What is skype? I know it's long distance on internet, but what's the benefit?

[John T]

Yeah, but I don't know anyone else who uses skype.

That's easy! Just tell your friends/relatives to sign up ...

if I did it would take planning because most people don't sit at their computer with skype on or keep the app open on their iphone 24/7. If they could just solve that issue we wouldn't even need skype out.

That's easy too!! Just send 'em a text or a quick land-line call - "I'll be on Skype in 5 mins" and away you go!

BTW if you've got web cams you can have video calls.

 

[RA19]

Once you have skype on the iphone, how do you maintain an open connection with Skype? I presume (maybe incorrectly?) that once you press the Home button on the iphone it disconnects your Skype connection. Say someone wanted to call me on my iphone on the skype service (say from a pc) how would that happen if the connection was not active?

Hope someone can make sense of that!

 

[arkitect]

Once you have skype on the iphone, how do you maintain an open connection with Skype? I presume (maybe incorrectly?) that once you press the Home button on the iphone it disconnects your Skype connection. Say someone wanted to call me on my iphone on the skype service (say from a pc) how would that happen if the connection was not active?

You presume correctly.
You can only receive calls if Skype is active.
Perhaps with 3.0 and background apps running it'll change. But as of 2.2.1 Skype has to be running.