SnapperTalk

Frankly I don’t use Skype much anymore, and now use SIP for most VOIP calls, but I wrote previously about a hack that allows you to run multiple Skype accounts simultaneously. It wasn’t great but it worked.
There is now, at least for Windows, a slightly more elegant solution to running more than one Skype account simultaneously that doesn’t involve creating multiple Windows logins. It’s free and you can download the Skype Launcher software here. It still opens up two Skype windows but the whole process is pretty painless and now supports auto-login too.

Whereas with AOL and other instant messaging clients such as the excellent Trillian you can sign-on with multiple user accounts, Skype has never been able to do this, limiting you to one username at a time. Here’s a useful hack I came across here that gets past this limitation if you are running Windows XP Pro.

1. Have two admin-level user accounts on your machine e.g. “user1″ & “user2″
2. Have two Skype accounts e.g. “skypename1″ & “skypename2″
3. Login as user1 and create two shortcuts to the Skype application. Name the icons “skypename1″ & “skypename2″ to remember which is which.
4. Open up the first shortcut as you would do normally and sign-on with “skypename1″. Click the box saying “Sign me in when Skype starts”.
5. Right-click on the second shortcut, and choose “run as” from the contextual menu.
6. When the “Which user account do you want to use to run this program” window pops up, click the 2nd button labelled “the following user” and beneath it select user acount “user2″ and enter the password of that account.
7. A second instance of Skype will open up. Sign-on with “skypename2″ and click the box saying “Sign me in when Skype starts”.
8. Now, all you have to do to run Skype with either or both skype accounts is to click the appropriate shortcut(s).

Clever…

Note: Doing the same on Mac OS X is a bit more difficult, but there is a solution - see this thread in the Skype forums.

UPDATE 02/07/08: There is now an easier and cleaner way to do this - see this newer post

With a new beta version of Skype for Windows out yesterday - 2.5.0.82 - I thought it would be worth pointing out one of the new version’s very useful features: Skype SMS. Now you can send SMS messages to any mobile phone in the world directly from the Skype application. They’re not free, so you’ll need a SkypeOut account, but they are pretty reasonably priced - complete rate-list here - and unlike a lot of the free web-to-sms gateways, it seems like it will work for all countries even the more obscure ones. You get to choose whether the recipient sees the message as coming from your Skype username or from your mobile number.

Skype has launched a Beta version 2.0 of its popular voice-over-IP (VOIP) application. New features include video-calling if you have a webcam, real-time contact search, the long overdue ability to put contacts into groups, and various others. There’s a good review of the new version on the VOIP & Gadgets Blog

Those hankering for that retro-feel in their modern communications - whether it’s by mobile-phone, Voice-over-IP, or satphone - might want to take a look at the Hulger P*Phone. It’s a 1970s/80s-style telephone handset that one can plug into all sorts of devices. For use with a laptop or desktop computer e.g. for making Skype or other VOIP calls, get the Y*Cable coiled lead so it can be plugged into the headphone/microphone sockets. The company has some nice answers to those that ask - Why?

UPDATE 30/11/05: Hulger have now brought out two new models - the Penelope*Phone and Pip*Phone - both in wired and bluetooth versions. All their products are here

Shame about the cheesy name, but the Project Gizmo Voice-over-IP solution seems to have the possibility of becoming a worthy competitor to Skype. The functionality is very similar with PC-PC, Call-out, and Call-in functionality, plus voicemail etc. It has a recording functionality, no text-instant-messaging as yet but does have a beautiful interface.
The big difference is instead of adopting a proprietary protocol as Skype has done, Project Gizmo is built to use the industry-wide SIP standard, so it should integrate nicely with all the SIP-compliant hardware out there. The question that faces all potential Skype competitors out there is whether they can compete against a system that already has a large existing userbase, is user-friendly, and works well.

Gizmo Project CEO on why Skype bad, Gizmo good
The Register article
Om Malik article
Chris Holland article
Simon Perry article

I recently bought a usb-phone to use with Skype (the same as the Firebox one mentioned before, but called the Cyberphone K and from Maplins) and it works very nicely indeed. Since then I’ve found myself using Skype a lot more - I know some favour headsets because they can do other things during a call like typing etc, but I prefer a standard phone setup.

There are some third-parties out there writing software to use with Skype, and one of them is Alex Rosenbaum who has come up with a great free/donationware windows application called Skype Answering Machine (SAM) that turns your Skype into a fully-featured digital answering machine whilst you are away. You can then play back the messages when you return and hit a button to call the person back. Future releases plan to let you have the sound file automatically emailed to you so you could pick up your messages anywhere, and also be able to record conversations - which I’m sure will be extremely useful for journalists needing a recording to check against their notes, or for legal purposes.

It’s not exactly the same as the paid-for Skype Voicemail service but is definitely a worthy alternative that may actually suit some users better. There’s also a similar product called HotRecorder that comes in both free-but-advertising-supported and paid-for versions.

If you are actually interested in all this stuff, Skype Journal is a good place to look for the latest news.

This site has been a bit Skype-heavy of late, but regardless it is interesting news that Skype have launched a beta of a product they are calling SkypeIn. Basically for 30 euros a year you get a “real” phone number that people can call you on, and at the moment you can choose between numbers located in France, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and the United States.
So if you have lots of friends or colleagues in say, the UK, you can have a UK number they can call for a standard national rate that gets routed straight through to you on Skype wherever you are. At the moment you can choose up to 3 numbers (at extra cost I assume) so that you could have a number in the U.S., a number in the UK, and another in France that all get routed to you. There are also SIP-based (non-Skype) products such as those from SipGate amongst others, that do similar things.

UPDATE 04/04/05: They are currently sold out of UK numbers, though still have US, France, and Hong Kong based numbers.

As written previously on this site, the Olympia dualphone is a good-looking cordless phone that lets you make calls via Skype or via normal landlines, all from the same handset.
It seemed like ordering one was a bit difficult, but now there is a UK supplier i-fones which is currently selling them at £79.95 inc. VAT - which makes it pricier than the Firebox phone but you get a lot more for your money. Sadly it remains a Windows-only product.

If anyone’s actually got one I’d be interested to know how it performs.

As written in a previous post, there’s a few solutions to using Skype for VoIP services that enable you to use a “real” phone. The latest attempt, and seemingly quite good, is the Firebox VoIP Cyberphone which can be yours for thirty pounds. Nice design, and looks good to use. The only disadvantages are that you still need a computer switched on for it to be plugged in to via USB - no plugging it straight into your router - and there’s no mac support which is very disappointing.

Firebox VoIP Cyberphone
Review of it by The Register
Review of it by Engadget

UPDATE 04/04/05: These phones are rebranded versions of the Cyberphone K and are also available from the UK retailer Maplins.