AT&T: Just kidding! VoIP apps like Skype can run on our network
AT&T, the iPhone’s exclusive wireless carrier in the United States, said it has paved the way for Apple to let voice-over-Internet-protocol apps like Skype run on its 3G network instead of only on nearby Wi-Fi connections.
VoIP technology allows voice calls to be treated as data, making them significantly cheaper per minute.
The “iPhone is an innovative device that dramatically changed the game in wireless when it was introduced just two years ago,” said Ralph de la… Continue Reading
Skype founders sue eBay for copyright violations
Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis filed suit today against eBay, the owner of their the intenet telephone technology since 2005, alleging that the auction site violated a copyright agreement that it wouldn’t share the proprietary code powering the service.
The suit is officially being brought by Joltid, another company owned by the duo — which, incidentally, also founded video-sharing site Joost. The trouble started when eBay moved on plans to sell off most of… Continue Reading
Joost removes Volpi as chairman, complicating eBay’s Skype sale
Mike Volpi, the former chief executive officer of online video site Joost who stepped down in July, has now been removed as chairman by the company’s shareholders, and is under investigation for his activities during his leadership.
Many are questioning Volpi’s dual roles at Joost and Index Ventures — a thorny subject involving eBay’s sale of Skype. He joined the private equity firm in June when Joost officially threw in the towel on becoming a web television… Continue Reading
5 O’Clock Roundup: Bartz would’ve taken Microsoft buyout, Peter Kafka trumps Yoko Ono
New Yahoo CEO Bartz says she would have accepted Microsoft’s 2008 offer to buy the company – “Do you think I’m stupid?” Carol Bartz blurted out in that sassy way bored journalists love on CBNC’s Squawk Box Thursday. Now that Yahoo has rebuffed Microsoft and installed Bartz, her plan is to build out Yahoo’s content products rather than try to beat Google at search.
Nokia acquires obscure social network startup Plum Ventures — None of the usual… Continue Reading
The battle for your address book: Will souped up contact apps monetize the data explosion?
[Editor's Note: Below, MobileBeat advisory board member Jason Devitt explains why we should care about new innovative address books. Not only are they key to a much better user experience, but they may greatly impact the way we pay to use our phones. He also looks at how different parties, from carriers to mobile startups, are approaching new address book services from opposing angles.]
There’s a battle brewing for control of your mobile phone’s address book…. Continue Reading
With Three UK deal, is Skype killing voice revenue for carriers?
Late last week, the internet phone service Skype announced that the UK carrier Three UK had become the first 3G carrier to embrace Skype and offer it freely without restriction.
You may ask: Who in their right mind will continue to use their regular carrier voice service when they can make free Skype-to-Skype calls, or free IM via Skype?
Good question. This is a big development because eBay-owned Skype has so far been shunned by most other… Continue Reading
Confirmed: Skype ready for the iPhone, Blackberry
The speculation, teasing, and waiting is over. Just as GigaOm predicted, Skype, the VoIP client that lets users make phone calls through the internet, is coming to the iPhone and Blackberry. News of Skype’s smartphone ambitions was released going into this week’s mobile-centric CTIA conference in Las Vegas. According to the Wall Street Journal, the VoIP client is due on the iPhone and iPod Touch as early as Tuesday, with the Blackberry version due in… Continue Reading
Skype for the iPhone next week?
There are well over 25,000 applications now in Apple’s App Store. But there are still a few notable omissions. One of those is the hugely popular Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) application Skype. But that could change as soon as next week, GigaOM’s Om Malik has learned.
Citing a “very reliable” source, Malik says the iPhone app for the service could launch next week at the CTIA Wireless conference in Las Vegas. He notes that there… Continue Reading
Index Ventures infuses biotech and cleantech with $438.8M
Index Ventures just announced the closure of a $438.8 million fund intended to finance young biotechnology and cleantech portfolio companies. This is the sixth seed and early-stage fund the London-based firm has raised. Perhaps best know for its prescient investments in technologies like Skype, MySQL (sold to Sun Microsystems for $1 billion) and Betfair, Index has been relatively insulated from the economic downturn and is looking to expand its reach in the health care and… Continue Reading
Roundup: Health sites to merge, Google may embrace traditional ads and more
Here’s the latest action:
Health site operators plan to team up against WebMD — The merger between Revolution Health Network and Waterfront Media is valued at $300 million, and should help the combined companies take on with market leader WebMD. We’ve heard that Revolution was trying to sell for $400 million a couple months ago, but difficult times call for difficult deals.
Google rethinking its aversion to traditional advertising — The search giant has relied on partnerships and word… Continue Reading
MySpace apps: SightSpeed releases video chat
SightSpeed, a desktop-based video conferencing application, tomorrow launches SightSpeed Light (see screenshot below), a widget video conferencing app, on the Myspace application platform.
SightSpeed Light provides a Flash-based free video chat and video mail between MySpace users, but it is also integrated with SightSpeed on the desktop. The company has plans to relase the widget on social networks LinkedIn, Salesforce, Plaxo, Orkut, Hi5 and others, but so far it doesn’t have a date for these releases.
Last… Continue Reading
Roundup: FCC turns down Skype appeal, PG&E asks for more renewables, and more
FCC chair rejects opening existing wireless networks — A petition from Skype failed to convince FCC chairman Kevin Martin to force wireless carriers to open up their existing networks to outside devices and software, leaving the newly-auctioned 700Mhz airwaves as the only network opened by regulation. More at the WSJ.
PG&E wants 800 – 1,200MW more renewable energy by 2015 — Energy utility PG&E, which supplies the Bay Area, just struck a deal for 900 megawatts… Continue Reading
Roundup: Adobe’s product launches, Joost, eBay-Skype charge, and more
Here’s an (updated) summary of the latest action:
–Adobe launches online-offline media player, and Share. Other applications launch using Adobe’s AIR
–Microsoft launches Office Live WorkSpace
–Joost officially launches its online TV service
–Skype makes earn-out. EBay takes $1.43 billion impairment charge for Skype, and co-founder Zennstrom steps down.
–Facebook to let you group your friends
–Findory shuts down
Adobe launches new online-offline media player, and lots more – Adobe’s new player lets you watch Flash videos whether or not you’re connected to… Continue Reading
Lypp, offering free conference calls
Lypp is a free group calling service that works with your existing landline or cellphone number, and launches a private testing version tomorrow.
It’s a nifty service. Free conference calls. So what’s the catch, you ask?
Nothing to start off with, except for a limited number of minutes: 500 a month.
Here’s how it works: You initiate calls with instant messenger (AIM, iChat, GTalk, Jabber, MSN or Yahoo), from the Web or on your phone, and Lypp will… Continue Reading
Jajah benefits from Skype downage, to release Facebook application
The outage of internet telephone service Skype last week helped several companies, including apparently the Gizmo Project and Grand Central. The latest company to say it benefited is Jajah, which claims users registrations surged by 50 percent more than usual when Skype was down last weekend (though it didn’t release specific numbers)
[Update: Jangl, another VoIP provider for consumers, saw a 30 percent jump to 7,000 users on its Facebook application, Phonebook, up from 5,500 during… Continue Reading
Roundup: Skype’s offer, Calacanis, Acoona, Zoho, Bluebet, Tafiti, WikiScanner, more
Here’s the latest action:
Skype trying to buy back customer love — Skype is sending out notes to users saying they’ll get a week’s worth of free service. The San Jose Internet phone company says it has 196 million users and reported earlier this year that it was profitable for the first time. As Jeff Nolan points out, its users now number 3 percent of the world’s population, and only just now profitable?
Jason Calacanis, the scrappy entrepreneur —… Continue Reading
Roundup: Skype for iPhone, GBox, BarCamp Block, first space hotel & more
The latest action:
Skype for iPhone — SHAPE Services, a Stuttgart, Germany-based company, known for making mobile IM clients, has announced Skype for iPhone, an iPhone-optimized Web site that allows you to access Skype via the iPhone’s browser. Om has details.
Gbox, offering digital music without copy-protection — Gbox, a Cupertino, Calif. startup is apparently being used by Universal Music Group in its efforts to sell music without DRM. GBox has been secretive so far. AP has the details…. Continue Reading
Roundup: Free calls via texting, Mr. Wong takes on Delicious, Facebook’s growth and more
Here’s the latest action:
Free mobile calls, via texting — An Ottawa company called bOK is using VOIP to give Canadians free mobile calls, using SMS. Here’s how it works: You send a text message with your contact’s phone number to bOK, and, just like better-known JaJah, bOK calls both parties — voila, free incoming call!
The service is temporarily free for any phone number in the U.S. and Canada. Anyone with a US-based phone plan, though,… Continue Reading
Jajah gets $20M, and Intel patent to take on Skype
Jajah, the Internet telephone company living up to its “scrappy” reputation, has just pulled in $20 million from the venture capital arm of giant chip maker Intel and others.
This is a big endorsement for the young company, which goes up against a multitude of competitors. It now plans to target Skype, armed with a valuable patent it will borrow courtesy of Intel.
Jajah also signaled it is about to obtain funding from a major telecommunications company… Continue Reading
Roundup: The VC tax, Skype’s paid calls, Emotiv’s brain joystick
Here’s the latest action:
VCs may be vulnerable to new tax idea — Federal lawmakers are mulling a rule that would make venture capitalists pay much more in taxes. So far, venture capitalists’ profits have been classified as capital gains– and thus subject to the capital gains tax of 15 percent. However, under the proposal being mulled by Charles Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, those profits would be classified as ordinary… Continue Reading