#Skype for Linux, Mac, and Developers
Being as you all out there on Google are hogging up #Skype news, Everything PR News will offer this brunch of Skype news for your leisure. Skype 4.0 for Linux to 5.8 for Mac, there’s a lot brewing at our favorite free phone service. There’s also news in there for developers and those of you that wanted other changes to your Skype.
Laughing Like The Pinguin
Thanking profusely the Linux fans out there who have waited so long for version 4.0 to clear the bench, the Skype blog unveiled ‘Four Rooms for Improvement,’ the latest thing for our quirky pals in Linux uniforms. New features and UI improvements a plenty, Skype appears a lot more Linux friendly. Check it.
In this release:
- A new Conversations View where users easily track their chats in one unified window.
- We have a brand new Call View
- Call quality has been greatly improved
- Skype improved video call quality and have also extended support for camera types and brands
On top of these adds, Skype also added some emoticons, improved the chat sync, added phone number storage, and reduced Linux crashes. All in all, Skype did a decent job of satisfying the preponderance of complaints and requests, it seems. Of course, our penguin buds over at G+ are already bitching about needing more stuff like being able to run multiple instances and etc. And too, Skype cannot yet bake cookies, maybe version 4.2?
Skype 5.8 Fur Mac
Jumping over to the peeps who love their Mac, Skype 5.8 offers some usability perks, and new features. Despite some Skype hype from President Tony Bates, this version of Skype is really revamped, especially via some user gripes to remake the user/contact list back to the way it once was. Thinner and re-sizable seems to be the desired config there. Of special note, Skype video calls seem to be getting better. Now, when users talk using smart devices like iPads n such, Skype detects their orientation and adjusts accordinly. Skype for Mac now detect landscape or portrait views and automatically re-orient the video call. Cool huh?
One of Skype’s coolest and most useful features, sharing of your screen, is not greatly enhanced too. You can share the screen with multiple contacts a bit like a web conferencing platform – oppps, this may hurt GoToMeeting? Compatibility with the new desktop OS X Mountain Lion, and whispers of Skype talks on Twitter ( #SkypeTalks) and new things to come, and our favorite IM and chat box looks better than ever.
SkypeKit Developer Tidbits
For all those Skype developer aficionados out there, the new release of Developer Preview of SkypeKit 4.02. The developer initiative by Skype is now extended further by entering into the desktop app game. Skype partners can now integrate Skype into their Windows, Mac and Linux desktop applications in two ways:
- SkypeKit for Desktop – intended to add native Skype functionality directly into partner applications, and
- Skype Desktop API – via the previously known Skype API or Public API, allowing developers to extend the functionality of Skype for Windows, Skype for Mac and Skype for Linux.
So, if you are interested in making Skype bigger and better for your applications, head on over to the Skype Developer pages here to learn from some case studies and etc. Interested readers should also check out other Skype news via their blog. For now, you’ll have to excuse me, I have 20 IM’s from my peeps on Skype. Enjoy the new Skype stuff, and don’t forget it’s #FF and #Skype if you are into tends.
Kaplow PR is PR agency for Skype.
