Skype 3.2 Beta

Wow... I've gotta say. This new Skype is amazing in terms of what it's got packed under the hood. The new CoDec that Skype has implemented, their own SVOPC CoDec is amazing. I've tested it with a friend and it really impresses me. Not that I'm the only one saying this either.. others are equally blown away.

Apparently, there is no more need for a headset. You can talk without one now, as the CoDec is so smart that it removes the echo entirely. I used Skype 3.1, so did my friend (in the USA) and then we both tried Skype 3.2. Not only did the roundtrip time (time that it takes from my signal to reach the recipient and back) reduce, but the sound quality was crisp! Especially when it comes to the pronunciation of letters such as the "s" or "c" which in my experience are much more intense. Not that I'm an audiophile, but I really do think that this is the single most important achievement for Skype since Skype itself. It's still a beta so I'm sure that the CoDec is being tinkered on, but I'm sure that we can expect many more great things from these guys.

Another wonderful feature is that you can import your Gmail/Yahoo/MSN contacts. You can log in, it checks the email addresses of your contacts and sees whether or not they're also using Skype. I've checked and found around 10 'new' contacts for Skype, people I didn't know also use the program. It's something you can do once in a while since new people start using Skype daily. Very, very useful!

If you wish to see the changelog, go here. If you wish to download the Beta, go here.

Minority Report screen coming soon - for real.

This is probably one of the most exciting things I've seen in quite a while. With all the developments in technology, I am surprised that the users need to conform to the archaic input devices. Keyboards have always been around, but why not just dispose of it altogether and go for something entirely new? The nerds of the future will be bodybuilders and extremely dexterous... haha!

Watch and see here.

Google Docs & Spreadsheets

The engineers at Google have been working very hard on their Google Spreadsheets. They just released the API for that too. They might be working hard on Docs, but they haven't released too many new functions for that yet.

I know that they've hired the guys at iRows, have implemented some new functions too (such as GoogleLookup and GoogleFinance). They're still lagging behind Editgrid but give it a few more months and I'm sure we'll see them catch up.

See the differences between Editgrid, Google Spreadsheets and Excel 2003 here. If you want to see how one of my spreadsheets using the GoogleLookup function looks like, click here. You'll see that it's far from perfect, and a few things still need to be modified, like the following;

* Some GoogleLookup searches don't work correctly, you'd think that GoogleLookup("Germany", "population") would work...
* Population searches are not integers, so using these in other fields
(such as calculation of GDP per capita) are not possible
* Revision is only in PST, other timezones would be appreciated
* Change the 100 row maximum to something more workable, like 1000
* Change the 250 GoogleLookup maximum to unlimited.

Tech Talk

Skype, we all love it. I think one of the most promising features is called Skypecast. You can host a Skypecast and talk about what you like, and it's a great way to come into contact with others who and have the same interests.

Yesterday we had a really good Skypecast, if I may say so myself. I've been talking to people from all over, from Iceland, Israel, India, Germany, Australia, UK, USA, and the Netherlands. Those of you will know who you are. I thoroughly enjoyed that. I think that this might be a good place to post some info about a whole range of topics... pretty much like we described. If you agree, let me know by mail. My email address is the same as my skype username, without the underscore though, at gmail.com.

Free Online Documentaries

If you ever want to see a documenatary online, you can do so on this site - http://best.online.docus.googlepages.com. It has quite an array of documentaries, the layout is completely uncluttered (there's not much there). The focus is really on just delivering the content. Keep 'm coming!

These are the topics:

Anthropology, Biographies, Construction, Environment, Health, History, Politics, Religion, Science and Technology.

Marketshare Firefox increasing

Firefox's marketshare is increasing. For French readers, the original site is here, with more info. Stats are from 29 may to the 4th of june 2006. It seems that Microsoft's hegemony in the browser market is definitely over. Even when they release their newest OS, Vista, I think that Firefox's marketshare might be dented a bit, but overall, I expect it to continue to increase over the long run. I think that Firefox will account for 20% of the browser market by the beginning of 2008.

It is interesting to note, that most users are to be found in the weekends. This means that the corporate adoption is lagging to personal adoption. With Skype for instance, the opposite is true.

Online TV

I found a pretty decent site to watch some tv online. You need a browser which supports ActiveX. IE does this natively, Firefox requires an extension - read the bottom of the page for info. If you know any others, let me know!

Wikimapia - Firefox only

Wikimapia is a synergy of the Wiki concept and Google Maps. It's addictive, very addictive. Cancel your appointments. This is the best thing since sliced bread. It's basically a map of the world, where users can add info about certain sites. Simple, yet very effective.

Major Web 2.0 feel to it, it's intuitive and IMHO has a good future ahead. They make it possible to insert in multiple languages, smart! Try it yourself.

Update: Sasha tells me that it is IE compatible now. At the time of writing (27-5-2006) it wasn't. Now it is. :-) It is also a lot more popular now.