Last night at Recode's inaugural Code Conference, Microsoft announced a new real-time voice translation feature for its Skype VoIP service. The company says it's currently in beta form, but it plans to eventually roll it out to all devices.
The goal of the feature is to allow users to hold a conversation with someone speaking a foreign language, with Skype providing near-instant voice translations for both parties. And judging by the initial demonstration, it works fairly well...
One-on-one video calls have always been free on Skype and now the Microsoft-owned communication platform is making the group video calling feature, unveiled in 2010, available free of charge to desktop users running OS X or Microsoft Windows, with no expiration date, as well as to owners of the Xbox One console which has Skype deeply integrated.
Up until now, group video calling used to be limited to Skype's Premium users on Windows desktop and Mac, which costs $4.99 for a day pass or $8.99 per month. Microsoft has said it will make the feature free on all platforms "in the future"...
Skype for iPhone rolled out the ability to conduct two-way video chatting back in December 2010, but the quality of these video calls left a lot to be desired. Back then, the iPhone 4's back camera could only capture video in 720p and the front-facing camera was good only for VGA-grade video chatting.
Besides, the handset lacked the processing power to make two-way video calling in high-definition a reality.
Today's update to Skype's free iPhone and iPad client brings HD video calling to the iPhone 5s, iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display, along with an improved chatting experience and more...
Microsoft has updated its iOS Skype client today, bringing the app to version 4.1.5. The update brings about a number of improvements including a redesigned sign-in screen, performance enhancements and bug fixes.
The new sign-in screen was designed to reduce startup time so you can start chatting quicker. And it accomplishes this by making it much easier for folks to login to the service with their Skype ID or Microsoft account...
Microsoft-owned Skype app for the iPhone and iPad is about to get bumped to version 4.14, gaining under-the-hood tweaks for faster startup time and iOS 7-specific permissions for microphone access.
The update has been officially announced on the Skype blog earlier in the morning and should drop later during the course of the day.
Over the past two months, Skype's mobile app has received its iOS 7 style visual makeover and gained the ability to make HD quality 720p video calls from the fourth-generation iPad and later and the iPhone 5 and later...
You can blame Microsoft-owned Skype for missing the train on stickers, games and other popular messaging features (sans video messages), but the application still stands out as the most popular VoIP software in use to this date. Skype wasn't among the list of third-party apps that were immediately updated with the new design following the September 18 iOS 7 release, so today both the iPhone and iPad clients have finally received a nice little refresh bringing the iOS 7 look and feel along with a few minor enhancements...
Microsoft-owned Skype has been giving their iOS apps some much-needed love lately. For example, following June's announcement of Skype Video Messages, the company has updated mobile and desktop apps with the ability to record and send short videos to your contacts, even when offline. The feature was previously available with a 20-message limit and imposed a three-minute ceiling on the length of individual video messages.
Today, the iPhone and iPad Skype app has been updated with various call quality improvements and general fixes, including the ability to make HD quality 720p video calls from the latest and fastest iOS devices, such a the fourth-generation iPad and the iPhone 5...
Microsoft-owned Skype was testing a new Video Messages feature since mid-February, but it wasn't until mid-June that they opened video messaging to everyone.
Today, the software maker has finally updated Skype for iPhone and iPad with free and unlimited Video Messages, basically short videos Skype users can send to each other, even when offline.
Previously, you could only send 20 free messages up to three-minute long each before being prompted to sign up for a $4.99 premium Skype account...
Microsoft-owned Skype started testing out Video Messages in mid-February. The new feature is meant to let Skype users send short video snippets to each other up to three minutes long, even when offline. Now out of beta, Skype Video Messaging is available to everyone via a free update to Skype mobile and desktop apps across Windows, Mac, iOS, BlackBerry and Android platforms. Here's a closer look at Skype Video Messaging and how to use this new capability on your devices...
Last night, news broke of a secret court order from the National Security Agency (or NSA) requiring Verizon Wireless to hand over the call records of millions of US cell phone users. As you can imagine, mayhem ensued.
And then just as things began to calm down, another bombshell dropped this afternoon. The Washington Post claims it has obtained slides from a top secret security presentation that show Verizon's not the only company sharing your data...
Today, Microsoft-owned Skype has been updated on the iPhone and iPod touch (the latter sold 100 million units since its 2007 inception). The enhancements include a pair of features related to the application's chatting and VoIP calling capabilities.
For starters, one-to-one chats now appear in the correct order. There's also a new introduction screens for first-time users. More importantly, the VoIP application now lets you switch easily between headset, speaker or Bluetooth device, without interrupting call in progress...
Good news today for all of you Skype users out there. The video-chatting service released a solid update for both its iPhone and iPad applications this morning with some UI changes, and other improvements.
Those improvements include a fix that makes one-on-one chats [finally] show up in correct order, and the ability to quickly dismiss your recent chats as 'read.' But the star of the update is the new calling UI...