Microsoft has completed its US$8.5 billion acquisition of Skype, officially bringing the Net telephony household name under its fold.

On October 13, Skype was formally inducted into the Redmond family as a separate division helmed by Skype CEO Tony Bates, who will report directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.

In a media statement, Microsoft said the Skype division will continue to offer its current products to millions of users. …

Facebook fired the latest salvo against Google yesterday when it announced a partnership with Skype to allow its users to make Skype video calls on the social network site.

The latest move by the Facebook marks the growing rivalry between the two internet giants in online social networking.

Earlier last week, Google unveiled its own social network, Google+ that includes a video calling feature called Google Hangouts.

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Skype is giving out one million free 30 minute Skype vouchers to celebrate Hari Raya tomorrow.

All you need to do is sign up with an email address here, and Skype will give you a special voucher code in which you can claim your free 30 minute Skype voucher.

The fine print lists certain caveats though. It is only for the first million, and only one voucher per email address. The free 30 mins is based on a calculation of a single call to a landline at the rate of €0.02 per minute. Actual talk minutes will depend on actual destination.

Still this is a good freebie to take note, especially if you’re already on a Skype account. Happy Hari Raya folks!

The ash clouds from Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull have created air travel chaos all over Europe for the better part of almost a week and a half.

Things seem to be clearing up over southern Europe (for now), but if you’re one of the few unlucky ones still stuck in a transit airport or hotel around the world, at least here’s one small consolation: Free internet Wi-Fi access!

Skype is waiving internet access charges for Skype Access until the end of the week so that travellers can surf the net, check their email, and make free Skype-to-Skype calls at over 100,000 WiFi hotspots in airports and hotels worldwide.

From 1200hrs GMT on Wednesday 21st April to 2359hrs GMT on Friday 23rd April (0700hrs Saturday 24th April Singapore time), Skype Access will be completely free to use. Typically, Wi-Fi access is charged per minute using Skype Credit.

Skype Access is powered by Boingo through WiFi hotspot operators around the world, and a complete list can be found here.

And well, if your wedding plans are scuppered by the travel disruption, don’t fret. You might be inspired by what this couple did, and throw a wedding bash via Skype!

Singapore’s very own Net telephony provider Mediaring has an under-advertised service called Mediaring Talk which lets you call from your PC to any phone – both mobile and landline – in Australia, China, Singapore, UK, Canada, Taiwan, Hong Kong and USA – for ABSOLUTELY FREE.

It works just like Skype, you download the client to your PC, turn on the speakers and mic and start yakking away. We all know nothing is free in this world so Mediaring limits it to 10 minutes per call. But you can always make multiple calls of 10 minutes each.

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