Skype has been my Instant Messenger of choice for quite some time, and ever since purchasing a proper Skype handset (see picture) I’ve used it more and more for voice calls. In my experience it leaves iChat’s audio quality in the dust. Where Skype has really impressed me is in its ability to patch in regular land line and mobile phone calls whilst holding a conference. For me it’s become a critical business tool — although I do still maintain a traditional landline.

Others I know have been brave enough to dump their landline completely, opting to use a SkypeIn number instead — only to regret the decision. Having to ask a client to call you back in the hope that you’ll get a better peer-to-peer connection is, to say the least, a little embarrassing.

What’s your experience with Skype? Take our poll, and let us know more in the comments.

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Amazon has revealed plans to launch its own DRM-free music download store, in what many will see as a direct challenge to Apple’s iTunes. By selling tracks in the mp3 format — without copyright protection — music from Amazon will be compatible with almost any digital music device including cell-phones, streaming media boxes, and mp3 players such as Apple’s very own iPod.

Amazon’s catalogue will initially comprise of music from the third largest record company, EMI, and thousands of smaller labels. Along with Apple, who also recently starting selling DRM-free music, Amazon’s clout should help pile on more pressure for the other major record labels to follow suit and embrace the mp3 format.

As the Financial Times points out:

The web-based retailer’s decision to enter the digital music market comes at a time when the record companies are desperate for a rival to iTunes. In spite of challenges from Microsoft, Yahoo and others, the Apple service still commands roughly 80 per cent of the online music market, which has allowed it to dictate terms to the music companies on pricing and other issues.

Amazon has said that the service will debut later this year, but hasn’t revealed details on pricing, except to say it will be “competitive”.

Mozilla Labs, the people behind Firefox, are experimenting with a new service to make mobile browsing less cumbersome and more convenient. Called ‘Joey‘ the idea is to enable users to bookmark or clip sections of a web page from their desktop browser that they wish to view on a mobile phone at a later date. Any snippets are then stored on the Joey server where they are reformatted and dynamically updated for mobile browsing.

In an article published in InfoWorld, Doug Turner, leader of the project, gives the example of clipping a scoreboard in order to keep up with a football match. Users would select the scoreboard section of a web page and store it on their personal Joey account, so that it’s then viewable from their mobile phone and constantly updated with the latest data.

Joey certainly takes an interesting approach to solving the mobile web problem, with its desktop/mobile hybrid approach — and for an information junkie like myself it could prove to be a very useful service.

See a demo of Joey here.

This post was originally published on Read/WriteWeb on May 15th, 2007.

A new study from Forrester Research predicts that online video download services will see sales peak this year, as consumers move other sources of online video. Read/WriteWeb recently reported that CBS is increasingly releasing content for free or via ad-supported mediums such as, Joost. Further, consumers are confronted with a growing number of video-on-demand options from their cable or satellite providers and Internet services.

Though sales of television and film downloads via services like iTunes and Amazon Unbox will nearly triple this year, according to the report, it is unlikely that such services will see much growth in 2008 and beyond unless the market shifts dramatically.

Continue reading “Report: paid video download is a ‘dead end’” »

This post was originally published on Read/WriteWeb on May 14th, 2007.

Last May CBS launched Innertube, an online video site that would allow the network’s viewers to watch popular television shows like “CSI” and “Survivor” online for free, as well as bonus content and original mini shows. The site, which was ad supported and used RealPlayer, was ill-conceived from the start since it was put to head-to-head with arguably more attractive offers from CBS (99-cent commercial free downloads of Survivor, and free, sans-commercials on-demand content for Comcast cable subscribers). Eventually CBS also offered content for download on iTunes and clips via YouTube, leaving Innertube in the dust.

But now, CBS has decided that forcing users to come to them just doesn’t work, reports the Wall Street Journal. Beginning this month CBS will start to distribute their popular content over ten different online destinations, including AOL and Joost [Ed. see our Joost review], as part of a new initiative called the CBS Interactive Audience Network. The company is also reportedly working on deals with web 2.0 sites like Facebook, Last.fm — which recently announced it was adding video, and Slide to distribute their video content over social networks.

Continue reading “CBS’ new online video strategy: court web 2.0″ »