It’s almost a week since the close of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C. – an area where I have spent a lot of time over the past thirty-six years, mostly on business but also on (ski) vacations. These Olympics turned out to be a defining moment not just for Canadian athletics [...]
Communications Stories, Service Providers, Wireless Carriers
At CES 2010 last month I had the opportunity to record interviews with Skype CEO Josh Silverman as well as Russ Shaw, Vice President and General Manager of Skype Mobile and EMEA, and Matt Jordan, Enterprise Business Development Manager.
In this second interview Russ Shaw covers a wide range of questions about Skype on different [...]
Communications Stories, Embedded Skype, Mobile Applications, Mobile Devices, Skype Hardware, Skype News, Skype Partner News, Skype Platform, Skype on Mobile, Using Skype, Wireless Carriers
Ok, so the term “Net Neutrality” has different interpretations for different people. Convergence of voice, Internet and broadcast media has created an entirely new set of stakeholders with divergent issues:
Users: they would like to exploit the Internet for all its various features: email, web browsing, viewing videos, exchanging text messages (think IM, not SMS), voice [...]
Communications News, Service Providers, Skype on Mobile, Wireless Carriers
Note: this post has been modified and updated to reflect clarifications of issues from Skype PR.
I woke up this morning to find this message on Phil’s Skype Journal post announcing the download availability of Skype for iPhone but with one caveat:
“THIS APPLICATION IS NOT AVAILABLE IN CANADA AND THE USER WARRANTS THAT THEY CANNOT [...]
Mobile Applications, Service Providers, Skype News, Skype Software, Skype on Mobile
Having just come out from behind the rocks of West Virginia and spent all yesterday traveling, I arrived home to find that it has been confirmed that Skype will be launching an application on the iPhone tomorrow. The major point coming out of the announcement, aside from the conversation feature set, is that Skype [...]
Communications Stories, Mobile Applications, Skype on Mobile, Wireless Carriers
Yesterday Om put up a GigaOm post, Skype on iPhone to be released as early as next week. While it’s still an unconfirmed “exclusive” rumor (and you can safely bet the eBay PR hounds are looking for any leak source if this is a leak), it does raise the issue of what we should [...]
Communications News, Mobile Applications, Skype on Mobile
Towards the end of February there were several news reports about DoCoMo suspending their recently launched BlackBerry Bold service due to an overheating issue. In my six months of using a BlackBerry Bold I had never encountered any heating issue. But during my Toronto to San Francisco flight to eComm 2009 on Monday, March [...]
Mobile Applications, Mobile Devices, Service Providers, Skype on Mobile
Skype today published data from a recent Zobgy survey that, aside from demonstrating smartphone users’ desire to control their own phone configuration, demonstrates that a significant majority of users in the four countries surveyed (U.S., U.K., Japan and Spain) simply are still not perceiving the potential for a mobile phone handset to be considered [...]
Communications Stories, Mobile Applications, Skype News, Wireless Carriers
With the evolution of smartphones incorporating both WiFi and 3G wireless support, we are also seeing the application of Voice over IP technology as providing at least one leg of a wireless call.
iSkoot was a pioneering example, with both their support of a wide range of wireless phones, including Nokia, Android and BlackBerry (full [...]
Communications News, Embedded Skype, Mobile Devices, Skype News, Skype Software, Skype on Mobile
The U.S. cell phone industry is asking its customers to only text during the inauguration ceremonies tomorrow. From the New York Times:
The largest cellphone carriers, fearful that a communicative citizenry will overwhelm their networks, have taken the unusual step of asking people to limit their phone calls and to delay sending photos. The carriers are [...]
Communications Stories, Communications Technology, Mobile
In my early 50’s youth when I was delivering afternoon newspapers in somewhat remote Saskatoon, Saskatchewan I always tried to be at one customer’s home at 4:30. Why? At that time the only television viewable came via high rooftop antennae from transmitters far away (~400 miles) near Minot, North Dakota. If atmospheric conditions were favorable my [...]
Communications News, Communications Stories, Mobile Applications
Several years ago, while skiing at Whistler, a member of our party broke her leg in the most remote (but still in-bounds) glacier (Blackcomb Glacier) with only one route in and out. Having cell phone access resulted in having the ski patrol on the scene within about five minutes and timely removal from the mountain [...]
Communications Stories, Mobile Applications, Mobile Devices