Items tagged with VoIP
By all accounts, the Galaxy S10 is an excellent smartphone. It has one of the best displays—if not THE best, based on DisplayMate's testing—on the market, it is plenty fast, and the phone's camera performance is worthy of a flagship handset. But like anything else in this world, it's not perfect. One of the phone's imperfections is due to an apparent bug that is messing with battery life under certain conditions. In our own hands-on testing of the larger Galaxy S10+, we found battery life to be excellent overall, coming in well ahead of the previous generation Galaxy S9+, and handsets like Huawei's Mate 10 Pro and the Moto Z2 Force. It wasn't able to burst ahead of the Galaxy Note...
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Have you ever wished you could FaceTime on your Android handset? Well now you can, sort of. Google today announced the immediate availability of Duo, a 1-to-1 video calling app that was first unveiled at Google I/O last May. It's similar to FaceTime in that you can buzz a buddy or family member for a video call, and it works on both Android and iOS devices. If we're being snarky, we could say this has the potential to be the best app of 2010. Of course, it's now 2016 and Apple's FaceTime technology has been around for more than half a decade. It begs the question of whether or not Google is too late to the video calling party. As my stepdaughter recently bellyached when trying to dial her up...
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Microsoft's been on a mission to bring a series of artificially intelligent chatbots to its Skype service as a way to enhance Skype and offer new experiences. That effort continues today with the introduction several more Skype Bots, including Spock, who can help you learn the ways of Vulcan logic (or provide a distraction from work). This whole bot thing kicked off in April when Microsoft rolled out a series of preview Skype Bots. They've been well received and there are now over 30,000 developers building bots on the Skype platform, with thousands able to share their bots through a Skype join link directly on their website. That's pretty incredible for such a short amount of time. Part of the...
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Have you ever tried to convince someone to download and install Skype? It's not always easy -- everyone has their preferred messaging and communication platform and they don't want to clutter up their PC with multiple protocols. If Skype is the one you roll with, the good news is you can now invite others to join a Skype chat simply by sharing a unique link, no installation required. "Anyone can join the chat as a guest from their computer using Skype for Web and enjoy one to one or group instant messaging, voice and video calls. No Skype account or app download required," Microsoft explains in a blog post. "Now you can use Skype to chat with anyone and not just the people in your Skype contact...
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Microsoft deserves a lot of kudos for what it's doing with Skype. Specifically, Skype Translator, a nifty project that was first showed off a year ago this month. Since then, Microsoft's been enhancing Skype's real-time language translation in a number of ways, including adding more languages. The best news to date, however, is that Microsoft has removed the sign-up requirement to begin testing it out at home. The Skype Translator preview application is available to download from the Windows Store for Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 PCs and tablets. There's no waiting period to use it -- once you have it downloaded and installed, you can hop on and start taking advantage of Skype's language translation,...
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One of the many neat things about the Internet is that it connects people from all over the world. However, by itself the web doesn't overcome language barriers, so even though you can exchange messages with someone from a foreign country, will you be able to understand each other? That's where Skype Translator comes into play, and it just learned some new languages. Skype Translator rolled out last December as a preview program with the ability to translate English into Spanish and Spanish into English. So if you're in Tennessee and you fire up a video chat with someone from Mexico and enable Skype Translator, your English will be translated into Spanish, both verbally and visually, and vice...
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Kim Dotcom, the man who negotiated a deal with hacking group Lizard Squad to cease fire on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network over Christmas break, has Skype in his crosshairs and is ready to pull the trigger. His weapon of choice? A competing browser-based chat service tentatively called MegaChat that he plans to launch soon. The Mega founder made his intentions know via Twitter, though it's worth pointing out that he has a history of mentioning and hyping this same service without actually releasing it. And while there's still no concrete release date, he say this time around that it will be encrypted and offer "high-speed" file transfers when it does launch. Dotcom has been critical of...
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Our illusion of privacy was shattered when it came to light that our government is plugged into just about every form of communication that exists. To give users back some measure of privacy, Silent Circle has launched a fixed price, global encrypted calling service that allows customers to make and receive truly private phone calls without Uncle Sam listening in. According to Reuters, the secure voice and data calling plan will work on iOS and Android devices at the outset, with plans to port a version over to Windows Phone sometime down the line. Customers will be able to place secure phone calls with 79 countries. Not only will this compete against traditional phone carriers, especially since...
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Recently appointed Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella had an onstage conversation that lasted more than an hour at the inaugural Code Conferences in Ranco Palos Verdes, California, and among the topics that came up is language translation. Not by coincidence, the planned topic allowed Nadella to demo a new capability Microsoft is developing for Skype. The capability is called "Skype Translator," which will allow users who speak different languages to communicate with each other. During the demonstration, Skype showed near real-time audio translation from English to German and German to English. "Skype Translator is a great example of why Microsoft invests in basic research. We’ve...
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Last month, Comcast and Netflix announced a controversial deal in which Netflix would pay Comcast directly for improved service. The reason this deal is controversial in many quarters is that it's seen as triple-dipping by Comcast -- the company is already paid by companies like Level 3, which provide Internet back-haul across the country, and it collects fees from subscribers too. Nonetheless, in the wake of the court case gutting net neutrality, the deal went ahead. That deal has paid off, at least in the short term -- Comcast subscribers are now seeing vastly improved performance with an average stream speed of 2.5Mbps, up from a miserable 1.15Mbps in February. Loaded with perverse incentives...
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As much as we'd all like to sit around and play video games all day long, there are certain external factors that pull us away from the PC from time-to-time. You know, niggling things like work, exercise, weddings, birthday parties, food shopping, graduation ceremonies, Little League games, and the list goes on. For those times when you have to step away from the keyboard but still want to be kept in the loop with your gaming buddies, Razer has a solution. Razer Comms, now available for Android devices, is the world's first VoIP solution to allow games to make VoIP calls and messages from in-game to Android phones and tablets and vice versa. You probably shouldn't stand up in the middle of a...
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Third-party messaging services are proving ultra-popular. Just ask Viber, the latest free messaging and VoIP app to skip past the 200 million users mark. Viber, which allows free calls, text messaging, and picture sharing, has been playing it smart by supporting a variety of platforms, including iOS, Android, Windows, BlackBerry, Nokia, and Bada. As of today, it's also available on the desktop for Windows and Mac systems. "People spend a substantial amount of time on their smartphones," said Talmon Marco, CEO of Viber. "However, a lot of that usage takes place at home or in the office, where they have laptops or desktops close by. With Viber Desktop you always get to use the most convenient device....
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Over the years, Razer has spread its wings and expanded into much more than just mice and keyboards for gamers. This, however, may be one of its most broad initiatives to date. Razer Comms is the new product from the company, launching as an open beta and described as an "all-in-one communications solution for gamers." Applying feedback gleaned from a community-based closed beta program, Razer Comms now combines VoIP client, instant messaging and IRC-chat features, allowing gamers the world over to connect with one service, free of charge. It also features an in-game overlay and seamlessly integrates with PC games, providing for uninterrupted gameplay while at the same time typing or talking...
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Traditional phone companies are faced with the reality that it's cheaper to make calls over the Internet, and also relatively easy, even for novices. It shouldn't be all that shocking, then, to learn that Skype users are spending 2 billion collective minutes daily using Microsoft's VoIP software. To put that into perspective, 2 billion minutes is enough time to travel to the moon and back...over 225 thousand times! Alternately you could walk around the Earth more than 845 times or travel to Mars more than 5,400 times, Skype notes in a blog post announcing the record setting minutes usage. "2 billion minutes is more than 33 million hours of people singing, laughing, joking and staying in touch....
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Intel is getting into the TV business, that much we already knew. But how soon? That's a question that's seemingly close to being answered. According to a new Bloomberg report, Intel -- the chip-making giant -- is "making progress in talks with Time Warner, NBC Universal and Viacom to obtain TV shows and films for a first-of-its-kind pay-TV service." Of course, these reports aren't being confirmed nor denied by Intel, but it's awfully likely to be true. After all, Intel wouldn't announce that it would be trying its hand at TV distribution without some deals being within reach. It sounds as if money is the major hurdle remaining. Intel isn't hoping to deliver a la carte content; rather, it's in...
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Spending a lot of time not using the built-in Dialer on your iPhone? Then you may be interested to learn of the newest Skype update. Skype 4.6 has just been released for iPhone and iPad, which delivers an entirely fresh calling experience. There's also new one-to-one chats that appear in the correct order, an option to select your messages as 'Read' with less steps, and a smattering of new fixes and improvements. Skype for iPad version 4.6 supports iPad, iPad 2, iPad mini and the latest iPad with Retina Display, while Skype for iPhone version 4.6 supports iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 5, plus 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation iPod Touch. iOS 5.0 or later is required on all devices. A Skype...
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These days, a conventional phone number is becoming less and less vital. As e-mail, IM, texting, and other methods of Internet-based communications take hold, getting in touch with someone (even via voice) doesn't actually require a phone number and voice services. Facebook's latest iOS app update is proof of that, with the new edition rolling out live voice calls to other Facebook members. You'll need to have friends in the U.S. and Canada, have a solid data connection, and a few good things to talk about. It's a feature pulled over from Messenger, and while it has yet to be implanted into the Android / Windows Phone versions of Facebook, we're guessing those will hit soon after assuming the...
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Earlier this month, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) began testing the ability to call from one iPhone to another using the company's Messenger for iPhone app in Canada. Now, Facebook is rolling this feature out to the United States. Using the Messenger for iPhone app, you should now be able to make a call to another Messenger for iPhone user. According to Facebook, you shouldn't need to update through the App Store to get this functionality which works over Wi-Fi as well as 3G and 4G cellular networks. Of course, you'll want to be careful of using the feature over cellular networks unless you have an unlimited data plan. To call a friend using Messenger for iPhone simply open a conversation with that person,...
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Well, we can't exactly act surprised. With Windows 8 and Windows RT just around the bend, you may have wondered if Microsoft was going to try and integrate Skype into the fabric of those operating systems, much the same way FaceTime is integrated into OS X. With Microsoft paying a princely sum for Skype, it seems that the VoIP app will not only appear in Windows 8 and Windows RT, but will play a starring role. Microsoft and Skype are both being pretty quiet on the whole ordeal, but their websites speak louder. Both "Anna" and "Elena" are shown in screenshots on both sites, making it pretty easy to draw the conclusion that a new, "modern UI" Skype will be headlining the new software. It's hard...
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Hey, Windows users -- seeing ads in your Skype calls? Fret not, it isn't an unathorized version of the software; it's just a new twist on "free" VoIP calling. Skype has today announced the launch of Conversation Ads, finally, a way to make cash off of free calls. These new display ad units will appear within the calling window of users who do not have Skype Credit or subscriptions when they're making 1:1 Skype-to-Skype audio calls using Skype for Windows. Strangely, no other platforms -- desktop or mobile -- are mentioned; perhaps ads are being ported elsewhere as we speak. These new Ads are billed as an "opportunity for marketers to reach our hundreds of millions of connected users in a place...
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It’s a long-running joke that most of us use our phones to make phone calls rather rarely, opting instead to use them for texting, Web browser, games, productivity, and social media more often. Perhaps that’s partly why AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson suggested this week that data-only wireless plans are likely coming within two years. According to CBS News, instead of having separate options and pricing for calls, texts, and data, mobile carriers will fold all three into one “data” plan. AT&T isn’t necessarily saying that it’s developing such a plan, but Stephenson called the trend “inevitable”. This new plan format would also likely allow...
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What exactly is Dell these days? A PC maker? A smartphone maker? A tablet maker? Dell's been trying a little bit of everything the past few years in an effort to see where traction could be gained, and so it's hardly a surprise to see them delving into yet another market: voice over IP. This week, Dell Canada and Fongo announced the launch of their new mobile app, Dell Voice - a free to download full feature VoIP phone alternative that may help Canadians save money on their mobile phone bills. Users of Android and iOS devices can now avoid costly long-distance charges and daytime calling restrictions from their wireless carrier by receiving and placing calls to landline and mobile phones using...
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