“The acquisition will strengthen eBay’s global marketplace and payments platform, while opening several new lines of business and creating significant new monetization opportunities for the company. The deal also represents a major opportunity for Skype to advance its leadership in Internet voice communications and offer people worldwide new ways to communicate in a global online era.”
MSN opens up to court outside developers
“Escalating its competition with Google, Microsoft next week plans to release a series of tools that will let outside software developers write programs that build on and use the underlying technologies in the company’s MSN Search, MSN Virtual Earth and MSN Messenger services.”
World, say Hello to OpenWengo!
“Free calls are good, but free software is better. How about both? Wengo is proud to bring you the best open-source VoIP softphone, and the quality SIP service that plays nice with it. Wengo is a European company backed by a major telecom player, totally commited to providing you with the most open platform for IP telephony, video conferencing, and more.”
Skype opens IM and Presence to the world
“Wouldn’t it be cool if your friends using other IM applications could contact you on Skype? […] What if you could use Skype to communicate with a product reviewer on a Web site, to chat with other players in an online game using Skype? All of these things and a few more that we haven’t dreamed up yet will become possiblities with SkypeNet API, a new set of tools and services that programmers can use to take Skype into new places that you may have never dreamed of before. SkypeNet API will enable developers to access our IM and Presence system and bring it into new applications without needing to have the full version of Skype running on the machine. ”
Criticism of GTalk Criticism
“””Welcome to the Stone Age of instant messaging!” Ken Fisher, a Ph.D. student, wrote at PC resource site Ars Technica. His review deemed Google’s service “Spartan” for its failure to allow file transfers and group chats, and for its lack of emoticons and “skins,” or customized, decorative graphics.”
File transfers: Yes, I definitely think they should add this feature. IM clients are no match for true file transferring methods, but quick transfers (e.g. “take a look at this request box”) during messaging are invaluable for me.
Group chats: I’ve very rarely used the group chat feature (mainly just when testing it out of curiosity), but I know YMMV and I respect that. Can’t quite see though, why not use IRC if you need this feature a lot.
Lack of emoticons and other decorative graphics: Fuck that! I’ve turned emoticons off long ago and have been a lot happier since. Would be even happier if MSN allowed me to strip all “decorative” graphics from it; most of it is entirely useless and annoying. The first thing I liked about Google Talk was the simple looks this guy calls Spartan. Again, I’m not saying nobody should like these features, but, for crying out loud, don’t force it on everybody as default!
Google has an active Jabber server, Google IM coming soon?
“Inquisitive Neowin member Tom Servo, taking a que from member CarlNewton tried to connect to talk.google.com using his Trillian client. What he got was a secure XMPP (Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol, alternatively known as Jabber) server waiting for connections.”
Puhelinmarkkinoijat operaattorisodan eturintamassa
“Osa Saunalahden GSM-asiakkaista on joutunut ahdistelevan telemarkkinoinnin kohteeksi. Suomen markkinoilla toimiva operaattori soittaa järjestelmällisesti Saunalahden asiakkaille ja käyttää harhaanjohtavia väittämiä saadakseen Saunalahden asiakkaita siirtämään GSM-liittymänsä toiselle operaattorille.”
“Ulkopuolinen operaattori antaa virheellistä tietoa.”
Saunalahti via justsopivasti
Ilmeisesti ainakin Zetalle on tullut tällaisia puheluita.
Saunalahden liiketoimintajohtaja kertoo ITviikossa, että kyse on Tele Finlandin puhelinmarkkinoijista.