Skype is free and easy. To sign up for a Skype name, follow these steps:

1. Download Skype from www.skype.com.

2. When you install Skype, you are prompted to create a new account if you don’t already have one. Enter in the relevant details and create your new Skype account.

When you are up and running with Skype, you can start making calls. You can make calls to ordinary phones, and you can also buy a phone number so that people can call you from ordinary phones.

The name ‘Skylook’ is made up from the words Skype and Outlook (as in Microsoft Outlook). ‘Sky’ from Skype and ‘look’ from Outlook were fused together to make Skylook. Sometimes people mistakenly refer to the product as ‘Skylok’.

Download Skylook

The name ‘Skylook’ is made up from the words Skype and Outlook (as in Microsoft Outlook). ‘Sky’ from Skype and ‘look’ from Outlook were fused together to make Skylook. Sometimes the product is mistakenly refer to as ‘Skypelok’.

Download Skylook

Skype Credit allows you to:

• Call landline and mobile phones anywhere in the world (NOTE: Emergency numbers are not available).
• Send SMS messages to mobile phones.

You can buy Skype Credit here

Read about how to set up Skype here if you don’t already have it. (Skype is a free download).

Also available:

SkypeIn Phone Number (to allow people to call your PC from normal phones).

Skype Voicemail (so that people can leave you Voicemail messages).

Recommended Skype Hardware Products

More Skype phones, headsets and other gear:

Visit the Skype Hardware Store.

Skypee is a common mispronunciation for “Skype” (rhymes with “type” and “ripe”), the popular VoIP client.

Visit the Skype website.

You can download Skylook for Skype – a powerful Microsoft Outlook and Skype integration.

Click here for information on Skype.

The name ‘Skylook’ is made up from the words Skype and Outlook (as in Microsoft Outlook). ‘Sky’ from Skype and ‘look’ from Outlook were fused together to make Skylook. Sometimes people mistakenly refer to the product as ‘SkypeLook’.

Download Skylook

Here is how to keep a permanent record of all your phone calls in the Outlook Journal.

Following the steps below will allow you to:

• Make and receive phone calls using just your PC and a broadband internet connection.
• Automatically create a journal entry for each call you make or receive.
• Record all calls in the journal or only calls to and from certain contacts.
• Group important contacts’ calls together with their emails, text chat messages, voice mail messages and more.
• Easily enter notes about each call, during or after the call, and search for calls based on these notes later on
• Keep a recording of each call as an MP3 attachment, accessible from the journal entry for the call.

Here are the steps:

(NOTE: These steps assume that you have a PC with a broadband internet connection, and Microsoft Outlook 2000/XP/2002/2003/2007 installed.)

1. Follow these instructions to set up Skype if you don’t already use it.

2. If you don’t already have Skylook, download and install it from here.

3. Start Outlook. If you are running Skylook for the first time, you will see the Skylook licensing wizard and the Skylook Welcome wizard. Follow the prompts to set up Skylook the way you want.

4. On the Skylook toolbar, select “Tools > Options”.

5. Select the “Journal” tab. Your options window should look something like this:

6. Check the box “Automatically create Outlook journal items…”.

7. Set the other options the way you would like them, then click OK.

8. Start making phone calls using Skype and Skylook. (NOTE: You can make calls directly from Skype if you wish – calls are recorded to the journal regardless of whether they are started from Outlook or not, as long as Outlook is running).

9. Each call you make to the contacts you selected above is now recorded in the Outlook journal. You can now use Outlook’s powerful journal features to organize and manage your call history – for example you can sort or group the journal entries by contact to see all of your communications with a particular contact at once.

10. Each journal entry also contains a link to an item in the Skylook Conversations folder, which contains a full recording of the call. To access the recording, first double-click the journal item, then double-click the shortcut icon that appears in the body of the journal item.

11. To see how to take notes on each call and store them in each call’s journal entry, click here. The notes you enter are automatically copied to the journal entry.

As you can see from the options window above, Skylook also allows you to store text chat messages, voice mail messages, missed calls and outgoing SMS messages to the journal.

If you have problems with any of the above, please refer to our troubleshooting pages, or email us: skylook@skylook.biz.

A major development in the VoIP world today: Skype 3.0 Beta has been released.

One of the major additions is the new platform for the extension of Skype by third parties. This new platform is called “Extras Manager”.

There are around sixteen Extras in total, but you can expect this number to grow fairly rapidly. We are proud that Skype have chosen to include our product Skylook in the first Skype Extras Manager release.

Here is what the Extras Manager looks like:

Skype has been very strong on third party support for quite some time now. Around two years ago they released the Skype Public API, providing the ability for third parties to hook into most of Skype’s features. Since then they have improved the API and built other mechanisms on top of this, including the easier-to-program Skype4Com, and now the Extras Manager.

We see Skype’s emphasis on nurturing a third party developer ecosystem as one of its key strengths.

Extras Manager’s strengths (compared to the previously existing APIs) are:

• It provides much greater exposure for third party extensions to Skype
• It allows much deeper integration than has been possible previously – with the ability to add menu options to Skype’s menus and embed functionality so that it feels “as one” with the Skype user interface

Skype 3.0 Beta is a free download from the Skype web site but is currently only recommended for experienced/advanced users. If you rely on Skype for your day-to-day activities it may be best to hold off for a while.

The Extras Manager is available from the “Tools > Do More” menu item in Skype. NOTE: When you first run Skype 3.0, this menu item may be greyed out. If it is, just wait a few seconds and click the “Tools” menu again. Extras Manager items are retrieved from a web server and can take a few seconds to appear.

When you run an Extra for the first time, it is retrieved from Skype’s servers and run locally on your PC. Subsequent runs are, of course, run directly from the files previously copied to your PC.

All in all, a very interesting and compelling release, and that’s just the Beta! Exciting times ahead for Skype and their growing third-party army.

What is VoIP?

VoIP means making “phone” calls using the Internet to transfer your voice instead of traditional phone cables.

VoIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol.

In layman’s terms, your Voice is converted to ones and zeros and sent over the Internet to someone else, and vice-versa. (The Protocol part makes up the commonly used term “Internet Protocol”, which means the rules and mechanisms via which data is transmitted over the Internet).

Because there’s only the Internet between you and the person you are talking to, there are often no charges over and above your Internet Service Provider fees. Once your voice is converted to data and put out on the ‘net, the ‘net doesn’t discriminate – it’s all data and so there’s no reason to charge you extra.

The term VoIP can also cover situations where only one end of the call is on the Internet and the other end is on a traditional phone. In this case there are generally charges involved as the traditional phone network has to be used to do this.

Advantages of VoIP over traditional phones

• It’s generally free for pure VoIP calls, and cheap for international calls to traditional phones
• On pure VoIP calls (where no traditional phone is involved), the call can sound a lot “higher-fidelity” than a traditional phone
• Natural tie-in with many PC applications (e.g. contact managers)

Disadvantages

• The Internet has no “Quality of service” built in, so on some calls quality can be poor (although generally if you and the callee both have good broadband connections this doesn’t tend to be a problem)
• Messing around with a headset on your PC can be a pain
• Generally can’t be used to make emergency calls
• Sometimes can’t be used to call freecall numbers (e.g. 1800-).

Popular VoIP Providers

• Skype
• Gizmo Project
• Vonage
• ViaTalk
• Verizon VoiceWing
• AT&T CallVantage
• SunRocket
• Lingo
• NetZeroVoice
• BroadVoice

SkypeIn is Skype terminology for being able to take calls from normal phones using Skype.

Obviously for people to be able to call you on Skype using a plain old traditional phone or mobile/cell phone, they need a number to call. So when you sign up for SkypeIn, the people at Skype give you your very own number. When people dial that number from any phone, your Skype application (or Skype phone if you have one) will ring.

(One of the interesting things about this number is that you can ask the people at Skype to give you a number in your own country, or in a number of overseas countries. So, you could be living in London but answering calls made to a Los Angeles number for instance).

The following steps show you how to get a SkypeIn number (or multiple SkypeIn numbers if you want). The steps assume that you already have Skype installed and set up. (If you don’t, click here to see how to do that).

1. A SkypeIn number needs to be purchased. Unfortunately at present this is a separate process to purchasing SkypeOut credit – hopefully the people at Skype will streamline this in the future. In the meantime, it’s basically a separate deal. You can purchase your unique SkypeIn number here.

2. After completing the purchase process, wait to receive a confirmation email from Skype. Once it’s all confirmed, your number will be active and ready to take calls.

3. If you would like calls automatically answered and placed in your Outlook inbox, click here for instructions. With Skype and Skylook you also have lots of other services available to you – click here for more details.

In a nutshell, SkypeIn is basically the opposite of SkypeOut. If you want to call normal phones and have them be able to call you, you need both SkypeIn and SkypeOut.