Hasta La Gadget!

It ain’t the first time Mark Zuckerberg has taken the stage to announce… something, but today’s shindig is resulting in “something” that’s a bit more exciting for the average user. As rumored, the world’s most notable VoIP service is set to become exceedingly integrated with the world’s most notable social network. Skype has just thrown up a teaser page for v5.3 for Windows (and v5.5 Beta), noting that Skype and Facebook will aim to provide “the best of both worlds.”

Zuck is primarily announcing three main things today: group chat, a new way to chat (“an easier way to find someone who is online”) and Skype-enabled video chat. Oh, and the tiny, tiny fact that there’s now 750 million Facebook members. What’s notable is just how easy it is to fire up a group chat (or send transcripts to group members who miss out) and get a video call going using your existing Skype contact list. A single click is all it takes, and we’re told that it’ll be rolled out to everyone “over the next few weeks” in 70 different languages. The new chat design will be scalable based on your browser size, and the company made a point to mention that it’ll be listening closely to user input in order to iterate as it moves forward.

Tony Bates stepped up to the plate, and noted that over 300 million videocall minutes a month are going through Skype, and at peak times, over half of its traffic is video. He also noted that the technology behind it was “tough” to construct, but somehow it managed to hammer this whole thing out in around six months via joint development. There’s also talk about future “paid products” in due time, and it’s strikingly clear that this partnership isn’t going to fade anytime soon. If you’re looking to take a dive yourself, hit up the source links below for the Windows applications, and wear that F5 button out over at Facebook’s homepage if you’re more of the “in-browser” type.

Oh, and if you’re curious about mobile — video chat isn’t active on that front yet, and Mark’s not spilling any details on “when.” To quote him on a question of time tables: “We’ll see.”

Update: Those on the web can get started right now. Of note, this forces open the familiar chat bar, so it doesn’t much look like you can hide from “those people” while attempting to find folks on Skype. Sadly, we’re also seeing that doing so can add loads of Facebook contacts to your Skype program, and there’s no real way to see that it’s happening until it’s too late. Clever, Mark.

Update 2: We’ve spent a little time with both of the new options, and you can read up on our impressions here!

Skype comes to Facebook, and Facebook comes to Skype (update: available now!) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jul 2011 13:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like some of the Skype crew might’ve had a sleepless night to please owners of the Nexus S 4G. If you’ll recall, June 30th saw a major update to its Android app enabling video chat on four devices; although the Nexus S was part of the club, its door was locked for Sprint’s 4G variant. That’s quickly changed, however, as the team’s set loose a hotfix to grant it access — this despite initially stating we’d have to wait for a “future release.” You can grab the app from the Android Market if you haven’t yet, and be sure to let us know how it goes in comments. Oh, and for those anxious Thunderbolt owners? We’d recommend not holding your breath until after the 4th of July holiday.

Skype 2.0 hotfix enables video chat on Sprint’s Nexus S 4G originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 03 Jul 2011 00:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The latest Skype update for Android is available to everyone, but it only enables video chat on four specific handsets. Fortunately, impatient modders have gone some way to correcting this profound injustice, by creating APKs that activate video calling on other handsets too. So far we’ve heard of successful ports on the Samsung Galaxy S II and the HTC Sensation, Thunderbolt and EVO 4G. If you’ve got some other handset with Android 2.3, a little experimentation with the APK might also be worth your while. However, we just tried it on an Xperia Arc and didn’t get very far: the app ran, but efforts to communicate with an Xperia Neo resulted in one-way video, a locked landscape mode and plenty of awkwardness. Let us know if you fare better — you’ll find a Thunderbolt-specific download at the DroidLife source link, and a more general APK at TechPetals.

[Thanks, Rashid and JT]

Skype 2 video chat unofficially enabled on the Galaxy S II, Sensation, and others originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Jul 2011 07:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Look, Capitol Hill is a nice place to be, okay? There are interns eager to please, lobbyists keen to buy you dinner, why would you ever want to leave? Unfortunately for US Congressmen and women, the schleps who elected them insist on getting face time with their supposed representatives, which means a regular schedule of commuting getting in the way of some critically important foot massages and aromatherapy treatments. Never fear, though, Skype has come to the rescue. Microsoft’s latest acquisition has scored a stamp of approval from the House of Representatives, permitting Congresspersons to use it to interact with constituents, attend virtual town hall meetings, and collaborate with other members of the House. All fun-making of lawmakers aside, this strikes us as a step in the right direction and Skype promises that it’s done its homework on keeping communications secure. Let’s hope so.

Skype gets Congressional approval, will help Representatives stay in touch with the common people originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Jun 2011 03:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve lost sleep over the lack of a dedicated Skype app for your iPad, you can rest easy tonight knowing somewhere out there it does exist — or at least a promo video does. Earlier today, someone over at Skype unintentionally (we assume) posted what looks like an ad for a real-deal app for the iOS slab. Of course, the evidence has since been pulled, but you can check out a ripped version (sans audio) after the break. It looks like the days of blowing up ye ole iPhone Skype are numbered.

Update: The folks over at TUAW had a chat with Skype’s Rick Osterloh about the iPad app, and he says you can expect most of the functionality to carry over from the iPhone. There are, unfortunately, a few desktop features, like file sharing, that won’t make an appearance. Sadly, Osterloh didn’t spill the release-date beans.

Continue reading Skype for iPad leaked in promo video

Skype for iPad leaked in promo video originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Jun 2011 16:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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