Skype for iPhone updates to 3.0, adds video calling

Skype for the iPhone has finally gotten around to adding video-calling capabilities to its popular VoIP app. (You'll need an iPhone 4, 3GS, or the latest version of the iPod touch to use the feature.) Amazingly, you can place video calls over both Wi-Fi and 3G, and you can even switch between the front- and back-facing cameras, just as you can with Facetime. Obviously, the 3GS doesn't have a front-facing camera, so you'll be forced to use the rear-facing one, which really kind of limits the usefulness of making video calls. If you're using an iPad or the previous generation iPod touch, Skype can receive video calls, but the person on the other end won't be able to see you. You can, of course, use the app to call users on their mobile devices or on their desktop PCs. The official description only lists Macs and PCs as compatible -- not Linux. We hope that's just an oversight in the listing and not an actual restriction of the app (as we haven't yet had a chance to test it out ourselves).

The guys at 9 to 5 Mac ran a quick experiment, and found that video calls over 3G eat up roughly 3.4 MB of data per minute, something to keep in mind with AT&T's new capped data plans. You'll have to place a lot of video calls to eat through a 2 GB plan, but it's certainly not outside of the realm of possibility, especially if you're also using your 3G plan to stream media and browse the Web. Check out the gallery below and the promo video after the break

Even Putin Looks Displeased With 3D Glasses

 

When Russia's bad boy Prime Minister Vladimir Putin himself looks irritated with the idea of wearing 3D glasses, it's gotta be time to reconsider that whole trend. [Foreign Policy]

Samsung's NX11 Moves the Controls to the Lens

 

Samsung's got some minor camera updates ahead of CES—the WB700, a skinny point and shoot with a big lens that's a sequel to this camera, and the NX11, a successor to Samsung's Micro Four Thirds fighter, the mirrorless, lens-swappable NX10.

The NX11 is just like Samsung's last camera—the specs are identical, with 14.6-megapixel sensor, 3-inch AMOLED display and 720p video—but moves all of image control buttons directly to the lens, which Samsung thinks is more logical. It's $650.
The WB700 tries to pull off the trick of being tiny while packing an 18x zoom lens and shooting 16-megapixel photos and 1080p video—not bad for a $300 compact camera. [Samsung]http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8701505196799493106

Why I Ditched iTunes For Amazon MP3s

 

Confession: I still buy my music online instead of torrenting it. And after years of enduring an unfulfilling relationship with iTunes, last month I finally broke things off. I headed over to Amazon. I haven't looked back yet.

How To Order Internet Delivery During a Blizzard and Not Be a Dick

 

If you live in the blizzard-ridden United States, you might be looking out your window at a harsh, desolate, snowy wasteland. Cars in the middle of the street. Frosty despair. But you're also hungry. Here's how to order in, guilt-free.

The advent of online food delivery has ushered in an era of indulgent slothfulness for which I am always grateful. 10 pm. Chinese food? Click! No cash exchanged, no annoyed human voices dealt with—just you and the beneficent food-dispensing internet. Sometimes an occasional pang of guilty introspection—Is it pathetic that I just ordered a bagel and OJ instead of putting on pants and going across the street? But hey, the future is now.

A Different Kind of Christmas Story

I was sitting in a storefront on the coldest night so far this year, light snow coming down, waiting for a Chinatown bus to New York that was already a half-hour late. Not where you'd expect to buy an iPhone, but... The only other guy in the place was an older dude in a torn coat who kept bumming my cigarettes. All the shops around were closed. I was thinking about how good a hot chocolate would taste, and trying ignore the older guy talking way too loud on his PTT Nextel.
"Yeah," I heard him say, "ask her if she got a iPod charger. I got a phone—one of them iPod phones—somebody gave me. Try to get some money for it. A hundred dollars, some shit. These things go for I don't know how much—six, seven hundred. I better get two hundred dollars, real talk."
Now, I got the first iPhone at launch (and hacked it to work in Canada, where I live), traded up for the 3G when it came out, and then the 3GS—but then I started school, and in the first month somebody stole it while I was asleep at the library. I was locked into a contract, and there was no way I could pay to get another one at full price.

The Best of the Year in Rants

 

There was plenty to be angry about this year; the Gulf Oil Spill, assaults on net neutrality, Mark Zuckerberg winning Time's Person of the Year. Check out the best rants from our most irate writers in 2010.