Guest Writer

CrazyTalk, Animated Avatar for Skype!

Charles Chen, CEO of Reallusion

Hello! I am Charles Chen, CEO of Reallusion, the creator of CrazyTalk video avatar - currently the top downloaded Skype Premium Extra. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we provide Hollywood-like 3D cinematic animation software for PC, mobile and embedded platforms. Our pioneering storytelling technology excelling at character animation, facial morphing and voice lip-sync allows fast creation of interactive avatars for 3D real-time animation and professional filmmaking.

In recent years, we have expanded our leading 3D facial animation technology to instant messaging, anticipating the boom of real-time video communication. Aimed to provide a realistic and creative experience, CrazyTalk for Skype, the live video avatar with animated expressions, was introduced in 2005, and it immediately became a hit among the fast growing base of Skype users as an exciting alternative messaging experience. Instead of showing a true face, users can use their favorite avatar to chat with friends on Skype

You wanna see CrazyTalk video? Take a look here ...

Updates

What is new in the Developer Zone?

You are invited! Skype Developer Program Congress in Tokyo 5th Oct hosted by Ubion INC Come and check out some of the latest Skype partner products, see the winning Asian mash-ups and meet partners who are extending the Skype Platform. If you are interested, please contact Antoine Bertout: antoine.bertout@skype.net	September FAQs These are the latest Developer requests, Skype Technical services has resolved for you (FAQs) API bugs solved or fixed These are the latest API bugs, Skype Technical services has resolved and fixed for you. Thanks again for reporting these in our issue tracker (Jira).
Skype Gets Mashed Up Overall winner of the Skype 2007 Mashup Competition was announced September 13th in Prague. The winner is PamFax from PamConsult. U.S. region mashup winner got announced September 27th at San Jose and the winner is The JiWire Hotspot Finder for Skype™ from JiWire. Japanese specific mashup winner will be announced in Tokyo October the 05th at Skype Developer Program Congress.

Paul says

12 months on: Skype Developer Program

By Paul Amery, Skype Developer Program Director
Happy Birthday SDP newsletter! It's been 12 months since edition 1, and a busy year by anyone's standards – for you, for SDP and for Skype.

Before I joined Skype in August 2006, I spent a fair bit of time reading press reviews of SDP and API forum postings etc, to get a 'feel' for the landscape. Reviews are often biased, but two struck me firmly as a call to action. Before I share them, let me state that my predecessor Lenn Pryor did an exceptional job getting SDP off the ground with the team. Probably good news makes for boring press, but here's the skinny...

• In “Skype Developer Ecosystem get a D” for Skype Journal, Stuart Henshall gave SDP a harsh analysis. To quote, “Now many will say I am very harsh. You are probably right. Most developers would say "Skype is doing their best." "They are a young company." "They basically get it." What developers want is more access and functionality in the API. Communication is a big deal. They also don't want to be screwed by changing Skype road map. I gave the highest score to the API. Without it the only developers interested in Skype would be those applying for a job.”
• Another equally unflattering critique was Katie Fehrenbacher's review “Is Skype Neglecting its Developers?”. Amongst other things, Katie said “Some third party Skype developers say that the company still has one of the worst developer programs out there. Developers complain that there is little help from Skype in bringing in users to the service, including poor or no placement of links or applications on Skype's site. Skype's former product manager Lenn Pryor has previously pointed out that the company hasn't done a particularly good job of explaining to the developer community how they can make money with their Skype applications.”

In summary, the perception in 2006 was that Skype was not doing enough with developers. We needed to fix 2 clear and specific issues:

• 1. The Public Platform: truly opening it up
• 2. A route to market and monetization

Well, did we fix them? Let's take a look...

wolli presents

Skype public platform roadmap

Peeter P. Mõtsküla, Technical Services and API manager, SDP

"What are you guys up to next?" has probably been the single most frequently asked question among the members of Skype developer community. No wonder, considering that we've never shared any of our roadmaps publicly -- until now, that is. Skype public platform roadmap, version 7.3, was presented hot off the press at the developer and betatester event in Prague just two weeks ago.

"What do you mean, v7.3?" might well be the next obvious question. Well, it was indeed the first time this roadmap ever saw the public light, but the version numbering stems from our commitment to keeping it updated on quarterly basis. The next edition, bearing the number 7.4, will be released in the year 2007, quarter 4. And it will keep evolving in the meantime -- hopefully, with a lot of useful input from you, the developers.

One of the first things you'll notice when taking a look at the roadmap is that we're no longer speaking about "Skype Public API", but "Skype Public APIs" -- in plural. The reason for this is that developers are no longer bound to using the "raw" API provided to them by the Skype Client. A good deal of third-party applications rely on wrappers such as Skype4COM and Skype4Java, or the latest addition to the wrappers family, Skype4Py. Presence information is already available via the web, and we'll be broadening the spectrum of Skype-related web services. Furthermore, we're no longer talking only about plug-ins (software that expands Skype's user experience), but also about plug-outs (software that incorporates certain features of Skype) and mash-ups (software that creatively interconnects functionality provided by Skype and at least one other platform). Therefore, we'll be speaking more generally about the "Skype public platform".

So, what are we up to next?

Python in a Library

Skype4Py wrapper

Arkadiusz Wahlig, a student and a developer

About the Author – who you are and what do you do besides writing Python wrappers?
Hello. I'm 26 years old and I come from Poland. Currently I live in Bochum, Germany where I'm a student of Applied Computer Science at the Ruhr-University of Bochum. I was always a technology geek with the main focus on computers and the way they work. Over time, programming and designing software has simply become my hobby. That's how I love to spent long winter evenings :D. Besides that, I'm a normal man :). I like spending time with my friends, doing sports (mostly biking but sometimes canoeing too) or just sitting at a bar having some relaxing chat.

Can you give us a brief overview of the wrapper?
Skype4Py is a Python wrapper for Skype API. By Skype API I mean here the common (commands based) interface exposed by Skype client on all supported platforms. Skype4Py builds on top of this low-level API and exposes a friendly, object oriented interface to the Python scripts. This interface is almost the same as the one exposed by Skype4COM wrapper (its objects have the same methods and properties). This makes it very easy to use and the joined forces of this intuitive interface and an easy to learn and widespread language like Python, make for a great.

What are the basic software requirements?
Do you plan to add Mac support as well?
As Skype4COM wrapper is about to go open source project, would you be willing to include additions from outside the main branch of the Skype4COM in Skype4Py?
What are your plans with the wrapper for the future?

Find out more

Avo's TechTalk

Skype4Com 1.0.28 coming with Skype 3.6

It is our pleasure to announce that in absence of any bug reports concerning Skype4Com library (beta of which has been out on DevZone for quite a while now), we are finally going to release version 1.0.28 of the COM wrapper. Unless major bugs are found in it before Windows client 3.6 goes out, the DLL will also be included in 3.6 installation package.

Release notes to version 1.0.28 are available on DevZone blog.

Public Chats
The bulk of the version history update in 1.0.28 consists of support for Public Chats - management of access rights, kicking, banning, joining via Public Chat Blobs, etc. Basically, tt is now possible to write your old favourite IRC bot scripts for Skype Public Chats using Skype4Com wrapper. As this functionality has been available via basic API syntax since (Windows) version 3.0, you can find more detailed documentation of the chat extensions on the Public API reference. Note that most of these new goodies require the chat type to be Multichat (unavailable in dialog chats), so checking the new IChat.Type property before messing will be appropriate.

Find out more

Caitlin's corner

New Extras

Spontania
This is a first of its kind for the Skype Extras Manager and is an extra we were very excited to try. Spontania allows you to host web conferences with video for up to 4 people. OOnly the call host has to have Spontania installed and they simply choose their participants from their contacts. A chat message with a link is then sent to the other participants and they simply download the software to participate in that particular session. The host moderator can share their desktop and can also pass control over to other members of the group for them to show their desktops too.

Wisepill
This handy extra allows you to monitor and manage your medication intake. You can enter in your prescription details and set up computer screen reminders or SMS reminders. Then you can log your medicine intake by 'clicking in' on your PC or 'calling in' on your SkypeIn number so always have a record of exactly when you took your medication.

Find out more

Thanks for developing for Skype,
Paul and the rest of the people at Skype