Skype offers free Wi-Fi in airports, but not for Android

In a display of Skype's holiday spirit, the company will be gifting travelers with one hour of free Wi-Fi access at over 50 major airports across the United States. The offer will begin on Dec 21 and last until Dec 27.

In order to take advantage of this offer, travelers must have a device capable of utilizing Skype Wi-Fi, a protocol found in newer versions of Skype that is being used to authenticate against hotspots around the country, not just at airports. To make sure you can enjoy free Wi-Fi this holiday season, simply install the latest version of Skype on your Windows, Mac OS or iPhone OS device.

Did you notice that Android was missing from that list? While this is a great offer for most devices, it looks as though Android users will be left out in the cold. Although Skype exists for Android, the app currently found in the Android Market is said to not support Skype Wi-Fi. That means a plethora of phones are tablets will not be able to nab free Wi-Fi at airports this year. The Skype Blog goes out of its way to explicitly name Windows, Mac OS and iOS devices without mentioning Android anywhere. Combine this with the fact a new version of the Android Skype app was released about a week ago and it quickly sounds like Android support will not be added any time soon.

Now owned by Microsoft, Skype has some deep pockets to reach into. This campaign sounds like a very effective way to get people installing the software on their portable devices although millions of Android users will be left disappointed.

Google rolled out a similar but more exhaustive campaign last year, offering free wireless Internet at participating airlines and on planes (where applicable). The offer lasted for about six weeks and hit about the same number of locations.

Verizon Wireless holiday ad shows Galaxy Nexus priced at $199.99

A series of Verizon Wireless holiday ads appearing on various sites across the Internet show the phone will be available for $199.99 with a two year service agreement. The ads were first spotted byAndroid Police and have since shown up on other sites including Phandroid and DroidForums.

The ads are all being served by NetShelter which is a premium advertising network that supplies ads to website owners. NetShelter works directly with carriers and manufacturers so it’s unlikely that the ads are fake.

When a user clicks Learn More on the ad, they are taken to this Black Friday deals page, although the Galaxy Nexus is nowhere to be found. AP notes the following tag in the deals URL “cmp=BAC-OM-111129-HOLIDAYSAMSUNG” which could point to 11/29 as the starting date for the phone’s availability. It could just as easily indicate the final day of the sale, or not have any relevance at all.

Samsung and Google announced the Galaxy Nexus at a press event in Hong Kong last month. The phone features a curved 4.65-inch HD Super AMOLED display running at 1270 x 720 resolution, a 1.2GHz dual core processor, 1GB of RAM, your choice of 16GB or 32GB of internal storage, a 5MP rear camera with zero shutter lag, backlit-illuminated sensor, built-in stabilization and LED flash and a 1.3MP front-facing camera for video chat. The unit is powered by a 1,750mAh battery in a package that weighs 135g and is 8.9mm at its thinnest point.

The Galaxy Nexus will also be the first Android phone to ship with version 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. No release date has been set but we expect the phone to be available sometime before the end of the year on Verizon.