In addition to the new rate plan, Skype also released Skype 3.0 today, with several new social elements that enable things like virtual game playing and music recommendation through Last.fm.
The new features in Skype 3.0 for Windows are called Extras and Public Chats. Extras enables game playing and music recommendation through Last.fm. There will also be something called “mood messages,” which will allow users to “explain how they are feeling and what they are doing with their friends and families, no matter where they happen to be,” according to Skype’s release.
Public Chats are essentially chat rooms, which are nothing new but Skype has not had them before. They have had group chatting capabilities but not theme-based chat rooms.
“Skype is about freeing communication on a global scale. Since the beginning we have enabled free conversations between friends and family – people that know each other,” said Stefan Oberg, GM of Telecoms & Desktop for Skype, in the release. “With Skype 3.0 and features like Public Chats, we are making it easier for people to make new friends and meet others that share a common interest from a global community of more than 136 million Skype users.”
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By the way, the rate plans are still not active yet…When I read this post I took it that they would be charging with 3.0. This is not the case.
Nick, the previous posting about the Skype rate changes starts out “beginning in 2007…”
Skype really is going from strength to strenth. They clearly aim to be a major competitor to AIM and MSN messanger as well as a VOIP provider.
Mike Arrington exports his version of freedom of speech to Europe!
http://www.web2ireland.org/
Mike, I think this is a huge insult to the entire blog community and I can’t help but feel that you will receive a backlash…
I see no reason Skype not to expand fully into a Social Networking Site but maybe I dont understand the structure very well. Maybe that element is otherwise covered.
Skype.com is beautiful name, to me a stroke of marketing genious and the service is excellent…at least the PC to PC aspect.
Keep doing it Skype!!
http://www.revafinancial.squarespace.com
@ Paul
First off there is nothing in your posts quoting Mike.
Second while I don’t agree with the way Mike handled the situation I also do not know what happened between the two for him to raise a tone as such.
Third, Anti-American comments will get you no where.
Good Luck
Frank, you’re absolutely right about the anti American comments - I shouldn’t have made them. I do apologise to anyone I have offended and will remove them from my original post on http://www.web2ireland.org/
I would prefer a version that just allowed me to make better quality calls that don’t drop as often. Hold the extras…
I *almost* signed up, but wanted to first figure out how much they would charge for North American calls without the plan … but couldn’t find any details. The same as int’l calls or less ?
this is good news i guess, in the UK we have nokia N73 handsets running “mobile” skype - which means free calls for all international calls. Not pleasing the other networks here.. great!
Yay! More features = More competition!
I would have preferred better A/V codecs…ideally H.264. The kids can keep their mood messages.
Can someone explain to me why they don’t show the American conversion rates for skypein/skypeout calls? I’d be interested in using their service, but I only see the rates for Euros. Also, can you make phone calls with your skypein account? Can somebody please break it down for me? THanks.
I’m sorry. I meant to say - can you use your same skypin number to make skypeout calls?
Natali,
After reading the press release closely, there doesn’t seem to be any “music recommendation” from last.fm.
Skype is just allowing a “now playing” script (lists names/artist/album of the current music track in the computer’s media player) to be displayed as a status message in Skype chat — as part of your “mood message”.
Displaying Last.fm tracks in your mood message is a Skype “extra”, listed here:
https://extras.skype.com/294/view
This feature is very common in all forms of instant messaging clients. There are *hundreds* of user-contributed scripts available for this purpose. I have several that work with Aduim/GAIM, GoogleTalk, iChat/AIM Yahoo! IM and IRC.
It would be great if TechCrunch would follow through on product feature sets before posting misleading articles.
Thanks.
I was hoping they would have added some other features. Is there any improvment on call quality?
I agree Rob C.
I’ve had great call quality since pre Skype 2.0, and that’s on a 256K ADSL connection using a 5 year old Dell notebook - barely enough bandwidth and CPU resources to run it but it still sounds great.
To those complaining about it, are you sure your ISP isn’t jacking around with your connection?
hi jim, i cant seem to find mobile skype for symbian of the N73. where can one download it pls?
While reading the at Techcrunch site ( Skype Unveils 3. ) I have read that skype has launched their Version 3
I picked this one up on the BitWine Website.
Basically a paradigm shift, where people not only pay for calls but can also make money by defining their own per minute income plan.
BITWINE PARTNERS WITH SKYPE
Launch of Skype 3.0 to Include the “Trusted Advice from Real People” Service
TENAFLY, NEW JERSEY AND LONDON – December 14, 2006 – BitWine Inc., the online provider of “Trusted Advice from Real People,” announced that it has been selected by Skype, the Internet communication company, to be included in the new Skype 3.0, to be released today. With the new BitWine Extra, Skype users not only have enhanced audio and video capabilities, but also the ability to personally charge or pay for their time while using rich media calls.
The “BitWine Taskbar Skype Edition” is fully integrated into Skype 3.0, which allows users to provide paid advice or instantly purchase the advice or knowledge urgently needed using Skype and PayPal.
“We followed bloggers and answer leaders on different forums, and a recurring theme was the desire of skilled, knowledgeable individuals to be able to charge for the advice that they had been dispensing for free,” stated Alon Cohen.
http://www.bitwine.com/forums/4/topics/57
None of the new features sound too revolutionary - but I’ll grab the new release when I get back on a hi-speed connection.
Yes, no revolutionary. I think it should be called as V2.9 something, instead of V3.0. Shouldn’t be a major update.
-Mike
Tech Tutorials: http://www.hotcoding.com
Too bad the VoIP capabilities to non-Skype users will no longer be free at the ned of this year. Ebay made out with this acquisition. It sure was nice making calls to China for about $0.02 per minute.
http://davidchao.typepad.com
tung vb