Slack to start integrating native voice chat into its app

A couple of months ago, you could start making Skype calls from within Slack , an award-winning work chat app that’s pretty popular with a lot of companies (we certainly use it over here in the Engadget office). Now, however, voice calls are simply baked into the app itself, without you having to use an external service. The feature is in beta right now, and testing will roll out in Slack’s desktop apps as well as in Chrome. The voice calling feature actually comes from Slack’s acquisition of Screenhero over a year ago. If you have it, you’ll spot a phone icon at the top of your screen next to the info button. Click it and you can initiate a voice call much like most other chat apps out there. This doesn’t work with just individual folks either; you can also make channel-wide calls with up to 15 folks, but this is only for Slack users who pay for the service. And because this is Slack — known for its wide range of emoji — you can also respond to voice chats with one of several colorful reactions imposed over your user icon. This isn’t to say that Slack will stop supporting the aforementioned Skype or other voice chat services; it’s just another option. We should also note that rival Hipchat has had voice and video chat for awhile now. Still, for loyal Slack users, this is great news; here’s hoping that video support will be coming too. Via: The Verge Source: Slack

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Slack to start integrating native voice chat into its app

Hack.Chat Is an Easy to Use, Disposable Chat Client in Your Browser

Sometimes, you just want to quickly create a group chat room where you can work something out without worrying about sign-ins or anything else. Hack.chat does just that and nothing you say is saved on a server anywhere. Read more…

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Hack.Chat Is an Easy to Use, Disposable Chat Client in Your Browser

Typing ‘http://:’ Into a Skype Message Trashes the Installation Beyond Repair

An anonymous reader writes: A thread at the Skype community forums has brought to light a critical bug in Microsoft’s Skype clients for Windows, iOS and Android: typing the incorrect URL initiator http://: into a text message on Skype will crash the client so badly that it can only be repaired by installing an older version and awaiting a fix from Microsoft. The bug does not affect OS X or the ‘Metro’-style Windows clients — which means, effectively, that Mac users could kill the Skype installations on other platforms just by sending an eight-character message. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Typing ‘http://:’ Into a Skype Message Trashes the Installation Beyond Repair

Google Hangouts Just Got Way Better on the Desktop

Google Hangouts is a nice little chat client, and someday it could be unstoppable . But a few things have been holding it back, including a desktop experience that was just OK. Now, Google’s released a new app for ChromeOS and Windows users that makes it way, way better. Read more…

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Google Hangouts Just Got Way Better on the Desktop

BitTorrent Unveils Secure Chat To Counter ‘NSA Dragnet Surveillance’

Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes “Jacob Kastrenakes reports on The Verge that as part a response to the NSA’s wide-reaching surveillance programs, BitTorrent is unveiling a secure messaging service that will use public key encryption, forward secrecy, and a distributed hash table so that chats will be individually encrypted and won’t be stored on some company’s server. ‘It’s become increasingly clear that we need to devote hackathons, hours and resources to developing a messaging app that protects user privacy, ‘ says Christian Averill, BitTorrent’s director of communications. Because most current chat services rely on central servers to facilitate the exchange of messages, ‘they’re vulnerable: to hackers, to NSA dragnet surveillance sweeps.’ BitTorrent chat aims to avoid those vulnerabilities through its encryption methods and decentralized infrastructure. Rather than checking in with one specific server, users of BitTorrent chat will collectively help each other figure out where to route messages to. In order to get started chatting, you’ll just need to give someone else your public key — effectively your identifier. Exchanging public keys doesn’t sound like the simplest way to begin a chat, but Averill says that BitTorrent hopes to make it easy enough for anyone interested. ‘What we’re going to do is to make sure there are options for how this is set up, ‘ says Averill. ‘This way it will appeal to the more privacy conscious consumer as well as the less technically inclined.’ For now, it remains in a private testing phase that interested users can apply for access to. There’s no word on when it’ll be open to everyone, but with all of the recent surveillance revelations, it’s easy to imagine that some people will be eager to get started.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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BitTorrent Unveils Secure Chat To Counter ‘NSA Dragnet Surveillance’

NASA Engineers Built an Insanely Complex Bullet-Time Rig For Fun

Back in May, our friend and ex-NASA JPL engineer Mark Rober , figured out a way to shoot “bullet time” videos on the cheap , with a ceiling fan, a pair of flashlights, and a GoPro. Pretty damn creative, but the rig had its limitations. So Mark set out to find a way to create a similar set-up, this time using a high-end Phantom camera. Thank goodness. Read more…        

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NASA Engineers Built an Insanely Complex Bullet-Time Rig For Fun

Don’t Upgrade to Hangouts If You Use Google Voice on Your Computer

In many respects Google Hangouts is impressive—it brings together Google’s disparate chat options rather neatly—but you should think twice about using it if you rely on making Google Voice calls from your computer. Read more…        

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Don’t Upgrade to Hangouts If You Use Google Voice on Your Computer

The Next Killer Feature in Smartphones

For a long time now, our smartphones have been getting more and more, well, smart. They do more things. You probably haven’t beaten your phone at chess in years. And the race to cram increasingly granular, eventually useless, features into them has defined the past few years of phone making. Except the next big waypoint won’t be some technological marvel like week-long battery life . It’s something much simpler: Plain old chat. Read more…        

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The Next Killer Feature in Smartphones

Microsoft Is Finally Merging Skype and Windows Live Messenger This Spring

Ever since Microsoft acquired Skype and confirmed the end of Windows Live Messenger , a merger has been a tiny dot off on the horizon. Now Microsoft has pinned down when the two will become one : this April. More »

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Microsoft Is Finally Merging Skype and Windows Live Messenger This Spring