Andy asks Are Skype Calls Getting Better. He says that he's seeing better quality calls from Skype, and that more and more people are saying the same. I'll add my voice to the mix. Not only is the quality better, but it's consistently better. Moreover, quality in no-headset situations has reached the point where I don't think twice about taking calls without my headset. And Skype-In / Skype-Out calls are getting to be pretty good quality too.
Having said that, the quality of Skype plug-ins (and I can only speak to Skype branded plug-ins) still stinks. The Skype Internet Explorer plug-in has improved on IE 7, but I still don't use the Skype Plug-in for Outlook. There appears to be some kind of conflict between Skype and Plaxo when both are plugged into Outlook, and Plaxo is much more valuable to me than Skype.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Alec,
I am very glad that you have noticed the improved quiality of the Skype add-on for Internet Explorer. We have put a lot of efforts into that and it is being updated with every new version of Skype and some hotfixes too.
The Skype Email Toolbar for Outlook is another story though, I am sorry to say. We have not updated it since September last year something but all that is about to improve now!
Currently we have published a public BETA of it which I encourage you to try. It can be found on the link above. Any issues you report will be promptly dealt with and fixed!
I don't use Plaxo myself but we will make double certain to test with that.
Best regards
Peter Kalmström, PM Skype Toolbars
I absolutely agree. It's much better that it was.