In a Wednesday statement, bigwig networking equipment maker Cisco Systems said that it is appealing the European Commission (EC)’s unconditional approval to software giant Microsoft’s $8.5-billion acquisition of Internet-calling service Skype SA – a deal which closed in October 2011.

Stating that it does not oppose the Microsoft-Skype merger overall, Cisco said that its chief request to the General Court of the European Union would be to place conditions on the merger, such that Skype video-conferencing service would be required to operate with rival services.

Skype has announced that it is going to update Skype for Android app and would be including Skype Video Calls in the list. With the help of this facility, the users of Skype could talk to millions at an affordable price with help of Skype Credit.

Similar kind of service is provided by Apple's FaceTime, but unlike that Skype has allowed its customers to use both Wi-Fi and 3G and that will allow them to be free from the hotspot of their homes.

There has been a login glitch with Skype for few users yesterday. The problem was due to a specific xml file, “shared. xml”.

Manual instructions like quitting the app and deleting the file were given to Window (7, XP, and Vista) users. Skypes Peter Parkes promised an update for Mac, and advises the Linux users to follow the manual instructions.

Sources reveal that by Tuesday, Microsoft will announce its deal to acquire Internet phone company Skype Technologies SA for between $7 billion and $8 billion. Experts believe that this would be the most aggressive step by Microsoft in the field of communication, information and entertainment. This deal is the biggest acquisition in the 36-year history of Microsoft.

Although the deal is still under vigilance and is yet not final and there is a possibility that it could still fall apart. It is likely that deal will close at $8.5 billion including Skype’s long-term debt.

Video calling service Skype announced its plans to acquire California-based mobile video streaming start-up Qik in a deal worth around $100 million. The announcement was made yesterday at the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

Confirming the announcement, Skype’s chief executive Tony Bates wrote in a blog, “I’m happy to announce that we’ve entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Qik.”

However, nothing was disclosed about the terms of the potential dead, which is going to be Luxemburg-based Skype’s first acquisition.

Luxembourg-based VoIP provider Skype reportedly posted a teaser message which suggested that the company could announce a video calling service for Apple’s iPhone at January's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The company website’s teaser on “What’s Next Page” was featuring header "I wish I could share moments like these". The header suggests that users of Skype will be allowed to share video clips with other Skype users.

Skype’s potential service will be competitor to Apple’s FaceTime video-chatting service, which is currently available via WiFi only.

Engineers of the popular Inter telephone service, Skype are working hard to resolve issues that affected its network in order to allow more people to access the service this Christmas. However, about 20 per cent of the users are still not able to access the service.

Skype recently announced the release of a beta of Skype 5.0 for Mac.

The released beta version features a completely redesigned interface with a single large window, integration with Mac address book, group video conferencing and a new control bar.

Group video chat in the beta of Skype 5.0 looks somewhat like iChat; however, unlike iChat it supports up to 10 members in a single chat. It should be noted here that group video conferencing demand all parties to have a minimum broadband connection of 2Mb/s down and merely 128Kbps up.

Skype has confirmed that it would allow people to access the web for free from November 8-12, which would mark the first ever Internet Week Europe.

The Internet telephone company said it would subsidize the cost of public WiFi hotspots throughout the UK because it wanted everyone to participate in the event.

However, in order to access the hotspot for free one will require making sure that he/she have the latest version of Skype. User will have to first sign into Skype and then to select a public access WiFi network.

Luxembourg-based Skype announced on Thursday that it had teamed up with social networking platform Facebook to allow Skype users call Facebook friends directly on mobile or landline phones.

The new Skype version 5.0 also allows users to send SMS messages or make Skype-to-Skype calls to Facebook friends for free. It also includes a Facebook tab and integrates Facebook’s news feeds.

Internet calling service Skype has released an app for the Android phones that will allow users to make phone calls using either a WiFi or a mobile data connection.

Android phone owners can now make Skype to Skype calls for free, and can pay to make calls to other landline or mobile phones. In addition, the Skype app will let users to send and receive instant messages, synchronize with the contact list on a hanset and show when other users of Skype are online.

However, the new Skype app has been limited to WiFi only in the United States.

According to Wall Street Journal, social networking site Facebook and Internet telephone Company, Skype are planning to form a partnership to merge their respective communication services.

If the partnership gets a green signal from both the sides, then the users will be able to send SMS messages and make voice and video calls to their friends and acquaintances via Skype.

To avail the service, the Facebook users will have to sign into Skype using Facebook Connect. The users will be able to sign-in third-party websites from their Facebook accounts.

Skype has released the latest offering for the VoIP based service that aides users to make video calls to a lot of 10, all at one go.

According to the report laid by Skype, the internet telephony service provider offers the latest offering of the beta version of Skype 5.0.

Peter Parkes, Skype's chief blogger of the company through a blog posted:"The second beta brings a number of changes - most importantly, you can now make group video calls with up to 10 people, a fresh new look, increased stability and better quality when making group video calls."

Indian government is set to take a backlash on Gmail and Skype, soon after questioning the norms of Research In Motion (RIM).

The reports of USA today states that the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs will seek for a demined in order to access data which is being stored on Google based Gmail services in addition with the Skype's Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology.

On Monday, the Luxembourg Company, Skype filed $100 million in American depository shares with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm said that it has neither settled on the number of shares that it will give out in its initial public offering, nor has it fixed the share price. It is reported that the shares of the corporation will be traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market.