Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú

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I think at this moment in time, Skype iPhone will be useful for conveniently calling overseas using a comfortable, popular handset.

But once 3.0 hits, and push notifications are introduced, it could really take off. Image: "bing! John Smith wants to talk to you on Skype" - accept call - "hello John". That's when it gets interesting. Particularly coupled with location features or wifi detection.

"The other issue is that the iPhone doesn't allow you to have more than one application open at the same time - so your Skype buddies probably won't be able to get you on the phone unless you happen to be in the app when they call."

I think that this might change with OS 3.0

Push notifications will be available to app developers, so you might get a message or beep or something similar.

There is also a new iphone this summer which will almost certainly feature video capture; whether it will have a camera on the front?

VOIP has been available on the iPhone from the first day that the App store launched using (amongst others) Truphone, and you are able to make voip calls without wifi connection using it as well (although it doesn't use 3G)

I did seem a little wide-eyed when I saw this story on the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú News website but then, on reading, I saw how pointless the app would be for the very reasons you pointed out.

I'm hardly pleased that the application is now on iPhone because it won't be much use.

For those of us with the iPod Touch 2G and wi-fi at home it's a step in the right direction.

The problem is surely that the iPhone is underpowered and can't run multiple applications.

3's Skype phones are more interesting because you can keep Skype logged in, and more usefully, when phoning another Skype caller, you're actually using the cellular network as for the first leg of your call. So you're not reliant on 3G which would be a little shaky - if not impossible.

That all said, if you are in a WiFi zone and want to phone someone abroad, it's to be welcomed.

I'm not someone who defends Apple's every move- but you can hardly blame Apple for the VOIP restrictions.. These must have been put in place at the behest of the network operators.

Details of the contracts between Apple and these operators are not public- but what would Apple have to lose from Skype being accessible on a 3G network?

I had no idea that you couldn't use the 3G network for Skype on the iPhone. That's utterly criminal!

I wrote a piece this morning on the future of mobile VoIP and the least of all benefit would be that if you got enough people using it, at least the service providers would be forced to improve the 3G network across the UK.



Looks like Apple is helping out with that one then.

The iPhone is a crippled p.o.s.. I use Skype on 3G and WiFi on my 2 1/2 year old Symbian phone without any problem, running in the background of course.

This is hardly an improvement on Fring, which has provided Skype on the iPhone and on S60 (on UMTS as well as Wlan) for a while now.

This story is on the front page of the UK edition of the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú News website (under "other top stories") along with stories about Chinese spying, Gaza arms smuggling, the death of a Chechen rebel and a human tragedy in Ivory Coast.

Get a sense of proportion, for christ's sake. It's pathetic.

I don't get this whole Skype hype in the first place. Why wouldn't you just use regular vanilla flavour SIP VoIP, instead of some proprietry locked down system like Skype? I can call (from UK) my relatives in Singapore on their mobiles for 1p/min (OK, plus VAT) on SIP VoIP, no messing with Skype in/out numbers, no hoping they will log-in in prescient anticipation of my call.
Skype? Not worth the hassle.

Why is this a big deal? Skype's been available on WinMo and Symbian for years.

Much ado about nothing, methinks.

mrgrumpy23 says...
"There is also a new iphone this summer."

... Erm, quite possibly not. The whole internet is littered with out of control speculation on this issue and nobody other than a handful who work for apple actually know whether, when or if there will be a new iphone.

Personally I think it will be later in the year or even next year, as the 3.0 software will pacify newcomers and iphone owners alike with new features - Apple are clever this way.

But in the end I, like everyone else, just don't know.

I'm going to have a look at the Skype app tomorrow when it's available.

this article gets it wrong!

voip is already on the iPhone (including skype) - FRING is a free app which gets the job done ok.

moreover, skype is passe: the best approach to voip is with standards-based SIP (more interopetability).

... and skype offers very limited interbational coverage for true integration with the pstn ... it is impossible to get an "in/out" telephone number from skype in most local markets.

SIP-based telephony companies are usually mire entreprenurial (skype is now bogged down in the eBay fandango), and they have a much broader international presence in local local markets - eg www.vbuzzer.com services the overseas Chinese community pretty well whereas skype ignores most niche markets - which are precisely the ones who are the first wave of customers (I am not affiliated with them).


however the real signfigance of voip is not on the iPhone but the itouch! ...

with voip on wifi, the itouch is a very attractive
alternative: most if the features of the iPhone but without the recurring expence of the ridiculous tariffs from the cell carriers ($130/month for voice, data, long distance).

for many people, it is sufficient to be able to access voip at work/school or at home - and if they have an VERY important call are on the go, they can even snag wifi for free at starbucks (thousands of hotspots). And if they want even more ubiquitous access to wifi, they can subscribe to a hotspot networks (eg boingo) for a very reasonable fee ($10/month).

in short, for /many/ users' telephony needs - not most, but certainly quite a few - voip over wifi on an itouch is a very compelling alternative to the bloated tariffs for the iPhone inflicted by the oligopoly cell carriers!

however, if the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú really did want to focus on a voip/wifi that was a HUGE game-changer, then they should focus in tbd disruptive impact of "mesh" networks! ...

if apple were to upgrade the firmware in their "airport" base-stations to work with 'mesh' topologies (obviously an adapter would be required for an external antenna), then the wifi world instantly be revolutionized & voip infrastructure would instantly become part of the telephony infrastructure that apple would bring to the table ...

'mesh' upgraded for the "airport" would give apple the same kind of bargining power with the carriers that the iTunes infrastructure did with the incumbent oligopolists in the music industry.

apple could single-hanndedly fill in the gaps in wifi for voip if they mesh-enabled the airport -

apple could still command a premium for their mobile gear (the varriets' subvention to apple) because the iPhone is still unique (mo camera and only soft-gps) compared to itouch ... but at least a the pressure from a ubiquitous mesh wifi network would compell the greedy oats running the telcos to offer more attractive tariffs to their customers ...

25% of the existing phone market had already transitioned to a smartphone geared to the carriers infrastructure ...

the next 25% - who are upgrading from simple feature phones - are a revenue opportunity which might signifigantly evaporate if standards-based SIP is catalyzed by 'mesh' wifi ...

this is the kind of system-wide change (ubiquitous voip) that apple is good at delivering ...

whereas a marginal player like skype -with an proprietary protocol, unavaulable with local ptsn in most of the workd - really doesn't have an impact on the iPhone or the itouch, especially when skype accessvis already available from other apps.


ps: using flash for video is rather lame... as a publuc briadcaster, the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú should be trying to use official standards for web & video content!

ps: @ Adam et al: the restriction by apple of voip to wifi is NOT a poor reflection on the any technical limitation iPhone - u r clearly ignorant of the device's capabilities. The restriction is for business reasons (presumably apple can get a bigger subvention from the carriers by preserving their incumbency of voice minutes in the tariff).

So, the iPhone catches up a little bit more. I've been using Skype on Windows Mobile for ages - and as for the app store, I've been able to download and install whatever I've wanted for as long as I can remember...

Seems like yet another "Sequence shortened / Some Steps Missing" marketing ploy to me.

I agree with Rory's sentiments. I have so many free minutes, I have no need for Skype.

Yes, international calls would be an exception. Although most of the people I know who live abroad pay for a "Skype In" number that lets me call them using a standard number, included in my minutes. Aren't I lucky :)

Where this might be more interesting is if it makes conference calls workable. Being able to speak to 2 or 3 people at once would be useful.

Um, why is this news?

An application which has been available on most other smartphone platforms, is released in neutered form on another platform....It's sad that the Beeb gets taken in by PR masquerading as news.

WHY do people have to bang on endlessly about the iPhone ? It seems so restricted by Apple that it's worth actively AVOIDING.

The Nokia N95 is miles better : I've been using Fring on Nokias for the past two years - Fring allows Skype to work PERFECTLY without restriction, and it works on 2.5G, 3G and 3.5G (HSDPA) cellular or WiFi equally well.

Not only SKype, it runs SIP telephony and MSN as well at the same time. So with an unlimited net allowance and a VoipCheap account you have zero-cost cellular VOIP as well.

AND the Nokia does listen again from the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú using the realplayer link extractor at .

And no, I don't work for them. They're just good at it.

Stop for goodness sake salivating over an over-priced, over-marketed, over-hyped unit and realise that other units outstripped the iPhone before it was even out.

Mike HH
Surrey

The coverage and publicity the iPhone receives from the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú (and many others) is ridiculous, and usually without any sense of perspective. I realise this blog entry has criticisms of the app, and I salute that. But a small mention of a Skype phone on 3 does not really fairly represent the alternatives/competition. Skype has been available on Windows Mobile and Symbian for a long time now, with little fuss made over the perfectly capable application on those platforms.

I have been propelled to write my first post here because I am still fuming (well, as angry as a tech geek can get - perhaps miffed?!) over the coverage the iPhone OS 3.0 received. Can you imagine what would have happened had Microsoft made a big song and dance at a press conference to launch such new features as MMS, Bluetooth connections and file transfers, and Copy and Paste. Revolutionary! At this lightening-fast rate multi-tasking should make an appearance around OS 17.0...

haha, oh dear. I've been using Skype on my HTC Touch Diamond (using Windows Mobile) for months now.

And for those that wanted proof Apple are just good at producing well-marketed, snazzy-looking products...

I have to applaud RevolutionBlues's above comments. With a global recession, strife in the Ivory Coast and the idea that China may be using its massive population to spy on the world, this does not qualify as news. Or even an interesting blog.

It's an iPhone. It's a mobile phone with internet capabilities and an innovative yet overpriced app store. That's it. There is nothing more that this piece of technology can achieve, other than tantalising the young, the hip and the middle-aged.

No. It's not. And I'm not even going to bother to read the feature. Nothing about the iPhone is a big deal except in the heads of the fanboys and the media that support them.

How about a feature on SIP on the N95?

Oooo... goody... a press release on the iPhone... I'll be able to write something about it on my blog. And it's a win-win because as well as the fanboys who want to read about it, there's the anti-fanboys who'll rant about the fanboys and the unbalanced coverage.

Don't really understand why someone with supposed 'technical knowledge' would talk about the i-phone like its some sort of technological masterpiece.
The Nokia N-Series is lightyears ahead of anything the iphone can do.
My two year old N95 is far more capable and useful than an i-phone- its has more features and does everything so much better.

Crippled Skype.... erm, no thanks!! -Its been around for ages on Symbian, so, how come its such a big deal for the i-phone.

Those that are taken in by apple's marketing, really only have themselves to blame.

Way to go Skype and Apple... A pointless version of an application we all want. A pat on the back all round. imagine not making it available on 3G. It's like Flash all over again Apple, RIM are the same, refusing to allow developers access to the parts of the device that they need to help their users.

Crikey if this was Microsoft the world would be up in arms with pitchforks at the ready for Mr Gates and co.

I'm pretty sure the new version of the game wordsmith gets released shortly on the Apple store how about a report about that too.

I love reading the comments from Nokia fanboys... so short sighted!

Nothing about the "iphone" is a big deal. In the last few weeks the coverage it's been getting here is completely out of hand. We've had "Iphone get's new firmware update" we've had "iphone is the future of handheld gaming" and now we get another "Iphone gets new application" story.
Why are you covering this? Will you be covering firmware updates for other products with equally breathless anticipation? Will you be mentioning when other products get new applications to download? Of course not. And this is the problem with this type of journalist blogging. And it becomes more and more apparent You actually aren't doing any journalism. You've got pages of this stuff to fill so rather than do any basic investigation you simply dust down a press release and "bang" you have a piece. In this instance you're not impressed, but that's not really the point. More it's the fact that you even deemed this suitable to even mention. There is more to technology than the iphone and Apple (and Twitter for that matter). Unfortunately it's too far outside your nice little comfort zone for you to notice.

Not a big deal no, others have already had it for ages.
Why is this news? Why is the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú yet again giving Apple free advertising? Its not what i pay my license fee for.
Skype can be run on at least 2 other bigger selling platforms already. More p-eople would be interested in that surely. Yeah the iPhone is the biggest single seller, but the varients of Symbian and WinMo have little more than just packaging differences, they are the same phone, and outsell iPhone. COVER THESE PLEASE.

Nokia fanboys shortsighted!! - gotta laugh!!

-i've read some of your comments you've posted before and you obviously don't like Nokia- as for paying £9.95 to update your phone- i would have thought you'd have known that you can just use the Nokia updater free download from their site.... so I never paid £9.95 to update mine.

Speaking as a Nokia fan boy, with a wife with a top end Samsung and a friend whose daughter has just got rid of a I-phone....

its the nokias that have all the best features, the best specifications and who's use is properly digital convergent.

I wouldn't want an i-phone if they were free with my breakfast cerial.
The N-series isn't perfect, no phone truly is, but it is lightyears ahead of anything that apple has produced.
Perhaps the I-phone 3 will change my mind, but the iphone 1 and 2 have just been underspecced and oversold to a largely naiive and uneducated public.

Iphone user/lover here.

1 - no interest in using skype - no international friends, and i don't use half my bundled minutes.

2 - agree - the iphone gets a ludicrous amount of coverage.

3 - it is a wonderful thing though. I've used nokia's for years, and never successfully managed a firmware upgrade, found an easy way of installing applications, or wanted to listen to music on my phone.

Iphone really did change the game, simply by being easy, usable and above all - joined up.

I ask for a restaurant nearby, and it GPS locates me, finds me local restaurants, allows me to call or email them, finds me reviews and menus, and shows me a map of how to get there (walking, driving or public transport).

none of my nokias ever got close to that sort of useful functionality.

the other week, my girlfriend was in spain, and found a free wifi hotspot in a shopping centre.

i was at home in range of my wifi router.

we both use two year old Nokia N95's. and we both have the free Fring program, which links to our Skype accounts.


she called me via fring from the shopping centre and we spoke for about half an hour in perfect quality with no drop outs.


we've both had Fring installed for nearly 18 months.


As most of the comments here say, this is only news because its happening on the iPhone.

Isn't it more interesting that Digital TV is coming to the N96? mobile iPlayer?


i guess we'll have to wait till Apple snap that one up to read about it..........

to #30

Us 'uneducated' lot who have bought an iPhone at least know how how to spell naive.

Yes, the Skype app looks a waste of time to be frank, but i expect with OS3.0 it will be more useful. The beauty of iPhone is that the software is constantly being improved and new features added.

I gave up on Nokia a couple of years ago - poor build quality. Every single person i know who got the N95 had to return it for one reason or another. Those that still have it says it works great, 'apart from rebooting itself for no reason'. Hmmm.

Oh yeah, you spelled cereal wrong too.

@ evergrowingbrain

Spot on.

@ Nokia Fanboys

My N95 was a good phone - did what was asked of it but at times was very frustrating and clumsy - I do not care what anybody say's but I found the UI wanting.
My iPhone is a good phone which gets better the more I use it, more apps are created, games etc. Apple has a road map for the device of which developers get access, to create even more content as the software evolves. What's wrong with that?
Granted some of the omissions in the software from the get go are available on other systems and have been for a while, none of which I have not been able to get round (nor missed to be honest).
In the end it's down to choice and what you want/need from your preferred device but until another developer comes up with something to really rival the OVERALL usability, I'll stick
So will Rory I think - keep up the good work..

"I wouldn't want an i-phone"

OK, fair point. But would you like an iPhone? They're much better than i-phones, because i-phones don't exist.

"its the nokias that have all the best features, the best specifications and who's use is properly digital convergent."

Can you please translate this sentence into English?

"I wouldn't want an i-phone if they were free with my breakfast cerial."

But what if you got an iPhone with your breakfast cereal?

@greenstarthree

Don't start me on mobile iPlayer. They made it available for the half dozen iPhones in the country before any other device, but have just REMOVED the download option from the 5800, making it utterly pointless.

@greenstartthree

'mobile iplayer?' you dont need to wait on Apple snapping it up, the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú iPlayer has been on the iPhone for months now. It works really well too.

My goodness, I seem to have ruffled a few feathers with my miss spellings- or is it mispellings?? or perhaps misspellings?

anyway, back to the point...

The iphone or i-phone is controlled by apple -you buy into apple's marketing everytime you sign up for one- as far as the build quality of the n-series- its no different from any other phone, some fail, some work for years and years.- Mine has given me no hassle in all the time i've owned it.

I use my nokia N95 everyday to browse the web, download youtube vids, listen to music wirelessly, send and receive emails, mms and video clips, i can use google maps or the nokia maps too- i also use the pedometer in the sportstracker app when i go for walks in the countryside, then i can output it to google earth to see where i've been. I can use MSN, take photos, take videos, upload them to the net -you know i've probably forgotten something.... oh- and i can make phone calls too.
The point is that the N95 can do all these thing effortlessly- the few of you that have had problems with your phones- have you considered updating the firmware... probably not i guess- again, its effortless.
-Perhaps its just as well that the iphone can only do one thing at once after all -eh?!

@cvan76

Duh... yes. Doesn't that rather prove the point? That the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú favours that particular device?

@ neilhoskins


Please, get real...... iPlayer was available for the PC an age before being available on Macs and the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú got a lot of grief for it too.

The technical discrepencies in this piece have already been pointed out, so I won't bother. However...


This blog has nothing to do with the iPhone and everything to do with lazy journalism.

The whole media is full of this non-story today. Apparently, all journalists now do is browse Reuters in the morning for the latest piece of PR they can regurgitate to the idiot masses.

That's to say nothing of the media's obsession with anything with an Apple badge on to the extreme that it ignores all their failings.

@ neilephipps

... the slight difference being market share. In the case of PC's/Macs/Linux, they concentrated on the device that had the majority market share. In the case of iPhone/S60/WM they went straight for the device that had the smallest market share. When they did finally provide it for another make, it was for a euro-centric device (N96) that's unlikely ever to sell in any numbers in the UK because it's main raison d'être (DVB-H) is unlikely to be available any time in the next century. If ever. Say what? And now that the 5800 is selling like hot cakes, for some completely unexplained reason, they (the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú) have removed from it the most important bit of iPlayer functionality (download for viewing later).

Honestly, I've tried very hard over the last two years to steer clear of iPhone-related over-hype, free publicity, and preferential treatment; and I learned not to feed trolls many years ago. But there are times when you just get SICK of it, especially when it comes from a publicly-funded organisation like the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú. Judging from previous comments, even from happy iPhone owners, I'm not the only one.

Of course, when it comes to market share, people get a little carried away.

If we're talking about streaming iPlayer, then presumably we're talking about via a website, designed for mobile phones.

In the UK, in Feb 09 (amongst smartphones, defined as a phone running Symbian, RIM, Palm, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Linux,
Hiptop, or Android OS), a survey detailed the following:

% of web requests
Manufacturer %
Apple 33.7%
SonyEricsson 20.6%
Nokia 17.9%
Samsung 9.7%
LG 3.6%
RIM 1.5%
Amoi 1.4%
Other 11.7%

This was based on 186,809,433 recorded requests. Now, I can't say I know the methodology behind the survey, but it's better to have some numerical data rather than anecdotal evidence.

(source [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator] )

I've been using Skype all day today on my iPhone. I reckon this will be a killer app, having used it for a while.

I work in education, and lots of my students contact me via Skype, from all over the world (it's also our fail-safe communications channel when we're trying to link up via Adobe Connect or Second Life). Now that I have Skype on my iPhone, I don't have to be near a connected computer to be able to answer questions.

We'll also be using my iPhone as a kind of instant conference caller between groups of people sitting around tables in real life (but at different locations). The speaker phone facility is definitely good enough for 5 or 6 people to be able to hear and be heard. We just need to make sure that the tables concerned are within wireless hotspot range … but I work in Sweden, so this isn't a problem.

Well done, Skype - and well done, Apple, is all I can say (you know that half of Skype's team of inventors is Swedish, don't you!).

I was just using it on my i-pod touch and it is a nice little app, hopefully with future releases it will become even better.

Why do you assume that it is Apple who is against the use of Skype on the phone?

We will never know the content of the contracts between Apple and its exclusive carriers around the world, but surely it is those carriers rather than Apple who insist on the restriction to wi-fi. What possible motive could Apple have for preventing Skype over 3G?

WIth iPhone 3.0 and the push notification service, Skype will get a lot better.

My fellow geeks, please, gain a little perspective before commenting here.

Is the iPhone the ultimate geek tool? No. Have we been installing software from all over the web for years now on Windows Mobile, Palm OS, Symbian etc? Yes. Did ANY of this make any ground with the general public. Nope, not even a little.

THAT'S why iPhone stories are so damn important, it's the platform that's shown how to get the non-geek interested in smartphones. It's introduced a whole new way of doing business with the app store (yes, I know there were some sites that did similar things but nothing so well integrated into the platform). It's shown how to do GOOD interface design and moved the mobile on for the first time in years (just look how quickly virtually all the major players started copying aspects of it).

And in turn that's why something like Skype coming to the iPhone is so important. It's a brand name that people can recognise, delivering a technology they may not have considered before, on a platform that makes implementing that tech trivial. It needs version 3 of the OS and background notifications to become trully useful but once it's there you have a mobile that (in theory) can use your minutes only when outside of wi-fi range. It has the potential to finally push the tech into the mainstream and, in so doing, let other VOIP systems get a foothold as well.

BOFH_UK:

This blog is no place for your logic and well-thought through points!

It is hilarious how people queue up to whine about Apple fanboys. Yes they can be annoying at times, but the anti-Apple crowd have well and truly taken over in the annoying ability to bury any topic beneath their usually (not always I have no problem admitting) ill-informed and illogical blatherings.

Here's a thought. If you don't like Apple-related stories, don't bother commenting on them. If no interest is shown I'm sure the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Bloggers will find something else to talk about that will generate more interest.

As for N95 v iPhone, the N95 is a great phone for being able to boast about the amount of functions your phone can do. In actual use I found it to be a bug-ridden, slow and awkward phone to use, with the end result being that I rarely used any of the more fancy functions. I now have an iPhone, and whilst it may miss out certain functions (none of which I ever used anyway) the usability is streets ahead of the N95. It isn't anywhere near the miraculous device Apple would have you believe, but then the N95 was nowhere near as good as Nokia would have you believe either. It's called marketing.

@BOFH

Really? I would have said it was the N73 or N95 that introduced the public to smartphones en masse.

And yet so little coverage.

Hmm...

Why all this N95 talk? Sure it has its faults, but really it was against the early non 3G iPhone, which it destroyed. Nokia has been a bit slow replacing it. Its not an iPhone 3G rival.

iPhone 3G is up against HTC devices mostly (and the other WinMo phones). It simply loses as a functional device. Sure if you like pointless apps, rubbish but 'pretty' games, or you are 12 then the iPhone wins, but if you want a device for communicating then it loses big time.

BOFH_UK i do see what your saying, but rather than just reinforcing the myth that the iPhone is something holy the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú should educate the public that there alternatives and that its not new. Its called public service (as in public service broadcasting...). Articles like this make it seem like the iPhone is the first and best with everything, its not. Its advertising Apple and perpetuating the myth, and will give sales to Apple that they probably shouldnt have.

People will see, 'Is Skype on the iPhone a big deal?' and think it is the only one to have it.

Nevermind the Wi-Fi limitation, Skype's big problem on the iPhone is the handset's inability to run background apps - meaning unless the Skype window's always open you don't get messages! It's so frustrating. I hope iPhone 3.0 will fix this until then thank god for services like HulloMail.