• BURN MEDIA
    • Motorburn
      Because cars are gadgets
    • Gearburn
      Incisive reviews for the gadget obsessed
    • Ventureburn
      Startup news for emerging markets
    • Jobsburn
      Digital industry jobs for the anti 9 to 5!

All posts tagged "Skype"

Posts tagged "Skype"

  • Microsoft’s Skype Lite Android app launches in India

    By on 22 February, 2017

    An interesting counter-trend is emerging among the world's most popular apps. With Facebook launching the likes of Messenger Lite and Facebook Lite last year to cater for emerging markets, Microsoft is following suit debuting Skype Lite this week. Like its Facebook counterparts, Skype Lite will be available for low-cost Android devices, and cater exclusively (at least for now) to the Indian smartphone market. Overall the Hyderabad-developed app is said to be more usable on low-speed networks, use less battery and works with India's Aadhaar identification number system to streamline signups and identification. Skype Lite is a direct competitor to Facebook Messenger Lite...

  • Skype’s new preview beta adds a touch of Snapchat

    By on 17 February, 2017

    Remember Skype? The video conferencing tool is a product we haven't covered in a while, and that's largely because its feature set hasn't changed radically since Microsoft bought it from eBay in 2011. But that's about to change, at least judging by this week's news. Skype's mobile app, available on Android and iOS, is set to receive a number of updates to bring it in line with the other instant messaging apps of this world. Skype Chat will now boast a "Find Panel" which will allow users to "easily find and share links, news, sports results, restaurants, the weather, videos and more...

  • Amazon wants to take over the boardroom, silence Skype with Chime

    By on 15 February, 2017

    Internet behemoth Amazon has announced a new workplace messaging and conferencing facility. Dubbed Chime, the product is billed as a "communications service that transforms online meetings with a secure, easy-to-use application that you can trust". According to the company, the Skype-rival works across multiple devices, much like the service its going up against. "You can use Amazon Chime for online meetings, video conferencing, calls, chat, and to share content, both inside and outside your organization," Amazon adds. The company claims that a number of features makes its offering unique, including a meeting facility that calls you when a meeting begins. There's also...

  • Microsoft Teams: Redmond joins the funky workplace collab party

    By on 3 November, 2016

    Microsoft has today launched its answer to workplace collaboration tool Slack in the form of Microsoft Teams. The company's announcement comes just weeks after social giant Facebook launched its Slack competitor, Workplace. Like Slack, the chat-based workspace allows groups to collaborate on projects through persistent chat threads and rooms, but also supports video calling by plugging into Skype, and group task completion by using Microsoft's Office program suite. Teams will also boast apps for MacOS, Android and iOS, including the web. "At Microsoft, we are deeply committed to the mission of helping people and organizations achieve more—and reinventing productivity for the cloud and...

  • Skype for Android tablets see a Material Design update

    By on 27 May, 2016

    Skype has released an update that brings a Material Design refresh to its Android tablet app. Android phones have been enjoying their Material Design updates since 2015. Skype users on tablets can now enjoy Android's new design language with all its vivid colours and bold shapes. The new UI for tablets has a floating button that Skype is claiming makes it easier to send messages and start voice and video calls. The design, according to the company, is optimised for multitasking, with its multi-pane view in landscape orientation. This allows users to send messages, files and check latest conversations whilst on a...

  • Skype for Web now lets non-Skype users join conversations

    By on 15 March, 2016

    Microsoft has today introduced a slew of new features to Skype for Web, including the ability to make calls from the web directly to mobile phones and landlines, and inviting users without a Skype account to join calls. The feature is primarily being introduced to enable users to save money on calls, Skype says. Other features include notifications and watching YouTube videos within Skype for Web. Making calls on Skype for Web allows users to save on charges. "Once you’ve signed in to Skype for Web, simply click on the call phones tab, select your destination, dial the number you’d like...

  • Microsoft acquires technology assets from Event Zero to enhance Skype for Business Online

    By on 14 January, 2016

    Microsoft on Wednesday announced, that it has acquired technology assets underlying the UC Commander product suite from Event Zero, a company that currently provides management software for Skype for Business Online, for an undisclosed amount. The UC Commander product suite includes management, reporting and analytics technology. The company adds that the acquisition will allow it to expand and improve the built-in management tools for Skype for Business and shows its commitment to deliver a complete, enterprise-grade communications solution at global scale with Office 365. Read more: Attempts to regulate WhatsApp, other OTTs could get ludicrous "Our goal is to make the...

    1

  • Skype voice translator finally starts rolling-out to Windows users

    By on 2 October, 2015

    On the back of experiencing some down time last week, online communication service Skype now has real-time voice translation for all Windows PC and tablet users. The ground-breaking feature -- which we first saw during a preview last year -- can translate voice languages English, French, German, Italian, Mandarin and Spanish, as well as 50 messaging languages, in real-time. "It has been a long-time dream at Skype to break down language barriers and bring everyone across the globe closer together," Skype writes in the blog announcement, adding that hundreds of thousands of people have already been testing the app since December...

    1

  • Weekly Round Up #36: 4chan sale, Skype outage, BB-8 Star Wars droid and TomTom Bandit

    By on 25 September, 2015

    Welcome to Weekly Roundup, our podcast discussing the tech trends, innovation and news from the last few days. This week on BurnCast, Stuart Thomas, Jacques Coetzee, Graham van de Made and Andy Walker discuss Skype's outage, 4chan sale, and talk about the toys that they are and have been playing with lately. Stuart has been playing with the BB-8 Star Wars droid and Andy had the privilege of being one of the first people in South Africa to use the TomTom bandit. Every now and then, platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Amazon, etc go down and leave the entire world in...

  • Skype ‘working on a fix’ as communication service faces worldwide outage [Update]

    By on 21 September, 2015

    Update: Skype is back up. Just a day after Amazon Web Services issues forced popular internet platforms like Netflix, Product Hunt, Medium, SocialFlow and Buffer to go offline, Microsoft's popular voice and video chat service Skype has gone down as well. Although, Skype Support has tweeted that it's "aware of an issue affecting Skype status", the problem seems to be affecting most of the service's features: We are aware of an issue affecting Skype status at the moment, and are working on a quick fix: http://t.co/ymSzmrgEX0 pic.twitter.com/8LoqqL0hh7— Skype Support (@SkypeSupport) September 21, 2015 It appears that people from around the world using...

    5

  • Google’s barrier breaking real-time voice translator is almost here

    By on 12 January, 2015

    The world is more connected than ever before. Yet, foreign languages still seem to be the biggest barrier to achieving a truly interconnected planet. It doesn't matter how many fibre cables you lay or smartphones you create, if people can't easily understand and learn from each other, what's the use? In a mission to break these barriers down, major tech companies such as Microsoft and Google are gearing up to release real-time voice translation services. As the New York Times reports, Google is about to unveil a real-time language translator that would be able to automatically recognise a popular spoken language...

  • Microsoft reveals Skype Translate: a real time voice interpreter

    By on 29 May, 2014

    Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that in the future Microsoft’s Skype will be able to translate voice and video calls in near-real-time. Nadella’s news came yesterday at the Code Conference, where the head of Skype, Gurdeep Pall, demonstrated the interpretation capabilities of the current version of Skype Translator. In the demo, Pall engages in a Skype video call with one of his German colleagues, Diane Heinrichs. Heinrichs speaks in German, which is immediately translated to English and read out by the programme, while Pall responds in English, which is then translated into German. The result is a virtually comprehensive multilingual...

  • 10 pieces of consumer tech that have transformed PR over the past decade

    By on 27 February, 2014

    While we may not yet have the hover boards, flying cars and self-lacing shoes promised in 80s cult movie Back To The Future, the past 10 years have seen the introduction of an unprecedented number of cool, useful tech products and services that have made the life of the modern PR so much easier. Some among us may remember a time before mobile phones, when we had no way of keeping in touch with important calls after hours. Or even worse, who remembers a time when press releases were printed and hand-delivered (in a personalised manila envelope no less)? Since our...

  • Twitter wants to be a messaging app, Instagram wants to be Snapchat. And that’s missing the point…

    By on 18 December, 2013

    Of course Snapchat turning down a US$3-billion offer from Facebook has made everyone sit up and take notice. That’s real money, even for the Valley. Is it a surprise that Twitter last week moved direct messaging to the timeline? Is it a surprise that it's added photo messaging to DMs? Is it a surprise that Instagram launched private (‘Direct’) messaging? No. No. No. And it's also not a surprise that those two companies unveiled these features within a day of each other. It's a fight for attention. Right now, there’s no winner takes all. Even WhatsApp (ironically the least innovative...

    1

  • Ashton Kutcher joins Lenovo as product engineer, no seriously

    By on 30 October, 2013

    So it looks like the trend for Hollywood celebs taking on roles at large tech companies isn't about to slow down any time soon. The latest A-lister to take on a corporate role is Ashton Kutcher, who is now a product engineer meets brand ambassador for Chinese tech giant Lenovo. Yup, that would be the same Ashton Kutcher who played Steve Jobs in the most high profile biopic about the legendary Apple CEO. "This partnership with Lenovo brings together my love of technology and design that makes your life better. I can’t wait to dig in and help Lenovo...

    3