Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Skype at 38,000 Feet - This Stuff Works

Uberblogger and IP comrade Andy Abramson is a busy guy, and really knows how to use technology to stay in touch. He's been living the digital life longer and better than anyone I know, so I wasn't blown away Skyping with him the other day, but it sure was neat. Andy was enroute to Europe and Skyped me to catch up on things. Basically, he used the Boeing FlyNet Connexxion Service, which provides the WiFi signal, and voila - sky high Skype.

Good thing Boeing didn't partner with Boingo - that would be a fun name to work out...BoBoing??? BoingBo??? Bo2???? Never mind.....

Andy provides his own account first hand about Skyping from the clouds here.

I should add of course that he's not the first one to do this. Jeff Pulver posted about doing the same several months ago, and in both cases it was great to hear about how seamless the user experience was and how the quality held up so well. Skype may be getting lost in the eBay abyss - the ebyss??? - but you can't deny there's value in something that works so well. Of course there are much bigger issues looming for Skype that are not just about technology - and Andy has some great insights on this.

1 comment:

Jon Arnold said...

Posted by: Jim Courtney

So I'm riding into Chicago from O'Hare on the CTA train and find this article in the USA Today handed out by my hotel: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/maney/2005-11-29-net-calls-planes_x.htm. Talking about using Skype from airplanes....

BTW, I swear everyone under 30 on that train had an iPod ... white headsets everywhere....