EQO Community - skypeout

My Skype List

chris — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 18:05:18 -0800

Sometime last year I was reading Skype Journal and came across an article by Stuart Henshall (I think, can't find the article because their search doesn't seem to be working), regarding people with large Skype buddy lists. He was wondering why certain people had massive Skype buddy lists and was also interested in the composition of such lists. Ever since then, I too have been intrigued by the subject. Who uses Skype? Who are they calling? What types of calls are taking place? What do people use Skype for? These questions and others I still ponder. Clearly people use Skype to make all conceivable types of calls, but I'm more interested in the larger trends and I believe I've noticed one in particular.

I use Skype everyday to talk to coworkers and others I have dealings with via EQO. Since I leave my Skype client running on my work computer all day every day, I've had quite the opportunity to rack up an interesting contact list. I have 148 contacts and the breakdown is as such:

5 Friends

9 Random dudes who added me

17 Colleagues, people who don't work at EQO that I converse with pertaining to EQO

18 Demo/Test, for further EQO purposes

23 Work, assorted EQO employees

24 EQO Users

52 Random girls who added me

Which brings me to the revelation (that I've clearly been learning slowly over time, but revelation! sounds much more exciting), 52 random girls added me to Skype last year and called me to talk to me in person without knowing me or having seen a picture of me, merely based on my age, sex, and location statistics! I'm not saying I'm some kind of ladies man, since these girls had no idea who I was (and 9 random dudes added me, what does that tell you?). These ladies were just bored and looking for a Canadian guy to talk to, this blows my mind! They are all between the ages of 17 and 24, save one 44 year old out-lier (what did she have in mind?), and are based randomly throughout the world. In fact, only one is from Canada! It seems that the internet and very large distances have removed the fear from internet savvy, lonely girls world wide. I assume its a two way street, that surely these girls are solicited with Skype add requests by random dudes much more often than I.

Therefore, it seems that one of the primary uses of Skype is international flirting, who knew? I know I don't have the nerve to call random people and strike up a conversation...

You may wonder why I accept these random add requests? Well, it's because I'm curious as to what a random person might have to say to me, notwithstanding that they may be EQO users, which happens. Don't worry bosses, I don't talk to these lonely girls! In fact, I only use Skype at work for work; I wouldn't blog myself into trouble!

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Inbound and outbound calling

colin — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 07:46:59 -0700

VoIP spam or what is commonly referred to as "SPIT" (Spam over Internet Telephony) has been discussed extensively in the press but the problem appears completely contained. If you do a search on Google for "VoIP spam", all of the top ranked articles are of 2004 vintage. Is it simply that there is far greater economic incentive for a spammer to spend a few seconds to spam millions of people using email than to waste several seconds to annoy just one person using VoIP? If that is the case, voice communications has inherent anti-spamming characteristics.

Data Network Errors Again

chris — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 11:04:39 -0700

The number one support question we get here at EQO always has to do with data network errors. EQO Mobile requires that your phone have a data internet connection that allows tcp connections. For help setting up a connection, check out this forum topic dedicated to the issue:

http://community.eqo.com/forum/data_network_errors_0

Also, these two sites are great for setting up connections on Sony Ericsson and Nokia phones.

More Sony Ericsson Phones Supported!

chris — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 17:32:23 -0700

EQO now supports the Sony Ericsson K300, K790, K800, and Z1010! We'll hopefully be adding more phone support next week thanks to some of the excellent users who responded to my previous post. Thank you to those who helped us get EQO onto these phones. Keep your eye out for new products and more phone support coming from EQO very soon!

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Do you use Standby Mode with EQO?

chris — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 14:38:04 -0700

EQO users, we want to know if you use Standby Mode with EQO Mobile. If you are unsure as to what Standby Mode is or does, let me explain. When in Standby Mode, EQO Mobile does not maintain the internet connection on your phone, which means that you use less data and less battery power. EQO Mobile goes into Standby Mode after a period of inactivity, the length of which is set via the “Standby Timer” window found in the Settings menu. We want to know if this functionality is important to you. In the month or two that Standby capability has been deployed, no user has ever mentioned standby mode. I’m wondering if anyone uses it. What do you think? Please tell me by commenting in this forum thread.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Looking for Nokia 8800 and 5500 testers!

chris — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 17:45:30 -0700

We need some help testing EQO on these phones. What’s in it for you? For one, you get to be the first to use EQO on your phone. And in addition to the inherent glory and honor, we are offering EQO T-Shirts and SkypeOut credit to helpful testers.

Nokia 6230i now supported!

chris — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 17:21:28 -0700

Thanks to our fairly new Forum Nokia Pro membership we were able to borrow a Nokia 6230i and get EQO running on it. We've signed up to borrow a few E and N series Nokia phones as well, so hopefully we'll be able to get EQO going on these devices pretty quick here. But getting EQO on to the 6230i will have to be good enough news for today, and great news it is seeing as this is one of our most requested phones. Keep in mind folks that the 6230i is totally different than the 6230, which is another popular one. If you are looking to get EQO onto your 6230, you'll have to wait a bit longer:)

EQO 0.92.3 released!

chris — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 16:29:54 -0700

EQO 0.92.3 for the PC and Mac was released today. You can grab the latest version of EQO for your computer via the upgrade link on the www.eqo.com main page. There are two major changes in EQO 0.92.3, the first being that the Skype 2.5 incoming call problem has been fixed. Second, Skype on your computer will now be started if it’s not running when you begin using EQO. EQO will also restart Skype in the event of a crash, which happens fairly often in Skype 2.5 at the moment. However, you must set Skype to “Sign me in when Skype starts”, which you can do by checking the box of the same name on the Skype startup screen, so that you are signed in when Skype starts, other wise this feature is a bit useless.

EQO has also changed its authentication scheme. We’ve done this because we felt we had to in order to improve our service in the long run. What this means is that you need to change your password if you signed up for EQO on April 10th or earlier. To change your password please go to www.eqo.com and sign in using your EQO ID and current password at the top right corner of the page. Then click on “Change My Password” on the left to update your password. Your new password can be the same as your old password; we just need to have an updated record in our database.

Feature of the Week #14: Skype Auto Start

chris — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 16:16:36 -0700

If you want to take EQO on the road for an extended period of time then you aren’t going to have access to your computer. This is why we at EQO have enabled EQO to auto start Skype. When you sign in to EQO Mobile, EQO will start Skype on your computer if it’s not running already. EQO will also restart Skype if it crashes, which happens more often than we’d like in Skype 2.5. One catch is that you must check the box that says “Sign me in when Skype starts” that is shown in the Skype startup window. EQO is now Skype crash proof, letting you take your buddies with you with greater certainty.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

CDMA Treo 650 testers needed!

chris — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 17:03:14 -0700

I need a few testers to give the latest EQO Mobile pre-beta for CDMA Treo 650 a try. I had many a month or two ago and those I've emailed recently haven't replied back to me yet. This is fairly urgent as we'd like to release immediately if our latest attempts proves sucessful. If you have a Treo 650 on the Sprint or Verizon network and you don't mind taking part in a fairly complicated process please let me know as soon as possible. Just to let you know that my requests for testers sometimes result in my receiving an enormous and unmanagable number of responses, so don't be upset if I turn your down. T-shirts, SkypeOut credit, fame and fortune, honour and prestige are the spoils that go to the chosen few testers. Email me, chris@eqo.com, if you are up for the challenge.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

EQO / Skype 2.5 Incoming Call Problem!

chris — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 16:30:56 -0700

Note: Problem solved as of July 7 release of EQO PC 0.92.3!

We’ve recently discovered that incoming calls to EQO using Skype 2.5 do not work. Outgoing calls still work as normally they do, but Skype 2.5 does not allow you to place an outgoing call while there is an incoming call. Skype 2.5 doesn’t let us call your mobile via SkypeOut to link you into the incoming call from your buddy. We’ll be able to find a way around this and will do so as soon as possible. Look out for a new release from EQO coming soon!

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Looking for Treo 700p Testers

chris — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 10:01:56 -0700

We have received reports that EQO Mobile runs very well on the Treo 700p. It doesn’t appear that the 700p has the same problem that the CDMA Treo 650 has, with incoming calls going to voicemail when the data connection is active. We are still working on the CDMA Treo 650 problem; please be patient, we are doing our best! Anyway, I’m looking for a couple more Treo 700p users to confirm that EQO Mobile works well on your phone. Please email me at chris@eqo.com if you are interested in giving it a go.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Feature of the week #13: Chat with Unicode Characters

chris — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 17:51:11 -0700

If you don’t speak English then you probably aren’t reading this, but I’m going to describe this feature to you anyway. EQO Mobile 0.92.1 now supports Unicode characters in Skype Chats, which adds language support for many Asian, Scandinavian, and Eastern European Languages. This is a pretty self explanatory feature, so anybody watching the World Cup?

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Feature of the Week #12: Multiple Chat Sessions

chris — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 13:41:05 -0700

When EQO introduced support for Skype Chat on mobile phones, users were limited to one session at a time. One session just isn’t good enough for multitaskers and really popular people. As of EQO 0.92.1 released last week, you can chat with as many people as you want concurrently on your phone. The all new EQO Mobile Events Panel provides an easy and organized means by which to manage your chat sessions. EQO even plays sounds when a new message arrives and posts the time the last message (per session) was received in the list of active chats. As of EQO 0.92.1 you can still take your buddies with you, but now you chat with all of them at once!

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

EQO Mobile 0.92.1 for Palm Treo 650 is here!

chris — Fri, 02 Jun 2006 18:36:10 -0700

We’ve fixed up EQO Mobile 0.92.1 for the Treo 650 and are releasing it to the world a few days after the main 0.92.1 release. The release for the Treo 650 includes multi-session Skype Chat as well as Unicode support, but not Standby mode. There were just too many bugs with Standby mode, but we are still working on it of course. And for all of you still waiting for CDMA Treo 650 support, please hold on a little while longer. A fix is in the works. I’ll hopefully be contacting my pre-beta testers by the end of next week. If all goes well, release will follow. Thank you to the hundreds of you that volunteered to test the EQO Mobile for CDMA Treo 650 pre-beta. I apologize that I can only offer the pre-beta to a few of you. There you have it: EQO Mobile 0.92.1 for the Palm Treo 650 is out and worth the upgrade.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

EQO and Firewalls

chris — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 18:16:44 -0700

If you are having some trouble signing into the EQO for Skype Plug-in on your computer, Mac or PC, it is quite likely that you are being blocked by a firewall, especially if you are at work and it’s a big company. EQO needs free reign to connect to the internet and uses standard ports 80 and 443, as well as non standard ports 88, 7575, and 7576. You may need to unblock these nonstandard ports if EQO is being restricted. Many people have requested that we enable EQO to use proxies like Skype does. This is a good idea and is something we hope to do in the future. Please be patient and, in the meantime, open up those ports if you can.

EQO Data Usage

chris — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 17:55:24 -0700

How much data does EQO Mobile use? I get this question a lot and it is a valid concern for many people, especially considering most people don’t immediately understand how EQO Mobile actually works. Since EQO Mobile uses SkypeOut (now free in US/Canada!) to connect your mobile to the Skype network, there is no voice data actually consumed on your phone. Because of this, EQO Mobile really doesn’t use all that much data. Our benchmarks put average data usage at about 30KB per hour. Of course this varies on the size of your Skype and IM buddy lists, more buddies equals more data. And then data usage increases the more you use EQO Mobile, but requests such as incoming/outgoing call messages and chat messages aren’t very big, usually about 200 bytes. So if you have a limited data plan you may want to be careful how often you use EQO, but if you have 5MB or more you can be pretty care free. Those of you with unlimited data plans shouldn’t be reading this.

Feature of the Week #11: Standby Mode

chris — Wed, 31 May 2006 14:09:05 -0700

Now I know that I haven’t been keeping up with feature of the week lately and that’s partly because I was preoccupied and party because I was running out of features. I’m back in town and with this new release, my feature reserves have been replenished so I’m good to go again.

If you use EQO to take Skype on the go but don’t want to leave EQO running wasting data and consuming battery, you should make use of the new “Standby” mode. In the EQO “Events Panel” choose “Options”->”Standby” to stop EQO from sending/receiving data. You can also make EQO go into Standby mode after a certain period of time of inactivity via setting the “Standby Timer” in “Options”->”Settings”->”Standby Timer” to five, fifteen, or thirty minutes. What if you’d like to be notified of missed event every once in a while? Well, EQO lets you check you missed calls and missed IM chats periodically via settings the “Sync Timer” setting. In “Options”->”Settings”->”Sync Timer”, choose how often you’d like EQO to keep you in the loop while in standby mode. Stanby mode lets you stay in touch while sending/receiving much less mobile data with EQO Mobile.

EQO 0.92.1 released!

chris — Wed, 31 May 2006 14:06:43 -0700

EQO 0.92.1, introducing many usability improvements, bug fixes, and new features, was released last night. This one was a bit late as a result of us running into many unexpected problems. Our development team still worked crazy hard to get this one out, cheers to them!

Some bad news first, due to some rather serious bugs EQO 0.92.1 for the Palm Treo 650 was not released. The Treo is still stuck at 0.91.1, but we are working on it and will release shortly. Sit tight Treo users, give us a few more days!

Now for some good news, 0.92.1 fixes the problem some Mac users where having where EQO wouldn’t start on their computer. Also, certain Motorola users of EQO Mobile won't be running into those pesky application errors anymore.

As for what is new in EQO 0.92.1, well a revamped UI for a starters. We've also added Unicode support for Skype Chat in many more languages. Multi-Session Chat is also added, as well as Stanby mode. For a description of what standby mode entails please see Feature of the Week #11.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Chris back in action

chris — Wed, 24 May 2006 16:42:21 -0700

I am now back in the office returned from a fabulous wedding and an enjoyable honeymoon in Mexico. Much to my chagrin, no one brings me Strawberry Daiquiris at my whim anymore. Now I know that Daiquiris are girly drinks, but we are spoiled for choice when it comes to beer here in Canada and Tequila (sic) only goes so far, and then why should it be only socially acceptable for girls to enjoy all of the fruity, tasty beverages? In any case, I am back to field your support requests and engage in discussion with those that would speak with me. Thanks for covering for me Stanley, you are graciously relieved.

Now what's this I hear about the world going crazy while I was gone? Free SkypeOut in North America!?! I thought it was a joke when I first heard, but sure enough it's true. As Ian mentioned, this is good news for EQO. Free SkypeOut makes our product a hugely valuable and compelling tool in North America. I'm excited by this.

Why is it so hard to buy SkypeOut credits?

chris — Wed, 03 May 2006 17:00:03 -0700

As you can well imagine, we here at EQO use up a fair bit of SkypeOut credit. Almost every one of our thirty or so employees has a Skype account with SkypeOut credit. We also have a whole pile of demo accounts and test accounts as well. I would estimate that the number of Skype accounts we have that require SkypeOut credit is around the fifty mark.

Now, I’m not sure if you are aware of this or not, but Skype has some pretty strict rules about buying SkypeOut credit. One such rule is that only one credit card can be associated with one Skype account. Imagine getting your hands on fifty different credit cards just to top up your SkypeOut credits! We pretty much had to hire a contract worker to track down credit cards and distribute SkypeOut credits. Needless to say, it was not an enjoyable experience.

Now, this is where those of you who know a thing or two are thinking that I’m an idiot because we could have used Skype Groups all along! Go on thinking I’m an idiot, but don’t base your opinion on my not trying Skype Groups because I most assuredly did. Back then the only way you could stuff credit into Skype Groups was via Moneybookers. But then Moneybookers only allowed us to put in fifty euros every three months, and that fifty euros didn’t stretch so far. To quote Stewie Griffin, Blast!

Feature of the Week #10: Automatic Sign In

chris — Tue, 02 May 2006 17:58:22 -0700

Sometimes Windows restarts your computer to do updates, but what if you are on the road using EQO? Don’t let Windows Update mess up your overseas calling, use the automatic sign in feature that EQO provides. If you want EQO to start whenever you start your computer, first make sure that Skype starts when your computer starts too. Then right click the EQO icon in the system tray and choose Startup Settings. Just check “Sign me in automatically” and “Start EQO when computer starts” and you are good to go. Now pesky restarts won’t stand in the way of you and your buddies.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Help gets EQO Mobile onto Nokia 9300/9500 Communicators

chris — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 17:18:06 -0700

A rather generous colleague of ours who goes by the name of PhoneBoy was kind enough to ship us his Nokia 9300 communicator. He had been testing EQO Mobile on a Nokia 6670 when we got to talking about how he was quite sure that EQO would work on his 9300 and very likely his 9500 as well. I may have been out of line in asking to borrow one of them, but he kindly agreed to send us a phone nonetheless. Now here we are a week later with EQO Mobile running on the Nokia 9300 and Nokia 9500 and it’s all thanks to Mr. PhoneBoy.

We are pretty quick when it comes to porting EQO over to new handsets, but one of the problems in getting more and more phones supported is getting our hands on the phones themselves. Now if you are big into phones and you have a MIDP 2.0, GPRS enabled handset that you wouldn’t mind parting with for a week, we’d gladly take it off your hands with the aim of getting EQO Mobile running on your baby. Of course, I can’t make any promises but I’m quite sure that there are some Nokia and Sony Ericsson phones out there that could run EQO Mobile after a few tweaks in code/graphics. What’s in it for you? An EQO t-shirt and the chance to be the first to use EQO on your particular phone (we’re a startup, what more do you want?). Please email me, chris@eqo.com, if you are interested in helping us get you using EQO faster.

Feature of the Week #9: Make a Call

chris — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 16:05:41 -0700

I’m running out of features here, so time to hit the obvious. Hey, ever want to talk to someone? Why don’t you just call them? If they live far away, make use of EQO to call long distance on the cheap. EQO lets you call your Skype buddies on the Skype VoIP network and then links your mobile into the call with SkypeOut. In North America, you can call overseas from your mobile for just $0.02 a minute! From the EQO main window, just highlight the chosen Skype buddy and press Call. It’s as easy as all that, you’ll be talking in no time.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Data Network Errors?

chris — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 16:22:46 -0700

The most common problem pertaining to EQO brought before me is that people can not connect to the EQO service on their mobile phones, many report receiving variations of “Data network error.” The usual culprit here is that users don’t have a properly configured GPRS internet connection on their phone. Most people are confused by this as they can almost always access the internet, but they are likely doing so via a WAP connection. WAP allows you to use mobile browser, but it does not provide the pure data connection that EQO Mobile requires.

The EQO support forums are littered with examples of how you can add or edit a GPRS access point on your phone. Depending on your phone type, the information may not be there. Email me, chris@eqo.com, for instructions if you need help with your specific phone type. You may also need to specifically allow EQO to use your GPRS access point and you can usually do this via your phone settings, look for “Manager” or “App Manager” on your phone.

Feature of the Week #8: Change My Phone

chris — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 15:21:50 -0700

If you get a new phone, change some personal information, or would like a new version of EQO Mobile, then make use of the EQO “Change my Phone” feature. Go to www.eqo.com and login at the top right corner of the page with your EQO ID and password. You’ll then see a screen with the option “Change my Phone” in a column on the left, click on “Change my Phone”. You will then be able to change information such as your carrier, phone make and model, and phone number. If you don’t want to change anything but would like the latest version of EQO Mobile sent to your phone, just click “Next”. Once you click “Next” your changes will be saved and you’ll be sent a new EQO Mobile.

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Feature of the Week #7: Check Missed Calls

chris — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 18:43:46 -0700

When you are on the road with EQO, you might not want to leave EQO Mobile running all the time. EQO Mobile uses small amounts of wireless data that costs you money if you don’t have an unlimited data plan. We want you to know if one of your Skype buddies called you while you weren’t online, which is why EQO lets you check your Skype missed calls. Just select “Tasks”->”Missed Calls” from the “Options” menu on the EQO Mobile main window to see who called you and at what time. You can call your Skype buddy back right from the missed calls window, just choose “Call”. EQO Mobile lets you stay connected, even when you aren’t online!

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Feature of the Week #6: Check SkypeOut Balance

chris — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 15:37:17 -0700

If you would like to make a call with EQO Mobile and you aren’t sure if you have enough SkypeOut credit, EQO lets your retrieve your SkypeOut balance right to your phone. In the EQO Mobile main window, choose “Options” then select “Tasks”->”SkypeOut $” from the menu. EQO Mobile will tell you that it is retrieving your balance and will then show you your remaining SkypeOut credit. If you don’t have enough, time to use Skype Chat:)

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Feature of the Week #5: Call You Later

chris — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 15:18:43 -0800

Do you ever find that someone calls you, but you don’t want to talk to them? Of course you do, but sometimes you might want to talk to them eventually. When one of your Skype buddies calls you on EQO Mobile, you can choose to call them later by selecting “Options” then “Call Later”. A screen pops up allowing you to choose between “5 minutes”, “15 minutes”, “30 minutes” and “Call Later”, pick one and press “OK”. No matter what you choose, the Skype buddy that called you will get a Skype IM letting them know that you’ll call them later and, if you chose a time, in how long. Also, if you chose a time, EQO Mobile will let you know that it’s time to call your Skype buddy back after that time has passed, just press “CALL”. If you still don’t want to call your buddy back, choose “RE-QUEUE”, and you can choose to call your buddy later again. EQO Mobile lets you screen your calls like a rock star!

Chris
EQO Customer Evangelist

Communications 2.0 backplane

colin — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 18:14:49 -0800

Currently there is no functional voice communications backplane on the web. Google tried with GoogleTalk but the lack of service interworking with the regular telephone network and the existing limitations of libjingle limit the usefulness of recombined voice service applications based on GoogleTalk beta.

Yahoo! has just launched Yahoo! Messenger with Voice 7.0 with broader support for PC to phone calling. This service offers even cheaper per minute rates than SkypeOut as noted by Stuart Henshall of Skype Journal. With extensive network cores, Yahoo!, Google, and other leading web portals are in pretty good positions to establish themselves as competing communications backplanes. I would suspect that over time, Yahoo, Google / AOL, Microsoft Live, and possibly ...Skype will all offer varying capabilities of a communications 2.0 backplane.