“Skype is now mobile” apparently!

Ben Robinson

Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.

• Raj Malhotra

  Truphone’s what I prefer on my Nokia E70 as there is no mobile Skype available for it (at least, not in the US, though maybe 3 offers an E70). Plus, when I first signed up for Truphone, there was a promotional “free calls to US, UK, ….etc.” numbers so that was another incentive. Rates aren’t bad either. I was in France for 4 months, used it all the time at free wifi hotspots and at home to make long distance calls.

• Anthony

  I was recently in New York and kept in touch with family in the UK by Skype. I gave my parents a Skypephone and showed my mum how to use it (no chance explaining anything to my dad!)

  I couldn’t use a Skypephone in the US so didn’t bother taking one with me. Instead I decided to use the N95 8GB that WOM World loaned me or my Eee PC. The Skype client that my network (3 UK) uses doesn’t allow for WiFi connection so no luck there. I tried using the latest Fring and that had connection problems too.

  In the end I settled for Skype on my Eee. It worked a treat and also allowed me to make videocalls with my brother-in-law and their kids. The quality blew me away. I even managed to show them the St Patrick’s Day parade from the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art live! (free WiFi is great!)

  The Eee is very mobile but not obviously a mobile! I no longer have mine, more on that in my blog (honestly that’s not a shameless plug)

• rahul

  I use Skype on my Nokia N800 tablet. Pretty neat solution and pretty good rates.

• Anthony

  I’m being loaned an N800 for a couple of weeks, I’m curious to know if you can do video calls on Skype with it?

• Ed

  I have used different flavors of skype. On my TyTN II, PSP and laptop. It always works great. The most useful it proved was recently on a trip to New York, 3G is awsome so I could hook up my TyTN II to my laptop and do video conferencing with my folks on skype, that was an enjoyable experience.

• Chris P

  Skype has got quite a cheek – they are so behind in the mbile arena its not true. Where is the Skype WM or Symbian client!? It can be done (with Fring as an example) but they simply havent developed it. They really could clean up if they actually went mobile, I have no idea why they havent yet!

  I use Fring its a blooy great app, msn and skype work well using Wifi (as used to work well using HSDPA until Tmobile blocked it!)

• Chris P

  excuse the typos in the last post!

• Dave C

  Ed- If possible, can you please provide details of how you got Skype working on your TyTN II? I’ve got a brand new one out of the box and am having a heck of a time with it. It’ll install OK but gives a “Could not start Skype” message on launch. Thank you. -Dave

• NET9

  I’ll stick with Gizmo on my N95-3. It works great, and I can use it on more devices than Skype at the moment.

• nir

  E90 with Fring!

• Mike

  Skype has become one of the daring product and entering the mobile is great. They should have cleaned up and reviewed their products. In fact Skype in mobile is superior.

• RF9

  I’ve had Skye on my AT&T Tilt for a couple of months now. So I had no idea it was new for mobiles.

  It doesn’t wok right on the Tilt. Incoming audio comes out the rear speaker. There’s no way to make it come out the (phone) ear piece. I’m just not interested in using it like a speakerphone only.

• Dave C

  RF9- If possible, can you please provide details of how you got Skype working on your AT&T Tilt? For example, what version are you running? I’ve got a brand new TyTN II and am having a heck of a time with Skype. It’ll install OK but gives a “Could not start Skype” message on launch. Thank you.

• Chris P

  JFK – why dont you buy a wifi Symbian phone? You can use Skype with Fring on that..

• Make

  Hello!
  I have same problems than Dave C, But my device is windows Ce 5.0 It’ll install OK but gives a “Could not start Skype” message on launch.
  Who knows what is problem?