

Skype iPhone update: Multitasking, no additional charges for calling over 3G - ssclafani
http://blogs.skype.com/en/2010/07/iphone_multitasking_3g.html

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k7d
"In light of that, we no longer have plans to charge a supplement to make
calls over 3G."

I think this is huge. Mobile networks still charge 2$+ per minute for
international calls. This basically makes it irrelevant.

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pilif
depending on your subscription (and country), they will charge you way more
than $2 per minute in data traffic though.

Voice is bandwidth intensive.

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k7d
I'm in Europe and bandwidth costs are relatively insignificant (as long as you
don't travel abroad). Data roaming is whole different story, I really hope
European Union will do something about it.

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pilif
yesterday I did a bit of research. I reset my iphone's data counter and hold a
2 minute skype call over 3g with my girlfriend. We held a normal conversation
with both of us talking.

After two minutes, I sent out 652 KB of data and received 798 KB.

So this means that a minute of data is around 750KB.

My mobile subscription (Swisscom) comes with 250MB of inclusive data for CHF
35/month (around $35 or EUR 25).

With 750KB per minute, I can in theory talk for around 5.5 hours if I do
nothing but Skype. My current data usage is around 50 MB/month, which leaves
200 MB unused which then is good for 4 hours of talk time.

Not bad.

I would have thought that a Skype conversation uses way more bandwidth than it
apparently does.

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saurik
Welcome to non-unlimited data plans, where AT&T is motivated to support and
maintain towers and actively wants to encourage developers to do awesome
things with bandwidth. I'm super excited about how awesome developing for
handsets is going to be now that we got rid of that screwed up set of
misincentives.

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tlrobinson
I don't understand why they never supported push notifications, it would have
worked almost as well, and probably conserved battery. Seems like the ideal
use case for push notifications.

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adammichaelc
Push notifications aren't reliable enough to be available during the brief
period when a person is calling. A push notification that is set to go out at
9am might go out at 9am, but it also might go out at 9:01, 9:02, etc. My guess
is that this is why Skype doesn't use them.

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spolsky
I love skype on the iPhone - the audio quality is so much better than normal
phone calls (at least on AT&T in New York) it blows me away... even over 3G.

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timcederman
I could not get it to reliably ring (at least when using SkypeIn). Otherwise,
hooray! Wonder what the effects will be on battery life?

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timcederman
Already have my answer - started at 100% at noon, but 6pm, down to 32%.

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Herring
Just for clarity, how many hours did you lose?

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timcederman
Normally 100% at 8:30am, then 40% by 11pm.

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Herring
wow

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Herring
Wheres the iPad app?....

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gojomo
Skype is available and works great on the iPad -- but Apple hasn't enabled
multitasking there yet. "Fall", they say.

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Herring
It works on the ipad, but it looks horrible. It's also hard to type on the
iphone keyboard.

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mberning
Too bad they don't have a generally available android version.

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natmaster
Now they just need integration with the rest of the phone (make skype calls
from the phone app, from contacts list, etc) and they'll be caught up to where
the Nokia N900 has been for a year!

What a revolution Apple.

