At long last, Skype has launched a native S60 version of it’s VoIP and IM app.
Oddly, the VoIP bit isn’t quite as you might expect. Unlike the purely Internet-based communication of the desktop Skype client, the S60 client calls a local rate number to initiate the call.
So, er, not VoIP at all then?
Quite why this is the case is a bit of a mystery - Fring has been offering native S60 Skype access via the internet for some time now and you have to wonder who is going to plump for the much less featureful official effort when there is a much more mature alternative on offer.
I know, I know - just what the world needs, another IM/VOIP mobile app.
Octrotalk does look fairly standard, but it does have a couple of nice featuress.
Firstly, it is compatible with Google Talk (Jabber), MSN, AIM, ICQ and Yahoo chat protocols. It is cross platform - running on Symbian 3rd Edition, Windows Mobile and WM Smartphone as well as the Desktop version of Windows.
It also has a useful file sharing side - you can use it to access shared folders on PCs running the Windows client and there is some kind of P2P file sharing built in to boot.
The downside is… well, it’s yet another IM/VOIP app. Fring is probably a better bet for most yusers, particularly if you need Skype access. Take a look, though - it’s a free download, available here.
The PSP Phone is still being strongly denied by Sony, but in the meantime how about a Phone PSP?
Sony has used CES to announce that it is bringing the popular VoIP app Skype to its mobile games platform, starting with the next firmware update.
The update will add a Skype icon to the Network menu and will support both SkypeOut and SkypeIn to let you make and receive calls to and from ‘real’ phones in addition to Skype-to-Skype chatting.
Owners of older PSPs will be disappointed to learn that the firmware will only work with PSP-2000 devices (e.g. the PSP Lite) but don’t feel too down if you have a ‘fat’ PSP as Homebrew coders Noobz have released Furikup - a free, open source VoIP app that should work with any SIP-based provider such as SIPGate, providing your PSP has been hacked to play homebrew software.
3’s Skypephone users can now call more friends in more countries for free now it’s expanded its Skypephone service, making it available in Sweden, Denmark and Austria. With the UK, Ireland, Australia, Hong Kong and Italy already covered this means 3 customers can make calls to other Skypephone users across eight countries.
Of course, you can also use your Skyphone to make Skype calls using VoIP to any other Skype user, but at least this time you can both be using your 3G internet phone rather than one person having to be at their computer.
3’s also revealed the top five destination countries its Skyphone users are calling, revealing the types of people who have bought its phone are most likely immigrants calling friends and family back home:
1. UK
2. USA
3. Poland
4. Germany
5. France
A UK based security company has released proof-of-concept code that shows how simple it is to eavesdrop on VoIP traffic.
The software, called SipTAP, is able to sniff out and record VoIP conversations running on a local network.
Several VoIP protocols are vulnerable, although SipTAP does not currently listen in on Skype traffic. Nevertheless, with VoIP growing in popularity, and 3 launching a Skypephone, now could be the time to start thinking seriously about using encryption to protect your online conversations.
Although land lines and mobile phone calls can be tapped, this is difficult without access to phone switches - it’s illegal without a court order and is otherwise hard to arrange without an ‘inside man’. With VoIP, there are potentially many more ways in to the network. It is easy to imagine organised criminals using a spyware-infected PC to listen in on all the calls made to and from a company’s LAN.
This is a slightly geeky story that’s currently only relevant to hacky types, but its implications mean it’s worth reporting. Some iPod Touch owners have discovered that the device’s audio input pins work, which means you can theoretically connect a microphone to it.
Why does this matter? Well, it opens the way for Voice-over-IP (VoIP) applications to be developed for the Touch at some point, allowing people to make calls over its Wi-Fi connection. This, of course, is some way in the future, once Apple has released the software development kit for iPhone and iPod Touch. And even then, it’s likely to be a bit fiddly.
Nevertheless, a voice-enabled iPod Touch could cannibalise some iPhone sales, although not enough to be a bona-fide threat to Apple’s handset. I do wonder why Apple hasn’t developed its own VoIP software for the Touch - or partnered with a big player like Skype. Perhaps that’s yet to come…
(via TUAW)
The team behind Fring have plenty to celebrate at their company Christmas party this year, as the mobile VoIP application has just been voted Nokia’s application of the week at the official S60 website for the second time in twelve months. This comes on the back of having won the prestigious DEMO award in Germany just last month making 2007 quite a successful year for the company.
Such an obvious show of support from the biggest handset manufacturer in the world to an application that essentially circumnavigates the need to pay network providers call fees is perhaps indicative of an industry sea change.
It really does look as if, ‘if you can beat them, join them‘ will be the attitude that the big networks will have to adopt in the not too distant future if applications like Fring continue to penetrate the market so successfully.
(Via Fring)
Yeigo has updated its mobile VoIP service for UK-based users with several neat new features for free instant messaging to mates.
The Yeigo 2.1 Edition includes full-screen IM chats, Tab Chat letting users IM multiple people, Holler (in which offline users get a prompt that a friend is available), Port ‘n’ Sort (importing contacts from other IM providers such as MSN and Yahoo) and It’s A Status Thing (showing which contacts are online).
Yeigo launched in the UK in October after already being available in South Africa. It claims to offer free calls and IM from Windows Mobile and Symbian mobile phones, which it does, kind of, with no charge to download and use the application. Naturally where it isn’t free is in the user having to pay 3G or wi-fi connection costs while chatting.
Is mobile VoIP set to get bigger? The answer is yes apparently, much bigger. A recent study conducted by Disruptive Analysis states that mobile VoIP will one day dwarf PC based VoIP use with 250 million users predicted to be using some form of the tech on a regular basis by 2012.
The paper also states that in order for this to happen the big networks will start to utilize the tech in a big way as it means more use can be squeezed out of the narrow spectrum allocations. So what does that mean? It means if you can’t beat them, join them will be that attitude that prevails but that doesn’t mean that the whole scenario will necessarily be a bed of roses.
If big networks do decide to make a serious foray into mobile VoIP as a viable alternative tech, then the savings may end up getting sucked up by the people at the top of the chain rather than the consumers at the bottom. Let’s hope that’s not the case but either way, exciting times.
(Via webitpr)
Now this is a good idea. Yeigo, the mobile VoIP company that is making an aggressive push into the market at the moment, has just announced a new feature for its service called Holler.
The idea is that you can prompt people who are in your Yeigo friends list to log into the service for free when you fancy a chat. All you need to do is select the person from your contacts list and choose the Holler Friend option. The friend’s phone will then ring and let them know that you want them to sign into their Yeigo client so that you can chat for free.
If another mobile VoIP company has a service like this, we certainly haven’t heard about it and Yeigo is clearly pulling out all of the stops to differentiate itself from the competition. We’re not sure if the term ‘holler’ is still accepted hip urban vernacular though, but that’s just nit picking.
(Via Yeigo Blog)
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