skype

Shooting long-distance family portraits via Skype

John Clang lives in New York, thousands of miles from his Singaporean family. But that hasn't stopped him from posing in family portraits. He hasn't even needed a plane ticket.

Using a Webcam, the photographer and visual artist made live recordings of his family, transmitted them via Skype, and projected them onto a wall of his New York apartment. He then jumped into the frame, and his wife, Elin Tew, photographed him next to his telepresent family for a modern take on the traditional family portrait.

After trying his new long-distance portraiture method on his own family, Clang traveled from New York to Paris, London, Hong Kong, and other locales to create long-distance portraits of similarly scattered families. "Being Together," the resulting series, "documents and examines our condition of new-wave diaspora -- Singaporean families of various races and ethnicities grappling with the same predicament of separation through time and space," Clang says in an artist's statement. … Read more

Skype for Windows Phone gets minor enhancements and fixes

Skype for Windows Phone received an update today that makes some minor improvements to smooth the experience for users of the VoIP service Microsoft acquired last year.

The changes to the app include enhancements to the contact list, which now displays all contacts that have at least one phone number in the list. You'll also now be able to edit a phone number using the dial-pad before making a call.

The release comes with some minor bug fixes as well. An issue that would end a Skype call if another incoming call or a calendar notification came up has … Read more

With FBI snooping on social media, how to protect privacy

To say that the FBI had its work cut out for it after 9/11 is an understatement. As part of its anti-terrorism efforts, the agency cozied up to telecom companies, like Verizon and AT&T. The relationship was so tight that some telecom employees actually had offices at the FBI.

This convenient arrangement paved the way for FBI agents to ultimately hand post-it notes with phone numbers to their telecom pals to find out if those accounts were worth investigating. It's the sort of stuff that makes privacy advocates shudder. And it's what Jennifer Lynch, staff … Read more

Facebook highlights video chat with new 'call' button

Facebook is testing out a new "Call" button in profile pages to promote its video chat capabilities.

Despite launching the service in a partnership with Skype nearly a year ago, Facebook may feel the pressured to amp up its video chat's visibility with competition from services like Google+ Hangouts and the recently launched Airtime.

TechCrunch first noticed the little button showing up at the top of people's profiles.

It seems like the person needs to be online for the Call button to show up. A glance at my list of friends online seems to confirm that, … Read more

Time turns page on iPad subscriptions

Skype's got ads, Vizio's got PCs, and we got issues (a whole Newsstand full of 'em):

Time Inc. has had a change of heart with Apple and will now begin selling magazine subscriptions through iPad's Newsstand app. Previous apps for Time Inc. magazines, like Sports Illustrated, only allowed for one issue to be purchased at a time. It also gave print subscribers free access.

Last year, Time Inc. opposed how Apple handled subscriptions, such as taking a 30 percent cut of sales and not releasing data on subscribers. But since then, Apple has lets readers opt-in to … Read more

Skype to serve display ads to Window users

Skype said today that users who do not have Skype Credit or subscriptions will now see advertisements in their call windows when they are making one-on-one audio calls using Skype for Windows.

Marketers can purchase these conversation ads in 55 markets where Skype is available. There's no mention of the display ads showing up on Macs or on mobile devices.

The company is portraying the change as a "an opportunity for marketers to reach our hundreds of millions of connected users in a place where they can have meaningful conversations about brands in a highly engaging environment." … Read more

Skype boss: Mobile, video are our future

PALOS VERDES, Calif. -- At the D10 conference, Microsoft's Tony Bates, president of the Skype division, laid out two of the major growth opportunities and challenges for the communications service: mobile and video.

Announcing today that Skye now has 250 million connected users, up from 170 million the last time he reported, he said that over 50 percent of his traffic is now video communications.

Skype is "doubling down" on Windows 8 he said (also doubling down on secrecy), which Bates says is excellent for Skype because of its focus on people. "Windows 8 really represents … Read more

Nokia Lumia 610 can't install Angry Birds, Skype, and more

Nokia and Microsoft have run into problems with the new Nokia Lumia 610. While trying to avoid the fragmentation issues faced by Android, Windows Phone has properly shot itself in the foot -- with a catapult and an Angry Bird.

The budget Lumia 610 is the first phone powered by Microsoft's Windows Phone software to arrive with just 256MB of RAM -- and it turns out many Windows Phone apps just won't work on the phone. That includes Angry Birds, the smash-hit game from Nokia's fellow Finns Rovio, and even worse, Skype, which is owned by Microsoft. As snafus go, this one is pretty delicious.

Read more of "Nokia Lumia 610 can't install Angry Birds, Skype and more" at Crave UK. … Read more

The paradox of Microsoft's Skype acquisition integration

Microsoft paid $8.5 billion for Skype and it's trying to walk a line between leaving the Internet communications service independent and integrating it with its vast array of products.

It's one tough line to walk. The New York Times details Microsoft's integration of Skype so far and the software giant has erred on the side of independence. Skype is developing software for Android, iOS and other services as usual. Ironically, Skype is having issues with Windows Phone.

You see where Microsoft wants to go. Skype for Xbox with cool features. Integration with Windows 8, Lync, Windows … Read more

When technology darkens our lives

Because we are all children, we always want more. Technology tries to give it to us, especially because those who create it are always trying to put more of the new into the world.

Yet sometimes technology can expose us to a "more" that we had never imagined and one that we might wish never to have experienced.

No one can conceive what it must have been like when Susan Clark watched her husband -- stationed in Afghanistan -- die during a Skype call.

According to the Associated Press, Capt. Bruce Kevin Clark, 43, was on an apparently … Read more