Neowin.net

As telecommunications carriers around the globe experiment with a wireless replacement for cable and DSL modems, Intel Corp. plans on Monday to release its first chip for the technology, known as Wimax. The world's largest chip maker sees in Wimax a potential profit source that it hopes will become as popular as its shorter-range cousin, Wi-Fi.

Intel also believes it will stimulate computer sales in emerging markets where high-speed Internet access is unavailable or prohibitively expensive. Wimax is not a guaranteed hit, as telecommunication carriers invest in wireless broadband networks based on cellular technology as well as WiFi hot-spots. Intel's chip, formerly given the code name Rosedale, costs around $45 and is designed to power devices that will receive Wimax signals in users' homes.

News source: Reuters

“The dramatic and exponential growth of downloads and the time devoted by Skype users to communication via Skype demonstrates consumers’ and professionals’ enjoyment of our continual service improvements, and the viral power of our loyal user base,” added Zennström. “Skype is simple to use and easy to share, and the marketplace is responding by making Skype its first choice in Internet telephony.”

SkypeIn customers choose a country and area code and are assigned a regular telephone number. Anyone may call the SkypeIn user at their SkypeIn number wherever the user travels, providing huge cost savings compared to mobile roaming rates and flexibility for the Skype user to receive calls at home, at the office or at a hotel anywhere. Users may purchase up to three numbers from their home country in Denmark, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States during the beta period.

Skype Voicemail customers can receive a voicemail message up to 10 minutes long from any user or traditional phone. Skype Voicemail customers may record their own personalized voicemail greeting, playback their messages, even while offline, and send incoming calls to voicemail if they away, offline or simply busy on another call.

SkypeIn and Skype Voicemail complement Skype’s first premium service, SkypeOut, which allows global calling to public telephone numbers for local rates. More than 1.2 million people are now using SkypeOut. With the combination of SkypeIn and SkypeOut, users have new flexibility to expand modern communications and share those interconnection benefits with non-Skype users. Skype eliminates communications billing surprises by offering all premium services on a pre-paid basis.

Subscriptions for both pre-paid services are available in the Skype Store at www.skype.com. Three month SkypeIn subscriptions are available for €10 ($13)* and 12 month subscriptions for €30 ($39). Skype Voicemail subscriptions are available for €5 ($7) for 3 months or €15 ($19) for 12 months, and a free subscription is included with all SkypeIn orders.

Skype maintains its commitment to user-controlled privacy settings with the ability to block SkypeIn numbers. SkypeIn and Skype Voicemail betas are available with the latest versions of Skype for Linux, Mac OS X, Pocket PC and Windows platforms. The new downloads also include enhanced user benefits such as remote access to their personal contact lists and the ability to import contact lists from other desktop applications.

Skype is the leading VOIP-category product worldwide, with more than 35 million registered users increasing by more than 150,000 new users per day.