Activision Blizzard earnings: Call of Duty Elite snares 7M subscribers
Activision Blizzard reported today that its new Call of Duty Elite social network service for hardcore gamers has signed up 7 million subscribers since going live in November.
That includes both free and paid memberships, and it represents a sizable chunk of the overall numbers of consumers who bought the game. About 1.5 million of those users have chosen to pay $4.99 a month for the privilege of getting the latest content for titles such … Continue Reading
Skype for Windows Phone “coming soon”
Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype promised to be a marriage made in an integration heaven — especially for Windows Phones owners — but so far it’s been all talk and no action.
A Skype for Windows Phone application, however, will soon make its debut, Skype vice president of products Rick Osterloh asserted in a recent interview taped at the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas.
“We’re … working on a Windows Phone product that will be coming … Continue Reading
Skype launches new directory for third-party apps
Online voice and video communication service Skype recently opened a new directory site for third-party applications.
The directory will help raise awarenesss of apps using Skype’s API. However, it also represents a shift in the company’s relationship with its developer community, which it hasn’t always been on the best of terms with in the past.
The directory contains a mix of consumer and business apps. You can sort between app categories, pricing and developer. Right … Continue Reading
Skype on Comcast’s Xfinity TV is user-friendly for couch potatoes
The new version of video-chat application Skype for Comcast’s Xfinity TV service focuses on providing a user-friendly experience for people who spend more time in front of a television than a computer, according to employees who worked on the app’s user interface design.
Comcast released a video on its blog Thursday showing the Skype app in action. The video, which features an interview with Jamie Hall and Susan Oppelt of Comcast Interactive Media, discusses the … Continue Reading
Comcast: Skype is coming to the TV
Comcast subscribers will soon be able to access video calling service Skype from their televisions, according to the company, which plans to make the full announcement Tuesday at a cable industry trade show in Chicago.
The Skype service will be delivered through HDTVs through a Comcast adapter box (meaning anyone without an HD set is out of luck) and will require a high-quality video camera as well as custom remote control that enables texting capabilities, … Continue Reading
U.S. immigrant smartphone owners drive video calls
U.S. immigrants with smartphones account for a quarter of all video calls made on PCs or mobile phones, according to a new survey.
The survey suggests that roughly five million immigrants have placed video phone calls with PCs or smartphones, according to Rebtel, the world’s second-largest mobile internet calling company. That’s a sizable sample and it makes sense, considering the distance that separates immigrants and their loved ones. It also means that video call marketers … Continue Reading
Skype founder develops a passion for fashion via Fashiolista
Atomico Ventures, the investment fund of Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström, just made a seed investment of $500,000 in Fashiolista, an online fashion community. Having seen Zennström in person, I can vouch for the fact that he is no dandy, so his investment firm must see the potential for solid returns in the area of fashion.
Fashiolista launched in 2010 and provides a “Love” button, which functions in a similar way to Facebook’s “Like” button. Users … Continue Reading
Skype CEO offers update on outage that affected tens of millions
Tony Bates, the chief executive of Skype, posted a YouTube video today explaining what the company is doing to fix the outage that brought down Skype communications for tens of millions of users.
He said the company has been working hard to restore communication for all of its users who were hit with the outage in the past 24 hours. Skype offers free internet calling between users and a paid service for those calling regular … Continue Reading
Qualcomm scoots into mobile software with iSkoot acquisition
Qualcomm, which manufactures chipsets for some of today’s most popular smartphones, is making a move into software development with its acquisition of mobile app developer iSkoot today.
iSkoot gives Qualcomm a way to package various social networking and website feeds on remote servers and ship them off to phones in a less data-intensive way. The process — similar to “push” notifications in most smartphones today that send alerts to phones instead of the actual data … Continue Reading
Feds want to expand wiretapping to include mobile email and social networks
Federal law enforcement and national security officials want to hunt down criminals and terrorists in the places where they have fled in order to escape telephone wiretapping. And that’s why the authorities want to be able to wiretap services such as BlackBerry emails, social networks such as Facebook, and peer-to-peer messaging services such as Skype.
The New York Times reported that law enforcement will seek to get lawmakers to approve a bill that will expand … Continue Reading
G-Recorder Pro brings Skype conversations to the cloud
Federal law enforcement and national security officials want to hunt down criminals and terrorists in the places where they have fled in order to escape telephone wiretapping. And that’s why the authorities want to be able to wiretap services such as BlackBerry emails, social networks such as Facebook, and peer-to-peer messaging services such as Skype.
The New York Times reported that law enforcement will seek to get lawmakers to approve a bill that will expand … Continue Reading
