We have reviewed our fair share of programs in the past. From iFree Recorder over Skype Call Recorder to Call Graph.

MP3 Skype Recorder is another program for the Windows operating system that can record Skype conversations effortlessly. Skype needs to be running before the MP3 Skype Recorder software is started. A prompt is displayed on first start where Skype asks to allow or deny the software access to Skype.

The main interface becomes active after you have allowed access to Skype.

You may want to configure the options in the interface first. This includes unchecking the auto start option which is enabled by default or changing recording settings like the recording mode (mono, stereo, joint stereo) and recording bitrate. The bitrate is set to 24 by default which can be increased to 32, 64 or the maximum of 128.

A larger bitrate requires more space on the hard drive and improves quality of the recording. The last option that some users may want to change is the folder on the local hard drive where the conversations are stored. This can also be done in the main interface. Actually, there is no separate options page at all. Everything is handled directly in the main program window.

MP3 Skype Recorder can record Skype Out calls and calls to Skype online numbers. It starts recording conversations automatically whenever they are made and the recording button is activated (which it is by default). This is also indicated in the status bar.

MP3 Skype Recorder is an easy to use recording software for Skype. Interested users can download it from the developer website. The program is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system from Windows 2000 all the way to the latest version. In addition, the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 is required.

It looks like a steep price for a company with more than 600 million users worldwide. Two factors seem to have convinced Microsoft. The first is Skype’s momentum. The service gets 600k (as in thousand) new users every day at the moment which means that its user base will have increased by more than 30% in the next twelve months.

But it is not only the Skype user base that is growing. The company’s revenue has grown to $860 million in 2010, with a 20% year over year growth. Skype did not turn profitable though in 2010, as the company generated a net loss of $7 million Dollars. That was on the other hand $410 million Dollars less than the net loss in 2009. It is very likely that Skype will see a profit at year’s end.

Skype on its own could hit the $1 billion revenue mark in 2011. The product is highly popular on today’s Internet, with more than 30 million consecutive users online at all times.

The second factor are synergies. What if Skype becomes an integral part of Windows, Xbox or Windows Live? Integration in any of those services or applications would give the service additional momentum. Synergies have lots of potentials, besides the already mentioned products there is the Windows Phone, Microsoft Outlook and Hotmail, Windows Messenger, Lync and even Kinect.

Microsoft could add Skype as an Xbox service which would be something that Sony and Nintendo do not offer. Consumers could be convinced to buy the next Xbox because of the additional home video conferencing options as Skype is not only offering voice over IP services but also video chat.

Microsoft has many products and services where voice and video chat integration makes sense.

Skype becomes a new Microsoft division, but will keep the brand and product. Plans are to continue offer Skype on non-Microsoft devices and platforms, which is a smart move considering that Skype is highly popular on the Android and iPhone iOS platform.

To come back to the initial question. What does the merger mean or change for you? It is likely that nothing will change, at least not in foreseeable time.

Interested users can watch the recorded press conference below.

What’s your take on the purchase of Skype by Microsoft?

Microsoft Pays Big To Buy Skype

This is Melanie’s take on the acquisition. On May 10, it was announced that Microsoft would be buying Skype for an estimated 8.5 billion US dollars. This is the most Microsoft has ever paid for another company. But why was Microsoft so interested in Skype?

Microsoft’s acquisition came as a surprise to the tech community. Only a few days ago, rumours were circulating that both Google and Facebook were considering acquiring Skype.

Why is it that Skype is so in demand by the tech giants of our day? Analysts say one reason is the possibility it offers for mobile voice communication. Skype currently has clients for all of the mobile platforms except Windows Phone 7. I’m thinking that Windows Phone will be getting their version soon. Skype is an obvious addition to Windows Phone 7, since that is currently the only major player on the mobile phone market without video chat capabilities.

Skype’s advantage over regular phone calls lies in its affordability. If you can get an internet connection on your phone, you can make Skype-to-Skype calls for free, and international calls do not cost much at all. This has huge implications for places where it is expensive to get a phone call out through the regular channels. If you’ve got Skype on your mobile phone and a half decent internet connection, you can make a call anywhere for virtual pennies, no matter where in the world you are.

Microsoft already has technology that parallels Skype PC to PC communication, but not the ability to make affordable calls from your PC or phone from anywhere in the world. Its acquisition of Skype shows that it feels this may be the way the world is headed, and it wants its foot in the door at the beginning, instead of having to scramble to play catch-up.

Other reasons Microsoft would like to buy Skype involve closing Google’s lead in the field on internet advertising, and/or integration in Microsoft’s Xbox and Kinnect technologies. It could be that Microsoft wants to use Skype to enhance its corporate offerings. It may plan to use Skype’s VoIP technology to improve its conferencing solutions.

It’s quite a gamble for Microsoft, though. Skype has never really been profitable. The 8.5 billion US dollars Microsoft paid was extremely generous, given Skype’s recent valuation. Some of the purchase money is going to pay Skype’s debt of close to 800 million US dollars. The very affordability of Skype’s VoIP products has meant that the company doesn’t turn a profit easily

Skype will become a division in Microsoft’s company, Microsoft Skype, and Skype’s Tony Bates will become the president of that division.

Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype is a sign of its intention to stay relevant in the fields of PC and mobile voice communication. It’s gambling on Skype’s ability to make itself indispensable to mobile smartphone users. Whether the gamble pays off remains to be seen.

What do you think Microsoft will do with Skype? What Skype features would you like to see rolled into other platforms? Is there anything Microsoft that you would like to see rolled into Skype?

All it takes is to click on the phone number to initiate that call directly in the selected application. The preferences offer options to select one of the supported protocols. Available for selection are skype:, tel:, callto:, sip: and a custom url protocol.

It is furthermore possible to configure the extension to dial directly if a country code is present or open a menu instead. The menu is always displays if no country code is present.

Additional options include the configuration of text highlighting from the default light highlighting to none, medium or strong, if the own country code should be suppressed, if + should be replaced in phone numbers and how many numbers of recently used country codes should be displayed.

The extension processes each page or email and turns any phone number that matches the supported formats into a clickable link based on the user’s preferences.

A left-click on a phone number that has been turned into a link opens a selection menu which offers choices to call that number. The very same options are also available on right-click. A middle-click on the other hand bypasses the menu and launches the phone number directly in the selected application.

Some users are reporting compatibility problems of the extension and the Gmail website which I cannot confirm. The extension worked fine there as well.

Telify is available for both the Thunderbird email client and the Mozilla Firefox web browser.

Not all Skype users will be able to do their video calling in 720p. HD video calling has additional requirements besides the limited availability for the Windows operating system including a high speed broadband connection (Skype recommends uninterrupted high-speed broadband of at least 1 Mbps symmetrical bandwidth to achieve 720p HD-quality video calls on either a PC or television.), a HD webcam capable of delivering 720p 30 frames per second captures and a PC with at least 1.8 Ghz.

Skype hardware partners are starting to offer optimized HD webcams for Skype that handle the video encoding and processing onboard which will be sold for a premium at the Skype shop in the near future.

According to statistics provided by Skype an average of 34% of Skype-to-Skype calls make use of video which has seen substantial increases in recent years.

Skype announced a partnership with LG and Panasonic in the same press release that will bring Skype to Internet TVs manufactured by those two companies

“For many people who are video calling on Skype, they have expressed a desire to communicate with their friends and family from somewhere comfortable, and preferably on a big screen. Logically, this led to the development of Skype embedded on HDTVs.”

What’s your opinion on Skype TV? Can it become a mass market product or will it remain in the tiny nice-to-have-but-not-practical-or-affordable niche. Skype 4.2 Beta for Windows can be downloaded from the official Skype website.

Google’s recent acquisition of the voice over IP company Gizmo5 has sparked speculation that Google would integrate that technology into their Google Voice services. (on a sidenote: Lifehacker has already posted a method to combine both services back in August)

The confirmation that they indeed will add voip to Google Voice came today in the form of a news article over at eWeek.

Voicemail transcription, inbox integration and threaded SMS are fantastic features, but we’re really just scratching the surface. Gizmo5 gives us talent and talent technology. They have specific tech and skills in further integrating telephony with devices and desktop and Web-based computing. We want to make sure you’re communication is available to you irrespective of where you are at, what device you have in your pocket, etc.”

What could this mean for the end user? Most likely a reduced phone bill as calls could then be made from mobile devices that are connected to a wireless network.

Skype Translate offers several advantages over Skype Translator, a similar software program which we reviewed earlier this year. The latter used a software client that the user needed to use to write and translate messages. Skype Translate on the other hand runs in the background and works out of the box with the Skype interface making it very comfortable to work with.

The translation service needs to be configured after installation. This is done by selecting the primary language of the user and allowing the application access to Skype so that it can translate the texts. One interesting feature is that Skype Translate will detect the language of the contacts automatically (which can be changed if incorrect) so that all texts that are posted in another language get translated into the detected or selected language.

Skype Translate supports dozens of languages including English, German, French, Spanish and lesser used languages like Finnish, Czech or Welsh. The program is by far the most comfortable translation service for the voice over IP software Skype. It is compatible with most Windows operating systems and can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

According to the report published by Arrington, Google has been in the process of making a smartphone that follows the company’s directions to the T. That basically means they have a handset manufacturer who is working with them and following their specifications. In fact, the latest buzzword there is probably ‘Google Says’. So what does Google say?

That is something we don’t know yet but we do know that this new phone is not going to compromise on anything at all. It is being made to deliver what Google thinks a modern smartphone should be like. So this is not just a Google Experience phone but the true Android vision that Google has. It is meant to show their customers exactly what Google means by a smartphone.

But therein lies a problem. Google is not supposed to make an Android phone. They have too many partner companies who are making their own Android phones. Google’s handset would compete with theirs and that is not how you maintain a healthy relationship. So how do you maintain it and still get what you want?

Arrington has an idea. He suggests that the device will not be a true phone but merely a VoIP device. That way, it will get to have everything awesome that Android has to offer and yet will not compete with the offerings from their partner companies. If they are really making such device, why not just make a tablet? I am sure they see the vast potential in that. What is the use of giving someone a phone shaped MID that has VoIP instead of GSM or CDMA?

May be this is Google’s idea of the future – everything based on the Internet. It does tie in with what Google has to say about practically everything that involves technology and communication of some sort – move it online! Case in point – the Google Chrome OS. It takes your standard Linux OS and turns it into a mere client for all sorts of cloud services. As a result, you get to forget about backing up, maintaining, cleaning and generally thinking about how to get it to work and stay working.

However, the viability of such device depends greatly on one thing. This is that one thing that Google cannot move online – the very means to get online! You have many other carriers all over the world who have the fasted 3G network just like AT&T does and also the spottiest coverage, against just like AT&T does! And worst of all, they may be the best carrier in some countries! What use will be the phone then? We are still far away from a truly global coverage on mobile data networks, especially in countries that are no fully developed.

The current Android Super phone

However, if Google chooses to work with an existing partner who agrees to play ‘Google Says’ – will it harm them all that much? We already have Google Experience phones. So now we can have the Über Google Experience phone. In any case, Google has at least realized the age old truth – if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself. Dear old Steve knew that decades ago and now look where he is. Google has done things their own way so far (Search, Ads, Mail, Wave, etc.) and that has led to exponential growth. So why stop now? They have done it with the Chrome OS, where they will be strictly controlling what hardware it is running on. And I am sure they have been disappointed with some of the recent Android phones. So it makes sense logically to make their own version of the Android phone. Wouldn’t you agree?

The Skype Translator plugin is using Google Translator to provide automatic translations for Skype conversations. The plugin needs access rights which can be given or denied upon first start of the plugin and Skype.

Once the rights have been given it is possible to chat with contacts using the external interface. The interface consists of a separate chat window with translation options provided for messages that are send and received.

Sending a message with translation enabled will display the translated message to the chat partner. A protocol that is displaying the original and translated message is shown in the same program tab which makes it possible to chat directly from that tab without paying attention to the Skype window at all.

The translated messages that are send will appear in the original Skype window as well. Skype Translator is a plugin for the voip client. The plugin is available for download at the Skype website. It is only compatible with Windows operating systems and requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0.

The Skype plugin Skype Translator has been discontinued. We have covered two third party alternatives in the recent past. Skype Translator and Skype Chat Translator both utilize Google’s Translate Service to translate Skype chats in realtime.

Another interesting addition is the contact importer which allows users to import contacts from services like Gmail or Aol. These contacts can now also be send again to other Skype users. Old time Skype users might remember that the feature was already implemented in Skype 3 but got removed in previous versions of Skype 4. Configuring birthday reminders is another feature that is making a comeback in Skype 4.1 Beta.

Windows users can download the beta of Skype 4.1 (via Download Squad) from the official homepage. Keep in mind that betas should not be installed in productive environments.

A pdf containing the Skype 4.1 release notes is available on the same website as well.

The voice over IP client Skype 4 is another example of a lite application. It tries to optimize Skype 4 by blocking several of its components during installation. There are two ways of achieving this. The first is by downloading a Skype 4 Lite installer which is a execute and install type of approach. The second is by downloading Skype 4 Business which comes as a msi file. This msi file can be run with parameters that block several components from being installed.

The components that will not be installed are the Skype plugins for web browsers like Firefox and Internet Explorer, the Skype Plugin Manager and Skype Toolbar. Furthermore autostart of Skype 4 will be disabled and the generation of the Skype icon on the computer desktop will be blocked.

What are the benefits of this installation method? Skype 4 will noticeable startup faster and overall performance during usage is increased. You can download the custom installer for Skype 4 at the Custom Installers homepage.

Download Skype 4 Business from the Skype homepage for the second method. This will download SkypeSetup.msi to the local computer. To install Skype 4 Lite issue the following command (via MSFN Forum)

start /wait msiexec /i SkypeSetup.msi INSTALLLEVEL=1 STARTSKYPE=FALSE ALLUSERS=1 TRANSFORMS=:removeStartup.mst TRANSFORMS=:removeDesktopShortcut.mst /qr

The most important parameter is setting the installlevel to 1 which will tell the installer only to install the phone components and not the plugins or the plugin manager. The other parameters should be pretty much self explanatory.

The folder where the recorded conversations are stored can be selected in the same interface. The recordings will be saved as mp3 files which reduces the storage space requirements on the computer’s hard drive. It is also possible to change the recording mode to Mono, Stereo or Joint Stereo and the recording bitrate (quality) to 32,64 or 128 Kbit. The Skype call recorder can record conversations to Skype online numbers as well as SkypeOut calls which are calls from Skype to regular phones.

Skype Call Recorder runs on Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista. It requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0 or later and an installed version of the VOIP software Skype.

The program provides access to a dozen filters ranging from Delay and Tremolo to Chorus and 3 Band EQ. While it is not currently able to change the voice in Skype to that of Darth Vader, or any other famous living, dead or fictional celebrity in this regard. Each filter can be configured separately by using the sliders that appear after the selection. The amount and function of the sliders depend on the selected filters. They usually range between 3 and 6 different sliders to change the frequency, length or delay.

Multiple filters can be combined with each other to use all their effects for the voice changing process. Skype Voice Changer is currently available for computer systems running Microsoft Windows. A version of the Microsoft .net Framework seems to be required to run the software although no details are given on the program’s homepage.

Skye Log View is a Nirsoft application. Nirsoft makes high quality portable applications that serve their purpose well. The main purpose of the software program is to list all conversations that have taken place in Skye chronologically.

Conversations meaning any means of establishing a contact between two or more users including phone calls, chats or file transfers. The exact date and time of the contact and the user name of the contact will be shown in the application.

Skype Log View can be pointed to Skype log files meaning that it works without Skype being installed. It provides the usual means to export data into html or txt files. The software program is compatible with any version of Windows since Windows 2000 including Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

That many features have its price though which observant users will notice after taking a look at the computer memory that the VoxOx processes uses. A little bit less than 100 Megabytes on Windows leaves surely some room for improvement.

The client is available for Windows and Macintosh with a Linux and mobile client in the making. The first step after installation is the account creation which is done easily in the interface. The program reminds the user that an email will be send for verification purposes. That message however seems to have been a leftover from the past because it was possible to login right after signing up to the service. An email was send but it did not contain a verification code but only information about the service itself.

A wizard will pop up after logging in that can guide the new user through adding accounts to the unified messaging software. It is possible to add AOL, ICQ, Yahoo, Google Talk, MSN or Jabber Instant Messaging accounts or other accounts such as Yahoo Email. Some of the options are grayed out which seems to suggest that these networks have not yet been implemented fully in the software.

The interface looks shiny and modern but poses a problem for users who like to change the sizes of their applications. The size of the application’s window cannot be reduced indefinitely which means that it will look huge on smaller monitors. It can be minimized though which reduces the memory usage tremendously as well.

The website and client are missing some vital information though, especially about pricing. There is no information whatsoever on costs for calls, text messaging or video conferencing. Business users should probably wait until those information are published on the developer’s website and in the client before they start evaluating the unified messaging software.

Skype messages were in the focus of privacy groups since first news about text filtering messages in China became known to the public. Back then Skype released an official statement that the text filter applied by the Chinese Skype partner Tom Online would not affect security and encryption mechanisms of Skype, that people’s privacy would not be compromised and calls, chats and other forms of communication on Skype would continue to be encrypted and secure.

Researchers and privacy activists of the University of Toronto discovered files on unprotected Chinese computers that contained filtered Skype messages that were recorded in China.

The filtering system uses a blacklist that contains words that will not be shown in Skype conversations. If a blacklisted word is send over Skype the word will be filtered and the conversation recorded including personal information about the users taking part in the chat.

Some of the words that cause the filtering and recording are Tibet, Taiwan Independence and Voice of America. There is no way of telling if and how Skype is working with authorities in other countries but who would want to risk that?

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has Skype replacements on their priority list with links to multiple voip clients that can be downloaded freely.

The complete report from the researchers can be downloaded at the Infowar Monitor website. The major findings list:

• The full text chat messages of TOM-Skype users, along with Skype users who have
  communicated with TOM-Skype users, are regularly scanned for sensitive keywords, and
  if present, the resulting data are uploaded and stored on servers in China.
• These text messages, along with millions of records containing personal information, are
  stored on insecure publicly-accessible web servers together with the encryption key required to
  decrypt the data.
• The captured messages contain specifc keywords relating to sensitive political topics such
  as Taiwan independence, the Falun Gong, and political opposition to the Communist Party
  of China.
• Our analysis suggests that the surveillance is not solely keyword-driven. Many of the
  captured messages contain words that are too common for extensive logging, suggesting
  that there may be criteria, such as specifc usernames, that determine whether messages are
  captured by the system.

Heise was not able to get a statement from eBay about the allegations other than they would not comment on media speculations. The Austrian broadcaster ORF (German article) published an article last week that already contained the allegations that the Austrian police was able to listen to Skype conversations. The possibility to listen to Skype conversations was not trivial but doable.

The first release is compatible with Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008. The main benefit is that one does not have to switch between Visual Studio and Skype (Chat) all the time when developing an application and chatting at the same time. Please note that chatting could also be project related which would make sense in my opinion.

This would provide an excellent way to copy and paste code comfortably to another user who is working on the same project. Selected code can be send to another use with the Send button of the add-in.

The developer is providing two versions of the Skype add-in, one for Visual Studio 2005 and the other for the 2008 version of Visual Studio. Windows XP users install the software by double-clicking the StudioSkype.msi executable while Windows Vista users have to right-click setup.exe and select to run the file as an administrator.

The new window is available in the View > Other Window > Skype menu in Visual Studio.

Mute for Skype is a software that can do that, most of the time without problems. The lightweight application requires the Microsoft .net Framework 1.1 or newer. The developer of the plugin unfortunately misses to mention the supported operating systems on the website, it is working in Windows XP.

The only problem is that this application is not developed anymore it seems. The last version is still a beta version from 2005 and I have doubts that this works in Skype 4. If anyone knows a solution that is still developed let me know, would love to give it a try.

The major problem with being a Skype Super-Node is that the bandwidth usage per hour will be much higher which might cause concern for users with Internet accounts that are having bandwidth limitations.

A great way for finding out if your system is being used as a Skype Super-Node is by installing a software that logs the bandwidth usage of Skype when the application is running. One tool that can do that is the trial version of Netlimiter which can be used for 30 days before it has to be registered.

Netlimiter logs all incoming and outgoing connections and their traffic consumption and it is possible to display the traffic consumption of a specific application as well.

The best way in my opinion to find out if Skype is acting as a Super-Node is to start it and let it run for a few hours without using it actively. Bandwidth consumption is obviously higher if you make calls or transfer data with Skype and it is more difficulty to find out if Skype is acting as a Super-Node if you have to analyze the traffic in direct and indirect traffic.

The above screenshot is showing the incoming and outgoing Skype bandwidth for most of today and as you can see it’s less than 500 Kilobyte. Super-Nodes can use hundreds of Megabytes.

The easiest way to prevent Skype from being a Super-Node is to block access to the ports 80 and 443 in Skype. You can do that under Tools > Options > Connections. Just uncheck the option “Use port 80 and 443 as alternatives for incoming connections”.

Skype 4.0 is missing several essential features when it is compared to the current release version 3.8 of the VOIP client for Windows. Among other functions Skype Prime, the History, Sending Contacts and Skypecasts are missing in the initial 4.0 release of Skype. A full list of features currently missing from the beta release can be seen at the Skype announcement of this version.

This essentially means that if one of the features is a requirement for your work you should wait with the upgrade until they have implemented it. The new version overwrites the old one and there is no obvious way to go back to the old version of Skype once the beta has been installed on the system.

The only possible way would be to use a System Restore Point to go back. This beta version does not allow multiple Skype instances from being launched which is unfortunate for those users who either use Skype extras that require that feature and also for those that use several Skype instances for work, home and other activities.

The window can be resized up to a point but not further than that. Looks pretty much like 800×600 on my screen taken up by Skype as a minimum which is definitely unfortunate.

The major shift in this version will be away from concentrating on phone conversations to video conversations which is unfortunate for me because I do use Skype mainly as a way to call and send messages to some of my friends.

My advise would be to forget about installing this beta client in a work environment. It should not be that problematic for most home users though who would like to test the new client. Everyone else probably fares better with the 3.8 client.

Have you tried Skype 4.0 ? What is your opinion about the software ?