Kim Dotcom's video conferencing Skype-challenger was due in early 2015. Kim is teasing the release of something big on his Twitter feed right now. Skype has been called an "NSA ear piece" even by the mainstream media. Kim Dotcom's video-conferencing (called "Mega") will be fully encrypted. MSFT paid nearly 10 billion for Skype, and it may soon have a free competitor that works better.
hello ? ever heard of Viber and the dozen other free VoIP alternatives to Skype Mega is full hot air,
Viber is owned by company in Israel and it is made by developers from Belarus (Russian partner) - it is very popular in post Soviet Union countries. If Skype is "NSA ear piece" then Viber is "KGB ear piece". No matter what it is - it always will be used by somebody to spy on us. I prefer NSA to Russia and China.
Google voice is free and it is well integrated with gMail and hangouts. It is a nice VOIP solution for those with less nefarious intent. How many people truly need encryption when speaking to friends and family? How many business's will choose Mega over more trusted, established services? imho convenience over encryption for the majority of people. Perhaps a few criminal's and terrorists may see the advantage. Personally I don't see Mega taking over mainstream users. Microsoft/skype - Google/gVoice - will not lose much market share. One of my primary internet rules: If a Pirate is willing to steal for you, he is willing to steal from you. I trust the NSA more than I do kim dotcom with my information.
I'm not sure where you live, but you should generally prefer a hostile foreign government having your information to your domestic one. They don't control the local police, who are the ones who can have you hassled, arrested, framed, killed, etc, and they have a lot less incentive to share it with your local government too.
skype is the only one that lets you share binary files. those of us who write software need this. google's big brothet BS gets old fast