SHAPE Services released its cross-platform application IM+ for Skype in the App Store on iPhone. IM+ for Skype enables text chat and cost-effective calls to Skype contacts and to any phone numbers. Reliable callback technology is used for calls thus providing best phone call quality with no extra delays and latency typical for VoIP.

IM+ for Skype is available in App Store on iPhone under the Social Networking category.

Skype announces the launch of Skype 4.0 for Windows, the most distinctive new release in the company's five-year history. Thanks to the feedback of tens of thousands of people, the new version offers full-screen video calling, crystal clear call quality and is easier to use than ever before. In addition, Skype users will find all of the features they have come to expect - free voice and video calls to other Skype users, instant messaging, SMS, as well as calls to landlines and mobile devices around the world at very low rates.

Skype announces the availability of Skype 1.0 Beta for Intel-based Mobile Internet Devices. This new version of Skype software is the result of working with Intel Corporation to develop a new mobile Skype experience for MIDs based on the Intel Atom processor and Moblin-based Linux OS.

MIDs are an emerging category of small, truly mobile consumer devices enabling a rich Internet experience, coupled with the capability to communicate with others, enjoy entertainment, access information, and be productive on the go – all without sacrificing mobility or performance. MIDs typically come with 4”-7” screens, a camera, GPS and WiFi connectivity. Select MIDs also provide WiMax or 3G/4G support for wireless broadband connectivity on-the-go. ABI Research expects 86 million Linux-enabled MIDs to ship by 2013.

Skype announces the release of a lite version of Skype, a ‘thin’ client for Skype that can be downloaded on Android-powered devices, as well as more than 100 other Java-enabled mobile phones.

This launch builds on successful public testing last year and the incorporation of user feedback to an earlier beta version which was only available on a limited number of mobile devices. The updated beta now makes Skype software broadly available to millions of mobile users worldwide, including for the first time, mobile users in the U.S. The lite version delivers core Skype capabilities including... Find out after the jump.

Skype released Skype 2.8 Beta for Mac, the latest version of its internet communications software for Mac users. This new release, which was first demonstrated during ShowStoppers at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco, contains a number of new Skype features, including Skype Access and screen sharing. Both of these features will be built into versions of Skype for other operating systems sometime in 2009.

Boingo Wireless and Skype announce agreement that will allow Skype users to access more than 100,000 Boingo Wi-Fi hotspots worldwide, and pay using Skype Credit. The feature, called Skype Access, will be embedded into Skype as a core feature, first in the Skype for Mac 2.8 Beta software released today and then in versions of Skype for other operating systems sometime in 2009.

The new application lets users connect to a Boingo Wi-Fi hotspot with a single click and to pay per minute only for what they use. Skype Access actively scans for available Boingo hotspots and presents a pop-up dialogue box displaying the price per minute to use the Boingo network using Skype Credit. Boingo’s Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy apply and access to all Internet services will be provided on a simple, per minute billing basis.

Zoom Technologies announce their Model 5900 Phone Adaptor for Skype is available through more than two thousand selected Wal-Mart stores in the U.S. The adapter is also available on-line at www.walmart.com. The Model 5900 allows purchasers to use any phone, even a cordless phone, for Skype calls.

Wal-Mart has taken a leading role in introducing American consumers to the significant savings available through the Skype phone service. The Zoom Adaptor for Skype makes the service as easy to use as a standard telephone.

Digium and Skype announce the beta version of Skype For Asterisk, which will allow the integration of Skype functionality into Digium’s Asterisk software and enable customers to make, receive and transfer Skype calls from within their Asterisk phone systems.

Specifically, the beta version of Skype For Asterisk is an add-on channel driver module that integrates Skype Internet calling with Asterisk-based telephony products. Skype For Asterisk also complements small and mid-sized business users’ existing services by providing low rates for calling landline and mobile phones around the world.

VoSKY introduces the industry's first Skype-certified, enterprise-grade PBX-to-Skype gateway for SIP networks. Designed to enable medium and large-sized enterprises to maximize the value of their IP-PBX, the new VoSKY Exchange Pro VISIP-EX connects an IP-PBX to Skype to dramatically reduce telecom costs and enhance business communications. This latest addition to VoSKY's award-winning PBX-to-Skype gateway family is based on the company's next-generation Linux platform and offers enterprise-grade performance and scalability.

VoSKY continued its acceleration of Skype deployment in the business environment by adding the VoSKY Exchange Pro VIT1/E1 to its award-winning PBX-to-Skype gateway family. Based on VoSKY's latest enterprise-grade Linux platform, the VoSKY Exchange Pro VIT1/E1 enables medium to large-sized enterprise organizations to cost-effectively migrate to VoIP, and enjoy dramatic cost savings up to 90% over traditional telco trunks.

VoSKY announces a major global expansion of its VoSKY Exchange VoIP application gateway business through an agreement with Digital China. VoSKY Exchange is the first Skype solution for business to be sold through the Digital China network, reflecting growing market interest in the gateway's ability to add enhanced VoIP-based business applications and Skype trunks to any traditional or IP-based office phone system.

Effective immediately, Digital China's 6,000 VARs have access to the full VoSKY Exchange product line, including seven four-port and eight-port editions that seamlessly connect to any PBX with no modifications to existing PBX equipment, desk phones or user PCs. This will enable resellers to offer low-cost, easily deployable, value-added VoIP solutions to the 8.3 million small and medium businesses in China.

Skype is taking another major step as it continues to merge its internet communications software with mobile phones. Today, the company released a beta version of Skype for your mobile, a mobile “thin“ client that works on about 50 of the most popular Java-enabled mobile phones from Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

The beta version of Skype for your mobile is available worldwide with a feature set that includes chat, group chat, presence (seeing when your contacts are online), and receiving calls from Skype users, and through SkypeIn.* Additional features, which include the making of Skype-to-Skype and SkypeOut calls from the mobile handsets, are initially supported in seven markets: Brazil (Rio de Janeiro), Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Poland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

With its beta version, Skype for your mobile enters a public testing phase that will help Skype gauge the response of technology-savvy users whose feedback will help tweak the offering. This phase is expected to last several months, after which a public version of the application will be made available to millions of mobile phone owners around the world.

Skype announces unlimited* calling to over a third of the world’s population with the launch of its new calling subscriptions. The new subscriptions signal the first time Skype has offered a single, monthly flat rate for international calling to landline numbers in 34 countries.

The new subscriptions have no long-term contract. You can make calls whenever you want – at any time of the day, on any day of the week. From today, you can choose from three types of subscription – from unlimited calls to landlines in the country of your choice through to landlines in 34 destination countries worldwide.

309 million people all over the world use Skype in all sorts of ways – whether it’s a weekly video call with a sister in Paris or sending an instant message to a college friend in Tokyo or calling a business contact overseas.

iSkoot announced an extended partnership with Skype. The new agreement follows iSkoot's successful collaboration with Skype and mobile operator 3 for the global launch of the 3 Skypephone, the first ever mass-market Skype-enabled mobile handset.

Under the agreement, iSkoot will have certain exclusive rights to offer Skype-branded mobile software enabled by the iSkoot solution to mobile network operators in Argentina, Greece, Israel, Norway, South Africa, Switzerland and Turkey. These products will deliver mobile Skype voice functionality based on circuit switch-to-VoIP technology. iSkoot delivers an end-to-end client/server/gateway solution that leverages the ubiquitous circuit switching infrastructure of the traditional voice network and offers either an on-premises or iSkoot-hosted ASP implementation.

Sipcall.com launches Hipsip providing Skype, SIP and EmailCall from any mobile phone. Hipsip, the new mobile communications community from Sipcall, was launched today. Hipsip is a mobile VoIP service that allows calls to Skype and SIP contacts from any mobile phone, and does not require the installation of an application on the mobile phone. The browser-based Skype and SIP calling service is initially available in 7 countries.

Hipsip was created to make cost effective Internet calls available to anyone with a mobile phone, regardless of model or make. Consumers today wish to make free or inexpensive Skype and SIP calls from their mobile phones. Hipsip provides VoIP on mobile, without the need for an advanced 3G or Wifi mobile phone.