A Memphis, Tenn. personal training firm is putting Skype to good use, making "virtual house calls" to lead clients through their workouts. The company, Energy Fitness, designs 20-minute workouts of Pilates, yoga and cardio work for clients who don't have to time to come to the gym. Article

StarForce's comments come in the wake of blog postings by security researcher Efim Bushmanov who, earlier this month, claimed to have reverse engineered the Skype protocol.

"My aim is to make Skype open source," he said in a blog posting on June 3, adding links to download executable files compatible with Skype versions 1.4, 3.8, and 4.1, as well as IDA Pro disassembly database files, and - crucially, Infosecurity notes - his reverse engineered pseudo source code.

Liliya Volodina, StarForce Technologies marketing director, said that Bushmanov's took Skype's client application, disassembled the code and then worked out how the protocol plus its encryption functions operate.

"It's not clear how much time it took but it seems that the hacker was working alone", she said, adding that he is now recruiting other people holding the same views (say, other hackers) who, he says, `have enough time' to finish the project.

"Enough time is a loose concept and we can guess that he spent more than a year to disassemble the program when he worked alone. This is a good illustration of the fact that giving enough protection to a program's code may prevent its reverse-engineering for a long time, especially if the hacker doesn't know the basic principles of the protection", she explained.

Volodina went on to say that there could be tough times ahead for Skype.

In addition to the fact that the company needs to fix program instabilities, she says, it also needs to rebuild the protocol and code protection.

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Assuming both parties have a decent headset or phone, Skype is generally very high quality, so this should benefit Steam gamers greatly. Connectivity and reliability are said to be improved here as well.

SILK comes at the cost of bandwidth -- between 8 and 30kbps depending on the circumstances versus the previous steady 15kbps. Of course, if you can't afford an extra 15kbps, you've got bigger problems to worry about.

Boot the Steam client now for the latest update.

Source: Steam

 

Designed to strengthen relationships with business colleagues and customers, as well as keep in touch with family and friends, the GXV3140 offers FREE two-way or three-way video calling out-of-the-box along with real-time instant access to a variety of Web and popular social multimedia applications.

“Skype certification on the GXV3140 IP multimedia phone creates a seamless video-enabled communications experience from PC to desk phone, giving Skype users the utmost flexibility and convenience for video calling,” said David Li, CEO of Grandstream Networks. “Grandstream's GXV3140 bridges the gap between convenient-to-use dedicated voice/video end-points and the increasingly popular world of PC-based Internet multimedia communication offerings like Skype."

The Skype-enabled Grandstream GXV3140 is the industry’s first desktop IP multimedia phones compatible with both Skype and SIP open standards for voice & video calling. No service contract or additional monthly fee is required to use Skype for video calling.

With a 4.3” digital color LCD, the ‘always-on’ GXV3140 has an integrated Web browser, giving users convenient, one-touch access to personalized feeds of real-time online information services (such as news video or RSS feeds, weather, IM, stock/currency updates, etc), thousands of Internet radio stations, major Web photo sites (Yahoo Flickr, Photobucket, Phanfare), popular social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter) and Internet streaming entertainment sites like YouTube and Last.fm.

Earlier this year, Grandstream also announced successful Skype Connect™ certification for its IPPBX and gateways. Skype Connect interoperability allows business users to receive calls through their Grandstream IPPBX from Skype users around the world. Companies can now allow their customers and remote employees to make free inbound calls to their corporate PBX system using Skype from anywhere in the world.

“We are pleased to deliver this new video device category that works with Skype and are honored to be selected for our innovation, rich features, and affordability. The GXV3140 phone joins Grandstream’s other Skype-enabled solutions including our IPPBX and gateway products previously certified by Skype,” Li added. “We value our strategic relationship with Skype and look forward to bringing more devices with Skype integration to market in the future.”

Pricing and Availability

The GXV3140 is available through Skype Store and Grandstream’s worldwide distribution partners for $229.00.

Pinger, a startup based in San Jose, California, aims to challenge Skype (and others) by offering free voice calls. They are doing so by piggybacking voip on their hugely popular TextFree application, which allows sending free text SMS messages. Pinger is currently serving 1.2 billion ads and sent 4 billion messages each month and is only expected to raise its numbers.

• Make free Skype-to-Skype calls over WiFi or mobile data connection (GPRS, EDGE, 3G)* to other Skype users anywhere in the world using Skype’s SILK codec for CD-like audio quality.
• Make low rate Skype calls to landline or mobile phones
• Send and receive instant messages to one or a group of friends on Skype
• Synchronize contacts between Skype and the native address book and after synchronization place Skype calls directly from the native address book.
• See when Skype contacts are online and available to call or chat
• Easily import names and numbers to the Skype application from the native address book
• Receive calls on their Skype online number

What's the best way to do respond to a new competitor's product launch? How about reminding them why you are still the top dog? Skype's latest beta of their Skype 5 release now sports the ability to video conference with ten of your colleagues.

The new capability comes to the Skype for Windows offering which in May tested the ability to conference with 5 people. Now the ten person party eclipses that earlier offer and also adds call recovery so that if a network interruption drops your call, Skype will automatically reconnect.

Additionally, the new beta rolls out Skype Home, a social-networky feature with profile pics, friend updates and mood notifications--a nice feature to be able to tell the best time to ask the boss for a raise.

For more:
- read the eWeek report

Related news:
Cisco buying Skype?
Skype launches $100 million IPO

Skype 5.0 beta two is already available for download; it includes 10-way video calls, automatic call recovery and a cleaner user interface. The update is also said to improve call quality and includes a number of bug fixes to make the overall experience much smoother.

Of course, the standout feature is 10-way video calling, something that certainly one-ups their own previous offering and makes it suitable for even larger virtual team meetings and mini family reunions. Of course, it also makes Gmail’s (Gmail) video-calling functionality look like the ugly step sister — a proactive move on the part of Skype (Skype) to combat recent buzz surrounding Gmail Voice Calling.

Still, Skype does caution that 5.0 is beta, and hence, very buggy. It’s also limited to Windows (Windows) users, and 10-way video calls require all group chatters to be using the same second beta version of the app. Have you tested out five-way video calls? Are you ready to upgrade to the 10-person variety?

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 Cisco is reportedly looking to buy Skype before the Internet phone provider goes public.  The blog TechCrunch posted over the weekend that Cisco made an offer for Skype before it completed its IPO process. The site attributed the unconfirmed information to "reliable sources."

It would be a multibillion purchase as Skype is looking to raise $5 billion in its initial offer, according to TechCrunch.Cisco declined to comment. Skype was not immediately available for comment.

The acquisition would be key to Cisco's thrust into the unified communications and collaboration, and consumer markets. It would bring to the company what is now a free and consumer friendly voice and video capability to augment the IP telephony and unified communications systems it now provides to corporate enterprises.

Integrated with a device such as the Flip pocket videocamera -- which would need an Internet access connection like the expected Wi-Fi capability -- Cisco could offer a handheld voice/data/video device for the consumer and perhaps enterprise market.

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• Near CD-quality sound for Skype-to-Skype calls using wideband audio on iPhone 3GS or 2nd generation iPod touch and onwards.
• Enhanced call quality indicator, which will help customers choose the best moment to call.
• Improved start-up time
• Rapid access to the dial pad from the home screen

That’s an interesting strategy for Skype, which runs on an almost-free-to-use model. Service upgrades and Skype “credits” – in which users pay a fee of 2.1 cents to use Skype to call landline and mobile phones – generated more than $700 million for the company last year, and that’s just the consumer space. Imagine what penetration into the business market could mean for Skype financially.

The question, however, is whether Skype is ready for corporate primetime. On its site, Skype points out that it does not support 911 and other emergency calling services and should not be used as a person’s primary phone service. Rather, Skype can be used as a complementary service.

Also, the quality of service with Skype calls may not be as high as landline or even other IP-based calls, leading to latency issues or dropped packets. Of course, that has everything to do with the bandwidth limitations of the corporate network, but would a company want to risk its image on the possibility of a less-than-optimal calling experience with its clients?

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