skype

Silicon Vikings sail against harder winds

The Vikings sailed in small open wooden ships to discover America long before Columbus. Their 21th century counterparts, the Silicon Vikings, prefer business class when they travel the Atlantic.

The $2.6 billion acquisition of the Swedish IP phone company Skype by eBay in 2005 and Sun Microsystems' recent purchase of Swedish-Finnish open-source database company MySQL for $1 billion has raised hopes among Nordic investors that more big deals for VC-backed Nordic companies could be in the pipeline in the U.S.

And the Vikings have a lot of cash. Venture capital firms from Sweden and Finland-- the Norwegians prefer … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 695: Pass the caffeinated rabbit

It turns out that if you give a rabbit enough coffee, it won't get dementia. And neither will you! (Long story--we'll explain.) In other news, Apple is now the No. 1 retailer in the United States, and Comcast launches 50Mbps broadband in Minneapolis/St. Paul, which actually launches us into a big Comcast rant. Sorry, Comcast. Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 695

Apple passes Wal-Mart, now No. 1 music retailer in U.S. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/ 20080402-apple-passes-wal-mart-now-1-music-retailer-in-us.html

As expected, MySpace unveils new music service http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9910344-7.html http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/03/ technology/03cnd-myspace.html … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 694: Know your zombies

It's zombie-preparedness day, and may we suggest you also prepare yourself for a barrage of rumors of the eBay and Blu-ray variety. Also, today, Amazon reaches right inside Molly's brain and launches shopping via text-message (hello, impulse purchase heaven!), and one listener defends the sacred honor of the Chevy Nova. Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 694

Voicemail - Dark Zombie Preparedness Day!

Judge to RIAA: You can’t sue over songs ‘made available’ via P2P http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9908353-38.html

eBay’s power sell: Skype to Google? http://www.news.com/8301-13577_3-9908959-36.html

Amazon launches … Read more

eBay's power sell: Skype to Google?

This post was updated at 9:45am EDT with comment from Google.

Will eBay sell Skype to Google?

It's no secret that many in Silicon Valley regard eBay's 2005 acquisition of the telephony service as a $2.6 billion misstep. But new rumors, reported late Tuesday night on TechCrunch, suggest that eBay may be negotiating Skype-related partnerships with Google or even selling it outright.

"We do not comment on market rumor or speculation regarding acquisitions," a Google representative told CNET News.com in an e-mail. "Generally speaking we are constantly in discussions about potential partnerships … Read more

Where if Jeff laughs, he dies

EPISODE 58

Jeff is back, finally. We take a look at creepy robots and infidelity runs rampant if you're the governor of a state close to NYC. Plus, Carmen Sandiego villains sung by 404-epella and John Falcone joins us to imagine how awesome Skype would be on a WiMax compatible iPod Touch.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Wireless VoIP headset breaks desktop chains

For all the advances made in Internet telephony over the last decade, the hardware end of the business has lagged woefully behind. All too often we've seen things like retro corded handsets or other bizarre devices that would seem to keep a caller hopelessly tethered to the desktop.

Headset makers are coming up with some solutions that problem, however, with wireless headsets. First we saw a pair by Creative Labs at CES in January, and now Logitech has debuted a similar product, a 2.4GHz wireless stereo headset developed specifically for VoIP calls.

Not only does the "ClearChat PC Wireless&… Read more

Power up Skype with live remote access

Gogrok is a companion program that runs with Skype (download for Windows and Mac) to give people remote-access capabilities. More than a typical plug-in but not able to stand on its own, the Skype-Gogrok combo makes for a good voice- and remote-access tech-support duo that's not quite dynamic.

OSX madness: Skype plugin blew up my Adium!

If you enjoy IM (and who doesn't?) on the Mac and are not using Adium you are missing out. Adium is fast, has a friendly UI and is generally very stable.

As a frequent Skype user I find myself annoyed by the fact that it crashes incessantly and the lack of integration with my primary IM client.

Today I decided to install the Skype plugin and it somehow it made everything blow up. I could no longer start/stop Adium or Skype and had to throw both away, clear the Library and re-install.

My immediate thought (after "oh, … Read more

eBay's latest buy: New CEOs for Skype, Shopping.com

eBay announced Monday that it has appointed new CEOs to its Skype and Shopping.com properties. At the helm of telephony company Skype will be current Shopping.com president and former Evite co-founder and CEO Josh Silverman; taking his place at Shopping.com will be Andre Haddad, who joined eBay in 2001 when it acquired his start-up, the European marketplace site iBazar.

This continues an extensive management shakeup at the online commerce giant, which saw the departure of longtime CEO Meg Whitman in January. eBay itself has been going through some tough times, with seller dissatisfaction leading to a boycott over fee hikes and new rules.… Read more

Updated: Skype for Mac

One of the best choices for online telephony for Mac just got better. The latest Skype update pushes the program to version 2.7.257 adding support for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and higher-resolution video for face-to-face video calls. The new default resolution is 640x480 pixels at 25 frames per second. You are only limited by your Webcam, so get out there and upgrade so that your friends and family can have a bigger, crisper view of your smiling mug on their desktop.

Skype has always been one of my favorite applications for its familiar chat-like interface, and … Read more