Samsung joins the Skype-TV crowd

Samsung has joined LG and Panasonic in embedding Skype into its high-end TVs, putting video calling firmly into living rooms. LG and Panasonic announced plans for Skype-enabled TVs in January, but Samsung is a bigger brand; and while the company has only announced two models to feature Skype functionality, it's clearly part of …

[Neil Hoskins]

Unbelievable

Can it be turned off? Or do my CPU cycles and bandwidth get used by the bloke down the road when he's skyping his family in Pakistan, the same way they do if I'm stupid enough to run the PC client?

[Anonymous Coward]

@Neil Hoskins

"CPU cycles and bandwidth" - Anal

"bloke down the road" - Obsessive

"family in Pakistan" - Racist

"stupid enough" - You're not quite there yet, but I feel with some more attention to detail you will soon be ready.

We hope you enjoyed your analysis by the internet machine. Have a nice day!

[Disco-Legend-Zeke]

When You Are...

...the only one in a market, you are just that strange outfit that [gives free calls|<insert new business model here>.]

When competition appears, it validates the niche.

Niche rhymes with itch.

And i have a 211 waiting for me in the next room; time to scratch.

[Gord]

Competition?

What competition? Skype works, has millions of users world-wide and is affordable (free). Sorta like Google. Captalism works if there's competition. Capitalism is over (at the leading edge of technology). "Do no harm" is the antithesis of capitalism. Evolution is upon us.

[Neur0mancer]

Remember me on this computer? Post anonymously?

Damn good idea. Damned good. Shame about the Skypopoly though.

[Anonymous Coward]

Skype is Unusable for Business

The obvious use to me, as a software developer, working in an international setting, is the availability to use this as a room-to-room videoconference system, costing thousands less than systems like Cisco or Polycomm.

However, Skype is unacceptable in most businesses. It is routinely blocked by most business firewalls. It would be nice if the protocol layer could be switched to something other than Skype.

[Jolyon Ralph]

Circular argument

>However, Skype is unacceptable in most businesses.

>It is routinely blocked by most business firewalls.

Is it unacceptable because it's blocked, and blocked because it's unacceptable?

Rather than changing the protocol layer, why not just unblock skype in your firewall? Both you and your client would presumably want to do this if you both used skype anyway.

Jolyon

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

@Unbelievable

Skype doesn't route other people's calls through your computer (exactly what would be the point?) it can use networked computers as directory discovery servers (supernodes) but unless you are the only computer connected to a major internet feed in your country it ain't going to be you.

In major countries skype uses a set of dedicated login servers to handle the load - it isn't going to be using your TV as they UK's supernode.

ps what else where you using the CPU in your TV for anyway?

[Neil Hoskins]

A phone system for freetards

It's still proprietary P2P and it's still not coming through my firewall. I suspect that if most people knew how it worked they'd feel the same way. SIP-based voip, on the other hand, only uses my bandwidth and resources when I say so, and is most welcome.

[Anonymous Coward]

based on the recent laptop story

and without trying to sound too paranoid. I'm sure an internet connected camera, in the living room, can in no way be used to observe you without your knowledge. Endless fun for the net once someone figures out how to hack the firmwares of these things.

[wiser]

Will Samsung really do this?

It would be good to have this, I think, in general if it worked. But Samsung have recently closed off a feature in their firmware which enabled open source apps to be written for and run on their TVs. Not sure therefore how useful or interesting a standalone app with no community support would be. Maybe ok for someone who just wants another appliance I guess.