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Villu Arak

Skype 2.7 for Mac beta is out

By My status Villu Arak on August 15, 2007 in Skype Beta and new releases.

Skype%2027%20mac%20beta%20-%20sound-setting.png Skype%2027%20mac%20beta%20contact%20groups.png

We’ve now released Skype 2.7 for Mac beta. With “beta” on the label, there may be some wrinkles, kinks and unsprayed bugs which we’ll remove in time for a public release. With that in mind, feel free to download and play with it.

Here’s what’s new:

  • Group contacts – organize your contacts into as many groups as you need. While there are some pre-defined groups (like Online, Waiting Authorization, Recently Contacted), you’re free to add new ones that suit your life. This should be a godsend to those whose contact list has ballooned to hundreds of Skype users. Explore this nifty feature under the cogwheel icon on the main screen.

  • See your Apple Address Book contacts in Skype - easily call or SMS anyone who has a phone number in their address-book profile. When texting, just make sure the number is one that belongs to a mobile phone.

  • Create and manage public chats by clicking on Chats in the menu bar and choosing Start Public Chat. A public-chat assistant will walk you through the necessary steps.

  • Auto Redial for busy or unconnected calls. When your call hits the busy signal, Skype will give you the option of automatic redial every two minutes until the call goes through. This setting can also be adjusted in Skype > Preferences > Calls.

  • Easy sound-level controls – when you need to tweak the sound level during a call, use a simple slider in the call window

  • Overhauled file transfer – wearing a more fashionable jacket, file-transfer now looks elegant and acts even nicer, especially when receiving many files at once

Download Skype 2.7 for Mac beta at skype.com/go/getskype-macosx-beta

Oh, and one last thing: if the default language on your Mac is Czech or Norwegian, Skype 2.7 Mac beta will automatically follow suit.

View blog reactions

Comments

Where's the Sketchpad for Mac?

timerdmann | Wednesday, Aug 15

Hi Villu,

It takes every phone contact in the AddressBook of the currently logged in user of Mac OS X. User is not asked if this is desired. Let's say with hundreds of work related contacts it may not be desired to transfer them all to Skype, even if these contacts were stored locally.

Please tell that these AddressBook imported contacts are stored locally, and not on Skype server...

What if a friend would use the same account of Mac OS X and just log in under their Skype username to Skype? Would every single contact with phone number be transferred to that user's Skype account where ever he'd sign on the next time?

uninorth13 | Wednesday, Aug 15

Ok, I just launched Windows in Fusion to test if the contacts would show there... and they didn't (pheow).
But what if a guest user would then edit the groups these phone contacts show? Instead of being in AddressBook group, make them also show in his or her somegroup that is stored on Skype server?

uninorth13 | Wednesday, Aug 15

Hi uninorth13,
Yes these contacts are only stored locally - and if you click 'Add to Group' they are indeed then stored on the central server. Hope this clears this up.

- Ryan.

ryanhunt | Thursday, Aug 16

I hate the new transition when looking at your history. Aside from the fact that the old animation was more appealing (It looked like the movie effect of when they look in the past in a movie).

It seems slower and even if it is the same time for the animation to run I'd like to see ripple come back. I realize I can just disable animations altogether. However, I like them. They usually provide pleasing feedback, not just eye candy.

Long story short: Please change the animation back to ripple!

tux0racer | Thursday, Aug 16

In My Humble Opinion, this is the WORST beta version EVER.
Trow it in the garbage and remake it again.
It's SLOW, HEAVY, loses the connection, takes minutes and minutes to connect, and crashes.

Sorry, but, BAD work, guys...

mr.tfm | Thursday, Aug 16

"if the default language on your Mac is Czech or Norwegian, Skype 2.7 Mac beta will automatically follow suit"

Is there an option to choose Norwegian over "Norwegian-Danish"?

Norwegian-Danish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokm%C3%A5l
Norwegian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nynorsk

kelford | Thursday, Aug 16

Sorry but I have to agree to mr.tfm.

This update is causing problems, so please hurry up to bring us a new functioning beta.

Especially Skype is going on- and offline the whole time...

What is going on?

etorsten | Thursday, Aug 16

MAJOR connection issues... but it seems to be affecting 2.6 and the windows version as well. Please don't keep us in the dark!

jason.t.slay | Thursday, Aug 16

I can't connect at all anymore since installing 2.7. I tossed it, installed my copy of 2.6.140, could connect once (although it logs me in as offline, and then I have to manually change it to online), and then after that one time I couldn't connect at all. I tossed my skype folder in library-->applications support, but it hasn't helped. Any ideas?

docfrosty | Thursday, Aug 16

ACK! Once you sign in with this beta you are going to have trouble connecting and staying connected. Even if you go back to 2.6!

tux0racer | Thursday, Aug 16

Yup. Jumped on this bandwagon too early. This one's a dud for me on both my MacBookPro and G4 iBook.

Can't connect at all - haven't seen the light of "online" yet.

Hopefully a new one will come out soon.

natestone | Thursday, Aug 16

Actually - I just saw that these connection problems may be due to a major Skype outage.

Here is a link to the outage notice:

http://heartbeat.skype.com/2007/08/problems_with_skype_login.html

natestone | Thursday, Aug 16

Absolutely ridiculous. 12-24 hours. Get your S&*t together Skype.

kdev.us | Thursday, Aug 16

The funny thing is that no one knows what's happening. I was using my 2.6 version and had problems with sending my voice, then I updated to this 2.7... Well I can't really say that my problem with the voice is solved, because never could connect with this. Does anyone have a REAL solution for the skype connection problem?
Or the entire worldwide is predestinold to live without the most used voip communication tool? How long?

giulianoscan | Friday, Aug 17

Had the same kind of problems generally encountered by others initially (due to Skype system crash). After the recovery, however, still problems - even after multiple installs/trashing plists etc.:- on Skype restart after upgrade, the only contacts visible were address book numbers - no Skype contacts (on or offline), no Skypeout contacts. No reference to "groups" under the cogwheel in Preferences. (wrong cogwheel!)

Unchecking "Show Address Book Contacts" in Preferences: "General" restored the contacts list to normal - showing online/offline contacts as selected under the "View" Menu. Was then able to customize "Groups" (cogwheel) to show only:
> Online (5/40)
> SkypeOut (29/29)
> Address Book (297)
Leaving the latter two groups closed results in a very neat and compact Skype Window - exactly what I had been looking for since the first Mac version of Skype! Please accept my heartfelt congratulations, and keep up the good work.

Cheers, jimev

jimevtpe | Sunday, Aug 19

Hi,
I'm late to this skype community...
I've been using skype on my Macs for about a year and never had a voice call without problems... So lately I started to ask friends what they are thinking of Skype and find out that all those who use it often and are happy with are Pc users.
Am I missing something or the Mac version of Skype is so-so.
I lost voice connection way too often to even think of buying any credit or Skype service...

nic

nicolasfortin | Sunday, Sep 2

I don't whether it's just my false feeling or not.

I feel that the quality of Video Conference on 2.7 is improved over 2.6

Anyone else thinks so?

luitinghin | Tuesday, Sep 4

jeah really where's the sketchpad for mac???

climbertobby | Tuesday, Sep 4

The download link does not work - keeps giving me version 2.6.0.511 - is there a problem?

nigel.verdon | Wednesday, Sep 19

I'm having the same issue Nigel.

dominic.dejacomo | Thursday, Sep 20

Good you removed this beta because -- as others stated -- the beta is very unstable. Not sure if you could call it "alpha"...

I switched back to 2.6, but anyway Skype still crashes several times a day.

markusschoepke | Friday, Sep 21

was lookin for it as well... search for it on www.versiontracker.com

mrwarlock43 | Monday, Sep 24

Each time I open the app. I'm told I have a new message. Often it's an old message I've listened to, or even deleted. doesn't instill confidence

epwhite | Thursday, Oct 4

Well, I was hoping for the Send Mone option for PayPal. I'm so tired of apps for Mac that lack the same functionality of their Window counter parts. I want to run Windows like I want a whole in my head. arrgh!!!

queengeek | Thursday, Oct 4

I never had an issue with installing the Skype beta versions. But the 2.7 doesn't work. I have more than 3,000 contacts in my address book and with the new sync, Skype became so slow that it blocked my new MacBook Pro completely.

While I absolutely welcome the possibility to sync the Mac Address Book (was looking for it for a long time), I guess that version still needs some work before getting out of beta.

fritzschmitz | Monday, Oct 15

Hi,

Found a bug (if it hasn't been reported before), it seems that when you click on the show/hide menu icons (the oval shaped button on the right) the contact list disappears.

d35mond | Monday, Nov 5

Sype won't work on Leopard, it starts up the first time then won't the second restart! Only way seems to be to keep replacing the application from the disk image. When will it be updated?

fotomarc | Tuesday, Nov 6

The leopard 10.5 issue is caused by the firewall service. If you have the firewall turned on then Skype will not start more than once (after a fresh install). If you close skype or reboot your machine you must turn off the firewall or re-install it to keep it working.

There are some workarounds as well, although I'd just suggest waiting for 10.5.1 or keeping the firewall off for now. Best of luck.

brianjking | Wednesday, Nov 7

re: brianjking & the Leopard firewall service

More specifically for application-specific firewall settings, Apple contents that this failure with Skype (and other apps exhibiting the run-once problem) is the lack of code signing. Apple tries to assign a signature to the binary, which Skype then rejects as corruption when it launches after that. We'll see if once Skype is compiled with a signature if this solves the problem.

steuben13 | Saturday, Nov 17

I found that what fixed my crashing issue under Leopard was permissions problems. If you go to the Skype Application (which is really a folder) and set the permissions to R/W for EVERYONE, then things work fine. I had the same run once and crash problem and fixing the permissions this way solved it.

jonna9d | Sunday, Nov 18

I really like the beta, but I really want the old history ripple effect back!!

paradoxgoat | Thursday, Dec 6

Hey, since I've installed 2.7.0.195 I had only problems. He connects for few seconds and then he crashes. :(

I used the former 2.7 beta verion and everything was best even on leopard.

rafaelsspace | Thursday, Dec 13

I just got a Philips DECT voip phone and it's not pulling down my Skype Contacts. I think my contacts may just be stored locally and not on the skype servers (and thus there's nothing for my phone to pull down). Any ideas about how to make this work?

couperito | Tuesday, Jan 8

I have a MacBook Pro and having trouble with the isight video camera. Been calling family (pc users) via skype. They have a video camera and so do I. They can see me but I can’t see them. Apparently ichat is taking over and won’t allow for skype video to do it’s work. What can I do? I don’t have ichat on so don’t understand why skype won’t allow me to see the person I am calling on video. Thank you for your help.

rosaivalencia | Wednesday, Jan 9

I'm still waiting for the next version to be out, and am becoming highly annoyed that the Windows development team is moving along so much faster. Skype for Windows is already at 3.6, while Skype for Mac is still stuck at 2.7. It's been six months since the 2.7 beta was announced ... when can we expect the 2.8 beta? Skype for Windows has come through several versions in that same time, and they have features (mainly eye candy [e.g. the various forms of the typing pencil] and plugins) that I would really, really like to see supported on Skype for Mac.

quietpanther | Wednesday, Mar 12

downloaded version 2.7 and ever single time I start Skype it crashes on 10.5.2. Will try to move back to 2.6, but will start working with alternatives.

lucidcommunication | Friday, Apr 4

Wish I had read these comments BEFORE installing 2.7.

2.6 was running fine. Updated to 2.7.0.257 on April 7, 2007, and now I'm unable to use Skype. Call quality is unusably bad. Entire machine slows down. Mouse barely responds. How can I roll back to 2.6?

My setup is a month-old MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz, Leopard 10.5.2, and a dedicated T1. Yes, my laptop has its own T1, yet cannot make a call with Skype. Come on, guys, you were good until this.

gemfinder | Monday, Apr 7

I got a new macpro on wednesday with leopard 10.5.2
had skype 2.7 running just fine from Wednesday through to Friday.
Today it quits unexpectedly should I try to message any contact.
Have downloaded skype 3 times and still happens each time
what to do?
:-(

charlottegelin | Saturday, Apr 12

I am running the latest Leopard release and installed Skype 2.7... I attempt to sign in and it just sits at the "Signing In" screen with the beachball doing its thing but no dice... any ideas??? This was working last week! :(

csmarker | Thursday, Apr 24

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