A DECADE OF SKYPE

If David Huang had left his native Taiwan for Sweden a generation ago, he would have taken a giant leap into the unknown.

Now, with the help of Skype, the 35-year-old businessman is able to reach relatives from his Stockholm home as easily as if they lived around the corner, and not half a world away.

"Skype has made work easier, but more important than that, it has enabled me to talk to my family whenever I feel like it," he said.

Internet messaging service Skype, which celebrates its 10th anniversary on Thursday, has shrunk the world in profound ways that few could have foreseen in 2003.

A total of 300 million users make two billion minutes of online video calls a day. And in the surest sign of success, the brand name has been turned into a verb - a rare distinction shared by the likes of Xerox and Google.

In another sign of success, Skype has spawned competitors with a host of similar technologies, most importantly Apple's FaceTime.

But revolutionary as Skype's technology may seem, it didn't start completely from scratch but built on existing communication technologies.

"We already had cheap international calling using the Internet," said Martin Geddes, a leading Britain-based telecommunications consultant.

"The significance of Skype was and is the 'Wow!' experience of high definition voice, and the sense of 'being there' with your distant friends and family in a way not possible before."

Skype was launched in late August 2003 by two Scandinavian technology entrepreneurs, Niklas Zennstroem of Sweden and Janus Friis of Denmark, who expanded on existing peer-to-peer networking technologies.

Skype, which allows its online users to make high-quality calls to each other anywhere in the world for free, quickly took off, bringing the world closer together in an age when globalisation and intercontinental travel pulled more families apart than at perhaps any other time in history.

"I'm touched by the ways people use Skype, from an active duty soldier meeting his baby girl for the first time to just the simple, extraordinarily ordinary instances," said Elisa Steele, Skype chief marketing officer.

These simple instances, she said, include "a mum and daughter being able to see and talk to one another in a way that feels like they're just sitting across the kitchen table from each other. Our greatest achievement lies in these moments."

While Skype helps people to stay in touch with those they already know, it also enables new connections to be formed.

One example was early this year, when students aged between 11 and 15 from Woodham Academy in Britain and Merton Intermediate School in Wisconsin carried out a cross-Atlantic dance contest.

"For a lot of them, I think they'd been in a small-town mentality where they hadn't really gone out as far as they might have wanted to into travelling," said Woodham assistant head teacher Jon Tait.

"They had seen films from abroad, but to actually physically speak to these kids in America was absolutely brilliant. It was amazing."

Skype isn't for humans only. At Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, Texas, orangutans Mei and Mukah are rewarded for completing tasks by being allowed to communicate via Skype with orangutans in other zoos.

The question many ask however is: Is it possible to make money on a business offering free calls? US software maker Microsoft thought so, paying $8.5 billion for Skype in 2011.

In the 12 months ended on June 30, Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices Division, which includes Skype, reported operating income of $848 million, up from $380 million the year before.

Within just a decade, Skype moved from being nowhere to being everywhere. Could the reverse also be true? In an era of rapid transformation, could it be gone again in another decade? It's hard to imagine, according to observers.

"It's not going to go away. It's going to be utilised and put into more and more devices, videophones, devices for your kitchen, tablets as we mount them on cabinets," said Michael Gough, author of the book "Skype Me!"

"I can see for example a home automation scenario, where you have a tablet in your kitchen, an Xbox connect in your living room, and you can literally be on a video call and it will follow you around the house. I can actually see that occurring."

Indian school kids to design Android apps

School students in the age group of 10-13 years will design mobile applications on Android platform in a countrywide contest.
"Students from schools across the country will participate in the first all-India Android mobile applications (app) design competition," Global Discovery Academy's chief product officer Vipul Redey said Bangalore Saturday.

"The contest has been designed to develop the thought process of students by exploring and generating their own unique concepts," Redey said.

The students will also compete in creating problem-solving applications in the areas of social concerns like environment, education, health, nutrition and civic amenities.

The criterion to participate is knowledge of computers and internet applications. The academy will provide training on mobile phone programming.

"We believe in leveraging technology as a tool to enhance conventional teaching and encourage students to ideate, explore and learn through exposure than rote-learning," Redey asserted.

In the three-stage contest, a participant has to describe to the academy by Sep 1 the app he/she will design and develop to serve a specific social cause, its functionality and user engagement.

In the second stage, a student has to submit a prototype of the mobile app to the academy for programme.

"Selected finalists will present the app idea and prototype at a special event in New Delhi and winners will be decided by a panel of judges on basis of creativity, effectiveness of the app and ease of its use," 

Apple's iTunes Radio will change the face of streaming music

Apple’s iTunes Radio was introduced at the company’s WWDC keynote back in June, and has since been released to developers for beta testing for both iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks. Though the music service isn’t expected to be released for several more weeks, it is already creating change in the streaming music market.

With Apple’s iTunes Radio closer to release, Pandora is lifting its 40 hour per month streaming limit. This is something Pandora implemented several years ago in order to limit the amount of music a free user could listen to and to push its paid Pandora One service (which removes ads as well). Pandora’s decision to remove the limit is not surprising, especially because iTunes Radio is already being used on thousands of devices and will be available on millions of iOS devices when Apple releases iOS 7 and new iPhones to the public next month. Pandora is fully aware of how big iTunes Radio will be and what it will do to the streaming music market.

iTunes Radio is very different from anything else on the market right now because of how it is bring distributed and how it works. Apple’s internet radio service will be made available to any iOS user who owns an iPhone 4 or newer model, which means all of those customers will be able to stream as soon as they update their devices.

Don’t forget that the rumored iPhone 5C and 5S are also on the horizon, and that iTunes Radio will also be available on Macs. However, I think the most important part is that iTunes Radio is available through the iPhone’s Music app, which is absolutely the easiest way to access a streaming music service.

This is one of the first times an Internet radio service is built into such a widely used operating system and its dedicated music application. iTunes Radio will change up the face of streaming music, moving it away from app downloads and account creation to one click listening. With iTunes Radio baked right into all of Apple’s devices, there is no doubt a lot of users will begin streaming as soon as they get their devices set up.

FACEBOOK HOME REVIEW

When I got my first smartphone in 2010, I checked Facebook obsessively. But over time, the novelty wore off and opening Facebook's app to check photos, links and posts from friends turned into a chore.

In a sense, I'm the ideal target for Facebook's new Home app. Those photos, links and posts I couldn't be bothered to check on the social network's app automatically come to the screen when I turn on the phone. I can see friends' musings scroll by, as photos they've chosen to highlight take up the entire screen in the background. A new one appears every seven seconds.

It's as if Facebook has taken over the phone's prime real estate and pushed Foursquare, email, weather, YouTube and my alarm clock to the slums.

Home is ideal for people whose lives are centered on Facebook. Others might not feel at home.

At first, the free app is available only on certain phones running Google's Android operating system - HTC Corp.'s One, One X and One X Plus and Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note 2. It will work on the Galaxy S 4 when the phone goes on sale in the coming weeks.

If you have a Facebook app already installed on one of those phones, you'll get a prompt when Home is ready to download on Friday. Otherwise, visit the phone's Google Play store to get it. Home comes already installed on the HTC First, which ships Friday and costs $100 in the U.S. with a two-year AT&T Inc. service contract. I had a chance to spend several hours with a First that Facebook Inc. lent me to try out ahead of Home's public debut.

Facebook has no current plans to bring Home to the iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry or Windows devices. That's because Google makes Android available on an open-source basis, free for anyone to modify, so it's easier to make changes.

That last part is key to the Home experience. Normally, Google's apps and services are front and center. Android makes it easy to get on Gmail, navigate with Google Maps and search for things using its Google Now voice assistant - all with a tap or two on the phone. Facebook is taking advantage of its rival's open-source policy to place its apps and services front and center.

Right from the home screen, you see the things your friends are sharing on Facebook. Not interested in what Dave has to say? There's Mary replacing him in seven seconds, and Jennifer replacing her seven seconds later. Mixed in are posts from some of the groups you follow. Facebook says you'll eventually get ads there, too.

Facebook calls this the Cover Feed. I call it Facebook on steroids.

I hardly have time to digest a post before a new one appears, and in many cases I'm seeing only the first several words in a post, hardly enough to convey a thought. The good news is that I can pause the stream and view the full post at any time by tapping the screen. In doing so, I can comment on a post or hit a "like" button. The scrolling stream continues with another tap.

GOOGLE GLASS HAS A PRICE COMPARISON APP!!

Price comparison apps have been around since the arrival of smartphones. But this new similar app removes the need for taking your handset out. All you need is to look at the barcode to get price info and reviews.

Retail store owners will get a little disappointed when they see someone walking in wearing a google glass.a new app for the wearable display gets an immediate price comparison on the google glass. The software found by VENTUREBEAT, scans the barcode of the product and returns the pricing information and AMAZON pricing reviews about the product.

The app is called CRYSTAL SHOPPER which was found by Lance Nanek who featured another app that helps you during an interview.

TOP 10 EXPENSIVE APPS ON APP STORE

The Apple Store is the largest app store in the world, with more than 900,000 apps in total, consisting of both free and paid apps. Although 90 percent of iOS apps are now free, according to app analytics provider Flurry, some are expensive beyond imagination.

Warning: some of these applications may be scams.

VIP Black

Described as ‘The Millionaire’s App’, VIP is the world’s most exclusive lifestyle application. Members receive full VIP treatment at all iVIP partner venues worldwide, and the iVIP Concierge is available to service their every need. Applicants will be required to certify they are "High Net Worth Individuals" with assets and/or income in excess of £1 million.

BarMax CA

BarMax, created by Harvard Law School alumni, is a comprehensive bar exam review course. The full course is available on the iPad and iPhone, allowing users to study from almost anywhere. In 2012, BarMax students had a pass rate that was over 20 points higher than the state average.

Agro

Agronomists are involved with many issues including producing food, creating healthier food, managing environmental impact of agriculture, and creating energy from plants. The Agro appp allows them to visit a client, complete an inspection report, hold the sale of products then move to the next client knowing that all paperwork is done and sent by the time they drive out the gate.

MobiGage NDI

MobiGage is a metrology iPhone application used for the inspection of manufactured parts and assemblies. MobiGage creates, edits, and runs measurement plans and automates inspection processes. The app is designed to connect specifically with the Northern Digital (NDI) industrial measurement systems.

Preebs

Preebs aims to make the commute to work more rewarding by providing coupons and games, and allowing users to customise the billboards they pass on their way to work.

Barcelona vs Madrid

A dubious-looking football game that claims to let players re-enact El Clasico. It claims to have "the most realistic graphics and simulation," but reviewers describe it as "pointless".

Mobile Cam Viewer

MobileCamViewer lets business users watch and control their live security and surveillance cameras via a mobile phone. It claims to provide a high return on investment and save users time and money. The developer, mobiDEOS, also offers a free version for consumers.

PDR Quote

Business management software that allows the user to create professional quotes and invoices straight from their iPhone. The app claims to be ideal for preliminary design reviews and vehicle repairs.

SafeSession Voice Encryption

SafeSession provides secure mobile VoIP calls over an internet connection. Phone conversations are protected by voice encryption algorithms, but only if the person on the other end has also installed the SafeSession secure software to their device.

Bizjet Mobile

An app that uses Bluetooth to replicate the normal functions of your mobile phone when in flight mode. BizJet Mobile claims to make its connection directly via the “existing” aircraft satellite link and routes the calls and data outside of the cellular roaming network, so there are no roaming charges.