eBay's Skype has reached a settlement with Joltid over a breach of license that will now see the sale of the VoIP firm go through without litigation hassles.

Joltid Ltd, a Swedish firm owned by Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, had claimed peer-to-peer technology owned by Joltid, and not eBay, was being used in a breach of license with every download of the Skype software.

It's now been announced that the investor group led by Silver Lake, which is to acquire a majority stake in Skype, has reached a settlement agreement with Joltid and Joost that gives Skype ownership over all software previously licensed from Joltid.

As part of the settlement, Zennstrom and Friis will join the investor group and the Skype board with a 14% share in exchange for providing Joltid software and a significant capital investment.

This now ends all litigation currently pending against the investor group and eBay.

"We'll be free to concentrate all of our efforts on building the world’s greatest communications software", says Skype in a blog post.

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Tags: Software Biz Skype Lawsuits eBay Joltid

Skype and Joltid settle originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:11:46 +0000

We're not all made of money. Some of us might just be after a cheap phone that works - maybe a second handset or perhaps something to buy as a present. Whatever your need, if it's budget you're after then that's exactly what we're bringing you today from Pocket-lint with the very best in PAYG mobile phones for under ?50.

5) Nokia 6300

It may be as old as the hills but the Nokia 6300 is a a mobile with class. Just a 2-inch QVGA screen on it and a 2-megapixel camera for trickery but it will shoot video and support up to 4GB of memory through a microSD card. The best thing about the 6300 though is the plain look and feel of the thing. It's got a lovely metal casing which not only makes it stylish but also gives it a wealth of protection. You can throw the thing on the floor as many times as you like and it's not going to break. It'd be nice if it had a 3.5mm jack or something to really call you to the handset, but you'll find all those additions at the more expensive end of the Classic range. This is the best from Nokia within the budget and just sneaks in at ?49.95.

4) Samsung B3310

Let's not beat around the bush here. There's nothing special about this phone apart from the QWERTY keyboard, but the fact is that you just don't get these things on phones under ?50 anywhere else. The whole handset is designed as a written communicator for SMS, e-mail and even built-in access to Facebook, MySpace and Photobucket. Elsewhere, there's a 2-inch LCD display, FM radio, and a 2-megapixel camera. The downside is that the only colour it comes in is pink. ?49.90.

3) Samsung U600

You have to look for small mercies in the budget phone department. Comparatively speaking the U600 is an imaging handset and otherwise it's its lack of glaring mistakes that raises it above the rest. It's got a 3.2-megapixel camera with flash that will shoot video and a fairly bog standard 2.2-inch QVGA to view your snaps on. That said, get them off the phone and you'll have something worth looking at. There's no 3G - not that you could really use it to much effect on this phone - nor is there a 3.5mm jack, which you could, but it's quad-band, stylish and certainly offers bang for one's buck. ?34.95 and not a hint of regret.

2) Skype Phone S2

Sexy this handset ain't, but beneath the plain Jane exterior lies just about the best budget phone you'll find. It measures in at 103 x 45 x 14mm, has a 2.2-inch QVGA screen, a 1150mAh battery, 50MB of on-board memory backed up by a microSD card slot that supports up to 4GB and both HSDPA speeds of up to 3.6Mbps and a mighty 3.2-megapixel camera. The real selling point of the S2 though is that it gives you free Skype to Skype voice calls and chat forever. As in, life. At no data cost at all. Know enough people on Skype, make a lot of calls overseas and this one will pay for itself in a matter of weeks. ?49.99

1) LG Cookie KP500

5 million consumers world wide can't be wrong, or at least if they are you'll have a very large support network. The Cookie has offered touchscreen technology to the masses with the KP500 and a nice chunky 3-inch display to watch videos on too. At 13.9mm slim, this 89 gram handset has an "intuitive" Active Flash user interface with haptic feedback and comes with a built-in stylus. The UI gives you widget control plus there's also a 3-megapixel camera, a MP3 player, FM radio, calendar, clock and motion sensing games too. What keeps it different to the big boys is that there's no Wi-Fi, no push e-mail, no 3.5mm jack and no GPS. Otherwise, it's about as smart as a feature phone can get. Very good indeed for ?49.90.

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Related links:

• Buy - Skype phone S2
• Buy - Nokia 6300
• Buy - Samsung B3310
• Buy - Samsung U600
• Buy - LG KP500 Cookie

Tags: Phones Mobile phones Samsung 3G Photos Cameraphones PAYG Samsung U600 LG KP500 Cookie Skype Skypephone S2 3 Nokia Samsung B3310 Nokia 6300 Features

Top 5 PAYG phones for under £50 originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Tue, 27 Oct 2009 11:24:37 +0000

If you do a lot of video calls across the Web, you'll be aware that they can be a bit of a pain sometimes. Between lossy connections and flaky webcam drivers, it can be a little tough to get things working how you want them to.

Asus is trying to simplify that process with its Eee Videophone, which also seems to go by the name of the AiGuru SV1T Skype Videophone. It has a 7-inch touchscreen interface and lets you use Skype to make unlimited free video calls to other Skype users. You can also make voice calls if you buy Skype credit.

The Videophone is available now, and costs ?240.

Tags: Hardware Asus Skype Video conferencing Videophones Asus Eee Videophone Photos

PHOTOS: Asus Eee Videophone Touch originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:41:23 +0100

Lenovo and Skype have announced a new partnership agreement that will see Skype for Windows software preloaded on "millions" of computers.

From now on, every ThinkPad laptop and ThinkCentre desktop PC distributed worldwide will include Skype software.

In a blog post Skype says: "If you buy a ThinkPad or ThinkCentre, you'll be able to get up and running with Skype quickly and easily by locating the Skype icon in the Start menu".

Bloatware or a useful pre-load that will save you time downloading the software? Let us know your thoughts in the comments box below...

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Tags: Hardware Lenovo Skype Software Desktop PCs Laptops VoIP Phones

Lenovo to pre-load Skype on "millions" of PCs originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:04:54 +0100

Asus has launched a Skype-certified touchscreen videophone thats whole purpose in life is video calling over the internet.

The device let users make unlimited video calls for free to other Skype users without the need for a PC while landline numbers can also be called with enough Skype credit.

The Asus Videophone Touch AiGuru SV1T gets a 7-inch touchscreen and an icon-based interface. Obviously there's also a built-in webcam, speaker, microphone.

The device offers Wi-Fi capabilities as well as Ethernet connection and also has a mini-jack headset and microphone for anyone who wants calls to be more private.

We've no clue yet as to pricing or availability but will keep you posted.

Tags: Phones VoIP Asus Skype Videophones Asus Videophone Touch AiGuru SV1T

Asus AiGuru SV1T Skype videophone announced originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:45:15 +0100

The founders of Skype are suing the investment company that is buying the internet telephony service from current owner eBay, demanding billions in compensation for copyright infringement.

In a move that's highly likely to disrupt the $1.9 billion buy-out, Joltid Ltd, a Swedish firm owned by Skype founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, claims peer-to-peer technology owned by Joltid, and not eBay, is being used in a breach of license with every download of the Skype software.

Joltid and Skype are currently in a legal dispute in Britain over software rights, but this brings the fight to the new owners, and the American court system with the lawsuit filed in Northern California.

"The Skype companies have continued to infringe Joltid's copyrighted works on a massive scale. Each day that the Skype Companies continue to make available its Internet telephone software for download, Skype users download Joltid's copyrighted works approximately six times per second" says Joltid, claiming damages of $75 million a day.

"Their allegations and claims are without merit and are founded on fundamental legal and factual errors", eBay said in a statement.

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Related links:

• News - eBay conforms to rumour, sells Skype

Tags: Software eBay Lawsuits Skype Phones VoIP Biz Joltid

Skype founders sue for billions in damages originally appeared on Pocket-lint on Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:41:38 +0100