Soon you’ll be able to send or request PayPal payments from directly within Skype. Sounds convenient — but will it open a gaping hole through which hackers can gain access to your PayPal money?

Details of exactly how PayPal will integrate with Skype have yet to be released. Screenshots show links to paying or requesting money via PayPal showing up on a Skype drop-down menu when you right-click a contact.

Beyond that, we don’t know how payment will actually occur. Will the link merely send you to your PayPal login screen? Or will there be deeper integration, in which you bypass login entirely, and money gets transferred automatically?

Count on deep integration, rather than mere links. And that could spell trouble. VoIP is notoriously insecure, and network administrators in particular fear Skype, and have doing what they can to ban it from their networks.

Few American households use voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) services as their home phone but adoption is growing — up 20% since June 2005 — and most users are satisfied with their service.

About 3.9 million U.S. households used VoIP as home-phone service in January 2006, according to a study released Tuesday by Telephia, a market research firm. That accounts for about 3.5% of U.S. households, up from 2.9% using VoIP in June 2005. However, the survey didn’t include digital-phone offerings from cable companies like Comcast (nasdaq: CMCSA) and Time Warner (nyse: TWX), which hawk "triple-play" packages of television, high-speed data and phone service.

Of the non-cable VoIP services, Vonage leads the pack with a 47.5% market share, up from a 40% share last June. Vonage had almost four times the U.S. share of its closest competitor Skype, a unit of eBay (nasdaq: EBAY), which placed second with an 11.8% share.

Market share doesn’t necessarily lead to profitability, though. Vonage, which announced IPO plans last month, lost almost $190 million in the first nine months of 2005.

The kit includes a wireless handset and Bluetooth adapter to ensure compatibility and seamless voice clarity. The handset follows the traditional button behavior of a traditional handset, but also supports all of the popular Skype™ standard functions such as Contacts, Call List, SkypeOut, Conference Call, etc. Furthermore, the TVP-SP1BK comes with a long-life rechargeable Lithium-ion battery able to sustain up to 6 hours talk time and over 60 hours on standby.

“Skype™ has become a preferred VoIP service for a large segment of our customer base worldwide,” stated Heath Gregory, Marketing Director for TRENDnet. “Up till now most users have used wired headsets or USB attached handsets. By using Bluetooth we deliver a wireless connection that can seamlessly coexist with 802.11b/g devices and ultimately improve their Skype™ user experience.”

Check it out at: http://www.trendnet.com/skype/

http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3578411

Leipzig, Germany, Jan. 12, 2006 – ipoque releases new VoIP filter module for its line of PRX traffic managers which support detecting and blocking of Voice over IP traffic including Skype^TM. The new entry-level Gigabit Ethernet appliance PRX-250 is added to the PRX line. Prices for all Fast Ethernet models have been reduced.

Skype^TM Detection with the VoIP Module

Modular extensions for various application classes can be installed optionally. ipoque releases the new Voice over IP module for detecting and blocking of Skype^TM and SIP connections.

The high proliferation of Skype^TM clients, their strong encryption for Internet voice calls and their ability to circumvent firewall systems cause various problems. Among them are a significantly increased traffic volume, potential interference with other applications and the violation of national legislation for traffic monitoring and interception. Furthermore, Skype^TM clients in company networks pose a security threat. This makes the VoIP module an interesting option for company network operators, Internet service providers and national carriers.

Also available for the PRX traffic managers are modules for filtering, shaping and blocking of peer-to-peer-based file sharing and for blocking of instant messengers. File sharing causes significantly more than 50% of the Internet traffic, and most files contain copyright-protected material. The usage of instant messengers cause problems mostly in company networks. They pose severe security risks and degrade staff productivity.

Alert: Skype 2.0 triggers Data Execution Prevention Warning by ZDNet’s Russell Shaw — Our own George Ou has found that Skype 2.0 seems to trigger a Data Execution Prevention warning on his new PC.Data Execution Prevention, or DEP for short, is a new feature built into Windows XP Service Pack 2 that harnesses the NX and ND (No Execute and Execute Disable) functionality built into newer Intel and [...]

It had to happen, but to date, the backlash from traditional telecommunications carriers over the proliferation of VoIP application providers piggy-backing on their networks and competing with them has been very low-key.

But “Operation Backlash” may have begun in

London

with BT Group’s announcement that it is slashing its prices for voice services in half and offering free calls to 30 different countries during the holiday season.

In a surprising move, BT, the largest carrier in the

United Kingdom

, mentioned Skype by name in its announcement. The company said that international calls made from PCs to regular telephones are already cheaper with its BT Communicator than “with rivals such as Skype.”

To further drive home the point that the carrier is targeting Skype and other similar services, BT said it will introduce an enhanced voice over Internet offering in the spring that will be available globally and feature its enhanced sound quality.

The carrier also said it will launch its new video phones next spring, which will allow its broadband users to see each other during their conversations.

Dubbing the services "Phone Out" and "Phone In" (hmm.. this sounds quite a bit like "SkypeOut" and "SkypeIn", doesn’t it?), Yahoo will offer some of the best pricing around:

Phone Out will offer outgoing calls from less than one cent per minute in the US or less than two cents per minute to more than 30 major countries.  Outgoing calls can be made to over 180 countries.

Phone In will enable customers to receive unlimited phone calls from $2.99 a month or $29.90 per year.

The service will be integrated in an forthcoming upgrade to Yahoo! Messenger.  Last week, Skype released video phone capability, further bringing Yahoo’s and Skype’s offerings in line with each other.

Given how hot the competition looks to be just between Skype and Yahoo, it’s going to be interesting to see if eBay gets its money worth for the few billion it paid for Skype.  The landline-replacement VoIP providers seem poised to stir up trouble, to boot.  Case in point is SunRocket’s new $10/month pricing plan.

How much lower are prices going to go??

Two weeks ago, US IP technology firm Verso announced that it had sold a trial version of its VoIP blocking software to a "tier one" telecommunications firm in China.  Verso touted its NetSpective® M-Class product as being a great way for Internet service providers to limit their customers ability to use the full range of Internet services.

Skype CEO Niklas Zennstrom responded to Verso’s announcement by calling it a PR stunt in an interview with the Financial Times, claiming that he had no knowledge of VoIP being blocked in China through the use of Verso’s IP filtering product.

Enraged, Verso CEO Monty Bannerman shot back saying that Verso is indeed working with a Chinese telecom:

“Verso does have an executed trial agreement with a tier one carrier in China; however, at the request of the customer, we will maintain their anonymity until the trial is completed.  We will not jeopardize an important business relationship to respond to baseless comments,” said Monty Bannerman, CEO, Verso Technologies.  “Verso has been doing business in China for more than 10 years and we understand the market and its regulatory environment.  In addition, it has been widely reported that Skype technology is illegal in China,” added Bannerman.

Verso’s press release continued to tout the benefits of IP service blocking, such as decreased vulnerability to viruses and lower bandwidth usage by customers.  It’s clear that traditional telecommunications firms would prefer that customers not switch to cheaper VoIP services, and that Internet service providers would prefer that their customers use less bandwidth.  It’s also clear that these benefits are in diametric opposition to the interests of customers who want access to VoIP.

Sadly, in a country where telecom is heavily regulated, as it is in China, IP service disablers like Verso probably stand to make a good deal of money – at the expense of the public.