Summary: In all of this week's news
about Microsoft's Surface with Windows RT, one app has gone practically
unmentioned. Will a "modern UI" version of Skype play a starring role at
next week's Windows 8 launch event?
This week Ms lastly let correspondents (including me) spend some hands-on time with its formerly top-secret Area with Ms windows RT device. The company also started getting pre-orders for the product on a renewed website.
But it was not until I sat down and took a nearer look at those pages devoted to Area with Ms windows RT that I observed an exciting details. Here, see for yourself:
That sure looks like the long-rumored “modern UI” Skype app, does not it? The two figures in that screen shot, "Elena" and "Anna," are both noticeably presented on the Skype website.
The written text together with that display does not say a word about Skype or telephone or microphone or camcorders. But there is this proposition referrals on a different web page, also devoted to Area with Ms windows RT:
But it was not until I sat down and took a nearer look at those pages devoted to Area with Ms windows RT that I observed an exciting details. Here, see for yourself:
That sure looks like the long-rumored “modern UI” Skype app, does not it? The two figures in that screen shot, "Elena" and "Anna," are both noticeably presented on the Skype website.
The written text together with that display does not say a word about Skype or telephone or microphone or camcorders. But there is this proposition referrals on a different web page, also devoted to Area with Ms windows RT:
And the headline of that page? “Software for Surface: Ms windows RT, Skype, Office RT, Console and more.” Finally, at least one referrals to Skype that was in the past edition of the Area website was clean during the conversion of the website from review site to pre-order. This past edition of the site was helpfully cached by Bing:
The Begin display floor for the Ms windows 8/RT Skype app has already been identified in the crazy, and at least one released duplicate got unwanted hands-on protection back in Aug.
The newest Skype Try out for Ms windows allows you to link a Ms consideration with a Skype consideration. When that's done (a simple operation), Skype seems to be on the Call selection together with any connected contact in the People app. But so far there's no local app available as a focus on for that option.
Come next Friday, when customers begin distribution of the first set of Ms windows RT-based Area devices, I’ll be stunned if Skype is not in the forefront. It might even make it into TV ads, with Area customers being seated instead of bouncing.
On any list of must-have applications, Skype has to be in the top 3. So when you see it take a featuring part in the release event on Oct 25, try to look amazed.
