Seems like the outcry of millions of Airtel subscribers in India has reached the ears of top officials handling Bharti Airtel. Airtel has dropped the idea of price hike for internet voice calls through apps such as Skype and Viber. In a statement released by Airtel today, the firm clarified that it is taking back the implemented rates on VoIP, keeping in view of the fact that TRAI has already started considering the issue.

The official statement reads, “In view of the news reports that a consultation paper will be issued shortly by TRAI on issues relating to services offered by OTT (over the top content) players, [...]

We have heard the term Net Neutrality a lot this year, mostly in the context of the politically charged conversation that is happening in Washington. Net Neutrality is a bedrock principle of the internet. It says that internet providers cannot pick and choose between different internet offerings. For e.g., internet providers cannot charge extra for YouTube or Skype or any other individual website or service. All websites must get equal speeds, and no service can be charged extra. Internet providers are actively trying to dismantle this principle to boost their revenues further. In India, Airtel has drawn the first blood and has introduced extra charges for Voice Over Internet [...]

Microsoft has announced that it will retire long time messaging champion MSN Messenger and will streamline transition into recently acquired Skype. The Skype client added support for Messenger contacts and chat just two weeks ago, when version 6 was released. Within six months, the Skype client will be the only option available for connecting to Messenger contacts.

Though the Skype client now connects to both Skype and Messenger networks (and Facebook too), the networks are at present still separate, and there’s no bridging between the two. Microsoft is working on moving users [...]

According to various sources, the new upcoming Facebook iPhone messenger will have inbuilt Skype/video chat integration, to allow you to video chat with online Facebook friends. What’s more interesting is the fact that the company is supposedly working on a dedicated app for the iPad, since they have got huge back-appeal for the sloppy in-built chat in the iPad app.

[9to5Mac]

The newest version of Skype i.e 2.5 now supports video calling over 14 new devices and leftover Honeycomb tablets. The list of major tablets includes

It also works flawlessly on our Asus Transformer.

[Skype]

[toggle title_open=”Press Release” title_closed=”Press Release” hide=”yes” border=”yes” style=”default” excerpt_length=”0″ [...]

Skype has also added Facebook live chat to their windows client. Skype 5.3 for windows enables people logged into Skype to talk to their Facbook friends via an easy interface.

Import your Facebook News Feed to keep up with the latest from your friends. Comment, Like and call them direct from Skype. Update your Facebook status from Skype, too.

Get all the latest Skype features plus send instant messages direct to Facebook chat. See when your friends on Facebook are online and get in touch in one click.

Facebook has just announced Facebook Video calls, in partnership with Skype. The Video feature embeds directly into Facebook chat and is a free to use service.

There were three major announcements today.

In a direct approach the Member downloads a tiny Skype applet .jar file and Facebook Video chat becomes available. Users can now click the video button in the chat module to initiate a [...]

Microsoft has been given the US antitrust approval for the large acquisition of Skype for its VOIP integrations within all of its offerings including, and not limiting to, Windows, Xbox and Zune. The total cost of this is set at US $8.5 Billion and the transfer of funds will commence and end in one single sweep.

Microsoft will be updating the Skype APIs to make them usable within their own infrastructure, and should be updating the end user clients very very soon. Microsoft has constantly repeated that existing Skype users will and should  not be affected by the new changes.

After a few weeks of beta version of the Skype 5.0. Skype 5.0 for MAC becomes final and completely bug free. The group video chat comes at a premium to premium users of the Skype community. $4.99 for a day pass or $8.99 a month for a subscription (though you can get 33 percent off if you sign up before February 28th)

Source : Skype.com