Skype, the Global Internet Telephony Company, launched Skype Voicemail, allowing customers to continually maintain their Skype availability and ubiquity, even while offline. First available in beta in April 2005, Skype Voicemail is Skype’s second pre-paid premium offering. Also, Skype released Skype for Windows v1.3, offering feature improvements to enhance usability and ubiquity through extended integration with other desktop applications.

“As we continue to enhance the Skype offering, we expand Skype’s benefits to users and deliver more potential in modern communication and colloboration,” said Niklas Zennström, CEO and co-founder of Skype. “We’re pleased to offer Skype Voicemail as an affordable premium enhancement to the more than 42 million Skype users around the world.”

Customers with Skype Voicemail can leave unlimited Voicemail messages for all Skype users when they are unavailable or offline, and can receive Voicemails from any caller. Unlike standard voicemail systems, Skype Voicemail also allows customers the flexibility to send pre-recorded voice greetings to any other Skype user, regardless if the recipient is also a subscriber to the service. SkypeIn beta customers from the eight countries in the beta test can also receive Voicemail messages from ordinary fixed or mobile phones. Consumers can personalize Skype Voicemail, set their answer preferences, customize their greeting and receive messages up to 10 minutes long.

Skype Voicemail subscriptions are available for €5 ($7)* for 3 months or €15 ($19) for one year. Orders may be pre-paid with a credit card or via PayPal or Moneybookers at the Skype Store, and include Skype’s money back guarantee. Skype Voicemail refunds claimed within 30 days are offered at full price, and pro rata after 30 days.

The latest Skype for Windows v1.3 incorporates feature improvements, including enhancements for importing new contacts to contact lists, as well as a more customizable user profile area. Skype v1.3 allows users to populate their Skype contact lists from a growing number of desktop applications including MSN, and auto-populate exact matches from Microsoft Outlook. Skype for Windows now also offers an enhanced visual experience with streamlined user interfaces and improved notices about client upgrades and premium services. New animated emoticons give instant messages more expression.

SkypeOut, the first premium offering from Skype that allows Skype users pre-paid calling to any traditional and mobile phone number for local rates, has earned more than 1.5 million paid users since its launch in July 2004. All Skype premium services, Skype Voicemail, SkypeOut, and the beta version of SkypeIn, are compatible with the latest versions of Skype for Linux, Mac OS X, Pocket PC and Windows platforms. Premium services are available at the Skype Store, where customers can also conveniently purchase Skype-compatible quality products and accessories.

Skype is the leading VOIP-category product worldwide, with more than 42 million registered users increasing by approximately 150,000 new users a day. The latest Skype for Windows version is available immediately for download from www.skype.com and from select Skype partners. Skype for Windows v1.3 works on any Windows 2000/XP PC with a 400 MHz processor, and requires a headset, Skype compatible phone or a microphone and speakers.

Note:

If you have not started to use Skype, you’re missing out on a terrific program. Take a look…it is just a terrific “must have” program for your PC and your iPAQ! Dave, Steve and I use Skype to discuss issues on a daily basis…the ability to conference is a wonderful feature.

Our site moderators are spread from the East Coast to the the West Coast…Skype has been an invaluable tool to carry on the many discussions that are needed.

You can visit SKYPE here.

Karrier Communications, leaders in “Sports Enhancing Software”, today announced the shipment of its new IntelliGolf(R) Eagle edition golf scoring, wagering, and GPS software for Microsoft Windows Mobile-based Pocket PCs, Smartphones, and PalmOne handhelds including the Treo. The IntelliGolf Eagle edition joins the Par and Birdie edition products which began shipping in 1997. IntelliGolf is the #1 selling golf scoring software for handhelds in over 125 countries. IntelliGolf is available at http://www.intelligolf.com. SRP: $49.95.

The IntelliGolf Eagle edition is the only golf software to include all seven S’s of golf: Scoring, Shot tracking, Satellite GPS, Sharing, Sidegames (30+), Statistics (250+), and Signature course (20,000+) scorecards. The Eagle edition is compatible with over 30 industry-leading GPS receivers (see http://www.intelligolf.com/intelliGpsCert.asp) via Bluetooth, SDIO and CF connections. The Eagle edition includes the IntelliGolf 1) handheld software, 2) GPS software, 3) desktop software, and 4) synchronization software.

“The IntelliGolf Eagle brings together all seven S’s of golf into one product,” said Craig A. Schmidt, president of Karrier Communications. “Coupling that with free access to the largest collection of international scorecards in the world means our customers save time, memory, and money.”

Note: Competing companies charge $9.95 to $19.95 per course download and can be up to 400Kb in course download size. That compares to 5Kb in size for IntelliGolf courses which can be downloaded for free by IntelliGolf users (for use with IntelliGolf).

Product Overview

The IntelliGolf scoring software replaces pencil and paper golf scoring, wagering, and statistics gathering on the golf course. Users simply enter their scores, wagers, and club selection on their handheld. IntelliGolf totals all scores, tabulates all wagers, and synchronizes with the included Windows desktop software for viewing performance graphs, approximating the golfer’s handicap, and calculating their Dream Round. Add a compatible GPS receiver and IntelliGolf will provide distances and track shots with GPS accuracy on the course. IntelliGolf is available in three versions including the Par edition ($29.95), Birdie edition ($39.95), and the Eagle edition ($49.95).

Company Information

More press information, screen shots, and the IntelliGolf Reviewers Guide can be found at http://www.intelligolf.com/press.html. More product information can be found at http://www.intelligolf.com/products.asp. Karrier Communications Julie Snyder, 530-676-9279 snyder@intelligolf.com

Verizon Wireless is expanding its portfolio of business options with a new handset and bundled data and voice plans that make it an even better business decision to use the nation’s most reliable wireless network. Verizon Wireless is introducing the Samsung SCH – i730 Pocket PC today for large account customers, and on June 27, new plans that combine voice minutes, unlimited nights and weekends for voice calling and unlimited data access from a PDA, Smartphone or BlackBerry will be available. Consumers will be able to purchase the Samsung SCH-i730 on July 7 from any Verizon Wireless Communications store and online.

“Business customers are increasingly dependent upon a single wireless device for voice and e-mail,” Bill Stone, Verizon Wireless vice president of marketing said. “These new plans recognize this paradigm shift by giving Smartphone, BlackBerry and PDA customers larger bundled data and voice plans that enhance their ability to stay in touch and productive while mobile.”

Official Press Release

Keep an eye on the site for my review of the i730 soon but not sure how soon..

Our weekly podcast is avaliable. If you use this and copy the address into your aggregator. Now you should be all set and automatically download any of our podcasts on the fly. Just like setting up a season pass in tivo! If you would not like to use an aggregator you can download the direct link by right clicking here.

Today Jack, Steve and I continue our first impressions of the hw6500 iPAQ Mobile Messenger and Dave talks about the Squeezebox Version 2.0.

Show links:

Delorme Street Atlas 2005

Smooth very Smooth

iPAQ 6500 is here

hw6500 size does matter!

hw6500 Blackberry Killer?

SlimDevices

Jack’s Podcast Picture (reduced in size for downloading)

Dave’s iPAQ is a proud member of The Tech Podcast Network

Also Podcast Alley was nice enough to add us to their podcast search engine. I would love for you to check them out and if you feel you like the podcast it would be great to get a vote. You can vote for us by clicking this link

NEW now you can leave us a Skype Voicemail by clicking here

Leave us your name, city, state and question along with your email.

Apple has released iTunes 4.9. The latest version of the popular jukebox software now includes the podcasting features as promised by Apple CEO Steve Jobs at D: All Things Digital last month.

Apple says: “With iTunes 4.9, you can now browse and subscribe to podcasts from within the iTunes Music Store. Podcasts are frequently updated radio-style shows downloadable over the Internet. You can also transfer podcasts to iPod, for listening on the go.”

While Jobs describes podcasting as the Wayne’s World of Radio he also believes that it is the “hottest thing going in radio, hotter than anything else in radio”.

Announcing the latest update Jobs said: “Apple is taking Podcasting mainstream by building it right into iTunes. Podcasting is the next generation of radio, and users can now subscribe to over 3,000 free Podcasts and have each new episode automatically delivered over the Internet to their computer and iPod.”

The new Podcast Directory in iTunes 4.9 features over 3,000 free audio programs, making it one of the largest Podcast directories in the world, claims Apple.

You can download Itunes 4.9 with podcast support here..

Also once you download Itunes help support Dave’s iPAQ and click this link and ask apple to publish our feed which is http://www.davesipaq.com/podcast.xml

A world record was set at the research laboratories of the Siemens Communications Group. For the first time, data were transferred in real time via mobile communication at a speed of one gigabit per second (Gbit/s); that equates to 1,000 megabits per second (Mbit/s). By comparison: WLAN networks presently offer the fastest wireless links to mobile devices at speeds of around 50 MBit/s. In order to achieve its record-setting high speed, Siemens combined an “intelligent antenna system” consisting of three transmitting and four receiving antennas with Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). Researchers consider these technologies, which are especially efficient at using the frequently band, to be highly promising modules for the mobile communication generation beyond W-CDMA.

By the time the next generation of mobile communication debuts, which is expected to occur beginning in the year 2015, the need for transmission capacities for voice, data, image and multimedia is conservatively anticipated to rise by a factor of 10. “Future mobile communication systems will have to utilize the frequency band as efficiently as possible, with the lowest possible transmit power,” said Christoph Caselitz, the President of the Mobile Networks Division at Siemens Communications. “With our experimental system, we’ve been able to demonstrate how powerful intelligent antennas can be in combination with OFDM. In doing so, we’ve created a major module for future mobile communication systems.”

Professionals term intelligent antenna systems “multiple-antenna systems” or “MIMO” (Multiple Input, Multiple Output) systems. Under this concept, multiple antennas simultaneously transmit different flows of data over one and the same radio channel and frequency band. This is comparable to a room in which multiple clusters of people are simultaneously conducting conversations both within each cluster and between clusters, yet without interfering with one another. In contrast to conventional individual antennas, which each transmit on a separate frequency, the MIMO method enables data rates to be multiplied by making significantly more efficient use of the costly frequency band resource.

One of the reasons why multiple-antenna systems are not typically used today is the very high computing power that is required at the receiving end. This is because the information that is transmitted simultaneously by multiple antennas is received by multiple receiving antennas and has to be reconstructed in realtime for the receiving device. This exceeds the capabilities of the typical chips that are currently being employed in the mobile communication industry. The researchers at Siemens overcame this challenge by developing new and optimizing signal processing algorithms that can be efficiently implemented on the hardware modules that are available today.

The experimental system operates in the 5-GHz band and has a bandwidth of 100 MHz. The Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) transmission method that it employs protects the signals against most types of interference, such as the echoes that are produced when the signals reflect off buildings. This method, which has long been known and is considered to be a highly promising transmission technology for future mobile communication, is already being employed today in Wireless LAN as well as in digital television (DVB) and radio (DAB).

The Siemens research team is already working on further increasing the data rate and enhancing the mobility of devices equipped with multiple antennas.

Siemens developed the experimental one-gigabit transmission system, which will premiere to the general public at the 3GSM World Congress 2005 in Cannes, in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications (Heinrich Hertz Institute) and the Institute for Applied Radio System Technology.