Skype video calling
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Skype Beta for Mac and Windows adds Facebook-to-Facebook calling, monitor tans to get even darker
Because your friends are your Facebook, Skype's deepening its integration with the social network and making video chats to your roster of pals possible from within its own app. The popular VoIP service began powering video calling on the site this past summer and is now extending that reach with two new iterations of its software. Both Skype 5.7 Beta for Windows and Skype 5.4 Beta for Mac will offer users the option to link accounts and keep their circle of online friends closer with in-app voice and video calling. Thought you were going to wean off that IV drip of Zuck's ubiquitous collage of human minutiae? Sorry, friends, we're all in this together. Every single day and every word you say -- we'll be watching you... cuz that's what friends are for, so thank you for being a friend or, well, you get the point.
Skype 2.0 hotfix enables video chat on Sprint's Nexus S 4G
Looks like some of the Skype crew might've had a sleepless night to please owners of the Nexus S 4G. If you'll recall, June 30th saw a major update to its Android app enabling video chat on four devices; although the Nexus S was part of the club, its door was locked for Sprint's 4G variant. That's quickly changed, however, as the team's set loose a hotfix to grant it access -- this despite initially stating we'd have to wait for a "future release." You can grab the app from the Android Market if you haven't yet, and be sure to let us know how it goes in comments. Oh, and for those anxious Thunderbolt owners? We'd recommend not holding your breath until after the 4th of July holiday.
HTC Thunderbolt rumored to be hitting Best Buy February 14th, sans mobile hotspot or Skype video?
The HTC Thunderbolt may have been officially announced way back at CES, but there's still quite a bit we don't know about the phone -- namely, a price or a release date. We now at least have what looks to be a fairly solid hint of the latter, however, courtesy of the above shot of a Best Buy inventory screen that lists an in stock date of February 14th. You'll note that the screen doesn't actually mention the HTC Thunderbolt anywhere, but some sleuthing by the folks at Android Central reveals that the product code matches one found on a Thunderbolt box that turned up in a recent hands-on video. Joining that rumor is a separate one from Droid Life, which has obtained some supposedly authentic Verizon materials that suggest the Thunderbolt won't be shipping with mobile hotspot functionality enabled at launch, and that Skype video chat won't be enabled initially either. No word on a reason for the delay (if there actually is one), but both features will seemingly be enabled at some point, and there will apparently be a placeholder icon in the case of Skype that will display a "coming soon" message if it's launched.
Skype video calling coming to Android, demoed on the Droid Bionic (updated: official!)
You know that front facing camera on Motorola's LTE Droid Bionic? Well, it looks like you will be able to use it to make Skype video calls very soon. We were hanging around the Motorola booth early this morning and while playing around with the new 4.3-inch phone we noticed a "Skype demo" application. One click on the application revealed that the video calling capability, which just became available for the iPhone, will be heading to Android soon. There wasn't a working app, but the video demo clearly showed how easy it will be to log into Skype, pull up your contact list, and make a video call over Verizon's next generation network. We've got a few pictures below and a short video is on the way. Now we just need Skype to make this official at its press conference in just a few hours... %Gallery-113003% Update: Verizon just announced that Skype video calling will be coming to all the LTE smartphones -- aka Android handsets. Details in the liveblog...
