Skype calls without an account

Using Skype for a quick chat or video call just got a whole lot easier. Microsoft has announced that anyone can now use Skype as a guest user without the need of registering a new account. Guest users don’t even need to download the Skype application. The real purpose of the move is to increase new users and stay step ahead of other competitors.

Microsoft says “Today, we’re excited to announce that we’ve made it easier than ever for you to connect with anyone on Skype, without needing to register or even download it. By joining Skype as a Guest, you can quickly chat, voice or video call without any hassle. Perfect if you’re new to Skype and want to quickly chat with someone, anywhere in the world, for free.”

From now on, web-based guest interface that lets you make and receive calls. To make a call, all you need to do is go to skype.com and mention a temporary username (handle) for yourself. Once done, you get a link which can be shared with anyone and the guest user can start a voice call, video call, group chat or share files. In other words, guest users can allowed all actions a normal user with a desktop application can and all they need is a web browser.

The idea is actually not to different from what Google implemented with Hangouts. While Hangouts may be going through an existential crisis and might be phased out, Skype has taken a cue from its book. Hangouts users could be a part of the call by accessing a link. Skype upgrades it so that users can make calls with mere links. Conversations last for 24 hours, after that, these are wiped.

Microsoft might be a bit too late here as WhatsApp and others are already killing it and have nearly forced it out of the race. While Skype was the same old bulky and slow application, others made a move and gathered enough users to overtake Skype. Today, WhatsApp announced support for video calls, nearly matching Skype in basic features as far as smartphone apps go. The only route out for Skype and Microsoft is to somehow maintain its importance in the desktop realm once the competitors take on Skype in that battle.

Skype For Linux: Microsoft Launches Alpha Client To Replace Aging App

Microsoft Corp. launched an alpha version of a new Linux client for its Skype chat and calling service, very tellingly named Skype for Linux Alpha. In a blog post Wednesday that announced the launch, the company said the client “is not a fully functioning Skype client yet” but had been launched anyway because it wants “to get it [the client] in your hands as soon as possible.”

Pointing out some of the differences between the new app and the version it replaces, the blog says users will “be using the latest, fast and responsive Skype UI, you can share files, photos and videos and send a whole new range of new emoticons.” The company is also asking for users to test the app and provide feedback so it can prioritize which features it should work on adding, improving or fixing.

Skype also seems keen on phasing out its older Linux client. Using the new alpha version, “you will be able to call your friends and family on the latest versions of Skype on Windows, Mac, iOS and Android, but you won’t be able to make or receive calls to and from the previous versions of Skype for Linux (4.3.0.37).”

Linux users can download Skype for Linux Alpha from here.

Another feature announced Wednesday was the alpha version of Skype based on WebRTC (an interface that supports browser-to-browser communication without additional plugins). Using the same features as the new Linux client, it is targeted at users of Chromebook and Chrome on Linux. The offering for the Chrome browser will expand over the next few months to include landlines and cellphones as well, the company said.

If you have an existing Skype account, the WebRTC version can be accessed using this link.

Skype was first released in 2003 and Microsoft bought the company in 2011 for $8.5 billion.

Pilot earpiece targets language barriers with live conversation translation

From the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's Babel fish to Star Trek's universal translator, science fiction has found ways to break down the intergalactic language barriers, but it's something those of us in the real world are still struggling with. New York startup Waverly Labs is now claiming it's ready to make fiction a reality with the Pilot earpiece, which sits in your ear to provide near real-time translations of multilingual conversations.

   

The time and technology seem close to bring another idea from science fiction into reality. The Babel fish from Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was a living, squirming animal you stuck in your ear to translate any language in the universe for you in real time – a neat plot device that let every alien in the novels understand each other.

Now, a Manhattan-based company called Waverly Labs is working on commercializing an electronic device that does a similar job. The Pilot is an earpiece that listens in to a conversation and communicates with your smartphone to give you a close-to-real time translation.

To do so, it's going to need to rely on several potential weak-link systems; it'll need a clear signal from its in-built microphone, which will need to do a decent job of converting that signal from speech into text in both speakers' languages.

Then it'll need a good, effective translation, presumably from an online translation engine like those run by Google or Microsoft. In particular, it'll need to operate super-quickly and do a good job translating each language in a spoken, chatty form.

Then it'll need to convert the translation from text to speech and send it back to the earbud. And it'll need to be able to do all these tasks concurrently if the other person keeps talking while it's thinking.

The fact is, all these systems are already out there, up and running. None are perfect, in fact most are still glitchy and inaccurate, but each is steadily improving. Waverly Labs has wisely chosen to launch with European Latin and Germanic languages only at first; these are handled far better by online translators than Euro-to-Asian language translations at the moment.

Both Google Translate and Microsoft's Skype Translator are also already attempting real-time conversation translation in mobile and desktop applications. Pilot's key innovation is to put this stuff into a wearable device such that it effectively "whispers" the translation into the listener's ear.

It'll be interesting to see how that works out in practice, with the inevitable delay the translation system is going to add to the conversation, there won't be any way for you to know when the other party has actually received the translation of the last thing you said. So until it's super quick, it might actually be better to do this stuff through a phone that's sitting on a table that both parties can hear.

In fact, that's how Waverly Labs is going to launch the Pilot system. While pre-orders via Indiegogo will start very soon, deliveries aren't expected for another 12 months. But this US summer, the team will launch a mobile app that gives you the translation experience on your smartphone.

Full retail for the Pilot earpiece system will be US$299. That'll get you a pair of earpieces, so you can use both to listen to music, or presumably give one to your foreign friend when it's time to try to communicate through these things.

Is real-time translation technology ready to make the leap into the big time yet? The proof will be in the pudding. But enough of the pieces are moving into place to suggest that the language barrier may finally be broken.