Tag Archives | High Quality Video

Skype for Windows 5.0 Upgrade: the Return of HD Video Calling

By on December 18, 2010

Last spring Skype launched Skype for Windows 4.2 with support for HD (720p) video calling at up to 22 fps using one of two Skype-certified HD webcams with an embedded H.264 processor to offload the video processing from the user’s PC.  However, it turned out the calling experience ranged from excellent (for example, the call [...]

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It’s Been a Week for New Skype Video Experiences

By on May 17, 2010

Over the past week I have been experimenting with two relatively new features that build out the Skype video experience: HD video using the recently released FREETALK® TALK-7140 HD webcam and Skype for Windows 4.2 Skype Group calling using the beta release of Skype for Windows 5.0 FREETALK® TALK-7140 HD Webcam At a price point [...]

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FREETALK’s New Webcam Product Line: Delivering 720p HD to Skype Video Calling

By on January 11, 2010

At CES 2010 last week In Store Solutions announced they will be adding three webcams to its FREETALK® product line that set new standards for video calling hardware. The primary service goal for these webcams is to support up to 30 frames per second transmission over Internet services available via widely deployed broadband (cable and [...]

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Oprah: Taking Skype’s “Jetson Technology” to Extremes

By on May 22, 2009

“I thought you were on at 4 in the afternoon”, says a confused Manhattan Best Buy visitor. “No, we tape at 9 in the morning”, replies Oprah. “Oh, then Hi Oprah!”. Placing a Skype webcam setup in a Best Buy store found an adolescent customer who was looking for a Mother’s Day gift and waiting [...]

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Oprah: Where the Skype Are You?

By on May 20, 2009

Since first using Skype’s High Quality Video for remote interviews during her weekly “A New Earth” seminars in the spring of 2008, interviews via Skype have become almost a daily occurrence on the Oprah show. A recent one of significance was her launch of her own Twitter feed where she interviewed Ashton Kutcher who now [...]

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Stealthing Skype into Healthcare: Consumer Experience Drives Practitioner Adoption

By on May 7, 2009

Doing the “grandparent” Skype video call and using Skype in a business environment has led two medical practitioners to begin using Skype to facilitate and accelerate patient care in their practice. While not a replacement for all doctor visits, there are situations where Skype video can be used to both screen patients prior to a [...]

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Skype’s Most Watched Video Call: Oprah Tells Ellen “Yes, she can”

By on March 20, 2009

How do you drive awareness for Skype? Have the two daytime talk shows with the largest audiences connect via a Skype (High Quality) video call. Yesterday afternoon, during the Ellen de Generes show, Ellen was surprised to see Oprah appear, unannounced via a Skype video call, behind her on the large screen monitors used to [...]

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David Pogue, New York Times: Video Chats Overcome Clunkiness

By on February 5, 2009

Columnist David Pogue in a New York Time article reviewing Skype 4.0 starts with the AT&T video phone demonstrated at the 1964 New York World’s Fair and user experience from then. Not a lot of calls due to technical and psychological issues. He talks about why Skype has been so widely accepted (did he remind [...]

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The Skype – Oprah Feedback Loop – It’s Works in Strange Ways

By on December 22, 2008

This afternoon I came across this article by reporter Chris O’Brien in today’s San Jose Mercury News: “Video Chat has entered the mainstream“. It appears that the worlds of Oprah viewers and Silicon Valley geeks and reporters have more than six degrees of separation. The story starts out by talking about an email he received [...]

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