Skype One-Upped by Teleo

Aren't hot technologies fun? I talked two months ago how the peer-to-peer voice service Skype (.com) puts a spin on the idea of presence by allowing voice communications anytime anywhere with a laptop or PDA. Enter a new company, Teleo (.com) that almost matches Skype's presence and raises the bid on business use for peer-to-peer voice.

Teleo has two big advantages over Skype: standards and Microsoft integration. Following in the footsteps of SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) companies like FreeWorld Dialup (.com), Teleo relies on standards rather than proprietary protocols as does Skype. Second, anyone who uses Microsoft software (especially Office) and relies on their laptop as a mobile or remote worker will love the new context menu options such as "Call with Teleo" every time they highlight a phone number onscreen.

A software telephone on the laptop ties into your Microsoft software making it a one-click operation to call anyone listed in your laptop. Highlight the name of an e-mail sender who's in your address book, click to call, and hear that person's phone ring. See a phone number on a Web site in IE? Click and call. Calls to other Teleo users are encrypted like Skype calls.

The phone number assigned to your laptop accepts incoming calls from any other telephone, something Skype has yet to introduce (their SkypeIn service is still in test mode). When your laptop is off, forward the calls to your cell phone. No modern road warrior/expense account white collar wage slave is without one of the two every hour of the day and night.

Teleo lacks Instant Messaging and PDA support, two interesting services you get with Skype to maintain presence. PC-to-PC calls with Teleo are free, as they are with Skype. PC-to-traditional telephone calls cost two cents per minute, as they do with Skype. Inbound calls are free, and Skype does not yet have an answer for that feature.

A Bluetooth headset that matches well with your laptop completes this Borg-like assimilation of man and machine. You can choose a less futuristic headset, of course, if you find people chatting into a hidden Bluetooth earpiece as disconcerting as I.

If Skype doesn't fit your corporate culture, Teleo may. You can even private label the software for that ultimate corporate ego trip.