Skype | Cheryl Waller

New Apple iPhone 4 Ads Promote FaceTime, AirPlay [VIDEOS]

July 11, 2011 by Todd Wasserman Leave a Comment

Apple’s iPhone 5 may hit stores as soon as August, but Apple hasn’t let up on its support for the current model. Apple this week has released two ads promoting FaceTime and AirPlay.

The FaceTime ad (above) shows off the video chat feature, which lets you set up conversations between two iPhone 4s or an iPhone 4 and a Mac. The ad comes after Facebook announced its Skype-based video chat last week.

Another ad (below) highlights AirPlay, which lets you play music from your iPhone 4 on your home stereo or display iPhone movies or photos on your TV.

The ads, which continue the upbeat the-product-is-the-hero style of previous commercials, comes as the iPhone 4 has been out for a year and rumors of the iPhone 5 and even the iPhone 6 are hitting the blogosphere. With the new releases looming, Apple is no doubt attempting to create demand to clear out old inventory and continue drawing attention to its technological lead on certain mobile fronts.

What do you think of the ads? Let us know in the comments.

More About: airplay, apple, facebook, facetime, iphone 4, iPhone 5, iPhone 6, Skype

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Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: AirPlay, apple, Blogging, Facebook, facetime, iphone, iphone 4, iphone 5, iPhone 6, News, search engine optimization, SEO, Skype, Social Networking

5 Things the Skype Deal Teaches Us About Facebook

July 9, 2011 by Adam Ostrow Leave a Comment

At one point during Facebook’s “something awesome” event on Wednesday, more than 60,000 people were simultaneously tuned online to an unassuming meeting room at the company’s headquarters to watch Mark Zuckerberg and cohorts unveil a slew of new features for the social-networking site.

While that might not be quite on the level of a Steve Jobs keynote, it’s impressive given the relative regularity of Facebook product launches and the lack of suspense surrounding the day’s announcements (we’ve known Skype video chat was coming for nearly a week).

The ever-growing ubiquity of Facebook was certainly a focal point of Zuckerberg’s remarks. He confirmed the company now has more than 750 million active users and shared a personal anecdote about an elderly neighbor conversing with him on Wednesday morning about the event and his desire for video chat.

Certainly, a sense that Facebook has “won” the social network battle seemed to permeate, with Zuckerberg saying that the era of connecting people — forming the underlying social graph that makes Facebook work — “is more or less done at this point.”

It’s with that backdrop that we learned — or at least confirmed — several things about Facebook and where it currently sees itself in the technology world.

More About: facebook, Skype

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Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Blogging, Facebook, search engine optimization, SEO, Skype, Social Networking

Evidence of a Facebook Music Service Surfaces

July 7, 2011 by Ben Parr Leave a Comment

References to a product called “Vibes” have been found in Facebook’s code, and it could be related to the company’s rumored music service.

The social network launched its Skype-powered video chat service on Wednesday. Part of the process of getting started with the one-on-one video communication product is downloading and installing a program on the desktop.

Eagle-eyed software engineer and researcher Jeff Rose was curious about what he was installing and how it interacts with Skype, so decided to look into the code of the desktop app. In it, he found that the installer supports not one, but two applications. One is called “Peep,” which is related to the video chat client, and one is called “Vibes,” which is apparently related to a music downloading app.

Here’s the code in question:

if (paramString.equals("com.facebook.peep")) return this.window.getMember("VideoChatPlugin"); if (paramString.equals("com.facebook.vibes")) { return this.window.getMember("MusicDownloadDialog"); }

It seems clear that Facebook has something related to music downloading up its sleeve. Could it be an app for downloading your music and uploading it to the cloud? Could it be powered by Spotify? Or could it just be code that refers to a defunct or discarded product?

Don’t bet on Facebook’s music app being called “Facebook Vibes,” though. There’s a reason why Facebook’s video chat product isn’t called “Facebook Peep.” Still, we know Facebook has a music product coming soon, and now we believe it will do more than simply play your favorite tunes.

What do you think Facebook has up its sleeve?

More About: facebook, facebook chat, Facebook Music, Facebook Vibes, Facebook Video Chat, Skype, spotify

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Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Blogging, Channels, Facebook, facebook chat, Facebook Music, Facebook Vibes, Facebook Video Chat, Music, News, search engine optimization, SEO, Skype, Social Networking, spotify

Facebook Video Chat v. Google Hangouts: It’s No Contest

July 6, 2011 by Michael Arrington Leave a Comment

One of the questions I had when I broke the news last week about the Facebook/Skype partnership: Would group video chat be part of the product, and if so would it be free?

The answer is no, there’s no group chat. Facebook says that one on one video chat is far more popular on Skype than group chat and so it makes sense to start there. But that’s misdirection – group chat on Skype requires that at least one user be paying $4.49/month for premium service. So not a lot of group video chat happens on Skype.

Google’s new hangout product is all about group chat, and it’s free. Up to ten people can use it at once. Google is smart about this, figuring out which person is talking and focusing the video stream on them until someone else takes over. If you want to have fun with a group of friends, or hold a dead simple video team call, Google Hangouts is perfect for that.

But Google Hangouts isn’t as good for one on one conversations. The whole setup of a hangout, sending out invites, is too complicated for that, Instead you can just initiate a Google video call directly to another user, and that works very similarly to Skype and now Facebook (Google should add a video chat button to user profiles, too).

If you want to have a one on one video chat, and your friend list is hosted at Facebook, the new Facebook video chat is a near perfect product. You can initiate a call right from the home page, or that person’s profile page. And there’s no need to register for Skype, or download the Skype client.

Both products require their own download, though. And neither work on mobile yet.

So for now, there’s really no comparison between the products. Facebook video chat is great to talk to friends one at a time. Google Hangouts is great for group chat. There’s no real overlap between the products at all.

But…I wouldn’t be surprised to see Facebook launch group video chat down the road. Until now Skype has kept up fees for premium/business users, and we’ve heard that it was always a key “future revenue” product that they pointed to during their IPO and buyout process. But few users seem to be willing to go premium, and their new owners may just remove that pay barrier sooner rather than later. When that happens I’d expect Facebook to launch that feature as well shortly afterward.

CrunchBase Information

Google

Facebook

Skype

Information provided by CrunchBase

Filed Under: Facebook, Google, Search Engine Marketing Tagged With: Blogging, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, search engine optimization, SEO, Skype, Social Networking, TC

Facebook Video Chat v. Google Hangouts: It’s No Contest

July 6, 2011 by Michael Arrington Leave a Comment

One of the questions I had when I broke the news last week about the Facebook/Skype partnership: Would group video chat be part of the product, and if so would it be free?

Both products require their own download, though. And neither work on mobile yet.

CrunchBase Information

Google

Facebook

Skype

Information provided by CrunchBase

Filed Under: Facebook, Google, Search Engine Marketing Tagged With: Blogging, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, search engine optimization, SEO, Skype, Social Networking, TC

HOW TO: Launch Facebook Skype Video Chat [PICS]

July 6, 2011 by Sarah Kessler Leave a Comment

You can now make video calls on Facebook, thanks to a new Skype-powered feature the social network launched Wednesday.

During the product announcement, Mark Zuckerberg described how his elderly neighbor in Palo Alto asked if he could to video chat his grandson on Facebook — without the hassle of setting up a new account or downloading a program. “Tune in,” Zuckerberg told him.

SEE ALSO: Facebook’s Announcements | Facebook Video Chat | Facebook Skype Chat Video | Facebook Group Chat

It’s not quite as seamless as Zuckerberg’s neighbor was hoping, however. The first time you try to video chat someone or answer a call, you will indeed be asked to download a program. The chat window will then ask you to select some Flash settings.

After that, the feature works like “a mini-Skype client,” as Skype CEO Tony Bates mentioned during the announcement. It also has a neat option to record a video message if the person you’re calling doesn’t answer. Here’s a brief walk-through in pictures. Is it working for you? Let us know in the comments.

Before you can participate in a video chat call, go to facebook.com/videocalling to enable your account. Click on "Get started."

You'll need to install a program. The install option will pop up when you click the video camera icon on the upper-right corner of the chat window or receive a call.

As with a standard Skype call, no video launches until the second party answers the call.

If the person who you're calling doesn't answer, you can leave a video message. This message will appear in their "messages" tab, the same place that text messages do.

This is what the video chat window looks like.

More About: facebook, Facebook announcement, Facebook Video Chat, Skype, video chat

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Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Blogging, Facebook, Facebook announcement, Facebook Video Chat, search engine optimization, SEO, Skype, Social Networking, video chat

Video Chat Faceoff: Google+ Hangouts vs. Facebook [POLL]

July 6, 2011 by Ben Parr Leave a Comment

Now that Facebook has unveiled its Skype-powered video chat service, we can ask: How does it compare to Google’s new video chat product, Google+ Hangouts?

Last week, the search giant unveiled its social network, which in turn is a collection of new Google products. One of them, Hangouts, allows up to 10 people to simultaneously engage in a group chat. The main video feed switches based on who is speaking in the microphone. We’ve previously said that Hangouts may be Google+’s killer feature.

SEE ALSO: Facebook’s Announcements | Skype-Powered Video Chat | Skype Chat [VIDEO] | Video Chat [HOW TO] | Group Chat

On Wednesday, Facebook responded with one-on-one video chat powered by Skype. (You can access the video-calling feature here: facebook.com/videocalling.) The social network touts how easy it is to initiate a Facebook video chat. And since Facebook has 750 million users, it’s likely to be a popular product with the masses.

So who has the right idea with video chat: Facebook or Google? Vote in our poll, and let us know what you think of both products in the comments below.

Which video chat product is better: Google+ Hangouts or Facebook Video Chat?online survey

More About: facebook, Facebook announcement, facebook chat, Facebook Video Chat, Google, Google Hangouts, Google Plus, poll, Skype

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Filed Under: Facebook, Google, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Blogging, Facebook, Facebook announcement, facebook chat, Facebook Video Chat, Google Hangouts, google plus, Poll, search engine optimization, SEO, Skype, Social Networking, Top Stories

Facebook Shows What Skype Chat Looks Like [VIDEO]

July 6, 2011 by Christina Warren Leave a Comment

On Wednesday, Facebook announced its long-rumored partnership with Skype to bring video chat to the world’s most popular social networking site. Video chat is just one of the new features Facebook introduced as part of its Facebook Chat overhaul.

SEE ALSO: Facebook’s Announcements | Facebook Video Chat | Facebook Group Chat

Facebook created this video, which reminds us a bit of both Google’s search ads and Apple’s ads for FaceTime, to show off the new feature and the partnership between the two services.

What do you think of Facebook video chat? Let us know.

More About: facebook, Facebook announcement, facebook chat, Facebook Video Chat, Skype, video chat

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Filed Under: Facebook, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Blogging, Channels, Facebook, Facebook announcement, facebook chat, Facebook Video Chat, News, search engine optimization, SEO, Skype, social media, Social Networking, social software, video, video chat, Web Apps

Zuckerberg on Google+: It’s a Validation of Facebook’s Vision

July 6, 2011 by Ben Parr Leave a Comment

What does Mark Zuckerberg think of Google+, the search giant’s new social network?

We were curious, so we asked Zuckerberg two questions at Facebook’s video chat event in Palo Alto, California: Will there be group video chat in the future? And what does he think of Google+ Hangouts, Google’s new group video chat feature?

On the first question, Zuckerberg simply said that he “wouldn’t rule out anything,” but argued that we shouldn’t knock the value of one-on-one video chat, especially with a platform as large as Facebook. He also used the opportunity to make it clear that the partnership with Skype has been going on for a long time, even before Tony Bates became the CEO of Skype. “We’ve been working with Skype for a while,” he told the audience.

SEE ALSO: Facebook’s Announcements | Facebook Video Chat | Facebook Group Chat

Facebook’s CEO danced around the second question. He reiterated his key talking point: that the next five years are about building apps on top of the social infrastructure that has been built during the past five years. Zuckerberg predicts that a lot of companies that haven’t traditionally looked at social networking will be focused on integrating it into their apps. He cited Netflix as one example, and was clearly alluding to Google as another.

While he didn’t give Google+ a thumbs up or a thumbs down, he did say that the rise of social in more companies was in line with his view of the world. “I view a lot of this as validation as to how the next five years are going to play out,” he noted during his talk.

Zuckerberg doesn’t seem concerned by the potential threat Google+ presents. “Our job is to stay focused,” he said.

More About: facebook, Facebook Video Chat, Google, Google Hangouts, Google Plus, Skype

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Filed Under: Facebook, Google, search engine optimization, Social Networking Tagged With: Blogging, Facebook, Facebook Video Chat, Google Hangouts, google plus, News, search engine optimization, SEO, Skype, Social Networking, Top Stories

Facebook Reveals Video Chat Powered by Skype

July 6, 2011 by Ben Parr Leave a Comment

Facebook video chat is real: the social network has unveiled its rumored video chat product, powered by Skype.

“A few months ago, we started working with Skype to bring video calling to Facebook,” Facebook announced on its blog. “We built it right into chat, so all your conversations start from the same place. To call your friend, just click the video call button at the top of your chat window.”

SEE ALSO: Facebook’s Announcements | Facebook Group Chat

The new chat product, according to Facebook’s blog, will allow users to call their friends right from Facebook. The revamped chat system now includes a sidebar with “the people you message most.” It automatically appears when your browser is big enough.