New Skype beta version comes with a new feature – an add-on for video conference calls. The new function is expected to become a preferred communication channel for international video conference meetings because of its cheap price. Skype 5.0 beta for Windows was released for free download last Thursday. Instead of having a one recipient video call, as it’s in Skype previous versions, you can now host video calls with up to 5 other Skype users. However, 2 requirements have to be fulfilled in order to use the new function – each user have to have a web cam and Skype 5.0 beta installed on a computer with Windows. The other news abut Skype concerns the updata that was released last week. Then Skype announced its new set of calling plans that will be useful for those users who use the platform mainly to call mobile phone. Skype certainly is not the first platform to offer video conference calls in users everyday life. Its rival – VoxOx offers this...

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On Friday, a Microsoft spokesperson announced that, as expected, the company is planning to finalize the work over Office 2010 next month. Besides, Microsoft will start developing a program allowing those who will buy Office 2010 in the next few months to get a free upgrade to the new version. In a blog publication, it’s explained that the company will have a business launch for the Office 2010 products on May 12. It’s added too that software is expected to be broadly available in June. As far as the technology program guarantee is concerned, Microsoft announced that it will apply to those who buy Office 2007 between now and September 30 and will allow an upgrade to the comparable Office 2010 product. Though such programs are typical, this one had even less of an element of surprise. It occurred to be so, after a Microsoft employee briefly posted details of the program last month. Microsoft CFO Peter Klein confirmed the program earlier this week, telling...

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Qualys is set to launch on Monday a free service for Web site operators that will scan their sites for malware. From next Monday on, Qualys will be ready to start a free service that will check web sites for malicious software. The new services will be useful for web site administrators. The task of Guard Malware Detection is to observe the pages of customer sites and looks for invisible iframes, malicious javascript code, and other indications of a stealth threat to visitors and provides automated alerts and reports to Web site owners. According to Wolfgang Kandek, chief technology officer at Qualys, the company has tested Internet Explorer 6 and Adobe's Acrobat, Reader, and Flash Player to understand exactly what happens under normal conditions so it can quickly find deviations that occur when malicious software is present. Kandek added that some other applications are to be analyzed soon because think consider them to be a typical target for attackers. Thanks to Dasient...

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No doubt, anyone of us has experienced the following situation – we see someone on the subway or on the street but we can't quite remember who they are. But now, Recognizr – a new technology from the Swedish firm The Astonishing Tribe (TAT) could soon be able to help us figure out who they are so that we can greet them by name. According to an article published Tuesday in Popular Science, Recognizr is a new application that can figure out who someone is – it only need a photo of the person and a quick tour in social networking information about that person. ( See how here ) Riffing on the growing field of augmented reality, the magazine called the technology "augmented identity” (Augmented reality is a term in computer researches that explains a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery). PopSci describes the innovative technology as a alliance...

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At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Tuesday, Skype and Verizon Wireless announced together the launch of Skype Mobile, a free application that will run on select Verizon smartphones. The application was co-developed by the Skype and Verizon teams and according to the two companies representatives it will be launched late in March on nine different devices, including: • BlackBerry Curve • BlackBerry 8830 World Edition • BlackBerry Storm 1 • BlackBerry Storm 2 • Motorola Droid • HTC Eris • Motorola Devour The application will be a free download. It will run in the background on all of those phones. Also Skype representative mentioned that the company has worked very closely with Verizon to maximize battery life and call quality. All of the Skype calls will go through the data plan and will not count as cellular minutes. Skype and Verizon also hinted that there would be some address book integration that will show the Skype...

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2009 can be described as the a rebuilding year for Firefox add-ons. Moreover, two new frameworks were implemented to help guide the future of extensions. Personas gave Firefox users the ability to trendily personalize their browser. Now we all expect it to be part of the stable version of Firefox 3.6. Jetpack takes a similar approach to feature add-ons, allowing developers to create feature-rich add-ons from little more than HTML, CSS, and javascript. It can be expect that JetPack to eventually be part of Firefox by default. Below, we suggest a brief review of some of Firefox most interesting add-ons for this year. Weave Sync is Mozilla Labs project, yet, it’s not very clear whether it’s going to be part of Firefox as a default feature. The add-on, developed by Mozilla Labs aims to synchronize Firefox across computers and devices. It introduces incremental more-streamlined and less-obtrusive syncing, fitting in smoothly in your Options pane. Although it still has...

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Installing it is the most difficult part Windows 7 is probably Microsoft's best tested software up to now. It’s due to the wide spread public beta and release candidate testing period. However, the new operating system appears to cause troubles from the very beginning. According to information gathered by consumer helpdesk company iYogi, the most spread problem new Windows 7 users experience is dealing with the install. The next most prevalent problem is missing applets or components (such as the change from Windows Mail to the Windows Live version), followed by a missing Aero theme. Of course, the widely spread install problems for Windows 7 is easily explained by the fact that the software is new and that all new customers who haven’t bought a machine pre-loaded with the operating system have to deal with the install process. Add in the lack of an upgrade option for Windows XP users, and then all the variations of an in-place upgrade from Windows Vista, and...

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IBM keeps on with its investment in cloud computing. Now, the company has established a new laboratory in Hong Kong. With this lab, IBM expands the presence of its IBM China Development Laboratory (CDL) – the company's largest laboratory with more than 5,000 developers on staff. The laboratory builds on the e-mail technology of the Hong Kong-based company Outblaze Limited. Its messaging assets were acquired by IBM earlier this year and they were incorporated into the Lotus brand. The new laboratory is said to be the first of its kind in Hong Kong and it’s important because it shows both the great role of global development teams and IBM's concentration on growth in emerging markets. Emerging markets are a user segment that is theoretically more adaptable to different methods of application consumption and is probably well-acquainted with browser-based applications. As a whole, we can it can be summarized that during the fourth quarter of 2009 we’ve witnessed...

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Microsoft has improved the Bing Maps performance to a new level interactivity. This is what the new beta version of Bing Maps shows – it uses Silverlight to display 3D images and its own version of street-level images. The company presented to the media the new beta version in Wednesday during a discussion of other improvements to the search engine. Bing Maps Beta is available from today. Along with it, several other new features in the main Bing search results are released too. Bing Maps Beta requires the installation of Microsoft Silverlight which provides very smooth three-dimensional transitions between satellite and street-view imagery. Like Google Street View, Microsoft has driven the streets of major cities such as San Francisco and assembled its own library of map-related images. Microsoft has street-level imagery for around 100 U.S. cities, it has announced that is adding more imagery on a constant basis. With the new beta service users are able to find images...

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