Skype Releases Open SDK

An anonymous reader writes "SkypeKit gives Linux developers access to core functionality, allowing Linux developers to add video, calling, and instant messaging features to desktop applications. The SDK also comes with the freshly royalty-free SILK codec for high-end audio. Skype is hoping that the inclusion of SILK will popularize the codec, extending its reach. Currently, the SkypeKit beta is only available for Linux on an invite-only basis, with Windows and Mac versions planned in coming weeks. The SDK does not cover Android or Mac, an odd choice considering the announcement of SkypeKit championed itself for extending the functionality of Skype to multiple platforms and devices. Including smartphones in the SDK seems like an obvious move." Ars Technica has a rundown, too.

Re:Screen Sharing

[Anonymous Coward]

The latest beta I downloaded had screen sharing.

Re:So how does this work?

[larry bagina]

Remember: Skype is owned by eBay. Once the WTF!?! wears off, you'll remember what they did with paypal and eBay itself: Attract users with price, convenience, and functionality, lock them in, and jack up the fees.

Re:Screw Skype..

[TheRaven64]

As I said in another post, Skype is not cheaper than SIP providers. For any of the destinations that you might want to call, you'll be able to find a SIP provider that is cheaper. If you pick a SIP provider at random, it will be cheaper than Skype for some destinations, more expensive for others. If you shop around, you can find one that's cheaper for each of the destinations that you want. And, because SIP is an open protocol, you can usually configure a single client to interact with multiple providers, picking the cheapest one for each destination.

Re:So how does this work?

[DJRumpy]

I realize you're probably trolling, but I'll answer anyway. FaceTime is a bit more than 'just SIP'. SIP just gets the session started. This will be an open sourcing of the core technology stack required to use FaceTime.

• H.264 and AAC, its ISO/MPEG video and audio codecs (just like iChat).
• SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), the open IETF signaling protocol for VoIP used by iChat AV.
• STUN (Session Traversal Utilities for NAT), an IETF standard for dealing with lots of different kinds of NAT.
• TURN (Traversal Using Relay NAT), an IETF standard for allowing a client behind NAT to receive incoming requests like a server.
• ICE (Interactive Connectivity Establishment) an IETF standard which helps set up connections through NAT firewalls.
• RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol), an iETF standard for delivering media streams in VoIP.
• SRTP (Secure RTP) an IETF standard designed to provide encryption, message authentication and integrity for the data streams.
• AAC Advanced audio coding standard. Widely used today in audio and video communications and has established interoperability.

All of the above are open standards (yes there is a difference between open standard and royalty free, but that's another discussion), but the framework that Apple created to bundle all of the above together (the pieces that makes it all work together), is what's being open sourced. I believe there is only one other phone on the market that even supports all of the necessary protocols (N900). It hasn't been 'done for years' in this way.

Skype in contrast, is proprietary, although they may have been spooked into releasing some API's into their framework as they see a posible threat here to their video chat throne. Apple has the muscle to get hardware vendor buy-in from folks like Cisco. Video chat could take off in a whole new way, and I'm not referring to business client. Sure folks have had the capability to use it on their phones for some years, but few do, and trends show the number is actually shrinking, probably due to poor interoperability. Hopefully Apple has the muscle to standardize all of these technologies into a functional (read: easy to use) bundle that all of the phone manufacturers will jump onto.