Category: Technology News

Free Skype group video calls have now rolled out

This service is being offered for free in order to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the company’s video calls.

Microsoft has now announced that in celebration of the tenth anniversary of its video calling service, it is now offering free Skype group video calls to anyone using mobile devices based on the Windows 10 Mobile platform as well as those from Android, iPhone and iPad.

The company has released an announcement about this free service through a statement from Gurdeep Pall.

Pall, the corporate vice president for the Information Platform & Experience team from Microsoft recently made a blog post about the free Skype offering, saying “To celebrate 10 years of video calling, get ready to welcome group video calling on Android, iPhone, iPad and Windows 10 Mobile — everywhere, completely free.” Pall added that “We’ll be rolling out this new feature to our hundreds of millions of mobile users in the coming weeks.”

Aside from the free Skype group video calling, the team from the company has been up to a great deal more.

Free Skype CallsFor instance, the Skype team has also been working on the communications app over the last months and have boosted the number of features available to users. For example, the most recent version now makes it possible for users to “leave a message” in video form for other Skype users whose statuses are offline or not available.

It has also been reported that the service is looking to crack through the language barrier so that friends, family and even businesspeople will be able to communicate with each other, regardless of the languages they speak, using Skype Translator. That feature makes it possible for voice and video calls to be translated into any of seven languages, so far. Moreover, when using the instant messenger version of the service, it is possible to take advantage of translation into any of fifty different languages.

While the Skype Translator feature is still in its preview mode, it has been launched on that level and it is heavily reliant on machine learning. This means that it becomes more accurate the more an individual uses it as it learns that individual’s unique way of speaking. The recommendation when using that service is that headphones be used and that users speak as clearly as they can to ensure the most accurate translations possible. When using the Translator with the free Skype service, a user needs Windows 7 or higher.

Google names new head of virtual reality

The tech giant has thrown its hat in the VR technology ring along with Microsoft and Facebook.

Microsoft and Facebook have been powering forward with virtual reality technology, but at the same time it has appeared as though Google has been falling behind in this particular category.

That said, 2016 is starting to suggest that this isn’t the case as Google has been making moves to catch up.

It has now been revealed that Google is making moves to form its own division that is dedicated to virtual reality tech and computing. As a central component of this effort, it has now named Sundar Pichai – the company’s CEO – as a division head, according to several sources. This represents a massive shift in control positions at the company as it simultaneously indicates that the company has a new intention to create a solid enterprise business. After all, with this shift in execs, it will be senior vice president Diane Green who will take control over the company’s tremendous consumer web applications.

While the changes have been confirmed by a Google spokesperson, further discussion of virtual reality was declined.

Virtual Reality TechnologyThe Google vice president of product management, Clay Bavor, has been in control of the company’s apps; such as Drive, Gmail and Docs. Since the launch of Cardboard in 2014, he has also been the head of that division. Moving forward, Bavor is stepping away from apps in order to place all his attention on VR products. As he steps out of apps, Greene is stepping in, who joined the company in November in order to take control of the newly formed enterprise operations.

The original creation of Cardboard had been to create a form of VR technology that could be introduced in a mainstream way. So far, it has seen some limited success as it has recently started some distribution programs with schools. It also brought about a new GoPro integration that made it possible to carry VR video over to YouTube. That feature was initially introduced in May 2015 at the Google I/O, by Bavor.

This most recent large move in virtual reality might help to assuage the concerns and criticisms of people in the industry who have been indicating that Google isn’t all that dedicated to the tech.