Skype is software that enables you to make free calls anywhere in the world. Skype uses P2P (peer-to-peer) technology to connect you with other users. It offers several features, including SkypeOut calling from Skype to regular and mobile phones worldwide, conference calling, and secure file transferring. You can also now share your screen with other users. Skype calls focus on video and audio quality, and secure the calls with end-to-end encryption.
Additionally it doesn't just work on Windows. Skype is also for Mac OS X, Linux and PDAs using Pocket PC, with a native look and feel for each platform. Talking, sending instant messages or even file transfers work between different platforms like a charm.
Main features
• Free Skype-to-Skype calling
• Free video calls
• Free instant messaging.
• Call phones and mobiles, send SMS.
• Voicemail
• Forward calls to a phone when you’re offline.
What's new in Skype 5.0.0.152
Principal new features in Skype 5.0.0.152
- Group video calling (beta)
- Skype Home
- Integration with Facebook
- Offline instant messaging
- New contact search and improved contact adding
- Enhanced call quality experience
- User interface refresh
Changes:
Calling
- Removed post call experience
Contact list
- Added an option to disable avatar pictures in contact list.
Fixed issues:
Accessibility
- Accessibility in Call Phones tab was not properly supported.
- Accessibility was not fully supported in Call View.
- It was not possible to accept or reject a contact request via keyboard.
- Labels in Add people widget were not visible to Jaws.
Audio
- When the user redialed within 10 seconds the audio was sometimes silent.
Browser plugin
- During Skype update it was impossible to change language for Skype browser plugin.
- Skype browser plugin was wrongly interpreting US vanity numbers that exeed 11 digits.
- Sometimes the browser plugin dropdown menu was shown in the wrong place on the screen.
Call phones
- Call Phones tab showed wrong information about subscriptions when user did not have reccurring payments enabled.
- Call to invalid number message was not cleared.
- Calling rates under subscriptions were sometimes not correctly shown.
- Header area in call phones tab sometimes showed some messages in text format instead of graphical.
- Numberpad on call phones was not displayed properly on low screen resolutions.
- Sometimes the rates lookup drop down list appeared in wrong place when using Skype in compact mode.
Call Quality Indicator
- Call Quality Indicator did not warn user if he mutes microphone in Windows settings.
- Call Quality Indicator stated unknown connection speed.
- Call restablishment message will remain on a call which appears to be fine, though available bandwidth is very low.
- The call quality indicator sometimes incorrectly reported medium quality when in fact the video call was in high definition.
Call transfer
- Call transfer to a phone number not in contact list did not work.
- Video was not transmitted after call transfer.
Call view
- Occasionally the call view had white boxes instead of texts.
Calling
- In rare occasions Skype crashed after changing microphone.
Contact List
- Creating a Skype Out contact from recently dialled numbers was malfunctioning.
- There were some text formatting errors in Recents list.
Contact search
- Avatar picture was not displayed in Public profile view.
- Sometimes, Add contacts buttons text was only partially visible.
- User search, based on e-mail and phone number, did not display partial results if full matches were present.
File Sending
- On rare cases file receiver saw a erroneous message ‘The file isn’t available’.
File transfer
- Skype sometimes stopped responding when accepting File Transfer in group conversation.
Group video call
- Message box that appears so users can activate a free trial remained even after trial is activated.
- Often when adding a third participant to a video call the host was not notified about the need to activate a free trail in order to use group video calling.
- Placing a group video call with no free trial appears to other participants as missed conversation.
- Video could sometimes freeze for some participants on Group video calls.
Localization
- There was no support for languages read right to left in profile view.
Login/Logout
- Skype opened in focus if Skype was set to autostart.
Miscellaneous
- Skype sometimes crashed when switching Windows user under Windows 7.
- Skype was starting as maximized during autostart process.
- When opening main menu Skype asked user to install Flash player if user did not have it previously installed.
Screen sharing
- Netbooks with Mobile Intel® 915GM/GMS,910GML Express Graphics Chipset and Windows 7 sometimes had problems when receiving large screen sharing resolutions beyond 1322 × 823.
- Receiving a large resolution screen share could have artefacts on screen.
- When receiving screen sharing from Skype for Mac version 2.8, sometimes the screen does not load on the 5.0 side.
Skype Access
- The Skype Access connection display did not pop-up correctly when trying to connect to supported hotspot after starting Skype up.
Skype Home
- In some cases, avatar pictures were missing from Skype Home feed.
- Occasionally mood message update displays may be disrupted when the network connection is momentarily lost.
- Skype Home is not scaling very well to small and big window
- Sometimes there was a connection error when trying to open account panel from client alert in Skype Home.
- Un-sent mood message updates within Skype Home will not be saved when navigating away from Skype Home.
Video
- Clicking on the webcamera settings may cause Skype to crash.
- In rare cases users video may not start correctly when using Logitech webcam pro 9000.
- In rare cases, video may not be received by the other party even if the local preview is working correctly
- Skype crashed if user quit Skype during an active call.
- Skype may not work properly with virtual cameras
- Switching between USB camera and HP Virtual webcam locks the camera
- The call receiver may not see HQ logo on their side during HQ call
- The receiver may not see HQ logo in the local preview while the receiver sees the logo on his side.
- The Skype video snapshots feature is not working on Windows XP SP3.
- This version of Skype (5.0) has increased CPU usage which may effect video quality on some computers.
- Under some circumstances upon ending a Skype Video call the webcam can still be capturing video even though it is no-longer in use.
- Video call picture quality was sometimes lower than expected in good conditions.
- Video calls may not work with virtual machines.
- Video calls on a secondary display causes higher CPU load compared to usage on the primary display.
- Video may stop if you lock and unlock your computer while on a call
- Video might freeze in calls with H.264 devices.
Video in mood
- DailyMotion videos which have been added to a mood message are not being displayed to other contacts.
Voicemail
- Calls go to Voicemail for offline users even if they have disabled it from Options.
- Message that display’s “Item has been deleted from conversation history.” sometimes appeared after sending Voicemail. Voicemail itself will be sent without problems.
Download Skype
Download Skype 5.0.0.152 for Windows form website Download Skype 5.0.0.152 for Windows (19.85MB)
System requirements
- PC running Windows® 2000, XP, Vista or 7, both 32- and 64-bit operating systems. (Windows 2000 users require DirectX 9.0 for video calls).
- Internet connection – broadband is best (GPRS is not supported for voice calls).
- Speakers and microphone – built-in or separate.
- For voice and video calls we recommend a computer with at least a 1GHz processor, 256 MB RAM and of course a webcam.
- For High Definition (HD) video calls both you and the person you're talking to need Skype 4.2 for Windows or higher, plus HD webcams. You'll also need a high-speed broadband connection (Recommend sustained 1 Mbps symmetrical bandwidth or higher) and a PC with at least a 1.8 GHz processor.
Source:
• Download Skype for Windows
• Skype Release Notes
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