Skype

Last week, the Skype VoIP service went down for two days, affecting customers worldwide. On Monday, Villu Arak, writing on the Skype blog Heartbeat, attributed the outage to "a previously unseen software bug within the network resource allocation algorithm which prevented the self-healing function from working quickly."

But the root cause? "The disruption," he said, "was triggered by a massive restart of our users' computers across the globe within a very short time frame as they rebooted after receiving a routine set of patches through Windows Update." Tuesday Microsoft pushed out nine patches, six … Read more

Skype's service appears to be up and running again for the most part, after software issues Thursday prevented millions of Skype users from signing on to the IP telephony application.

Skype officials say the outage was not due to a cyberattack or network upgrades. Instead they attributed the issue to "a deficiency in an algorithm within Skype networking software. This controls the interaction between the user's own Skype client and the rest of the Skype network."

As of 11 a.m. GMT Friday, the company said that the software had started to stabilize. Some users have … Read more

Could open source have saved Skype from its ongoing disaster? Andy Oram @ O'Reilly believes so, and I think he's onto something. Open source is not a panacea. But it does offer an alternative way to fix snafus like this that are wreaking havoc on Skpe's reputation, as Larry Dignan notes.

Andy writes:… Read more

Skype users got a proverbial dead line when trying to dial out, or receive, a call on Thursday because of a software glitch with the VoIP service, according to a notice on Skype's Web site.

The notice begins: "Some of you may be having problems logging into Skype." So it's not yet entirely clear how many users are being denied service. The engineering staff at the Internet phone company expects to have the problem resolved within the next 12 to 24 hours, which would put a fix in place sometime Thursday or as late as Friday … Read more

Who needs downloads? Not instant-messaging fans, apparently, according to Nielsen NetRatings. The online division of the legendary statistics-crunching company just released a study that tracks the fastest-growing instant-messaging software products from August 2006 to June 2007, and the results indicate that Web-based is the way to go.

The most rapidly growing IM client, according to the study, is Meebo, which launched just over a year ago. The fact that it's so new may be partially responsible for its rapid growth--354 percent from August 2006 to June 2007. But Meebo also packs a double punch: not only is it Web-based … Read more

There are so many products announced at the January Consumer Electronics Show, a few of them always manage to slip off your radar. For me, one such product was the new line of GE-branded cordless phones from Thomson. I know what you're thinking--"Thomson" and "GE" are yawner brands that have no place among your carefully groomed hipster-approved gadget lineup. Well, think again: I was able to spend some quality time with the new GE phones last night, and each of them offered at least one compelling leg up on competing products. Each model is a DECT 6.0 product (Digital Enhanced Cordless Technology), meaning it operates on the 1900Mhz wireless band that's free of the interference issues that can occur on the more-crowded 2.4Ghz band (which competes with everything from microwave ovens to Wi-Fi to wireless speakers). A quick roundup of the key models follows: … Read more

Late this afternoon Skype announced a deal that puts the Internet calling software on select laptop models across Toshiba's four notebook lines (Qosmio, Tecra, Satellite, and Portege). According to the release, the Skype software will come preloaded on Toshiba laptops that include a built-in Webcam; the marketing agreement also includes a Skype logo on the laptops' display bezel and a desktop icon that links to a cobranded Skype/Toshiba landing page. The deal initially applies to four of Toshiba's notebooks: the Satellite X205, Tecra M8, Qosmio F45, and the just-announced, AMD-based Satellite A215 series.

While we find it … Read more

Category: Communications

Skype is a text, voice, and video-chatting platform that works using your Internet connection. Skype has branched off from a desktop software solution to work in mobile phones and household phones that just need a Wi-Fi or Internet connection to run. Like instant-messaging clients, Skype gives users a buddy list instead of a set of phone numbers.

Over the years, Skype has also introduced a number of new features. One of the more interesting ones is SkypeOut, a service that lets Skype users call outside numbers, both long distance and international. They also have a service called SkypePrime … Read more

Aside from keeping you in touch with your colleagues and friends, your Windows Mobile device might also be your portable music player, personal calendar, gaming machine, and, of course, your mobile gateway to the Internet.

No matter how many uses you already have for your portable device, there's always more to discover. Become a master of mobile technology with this collection of downloads designed for Windows Mobile users on the go.… Read more