Skype for iPhone review

Mar 31, 2009 by Dan Taylor    7 Comments    Posted under: News, Productivity, Technology

Both the iPhone and non-iPhone world was abuzz yesterday (or today, depending on which time zone you’re in) about the confirmed announcement of skype for iPhone launching today.  Living in Europe, I’m up +6 hours ahead of the east coast – bonus!

My thoughts have echoed so many other iPhone owners, “Hey, where’s my skype application?” and I’d tried a number of work arounds, but nothing that delivered voip.  Fring is a great app for iPhone that will handle all your IM programs (think Adium for iPhone), including skype, but again, no voice features.  So you can imagine my excitement when the news broke like wildfire across the net yesterday when rumors were confirmed and skype would be made available (for free no less) today.

To my surprise, upon entering the app store via iTunes, skype is not (yet) the top free app, and I had to do a little searching.  Needless to say, there’s quite a few mentions of skype in the search results, but here’s the direct link to the skype app for iPhone.

Note: I am currently running the 3.0 firmware on my (obviously) jailed iPhone.

Installation

As with any iPhone application, installation is a breeze, literally a click and a password (if you have this option selected) away.  A quick install and eject later, I fired up my shiny new skype for iPhone application.  Sadly, I wasn’t able to grab a screenshot of the entry screen, but the folks at skype thoughtfully repeated their message about skype not being a replacement for a regular phone, and that emergency calls may not be made with skype (or any other voip service, for that matter).  Not necessary, but a nice thing to do.

Setup

The skype for iPhone setup is very familiar to any user of the desktop version, and is appropriately styled the same way.  Simply enter your user name and password, and you’re off to the races.  No ‘unknown error’s thus far.  Nothing but smooth sailing.

Use

If you’ve used any other type of IM service on your iPhone, and/or are fairly familiar with the way iPhone lays out lists (think of your contacts book), the UI is instantly recognizable.  Contacts are displayed alphabetically, and you have the option to display all contacts, or only those currently online.  As with the desktop version, contacts’ display icons appear next to their name, along with their status.

As with any new toy, I wanted to really test just how far this tiny little app will take me.  A quick view of my contacts list revealed that my friend Bree in Hawaii was still awake and online.  Hawaii?  Sure, I think that’s approximately half way around the world from where I am – looks like a suitable test location.  And here’s where things started to get a bit rocky.  First, Bree didn’t show up as online on the iPhone, but did show up on the desktop version.  I sent her a message via the desktop, and her response showed both on the desktop version and the iPhone.  Needless to say, the minute I got a response, poof!  Bree’s now online.  Perhaps I was a bit impatient, and didn’t give the system the proper amount of time to load all the data.

My initial call to Bree went through (technically), but I could not hear her, nor could she hear me.  At this point the application froze, and I had to ‘home’ button, close and relaunch.  Fair enough, it’s a first release; I’m willing to cut the Swedes some slack.

Our second attempt at a call can only be described by Borat as, “Great Success!”  Voice quality was just as good if not better than the desktop version, and on par with actual phone call quality.  We talked for about 5 minutes, all the while me moving about the house, closer and further away from the router.  All good.  As a point of comparison, I decided to hang up and call her back, but only using the 3G network this time.  Third attempt worked like a charm.  No lag, no dropped call, semi-instant connection.  I’d almost go so far to say that skype for iPhone performed better on 3G than over my wireless connection.  Although, to be fair, perhaps the application was suffering from stage fright, and that first misfire was the one and only bobble I’ll ever have (crossing fingers).

Just to put the distance question to the test, I gave a call to my buddy Olivier here in town, and low and behold, no misfires, instant connection, perfect voice quality.  So maybe there is something to routing a call 10,000 miles away vs. 3.  Either way, the application met my expectations.

Conclusion

Other than the first misfire while calling Hawaii, the skype for iPhone application works, and works quite well.  Is it perfect?  Yes/No.  I’d love to give the application 5 stars, but the first bobble knocks off half a star.  Given that the application is free and there’s a pretty good chance you’ve already got skype running on your desktop,  there’s absolutely no reason this little app shouldn’t be sitting on the front page of your iPhone.

Kudos skype – it’s been a long time coming.  Welcome to my phone.

Update: According to TechCrunch, within three short days, the skype for iPhone application has been downloaded over 1 million times.

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Thru-you: Amazing YouTube Mashup

Mar 11, 2009 by Dan Taylor    6 Comments    Posted under: Social Media, Technology, Video

This came to me today courtesey of Lisa Johnson of Modern Pilates Boston.  Since words alone can not express the true awesomeness of this mashup, I’ll simply bow out and let the video do the talking:

Creator Kutiman lists credits in the video description, and I’ll list them here as well:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU8gmo… Theremin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FX_84… drums

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl-CxM… bass

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvw2Uu… Funk Guitar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7IFYh… gts-solo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NutUFs… Blues Harp & Vocals

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBS_6P… Rock Guitar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXitAt… Contrabass trombone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ged039… Trombone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tZQpK… Rhodes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgwHtf… mute Guitar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnbrUw… Tuba

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ0z4v… Bass 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRM81J… Tenor Saxophone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHuein… guitar bridge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJqqNE… Guitar bend

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE8Mv5… Hammond

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnMa9c… Orange team cheer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJEcQs… Crazy Sax

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__aTf1… Theremin Sex?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw756f… guitar Licks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1Ke39… Trumpet kid

Pimp the Scooter

Mar 10, 2009 by Dan Taylor    40 Comments    Posted under: Social Media

Ah, the wonderful world of Twitter and Social Media alive and well, and yet again affirming my faith in the method.  I happened to catch a tweet this morning pimpthescooter.com.  Having been a big fan of MTV’s Pimp My Ride (back in the day, ya’ll…the new stuff – not so much), I thought, hmmm…who’s doing what to a scooter?

Well, low and behold, pimpthescooter.com has pretty much nothing to do with MTV, Xibit, or dropping the ride a few extra inches.  What it DOES have is an awesome social media powered concept by Big Jon Evans.  The story breaks down like so:  Jon Evans is a small business owner in Greenville, SC.  Due to a series of unfortunate events, Evans finds himself without modus transportatus (homeboy no longer has a car).  In his search for a solution to the ‘Crap, how do I get around?’ question, Jon found a perfectly acceptable spring/summer solution: a scooter!

Ok, so a guy with out a car in Greenville, SC wants to buy a scooter.  So what?

Now here’s where things get interesting.  Instead of plucking down the $1500 and driving his new scooter off the lot, Evans is conduction a social media experiment.  Conceived with an obvious nod to the Million Dollar Homepage, Evans is selling off 150 1 x 1 squares for $10 each, where contributors get their picture plastered on the scooter, and a mention on Jon’s wall of gratitude.  Businesses can also get their logo on Jon’s hot ride with a 2 x 2 sticker for $50.  Thus far, he’s raised $530 or 35% of his goal.  With 21 days remaining, my money is on Jon successfully completing the experiment, and driving away a happy camper.

But why should I pay for some guy’s scooter?

Besides the obvious benefit of ‘hey, that’s cool…I want to be a part of it’, Jon is using a ChipIn widget, making donations incredibly easy for anyone with a paypal account, and doing his part to reduce his carbon footprint.  Still not enough?  This just in: Jon will be auctioning off the scooter at summer’s end (September) with all procedes going to a charity of his choosing.

Maybe we could let the contributors choose the charity via a poll on pimpthescooter.com Jon?

Anyway you look at it, a great idea and great execution on Jon’s part.  So let’s get homie some wheels, and do it all for a good cause at the end of the day.  Visit pimpthescooter.com and get your picture reserved right next to mine.  And yes…you can choose any picture you want.

Rob Spence and his bionic camera

Mar 9, 2009 by Dan Taylor    4 Comments    Posted under: Technology, Video

Canadian filmmaker Rob Spence lost an eye.  So what does he do?  Creates a film about it of course.  Known for his documentary work, Spence is planning to outfit his prosthetic eye with a tiny wireless camera.  Together with his partner Kosta Grammatis, Spence’s “EyeBorg Project”, seeks to raise awareness of surveillance society in general, but more specifically about the team’s hometown, Toronto, Ontario, which is currently home to 12,000 surveillance cameras.

EYEBORG– The Two Week Trial from eyeborg on Vimeo.

Putting a camera inside a prosthetic eye is no easy task.  The smallest, lightest, most powerful image technologies are being utilized to make this seemingly ‘Sci-Fi’ chapter a reality.  Inside Spence’s eye is the world’s smallest CMOS camera, measuring a paltry 1.5mm square.  To put that into perspective, a sneeze aimed in the wrong direction could easily send this camera flying across the room, never to be found again.  While the lithium polymer powered camera rests in the iris of the prosthetic eye, the actual footage is transmitted via an RF transmitter and recorded elsewhere.  This tiny RF transmitter is roughly the size of a pencil eraser.  Kosta envisions that the data will be sent to a backpack to be recorded.

To me, this is truly a working, living, breathing version of the old adage; When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.  Spence lost the use of his eye at a very young age.  Instead of letting his impairment dictate his career path, he chose a vacation that not even some with two eyes can get right: making great films.  Fast forward 20 years, and Spence is bravely forging ahead; and not just working, but working on something that could have massive implications for future generations.  If Spence and his team can successfully make the EyeBorg project work, how far off are we from utilizing this technology in fully sighted humans?  Granted, now I’m taking a page from the ‘Sci-Fi’ chapter, but it all has to start somewhere.

Find out more about Rob Spence and his EyeBorg project at EyeBorgBlog.com.

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