Video calling has been extremely slow to catch on, but adoption is finally set to explode according to a recent forecast from NPD Group-owned market research firm In-Stat. According to the firm’s figures, 63 million people could be counted as active video calling users in 2010. In 2015, that number is expected to balloon to 380 million. “While the mobile arena is relatively nascent, it has fueled much of the growth in usage over the course of 2011,” In-Stat analyst Amy Cravens said in a statement. P...

Facebook on Wednesday took the wraps off of the latest major addition to the world’s most popular social network: video chat. Through a partnership with Skype, Facebook video users will now be able to video chat with each other through the company’s new service… for free. The service works just like Skype’s standard video calling service, but video calls can be initiated right from within the Facebook website with a simple click. “A few months ago, we started working with Skype to b...

Skype announced on Wednesday that its Android application now supports video calling on select devices. The application is particularly attractive because it allows mobile users to connect with other users on Mac, Windows, TV, iOS, or other Android devices. Skype says the app was built with a complete new redesign, too, which includes a new main menu, easier contact navigation, quick access to your profile, and more. There’s even a new “mood” message box that allows you to show what you̵...

Research In Motion on Monday announced a new video chat application and service for its PlayBook tablet. The announcement, which came from the company’s BlackBerry World conference in Orlando, marks the addition of another service that likely should have been available on the device at launch last month, but may have been omitted due to the company’s rush to release the device. The video chat app itself looks like it covers most of the core video calling functionality users might desire, such as o...

With the ThunderBolt, HTC has delivered yet another “first 4G smartphone” following its EVO 4G for Sprint (and the often forgotten MAX 4G introduced in 2008). It’s the first handset to run on Verizon’s brand new 4G LTE network, and it’s an Android smartphone powerhouse that is easily the fastest smartphone on the planet in terms of data speeds. That’s not to say the device is perfect, however. The release of Verizon’s first 4G handset was pushed back several times, sp...

Remember your first Sidekick? That black and white screen… but oh, the AOL Instant Messanger. T-Mobile is back at it with a brand new Sidekick, though quite a few things have noticeably changed. For starters, this isn’t your younger cousins’ Sidekick Slide — Microsoft-owned Danger is nowhere to be found on here — Google’s Android OS powers the Samsung-manufactured device, and it’s pretty feature packed. The new Sidekick 4G rocks a 3.5″ display, support for T-Mobile̵...

ViewSonic announced on Monday the immediate availability of its unique dual-boot tablet, the ViewPad 10. First announced this past November, the ViewPad 10 is an Atom-based tablet that features a 10-inch 1024 x 600-pixel touchscreen display, a 1.66GHz Intel Atom processor, 2GB of memory, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera for video chat. Most notably, however, it features a dual-boot configuration that allows users to boot either Android 1.6 or Windows 7 on deman...

Apple’s latest media-rattling event has come and gone, and we’re now left to sort through all that magic and focus on the product itself. We also need to process any tidbits we might have missed amid the fracas. The star of the show was Apple’s new iPad 2, of course, and initial reactions are obviously overwhelmingly positive. In the end, we’re looking at a thin, sleek, sexy new tablet that will obviously sell like hotcakes. But is Apple’s new iPad 2 really the iPad it should ha...

With Apple’s iPad media event only a day away, many people are asking just what Apple is expected to announce tomorrow. We have heard rumors and seen purported next-generation iPad parts leak practically since right after the first iPad launched. Thanks to third-party case manufacturers, we have also been given renders and even physical mockups of the forthcoming iPad 2. We’ve tried to separate the nonsense from the plausible, and here’s what we’re expecting from tomorrow’s even...

Apple’s FaceTime video chat service for Mac exited beta on Thursday to coincide with the release of the company’s refreshed MacBook Pro line. It also comes bearing a new price tag: 99¢. FaceTime is Apple’s branded video calling service that allows Mac, iPhone, iPod touch and soon, iPad users to make video calls for free over land-based Internet connections. The service is free to use and the associated app is free on Apple’s iOS-powered devices, but now it carries a small, one-time fe...

Skype announced Thursday that it will acquire mobile video software and service provider Qik. Unconfirmed rumors suggest the deal will be worth approximately $100 million. Qik specializes in mobile video broadcasting and video calling services, the latter being an area that Skype has been particularly interested in lately. Qik emerged among a group of similar services but broke out in 2010 thanks to carrier and manufacturer deals that helped net the service 4.4 million new subscribers over the course of the ...

Google just dropped this bomb of a video on its Android YouTube page, and it is the first real look of the Android 3.0 operating system, known as Honeycomb. From the video we can see that Honeycomb is indeed only for tablets and not for smartphones due to the usage of the “Entire for Tablets” phrase. Google Talk video calling is a go, but the biggest change is obviously the redone user interface which has carried over Gingerbread’s darker, more polished and professional looking changes into ...

To celebrate the arrival of Skype’s mobile video chat on the iPhone 4, today’s Throwback Thursday looks back fondly on another ultimately fruitless attempt to popularize video calling: the AT&T VideoPhone 2500. AT&T had swung and missed with video calling before, but the introduction of the VideoPhone 2500 in 1992 would be the home run the company had been waiting for. Costing just $1,599.99 per phone or $1,449.99 each if you bought two or more, this puppy was going to bring video calling ...

Here it is ladies and gentlemen, the heir apparent to the myTouch 3G throne and T-Mobile’s second HSPA+ handset, the myTouch 4G. The new device, which is manufactured by HTC, has all the trimmings of a flagship device: 1GHz processor, front and rear facing cameras, vivid touchscreen display, and, depending on whom you ask, a 4G radio. The myTouch 4G is getting the lion’s share of T-Mobile’s ad buys these days, but how does the handset perform when put to the test by your friends at BGR? Hit the jump to ...