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Nokia N97: Not all supported Skype

Written by IT News on 2:50 AM

Earlier this month at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Skype and Nokia announced that the popular software would be embedded in mobile phone maker's products, starting with the N97 phone, which is expected to reach the market sometime in June.

Unfortunately it seems that the store has seen some resistance from wireless operators and the planned integration cannot go as smoothly as expected. O2 and Orange have been reported this week to be quite "furious" about Nokia's decision to integrate the software into its new high-end N97 smartphone.

According to the news, operators may refuse to put the company's products incorporate software that enables users to make free calls over the Internet while using a data connection. At the same time, they can only agree with the give-phones that do not include Skype, the Mobile Today website says. On the other hand, some of the carriers seem to agree with that. T-Mobile is one of those players, and 3, a British one, which already has been added to its layout, which includes Skype phones.

The deal between Nokia and Skype are offering software built into the N97 address book, which would make it possible for users to see when Skype contacts are online. At the same time, they will be able to employ the popular IM client. The software is also required to offer them the opportunity to make free and cheap phone calls over the Internet, regardless of whether they use a 3G mobile network or a Wi-Fi one.

Some of the mobile operators such as O2 and Orange, seem to think that Skype would actually reduce voice traffic and weaken their relations with customers. Nokia has not commented on news that the carriers have complained about software, but a spokesman for the company has explained that the Skype feature is not able to present some of the N97 mobile phones.

"At Mobile World Congress, we announced that Skype would be available on a limited number of N-series devices, starting with the N97, spokesman has shared." But it's possible it will not be on each N97."

--Source : softpedia.com ---

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Skype censoring certain computer activities

Written by IT News on 8:20 PM

As far as I can see, this is one of the most serious accusations addressed to Skype as the president of Dynamic Internet Technology accuses the application of censoring certain computer activities. Bill Xia is a provider of specialized software which helps the local Internet consumers bypass the
governments' filters and access the restricted websites. In case you didn't know, the Chinese authorities are very exigent when it comes to the content accessed by the local users so they are trying anything it is possible to restrict certain websites. Sometimes, the government demands the help of the Internet pages or software solutions in order to do that, Skype being only one of those selected.

Bill Xia sustains Skype supports the government in censoring the content and moreover, it installs a hidden process on users' computer which blocks certain words from being sent over the Internet. It all started when Skype redirected the users to Skype.tom.com, a website created in collaboration with Tom.com which is rumored to be used for tracking users on the Internet. Moreover, the Chinese user said for WebProNews that Skype puts a process called 'contentfilter.exe' on consumers' systems, blocking certain words such as 'dalai lama' from being sent on the web.

"We're sure it's not a redirection from the firewall of the Chinese government but from Skype itself," Bill Xia said for the source mentioned above.

Skype refused to comment on the reports but according to Bill Xia, the company detected that he uses the VoIP application to communicate with his clients in order to help them bypass the filters so it decided to redirect the users to the new portal and install that hidden executable file. However, these are serious accusations if we think that the company doesn't mention anything about a secret process to monitor the computer activity in the privacy policy published on its official page.