… is working now. The other day, I discussed Skype on the iPhone and mentioned a problem I was having with the Skype iPhone app, which would not let me log in. I tried everything to fix the problem, but nothing worked. I didn’t do anything special to fix it — I just tried it one more time today and it finally let me log in. I have no idea why it’s suddenly working now (or why it wouldn’t work in the first place), but I’m not going to complain.

It is exciting and a big deal for iPhone users. I’ve already stated my love for Skype, and what a revolution I believe internet calling is going to bring. Cheap/free calls from my cell phone sound too good to be true.

… And for the moment they are — I can’t get the app to work on my phone. Everytime I try and log in with the application, I get the message: “No Network Connection. Please check your network settings and try again.” I’ve tried everything — restarting the phone, resetting my network settings, uninstalling and reinstalling the application — but nothing has been successful. Just for the record, I am running a first gen iPhone (2G) with 2.2 firmware.

While my problem seems to be more rare, other people are having different issues, such as the application crashing or lagging.

Nevertheless, Skype for iPhone should catch on like wildfire, once Skype works out all the bugs in their application. Skype is already available on other smartphone platforms, but the iPhone will bring mobile Skype into the lives of everyday, non-techie people. This could be bad news for AT&T.

For those looking to give Skype for iPhone a try, the link is here (note, opens U.S.  iTunes store).

(One more thing to note:  unlike Skype mobile clients for some other devices, the Skype for iPhone app currently doesn’t support voice calls over 3G. While voice calls over WiFi are nice, once Skype adds 3G support their app will become many times more useful… and AT&Ts nightmare will be many times greater.)

This week I have a new Tyler the Tech Guy article in The Occidental Weekly, the newspaper at Occidental College. It’s about the new version of Skype, Skype 4.0, and about the phenomenon of video calling.  Here’s the lead of the story:

Skype may be the greatest thing ever. Every time I use it to make a free video call to a friend who is eight time zones away, I always get the feeling that Skype has to be too good to be true.

Click here to read the whole story >>

A complete archive of all my writing for The Occidental Weekly, including past Tyler the Tech Guy articles, can be found here.