(Approx. 519 words)

Skype 4.0 
By Joe Nuvolini, Webmaster & APCUG Rep, Pikes Peak Computer Application Society, CO
http://ppcompas.apcug.org/
nuvo(at)nuvolini.com

Obtained from APCUG with the author's permission for publication by APCUG member groups.

 I've been a Skype subscriber for some time now. What is Skype, you say? Well, it's an online chat/phone/video service which has, as of the end of March, some 309 million registered users. Last I heard, that is more subscribers than all the US telephone services combined! It allows you to make computer to computer calls free worldwide. It can support 12 million users at a time. In addition to audio and video chat, you can
instant message, send text messages to phones, and share files. You can call from computer to phone as well. 

It has three levels of service for the computer to phone service. For $2.95 per month you can make free computer to phone calls anywhere in the US and Canada. The $5.95 service includes the US, Canada, and Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey Mexico. For $9.95 per month you get unlimited free computer to phone calls worldwide.  They point out that unlimited means up to 10,000 minutes per month. Let's see, 10,000 minutes is over 6.9 days! I'm currently subscribing to the $2.95 service. To call overseas with my service it runs about 2.1 cents per minute to Europe or from Europe back to the States. Skype has been offering video calling as well since 2005. Their data compression allows quality voice transmissions on a bandwidth of as little as 2kbs and video on 6kbs. It has a new version, 4.0, which is in beta testing. It allows you to see the person you are calling full screen. For this feature to work well you need 90kbs. I'm using it and it seems to work real well. This full screen mode will be very useful for the computer user group community. 

While at the Association of PC User Groups (APCUG) Convention held in conjunction with the January 2008 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) attendees in their forum with the vendors discussed presentations at user group meetings. Over the years, the cost of sending representatives out to user groups for the purpose of promoting their wares has become no longer cost effective. We discussed the use of Webinars (live presentations across the Internet).

This new version of Skype looks to be ideal for such a program and it can be done at little or no cost to the vendors and user groups. If you haven't tried Skype, you should. You can download the current version (3.8) at: http://www.skype.com/download/skype/windows/. If you are adventurous and want to try 4.0 beta go to: http://www.skype.com/intl/en/download/skype/windows/bets/.

By the way, if you have wireless Internet access you can purchase a WiFi phone at the Skype online store and it will allow you to make calls whenever and wherever you have wireless Internet access. There's a lot more information which you can checkout at their Website: http://www.skype.com.
This article has been provided to APCUG by the author solely for publication by APCUG member groups. All other uses require the permission of the author (see e-mail address above).