How close does a video call come to replicating actual human contact? What if that call is the only contact you have with the outside world while in prison—does that change the calculus at all? Apparently so, for inmates in the District of Columbia Department of Corrections.

The boards have sent their approval, the money has exchanged hands and the regulatory hurdles have been overcome. Now it's time for Skype to officially become part of Microsoft.

As spotted by TUAW, Skype for iPad has landed in the New Zealand App Store. This kicks off the global launch of the video calling app so look for it in your local App Store August 2nd.

It's only fair that Microsoft wants users of their phones to be able to video-call too, which is why talk of a WP7 app from Microsoft has reached dull-roar status. Blabbermouth employees and a leaked pic suggest it's coming. Updated.

Around this time every year, IBM surveys 3,000 researchers to find out what they think is going to be big in the future. This year, everyone's caught the FaceTime bug, and is looking forward to 3D hologram video calls.

Facebook and Skype integration! That's the rumor. But beyond the intermingling of two major tech companies, the important question is: how's this going to affect you?

We've been hearing for a while that Cisco was wanting to get down with Joe Blow on the street, so it's not at all surprising to hear that next week they're rumored to unveil a "cheap" home-telepresence product.

How often do you use Facebook Chat, the buggy IM service? If the answer is "hardly ever," then do you think you'd be keen on video-chatting, calling or SMSing with them through Skype instead?