Wirefly: 'no Skype' on Thunderbolt, but simultaneous 3G voice and data is a go; ships on March 17th

Wireless retailer Wirefly is pushing ahead with pre-orders for the beleaguered HTC Thunderbolt starting at midnight Pacific Time this evening with the promise that they'll start shipping this Thursday, the 17th; that lines up with a whole lot of noise we've heard recently, so we can't really argue with it at this point. They're also confirming a couple rumors that have been floating around since the phone's January debut: first, they're saying "no Skype," which we're taking to mean that the promised Skype video calling app won't be installed out of the box. We're also assuming (or at least hoping) that you'll be able to install the standard voice-only version. Secondly, they're saying that the phone definitely does simultaneous voice and data over 3G, a feature that was just recently made possible on Verizon's CDMA network through software upgrades -- and the Thunderbolt, it seems, will be the first retail device to have the pleasure of taking it for a spin.

Angry Birds’ Rovio Raising $42 Million From Accel And Skype Founders

Big news today from Rovio, the Finland-based developers behind the hugely successful Angry Birds mobile game: the company has picked up $42 million in funding, a first round round led by no less than Accel Partners and Atomico Ventures, the VC firm founded and led by Skype/Kazaa/Joost founders Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis.

The funding is some of the biggest we’ve seen for a mobile content or mobile gaming company, and it underscores how one good bit of content can help a company hit the jackpot.

With the funding, Zennstrom will join the board of Rovio, according to the release. Other investors in this round of funding include Felicis Ventures.

Angry Birds has been downloaded more than 75 million times, and claims to have 40 million active users per month. It’s one of the most popular apps in the iTunes store. Rovio is aiming for 100 million users by next year, according to Reuters.

The funding will be used to further expand Angry Birds to more platforms, not just on mobile but also social media and beyond. Some of it will also, presumably, be used in the development of further products in the hopes of another big success.

The company is estimated, according to a profile in Wired, to have made €50 million ($69 million) from apps sales, advertising and licensing of Angry Birds to date. That’s helped not just by downloads of the app, but from transactions when the game is in progress: Rovio says that 40 percent of new customers on the iOS platform purchase downloadable content (that is, virtual goods).

But some of that revenue, pointedly, is not from mobile directly: the company has sold two million Angry Birds plush toys, for example. That could give Mickey Mouse a run for his money.

Facebook Messenger for iPhone: Watching Your Back, Skype

Imagine the convenience and reach of your Facebook friends list, combined with the VoIP goodness of Skype. That’s what a new iPhone app called Facebook Messenger aims to provide. It gives you access to Facebook chat on your iPhone, but also lets you call any of your online contacts for a VOIP chat.

Facebook Messenger ($2.99), created by Crisp App, works between iPhone and iPod touch devices, and between your iOS device and the web. Aside from providing a mighty tempting target for accusations of trademark infringement, the app lets users VoIP call online Facebook users on both mobile and web-based clients. On an iPhone or iPod touch, they receive an incoming call screen with the option to accept or deny, or a push notification if the app isn’t open. On the web, your chat target will receive a link asking them to accept your call, which will transfer them to a web page for handling the call. The recipient can take part in the call so long as they have a computer with a microphone and speakers.

I tried out the app calling between iPhones and to the desktop. Both had roughly the same voice quality, which was quite good. The only issue was that both the other caller and I experienced significant delay between when we spoke, and when the other caller heard what we said. There was also an echo effect, so you could hear what you’d just said repeated faintly after you said it. Also, in both cases, the time between initiating a call and the call showing up on the other user’s device or machine was considerable. If you aren’t patient, you might think someone isn’t answering, when in fact they haven’t yet been notified of your call.

Why then, should Skype be concerned about Facebook Messenger? Because despite early hiccups, the concept behind the app is killer. Facebook is already probably the de facto way a lot of people communicate, with a much broader reach than Twitter, and it’s becoming even more of a communication hub thanks to its recent messaging system upgrade. If Facebook Messenger can beef up its architecture to provide a smoother, quicker VoIP experience, it could leverage Facebook’s network to leapfrog to the front of the competition, especially if it can somehow integrate video in future iterations. Unless, that is, Facebook decides this is too good an idea and decides to bake the feature into its site and app itself.

Skype is happy to offer jobs to any Finns who might be in need

Over 1,000 disgruntled Nokistas walked off the job last week and, while presumably all of them showed up punctually on Monday morning, it remains to be seen how many will get proverbial pink slips as Elop starts making cuts. When that time comes Skype is happy to say that they'd like to hire as many as possible. CEO Tony Bates has no qualms about making the best of this situation, saying the following to Reuters:

There is going to be tremendous talent out there... "Our primary engineering focus just so happens to be somewhere between Finland, Estonia and Stockholm, so you can imagine that's a great opportunity and we're hiring.

Hear that, shunned Nokia elite? Now turn that frown upside down.

Pathpartner demos 720p HD Skype videocalling uses Android and OMAP 4

Putting Pathpartner and Ittiam right beside one another may not have been the best idea if these two were hot-headed, but shockingly, they were treating each other with a great deal of respect within Texas Instruments' MWC booth. All jesting aside, the former's 720p HD videocalling solution is aimed at an entirely different market than that of the latter. Rather than arranging for a four-way video conference, Pathpartner has concocted an Android app that enables 720p video calling over Skype -- you know, that VoIP application that you're already obsessed with. Currently, the company's working with Skype in hopes of getting it 'Skype-certified,' and like Ittiam, it's also chatting with a number of handset makers in hopes of getting it embedded on the phone's software stack from the get-go. 

Alexy Mathew Joseph, the company's senior technical lead, was on hand to showcase a demo running on a pair of OMAP 4-based development boxes, and the low-bitrate technology that he has helped create enabled smooth, high-def streaming of the call. We should mention that this particular demo was done over an Ethernet network, but he affirmed that it would operate on 3G and 4G networks as well. Also of note, the new software is capable on running on more than just TI equipment, though he wouldn't elaborate other than saying that NVIDIA's Tegra 2 was a platform he hasn't tested on just yet. Just think -- 720p Skype videocalls could be hitting your phone prior to the dawn of 2012, and the carrier's have to be weeping at the mere mention. Vid's past the break, per usual.