Tuesday 19 April 2011

Skype to display ads

Skype recently announced that it will introduce advertising to boost revenue ahead of listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange. The popular free internet communications service founded in 2003, announced plans to raise up to $100 million by going public.
The ads won't interrupt your Skype experience
Skype channels voice, video and text conversations over the internet, thereby bypassing the standard telephone network said the ads will initially appear in the US, UK and Germany and will be seen by both personal and the increasing number of business users who are exploring the web based functionality of Skype.

"The Skype experience is our first priority, which is why we we've taken a lot of time working through and testing what kind of advertising would work best in the Skype environment," Skype said in a blog post.

"We believe that advertising, when done in the right way, will help us continue to invest in developing great products," the company said.

Advertisers that are expected to feature on Skype include Groupon, the discount coupon site, Visa and Universal Pictures.

On launch adverts will begin to appear in the home tab in Skype for Windows and Skype has said that they may experiment with ads in other areas as well."

"The ads won't interrupt your Skype experience," the company said. "You won't suddenly see annoying pop-up ads or flashy banner ads in middle of conversations."

Thursday 14 April 2011

Divorce? Turns out, theres an app for that...

Divorce, the breaking of the 'unbreakable' bond of of holy matrimony, is more popular than it has ever been. Whether you are bored and want a change or want to punish them for calling you fat by making sure they can't see their kids, so-called 'reverse-weddings' are seen by many as the way to go. Splitting up is never easy to do, but now there is an app which says it can help.



The iPhone app in question is called 'Divorce?'. It is on sale for £9.99 from the iTunes's store. It aims to make the process of getting divorced as fun and trendy as a game of 'Angry Birds'.

The ins and outs of divorce are all explored, including the financial side. It is intended to inform couples who want to split of what the deal is before they get into the formal legal stages.

As an idea, it is an interesting one. By taking some of the expensive legal knowledge and making it available via an app accessibility to legal services is improved. Getting a solicitor on board is a big commitment in itself, so perhaps knowing what is in store can help people to get what what they want from the process.

Solicitors, of course, engage in a wide variety of work. Making a will is possibly something that could benefit from an app made by legal experts. Whether you would want you iPhone to put on a wig and defend you before a judge though, seems less likely.