Paperback: 342 pages
Language: English

Skype is hot right now. Actually, you can expand that and say that VoIP is hot right now, but Skype has carved out a special niche that many VoIP companies haven't yet been able to. Skype has prompted several imitators (Gizmo Project and Google Talk are two that I use personally), and has even been verbed ("I just skyped Leo Laporte about the last TWiT podcast" or "Skype me at notarealskypename and we'll talk" are examples of this).

So how do you get the most out of Skype? By using this book.

In a lot of ways, this book could have been part of the Missing Manual series rather than the Hacks series. The first chapter steps users through making a Skype call, conference calling, and chatting. Using the pay features of Skype (SkypeIn, SkypeOut, and Skype Voicemail) are also covered, with special attention paid to showing users how to get a free trial for them. Of course, reading the Terms and Conditions would tell you much of the same information, since the refund policy for pay features is there.

The second chapter goes into the financial aspects of Skype, and shows that it may not be the most economical alternative for many people. Useful information, but pretty easy to calculate. Most people don't think about minute-rounding when they figure what their phone bill should be, though, so this section is pretty valuable.

There's really not much "hacking" in this book until chapter 4, where we start tweaking and tuning Skype (though chapter 3 does show how to build your own Skype server at home, and how to integrate Skype into your existing phone system). We learn about config.xml and what we can change to make Skype run the way we want it to. We're even told how to put Skype call shortcuts on our desktop, if we have people we call frequently.

Chapter 5 is for the businessman, showing how to implement Skype in a corporate setting. There's some unexplored potential to this aspect of Skype, including the call-center application (Hack #54).

The main reason that I wanted this book was Hack #56 -- recording conversations. My main reason for getting Skype was to use it for interviews, and I planned on recording them for editing and playback on my podcast. This was also my reason for switching to Gizmo Project -- Skype doesn't have that feature built-in, but Gizmo does. The book shows a few solutions to this problem, preferring the Pamela Professional Skype add-on ($22). I was disappointed that they didn't mention Hot Recorder ($14.95, but with a free version also), which is the solution I have heard the most about.

The most important hack is #81 -- the workaround for 911 service. VoIP phones don't have 911 capability, which is a source of concern for many potential users (including me). The book offers a simple workaround for this lack, and the lack of 411 service as well.

There's a lot of valuable information in this book. I'm not sure it qualifies as a Hack book, but it is invaluable for anyone who uses Skype frequently. Highly recommended.