Skype has become a integral part of anyone’s communication suite, and Skype is determined to keep pushing the technical envelope to keep its offerings fresh.
In other words: video calls from your couch. Coming at this years CES: Skype enabled HDTVs from both LG and Panasonic for living room video chatting. The televisions are expected in mid 2010.
This fits in well with the recent thought that 2010 is to be the year of the social television.
The televisions will be sold without optional video cameras for the televisions that will support, amazingly, 720p streaming. Take that Skype on my computers. Of course, that is what you would want if you were going to actually Skype on an HD television; using the webcam quality that we all enjoy now would be too grainy for comfort on a large screen.
Finally, we have the killer app to help spread internet enabled televisions to the wide masses.
To help the people of the world get their minds straight and get their wallets excited about the forthcoming features, Skype has put together a website and Twitter account to disseminate information. To illustrate how simple the process really is, take a look at this:
No word on pricing yet for either the televisons or the webcams that are made for them, but LG is promising some 26 Skype ready televisions in this year, so there will be a price tier for everyone.
Pricing is the same as on regular Skype: free Skype to Skype, and low rates to other phones. We are all going to use this, so you might want to move that ugly picture from over your couch.
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