To get started, you need to pair your headset with your iPad. In the Settings app, navigate to “General” and select “Bluetooth.” Make sure that Bluetooth is turned on, and at that point initiate your headset’s pairing mode. With the Jawbone ERA, you perform what is referred to as a “Double ShakeShake” to activate the pairing mode (a single “ShakeShake” is two quick successive shakes of the device), but you other headsets use different methods, like a long press of the power button. Once paired, you’re ready to use your headset with almost any audio app on the iPad. Here are four popular choices:

FaceTime. This was the first app I tried out and it worked perfectly on the first attempt.  The Bluetooth headset is treaded similar to  AirPlay devices, in the sources list. The only issue is that I noticed that I could not do was answer and hang up the call with the controls on the headset.

Skype. With Skype, the Bluetooth headset once connected will be enabled by default. Call quality was good on both ends in test calls. The added advantage of using Skype over FaceTime is that you have access to all of your Skype contacts, and you can place traditional ‘land line’ calls to any plain old telephone number if you have a paid account.

Google Voice (via Talkatone). With Talkatone, you can make calls using your Google Voice account and the Bluetooth headset worked like a charm.You can also use Google Voice to place calls to any traditional phone number. The difference here is that you can’t make video calls.

Unfortunately, you can’t answer calls with a Bluetooth headset using any of the apps above, even when they can receive calls running in background mode. Still, it definitely beats holding your iPad to your ear or always using speakerphone mode when talking to people through iPad voice and video chat apps.

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Anyone can get a call from Chewie, so long as they have an iPhone capable of FaceTime calls, and are connected to a Wi-Fi network. Just visit treatchewie.com, enter your name and phone number, and you’ll be added to Chewie’s calling queue. When it’s your turn, you’ll receive a text message ten minutes beforehand to prepare you, and then a FaceTime call from the dog herself. Here’s a video of how it works:

The call is actually triggered at the same time as a modified dog treat-dispensing gumball machine, both of which are attached to a Mac mini doubling as a server for the website. Through a combination of Arduino, AppleScript and Python, the system dispenses treats, calling Chewie to the camera, and then calls numbers collected from the website.

I know what you’re thinking: This is a recipe for canine diabetes. But luckily, the maximum number of treats Chewie can receive is one per hour, and even then only between Monday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST.

The creators behind Treat Chewie, former TAB contributor Jenny Kortina and Python coder Shreyans Bhansali, plan to make detailed instructions about making your own machine available sometime soon. For now, though, Chewie has a tasty monopoly on receiving web-based treats and talking to humans on iPhones.

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We went hands-on with the new feature using the Skype for Mac 5.4 Beta to see if it’s as easy to use as the promotional video Skype released detailing it (warning: autoplays) makes it out to be. The answer, it turns out, is yes and no.

Setup you would expect from a beta

To set up the service, you need to tie your Facebook account to your Skype client through a simple authorization process, all of which takes place in the Skype app itself through the Skype Home screen. I had already done this using the last Skype beta for Mac, so I expected to be able to jump right in.

Not so fast. I found that in order to get my Facebook contacts to appear in Skype, I needed to disconnect my Facebook account and reconnect it, then quit and restart the program. After that, I had trouble getting the Skype beta client to recognize who was or wasn’t online. That required another quit and restart of the Skype application. It could be that this only happened because I was already using a previous beta; if you’re signing in with your Facebook credentials for the first time, you may have better luck.

Still, it’s important to keep in mind that this is prerelease software, so bugs are to be expected, and I eventually worked everything out in just a few minutes. Skype will likely iron out these kinks before a final release.

Calls are easy

Once you can see your Facebook contacts, making video calls to them is remarkably easy. Simply go to the Skype Contacts tab in the left-hand menu and navigate to the group of “online” folks. You could also navigate to the “Facebook” group, but video calls can only be made to Facebook users who are listed as online anyway, so it makes more sense to see only who is actually available.

I tried two calls to see how the service worked; the first, to my colleague Kevin C. Tofel, went off without a hitch, although Kevin said that there appeared to be a bit of delay as the Skype and Facebook services did their initial handshaking. Once connected, though, video and audio quality were both great, and there appeared to be no lag or delay on either end.

One caveat for calling that I discovered in my second attempt: If the Facebook contact you are trying to reach has not already installed the plug-in necessary to enable Facebook video chat, they will be prompted to do so. Luckily, it’s a relatively quick, painless process, and once my friend was set up, that call went just as well as the first one.

A good step toward centrally managed video communication

Adding Facebook video calling to Skype extends the service’s reach considerably, and it is another step toward simplifying Internet-based communication by tying people’s most frequently used accounts to one another. It means Skype users should have an easier time raising friends and family for video chat, and depending on how you use Facebook, it could make face-to-face professional communication easier, too.

While there hasn’t yet been any announcement regarding taking Skype’s Facebook integration to mobile devices, that would seem like a logical next step. It would help extend cross-platform potential for centralized video chat even further. According to our recent poll, Skype is a popular option among mobile video chatters, but if this Facebook integration makes its way to smartphones and tablets, too, that popularity could go through the roof.

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Ads were also introduced by Skype in its most recent beta version of the Skype for Mac client. The ads in all cases are only seen by users who don’t have a Skype account with active Skype Credit, subscription calling or a Premium plan. Skype is clearly looking to monetize the activity of users from whom it isn’t directly collecting any revenue, and at least it isn’t introducing ads without adding any useful features that appeal to end users.

Skype for iPhone gains Bluetooth headset support for the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPod touch 4G, and Skype for iPad will now support Bluetooth headsets on the iPad 2. Skype for iPhone users will also finally be able to view incoming emoticons and send outgoing emoticons, as well. On the iPhone, video call quality will be improved via image stabilization, and there’s also a brand new interface that improves a bit over the original. That should help ease any nausea you may be experiencing from walk-and-talk video calls. There are also bug fixes in both versions, like one that probably plugs the recently discovered hole that allowed access to your Address Book contacts for potential theft.

So Skype is offering a spoonful of sugar to help the advertising medicine go down, but are users interested in this prescription? Let us know if you think the improvements make the ads worth stomaching, or if you’ll be sticking with an older version on your device.

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To use the new Facebook integration, you simply click the “Link to Facebook” button from the Skype Home screen and sign in with your Facebook credentials. Once signed in, the Skype Home tab displays recent activity from your Skype contacts, your Facebook friends or both through a hybrid view. You can also update your status using an input bar at the top of the home screen. Each update presents you with options for Liking and commenting, and you can also call contacts directly using a phone icon located next to their name. If their number is listed on Facebook or they’re on Skype already, you can call instantly; if it’s not, you’ll be prompted to enter it manually. Both options require that you have a paid Skype subscription or Skype credit to work.

It’s a pretty solid implementation of Facebook integration; the news feed works well in Skype’s app window, and the ability to quickly call friends based on news they post to the social network is a very smart thing to include. If my friend announces an engagement, for instance, I could call her directly instead of just posting a “Congrats!” or tapping the Like button. Your Facebook contacts also now show up in your general contacts list when you’re signed in, and you can IM them directly as you would your usual Skype friends.

Note that despite the introduction of Skype-powered video chat to Facebook’s website in July, there is no way to directly video call your online Facebook contacts in this beta. You can initiate a Skype call if your Facebook friends have Skype contact info listed on their profile and then opt to turn it into a video call should they pick up, but that’s as far as video-calling integration goes. I’d hope that Skype has designs on making it easy to video chat directly between the two platforms in the future.

All the new Facebook features are welcome and smartly designed, but there are a few bugs I noticed in this beta, like the fact that initiating calls from the contacts list with Facebook friends to their mobile numbers doesn’t seem to actually connect. There’s also a drawback for nonsubscribers and people who don’t have any Skype credit: ads. Skype is now putting display ads in front of users who only access the free aspects of its service. So if you aren’t terribly fond of the idea of Facebook integration and you’re happy with Skype’s free service, you may want to hold off on this update.

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I tested the new Skype client with my new 2011 27-inch iMac, which is equipped with an HD camera. The person I called reported that video quality definitely looked much better post-update, even though my home DSL internet connection probably doesn’t quite meet the 1.5 Mbps upload/download specification recommended by Skype for HD calls. We talked for approximately five minutes, and he noticed no real change in the quality of the picture.

Skype also says on its blog that the update brings “a number of fixes and improvements to the user interface.” I didn’t notice any major ones, besides changes to the way the contact list appears, including quick access to adding individuals to favorites. For me, the Skype interface still isn’t nearly as clean or well-designed as in versions preceding the 5.0 update.

Skype remains probably the strongest video chat client on the Mac, something backed up by our readers. One of its biggest strengths when compared to Apple’s own FaceTime solution is how consistently it has released small updates that pack new features, whereas FaceTime has remained relatively static since launch in terms of what you can do with it. The HD calling seems to work well, at least based on my limited trial. If you do install the update, please let us know how HD calling and the interface tweaks are working for you.

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I used Skype video calling approximately three minutes after it launched (with pal and web developer Wes Bos), and it worked perfectly. Installing the plugin on my iMac required a tiny Java app download that’s virtually foolproof to use, and making and receiving calls is as simple as clicking a few buttons and confirming you want to share video.

Video chat doesn’t appeal to everyone. It works well for people who have close relationships with one another (like parents and children) and who live far enough away from each other that face-to-face interaction is rare. But when you add the complication that both parties have to install a dedicated app and have that app open and active, the pool of people who’ll actually use it are even smaller. With Facebook chat, if they’re in your network, they’re potentially available for video calling. No Skype registration, no calling people ahead of time to tell them to open the Skype client so that you can call them, since people are much more likely to be Facebook users (there’s 750 million of them, Facebook announced today) and online at any given time on that site.

Skype’s Mac client also isn’t winning over any fans in terms of its design, mainly because that design feels unnecessarily cumbersome. Facebook’s Skype integration is the opposite of that: It’s invisible, blending in with Facebook’s web presence without drawing too much attention to itself or changing the Facebook experience that users are comfortable with.

For both the above reasons, I think Facebook Video Calling will unseat Skype as the video chat option of choice for Mac users, at least when it comes to consumers. Pro users might need the advanced Skype features offered through the dedicated Mac app, but some of those might make it to Facebook eventually, too, it was suggested at today’s press conference. And things like calling out to landlines and cell phones might be better handled through Skype’s smartphone clients anyway.

Facebook still has to bring video calling to groups and mobile, but the groundwork is laid for that to happen, and while some are saying Google+ is still in the lead thanks to its Hangouts group video chat, I think that’s underestimating Facebook’s advantage in terms of its huge network size lead.

I’m seeing a lot of negative reaction to this announcement on Twitter in general, but I think it will do wonders for the adoption of video calling among less techie users. What do you think?

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Apple is now putting FaceTime HD cameras in new Macs, which provides better video quality for Mac-to-Mac and Mac-to-iOS calling, but of course, FaceTime has a limited reach because it only works on Apple hardware. iChat, Apple’s IM client, supports video chat with other iChat users, and with those using the AOL Instant Messenger network, too, so it’s actually a little more flexible. Google Talk lets you make video calls from Gmail to other Google users, but it doesn’t have a native Mac app, which might be a problem for some. Skype works across different devices, but the recent Mac overhaul has left some unimpressed. Each has benefits and downsides, but which is usually your first choice?

You have nearly as many options when it comes to iOS video chat. Skype has a solid iPhone client, and an iPad version is supposed to be arriving in the very near future. Fring just updated its app to allow users to make 4-way group video calls with an iPad-optimized interface, and it also offers group video calling on the iPhone. FaceTime keeps extending its reach, and has the benefit of being pre-loaded on all current generation iOS devices, and requiring very minimal setup. Which are you using to stay in touch?

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Skype’s yet-to-be released app will offer cross-platform support, and should work on any broadband data connection, but there hasn’t been any indication yet that it will support group video chat. Plus, group video is a paid option for Skype users, so even if it is offered, it won’t be available for free, as it is with Fring. One disadvantage Fring has is that it can’t be used with desktop clients, only smartphone platforms, like Android, Symbian, and iOS.

Technically, users of the previous Fring app could make group calls on the iPad, but they had to run the app in compatibility mode, so quality and interface weren’t designed for the Apple tablet. The new version is much better, and worked great in a test call between me and my dog (he’s on the iPhone 4), as you can see in the images below.

Fring is doing a great job of staying a few steps ahead of Skype in terms of features for mobile devices. It was the first with group video calling on the iPhone, and the first with free video calling between Android devices, too. It may not have the network of Skype, but it is proving that it can hang with the best of the VoIP and video chat crowd when it comes to mobile, which is fast becoming the most important and most lucrative computing market.

I can’t help but think that Skype’s recent acquisition by Microsoft  will make it less nimble, not more so. This could mean that Fring stands a good chance of staying out ahead in the mobile space, so long as the Israel-based company can continue to successfully monetize its business through value-add purchases like FringOut credit.

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The video of Skype that leaked (embedded below) shows what looks to be a fairly impressive finished product. It takes full advantage of the iPad’s larger screen size, allowing users to make audio and video calls, and use text-based chat, as well as allowing users to chat via text while on a video call. The iPad 2′s camera is the primary driving force behind the company’s decision to release an iPad-specific version of its iOS app, Osterloh said.

Skype for iPad can make use of both of the iPad 2′s cameras, and also appears to support calling out to landlines and mobile phones, just like other mobile and desktop clients. File sharing isn’t included in the iPad version, but that’s because of the iPad’s lack of a user-accessible file system, and it’s not yet clear whether group video chat will be included in this iPad release.

The Skype app’s contact browser appears to work similar to the iPad’s music player app, with big square contact photos appearing in a grid configuration. Judging by the video, I’m tempted to say it actually looks like it could be a joy to use, unlike the most recent Skype release for Mac.

Having a native iPad client will be great for both video and voice communications on the iPad. FaceTime is nice, but it obviously has a much more limited reach because it only works with Apple hardware. Skype has the advantage of being multi-platform, and its VoIP capabilities are nothing to sneeze at, either. Look for it in the App Store in the near future.

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