities to chats
• Quick Add: much easier to add people to chats
• Mood message chat: mood message updates from your friends as chat messages
• Large avatars: 256x256 pixels
• Hidden avatars in incoming contact requests
• Ability to add your own notes to contacts

You can check out the UI on Dan's podcast.