Tim Gaden24 October 2006, 7:05 AM
Skype 2.0 moved out of beta today and is now an official release. It brings with it cross-platform video-chatting which breaks the iChat Mac-only stranglehold. Of course, progress comes at a price. Older Macs don't have the grunt to run the video feature.
The beta version of Skype 2.0 for Mac has moved out of beta status and is now
an official release.
For those who don't know, Skype is an Internet telephony app that offers free voice calls anywhere in the world to other Skype users. You can make calls to normal phones through Skype although it costs money (not very much) and also receive calls normal phone calls through Skype if you get a SkypeIn number.
The big, shiny, new iChat-threatening feature in Skype 2.0 is video chat. It promises to break the Mac-only restriction on video chatting with iChat, giving you the chance to see and talk with your friends even if they are on the dark side.
Skype 2.0 offers support for iSight camera (built-in or free-standing) and also third party webcams like the Philips SPC900NC, or Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000.
At the same time, some tweaks were made the video codecs and the resolution of outgoing video on PPC Macs was reduced to 160 x 120 in an effort to improve performance.
Not every one has seen improvements with the new codecs. The Skype blog contains posts from users who find that the quality in the beta version was much better.
To use video enjoyably with Skype 2.0 a base level G4 800 Mhz processor, 10.3.9 or better and 512MB of RAM is recommended.
Download Skype 2.0 for Mac and give it a try.