I mentioned before that Skype is hot right now. Two books from O'Reilly (or one of it's partners, as this one is) should show that Skype is absolutely huge right now. People are getting rid of their regular phone service and hooking up VoIP phones, using them as their regular phone service at a fraction of the cost.
Skype Me! is a book that everyone needs to have. It's less technical than Skype Hacks, which makes it more accessible to non-techies. Gough starts off with basic lessons about VoIP, Peer-to-peer technology (as it's used in VoIP), even Skype security. These basics will help anyone who is looking at setting up Skype in their home.
Installation is covered in Chapter 2. Gough gives detailed instructions on testing individual computers setups to make sure that Skype will work properly, and shows how to install Skype on Windows, Pocket PC, Mac OS X, and Linux. Then, in chapter 3, he covers the basics of using Skype.
Gough spends a lot of time on using Skype from Pocket PCs, even Pocket PC cell phones and smart phones. This is something I'd never thought about, honestly — my cell phone bill is pretty small, and we've got a good family plan. I can see where people who use a lot of cell phone minutes each month could save some money.
Skype Me! also goes into detail when it comes to implementing Skype in a business setting. This is one area where I think that Skype is being under-utilized. There's a perception that Skype is for home users, but isn't powerful enough for enterprise use, but it's clear that Skype is a lot more powerful than people think. There's a lot of potential for business use — especially when you look at the call center hack that I mentioned in the review of Skype Hacks.
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1 - How to Get the Girl of your Dreams
looks like a good book...the skype guys are covert...