Skype 4.0 has at last launched, although it’s taken almost as long as a real baby to be born. First released as a Beta in June 2008, Beta 2 followed in October and then Beta 3 in December.
Video is first and foremost in the new Skype, which always bemuses me as it’s the one Skype feature I never use. No one I want to speak to ever has a video camera set up, and even if they did I’m not going to shave and tidy the office just to make a phone call.
Skype chat, call quality, ease of use and especially SkypeOut are the things that matter most to me and those are the things Skype does well. SkypeOut is what matters to Skype too – that’s where they make their money, not from video calls which are invariably Skype to Skype and thus free.
If you’ve not used any of the Skype 4 beta releases then when you upgrade the first thing to strike you will be the size of the Skype window. If you find you can’t get used to it then clicking “View > Compact View” will give you a more familiar traditional Skype window. I’m so used to the new Skype having used the Betas for eight months I can’t use the compact view. The old Skype 3 now looks really dated to me, so give the new design a few weeks trial to get used to it, you never know, you might grow to like it too!
You can download the new Skype 4 from the Skype website, let us know what you think.
6 Responses
Groan – give it a year or two and every flaming monitor will have a camera embedded that you can’t turn off and flaming video calls will be like a fighter pilot’s HUD screen – always there and visible even though you’re trying to see past it.
There’s only one tech upgrade I long for, and that’s the delivery teleporter so that physical items’ delivery becomes the equivalent of today’s digital downloads – entirely up to the buyer when they want it and “collect” it, and then eBay can ditch those blessed DSRs
Ed
much easier just to pick the blackberry up ,and phone
I totally agree about video calling. It’s just a waste of time. I don’t want people to see what I’m doing when I’m speaking to them on the phone (not that I have anything to hide, of course) and I doubt they would want me to see them either.
Do you remember when Three launched videophones? They were meant to be the new way of communicating but they didn’t take off because we don’t want to see people when making a phone call. It’s pointless unless you need to show someone something in which case it’s better to send an email or picture message. How many people do you know that make video calls? I know none!
For the video sceptics out there – over 25% of Skype calls include video, and that number’s been growing ever since we introduced it back in 2005.
That doesn’t mean everyone wants or needs to use video, of course, and so I totally respect the decisions of those of you who choose not to – and, of course, that doesn’t mean it’s not incredibly popular 🙂
#4 There is one good use for Skype with video…. when you want to keep your job but not bother turning up at the office 😀
It was a farce. The link didn’t work – we kept on losing the sound. ”
perhaps not the best advert really