Skype is a proprietary VoIP application that provides a free voice call service (to other Skype users) and a prepaid service for dialling out to fixed or mobile phones anywhere on the planet.
It also provides basic presence and IM, but oddly enough, did not (until recently) store your buddy list centrally (if you run Skype on several machines (and you can run it on Mac OS X, Windows and Linux), you had to add your contacts manually several times, which was plain stupid).
The protocol used is entirely proprietary and a nuisance to most ISPs and telcos because:
- It's P2P, providing very good voice quality and low latency while doing NAT traversal like a knife through butter.
- It's AES encrypted.
Resources:
- Be Afraid
- video4skype, a Windows-only plugin
- A PDF document with a protocol analysis.
- Integrating Skype with the Address Book, where I got this script (to be placed in your user's Library/Address Book Plug-Ins folder):
using terms from application "Address Book"
on action property
return "phone"
end action property
on action title for p with e
return "Call with Skype"
end action title
on should enable action for p with e
return true
end should enable action
on perform action for p with e
set SKYPEurl to "callto://" & (value of e as string)
tell application "Skype"
get URL SKYPEurl
activate
end tell
return true
end perform action
end using terms from
(Lasar Liepins tells me that this appears to have been built in to version 2.5.0.85, since there are now "Dial with Skype" and "Send SMS with Skype" menu items in the contextual menu of phone numbers)
Setting Your Mood Message To The iTunes Track
Set SKShowITunesSongAsMoodMessage=1 in com.skype.skype.plist.
High-Quality Video Calls
(taken from here)
Using version 2.5.0.85 or newer, find its config.xml file's Video (the file is in your Library/Application Support/Skype/username folder), which should look somewhat like so:
<Video>
<Device>Built-in iSight</Device>
</Video>
Add capture settings as follows:
<Video>
<CaptureWidth>640</CaptureWidth>
<CaptureHeight>480</CaptureHeight>
<Device>Built-in iSight</Device>
</Video>
Obviously, this eats up bandwidth and CPU power...
There is a similar hack for Windows