After what seems like an eternity in closed private testing, Google is starting to send out beta invitations for Google Voice (formerly GrandCentral). The company also reportedly snagged about a million US phone numbers to use for the service, which lets users give out a single phone number that will ring all their phones and record, transcribe, and email voicemail messages.

Those new phone numbers will come in handy for new customers. But what if you're an existing user looking to change your number? I signed up for GrandCentral when I lived in Brooklyn and got myself a number with a 718 area code. Now I live in Philadelphia and feel silly giving out that number.

Now Google is offering users like me a chance to change our numbers. You'll have to pony up $10 for the change, but since most of Google Voice's features are free, that seems like a pretty reasonable price.

When you change numbers, all calls made to your old number will continue coming to your new number for 90 days.

[via TechCrunch]

The developers at Skype must be working overtime this week. Yesterday saw the launch of Skype 3.0 for Windows Phones. Today Skype pushed out version 4.1 for Windows and Skype 1.1 for iPhone and iPod Touch.

Skype 4.1 for Windows includes support for screen sharing, birthday reminders, and improved audio and video quality. The latest version also fixes a few bugs found in Skype 4.1 beta, so if you're running the beta you'll probably want to update.

Skype 1.1 for the iPhone and iPod Touch now lets you listen to your voicemail on your mobile phone and send SMS. The update also adds support for additional languages.

After months of beta testing, Skype has released an updated VoIP and chat client for Windows Mobile. Skype 3.0 for Windows phones should work with most phones running Windows Mobile 5.0 or newer. It's designed to support WiFi, 2G, or 3G internet connections, although you'll get the best voice quality when using WiFi.

The new features in Skype 3.0 for Windows Phones include the ability to send files to other Skype users and the ability to send text messages at Skype rates. If you don't have an unlimited data plan on your phone, Skype 3.0 isn't going to save you any money. But if your plan offers unlimited data without unlimited texting, the ability to send SMS via Skype could certainly come in handy.

You can also make free Skype to Skype calls using the client, or make long distance calls at SkypeOut Rates.

Google is beginning to send out invites to people who signed up to try Google Voice. The service is still in private beta, but this is the first time new users will be able to gain access to the service since Google purchased the technology from GrandCentral. Up until now, only former GrandCentral users have been able to use Google Voice.

Google Voice allows users to route all of their phone calls through a central phone number. For instance, if you have a home phone, cellphone, and work number, you can link them all to Google Voice and just give out a single number to your contacts. When they call your Google Voice number, all of your phones will ring. You can also use the service to check your voicemail online, transcribe voicemails and forward them to your email account, screen calls, or perform a whole slew of other nifty features.

As part of the wider launch, Google will begin sending out invites to users who signed up to request them. New users will be able to choose a new phone number, hopefully in a local area code. Google also has a new tool that will let you try to snag a phone number that matches a word or phrase (see the image above for an example).

If you haven't already requested an invite yet, Google is still accepting requests.

TinyChat is a service that lets you create an instant web-based chatroom with a unique short URL that you can share with anyone you want to talk to at the drop of a hat. We've covered the service before, but today TinyChat rolled out two new features: video chat and support for screen sharing.

The screen sharing application is a bit rough around the edges. But when it works, the user that wants to share their screen with other participants clicks a button and a Java applet opens up that lets you broadcast your Windows, Linux, or OS X desktop to all participants in the conversation. One problem is that once you fire up the screen sharing application the only way to make it go away is to restart your browser and/or Java. You shouldn't have this problem if you're trying to view someone else's desktop, only if you're trying to share yours.

The video chat feature is much simpler to use. If you have a mic and/or camera plugged into your computer, you can talk to participants in the web chat face to face.

The basic service is available for free, but TinyChat also offers pro accounts with premium features like the ability to password protect and record chats. Pro members also have higher quality video. If you're using the free version you'll see a pop up asking you to sign up for a Pro account periodically. It's only supposed to pop up after 5 minutes and then again every half hour or so, but right now the nag screen appears every few minutes.

In addition to paid accounts, the folks behind TinyChat are hoping to market the application as a white box solution for web publishers looking for a way to integrate text and video chat with their web sites. For example, instead of just asking readers of a blog to leave comments, you can have them click a button to participate in a chat about a post without leaving your site.

Skype 4.1 beta for Windows is out today, and it adds a few new features. Probably the biggest change is the addition of screen sharing technology. While Skype typically rolls out new features for its Windows client before adding them to Skype's other platforms, this feature has been available in Skype 2.8 beta for Mac for a while now.

When you're chatting with a Skype contact, you can now click a Share button in order stream your entire desktop or just a portion of your screen with your contact.

Skype 4.1 beta for Windows also allows you to import contacts from other services including Gmail, Windows Live, Yahoo!, AOL, and LinkedIn. You can also send contacts to other Skype users and there's a birthday reminder feature.

The update also brings some bug fixes and audio and video improvements.

PamFax is a plugin for Skype from the same people who make Pamela, an application that lets you record Skype conversations. As you may have guessed from the name, PamFax lets you send documents to fax machines using Skype.

The company recently released PamFax 2.0, which adds a ton of exciting new features including support for Macs, the ability to receive faxes from 27 countries in addition to sending outgoing faxes, and lower prices. PamFax 2.0 can also be run independently of Skype.

The first fax is free, but you'll need to purchase credit in order to send and receive fax messages after that.

[via SkypeJournal]

If you make a lot of PC to phone calls using Skype but haven't already signed up for a 12 month unlimited plan, you might want to think about placing an order before May 6th. Because Skype is offering a 25% discount for customers who sign up for unlimited SkypeOut plan between now and then.

The cheapest plan starts at $2.95/month before the discount is applied for calls to landlines and celllphones in the US and Canada. You can also subscribe to a plan that lets you make unlimited calls to landlines in a single country, or an "Unlimited World" plan that lets you make calls to landlines in more than 40 countries for $12.95/month before the discount is applied.

[via GigaOm]

It looks like Skype will become its own company again next year. But eBay isn't looking to sell Skype back to founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, despite recent reports that they were hoping to buy the company again. Instead, eBay put out a press release today announcing that it would separate Skype from eBay and sell it through an IPO (initial public offering) in the first half of 2010.

In the release, eBay CEO John Donahoe admits something that most of us have known since eBay first purchsed Skype for around $3 billion: "Skyper has limited synergies with eBay and PayPal." By separating Skype from eBay and running it as its own publicly traded company, Skype can do what's best for a VoIP company and not have to worry about being attached to an online auction house.

Skype generated $551 million in revenue in 2008, and had 405 million registered users.

[via Techmeme]

A few years back online auction site eBay purchased Skype for about $3 billion. But the two companies have always seemed like an awkward fit. After all, while in theory it might make sense to integrate Skype's VoIP and chat technology into eBay's site to help facilitate auctions, the truth is that email works just fine for working out the kinks in most transactions. And eBay has never really done very much to integrate Skype with its other services.

Now the New York Times is reporting that Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis are exploring the possibility of buying Skype back from eBay. It's not clear how much money they'll need to buy the company back, but it seems likely that eBay could let it go for significantly less than it paid for the service.

Call Graph is a Windows utility that lets you record Skype conversations in MP3 format. We first looked at Call Graph last year when there were no restrictions on the service, and it wasn't entirely clear what the company's business plan was.

Now there are two versions, Call Graph Standard and Premium editions. The Standard edition doesn't have any recording time limits like some other Skype audio recorders. But it is advertising supported. It will display ads when playing back your audio and on the screen that lists your recordings. For $15/year or a one-time $25 fee you can get an ad-free version.

Calls are recorded as stereo, variable bitrate MP3 files. Your end of the conversation will be recorded on one track and the other end is recorded on the other, which comes in handy if you need to edit the audio for a podcast or some other purpose.

Call Graph also offers a transcription service, where you can pay $0.50 for each minute of audio you want transcribed. The transcripts are generated by machines and proof read by real people. So if there's anything you wouldn't want someone reading, you might want to consider transcribing it yourself.

We brought you the news that Skype is now available for the iPhone last week, but what we didn't mention is that it's available in every country where the iPhone is sold, except for Canada. The CBC is reporting that there is a patent-license restriction causing the hold up, and goes on to clarify that the restriction has to do with Skype, not Apple, though it's hard to see how the issue would be with Apple.

With so few details, it's hard to be optimistic that Skype will be available on the iPhone any time soon in Canada. Message boards and even the comments on this CBC article are rife with links to pages instructing Canadians on how to go about getting a US iTunes account. Clearly Skype is a killer app for the iPhone, and if Skype can't sort out the problem, many Canadians will simply find a way around it.

It would be appreciated if Skype were to come clean and explain exactly what the issue is that is causing the problem; a little public pressure might be what is needed to gently influence the other party to relent.

Is this another case of Canadians getting the short end of the stick, or are we just a bunch of whiners up here?

Skype Call Recorder is a no-frills Windows utility for recording both ends of a Skype conversation. Because of the way Skype transmits your voice across the interwebs, you can't just use most all-purpose audio recording apps like Audacity or the Windows Sound Recorder. Instead you need to use third party apps or Skype plugins that will record both your voice and the sounds of the person on the other end of the call.

There are a number of Skype recording applications available for Windows and Mac. Some record in WAV format while others store your recordings as MP3s. Most cost money if you want to record long conversations.

Skype Call Recorder is free for all calls, but it doesn't offer a ton of features. You can crecord calls in Mono or Stereo, and while you can choose a few different bit rate settings to adjust the recording quality, all calls are stored as MP3s. But did I mention the utility is free?

[via gHacks]

As expected, Skype showed up in the iPhone App Store today. But iPhone users who have upgraded to the developer preview of the iPhone 3.0 software are noticing a special feature: They can make Skype calls over 3G wireless network connections.

Skype for the iPhone is only supposed to be able to make voice calls over WiFi connections. This has nothing to do with bandwidth and everything to do with AT&T not wanting customers to use its 3G network to make VoIP calls and avoid AT&T fees.

But for some reason, iPhone OS 3.0 users are able to get around this restriction. For now anyway. A word of caution for anyone who was thinking of downloading an illegal copy of iPhone OS 3.0 to try out this feature: it probably won't work. You need to be a registered developer to use the latest OS. And by the time it's available to the public I'm guessing this feature bug will be squashed.

You can check out a video of Skype for iPhone working over a 3G network from 9to5Mac after the break.

[via SlashGear]

Skype plans to begin offering a mobile VoIP client for iPhone through the iTunes App Store starting tomorrow. The New York times reports a BlackBerry version is due out in May.

The mobile clients will let users make free calls to other Skype users or low cost long distance and international calls to other phones. iPhone users will only be able to use Skype when connected to a WiFi hotspot, which prevents users from connecting to the AT&T network and skirting AT&T international fees by making calls over Skype.

In addition to making phone calls, the mobile client allows users to send instant messages, make conference calls, and snap profile photos using the iPhone's camera. You can find a series of screenshots of the iPhone app at Skype Journal.