Skype's latest release, Skype 3 for Windows, doesn't break any new ground
in the low-cost, online voice communication arena.
What it does is add some enhancements to Skype's already strong
communications package, such as incorporating Skypecasts directly into the
Skype dashboard and offering additional ways for Skype users to interact
while talking. You still get great-sounding free calls between Skype users
in addition to video calls, conference calls and IM chats. Skype remains
our favourite alternative to a full-fledged voice over IP phone plan.
Downloading and installing Skype is still a simple task. Just point your
browser to the download link at Skype's site and click through the process.
If you're already using a previous version of Skype, you don't need to
uninstall it; the Skype 3 installation process will take care of that for
you.
Skype 3's dashboard is relatively unchanged from the previous version. The
major difference is the addition of a "Live" tab, where you'll find a list
of ongoing or impending Skypecasts. At its core, a Skypecast is like a very
big conference call: one user sets up the Skypecast, designates the topic
-- ranging from "Evolution versus Intelligent Design" and "Nigerian
Politics" to bored souls who simply want to chat -- and call time, and
serves as the host. The host has the power to select who speaks and can
even eject users from the discussion. Other users can simply click to join
the conversation. If none of the Skypecasts listed on the tab intrigues
you, a link at the bottom takes you to the Skypecast Web page, where you
can peruse future Skypecasts.
The Do More extras include a radio, animated avatars, games, a whiteboard,
and a call recorder.
The other major addition to this version is Skype Extras. Under the Tools >
Do More menu, you'll find nine preloaded features that let callers interact
with others in new ways. Each extra will require you to download a small
program. You can play Chinese checkers or backgammon with your buddy, or
share a virtual whiteboard, on which you both write, sketch, or erase -- a
great tool for brainstorming. There's also a customisable radio feature
from Last.fm: type in an artist you like and Last.fm will pull up a
"station" that plays your artist and other similar artists, much the same
as Pandora.com. You can even display what you're listening to in the "mood"
bubble on the Skype dashboard. If you want to do things such as recommend a
track to a friend or tell Last.fm to never play the track again, you'll
have to register on Last.fm's Web site. If a call comes in, or if you place
a Skype call, while you're listening to the Last.fm radio, the song will
automatically fade until you hang up on the call.
Another interesting feature is the call recorder from a company called
Pamela. Using it, you can record your conversations up to 15 minutes at a
time. You can set it up to record every incoming and outgoing call
automatically or have it ask you each time whether you want to record.
Before Pamela starts recording, a voice states to everyone on the call that
it's being recorded. This is not a feature you can turn off because, in
many countries, it's illegal to record a conversation with another person
without that person's consent.
With a bunch of the extras open for use, your desktop can get cluttered
very quickly. We'd prefer a single tabbed window that corrals all of the
extras.
In the realm of more fun -- but less useful -- features are the animated
avatars and "lie detector" utility. If you're set up for video Skype calls,
you can use the Crazy Talk extra to create personalised animated avatars.
Webcam companies, including Creative, already incorporate this feature in
many of their webcams. The lie detector feature, made by a company called
KishKish, purports to measure stress in the voice of the person you're
talking to, with the assumption that the more stressed the person sounds,
the more likely he or she is lying to you. We did an ad hoc test of this
feature and it told us that the person talking to us was lying when he was
actually just very excited and animated. Of course, this is for
entertainment value only. While we found the extra features amusing, and
even useful, we didn't like the way each application opened in its own
window. Before long, we found our desktop cluttered with Skype's peripheral
windows. In future versions, we'd like to see all of the features
incorporated into a single window with tabs, which would keep the desktop
much neater and the features much easier to find.
As for performance, we found no major changes to Skype's voice quality. Youcan read about our experiences with making Skype-to-Skype, SkypeIn, and
SkypeOut calls in our review of Skype 2.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/software/internet/soa/Skype_2_beta_/0,139023437,139231149,00.htm
article:
http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/software/internet/soa/Skype_3/0,139023437,339272791,00.htm
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