Microsoft announced today it will be acquiring Skype for the nice round number of $8.5B. I have two thoughts. Personally, I like the fact that personal desktop conferencing will find a wider audience as it moves to Kinect-set top boxes, computers, and other internet-ready devices. Professionally, since I work for a company that supports high-end

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Google has fired another shot at the telephone companies, and at fellow free VOIP provider, Skype, with it’s newest invention, the ability to call land and cell phones right from Gmail. The feature should be active on all Gmail accounts as of 6/25/2010, and allow you to call friends, family and business contacts through your

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The latest online music service launched recently, and I was lucky enough to get an invite today. Rdio is a streaming service that works both to your desktop and mobile devices.  Currently there is support for iPhones, Blackberry and coming soon, Android. The latest brainchild of Kazaa and Skype founders, Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis,

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Video conferencing is quickly becoming a standard method of communication in business today.  Companies like Polycom, Tandberg and LifeSize have built very robust infrastructure and endpoint systems that in many ways are cheaper and more productive than phone systems. But do you need a full-blown system, or can you get by with a leased solution

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I love Skype for my business phone system.  I can make unlimited calls to any phone (minus a couple of toll-free systems) for one yearly low price. Some businesses are using it on a much larger scale, almost as a PBX or other phone system.  And now you can add voice mails, call forwarding, and

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