Image via CrunchBase
Since early yesterday morning I’ve been running the Skype 4.0 final release on a number of my PC’s. Skype announced the new software, and I grabbed it before heading to the office. For several months now, I’ve also been running the Skype 4.0 betas in the same environment, except on my HP mini netbook, where the 4.0 UI was a little large for it’s diminutive screen.
Skype 4.0 is the best Skype yet, bar none. Skype has streamlined the user experience in multiple ways – from install, to call setup, IM, and more. In the process they’ve made Skype more accessible to more users than ever before. SkypeJournal has two detailed posts on the new Skype user experience and how it was designed which describe this in more detail than I will here.
Perhaps the biggest improvement, though, is audio quality. We all thought that Skype audio was great, right? Skype’s internally developed SILK codec slipped into the final release, despite not having been in prior betas. A wideband codec that delivers the goods at half the bitrate of prior codecs, SILK makes talking on Skype a pure pleasure. I had calls yesterday from Andy Abramson at the ITEXPO show in Miami, and Jim Courtney from his home in Mississauga. The difference is noticeable, and worth the download alone.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=f12872ec-b54f-4724-a9d1-c34627d3cbef)
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.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
well i love skype for sure.
That's a business question for Skype leadership Frank. Technology is technology, and where there's a will, there's a way. I've heard via the grapevine, however, that the codec is designed to be able to be dropped into silicon. If so, then you might expect new devices with this capability to come to market.
Do you think that this new wideband codec can be applied or re-configured in order to work with other voip services in the future? I feel that if so, skype could sell the codec to other providers to create a new revenue stream, or maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, what do you think?
{ 4 trackbacks }