News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

July 25, 2006

updates

Video Skype for Mac released!

Posted Jul. 25, ’06, 8:34 AM PT by Aaron Freedman
Category | Software » Updates

Finally, after so long, it’s finally here! Yes, today Skype released Video Skype for Mac. Well, mostly. The beta of Skype 1.5 for Mac was released today, without video, though Skype also released a preview version of Skype 1.5 for Mac with video. The preview version is less stable than the normal 1.5 beta, but still usable. While I haven’t had a ton of time to work with the 1.5 beta, many of it’s changes can be easily seen in a quick glance. For one, 1.5 features a totally new, re-designed UI with a more Mac-ish look and feel, including a simpler, prettier contact list, a search bar at the top of the Skype window, and calls that open in separate windows (for a more detailed overview of the new cosmetic features, see here). Skype 1.5 for Mac beta also has some bug fixes, including fixing CPU overload during video chats, having to restart Skype in order to detect a camera, and several other video fixes. Also, like 1.4.0.49 before it, Skype 1.5 for Mac beta is also a Universal binary.

As for video, I haven’t actually tried out video calling yet, but Skype was able to immediately recognize my Intel iMac’s built-in iSight upon its first launch, and the camera functions fine in the video preferences pane. Speaking of the video preferences pane, Skype allows you to change who can have a video chat with you and who sees that you have the ability to video chat. Because I haven’t actually has a video chat in Skype, I do not know how well the video quality compares to that of iChat AV, though I’m pretty confident that it will be better than the Mac-to-PC calls I’ve had using iChat and AIM for Windows. Also, if Skype’s video quality keeps up with that of its calling quality, it should be awesome.


1 Comments

Thomas Massengale said:

The video works great on a MacBook, but get ready for your caller to ask what that sound is. "That sound" will be your fans whirring away as the program absolutely pounds on your processors. Still, a great program. Let's hope it is possible for Skype to have it take less of a toll on our little Core Duos.

July 25, 2006 8:57 AM

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