Skype Kills Extras Program 104
Several different sources are reporting that Skype is shutting down their "Extras" program. The program was designed to help developers release third-party applications for the VoIP service. "Developers and users will have some adjustment time, though. Skype won't certify any new submissions, but it won't yank support for existing Extras either, that is, until their certificates expire. You'll still be able to install existing Extras through the Windows desktop client, and you'll still see them featured in the Skype shop. Skype will also continue to maintain its public API. Since many Skype Extras are sold to users as premium content, the shut down also has a financial impact for profiting developers. They'll have [...] until December 11, to continue using Skype Credit. Developers will need to submit a final invoice by January 25th; after that Skype will shutter its third-party shop."
Skype is for gays (Score:1, Funny)
Just like Macs.
Using skype on a Mac? Unthinkable.
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There was a good reason to use skype?
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It's free.
That's why they are cutting off one of the ways they get revenue. Hang on a minute...
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It's free.
So is SIP.
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the integrated IM client is useful if you can't be bothered running a full IRC session
So use Jabber. For that matter, there's also Jingle. And for those who need it all in a nice, user-friendly package, there's Google Talk -- which supports this and SIP.
In fact, the only advantage that Skype has over these is that people already have Skype.
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In fact, the only advantage that Skype has over these is that people already have Skype.
Yes, I am perfectly well aware these alternatives exist. But whether you like it or not, you can't just write off the fact that Skype has so much saturation in the VOIP market (and to a lesser extent IM) that you might as well concede that Skype is as pervasive as Microsoft in its own way. (Disclaimer: I use no Microsoft products at all.)
I consider myself r
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you can't just write off the fact that Skype has so much saturation in the VOIP market
I think I made my point, though. Pop back up the thread to silas moeckel asking "There was a good reason to use Skype?" And Winckle saying "It's free." That's not a good reason.
You've pretty much made the argument by now that the only good reason to use Skype is that everyone uses Skype.
I consider myself reasonably tech-savvy, but many, or indeed most [sigh] of my acquaintances are not, and Skype offers a convenient and relatively intuitive communication channel that covers most bases very well.
And Google Talk doesn't? Have you tried it?
I acknowledge that Skype has many faults, but you can't force everybody to change just because you insist on sitting on your high horse and insisting that anyone who disagrees is a moron.
I don't. I have Skype installed, because I do prefer to actually talk to someone, rather than walk them through downloading something first.
But that's not really a good reason to us
SIP Presence is old news (Score:2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Session_Initiation_Protocol#Instant_messaging_.28IM.29_and_presence [wikipedia.org]
http://www.cs.columbia.edu/sip/drafts_presence.html [columbia.edu]
Most hard & soft phones already make use of it.
Re:Skype is for gays (Score:5, Interesting)
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funny? (Score:2)
I know a Brazilian who uses it to call home, to people who DO have a computer. The cost is nothing in that case, of course. But before that it was phone cards so if they didn't have a computer on the other end it would be Skypeout and they would make the money. But no one would ever have heard of Skype if it wasn't free, so in the balance it works for them.
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Getting cheap prepaid simcard wherever you are isn't really inferior...just different (and generally a good idea)
Bot solutions have their pros and cons.
And this is, I guess, best of both worlds:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3_Skypephone_Series [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INQ [wikipedia.org]
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if they leaked the code for their iPhone App (so we can easily VOIP over 3G)... then yes, there would be a great reason to use skype.
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It doesn't matter if you have the Skype source how are you going to get in onto the app-store?
Apple won't let certain app run over 3G and restricts them to wireless, Skype being one of them.
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To be fair though, it's performance is *nowhere* close to that of a nice IRC client...try opening a Skype chat with 2k+ unread messages >_> .
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My customers tape-out complex chips. One customer use to use Yahoo Messenger to help engineers communicate at crunch time. The experience sucked. Every time you closed your window, you had to be invited back to the group chat, which rarely happened. I had them all switch to Skype (yeah, I know... they're evil). Our next tape-out had a Skype based chat session you couldn't leave without shaming yourself, even if you turned off your computer at night, and everyone knew what everyone else was doing. It w
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IRC can do that, too, it just takes slightly more effort.
What IRC can do that Skype can't is support more than one client, thus forcing clients to actually compete on functionality.
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And even then, within a few minutes of sending messages, Skype lets you edit them (no more lines correcting typoes) or remove them; not to mention voice calls and video calls service (one of the precious few that work on Linux), the convenient Screen Sharing and more niceties.
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not to mention voice calls and video calls service (one of the precious few that work on Linux)
Voice, that's along with Ekiga, Twinkle, KPhone, Gnome Meeting... There are tons of SIP phones for Linux.
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There was a good reason to use skype?
you must be American and not call international very often :(
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I am American and I do call internationally I just use a standards compliant VoIP phone rather than some proprietary network. It works with my standards complaint PBX that has multiple interfaces into the VoIP and PSTN networks.
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Horror of bon bon eating house wives video chatting with each other just ran though my head the humanity of it.
Maybe somebody can go bribe her to hawk some other standards compliant voip app?
Re:Skype is for gays (Score:4, Informative)
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Prep for App Store? (Score:1)
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uhhh...then how do I have Skype on my iPhone?
I fail.
There goes my karma...
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Commador 64
Really?
I mean... Really?
Another software service with no way to make $$ (Score:1)
Re:Another software service with no way to make $$ (Score:5, Informative)
Are you kidding? Lots of people, me included, pay for skypeout minutes so we can call landlines and cell phones. Other pay for skypein numbers so they can get a number you can call in to from outside lines.
They probably make a heft amount of cash. Ebay recently sold them for quite a bit.
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how they price things i doubt they make a hefty sum of cash however most of the internet traffic is managed by the customers so they must be covering there costs with at least some kind of profit.
im one who pays for both skype out and in. so much cheaper then paying for a land line. also much easier to make conference calls from
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Unfortunately for eBay, they originally bought them for quite a bit more.
Re:Another software service with no way to make $$ (Score:4, Informative)
EBay bought Skype in 2005 for $2.6B.
EBay sold 65% of Skype in 2009 for $1.9B (so the new value is $1.9B/.65 = $2.9B).
So - no, not "quite a bit more".
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Re:Another software service with no way to make $$ (Score:5, Informative)
I have never understood how Skype intends to make money.
They make money on people who need to talk with people who use regular phones.
You know... Like calling overseas to family that don't own computers.
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Skype is much cheaper than a landline for international calls since it routes the call over the internet and then dials out from the country you're calling.
You are aware that that's what some telcos do with your call anyway? Of course, they then charge you full rate anyway...
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Re:Another software service with no way to make $$ (Score:4, Informative)
If you have a reason to have a physical land line number but dont want to pay $30 a month to the local phone company its great!! $60 a year gives me a physical number people can call in from a normal phone. The calling out feature is handy at times as well. Say you need to have a 4-5 way call. Most phones area a pain to start that on. With skype i just right click the contact and add to conference. They can be using skype as well or in the case of the technically challenged they can use a land line.
Although i am unsure if ill say with all the shifts that are happening with it. Killing off features is a great way of giving the finger to your paying customers
MagicJack (Score:2)
If you have a reason to have a physical land line number but dont want to pay $30 a month to the local phone company its great!! $60 a year
...isn't as cheap as MagicJack ($20/yr).
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I tried Magicjack but the call quality was terrible. It wasn't my internets because I just had the number forwarded to my regular phone.
Then Google Voice came along...
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Perhaps the best part is that it's a number people cna call in from a normal phone with charges relative to the number they're calling.
Or put more clearly: Do you have friends or business contacts in England? Australia? China? Any country supported by SkypeIn? You can buy a number there and they can call you as if they were calling inside their own country. For a relatively cheap price, that has the potential to be extremely
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Skype is profitable, according to eBay.
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Skype is profitable, according to eBay.
So that's profitable, as in they bring in more revenue than expenses.
But is it a reasonable profit for a company worth $2.9B?
KGB considerations? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:KGB considerations? (Score:4, Informative)
Skype traffic is already encrypted and law enforcement agencies around the world hate that. Not just the KGB (which doesnt exist anymore btw its FSB now).
Call records can be subpoenaed. This is how pranknet was broken up.
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There's no need to reinvent the wheel, and you can use open protocols too. May I suggest you apply zfone, from the inventor of PGP, to encrypt your SIP phone calls?
http://zfoneproject.com/getstarted.html [zfoneproject.com]
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From that link: "It does not work with Skype."
Though it may be possible to use ZRTP with Skype somehow, zfone as an app seems to be out.
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It does not work with Skype.
Which is kind of the point. It works with SIP, which is already an open standard.
So you're not only wanting to reinvent the wheel, you're wanting to reinvent it for a proprietary protocol? It works with those seven or eight clients listed, all of which are interoperable, but that one is all you want?
I guess I'm not sure I see the point.
You know, they rebuilt Berlin wall (Score:2)
If you have pissed some people enough to be tracked by spy agencies trying to tap your internet communication, they will likely put some high tech bug to your apartment and listen.
I really don't understand how people could treat Skype like companies like some kind of freedom fighters. Zimmerman is freedom fighter, Skype is a private company and gives no guarantee of privacy already.
Of course, I forgot, cold war is back and those baby eating reds are trying to tap into conversations.
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Owners of telecom companies of Russia say Skype threatens their companies as well as national security.
Skype offering the possibility to make international calls a lot cheaper is one of those threats.
Skype threatens national security because it is foreign and thus it needs to be controlled.
Telecom companies ask to stop VoIP services otherwise it'd cause an uncontrolled fall in profits for them.
Another way Skype threatens national security is because police can't spy on skype calls.
The solution the telecom companies offer is to make VoIP services of their own, which would make it secure.
Thus they need regulations to stop skype, not because they want to limit competition, but because they want the market to be "civilised".
Basically, it's a whole lot of crap... I guess lobbying over here must be pretty much the same as what we can see here... or even worse.
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I seem to remember a ./ article about the Chinese version of Skype having a backdoor.
Never write a plug-in (Score:5, Informative)
From a business perspective, never write a "plug-in". You're too vulnerable to the whims of the vendor into which your plug-in plugs. If you want to write one for fun, fine, but it's not a sound basis for a business venture.
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In the visual effects field and graphics world plugins are part of daily life. Yes you do take the risk of the software developer dieing out or adding your functionality to the base product.
There are a number of plugin based development companies that have been around for quiet some time and the products they offer are just as important as the applications they are made for. Every business venture has its risks and most often regardless of your business model you are at t
Re:Never write a plug-in (Score:4, Interesting)
In the visual effects field and graphics world plugins are part of daily life.
Someone at Autodesk once described the 3DS Max plug-in market to me as "400 people chasing $4 million in business". You don't want to be one of those 400 people.
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I would think that the hundreds of developers/companies that write applications (plugins) for the iPhone would disagree with you. How about the hundreds (thousands?) that write closed/open source kernel modules for Linux? Aren't these considered plugins? Apache dynamic modules? SMNP modules?
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But then would you say:
From a business perspective, never write an application for a proprietary operating system. You're too vulnerable to the whims of the vendor that distributes the OS.
or:
From a business perspective, never write an application that requires hardware. You're too vulnerable to the whims of the manufacturer.
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Slightly reworded: From a business perspective, never write an "application program". You're too vulnerable to the whims of the operating system under which your application runs. If you want to write one for fun, fine, but it's not a sound basis for a business venture.
Thoughts? Is it just a matter of scale, where the OS has many times more "plug-ins" than an application, and thus less-likely to change drastically or disappear?
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Starting with a plug-in is a good idea. There is existing infra-structure for you to fit in with and typically some sort of app store. You can then have some idea as to how popular your concept is and how much people are prepared to pay for it, as well as what the competition looks like. Then you can branch out to being standalone and remove the dependence on the framework vendor.
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As a person using home computers since 1980s, I have never, ever heard such behavior from any company in my life.
Open source, closed source, never ever heard such non serious action. What amazes me is, they actually sold those extras. There is some kind of money involved and the people who buys them are their great customers who must be using Skype as paying customers, not P2P free talkers.
If you provide an API and let people do plugins using that infrastructure, you keep it. There is no such thing as baili
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Except if the software is open-source and free. Like with Firefox.
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never write a plug-in
Oh I like that, simple and easy to follow. Or is it. Don't make it a plug-in, make it standalone. This way you only depend on the whims of those who provide your development tools, libraries, operating system and in some cases, hardware devices.
I wasn't a big fan of Skype Extras, but I specifically preferred Skype for its ability to record calls (first informing the other side), when discussing technical specifications and products, so I can go back to it and take more detailed notes.
Skype may be trying to
Flash (Score:2)
Unlimited long distance from verizon? Try $80/mon (Score:2)
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That's super if you never travel. If you end up in other countries and need a cheap way to call home however Skype is useful.
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impacts accessibility negatively (Score:3, Interesting)
Skype should change their mind. This allowed skype to be the de-facto platform. My friend with a disability needs text to speech and other things, that were available as extras or could potentially be.
So? (Score:2)
We'll go to SIP, XMPP with Jingle & Co. I certainly couldn't care less, as I never saw the point in yet another video-capable instant messenger or alternatively another proprietary SIP clone.
What a great first step for new management(!) (Score:2)
Their first step was pissing off their developer partners, basically putting some of them out of business. Millions of lines got wasted, users who likes those tools enough to pay for them are abandoned and they will soon get "we would love to provide updates but Skype abandoned us" e-mail alerts.
One thing even Steve Jobs admitted numerous times, even before the audience and sitting next to BillG himself: MS key to success was always working with other developers/partners. Besides being an evil empire, that
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So...they're blocking the spam blocker? (Score:2)
The only 'extra' I ever used:
http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=412061&st=0&p=1886351&#entry1886351 [skype.com]
It blocks the irritating contact-spammers that you can't get rid of through skype's settings. Hopefully it'll keep working for a while yet.
Ok, now.... (Score:2, Interesting)
OK, can the Pidgin team PLEASE finish up voice and video support (AND ON WINDOWS!), so I can switch everybody over?
Thanks in Advance.
Can't be run with SoftICE (Score:1)