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May 2, 2006

News Bits: Skype, Pandora and Meebo

Michael Arrington

51 comments »

There are a few product updates going out tonight or tomorrow morning involving Meebo, Pandora and Skype that are worth mentioning.

Skype Adds Skypecasts

Skype is releasing version 2.5 beta of its client software on Wednesday. There are some cool new features: the ability to send and SMS to any worldwide cell phone, improved conference calling (you see who’s talking), and other small improvements.

Skype is also launching a preview of Skypecasts, a free new product that allows live, moderated Skype conversations of up to 100 people. The host may controls mute, eject and “microphone pass”. Skypecasts may be prescheduled and promoted via html snippets.

Skype is still lacking a record feature, and while there are some good third party products out there to bridge the gap, none seem to work on the new Intel Macs.

Previous TechCrunch posts that discuss Skype are here.

Pandora: 1.8 million Members, New Community Feedback Feature


Music discovery site Pandora will be announcing that it has 1.8 million users sometime tonight or tomorrow.

These customers have given Pandora a whopping 70 million pieces of song feedback over the last few months. Pandora will also be announcing that they will start to use this community feedback in evolving users’ playlists and delivering more relevant music.

Previous TechCrunch posts that discuss Pandora are here.

Meebo Chat Logs


Web chat startup Meebo has been rolling out new features pretty regularly. In February, Meebo gave users the ability to create accounts. Sometime this week they will announce that users will be able to access chat logs. They’ll also be announcing enhanced user preferences, better icons, etc.

Previous TechCrunch posts that discuss Meebo are here.

  • Sphere It

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 2nd, 2006 at 11:23 pm and is filed under Company & Product Profiles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Trackbacks/Pings (Trackback URL)

  1. Basic Thinking Blog » Gruppenknuddeln mit SkypeCasts

    May 3rd, 2006 at 4:52 am

  2. Tim Zappe » With a Dash of Dash

    May 3rd, 2006 at 7:56 am

  3. MLM - Network Marketing Blog

    May 3rd, 2006 at 8:00 am

  4. Emerging Earth - Skypecast

    May 3rd, 2006 at 10:07 am

  5. Confessions of an Undercover Geek » Congrats to Pandora On Hitting 1.8 Million Users

    May 3rd, 2006 at 10:13 am

  6. Peter’s Webmaster Blog » Skype 2.5 mit SMS und Skypecasts!

    May 3rd, 2006 at 11:51 am

  7. Ondas, cables, luces, cacharritos y cachivaches

    May 3rd, 2006 at 1:51 pm

  8. New Media Sense » Short Stuff for May 3rd

    May 3rd, 2006 at 2:27 pm

  9. nonsmokingarea.com » Blog Archive » news from pandora

    May 3rd, 2006 at 3:20 pm

  10. Music Appreciation and Web 2.0--LostInaFog.com

    May 3rd, 2006 at 4:17 pm

  11. Bitelia

    May 4th, 2006 at 2:10 am

  12. Web 2.0 - Что нового? » Blog Archive » Meebo добавляет поддержку хранения логов

    May 4th, 2006 at 2:20 am

  13. Web 2.0 - Что нового? » Blog Archive » Skype создаёт скайпкасты

    May 4th, 2006 at 2:39 am

  14. Web 2.0 - Что нового? » Blog Archive » Skype создаёт скайпкасты

    May 4th, 2006 at 2:41 am

  15. Solo Technology » Blog Archive » Meebo to offer logging soon

    May 4th, 2006 at 5:50 am

  16. SHU Innovation for LTA » Blog Archive » Skype 2.5 is out

    May 5th, 2006 at 5:06 am

  17. TechCrunch » Waxxi is a New Kind of Podcast

    May 6th, 2006 at 1:01 am

  18. Global Advanced Media WeBlog » Waxxi is a New Kind of Podcast

    May 6th, 2006 at 12:56 pm

  19. Linkage » Meebo Update Live: Chat Logging

    May 13th, 2006 at 6:08 pm

  20. TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » Waxxi― 新種のポッドキャスト登場

    June 13th, 2006 at 8:05 pm

  21. Techcrunch » Blog Archive » Pandora Goes Social

    December 19th, 2006 at 11:09 pm

  22. Multimedias.mobi » Pandora Goes Social

    December 20th, 2006 at 2:01 am

  23. De doos van Pandora - Frankwatching

    December 22nd, 2006 at 4:25 am

Comments

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  1. TheWeb20Dev

    May 2nd, 2006 at 11:30 pm

    When is Meebo going to license their software to AIM, Yahoo etc for some serious income? Or, at the very least be acquired by AOL.

  2. Andrew

    May 2nd, 2006 at 11:55 pm

    Does that include free SMS in Australia?

  3. Jaap

    May 3rd, 2006 at 12:19 am

    I used to record Skype calls using Audio Hijack Pro (pretty cheap application) and Soundflower, using this guide. They should work on Intel Macs, too. (Now, I’m using Audio Hijack Pro to only record the other party’s voice and record my voice separately with a mp3 player for editing purposes, that’s even better).

  4. Ian

    May 3rd, 2006 at 12:36 am

    they (Blurb) could always try putting QR codes at the bottom of the page or perhaps inline (but wouldn’t look so good) and then you could use your phone to get the link, or use the iSight in your Macbook like Delicious library :)

  5. Blaze

    May 3rd, 2006 at 12:51 am

    No one said the SMS was free ;)

  6. Peter

    May 3rd, 2006 at 1:42 am

    tried Skype the other day. quality sucked.

    tried yahoo messenger/call thing. worked great.

    what else?

  7. Peter

    May 3rd, 2006 at 2:00 am

    Skype quality works great for me, even from India to Europe, US, South Africa etc. Most of my business calls are on Skype! And I very much look forward to this new version. The SMS feature alone will give the Telco’s a huge headache :-)

  8. stefan

    May 3rd, 2006 at 2:29 am

    Why am I seeing this page in French???
    Bizarre.

  9. Flare

    May 3rd, 2006 at 2:50 am

    Andrew, “worldwide” usually includes Australia.

  10. J

    May 3rd, 2006 at 3:10 am

    Good morning Skype, I hope you slept well.

    SMS is one of the most simple features to offers. Why did it take so long for Skype to implement that?

  11. Eric

    May 3rd, 2006 at 5:03 am

    What I’ve found about Pandora is that I feel it gives you a better selection of music if you only tell it the songs you like. If you just tell it the songs you don’t like it really seems to narrow your playlist down.

  12. Saul Weiner

    May 3rd, 2006 at 5:25 am

    I agree with Peter. Skype does suck. Whever I go into optins while calling, it shuts down. I’m a paying user and they don’t respond to my support emails. Yahoo is much better (even if their video is a little slower)

  13. rob

    May 3rd, 2006 at 6:44 am

    @#9 stefan.

    Showed in my newreader in spanish. Weird.

  14. Damian

    May 3rd, 2006 at 6:50 am

    Anybody try PowerGramo for recording Skype? Any other suggestions?

  15. Realguy

    May 3rd, 2006 at 7:10 am

    I think it’s great that there isn’t a built in Record feature. I can’t imagine anyone being ok with having their calls recorded without explicit permission. I realize there are ways to use 3rd party tools to record, but at least I give kudos to Skype for not making it too easy.

  16. /pd

    May 3rd, 2006 at 8:45 am

    I am seing this post in french too within my reader.. !!

  17. paulpod

    May 3rd, 2006 at 9:23 am

    Re: Skype recording facility.

    they could easily make initiating a recording require end user approval, in the same way a download requires user intervention to begin.

  18. Joy

    May 3rd, 2006 at 9:26 am

    Pandora has been instrumental in finding more artists that I like. Their simple flash interface is sufficient and I like the features that it offers. I like the fact that I can store my favorite songs in a RSS capable playlist to share it with others.

    Meebo was very useful to chat when all my messengers were blocked by firewalls. I am glad to see new features being introduced to make the experience better.

  19. Andrew

    May 3rd, 2006 at 10:48 am

    When is one of these IM services going to make application-sharing work? MSN has(d) it, but no one’s on MSN… what is Skype waiting for? They could destroy WebEx/Breeze/Glance if they did.

  20. Samurai

    May 3rd, 2006 at 11:14 am

    http://www.gizmoproject.com/ is better than Skype.

  21. smsman

    May 3rd, 2006 at 1:07 pm

    sending SMS is already part of Yahoo! Messenger. it has some restrictions as when receiver replies to your SMS, it does not always get to you. Messenger window where you originally sent message need to be open!! i hope Skype’s SMS reply feature is better and hope that reply-to number is local/domestic.

  22. China Law Blog

    May 3rd, 2006 at 3:38 pm

    This is going to be huge for bloggers who will now be able to better interact with their readers. I learned of this from a reader who is asking us to do a Q&A Skypecast right away. I am interested, but want to hear how it actually works in practice before I put 100 people on the line.

    China Law

  23. David Dalka

    May 3rd, 2006 at 6:16 pm

    What tools allow recording of Skype?

    In regards to the issue of the other party knowing about recording, I would think Skype would be able to make something that would allow the other user to see a recording on indicator or even an approval request.

    Just to look from another vantage point this could be considered a non-issue as much of what anyone does on the web is already recorded whether they know it or not.

    David Dalka
    Free Agent
    5/03/06

  24. Andrew

    May 4th, 2006 at 7:58 am

    David, http://www.skylook.biz is a great tool to record Skype calls, if you run MS Outlook on Win. Has a bunch of other really cool features as well.

  25. Bwana

    May 4th, 2006 at 2:27 pm

    @ #18

    I used to record skype conversations using that same method with Audio Hijack Pro + Soundflower. Unfortuantely, Audio Hijack Pro cannot “HiJack” from Skype on Intel macs. It doesn’t allow you to do it since Skype runs under Rosetta. As soon as Skype goes Universal (again), this solution should work again.

  26. Reid Levy

    May 6th, 2006 at 8:09 pm

    Interesting article but have you taken a look at Jyve Pro? It’s similar to Ether.

    Just take a look at the blog I wrote, Ether Vs. Jyve Pro.

    http://www.reidlevy.wordpress.com

  27. Rachel

    May 15th, 2006 at 4:40 am

    Hey guys, does anyone know how to get on msn without it being on the blacklist. Ya see we’re in scoil n it crap so like wanna go on msn.

  28. Mike

    October 30th, 2006 at 6:52 pm

    Check out http://www.koolim.com

    Its a great web based messenger.

    It supports AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo!, IRC, Jabber, Sametime and others.

    Have a great day.

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