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Skype 5 for Mac Exits Beta, Group Video Calling Now Premium Feature

Definitely still staying on Skype 2.8. The UI is just atrocious compared to the previous one, tiny contact list that can sit anywhere on my screen and a very simplistic, easy to use call menu. I love the separate windows and loathe this new combined interface.

I keep trying the new Skype 5 (just the disk image, not putting it in my Applications folder) and I don't know why I keep trying, it's just not comparable to the simplicity and ease of use of the old version. I use it to call some friends and do some group homework assignments, and to be able to simply see my contacts and call them, is great. It was focused on that, now it's just bloated.
 
Ugh.. multiple video conference a premium feature? Come on... Its fairly expensive too.

If no one is prepared to pay, this will soon be a free feature.

There is iChat of course. unfortunately no one I know cares about it! Hence I use skype.

The Skype 5 UI is too large - takes a lot of screen space.
 
7o7munoz7o7 said:
[insert clever name]gate)
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Clever names for public outcry don't end in gate :)

And it's obvious they are trying to get you to go with the monthly payment option instead of daily. Daily seems to be offered for those who would use it MAYBE once a month ($8.99 vs $4.99)

gdkid2010 said:
What bull crap. I may just stick with the beta version because I use the video conferencing a lot.

The weird thing is, its still free on the Windows version?
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Doesn't skype connect to their servers to work? If so, that would require them to keep supporting the beta client.

And by Skype's website, no, it's a pay feature all around now.
 
Multiple way chats between Macs, PCs, and iOS devices is a cool feature, I'll give you that, but worth $4.99 a day?

That means it's $19.96 for me and three of my friend's to have a single four way video chat. No way in hell we're paying that.

That sounds like a reasonable price for a few months use (3-6), but it's completely unreasonable for a day. And $8.99 for month sounds like it makes a better per year price. Maybe $19.99 for lifetime.
 
Skype Sucks

Why the hell would I pay a month subscription to video chat or IM when I can do it for free on a number of other services... umm lets see..

AIM
MSN
MobileMe
Yahoo
Goole
Jabber

Need I go ON?

People who are ignorant to computers use Skype.
 
darknite38 said:
Some people only have a macbook pro 13". Maybe we can't afford or don't need or don't want to buy a bigger monitor? Maybe the developers (and you) should realize that skype is a very popular app for 13" macbook pros?

Really?
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Obviously you do need a bigger screen then.
 
Does anyone know if the audio quality has improved going from 2.8 to 5? This would be the only reason I personally would upgrade from 2.8.
 
Staying with 2.8. The new version is bloated and crappy. Everyone complained, but Skype didn't listen.
 
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Dork

Stella said:
Ugh.. multiple video conference a premium feature? Come on... Its fairly expensive too.

If no one is prepared to pay, this will soon be a free feature.

There is iChat of course. unfortunately no one I know cares about it! Hence I use skype.

The Skype 5 UI is too large - takes a lot of screen space.
Click to expand...

iChat is not a service it's just an App. You need to plug in your own service into it. Like AIM, Google, Jabber.. etc. There are tons of people on those services.

There is also Adium http://adium.im/ Which is like an iChat, but has the ability to use more services. So you have no excuse to use Skype.

Again like I said above, "Skype if for people who are ignorant about computers." Which is why you're using Skype.
 
I left Skype comprehensive feedback on how terrible the UI was (I had the Beta when it first came out) guess they didnt want to listen and guess what? Everyone else is saying the same thing. It is a terrible UI and almost unusable with many contacts on a 13" MBP.

I'll just use Google Talk instead ;)
 
Still with that hideous interface from the beta? Thank you, I'm not intersted. Skype team, back to the drawing board.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/8C148a)

I think paying for group calling is pretty bad. Funny how we're all complaining about how video calling multiple people anywhere in the world simultaneously for 5 bucks sucks haha.
 
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ArtOfWarfare said:
Multiple way chats between Macs, PCs, and iOS devices is a cool feature, I'll give you that, but worth $4.99 a day?

That means it's $19.96 for me and three of my friend's to have a single four way video chat. No way in hell we're paying that.

That sounds like a reasonable price for a few months use (3-6), but it's completely unreasonable for a day. And $8.99 for month sounds like it makes a better per year price. Maybe $19.99 for lifetime.
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Only 1 party member needs to have paid for the 3+ video chat feature for all members of the party to use it. It is how I have been keeping up with my family recently. Now if skype could just add the feature to the iOS version we would be set. If an iOS user is in the conference that user only gets voice.

Does iChat do ten way video chats?
 
dakwar said:
Does anyone know if the audio quality has improved going from 2.8 to 5? This would be the only reason I personally would upgrade from 2.8.
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Yes.. people have said the video quality is better on their side, verses Skype 2.x.
 
theelysium said:
iChat is not a service it's just an App. You need to plug in your own service into it. Like AIM, Google, Jabber.. etc. There are tons of people on those services.

There is also Adium http://adium.im/ Which is like an iChat, but has the ability to use more services. So you have no excuse to use Skype.

Again like I said above, "Skype if for people who are ignorant about computers." Which is why you're using Skype.
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Yes I know its just an application that is capable of various protocols. I'm referring to the video functionality of iChat. The video aspect isn't supported by all those protocols on iChat. Last time I tried, Video via Jabber didn't work.

As to your "ignorant " comment, thats very irrogant to say that in the first place. People may many reasons to use Skype.. and not due to ignorance either!

I use skype for video, not for the instant messaging. Its only been very recently has video been available on Microsoft messenger for OSX ( there were 3rd party clients that supported video on OSX, but the quality was poor , for example aMSN ) . Yahoo video used to be crap.. not sure whats its like today. Video conferencing on OSX has been fairly limited to whats available on windows, especially when wanting to conference between OSX and windows.
 
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Group chat has limited usage

Even with the "Premium" service the calls are limited:

Group video calls are subject to a fair usage limit of 100 hours per month with no more than 10 hours per day and a limit of 4 hours per individual video call. Once these limits have been reached, the video will switch off and the call will convert to an audio call.
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(src: http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/legal/terms/gvc-fair-usage/)
 
Skype - YOU DID NOT LISTEN

Am I missing something here?! Skype say that they listened to feedback. Then please explain how the UI is so seriously still flawed?! Enormous window, terrible. Sticking with 2.8
 
The only reason I installed the Skype 5 beta was for group video calling. Back to 2.8 I go! Much better UI for my tastes. I find Skype 5 too overwhelming, coming from 2.8. I primarily use FaceTime, anyways.
 
theelysium said:
iChat is not a service it's just an App. You need to plug in your own service into it. Like AIM, Google, Jabber.. etc. There are tons of people on those services.

There is also Adium http://adium.im/ Which is like an iChat, but has the ability to use more services. So you have no excuse to use Skype.

Again like I said above, "Skype if for people who are ignorant about computers." Which is why you're using Skype.
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Adium doesn't have audio or video, and I've never had much luck with AIM's A/V support. Skype is the only cross-platform videoconferencing software that works well, unfortunately. I wish Apple would hurry up and port FaceTime to Windows.


jbee said:
Am I missing something here?! Skype say that they listened to feedback. Then please explain how the UI is so seriously still flawed?! Enormous window, terrible. Sticking with 2.8
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Well, to their credit, it is slightly less enormous. ;)
 
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