Skype for Windows 2.6 Beta is now out of Preview and in public beta. Download here. Thanks to everyone who helped us find and fix bugs during the Preview stage. It's not yet out as final release, but much more stable now.

Here are the major changes. See below for how to give us feedback about this beta.

Skypecasts on Live tab

This release gives Skypecasts much more visibility. You can now find Skypecasts directly from Skype itself.  Simply browse to the new Live tab to view all the Skypecasts starting soon and find one you’re interested in. You can then click the "Talk or listen" button and get added to the Skypecast immediately.

Browser plug-ins

We’ve made it easier to call ordinary phone numbers from any website with just one click using the new Skype add-on for Internet Explorer and the Skype extension for Firefox. When you’re browsing the web and you find the perfect hotel or the pizza parlor, simply click the phone number and Skype will automatically dial the number using SkypeOut. Effectively what these add-ons are is just simpler and improved versions of the Skype Toolbars.

You can opt out of installing them during the installation time (click Options). You can also enable or disable them just by clicking the Skype button on your browser toolbar, and you can uninstall them independently of Skype if you wish to do so.

Here are the quick intro pages for the Internet Explorer add-on and Firefox extension.

Clickable links in mood messages

Mood messages are now a whole lot more fun. You can share any web links you like with all of your contacts quickly and easily. Link to your latest blog post, encourage more people to visit your eBay auctions, show your friends your favorite video or even drive people to take part in your latest Skypecast or anything else that's on the web. No need to do anything special  — just put the link in your mood message and others can click it when they see your Skype profile.

Birthday notifications

I don't know of anyone who doesn't like being said "happy birthday" and other best wishes on their birthday. The new birthday notifications of Skype help you do just that. You could also call it "the secret weapon of not forgetting".

How it works is remarkably simple. When someone has a birthday (assuming they have, of course, indicated their birthday in their profile), Skype displays this little notification in your events area. Just click on it. The notification disappears and instead, Skype highlights the profile of the person in question, who you can then chat or call.

Giving us feedback

Please let us know what you think of this beta. What's good, what's bad? Just post the comments here, or better yet, see the beta feedback page on our Developer Zone for more options. Use the forum or see how to report bugs directly in our bug ticketing.