EBay's Skype will add video to phone service

[mandy]

EBay Inc.'s Skype Technologies SA is adding video to its Internet telephone service as competitors including Microsoft Corp. go after a growing number of consumers who place calls online.

Skype, whose technology allows free calls over the Internet, released software Thursday that enables users to see one another on Web cams, personal computers and cellular phones...

Skype's video image "is not quite as good" as that of the iChatAV system debuted by Apple Computer Inc. in 2003...

full article: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/loc...-headlines

[mandy]

A related article:

Americans have never embraced the technology which — far from being science-fiction fantasy — has been around since AT&T unveiled it at the 1964 World's Fair.

Internet communications company Skype Technologies SA yesterday joined a band of firms offering video phone service in the belief that people are finally ready to overcome the basic human fear of being seen on a bad hair day.

For eBay, video may help auction sales by allowing sellers to communicate more directly with buyers and to better display their wares...

full article: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10301289/