Skype 4.0 Beta - hands on review

Davey Winder
Monday, 23 June 2008 04:57

Business IT - Technology

Other 'little touches' come together to improve the user experience, especially for the less technically minded user. So Skype 4.0 will now automatically detect the available bandwidth and audio/video hardware so make getting started a whole lot easier.

Although Skype is claiming that its engineers have managed to implement data-compression techniques that enable high quality voice conversations with a bandwidth as petite as 2Kb/sec, and video on just 6Kb/sec, I cannot say that I am convinced this is working properly yet. Skype 4.0 still worked best here when hoked up to broadband.

In fact, plug it into a 100Kb/sec or faster connection and you can have full-screen, high-res, video calling.

Overall then, Skype 4.0 Beta would appear to be a roaring success. Yes, you need to factor in that this remains a Beta, so is by definition being tested and is therefore open to improvement. But the basics are all looking good.

Fair play to Skype for moving away from the multiple windows interface and being bold enough to redesign a hugely successful product so as to make it even more intuitive and efficient. The all-in-one approach will take some getting used to, but not much. I was hooked within half an hour of learning what does what, why and how.

Most of all though, kudos to Skype for realising that the focus of its software needed to reflect the direction of its service. And in 2008 that means moving away from being an IM system with added voice and video, to being a video and voice system with added IM functionality.