Skype Briefs - Tues Nov 14, 2006

Skype recently released their 3.0 Beta for Windows version and they’re doing a bit of a push in terms of free SkypeOut promos, to supplement recent promos for France and Hong Kong. Then there was their school giveaway in September. Now they’re adding limited promos for a few countries.

Polish Promo
For two days only (weekend of Dec 9-10), Skype is offering UK residents free calls to landlines in Poland. There are nearly a million Poles living in the UK and Ireland. This promo is similar to other Skype promos earlier this year to select countries from North America. [via Share Skype]

Spanish Promo
Expat Brits living in Spain can call landlines in the UK for free on the weekend of Dec 2-3. [See previous link]

Skype Part of Google Pack
Google is now including Skype in their Google Pack suite of free applications. Strange news indeed, especially since it competes with Google Talk (also included) and even surpasses it in feature set.

Skype For Home Automation
The Skype soft client can already be used to watch TV and, with a webcam, as a rough home monitoring system. Now, some techies have come up with a way to use it as a home automation system. Control lights, computers and more. It does require extra hardware. [via Share Skype] The surprising thing is that the guide is on an MSDN (Microsoft) blog. Wonder if Steve Ballmer knows this. Or maybe Ballmer’s big plan to have Microsoft get big into VoIP involves buying out eBay/ Skype.