Netflix may have become the new face of evil for wireline Internet service providers as they seek to impose caps or tiers on subscribers. But it also looks like Netflix is willing to play the part of consumer advocate, countering myths ISPs perpetrate around broadband scarcity. Read more »
On this new Alive Web, what we miss doesn’t matter. What matters is the connection and the interactions. And Google Hangouts, one of the features in Google+, is the killer app of the Alive Web. Read more »
GigaOM conducted a survey over the Fourth of July weekend of GigaOM readers regarding Google+’s chances for success, its competitive weapons and its likely impact on the competitive social media environment. Here’s a snippet of what we discovered about the prospects for Google’s latest social venture. Read more »
Skype, the Internet telephony company that is in the process of being acquired by Microsoft has one ambition — get to a billion users – even if it risks the company losing control over its customers. And that just is fine for Facebook. Read more »
A report shows that by 2018, the traditional phone system is going to be reaching less than 6 percent of U.S. residents. It’s perhaps time to rethink the very notion of what a phone is and what defines the classic phone network. Read more »
Facebook’s Skype integration involved a lot of slimming down of Skype’s native client and making it work in a browser, creating the back-end integration between Facebook and Skype and scaling up Skype’s network to handle the expected flood of traffic. Read more »
Facebook has announced a partnership with Skype that enables one-on-one video chat within the social networking website.The video chat debut is just the first of what Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said would be a series of launches the company has planned for the near future. Read more »
Facebook launched a bunch of new features Wednesday, including group chat, a redesigned chat user list, and the biggest of all, video chat via a partnership with Skype. It’s this last one that will have the biggest implications for most average Mac users. Read more »
The long awaited partnership between Facebook and Skype finally became real. However, someone at Skype was a tad over-eager to share the news and tweeted it out about minutes before Zuckerberg got on stage. Read more »
Skype 5.2 for Mac, released Tuesday, introduces group screen sharing in addition to group video calling, which has been available since the Skype 5.0 beta for Mac. It’s a good update for pro users, but others might not find it so appealing. Read more »
Hangouts may be the killer feature of Google Plus, but the ability to join a Hangout could eventually come to third-party apps and services as well. Google has said that it wants to bring interoperability to the service, which could spell further trouble for Skype. Read more »
If you are someone who is always on the move and spends a lot of time on the phone, then those phone bills stack up. In this age of mobile VoIP that shouldn’t be the case, but it does. This infographic will get you started. Read more »
It looks like that “awesome” announcement next week by Facebook won’t be about an iPad app or an HTML5 platform. TechCrunch is reporting that Facebook will announce next week that it will be partnering with Skype to bring video chat to its users. Read more »
If regular users are going to start video chatting in the living room, it will need to be drop-dead simple to do. The good news for Comcast and Skype is that they seem to have succeeded in creating a pretty user-friendly solution. Read more »
Google’s new Hangouts video chat service is one of the most interesting features of its Google+ project. A look behind the tech curtain reveals that Google has big plans for Hangouts, using cutting edge technology to make it run natively on a wide range of devices. Read more »
Skype just announced that video chat is finally coming to Android devices, though only to a few so far. The feature is part of a big update for the Android app that includes a UI redesign that adds usability to the app. Read more »
A picture is worth a thousand words, and a video will save you even more typing. There are lots of video chat options out there now for both Mac and iOS, and the competition is fierce. Which is your go-to client on either platform, and why? Read more »
Skype opened up its development platform to all comers Tuesday, but it still has a disconnect between revenue generation and its platform efforts. Like many companies trying to build a dominant position in the technology ecosystem, Skype is navigating the path between dollars and devs. Read more »
Skype quietly added some XMPP support to its most recentbeta last week. Adopting the open protocol helps Sype to integrate with Facebook, but it could also be used for interoperability with other IM platforms. Just don’t expect to call your Gtalk friends any time soon. Read more »
Google launched its much awaited and highly anticipated social networking platform today. Dubbed Google+, the service may take its cue from social networking giant Facebook, but in reality it is about the harsh reality of Google saving and enhancing its core franchise — Google Search. Read more »
There’s been a storm over Skype’s private equity investors and their treatment of stock options, but is that storm a remnant of Silicon Valley’s cash-rich, founder-happy culture? Evidence from elsewhere would suggest that entrepreneurs just don’t know how good they’ve been getting it. Read more »
Skype’s investors maybe downright stingy when it comes to options for their employees, but at least they didn’t skimp on the office space. Here are some pictures of Skype’s offices in Stockholm, Sweden, courtesy of PS Arkitektur. This office is simply stunning and beautiful. Read more »
Just last week we saw an early glimpse of Skype’s upcoming iPad app, but today Fring appears to be one step ahead of the game. Fring’s iOS app was updated today to provide iPad-optimized four-way group video calling, before Skype is even out of the gate. Read more »
Skype is in the process of being sold to Microsoft is fast becoming a poster child of investor greed and corporate mistreatment of it employees. An ex-employee is blaming investor Silver Lake Partners. Our sources say that investors were interfering with the company too much. Read more »
After a leaked video accidentally spoiled the surprise, Skype has confirmed that it is preparing an iPad app for release. No firm date is yet known for when it will arrive; it is expected to be approved soon by Apple for the App Store. Read more »
It’s a wonder anyone still uses traditional cellular networking voice or text services at all, given all the alternatives that pop up. But each of these services faces a critical challenge, and in my opinion, they’re all just living on borrowed time. Read more »
Skype CEO Tony Bates — and not the company’s private equity investors — were behind company’s decision to part ways with many of their senior mangers, a company spokesperson told GigaOM. Skype Journal reported earlier that a whole gaggle of senior-level executives had been cut from the company. Read more »
Skype added deeper Facebook integration to its latest software for Windows, bringing instant messaging, the ability to “like” a Facebook status from Skype and improved contact integration. This is just the start for a stronger partnership between the two and it doesn’t end on the desktop. Read more »
Last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) gave the green light to Microsoft’s $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype, the Internet telephony company. Now there are reports that many key senior executives have left or have been asked to leave the company. Read more »
Nimbuzz, a Rotterdam, Netherlands-based Internet telephony company says it has signed up 50 million registered users across the globe. That’s minuscule when compared to Skype, but it’s still significant milestone for the upstart company which signs up 100,000 new users a day. Read more »
I have to admit, I’m still not convinced that the iPad will be my laptop replacement. However, with the help of the Apple wireless keyboard and some other peripherals and apps, it can come close. Here are some tips to make your iPad work-worthy: Read more »
Comcast has partnered with Skype to bring its video chat service to subscriber living rooms. With an adapter box and HD video camera, Comcast subscribers will soon be able to video chat with any other Skype users from the comfort of their living rooms. Read more »
Working remotely sometimes means getting hired remotely – which often means nailing a video interview. Whether it’s over Skype or some other tech, communicating qualifications and reading the interviewer’s body language through the barrier of a lens can be a challenge. So how can you ensure success? Read more »
Video chatting from the couch might no longer be some Jetsons-esque fantasy: New technologies are beginning to appear in game consoles like Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect and Nintendo’s new Wii U that could make video chat services available to the wider mass market. Read more »
Mobile video is here to stay whether it’s chatting with friends via Skype or streaming movies from Netflix. Even Adobe’s Flash player has a place in the Apple-definedpost-PC era judging by several announcements showing application providers and chipmakers marrying various video codecs to their silicon. Read more »
Mavenir Systems, a company providing high-end telecommunications gear, has raised $40 million and acquired Airwide Solutions, a company that provides messaging software. The funding will help Mavenir with the acquisition as well as expand as its operator customers deploy faster 4G networks. Read more »
Video chat provider ooVoo has just released an iPhone app, allowing users to leverage multiplatform video chat on their Apple devices. By doing so, iPhone and iPod touch users can launch video chat sessions with up to five of their friends, wherever they are. Read more »
The global economy continues to face uncertainty, but despite this, many technology companies have cash on hand and are opting to spend it on mergers and acquisitions. Here we examine some likely strategies from five different companies: IBM, Oracle, HP, Cisco and Hewlett-Packard. Read more »
Microsoft’s recent acquisition of Skype is the largest the company has ever made, and it’s raised many questions in the process. This research note examines Skype’s overall value and where it fits strategically into the world of Microsoft. From Office 365 and Bing to Xbox Kinect and Windows Phone, there are numerous ways in which Microsoft can leverage the functionality of its newest addition — and numerous risks it could incur in the process. Additional companies mentioned in this report include Cisco, Panasonic and Google. For a full list of companies and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Microsoft’s mixed history in the digital living room has many thinking the company could botch its deal with Skype where smart TVs are concerned. But leveraging Skype’s social capabilities and integrating the service with key Microsoft products might just prove otherwise. Read more »
