Skype 4.0 Beta – Upgraded for videos
Posted on June 21, 2008 at 5:09 am
Communicating over the Internet with family members and friends is one of the best ways to save money. Instead of having to pay large amounts of cash for only a few minutes of long distance, you can choose to spend hours speaking to loved ones.
Skype is one of the most well known VOIP applications. Tons of users put it to great use on a daily basis. It can be easily used for personal phone calls and small business calls as well. Connecting a video camera to your computer system and then taking advantage of the built in video calling capability makes it even more useful.
Skype 4.0 Beta has just been recently released to anyone that wants to try it. It doesn’t contain the same type of boring features that we are usually accustomed to. Video calling has become one of its main features instead.
Previously, users were more concerned with Skype’s audio capability and nothing else really seemed to matter. As technology moves forward, we are starting to branch out and try different things. Not only is it a good way to speak to a loved one, but we also enjoy the possibility of seeing them as well.
One of the best features of Skype 4.0 Beta is that it can be displayed in full screen mode and not just a small window that can be resized. This newer version of Skype lets users feel less cramped. The entire layout definitely has a “cool effect” because of the new picture in picture feature.
Typing text for your chats and sharing files while on an active call can now be done easily. The larger window offers more space for a comfortable workflow. You won’t have to bother with a small work area and wish you had a larger space.
If you add new hardware to your computer while using Skype 4.0 Beta, it will also be automatically detected. This is a major improvement from previous versions. I constantly had issues with my devices not being recognized or detected. Just plug in your brand new headset and within a few seconds it will be tested by Skype 4.0 Beta.
This major overhaul is a wonderful sign that Skype is finally starting to listen to its users. Internet and computer users demand more convenient tools that are user friendly. As our contact lists grow, we want our regularly used applications to grow as well. Although there are a few little kinks in this Beta version, it still works pretty well. There are plenty of VOIP applications that work phenomenally well, but Skype is rapidly starting to catch up to them.
Ms Yokum
Tech Enthusiast & Blogger
» Filed Under Free Software Downloads
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Hey Aseem, as always you staying on top of things. good.
I don’t think this was a good move from Skype, people rather have a good quality audio conversation rather than a crappy video one. I know this from experience, we have developed our own messenger at our company http://yourlive.com which has the ability of doing video meetings with 10, 100 or 1000 people simultaneously. employees did not like it, and they rather adopted Skype to make one to one meetings, because the audio quality in skype is great.
but now that skype is introducing video as their main feature, the audio quality will degrade, it does not matter if they use PTP, remember video is real time and cannot be cache in other people’s system. they must rely on a relay server.
I also heard that they will introduce the feature of pulling in videos from Metecafe, and Dailymotion, on this new skype, somehow they don’t like youtube. I wonder how private video conversations are going to be? and who will be pulling crap from those video sites?
anyways, have a good weekend man.
Hmmm..I tried the beta..its little buggy..for instance you cant send a message when you are on a video call with someone(at least it happened to me).
In the previous version, making a skype out call is straight forward. You can just type the number and press enter. But in the new beta, you need to open dail pad to type the number.
Hope by the time it comes out of beta, all the issues are sorted out.