Experience Skype to the Max: The Essential Guide to the World's Leading Internet Communications Platform

Experience Skype to the Max shows you how to make the most of Skype's full range of features on any device. Discover tips and tricks for saving time, saving money, and fostering better communication at work or in your personal projects.

Go beyond simple voice calling and discover Skype as a multimedia cross-platform collaboration tool, wherever you are in the world. Learn how to connect to Skype from your devices whether in the home office, on the road, roaming on your mobile or over Wi-Fi. Discover the best ways to call or message landlines and mobile phones at minimum cost, and how to manage your account and payments, depending on your needs.

As a regular Skype user, you’ll also benefit from insider tips on choosing hardware and peripherals, integrating your Skype usage with other platforms such as Office and Outlook.com, and preparing for the next developments in internet-based communications.

As work and home lives become increasingly intertwined, this book is your essential guide to building and sustaining your important relationships on one reliable platform.

What you’ll learn

• Use and integrate all of Skype's features effectively, including chat, video calling, group calling, logging and file sharing.
• Overcome geographic limitations to work with a truly worldwide team or customer base.
• Share files, photos and screen shots, and manage them with archiving and search.
• Best practices and etiquette for building relationships over Skype.
• Strategies to minimize costs when roaming and making long-distance calls, and how to keep your communications secure.
• Solve team problems over chat, conduct business meetings over voice or video, and find out how to use Skype as a training or customer support tool.
• Get the best possible call quality wherever you are.
• Key factors to consider when choosing hardware including headsets, webcams, and conferencing solutions.

Who this book is for

Written with business employees and consumers in mind, Experience Skype to the Max is a guide to real-time social networking for building and sustaining everyday business and personal relationships, whether geographically dispersed business teams, road warriors, special interest groups, friends and family, the wanderlust world traveler or anyone else who wants to get more out of their Skype experiences.

About the Author

Jim Courtney has over thirty years of sales, marketing and business development management and consulting experience in the high technology market space. From operating an IBM 7090/94 at a university computer center to using his iPhone 5 and BlackBerry z30 today, Jim brings a unique perspective on the evolution of various technologies, including the evolution of real-time communications over the Internet since 1995. Formerly associate editor of Skype Journal, he has been editor and publisher of Voice On The Web since early 2009, covering IP-based communications, including Skype as well as the transition to a mobile world through smartphones and tablets.