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Mike Bartlett

Skype 4.0 Beta 1 hotfix

By My status Mike Bartlett on July 30, 2008 in Skype Beta and new releases.

Hi all,

A few weeks ago we updated the the 4.0 Beta 1 build with some necessary bug fixes. Today we're updating the build again with some more bug fixes, in particular to video calling, where some of you have reported problems when making calls to older versions of Skype.

There's no real functional change in these hotfixes, as we're still busy making a number of changes that address a lot of the feedback we've received and are aiming to launch those in Beta 2.

That's all for now.

Mike

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OK, but where is the Mac version?

gregory_to_ja | Thursday, Jul 31

I don't like the new look I find it takes more time to find out who is chatting

I think you should install skype muter at the same time you install skype
(its free anyway)

I think you should be trying to get more girls interested in skype since they tend to do more talking anyway (free skype to skype calling is great)

I also think you should have reviews on microphones/headsets/phones and coupons or discounts....

"Just a note of amazaement that I had to Google "Skype customer service telephone number" and work through a bunch of unhappy blogs about Skype having no customer service phone number (that is, that is made known to its customers)."
http://share.skype.com/sites/en/2008/06/10_days_later.html

mvtcracker | Friday, Aug 1

also when I start up (in vista and xp) and try to minimize or close it continues to pop up....it is annoying.

I would like a thinstall or thinapp version of skype (using vmware thinapp you can make a "portable" version that never installs just double click and run

http://www.vmware.com/products/thinapp/
http://www.thinstall.com/sales/demo.php

mvtcracker | Friday, Aug 1

Found the feedback page it was hidden....

http://ecustomeropinions.com/popup/survey.php?sid=518496435&lang=en
http://share.skype.com/sites/garage/2008/06/skype_40_beta_1_for_windows_in.html

mvtcracker | Friday, Aug 1

HI mvtcracker,

You had better learn now Skype has Sh*t customer service! I wish they would stop building all this Beta junk and just fix what they have. Like my Skype 2 Go number thats still not working or my Skypein number that everytime someone calls it gives them a busy tone when I'm not on it...

Cheers,

Carter Tanner
A paying skype customer!

carter_tanner | Friday, Aug 1

We are paying customers and software developers. We like Skype (3.8) and use it everyday. I really, really hope that Skype takes note of the feedback regarding the UI bloatware. I appreciate that Mike stated that this would be the case and that is very good to know.

Choice, flexibility and very often "less is more" in terms of UI (at least allow advanced features to be configurable in terms of accessibility). Allow users to incrementally expose features (where practical) and to emphasize their most important features, whether it be chat, calling or video (or a combination). Certainly from the feedback you have been receiving, it indicates a wide range of use cases.

A great book to help guide the philosophy of design is "The Inmates are running the Asylum" by Alan Cooper. In our opinion it's an excellent non-technical reference for engineers. Perhaps all your engineers have read it already? It's treated like a bible here... ;)

We are interested in seeing Skype develop features which further address business needs.

Thanks again for a great product and service. Good luck with V4.

bbuilder. | Friday, Aug 1

higrji

ahmed_love200833 | Friday, Aug 1

Thank you for fixing the Skype to Go problem you have just made a lot of customers happy! Now have fun with the 4.0 Beta and good luck!

Cheers,

CT

carter_tanner | Friday, Aug 1

Now, we all loved skype for being "skype" .

"Skype 4" is changing that concept for no understandable reason.
At least I am dissapointed. Like, who would change from coke to pepsi?

I will give you thumbs up for "4" only if there will be a "comapct/retro version" available looking exactly like it "should" (like 3.8!)

Aaand thanks,
Nikolai

shinji45 | Saturday, Aug 2

Now, we all loved skype for being "skype" .

"Skype 4" is changing that concept for no understandable reason.
At least I am dissapointed. Like, who would change from coke to pepsi?

I will give you thumbs up for "4" only if there will be a "comapct/retro version" available looking exactly like it "should" (like 3.8!)

Aaand thanks,
Nikolai

shinji45 | Saturday, Aug 2

Well.. i didnt know where to post this, i just wanted to reach someone at Skype but i couldnt find an email.

I want to tell u how I am happy with skype. For the last 7 months my girlfriend was living abroad and the only contact i had with her was with skype. Because of skype we could still keep in touch and share our lifes as if we were living together. Without you i dont even know if we would be together now so i do have to thank you all.

Thx for making the world better. =)

pfassina | Saturday, Aug 2

I want to echo the comments above - the new interface is overly large and cumbersome. Although I like some of the changes to the chat history (the ones in-inline showing the call activity, for instance, the overall display takes up twice as much room and shows you much less of your messages.

Having a compact method to send IMs is the whole point of using chat, and beta 4 misses this. Is it really necessary to have an entire column of whitespace for the chatter's names to the left of the chat? That takes up an entire 1/3rd of the screen space. That, plus the non-dismissible Conversation/Call panel on the left makes the entire application HUGE for no purpose.

This is not the kind of "improvement" I was hoping for, sorry.

Steve

steve.ratzlaff | Saturday, Aug 2

I'm still having trouble with video with 4.0.0.155 the outside computer is running the latest stable version. Outside computer can see its video and my video. I can only see my video. the outside video is a green screen. I can take snapshots which do work though.

billyvnilly | Saturday, Aug 2

hmm I don´t agree with some of the posts above ~ 4.0 Skype is by no means on its way to look like the other bloatwares out there. The new structure needs some time to find everything you learnt to love in the past. But I still appreciate the move towards the new UI as I would miss some of its features already ~ like deviding the contact list from the conversation list and the easy way to switch between them... much better than having numberless of chat windows open. Ok, ok... maybe there should be a fallback option to the old UI for the traditionalists out there...if doable.

But there are two things that made me wish to reinstall 3.8:

- The "search contacts" mask does not contain any filter option that would enable you to search for people in a specific area - without having to know their skype name or email address first! For me this option was always something that hold skype above other messengers.

- And secondly..only a minor issue I admit... I am no longer notified of a new message when I didn´t close the conversation in the main window. So having Skype running in the background I tend to miss replies. Its minor but still annoying since I am used to better :)

My thanks go out to the skype team for their great work! But solving these two "bugs" above would totally make my day haha


cheers

mariposa

mariposa666 | Sunday, Aug 3

Hi Skype, thanks for great product to use, BUT each time I update I loose most of my contacts. I have looked in your menus "import from Outlook" is there, but nowhere is import from Skype earlier version.
I have looked in help, but if the information is there, it is not indexed so my mind finds it.
This also happened when I updated to 3...something.
I don't have outlook as my email client (thunderbird when I use my desktop) as I use native GMAIL via Firefox.

Also, I use 1600x1200 with 150% increase ie 144 DPI screen and the text in the window boxes does not fit properly. I can't read some of the option or contacts at all. I would really appreciate efforts to get this right, as it looks messy and is hard to use.
luvyasall (from Australia)
Richard R.

luderderg | Monday, Aug 4

OOOOPs sorry, The problem is that the new skype logged me in as an old spelling of my name, hence none of the contacts were available.
The real problem was that it picked an old skype name to login, and I missed it first time round.
Maybe you could work out which was the last name used and startup with that name.

All better now as I have logged on manually with the right name.

luvyasall
lerderderg

luderderg | Monday, Aug 4

I start up my computer (vista x86 sp1) and quickly launch unreal tournament and just as I am about to enter the map it minimized my unreal and slowed it down while skype was still in the midle of loging in

pissed me right off because it should not have interupted my game....

mvtcracker | Tuesday, Aug 5

Skype + new Ugly GUI = Skugly.
Can you say Skugly?

In case the Developers missed what their users thought: http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=152281

elder_md | Tuesday, Aug 5

Has anybody heard any more about the video conferencing with up to 10 people and how that works with this new beta?

peels.hutchinson.office1 | Wednesday, Aug 6

Sorry to disappoint most of the commenters here, but Skype 4 beta is far better (for me) than the previous versions and it all has to do with the UI.

Thanks!

mrclark411 | Friday, Aug 8

I really love where Skype is going with 4.0. I am all about moving forward with change as long as the change is for the better, and after Skype 4.0 makes it through the beta stages I think it will be the best version yet.

There is always a part of the crowd that doesn't want to change no matter what the change is. This is why we have college courses in America all about 'getting people to change' (because there are sticks in the mud everywhere). So keep it up Skype! You guys have an awesome product!

With regards to the current beta please address the Instant Messaging feature. It is currently not easy to tell if you have a message and where it is and how to get to it. It currently can be a cumbersome task.

The focus on video is great! Just remember to allow for the program to work just as easily for those who don't use video all the time or at all.

Thanks!
Jake

jacob.whitaker | Monday, Aug 11

Mostly, I think that while the old Skype interface was something we have all grown accustomed to, "new" is not necessarily worse. It may take time and a few tweaks to get used to, that's it, I think.

What I would like to ask: Once Skype 4 is established, do you have any plans on pickung up the idea of allowing Skype capabilities in other computer programs through a library exposing the actual functions, instead of the API via access to a running instance of Skype?

It's been about three years since you announced opening up to other applications by publishing SkypeNet - but you never actually DID that. Can we expect SkypeNet in the near future?

holgerpollmann | Wednesday, Aug 13

the newest beta build has a slightly better ui that I could get use to but is far from perfect

mvtcracker | Thursday, Aug 14

the newest beta build has a slightly better ui that I could get use to but is far from perfect

mvtcracker | Thursday, Aug 14

the newest beta build has a slightly better ui that I could get use to but is far from perfect

mvtcracker | Thursday, Aug 14

Hi,

I wasn't sure where to post this, but maybe I just haven't looked in the right place or something. I've found a couple bugs in the latest skype beta. I've tested these several times.
1: After someone sends you there first chat, it won't play the new chat sound either in or out of the window (I like the new interface, but prefer chats in new windows.)and 2: Using some options like invite to confrence in the live conversations list crashes skype. well, not quite, the skype windows freeze, but your calls still go as normal, and of course if people call you you can't answer, so your stuck with that ring until you can end the skype process, which can be very annoying! But I went in to this knowing it's a beta and that they can be very unstable. :)

Thanks.

big.d01 | Tuesday, Aug 19

Issues:

1. No call history. What happened to this feature??
2. Touch tone dial pad not working once call is made. Can't select options when calling businesses. Keys are pressed, but touch tone signal isn't initiated.
3. End call button is missing many times. I have to go to the call menu above and select hang up.
4. The new User Interface is ultra confusing to say the least. I preferred the old interfaces, they were perfect. This one is confusing beyond comprehension.

vitaminboss | Friday, Aug 22

Hi,
I noticed a weird bug in the Beta. If somebody calls, the only way I know of to have the answer option show up in the menus is to unselect everything. I hope this bug will be fixed. It's kind of annoying but I've kind of gotten use to it.
Also if you are already in a call and another call comes in, there seems to be no way to invite them into the call.
I hope these issues get fixed.

radio_lover729 | Wednesday, Aug 27

Hi there.. when I get an instant message I get the initial alert but there after if the window is out of focus I get absolutely no alert that any other instant messages are coming in (no sound at all!).. This is a bug that has just arisen since v4.x and has not been fixed. I'm surprised this hasn't been fixed in the hotfix because it's a fairly obviously error.

Hope it's fixed soon.
Look forward to more improvements.

Peter

highonsnow | Wednesday, Sep 10

I am having the same problems as Peter (see above) and I too would like to see this resolved as soon as possible. I'm not sure what's taking so long.

I reverted back to the non-beta version as this was causing some severe disruptions in my daily communications.

Hope to see a new release soon with a fix applied.

matthew.isaac | Thursday, Sep 11

Having the same problems here. (Skype 4.0 beta 2)...

hoolito | Thursday, Oct 9

I have the same problem

zipo_bibrok | Sunday, Dec 28

I would echo the earlier sentiments:

"What I would like to ask: Once Skype 4 is established, do you have any plans on pickung up the idea of allowing Skype capabilities in other computer programs through a library exposing the actual functions, instead of the API via access to a running instance of Skype?

It's been about three years since you announced opening up to other applications by publishing SkypeNet - but you never actually DID that. Can we expect SkypeNet in the near future?"

I use multiple networks at work to talk with developers and operators all over the world. In my opinion skype is one of the best, particularly for audio. But every other network allows me to consolidate at least the basic features into a common client, Trillian, Digsby, etc, and then sign on for full functionality if I really need the native client.

SkypeNET was a great idea. I would never get rid of skype, but being able to manage the IM portion of it in another client without the necessity, would be really nice. And since the idea was already announced 3 years ago, I shouldn't even have to preach the value of it....I just wonder what happened to it?

mrussler | Wednesday, Jan 7

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