Hello, Skype … and WhatsApp: Viber has 200M users and a new, spiffy desktop video-calling client

May 7, 2013 8:56 AM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

The result is a combination of just about every kind of communication you could wish for in a single client: mobile text-message-like messaging, audio, and video. Which means that not only is Viber competing with mobile messaging platforms like the massive WhatsApp, it's also competing with existing VOIP giant Skype.

Facebook quietly brings voice calls to U.S. iPhone owners

January 16, 2013 1:49 PM Devindra Hardawar
Devindra Hardawar

After launching voice calls for Canadian iPhone users earlier this month, Facebook today began rolling out the feature for those in the U.S.

Polish prof discovers way to encrypt secret messages into silence on Skype (even if the FBI is listening)

January 6, 2013 4:02 PM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

Skype calls use 256-bit advanced encryption by default, but that's not secure enough for some people. So a prof at the Warsaw University of Technology has created a way to communicate even more privately on Skype -- by using silence.

The WebRTC faceoff: Skype vs. Facebook

September 10, 2012 12:54 PM Tsahi Levent-Levi

Guest Post Spare a thought for the telcos – they’ve had a hard couple of years fighting off VoIP vendors like Skype. Now a new player has arrived, and it's going to challenge both the telcos and the VoIP vendors. It’s called WebRTC.

Guru behind Google Voice debuts hot teleconference startup

September 6, 2012 12:33 PM Christina Farr
Christina Farr

Teleconferencing is broken, and Craig Walker wants to be the man to change that. Today, Uberconference, a free audio conferencing service, has announced the public launch of its beta, and a new premium service for business users.

U.S. smartphone users spend $37.8B annually on international calls, says Rebtel

August 16, 2012 10:07 AM Devindra Hardawar
Devindra Hardawar

While consumers are flocking to services like Skype to chat with friends and family internationally for free, there's still a huge market for international calling, according to the latest survey sponsored by the voice-over-IP company Rebtel.

A Skype call in Ethiopia will now get you 15 years in prison

June 14, 2012 4:09 PM Tom Cheredar
Tom Cheredar

A 30-second call using Skype in Ethiopia can land you a 15-year prison sentence, thanks to new legislation passed by the country’s government.

The new legislation will criminalize the use of all Voice Over IP (VoIP) services, such as Skype …

Rebtel’s VoIP app hits the iPad, now over 17M users strong

May 31, 2012 10:00 AM Devindra Hardawar
Devindra Hardawar

Building on its voice-over-IP calling empire, Rebtel announced today that its VoIP app is now available for the iPad.

Rebtel has become a popular solution for consumers who want to make cheap phone calls — the company revealed today that …

Inventor of Google Voice now reinventing conference calls

May 21, 2012 7:48 PM John Koetsier
John Koetsier

Craig Walker, the inventor of both Google Voice and DialPad, is now reinventing conference calls with his latest venture, UberConference. Teleconferences notoriously suck, but UberConference thinks it’s fixed that, claiming to have created “the best conference calling service ever.”

The …

Tech darling Twilio cozies up to Android with new client

May 15, 2012 9:00 PM Jolie O'Dell
Jolie O'Dell

Twilio has finally released its Android client with a new native software development kit that will allow Android developers to add VoIP features to any Android app.

The startup’s iOS client has been around since February, and today, Android developers …

Verified Call lets you talk one-on-one with former porn star Bree Olson

May 14, 2012 9:30 AM Dean Takahashi
Dean Takahashi

Bree Olson made hundreds of porn movies in her career until she got mixed up with Charlie Sheen and retired from the business last year. But she still has 360,000 Twitter followers and fans galore. Now she is going to …

Skype sets record with 35M concurrent users

March 5, 2012 12:05 PM Jennifer Van Grove
Jennifer Van Grove

Skype hit a new milestone Monday when 35 million people accessed its audio and video conferencing service at the same time.

The achievement comes just one week after the belated beta release of Skype for Windows Phone.

The Microsoft-owned VoIP …

How to attract users to your app and go platinum

February 24, 2012 9:00 AM Andreas Bernstrom

Guest Post If you are a struggling artist or developer working on the next great mobile app, you need a strategy for drawing in users. Keep in mind that buying traffic to convert to users doesn’t always add up. Developing for the mobile platform is vastly different from e-commerce, where the potential average revenue per user (ARPU) is considerably smaller, and in many cases non-existent. At the same time, there’s a limited amount of advertising inventory, and discoverability remains poor...