Skype Skype 4.0

Some new features of Skype 4.0 work well. The new Conversations tab lets you manage a bunch of things at once, so you can flit around from video calls to voice calls to IM chats. And I like being able to engage in a video call right off the bat; with previous versions, you had to initiate a voice call on Skype and then launch the videoconferencing portion, provided that both parties had cameras up and running. Skype can handle a maximum of two talking heads during a given video call.

The company claims that audio and video quality have improved in Skype 4.0--and in my tests, I noticed that voices generally did sound slightly sharper than before. I never encountered words breaking up and sounding stuttered--something I experienced with previous versions of Skype. Indeed, the whole audio experience improved, including the moments of silence during test calls: Voices sounded as though they weren't coming out of a hollow, churchlike expanse of interior space.

The video quality of Skype 4.0 impressed me too. The video stream exhibited minimal choppiness, and I noticed just a couple of brief freeze-ups. Also, the colors appeared richer and less washed out.

With a VoIP program like Skype, improved voice and video quality trumps dubious interface changes any day. So I am moving to version 4.0. That said, some Skype users might want to skip this upgrade. If you use Skype's public chats, you should know that this version doesn't let you start new ones, though you can continue to participate in your existing chats. (Skype says that it plans to reintroduce public chats in future updates.) If you're content with the call quality of your current version of Skype, and you're happy with its look and feel, consider staying with the version you have. And of course there are competing services, such as ooVoo, to consider.