AA. Cost: Free (But, there is a paid version as well)
1. Ease Of Use – Extremely easy to use. Once setup has been completed (AKA registration (Sign-up), mic, headset and or webcam have all been setup and adjusted. To you liking, it may take a little tweaking to get it just right. But once it has been setup. You can just leave it be from that point on.)
1A. Interface – Very simple, clean and straight forward
2. Quality Of Program – Skype has improved yet again. HD Audio quality has been improved, HD webcam support has been improved. There is even better screen sharing options and setup for more then 1 (HD or Non-HD) video calls. File sharing has also dramatically improved.
3. Speed of Sign-in – A lot faster then past versions. And a lot less jerky then past versions.
4. Can you run other programs while running Skype ? Yes
5. Can you leave Skype running without issue ? Yes
6. Is there adware or spyware bundled with it ? Yes, there is a Toolbar you can opt out of and a click to call. That you can also opt out of. There are also some ads now that pop-up. I don’t really have any big issues with them (But they are rather large). But it can be bothersome to some user. Who are not use to thous types of ads.
7. Is Skype Stable ? Yes, there is no question Skype is a very stable program. But it does depend a lot on the stability and quality of your Internet connection.
I give Skype an overall score of 4 out of 5 – I truly believe once you go Skype you don’t go back. Skype is truly better then it’s competition. It annihilates it’s competition such as Team Speak or Ventrillo.
On A Side Note: The only major flaw of Skype is it lack of ability to host between 6-25. Such as playing MMOs like WOW or other such games. Skype is more of a personal experience. But since I don’t and I also don’t par-take in Facebook. I don’t feel I need anything other then Skype.
***I have had some reports of Skype being choppy and audio quality being very poor. When connecting to someone with an out of date version of Skype. In fact I had such a bad issues with my audio quality. I had to e-mail or phone my mates and ask them to upgrade to this version. Thankfully after they upgrade we no longer had any more audio or video quality issues.
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If you wish to download Skype please use the following link: http://www.skype.com/download/skype/windows/
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Till The Next Review,
Kirbe
The Computer Savvy Weblog 