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1. AlenShapiro

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Apr 2000

   +24
   05/10, 08:49am | report spam | close reply

   The beginning of the end...

   The beginning of the end for Skype & cross-platform telephony on the Mac & iOS. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted. They (Skype) were finally getting their act together. I guess it was mostly a last push so they would look like a good deal for purchase. Now that the pressure is off and µ$oft have management oversight I expect it to go the way of Bungie/Halo, Foxbase etc. etc.

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1. starwarrior

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Mar 2006

   +6
   05/10, 08:52am | report spam | close reply

   Lost the Bubble

   I have. These moves are unbelievable. What is going on?

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1. Cronocide

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Nov 2010

   +10
   05/10, 08:57am | report spam | close reply

   Goodbye, Skype

   Us mac users wont miss your (lack of) service.

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1. facebook_Timothy

   Via Facebook

   Joined: May 2011

   +14
   05/10, 09:00am | report spam | (1 reply) close | reply

   MSkype

   Everything Microsoft touches turns to dust. Skype made long distance calling a breeze and allowed our family to cut the landline altogether. Skype on the iPhone and on Android have replaced our cordless phones. Companies like Jabra were finally coming to market with dual purpose (PC/Cell) Skype certified bluetooth handsfree devices. And now, this happens!
   
   Ugh. It just makes me sick to my stomach. This move is about control and squashing competition. You think M$ is going to "Play Fair"? Ha! The first thing they will do is re-brand and re-license Skype and require the cell carriers to license its technology for use on their handsets. Expect Windows Mobile to be the only platform to offer a truly integrated Skype experience.
   
   Time to start looking at other options I guess. Are there any?

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1. JeffHarris

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Oct 1999

   +2
   05/10, 09:23am | report spam | close reply

   How long...

   Before M¢ kills the mac version. Skype certainly hasn't done a great job as far as feature parity goes, certainly. M¢ will do far worse.
   
   Just look what the did to iView Media Pro!

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1. coffeetime

   Junior Member

   Joined: Nov 2006

   +9
   05/10, 09:24am | report spam | close reply

   Yeah...right

   that really is going to make me buy WinPhone.... NOT! This gives an opportunity for others to take Skype place. And also why the heck in the world would I use Xbox to make a phone/video phone call? Especially in the middle of playing a video game? What's next, doing spreadsheet on Xbox?

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1. iphonerulez

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Nov 2008

   +5
   05/10, 09:29am | report spam | close reply

   That's an awful lot of money to toss around

   but if Microsoft can use it to help Nokia get back on track, it might be worth it. Nokia phones had video-conferencing hardware a long time ago, but the software was rather awkward to use. Maybe now they'll become very adept video-conferencing devices and with a high user base it may catch on quite well. It may also be a good blocking move by Microsoft to help cripple other competing platforms. Nice move but a rather expensive one. I guess Wall Street wishes that Apple was a big spender like Microsoft.

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1. RoguePixel

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Apr 2011

   +2
   05/10, 09:31am | report spam | (1 reply) close | reply

   I won't miss you

   Unfortunately with each release Skype got worse, call quality was ok but image wise it was terrible and it got bloated.. their last efforts to revamp the interface and I agree with AlenShapiro were to look like a good deal for purchase. fortunately I switched to Facetime and I use it all the time, nice simple interface just needs 3G connection, but I'm happy with it.

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1. ebeyer

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Jun 2004

   +1
   05/10, 09:31am | report spam | close reply

   Open source

   Time to visit with one of the open source alternatives? But I don't think any of them let you do multi-party calling.

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1. nat

   Junior Member

   Joined: Mar 2002

   +3
   05/10, 09:32am | report spam | (2 replies) close | reply

   c***

   i don't believe for a minute that this is in any way good for users of non ms products no matter how bad skype has been on the mac.
   
   i pay $36 a year for a skype phone number (going on 7 years now) and make free calls to u.s. and canada. it's my business number. bad or not it has always worked (save for that one big outage).
   
   and i have friends in europe i frequently talk with. skype is huge overseas.
   
   what are the alternatives? are there any?
   
   

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1. jdsonice@gmail.com

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Oct 2009

   +4
   05/10, 09:33am | report spam | close reply

   A sad day indeed!

   This is a very sad day indeed. I almost used to like Skype and they were slowly fixing their problems and it was becoming a nice package.
   
   Now thanks to M$ everything is going to hit the crapper. After they are done with it, Skype will probably not work even on Windows systems let alone other platforms.
   
   Damn ball mer.
   
   JDS

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1. kooBi

   Junior Member

   Joined: May 2001

   +3
   05/10, 09:45am | report spam | close reply

   FaceTime

   A good replacement for skype?

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1. bleee

   Mac Enthusiast

   Joined: Mar 2002

   +5
   05/10, 09:46am | report spam | close reply

   I hope this doesn't turn into another Kin disaster

   Microsoft has problems integrating software acquisitions. They insist everything be converted to some kind of MS platform which ends up imploding under load. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to replace Skype with Office Communicator LE edition or something.

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1. c. haynes

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Mar 2002

   +1
   05/10, 10:15am | report spam | close reply

   Room at the top?

   NOW.. we can maybe get someone to take the idea of Skype and redesign it so it works well. Because, with MS owning it Skype will become a rock in the water of communication and sink to the bottom. Bye, bye Skype.

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1. testudo

   Forum Regular

   Joined: Aug 2001

   -11
   05/10, 10:15am | report spam | (2 replies) close | reply

   so...

   If Apple bought Skype and made it Mac and iOS only, you'd all be cheering how Apple is trying to bring more people over to Apple. MS buys skype and, well, that's just mean Mr. Microsoft putting the screws to Mac users or something.
   
   You get that feeling that if Ballmer had gone into Pakistan and taken out bin laden, we'd be hearing how he did it just to improve the public opinion of MS or something.

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1. testudo

   Forum Regular

   Joined: Aug 2001

   -2
   05/10, 10:18am | report spam | close reply

   Re: FaceTime

   Facetime isn't a good replacement for Skype for the same reason people think Skype is no longer usable (although nothing has been said about Skype). FaceTime is limited to just iOS devices and Snow Leopard computers (and only then if they pay for it). Unless you restrict your calling circle to just those in the apple universe.

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1. Mr. Strat

   Junior Member

   Joined: Jan 2002

   +2
   05/10, 10:23am | report spam | close reply

   BFD

   So something that sucks combines with something else that sucks.
   
   At least Skype will fit in well with Microsoft's other security hole ridden products.

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1. pairof9s

   Forum Regular

   Joined: Jan 2008

   +2
   05/10, 10:49am | report spam | close reply

   Smells like Time-Warner & AOL

   I can see Microsoft's strategy and their entitled to benefit their products at anytime, as they see fit. But $8.5 BILLION?! That's a LOT of Xbox's to sell to pay for that feature!
   
   Let's see if this doesn't drive out Ballmer like it did Time-Warner's Levin for buying AOL (oh, excuse me..."merged").
   
   /

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1. jwdsail

   Fresh-Faced Recruit

   Joined: Jun 2000

   +1
   05/10, 11:08am | report spam | close reply

   Microsoft must have been running low on..

   Microsoft must have realized they were running low on 0-day vulnerabilities, and wanted to expand their portfolio a bit..
   
   ...
   
   Or..
   
   Ladies and gentlemen, Kin 3!
   
   ...
   
   Or..
   
   We're proud to announce, XBox Roulette!!! Wait.. p****..
   
   ...
   
   Or..
   
   Just imagine what would happen if two companies with respected, reliable, products came together. Now, imagine MS buying Skype!
   
   or..
   
   Wait, there's software out there *buggier* than ours? Quick BUY IT!
   
   
   
   

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1. nat

   Junior Member

   Joined: Mar 2002

   +2
   05/10, 11:20am | report spam | (2 replies) close | reply

   testudo

   go away already. why? read your posts. that's why.

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1. facebook_Colin

   Via Facebook

   Joined: May 2011

   +2
   05/10, 06:45pm | report spam | close reply

   FaceTime + Cydia + My3G

   Jailbreak your iPhone, and it'll let you use FaceTime over 3G just fine. Works great as long as you have Wi-Fi, or at least two bars of 3G service.
   
   I used to come close to my 2GB data cap every month since discovering this trick. Serious users should take a 4GB data plan. Not perfect, but better.