Microsoft Buys Skype in $8.5 Billion Deal

PCWorld, by Sarah Jacobsson Purewal, May 10, 2011

Microsoft will purchase VoIP service juggernaut Skype for $8.5 billion in a deal to be officially announce Tuesday morning. The all-cash deal will make Microsoft a powerful player in Internet-based voice and video communications overnight. Microsoft issued a press release Tuesday morning making the rumored acquisition official.

Previous reports suggested the purchase price would be somewhere between $7 billion and $8 billion. Skype has been on sale for a while now, and a number of companies reportedly showed interest in purchasing the Web-based phone and video chat service, including Facebook, Google, and Cisco.

The $8.5 billion purchase is Microsoft's largest acquisition in nearly three decades. Until now, Microsoft's most expensive acquisition was its 2007 purchase of digital marketing services agency aQuantive for $6 billion.

Despite Skype's having a debt of $686 million, the deal should be a plus for Microsoft. After all, Microsoft will finally have a brand-name Web service under its wing, though it's believed Microsoft plans to integrate Skype into Microsoft Live.

Microsoft's Plans for Skype

Microsoft says Skype will support Microsoft devices such as Xbox and Kinect, Windows Phone and a wide array of Windows devices. It added the Skype service will be integrated into Microsoft communities such as Lync, Outlook, and Xbox Live. It added that it will also continue to invest in and support Skype clients on non-Microsoft platforms.

"Skype is a phenomenal service that is loved by millions of people around the world," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. "Together we will create the future of real-time communications so people can easily stay connected to family, friends, clients and colleagues anywhere in the world."

Another reason Microsoft will benefit from Skype--if Microsoft plans (and I'm sure it does) to use Skype on its Windows Phone 7 platform, it will finally have a competitive alternative to Google's Google Voice and Apple's Facetime services.

GigaOm breaks down who (likely) made what, based on an $8.5 billion purchase price:

• eBay gets $2.55 billion (eBay purchased a 30 percent stake in Skype in 2005)
  
  
• Skype co-founders Niklas Zennström and Janus Friis get $1.19 billion for their 14 percent stake
  
  
• Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) get $4.76 billion for their 56 percent stake

And of course Microsoft is out $8.5 billion, but they now have a new tool with which to (try to) terrorize Google and Apple. And everybody's happy!

Follow Sarah on Twitter (@geeklil) or on Facebook

Related Article:

Microsoft Deal Will Boost Open Skype Alternatives

Google Voice: Flawed but still awesome

CNet News, Larry Magid, March 12, 2009 6:47 PM PDT

Google's new Google Voice has a few rough edges but for many users, it could be a life-changing experience.

The service, a relaunch of GrandCentral, which Google bought in 2007, allows you to choose a local number, which will simultaneously ring up to six phones such as your cell phone, home phone, office phone, and the phone at that vacation home that most of us can only dream about.

In addition to forwarding your calls, it also takes voice messages that you can listen to on the Web, from a phone, or read, thanks to a new feature that transcribes voice messages and sends them as e-mail and text messages.

If you have multiple phones, having a single number to reach them all can make you and your callers' lives a bit easier, and it can save space on your business card by not having to list separate numbers. The concept is simple: people are trying to reach you--not one of your phones--and Google Voice lets you decide how to route the calls.

The simultaneous ring feature can also be used by groups. Team HOPE, a support network for families of missing children, gives callers a GrandCentral number that rings the phones of several staff members to ensure that calls are always answered.

I've been using a very similar "simulring" feature on Vonage for several years and like the fact that I get to control where my calls are forwarded. Both Google and Vonage let you configure forwarding from the Web, but Google also allows you to assign a temporary forwarding number directly from the phone. That could come in handy, if you suddenly find your cell phone out of range but have access to another number where you can be reached.

The call-recording feature is very cool. At any time during an incoming call, you can press 4 to start the recorder and 4 again to stop it. That can be handy if you're driving and someone is about to give you a phone number, address, or something else that you can't write down.

The recording feature can also be used by podcasters to record phone calls that can be exported as MP3 files. And yes, there is an announcement to inform the other party that you're recording the call.

You also get free conference calls. Up to four people can dial your phone number and can be patched into the call.

Cheap international calls

People who make occasional international calls from a cell phone will get incredible savings, compared to what the carriers charge. Using Google Voice to call a landline in London, for example, costs 2 cents a minute, compared to the whopping $1.49 that Verizon Wireless and AT&T charge, if you don't purchase an international calling plan.

Even with a calling plan, the carrier rates, though much cheaper, are still higher than what Google charges. Making calls could be easier. You dial your Google number, press 2, and then punch in 011 plus the country code and phone number.

Bugs and rough edges

I have encountered a few annoying bugs in my day 1 experience with the service. For one, I'm not able to delete voice mail from my cell phone, despite following the instructions to press 7 to "archive" messages. Every time I call my voice mail, those messages are still there, as if they were new. Although the voice mail transcription service works, the message isn't always delivered promptly. Sometimes it arrives in a few minutes, but at other times, it's taken up to 20 minutes.

Although not a bug and not Google's fault, it's unfortunate that you can't use your Google number as your outgoing caller ID when you dial directly from a cell phone. Although there are ways to spoof that, for security reasons, phone companies don't allow it.

The problem is that people are in the habit of you calling back on your caller ID, which makes it harder to train them to dial your Google number. Your Google caller ID will show up correctly, however, if you initiate the call from your Google Voice Web page or if you dial your own Google number and then press 2 to dial out and type in the number. This process, I suspect, is more of a hassle than it's worth.

There also isn't yet a way to transfer an existing phone number to Google, so you're stuck having to give out the new Google number. The service works only with U.S. phone numbers; you can't forward calls overseas.

Because it's an incoming service only, you can't record outbound calls, and you can't use Google Voice to add people to a call. They have to call you.

The service is currently available only to people who had previously signed up for GrandCentral. Google hasn't announced when others can sign up.

Still, despite some flaws and limitations, this could turn out to be one of Google's most beloved services. Being able to read your voice mail and having one number that rings all your phones is terrific, especially at the amazingly low price of free.

Android OS running on netbooks

By Doug Aamoth, CrunchGear,  on January 2, 2009
 

Taking a tip from a Google developer who claimed to have Android running on an older Asus Eee 701, Daniel Hartmann over at VentureBeat.com got Android up and running on an Asus Eee 1000H in about four hours. Geez, that was easy, huh? 

The ease at which the Android OS was able to be installed on a computer shouldn’t be too surprising, as Android itself is Linux-based, and it also underscores Google’s goal of getting Android onto more than just mobile phones. 

Apparently VentureBeat had a few problems with the sound and networking at first but after that, everything came together pretty smoothly. The screen automatically resized to fit the Eee’s larger resolution and the web browser worked just fine. There’s no Android Market on the open source version of the code but other than that, everything else seems to be the same as what you’d find on an Android phone. 

Says VentureBeat: 

• Overall, we’re impressed with the relative ease of the compilation. Android code is very “portable” and neat. Many observers, specifically Symbian supporters, have opined that Android would have problems because of its “open source” nature, leading to “chaotic code” and tendency toward disintegration as developers take the OS in different directions. If true, that could give more controlled OS’s like Symbian, not to mention the iPhone’s, an advantage. Based on our experience with Android, we don’t see that danger mid-term.
  

Hmm. Making things easier on developers. What a concept! That just might result in more widespread adoption of an operating system. It’ll be really interesting to see if and when Android turns up preloaded on netbooks as opposed to a custom-built Linux OS like you’d find on current-day machines. VentureBeat guesses it’ll be 2010, although I could see some smaller, more nimble companies loading it up this year already.

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Mac vs. Windows vs. Android: 2009 — The Year Ahead

Android will be more than a phone

"Why can't I do this at work?"

Putting Facebook and Twitter to work 

By Steven Mollman, CNN, Bangkok Thailand 

Bringing Skype to the workplace is just one way companies are harnessing tech that has previously been used just for fun. 

Employees in the office used to ponder this question about corporate technology not easily available to consumers. 

Today the question, usually asked from home or a cafe, is: "Why can't I do this at work?" 

Innovative, user-friendly offerings -- Skype, Facebook, Twitter, mash-ups, YouTube, wikis, and the like -- take root and thrive as consumer offerings. 

Corporate IT departments meanwhile often seem oblivious to their potential usefulness, even as workers wonder at their absence. But increasingly such technologies are being used for business. 

Partly this is because enterprise versions have emerged with fancier security features. And partly it's because as the consumer-side versions keep growing, new users continue to come from within small companies -- or even large enterprises, often to the horror of security-conscious IT departments. 

Twitter, the popular micro-blogging service, has seen the emergence of small copycat services focused on businesses. 

Users, rather than answering the Twitter question of "What are you doing?" for anyone to read, answer "What are you working on?" for colleagues only to read. 

Wikis, online pages that any user can edit, surged in popularity among consumers thanks partly to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. Not long after businesses hopped aboard with tools geared for them. 

One of those, PBwiki, has seen the number of individual business wikis created with it jump to well over 40,000, up from less than 20,000 a year ago and only about 5,000 two years ago. 

A Los Angeles design firm called The Groop, which uses PBwiki for creative collaboration among teams and clients, claims to have realized $1 million in annual productivity gains with it. 

On the social networking side, Facebook and MySpace became household names seemingly overnight. 

This year businesses are expected to spend more than $250 million on social networking tools geared towards them, from vendors like Awareness, Communispace, and Jive Software, according to research firm Forrester. 

And increasingly vendors offer companies suites of Web 2.0 technologies that have emerged on the consumer side. 

For instance HiveLive lets employees create and control blogs, wikis, mash-ups and so on within business social networks. 

Skype, the online phone service bought by eBay, noticed that many of its customers were small businesses. To entice more of them, it created a business version of its software with improved security and a "control panel" application for central management of Skype credit and numbers. 

Last month Google launched a YouTube-like video sharing service for businesses. The idea is that employees can share videos amongst themselves in a secure setting. A CEO could broadcast a message, for instance, or a technician could post a how-to video. 

The iPhone, inevitably, is also forcing its way into the work force. "The best phone for business. Ever" claims the typically bomb-throwing ad copy from Apple. 

Research firm Gartner foresees consumer adoption driving more technologies into enterprises over the coming years. 

Among them are desktop video-conferencing, virtual worlds, 3-D controllers, and augmented reality. 

Gartner analyst Jackie Fenn suggest IT departments should make it their ongoing strategy to take advantage of such consumer technologies, rather than bump into them on a case-by-case basis. 

Besides, there's a nice upside to this approach for IT workers, as long as security and other challenges can be overcome. 

As anyone who's played around on Facebook, YouTube or an iPhone can attest to, the consumer side is where all the fun stuff is.

Related Article:

Social networking sites "good for businesses"

Web 2.0 has crept into the everyday work place, FaceTime reports

Hotel chain to go high-tech in SEA

By Greg Lowe, ZDNet Asia

Wednesday, April 30, 2008 06:12 PM

BANGKOK--Swiss-based hotel chain, Golden Tulip Hospitality Group, on Monday announced plans to pump US$1.56 billion over the next four years to expand its operations in Southeast Asia, which include building high-tech guest rooms.

The company, which currently operates 324 hotels in 54 countries, is targeting to open 50 hotels in the region by 2012 and will launch three brands: economy-business Tulip Inn, four-star Golden Tulip, and five-star Royal Tulip. Tulip Inns will represent 60 percent of the company's portfolio, with the other brands making up the remaining 35 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

The company's first Tulip Inn subsidiary in Southeast Asia will open in Bangkok this June, following the regional launch of Golden Tulip last October.

The hotels will use advanced in-room IT facilities to target tech-savvy business and leisure travelers across the region's key urban centers and secondary growth areas.

"We are very excited about the in-room IT [amenities]," said Mark van Ogtrop, managing director of Golden Tulip Southeast Asia. "It may be expensive, over 100,000 baht (US$3,156) per room [was invested on IT equipment], but from a marketing point of view, it will create a truly exceptional USP [unique selling point] for our brand."

Each room will offer voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), IP television (IPTV), game consoles, iPod music systems and computer-compatible TVs. Other facilities also include mood-responsive lighting and music, and customizable e-wallpaper.

Golden Tulip plans to open around 20 hotels in Thailand over the next four years, with most other properties launching in Vietnam, Malaysia, Cambodia and Indonesia. Singapore, the Philippines and other Asean countries will also be included in the company's expansion plan.

The hotel chain plans to target the region's biggest potential customer base: domestic Asian business travelers. Its decision to focus on economy-business hotels rose from a lack of international competition in this segment, and "saturation" at the luxury end of the market, according to van Ogtrop.

The company will also engage local service providers, and is aiming to make Tulip Inns as well recognized as Thailand's domestic brands Amari, Dusit Thani and Centara. "We see that the fastest and best way to grow is to leave the development up to the local experts," van Ogtrop said.

He added that Golden Tulip Southeast Asia is also investing heavily in e-marketing and online booking systems, such as Expedia and bookings.com, due to the changing nature of how travelers source and book their accommodation.

"More consumers are selecting and booking hotels directly themselves," said van Ogtrop. "We spend a lot of resources to ensure that in any given city, our hotels have predominant positioning online with all distribution systems and third-party Web sites.

Greg Lowe is a freelance IT writer based in Thailand.

What the iPhone 2.0 Will Do

This June, Apple will release a major update to its iPhone software, including new features for businesses and broad support for third-party software. We examine exactly what this new update will mean to you.

PC World

Washington Post, Saturday, March 8, 2008; 12:09 AM

Apple is readying significant enhancements to the software in its iPhone handset for later this year. The company takes cues from both the business and consumer worlds, finally letting third-party developers in on the action to bring games, utilities, and other apps to the phone.

These impending changes promise to radically transform the daily experience for iPhone users. Based on what we've seen of Apple's Microsoft Exchange integration and our first-hand look at the new development kit, here's what you can expect to see when the upgrade becomes available in June.

Within a few minutes after the initial wave of iPhone hysteria ran its course, business users began debating whether the iPhone was really ready to take on the corporate enterprise. The general consensus: it wasn't, owing to incomplete networking and security tools, and an inability to support the nearly ubiquitous Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol that keeps handsets connected to the central server. But the phone's widespread appeal kept interest alive in the business world, and Apple has responded bybuilding Exchange ActiveSync directly into the phone, and revamping the iPhone's native e-mail and calendar apps. In addition, the company has added Cisco IPsec VPN support.

What does all this mean to you? If you're an IT professional, it could mean a lot. (At present,IT types are ambivalent about whether to trust the iPhone on their networks.) But even if you're not a network admin, or your company doesn't want to support iPhones, the update could still make your iPhone more functional at work: It makes it easy to configure your own corporate e-mail.

Read whole story ....

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Google expands free phone number and voicemail project

Posted by Marguerite Reardon, Cnet

Google is partnering with homeless shelters in San Francisco to distribute free phone numbers and voicemail accounts to those without homes, the company said Wednesday.

The Internet giant is expanding a service that was started by Grand Central, a San Francisco-based start-up that Google acquired last year. Grand Central's technology allows calls to be routed to a home, business, or cell phone using a single phone number. The service offers people a way to organize and unify their communications, a Google spokesman said.

Grand Central had already been offering the free phone number and voicemail service to people in San Francisco through Mayor Gavin Newsom's Project Homeless Connect, which brings together nonprofit organizations and other social-service providers in one location to provide on-the-spot services for homeless. The services include medical, mental health, substance abuse, housing, dental, and legal services, plus free eyeglasses, California ID, food, clothing, and wheelchair repair.

Since the acquisition of Grand Central last year, Google has been participating in periodic Project Homeless Connect events in which it has been providing the homeless with free phone numbers and voicemail accounts that they can access from any phone. More than 4,000 phone numbers and voicemail accounts have been distributed this way, Craig Walker, a senior product manager of voice products for Google, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

On Wednesday, Google announced that it would expand Grand Central's project and partner directly with homeless shelters that will now be able to give out phone numbers and voicemail accounts and help individuals set up their accounts anytime. The idea is to expand the service, and eventually offer it in other cities, a Google spokesman said.

Most Americans take telephony service for granted. Nearly every household in the U.S. has phone service, thanks to the federally funded Universal Service Fund. What's more, more than 80 percent of the population owns a cell phone.

For homeless individuals, a phone is a luxury, and yet, telephony communications is an essential tool in our society. Without a phone number you can't apply for a job or even get on a waiting list for low-income housing.

Between 25 percent and 40 percent of the nation's 750,000 homeless are unemployed, according to a 2005 survey conducted by the advocacy group the National Alliance to End Homelessness. And without a way for a potential employer to reach these people, they are often destined to remain jobless and most likely homeless.

Another shocking statistic is that individuals with children make up about 40 percent of the national homeless population and the average age of a homeless person in the U.S. is 9 years old. Imagine a teacher or school social worker not able to contact a parent of a homeless child because the parent doesn't have a phone.

"When you lose your home, you lose more than your house," said Google's spokesman. "You lose a permanent way of staying in touch with family members, employers, and social service providers. Being able to give a phone number to people and access voicemail can be a very powerful thing in sustaining quality of life."

Internet failure hits two continents

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (CNN) -- Large swathes of Asia, the Middle East and north Africa had their high-technology services crippled Thursday following a widespread Internet failure which brought many businesses to a standstill and left others struggling to cope.

Hi-tech Dubai has been hit hard by an Internet outage apparently caused by a cut undersea cable.

One major telecommunications provider blamed the outage, which started Wednesday, on a major undersea cable failure in the Mediterranean.

India's Internet bandwidth has been sliced in half, The Associated Press reported, leaving its lucrative outsourcing industry trying to reroute traffic to satellites and other cables through Asia.

Reports say that Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain are also experiencing severe problems.

Nations that have been spared the chaos include Israel -- whose traffic uses a different route -- and Lebanon and Iraq. Many Middle East governments have backup satellite systems in case of cable failure.

An official at Egypt's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it was believed that a boat's anchor may have caused the problems, although this was unconfirmed, AP reported. He added that it might take up to a week to repair the fault.

Rajesh Chharia, president of India's Internet Service Providers' Association, explained that some firms were trying to reroute via Pacific cables and that companies serving the eastern US and the UK were worst affected, AP added.

Besides the Internet, the outage caused major disruption to television and phone services, creating chaos for the UAE's public and private sectors.

There were contradicting reports on the real cause behind the disruption, but Du, a state-owned Dubai telecom provider, attributed it to an undersea cable cut in the Mediterranean Sea between Alexandria, Egypt and Palermo, Italy.

A Du internal memo, obtained by CNN, called the situation in Dubai "critical" and stated that the cable's operators did not know when services would be restored.

"This will have a major impact on our voice and Internet service for all the customers," the memo stated. "The network operation team are working with our suppliers overseas to resolve this as soon as possible."

The outage led to a rapid collapse of a wide range of public services in a country which proudly promotes itself as technological pioneer.

Sources from Emirates Airlines confirmed to CNN Arabic that the outage did not affect its flight schedules -- a statement which assured hundreds of travelers worried after rumors about the possibility of rescheduled flights due to the faults.

However, Dnata, a government group in charge of providing air travel services in the Middle East and ground handling services at Dubai International Airport, acknowledged facing problems because of the outage, sources from its technical department confirmed to CNN Arabic.

The outage heavily crippled Dubai's business section, which is heavily reliant on electronic means for billions of dollars' worth of transactions daily.

Wadah Tahah, the business strategies and development manager for state-owned construction company EMAAR, told CNN Arabic that it was fortunate the outage started Wednesday, when there had been only moderate activity in the UAE markets. He said that softened the blow to business interests.

But Tahah warned that if the outage continued, "such a situation could create problems between brokers, companies, and investors due to loss of control."

SMBs to drive Indonesia ICT spend

By Lynn Tan, ZDNet Asia, Monday, January 28 2008 08:21 PM

Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) in Indonesia are projected to spend about US$7.2 billion on infocomm technologies (ICT) in 2008, according to a new market report.

In its study released Monday, AMI-Partners said Indonesian SMBs are projected to grow their ICT expenditure by some 11.2 percent over last year, fueled by a boom in the overall economy and a surge in the number of small-sized businesses.

Prasannavadan Gaitonde, a Singapore-based research manager at AMI-Partners, said in a statement: "In Indonesia, more than 99 percent of SMBs are [small-sized businesses], and they account for about 78 percent of the total ICT spend."

Gaitonde noted that approximately 80 percent of these small-sized businesses--defined as having fewer than 100 employees--are startups, or are staffed with between one and four employees. He added that these companies will account for 50 percent of the overall small-sized business expenditure in 2008.

According to AMI-Partners, Indonesia has a "young and dynamic" business environment. The average age of business owners and managers is 33 years, and over 66 percent of these professionals have a graduate degree or higher education qualifications.

Gaitonde said this pool of young decision makers, along with a burgeoning domestic demand, has resulted in a "positive" environment with over 40 percent of SMBs expecting growth of between 15 percent and 20 percent in 2008.

"This optimism is also prodding more SMBs to consider hiring more people, [and] that will help relieve pressure on an otherwise high unemployment rate in Indonesia," he said. "The wage pressures are expected to remain flat through 2008."

Growth potential is also encouraging Indonesian SMBs to increase branch locations, where over 25 percent plan to add one to two branches this year, AMI-Partners noted.

As such, connectivity between branch offices and remote locations will be a top priority for SMB IT decision makers this year, the research house said. It added that the highest growth is expected in data security deployments at 33 percent, followed by data storage at 26 percent and Internet-related implementations at 24 percent.

Gaitonde said Indonesian SMBs will depend more on the Internet in 2008, adding that this increase in online usage will prod more SMBs to invest in basic security tools.

Mobility is another "hot" area because Indonesian SMBs are at the "cusp" of broader adoption of mobility-enabled devices, AMI-Partners said, driven by a desire to improve productivity of their mobile workforce.

For instance, the awareness of WiMax in Indonesia is "very high" and uptake of the technology could accelerate rapidly if the "right" products are offered at the "right" price points, AMI-Partners said.

The analyst company added that VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) and IP telephony tools are still "attractive" alternatives to reduce calling costs.

"Indonesian SMBs expect telecom service providers to play a stronger role in offering them various bundled solutions especially for voice-related services, [and] it is important that service providers rise to fulfill this need of a growing market," Gaitonde said.

Lynn Tan is a freelance IT writer based in Singapore.

Startup Unveils Tools to Build Phone Apps Across Platforms

Ribbit developers design programs to record, track, or make calls, integrated with sites or other apps.

Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service

PCWorld, Monday, December 17, 2007 5:01 AM PST

A Mountain View, California company is launching today a platform designed to let developers create telephony applications they can embed in Web pages and existing Web-based services.

Ribbit's back-end technology includes a software switch that essentially connects Internet-based voice communication services with mobile phones, landline phones and text messages. On top of that connection is the Ribbit API that lets developers build applications that unify the wide variety of communication methods.

Developers can build applications that include functions such as recording, sending and receiving voicemail, and making and receiving calls. The applications can be built using Flash, embedded into any Web site, and integrated into existing Web-based services. The platform supports many existing Web-based calling services, such as Skype, GoogleTalk and MSN.

Developers can charge end-users for the applications, and Ribbit can handle the billing for them. There are several ways developers can offer and charge for their products, and in some cases Ribbit will share revenue with developers.

Ribbit showed off one application a developer has created that embeds phone capabilities into Salesforce.com. By keying a code into a mobile phone, users essentially replace their current voicemail with Ribbit for Salesforce. Then users can listen to or see text transcripts of their mobile voicemail messages within Salesforce. They can send the messages to colleagues and tag them for easy sorting later.

Users can also make and receive phone calls through their Salesforce page. Such calls are automatically logged in their Salesforce application.

Ribbit for Salesforce will cost US$25 per user per month for end-users. It is currently in a private beta with more than 90 companies, and should be widely available in February, according to Ribbit representatives.

Salute America's Heroes, a veterans' association, has built essentially a call center application that lets veterans who work for the group make and receive browser-based phone calls while at home. The capability is integrated into a Web site that also hosts tools they use while making the calls. The capability allows the association to take on the cost of the calls rather than reimbursing workers for the use of their home phones.

Ribbit designed its own softswitch, which runs on Linux blades and has been certified in an Alcatel-Lucent lab to meet the capabilities and reliability that telecommunications providers typically require, said Ted Griggs, CEO and co-founder of Ribbit. Ribbit's network operations center is hosted by a third party in Virginia, and the company is working on opening one on the West Coast to offer geographic redundancies. It can add capacity simply by adding more servers.

Another, more consumer-oriented application is available to try on the Ribbit developers page. The AIR iPhone is essentially a software-based voice over IP phone that looks just like Apple's iPhone. Users can make and receive calls to mobile and fixed-line phones, including from the contact list in the phone, on their computers.

Ribbit hasn't quite yet configured its offering in terms of pricing for such consumer applications, but expects to in the first quarter of next year. In the case of the AIR iPhone, Ribbit would share revenue from end-users with the developer.

Ribbit says that more than 650 developers are working on new applications, although on Friday only two were listed on the developers site. "Dozens" are near release, a few additional applications should be available on Monday, and many more should be available in the early months of next year, according to the company.

Ribbit opened its offering to developers in August but plans to officially launch the company, along with details about how its technology and business model work, on Monday.

Skype encryption stumps German police

Yahoo News

By Louis Charbonneau Thu Nov 22, 12:29 PM ET

WIESBADEN, Germany (Reuters) - German police are unable to decipher the encryption used in the Internet telephone software Skype to monitor calls by suspected criminals and terrorists, Germany's top police officer said on Thursday.

Skype allows users to make telephone calls over the Internet from their computer to other Skype users free of charge.

Law enforcement agencies and intelligence services have used wiretaps since the telephone was invented, but implementing them is much more complex in the modern telecommunications market where the providers are often foreign companies.

"The encryption with Skype telephone software ... creates grave difficulties for us," Joerg Ziercke, president of Germany's Federal Police Office (BKA) told reporters at an annual gathering of security and law enforcement officials.

"We can't decipher it. That's why we're talking about source telecommunication surveillance -- that is, getting to the source before encryption or after it's been decrypted."

Experts say Skype and other Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calling software are difficult to intercept because they work by breaking up voice data into small packets and switching them along thousands of router paths instead of a constant circuit between two parties, as with a traditional call.

Ziercke said they were not asking Skype to divulge its encryption keys or leave "back doors open" for German and other country's law enforcement authorities.

"There are no discussions with Skype. I don't think that would help," he said, adding that he did not want to harm the competitiveness of any company. "I don't think that any provider would go for that."

Ziercke said there was a vital need for German law enforcement agencies to have the ability to conduct on-line searches of computer hard drives of suspected terrorists using "Trojan horse" spyware.

These searches are especially important in cases where the suspects are aware that their Internet traffic and phone calls may be monitored and choose to store sensitive information directly on their hard drives without emailing it.

Spyware computer searches are illegal in Germany, where people are sensitive about police surveillance due to the history of the Nazis' Gestapo secret police and the former East German Stasi.

Ziercke said worries were overblown and that on-line searches would need to be conducted only on rare occasions.

"We currently have 230 proceedings related to suspected Islamists," Ziercke said. "I can imagine that in two or three of those we would like to do this."

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; editing by Sami Aboudi)

3 launches new Skype mobile phone

BBC News

Mobile phone provider 3 has launched a new handset that will allow users to make free calls over the internet via telephony service Skype.

Users will also be able to use Skype's instant messaging service, 3 said.

But while people using Skype on their computers are able to make cheap global calls to any phone number, this will not be possible via the new 3 handset.

Skype has about 246 million registered users worldwide and is one of the firms reshaping the global phone industry.

Mobile potential

To date, mobile phone companies have been unwilling to let users freely access Skype via their handsets for fear that it would hurt their business.

While it is possible to access Skype from a number of handsets, this has involved downloading third-party software, something that has put off the majority of users.

The Skype-phone will be the first instance of a phone operator launching a mass market device that is designed to allow free calling over the internet from a mobile, 3 said.

"It takes an innovative operator... to challenge traditional thinking and offer the kind of product other operators are still shying away from," said Skype's acting chief executive, Michael van Swaaij.

"It's is now truly mobile. Skype has now taken a giant step forward in the mobile arena.

And chief executive of 3 UK, Kevin Russell, said the firm wanted to make mobile internet more accessible.

"Services need to be simple to access and affordable," he said.

"Mobile has the potential to massively increase access to internet calling."

Global reach

The service, launching on 2 November, will be accessed by a button on the handset.

As well as the UK, the 3 Skype-phone will be launched in countries including Australia, Denmark, Italy and Hong Kong.

Pay as you go customers will have to top up their account with at least £10 each month to qualify for the free Skype-to-Skype calls, 3 said.

Microsoft's Office-Phone Foray

Bill Gates says today's systems are like mainframes before PCs and software changed everything. Cisco agrees—and aims to win the race

by Aaron Ricadela, Technology, Businessweek

The way Bill Gates sees it, Microsoft has the chance to upend business communications the way it did when the PC supplanted centralized computer systems in the 1980s.

On Oct. 16, unveiling new Microsoft software that can tie together phone calls, e-mail, and video conferences, Gates drew an analogy to IBM's once-popular mainframe computers: All the features are built into a single product, controlled by a single company. The situation is similar, he said, to the traditional office telephone systems sold by Cisco Systems, Avaya Communications, Nortel Networks, and NEC. "We've seen this before. This is just like the computer industry before the personal computer came along," said Gates. "This has been its own world, untouched by the power of software."

To capitalize on this purported opportunity, Microsoft is looking to exploit the dominant position of its Office suite, providing extensions to those business-productivity tools to perform many of the same tasks as traditional phone systems at perhaps three-quarters the cost. To spur uptake, it's encouraging partners—including Dell, SAP, Ericsson, and even traditional phone-system vendors such as Nortel—to create their own compatible software and sell installation services for the new products, dubbed Microsoft Office Communications Server and Office Communicator.

Instead of selling an end-to-end system that directs calls to the proper extensions, stores an employee directory, and connects conference calls, Microsoft will embed those features in the new software to interact with its e-mail, word processing, and mobile-phone applications, as well as programs made by partners. "We've got a very different way of being able to do things," Gates said.

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Microsoft Set To Launch Unified Communications Software

The products are designed to help companies add voice, video, and instant messaging to their communications networks with minimal disruption.

By Paul McDougall, InformationWeek

October 15, 2007 04:30 PM

Microsoft on Tuesday will launch a suite of products it hopes will increase its presence in the market for enterprise communications software that goes well beyond e-mail.

The products, Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, Office Communicator 2007, and Microsoft Live Meeting, are part of Microsoft's unified communications suite and are designed to help companies add voice, video, and instant messaging to their communications networks with minimal disruption.

Microsoft has said the 2007 versions of its unified communications software products will allow users to make an easy transition from PBX systems, networks, and desk phones to add voice-over-IP and other digital communications tools without ripping and replacing existing infrastructure.

Microsoft has previously made trial versions of the products available for download.

Underscoring the products' importance to Microsoft, company chairman Bill Gates will officially unveil the software on a live Web cast scheduled for tomorrow, Microsoft said. Jeff Raikes, president of Microsoft's business division, also will participate.

Also on the communications front, Microsoft recently introduced its Quality of Experience Monitoring Server, which helps telecom managers keep tabs on telecom equipment performance and usage.

Ooma Inc. Offers Free Domestic Calls

By RACHEL KONRAD, The Associated Press

The Washington Post, Thursday, July 19, 2007; 12:46 AM

PALO ALTO, Calif. -- A Silicon Valley startup wants to shake up the telecommunications industry with a $399 gizmo that provides free, unlimited domestic phone calls for homes with broadband Internet service.

Ooma Inc. will also offer a free second line, conference calling, voice mail service and an online "lounge" where users may change their preferences or get voice mail in an e-mail format. The company will start selling the devices Thursday with an invitation-only offer to select U.S. residents.

The company _ backed by $27 million in venture capital _ eventually hopes to crack the home-based and small-business niches. Engineers are working on a system that forwards calls to cellular phones.

"It's nothing like anything a carrier can do currently," CEO Andrew Frame said. "Once you own the box, you don't have to pay ooma anything in the future."

Frame and other executives assume, of course, that their company won't meet the same fate as other startups going up against telecommunication veterans.

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Nokia adds Skype to N800 Tablet

Nokia has introduced a promised Skype client for its N800 Internet tablet.

Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service

PC World, July 11, 2007 6:00 PM PDT

Nokia Corp. introduced Skype Internet-calling software for its N800 Wi-Fi tablet on Wednesday, providing another alternative to using a cell phone, while a debate in the U.S. over what networks such devices may be able to use in the future heated up.

When the N800 was introduced at the International Consumer Electronics Show in January, Nokia and eBay Inc.'s Skype Ltd. division said they were working on including the popular software in the device. Nokia delivered it on Wednesday with an upgrade to the N800's software. Current owners of N800s can download the software from Nokia's site.

Skype, with a claimed 196 million registered users, has expanded from its roots as a popular PC-based free calling system and offers text messaging, video calling, and low-cost dialing to and from traditional phones. There are already Skype clients for mobile devices and even some cellular smart phones, but some mobile operators try to block VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) calls because they can eat into their voice business.

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Skype and Wal-Mart Partner to Bring Internet Communications to the Masses

Skype Certified Hardware and Pre-Paid Cards for Skype Now Available in 1,800 U.S. Wal-Mart Stores

Monday May 14, 8:00 am ET, Yahoo Finance

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Skype, the leading Internet communications company, today announced that it is teaming up with Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, to address the growing popularity and demand for Internet communications among U.S. consumers. Starting today, Wal-Mart is offering Skype Certified(TM) hardware in the Internet and voice communications area of 1,800 of its stores throughout the country, providing more opportunity and accessibility for people looking for affordable calling options. This partnership gives shoppers immediate hands-on access to headsets, webcams and handsets designed to work with Skype, as well as the first pre-paid cards for Skype available in the U.S.

The addition of Skype Internet communications products to Wal-Mart stores comes at a time when Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) adoption among U.S. households is growing rapidly. According to the Telecommunications Industry Association, 9.9% of all landlines in the U.S. were VoIP lines in 2006, and this will rise to 34.1% by 2010. In addition, Skype is the number one software-based VoIP application in the U.S. by market share, according to a March 2007 report by In-Stat.

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Skype to connect buyers with sellers

By David Meyer

Special to CNET News.com

Published: March 15, 2007, 9:23 AM PDT

Skype's business model is taking a distinct eBay shape.

The latest software from the Luxembourg-based Internet telephony specialist, acquired by the online-auction king in 2005, enables users to offer services over the company's Internet voice and video network.

Skype 3.1, which was released on Wednesday for Windows PCs, includes a feature called SkypeFind that lets users list and rate local businesses. It also includes a beta version of Skype Prime, a "marketplace which brings together those people who have expertise or knowledge to sell with others who are seeking advice and happy to pay for it," according to the company.

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Easy call: Phoning via Web

Reaching out over computers can cut costs dramatically

By ELIZABETH LAZAROWITZ

DAILY NEWS BUSINESS WRITER

Horacio Levin of Uruguay takes calls from pal Carlos Ronisky over the Web.

Julie Blank uses VoIP to connect with her brother in Israel.

With family and friends in such far-flung places as Hong Kong and Argentina, Carlos Ronisky used to run up hefty phone bills just trying to keep in touch.

Then he heard about VoIP. It may sound like the name of an energy drink, but it's actually an emerging phone service that routes calls over the Internet to make talk cheaper.

An acronym for Voice over Internet Protocol, VoIP has exploded in recent years. Use has more than doubled in the past year, according to TeleGeography Research, and experts expect the growth to continue.

Ronisky, who lives in Manhattan and works as a marketing manager at a New York bank, dumped his landline and switched to Internet phone provider Vonage last year. He's saved $600 - which he plans to spend on a video iPod. "I used to be paying $75 to $80 a month. Now, my average bill is about $20," he said.

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