Microsoft has integrated its voice over internet protocol (VoIP) service Skype into Outlook.com so that users can make calls via the email service.

The feature is being rolled out today in the UK first in the form of a "preview" plug-in that can be downloaded via a web browser.

Once the plug-in is installed, a Skype video chat or VoIP call can be initiated while reading an email at Outlook.com. To do this, users just need move their mouse over the friend's picture and click on the Skype audio or video call buttons that appear above his or her contact details.

Informa said almost 19 billion messages were sent per day on chat apps in 2012, compared with 17.6 billion SMS texts.

The shift is likely to have a big impact on mobile operators, for whom texts have been a key revenue source.

Pamela Clark-Dickson of Informa said some operators were already "seeing a decline in their messaging revenues".

According to separate estimates by research firm Ovum, more than $23bn (£15bn) of SMS revenue was lost in 2012 due to popularity of chat apps.

Based on last quarter's global PC shipment numbers, Microsoft continues to feel pain in making the case for Windows is a viable tablet operating system. Theoretically, the dual-identity (Windows 8/RT) operating system has everything it needs to be a contender, but the promise is ahead of the reality on three interdependent fronts: chip-level hardware, legacy support, and app software.

For example, if x86 chips were more competitive with ARM processors from a performance-per-watt perspective, then Microsoft wouldn't be as reliant on Metro-style apps for functionality. And if more developers were creating Metro-style apps, then consumers wouldn't have to go to the legacy desktop mode as much to get things done. (Until the company releases a Metro-style Office, Microsoft really can't wag its finger too much at third parties.)

Apple could be plotting to bring Nuance's Swype keyboard to the iPhone.

This isn't your usual rumour story, as chatter about Swype coming to the iPhone comes via Swype VP Aaron Sheedy, who confirmed during a Reddit Q&A session that Swype has had discussions with Apple.

A curious Reddit user asked, "I was curious as to whether you've ever had any contact with Apple. Any conversations to see if they might have been interested in licensing your technology?" Sheedy responded, "Hah. The million (ok billion) $ questions. Yes, we have chatted with them, they are very smart and nice."

The Pirate Bay has dropped anchor again, this time in Iceland where it seeks safe harbour under the country specific .IS top level domain.

The Pirate Bay has hopped around a number of country specific domains since the start of the year, and it even suggested that it had found snug berth in North Korea.

This year we have followed its moves from Sweden, to Norway, to Spain and to Greenland. It has looked relatively comfortable in all of those locations, until local hosting firms changed their minds under pressure from copyright cartels and sent the website packing.