skype

New Skype app will launch with Windows 8

Skype will stand alongside its parent company when Windows 8 launches later this week.

The VoIP provider today announced that it will have a new application ready for users when Windows 8 launches on Friday. The application, appropriately named Skype for Windows 8, offers the familiar features users would expect, including instant messaging and audio and video chatting.

Skype has received a bit of a face lift in the new app, featuring the new Windows look. That has resulted in a significantly different design than what current users have come to expect. However, the new version does appear to be … Read more

Singing Skype's praises for delivering music lessons (video)

Skype has done wonders for connecting people around the world. We see it in schools, where a class in California chats with kids in Chile. Of course we see it in the home, where grandparents and grandchildren can catch up on the day's events over a meal together. And now we're increasingly seeing music instructors use the videoconferencing technology to offer lessons to students around the world.

Our video team at CNET connected with a Nashville, Tenn., based guitar teacher named Lance Allen. We observed a lesson he gave to Jeff Feldman, a San-Francisco based instructor at Creative Spark Guitar. … Read more

Worm spreading on Skype IM installs ransomware

A malicious worm spreading through Skype instant messages threatens to take control of a victim's machine and hold its contents for ransom.

The issue, which was first brought to light Friday by GFI, tricks users into downloading a ZIP file by displaying the socially-engineered message, "lol is this your new profile pic?" along with a link that also spreads the message to other Skype users. The ZIP filed contains an executable file that installs a variant of the Dorkbot worm and creating a backdoor via "Blackhole," an exploit kit used by criminals to infect computers … Read more

Get a $20 Skype credit and 1-month Netflix trial for free

A couple quick housekeeping notes:

The recent SiriusXM freebie proved disappointing for a lot of folks. Some couldn't sign up at all, others received a confirmation e-mail for the one-year trial -- only to be informed a week later that the trial had ended.

As I noted in my original post, that deal was probably intended for Chevy customers, not the general public. The standard SiriusXM Internet Radio trial is 30 days, so it's not surprising the company quickly clamped down on what was meant to be an exclusive offer. That said, I feel like they should have … Read more

Zuckerberg wants everything to connect through Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg has offered some hints about what could be in store for Facebook's future, saying he sees an opportunity to be the "infrastructure" for various other services now that the site has hit the 1 billion active user mark.

Zuckerberg, speaking in a Q&A with Bloomberg Business published today, said Facebook's user base is now large enough that the majority of customers at other sites -- like Skype or Netflix -- are likely also using Facebook. That means those large-scale services can now rely on Facebook as a "piece of critical infrastructure … Read more

Skyping with the police

The cops are getting their geek on. Four days a week, a police officer ducks into the social media room at the Redwood City Police Department, launches a video chat application and stands by waiting for your call, just like those Time Life Books operators.

Located smack in the middle of the Valley, the police department is the first in the country to offer video chat on its Web site. Police Chief J.R. Gamez was clearly peacock-proud when we asked about his organization's tech know-how. The police department tweets city alerts to followers and posts updates on Facebook. … Read more

Skype to adopt 'Metro' design, says report

Skype may be taking new look and feel cues from the Windows 8 interface formerly known as Metro.

New client versions of Skype are in the works with a few notable enhancements, The Verge reports. One such is a new UI that borrows from the Windows 8 interface. Skype is now testing this change, but could take it a few steps further in future releases, according to The Verge.

Also reportedly new to Skype: a video messaging feature that lets users send prerecorded videos, which their contacts can then view when they hop online.

In 2008, Microsoft beta tested a … Read more

Latest Skype betas offer integration with Live Messenger

Skype is slowly getting integrated with the rest of Microsoft's properties.

Microsoft's Skype unit announced on September 13 that it is enabling sign in using Windows Live ID -- now known as Microsoft Account -- in the latest Skype for Windows beta (version 5.11). This means by signing in with a Windows Live ID, users will be able to send and receive IMs and see presence ifnormation from those using Live Messenger, Xbox, Hotmail or Outlook.com.

Microsoft is enabling the same integration via a new Skype 5.11 for Mac beta, as well.

According to Microsoft, … Read more

IETF standardizes Opus for flexible online audio

The Internet Engineering Task Force has standardized the Opus audio compression technology as RFC 6716.

The move paves the way for much broader use of Opus for anything from playing music to online voice chats. Opus is what's called a codec because it defines how to encode and decode a stream of data for more efficient storage or transmission.

"Opus is the first state-of-the-art, free audio codec to be standardized. We think this will help us achieve wider adoption than prior royalty-free codecs," Jean-Marc Valin, a Mozilla employee and author of Opus, said in a blog post today. … Read more