Skype for Mac is out of beta, and version 5.0 is now available as a free download. No longer the poor stepchild of the PC, it’s finally catching up, matching most of the features of the PC version 5.0.
Included in the new features are a call control bar, group video calling, the ability to search chat content, integration with the OS X Address Book, and a smaller floating contacts monitor. The only missing feature from the Windows version of Skype is its integration of the Facebook newsfeed.
The beta version of Skype for Mac OS X has been available since last November (and the PC beta version was available in September). In a blog post, Skype says it’s taken the suggestions of beta users and incorporated most of them in this new version.
The centerpiece of version 5.0 is group video calling (GVC), letting 10 users vid-chat with each other. But there’s a catch: You’ll have to pony up for it. Group video calling is free for a week, but after that, a day pass is $4.99, or a monthly subscription is $8.99, and customer support is included.
If you’re not interested in paying for group calling, you can get the rest of Skype 5.0 with a free download. That’ll give you the most-desired Skype features, such as voice chat with other Skype users, one-on-one video chat and instant messaging, as well as the ability to call and text plain old telephone numbers with the purchase of SkypeOut credits. And those credits are dirt cheap compared to conventional telephone rates, especially for international calling.
So what’s changed? As Skype 5.0 moves away from its beta status, its user interface has been cleaned up, with Skype responding to customer complaints about too much white space with a tighter interface. Yes, now you can hide Skype on the corner of your screen until someone calls you, a significant improvement over the beta version.
There’s another catch: Users in various forums and sites are not happy with the non-beta Skype 5.0, complaining about how it still takes up too much space for what it does. Many are just sticking with the old version 2.8. If you’re thinking of upgrading, you might want to keep a copy of version 2.8 handy so you can bail if necessary.
Skype says the minimum system requirement for this new version is a 1GHz Intel processor, and you must be running Mac OS X 10.5.8 with 100 MB of free disk space. The good news about that premium group video calling is that although all users on a call must be running Skype 5.0 for it to work, only one of the callers must be a paying subscriber.